Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1883-06-25
ARTHUR AND THE IRISH.
ALEX. SULLIVAN AND OTHERS
AT THE WHITE HOUSE.

The Land League Chief Sets Forth the
Abuses of Pauper Emigration and
the Imprisonment of Irish Ameri-
cans-President Arthur Promises that
the Grievances Shall be Investigated
WASHINGTON, June pa deputation
of representative Irishmen, waited upon
President Arthur this afternoon and pre-
sented him a resolution concerning as
sisted emigration. adopted at the recent
meeting of the Irish National League in
Philadelphia. The delegation was COM
posed of Alexander Sullivan, President of
the Irish National League; John O'Byrne,
Vice President, of Cincinnati, o.; Eugene
Kelly, James Lynch and Henry L.
Hognet, of New York; William B. Wal
lace, NJ. D., of the New York Irish Emil
grant Society; Judge John Rooney, and
John C. Mcclure, of Brooklyn, New
York; James Reynolds, of New Haven,
Conn.,; Bernard Callaghan, of Chicago;
j. +. Armstrong, of Augusta,
Georgia; Michael j. Doyle, OF Sa-
vannah, Georgia; William j. Mulhern,
of Augusta, Georgia; Edward johnson,
NJ. D., of WatertOwn, Wis; Hugh
Boston; John Fitzgerald, of Lincoln. Aeb.;
John Fahy, of Rochester, N. Y; z. Smith,
of CIeveland; John Roach, of Chester. Pa;
Octavius A. White, NJ. D., of New York.
Eugene Kelly, of New York, was Chair
man of the delegation, and John c.
Mcclure, of Brooklyn, acted as Secretary.
The party were received in the Presi-
dents library.
Mr.. Sullivan addressed President Arthur
as follows:
Nr. President: A convention at Philadel-
phia of American citizens of the Irish race,
composed of twelve hundred delegates. chosen
from all parts OF the United States, instructed
me to present to you the following reolutions:
"ReS0loed, That the policy of the English
Government in first reducing the Irish peas
antry to abject poverty, and then sending
them penniless to the United States, depend
ent upon American charity, is unnatural in
human, and an outrage upon the American
Government and people. We respectfully di-
rect the attention of the United States Gov
ernment to this iniquity, protest against its
continuance, and instruct the officials who
shall be chosen by this convention to present
our protest to the President of the United
States, and respectfully but firmly to urge
upon the President that it is the duty of the
Government of the United States to decline
to support pauperS whose pauperism began
under and is the result OF English misgovern-
ment, and to demand OF England that she
send no more of her paupers to these shores to
become burden upon the American people,"
1t is needless to say that in adopting this
resolution, and in respectfully presenting ii to
you, the convention aimed to reach and to try
tOTemOve the causes which produced pauper-
ism in Ireland and transfer it to the United
States 1t was not intended to cast reproach
upon the unfortunate victims of these causes.
nor to discourage voluntary immigration. A
republic whose entire civilizatiZed population
is of immigrant stock, with its material re-
sources in only the infant stage of develop
nearly a nj I'll
lands unOccupied in nineteen States and eight
Territories, must continue gratefully to receive
those who freely repudiate foreign political
bonds, and, undertaking the obligations of
Americans, bring to the service of the repub-
lie loyal hearts and useful hands. The AmeF-
can citizens who met at Philadelphia were
many of them, the heirs of Irishmen who
fought for American liberty against England
in the War of the Revolution. Some were
the sons of Irishmen who fought for Ameri-
can liberty against England in the war of
1912, under their cOuntryman, Andrew Jack
son. A consider able number were themselves
soldiers in the more recent conflict. when the
life OF the republic was threatened by do
nestle combination made formidable by
the crafty encouragement of England, which,
while rObbing and betraying the South,
sought the destruction of the Democratic in
stltutions on this continent and desired the
lapse of the American people, Northern or
Southern, into anarchy or monarchy, this
encouragement being voiced by the
present Prime Minister, Mr.. Gladstone,
we desire to bring to your attention, is as es-
sentially an American question as was the re-
sistance of the American colonies to English
tyrrany hundred years ago, as the resistance
of the American repEblic to English en-
croachments in the war of 1872; and as the
e successful 81 1be demand by the American GogeTn
damages arising out of the offenses committed
in England against the American republic in
the happily ended civil war,
1t is, sir, this question; Shall a foreign gov
ernment he permitted to reduce by law and
force to pauperism large numbers of those
from when 1t claims the allegiance of and to
whom it owes the protection due subjects:
and then compel the Republic of the United
States to receive and provide for them?
