Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 September 1884 — PATRICK EGAN. [ARTICLE]

PATRICK EGAN.

The President ot the Irish National League Repudi- , ates Cleveland. - ~ ■ ...... a'.' ... --1 - ■ - - ■ in a Vigorous Letter He Gives the Reasons That Impel Him to Such a Course. The following correspondence of Patrick Egan, the recently elected President of the Irish Lund League, to the press of Lincoln, Neb., explains itself: "Lincoln, Neb., Sent. 4, 1884. ‘To the Editor of the State Journal: "Your contemporary, the Daily State Democrat, having on two 'distinct occasions referred, as I consider most unwarrantably and unfairly, to my political opinions, now refuses, contrary to all recognized rules of decent journalism, to publish any but a garbled copy of my reply, I send you herewith the letter which 1 addressed to that journal in full, and beg you will do me the favor of placing it before the public. Yours truly, Patrick Egan.” “Lincoln, Neb., Sept. 3, 1884. “Editor of the Daily State Democrat. "Sib: For the second time within the last three weeks you have dragged my name into the political Campaign, although up to the present moment I have n#ver spoken publicly or written a single word to give you as a journalist any ground for so doing. Before the late Boston convention of the Irish National League I had as the reaplt of close observation and careful research made up my mind that there existed no good grounds by which the Democratic party should hold any mortgage on my vote because I happened to be an Irishman. I weighed with care and deliberation the merits of the two Presidential candidates, and I came to the conclusion that neither as an Irishman nor as an adopted citizen of America could Mr. Grover Cleveland have my support. The case of Mr. John Devoy, on which you so persistently harp, and which you have again and again referred to as the only ground of my opposition to Mr. Cleveland, .was only one of the many objections which I entertained to that gentleman. I did indeed consider the treatment meted to Mr. Devoy of the very basest kind, and as a strong evidence of either the hostility and contempt of Mr. Cleveland for Irishmen of national opinions, but I objected also to Mr. Cleveland as the pet candidate of the London Times, the London Standard, the London Daily Telegraph, the London Daily Seics, the St. James’ Gazette, the London Saturday Ilecieu-—in fact, of the entire English press. I objected to him as the pet candidate of Puck and Harper's Weekly, as the author of innumerable vetoes in the interest of the great monopolies, and as a man who had, as I believed, proved hin.self the enemy of every just right of the toiling millions. I objected to Mr. Cleveland because I felt that, in the words of the Boston Pilot, a straight out-and-out Democratic organ, ‘ he has not a single quality to fit him for the Presidency of the United States.’ I had made up my mind to support Mr. Blaine, because from long observation I had come to regard him as the very opposite of all this, as an American of Americans, a man among men, as an able statesman fitted by nature and culture and experience to fill with credit to the country and to himself the position of President of this great nation. These were a few of the grounds of my objection to your candidate and my preference for Mr. Blaine, and, as I have before stated, they have never, up to this present time, been made public by me, nor would they be now if you had not compelled me by your unfair comments and by your unworthy sneer at ‘lrish wisdom' to state them. When, however, at Boston I accepted the Presidency ofthe Irish National League I considered that whatever my private opinion might be I was then precluded from taking any active part in American politics. Accordingly I have abstained from taking any part, nor shall I as long as I hold the office. This isTny position. -I-miistbeg you. therefore, to spare me the trouble of any further contradictions or corrections on this subject. With regard to your quotation from a speech of Mrs. Parnell: I yield to no one on this side ot the Atlantic in the respect which I pay to the honored mother of the man whom I am proud to be able to claim as a personal friend, as well as a co-worker in the cause of Ireland, Charles Stewart Parnell, and I am sure she will not misunderstand me when I state my conviction that she would best consult the welfare of the great movement in which she and I are interested, and in my belief she would best consult the desire of her son,bv keeping his name entirely out of the present political contest. Yours truly,

“PATRICK EGAN.”