Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1884-09-06
MIR. BLAINE DEFENDED.


Gen. Denis F. Burke, Gen. Mich
ael Kerwin and Gen. James r.
O'Beirne are three Irish-American
soldiers who won their titles in the
battlefields Of the late war, and who,
while rendering allegiance to the
land of their adoption, were not un-
mindful of the claim which Ireland
had upon their affections. When
an armed rising of the people seemed
imminent eighteen years ago, Gen.
erals Burke and Kerwin fastened
thither to take a hand in the strug-
gle. They enjoyed the esteem of
their Irish fellow-citizens. A Mail
and Express reporter questioned
each of them to-day as to his opinions
about the wild charge preferred
against Mr.. Blaine by Mr.. Hurlbert,
ex-editor of the World. General
Burke was found in the tax-receiver's
Office, in the Stats Zeitung building,
+" It's false p he said I; "there is no
public man in America today who
has stronger sympathies with our
people in their effort to secure self
government than James G. Blaine.
When General Kerwin and luckily
escaped arrest in Ireland in 1866
and got back here, we had unmis-
taxable proof of Mr.. Blaine's good
feeling towards us and all others en-
gagged in the struggle for Irish inde-
pendence. We went on to Wash
ington and represented to HIM how
the English authorities were arrest
ing Instantaneous in Ireland and
under the provisions of the Habeas
Corpus Suspension Act, thrusting
them into prison without even the
semblance of q trial. He grew indig
nant over our recital, and Immediate
ly drew the attention of Congress to
the highhanded proceedings of the
English officials. His was the first
voice raised in the national legisla-
ture in behalf of Irish-American cit
liens immured in English prisons on
mere suspicion"
"But Mr.. Rlchelieu Robinson, OF
Brooklyn, claims it was he who first
moved in the matter"
"Mr. Robinson was not a member
of Congress at all at the time Mr..
Blaine first mooted the questioned,
l readily recognize what Mr.. Robin
son has done, but l say again that
Mr.. James G. Blaine was the first
man to take up the cudgels for us
and give England to understand
that America would not tolerate her
high handed dealings with Irish.
American citizens who bad got
within her boundaries. I'll never
forget his noble conduct in connec
tion with that matter"
General Michael Kerwin was met
at the office of the Tablet, No. z Bar
clay street, of which journal he is
proprietor and editor.
81 know Mr.. Blaine personally fol
nearly twenty years." he said, "ant
[ brand those insinuations of Hurl
bert as UNANIMOUSLY unjust. Mr.
Blaine is one of the finest types liv
ing of that sturdy Americanisn
which will not bow or truckle to an,
foreign power. His deep sympathie'
are and always have been with Ire
land. His strong, unleavened Amer
icanism must necessarily make hin
our friend. That very dispatcl
which he sent from the Department
of State on June 2, 1881, to Minlste
Lowell, and from which Hurlber
takes invidious and disconnecte,
quotations, is the most aggresslv
document issued by an American
since the war of 1872. 1t burst lik'
a bombshell in the English camp
This one naked fact in itself shoult
open the eyes of every Irish Ameri
can as to who should be placed a
the head of our government"
The reporter found Gen. James r
O'Beirne in the Gilsey House.
! eyes," he said, laughing, 81 hav'
heard Ofthose Hurlbert letters, and
could not help beng amused at the
cool effrontery of the fellow wht
wrote them. At the very time tina
Mr.. Blaine, in his place in the House
of Representatives, was eloquently
urging and demanding that thu
Washington government should pu1
a decisive stop to England's unwar
rantable interference with the rights
of American citizens in Ireland
Hurlbert was pouring out walls O.
inky denunciation upon him for do
ing so. But Temporal mutdntur
Hurlbert is now the champion OF
Irlsh-American citizens when nobody
needs his advocacy, and Mr.. Blaine
is transformed into cisatlantit
Buckshot Foster! The man whose
ringing words on the floor of Con
gress secured the release of Col
John..Warren and Augustine e. Cos
tello from all English convict prison
after they had been tried and sen
fenced by an English judge and jury
Yes, let the Irish people take Hurl
bert to their bosom and hug him
He is worthy of a bears embrace
Nea0 York Mail and Express.
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