The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1898-09-10
A FINE ADDRESS ny FIR. STAFFORD,
OF WASHINGTON, d. c.
ElEcTkIf|Es. A PATRIOTIC AUDIENCE
ASSEMBLED TO MAKE PREPARA-
TIONs FOR RECEIVING
The SOLDIERS RETURNING FROM CUBA.
1T IS A MAGNIFICENT SPECIMEN OF
PATRIOTIC ELOQUENCE.

Father Stafford, Of st. Patricks
church, Washington, D. c., recently de-
livered the following patriotic and elo-
quent address before great meeting
assembled at the National Theater in
that city to make preparations for the
reception Of a gallant regiment that
fought at Santiago de Cuba:
The foundation of the American re-
public, is, without a single exception, the
most important act in the civil history
OF the world. 1t is an act Of the most
sublime confidence in man. Others had
built upon prestige vested rights, tradi-
tions, theories of government, or the
sword. Here for the first time nation
was built upon man. Taking man and
his natural inherent rights as basis,
the government was built upon nature;
was according to the logic of things and
necessarily placed the condition of q
great future progress; which was to
come, by an easy, necessary, and logical
development, of this fundamental prin-
ciple. 1t gave the world definite, clear
and logical notion of liberty; and solvA
ed at once and for all time, the great
est problem of government; reconciling
liberty with authority and authority
with liberty, and showing the dialectic
union between the two. Having this
foundation and this law of progress, and
development, this was great nation
from the beginning.
Such an idea, such principle would
have made any people great 1t might
have been confined to solitary island,
1t might have found home amid the
rugged and almost uninhabitable sleeps
Of the North; it. might have come into
being among the population thinly
scattered over some arid and melancholy
waste, or dropped down upon some is
land lying like jewel upon the bosom
of the tropical sea, and it still would
have been great. and would have exalted
and ennobled any people.
But the works of God are logical and
symmetrical. A jewel must be proper
ly set; a landscape properly viewed,
and a great idea should have a great
outward and material expression. Re-
ligion has so wrought from the temples
OF Greece to the cathedrals of Europe,
and commerce seeks, by gigantic con-
structio2s, adequately to express itself
to the world. Men may fail, but when
providence works there must be order,
symmetry and harmony, therefore, the
great idea Of liberty was not confined to
solitary island; did not find home
amid the barren and uninhabitable steeps
of the north, did not appear among
the poor population of some arid and
melancholy waste, but here upon this
great continent, world of it's own, with
every material resource and every natu-
raj advantage, every form Of beatty and
every possibility Of growth. Such ia
liberty's home; in giving it such there
was a due regard of order, for so great
a thought should have great express
sion. God, therefore, throned 1t upon
our vast and ponderous mountains, lift
ing their heads into the sky; mirrored
it in our great lakes, which, like the
ocean, reflect His immensity; sang it by
our majestic rivers, going down between
tho banks Of progress and industry to
tho sea; spoke it in our primeval for
ests, whispered it on the boundless pra-
irie land, thundered and doomed it in
the everlasting war of mighty cataracts,
clasped 1T in the arms of two great
oceans, ornamented it with every form
and type of beauty and gave to the
greatest thought of history habitaticn
worthy of itself.
Oh, my country! how beautiful art
thou! love thee. love thy rivers,
and thy lakes, and mountains, and thy
pensive wales, but most of all thy lib
erty. Who does not love thee is base,
who would not die for thee is craven,
who would injure thee let him perish.
Thy heroes were Gods chosen instru-
ments in founding this home of free
dom, and should it ever-which God
forbid-be imperiled, every man who is
a man would stand forth ready to sac
rifce in thy defense life, liberty. and
sacred honor.
But the effect of this declaration, of
the enunciation of this principle, was
worldwide. Liberty had come into the
world, the spirit thereof was abroad.
Every tyranny was obliged to reckon
with it. Every potentate was obliged to
consult the people. The world thrilled
with it. 1t bettered the condition Of
every people. The leaders of the revo-
luton in France asserted it, and carried
it to extremes, beyond all reason and all
justice, and it passed over to Ireland,
groaning under a tyranny and suffering
savage cruelty greater than that Of
Spain. multiplied one thousand times