The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1897-06-19
Seven million Catholics in Ireland

uurcNCNCu Ien1! Code While SVu,bJO
Professionals aione enjoyed liberty and
profit from legislation. In orsnninl-
ton is strength. and therefore in lS23
the mighty movement Was organized
into the Catholic Association. LIS
branches were in every town and ham
let; every man and woman i'll ireland
swcled its membership; even the poor
est gloricd in paying in their monthly
Emancipaticn-p penny for carrying on
the warfare Thus O'Conneil found
himself ut the head Of a well-orsanized
army of seven millions followers; as
suredly the strongest man in all the
world. Never in all these centuries #
misrn.e was England as apprchcnsivc
Us now.
Favorilc nft-tripd methods; of bribery
and cajolpry were Used to bring dis
union into the Irish ranks; but in vain.
Meetings We're prescribed, associations
were ou,lawel; but the fertile brain ct
O'Connel found legal means to cEahe
each condemnation and roll the move
ment on under others forms Snntcn-
ces of Imprisonment were passed on
O'Connell and his aids. and, through
sheer shame Of their fragrant injuslicr,
had to be cancelled. The eyes of the
world were on the strife.
He was elected from Glare to Parlia-
ment. and though he was Ineligible be-
cause Of his creed. he forced the tromb-
ling hands of king and parliament to
admit, and thus won to his eternal
glory Catholic Emancipation not for
Ireland alone, but for every land where
the English flag Heated.
Then he saved his country again
from tho worse slavery Of ecclesiastical
bondage. lie fnilcd tho nrtful effort Of
the British government to make the
Irish clergy inppliants by HE p~wcr of
the "vr@a," ard of state salaries. Many
good man was taken in by ii, and
many priest and bishop thought we'll
of it. but O'Cnnncll with Bishop Mincr
saw through il and denounced it, and
won emancipation on the merits of
uldL llltLIltustDlt llSllS
once heard Wendell Phillips. the
most polished of American orators,
give his estimate Of O'Conncll. Lincoln
Hall, in Washington, was crowded with
the elite of the capital to hear the great
American agitator discourse on the
worldrenowned Irish I4ibcrator. He
told us how The first time he went TO
hear O'Connrll he expected torrents of
turbulent passion, of wild, uncultured
rudeness. TO his Amusement. he found
in him the NEST majestic and finished
orator that he had ever heard or could
imagine. Nearly fifty different times
he managed to hear him speak, and
every time his wonder grew at the mar
velous powers of the man and the equal
1y marvellous art with which those pow
ers had been trained and were used.
He declared that in that one man he
had found combined the argumcntative
persuasivcness of Aeschines, the over
whelming force of Demosthenrs. and ex-
quisite diction of Cicero. He was awful
as a woman. and gentle as child in
winsome presentation of the Just. the
true. the pathetic the good.
With emancipation only half the vic
tory was won. Then began the agta-
ton for repeal" repeal of the Union.
The act of union was crime and there
fore should be repealed. 1t was full OF
disaster to Ireland. and therefore
should be repealed, and its undoing
would do no injury to England and
therefore it should be repealed He
struggled not for disunion and strife
but for union and peace. Although his
demands were just they were rejected.
Then began the monster meetings of
three hundred thousand, five hundred
thousand, seven hundred thousand
eager patriots swayed by the voice and
the gesture of lreand's uncrowncd
king. The clergy were with him, and
the great apostle of temperance espous-
ed his cause. Then O'Conncll knew
that the cause was safe. And when in
the monster temperance procession
through Dublin OConncll, then Lord
Mayor walked side by side with Father
Mathew. and when. as they parted, the
cheering and heart-touched multit,ldes
saw the Liherator kneel in the street to
ask the blessings of the Apostle of
Temperance, then all Ireland took the
lesson to heart and saw where safety
and prosperity were to be found.
The end came soon after. Prose-
cuted by the government, tortured by
the sufferings Of his people. stung by
the headstrong youths of the Young
Ireland party, O'Connell. then in the
seventies, turned his lettering, feeble
steps away from Ireland towards Rome.
and died ere he reached it. And now,
most appropriately, the heart Of Ire
lands liberator lies enshrined in this
venerable church, erected, it is said by
Constantine, the liberator of christen-
aom, and under the custody of Erin's
chosen Levites. May they who are
privileged to kneel so often close by