Daily Los Angeles herald., 1884-09-20
r. r. DEL VALE,
NE gave Them Away.
Of Los Angeles.

The HERALD has taken the trouble to
point out to tho Times the many partic
ulars In which that journal erred in liz
absurd references to the case of Mac
Sweeney, natural,zed American citizen
who was uniustly imprisoned by the
authorities of Great Britain and who was
allowed to lie In British prisons by Mr..
Blaine, who ia supposed by lot oi
foolish newspapers to stand ready at oil
times to wiring the tail OF the British
lion. Charity called upon us TO assume
that our contemporary was writing in
Ignorance, and under that supposition
we regarded its statements as mere
errors of fact. AS il evidently prefers
the idea that il has deliberately falsified
the record to nh impuialion of Ignorance
we cheerfully indulge II in lis prefer
ence. The truth, as established by the
correspondence of the State Department
aud the Congressional Record, is that
Mr.. MacSweeney, who had been Tor
twenty .ono years resident Of San Fran
cisco, and naturalized citizen for the
greater portion of that time, returned to
Ireland for his health, which had be-
come impaired. Without any cause
whatever or the infraction Of any law,
human or divine, he was thrown into
prison. Fortunately for him he had an
energetic wife; and, between the two,
Minister Lowell and Mr.. Blaine were
fully advised of all the circumstances.
OF course the tuft-hunting, toad
eating New England minister TO Old Eng
land paid no attention to his case. lie
was too busy playing the sycophant to
John Bull in post.prandial speeches after
the roast beef and plum pudding and
crusiy old port of the tight little island
had been dispatched TO care baubee
about dozen MacSweeneys. MIR. Blaine
was equally indifferent, and he fell back
upon letter he had written in OCon-
nor's case--a substantially identical one
with that of MacSweeney--in which he
had enunciated the un.American doc
trine that England, by virtue Of her
local laws, had a right to do as she
pleased. Fortunately, however, for the
resurrection of tho genuine American
doctrine from the Slough of Despond in
which Blaine and Lowell were willing to
allow it to lie, the Democratic United
States Senator Voorhees,, and Democratic
Representatives, like Perry Belmont,
would not have it so; and, owing to
their splendid efforts, both Congress and
the country were aroused to the neces.
sity of asserting the old time Democratic
doctrine of the inviolabili,y OF Ameri.
can citizenship, native-born or natural
lied. During the whole term of Mr..
Blaine's incumbency of the State De-
partment--that is to say, for the greater
part of year-both MacSweeney and
0'Connor were allowed to languish in
Jail. On the other hand, Just so soon
as Mr.. Blaine was succeeded by MIR.
Frelinghuysen, who has never posturized
as dashing, lingo statesman-one who
was ready to paralyze England, while
you could say Jack Robinson, as it were
-McSweeney and O'Connor were liber-
ated as a result of a strong protest from
the government of the United States
which Mr.. Blaine refused TO write and
which Mr.. Frelinghuysen did write
just here we have the whole law and
the prophets in the matter and no
amount of "Jaley' ilippancy on the
part of our esteemed contemporary can
change the facts one iota.
The truth is that putting Blaine for.
ward as the champion of naturalizsd cit
izenship or of the Irish race is one of
the most inpudent pretences which has
ever disEraced the politics OF this coun-
try. 1t is fudge of the first order