Waterbury evening Democrat., 1889-06-20
A LATTER DAY BIGOT.

and progressive thinking, when some ot the greatest minds in the land are wrest ling with the problem of the common brotherhood of man, the soil of free America is not congenial to the bigotry and race prejudice that ilourished in the days of Roger Williams and the later times of know-nothingisn. It seems, however, that there Is an occasional sprout of the know-nothing kind who IS not ashamed to jangle his ill-omened theories in the broad area of American civilization and to insult his fellow citi zens by venomous filings at their loyalty and devotion to the institutions of the county. Such spurious plant seems to be President Smith of the National camp of the Patriotic Order Sons of America, who in his address to the camp in session at Washington on Tuesday took occa sion to vent his spleen and spit his hatred at the Irish society known as the Clan-na- Gael
 MT Smith characterized the Clan-na~ Gael as ''an organized body of foreigners who have been permitted to become citi
 zens of this free America,' a society that is mot in harmony with and is injurious to American institutions, that Is danger ous to American government, destruc tive to American principles, repugnant to American ideas and disgusting to all Americans who have any sense of jus | tice, any regard for consistency and any l respect for the sanctity of human life." It would be very easy to prove MT Smith an unconscionable liar and foul minded slanderer of men whose love for American institutions and the Ameri- can flag as typical of human freedom in its most perfect form was proved on a hundred battletields when he and his fellow slanderers were hiding behind the breastworks of purchased substitutes. It would be easy to show that the Irish race, against whom this bigoted Son of America shoots his poisoned barbs over the heads of the Clan na-Gael, are as loyal and devoted to America as he or any of the bigoted listeners who applauded his vile islanders. The race that gave to America the brave Montgomery, the gal lant Anthony Wayne. the heroic Sulli- van, the undaunted McDonough, saucy Jack Barry, the dashing Phil Sheridan, the courageous and gifted Thomas Francis Meagher, the brilliant Shields, and the thousands of other heroes who wrote their names in blood on the pages of American history, needs no defense against the foul Iibels of the Smiths and Hewitts of our day. The race whose name is coupled with every great event that has marked the history of the country, whose representatives have shone in every stage of its military and civil development, need fear nothing from the calumnies and aspersions of men whose highest idea of Americanism is the spewing of abuse on those whom benehcent constitution has endowed with American citizenship even though they were not born beneath the stars and stripes. When the American flag was in peril, when the darkness of civil strife cast it's shadow athwart the destinies of the nation and the immortal Lincoln called for strong hearts and brave hands to rally to the defense of the Union, it was not the Smiths and the Hewitts and their bigo- ted sympathizers that answered and barred their breasts to the bullets of the enemy. And in those dark and bloody days we heard no protest from the hot If T,.icI tlot G+ to battle for the stars and stripes and the preservation of American liberty. That they should raise their slanderous voices now, when many of our Irish and other foreign born citizens are carrying the scars received in defending the sacred emblem of the nation, is deplorable in dication that the influences of our insti- tutions and American iberality have failed to penetrate their envenomed minds.
 The Clan-na-Gael as an organization and the Irish as a people are not hostile or unfriendly to American institutions. They are permeated through and through with the spirit of liberty, the love of republican institutions and reverence for the American flag. Whatever may have been the conditions that caused the murder of Dr Cronin, or whatever the connection of Irishmen with that foul and detestable assassination, we believe it will be found, when all the facts are brought to light, that the Clan-na-G Gael as an organization had no mere to do with it than the glib-tongued Smith whose islanders against the society are but a masked attack on the race of whose members it is composed.