Chapter IV: Part 4

Company G has 40 Irish Catholics, 2 Irish Protestants, 2 Italians, 3 Germans, 3 Scots, 2 Swedes, 1 Nova Scotian, 7 French-Canadians, and 17 of old Yankee stock.

Company H has 13 men. Company I, 24 officers and men. Company K has 12, and still we are not counting such names as Verrily, Kelley, Carr and Crehy.

Company L has 13, and outside of that we find Barnes, Carney, Kingston, Norton and Raymond.

Company M has 22, and beyond that 22 there is a Simmons, a Carey, Daniels, Graham, Manning, Riley and Ward—all good old Irish names.

The count I have given you is in most cases that of the captains of companies, as far as received, and is as close as hasty work can hope to be. I am satisfied that with more time and kindly aid of officers and men, I shall be able to make the roll exact and the number of men of Irish stock much increased.

We may note, too, that our count to-night is only of men Irish born or in the first American generation. Many of the best in the regiment have it farther back, as for instance the gallant colonel himself, who writes me, “My great-grandfather was Patrick Clark who came from Ireland.”

In the regiment was a young second lieutenant, whom the correspondents praised and the artists pictured, and who drew the eyes of Massachusetts to himself by his cool bravery and marvelous skill as a sharpshooter which he used in silencing the murderous Spaniards who fired from the trees at our wounded. A Spanish mauser ploughed through his shoulder, but he is alive and well, and to-day the gentlest and most unspoiled hero of the war is Lieut. Daniel Moynihan of Northampton.

“I myself am of Irish blood, and Second Lieut. Thomas F. Burke is of Irish blood also,” writes the city marshal of Springfield, Henry McDonald, who was captain of Company B.

Of Irish blood, too, is the captain of Company G, who was acting major in the dangerous time, John J. Leonard. So, too, is his soldierly and capable first lieutenant, William G. Hayes. So, too, the second lieutenant, Edward J. Leyden, and Sergeants Scully, Ward, Murphy and Gibbons.

After a long and intimate knowledge of the regiment, and a closer acquaintance with its _personnel_ than any other man could possess just now, its colonel, who is high sheriff of Hampden county and known for his conservativeness and thoughtfulness of speech, thus gives me his estimate, and writes it over his own hand: “If we go back for two generations, I think from one half to three fourths of the members of the Second Massachusetts Volunteers were of Irish blood.”

This regiment had in the war the gratuitous services of a chaplain whose name is a benediction to-day in the Connecticut valley, Father Fitzgerald, chaplain of the Twenty-second Infantry, U. S. A. He is an Irishman born, and may fittingly be spoken of in this connection, and the world will honor us as well as him. Every man of the regiment, Catholic and Protestant alike, loves him, and can scarcely meet a priest to-day without claiming kindly right to speak of him. The gist of the general love is in the words of an enthusiastic captain, who writes me in this manner: “The Rev. E. A. Fitzgerald, chaplain Twenty-second Infantry, U. S. A., was as truly chaplain of the First Brigade, Second Division of the Fifth Army Corps, comprising the Eighth and Twenty-second Regular Infantry and the Second Massachusetts Volunteers.”

Chaplain Fitzgerald had the respect of all the officers and men of the brigade for his earnest devotion to their interests and for his unflinching courage during the progress of the battles at El Caney and San Juan, where he confronted danger at every turn and amid shot and shell attended to the needs of the wounded. He won for himself a name unequaled in bravery by that of any other chaplain in the Santiago campaign. While he was not wounded, his clothing showed the effect of the mausers.

During the time of disease, a horror of war more trying than battle, he was unceasing in his labors for the sick, going from one end of the brigade to the other daily, and reeking with sweat during the heat of the day. His cheerful countenance and kindly disposition in his daily work brought comfort and true sunshine to many a drooping soldier irrespective of creed or race. Colonel Clark, Second Massachusetts Volunteers, says of him: “One of God’s noblemen,” and Adjutant Hall, Twenty-second Infantry, in speaking of him, said that he was the “salt of the earth.” The officers and men of the brigade are unstinted in his praise, and his name will ever be cherished with reverence, respect and good wishes by his comrades in the Santiago campaign, the rank and file of the unassuming volunteers of the Second Massachusetts. I am satisfied that a study of the men who fought on land and on the sea in the war with Spain, will be highly creditable to our people.

MR. JOHN D. O’BRIEN,
Of Minnesota.
Residence, ST. PAUL.
]

REV. M. C. LENIHAN,
Of Iowa
Residence, MARSHALLTOWN.
]

MR. EDWARD FITZPATRICK,
Of Kentucky.
Staff of the _Louisville Daily Times_.
]

MR. MICHAEL GAVIN,
Of Tennessee.
Residence, MEMPHIS.
]

FOUR STATE VICE-PRESIDENTS.

THE “SCOTCH-IRISH” AND “ANGLO-SAXON” FALLACIES.

BY JAMES JEFFREY ROCHE, BOSTON, MASS.

MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN OF THE AMERICAN-IRISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY:

A few weeks ago I attended a performance of Sheridan’s comedy, “The Rivals,” very ably interpreted by a new company of players.

One of them, an excellent performer, taking the part of Sir Lucius O’Trigger, interpolated a “gag,” as it is called in theatrical parlance, to the effect that modesty is a word which has no equivalent in the Irish language. It was an interpolation to make the unthinking laugh—but to make the judicious grieve.

For the Irishman is not immodest, not as the word is meant to imply—impudent. Thackeray, the shrewd judge of character, rather condemns the Irishman for his national bashfulness.

The Irishman, at home and abroad, has ever been shamefully apologetic for his race and himself. He, the proudest of mortals, is always depreciating his nation’s glory before the world.

