The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-02-13
IRELAND ON LINCOLN
ARCHBISHOP SPEAKS AT BAN
 QUIET IN CHICAGO.
Says It is Contrary to American Ideals to Say That the Negro Should Not Aspire to
 Political Office.

Chicago, Feb i2.-rchbishop Ireland of St. Paul was the guest of honor at a banquet given at the Auditorium Hotel tonight by the Lin coin Club in commemoraIon of the ninety fourth anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln. In an address "The Great Enan- cipator'' Archbishop Ireland said in part;
 "The Republic that Lincoln savedi How she has grown, and as she grows the more beau teous she seems, the more winning are her sraces, the more soul-entrancing her claims to our love and our devotion.
 ''The Republic is what she is because she has vitaly remained what Washington intended her to bes what Lincoln bade her to be-a government of the people. by the people. for the people, She is what she must remain If she Is still to live and to reign. The vital principle of democracy must animate her. Every man under the flag must be equal before the law in politicai rights; 1t matters not what his place of birth. what his religious creed what the color of his faAs. if he is an Ameri- can citizen. the laws of the land must shield him. the favor of the land must flow upon him.
 ''To announce for instance, that the citi- zen who is black must not aspire to a politi- cal office, must not approach the ballot Dox, is against American institutions. To hold populations in perpetual tutelage, whether in our immediate continent or in islands beyond the seas is to set aside Lncoln's principles. Delays may be counseledi often delays should be counseued; for the question always calls for an answer-are populations incapable of self government to be allowed. for their de- struction, It's prtvilegesf But when the time comes that such populations have rpened into self governing manhood. the rights of that manhod must be theirs, and meanwhile the mission of the flag Is to hasten them toward such manhood. The day must be expected when our territories will be States, when our island possessions will be States Abiding de- the apnanRRa or a re- public.
 ''The flag has been carried far beyond the America of Lincoln's day. This is as It should be. A great nation cannot but grow, It IS TOT humanity that freedom loving republics oo grow. I rejoice in the territorial aggrandfxe- ment that has come to Aulsrtca and no nxeo limits would dare put to yet further such aggrandizement, but always and everywhere I would hold out to new friends ana new brothers the hope and the promise that in que time fullest civil and political equality with myself and my fellow American shall Dc the reward of their loyalty and good citizenship
 ''The United States is, by force Of irreVocaole events an international power Our prayer Is, may she ever be at peace with her siseer nations of the world; be 1t not hers 10 pro yoke them to anger and enmity. bus we h- sist other nations must honor and respect her aa she deserves No foreign nation. no com binatton of foreign nations is to be allowed to turn her backward from her traditional poll cies, to circumscribe her legitimate neld Of influence or to lower fin the smallest degee the prestige of her name. This we cannot permit; our loyalty forbids that we ao so'
 "And while we proclaim that no harm, no a,shonor shall come to the Republic from out side her fold, let us guard her well from enc ,,atss 1,itb,n her own bosom, and see to 1t that we Ourselves be not, unconsciously. perhaps, among such enemies. weakening by false doc trines or perious practice the current or ner ,tta Mood rendering her less strong. less holy, less Ameican.
 9Th eRepublio is committed to our love and our care. Let us be loyal to her. This is the lesson of Lincoln day."