The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1899-04-01
On His Way to Manila With a
New York Regiment.
IS ONLY A TYPE OF MANY OTHERS
The Speaker is Opposed to the
Policy of Expansion.

The Nation. OF San Francisco, gives
the oration of Mayor James D. Phelan,
OF that city, on the anniversary of Rob-
ert Emmett. The following extracts will
be read with pleasure by the readers of
The Irish Standards:
Last summer 1 met Robert Emmet
in the streets OF San Francisco. Who
was this man? He was Lieutenant
Colonel Robert Emmett of the First
New York Volunteers on his way to
the front. He was the grandson OF
Thomas Adds Emmet, who spent three
years OF his life in an English prison
for loyalty to Ireland, and the grand
nephew of Robert Emmet, who died for
treason to an alien government-treason
which every true man in this world to-
night glorifies as the highest loyalty to
duty and to native land. (Applause.)
Responding to the call of the presi-
dent, Colonel Emmet volunteered for
the war. a trained soldier and grad
uate of West Point he took up his sword
in his country's defense, just as his great
ancestor took it up century before.
1t was the same instinct. l know that
every Irishman would fain exclaim in
the words Of Sarsfeld, who fell fighting
far from home, "Would this were for
Ireland!' Or at any rate "Would that
Ireland might share the valor of her
sons.' Perhaps in the breast of this de-
scendant of Emmett we might find the
same sentiment. for, without derogating
intheleast from his American citizenship,
would it not be natural and flial for
him to delight at the opportunity of
striking for that land for which his
forefatfers suffered and died? Would
he not glory in avenging his ancestral
wrongs? Would he not feel that the
dying words of Robert Emmett, spoken
from the dock, have special obligation
on him to fulfill?
But this colonel of volunteers is but
type of many others. When the heroic
exploit OF Hobson was heralded to the
world, among his crew of seven men,
whose glory shall never die, we find the
names Of Kelly and Murphy. In the
list of dead and wounded received daily
from the battlefelds OF Manila we
behold the origin of many brave
American soldier and know that they
sprung from this same fighting race,
which loves freedom so ardently. Ire
land gave one-half of the soldiers of the
Revolutionary army to Washington.
Down the glorious page of American
history, from 1875 to 1872, from '48 to
81, and now in this year of grace; from
Bunker Hill to Santiago and Manila,
we find the Celt conspicuous in what
has been called ''the irresistible progress
of the Anglo-Saxon." But I say that
Colonel Emmet is type. What I
mean is that the people of Ireland, de-
MED liberty at home, have sought lib
erty abroad. In 1841 the population OF
Ireland was 8,1o6ooo; to-day it is not
much more than 4,5oo,ooo. Three and
one half millions Of people have left that
little isle within the last fifty years, and
they have come principally to the United
States. Out of their meager population
$4,000 came to this country last year,
whereas the highest number of emf
grants that came from any other coun-
try number $4,000, namely from Ger.
many, and the German empire has a
population of 52yooo,ooo, from which to
draw. Prolific isle! Thou hast suc-
cessfully pursued policy of expansion
for half hundred years! Never will
her sons forget the men who died in
freedoms cause, which only failed at
home because l believe this country
gave them the same rights for which
they contended, and greater opportuni-
ties than their own could possibly af-
ford With only 32,5oo square miles OF
surface (while California alone has
$4,000 square miles) they could not
expand without going into the sea, and
on the sea they embarked. Had the
5000, 900 remained in ireland and grown
and developed, the national sentiment,
which is so strong, would, ere this, have
made them a nation.
The thought of expansion suggests to
us the new conditions which confront
the United States We need our sons
at home to solve our domestic problems,
just as ireland needed them, and for
every life that is given up in a. foreign