The most successful of Irish soldiers, as we gauge success, was Wellington, a man of Irish birth, whose family had lived in Ireland for three hundred years. Yet, if we may believe biography, he always called himself an “Englishman.” If he with three hundred years of Irish ancestry behind him was English, is there, on all this continent, such a being as an “American,” since not many of us can call ourselves “natives” by much over one century of heritage?

Quite recently, in Boston, a wise and patriotic Irishman, though not a Home Ruler, said, in presenting his case before an American audience, that his family was not exactly “Irish,” since they had been in Ireland only six hundred years!

And the patriotic poet, Doctor Sigerson, of Dublin, talking with my dear lamented friend, the late Alfred Williams, himself a descendant of the great Roger Williams, of Rhode Island, remarked, incidentally, in regard to a mutual friend, that “there was an old feud between his family and mine—but we have agreed to forget it.”

The “feud” dated back to the Danish invasion—many centuries ago—when Doctor Sigerson’s ancestors fought against Brian Boru! I mention this incident merely to show that it is possible to go back—too far—in the path of genealogy.

Let us be content with reasonable research. If we can prove that St. Brendan was the first discoverer of America, and that a seaman named “Patrick Maguire” was the bow-oar who set the first foot on the strand of the New World, from the boat of Columbus—what of it? Any clumsy forger will come forward at once and declare that Brendan was a “Scotch-Irishman” and Maguire an “Anglo-Saxon,” as their names imply. For have they not demonstrated, to their own entire satisfaction, that St. Patrick was not only a Scot, but also a Calvinist—centuries ere Calvin was born? We can afford to ignore the fables of what is, to us, comparative antiquity.

The point that I wish to make is this: I concede willingly, and, I may say, gladly, that the founders of the great Irish-American societies in America, a century or a century and a half ago, were not all of the distinctively Irish race whose faith was Catholic; but of their nationality there was not the shadow of a doubt. They were Irish, and proud to call themselves such. They were not “Scotch-Irish,” nor “Anglo-Irish.”

If they belonged, for the most part, to the faith of Grattan and Tone and Emmet, does any true Irishman love their memory the less therefor? Not one! In all the history of this, our poor, crime-stained, unhappy world, there is no nation so free from the sin of persecution for conscience’s sake as poor, persecuted Catholic Ireland. Our national saints and martyrs have been Catholic and Protestant. We have never discriminated against any man because of his religious belief, but, rather, have been proud of following our leaders who loved Ireland first.

But we are jealous in claiming our own. We do not want any man to be called “Scotch-Irish” or “Anglo-Saxon,” because he did not happen to be of the same faith as Strongbow or Henry the Second, the Catholic invaders who first overran Ireland.

Emmet is ours as much as O’Connell; Parnell belongs to Ireland as much as Owen Roe. We do not discriminate between Andrew Jackson and Phil Sheridan when we glory in the deeds of Irish-Americans.

We have only one living thought at present. Our faces are set against any alliance with the hereditary enemy of Ireland and of America. That feeling is not Irish alone; it is American. It is born of experience. On our part, seven hundred years old. On the part of America, over one hundred years old. But is not the experience of one century as valuable as that of seven when we have to deal with real things? It ought to be more valuable, even as the injury of yesterday is more stinging than one of seven years ago.

The danger of an Anglo-American alliance is imminent. Its effect on Ireland is comparatively trivial. Its effect on America is immeasurably disastrous. By it we should forfeit the friendship of France, whose men and money made our freedom possible, and of Russia, whose timely aid saved us from disintegration during the Civil War. “Republics are ungrateful,” says the old adage. _This_ republic must prove, at least, one exception to the rule, if it be a rule.

The American, and especially the Irish-American, who would favor an alliance with England, would be unworthy of Heaven, unwelcome in Purgatory, and lonesome in Perdition.

THE IRISH NAME.

John Jerome Rooney, of New York, read the following beautiful and stirring poem:

Who fears to claim the Irish name?
Who will forswear his blood?
Who holds in shame the deeds and fame
Of Emmet, Grattan, Flood?
Their hearts held true through death and rue,
Through death and sore disgrace,
Then who’ll forget the boundless debt
We owe our Irish race?

Ere Learning’s sun had found the road
Above the Eastern hill,
Her lamp of art and wisdom glowed
By Irish lake and rill;
To Scotia’s crags it flashed a ray,
And Albion spoke reply;
From tower and shrine it beamed benign,
A beacon in the sky!

Where’er the rights of man were pressed
Beneath the heel of wrong—
Where’er, from utmost East to West,
The helpless sought the strong—
There—there the son of Erin found
His soul’s appointed place—
When Freedom calls, oh, what appals
The dauntless Irish race.

Within the mighty woods of Maine
You hear their cheery word;
Upon the boundless Texan plain
They drive their thundering herd;
They smite the veins of golden ore,
They gird the earth with plans—
But first and most (their proudest boast),
_They’re true Americans!_

Then, who would shame the Irish name
By one ignoble deed?
He—he alone we will not own
Who would belie his seed!
We claim our line—your blood and mine—
From out a sacred sod.
Then, hand in hand, we’ll take our stand—
_True to ourselves and God!_

THE WORK OF THE SOCIETY.

BY THOMAS J. GARGAN, BOSTON, MASS.

The new president-general of the Society, Thomas J. Gargan, said:

GENTLEMEN:-We may congratulate ourselves on the progress which this Society has made during the two years of its existence. On Jan. 20, 1897, in response to a call, signed by thirty gentlemen from several of the states of our republic, forty or more gentlemen assembled at Boston and organized the Society.

