Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1883-05-03
THE IRISH IN AMERICA.

week, the OD)eCC DelnS W WlHu uP uio oi0
fairs of the Irish Land League in America
and merge it into another body, whose
scope will be broader and more far-reach-
ing. The Land League, as originally Or
ganized, deals only with questions of land
and law, and not with those of national
and local self-government. The new Or
ganization will grapple with all three OF
these questions and some others besides.
The call for this convention states its OBJ
iect to be to form new League, after the
plan of the National League Of Ireland,
which will blend into one organization all
the Irish societies the United States and
Canada-the new organization to be aftilia-
ted with the Irish National League of Ire
land. The principles of the Irish National
League which was formed in Dublin, in
October last, are as follows: National
Self Government 2-Land law reform.
3-I.ocal self government. 1.-THE extern
sion of parliamentary and municipal fran
chises. 5-The development and encour-
agement of labor and the industrial inter-
ests of Ireland. These principles form the
platform upon which the new National
League was created.
The convention was largely attended by
representative Irishmen in America and
Canada, and on the second day the commit
tee on resolutions reported preamble and
resolutions. The preamble is long and is a
powerful arraignment of England forcrimes
of every conceivable character against Ire.
land as nation and Irishmen as individ'
uals. 1t proceeds as follows:
"The Irish-American people, assembled
in convention at Philadelphia, submit to the
intelligence and right reason of their fel-
low-men that the duty of government is
to preserve the lives of the governed; tc
extend their liberty to protect their prop,
erty to maintain peace and order; to allow
each portion of the people an equitable and
efficient voice in it's legislation, and to pro.
n}bte their general welfare by wise, just and
humane laws. We solemnly declare and
cite unquestioned history and universal
knowledge of living men in testimony
thereof, that English government has ex'
listed in Ireland not to preserve the lives Of
the governed but to destroy them. Entire
communities it has wantonly massacred by
the sword to the asylums Of terrified Wo'
men it has deliberately applied the blazing
torch; into helpless towns it has discharged
deadly bombs and shells; through consecra,
ted crypts, where age and infancy sought
shelter, it has sent its bloody butcher; the
sacred persons of venerable priests it has
stretched upon the rack or suspended from
the gibbet; innocent babes have been i'm.
paled on the points Of its bayonets because
in theiroWn words, it's emiSSaries "liked that
sport :" it's gold has been folded in the hand
of the assassin and has rewarded the infamy
of the perjured traitor {; its treacherous false
hood las lured patriots to unsuspected death
as il .he sword, cannon, torch, scafOld, dag
ger and explosive were not enough, 1t EN-
joys the unique infamy of being the only
government known to ancient or modern
times which has employed famine for the
destruction of those from whom 1T claimed
allegiance -forcibly robbing the Irish peo::
pie of the fruits of their own toll, produced
BY their own labor; it has buried not hun
dred, not a thousand, but more than mil
lion of the Irish race, unshrouded, uncoffin.
ed, in the grave of hunger and has merci.
lessly compelled the other millions in com:
pulsOry, to seek in alien lands the bread
they were entitled to in their own. There
is no form. of cruelty known to the lowest
savage which it has not practiced, on the
Irish people in the name of the highest civ.
| iliZatiOn. There is no device of fiendish in
genuity which has not been adopted to re.
| duce their numbers. There is no species OF
destructive attack however insidious or vio'
lent, ancient or modern, rude or scientific,
whether directed against life or matter, in
any portion of the globe for which its bar.
| barities in Ireland have not furnished an
example. There is no form of retaliation:
to which despair or madness may resort, for
which the English cruelty in Ireland is not
exclusively responsible"
The resolution arraigns England by charg-
ing that the English government in Ire
land, originating in usurpation, and per-
petuated by force, having failed to discharge
any of the duties of a government-never
having acquired the consent OF the govern
ed-has no moral right whatever to exist in
Ireland, and that it is the duty of the Irish
race throughout the world to sustain the
Irish people in the employment of all legit-
innate means to substitute for it national
self government. Pledge unqualified and
constant support, moral and material, to
their countrymen in Ireland in their efforts
to recover national self-government. They
compliment MIR. Parnell. Express sympa-
thy with the laborers of Ireland in their
efforts to improve their condition. Coun-
sci their countrymen in Ireland to buy
nothing in England which they can pro-
duce in Ireland or procure from America
or France and pledge the Irish-Americans
to promote Irish manufactures by encour-
aging their import into America and to use
their utmost endeavor by plain statements
of facts and discrimination in patronage to
persuade American tradesmen from keep
ing English goods on sale. They denounce
the liberal policy; thank number of Cath"
olic clergyman, who are named, for pro"
viding homes for Irish immigrants into the
United States, and add: The people of
Ireland are by the laws Of God and nature
entitled to live by their labor in their native
land, whose fertile soil is abundantly able
to nourish them, but since brutal govern"
ment compcls large numbers of them to
emgrate, it is the duty Of their country
men to warn them against the snares of
poverty in the large cities and to assist them
in the agricultural regions. They denounce
the policy of the English government in
first reducing the Irish peasantry to abject
poverty and then sending them. penniles'
to the Uniteds States, dependent upon
American charity, as unnatural, inhuman
and an outrage upon the American govern
ment and people; directing the attention
of the United States government to this
iniquity, protesting against its continuance
and instructing the officials who shall be
chosen by this convention to present pro-
test 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