The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-03-05
IRELAND'S GREAT PATRIOT.
Sons Of the Green Isle Appropriately
Celebrate Emmet's Anniversary.
ADDRESS Delivered by Hon. James Il. Willard
Features Contributed by Many Others
Performance at the 0pera-House.

a
Robert Emmcts birth was celebrated last night
at the Grand Opera-house. under the auspices OF
the Gamma Gael and the Emmett Guards, by
exercises commemorating the event. followed by
an entertainment aud ball, which was attended
by q large number Of Irish-American
citizens. Mr.. James 81. Reardon. in a
few remarks preliminary to the exercises at the
Grand Opera house. spoke of the Jealous work
of the Irish Americans in aid of the cause of Ire
land, concluding by announcing that Governor
Gray had been chosen to preside over the meet
ing. In assuming the duties of chairman the
Governor spoke briefly of the noble and heroic
character of the Irish martyr, of 1reland's seven
hundred years of struggle for liberty, and of the
hope now dawning that she will triumph. He
thought the friends of Ireland had more to encour-
age them than a year ago. Public opinion is now
laundering in the ears of the statesmen of the
old world, and the time is near at hand when the
Rristocracy of idle landlordism, living off the
earnings Of the oppressed and poverty-stricken,
must go. There will be peace and contentment
in Ireland only when she gets her just rights
from the government.
A song entitled 'sIreland's Flag YVES very
pleasinely rendered by Miss Jessie Meek.
The principal address of the occasion was de-
iivered by Senator James q. Willard, of Bedford,
who said: Every era of human progress has
been marked by an impelling force characteristic
of the age. Religious devotion imDelled the
thousands who followed Peter the Hermit and
Richard Ceur de Leon in the contests for the
holy sepulcher. The spirit of adventurous dis
eovery bore the golden banner of Spain, in the
hands of Columbus and his coadjutors, beyond
the limits of the known world. in the fifteenth
century. The desire for national aggrandize-
ment In the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries caused each and every civilized
nation so extend its dominions by colonization.
The founding and maintenance of these colonies.
separating men widely from parent government,
cepted doctrine. Thus the eighteenth century
was marked by the enunciation of a principle
which was utterly subversive of the belief in the
divine right Of kings, which had existed from
the earliest history of mankind. Beyond three
thousand miles Of ocean. the tillers of q new soil
felt surging in their souls a spirit of freedom
and self dominion wide as the blue canopy which
rose In boundless glory above their heads and
vast rs the mighty continent which formed their
home. They said in their souls: God gave US
liberty; man has no right to take 1t away
This doctrine. so characteristic of this era of
progress, and so iconoclastic OF hereditary rights.
was amply stated in the words Of Jefferson:
That all mon are created equal; that they are
endowed by their creator with certain ~inaliena-
able rights; that among these are life, liberty and
the pursuit OF happiness This theorem had a
corollary which has been the characteristic cen
trail political principle of the nineteenth century,
and that is that the inalienable right of man to
be properly protected must include another
right, the right Of local self government, or. as
the friends Of Ireland so tersely state it-home
rule.
''The right of local self-government has been
so thoroughly recognized as the dominating
H. III --1As>~f .-- l. 49, 49,
tury that no civilized nation on the globe
to-day denies this right to its citizens.
Ireland contends for this right as one accorded
by the common sentiment of all civilized hui
manity. A proper statement of the position of
the Irish Nationalists to-day simply demands the
consideration of two questions-the one, whether
the long career of misgovernment, national error
and internecine strife, which reduced Ireland to
q state of anarchy. did not justify her subjuga-
ton; the other, whether the wrongs and out
RACES suffered by the Irish people since their
subiugation do not demand, if not the ~restora-
ton of her nationality, at least the granting of
the universally-reeognized right OF local self
government.
Again and again Ireland has striven to rend
asunder the CALLING links of bondage. to regain
her nationality and obtain her former rights.
She has been declared turbulent because she
protested against plumber; unreasonable and i'm
FORTUNATE because she asked for her own. Her
revolutions all tell the same mournfal story of
AOEOlC Q1Elnkt ICp00tC4 0AoocbSk 0hP0A0AlOtCA
punishment. What agonies the people of Ire
land suffered in these struggles and de-
feats no tongue can tell. Enough to
say they have been conquered, subju-
gated by a people alien to themselves in
blood, language and religion. In that one
browning calamity all other misfortunes, out
RACES, miseries and sorrows are condensed. In
the contest for obtaining a portion of her rights
which Ireland has waged so long, two powerful
forces have combatted against her SUCCESSIVE
M rno%nrio1 tho nfhar moral Tho ma that
system of landlordism against which her people
have protested so loudly-the other that damna-
BILE policy which made treason to their native
land the price of political advancement.
1.-The lands Of Ireland for centuries have been
held by a nobility whose only thought was to
obtain from their landed estate the largest posi-
Bile income consistent with the bare existence of
the tenantry. The products of the soil we're dis
posed of in such a manner as left all the profits
to the landlord. and these profits were spent not
In Ireland but in England. This system of rent
ing had a two-fold effect. 1t built up a large
and wealthy class who were the bitterest an
tagonists Of any change for the better In Ire
land and whose Golfers were ever open to supply
the means to crush out any incipient protest.
At the same time this system left the common
people so poverty stricken that they could in no
large degree experience the blessings of educa-
ttpn SO as to fifty feel the necessity
OF asserting their rights. While this un-
hailowed system was powerful on the one hand,
no less pernicious was the moral force which
tended TO keep all ambitious men from espousing
the cause OF the right of Ireland. To every
1rishman who hoped for advancement the En-
glish government practically said, use your
pen and your voice to maintain the present con-
dition of Ireland, and you shall have our aid,
our countenance and our ~plaudits. This way
the path of advancement lies open before you.
Take the other and you take the gloomy read to
she scaffold.' Who can fifty appreciate the ter
riole effect of this policy which bred traitors,
which gave a premium for falsehood. and made
hypocrisy the test of merritt With all the seduc-
1--we hattery, OF promised qualification of am
Dition, England invited the sons of the Green
isle to be false TO her traditions and her hopes.
With all the threatening emphasis of re-
peated executions, she pointed out the thorny
road Of death to those who refused to
yield to her Establishments. No historian has
every properly portrayed the terrible power of
this insidious and destructive moral force san
ping the honor Of people. y = y It was a