American Citizens. Thsir RightsAbruad—Their Duties at Dome. 
 
 SPEECH 
 
 OF NEW YORK, 
 
 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 
 
 JULY 17, 1888. 
 
 . Published by the Union Congressional Committee , Washington. 1). V. 
 
 Chronicle Print. 
 
SPEECH OF HON. C. H. VAN WYCK. 
 
 Mr. VAN WYCK. On the 19th day of 
 June last I introduced the following resolu¬ 
 tion: 
 
 Whereas foreign nations should not be al¬ 
 lowed to rahe the question whether American 
 citizenship was acquired by birth or adoption, 
 the rights of citizenship being the same to all 
 citizens; and whereas this Republic has pledged 
 its faith to persons of all nations that resi¬ 
 dence, renunciation of former allegiance, and 
 compliance with our laws, makes them citi¬ 
 zens here, and the honor of the nation is 
 pledged that such promises be redeemed, no 
 matter whence came the citizen or however 
 powerful the nation that denies it; and whereas 
 Great Britain has, in defiance of the law of 
 nations—a portion of her own history and the 
 results of the war of 1812 —lately established 
 in her courts the dogma “once a subject al¬ 
 ways a subject,” and has in repeated instances 
 refused to recognize the rights of American 
 citizens by denying them the privilege of 
 m'xed juries, treating as subjects of her-realm 
 many of our cif'zens who had periled life in de¬ 
 fence of this Government during the war of 
 tue rebellion, in some cases arresting and im¬ 
 prisoning for words spoken in this country: 
 Therefore, 
 
 Be it resolved , That the President of the 
 United States immediately demand from any 
 foreign country who may have imprisoned 
 American citizens for words spoken in this 
 country acknowledgment as complete and 
 ample as was made by this Government in the 
 apology for the arrest of Messrs. Mason and 
 Slidell; and if such apology be denied, he re¬ 
 port the fact to Congress for its action. Also, 
 that he demand reparation in all cases where 
 American citizens have been treated as sub¬ 
 jects of a foreign power; and that to all such 
 persons now imprisoned the rights herein 
 claimed shall be granted; and that he report 
 to this House what he has done, if anything, 
 to secure such rights and redress the wrongs 
 above set forth. 
 
 A question arising as to the treatment of 
 American citizens by Great Britain, in 
 order to ascertain the precise facts, on the 
 25th of June I submitted another resolu¬ 
 tion: 
 
 Resolved, That the President of the Uuited 
 States be requested to inform this House 
 whether any American citizens have been ar¬ 
 rested, tried, convicted, or imprisoned in Great 
 Britain for words spoken and acts done in this 
 country; whether any American citizens have 
 been by Great Britain denied their rights as 
 each, or otherwise treated as English subjects; 
 whether American citizens have been denied 
 the privilege of mixed juries; whether Ameri- 
 cm citiz-ns thus treated are now confined in 
 English prisons, and what he has done to se¬ 
 cure the release of any such persons, aud why 
 they have not been released. 
 
 Although t te information must be in the 
 files of the State Department, the ques¬ 
 tions easy of answer, no reply has as yet 
 been made. However, every reader of 
 current history knows the present claims 
 of Great Britain of perpetual allegiance, 
 
 that the accident of birth prevents a man 
 from making any other the home and 
 country of his choice. Practically with 
 no other country in Europe is there neces¬ 
 sity for solution of this grave question, 
 for with no other is there a determination 
 to ignore the American doctrine. We are 
 boasting that treaties are about being made 
 with the North German States recoguizing 
 the right of expatriation; but the North 
 German States are not in the daily habit of 
 insulting us by arresting and imprisoning 
 our citizens. 
 
