Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1884-08-29

ing a liberal Cabinet and liberal
| Parliament to adopt it.
MR.. BLAINE's DUTY TO AMERICANS IN
IRELAND.
/ Whatever may have been the mer,
its of the controversy between ireland
and England, it clearly became an
American secretary of state, in the
presence OF such a state of things as
| Mr.. Blaine fou2d existing in Ireland
when he came into office, three days
after the passage of Mr.. Forster's
coercion bill in 1881, to concern him
self Immediately and efectually with
the protection of American citizens in
a country so disturbed.
If he needed light as to his duty in
this case he might have found i in
the archives of the state department,
which TEEN with evidences OF the
prompt and persistent interposition of
the English government to protect
English subjects in the United States
against the consequences which fol
lowed the outbreak of the great seces-
sion. The British foreign Office then
took a ''liberal view of its duties, =
not to America. indeed, but to Eng
land. 1t lost no time in putting It's
whole representative force at work,
both in the north and in the south, to
protect British Subjects as 1t was
bound to do. against northern injus-
tice and southern oppression.
HE LAUGHS OVER IRISH COERCION WITH
MIR. LOWELL.
Mr.. Blaine dld not follow this good
example. He seems to have taken
his view of the coercion acts and their
consequences from dispatch sent by
the American minister of the Court Of
st. James to the state department on
the Goth of February, 1881, being the
day after the protection of person and
property bill passed its third reading
in the house of commons. This
despatch was received at the state de-
partment and read by Mr.. Blaine on
the 10th of March, six days after he
hau taken office. In this despatch
Mr.. Lowell says: THE wild and
whirling words of some Ir.shmen end
others from America have done harm
to something more than the cause of
the Irish peasantry by becoming asso-
ciated in the public mind with the
country whose citizenship they put off
or put on as may be most convenient.
Ia connection with this | beg leave
to call your attention to an extraor-
dinary passage in the letter of Mr..
Parnell to the Irish national land
lnoCr,,A lotn1 LN,,lNr1,n,rvy
1881, in which he makes a distinction
between the American people and
the Irish nation in America. This
double nationality is likely to be of
great practical inconvenience when
eyer the coercion bill becomes law.
The same actor takes alternately two
characters, like a pair of twins who
are never on the stage Simultaneous
ly." The coercion bill thus humor-
ously referred to by Mr.. Lowell be-
came law, as | have SAID, On the ID OF
March, 1881, eight days before Mr..
Blaine sat down TO read this despatch
of Mr.. Lowell.
HIS INDIFFERENCE AND LEVITY.
One might have supposed that Mr..
Blaine would have instructed his
Minister in London TO furnish him at
once with copy of this Coercion
bill, under which, as his humorous
Minister had Informed him, great
practical Inconvenience" was likely
to arise to American citizens of Irish
birth III Ireland.
Mr.. Blaine did not do this. He
treated the matter with such levity
and Indifference that we would find
him, nearly three months GjterW0d,
on the goth of May, 1881, casually
stating, in a despatch to Mr.. Lowell
of that date, that he hdd not seen or
read the Coercion bHU Long before
this time, however, the great practi.
cal inconvience' of which Mr.. Lowell
had forewarned Mr. Blaine had actu-
ally made itself felt in very practi-
cal and inconvenient way as ] have
already intimated, by number of
American citizens of Irish birth then
in Ireland.
HIS FELLOW CITIZENS IMPRISONED.
On March s, 1881, for example,
Michael p. Boyton, claiming to be an
American citizen, sent to Mr.. Lowell
at London q telegram from Kildare
stating that he had been arrested on a
warrant which charged him with no
specific offence, and claiming tho pro-
lection of the United States govern
ment. On March II Mr.. Boyton
wrote to Mr. Lowell from Kilmain-
ham jail, whittier ne had been taken
by an armed escort. He had there
been shown the warrant under which
he had been arrested. This warrant
authorized the governor of Kilmain-
ham jail to detain Mr.. Boyton for the
term of eighteen months, ''or as long
as it might please the chief secretary
for Ireland" The charge against him
in the warrant was shat he lras rea
sonabIy suspected Of melting dirers
persons to murder diCcrS other per
sons"
THE CASE OF MICHAEL BOYToN.
With this began an official CORES
pondence touching Mr.. Boyton and
his clam to citizenship. What Mr.
Boytom claimed was that he went
from county Kildare TO America as
lad of thirteen with his father and
family, and settled at Pittsburg in
1880, where his father was in due
course naturalized. When a lad of
eighteen he enlisted in the United
States navy, and was discharged hon
orably from the sloop-of- war St. Louis
Commander Ingraham's famous
ship, at Philadelphia, at the close of
the civil war. In 1865 he went to Eu-
rope with a passport, signed by Secre
tary Seward, in order to obtain which
it was then necessary to take the ante
secession oath of allegiance to the
United States. He atterward return
ed to the United States, where he
lived and voted as a citizen in New
York for many years. He next went
to London in 1874 to conduct an Am
erican agency, and, in 1879, went to
Ireland to look after the affairs of an
aunt, his only living relative. He
asked Mr.. Lowell to accept Mr. Sew
ards passport of 1865 as evidence of
his American citizenship, and further
claimed that he must be regarded as
citizen under cover of the statute
2. 066 r. S. of July II, 1862. natur-
alizing aliens who had served in the
armies Of the United States and were
hnnnrahlv discharged