Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1888-09-09
WHY IRELAND is POOR, AND IRISH
MEN REPUBLICANS.

WHY IRELAND is POOR, AND IR!SH
MEN REPUBLICANS.
To the Editor OF the Eagle.
l have often been asked why l am ;
Republican, and many persons affect as
constituent at tho growing tendency o
the Republican ticket and to ally them
selves with the party Of Lincoln ant
Sheridan. s'ls it possible they exclaim
"that you, an Irish American, can vote
anything but the Democratic ticket
To this interrogatory l answer: Is il
because some former generation of my
race in this republic was guilty Of some
objectionable crime, for which theil
blood was attainted, that they and thei1
posterity should be forever denied the
sacred right that is freely accorded to
and exercised by every other race of
men. regardless of his color or condition.
in this free country-the right of person
al judgment in politics, the right TO seek
the truth for the purpose of being right.
and to vote according to the dictates of
their judgment and their conscience?
Did the slave power of by-gone
generation possess a property right in
| the race, by which he was handed down
to new set of masters whose purposes
we detest, whose spirit we abhor?
Does there hang over Irishmen and
their sons some venerable curse by which
we are to be regarded as the pariahs Of
political society, the chattel property Of
the Democratic party, without the right
to choose our course In public affairs
and without the right Of Judgment in
reference to the questions that may be
at issue in American politics?
Perhaps / am not privileged to speak
for others, but it is mine to assume the
full dignity and responsibility of politi-
cal manhood side by side with my fellow
citizens, and to this end let me with all
the ardor of my nature repudiate the in
sultlng claim of arrogant Democratic
ownership; let me spurn the relations
which they propose to assert the right
which to me belongs in common with
the rest of intelligent manhood-the
right to vote as please, and to vote the
Republican ticket.
1t is said that we are under obligations
to the Democratic party. To what
Democratic party? Has the organization
exalted by the genius of a Jefferson and
glorified by The heroism of a jackson
come down with some sort of apostolic
succession, infalIible and unchanging in
its teachings and morals, from the illus
trlOus jackson to the immaculate Gro
yer? What relation does the profound
man of Buffalo bear to the immortal
hero of New Orleans? About the same
relation that the Italian organ grinder on
our streets, with monkey and other at
tachments, bears to the immortal trinity
who defended the bridge at Rome.
Why should we vote the Democratic
ticket! l defy any living man to offer a
single logical reason, unless you please to
dignity an appeal to bigotry Or baser pas
sion by the name of reason. By these
unmanly and uncharitable appeals to an
impulsive and unreasoning generation of
our race, their rank and file have been
rallied for years under the unholy banner
of the slave power in resistance to every
great movement of progress for the ad-
vancement of human liberty
What is it the Democratic party of
today invites Irishmen to support by their
suffrages? They ask us to tear down the
American policy of protection and to up
hold the free trade policy of England
We are Iaboring people. The free trade
laws of England, which destroyed Ire
lands native industries, deprived our
heads and hands Of the art and skill of
and sent Irishmen adrift |
upon the world as race of unskilled |
laborers, the hewers of wood and the |
drawers Of water for people born under
more benign.
Intellectual force and the trading in
stinct have led small proportion of us
into professional life, but the fact re- |
mains that eighty-five per cent of us are |
wage workers. Our every interest is
identified with the industrial prosperity |
of this country. Our highest duty is to up
hold that American policy best calculated .
to insure full day S wages for a fair
days work; and yet it is strange that the
very men who can be most safely relied
upon to uphold the policy of England in
America are children of the Irish famine
exiles, who by that self same policy,
were driven from their native country
Worse than famine and rack-rent,
worse than all, save foreign rule; worse
than the destruction of Irish industries
by free trade laws. A country devoted
to agriculture exclusively is a country
already doomed, but nation whose in
lustries are healthily diversified, is proof
against poverty and decay. Ireland, one
year after another, produces more food
han twice her population consumes: but
where there is no diversity of industry
here is no money to purchase food.
The clay banks of New Jersey from a
single acre yield crop of pottery richer
han hundred acres of golden grain
rom the choicest vale in Ireland. The
barren coast of little Rhode Island,
wherein agriculture would not sustain
/ tenth part of her present population,
has built up thriving towns and villages
~ manufactures, stimulated by the fos-
ering hand of Republican protection;
md yet how strange that the man most
olicitous to tear down the fabric Of
American protection by his vote and to
Uphold the free trade policy of England
s the Irish peasant, starved out by En-
.lish made famine, from his own green
sic.
The Democratic party asks lis TO do
,attle for personal liberty" Great God.
which means the liberty Of the saloon.
This saloon institution is the crowning
urse of our race in this country. We
AVE survived the centuries Of English
tyranny and military violence; of re,ig-
Gus persecution and of legal iniquity. .
The sword. the gibbet, the dungeon, and
he famine was powerless to destroy or
Iishonor US. 1t remains for whisky to {
10 the final work. If we go to the sa-
DON for our politics we receive its stock {
# morals gratiously. ,
re- .