The Irish standard. [volume], November 06, 1886, Image 1

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

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

                
UA
ri
IV
it
I
CI
W rr^''
VOLUME III.
MICHAEL DAVITT.
The
Delivers a Lecture in
Minneapolis on
Famous Irish Patriot
PROGRESS OF HOME RULE
And is Greeted in the Most
Enthusiastic Manner
Imaginable,
THE LECTURES, HANDLES
His Subject Intelligently, and Lucidly
Explains the Actions of the Na
tionalists up to the Present.
GLADSTONE'S POLICY CERTAIN,
The Course Adopted by the National
ists to Convince the Tory Gov
ernment What is Right
JOSEPH CHAMBERLAIN A FRAUD,
A Preference to the Hypocrisy of the Judas
Iscariot Who Betrayed Mr. Gladstone
Is Received With
IRISH SOCIFTIES Of THIS CITY
Turn Out En Masse and With a Braee Band
Playing Popular Irish Airs Escort the
Famous Patriot to Turner Hall
The lecture bv Mr. Davitfc last Sun
day night in Turner Hall was eminently
successful in every respect. The hall
was literally jammed, and large num
bers were unable to find even standing
room. The meeting was composed
principally of natives of the Emerald
Isle, and descendants of Irishmen, but,
of course, many people of other na
tion & at te also. At 7 o'clock
the members of many "Irish societies.,
11. lil
•5?
•MM
-C
/4mJ\
/C &•
tA°
MICHAEL DAVITr.
Ancient Order of Hibernians, three di
visions, Minneapolis branches of the
Irish National Land League, Hi
bernian Rifles and other societies
formed at Windora Hall add marched,
preceded by Sid well's band, to the West
Hotel, where Mr. Davitt and others
joined the procession, which then
marched to Turner Hall. On the plat
form sac Mr. Davitt, lion. P. H. Kelly,
of St. Paul J. J. McCafferty, Roger
Vail. Matt Walsh, Aid. Thomas Downs,
J. J. Mcllale, Col. M. W. Glenn, Capt.
P. J. MeKernan, Thomas Brennan,
Aid. Grace, St. Paul: Fathers Clark
and Conway, of St. Paul, and Mayor
Ames and many others. At 8:10 o'clock
Matt Walsh called the meeting to or
der, and in introducing Mayor Ames as
the presiding officer of the evening,
said:
"We have come here to listen to one
of the purest and most disinterested
patriots on earth, Michael Davitt, [ap
plause] a man v« hose patriotism could
not be-killed by British oppression, nor
his ardor dampened by defeat. I take
pleasure also iu presenting to you as
chairman of this meeting, Mayor A. A.
Ames.1'
Dr. Ames on taking the chair was
loudly applauded and expressed his
pleasure at being called upon to pre
side over such a mammoth meeting.
"We have among us," he said, "not
only a hero but a martyr to the great
Irish cause. I now have the pleasure
of introducing to you Michael Davitt,,
the greatest hero of liberty of the age."
Mr. Davitt on rising was received
i- ••V.^ -'.:ji?
with loud and long applause and began
his lecture in an easy tone as follows:
Mr. Mayor, Ladles and
Gentlemen:
Eight years have rolled their courses
into the stream of time ance I last had
the honor of addressing a meeting in
Minneapolis, and although say career
has been somewhat checkered since
then, and many exciting eveuts have
crossed my path, I have a distinct re
collection of the warm and kindly
I that occasion. [Applause.] Then, as
now. many citizens of Minneapolis, not
of Irish birth, paid me the compliment
of coming to hear the case I tried to
make out for Irish liberty. Here to
night, the chief magistrate of your
city presides over this meeting, not as
a candidate for Governor, not as a par
tisan, or as a politican but, I will ven
ture to say, as an American citizen
voicing the sentiments of this city in
sympathy- with the cause of Ireland
[Applause] in this struggle of ours to re
gain for our country those rights which
sheonce possessed, and which yoa en
joy. We aspire to win the sympathy
and moral support of the entire Ameri
can people. We cannot discriminate be
tween Republicans, Democrats and
Prohibitionists and the rest. [Cries of
hear! bear!] We have no opinions on
these issues which divide you here at
.this time in America. We look upon
you .all as American citizens, enjoying
the freest government in the world,
and having the privilege and benefit of
the institutions which you have built
up in this gr -at republic, and hence we
want, in the struggle w3 are making to
win similar institutions and a similar
form of government for Ireland, the
symDathy
of all American people, irre
spective of party differences.
