The Journal of the American Irish Historical Society, IX

MINUTES OF THE ANNUAL MEETING. — Life Members. — Annual Members. — REPORT OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL. — Donations. — Administration Expenses.

It was voted that the reading of the minutes of the Eleventh Annual Meeting be omitted.

The admission of new members being the first business in order, the following list of applicants was read by the Secretary-General, all of whom, by unanimous vote, were duly elected:

James Butler, Esq., 230 West 72d Street, New York City. Proposed by Francis J. Quinlan, M. D.; seconded by Hon. John D. Crimmins.

William J. Dooley, Esq., 17 Gaston Street, Boston, Mass. Proposed by John J. Lenehan.

Hon. John B. O’Meara, 1413 Syndicate Trust Building, St. Louis, Mo. Proposed by John J. Lenehan.

John J. Bealin, Esq., 2334 Valentine Avenue, New York City. Proposed by Philip J. Kearns; seconded by Owen J. Brady and John J. Lenehan.

Thomas P. Fitzsimmons, Esq., 169 West 76th Street, New York City. Proposed by John J. Lenehan.

James F. McNaboe, Esq., 137 West 92d Street, New York City. Proposed by John J. Lenehan.

Dr. John Guerin, 3958 Ellis Avenue, Chicago, Ill. Proposed by Hon. M. T. Moloney.

Rev. Edmond Heelan, Sacred Heart Church, Fort Dodge, Iowa. Proposed by Patrick E. C. Lally; seconded by John J. Lenehan.

John P. Sutton, Esq., 134 N. 18th Street, Lincoln, Neb. Proposed by Hon. M. T. Moloney.

31Thomas O’Reilly, Esq., 8 Mt. Morris Park West, New York City. Proposed by John J. Lenehan.

John J. Manning, Esq., 143 West 95th Street, New York City. Proposed by John J. Lenehan.

Hon. Richard H. Mitchell, 38 Park Row, New York City. Proposed by John J. Lenehan.

Frank Keenan, Esq., 210 West 107th Street, New York City. Proposed by Francis J. Quinlan, M. D.; seconded by John J. Lenehan.

Jerome B. Coggins, Esq., 920 17th Street, Denver, Colo. Proposed by James J. Sullivan; seconded by John J. Lenehan.

William J. Colihan, Esq., 141 East 95th Street, New York City. Proposed by John J. Manning; seconded by John J. Lenehan.

James Moroney, Esq., 303 Elm Street, Dallas, Texas. Proposed by John J. Lenehan.

George A. Hopkins, Esq., 526 West 111th Street, New York City. Proposed by Col. David M. Flynn; seconded by John J. Lenehan.

William J. Whelen, Esq., 326 South Broad Street, Elizabeth, N. J. Proposed by William J. McCloud.

Richard T. Potts, Esq., 73 Broad Street, Elizabeth, N. J. Proposed by William J. McCloud.

T. A. Riordan, Esq., Flagstaff, Arizona. Proposed by John J. Lenehan.

M. D. Gallagher, Esq., 402 West 146th Street, New York City. Proposed by Gen. Michael Kerwin.

Dr. William J. Sullivan, President Lawrence Board of Trade, Lawrence, Mass. Proposed by Dr. M. F. Sullivan.

Cornelius J. Corcoran, Esq., City Clerk of Lawrence, Lawrence, Mass. Proposed by Dr. M. F. Sullivan.

Thomas F. Kennedy, Esq., of Yund, Kennedy & Yund, Amsterdam, N. Y. Proposed by John J. Lenehan.

Patrick J. Bergin, Esq., 169 Blackstone Street, Boston, Mass. Proposed by Michael J. Jordan; seconded by John J. Lenehan.

Martin J. Wade, Esq., Iowa City, Iowa. Proposed by Hon. M. T. Moloney.

Joseph M. Feely, Esq., 304–5 Powers Building, Rochester, N. Y. Proposed by P. F. Magrath.

HONORABLE THOMAS J. O’BRIEN,

American Ambassador to Japan.

32Joseph A. Kenefick, M. D., 78 East 54th Street, New York City. Proposed by Francis J. Quinlan, M. D.

Dudley Field Malone, Esq., 37 Wall Street, New York City. Proposed by John J. Lenehan.

Hon. Charles V. Fornes, 425–427 Broome Street, New York City. Proposed by John E. O’Brien.

John F. Harrigan, Esq., 66 High Street, Worcester, Mass. Proposed by John J. Lenehan.

Timothy J. Phelan, Esq., Narragansett Hotel, Providence, R. I. Proposed by Michael W. Norton; seconded by Thomas F. Kilkenny.

Hon. John J. Mee, Woonsocket, R. I. Proposed by Thomas Z. Lee.

Denis A. McAuliffe, Esq., 312 E. 57th Street, New York City. Proposed by Francis J. Quinlan, M. D.

Hon. John T. Coughlin, Mayor of Fall River, Fall River, Mass. Proposed by Thomas E. Maloney.

Henry F. Nickerson, Esq., 524 Durfee Street, Fall River, Mass. Proposed by Thomas E. Maloney.

Michael J. Coughlin, Esq., 178 Bedford Street, Fall River, Mass. Proposed by Thomas E. Maloney.

Hon. W. E. Chandler, formerly U. S. Senator from New Hampshire, Concord, N. H. Proposed by Thomas Z. Lee.

William Sydney Rossiter, Esq., The Rumford Press, Concord, N. H. Proposed by Thomas Z. Lee.

Hon. Zenas W. Bliss, Lieut.-Governor of Rhode Island, Providence, R. I. Proposed by Hon. Patrick J. McCarthy.

Edward S. Murphy, Esq., 1205 Park Avenue, New York City. Proposed by John J. Manning.

James Hanley, Esq., of The James Hanley Brewing Co., Providence, R. I. Proposed by Hon. Michael F. Dooley.

John P. Donohoe, Esq., Care of The Barclay-Westmoreland Trust Co., Greensburg, Penn. Proposed by John J. Lenehan.

George W. McNulty, Esq., 153 West 79th Street, New York City. Proposed by John J. Lenehan.

John J. Powers, Esq., 424 Habersham Street, Savannah, Ga. Proposed by Col. M. J. O’Leary; seconded by John J. Lenehan.

33Lieut.-Col. John G. Butler, 20 Congress Street, West, Savannah, Ga. Proposed by Col. M. J. O’Leary; seconded by John J. Lenehan.

Thomas M. Blake, Esq., 11 St. Luke’s Place, New York City. Proposed by Robert E. Danvers; seconded by John J. Lenehan.

Thomas B. Fitzgerald, Esq., Elmira, N. Y. Proposed by Hon. Alexander C. Eustace.

John F. Murtaugh, Esq., Realty Building, Elmira, N. Y. Proposed by Alexander C. Eustace.

M. M. Shannon, Esq., 512 Davis Street, Elmira, N. Y. Proposed by Hon. Alexander C. Eustace.

John M. Connelly, Esq., President Elmira Chamber of Commerce, Elmira, N. Y. Proposed by Hon. Alexander C. Eustace.

Michael J. O’Brien, Esq., Superintendent’s Office, Western Union Building, Day Street and Broadway, New York City. Proposed by Joseph I. C. Clarke.

John L. Linehan, Esq., 165 Broadway, New York City. Proposed by Alfred J. Talley; seconded by Patrick S. MacDwyer.

Patrick H. Harriman, M. D., Norwich, Conn. Proposed by Rev. William Keefe.

John P. S. Mahoney, Esq., Lawrence, Mass. Proposed by Dr. M. F. Sullivan.

W. I. Boland, Esq., Toronto, Canada. Proposed by William H. Delany.

Capt. Daniel P. Foley, Wilmington, N. C. Proposed by Michael J. Corbett.

Michael W. Rayens, Esq., 206 Broadway, New York City. Proposed by Henry L. Joyce.

John W. Kelley, Esq., of Kelley, Harding & Hatch, Exchange Building, Portsmouth, N. H. Proposed by Hon. W. E. Chandler.

Joseph P. Bourke, Esq., World Building, Manhattan, New York City. Proposed by William H. Delany.

James Regan Fitzgerald, Esq., 90 West Broadway, New York City. Proposed by Patrick S. MacDwyer.

Hon. Ernest Harvier, 1193 Broadway, New York City. Proposed by William H. Delany.

John Taaffe, Esq., General Post Office, Yonkers, N. Y. Proposed by William H. Delany.

Charles V. Halley, Jr., Esq., 756 E. 175th Street, Bronx, New York City. Proposed by Charles V. Halley.

34Dr. William Streker, Messer Street, Providence, R. I. Proposed by Dr. S. E. Donovan, New Bedford, Mass.

Jeremiah P. Daly, Esq., 1747 Lexington Avenue, New York City. Proposed by John J. Daly.

Paul J. Morrison, Esq., Asst. Chief Clerk, U. S. Immigration Station, Department of Commerce and Labor, Ellis Island, New York. Proposed by John J. Daly.

Peter P. Sherry, Esq., 254 West 14th Street, New York City. Proposed by William H. Delany.

Desmond FitzGerald, Esq., Brookline, Mass. Proposed by John J. Lenehan.

The President-General, at this point, made a most interesting and instructive address upon the work of the Society, pointing out what had been accomplished during the past twelve months and indicating what its general policy would be for the future. A review was made of the work of the different officers of the Society, and recommendations of an appropriate and timely nature were presented. Unfortunately, the text of the President-General’s remarks cannot be given as the stenographic clerk was temporarily absent.

The Secretary-General presented and read the following report, which, by unanimous vote, was accepted and placed on file:

It is with much pleasure I present the report of my office for 1909, which has been to the Society a year of success, prosperity and great advancement.

At the commencement of my term of office as Acting Secretary-General in September, 1908, there were 538 members enrolled on the books. Many of these had not paid dues for a number of years, and had lost all interest in the Society and its objects, while others had deceased and no record had been kept of them because word had not been communicated to the Secretary-General.

A general house-cleaning took place, and a list of members in arrears for two years and more was prepared and submitted to the Executive Council, which ordered extra notices sent to every delinquent in order that each member in arrears might know the extent of his obligations.

35The Committee on Delinquent Members appointed January 16th, 1909, sent out printed notices, through this office, urging the necessity of prompt payment of dues, and in short every reasonable means to stimulate payment and activity was taken. Some responded, but the majority did not and their names have been stricken from the roll of the Society.

January 16th, 1909, the date of the last annual meeting, the Society had 687 members, 149 applicants having been admitted since September, 1908. During the year 1909, 239 members were admitted, largely through the energy and recommendations of the Committee on Membership, of which John J. Lenehan, Esq., is chairman and active head. During the year we lost 7 by death, 13 by resignation, and 23 by order of the Executive Council for non-payment of dues. This leaves the membership of the Society in good standing at present as follows: Life members, 74; annual members, 828; total, 951.

Although the membership is satisfactory in numbers and the Committee on Membership has performed a wonderful work during the past year, the Society is not as large as it should be. Efforts should be made to ascertain the names of those Americans prominent in all walks of life, in whose veins Irish blood flows and who are interested in seeing that the history of our country chronicles and credits the doings of fellow citizens of Irish blood equally with those of other nationalities, and each member should constitute himself a committee to act in conjunction with the Membership Committee and obtain an addition to the Society wherever he can, always assuring himself that the applicant he presents is of good character and intelligence and interested in the work for which the Society is organized.

There are few distinguished families in the United States that are not partially of Irish ancestry, and since our Society has become so well known throughout the country it has stimulated those who have never cared, for reasons best known to themselves, to cause it to be known that Irish blood flowed in their veins, not only to admit the fact but really and truly to assert it, and willingly to accept the credit that comes from such ancestry. Many men whose entire time and energy are devoted to extensive business will take little time to inform themselves of the doings of our Society, unless members in different localities will take it upon themselves to seek out 36just such men, inform them of the work we are doing, and enlist their hearty coöperation in it.

We are the largest and most prominent society of our kind in the United States, and cover a field that until we were organized had been practically untouched. The influence of our work for the last few years has been marked, and the average chronicler of American history will think twice in recording events before he permits any bigotry or outside influence to prevent him from giving the American of Irish ancestry his share of credit for deeds performed. The magazines and newspapers bear evidence of this, for, as soon as an attack is made upon the American-Irishman or failure to give him his just due is discerned, there are those who, stimulated by the influence of our Society in different parts of the country, will immediately bring the erring party to bar and suggest the proper corrections.

An illustration of this spirit may be gained from a recent event in Providence. A book called “The Modern City” was published and circulated by Professor Kirk of Brown University, and pretended to be a history of Providence as it was and is, with sufficient general reference to surrounding subjects to make it generally a complete history of that city. Among the contributors were Professor William MacDonald, who occupies the chair of American history and whose work as an historian is highly regarded both here and abroad, Professor Dealey, Professor Poland and others.

It was noticed upon an examination of this book that failure to give credit to whom credit was due among our race was most marked, and immediately the authors of these articles and Professor Kirk himself were called to account by members of our Society, the truth properly exhibited and demonstrated, and the evil effect of the book as a work of history dissipated as far as Rhode Island and the city of Providence were concerned. The members of our Society took hold of this matter with a will, and the articles written and circulated with the purpose of correcting the work of these professors and stating fully and truthfully what they failed fairly to state, are now in the archives of the Society and open to the inspection of those who may be interested.

On several occasions I have suggested to the Society the advisability of having a more complete and less perfunctory business 37meeting. Until the annual meeting of 1909 it had been the custom to transact all of the business of the Society between the hours of six and seven in the evening, and have all our scientific papers read at a dinner, which, by reason of them, would be prolonged to an unseemly hour. Opportunity to consider and digest excellent papers was lacking, and no time whatever was given for the discussion of them.

At our Washington meeting we transacted all of the Society’s business, with the exception of the reading of certain papers, during the afternoon, so that we had the entire evening for the dinner and the presentation of four important papers. This year the Executive Council decided that the business meeting should commence at two o’clock in the afternoon, and from that hour until five or half past we could present a number of scientific papers, elect our officers, read the monographs on deceased members, and transact the other business of the Society.

This, in my opinion, is a step in the right direction, but not a sufficient one. There should be a session of at least two days, at which members from all over the country would be earnestly solicited to attend and for whom the railroads would give round-trip rates to our place of meeting for one and one-third single fares. The first morning should be devoted to the reading of two or three historical papers, followed by discussion. A luncheon should take place, given by some member of the Society or by some organization affiliated with it or having some connection with it. The afternoon session could be devoted to more historical papers and discussion, and in the evening a lecture should be given by some person of international reputation on subjects connected with our work. The next day could be similarly used, and in the afternoon of the second day the officers of the Society for the ensuing year might be elected; and that night the annual dinner of the Society would take place, which, instead of being carried out with a studied programme filled with scientific literary matter, would be truly “a feast of reason and a flow of soul,” where our members would have an opportunity to pass an evening of real sociability and pleasure, which would be restful after two days’ work.

Such a convention would attract the greatest attention; our doings would be reported in the public press, and our papers, carefully prepared by men of ability, would in all probability be published, in 38part or in full, thus doing more toward bringing the Society to the attention of the American people in general than any other medium could possibly do. While it might be impossible for all of our members to attend two days, we could have more of them present at some time during the convention than attend the dinner at present.

The movement encouraging the attendance of ladies at our dinner has received hearty congratulations on all sides. There is no reason why women should not be interested in American history equally with men. The other historical societies encourage women to become members, and a step in the right direction has been inaugurated during the past year, when not only were two leading Chicago women admitted as members of the Society, but the Executive Council voted that our members could invite ladies as guests.

The Society is very much in need of endowments and donations. A fund should be established, the income of which would be sufficient not only to maintain a proper building of modest proportions, in which the archives of the Society could be kept and the general headquarters maintained, but to compensate historians and writers for work and research on lines that would be dictated by a committee having that branch of our work in charge, as well as to furnish competitive prizes for historical essays.

If a substantial fund for these purposes were at hand we might reduce the dues from five dollars per annum to three dollars, leaving the life membership fee as at present, and place on sale copies of our publications under the direction of a librarian, who would have charge, with his other duties, of this branch.

All of the leading historical societies have substantial sums in their treasury, contributed by interested members. Yet the American-Irish Historical Society, nine-tenths of whose members are men of more or less wealth, has never, as far as I can see from an examination of the Society’s records, received a single dollar for these purposes, and the Society has done its work on its own meagre revenue, with no assistance save the dues of its members.

Contemplating the liberal endowment of other historical and antiquarian associations, the American-Irish Historical Society may justly be proud of its record; but this will not be a sufficient answer 39to the next thousand members that join our ranks. We must have suitable headquarters, a suitable library and a proper place for our archives; establish an exchange list with other libraries and institutions, and solicit additions not only of books, prints and engravings, but other articles that are of historic interest; and all these should be under the management of a librarian or custodian, by whom the large correspondence now entailed on the Secretary-General should be conducted and fostered.

It will take money to do these things, but not as large an amount as, at first blush, one would think. The Society having been incorporated in Rhode Island, its headquarters must necessarily be there, and it is fitting that the centre of the work of this Society should be somewhere in New England. Massachusetts and Rhode Island have many historical and antiquarian societies, and nowhere in the whole United States is the spirit of historical research and pride of ancestry more strongly developed than in these two states.

It is possible for an investment of less than five thousand dollars to purchase a lot and erect a building sufficient for our needs for many years to come, within the shadow of Brown University on College Hill, which has for so many years been regarded as the seat of learning in Rhode Island. This amount is mentioned after thoughtful consideration of the needs of the Society, and would equip the building to contain a substantial library as well as the entire present equipment, paraphernalia and archives of the Society.

In looking over the newspaper accounts of the wills of various members of the Society who have deceased within the past two years, I have noted no bequest to our Society, yet many bequests to other public and private institutions. I cannot help but believe that if our needs were brought forcibly to the attention of the members, as I am striving to do in this part of my report, it might stimulate a bequest from those of our members who are able and interested enough to make one, for outside of the charitable institutions there is no organization more worthy of staunch support than is the American-Irish Historical Society, nor one which would put a gift to better use.

No officer or member of this Society drawls any salary, but each officer does the work allotted to him with a good heart and for love of the cause. We are under no charges for rent and pay nothing for 40the excellent articles which appear in our annual volume, the writers of these coöperating with the officers and furnishing the time, energy and ability necessary to make the researches entailed without any compensation.

The entire expense outlay of the Society is for the printing, binding and circulation of the annual volume, the printing of circulars, stationery, etc., and postage, and a small sum for a stenographer in conducting the correspondence of my office, keeping track of the dues and other details; but I can easily see opportunities for the dissemination of knowledge and an enlarged application of the purposes for which our Society was incorporated if we should have at our disposal the modest sum of money herein mentioned. The members of the Society residing in Rhode Island will gladly contribute in accordance with their means, and I embody this matter in my report at this time for the purpose of bringing it sharply for the first time to the attention of our members.

Although repeated at other times heretofore, I beg to make the following suggestions to our members, not only for their benefit, but for the convenience of the Society’s administration as well:

1. Annual dues should be paid promptly because upon these and the life membership fees we depend for the payment of our obligations.

2. Biographical sketches should be furnished when requested by the Secretary-General, and a member should not permit any feelings of personal modesty to interfere with the desire of the Society to have in its archives as complete a statement of the life and works of each member as he or his friends can give to it.

3. Upon learning of the decease of any member, immediate notice should be sent to the Secretary-General by telegraph, in order that the attention of the President-General may be called and a committee appointed to attend the funeral of the deceased member or to do whatever may be needful or advisable under the circumstances.

4. Current local history is as much part of the work of the Society as is the delving into ancient records, and any newspaper clipping or account of any public or private affair that, in the opinion of any member, is of interest to the Society or its work should be promptly sent to the Secretary-General, who will gladly receive, 41index and place it in the archives of the Society, where it may be referred to in a convenient form at any time.

5. It is intended that the correct address of every member shall be recorded in our files, and when a member changes his address he is respectfully requested to notify the Secretary-General of that fact, so that future communications may not be misdirected.

6. Suggestions as to the management and improvement of the Society in its membership, line of work or in any other way are most earnestly solicited, and any such suggestions, if sent to this office, wall be brought before the Executive Council, which meets frequently, and carefully considered by it.

7. State Vice-Presidents are strongly urged to recruit in their respective states the ranks of the Society, and to this end they will find active and hearty coöperation. Vice-President Moloney of Illinois set the pace this year in obtaining fifty-one applications for membership, all from persons who have made their mark in life and with whom it is a pleasure for us to associate. Vice-President McCaffrey of Pennsylvania, Vice-President O’Hagan of South Carolina, Vice-President Corbett of North Carolina, Vice-President Connolly of California, and Vice-President McCarrick of Virginia have all done notable work and set a good example, while Georgia, under the guidance of Vice-President Flannery and Dr. J. Lawton Hiers of the Executive Council, proposes to return a significant number of applications within a very short time.

In conclusion, I take this opportunity of paying a heartfelt tribute to the efficiency and earnestness of President-General Quinlan, Treasurer-General Dooley, Chairman Lenehan of the Membership Committee, and the members of the Executive Council, all of whom have the best welfare of the Society continually at heart and whose courtesy and great kindness have rendered my own shortcomings less marked and the work of the Society a pleasure.

Mr. Michael F. Dooley, Treasurer-General of the Society, presented the following report, covering the period from January 15, 1909, to January 1, 1910, and the same was adopted by unanimous vote:

ANNUAL REPORT OF THE TREASURER-GENERAL.

REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON MEMBERSHIP. — EXECUTIVE COUNCIL. — STATE VICE-PRESIDENTS. — OTHER VICE-PRESIDENTS. — ANNUAL BANQUET.

The following report was presented by Chairman John J. Lenehan in behalf of the Membership Committee, and was accepted by unanimous vote:

Mr. Lenehan: Mr. President, I did not expect to be called upon for any report, and therefore am quite unprepared, and this particularly so because my work is necessarily confined to action rather than expression. We have an eloquent President-General, and a Secretary-General who is surpassed by no one, either in eloquence or in ability; wherefore it behooves those of us who labor behind the machinery to work hard and say little.

I may, however, say briefly that when we took up the work of the Membership Committee in October a year ago, we found the roll contained about 545 members, of whom perhaps 100 were somewhat inactive, being remiss in their dues and not taking all the interest they might have taken in the affairs of our Society; so that substantially the active membership was about 450.

Inside of fourteen months we have brought the membership up to nearly 1,000, including many life members. We introduced them into our circle from all over the United States and even further, for they included members from such far distant points as the Hon. Thomas J. O’Brien, American Ambassador to Japan, and Richard Bradshaw of Fort Pickens, Florida. United States Senators, Congressmen, generals, bankers, merchants—the best men throughout the land have joined our ranks.

It required hard work; but, as the Treasurer-General has pointed out, we brought in about 400 members and nearly $2,000 in money at a cost of approximately $700, which, as a business venture, has the endorsement of a bank president, our Treasurer-General.

The great advantage of this increase is that, if we have 500 new members and they pay us $2,500 a year, while there is no further expense in connection with those members, they return each year an annual dividend of $2,500, which will readily equal the dividends paid by any good, working trust. So much for the genius of the race.

The work progresses splendidly. This morning’s receipts, for example, consisted of five names. I have just handed them to the 47Secretary-General in the form we always pursue, but it will give you an idea of the membership we get and the way they come in if I read them to you:

Mr. John P. Donohoe, a director of the Barclay-Westmoreland Trust Company of Greensburg, Pa.; Major George W. McNulty, a civil engineer and a man very highly regarded in constructive work in this city of New York; Mr. John J. Powers, cashier of the Exchange Bank of Savannah, Georgia, and President of the Knights of Columbus Investment company; John G. Butler of Savannah, Lieutenant-Colonel of the 1st Infantry National Guard of Georgia, proposed by Colonel O’Leary, who is Colonel of the First Regiment of Infantry of Savannah; Mr. Butler is president of the J. G. Butler Supply Company, a director of the Citizens Trust Company, and Grand Knight of the Knights of Columbus; Mr. Thomas M. Blake of this City, proposed by Mr. Danvers; and Mr. Desmond FitzGerald of Brookline, Mass., past President of the American Society of Civil Engineers and consulting Hydraulic Engineer.

The committee would urge that each one bring in at least one new member this year, so that we may have 2,000 members before the close of 1910.

I trust the work of the Membership Committee meets with your approbation.

Dr. Quinlan: The next order of business will be the report of the Constitutional Committee. I will ask Mr. O’Brien to report in behalf of that committee.

Mr. John E. O’Brien: Mr. President and Fellow Members, the committee appointed at the last annual meeting were called together shortly after their appointment and decided that it was important that the constitution should be amended in several matters. The present constitution is somewhat antiquated, and that applies equally to the by-laws because of changed conditions and changes in policy. For example, under the present by-laws the dues are only two or three dollars a year, whereas we have been charging five dollars; and the officers provided for are somewhat different than those that have been elected for years. The committee, therefore, have determined upon and beg to submit the following constitution. I hesitate to read this, Mr. President, because it is rather long.

Dr. Quinlan: Could you not read it in abstract? Then we shall get the essence of it. Will it come before the meeting for action?

WILLIAM H. DELANEY, ESQ.,

Of New York City.

A Member of the Society.

48Mr. Lenehan: Mr. President, I would suggest that a constitution which covers so many points ought more properly to be printed and possibly submitted to the Executive Council for consideration, and later may be submitted to the Society for other suggestions.

Dr. Quinlan: That is a splendid suggestion and if the reader will accept the same and incorporate it in his report, I think it will be very wise. As you say, Mr. O’Brien, it is rather lengthy.

Mr. O’Brien: I think it is a very good suggestion. The present constitution provides it may be amended at any regular meeting, so it seems unnecessary to give notice. I second the recommendation and hope, when this comes before the members of the Society, they will compare it carefully with the constitution now printed in the Journal, and recommendations of any changes will be very gladly received. Therefore I move that this be referred to the Executive Council, and that they be instructed to provide for the printing and distribution of the same among the members of the Society.

Dr. Quinlan: I will ask, however, that Mr. O’Brien give in a brief way an abstract of it, alluding to the salient changes.

Mr. John J. Rooney: I will make a further suggestion. We are all of us more or less familiar with the present constitution, and, instead of an abstract, he might indicate the changes.

Dr. Quinlan: Very good. Mr. O’Brien, will you proceed?

Mr. O’Brien: In the first place, we say the object of the Society is “to make better known the Irish chapter in American history,” substituting that in the place of about two pages.

Under Article II, entitled “Membership,” we provide for three classes of members, life, annual and honorary. We see no necessity for corresponding members, and, in fact, I believe there are none such in the Society.

The provisions in regard to applications for membership are about the same as at present. Election shall be by the Executive Council or at the annual meetings of the Society. Dues are fixed at $5.00 for annual membership, and are made payable on the first day of January in each year in advance. The life membership fee remains the same.

To the officers we have added a Vice-President-General, there being no provision for such an officer in the present constitution.

49The duties of the Executive Council we have defined somewhat more clearly, generally to manage and conduct the affairs of the Society. We have provided that six members thereof shall be a quorum.

We have defined the duties of the officers a little more definitely than in the present constitution. There is one thing in particular that I would say in this regard: In the present constitution it is provided that the duties of the Historiographer shall be the usual duties of that office. That was rather indefinite, so we substitute this instead: “The Historiographer shall write such histories or historical articles as the Executive Council may from time to time require; assist in the preparation of the annual journal and other historical works of the society; and perform the other duties usually pertaining to his office.”

We provide for an annual meeting to be held in the month of January in each year, the day and place to be determined by the Society in general meeting, or by the Executive Council in case the Society fails to do so. Special meetings of the Society may be called at any time by the Executive Council. A quorum for the transaction of business at all meetings of the Society is fixed at thirty-five, instead of ten, as at present.

State Chapters: We have provided that ten or more members of good standing in this Society may organize a subsidiary chapter by obtaining a charter from the Executive Council; that the Vice-President of this Society for the particular state shall, by virtue of that office, be President of that chapter, and such chapter may elect from their own number a Vice-Chairman, a Secretary, a Treasurer and such other officers as may be necessary to manage its affairs; and that membership in such chapters shall be limited to members of this Society in good standing.

Those are the principal points, Mr. President.

Dr. Quinlan: You have heard this report. What is your pleasure in the matter?

Mr. Martin I. J. Griffin: Mr. President, why should it be referred to the Executive Council? It will be another year before it comes before the Society again. We have been without the revision for a whole year, and now it is proposed to be postponed again. I believe it should be acted upon here. I move that the report be read and acted upon.

50Dr. Quinlan: That would consume more time than possibly the afternoon session would permit, and I am afraid it would take away from the scientific part of our programme.

Mr. Griffin: The same would apply next year.

Dr. Quinlan: We will take it up as a whole next year.

Mr. Crimmins: I concur with the last speaker. It seems to me eminently proper that we should act upon the matter at this time. I fully agree with the remark of the last gentleman that possibly this might be postponed for another year. It seemed to me very clear and concise language was used, and covered all the situations that might arise in the administration of the Society, and I move now, in general, that the suggestion made by the gentlemen who proposed these amendments be adopted.

Mr. Lenehan: The constitution is the most important document which this Society could possibly pass upon. If the committee who were entrusted with the charge of this matter had had it printed and distributed among the members we would have come here today prepared to vote on it in an intelligent manner. If we vote on the constitution as proposed now, we are voting upon something about which we know little, for it has not been read. I, for one, will not vote on a paper I have not read. If we are going to vote intelligently we must take it up section by section, have each read and voted upon separately.

We have struggled along for twelve years with our present constitution, and I do not see that the Society will suffer any injury if we are obliged to continue the work under the present constitution for twelve months longer. In the meantime the committee can print its report and distribute the same among the members and if there should be any need for expedition it could be referred to the Executive Council with power to consider the matter and adopt such constitution as they deem wise. In that way the constitution could be adopted in three or four months’ time, and in the meantime, if we are furnished with copies, we shall have the benefit of careful consideration of the same. If we vote now it may be for something we shall regret later. Safety lies in thorough consideration of the subject, and I therefore hope, Mr. President, that the motion to adopt this constitution unread, unseen, unheard, will be either withdrawn or defeated.

51Mr. Thomas S. Lonergan: How soon does the Executive Council of the Society meet?

Dr. Quinlan: Subject to the chair. We meet four or five times a year.

Mr. Lonergan: I move an amendment to the last motion that the committee on the revision of the constitution submit its report to the Executive Council, and that the Executive Council print that report and distribute same among the members.

Mr. Crimmins: Mr. President, where will that leave us?

Mr. Lonergan: You will have it in three months.

Mr. Crimmins: It seems to me, after listening to the suggestions made, that the proposed constitution, in a few concise words, states our annual dues and also fixes the number of members constituting a quorum for the transaction of business. It makes another provision which I think very important, that in relation to state chapters. I don’t like to differ with Mr. Lenehan because there is no other member who has any more interest in the Society than he has, and no more effective work has been done by anyone than by him. Still I see no reason why we should not take action on this matter today.

The salient points in the constitution are very well put, and it seems to me we would get along a little faster if we adopted it in general. There might be a few corrections to be made, and they could be referred to the Executive Council, which could complete the work and then send out printed copies to the members of the Society. You know yourself, Mr. President, how difficult it is to get any great number together, and we probably would not, within a year, get as large a number of members at a meeting as today. That is my idea; I am not at all alarmed with the haste to be made by action today.

Mr. T. Vincent Butler: I heartily endorse the statement of the last speaker. I think this entire constitution could be read and passed on intelligently inside of a space of three-quarters of an hour. It is eminently proper that it should be brought up before this meeting. The committee who brings this constitution, or simply an amendment in a few features of something already existing, has done so with care and deliberation. It will be absolutely impossible to have the excellent results come from the same unless it is immediately adopted, and there should be no delay in passing promptly upon the various changes suggested. I therefore move, Mr. Chairman, 52as the sense of this meeting, that we proceed to pass upon the constitution with the various amendments outlined immediately.

Dr. Quinlan: You have heard the motion before the house. Was Mr. Lonergan’s amendment previously made seconded?

Mr. Rooney: Yes.

Mr. Delany: Mr. Chairman, I think Mr. Lonergan is more or less reconciled by the suggestion of Mr. Crimmins that the constitution be referred to the Executive Council with power to act.

Mr. Lenehan: Mr. Chairman, if this committee had prepared a copy of the constitution and sent it to the members asking for suggestions, if the committee had discharged its duty in an orderly manner as I consider, it would have prepared and sent this document around to the members, and we would thereby have been prepared today to act intelligently upon the subject.

Take, for example, the chopping off of the first paragraph of our present constitution, and restating the purpose of this Society in two or three lines. The purposes of this Society as expressed in the constitution as it now stands are most beautifully expressed. It is such an eloquent exposition of our ideas that under no circumstances should it be erased from the constitution. I have a copy of it here, and I ask it to be read so that we may contrast it with this proposed amendment which puts in two or three lines the purpose of this Society. It is splendidly, eloquently, magnificently expressed in our present constitution by a master of the English language, and I ask any man to read it, put it side by side with this proposed amendment, and note the eloquence with which the purpose of our Society is expressed.

Mr. T. V. Butler: I claim the gentleman is not in order. There is a motion before the house.

Dr. Quinlan: This is a debatable subject.

Mr. Lonergan: My amendment, Mr. President, is to Mr. Crimmins’ motion, that this revised constitution by the committee be sent to the Executive body, and I wish to say here that the Executive body is more representative of this Society than this gathering here today; and why, because there are a thousand members in the Society, and we have less than a hundred here today. I therefore move that this revised constitution be sent to the Executive Council, with power to amend and revise, and that a copy thereof be sent forward to every member within three months’ time.

53Mr. O’Brien: This proposed constitution has been signed and approved by Judge Lee, Mr. Joseph T. Ryan, Mr. Patrick J. McCarthy and John E. O’Brien. It has had considerable study, and its provisions are very simple. We think it is more businesslike and a little more artistic, perhaps, than the present one. It has not been submitted in writing to the members of the Society for two reasons: first, the present constitution does not require any such submission; and in the second place, it would take time and there would be considerable expense.

Now, these terms are very plain and simple. They are drawn in a businesslike way rather than in beautiful language; there is no attempt at that. And since the statement of the purpose of the Society has been particularly spoken of, I will say that the matter was brought to our attention by former officers of the Society, who thought the present statement, while couched in beautiful language, was rather out of place in a businesslike constitution.

I do believe, now, after considering the matter and talking with Judge Lee, that this might be passed upon. He has approved it, it has been in effect approved by the Executive Council, and I don’t think it should be delayed for another year. If necessary, it might be read; I can read it in ten minutes, perhaps.

Dr. Quinlan: The amendment of Mr. Lonergan is before the house. All who are in favor of the same signify by saying “aye.”

Mr. Lonergan: It seems to me before the question is put everybody should have a chance to speak, so that when we vote we can do so intelligently.

Dr. Quinlan: We have so much business on hand this afternoon that my idea was to get this question disposed of, not that we wish to curtail anything; but these matters take up so much time and there is so much scientific matter, our programme is so lengthy, that I simply want to be fair and just to everybody.

General Collins: I have no desire to take up the time unnecessarily, but it seems to me we do not make a constitution every day in the week, and I am heartily in accord with the suggestion made by Mr. Lenehan that it should be left over. I do not think, as a matter of fact, we have any right to adopt a constitution. It is a question to me why every member of the Society ought not to be notified. Where members are living in all parts of the country and it is practically impossible for some of them to attend the meetings, it seems 54to me every member should be notified or a copy of the new constitution should be served on them. We do not make a constitution every day in the week, and the matter can very well wait over. It seems to me no detriment would be incurred by reason of holding over.

Dr. Quinlan: You have heard the motion that this constitution be referred to the Executive Council for revision.

Mr. Crimmins: You mean by that the Executive Council would have to report back to the Society?

Mr. Lonergan: I want to be as brief as possible. I take it the Executive Council is more representative of the Society at large than this gathering is, and I therefore move that this revised constitution be submitted to the Executive Council, with power to amend and revise, and that a copy thereof be sent forward to every member.

General Collins: Can this Society delegate the power of adopting a constitution to the Executive Council?

Dr. Quinlan: The Executive Council would have to report back to the Society.

General Collins: The gentleman’s motion does not concur with that idea. His idea is that we submit it to the Executive Council with power to adopt, and it shall then stand.

Dr. Quinlan: I don’t think that would be constitutional. It must be voted upon by the Society at large. Mr. Lonergan’s amendment is before the house. All in favor signify by saying “aye.” It seems to be carried; it is carried.

All who are in favor of Mr. Lonergan’s motion will stand until counted. Forty-three.

All who are opposed to Mr. Lonergan’s motion will stand until counted. Twenty-seven.

These voices must have stentorian tones, if not a re-echo. The chair reverses its decision, and the verdict is that Mr. Lonergan’s amendment stands.

Judge Lee: That was your decision in the first place.

General Collins: I understand the decision, as interpreted by the chair, to be that the Executive Council report back to another meeting of the Society.

Dr. Quinlan: That was the interpretation.

The next business in order being the election of officers for the ensuing year, the Secretary-General read the following list of nominees selected by the Executive Council to be voted upon at this 55meeting, and the same were elected by unanimous vote to serve until the next meeting and until others are chosen in their stead:

The foregoing and

Mr. Henry L. Joyce: I ask that the report of the nominating committee be amended by inserting under Vice-Presidents, “Australia, Mr. Frank Coffey.” Mr. Coffey is a native of New York, who emigrated to Australia thirty-five years ago and makes a pilgrimage here every two years. He is one of the leading merchants of Australia, and I proposed him at his own request. Since his election, he has sent in the names of two others, accompanied 58by his check for their dues. I think a man who takes an interest of that kind is entitled to some recognition of it.

Dr. Quinlan: Vice-Presidents are provided for in the different States of the Union. May I ask if the constitution provides for or permits a Vice-President in the country suggested? I think, if the constitution does not so provide, it ought to. Mr. O’Brien, will you kindly inform us?

Mr. O’Brien: I believe it is only so provided in the cases of Canada and Ireland.

Dr. Quinlan: The motion of Mr. Joyce is in order and has been duly seconded. All in favor of the same signify by saying “aye,” those opposed “no.” It is carried.

Mr. T. Vincent Butler: Before we proceed, Mr. President, to the intellectual treat, may I be permitted to relieve myself of a very perplexing pecuniary situation. As the treasurer of the New York State Chapter of the American-Irish Historical Society, in connection with the Hudson-Fulton Celebration, I would like to make my final report to somebody.

Question as to whether or not the speaker was in order was raised and discussed, whereupon Dr. Quinlan remarked:

The chair will listen to Mr. Butler, but we will ask him to come to the point quickly because our time is short.

Mr. Butler: Gentlemen, this is simply a brief report of what became of a contribution of $126 from twenty-seven of our members.

At a special meeting held in Delmonico’s in May, 1909, the suggestion was made that the American-Irish Historical Society should interest themselves by coöperating with the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick in properly celebrating the Hudson-Fulton celebration. As an evidence of the appreciation of our members in that direction we received at that meeting contributions of five dollars each from the following gentlemen:

And $1.00 from some modest individual who didn’t give his name, making a total of $126.00.

The disbursements are:

Leaving a balance of $7.68 in the treasury for your action.

Dr. Quinlan: This is really a part of the business of the State Chapter, and the report should be accepted through the Vice-President. I will ask Mr. Clarke to receive the same.

Mr. Butler: Mr. President, I think it is also eminently proper that we recognize our obligation to the members of our Society who 60guaranteed fifty dollars each towards expenses. The amount is small, but let it be recognized as a liability.

Mr. Joseph I. C. Clarke: The matter that Mr. Butler has brought before the meeting is really a matter belonging to the New York Chapter, and I don’t think it is pertinent with this meeting at all. I shall be very glad at a subsequent meeting of the chapter to take up this matter. The money that was collected has been expended, and I believe there is still a balance. I would like to see the meeting proceed to the literary end of it.

Dr. Quinlan: The next order of proceedings will be the presentation of scientific papers. The first to have been read was by Hon. Joseph F. O’Connell, member of Congress from Massachusetts. Unfortunately, Mr. O’Connell is detained unavoidably at Boston on account of a hotly contested municipal election, and has notified us of his inability to be present. He will, however, submit his paper to the Secretary-General later, which, after approval by the Executive Council, will be ordered printed.

The next is an article on Stonewall Jackson by John Louis Sheehan, LL. D., Professor at Boston University School of Law.

Dr. Sheehan: Mr. President-General, Officers and Members of the American Irish Historical Society, it gives me great pleasure today to pay tribute to the memory of that hero of the South, Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson.

Doctor Sheehan then read his paper, which is printed in full elsewhere in this volume.

Dr. Quinlan: As these papers are published in full in the Journal of the Society, and as our time is getting so short, I will ask, if it be consistent, that the readers give them in abstract.

The next article is by Mr. Joseph I. C. Clarke, Vice-President of the Society for New York, on the Hudson-Fulton Celebration. This paper is of great length and has been prepared with the utmost care and painstaking effort by Vice-President Clarke, complying with a vote of the Society requesting the same, passed October 1, 1909, at an informal meeting of the Society on board the “Asbury Park.” The introduction to this article not being complete at this time, the reading will be omitted, but the paper ordered printed in its entirety in Volume IX.

The next is by Hon. James Fitzgerald, Justice of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, on the Sixty-Ninth Regiment.

61Judge Fitzgerald: Mr. President and Gentlemen: I felt honored by the request to prepare a paper for this interesting meeting and was particularly pleased that the subject suggested was one very near to my heart as it is to the hearts of all men of Irish blood in America. We have just listened to the splendid eulogy by the gentleman from Boston of a great soldier who fell in the Civil War battling for the lost cause. My paper deals with the record of the gallant 69th Regiment, which fought so valiantly for the Union, and it is a high tribute to the nature of our institutions and the character of our people to be able to say that an eulogy of this regiment delivered in Charleston, Savannah or Richmond would be as enthusiastically received as the address on Stonewall Jackson has been received in New York.

I have prepared a paper and hold it in my hand as we say in the courts as “the best evidence” that I have performed the work. The story of the Sixty-ninth is, however, necessarily a long one; it involves a recital of many glorious events, and its reading, even in the condensed form of my paper, would, in view of the many matters to be disposed of at this gathering, occupy too much of your time. I will, therefore, only tell you about it in the abstract, requesting, as is frequently done in Congress, “leave to print.”

The Sixty-ninth has existed as a regiment for nearly sixty years, and throughout all that period, in peace and in war, its ranks have practically been made up of men of Irish blood; it is the typical Irish-American regiment, and its record is a source of pride and pleasure, not only to Irishmen and their descendants, but to all Americans. You may call us Irish-Americans or American-Irish, but we are, nevertheless, Americans of the American. We were among the earliest settlers upon the Continent; we kept on coming steadily from those early times in large numbers, and under existing conditions upon the other side of the Atlantic, it is fair to predict that the flow of Irish emigration to the United States is liable to continue in the future. The expressions, “Irish-American” or “American-Irish,” in their real significance, mean intense, true Americans. We love the Union, we are devoted to the principles of the Constitution; we are obedient to the law; we are peaceable, industrious and loyal. For all our fellow Americans, no matter what their national origin, we entertain a spirit of fraternity and are bound to them by the ties of common brotherhood; the flag of the 62Republic is for us the symbol of a sovereignty under which we are proud and happy to live, and in defense of which we are at all times ready to take up arms.

In 1861, the prompt response of Corcoran to the call of President Lincoln sounded a bugle note of readiness electric in its effect. Nearly forty years thereafter, upon the breaking out of the Spanish War, the Government was desirous of obtaining exact information as to the extent the organized militia of all the different states could be depended upon. Major-General Roe, at that time the commander of the National Guard of the State of New York, communicated with the different regimental commanders, inquiring what number of men belonging to the militia would volunteer to serve the Government beyond the territorial limits of the state. The answer of Colonel Duffy, in 1898, rang true as the answer from Corcoran in ’61:

“Every officer and every enlisted man of the 69th volunteers to defend the flag in any part of the world the government may require their services.”

When a French delegation was sent here a few years ago to participate in the ceremonies connected with the unveiling of the Statue of Rochambeau at Washington, its members were entertained in this city by The Friendly Sons of St. Patrick; their escort to the banquet at Delmonico’s was the 69th Regiment, and General Brugere and Admiral Fournier were warm in their praise of the appearance of the regiment; and later, when President Roosevelt was the guest of the same Society at its 121st Annual Dinner on St. Patrick’s Day, 1905, the regiment again acted as escort to the distinguished guest of the Society.

Colonel Duffy, who served in the regiment for a period of over forty years and commanded it during the Spanish War, has recently resigned with the rank of brigadier-general. Lieutenant-Colonel Conley has since been in command, and it was only last night that I received a most interesting item of news from him. In the office of the adjutant-general of the State at Albany, the reports contain practically no record of the war services of the 69th, the reason being, it is presumed, that during that time it was out of the service of the State and constituted part of the National armed force known as United States Volunteers. Every regiment of the National Guard is entitled to have a silver ring upon its lances for each engagement in which it participated and for other meritorious service rendered 63in times of danger. Owing to the defective state records, the 69th, after participating in all of the battles of the war, from Bull Run to Appomattox, has been denied the privilege of placing these commemorative rings upon its lances. Colonel Conley informed me last evening, and I am happy to be able to announce to you today, that this inexcusable error is about being redressed, and in the next report of the adjutant-general, the full record of the regiment in the Civil War will be published, and the lance of the National Regimental Color will for the future be practically covered with inscribed rings bearing the name and date of the hundred battles in which it has participated.

All these matters will be found more fully set forth in this paper which I have prepared, and I can only express in conclusion the assurance that as long as the spirit which animated the 69th Regiment in the past continues to inspire the manhood of America, we need have little fear of attempted domestic revolution or of the perils of foreign war.

Judge Fitzgerald’s paper is printed in full elsewhere in this volume.

Dr. Quinlan: The next paper is by Michael X. Sullivan, Ph. D., formerly of the faculty of Brown University and now of the Bureau of Soil, Washington, D. C.

Doctor Sullivan read his paper, which is printed in full elsewhere in this volume.

Dr. Quinlan: Before we proceed to the next paper, I would like to introduce to you the vice-president-general of our Society, Mr. Thomas B. Fitzpatrick of Boston.

Mr. Fitzpatrick: I am very glad to meet the members of the American-Irish Historical Society here today. It has been of special interest to listen to the excellent papers read and the speeches delivered by some of our worthy representatives. The facts referred to concerning the proud position held by our race in the past and in the present, are a valuable asset of information to every man and woman of Irish blood.

THOMAS M. MULVY, ESQ.,

President of the Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank of New York.

A Member of the Society.

64I was very much impressed by the last speaker, Judge Fitzgerald, when he emphasized the fact that whether we are Irish-Americans or American-Irish, we are part and parcel of this great country. It reminded me of what I had heard a great thinker in our own city say a few years ago (the late Mr. Edward Atkinson) upon the subject of restricted immigration. He, with two other very representative men, discussed this question of restricted immigration before the Beacon Society of Boston. His opening salutation was: “Fellow Immigrants, the Beacon Society of Boston.” It is needless to say they were surprised at this unexpected and novel introduction. It was sufficiently explained, however, when he said: “Some of your forefathers may have come over in the ‘Mayflower,’ some of them fifteen generations ago, some of them ten, some of them perhaps not more than three or four; but you must remember that the space of time between the landing of the first immigrant and those of today marks but a short period in the lifetime of a nation, and therefore we are a nation of immigrants. We have no more right to say today to the immigrant landing on our shores that he must not land, than your forefathers and mine had to forbid the landing of the immigrants of their day.”

I believe, Mr. President, that it would be well for us to appreciate Mr. Atkinson’s statement that this is virtually a new country, a land of immigrants, and that we are all Americans. As Americans, we are interested in everything that concerns the well-being of this great and glorious republic, being mindful at the same time of the priceless inheritance it is to every man of our blood to sacredly treasure what has been accomplished by the people of our race in the history and development of this new world. I am glad that these papers are to be published in order that they may be preserved as a fruitful means of inspiration for future generations. It shows the great field of endeavor that is open to this worthy association.

Mr. Martin I. J. Griffin: Mr. President, as these papers are to be published, it is essential that no known errors should appear in them, that is, in the papers published in the name of the Society.

In the last paper read, it was stated that James Logan was more tolerant than William Penn in the matter of the celebration of Mass in Philadelphia. I know that not to be a fact. The speaker has misinterpreted what he alleges to be a fact. William Penn did not object to Mass being celebrated in Philadelphia, and therefore James Logan was not more tolerant in allowing it.

The Episcopalians objected to the public celebration of Mass in Philadelphia. William Penn was in London at the time, and was 65notified by the English government of the fact that Mass had been celebrated. Thereupon Penn wrote to James Logan, his agent, to send him the fact of the matter. He did not say anything about the “scandal of the Mass,” but that Mass was celebrated in a “scandalous manner.”

William Penn was the Father of Religious Liberty in America, and it was founded in Philadelphia, not elsewhere.

But a more important statement which is common belief among us Irish and is constantly repeated, but which has no foundation in fact, is that one-half of the Revolutionary Army was Irish, and Joseph Galloway is quoted as proof of that.

Dr. Sullivan has only to go to the library and get a copy of the Examination of Joseph Galloway by a Committee of the House of Commons, and he will find that, upon his making the statement the Doctor has recited, Galloway was asked how he knew that. His reply was, “By the deserters that came in.”

I might state that previous to the Revolutionary War, Joseph Galloway had been Speaker in the Assembly. When Sir William Howe took possession of the city of Philadelphia, Joseph Galloway, having gone over to the British side, was appointed Superintendent of the City by him.

And I would say that, if the question as to what proportion of the Revolutionary Army was made up of men of our race is to be asked, we are the ones who should answer it, and not let our enemies do it. Therefore, I have always objected to that statement of Joseph Galloway’s. It is not exactly true, for I secured his report giving figures of deserters of Washington’s army at Valley Forge, and the galleys in the Delaware River. It was about forty-five per cent., not fifty.

But I ask the members not to have that statement published. Joseph Galloway was a deserter from the cause of Liberty and went over to the British. When he was before the committee of the House of Commons he made that statement; but we do not give the answer he made when questioned as to how he knew. It is unfair to have that answer produced against us when we make the statement that one-half of the Revolutionary Army was Irish.

While all the State forces and the Continental Army were largely Irish, I have no belief whatever that one-half of the Revolutionary Army was at any time composed of natives of Ireland. We ought 66not to assert that it was because we cannot prove it. Nothing should appear in our official proceedings but what we can prove if called upon to do so.

That is why I speak for accuracy in all statements. I would ask that those two, with any others that may be found, be stricken out or revised, and that all the papers be submitted for criticism so that nothing will appear in the records of the American-Irish Historical Society but what we can submit to the country as well-founded. But those statements relative to Joseph Galloway and William Penn and James Logan ought to be revised.

Dr. Quinlan: I think it is certainly befitting that we should go before the world as correct historians, and not state facts unless well-founded.

Dr. Sullivan: I don’t think there is any controversy about the matters suggested. My research has been an entirely scientific one, and we never let anything go out of our department unless we have good evidence to base it upon. Before the paper goes out, those remarks will all be verified. I see no reason for any controversy.

Dr. Quinlan: I thought the subject might be discussed. Perhaps it would be well for you and Mr. Griffin to take it up together.

Mr. Ryan: I think Mr. Talley’s point is admirably taken. There is one thing I would like to mention that has just come to my notice. One of the professors of Harvard University died within a very short time, and it is interesting to know that at the time of his death he was engaged in writing an article on the life and doings of Daniel Shay. At a recent meeting of an historical society here, the sentiment was expressed that the manuscript was in such shape that it would be a valuable contribution to American history if it should be published by somebody who would take an interest in the work.

Dr. Quinlan: We have additional papers to be submitted. At the close of the reading of these, I shall be very happy to receive what suggestions you may have to offer in that regard.

The next article is by Rev. Cornelius F. O’Leary of Wellston, Mo.

Rev. Cornelius F. O’Leary: I will follow the good example of others and merely submit it to the Society for publication. I may give you a preface though, showing forth the reason that led me, for I was in harmony with the great object of this Society, to trace the footsteps, of the Irish in America, and, as I am a resident of 67St. Louis, thought well to bring forward the early history of St. Louis.

The Connors, the McKnights and the Bradys, they were foremost in everything. The first man to open a hotel in St. Louis was a man named Brady. The first man to publish a newspaper west of the Mississippi was an Irishman named Charless. The first man to open an English speaking school in that French village was an Irishman. The Irishmen were prominent in everything.

I hope you will find this paper interesting. I will not take the time to read it now, but will submit it this evening to Judge Lee.^[2]

Dr. Quinlan: The next paper is by M. R. F. McCarthy, Esq., of Binghamton, N. Y., entitled “A Little Mosaic of the Life of Henry W. Grady.”^[3]

Judge Lee: Mr. McCarthy is not here, but has sent me his paper. I have no authority from Mr. McCarthy to read the same, but, if agreeable to yourself and the members of the Society, after approval by the Executive Council, I move that it be printed.

Dr. Quinlan: Those in favor of the motion signify by saying “aye”; those opposed “no.” The motion is carried.

Dr. Quinlan: I desire to make mention at this time of an article by Hon. Joseph T. Lawless on Daniel Morgan of Cowpens. This article was prepared after painstaking research by Judge Lawless, and should have been published in the Journal of the Society of 1907. For some reason or other, it was omitted, but will now be published in Volume IX. in accordance with the desire of the Executive Council.

Scientific papers have already been received from Michael J. O’Brien, Esq., Thomas S. Lonergan, Hon. William J. Onahan and Hon. Patrick T. Barry, and papers are promised and now in process of preparation by Rev. William J. McCoy, LL. D., Michael J. O’Brien, Esq., Hon. Michael P. Kehoe, Hon. James F. Brennan (our Historiographer), Edgar Stanton Maclay, Esq., Prof. Andrew J. Hogan, Martin I. J. Griffin, Esq., Dr. J. Lawton Hiers, Col. Alfred Moore Waddell, and Frank M. Coffee, Jr.

68You see, gentlemen, there is no paucity now of literary material. We simply can’t stop the flood.

The next order of business is the reading of obituaries. The first is that of Rev. Daniel H. O’Dwyer, by Chairman John J. Lenehan of the Membership Committee. The same has been submitted and will be published in Volume IX.

The next is that of Mr. Patrick O’Brien, which, after its reading by the Secretary-General, will be ordered published.

The Secretary-General read the sketch.

Dr. Quinlan: The next is the obituary of Rev. Michael Aloysius McManus, by James L. O’Neill, Esq.

Judge Lee: Doubtless many of us who were present at our annual meeting in Washington last year will remember Father McManus. His soul was so in the work that he didn’t wait to be proposed, but proposed himself at that meeting. The obituary notice is here, and has been well prepared by one of the members of the Executive Council, Mr. James L. O’Neill. With your permission, we will follow the usual course and publish the same in Volume IX.

Dr. Quinlan: Very well. The next is that of Mr. Philip C. Walsh by Philip C. Walsh, Jr.

Judge Lee: Mr. Philip C. Walsh, Jr., is not a member of the Society, but has sent me an obituary notice of his father which is quite complete. The same will take the usual course.

Dr. Quinlan: The next is the obituary of Mr. James McGovern by John G. O’Keefe. I understand the same is to be turned over to the Secretary-General for publication.

The next order of business is the reading of letters of regret by the Secretary-General.

Communications were then read by the Secretary-General from Ex-President-General Edward A. Moseley, Hon. William A. Prendergast, Rev. Dr. John J. McCoy, John F. Harty, Esq., Hon. Martin J. Wade, Dr. J. Lawton Hiers, Hon. M. F. Kennedy, John Wood, Esq., James H. Devlin, Esq., Thomas F. Kailkenny, Esq., John H. Maloney, Esq., Daniel Hanrahan, Esq., Rev. Edmond Heelan, Anthony McOwen, Esq., Vice-President James Thompson, Vice-President Thomas J. Lynch, Hon. Patrick T. Barry, Rt. Rev. Phillip G. Garrigan, D. D., Hon. Patrick E. C. Lally, M. P. Tully, Esq., Dr. George McAleer, Hon. T. P. Linehan and others.

69Dr. Quinlan: The next in order, gentlemen, is the unfinished business.

Judge Lee: There is none.

Dr. Quinlan: Any new business?

Judge Lee: None.

Dr. Quinlan: There is a communication here that I would like you to take home for consideration:

“Members and guests will assemble in this room, which will be rearranged for a reception room, at 6.30 p. m. A ladies’ room across the hall has been prepared, and a gentlemen’s room a few doors down. Attendants of the hotel under the direction of the Reception Committee will wait upon the members and guests, and until seven a reception by the officers to members and guests will be held under the direction of the Reception Committee.

“Dinner will be served at seven promptly in the Grand Banquet Hall. Seating lists have been provided and will be distributed at the reception, so that each member and guest may know where he is to sit. Applicants for tickets received today will be seated by the Reception Committee to the best of its ability. Dinner tickets of members and guests will be taken up by the hotel attendants at the entrance to the Grand Banquet Hall.”

Before we adjourn, I want to ask Mr. Michael J. Corbett, one of our members, to say a word.

Mr. Corbett: Gentlemen, I am glad to have been here today. I have enjoyed all the papers that have been read, and have no doubt I shall enjoy the banquet later in the evening.

Motion made and seconded that the meeting adjourn.

Dr. Quinlan: This closes the scientific meeting of the American-Irish Historical Society, and I declare it adjourned.

President-General Quinlan: Ladies and Gentlemen and Honored Guests, in the name of the American-Irish Historical Society, I bid you welcome to our city and to the Twelfth Annual Banquet of our Society.

During the last year, some events have crowded into the history of the Irish people in this country that give thrill and romance to the race. One feature that is preëminent, and one that stands vividly before us as if yesterday, was the pageant on the land and sea of the Hudson-Fulton celebration. That grand occasion, ladies and gentlemen, brought forth in this city and its environs a multitude of people who have come to honor the men who have placed their names in American history and who have perpetuated its grandeur. The conditions surrounding this great event are only too well known to you, and it would be like bringing coals to Newcastle were I to burden your memory by referring to that occasion.

Tonight we have assembled to commemorate an event in the history of this Society. Some twelve years ago, in the city of Boston, a call was sent out by the late Secretary-General of this organization to some men in the outlying cities and suburban towns to assemble and organize a society that would correct the wrong that had been done the American-Irish or Irish-American, and make known what they had achieved. The history of our country has oft been written by men of English blood, and it was the purpose of that body that was assembled to correct erroneous impressions and give color, feature and dignity to the men who have made it possible for us to enjoy the beautiful flag of our Union. (Applause.)

This Society is essentially American because its interests are coupled with the defence of the flag, and we have everything in common with the community of our great nation. It is Irish because its sons and grandsons have made their weight felt in every walk of life, and are commemorating the conditions that were given to them by their sires. It is historic because it is our pleasure, our pride and our privilege to record the achievements of Irishmen in every walk of life, and to make them better known in the history of today and in the history to come, and to give force and color and emphasis to what they have done for our Republic. (Applause.)

71As this is an historical body, it may be my privilege tonight to refer occasionally to manuscript, in order that every word uttered by the executive may bear the imprint of record. Sustained as I am on both sides by the law and the Church, I could not otherwise but give utterance to that which emanates from and has been conceived by people who have toiled and wrought and developed a condition and a color that has stood out for what is right.

With the inception of our country, Irishmen have been ever foremost to proclaim their allegiance—from Charles Carroll of Carrollton, who dedicated his life and fortune to the cause of Independence, to the humblest wage-earner who contributes his quota, from the bleak shores of Alaska to the Mexican Gulf. They have added lustre to Columbia’s Coronet, and in the womb of the unborn future they will continue their unswerving devotion to the cause of Freedom.

This is the youngest historical daughter of Erin in America. It has been suckled at the breasts of the Mother Irish Societies here, many of whom are older than the very country itself. It has grown and matured because it was sustained by a spirit of justice, and it has lived and prospered under the sheltering influence of the Stars and Stripes.

Our fathers sought this country as an asylum from the tyranny and misrule of England, and they builded far better than they knew. For the past two hundred years, they were deprived of every condition, social and educational, that belonged to a country whose civilization at one time had illumined the world. The pages of Irish history for the past seven hundred years present little else than sorrow, privation and oppression. During the past two hundred years, Irishmen have come to Columbia’s open arms, and they have not been unworthy of her tender care and affection. We stand here tonight entrenched behind the history of our past, and Ireland’s sons and daughters have taken their place in the household of America, and we will strive to be worthy of the position assigned to us in her family.

I am pleased to announce that the past year has witnessed industrial and educational changes in the Emerald Isle. One-half of the present occupiers of the land have purchased the ground outright (Applause) and the division of the untenanted pasture lands among the people has stimulated thrift and neatness, as well as increased production, whilst the Irish trade-mark has protected its home industries. Home Rule agitation has strengthened the position of Mr. Redmond and vindicated his Parliamentary activity. The prospects for Home Rule in Ireland, whether from the tariff reform or from the Conservatives or Free Trade Liberals, are now brighter than they have been since the year 1885. (Applause.)

HONORABLE THOMAS F. GILROY,

Far Rockaway, Queen’s County, New York.

Formerly Mayor of New York City.

72It is not my thought, in this prefatory address, to invade the province of subsequent speakers, but rather to introduce to you in a modest way our position as an historical body in this great nation. The gentlemen who will follow me will give you detailed accounts of our activity and strength in this country, whereas it is my humble part to explain our existence and ratify our importance as one of the races that make up this glorious Republic. (Applause.)

We know no creed except the Sermon on the Mount; no race but the community of honest purpose; no politics but those which serve for the betterment of mankind. We want our record from the voyage of Brendan, who antedated Columbus nine hundred and fifty years, to this country, down to the invention of Brennan of the monorail, inscribed upon the pages of history as products of Irish thought and ingenuity.

I will take a minute, if I may, to explain in a digressional way what I have alluded to in my last sentence. Mr. Louis Brennan, inventor of the Brennan torpedo and the Brennan monorail, of which he recently gave a successful exhibition in London, was born in Castlebar, County Mayo, Ireland. He was, from 1887 to 1896, superintendent of the Government Brennan Torpedo Factory, of which he is at present the consulting engineer. The first monorail for commercial purposes will soon be in operation in the city of New York. Mr. Brennan estimates that it can easily attain a speed of 140 miles an hour, and that danger is practically negative.

Your Presidents-General, from Admiral Meade to Admiral McGowan, have been men who have stood for the great ideals of this country. Their labors in this Society have been crowned with success, and those of this group of executives who have been removed by the hand of Death can look from their exalted places tonight and feel proud of their meritorious work. They have erected the edifice; it is only left for us to maintain the structure. The work of this Society would be like a “Rope of Sand,” as my friend Clarke would say, unless we perpetuate our traditions and realize the anticipations of our forefathers.

73This Society needs a Chapter in every State of the Union, where semi-annual meetings should be held for the purpose of reading historical papers, and at the same time to draw closer and closer together our people. Bring your sons into our Society that they, too, may enjoy the glorious association of our kinsfolk. (Applause.)

There is a tendency, however, among the young people (and this I say with regret) to regard anything Irish as unstylish and, perhaps, a trifle low. Now, such thoughts must be eliminated by their presence and coöperation with us, and their participation in all our allied interests.

My work among you has been a labor of love. The administration has been ably seconded in all its efforts, and the Membership Committee, headed by its indefatigable captain, has regenerated our Society by its colossal work. In two years our forces have been increased to nearly one thousand members (Applause) and the Society has benefited numerically and intellectually, as well as financially.

It is a well-known fact, that, in the event of death, either by illness or accident, of the Great Father of our Country, it was his express wish that the command of the Continental Army should be given to General John Sullivan. (Applause.)

That seven of the sixteen generals in that same army were Irishmen or Irishmen’s sons. That Commission No. 1 in the Continental Navy was given to Jack Barry of the City of Wexford. (Applause.) That the first naval victory of the Revolution on the high seas was won by Maurice O’Brien of Maine and his seven sons (Lexington of the Seas). (Applause.)

That four months before a shot was fired at Lexington, proclaiming the War of Independence, a handful of patriots, mostly Irish boys, led by John Sullivan of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, overpowered an English garrison at Newcastle and captured guns and ammunition that were used with deadly effect at Bunker Hill. (Applause.)

It was said this afternoon at our scientific gathering by one familiar with the subject that the finest lot of books that ever came into America at one time was presented to Yale College by Bishop Berkeley of Cloyne, Ireland, and formed the nucleus of its great library. That Thomas Dongan, Earl of Limerick, as Governor of New York, gave the Colony its first great Charter in 1683; and 74that twelve of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were Irishmen or men of Irish extraction.

Wireless telegraphy owes its discovery to the son of a Dublin mother, steam navigation to a son of Erin, and the great Erie Canal—it ought to be the Erin Canal—to the descendant of a Celt. Through the bodies of eight presidents of our Nation coursed Irish blood, and many of the gifted dramatists and actors of our country have come from gentle Irish stock; whilst editors and literateurs have been pleased to call their inspiration purely Celtic. Fortified by such forces in the past, we are here tonight to blow life into the mummified historians of our day, and to awaken in them the honest motto of our Society, “That the World may know.” (Applause.)

George II had reason to say: “Cursed be the laws that deprived me of these subjects,” and how George III could re-echo these fateful words after his unjust taxation upon the early colonists is to be marvelled at; but the Irish were here then, as they are here now, ready to avenge to the hills their treasured wrongs.

It is not my purpose on such an occasion as this to dim your eyes or sadden your thoughts with unhappy reflections, but custom holds me to a strict account; therefore a befitting allusion to our departed brothers is not out of place, and such an omission would indeed be culpable.

Our ranks have been depleted during the past year by the Great Leveller. Many of these we could ill afford to lose, but, by Divine Command, they have gone where, with watchful eyes, they will continue to follow us in spirit. Let us be worthy of the heritage they have given us, and when we, too, part company from those we love, let it be said of us as it is said of them, “They are absent but not forgotten.” (Applause.)

The band will now play the “Star Spangled Banner,” and I will propose a toast to the President of our Nation, William H. Taft. (Toast drunk standing.)

President-General Quinlan: Ladies and gentlemen, you will kindly be seated. We are only upon the threshold as yet, we shall soon invade the building.

In my enthusiasm I forgot, in the opening part of my speech, to thank the men who have elected me for the third time to the presidency of this great Society.

75I want the women here tonight to take this matter up with these derelicts—I won’t say whether it is father, husband or son. You see mothers are always before me, and I can’t get away from the mental picture as well as the physical one. But the women can do much good. Look what they have done tonight! If you could stand here and see this beautiful picture, effulgent with everything lovely, it seems that the flowers and shrubs of Paradise have been sent down here in order to give color and radiance to this picture! And then the inspiration—Mr. Crimmins says a feast in itself.

Now I want the good women to talk about the American-Irish Historical Society, to boom it, so to speak, and I feel confident that much good will be accomplished through their efforts.

I am going to ask the Secretary-General to read one or two communications from absent members, and we will go through this programme like Paderewski does with his touch on the piano.

Secretary-General Lee: Mr. President—

(Applause.)

Ladies and Gentlemen of the American-Irish Historical Society, I thank you sincerely. At the direction of the President-General, I have three communications to read. The first is from our fellow member, Mr. Victor Herbert. It is a telegram to the President-General:

“Am prevented from being present tonight on account of attack of tonsilitis, confining me to residence. Wish fellow members and guests a right good time.

(Applause.)

The next two are letters from ex-United States Senator William E. Chandler, who is Vice-President of the Society for New Hampshire:

“It gives me pleasure to be allowed to apply to be a member of the American-Irish Historical Society.

76“Should I be elected, please give me the necessary notice. I find I shall not be able to attend the meeting of Saturday; but if I can be of service to you in Concord or Washington it will give me pleasure to do so.

“I recommend for membership John W. Kelley of Portsmouth, N. H. I reckon, however, he is now a member.

I move you, Mr. President, Mr. Kelley’s election as a member of this organization.

President-General Quinlan: You have heard the motion that Mr. John W. Kelley be elected a member of the American-Irish Historical Society. Those in favor say “aye,” those opposed “nay.” Mr. Kelley is unanimously elected.

President-General Quinlan: It is necessary that you give your undivided attention to the next speaker. He is the financial agent, or, rather trust president of our corporate body. Mr. Dooley has been associated with the American-Irish Historical Society for many years. You all know Judge Lee, because he is in touch with you constantly upon the various matters that concern our Society, whether historical or social; but Mr. Dooley has so little occasion to remind you of your obligations, as the wave of financial return sweeps into him without any reminder from his office. He is quiet, modest and dignified, like a great many of our New Englanders.

Now, within the borders of that section of New England—notice New “England,”—it is now nearly New “Ireland,”—Mr. Dooley represents one of the largest moneyed organizations in the City of Providence. And he is so proud of his Irish blood that sometimes I am fearful lest he be overtaken with a patriotic seizure; his enthusiasm seems to know no bounds. We will now hear him in his own plain, honest words. I have the pleasure of presenting to you the Treasurer-General of our Society, Hon. Michael F. Dooley.

(Band plays “Oh, Mr. Dooley” amid hearty applause.)

77Treasurer-General Dooley: This is not the first time I have been greeted with that song, and, while the voices here tonight have been exceedingly delightful to listen to, I can’t help thinking of a criticism that was once passed by the New York Sun upon the “Boston Ideals,” who had been singing English opera, and had done it splendidly. They came to New York determined to enter the field of Italian opera, and the morning following their first night the Sun, in its criticism, started in by saying: “Ideals rush in where artists fear to tread.” I congratulate you upon the song; you sang it so well.

I regret very much that an imperfect memory makes it necessary for me to read this paper to you, but its brevity, I hope, will make good what it otherwise lacks.

AN UNSOLVED PHASE OF AMERICAN HISTORY.

The hoary and honored dictum that “History is a conspiracy against truth” is like the cry of David in his desolation calling all men liars. There is food for meditation in the two utterances, and candor compels the admission that the world believes there is more than a modicum of justification for them both.

And this reminds me that a meeting of the American Historical Society was held at New York a few days ago at which Professor Albert Bushnell Hart of Harvard, an authority of high repute, and a man of great critical judgment and learning, delivered an address on “Imagination in History.” He told his hearers among many other things well worth remembering, that “even historical scholars are not without their failings, their prejudices and their falsehoods.”

Now, while the discovery is not new, the announcement of it has never found more forceful expression or been backed by a more expert opinion—and it is of more than passing interest to our Society whose cardinal principle is “to make better known the Irish Chapter in American History.” It emphasizes the usefulness and necessity of this and kindred organizations to make straight the crooked ways, to save from obscurity the names and deeds of those who achieved, and if they do not live, to have live in our country’s annals the Irishmen and the sons of Irishmen worthy of the honor.

In the days before the Christian era and for long after, it was not 78an infrequent practice for the Roman people to deify their great men and erect temples in their honor, worship at their shrines, and pay reverence to their memory. Among those to whom such honors were paid were deities of Greek origin, who had been adopted by the Romans, either under their own names or under others that equally as well served; but they were always Romans, their origin being obscured or totally ignored. This custom has not been unknown among the moderns, and should a general apotheosis occur in our country, it is but fair that among the shrines in the temple some few be reserved, if they deserve it, for that people who contributed at least 5,000,000 souls, living, creative and creating to the growth and greatness of the land.

It is needless to enter upon the social, political and religious conditions which brought to these shores in mid-colonial times, a considerable number of Irish, whose identity became merged in the great mass of the people. I speak of it only to note the fact that there was such an immigration, and that the influence of this stranger people upon the habits and character of the colonists must have been felt in some degree, however insignificant, in the communities in which they and the Irish dwelt together. For, in the lapse of time by intermarriage and the daily routine of life, whether as master and servant, landholder and tenant, or husband and wife, there could not fail to come a slow, perhaps, but sure blending of qualities and characteristics that influenced the evolution and development of the American man as we find him in certain parts of the South at the time of the Revolution. This intermixture of races can be readily understood as not difficult of accomplishment when it is recalled that they both spoke the same tongue, and were generally in large part of the same religion if not of the same church.

At the outbreak of the Revolution many of those belonging to this emigrant class, or their sons, had risen to prominence and already made themselves felt in the trade and commerce of their communities, or had become land owners of importance.

With rare exceptions they ardently sympathized with their fellow colonists in their aspirations for liberty, and a very large number of them enlisted in the American army.

The war gave further impetus to Irish immigration for reasons easily divined, and so marked were their numbers in Washington’s forces that at the close of the conflict, in an investigation by the English Parliament into the causes and conduct of the war, it was 79said by some of the witnesses that the Irish in no small degree contributed to the loss of the colonies by the mother country. When I put it in this form I modify materially the testimony of some of the witnesses who flatly declared that it was the Irish who won the Revolution.

