The deluded Irish.--Victims of the Yankees.
From the beginning of this war every trick and artifice that Yankee ingenuity could invent, has been employed to deceive the Irish, and induce them to enlist in the
Federal army of invasion to overrun and desolate the
Southern States.
Agents have been busy in all parts of
Ireland, stimulating emigration to the
United States, by promises of all kinds that were calculated to entice them from their home — a home, indeed, where they are not under a government or laws of their own choice or consent.
It is strange that a people complaining of this injustice, should be prevailed upon to come here to aid in imposing upon us of the
South a government we abhor, and a political association with a people we detest!
Yet Yankee Ingenuity and cunning contrived to cover up this inconsistency by sophistry and demagogues; and the promises were too tempting to be resisted by the impulsive sons of
Ireland.
The
chief agent of accomplishing their delusion, is the promises which the hypocritical and false hearted Yankees have been making ever since the war began, that they would, immediately after crushing the rebellion in the
South, join the Irish in a war upon
England for the independence of
Ireland!
Societies have been organized at the
North upon this "platform"--the
Yankees always have their "platforms," which mean liberal promises they have no idea of fulfilling; dishonest professions, where with to deceive honest people and impose upon mankind!
These societies have been industriously engaged in the work of deluding the poor
Irish; and how they have succeeded the ranks of their armies give sad proofs.
The
Irish are found in every Yankee regiment, and their blood has flowed freely on every battle field of this war. Following the delusive hopes of help for themselves after the conquest of the
South; confiding in the deceitful sympathies of the faithless
Yankees, they have borne the brunt of battles, held the positions of danger, and fallen where the slaughter was greatest.
All, all to find themselves disappointed, deceived and betrayed!
The
Yankees are not less successful with the Germans, but they are inveigled with a different kind of bait.
In the majority of the German emigrants we have strangely mixed up with a great deal of practical souse, good appetite, powerful digestion, and talent for thrift — transcendental Red Republicanism, which is everything monstrous and anarchical in society and polities.
The
Yankees reach them by bounties; also, down the throat, and by way of their fanaticism.
They stimulate their acquisitiveness by large bounties, and promises of thrift from the plunder and pillage of Southern mansions, and inflame their fanaticism by painting the horrors of slavery, and representing the
South as a nation of aristocrats, endeavoring to destroy the liberties of the
Union.
The Federal armies show how by these arts the
Yankees have filled up their armies.
Well may the London
Times say that they have replenished their thinned ranks with
Irish, Germans, and negroes, and that they could have filled them in no other way!
With reference to the Irish, some recent proceedings in
Chicago shewed how the
Yankees were persevering in their atrocious fraud upon them.
A grand celebration was held there on the 28th March, which was styled the "inauguration exercises of the great National Fair, for the benefit of the
Fanian Brotherhood," (
Irish.) The speeches on the occasion were full of glorification of
Ireland, and of pledges for her independence.
It is enough to say that the inauguration address was delivered by
John Wentworth, of infamous notoriety, to satisfy all that
Ireland has little to hope from this
Chicago demonstration.
Lt. Governor Hoffman, of
Illinois, also figured largely.
The speeches were inconsistent and ridiculous enough.
Wentworth said: ‘"I understand "that this organization means nothing more "nor less than the right of citizens of Ire "land to govern their native land in the way "they want it to be governed.
I understand "that all we enjoy in the
United States, you "want to enjoy in
Ireland."’ It may be asked whether
Wentworth meant any allusion to the
South.
Ireland has already all he proposes to permit us to enjoy.
We need not be surprised, however, at his mode of dispensing justice and equality; he once exercised the right to steal, and he would hardly allow that another had a right to steal from him. But John, like any other
Yankee, dared nothing about his inconsistency: he went on blowing his trumpet, to the tune of freedom —
Ireland's right to be govern by herself in her own way, and the of the
Yankees to govern us in
their way!
Lieut. Governor Hoffman, who, it seems, is an Irishman, glorified the
Yankee land-- speaking of the
South as still a part of it, and claiming the heroes and statesmen of the
South, as well as the land, as theirs — I.e., his and the
Yankees'! Giving a glowing sketch of the pains and sorrows with which the Irish left their native land, he represented them as with blooding hearts and tearful eyes following the "new star of
Bethlehem, indicating the place where liberty had been born and cradled" in the Western world. --And yet to see how the said
Hoffman and his Irish co laborers can murder liberty in her cradle, and boast of it as a grateful duty, listen to him: ‘"A bloody war having been "forced upon us, the true patriot prefers war "to peace.
Let us then unite, hand in hand, "shoulder to shoulder, to discharge the doubt "of gratitude we owe our country, by stren- "uously exerting our utmost energies to vin "dictate the rights of the
Government of the "glorious, the happy, the blessed, the free "land we live in!"’ That would do for a Yankee, let alone an Irishman!
To blend with sighs and lamentations for the liberties of his own country, bloody resolutions against the liberties of another, and that of a people who are it peace with his, is one of the remarkable Illustrations of the bad effects of living among Yankees — the most depraved and faithless people on earth.
This
Hoffman has graduated among the
Yankees as Master of Arts in their School of Depravity, and parted with every spark of honesty and magnanimity with which his generous mother ever endowed him, if she endowed him with any. Let
Hoffman come, then, to pay off his debt to the
Yankees.
The South may afford him and his brothers in arms at least "hospitable graves."
The speeches throughout talked first of predominance for the
Yankees in this country and then independence to
Ireland.
A combination of feeling and purpose so incompatible, so monstrous, as to be produced no where save among the
Yankees and poor deluded foreigners, fallen under their artifices.
We conclude this article with a most remarkable speech, made by one
Col. Halpin, of
Kentucky, who responded to the toast to that State.
What he said is worthy of attention.
His pledge for the Army of the Cumberland is, of course, a fraud.
That army, save the Irishmen in it, have no intention of fighting for
Ireland.
Neither the negroes, nor the Germans, nor the
Yankees, (the last and worst,) have the remotest idea of such a thing.
But the trick has its effect.
That is all the
Yankee wants:
Col. Halpin, of
Kentucky, said that he had hurried up from
Chattanooga to be present at the opening of their great fair.
He could assure the
Fenian Brotherhood that they have the sympathy of every private and officer in the army of the Cumberland.
Having defended
Kentucky from the charge of disloyally,
Col. Halpin said that after the rebellion had been put down, every soldier in the Army of the Cumberland was pledged to assist them in freeing
Ireland.
Daniel O'Connell had tried for fifty years to get justice to
Ireland.
But the only way to get justice from
England was by the weapon the Fenlan carried on his shoulder — the sharp crack of the rifle and the still sharper bayonet [cheers]. As to the statue to Prince Albert, if they erected it in
Dublin, when they went over one short from a 6 pounder would send it into the Liffey [laughter and applause]. When he returned to the army he would tell the Irish officers and men of the warm reception no had got, and that there was a prospect that their country might soon expect to enjoy the blessings of freedom [cheers]
