Is it that these philosophers think the cup of prosperity will be so sweet and full that our laboring people cannot be allowed to drink it at one draught? [Applause and cries of "Good! good!">[ No, my countrymen, this statement implies what these gentlemen know to be true—that the effect of the proposed legislation is diminished production and diminished wages, and they desire that you shall have an opportunity to get used to it. [Applause.] But I cannot press this discussion further. I want to thank you for the cordial things you have said to me by him who has spoken for you. I trust, and have always trusted, the intelligence and conscience of our working people. [Applause.]
They will inevitably find out the truth, and when they find it they will justify it. Therefore, there are many things that have been said to which I have not and shall not allude while this contest is on. They are with you: the truth is accessible to you, and you will find it. Now, thanking you most heartily for the personal respect you have evidenced, and congratulating you upon your intelligent devotion to that great American system which has spread a sky of hope above you and your children, I bid you good-by. [Cheers.]
The crowning event of the day was the reception of several hundred members of the Irish-American Republican Club of Cook County and Chicago. The visitors were met by the Home Irish-American Protection Club, Patrick A. Ward, President, assisted by the Columbia Club and several thousand citizens. Their demonstration was one of the most notable of the campaign. This club was the first political organization in the country to congratulate General Harrison on his nomination. The evening of June 25 the club met and adopted the following, which was telegraphed the General:
The Irish-American Republican Club of Cook County, Illinois, congratulate you and the country upon your nomination. We greet the gallant soldier and true American, and rejoice with our fellow-citizens of every nationality in the glad assurance your nomination gives that the industries of our country will be protected and the honor of the Nation maintained with the same courage and devotion that distinguished you on the bloody field of Resaca. We salute the next President of the Republic.
Nathan P. Brady, President.
Leaders of the delegation were Hon. John F. Finerty, F. J. Gleason, Dennis Ward, Richard Powers, and Messrs. Russell and O'Morey. Thomas F. Byron, of Lowell, Mass., founder of the Land League in America, accompanied the club. In the absence of President Brady their spokesman was Mr. John F. Beggs. General Harrison delivered one of his happiest responses. He said:
Mr. Beggs and my Friends of the Irish-American Republican Club of Cook County, Ill.—You were Irishmen, you are Americans [cheers]—Irish-Americans [continued cheering], and though you have given the consecrated loyalty of your honest hearts to the starry flag and your adopted country, you have not and you ought not to forget to love and venerate the land of your nativity. [Great applause.] If you could forget Ireland, if you could be unmoved by her minstrelsy, untouched by the appeals of her splendid oratory, unsympathetic with her heroes and martyrs, I should fear that the bonds of your new citizenship would have no power over hearts so cold and consciences so dead. [Cheers.]
What if a sprig of green were found upon the bloody jacket of a Union soldier who lay dead on Missionary Ridge? The flag he died for was his flag and the green was only a memory and an inspiration.
We, native or Irish born, join with the Republican convention in the hope that the cause of Irish home rule, progressing under the leadership of Gladstone and Parnell [cheers] upon peaceful and lawful lines, may yet secure for Ireland that which as Americans we so much value—local home rule. [Cheering.] I am sure that you who have, in your own persons or in your worthy representatives, given such convincing evidence of your devotion to the American Constitution and flag and to American institutions will not falter in this great civil contest which your spokesman has so fittingly described. Who, if not Irish-Americans versed in the sad story of the commercial ruin of the island they love, should be instructed in the beneficent influence of a protective tariff? [Continuous cheering.] Who, if not Irish-Americans should be able to appreciate the friendly influences of the protective system upon their individual and upon their home life? Which of you has not realized that not the lot of man only, but the lot of woman, has been made softer and easier under its influence? [Applause and "Hear! hear!">[ Contrast the American mother and wife, burdened only with the cares of motherhood and of the household, with the condition of women in many of the countries of the Old World, where she is loaded also with the drudgery of toil in the field. [Applause.]
I know that none more than Irishmen, who are so characterized by their deference for women, and whose women have so fitly illustrated that which is pure in female character, will value this illustration of the good effects of our American system upon the home life. [Continued applause.]