The Irish standard., 1900-08-04

| ~ >AA>AA SuAAty SSuC1&CS WHICH were
chiefly directed against the liberties Of
the people of Ireland. Not one of them
deserved the gratitude, many of them
merited the detestation of tile Irish peo.
pie. The foreign invader with heart as
hard as the steel of his sword, which
was often crimsoned with Irish blood
the military chief perchancc of Irish
birth who won his blood-stained laurels
i'll foreign 6elds-in which our friends
met with defeat; the anti-Irishman who
sold his talents to the tyrants of his
country and used them against his coun-
trymen-these were the men III whose
honor monuments in stone and bronze
were erected. The sight Of these monu-
inents, however stately or imposing in
architecture, kindlcd no enthusiasm in
the hearts of Irishmen
They looked upon them with cold in
difference, or with contempt, and even
sometimes with indignation, for they
served but to remind them of their
wrongs and those who inflicted those
wrongs. They had no claim to occupy
17ish soil; they were offensive to Irish
| eyes, for the men who caused them to
be erected, and the men in whose men,
DRY they were raised, had nothing in
common with the Irish people. They
were not of our race, or, if they were.
they were traitors to it; they did not
share in our hopes or aspirations; they
were not Irishmcn at heart, though they
might have been born in our country:
they were, in word, of that ever hos
tile force still on Irish soil, we'll named
the garrison. 1t rebounds greatly to the
honor OF the Irish people that they have
never, as a nation, been unjust, and
never sympathizcd with injustice, though
ignorance cruelty enforced by an alien
government has hitherto led many OF
them to aid in its accomplishment.
mean chiefly that ignorance of their
country's history; ignorance purposely
enforced by their rulers, led them hither-
to to take part in the unjust wars Of
England. Now, the idea of war is abb
horrent and hateful to the mind of a
humane and Christian man. 1t is a
crime or a series of crimes when not
just and necessary. Every Christian
should know this, or if he knows it not
should be taught. The humblest of our
countrymen should know that the TAX
ing OF human life is never lawful except
by public authority as punishment for
crime, or in defense OF a mans own evil
dent rights, or those of his country, and
that all aggressive and unjust wars are
criminal acts, and all who knowingly
take part in them are criminals, at least
before the Supreme Tribunal of Him
| Who said, "Thou shalt not kill"
l have striven to impress this truth
upon my countrymen, and l hope not
i'll vain. was the first, | believe, to
mention it from 4 public platform, and
l hope some voice more effective than
mine will impress it upon the minds of
our people that war is never lawful save
when it is just and necessary. That un-
Just war is great crime, and that all
who know it to be unjust and join in it
are criminals. Surely God did not en-
dow Irishmen with that magnificent
courage, which is national attribute
that it should be used in invading the
rights and shedding the blood of in
offensive peoples, or of the people who
had inflicted no wrong upon ireland or
Irishmen. Yet, thousands of unhappy
Irishmen have shed their blood in for
eign fields to help in building up the
power OF fraud, injustice, cruelty, and
hypocrisy, to which their own afflicted
land owes all its unexampled miseries.
But the time has passed, trust, when
this reproach can be leveled against us.
You complain of tyranny, but you
have helped to accomplish its triun1phs;
YOU complain of being deprived of lib
erty, but you have shed your blood in a
hundred battlefelds to strike it down;
your arms have been ever raised to aid
the unjust cause of your tyrant, and to
swell the number of his victims. The
time, l trust, has passed, when such a
rcproach can be addressed to the men of
Ireland If they ever fight again it will
be i'll some just cause, and never in an
unjust one But if there be an Irishman
who has not the fear of God or the love
of Ireland in his heart let him join the
British army, and l don't know of any
place on earth where he could find less
OF either. or where he would be so much
at home. You are assembled today, my
countrymen, to witness the laying of the
foundation stone of memorial monu-
mcnt, not to foreigner or to the Irish
born slaves OF foreign rulers, but to men
OF your own race who were in all things
lrishmen-to the memory of men who
fought for freedom and not against it:
to men whose cause was as just as good
men ever contended for, and whose valor
in defending that cause was not sur
passed in any age or by men of any
nation. say their cause was just; were
it not l would not be here today, nor, my
coYntrymen, would you. Why did they
fight, these men of 90? Was it not in
defense of their religion, Of their coun-
| try of their homes and Of their lives