Among other statements, the call recited that a number of gentlemen, interested in the part taken in American history by people of Irish birth or lineage, are about to organize themselves into an historical society for the purpose of investigating and recording the influence of that element in the upbuilding of the nation; also to place the Irish element in its true light in American history. To secure its correct perspective in relation to historic events on this soil is the final aim of the new Society. Its primal object will be to ascertain the facts, weigh them in relation to contemporary events, and estimate their historical value, avoiding in this process the exaggeration and extravagance of poorly-informed writers on the one hand, and the prejudice and misrepresentation of hostile writers on the other.

We further stated, the organization will be constructed on a broad and liberal plan. It will be non-political, and no religious test will be required for admission to membership or the holding of office. Being an American organization in spirit and principle, the Society will welcome to its ranks Americans of whatever race descent who evince an interest in the special line of research for which the Society is organized.

Established on this broad and liberal basis, the accessions to its roll of membership have been most encouraging, as we have now more than one thousand members, representatives in the truest sense of the intelligence and character of the descendants of the Irish race in America, coming from all parts of this great country, a country which their forefathers, among the early colonists, took an active part in reclaiming from the wilderness and upbuilding into this great republic of the United States, of which we are no insignificant factor. A distinguished man, who wrote nearly a century ago, said that all history was a series of lies, which a few men agreed to consider facts. We all agree that much of the history that has been written in the past has been written by men who have preferred to see things through their prejudices rather than their eyes, and no people have suffered more from the ignorance and prejudice of writers—particularly English writers—than the Irish people.

Unfortunately, many New England writers inherited the prejudices of their English ancestors, and have either deliberately slurred the contributions of the Irish in our history, or have failed to record them. A discriminating and critical public demands that the searchlight shall be thrown upon the dark spots. We are now, in this scientific age, rewriting much of our history and revising our judgment of men. We cordially welcome this new era, confident that when all the facts are carefully scrutinized and critically examined, the Irish in the United States have nothing to fear, but, on the contrary, will gain immeasurably in the minds of all intelligent and impartial men.

In the first volume of the Journal of this Society, papers will be found treating of the early history of the Irish settlers in New England, by Messrs. Murray, Linehan, Smith, Brandon and Sheahan, members of our Society, thus preserving in permanent form facts useful to the future historian. The New England historian has never been noted for modesty in claiming a full share of the glory of our country for New Englanders, or, as he is prone to write it, descendants of the “Anglo-Saxon” race.

While honoring, as they deserve to be honored, the men of Boston and Massachusetts who initiated the War of the Revolution, we are not unmindful of what others have done to make our independence possible, and to establish this form of government of ours, founded upon the doctrine—not of the divine right of kings or of any other ruler, no matter what he may call himself—to rule people, but the divine right of the people to rule themselves, and lest we forget, in our hour of conquest, let us recall again the doctrine of the founders of this government: that all government ought to rest on the consent of the governed. In establishing this government, the Irish element was a very important factor. In the British House of Commons’ Report, fifth session, fourteenth Parliament, Vol. xiii, page 303, we find the report of an investigation of the causes of defeat in the war with the colonies—the investigation was held in 1779—Major-General Robertson, who had served twenty-four years in America, was asked: “How are the provincial corps composed, mostly from native Americans, or from emigrants from various nations of Europe?” He answered: “Some of the corps mostly of natives, others, I believe the greatest number, are enlisted from such people as can be got in the country, and many of them may be emigrants. I remember General Lee telling me that he believed half the rebel army were from Ireland.”

In Vol. xiii, British Commons’ Reports, page 431, Joseph Galloway, a native of Pennsylvania, speaker of the assembly of the colony for twelve years, and a delegate to the First Continental Congress, who became a violent Tory in 1773, was examined for several days by members of the House of Commons. Among the questions asked was: “That part of the rebel army that enlisted in the service of congress, were they chiefly composed of natives of America, or were the greater part of them English, Scotch, or Irish?” Galloway answered: “The names and places of their nativity being taken down, I can answer the question with precision. There were scarcely one fourth natives of America, one half Irish, the other fourth English and Scotch.”

The Irish contributed their full share in the War of 1812, in the war with Mexico, and in the war that kept the Union whole. All facts relating to the part borne by them should be carefully collected. In the late war with Spain we have a large field for investigation. From the state of Massachusetts, one fifth of her quota of soldiers were unmistakably of Irish ancestry; the Ninth regiment, Massachusetts volunteers, went into the field as an Irish-American regiment; of the four other regiments, and the large number of sailors, an impartial investigation would show a surprisingly large number of men of Irish ancestry, and what is true of Massachusetts is true of every state in the Union.

Gentlemen, while we are proud of our origin and our ancestry, we do not forget that, above all, we are Americans, that we earnestly desire that all the different elements that go to make up this nation shall be blended together.

This American republic is a mighty crucible into which are thrown many elements. We have been, and shall be, tested by severe fires; we must separate the dross and the alloy, and the refined product will come forth purified by the severest tests. In our process of amalgamation, we shall eliminate from the different nationalities and races what is gross and bad, avoiding the vices and emulating the good traits and virtues, evolving, as the product of our American civilization, the highest type of manhood or womanhood to be found on the habitable globe.

COL. JOHN P. DONAHOE,
Of Delaware.
Residence, WILMINGTON.
]

CAPT. PATRICK O’FARRELL,
Of the District of Columbia.
Residence, WASHINGTON.
]

COL. C. C. SANDERS,
Of Georgia.
Residence, GAINESVILLE.
]

MR. P. T. BARRY,
Of Illinois.
Residence, CHICAGO.
]

VICE-PRESIDENTS, RESPECTIVELY, FOR DELAWARE, GEORGIA, ILLINOIS, AND
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.

RUSSIA THE FRIEND OF THE REPUBLIC.

