The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1922-03-11
GATHERING IN ST. PAUL LAST
SATURDAY NIGHT WAS TOUGH
ING TESTIMONIAL TO PERMA-
NENT FAME ACHIEVED BY
IRISH MARTYR AND PATRIOT
HON. DANIEL w. LAWLER DE-
LlVERED CHIEF ADDRESS.

Last Saturday night the A. o. H.
OF Ramsey county held memorial
meeting in Cathedral School hall
The occasion was to do honor to the
memory of Robert Emmett. The prin-
cipal address was delivered by Hon.
Daniel w. Lawler. Mr.. Lawler said
in part:
Mr.. LAWYERS Address.
Today in every land and under
every flag the scattered children of
the Gael, more than thirty millions
strong, answer the call of the blood
and thank God because their Mother
land has taken her place among the
nations of the earth and written the
epitaph of Robert Emmett, the Protes-
tant martyr of our race. Eight hun
dred years have gone since the bravoes
of the Second Henry landed on the
Irish coast, and from that day to this
her story has been the saddest and
the brightest chapter in the history
of humanity.
For seven centuries before the Eng
lish came she was the home of art
and culture. From her affairs went
forth her missionaries to save and
teach the world. To her schools of
learning fiocked the youth of every
land. Her laws and courts, her par
liaments and kings, her people, happy,
prosperous and Industrious, were the
envy and the admiration of the world
she had achieved an antiquity of
material and spiritual greatness be-
fore the birth of any European gov
eminent of today. She was the home
of statesmen, of scholars and philoso-
piers before England had emerged
from her Stone Age of culture. She
was baptized a Christian more than
century and half before st. Angus
tine preached the Gospel to the naked
savages of Britain, who worshipped
idols and slaughtered human beings
on the affairs of the Druid. She is
the only nation who turned from
paganism to Christianity without
shedding the blood of the messenger
who brought the message. And she
understood and priced better than any
other nation the liberty which that
message intended for every child of
man.. She believed that when the
Saviour preached the equality of man
and the right of every man to liberty
He told the truth and meant what He
said. She believed that it was not
only the right of every man to be free,
but that it was also the duty of every
man to stay free at whatever cost
She believed that the liberty of a
people is as sacred as it's life, and
that the people which surrenders it
commits the crime of suicide And
SO believing in all the weary Gen.
turtles of the past, she has prayed and
toiled and fought for freedom.
The Treaty. +. ~
Ireland is free. The Irish state is
Irish and Free and State. Rejecting
hair-splitting' and casuistry, Ireland
in truth and fact is free and indepen-
dent now. The provisional government
established under the treaty has more
power than has the government of the
state of Minnesota. The treasury, the
army, the navy, the courts, the postal
service, the schools, the machinery of
taxation, every governmental function,
is being operated by the provisional
government in accordance with the
treaty which was ratified by the ma
tional legislature Of Ireland. Is it
not happy augury and does it not
speak volumes for the capacity of the
Irish people for self-government, evil
dencing also the poise and mutual for
bearance of their opposing leaders,
that only few days ago, on Wash
ington's birthday, the Sim Fein Ma
tional Convention, elected by solemn
referendum to consider the treaty, rec
ognized it's binding force and called
an election to put it before the people
for ratification under national con-
stitution to be adopted at the same
election? To those who doubt the
ability of the Irish at home to govern
themselves let us commend the spec
tacle presented by this convention,
composed of over three thousand dele
gates. patiently and with entire good
humor, remaining in session for five
hours while Collins and De Valera en-
deavored to iron out their differences
and then approving the settlement
by an unanimous vote. Let us not be
frightened by apparent obstacles. A
new nation was ushered into the fam
lily of nations when the English pre-
mier signed the treaty When Dublin
Castle was evacuated by the Grown,
Ireland won her long fight and she
was free in the same sense that Amer
lea was free on that day when Corn
wallis surrendered to George Wash
ington at Yorktown. The rest is mere
matter of detail.
Collins and De Valera.
We need not get excited over the
differences Of opinion between Michael
Collins and cannon De Valera. They
are both honest and incorruptible.
Both of them for years were branded
as felons by the British government,
and until last July each of them
walked the streets of Dublin with
halter around his neck and a price of
fifty thousand dollars on his head.
Collins wants to call the new gov
eminent Free. State-De Valera in
his Document Two. proposed by him
as the alternative of the treaty. would
have her a member of an External
Association" of states. De Valera OBJ
iected to the oath of allegiance to
George V, but in Document Two was
willing to take the following oath. 81