The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume], August 11, 1865, Image 4

About The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865

Image provided by: Minnesota Historical Society; Saint Paul, MN

                
THE IRISHMAN IN AMERICA.
The Relationship of the Irish Im
migrant to the United States^
IN ADDRESS *
BY MAJOR GEN. T. F. MEAGHER,
Before the Irish Immigration So
ciety of St. Fail, Wednesday
Evening, August 2d.
There was a large audience at Inger
aoll’s Hall last evening to listen to an ad
dress bj Major General Thomas Francis
Mkaghbr.
Rev. John R. Ireland, preliminary to
an introduction of the distinguished ora
tor, read a dispatch from the Secretary of
the President of toe United States, ten
dering to Gen. Miaoher the Secretary
ship of the Territory of Montana, and
stated that Gen. Meagher had acoepted
the appointment with a view of being a
help to his countrymen who should emi
grate to that Territory. Mr. Ireland
then paid a graceful oompliment to the
culture, eloquence, and patriotism of Gen.
Meagher, and concluded by intrduoing
him to the audience. Gen. Meagher, on
rising was received with much applause,
(which was frequently renewed during the
address), and spoke as follows:
Ladies and Gentlemen :
There was one scene I witnessed in the morn
ing of my boyhood which left upon my mem*
ory an impression that can never be effaced.
That scene was the departure of an emigrant
ship from the quay of my native city of Water
ord. It was a tranquil evening in the month
of June. The broad river Snir flowed past the
aged city with a gentle grandeur, and in the soft
light of the declining day seemed as if it
throbbed heavily in sympathy with the sor
rows, the memories, and the hopes, it was
about to bear away upon its bosom to a distant
shore. The city itself, with its eight centuries
of troubled life chronicle in weeds and moul
dering characters upon its walls, ever wearing
a careworn and clonded look, had, it appeared
to me, a lonelier and gloomier aspect than
usual, the hills that faced it throwing a deeper
shadow over it than Mount Misery and Crom
well’s Hock appeared to me to do at any time
before. Now and then the stroke of a bell, beat
ing through the dull air from some church or
workshop, and closing solemnly the labors and
vexations of the day, vocalized the scene with
its mournful vibrations, and made it sadder
still On the deck of the ship were hundreds
of men, women and children—the sons and
daughters of Inuisfail—sorrow-stricken, and
yet hoperui and heroic fngitives from the
island that gave them birth. Sorrow-stricken,
for an inexorable decree, of which poverty, in
justice, the tyrannies of an agrarian absolutism
were the ministers, compelled them to surren
der the land of their love and pride, the hal
lowed earth in which their fathers and
other dear ones slept with the silent
angels of the grave, the rained nation
to which their treasured traditions, their im
memorial songs, their inherited wrongs and
miseries, their darkest memories of persecution,
Lost battles for freedom, and the martyrdom of
their chiefs, with an intense devotion bonnd
them. Hopeful, though sorrow-stricken, for
the summer sun, burning in its varied splendor
on the Western horizon, had often told them
that the glory,departing from them, was light
ing up, away beyond those wastes of interven
ing ocean, a land ol promise, in which, under
the government of a free and all-powerfal peo
ple, their broken fortunes would be fepaired
and the happiness and honor, the protection,
encouragement and liberty, denied them at
home, would, to the fullest measure of their
industry, be secured them for life. Heroic, as
well as hopeful, were those wounded hearts.
For the strong resolve to conqner, in a new
held, the dark fate that overwhelmed them in
the old, had the mastery of the hour, and the
tears that would otherwise have been black as
the rain of the blackest winter night, sparkled
with the thoughts and visions which the assur
ances of victory in America inspired. Yonng
as I was, I deeply shared in the prevailing
mournfulness of the scene; for, young as I
was, I had heard enough of the cruelty that
had, for years and years, been done to Ireland,
to know that her people were leaving her, not
from choice, but from compulsion ; and that it
was not the sterility of her soil, or any other
unfavorable dispensation of nature, but the
miiignant hostility of laws and practices,
devised and enforced for the politi
cal subjugation of the country, which
compelled them to leave. A stranger
witnessing the scene, unless he had been in
structed in the more recent history of the
country, would have surveyed it with perplexi
ty. as though an inscrutable enigma had been
submitted to his consideration. It is an enig
ma which still puzzles that vast portion of the
world, which, deriving its ideas of Ireland and
her people from the Ups and pens of the pub
lic men, the scribes and pharisees of England,
finds it impossible to reconcile upon rational
grounds the contradiction which an immense
immigration from a country, 60 susceptible of
culture and so bounteously'productive as Ire
land is, strikingly involves. To escape the
judgement with which an enlightened and up
right opinion wonld everywhere visit her.
