Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1888-08-18
THE IRISH VOTE.
REASONS GIVEN WHY IT SHOULD NOT BE
SOLID FOR ANY PARTY.

REASONS GIVEN WHY 1T SHOULD NOT BE
SOLID FOR ANY PARTY.
Patrick Ford IN the North american Re-
Uielr.
The movement going on in what 10
by the political leaders with no little an
xiety. This vote, which is an important
factor in all the principal states of
the Union, is potent, especially in the
doubtful states of New York, New Jer-
sey and Connecticut. What proportion
the Irish vote holds to the total natural
lied vote in New York State can only be
conjectured, but that it is very large
goes without saying. With the Irish
vote should be counted large num-
Der of Irish-Americans born in this coun-
try. who are officially enumerated with
the native voters.
The Irish vote, as is generally known,
has been until recently solid phalanx
and a cabled annex to the Democratic
party, the exceptional Irish Republican
to be found here and there only the more
sharply denoting the rule. This may
not be a cause for congratulation, but
we are now in the region of practical
politics and have to do with the facts.
But why the Irish vote should ever have
been solid vote, and why it should
have been SO long held as the permanent
asset of the Democratic party is a ques-
ton the answer to which, if not altogeth-
er satisfactory, would form most in
teresting chapter in work devoted to
the curiosities of American politics.
Any political force in this country
which is organized, or held intact, on a
radical or religious basis is un-Ameri-
can; and any solid vote which wears
even the semblance of foreign complex
ion is intolerable. American citizens
ought to think and act in American af-
fairs as Americans, and not as Irishmen,
or Germans, or Englishmen. Irishmen,
Germans and Englishmen, if they put
themselves forward as such, must be re-
garded as foreigners, and foreigners
should have nothing to do with Ameri-
can affairs.
Now, Irish-Americans were not just to
themselves SO long as they were solid
vote The most intensely American ele.
ment of the population, they suffered
themselves to appear in a semi-allen char
acter; loving liberty, they were made to
assume an attitude of seeming hostility to
the friends of human freedom the VIC
TINS of British tyranny and avarice,
Irishmen in America became the strong,
blind. steadfast supporters of British
Free Trade, which laid the industries of
Ireland in ruin, and forced her children
to seek bread and home beyond the
sea Into these inconsistencies they
were led by superstitious allegiance to
party management.
This anomalous position which the Irish
vote has held is explained, if it can not
be justified, by historical causes which
are no longer operative. The Alien
Law" which was passed during the adj
ministration of John Adams, alienated
the Irish and killed the Federalist party.
From that time forth the Irish vote was
cast sodidly with the Democracy.
Three-score and eight years roll by
An American citizen of Irish birth, a sol
der in our own Union war, is sentenced
to death in England, and goes to the
scaffold protesting his innocence. He
charges that he is basely betrayed and
cruelty abandoned to his fate by the
American minister then in England, and
the official correspondence sustains the
terrible charge. That minister was
Charles Francis Adams, a lineal descend.
ant of John Adams. Charles Francis
Adams returns to America, is put in
nomination for governor of Massachu-
sets by the Democracy of that State, is
voted for by Irish Democrats, and those
Irishmen who voted against him are de
nounced as traitors
In the fifties the spirit of Nativism
swept over Massachusetts, and Gardiner,
an avowed Know-Nothing, was elected
governor of the state. The Montgomery
Guards, an Irish-American military
body, was disbanded, and other affronts
were put upon men of the Irish race and
the Catholic faith. The Republican par
ty was then in its incipiency, and as soon
as it was organized Massachusetts took
her place in the column of the Republican
states. This fact, read in the light of
preceding events, prejudiced the Repub-
lican party in the minds of adopted citi.
zens. The truth is that, while Democrat.
ic and Republican parties, as such, were
then as now free from the charge of big
otry, both Democrats and Republicans
were tainted more or less with Know
Nothingism, and Democrats more SO
The insults offered to Catholics and
Irishmen in the city of Boston were
shameful, but they paled before the anti.
Catholic and anti-Irish outrages perpe-
trated in Baltimore, Louisville and New
Orleans. In 1856 when the Native-Amer.
lean party put a national ticket in nomi-
nation, Maine cast but per cent. of her
popular vote for the Know-Nothing can
didates, while Virginia cast Al per cent.
of her popular vote for them, and Mary
land, which has been ever anti-Republi-
can, gave to the BODYBUILDING nominees
its entire electoral vote. And this spirit,
which by the genius of the American sys-
tenn has been exercised out of the Repub-
lican body, now dominates the Cleveland
Democracy, and sorely torments its vic
Tins. Aa'
With the progress of education, and in
the light of the knowledge of the facts
here presented, the Irish vote, once solid
is now in dissolution. Irish-Ameri.
cans of to-day are practical and inquire
ing. They are not to be amused by fairy
tales they ask what is the living issue
of the day, and the man and the party
that tries to brighten them with the
ghost of Known othingism insults their
intelligence and will in return receive
their contempt. The issue of to-day is
the tariff. 1t IS the American system
versus. the British Colonial system. The
Irish instinctively are Protectionists.
Nineteentwentieths of them are working
men, and, looking at the matter as a
question of wages. they very naturally
object to free trade. Knowing this. the
Democratic politicians, from Grover
Cleveland down, are at pains to make
the working people believe that Free
Trade is beside the issue but Mr.. Hen
ry George and every honest Free-trader
in the land say 1t is step in that direc-
ton, and the English press, which are
concerned about our national contest on
ly in SO far as the result may affect Eng
lish interests, hail Cleveland's policy
with cheers and hope and pray for his
success. The fact that the Lion and Uni
corn have taken the stump for Cleveland
and Thurman is not calculated to hurt
Harrison and Morton in the estimation of
the Irish, who will, l promise, give a
Cond accn,1pt IF opncalyoc IL, fba rorJ