Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1886-08-23


or any information or business be sent by tele-
phone.
Entered at the Posiotice at Alexandria, Vrginia, as
second class matter.
SPECIE! OF NER. REDMOND. M. E..
During the convention of the Irish Ma
tiona League at Chicago last week Mr..
Redmond, NJ. T., spoke as follows:
Perhaps the greatest glory Of our nation
| is to be found in tho fact that our people,
driven by misfortune and misrue from the
land of their fathers, and coming to this land
rude and ignorant and poor, have yet been
able to bear an honorable part in building
| up the fortunes Of America aud TO give to
the world undenablo proof that, in addition
to the qualities of fidelity and honesty, Irish.
men, under a free constitution, can be
| worthy sons and good citizens of their adopt
| ed country. The hardships, the expressions
and the miseres which drove you and your
| fathers from Ireland have welded your
hearts 10 Ireland's cause by ties which
neither prosperity nor distance nor time can
| destroy or weaken. The principle underlying
the movement for which this convention is
assembled is the unquestioned recognition
Of the nationality OF Ireland. Weare work
| ing not simply fer the removal Of grievance
| zion Of our people.
Nothing, | think, is palmer than if Ire
| land had in the past abandoned principles
she could easily have bartered her national
rights to England, and in return have OBJ.
tained certain amount Of material prosper
ity. But Ireland has preferred rags and al
uncorquered spirit of liberty to favors won
by national dishonor. The principle en-
bodied in the Irish movement of to-day is
Just the same principle which was the soul Of
every Irish movement for the last seven CEN
| tn, es,a settlement honorable to England and
Ireland alike. Such settlement, we believe,
was offered to us by Mr.. Gladstone, and quite
apart from the increased strength which Mr..
| Gladstone's proposals, even though tempo
rariy defeated, have given TO our cause, we
have, think, reason to rejoice at The oppor
lunity which they afforded to our suffering
and exasperated people to show the mag.
nanimity of their natures and the unalloyed
purity of their love Of liberty. What spec
tac!e Ireland afforded to the world when, at
last, one. great Englishman arose bold
enough and wise enough TO do Justice to her
character. Ages Of heartless oppression and
bitter wrong, hundreds OF thousands of mar
'yrs 10 Irish freedom, ages ofstupid religious
persecution, ages OF dcpopulation and state
created famine, never ending insult aud
ruthless calumny, all in that one moment
| were forgotten and the feeling uppermost in
the hearts Of the Irish race Mt home and
abroad was gratitude to the aged statesman,
who simply proposed to do justice, and anx-
iety for blessed oblivion of the past"
Who, in the way OF the reception given to
the bill of Mr.. Gladstone, cranped and de-
formed as it was by humiIilating safeguards
and unnecessary limitations, will dare to say
| that the principle of our movement is mere
ly race hatred of England? ? No. Last
April Ireland was ready to forget and for.
give. She was ready to sacrifice many
things for peace, so long as the one essential
principle for which she struggled was con-
ceded She was willing, on the day when
the portals Of her ancient Senate house were
reopencd, to shake hands with ber hercdita-
ry foe and to proclaim peace between the
democracies OF the two nations whom The
Almighty psced side by side to be friends,
but who bad been kept apart by the avarice,
| the passions and the injustice OF few. X
Once again the policy of Cancellation has
been cast aside by England. The English
viceroy who represented the policy of liber-
ty, and who for The first time since 1895, was
| greeted with the accamatons of the popu-
lace in Dablin, has left our Shores and in
bis place has come one bearing the hated
name Of Casllereagh. Once again all thoughts
of famity with England have been bauished
from the minds of Irishmen, and to-day we
are once more face to face with our hereditary
| foes. The same cloud has decended once
more upon our land, but we have right
to call on the world to remember how
brightly and peacefully the Irish landscape
smiled during the brief sunshine of the last
few months The duty of the moment is
clear. We have given England the most
convincing proof that on the concession of
liberty we can be trusty friends it now re-
mains for us to prove for the thousandth
time that as slaves we can be formidable
foes. assert here to-day that the govern
ment of Ireland by England is an impossi
bility, and | believe it to be our duty to
make it So Were our people tamely to sub
NIT to the yoke which has been once again
placed on their neck they would be nn.
worthy of the blood which they have in
herted from fathers who preferred poverty
to dishonor and death to national slave
ry. But there is no danger of such a
disgrace, The national government IS
in the hands of man who can be bold as
we'll as cautious, aud claim the confidence
and support of the Irish in America, not
only because they are animated by the same
principle and the same hopes as we are, hut
because our movement at home is conduct
ed on a wise and honest policy. So long as we
are true to the great principle of Irish ma
tionality, resolutely refusing either TO be
bought or coerced from rigid adherence TO
the full measure of national right, and SO
| long rs we are able to point to our past pol.
icy rs honest and ful, we say we and
no others are entitled to decide for ourselves
upon Irish soil, and upon our own RESPONSE
bility. what our policy for the future is to
he. This is the condition upon which you
have given your support to us in the past,
! snd it is the condition upon which alone we
1 ,,oa,,t ccrr spnn,rt f,r tho f,1,,, nE