The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1882-04-27

battle field of the revolution, ana after IN
dependence. they assisted to frame our in
stitutions At least five times since then
their exiles, settled among us, have aided
to save our liberty from destruction. They
helped in 1900 to rescue as from the
clutches of federalism, which was tearing
out che vitals of our government. Sup
ported by them we went through the blood
and fire of 1912 They stood by jackson
in his desperate combat with monster
monopoly. At later day and in another
crisis, uniting with the honest Germans
and the decent part of our citizens, they
gave US strength enough to repel the foul
est assault that ruffianisn and hypocrisy
ever made upon religious freedom. They
| were foremost in the fight for the union
when assured that its object was simply
| to maintain the supremacy of the laws; and
they had no share i'm that perjurous treach-
cry which subverted the government in
stead of defending it. They were faithful
| to the constitution when it had only seven
| friends in the sensae, and its avowed enc
mics werestwo to one in the lower house of
| congress; when the president was impeach
| ed for a feeble effort to support it, and the
supreme court itself lodged and faltered
and hesitated to decide that free citizen
could not be arrested without war
rant, or be hanged without trial. I
speak of them as body, and of their gen
/ eral behavior. Doubtless there are many
| individual exceptions of which /. know
nothing. But fifty years ago and upward
John Randolph said this: Il have seen a
white crow, and have heard of black swans,
| but an Irish opponent of American liberty
L never either saw or heard of. But what
can we do for them? How can we help
them in this fearful straty We have no
right to come between England and her
subjects by any kind of force or violence,
| for that is prohibited by the law of both
countries and by treaty stipulations. But
you have ways well understood of giving
moral comfort and material aid which break
no law. The most devoted adherents of
| the British ministry acknowledged that the
success of their Irish policy is more endan-
gered by your opposition to it than by all
other causes put together. A land league
merely Irish they can easily repress. but a
league with its roots on this side of the At
lantic will grow to be power, not merely
| formidable. but fatal to the ascendency of
/ the landlords. To make this more infelli-
gible viii require brief look at the stu
| alton. The formation of the land league
or rather the assumption of its present at,
titude, was new era in the history of the
contest. Agricultural laborers re-
solved that they would not
work for their enemies and
tenants said they would pay no rent with
out the distinct assurance of some perma-
nent and substantial relief TO the country.
| Acting upon the precept of the early
!. Christians to bear one anothers burdens,
the solemnly covenanted that each should
be supported by the strength of all the
rest. 1t was the grandest labor strike on
record. -see e.sr IA a
i The orator proceeded to defend the land
league is legal organization, and analysed
the land act and showed il to be no rem
| edy but stone given instead of bread;
then proceeding to the coercion act he
| said:
For aught can see, the Kidnapping of
sou innocent persons for not believing in
the land act was as .lawless as so many
murders. The secretary and lord ieuten-
ant might just as properly have siienced
opposition to their measures by private as
sassination. An order, that dissatisfied
Irishmen should be stabbed ia their sleep
or poisoned in their food would seem more
ferocious, but not less Inconsistent with
justice and humanity, If Mr.. Parnel and
the land league had managed to carry off
Mr.. Forster and 500 of his absent friends,
and kept them immured in dungeons
for period of hopeless end the case
would have been very plain, but not worse
| than Mr.. Parneli has suffered nor quite SO
bad, for the injury to him inflicted by the
very hand that was specially bound to pro-
tect him.. This charge of lawlessness is
not answered by showing that the atroci-
ties complained of were done with the ap-
probation of parliament. That body could
not give to such crimes the sanctity of legal
| Justice | admit that parliament is uniim
| tied in its power to legislate, but an er pagse
! order to kill or imprison man is not leg
| islation. The Coercion act is not law
| but sentence. As doom pronounced
upon innocent and absent parties without
notice, hearing or trial, is, of course, irreg
| ular, unjust and unauthorized; ) but still it
was, in its nature, an adjudication against
particular persons, not a rule of action
| When, therefore, the viceroy and the sec
rotary for ireland plead the Coercion act.
they do not justify the hideous crime but
only prove that majority of the Lords
and Commons are among their accom-
plices If Herod. of Jndea, had got an or
| der from the Sanhedrim or some other
| Legislative council directing him to
kill every child in Bethlehem
whom he or his deputies suspected of be-
ing less than two years old, would that
have satisfied the slaughter of the inno-
centss" In point of fact he had the legis-
lative approval, for he was himself the law
making power as well as the executive
So was Charles TX, when he put the lives
of Celigny and his frienis'at the mercy of
theGuises. LonisXI Vcenld crafty the spies
| and pimps about his court by sending in
nocent men to rot in the bastiles, and say !:
a"This is the law, the state does it; / am the
state. ~ The Roman senate did actually
concur with Nero in the decree which let
loose the Pretorian Guards upon all who
were suspected of believing in the gospel ;
but that takes nothing from the historical
infamy of the imperators. though il does
add much to the bad reputation of the con-
script fathers. In court appointed, paid
and owned by the British government, and
sitting in ireland, this coercion act which
the ministry got facile Parliament to pass,
will probably be allowed to have some
technical effect but in the eye of reason
and justice it Is no Yextenuation at all of
their gross misconduct
Thus far have spoken OF the case as it
stands between the British government and
its Irish subjects. Upon this we. can only
assist with our voices jim making ap the
Judgment OF the world. But recent events
have given rs o more particular interest
In the subject matter American citizens
have been kidnapped as basely as Irish
patriots. What win we do about thatY +
n,... l,s.,