BY JOSEPH SMITH, LOWELL, MASS.

At a time when so many Americans seem to be forgetting the history of their country and are fatuously pursuing the political will-o’-the-wisp called “British friendship”; when a society organized to frustrate the unwisdom of foreign alliances,—the League of American Independence,—is flouted and insulted; when the tendency of the dominant political party in the Republic is towards international folly and its motto appears to be “Away with the Constitution,” the incident embodied in the appended letter may perhaps remind sane Americans what the true attitude should be to-day towards the Russian and British empires, respectively. The letter in question is an answer to a request made by me on Mr. Jeremiah Curtin,—the scholarly translator of “Quo Vadis” and other works of Sienkiewicz, and himself the author of a number of remarkable volumes on folk-lore and kindred subjects,—for a paper on Andrew Curtin, his uncle, the famous war governor of Pennsylvania:

WARSAW, RUSSIAN EMPIRE,
December 28, 1898.

_Joseph Smith, Esq._:

DEAR SIR:—I have just received your letter of December 5, and hasten
to reply.

The time between this date and the meeting of the American-Irish
Historical Society is so short that it would be impossible for me to
prepare a paper as you suggest; were I free there would be
sufficient time, perhaps, but as I am in the midst of important and
urgent investigations I can do no more than write you a few lines.

There are many subjects, of course, which would be of interest to
the Society and consequently to America. The time has come when men
who are of more than ordinary culture, and interested in the history
of America and the British empire, are beginning to understand that
the political and social development of these two immense
aggregations of mankind cannot be studied in a satisfactory and
scientific way without a thorough knowledge of the Celtic race. But,
as I understand, the Society is occupied specially at present in
showing the part which the Irish have taken in the United States
both in winning independence for the republic and afterward in
building it up; the wider aspects of the history and career of the
Celtic race may be considered at some later time, should the Society
so desire.

Among men of Irish descent who have played an important part in
American history, the late Governor Curtin deserves a high place.
His father, Roland Curtin, when a young man, was informed by
governmental authority that he had twenty-four hours in which to
leave Ireland. He went to France, and from France to America. He
settled in Pennsylvania, and established the first iron works, if
not in the state, in that part of it where he lived.

Without entering into the details of the governor’s career and the
great part which he took in defending the integrity of the American
Union, it is sufficient to state here that it was owing to him that
Abraham Lincoln received his first nomination for the presidency.
Had it not been for Andrew G. Curtin, Abraham Lincoln would not have
been president of the United States. Curtin, then governor of
Pennsylvania, received Lincoln on his way to Washington at the
boundary of the state; together they planned the manner of the
president’s further journey, by which he escaped, if not
assassination, the possibility of meeting men who had it in mind.

When a separation of the Southern states had become a fact, Governor
Curtin invited all the loyal governors to meet in conference at
Altoona, Pa., where he made the statement to them, that either the
war must be carried on in real and deadly earnest with all the
powers of the country placed at the disposal of the president, or be
dropped altogether. After due consultation the governors decided to
offer all the power of the states to the president, and went to
Washington to lay that decision before Lincoln; all went except
Governor Bradford of Maryland. After the Altoona conference and the
meeting of the governors with President Lincoln at Washington, the
war became that reality which won final success.

Governor Curtin’s actions during the succeeding years of the
struggle were such that he, Governor Morton of Indiana and Governor
Andrew of Massachusetts, were pre-eminently the great war governors,
the three governors uppermost in men’s minds.

Governor Curtin’s untiring work on behalf of the soldiers of his
state is well known and universally remembered. It is perhaps not so
well known that he founded the first Soldiers’ Orphans’ Home in the
United States, that of Pennsylvania.

Some time after the war he went to St. Petersburg, as Minister
Plenipotentiary, where he gained the respect and esteem of Alexander
II. At his last interview the Emperor presented him a full length
portrait of himself. This portrait, painted in oil, was made
expressly for Governor Curtin, and was sent to his home in
Pennsylvania by the Russian government.

While at St. Petersburg, Prince Gortschakoff took the governor into
the archives of the foreign office, and showed him the
correspondence which took place between the Emperor Napoleon III and
Alexander II of Russia concerning the recognition of the
independence of the Confederate states. The Emperor Napoleon
addressed an autograph letter to Alexander II, stating that the
government of Her Britannic Majesty and his government were ready to
acknowledge the independence of the Confederate States of America,
and invited him to join with them. To this the Emperor of Russia
answered, also in an autograph letter, that the people of the United
States had a government of their own choice, and that they were
using their best blood and treasure to defend it, and not only would
he not do anything to oppose them, but he would reserve freedom of
action to proceed as he deemed necessary under the circumstances.
Soon after, the Russian fleets appeared in New York and San
Francisco.

Governor Curtin read the two letters of the emperors himself, and
gave me the contents, the substance of which I have just given.

Very sincerely yours,
JEREMIAH CURTIN.

The potent action of Russia in our hour of bloody stress, which held the hands of England and Napoleon the Little, speaks louder than the strident clamor of the American ingrates, who, forgetting our debt to the Muscovite, would make us the ally of the Briton, the deadly enemy of our friend and of us. Under the Providence of God, the action of Alexander II saved this republic from being torn asunder, and we were base indeed, if in these days we were to turn from the friend of our hour of need to take the hand red with the blood of a hundred helpless races.

THE “ANGLO-SAXON” SHIBBOLETH CONDEMNED.

BY HON. WILLIAM McADOO,[4] NEW YORK CITY.

MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN:

I came here to-night simply to excuse myself for not being able, as requested, to read a paper which I had promised your committee on “Immigration to the United States from the Province of Ulster in Ireland.”