This to me has always appeared to be an exaggerated statement, particularly when I read the roster of the Sons of the Revolution—for either nearly all the Irish were killed in action or died soon after—or possibly there has been some legerdemain in the nomenclature of the survivors. But that there were some Irish in the Revolutionary forces who fought well and died, history has recorded, and American historians have admitted it, but have not chronicled the fact with any wealth of detail or enthusiasm.

As the eighteenth century ended, the Irish began coming hitherward in greater force than had marked the preceding years, and continued coming in increasing volume during the succeeding fifty years, until about 1847, when their numbers grew enormously. From that time on, until 1890, immigration statistics show that about 4,000,000 Irish came to America, which is one of the greatest race movements, if not the greatest in the history of the world.

Up to the beginning of this great exodus from Ireland, with the exception of that period during which the Alien and Sedition laws were passed and repealed, the Irish had grown into the fibre and woof of the nation with slight friction and with little open objection, but when every port of our eastern shore became a haven for ship after ship bringing emigrants from Ireland, the country paused and wondered. But they came and continued to come until wonder turned to anxiety, which was but a step from hostile alarm, and this eventually took shape in the formation of patriotic societies all over the thickly settled parts of the country, for the purpose of having laws passed restricting immigration and the granting of political rights. This situation was further complicated by the great mass of the invaders being unlettered and untrained in the common avocations of life, whether as tillers of the soil, mechanics, or clerks.

As we look back to the events of that period, it is not surprising that the people already here viewed with aversion and fear the presence of this vast army of aliens.

HONORABLE THOMAS F. WALSH.

Of Denver and Washington.

Vice-President of the Society for Colorado.

Copyright, 1909.

By J. Knowles Bishop.

80The impossibility of assimilating this large influx of Irish, even if assimilation had been desired, and the possibility of the Irish eventually assimilating their not entirely voluntary hosts were questions that deeply moved men of earnest convictions, but perhaps of limited vision.

Unfortunately, it was just about this epoch that histories of an ambitious and standard character began to be written, and some taking on the passions of the time and the prejudices of the author’s environment, have not given the Irish the place that their services and devotion to the country’s welfare entitled them to hold. It is further to be deplored that full recovery from the bitterness of those days has not been hastened by incidents growing out of political and other conditions.

Even today, when calm, cold reason has had had time to resume her sway, it is largely magazine writers who are delving into the historic past, and presenting to the people a panorama of national life which displays upon its unfolding roll, not only the original settlers and their descendants, but also the pioneer Irish and their sons who had their part in the upbuilding and maintenance of the nation. But the healing touch of time will change, let us hope, if it does not entirely cure, that obliquity of vision which distorts much that it sees or fails to see that which it may not distort.

When some full, adequate chronicle comes to be written of the Irish race movement to this country due consideration will be given to the influence it has had on the manners and customs of the country, and it will not be complete if it takes not into account the contributions of brawn and brain, labor and energy that it has given to our national progress.

The versatility of talent and the buoyancy of spirit and the native wit and humor which distinguish this people, have diffused themselves through American life and infused themselves into it, softening its severe, rigid lines, and helping to lift the gloom, that often concealed the splendid qualities of the Puritan whose spirit has spread over the land carrying to its uttermost limits the blessings of self government and radiating an influence for the uplift of mankind.

While I am on this subject, permit me to digress for a moment, to speak of a thing which is, perhaps, outside the range of this paper, and that is the insensible, subtle change that I believe the Irish have wrought in our Eastern section in the voice and accent of the descendants of the first settlers. The sharp nasal tone, so 81common half a century ago, has almost entirely disappeared in the cities and is fast disappearing in the country. This is probably due in great measure to the fact that most of the immigrant Irish brought with them the rich, rare brogue of their fatherland, and the others the cultivated voice of the educated Irishman, both full of music and “sweet as the dying note of a broken harp string”—a music, whose soft, pervasive tones have added an indescribable charm to the spoken word that the stern hills of New England rarely knew, but which in time they have felt the touch of. Today it is difficult to tell the origin of the speaker, whether he be a tenth generation Puritan or a second generation Irish, in communities where the latter abound.

The scope of this paper is general and not personal, and for that reason I have not gone through the gamut of names of Irish origin whose owners merited well of the country. Their fame is secure and permanent—and while in some instances overshadowed and lost sight of through the neglect, or let us call it the caprice, of the historian—it is safe.

Its single purpose has been to fathom the causes of the total or partial eclipse of a great body of people whose achievements entitle them to shine among the greater or lesser luminaries of this Republic, if not among the greatest.

To repair the injustice and the cruel omissions of history, is a noble mission and as patriotic as any that ever moved men to deeds of valor and sacrifice. It is not for us to keep alive the memory of those who have their place in the imperishable annals of our country—but it is for us to rescue from oblivion the men that lived and worked and wrought, whom historical writers by accident, indifference or design, have ignored in their researches, or buried in a foot note at the bottom of a page.

If we do this, we do not come together in vain.

President-General Quinlan: This “squib” appeared in last night’s paper, and was handed to me this afternoon: “The man who writes a poem does so under reasonably safe conditions. Nothing more dangerous than a bean-blower is apt to be used against him; lemons and vegetables may come his way, but this is the worst, save the scorn of the critics. But the McDonalds and McAdoos lived in the underground; they met irate landlords and the general ‘cussedness’ of inanimate things, all with smiling patience and invincible courage.”

82The McDonalds and the McAdoos are famous in the annals of Irish history. Some of the McAdoos have lived and toiled under the ground; others have existed in the open. From the humblest walk of life to the highest position, next to the chamber of the Executive, one of your officials has risen. It is like naming a member of his own household to his family to present your illustrious ex-President-General, Hon. William McAdoo. (Applause.)

Hon. William McAdoo: Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen, I fear that sometimes many of the elements that go to make up the very cosmopolitan population of our country think that we of the American-Irish Historical Society are too insistent upon the part which our people played in the formative period of the Republic.

Now we have an affectionate feeling towards our Motherland because she much needs the help of her children. If Ireland were a great and powerful country, like Germany, rich with an army and navy of its own, with its ambassadors and representatives in every land and with its great universities spreading German ideas among the people; if Ireland had all those accessories she would have made her claims felt in the history of the United States without the need of societies like this; but Ireland, “Erin, the isle of sorrows,” is an unfortunate country, subjugated, impoverished, despoiled and misrepresented and when, therefore, the membership of this Society, these gentlemen who have given to it such unselfish labor, discovered the errors and mistakes and the indifference and sometimes the prejudices of historians of the United States in regard to Ireland in America, as so well pointed out by Mr. Dooley, they organized this Society for the purpose of doing justice to those brave Irish men and virtuous women who came here, especially prior to the Revolution, and who did so much to make this a great and free country.

Now the trouble with most of us Irish Americans—I am Irish in the first degree, having been born in Ireland while most of you are probably only second-class Irish or even third or fourth—is that when we are serious and in deep earnest we are taken to be play acting, and when we are jocose or humorous and contributing to the “gaiety of nations” we are taken to be most in earnest. It is hard for an Anglo-Saxon to understand an Irish Celt. One of the greatest difficulties between England and Ireland is the fact that the mental attitude of the two races is far apart, the intellectual agility 83of the one and the slow, if certain, processes of the other are obvious to any one acquainted with both countries. Let me illustrate it by a little story:

There was a party at an English country house, and they had been passing a rather dull English winter afternoon by proposing and guessing at riddles; and finally one of the guests turned to the host and said, “Sir Charles, why don’t you propose a riddle?” He said, “Really, now, I’m not half clever enough to do such a thing as that. I couldn’t really do it, don’t-cher-know.” “Well, you might try; you don’t know what you can do.” Finally Sir Charles said, “Well, it stands on one leg and it has feathers and it barks like a dog.” So they all guessed and guessed, everything in the animal and vegetable kingdom, and they finally gave it up; and Sir Charles said, “Why, really, I had no idea I was so clever; I thought you would easily guess it”; and they said, “It is impossible to guess.” And he said, “Well, that’s easy; it’s a stork.” “Well,” they exclaimed, “but surely, Sir Charles, a stork doesn’t bark.” And Sir Charles replied, “Well, that’s the cleverest part of it; I put that in to make it hard.”

And when we come to our Scotch friends we can readily understand how hard it is for a Scotchman to thoroughly comprehend an Irishman. A friend of mine was telling this story in Glasgow to the Board of Trade at its annual dinner: He said an Irishman was coming down the Bowery in New York late one night and met a policeman, and he said to him, “What time is it?” and the policeman replied, “It’s two o’clock.” And the Irishman said, “I’m a bit deaf and I didn’t hear you; would you mind repeating it?” and the policeman yelled at him, “It’s two o’clock.” “Very queer,” says the Irishman, “but really I didn’t hear you. Would you mind saying it again?” and thereupon the policeman (one of my former companions in arms) took his constitution-preserving stick and hit him on one side of the head and said “One,” and then he hit him a clip on the other side of the head and said “Two.” “Did you hear me that time?” “I did, begorra, and I’m glad I didn’t meet you at twelve.”

A friend of mine, a Scotchman by descent, told that story to the Glasgow Board of Trade, and there sat those Scotchman in solemn black around the festive board, and there wasn’t a smile in the room. And finally one old Scotchman, by way of defending the storyteller, 84said, “Weel, now, I dinna blame the policeman so much; it’s very aggravating to be asked the same question so often.”

Now this Society was formed, among other things, for the purpose of clearing up the underbrush in American history, or, in other words, “laying” the Scotch-Irish ghost. (Applause.)

There was a ghost in my native county of Donegal called the “Fanad Ghost.” It was said to have been raised by a free mason skilled in the “Black Art” while in an hilarious mood, but after it was up the mason couldn’t put it down and the ghost began throwing things around—the delft on the dresser, the noggins, the pots, the stones on the chimney—pulling out the scobes in the thatch on the roof, and raising Cain generally. The Presbyterian minister came in and prayed until he had corns on his knees, and the ghost took a day off. The Catholic priest was called in and did the best he could, and the ghost acted “dacintly” for two days, at the end of which time he was more vigorous than ever. Well, finally they sent to the city of Derry and got a delegation of free masons, and they labored one week, night and day—with refreshments—and at last one morning, when the refreshments were running low, the head mason came to the door with perspiration streaming off his face and his legs wobbly, and said, “Get a black cock without a white feather and another keg of Charley Oge’s poteen, and with the help of Heaven we’ll lay him before morning.” And as the last crow went of the cock and the last drop out of the keg the Fanad Ghost was laid forever with a whiff of sulphur up the chimney and a trembling of the kitchen floor. (Laughter and applause.)

And so this Society is looking for the white cock of Truth to crow soon over the Scotch-Irish ghost, for if ever there was a veritable ghost it is the Scotch-Irishman in America. (Applause.)

The “Scotch-Irishman” in America, Mr. Dooley has told us, had his historic origin about the time of the great famine period in Ireland, when almost one-half of the inhabitants of that unfortunate land, starved, diseased and in rags, were huddled in cargo ships and treated worse than any negro slaves that ever came to this country. They died by thousands and strewed the bottom of the Atlantic with their bodies.

A friend of mine in a thriving Western city the other night met a man who is today one of the leading citizens in that place, and he said to my friend, “I am the sole survivor of five of my family who 85came over in those diseased and hellish ships in which England sent our people in the black days of the famine. My sister and my brother lie in the unfathomed caves of the Atlantic Ocean; my father and mother followed them. Twelve thousand of our race lie beneath the monument which the Ancient Order of Hibernians have erected on Groose Isle in the St. Lawrence below Quebec.”

And these unfortunate people, libelled before they landed, without means, without education, without knowledge of the people among whom they came, were not received with open arms. The resulting Anti-Irish feeling in the United States at that period has been most delicately and diplomatically pointed out by Mr. Dooley tonight. Men and women otherwise honest and unprejudiced stood appalled at the thought of nationally assimilating this wretchedness, and in that period the bitter prejudice against the Irish in America took root.

It was at this same time that American history began to take form, and the omissions, which are as criminal as some of the things they tell, crept into the books which our children read in school. And it is due to those omissions, Gentlemen, that this grand, painstaking and justice-seeking Society was formed.

If ever you want to get the white cock of Truth to crow over the Scotch-Irishman, take a look into the history of North Carolina. There is scarcely another state in America to which so many of the Northern Irish went before the Revolution as to North Carolina, and to no other state before the Revolution did so many Scotchmen go.

After the battle of Culloden, where the Scottish clans had so valiantly fought for Charles Edward, a number of them were given the privilege of leaving Great Britain and coming to America, first taking the oath of allegiance to the English crown. A great number of these broken clansmen came to North Carolina and they were there at the outbreak of the Revolution; but they had been preceded by a large number of Protestant Irishmen from the Province of Ulster.

If the Scotchman who went to Ireland in 1610, and from that until the seventeenth century, if he still remained obdurately a Scotchman, breaking the rule of all other races in Ireland, would he not have fraternized and made common cause with the Scotch people he met in the new world? On the contrary, when the Revolution 86broke out the broken clansmen, the MacDonalds, the MacNeils, the MacIntoshes, and even Flora MacDonald herself, the great heroine of story and song, became the most desperate loyalists and Torys in that state. They organized armies, they fought with courage and tenacity, and their leaders were guilty of horrible atrocities in putting down the Northern Irish, who were all patriots and Whigs and who are now called the “Scotch-Irish.”

The Irishmen in North Carolina, largely Presbyterians in religion, were unanimously patriotic as Americans from the beginning, and they did not assimilate with the Scotchmen, who came direct from Scotland. Flora MacDonald, whose story we all know, her five sons and her husband, entered the British Army and continued throughout the Revolution; that is, such of them as were not taken prisoners and expatriated to Nova Scotia, where her descendants are today most vigorous supporters of English rule. Her husband was early taken a prisoner of war and confined at Halifax, Virginia, and in 1776 Flora went back to Scotland, where she was afterwards rejoined by him.

To Worcester, Massachusetts, in the early Colonial days came three hundred Irishmen from the Province of Ulster, probably many from my own county of Donegal, to dwell among those ever hospitable and warm-hearted gentlemen, the Puritans. Here was a fine combination—a “Scotch Irish” Presbyterian meeting a Puritan, a Calvinistic Reunion! But how did they act when these three hundred men and women from Ulster arrived in Massachusetts? Perhaps some of you may think they were received with great hospitality. Well, they were not. They were received, says a “Scotch-Irish” historian, with marked aversion and bitter prejudice against them as being Irish. A gentleman writing in favor of the so called “Scotch Irish” in America says the New England colonists could not differentiate these Irish Protestants, though they were different in religion from the mass of Irishmen. Is not that a delicious confession in the papers of the Scotch Irish Society? The Puritans could not understand that they were anything but Irish; they recognized them as such and did everything to make it unpleasant for them (and they were artists in that work), and to get them out of the community as soon as they could, short of inviting a physical controversy, for looking at these stalwart Irishmen they made up 87their minds if it came to a fight, they could, in the language of the Bowery, put up a “peach” of a one. (Laughter and applause.)

The first man who died on the battlefield for American liberty, south of Mason and Dixon’s line, was a great “Scotch-Irish” Anglo-Saxon named John Grady; and when Grady died the captain of his army, Thomas Gove, a family well known to any Donegal man, took off his sword and deposited it with the body of Grady as a mark of respect and love for so brave and patriotic a man.

Now our great American historians, from Bancroft and Motley and Parkman down to Henry Cabot Lodge, have quietly ignored the Irish in America, or have given all the credit for their achievements to this myth, the “Scotch-Irishman.” It is a singular thing, when you read the things this Society puts before you, the absolute facts of history, that no American historian of Anglo-American ancestry has had the fairness and the courage and the sense of justice to do for Ireland what so many of them have done for other nationalities.

Mr. Motley wrote a whole library about the Dutch Republic, constituting a standard work among the Dutchmen of today of the history of their people and achievements. Mr. Parkman’s history of the French in Canada is unexcelled. Even that good historian, Mr. John Fiske, never rose above his environment; and I say it is no credit to American historians of the highest class that they have not seen fit to do justice to the patriotism, the sacrifices, the intellectual efforts and the financial contributions which the great body of the Irish people made to secure liberty to the United States. (Applause.)

Wouldn’t it have been a splendid and a generous thing if Motley had written a little of Ireland as he wrote of the Dutch Republic and the New Netherlands; if Parkman had done for Ireland in this country what he did for the French in Canada? And yet, from the earliest times, there came an unending stream to this country from Ireland of the cream of its chivalry and virtue, courage, industry and intellect, and sacrificed it most generously and without hope of reward at the altar of American liberty. (Applause.)

But the “Scotch-Irishman,” as considered, let us look at him. Now we will never understand the history of the Irish in America unless we go back to Ireland. I have a lot of friends among Americans of other stocks who undertake to appreciate the part the Irish have played in the upbuilding of this nation, but they can’t 88estimate it correctly unless they know something of the history of Ireland itself.

Every race that came to Ireland was assimilated. The Danes came, and those not driven to sea quickly became converted to Irish ideas. The Normans came, and they, too, became assimilated; and the Scotchmen came to Ireland, to the Plantation of Ulster, a subject too broad to be discussed now.

Commencing in 1610 and from that on to the end of the seventeenth century, the Scotchman came to Ireland, and he hadn’t been there long before he became civilized, smoothed, rounded, the heart of him given free play—in equality with the head; he joined the revolutionary societies such as the Irish had in those days, took pot shots at the landlord, and cultivated a sense of humor, conspired against English rule, and, coming to America, became a most bitter Rebel and a valiant soldier in Washington’s army.

Now I intend, at the request of your worthy Ex-President, Mr. Crimmins, who has done so much for this Society, to prepare some facts with reference to the settlement of Ulster, and what the immigrants from Ulster did in America, especially in the Revolutionary War. And I assert tonight, without fear of contradiction from any historian, American or English, that the blundering, unjust and criminal acts of England in Ireland, and especially in the province of Ulster, did more to fill the armies of George Washington with brave soldiers than almost any other cause. (Applause.)

If I were asked to point out one single thing that did more to make sure American liberty than any other, I would speak of the tithing of the Presbyterians in the province of Ulster. When this colony had been planted in Ulster on the “confiscated” lands of the O’Donnells and O’Neils and other septs, when these brave, intellectual, industrious, independent Scotch Celts (for that is what the large majority of them were) brought over to settle this province under promises not kept—and in this connection it should be remembered that these settlers had no part in the conspiracy of Sir Arthur Chichester and Sir John Davies and other English “Civilizers” and land grafters in despoiling the O’Donnells and O’Neils and minor Irish septs of 3,000,000 acres of the best land in Ulster—were confronted with the test oath of Queen Anne applied to Catholics and Presbyterians alike, when they were compelled to pay tithes, the same being taken from their fields of wheat or the corn from 89their barn, to support a church into which they would not enter in common with their Catholic fellow countrymen, upon emigrating to this country they became American Rebels on every battlefield in the United States. They came to the States before the Revolution in such numbers that in one year twelve thousand Ulster Presbyterian Irish left that province for American ports. The flow of immigration was so continued and so great in volume that it is a matter of record, which anyone can read in the State Papers, that the Presbyterian ministers of the province of Ulster petitioned the King to stop the immigration by repeal of obnoxious laws and alien injustice, or they would have no congregations left in Ireland.

You can trace them today from Londonderry, N. H., and Dublin in the same state, to Donegal in Pennsylvania, and down the whole Appalachian chain into Florida; and everywhere you will find settlements and towns bearing the good old Irish names and founded by these patriots, who stood by Washington and whose motto was, “No surrender to the British Government.” (Applause.)

On that subject alone I hope to be permitted, Mr. President, if I can find the leisure, to present to this Society, with due historical references, the truth of history as regards that period.

During the famine period that I spoke of there was a Cunard ship called the “Cephelonia.” The “Cephelonia” was one of the most celebrated ships of the Cunard line, and, during the famine period, she brought great numbers of Irish immigrants to Boston. One day not many years ago I was talking to a couple of Irish American friends of mine in Boston, when a third man came up and gave the time of day to my friend and passed on. One of my friends turned to the other and said, “Is he a ‘Mayflower’?” and my friend replied, “No, he,” said he, “is a ‘Cephelonian.’ The ‘Cephelonians’ now outnumber the ‘Mayflowers.’”

Now, my friends, I am really trespassing on your good nature because I am keeping you from a great treat. I came here tonight and found my countryman, McManus of Donegal, and then I found I had the honor of sitting next to a good man from County Tyrone (and next to Donegal Tyrone is a good substitute), the Rev. Dr. Sheppard.

All I have to say in conclusion is this: I say to my American friends, we are not seeking to inject a foreign story with foreign prejudices and old world bitterness into your history; we are not 90asking for any place in that history which we do not deserve; we are not asking you to subvert the facts of American history; we are making no special plea for our nationality or our race; but we are demanding justice and we are going to get it.

You younger members will live to see the time when, a convention of historians being called in the city of New York, as was the other day, your honored President will be invited to fill an enviable place in that convocation; and when the heads of our great universities, when the men who stand for the most learned in America, undertake to pass upon the historical phases of that period of our history from the beginning up to 1860, Ireland and Irish men and women will be given their proper place. (Applause.)

We need no vindication after 1860. We vindicated our place in American history on every battlefield of the Civil War. We were at Bull Run, at Fredericksburg, at Gettysburg and Appomattox. They cannot rub the Irish names off the records of the Civil War because they are too numerous. There was scarcely a home in Ireland in any county or parish which had not its representative under that flag when it was embattled and endangered on the fields of the South. (Applause.)

And I repeat it now; I have said it before and I repeat it now, that that horrible, fratricidal, prolonged and bloody conflict did as much for the Irish in America as it did for the negro whom it freed. It vindicated the patriotism and gratitude and loyalty of the Irishman, and the valor and chivalry of his race displayed by him under that flag, from the beginning to the close of the war, was second to none. And in every sacrifice that has been made to found or perpetuate this nation, Irish men and Irish women, Irish courage and Irish conscience, a never changing faith in God, a high Celtic idealism, which is the salt that gives savour to the gross materialism of the age, a firm belief in the divine and national mysteries, sound morals and gratitude, and devotion to American ideals, have played a most prominent part in the history of this, our beloved country. (Applause.)

President-General Quinlan: I will be most grateful to Mr. McAdoo, if, before the next annual meeting of this Society, he will have the time and inclination to pen down the beautiful remarks that are in his brain tonight regarding the Irish in North Carolina.

His magnificent speech gives me a cleavage in my continuity of 91thought. There is a Society in the history of the city known as “St. Andrew’s.” This Society has $250,000 in its treasury. The illustrious Scotchmen have sought, by money, by force of will and by power, to perpetuate the traits and achievements of their race and they have done so.

Now I would appeal to all of you that when you feel the desire or when an occasion presents itself, you will aid us in the way the Scotchmen have aided their Society, by making a contribution to the American Irish Historical Society in order that we, too, may have an opportunity of exploiting our literary geniuses. This matter, ladies and gentlemen, I lay before you for your consideration and hope it may receive from you assimilative thought.

The most famous Irish societies in this country, the Hibernian Society in Boston, the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick in Philadelphia and the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick in this city, were all founded and brought about by the intense patriotism and zeal of Irish Protestants. It has been most gratifying for us to hear tonight that force and eloquence from one who came from the Province of Ulster. Now we will hear a re-echo, probably equally as eloquent, from one who came from a neighboring county in Ireland and settled within the borders of New York State. I have much pleasure in presenting to you the Rev. J. Havergal Sheppard, D. D., a member of our Society and the next speaker on the program, whose subject is

THE IRISH IN PROTESTANT DENOMINATIONS IN AMERICA.

Rev. J. Havergal Sheppard, D. D.: Mr. President-General, Ladies and Gentlemen, Honored Guests and Fellow Members of the American Irish Historical Society: I esteem it a very great honor that you have conferred upon me tonight in asking me to speak at this, your annual gathering. I must confess that I feel somewhat embarrassed in facing such a body of distinguished Irishmen and their friends. It has not often been my lot to meet so many “Sons of the Ould Sod” or those whose Sires settled on these shores in the passing 92years as it is tonight. Nevertheless I am proud to be one of you on this occasion; in fact, I feel like a fellow countryman of mine, who was in the company of an Englishman and a Scotchman. They were complimenting each other, when the Englishman asked the Scotchman if he were not a Scotchman what would he be, and he answered, an Englishman. Then the Scotchman, not to be outdone, asked the Englishman if he was not an Englishman what he would be, and, of course, he answered a Scotchman. Then they turned to Pat, who had been listening to their expressions of friendship, and they asked him, “Pat, if you were not an Irishman, what would you be?” And he, in turn, in true Celtic fashion, answered, “If I was not an Irishman I would be ashamed of myself.” So if I was not an Irishman, after this gathering and greeting and what the Irish have done for this country, I would be ashamed of myself.

An old philosopher once said, “Let us give the past to oblivion, the present to duty, the future to Providence,” and I am sure we agree with him in two of his propositions, but we differ with his first. We are willing to give the present to duty and trust the future to Providence, but never give the past to oblivion; not until, at least, every true American knows the Irish chapter in American history. And it is such a body as this that will hasten that glad day for the Irish race, when men will know that we have as much right to these shores as any race that ever landed here. That starry flag, with its red for love and its white for law and its blue for the hope that our fathers saw in a larger liberty, has been consecrated with the blood of the liberty-loving sons of the sod.

There has never been a battle for right against wrong but “That rascal, Pat,” has been to the front, not only to fight as a private soldier, but to often lead the van as a commanding officer. We find him on the bench and at the bar pleading as an able lawyer; before the altar or in the pulpit, performing the sacred duties of religion. In fact, wherever you go or whatever profession or trade you enter you will find “That Rascal, Pat.” They are no newcomers to these shores, for shortly after that memorable landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock they made their way across the trackless main for this new land.

It was not the lure of gold but the love of liberty that brought 93them. Down-trodden and oppressed in the land of their birth, whether Roman Catholic or Non-conformist, by unjust and tyrannical laws passed by a government that had no sympathy with the suffering Irish, every possible means of culture were denied them, until life in the land they loved became unbearable; so those who were able to muster enough money and courage crossed the briny deep, with many sad farewells and heartbreaking partings.

It is true that many of those early settlers were from the north and had, undoubtedly, been descendents of men who settled there from Scotland and other parts of Britain and Europe; but they had been residents of Ireland for several generations before they emigrated here, and by the right of birth were “Sons of the Sod.” Many Americans of later days, as well as British historians, have given the glory to Scotland for what they did for America, and they always speak of them as Scotch-Irish, and when you ask the reason this is done they will tell you it is to distinguish between them and the Roman Catholic Irish, but supposing we follow that method in our historic research. We would have to say that every Episcopalian was an Englishman, that every Presbyterian was a Scotchman and every Roman Catholic was an Italian. But again they answer: These people came originally from Scotland, hence they are Scotch-Irish; but taking that for granted, which is not the whole truth, as we have many other races in Ireland, most of those early Scotch settlers bear Highland names and were not the Scotch Highlanders, the same race by blood, as the original Irish, and the only thing that made them Scotch was the fact of birth in Scotland; hence when they arrived back in Ireland they became Irish by the same right that they were Scotch, that of birth. In fact, they became more Irish than the Irish themselves. I think enough has been said to introduce my subject tonight.

It is my purpose to put on record a few facts in regard to the great part our fellow countrymen played in the Protestant denominations, in America. As I have already stated, most of the early Irish settlers on these shores came from Ulster and were of the Presbyterian faith. Cotton Mather says that previous to 1640 four thousand Presbyterians had arrived in New England, and there is no doubt that many of these came from Ireland. As early as 1662 a group of Irish and Scotch Presbyterians worshipped in Jamaica, Long 94Island, and it is claimed that this was the first church of that denomination on this continent.

Between 1670–1680 a body of Presbyterians settled on the eastern bank of the Elizabeth River in Virginia, who had with them their pastor from Ireland, who continued to labor among them until his death in 1683. Later one hundred families from Ireland settled Londonderry, New Hampshire, bringing their pastor, Rev. James McGregore, who faithfully and affectionately labored for their good.

As early as 1680 several families of Irish Presbyterians settled in the lower counties of Maryland and erected several houses of worship, as a letter from one of them, Colonel William Stevens, was presented in 1680 to the Laggan Presbytery in Ireland, requesting that a minister by sent to labor in Maryland, and in 1683 the Rev. Francis Makemie arrived by the way of Barbadoes and founded the church at Snow Hill. For several years he labored as an itinerant preacher or missionary, founding churches or strengthening those already started.

“This pioneer of the church,” says a Presbyterian authority, “was born in County Donegal, Ireland, and was so earnest, fearless and indefatigable that he persevered so well in obtaining fellow laborers, though he must cross the ocean for them, and in 1704 brought out two young men, one being John Hampton, a fellow countryman. He was instrumental in organizing the first classical assembly of the Presbyterian church in America, 1706.”

Under the name of the “Presbytery of Philadelphia,” with the Presbytery of Dublin as a model, Makemie being elected moderator and thus logically becoming the founder of organized Presbyterianism in America.

In 1716 there arrived in New York the Rev. William Tennent with his three sons, Gilbert, William, Jr., and John, from the County Armagh. After a period of labor in New York State he was called to the pastorate of the Presbyterian church at Neshiminy, Penn., where he established “The Log College” in 1726, himself an eminent scholar. He trained a number of godly and useful young men for the ministry, among who were Samuel Blair and his own three sons. This college was the foundation of which the present Princeton University was built and all those whom I have mentioned, as well as others who graduated, became leaders in the denomination. 95It would be superfluous for me to weary you with an account of all the great Presbyterian ministers who came to our shores from the Emerald Isle. Suffice to say that the names of Makemie, Mackie, Hampton, Tennent, Blair, Drs. Neill, Junkin, Elliott, Murry, Allison, Potts, Patterson and Hall stand out in letters of gold in the successful history of that church.

1760. A party of Irish emigrants might be seen at the Custom House Quay in Limerick, preparing to leave their native land for these congenial shores. One of the company, a young man with thoughtful look and resolute bearing, entered the vessel and from the deck preached a farewell sermon to those friends who were to be left behind. This was no other than Philip Embury, who was destined to play a prominent part in the Methodist denomination in America. It was in 1766 that he first conducted services in New York in his own house to five people. As the congregation increased he removed to a rigging loft, then building with his own hands the first Methodist church in the new world, which was called “Wesley Chapel” after the founder of the denomination in the old land. It was situated on John street, and on Oct. 30th, 1768, Embury preached the sermon of dedication.

Sometime in 1770, after Rev. Robert Williams, another fellow countryman arrived in New York, he removed to Camden Valley with several Irish families, then a vast wilderness, and organized the Methodist society at Ashgrove, which was named after another Irishman, Thomas Ashton, and there he labored until his death in 1773. At the age of 45 years his remains, after several removals and not even a stone to mark the spot where slept the silent dust, now rests under a marble shaft erected by the National Local Preachers’ Association of the Methodist Episcopal church in the village cemetery at Cambridge, N. Y., on which the following inscription appears: “Philip Embury, the earliest American minister of the Methodist Episcopal church, here finds his last resting place.” Born in Ireland, an emigrant to New York, Embury was the first to gather a little class in that city to set in motion a train of influences which resulted in the founding of the John street church, the cradle of American Methodism, the introduction of a system which has beautified the earth with salvation and increased the joys of heaven.

It is worthy of note that this inscription was penned by a famous fellow countryman of Embury, the Rev. Dr. John Newell Maffitt, the silver-tongued orator of southern Methodism.

HONORABLE CHARLES ALEXANDER,

Of Providence.

Vice-President of the Society for Rhode Island.

96Simultaneously with Embury’s ministry in New York another Irishman, Rev. Robert Strawbridge, who was born at Drumsnagh, County Leitrim, and who, like Embury, had been a preacher in Ireland, settled at Sams Creek, Frederick County, Maryland, where he organized several Methodist societies. He had all the characteristic traits of his fellow countryman. He was generous, energetic, versatile and somewhat intractable to authority. During his life he was poor and his family were often straitened for food. His members appreciated his genuine zeal and self-sacrifice, so they took care of his little farm gratuitously in his absence.

Strawbridge founded Methodism in Baltimore and Hartford counties, where he raised up several preachers, among who were numbered Owen, Stephenson, Perigau, Webster, Watters, Gatch, Haggerty, Durbin and Garrettson. We discover him penetrating into Pennsylvania and then arousing the population of the eastern shore of Maryland. We trace him at last to the upper part of Long Green, Baltimore County, where an opulent and generous public citizen, who admired his character and sympathized with his poverty, gave him a farm free of rent for life. It was during one of his visiting rounds to his spiritual children that he was taken sick at the home of Joseph Wheeler and died in the summer of 1781. His grave may be seen today in the Mount Olivet cemetery at Baltimore, where his greatest success was achieved.

Robert Williams, with whom we became acquainted on his arrival in New York and whose passage was paid from Ireland by his friend, Thomas Ashton, and who took charge of the John street church, New York, after Embury, was the pioneer Methodist in Virginia, forming a society in Norfolk, 1772, which was the germ of the denomination in the state. In 1773 he traveled in various sections of the state, preaching and forming societies, then extending his ministry into North Carolina, where he also was the first to plant Methodism. A signal example of his usefulness was the conversion of Jesse Lee, the heroic founder of Methodism in New England. He died on the 26th of September, 1775.

“He was a plain, pointed preacher, indefatigable in his labors,” says a historian of the church, and another says, “His grave is unknown but he will live in the history of the Methodist church forever.”

Time would fail me to tell of all the Sons of Erin who labored in those early days for the success of the Methodist cause, but 97enough has been said to prove, at least, that Irishmen can claim a large place in the founding of that denomination on these shores.

In the year of 1809 there came to America from Ballymena, County Antrim, Ireland, Thomas Campbell and his son Alexander. They were men of sterling character, marked ability and decided convictions. For several years they were active and successful workers in the Baptist denomination and in 1823 Alexander Campbell established the Christian Baptist and continued as its editor until his break with that denomination on doctrinal grounds, and in 1827 he organized the Church of the Disciple of Christ. So successful became his ministry that a college was demanded for the training of young men for the ministry and in 1840 he established Bethany College at Bethany, West Virginia, which has sent out in the world more than eleven thousand graduates in the past seventy years, and the denomination which he founded ranks fifth in the protestant denominations in America, with a membership of over one million and a half.

He died March 4th, 1866, and his remains rest in Bethany, West Virginia.

I wish I had time to tell you of those of Irish birth who filled prominent positions in the pulpits of these denominations in later years. At one period three of Erin’s sons adorned the pulpits of New York City: Rev. Dr. George S. Rainsford, of St. George’s Protestant Episcopal Church; Rev. Dr. John Hall, of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, and Rev. Dr. Henry M. Gallagher, of the Hanson Place Baptist Church of Brooklyn.

I have presented these facts, not to arouse religious strife, but rather to give glory to the land of my birth for what her sons have done on these shores, in peace as well as in war.

I am happy to say we are not here representing any sect but a country; in fact, we are all Irishmen tonight.

We have done much for America and well may we be proud of it, but never forget that America has done much for us.

When it was impossible for us to develop the latent powers born in our race in the land we loved we found the opportunities so badly needed under the folds of that starry banner, to the joy of every true Irish heart in this and the old land.

I hope that we will get to know each other as the years go by and that this organization will grow and flourish to the true glory of “Dear Old Ireland.”

98God bless you, I say, however you pray;

Your faith will ne’er meet my derision.

Can’t we kindly talk o’er this matter, asthore,

And band curse, strife and division.

And we’ll love one another, my Catholic brother,

Like loyal-souled Irishmen ever.

And the heathenish strife that’s consuming our life,

We’ll bury it forever and ever.

President-General Quinlan: Ladies and gentlemen, tomorrow will soon be here, when we can all rest, but an intellectual treat such as you have tonight is seldom offered this assemblage to participate in. One of the great features of this Society is to have annual meetings, and these are prefaced by holding Executive Council meetings at different places. Last summer the Executive Council met in the city of Providence, and while there one of our number entertained us with that pure Celtic hospitality. This gentleman is one of the few who has participated in every event since his advent into the Society, and it is he, Alexander, who entertained the Executive Council in his princely style at Macedonia. I now present to you, Ladies and Gentlemen, Colonel Charles Alexander of Providence, Vice-President of the Society for the State of Rhode Island.

Hon. Charles Alexander: Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen, it is indeed a privilege and an honor for me to meet you tonight for the first time as a new member.

I met one of the gentlemen of this association a few days ago, and calling him by name I said, “Do you know that I have been railroaded to the speakers table January 8th?” He said, “That is good,” but I said, “No, that is bad, for I don’t know what to say.”

It reminded me very much of the story of two men who met. One said to the other, “I have been married since I met you last.” “That is good.” “Not so good; my wife has a temper.” “That’s bad.” “Not so bad; she’s got some money.” “That’s good.” “Not so good; I put the money into sheep and they all died.” “That’s bad.” “Not so bad; I got the wool.” “That’s good.” “Not so good; I put the proceeds of the wool into a tavern, and the tavern burned to the ground.” “That’s bad.” “Not so bad; my wife burned with it.”

Mr. Toastmaster, I am from Rhode Island, and you know what that means, Ladies and Gentlemen. It means that the hand of good 99cheer is always extended to anyone visiting our shores. (Applause.)

I will take but a very few moments of your time.

The first tablet to be placed in the State House of Rhode Island in honor of an eminent Rhode Islander is that of John Sullivan. It occupies a conspicuous niche near the main entrance, and was placed there by this Society. Our State House has ample provision for many more such memorials, but this is the only one which has been erected at the present time.

The American Irish who are making history today will be memorialized by the descendants of some of the present gathering because of their achievements, many of whom, I trust, are at this hour here assembled. This Society has reason to be proud of the exploits of those whose worthy deeds it celebrates on every such occasion, and the whole country should share with it such pride. In all the wars in the country’s history, they have occupied a position to be proud of, throughout the peaceful periods, in the halls of legislation and in public life; but the honors to be celebrated are not as yet all achieved.

Americans of Irish descent are making new names every day, contributing new achievements to the record of the country’s service, which future meetings of this organization in years to come will surely celebrate. The achievements of the past will be a stimulation in the future to every member to become worthy of the tribute of this Society; and from this fact will be no small incentive to exalted service. So I say—from the present generation—right from around this board, history will select for remembrance and fame more honorable names to add to the roll, which it will be the privilege and the duty of this Society to preserve.

Ladies and Gentlemen, you are a friend to man, and this association means something. You are a friend to man, and may I be permitted to recite just two or three verses in that line? They emanate from the pen of a gentleman who has the ability to put splendid thoughts into words.

There are hermit souls that live withdrawn

In the place of their self-content;

There are souls, like stars, that dwell apart,

In a fellowless firmament;

There are pioneer souls that blaze their paths

Where the highways never ran;

But let me live by the side of the road

And be a friend to man.

100Let me live in a house by the side of the road,

Where the race of men go by—

The men who are good and the men who are bad,

As good and as bad as I.

I would not sit in the scorner’s seat,

Or hurl the cynic’s ban—

Let me live in a house by the side of the road

And be a friend to man.

I see from my house by the side of the road,

By the side of the highway of life,

The men who press on with the ardor of hope,

And the men who are faint with the strife.

But I turn not away from their smiles or their tears—

Both parts of an infinite plan;—

Let me live in my house by the side of the road

And be a friend to man.

I know there are brook-gladdened meadows ahead

And mountains of wearisome height;

That the road passes on through the long afternoon

And stretches away to the night.

But still I rejoice when the travellers rejoice,

And weep with the strangers that moan,

Nor live in my house by the side of the road,

Like a man who dwells alone.

Let me live in a house by the side of the road,

Where the race of men go by—

They are good, they are bad, they are weak, they are strong,

Wise, foolish—so am I.

Then why should I sit in the scorner’s seat,

Or hurl the cynic’s ban?—

Let me live in my house by the side of the road

And be a friend to man.

I thank you, Ladies and Gentlemen. (Applause.)

President-General Quinlan: We have been entertained by many distinguished orators in the past and even on this great occasion in our Society’s History—the classic prose is every-day work but poetry seems almost a gift of inspiration. One of our number has again drawn his pen, called upon the Muse, and how readily she has answered him you soon shall know. I will only mention our Poet’s name, Mr. John Jerome Rooney, who will read a poem which he has composed and dedicated to our Society.

Mr. John Jerome Rooney: Mr. President, “Ballad of Saucy 101Jack Barry.” The incident which is the subject of these lines is one of the picturesque incidents in the life of John Barry, the father of the American Navy.

The incident occurred in the winter of 1778, February 26, and the scene was the Delaware River. The British were occupying Philadelphia at the time, and a British fleet was anchored in the Delaware, opposite the city of Philadelphia. John Barry, with his ship, “Effingham,” and two or three smaller boats, had been compelled to take refuge, in the presence of a superior fleet, in the upper waters of the Delaware at Burlington; but it was not the intention of John Barry to sit still while there was a possibility of adventure of any kind, and he petitioned Congress, after he had been there only three or four weeks, to be allowed to make an attack upon a British war vessel that was anchored in the lower Delaware, by name the “Alert,” that was convoying two transports filled with food and forage for the sustenance of the British in Philadelphia. The request was granted, and the story that I have tried to tell is the story of how John Barry went down the river; the result I will leave to the fortunes of the rhyme.

Ballad of Saucy Jack Barry.

(Episode of February 26, 1778.)

They have taken the old rebel city of Penn;

Lord Howe, he has filled it with red-coated men.

“What terror,” said he, “has the winter for me,

Since I hold the town and my ships hold the sea?”

But it never is safe, in making a boast,

To reckon too easy, not counting your host;

Or is it quite prudent to count on your boat

When saucy Jack Barry is up and afloat?

There were banquets for Captains and plenty for all;

The horses had forage, too much for the stall;

Double rations were served—in truth ’twas a feast,

And prospects were cheery for man and for beast.

But bins have a bottom and larders grow thin

When plenty comes out and nothing goes in;

But his Lordship smiled blandly such trifles away—

“The ‘Alert’ and two transports are down in the Bay!”

102But it never is safe, in making a boast,

To reckon too easy, not counting your host;

Or is it quite prudent to count on your boat

When saucy Jack Barry is up and afloat?

The Delaware waters come down with a sweep

Past Burlington town, snow-clad and asleep,

And there lay our “Effingham,” silent and stark,

A ghost of the sea, looming up thro’ the dark.

Then, sudden, four boats sweep out from her side,

With oars swift and muffled swing down in the tide;

The moon has gone black, the wind whistles high,

And the scud of the thunder-storm darkens the sky.

Down the river they went, like the flight of a bird;

The twenty and seven said never a word—

They are after the fox of the ocean again,

And they’ll make not a stir as they enter his den.

It was three o’ the clock when, faintly ahead,

The lights of the city flashed yellow and red—

Then, sudden, a gleam, a cannon’s dull roar,

A challenge and halt from the river and shore.

But, surely, no need then to speak to them twice—

Four nautical heels were shown in a trice;

Down thro’ the night, like a hound, they’re away

To the lair of their quarry in Delaware Bay.

The sun had come up when they rounded Port Penn.

And O what a sight there for gods and for men!

A schooner (ten guns pointed out from her side,

With the flag of the Briton) swung free in the tide.

With a leap like a tiger the boats swung around,

Then straight for the Briton, with bound upon bound.

“Grapple tight!” cried the Captain, and guiding his band,

Up the side went Jack Barry, with cutlass in hand!

He is over the rails in the flash of an eye,—

“Strike, strike yonder flag or, by heaven, you die!”

But never a hand or a foot there did turn;

They were frozen with terror from stem unto stern.

103With a yell the bold Britons their weapons let go,

Then, like mice in a pantry, they scurried below.

“Boys, batter the hatches,” called Jack to his men;

“We have got the red fox, at last, in his den.”

The “Kitty” and “Mermaid” awoke, with a start,

With the guns of their gallant trained straight at their heart.

Their “Alert” was caught napping (drowsy lovers, beware!)

And saucy Jack Barry had captured the fair.

“Ho, run her in shore to yonder good pier;

We’ll see how the foxes are burrowing here.

Now loosen the hatches! Come foe or come friend!

You’ll find Yankee sailors will take either end!”

Then up came a Major; forsooth, he was glum;

Two Captains, lieutenants, a man with a drum;

Ten soldiers paced out, then a hundred marines,

Like a troop in a play, strode out from the scenes!

O the twenty and seven who came down thro’ the night

Were as proud as the Cæsars to see such a sight;

Three cheers, and three more boomed up, like the seas,

As the flag of the Stars broke out on the breeze!

O it is never safe, in making a boast,

To reckon too easy, not counting your host;

Nor is it quite prudent to count on your boat

When saucy Jack Barry is up and afloat!

John Jerome Rooney.

President-General Quinlan: Owing to the absence of Hon. W. A. Prendergast, who has been kept away by illness, we will proceed to the next speaker. I will ask you all to remain seated for a little while longer. I introduce to you one of the most distinguished Irishmen in our great city,—the man who, on every occasion where the cause of Ireland could be voiced, has stood in the foremost ranks; and, although he has petitioned me tonight to let him off, it would be like the play of “Hamlet” without Hamlet. I will ask Hon. John W. Goff, one of the Justices of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, to say a few words to this assemblage. (Applause.)

HON. PATRICK F. McGOWAN.

President of the Board of Aldermen and Acting Mayor
of New York. 1906, 1907, 1908, and 1909.

Life Member of the Society.

104Hon. John W. Goff: The hour is late. I beg of you to excuse me tonight and grant the privilege of allowing me to speak at some other time, when I shall have the advantage of being better prepared. (Applause.)

President-General Quinlan: We have at our table a dark horse in the Lists of Orators, and one who has often entertained, edified and educated his auditors, not only by easy rhetoric, show of measured eloquence, but also by the erudition of his thoughtful words. I take the privilege of introducing to you Mr. Edward M. Tierney.

Mr. Edward M. Tierney: Mr. Toastmaster, Ladies and Gentlemen, it would be most ungenerous for me to make a distinction of a different character from that already presented by the honorable gentleman who has just sat down and attempt, at this late hour, to give you the speech that I had prepared for this evening.

You have been regaled with oratory sublime; all that is great and glorious to the Irishman has been brought down deep into the recesses of his heart tonight by the preceding speakers. I have a speech that I may twist and distort, perhaps, to suit the hour without making it too lengthy, and, if you will bear with me for a few moments, I may interest you before I sit down.

When your President-General invited me to make this speech he was full of prescience, if I may call it so, for he limited me to ten minutes. Why he placed this restriction on me some two weeks ago I was then at a loss to understand; but it is very plain to me tonight, Ladies and Gentlemen, the object being to give the President-General an unbridled opportunity to furnish all the hot air for this occasion himself. That’s all right, for he belongs to a profession that understands the symptomatic temperament of an audience, and can tell just when to administer the anæsthetic. It’s about time to do it now, Doctor.

I was warned not to make my speech too serious, nor yet permit it to impinge too closely on the border line of levity, and so I am cautioned in advance to mend my speech lest it mar my fortune.

This is a difficult feat to perform for one whose blood is tingling with the pent-up enthusiasm of an American-Irishman, who feels a native pride in the long line of conquests of his people in every clime the sun shines on, and who tonight rejoices in the triumphs of this Society, which is the medium of bringing together, 105under the broad canopy of fraternity, the men and the women here assembled. Isn’t this a beautiful spectacle to behold? Here we are, all animated by the same desire to perpetuate in a fitting manner the names and deeds of the men with Irish blood in their veins, who gave to the world the highest and noblest attributes of their minds and hearts for the betterment of mankind and for the elevation of the race.

An American-Irishman, like myself, should be very grateful to be alive, which is saying a great deal in some localities, since the tramp of the ancient hordes is heard in the land, and the scions of shattered dynasties are now holding the sceptre of power through the influence of dominant wealth.

I believe more and more in the theory that, to get the best out of an individual or a nation, you must first subject them to some gross injustice, which stings the pride and awakens the indignation, until they arm themselves with stirring forces to right the wrong.

It often happens that a great man is sometimes willing to humble himself by indifferently sitting on the cushion of advantage and going to sleep. And it is only when he is driven, annoyed and defeated that he is put to his wits’ end and compelled to draw on his manhood to learn the things most essential to his preservation and his honor.

It was through such exigencies as these that the Irishmen in America were pushed to find moderation and success in the highway of honest endeavor, which led on and on into the field of competitive personal rivalry, where at last the genius of the race was triumphant over every phase of intimidation and coercion.

The success of Irishmen in this home of the exile may be due, in large measure, to the application of the lesson that is taught by Balzac:

“To make your way in the world, you must plough through humanity like a cannon ball, or glide through it like a pestilence.”

This axiom bears particular significance when applied to the pioneers of our race, who were confronted with obstacles and difficulties that loomed up like pyramids in the desert of despair, only to retard their progress in the onward march toward the golden temple of hope, around whose throne were clustered the cherished symbols of religious freedom and individual liberty, that shone forth, in resplendent array, to light the wanderer’s footsteps and 106guide him along the green and thriving path of industrial and commercial supremacy that is vouchsafed to every man of honor and thrift, who comes to this free country to escape the thralldom and tyranny of a foreign yoke.

Here he can find the glorious sunburst of consolation in the cloudless sky of equality that sheds its rays amid the conflicting emotions of hope and fear, and blood and carnage, and doubt and bigotry, and chivalry and patriotism—all alike being imbued with the warmth and glow of its comforting and protecting influence, that ensures to every loyal son an equal privilege to that liberty and pursuit of happiness which is the birthright of every American citizen.

Forever float that standard sheet!

Where breathes the foe but falls before us

With freedom’s soil beneath our feet,

With freedom’s banner streaming o’er us!

Breathes there a man with soul so dead

Who never to himself hath said,

“This is my own, my native land.”

If there be such a man in all the world, I pity him. One thing is certain, he is not an Irishman, for if he were the blood would congeal in his veins and he would be branded as a wanderer upon the face of the earth, with no place to lay his hypocritical head.

Much has been said about the Irishman in America, but nothing has been said so far about the American in Ireland. It might be well for me to touch on the subject somewhat and tell you a little of my experience in Ireland, and by way of preface it seems to me that every Irish-American must hold down deep in his heart a lurking desire to visit the Green Isle, the land of his fathers, just as I did before I went over there five years ago and saw for myself the things that have made Irishmen great in America.

How vividly the memories of that visit rise up before me to bring added joys to the realities of life! That you may better understand my first impressions of Ireland, I will tell you that I was after finishing an extended tour of the Orient, which included the Holy Land and a great part of Continental Europe, when I entered the portals of the historic city of Dublin. My heart leaped with joy as I felt the friendly breeze of welcome soothe my throbbing brain, and I longed at that moment to share the sublime satisfaction that came o’er me with some kindred spirit who had years 107ago trod the same earth and looked with beseeching glance, as perhaps millions more did before him, out beyond the great waters, where liberty and personal freedom were to be found.

But I was alone and could not impart to another the impulses that rose up within me and bade me view the matchless beauty of that fair city wherein is consecrated all the glories of Erin’s past, and where today, on the living altar of heroic patriotism, is to be seen the surpliced messenger of Home Rule, ready with trumpet in hand to proclaim to all the world that Emmet’s epitaph shall soon be written.

To stand upon the sod made sacred by the ties of kinship and hallowed by memories that made the new scenes seem as familiar as though one were born and reared among them was the sensation I experienced when I first set my foot upon the soil where my father and mother first saw the light of day. There was something indefinably realistic about my presence in the small town of the Six Mile Bridge in County Clare.

The very atmosphere seemed to be full of the incense of welcome that made me feel at home, and when I entered the old church, which had so often been described to me in earlier days by my parents, there came over me an awesome reverence for every stick and stone in it. I could picture in my mind’s eye the very spot where they knelt to pledge their plight and to offer up prayers for their safe voyage to America, whither they were compelled to come to seek that means of subsistence which their own impoverished village could not provide. He who has not felt the thrill of such heart-throbs has missed the holiest emotions of earth.

To visit Ireland and not go through the Gap of Dunloe and take a nip of poteen and goat’s milk at Kate Kearney’s cottage on the way to the Lakes of Killarney, and then to be safely rowed through them by four sturdy oarsmen, with a stop at Dinas Island (for nautical purposes only), would be a loss even as great as not to visit Blarney Castle and kiss the Blarney Stone.

Ever since that eventful day when I hung over the parapet and essayed to take osculatory liberties with that hammer face member of the stone family, there seems to be an elasticity to my tongue and oleaginous flavor to my words that are possessed only by the lovers of art and nature, who believe in the Stone Age and in Memnon’s harp that plays a melody, far away from the habitat of man, to give greeting each morn to the rising sun.

108A scene of lasting remembrance to me was the one I witnessed in Queenstown the night before our good ship, “Majestic,” sailed for this port. On every hilltop and from every vantage point one could discern, like a silhouette athwart the blackened night, bonfires brightly burning, each one being the harbinger of friendly greeting to the other and all betokening the emblems of Ireland’s motto, “Hospitality, virtue and courage.”

That scene symbolized in no uncertain meaning the genuine love and sincerity of a loyal people, who made those beacon lights shine forth in luminous colors to give encouragement to the faithful hearts of the blushing maids and the fearless lads, who were about to leave the land of their birth and sever forever the ties of friendship by coming to America to find here a haven of safety from the thralldom and oppression of their home land.

I will conclude by quoting a few lines from Emerson:

Teach me your mood, O patient stars;

Who climb each night the ancient sky,

Leaving no space, no shade, no scars,

No trace of age, no fear to die.

If Emerson had dedicated this sentiment to Ireland and her patriotic sons, he could not more fittingly have described her relations to the implacable foe whose mood, after centuries of oppression and warfare, has not been able to dim the lustre of that patient Star of Hope which will shine on continuously to illumine space, without shading, but with the scars of memory to make more radiant the valor and virtue of her people who carry on their brow no trace of age, and in their hearts no fear to die in the cause of human freedom.

I thank you.

President-General Quinlan: This concludes the Twelfth Annual Banquet of the American-Irish Historical Society. I thank you all in the name of the administration for your presence and your hearty coöperation in this feast of reason and flow of soul.

Historical Papers. — THE IRISH SHARE IN THE HUDSON-FULTON CELEBRATION. — INTRODUCTION. — How the Celebration Took Shape. — Organization of the Irish Participation. — Reception of the Half Moon and Clermont. — The Illuminations on Water and Land. — The Irish Concert. — The Historical Parade. — The Police and Their Task. — The Military Parade. — The Naval Parade. — Meeting of the American Irish Historical Society. — The Carnival Parade.

New York, greatest of American cities and second of all cities of the world in point of population and perhaps of wealth, paused for a week in September, 1909, nominally to honor two great memories, really to celebrate itself.

It may be that Henry Hudson, when he sailed the Half-Moon up the great North River to the head of navigation and then returned to the ocean in 1609, never set foot on the Island of Manhattan; but the settlement by the Dutch that followed was certainly the result of his voyage of discovery. His was, therefore, a good epoch-making name to honor. More directly was it meet to honor the name of Robert Fulton, whose conquest of the waters with the power of steam in 1807 was made from New York shipyards, and upon the mighty stream that Hudson was the first white man to navigate. That in the person of Fulton, Ireland had a share in the memories of these celebrated men—for he was the son of Irish immigrants—appealed powerfully, as it should, to the race pride of the Irish-born and Irish-descended of the City of New York. It insured their hearty coöperation in the plans for the Hudson-Fulton celebration. But to many the event suggested the question, what share the Irish race has had in the upbuilding of New York, and what stake it holds in its life and its prosperity today. Others better fitted must work out the details of the answer, of which here is presented something of a summary. At any rate, it covers matters well worthy of the research which naturally drifts to a society like ours. Before attempting to record the Irish share in New York’s Hudson-Fulton celebration, let us examine briefly Ireland’s share in New York itself.

Here came the bulk of the great successive waves of emigration from Ireland. How large the total of the children of Ireland, who cast their lot with this Republic, history does not tell us with any 111accuracy. They were here from the very beginning of the white man’s settlement on Manhattan Island. Before 1820, no governmental roster of immigrants was kept, but in the eighty years from 1821 to 1900, the United States census bureau counts up a total of 3,871,253 Irish immigrants, nearly 3,000,000 coming hither between 1851 and 1900. That this enormous inflow came from a country that at its highest tide-mark of population never numbered more than 8,000,000 souls is a fact at once astounding and appalling. Ireland literally cuts itself in two to supply the emigration to America. Besides this outflow to America, another stream ran to England, Australia and New Zealand, but to each in much smaller volume than crossed the Atlantic. At its highest flow it brought over nearly a million Irish souls in ten years, namely, between 1851 and 1860. Since then it has fallen away, but what this immigration has meant in the upbuilding of the country at large may be imagined from the deduction made by the United State census of 1900. It is therein stated that “Ireland contributed more than two-fifths of the immigration between 1821 and 1850; more than one-third from 1851 to 1860; nearly one-fifth from 1861 to 1870.” In the following decade the stream held about the same level. Between 1881 and 1890 it rose again by nearly fifty per cent. Thenceforward the drain upon Ireland was to lessen, and with a total of 390,179 between 1891 and 1900 it represented barely more than one-tenth of the total immigration for the ten years. Since 1900 it has steadily declined, mainly for the reason that Ireland is nearly drained of its emigration material, but also in some degree that better conditions are obtaining there. A backward glance shows that of the nearly twenty millions of immigrants from all lands up to 1900 one in every five came from Ireland.

For the eighty years back of 1820 the proportion of Irish immigrants was even larger—probably one in four. And it was not, as many of the descendants of the early Irish immigration have imagined, entirely of the better off and entirely from the north of Ireland. Doubtless the Presbyterians of the northern Irish counties predominated, and counted in their ranks men of the learned professions as well as artificers and merchants, but of the tens of thousands of pure Celts from the central, southern and western counties deported to the West Indies in the seventeenth century many thousands found their way to the settlements of what are now the southern states of the Union. Original researches among colonial 112records by a member of our society show that during the century and a half before the Revolution several thousand immigrants of Celtic stock came direct to the colonies from Ireland.

Of the Irish emigration before the Revolution and up to 1820, the presence in New York of numbers of Irish high in standing as well as stalwart in activity is easily proven. One of the leading merchants in 1655 bore the historic name of Hugh O’Neale. New York City received its first charter from the hands of Sir Thomas Dougan, an Irishman, in 1684. Many old Irish names appear in the census of the City of New York for 1703. New York’s first mayor after the Revolution, James Duane, was the son of a Galway man. The first governor of the State of New York, and afterwards vice-president of the United States, George Clinton, was also an Irishman’s son. His kinsman, DeWitt Clinton, was a mayor of New York, United States senator and governor of the State, and is known to history as “the father of the Erie Canal.” Christopher Colles, from County Cork, Ireland, was the originator of our system of rail and waterways. His grave is in St. Paul’s. Thomas Addis Emmet, a resident of New York, was attorney general of the State. Daniel O’Brien established the first ferry to Perth Amboy. Dominick Lynch first introduced Italian opera to our city. He was also the founder of the Town of Rome, N. Y.

Resounding names of men of Irish blood are, indeed, plentiful, but they are only in this paper to be taken as symptomatic of the Irish-born and descended population, gradually growing in the city to a commanding influence. Peter McCartee was an alderman in 1815, and John McManus marshal of police in the same year. Irish names grew to prominence not only in the police and fire departments, but in the ranks of the teachers in the public schools. Of this eminence in three branches of the public service perhaps the greatest stress should be laid on the last. As school teachers, women and men, the Irish and Irish-descended have held the front place, in brains as well as numbers, for a hundred years in New York, holding it still, from William H. Maxwell, the great superintendent of the past twenty years, down to the latest teachers in the primary grades.

As early as 1833 it was computed that there were 44,000 of Irish birth or descent in New York City, which at that time meant Manhattan Island only. But the days were at hand when the combination of famine with brutal oppression was about to result in the casting forth from Ireland literally of millions of our people. That 113America should receive the greatest share was inevitable, and that New York should receive, if only for a temporary stay, the majority of these was natural. From 1846 to 1860 fully a million and a half of the famine-driven children of Ireland were poured upon the shores of America. And they came, for the very largest part, poorly clad, unlettered, uncouth, often weakened sorely in body by prolonged semi-starvation. Thousands—men, women and children—died of ship fever, of sea-sickness in debilitated frames, of inability to digest the wretched food supplied them on the long passage in the overcrowded sailing ships of the day. How many died of heartbreak alone, God only knows. But the survivors! In their bodies, at least, they soon vindicated the indestructibility of the Celt. Unskilled, except in a very small fraction, they took up the hardest kind of labor. They built the railroads, the canals; they “carried cities upon their backs.” It was a terrible story, working slowly to a happier consummation. They brought an instinctive loyalty to American institutions. Bitter were the prejudices they had to face, but they managed to outlive them all.

Naturally, in such case, they clung together. New York already had given the Irish exiles a home. Here their real qualities had had time to assert themselves, and here, accordingly, the newcomers of the later forties and early fifties settled freely. In politics they became Democrats, simply because Democracy never joined in their proscription as emigrants unfit to be Americans, while other parties did in lesser or greater degree. In religion they remained Catholic or Protestant as they came, and that meant largely Catholic.

This large substratum of newcomers from Ireland found here, as has been intimated, a large and fairly prospering Irish-born and Irish-descended population—furnishing men of eminence to all the higher callings—judges, lawyers, clergymen, physicians, merchants and manufacturers. With an assimilation more rapid than with any other race, the famine-exiles took up the order of American life. Their children filled the public schools and found Irish teachers there. They attended and supported churches whose hierarchy from archbishop to priest was almost wholly Irish. Thus the Celtic complexion of the city was enhanced, and it is no doubt true that at the outbreak of the Civil War, the population of New York (Manhattan) was nearer to one-third than one-fourth of Irish blood.

It is not the purpose to pursue here the history of the Irish in New York City from the outbreak of the Civil War through the 114half century to our day. To the battle for the Union, however, the New York Irish furnished magnificent quotas of fighting men, and capable officers, earning names for bravery and skill, as would be expected of their race. Indeed, it was the whole-souled devotion of the Irish all over the northern states and their brilliant services in the field and on the sea that threw down the last barriers of prejudice against their people in America. Such a name as Phil Sheridan’s was one to charm with, not to name another of the galaxy of great Irish captains of the war.

The Irish immigrant stream was, however, still flowing. From 1861 to 1900 they numbered over 2,000,000 souls, but this later flood came in somewhat better estate than their forerunners—fairly equalling in condition the concurrent German immigration and easily surpassing all others. It is for the most part, naturally, of these comers since 1860, that our Irish-born of today are composed, and through the entire country they can be found in substantial positions. But it is of their children and the children and grandchildren of the earlier immigration that the wonder-story of worldly uprise is to be told. New York, of course, has its share, and a large one, in this. If we can pick out from the later decades of the nineteenth century such names as James T. Brady and Charles O’Conor at the bar, A. T. Stewart among the merchants, Eugene Kelly among the bankers, William H. Grace, the great pioneer merchant of South America and twice our mayor; Archbishop Hughes, Cardinal McCloskey among the clerics, John W. Mackay among the great capitalists, Augustus St. Gaudens among the sculptors, O’Callaghan, Murphy and O’Reilly among the historians, how many names of eminence in every walk of art, science, law, religion, commerce, manufacture can be furnished from the Irish-born and Irish-descended of today! There are the great builders like John B. McDonald, who constructed the subway; James Coleman, who built the great Croton dam; but why enter on a list as long as that of the ships in Homer? Be it Thomas Fortune Ryan or John D. Crimmins in the world of finance, the representatives of Irish brain are there. It is of record that the second president of the New York Chamber of Commerce, which was founded in 1768, was Hugh Wallace, an Irishman. It is worthy of remark that Alexander E. Orr, also a native of Ireland, was president of the same body, until a year ago, and that his successor is J. Edward Simmons, also of Irish blood, who in his time has been lawyer, bank president, President of the 115Stock Exchange, President of the Board of Education and President of the New York Clearing House.

It is, however, to the collective work of the Irish of New York one had better turn. From the United States census of 1900 it is deduced that the natives of Ireland in Greater New York numbered 285,000, while the children of Irish parents numbered 308,000, and the descendants of Irish in the third and fourth generations numbered 200,000, or a total of 793,000 of Irish blood in a total for the city of 3,437,000—a proportion little less than one in four. With the increase of the city’s population since 1900 it is not quite likely that the Irish stock has kept pace, and a diminishing ratio in point of numbers may be expected. The inflow from southeastern Europe, from Poland, Russia and Italy has greatly (and happily) exceeded the stream from Ireland. Yet here in New York will be found, when the census of this year is taken, an Ireland of not far from a million, in its expected total approaching 5,000,000 souls.

Not all of that million remembers Old Ireland as Motherland, but it must be the task of societies like ours to awaken the sleeping memories.

There is no way of arriving directly at the proportion of the city’s wealth which is the possession of the Irish million. It would, doubtless, prove a mighty total, for Irish thrift and Irish talent for accumulation have been proven here to be as existent and constant as the carefully nurtured legend to the contrary. If there was some uproarious spending among the earlier arrivals on their first contact with earned American gold, and if they rose slowly, at first, from the poor estate in which they came, yet the families they raised in decency, the imposing array of churches and schools they paid for the building of, and still sustain, are first hand proofs that they are sound and normal in the greater civic virtues. The Catholic churches in Greater New York, from the great cathedral of St. Patrick and the splendid St. Francis Xavier of the Jesuits to the smallest suburban chapel, number 257 edifices, and it is safe to say that ninety-eight per cent. of the funds for rearing them and keeping them have come from the Irish immigrants and their children, not in great gifts, not often in large individual subscriptions, but dollar by dollar and dime by dime from the building of St. Peter’s in Vesey Street a hundred years ago down to the present day. The Catholic parochial schools—the creation, one may say, of the past 116quarter century—most of them imposingly housed, number 154, instructing 120,000 pupils and almost all at the cost of Irish Catholic contributions. It is not proper here to discuss the church policy, which puts this charge upon its faithful over and above the share they pay in common with other citizens to the public school fund but it may here be noted that the parochial schools are a significant monument to Irish generosity and the deeper devotion which puts the moral and religious above the mere utilitarian. The public school pupils number over 600,000, but the seating capacity of the schools has never filled the wonderfully growing demand. The alternative of half-day classes in the most congested neighborhoods has even failed to take in all the children seeking instruction. The public schools attract a large proportion of the Irish-descended children of the great city, and, as has been noted, the number of Irish-descended teachers is very high in comparison with those from other nationalities. Here, however, side by side with the great educational work of the municipality, is a school system instructing one-fifth as many children in the name of religious ideality and entirely supported by the resident members of the Catholic faith. In addition to these are thirty-seven colleges and academies of higher learning and two religious seminaries educating for the priesthood. The 450 edifices, thus scantily summarized, represent a total valuation, according to the best authorities, of not less than $40,000,000, and possibly, with work in progress, approach the great total of $50,000,000. This is a very noble portion of Ireland’s monument in New York.

Great as these sums may be, they give but a sorry measure of the value of the churches to the Irish themselves, furnishing as they have done a moral anchorage beyond the power of words to describe. Most necessary were they to a people taken rudely from their homes and sent naked and adrift in a new and strange world, where the battle was no longer the mere struggle for existence but a conflict for power and wealth, in which the sharpest wits, acting through the loosest morals, were often the victors. Well may the New York Irish view this array of churches, schools and colleges with some glow of pride—and gratitude.

It is not that the Protestant Irish of New York were wanting in their share of church building. They more rapidly merged in the American branches of their respective sects, but it is well to remember 117that an “Irish Presbyterian Church” existed on Orange Street in New York in 1811, as well as an “Erin Lodge of Freemasons,” and that Irish Protestant clerics like the late Dr. John Hall have in goodly numbers filled the most important pulpits in New York and Brooklyn for over a century and a half. The famous John Street Methodist Church was founded by Irishmen. It is probable that in the greater city there are 200,000 persons of Protestant faith, who are either native Irish or in whole or in part of Irish descent.

In such an establishment as St. Vincent’s hospital, in the New York Foundling Asylum, the Roman Catholic Orphan Asylum, the Catholic Protectory, the House of the Good Shepherd are other highly valuable proofs of organizing genius and generous sustaining power on the part of the Irish of New York.

Among the long-established and wisely administered savings banks of the city, none has a prouder record or a firmer base than the Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank, which has been distinctly, almost wholly, Irish in its administration and until lately in its depositors. In the last few years it has attracted great numbers of Italians, scared out of their first implicit faith in the many irresponsible “banks” set up by their countrymen. With its deposits over $98,000,000, an army of depositors numbering over 122,000, and an unbroken history of successful management of sixty years (it was incorporated in 1850) the Emigrant Bank is surely a magnificent exhibit of Irish trust and Irish efficiency. Its president, Thomas Mulry, was, up to the first of the year, Commissioner of Charity for New York. In that office he was succeeded by Michael J. Drummond, one of the Emigrant Bank’s trustees. Like Mr. Mulry, Mr. Drummond is Irish-born, and is a former president of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick in the City of New York.

The individual thrift of the Irish has, indeed, been notable. Their favorite investments have been in real estate and these, in thousands of instances, have proved the foundation of the Irish fortunes of today.

The Catholic Club has taken a notable place among the best institutions of the kind in the city; its membership is largely Irish stock.

In the public offices, the police and fire departments, the number of Irish-descended is very large. An idea is abroad that this is wholly in consequence of the adherence of the Irish population to the fortunes 118of the political organization known as Tammany Hall, but it is only a half-truth. Tammany Hall, during a great part of its history, has been the “regular” Democracy, and that was enough for many who had grown up with it, but the forces of revolt from within the Democratic party have frequently overthrown Tammany, and it was generally Irish names that then came to the front. The late Mayor William H. Grace is an instance. In the recent election Tammany met a pretty general defeat, but its Irish-descended nominee for mayor, William H. Gaynor, was elected, and foremost among those of the victorious opposition, who will share the great city’s government with him, are William A. Prendergast, son of Irish parents, as Comptroller; George McAneny as president of the Borough of Manhattan, and John Purroy Mitchel, grandson of John Mitchel, the famous Irish patriot of 1848, as President of the aldermen. In the civil service examinations the Irish hold their own and more, so that whatever political party may be in power the racial ratio in New York’s public offices is not likely to change for many years to come, where merit and moral and physical fitness are at all the test of appointment.

It would be easy to point to great individual instances of successful Irishmen in the wholesale and the greater retail business of the city, but enough has been said here to show how strong is the hold of the Irish here and how great their stake in the fortune and wealth of the city. Nevertheless, one may well be surprised to note how little that is distinctly Irish, as apart from Catholic or Protestant, Democrat or Republican (to mention a couple of lines of emotional and rational cleavage), meets the eye in the city’s edifices or public monuments. In the churchyard of St. Paul’s Protestant Episcopal Church are three notable monuments—a monolith to the memory of Thomas Addis Emmet, another to the memory of Dr. William James MacNevin, and a monument in the wall of the church itself over General Montgomery of Revolutionary fame. In Trinity churchyard is the tomb of Robert Fulton. In Central Park there is a bust of Thomas Moore, the Irish poet. The list ends somewhere there—pretty meagrely.

There are and have been many Irish societies, patriotic, social, benevolent, literary and musical, but although the existence of one runs back over a century and a quarter and has always included in its ranks the most flourishing of Ireland’s sons, without any regard to 119politics or religion, it has never owned a home of its own. Like the others, it is housed from occasion to occasion wherever the choice of its officers may lead it, yet it has long owned a considerable building fund. Another body, large in numbers, is understood to own a building site, but there the matter rests. This, to the lover of Ireland, is not an encouraging condition. One would expect to see a number of splendid edifices devoted to Irish social, scientific and artistic objects. One would expect to see fine monuments in public places to the great men of Irish-American history—such even as those late-comers, the Italians, have erected to their countrymen, to wit: the fine Columbus pillar, the Garibaldi, the Verdi and the Verazzano monuments.

Should there not be a trumpet note of change sounded over these glaring deficiencies? Should not there be at least one great Celtic Institute founded with a large and imposing auditorium for Irish gatherings, and with suites of rooms and smaller assembly halls for such organizations as the American-Irish Historical Society’s New York Chapter, for the Gaelic, the literary, the artistic, musical, benevolent and social Irish organizations of the city not religious in character? It is easily within the reach of accomplishment. It but needs the effort of a few of the really rich and public-spirited men of Irish blood to give it the proper financial basis and provide thereafter for its economical management.

Among other things it would insure the much-neglected history of our race in New York a chance to be the object of real service, instead of as now, the hobby of comparatively few.

In another particular a deficiency is noted, which there is at present some effort making among the churches to supply, namely, a care for the social welfare, for the spread of uplifting, refining influences among the young men and women of the Irish race after they have finished their terms at school. Local Homes for the Irish young men and women informed in their directorates with intelligent, animating spirit, should flourish all over New York. The Y. M. C. A. has sufficiently blazed the way. It is a great and inviting work. Such life could be given to these Homes that their attraction would be irresistible. The good they would do, the results they would achieve for civic uplift and domestic and social refinement would well repay all they would cost in money and care.

