[Speech of Justin McCarthy at a dinner given in his honor, New York
City, October 2, 1886. When the speaking began, Judge Browne, who
presided, asked the audience to drink the health of Justin McCarthy,
the guest of the evening, with this quotation from Thomas Moore:--
"Here's the Poet who drinks; here's the warrior who fights;
Here's the statesman who speaks in the cause of men's rights;
Charge! hip, hip, hurrah! hurrah!"
Continuing, Judge Browne said: "We feel it a proud privilege to be
permitted to gather and do honor to one who has done honor to our name
and nation in a foreign land. When the great leader of the Irish
people was bidding you good-by at the other side of the water, he said
that the aid you had rendered him and his colleagues had largely
helped to advance the interests of Ireland in her onward march to
freedom. Our knowledge of you enables us to indorse that statement.
[Applause.] What you have written in one of our city papers has shown
us step by step the progress of the Home Rule movement. That great
work has been accomplished by the Irish leader there can be no doubt.
I witnessed it personally a few short weeks ago, when standing in the
strangers' gallery in the House of Commons, I saw a handful of Irish
members under the leadership of Parnell withstand the assaults of six
hundred English members. [Applause.] It was an awe-inspiring sight.
When one remembers that within the four walls of that small building
that group of Englishmen were making laws for three hundred millions
of people, and that the representatives of a nation numbering only
five millions were enabled to keep them in check at the bidding of
Parnell, I was struck with astonishment. Not only have the Irish
people Parnell with them now, but they have Gladstone [applause], and
more than half of the English people; and we have in addition Justin
McCarthy [prolonged applause], and with this continuation of moral
force we are certain to win Home Rule for Ireland soon. Gentlemen, I
give you the health of our guest, Justin McCarthy."]
GENTLEMEN, FRIENDS, ALL:--I am very sure you will believe that
I speak with the utmost sincerity when I say that, although much in the
habit of addressing public meetings of various kinds, friendly and
hostile, I really do feel somewhat embarrassed in rising to address this
entirely friendly meeting to-night. The warmth and the kindness of your
reception, many of you Irishmen, some of you Americans, does surprise
and does, to a great extent, overpower me. Judge Browne, your chairman,
has regretted the absence of Eugene Kelly. I myself regret his absence
on personal and on public grounds; on personal grounds for his sake, and
still more, as I am rather selfish, for my own sake. [Applause.] For his
sake because ill health keeps him away, and for my own sake because I
have never yet had the chance of meeting him, and had finally hoped that
here to-night I should have the pleasure of making his acquaintance. I
should not complain very much for myself after all, for the worthy
gentleman who fills the place of Mr. Kelly so ably--I mean Judge Browne
[applause]--has said more complimentary things of me than I really
deserve before a gathering so influential and so representative as this.
Upon the great political questions which interest me, and which interest
you, I shall perhaps have occasion to say a few words, perhaps more than
a few words Monday night, and I hope to see many of the gentlemen who
are now here present then, and if they be wavering on the question of
Home Rule I am nearly certain they will go away stanch disciples of
justice to Ireland, in a legislative sense, at all events. [Applause.]
There may be some among you who do not entirely agree with me upon my
views regarding the relations between England and Ireland. Some may
regard me with more favor as a writer of books than as an expounder of
Home Rule for Ireland. [Cries of "No! No!"] I will therefore regard this
occasion as a welcome given by you to me personally, and shall not go
into any political question whatever. Regarding myself, I may assume
this much, at least, that the question of Home Rule for Ireland is now
universally regarded in America as one of those questions bound up with
the great cause of civilization and of progress, and I entirely agree
with the chairman when he said that the Irish people in this struggle do
not entertain any feelings of hate or enmity for the English people.
[Applause.] I may say sincerely that I would not have joined the
agitation if it had been selfish and merely for the sake of Ireland
alone, and not, as it has been, a movement for the advancement of
freedom and enlightened ideas among other struggling nations of the
earth. [Applause.]
I have said over and over again, in England as well as in Ireland, that
the cause that I was advocating was one of interest and of the most
vital importance to England as well as to Ireland. [Applause.] Many
years ago I heard Mr. Bright deliver a great speech in the House of
Commons in favor of a French commercial treaty. He wound up that great
speech by saying that the adoption of that treaty would be a policy of
justice to England, and of mercy to France. I call the policy that I and
my colleagues in the English Parliament are identified with, a policy of
justice to Ireland and of mercy to England. [Applause.] I call it a
policy of mercy to England because it is a policy which shall bury
forever the rancor of centuries that has existed between Irishmen and
Englishmen; a policy which will change things so far that Ireland,
instead of being the enemy at the gate shall be the friend at the gate,
who, if need be, can speak with some effect to the enemy from without.
After a long, a very long and a very bitter agitation, we now at last
are within reach of the consummation of our hopes. [Applause.]
I am glad indeed to receive from an audience in this city, composed as
it is of many nationalities, such a hearty endorsement of the policy
which I and my people have carried out in struggling to give Ireland her
rights. I see here the Irish harp and the American stars and stripes.
Long and forever may these flags wave side by side. [Prolonged
applause.] How shall we distinguish between Irishmen and Americans? Are
the echoes which resound in this hall Irish or American echoes? [Cries
of "Both! Both!"] The voices that speak are Irish certainly, but the
roof, the walls that give back the sound are American. [Applause.] May
we not therefore claim the indistinguishable unity of nationality, of
sentiment, and of feeling?
I should be ungrateful, indeed, gentlemen, did I not express my warm
acknowledgments for this greeting which you have given me--this hearty
Irish welcome. I shall never forget the words of warmth which you have
spoken to myself personally and the expressions of encouragement which
you have given to my people and my cause. I shall tell my friends when
I go back, that among the best supporters we have upon this side are
Americans and Irish-Americans who believe firmly in the justice of
Ireland's cause and of the determined yet peaceable, strictly peaceable,
character of the struggle which Ireland's representatives are making for
the re-establishment of her Parliament in College Green. [Prolonged
applause.]