Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1888-10-31
AN FRESHMAN SPEAKS.
PASSAGES FROM AN ADDRESS BY
GEN. GEO. A. SHERIDAN.


Votes from Irishmen for Cleveland Are i'm
Favor of System that Has Reduced
Their Country from Plenty to Pow
erty.
The policy of England is of necessity that of
free trade at this time, but do not forget that
for centuries she the most absolutely pro-
tected country upon this globe, and that she did
not abandon thai policy until she believed she
held the manufacturing and commercial suprenl-
acy of the world in her grasp, ana could ut
any time, by undertaking her + walls, soutely
England, wherever she has had the power, has
been to absolutely prohibit manufacturing Of
any kind. Her policy was stated by great
commercial paper in England in 1859, with
brutal frankness Let me quote it to yJu here
it is Manufactures, says this sheet, in
our American colonies should be discouraged
and prohibited. We ought always to Keep u
watchful eye over colonies to restrain them
from setting up any of the manufactures which
are carried on III Great Britain, anu any such
attempts should be crushed in the beginning
AS they will have the providing of the rough ma
ter1als to themselves, SO shall we have the man.
ufacturing of them. If any encouragement be
given for raising hemp, flax, ETC.. doubtless they
will soon begin manufacturing if not prevented;
therefore, to stop the progress of any such man.
ufactures, it Is proposed that no weaver have
the liberty to set up any looms without first reg
1stering at an Office set up for that purpose that
all Sitting mills and engines for drawing wire
or weaving stockings be put down; that all
grees be prohibited from weaving either linen or
wooden, Or spinning or combing WOOL or working
in any manufacture of iron further than
making it into pigs or bar iron that they
also be prohibited from manufacturing hats,
stockings, or leather OF any kind" Can
a declaration? Such policy simply
meant the absolute subordination of the colo
MES TO the mother country. Nearly hun
dred years after this monstrous declaration, O.
peer of England standing in the House of Lords
said in q debate upon the free trade question:
Other nations knew as well as the noble Lord
,o1s4a
what we England meant by free trade was
nothing more nor less than, by means of the
great advantages we enjoyed, to get the mon
opoly OF all other markets for our manufact-
urers, and to prevent them one and all, from
ever recoming manufacturing nations" Lord
Goodriqhl The policy enunciated in 1870 and
reahirmed heartily a hundred years afterward
is the Identical policy that controls England to-
day. Fortunately for US, our fathers refused to
indcrse the views of Great Britain. and by revo-
luton wrested the colonies from her grasp.
Let me for moment call your attention to
country that was not able, as we were, to escape
British domination, country that has felt the
full effect of the British free trade policy.
There lies not under the q fai er land than
Ireland. Her soil is rich and yields abundant
harvests to the hands of toll. She has vast min
eral wealth hidden in her bosom-wea1th enough
to clothe her sons and daughters in purple such
as kings delight TO wear she mas broad rivers
that run down to the sea- with power enough in
their sweep to set in motion every implement
devised by man for turning earth products into
form for use and pleasure She is O. land where
plenty, throned and crowned, might sway her
joyous scepter over homes where millions dwelt
in peace and sweet content. But what is Ire
land to-day? Her genial skies look down
sad and barren fields that hardly know the
touch of labor's earnest hand, or smile on
wood, and park, and silver lakes, and towering
castles built by alien hands and occupied by
strangers TO the Irish race great lords who live
in splendid luxury and keep broad acres from
the hands of toll that they may gallop to and
fro and Stay with wantOn hands the game that
flies in fear before them ana this, toO while
men are kneeling at their gates begging for just
one acre of Gods own ground whereon to raise
the simple food to meet the wants and still the
sobs that burst from starving mothers and from
fanished Babes The treasures God has planted
deep in Irish soil lie all unused and useless.
Her silvery streams to the down and
scarce turn wheel, set loom in motion, or send
spindle whirling Her sons are beggars and
her daughters paupers. Erin, to-day, clad in
rags that scarce conceal her nakedness, sits
sadly by the wayside down, and strikes with
withered hand a harp whose strings are shat
tered, and to its wild, discordant notes, from
pinched and famiShed lips sObs out the sorrOwS
of her broken heart. Her days of anguish and
nights of pain, her nakedness and her poverty,
her woeful deSOlation, her utter wreck and
ruin, can all be traced straight to the accursed
rule and iron hand CT England, rule and hand
that struck her growing industries down,
silenced her looms and spindIes robbed her
fields OF cattle, swine and sheep, and covered
the land with gloom deeper and darker than the
shadows cast by the sable wings ofdeath Such
is the condition to which the ngiish free-trade
rule has brought the land that gave my father
birth, and yet, my God, just think of it the
Democratic party are to-day asking Irishm n to
vote for the adoption here of policy that has
ruined their own fair lands, and exiled its sons
and daughters to other lands where bread was
plenty, and where life was worth the living
am the son of an Irishman, and cannot under
stand how any man born upon Irish soil, or
any man who has drop of Irish blood in his
veins, can in this great contest cast his vote for
the Democratic party. ballot for Cleveland
is ballot for free trade; ballot for free trade
is ballot that sets the bells tolling for the
death of industry in this land.
That Irishman who votes for Cleveland is
simp ply voting approval of the policy England
has pursued in Ireland since the hour She plant
ed her accursed foot upon it's soil An Irish vote
for Cleveland is al Endorsement Of evictions-a
cheer for t imprisonment of o Brien, and a
laugh at the throttling of Parnell il the House
of Commons. 1t is bidding the priestof God
refuse the Offices of his holy ealling to any man
in ireland who has the courage to plead for JUS
tlce and, if need be- strike a blow for the
deeming of his land. 1t is a stab in the back of
the friends of home rule in Ireland That
Irishman who votes for Cleveland is simply
adding strength to tre. brawty arm that sends
the lash kissing through the air, down upon the
bare and bleeding shoulders of the mother that
bore him, ghtening the clutch of Engands
brutal hand upon her fair throat, and sharp
ening the cruel nails with which she tears and
rends her quivering flesh. 1t is an infamy of
which no Irishman hOuld be guilty l am the
OF an Irishman, / have tod Won and
would as soon cut off this good right hand of
mine as to use it in casting ballot for John
Bull Cleveland and his English free trade policy
ii L were to cast vote in that direction I
should fear my gray-haire6 father would leap
from the grave, stand at my bedside in the
silent watches of the night and curse me for the
crime I had committed l appeal to you men
OF my fathers race, not to cast ballot for the
Democratic party Every drop of my blood land
it is the same blood leaps in your veins}
pleads with you tosvote for Ben Harrison, and SO
help the land that gave you wide armed well
come when, fleeing from wrong and oppression,
you sought home here Listen to my voice it
is the voice of your mother-land pleading
through the lips of one of her children's chill
dren. Cast your ballot for the Republican party;
SO shall your conscience approve you; SO shall
your children bless yru In the days to come
when they lay your gray head under the sod of
the land your ballot helped redeem from the
power and dominion c. the great enemy of your
race and countrE
A Bit of Dramatic Criticism.