To kindred objects the New York Irish have been continual givers 120rather than large donors in the American sense, but last year the gift of $4,500,000 by John M. Burke, of New York, for founding and endowing a Home for Convalescents indicates that the rich Celt is falling into the line of broad and bold American philanthropy. What more vital to the standing and the future of the race in New York can be thought of than a great Celtic Institute or the Neighborhood Homes as outlined above?

It is true that in the case of the Irish immigration of the past sixty years the material had to be taken as it came to these shores, and that not everything could be done with it, or for it, at once; but the situation is no longer the same. Looking over the external sources of future population for the whole United States, as well as for New York City, it becomes pretty evident that the Irish race will not furnish any but a diminishing quota; that the future of the Irish race in America depends almost entirely on the Irish already here. It is also true that the social condition of the Irish stock is bettering every day. Other European races, broadly speaking, are doing the laborers’ work of the country as well as the city. The Irish millionaire, the Irish captain of industry, the Irish leader in thought and education is largely represented here. We produce great laymen as well as great clerics, and it becomes daily more incumbent on the prosperous to turn with the open purse and the hand of uplift to the less favored by fortune, in order that they may make hereafter for the fame and condition of the race in America. That there is a tendency among the very well-to-do children and grandchildren of the Irish immigrants away from Irish association is largely true. It is so with German-descended in a degree, as to their racial fellows, but these latter did not have behind them the history of bitter, poverty-smitten struggles for a foothold here, which befel the bulk of the Irish immigration. The Germans came from a prosperous land, seeking greater prosperity. Even the poorest Italians, coming from a hungering country, bring with them the dower of a historic past, rich with the highest artistic embellishment and spiritual fulfilment. Back of the Irish immigration was an immediate past of hunger, oppression, intolerance and passionate, ineffectual revolt, and long vague memories of distant splendors that came to them, partly in legend and partly in the ruins of pillar-towers, castles, abbeys and half-obliterated carvings over graves. Out of these legends and these ruins and graves came to them the true whisperings of the 121race. The Celtic renaissance in Ireland itself grows because these whisperings are a little better heard. A like cultivation may follow here if the race is true to itself. It is within the memory of many like myself that to be Irish has taken on a substantial social consideration but grudgingly accorded thirty or forty years ago. So many have arrived at fortune, have done great public service, have attained social heights that it becomes a matter of social self-defense with them to see that no child of their race shall lack for the incentive and something of the opportunity to enter and carry on the battle of life under inspiring conditions.

In attempting to visualise the Irish share in New York itself, the preceding considerations appear to be as necessary as the mere record of mighty numbers and massed achievement, but enough has, perhaps, been said to show that, by and large, the Irish here have survived their greatest trials, have largely developed the civic virtues and reached a plane of prosperity inferior to no race on the continent. They are one-fourth of New York’s population, and probably hold almost an equally high fraction of its personal wealth, bating, of course, that enormous increment which comes to the metropolis from its commanding position as the continental centre of investment. May the Irish chapter of New York in the next fifty years be more inspiring still.

It is worth while looking into the way the celebration shaped itself. Much was written about it as it occurred. In a general way its story is common property, and its great success is history. The centennial of Robert Fulton’s most notable achievement—the first voyage of his steamboat up the Hudson—fell in the year 1907. It did not pass without notice at the time, but the proposal to make it the central point of a municipal festival at once brought to mind that in another two years (namely, in 1909) would occur the ter-centenary of Henry Hudson’s discovery and navigation of the great river. Here then, was a chance for a dual display. The recent date and comparative failure of the St. Louis Exposition, combined with New York’s distaste for the prolonged inattention to its real business involved in an international exposition, decided against the exposition idea. A commission, to be called after the two men whose memory 122the celebration was to honor, was formed by Act of the Legislature. It was given a large fund by the State. New York City followed with another large sum, and private local patriotism and civic pride followed with large subscriptions. The commission was well-founded and amply funded. At its head was placed the veteran soldier, lawyer, Congressman, diplomatist and man of affairs, General Stewart L. Woodford, whose courtly presence, gentle bearing, handsome face, white hair and beard gave a pictorial dignity to the office hard to find elsewhere. But the active leadership, the real working headship of this affair great in scope and multifariousness, fell upon Hermann Ridder, a New-York-born German-American of great executive skill, whose resolute uprise in the world of journalism and whose wide acquaintance with the city, social, racial, religious, industrial and financial, bespoke his fitness. To aid him were appointed many men of standing in the city, but while they came and went at his call, and attended this meeting and that, one and all they agreed that since the work had fallen on such competent shoulders there they would carefully allow it to remain. Mr. Ridder took up the burden and carried it, carried it through. He shirked nothing, he directed everything, he organized his staff of helpers, artistic and clerical, and kept them busy. He looked after the formation of the working committees who would work out the enormous detail which the naval, military, police, social, artistic and publicity problems involved. Then he let the committees work, and wisely dealt with results. So, he kept an even keel, if one might put it that way, amid the occasional storms that will arise in such cases. The city surely owes him something for his whole-hearted devotion and unwearying service that did not cost the city a cent, and insured the memorable success of a great festival worthy of the greatest city on the continent, all the sooner for his work, perhaps, to be the greatest city in the world.

The celebration, then, was arranged on a scale more elaborate than anything theretofore undertaken by an American municipality, and in this the Commission was seconded by the wonderful natural setting of the city, fronting the expanse of the harbor and with broad rivers on either side of the long tongue of land—Manhattan—that gently uplifts its serried lines of stately homes and massive buildings, from South to North. One of these rivers, the Hudson, a stream noble in itself and the scene of the great suggestive 123feats of Henry Hudson and Robert Fulton, invited special attention. It was, therefore, early decided that New York’s tribute to these two great men and grand memories should share its functions between land and water. Accordingly while a section of the Commission planned land decorations, parades, assemblies, illuminations and banquets to fill an entire week, the officers busied themselves first with the Federal government at Washington to invite the naval powers of the world to send warships wreathed in flowers, as it were, and asking for a mighty squadron of our own ocean thunderers to greet the armored Tritons from oversea. Then Holland, in whose service Henry Hudson sailed the blue waters, offered a gift of unique kind, namely a duplicate of the little ship, Half Moon, in which Hudson traversed the Atlantic and ascended the river that has rightly come to bear his name. It was not strange, then, that the Commission should resolve to build a replica of that other historic craft, the Clermont, in which Fulton first went up the same river under steam.

From these starting points it was not so difficult to outline the rest of the water programme. There should be a ceremony of receiving the two historic craft down the bay and conducting them in a mighty parade consisting of all the steam craft plying the nearby waters, ranged in a fair flotilla up Hudson’s River passing the long range of seven miles of warships and, after a ceremony of reception, returning in like order to their berths and piers. There should be on land and water a grand illumination by night with fireworks of the most spectacular kind. There should again be a beautiful water pageant when the Half Moon and the Clermont were escorted up the river that the towns and cities along its banks might partake of the glory of the time. They would let the procession of ships from New York end their pilgrimage at Newburg and there let another flotilla conduct the memorial ships to Albany where the river narrows and shoals. So was the unique water side of the celebration outlined. For the land side the preparations were on an equally grand scale, but here they were dealing with more familiar material. We had had festival parades of like kind before; now we were to have more of them than ever and each one to be more marvellous of its kind than anything before conceived. No less than three great processions were arranged—a grand civic procession illustrating in floats three centuries of New York’s history, 124and made up of the men of the forty races and nationalities of which our population is compounded; a military parade to display every branch of our army service, state and national, and in which details of sailors and marines from the foreign warships as well as our own, should paradoxically testify to international brotherly love by marching peacefully together armed to the teeth. Lastly was designed a Carnival parade—a night march, devoted to artistic symbols on illuminated floats and conducted by costumed thousands from the German, Austrian and Swiss societies of the City.

It was natural to call on the city to drape and decorate its buildings lavishly, to arrange for general illumination: to design a finely pillared Court of Honor on Fifth Avenue just below 42d St. and hang it with mazes of electric lights, to erect a grand reviewing stand facing the Avenue and with its back to the great Library Building just emerged from its scaffolding.

In such cases, many minor suggestions follow on the heels of the great ones, and the week of wonders threatened to extend indefinitely. A notable loan collection of paintings of the Dutch school was assembled for exhibition at the Museum of Art, a rare collection of Colonial furniture was also secured. Then came a reception with oratory at the Metropolitan Opera House, an Irish concert at Carnegie Hall, an opera house music festival, aquatic sports, an exhibition of flying machines and a beautiful open air fête for 40,000 school children in the parks.

In a retrospect for our particular purpose, it is as well to grasp in some such general way the chief features of the event. For the year in which it had been actually incubating New York heard little and did not care much about it, and wakened very gradually to the great festal proportions it was to take. In fact people were returning to New York from mountain and seaside after the heats of Summer before they clearly understood how much was afoot in the way of civic entertainment. New York’s self-consciousness differs from that of every other American city. There is, for instance, no feeling that its greatness needs proclamation. It is not worried about its growth: it has been always growing. It is imaginatively undisturbed about its future: it is too busy to trouble about its past. Perhaps it has never taken to any civic phrase more kindly than describing itself as “little old New York,” while it 125knows it is not little, and if it has any municipal thrill it is over its modernity. Here was something coming which might be thought of as an attempt to awaken “the Chicago feeling” in Gotham—that is a somewhat delirious sensation of the bumptious and divinely ordained, the throbbing of the inflamed nerve of Destiny. In a way of its own New York gave way to it. The city began to hum, and when the time came in September’s days of warm colors and genial airs the people were ready to cheer, to march, to sail in line, to celebrate.

It was during the months of the previous springtime that the Irish share in the celebration took shape, when Hermann Ridder met the representatives of the Irish societies, and stating briefly but clearly the general plan of the celebration, called for 10,000 Irishmen to take part in the Historical civic parade. And to this they agreed. In a compendious sketch he described the divisions of the procession and the historical floats that were to make part of each—the Indian period, the Dutch period, the Colonial period, the Revolutionary period, the Modern period. Over forty nationalities besides the native American were to be represented. To the Irish he conceded the right of the line. To them would be assigned certain historic floats. In the upbuilding of New York Mr. Ridder recognized that the immigrants from Europe had contributed the major share. In other words it had been fed with population mainly from oversea. Of the original Dutch stock but a trace remained: it had largely scattered or died out. The early English stock had similarly passed on. The influx from rural America or other American towns and cities had been constant and latterly was increasing. Still the immigrant and the children of the immigrant preponderated in the great city.

ROBERT FULTON Esq^r

From a Celebrated Picture through the Courtesy of Vice-President Joseph I. C. Clarke
of New York.

126The American Irish Historical Society, through its New York chapter, took part in the earliest gatherings. The Friendly Sons of St. Patrick in the City of New York, the oldest Irish organization in the country with a history of 126 years behind it, was also early in the field. Its President, William Temple Emmet, was chosen chairman of the gathering of Irish societies and Alfred J. Talley of the American Irish Historical Society was elected Secretary. First and last some eighty Irish societies answered to the call. Broadly these were the Ancient Order of Hibernians, the Clan-na-Gael, the Irish American Athletic Club, the Irish Counties Athletic Clubs, the two societies named above and a number of Gaelic and Literary societies. There appeared at first to be no difficulty whatever about furnishing the quota called for: indeed there was some claim that less than 12,000 would be inadequate, judging from the muster rolls of all the societies desiring to participate. So there was some indignant protest when it was learned later that on account of the inordinate length of time it would take to get the procession past a given point on the basis first laid down, the Irish contingent would necessarily be cut down to 5,000 men. Eventually it was recognized that this was just as well. It developed curiously that the Irish in New York are not as numerously organized as they would seem. When they get the Society habit they are likely to belong to many societies, and this possibly multiplies by four their apparent number. Many of the delegates belonged to half a dozen of the societies represented. Naturally they could march with only one. The falling off from this cause was most noticeable with the Ancient Order of Hibernians—numerically the largest on its lodge rolls.

Committees of various kinds were appointed and to one—the Historical—fell the lot of securing the appropriate floats to escort in the procession. It was obvious that they should claim the Clermont float, for was not Robert Fulton the American-born son of an Irish father and Irish mother? It was equally obvious that they should claim the Erie Canal float with which the name of Governor De Witt Clinton, also of Irish descent and one-time Mayor of New York was inseparably connected. In some predacious way the Scotch societies had secured the Fulton Ferry float, claiming Fulton to be a Scottish name. It was seen by the Historical Committee that an omission of a grave kind had been made by the designers of the floats in not having one to celebrate the giving of the first charter to the City of New York by Governor Dongan—a charter always quoted with approval by the commentators on New York’s civic history. Now Dongan was a fine official of well-balanced mind, a learned man and an Irishman, and his appointment came from King James II, who did not object to him as Irish and gave him the place because he was a Catholic as well as otherwise qualified. 127The Commission agreed to rectify its omission and ordered a Dongan float. The Clermont, Erie Canal and Dongan floats were thereafter assigned to the Irish societies, to man and to escort.

Much amusing detail might be added to this but it can be indicated in the joyous way in which Martin Sheridan, the great athlete and champion hurler of the discus, was chosen to impersonate Robert Fulton and John Flanagan, the giant hammer-thrower of the Irish Athletic club, was named for the engineer. Thomas P. Tuite, whose admirable sketch of the life of Fulton is one of the memorable outcomes of the celebration, was enthusiastically impressed to act as steersman of the Erie Canal barge. With the Dongan float there was a difficulty. Major E. T. McCrystal, editor and soldier, was easily persuaded to stand for Governor Dongan, and it was not hard to get representatives for the New York councilmen who were to accept the charter, but when it came to getting impersonators for a file of British soldiers in red coats who were to stand as representatives of the British monarchy, there was indignation and revolt. Finally the British soldiers were cut out, and Dongan tendered his charter without any red-coated backing. The choosing of the ladies for the floats was wisely left to some ladies’ societies.

The best idea that came of the work of the Irish committees was that of a concert of Irish music. It was brought forward by Jeremiah Lawlor, of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, and ardently worked for by him. Once presented to the Hudson-Fulton Commission it was given a place on the official programme. Fortunately Victor Herbert, the distinguished operatic composer and orchestra leader, was at hand, and instantly accepted the concert committee’s invitation to take charge of the programme. It involved some sacrifice on his part but he gladly made it, and the success of the result must certainly have compensated him.

It was in the springtime, too, that another Irish feature of the celebration was arranged, the chartering of the splendid Sandy Hook steamer, Asbury Park, for the naval parade up the Hudson River. The American-Irish Historical Society and the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick coöperated in this—at a cost of $5,000 for the use of the steamer for that single day.

The last week in September is apt to be blessed with fine, mild weather in New York, and this time it held good. No more beautiful day could be wished than Saturday, September 25, 1909, when the banks of the Hudson River for ten miles from its mouth became the vantage ground for many more than a million sightseers, with the great stream itself a Broadway of the water over which the floating procession was to pass. Toward the City shore the long line of the gathered warships stretched adrape with gay bunting. Behind the water-front packed with human beings from the Battery Park to Grant’s tomb and beyond, rose the great mass of the city, its lifted turrets and spires and its soaring buildings forming a majestic background. Power spoke in every line and mass that met the eye, and beauty of a kind seldom seen gave its impress of delight. Down the harbor, the fleet of steamers was gathering in its hundreds, every craft from great Hudson River and Sound steamers and private yachts to squadron upon squadron of tugs. All were flag-draped and all were laden with joy-bound participants. The Brooklyn shore down to Fort Hamilton at the Narrows, and the heights and shore of Staten Island from Fort Wadsworth curving around the harbor were black with human beings. Hard by the Kill von Kull lay the Half Moon and the Clermont, the one a quaint, picturesque ghost of the great days of adventure of the early seventeenth century, the other in its long square ugliness a reminder that adventure with steam power in a new element was concerned with fitness and not with beauty; that Fulton was thinking of the turning of his ridiculous paddle wheels rather than the looks of things. And on the Dutch craft stood a make-believe Henry Hudson with a Dutch crew clad in the sea-dogs’ garments of his time. What a dim, pathetic figure that real Hudson of whom here was the twentieth century shadow. He must have been a man of grim purpose and of strong flesh and blood, but never did a man so near our time fade out into the mist more completely than he who first sent the prow of a white man’s ship up past the Palisades and the Highlands. On the Clermont was also a goodly company rigged out in the habiliments of 1807 that still bore something of the lines of the dandies of Paris in the time of the Directory. But it was a man of Robert Fulton’s blood who impersonated the creator 129of the first steamship that could truly navigate, and that meant that there was Irish blood in him.

It was when the procession in the course of the afternoon began to move with our long slim darting torpedo boats escorting the Half-Moon and the Clermont and all the other steam craft following that the true glory of the day began, and as the vessels swung into line heading northward every piston-beat of the engines, every turn of the churning screws and splashing paddles seemed to make a chorus of Fulton! Fulton! Fulton! and in a precious undertone to many a thousand of the onlookers it murmured Ireland! Ireland! Ireland! whence came the brain that had put a heart of giant power into every floating fortress, every giant of the transatlantic trade that the great flotilla passed as it swept up the river. As the little ship of Hudson and the ungainly master-boat of Fulton passed, the fleets of the world saluted them. So they passed up, acclaimed from the banks and the stream, the Half-Moon and the Clermont halting at the picturesque water gate on the Riverside slope for the reception ceremonies where the dignitaries waited from the Governor of New York state down.

For the rest of those afloat it was a sail nearly to Yonkers before the last of the United States battleships was passed, and the turning point reached. By this time the evening was falling rapidly in a glory of crimson sunset that made the river glow as paven with red gold, the Palisades rising black as ebony against the west, and the lingering rays falling in warm ivory and pale pink on the white house-line of New York on its hills farther down the stream. But as the light paled, and the shadows filled with purple and presently when a misty greyness was coming over all on land and water, another glory began which was to gladden and grow until it made a great picture that perhaps the world had never seen and certainly the world of Columbus and Hudson and Fulton had never witnessed before—the festal lighting on water and on land.

Lucky were those in that day procession up the river whose craft could linger in the upper reaches until all the glory of night was ablaze. The warships outlined in strings of electric lamps, the lights 130on the moving craft, the monuments on shore brilliantly set off with skeleton tracing of light, building after building on both sides of the river glowing with electric lights in every fantasy of device and color, the houses one and all lit up at every window, the tower of Madison Square one mighty shaft of light. Farther South the sky-piercing tower of the Singer building like a glowing mural crown dominated the vast field of the twenty-story office buildings, all illuminated to their roofs. In the harbor the Liberty Statue shone in an island of light. Up the East River a special glory was seen with its three great bridges spanning the stream in glittering cobwebs of light that hung between the water and the sky. All the buildings on the New York and Brooklyn shores swam in a shimmering golden haze. The avenues were long lines of diamonds strung from pillar to pillar, and then to the north a wonderful aurora of fan-spread search-lights, and from a dozen points over the island and the rivers spouted, great fountains of fireworks storming the heavens with jets of colored fire. It was fascinating, intoxicating, and the millions watched it in a daze from nightfall until midnight when at last the city and the river were left to the stars.

On Sunday, September 26, New York was fain to rest from its long outing of Saturday. When, however, night had fallen there was no fatigue visible in the smiling faces that gathered for the Irish Concert in Carnegie Hall. In securing the hearty coöperation of Victor Herbert, the famous composer and orchestra leader, the committee had armed itself for a triumph. Mr. Herbert is Irish-born, and of true Irish stock, a grandson of Samuel Lover, the Irish novelist and ballad writer whose “Low-backed Car” and “Rory O’Moore” threaten to outlive most of the lyrics of his generation. In Germany he received his musical education which was thorough. As a student of harmony and counterpoint none surpassed him in avidity to master all that the best could impart. Learning successively to play well nigh every instrument in the orchestra, he became proficient on the violoncello, acting as solo violoncellist in the Royal Court orchestra at Stuttgart, and taking a high rank as a virtuoso. When he came to this country in 1886 it was to take the important 131post of solo violoncellist under Anton Seidl, the great Wagnerian conductor at the Metropolitan opera house. His German was so good that musical people around Fortieth street wondered “how well the Dutchman spoke English,” a curious reversal of Lever’s humorous conceit: “I knew by your French you were English, and I knew by your English you were Irish.” Herbert, however, was not long in the land of the free before his Irish heart made itself known to his fellow-Gaels, and ever since it has beat in unison with them. In music he heard a higher call than being a prominent figure among the instrumentalists of even so famous a Wagnerian as Anton Seidl. When Patrick Sarsfield Gilmore, of loving musical memory, passed away, it was Victor Herbert who was called to succeed him as bandmaster of the 22d regiment, and thereafter waved the magical baton of Gilmore’s wonderful band. To this he added the duties of Kappellmeister to Anton Seidl’s orchestra and to the famous organization of Theodore Thomas. In 1898 he obeyed a call to Pittsburg to head a great orchestra, and remained there six years, his power and talent developing all the while. Returning to New York he recruited an orchestra of his own which soon won popular and critical esteem. But his forte lay in musical composition. The immediate road to success and fortune was, to his mind, by the way of comic opera, and work after work of this nature came sparkling from his brain to the joy of multitudes and to his own rapid enrichment. Still he led his now famous orchestra all over the land, working day and night, for he loved his work. The ambition to do greater things, however, never left him, and passing from mere facile outpouring of the riches of his inspiration he turned to the higher work in the realm of music. His oratorio, “The Captive,” a fine work, first heard at the Worcester (Mass.) musical festival was highly praised. Many of his serious fugitive pieces became popular with musicians and the world of music awaits with pleasant anticipation the grand opera into which he has for some time been putting his soul. He has for years been a member of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, always prompt to make the musical features of its gatherings notable, and always lending freely of his geniality to its symposiums of good fellowship.

Bear with me for this straying into the paths of biography, for Victor Herbert’s personality, his training, and his Irish birthright should be known to every son of Ireland in America, not merely as a matter of race pride but of race inspiration. We pride ourselves 132on our love of music. The echoes of the olden Celtic harps must be in our souls, but we have done little enough as a people to deserve the exquisite heritage. Our innate love of the art should be broadly cultivated and steadily developed, and in Victor Herbert I see a man who may yet do something great in this way for his race and ours, as he is sure to do in lofty composition for his own enduring fame. That is why I have dwelt on his striking career. In securing his hearty interest in the Irish Concert success was assured, for it brought with it the services of the magnificent orchestra trained for years under the sway of his relentless baton.

We do not lack for solo artists of merit and skill, but in choral music we have not done all we could. In Ireland a modern school of composers is doing work of which we know little here. The mending of this should be a first step in the Irish musical renaissance. If we find poets to write the books and lyrics, and musicians to compose the vibrant measures to fit them, we must have singers to interpret them and instrumentalists to give them the breadth and depth of the full artistic inspiration. Let the little band of sixty or seventy (little as choral renderings go in these days) who came together from the Catholic Oratorio Society for the Irish Concert be the melodious forerunners of Irish choral societies that may gather thousands at a time in one burst of song. At the Irish Concert the chorus sang admirably. May every member thereof be blessed for her or his participation, and their example give heart to a new musical impulse among our people.

The great house was filled to its capacity with a representative Irish gathering and presented a fine picture of comely women and handsome men. The Hudson-Fulton Celebration Commission had given the concert official place in its programme; the visiting guests of the Commission were invited. Governor Hughes of the State of New York, who boasts of Irish blood, and our one-time mayor and one-time president of Columbia College, Seth Low, as chairman of the Commission’s reception committee, occupied with the governor’s staff the central box on the grand tier. It was a “warm house,” then, that greeted the entry of the orchestra and the chorus on the broad stage, and listened raptly to what proved a fine concert of Irish music, deserving all the applause it received. And this was the programme:—

Singers and players performed delightfully. Mrs. O’Donnell, Madame Kronold and William Ludwig—that famous veteran of the German opera and great interpreter of Irish ballads—all won new laurels. Mr. Ludwig’s rendition of the spirited song by John 134J. Rooney, author of so many fine lyrics and ballads, was particularly impressive. But it was the work of Victor Herbert’s orchestra that lifted the occasion to its real height. The performance of Villiers Stanford’s Irish symphony and Herbert’s own Irish rhapsody was as true and fine as could be conceived, and in every way worthy of the brilliant compositions themselves. The chorus gave the Balfe lyric and “Oft in the Stilly Night” with fine shading and their singing of “The Fenian War Song” won an encore that would not be denied.

As a whole the concert gave an impression profoundly gratifying to all connected with it. I have said that it was conceived in the first place by Jeremiah Lawlor. It is right to add that Major E. T. McCrystal, chairman of the Concert committee, worked hard with Mr. Lawlor for the result achieved. To Mr. Lawlor, Seth Low wrote after the concert that he found it “most enjoyable,” and added:—

“The music itself was interesting, and it was rendered in a way worthy of all admiration. I think that those who have labored so hard for so many years to awaken interest in Gaelic culture have not only done a service for the members of the Irish race in this country, but, as illustrated by this really beautiful concert, they have rendered a valuable service to the whole country.”

It is a pleasure to bear out Mr. Low, and to formulate the hope that the Irish Concert of that Sunday evening may be parent of great effort among our people to justify to themselves and the world their boasted love of the art that made Ireland famous a thousand years ago.

On Tuesday, September 28, the weather in the morning held little promise of procession weather. It had rained, and in some degree dampened ardor, but the meteoric luck of the celebration was to prevail and by noon the skies were opening, and just the right condition overhead and underfoot assured. The line of the three great processions, of which this was to be the first, had been well chosen. Assembling north of Central Park the parade was to pass down the broad avenue of Central Park West, a straight line of two miles and a half, turning east at 59th street for a short half mile to Fifth 135avenue, then down the avenue a straight line for another two miles and a half to the point of dispersal. For three miles the parade was to pass between a succession of stands for spectators, with stands at every available point on Fifth avenue and the grand stand in the Court of Honor at 42d street, as we have noted before.

It was a fine and suggestive parade. The fifty great floats provided with so much care did not, perhaps, come up in all things to expectations. Cold daylight plays havoc with such expressions of historic symbolism. It shows the gilding, the high colors, the make-believe material too unsparingly. It betrays the utter modernity of the costumed posturers standing for legendary and historic figures. Perhaps this was not the view of the cheering thousands as the floats passed by. Art-knowledge makes one hypercritical and art-smattering makes one expect too much. Let us take it as it seemed to the multitude—the heroism of history on wheels.

But the parade, on its really inspiring side, was its men. As phalanx after phalanx passed by at a marching step one felt the greatness of the land that had beckoned to the peoples of the world with such commanding gesture that they had sent hither the flower of their manhood to share the great heritage of democracy on a continent of unbounded opportunity. There they were, the Irish, the Italian, the Teuton, the Magyar, the French, the Scotch, the Dutch, the English, the Czech, the Pole, the Slav, the Greek, the Syrian, the Dane, the Swede; and the man of the great conglomerate, the man of the evolving type—the American.

After the line of splendid-looking mounted police, trim-built and firmly seated with many a Celtic face among them, marched on foot Hermann Ridder and the Mayor—two contrasting figures—Ridder, tall and erect, the Mayor short and dapper. Together they stepped the length of the way, both beaming with fair satisfaction, the populace cheering and the band playing.

Then came a line of green, Irish flags with crownless harps of gold.

The Irish had the right of the line—the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick (with whom the American-Irish Historical Society marched) were at the head of the parade, William Temple Emmet leading. Following came the Ancient Order of Hibernians with many Irish banners and led by Thomas Kelly. They wore wide-brimmed felt hats of military trim, and carried themselves admirably. Band after 136band and phalanx after phalanx of this nationality or that came on, some like the Hungarians in marvels of hussar costume, others in military coats, the breasts covered with multitudes of medals, won maybe at schutzenfest or turnverein, but probably not in war.

The Clan-na-Gael made a gallant showing, and the Irish Athletic societies, headed by the redoubtable P. J. Conway, turned out in force, marching with a free swing that caught the onlookers immensely. A feature was the Tammany column—a thousand or more tall-hatted and frock-coated stalwart, presentable men, with Charles F. Murphy at their head. They paraded, be it understood, as representing the charitable and benevolent and not the political side of the long-lived organization. They were popular with the crowds.

Notable was the passage of the Clermont float. It was well known to all that Martin Sheridan and John Flannagan were to be there, and where there was any doubt among the onlookers as to which was which, were not the policemen along the route ready to tell them? “That’s Martin Sheridan, the man in the bell-topper,” alluding to the remarkable headgear under which the great athlete stood for the great inventor. So the cheers billowed for the Clermont all the way, a cheer for Robert Fulton and “a tiger, boys, for Martin!”

And as to those great-bodied policemen who held the swarming, sometimes obstreperous, but generally patient crowds in check, how finely they did it all. I would hesitate to say whether their faces or their accents indicated sixty or seventy per cent. of live Celtic blood in them, but it was not less than the lower figure, and may have been more than the greater. They won golden opinions on every side and from all classes that day, and for the many long, arduous days until the celebration was over. It was not merely to hold the line—a task calling for firmness, tact, strength and continuous good nature, but handling with skill the enormous crowds that filled the avenues when the processions had gone by, and all were rushing for their homes, filling to overflowing every car-line, every elevated roadway, and particularly cramming to congestion in the subway. In addition they had at all times to be “guide, philosopher and friend” to the full million of visitors new to metropolitan ways and pavements. And that was a task in itself.

For Thursday, September 30, came another splendid day when the military parade made New York tingle with marching tunes and the rhythmic tramp of men. Here was something that always quickens the popular pulse. We had seen many like it in this big, thrilling town, but none that surpassed it. The primal impulse coming from the thought: “Here are our defenders; here our men who face death for Fatherland,” has to answer, no doubt, for the cheers that greet the men at arms as they swing marching by. When kingcraft added pomp, glitter and jingle to it and tamed the trumpet to sing a siren song, and patriotism fluttered flags above it rich in color and hung on gold-tipped spears, the magic was complete. Yet this pageant showed us more in one way and less in another. More, in the fact that it showed us thousands of soldiers and armed man o’ warsmen from many alien ships and lands—some time or other our possible enemies, our possible allies—but all keeping step with our own brave men in the name of a pictorial friendship and in the hope of an unbroken peace; above all paying this passing tribute to our city and our country. Less, in that it showed us the stripping off of the gauds and finery of war, bringing more directly home to us that war today will none of these, but must keep the human material of battle in ready fighting trim. Glory was marching in khaki and scorned all gold galloon. Over the same path as the civic procession of Tuesday came Military Glory in its ranked and regimented thousands, giving something of the thought that if called on to take to the trenches or march to the attack by the time it reached Washington’s arch, the men would be ready. Thus it gave two distinct sensations to the hundreds of thousands who watched it, outside the particular thrills that came when some well-remembered or much-admired division of the troopers came tramping grimly by.

Our Irish citizens enjoyed it immensely, for they knew when the “regulars” were passing that it was dotted all over with Irish faces; that it was the army that Andrew Jackson gloried in; that Phil Sheridan, Kearney, Meagher and a hundred other brilliant men of Irish blood and strain had led on fields of death. Was not their own 69th there swinging along as it had swung at any time in fifty years that the country called? It was, and gallantly held its own for drill and trim and soldier bearing. Did they not warm to the 138thought that the Irish volunteers were marching, men soldiering for the very love of it, and cherishing an olden hope that sometime, somewhere they might be allowed to charge a battery or storm a height for Ireland—Ireland far away, but Ireland ever near to their hearts. And this thought gave friendliness to their hail of the French marines and the French sailors, for the French had been Ireland’s friend as well as America’s in the old troubled times, and many a one lilted under his breath “Oh, the French are on the sea, says the Shan van Vocht” when the Gallic tri-color went dancing past. These thoughts made it seem tolerable that the English were in the line and went so far as to let them give the Germans a cheer or two, and extending various degrees of approval to Italians, Brazilians and Argentines. But the West Point cadets! There, the innate love of the fighting man by the fighting race found intimate appeal. Many the Irish captain, great in the battlefield, had learned the grim trade in that battalion, and now to see how fine and supple yet tense they seemed, how superbly they marched, how arrowlike their alignment, how wonderfully they wheeled or countermarched, and the bands playing through it all. It was a glorious day for all who took part and all who looked on.

Another day on the water came with Friday, October 1, and the weather again was all that could be wished. Early the excursion steamers took on their loads, for the route was long of the Naval Parade. Shorn of the hundreds of tugboats and small craft that had swarmed the water on the Saturday before, it was a powerful and select squadron that turned its prows upstream to escort the Half Moon and the Clermont as far as Newburg, fifty-five miles above New York. The torpedo boats and a couple of the new sub-marines formed the governmental escorting party—the very old and the very new thus touching sides—and then came over one hundred powerful craft in line, decked in vari-colored bunting and with bands playing. It was a splendid sight, as passing the war ships they swept on beyond Manhattan island up the broad, deep stream. Commander Peary on his stout ship, Roosevelt, freshly arrived that morning from the North and his conquest of the Pole, received the tribute of the thousands 139in the procession. The dark rocky masses of the Palisades, now glowing here and there with autumn foliage, towered on the left, and on the right lay the river towns set amid fields and woods.

Many a flag of Ireland fluttered from the upper works of the great swift steamer “Asbury Park” on which had gathered some nine hundred of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick and the American-Irish Historical Society with their families and friends. Every provision for their comfort had been made, and the occasion rapidly became one of delightful enjoyment under the stimulation of the grand and historic scenery of the noble river, and the glow of friendly courtesy wherever the Irish race foregathers. The pace could not be very fast, for the greatest of the steamers was bound by the speed of the slowest, and these latter were the Half-Moon and the Clermont. All the more could the time of observation of the many points of interest along the river be extended. Dobb’s Ferry, where Washington had headquarters for so long, while his little army watched the English forces then holding New York against the patriots. Sleepy Hollow, Washington Irving’s home and the scene of his romance of The Headless Horseman, were pointed out. Tarrytown, where Major André, the British spy, was arrested, and Tappan, where he was executed, were noted as the line of steamers ploughed through the Tappan Zee where the Hudson broadens almost to a lake, and is four miles wide and twelve miles long, then past the great prison of Sing Sing on the East bank. Presently, the line was passing Stony Point, the promontory of the Hudson near the entrance to the Highlands. And the gallant story was retold of how the Revolutionary soldiers posted in the rude fortress there had succumbed to an attack by the British; how the loss of the fort rankled in the patriots’ breasts, and how, at the dead of night, in mid-July of 1779, mad Anthony Wayne with a devoted band delivered so sudden and overwhelming an assault that the British garrison was slain or captured, and the stars and stripes were sent aloft never since to give way to an alien flag. On then through the Highlands of the Hudson where the mountains slope down to the river on either side. Old river men aboard pointed out Fishkill Mountain, Storm King, Crow’s Nest, Donderberg, Anthony’s Nose, names written in the history of the country and the literature of the river. At West Point was seen perched on the cliffs the quarters of the military academy of the United States, whence so many great soldiers had been graduated and rich in the memory of Ireland’s celebrated sons as well. Across the river was pointed out the road, still winding down to the stream, by which the traitor, Benedict Arnold, fled, taking boat to the English brig of war, when he surely knew that his treason had been discovered in the capture of Major André. Swinging carefully then around the West Point bend in the river, that scene of rare beauty—the straight stretch of ten miles up to Newburg bay—broke upon the view.

WILLIAM TEMPLE EMMET, ESQ.,

Member of the Society, and President of the Society of the Friendly Sons
of St. Patrick in the City of New York.

Under the inspiration of these stirring memories, the stimulus of the celebration and the desire of all concerned, a brief but memorable meeting of the American-Irish Historical Society was held on the forward covered deck of the “Asbury Park.” The Vice President of the New York Chapter discussed the events of the day and the week, and the Irish share therein, extending welcome to the members who had come from other states at the Chapter’s call to meet their brethren in this festal trip, and called on President-General, Dr. Francis J. Quinlan, to address the company. The members warmed to the President’s appeal, for he has the happy gifts of enthusiasm and Celtic eloquence. He spoke for the spread of the society and its usefulness in gathering for future generations the story of the Irish race in America, and laying a foundation for a greater communion among its men and women of today. He was followed by Thomas Zanslaur Lee, Secretary General of the Society, who succinctly told of the recent remarkable gains in membership, and gave practical hints for a still greater accession to the Society’s ranks. William Temple Emmet, President of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, made a short speech of sympathy with the aims of the Society, and the proceedings terminated in an interchange of salutations shared by all present.

In Newburg bay the steamers of the fleet were gathering now, hovering and slowly circling about the Half-Moon and the Clermont and their escorts. The ancient town rising on the west bank of the river showed a gala front of flags, while thousands crowded the heights to view the scene upon the bay. The steamer Providence, bearing the officials of the day, had drawn up to the landing, and 141while they took part in a procession and made speeches appropriate to the occasion, those on the rest of the fleet dined and made merry. Never before, perhaps, had the waters thereabout furnished such a scene as that of the flag-decked fleet going to and fro under the blue sky, framed in the red and gold of autumn on the hills and breaking with screw and paddle the silver of the wide and placid stream. Would that Washington, whose fearless eyes had often gazed in the weary days of the long-drawn war, out over the river there, had caught that vision of young and strong America afloat and rejoicing a century after his passing away! His, however, were the eyes that saw across the mountains, and in the darkest day beheld the sun upon the hills beyond, and it is not for us to say what he did not see.

From Albany far up the Hudson had come the officials to take charge of the Half-Moon and the Clermont, and the pleasant task of the fleet from New York was done. Down the river, then, the prows were turned, and the homeward journey was begun. Many were the visits made and returned on board the “Asbury Park” as she headed south. The evening was deepening as she came by the city now breaking into light, a beautiful spectacle. So ended a day long to live in memory. As the excursionists stepped ashore to each one was handed a souvenir copy of Mr. Tuite’s “Robert Fulton and His Achievement,” which is reproduced in the volume farther on.

By the indefatigable secretary of the New York Chapter, Alfred J. Talley, I am furnished with the following list of the members of the Society who with their families and friends were on board:—

Albeus T. Adams, M. E. Bannon, Michael Blake, John J. Boyle, Henry J. Breen, William J. Broderick, Francis X. Butler, Edward R. Carroll, F. J. Cavanaugh, J. I. C. Clarke, Andrew J. Connick, Patrick J. Conway, Hugh M. Cox, E. J. Curry, Robert E. Danvers, Thomas F. Donnelly, Richard J. Donovan, Willis B. Dowd, John F. Doyle, M. J. Drummond, John J. Falahee, Joseph P. Fallon, Edward D. Farrell, Frank S. Gannon, Charles V. Halley, John H. Halloran, John Hannon, David Healy, John J. Hickey, Michael J. Jennings, Alfred J. Johnson, James G. Johnson, Michael J. Joyce, Phillip J. Magrath, P. J. Kelly, T. P. Kelly, Daniel Kennedy, T. Zanslaur Lee, Charles Leslie, Warren Leslie, Thomas S. Lonergan, Richard J. Lyons, D. H. McBride, Robert E. McDonnell, D. J. McGinnis, James J. McGuire, Edward J. McGuire, 142John C. McGuire, James A. McKenna, Stephen McPartland, Stephen J. McPartland, J. D. Morton, John Morgan, Bartholomew Moynahan, Michael J. Mulqueen, John E. Murphy, Thomas F. Noonan, John E. O’Brien, John O’Connell, John G. O’Keefe, D. P. O’Neil, James O’Shea, John O’Sullivan, Sylvester J. O’Sullivan, James W. Power, Francis J. Quinlan, Clarence W. Ramsey, James F. Reilly, James Rorke, Joseph Rowan, James T. Ryan, John J. Ryan, William Ryan, Dennis A. Spellissy, Thomas N. Mulry, Alfred J. Talley, Edward M. Tierney, Frank L. Tooley, William Tully, Watson Vredenburgh, Jr., Henry Wright, A. J. MacGuire, Harry L. Joyce, Thomas A. Emmet, William M. Byrne, William E. Hill, James A. McKenna, William J. Farrell, James Martin, Daniel M. Brady, John Fitzgibbon, Timothy Murray, William T. Emmet.

The guarantors of the contract were:

On behalf of the American Irish Historical Society: J. I. C. Clarke, Edward J. McGuire, T. Vincent Butler, William Michael Byrne, P. J. Magrath, Harry L. Joyce, John O’Sullivan, Francis J. Quinlan, M. D., Alfred J. Talley.

On behalf of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick: William Temple Emmet, Thomas T. Fitzsimons, Morgan J. O’Brien, Edward B. McCall, Warren Leslie, John D. Crimmins, John G. O’Keefe, Edward R. Carroll.

For finish to the week of celebration came on the evening of Saturday, October 2, the Carnival Parade, over the same route as those of Tuesday and Thursday. It was a brilliant spectacle of lighted floats and costumed paraders that passed down the avenues with their strings of electric lights on either side. One cannot describe it all except in general terms. It defies words, as a flight of rockets defies them, but the Germans, Austrians and Swiss, who mostly furnished the human side of the spectacle, did nobly.

It was a week to remember, and, as has been indicated, Ireland’s sons had a handsome share in it.

“MANHATTAN.”

IRISH STARS IN THE ARCHIVES OF NEW YORK PROVINCE.

BY HON. HUGH HASTINGS, FORMER STATE HISTORIAN OF NEW YORK.

The Irish have never been known as explorers or as discoverers. Their forte is recognized as establishing success where others have tried and failed. Stranded as they were on their desert habitat, we can easily understand why the early annals of our country are not more frequently embellished by Irish names. As early as October 12, 1605, Sir Arthur Chichester wrote from Ireland to the English prime minister, Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury, that it “was absurd folly to run over the world in search of colonies in Virginia or Guiana, whilst Ireland was lying desolate.” The first expedition that left England—almost three years before Henry Hudson discovered the river that bears his name—brought over the first Irishman to America, Francis Maguire, who arrived at Jamestown Virginia, with Captain Christopher Newport, May 6, new style, 1607. Maguire remained in the new country for nearly a year and returned to England with Newport. He wrote an account of his voyage to Virginia and submitted it to the Privy Council of Spain.

Many years elapse before an Irish name is discovered among the early settlers of New York, and then it is so overwhelmed and encumbered with Dutch orthography and Dutch pronunciation as to be well nigh indistinguishable, even to its owner if he ever ran over it. Against an ancient Dutch muster roll profound knowledge must bow deferentially. The most expert linguist stands in awe of it, and his most skilful expedients are often baffled in efforts to translate it, for the Seventeenth Century Dutch scrivener knew, read, 150saw, felt, thought, recognized nothing but Dutch—nor were mustees, Indians and negroes exempt from this classification. All were clothed in Dutch orthographical habiliments as religiously as they were fed with suppawn at breakfast, whether it was welcome or not.

When the time arrived, however, for Irish names to appear officially in the Archives of the Province of New York, it is supremely gratifying to us, who are proud of our Irish blood and the State and country in which we live, to discover two bright particular stars blazing steadily from a firmament black with corruption.

When Thomas Dongan, a gallant soldier and experienced man of affairs, arrived in New York City, in the fiftieth year of his age, as governor of the province, liberty of action was restrained as arbitrarily as liberty of speech was repressed. The printing press was embargoed. Freedom of worship was circumscribed. Quakers and Jews were ostracized and driven from the pale. Dongan was charged by his royal master with three important duties:

1.

To call an assembly of representatives of New York.

2.

To allure the Indians from the French.

3.

To introduce the Roman Catholic religion into the Province.

The first was easy of accomplishment, for the governor was simply required to carry out the King’s orders, which were most agreeable to the persons directly affected. The second was facilitated by the governor’s recognized status as a Catholic. The third was impossible, because of the anomalous position of the King and the avowed and deep-rooted hostility of the people to the church of Rome. Furthermore, in the prosecution of his work toward the fulfillment of these obligations the governor invariably was balked by the prurient meddling of his royal master.

The General Assembly met at Fort James in the Battery, New York, in October, 1683, held a three weeks’ session and passed fourteen measures, including the famous “Charter of Liberties and Privileges.” In this act occurred the first official mention of “the people” in a constitutional document in America, or, as it reads, the supreme authority under the King and the duke “shall forever reside in a governor, council and the people met in general assembly.” It was also provided that the representatives should appoint their times of meeting and that they could adjourn from interval to interval at their will; that no tax should be imposed but by the consent of the 151governor, the council of twenty-one and the representatives; and that no billeting of troops in time of peace should be tolerated. Full and free liberty was granted to all persons professing faith in God by Jesus Christ, unmolested to exercise the mode of worship agreeable to them, provided “the good people be not disturbed.” To Albany and New York were given charters.

In this connection before proceeding to the consideration of the broader lines of Dongan’s policy and of the matters he accomplished or failed to accomplish, it may not be amiss to glance at some of the restrictions placed upon and some of the liberties enjoyed by the New Yorker of that period. The population of the province was estimated at 20,000 souls. None but freemen were permitted to sell by retail or exercise any handicraft trade; a tax of £3, 12s. was laid upon every merchant and shopkeeper and of £1, 4s. upon every handicraft man when set free; only freemen or a resident of the city three years were permitted to trade upon Hudson river; all the inhabitants on the Hudson river were prohibited from trading across the sea; bakers were required to keep good household bread made of flour, as “the meals come from the mill”; no flour bolted or “bisket” should be made for exportation but in the city; no flour or bread should be imported into the city from any other part of the province; the assize for bread was established every three months.

A few ancient police regulations of Dongan’s time will forcibly appeal to the modern dweller in New York. Servile work on the Lord’s day was proscribed under a penalty of ten shillings, with double the fine for each repetition. Children were forbidden from gathering in the streets or places to play on that day. Public houses were prohibited from selling liquor on the Sabbath during divine service unless to travellers. Constables were compelled to walk the streets with their staffs to see that the law was fulfilled, and were further required to return the names of all strangers that come to reside within the ward as masters of public houses were ordered to report all strangers that come to lodge or live with them, as the custom is today in every European city. In the days of Dongan twenty carmen and no more were appointed under proper regulations—one of which demanded that they fill up, amend and repair the breaches in the streets and highways, in and about the city, when required by the Mayor, gratis. No negro or other slave 152was permitted to drive any cart, except brewers’ drays, within the city. The carrying of concealed weapons was interdicted.

The high hopes the colonists had entertained of the liberal and enlightened policy James had outlined by Dongan’s introduction were soon dashed to the ground and they suffered all the pangs of a crushing disappointment. The Assembly promised by the Charter of Liberties was never convened, for in February, 1685, Charles II, King of England, died. His brother, the Duke of York, ascended the throne and as James the King promptly repudiated the Colonial policy of James the Duke, the charter was vetoed, the Assembly was abolished and the province was precipitated backward to the old Monarchial order of things.

Dongan in the meantime had won the affection and confidence of the Iroquois, partly by means of his religious professions and by his tact and straightforwardness in dealing with them. The innocent-hearted child of the forest trusted Corlear most implicitly in spite of French intrigue and French subsidies. It was the influence which Dongan had gained that restrained the tribes from a contemplated foray in Virginia. With the Indian situation confidently in his hand, Dongan was checked by his King, who had entered into a religious coalition with Louis XIV, the most powerful sovereign in Europe. James ordered the governor to prevent the Iroquois from attending a council in Canada to entertain proposals for peace. The lieutenant on the ground, unbiased by notions of European politics, far better understood the situation in New York than his royal master three thousand miles away. The governor was more far-sighted than his King. Dongan diligently aspired to annihilate French supremacy over the Indians, but questioned the wisdom of using Jesuits, whose predilections for the French were well known to him. The Iroquois were loyal to New York and had never forgiven the French for the seizure of their sachems by order of Louis XIV. Dongan faithfully attempted to foster the former sentiment, as he never neglected an opportunity to remind his red allies of the latter prejudice. The efficacious methods he had pursued were destroyed by the treaty of neutrality which inhibited New England and France from assisting Indians who were at war with one another.

Dongan’s crowning offense, however, in the eyes of his King was his failure to force his faith upon a people who were in no mood, as 153later events proved, to permit their religious prejudices to be tampered with. Again were the prudence and the wisdom of the lieutenant demonstrated at the expense of the intelligence of the King. Dongan’s loyalty and devotion to his church never was doubted nor questioned. The course he pursued reflects the highest credit upon his conservatism, his courage and his fidelity to religious principle. If any event were needed in the life of a King to prove deficiency in judgment, and incompetence as a ruler, the action of the unfortunate James II in superseding Thomas Dongan at this critical time and for the specific cause selected would prove sufficient and convincing.

We all have read and listened to the marvellous tales of that jaunty terror of the seas, Captain William Kidd, and been brought up from childhood on the mournful ballad of William Moore—household names both of them—but how many remember the importance of the influence exercised in those days by the governor of New York, Richard Coote, Earl of Bellomont, in the formation of the expedition organized by the former and in the apprehension of the culprit for the murder of the latter. The times were scandalously corrupt and corrupt individuals lived extravagantly up to the times. Land-grabbing was practised as an art in New York then as it is practised in Oregon today. Indian rings and land grants were common and notorious and flourished brazenly. Officers of the Crown who should have crushed them were often ringleaders in organizing them; ministers of the gospel, who should have interceded for and protected the innocent child of the forest, basely betrayed their trust, and were leagued in corruption to acquire vast tracts of valuable land from the confiding aboriginal owner. The governor of the province seldom arose above his environment. As a rule he possessed no capabilities for the position. If he were not bankrupt he was ignorant, or a degenerate representative of the nobility, despatched to New York to repair or redeem his shattered fortune or to make one by whatever means he might employ, the province being regarded by the home authorities as a common receptacle to be utilized for the purposes named. Sympathy for the colonists on the part of a governor was displayed as seldom as integrity or interest in the future of the province. The ambition of the governor seemed to be bounded by perquisites and he generally left the shores of New York for England with a fortune that placed 154him on a plane with the richest men of the old world. Privateering was a prolific source of revenue. No man with ready cash disdained identity with it. It was countenanced by so gracious a ruler as William III, who encouraged and patronized it. A change of flag only was necessary to convert an innocent privateer into a ferocious and bloodthirsty pirate. These wild rovers of the sea respected neither vessel nor nation. Many bore commissions from James II and from William III and many bore none at all. Governor Fletcher was their acknowledged friend and alleged co-partner in their villainies. New York City was their recognized headquarters.

It was because Bellomont had established a reputation as a man of resolution and of integrity that he was chosen by his King as governor of New York. His orders imposed obligations that reflected credit upon his abilities as an executive of the purest virtue and the strongest character. Discontent and disorder were rampant because of the cruel murder of Leisler and Milborne. Uneasiness and anxiety prevailed throughout the province because of the threatened attitude of the Indians. The rapacity and greed of his predecessor, Fletcher, had engendered enmities and jealousies that even the mighty resources of the King were powerless to allay.

Bellomont’s requisition for a frigate to suppress piracy was vetoed, for the reason that England needed her entire available marine force for service in home waters because of the war with France. The suggestion of a private ship was more successful and met with the financial assistance of the King, the duke of Shrewsbury, lord chancellor Somers, the Earls of Oxford and Romney, Robert Livingston and others, Bellomont assuming the responsibility of equipment. It was this ship, the Adventure, which was turned over to William Kidd, a resident of New York, then in London. Kidd, beyond question, ranks as the transcendent specimen of his class. He was a navigator par excellence, a man of the world; a type that, when pushed by fortune into any orbit, commands the situation by the power of his own robust characteristics. Kidd’s orders were simple. He was to prey upon French commerce and to destroy pirates. In the first desideratum he proved a failure; in the second, by becoming a pirate himself he achieved a brilliant and, in the end, a fatal success. Upon his career on the high seas, as a privateer and pirate, it is not necessary to dilate. Two years after his departure 155from Plymouth he arrived in New York, only to find that his friend, Governor Fletcher, and other piratical sympathizers were no longer in control of the affairs of the province. Kidd sailed Eastward along the Sound and buried part of his plunder on Gardiner’s Island. He then proceeded to Boston, where he appeared on the streets in the gorgeous raiment of a man of fashion. Governor Bellomont happened to meet him, recognized him, arrested him and shipped him to Europe. Kidd was tried and convicted for the murder of William Moore—and was hanged as a pirate.

In the meantime Bellomont deplored the legacy his predecessor, Fletcher, had left him: A divided people, an empty purse, a few miserable, naked, half-starved soldiers, not half the number the King allowed pay for; the fortifications and the governor’s house very much out of repair, and “in a word the whole government was out of frame.” The province was rent with turmoil and turbulence in consequence of the Leisler-Milborne rebellion. The new governor’s sympathies had been drawn toward the martyr Leisler, whose enemies in the aristocratic party resisted almost to the point of violence Bellomont’s efforts to make restitution for a monstrous crime. As a rebuke to the rascality of his predecessor Bellomont had declared: “I will take care there shall be no misapplication of the public money; I will pocket none of it myself nor shall there be embezzlement by others.” To this standard he unflinchingly held. No breath of scandal, no charge of prostitution of duty for self-aggrandizement tainted his reputation. He loyally protected the interests of those whom he was sent to govern. He was distinctively a statesman of the constructive school, in marked contradistinction to many of those governors who preceded and who followed him, who pursued a policy of confiscation or of destruction—of confiscation in grabbing everything in sight and of destruction by undermining the liberties of the people and by attempted restriction of their God-given rights. Under Bellomont’s short administration the frontiers were strengthened, a library was established, printing was encouraged, shipping promoted and education, which had been neglected, stimulated. His untimely death, however, prevented the development of many beneficent reforms which he had under contemplation.

Under the cloak of politics repressive religious measures were adopted and inhuman persecutions practised. Dongan, an Irish 156Catholic, favored an act permitting Jews to exercise their religion, but the New York Common Council vetoed the proposition, while Bellomont, an Irish church of England worshipper, approved the measure proscribing priests, on the ground that Catholic prelates uniformly labored to excite the Indians against the Anglo-Americans. Both governors recommend themselves to posterity for enlightened statesmanship that throws into deep obscurity the times in which they lived. Dongan brought to the province of New York the first semblance of a representative form of government; under Lord Bellomont the first spark of American Independence flashes, by the demand that the colonists repudiate the laws of England because the colonists are not represented in the parliament that frames these laws. The board of trade of London directs Bellomont to check this heresy because “the independence the Colonists thirst for is so notorious.”

During the Colonial epoch England assigned many men to govern New York. The governor possessed unlimited despotic powers. He exercised authority denied to the King. He not only made the laws but interpreted and executed them, and when necessary unmade them. He usurped the prerogatives of the Assembly and of the courts; his council was merely an aggregation of automatons who danced when he pulled the string. No act of the Assembly was placed on the statute book without his signature and no decision of the court was valid until he, as chief justice, passed judgment, and in this respect he exercised powers denied to the King, for his Majesty, while permitted to sit on the king’s bench, was prohibited from expressing judgment. There were two governors of early New York who never have been brought under the ban of usurping the functions of the coördinate branches of government nor of debasing the powers confided to them by their superiors, Thomas Dongan and the Earl of Bellomont. No charge ever has been brought that they carried away money unworthily raised or dishonestly made. Nor has either ever been accused of using his high position for unmeritorious or discreditable purposes. Both, however, have received the encomiums and praise of historians of England and America as rulers and statesmen of the highest degree of efficiency and honesty at a time when the standard of morals and of statesmanship was lamentably low and unquestionably debased. Toward both every Irishman and every New Yorker should turn 157with sentiments of the strongest esteem and admiration of the highest calibre, not only in commendation of the success they gained in the fulfillment of official obligations in the face of discouraging and corrupt environment, but for the sturdy and sterling manhood they displayed in the maintenance of their official honor and in the normal performance of their official duty.

In this connection it may not be amiss for us to pay a deserved tribute to Dr. Edmund Bailey O’Callaghan, a native of Ireland, who was more instrumental in awakening the study of the Dutch language and of our priceless Dutch records than any other man since the creation of the State of New York. Dr. O’Callaghan represented the type of the pushing, aggressive and scholarly Irishman. Two years of his early life were devoted to the study of medicine in Paris. At the age of twenty-six he crossed the ocean, settled in Canada and at once became prominent in the agitation for Catholic emancipation in Ireland and England. He became secretary of an organization for Irish immigrants to America, edited a newspaper in Montreal, and was sent to the Provincial Parliament, where his activity and ability placed him in the front rank as a leader. His radical views and conduct, however, brought a mob of tories to his office and led to the destruction of his type, press and establishment. His neighbors, however, made it so unpleasant that he was compelled to seek refuge in the United States when he was forty years of age. He established his residence in Albany, was fortunate in the selection of his most intimate friend, Chancellor Reuben Hyde Walworth, practised his profession with more or less success, and at the same time conducted an industrial paper called the Northern Light. It was at this period that, during the anti-rent disturbances, he undertook the study of the Dutch language. His “History of New Netherlands” made him famous and stimulated the study of Colonial records and Colonial research throughout the United States.

HONORABLE JAMES FITZGERALD.

Justice of Supreme Court of the State of New York.

THE SIXTY-NINTH REGIMENT, NEW YORK CITY. — Field and Staff. — Company Commanders. — Field and Staff. — “ Sixty-Ninth Regiment Infantry National Guard, New York , — “ Headquarters Division National Guard, State of New York, “Capitol, Albany , December 20th, 1909. — Civil War , 1861–1865. — Field and Staff. — Line.

A Paper Read before the American-Irish Historical Society, at its Twelfth Annual Meeting, Held at the Hotel Plaza, New York City, Saturday, January 8, 1910, by Hon. James Fitzgerald, Justice of the Supreme Court of the State of New York.

The patriotic founders of our government looked with disfavor upon the existence of large standing armies in times of peace for very many reasons. Not only did they consider them a tax upon industry and a drain upon the young manhood of the country, but they felt that their maintenance constituted a menace to liberty, and yet these wise and far seeing builders of the Republic realized that there could be no security for personal liberty or property rights in a State that had not at its command an armed force, and so we find imbedded in the fundamental law a provision that “a well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed” (Art. 2, 1st Amendts. U. S. Const. March, 1789). Freedom had just been achieved by the sword, and that reliance for its preservation must at all times rest upon arms was a doctrine to which the statesmen of the Revolution unreservedly subscribed. Soldiers were necessary but it was not necessary that all good soldiers should be professionals. To citizens engaged in the ordinary avocations of life, in industrial arts, in commercial pursuits, in commerce or trade, in the professions, military instruction could be given, opportunities for practice and drill formations afforded, including lessons in the organization and mobilization of armies, so that when necessity required, a well disciplined armed body might be readily summoned from civil ranks for service in the field and as readily absorbed back into industrial life when the hour of peril had passed, the threatened danger had been averted and the emergency no longer existed for martial music, emblazoned banners, marching legions and tented fields.

Since the earliest settlement of this continent, the Irish race has been prominently identified with our history. Irishmen were among the first settlers; they continued to come uninterruptedly, they are still coming, and unless conditions change very much for the better 159in the Green Isle, they are going to keep on coming in the future. The spirit of Irish-Americanism is a spirit of intense Americanism; it stands for the Union of States, the sovereignty of the flag, obedience to the laws, loyalty to the government, good citizenship in peace, and in war, prompt response when volunteers are called for. Volumes would be insufficient to spread the record of the achievements of the sons of Erin upon American battlefields; individuals might be cited by the score or by the hundred whose intrepidity and devotion shed glory upon our arms on sea and shore.

The Constitution of the State of New York, adopted April 20, 1777, contained the clause: “The militia of this State at all times hereafter, as well in peace as in war, shall be armed, disciplined and ready for service.” The necessary enactments to carry out this provision were provided for by legislation the following year. (Chap. 33. “An Act for regulating the Militia of the State of New York.” Passed April 3, 1778; Chap. 46, An Act to amend an act entitled “An Act for regulating the Militia of the State of New York.” Passed June 30, 1778.) Outside of a few cities, while the militia force was large upon paper, it was in reality but a mere skeleton. Until at the end of 1860, there were less than 15,000 men uniformed, disciplined and drilled, or in any sort of readiness for military duty, and this meagre force was chiefly confined to the cities of New York and Brooklyn, with contingents at Kingston and Albany.

The first record of the 69th Regiment of New York City is the order issued by the Adjutant General, bearing date November 1, 1851, and designated “General Order 489.” This order provided for the consolidation into a single regiment of a number of independent companies which had been separately organized prior to that time chiefly by men of Irish birth or parentage. About this period, owing to the vast volume of immigration in the preceding decade, New York contained the largest Irish population of any city in the world, and from the first, the 69th became identified in the public mind as a regiment composed of Irishmen. Among its early officers appear the names of some men who were well-known in connection with the Young Ireland movement, which had culminated but a few years previously. Its first commander was Colonel Charles S. Roe, who served until 1854, and was succeeded by Colonel James B. Ryan, who was followed August 26, 1859, by the gallant and beloved Col. Michael Corcoran. The regiment crept early into the affections of the people of the metropolis and was beloved by 160the Irish residents. Its distinctive character was manifested in numerous and emphatic ways,—sometimes by the wearing of green faced tunics, at others by the display of plumes showing the green above the red, the carrying of the Irish flag, or other similar devices. It had usually the right of the line in the St. Patrick’s Day parades, and in all functions in which it participated, its approach was heralded by the strains of well-known Irish music. It rapidly became the typical Irish military organization of the country, and for its success or failure, the children of the race throughout the Union felt themselves responsible.

In 1860, the then Prince of Wales—now Edward VII, King of Great Britain—visited the United States, and was scheduled to arrive in New York City on Thursday, October 11, of that year. The First Division, New York State Militia, was ordered out to receive him and directed to form at the Battery for the purpose of parade and review. All the regiments of the Division with the exception of the Sixty-ninth Regiment, assembled at the time and place appointed for the formation. The order received by Colonel Corcoran from headquarters was not promulgated, and he was immediately ordered under arrest and a court martial summoned to try him upon a charge of disobedience of orders. This circumstance fixed firmly in the public mind the race and sentiments of the commander and the men of the 69th.

April 12, 1861, witnessed the firing upon Fort Sumter, and on the 15th, President Lincoln issued his proclamation calling out the militia of the several states to the number of 75,000 men, and five days thereafter, the court martial which had been ordered to try Colonel Corcoran was dissolved, the pending charges were dismissed, and he was at once restored to his command. The order dismissing the charges, which bears date, April 20, 1861, is designated Special Order No. 9, and reads as follows:

“In pursuance of Special Orders No. 58 from General Headquarters, the Court Martial detailed for the trial of Colonel Corcoran is dissolved, and the charges dismissed, and Colonel Corcoran is directed forthwith to resume the command of his regiment.

161Colonel Corcoran at once resumed command of the regiment and issued General Order No. 1, an historic order concluding with the words: “The Commandant feels proud that his first duty after being relieved from a long arrest is to have the honor of promulgating an order to the regiment to rally to the support of the Constitution and Laws of the United States.” Within twenty-four hours from the posting of this order, six thousand men had volunteered, but the instructions of Governor Morgan prohibited the enlistment of more than the regimental compliment of one thousand men. The twenty-third of April, 1861, dawned bright and clear, but warmer than usual at that season, over the Empire City; apprehension and gloom prevailed throughout the country; ten sovereign states had formed a powerful confederacy and were in armed revolt against the authority of the Federal Government. Many of the ablest soldiers and statesmen of the Republic had taken their stand against the Union; the timid were upon the verge of panic, and misgivings and uncertainty were paralyzing even the resolute and strong. Under such circumstances, faithful and loyal, the gallant Sixty-ninth Militia assembled in Prince Street, near the then St. Patrick’s Cathedral, the Cathedral of the great Archbishop of New York, the Most Reverend John Hughes, and proceeded thence to the rendezvous at Great Jones Street. Hope was given to the hearts of the good people of this city as they witnessed the spirit displayed by this brave body of citizen soldiery, and when at the appointed hour, the order to march was sounded and the regiment proceeded down Broadway to the strains of martial music, the surging multitude that lined the streets, the myriad spectators that filled the windows along the route to Cortlandt Street broke into continuous cheers. Twin flags floated everywhere on that day. Twin banners were carried by the regimental standard bearers—the flag of Columbia with all its stars emblazoned on its field of blue, the green banner of Erin with the harp uncrowned. The regiment boarded the Steamer “James Adger,” at Pier 4, North River, reached Annapolis on the twenty-sixth of April, and proceeding up the Potomac to Washington by Steamer “Marion,” was mustered into the service of the United States on May 9 for three months. The following is a list of the field, staff and company commanders at this time:

On the 22nd of May a body of three hundred men, known as Meagher’s Zouaves, recruited after the regiment’s departure, joined Colonel Corcoran at the Capitol City. At midnight on the 23d of May the 69th, together with the 5th Massachusetts, the 28th New York, and a detachment of regular cavalry, crossed the Aqueduct Bridge at Georgetown into Virginia. On the following morning the regiment began the construction of Fort Corcoran, which, with Fort Runyon, constituted the first regular works erected by Federalist forces at the beginning of the Civil War, and the ceremonies attending the raising of the flag on the occasion were participated in by Colonel Corcoran, Colonel David Hunter and Captain Thomas Francis Meagher, two of whom subsequently attained the rank of Brigadier General (Corcoran and Meagher) and the third of whom (Hunter) afterwards became a Major General. The 69th, together with the 79th and 13th New York and 2d Wisconsin regiments, and a Battery of Light Artillery, U. S. A., composed 163the 3d Brigade of the 1st Division of McDowell’s Army, having for its Brigade Commander Colonel William Tecumseh Sherman, of the 13th U. S. Infantry, whose distinguished achievements in after years elevated him to foremost rank among the great Captains of history. Brigadier General Daniel Tyler commanded the division.

On July 21st, the regiment participated in the Battle of Bull Run (Manassas). Col. Corcoran was wounded and fell into the hands of the Confederates. The regiment lost one hundred and fifty of its members, among them its gallant Acting Lieutenant Colonel James Haggerty, of whom the eloquent Meagher said: “No braver soldier was ever produced by the land of Sarsfield and Shields.” The three months period of service having expired, the 69th Regiment, New York State Militia, was mustered out of the United States service August 3, 1861, and returned to New York City, resuming its position as a militia regiment of the State. The time for which the regiment had been called into service had ended but the great war had only fairly begun, and President Lincoln having issued his call for 500,000 men for three years or the war, about 800 of the returned militiamen volunteered to re-enlist, and on August 30, 1861, under orders from the War Department, the 69th Regiment, New York Volunteers, was formed. Robert Nugent was selected as Colonel; James Kelly, Lieutenant Colonel; and James Cavanagh, Major. This regiment was rapidly recruited to full strength, and so many additional recruits presented themselves that it was decided to organize a brigade. The 63d and 88th Regiments, together with the 14th and 15th Independent Batteries, New York Light Artillery, in furtherance of this design, were immediately formed. The organization of the brigade was entrusted to Thomas Francis Meagher, who, on February 6, 1862, assumed its command as Brigadier General. This gifted and daring soldier and patriot, the Commander of the Irish Brigade, will ever be remembered as a conspicuous figure of his time. In his early manhood, by gift of genius, he had leaped to foremost rank among public men in his native isle. He had pleaded the doctrine of armed resistance to tyranny with an inspired eloquence and had defied the might of his country’s oppressors by participating in an insurrection; he had been condemned to death and had suffered a long imprisonment. The electric eloquence of the peroration of a speech delivered 164by him in Conciliation Hall in Dublin in 1846, during the Repeal agitation, caused him to be referred to thereafter as “Meagher of the sword.” His fidelity to the warlike principles advocated in his youth on behalf of Ireland was demonstrated by gallant conduct in many of the bloodiest battles of the American Civil War, and well established his title to high rank among the soldier sons of a fighting race. To tell the story of the Irish Brigade would be to recite the history of the Civil War. It participated rapidly in the Battle of Fair Oaks, May 31st; Gaines Mill, June 28th; Savage Station, June 29th; Peach Orchard, White Oaks Swamp, Glendale, June 30th; and Malvern Hill, July 1st, marching thereafter to Newport News, and proceeding by transports and on foot to Falmouth, Alexandria, Arlington Heights, Falls Church, Fairfax Court House and Centreville, crossing the Potomac at Chain Bridge, and marching to Tenallytown, Rockville and Frederick City, Maryland, crossing South Mountain to Antietam, participating in that battle and leaving two hundred and one of its members either killed or wounded to testify to the character of the resistance offered by these sons of the Gael to the rebel line in front of the “Bloody Lane.” On December 13th the regiment constituting part of Meagher’s Brigade took part in the desperate attempt to carry the impregnable position of the Confederate forces on Marye’s Heights at Fredericksburg. The valor displayed by the officers and men on this memorable day must dwell forever in the memory of mankind. Inspired by the traditions of the old brigades, the brigades of O’Brien, Dillon, Lally, Sarsfield, the brigades of Landen, Ramilles and Fontenoy; aroused by the burning eloquence and encouraged by the intrepid daring of their fearless leader; mindful of the wrongs which exiled them from their native shores; grateful to the free, fair land that welcomed them to home and liberty, there was no danger too great for them to face, no suffering too severe to endure, no odds too overwhelming to encounter. Five hundred and forty-five soldiers of the Irish Brigade fell in that heroic charge in that most bloody quarter of a mile ever dashed over by armed men in the annals of civilized warfare. The testimony of the London Times correspondent will be regarded at least as not coming from an unduly partial source. This is his description of the charge of the Irish Brigade: “Never at Fontenoy, Albuera, nor at Waterloo was more undaunted courage displayed than during those six frantic dashes 165which the Irish Brigade directed against the almost impregnable position of their foe. That mortal man could have carried the position, defended as it was, seems idle for a moment to believe, but the bodies which lie in dense masses within forty-eight yards of the muzzles of Colonel Walton’s guns are the best evidence of what manner of men they were who pressed onto death, with the dauntlessness of the race which has gained glory on a thousand battlefields and never more richly deserved it than at the foot of Marye’s Heights on the 13th day of December, 1862.” In his official report General Meagher says: “Of the 1,200 men I took into action, only 280 appeared on parade next morning.”

To the achievements of Meagher’s Brigade must be added a reference to the gallant services of the renowned Corcoran Legion, for, in simple justice, all of the regiments composing the Brigade and the Legion must be regarded as branches of the parent tree, the root of which was the old 69th Regiment of ’51, which has continuously flourished so far for nigh a decade more than a full half century. The exchange of Colonel Corcoran as a prisoner of war was effected through the instrumentality of President Lincoln, August 15, 1862, more than a year after his having fallen into Confederate hands, and he was at once commissioned Brigadier General, with rank and pay dating from the day of his capture over a year before. His reception upon his return to the City of New York was most enthusiastic, he having endeared himself to its people, not only by his brilliant and daring actions in the field, but by his heroic conduct in refusing liberty upon the condition that he would not again take up arms in his country’s cause. The Legion was at once organized and was composed of the 155th, 164th, 170th and 69th (subsequently changed to the 182d to avoid confusion) Regiments, New York Volunteers. General Corcoran reported with his command to General John A. Dix, at Fortress Monroe, in November, 1862. The Legion was in active service for nearly three years and participated in many of the bloodiest battles of the war, among them Suffolk, Spottsylvania, Cold Harbor, Reams Station and Port Hudson. Upon these and other fields it served and fought, lavish of blood, reckless of life, mindful only of the honor of the race and the preservation of our glorious Union of States. After Fredericksburg, the remnant of the 69th Regiment continued in the service, fought at Chancellorsville May 3d, 1863, and at Gettysburg July 1661st, upon whose historic ground a beautiful Celtic Cross has since been erected by the State of New York as a testimonial of appreciation of the splendid services rendered to the Union cause by the Irish Brigade and of the heroism, sacrifice and patriotism of its members.

After Gettysburg, recrossing the Potomac, the regiment participated in actions at Auburn Ford, Bristow Station and the Mine Run Campaign. By this time it was practically wiped out and returned to New York City January 2, 1864, where it was recruited nearly up to its original strength and returned to the front. On May 4th, crossing the Rapidan, it took part in the Battle of Spottsylvania, May 8, where it met with heavy loss. It was again in action May 27th at Totopotomoy Creek, and at Cold Harbor on June 3d. It later participated in the siege of Petersburg. Colonel Nugent, who had commanded the regiment through the greater part of its long campaigning, was again with it at Hatchers Run, Five Forks, Southerland Station, South Side Railroad, Amelia Springs, Farmville, and down to Appomattox, April 9, 1865.

When General Grant determined upon demanding the surrender of the Confederate forces, the first communication upon this subject was carried by Colonel Nugent to an officer of General Lee’s Army. This famous order was as follows:

“The result of the last week must convince you of the hopelessness of further resistance on the part of the Army of Northern Virginia in this struggle. I feel that it is so, and regard it as my duty to shift from myself the responsibility of any further effusion of blood by asking of you the surrender of that portion of the Confederate States Army known as the Army of Northern Virginia.