Mow' I make no apology for coming
here and asking for this moral support,
from the American people. In the first
place we are asking for nothing in this
Home Rule movement in Ireland that
is in any way inconsistent with the
spirit of
your
government or of your in­
stitutions. In fact, we have taken our
lessons of liberty, in a great measure,
from you, the American people. We are
aiming in this Home Rule movement
to win for Ireland privileges of gov
ernment and social rights which we
think ought to be extended to the
whole human race. [Applause.] We
want to vindicate the right of nationali
ties, Lo have the management of
their our affairs and to te
the masters of their own desti
nies. In the second place we want to
bring down all those monopolies and
privileges which stand between men
and the use of those natural agencies
which the Creator intended should be
at the service of industrious humanity
But we have another and, I think, a
higher claim to the sympathy of the
American people in this struggle which
we are waging in Ireland for Home
Bale, and that is, the claim of grati
tude. In 1776, in the. infancy of your
great republic, the father of American
independence appealed to Grattans
parliament for its moral support in the
struggle which was then being waged
against British oppression on this con-
tinent. The parliament of Ireland did
not hesitate for one moment in regard
to what to do. Its sympathy was voiced
in plain and unmistakable language,
and twice the continental congress of
America appealed to the parliament
of Ireland for assistance, which was
rendered to the cause of American in
dependence. [Applause.] Now, when
the Irish people at home and abroad
are united in one magnificent move
ment co obtain a restoration of legisla
tive independence, I think we are justi
fied in asking the American people to
give to us the same sympathy which
GRATTAN"'S PARLIAMENT VOICED
for American independence more than
a century ago. But I have no appre
hension whatever that tlid good will of
the people of America will be wanting
in this righteous struggle which we are
waging against oppression in the old
country.
to form of the results of the last ap-
:.W"'
W $
Everywhere I have gone this brief
tour I have heard sentiments similar to
those uttered by our chairman to-night,
voiced not by the representatives of one
party, but by statesmen and orators
and eminent men of America, belong
ing to all political parties, and differ
ing among themselves on various is
sues, but uniting upon this of
giving to Ireland the sympathy
ior which we are now practically at
your doors. Our difficulty in Ireland
during the next few years will be to re
strain the impatience of our own peo
ple. I am afraid that this proverbial
weakness of the Celtic character—this
impatience is manifesting itself now to
some extent here in America. Many larits of the land scheme which Mr.
of our enthusiastic fellow countrymen .Gladstone proposed in conjunction
with his Home Rule measure. The
taxpayers of Great Britain were told
are under the impression that because
Gladstone did not succeed in passing
his Home Rule measure a few months by Chamberlain, Hartington and others
ago, that the cause of Home Rule is that Mr. Gladstone's proposal would
now put to one side, for a future gen- entail the risk of a loss of $120,000,000 to
eration 'That is an erroneous opinion the people of Great Britain if the Lib
ral leader's proposals were earned
peal to the- electors of Great Britain,
and I think I cannot render a better
service to the cause I represent to-night,
than ra trying to prove that the Home
Rule cause instead of having been de
feated at the recent general election,
scored a magnificent triumph against
the forces of opposition- which were
pitted against it. (Applause.)
greater mistake could be committed
than to suppose that the verdict of the
general election was an irrevocable one
against the Irish cause. In political,
as in military warfare, there are vic
tories often gained which in reality
amount to defeats in their conse
quences to the winning side, while re
verses are ofteu sustained by a just
cause, which in other results frequently
amount to moral victories.
Now, we who are engaged in this
struggle at home believe that Mr.
