The "Hitch Irish Brogue" and the "Sweet
German Accent."
If the late targets of Know-Nothing malice and persecutions in America desired the most complete revenge against their ancient persecutors, they have it in the whining and sycophantic appeals for their assistance which are not going up-day and night from the men who lately sought to burn deep into their brows the brand of political and religious degradation, and it gives them no rest to the solo of their feet in this their last refuge from wrong and destitution in the Old World. Every adopted citizen of the United States must and ought to recollect that it was in the North that Know-Nothingism, with its secret ledges its horrid oaths, its bloody spirit of intolerance against all men of foreign birth, was first invented. It was there that this persecuting league against all foreigners attained its greatest ascendancy, and continued to triumph until, invading the South, Virginia gave the monster its Manassas in the election of Gov. Wise. It was in the North, also, that every set of persecution for conscious sake which Roman Catholics have ever suffered in this country has yet taken place. In Massachusetts, within sight of Banker Hill, still stand the blackened walls of a convent, from which defenseless Christian ladies were driven from their homes by a brutal mob; and to this day the Legislature of Massachusetts has returned to make a single dollar compensation for the damages then caused. It was in Philadelphia, where the North American is published, that the churches of the Catholics were wantonly set on fire, blazing one after another through the whole of that memorable night of sacrilege and terror, with nothing left to mark their sacred uses but this single inscription above one of their altars, which stood forth, amid the surrounding blackness, like the handwriting of the Almighty on the walls of Belshazzar's palace. ‘"The Lordsteth."’ It was in Maine that a Catholic priest was rode upon a rail till he died, and it is by the newspapers of the same region that envy, hatred, mailes, and uncharitableness are constantly stirred up against a religion which they who believe in it have just as good a right, under every American Constitution, as well as every rule of common sense, justice, and right, to hold in peace and quietness, as the religion, if they have any, of their Puritan persecutors. And yet, in the face of wholesale persecutions of Irishmen and their religion, the Philadelphia North American, which a few years ago lead the whole pack of persecuting bigots, now blarneys Irishmen as follows:
‘ "For the Irishman, war has peculiar attractions. His love of glory is barely second to that of the Frenchman, and then he has a natural comparativeness which induces him to love the battle for its own sake. We find the rice in the British wars, and conspicuously in all the continental strifes. Hitherto the Irishmen at home have only been attracted to our shores by tiding shoremen of humble origin growing rich here, official countries, &. In the course of a few months news of a different character will affect them. The heroic valor of such as there who composed Corcoran's regiment cannot be look upon the Irish mind at home. It must excite their id did that of General Shields in the Mexican war. Their passion for military glory, fanned by the tremendous proportions, of the great war in which their compatriots are engaged, will empty Ireland of many a thousand. It is to our interest to encourage this, and hence we should rejoice to see the gallant Irish given their full shape of the appointments in the army; for a mere reliable or soldierly race is not to be found in Christendom, as they have shown everywhere. The great American empire has ample in her capacious harm for the whole Irish race."
’ We question whether this amiable offer to Irishmen of all the glory of the Southern war will secure many devotees hereafter. To handle the speed and bear the bayonet in behalf of desperation against freedom, and of an effeminate population, who cannot fight their own battles against a warlike race who are defending their own soil, does not suit the instincts of the Irish nature. And possibly the following appeal of the same despicable paper to the Germans will not be more successful:
‘ "Nor will the case be different with the Germans. We are aware that they are a thrifty people, addicted to industrial pursuits; but in our country they have invariably made good soldiers, and in case of war have always been among the very first to enlist or volunteer. Perhaps this was never before half so plainly proven as in the case of the present war, for the reason that at no previous period had they the chance of seeing, organized German bodies, with officers of their own race, as in case of the Regime is of Einstein and Ballter, of this city, of Bleaker and Bendix, of New York, and of Siegel, Solomons and Boerstein, of St. Louis. The achievements of these men will go back to Germany by letter and newspaper, and produce the effect of sending hither all who love the glories of the battle field. Flow extensive the number of such must be, lets the terrible wars in which the German races have mingled attest. "
’ All this beings to mind Gen. Scott's unsuccessful palaver one a memorable occasion about the ‘"rich Irish brogue"’ and the ‘"sweet German accent."’ Did the world ever see a mere disgusting want of self-respect and confession of shame than the organs of twenty millions of people running round the world begging and beseeching anybody and everybody to help them fight eight millions?