Thus from Bull Run to Appomattox, from the firing upon Sumter to the fall of Richmond, the 69th Regiment was in continuous service, participating in all the decisive battles of a four years’ war unsurpassed in magnitude and fierceness. When mustered out of the service, after passing in the grand review at the National Capitol, May, 1865, with decimated ranks and shattered banners, it could 167claim the proud record of never having disobeyed an order, of never having lost a flag. In Fox’s Regimental Losses in the Civil War the 69th heads the roll of regiments recruited in the Empire State in the number of killed and wounded.

By Chap. 477, L. 1862, passed April 23, entitled “An Act to provide for the enrollment of the Militia, the organization and discipline of the National Guard of the State of New York, and for the public defense,” the uniformed and equipped militia of the State became recognized as the National Guard. The 69th Militia as the 69th regiment, National Guard, entered the service of the United States in May of that year and served until the September following, when it was mustered out. It was again in the service of the United States for the thirty days between June 25th and July 25th, 1863, and again in 1864, it was mustered into the service of the general government for three months, or until October of that year. Colonel Bagley was in command of the regiment during these years and until February, 1866, when General Martin T. McMahon was selected to succeed him. This distinguished citizen soldier merits more than passing notice. He, with two of his brothers, served with distinction during the great war; one of them—John Eugene McMahon, Colonel of the 164th Regiment, New York Volunteers, Corcoran Legion, died of disease contracted in the service in March, 1863, and the other, James Powers McMahon, who after serving as Lieutenant Colonel of the 155th New York Volunteers, was selected to succeed his deceased brother as Colonel of the 164th. This daring soldier was killed in action at Cold Harbor, June 3, 1864, while planting the colors of his regiment on the breastworks of the enemy, in the midst of a hailstorm of bullets, and performing “as proud a feat of arms” as was ever recorded in history. The following extract of a letter from General Thomas Francis Meagher shortly preceding his death describes in glowing words the heroism of James P. McMahon, at Cold Harbor:

“Next came the news that McMahon—planting his colors with his own hands on the enemy’s works—planting them there with a boldness worthy of the grand soldier name he bore, and which perhaps the recollection of the Malakoff and its Irish Conqueror may have inspired, was stricken down by the bullets he so splendidly defied. Who of the old Brigade—the favorite Brigade of Sumner and Richardson—can forget the dashing, handsome, indefatigable 168soldier, with his strictly defined features, oftentimes with the enthusiasm, sometimes with the scorn and haughtiness of a true blooded Celt, with a heart for hospitality, with a soul for glory, and scorn and sarcasm for what was mean, and a quick look and blow for what was treacherous—who can forget his fine bearing, erect and graceful, his rare heartiness, the decisive character of his intellect, his high pride, his humor, his physical activity, all those healthy and superior gifts which made him a soldier at the start, and qualified him even in the first hours of boyhood to be a conspicuous exponent of his martial race and kindred—who can forget all this whenever that grand picture of McMahon, planting the colors of his regiment in the face of the fire storm, and foot to foot with the desperate foe, is spoken of in the Camp and by the Survivors of the Irish Brigade of the Army of the Potomac?”

The survivor of these three young Irish American brothers, General Martin T. McMahon, had a distinguished career alike in civil and in military life. He was appointed Captain and Aide-de-Camp on the Staff of General George B. McClellan, October 25, 1861, and on the 29th of October, 1862, became Adjutant and Chief of Staff of the 6th Army Corps, successively commanded by Colonels W. B. Franklin, John Sedgwick, and Horatio G. Wright. He was brevetted Colonel August 1st, 1864, and Brigadier and Major General, March 13, 1865. In civil life General McMahon was most distinguished; he was a member of the Bar of the State of New York, of recognized standing and ability for a great many years, and served as a public officer in the National, State and City Governments with ability and integrity, winning general public approval. He was appointed United States Minister to Paraguay in 1868, and was subsequently Corporation Attorney of New York City, Receiver of Taxes, and in 1885 was appointed by President Cleveland United States Marshal for the Southern District of New York. He served in the Senate and Assembly of the State of New York, and at the time of his lamented death on April 21, 1906, was a Judge of the Court of General Sessions, the highest court of exclusive criminal jurisdiction. His honored remains were accorded soldierly sepulchre in the National Cemetery at Arlington, where thousands of his comrades of war’s dread days rest peacefully, awaiting the 169trumpet of the resurrection, and over whose arched entrances are engraven the touching lines of the hero-poet:

A splendid type of an American and a true scion of the stock that has furnished statesmen and soldiers to many lands and had given to the Second French Empire its ablest Marshal, and to the Republic of France a President, whose fame is so universal that a single descriptive word would be superfluous.

General McMahon’s successor was Colonel James Cavanagh, a veteran of one hundred fields, known to many of us and beloved by all, who was retired December 1st, 1893, with brevet rank of Brigadier General, who was followed in command by Colonel George Moore Smith, August 9, 1895, who, on July 1, 1901, was commissioned Brigadier General, and in October following was assigned to the command of the First Brigade of the National Guard.

The breaking out of the War with Spain in the Spring of 1898 afforded another opportunity for the conspicuous display of the spirit of valor and loyalty that at all times animates the officers and men of the 69th. Major General Roe, the commander of the National Guard of the State of New York, at that time was desirous of ascertaining the number of members in the different regiments that could be relied upon to volunteer for service beyond the territorial boundaries of the State, and directed the various regimental commanders to question their officers and men upon the subject. Lieutenant Colonel Edward Duffy was then in command of the 69th, and his answer was immediate and characteristic: “The 69th will volunteer to a unit to serve anywhere that the country might require its services.” Upon his return to the Armory after this interview with General Roe, Colonel Duffy issued Order No. 47, which bears date April 1st, 1898, and contains the following stirring words:

“The Commanding Officer, mindful of the record and traditions of the regiment, rests assured of the enthusiastic support and co-operation of every member, and takes occasion to impress upon all the necessity for the vigorous recruiting of the different companies, so that our ranks may be swelled to full numbers. The example of 170our heroic predecessors of 1861 should be always before us, and it should be our pride to emulate their glorious conduct if called upon to vindicate the nation’s honor and defend in any quarter the flag of our country.”

The strength of the regiment at this time was thirty-one officers and five hundred and twenty-nine enlisted men. On the 28th of April Colonel Duffy received authority to recruit the regiment to twelve companies of three officers and eighty-one men each, and so rapidly was this work performed, that on the 2d of May the regiment left its armory for Camp Black, Hempstead Plains, Long Island, with full ranks, and was mustered into the service of the United States on May 19th following, on which occasion it was presented with a stand of colors by the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick of the City of New York. Describing the scene of this presentation in The Criterion the distinguished Irish-American dramatist, poet and journalist, Joseph I. C. Clarke,^[4] said:

“The deeper notes in the diapason of history vibrate in us, and Irish brigades of other centuries and other lands seem once more enacting their outlined braveries beneath many skies, under many banners fluttering in a breeze as fresh as that blowing cool and damp in our faces now. In a good round voice a civilian orator, Judge Fitzgerald, is telling without oratorical periphrase what the gathering means. His sentences tell clearly that the thousand men before him love the great land of their adoption, the great State that sends them forth and the land that gave them or their fathers birth—a Shamrock of love, he says poetically. As he speaks, flag after flag is unfurled—first the red, white and blue of the Stars and Stripes, eagle crowned; next the white figured flag of the State of New York, and last the green sunburst flag of Ireland, surmounted by a gold pikehead, all brave and beautiful, and each one flapping and whipping from its staff like a great tropical bird first trying its bright wings upon the wind. Cheer upon cheer rises from the crowd, and rolls back as in echo from the regiment. Colonel Duffy salutes, and says briefly that his regiment thanks the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick for their silken gift, and says for his men that they will carry the flags to the war with pride and bring them home without stain. It is all very simple and in proportion touching.”

171The regiment left Camp Black, on Hempstead Plains, for Chickamauga, under orders to report to General John R. Brooke, of the United States Army, at that point, and its march through the City of New York on May 24th was a memorable and notable event. The New York Herald of the succeeding day said:

“Not since the stirring days of ‘ ’61’ has New York so thrilled with patriotic fervor as it did yesterday, when the 69th Regiment marched through the city on its way to the front. If they had been battle-scarred heroes of one hundred fights, Colonel Duffy and his boys could not have received a more enthusiastic welcome than that which greeted them. From East to West through the city they marched amid a flourish of flags, and the tramp of their feet was lost in the cheers that roared from tens of thousands of throats. Fifth Avenue and Tenth Avenue united in enthusiasm. Truck drivers and longshoremen did not shout louder than bankers and clubmen, and the fluttering flags in Fifth Avenue were not less numerous than the banners that waived from factories and tenements.”

Sub-joined is a list of the officers composing the Field, Staff and Line of the Regiment as it marched through the City on that bright May day, when, after thirty-five years of peace, the dark shadow of war again clouded the horizon of the Republic.

Colonel—Edward Duffy.

Lieutenant Colonel—Joseph L. Donovan.

Majors—Thomas F. Lynch, Michael J. Spellman, Edward T. McCrystal.

Adjutants—John A. Davidson, May 2–Nov. 19th; Granville T. Emmet, Sept. 21–Jan. 31st.

Quartermaster—James M. Cronin, May 2–Oct. 17th.

Surgeons—George D. Ramsey, Francis L. Oswald.

Assistant Surgeons—John H. Fuchsius, Robert M. Daly.

Chaplain—Rev. William J. B. Daly.

Co. “A”—Michael Lynch, Captain; Patrick M. Harran, 1st Lieut.; William F. Guilfoyle, 2d Lieut.

Co. “B”—Peter W. Maguire, Captain; John J. Henry, 1st Lieut.; Martin L. Crimmins, 2d Lieut.; Martin O’Neill, 2d Lieut.

172Co. “C”—John J. Kennedy, Captain; Patrick J. McKenna, 1st Lieut.; Felix McSherry, 2d Lieut.

Co. “D”—James Plunket, Captain; James J. Tuite, 1st Lieut.; Christopher H. R. Woodward, 2d Lieut.

Co. “E”—Michael J. Ryan, Captain; John F. Bolger, 1st Lieut.; John P. Scanlan, 2d Lieut.

Co. “F”—Anthony J. Griffin, Captain; Phillip E. Reville, 1st Lieut.; James H. Little, 2d Lieut.

Co. “G”—John E. Duffy, Captain; Bernard F. Cummins, 1st Lieut.; William J. Costigan, 2d Lieut.

Co. “H”—Daniel C. Devlin, Captain; Timothy H. Leary, 1st Lieut.; William W. Bryant, 2d Lieut.

Co. “I”—Charles Healy, Captain; Patrick J. Mollohan, 1st Lieut.; Daniel P. Sullivan, 2d Lieut.

Co. “K”—Daniel McCarthy, Captain; Francis J. Keaney, 1st Lieut.; Edward P. Gilgar, 2d Lieut.

Co. “L”—Hugh J. Barron, Captain; Francis J. Cronin, 1st Lieut.; William J. P. McCrystal, 2d Lieut.

Co. “M”—John J. Roche, Captain; John P. Devane, 1st Lieut.; Leo F. Rooney, 2d Lieut.

May 27th the regiment arrived at Chickamauga and was attached to the 2d Division of the Third Army Corps, and on May 30th proceeded to Tampa, Florida, under orders to report to General Carpenter, and was assigned to the 2d Brigade, 2d Division, 4th Army Corps. June 5th it was placed in the 2d Brigade of the 3d Division, commanded by General Guy V. Henry, and was sent forward to Fernandina, Florida. The regiment was honored by visits from Governor Black of New York, Governor Shaw of Iowa, and Secretary of War Alger, and took part in the general review of the 4th Corps, at Huntsville, Alabama, September 23, 1898. Impressed with the appearance of the regiment upon this occasion, the Brigade Commander addressed the following note of congratulation to Colonel Duffy:

“I desire to express my admiration of the magnificent appearance made by your regiment today. The Sixty-ninth is certainly a fine example of the volunteer soldier, and you can well, with your brother 173officers, feel proud of so efficient a regiment. Promptness is the foundation of all military efficiency; your command was halted in position assigned for the formation for review exactly on time. With best wishes for yourself and splendid command.

The regiment remained in the service of the United States until the 31st of January, 1899, on which date it returned home and received a magnificent welcome, significantly demonstrative of the warm affection and pride in which its officers and men were held by the people of the City of New York. On the evening of this day the regiment was honorably mustered out of the service of the United States. Upon its discharge by the general government, the regiment at once resumed its former position in the National Guard of the State.

The cornerstone of the new Armory was laid April 23, 1904, the forty-fourth anniversary of the departure of the regiment for the Civil War. This splendidly equipped building, from a military standpoint, on the west side of Lexington Avenue, between 25th and 26th Streets, was completed within two years. It occupies the entire front on the Avenue, extending in depth over 300 feet, and is provided with every modern requirement. On October 13, 1906, the regiment left its old armory over Tompkins Market, and made its formal entry into its new home, on which occasion it was escorted by the 7th Regiment, the Old Guard, 1st and 2d Batteries of New York, and the 9th Regiment of Boston, that justly renowned Irish-American Military organization of the old Bay State.

At the Dinner given by the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick on the evening of May 20, 1902, in honor of the representatives of the government of the French Republic, at the unveiling of the Rochambeau Statue at Washington, the delegates were escorted by the 69th to Delmonico’s. In response to a toast, Admiral Fournier of the French Navy said: “The 69th Regiment reminded me by its very appearance of a crack French regiment on parade.”

CAPTAIN JAMES CONNOLLY,

of Coronado, Cal.

Vice-President of the Society for California.

174Again on the 17th of March, 1905, the regiment escorted the Hon. Theodore Roosevelt to the 121st Annual Dinner of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, the first appearance of Mr. Roosevelt at any public function in his native city after his installation in the high office of President of the United States for the term for which he had been elected. In his address upon that occasion President Roosevelt said:

“I wish to express at the outset my special sense of obligation—and I know that no one present will grudge me doing so—my special sense of obligation to Colonel Duffy and the officers and men of the 69th, who were my escort today. I shall write Col. Duffy later making formal acknowledgment to the regiment of my appreciation, but I wish to express it thus fully tonight.”

Colonel Duffy commanded the regiment during the Spanish War and for many years after its discharge from the service of the United States and return to its position in the National Guard of the State. He is entitled to great credit for the energy, industry and persistency with which he labored, happily successfully, to secure for the regiment the new armory into which he had the pleasure of leading it. Colonel Duffy enlisted as a private in Company “E,” June 3, 1867; promoted Corporal May 14, 1868; Sergeant, September 10, 1868; First Lieutenant, March 14, 1871; Regimental Adjutant, December 31, 1874; Major, September 10, 1875; Lieutenant Colonel, March 25, 1896; Colonel, April 13, 1898, and was brevetted Brigadier General August 14, 1903, for long and meritorious service, and after forty-two years of continuous service was retired, at his own request, in 1909, with the rank of Brigadier General, since which time the regiment has been under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Louis D. Conley, a young officer of experience and capacity, who is zealously laboring to maintain the high record of the regiment for efficiency.

A grave injustice has resulted for years owing to the defective records of the Adjutant General’s Office, no mention appearing therein of the services rendered during the Civil War by the 69th Volunteers of the Irish Brigade or of the Irish Legion. These omissions are about being supplied, as appears from the following letters, composing a part of a correspondence upon the subject, and as it is a most interesting matter of recent occurrence, I give them in full as kindly furnished me by the courtesy of Colonel Conley:

“Under date of August 9th, 1909, we forwarded to the Adjutant General, S. N. Y., a summary of the record of the regiment for insertion in the official register, together with a list of engagements for which we requested authority to place silver service rings on our colors.

“Receipt of our communication was acknowledged over your signature on September 3, 1909, and further information was asked in regard to certain engagements, and as to difference in dates of others. We sent the required information through the channel on October 8th, 1909, together with a revised list of engagements, and we have not heard anything further in regard to the matter.

“We would like very much to have the matter adjusted in time to permit of its being included in the official register for 1909, and to have the required authority as to the silver rings published in orders before the end of the year.

“Knowing your familiarity with the subject and feeling that had you remained at General Headquarters the matter would have been favorably acted upon by this time, I am taking the liberty to ask if you would be kind enough to use your good offices with the Adjutant General to have the matter approved before January 1, 1910.

“I have just received your favor of the seventeenth instant, having been on duty in New York City on Friday and Saturday last.

“I have submitted the matter to Captain Reagan, Adjutant General’s Office, who has such subjects in hand, and he tells me that the record has been accepted and will appear in the official register when published, and that the authority for the silver rings will be published in the next General Orders, which cover changes in organization and in which I believe silver rings are generally authorized.

“With best wishes for a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, believe me,

A separate silver engraved ring will be authorized to be placed upon the Lance of the National Color for each of the following engagements:

Also on the Lance of the State Color for meritorious services, as follows: Quarantine Riots, 1858; Draft Riots, 1863; Fire Island, 1892; Brooklyn, 1895.

I am also indebted to Colonel Conley for the following copy of the Roster of the commissioned officers of the regiment at the present time (January 7th, 1910):

Lieut. Colonel Commanding—Louis D. Conley.

Majors—Michael Lynch, John E. Duffy, Philip E. Reville, F. L. Oswald.

Captains—John J. Phelan, Thomas F. McGuire, William M. Ford, Bernard J. Glynn, John W. Elmes, Thomas J. Barry.

First Lieutenants—Patrick J. Mulcahy, Elwyn G. B. Riley, Felix A. Donnelly.

Second Lieutenants—Percival E. Nagle, Rhinelander Waldo. Chaplain—Rev. James D. Lennon.

Captains—Co. “A,” Michael J. Dwyer; Co. “B,” Edmond M. Dillon; Co. “C,” Felix J. McSherry; Co. “D,” John P. Everett; Co. “E,” John J. Scanlon; Co. “F,” Patrick J. Maguire; Co. “G,” Bernard F. Cummings; Co. “H,” W. Clayton Woods; Co. “I,” Charles Healy; Co. “K,’’ William J. Costigan.

First Lieutenants—Co. “A,” William B. Stacom; Co. “C,” T. Harry Shanton; Co. “E,” William E. Morris; Co. “F,” Michael A. Kelly; Co. “G,” Edward Kirkpatrick; Co. “H,” Thomas J. O’Reilly; Co. “K,” James E. Dillon.

Second Lieutenants-Co. “B,” Jeremiah A. O’Leary; Co. “C,” John E. Chicquette; Co. “E,” James L. Doyle; Co. “G,” John E. O’Brien.

Any sketch of the 69th would be incomplete if it failed to call attention to the Veteran Corps, an organization which has always kept in close touch with the regiment and has done much for its welfare throughout all these years. Not many of the heroic followers of Corcoran and Meagher are within its ranks today, but a few, thank God, are still happily left among us. Each year their diminishing ranks are being still further thinned by the inexorable ravages of time. They are but few indeed, and all the more for this reason we delight in honoring them. Brave veterans, may you long be spared to illustrate by your simple lives the virtues of patriotism and courage, and to inspire the soldier sons of the Republic with a desire to emulate your daring and sacrifice. Captain O’Connell, the President of the Corps, has kindly furnished me with the 179names of the survivors at present upon the roll of those who followed the colors from ’61 to ’65:

For very many years the writer has been favored with the friendship of the 69th Regiment; it has conferred honors upon him, of which he is very proud. He had the privilege of delivering the oration upon the occasion of the laying of the cornerstone of the new armory, and was called upon to preside at the memorable ceremonies attending the formal opening of the completed building. The great consideration at all times shown him will be ever gratefully remembered, and it is his hope that this paper, prepared at the request of the American-Irish Historical Society, may serve in slight degree to perpetuate the well-earned glory of an historic and gallant corps, which we trust may long remain a notable and reliable unit in the military forces of the United States. Neither the elements of social disorder laboring from within to undermine the fabric of our Constitution, nor the international complications possible to arise, by which our people may be subjected to the perils of foreign war, can menace our beloved country with permanent danger as long as the manhood of the Nation is animated by the spirit and courage associated with the history and traditions of the 69th Regiment.

JOHN LOUIS SHEEHAN, LL. D.,

Of Boston, Mass.

Author of paper on Thomas Jonathan (Stonewall) Jackson.

Member of the Society.

THOMAS JONATHAN (STONEWALL) JACKSON.

A Paper Read at the Twelfth Annual Meeting of the American-Irish Historical Society, January 8, 1910, at Hotel Plaza in New York, by John Louis Sheehan, LL. D. of Boston University School of Law.

In scanning the pages of American history, one pauses at the name of Stonewall Jackson. In imagination the reader goes back more than half a century, to fields of fierce conflict where a nation was drenched in human blood. He hears the cry of the torn and mangled, the roar and shriek of the bursting shell, and when for a moment the flash of cannon clears away the smoke of battle, there is seen the form of one admired by all, the ingenious, the courageous, the redoubtable Jackson.

Nerve and a spirit of independence appears in his great grandmother, Elizabeth Cummins, a woman over six feet tall, who quarreled with her father and left for America, after throwing a silver tankard at his head, while he was keeper of “The Bold Dragoon” in London. On her arrival she married John Jackson, a man of Irish birth. Later on, when young Jackson compared notes, he found that his ancestors came from the same parish in Londonderry as those of President Andrew Jackson. The married couple settled on a farm in northwestern Virginia. It was out of this stock that our hero was born about January 21, 1824.

Jonathan Jackson, the father of Thomas Jonathan, retained little of the mettle of the early pioneers. His health, credit, and fortune were gambled away, and he died leaving his widow and four children to the care of his relatives. Stonewall was three years old at this time. Four years later, called to the bedside of his mother, he witnessed all that was mortal of her pass out of this life.

The orphan went to live with his uncle, Cummins Jackson, who gave him complete freedom in the open air. The boy became a good rider and grew fond of all out door sports. These days spent among remote kin were looked upon by him as the saddest of his life; he never cared to talk about them for this reason. Yet his temper as a boy was cheerful and generous. He had a high regard for truth, 181and his sense of justice was very strong. He was quick to resent an insult, would never yield to defeat, but when fairly treated was always gentle and kind.

He was eighteen years old when he became a constable of Lewis County. This office he held for a time, though the age required by law was twenty-one. “But since a desire for knowledge had been the passion of his youth,” it is needless to say that he was glad to resign on receiving an appointment to the military academy at West Point. On his arrival at Washington, the congressman from his district, introduced him to the secretary of war, as a young man with a limited education, with “an honorable desire for improvement.” His conversation must have pleased the secretary, for he said: “Go to West Point; and the first man who insults you, knock him down, and have it charged to my account.” The term at the academy having already began, the youth had to hasten to West Point. Before leaving he climbed the roof of the Capitol, and looked out over Washington. Nobody noticed him there, nobody looked for him in that great city; but there came a time when folks did look for him, and when the inhabitants shook at the mere mention of his name; yes, when the mere threat of an attack caused the greatest fear at Washington, and disturbed the whole United States.

It is said that he was a “gawky” youth, with an ill-looking jaw, wearing homespun clothes, when he presented himself to the officers at West Point. His appearance led the cadets to attempt fun at his expense. In a measure they were disappointed. After many trials they decided that the young fellow had come to stay. But Jackson did not make great progress in his studies. He could do the necessary riding and running, but he was slow in his book learning, and always two or three lessons behind his class. He barely got through his mid-year examinations, yet this pass gave him courage, and he studied even after the taps “for lights out.” The end of the first year, however, found him on safer ground.

When his class was graduated at the end of four years, Jackson stood seventeenth among the seventy. The world was to hear of that class later, for in it were many destined for distinguished honors; among them were Generals A. P. Hill, Pickett, Maury, D. R. Jones, W. D. Smith, and Wilcox of the Confederate Army, and Generals McClellan, Foster, Reno, Stoneman, Couch, and Gibbon of the Federal Army. Jackson himself was no longer an 182awkward boy, for the training and system at West Point had wrought a change which clung to him through life. He was kind and courteous, but not altogether sociable and had only a few good friends.

He was now twenty-two years old, with the brevet rank of second lieutenant of artillery. Our country had already declared war against Mexico, and when his whole class was ordered to the front, Jackson went to New Orleans from whence he sailed to Mexico. General Winfield Scott was there, and Jackson joined his army at Vera Cruz. From this time on, fortune placed him in the centre of the stage. He took part in nearly all the great battles of this war. He was many times mentioned for bravery. At the storming of the Castle of Chapultepec, Captain Magruder recommended him for promotion in the following words: “I beg leave to call the attention of the Major General commanding, to the conduct of Lieutenant Jackson of the First Artillery. If devotion, industry, talent and gallantry are the highest qualities of a soldier, then is he entitled to the distinction which their possession confers.” At once he was brevetted a captain, and a little later made major. It is said “no other officer in the whole army in Mexico was promoted so often for meritorious conduct or made so great a stride in rank.”

On September 14, the American Army occupied the city of Mexico. A garrison was finally left to guard the city, and Jackson spent pleasant days in this life of ease among the Mexican people. He learned their language, and took part in some of their pastimes. It was here that religion grew upon him. He began the study of the differing forms of creeds and service taught by soldier chaplains, Mexican priests, and citizen ministers. The Archbishop of Mexico explained to him the system of the Church of Rome, but Jackson was quite undecided when he had listened to them all, and left his selection to a later day.

In 1848 the army vacated the city. Major Jackson was sent to Fort Hamilton, on Long Island, where two uneventful years quickly passed. He was next ordered to Fort Meade, near Tampa Bay, Florida, where he stayed for six months. A pleasant change awaited him, for he was elected professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy and Artillery Tactics at the Virginia Military Institute, where he went in March, 1851.

It was at Lexington, where the Shenandoah flows through the “Valley of Virginia,” that Jackson spent the next ten years, teaching 183the cadets, and very interesting work he found it. He loved every inch of the beautiful grounds, and enjoyed every hour of those days. It was here that he met Doctor White, a Presbyterian minister, in whom he found a congenial “spiritual commanding officer.” After examination of all the creeds, Jackson was baptized “a member of Doctor White’s congregation,” and began straightaway, with a zeal that was all his might, the business of leading a veritable “religious life,” and this life he lived to the letter, as far as it is possible for man to live it in this world. “Every act, it seemed to him, was fit occasion for a prayer,—prayer before he drank a glass of water, in the class-room, a blessing on his scholars, on mailing a letter, an appeal for the person to whom it was sent,—silent prayers in most cases; for there appeared little of the Roundhead in this simple man, who could speak out when he thought it necessary, but shrank from uncalled for show.”

In 1853 Jackson was married to Elinor, daughter of President Junkin, of Washington College. Less than one happy year were they together, for she died in childbirth, and Jackson sank in despair.

There have been many descriptions of this Major Jackson. He is described as being “tall, erect, muscular, with uncommonly large hands and feet, and with a diffident manner of meeting people that was exaggerated by his habitually awkward movements. He walked, it is said, like a dismounted horseman; in the saddle sat loosely, in a kind of slovenly ease, unless, as later, in battle, he was moved by excitement, when his whole body became rigid with martial lines, and he rode with a distinction as imposing, almost, as that of ‘the man on the horse himself.’ The heavy (bearded) jaw, however, was not square, but oval, and Jackson’s eyes, which were large and blue, had a trace of soft light in them not accounted for in this picture of an iron warrior.”

In 1856 Major Jackson visited Europe. He scanned every inch of the “beaten path,” and in gratifying his curiosity went to the Battlefield of Waterloo. While he felt that Napoleon was the greatest of commanders, he was sure that he made an error in choosing the Chateau of Hugomont as the vital point of attack on the British line; it should have been the village of Mont St. Jean.

In this far away land, his thoughts wandered back to the country of his birth, and to a dear little girl he had known before his marriage. 184He made her his wife a year after his return. They led a plain, simple, Christian life.

Jackson, a keen observer, saw at last the dark clouds of rebellion on the horizon. These signs meant much to him, and, like many another, he was greatly concerned.

Though Jackson took no active part in the secession arguments, he nevertheless came to the definite conclusion that the northern states were using the power of the Washington government for the private advantage of their section, and were seeking to oppress the south. He believed that the Lord had ordained slavery, but apart from this he stood for “the right of the sovereign state.” Said he: “The South ought to take its stand on the outer verge of its just rights, and then resist aggression, if necessary, by the sword,” and when the war came at last, there was no question in his mind on which side he was to fight. He thought of the days under the “Old Flag,” and what those days had been to him; yet after all, he felt that the “act of his state” absolved him,—Virginia was with the Confederacy.

The feeling was now running high in the South. At a meeting of the military academy, where Jackson was called upon to speak, he arose during the cheers of those present, and said: “Soldiers, the time may come when your state will need your services, and, if that time does come, then draw your swords and throw away the scabbards.”

It was on a Sunday morning that Governor Letcher sent the order for Jackson to march his cadets to Richmond. Then he turned them over to his superior officer. Promotions were taking place, commands were given out to some who had had no war experience. He was now getting anxious, when he was about to be sent to the engineers’ department. Friends from his district interfered with such effect that he was given a commission as colonel of Virginia troops, and the command of Harper’s Ferry.

General Beauregard held a position about sixty miles away across the Blue Ridge Mountains. Near Manassas Junction and the Bull Run water, was the Union General McDowell. President Davis received on July 17 Beauregard’s telegram: “The enemy has assaulted my outposts in heavy force—send forward any reinforcements at the earliest possible instant, and by every possible means.” The first Virginia Brigade of Johnson’s army marching with Jackson were reserved in the woods at Bull Run to support the left. 185McClellan made his first attack on the twenty-first at this point. The battle had waged but a short time, when it looked bad for the Confederate side. Federal troops were rapidly moving to the front of the stream, and the Confederate line gave way. Jackson steadied his men as the Carolina and Georgia troops rushed into the ravine. They listened not to the shouting of their generals, Johnson and Beauregard. The enemy turned to destroy Jackson’s line, and complete their victory, when General Bee cried, “General, they are beating us back.” The deep lines stood out on Jackson’s firm face as he replied, “Well, we will give them the bayonet.” Bee rode up to his men and shouted, “Look, there is Jackson standing like a stonewall.” This rallying cry went through the lines, the men turned and advanced, and Jackson gave the order to charge,—“and yell like fury.” The Federal troops fell back, and this, the first great Confederate victory, was won.

Contrary to custom Jackson did not go into winter quarters at Winchester. He wanted to go ahead. He felt that the duty of a soldier was to seek out the enemy and fight him. This, he said, was the only way to shorten the war. Accordingly he prepared to attack the Federal forces at Bath and at Romney, up in the northwest. But the winter was a severe one, and his men suffered greatly. The way was covered with ice and snow. Thy had to cut through the untraveled roads; the horses could not get a footing on the ice, and two miles a day were all they could make. His men were dissatisfied; others spread the news in Winchester of Jackson’s ill luck, and he was criticised severely. General Loring wrote to Richmond of the danger of an attack on Winchester, and the secretary of war telegraphed Jackson to recall his general. Jackson was displeased at this. He felt on the whole that his campaign was successful. He was indignant at the action of the war department, and, ordering General Loring to return to Winchester, resigned from the army. General Johnson delayed the letter, and wrote to Jackson, approving of the Romney and Bath expeditions. Private citizens petitioned him not to resign, for the Confederacy needed him. The “Governor of Virginia sent a kind of ambassador to treat” with him, and later President Davis refused to consider the acceptance of the resignation, and the governor personally withdrew it. Jackson, with “views unchanged,” remained with his command.

General McClellan had now made up his mind to capture the 186Confederate capital. General Banks commanded the right wing at Harper’s Ferry. His plan was for Banks to force out all the southern troops from the valley, then fall in with the army before Richmond. McClellan, thinking that Jackson had fled from the valley, drew some of the Banks forces to him. Jackson immediately returned and attacked the enemy at Kernstown, near Winchester. The firing was hot and bloody, and the Confederate troops, under Gannett in the centre, retired from the field, and the whole army fled after them. One-fourth of Jackson’s command was lost, but he was satisfied that the Federal loss was greater than his own, and that the object of the attack had been gained. Banks had to stay in the valley, the regiments which started to join McClellan were recalled, and in the following April, President Lincoln withdrew McDowell’s whole corps to defend the Capitol at Washington.

Jackson’s successful operation had gained much for the cause of secession, and the Confederate government, to help him carry out his plans, determined to let him have all the troops it could spare from the defense of Richmond.

In May, 1862, Jackson found himself at Bull Pasture. On the eighth day Milroy hit the “Stonewall Brigade,” and brought on the battle of McDowell. During the three hours of fighting Jackson lost heavily in killed and wounded. When night came on, the enemy lighting misleading camp fires, retreated under the protection of Freemont. The Federals reported a victory in this battle, and “God blessed our armies at McDowell yesterday,” was the despatch Jackson sent to President Davis. Ewell was immediately sent for, and Jackson started out for General Banks.

On May 23, the Union forces held Fort Royal against him, then fled to Banks, who was on a quick run to beat Jackson into Winchester. Banks won, and planted his batteries on the outskirts of the town. Jackson shelled him, and Ewell’s brigade drove the Federals through the town. Jackson rested here for two days before marching on to Harper’s Ferry. He wanted to invade the North, but Lee insisted that he first help him drive the enemy away from Richmond. When Jackson received word to go back into the mountains where he would be safe he answered: “Give me fewer orders, and more men.” He evidently did not appreciate the danger, for Lincoln had already ordered Freemont to join McDowell and Shields and capture Jackson. A long march was ahead of him, and there 187was no time to lose. His infantry which was called “foot cavalry,” on account of its reputation for fast marching, had to travel forty miles to Strasburg. Freemont could not reach them in time to do harm. Shields took a wrong road, and could not repair bridges in time to overtake Jackson, who, after a few skirmishes, reached Port Republic for a two days’ rest.

On Sunday, June 8, Shields pierced his lines, and Jackson was almost taken prisoner. Ewell and Freemont began the fighting at Cross Keys. Jackson crossed the stream and joined them. Shields beat him back, and it was only the arrival of Confederate reinforcements that saved the day for Jackson. He made a flank attack, and Shields retreated. The “Stonewall Brigade” now got a much needed rest of five days.

On June 11, General Lee wrote Jackson: “Your recent successes have been the cause of the liveliest joy in this army as well as in the country.” There was no doubt now as to Jackson’s standing as a soldier, and he was admired and loved by his men. This confidence in him is expressed by a song written by one of his soldiers, which carried them many times into victory.

On June 23, General Lee called to his headquarters for consultation, Generals A. P. Hill, D. H. Hill and Longstreet of the army before Richmond. Jackson was there, after fifty miles of continuous riding during the night. Lee told them of his plan to attack the Federal right wing, and left the details to them. At the end of the discussion Longstreet said to Jackson: “As you have the longest march to make and are likely to meet opposition, you had better fix the time for the attack to begin.”

Said Jackson: “Daylight of the 26th.”

Longstreet said: “You will encounter Federal cavalry, and roads blocked by felled timber, if nothing more formidable. Ought you not to give yourself more time?”

188“No, daylight of the 26th,” and Jackson returned to his men. Blunders and mistakes delayed Jackson.

In two days he was at Ashland. He spent the nights following moving about his men, giving orders and praying for his success. Daylight of the 26th did not find him moving, and it was seven o’clock before his army got under way. The generals waited for him, and finally A. P. Hill opened his batteries on Mechanicsville “to hurry Stonewall Jackson on.” The Confederates made an attack on the enemy at Beaver Dam Creek; “but there was no Jackson to turn the Federal right.” The Confederates retreated with terrible loss. Night saw Jackson’s approach. At daybreak the enemy, learning of this, retreated down the Chickahominy toward Gaines Mill and Cold Harbor. Jackson was after them. The firing of the heavy guns told him that the fight was getting hotter. Jackson had gone out of his way, and it was feared that Hill’s command would be shattered before he could arrive, because Longstreet was held back to join with Jackson in the attack. Lee sent word to Longstreet that, unless he could move forward, the day would be lost. At this moment, two of Jackson’s brigades joined Longstreet. Jackson’s men did not seem to find their places. They were disorganized. Jackson, calling Captain Pendleton to him, said: “Go to the line and see all the commanders. Tell them this thing has hung in suspense too long. Sweep the field with the bayonet.”

McClellan, considering himself defeated, marched southeastward toward the James River, under the protection of gunboats. A. P. Hill and Longstreet were sent to head him off. Jackson was to attack the Federal rear. Hill and Longstreet attacked McClellan at Frayzer’s Farm, but Jackson was a day behind the battle, and when he reached White Oak Swamp, the roads were blocked, bridges were burned, and the guns of the enemy were trained upon the fords. He withdrew, and McClellan retreated again when the Frayzer’s Farm battle was over.

Meantime people were asking: “What was the matter with Jackson?” His actions puzzled them. His delays had been costly to the Confederacy. He seemed to be not the same fighter of old. But, as General D. H. Hill said, “Jackson’s genius never shone when he was under the command of another.” He seemed then to be shrouded or paralyzed. The fact was that he was tired and worn out by the wet swamps; the fever and forced marches. Lee’s plans having 189miscarried, he was now forced to attack McClellan on Malvern Hill. His loss was terrible. When the Federal general withdrew, they were a little easier at the Confederate capitol.

Pope was now in command of the Federal Army of Virginia. It was one of the finest armies that ever faced a foe. Lee sent Jackson to fence with him. Jackson immediately called for reinforcements and rested his horses and men while awaiting a reply. In August, A. P. Hill came to his aid. Pope was now on the Rappahannock. When Jackson moved to attack him, Banks met him with all his strength in the Battle of Cedar Mountain, August 9. Banks seemed to be winning the battle, for the Confederate centre was broken, but Jackson’s supports turned the balance the other way. Jackson wrote to Lee: “On the evening of the 9th inst. God blessed our armies with another victory.” General Lee now joined Jackson at Gordonsville. The Federal Army was at Culpepper Court House. Pope took shelter across the river, and Lee conceived a plan to drive him out. Stonewall Jackson was selected for this work. On the 25th he began the move “in his old-time mystery” across the Rappahannock and marched away from the Federals, turning at right angles in the morning toward the line of the Federal communication with Washington. He passed Thoroughfare Gap, and fell on the enemy’s depot of supplies at Manassas Junction. One of Pope’s despatches, captured the next day, disclosed his plan to concentrate his forces at Manassas. Acting upon this, Jackson advanced and met the enemy on the old field of Bull Run. Jackson held his position in this bloody fight, and when the enemy fell back at midnight, he was content not to follow him.

Both sides were ready at dawn of day. Longstreet just reached the field as Pope with his whole army ploughed the Confederate lines. Lee, now Jackson’s superior, helped win another victory for the South.

The great leader of the Confederate army evidently understood General Jackson. He gave him something to accomplish, then let him alone. He had now something of importance in his mind. It was the capture of Harper’s Ferry. Lee was going to invade the North. The army crossed the Potomac and entered Frederick City. Stonewall Jackson was riding ahead. They occupied the city for several days. Meanwhile the Federal forces were gathering around Washington. The garrison at Harper’s Ferry did not move and Lee on September 10 sent Jackson to assault it. Four days later the white flag was raised over it. The men were taken prisoners, and their arms, ammunition, and supplies came to Jackson’s men. Immediately, he joined Lee at Sharpsburg; he was wanted, for McClellan was at Antietam Creek.

MOST REVEREND JOHN M. FARLEY, D. D., LL. D.,

Archbishop of New York.

190At midnight of the 16th a part of Jackson’s men again became engaged; and when “at the dawn of the 17th, Hooker made his terrible attack on the left of the Confederate battle line, Stonewall Jackson stood in the way.”

The morning sun of this day looked down on a sight that was awful beyond conception. In the corn field at the Dunker Church the men fought and fell, cut down like the corn, in the order in which they were standing. “It was never my fortune to witness a more dismal battlefield,” Hooker wrote. “Terrible carnage,” said Jackson, and as he watched the deadly fire, planned a new attack.

He immediately formed his cavalry to turn the Federal right. “Move your divisions to the front, and attack the enemy as soon as you hear Stuart’s guns,” he said. “We’ll drive McClellan into the Potomac.” But Stuart’s guns were not heard, for the enemy was already on the river. The Federals next pressed A. P. Hill’s division; but he was helped in holding possession by the arrival of the remainder of the troops from Harper’s Ferry. Lee crossed the Potomac, and the final victory was with McClellan. The forces remained for three months in camp.

Jackson was made a lieutenant-general in October of this year. Lee now said of him: “Such an executive officer the sun never shone on. I have but to show him my design, and I know if it can be done, it will be done.”

In December, when Burnside moved toward Richmond, Lee went out to meet him. In the battle of Fredericksburg, Jackson commanded the Confederate right, and resisted every attack. Longstreet held the left in this last victory for the South, in this campaign.

Jackson’s wife and his child came to visit him at Hamilton’s Crossing. To Mrs. Jackson he felt disposed to talk of the war. “We must make this campaign an exceedingly active one,” he said. “Only thus can a weaker country cope with a stronger. It must make up in activity what it lacks in strength.”

On April 29, a messenger drew rein at his door. “General Early’s 191adjutant wishes to see General Jackson.” Jackson looked out and said: “That looks as if Hooker were crossing.” He was right. When Jackson’s aide notified Lee, the latter remarked: “Say to your good general that he knows what to do. I will join him at the front.” Jackson threw his army against the enemy, who fell back on Chancellorsville.

The war department at Washington had made up its mind that the only thing to be done was to march steadily on to Richmond. Hooker faced the Confederates, determined to smash through their divisions. Lines of telegraph were at his service, signal stations and captive balloons were ready for his use. In the green fields behind him was “the finest army on this planet,” as he himself said. There was no sleep in the Confederate camp on the night of the first of May. Lee and Jackson discussed plans of a circuit around Hooker’s right and an attack on his rear.

“General Jackson,” said Lee, “what do you propose to do?”

“Go around here.” Jackson’s finger moved on the map before them.

“What do you propose to make this movement with?”

“With my whole corps.”

“What will you leave me?” Lee asked.

“The divisions of Anderson and McLaws,” answered Jackson. Lee paused and then said: “Well, go on.”

Jackson saluted, saying: “My troops will move at once, sir.”

Everything was ready, every order was given, when Jackson looked at his watch. It was six o’clock in the evening,—“You may go forward, sir.”

This whole Southern force moved like an avalanche on the unsuspecting Federals, who received a deadly fire from behind.

They ran before the advancing foe. Here and there they took a stand to resist the attack, then on again. Jackson followed them with his pounding artillery. “Press right ahead, press them, press them,” cried Jackson, as he rode by his men.

“You should not expose yourself so much,” said a staff officer as he grabbed his rein.

“There is no danger, sir,” he replied; “the enemy is routed. Go back and tell General Hill to press on.” But Hooker appeared before the right of his men, ordered a stand to be taken, and Jackson was obliged to stop and collect his scattered troops.

192But half a mile now divided the Confederate and Federal lines; Jackson’s men were scattered in the dark woods, and were running about, “disorderly as a city mob.” Divisions, brigades, companies, all were mixed. At nine o’clock the “rising moon lit dimly the broken, shadowed spaces of the battlefield.” Jackson and his staff were moving quietly about. He drew rein one hundred yards away and listened. To the North Carolina brigade, they looked like Federal cavalry. The skirmish line fired a few shots towards the staff, then a whole company turned a volley to the front; two officers fell. Jackson struck the spurs to his horse and advanced toward the lines, when a regiment blazed out upon him. His horse jumped and started in the direction of the enemy. The limbs of the trees whipped the face of the rider, and Jackson’s arms fell to his side. He was lifted from his saddle to the ground, and Hill bent over him. “General, are you much hurt?” “I think I am,” said Jackson, “and all the wounds are from my own men.”

The North Carolina soldiers stopped firing, but soon the battle began again. As Jackson was being removed to the rear, he said: “Tell them simply that you have a wounded officer.” But, as he passed, a soldier cried out: “Good God, it is General Jackson!”

When Mrs. Jackson arrived on Sunday morning, May 10, Jackson was very low. She told him he was going to die. He tossed about during the afternoon, and his mind began to be cloudy. In a restless sleep he muttered, “Order A. P. Hill to prepare for action. Pass the infantry to the front.” It was a little later, when he made his famous saying, “No, let us pass over the river, and rest under the shade of the trees.” He spoke no more, but fell into the sleep which knows no waking.

“Could I have dictated events,” wrote General Lee, “I should have chosen, for the good of the country, to have been disabled in your stead.”

It seemed strange that Jackson could die, he had survived danger so long. It was at the closing of his grave on the hill at Lexington that his deep loss was felt in the whole South. “The man was so much needed. He had the mark of victory upon him, and his presence in the fight lent faith to the cause everywhere.” A flower of the South had fallen, never to rise again.

At a dedication of a Jackson monument sometime afterwards in New Orleans, Father Hubert prayed, “God, when thou did’st decree 193that the Confederacy should not succeed, thou had’st first to take thy servant, Stonewall Jackson.”

Such was the brief career of a poor orphan boy,—of a Christian and patriotic soldier,—of a descendant of an Irish immigrant, “who achieved the last and greatest of his successes in dying for his country. He perished doubly a martyr, and in his last breath attested the righteousness of the cause which he sealed with his blood.”

SOME IRISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO EARLY AMERICAN HISTORY.

THE IRISH IN THE EARLY DAYS OF ST. LOUIS.

“Quae regio in terris nostri non plena laboris?”

If our Mantuan bard could have looked into the not very distant future he would have beheld a people immeasurably more cosmopolitan than the Trojans, and infinitely more deserving of the above proud boast. Having in mind the scattered children of the Gael, could he not ask with greater truth: “What land on earth has not borne witness to our toil?”

Who has not heard of the military adventures of the ancient Gael pursuing his conquering march to the very walls of Rome and dictating to its proud citizens humiliating terms of surrender? It was on one of these occasions that a Roman general complained of the severity of the fine when the intrepid Gael added to the scale by placing thereon his sword, uttering the Vae Victis of the Conqueror.

Abandoning the course of horrid war, which is hell let loose, the men of Erin turned their minds and hearts to Christianity. The land became dotted over with churches and monasteries until the very place became Religion. Then a beautiful chapter opens to us—the exodus of Irish missionaries to foreign lands—to England and Scotland, to Germany and France, to Belgium and even Italy, in allusion to which Darcy McGee remarks that the sun rises in the West and sets in the East—“Ireland enlightens Rome by the light derived from Rome”—

Then came a dark night which brooded over the land, and Erin’s sons were forced to emigrate to France and Spain and finally to 204America, that Greater Island, by which name she was known ten centuries ago.

To pursue the history of the Irish in America is the pleasing and fruitful task set before the members of this grand society, and so I hope I am in harmony with its spirit and aim if I essay to trace the footsteps of the Irish in the early days of St. Louis.

By the Treaty of Paris 1762 New Orleans and Upper Louisiana became the property of Spain. The Kings of that country sent Antonio de Ulloa, Viceroy of Louisiana, to establish Spanish authority here in 1767. The French did not at first take kindly to Spanish domination, and so the gentle Ulloa is ignominiously expelled from New Orleans. Spain, in its anger, turned to an Irish officer in its military service, Count Alexander O’Reilly, who soon brought the French of Louisiana to see the folly of resistance. Count O’Reilly was born at Baltrassna, Co. Meath, Ireland, A. D. 1722. He had seen much service in European wars, chiefly under the flag of Spain. The following list of his titles shows the prominence he attained in military life: Don Alexander O’Reilly, Commander of Benfayon of the Order of Alcantara; Lieutenant-General of the armies of His Most Catholic Majesty, Inspector General of Infantry, and by Commission Governor and Captain-General of the Province of Louisiana. Promoted to be Field Marshal, he was subsequently sent to Havana, which he newly fortified and strengthened, and later was sent in June, 1768, to recover Louisiana. Though never having set foot in St. Louis, he is credited with having outlined its governmental policy.

In the year 1804, when the formal transfer of Louisiana occurred, we find mention of John Mullanphy’s arrival in the village of St. Louis. Born in 1758 near Enniskillen, Co. Fermanaugh, Ireland, John Mullanphy entered the Irish Brigade in the service of France at the age of twenty. At its dispersion, on the imprisonment of Louis XVI, Lieutenant Mullanphy returned to Ireland, and in 1789 married Miss Elizabeth Brown. Three years after this Mr. and Mrs. Mullanphy, with one child, sailed for America, landing in Philadelphia, which became their home for a time. They next resided in Baltimore, where they formed the acquaintance of Rev. John Carroll, afterwards the first bishop of America, between whom a strong friendship took root. Remembering the lines of Berkeley, “Westward the star of Empire takes its way,” our citizen of the 205world turned towards Kentucky, where he established his home in 1798. While here his home in Frankfort became the stopping place of the early Catholic Missionary, and the temporary chapel of the scattered children of the Church. In 1804 Mr. Gratiot coming to Frankfort, his acquaintance with Mr. Mullanphy grew into closest friendship, which led our hero to move to St. Louis, where he was appointed Justice of the Peace. Here fortune smiled upon him, but he was not the man whom riches could corrupt. He made to himself friends of the Mammon of Iniquity, and so filled his life with noble deeds. In 1827 he settled upon the Ladies of the Sacred Heart twenty-four arpents of land, adjoining the village, today worth millions, on which was a brick house, and gave them ready money for its necessary furnishings. The condition of this bequest was that the Sisters should care for and educate in perpetuity twenty young orphan girls. Mr. Mullanphy assisted in establishing an orphan home for boys. He likewise founded a home for aged and destitute widows, and, assisted by Bishop Rosati, brought out the Sisters of Charity—the spiritual daughters of St. Vincent de Paul—to take charge of a hospital, the first of its kind in St. Louis, which is now called by his name. Besides his never-failing daily charities, he in times of scarcity gave sums of money to the bakers to furnish bread to the hungry poor, and when the cholera was raging employed a young physician, Dr. Henry, to visit the sick throughout the surrounding country. Mr. Mullanphy died in St. Louis in 1833. His only surviving son, Bryan, was also remarkable for his great charities. In November the 14th, 1845, Judge Bryan Mullanphy was chairman of the Committee of Catholic gentlemen who founded the first conference of the St. Vincent de Paul society in the New World. He also established an immense fund for the relief of emigrants on their way to settle in the West.

The next Irishman who figured prominently in the early history of St. Louis was Mr. Jeremiah Connor. He came to St. Louis in 1805. He was the third sheriff of that city, appointed by Governor Wilkinson in 1806, serving as such for four years and acting also as collector and treasurer. He laid out Washington Avenue, one of the finest streets of the city, through the center of his private property, which he generously relinquished to the city without consideration. When Bishops Flaget and Dubourg came to St. Louis in 1818, the latter to establish his Episcopal residence there, Jeremiah Connor donated a thousand dollars towards his reception. Later he gave the bishop the site afterwards occupied by the Jesuit Church and College, known as the St. Louis University.

HON. ZENAS W. BLISS.

Lieutenant-Governor of Rhode Island.

A New Member of the Society.

206Another son of the Emerald Isle, a man of ability and prominence, was Joseph Charless, Sr., who was born in Westmeath in 1772. Being implicated in the Irish rebellion in 1795, he fled to France and thence to America in 1796. After a few years’ stay in Philadelphia he removed to Louisville, Ky. He came to St. Louis in 1808, where he established the first newspaper west of the Mississippi River—the Missouri Gazette, the name being afterwards changed to Missouri Republican when under the management of his son Edward in 1822. It continues to this day under the name of the St. Louis Republic.

Alexander McNair, born in Pennsylvania of Irish parents, was the fourth sheriff in St. Louis, succeeding Jeremiah Connor in that office. During the war of 1812 he raised a company of Mounted Rangers of which he was elected the captain. In 1816, when Congress established a land office for the St. Louis district, he was appointed by President Madison the first register of the same, and held office four years until he was elected, in 1820, the first governor of the state.

Quite a large number of Irish settlers came to St. Louis, rowing their own boat down from Pittsburg, and reaching St. Louis early in 1809. The leaders were John McKnight and Thomas Brady, who had formed a co-partnership in the east. They opened a store at once, and being enterprising, intelligent men, the house of McKnight & Brady was not long in acquiring prominence, and soon became extensively known for its enterprise and public spirit. In 1816 they erected a double brick house of two stories, which was opened as the Washington Hall—the seventh brick house in St. Louis, and the first built for a hotel, in which, on the twenty-second of February, 1817, the first observance of Washington’s birthday, west of the Mississippi, took place by a public dinner presided over by Gov. William Clark, brother of Gen. George Rodger Clark, styled the Hannibal of the Revolution, who were of Irish descent. Mr. Brady died October, 1821. The Rt. Rev. Bishop Dubourg officiated at the funeral obsequies. Mr. Brady’s father-in-law was John Rice Jones, then chief justice of the Supreme Court of the state.

207We may form an idea of the strength of the Irish contingent in early history when we read of the following annals: 1818, Feb. 9—Erin Benevolent Society. A meeting of Irishmen to form a benevolent society was held at the house of Jeremiah Connor, Thomas Brady, Chairman, and Thomas Hanly, secretary. A committee of five: Jeremiah Connor, James McGunnegle, John Mullanphy, Alexander Blackwill and Arthur McGinnis, were appointed to frame resolutions. Adjourned to meet Tuesday, 24th inst., at 10 o’clock a. m., at the house of Thomas Brady.

1819, October 10—At meeting of Irish citizens held at the house of Jeremiah Connor at which he presided, and James Nagle, Esq., acted as secretary, adopted a constitution for the Erin Benevolent Society and adjourned to Thursday 21.

October 21—Met pursuant to adjournment and proceeded to the election: Jeremiah Connor, president; Thomas Hanly, vice-president; Hugh Ranken, treasurer; Laurence Ryan, secretary; Thomas English, James Timon, Robert N. Catherwood, Joseph Charles and Hugh O’Neil, standing committee; and John Timon, Robert Ranken and Francis Rochford, visiting committee.

1820, March 17—The first observance of the day in St. Louis by a procession of the society and a dinner at which a number of toasts and sentiments were drunk.

Another historic character of Irish birth was Col. Luke E. Lawless, who came to St. Louis in 1816. He was born in Dublin in 1781. He was called to the bar in 1805. In 1810 he passed over to France and entered the French military service under his uncle, General William Lawless. He was appointed military secretary to General Clark—Duc of Feltre,—and promoted to a colonelcy. On the return of Napoleon from Elba he read the address of congratulation from his regiment to the Emperor. After the final defeat of Napoleon, in 1815, he came to the United States, and adopted his former profession of law. Governor Dunklin appointed him Judge of the circuit of St. Louis. He died in 1846.

Another honored name of the early days is that of Charles Chambers, who was born in Dublin, in 1784. His father, John Chambers, was one of the oldest stationers and publishers of that city. He was a member of the Society of United Irishmen, and was arrested in that memorable year, 1798. He accompanied to New York, Thomas Addis Emmet, Dr. McNevin and Dr. Cummings. Charles Chambers 208came to New York in 1803. In 1817 he married Jane, the third daughter of John Mullanphy. We find him in St. Louis in the spring of 1819.

The Ranken brothers, Hugh, Robert and David, were born in Londonderry, Ireland. They emigrated to America, remaining in Philadelphia for some time. We find two of the brothers engaged in business as early as 1819, the third brother, David, arriving as late as 1850. They had been very successful in business.

In 1818 we find Capt. James McGunegle, a member and one of the founders of the Erin Benevolent Society, appointed Deputy Quartermaster-General for St. Louis. He purchased the Territorial Bank of St. Louis, which he held until his death, in 1822. He was buried with military honors by the St. Louis Guards.

About this time there came to America from gallant Tipperary a lad of twenty, named Edward Walsh, Sr. He came to Missouri, where he soon made his mark as a man of surpassing ability and indomitable courage. He turned his attention to many of the great utilities of this progressive age—from the mining industry to the construction of great lines of railroads, and from street car projects to the banking business. It may be truly said of him that he was a vital force in the life and development of St. Louis and entitled to be numbered among the city’s founders and promoters. He left a family of four sons and two daughters, who added to the lustre of his name.

James Tomon came to St. Louis in 1819. He was a man of superior character. His eldest son, John, became the much beloved bishop of Buffalo, N. Y.

Dr. James O’Fallen, born in Athlone, Ireland, served as a surgeon in the Continental Army under Washington. His wife was Frances Clark, the youngest sister of General George Rodger and William. Dr. O’Fallen died in Louisville in 1793, leaving two sons, John and Benjamin. In 1811, John O’Fallen, then twenty years of age, fought under Col. Davies at the battle of Tippecanoe, where he was severely wounded. While connected with the army he won much distinction. He settled in St. Louis, of which he became one of her most prominent and public-spirited citizens. He died in 1865.

The Morrison brothers were among the most noted of the early Americans of our territorial days, remarks Billon. They were of Irish origin and settled in and around St. Louis, and even at the 209present day their descendants are men of influence in Missouri and Illinois.

We find a Patrick Walsh, from the Town of Sligo, in St. Louis in 1820. Having been a merchant, he was commissioned by the governor a justice of the peace for the Township of St. Louis.

Patrick Dillon, from Londonderry, came to the United States in 1809. We find him engaged in the mercantile business in St. Louis as early as 1817. He laid out several additions to St. Louis, and one of the streets is named in his honor.

Patrick K. Dowling, a Waterford man, came to St. Louis in 1817. One of his sons, Richard, who died not many years ago, was a very interesting personage. He possessed a rich fund of historical reminiscences.

Thomas Hanley, who was the first secretary of the Irish Benevolent Society, came to St. Louis in 1816. He was a merchant.

John Finney and his family came to St. Louis about the year 1818. He and his sons acquired prominence and position in social and mercantile life.

Arthur McGinnes, born in County Antrim, Ireland, came to St. Louis in the year 1818. He was a young lawyer of considerable ability and force of character. He pushed his way to the front, attaining much social prominence. He removed to Washington, D. C., about the year 1840, where he continued to reside until his death, in 1848.

William Higgins came with his wife and family from Ireland to St. Louis in 1820. His youngest daughter, Winifred, married a Mr. Patterson. She became noted in later years for her princely gifts to charity. She deserves to have her name perpetuated in marble and bronze.

James Nagle and Hugh Johnson came to St. Louis in 1820. “They were two young Irishmen of good education,” remarks our annalist. They carried on a successful mercantile business for many years. After the death of Mr. Johnson, in 1825, Mr. Nagle entered into the practice of law.

And thus did the exiled children of Erin come to this Key City of the Mississippi Valley to grace every sphere of life. There is one sphere to which I have not alluded—that of the sanctuary. And here let me mention the illustrious name of Most Rev. Peter Richard Kenrick, who was born in Dublin in 1806, ordained for 210that diocese in 1832, and soon changed the field of his labors for America at the earnest solicitation of his illustrious brother, Francis Patrick, Archbishop of Philadelphia. Bishop Rosati of St. Louis, desiring a coadjutor, his choice fell on this brilliant young Irish priest. He was consecrated coadjutor-bishop of St. Louis in 1841.

DANIEL MORGAN—ABLE TRIBUTE TO THE MOST UNIQUE FIGURE IN THE ANNALS OF AMERICAN COMMONWEALTHS.

An address delivered before the Society, copy for which was received too late for publication in Vol. VIII of the Journal.

BY HON. JOSEPH T. LAWLESS, NORFOLK, VA.

Mr. President and Fellow Members:

By the grace of your invitation, I have the honor of addressing this Society a second time. With the invitation was coupled the admonition that I should devote myself to the subject which our distinguished President has just announced. Deeply distrusting my ability to discharge the commission to your entertainment and within the limitation of time the occasion prescribes, but taking courage from your desire to have recorded the facts of unwritten history as they affect the objects of this organization, and relying upon your patience to hear, though your interest should wane, I have come tonight in obedience to your summons to speak of the most unique figure in the annals of American Commonwealths. The place of his birth unknown even to himself—his parentage wrapped in an oblivion which he steadfastly refused to penetrate—a farm laborer in the Valley of Virginia in 1755—a teamster in the British army in the French and Indian war—he advanced without the aid of adventitious circumstances to the command of an army of his compatriots and fought and won at the Cowpens the battle which made possible the triumph at Yorktown!

All this, indeed, did Daniel Morgan. But he did more. He conquered his own weaknesses, and scorned the allurements of unworthy preferments. He overcame the excesses of youthful appetite; he 211flouted the proffered temptations of a commission in the royal army of Great Britain while a ragged prisoner of war amidst the snows of Quebec; and in the hour of his subsequent glory on the field at Saratoga, he disdained the persuasions of Gates to join the “Conway Cabal” and remained loyal to Washington and to the liberties of his country.

With his lineage unknown, his birthplace unestablished, his advent unheralded, and his history but sparsely written, no man can speak with certainty of the race from which he sprung. But if there be aught distinctive in racial characteristics; or aught indicative in that accent of human speech which makes the Irish brogue sound as music on the ear, Daniel Morgan was of that race which has ennobled Celtic history, and the lullaby which first soothed him into sleeping was the crooning of a mother’s voice that spake the Irish tongue. But, my countrymen, whatever his lineage and wherever the place of his birth, tonight, on the one hundred and twenty-fifth anniversary of his greatest battle, when we have assembled in New York’s banquet hall to honor his memory and to make better known a renown which should be as firmly established as the liberties of his country, we may well pause to trace the course of those wonderful activities which have no parallel in Revolutionary lore.

The earliest, and perhaps his sole biographer, James Graham, declares he was of Welsh extraction, and that he went to Virginia from the banks of the Delaware. This declaration is based on a manuscript prepared for the biographer by Dr. William Hall, of Winchester, who knew General Morgan in his lifetime and attended his bedside during his last illness. The uniform refusal of Morgan to discuss his parentage and the resultant uncertainty which surrounds his racial extraction, entitle such a statement on the part of a person who was his friend in life to consideration and respect. But I submit a statement of another person who knew him during life to substantiate the belief which exists in Virginia that he was of Irish blood.

The grandmother of Colonel Charles Triplett O’Ferrall, a late Governor of that Commonwealth, lived near and knew Daniel Morgan. During a close association at Richmond, Governor O’Ferrall frequently told me anecdotes of him which he learned from the lips of his grandmother, who in her early life saw much of Morgan and 212was present at his funeral. In reciting some of these anecdotes the Governor would imitate the Irish brogue which appeared to distinguish the accent of Morgan. Born within a few miles of Morgan’s home, O’Ferrall lived in the Valley all his life and for twelve years represented that District in the House of Representatives of the United States. Three times in that body he introduced a bill having for its object the erection of a monument to mark the grave of Morgan. No citizen gave more thought to the personality of the man and his career as a soldier than did Governor O’Ferrall. In his published memoirs he closes the last chapter with a tribute to him and expresses the hope that some successor in Congress from the Valley District will be able to persuade Congress to mark his lowly grave. “I had set my heart on its passage,” he says, on page 358; “every emotion of my soul was aroused in its behalf. I had carefully studied the hero’s life and character and it read like a romance to me.” Concerning Morgan’s brogue, he could not have been misinformed by his grandmother. Res ipsa loquitur. Himself of Irish extraction and as game a cavalryman as ever drew a blade, who can doubt that it was because of the blood that ran in Morgan’s veins, scarcely less than his services to his country, that impelled O’Ferrall to so interest himself in his career?

When about the age of seventeen, in the year 1753, a tall, raw-boned boy, calling himself Daniel Morgan, “turned up” near the village of Winchester in Virginia. There was nothing about him to excite the good opinion of those frontiersmen, except his willingness to work. He had scant acquaintance with the three R’s. His writing was barely legible; his reading, painful to everybody who heard—especially to himself; his knowledge of the simplest principles of arithmetic, was small; his manners were rude; and his conversation so unpolished as to class him with the humblest order of men. The only occupation he understood was that of a land-grubber and rail-splitter, and it was at these hard tasks that he sought employment. He found it. And such was his strength and his industry that no man engaged Daniel Morgan to clear a piece of new land or to split white-oak rails for a snake-fence and ever regretted his contract! Within a year he became a wagoner for Nathaniel Burwell, Esquire. In a little more than two years his industry and thrift enabled him to purchase a wagon and team of his 213own; and then—a forerunner of the Wells Fargo—he established an express between the Valley and points beyond the Blue Ridge, east of the Range.

As his fortunes improved, there came improvement in his mind. His manners, too, changed. The raw-boned boy of seventeen had developed into the man of twenty-one, and with the development came a reputation for great physical strength and a courage that was dauntless—great virtues, always, on the frontier. With these qualities he coupled a natural wit, a quick intelligence, a manliness, and a frankness of manner which won the admiration of his sturdy neighbors.

When Braddock landed his army on the upper banks of the Potomac to make good the claim of his sovereign to the fertile region west of the Alleghanies, Morgan became a teamster with the ill-fated soldiers and accompanied the baggage train of the Second Division. In 1756 he was sent to Fort Chiswell with a wagon-load of supplies. It was while at this post that he received the terrible beating on his bare back which would have cost a less hardy man his life. A British lieutenant insulted him by striking him with the flat of his sword and was immediately stretched senseless on the ground by a blow from the teamster’s fist. A drum-head courtmartial sentenced him to receive five hundred lashes. He was forthwith stripped and tied to a white-oak tree. At the end of the castigation his flesh hung in tags. But his spirit was unbroken and King George was never forgiven for the cruelty his soldiers then inflicted.

When he arrived at about the age of twenty-three, he was a strikingly handsome man. In height, he was upward of six feet; his frame was massive and symmetrical; and, without carrying an ounce of superfluous flesh, his weight was two hundred pounds. But his conduct was not exemplary. He became at this time a trencherman of distinction. Yet so powerful was his constitution he was able to bear excess of liquor without becoming entirely under its influence. As a card player, he was as skillful as the most skillful, and he used his talent to add to his estate. So great was his prowess at fisticuffs and so constant his engagements thereat, that the little town of Berryville in the County of Clarke, where these combats were always held, is called “Battletown” to this day by the older residents of the Valley.

214This, indeed, was the most unpromising time of Daniel Morgan’s life. To most of the vices which end in ruin, he was addicted. But, in the Providence of God, he was not overwhelmed. Grave faults, indeed, he had in plenty; but they appear to have proceeded, not from a depraved heart but from the rollicking, devil-may-care nature of a young frontiersman. Without parents to advise or friends to admonish, his bold wayward spirit was conscious of no restraint when impulse impelled it to action. What he needed to round the man was adventurous enterprise—dangerous commissions! The dash within him—the spirit of command—needed war. And, war came! Like Hotspur, he must have blows and “pass them current, too.”

First it was “Lord Dunmore’s War” for the protection of the frontier against the Indians under Chief Logan and Cornstalk. General Andrew Lewis, an Irishman born and thirteen years of age before he left Ireland for Virginia, was ordered to raise four regiments in the Southwestern counties; and while Lewis was organizing his forces, Morgan, now holding a commission by grace of William Nelson, Esquire, President of His Majesty’s Council and Commander-in-chief of the Colony and Dominion of Virginia, took the field under Major Angus McDonald. He became at once an active factor. His splendid judgment, his knowledge of woodcraft, his understanding of the Indian character and their methods of warfare, his boldness and his courage, soon distinguished him among his comrades in arms as a man fit for leadership.

“Lord Dunmore’s War” ended with the defeat of Cornstalk at Point Pleasant and Morgan’s command turned homeward. When they reached the mouth of the Hockhocking, those stupendous events which had been happening in England and the Colonies during their absence became known to these Virginians, fresh from the wilderness. They learned that the Parliament of Great Britain had ordered the port of Boston to be closed. They were informed that the General Assembly of the mother colony had protested against such despotic legislation. They were told with solemn voices that representatives of the people were then assembled at Philadelphia to consider ways and means to resist the encroachments of the crown. And then and there, amidst the solitude of that wilderness, far from the outposts of civilization, Daniel Morgan and his band of liberty-loving 215Virginians resolved upon their course. “Upon hearing these things,” he wrote in an all-too-inadequate sketch of his military services, “we, as an army victorious, formed ourselves into a society, pledging our words of honor to each other to assist our brethren of Boston in case hostilities should commence.” I need not ask you New Englanders tonight how well they kept that pledge!

On the 22d day of June, 1775, by a unanimous vote of the Committee of Safety of Frederick County, he was appointed to command one of the two companies of Riflemen which the Continental Congress had ordered to be raised in Virginia. “In less than ten days after the receipt of his commission,” says Graham, “he raised a company of ninety-six young, hardy woodsmen, full of spirit and enthusiasm and practised marksmen with the rifle. John Humphreys, who was killed in the assault on Quebec, was his first lieutenant. William Heth, afterwards a Colonel, who greatly distinguished himself in the subsequent events of the war, was his second lieutenant. His ensign was Charles Porterfield, afterwards a Colonel, and an officer who by his many brilliant and daring achievements had earned a proud name among the defenders of his country, and was rapidly rising to distinction when he fell in the bloody field of Camden. A finer body of men than those who composed his company are seldom seen. One that rendered better service, or that shed a brighter lustre on the arms of their country, never had existence.”

In twenty-one days, Morgan, at the head of this company, each Rifleman wearing a cap with the legend “Liberty or Death,” marched a distance of six hundred miles to Boston, and when the roll was called every member of the command was present and ready for duty.

He was now come for the first time on that broader field of action in which he won a renown which will never die. It is not my purpose to dwell on the hardships of that extraordinary march into Canada led by Arnold. The sufferings endured by the Americans in the midst of the snow’s and ice of the Canadian winter are beyond the power of human speech to depict. Half-clad, bare of foot or shod only with moccasins, half-starving, with their comrades in arms dropping in their weary tracks to die—such sufferings could only be endured by men whose natural hardihood and love of country could not be overwhelmed by the agonies of physical torture. At intervals, some helpless hero would be overcome by the hardships 216of the march and tenderly laid aside to die, with a single devoted comrade to hunt for a squirrel or jay or to gather wild herbs for his food, the while he watched his expiring breath and caught the last whispered message of affection for the loved ones at home. Morgan himself was dressed in a costume similar to that of an Indian. He wore leggings and a cloth about the middle. His thighs were bare and their laceration because of it was painfully obvious. But he appeared to be impervious to pain. Judge Henry, who was a member of the expedition, in his “Campaign” describes Morgan at this time as being “a large, strong-bodied personage”—“with a stentorian voice”—“whose appearance gave the idea history has left us of Belisarius.” Those high qualifications for command, which became more and more distinguished as the war progressed, manifested themselves on this occasion. He led the vanguard. And in eight weeks’ time he penetrated an unexplored wilderness for six hundred miles and stood ready with his Riflemen to assault the fortified walls of gun-fringed and snow-crowned Quebec.

If the fame of Daniel Morgan as one of the most intrepid of soldiers depended alone on his conduct at the storming of Quebec, it would live as long as the heroic deeds of the Revolution are remembered of men. At the height of a tempest in which the blinding snow was driven with terrible effect, in the early hours of the first day of the New Year, 1775, the assault began. Armed with scaling-ladders and spontoons, as well as rifles, Morgan’s men, with their captain at their head, were first over the walls. With a sublime courage and a voice which rang above the roar of the tempest he commanded his men, and they, with a devotion as faithful as it was unquestioning, obeyed. Into the heart of the town they fought their way. But, alas, the brave fellows were not supported. The disastrous results of the assault—the wounding of Arnold at its commencement, the death of Montgomery, the brave, while leading those sixty heroes from New York, and the capture of Morgan, of the lion’s heart—are tales of devotion which every American schoolboy knows and which were so extraordinary as to become the subject of public eulogy in the Commons of Great Britain. With “the flower of the rebel army,” Morgan was “cooped up” in the town. His half-starved and poorly clad men were all but frozen in the terrible northeast storm. Their eyes could not endure the hail; their faces 217were “hoar with frost” and weird with pendant icicles; their rifles were practically useless. Finding himself alone with a few of his men and a sprinkling of brave Pennsylvanians, and confronted in a narrow street by his massed enemies, he resolved to cut his way through. The attempt was madness itself. At last, he stood at bay with his back to a wall. With tears streaming down his face, he refused to surrender and challenged his enemies to come and take his sword. A hundred muskets were levelled at his breast, when several of his men begged him to resist no further. Denouncing his enemies as cowards, he acquiesced in the importunities of his followers, but refused to surrender his sword to any person save a noncombatant priest who chanced to be near.

The heroism of the Americans in this assault attracted the admiration of the world. Frederick, of Prussia, praised Montgomery as a military chieftain. In the British Parliament, Barrè, Montgomery’s veteran friend and comrade in the war with France which annexed Canada to the crown, “wept profusely,” in extolling his virtues and the bravery of his men. Edmund Burke pronounced him a hero and his men brave patriots. Lord North, in reply for government, cursed the virtues of the Americans and denounced them as rebels. “The term rebel,” retorted Fox, “is no certain mark of disgrace. The great assertors of liberty, the saviors of their country, the benefactors of mankind in all ages have been called rebels. We owe the constitution which enables us to sit in this house to a rebellion.” And North was silent!