Gladstone's defeat was brought about
by a combination of causes and influ
ences which can never again be lound
in coperation against the cause of Ire
land.' (Applause.) Theso influences I
might as well try to particularize here
to-night, because by doing so I will
give you a clear idea of the progress
made in our movement during the iast
few years, and also some knowledge of
the influences against which we may
have to contend until the final struggle
is achieved. First, the British mind
was unprepared for the idea of a sepa
rate legislature for Ireland. Secondly,
the Tory supporters of the Liberal
leader of Home Rule resorted to the
most unscrupulous tactics and vilest
misrepresentations in order to get back
to power. Thirdly, the dead weight
of the land purchase scheme of Mr,
Gladstone operated
MINNEAPOLIS AND ST. PAUL, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 1886.
discovered
very
injuri­
ously against his Home Rule
measure: and, fourthly, the divi
sion iu his own party, the bolting of
Hartington and Chamberlain handi
capped his great efforts to solve
the Irish problem. Now, that these
combined influences succeeded in
defeating his proposal is not to be won
dered at. Natural as a separate legis
lature is to the Irishmen for their
country, and just as expedient as such
concession would seem to the Ameri
can people, it amounted to a sudden
revolution in the opinion of the
electors of England. They had long
been schooled in theidea thai the .Irish
people, 86 years ago, had acquiesced in
the infamous measures of the -union of
1800. They were also under the im
pression that a Parliament in West
minster could legislate as sympatheti
cally for Ireland as for England, Wales
and Scotland and again they had been
taught in their schools, and by their
priests and publie men, that the very
integrity of the British Empire'depend
ed upon the maintenance of one Parlia
ment for Great Britain and Ireland.
This being the ordinary state of public
feeling in England, the avowed enemies
of Home Rule found it an easy task to
MISREPRESENT THE REAL MEANING
of Mr. Gladstone's proposed constitu
tion for Ireland. Every organ of Tory
opinion—every speaker belonging to
that party, declared that the giving of
a separate Parliament to Ireland would
inevitably lead to the total separation
of Ireland from England. Again, the
feeling of religious bigotry was ap
pealed to throughout Great Britain in
order to thwart Mr. Gladstone's pur
pose. He was held up by the religi
ous papers of England and from the
pulpits of the Established Church as a
co-conspirator with the Pope to hand
over the Protestants of Ireland to the
tender mercies of the Catholic major
ity under Home Rule government.
Home Rule was defined as Rome Rule,
and every unworthy prejudice that
could be raised in the popular mind of
Great Britain was appealed to by Lord
Randolph Churchill and his followers
in order to prevent the great Liberal
leader from doing an act of justice to
the Irish people.
When we consider the agencies em
ployed in carrying on this campaign of
calumny against us and against our
English allies, I say again it is no mat
ter of surprise that for a time a snatch
victory was obtained against us. Two
powerful organizations, subsidized by
the wealth of the British aristocracy,
resorted to every possible means during
the general election to prejudice the vot
ers of GreatBritain against us.Newspap
ers were pur
chased,
orators were subsid
ized by aristocratic gold, meetings were
organized and em ssaries sent through
out the length and breadth of Great
Britain to carry on this great
campaign of misrepresentation against
the National League and Mr.
Gladstone. Added to this campaign
of calumny, we had the- unpopu-
..
an
Home Rule government been in power
in Ireland. There is one consolation
at any rate left to Irish landowners,
notwithstanding the temporary defeat
of the Home Rule case., We may have
to struggle on a couple of years more
in order to secure our native parlia
ment, but we have this consolation,
that the Irish landlords sau no longer
count upon the sympathy and support
of the British people. [Cries of good!]
