The Irish standard., 1914-03-21
MINNEAPOLIS NEWS

and Philip Henry Sheridan in the War
for the Union.
lreland's Struggle For Liberty.
Mr.. Lawler rapidly sketched the re-
bellion of '98, the Emmett instruction,
the Young Ireland movement of 184S,
the Fenian Movement and the sue
cessful agitation for land reform and
Home Rule. He said that the lesson
to be learned from all these different
movements was that the people must
be united and must not rely entirely
on constitutional agitation. Emanci-
patton in 1929 and the disestablish-
ment of the Irish Church in 1867
| were won by force and not by argu-
ment. Home Rule is about to be
granted today, not because the leaders
of England are in favor of justice but
because they fear the power of the
Irish people at home and abroad.
The British Homecoming.
The speaker in conclusion ridiculed
the preparations which are being
made for the celebration of the Tooth
anniversary of the Treaty Of Client.
This part of Mr.. LAWYERS address is
of the same tenor as the address he
delivered on last Decoration Day at
the Memorial exercises at Fort SHELL
ing and is especially appropriate at
this time.
| He said that he had no objection to
the event being celebrated but did not
believe that it should be made a Brit
ish home coming and as an American
citizen he objected to the evident fear
on the part of leading American states
men of offending our British cousins
by mentioning the battle of New Or
leans or the name of Andrew Jackson.
He spoke of the aid and comfort
given to the cause of rebellion and
slavery by England during the Civil
War, quoting the language used by
John Bright at Rochdale, England on
Feb. 8, 1868:
Il regret, more than l have words
to express, that of all the countries
in Europe, this country is the only one
which has men in it who are willing
to take active steps in favor of the in
tended Slave Government. We sup
ply the ships; we supply the arms, the
munitions Of war; we give aid and
comfort to this foulest of all crimes.
Englishmen only do it."
| Mr.. Lawler concluded his address
as follows:
"Am I not justified by the mere
statement of the foregoing historical
truths in protesting against this great
national festivity being turned into
an obseQuious and fulsome tribute to
Great Britain? Let US not be misled
by twaddle about the tongue of
Shakespeare and of Bacon or the 'es-
sential unity of the two great branches
of the English people, Great Britain
now in our day of strength seeks our
alliance and claims credit for our pos
ition Of pre-eminence in the affairs of
the world. She does not deny her
misdeeds of the past-she simply at.
tempts to ignore them. A serious
work has been published in which
Benedict Arnold has been pronounced
a patriot and a martyr. The genius of
a great poet has attempted to palliate
I-c~ yf,1l fpS0o ot1n NJ
Judas. But for these shameless deeds
of the past England sits today and will
forever sit in the pillory of a worlds
execration and no honest man will
plead her defense. BY stealth and
false pretence, by hypocritical pro-
testations of irrepressible love for
everything American she is now en-
deavoring to annex to herself large
share of the good will and prestige
which we have won against her every
effort in the esteem of all the nations
of the world. She has no more right
to a title of that priceless national
possession than she had to the farms
and mines of the gallant Beers of the
Transvaal or to the soil of Venezuela
when Grover Cleveland drew the dead
line and babe her take no farther step.
The spirit that blazed from the great
soul of that great President is not
dead, and although Andrew jackson
sleeps beneath the sod of the land
from which a century ago he drove
the banner Of st. George, the heart
of America is as sound today, her
pride as keen, her sons as loyal and
as true as when on that bleak winter
morn their rifles cracked in victory
defending flag and home. Let US be
honest with ourselves and loyal to the
peoples which have been our friends.
Receive with dignity and self-respect
the representatives of that power
whose defeat and humiliation we shall
recall but hail with loud and warm
acclaim the men who come from the
generous nations, which have been
true to us In all our national life, the
countrymen Of Lafayette and Rocham-
beau, Of Koscuisko and Pulaski, of De
Kalb, the German, and Alexander the