Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1888-09-15
to death hearing about the unfortu

Oh j. OnDAI OIL
to death hearing about the unfortu.
nate Irish. Oh, that even one hund.
|red thousand OF them had arms in
their hands! But they have no
arms; they cant get them; they
can't keep them. am sick, say,
hearing of heroic men and women
in Ireland having no weapons with
which to defend their homes from
the cfnei evictor bnt scalding water
and hot stirabout. j am sick, sick
unto death of hearing about the
Irish people going down on their
knees and begging their rights from
the English government-from a lot
of tyrants and scoundrels. Let us
Hope and pray that the day may not
be far distant when the Irish people
will be able to demand their rights.
Better Thousand times die like
men, sword in hand, than to be 60
ing down on their knees begging
rights from scoundrels who never
will grant them. Old as / am, /
would, were | in Ireland, thousand
times rather tall in a ditch with a
British bayonet through me, than
use such weapons as scalding water
and hot stirabout to defend my
home from the assaults of the armed
ruffians of the English queen. But
Ireland has no arms,and what can be
doneg This is the great question.
HON. JOHN P. SUTTON:
No, my friends, there is no change,
aud there will be no change until
the old blood of their Scythian faith.
ers boils up in the veins of the Irish
race and prompts them to initiate
their sires of heroic mould who
+
would live or make their towns the
.sepulchres of freemen dead. Since
the first of your annual gatherings
in this grove. for the second time in
the reign of the present English
queen, the cry of famine has gone
forth from the agonized heart of
Ireland, and the charity of the
world had to stand between her chill.
dren and the coffinless graves where
thirty-years before one million and a
half of our kindred found there only
sanctuary from English tyranny.
During the time you have been as
sembllng here the scaffolds in Ire.
land have been crimsoned with the
blood of innocent men slaughtered
by British law, that freshmen might
be terrified into submission to the
foul usurpatlon of foreign race.
During that time the old and the
young, the stalwart and the feeble,
the man in the glory of his prime,
the girl in the budding of her virgin
womanhood, the boy in the blithe-
someness of childhood have been
shot down, bayonetted and dubbed
70 Jaotb in cboar vopfoppores ~f or,,
city by armed ruffians acting under
direct orders from the English gov.
eminent. 1t was once the written
law, and it is now the unwritten law
of English rule in Ireland, that it is
no crime for kingsman or queens.
man to murder an Irishman.
Yet we are told by learned theolo.
gians that this murderous usurpa.
ton is a legitimate government.
Do they take US for foolsf Legiti.
mate government! Why in Ireland
to day the best of her leaders, and
the noblest of her priests, and the
most respected Of her citizens are
daily being dragged before coercion
courts and sentenced to long terms of
imprisonment for alleged offences
that here IN America would be
deemed public virtues. The law is
administered by judiciary the
most venal in the annals of corrup.
ton. and specially appointed magis-
trates whose moral characters have
more association with the dock than
with the bench. The lives and lib.
critics of the people are subject to
the whims and caprices of an armed
force half the size of the United
States army. and responsible only
to their immediate officers, who are
themselves types Of the Tory ruffians
hanged by American patriots a
hundred years ago. Peaceful pub.
lie meetings are proclaimed; free
speech is treason the liberty OF the
press is mere matter of sufferance
and the newsvendor is a criminal.
And still there are ecclesiastics
who will preach to us-Be We sub
ject to the higher powers-and still
there are men who will tell us that
this usurpation of Irish national
rights by the English banditti, is a
legitimacy; it is registered in hell,
but not in the books of eternal JUS
tice.