should the true cause of 6uch an anomaly stand
confessed, it has been the steadfast labor of
England to ascribe the wretchedness of the Ir
ish people generally on ineradicable indolence,
aud their flight in multitudes to this country
as the result of an unhealthy restlessness and a
roving disposition. It is not necessary for me
to contradict this assertion, which utterly false
as it is, proceeds from a wicked disposition to
calumniate, and pursue with disabilities, a race
that with its inviucable heart eternally protests
against the government that has beggared it,
and which in its success and popularity abroad
furnishes an emphatic refutation to the slan
ders of its hereditary enemies. That the in
evitable necessity of the Irish race has been
for some time past, is at present, and
will continue for some time longer, to over
flow in the emigration to the new world, must
be admitted even by those whose pride of pat
riotism revolts at the necessity. That it wonld
have been defeated had the grand project of
'* olfe Tone succeeded, or Robert Emmett
coined the mastery of his executioners, or the
hopes of 1848 been realized, cannot
but be acknowledged, even by those who in
their gross passion for imperial agrandize
“Qd power have made the prostration of
Ireland the aim of their maiicioos statesman
ship. j* or ' )art ' I feel convinced, that had
Ireland, al one or other of the memorable
epochs to which I allude, come out victorions
from the struggle, and solidly established her
independence as a nation, such a scene as I
have described as the saddest experience of my
boyhood, would have been of rare occurrence
The emigrant ship would, indeed, have been
a stranger in our rivers, nor would the great
waves have been taught to murmur in their
slumbers the melodies of our ancient bardic
race,or in their fury at other times been swollen
with the voices of woe and malediction
which the remembrance of the oppressor in
darker moods provoked. Instead oi being the
saddest, I believe that Ireland wonld have been
the happiest*of nation*, had she wen and for
tified her tight to the freedom she struck for,
and risen to the sovereign control at her re
sources, the acquisition of her fortune, and
the decision of her destiny. Bat thus far
it has been the will of Heaven that the
unowned instructor and evangelist of Europe
m the da vs of barbarism, with all her material
means to* be rich and all her intellectual capa
city to be neat, should remain despoiled, and
in rags ana ruins he chained among the mar
tyrs, instead of being enthroned among the
potentates of liberty. To this will we most
submit, until in its own good time Heaven
sees fit to cancel the decree, and, for all that
h«a been manfully and with religions heroism
accepted with it, substitutes an equivalent re
ward in the restoration of onr ancient Island
to its ancestral eminence, and the restitution
in foil of its commercial, political, and mili
tary powers. In the meantime it becomes ns,
and it is onr sacred duty, so to act that the vis
itations of Ireland may be tamed to her advan
tage, her fortunes improved, her good char
acter maintained, her relations with'friendly
and favoring (nations strengthened, and the
consideration and respeet of the world greatly
augmented in her flavor. Of these visitations
the redaction of the population of Ireland by
emigration has been of late years, and is at
this moment, considered to be the most se
rious. That it is considered so justly I shall
not dispute, for I should have to renounce my
faith In the ability of Ireland to*be a prosper
ous nation, and the equal of the foremost, so
far ae intellectual rigor and military spirit of
the highest order can and vance a nation, were I
to regard the depletion of Ireland by the emi
grant ship otherwise than as an almost fatal ca
lamity. Bat It is a calamity which for the time
being cannot be averted, and since it will have
its own way like the wind, the torrent, the
homing mountain, war or pestilence, it is no
disgrace to succumb to it, nor can it be ac
counted the capitulation of a poltroon or trai
tor, to acknowledge its validity and make the
most of it. Were it in the power of the people
of Ireland to rise in arms to-day, seize the
ports, overwhelm the garrisons, blockade the
ports, defy the sea-dogs as wen as the land
forces of England, and with all the seenritee
which international jurisprudence and comity
require, declare their nationality to be in foil
force and operation, I for one wonld say, let
not a man of yon quit the country—there is
room, and food, and happiness lor yon all—you
hold at least the key of your granaries, your
mines, yonr fisheries, your fields, your seas—
Ireland is yonr own, it has been remanded to
yon after a lengthened sequestration, the jus
tice of God restores it to yon, and In the name
of God hold it for yourselves, your children,
and their posterity to the latest day, against
the world, for the honor and glory of Goa, the
credit of immanity, and the practical benefit
of mankind. Since, however, an adjuration
like this cannot be made to-day, and that soli
tary ship I have spoken of has multiplied into a
fleet of a thousand sail before mv vision, and the
bone and sinew, the heart and brain of Ireland
has, for the most part, been transplanted here,
and to protest against the emigration of onr race
would be to protest against its disenthralment
from beggary,physical suffering and incapacity,
social bondage and the fetters of an alien made
nation,—l hold it to be onr sacred duty, as I
have Intimated, to direct that emigration into
salutary channels, and transform it from a
curse, which it seems at first, into a benedic
tion, as it must ultimately prove to be, to the
people of Ireland. What then—since his com
ing here is as snre and irresistible as the fall of
the Mississippi from the rocks of St. Anthony,
—what then, I ask, should be the relationship
of the Irish emigrant to the United States, its
people, government and history ? It is alrea
dy declared—already written—6et forth in a
splendid illamination in the records of the
benificent, chivalrous and noble relationship
that has already existed between the people of
Ireland and the people of America, for nearly
one hundred years. When the little settle
ment of Rhode Island, beleaguered by King
Phillip and his savages, was in the spasms of
starvation, a ship arrived yat Fall River, from
Dublin, freighted with corn and other supplies.