 Y’ears ago Martin Kostza, a Hungarian, 
 only having declared his intention to be¬ 
 come an American citizen, while under the 
 protection of the American flag was seized 
 by Austria. Captain Ingrabam, though a 
 thousand miles from home, with nothing of 
 his country but the deck on which he trod, 
 the flag above, and the gallant men around 
 him, demanded that the haughty tyrant re¬ 
 lease Kostza, and unless he was restored in 
 the time limited the sound of American 
 cannon should reecho from the shores of 
 the Mediterranean. Marcy, then Secre¬ 
 tary of State, made haste to affirm the action 
 of Captain Ingraham, and the great national 
 heart, as if by electric impulse, sprang forth 
 to greet him as a hero and doubly ratified 
 the deed. Was it because Austria was weak 
 we compelled her to her duty? Within 
 a few months Great Britain has seized over 
 three hundred American citizens, many of 
 whom bad defeuded the flag when in peril, 
 placed them in dungeons, and at least a 
 dozen are pining in a long series of penal 
 servitude in defiance of our rights and 
 contempt of our power as a nation. The 
 Administration looks coldly on, and by its 
 non-formal interference acquiesces in the 
 conduct of Great Britain. Uur citizens are 
 subject to indignities such as no other na¬ 
 tion, however powerless, would tolerate 
 without at least a manly protest. 
 
 When the elder Adams was President, 
 and Ruius King Minister at St. James, and 
 Irish patriots, such as Emmet, desired 
 passports, he declined on the ground that 
 America had enough such republicans. For 
 just such acts the Federal party was hurled 
 from power. Another administration—no 
 better than the old Federal—is now in 
 place. The elder Adams is in his grave ; 
 hut the family representative, and the rep¬ 
 resentative of Federalism, was Minister at 
 England, and he was ready to fawn on 
 royalty and bend a supple knee to English 
 dictation. He s“emed to manifest no sym¬ 
 pathy for the citizens of his country in 
 prison. Many of those three hundred 
 have been released, but upon conditions, 
 more humiliating than imprisonment, that 
 they would never again return to that 
 country. While fresh from our victory 
 
4 
 
 over the greatest rebellion the world ever 
 witnessed, boasting our power against a 
 world in arms, we concede an inability to 
 protect our own citizens who have just 
 come with the smell of battle on their 
 garments and the scars of conflict on their 
 persons. The representatives of this great 
 Government stand trembling in presence 
 of royalty with hat in hand, instead of 
 knocking at the door of her court and 
 demanding, in the name of a free people, 
 that the sanctity of the American citizen 
 shall be respected. Is England so power¬ 
 ful she shall not do what Austria did ? 
 Are we so base that we 'demand from Aus¬ 
 tria what we beg from England ? Before 
 Great Britain would submit to such indig¬ 
 nities, her cannon would echo from moun¬ 
 tain peak to mountain peak, until the 
 circuit of the world would hear its roar. 
 
 However she may treat her own subjects, 
 England stops not to count the cost when 
 seeking redress for injuries inflicted by 
 other nations upon them. Her citizens 
 violate the laws of Theodore, King of 
 Abyssinia, are imprisoned, and, to relieve 
 them, an army marches into his dominions, 
 slays the king, destroys his strongholds, 
 and burns his capitol, lest the Abyssinians 
 may do some other injury to her subjects. 
 England graciously assumes the labor of 
 ruling that country for the future. For 
 three hundred years the pretext of protect¬ 
 ing her citizens has been more the reason 
 for trampling on weaker nations, to punish 
 and subjugate them. So she did through 
 tyranny in India, opium in China, and 
 poison in New Holland. When she plants 
 her foot on a territory she never leaves it. 
 She makes her depredations a right, her 
 piracies a title ; and during all the three 
 hundred years the increase of her power 
 and the crimes she has committed against 
 the nations, much of what she calls na¬ 
 tional glory, has been upheld and sus¬ 
 tained by her army, a large portion of 
 which has been that very Irish population 
 to w 7 hom this day she denies the right of 
 expatriation. 
 
 In her treatment of other nations Eng¬ 
 land has been a great freebooter, spurning 
 the claims of others which she demanded 
 with an iron will. We are to be restrained 
 from exacting our rights lest the great 
 rover may consider it a threat. England 
 protects her citizens even in questionable 
 rights the world over, and makes it a pre¬ 
 text for extending her power and domi¬ 
 nions; and shall we falter in demanding 
 those rights which are the life of this Re¬ 
 public, without which we never could 
 have existence or power among the na¬ 
 tions ? 
 