In. the past, as you right well know
they did England's dirty political work
in Ireland. [Laughter.] They made
themselves an alien territorial garrison
inimical to the Irish people in their na
tional sentiments, their national aspir
ations, their feelings and their relig
ion. They thought that when the
day of danger cauae, if it ever did ar
rive, thai the people of England would
stand by them and rescue them from
any difficulty in which they might be
placed, and now when their system is
destroyed,* when.-economic causes are
co-operating to its destruction, and
when it is only a matter of a few years
until it is made to disappear bag and
•baggage, every Irish landlord turns to
the people of Great Britain for succor
and support, but the answer, given em
phatically in the recent general elec
tion by the electorate of Great Britain
is: Go to the Irish people. Make the
best terms you can with those wrho
know you best. We are resolved not
to purchase you out. [Applause.] Mr.
Gladstone has accepted this verdict of
the peopie of Great Britain. He has
recently declared in one of the ablest
pamphlets ever written by him what I
have never ceased to
advocate since the
very initiation of the land league,
namely: that the Irish land question
can never be satisfactorily settled ex
cept by and through the creation of
A PARLIAMENT IN DUBLIN,
and this Irish parliament, therefore, is
soon to be established in the old coun
try, notwithstanding the boasts and
threats of Lord Raudolph Churchill.
[Hisses.] The landlords of Ireland
must come to terras. [A voice—Put
it there again.] Great as has been
been their crimes against the people of
Ireland in the past, I believe that a
legislature representing the people of
their own country will deal with them
more justly bye and bye than they
would be likely to be dealt with on the
part of the English parliament when
that becomes, as shortly it will, the in
strument of the English democracy in
its resolve to bring about a Democratic
form of government in Great Britain.
[Applause.]
Now to all these opposing causes and
adverse circumstances pitted against
the cause of Home Rule there is to be
added the serious division which the
proposal created in the English Parlia
ment. This opposition has been
mainly led by Lord Hartington, and
against his hostility—or rather against
the honesty of his motives in being
hostile to Home Rule, I have nothing
to say. He has never, as well as I can
recollect, uttered a word that would
lead us to believe that he was in any
way in sympathy with the cause of
Irish national self-government. His
position therefore has been straight
forward and honest, but I cannot say
Mr. Joseph Chamberlain. (Hisses.)
This gentleman, as far back as 1874,
was an
Ireland
those upon
(it
:3p$ippts
tv,•.*•.•••""•?,•fi-:-.•
'-""V"-• -V" VV-*
9M
into effect. This appeal and the feel
ing which it evoked demonstrated to
the world a peculiar trait in Eng
lish character. Some years ago, be
fore the initiation of the laud league,
the English people were practically in
different on the Irish land question,
when they thought it was an issue be
tween Irish landlords and Irish ten
ants. Their sympathy generally went
out to the territorial garrison in Ire
laiid in any contest which took
place, between them and thote
who till the soil in our coun
try. [Applause.] The moment the
taxpayers of Great Britain saw
there was the slightest danger of their mestic business." What is the alterna
pockets being injured in any way by
purchasing of the Irish landlords, they
immediately that these were experience of representative legisia
a worthless class and that their proper- tion? Is it not disagreeable to us that
ty in Ireland was really not.worth any even now it is only by unconstitutional
investment of English capital, They
therefore declared emphatically against and order in oiie ot Her Majasty
the land scheme of the Liberal leader
and I am ot the opinion from my inti
mate knowledge of the feelings of the slightest conception of the system un-
people of Great Britain that if Mr
Gladstone had appealed to them on the
Home Rule issue alone, without handi
capping his efforts with the scheme to
purchase out the Irish landlords, he
would have been returned to power by
overwhelming majority, and the as that which prevailed in Venice un-
this as to the attitude of nis colleague, bear in mind that at that time Mr.Glad
stone was at the head of affairs and with
powerful party in the House of Corn
avowed Home Ruler. He de- mons, and instead of offering a Home
clared he was conceding a Parliament Rule constitution for Ireland he enter
to
because he was most anxious tained quite a large number of-us in
to get obstructive Irish representation many of her majesty's prisons, and half
removed from Westminster, and so late a hundred jails in Ireland were occu
as June of last year this gentleman, pied with land leaguers without trail,
