People's Pilot, Volume 2, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 March 1893 — GLADSTONE AND HIS BILL. [ARTICLE]

GLADSTONE AND HIS BILL.

A Bl< Mau Meeting ot Ireland’* Friend* in New York Cables an Fncouraglog Message to ths *• Grand Old Man.” Rbw York, March 27.—A message was cabled to William E. Gladstone Sunday night by the National Federation of America pledging him their most vigorous support iu his efforts to carry through the home rule bill and expressing alike the sentiments of the thousands who had gathered at the academy of music to indorse this action and the tens of thousands of Irishmen throughout America who are loyal to their motherland. i . The message was as follows: I "We, the citizens of New York, In mass meeting assembled, tender you eur heartfelt sympathy in your efforts to achieve for Ireland the long-sought-for measure of justice which we trust God will enable you to spttdily carry to a successful termination, and wetfiedge you our vigorous and continued support through the struggle. Thomas Addis Emmet, ‘‘Morgan J, O’Brien, “John Byrne.” The audience could’have been no mors

enthusiastic if home rule were a thing of the present. Congressman Bourke Cockran, who made the principal address, spoke in such a hopeful strain that his hearers were kept busy shout- ; ing approval of his well-rounded pei riods and seconding his finely-put mo- ■ tions for the support of the Gladstone ! bill. Then the prominent persons in i the audience put down their names for a proposed subscription of §50,000 to . help the measure along, and a big sum was realized. Mr. Cockran said in part: “Never in the history of English statesmanship has there been a triumph so great as that of William Ewart Gladstone, it was not a : triumph of blood, entailing tears and suffering, i but a triumph of peaceful statesmanship, ' glorious with the promise of freedom; iit was not • a conquest of teri rltory, but a conquest of hearts. We ! are not assembled here to discuss the measure, . but to voice the approval of tho whole civilized world on the measure which Gladstone has proclaimed and which the English people have decreed shall be accomplished. To-night we meet to indorse the policy of emancipation j which has been substituted for the policy of oppression. “England has at last awakened to the feeling that the moral law is binding on a nation as well as on an Individual No one can violate the conditions of nature without suffering the penalties. England has abandoned the policy of violence, the last chapter in the long, sad story has been written, the informer and the hangman are no longer the exponents of England’s policy to Ireland, the jail and the gibbet have ceased to play a part in the struggle. God has at last vouchsafed an answer to the peti- ' tions that have gone, up to the throne. i “The liberty which Gladstone has restored f the Irish will ever guard as a sacred inheritance. Forgotten are the injustice and the opj pression of 700 years; forgiven are the wrongs. i They were inflicted by the masses of the English people. The injustice of the classes has | been repaid by the masses. Standing to- ! night upon the threshold of independence Iret land has no vengeance to be assuaged in blood. She looks forward to a future radiant , with glorious promise, a future of peace and prosperity,' of intellectual and commercial dei velopment, a future wherein the decaying-cities I shall spring into new life, deserted harbors Shall be filled with the argosies of nations, where the smoke of happy homes shall be as an Incense to a beneflcient God.” Maj. John Byrne, Noah Davis and Dr. William E. Wallace spoke also, and John Jerome Rooney read a poem. The governors of 'Virginia, New York. Washington, Mississippi, Missouri, Massachusetts, Vermont, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arkansas, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Delaware, Minnesota, Maryland and Michigan sent messages of sympathy with the movement for the freedom of Ireland. A dispatch to President Emmett from Justin McCarthy evoked enthusiasm. It was as follows: “We learn with gratitude of the efforts of yourself and the federation to help forward the Irish movement. Effectually continue the work you did by timely assistance at the general election. Gladstone’s home rule bill will pass the commons, but only by the unremitting attendance of the Irish party. The movement needs the prompt and generous support of kinsmen and friends to offset the desperate efforts of wealthy and powerful enemies combined against Ireland. Greeting and success to your great meeting on behalf of the Irish party. Justin McCarthy.]