 We supposed this question had been set¬ 
 tled with Great Britain in the war of 1812. 
 Taking men, though born in England, from 
 American vessels was no greater offence 
 than immuring in English dungeons Amer¬ 
 ican citizens born in Ireland; but the 
 
 gauntlet, though the bloody one of war, 
 was thrown down by England; we took it 
 up, and upon the land and upon the sea 
 we triumphed. Any other nation but Eng¬ 
 land would have recognized the result of 
 that war. Most any government but ours 
 would have insisted that England respect 
 those victories. Undoubtedly the British 
 aristocracy do not like the Irish people, as 
 they do not us, (“I mean the loyal portion 
 of this Republic;”) for the rebels they did 
 have some bowels of compassion. They 
 loaned money and took cotton bonds as 
 security. They built war vessels, manned 
 them with English sailors, equipped them 
 with English outfits, and let them forth to 
 drive our commerce from the ssas. They 
 built fast steamers, loaded them with ne¬ 
 cessaries, munitions of war, and then run 
 our blockade. £he furnished a home in 
 England for agents of the rebellion, and in 
 Canada a rendezvous for the bandit crew 
 to organize murder, arson, and scatter 
 seeds of pestilence within our borders. 
 When the Trent was boarded by Admiral 
 Wilkes and the brace of traitors, Mason 
 and Slidell, were arrested, to answer the 
 violated laws of their country, she made 
 haste to demand the restoration of their 
 bodies and ample apology for the contempt 
 we had shown to the offended sovereignty 
 of Great Britain; yet she must be allowed 
 more zeal for American criminals than we 
 can manifest for American citizens. 
 
 When we speak ol England in this con¬ 
 nection, we refer to her ruling classes, to 
 her aristocracy, to those who claim that 
 they are booted and spurred and have a 
 hereditary right to govern. We are to day 
 proud of English history—proud of the 
 occasional triumphs of her sturdy yeomanry 
 from the time when the Roman conqueror 
 first planted the eagle of Italy on the 
 rocks of Great Britain and returned to tell 
 of a stony island in the ocean and of the 
 rugged barbarians who dwelt in its glens 
 and hunted on its cliffs. Many a time were 
 English tyrants compelled to bow before 
 the indignant Briton. The pride of the 
 Norman princes were humbled when upon 
 King John the assembled barons imposed 
 Magna Charta. The nation w T as avenged 
 for the isolence and tyranny of the Tudors 
 when a haughty line of monarchs went 
 down in blood, and the septre was grasped 
 by Cromwell. For centuries her struggling 
 masses have been ridden by the few; now and 
 then rising in the majesty of their power, 
 they have dashed tneir riders in the dust. 
 Her middle classes sympathised with us in 
 our contest, for in our success was fore¬ 
 shadowed their deliverance. For centuries 
 the party of freedom, against great odds, 
 have struggled long and patiently, gaining 
 by slow degrees, rescuing little by little 
 something of human rights from the grasp 
 of the oppressor. Long her landed aristo¬ 
 cracy held a vice-like grasp. The people 
 were forbearing and forgiving. The corn 
 
5 
 
 laws, oppressing so many, were submitted 
 to until to the sense of injustice the dread 
 of starvation was added, and England’s 
 nobility were saved by consenting t ) blot 
 out the infamous code. 
 
 Of the struggles of England poor and 
 oppressed for centuries, we are proud. All 
 of her late history and liberty that is 
 valuable has been earned by them ; and 
 each victory over wrong widens the 
 plane of vision and gives hope for greater 
 benefits. Liberalism obtained Magna 
 Charta, and the centuries between her 
 achieved liberties based on that victory, 
 until the exertions of their immediate suc¬ 
 cessions have culminated in the triumphs 
 of the same class hated by Bright and Glad¬ 
 stone. To-day liberty-loving Englishmen, 
 like Bright and Gladstone, acknowledge 
 the hardship, while they advocate the rights 
 of Irishmen. We only arraign that por¬ 
 tion of England which is in sympathy with 
 oppression and wrong—that portion like 
 unto Dickens, who had not one word of 
 sympathy during our struggle—whose in¬ 
 fluence and assistance threw against us, 
 yet after rebellion had proved a failure, 
 and Americans were frantic in an endeavor 
 to dine and wine him, entertained them 
 with the cheap declaration that next to 
 their own flag they loved that of the United 
 States, passing by entirely the love they 
 had for the stars and bars. English aris¬ 
 tocracy, which has always opposed us, to¬ 
 day are denying the right of expatriation. 
 Our national life depends on the recogni¬ 
 tion of this doctrine. We invite popula¬ 
 tion from all nations of the earth, throw 
 open our doors, give a farm of one hun¬ 
 dred and sixty acres to whoever will come 
 and occupy the land, expect them to be 
 citizens in peace and soldiers in war, yet 
 conceding we have not power to protect 
 them in their chosen and cherished nation¬ 
 ality—that if they desire to revisit the homes 
 and graves of their fathers, or business 
 draws them thither, the dogma of perpetual^ 
 allegiance enables the discarded govern-' 
 ment to seize the person and compel alle¬ 
 giance by serving in their armies and navies. 
 
