Part 10

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.

We take this opportunity of returning the compliment, and trust that on the one hundred and twenty-fifth anniversary, which occurs next year, your Society will be represented. We express the hope that your banquet will be an enjoyable one, and that the day and the occasion to be celebrated will furnish the impulse to make the exercises interesting, instructive and profitable.

Your Society name is typical of history on the one hand; exemplification on the other. The history of that day and the events which followed it represent a struggle with the same country which it has been our privilege to subdue, to our immortal honor and the glory of the world, and it is the same country that again is attempting the perversion of liberty and justice; and a parallel is furnished by the identical principles which animate Ireland to-day, which animated the men of Lexington, Bunker Hill and Saratoga a century ago; and it has been well said, that, while Ireland has not yet gained the jewel of liberty for herself, yet her sons have given freely of their bone, their sinew and blood to set that jewel in many a shining crown of freedom in other lands than their own.

Ireland has had her Lexington, and the “winter of discontent” in her Valley Forge is slowly melting and warming into the eternal summer. May her Yorktown be not long delayed!

{TOWN } EDWIN S. SPAULDING, {SEAL.} GEORGE W. SAMPSON, CHARLES A. FOWLE, _Selectmen of Lexington_.

LEONARD A. SAVILLE, _Town Clerk_.

A similar communication was received from Charles E. Brown, town clerk of Concord, Mass. He was prevented from accepting the invitation owing to a home celebration of the “Concord fight.” His communication also bore the seal of the town, with the inscription: “_Quam firma res Concordia_.” Letters were also announced from Thomas B. Lawler of New York city, Ex-Congressman Weadock of Detroit, Mich., and from a large number of others.

A MEETING IN NEWPORT, R. I.,

ON THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE BATTLE OF RHODE ISLAND, WHICH WAS FOUGHT AUGUST 29, 1778.

The Council of the Society held a meeting in Newport, R. I., on Tuesday, Aug. 29, 1899. The day was the anniversary of the battle of Rhode Island, 1778, in which the American forces, commanded by Gen. John Sullivan, “repulsed the enemy and maintained the field.”

The meeting took place at the Aquidneck House, and was presided over by Hon. John C. Linehan of Concord, N. H.

It was announced that since the last meeting four members of the Society had died, namely: Joseph J. Kelley of East Cambridge, Mass.; William Slatterly of Holyoke, Mass.; the Rev. George W. Pepper of Cleveland, O., and the Rev. Denis Scannell of Worcester, Mass. Eulogies were delivered on these deceased brothers, and minutes adopted expressing regret at their passing away. Several new members were admitted to the Society.