AN GAOḊAL
485
THE CATHOLIC CONVENTIONS.
During the last month Brooklyn has
been the theatre of two remarkable e¬
vents — remarkable in so far as to show
the relative vitality and genuine pa¬
riotism of the two racial sections which
predominate in this great Republic —
the German and the Irish. The Ger¬
man Catholics had a convention and
the Irish had another; and both aimed
at the same object, i. e. benevolence
and brotherly love. The Germans
transacted their business in their nat¬
ive language; the Irish, in a foreign
language — "The language of the slave."
The Mayor of the City presided at and
welcomed the delegates to the German
Convention in the name of the citizens
of Brooklyn. There was one to wel¬
come the delegates to the Irish Conven¬
tion!
Now, it cannot be religious bigotry
on the part of Mayor Low that preven¬
ted him from welcoming the delegates
to the Irish Convention, because both
conventions were Catholic, of the same
church, and imbued with the same
principles. But this is the cause of the
apparent invidious distinction — The
Germans demonstrate their individual¬
ity and self respect — the Irish, a swa¬
bian acquiescence in their degenerating
autonmy. The absence of Mayor Low
from the Irish Convention is a matter
of indifference as far as its aims and
objects are concerned, but the incident
clearly points out the difference in the
social standing of the nationalities as
viewed by the general public, for May¬
or Low spoke for and in the name of
the 700,000 citizens of Brooklyn.
The German is a solid mass in the
interests of his nationality and indivi¬
duality; the Irishman, a weathercock
swayed by every wind that blows;
without a language ; without a nationa¬
lity, and without the respect of his fel¬
low citizen. The Irishman's actions
in regard to his own self respect are
inexplicable. There is no other crea¬
ture which Nature has ended with
a larger share of intelligence and yet
through some (to us mysterious) agen¬
cy, he has to take a secondary stand in
the body politic of nations Here,
then, as a distinct individual, he has no
peer; as an aggregation, he is on the
lowest rung of the social ladder. The
cause of this paradox is, Irishmen have
ignored the bond which cement a peo¬
ple together: That bond is their nati¬
onal speech. Were Irishmen to pres¬
erve their speech they could defy the
world. How is it that Irishmen gene¬
rally preserved their faith and let their
language fall into decline, both being
banned alike? The answer is plain :
A well trained army of faithful teach¬
ers whose director was beyond the en¬
emy's reach, kept the light of the faith
constantly burning, though most of the
time in caves and caverns. This is why
the faith was preserved. People won¬
der why the descendants of those Irish¬
men who apostatized during the per¬
secution days do not return to the old
faith now when the persecution has
ceased; but those people do not wond¬
er why they themselves do not return
to the language, now that its persecu¬
tion has ceased. The descendants of
the apostatizers to the faith, with few
exceptions, being educated in the new
faith think the old one useless — So say
also, those who have lost the language
in its regard. We consider the aposta¬
tizers to the language second only to
the apostatizers to the faith, just with¬
in one shade of being guilty of all the
opprobrium which that epithet conveys
in connection with the faith.
Through the loss of their national
speech the Irish have lost their vitality
as a nationality, and are looked upon
as mere birds of passage. The incidents
which transpired in connection with the
afore said conventions fully demonstrate this view
of the situation. And not only have they lost their
social standing but they have also lost material
advantages through their want of that manly inde¬
pendence which is born of National pride and na¬
tional individuality. A gentleman said to us that
Mayor Low presided at the German Catholic Con¬
vention because the German Catholics were politi¬
cians. Every voter in this country is a politician;
the state bestows no higher privilege. But the Ger-
