The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1882-06-16
A sIander of Irish Patriotism.


The thick-and-thin organ of Republi-
canism. the New York Tribune, de-
nounces the Irish leaders, Parnell and
Dillon, as the authors of The assassiua-
tion and murder, and traduces the pa
triotic Irish party as band of outlaws
and cutthroats. In yesterdays issue
the leading editorial is devoted TO an ef-
fort to prove that Messrs. Parnell and
Dillon are responsible for the crimes re-
Gently committed in Ireland, and to
show that the Land League and other
p3triotic Irish societies are simply con-
spiracies against law and order and or
ganiZed to terroriZe and butcher those
who incur their enmity. The Tribune
would not be an exponent of the Hamil-
tOnIan idea of centralized government
if IL were not an admirer of British des-
pOtism under which Ireland has been
crushed for nearly a century. 1t SIM
ply voices the sentiment of its party in
denOuncing the efforts of the Irish peo-
pie to recover their lost liberties and it
is entirely consistent in applying to
Irish patriotism the theory of Thaddeus
Stephens, the patron saint of sham Re-
publicanism, that State forced into'a
political union with a government to
which the people are opposed has no
that government, The Tribune and the
Republican party have so long and so
bitterly opposed home rule in the South
that they cannot tolerate the idea that
1T should prevail anywhere in the wide
world.
Terrorism and murder are to be con-
demned under any circumstances. The
Irish leaders and the Irish people con-
demn as emphatically and deplole as
deeply the crimes that have been COM
mitted in their country as those who ad-
miTe the deteStable British land laws
and maintain the right of England to
hold Ireland in political slavery. But
injustice and oppression have driven the
Irish people TO desperation. Laws
which do not protect but oppress bring
all law into contempt in the minds Of
those who suffer. Such laws breed rev.
olutlon, and with revolution comes an
archy and bloodshed. The Land League
is a revolutionary organization and
while 1T seeks by peaceful means to eff
feet the reforms at which it aims it
would be remarkable, indeed. if its eff
forts were not attended by violence on
the part of those they were unable to
restrain. Ireland is in a state of revo-
luton to-day. The same eXcesses which
attend all outbreaks of a revolutionary
character are to be expected in that
country. The patriots of 1776 did not
think 1t murder to hang a tory, The
frenZied lOyalists and crazy secessionists
of 1861 alike deemed it Gods service to
the cause they respectively espoused a
short shrift and long rope. Is it ex-
pected that the Irish people are exc mpt
from the passions which have traced in
blood the revolutionary history of other
nations ? Because war has not been de.
clared and armies raised by the Land
League to murder thousands of English
men and to cause the slaughter OF its
own adherents, does its mode of prOce-
dure fall short of revolution or are its
acts the less provocative of revolution
airy eXceSsesP ? Or do the Tribune and
the sham repubicanism for which it
speaks regard the sufferings of Ireland
as not sufficient justification for IevOlu-
tiOn 1t is the most short-sighted fool
ishness to treat the Irish uprising against
the lard laws as simple agrarianism and
as inspired by mere thirst for revenge
1pon the English oppreSsor. 1t is a po-
litical movement intended to secure
self government to Ireland. It has
shown such power that it may Justly be
regarded as accomplished revolution.
Even the more advanced and thought
full English liberals look upon it in that
light and mean to show their sensibility
of the fact at the parliamentary elect
ions, 1t would be marvellous, there
fore, that an American newspaper
should manifest the rancOrous hatred of
the Irish cause displayed in the Tribune
if it were not understood that the idea
of home rule anywhere and every where
is odious and intolerabe to the party
which that journal represents. Hdrris-
burg Patriot, 18th