It was during his confinement in “The Seminary,” following his capture, that Morgan was tempted by the British to desert the cause of his country. Had he been made of common clay he might have yielded. He was half-naked; the few garments he wore were in tatters; he was a thousand miles from home; he was a prisoner of war with no prospect of release. But beneath the ragged hunting shirt of this nobleman from the Virginia forests beat a heart as full of loyalty as of love for his country. The polished and generous Governor-General, Sir Guy Carleton, knew of his wonderful courage in the assault. Through the mediation of a subordinate, he tendered Morgan in delicate and diplomatic language “the commission, rank and emoluments of a colonel” in the British Army. “I hope, sir,” was his disdainful reply, “I hope, sir, you will never again insult me 218in my present distressed and unfortunate situation by making me offers which plainly imply that you think me a scoundrel.”

On the 10th day of August, 1776, the prisoners of war in Quebec were released on parole, and a month later landed from the transports at Elizabethtown Point. General Washington gave Morgan a flattering reception. His high qualifications as an officer had become known throughout the army, and the Commander-in-chief desired to avail of his talents at once. From the Heights of Harlem, on the 20th day of September, 1776, General Washington addressed a communication to the President of Congress urging the appointment of Morgan to succeed Colonel Hugh Stephenson of the Rifle Regiment lately ordered to be raised. He stated “his conduct as an officer, in the expedition with General Arnold last fall, his intrepid behavior in the assault on Quebec, when the brave Montgomery fell, the inflexible attachment he professed to our cause during his imprisonment, and which he perseveres in,” all entitled him “to the favor of Congress.” After his release from his parole, Congress acted on the recommendation and Captain Morgan became “a Colonel of the Eleventh Regiment of Virginia in the army of the United States.” Before the year 1776 closed he was once more in the field of active operations.

He was ordered northward with a regiment of his own recruiting to check the ravages of the Indians attached to Burgoyne’s army. During that ever memorable campaign under Gates, Morgan and his men were in the thick of every engagement until the capitulation of the British at Saratoga. “Sir, you command the finest regiment in the world,” was Burgoyne’s outburst to him when they were introduced after the surrender. And in his “Review of the Evidence taken before the House of Commons,” in which Burgoyne’s conduct was a subject of investigation, in speaking of Morgan’s regiment having driven the British light infantry from the field and attacked them in their entrenchments, Burgoyne remarks: “If there can be any person who, after considering that circumstance and the positive proof of the subsequent obstinacy of the attack on the post of Lord Balcarras, and various other actions of the day, continue to doubt that the Americans possess the quality and faculty of fighting (call it by whatever term they please) they are of a prejudice that it would be very absurd longer to contend with.”

219That is honorable testimony from an able adversary of the part Morgan bore in those momentous days. And yet the name of Morgan was omitted from the official account of the surrender which he did so much to compel. The reason was not far to seek and is now well-known. Again—this time on a triumphant field—did the innate nobleness, the loyalty and love of country of Daniel Morgan overcome the blandishments of the tempter and scorn his proffered preferments. General Gates sought to persuade the honest woodsman to join him and his co-conspirators in the “Conway Cabal,” which had for its object the promotion of Gates over Washington. He refused. Had he yielded, his name would have blazoned the dispatches announcing the capitulation. When Gates had concluded his request, the frank and honest soul of Morgan was aflame with indignation. “I have one favor to ask of you, sir, which is never to mention that detestable subject to me again; for under no other man than Washington as commander-in-chief would I ever serve.”

Vain was the attempt to ignore the services of Morgan and his regiment in the campaign against Burgoyne! The omission of his name by Gates in the dispatches should be supplied by the mighty pen of his grateful countrymen, and writ large, in letters of gold, upon the imperishable annals of the Republic. His enemies paid homage to his gallantry. An incident occurred at this time, as related by Lee in his Memoirs, which illustrates the resentment of Gates towards Morgan and demonstrates how unworthy and undeserved was his malice. Shortly after the rejection by Morgan of General Gates’ proposition to join the “Conway Cabal,” Gates gave a dinner to the principal officers of Burgoyne’s army. The principal officers of the American army were also present. But Morgan was not invited. Having occasion to seek an interview with General Gates before the entertainment was concluded, the British officers, observing the noble mien and soldier-like carriage of Morgan and that he wore the uniform of a field officer, made inquiries concerning his identity immediately upon his withdrawal. When informed that he was Colonel Morgan, of the Rifle Regiment, they arose to a man, and overtaking him in the road severally introduced themselves and declared their admiration for his bravery and skill as a commander.

After the surrender, Colonel Morgan, by express command of General Washington, marched southward to join him. The commanderin-chief 220was then operating on the Hudson and in New Jersey and Pennsylvania and was anxious to avail himself of the remarkable talents of Morgan, whose Rangers were now become the elite rifle-corps of the army. To follow him in all of his engagements while under the immediate command of Washington would prolong this address beyond the limitations which patience and the conventions prescribe. No undertaking having for its object the success of the American cause was too hazardous, no service too difficult for him to perform. It was during this period that developed those intimate personal relations between Colonel Morgan and General Lafayette which continued through life and which is affectionately manifested in the correspondence of the polished Marquis with his unaccomplished friend. In a letter from Fishkill, November 28, 1778, Lafayette, in thanking Morgan for the friendship and good opinion he expressed for him on the eve of his departure for France, said: “Both are extremely dear to my heart; and I do assure you, my dear sir, that the true regard and esteem and the sincere affection you have inspired to me, will last forever.

---

“Farewell, my dear sir, don’t forget your friend on the other side of the great water, and believe me ever,

“Your affectionate,

“Lafayette.”

But while he was held in the highest esteem by his superior officers and had rendered extraordinary services to his country, Congress ignored him in dispensing its favors and continued to promote over his head men of smaller talents who had friends at court. Finally he determined to resign. Not even the influence of Washington, once his mind had been formed, was powerful enough to dissuade him from his purpose. Early in July, 1779, he presented a laudatory letter from Washington to Congress and offered his resignation. It was accepted, and the war-worn hero mounted his horse and rode homeward to the verdant valley of the Shenandoah. Greatly was his departure regretted in the army. In a letter to him dated “Haverstraw, Nov. 9, 1779,” General John Neville, then an officer in Woodford’s brigade, said: “Then, say they, for old Morgan a brigadier, and we would kick the world before us. I am not fond of flattery; 221but I assure you, on my word, that no man’s ever leaving the army was more regretted than yours, nor no man was ever wished for more to return.”

For fifteen months he remained with his family, a close student of passing events in the progress of the war. The attention of the British was now directed towards the South and Morgan was filled with apprehension by the preparations being made to bring it under British subjection. Leading three thousand fresh troops from New York, Cornwallis had arrived near Charleston to take command in that section. So rapid and effective were his operations that on the 12th day of May, 1780, when he was ready to assault the town by land and water, General Lincoln signed a capitulation of the city and surrendered his army. By the end of June, the British commander was able to report that he had put an end to all resistance in South Carolina and Georgia; and that in accordance with his plan of operations, he would after the September harvest reduce the province of North Carolina, continue his march to the Chesapeake, and from that base conquer the province of Virginia.

Disregarding the wishes of Washington, Congress on the 13th day of June unanimously named General Gates, instead of General Greene, to succeed Lincoln in command of the Southern Department. It proved to be one of the saddest blunders of the war.

In receiving this independent command, Gates was instructed to report directly to Congress and not to the commander-in-chief. He was authorized to appoint his own staff-officers; to address himself directly to Virginia and to the States north of it for supplies; and to engage his army in such manner for the defense of the South as his judgment alone should approve. Ambitious as Lucifer, and vain by nature, this mark of great distinction—bestowed in spite of the known opinion of Washington concerning its unwisdom—gave Gates unlimited confidence in his abilities. Miscalculating the fighting strength of his “grand army,” two thirds of which consisted of raw militia from the various provinces that had never been paraded together, he marched against the best disciplined troops in the world, led by Cornwallis, at Camden, and suffered a defeat which demoralized the entire South, deprived him of his command and terminated his military career. “Two thirds of the army ran like a torrent,” he wrote, forgetting to add that he ran with them and did not quit running until he arrived, ahead of the fleetest of the fugitives, at Hillsborough, North Carolina, two hundred miles away—making the distance in the splendid time of three and one half days!

MAJOR JOHN W. BOURLET.

Of Concord, N. H.

Many years in charge of the printing and publishing of the volumes of the Society.

Deceased, January 19, 1910.

222At this juncture, Cornwallis was the most conspicuous figure in the British Army in America. Already “the pride and delight” of Lord George Germain, his successes vindicated the opinion which that minister entertained of his military talents, and he was now designed by the Cabinet to supersede Clinton as commander-in-chief—being considered “the one man on whom rested the hopes of the ministry for the successful termination of the war.” Proud of this favoritism on the part of the Cabinet and conscious of the hopes and expectations of the King, Cornwallis began preparations for his northward march. Success had elated him. He believed he would swing from victory unto victory until he had brought all of the people south of the Delaware again under the dominion of the crown.

He began the work of subjugation by inaugurating a reign of terror not excelled in point of barbarity in the annals of civilized warfare. After his victory at Camden, he erected a gibbet, and began the summary and indiscriminate execution of those among his prisoners who had formerly received their parole. He gave stringent orders to his subordinates to imprison all who refused to enter the British Army and thus became the instrument of their own subjection. The confiscation of property and the destruction of life assumed hideous forms. “South Carolina,” says Bancroft, “was writhing under the insolence of an army in which every soldier was licensed to pillage, and every officer outlawed peaceful citizens at will.” The gold and silver plate and other valuables divided amongst the victors at the fall of Charleston amounted in value to a million and a half dollars, the dividend of a major-general alone being four thousand guineas. Cold-blooded assassinations by men holding the King’s commission, often in the presence of the wives and children of the helpless victims, were frequent. No engagements by capitulation were respected. Woodsmen in their rude cabins were suddenly surrounded and put to death, not because they were in arms against the King, but because they were not in arms for him. The tomahawking in June, 1777, of poor Jane McRae by one of the two Indians in the British service who were escorting her under British protection from Fort Edward, New York, to her expectant betrothed in the British 223lines, and who quarreled over the reward promised for her safe arrival, found a fitting complement three years later in South Carolina when Colonel Tarleton, of His Majesty’s service, personally beat the wife of a general officer of the Continental army because of his activity in the cause of his country. Equalling this villainy, Lord Rawdon, one of Cornwallis’ commanders on the Santee, who had found great difficulty in forcing his Irish Regiment to fight against the American patriots, issued an order dated July 1, 1780, in which he said: “I will give the inhabitants ten guineas for any deserter belonging to the volunteers of Ireland and five guineas only if they bring him in alive.”

To the disgrace of the ministry of Lord North, these practices were not only known to but were approved by the Cabinet. Indeed, they met the “hearty and repeated applause” of those charged with the conduct of the war, Germain declaring in orders to Clinton that “no good faith or justice is to be expected from them and we ought in all our transactions with them to act upon that supposition.”

Such was the temper of the British and such was the condition of the people of South Carolina when Cornwallis moved forward.

The army was in three divisions—the main body under Cornwallis, at Camden; Tarleton’s Legion, at Winnsborough; and the Brigade of Provincial troops under Major Ferguson, at Post Ninety-Six. It was at this time that Morgan again took the field. The defeat of Gates at Camden had stirred his patriotism to its very depths. In the distress of his country he buried all resentment of the ill-treatment he had received from both Gates and the Congress—the hardy warrior again drew his sword. And Gates with his pride humbled and his heart filled with humility by adversity, desiring to retrieve his fallen fortunes, resolved upon giving Morgan an independent command. The British began their march in the second week of September—a delightful season in the southern clime, perhaps the loveliest of the year. The earlier cereals had yielded to the sickle, and the sheaves, standing like mute sentinels in the field, had been bound by the reapers. The maize was nearly ripe. Supplies for the troops were plentiful. Indeed, the proud Cornwallis had no thought of care for his army that did not dissolve in the kindling prospect of glory and renown.

In the opinion of Bancroft, the ablest British partizan officer at 224that time in America was Major Patrick Ferguson, in command of the left division of the army. He was ordered to enlist as he passed northward, the young loyalists who had fled to the mountains for security and those fugitives whose love of plunder would find indulgence and protection under the British standard. House-burners and assassins, plunderers and wrongers of women and children, were massed in his command. But neither Ferguson nor his desperate troops were fated much longer to pillage, burn and kill. At King’s Mountain, on the 7th day of October, the backwoodsmen from the Virginia mountains, the commands of Isaac Shelby and John Sevier, the men from North Carolina under McDowell and Cleaveland—all by common consent under the command of the redoubtable Virginian, William Campbell, a brother-in-law of Patrick Henry—every man armed with his own rifle and riding his own horse, determined to avenge the wrongs which they and their kinsmen had suffered at the hands of the British troops. A bloody battle was fought and Ferguson was pierced through the heart. His entire command was captured.

Six days after this event, on the recommendation of Thomas Jefferson, Governor of Virginia, and John Rutledge, the great chief magistrate of South Carolina, Congress appointed Daniel Morgan a Brigadier-General in the army of the United States. The news of the death of Ferguson and the surrender of his army at King’s Mountain reached Cornwallis on the march from Charlotte to Salisbury. The destruction of one-third of his army, at a single blow, and the death of his ablest commander were reverses as stunning as they were unexpected. His fears were at once aroused for the safety of the posts in his rear, now being constantly menaced by Marion and Sumpter.

He first halted. Then he retreated. Determining to reinforce his army, before resuming his march, with the three thousand men under General Leslie at Portsmouth, Virginia, he ordered that officer to join him by way of Charleston. He recrossed the Catawba and posted himself at Winnsborough on the 29th day of October, intending to await the coming of Leslie. On the 4th day of December, 1780, General Nathaniel Greene succeeded General Gates in command of the American army in camp at Charlotte. And now began the series of stirring events which culminated in the most remarkable and surprising battle of the war and the destruction of the second division of Cornwallis’ proud army.

225The whole American force at this time did not exceed two thousand men, only eight hundred of whom were regulars. It was an army almost entirely devoid of necessary equipment. It had no tents and few wagons; it was badly armed and its supply of ammunition was short. Its men were almost naked, with not more than three days’ provisions in store. General Greene’s orders, under these circumstances, were as necessary as wise—he determined to divide his force into two bodies and post them on the right and left flanks of the British. Under his own command, the main body was to occupy a position on the Pedee River; while a detachment under General Morgan was to operate between the Broad and Pacolet. The detachment under Morgan consisted of five hundred and eighty men in all—three hundred and twenty-eight light infantry, two hundred Virginia militia and about eighty cavalry. They were put in motion on the 20th of December, 1780, for the country between the rivers I have just named. Greene offered him wagons. He refused them as being incompatible with the nature of light troops. When Cornwallis learned of Morgan’s movement, he misinterpreted it to mean an attack on the British post called Ninety-Six. On the 2d day of January, 1781, Cornwallis addressed this familiar note to Tarleton, which is indicative of the close personal relations existing between the parties to it, as well as the wholesome respect they had for Morgan:

“Dear Tarleton: I sent Haldane to you last night, to desire you would pass Broad River with the legion and the first battalion of the 71st as soon as possible. If Morgan is still at Williams’, or anywhere within your reach, I should wish you to push him to the utmost. I have not heard, except from McArthur, of his having cannon, nor would I believe it, unless he has it from very good authority. It is, however, possible, and Ninety-Six is of so much importance that no time is to be lost.

“Yours sincerely,

“Cornwallis.”

Tarleton promptly obeyed these instructions and was soon in possession of sufficient information to warrant him in assuring Cornwallis that Ninety-Six was in no immediate danger from Morgan. He then conceived and proposed to Cornwallis the plan of operations 226against Morgan which ended in the celebrated battle which we commemorate tonight and immortalized the name and fame of the big raw-boned boy with the Irish brogue who came to the Valley of Virginia in 1755 “out of the land of God-knows-where”!

That plan contemplated a joint movement against Morgan on the part of Tarleton and Cornwallis by which they would compel him “either to fight, disperse across the mountain or surrender.” It was at once approved. Cornwallis sent Tarleton a reinforcement of two hundred and fifty men and on the 7th of January put the main body in motion to act in conjunction with him. On the 16th day of January Cornwallis reached Turkey Creek. Filled with anxiety lest Greene should attack and defeat the troops under Leslie, and having no doubt that the dashing Tarleton with his superior numbers would defeat Morgan if he overtook him, Cornwallis determined to await at Turkey Creek until General Leslie joined the main army. It was a fatal decision. Not more than twenty-five miles away was about to be enacted the tragedy to the British arms, in which a rude and untutored genius, commanding undisciplined woodmen half-naked and half-starved, was matched against an educated and accomplished officer in command of regular troops greater in number, well-fed, well-conditioned, and as thoroughly disciplined as any troops in the world. The beginning of the end of British authority over American soil was at hand.

Through his superior system of scouts and their knowledge of woodcraft, Morgan was always thoroughly informed of the movements of his enemies. The orders of General Greene required him to hold his ground as long as he possibly could and not to dispirit the inhabitants by a retreat unless it were a necessity to save his troops from destruction or capture. But the time had now come for him to retire in haste before the British or to give battle to Tarleton before Cornwallis could join him. With a noble confidence in his troops, Morgan determined to fight. He made his camp on the night of January 16, 1781, two miles from a grazing-ground for cattle known as the Cowpens, sixteen miles from Spartansburg, South Carolina, and five miles from the North Carolina line. The news that he had determined to give battle to Tarleton was received by his men with exclamations of joy. He knew the enemy’s strength was superior to his own—that the British infantry embraced twice his number and the 227cavalry three times the little force under his command. He knew the advantage of the British because of their artillery. But he was unafraid. Against the superiority of numbers, he placed the skill of his riflemen and their zeal to punish an enemy who had wantonly inflicted upon them and their kinsmen and kinswomen personal wrongs of the most grievous character. But above all, he placed their love of country and a willingness to die in its defense.

“The night before the battle,” says Major Thomas Young in Orion, Vol. III., page 88, “he went among the volunteers, helped them to fix their swords, joked them about their sweethearts, and told them to keep in good spirits, and the day would be ours. Long after I laid down, he was going about among the soldiers encouraging them, and telling them that the ‘Old wagoner would crack his whip over Ben (Tarleton) in the morning, as sure as he lived.’ ‘Just hold up your head, boys,’ he would say, ‘three fires and you are free! And when you return to your homes, how the old folks will bless you and the girls will kiss you for your gallant conduct.’ I don’t think he slept a wink that night.”

It is as far beyond my purpose, Mr. President, as it is beyond my ability, to describe the action which began at sunrise on the 17th day of January, 1781, and ended at “two hours before noon.” In the judgment of Bancroft, Morgan was at this time the “ablest commander of light troops in the world,” and I content myself with saying that on that bloody but happy day his disposition of his troops, his personal bravery, and the result which attended it, all, all confirm the pronouncement of the great historian. The battle was fought in an open wood, “affording to the movements of an army all the facilities of a plain.” Tarleton himself declared it to be “as proper and convenient a place for an action as he could desire.” It resulted in an American loss of twelve killed and sixty wounded. Of the enemy, “ten commissioned officers were killed and more than a hundred rank and file; two hundred were wounded; twenty-nine commissioned officers and more than five hundred privates were taken prisoners besides seventy negroes.” Two standards, upward of a hundred dragoon horses, thirty-five wagons, eight hundred muskets and two field pieces were also captured. The British army was practically destroyed—the fragment which survived, with the flying Tarleton at their head, being driven pell-mell in ignominious flight to 228the main body at Turkey Creek. Thus again, by a single blow, was another third of Cornwallis’ proud army annihilated.

The fame of this surprising victory spread throughout the country. Greene announced it to the army in general orders, saying the victors were “the finest fellows on earth, more worthy than ever of love.” The governors of the Southern States made proclamation of the event. The Commonwealth of Virginia, in the plenitude of her gratitude, voted Morgan a house and sword as a testimonial of “the highest esteem of his country for his military character, so gloriously displayed.” From Charlotte, under date of January 21, 1781, the gallant General Davidson, who was so soon to yield his life in resisting Cornwallis’ passage of the Catawba, sent Morgan a note by “Parson McCaully” extending his “warmest congratulations on the late glorious victory,” and saying “you have, in my opinion, paved the way for the salvation of the country.”

Greene wrote him from Camden August 20, 1781: “The people of this country adore you.” “Great generals are scarce—there are few Morgans to be found.” From Montok Hill, August 15, 1781, while Morgan was recuperating his health, Lafayette wrote: “My dear Friend: I have been happy to hear your health was better. I hope the springs will entirely recover it; and then, my dear sir, I shall be happier than can be expressed, at seeing you with the army. You are the general and the friend I want.” In the Congress, a resolution was adopted placing on record on behalf of the people of the United States “the most lively sense of approbation of the conduct of Morgan and the men and officers under his command.” It ordered that a medal of gold be struck and presented to him in commemoration of the gratitude of his countrymen. It attempted to sum up his merit in three words: “Virtus unita valet.”

Modest, indeed, was the report of Morgan himself of the battle. “Our success,” said he to Greene, “must be attributed to the justice of our cause and the gallantry of our troops. My wishes would induce me to name every sentinel in the corps.” He did name some of his officers in that original report of the battle dated “Camp near Cain Creek, Jan. 19, 1781,” and it will arouse the pride of every man of Irish blood to read them. Listen to this much of it: “Major McDowell, of the North Carolina volunteers, was posted on the right flank in front of the line, one hundred and fifty yards; and 229Major Cunningham, of the Georgia volunteers, on the left, at the same distance in front. Colonels Brannon and Thomas, of the South Carolinians, were posted in the right of Major McDowell and Colonel Hayes and McCall, of the same corps, on the left of Major Cunningham. Captains Tate and Buchanan, with the Augusta riflemen, to support the right of the line.” In the Maryland Regiment, were Major Edward Giles, Morgan’s aid; Captain Gilmore, and Ensign McCoskell. McDowell and Cunningham and Tate and Giles and Gilmore and Hayes and McCoskell and McCall and Brannon, commissioned officers all, in one battle! From this array, it would seem that the Irish may modestly lay claim to have struck at least one blow for Independence!

The military career of Morgan was now nearly ended. Immediately upon the termination of the engagement, he began that masterly retreat for a distance of one hundred and fifty miles before the troops of Cornwallis and Leslie, to form a junction with Greene, which was so necessary to save his little corps from annihilation or capture. To overtake him, Cornwallis destroyed his entire baggage train, and converted his army into light troops. But in vain. Though heavily encumbered by the captured munitions of the enemy and his celerity retarded by the prisoners of war, Morgan conducted his retirement with great prudence and success, and in twenty-one days joined Greene at Guilford Court House, his pursuers being but twenty-five miles in his rear. His heroic band was saved.

Emaciated from want and crippled with disease resulting from hardships he endured in the Canadian campaign, Morgan was now scarcely able to sit upon his horse. When mounted he could not ride out of a walk. He “was a sufferer to the verge of human endurance, and was forced to ask for leave of absence to regain his broken health. Slowly and painfully he made his way homeward; and he was never again physically fit for active operations. But his warlike spirit was never at rest while an armed enemy of his country was in the field. In June, 1781, when Tarleton was raiding eastern Virginia, he raised and equipped a body of cavalry at his own expense and at the earnest importunity of Benjamin Harrison and Archibald Cary, Speakers of the House of Delegates and Senate of Virginia, he placed himself at their head to join Lafayette. But in August his old malady compelled him again to retire.

230The spirit of the old hero chafed under his enforced idleness. The termination of the titanic struggle was now discernible to his experienced eye and he longed to participate in the closing events. The French fleet was in the Chesapeake, cutting off the escape of Cornwallis by sea. In his rear was Lafayette—there was no retreat to the southward. On his flank was the Marquis of St. Simon—there was no flight to the mountains. And from the north, at the head of the main army, marched George Washington with his veteran troops.

The stupendous event which took place at Yorktown on the 19th day of October, 1781, at 4 o’clock p. m., and its influence on the history of the human race, all the world knows. Morgan was at home at that time on a bed of sickness. He wrote Washington under date of September 20, lamenting that his condition prevented him from serving in the field. It was a letter full of personal and patriotic utterances—so much so that Washington felt impelled to answer it in kind. His answer is dated “Headquarters, before York, 5th October, 1781.” “Surrounded as I am,” he wrote, “with a great variety of concerns on the present occasion, I can yet find time to answer your letter of the 20th ultimo, which I have received with much satisfaction; not only as it is filled with such warm expressions of desire for my success on the present expedition, but as it breathes the spirit and ardor of a veteran soldier, who, though impaired in the service of his country, yet retains the sentiments of a soldier in the firmest degree.

“Be assured that I most sincerely lament your present situation, and esteem it a peculiar loss to the United States that you are, at this time, unable to render your services in the field. I most sincerely thank you for the kind expressions of your good wishes, and earnestly hope that you may soon be restored to that share of health which you may desire, and with which you may again be useful to your country in the same eminent degree as has already distinguished your conduct.”

Within two weeks’ time from the date of that cordial letter, Cornwallis surrendered his army, the war of the Revolution had been fought to a finish and the military life of Daniel Morgan was ended.

To his estate in Clarke County, Virginia, which he proudly called “Saratoga,” he now retired; and there he spent his declining days. 231For two years, in obedience to the call of his people, he served them in the Congress of the nation; but, as he had been most warlike in time of war, in time of peace he preferred the quiet shades of private life. On the sixth day of July in the year 1802, in about the sixty-seventh year of his age, he passed out at Winchester, in Virginia, and there lies his dust in an humble grave.

Mr. President, the dust of Daniel Morgan is noble dust. Saving alone those of the commander-in-chief, his services to his struggling country are the most remarkable in the annals of the war. From the valley of the Hockhocking in 1774, he pledged himself to the services of his brethren of Boston and marched his riflemen six hundred miles to their relief. Into the hardships of the Canadian Campaign he led the van; and three times before Quebec he guided his men to the fire-fringed heights with the courage of a demi-god. To him belongs the chief glory of Burgoyne’s surrender; and at the Cowpens he won what Bancroft affirms was “the most astonishing victory of the war.” His life was a succession of sacrifices for his country. Measure his services as you may—in number, in value, or in brilliancy—they are not surpassed by those of any officer of the Revolution, saving always the unapproachable Washington. In fifty contests with the enemy he participated—eight of them being general engagements—and in those in which he was charged with the responsibility of command, he was either successful or achieved results which were equivalent thereto. His patriotism was proof against British allurements when he was a ragged prisoner of war; and his sense of honor repelled the temptations of a superior brother-officer in the hour of victorious exultation. Into every danger where wartime duty called him, he “fought a good fight”; in spite of every wile of the seducer, “he kept the faith”; into the quietude of private life he carried the praises of the whole army and the plaudits of the civil representatives of his country. But he did not escape calumny. He paid the inevitable penalty which success entails, and paid it with the smile of scorn and the noble silence of conscious rectitude. The American people, as yet, have no Madeleine, no Valhalla, no Westminster, wherein repose the ashes of their mighty dead. But when that national mausoleum comes, as come it ought and come it will, to it in some future generation the dust of Daniel Morgan will be tenderly borne and in honor inurned beneath its vaulted halls. Meantime, 232he sleeps yonder at Winchester amidst the lovely hills of Old Virginia, and, “in honored rest,” sleeps well well—

“His truth and valor wearing.”

No marble pile marks his resting place. He needs none! Congresses may, his countrymen never will, forget his devotion to the Republic. On the portals of St. Paul’s Cathedral, the stranger who would behold the monument of its architect, Sir Christopher Wren, is admonished in stately Latin to “look around him.” Si quaeris monumentum, circumspici! Ye who would behold the monument of Daniel Morgan, lift your eyes to the towering dome of your country’s Capitol and consider all that it represents! Read the Bill of Rights incorporated in the charters of your commonwealths, and reflect upon the inalienable prerogatives it preserves to eighty millions of freemen! Study the constitution itself and realize with Gladstone that it is “the most wonderful work ever struck off in a given time by the brain and purpose of man!” Ponder those blessings of liberty which, in their full flower and fruition, every American enjoys tonight! And when ye have done this, remember that Daniel Morgan was of the fathers by whose blood and spirit they were established. Sublimer than effigies of brass, more enduring than granite shafts, are these memorials of the men of the old heroic days. Upon the rights of mankind are they founded, and they will remain even unto the last day of recorded time. And when Time shall be no longer—when, in the ultimate convulsion of nature, the archangel-trumpeter shall sound his summons for the living and the dead to render final accounting of their stewardship—before the Judge of the Nations in the group of immortals who blazed the way for the glory of the American Republic, will stand the tall Irish chieftain of the Virginia Riflemen, “with a countenance like the lightning and in raiment as white as snow.”

ST. BRENDAN, AMERICA’S FIRST DISCOVERER. HOW A LEARNED AND ADVENTUROUS IRISHMAN AND SIXTY MONKS OUTSTRIPPED COLUMBUS BY NEARLY TEN CENTURIES IN HIS QUEST OF THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE—A GRAPHIC AND CONVINCING TREATISE.

During all historic time, the Irish have been noted for their love of adventure and travel, and had commercial intercourse with the leading ports of Europe and Asia for centuries before and after St. Patrick’s time, which is proof that they had sailing vessels of no mean order. The conversion of the Irish people to Christianity, in the fifth century, is unique in the annals of Christendom, because it was accomplished by one man and without the shedding of a single drop of human blood—but the discovery of America by Irish monks in the middle of the sixth century is still a mooted question, notwithstanding the historical researches of Irish, French, German and American scholars, which prove that St. Brendan was the first discoverer of this western hemisphere. His expedition was essentially a religious undertaking, as well as the fulfillment of a well-known prophecy.

St. Brendan was born in the year 484, at a place now called Tralee, in the County of Kerry, Ireland. He was the son of Finnlogha, of the race of Ciar, son of Fergus. He was educated by his relative, the Bishop of Erc, who was head of a local monastery at Kerry. When a child, young Brendan was placed in charge of St. Ita, at Killeedy, in the County of Limerick, where he remained for five years, after which he returned to Bishop Erc’s monastery, and began his ecclesiastical studies with marked ability. He was sent from there to St. Jarlath’s College of Tuan for the purpose of studying the laws and rules of the saints of Ireland, with the injunction to return to Bishop Erc for holy orders, and in due course of time he was ordained.

THOMAS S. LONERGAN, ESQ.,

Of New York City.

Member of the Society, Litterateur and Lecturer.

234St. Brendan belonged to what is known as the second order of Irish Saints. Shortly after his ordination, a passionate desire took possession of him to go forth on expeditions for the discovery of strange lands and the salvation of souls. At his ordination the words of St. Luke produced a profound impression on his mind, which subsequently formed his determination to forsake his native country and to embark on a voyage to a mysterious land, far from human ken and beyond a mighty ocean.

It is certain that Irishmen, in ancient days, found their way to the Hebrides, the Shetland and Faroe Islands, and even to Iceland. St. Brendan is said to have visited the Western and Northern Islands, and Brittany in France between 530 and 540. When he returned home the passion to discover the Land of Promise, as foretold in St. Patrick’s prophecy, was stronger than ever. He went to St. Ita, his old nurse, for counsel, and she advised him to build a ship of wood, and she told him that he would find the distant land beyond the great ocean. He immediately set out for Galway in Connacht, and gathered several of his faithful monks about him, and they there and then began to build a large wooden ship. We are told that they built a peculiar mast in the middle of the ship, and secured all the other rigging for such a craft. They put aboard various kinds of herbs, seeds and provisions. They sailed from Galway along the Irish Coast to the Bay of Kerry.

In 545, according to the Irish annals and the Latin manuscripts, St. Brendan and sixty Irish monks, sailed from the Bay of Kerry, which still bears his name, and after an adventurous voyage of forty days, they reached the shores of what is now Virginia or Carolina, and are said to have remained in this western hemisphere for seven years, exploring and preaching the Gospel of Christ to the natives, especially along the shores of the Ohio River. Most probably they trod the soil of New England. The reports of what they saw and endured are simply marvellous. They found a fertile land, thickly wooded and full of birds and flowers, strange animals and strange human beings.

There is every reason to believe that before the close of that eventful century the story of St. Brendan’s voyages and discovery was well known in every part of Europe. There are still extant thirteen Latin manuscripts in the National Library of Paris which have come down from the tenth century, and contain elaborate accounts of St. 235Brendan’s discovery of America. The Bodlien Library of Oxford and the Nuremburg Library of Germany contain several of the Brendan MSS. There are also versions of the discovery in Gaelic, German, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian.

In the year 1892, the late General Daniel Butterfield, the noted American soldier and scholar, photographed one of the original Latin manuscripts of Brendan in the Bibleothèque Nationale of Paris, which he translated on his arrival in this country, and he subsequently prepared a learned lecture on the subject, which he delivered before the New York Gaelic Society. The translation, has been vouched for by Cardinal Gibbons of Baltimore as being almost literal.

The manuscript begins with a sketch of St. Brendan’s career and of the confession made to him by Father Barindus, which was instrumental in firing the imagination of the great abbot to make a voyage in search of the Land of Promise, which was America. St. Brendan laid his full statement of the confession before the seven wisest counsellors of his community, which concluded in the following words, as translated:

“My Beloved Fellow Warriors: I now ask of you counsel and help, inasmuch as my thoughts and my heart are bent on one desire, if it be the will of God. That land whereof Father Barindus has spoken, is the land of promise of the saints. I have yet set my heart upon. What say you? What counsel do you give me? Their answer was, ‘Abbot, your will is ours; have we not left our parents, have we not forsaken our inheritance, have we not delivered ourselves up unto you? Therefore with you we are ready to go unto life or death.’”

They considered the story or confession a revelation to enable them to reach the land, of which Patrick’s prophecy had foretold. When once upon the highlands of Munster, and looking out upon the Atlantic Ocean, St. Patrick said that a man of renown should arise in those lands and go out upon the sea and find the promised land. That prophecy has been a household word with the people in the Kerry region for more than fourteen centuries, and was well known for several years before St. Brendan was born. The traditions of the Brendanian voyages, like Banquo’s ghost, will never down, because they are embodied in the literature of many European nations.

236The following passage appears in Otway’s Sketches, published in Dublin in 1845.

“Brendan, having prosecuted his inquiries with all diligence, returned to his native Kerry, and from a bay sheltered by a lofty mountain, that is now known by his name, he set sail for the Atlantic land and directing his course towards the Southwest, in order to meet the summer solstice, or what we call the ‘tropic’ after a long and rough voyage, came to summer seas where he was carried without sail or oar for many a long day. This, it is presumed, was the great Gulf Stream and which brought his vessel to shore, somewhere about the Virginia Capes, or where the American coast tends eastward and forms the New England States. There landing, he and his companions marched far into the interior and came to a large river, flowing East and West, which was evidently the Ohio River. After some years’ exploration, the holy adventurer was about to cross the river when he was accosted by a person of noble presence (but whether a real or imaginary man does not appear), who told him that he had gone far enough in that direction and that further discoveries were reserved for other men who would in due time come and Christianize all that pleasant land. The above, when tested by common sense, clearly shows that Brendan landed on a continent and went a good way into the interior.”

It is now supposed that St. Brendan and his companions soon returned to Ireland. Some writers state that he made a second voyage to this country, but there is no proof for that statement.

In the sagas of Scandinavia, America is called Irland Mikla, or “Great Ireland.” The Scandinavian records contain an account of three voyages made to America after the time of St. Brendan and before the arrival of Columbus. Voraginius, the Provincial of the Dominicans and Bishop of Genoa in the thirteenth century, devotes much space in his “Golden Legend” to St. Brendan’s Land. Wynkyn de Worde, the first English printer, wrote a life of St. Brendan, which was published in 1483, just nine years before Columbus sailed from Palos. Several Italians, who wrote in the fifteenth century, had much to say about St. Brendan’s discovery, and it is to be presumed that the mind of Columbus was well stored with the traditions of America’s first discoverer, which had come down through the Middle Ages.

237Here are a few sentences spoken by St. Brendan on the banks of what is now supposed to be the Ohio River:

“Behold the land which you have longed for so long a time.

“The reason you saw it not sooner was that God desired to show you the secrets of the ocean.

“Return, therefore, to the land of thy nativity, carrying with you of the fruits and gems of all that your ship will carry, for the days of your journey are near to a close, and you shall sleep with your fathers. But after the lapse of many years this land shall be made known to your descendants, when Christianity shall overcome Pagan persecution. Now, this river which you see divides the land, as it now appears to you rich in fruits, so shall it always appear without any shadow of night, for its light is Christ.”

If the foregoing is not positive proof, it is at least pretty good circumstantial evidence of St. Brendan’s discovery of this western hemisphere.

Nearly all writers on Columbus bear witness to the traditional value of the voyage of St. Brendan in guiding and inspiring Lief Erickson in the tenth century, and Columbus in the fifteenth, to the discovery of the New World.

The legend of St. Brendan is treated in the general histories of American discovery. In Winsor’s “Narrative and Critical History of America,” volume I, page 48, there is a list of some of the different texts of the legend. Payne’s “History of America” gives a brief summary of the legend. He says: “No story was more popular in the end of the fifteenth century. The critic who does not absolutely reject it, as the Bollandists have done, may take his choice of original versions of it in eight different languages: and St. Brandan occupies ten dense pages in William Caxton’s version of the Golden Legend.” An English version of the legend was published by the Percy Society in 1844 under the title, “St. Brandan, a mediæval legend of the sea, in English prose and verse (London, 1844).”

Gaffarel’s “Histoire de la dècouverte de l’Amerique,” volume I, contains a chapter entitled “Les Irlandais en Amerique avant Colomb,” in which he gives an extended account of the story of St. Brendan, with references to authorities.

HON. THOMAS B. FITZPATRICK,

Of Boston, Mass.

Vice-President-General of the Society.

238De Roo, in his “History of America Before Columbus,” published in 1900, says: “The story of St. Brendan was one of the most remarkable and widely spread of the middle ages. The number of its ancient copies, carefully preserved to the present day, its various translations and its learned commentaries, published of late, sufficiently testify to the living interest which the ‘Navigatio’ of St. Brendan excited. There is scarcely a MSS. Collection in Europe, of any account, where it cannot be found.” There is a copy of the “Navigatio” in the Vatican Library since the Ninth Century. De Roo gives full credence to the St. Brendan narrative.

Learned writers like Moosmuller of Germany, Gravier of France, Palfry and De Costa of America, not to speak of Irish scholars, have written much on St. Brendan and prehistoric America. Cardinal Moran of Australia has recently written a very able work on St. Brendan. O’Donoghue’s Brendaniana and Webb’s Compendium of Irish Biography make mighty interesting reading.

There are several ancient maps in the European Libraries which mention St. Brendan’s Land or “Great Ireland” and those maps are being closely examined by historical students interested in pre-Columbian discoveries.

Columbus himself, while he was endeavoring to fit out his first expedition, wrote these words: “The land of St. Brendan is the land of the Blessed, towards the West, which no one can reach except by the power of God.”

It is not too much to claim that the Irish chapter in American history began with St. Brendan. It is to be hoped and expected that the future historians of this Western Hemisphere will recognize Brendan, the Irish monk and famous navigator, as America’s first discoverer and give credit to whom credit is due.

There is still extant in the Monastery of St. Gall in Switzerland, an ancient MS. containing the prayer of St. Brendan for the safety of himself and his companions in his trans-Atlantic voyage.

“Judging by the ancient documents,” says the learned Dane, Professor Rafn, “we can have no doubt that Great Ireland was settled long before the year 1000 by a Christian Colony from Ireland.” What Rafn calls Great Ireland, we now call the United States of America. Rafn also claims that a people speaking the Irish language were found in Florida as far back as the eighth century.

The latest book on this subject is by Mrs. Marion Mulhall, the wife of the famous statistician, entitled “Explorers in the New World Before Columbus,” recently published by Longmans, Green & Co. Every student of pre-Columbian discoveries ought to read 239that splendid work, which deals with a mighty interesting theme in the field of historical research.

In the sixteenth century, traces of Gaelic speech and a knowledge of the poems of Ossian were discovered among the Indians of Florida. Ossian was an Irish poet who flourished two centuries before St. Brendan was born. Both Thomas Jefferson and Napoleon considered him the greatest poet that ever lived.

In the light of modern historical research, it is absurd to claim that Columbus was the first discoverer of America. I am fully satisfied that Lief Erickson and his Norsemen from the islands of the Baltic discovered this Continent 500 years before Columbus; and I am as fully convinced that St. Brendan and his Irish Monks landed on the shores of this country about the middle of the sixth century. Owing to the fact that no permanent settlement or lasting results came from these discoveries, therefore they do not take a jot or tittle from the achievement of Christopher Columbus, whose name and fame are bound to live forever in the annals of the human race.

The Oxford University press has just published a number of Irish manuscripts in the English language which have been in the Bodlien Library for centuries. Some of those Gaelic manuscripts also refer to the Brendanian voyages and discoveries.

The early Portuguese explorers believed in the existence of the El Dorado, the undiscovered country of St. Brendan. The strongest proof of this is that when the Crown of Portugal was ceded to the Castilians, the treaty included St. Brendan’s land as a certain future discovery.

The high religious reputation and singular fame of St. Brendan gave considerable value to his manuscripts, from which sprang up an unique literature, that planted in the brain of Columbus a desire to find the long lost Land of Promise, which he eventually discovered in the year 1492, a year forever memorable in the history of civilization.

Why is it that nearly all the original Brendan manuscripts are in the Latin tongue? Chambers in his “Cyclopedia of English Literature” gives an excellent explanation: “The first unquestionably real author of distinction is St. Columbanus, a native of Ireland, who contributed greatly to the advance of Christianity in Western Europe and died in 615. He wrote religious treatises and Latin poetry. As yet no educated writer composed in his vernacular tongue. It was 240generally despised by the literary class, and Latin was held to be the only language fit for regular composition.”

Both Columbanus and Columkill or Columba were contemporaries of St. Brendan. Doubtless St. Brendan was an accomplished Latin scholar. Throughout Europe, during the Middle Ages, Brendan’s voyage was a most popular subject in church literature. The Brendanian Manuscripts are still locked up in the various libraries of Europe, and only a few of them have been translated into any of the modern languages. It is to be hoped that some of the great scholars of Germany, as well as those of Ireland, will soon turn their attention to those old manuscripts. The Book of Lismore contains a life of Brendan in the Gaelic language, and the annals of Clonmacnoise devote considerable space to the career and achievements of the famous navigator.

In view of St. Patrick’s prophecy, which was fulfilled by St. Brendan’s voyage, it is a singular fact that the Atlantic Cable was laid by Cyrus W. Field in 1857 within sight of Mount Brendan, which stands out in bold relief on the Irish coast, at an altitude of fully three thousand feet, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.

In childhood young Brendan inhaled the ocean breezes, and was familiar with the magnificent scenery of his native Kerry. At the foot of his mountain retreat was Brendan Bay, from which he sailed for this Western continent almost fourteen centuries ago.

The Sailor Saint is known as St. Brendan the Elder, in contradistinction to St. Brendin, the Abbot or Bishop of Birr. Some writers have confounded those two illustrious Irishmen who flourished in the same century.

Many beautiful poems on “The Sailor Saint” are to be found in the modern languages of Continental Europe, and some historical ballads by Denis Florence McCarthy, Thos. Darcy McGee and others in the English language. Here is one stanza from McGee’s well-known ballad:

241It has been recently pointed out by a writer on the subject that the ancient Irish would have turned the discoveries of St. Brendan to good account, and would have kept up communication with America, if their attention had not been drawn to the severe combat carried on in England between the Britons and the Saxons. Then, at a later period, the Danes invaded Ireland, and for almost 300 years the Irish at home were engaged in continuous warfare against those Pagan marauders, and consequently were in no position to carry out any great peaceful enterprise in distant lands.

In the year 553, St. Brendan founded the famous monastery of Clonfert, in the County Galway, Ireland. In after years that seat of learning had over 3,000 students within its walls, most of whom came from foreign countries. They were educated and entertained without fee or reward, and the same was true of all the other great schools and colleges during the Golden Age of Ireland, which embraced the sixth, seventh and eighth centuries. History tells us that Ireland was then “the school of the West, and the quiet habitation of sanctity and learning.”

During that age, “the monasteries at Bangor, Clonfert and elsewhere,” says Montalembert in his “Monks of the West,” “became entire towns, each of which enclosed more than 3,000 students. The Thebiad reappeared in Ireland, and the West had no longer anything to envy in the history of the East. There was besides an intellectual development, which the Eremites of Egypt had not known. The Irish communities joined by the monks from Gaul and Rome, whom the example of St. Patrick had drawn upon his steps, entered into rivalry with the great monastic schools of Gaul. They explained Ovid there; they copied Virgil, they devoted themselves especially to Greek literature; they drew back from no inquiry, no discussion; they gloried in placing boldness on a level with faith.”

Religion and education went hand in hand in ancient Ireland from the birth of St. Brendan in 484 to the Danish invasion, which took place in the closing years of the eighth century. In that period Ireland was the most learned country in all Europe. The fame of her schools had travelled far and wide. The languages of Greece and Rome, as well as her old Gaelic tongue, were studied and mastered, and thousands of pilgrim students came to her shores, among them were Alfrid, King of Northumbria, and Dagobert II., King of France.

242Love of learning has been an Irish attribute from time immemorial; no mind, not even the Athenian, had ever a greater thirst for knowledge than the Irish mind. Ossian, who lived in the third century of the Christian Era, is to Gaelic literature what Homer is to Greek literature. Intellectual vigor, spiritual fervor and love for travel have been and still are the predominant characteristics of the Irish. Wherever the Irish monks went they founded monasteries, churches and colleges, and laid the foundation for modern civilization and culture. The truest history of Ireland is to be found in the poetry of her bards and in the writings of her exiled monks. For proof see Zimmer’s “Irish Element in Medieval Culture” and Hyde’s “Literary History of Ireland.”

St. Columkill, a contemporary of St. Brendan, has been called the father of monasticism in the British Isles. He and Columbanus are acknowledged to be the two most learned men of their age. It is a well established fact that St. Brendan visited his countryman, Columkill, at his monastery at Iona on the west coast of Scotland in 564. On that occasion he founded two monasteries in Scotland. He also travelled in Wales and England, where he founded some churches and schools and converted thousands to the Christian faith. He built the Monastery of Ailech in Britain, which is now called St. Malo. That was several years before St. Augustine landed on British soil. So we see that Lecky was justified in stating that “England owes a great deal of her Christianity to Irish monks, who labored among her people before the arrival of Augustine.”

Most of the history which has been written during the past four centuries has been a conspiracy against truth, but in these opening years of the twentieth century history is being rewritten in the light of historical research, and in keeping with the spirit of truth and justice. The late Lord Acton was the pioneer, and his example is being followed by some of the great scholars of Germany and other European countries, which may throw a flood of light on the chronicles and traditions of St. Brendan, as well as on the golden Age of Hibernia.

St. Brendan attended the inauguration of Aedh Caemh (anglicized Hugh Keeffe), the first Christian King of Cashel in Tipperary in 570, when he took the place of the official bard, who was a Pagan. On that occasion he converted the bard to Christianity and gave him 243the name of Colman, now known as St. Colman of Cloyne, in whose honor St. Colman’s College at Fermoy was named.

According to Ussher, St. Brendan died at Annadown in 577, in the 94th year of his age, and was buried in his own monastery at Clonfert. His day on the calendar is May 16—a day forever sacred to the memory of Hibernia’s greatest navigator. No complete compilation of biographical work fails to mention the name of St. Brendan, who is preëminently the mariner saint of the calendar.

The literary fame of historic Clonfert is known only to the students of history. Most of the precious manuscripts of that great institution of learning were destroyed by the Danes and Anglo-Normans centuries ago, and its walls have long since crumbled into ruins.

“Clonfert,” says the scholarly Butterfield, “should be dear to all Americans, because our first discoverer was Clonfert’s Bishop. The Sea of Clonfert will doubtless remain during future ages as a shrine of pilgrimage to numberless tourists, for it holds in its midst an honored grave, where rests the dust of the patriarchal navigator who first designated this hemisphere as a paradise of loveliness, to give happy homes and altars free to the myriad outcasts of the human family.”

During the past two centuries, countless thousands of Erin’s sons and daughters have found happy homes and civil and religious liberty in “Brendan’s Land,” now and forevermore the land of Washington, which has been for more than a century and a quarter an asylum for the poor and oppressed of every race and every clime.

Owing to the ruthless destruction of vast numbers of ancient Irish archives by the Danes and English, our knowledge of the first discovery of America is not as exact as could be desired, yet there is enough known to justify Americans, regardless of race or creed, in claiming the honor of that discovery for St. Brendan and his sailor monks, almost a thousand years before Columbus landed on the soil of San Salvador.

HON. JAMES F. BRENNAN.

Of Peterborough, N. H.

Historiographer of the Society.

THE IRISH SETTLERS OF SOUTHERN NEW HAMPSHIRE.

BY HON. JAMES F. BRENNAN, HISTORIOGRAPHER AND MEMBER OF THE EXECUTIVE COUNCIL OF THE AMERICAN IRISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY, A MEMBER OF THE NEW HAMPSHIRE HISTORICAL SOCIETY, AND HISTORIOGRAPHER OF THE PETERBOROUGH HISTORICAL SOCIETY, PETERBOROUGH, N. H.

The men who endured the hardships of this rough climate and encountered the dangers incident to the opening up of this wild country, had to be a class of men with strong hearts and resolute purposes. It was no place for the weak; each had to be a soldier in the battle for existence; each had to do his share in conquering the hardy soil and defending himself and his family against the ever present dangers of Indians and the wild beasts which then infested the territory.

The Plymouth Colony, composed largely of Englishmen, had for over a century established itself in Eastern Massachusetts, provided itself with comfortable settlements and enacted laws as intolerant as this country has ever known, but had not penetrated into New Hampshire. These Puritans, who, it is said, “first fell on their knees and then on the aborigines,” had roasted witches, driven Quakers, Baptists and all others, who were outside the pale of the Church of England, with buck shot into the tender mercies of the savage interior; fleeing from the intolerance of their own church in their quest of religious liberty, they inaugurated a system of unparalleled religious slavery here.^[14]

These Puritans were not the kind of men, with their selfish views, 245best calculated to extend civilization; they received with disfavor and imprecations the hardy Irish Presbyterians who arrived in Boston in 1736. These Englishmen always treated the emigrants from Ireland in a way calculated to discourage further Irish emigration, but this did not deter these hardy men, who, however, found the inhospitable and cold interior preferable to the section where the influence of Puritanism had established itself and left the darkest record of intolerance to be found in the history of this country.

Irish in considerable numbers had landed eighteen years before, but the continuing antipathy, which had ever existed in these English Puritans against the “Wild Irishmen,” as they termed them, were renewed on the arrival of the men in 1736 who were destined to bring civilization into New Hampshire.

In the summer of 1718 five ships, with a hundred or more emigrant families, came over from Ireland to Boston; some of them found their way to Worcester and thence to Palmer, Pelham, Coleraine and other towns in Massachusetts; a large number, under the lead of the Rev. John Morehead, founded the Federal Street Church in Boston, and one ship with some twenty families, sailing for the Merrimac late in the autumn, was driven into Casco Bay, and was frozen in for the winter at the place, which soon afterwards became the town of Portland; their provisions giving out, they suffered some hardships, but found relief among the inhabitants there.

A few families settled in that vicinity; the rest, in the spring of 1719, sailed up the Merrimac to Haverhill, and thence proceeded to that high and beautiful region of country that was called Nutfield, because it abounded in nuts; and there they determined to locate their grant of twelve miles square of land.

This grant had been made by Gov. Samuel Shute, then governor of both provinces, upon a petition signed in Ireland, March 26, 1718, by 217 persons, all but seven signing “in a fair, legible hand,” before they set out on their voyage. These sixteen first settlers and their families that had thus arrived, on the 22d day of April, 1719, had come over in company with their pastor, the Rev. James McGregor, most of them from his parish of Aghadowey, six miles south of Coleraine in the County of Londonderry, Ireland. Among them were Samuel Allison, James Gregg, James McKean, John Mitchell, John Morrison, Thomas Steele and John Stuart. They were soon joined by a large number of their compatriots, the lands were divided 246out to a long list of grantees, and in 1722 the town was incorporated by New Hampshire authority by the name of Londonderry.

In 1736, seventeen years later, another ship, with emigrants from Ireland, landed at Boston. These families passed the winter at Lexington, and in the next summer settled at Lunenburg, Massachusetts, and other towns in that vicinity. Among them were the names Cunningham, Ferguson, McNee, Little, Robbe, Scott, Smith, Stuart, Swan, White and Wilson.

From these two colonies southern New Hampshire was first settled.

At the time when Londonderry, New Hampshire, was founded, descendants of the English Puritans from Massachusetts had settled along the Merrimac River as far north as the old town of Dunstable. Bitter jealousies existed between the two sorts of people. At first it was said the Puritans hardly knew what to make of the newcomers; they called them the “Wild Irish.” When they started up the Merrimac in boats, and one boat was upset in the rapids, a Puritan poet wrote:

The Puritans, in ridicule, said of these Irishmen that “they held as fast to their pint of doctrine as to their pint of rum.”

Thus was shown the relations existing between these Englishmen and Irishmen at that early period. Will this feeling of unfriendliness ever change? When the English people release Ireland from bondage and permit her to take such a position among the nations of the earth that Emmet’s epitaph can be written, then and not till then will the Irish people look with favor upon England and her government.

These Irish settlers were intensely anti-English long before that sentiment found violent expression in the War of the Revolution, in which they participated with such zeal and self-sacrifice. As recorded in the Peterborough town history, it was the attempts to establish the Church of England and to destroy the prevailing religious systems, so dear to the people, together with the oppressive land laws, that created in these Irish Presbyterians a hatred for the form of government under which they lived. In Ireland they were made 247by that church the objects of persecutions as mean, cruel and savage as any which have disgraced the annals of religious bigotry and crime. “Many were treacherously and ruthlessly butchered, and the ministers were prohibited, under severe penalties, from preaching, baptizing or ministering in any way to their flocks.”

And it is further stated that the “Government of that day, never wise in their commercial relations or their governmental affairs, began to recognize them only in the shape of taxes and embarrassing regulations upon their industry and trade. In addition to these restrictions, the landlords—for the people then as now did not own land, they only rented it—whose long leases had now expired, occasioned much distress by an extravagant advance of the rents, which brought the people to a degrading subjection to England; and many of them were reduced to comparative poverty.”

They would no longer submit to these wrongs, and “animated by the same spirit that moved the American mind in the days of the Revolution, resolved to submit to these oppressive measures no longer, and sought a freer field for the exercise of their industry and the enjoyment of their religion.” How like the present condition!

The sentiments of these people were the same as of the present emigrants from Ireland. They were composed in a very small part of Scotchmen, Englishmen and other nationalities, but the essential part of the pioneers of this section, in fact, nearly all of them, were Irishmen, for I assume that where men were born in Ireland, as they were, where many of their fathers, some of their grandfathers and great grandfathers were born, they were men who can unqualifiedly be called Irishmen.

Adopt any other standard and a large part of the inhabitants of Ireland at the time they emigrated would not be considered Irishmen, and probably few persons in this town today would be considered Americans.

These Scots (who, it must always be remembered, were of ancient Celtic origin) from whom the pioneers of this section trace their ancestry landed in Ireland, as the Londonderry, New Hampshire, history records it, in 1610, more than a century and a quarter before their descendants came to this country in 1736.

The early settlers of this vicinity may be taken as typical of the men who settled other towns in southern New Hampshire. They 248were practically all Irish, many from the northern counties, with some from the middle and southern counties of Ireland.

The towns settled by these Irishmen were, in most instances, named in honor of one of the settlers, or from towns in Ireland; some, however, submitted to a change from the names first adopted by them, in order to insure the obtaining of their charters; thus, when John Taggart and others from Peterborough in 1769 settled in what is now Stoddard, they named it Limerick and it was thus known up to the time of incorporation in 1774, when its present name was adopted; the name of the township of Boyle was changed to Gilsum when incorporated in 1763; other similar changes were made under English régime and through English influences. When, however, these Irish settlers themselves selected names for their towns, no English influence obtained, for it must be remembered that the present English and Scotch sentiments, we now hear so much about, did not possess that sturdy, loyal Irish people; the modernly invented name of “Scotch-Irish,” for instance—so far as we have any history, tradition or information—was unknown, unmentioned and unrecorded by any of them at any time, the originators and promoters of this strange and peculiar “Scotch-Irish” theory being strictly products of our own time and of our own country; there were, for example, no such names as London, Liverpool, Leeds, Sheffield, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, given to towns where these settlers located, but the selection of names was from their own people, or from their own Ireland, which they loved so well, where they and their ancestors for many generations were born, where their kinsmen and their descendants remaining are found today resenting this modern “Scotch Irish” appellation, as these settlers would undoubtedly do themselves if living; it was in Ireland their sympathies centered and found expression in their selection of distinctly Irish names for the towns they settled, such as Dublin, Belfast, Coleraine, Boyle, Limerick, Derry, Kilkenny, Antrim and many other purely Irish names.

These Irish, who settled southern New Hampshire—the pioneers in the march of civilization—became the establishers and defenders of popular government here; their blood, transmitted to the generation following them, produced patriots who stood as a secure bulwark in defense of the political structure their forefathers had reared; thus, Irishmen have been identified with every movement in our state 249history from the time when the Irishman Darby Field discovered the White Mountains (naming them after Slieve Bawn or White Hills, in the barony of South Ballintubber, County Roscommon, Ireland) down to the present day. I cannot in this brief sketch refer to the part played by men of Irish descent such as Gen. John Stark, Gen. John Sullivan, Gen. James Miller, Col. Hercules Mooney and hundreds of others, who have left their impress upon the annals of our commonwealth. In the history of our state and nation one thing is satisfactorily settled and entirely clear, namely, that where Irish blood is found, there you will find true, unflinching, uncompromising defenders of the honor and integrity of our government and laws. The late Judge Jeremiah S. Black once said: “I have seen black swans, and have heard of white crows, but an Irish traitor to American liberty I never saw nor even heard of.”

These early Irish settlers were, in their religious belief, uncompromisingly rigid Presbyterians of the strictest stamp.^[15] Their progeny, however, have almost entirely abandoned that severe old doctrine for the, so called, liberal modern modes of worship. However well anchored these old timers may have been in their religious belief, it seemingly was not such as commended itself to their posterity,^[16] and 250today we find no church of their denomination in this section, and indeed comparatively few in the state.

In 1799 the disaffection in Peterborough with the old mode of Presbyterian worship took tangible form; it was too strict; personal controversies at first broke out which led to dissensions and the somewhat easier ritual of Congregationalism attracted a considerable number, and, having at that time only one church edifice, in the interest of peace and convenience, communion was served at stated times in the Presbyterian form and at other times in the Congregational form; but liberalism was not then satisfied and Unitarianism appeared to claim its share; with these dissensions came the Baptists and Methodists, then other religions of modern invention and atheism with no religion at all, finally shared in the general mix-up; a sort of go-as-you-please condition, embodying the so-called up-to-date ideas, where each strikes out a new religion to suit himself, or takes a hand in reforming old notions, until the original anchorage was abandoned and entirely new dogmas were substituted for the old.^[17]

None of these old Irish settlers were Catholics, far from it; but the Catholic Church, which they abhorred, was destined to flourish and grow in the town they established, and today that church has 251a resident priest and the largest religious congregation in Peterborough.

But the religion of these Irish settlers is not important in our present inquiry; I merely mention it in passing. We are not asking whether they were Catholics or Presbyterians, Whigs or Tories, but are dealing with the more pertinent inquiry—from a cosmopolitan standpoint at least—namely, the nationality of the men who brought civilization to this section.

While many of us may not indeed agree with all their religious ideas, we cannot but admire their sterling qualities and take a racial pride in the fact that the land from which they and their forefathers came, was the same land from which we and our forefathers came; a land where the people possessed the fear of God, and clung to virtue, fidelity and patriotism as cardinal principles; a people having the courage, constancy and industry necessary for successful pioneers in this new country.

They were in no sense “Irish Scots” or “Scotch-Irish,” but Irishmen pure and simple; Irishmen to the manor born; Irishmen by origin, ancestry, sentiment, names, education and tradition; Irishmen with all the manners, traits and characteristics of the Irish. This name “Scotch-Irish” is of modern invention. Why did it not exist in writings of years ago? Simply because these Irishmen claimed no Scotch relationship.

I verily believe that if a person had called one of these hardy Irishmen a Scotch-Irishman, he would have received the same treatment Rev. James McGregor dealt out, when an impertinent fellow replied to the parson, that “Nothing saved him but his cloth,” he immediately threw off his coat and squared himself for action, saying, “It shall not protect you, sir,” and gave the fellow a thrashing.

In these latter days, as the late lamented Col. John C. Linehan well said, a new school of writers has sprung up, whose pride of ancestry outstrips their knowledge, and whose prejudices blind their love of truth. With the difference in religion between certain sections of the Irish people as a basis, they are bent on creating a new race, christening it “Scotch-Irish,” laboring hard to prove that it is a “brand” superior to either of the two old types, and while clinging to the Scotch root, claim that their ancestors were different from the Irish in blood, morals, language and religion.

252This is a question not difficult to settle for those who are disposed to treat it honestly, but, as a rule, the writers who are the most prolific, as well as the speakers who are the most eloquent, appear to know the least about the subject, and care less, if they can only succeed in having their theories accepted.

The Irish origin of the Scots^[18] is studiously avoided by nearly all the “Scotch-Irish” writers, or, if mentioned at all, is spoken of in a manner which leaves the reader to infer that the Scots had made mistakes in selecting their ancestors, and it was the duty of their descendants, so far as it lay in their power, to rectify the error.

These old settlers possessed the energy, faith and cheerful nature that could make life endurable under the hardships and privations of their situation on the frontier of civilized society. They had brought with them the manners, customs and habits of the Ireland of the seventeenth and first half of the eighteenth century. I need not repeat examples of their quaint humor and queer stories, or of their use of the ardent spirits on public occasions, church-raising, trainings, dancing parties, weddings and funerals. They believed in ghosts and witches and of course the devil; indeed, the devil was 253seen in person, if old Fiddler Baker told the truth, at the fork of the road, with horns and cloven foot, spitting fire.^[19]

Under the conditions of this early time we need not wonder that when the admission of a new member to the church was in question and objection was raised that he made too free use of the bottle, “Well,” said the grave elder, “if the Lord may have a church in Peterborough He must take such as there be.”

Nearly all of the schoolmasters of these early times were Irishmen from the central and southern counties of Ireland, but their history has been suppressed by modern writers, to the extent, indeed, in some instances, of omitting altogether the mention even of their Irish names.

Rev. John H. Morison, a Unitarian minister, wrote in 1845 a history of Judge Jeremiah Smith,—before this system of suppressing and falsifying history had reached its present perfection—and in recording the facts of Smith’s boyhood of about 1771, on page 14, stated: “He began to study Latin, when about twelve years old, with Rudolphus Greene, an Irishman, employed by the town to keep school a quarter of the year in each of the four quarters of the town. While he was hearing a boy recite he usually held a stick in his hand, on which he cut a notch for every mistake, and, after the recitation was ended, another stick was employed to give a blow for every notch that had been cut.” On page 16 it is recorded that “he was sent for a short time to New Boston, to be under the instruction of an Irishman, named Donovan.”

VERY REVEREND ANDREW MORRISSEY, C. S. C., D. D., LL. D.,

University of Notre Dame.

Vice-President of the Society for Indiana.

254Some of the more recent histories, however, neglect to state that these men were Irish. For instance, in the biographical sketch of this same Judge Smith, the Peterborough History (1876), page 288, states: “At the age of twelve he began to study Latin at the public school, which was then kept in the old meeting house, by Master Rudolphus Greene. After this he studied for a short time with a Mr. Donovan at New Boston,” quoted, with the word “Irishman” stricken out.

It is strange what an aversion some of the recent town historians have had to telling the truth about these Irishmen, and with what studied efforts they have suppressed facts.

The Antrim (N. H.) Town History—which, in its dealings with the early Irish settlers of that town, presents the work of an expert in this perversion—in recording, on page 215, the services of that old Irish schoolmaster, Tobias Butler, makes no mention whatever of his nationality.

The seeker of exact truth and complete historical data will, however, hardly consult histories written by narrow men, whose paramount idea apparently was to twist the actual facts to conform to the way they would have wished those facts to have been.

The only explanation or excuse for this condition is, that town histories have to be written by persons familiar with the locality, hence the writer could be chosen only from a comparatively small number, and the selection, unfortunately, of men of contracted ideas sometimes becomes unavoidable; but these writings relative to these Irishmen and their achievements, will never be accepted by the future seeker of truth; it remains for the present generation, advanced beyond the prejudices of the past, to write the true history of these Irish settlers.

THE CARROLL FAMILY IN MARYLAND. — Archbishop John Carroll. — Charles Carroll of Carrollton. — Charles Carroll, Barrister. — Daniel Carroll.

[The Material from which this Article is taken on the Carroll Family in Maryland was gathered together by the late Mr. D. J. Scully, who had compiled a great mass of material for the purpose of publishing a History of the Irish in Maryland, when he was unfortunately stricken down with a fatal illness. This material has been placed at my disposal by Mr. Peter J. Scully, who is a brother of the late Mr. D. J. Scully and his Executor. I want to offer my thanks to Mr. Scully for so kindly tendering the material collected by his late brother at a great sacrifice of time.]

The Carroll family of Maryland has been for three centuries a prominent one in the Province and the State, and may be said to have left an indelible impress upon the history of the Commonwealth. It would be gratifying to members of the Irish race to know that the family is distinctively a Gaelic one and occupied for centuries a high position in Ireland, being one of royal origin. The Carrolls are descended from Cian, the youngest brother of Eoghan (Owen or Eugene “Mor” great) and son of Olioll Olum, first king of Munsters, who was the ancestor of O’Cearbhaill (Cearball)—Irish for massacre or slaughter—referring to some incident possibly of the bearer’s life, Anglicized O’Carroll Ely, Karwell, Carroll, Gervil and McCarrell. It is therefore not to be wondered at that the descendants of this knightly race achieved equally knightly distinction in America. There were several different branches of the O’Carroll family all from the same parent stock, the principal one of which was that of the princess of Ely O’Carroll, territory which comprised the barony of Lower Ormond in Tipperary, with the barony of Clonlisk and part of Ballybut in the kings county, extending to the Slieve Bloom Mountains, in the Queens County.

MICHAEL P. KEHOE, ESQ.,

Baltimore, Md.

Vice-President of the Society for Maryland.

256The title “Ely” as prefixed to the O’Carrolls is derived from Eile, a prince of the fifth century. Cearbhaill or Carroll was also the last king of Leinster who lived in Naas, the capitol in the County of Kildare. He died in 909 and was a noted warrior, his sword being treasured for centuries as a precious relic by fighting men. It is evident from what is known of this sword of Carroll that sword-making was a fine art in Ireland in those days. There is extant an ancient poem in the Gaelic dedicated to the sword of Carroll which was recently translated by Prof. Kuno Meyer of the Liverpool University, who is a noted Gaelic scholar. The poem is addressed to the famous blade and is taken from the “Book of Leinster.” It is written in that intricate metre known as “Derbhde” which it is impossible to reproduce in English on account of its difficulty and has long ceased to be practised by the Gaelic poets. Its opening lines are as follows:

The O’Carrolls belonged to the second order of the Irish royal line that is the provincial kings, of whose ancestors sat on the imperial throne, although in the later days of the kingdom, since the dawn of the Christian era, the Ard Righs were chosen from the four great families of O’Melaghlin of Meath, O’Neill of Tyrone, O’Brien of Thomond and O’Loghlin of Tirconnell and O’Connor of Connaught.

Baltimore and Maryland have had no citizen more distinguished or generally respected than the Most Reverend John Carroll, first Archbishop of Baltimore and first Primate of the United States. He was universally beloved while living and generally regretted at his 257decease. Dr. Carroll was born in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, in 1735, and was a kinsman of Charles Carroll of Carrollton and Charles Carroll, Barrister, springing from the same noble stock. He was the son of Daniel and Eleanor Carroll and first saw the light within a few miles of the birthplace of Thomas Clagget, the first bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Maryland, and the first one of that Church consecrated in the United States. The little old-fashioned house in which he was born is still standing. In his veins ran the blood of two old Maryland families, his mother being a woman of many accomplishments and one who left a deep impress upon the mind and habits of her distinguished son. Dr. Carroll’s early training was directed by her. As a youth of eleven years, he entered the Jesuit School at Bohemia Manor, named St. Xaverius, where he spent one year as a preparation for entrance into the school at St. Omers, in French Flanders. After six years of study at St. Omers, he entered in 1753 the novitiate of the Jesuits at Watton, where he spent two years in preparation for an ecclesiastical career and four years later at the college of the Society at Liege. On February 2, 1771, he was ordained a Priest and a member of the Society of Jesus. He surrendered his patrimonial fortune to the Jesuits under the laws of the Order. The agitation against the Jesuits being then under way in France, and the Government having suppressed the Order, Dr. Carroll with his colleagues was expelled from St. Omers and fled to Bruges in Belgium. He was later chosen by the Order in France to act as Secretary in correspondence with the French Court. His correspondence with the Government was extensive, but was without avail as far as causing the prohibition against the Society to be removed, yet he created a favorable impression on both sides by his thorough knowledge of French and Latin, and the manner in which he handled the situation. Pope Clement XIV finally on August 16, 1773, promulgated his famous Brief, which he had signed a month before, suppressing the Society of Jesus, and Dr. Carroll, having shared the prosecutions and brief captivity of his colleagues, sought and found refuge in England, where he was selected by Lord Houston, a Roman Catholic nobleman, to be tutor to his son and in that capacity made a tour of Europe with his pupil.

On the breaking out of the American Revolution, Father Carroll 258returned to Maryland to share the fortunes of his native land, his experiences in England having by no means created within his breast respect or love for her much vaunted institutions. He rejected many solicitations to remain in England, preferring to cast his lot with his own countrymen in what appeared at that time to be a struggle to the death. He secured faculties as a secular Priest from the Vicar Apostolic of London “in partibus infidelium” as it was then known in the annals of the Vatican, and landed in Virginia on June 27, 1774. Passing over into Maryland he took up his abode with his mother, on Rock Creek, and having placed himself under the direction of the Vicar General, in Maryland, Rev. John Lewis, he carried on mission work from Rock Creek to Aquia Creek, in Virginia. The congregation gathered in a small room in his mother’s mansion. It soon grew so large that St. John’s Church was built with Dr. Carroll as pastor. The Revolution when it broke found the old Catholic families in Maryland on the side of the colonists and Dr. Carroll naturally was one of the most ardent adherents of the patriot cause. During the Revolution he established himself near Baltimore, where he became the assistant to the Rev. John Ashton, a zealous priest, who had the honor of celebrating the first mass ever said in Baltimore. Father Carroll’s talent as a Pulpit Orator soon attracted attention even from non-catholics. St. Peter’s Church was often thronged with persons of many religious faiths, who came to hear his sermons. Because of the fact that his reputation for piety, learning and eloquence became so extensive and that through his long sojourn in France, he had become thoroughly familiarized not only with the French language but with the French people, he was appointed in February, 1776, by the Continental Congress, in company with Charles Carroll of Carrollton, Dr. Benjamin Franklin and Judge Samuel Chase, on a commission to proceed to Canada in behalf of the patriot cause. The object of the journey was to create sympathy in Canada among the French Canadians in particular, with the American cause and to induce them to revolt against Great Britain. However, the Canadians proved indifferent; a survival of the intense hatred which had existed for generations previous between the French Catholic Colonists of Canada and the Protestant Colonists of the Colonies, who were prior to the Revolution pro-English and anti-French in sympathies. Therefore 259all hopes were disappointed and the mission failed. This refusal to throw off the yoke of the oppressor was a decision which it is but reasonable to suppose that the French Canadians have long regretted, as their present unrest and discontent illustrates they have not, even today, succeeded in securing happiness under the rule of the English and are still an alien people in Canada. The defeat of Montgomery before Quebec and the strong opposition of the Canadians to union with the Colonies rendered all efforts toward inciting revolt during the Revolution unavailing. Father Carroll and Judge Chase finally gave up the undertaking in disgust and returned home, leaving Franklin and Charles Carroll to continue the negotiations, which, however, proved fruitless.

After the American Revolution was begun, the Catholics within the several states, and they were most numerous in Maryland, became anxious for a separation from England. Many attempts had been made to give the Colonies now embraced in the United States a bishop of their own, as it had been deemed impossible for them to live under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Quebec, who was under English rule, and the Archbishop of Mexico, who was under Spanish rule. As political reasons had kept a Protestant Episcopal bishop or church of England bishop from the Colonies, so State reasons had also made the Catholics Colonists unwilling to accept an English prelate to govern them spiritually. The Revolution precipitated many things and solved many problems concerning the Colonies and their inhabitants. The year of 1783 for instance after liberty had been established found both the Catholic and the Anglican churches in the United States both considering the question of having bishops of their own who would be Americans and the founders of American hierarchies. As is known, the efforts of the Protestant Episcopal churches or Anglican, as they were then termed in Maryland and later of those in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and Virginia, resulted in the consecration of Bishop Seabury of Connecticut, by the Scotch non-jurors in 1784, and of Bishop White of Pennsylvania and Samuel Prevost of New York in 1787 by English prelates. Father Carroll, while he did not engage actively in the War of the Revolution, was an ardent and active patriot, the more so because the Bill of Rights adopted by the First Assembly of Maryland held under the free Government, had bestowed full 260citizenship upon him and all Catholics and he was therefore in an unfettered position to work for the cause.