This was the salvation of the settlement; and
to the Irish heart is the American nation this
day indebted for the preservation, in its peril
ous infancy, of a State that has proved itself to
be one of the staunchest and bravest of the
Union. A little later, when Ireland was
in the zenith of her political splendor, and the
bayonets of her volunteers caught the tire of
her independent parliament, and flashed across
the island the lightnings of its patriotism and
the calmer glories of its great orators and
statesmen, the demand of the British Minister
for an Irish vote of 40,000 seamen to make
war upon the American colonies, was vehe
mently spurned. In the consecration of their
conflict, in the rapturous recognition of their
independence, no voice was more anthorita.
tive, for no eloquence was more commanding,
than that of Henry Grattan, to whose brave
heart, incorruptible spirit, and snperb head
Ireland is indebted for the only spell of polit
ical respectability and power she has had since
England forced herself upon the island with
herstatnte bocks, agrarian robberies, evangelical
reformations, and all the other rascalities of her
propagandises and kingship in Ireland. The
words that Henry Grattan spoke were the
words for the Irish heart, and as he declared
himself the friend of the American colonies,
encouraged them in their contest and exalted
in their triumph, there was uot a mountain
from the pillars ol the Giant’s Causeway to the
reeks of Kerry that did not echo him
in ful chorus, thanking God that in
the new world the stupidites and
tyranny of the old had fonnd it their grave,
and pmving that the magistracy of the people
and the'emplre of liberty might endure for
ever. Bat these were the thanksgivings and
implorations of a people whose subjection was
at band. Hardly had the American Colonies
been hailed as the United States and recognized
as a national power, when England, relieved
by irretrievable defeat from her military labors
iu this quarter ot the world—which an*lrish
inan wonld call the bigger half of it and no
mistake—than she determined to fortify herself
at home, and to this end decreed the absorp
tion of Ireland, and as Sir Jonah Barrington,
in his masterly way has written, her extinction
as a nation. The relative conditions of the
two countries—the old friends and allies—were
speedily aud violently reversed, Ireland was
down—America was up. The one was precipi
tated into provincialism and vassalage—the
other, having quenched the blazing sword of
Cornwallis and torn thirteen of the richest
jewels from the sceptre of George the Third,
and set them as stars in the omnipotent banner
of democracy, sprang from her colonial inferi
ority into national authority, and over an im
measurable domain and future proclaimed her
sovereignty. Their political conditions reversed
—the one crippled and cast down—the other
set free ana soaring—did their relations
change and the liberated and victorions dis
own or forget the overpowered and cap
tive? The question is an insult to the
splendid history of the nation, which having
won its freedom and authority over the tram
pled crown and the colors of a foreign enemy,
has in this memorable summer reaffirmed by
its triumphant sword its power, as well as its
determination, to maintain in its plentitude
the empire of liberty and the magistracy of the
people.
The hiatorv of the United States, wherever
it relates to Ireland, is a history of frienflship,
active sympathy, cordial companionship, the
prompt award of honors, and wholehearted
hospitality. In the warfare inspired and waged
by Daniel O’Coonel—the most powerful polit
ical chief the people have ever acknowledged,
trusted, idolized, followed with infatuation in
in any coon try, in ay epoch,against ay wrong,
for any political purpose whatsoever—in
INTENTIONAUIHftTJffATEr EXPOSURf"
THE WEEKLY PIONEER AND DEMOCRAT
persistent warfare of Daniel O’Connefi—the ob
ject of which was tear from the Statute-book
the interdictions which bigotry and fanaticism,
stupidity and savagery, had inserted there
against the Catholics of Ireland—the peo
ple of Ireland had the United States upon
their side. The history of the Catholic
Association,, written by Thomas Wise,
one of the most accomplished and upright
advocates of the Catholic claims, and who hav
ing represented with eminent credit the city of
Waterford for many years in the British House
of Commons, was appointed Minister to Ath
ena, where he breathed his last in the shadow
of the beautiful rains that had been from boy
hood his favorite study and the inspiration of
his scholarship and career.
The history of the Catholic Association by
this gifted gentleman—few copies of which
history are now to be had—will sustain me in
the assertion, if any corroboration is required,
that the Catholic Agitation, as it was called,
derived from the United States, the action of
its democracy,and the declarations of its repre
sentative men, an impulse and power that
secured the concession of the Catholic claims.