 Should war ensue between this country 
 and Great Britain, every naturalized citi¬ 
 zen from England, Ireland, and Scotland, 
 who served in our armies would do so at 
 the peril, if captured as a prisoner, of 
 being tried and punished as a traitor 
 agaiust Great Britain. The proportion 
 needs no argument; its vital importance is 
 evidenced by the mere statement and crim¬ 
 inal neglect of a Government that would 
 not demand it; as a Chicago platform says, 
 “ at all hazards ,” is open to the scorn ol 
 the world. When President Johnson was 
 asked to secure the release of American 
 citizens he asked for additional legislation. 
 The Democratic party boasted the control 
 of this Government for half a century, yet 
 they failed to incorporate any such legisla¬ 
 tion on the statute book. The law of na¬ 
 
 tions give authority necessary to save thj 
 nation’s life and to defend its citizens. Thj 
 | Chicago platform pledges the party to thj 
 doctrine ; the House of Representatives bi 
 an almost unanimous vote passed the bill 
 providing for its enforcement, yet the Senatl 
 stand halting, fearing the English lion mai 
 roar and shake its bloody mane at us if wl 
 dare declare what rights belong to Ameril 
 can citizenship, and how far the worlj 
 must respect them. 
 
 England, true to her many inconsisten] 
 icies, has acknowledged the right of expal 
 jtriation, which is a necessary consequencl 
 of emigration. Old Pharoah undertook tj 
 deny to the Israelites the privilege to emj 
 grate from Egypt, but he fared badly in th 
 i attempt. Greece and Rome acknowledge] 
 the right. Systems of naturalization prd 
 vailed with them. Cicero says : “Oh 
 glorious right by which no man can be 
 citizen of more than one commonwealth-] 
 by which no man can be compelled to leav 
 it against his will, nor remain in it again] 
 his inclinations.’’ 
 
 All writers on natural law will admit tha 
 'expatriation is a natural right, and may b 
 exercised when it is not forbidden by law] 
 In Eagland there was never such a law. 
 
 I In the year 1803, a society in Scotian] 
 procured from Parliament an act, the objed 
 of which was declared to be to prevent thj 
 hardships and abuses to which the highlan 
 emigrant was exposed. An act regulating, 
 not restraining emigration. The real objed 
 of this law, according to Lord Selkirk, wd 
 |to discourage emigration. Still here was 
 'sanction of the British Parliament. At a] 
 early period it adopted the idea that it wd 
 lawful to throw off allegiance, as appead 
 ; by statute of fourteen and fifteen of Hemj 
 iVIII, passed in the year 1523, entitle] 
 ! “what customs and impositions English 
 'men sworn to foreign princes shall pay.] 
 jit also allowed foreigners to be citizens b 
 a law passed in the thirteenth year d 
 ; George II: “Foreign seamen who sha 
 jbave served two years in a ship of war an 
 ipso facto naturalized British subjects^ 
 other classes are by different statutes natd 
 ralized to all intents and purposes as if the 
 had been born British subjects.” 
 
 In the time of Queen Anne a law wd 
 passed naturalizing all foreign Protestants 
 ! This law was repealed because it wasfoun 
 'to be inexpedient, and not from any doulj 
 of the power or right of the Governmen 
 on the subject of naturalization. The sta] 
 ute of 13 George II is confirmed by 2 
 George III, chapter 20, section 2: “Fron 
 and after the 1st day of January, 1736, md 
 rines who shall have served for the spaced 
 two years on board of any of his Majesty 
 ships of w T ar, merchant, or trading vessel] 
 shall, to all intents and purposes, bedeema 
 and taken to be natural born subjects d 
 his Majesty’s Kingdom of Great Britain. 
 Thus the British doctrine of perpetua 
 1 allegiance is contradicted by the Britia 
 
6 
 
 practice of naturalization. English deci- 
 fions, like English statutes, have made 
 pipwreck of their own dogma. 
 