A portion of what Father Carroll did for the patriot cause was told in an interesting article published in the Catholic Mirror of February 10, 1900, which is quoted: “A century ago, on February 16, 1801, it was publicly announced that the sleeplessness of George IV. was occasioning extreme anxiety to the British royal family. On that day William Pitt resigned, because of the king’s refusal to give effect to the spirit of the recent union of Great Britain and Ireland by removing the disabilities of his Catholic subjects. It is interesting to note that an American bishop, as recalled in the following paragraphs, was responsible in part for the King’s insomnia: Benjamin Franklin was sent by Congress to France to intercede with the King in behalf of the Colonies. He was not successful. One bright morning he was sitting in the waiting room of the King’s palace for an audience, looking downhearted and forsaken, for he had received a letter from Washington, saying: ‘If France did not send over her army, the cause must fail, for his troops were commencing to mutiny and he could not raise funds to pay them; they had no rations, their feet were on the ground and cut and bleeding from the cold.’ Franklin, looking downcast and woebegone, as he was revolving Washington’s letter in his philosophical mind, was aroused from his melancholy stupor by a voice calling: ‘Mr. Franklin! Oh, Mr. Franklin!’ Franklin jumped up and rubbed his eyes. It was the Pope’s nuncio. ‘I have good news for you,’ he said. ‘I have just got consent of the King to send over a French army and navy to aid your countrymen.’ Franklin, astonished, threw himself on his knees and clasped the hand of the nuncio, kissing it several times. ‘Oh,’ he said, ‘Rome has saved my country. America will never forget it for Rome! The Catholics shall have all the rights the Protestants have. Convey to his Holiness the Pope my thanks for all the American people. We shall never, no never, forget it for Rome.’ The nuncio said: ‘Mr. Franklin, you must thank Father Carroll (Bishop Carroll) for it was he who induced the Pope of Rome to send me here in the interest of the American people. His letters in favor of your cause were laid by me before the French King and Cabinet, and success has crowned his efforts.’”

So, readers, if you want to learn something of the man who next 261to Almighty God and Washington gave your flag and country, turn to the Catholic Cathedral at Baltimore and see his tomb. Washington himself said: “Of all men whose influence was most potent in securing the success of the Revolution, Bishop Carroll of Baltimore was the man.” The English King called him “the rebel bishop, Washington’s Richelieu, the prime minister and adviser of Congress, the man who got the Pope of Rome to use his influence at the French Court for the Americans.” “No, no, sir,” he said, turning to Mr. Pitt, the prime minister of England, “I shall never sign a bill granting Catholic emancipation after the action taken by the rebel Catholic Bishop of Baltimore. He had America detached from my dominions by the aid of the French army and navy and by the force of Irish Catholics. No, no, Mr. Pitt, you need not stop to argue the question with me, my mind is made up on that question.” “Then,” said Mr. Pitt, “if that’s your majesty’s determination, I cannot remain in office, for I am pledged in one of the articles of union between England and Ireland to grant Catholic emancipation. It is necessary to save the union of the British empire. I must resign.” “Then,” said the King, “do so, do so.” So Pitt resigned like a man and Catholic emancipation was not granted for twenty years after this.

This shows what Ireland suffered for American independence. It also shows that Bishop Carroll’s influence was instrumental in securing our independence. The people of Boston turned out to receive the French army, which was led by a Catholic priest, with a crucifix in his hand, through the streets of Boston. All the ancient burgesses of Boston turned out and went to the Catholic Church in compliment to the French and all the old English statutes against the Catholics were repealed.

This is the record of the day. The incidents narrated in the foregoing article throw some light on the services of the illustrious clergyman to the American cause and also show why he was elevated to the primacy of the Catholic Church in America. Subsequent to the Revolution, when full freedom dawned on the former Colonies, the Catholics in the several states, and they were most numerous in Maryland, desired no connection with England, religiously, because English Catholics were at that time proscribed persons and without political rights or standing before the law, although it is true that 262active persecution had ceased. Yet still although freemen the American Catholics were under the jurisdiction of the English Bishops, or Vicars Apostolic, and it was this connection that it was desired to sever, so that the Americans could have absolute independence religious as well as political. Father Carroll was one of the six priests who met on June 27, 1783, in Baltimore and held a conference at which the necessity of being independent of England was considered. At this conference were present Father John Ashton, the ex-Jesuit priest, who may be fitly styled the Nestor of the Catholic priesthood of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, and Rev. Leonard Neale, afterwards Archbishop of Baltimore. On October 11, 1784, Father Carroll took part in a second conference, at which a plan of Government for the Catholic Church in the United States was drawn up, which included nineteen rules for the Government of the Clergy, was also adopted and a chapter of body corporate was formed, of which Father Ashton was chosen procurator general and he was given charge of all the church property in the Union. The chapter at a subsequent meeting at Whitemarsh, Prince Georges County, resolved to found Georgetown College, Father Ashton being named as one of the first board of directors. Father Carroll was made vicar general in 1786; in 1788 in company with Father Ashton and Rev. Robert Molyneux, afterwards vicar general, drew up a petition asking that the American Catholic Church be given greater liberty by being put under the charge of a bishop directly responsible to the Congregation of the Propaganda, which at that time was understood to be dominated by French influence. This petition was successful, and Father Carroll was unanimously nominated for the proposed prelacy.

Dr. Benjamin Franklin, at that time residing at Passy near Paris, as the American Ambassador to the Court of France, who was aware of Father Carroll’s charming manner, learning and ability, was able to use his personal friendship to assist in having the distinguished divine elevated to the episcopacy. But at first Father Carroll had no idea of aspiring to be bishop, and in fact the petition which was sent to a friend of his in Rome to be brought before the Pope asked that the Rev. John Lewis be appointed for the United States, with power to confer confirmation and to do temporarily other duties pertaining to the office of bishop. But, it is said that 263through the French minister to the United States a plan had been started to place a French bishop over the church in this country and Dr. Benjamin Franklin, ignorant of the position of the Catholics of the United States and of their wishes, was induced at first to lend his aid to the plan; but Father Carroll’s name was mentioned and he immediately recommended him to the Authorities at Rome. The Vatican was impressed with the recommendations of Dr. Franklin, whose fame was then as universal as that of Washington and who was the idol of the Courts of the Continent; thus a Protestant Quaker became a potent power in naming the first Primate of the Catholic Church in the United States. On June 7, 1784, Pope Pius VII., ratified the appointment of Father Carroll as prefect apostolic and the nuncio at Paris calling on Dr. Franklin to acquaint him with the appointment notified him that Father Carroll would be probably made a bishop.

Accepting the office in 1785, Father Carroll began his visitation and made a call for more priests. At this time his salary, 210 pounds sterling, was paid by the Chapter, the organization formed in 1784, which was composed solely of ex-Jesuit Fathers. A few years only were necessary to show the propaganda as well as all others interested in the growth of the Catholic church in America, the necessity for the appointment of a bishop for the new country, one who would be endowed with full powers of consecration and authority. So a petition to that effect was again forwarded to Rome signed by Father Carroll and the Reverends Robert Molyneux and John Ashton. This petition was sent through the Spanish minister, with whom Father Carroll had talked in reference to the subject, during a visitation to New York. Through his energetic course and his knowledge of the needs and hardships of the American mission as shown in his “Address to the Roman Catholics of the United States,” published in 1784, in reply to a paper of the Rev. Charles H. Wharton and in his report to Cardinal Antonelli, prefect of the Propaganda, in 1785, Father Carroll had demonstrated the wisdom of his having been chosen prefect apostolic. Cardinal Antonelli replied to the petition on July 12, 1788, and communicated to the signers authority from the Pope to call a meeting of the American Clergy and nominate a candidate for bishop and select a See. Accordingly they called a synod or conference at Whitemarsh, Md., and by a vote of 24 to 2 264selected Father Carroll as the candidate for bishop and Baltimore was unanimously selected as the place of the See. Father Carroll wrote in reply to a communication from his fellow clergymen, notifying him of what they had done, that “he was by that event deprived of all expectation of rest and pleasure henceforward” and filled “with terror with respect to eternity.” The nomination was approved on September 14, 1780, by the Cardinals of the Sacred Congregation and Pius VI. issued on November 6th following the bill erecting the See of Baltimore and appointing Rev. John Carroll bishop. Father Carroll accepted the appointment and sailed at once for England to be consecrated.

Father Carroll was the recipient of numerous courtesies while in England, but soon hurried back to organize and develop his See. He returned to America early in October, landing at Baltimore on December 7th. He was received at Light Street dock by the Catholic laity and escorted to a palace which had been provided for him at the corner of Charles and Saratoga Streets. On the following Sunday old “St. Peter’s church,” which was selected as a pro-Cathedral, was crowded with citizens of all denominations, to hear the new bishop speak. He made an impressive address, in which he said: “In this, my new station, if my life be not one continued instrument of instruction and example of virtue to the people committed to my charge, it will become in the sight of God a life not only useless but even pernicious.” Shortly after his accession, Bishop Carroll received the Rev. Charles Nagot and several other Sulpitian Fathers, who had been sent to Baltimore by the Superior General of the Order at Paris, Father Emery, at the request of Father Carroll, to establish a seminary for the education of young men for the priesthood.

Father Emery had laid before Bishop Carroll in England shortly after his consecration a plan for the establishment of a seminary in Baltimore. To this plan Father Carroll had given his approval. Five seminarians accompanied the Sulpitians to this Country. It is told that on the same ship there was a young Frenchman who was then misled by Voltaire’s infidel teachings, but who later became converted to the doctrines of Christianity and consecrated his brilliant imagination and fascinating style to the service of religion and became the author of “The Genius of Christianity.” He was the illustrious Count de Chateaubriand. Acting under Bishop Carroll’s 265advice, Father Nagot and his companions rented a house in West Baltimore located on the present Paca Street, near Franklin, known as “The One Mile Tavern,” and there they opened on October 3, 1791, the now famous institution, St. Mary’s Seminary. This institution may be indeed styled the mother of the American Catholic priesthood. Probably more Irish-American young men have been educated within its walls than of any other nationality.

A letter to General Washington congratulating him on his open advocacy of religion and morals and upon the many notable honors that had been paid him, was presented to the great tribune by Bishop Carroll, Thomas Fitzsimmons and Thomas Lynch in 1792, on behalf of the Catholic clergy and laity of Baltimore. This letter contained many lofty sentiments, among them the following: “You encourage respect for religion. There is prospect of a nationality peculiarly Democratic, because while our country preserves independent politics and policies we shall have a well-founded title to claim from her justice, equal rights of citizenship, as well as the price of our blood spilt under your eyes, as of our warm exertions for her defence under your auspicious conduct—rights indeed the more dear by the remembrance of former hardships. While we pray for the preservation of these rights we expect the full justice of them, from the justice of those states which still restrict them.” It will be observed that the gentlemen who signed this letter were all of Irish connection, judging from their names, which are distinctively Gaelic. At this time the Federal Constitution was being discussed and the American Catholics had good reason to fear that the persecution and intolerance as well as the deprivation of political rights which had prevailed in regard to them in Colonial days, might be favored and legally declared in the provisions of that instrument. For there were those in and out of the State of Maryland who despite what Catholics and Dissenters had done in the battlefield for the achievement of American liberty and despite the aid of Catholic France which made the securement of that liberty possible were disposed to establish a State religion and to deny religious liberty at least to their fellowmen, excluding Catholics from all political rights, although there had been many Catholics in the Continental armies battling for the political rights of New Jersey and kindred “blue law” states. But these patriotic Catholics did not throw down their arms because of these 266abominable enactments, for their patriotism was too intense to be weakened by impulses of resentment. Therefore the American Catholic was none too sure of his status in this Country and it is even a fact that efforts were made before the Maryland Legislature to have an established church; in other words, a state religion in Maryland, and that the Anglican or Episcopalian church should retain the same relation to the State of Maryland as it had to the colony of Maryland. But a vigorous agitation led by Bishop Carroll on behalf of the Catholics and Rev. Dr. Allison for the Presbyterians effectually prevented such a proposition from being made a law. On February 22, 1800, Dr. Carroll delivered a memorable sermon in his Cathedral on the life and character of the illustrious Washington, who had died on the December 14 preceding.

As an Irish-American, Charles Carroll of Carrollton easily stands first among all of his race in the history of the past of this Republic, at least so far as the State of Maryland is concerned, in character, in patriotism, in self-sacrifice and in services, if not in abilities. He was born at Annapolis on September 30, 1737, and was the son of Charles and Elizabeth Brooke Carroll and grandson of Charles Carroll of Kings County, Ireland. At eight years of age he was sent by his parents to France, where he received his education, remaining six years at the Jesuit College at St. Omers, six years at the Jesuit College, Rheims, two years at the College of St. Louis le Grand, Paris, and one year at Bruges, Belgium, to study civil law; returning again to college at Paris. Mr. Carroll went to London, in 1757, and commenced to study law in the Middle Temple, where he took his degree in 1764, and returned to Maryland, equipped with all of the attributes and capacities of a trained scholar and lawyer. Yet with it all as a Catholic, he had no political rights in the Colony, where he was born and where by right of inheritance he was the wealthiest man in the realm.

Mr. Carroll, however, had no need to earn his living in the Courts and first rose to fame through his memorable controversy with Daniel Dulany, in which he took the popular side, although politically without personal status, and posed as the foremost champion of freedom. 267In this contest Mr. Carroll proved an able controversialist and it was generally conceded the victor. His superb education had equipped him with every advantage; he was the inferior of no man in the Colony. The effect of his bold assertions and declarations against the Proprietary Governor was electric on the people and made them the more apt for revolution. Mr. Carroll wrote under the nom de plume of “First Citizen” and it was not until the controversy was at an end that his identity became known. His popularity became intense throughout the Province. It was but natural that when the clamors of revolution became potent among the people that he should become a candidate for public favor and honors. In December, 1774, he was selected as one of the Commissioners of Observation for Anne Arundel County and also on the Committee of Safety of the Province. He was elected to represent Anne Arundel County in Maryland Convention on December 7, 1775, and in February, 1776, was appointed by the Continental Congress a commissioner with Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Chase and Rev. John Carroll to visit Canada and endeavor to kindle the fires of revolt in that Country. Congress then took up the discussion of a Declaration of Independence from England, and on June 28, 1776, the Maryland Convention in session at Annapolis resolved that the Congressional Deputies from the State be empowered and authorized to concur with the United Colonies or a majority thereof in declaring all of the Colonies “Free and Independent.” On July 4, 1776, Messrs. Charles Carroll, Matthew Tilghman, Thomas Johnson, William Paca, Samuel Chase, Thomas Stone and William Alexander were elected delegates to Congress then in session at Philadelphia. Mr. Carroll took his seat on July 18th, having just returned from Canada. It is related that on August 2 an engrossed copy of the famous Declaration of Independence was placed on the desk of the Secretary of Congress for the signature of the members. Mr. John Hancock, the President of the body, in a conversation with Mr. Carroll, asked him if he would sign the document. “Most willingly,” said Mr. Carroll, who then took up a pen and signed his name—“Charles Carroll of Carrollton.” He affixed the name of his manor of Carrollton in order to be distinguished from his eminent relative, Charles Carroll, Barrister, and not, as is generally supposed, to show his defiance of England and of the consequence which might accrue in case the Revolution would be crushed 268by Great Britain, which would be, at least, the confiscation of his estates and his own reduction to poverty, if not execution as a traitor. His act is generally interpreted to have been caused by such an impulse alone, but chivalry as well as the fine sense of honor, which then governed men and women, was evidently his motive in doing so. He was then the richest man in the Colonies and his action simply meant also that if Great Britain won, he was prepared to sacrifice more than any man in the Colonies at the time. His cousin, Charles Carroll, Barrister, was almost as rich as he was, however, and either would have been a rich prize to the British if the Revolution had failed. “There goes a few millions,” said one of the delegates who stood around and who had seen Mr. Carroll sign the Declaration, thus showing that all agreed at the time that Carroll’s action was regarded as extraordinary. It was a truth that no single signer of the greatest Charter of Human Rights ever written risked as much intrinsically as Mr. Carroll. He was a member of the Board of War, and served in Congress until November 10, 1776, with marked ability; being succeeded by his namesake, Barrister Carroll. In December, 1776, he was a member of the first Maryland Senate and in 1777 he was returned to Congress and in 1781 was re-elected to the Maryland Senate. In 1788 he was elected one of the first United States Senators from Maryland, and in 1789 and 1806 was elected and reëlected to the Senate of Maryland. He was also appointed in 1797 one of the Commissioners from Maryland to settle the boundary line dispute between Maryland and Virginia. Mr. Carroll continued a member of the Maryland Senate until 1824, when he retired from public life. In April, 1827, he was elected a director of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company, and on July 4, 1828, he laid the corner stone of the railroad at Mount Clare, Baltimore. While in Baltimore he resided at the mansion located at the corner of Lombard and Front Streets, which was also the home of his son-in-law, Richard Caton, and his famous granddaughters, the beautiful Misses Caton, called “The Three Graces.” On November 30, 1832, Mr. Carroll died in Baltimore, full of years and of honors, having been for many years the last of the signers of the famous Declaration. Physically he was of slight build and below the middle size, his face being strongly featured, his eyes quick, inquisitive, piercing and therefore thoroughly Gaelic; his countenance was 269noble, and while in action and general bearing replete with energy. His manners were graceful and easy, as became a man of gentle breeding and education, and his expressions elegant, refined and usually considerate, even in conversation with his servants.

In June, 1768, he married Miss Mary Darnell, daughter of Henry Darnell, Jr., and had three children by the union, Charles Carroll, who married in 1799, Harriett Chew, daughter of the Hon. Benjamin Chew of Pennsylvania and sister of the famous “Peggy” Chew of “Mischeanza” fame and wife of Gen. John Eager Howard; Elizabeth Carroll, who married Richard Caton, and Catherine Carroll, who married Robert Goodloe Harper. Charles Carroll, eldest son of Charles and Harriett Chew Carroll, married Mary Higgs Lee and was the father of Hon. John Lee Carroll, late Governor of Maryland. Mr. Carroll, in his declining years, particularly, was one of the best known and beloved of Baltimoreans. He attended high mass at the Cathedral regularly every Sunday and dined frequently with the Archbishops of Baltimore, particularly with Dr. Whitefield, with whom he was intimate. The Archepiscopal residence was then located on North Charles Street, on a portion of the site of the former Young Men’s Christian Association Building, at Charles and Saratoga Streets. On one occasion, it is related that Mr. Carroll was introduced to a number of the altar boys, on whose heads he placed his hands as they passed by where he stood and exclaimed: “God bless you, my boys. Love God and obey your superiors. Honor and defend your Country’s flag, venerate your parents and obey the authorities of the civil Government.”

DR. BRYAN DeFORREST SHEEDY,

Of New York City.

A Member of the Society.

270Mr. Carroll at the time of his death was 95 years of age, his frame being bent, although his voice was strong, his walk firm and quick and his eyes and face benevolent in expression. He dressed after the fashion of his day, his apparel including a dark waistcoat and knee breeches, black silk hose, low cut shoes and silver buckles. He attended many functions, even just before his death, and was particularly in request at patriotic gatherings. One of the last public events in which he took part was that of a great dinner given to him by the great Irish merchant William Patterson, at the latter’s country residence, “Cold Stream,” near the City. The dinner was held July 4, 1831, the 54th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration to bring together the remnant of the Revolutionary heroes, then living in Baltimore. The occasion was made notable in every possible way, numerous invitations having been sent out by the hospitable host, who was himself a hero of the great struggle for human freedom. Everything set before the guests except the wines and brandies was produced on Mr. Patterson’s estate and the dinner was, as tradition states, a feast worthy of the distinguished company which attended it. The reception to Mr. Carroll was a most cordial one. He drove out to Cold Stream, as was the fashion of the time, in his own carriage, with his own colored coachman on the box, and was escorted to the shady grove, wherein the dinner was spread by Mr. Patterson and several crippled veterans of the Revolution. There he was greeted by the assembly with uncovered heads and was given a rousing chorus of cheers. Patriotic speeches and songs were given during the dinner, which lasted far into the evening and was enjoyed thoroughly by Mr. Carroll.

The great tribune was eminently social in his nature and many stories are existent which illustrate this trait. One of these relates to the famous collation given by Lloyd Dulany at his private residence at Annapolis, now part of the City Hotel, a few days after the burning of the Peggy Stewart, at which function Mr. Carroll was one of the guests. At this collation there was used a punch bowl which had been brought over from England in the Peggy Stewart, and Mr. Dulany explained how he had come into the possession of the article, which had been sent to him as a present. The Captain, he stated, said to him that the bowl was not a part of the cargo of the Peggy Stewart, as it was not on the manifest. The Captain had placed the bowl in his cabin with his private property and had delivered it in person to him. To this observation Mr. Carroll is said to have smilingly observed: “We accept your explanation, provided the bowl is always used to draw the same kind of tea.” As is well known, the Peggy Stewart was destroyed because she had a cargo aboard of the obnoxious stamp burdened tea, but the bowl was full no doubt of that superior kind of punch which the Marylanders of that day so well knew how to brew. This bowl stood for years on the counter of the City Hotel at Annapolis, and thousands of Marylanders have drank the same kind of “tea” out of it since the time when Mr. Carroll made his famous expression. This function, it may be well observed, 271was held in the abode of an Irish American Lloyd Dulany, who was a connection of the celebrated Daniel Dulany. Mr. Carroll was also connected in a way with the famous episode of the burning of the Peggy Stewart at Annapolis and the destruction of her cargo of tea by men disguised as Indians. It was he who interceded with the mob at Annapolis in behalf of the owner of the Peggy, Mr. Anthony Stewart, and he harangued the crowd from the steps of Mr. Stewart’s residence and thus prevailed on them not to do violence to the merchant, whose pro-English proclivities were well known. He was the one to suggest that Mr. Stewart himself would destroy the vessel, and its offensive cargo of “tea,” a suggestion which the mob accepted with delight, and which no doubt saved Stewart’s residence from destruction. Mr. Carroll accompanied the frightened and shaking merchant, as a protector, on that eventful day, when he went down to Windmill Point, where the Peggy lay, and himself applied the torch to the brig and her cargo.

Mr. Carroll in those days lived in Annapolis and maintained the life of a wealthy Maryland gentleman. He dwelt in a spacious mansion on what was known as the “Spa,” in the ancient City, a quarter which was then the fashionable one at the State Capitol, and had been the same during the Colonial Government and was known far and wide throughout the Colonies, as the most elegant locality in Annapolis, then termed “The Athens of America.” His terraced garden sloped down to the brink of the lovely “Spa” and was held in by a pavilion with sandstone walls and ornamented by a pavilion where the owner and his guests could sit on a warm afternoon and enjoy the cool breezes from the water. It was here that he wrote his famous “First Citizen” letters attacking the proclamation of Governor Eden (Colonial), imposing an extra tax on the people by increasing official fees and by raising the special assessments on the clergy from 30 to 40 pounds of tobacco per annum. Mr. Carroll, as has been stated, took up the popular side and defended the people, being antagonized by Mr. Daniel Dulany, whose nom de plume was “Antillon.” In a reply as to whom the “First Citizen” was, Mr. Carroll wrote: “Who is the citizen? A man, in the prosperity of his country, a friend to liberty, a settled enemy to lawless prerogatives.” It was in this controversy that Mr. Dulany threw the taunt to Mr. Carroll that he was a disfranchised English citizen and could 272not vote. All of which was true, for, while he could not vote, he was at that time the richest man in the Colonies and worth at least two million pounds.

Charles Carroll, termed “The Barrister,” to distinguish him from his eminent namesake, Charles Carroll of Carrollton, with whom he is often confounded, was of Irish descent and was descended from the elder branch of the Carroll family, in Maryland, thus being derived from the family of Ely O’Carroll of Ireland. About 1681 the estates of the O’Carrolls in Ireland were confiscated to the Crown, the family being accused of being royalists. This confiscation was the cause of the emigration of the first ancestor of Charles Carroll, Barrister, also a Charles Carroll, to Maryland. He accumulated a large landed estate, having friends at Court, in the Calverts, which consisted of large tracts on the Eastern Shore, in Frederick County, in Anne Arundel County, in and near the site of the City of Baltimore, on Carroll’s Island, at Mount Clare near Baltimore’s original site; and at other points. The Plains, an estate near Annapolis, Claremont, for many years the residence of Hon. Carroll Spence, later Minister of Turkey, and The Caves, an estate owned for generations by the Carrolls and last held by Gen. John Carroll, which was located in Baltimore County, were also included in the possessions of this thrifty Gael. This Carroll was in religion a Protestant, as were all of his descendants, including The Barrister, which gave him great advantages politically as well as commercially, under the Colonial Government. He was a Physician by profession and was known as Dr. Charles Carroll. He married Dorothy Blake, daughter of Charles Blake, of an ancient English family and had by her several children, who were Charles Carroll, Barrister, Mary Clare Carroll, ancestress of Gen. John Carroll of “The Cave” and John Henry Carroll, who died without issue.

At an early age, young Carroll was sent to Portugal, where he was educated at a college in Lisbon under the immediate tuition of the Rev. Edward Jones. At ten years of age, his parents removed him to England, where he studied at Eton and matriculated at the University of Cambridge, where his education was completed. Mr. 273Carroll afterwards studied law at the Middle Temple, London. He returned to Maryland in 1746, where because of his thorough familiarity with general affairs both in Europe and in this country, he made an early entrance into public life. Thus he became one of the people’s trusty guides in the stormy days, before and during that Revolution which accomplished so much for the welfare of mankind. Being a talented speaker and writer as well, he was placed on all important committees and had occasion to prepare many public documents which were in their day influential and are therefore historic. One of these papers, the Declaration of Rights which was adopted by the Maryland Convention, November, 1776, was drawn by him and is a powerful as well as uncompromising elucidation of the rights of the people as well as arraignment of the English tyrant King George III. He was appointed one of the Committee on Correspondence of the Maryland Convention of 1774. The first Constitution and Laws of the State of Maryland was also drawn by him and in August, 1775, he was selected as one of the Committee of Safety. Mr. Carroll was also one of the members of the Maryland Convention which assembled at Annapolis in 1775 and served on a committee which on January 12, 1776, prepared instructions for the guidance of the first Maryland Deputies to the Continental Congress. In 1776, he was selected President of the Maryland convention held at Annapolis, on May 25th of that year, and was also elected a member of the committee of Safety of that year. At this Convention over which he presided the final acts of the separation of Maryland from England was accomplished, in the deposition of Governor Robert Eden and the notification of that personage that the public quiet and safety demanded, in the judgment of the Convention, that he leave the Province. Mr. Carroll was also an active member of the Convention which met at Annapolis on June 23, 1776, and which declared the Colonies free and independent States. At the Convention which assembled at Annapolis on August 17, 1776, he was also a prominent figure and was on August 18 chosen one of a committee to draft a Charter of Rights and a Constitution for Maryland.

On November 10, 1776, he was elected to Congress as the successor of his more famous relative Charles Carroll of Carrollton, by whom he was overshadowed in reputation but not in patriotism 274or abilities or in services to his country. When the State Government was formed he was appointed Chief Justice, but he declined the honor. He was then elected to the first Senate of Maryland, where he rendered distinguished service. Mr, Carroll was justly regarded as being next to Daniel Dulany, Jr., Maryland’s greatest lawyer. He was indirectly descended, as were all of the Carrolls of Maryland, from Daniel Carroll of Ely, who presented twenty sons all equipped and armed to the Earl of Ormond for service under Charles I. Mount Clare, his home, was a favorite resort of General Washington before and during the Revolution, and there is a copy of a picture extant, showing the illustrious patriot and Mr. Carroll going on a fishing excursion, from the latter’s mansion, their objective point being the waters of the Chesapeake, which were easily accessible from Mount Clare. This mansion is now incorporated in the limits of Carroll Park, in the southwestern section of Baltimore.

Mr. Carroll at his death left his estates to his nephews, Nicholas and James MacCubbin, the sons of his sister Mary Clare Carroll, on the condition that they took their mother’s maiden name, “Carroll,” and that only and use the coat of arms forever after. The will was dated August 7, 1781. The MacCubbins accepted the requirements of the will and their names were changed by special act of the Legislature of Maryland in 1783 and approved by the Governor William Paca. These Carroll-MacCubbins left a numerous progeny, which has intermarried and is connected with many of the leading families of the State. Among the men of this branch who have distinguished themselves in the public service may be mentioned Hon. James Carroll, who was a member of Congress and also ran for Governor against Governor Platt. He afterwards served as a Judge of the Orphans Court, and was a highly educated and accomplished man. Hon. Charles Carroll Spence of Baltimore was also a scion of the family, who became distinguished. He represented Baltimore in the Maryland Legislature in 1845 and was later appointed by President Buchanan to effect the ratification of a treaty between the United States and Persia. Subsequently he was sent as United States Minister to Turkey, filling the post with distinction. Gen. John Carroll of the Caves is also a scion of the family and is a well known citizen of Baltimore County. He was a member of the Maryland Legislature of 1860, when only 22 years of age and 275was Chief of Cavalry in Maryland, with the rank of Brigadier General in 1870.

Daniel Carroll was a brother of the great Archbishop and is of a consequence somewhat overshadowed by his name and fame, and yet he was a man who achieved considerable distinction in his day and was a worthy member of his distinguished family. He was born in 1730 at Upper Marlboro and was a man of high character and attainments. As soon as the shackles placed upon the Catholics in Maryland were stricken off by the Revolution and they were given free participation in public affairs, Mr. Carroll was elected a member of the Maryland State Senate and was constantly in public life, either as a member of the Senate or as a Delegate to the Continental Congress, a representative to Congress prior to the adoption of the Federal Constitution, or as a delegate to the Federal Constitutional Convention of 1787. He was also appointed by Washington a member of the commission to select the site of the National Capitol, serving with Governor Johnson of Maryland and Dr. David Stewart of Virginia. He died in May, 1796, aged 66 years. Mr. Carroll was a man of great wealth, possessing in addition to his own share of his father’s property, also that renounced by his brother Archbishop Carroll when he became a Jesuit. He owned considerable real estate in the District of Columbia and in the present boundaries of Washington, D. C., including the site of the Capitol, and also had large real estate holdings within the corporate limits of the City of Baltimore. In fact, with Charles Carroll of Carrollton, he owned practically all of the original site of Baltimore.

HOW IT BECAME PLAIN “MR. PRESIDENT” [20] —DETERMINED OPPOSITION OF AN IRISH-AMERICAN DEFEATED THE EFFORTS OF THE TITLE SEEKERS IN THE EARLY HISTORY OF OUR REPUBLIC. — I. Many Favored Monarchial Forms. — II. A Committee on Titles. — III. Powerful Leaders Support Titles. — IV. Precedents Favor Titles. — V. Forcing the Fight on Titles. — VI. Adams Explains. — VII. Politics and Titles. — VIII. The Great Debate of May 8, 1789. — IX. “ His Elective Highness. ” — X. “ Royal Etiquette. ” — XI. Defeat of the Titleists. — XII. “ What Will the Common People Say. ” — XIII. “ High-Sounding Pompous Appellation. ” — XIV. “ Affectation of Simplicity. ” — XV. “ Your Highness of the Senate. ” — XVI. Senate Favors Titles. — XVII. Washington’s Attitude. — XVIII. No Titles “for the Present.”

So far as the writer has been able to ascertain the United States Senate never has officially repudiated a resolution placed on its files, May 14, 1789, to the effect that it favored a title for the President and, inferentially, titles of commensurate degrees for the members of the Cabinet, Congress and other Government officials down to the Sergeant-at-arms of the Senate whom Vice-President John Adams wished to style “Usher of the Black Rod.” It was even suggested that a “canopied throne” be erected in the Senate chamber for Washington’s use.

277Among the titles seriously considered for Washington were “His Elective Majesty,” “His Highness, the President of the United States of America and Protector of the Rights of the Same,” “His Elective Highness,” etc.; while his inaugural address was referred to in the minutes of the Senate as “His Most Gracious Speech.”

It is of record that Senators were addressed as “Your Highness of the Senate” and Representatives as “Your Highness of the Lower House,” while it was solemnly suggested that the proper manner for the Senate to receive the Clerk of the House of Representatives was for the Sergeant-at-arms or “Usher of the Black Rod,” with the mace on his shoulder, to meet the Clerk at the door. In view of the ire aroused between the two Houses at that time, a mallet in the hands of the “Usher of the Black Rod,” when he met the Clerk of the House of Representatives at the door, would have carried out the feelings of some of the Senators better than a mace.

These are some of the apings of royalty that were seriously considered by Congress and, on May 14, 1789, endorsed in the Senate by the very respectable vote of ten to eight. When the British burned some of the Federal buildings in Washington, 1814, many public records were destroyed, so there is difficulty in determining if this endorsement of monarchial forms was rescinded at any time from 1789 to 1814. Still, though one hundred and eighteen years have lapsed since 1789, it is not yet too late for the Senate to purge itself of this “dreadful” contempt of the great American people on this subject of titles.

For some reason, best known to themselves, the members of the first Senate decided that their session should be held behind closed doors. House rule No. 11, as inscribed on the cover of William Maclay’s journal, reads: “Inviolable secrecy shall be observed with respect to all matters transacted in the Senate while the doors are shut or as often as the same is enjoined from the chair.” The result has been that for more than a century afterward this important chapter in our history has remained almost a blank. Fortunate it was that Maclay, who with Robert Morris represented Pennsylvania in the first Senate, kept a daily record of the doings of the Upper House for the two years he was Senator.

It appears from this journal that the first great question that confronted Congress when it held its initial session in New York, April, 2781789, was whether or not this “experiment” in government was to assume monarchial forms. Under date of May 1, 1789, Maclay records: “That the motives of the actors in the late Revolution were various cannot be doubted. The abolishing of royalty, the extinguishment of patronage and dependencies attached to that form of government, were the exalted motives of many revolutionists and these were the improvements meant by them to be made of the war which was forced on us by British aggression—in fine, the amelioration of government and bettering the condition of mankind. These ends and none other were publicly avowed and all our constitutions and public acts were formed in this spirit.

“Yet there were not wanting a party whose motives were different. They wished for the loaves and fishes of government and cared for nothing else but a translation of the diadem from London to Boston, New York or Philadelphia, or, in other words, the creation of a new monarchy in America and to form niches for themselves in the temple of royalty. This spirit manifested itself strongly among the officers at the close of the war and I have been afraid the army would not have been disbanded if the common soldiers could have been kept together. This spirit they developed in the Order of Cincinnati, where I trust it will expend itself in a harmless flame and soon become extinguished.”

Congress was to have met March 4, 1789, but a quorum of the House of Representatives was not had until April 1 and in the Senate not until four days later. From this time until the arrival of President Washington, April 23—Vice-President John Adams arriving only three days before—the attention of Congress was taken up with preliminary matters such as providing a home for the Executive, framing rules for themselves, considering details of the inauguration, etc.

On April 23 Senators Oliver Ellsworth, William S. Johnson (both of Connecticut) and Richard Henry Lee of Virginia, at the instance of Adams, were appointed a committee to confer with the House of Representatives on titles—and thus began one of the fiercest debates 279in the history of the first United States Senate. On its outcome hinged the question whether the new government was to be monarchial in its forms or strictly plebeian.

As a preliminary skirmish Lee, on April 23, produced a copy of the resolution for appointing the Title Committee and moved that it be transmitted to the House of Representatives. This was opposed by Maclay, who records that Lee knew “the giving of titles would hurt us. I showed the absurdity of his motion, plain enough, but it seems to me that by getting a division of the resolution I could perhaps throw out the part about titles altogether. Mr. [Charles] Carroll of Maryland showed that he was against titles.” The motion, notwithstanding, was carried.

But now Adams precipitated matters by asking how he should direct a letter to the Speaker of the House of Representatives and called on the Senators for enlightenment. There was a manifest disinclination to interfere, but the Vice-President persisted until the question was pointedly put as to whether the Speaker should be styled “Honorable.” It was passed in the negative and the first victory against titles was scored.

It was only a few days after this, May 16, that a letter was received in the Senate addressed “His Excellency, the Vice-President.” Adams said that he supposed that it was intended for him but was improperly directed. “He asked the opinion of the Senate, laughingly, and concluded it was against all rule. I [Maclay] said that until we had a rule obliging people to be regular we must submit to their irregularities, more especially of this kind. Mr. Morris said the majesty of the people would do as they pleased. All this I considered as sportive. But Adams put a serious question: Should the letter, so directed, be read? John Langdon [Senator from New Hampshire] and sundry others said yes, and read it was. It proved to be from Loudon, the printer, offering to print for the Senate.”

That Adams was honest in his belief in titles, insignia of rank and outward exhibitions of authority, and that he took a leading part in the effort to establish them in the new government, is more than 280probable. In 1829 John Randolph of Virginia recorded: “I was in New York when John Adams took his seat as Vice-President. I recollect that I was a school boy at the time, attending the lobby of Congress when I ought to have been at school. I remember the manner in which my brother was spurned by the coachman of the then Vice-President for coming too near the ‘scutcheon of the viceregal carriage.’” In a letter to [James] Madison, Jefferson wrote that the question of titles had become serious in the two Houses. “J. Adams espoused the cause of titles with great earnestness. His friend, R. H. Lee, although elected as a Republican enemy to an aristocratic Constitution, was a most zealous second.... Had the project succeeded, it would have subjected the President to a serious dilemma and given a deep wound to our infant Government.”

Under date of June 12, 1789, Senator William Grayson of Virginia wrote to Patrick Henry: “Is it not still stranger that John Adams should be for titles and dignities and preëminences, and should despise the herd and the ill-bred? It is said he was the primum nobile in the Senate for titles for the President.” “Even Roger Sherman” [Congressman from Connecticut], wrote John Armstrong to General Gates, April 7, 1789, “has set his head at work to devise some style of address more novel and dignified than ‘Excellency.’ Yet, in the midst of this admiration, there are skeptics who doubt its propriety and wits who amuse themselves at its expense. The first will grumble and the last will laugh, and the President should be prepared to meet the attacks of both with firmness and good nature.”

That there existed a strong sentiment against titles can be surmised from a caricature that appeared in New York about the time of Washington’s inauguration. It was entitled “The Entry” and was “full of very disloyal and profane allusions.” Washington was depicted riding on a donkey. Colonel David Humphreys [Washington’s aide-de-camp] was represented as leading the animal and “chanting hosannas and birthday odes.” In the background the devil is represented as saying:

It should not be forgotten, however, that Adams, Lee and other advocates of titles were powerfully supported in their position by precedents. It was shown that in almost every other detail Americans had adopted English and German—then the dominating races in the thirteen colonies—methods of procedure. The postal service was based on imported lines, our dollar was copied from the Bohemian “thaler,” colonial jurisprudence had its main inspiration in British law. Churches and custom-houses were conducted much the same as in the old countries.

The very fact that opposition to any elaborate form of divine service being connected with Washington’s inauguration was overruled shows how closely the founders of the “new” government followed Old World examples. It appears that the inauguration had been planned with a view to excluding the clergy in their official capacities and, in all probability, this programme would have been carried out had not the ministers in New York protested. Here again precedents from motherlands carried the day. When, at the eleventh hour the “sacrilege” was called to the attention of the Right Reverend Provoost, Episcopal bishop of New York, he cautiously replied that the Church of England “had always been used to look up to Government upon such occasions.” “The question of holding services on the day of the inauguration,” records Ebenezer Hazard, “had been agitated by the clergymen in town.... The bishop thought it prudent not to do anything till they knew what Government would direct. If the good bishop never prays without an order from Government,” wrote Hazard, “it is not probable that the kingdom of heaven will suffer much from his violence.”

In the light of these facts it is not strange that we find Adams, Lee and others turning their eyes to procedures of the Old World for guidance in the matter of titles. To be sure, the Constitution not only declared that no titles of nobility shall be granted by the United States but that employès of the Government, of whatever degree, shall not accept them from any foreign potentate. Yet there was a large question as to what kind of title might have been meant; whether a patent of nobility with landed estates to be handed down 282from generation to generation—which, undoubtedly, was the “evil” aimed at by the framers of the Constitution—or a mere title of courtesy as “Mister” or “Mr.” or “Sir” used in ordinary correspondence. Congress had met to put the Constitution in operation and had the power to construe doubtful passages. Broader interpretations of the articles have been made than those proposed by the titleists.

Adams had spent much time in Europe and had been impressed with the effect of formalities, titles, wigs, gowns, etc., on the “common” people. That he was correct, in some degree, in his advocacy of these forms is attested by the fact that gowns have come more and more into use in the administration of the judiciary of some states and in the Supreme Court of the United States while, in the general run of commerce, liveries—the insignia of station or rank—are getting to be the rule rather than the exception.

Acting with his usual energy, Adams forced the fighting on titles from the start. He arrived in New York on Monday, April 20, and by Thursday, April 23, he had the Title Committee appointed; and the discussion of titles occupied most of the time of the Senate from then until May 14, when it was finally disposed of. Pending the inaugural, April 30, the subject lay in abeyance. On the morning following, May 1, the Senate met at 11 o’clock. At the conclusion of “prayers” was the reading of the minutes and almost the first words were “His Most Gracious Speech”—referring to Washington’s inaugural address. Adams frankly admitted that these words had been inserted at his instance by Samuel Otis, the secretary of the Senate.

Maclay records: “I looked all around the Senate. Every countenance seemed to wear a blank. The Secretary was going on. I must speak or nobody would. ‘Mr. President, we have lately had a hard struggle for our liberty against kingly authority. The minds of men are still heated; everything related to that species of government is odious to the people. The words prefixed to the President’s speech are the same that are usually placed before the speech 283of his Britannic Majesty. I know they will give offense. I consider them improper. I, therefore, move that they be struck out and that it stand simply address or speech as may be adjudged most suitable.’

“Mr. Adams rose in his chair and expressed the greatest surprise that anything should be objected to on account of its being taken from the practice of that Government under which we had lived so long and happily formerly; that he was for a dignified and respectable government and, as far as he knew the sentiments of the people, they thought as he did; that, for his part, he was one of the first in the late contest [the Revolution] and, if he could have thought of this, he never would have drawn his sword.

“Painful as it was, I had to contend with the Chair. I admitted that the people of the colonies had enjoyed, formerly, great happiness under that species of government but the abuses of that Government under which they had smarted had taught them what they had to fear from that kind of government; that there had been a revolution in the sentiments of people respecting that government, equally great as that which had happened in the government itself; that even the modes of it were now abhorred; that the enemies of the Constitution had objected to it believing there would be a transition from it to kingly government and all the trappings and splendor of royalty; that if such a thing as this appeared on our minutes, they would not fail to resent it as the first step of the ladder in the ascent to royalty.

“The Vice-President rose a second time and declared that he had mentioned it to the Secretary; that he could not possibly conceive that any person could take offense at it. I had to get up again and declare that, although I knew of it being mentioned from the Chair, yet my opposition did not proceed from any motive of contempt; that, although it was a painful task, it was solely a sense of duty that raised me.

“The Vice-President stood during this time; said he had been long abroad and did not know how the temper of people might be now. Up now rose [George] Reed [Senator from Delaware] and declared for the paragraph. He saw no reason to object to it because the British speeches were styled ‘most gracious.’ If we choose to object to words because they had been used in the same sense in Britain, we should soon be at loss to do business. I had to reply: 284‘It is time enough to submit to necessity when it exists. At present we are not at loss for words. The words, speech or address, without any addition will suit us well enough.’ The first time I was up Mr. Lee followed me with a word or two by way of seconding me; but when the Vice-President, on being up last, declared that he was the person from whom the words were taken, Mr. Lee got up and informed the Chair that he did not know that circumstance as he had been absent when it happened. The question was put and carried for erasing the words without a division.”

After the adjournment of the Senate that day the Vice-President drew Maclay aside and explained that he was for an efficient government, that he had the greatest respect for the President; and gave his ideas on “checks to government and the balances of power.” Maclay protested that he “would yield to no person in respect to General Washington,” that he was not wanting in respect to Adams himself; that his wishes for an efficient government were as high as any man’s and begged “him to believe that I did myself great violence when I opposed him in the chair and nothing but a sense of duty could force me to it.”

Commenting on this day’s debate Maclay records: “Strange, indeed, that in that very country [America] where the flame of freedom had been kindled, an attempt should be made to introduce these absurdities and humiliating distinctions which the hand of reason, aided by our example was prostrating in the heart of Europe. I, however, will endeavor (as I have hitherto done) to use the resentment of the Representatives to defeat Mr. Adams and others on the subject of titles. The pompous and lordly distinctions which the Senate have manifested a disposition to establish between the two Houses have nettled the Representatives and this business of titles may be considered as a part of the same tune. While we are debating on titles I will, through the Speaker, Mr. Muhlenberg and other friends, get the idea suggested of answering the President’s address without any title, in contempt of our deliberations, which still continue on that subject. This, once effected, will confound them [the 285Senators] completely and establish a precedent they will not dare to violate.”

On Saturday, May 2, the day following the debate on “His Most Gracious Speech,” the Senate met and several of the members congratulated Maclay on the stand he had taken. Langdon “shook hands very heartily with me,” but some of the other New England Senators were “shy.” Senator William Paterson of New Jersey “passed censure on the conduct of the Vice-President” and “hinted as if some of the Senate would have taken notice of the ‘gracious’ affair if I had not. I told him I was no courtier and had no occasion to trim, but said it was a most disagreeable thing to contend with the Chair and I had alone held that disagreeable post more than once.”

On Friday, May 8, on motion of Ellsworth, the report of the Joint Committee on Titles was taken up by the Senate and the great battle was fairly under way. Two days before this Maclay noted that “the title selected from all the potentates of the earth for our President was to have been taken from Poland, viz., ‘Elective Majesty.’ What a royal escape!”

Surprise, naturally, might be expressed that Lee, elected as a “Republican enemy to an aristocratic constitution,” should have taken the lead in advocating titles. Light is thrown on the situation from the following entry in Maclay’s journal under date of May 15, 1789: “Lee has a cultivated understanding, great practice in public business.... He has acted as a high priest through the whole of this idolatrous business.... Had it not been for Mr. Lee I am firmly convinced no other man would have ventured to follow our Vice-President. But Lee led, Ellsworth seconded him, the New England men followed and Ralph Izard [Senator from South Carolina] joined them but really haud passibus aequis, for he was only for the title of ‘Excellency,’ which had been sanctified by use.

UNITED STATES SENATOR ROBERT JACKSON GAMBLE.

Vice-President of the Society

for South Dakota.

286“It is easy to see what his [Lee’s] aim is. By flattering the President of the Senate he hopes to govern all the members from New England and with a little assistance from Carolina or Georgia, to be absolute in the Senate. Ellsworth and some more of the New England men flatter him in turn, expecting he will be with them on the question of residence [of Congress]. Had it not been for our Vice-President and Lee I am convinced the Senate would have been as adverse to titles as the House of Representatives. The game that our Vice-President and Mr. Lee appear to have now in view is to separate the Senate as much as possible from the House of Representatives. Our Vice-President’s doctrine is that all honors and titles should flow from the President and Senate only.”

But whatever Lee’s motives may have been, it is indisputable that he threw his great weight and splendid abilities in favor of titles. In the momentous debate of May 8 he declared that all the world, civilized and savage, called for titles; that there must be something in human nature that occasioned this general consent and, therefore, he conceived it was right. “Here he began,” records Maclay, “to enumerate many, many nations who gave titles—such as Venice, Genoa and others. The Greeks and Romans, it was said, had no titles, ‘but’ (making a profound bow to the Chair) ‘you were pleased to set us right in this with respect to the Conscript Fathers the other day.’ Here he repeated the Vice-President’s speech of the 23d ultimo almost verbatim all over.

“Mr. Ellsworth rose. He had a paper in his hat which he looked constantly at. He repeated almost all that Mr. Lee had said but got on the subject of kings—declared that the sentence in the primer of fear God and honor the king was of great importance; that kings were of divine appointment; that Saul, the head and shoulders taller than the rest of the people, was elected by God and anointed by his appointment.

“I sat after he had done for a considerable time to see if anybody would rise. At last I got up and first answered Lee as well as I could with nearly the same arguments, drawn from the Constitution, as I had used on the 23d ult. I mentioned that within the space of twenty years back, more light had been thrown on the subject of governments and on human affairs in general than for several generations before; that this light of knowledge had diminished the veneration 287for titles and that mankind now considered themselves as little bound to imitate the follies of civilized nations as the brutalities of savages; that the abuse of power and the fear of bloody masters had extorted titles as well as adoration, in some instances from the trembling crowd; that the impression now on the minds of the citizens of these states was that of horror for kingly authority.

“Izard got up. He dwelt almost entirely on the antiquity of kingly government. He could not, however, well get farther back than Philip of Macedon. He seemed to have forgot both Homer and the Bible. He urged for something equivalent to nobility having been common among the Romans, for they had three names that seemed to answer to honorable or something like it, before and something behind. He did not say Esquire. Mr. Carroll rose and took my side of the question. He followed nearly the track I had been in and dwelt much on the information that was now abroad in the world. He spoke against kings.

“Mr. Lee and Mr. Izard were both up again. Ellsworth was up again. Langdon was up several times but spoke short each time. Paterson was up but there was no knowing which side he was of. Mr. Lee considered him as against him and answered him—but Paterson finally voted with Lee. The Vice-President repeatedly helped the speakers for titles. Ellsworth was enumerating how common the appellation of President was. The Vice-President put him in mind that there were presidents of fire companies and of a cricket club. Mr. Lee, at another time, was saying he believed some of the states authorized titles by their constitutions. The Vice-President, from the chair, told him that Connecticut did it. At sundry other times he interfered in a like manner. I had been frequently up to answer new points during the debate.

“I collected myself for a last effort. I read the clause in the Constitution against titles of nobility; showed that the spirit of it was against not only granting titles by Congress but against the permission to foreign potentates granting any titles whatever; that as to kingly government, it was equally out of the question as a republican government was guaranteed to every State in the Union; that they were both equally forbidden fruit of the Constitution. I called the attention of the House to the consequences that were likely to follow; that gentleman seemed to court a rupture with the Lower House. 288The Representatives had adopted the report [rejecting titles] and were this day acting on it or according to the spirit of the report. We were proposing a title. Our conduct would mark us to the world as actuated by the spirit of dissension; and the characters of the [two] Houses would be as aristocratic and democratical.”

Finally the matter came to a vote and the report of the Title Committee, conferring the title of “Elective Majesty” on Washington was rejected. Then began the fight, for, at least, some kind of a title for the President. Izard moved for the title of “Excellency,” but he withdrew it, upon which Lee suggested “Highness” with some prefatory word such as “Elective Highness.” Maclay records: “It was insisted that such a dignified title would add greatly to the weight and authority of the Government, both at home and abroad. I declared myself of a totally different opinion; that at present it was impossible to add to the respect entertained for General Washington; that if you gave him the title of any foreign prince or potentate, a belief would follow that the manners of that prince and his modes of government would be adopted by the President. (Mr. Lee had, just before I got up, read over a list of the titles of all the princes and potentates of the earth, marking where the word ‘highness’ occurred. The Grand Turk had it, all the crown princes of Germany had it, sons and daughters of crown heads, etc.) That particularly ‘Elective Highness,’ which sounded nearly like ‘Electoral Highness,’ would have a most ungrateful sound to many thousands of industrious citizens who had fled from German oppression; that ‘Highness’ was part of the title of a prince or princess of the blood and was often given to dukes; that it was degrading our President to place him on a par with any prince of any blood in Europe, nor was there one of them that could enter the list of true glory with him.”

This debate, beginning probably at the usual time for the Senate’s meeting, namely 10 a. m., lasted until 3.30 p. m., by which time another committee was appointed to consider a title for the President. Concluding his record of the notable debate of this day, Maclay writes: “This whole silly business is the work of Mr. Adams and Mr. Lee. Izard follows Lee and the New England men ... follow Mr. Adams. Mr. [Charles] Thompson [Secretary of the old Congress] says this used to be the case in the old Congress. I had, to be sure, the greatest share in this debate and must now have completely sold (no, sold is a bad word for I have got nothing for it) every particle of court favor, for a court our House seems determined on, and to run into all the fooleries, fopperies, fineries and pomp of royal etiquette.”

When Maclay attended the Senate on the following day, Saturday, May 9, he notes: “I know not the motive but never was I received with more familiarity, nor quite so much, before by the members. Ellsworth, in particular, seemed to show a kind of fondness.”

After correcting the minutes, the Title Committee, appointed by the Senate on the day before, reported “His Highness, the President of the United States of America, and Protector of the Rights of the Same” for Washington. Senator William Few, of Georgia, spoke to Maclay, intimating his unwillingness to do anything hastily. He then addressed the Senate on the same lines, although he did not pointedly move for postponement. Meantime the clerk of the House of Representatives appeared at the bar and announced the adoption of the report of the Joint Committee, which rejected all titles.

At this point Maclay got up, said that what Few had said amounted to a motion for a postponement and asked leave to second him. “I then pointed out,” records Maclay, “the rupture that was likely to ensue with the other House; that this was a matter of very 290serious import and I thought it our indispensable duty to avoid any inconvenience of that kind; that by the arrangement between the Houses, in case of disagreement, a conference might be requested; that my intention was, if the postponement was carried, to move immediately for a Committee of Conference to be appointed on the differences between the Houses and I had hopes that by these means all subjects of debate would be done away.”

Now Reed moved that the report might be adopted but he was not seconded. Senator Caleb Strong [of Massachusetts] was in favor of the postponement but was interrupted by the Chair. Senator [Tristram] Dalton [of Massachusetts] also was in favor of it and Maclay records: “I could now see a visible anxiety in the Chair. Strong was up again and said among other things that he thought the other House would follow—but there was risk in it.”

Evidently the tide began to turn against titles, for Maclay records: “I had a fine, slack and easy time of it today. Friends seemed to rise in succession. Lee went over his old ground twice but owned, at last, that there was difficulty every way but said plainly that the best mode for the House was to adopt the [Senate] report—and then the other House would follow. He found, however, the current began to turn against him and he laid his head on his hands as if he would have slept.”

Finally Izard got up and said that he was in favor of a postponement. “I could see the Vice-President kindle at him,” records Maclay. “Izard had remarked that the House of Representatives had adopted the report rejecting titles but the Chair interrupted him, saying: ‘No, we had no right to know, nor could we know it until after the clerk had this morning official information.’ The members fixed themselves and the question was called for.”

At this point Adams got up and for forty minutes addressed the Senate. Maclay writes: “He began first on the subject of order and found fault with everything almost; but down he came to particulars and pointedly blamed a member for disorderly behavior. The member had mentioned the appearance of a captious disposition in the other House. This was disorderly and he spoke with asperity. 291The member meant was Mr. Izard. All this was prefatory. On he got to his favorite topic of titles and over the old ground of the immense advantage of, the absolute necessity of them. When he had exhausted this subject he turned a new leaf, I believe, on the conviction that the postponement would be carried and, perhaps, the business lost by an attention to the other House.

“‘Gentlemen’ [said Adams], I must tell you that it is you and the President that have the making of titles. Suppose the President to have the appointment of Mr. Jefferson at the court of France. Mr. Jefferson is, in virtue of that appointment, the most illustrious, the most powerful and what not. But the President must be himself something that includes all the dignities of the diplomatic corps and something greater still. What will the common people of foreign countries, what will the sailors and the soldiers say, ‘George Washington, President of the United States?’ They will despise him to all eternity. This is all nonsense to the philosopher—but so is all government whatever.’

“The above I recollect with great precision; but he said fifty more things equally injudicious which I do not think worth minuting. It is evident that he begins to despair of getting the article of titles through the House of Representatives and has turned his eye to get it done solely by the Senate.”

Maclay had intended saying not another word on this subject for this day, but some remarks in the Vice-President’s speech impelled the Pennsylvanian to rise. He said: “Mr. President, the Constitution of the United States has designated our Chief Magistrate by the appellation of the ‘President of the United States of America.’ This is his title of office; nor can we alter, add to or diminish it without infringing the Constitution. In like manner persons authorized to transact business with foreign powers are styled Ambassadors, Public Ministers, etc. To give them any other appellation would be an equal infringement. As to grades of order or titles of nobility, nothing of the kind can be established by Congress.

“Can, then, the President and Senate do that which is prohibited to the United States at large? Certainly not. Let us read the Constitution. 292‘No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States.’ The Constitution goes further. The servants of the public are prohibited from accepting them from any foreign state, king or prince. So that the appellation and terms given to nobility in the Old World are contraband language in the United States; nor can we apply them to our citizens consistent with the Constitution. As to what the common people, soldiers and sailors of foreign countries may think of us, I do not think it imports us much. Perhaps, the less they think or have occasion to think of us, the better.

“But suppose this is a desirable point; how is it to be gained? The English excepted, foreigners do not understand our language. We must use Hohen Mogende to a Dutchman, Beylerbey to a Turk or Algerine and so of the rest. From the English, indeed, we may borrow terms that would not be wholly unintelligible to our own citizens. But will they thank us for the compliment? Would not the plagiarism be more likely to be attended with contempt than respect among all of them? It has been admitted that all this is nonsense to the philosopher. I am ready to admit that every high-sounding, pompous appellation, descriptive of qualities which the object does not possess, must appear bombastic nonsense in the eye of every wise man. But I cannot admit such an idea with respect to government itself. Philosophers have admitted not the utility but the necessity of it and their labors have been directed to correct the vices and expose the follies which have been engrafted upon it and to reduce the practice of it to the principles of common sense, such as we see exemplified by the merchant, the mechanic and the farmer whose every act or operation tends to a productive or beneficial effect; and, above all, to illustrate this fact that government was instituted for the benefit of the people and that no act of government is justifiable that has not this for its object. Such has been the labor of philosophers with respect to government and sorry indeed would I be if their labors should be in vain.”

Vice-President Adams now put the question and the postponement was carried; immediately after which Maclay offered a resolution for a conference between the two Houses. It was carried and the 293committee appointed. But now Ellsworth drew up another resolution in which the differences between the two Houses were to be kept out of sight and to proceed de novo on a title for the President. “I did not enter into the debate,” records Maclay, “but expressed my fear that the House of Representatives would be irritated and would not meet us on that ground. And, as if they meant to provoke the other House, they insisted that the minute of rejection should go down with the appointment of the committee. Little good can come of it thus circumstanced, more especially as the old committee were reappointed,” namely, Ellsworth, Johnson and Lee.

Monday, May 11, on motion of Lee, the subject of titles was postponed to the following day, but under date of May 12 Maclay records: “The business of considering the title, which was laid on the table, was postponed to see what would be the result of the conference of the Joint Committee on that subject.” Adams’s solicitude for titles was evident, for when the Senate met, May 13, he reminded the members that the report for the President’s title lay on the table. The Senate was informed by Lee that the committee on titles had met in the Senate chamber but were interrupted by the assembling of that body and had agreed to meet on the following morning. Again, on May 14, the Vice-President “reminded us of the title report” but the committee was out on it. In a short time, however, they reported that the Lower House “had adhered in the strictest manner to their former resolution,” which was against the granting of titles of any kind.

This, indeed, was a heavy blow for the advocates of titles. Catching at the last straw, Lee now moved that the Senate de novo committee’s report in favor of titles be taken from the table and entered on the files of the House. The spirit of his motion was that attention should be paid to the usages of civilized nations in order to keep up a proper respect to the President; that “affectation of simplicity would be injurious”; that the Senate had decided in favor of titles but, in deference to the expressed feelings of the Lower House, the Senate, “for the present,” should address the President without title.

On the day preceding this debate the Speaker Muhlenberg of the House of Representatives had accosted Maclay as “Your Highness of the Senate,” saying that Congressman Henry Wynkoop, of Pennsylvania, had been christened by them “His Highness of the Lower House.” As the question of titles was gone all over again, Maclay records that he determined to try what ridicule would do. He said: “Mr. President, if all men were of one stature, there would be neither high nor low. Highness, when applied to an individual, must naturally denote the excess of stature which he possesses over other men. An honorable member [Ellsworth] told us the other day of a certain king [Saul] who was a head and shoulders taller than anybody else. This, more especially when he was gloriously greased with a great horn of oil, must have rendered him highly conspicuous. History, too, if I mistake not, will furnish us with an example where a great Thracian obtained the empire of the world from no other circumstance. But, if this antiquated principle is to be adopted, give us fair play. Let America be searched and it is most probable that the honor will be found to belong to some huge Patagonian. This is indeed putting one sadly over the head of another. True, but Nature has done it and men should see where she leads before they adopt her as a guide.

“It may be said that this business is metaphorical and the high station of the President entitled him to it. Nothing can be true metaphorically which is not so naturally, and under this view of the proposed title it belongs with more propriety to the man in the moon than anybody else as his station (when we have the honor of seeing him) is certainly the most exalted of any we know of. Gentlemen may say this is fanciful. Would they wish to see the subject in the most serious point of view that it is possible to place it? Rome, after being benighted for ages in the darkest gloom of ecclesiastical and aristocratic tyranny, beheld a reformer [Rienzi] in the fourteenth century who, preaching from stocks and stones and the busts and fragments of ancient heroes, lighted up the lamp of liberty to meridium splendor. Intoxicated with success, he assumed a string of titles, none of which, in my recollection, was equally absurd with 295the one before you; in consequence of which and of his aping some other symbols of nobility and royalty, he fell and pulled down the whole republican structure along with him; marking particularly the subject of titles as one of the principal rocks on which he was shipwrecked. As to the latter part of the title, I would only observe that the power of war is the organ of protection. This is placed in Congress by the Constitution. Any attempt to divest them of it, even with George Washington, is treason against the United States or, at least, a violation of the Constitution.”

With a view to “cutting up the whole matter by the roots” the anti-titleists moved a general postponement of the Senate report on titles—and the motion was carried. But with a tenacity worthy of a better cause, Lee insisted on placing the report on the files of the House as indicating that the Senate was in favor of titles. Carroll opposed this on the ground that an imperfect resolution should not be filed. He was seconded by Maclay as the filing carried with it the idea of adoption. This part of the motion was lost by a general postponement.

Even after the subject had been postponed, the Senators persisted in the discussion. Morris rose and said that he disliked the title “Highness and Protector of the Rights of America” as protection lay with Congress. He was told that the question of postponement had been carried. Then Carroll rose, said he disliked the first part of the motion which stated the acts of the Senate to be in favor of titles. But, as a matter of fact, no such resolution had been passed in the Senate.

Maclay then rose and moved a division on the motion and was seconded by Carroll. This precipitated another long debate on titles. Ellsworth went over the field again; Johnson “spoke much more to the point, Paterson said that a division should take place at the word ‘Senate’ and on this point he was supported by Morris and Maclay, the latter withdrawing his motion and seconding Paterson’s for a division at the word ‘Senate.’ The division was full enough to answer all purposes which they avowed, taking it at this place.” 296It was apparent, however, that the titleists still clung to their hope and even went so far as to charge the Lower House with affecting simplicity.

Carroll declared that it was well known that all the Senators were not for titles, yet the idea held forth was that the Senate favored titles. He wished to have the yeas and nays placed on record and “let the world judge.” Senator Few said that it was too late for the yeas and nays as they should have been called for when the report against titles was rejected. Finally the question was put and it stood “eight with us; ten against us. Mr. Carroll called for the yeas and nays.” None rose with him except Senator John Henry of Maryland and Maclay “and for want of another man we lost them”—Rule 15 of the Senate holding that the yeas and nays can be placed on the journal of the House only when called for by one-fifth of the senators present.

It will be interesting to note Washington’s bearing on the subject of titles while it was under debate in Congress. His position was most embarrassing and called for tact and equanimity as the first title considered was that for the President. On its fate depended the granting of titles for the lesser officers of the government. That Washington conducted himself with his usual fortitude, impartiality and broad-mindedness is fully attested by the following entry in Maclay’s journal: “Through the whole of this base business [granting titles] I have endeavored to mark the conduct of General Washington. I have no clew that will fairly lead me to any just conclusion as to his sentiments. I think it scarce possible but he must have dropped something on a subject which has excited so much warmth. If he did, it was not on our side or I would have heard it. But no matter. I have, by plowing with the heifer of the other House, completely defeated them.”

And so ended the momentous debate in the first United States Senate on the subject of titles which, in one form or another, “engaged almost the whole time of the Senate from the 23d of April, 297the day that our Vice-President began it,” until May 14 when the Senate, by a vote of ten to eight decided that they, “for the present,” would not press the subject of titles but so arranged the records as to give the impression that they sanctioned them. When it came to reading the minutes on the following day, Friday, May 15, Few moved that the minute on the division of Lee’s motion be struck out because, as it stood, it had the appearance of unanimity. Lee opposed. Few was supported by Carroll, Ellsworth and Maclay—but the minute stood.

One hundred and eighteen years have lapsed since this debate on a title for the President of the United States—and the consequent “ennobling” of the lesser officials of the “new” government—took place. That debate left the situation as follows: the House of Representatives rejected titles of any kind most positively. The Senate, finding that it could not bring the whole Congress to the point of giving titles, fell back to the position that the President and the Senate were the only fountain heads of titles and that, merely as a matter of accommodation, “for the present” they waived the question but put themselves on record—by placing on the files of the Senate a resolution which never was passed—as being in favor of appellations of nobility.

IRISH PIONEERS OF THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI VALLEY—JOHN WOOD, THE FIRST REAL PIONEER SETTLER—FOUNDER OF QUINCY, MODEL STATE EXECUTIVE AND PATRIOT—HEROIC SETTLERS IN VARIOUS STATES. — “ War Department, Washington, D. C. , April 13, 1862.

After many thousand years separation at the cradle of their race, in India, it was the coming together and blending of pure Celtic and Teutonic families that finally gave order and civilization to Europe after the fall of Greece and Rome produced the dark ages. It was the further mingling and blending of the same kindred blood in America that produced the men, who, in 1776, gave the governments and civilizations of the world their brightest jewel in the Declaration of American Independence, a new civic chart to inspire and guide all nations on the highway of justice, freedom and equality to the highest civilization. It was a further blend of the same virile and liberty-loving blood that enabled the immortal Lincoln to save the Republic in 1861 and place it at the head of the nations, without a peer in ancient or modern history.

It was the marriage of an Irishman and a German woman in the Mohawk Valley of New York in 1795 that gave America, in the person of John Wood, one of her best and bravest sons; the Mississippi Valley, its first real pioneer settler; Quincy, its beloved founder; Illinois, a model executive and the republic a patriotic defender.

Governor John Wood was born in Moravia, New York, December 20th, 1798. He was the second child and only son of Doctor Daniel Wood, and Catherine (Crouse) Wood. His father, a surgeon and captain under Washington during the war of freedom from British despotism, was of Irish descent, being the grandson of Timothy Wood, of Longford, Ireland.

Doctor Daniel Wood was a man of unusual attainments as a scholar and linguist. He was proficient in several languages; his medical books in French and German, with his own marginal notes, indicate the high standard of his professional acquirements.

299At the close of the revolution, he settled in Cayuga County, on a large tract of land which he received as a bounty from the government, where he died at the ripe age of ninety-two years. His body was exhumed by his son and brought to Quincy and buried in Woodland Cemetery on a high natural knoll overlooking the waters of the Mississippi, in view of George Rogers Clark’s monument, designed by a son of General Mulligan and erected by the State of Illinois during the past year. Irish patriotism and valor are here well represented by the names of Clark, Wood and Mulligan.

The mother of Governor Wood, who died while he was under five years of age, was a woman of unusual beauty and was several years younger than her husband. She was of old “Mohawk Dutch” stock, and while well informed could only speak the “Dutch” language.

In 1818, John Wood came West in quest of home and fortune. He spent two years exploring the advantages offered to young men in the valleys of Kentucky, Tennessee and Alabama, also in southern Ohio and Indiana. In 1820, while at Cincinnati, he met a young man by the name of Willard Keyes, a native of Vermont and two years older than himself. Keyes had spent a year at Prairie du Chien, on the Upper Mississippi, teaching French and Indian half-breeds. They entered into a partnership to go on the frontier and commence farming. They secured between them some young steers, a heifer and a few swine, a plow and a limited supply of provisions, then treked across the country into the wilderness of the great Northwest to find a suitable location, finally stopping at a place about thirty miles southeast of Quincy, where they established a rude bachelors’ hall and raised three crops.

In the spring of 1821, Wood, while hunting for game, met two Irishmen named Peter Flynn and James Moffatt, soldiers of 1812, who had located government warrants on the banks of the Mississippi, west of the Wood and Keyes locations. John Wood visited the Flynn and Moffatt locations and, being a keen observer and a natural lover of beauty, admiring their high advantages and beautiful surroundings, immediately resolved to make his home with them.

In the fall of that year, Jeremiah Rose, wife and five-year-old daughter came to the Wood and Keyes settlement. He was of Irish descent, born in Rensselear County, New York. In the fall of 1822, 300Wood and Rose arranged to locate at the Flynn and Moffatt settlements, but Rose took sick and remained with his family, while Wood went on, and with the assistance of Flynn and Moffatt built a log cabin eighteen by twenty feet, the first white man’s home in this section of Illinois, as Flynn and Moffatt had built no cabins on their locations but camped with the Indians who lined the river banks north and south for several miles. John Wood being unmarried, the Rose family occupied his cabin and remained with him until 1826, when Rose located a mile back from the river and about a mile north, on what is now known as Twelfth Street.

In the spring of 1824, Williard Keyes came and built a cabin sixteen by sixteen feet at the foot of what is now Vermont Street. In the same fall, John Drulard, a Frenchman, built a cabin a short distance south of Wood, making a white man’s village of three cabins where Indians had held dominion and war dances for ages. Between the cabins of Wood and Keyes, on the high bluffs where Main Street has been cut through to the river, there was a “Sauk” village of friendly Indians. They lingered in the vicinity for several years, coming back annually until after the Black Hawk war to decorate and worship at the graves of their fathers.

In the fall of 1824, John Wood caused to be inserted in the Edwardsville Spectator a notice that application would be made at the next session of the legislature, for the organization of a new county, defining its boundaries. In 1825 the Legislature authorized its establishment, fixing the boundaries described in Wood’s notice and as they now exist. Three commissioners were appointed to locate the county seat. After going over the boundaries, they selected the place suggested by John Wood as the most suitable. They christened the new town Quincy and the county Adams, in honor of the president. Thenceforth the little village of three log cabins rejoiced in a name. A space four hundred feet square was reserved in the center of the town for a public square, now known as Washington Park, the home of the friendly squirrels and birds that sport in safety amid its elms, shrubs and fountains. The first election for officers of the county was held July 2, 1825, when forty votes were polled.

From 1825 to 1830, the growth of Quincy was very slow, caused by the privations incident to a pioneer’s life. The little settlement 301was many miles distant from mills or places where necessary family supplies could be obtained. Instead of coffee the settlers used okra seeds, which they cultivated for that purpose and sweetened with wild honey found in great abundance in the neighboring woods. Their nearest blacksmith was at Atlas, forty miles distant, where they carried their plows to be sharpened, swung upon horses’ backs.

Among the voters who took part in the election for county officers in July, 1825, appear the Celtic names of George Frazier, Michael Dodd, Thomas McCreary, Louis Kinney, Daniel Moore, H. Hawley and Ben McNitt, besides the others above mentioned. Below appear the names of the Irish pioneers who came after the county and the town were organized.

From the beginning, John Wood was the moving spirit of the young settlement. Its subsequent growth and prosperity were due to his untiring zeal which he maintained to the end of his long and useful life.

In 1827, John Wood visited the lead mines at Galena, but maintained his home at Quincy and was constantly identified with its progress, serving as its mayor four times and a number of years as one of its councilmen. His influence was not confined to Quincy alone. He was early recognized throughout the State as a rising man of mark. The manner in which he organized Adams County and defeated a movement of men from Kentucky, who, in 1824, desired a convention for a new constitution to allow them to bring their slaves to Illinois, gave him prominence among the politicians of the State.

At the time John Wood built his Quincy cabin, St. Louis and Missouri were the attractive places of the opening West, but the black gangrene of human slavery repelled John Wood and caused him to prefer the free soil of Illinois. When the question was submitted to the people, John Wood made a canvass of the Bounty Land or Military Tract as it was called, and out of one hundred and three votes cast secured all but four against a change. He regarded with equal disfavor the political organization known as the abolitionists, considering them civic disturbers.

THOMAS F. RYAN, ESQ.,

Of New York City.

Life Member of the Society.

