Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 September 1884 — The Alleged Irish Defection. [ARTICLE]

The Alleged Irish Defection.

The Chicago Daily News, an Independent newspaper, in an editorial headed "The Irish Defection,* says: Unless all signs fall, the great Irish defection from the ranks of the Democracy in 1884 is going to amount to about as much as in previous years. As usual, the Republicans are making much ado over accessions of Irish Democrats. A few far-sighted politicians, like Frank Pixley of the San Franclsoo Argonaut, refuse to believe it, and openly ridicule the attempt to coddle the Irish, who, they say, by tradition and association belong to the Democracy. Gen. Martin T. McMahon, of New York, who is one of the best-posted Irishmen in that looalitv, says that he finds a few Irishmen "who sav they will not support Mr. Cleveland, but I think they are largely men who have Some personal grievance." In this category we suppose Senator Grady must be placed. Cleveland objected to his return to the New York Legislature because he was a mischief-maker, and Grady naturally resented this action of the Governor. An address of Butler’s in New York in 1866, when he denounced the Irish-American voters in the vilest language, is being used with terrific effect against the universal friend of the people “for his own purposes only. ” Judge William H. Kelly, of New York, agrees with Gen. McMahon, and says that the Irish in America have never held a high place in Mr. Blaine’s opinion, and that his love for them "is concurrent with his aspirations for the Presidency.” But perhaps the strongest utterance in favor of the Democracy addressed to Irish hearts comes from the lips of Mrs. Parnell. She savs: "I most assuredly think that Irishnv n would best serve their interests by voting the Democratic ticket. There can be no question that the Democratic party is the party for the workingmen to support, and the party which will best care for the interests of citizens of foreign birth. Under Republican rule we have had not only too much red tape but too much centralization, which is a temptation to people in power. There can be no question that the home-rule instincts of the Irish race are all against Blaine and the Republican party. These instincts will lead the vast majority of them to vote the Democratic ticket this year, as usual.