 The theory of perpetual allegiance grew 
 ut of the feudal system, when fealty was 
 ue from the subject, as tenant came 
 rom tenure and not from birth. Lands 
 [ere held on condition of military 
 ervice. Why retain one of the ind¬ 
 ents of this system when the system itself 
 as perished? 
 
 I In discussing the question, we of neces- 
 ity antagonize England, and are defend- 
 bg, necessarily, the rights, among others, 
 f naturalized citizens from Ireland ; yet 
 pey are our own rights. Without their ac- 
 nowledgment, our boast as a Republic is 
 one. And of what value can it be to 
 ay, “I, too, am an American citizen !” 
 t is a matter of regret that many of our 
 eople say, “Irishmen are against uni- 
 ersal liberty and free suffrage ; their sym- 
 athies in this country are with the Con- 
 prvative party, which has the sympathy 
 f their conservative oppressors at home.” 
 p is also to be regretted that there is too 
 puch truth for such sentiment. It seems 
 Imost incredible that any foreigner whose 
 eck has been, chafed by the yoke of op- 
 ression should aid a party who denies 
 pe right of liberty to all men. In other 
 buntries men are treated as slaves—denied 
 pe rights of citizenship—who are white, 
 p. England and Ireland the white man is 
 bpt a hewer of wood and drawer of 
 rater, with the same indifference the 
 lack man was here. The argument is 
 pe same, that all men are not. fit to be free, 
 pd should not exercise the elective fran- 
 pise. The man who has felt the yoke of 
 bndage and then wants to keep any 
 tartion of the human family, no matter 
 pe color of the skin, in slavery, does not 
 Csire himself to be free. 
 
 | The meanness of caste in this country 
 p account of color is no more wicked 
 aan the caste of nation, religion, or blood 
 i Great Britain. Conservatives here talk 
 If a white man’s government; in Great 
 Iritain it is only a certain kind of -white 
 ian’s blood entitled to consideration, 
 ne claim is equally as valid as the other. 
 f he only hope for the world is in liberty 
 )r all men, and until that thought is crys- 
 Llized into warm, zealous action by all 
 kers of liberty, there will be little of ad- 
 ancement for the oppressed. Restrict 
 eedom to color, caste, and blood, and you 
 returning back the hands on the dial of 
 eedom. You are not ushering the world 
 pm the eclipse of ages of oppression; and 
 [r fear the unfortunate black man should 
 b free would tuna upon the oppressed 
 rhite man, centuries more of burthen, 
 may be natural for Irishmen to be Demo- 
 rats—it is a tradition of his nation. He 
 Imembers the injustice of the administra- 
 bn of Adams, and that Jefferson, the 
 Ither of Democracy, opened his heart and 
 
 this nation as a refuge; that Jackson, him¬ 
 self an Irishman, was in sympathy with 
 his fatherland; but Democracy then was 
 not a conservative party. Jefferson and 
 Jackson were radicals in those days. The 
 vitality of Democratic principles was stifled 
 when the old party came under the con¬ 
 trol, as it did, of the biding of slave lords 
 of the South, and was sought to be made 
 the stalking horse to carry slavery through¬ 
 out the Republic. 
 
 I ask an Englishman how much the con 
 servative Democrat in this country would 
 regard him were it not for the ballot he 
 wields; and while he is chaffering about 
 the right of the negro, let him ask himself 
 the question, what would be his chance of 
 protection in the country at the hands of 
 Conservatives without it. They would 
 damn him with the same unction they do 
 the negro. Have they forgotten, even with 
 that, what they suffered a few years ago at 
 the hands of mobs, who burned churches 
 and convents, and also a few years later, 
 through know-nothing councils, awakened 
 national prejudices and religious hates; 
 yet to-day a large portion of the Irish are 
 under the leadership of the Brooks and 
 the class of men whose influence was to. 
 burn churches, and “to put none but 
 Americans on guard.” The same men 
 who awoke the spirit of violence to burn 
 your churches aroused the hellish spirit of 
 hate in the breasts of some of your people 
 in an infamous riot in New York city to 
 burn orphan asylums and murder women 
 and children because they were black. 
 Your churches were burned, yet you were 
 white. Was the crime any less than the 
 other, when a mob destroyed asylums and 
 murdered, because the "occupants were 
 black? 
 