302In 1832 John Wood served as a volunteer in the Blackhawk War. In 1848, with two sons, he went to California, but remained there only a year. In 1850 he was elected to the State Senate and in 1856 was elected Lieutenant Governor of Illinois, and became governor of the State in 1859 on the death of Governor Bissell. He was one of the five delegates who, in February, 1861, represented Illinois at the peace convention in Washington. On the breaking out of the rebellion he was appointed Quartermaster General of Illinois, and served with great efficiency until June, 1864, when, at the age of sixty-six years, he went to the field of war as Colonel of the One Hundredth and Thirty-Seventh Illinois. At Memphis, Tennessee, he was assigned to the command of a brigade and discharged his duties gallantly while under fire.

The value of Governor Wood’s services to State and Nation were handsomely acknowledged in 1868 by Illinois’ great war governor, Richard Yates, then United States Senator, in a letter to Governor Wood. Senator Yates wrote: “I have never expressed to you, though I have many times spoken of it to others, my grateful remembrance of your great assistance during those trying times. Often when discouraged, as we all were, I believe, except you, I have been cheered and sustained by your confidence and what many persons told me of your kindly mention of my acts as governor. This, I assure you, my dear Governor, is one of the pleasant memories connected with those eventful and trying times, and it is not too late, I hope, for me to express my unfeigned gratitude. It has always afforded me pleasure, when friends have given me the credit, to tell them the truth, how vastly the State was indebted to Governor Wood for the great energy he displayed in his office, which was the most trying office of us all, and for his warm and enthusiastic words for his country in those days of doubt and trial. I hope you will not consider these words flattering, but as a grateful expression of your true friend, Richard Yates.”

Governor Wood “was a superb specimen of the highest human type; six feet in height; hair and beard flowing and as white as snow; ruddy face; strong cut features; muscular frame and a pleasing dignity gave him the appearance of a Roman Senator, causing Governor Yates and others to refer to him frequently as the “Old Roman from Adams.” His nature was bold, frank and generous. He was a stranger to moral or physical fear. A few years before his death, with his wife, and a party of Quincy friends, he visited California. While on a steamer visiting places in Southern California, he was 303wrecked by the boat running on a rock. The Captain, after placing women and children safely on boats, said: “Now, Governor Wood, you take your place.” His answer was that of a hero. “Send the young folks first. I am seventy years old. Save the young.””

Before 1858, Governor Wood resided in a large two-story frame dwelling with pilastered portico, which that year he moved across Twelfth Street into his old orchard, and on the old site he erected a magnificent sandstone palace, the finest then in the State, costing $125,000. It is now used as a boy’s school by the Methodist Church, while the old frame dwelling is owned by the Quincy Historical Society, both, with immense tracts of land within the city limits, having passed from the Governor shortly before his death through the unfortunate speculations of his sons on the Chicago Board of Trade; he surrendered everything to pay their debts.

He died in Quincy, June 4th, 1880, full of honor, at the ripe age of eighty-two years, and was buried by the side of his patriotic father in Woodland Cemetery, on a high knoll facing the magnificent waters of the Mississippi and within four blocks of where he built his log cabin in 1822. Immediately south of Woodland lies Indian Mound Park, and a mile north is Riverview Park, where George Rogers Clark’s monument stands in repose with a Continental hat in hand and arms folded, looking out in admiration on the lands his valor had saved for American freemen. There are numerous Indian mounds, both in the cemetery and parks, and they extend for many miles along the bluffs, North and South of Quincy.

A life-sized bronze statue of Governor Wood is in Washington Park, located in the business center of the city, erected by the city which he founded, nursed through infancy with care to the full maturity of the “Gem City” of the Mississippi, with a prosperous population of forty-five thousand intelligent people, whom he honored by a patriotic and a stainless Christian life.

Before the election of Governor Wood, Illinois had three governors of Celtic descent—Duncan, Carlin and Ford. Both Ford and Carlin, previous to their election, had resided in Quincy.

In 1812, the territory between the Illinois and the Mississippi Rivers, was set aside by Congress as a military or bounty land district, wherein the soldiers of the War of 1812 might locate their warrants for a one hundred and sixty-acre land grant as a bounty 304from the government. Quincy was made one of the land offices for that purpose, which brought many of the ex-soldiers, especially from Tennessee and Kentucky, to Adams County. The names of those who were Irish, or of Irish descent, holding warrants issued in 1817 and 1818 and located in Adams County before 1836, were the following: Peter Flynn, James Moffatt, Patrick Nugent, John McDade, David Higgins, John W. McFadon, John O’Roork, Williams McCauley, John Arthur, David Bagley, John Patterson, Nicholas Farrell, John McKenzie, David McIntire, Hugh Cannon, John Smith, John McIlvain, Dennis Sweeny, James Murry, Thomas Boyd, Peter Long, Thomas Smith, Arch McCrea, Joseph Carter, David Smith, Samuel Thayer, Joseph Clark, Butler Powers, John Thompson, Henry Kelly, William Keen, John Manning, James Kernan, Thomas Moore, Joseph Cady, Thomas Matthews, Thomas Rankins, James Connor, Dennis Darling, Charles Mooney, Hugh Riley, Patrick Callahan, Robert McRey, James Doty, John Russell, John Blevins, James Denning, Patrick Coyle, Felix McNalley, Patrick Reardon, Dennis Kelley, Bernard Murphy, Nicholas Conner, Maurice O’Conner, Anson Kennedy, John Dempsey, John McClure, William Currey, George McIntire, Arch McLaughlin, James Clark, Isaac Gleason, Donald McQuinn, John Collins, John Murry, Martin Finnagin, Daniel Daugherty, John McInelley, John Carter, Solomon McKinney, James Welsh, John Campbell, Michael Smith, M. Garvin, William Steward, William Hynes, Robert McCulley, James Miles, James Flanigan, James Downey, William Green, Patrick Barrett, Dennis Carvin, Thomas Wall, Thomas Cochran, John Hayes, James Donaldson, William Bryant, James McKeen, Peter O’Donnel, John Fitzgerald, William Furguson, Hugh Neely, Ben Connelley, Patrick McGaugh, James Mullen, W. Bradley, J. H. Lancaster, James McDonald, Arthur Campbell, Michael McGuire, John Campbell, Michael McDermott, Timothy Shields, John Smith, Mathew Williams, Dennis Connor, Cornelius Kelly, John Ray, Simon Bradley, William Flynn, Peter Curry, Patrick McBrierly, Michael Moore, John Green, Jeremiah McChesney, Michael O’Cain, Hugh Brown, Barney McHatten, John Kincaid, Jeremiah Fallon, Samuel Cochran, Thomas Redmon, James Brannon, Daniel McDonald, Michael McKay, Daniel McNutt, Robert Bradley, Peter Kennedy, Barney O’Neil, John Dunn, George McConley, Henry McCleary, Thomas 305Burke, William Hughes, Patrick Haffey, Morris Walsh, Martin Eaton, Jeremiah Sullivan, Daniel McWright, Gago Murphy, Isaac Hughes, John Murphy, James Kirkpatrick, Thomas Kavin, Mathew Campbell, Jacob McMahon, Samuel McEvans, William Clemens, George McCoy, James Daugherty, David Hanes, James Doty, William Kelley, William McCassell, Patrick Hart, John McKinzey, Patrick Holland, John McCurdy, George Mahon, Richard Moody, James Kelley, Richard Harrington, William McClure, Thomas Higgins, Owen McGaffery, Thomas Powers, Cornelius McMahon, Edward Murphy, Hugh McDermott, John Fitzpatrick, John Butler, John Pickett, Richard Daily, William Clark, William McCullough, John Lawrence and William Haslett.

Many of those who located their warrants on land in Adams County before 1836, afterwards became prominent business men in Quincy, while others immediately after filing claims sold their locations to land sharks for a few dollars, and moved north to the lead mines at Galena.

During the decades between 1820 and 1840, large numbers of Irish pioneers came to Quincy, many of them direct from Ireland. They were the following: Rev. Fr. Michael Ahern, Richard and William Ahern, James Arthur, Nathaniel, Thomas, Robert and William Benneson, Rev. William Best and six sons (John H., Alexander, William, Jr., James, George, Joseph), Patrick and Michael Barry, Patrick and Matthew Brady, Patrick Britt, John Beattey, Thomas Burns, John Boles, George Callihan, Arthur Carroll, James Campbell, Matthew Cashman, William, Matthew, Andrew and Terence Clark, Matthew Campion, Matthew, David and John Cary, Matthew Carmody, Patrick Curnan, Thomas Clancy, Michael Corcary, Matthew and David Costigan, Martin Collins, John Connery, Edward Crotty, Michael Connell, Thomas Clancy, Edward Condon, Patrick Costigan, Patrick and John Cronin, Anthony and Montgomery Coyle, Michael Crough, Patrick Cody, Patrick Curley, Patrick Corrigan, Perry Cushin, Rev. Fr. Derwin, Delany Desmonde, James Dillon, Patrick Dowd, Patrick Daily, John and Thomas Dwyer, Patrick and Michael Derry, Patrick Eagan, John Enright, Robert Evans, Michael, William and John Fitzgerald, Dr. John and William Fitzpatrick, James Flynn, Rev. William B., James B. and Matthew B. Finlay and their three sisters, Ann B. Padgett, Jane B. 306and Mary B. Finlay, Michael Feeney, James Fisher, Michael and Martin Farrell, Richard and James Grant, Mathew Gorman, John and James Gregory, Michael and Patrick Gerry, Oliver and William Geary, Jackson Grimshaw, Patrick and Michael Haley, Joseph and Robert Hartley, John Heelan, John Hurley, Thomas and Patrick Heires, Andrew and John Haire, Sylvester, Thomas, Michael, Patrick and Timothy Haires, Patrick Hade, David and Dennis Higgens, Edward Hoverton, Arthur Hughes, Daglon Hoolihan, Patrick Igo, Michael Ives, Daniel Karns, Patrick Kirby, Patrick Kinsella, James Kane, David Keef, Thomas Keough, Timothy, William and John Kelley, Patrick and Maurice Lenehan, William Kennedy, Andrew, Robert, Joseph and William Long, Thomas Landers, James Lawler, Thomas Leahy, Dr. John Leavey, Michael Lawton, Samuel Lowry, Barney Little and son Edward, John William and Charles Lee, Rev. Fr. Peter McGirr, James McGrath, Thomas McFall, Bernard McCann, Michael McKevitt, Bernard McDermott, Michael McCarty, Patrick McDonald, Joseph McConnell, Barney McCabe, John W. McFadon, John McDade, Michael Maloney, Patrick, Edward and John Murphy, Michael, John and Peter Meehan, John Murray, Michael Gilbert, John Mahaney, James and Richard Montgomery, Patrick Nealon, John Nolan, Richard Nagle, Timothy Noonan, John Nevins, James and Frederick O’Connor, Patrick, John, Daniel, Jeremiah, William, James and Michael O’Brien, Charles O’Neil, Michael and William B. Powers, Richard Purcell, George and John Padgett, John Piggot, Michael Quin, Patrick Quigley, William Richards, Thomas, Michael, George and James Redmond, Michael, James and Patrick Reardon, James, Daniel, Patrick and William Ryan, John and Patrick Reagan, David Roach, Patrick and Hugh Rudden, William, John and Patrick Shanahan, Hugh, John and William Smyth, John and Thomas Sheridan, Owen, A., Terrence and Peter Smith, Timothy, Daniel, Florence and Henry Sullivan, Maurice Savage, Patrick Sweeny, Darby and Jeremiah Shea, Michael Sheehan, Thomas, Tobin, James and William Troy, Edward Trulock, Patrick Tully, William Thompson, Sylvester and William B. Thayer, Terrence Waters, Michael, David, Richard, Edward, John and Perry Whalen, Benjamin Watson, James and Philip Walsh.

The following were among the farmers and land-holding taxpayers in Adams County, as appear by the tax records for the year 3071845: James, John and Henry Burke, James Bailey, Thomas Bryan, Thomas Bray, Daniel Bradley, Thomas Boyd, John Buckley, John Brady, Thomas Beaty, John Burns, Sr., William Boyle, Michael Bradly, John Calihan, Thomas, William and Hugh Clark, Michael and James Collins, Edward Corrigan, Thomas Curry, J. W. Cassidy, William Cadogan, James, John and William Campbell, Hugh Connor, John Caldwell, Hugh Carlin, James Colvin, Philip Cain, John and Joseph Craig, John Cunningham, Jacob Dailey, Alexander Donovan, Peter Donnell, John Donnelly, Charles Dempsey, John Dorsey, Patrick and John Fitzgerald, Hugh Furguson, William Finley, James and L. Frazier, Ben Galliher, Jeremiah Galliger, James Galligher, Daniel Higgins, Sr., and Daniel Higgins, Jr., John and William Hughes, James Hawley, John Hagerty, William and Jesse Hogan, Joseph, John, James, Thomas, William and Patrick Kelly, Maurice Kelley, Andrew Long, Richard Lee, William Lynch, John, William, Ben and Joshua Laughlin, Michael Limbaugh, John Lawless, James Moore, James Mehan, John Moran, James Mulligan, Edward, William and Henry Murphy, John and Charles Mullan, John Malone, John Murry, William McAdams, James McNutt, William McKinney, James and Michael McCann, Mathias McNeal, Martin McNitt, Thomas McKee, James and William McLaughlin, Dennis McCalip, John, Isaac, Samuel and Thomas McVay, John McClarry, Dennis McKellup, John and Robert McBride, A. McClain, Robert and John McCoy, Dennis McDaniel, Philip McKay, John McKinzie, William and John McClintock, Samuel McNulty, William and Michael McGingley, William, John and James McCormick, Dorsy, Smith and James McGinnis, George McMurry, James McCorian, Robert and John McBratney, William McCreary, Ben and Joseph McFarland, Alex McGuire, James McAnulty, William McGaughey, William McFarlin, Robert McWiney, S. McKinney, Robert and Andrew McCully, Ed McCafferty, John, William and Andrew McNay, John McGibbons, Hugh Nevin, William O’Harra, Doud L. Patterson, William Piggott, John Padget, Robert Rankin, William and Luke Riley, Andrew Redman, Michael Rawlings, John and James Smith, William Smyth, John and Bradley Stewart, William Stewart, Sr., John Savage, James Shannon, Dennis Seals, John Shaw, M. Scoggan, D. Sullivan, Michael, Peter and James Thomas, John Terry, James and Michael Welsh.

308The records of the county land warrants filed in Adams County before 1836, by ex-soldiers, plainly show that Irish-Americans were as well represented in the war of 1812 as they were in that for American Independence. The following names are taken from Volume 9, Adjutant General’s reports of Illinois, published by the State in 1902, giving a complete roster of Illinois officers and enlisted men in the Blackhawk war of 1831–2, and the Mexican war of 1846–8, both taken from the official rolls on file in the War Department, Washington, D. C., to show the strength of Irish-Americans among the pioneers of the Mississippi Valley in those early days, as well as to show that the race never fails to respond in large numbers to the war-call of their country in time of danger.

The following served in the Blackhawk war: John and Daniel Wood, Daniel Hayes, James McCarlin, Thomas Duncan, Bernard Fleming, Thomas Gulley, H. Riley, Timothy Inghram, John Russell, Thomas Stanly, John, James and George Karnes, John and James Caldwell, Richard Hogan, Aaron Quigley, Peter Smith, William Lafferty, James and Jacob L. Reynolds, James Pougee, James, William, John and Reubin Clark, Michael and Ezekiel Rawlings, William, John and William C. Murphy, Charles Dunn, James McColugh, John Dobbins, Richard Hughes, Jacob Kennedy, John McCove, James Rose, James Duncan, James Bryant, John Lowrey, William and F. A. Riley, John and A. S. Fitzgerald, Hugh and Robert McDaniel, Charles Sexton, David Ray, James, William and James N. Clark, Serratt Riley, John, Eagon, Franklin S. and I. S. Casey, William and Thomas Hayes, James Rhea, James Flannagan, William, John and Edward Kirkpatrick, John McMurphy, John Cain, William Finney, James Shaw, William Logan, James Cummings, John Cowan, Patrick and I. H. Tennery, John McConkey, James Bailey, John C. Bradley, Patrick Whalen, Josiah and Abraham Welsh, William F. McClure, Samuel Burk, James Dunlap, Marshall Lafferty, William and John McCabe, John McGuire, Cornelius Doherty, John McCoy, Dennis Keen, James McMillan, Patrick, William and Robert Campbell, Thomas McDonald, James Buchanan, Samuel Dunlap, Bonapart Gallaher, Joseph McCreary, William McKinney, Hugh McCrakin, John Haynes, Robert McClarney, Robert Patterson, Alexander McKinsey, Martin and John Farley, Nathan McCarty, John McCoy, John R. Mullins, Nimrod, John, Dudly, 309Richard and Benjamin Murphy, John McConnell, Edward McGovern, Nelson McDowell, D. B. McConnell, William and John Duncan, John Dougherty, James Kirby, William Patterson, Thomas McAdams, Joseph Burk, Thomas Evans, Thomas C. Hughes, John McCurry, James Kincaid, William Finley, John McFain, John Guffy, Phellonson and John Higgins, Joseph McKinney, Jonathan McClanan, George W. McCarty, William, William R. and Samuel McAdams, Josiah T. Bradley, Charles D. Kelley, John B. Logan, Samuel McCully, John M. O’Harnett, John O’Mulvany, Albert B. Murphy, Hiram Casey, Jesse Ford, Thomas McDowell, Andy and John McFarlin, Richard Bradley, Robert Caldwell, James McCabe, Keavan Murry, Edward McNabb, David McNair, Peter O’Leary, Patrick Clary, Patrick Gallagar, Patrick Karnes, Daniel McKaney, John Ragan, Timothy Barrett, John and James McDeed, Hugh Finley, John Lancaster, Thomas Welch, James, Francis, John and William Kirkpatrick, Dennis Quinlivan, John Foley, John Brophy, David, William and James McKee, Isaac Kilpatrick, James Patterson, John Hughes, James Mulligan, Patrick Flaherty, James Whalen, Michael Davis, John O’Hara, James, John and Samuel Burns, Mathew Lynch, John Nevins, John Powers, John McMullin, Jeremiah Kelly, Hugh McGary, Michael Brockett, Michael Fanin, John McDaniel, James Clark, Thomas Kenney, Andrew Malone, Daniel Moore, John Sheeney, William Shaw, Mathew Bailey, William Mallory, Thomas Kinney, William Lynch, James Green, Murry McConnell, John Laughrey, John, William and James McKee, James McNabb, Daniel Riley, James McGee, Michael Killion, Daniel Carter, Michael and Jacob Kellyon, William Kelly, Daniel Doolin, Michael Horin, James McMurty, George Higgins, Thomas McBride, Hugh Cochran, Robert McMahan, James McElroy, Thomas McConnell, Patrick Gray, Michael Klean, Patrick Kenney, Dennis Quinliven, John O’Neil, Patrick and John Dugan, Patrick Gilroy and Michael Meara.

There were six Illinois regiments mustered for the Mexican war. The first, second and third were enrolled and mustered as a brigade by Gen. Philip Kearny at Alton, men principally from the “Bounty Land” district. The general, being the grandson of an Irishman, drew many of that race to his standard. The following are the names: John W. Burns, William Cassedy, William Finney, Richard 310Grant, John McCoy, Daniel McNeil, James Ramsey, Patrick Higgins, William A. Clark, Patrick Mehan, Patrick Burk, Peter Conover, Patrick Clemens, Chandler Bradley, Peter Dolin, Thomas Cain, Dennis Griffin, Thomas Gorman, Francis Quinn, Thomas Riley, John Smith, Jeremiah Sullivan, George Connor, Hiram Clark, R. F. Cochran, John W. Hughes, William Long, James Murry, Hugh Fee, Thomas Turley, John Crogan, James and Thomas Bryant, John Carter, C. McConnell, James Neeley, Patrick O’Neil, James Stewart, Isaac Curry, James Doyle, James T. Lawler, Daniel McClelland, John Scanland, Francis Ryan, John McKibbin, John Hughes, Daniel Curry, James Campbell, James Cavanaugh, Austin Daugherty, John Kincade, James McClure, Arch McBride, John McIntosh, Francis McLeary, Daniel Shean, William Taggart, James Buchanan, James Converse, William McAvoy, J. McCullum, Ezekiel and Thomas Flynn, John Fisher, Dawson Cary, Michael Little, Edward and Timothy Kelley, John Lynch, Timothy McCarty, John McDonnald, James Stewart, Mathew Moran, Michael Brennan, James Carlin, Michael Hyde, Michael McCarty, Frank Carney, James and Thomas Clark, John Carroll, Arthur Hughes, Patrick Murry, Michael Page, William and James Wall, Larkin Riley, Mathew Bradley, Benjamin Clark, Robert and Alex Kelley, Mathew McAnnelly, James McCoy, Thomas Kinney, Ben. F. McNeil, David Rawlings, James Russell, James McGuire, William Roach, John Tully, Joshua Walsh, George Burk, William Barry, George Clark, Clark Higgins, Isaac Kelly, Andrew McCauly, John Bostick, Murry Tully, Cornelius and Asa Cochran, John Burns, Mason and Jobe Kelly, Michael McHale, James Hayes, Michael McCarty, Michael Foy, John A. Logan, James Burk, James Dunn, Charles McAnelly, John and Daniel McCarty, Richard McCord, Daniel Carter, John Delancey, John Dougherty, Edward Little, Joseph and Reuben McDade, McDaniel Welch, Hugh McElhanan, William Dempsey, John Flanagan, John Curry, William Hughes, Patrick McGee, James Hayes, James Mulligan, James McCru, Thomas Montgomery, David McCann, Patrick Kelly, Robert Burk, Patrick Lanon, George Cochran, Dennis Campbell, Charles Devine, Andrew Hayes, James Lancaster, Joseph Quigley, Hardy Carroll, Myron Burns, William Cassidy, Martin Clark, Damon Kennedy, Josiah McCormick, William McCassilin, Thomas Mullen, Martin McRorgh, James McDonald, James McFadden, 311George Nolan, Thomas Sheridan, Patrick Casey, Thomas Carnahan, John Connor, Warwick Flanagan, John Fitzgerald, Robert and John McKinney, James, John and Keran McGinnis, John McMillan, James O’Leary, John McAllister, William Donley, Patrick Flarity, George McGuire, James Murphy, Patrick Cruis, John Duncan, John Dwyer, Charles Hunter, James Hackney, William Kennedy, James McGovern, James O’Connor, John Quirck, Michael Riley, James Ryan, Daniel Dougherty, James Phelan, James Regan, Arthur Gallagher, John Kennedy, William Murry, John, Felix and Edward Clark, George Carey, Carter Murry, John O’Brien, Daniel Sexton, James Collins, Hugh Kelly, Levi McBride, William Bryant, Mathew Gillespie, Patrick Green, George McConkey, James Rafferty, Andrew Shaw, Thomas Smith, Francis Clark, Alexander Dougherty, William McMullen, Michael Brennan, Daniel Doyle, David Sullivan, Mathew McWorter, William Bradley, Patrick Hannon, Henry McGuire, James Shaw, Hugh Duffy, Thomas Gaffeny, Daniel O’Melvaney, Andrew Burk, John Crowley, Patrick Murphy, John Welch, Hugh McKinley, James Barry, John Burns, Richard Carter, James Logan, James Fitzgerald, Timothy Ryan, Patrick and Samuel McDonald, Thomas McGill, Hugh Riley, David Mooney, James Collins, Timothy Ryan, Daniel Duff, William and James Flint, Jackson Larkin, Robert and John Patterson, John Little, Davis Murphy, James McCrary, James Rearden, Timothy and John Ingram, Patrick Scully, James Donovan, Charles Lowrey, Logan Lynch, Thomas Reynolds, John Brady, James O’Neil, John Mahan, George Haley, James and William Nolan, John Casey, Josiah O’Riley, William and John Burk, Charles and John Lynch, Thomas and James Kelly, Patrick McKelvy, James Murphy, William and Andrew McGuire, James Hughes, William Clark, James Galliher, Thomas McDonald, Dennis Bolan, James Eagan, Peter Murphy, John McCary, James McGuire, Patrick Toucy, Peter Foy, William Grace, Peter Welch; Mathew Murry, James Conolly, James McCabe, Charles Dillon, James Dailey, Michael Fitzpatrick, Daniel Shields, Patrick McKee, Patrick Kelly, Michael King, Daniel Kennedy, Daniel McClusky, John O’Malloy, Charles McCarty, Peter O’Neil, Cornelius Mahoney, Thomas Mulligan, James Lancaster, James Murphy, James Phalan, Jeremiah Sullivan, Patrick Plunkett, John Foley, Patrick Power and Michael K. Lawler.

312Many of these soldiers became very prominent in the political and social affairs of the state and nation, especially John Wood, Murry McConnell, Michael K. Lawler and John A. Logan.

After the Blackhawk war, two militia companies were organized in Quincy, the “Quincy Rifles” and the “Montgomery Guards,” the latter principally Irish, organized and commanded by Timothy Kelley, who was afterwards killed at the battle of Buena Vista, Mexico. We were unable to secure a roster of Captain Kelley’s Militia Company, but from men of his time, we were informed that the following were among its members: William Kelley, a brother of Timothy; William Kennedy, James Ryan, James O’Connor, a veteran of 1812; Thomas Landon, Oliver and William Geary, William Thompson, Thomas Mannix, John Dwyer, Richard Grant, James Dillon, James Sheerin, Michael Corcary, Thomas Leahey, Bernard McDermott, John McDaniel, James Clark, Thomas Kenney, Andrew Malone, Daniel Moore, John Sheeney, William Shaw and Thomas Hickey, who still survives at the age of eighty years, in the Illinois Soldiers and Sailors’ Home at Quincy. John Kelley, a son of William, served honorably in an Ohio regiment during the war for the Union.

There were several Kelley families in Adams County. Next to the family of Timothy Kelley, that of Maurice Kelley became the most noted as men of mark. Maurice Kelley came to Adams County in 1836 with his parents and settled on a farm in the southeast part of the county. Being temperate and industrious, the family prospered. Maurice was elected sheriff of Adams County in 1860, and as a member of the Legislature in 1870; in 1874 as a state senator, where he served three terms. He was collector of internal revenue at Quincy under President Cleveland. He was for ten years a supervisor of the county, as was his brother Michael from an adjoining township. Maurice Kelley is still living at Mt. Sterling, Illinois.

Many of the old pioneers moved off with the human current to California and other attractive places in the Far West. Only a few of those who remained in Quincy are still living, but many of their children are among the leading men of affairs in every branch of business as well as the professions in Quincy and its vicinity.

In many instances, whole families came together, as will be noticed in the list of names given above, as having come before 1840. The most noted of them was that of the Rev. William Best, with his five 313sons and a daughter Charlotte Best Finlay, who with her husband accompanied them. The Reverend Best became a prominent minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church of Illinois and lived to a ripe old age, to see his family all successful in worldly affairs. His youngest son Joseph served as adjutant of the Twenty-first Missouri Infantry in the Union army; the other sons being over the military age supported the cause at home. His grandsons and great grandsons are now among our best business men. A grandson, John H. Best, has served as mayor of Quincy and is now president of one of our banks, a stockholder and director in nearly every corporation doing business here; also a large land owner in Illinois, Missouri, Oregon, Idaho and Montana, while his brother, Ezra Best, is president of the Best Plumbing and Steam Heating Company, one of the largest and most successful in the West. Both brothers coöperate and invest together. They are model citizens and have the respect and confidence of all our people.

The Finlay family, Rev. William B., James B., Matthew B., with their three sisters, Ann B. Padgett, Jane B. and Mary B. Finlay, became equally prominent. They came to America with the Best family in 1839, from County Cavan, Ireland. The Rev. William B. Finlay was an ardent church worker, and a school teacher in Ireland. His father, before him, was a school teacher and a member of the English church. His mother was a primitive Methodist and a member of the Bell family, hence the initial “B” was retained by the brothers and sisters. He had his religious training under such noted ministers as Rev. G. B. Moffatt, Doctor Averill and Gideon Ousley, D. D., a converted priest, who generally preached a part of his sermons in Irish. In his twentieth year, his father having died in 1829, the Rev. William Bell Finlay took charge of his father’s old parish school. In 1830 he attended the Kildare College in Dublin. He afterwards served five years as a government teacher, from which he resigned to accept charge of a school in the Parish of Tyholland, County Monaghan, where he married Charlotte Best and united with the Methodist Church. He remained at Tyholland, teaching and as an exhortor, until he started for Quincy, where he arrived June sixth, 1839, and the following Sunday united with the Methodist Church. He was licensed to exhort in September of that year, and in 1849 was ordained by Bishop Janes when the conference met at 314Quincy. The year before he died, he prepared a little sketch of his life work, which was found by his children after his death. The last paragraph, which we quote, shows that his was a beautiful Christian life: “So I am now in my eighty-ninth year, and an official member of the old Illinois Conference, still in the church of my childhood and of my youth, and of riper years. And now, old and grey-headed, I love the church of my choice; I love her doctrines and her ways. Though feeble in body, praise God, my mind is clear and sound as a bell. I don’t know how soon I may be permitted to leave for home, but it cannot be long. But Glory, honor, power and dominion be unto God, and the lamb, forever. Amen and Amen.” He died October fourth, 1898, at West Point, Illinois, within a few days of his ninetieth year. His four sons were all in the Union army and made excellent soldiers; William J. B. Finlay is dead; Matthew G. Finlay is a wealthy farmer; John H. Finlay is living at Warsaw, Illinois, a prominent lawyer and wealthy; Gerald H. Finlay is a retired, wealthy farmer and merchant in Quincy; all of fine reputations. His brother Matthew B. Finlay was a prosperous merchant and died wealthy, about ten years ago, leaving no children. James B. Finlay was not married. He died shortly after coming to Quincy. Ann B. Finlay married George Padgett before leaving Ireland. Her grandson, George H. Wilson, is a prominent attorney at the Quincy bar, and now a member of the State Legislature. Jane B. Finlay was married in Quincy to F. K. Carrott. Her son James Finlay Carrott, was a graduate of Harvard, and at the time of his death was an attorney for the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad and was succeeded by his son, Matthew Finlay Carrott, also of Harvard, who is married to a daughter of Judge Montgomery, president of the State Savings, Loan and Trust Company, one of the oldest banking institutions in Quincy, and lives in the handsome Matthew B. Finlay homestead. Her daughter, Helen Carrott Walz, had two sons, one now being dead, the other an attorney in Chicago. Mrs. Walz was at one time considered Quincy’s brightest daughter. She now resides in Chicago with her son. Mary B. Finlay married William Jones in Quincy. Three of her sons are now railroad men in the West. One of them is in charge of the telegraph system of the Santa Fé Railroad. William Finlay Morgan, a grandson of Mary B. Finlay Jones, is now located in New York City. He married the daughter and only 315child of Mr. Nevins, head of the American Cordage Company. Before his marriage, he was in the employ of the company, first at St. Louis and then in New York, and made good in every department entrusted to his care.

The Redmond family became quite prominent. Thomas Redmond was sixteen years of age when he came from Ireland. He first located in Vermont, where he obtained employment at whatever offered. He came to Quincy in 1837. Being young, vigorous and industrious, success attended him from the start. He soon accumulated sufficient capital as a common laborer to purchase a few horses, carts and wagons, which enabled him to accept contracts in constructing railroads, at which he made money rapidly and invested every surplus dollar in Quincy real estate. In 1848 he was elected a member of the city council; in 1860, mayor; in 1864 to a seat in the State Legislature. From 1837 until his death in 1883, he was a valuable servant of the city and state. He was one of the twenty citizens who furnished the capital from their private funds to build and equip the Quincy, Missouri and Pacific Railroad, from Quincy toward Omaha, Nebraska. Possessed of large wealth, he employed it liberally to beautify and advance the interests of the city in which it was accumulated. His son, Patrick H. Redmond, was educated at the Catholic College in Washington, D. C., and became a brilliant newspaper writer as editor of the Quincy Herald, but did not survive his father. His son, James Redmond, continued his father’s occupation as a contractor and is still in Quincy. Two of his daughters are living here. Margaret is the widow of Jacob Dick of the noted Dick Brothers Brewing Company. She is very wealthy, is a shrewd financier and is a prominent worker in the Catholic Church. She has two sons, who with their cousins manage the great brewing business established by their fathers. The daughter of Margaret Redmond Dick, Mrs. John B. Ellis, is a widow, who owns and manages the Quincy Whig and is a favorite in society. A daughter of Thomas Redmond, Catherine, is the wife of J. Frank Ricker, cashier of the Ricker National Bank, one of the strongest financial institutions in Illinois.

The Heire or Haire Brothers—spelled both ways—came to Quincy before 1840. They proved to be valuable and influential citizens as merchants and professional men. Captain Thomas J. Heire, a son of Thomas, Sr., served his country gallantly in the Union Army. 316He is a printer by trade and after the war published the Quincy Evening News. For a number of years he held the office of city clerk. He was popular and efficient, the soul of honor and as honest as the sun. In late years he held a position in the Treasury Department at Washington, but is now taking life easy among his relatives and the friends of his youth in Quincy.

The Long Brothers came in 1839 with the Best and Finlay families, to whom they were related. They were both contractors and farmers, settling in or near the city and becoming wealthy. Their sons are still in Quincy. They are grain buyers and large capitalists. They stand well in the community and are active members of the Methodist Church.

The McCormick Brothers came in company with the Longs and located on farms close to Quincy. A number of their collaterals are still in the city and county, all fairly prosperous and respected. James McCormick, Jr., went to California in 1848 and became very wealthy as a merchant at Redding. He died without direct heirs, a few years ago, leaving his wealth to his nephews and nieces here and at other places in the West.

Thomas Rhea came in 1839. He settled on a farm near the Longs and became wealthy. He is an admirable citizen, industrious and frugal. He has lately moved into the city to take his remnant of life easy.

Dr. John Fitzpatrick remained unmarried. He acquired much wealth, which he left to his nephews and nieces. It was said that he had been a priest. He was highly eccentric, but honorable.

John W. McFadon came before 1830, after serving his adopted country in the war of 1812. He followed merchandising and farming and became very wealthy. He left two sons and a daughter—William and Robert McFadon, both graduates of Harvard and lawyers of a high grade. Both died in Chicago, where they added to their wealth in the practice of their profession, and by largely dealing in real estate. At the time of his death, William McFadon was attorney for the Lake Shore Railroad. He left two sons, John W. and Donald, both of Harvard and attorneys, also a daughter Anna. His daughter Anna is the wife of Hon. William A. Richardson, son of Senator W. A. Richardson, who in the days of Douglas was one of the best known democrats in the republic. They have no children. 317Robert McFadon left one son, Robert, lately graduated as an attorney from Harvard, and two daughters who are in Chicago.

James Arthur was born in Londonderry, Ireland, March 2, 1811, and came to America in 1833. For a number of years he owned and operated steamboats on the Illinois and Mississippi rivers. In 1840 he located in Quincy as a pork packer and general merchant. He also operated a saw mill. He died wealthy in 1899, at the age of eighty-eight years. He was moral, temperate and frugal. Four sons and three daughters survived him. The only one of the family now in Quincy is a daughter Virginia M., widow of Col. Edward Prince. One of his sons, James A. Arthur, owns a large farm at La Belle, Missouri. The other sons, I. H., William N. and W. A., are successful merchants in western cities.

The Little, Carroll and Campbell families were related by marriage and came to Quincy direct from Ireland in 1836. Edward Little had two sons, Patrick H. and Frank E., both well educated, and are now successful business men in St. Louis, Missouri. James Campbell had three sons, who are now in the lime business in Quincy, as was their father and also their uncle Arthur Carroll.

The Benneson Brothers, Nathaniel, Thomas, Robert and William were born in Newcastle County, Delaware. Both parents came from Ireland in 1800. All of these brothers became prosperous citizens of Quincy. In their youth, all learned the carpenter’s trade, except William, who was the youngest. They came to Quincy in 1837. The carpenters worked at their trade as journeymen until they accumulated funds that enabled them to become contractors, in which Thomas continued until his death in 1870. Nathaniel and Robert became successful lumber merchants. Robert retired from the lumber business in 1872 and devoted himself to buying and improving real estate, in which he was also successful. Many of the most imposing and durable buildings in the city were erected and owned by Robert Benneson. He filled many positions of trust and honor. He served as alderman and as mayor, and for several years preceding his death was president of the school board. He was president of the gas company, which he helped to organize; was a director in numerous corporations, among them the First National Bank, the Gas Company and the Quincy, Alton and St. Louis Railroad. He was a zealous and generous supporter of the moral, social and commercial growth of the city, and none ranked higher in public esteem. He died at the age of eighty-five years.

HON. JOHN J. MEE,

Judge of Probate, Woonsocket, R. I.

A Member of the Society.

318William Benneson was a lawyer. His first partner was Stephen A. Douglas. Theirs was the first law office in Quincy. Mr. Benneson had served as clerk of the circuit court. After Mr. Douglas went on the bench, Mr. Benneson was identified with several of the leading lawyers of Illinois. When the civil war broke out he was made Colonel of the Seventy-eighth Illinois. After the war, he resumed his practice. He was made postmaster of Quincy by President Johnston. He died in 1899 at the age of eighty-one years. Like his brothers, Colonel Benneson was a man of the strictest integrity.

The Brothers, David and Dennis Higgins, came to Quincy before 1840. Both were successful contractors in railroad building and street grading and became property holders. David died several years ago at a ripe age, leaving sons and daughters. Dennis died in 1904 at the age of ninety-two, and although married he had no children. Both brothers were devout Catholics. David was a staunch Democrat and Dennis equally as staunch a Republican. They were good citizens.

James Fisher was born in 1811 near Londonderry, Ireland, and with two sisters came to Quincy in 1833. They were strict Presbyterians. Mr. Fisher was a successful dry goods merchant and died wealthy while attending to his business at his store in 1898, at the age of eighty-eight. He had three sons, who are now doing business at Kansas City and other places in the West. Mr. Fisher’s sisters never married. Both are now dead.

William B. Powers was born at Temple, New Hampshire, of Irish descent. He came to Quincy in 1838; was a brickmason and followed that trade for several years, then entered into partnership with Matthew B. Finlay in the clothing business, where he accumulated much wealth. After the death of Governor Wood, the beautiful Woodland Cemetery was neglected and commenced to run down. Mr. Powers organized the Woodland Cemetery Association, of which he was chosen president, and soon restored that sacred garden of the dead to its former position, the most beautiful cemetery in the West. He died in 1895 at the age of eighty-four years. Only one son, W. C. Powers, survived him, and he is now a retired merchant.

319The Shannahan Brothers, John, William and Patrick, born in Waterford County, Ireland, came to Quincy before 1840. They were all successful railroad builders and constructed roads in all parts of the country. In 1852 they built sections of the Iron Mountain Railroad in Missouri. They constructed the Northern Cross Railroad between Quincy and Clayton. Had contracts on the Hannibal and St. Joseph road, and the Quincy, Alton and St. Louis road. John and William lived to a ripe age. Patrick survived them. He died in 1895 at the age of eighty-four years, leaving three sons, James P., Richard and William, and four daughters, all in Quincy except William, who is in California. John Shannahan had two sons, but William had none. A brother, Thomas, came from Ireland in 1851.

John Burns, Sr., was born in Maine of Irish parents and came to Quincy in 1834 with a family of several sons. He was a man of strong religious convictions and a hater of slavery. John Burns, Jr., went to California in 1849 and became a prominent man of that state. George W. Burns went with his brother, but returned after one year and engaged in the mercantile business in the town of Payson, eighteen miles south of Quincy, where his father was then residing. In 1854 he returned to Quincy, and in company with John Wood, Jr., engaged in the flour milling business. In 1862 he was appointed paymaster in the army with the rank of Major, and was captured on the Red River and held for three months. He was elected a state senator in 1874. In 1880, he went again to California, where in a gallant effort to catch a team of runaway horses attached to a carriage containing ladies, he was killed on the streets of Sacramento. Major Burns inherited a brave and generous disposition to risk his own life to save that of others, as shown by the brave conduct of his father in saving and protecting the noted Doctor Nelson, the most brilliant man among the early pioneers. Dr. David Nelson was born in Tennessee. He was a friend of Andrew Jackson and served under him as surgeon during the war of 1812. He had been an infidel, but was converted and became an ardent advocate of Christianity. He was an extensive slave holder and moved with them to Missouri, near Palmyra, eighteen miles west of Quincy. He was a kind and humane master and soon caused a bitter feeling against himself among his slave holding neighbors by persisting 320in teaching his negroes to read and write and giving them religious instruction in defiance of a law then existing forbidding the teaching of negroes. He attempted to found a college at Palmyra, and had books shipped to him from the East. Upon opening one of the boxes, it was found that not being quite full of books, it had been filled with anti-slavery pamphlets, by some eastern man who knew his desires to educate and uplift the blacks. The knowledge of the receipt of the pamphlets spread like wild-fire among the slave holders, who determined to take his life. The Doctor was spirited away by his friends and hid in a cave, where he wrote the first chapter of his great work on “Infidelity,” while his enemies were scouring the country for him, with all of the roads guarded and every supposable means of escape cut off. His friends implored him to come to Quincy. Making his way through a heavy forest, he arrived at midnight on the west bank of the Mississippi River opposite Quincy, where John Burns and other friends were to meet him and row him across. While waiting at the edge of the forest for his friends to appear, with the wide sweeping river before him and the lights of Quincy on the opposite shore, he composed that beautiful hymn, “The Shining Shore”:

When Burns and his friends arrived with boats, they informed him that a number of infuriated slave holders were on the other side, determined to seize him and bring him back to Missouri. To avoid them, they rowed up the river twenty miles before crossing to Illinois, then quietly brought him down, overland, to Quincy. Several efforts were afterwards made to retake Doctor Nelson to Missouri, but John Burns and his loyal friends vigilantly guarded him until 321the bitter feeling subsided and died out. In Quincy Doctor Nelson established one of his four institutes to educate young men for Christian Missionaries, in which he spent all of his own means besides much money raised by him in the East. He died poor, at the age of fifty-one, and was buried in Woodland Cemetery, where friends have erected a large granite monument to his memory. He left only a daughter, a Mrs. Rose Clapp, who, if living, is now in California. One of John Burns’ daughters is in Quincy, Mrs. Schermerhorn. Miss Julia Burns, long a school teacher here, is now employed in the Treasury Department at Washington.

Samuel Hopkins Emery, D. D., born at Andover, Massachusetts, in 1815, died in Taunton, Massachusetts, October fifth, 1901, was a Manx and Irish Celt. His father was John Emery, who traced back to John Emery of Newbury, Massachusetts, who, with his brother Arthur, came to America from Ramsey, Isle of Man, England, in 1635. His mother was a daughter of Colonel Welch of New Hampshire, who commanded a regiment under Washington during the war for American freedom. Doctor Emery graduated at Amherst College, a classmate of Henry Ward Beecher. He was one of the brainy Americans, who made their age and time famous for high thought and culture. He came to Quincy as pastor of the First Congregational Church in 1855, at the height of the formative thought that lifted the Republic out of the black slime of human slavery and made of it in deed, as well as name, what their fathers of 1776 meant it should be, a real land of the free and home of the brave. Doctor Emery remained in Quincy fifteen years, during which time he endeared himself to all by a kind and generous nature and an untiring interest in the public welfare. During the war there were three military hospitals in Quincy, crowded with sick and wounded soldiers brought up the river on boats from the frontier. Doctor Emery was the army chaplain in charge. He comforted and cheered as few men could, the sick and wounded, especially those on whose brows the cold hand of death was laid, because his heart was in the cause of the country for which they were suffering and dying. Early in the war, he aided in organizing two patriotic bands of Quincy women devoted to the relief and comfort of soldiers, not only in his own hospitals, but on the fields everywhere. They were known as the “Needle Pickets” and “The Good Samaritans,” among whom 322were Mrs. Governor Wood, Mrs. Anna McFadon, Mrs. Robert Benneson, Mrs. Anna McMahon, Miss Ella Carrott and Mrs. Finlay, the wives and daughters of Irish pioneers. Those consecrated women devoted their time and strength and means to furnish supplies for the hospitals at home and on the fields of conflict. They commenced their work early, scraping lint and rolling bandages, and remained active until the close of the war. They organized an “Old Folks” concert company that gave entertainment in cities in Illinois, Iowa and Missouri. They sent nurses to the front. They held a fair in Quincy that continued two weeks and netted them $36,000. With the consent of President Lincoln, they sent Doctor Emery to visit the hospitals in the South and report on their condition. The following is a copy of his pass or authority:

“Ordered; That permission be given to the Rev. S. Hopkins Emery of Quincy, Ill., to pass within the lines of the United States forces to Savanna, Tennessee, and wherever the sick and wounded soldiers of the United States may be, together with any ladies and gentlemen that may be in his company, for the purpose of affording care and attendance to the sick and wounded. The quartermasters and commissaries will afford them transportation when required and all officers and persons in the service or employment of the United States will afford them courtesy, assistance and protection.

The Illinois Sanitary Fair, which was held in mammoth tents which covered Washington Park at Quincy, Illinois, attracted the attention of the nation. One of the things offered by them at auction was a book of autographs signed for the occasion by some of the most distinguished men and women of the time. The one from James Russell Lowell was accompanied by the following note and verses:

“I couldn’t send a bare signature to a state which has sent 200,000 men to fight the battles of us all and whose regiments bear on their tattered flags the names of our most glorious victories.

“Cambridge, Mass., October, 1864.”

No grave of all the millions who maintained the Union cause on or off the battlefield deserves to be more gratefully remembered and strewn with flowers each recurring Memorial Day than that which in Taunton, Massachusetts, contains the remains of the patriotic Quincy Chaplain, Dr. S. Hopkins Emery. At the time of Doctor Emery’s death, his two sons were among the most prominent business men in Quincy, S. H. Emery, Jr., was vice-president and manager of the Straw Board Paper Company; J. W. Emery is president of one of our largest stove foundries, and father of an interesting, growing family. S. H. Emery, Jr., died shortly after his venerable father, leaving only a daughter, Mrs. Ellis, surviving him.

George Brophy came from Kilkenny, Ireland. He was an assistant in the county clerk’s office for many years. In 1868 he was himself elected as clerk and by repeated elections held the office for twenty-four years. He had but one son, who died at about the age of thirty years, and two years before the death of his father. His only daughter is the wife of Duke Schroer, now one of the editors of the Quincy Journal.

John Lawless was born in Stafford County, Virginia, June 20, 1795. His father was John Lawless of Irish blood and a slave holder. He served all through the Revolutionary War and was wounded at the battle of Cowpens. His mother was a Scotch lady. She was a devout Catholic and also a doctor who practised a little. The subject of our sketch, while still a boy, moved to Kentucky with his 324mother’s parents, where he received a common school education. On February 24, 1820, he married Margaret Skirvin, a devout Baptist, and settled in Grant County, Kentucky, on a farm. In 1835, with a family of seven children, they came to Adams County, Illinois, and settled on a farm twelve miles northeast of Quincy, where his descendants are still living. It required four weeks to come in an ox-wagon from Kentucky to Quincy. After coming to Adams County, three more children were born to them. John Lawless was a model pioneer. He was a fine rifle shot and enjoyed the use of a gun. He was a very successful farmer; a good business man; an excellent hand to write deeds and legal documents for his friends and neighbors. He was a consistent Old School Baptist. He died May 13, 1865. All of his ten children grew to maturity. Like their father, all may well be considered western pioneers. His oldest son, Henry Harrison, died at the age of twenty-one; Mary Ann, the second child, is still living at the age of eighty-six years at Columbus, Illinois. She was married in 1846 to William Judy, who died a year later. A son, William H., was born to them. Her daughter-in-law and three children are living in Pawnee, Oklahoma. Elizabeth Jane Lawless, born December 8, 1824, was married to John P. Yeargain April 9, 1849, and died April 15, 1899. Her descendants number thirty-two. John Quincy Lawless, born December 1, 1826, was married to Elizabeth Pearce, February 26, 1863. Both are living in Columbus, Illinois. They have two sons and two daughters, all married, and five grandchildren. William Conrad Lawless was born in 1828, and was married February 1, 1855, to Mary Ann Pierce. He died February 15, 1898. Their descendants, including sons and daughters, number twenty-six. Sarah Margaret Lawless was married to John Lummis, February 26, 1852. She still lives at Paloma, Illinois, a widow. She has eight children and twenty-three grandchildren. Thomas Lawless was born March 21, 1834; died February 28, 1897. He married Annie M. Ferguson, in 1874. They have three sons, a daughter-in-law and one grandchild. Susannah Lawless, born March 18, 1836, died November 25, 1876. She married James R. McBroom October 10, 1855. Their living descendants number twenty-eight. James Sanford Lawless lives on the farm where he was born seventy-one years ago. He married Clara Ferguson in 1871. They have seven children; two of them are married. 325Oliver Perry, the youngest, born July 20, 1841, married Margaret Gutherie, March 10, 1864. This branch numbers twenty-one. They have all followed farming, taking up much of their lands in a wild state when of but little value. They broke out the prairie sod, fought their way through the hardships known only to the early settler, and are now turning over these farms in a high state of cultivation to their children. But, better than this, they are leaving an example in their lives, which is worthy of imitation. The third generation numbers eighty-five. The most active of all at the present time running in age from children to sixty years of age. They represent various avocations of life, but the greater part are farmers. There are seventy-nine of the fourth generation, scattered among five states, and seven of the fifth generation, a total of one hundred and eighty-four. Very few families have held together so long in residence and association; comparatively few are living outside of Adams County, and those who are keep in close touch with the rest. On the twenty-first day of August, 1909, the Lawless family held a reunion at Columbus. It was the largest gathering of this kind ever held in Adams County. The Lawless family of Adams County and its branches are the only ones known in the West. It is known prominently still in Virginia.

Oan Piggott, father of the writer, came from near Thurles, County Tipperary, Ireland, in 1844, with two sons and two daughters by a first marriage and one son by a second marriage. He came via New Orleans to St. Louis, Missouri. William was the oldest son. He was a steamboat mate on the lower Mississippi and was killed in the Confederate service during the civil war, as an officer in an Arkansas regiment. Michael, the next son, learned the bricklayers’ trade in St. Louis, and at the age of twenty moved to Quincy, where he commenced business for himself as a builder. When the war commenced, he enlisted in the Union Army in Company “F,” Birge’s sharpshooters, subsequently known as the Fourteenth Missouri Infantry, and finally as the Sixty-sixth Illinois Infantry, commanded by Col. Patrick E. Burk of St. Louis, Mo. At Fort Donaldson, he was promoted as Captain of his company. In February, 1864, his company reënlisted. On the fourteenth day of the following May, he lost a leg at the battle of Resace, Georgia, where Burk was killed. The older of the two girls, Honora, entered a Catholic convent at St. 326Louis, and died in 1865. The younger, Mary, died in St. Louis in 1847 from cholera. James, the youngest son, a stove moulder by trade, died at Louisville, Kentucky, since the civil war. Two children by the second marriage were born in St. Louis, Richard and Sarah, both now living, Richard in St. Louis, and Sarah in Calaway County, Missouri, the wife of Christopher Connell, a prosperous farmer. Richard served with Price in the Confederate service, until captured at the battle of Iuka, Mississippi, in 1863. Oan Piggott died on a farm in Warren County, Missouri, in 1876.

The Flynn, Kirby and Larkin families are well represented by grandsons, now able managers of the J. J. Flynn Company, extensive manufacturers of carbonated waters, syrups and extracts in Quincy.

To Joseph W. Stewart, son of the pioneer William Stewart, Sr., the State of Oregon is indebted for the scientific development of its fruit interests at Medford. It is said that every fruit tree in Oregon is a monument to the memory of Joseph Stewart. His brother William is a scientific fruit grower near Quincy and resides in the city.

The grandsons of these early pioneers are now forging their way to the front in the professions and in business. In the forties, a poor widow, by the name of Wall, came to Quincy, with two children, a boy and a girl. After coming from Ireland, she and her husband located at Baltimore, Maryland, where her children were born. There with her brother, who was a Welch, her husband commenced contracting in the building of railroads, moving west with the roads. They reached Danville, Illinois, where her husband died and left her in very poor circumstances financially. She came with her children to Quincy and raised both to respectable positions in society. The boy, who was named Edmond Wall, is now nearly seventy years of age and a bookkeeper for a tobacco manufacturing company. He is the father of four sons; the oldest is John E., a member of the law firm of Wilson & Wall. He is an eloquent advocate and has the promise of a great political future. J. W. Wall, a brother, is the active manager of the Gardner Governor Company, the largest institution of its kind, perhaps, in the world, and he has two younger brothers as assistants.

A grandson of an Irishman, C. B. McCrory, is judge of our 327County or probate court, while Erde Beatty, also a grandson of an Irishman, is clerk of our Circuit Court, and William Smith, another grandson, is an assistant clerk in the County Court. Major George W. Green, of Chicago, is the grandson of John McDade, a soldier of 1812. Major Green is the head of a large lumber company in Chicago. He was major of the Seventy-eighth Illinois Infantry during the civil war and was severely wounded. He is a prominent member of the Loyal Legion. The grandsons of Timothy Castle are successful managers of the Comstock Castle Stove Company in Quincy, Keokuk and other cities.

Barney Corrigan, with his wife and ten children, came to Quincy in 1840 from Tyrone County, Ireland. In 1843 he settled on a farm southeast of the city, purchased from a soldier of 1812 an Irishman by the name of Constantine Clark. His children all married after coming to America, and had large families, excepting Edward, who died a few years after his arrival. The old homestead is still in the family, having passed from Barney Corrigan to his son James, who raised a family of seven sons and two daughters. James occupied the farm for fifty-three years, and at his death it passed to his son Daniel, whose brother, James B. Corrigan, has been Treasurer of Adams County for two terms of four years and deputy treasurer for several terms.

Among the steamboats running from St. Louis on the upper Mississippi between 1827 and 1836 which were owned or commanded by Irishmen were the following: The Omega, by Captain Rafferty; the Shamrock, by Captain May; the Emerald, the Gypsy and the O’Connell, by the Reynolds Brothers, and the Josephine, by Captain Clark.

Our subject has run away with us and has taken us far beyond the limits we designed when we commenced these notes. The field occupied by the Irish-American pioneers of the upper Mississippi Valley, in even the vicinity of Quincy, is not exhausted by these notes.

REV. FRANCIS MAKEMIE—THE PAUL OF SEAGIRT ACCOMAC, THE KNOX OF CHESAPEAKE, AND FOUNDER OF ORGANIZED PRESBYTERIANISM IN AMERICA.

Just fifty-five years after the accession of the House of Stuart to the British Crown; years born of those awful times of the Reformation, when men hated each other for their creed rather than for their conduct; in the year in which Cromwell died, 1658, Francis Makemie was born in that little out of the way village of the north of Ireland, Ramelton, County Donegal.

That beautiful arm of the Atlantic, called by the natives Lough Swilly, lay hard by his home and undoubtedly many were the times as a boy he played on its shores or swam in its clear, cool waters.

Like many of the world’s great preachers, he became hopefully pious at the age of fifteen, according to his own testimony in his answer to Keith’s “Libel Against a Catechism,” published by Francis Makemie, in Boston, 1694, he says:

“’Ere I received the imposition of hands in that Scriptural and orderly separation with my holy and ministerial calling, that I gave requiring satisfaction to Godly, learned and judicious, discerning men, of a work of grace and conversion, wrought in my heart at fifteen years of age, by and from the pains of a Godly schoolmaster; who used no small diligence in gaining tender souls to God’s service and fear.”

At seventeen he was enrolled in the University of Glasgow in the third class, with the ministry in view. Next we see him, January 28th, 1860, appearing before the Presbytery of Laggan at St. Johnstown, Ireland, with a recommendation from his Pastor, Mr. Thomas Drummond, and so began his theological training and examination; from time to time he presents himself before the Presbytery and is examined by a competent committee.

329Mr. William Liston reports: “September 29th, 1680, that Mr. Francis Makemy desires some more time and that he is diligent.” Again, March 9th, 1681: “Upon the good report we get of Messrs. Francis Makemy and Mr. Alexander Marshall, the meeting think fit to put them upon trials in order to their being licentiates to preach and they name I. Timothy 1:5 to Mr. Makemy.”

Again, April 20th, 1681, Francis Makemy delivered his homily upon I. Timothy 1:5 and was approved. Matt. 11:28 was appointed to him for the next meeting.

May 25th, 1681, Mr. Francis Makemy delivered his private homily on Matt. 11:28 and was approved.

The last entry in the minute book of the presbytery of Laggan, previous to December 30th, 1690, was on July 31st, 1681. “The meeting see fit to lay aside their ordinary business at this extraordinary meeting, only, if time will permit, we will hear the exegeses of the two young men who are upon their trials.”

It is more than likely, as Dr. Briggs says in the appendix to American Presbyterianism: “That Mr. Makemy was probably licensed in the autumn of 1681 and after several appropriate trials and having preached for Mr. Hempton at Burt, April 2d, 1682, he was ordained to go out to America.”

Two years previous, or 1680, Colonel William Stevens laid before the Presbytery of Laggan by letter the desire of the Presbyterian families in the lower counties of Maryland on the eastern shore, for a minister to labor in that part of the country.

The clergy of the established church in Virginia and Maryland were not those who would appeal to earnest and pious nonconformists; Hammond in “Leah and Rachel or Two Fruitful Sisters, Virginia and Maryland” (London, 1656) used strong language in speaking of the supply of clergy from the old land, “Yet many came, such as wore Black coats, and could babble in a Pulpit, roar in a Tavern, exact from their Parishioners and rather by their dissoluteness destroy, than feed their Flocks;” to this may be added the testimony of Bishop Meade of Virginia (1829–1862) “Immense were the difficulties in getting a full supply of ministers of any character, and of those who came, how few were faithful and duly qualified for the station.”

It is a well established fact that some who were discarded from 330the English Church obtained livings in Virginia, there was not only defective preaching but most evil living among them. One of them was for years president of a Jockey Club and another fought a duel in sight of the very church in which he had performed the solemn offices of religion.

Governor Berkeley’s testimony in the matter has been frequently quoted, “As to religious teaching—we have forty-eight parishes and our ministers are well paid and by my consent should be better if they would pray oftener and preach less, but as of all other commodities, so of this, the worst are sent to us, and we have few that we could boast of since the persecution in Cromwell’s tyranny drove divers worthy men hither.”

Again, according to Meade, “It is not wonderful that disaffection should take place and dissent begin.” It was under these conditions and after Lord Howard of Effingham succeeded Culpepper in Virginia, having received royal instructions “to allow no person to use a printing press, on any occasion whatsoever,” that there came into Virginia the man whose influence in the cause of religious liberty in the colonies must be reckoned as second to that of but few others—this was Francis Makemie, the Irish founder of organized Presbyterianism in America. He came by the way of the Barbadoes and settled at Rehoboth by the river and founded the Presbyterian Church at Snow Hill, Maryland, 1683. He was earnest, fearless and indefatigable in his labors for the spiritual uplift of the people with whom his lot was cast, and it is worth noting that in those days of the intolerance of the established church, that the Presbyterian denomination began its existence in a colony founded by a Roman Catholic nobleman, Lord Baltimore. Having raised the blue banner in Maryland, he traveled by land as far as Norfolk and proceeded to Carolina, where it seems he labored among the people until the spring of the following year, as he was in North Carolina in May.

In a letter to Increase Mather, written July 22d, 1684, from Elizabeth River, Virginia, he speaks of a voyage engaged to South Carolina, but he met with contrary winds and was driven as far north as Delaware Bay and eventually had to put into Virginia, where he was persuaded by Colonel Anthony Lawson and other inhabitants of the Parish of Linhaven in lower Norfolk County to stay that season. 331Their pastor, formerly from Ireland, died the August before and left them without a leader.

Makemie seems to have remained at Elizabeth River for a considerable time. He writes again from there to Increase Mather, Boston, N. England, under date of July 28, 1685, in which he acknowledges the receipt of a letter and three books and refers to a Mr. Thomas Barret, a minister living in South Carolina and from whom he had received a letter from Ashley River, stating that he was about to take shipping for New England and for whom Makemie enclosed a letter. Just how long after this he remained with this people is not known, only that in the following year he made an extended preaching tour southward to Carolina, ministering to the spiritual necessaries of the people in neglected communities and performing the other duties devolving upon a true minister of the Gospel. It was no easy task that confronted him, while nearly three fourths of the population were dissenters from the established church.

“It is safe to say,” says Cobbs, “that no small proportion of the people were without any definite religion.” This was especially true of North Carolina.

As late as 1729 Colonel William Byrd wrote of Edenton, then capital of North Carolina: “I believe this is the only metropolis in the Christian or Mohammedan world where there is neither church, chapel, mosque, synagogue, or any other place of worship of any sect or religion whatever.

“They pay no tribute either to God or to Cæsar.”

With a knowledge of such conditions before him he put himself forward in 1686, with that fearlessness characteristic of his race, to preach the Gospel to the regions beyond.

How long he labored here is impossible to tell, but he returned and took up his residence on the eastern shore at Matchatauk, Virginia. His name appeared for the first time on the court records of Accomac County, Virginia, in 1690, and John Galbraith’s will, made August 12th, 1691, refers to Makemie as Minister of the Gospel at Rehoboth town. In that year he made a visit to England and returned either that autumn or the following spring, after an earnest endeavor to inspire interest in the religious life of the new colony. It was during the year 1692 that Makemie visited Philadelphia and planted the seed of Presbyterianism by preaching the first sermon in 332the Barbadoes store, northwest corner of Second and Chestnut streets, after which, in the autumn of this year, he sailed for the Barbadoes, where he remained several years, combining the life of a minister and a merchant, as shown by letters dated December 28th, 1696; January 17th, 1697, and, February 12th, 1697, which are still preserved.

It was either during the year 1697 or the early part of the succeeding, 1698, that he returned to his old home on the eastern shore and married Naomi Anderson, according to Dr. Hill’s “Rise of American Presbyterianism.”

In a will signed by William Anderson, July 23d, 1698, and recorded October 10th, he refers to Mr. Francis Makemie and Naomi, his wife, my eldest daughter. Again, the will says, “If my daughter Naomi have no issue,” showing that no children were born at that time.

In Virginia he suffered much annoyance from the authorities, but was the first dissenting minister to obtain a certificate under the toleration act, 1689, of William and Mary, having previously a certificate of his qualifications at Barbadoes, yet it was not until ten years later, 1699, that the Virginia legislature grudgingly granted this with licenses for two houses in Accomac, as places of dissenting worship, to which another was added in 1704.

How much he did for the cause he espoused through the years following cannot be computed, as he went in and out among the people, many of them Presbyterians from Scotland and Ireland, bringing the faith of their fathers with them, but in this new colony, in an environment opposed to religious feeling, they drifted into many sins and habits that fared well to spoil their early impressions of piety.

It is worthy of note that all this time he supported himself by business pursuits; realizing the responsibility of the growing work, he executed a power of attorney to his wife May 30th, 1704, reciting that he was about to depart for Europe, which he did, arriving in London that summer, he then appealed to the nonconformists ministers for men and funds to sustain them. The London ministers responded by agreeing to furnish support for two missionaries, for two years, and Makemie at once secured two young men, John Hampton, a fellow countryman, and George McNish, a Scotchman (?).

333It was while he sojourned in London that he published his “Plain and Friendly Persuasive to the Inhabitants of Virginia and Maryland for promoting Towns and Cohabitations, by a well wisher to both Governments,” returning in 1705 with the foregoing young men. We find that there were five church edifices and as many organized Presbyterian congregations in Somerset County as a result of his previous labor.

In 1706 he had the new church building at Rehoboth erected on his own land. Indeed this was an eventful year for the Presbyterian Church, as on March 22d the first Classical Assembly organized under the name “Presbytery,” presumably in the building of the First Presbyterian Church erected 1705 at Market and Banks Streets, Philadelphia.

Makemie seems to have been elected the first Moderator, as his name is the first to appear on the oldest records extant. This body was composed of three pastors and four missionaries, and was a happy union of men from different parts of the British possessions—Makemie and Hampton from Ireland, McNish from Scotland (?), Andrews, Wilson, Taylor and Davis from New England. A marked absentee was Josias Makie, the Irish pastor at Elizabeth River.

It claimed no authority, but it was a broad, generous, tolerant spirit which effected this union, and it seems to have taken the Presbytery of Dublin as a model. The record of this first meeting is lost, but, according to Briggs, “American Presbyterianism,” after the adjournment of the Presbytery in October, Francis Makemie took John Hampton with him and set out on a journey to Boston, on arrival in New York he was invited by the Dutch minister, Rev. Gualtherus du Bois to preach in the Reformed Church, but Lord Cornbury forbade the service. The preacher, not insisting on the use of the church, held service and preached in the house of William Jackson “with open doors.”

HONORABLE EDWARD E. McCALL.

Justice of the Supreme Court of New York.

A Life Member of the Society.

334Hampton preaching also on the same Sunday, January 20th, 1707, at Newtown, L. I. So bold a defiance aroused the wrath of the Governor, who, on the 24th of the month issued a warrant for the arrest of both men, “who have taken upon them to preach in a private house without having obtained any license for so doing, as they have gone into Long Island with intent there to spread their pernicious doctrines and principles to the disturbance of the church by law, established and of the government of this province.” The warrant was executed and the culprits were brought for examination before the Governor when Makemie defended his liberty on the toleration act of England—this act Cornbury declared to be without any force in his government, and required the prisoners to give bonds for good behaviour and to promise not to preach in New York or New Jersey. Makemie was willing to give bonds, but refused the promise, and both men were put in jail, where they remained six weeks and four days, during the absence of Chief Justice Momperson. On the return of the Judge they were brought before him on a writ of “habeas corpus.” Hampton was discharged without trial as a “man of less interest,” while Makemie was liberated under bonds to appear for trial at the next session of the court, the Grand Jury having found a true bill against him, “that he did take upon himself to preach in a conventicle and meeting not permitted or allowed by law, under color or excuse of religion in other manner than according to our Liturgy and practice of the Church of England.”

On his release he immediately returned to Philadelphia with Hampton for the meeting of Presbytery March 22d, 1707. From thence he writes to Benjamin Colman of Boston: “Since our imprisonment we have commenced a correspondence with our Reverend Breth of the ministry at Boston, which we hope according to our intention has been communicated to you all, whose sympathizing concurrence I cannot doubt of, in an expensive struggle for asserting our liberty against the powerful invasion of Lord Cornbury, which is not yet over.

“I need not tell you of a picked jury and the penal laws are invading our American sanctuary without the least regard to the toleration, which should justly alarm us all.”

At the trial, in the following June, the prosecution relied on the royal instruction to Cornbury, rather than on the ministry act, as though conscious that said act, while establishing a church, yet inflicted no penalties for non-conformity.

Makemie defended himself, producing licenses from the Governors of Virginia and Maryland, contending that there was nothing in the English common or statute law to hold him, and nothing in the laws of New York against the liberty he had exercised.

As to the Governor’s ecclesiastical authority, he argued that it could not exist without the due promulgation of law.

335The plea of Makemie was so forceful that a jury “Packed to convict” was won over to his cause and unanimously acquitted him. The court, however, would not release him until he had paid all the costs, which, together with his expenses, amounted to £83, as sufficiently heavy burden, for which he must yet have had great compensation in the consciousness that he had fought a great fight and won a great victory in the cause of human liberty. Never again did a New York Governor attempt to silence any orderly preaching of the Gospel.

To Cornbury the issue of the case brought a bitter mortification, and he seems to have been seriously alarmed for the consequence to himself from the reports of the trial made by Mr. Makemie and his friends in England and the Colonies.

Writing to the lords of trade in October, 1707, he denied that Makemie had applied to him for a license, and said: “I entreat your Lordship’s protection against that malicious man, who is well known in Virginia and Maryland to be a disturber of the peace and quiet of all places he comes into; he is a Doctor of Physic, a Merchant, and attorney or counsellor at law, and, which is worse of all, a disturber of governments.”

It does not appear that Makemie ever took any action against Cornbury, nor was it needed to the damage of his Lordship’s reputation, which his course had so deeply stained.

The trial being over, Makemie seems to have continued on his journey to New England, as he addressed a letter to Lord Cornbury from Boston in July, 1707, and, according to a bequest in his will made soon after, “Mr. Jedediah Andrews, Minister at Philadelphia, is given my new cane, bought and fixed in Boston.” This will was signed April 27th, 1708, in which he refers to his wife and two daughters, Elizabeth and Anne Makemie.

Some time between this and August 4th, when the will was ordered to be recorded, Makemie died, with a solemn declaration of attachment to his mother church and so ended the career, at the age of fifty, of one of the greatest men who ever came to our shores in the interest of the protestant religion and it is safe to say had he lived in the times of the Revolution, he would have been one of the many of his fellow countrymen who went forth to fight for the flag of this new nation and raised their voices in behalf of human liberty.

JAMES L. O’NEILL, ESQ.,

Of Elizabeth, N. J.

Member of the Executive Council.

336May 14th, 1908, a handsome monument was dedicated to his memory on the banks of Holden’s Creek, Accomac County, Virginia.

HOLLIDAYSBURG—THE HOLLIDAY FAMILY—DEATH OF LIEUTENANT HOLLIDAY AT THE BATTLE OF BRANDYWINE—MASSACRE OF A PORTION OF WILLIAM HOLLIDAY’S FAMILY—JOHN HOLLIDAY, AUGHWICK—GEORGE CROGAN.

GEORGE CROGAN AND AUGHWICK, HUNTINGDON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

George Crogan was born in Dublin, Ireland. He came to Aughwick Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania, about the year 1742 and soon after took up the business of an Indian trader. At first he located at Harris’ trading house, now Harrisburg, on the Susquehanna, and from there moved over the river into Cumberland, some eight miles from his first place. From there he made excursions to Path Valley, Aughwick and finally to the Ohio river by way of the old Bedford trail. His long residence among the Indians not only enabled him to study Indian character thoroughly, but he acquired the language of both the Delaware and Shawnee tribes.

The history of Aughwick and of Crogan are identical during the years 1754–55–56. Aughwick was not originally an Indian town, as is generally supposed, but was a settlement of whites to which the Indians came after Crogan had made it his residence, the time of their coming being clearly shown by official records. It is therefore difficult, if not impossible, to give any reliable information concerning the origin of the name. There is no certainty that it belongs to any of the Indian languages; the probability is that it is derived from one of the European tongues. The first settlers there, as in nearly all parts of Huntingdon County, were Irish. They could furnish a name, or the town which they may have proposed founding, without resort to any other vocabulary than their own. Aughwick is said to resemble in sound two Irish words which mean literally “Swift running steed.” In early times the orthography of the name was almost as various as were the hands by which it was first written. Crogan at first wrote it “Aughick,” afterwards “Aughick Old Town” and finally “Aughwik Old Town.” Crogan—first letter—published in the Colonial Records, is dated “May 26, 1747,” and is directed to Richard Peters. It was accompanied by a letter from the Six Nations, some wampum and a French scalp, taken somewhere on Lake Erie. In a letter from Governor Hamilton to Governor 346Hardy, dated July 5, 1756, in speaking of Crogan, who was at one time suspected of being a spy in the pay of the French, Hamilton says: “There were many Indian traders with Braddock—Crogan among others, who acted as a captain of the Indians under a warrant from General Braddock, and I never heard of any objections to his conduct in that capacity. For many years he had been very largely concerned in the Ohio trade, was upon that river frequently, and had a considerable influence among the Indians, speaking the language of several nations, and being very liberal in his gifts to them, which, with the losses he sustained by the French, who seized great quantities of his goods, and by not getting the debts due to him from the Indians, he became bankrupt, and since has lived at a place called Aughwick, in the back parts of this province, where he generally had a number of Indians with him, for the maintenance of whom the province allowed him sums of money from time to time, but not to his satisfaction. After this he went by my order with these Indians, and joined General Braddock, who gave the warrant I have mentioned. Since Braddock’s defeat, he returned to Aughwick, where he remained till an act of assembly was passed here granting him a freedom from arrest for ten years. This was done that the province might have the benefit of his knowledge among the Indians; and immediately thereupon, while I was last at York, a captain’s commission was given to him, and he was ordered to raise men for the defence of the western frontier, which he did in a very expeditious manner, but not so frugally as the commissioners for disposing the public money thought he might have done. He continued in the command of the companies he had raised, and of Fort Shirley, on the western frontier, about three months; having a dispute with the commissioners about some accounts between them, in which he thought himself ill-used, he resigned his commission, and about a month ago informed me that he had not received pay upon General Braddock’s warrant, and desired my recommendation to General Shirley; which I gave him, and he set off directly for Albany, New York.”

