Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 August 1884 — Blaine and the Irish Vote. [ARTICLE]

Blaine and the Irish Vote.

As Mr. Blaine has been casting a snecirtl bait for ihe lii.-h vote he lias thus i hall ng :d me ri-< polling of his record’during >he Know-Nothing excitement before he became a purveyor in contracts or began to get rich out «if bis Congre-sional servicesAt th:it lime, the most innocent he lis-t known since c.hildlu»»d’3 hours, Mr. Blaiue was the editor of a newspaper. As usual with such m»-u, lie bad views which hv express)d with the freshness necessary to lire pr, fission. lli demagogy had not. then been fully developed aiul a- ii<- lived in a non* tabling only a small p>ti>:i of fie • cigner.s, tie could dotin' ts< afford to bo frank and outspoken in ihe expression of liis real sehtiments inward them. During thos- halcyon days lie used the foliowing language Li an editorial in the Kennebec i Ale.) Journal: “We need strii g nt laws to regulate ♦he Irish immigration from Europe * * * Ts the uresent abus s are not cor reeled, and coir cted speedily, we ahail become worse titan Botany Bay, in fact wc are worse now, for more Irith reacli here in a single year In u were ever trausporied t<> Hie penal cotonics in teu years. And these convicts and fi lons have hardly got 0»r dust upon their feet ,'c.foro Mrcv are allow,- , :c vote nd control «Hn- demons. 'Ail if. with tln-sc lac.B plain as the : .Jit, )i,-u r.gogu 3 will tell us ih it ouf L .inpean immigration is a benefit, to us. We hope, and we sincerely believe, the d-v is not far distant when this whole subject will be impartially reviewed by tire law making power, and the just and honorable pride of being an American citizen will suffer no bin li from having oar pafermd rights bestowed in till I equality Upon those wlio are Hot ot our household,” It is. i litiesting to compare these em» puatie and clear-cut utterances of the editor, having no reasons for concealment, with the noisy pretensions of friendship in thebe later days. Vet it

wa» duiing those times that the f reigru lairn cit:z**i*K needed support and encourage ment. If ever. Kuow~N«lhing mobs weie then engaged in burning ltongis. oestioying churches, breaking vn meetings, rrolnbiting them from voting and murdering them in almost * very inti* rtnnt citv in the North. Not only could Mr- Blaine find no words in which to condemn these outrages, but he did everything in his power to keep them g« ing. Then the Irish in thir country were eo pared with the penal settlement at Botany Bay and characterized as ‘‘convicts and felons.” All this Is now changed In9pHoofMr* Blaine and his Know-Nothing auxiliaries and associates this the most dangerous agitation ever known in Ameri an politics, was overcome, and foreign-born citizen- have not only secured the rights guars ti”cd them bv the Constitution, bui tinv have made tbem-elves felt ns trap Am r*cnnß in both p* ee and war. They i o longer need the intervention ..I noisy politicians to protect them from violence or to assure them the privileges of men and citizens. Neither do they need the patronage of bitter ene mies who have chi nged only as they hive become aspiring demagogues. But it is now that Mr. Blaine pushes himself to die front with noisy pretensions of friendship in the hope that he may thus hide his hideous record and by the aid of foreign-born votes ride into a place where he may carry out nig real sentiments. He cannot, however, hoodwink intelligent men or make the black in Ii is record of Know-Nothing times appear white with only the Mulligan letters as a kal.-omine.