The Anaconda standard., 1898-03-17

Albuera nor at Waterloo was more un-
doubted courage displayed by the sons
of Erin than during those six frantic
dashes which they directed against the
almost impregnab1e position of their
foe with dauntlessness of race
which has gained glory on a thousand
battlefields, and never more richly de-
served them than at the foot OF
Marye,s Heights on the 18th day of De-
cember, 1862
.Decimated at Fredericksburg and
Antietam. The Irish brigade dying
like the Theban sacred band at Chae-
ronea. was annihilated at Chancellors-
vile, after which. as 'Meaghs'ris bri-
gade.' it disappears from history. its
yalor and that of its gallant leader
had constituted the silver lining of
the dark cloud of disaster that so long
lowered over the Army of the Potomac
and frequently ELECTED the hearty en-
comums of such soldiers as Burnsides,
Hooker and Mcclellan. Truly no
braver soldier than Meagher treads the
asphadel- -bespangled verdure of the
Elysian fields.
1T has been charged that Meagher
was reckless, and that he exposed the
lives of his men unnecessarily. \
moments consideration will refute this
silly charge. Meagher had to obey the
orders of his chief
Tennyson's immortal lines on The
Light Brigade, which was similarly
inundated at Balaklava, will apply to
General Meagher and his troops at
Fredericksburg
WAS there man dismayed!
No; though the soldier knew
Someone had blundered.
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do or die
"Meagher never asked troops to go
where he did not himself lead. His
sword always shone where danger was
greatest and where death was surest
in the foremost of the van.
"Ohi what picture for the brush of
Meissonier was that scene when
Meagher bid adieu to the war-worn
remnants of his once magnificent com
mand When the concomitant cir
cumstances are considered. greater.
nobler. more pathetic, was that scene
than that other memorable episode
which took place in the Place de Che
val at Fontainebleau in 1914 when
the great Napoleon parted from his
'old guard more pathetic. l repeat it,
and more deserving of being immortal
lied on the canvas of genius, because
Meagher fought to emancipate-Napo-
leon to enslave.
Possessed of the bravery of a Bay
ard or a Ney, the tenderness and po-
etic fervor of a Sydney, Meagher was
not only hero on the battlefield-in
the realm of oratorical art he was "a
king.
And this was the man whom the
government of England sentenced to
the gallows in my native town of
Clonmel. a man whom any other gov
ernment in the world would be delight
ed to honor. But although Meaghers :
fame needs no monument to keep his
memory ever green in the hearts of his
people, we owe some such recognition
of his genius and services to those
members of his family who still sur
vive and also to ourselves.
"It would indeed he the acme of base
ingratitude if that people for whose
of a happy and honorable home, to-
gether with all the omoiuments that
were so surely within the reach of his
scholarly and spIendidly gifted mind !;
that race for whose veal he stood
within the deepening shadow Of the
scaffold with that intrepid courage SO
peculiarly his own, and If that mighty
nation for whose union and perma-
nence he bore the red toll Of so many
bloody fields should nsglect to honor
him in his undiscovered grave. TN
discovered? Alas, yes: for the turbid
Missouri has not given up its dead,
and its tawny waters will Groom their
lonely dirges above his bones forever
more.
ITO many Americans accustomed to
our ruder and less cultured fellow
countrymen the learning, ability and
! enlightened patriotism of Meagher was
| a revelation. He proved to the most
i skeptical that, being a true Irishman
even to the death. only made him the
stauncher American. and therefore to
4 the gallant American veterans. by
whose side Meagher fought and whom
| he loved with all the strength of his
noble nature. we appeal for help &c
make this monument a success. We
appeal To the generous people OF
Montana. among whom he spent the
/ closing hours of his brilliant and
| eheckered life. and in whose interests
he was laboring when the death ange
! beck0ned him away.
Mr.. Chairman. | will now conclude
! by stating that 1t is a cherished hope
that ] may be permitted to behold a
monument. worthy of the man. his
race and his adopted country. raised
! to the memory of one of the noblest
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