 You want Ireland free. It never will 
 be until you love liberty for liberty’s sake, 
 and believe in it enough that you desire 
 men of all castes, religion, and colors shall 
 enjov it. Then the deliverance of your 
 fatherland will be nigh. You are now only 
 used as a tail to fly the Democratic kite— 
 not so much to be censured as men like 
 Brooks and Seymour, who seek to curtail 
 liberty because they are opposed to its ex¬ 
 tension whether to the children of African, 
 Erin, or Crete. Strange that the Demo¬ 
 cratic party has infused its hatred into the 
 Irish mind, for the Catholic Church is the 
 most liberal to the African of all religious 
 denominations. The great O’Connell, 
 whose heart was the home of Irish joys 
 and Irish sorrows, the ocean of whose 
 philanthropy knew no share in despised 
 slavery, and would not receive as a gift 
 money from unrequitted toil, with pro¬ 
 phetic vision said : “ I pray God that 
 
 you may do away with this dreadful sys¬ 
 tem, and then your nation will be fair as the 
 sun, clear as the moon, and more terrible 
 to the gray-headed aristocracy of’Europe 
 than an army with banners.” 
 
The Republican party believes that all 
 nations should enjoy liberty, and I here 
 protest that any feeling of antagonism 
 should exist against Ireland, even though a 
 large proportion of our Irish-born citizens 
 should attempt to restrict it to the condition 
 of color in this country. We believe that 
 the Cretan, the Hungarian, the Irishman, 
 the African, all should be free, all shades 
 of color, all grades and shades of religious 
 faith, all races of men, not by reason of 
 physical development or mental endow¬ 
 ment. but alone by the title of manhood 
 which the Almighty stamped at the day of 
 the creation of man in his image, when he 
 placed a heart in his breast and a brain in 
 his head. We intend to struggle for that 
 full fruition and complete development. 
 Yet Irishmen in this country, by opposi¬ 
 tion to universal liberty, may delay the 
 coming of that glorious time. Had the 
 bulk of the Irish population here warmly 
 sympathized with us in our late struggle, 
 had they steadily refused to be made the 
 tools of Seymour and the Copperheads, do 
 they not know that the regard they mani¬ 
 fested for us and universal liberty would 
 have been doubly repaid, and that when 
 the time came for them to strike the 
 shackles from Ireland’s nationality, a power 
 from this country would have gone up with 
 them which would have opened every 
 prison door, and, if England staked the 
 chances of opposition, would have trampled 
 her throne in the dust and thrown it in the 
 sea. 
 
 To every nation in Europe striving to be 
 free we owe a debt of gratitude. It is a 
 tribute they are paying to the spirit of 
 American liberality, and gives promise of 
 the time when the chill of death shall 
 gether about the heart of despotism. A 
 cold conservatism has long enough dead¬ 
 ened our sympathies for the oppressed. 
 Monarchs may combine for the protection 
 of each and to preserve the balance of 
 power. How soon would a republic in 
 Europe be torn as a gentle kid' by the 
 fierce wolves of arbitrary power so that 
 freedom should never have a foothold? 
 Italy must be sundered and Poland dis¬ 
 membered so that crowns should rest more 
 securely on the heads of tyrants. In the 
 fierce struggle of 1848, this Republic was 
 as powerless as though European mon¬ 
 archs had bound her hand and foot. The 
 time must come when we will be allowed 
 the same sympathy and support to freedom 
 that absolute power yields to despotism. 
 Did we do our duty, to-day the gallant 
 band of Cretans in their island fortress 
 would not, single handed, be engaged in a 
 deadly struggle with the Turks. 
 