If I am still honored by your Society, I will be glad to read it at a future meeting, with a view to showing not only the influence of this immigration on the history of the United States, but the fact that these immigrants considered themselves Irish without any qualifying clauses, and were so regarded in America, England and Ireland.

Modern political exigencies are playing sad havoc with ethnology. If an Irishman becomes distinguished at home or abroad, in field, forum, market or shop, he is immediately made an Anglo-Saxon; but if he brings up in the police court he is simply a common Irish Celt. The “Anglo-Saxon” race is claiming everything good in the world, and they are bent upon leaving not much of the world for anybody else.

It is very fashionable now to be an Anglo-Saxon, even if you had an Irish father and a Russian mother. If by some divine miracle and phenomenal transformation, all men and women with Celtic blood in their veins could wake up in the morning with some startling demonstration of the fact, such as green hair and yellow eyes, there would be frightful consternation in the ranks of Anglo-Saxondom, even in the great city of New York, and in some of the back settlements into which the first immigrants from Ireland wandered, and where even their names have been transformed.

If one could run all races other than the “Anglo-Saxon” out of the United States it would not be worth England’s while to form an alliance with what remained, and she would treat them in that kindly, patronizing, contemptuous way that she does the ultra-loyal Canadians. It needs no learned historian to show us the splendid record of the Irish in America, nor how enduringly they have stamped their highest and noblest racial impulses on every page of American history. Some of their critics sneeringly point to the apparent fact that they have been almost altogether too conspicuous on the field of military action, and more or less lacking in the more patient and plodding ways of commerce and business. They assert that they have attained more in the intellectual diversions and pleasing arts of speech and hand, or in the mere drudgery of unintelligent labor, rather than in those achievements in agriculture and manufactures, which is said to be a marked characteristic of the heavenly Anglo-Saxon.

This is gross libel on the Irishmen of America. We have here to-night at our board, such a thoroughly representative business Irishman who in vast enterprise, splendid achievement, industry, and dogged perseverance, crowned with the highest success, can give the best Anglo-Saxon in the states or England, in any venture from building railroads to managing them, the sharpest competition of his life; and yet Mr. John D. Crimmins of New York is but one of a splendid army of men of Irish birth or descent who are in the very forefront of the great industrial armies as captains and generals of those tremendous forces which nowhere play so important a part as in the United States, and which nowhere have competition among them more keen, nay, more deadly, nor requiring higher talents and greater courage. Why, in this very metropolis you cannot point to any great field of action—leaving out the learned professions in which the Irish race is most markedly conspicuous—in banking, manufactures, commerce, shipbuilding, and all kinds of industrial and railroad enterprises, in which Irish names do not appear in the directorates, fill the managers’ offices, plan and execute the great battles of modern finance. I say we need not speak of the learned professions, because there the keen wit, the bright, sharp intellectuality, wonderful racial adaptability, breadth and grasp of mind, and love of learning, have given them most commanding influence; the same is true of congress, in legislatures, municipal bodies, and in every court-house of the United States. The same is true of the professions of medicine and teaching, and on the press, where they used to say that Mr. Bennett’s pay-roll on the _Herald_ read like the roster of the Fenian army. At any rate, there is no newspaper office in New York where they have not conspicuous places.

Politically, I claim for them that impulsively, by reason of their history and experiences, they are the very best of Americans. They oppose entangling alliances because they know better than any one else, by reason of a long, bloody, and painful history, how false are international promises, how hypocritical and treacherous even the great and seraphic Anglo-Saxon can be when he once gets the upper hand. Henry II made with them the first Anglo-Saxon alliance, and Cromwell completed it over the graves of murdered millions; over the ruins of castle, cabin, and church, until its climax was reached when the greatest orator of Ireland said that the instruments of government had been simplified to “the tax gatherer and the hangman.”

Is it any wonder, therefore, that the Irish element in the United States should be the first to raise the cry of alarm against the plot to make this great Republic in the very hour of its triumph a mere colonial dependency instead of a regnant and invincible nation? For myself I yield to no man living or dead in the quality of my Americanism. I came to the Republic and have received with unstinted hand the usufruct of its noble freedom, its generous institutions, its magnificent and dazzling opportunities held out to him, however humble, who cultivates the civic virtues, is able, industrious, courageous and honest. I yield to the Republic no double allegiance. I stand for the United States in its vast and tremendous interests here and everywhere against all other countries’ fatherlands and motherlands, without stint, without reservation or hesitation.

I am proud of my Irish birth, but above all things I glory in my American citizenship. I glory in the Republic and the splendor of its achievements, and I transmit to my descendants for a thousand years as a priceless heritage, that exhibition of magnificent military courage where American arms, in spite of the axioms of military science, in spite of the handicaps under which they suffered, swept in magnificent fury and heaven-born courage upon the fire-fringed hills of San Juan, brave men dying gladly, to catch a glimpse of the blessed banner of the great Republic; ours and theirs the glory of those ships which thundered at Cervera, that lightened the gloom of barbarian Manila, and in those ranks of the marines at Guantanamo, and the heroes at Santiago.

Who of Irish birth or descent can but read the rosters on sea and shore with a discriminating eye, to find his heart aflame with pride at the splendid and unanswerable percentage of men with the hot blood of the Celt and the high patriotism of the American, and who, next to the flag of our common country, revere the fact that they draw their lineage from the historic island across the sea. Surely they were not all Anglo-Saxons in name or race who went with Hobson in his grand and heroic endeavor, which takes its place as outstripping the classic legends of Greece and Rome. Surely no one will deny that the roster call of the marines at Guantanamo and the army at Santiago fairly teems with representatives of the historic Irish soldier.

