The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-09-12
IN TRIBUTE TO MEAGHER
His Name and Fame Are Part of
Montana's Rich Heritage.
IN HONOR OF HIS DEEDS
Eloquent Words by Martin Maginnis in
Tribute to the Famous Soldier States
man Who Earned the Monument
1t Is Proposed to Erect.

AS the result of the Labor-day ex-
cursion to Helena, a substantial con-
tribution was made to the fund with
which it is proposed to erect in Mon
tana a monument to the memory of
Thomas Francis Meagher. One of the
features of last weeks rally was the
following eloquent address which was
pronounced by Hon. Martin Maginnis:
The committee has warned me that
neither literary or oratorical exercises
are to be so extensive as to curtal the
more active festivities-the sports, the
games and the dances of this OCCASION
With this caution, l am not to make an
extended address, covering the life and
actions of General Thomas Francis
Meagher. That duty fell upon me many
years ago, when the cry of MS sudden
loss startled the ears of friends and ad-
mirers throughout the world ana car
red grief and dismay to .ha hearts of
the people of this newborn common
wealth-whose executive he was and in
whose defense. against savage alarms,
he was occupied when the end came to
his brilliant and heroic career.
/ am not again to cover the ground,
but will merely refer 10 events which
made him the first of our citizens to
receive world wide reputation; our
first official to perish while defending
the state, and the first Montanan whose
talents and whose history rightfuly
calls for monument to perpetuate the
memory of his burning words and ia
nous deeds.
Well born and splendidly educated.
Immediately upon crossing the thresh-
old of manhood he threw himself into
the struggle for relief, which was then
shaking the vitals of his impoverished,
starving and unhappy native land. 1t
was in the days of a general uprising
of European peoples. The first great
movement since the overthrow of Ma
poleon and the re-eStablshment of
monarchy and nobility under the
shield of the Holy Alliance-the mem
orable days of 1S4S.
With every inducement to walk in the
ordinary paths, which promised him
distinction, prosperity and comfort,
he broke with his family and threw
himself in with the hopeless struggle
of his country. Gladly giving up posi-
ton, prospects, felicity and fortune for
the fatal attempt-the prison cell, the
sentence of DEATH the convict ship and
the death-n-life of exile.
From the first he became conspicuous
in a band of as clever and famous men
as ever championed the cause of a
struggling people. 1t was one of those
that seem to fash out of darkness in all
great revolutions and uprisings of the
human heart and become forever con-
stellations glowing with the fire of free
dom in the armament of time. The
speeches of young Meagher were
the stars of the first magnitude.
They were inspired, luminous, con-
vincing. Some of them will always
live as models of fervid eloquence-
where they cover general and lasting
subjects-such as the sanctity of force
in the struggles of freedom as symbol
lied in his defense of the sword. They
will last as long as man will give his
life to resist oppression. His speech
when the judgment of death was passed
upon his was dignifed, noble and
chaste. A sublime patriotism giorified
the sacrifice of his earthly hopes and
the readiness with which he accepted
that death sentence. which would send
his soul to appeal with a pure and per-
feet composure to that higher tribunal
where judge of infinite mercy as well
as justice will preside, and where my
lords many-many of the judgments
of this world will be reversed!''
Then came his Punishment. He left
behind the green shores of Erin and
sailed away in the convict ship for the
isles where our winter suns make sum-
mer days and the polar star and its
classic consultations are changed for
the nightly glories of the southern
cross. There Meagher bore his cross of
exile, until, with incidents that would
seem to be culed from romance book
he escaped to this land of the free
where so many of his countrymen had
found a home. HIS reception in New
York was as warm as that accorded
to Louis Kossuth or the German refu-
gees of those revolutionary years. His
speeches, lectures poems and literary
productions We're warmly and enthusi-
astically applauded in all the cities
where he appeared. Our ancient and
irreconcilable enemy was not then
looked on as our only friend.
Then came the great war which
threatened to sink the ship of the
union of states. To none more than the
exiles from the despotism of foreign
lands was the calamity of disunion
more dreadful. They knew from exper-
fence that If this ark of freedom went
upon the rocks of dissolution then all
the hopes of humanity would go down
with the wreck. They were stunned at
the tragic outcome of local controver-
sizes which threatened the ruin of all
free governments. They rallied at the
call of President Lincoln, and among all
the organizations of adopted citizens
who fulfilled their VOWS of allegiance
to accept if necessary the sacrament of
death upon the affairs of their chosen
country none won more honor and re-
nown than the Irish brigade and it's
general, Thomas Francis Meagher.
| first met this brigade and its officers
upon the Virginia peninsula. We were
Joined with it under Sumner and then
under that superb soldier Hancock. in
the famous I'd army corps. Reared in
the West and in rural communities, the
cleverness, the gayety, the dash and
military spirit of those New York Irish
men were revelation and delight to
me. There are few of the old society
of the Army of the Potomac who will
forget the joyfulness which they
brought into the army. We may forget
battles, but we will never forget the
festivities of one st. Patricks day on
the Rappahannock. The whole army
was the guest of the brigade. The
races, the generals, the ambitious
young officers, the foreign attaches, the
Princess Salm Salm, her escort, Can
tain Jack Gosson, the lovely Kate