Chapter IV: Part 4

In 1630, Governor John Winthrop and others of the Massachusetts Bay
Colony “hired and dispatched away Mr. William Pearse, with his ship
of about two hundred tons, for Ireland to buy more” provisions. As
he did not return as soon as expected, “many were the fears of
people that Mr. Pearce who was sent to Ireland to fetch provisions,
was cast away or taken by pirates.” In February, 1631, however, he
arrived at Boston, Mass., bringing the following supplies: “34
hogsheads of wheat meal, 15 hogsheads of peas, 4 hogsheads of
oatmeal, 4 hogsheads of beef and pork, 15 cwt. of cheese,
butter-suet, etc. These supplies were in good condition, and a day
of thanksgiving was ordered by the governor.” (Frothingham’s
_Charlestown_ and Drake’s _Boston_.) A second ship appears to have
arrived about this time, for the colonists near by “lifted up their
eyes and saw two ships coming in, and presently the newes came to
their eares, says one among them, that they were come from Ireland
full of victualls.”

In Stackpole’s _History of Durham, Me._, is an interesting reference
to Martin Rourk, at one time town clerk of that place. Rourk was
born in Ireland about 1760, and came to America about 1773. He spent
two years in his uncle’s store at St. John’s, and went to Boston,
Mass., in 1775. He became clerk in the company of Capt. Lawrence of
the Patriot army, and subsequently married his widow. In May, 1775,
Martin Rourk is mentioned as in a picket guard, having enlisted in
April of that year. He reënlisted several times, was at Ticonderoga
in 1776, and is mentioned as a sergeant after 1777. He settled in
Durham, Me., about 1784, and in 1796 bought a twenty-acre lot of
Thomas Mitchell, was town clerk in 1790–1807, and is spoken of as an
excellent penman. He was also “the foremost school teacher” of
Durham. He died in 1807. His children were Jane, John, Hannah,
William, David, Samuel, Silence, Cyrus, and Jacob H. Some of these
had the name changed to Roak before 1820. John, one of the sons,
wedded Joanna Larrabee and had seven children.

IRISH IMMIGRATION TO THE UNITED STATES SINCE 1790.[4]

BY EDWARD O’MEAGHER CONDON, NEW ORLEANS, LA.

Some recent writers on immigration to the United States from Ireland have very materially underestimated the numbers of the Irish who came here even since 1790, and it seems proper now to call attention to some important facts which throw light on the matter, and endeavor to correct the erroneous impressions produced by misleading statements.

It will not be difficult to show that the Irish have come to this country since 1790 in much greater numbers than available records, statistics, or estimates show, and that their descendants are much more numerous than many suppose them to be. The same might be said of the Irish who arrived here before the period just referred to, and particularly before the Revolution—a fact to which I briefly called attention in a little work written several years ago. In this paper, however, consideration will be confined to the Irish who arrived here since 1790 and their descendants.

Until September, 1819, there was no supervision of immigration by the national government, and no records were kept by federal officers of the arrival of immigrants. For the numbers, therefore, of those who came here from 1790 to 1820 we are practically left without official or positive information, and the statements or conjectures of the writers who have dealt with this subject not only betray their imperfect knowledge, but show that they failed to take into consideration some weighty facts essential to the formation of correct estimates.

Thomas Cooper, an Englishman who visited this country in 1794, tells us that “emigration of all kinds from Europe to the United States amounted at that time to about 10,000 a year.” Samuel Blodgett, Jr., however, writing in 1810, assumed that the number of immigrants did not average more than 4,000 a year for the previous ten years, but he gave a table of the population, in one column of which the number of “freemen and slaves” who entered the United States in 1804 was put down at 9,500. Blodgett says that he relies on “the best records and estimates at present attainable,” but he fails to tell us where those records were to be found, or by whom they were kept. A. Seybert, an ex-member of congress, who wrote in 1818, says that the statements in Blodgett’s work “are deficient in details; they consist chiefly of general results and the estimates of the author. Though many of his tables are ingeniously constructed, they do not furnish sufficient data for legislators.” Seybert, while admitting the correctness of Cooper’s estimate of 10,000 arrivals during the year 1794, differs from him with regard to the immigration for the following years up to 1817, and assumes that 6,000 persons only, on the average, arrived here annually from 1790 to 1810. He, however, furnishes us with a statement of the number of passengers who arrived at ten of the principal ports of the United States in 1817, which shows the entrance in that year of 22,240 immigrants, of whom 11,977 came from Britain and Ireland; 4,169 from Germany; 1,245 from France, and 2,901 from British America.

Professor Tucker, another ex-congressman, in a work published in 1843, says, commenting on Seybert’s estimate, “Since an account has been taken of the foreign immigrants who arrive in our seaports as well as from the intrinsic evidence afforded by the enumerations themselves, we must regard his estimate as much too low.” Tucker admits that “our estimates of the whites who migrated hither before 1819 are purely conjectural,” but yet he adopts Seybert’s estimate of 6,000 a year from 1790 to 1810—a total of 120,000—and assumes that from the last named year until 1820, 114,000 immigrants arrived, thus making the total number who came here between 1790 and 1820, 234,000.