The Sixty-ninth New York and Ninth Massachusetts would be far outstripped in numbers by the thousands of units scattered throughout our army and navy, regular and volunteer, for wherever the stars of the Republic light the gloom of the battle-field, or war thunders on the deep, there, his breast bared to her enemies, whoever they be, you find the most loyal and valorous Americans in the sons of the expatriated Irishman. While Anglo-Saxon statesmen may quibble in congress and Anglo-Saxon schoolmen criticise in college, “Like lions leaping at a fold when mad with hunger’s pang,” you will find in the forefront, disdaining quibble and laughing at criticism, the hot tide of valor and chivalry which, proud to be American, is not ashamed to be called Irish. Out upon the bigots who would do it injustice! Defiance to those who would deride its power or minimize its influence!

It asks no quarter in any field of industry, learning, or strife, and is as great in peace as in war. If its more acknowledged glories are of the more sanguinary fields when Mars sows in blood and night what Minerva reaps in the dews and light of the morning, it is not because of any undue pugnacity, any animal ferocity, but because the Irish Celt, threatened with an extermination more cruel than that of our red Indians, with the schoolhouse closed to his intellect, and the church to his conscience, had to take down the stainless and invincible sword of his fathers and become a universal soldier. In every land, from the Shannon to the Tiber, from the Tiber to the Ganges, from the Ganges to the Potomac, and from the Potomac to San Juan; on every battle-field from Clontarf to Fontenoy, from Fontenoy to Waterloo, from Waterloo to Marye’s heights, where the Irish brigade climbed steeps made slippery with their blood; and from Fredericksburg to Santiago and Manila, Irish valor has gleamed a star on the pages of universal history.

A MEETING IN PROVIDENCE, R. I.,

ON APRIL 19, 1899, TO OBSERVE THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE BATTLE OF
LEXINGTON, CONCORD AND CAMBRIDGE.

The Council of the Society held a meeting at the Narragansett Hotel, Providence, R. I., on Wednesday afternoon, April 19, 1899, in honor of the anniversary of the Battle of Lexington, Concord and Cambridge.

President-General Gargan occupied the chair. A communication was read from the Society of American Authors, suggesting that the organization place itself on record in favor of recognizing December 14, next, as a “Washington Memorial Day” throughout the country.

The date mentioned is the centennial anniversary of the death of the _Pater Patriæ_. The suggestion was adopted, and the secretary was directed to communicate this action to similar organizations interested in the anniversary.

Communications were read from the Maine Genealogical Society, of Portland; the Minnesota Historical Society, of St. Paul; the Pennsylvania Historical Society, of Philadelphia; the Presbyterian Historical Society, of Pennsylvania, and the Pejepscot Historical Society, of Brunswick, Me.

A letter was read from the Navy Department, stating that the torpedo boat _O’Brien_ would be launched at Elizabethport, N. J., on or about July 1, this year. It was voted to hold the annual field day of the Society at that time and place, and the secretary was empowered to make all necessary arrangements for the event.

Secretary-General Murray announced that since the last meeting four members of the Society have died, viz.: Hon. Patrick Walsh, Augusta, Ga.; Hon. John H. Sullivan and Col. Patrick T. Hanley, Boston, Mass., and Hon. Eli Thayer, Worcester, Mass.

Resolutions were adopted expressive of the great loss sustained by the Society in the death of those four gentlemen, and of condolence with their respective families.

Hon. John D. Crimmins, of New York, personally subscribed five hundred dollars for the general purposes of the Society.

Stephen J. Richardson, of New York, was introduced by Hon. John D. Crimmins, and explained the plan and scope of a projected “Encyclopædia Hibernica.” He asked the Council’s endorsement of the enterprise, and the same was gladly accorded, after certain suggestions had been made regarding the work.

The draft was read of a proposed circular to be sent to each member of the Society, inviting financial contributions to assist the organization in its publication work. The Secretary-General was instructed to have copies of the draft made and one submitted to each member of the Council for approval or emendation before the circular is finally issued. After the admission of about forty new members the Council adjourned.

RECEPTION AND BANQUET TO THE COUNCIL.

Soon after the adjournment of the Council meeting just recorded, a reception and banquet was given the members thereof under the auspices of the Rhode Island members of the Society. The event took place in the Narragansett Hotel, Providence.

M. J. Harson, of Providence, presided. The line was formed for the banquet shortly after 8 P. M., and proceeded to the dining-room.

Grace was said by Rev. S. Banks Nelson (Presbyterian), of Woonsocket, R. I., a native of Belfast, Ireland.

Among those present, in addition to Mr. Harson and Rev. Mr. Nelson, were:

Hon. Thomas J. Gargan, Boston, Mass., president-general. Hon. John D. Crimmins, New York, vice-president-general. Thomas Hamilton Murray, Woonsocket, R. I., secretary-general. Hon. John C. Linehan, Concord, N. H., treasurer-general. Hon. Edwin D. McGuinness, Providence, R. I. Hon. Charles E. Gorman, Providence, R. I. Stephen J. Geoghegan, New York City. James Jeffrey Roche, Boston, Mass. Joseph Smith, Lowell, Mass. Rev. Frank L. Phalen (Unitarian), Concord, N. H. Col. John McManus, Providence, R. I. Capt. E. O’Meagher Condon, New York City. William H. Grimes, Pawtucket, R. I. Thomas F. O’Malley, Somerville, Mass. Stephen J. Richardson, New York City. Thomas O’Brien, Pawtucket, R. I. Michael Fitzgerald, Providence, R. I. M. E. Hennessy, Boston, Mass. Edmund Reardon, Cambridge, Mass. Capt. John F. Murray, Cambridge, Mass. William J. Feeley, Providence, R. I. Matthew J. Cummings, Providence, R. I. P. J. McCarthy, Providence, R. I. Edmund O’Keefe, New Bedford, Mass. Samuel C. Hunt, New Bedford, Mass. D. D. Donovan, Providence, R. I. T. St. John Gaffney, New York City. Thomas A. O’Gorman, Providence, R. I. Joseph Manning, Providence, R. I.