who now poses as the consistent op- He put Mr. Parnell under lock and key,
ponent of Home Rale, uttered senti- suppressed public meetings, and put
ments which in no way differ from down trial by jury, and sent Lord Spen-
Jr:'-.-/-'vJV:rV"*:
•m
founded, and more for the informa
tion of the American portion of my
audience than for the entertainment of
my own countrymen, I will quote from
this speech, delivered some 15 months
ago by Joseph Chamberlain, to show
his clear inconsistency iu this present
attitude, and to present a clear state
ment of the Irish demand in seeking the
restoration of parliament for the man
agement of Irish affairs. Speaking in
June, 18S5, Mr. Joseph Chamberlain
said: "The pacification of Ireland at
this moment depends, I believe, on the
concession to Ireland of the right to
govern itself the matter of its do-
tive? Are you content, fter nearly SO
years of failure to renew once more the
means that we are able to secure peace
dominions? I uo not believe that the
majority of Englishmen have the
1 1 1*11 I LI
der which England atte mpts to rule
the sister country of Ireland. It is a
system which is founded on the basis
of 80,000 soldiers encamped as in a hos
tile country. It is a systarn such as
that which Russia governs Poland, or
der the rule of Austria. An Irishman
at this moment cannot- move a step or
lift a finger in any parochial, muni
cipal or educational work without be
ing confronted, interfered with or con
trolled by an English official, appointed
ty a foreign government, and without
a shadow of representative authority."
The man who stands to-day before
the people of England as the most in
veterate enemy of Home Rule is the
Joseph Chamberlain, who gave voice to
those sentiments and those opinions 15
or 16 months ago. iV hat is the explana
tion, I may be'asked,of this remarkable
change in his views on the Irish ques
tion. Various theories have been
broached in explanation of his attitude.
In England and Ireland it is believed
that his position is due more to per
sonal motives than to political convic
tions. Mr. Gladstone, it seems, did not
consult "Brammagem" Joe when he
was preparing his scheme of Irish self
government and then again, he com
mitted the unpardonable offense—from
the point of view of Mr. Chamberlain—
that of promoting a better and abler
man generally to the chief secretary.
Oue of your far-seeing American critics,
in trying to explain this change in the
attitude of Mr. Chamberlain, has, I
think, given the true version. He
wanted to answer the question by
Mr. Gladstone why Mr. Gladstone was
in favor of Home Rule and why Mr.
Chamberlain was opposed to it. The
explanation, he declared, was this, that
one man had a heart and the other was
was possessed of a long purse and an
eye-glass.
Ladies and gentlemen, let me sum
marize the forces pitted against us, and
the influence called into action to de
feat Home Rule at the general election
and then let us examiue what has been
done by all this caiumny and misrepre
sentation. The result was simply this:
That Ireland still returned of her
representatives to I in favor of Home
Rule, that Scotland elected S to 2 of her
representatives pledged to give a par
liament to Ireland, and gallant little
Wales elected 5 to 1. England, not
withstanding all the appeals to politi
cal fears and religious hatred (of which
many of you know right well was a unit
in opposition to the Irish, cause ten
years ago) actually elected 126 of its
members to go to Westminster and
vote for the restoration of a parliament
for Ireland. In other words if the
comparatively small number of 70,000
more votes out of my electorate of 40,
C00,000 of people in GreatBritain had
been cast for the Liberal leader he
would have been returned, with a pow
er sufficient to give legislative power
to our country.
Now I venture to say, notwithstand
ing Lord Randolph Church ill's boast
that the general election was a final
verdict on the Home Rule question,
that we, in Ireland, are justified in tak
ing an opposite view of the result and
in looking upon it
AS A VIRTUAL TRIUMPH
for the cause of Ireland. Why, when
you recollect what was obtained in the
English mind five short years ago
when you remember who the man was
that was then in power, and what he
attempted to do for Ireland: when you
which Gladstone's bill were certo Ireland to hang innocent men,
S«Wf®j'Swl
.•'• .: •:.
y^vY^'
jr/
During the recent general elections it
was my dutv, in obedience to the orders
of my leader, Mr. Parnell, to travel
more through England, Wales and
Scotland than in Ireland, and it fre
quently happened that I would be ad
dressing an audience on one side of the
Home Rule question while Lord Spen
cer, the man who put me in prisoi\
three times, would be speaking to an
audience a few miles away proving
THAT I WAS IMG FIT
and. he was wrong.
