"For whom will the Irish vote?"
This is a question often asked by politicians. It is an important one, because
"the Irish" are very numerous, and have a great many votes, and their
vote frequently turns the scale, both in the States and nation. Two or three
things are to be premised.
1. "The Irish" will never, intentionally, vote against liberty, or
favor oppressions, by any body, or any where.
2. No son of Erin will regard a public man as the friend of the Irish, unless
he is also the friend of Ireland; and no man will be the recognized as the friend
of Ireland, who is the enemy or the malinger of IRELAND'S LIBERATOR.
3. No class of men set a lower value upon mere blarney, than "the
Irish," especially when a set of men, who want their votes, begin to talk
very good to them just about election time.
Now observe:
If you vote for the Whig party, Henry Clay is their great leader and oracle.
Henry Clay, in a speech on the floor of the United States Senate, a speech which
he had carefully prepared beforehand, and submitted it to the examination of
his friends, so that he might say nothing that he could not stand to; in that
speech he calls Daniel O'Connell, "THE PLUNDERER of his
own country and the libeller of a foreign and kindred people, who himself can
only obtain a contraband admission into Society."
Then observe:
If you vote for the Administration party, John Forsyth is the head of the Cabinet,
the Secretary of State. John Forsyth, in a letter to his fellow citizens in
Georgia, written in August last, speaks of Ireland's best friend as "THE
BRUTAL O'CONNELL."
Observe thirdly:
That the reason why these leading statesmen of the United States thus hate
Daniel O'Connell, is because he hates slavery, and they love it. Years
ago, Daniel O'Connell said:
"I am for speedy, immediate abolition. I care not what caste, creed, or
color, slavery may assume; I am for its total, its instant abolition. Whether
it be personal or political, mental or corporeal, intellectual or spiritual,
I am for its immediate abolition. I enter into no compromise with slavery. I
am for JUSTICE, in the name of humanity, and according to the
law of the living God."
And his actions have always corresponded with that profession. Hence all despots
and all lovers of arbitrary power, whether they be tories or slave-holders,-
hate him.
Now, then, observe:
That the abolitionists of this country are the only class of the American people,
save his own countrymen, who have always spoken respectfully of the Liberator
of Ireland. Look over the whole catalogue of 200 books and pamphlets of the
abolitionists, and you will always find his name mentioned with honor. Where
will you find a portrait of O'Connell, in a shop not kept by a countryman of
his, but at the Anti-slavery Office? The only elaborate elogium on his general
character that was ever published in this country not written by an Irishman,
was written by John G. Whittier, the abolition Quaker poet, and may be found
in the columns of the Emancipator, of May 24th, 1840. These testimonials of
regard have not been officious, or for any party or selfish purposes, but because
he loves that which we love- Human Liberty. Nothing has ever mortified
him more than the manner in which Irishmen in the United States have been misled,
in the name of Democracy, to the countenance and support of slavery. Will you
not wipe off this reproach?- Vote, then for Liberty and against Slavery. Vote
for the true-hearted inheritor of Irish zeal for freedom, for the personal friend
and correspondent of O'Connell. Vote for the man that O'Connell declared that
he felt is an honor to meet upon the platform of a British assembly in Exeter
Hall, to aid in hastening the downfall of slavery. That man is
JAMES GILLESPIE BIRNEY. |