Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1885-02-21
REAL ROTTEN RANCoR.

Extremes OF th0ugnC, action or
expression are to be deprecated, and
the better class of people-those not
so blindly welded to a cause like
the heather to his idols-do not en-
courage or take pant in those bitter
feelings by which men are carried
outside of the pale of humanity into
the brute creation. They show by
their rawlings, souls scared and shriv-
elled by passion and prejudice, and
though having the semblance of hui
mainly in form, in nature they are
like an enraged animal goaded tofury.
Their rancor and bitterness attaches
no blame to reasonable men, who es
pouse the same cause, but in a reason
able way. We viii give an instance
OF the two classes of men by their
expressions upon the same cause,
and that is the fact that Irishmen
like the Germans or Americans,
nave right to vote as they please,
for they all belong to one country
America-no matter whether their
grandfathers were to the manor
born or they themselves tried to be.
come just as worthy citizens by nat
uralization. One of the Jefferson
County papers gives voice to senti.
ments like these, that are not only
false and untrue but are prompted
by spirit so mean and tyrannical
that its equal is not recorded in all
the history of slavery and barbarity.
The writer says that the class OF
Irish we meet in this country is
treacherous and devoid of gratitude,
because fifty thousand Irish voters
6 stabbed the Democratic party in
the dark in New York at our late
Presidential election" and repeats
his assertion that the railroad Irish
OF this country are treacherous and
ungrateful people.
: How did they show their gratitude in
the late war ? Why, on the side of the
section that wished to disfranchise and
Danish them from this country. Even
Francis Meagher, that patriot sans peur
sans reproche, raised a brigade of his
countrymen to fight against people who
had done them nothing but kindness.
And these are the patriots we are called
on to sympathize with and shed tears
over. l take stock in no such cant.
Liberty What do they know about liber-
ty? Or what do they care for it /? 1t is
license they want not liberty. My hon
est opinion is that the large majority of
their leaders are demagogues and the
great mass of the people fit followers for
demagogues."
1t would be a relief to turn from
this mockery of intelligence and com
mon sense to the history ofour coun-
try and read there on which side
they were fighting, but to complete
the contrast between brainless bigots
and true gentlemen of intelligence
and reason, we quote the following
by Hon. Charles w. Button of the
Lynchburg Vi,ginian:
eff ever kindly feeling toward Eng
land is begotten in the Irish heart it will
be by just, a generous policy. In no
other way can you reach the Irish heart :
and until you have secured the conf
dence and affection of this remarkable
sense whatever. No race upon earth
combines in higher degree the lofty
and the lovely traits that inspire admira-
lion. Blemishes, indeed, deform its
beauty but these do not weigh against
its rugged and heroic virtues. Undying
and unextinguishable loyalty to country,
home and kindred is the predominant
of this people. There is
binor in tho i,,f,apiI xro Ior ba
defiance, the deathless devotion of the
Irish race that must ever excite the adj
alike of friend and foe. Dearer
TO the Irish heart is the tri-foiled sham
rock than were ever the lilies of France
to the followers of Napoleon. The pa
triotic sentiment which the spirited verse
of Scott imputes to the Scotchmen, may
With even more appropriateness be put
into the mouth of every true son of the
Emerald Isle:
Land of my sires No mortal hand,
Shall e'er undo the filial band
That knits me to thy rugged strand. :"
The ties that bind them to their
native land are no stronger than
those by which they cling to their
adopted country. Take them in
war or in peace they are in the front,
whether dying on the field of battle
or wearing out their lives with pick
and shovel preparing the way for
the march of progress and eiviliza-
ton. And what do they ever ask
or get wealth or position neither
a little shanty or patch OF ground,
upon which they pay their tax and
live by the sweat of their brow, be-
cause even this their ungrateful
step-mother country denied them
and gave it to strangers,-an out
rage and an injustice so glazing and
hideous that it bears comparison
with the rawlings of a partisan blind
ness and prejudice which stopped to
call the railroad Irish" PREACHER
GUS and ungrateful.