A little later, when the spirit of 1782 broke
ont in the demand flor the repeal of the Union
bill of 1799, and Ireland, roused to the asser
tion of her capacities and rights as an original
in the first place, and in the next as a
political partner in a great dominion, as the
managers of the great sell of the Irish parlia
ment magnificiently phrased it—a little later,
I say, when the spirit of 1782 broke
ont, and in thnnders that awoke the
world replied to the invocations of
O’Connell, demanding the restoration of an in
dependent Irish parliament—what voice was
more thoroughly and potently concurred with
her’s than that of the United States? Ireland
wonld have been free of England, half a cen
tury ago, had the earnest sympathies, the irre
pressible eloquence, and hard dollars of the
United States been competent to break the
chain which held onr wretched country, bound
and Mending, to the chariot wheels or a rapa
cious and remorseless, a resplendant and de
vouring, empire. Had I time, I might here
quote from the grandest speeches of O'Connell
—speeches delivered by him in 1843, ’44 and
’46—passages of the healthiest and haughtiest
eloquence, in which the gratitude of the Irish
heart to the democracy of the United Slates is
surpassed in its intensity and profusion only
by the avowed faith that the United States
wonld prove one day to be to Ireland what
France and Lafayette, and Germany and Steu
ben, and Poland and Kociusko, had been to
the thirteen colonies of Great Britain in the
sublime days of their transition from manacles
to liberty. Bat I have no time for quotations.
Hence yon will find that this address of mine
is bat an outline of what can be more posi
tively stated in illustration of the political and
historic relations that have subsisted between
Ireland and America for a century at least, and
that it professes Ao do no more than remind
my countrymen of the service, the loyalty,
the devotion onto death they owe the
nation that in its instincts and popu
lar manifestations has been so prodigally
true to Ireland. In saying this, however—in
saying that I profess, in these few and hurried
remarKs, simply to remind my countrymen of
the dntiee they owe the nation that receives,
shelters, encourages, and by a participation in
its citizenship, ennobles them. Ido not mean
to intimate that the Irish emigrant in America
has been false to his obligations, and that it is
necessary to remind him of them. Was it ne
cessary to do so, I shonid not assume the odious
duty. To do so, would be to charge my grate
ful and gallant countrymen with an infidelity
which would contradict and cancel the imme
morial character of their race, and the deep
trust-worthiness and natural nobility of their
nature. Of that natnre I have bad, myself an
experience, which, as long as heart and voice
are granted me, will command my gratitude.
Singular to say, it was not until I had been a
day or two in St. Paul, that I found that one
of the most memorable incidents of my career
had been Immortalized in verse, and for this
discovery I am indebted to my friend, Mr.
Howard, who, to my mind is just the sort of
Irishman every one of us should be—patient,
industrious, exercising an independent intel
ligence upon all pubHo questions, deeply
in love with poor old Ireland—intensely
true and proudly loyal to the United
States, sociable in his manners, but inflexible
in his convictions of what is right and what is
wrong—what is degrading and what is enno
bling in public life, —what, in fine, makes the
vulgar demagogue and the knightly citizen.
“Good peasant, we are B:rangers here.
And night is gathering tits.;
The stars scarce glimmer in the sky:
And moans the mountain’s blast:
Can’st tell us of a place to rest»
We’re wearied with the road:
No churl the peasant used to be.
With homoy couch and food ”
‘ I cannot he p my* elf, nor know
Where ye nay rest or.tay:
A few mote hours the moon will shine.
And llglr you on yenr way.”
“But, peasant can you let a man
Appeal to >ou in vain:
Here at yonr very cabin oor.
And ’m'd the pelting rain r
Here in the daik, and in the night,
Where one scarce secs a span:
What! -close your heart! —and close your door!
And be an Irishman ?"
4 N", no—goon—the mo n will r>e
in a short boor or two:
Wiat can a peaceful Übo.er sa; r
Or a poor toiler do?"
"You’repoor? Well, here’s a golden chance
To make jon r ch and great!
Five hundred pounds are oa oor heads I ,
The gibbet is cor fate I
Fly!—raise the cry, and *in the gold!
Or some may cheat yon soon;
And we’il abide, by the roadside.
And wait the rising moon ”
What ails the peasant r I’oes he flush
At the wild greed at gold ?
Why seizes he the wande eis, hands ?
Hark to his accents bold :
“Ho! I hive a heart for ton, neighbors I
Ay—an i a hearth, aud a home l—
and a help for you, neighbors!
God blses ye-aud prosper ye—come 1
“Come—out of the lig tof the soldiers;
Come in ’mongtt the children and a’l:
And I’ll guard ye, for ».he of old Ireland.
Ti.l Connall himeelf ge s a fall."
“Vo he devil with all th'*-gold gui cas!
Come i«—everything i. your own—
And I’ll kneel at year feet, friendsof Ireland l
What I wouldn’t for king on his throne.
