The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1883-03-23

loyal, devoted American citizens. Our
duties and sympathIes as American citizens
prompt us TO lend our encouragement to
every people struggling for the priceless
advantages of freedom we ourselves enjoy.
Father Cleary's remarks were loudly
applauded.
Dr. CLEARY's Address.
There is natural tendency in the human
heart to cherish fondly anniversaries CON-
memorative of events of deep import to man.
Ia all stages of civilization are natures
promptings made manifest Culture and
refinement have added only to the intensity Of
natures urgings. AS q people advance in
the scale of human progress, the manifesto
ton Of their regard for their sacred anEivsr-
saries only becomes more marked. No index
on history's page designates more clearly
the decay of a peoples greatness than that
which marks the decline of the sacredness
of historic memories. As time moves
apace the incident that first sanctifed the
event loses its distinctive character, and
becomes merged in or blended with many
other memories, hopea or aspirations.
Thus it is that Erin's children not only
commemorate to-day the sanity life of the
renowned disciple of christianity who won
their fathers from heather gods, but view
with Joy the few hvight pages in their his
| tory, while we drop tear for the wrongs and
miseries of the past and renew again our
pledges of duty to work out brighter
future. So that TO day, which had purely a
religious origin, has acquired, in part, q
civic nature, testlfying in marked degree
to how completely religious conviction has
permeated the nature of our race. We re-
Joice over no mans fall or triumph won
where military passion destroyed man, but
select an incident in our past marking the
| dawn of a new and better life in our PEG
ple-an incident in whose wake peace, hap
piness and prosperity was to follow, till
married by the ruthless hand of the stranger
But to mention the intellectual activity,
social prosperity, and domestic happiness
that illuminated the Emerald Isle, is enough
! to arouse the enthusiasm of her warm
hearted sons and cause flush of fiiial pride
to mantle the brow of her fairest daughter.
| The traces of privation and sorrow, hui
man misery and degradation that marked
the violent coming of the stranger have not
been traced alone on history's page. but
have been scared in our very natures, to be
transmitted as an inheritance to poserity,.
laying it's baneful and blighting influence
not alone on the centuries past, but en-
deavoring to corrode or dry up hopes
promises of a future for our race. Depriva-
ton of the inestimable privilege of dwelling
unmolested in the land of our fathers is
not the only injury, even though cruel
and relentless its enforcement intended for
us by the ruthless oppressors of our people.
To convert the fields fairest TO Celtic eyes,
the balmiest air to Celtic sensibilitles, into
scene of dreary desolation is surely enough
to excite the lively sensibi.ities of our
mercurial dispositions. But that miseries
forced upon us by over-powering numbers
resisted by the patient energy of frugal in
dustry. should be attributed to deficiency in
us as people is an outrage SO malicious in
conception and execution as to justly merit
our combined energy in demanding retribu-
tive justice. That our fathers or ourselves
should be exiled from the land sanctifed by
generations of our kindred can excite no
need of gratitude for the rapacious greed
that engendered the hate and justified the
aggression of the oppressors of our common
kindred. The cry of human misery that so
frequently greets us from our sorely tried
kinsfolk should, especially at the present
time, receive most sympathetic response
and awaken us to responsibility of our
position, its requirements and its duties.
As American citizens we owe to the land
of our adoption that we be loyal and cherish
fondly our political institutions. And
while paying willing tribute to the institu.
tons of freedom that have no more loyal
subject as children of the Celtic race, the
representatives of Celtic manhood, we owe
much to the people whose anniversary we
to-day celebrate. Knowing our peoples
past, approaching the present, and being
the builders of our owu future in America,
as we'll as abettors of our kindred fortune,
we should realize our responsibility and
exert ourselves to meet its demands.
The history of our race is 10 us more than
fond or sympathetic remembrance to be
reviewed to awaken sympathy or fire The
patriotism of our nature. 1t has for us q
stern existence in its influence on us direct
ly. as we'll as through the society by which
we are surrounded, who view US by the rec
ord of the past-the record of the past, not
as traced by the faithful hand of time, but
the record as falsifed by the designing enc
my of our people. The centuries of domin-
eering injustice to which the Celt has been
subjected has stained his fair nature with
but few of the marks of bondage or of the
helot race. Still these few blemishes should
be carefully eliminated and not permitted 10
perpetuate in this land Of freedom 1t has
been ever the effort of brutal conquerors to
eliminate the nobler and more refined SEN
sibilities of subjected race, by declaring
them to be of inferior natural capabilities
| by all the arts of perfected power at their
command; by proscriptive laws and social
| degradation How arduously the Saxon
victor pursued this course toward the Celt
the past only too clearly tells. How nobly
our people withstood the degrading effect of
such regime their capability of vieing
with the most favored sons of civiliza-
ton, ON freedom from proscriptive blight,
abundantly testlfes. Still it were irrational
to presume that the noble germs of manly
capability remained entirely nntarnished by
such enervating influences. The admission
that the pernicious influences of prescription
has deteriorated the Celtic character is not,
frequently made by Celtic child. Still the
injustice to which he has been subj ected by
the degradation by law and society In his
native land may be observed more or less
/ InbTkeuIy III bu6 DUSIuSSS anu SOClhl FokAtIOuS
of life, while rspudiating with heated scorn
the imputation of the inferiority of his kin
dred, While suffering in every relation of life
from fast waning prejudice created by Saxon
mendacity some weak and faitering brother
silently acts upon the decree of a predjudiced
and illy.informed public opinion, thus in his
own life giving the most tangible proof Of
the degrading influence to which he has
been subjected. While loudly extofiing the
versatile powers of our race. with moekery
and derision he greets the effort of o friend
to carve out a more exalted niche for himself
in society than he and his kith and kin occu.
| pied in the land where it was constructive
| treason for Celt TO be happy. Such per-
son will ever be the last to recognize the
success of q Celtic friend, and when so doing
soliloquises on the decay of men in the
present generation.
The elimination of even rare exhibition Of
so slavish spirit should be TO US a sacred
duty. For it is by mutual confidence and
encouragement that we become aiders of
each others prosperity, thereby aiding the
social elevation ofus as race.
The secret acknowledgment of our inferi-
GRITTY can only be the product of feeble in
tellect remaining uninvigoraicd by an ac-
quaintance with the history of our people.
Communion with the master minds of cur
past. whose genius has enlivened every in.