Address, on taking the Chair, at a meeting of the Irish National
League, held at Topeka, November 5, 1885.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: I accepted the invitation given me by your
Committee, to preside at this meeting, not because I have any fitness
for or experience in the discharge of such duties, but because I wished
to testify, by my presence here, my hearty sympathy with the cause of
good government for Ireland.
I wish to say, however, frankly and with emphasis, that I do not agree
with all those who, in this country, profess devotion to Ireland. I hold
in unspeakable abhorrence any man, or association of men, who, either in
Ireland, America, or any other land, perpetrate revolting crimes in the
sacred name of Liberty, or who believe, or pretend to believe, that any
good cause or noble purpose can be promoted by assassination, or by that
weapon of cowardly hate and brutality—dynamite.
But if I understand the purposes and principles for which Charles
Stewart Parnell and his followers are contending, in Ireland, they are
those which, in America, have enlisted all the zeal and energy of my
youth, and all the devotion of my manhood. The Irish leader is seeking
to facilitate the ownership of the soil by its occupants. The first
political campaign in which I was old enough to take an interest, was
waged to open the public domain to the people under the beneficent
provisions of the Homestead act. The Irish leader is contending for the
right of every man to vote for those who are to make laws for his
government, and this right, in America, I have advocated and defended
with unfaltering devotion. The Irish leader is contending, in Ireland,
for protection to home industries, and this policy, in America, has
commanded my ardent support. The same ideas and principles that have
controlled my action in America would make me, if in Ireland, a
Nationalist. And surely the Irish people, who have fought so gallantly
for Liberty in every land, have a just right to expect the sympathy of
liberty-loving people, the world over, in their struggle for just laws
and better government.
The American people, too, have a personal interest in the Irish leader.
For more than half a century his grandfather was one of the most
distinguished officers of our navy. He was at Tripoli, with Decatur; and
he commanded, during some of her most famous battles, the renowned
frigate Constitution, “Old Ironsides.”
The grandson of Rear Admiral Charles Stewart has established his right
to leadership in Ireland by his courage, his energy, his ability, and,
above all, by his patience and moderation. A greater Irishman than he
once said that “the only Liberty that is valuable is a liberty connected
with order.” This truth Parnell has kept steadily in view. To temper the
hot blood and restrain the fiery zeal of the Irish people, and at the
same time to retain their confidence, to command their devotion, and
wisely direct their struggle for justice—this has indeed been a delicate
and difficult task. But Parnell has been equal to it. His sobriety, his
self-command, his clearness and soundness of judgment, have been
conspicuously illustrated at every stage of the contest he has waged,
and these qualities have been supplemented by ardent public spirit, and
a courage and constancy no danger could daunt, no disaster could turn
from its purpose.
Many years ago the greatest of Irish orators, Daniel O’Connell, in a
speech in Exeter Hall, London, said: “Americans, I send my voice
careering like the thunder-storm across the Atlantic, to tell South
Carolina that God’s thunderbolts are hot, and to remind the negro that
the dawn of his redemption is drawing near.”
In the same spirit, with equal earnestness, and, let us hope, with
something of O’Connell’s prophetic vision, let this meeting send across
the Atlantic its greeting to Charles Stewart Parnell, and to all those
who, with him, are striving to secure justice, good government, and a
fair chance in the battle of life for the Irish people.