Year: 1867

There are ten millions of the Irish this
tnent. Why are they here? The tyranny to which
their country is subjected made life unbearabe in Ire
land. They come here then TO escape slavery and find
freedom They do


To what account have they turned their almost un


limited power freemen in this great Republic? Have
they been foremost in all movements for the advance
ment of liberal IDEAS and have they drawn the sword
where chains to be rent asunder? Have they as
sisted struggling nations and people to shake off their
hraldom andhelped those that fallen torse Surely


people who have filled the of the world with their
cries for Irish liberty and who have suffered long and
acutey beneath the heels Of the tyrant England,
should be foremost in the ranks Of that army that had
/" UNIVERSAL LIBERTY" on its banners Alas the
action of the Irish American nation during and since
the late rebellion is worthy of the past history of
race and our laundering fathers have reason to be
proud of their criminal children. Criminal for we have
acted with eyes open in the monday sum- while they
bungled in shadows.


When the Southern States hoisted their black banner
Of treason and slavery and fought preservethe image
Of God in brute serfdom it is notorious that the Irish
in America as people, threw their whole force on the
side of caste and empire We say their whole force
for the immense majority of people sympathized with
the South We know the gallant minority that took the


field for liberty and the rights Of men, under the lead Of
Meagher, Smith, Corcoran NIulligan, and the other
heroic Irshmen who drew the sword for the Unon did
more than We know that in every battlefield for
the Union soldier countrymen lie side by side with
the American and German. They have written their
names in the heart of America, and while Antietam,
Charlottesville Fredericksburg, Lexington, the Seven
Days, the Wilderness and other historic exist,
Ireland can point to them with pride, for her
name is interviewer with the deeds that make them
sacred The Irish race owe their liberation in
this Republic to-day to their brave brothers who
died that the Republic might live. But outside
the Irish soldiers what proportion of people ympa
thized with the North


We know that thousands who, even now would draw
the sword to re-estabsh things they were will cry
out that we should not talk thus to American ears.
Friends the American people not deaf blind;
and they understand the situation of affairs just well
we do and they will not lend hand to people to
regain their liberty, who have nothing but insult and
hate for them We have seen the floods of hypocrtica
tears that shed the unmely fate of the gallant
Meagher by men who cursed him for his action during
the war. We have seen New York hang out her walls
of mourning and eyes rain tears-that not she'd
that laughed in gee when the attered and torn banners
of the returned brigade told them what havoc Southern
bullets had made in it's iron ranks.


National crimes bring their just punishment and ours
has fallen upon in being slaves to-day, while the
slaves of yesterday free Had people flung them
Selves heart and SOUL into the ranks that contained the
intelligence and patriotism of the country, during and
since the war; and taken advantage of the many chances
that our old enemy in her blindness gave us, who will
say that Ireland would not be free to-day? Had our
people, by consistent course stood firmly in the heat
of the American nation during the Mason and Sde
rLnd e A.