He, however, remarks in a note that he could not go beyond this estimate “on account of his respect for Dr. Seybert’s opinion,” but he “could not give a less number because of his regard for the progressive increase of immigration before and after the three years of the war of 1812–1815.” J. D. B. DeBow, superintendent of the census of 1850, in one of his volumes published in 1854, relies on Prof. Tucker’s estimates for the number of those who arrived here during the thirty years preceding 1820, while W. J. Bromwell of the state department, writing in 1856, raises the number to 250,000.

It will be observed that these “estimates” are in fact merely conjectures, and that in the only year (1817) during the entire period from 1790 to 1820 for which actual figures are given, the returns from only ten ports show the arrival of more than twice the average annual number of immigrants estimated by the writers above referred to. It seems, then, evident that the immigrants from 1790 to 1820, and particularly those of Irish birth or blood, were much more numerous than the writers quoted seem willing to admit, and we are amply justified in coming to this conclusion by several substantial reasons.

Professor Tucker, who estimates the number of immigrants between 1790 and 1820 at 234,000, “calculated after a very laborious analysis the number of foreigners and their descendants to be above 1,000,000 in 1840.” Now, according to his own tables, the total number of immigrants who came here between 1790 and 1840 amounted to 949,346, and yet of all these people—over seventy-five per cent. of whom were adults—and their descendants, he would have us believe that there could only be found alive in 1840 the number just given. The total population had increased, within the period named, from 3,929,827 to 17,069,453—more than four hundred per cent.—while the descendants of the immigrants increased, according to him, only five per cent.

We shall see later that, even after the passage of the act of Congress of 1819—which directed the collectors of customs at the seaports of the United States to forward quarter-yearly lists of all the passengers arriving at their respective ports to the state department at Washington—the number of immigrants reported was for many years very considerably less than that of those who actually came here. One careful and reliable writer, Dr. Chickering, estimates the number of those not accounted for at fifty per cent. of those reported. Bearing this in mind it will seem almost certain that, before the time when returns of immigrants were required by law, their numbers were underestimated in a far greater proportion.

Large numbers of people left Ireland for America between 1790 and the beginning of the War of 1812. During the century preceding the year first named half a million of Irishmen—more than the number of Huguenots who left France after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes—went to that country and joined her armies to escape the English penal laws and avenge the violation of the Treaty of Limerick. This fact is attested by the French military records. But after the outbreak of the Revolution in France the flight of the “Wild Geese” was checked, and comparatively few entered the Revolutionary or Imperial armies.

Meanwhile the situation in Ireland was almost as gloomy as before. Though as a consequence of the American and French revolutions the penal laws had been somewhat relaxed, and in 1793 Catholics had been allowed to vote at parliamentary elections, they were still persecuted and harassed in almost every conceivable manner by the Loyalist faction. In Armagh county murders, house burnings, and still more abominable crimes were of constant occurrence, and many thousands of the people were driven from their homes, some taking refuge in the South, some flying to Scotland, and a large number coming to America. An idea of the condition of things at that time in some parts of Ireland may be formed from reading the declaration of Lord Gosford, governor of Armagh county, and thirty magistrates, issued on Dec. 28, 1795.

“It is,” they said, “no secret that a persecution accompanied with all the circumstances of ferocious cruelty, which have in all ages distinguished that calamity, is now raging in this county. Neither age nor sex, nor even acknowledged innocence is sufficient to excite mercy or afford protection. The only crime which the unfortunate objects of this persecution are charged with is a crime of easy proof, indeed, it is simply a profession of the Roman Catholic faith.” The Presbyterians, who had for a long time been excluded from power and position by the “Sacramental Test Act,” and many of whom had, during the eighteenth century, emigrated to America, were also much dissatisfied with their condition and that of the mass of their countrymen.

“The journals of those days,” we are assured by a careful writer on this subject, “show that the Northern Presbyterians were not sharers in the disgrace or afraid to denounce the dominant faction. Neither must we forget that Presbyterianism was socially, though not religiously, outlawed almost to the extent of Catholicism.”

But the English government, which had absolute control of the so-called Irish Parliament, turned a deaf ear to all demands for justice and encouraged the Loyalists to continue their atrocious deeds. Under these circumstances, a number of prominent and patriotic men of all denominations, who had formed the United Irish Society a few years before, for the purpose of bringing about a union of Irishmen of all religious persuasions with the object of effecting a reform in the Parliament, now becoming convinced of the hopelessness of attaining their purpose by peaceful methods, resolved to imitate the example of the American Revolutionists and make an effort to achieve the independence of their country. The movement was unsuccessful, though its suppression in 1798 cost the English government the lives of over 20,000 of the latter’s mercenaries.

Multitudes of the patriots who had taken part in the insurrection escaped to America, a considerable proportion of these going in fishing schooners to Newfoundland, where their descendants are to be found in great numbers to-day, notwithstanding the large emigration from that island to the United States. The failure of Robert Emmet’s effort in 1803 for the freedom of his native land also led to renewed proscription and the flight of thousands across the Atlantic. No records of the numbers of Irish who came here during the period referred to are available, or could in fact under the circumstances be compiled. The notices, however, in the newspapers of the time of the arrivals of immigrants and the accounts of events then occurring in those parts of North America still held by the English, as well as in the United States, throw considerable light upon the subject.

