The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1898-07-09
GENIUS AND WISDOM OF The PATRIOT
INAUGURATED A GREAT MOVEMENT
FOR HUMAN LIBERTY.
He FAILED AND DIED FOR IRELAND
HIS SPIRIT STILL. LIVES AMONG TIL!
IRISH NATIONALISTS.

At a recent meeting held in Dublin for
the purpose of taking steps toward per-
petuating the name Of Theobald Wolfe
Tone by the erection in that city of a
public memorial, the following address
Was delivered by John Dillon, the par
liamentary leader, TO an enthusiastic
audience:
If there be name and Il memory con-
nected with the history of ireland TO
honor which all Irish Nationalsts NAV
be reasonably be called upon to unite
tho name and the memory of Wolfe
Tone above all others lays just claim to
that distinction (applausc). For do
not think in tho long and tragic history
of our race that there Is another man
who so largely and SO glorionsly per-
sonified in himself all those principles
and those associations which are dear
to the Irish race of today (applausc).
He lived in q great age; he lived in
time when the people of Europe, break
Ing away from old traditions, and shak-
ing from their minds and their limbs
the shackles of ancient and outworn
tyrannies, had risen up In many coun-
tries, and especially in France tcheers),
and inangurated great movements for
the liberty of humanity great move
ments, the effect of which have been
carried on to this day in which we live.
and the full results Of which may not
be reaped until the times that come after
us. In those days great men--states-
men and solders--sprang from the
ranks of the people, and became illus
trious and powerful far beyond those
who had been the rulers of mankind,
And In those great times this young
Protestant lrishman (chccrs), hanishcd
like so many great Irishmcn before and
since, denied the right to serve the land
that gave him birth and the land OF his
love, denied a career In Ireland, was
sent to America, and he went then to
France; and those of us who have
studied, as every young 1rishman is
studying today, the history of those
great years will remember with pridc
how Wolfe Tone in Paris met the
mighty men of the convention, Carnot
and HOche (chccrs), and even the great
Napoleon himself. And this young
Irish exile, young in years but grca. in
genius and experience, met these
mighty men, whose names have come
down the stream Of history with such
high resounding fame, he met them as
an equal; and we are told In the Jour
nails and books of those times that he
made on the mind of Honhe--who in
genius. had he not been cut off in his
carly youth, was the equal perhaps of
Napoleon himself (hcar, hcarl--that
Tono made upon the mind of Hochc
deep and lasting impression, so that
they became as it were brothers, so
greatly did they trust and respect and
love each other. Carnot, "the organizer
of victory" one of the greatest admins
traitors of the revolution, who in his
own department was perhaps about as
much responsible for the victories of
France as the great Napoleon, had the
most profound opinion of the genius
and wisdom of Tone, and we have it on
irrevocablo authority that had Hochc
lived and had Carnot had his way, not
being at the critical moment driven
from the power; that the whole
strength of France would have been
frendless Irish exile (cheers), who by
the dint of genius alone had obtained an
ascendancy over tho minds of those
mighty men. ! remember reading, as l
of the interviews between Tone and Ma
poleon, two great men. Tlny met;
Naploeon listened to the counscls of
Wolfe Tone. and was deeply impressed
himself in later years in his exile in st.
Helena came to see, he was drawn away
by dreams of Eastern conqucsts, and
turned his eyes from Ireland to Egypt
rejecting in the bitterness of exile and
defeat in St. Helena he admitted that
had he listened to the wise counsels of
the young Irish exile his fate and the
destinies of Europe might have been
changed cloud cheers). And this man.
whose memory we arc assembled to
celebrate tonight, this young 1rishman
who has illustrated the renown of his
race, and whose memory Is treasure
that every Irishman should feel proud
of-this man was cut off In the early
flower of his manhood. He was but IS
years of age on this day one hundred
years ago-on the goth Of June 1903
and in tho following November he
perished miserably in jail in this
city. ~