“ God bless ye tint stood ia the danger.
Inthemiditof the coint'y* misb.p;
That ifood up to meet the big famine:
Och! ye are the men in the gap!
“Come in—with a 4 Cead Mille Fail the;’
fit down, and don’t make any noise.
Tin I come for more comforts to crown ve—
Till I gladden <be hearts of the boys ’.
44 Arrah! shake hands again, noble fel’ows:
That left yonr own homes for the poor I
Not a man ia the land could betray you,
Or shut up his heart or his door I"
Bat why should I remind yon of the relation
ship that has for the last century existed be
tween Ireland and America, when, next to
that of George Washington, no name is more
enthusiastically recalled in connection with the
war of American Independence than that of
Robert Montgomery; and, iff am not greatly
fiataban there are flew emigrants of the Irish
race who have not bowed in reverence before
the shaft that boars the name of Thomas Addis
Emmet, and, seeing the honor done him, felt
that America and Ireland were one and insepa
rable.
For my part—speaking for myself and no one
else—l am convinced that the wit, elasticity,
eloquence, and liberality of Ireland is just as
essential to Jhe progress and greatness of
ssss,*.ar
which the Yankees, as all of ns are now
called, <*wMrfri»r it their religions du
ty to« cultivate and practiee. And hen, In
this heantifhl State, is there any name more
IntipJAtely and notably identified with it than
that of General James Shields; one of the best
Irish soldires on this continent, net excepting
General Phil. Sheridan, whose sabre • mazes
with the genius of hie famous kindred, and
whose namcPwill descend upon the deepening
stream ot time as the most attractive of the
multitudes of Generals who have sprang into
mme upon the crimson crest of onr civil war.
Thanks and cheers to General James Shields!
—the only man who whiped General Stonewall
Jackson, and, it seems, it took an Irishman to
do it—and thanks and cheers, m load and
thundering as yon can give them for General
Phil. Sheridan, who. upon American soil, in a
terrible conflict with the seditions politicians
of the United States, and the brave men they
Inflamed, proved amid the flashes and uproar
of the fiercest battle, that there was no sorer
breast-work than the heart of the gallant Irish
man, nor a more sweeping whirlwind to over
power the enemy than that which the cavalry
of the nigged freed and tempestuous Celt let
loose.
Bat now that the war is over, what nhnnid
be the duty of every citizen to the ex
ecutive, seeing that the war was the violent
denial of that reverence and subordination
Which was due to the chief magistracy of the
nation, and without which the power of the
people, vested in the executive, is grevionslv
compromised if it be not fatally impaired. I
care not upon what platform he may nave been
elected—l care not what party may have
placed him at the head of the affairs
I contend that the chief magistrate should have
the unqualified support of every citizen of the
republic, and that this support should be inde
pendent ot and superior to every political con
sideration. It is a tame and beggarly patriotism,
Indeed, which professes to support the execu
tive as long as the executive Is right, that la
as long as it pleases certain parties and makes
certain nominations, hat withdraws its sup
port and goes into opposition when the exec
utive frails to satisfy the politicians of one de
scription or another ana overlooks the im
mense service of Snooks and Snlggins in the
distribution of the Federal patronage.
Had we less criticism of the men we set over
ns in office, and a heartier chivalry in onr rela
tions with them, it wonld be all the more ad
vantageous for the commonwealth, all the hap
pier for the public servants, and all the more
creditable to ourselves.
Had Abraham Lincoln, in the terrible days
in which he bore with a patient heroism the
weightiest burthens that have ever been im
posed upon a public officer, been cheered in
the agony of his official cares by a moiety of
that love and homage which his assassination
called forth, and which with the bonnteousness
of the waters, set free in the desert by the
prophet’s wand, overflowed the country, mak
ing It fertile in noble thonghta and a loftier re
gard for the administrators of the national es
tate-had this been the case think how much
easier his great task wonld have been, how
much less confident and defiant the rebellion
would have proved, and how mnch more re
spectabl certain important personages at the
other end of the Atlantic cable woola have de
meaned themselves towards ns daring the dif
ficulties of the nation. If I venture to impress
these views with special force upon my fellow
citizens of Irish birth, it is for the reason that
devotion to their political leaden and fidelity
to party obligations is of a more intense char
acter with them than with any other people,
and their action upon public questions
is usually controlled by their par
tialities for the political school to which
they devote themselves, and their fatnitous
faith in its impossibility ever to go wrong. So
far, then, for what I conceive should be tne re
lations of every citizen to the national execu
tive, and the spirit in which these relations
should be maintained.