Between 1652 and 1658, over 60,000 Irish—almost all adults—were by order of the Cromwellian government transported to the West Indies and the English colonies—a larger number than the total population of these dependencies at that time. Many thousand of those sent to the West Indies gradually found their way to this country through the Atlantic and Gulf ports, but the fact that proscriptive laws against Catholics, modeled after the English penal laws, were enforced in most of the colonies, prevented many others from coming here before the Revolution. It may be remarked in passing that to the feeling excited among the French colonists on the St. Lawrence by these enactments and by later mischievous displays of religious intolerance, is due the fact that Canada still remains subject to Britain, and that the Starry Flag does not wave over all the territory between the Gulf and the Pole.

After the Revolution, however, and when it became evident that religious liberty would be allowed by law to all the people of this Republic, the descendants of the expatriated Irish in the West Indies came to the United States in considerable numbers to escape the insalubrious climate, the almost constant turmoil caused by the conflicts waged there between European powers, the troubles and dangers arising from the frequent plots and uprisings of the colored population, and especially to be rid of English rule.

To show the difficulties and dangers to which those living in the West Indian islands were exposed, an incident which occurred on the island of Montserrat in 1768 may be briefly mentioned. The negroes of that island formed a plot to massacre the whites, and decided to carry out their project on St. Patrick’s day, “which,” we are informed, “the inhabitants generally assembled together to commemorate”—a fact which proves their origin. It was arranged that “the negroes allowed within the building (where the festivities were to be held) were to secure the swords of the gentlemen participating and those without were to fire into the hall and put every man to death. They were then to cast lots for the ladies, whom they intended to carry to Puerto Rico in the vessels that lay in the harbor.” The plot happily failed, through a warning given by a faithful servant to one of the intended victims, and several negroes were executed for complicity in it. The Irish in the West Indies sympathized warmly with the American Revolutionists, and this made them objects of distrust and hatred to the English. We are told that “from many letters found in American prize ships, it was discovered that a traitorous correspondence had been carried on between British subjects and the revolted colonies in North America.” The merchandise and stores of those suspected of sympathy with the Americans were confiscated by the English.

The vindictive animosity displayed by Admiral Lord Nelson while in the West Indies against the Americans and their sympathizers excited the bitterest indignation among the people there. Nelson—whose feeling toward the Americans, trading with these islands, may be judged from an expression in one of his letters, “I hate them all,” and his declaration in another, “I, for one, am determined not to suffer the Yankees to come where my ship is”—did his utmost to ruin American commerce in that quarter, and even went so far as to complain to the English government of his superior officers because they failed to encourage and abet his malignant efforts. His bitterness against the Irish may be easily inferred from one of his letters written from the island of St. Kitts, on March 18, 1785, in which he says: “Yesterday being St. Patrick’s Day, Irish colors with thirteen stripes on them were hoisted all over town. I was engaged to dine with the president, but sent an excuse, as he suffered those colors to fly.” It is not to be wondered at that numbers of the West Indian Irish sought a home under the flag with the “thirteen stripes,” to which they had so patriotically shown their attachment.

It may be remarked here that Seaman, referring to the period just before 1790, says that “the proportionately rapid increase of the population of the Southern states proved that they had received considerable accessions of immigrants from the West Indies.” The great majority of these were no doubt descendants of the transported victims of Cromwell’s despotism. The able historian of South Carolina, Dr. Ramsay, tells us that in 1791 a number of Catholics, “chiefly natives of Ireland, associated themselves together for public worship, and put themselves under the care of Bishop Carroll,” and adds that “The troubles in France and the West Indian islands soon brought a large accession to their numbers.”

A considerable number of Irish immigrants arrived here between 1800 and 1815 from the remnant of North American territory still subject to England, and especially from Newfoundland. From a very early period, Irish fishermen had been accustomed to visit the shores of that island, and not seldom did they bring with them proscribed and persecuted priests, who sought shelter there from the fanatical “priest hunters” employed in enforcing the English penal laws in Ireland. But even there were they harassed and hounded and the exercise of their faith prohibited, and it was not until after the achievement of American Independence that Catholics were permitted to openly profess the principles and practice the duties of their religion. In 1784, the then governor, Vice-Admiral Campbell, issued an order allowing “All persons inhabiting the island to have full liberty of conscience and free exercise of all such modes of religious worship as are not prohibited by law.”

It seems probable that this official acknowledgment of the right of liberty of conscience was hastened, not only by the triumph of the American “rebels,” but also by the fact that in 1776 an attempt was made by the Irish in Newfoundland to aid the Americans by sympathetic movements, which clearly indicated their disposition to make common cause with Washington and his compatriots.

The large numbers of Wexford and other insurgents, who had escaped to Newfoundland after the failure of the insurrection of ’98, and who, though defeated, had not lost heart or hatred of their oppressors, became so numerous in 1799 that they formed a plan to expel the English from the island, resolving in case of failure to “set off for the United States.” They succeeded in extending the United Irish organization, not only among a very considerable number of the people, but also among a large proportion of the soldiers composing the Royal Newfoundland regiment, then stationed in St. John’s, the capital.

