Northwest enterprise. [volume] (Anacortes, Wash. Ter.) 1882-1887, 1884-06-14
OUR IRISH FRIENDS.
BY 8. L. MoFFiiTr.

have attained to the dignity OF being
problem" At home they have enjoyed
that distinction for a number of centuries.
They seem created for dissensions. To
judge them coolly and impartially is out
of the question.
1t is natural that the people of this
country should symp athize with Ireland
We like rebellion, when it far enough
from home. We preach local sslf-goyern-
ment to all the world, and If we do not
always practice what we preach, no other
country is in position to blame us. A
good, manly instruction, an armed rising
of the whole Irish people, would meet
with hearty approval in America, and the
rebels would be appauded as their cour-
age would deserve. But most of us draw
the line at ASSASSINATION. We are ready
to condone good deal in the Russian
Nihilists, weighted down by a pitiless
despotism, and cIoggcd in the mre OF
brutal and unteachable peasantry, but we
see no reason for such charity in the case
of Ireland. Stepniak and the Nihilst
Executive Committee say that the conces-
sion Of the most elementry rights of po-
liticsl activity would reti re persuasion by
dynamite from service. The cowardly
"Invincibles," who in land of free speech
attempt to murder women and children,
and seek safety by betraying each other,
would never dare to whimper in st. Pet
ersburg. But they would bring no par
ticular discredit upon the Irish cause, i
it were not for one damning fact. When
ever crime is committed in the name OF
Ireland the Irish leaders feel impelled to
apologize for it; or if they mildly "de>
plore" the crime, they carefully cherish
the criminal. O'Donovan Rosa and his
kind can even threaten to destroy, on the
high seas, vessels crowded with American
citizens, and the men for whose sakes
America Is sacriici ng her political ideals
and her national set-rcspect have not the
decency to protest. A little hearty ap-
plause on the part of the Finertys and
Robinsons when England succeeds in
hanging few of the baser sort of MUIR
derers would go far toward restoring the
Irish cause to respeetability. At present
their conduct has not even the merit OF
consistency. They glorify the criminals
on the assumption of their guilt, and ex
pect England to acquit them on the as
sumption OF their innocence. In recent
notorious ease, for instance, O'D,nnell
either killed Carey Of deliberate intent,
or be committed plain, ordanity, com
mon place, personal homicide, which may
have been culpable or not, but in which
Irishmen, as Irishmen, had no sort OF in>
terest. By their Intense feeling III the
matter the Irish people on both sides of
the Atlantic showed that they took the
former view, according to which Mr..
O'Donnell may have been patriot, but
was certainly, in the eye of the law, a
criminal. Yet they cursed the British
government, and talked OF "the demon
heart of England" because an English
jury looked at the matter from the same
stand point, and declined to consider the
patriot common brawler who happened
to get the best of fight.
1t is perhaps hardly to DO expected
that a partisan, burning with the sense OF
wrong, should be as cool and just as
disinterested spectator. Still a little
''sweet reasonableness' is becoming, even
to cembatant, and in this graceful quail.
lty the American Irish are more deficient
than any other known race. 1t is not the
fault Of the national character. The long
line of courteous gentlemen among the
Irish revolutionists OF two centuries dis
proves such conclusion, and even at
present such men as Justin McCar thy
show that Nationalism is consistent with
fairness and generosity. But the kind of
Irishmen that come to this country and
get themselves elected to Congress by
playing on the passions of their compa~
triots are mostly blackguaras by nature
and demagogues by policy. They lack
sense enough to see the weakness of rant
and the impolicy of indiscriminate abuse.
The Finertys and Robinsons would feel
as uncomfortable in the society Of Parnell,
or any other Irish gentleman, as in that
of Minister Lowell.
| Americans detcst the wrongs that
England has inflicted upon Ireland, but
they have kindly feeling toward Eng
land. nevertheless. Their friendship is
wide enough to embrace Russia and Po-
land, the Gar and the Nihilists, England