 As the arguments, so the customs and 
 laws of despots in all ages have been the 
 same. The English code in Ireland was 
 an outburst of religious hate, and a bate of 
 races—the substratum of all despotism is 
 hate. Phaioah’s oppression, England’s 
 
 oppression, and the slaveholder’s opprei 
 sion was substantially the same. Whitl 
 men in England governed white men il 
 Ireland with the same code that rebels, gal 
 vanized into State governments by John! 
 son, endeavored to impose on the freedmed 
 no suffrage; while in Ireland was three pel 
 cent, to vote, and even then commenced I 
 long martyrdom and terrible agony likl 
 that under which the negro bends to-day il 
 ten States, with the empty mockery of thl 
 ballot at the peril of life, not allowed tl 
 carry arms; no education of children 
 not allowed to leave residence after sunsa 
 —in Ireland after the curfew; no intermal 
 riage of Catholics with Protestants; killinl 
 of an Irishman by an Englishman no felon j| 
 denial of the right to sit on juries, for Ena 
 land held the courts and press and gave itl 
 own coloring to what it called Ireland] 
 complaints, and what she called Ireland] 
 Outrages. The outside world only kncl 
 of Ireland through seven hundred of itl 
 dark and bloody years through Englis] 
 historians; so the world knew but little d 
 the system of slavery except through thl 
 slaveholders’ press. The African commit 
 ted no crime whereby he was enslaved, anl 
 is now sought to be disfranchised. Thl 
 Irishman committed no crime, that for sevel 
 hundred years he has been deprived of ha 
 rights as a nation and subjected to all thl 
 indignities which cruelty could suggest. 
 
 It is natural the English Conservative! 
 should oppose the enfranchisement of ird 
 land. It is natural conservative Democrat! 
 should o.ppose liberation and suffrage t| 
 the African, but it is unnatural tl^at Iri? I 
 men should deny freedom and its bene'fil 
 to any human being, no matter the aoll 
 of his skin, the extent of his mental! c 
 pacity, or the degredation from whie h a 
 is raised. Slavery debased in igno> .anl 
 the negro, and then pointed to that ignl 
 ranee as a reason why he should n ot I 
 elevated. England for centuries dis roba 
 Ireland of his nationality, took aw ay tfl 
 land from its ancient owners, so tl aat a 
 peasantry had no claim to the cotl age \ 
 the acre on which they lived, d< priva 
 them of the necessaries of life, so tin jy su 
 sisted at one time on sea-weed an d pot 
 toes, and in miserable hovels. ! Ha via 
 stripped them of property, education, an 
 everything that makes life happy, \ >oint i 
 their miserable condition as a reasi >n thd 
 should be longer oppressed. 
 
 We have a right to sympathize with a 
 nations struggling to be free; from all nJ 
 tions came those who planted the germ q 
 a republic amid the blasts of water, tn 
 bowlings of the wilderness, and the deadl 
 whoops of the savage; from all nation 
 were filled the serried ranks which carrie 
 the flowery standard through seven years d 
 war; from then till now from all natioru 
 comes that continually-recruited army 
 which not less than the hosts that unfurle 
 its standard at Bunker Hill and took thl 
 
8 
 
 f 
 
 I British coldrs down at Yorktown, is entitled 
 Po be called the army of liberation, as the 
 Emigrant multitude, armed with imple¬ 
 ments of labor, smite the forest and the 
 >rairie from the morning until the evening, 
 Lnd plant in advance of the ages to come 
 he starry banner of the nation against the 
 'rontier sky. 
 
 • We do owe a debt of gratitude to Ireland 
 por what she has contributed to the world 
 nd our own history. She has given states¬ 
 men, orators, and poets, unrivalled in the 
 arth. Sheridan, the first of orators; Wel¬ 
 lington, the great soldier; the sweetest poet 
 hf the language was Moore; the most vigo- 
 ous writer was Swift; the greatest statesman 
 Vas Burke; Commodore Perry, of our own 
 lavy, whom the English could not bribe 
 or sixty thousand pounds and a captaincy 
 *f an English frigate. The Irish have pro¬ 
 duced generals and marshals of France, 
 >pain, Austria, Russia, and Sardinia; fur- 
 dshed magnates of the empire and grandees 
 f Spain. They renewed the wars against 
 England under the banners of her enemies. 
 Their valor was arrayed against her at Ro- 
 niliies, Almanza, and Lanfeldt. She en- 
 ountered it in the service of Spain at Gib- 
 altar; under Lally at Pondicherry, and it 
 urned the day against the iron steadfast- 
 less of her infantry at Fontenoy. The 
 rish blood has given a ruler to Spain in 
 he person of O’Donnell, a hero to France 
 n McMahon. 
 