The movement was unsuccessful, owing to the timidity or treachery of some among the military. Five soldiers were hanged, seven sent to Halifax to be shot, many others carried to the same place “to be there dealt with,” and the regiment was removed from St. John’s and replaced by another. Ogden, the governor, in a letter written in July, 1800, says, “We do not know, nor was it possible to ascertain how far this defection and the United (Irish) Oath extended through the regiment.” He admits that “the defection was very extensive, not only through the regiment, but through the inhabitants of this and all the out-harbors, particularly to the southward, where the people almost to a man had taken the United (Irish) Oath, which is ‘to be true to the old cause, and to follow their heads of whatsoever denomination.’” He supposes that the plans “are not given up, but only waiting a proper opportunity to break through,” and adds that, according to statements made by a United Irishman, who was only a “novice,” the movement had been undertaken “in consequence of letters received from Ireland.” He further demands a reinforcement of troops—1,500 men—which will be needed “while Ireland is in such a state of ferment as it has been, and is likely to continue, until the business of the Union is settled, for the events of Ireland have heretofore, and will henceforth, in a great measure, govern the sentiments and actions of the far greater majority of the people in this country.”

The unsatisfactory outcome of this movement caused numbers of the United Irishmen of Newfoundland to seek shelter in the United States. “American traders came disguised, sold and bartered their goods in the outports and stole away the men as usual,” about this time, just as during the closing years of the 17th century and the first half of the 18th, the French smugglers carried over to France the “Wild Geese.” It is, of course, impossible to ascertain the number of those who came here at the period and under the conditions above referred to, but it is evident that there were many thousands of them.

In 1804, Irish immigrants to the number of 670 are reported as arriving at St. John’s on their way to the United States, and for several years after thousands of their countrymen chose the same route to our shores. During the war of 1812 many of the Irish who had remained on the island went to serve on American privateers against the English, and many of these ships were commanded by Irishmen.

The large number of Irish who entered the United States from British North America within the period considered is not taken into account by our authorities on immigration, and their estimates of the direct immigration from Ireland and Britain are also very evidently far too low. They do not seem to remember that, there being no supervision of vessels carrying passengers until a much later period, the ships for America were crowded to a degree which in our day would hardly be thought possible.

Wolfe Tone, in his “Memoirs,” gives us an idea of the manner in which passengers were packed in vessels bound for the United States. Speaking of his voyage from Belfast to Wilmington, Delaware, in 1795—which occupied upwards of eight weeks—he says: “The slaves who are carried from the coast of Africa have much more room allowed them than the immigrants who pass from Ireland to America, for the avarice of the captains in that trade is such that they think they never can load their vessels sufficiently, and they trouble their heads in general no more about the accommodation and storage of their passengers than of any other lumber aboard.” There were over 300 immigrants on board the ship on which he sailed, but when off the banks of Newfoundland, she was stopped by three English frigates, and fifty of her passengers carried off by the “press-gangs” to serve in the navy of their persecutors. Tone narrowly escaped being among the number of those taken.

Many of the captains of emigrant ships at that time were thoroughly unscrupulous. A few years before the incidents just referred to occurred, the captain of a vessel, who had undertaken to carry a body of emigrants from Dunleary (now Kingstown), Ireland, to Charleston, S. C., landed eighty of them on the island of Inagua, near Dominica, in the West Indies, telling them it was well inhabited, and that provisions were plentiful. When, after having landed, they found that they had been deceived by the captain, and attempted to get on board the vessel again, they were fired on and one of them killed. They were, however, rescued a short time after by a passing American vessel, being, as might be supposed, “all in a most distressed condition.” It was not only the poorer people of Ireland who even then sought a free home in this land. Many persons of means were always to be found among those who came direct from thence. In 1798, a ship arrived at Norfolk, Va., from that country “with 426 passengers, chiefly tradesmen and persons of property.”

In the absence of any authentic records of immigration during the thirty years preceding 1820, we are justified, when endeavoring to form anything like an approximately correct estimate of the arrivals from Ireland during that period, in taking into consideration the strength of the Irish element here at that time, and the importance attached to the movements of Irish Americans in aid of their struggling kindred in the Old Land. Branches of the United Irish Society were established here soon after the organization of that body in Ireland. “Its headquarters were in Philadelphia, where Mathew Carey and other good men gave it aid and impulse. The publications of the Irish society were reprinted in the city just named as early as 1794, and funds were collected and arms promised.”

The strength and influence of this organization excited the uneasiness of the English government, and its minister here, Sir Robert Liston, used every effort to check the progress of the sympathetic movement. He was unfortunately enabled to attain his object, to a great extent, through his close intimacy with the highest officers of our government. In 1798, the “Alien Act” was passed in Congress, by a small majority. By this enactment, the president could order any alien he deemed dangerous to quit the country, others were to be licensed to remain during his pleasure, and neglect to obtain a license was made an offense punishable by three years’ imprisonment, and perpetual disqualification for citizenship. Fourteen years was fixed as the time necessary for an alien to reside here before he could become a citizen. This law excited deep indignation, and was strongly denounced by many independent journals. In order to prevent hostile criticism, the “Sedition Law” was passed, by which a fine of $2,000 was imposed upon any one who should write or publish a letter against the government, either house of Congress, or the president. Many were tried and several punished under these acts, and some had to fly the country to escape the threatened penalties.

The English minister was jubilant. In a letter to the governor-general of Canada, written in 1799, he gleefully told how some supporters of the coercive measures had “taken the law into their own hands, and flogged one or two of the printers of the newspapers whose comments had offended them,” and he remarked that this proceeding had “given rise to much animosity, to threats, and to a commencing of armed associations among those opposed to these laws, particularly among the United Irishmen,” adding, “Some apprehend that the affair may lead to a civil war.”