The next question suggested by the events of
the day, and the new condition in which the
Southern States now find themselves, is in re
lation to the terms and disposition which the
people of the loyal States shonid extend to the
former, and the good will and honest friend
ship they shonid manifest towards those whose
manly acceptance of what they consider to be
their adverse fate, entitles them to the respect
and consideration of their more fortunate rivals
in the field. The answer to this question is
already set forth in the conditions of the sur
render at Appomatox Court House. It be
comes the people of the North, and it seems
to me it shonid be a sacred obligation with
them, to treat the people of the South with an
honorable propriety and a gallant generosity.
A policy or bearing other than that indicated
in the military surrender, will counteract the
success of our arms, keep the wounds of the
South inflamed, produce an irreparable atten
tion, and overshadow with opprobrium the
laurels of the North. Defeated, as the South
has been, in its great scheme to instal another
government and nationality on this continent,
and win the royalty of the Mississippi—
having fonght in the teeth of the most crash
ing odds and disabilities with a soldiership
that establish them in history as the most mas
terly ■ revolutionists of any age or country—
now that this dazzling project has been defeat
ed, and the National Government resumes its
sway with a weightier authority than ever it
held before and an admitted superiority over
the oldest and grandest powers, it shonid be
the aim and object of the people of the North
and West so to conduct themselves in their so
cial and political relations with the South, that
the latter even in the hour of their capitula 1
tlou, and amid the havoc that has swept their '
fields end cities, shall be induced to eutertain
one regret Duly and that the manly and gener
ous regret that they ever struck a blow against
the United States and coveted the humiliation
of onr flag. Nor should we be less liberal—
less just in fact—to onr black comrades of the
battle field. By their desperate fidelity to the
fortones of the nation in many a fierce tempest
of the war—a fidelity all the more heroic that
they fought in chains and with the devotion of
the noblest martyrs repaid with torrents of
generous blood, the proscription and wicked
bondage inwhich under the sanction of the Stars
and Stripes they bad been lor generations
held—by their desperate fidelity and splendid
soldiership, such as at Fort Wagner and Fort
Hudson gave to their bayonets an irreslstable
electricity, the black heroes of the Unian army
have not only entitled themselves to liberty
but to citizenship, and the democrat who
would deny them the rights for which their
wounds and glorified colors so eloquently plead
is unworthy to participate in the greatness of
the cation, whose authority these disfranchis
ed soldiers did so much to vindicate.
In speaking thus I am well aware that I run
counter to the prejudices of the conservative
politician, the great end and aim of whose
statesmanship, or whatever else their pnbiic
talk and labors may be called, is to consecrate
the errors or misfortunes of the past, and in
voke the sanctions of public law and an anstere
patriotism to stamp the civil disabilities and
social proscription of the black with a fatal im
mortality. Bat in speaking of what I conceive
shonid be the dnties and-relations of Irishmen
to the United States a reference to the new po
litical conditions, upon which the Irish have to
Slant themselves squarely, is unavoidable; and
I incur the disapprobation of any enlightened
and patriotic gentlemen in giving a frank ex
pression to my convictions, all I can sav is,
that I believe the world moves, and I don’t in
tend to stand still and be overwhelmed as a
fossil in hs progress. The independence I as
sert for myself, ! earnestly entreat every one of
my countrymen in America to cultivate. It Is
fall time for them to emancipate themselves
from the control of the politicians who have
held them in an ignoble captivity for many
years, and to whose vulgar dictation they sur
render the iuteHigeface and high spirit which
to ***** m their citizen
aUvu &* eeJ « n ° b *»this citizenshipnator-
And now that I have spoken of ,
and dnties which shouldidentSv n£. relatiQM
men with the destiny of
and the spirit of its citlzenshiL®***®?
republicanism, one word as totwi **»
tions they should msfatatn with t
country of their birth, and the duUea
eternally owe it; for the claims of their beamL
ful native land upon thochildren she has brought
forth are too sacred ever to be renounced,
and so far from conflicting with their obliga
tion to the land of their adoption, they serve,
perhaps, to deepen the earnestness with
whieh the latter are discharged. Grandly has
this two-fold relationship of the Irish emi
grant with the land of his birth and with that
of his adoption been described in those ex
quisite verses commencing with those weU*
blown and familiar words—
I'm sitting on the stile, Mary,
Where we sat aide by aide,
On a bright May morning, long ago,
When first you were my bride.
The corn was springing fresh and green,
And the lane sang loud and high.
And the red was on yonr lip, Mary,
And the love-light in yonr eye.
I’m biddin’ yon a long farewell,
MyMary—kind and true!
Bat I’ll not forget you, darling,
In the land Pm going to.
They say there’s bread and work for all,
And the son shines always there—
Bat I’ll not forget old Ireland,
Were it fifty times as fair.
Decisions ot Iks Supreme Coart of
Minnesota.
Michael Koring, Appellant, vs, the County of
Winona, Respondent.
syllabus.
An appeal does not lie from the assessment
of damages by the Board of Connty Commis
sioners, made in pursuance of the provisions
of chapter 68, Session Laws of 1862, provid
ing for the location, change and vacation of
highways.
