The Irish standard., 1894-12-15
A MANLY STAND.
Judge Martin F.. Wilhere Address
es the Ancient Order of Hiber-
MANS in New Jersey.
RIGHTS OF IRISH CATHOLICS.
Interesting Points from An erican
History Briefly, Ably and Elo-
quently Set Forth.

History Briefly, Ably and Elo-
quently Set Forth.
The following eloquent address was
delivered by Judge Wilhere, of Phila
delphia, at q recent meeting of the An
clent Order of Hibernians in Plainfeld,
New Jersey. He said:
Why do people fail to remember that
this country was discovered by Catho
lie? Why, it is matter that is ac-
cepted by most people as historical that
old St. Brendan, 900 years before Colum-
bus came to America, with his Irish
sailors first discovered the continent of
/ America. Butt leaving that out, Colum-
bus discovered America, and who was
he, pray? He was Catholic! The first
man that leaped from the caravel of
Columbus and trod upon American soil
was Patrick Whelan, an Irish Catholic.
Who was it that first blessed this new
hemisphere that was discovered? Why.
the old Spanish monk that sailed with
columbus. Talk about liberty in Amer
ica! Who gave to America the first
charter of civil and religious liberty?
Lord Baltimore? While this state of
affairs was in Maryland, the Puritans
were prosecuting all who were not of their
faith. In those early days they were
oil l,7, n 10
or little more than themselves In
those days, who gave to his country that
great imm mortal charter of liberty, relig
ious as well as political, and civil liberty
in the Catholic colony of Maryland
a represent tative of the Catholic Church
that always has stood for religious and
civil and political liberty for all men
Why, come from town, my dear
friends, the town of the immortal Decla-
ration OF Independence, in which that
great charter OF human rights was first
proclaimed. BY whom was it written?
Charles Thompson was the secretary of
the Continental Congress. COL John
Knox, an Irishman, first read from the
steps OF Independence Hall that immortal
charter of liberty. Eleven Irishmep
signed it. What man pledged his life.
his property, and his sacred honor, to the
cause Of American liberty? The man
who had most at stake from human
standpoint was Charles Carroll, of Gar
rollton, an Irish Catholic Franklin was
sent over to the Court of France ar d he
failed in his mission to secure the support
OF the French government for the strug-
Cling colonies. What was done by the
Continental Congress then? Every per-
con who reads history, the most preju-
diced person, will say that without the
aid Of France We never could have
achieved liberty here in America. What
was done in those days? Why, Father
John Carroll, q Jesuit priest, afterward
the first Archbishop of Baltimore, was
commissioned by the Continental Con-
gress, and through his intercession, and
through his influence. the aid of France
was secured. And the French armies
and the French fleets were sent here and
Yorktown became q certainty.
When Abraham Lincoln-God bless
his soul!-a great and pure man he was
when Abraham Lincoln felt that the
liberty of this country, and the very
existence OF this governn ent was IN
danger, end he desired to appeal to
S France and to Span and other Catholic
powers in order that they might keep
their hands off, and in order that they
should not do like England was dong
because England was giving aid and c m
fort to the Confederate forces ana the
4 Confederate government in order to
disrupt the Union and to destroy it's free
institutions, when Abraham Lincoln
J desired that the Catholic powers of the
world should morally, if not ma
terially, aid the forces of constitutional
Il government the forces which were bat
|. ting for this Aag-whom did he send?
a He cent that other noble soul of blessed
memory, Archbishop John Hughes Of
4 New York, as a representative Of the
sH5 United States government to the Catholic
B powers Of Europe in 1861, IN order to
\ secure their moral, if not their material
!. aid, 90 that liberty might live in this land.
These people talk. Do they forget
that the first general officer who fell in
the war for American liberty was Gen.
Richard Montgomery, born ia County
yrone, Ireland? Do they forget that II
Gessn Washington was the father and
gandzer of the American army, they
& lofeetS that Comnodor Jack Barry
u lspee bones rest yin St. Mary's church
1 S;l5llE Phila1el phia, xss the first 81 ran