The Alien and Sedition laws were repealed three years later, the bill for that purpose being introduced by Senator Smilie, a native of Newtonards, Down county, Ireland, and a veteran of the Revolution. In 1812 he was a member of the foreign affairs committee, and prepared the bill authorizing President Madison to raise an army to fight the English.

Among the many prominent United Irishmen who arrived here about this period were Napper Tandy, Archibald Hamilton Rowan, Mathew Carey, Dr. Reynolds, Dr. Robert Adrian, who became professor of mathematics and natural philosophy in Columbia college, and later was made vice-provost of the University of Pennsylvania. There came at the beginning of the nineteenth century, Thomas Addis Emmet, afterward attorney-general of New York state; Dr. William J. Macneven; Counselor Sampson; W. Theobald Wolfe Tone, a worthy son of his heroic father; Nicholas Grey, who had been adjutant to General Harvey, commander of the Wexford insurgent army in ’98; Henry Jackson, John Cormack, and many others. Alexander Porter, another of these immigrants, was too young in ’98 to become a member of the organization in Ireland, but his father, Rev. W. Porter, a Protestant minister of Newtonards, Down, had been hanged at his own door for his patriotism during the insurrection. Mr. Porter was later chosen United States senator from the state of Louisiana.

During the war of 1812–’15, large numbers of Irish joined the armies of the republic and shared in the victories as well as the defeats of that conflict. When General Scott and his small force was overpowered at Queenstown Heights by a greatly superior body of English and compelled to surrender, a number of the Irish prisoners of war were separated from their comrades and sent in irons to England “in order to be tried and executed for the crime of high treason.” The United States government, however, threatened to retaliate, and because of this fact, the men were ultimately released and allowed to return to this country. Many Irish also fought under Harrison, one of them (Mason) being credited with having killed the Indian chief, Tecumseh, at the battle of the Thames, and among the gallant men who under Andrew Jackson so decisively defeated the English at New Orleans on January 8, 1815, were numbers who had been born in his father’s native land, including several veterans of the insurrection of ’98.

While the war lasted, immigration from Europe was checked, but very soon after the restoration of peace, immigrants, particularly from Ireland, began to come here in far greater numbers than ever before. The English, however, notwithstanding the treaty of Ghent, were still bitterly hostile to the Americans, and their press indulged in the coarsest abuse of our institutions and public men. Inflamed by jealousy of this republic, and anxious to prevent the Irish from emigrating to it, the English parliament in 1816 passed a law which prohibited British vessels from carrying more than one passenger for every five tons burden to the United States, while allowing them to carry one passenger for every two tons to any other part of the world.

But this law did not produce the desired effect. Professor Smith says that “from Great Britain (and Ireland) the number of emigrants for the year 1815 was only 2,081. The next year it rose to 12,510; in 1817 to 20,634; in 1818 to 27,787, and in 1819 to 34,789.”

Holmes says, speaking of the year 1816: “In this and the preceding year there was a great emigration from Ireland and England to America. This year 1,192 American and foreign vessels arrived at New York, bringing to that port alone 7,122 passengers.” From the same authority we learn that the returns of vessels and passengers at Baltimore showed the arrival at that port early in October, 1816, of 1,878 passengers; those reported being estimated at probably three fourths of the whole number that arrived. From another source we find that “within three weeks, in the month of September, 1816, about 2,000 immigrants arrived in the United States.” Similar notices may be frequently found in the newspapers of those times.

The English authorities, while endeavoring to prevent the Irish from coming to the United States, exerted themselves vigorously to promote emigration to Canada. Municipal bodies, local organizations, and various societies contributed funds to assist those intending to emigrate, and at the same time liberal grants of land and other inducements were offered to prospective settlers in Canada. As a result of these efforts, the immigrants from Ireland and Britain to Canada out-numbered, for many years, those who came to the United States. The great majority of the Irish, however, soon found their way to this country, and especially to New York, where work was progressing at that time on the Erie and Champlain canals. Of all these, no account was taken by officials or writers on emigration at the time, and but little by those who wrote later on the subject, though one writer admits that there was even more recently “considerable overland immigration, much of which escapes attention.”

It seems evident, taking all the facts above cited into consideration, that the estimates of those writers of the number of immigrants, and particularly of Irish immigrants who arrived here between 1790 and 1820, are very much too low, and it appears very reasonable to assume that Dr. Chickering’s estimate of the number of immigrants who came here after 1820—that is 50 per cent. more than the officially reported number of arrivals—must be largely increased when we are endeavoring to ascertain how many immigrants landed on our shores before the date just mentioned, and before any attempt was made to obtain the number of those who arrived in the United States, even through our Atlantic ports.

In order to reach an approximately correct conclusion as to the proportion of the immigrants of different nationalities embraced in this aggregate, we must be guided “by the relations then existing between the United States and the countries from which persons emigrated,” to quote the words of the last-named writer when speaking of the number of immigrants. There is no need to dwell on those relations. The bitter feeling with which the English had regarded the Americans from the days of the Revolution, lost none of its intensity during the period under consideration, and the feeling was frankly and fully reciprocated by the great mass of the American people. As a consequence, there were but few English among the immigrants to this country at that time.

