Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1884-08-21
Is the Irish Question in Amer
can Politics.

ne asSeTllOH 10 frequently maze,
even bp some Irishmen, unknowing-
", that the Irish question has no
right of place in American politics.
desire to assert that it has an i'm
portant bearing in American politics,
in the issues and questions of pub
lie policy, presented in the platforms
of the parties seeking the SURFACES
of the entire American people, aad
trust to be able to show its right,
despite the assertions to the contrary.
The question of free trade or pro-
lection, is bound up with what has
come to be called the Irish question
in this country. The dislike of Irish
men and their descendants for every
thing English, must exert large in
fuence in American politics at the
approaching presidential election;
and the National Irish convention to
be held atFanuel Hall, Boston, Mass,
18th and l4th of August, 1854, must
pass on this question decision that
will exert an influence, one way or
dDOlueIs dG tuS polSss
In the mainline we will endeavor
to give condensed exposition of
what we regard as the true nature
and tendency of what the English
call free trade, and what its effects
would be upon this country, and
through this country, upon less for
tunate nations.
In almost every country of the
world, and especially here, classes
of men exist, of native birth, who
form mistaken judgment from trade
interests, or partisan prejudice, and
thereby become the warm advocates
and worshippers of foreign rule, for
eign ideas, and foreign forms of pro-
ceedings. The hypocrisy of Eng
land so mesmerizes and beclouds
their reason and intellects, that they
are continually holding up to us a
false idealism of principles, to get
them into the constitutions of this
country. Anglomania economists
write prize essays in favor OF Eng
lish free trade Democracy, to pro
duce here that unnatural STATE of
society whereby England taxes her
subjects in all her dependencies for
the support of enormous fleets and
armies, to maintain her unequalled
supremacy on land and sea.
Look at the unnatural condition
of her people. Are we to copy from
them? Dukes, lords, mobiles, gentry,
clergy, -gatherors, Queen, royal
ties, and what nots, all living IN
luxury and idleness on labor, trade
and taxes. All consumers and none
producers. The labor population al
most exclusively employed in the
work of converting the raw material,
obtained chiefly from othercountrles,
besides Britain, into cloths and
hardware for transportation and eX
change. And this is the free trade
Utopia our Democratic reformers
would have us believe is good for
us. This the perfection of sound
political economy. Let us open our
ports for a free trade with England,
send her duty free all the much
needed necessaries for her great man
ufacturing population, her splndels
and her looms, and she will cry
thanks be to the Lord for free trade,
for now we obtain other peoples
food, raw material, etc, and give
them cotton and cutlerly Of our own
making.
But to the proof of my original
statement on the disputed point. |
maintain that the Irish question
holds the foremost place, inasmuch
as the tariff issue overshadows all
the others before the people. What
is called the Irish question repre-
sents mighty struggle for centuries,
between Irish nationality and Eng
fish hereditary power; between JUS
tice and injustice. England the OPP
pressor on the one hand, and Ireland
the unconquerable opponent on the
other From the Irish mind the
right Of self-goyerning, home-rule
cannot be effaced, and the right and
dnty of Irishmen at home and abroad
to agitate, for the purpose cannot be
extinguished in them.
Ireland suffers from religious, So
cial, political, territorial, industrial
and agricultural wrongs. The world
should be interested IN assisting to
right the wrongs Of an oppressed
people 1t is a matter of very re-
cent history that the English govern
ment itself interfered to check the
atrocities of the Turkish nation, the
world applauding the act No one
thought of Directing, or asserting
that the Turkish question had no
right to enter into English politics.
But say our American wise-acres:
an American politics we are Ameri-
cans, and not Irish" AS we'll have
cold 70 CIodc+opa xvbpp he plpadQd