The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1893-03-05
FROM EMMETT TO GLADSTONE.

Seattle. The vast progress to humane
settlement of the Irish question within
this century il evident when We remember
that there is but ninety years between the
execution of Robert Emmett and the re-
cent great speech of Gladstone pressing
the passage Of home rule for Ireland on
the British parliament, with every pros
pect of ultimate success. In 1903 England
hanged Emmett for treason at the age OF
q, and mutilated his body after death,
the executioner cutting of the head. hold
ing it up to view and exclaiming, "This is
the head Of traitor"
Emmett was heroic impracticable, like
our own John Brown; a marvellous boy;
a gifted creature, instinct with that Won
derful eloquence that has been at once the
glory and the weakness of the Irish race,
but his genius was not of the sort out Of
which comes great man of public affairs,
like O'Conneil or Parnell. All people
are entitled to just as much independence
as they have the valor and opportunity to
obtain and the wisdom and virtue to main
tain. Restricted by these conditions, the
only road to limited Irish independence
has been that Of peaceful, constitutional
agitation. ably opened by Grattan. and
ably followed up by O'Connell, Parnell
and Gladstone. That the ancient brutal
ity of England's rule over Ireland has
been relaxed; that liberty has been meas
urably unbound and ungagged in the most
beautiful island of oil the seas, is due to
the powerful practical genius of O'Connell,
Parnell and Gladstone. rather than to tho
Emmets. the Mitchells and the Meaghers,
who could always talk beautifully and
write inspiringiy. who seemed to think .
war Of eloquent invectives against England
was equal to an armed invasion of her soil.
Emmett was an impassioned orator who
expected to capture independence by a
sudden stroke. Had he lived longer he
might have succeeded in kindling a fame
Of instruction over Ireland, but have
wrought no good; only made her misery
more miserable, her limbs further loaded
down with CALLING chains when England's
heavy armed heel was again upon her
neck. Emmett was the type of poetic
minded revoiutionists, always surpass-
ingly eloquent and always unsuccessful in
organizing victories or in creating a state
out of the chaos Of war. He was Vergni-
aud. Mazzini, Kossuth. Hugo, Castelar,
noble nature. but weak for such work as
Cromwell, Washington, Franklin and
Cavour wrought The purely oratorical
temperament is generally untitled
20 diff ,~kn
wisely govern . state. and 30 Emmett,
dying on the scaffold at q, prob
ably left us the sweetest and finest death
song that his noble spirit was capable of
In that wonderful speech, full in all its
lines of passionate patriotism and mimi
table pathos. As q personal calamity his
death was sore bereavement to his
friends, but it was fortunate for his per-
manent fame. SO dramatic was his last OPP
portunity for eloquence and 80 fitted to
abnormally stimulate his great powers.
His brother. Thomas Adds Emmett, a man
of far greater talents, a far more danger.
Gus rebel, an able member of Wolfe Tones
conspiracy, has no such popular fame in
history; he lacked the martyrdom that
always casts an immortal aureoe about
eloquence-is the deathIess monument Of
the dead.
John Brown made no effort at eloquence
in court, and yet he suffered as serenely As
Emmett. who went to his fate with the air
full of the echoes of his eloquent protest
and defiance. 1t was the temperamental
difference between a grim Puritan enthu-
siast and fluent. magnetic, fervid, golden.
mouthed Irishman. Emmett, a. whose
shrine the Fenian. dynamite and dagger
Grammatical revolutionists still invoke
irregular violence and vengeance on Eng
land. does not stand for the modern school
Of Irish agitators. To Emmett succeeded
O'Connell. the greatest man of pure Celt
lineage that Ireland has given to its his
tory. After O'Connell came the rhe-
torical reyolutionis,s of ls4S, who had
chafed under O'Connell's policy of peace
full agitation. and whose wreiched fasco
justified O'Conneli's discretion. After
O'Connell the first man worthy to wear
his mantle of leadership was Parnell. a
Protestant, half English and half Irish.
y
logical. iniexible agitator; a man of self.
poise and self-command. Not an orator.
hi, speeches nevertheless in wisdom, self
restraint and sacacity were of statesman
like quality. When Parnell was a. his
best he was patriot and leader worthy
OF the admiration and confidence of his
eountrymen. bat 20 Gladstone must be
given the glory OF having been the lofties,
figure in ali this Irish agitation.
The age Of Emmett has passed away with
the cruel and painful punishment he SUI.
fered for his treason. Ireland had little
Use for such as he, even in that gloomy
hour, for his attempt Was discouraged. de.
plored and denounced by Grattan. Curran
and 0'Connell. Emme; would Re "a ont
OF place and as useless today IN the Irish
struggle as n poet would he at meeting
of railroad directors. Gladstone Is states
man. working patiently through the
methods o. peace. the methods OF Grattan.
O'Conne.I and Parnell. which are Ire. and :
only hope Of smelioration, limited
Independence anu enlarged 6omes.
tic liberty under reformed law. Every
thing that has been accomplished for
Ireland has been won without in
surrectioa; without firing those random
shots Of reckless. hopeless rebellion that
sent 80 the scsfo,d and into exile som. az
the noelest frishmen that ever lived
O'Conasl was onsSpoken against the
rising OF Ass AID kmms,s crazy insurssc-