Mr. Harson opened the post-prandial exercises with a spirited address, and concluded by introducing President-General Gargan, who spoke as follows:

PRESIDENT-GENERAL GARGAN’S ADDRESS.

FELLOW-MEMBERS OF THE AMERICAN-IRISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY:

We meet to-day on the anniversary of the Battle of Lexington and
Concord to attest anew our patriotism, our love, devotion and
allegiance to the Republic of the United States of America,—to
recall the lessons taught us by the yeomanry of those two little
Massachusetts towns, which unknown in history on April 18, 1775, yet
before the setting of the sun on the 19th had won for themselves
renown, as imperishable as that won at Marathon or Thermopylæ.

One hundred and twenty-four years ago, in the neighboring state of
Massachusetts, the first battle was fought to establish the
principle that there should be no taxation without representation;
and that all government should rest on the consent of the governed.
I will not trespass upon your time by recalling the events which led
up to the American Revolution, nor those seven years of bloody and
terrible war. We established a government and framed a Constitution
founded on universal suffrage, giving a vote to the good and the
vicious, the wise and the ignorant. Thus far we have been a
prosperous people, because in our Democracy there have been no
inequalities of wealth and condition that we believed would be
permanent.

We are a composite nation, comprising people from all the countries
of Europe with about one seventh of them of English origin; yet when
we hear the foolish speeches and read the foolish articles of the
minority in reference to Anglo-Saxonism, and blood being thicker
than water, we realize the importance and necessity of the work
inaugurated by the American-Irish Historical Society, in recalling
and recording the deeds of Irishmen and their descendants in
America.

We find on the rolls of the minute-men at the time of the Lexington
“alarm,” over 150 Irish names, and Col. James Barrett of Concord and
Dr. Thomas Welsh, who were prominent in the day’s battle, were of
Irish descent. We find also the name of Hugh Cargill, who, together
with one Bullock, saved the town records of Concord from the ravages
of the British soldiery. Cargill died in 1799, and the inscription
on his tomb records his birthplace as Ballyshannon, Ireland. He came
to America in 1774 in time for the Concord fight. He bequeathed to
the town the Stratton farm for the use of the poor.

Many of the men who fought on that as on every other day of battle
during the Revolutionary War, claimed Irish birth or Irish ancestry.
This Society is now endeavoring to collect records, letters and
papers throwing light upon the part borne by the Irish race, that we
may have our full share of the glory of our country; also that by
critical scrutiny and analysis we may discover the truth, giving
credit to all. This is a duty we owe these brave, devoted,
self-sacrificing men who perilled so much for this government under
which we live, and whose benefits we hope to transmit to our
posterity.

We are not unmindful of the dangers threatening us at the end of the
century from within and from without. We recognize the fact that if
the Republic is to be preserved we must call a halt to this awful
headlong rush for wealth, holding up some nobler object of ambition.
A great writer has said: “The finest fruit held up to earth by its
Creator is the finished man.” What our country needs to-day is true
men; men who recognize the truth of Plato’s maxim, “Justice is the
health of the state.”

Where can we find in history better types of true manhood than among
the founders of our Republic, many of them of our own race and
blood? This country has passed through four wars, and in our time
many are filled with the lust for new conquest. May we not well
pause on a day like this and see whither we are drifting? Shall we
seek the friendship and alliance of the great robber nation of the
world, whose flag is known where rapine and wrong has been done to
weak and feeble races, or shall we not rather adhere to the
doctrines laid down by the Father of our Country, and “observe good
faith and justice toward all nations; cultivate peace and harmony
with all?”

ADDRESS OF REV. S. BANKS NELSON.

Rev. S. Banks Nelson, pastor of the First Presbyterian church, Woonsocket, R. I., a native of Belfast, Ireland, said in substance:

FELLOW-COUNTRYMEN AND FELLOW-CITIZENS:

It is a rare pleasure to me thus to address an assembly of this
character for the first time in my seven years and a half of
residence in the United States, my adopted country. Lexington marked
the birth of American Independence and the Republic.

The contiguity of Ireland to England accounts for the comparative
ease of conquest owing to the small area of the island, as compared
with the huge territory of the United States—absorption of Scotland,
almost certain to be followed by absorption of Ireland. The
religious oppression under Cromwell and William III, might soon have
given way to mutual toleration and freedom of conscience had it not
been intensified by economic oppression.

Irishmen who know how the English merchant, manufacturer, landowner,
mine-owner, and farmer, were combined by common jealousies to
suppress competition in Ireland; how in cold blood, laws were
enacted to hinder the development, and paralyze the energies of
Ireland, can never naturally be found strengthening, either at home
or abroad, a policy which makes for the aggrandizement of the few by
the plunder of the many. The early history of our race developed to
a remarkable degree, to a degree unattained, I believe, even in
continental or oriental societies, the tribal life and the
interdependencies of men in social and family relations.

It is not surprising, therefore, that the political genius of our
countrymen has been so splendidly manifested in municipal politics.
Nor is it surprising again that through jealousy of the eminent
success of Irishmen in local politics, men of other nationalities
sneer at us as the world’s policemen. The jibe of jealousy is the
best compliment of character. We are the world’s policemen, and that
sarcasm has no sting for us which, wagging its head, says, “Irishmen
rule every country but their own,” for we make bold to say, that no
other race, not even the Jew excepted, against such overwhelming
odds, suffering poverty so grinding and so protracted, could have
preserved its spirit of patriotism through so many and so terrible
baptisms of fire and blood. And, grandest triumph of all, we
conserved its manhood, its physical and spiritual energy so full,
that, instead of a race crippled by conquest, dwarfed by oppression
and inapt through inexperience of self-government, the Irishman
to-day, whether in the pulpit or the parliament, in the court-house
or congress, on the highway or in the home, as a soldier or a
statesman, is _facile princeps_, both in the East and in the West.

