The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1902-11-22
RACIAL OR RELIGIOUS PREJUDICE.

Pilot of last week prints commune
cation from Col. John G. Linehan, of
Concord, N. H., which is reproduced
elsewhere in our columns. The
writer shows from historical records
that a prejudice against the Irish ex-
listed in New England from the earli-
est times and that it was due more
to race than to religion. He shows
that as far back as 1877 in Worces-
ter, Mass, the Irish Presbyterians
suffered at the hands Of the Congre-
gationalists Of English origin, and
that further back in 1925 in the city
where he now resides, the Irish Pres
byterians We're Disseminated against
by the Puritans so far as obtaining
possession of town lots was con-
cerned.
In 1856, or 100 years later, he says
that clauses were inserted in deeds Of
transfer of lands in Concord, N. H.,
which read as follows: "The condi-
ton on which this land is sold is,
that it shall not be sold, transferred
to. or occupied by any Irish person."
In view of the fact that in 1925 the
Irish Of Concord were Presbyterians
and that in 1866 they were Catholics,
Col. Linehan thinks that they were
Disseminated against not because of
h,,k
race. $50 it must be-" he concludes,
"that the prejudice was racial and
not religious"
There is no doubt whatever of the
existence of a racial antipathy against
1rishmen Of every creed by Americans
of English descent. In his book en-
titled "Under Three Flags or the
Story Of My Life" the late DR..
George w. Pepper, the noted Method
list preacher, relates that when enter
Ing the ministry he was opposed on
the ground that he was of foreign
birth. The Knownothing movement
was sweeping over the country like
a cyclone ut the time, and it reached
Ohio where he lived. zone official
member (of the North Ohio Confer
ence) denounced me as foreigner,
perhaps Jesuit. and said it would
he the ruin of the Nation to admit
me-" writes the patriotic Methodist.
y Rev. Mr. Pitcher. of Mt. Vernon,
WHO was high up in the Knownothing
order, had made his honsts that no
Irishman should be allowed to preach
in that Conference. And he adds:
II have often thought it strange
that the Methodist Church should lend
any help to proscriptivc organizations,
for she has suffered considerably
from preiudices herself. The very
year l came to America there were
lecturers passing all through the land
denouncing the M. Il. Church as the
foe of the Republic; that it's bishops
were great iron wheels; that it's pre-
siding elders were wheels next in size;
and that the preachers We're lesser
wheels, between which the Govern
mcnt was to be crushed. The en-
element ran high, and the bitterness
against MethOdism became almost as
intense and widespread as afterwards
it was against the Roman Catholics"
The Irish Standard believes that
in the days of the "Native Amerl-
can" organization, which bound it's
members by oath to oppose the cleo
ton of foreign-born citizens to office.
the Irish Catholic immigrants suffer-
ed more than any others and We're the
victims of racial and religious preju-
| dices combined. That conclusion can
be arrived ut from perusal of the
debates in Congress during the five
years preceding the outbreak of the
Civil War.
In the House of Representatives on
Jan. Is, 1856, Hon. w. r. Smith of
Alabama, an advocate Of Native
Americanism," in speach on the
naturalization laws, attacked the ten
cts Of the Roman Catholic Church in
virulent style and tried to show what
terrible lot of men the Jesuits were.
He traced the history of the Cath.