The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1900-05-05

General Cages call for 10000 men,
the assembling of 5000 troops at Bos-
ton, and the authority given to General
Gage to fire on the people, made war
inevitable. We see again how history
repeats itself.
The people in spite OF royal mandate
continued to hold their own town meet,
ings, organized county meetings and
made provincial congress. The con-
vention at Middlescx Resolved, if in
support OF our rights we are called to
encounter death we are yet hndaunted,
sensible that he can never die too soon
who lays down his life in support Of the
laws and liberties of his country" Lex
ington wrote to Boston: eve trust in
God that should the state of affairs re-
quire it, we shall be ready 10 sacrifice
our estates and everything dear in life,
yea, and life itself, in support Of the
common cause"
Nobly did the men of Lexington full
fill that pledge. Shall we in our day for
get what these men did and dared? Are
we SO saturated with the spirit OF COM
mcrcialism, are we SO welded to the
worship OF the golden calf that justice
and humanity have no place in our
modern code?
Let us remember we shall be tried at
the bar of history as have been other
nations; as our opportunities have been
greater, so are our responsibilities. We
cannot escape our liabilities; it is for us
to so act in the present that this expert
ment OF free government, founded
upon manhood suffrage, shall not fail.
President G. Stanley Hall, OF Clark
University, in an interesting address,
said in part:
The three characteristics Jf the Irish
race, which are most to be commended
when rightly directed, are, first, their
heartiness, geniality, enjoyment of life,
a nameless quality made of the best elc-
ments of the German gemuth and the
French esprit. This is the temperament
of genius, it is the conserved youth
which makes the Irishman all adoles-
cent at whatever age, and IS strongly
contrasted will, the sternness and re-
serve of the Puritan. This Temperament,
too, the speaker connected with the fc-
cundity of the race, also in great con-
trast with the Puritan New Englanders,
who even in Boston may ere long have
to hail the Irish race with mc rituri salu-
tamus with a new meaning ,-lts
The Irishman is not always man Of
peace. His blood is warmer on occa-
sion and his Interpretation of the stren-
uous life, which makes men loved for
the enemies they make, is another quail
ity, which, when rightly trained and di-
rected, is one of the greatest powers for
good in the world. To be angry Alright
is almost one of the definitions Of edit
cation.
Third, he has a veritable genius for
politics, which had no scope in the
earlier formative days OF Irish history,
but which finds its legitimate sphere in
this republican land. Hc is also a
patriot, superb soldier generally on
the right side, unless now in fighting
with England against the Beers, and in
whatever party or church he is found
he is, as the title of your society indi-
Gates, first OF all an American
Politics eliminates in statesmanship,
and l cannot forbear here a word which
I believe will appeal TO every heart
which keeps warm corner for Burke,
Emmett or O'Connell.
Within the last few days this country
has witnessed the rare spectacle OF d
senator, unusually devoted TO the party
at whose birth he assisted and to a
president whom he has long loved, plac
ing his convictions, matured by long
experience and ripe knowledge, above
both. To no temperament could the
personal sacrifices have been greater
than for him to give us this modern
version OF Aristotlc's plato amicus scd
major amicus veritas.'
These moments arc big with destiny.
Craftsmanship is approaching the time
when it must take cosmic view of hu-
man life as a whole, and have heard no
note that rings so clear and pure to my
ear with such true flavor of convic-
tion as the plea for larger ken by the
political nestor Of this state and nation,
who has grown not rich but poor from
a quarter century's service of his state;
who makes no bid for the support OF
other parties while speaking, as many
of his colleagues in both parties pri-
vately declare they would do if they
spoke for themselves rather than for
their constituency; man competent
to-day to fill any one of three if not
four professorships; whose years ad
monish us that any such utterance
may be his last, and whom, as in the
case of no other public man, his politi-
cal enemies vie with his friends to
honor.
Quoth John Brennan in the North
western Catholic: John Hays boy