The Irish standard., 1902-04-05
A Story of the Wretch Who Executed the
Beloved Martyr of Liberty
in the Year 1903.
A Few Sensible Remarks on the Two WAYS
of Delivering Ireland from
the British Yoke.

On Robert Emmet's birthday,
March 4, a great public meeting was
held in Belfast, at which Mr.. Michael
Davitt the Irish patriot, was the prin-
cipal speaker. We select the follow
ing interesting passages from his mas
terly address:
'"There died in the Ballina work.
house in county Mayo, in August,
1878, an aged pauper, nearly hun
bred years old. His name was Moran,
and he was a native of Dublin. He
confessed that as soldier in Porto
bello Barracks he was waited upon
by messenger from Major SIR and
offered a large sum of money to act
as the hangman of Robert Emmett
He consented and earned his money,
but he wandered about for over sew
enty years afterwards i'll misery, suf-
fering, and want, afraid that his ter
rible secret might be discovered, and
then died. to find escape only from
human fear and hate in an unknown
pauper's grave. OF Emmet's speech
no new words of praise can OF need
be spoken. It's lofty eloquence. it's i'm
passioned plea for liberty and nation
hood borrowed additional dignity,
power. and beauty from the shadow
of the scaffold in which it was deliv-
ered and for hundred years it has
Ia, -
over an evangel of freedom and Il
fount of patriotic inspiration. I have
had some unique experiences of the
lasting influence which this speech
has exercised OH men far away from
Ireland, and not always of our own
race. I remember one cold morning
in 1873. finding a new ''chum," as we
called him, in Dartmoor-that is, late
arrival from the world outside-in the
exercise ring. He was an old. white
haired man, and it was quite apparent
he was not of the jail-bird class.
discovered on speaking to him that he
was imprisoned for an election riot in
Yorkshire, and had been Chartist in
1913. He had never been in Ireland,
and to convince me, suppose, that he
was not of the criminal fraternity. he
volunteered to recite something Irish,
Judge of my agreeable establishment to
hear him roll off. in Yorkshire dialect.
every word of Emmet's Grafton. He
told me that Emmet's name was the
most llonored among the Yorkshire
Chartists in his time and that his pic
ture could be found. even in the year
1873. in many Yorkshire farmers
home where the memory of the Chart
list movement still fingered.
"There are lessons to be learned and
morals to be drawn from the memory
we honor here tonight. which remind
us that there are mistakes to avoid as
we'll as examples to follow by those
who owe allegiance to the principles
for which Emmett sacrificed his young
life. l will deal, by your kind per-
mission, with one of the mistakes
which has been most potent for mis-
chief in many movement for ire
land during the last one hundred years.
This is the insensate folly of creating
antagonism between physical force
methods and moral force ideas (chccrs).
Let me speak quite plainly on this
subject. at time when symptoms are
not wanting to show that the old mis-
cradle issue of physical versus moral
force is being thrust again into the
arena of Irish contention. especially
among good men and true in America.
! am not going to take sides. am
Il believer in both principles (cheers>.
l believe that man who attacks one
injuries each. and thereby renders both
less useful for good in serving our
common cause (applause). Talking of
and eloquently advocating physical
force methods is not creating such
force. 1t is only making use of the
extravaganza of moral force and prac-
tees in rendering the principle and
purpose of real physical force ridicu
lOus The Scriptures say it is not the
man who stands at the street corner
and cries Lord Lord who fulfills the