The Irish, however, who had always sympathized with our republic in its struggles, and gloried in its triumphs, came here in large and constantly increasing numbers all through the thirty years preceding 1820, as well as afterwards. Many thousands of French, Germans, and others arrived here during the period, but the great majority were undoubtedly Irish. It seems clear that the immigrants were more than twice as numerous during the period considered as the commonly received estimates or conjectures would lead us to believe, and it appears evident from the facts above cited that at least two thirds of the total were of Irish birth or blood—including those from the West Indies, Newfoundland, and Canada.

That number seems very small now, when we think of the enormous immigration of later years, and our population of 80,000,000. But it should be remembered that the white population of this country in 1790 was only 3,172,464. Of this total, those between the ages of twenty and fifty numbered less than two fifths, or 1,268,986. Now the immigrants who sought our shores in those days were almost all in the prime of life. Children and aged and weakly people, being unable to undergo the difficulties and hardships certain to be encountered in a strange and new land, were left behind. Among the new arrivals marriages took place in far greater proportion than among the descendants of the earlier immigrants, and the children of the former were proportionately more than twice as numerous as those of the latter. This continued to be the case down to a much later period. During the years 1849, 1850, and 1851, the marriages among the native born in Massachusetts were at the rate of 220 in 10,000, while those of the foreigners (mostly Irish) were in the proportion of 450 in 10,000. The children born to native parents in the same state during the same years numbered 47,982, or 578 in 10,000, while those of immigrants amounted to 24,523, or 1,491 in 10,000. That is more than twice and a half as many. It is impossible to determine accurately how much the population of the United States was increased by the immigrants who arrived here between 1790 and 1820, and their descendants, but careful investigators have furnished us with estimates, which maybe fairly regarded as approximately correct.

Some writers who gravely state that “the mortality among Catholics is greater than among Protestants,” and who complacently assert that “the vitality of the Irish is very low,” have, as might be expected from these expressions, glaringly underestimated the number in 1820 of the immigrants and their descendants who arrived here during the period under consideration. Dr. Chickering says that they then numbered 1,430,906 out of a total population of 9,638,131.

But the Hon. F. Kapp, one of the commissioners of immigration for the state of New York, allowing a yearly increase of 1.38 per cent. for the descendants of the earlier immigrants, shows that at this rate the population—excluding slaves because their numbers have no bearing on the question—of 3,231,930 in 1790, would have only increased to 3,706,674 in 1800, to 4,251,143 in 1810, and to 4,875,600 in 1820, instead of amounting to 8,100,056, the total population including slaves being 9,638,131. Assuming his estimate to be nearly correct, his declaration that “immigration has enabled this country to anticipate its natural growth some forty years’” seems reasonable.

A similar estimate was made by Louis Schade of Washington, D. C., and by Hon. M. W. Closkey, ex-postmaster of the United States house of representatives, who shows that the rate of increase of our population (1.38 per cent.) was greater than that of any European nation, and proceeds to estimate what the numbers of our people would have been at each census up to 1850 had immigration been prohibited when the constitution was adopted in 1789. The estimates just quoted together with the facts above stated seem to prove that the number of the immigrants arriving here between 1790 and 1820 were absurdly underestimated by most of those who wrote on the subject.

The same remark applies to some extent to several writers who have dealt with the question of immigration after 1820, and even the official reports and statistics down to a comparatively recent period were admittedly defective in important respects, and failed to mention or enumerate a large proportion of the immigrants to this country. This subject will, however, be dealt with in another paper.

THE FIRST IRISH IN ILLINOIS.

BY HON. P. T. BARRY, CHICAGO, ILL.

Individual Irishmen appeared early on the scene in Illinois. They came in a military capacity. Having no government of their own to serve, they served others. The Irishman who had the distinction of first figuring in our annals was a Chevalier Macarty, who succeeded LaBussoniere in 1751, in the command of the first French fortress erected in the Mississippi valley—that of Chartres. He came from New Orleans with a small military force, and remained in charge until 1764, when he delivered up that stronghold to the English, according to the treaty of 1763, by which France yielded up all her Canadian possessions by right of conquest to her ancient enemy.

Canada at that time extended to the Ohio river on the south and to the Mississippi on the west. There was not yet any map bearing the name of the Empire state of the West. There was only a tribe of Indians inhabiting a portion of the immense Northwest named the “Illini,” that had its name given to the territory at the dividing up. Beyond the Mississippi was Spanish territory.

Under the French and Spanish systems of colonization at that date, Indian missions, military posts and towns went together. Old Kaskaskia, in what is now Randolph county, was the first seat of civilization in the great Mississippi basin, and was for a time the capital of the territory. Here many stirring events took place for many eventful years. In addition to a mission and a fort near by, it was made of greater importance with a legislature.

Pere Marquette, the apostle of several states, laid its foundation in the year 1675, one hundred years before the breaking out of the war for American independence. Here savages and whites commingled. Also, the soldiers of France, Great Britain and America. And wherever there are soldiers there is to be found the ubiquitous Irishman. There was to be found French contentment, savage resentment and pioneer endurance. Vincennes, Pittsburg and Detroit were its nearest neighbors on the great Western expanse. But, like the sites of Tyre and Sidon, famous in ancient history, it exists no more, the encroaching waters of the Mississippi having washed it away and made it a memory.

