As a Protestant Irishman, I repudiate the policy, and pity the men with my whole soul, who in ignorant bigotry and misguided zeal—in which they were encouraged by their English masters—persecuted hundreds of their fellow-countrymen whose only offense was that they desired a rational measure of civil and religious liberty, and may the day never dawn when any of my countrymen shall be hounded again with the inhuman cry, “To hell or Connaught.”
The skies are brightening. “The blood of our martyrs as the seed of liberty is bearing golden fruit.” We have the emancipation of the farmer through Gladstone; the emancipation of the taxpayers, the county councils through Balfour. What a change as compared with Salisbury’s statement in 1884, in debate on Mr. Gladstone’s franchise bill when Salisbury was opposing the extension of this franchise to Ireland: We warned you when you gave the ballot to Ireland, and were we wrong?
The Irish Presbyterian clergy are, by poorly informed people, supposed to be of the Orange cult. Not so! There are seven hundred Presbyterian clergymen in Ireland, and I am certain that not half a dozen of these are in actual or tangible touch with the Orange society.
The Rev. Mr. Nelson spoke further for the amalgamation of all classes of Irishmen. He dwelt on the misconception of Irish matters here, as illustrated by the Providence Journal’s statement recently that the government’s scheme of a Catholic University in Ireland had been dropped owing to opposition of Orange bigots. Such opposition would have little weight, he said. The principal opposition arose from the attitude of the Presbyterians of Ireland toward the proposed measure,—an opposition which was in no degree influenced by religious prejudice. “I speak what I know,” said he. “It was opposed solely on the ground that non-sectarian education is in their judgment the best policy both for the healing of past dissensions and the development of future citizenship in beloved Ireland.”
Address by Hon. John D. Crimmins.
Hon. John D. Crimmins of New York referred to the part Irishmen in Pennsylvania and elsewhere took in the Revolutionary War. He also spoke of men of Irish blood in the business world, saying that with their aggressiveness they should push forward and develop themselves in mercantile life. Mr. Crimmins spoke as a business man against an Anglo-American alliance. He said that if the government wanted to expand its territory he was with it, and we were strong enough to manage alone. Speaking of trusts, Mr. Crimmins said that they were largely experimental, and if the people thought they were injurious to their interests they had it entirely in their own hands to rectify the mistake by voting out of office the party that fostered them.
Capt. E. O’Meagher Condon of New York spoke on the enforced emigration of Irishmen and women to the colonies, under the English penal laws.
Joseph Smith of Lowell, Mass., made an appeal for funds to continue the publication work of the Society.
Hon. John C. Linehan gave some interesting historical information regarding Irish settlers in northern New York.