MF – 1864.06.16 – Orangemen of this Country – #109 – F12249

Last year, in the St. John election, Mr. Tilley’s agents and tools were set to work to excite the Orangemen of this Country so that they may be used as the Government wished. We believe their artifices succeeded to some extent, and that many Orangemen were duped by them. Then, however, they had some material to work with. Mr. Thomson is a member of the St. Patrick’s Society of this City, a body composed mainly of Protestants, and which as long as we have known it has elected only one Catholic President. According to the immemorial custom of the members of that Society, Mr. Thomson wore a Shamrock on St. Patrick’s Day, and for this he was denounced as a nominee of the Catholics, as courting Catholic support, as insulting all good Orangemen, &c. – We do not know how many were deceived and misled by such shallow artifices, but we believe some were.

Those same agents are now working hard to produce a similar result by the like means in Queen’s County. Last year these artful dodgers declared that it was an insult to all Orangemen that Mr. Thomson wore a Shamrock on St. Patrick’s Day, and that a man who had committed such an outrage as thus to proclaim that he was Irish should never be allowed to represent St. John. This year they take the Catholics of Queen’s under their fond protection and lavish a world of kindness and attention on them. They tell them that Mr. Perkins is the nominee of the Orange body, that every man, woman, and child in the Country knows this to be a fact, and that no good Catholic should vote for such a monster. They pretend to hold the interest of Catholics above all other considerations; but they play this part very awkwardly, for they, as far as in them lies, insult the Catholics by representing the Catholic Church as “a party,” and Orangemen as “adverse party,” and by letting it be seen that they think the Catholics of Queen’s a set of fools who can be provoked to quarrel with their neighbours whenever such a quarrel would serve the ends of these political tricksters.

But while labouring to set the Catholics against Mr. Perkins, they endeavour also to make the Orangemen his enemies, and in order to do this they attack the Freeman. They pretending still to have the utmost regard for the feelings and wishes of the Catholics, rate us roundly because, as they say, we neglect those interests and seek to sacrifice them at the shrine of party and of self. They allege that we have made some sort of compact with Mr. Perkins, and to prove this they misrepresent and distort the little we have said of the candidates. Misrepresentation, however, not being sufficient, they set their wits to work [ ] invent, and now they assert that the [ ] to Mr. Perkins, which we first saw [ ] card of Witness, was written in [ ] in the Church. If by lying by [d ] the Freeman Office. could persuade [ ceit] by any means, they the [Fre ] the Catholics of Queen’s that [sa ] [ man] played them false, and at the [same] time persuade the Orangemen that they ought to oppose Mr. Perkins, Mr. Tilley’s tools would have done their work well. But they bungle sadly.

They do not, however, desire to turn over the votes of either Catholics or Orangemen to Mr. Hoben, and this is one of their troubles. He is too intelligent and shrewd a man to suit them, especially as he has declared himself independent, and they only dislike him less than they do Mr. Perkins, who is out openly in opposition. Mr. Peters, the cousin of Mr. Tilley, is their candidate, and for him they would get the votes of Orangemen and Catholics if they could – by lies, by misrepresentation, by exciting sectarian feuds, in short, by any means.

But it is hard to work without material, and they have not even as much as the wearing of the Shamrock gave them. They try to provoke the Freeman, but the Freeman laughs at their folly, and will not utter a word to offend Orangemen or any others; will not even take an active part in the election at all; but is quite willing to allow the people of Queen’s, Catholic and Protestant, to choose for themselves without the aid of its advice the man who they believe will make the best representative.