The Irish standard., 1897-12-04
THE PSEUDO PATRIOTS.

The supreme headquarters Of the A.
P. A., at Washington, were closed on
November Is, the meagre assets in the
way Of office furniture, etc., being sold
under the hammer to satisfy claim for
printing by the firm of Hartman G Cady.
Says Washington dispatch:-
John w. Echols, supreme president,
says that one reason for the failure of
the order is that large number of the
members wanted offices under Mckinley,
and when they were disappointed, held
the national officers responsible. An
other reason which Mr. Echols gives is
that at least one third of the members
of tho order are trying to make living
out Of it." He declares that the or
ganization owes him $1,000 salary, and
that he is ready to resign as soon as 1t
is paid. {.
Ingenious Mr.. Echols! exclaims our
e. c.. the Boston Pilot He was not in
1t for money; but he wants to get that
$1,000; after which he is willing to re-
sign. Other equally disinterested pa.
triots are similarly disgusted at the
withdrawal Of financial aid by the two
thirds who have been paying to support
the one-third. The .enterprising gentle
men in Boston who started the A. P. A.
Daily Standardl and .piloted it to it's un-
lamented shipwreck' are saying nothing.
1t is not recorded that they lost any,
thing by the venture; and as for the
creduous stockholders, they receive as
much sympathy as they deserve, which
is about as great as the amount Of their
dividends.
OF the small army of blatant apostles
of the new Knownothingsm who were
so much in evidence a few months ago,
most have disappeared from the no
longer profitable platform. Where are
the friends of my boyhood?" asked Arte,-
mus Ward, in retrospective mood, and
answered: Some are dead-some are in
JAIL" A goodly number of the A. P. A.
apostles are in the latter haven Of
refuge. Others have escaped to Canada,
and one or two have ostentatiously
severed their connection" with the le-
funct order. These last may be regard
ed in the same light as those politicians,
and there are many of them, who CO.
quetted with the conspiracy when it was
apparently flourishing, while they cast
an anchor to windward by saying that
they themselves "were not members
Of the dastardly body. They merely cap
proved of its principles as advertised"
TO the people against whom the Sc
cret society waged cowardly warfare,
we say: Remember not only its avowed
leaders. but also its allies who "sympa-
thized with its advertised principles"
but were not members
When the Knownothing party went
to pieces through its own rottenness, its
leaders scattered among the surviving
parties, going chiefly to the Republican.
A few sought shelter under the flag of
Democracy, and to them was accorded
pardon which should never have been
granted to brigands. The very man who,
as Knownothing Governor of Massa>
chusetts, issued the order to disband
the lrish-American military companies,
Henry j. Gardner, lived to see those
disbanded soldiers take up arms in de-
fense Of the union, while he stayed COM
fortably at home. He also lived to be
given a place ON the Democratic state
committee.
maudlin spirit of letting bygones be
bygones influenced-we cannot say "ani-
mated" In connection with a palsied
frame-the Democratic party in Massa-
chusetts Immediately after the war; so
that with the aid Of es-copperheads and
Knownothings, it was kept "conven-
iently small" fog several years.
To the honoE of sthe present Demo-
cratic party in nation, state and city, be
1T said that it has .heen the unfiinching
enemy of the later Knownothingism. No
Democratic statesman deemed 1t neces-
sary to bury his ,pead, ostrich-wise. in
the sand and declare that he sympa-
thized with the platitudinous "patriot-
ism" of the secret society," although he
was HOL UemDer. 10 Republican
trmmers and pseudo -Populists, like
Tom Watson of Georgia and his lieu
tenant G. w. Washbtrne. of Boston, be-
longs whatever 81 Credit there may have
been in supporting the Infamous crusade
against religious liberty during the A.
p. A. frenzy.
Let such men be marked and 1emem-
bered not in spirit of vengeance bu.
as a measure Of self-defense. Let them
be barred forever from public Office and
from the opportunity OF using it in the
interest of prescription. There are good
things In the Republican creed albeit
there are better in the Democratic. There
Is a cropping after economic truth in the
doctrine Of the Populists. But all these
things are as nothing beside the cardinal
principle of civil and religious liberty,
which Is the cornerstone of the Repub-
lie. The men in public or private life
who were true to that principle when ii
seemed for time to be at stake, should
never be forgotten. No more should the
;-.-4s se.ss