Democratic Sentinel, Volume 11, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 April 1887 — A STIRRING APPEAL. [ARTICLE]

A STIRRING APPEAL.

Address by the President of the Irish National League of America. Headquarters Irish National League | of America, > Lincoln, Neb., March 26. ) Te the American public ana the Irishmen of America: The corporation of Dublin, the metropolitan city of Ireland, has appealed to the Christian world for the protests of humanity against the further persecution of the Irish people by the British Government. A time has come in the relations of Ireland and England when the laws of God and the dictates of humanity become superior to every rule of international etiquette, and demand from the morality of the world a stem denunciation of the course about to be pursued by the Tory Government against the Dish. The voice of America should not be silent when additional outrages are about to be inflicted on a robbed and persecuted nation. British statesmen who now champion a policy of justice to Ireland, and condemn coercion by the Tory Government as alike cruel and impolitic, did not hesitate to denounce oppression by the Turks in Bulgaria. Are the Irish less to America than the Bulgarians were to England, that Amer.ca should hesitate to interfere in Ireland’s behalf against the cruelties of the British Government? TheIrish have exhausted every means of moral and constitutional agitation to recover their just and legitimate social and political rights. The voice of Scotland and of Wales and of the mass of the British, democracy has sanctioned the efforts of Ireland, and proclaimed the justice of her cause. Gladstone, Morley, Labouchere, and every English leader worthy the name off statesman have proclaimed themselves advocates of Ireland’s claim to legislative independence. It is no longer the English people who oppose the restoration of Ireland’s liberties, but the aristocratic robbers who have throttled alike both Britain and Ireland, and have fattened for generations on public plunder with the proceeds of which they can use the lever of corruption to lilt them into power and maintain themselves there. The causa of Ireland is the cause of the British democracy, and to this fact may we attribute the bitter and unrelenting opposition of the British Tories. The Irish do not pretend to tight against the English, but against the oppressors of both. In this struggle the Irish have done all morality can demand from an oppressed nation, and now as a last effort they ask the interference of the Christian world to prevent their destruction. As President of the Irish National League of America, the representative body of the Irish race on this continent, I re-echo that appeal. I ask the American press and people to pass their verdict on the treatment now being meted out to thn Irish people by a heartless and venomblunted Tory Government. Let them say boldly if the Irish have not displayed ail the forbearance that human nature is capable of in their passive resistance to such inhuman laws as the British Government would force them to submit to. There isno law, human or divine, that compels tv nation to passively accept annihilation, and if these British Tories are permitted, to heap additional wrongs on the Irish people, despair will nerve the Irish toactive resistance and wild retaliation. The very deer turn on their pursuers when driven to bay, and if nothing will satisfy the British Government hut the destruction of the Irish people, Ireland wilL be justified before God and man in selling her life at the heaviest price shecan obtain, and in using every weapon the ingenuity of man can place within her reach. I ask the justice oc freedom-loving people of America to prevent this terrible consummation of British crime and misgovernment. Let the condemnation of the British Government’s policy in Ireland ring, from eveiy community on this continent. I ask the honest and fearless press of America to sustain the efforts of Mr. Parnell and Mr. Gladstone to inaugurate apolicy of justice and liberty iu opposition, to the tyranny of Lord Salisbury. 1 appeal most forcibly to the Irish race in America to arouse themselves to immediate action. In an especial manner I address myself to those of our blood whom God hasblessed with abundance to comd forward and share in the burdens and sacrifices of' their people. No rank or power can justify any man in refusing to identify himself with the race to which he belongs, and the man who thus shirks his duty deserves thecontempt of his fellow men. With the fullest confidence in their never-failing fidelity to Ireland, I call again upon the masses of the Dish race in. America to repeat the splendid generosity they have so often extended toward their struggling brethren in Ireland. Mr. Parnell says the immediate future wili be a time of suffering for the Irish people. With God’a help the time will not be long; hut, long or short, no Irishman must perish for want of Irish-American support, and no IrishAmerican is so poor that by self-sacrifice he cannot contribute his mite to the Irish, cause. I advise the officers of the Leaguo to make redoubled efforts to increase its membership. Every man of Irish blood in. tho United States aifd Canada should be enrolled in the League wherever it is possible, and steps should be taken to reorganize disbanded branches and establish, new ones. To those of our people living on larms too remote from each, other to form branches of the league, I will say that the Rev. Dr. O’Beilly, Detroit, Mich., will receive their subscriptons and. promptly acknowledge the same in the public press. They have every opportunity, therefore, to share in Deland’s struggle, and should lose no time in sending in their name and such contributions as their means will permit. In this crisis I also earnestly ast the assistance and support of the IribhAmerican press for the Irish Land League. Let us have one grand effective organization, with one heart and one voice pledged o sustain Mr. Parnell and his Irish associates with all our strength and influence in. their efl'orts to recover the legislative independence of Ireland, aided by Mr. Gladstone and the British democracy, who striveto replace Tory oppression with the broadprinciples of human liberty and international justice. Yours faithfully, John Fitzgebald, President I. N. L. A.