The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1917-03-31

form of government and the man who
was responsible for the change of SEN
timent was none other than the Span
ish Franciscan, Fray Justa de Santa
Mana Daro, who gave Argentina it's re-
publican form of government. Fur
thermore, when it came to drawing up
the constitution, the independence of
Argentina having been secured, the
man who wrote it was Dean Fumes, a
Dominican priest. They tell us that
the Catholic Church and the Catholic
clergy have never been in sympathy
with the republican or democratic
form of government, rather inclined
to the monarchial form. But i'm Ar
gentina, priests, all grades and classes
from archbishops down, threw their
influence heartily into the cause of the
revolution, even went so far as to re-
quire certain Tory priests and there
were some to remain quiet and not to
interfere with the revolution, so say
in Argentina, one of the greatest ma
lions in the world, the most progress
sive South American republics i'm it's
history, it's independence and it's con-
stitution is inseparably connected with
the development of the Catholic
Church in South America, without
whose influence there would be today
no Argentina such as we know it,
The great hero of Argentina was
Sam MARITIME. Probably one out of ev-
cry ten in this country has heard of
him. After the independence of his
own country had been secured he
turned his attention to the other coun-
tries of South America, Chile, Peru,
etc. Sam MARITIME made up his mind
that he would go to the rescue. He
had tried once before to go toward the
northwest from Argentina, but no one
had thought of going directly west
and crossing the Andes mountains,
which you know separate Chile from
Argetina. Sam MARITIME began the de-
velopment of an army to carry on his
campaign against the Spaniards on the
west coast. He chose as his captain of
artillery young man in his army, a
remarkable genius in every way, a
maker Of watches and fireworks, an
architect, carpenter, an artilleryman,
a ropemaker and physician, and set
him to work to handle the munitions
of the army. He prepared devices to
carry the guns and equipment across
the snow-clad mountain passes. In a
short time the army was ready. And
the young genius without whom Mar
tine could not have succeeded was
Padre Beltran, Dominican. The spirit
of religion pervaded the court. Every
night before taps the rosary was said,
and on Sunday Mass was celebrated
There are other interesting circum-
stances connected with the organiza-
ton of this army which went in three
divisions, in all four thousand, across
the Andes. The principal division was
led by one with the unmistakable
name of Bernardo O'Higgins. His IA
Their had won his way from errand boy
in Ireland to the highest gift the Spar
ish government could give to any of
its citizens, 1. e., Viceroy of Peru, and
still more interesting was the camp
assistant, the right hand man of great
Sam Martin, who bore the still more
unmistakable name of O'Brien. Such
was the. army of Sam Martin. They
crossed the Andes, fell upon the Span
iards and routed them. In short time
the liberation of almost all South
America was accomplished.
1t is strange that although Sam
Martin was the great revolutionary
hero of South America, very little is
known of him in this country, and
mind you as soldier he is second to
none in all history. We know of Ma
poleon and his accomplishments in
crossing the Alps into Italy, but the
German military historians all agree
that what Sam Martin accomplished
in the passage of the Andes was a
greater military feat than either Han
nibal or Napoleon accomplished in ef-
fecting passage of the Alps. Sam
Martin was not only a great soldier
a great military commander, but a
very extraordinary mar in every way;
in character in no sense inferior to
our own Washington, and probably as
military genius greater than Wash
ington. Washington and others fought
for the freedom of their own country,
but Sam Martin, Bolivar and other
revolutionary heroes had in mind the
liberation of sister countries as we'll
as their own. We hear a great deal
from some quarters as regards present
conditions in South America in rela-