After the capitulation of Quebec in 1763 the British claimed ownership of the whole of the French territory known as Canada, and prepared to garrison all the forts the French had erected, including Detroit, Peoria, Vincennes, Chartres, Cahokia, Kaskaskia, etc. The last-named three were situated on the Mississippi river, and somewhat contiguous.

On the 27th day of February, 1764, a Major Loftus of the British army, then on duty in Florida, was ordered to proceed to Fort Chartres and take possession of it. His name indicates his Irish origin, but if there be any mistake in this, there certainly was not in his soldiers. They were of the Twenty-second British regiment, and were mostly Irishmen. Here, then, was presented the peculiar spectacle of one Irish commander in the service of a country not his own being required to evacuate his command to another Irishman in the service of a different country not his own. It reminds the writer somewhat of the siege of Quebec by Richard Montgomery, an Irishman in the service of the United States, when he asked its British commander, Sir Guy Carleton, another Irishman, and an old schoolmate, to surrender to the Continental Congress. But Major Loftus was not fortunate any more than General Montgomery. On the way he and his command were attacked by the Indians, who killed many of the soldiers, the remainder escaping down the Mississippi. Thus was the first Irish blood spilled in the Mississippi valley.

Then another Irish officer, also in the British service, named George Croghan, was ordered by Governor Murray to go forward and secure the desired possession. Croghan had been quite a conspicuous figure in the British interest in those days in America. He ranked as major, and had been for many years a trader among the Western Indians. Hardly another white man was in the prairie country before him. In describing the country afterwards, he said it looked like an ocean. The ground was exceedingly rich and full of all kinds of game, and at any time, in half an hour, he could kill all he wanted. He was commanded to go from Fort Pitt to make the way clear for the British advance to Forts Cahokia and Chartres. It was not the French alone that were to be considered, but the Indian chieftains as well. He first sent forward a Lieutenant Fraser to see the way clear, but the latter received rough treatment at Kaskaskia and returned unsuccessful.

It was said that Chief Pontiac was egged on to kill him, but he escaped without serious injury. Then Colonel Croghan, who was also a British deputy superintendent of Indian affairs, went forward himself. He left Fort Pitt (now Pittsburg) on May 15, 1765, accompanied by a party of friendly Indians. His progress was uninterrupted until he arrived at a small promontory on the Wabash, where he disembarked. On June 8, six miles below the stream he was suddenly attacked by a band of Kickapoos, eighty in number. In the fight which followed Croghan lost two white men and three Indians, while most of his party, including himself, were wounded. A surrender was unavoidable, and the victorious Kickapoos plundered the entire party. Subsequently the Indians confessed they had made a great mistake, and expressed sorrow for what had happened. They supposed, they said, that the friendly Indians accompanying Croghan were their deadly enemies, the Cherokees. They brought their prisoners in safety to Vincennes on the Wabash, where the Indians, many of whom had friendly acquaintance with Croghan, strongly condemned the Kickapoos, and the latter in turn expressed deep sorrow for what they persisted in calling a blunder.

Further on the way he received a message from St. Ange, the late French commander, cordially inviting him to advance to Fort Chartres. He had proceeded but a short distance on his way, however, when he was met by a delegation of chiefs, representing various tribes of Indians, among whom was the hitherto implacable Pontiac, the great warrior, at the head of a large band of Ottawa braves, offering their services as an escort. At this juncture, and under this condition of things, Croghan did not deem it necessary to proceed further in person, the British claim to the territory being acknowledged by both French and Indians. This happy result showed that the Irishman must have used his diplomatic powers to excellent advantage. He then betook himself to Detroit to attend to other important business in the interest of his royal master, leaving his command in charge of another officer.

Accompanied by Pontiac, Croghan crossed to Fort Miami and, descending the Miami, held conferences with the different tribes dwelling in the immense forests which sheltered the banks of the stream. Passing thence up the Detroit, he arrived at the fort on the 17th of August, where he found a vast concourse of neighboring tribes. The fear of punishment and the long privations they had suffered from the suspension of their trade had banished every thought of hostility, and all were anxious for peace and its attendant blessings. After numerous interviews with the different tribes in the old town hall where Pontiac first essayed the execution of his treachery, Croghan called a final meeting on the 27th of August. Imitating the forest eloquence with which he had long been familiar, he thus addressed the convention:

“Children, we are very glad to see so many of you present at your ancient council fire, which has been neglected for some time past. Since then high winds have blown and raised heavy clouds over your country. I now by this belt rekindle your ancient fires and throw dry wood upon them that the blaze may ascend to heaven, so that all nations may see it and know that you live in peace with your fathers, the English. By this belt I disperse all the black clouds from over your heads that the sun may shine clear on your women and children, and that those unborn may enjoy the blessings of this general peace, now so happily settled between your fathers, the English, and you and all your younger brethren toward the sunsetting.”

The following was Pontiac’s reply: “Father, we have all smoked together out of this peace pipe, and as the great Spirit has brought us together for good, I declare to all the nations that I have made peace with the English. In the presence of all the tribes now assembled I take the king of England for my father and dedicate this to his use that henceforth we may visit him and smoke together in peace.”

The object of Croghan’s visit being thus accomplished he was prepared to depart, but before doing so he exacted a promise from Pontiac that the following spring he would appear at Oswego and enter into a treaty with Sir William Johnson in behalf of the Western nations associated with him in the late war.