It is impossible for Irishmen to think of Lexington without the
associated thought of the United Irishmen,

“Who fears to speak of ’98?”

We remember those noble souls who banded themselves in 1798 for “the
purpose of obtaining the repeal of the penal laws against Roman
Catholics and for the right of the electoral franchise” and who,
after the illustrious Grattan’s modest reform bill had been
rejected, and the tyranny of coercive laws had changed whips for
scorpions, gave their lives for freedom of conscience and civil
liberty. As an Irish Protestant I claim in the loftiest pride,
kinship with the chivalrous Wolfe Tone, the memorable Simon Butler,
the daring Napper Tandy, with James Nelson, the owner and fearless
editor of the organ of the United Irishmen in Belfast; with
McCracken the Presbyterian minister, who was hanged by the neck in
Belfast’s High street by the British because of his scholarly
influence in the cause of freedom, and last, yet ever first, with
the glorious, pious and immortal Robert Emmet,—God haste the day
when we may be able to write the epitaph for which he prayed in the
hour of his sacred martyrdom.

As a Protestant Irishman, I repudiate the policy, and pity the men
with my whole soul, who in ignorant bigotry and misguided zeal—in
which they were encouraged by their English masters—persecuted
hundreds of their fellow-countrymen whose only offense was that they
desired a rational measure of civil and religious liberty, and may
the day never dawn when any of my countrymen shall be hounded again
with the inhuman cry, “To hell or Connaught.”

The skies are brightening. “The blood of our martyrs as the seed of
liberty is bearing golden fruit.” We have the emancipation of the
farmer through Gladstone; the emancipation of the taxpayers, the
county councils through Balfour. What a change as compared with
Salisbury’s statement in 1884, in debate on Mr. Gladstone’s
franchise bill when Salisbury was opposing the extension of this
franchise to Ireland: We warned you when you gave the ballot to
Ireland, and were we wrong?

The Irish Presbyterian clergy are, by poorly informed people,
supposed to be of the Orange cult. Not so! There are seven hundred
Presbyterian clergymen in Ireland, and I am certain that not half a
dozen of these are in actual or tangible touch with the Orange
society.

* * * * *

The Rev. Mr. Nelson spoke further for the amalgamation of all
classes of Irishmen. He dwelt on the misconception of Irish matters
here, as illustrated by the Providence _Journal’s_ statement
recently that the government’s scheme of a Catholic University in
Ireland had been dropped owing to opposition of Orange bigots. Such
opposition would have little weight, he said. The principal
opposition arose from the attitude of the Presbyterians of Ireland
toward the proposed measure,—an opposition which was in no degree
influenced by religious prejudice. “I speak what I know,” said he.
“It was opposed solely on the ground that non-sectarian education is
in their judgment the best policy both for the healing of past
dissensions and the development of future citizenship in beloved
Ireland.”

ADDRESS BY HON. JOHN D. CRIMMINS.

Hon. John D. Crimmins of New York referred to the part Irishmen in Pennsylvania and elsewhere took in the Revolutionary War. He also spoke of men of Irish blood in the business world, saying that with their aggressiveness they should push forward and develop themselves in mercantile life. Mr. Crimmins spoke as a business man against an Anglo-American alliance. He said that if the government wanted to expand its territory he was with it, and we were strong enough to manage alone. Speaking of trusts, Mr. Crimmins said that they were largely experimental, and if the people thought they were injurious to their interests they had it entirely in their own hands to rectify the mistake by voting out of office the party that fostered them.

Capt. E. O’Meagher Condon of New York spoke on the enforced emigration of Irishmen and women to the colonies, under the English penal laws.

Joseph Smith of Lowell, Mass., made an appeal for funds to continue the publication work of the Society.

Hon. John C. Linehan gave some interesting historical information regarding Irish settlers in northern New York.

Addresses were also made by Thomas F. O’Malley of Somerville, Mass., and Rev. Frank L. Phalen of Concord, N. H.

By a vote of the executive council, President-General Gargan sent the following despatch to ex-Congressman Vocke, head of the German-American anti-British alliance movement in this country:

The American-Irish Historical Society, at the thirteenth meeting of
its Executive Council, expresses its cordial and hearty support and
coöperation in the movement of the German-American citizens of the
United States against an alliance with Great Britain.

Secretary-General Murray read a number of interesting letters that had been received.

One was from ex-President Andrews of Brown University:

OFFICE OF SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS,
SCHILLER BUILDING.

MY DEAR MR. MURRAY:—It is very kind of you to remember me with an
invitation to the banquet on the 19th instant, and you know that I
should certainly attend were I anywhere in New England.

These occasions hitherto have been among the most interesting which
I have ever attended. Give my kindest regards to Mr. Gargan and to
any of the other gentlemen attending who may remember me.

Yours truly,
E. BENJ. ANDREWS.

Chicago, April 13, 1899.

From the town clerk and selectmen of Lexington:

LEXINGTON, MASS., April 11, 1899.

_Thomas Hamilton Murray, Esq., Secretary-General American-Irish
Historical Society_:

DEAR SIR:—The selectmen of the town of Lexington desire to express
their sincere thanks for the courtesy of an invitation to the
banquet to be held at Providence, April 19, next, but regret that
our official duties preclude our acceptance, as the day is always a
busy one for the official heads of the town.