The Cross and the Shamrock: Or, How To Defend The Faith. An Irish-American Catholic Tale Of Real Life, Descriptive Of The Temptations, Sufferings, Trials, And Triumphs Of The Children Of St. Patrick In The Great Republic Of Washington. A Book For The Entertainment And Special Instructions Of The Catholic Male And Female Servants Of The United States.Quigley, Hugh
Religion
The Cross and the Shamrock: Or, How To Defend The Faith. An Irish-American Catholic Tale Of Real Life, Descriptive Of The Temptations, Sufferings, Trials, And Triumphs Of The Children Of St. Patrick In The Great Republic Of Washington. A Book For The Entertainment And Special Instructions Of The Catholic Male And Female Servants Of The United States.
Quigley, Hugh
Catholics -- United States -- Fiction; Irish Americans -- Fiction
The land is wild and uncultivated, with its womb groaning under the
burden of plenty and fertility that have been dormant for ages upon
ages, and that must remain so for ages to come, unless the thrifty hand
of husbandry assist them into birth; and where are we to find, or when
will the "nativists" be able to procure, as busy hands and stalwart
arms, sufficiently numerous to bring into cultivation the millions of
acres within the extent of our country, if the emigrant and foreigner
are to be discouraged, and the mad clamor of the "nativists" is to
prevail? It was not all native blood that was spilled in the
establishment of the republic. It was not native genius alone that
created the constitution, laws, and institutions of our country. It was
not "natives," of course, that first discovered, settled, or established
the several states that form the grand Union. It was by emigrants, by
"furriners," that all these things were done. What, therefore, can be
more ungrateful, if not more unjust, in the "nativists," than to attempt
to rob the poor emigrant of the rewards of his labor and merit, in order
that they may enjoy all the fruit of the latter's toil? This is the
height of ingratitude and injustice; a far more glaring instance of both
than that of the _reputed_ forefathers of these "nativists" when they
robbed the old Britons of their homes and of those liberties which they
were _hired_ to defend. What models of honesty, justice, and truth you
are, most distinguished "nativists"! The foreigner built your house,
after having first procured the site or the lot; they furnish the house
with all useful, and necessary, and ornamental furniture; and these very
emigrants are yet necessary to keep the house in order; and you come and
threaten to turn them out, telling them you can now dispense with their
services, and that they are "furriners"! And, what is more inconsistent
and unjust still, by this policy of yours, if it could prevail, you
would be doing the most effectual thing to annihilate yourselves, both
physically, politically, morally, and socially. For, if you turned off
all the "furriners," not only would you sink in wealth and
resources,--your ships unmanned, your factories unworked, your canals
and railroads undug, and your battles unfought,--but your very blood
would corrupt, and turn into water! Your physical stature would soon be
reduced to the standard of the Aztecs; and, what is worse, following the
natural channel of your Anglo-Saxon instincts, you would become a
godless race of Liliputians! Yes, followers of Mormon Smith, Joe Miller,
Theodore Parker, and spiritual raps. O nativists, to what an abyss your
mental intoxication was hurrying you, in your blind zeal against the
emigrant and the foreigner!
CHAPTER VIII.
THE ORPHANS IN THEIR NEW HOME.
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