 1 After the revolution of 1688, William and 
 Mary discouraged manufacturing in Ire- 
 and, and many came early to this coun- 
 ry—men like the Clintons of New York, 
 he Carrolls efi Maryland. To Massachu- 
 etts came Berkley, in 1729, who, at his 
 avorite retreat at Narragansett bay, wrote: 
 
 -Westward the course of empire takes its way; 
 
 The four first acts already past, 
 t fifth shtll close the drama with the day— 
 
 Time’s noblest offspring is the last. 
 
 They enlisted early in the war of the 
 evolution. Patrick Henry was its most 
 lislinguished orator. In England, headed 
 >y Burke, Barre, and Sheridan, spoke 
 ind wrote in our defence. While in France 
 McMahon, Dillon, Fermoy, and Conway, 
 vere ready to and did volunteer. Richard 
 Montgomery, John Sullivan, George Clin- 
 on, and Anthony Wayne were among the 
 irst brigadiers in the patriot army; and 
 hrough the war one-third of the active 
 •hiefs were of Irish birth or descent. 
 
 Our navy was started under command of 
 m Irishman, and when the flag of the 
 Jnion was agreed on, Captain John Bar- 
 ng, a wonderful man, was the first to 
 
 hoist it over the Lexington. John Dunlap, 
 an Irishman, in 1771, printed the first daily 
 paper in America. He was printer to the 
 convention of 1774 and the first Congress; 
 the first who printed the Declaration of In¬ 
 dependence, which was first copied by 
 Charles Thompson, and first read to the 
 people by Colonel John Nixon, and in 1815 
 first published with fac-simiies by John 
 Burns—all Irishmen. Nine out of the 
 fifty-six persons signing the Declaration, 
 six of the thirty-six delegates by whom the 
 Constitution of 1787 was promulgated, were 
 of Irish origin. The first Governor of 
 Pennsylvania after the war was a native of 
 Dublin. Among Senators were two, and 
 among Representatives in Congress the 
 same number of Irishmen. From that race 
 were early advocates of internal improve¬ 
 ments. Sullivan, of Massachusetts, pro¬ 
 jected the Middlesex canal. In 1784 Chris¬ 
 topher Colles petitioned the Legislature of 
 New York on the importance of uniting 
 the Western lakes to the Atlantic; also, 
 Robert Fulton; while the most distinguished 
 mathematician on the continent was Robert 
 Adrain. These were some of the studious 
 men, stout-hearted wrestlers with formida¬ 
 ble problems, patient bearers for truth’s 
 sake of ridicule and reproach, we most boast 
 of and enjoy. 
 
 In the navy, 1814, Blakely commanded 
 the Wasp, which defeated the Reindeer; 
 Thomas McDonough, with Stephen De¬ 
 catur, distinguished himself in the attack 
 on Tripoli, 1805; and in 1814, on Lake 
 Champlain, with 86 guns, defeated the 
 British fleet with 95. Charles Stewart 
 was the fifth commodore Ireland gave to 
 America. 
 
 Thus these noble men helped to make 
 this a refuge for their posterity from the 
 oppression of England ; and they did hope, 
 in the coming time, from out this Republic 
 would go forth an influence which, if it did 
 not redress the wrongs of seven hundred 
 years, would at least plant the sunburst 
 in glory once more, and the harp, if not 
 rung again in Tara’s Halls, might sound 
 notes of freedom through the Celtic heart, 
 and proclaim that Ireland was not only 
 restored to her place among the nations, 
 but that the mantle adorned her shoulders 
 and the casket of freedom, not with parti¬ 
 colored stars, but refulgent with universal 
 liberty, might appear in enduring light to 
 strengthen the hearts and nerve the pur¬ 
 poses of Europe’s struggling millions. 
 That day must come—how soon will be 
 determined by the manner in which Irish¬ 
 men discharge their duties in America.