Wichita eagle., 1888-09-29
TO IRISH-AMERICANS

The following speech, recently deliv-
cred by General Harrison to visiting
delegation of Irish-Americans. should be
read and carefully pondered by every
Irishman in America:
You were Irishmen, you are Ameri-
cans, 1rish-Americans. And though you
have given the consecrated loyalty of
your honest hearts to the starry flag and
to your adopted country. you have not,
and you ought not to forget to love and
venerate the land of your nativity. If
you could forget Ireland, if you could be
unmoved by her ministry, minstrelsy,
untouched by the appeals of her splendid
orators, unsympathetic with her heroes
and martyrs, | should fear that the bonds
of your new citizenship would have no
power over your hearts. What if a sprig
of green was found upon the bloody
jacket of a Union soldier who lay
dead once on Missionary Ridge? The
flag he died for was his flag, and the
green was only memory and an inspi
ration. We, native or Irlsh-bOrn, Join
with the Republican convention in the
hope that the cause of the Irish home
rule, progressing under the leadership of
Gladstone and Parnell upon peaceful and
lawful lines, may yet secure for Ireland
that which, as Americans, we so much
value-local home rule. / am sure that
you, who habe in your own persons, or
in your worthy representatives given such
convincing evidence of your devotion to
the American constitution and flag and
to American institutions, will not falter
in this great civil contest which your
spokesman has so tittingly described.
Who, if not Irish-Americans, versed
in the sad story of the commercial
ruin of the island they love, should
be instructed in the beneficial infiu-
ence of protective tariff? Who, if
not Irish Americans, should be able
to appreciate the friendly influence
of the protective system upon their in
d1vidual and upon their home lives?
Which of you has not realized that not
the lot of man only, but the lot of wo-
man has been made softer and easier,
under its influence? Contrast the Amer
can mother and wife, burdened only
with the cares of motherhood and of the
household, with the condition of women
in many of the countries of the old world
where she Is also loaded with the drudg-
ery of toll in the field. know that not
more than Irishmen, who are SO charac-
terized by their Difference of women,
and whose women have SO finely illus
trated that which is pure in female char
acters will value this illustration of the
good effects of our American system
upon the home life.
There are nations across the sea who
are hungry for the American market.
They are waiting with eager expectation
for the adoption of the free trade policy
by the United States. The English man
ufacturer is persuaded that an increased
market for English goods in America is
good for him, but think it will be i'm
possible to persuade the American pro-
Queer or the American workman that 1t
is good for them. ] believe that social
order, that prosperity are bound up in
the preservation of our existing policy.
l do not believe a republic can live and
prosper whose wage earners do not re-
ceive enough to make life comfortable:
who do not have some upward avenues
of hope open before them. When the
wage earners of the land lose hope, when
the star goes out, social order is impos.
sible-and after that anarchy or the car