As American citizens, we charge that the
Government of Great Britain by law and
force reduces to pauperism many thousands
of the people of Ireland and then deports
them to the United States their arrival at
our ports in extreme destitutio being of
common knowledge and of official record,
As American citizens we solemnly protest
against this outrage on humanity, on
civilization and on international equity.
The only defense unoflicially offered
by the English Government is, that
Ireland is so poor that emigration
is a necessity. In relation to this defense we
submit this proposition: That if the poverty
of Ireland be not natural, but artificial, and
be the result, not of the cooperation of economic
principles, but of a political system therein
maintained, the English Government cannot
take advantage of its own wrong doing; is
quences, and should not be permitted to in
fict its victims as charges upon the American
republic.
I'VE affirm, as American citizens, that the
poverty of ireland is produced by English
law, and not by the law of Nature. We af-
firm that Ireland is not Overpopulated in pro-
portion to her resources for the maintenance
of life; and that emigration is not a social
necessity but political oppression. We af-
firm that if the political misrule producing
poverty in Ireland be removed she not only
will OH
the circle of thrifty and enterprising nations /
whose prosperity eniarges the wealth, in
creases the happiness of mankind,
the benefcence of civilization. We affirm that
while the political causes producing poverty
in Ireland defy the protests of Justice and
humanity and are ignored or tolerated by the
American republic, Ireland must remain a
tax, directly and indirectly, upon American
citizens for the benefit of a foreign govern
ment within her boundaries. In support of
these aiiirmatiOns we cite the following facts
First. Ireland is not overpOpulated. The
population to the square mile is only 1872
while in Switzerland it is 17S, in France lS3
in Austria l9l, in Prussia 200. in Germany 913
in Italy 24s, in the Netherlands 800. in Eng
land and Wales 445, and in Belgium. content
ed and rich, 1885, With population the least
of these in density and with soil ranking |
high in fertility, Ireland is the only country
mentioned in which what has been misead-
ingly called famine has occurred in modern
times; and England is the only modern gov
6InHeut, WHICH, WulIe DOdSLlng OIL prosperity |
budgets and of an actual cash surplus Of |
millions, has seen those she claims as subjects |
dying OF hunger, or saved from death by the |
charity of q foreign land,
Secondly. Ireland is not overpopulated in |
proportion to her food supply. Her total area /
is twenty million acres, her population five /
million souls. Only three million acres are |
under tillage; yet in the year 1882 her five |
principal food crops amounted to a total of /
Is, SIG, $50, ,6SS pounds of food, or nearly eight
pounds Of food daily for every man, woman |
and child. There will be apparently /
a slight increase in these crops the /
present year. immigration is not, there
fore, necessity arising out of an
inadequate food supply: 1t is an important
American citizens at the present time to Keep
numbers of the Irish people from death by |
hunger; and it ought not be forgotten that,
while so-called famine, resulting in horrible
land in past years, government statistics
show that in no year has the food supply of |
the country been inadequate to maintain
much more than the entire population The
o-called famines have been produced, not by
nature, but by political misrule.
Thirdly. Emigration cannot be a social ne
cesslty in country able to bear extraOrdi-
nary burdens of taxation. When the gov
ernment OF England abolished the
Parliament of Ireland in 1900, the
debt of Ireland under her own government,
was only twenty million dollars. England
with this the imperial debt, in
express violation of the articles of legislative
union, and mas since compelled Ireland to
bear an arbitrary share in the burdens of the
empire. Ireland now sends to England eight
and half million pounds In taxes less than
a fourth Of which is expended for even
nominal Irish purposes. 4 country able
to contribute thirty million dollare A wear for
eXtraneous objects can scarcely be eategoried /
as so poor that emigration is a necessity. In /
lS47, when the tide of compulsory emigration
first set in, the population of Ireland was
eight million and half, and her taxation was
then four million pounds annually. Now her