White & Marks, Respondents, vs. Geo. Culver,
Appellant.
SYLLABUS.
When the case is eno of variance and not one
of proof under section 92, page 544, Public
Statutes, a motion for an amendment is ad
dressed to the discretion of the court under
section 94, and no appeal lies from an order
denying such amendment unless a gross abase
of discretion is clearly established.
Royal Lovel vs. the City of St. Paul.
SYLLABUS.
When street certificates have been issued lo
a party under and in pursuance of the provis
ions of sec. 10, chap. 7 of the amended charter
of the City of St. Paul, the City is not liable
on said certificates or for the work and labor
on account of which they were issued. In
the assessment and sale'of the lots (chargeable)
fen- the amount dne on the certificate, the city
acts for the certificate holders. The city nei
ther assumes nor guarantees the payment of
said certificates, nor becomes liable to the
holders thereof by proceeding to collect the
amount due thereon, nor by reason of the
fact that 6aid lots for want of bidders are
struck off to the city.
James A. Lovejoy, et al., vs D. Morrison A Co.
• SYLLABUS.
L. and M. entered -into a contract wherebv
M. was to furnish logs and L. to run certain
mills for a specified time for the purpose of
manufacturing said logs into lumber for an
agreed price. In an action by L for a breach
of the contract by M. in refusing to furnish
logs or to pay lor the work done, &c, f the
complaint set out at length a lease and supple
ment thereto, under which L. held the mills
under the St. A. W. F. Co., and the plaintiffs
claimed as part of their damages the rate of
rent agreed to be paid by the terms of the lease !
and supplement from the time of the breach till !
the expiration of the contract to manufacture. ;
Held, That {he lease and supplement togeth
er with other allegations of the complaint by '
which the plaintiffs seek to charge the defend
ants with the particular rent specified in the
lease and supplement, as part of their damages
were irrelevant and redundant, and therefore
properly stricken out.
Joseph S. Trigg, Respondent vs. John Lar
son, Appellant.
SYLLABUS.
Bee. 150 chap. 59, Cemp. Stat. makes the
payment for costs and the fee for the return,
essential conditions to the jurisdiction of a
Justice of the Peace to allow an appeal in a
civil action.
When it appears from the return of the Jus
tice that the fee for the return has not been
paid, the appeal may be dismissed.
In a civil action, the party against whom a
judgment is rendered in Court, is en
titled to appeal without paying his own wit
nesses.
Foster L. Stevens, respondent, vs. James W.
Carry et al., appellants.
syllabus.
Where a cause is regularly noticed and placed
upon the calendar for trial, an amendment of
the pleadings does not render a new notice of
trial necessary.
Jonathan 8. Fish, plaintiff in error, vs. Peter
Berkey et aL, defendants in error.
' syllabus.
Section ?, ch. 87, page 543, Pub. BtaL, is re
pealed by sect. 4, ch. 11, Col. Stat.
An agreement was entered into between sev
eral persons whereby certain personal prop
erty was conveyed, lor specific purposes and
trusts, to sevferal parties, one of whom was
made trustee for the others. In an action
. brought by the party who owned the property
at the time of ‘ the conveyance, (and to whom
any surplus was remaining after the trusts
were fulfilled, was to be mid) for an account
apd payment over. Held, That aU the parties
to the agreement having a subsisting interest,
should be made parries to the action.
Augustus K. Capehart, App'L, vs Benjamin
Van Campen, Resp’t.
SYLLABUS.
When a judgment of the District Court is
reversed in the Supreme Court and the case re
manded, and no final disposition has been
made of it, the action in which snch judgment
was recovered, is pending, and a complaint in a
suit brought upon the same cause of action
upon which the cause of action was founded
and between the sadfc parties in interest and
alleging these frets, is demurrable.
Thomas Mcßoberta, respondent, vs. William
D. Washburne et el., appellants.
syllabus.
Chapter 104 of the Special Laws of 1858, page
303, is not repugnant to eectiod 2 of article 10
of the constitution of this State.
Bectioa 2 of said chapter operated as a re
peal of the first proviso of section 7 of chapter
71, page 2«> qftbe Session Laws of 1357. The
mere fact or riparian ownership does- not au
thorize aripaitan owner to ran a public ferry
to and from his own shore. The establish
ment ted regulation of ferries is a subject
under the control of the Legislature. A ferry
franchise is property. A grant of a Awry fran
chise by the legislature is a contract withUtihe
tnaanlncr of that piOTMOD of the COPStltilPOn
prohibiting the passage of laws impairing the
obligations ot contracta. •
Chapter 63 of the Special Laws of 1862,
may be 83*
■trained byifljnnetion. *
V. R. Lee Respondent, vs. A. 8. Emery Ap
pellant.
SYLLABUS.