In September, 1768, came John Wilkins, lieutenant-colonel of “His Majesty’s Eighteenth or Royal Regiment of Ireland,” and commandant throughout the Illinois country. Several companies of this regiment came with him from Philadelphia and occupied quarters at Kaskaskia. The experience of those troops was not good, but it was common to that of all new comers in the aguish “American Bottom.” The sickness among them was not only very great, but very fatal. At one time, out of five companies only a corporal and six men were found fit for duty.

Capt. Hugh Lord became the next commander of the Royal Irish regiment, and continued so until the year 1775. The British governor at Kaskaskia at this time was a Chevalier Rocheblave, strange to say, a Frenchman. It was at this time that the colonists began to defy George III, and the Irish soldiers of the old French outposts were persistent in showing sympathy for them, and their leaning toward the American cause was such that poor old Rocheblave declared it worried him to see men of British birth giving him more trouble than the French. After a time most of the Irish soldiers of Britain were drawn off for service elsewhere, and the French residents were organized into militia. Their captain was one Richard McCarty, a resident of Cahokia. There was another McCarty who built a water mill on the Cahokia creek near Illinoistown at a later date, who was known as “English McCarty.”

In 1777 Irish-Americans began to appear on the scene, with the invasion of Gen. George Rogers Clark, the Virginian. What Clark’s ancestry was remains in some doubt. His biographer, English, thinks his ancestors came from Albion, but is able to give no particulars. At any rate, he conquered that portion of British territory that had formerly belonged to the French, and from which five sovereign states of the Union have been carved. His army was composed of Virginians and Pennsylvanians, many of whom were Irish either by birth or by blood. He was materially assisted by the French settlers, under the leadership of Father Gibault, the republican priest of Kaskaskia. To the latter and one Col. Francis Vigo, a native of Sardinia, who was married to an Irish lady (a Miss Shannon), was the success of the Virginian invasion mostly due, and the annexation of the prairie country to American territory.

Clark affiliated very closely with the Irish. It is due to him to say that he was a brave and generous man, whose services to his young country can never be forgotten. His invasion of this wilderness and its conquest, it must be remembered, was under the direction of Gov. Patrick Henry of Virginia, and to him alone he was responsible. The first of his Irish relatives to deserve notice was William Croghan, a nephew of Maj. George Croghan, the British officer already alluded to. He cherished no love in his heart for Great Britain or her monarch. He had resigned the British for the American service. He left Ireland for America when quite young, and was long in the employ of the British as an Indian agent, like his uncle. He joined the American forces at Pittsburg and witnessed the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown. He married Lucy Clark Rogers, sister of the famous general. When he joined the American forces he was assigned to Colonel Werder’s Virginia regiment, shortly after the battle of Long Island, and continued in active service for years.

He was promoted to the rank of major in 1778, and was assigned to Col. John Neville’s Fourth Virginia regiment and participated in the battle of Monmouth. He marched with the Virginia troops to Charleston, S. C., where the whole American army at that place was compelled to surrender to the enemy. In 1781 he was paroled and went to Virginia with his friend, Col. Jonathan Clark, brother of the general, and for a time was the guest of Colonel Clark’s father in Caroline county. It was there he met the woman who was destined to be his wife. He was afterwards a delegate to the Kentucky convention of 1789–’90, and was one of the commissioners to divide the land allotted to the soldiers engaged in the conquest of the Northwest. He left six sons and two daughters.

One of his daughters became the wife of Thomas Jessup, adjutant-general, U. S. A. His son George married a Miss Livingston, of the noted New York family. This son George greatly distinguished himself at the battle of Tippecanoe in 1811, and subsequently in the Mexican War. He was a major at the time of his defense of Fort Stephenson at Lower Sandusky, and Congress presented him with a medal for his gallantry. A splendid monument has been erected to his memory at Fremont, Ohio. The elder Croghan died in 1822, and his widow in 1838.

Frances Eleanor Clark, youngest daughter of the old hero, married Dr. James O’Fallon, whom the memoir says was a finely-educated Irishman who came to America shortly before the Revolution. He was an officer during the War for Independence, and was the founder of the well-known O’Fallon family of St. Louis, which has been so conspicuous in the history of that great city. There is also a town named after one of the members of this family in St. Clair county, this state. To his two grandsons, John and Benjamin O’Fallon, General Clark willed 3,000 acres of land.

Another nephew and heir of the general was George Rogers Clark Sullivan, who was honorably identified with Indian affairs during the territorial period, and who left a long line of prominent descendants, after one of which is named Sullivan county in that state.

In Gen. George Rogers Clark’s force for the conquest of Kaskaskia, Cahokia, and Vincennes were many men with Irish names, and when we take into account the Irish then so very numerous in Pennsylvania and Virginia, it would not be surprising if one half of it was composed of Irishmen and Irish-Americans. In this force were 236 privates, besides officers. Some of the names of the latter are as follows: Major Thomas Quirk (who was originally a sergeant in Captain McHarrod’s company and rendered some military service on the frontier before and after the Illinois campaign). Clark’s biographer says, “Quirk was a brave and a fine-looking Irishman.” He died in Louisville, Kentucky, in the fall of 1803. He was allotted 4,312 acres of land for his valuable army services.