These remarkable results have- been
achieved by the two-i'old policy of con
vincing England,or that portion of Lng
laud which follows Mr. Glaclstoiie's
leadership, that neither through, force
nor coercion would Irish Nationalists
ever cease to agitate for justice to Ire
land until Ireland again had the right to
manage her own affairs, and second, by
striving to realize those aspirations of:
her peopie in a movement conducted on
purely moral and constitutional acts.
Now, the reasons why this policy has
had such a remarkable success in so
short a time must be obvious to every
reflecting mind. A people like ours
united in one cause, working in one
movement and through one legitimate
means, under one sagacious and incor
ruptible leader, c.m not be divided by
any power on earth interested in main
taining a government oi injustice and
oppression.
The success of a cause so fought is
made absolutely certain in a manner,
when we consider the conditions under
which.tfte Tory- party must attempt to
resist its triumphant march to success.
We contend, and we know right well
what we are talking about, that the
applicaion of the nrinciple of Home
Rule by the government of the British
empire is the only way in which thab
unwieldy conglomeration of nations
can be kept from going to pieces. In
other words, the remedy which we de
mand for Ireland, and the form of gov
ernment which we are asking to be re
stored our country, will be abso
absoiutely necessary to save Great.
Britain from becoming disrupted. The
attempts to legislate in one Parliament
for all the local needs as well as for all
the national, interests of England,
Wales, Scotland and Ireland is a com
plete failure. It is difficult for an
American to understand the absurdity
of such a system, J. can only do so by
supposing for a moment that all your
State constitutions would be swept
away and that instead of having your
local matters attended 10 iu your State
legislatures, you would have to send
all your representatives to Washing
ton, there to try and have justice done
to your local needs, while the interests
of the entire republic would be at
tended to at t.lie same time. In West
minster they haye to look over the in
terests of the Indian empire with 200.
000,000 of people they have too keep
their eye upon Cauada lest you Ameri
cans should be gobbling it up (ap
plause aud laughter,) they have to
watch Australia and New Zealand and,
South Africa, and then while all this is
to be attended to. every little local
matter pertaining to Great Britain aud
Ireland must also be discussed and
legislated upon if necessary in tne par
liament in Westminster. Fonn-tauce,
if there is a member of that abseuihlv
representing one of the most aristo
cratic constituencies of London, and if
he wants to have a gas bill or railway
bill or some other bill passed through
Westminster for the benefit of his con
stituents, it i3 within the power of say,
Mr. Dacey, who represents a por
tion of my poor county ot Mayo,
or Mr. McPherson from the north
of Scotland, to stand up and
object to any such Loudon member
passing any such local bill until the
needs of Ireland and Scotland are at
tended to. Mr. Parnell, with that far-1
seeing sagacity which characterizes
nis political career, has seen the weak-:
ness and rottenness of this systeao, and
for the iast six or seven years, with his
faithful followers, has seized upon
every available opportunity to carry on'
a policy of obstruction in Westmin
ster. It was one of his sayings at that
time that an/j«i\ce of English? parlia
mentary fea|3f&l "'W'Ojrth a ton of Engt-'/^
liah parllamptary love^and
Wis
E:
V/- i/ 4
''A
/I
1
'V'
Vl/
NUMBER 1.
and tried if the force of the British em
pire was not sufficient to put down Irish
national sentiment. Five short years ago
every weapon which the English Gov
ernment could use against us was used,
every power the great British empire
could put forth was put forth in an ef
fort to crush out the land league and
wipe out their movement which was
initiated seven years ago. What has
been the result? The man who tried
to do aii this is now before his
countrymen and before the civilized
world as the foremost champion of
Home Rule, pledged to devote the re
mainder of his life to convince his
countrymen that the best policy of
English government is to govern Ire
land by Home Rule and not by force.
4
•:M
tz
iifr-