In an action for damages resulting from the
upsetting of the plaintiff’s carriage, if the com
plaint fidls to charge, either directly or fry im
plication, that the defendant was the eases of
the upset, the judgment will be arrested after
Vwdicton motion.
H. Schnrmeier vs. Gustaf Johnson et sL
- SYLLABUS.
time on the trial In the Court
tvwrrt**SnaintMPkcounsel submitted to the
distinct propositions or requests,
end asked the Court to
each! The XgSfr’ « modifying
to vary a written contract.
Col- Was. B- Marshal^
The Winona Republican of the 2d inst
contains the following correspondence •.
Alabama, July 5,1865
Colonel Wm. R. Marshall:
Dear Sib:— The undersigned earnestly re
quest that you allow your name to he presented
before the approaching State Convention as a
candidate for Governor of onr State.
We know and appreciate your motives, in
disliking to enter the arena of politics, hat In
thus soliciting yon we represent the wishes of
the Minnesota soldiers in this command; and,
further, feel confident that yonr nomination
would be most acceptable to those at home,
who have so long and pleasantly associated
with yon as a citizen.
We remain, Colonel,
Very Respectfully Yoon.
The above letter is signed by Gen. Hub
bard and seventy-seven officers and sol
diers. The following is OoL Marshall’s
response:
Selma, Ala., July 15,1865.
To Brig. Gen. Hubbard, Col. S. P. Jamison, U.
Col. Wm. Markham, and others:
Gentlemen :—I have received yonr kind let
ter assuring me that it is the general wish of
the gallant men of onr State, with whom I have
had the honor to serve in the Southwestern
army, that 1 should be a candidate for Gover
nor of Minnesota.
In reply I consent .that my name may go be
fore tiie nominating convention.
Deeply gratified for this expression of esteem
and confidence upon the part of my brothers
in arms, I am, very truly,
Your obedient servant,
WM. R. MARSHALL.
Furloughed Soldier* Awaiting Dis
charge-
St. Paul, August 4, 1865.
The 6th, 7 th, 9th aud 10th Regiments Min
nesota Volunteers, including recruits enlisted
since original organization are en route home.
These regiments will probably arrive within
six days from date, to be mustered out of ser
vice as soon as their muster out rolls can be
completed.
All soldiers belonging thereto who are ab
sent on furloughs or awaiting discharge under
orders from this office are directed to report at
once to GoL G. N. Morgan Commanding Gen
eral Rendezvous at Fort Sneliing, and join
their regiments whenever they may arrive.
JNO. T. AVERILL,
Col. and Chief Must’g. Officer State Minn.
Dispatch from Gov. Holden.
New York, August I.—Messrs. Heck
and Battle, now at the St Nicholas Hotel,
in this city, for the purpose of inducing
emigration to North Carolina, recently ad
dressed a telegram to Gov. Holden relative
to the statements made by the Raleigh
Progress concerning disloyal feeling in
that State, and received the following in
reply:
Raleigh, N. C., July 30.
Keiitp P. Jiutete and J. M, Heck, St. Nicholas
Hotel, New York :
Gentlemen— ln reply to yonr dispatch I
have t 3 state that the great body of the people
of this State are loyal and submissive to the
national authority; that Ido not apprehend
that Union men will be banged or punished:
that if all the troops wonld be withdrawn, and
we shonid not have an efficient local police
guard, there might, and probably would, be
disturbance in some localities; bat, upon the
whole, there is no ground for apprehending
that emigrants will involve themselves in civil
strife by coming to North Carolina. Let them
come with confidence in the future. Onr peo
ple, generally, will be glad to see them.
. Very respectfully,
H. W. HOLDEN.
, . r— n
Hr. Baxxkr, Chief Surgeon of the Pro
vost Marshal (general’s Bureau, is prepar
ing an exhibit of the different diseases
generated or prevailing in onr army daring
the last four years; and the work, among
other interesting matter, will sh)w what
troops have displayed the greatest endur
ance, and what diseases are peculiarly in
cident to men drawn from particular local
ities aud trades, as well as the exact
position of soldiers discharged for disability
from any particular disease, or from
wounds received in servioe. The work
will be a valuable acquisition to the scien
tific literature of the country.
Thi -census of Cleveland, Ohio, has
been taken, by direction of the city au
thorities, and shows-a total of 69,656, an
increase of 16,006 in five yews. The
Leader claims that Cleveland is now the
third in rank of lake cities, having passed
both Detroit and Milwaukee. Buffalo re
tains the second place, its population being
reported at 93,000, again of 12,000 in five
years ' __
Tub Chicago Republican says that Mrs. Lin
coln is living in perfect seclusion at the Hyde
Park Hoiel, on the shore of the lake seven or
eight miles from that city. Both her sons re
side with her. Capt. Robert Lincoln is study
ing law in the office ot Messrs. Seammen, Me-
Cage & Fuller, in Chicago, and goes there daily
by the Illinois Central Railroad, to attend to
his duties.
3