Crogan settled permanently in Augwick in 1754, and built a stockade fort, and must have been some kind of an agent among the Indians, disbursing presents to them for the government. In December of that year he wrote to Secretary Peters, stating the wants 347of his Indians, and at the same time wrote to Governor Morris as follows:

“I am Oblige to advertize the Inhabitance of Cumberland county in ye honours Name nott to barter or sell Spirituous Liquors to the Indians or any other person to bring amongst them, to prevent ye Indians from Spending there Cloase, tho I am obliged to give them a bag Now and then my self for a frolick, but that is Attended with no Expense to ye Government nor bad consequences to ye Indians as I do it Butt onst a Month. I hope your honour will approve of this Proceeding, as I have Don itt to Prevent Ill consequences attending ye Indians if they should be always be kept Inflamed with Liquors.”

That Crogan and his Indians were of some service would appear from the fact that the assembly passed a law exempting him from arrests—for debt it is supposed—for ten years, and commissioning him a captain in the Colonial service. The supposition that Crogan was a spy in the service of the French was based upon the idea that he was a Roman Catholic, inasmuch as he was born in Dublin, Ireland. His loyalty was first brought into question by Governor Sharpe, in December 1753, who wrote to Governor Hamilton, informing him that the French knew every move for defence made in the Colonies, and asked his opinion of Crogan. In answer, Governor Hamilton said: “I observe what you say of Mr. Crogan; and, though the several matters of which you have received information carry in them a good deal of suspicion, and it may be highly necessary to keep a watchful eye upon him, yet I hope they will not turn out to be any thing very material, or that will affect his faithfulness to the trust reposed in him, which, at this time, is of great importance and a very considerable one. At present I have no one to inquire of as to the truth of the particulars mentioned in yours but Mr. Peters who assures me that Mr. Crogan has never been deemed a Roman Catholic, nor does he believe that he is one, though he knows not his education, which was in Dublin, Ireland, nor his religious profession.” To keep the Indians loyal, he advanced many presents to them and the company of Indians he commanded was fitted out at his own expense; and it was the attempt to get what he advanced on that occasion that led to his quarrel with the commissioners and his resignation.

348From Philadelphia, Pa., he went to Onondago, in September, 1756, and soon after was appointed deputy-agent, and again he took an active part in Indian affairs. After the French had evacuated Fort Duquesne, in 1758, Crogan resided for a time in Fort Pitt. From there he went down the river, was taken prisoner by the French, and taken to Detroit. Soon after his liberation he went to New York, where he died in 1782.

Thus ended the career of George Crogan, who was an old acquaintance of George Washington.

EXTRACTS FROM AMERICAN-IRISH HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHIES. — “ Proportions of Original Races in America.

BY DR. MICHAEL F. SULLIVAN.

The history of a people, like the history of the literature of a people, depends upon the historian’s accumulation and verification of knowledge and the manner in which this knowledge is presented to the reader.

It would be an extraordinary thing, indeed, if all writers of history and biography were to speak and write the truth; it would still be a most remarkable condition if many people would overcome their prejudices and recognize the truth when they saw it.

It is lamentable to see how persons of the best intentions will let themselves be deceived when they have taken a false position and try to maintain it.

Some British and pro-British writers have taken a prejudiced position into which they will admit only such truthful ingredients as meet their views and shut out all the rest; just as much truth, as much sincerity, as much justice, as will allow them to call themselves fair and unbiased. It cannot be said that all act wittingly and purposely, but it seems to be the favorite practice of many writers of American history and biography to write events and conditions as they would like to have had them occur rather than as they really were.

349What real historian, or writer of historical truths, will deny to the Celts the credit due them for the wonderful part taken by them in the constructing, upbuilding and general welfare of our great country? What people have done more than the warm-hearted and susceptible Celts, the hereditary fervor of their patriotism, the sacrifices which they have made and which—unchecked by defeat and disappointment, and hope deferred—they are daily making for their country and every country of their adoption; their Celtic veneration for ancient usages, and more than Celtic tenacity of ancient recollections; above all, their still unextinguished spirit of nationality and imperfect amalgamation even to this day with English interests and English feeling, could not fail, one would suppose, to find an echo in the heart of the most prejudiced writer of history. England has not only stolen the country of the Celt, but she has often stolen her genius. The biographical history of Ireland cannot be contemplated without pride and satisfaction to every one who feels an interest in her glory and sympathy with her sufferings.

Reduced to a condition of slavery such as no other nation on earth has endured—her name a by-word—her miseries a mockery—herself the amphitheatre upon which the dishonest ministers of England exhibited their games of blood and rioted in drunkenness and corruption,—it is, nevertheless, consoling to discover that from her condition she has partially recovered and is not completely cursed, but that the master spirits whom she produced may well take their stand beside the highest minds of any other nation, whether in poetry or literature, in eloquence or statesmanship, in camp or court.

Oppression, however it may debase the physical and mental energies of a people, cannot thoroughly destroy them; those very periods that to the ordinary observer seem less likely to be illuminated by distinguished minds, genius has often most splendidly adorned.

Mrs. Stopford Green, in her book, “The Making and Undoing of Ireland,” says: “There is no more pious duty to all of Irish birth than to help in recovering from centuries of obloquy the men of noble birth, Irish and Anglo-Irish, who built up the civilization that once adorned their country.

“It is by the study of this history alone that Irishmen will find a just pride restored and their courage assured. In this effort, however, Irishmen are confronted with a singular difficulty.

JOHN O’SULLIVAN, ESQ.,

Of New York City.

A Member of the Society.

350“In no other country in the world has it been supposed the historian’s business to seek out every element of political instability, every trace of private disorder, every act of personal violence, every foreign slander and out of these alone neglecting all indications of industry or virtue to depict a national life.

“Irish annals are still in our own days quoted by historians as telling merely the tale of a corrupted land,—feuds and battles, murderings and plunderings; with no town or church or monastery founded, no law enacted, no controversy healed by any judgment of the courts. If the same method had been found for England, what an appalling story we should have had of that mediæval time, of its land-thefts, its women lifting, its local wars, the feuds handed from father to son with their countless murders and atrocious devastating for generations whole country sides.

“The Irish have long been famed for their love of learning. By their missionaries they gave to the English the alphabet and the Christian faith. When the English made returns by breaking the Irish schools and destroying their libraries, they were still forced to recognize the talents of the people—‘sharp-witted lovers of learning, capable of any study to which they bend themselves,’ lovers of music, poetry and all kinds of learning.”

Bancroft says, in Volume 5, in referring to the Irish in 1763: “Their industry within the kingdom was prohibited or repressed by law, and then they were calumniated as naturally idle. Their savings could not be invested on equal terms in trade, manufactures or real property; they were called improvident. The gates of learning were shut on them and they were derided as ignorant. In the midst of privations they were cheerful. Suffering for generations under acts which offered bribes to treachery, their integrity was not debauched; no son rose against his father, no friend betrayed his friend. Fidelity to their religion, to which afflictions made them cling more closely, chastity, and respect for the ties of family remained characteristics of the down-trodden race.”

Gordon’s Civil War in Ireland speaks of the literature of Ireland as follows: “The literature of Ireland has a venerable claim to antiquity; for, as has been already mentioned, in the centuries immediately following the introduction of Christianity, many writers arose, whose works principally consist of lives of Saints, and works of piety and discipline, presenting to the inquisitive reader many singular features of the history of the human mind. The chief glory 351of the ancient Irish literature, arises from the revival of the rays of science, after it had almost perished in Europe, on the fall of Roman Empire in the west. The Anglo-Saxons, in particular, derived their first illumination from Ireland; and in Scotland, literature continued to be the special province of the Irish clergy, ’till the thirteenth century.”

Greece and Egypt, in very remote antiquity, were seminaries of learning to the rest of the world; and Ireland, in latter days, seems to have answered the same description to the other nations of Europe. When the ravages of the Goths and Vandals had desolated the improvements of Europe, and reached also to a considerable extent on the African continent, learning appears to have flourished in Ireland. Spencer says it is certain that Ireland had the use of letters very anciently, and long before England; he thought they were derived from the Phœnicians. Bede speaks of Ireland as the great mart of literature, to which they resorted from all parts of Europe. He relates that Oswauld, the Saxon King, applied to Ireland for learned men to instruct his people in the principles of Christianity. Camden says, it abounded with men of splendid genius, in the ages when literature was rejected everywhere else; according to him and others, who wrote at the same time, the abbeys Luxieu in Burgundy, Roby in Italy, Witzburg in Frankland, St. Gall in Switzerland, Malmsbury and Lindisfern in England, and Jona in Scotland, were founded by Irish Monks. The Younger Scaliger, and others, say, at the time of Charlemagne, and two hundred years before, almost all the learned were of Ireland. The first professors in the University of Paris were from this Island; and the great Alfred even brought professors to his newly founded college of Oxford from this country. It would be too tedious to enumerate the benefits diffused through various parts of Europe, by the numbers of distinguished and learned men from Ireland, who imparted the early lights of Science and of Christianity, and founded monasteries in various parts of Britain, France and Italy. At this day, the Patron Saints, as they are called, of several nations on the continent, are acknowledged to be Irish; hence we may see, how Ireland obtained the name of Sanctorum Patria. We have also the testimony of venerable Bede, that, about the middle of the seventh century, whole flocks of nobles and other orders of the Anglo-Saxons, retired from their own country into Ireland, either for instruction, or for 352an opportunity of living in monasteries of stricter discipline; and the Scots (as he styles the Irish) maintained them, taught them, and furnished them with books, without fee or reward; “a most honorable testimony,” says Lord Lyttleton, “not only to the learning, but likewise to the hospitality and bounty of that nation.” Dr. Leland remarks, “that a conflux of foreigners to a retired Island, at a time when Europe was in ignorance and confusion, gave peculiar lustre to this seat of learning; nor is it improbable or surprising, that seven thousand students studied at Armagh, agreeable to the accounts of Irish writers, though the seminary of Armagh was but one of those numerous colleges erected in Ireland, and the grand ruins of them, to this day, stand as so many learned monuments of the ancient and literary fame of the country. Ireland retained the name of Scotia, till so late as the fifteenth century, with the addition of Major, or Vetus, to distinguish it from Caledonia or Albania, that is, the present Scotland, which, in the eleventh century, began to be called Scotia Minor, as deriving its improvement immediately from hence. The ancient Scotch writers, of the greatest repute, are so far from denying their Irish extraction, that they seem to glory it; and King James I, in one of his speeches, boasts of the Scottish dynasty being derived from that of Ireland.”

The dazzling array of Irish names by which the annals of America has been graced is far more extensive than the ordinary observer would suppose.

To some of the friendly and to all of the unfriendly a man to be Irish must bear a pronounced Celtic name.

It is a fact from the most reliable authority that many Irish on coming to this country adopted English names, many taking the names of colors and trades. Dr. Thomas Dunn English says “they often took the names of Black, Brown, Grey and Green, or as fancy may dictate.” He says “the names were generally retained on this side of the Atlantic.” He also adds: “In the eighteenth century as well as the latter part of the seventeenth century, Philadelphia, then the greatest commercial port, was the spot of the greatest debarkation of the Irish hosts. While many remained in the east there was a time when the greatest portion pushed their way into the western wilds where the land could be had for the asking. They scattered themselves over the slopes of the great Allegheny range and its various spurs and tributaries.”

353From Londonderry in New Hampshire down to Coloraine in the far south, Dr. English says he found many Celtic names changed with the “Macs” and “O’s” dropped. He said: “If nevertheless all these names were blotted out and their place taken by those of English or German sound the character of the original settlement would be known by the prevalence of certain words and survival of certain customs.”

Spencer, the historian, says: “Multitudes of laborers and husbandmen from Ireland embarked for the Carolinas. The first colony of these located in 1737 near Santee.” He also says “emigration to America was so heavy as to show the depopulation of whole country districts in Ireland.” Ramsey, the historian of the Carolinas, declares “that of all the European countries none has furnished this province with so many inhabitants as Ireland. Scarcely a ship,” he says, “sailed from any Irish port for Charlestown that was not crowded.” All this, he declares, occurred years and decades before the revolutions.

Jenkins, in his life of President Polk, says: “About the year 1735 two large parties from Ireland sought the wilds of America, one by the Delaware to Philadelphia and the other by Charlestown, South Carolina.”

New York World’s History of the United States says: “An Irish colony under Ferguson settled in South Carolina in 1679.”

There was a combined movement of Celts, Catholic and Presbyterian and Quakers to South Carolina and of all the colonies sent out by the prolific isle none had greater Americans than the emigration between 1750–’70.

At any rate it may challenge comparison with any other—Jackson, Calhoun, O’Kelly, O’Grady, Polk, Crockett, Houston, McDuffie, Adair, McKemy, McWorter, O’Farrell, McNairy. All these are of Irish extraction and still (some of them Americanized by dropping the O’ or the Mc) adorn the annals of their states or nation. If anyone had said, in 1692, that a British parliament could succeed in exiling thousands of Catholic and Protestant Irish in such a way as to make them fight side by side with Catholic Frenchmen and non-sectarian colonists against the United Kingdom he would have been denounced as a fool. The wise men would have told him that legislative folly might do wonders, but it could not work miracles. Yet that is just what parliament accomplished, for scarcely was the 354ink dry on the treaty of Limerick (which provided that Catholics should enjoy in Ireland such rights as they had enjoyed in the reign of Charles II) when it was violated by a series of laws that now make honest Englishmen blush. It is needless to repeat the black details. Says one British writer: “The laws were so many and so atrocious that an Irishman could scarcely draw a full breath without breaking a law.”

Grimshaw’s History of the United States, 1821, says: “Philadelphia in 1683, which was begun on the site of the Indian village, Coquanoc, derives its name from a city in Asia Minor celebrated in sacred history for its having been the seat of an early Christian church. During the first twelve months of its foundation about a hundred houses were erected and, since that period, it has received a continual accession of inhabitants from Ireland and Germany.” It also says: “In the interval between 1730 and the period when this history will relinquish the distinct colonial proceedings to conduct the narrative of a more sublime and awful period when individual interests combine and move forward with a unity of action there was an annual influx of emigrants. These were principally from Germany and Ireland. The Irish and German people at an early day brought the useful arts and manufactures into Pennsylvania. The Irish and French emigrants had enjoyed a large share of civil liberty and boldly contended for total enfranchisement from regal domination.”

Grimshaw says, in relating an incident of the war of 1812: “Scenes of the most distressing kind were occurring in the Chesapeake. It was now that Admiral Cockburn was satiating his unmanly and unsoldierlike propensities in a species of warfare at once reflecting dishonor. At first his depredations were directed against the farm houses and seats of private gentlemen. These were plundered, their owners in the rudest manner insulted, and cattle which could not be removed were wantonly destroyed.

“Georgetown and Fredericktown were destroyed. The people of Frenchtown, after firing a few shots, fled on the enemy’s approach with the exception of an old Hibernian, named O’Neil. This heroic citizen continued the battle alone, loading a piece of artillery and firing it himself, until, by recoiling, it ran over his leg and wounded him severely; and even then, exchanging his piece of ordnance for a musket, and limping away, he still kept up a retreating fight with 355the advanced column of the British. He was, at length, made prisoner, but soon afterwards released.” Holmes (Annals of America) says: “From Dec. 31, 1728, to Dec. 31, 1729, there entered the port of Philadelphia 5,655 Irish immigrants, 243 Germans, 267 English and Welsh and 43 Scotch.”

Rev. S. F. Hotchkin, in Penn’s Greene Country Towne, writes: “In 1729 Miss Elizabeth McGawley, an Irish lady, brought hither tenantry to the Dickson property between Nicetown and Frankford and had a chapel there. A priest named Michael John Brown was buried in a stone enclosure not far away. Roman Catholic services may be traced, as Watson says, to a letter of Penn to Logan, in 1708, wherein he mentions that Mass had been celebrated in Philadelphia and that the services were held in a frame building on Cor. of Front and Walnut Sts.”

The New York Sun, in commenting on Galletin, says his sponsors were John Smilie, Blair McClenachan, and Thomas McKean, sturdy leaders of the strong Philadelphia Irish colony of that era, 1789.

John Sanderson’s Biography (1823) of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, says: “In Pennsylvania the Quakers reared the most durable monuments of their fame, and advanced of their most elevated grade the interests of their order. The freedom, liberality and benevolence of their policy invited among them, as well from the adjacent provinces as from Europe, a numerous population; and the industry of the German, the activity and enterprise of the Irishman joined to the pre-existing order and economy of this province, raised it to a sudden height of prosperity which has been seldom equalled in the history of nations.”

Drake, in his Landmarks of Boston, says: “About 1718 a number of colonists arrived from Londonderry, Ireland, bringing with them the manufacture of linen and the implements used in Ireland.”

Early records of the Town of Derryfield, now Manchester, N. H., 1751–’82, says: “On Sept. 23, 1751, at the call of John McMurphy, the proprietors, free-holders and inhabitants of Derryfield gathered at the inn of John Hall for the purpose of laying the foundation of self-government. Its early inhabitants were made up of Irish, who had begun to settle within its bounds as early as 1718, mostly near Amoskeag Falls. About 100 families settled there at that time.”

Harris’ Memorials to Oglethorpe (1841) says: “Governor Oglethorpe, founder of the colony of Georgia’s Mother was Elenora 356Wall, an Irishwoman of Rogane, Ireland.” Charles Dempsey was an able assistant to Governor Oglethorpe and did much to settle differences between Florida and Georgia. Under Governor Oglethorpe, as a military officer, was a Patrick Sutherland. That there were thousands of Irish settled not only in New Hampshire, Georgia, Pennsylvania, the Carolinas, but Maine, Virginia, Massachusetts and New York, in colonial days, may be attested if we are to believe Prendergast in his book, “Cromwellian Settlement of Ireland,” he says: “Thousands of Irish were sold into a kind of slavery by Cromwell to Massachusetts and the West India Islands from Ireland. Between 1651 and 1655 over 6,000 boys and girls, namely from the south of Ireland, were shipped to those two ports.” It seems difficult for some writers to give credit and justice to a people against whom they have an unwarranted prejudice—prejudice stimulated by ignorance of facts or malice.

After the quotations from the most reliable authorities as to the early settlement of America in colonial days by the Irish, it is to be wondered at which of the afore-mentioned causes impelled the president of a great university to give credit to other peoples in the settlement and upbuilding of America and omit the important part taken by the Irish.

Was it malice or ignorance that caused a gentleman holding one of the two highest positions in the United States government from Massachusetts, to give the Irish but partial credit in his paper, “Distribution of Ability in the United States,” published in the Century Magazine? The honorable gentleman quotes Appleton’s Encyclopedia of Biography for his authority, which, if closely examined, it will be found that his time or vision must have been exceedingly limited. A careful examination of the above authority will prove malice or ignorance or delegating the examination to some Celtophobe of the Goldwin Smith stamp. These writers can be truly accused of carelessness or credulity. The colonial settlers from Ireland did not claim to be anything but Irish,—God had not created at that time the new breed of higher animals, the Scotch-Irish.

Mr. James McMillen of Cincinnati, Ohio, in the New York Sun, refers to an article of Dr. Lyman Abbot in the North American Review, in which “he (Dr. Abbot) declares that the great forces which contribute to our civilization in this country are not Celtic, Slavic, Mongolian or African, but Anglo-Saxon.” Mr. McMillen 357adds: “From the very beginning we have been in the front ranks with our Anglo-Saxon brethren and will not be crowded out at this late day by any authority who would place us in the same category with the African, Mongolian or Slavic so long as we continue to demonstrate our equality if not superiority to the Anglo-Saxon.” The Abbots, Lodges, Eliots, Fisks and other minor satellites will find it an impossibility to eliminate from the pages of American history the absolutely necessary part taken by the Celt in the originating and perpetuating American liberty, institutions and ideals. The misinformers of history should stop to consider that civilization is not made up only of heat or cold, light or darkness, but a community of human beings, with likes and dislikes, with hopes and aspirations, with hearts beating with passion or sentiment and while human peculiarities are modified to a certain degree by condition and environment, they are not wholly changed. This will apply to the early Irish and English settlers of America. It would be a very uncertain belief to suppose that the thousands of Irish who settled in America in colonial days to escape the lauded Anglo-Saxon civilization, would tamely submit to a continuance of it in this broad land of liberty and opportunities.

The Celt came to America to better his condition and not for exploitation and plunder; and his splendid sentimental and kindly nature did have a modifying effect on the character of the brutal Saxon and if much of the land of America in colonial days was claimed as the land of the Saxon the sun that gave it national heat and light was Celtic love of God, Celtic love of justice, Celtic valor, Celtic zeal, Celtic intelligence that made it the greatest country on earth.

He who has read American history has read it in vain, if he does not know that had it not been for the moral and physical aid given by not only the Irish colonists, but by the people of Ireland, American independence would not have been achieved. Washington, himself, acknowledged publicly the great indebtedness to Ireland.

The admirers of the prefix and hyphen in American history probably had in mind the attempts of that brilliant young Irish scientist, John Butler Burke, to produce life artificially. The preface to Burke’s book, “Origin of Life,” somewhat changed, is “Although it is not the object of this book to lend support to the doctrine of abiogenesis or the development at the present day of living from 358absolutely non-living (Scotch-Irish) matter, the more hopeful, though as it must be admitted less gratifying view to take is that we have arrived at a method of structural organic synthesis of artificial (Scotch-Irish) cells, which if it does not give us organic life such as we see around us, gives us, at least, something which, according to (Eliot, Lodge, Fisk and others) admits of being placed in the gap, or, as it might be preferably called, the borderland between living and dead matter.” Dr. Burke says: “The why and wherefore we may ask, but get no answer to; the how is our only consolation; and even in that do the most careful steering to avoid the pitfalls and precipices of error.”

The afore-mentioned “historians” did not share Dr. Burke’s doubt, but went ahead and created a new set of cellular tissue and called it the Scotch-Irish. With characteristic zeal and industry begotten of their love of justice and fair play, “that the world may know” a Murray, a Linehan, a Roache, a Gargan and hosts of others of beloved memory have shed lustre on Ireland not only as men of Irish blood but as disseminators of historical truths as to the priceless part taken by men of Irish blood from the earliest days of the country’s history until the present time for the permanency of American institutions and government. In no man’s heart do the Stars and Stripes awake a more sincere and ardent patriotism than the Irish-American.

Rev. Edward Everett Hale writes in the Boston Daily Advertiser, January, 1852, the following:

“In writing these letters to the Boston Daily Advertiser, I attempted to confine myself to the facts which directly affect legislation or charitable action. There is, however, a curious question as to the effect to be produced on national character by intermixture of blood and race, produced by such large emigration as we see. What I have said in my last letter has been carefully guarded, so as to refer everywhere to the absolutely unmixed Celtic race. Of its value intermixed I have spoken as highly as I could.

“An anxious question is asked, however, by men of the old American blood, whether there is not an over-preponderance of the Celtic element coming in upon us? I do not profess to answer the question, how far the origin of the native American blood is Celtic.

359“In what proportions do the Celtic and Gothic or Germanic elements mingle in the Englishman of today (1852) and, of course, in the American of today? Dr. Kombst estimates in 1841 that there are of pure German blood in England 10,000,000. Of mixed blood where the Teutonic prevailed in England and the northeast of Ireland, 6,000,000. Of mixed blood, where the Celtic prevailed in England, Scotland and Ireland, 4,000,000. And of pure Celtic in Scotland, Wales and Ireland, 6,000,000.

“But Dr. Lantham, with more reason, I think, doubts the purity of any Germanic blood in England, saying that ‘a vast amount of Celticism, not found in our tongue, very probably exists in our pedigrees.’ And in another place he says that in nine-tenths of the displacements of races made by conquest the female half ancestry of the present inhabitants must have belonged to the beaten race.

“I think the history of the Saxon invasions is such as to give color to this idea in the case of England. And I am not sure, but what it could be made out, that the American people, before the recent Irish invasion, showed in their proportion of black-haired men of dark complexion and other Celtic signs that as large a fraction as two-thirds of its blood ran in the dark ages of the past in Celtic veins. If this be so, if the proportion, two-thirds Celtic to one-third Gothic or Germanic, is the proportion which makes up that ‘perfect whole,’ the ‘true American,’ which considers itself so much finer than either of the ingredients, the recent emigrations furnish a happy co-incidence with the original law. For five past years the arrivals at New York, which are three fourths the whole, and represent it in kind exactly, have been 547,173 Irish; 278,458 Germanic; 153,969 English and Scotch; 71,359 others. Now keep these 71,359 ‘others’ for condiments in the mixture. There are Norwegians and French, Belgians and Spaniards, Swiss and Italians, balanced against each other (and a few Magyars).

“The English, of course, we need not count; but of pure Celts and pure Germans we have to fraction just two to one; and in that proportion are they to affect the blood of the American people.

“This computation which I had prepared before I read a courteous article in the American Celt of January 24, 1852, will, perhaps, show to the writer of that paper, that we are not so far apart in our views as he supposed.”

Mr. James Anthony Froude, in his history of Ireland, maligned 360the Irish people and did much to prejudice the world against them. Previous to his death he tried to undo the injustice he had done them. The following letter from Mr. Philbrick, superintendent of schools, explains itself:

Donohue’s Magazine, August, 1855, taken from Boston Transcript letter by Mr. Philbrick, superintendent of schools in Boston.

“James Anthony Froude, in his recent rapid passage across the country on the homeward stretch of his round-the-whole trip, was interviewed in New York and among other things was asked for reminiscences of his visit to the United States.

“The reading of the notice of his interview revived the memory of an incident of that visit, which is perhaps worth relating.

“During this visit, Mr. Froude delivered lectures in the principal cities on the Irish question. The theory which he propounded and advocated was, that the troubles in Ireland were not the result of bad government at all, but of bad blood in the Irish race. But he was anxious to get more light on the subject, if possible, and so, when in Boston, he wanted to visit public schools which were frequented by children of the Irish race. Accordingly, I took him to some boys’ schools and some girls’, where the children were almost wholly of Irish parentage. At the last of these girls’ schools, of the grammar grade installed in a splendid new school house of large size, after passing through twelve or fourteen rooms, filled with bright, well-dressed girls full of animation in their recitation in the various branches of instruction, Mr. Froude asked: ‘Do you mean to says that these are the children of Irish immigrants?’ ‘Yes,’ I answered, ‘I believe there is not a single pupil in this school of the Yankee race.’ ‘Well,’ he continued, ‘I must confess I’m staggered.’ ‘Now,’ said I, ‘I will take you to a mixed school (boys and girls being in separate rooms and classes), which stands on a spot that two years ago was a mud hole in a marsh surrounded by poor dwellings, mostly occupied by Irish immigrants.’

“After passing through most of the rooms in the fine building, in which were neatly-dressed pupils in the most perfect order, earnestly engaged in their work, we came to a boys’ room where a recitation in history was in progress. Here he took a seat and proceeded to question the class, from which he got very prompt and appropriate 361answers. At length, he singled out a little tan-headed boy of the Irish nationality and plied him with a lot of pretty hard questions, but every one was answered with admirable promptness and accuracy. Mr. Froude stopped, remained silent for a short time with his eyes cast down as though in a profound study. He then addressed the boys again and said: ‘My boys, where did you learn this?’ ‘Out of a book, sir,’ was the ready reply. ‘And where did you get the book?’ ‘Out of the public library,’ was the answer.

“Mr. Froude then arose to leave and I said: ‘Now, Mr. Froude, I will take you to the Girls’ High School, where you will find representatives of the Irish nationality in a higher grade of instruction.’ ‘Well,’ replied Mr. Froude, ‘you may take me where you please; it makes no difference; I’m full; I can’t hold any more.’”

Spencer says: “The Irish had the use of letters long before the English, and that Oswald, a Saxon king, applied to Ireland for learned men to instruct his people.”

Camden says: “Ireland abounded with men of genius and erudition when learning was trampled on in every other quarter of the globe.”

Plutarch calls Ireland, “Ogygia,” i.e., the most ancient isle.

Ralph Waldo Emerson says: “The sources from which tradition derives their stock are mainly three. And, first, they are of the oldest blood in the world, the Celtic. Some people are deciduous or transitory.

“Where are the Greeks? Where the Etrurians? Where the Romans?

“But the Celts or Sidonides are an old family, of whose beginning there is no memory and their end is likely to be still more remote in the future; for they have endurance and productiveness. They planted Britain, and gave to the seas and mountains names which are poems and imitate the pure voice of nature.

“They are favorably remembered in the oldest records of Europe. They had no violent feudal tenure, but the husbandman owned the land. They had an alphabet, astronomy, priestly culture, and a sublime creed and precarious genius. They made the best popular literature of the middle ages in the songs of Merlin and the tender and delicious mythology of Arthur.”

The most ancient manuscripts in the world are in the Irish language 362and the oldest Latin manuscripts were written by an Irishman.

The Irish language is as old as Hebrew and more ancient than Greek or Latin.

Matthew Arnold made the statement: “If Celticism had not moulded England she would not have produced a Shakespeare.”

There were a few Irishmen evidently in business in Boston before 1847–8. The Columbian Centennial of May 12 and March 17, 1812, gives James Magee, owner of Coffee Exchange House; William Barry, Dealer in Hats and Furs; William Sullivan, Corn Hill Square, Sale of farms; J. L. Sullivan, Manager of Merrimac Boating Co.; William Sullivan’s orations for sale; James Barry, Fish, Pork and Lard Dealer; Walter Welsh, Real Estate.

THE IRISH IN RHODE ISLAND, TO AND INCLUDING THE REVOLUTION. — FIRST TRACE OF THE IRISH IN NEW ENGLAND. — THE IRISH IN KING PHILIP’S WAR. — THE IRISH AND BROWN UNIVERSITY. — IRISH RHODE ISLANDERS IN THE REVOLUTION.

BY JOHN J. COSGROVE, PROVIDENCE, R. I.

When it was first suggested to me that I prepare a paper dealing with some phase of the history of the Irish in America I decided that I would take as my subject the history of the Irish in Rhode Island up to the present time. My belief was that the part played by the men and women of Irish birth or descent in the early history of our state was so slight, and the facts relating thereto so meagre, that I could in a few words deal with the early history of the Irish in Rhode Island, and could pass on to their history for the last three-quarters of a century.

Upon beginning my researches I was at once convinced of my mistake and soon learned that if I adhered to my original intention, instead of preparing a short paper I would be obliged to write a large volume. Therefore, I have taken as my subject: “The history of the Irish in Rhode Island to and including the Revolution,” with the hope that some abler Irish man or woman will, at some future time, tell the story of the part played by the men and women of Irish birth or extraction in the modern history of the “lively experiment” of Roger Williams.

363In discussing the history of the Irish in America it is not our intention to belittle the work of others, or to steal from other nations the glories of their achievements; neither are we seeking to dim the lustre of the Puritan crown, nor to call our own the mighty deeds of the pioneer Pilgrims who landed in New England and conquered the wilderness. We have no desire to turn Plymouth Rock into a Blarney Stone. We are not going to assert that Roger Williams was the grandson of Fin Mac Cumbal, or that the clam was first planted in Narragansett Bay by the founder of Clan McFadden.

Our object is simply to record the deeds of the men and women of our race in the making of America; to enable Americans to judge us in true perspective; to tell the world what we Irish have done and are doing in the upbuilding of this state and nation. We are trying to bring to the minds of the country a knowledge of the fact that we have been here from the beginning, that we have given our service and our lives for the promotion of America’s happiness, that, by our brain, by our brawn, by our courage, tenacity of purpose, morality, we have fairly earned the right to the highest and best that America can offer to its devoted sons and daughters. We seek to tear away the veil of ignorance that has blinded many to our worth and to bring into relief a better picture of our race that has too often been falsely depicted. We are proving our claim, not by appeals to race prejudice or bigotry, but by incontrovertible evidence. In the words of the American-Irish Historical Society, we are laboring “that the world may know.”

There is a very erroneous impression in the minds of many, even in this enlightened age, that the struggle for liberty in Ireland has been a religious struggle, a struggle for the principles of Catholicity and for these principles alone. Our fight is not a religious fight. It is the fight for the liberties of a race, not a religion; for the right of a distinct, ethnic entity to work out its salvation in the way best suited to its temporal needs. “Nations have no hereafter, their reward must be of this world”; neither have they religions as nations.

Many are also of the opinion that unless a man or woman is a Catholic he or she is not Irish, though bearing an Irish name. Thus we see people of other faith with the name of Sullivan or Murphy classed as “Scotch-Irish,” that race with no existence, repudiated 364alike by Irish and Scotch, and which someone has called the “Equinoctial Gael.”

Another fact to be borne in mind in connection with Irish names is that many Irish men and women have come to America, and particularly to New England, who, for one reason or another, bore names distinctly un-Irish. Why this is so will be explained later.

The first trace of the Irish in New England of which we have any record is found in the story of the “Mayflower.” In his book, “Brave Little Holland and What She Taught Us,” Rev. William Elliot Griffiths says: “In the Mayflower were one hundred and one men, women, boys and girls as passengers, besides captain and crew. These were of English, Dutch, French and Irish ancestry.” History has established beyond the possibility of doubt that Priscilla Mullins and John Alden were both Irish.

Plymouth was founded in 1620. William Bradford, governor of the colony, tells us that a ship arrived at Plymouth, 1626–7, and a large number of passengers, “cheefe among these people was one Mr. Fells and one Mr. Sibsie, which had many servants belonging unto them, many of them being Irish.”

In Winthrop’s Journal it is stated that on March 15, 1636, a ship arrived “called the Saint Patrick, belonging to Sir Thomas Wentworth, Deputy of Ireland, one Palmer, Master.”

Soldiers of Irish birth or extraction had made their mark in the colonies as early as the Pequot War, among them Darby Field and Daniel Patrick or Gilpatrick. Field is mentioned as having explored the White Mountains in 1642 with a band of Indians. (Winthrop’s Journal and Sketches of Early Irish Settlers by Linehan.)

It is now necessary to turn to the history of England for an explanation of why so many Irish came to this country, beginning in 1641, and why some of them did not bear Irish names.

In the reign of Charles First there occurred what is known as “The Revolution of 1641.” At that time many of the gentry of the west of Ireland held their lands under what parliament claimed a defective title. Charles, after promising the Irish that we would remove the cloud on their title, immediately went back on his word, and, in order to give his conduct some show of justification, had 365thousands of Irish men and women tried on an absurd charge of treason and their lands and goods confiscated. The history of England, gleaned from the records of the House of Commons, tells us that in two days over two thousand Irish were indicted, “tried,” convicted and sentenced for treason, or one for each one and one-half minutes in a working day of twelve hours; a fair sample of English “justice” in Ireland. The English army overran Ireland, slaughtered a very large number of men, women and children, besides shipping many thousands to New England as slaves. These exiles were obliged to change their names and adopt English names.

After the fall of Charles First, Cromwell started a similar crusade in Ireland. He also caused to be sent to the colonies many thousands of Irish boys and girls who were given names different from those of their fathers. Cromwell also shipped large numbers of adults to the colonies from Ireland where they were sold as slaves. In 1652, the Cromwell Commission recommended that “Irish women as being too numerous now be sold to merchants and transported to ... New England.” In 1653 Captain John Vernon contracted with Messrs. Selleck and Leader for 250 women of the Irish nation and 300 men “to transport them into New England”; these to be secured in the country within twenty miles of Cork, Youghal, Kinsale, Waterford and Wicklow.

The women thus sold into slavery were to be given in marriage to the colonists, as it was impossible to get English women to emigrate to the colonies willingly. Sales were conducted and each man paid for his wife as he did for his chattels at public auction. An interesting account of the manner of conducting these sales may be found in the histories of Virginia and in a popular book of fiction of a few years ago: “To Have and To Hold.”

So brisk was this trade for a time that finally the ship owners, in their greed, forcibly abducted some English women and children, and this led to the stopping of the traffic.

We see, therefore, some reason for the fact that many people of undoubted Irish origin did not bear Irish names, some of them taking the names of their owners, and others dropping their Irish names to save themselves from persecution. In addition to this, no ship could clear for the colonies from an Irish port. She must first proceed to an English port and thence outward. When she did clear all her passengers were required by law to adopt some name other than an Irish one. Lest I be accused of romancing I will quote the law of England of the time:

JAMES THOMPSON, ESQ.,

Of Louisville, Ky.

Vice-President of the Society for Kentucky.

366“An Act that Irishmen dwelling in the counties of ... go appareled like Englishmen, and wear their beards after the English manner, swear allegiance, and take English sirnames; which sirnames shall be of one town, as Sutton, Chester, Trim, Skyrne, Corke, Kinsale; or colors, as white, black, brown; or arts or sciences, as smith, carpenter; or office, as cook, butler, etc., and it is enacted that he and his issue shall use this name under pain of forfeyting his goods yearly.” (Paternalism with a vengeance. If the law had required him to wear a monocle in his left eye the picture would have been complete, and instead of building railroads he could have married an American heiress.)

We can from this easily perceive the policy of England: to wipe out from the minds of the Irish all thoughts of nationality, and to exterminate the race.

Many of these exiles, of course, obeyed the law, as being along the lines of least resistance. The banished children did not even know their right names; and thus we see the names of Smith, Carpenter, Chester, Sterling, Kinsale, White, Butler, etc., borne by Irishmen. We shall also see that names distinctly Irish were found in Rhode Island at that period, demonstrating one of two things, or perhaps both: that many of the Irish were smuggled out of the country without touching at English ports, and that many others, on arriving in this country, resumed their original names.

The popular histories of England and the colonies make no note of these facts, but there is a more reliable source than the histories for confirmation of these assertions, and that is the records of England. It is one of the established customs of English law to sacredly preserve all papers of this character, and it is from these, even more authentic than histories, that we have discovered the facts.

Thomas Hamilton Murray, late Secretary-General of the American-Irish Historical Society, has compiled a list of Irish names in the records of Rhode Island, giving the years in which the men were known to have lived here. These are all strictly Irish names and exclude those of doubtful origin:

Larkin, Dunn, 1655; Casey, 1663; Kelly, Macoone, 1669; Heffeman, 3671671; Martin, Macarthy, Long, 1677; Devett, 1685; Malavery, 1687; Dailey, 1689; Linniken, 1690; Cary, 1693; Dring, 1696; Doyle, 1698; Higgins, 1699; Moore, 1700; Walch, Mitchell, 1703; Coursey, 1713; Murphy, 1718; Lawless, 1720; Carty, 1721; MacKown, 1723; O’Harra, 1728; Phelon, 1730; Shay, Joyce, 1731; Connor, Cassidy, 1732; Gallagher, 1736; Lyon, Mackey, 1737; Hurley, McCane, Sullivan, 1740; Whelan, 1741; McGonegal, Delaney, Farrell, Mulholland, Rourk, 1742; Dempsey, Fitzgerald, 1743; Hanley, Egan, McDonald, 1745; Donnelly, Tally, Byrn, 1747; Lanahan, Maguire, 1750; O’Brien, Donovan, Barrett, 1751; Cavenaugh, Flynn, Murray, Hickey, 1752; Hartagan, 1753; McMullen, 1754; Burke, 1755; Dwyer, O’Neil, Ryan, 1756; Magee, Donohue, 1758; Sheehan, Hearn, McGrath, 1759; Mullen, 1760; Gorman, Lary, Dermott, Fitzpatrick, 1761; Dunphy, 1765; Carroll, 1768; Roach, 1773; Mahoney, Rohan, 1774.

These are all names of people who lived in Rhode Island prior to the American Revolution. When such a large number of names is found in the records it is but fair to assume that there were many others to us unknown and who lived and died without ever having their names recorded anywhere.

In the early history of New England there were of course no directories of names, few, if any, records of births, marriages or deaths, and practically the only time when men’s names were written was in time of war or public danger, and it is in war that we first find the names of any large number of Irishmen in Rhode Island.

King Philip’s War started in 1675 and was begun for the purpose of ending the rule of the white man in the colonies. Time will not admit of a detailed account of the part played by the Irish in that terrible conflict and only passing mention can be made.

Again taking the writings of Thomas Hamilton Murray (“Irish Soldiers in King Philip’s War”) we find the names of one hundred and fourteen men of undoubted Irish birth or descent. I have verified these names. The list excludes the names of doubtful origin. It is to be borne in mind that the men who wrote the names were, in many instances, guided largely by sound, owing to the inability 368of the bearer of the name to spell it correctly, or at all. The list follows:

Benjamin Barrett.

James Barrett.

John Barrett.

Peter Bennett.

William Blake.

John Bolen.

John Boyd.

Alexander Boyle.

John Brandon.

James Briarly.

Richard Brine.

Robert Bryan.

William Buckley.

Richard Burke.

Joseph Butler.

Phillip Butler.

Stephen Butler.

James Callan.

Daniel Canada.

John Cann.

James Carr.

John Cary.

Peter Cary.

John Casey.

John Clary.

Lawrence Clinton.

Joseph Collins.

Robert Corbett.

Richard Coy.

Timothy Cunnell.

John Davis.

Thomas Davis.

John Day.

William Day.

Hugh Drury.

John Drury.

James Ford.

Samuel Gary.

Thomas Gery.

John Gleeson.

Phillip Gleason.

John Good.

Daniel Gowen.

Matthew Griffin.

Richard Griffin.

John Hand.

James Harrington.

Lawrence Hart.

John Harvey.

William Harvey.

Sylvester Hayes.

John Healey.

Nathaniel Healey.

William Healy.

Daniel Herrington.

Joseph Holland.

James Hughes.

Matthew Hurley.

John Jackson.

Phillip Keane.

Lawrence Kellon.

Michael Kelly.

John Kennedy.

Henry Kenny.

Thomas Kenny.

Peter King.

John Lane.

Peter Lane.

John Larkin.

Edward Larkin.

Timothy Larkin.

Phillip Long.

John Lyon.

Thomas Lyon.

369Charles Macarthy.

Daniel Magennis.

John Malone.

John Maloney.

William Manley.

Nicholas Manning.

Thomas Manning.

John Martin.

David Mead.

Peter Mellardy.

Daniel Moore.

Edward Moore.

Joseph Moore.

Patrick Moran.

Darby Morris.

Brian Murphy.

James Murphy.

Arthur Neale.

Jeremiah Neale.

Richard Nevill.

John Norton.

David O’Kelly.

James Read.

John Read.

Edward Reade.

John Riley.

James Ross.

Joseph Sexton.

Dennis Sheehy.

Thomas Tally.

Hugh Taylor.

Jeremiah Toye.

Daniel Tracy.

Daniel Warren.

Thomas Warren.

James Welch.

Phillip Welch.

Thomas Welsh.

Lawrence White.

Joseph Winn.

“Richard Brine” in the above list is undoubtedly Richard O’Brien, “Daniel Canada,” Daniel Kennedy; and “John Cann,” John McCann. There are many other names in the records who may have been Irish, like Owens, Stewart, etc., but these are not claimed.

One Henchman was among the captains of the colonists in the campaign against Philip at Mount Hope. In his command were Joseph Ford, John Barrett, Daniel Magennis, a corporal, John Good, John Cann, or McCann, Joseph Lyon, William Healy, Daniel Kennedy, John Moore, Patrick Moran, William Manley and others.

Henchman marched to Dedham, along with a troop of cavalry under Prentice, thence to Attleborough and Swanzey, where they joined Captain Mosley. All then proceeded against Philip at Mount Hope. In Mosley’s company were Richard Nevill, Joseph Sexton, Edward Reade, Samuel Lane, Richard Brine, probably O’Brien, Thomas Welch, Peter Lane and Philip Keane.

In Captain Wadsworth’s company were Matthew Hurley, James Ford, Robert Corbett, James Stuart and William Lyon.

370Under Captain Lathrop were William Buckley, Edward Moore and Stephen Butler.

Major Willard’s command included Thomas Tally, Phillip Read, John Barrett, John Healy, Daniel Gowen, John Gleeson.

Joseph Winn was in Captain Wheeler’s company; John Riley, Thomas Davis, Sylvester Hayes and Arthur Neale, in Captain Appleton’s. John Lane, John and William Day served under Captain Poole.

It was also necessary to garrison the towns and settlements to protect the women and children from prowling Indians. Among those who did this perilous work were John Cary, James Carr, John Malone, John Larkin, Daniel Kennedy, Thomas Owen, Timothy Larkin, John Boyd, Thomas Welch, Joseph Griffin, Brian Murphy, James Harrington.

In Captain Davenport’s company were Nathaniel Henly, John Drury, Daniel Harrington, Jeremiah Toye, Patrick Moroney. Moroney is also mentioned as having served under Captain Oliver; and Cornelius Davis is reported in Mosley’s company.

In the Great Swamp Fight, which took place at South Kingstown on December 19, 1675, we find Captains Mosley, Prentice, Davenport, Appleton and Oliver, and as shown above, all these commands contained many Irish.

In that fight Philip had assembled an army of three thousand warriors, and had laid in his winter’s supplies, with the determination to hold his position. We find the colonists wading through fifteen miles of snow in the middle of winter and dislodging him; and if the history of the Irish race on the battlefield proves anything it is fair to assume that the Irish were not in the rear. The Swamp Fight was the beginning of the end to Philip’s hopes.

In March, 1676, one Captain Michael Peirce had an engagement with a band of Indians at Pawtucket. His force was wiped out and massacred. Two days later the Indians crossed the Seekonk River and fell upon the inhabitants of what is now Rumford. The old histories tell us that when the Indians approached “Ye Irishman, Robert Beers, was sitting at a window reading ye bible. He was warned of ye approach of ye Indians and told to fly. He refused to move, saying that ‘he who was engaged in ready Holy Writ would not be molested by ye enemy.’” The story goes on to say that “ye Indians, disregarding ye biblical injunction, incontinently scalped 371ye Irishman Robert.” Robert was a mason by trade, and is the first Irishman of whom we have any record in the present town of East Providence.

The war ended in 1676, on the murder of Philip at Mount Hope. The Indians had devastated the entire colony. Crops were destroyed, or had not been planted. There was neither food nor clothing. Nine hundred men had fallen. Homes had been razed and starvation stared the colonies in the face.

And here we see again of what the Irish are made. We see the people of Ireland collecting money, food and clothing and fitting out the ship “Katherine” and sending her to the relief of the colonies. History calls this the “Irish Donation.”

Freeman, the historian, in mentioning the fact, says:

“It is somewhat remarkable that from ‘divers Christians’ in England and Wales no word of cheer greeted the suffering colonists, and no contribution, save that of Ireland, is recorded in this dark and perilous period.” Continuing he says: “It is worthy of particular notice, to the honor of humanity, that in the time of the distress of the Plymouth and Massachusetts colonies, by reason of the wars, when few families remained that were not in mourning for the loss of some relative, and whose pecuniary embarrassments pressed upon them, the donation from Ireland to which we referred ‘for the relief of the impoverished, distressed and in necessity by the war’ was received. We record with pleasure this noble instance of benevolent sympathy.”

Bailies, in “History of New Plymouth,” says:

“Ireland was the only place in the British European dominions which bestowed any relief on the suffering colony.”

For a full account of the above see “Bodge’s Writings on King Philip’s War”; Publications of the New England Historic, Genealogic Society; Histories of Rhode Island and the Colonies; Writings of Thomas W. Bicknell, and many other authorities therein cited.

In the records of the State of Rhode Island we learn that Michael Kelly was a prominent man in the island of Conanicut as early as 1667. Michael was apparently a Quaker, and was one of 372a committee of three formed in that year for the purpose of defence against the Indians.

One of the founders of the town of East Greenwich was Charles Macarthy. He was afterwards given five thousand acres of land by the General Assembly for services in King Philip’s War.

Matthew Watson, another Irishman, was one of the most prominent inhabitants of the town of Barrington as early as 1722. His history has been written by Mr. Bicknell.

The present town of Warren was named in honor of Sir Peter Warren, an Irishman.

Another prominent family in the life of Rhode Island from the beginning to the present is that of Dorrance. We shall meet them again.

What is perhaps the most interesting of all, interesting because it deals with the intellectual life of the state, is the story of the part played by the Irish in the founding and maintaining of our most noted institution of learning, Brown University.

I was always under the impression that if there was one institution in the making of which we Irish had no part, that institution was the college on the hill; and when I first read that the first money contributed for its founding was obtained in Ireland, I confess that I accused the writers of deserting the field of fact and entering the realm of romance. Subsequent investigation, however, convinced me that the claims of the Irish were established beyond peradventure, no less an authority than the records of Brown itself proving our case.

To go back a little before the founding of the college, history tells us of eight Irish schoolmasters who taught in Rhode Island during the eighteenth century. Rev. James MacSparran, Rev. Marmaduke Brown, Stephen Jackson, “Old Master” Kelly, Knox, Crocker, Terrence Reilly and John Phelan.

MacSparran was an Irishman who settled here about 1718. For forty years he was pastor of St. Paul’s Church in Narragansett, where he taught many pupils at his home, among them Thomas Clapp, afterwards President of Yale.

Rev. Marmaduke Brown, the son of Rev. Arthur Brown, a native of Drogheda, county Louth, Ireland, where his mother was also 373born, was the Rector of Trinity Church, Newport. He also had a school there. In 1763 he had a school of thirty, fifteen of each sex. He was a member of the first Board of Fellows of Rhode Island College, now Brown University.

Stephen Jackson, a native of Kilkenny, came to America in 1724. In 1762 he was living on Benefit Street. One of his grandsons was for years town clerk of the town of Providence, and one of his great-grandsons was Governor of Rhode Island.

“Old Master Kelly” taught school at Tower Hill, South Kingstown, for a great many years. Among his pupils was Oliver Hazard Perry, who, we claim, was the son of an Irish mother. I have not gone into the ancestry of Commodore Perry in detail, as the proper place for the treatment of that subject is the history of the Irish Rhode Islanders in the war of 1812.

“Before 1800, Messrs. Knox and Crocker, natives of Ireland, taught school at Bowen’s Hill (Coventry) and the neighborhood.” (Cole’s History of Washington and Kent Counties.)

Terrence Reilly and John Phelan were schoolmasters in the time of the Revolution, but after the founding of the college.

But the first man who ever caused the idea of a college to take definite shape was none other than the ablest educator of them all, the Irish bishop, George Berkeley, who was born in Kilkenny. He started for America in 1729 for the purpose of educating and Christianizing the American Indian. He arrived in Newport in the same year. His first idea was to establish a college in Bermuda, but he soon changed his plan and determined to establish it in this state. His plans did not mature and he returned to Ireland. Shortly after his return he sent to Yale College the best collection of books ever received in this country up to that time. He also gave to the college a deed of his farm of ninety-six acres in Rhode Island, to be held by trustees for the support of three scholarships, to be bestowed upon the best classical scholars. The Rhode Island farm was rented in 1762 for a period of 999 years, and the Dean’s Bounty, as the fund is called, is still in existence and devoted to the same purpose. He also contributed to the libraries of Harvard, King’s College (now Columbia University), and the Redwood Library of Newport. He was a famous scholar and poet and is best known as the author of the line:

“Westward the star of empire takes its way.”

374William E. Foster, librarian of the Providence Public Library, says of him (in speaking of the founding of Brown): “By thus anticipating by a third of a century the actual establishment of a college in Rhode Island, his plans unquestionably had an important bearing on the steps leading up to it.”

In 1762 the Philadelphia Baptist Association determined to form a college in Rhode Island. Rev. Morgan Edwards and Rev. Samuel Jones were placed in charge of the movement. The institution was incorporated in 1762 and was at first in Warren. In 1770 it was removed to Providence and the name was changed to Brown University in 1804.

Doctor Guild in “The First Commencement of Rhode Island College” says: “It is a singular and well-known fact ... that the first funds of the college were obtained from Ireland, in guineas and half-guineas, from Mary Murphy, Susanna Pilson, Joseph Fowke and other members of Protestant churches and societies in Cork, Waterford, Belfast, Ballymony, Coleraine, Londonderry and Dublin. This may be accounted for when we learn that Mr. Edward’s first settlement in the ministry, before coming to this country, was in Cork, where he married his wife (Mary Nunn). The original subscription book, with genuine signatures, is one of the most interesting documents on file in connection with the history of the University.”

Morgan Edwards went to Ireland and England in 1767. The list of his Irish contributors is a long one, and not all were Protestants. There were several Catholic contributors, as shown by the histories of the families in Ireland, still extant. Some of those who contributed were Mary Murphy, Matthew O. Dwyer, Francis Macarthy, Humphrey Crowley, Samuel Neale, Mrs. Luke Kelly, Rachel Connor, John Reilly, James Martin, Samuel McCormick, James Brennan and many others.

In 1769–70, Rev. Hezekiah Smith solicited funds for the college in South Carolina and Georgia. Among his contributors were Malachi Murfee, Edward Dempsey, Charles Reilly, Patrick Hinds, James Welsh, Hugh Dillon, John Boyd, Matthew Roach, John Canty and many others.

Someone has said that the names on the payrolls of the publications controlled by James Gordon Bennett remind one of a Fenian Roster. With as much truth could it be said that the names of the 375contributors to Brown University in its infancy would be taken for the chief marshal and his staff in a St. Patrick’s Day parade in Providence.

William Edwards, son of Morgan, was graduated from Brown in 1776. Marmaduke Brown was a member of the first Board of Fellows. Another graduate of Brown and afterwards one of its Board of Governors was John Dorrance. George Dorrance and his two sons, George and James, came from Ireland between 1715 and 1720, and settled in the town of Foster. John graduated from Brown and was afterwards president of the Providence Town Council for sixteen years.

Time will not admit of any further treatment of the history of Brown and I will close this part by mentioning the names of only a few of the graduates of Irish birth or ancestry in its early history: James Sullivan, brother of Major-General John Sullivan, received the degree of LL. D. in 1779; John Meredith Read, LL. D., John Mackie, A. B. 1800, M. D. 1813; Andrew Mackie, 1814; Joseph Mulliken, 1817; John Sharp Maginnis, 1844; Joseph Moriarty, 1830; Mark D. Shea and James G. Dougherty, 1865.

We see from this brief account that the Irish race has done its part in the making of Brown. From its inception until today hundreds of its graduates of Irish birth or descent have left its halls and have gone forth into the world, doing honor to their race and to their alma mater. At present it numbers among its students many men and women of that race. The President of the Class of 1910 in the Women’s College is, I understand, a namesake of mine, Miss Lillian Ruth Cosgrove.

We are proud of the part played by our people in the history of Brown, proud of its sons and daughters of our race. We are confident that some day an Irish graduate of Brown will tell the world the whole story of the Irish chapter in the history of Rhode Island; and may we not hope that in the not far distant future we will see on the campus on the hill, along with the statues of Marcus Aurelius and others, a monument perpetuating the memory of the Irish men and women who made the dream of the Irish Bishop Berkeley a living fact.

376

We now come to the greatest event in the history of our state and nation, the American Revolution. We have heard and read so much about the colonists throwing off the yoke of the “mother country” that it would seem to be necessary to determine who is entitled to the credit of being called the “mother country.”

Washington, Lee, Franklin, Custis and others, all men of English descent, tell us that one-half of the continental army was Irish. Galloway, Mountjoy and Robertson reported to England the same fact. Galloway stated to a committee of the British House of Commons that: “There were scarcely one-fourth natives of America; about one-half Irish, the other fourth were English and Scotch.” We do not claim that Galloway’s testimony was entirely trustworthy, and it is only quoted here in corroboration of the testimony of the others.

In the story of the part played by the Irish Rhode Islanders in the Revolution I have carefully omitted names of doubtful origin and have confined myself to those whose nationality cannot be questioned.

In 1765 Rhode Island opposed the Stamp Act. In 1766 a Liberty Tree was planted in Newport. In 1768 a similar event took place in Providence. In 1772 the “Gaspee” was attacked in the Providence River. Her commander was wounded and Dr. Henry Sterling, an Irishman, lent him assistance. In 1775 James and Alexander Black, two Irishmen, were leading merchants in Providence. On May 4th, 1776, the people of Rhode Island formally renounced allegiance to England, two months before the signing of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia.

The records in the State House and elsewhere show that some three hundred soldiers of Irish birth or extraction enlisted from this state. I have been conservative in my estimates and have excluded names which may have been English, Irish or Scotch, as Carpenter, Chester, etc., although, as we have seen, these were as likely to be Irish as anything else. A detailed list of these names may be found in Murray’s “Irish Rhode Islanders in the American Revolution.” That publication also gives the names of the Irish who enlisted in the Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Connecticut regiments. These add several hundred more. In this collection of names we 377find Bennets, Boyds, Carrolls, Caseys, Cooneys, Daleys, Donohues, Dorrances, Fitzgeralds, Gallaghers, Hanleys, Hogans, Larkins, Mahoneys, McCarthys, McDonalds, McNamaras, Murrays, Morans, O’Briens, Murphys, Sullivans, Tracys, Watsons and Wrights. We also find the three Irish fighting names: Kelly, Burke and Shea. These are only some of the names found which include about every Irish name imaginable.

Likewise we find the names Blake, Bowen, Carr, Cummings, King, Harvey, etc., but these are of doubtful origin and are not claimed by us.

Henry E. Knox, one of Washington’s generals, the son of an Irishman, visited Rhode Island in 1776 and laid out certain forts at Newport.

At the beginning of the war Washington ordered two invading armies into Canada. One of these was commanded by Richard Montgomery, a native of Raphoe, County Donegal, Ireland. The other was commanded by Benedict Arnold. In these armies were many Irish Rhode Islanders. Captain Simeon Thayer of Providence organized a company for the expedition. In it were John Barrett, John Carrell, Edward Connor, Thomas Garey, Patrick Hannington, James Hayden, Cornelius Higgarty, Edward Mulligan, John Ryan, Patrick Tracy and James Welch.

Captain Ward of Westerly also had a company on the expedition and this included Thomas Dougherty and John Hickey. Captain Topham of Newport had many Irish in his command. In this campaign every regiment from the colonies contained numerous Irish soldiers, as shown by the muster rolls.

In the spring of 1776 Washington ordered General Sullivan to the support of the armies in Canada, assigning six regiments to his care. Owing to the death of the commander-in-chief before Quebec the mission of Sullivan was a failure. Sullivan’s regiments contained a large number of Irish soldiers, but as we are concerned only with the Irish in Rhode Island it is not necessary to mention all their names here.

Sullivan was given command of the army in Rhode Island in 1778. Under him were Generals Lafayette and Greene, each commanding one-half of the army, with Sullivan Commander-in-Chief. The object of Washington was to emphasize the alliance with France by making a successful attack on the British forces, military and 378naval, aided by the French fleet. Every schoolboy knows the result of that campaign. How its complete success was rendered impossible by a storm off Point Judith and how Sullivan, Lafayette and Greene saved their forces from disaster by their masterly tactics. With Sullivan were his two brothers, James and Eben, and the muster rolls of the regiments in the Rhode Island campaign read like the Directory of the Ancient Order of Hibernians.

I have purposely omitted to go into detail as to the history of the two greatest Irishmen in the Revolution, Major General John Sullivan, and Commodore Barry, “the Father of the American Navy.” My object has been to record the deeds of the Irishmen who fought in the ranks rather than to try to add lustre to those two men. Enough has been written of them. Their story and their work are well known.

It is possible to mention the names of only a few Irish Rhode Islanders who took part in the different battles of the Revolution:

George Dorrance was an ensign in the Regiment of Providence in the “Army of Observation.” George Dorrance, probably the same, was, in 1780, lieutenant of the second company of Scituate. Again we find the name as captain, in 1781, in a regiment raised by act of the General Assembly and again we read of a George Dorrance commissioned Major in the Third Regiment of Militia.

Dr. Henry Sterling, the Irish surgeon, is stated as “being in hearty sympathy with the revolution and aided the patriot cause with his advice and professional services.” He was born in Londonderry, Ireland.

Patrick Tracy of Thayer’s company was killed before Quebec and Hagerty and Hayden were wounded. In Colonel Elliot’s regiment were John McCarthy, Cornelius Sullivan, John McCoy, John Lyon and Daniel Conway.

Thomas Hughes, known as “gallant Thomas Hughes,” was Irish, a captain in the Revolution and a major in the War of 1812. Many articles have been written about him, and as there are some of his descendants living today, who have told of him better than I can do, I will pass him with this brief mention. Miss Mary A. Greene, one of his descendants, is a prominent Rhode Island writer and scholar.

William Ennis became a sergeant in Sherburn’s command. William Lawless was a captain. William McCoy was a quartermaster in 379Colonel Christopher Greene’s command. Rev. Erasmus Kelly lost his household effects in Warren by pillage. James Foster, a native of Dublin, with a name that would not indicate his Irish origin, “enlisted for the war.” John Harrington was an ensign in Sheldon’s company. Elizabeth O’Brien was a nurse. The name “Ensign M. Carthy,” probably Ensign McCarthy, appears as among those of Israel Angell’s regiment. John Tracy was an aide-de-camp on the staff of General Glover on the island of Rhode Island under Sullivan. William Lawless, probably the person mentioned before, was made captain in 1778 under Colonel Crary. Edward Ross was an ensign in the Second Infantry Company of Westerly. William Creed became a captain. John Larkin was, in 1776, a member for Hopkinton of the “committee to procure arms and accoutrements.”

In the Rhode Island regiments at Yorktown were Dennis Hogan, sergeant; John Butler, sergeant; Michael Kelly, Cornelius Driscoll, William Sullivan, Nicholas Hart, Matthew Hart, Michael Doherty, Peter Burns, James Hayes, Thomas Mitchell, Charles McAfferty, Michael Wright, John Kirby, Matthew Henly, Christopher Moore, Anthony Griffin, Daniel and Peter Collins, William McCall, John Haney, James Mitchell, Thomas Melony, Francis Cavan, Hugh McDonald, John McDonald and many others.

Captain Olney’s company, known throughout the colonies for its many deeds of courage, was the first to scale the walls of Yorktown. It contained many Irish, as shown by its rolls.

Among the men of Irish descent in Lafayette’s army were Count Arthur Dillon, Aide-de-Camp Isidore de Lynch (who afterwards became the commander of the Irish-French regiment of Walsh), Lieutenant-Colonel Barthelemy Dillon. Theobald Dillon also saw service in America and was a member of the Cincinnati. Matthew Dillon also saw service here. M. de McCarty was an officer with the French army at Newport and in the Rhode Island campaign. Edward Stack, another Irishman, was with Rochambeau.

Some of the other Irishmen who served in America with the French were: Commandant O’Neill, wounded at Savannah; Captain James Shee, Captain MacDonnall, Captain Mullens, Lieutenant Taaffe, Lieutenant Farrell, James O’Moran, Lacy and Whalen. Charles Geoghegan, an Irishman in the French army, received the decoration of the Cincinnati at the hands of Washington.

380In the navy we find the Irish race well represented. It is, of course, impossible to tell whence these sailors and marines came, but we know that they served.

John Murphy of Rhode Island commanded a privateer. William Malone was captain of the Harbinger. Francis Mulligan was the owner of the Chance. Oliver Reed was master of the privateer General Rochambeau. Peter Day commanded the Molly’s Adventure. M. Mackey was the commander of the Greyhound.

Stephen Ready, John Welch, Edward McGrath, William Kelly, John Murphy and Charles Buckley, all of Rhode Island, were imprisoned in England.

On the sloop Providence we find Patrick McMullen, Matthew McCaffray, Bernard Gallagher; on the Alfred, Patrick McNamara, George O’Hara, armorer’s mate, Patrick O’Brien and William Burns; on the Columbus, Edward Burke, Lieutenant of Marines, Thomas Burns, surgeon’s mate, John McLaughlin, Peter Morris, Charles McDonald, Arthur Nagle and Thomas Murray.

Mr. Field in his work, “Esek Hopkins, Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Navy, 1775 to 1778,” tells us that in Hopkin’s command were many Irishmen, some of them being Anthony Dwyer, Richard Sweeney, Patrick Kaine, Thomas Doyle, John Connor, Andrew Magee, Thomas Dowd, John Roatch and George Kennedy.

We also find Captain Mellaly commanding a privateer and capturing the British sloop Crawford.

These are only a few of the names found in the records, but they show unmistakably the part played by the men and women of our race in our “Little Rhody” to and including the Revolution.

Some reliable writers have stated that the officers of the continental army were twenty-five per cent Irish. Some of them were Generals Stephen Moylan (first president of the Friendly Sons of Saint Patrick of Philadelphia), Henry E. Knox (first Secretary of War), John Shee, “Mad Anthony” Wayne, Matthew Irvine, Edward Hand, Richard Butler, Walter Stewart and William Thompson; Colonels John Nixon, Sharp Delaney, Charles Stewart, John Patton, George Lattimer, Thomas Robinson, Barrett, Smith and Davis; Captain Parker and many others. As we have seen, there were many officers of lesser rank, both in the army and the navy.

Among the first sea fights of the Revolution was the capture of the British sloop Margaretta at Machias Bay on the coast of Maine, May 38111th, 1775, known as “The Lexington of the Seas.” The Americans were commanded by Captain O’Brien, the son of a native of Ireland.

Captain Parker, killed at Lexington, was an Irishman, as were Colonels Barrett, Smith and Davis, who commanded at Concord. The monument at Bunker Hill is covered with Irish names.

The two most famous women of the Revolution were Molly Pitcher and Nancy Hart, both Irish.

But it was not alone in battle that our race distinguished itself. At Valley Forge the army of Washington was in dire peril. The troops had neither food, clothing, shelter nor equipment. Disaster met them everywhere and failure threatened the patriot cause. Faultfinders and malcontents were urging the giving up of the struggle. The hopes of Washington and his devoted band had almost disappeared, when thirty Irishmen of the Friendly Sons of Saint Patrick of Philadelphia subscribed six hundred thousand dollars. When we consider what that amount of money meant in those days, is it not fair to assume that this contribution was the real means by which the power of England was finally driven from this continent? It entailed hardships and sacrifices which we cannot appreciate now. Robert Morris, a banker, and Blair McClenachan gave fifty thousand dollars each. James Mease, a native of Strabane, County Tyrone, Ireland, and General Matthew Irvine gave twenty-five thousand dollars each and the other members subscribed the remainder.

Among the fifty-six signers of the Declaration of Independence were eleven of Irish birth or descent: John Hancock, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton, John Hart, George Taylor, George Read, James Smith, Thomas McKean, Charles Carroll, Edward Rutledge and Thomas Lynch.

The Declaration of Independence is in the handwriting of Charles Thompson, a native of Londonderry. It was first read to the public in Philadelphia by John Nixon, son of a native of Wexford and a member of the Friendly Sons of Saint Patrick, and was first printed by John Dunlap, a native of Strabane, county Tyrone, Ireland.

When the colonists sought the assistance of France Bishop Carroll accompanied Benjamin Franklin to that country and it was due mainly to the Bishop’s representations that French assistance was obtained.

HON. ELMER J. RATHBUN.

Justice of the Superior Court of the State of Rhode Island.

A Member of the Society.

382In all the battles of the Revolution, at Bunker Hill, Concord, Lexington, Monmouth, Valley Forge and Yorktown, we did our part. In the hour of the nation’s peril we gave freely of our substance. We helped to kindle and keep alive the flame of liberty. Wherever and whenever men were needed there were found Irish hearts and Irish hands ready to give up all for the establishment of free institutions, for the right of a nation to be free. Here at last we had found a country worth fighting for and worth dying for. Here we had found the principle of individual liberty a living, throbbing thing. We have been true to America, whatever our enemies may say; we are true to it today; and America knows that if ever the liberties of the republic are threatened the Irish, of whatever faith or political belief, will be found doing their part as of old.

In peace and in war we have done our part. We are doing it today and will continue to do so as long as the fame of Washington and Lincoln endure. We stand for patriotism, for respect for just laws, for the sanctity of the marriage tie, for the purity of our homes, the education of our children and the morality of the people. S. Banks Nelson, an Irish clergyman of this state, has stated that we govern every nation but our own. We also submit to government and the history of our own city of Providence for the last few years has shown that religious bigotry or race prejudice are not failings of the Irish race in Rhode Island.

All we ask is our share of that reward that goes to labor well performed. We ask to be treated justly. We do not claim office because we are Irish and, on the other hand, we insist that office shall not be denied us because of that fact. We have made mistakes and will make them, but they are not fatal. We stand on our record as American citizens and as such entitled to an equal share in its government. All we ask is that you sympathize with us in our struggle, that you teach your children some little knowledge of our history, that you learn to know us as we are and not as we are sometimes represented. Above all we ask you never to permit men or women, on the stage or elsewhere, to utter indecencies or obscenities in the name of our womanhood; for all must admit that our women, by their matchless purity and virtue, are the honor and glory of humanity.

CAPTAIN JOHN O’BRIEN OF MACHIAS, MAINE—REVOLUTIONARY HERO—A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH.

Captain John O’Brien, the subject of this sketch, was the third eldest son of Morris O’Brien and Mary O’Brien, and was born in 1750, in Scarboro, on the Maine seacoast, about ten miles to the southwestward of Portland.

At the early period under present review, the region including Scarboro was greatly harassed by the Indians, whose depredations are said to have sometimes been instigated by the French, who were jealous of the English settlers in western Maine (then a part of the Province of Massachusetts), and hoped to thus drive out the English already there, and prevent others from coming into what was regarded as preëmpted territory.

In consequence of the frequent attacks of the Indians upon the English, at Scarboro, it sometimes became necessary, as a means of self-preservation, for the settlers to flee into the surrounding wilderness, and there carefully secrete themselves until the savages should depart from the vicinity; when they would return to their homes, which were sometimes found to have been despoiled and destroyed during their enforced absence.

While John O’Brien was an infant in his mother’s arms, an attack upon the English settlement at Scarboro, by the Indians, was threatened; and it was therefore resolved to flee for safety into the surrounding wilderness. Fearing that the crying of the infant would disclose to the savages the direction to be taken by the settlers in their flight, and also their chosen hiding-place, it was advised, and insisted that the mother leave her infant behind, in the settlement. Against this she earnestly protested, assuring her neighbors that she could keep the infant quiet. She was, therefore, allowed to take the infant along. Folding him affectionately to her breast, and soothing him as only a fond mother could, she succeeded in keeping the infant quiet, not only during their hasty flight but during their sojourn in the depths of the wilderness.

384This incident is related by the descendants of Captain John O’Brien as a most impressive illustration of mother-love, which, indeed, it is. They congratulate themselves also upon the fact that an infant who, on reaching manhood, became so famous as he as a patriot and as a successful privateersman in connection with the Revolution; and so conspicuous, in later years, as a citizen and as a man of affairs, should have been thus providentially preserved in tender infancy from the hands of hostile Indians.

To the terrors of Indian depredations, experienced by the early settlers of Scarboro, were added those of extensive forest fires, which sometimes devastated the entire region about them, and threatened their extinction.

Of the boyhood of John O’Brien, in Scarboro, little has been preserved. He must, however, have been different from other boys of his age, if he did not, living in such close proximity to the water, acquire a fondness for it. This much is certainly known; that in the autumn of 1765, when the robust boy was about fifteen years of age, the entire family, comprising Mr. and Mrs. O’Brien and six sons and three daughters, removed to Machias, on the southeasterly coast of Maine; the father and two eldest sons having been down there on a prospecting trip, in a sailing vessel, during the previous year.

From the arrival of the lad, John O’Brien, in Machias, until the breaking out of the Revolution, little or nothing is certainly known concerning him. That he attended school, for a time, at least; and that he engaged in the usual sports of lusty boyhood, including swimming, fishing and boating, may be safely inferred. Neither is it a far-fetched conclusion, that, on attaining to a suitable age, he assisted his father, and two eldest brothers, Jeremiah and Gideon, in the sawmills erected by them in Dublin, as the southern village of Machias was early named, and by which it is still known.

The Machias River, which separates the northern and southern villages of Machias, empties into Machias Bay, about four miles to the southeastward of the town; and the river, as far inland as Machias, is navigable for large vessels. Machias, therefore, was, and is a seaport town; and vessels of various kinds were constantly arriving and leaving. Machias early became the shiretown of Lincoln County, now Washington County, and hence was a place of considerable importance. In the light of these facts it is not surprising that most of Morris O’Brien’s “six strapping boys” were, in early 385life, at least, seafaring men; for from their peculiar environment they naturally acquired a taste for that sort of employment. John O’Brien, as will be seen, devoted himself, in later life, exclusively to commercial and mercantile pursuits, with excellent success; indeed, had the acquisition of “filthy lucre” been his chief ambition, he might easily have become one of the wealthiest men of his time.

It is in connection with the outbreak of the Revolution that the subject of this sketch first comes into public notice as a citizen and an ardent patriot; and as the war progressed, his fame as a privateersman increased. His achievements as a privateersman have never received the publicity they unquestionably deserve; and it will be the aim of this sketch to acquaint the American reading people, so far as can be done in the limited space allowed, with the story of the truly romantic career of this hitherto “unsung hero” of New England.

John O’Brien, at the outbreak of the Revolution, was about twenty-four years of age. He was fully six feet in height; and must have weighed at that time not far from one hundred and seventy-five pounds. That he was well endowed with force of character was amply demonstrated at the very opening of his public career; as an illustration of which it may be said that none was more resolutely opposed to, nor more fearlessly outspoken against the repeated acts of tyranny of the mother country, than he. He was a member of the first Committee of Safety appointed in Machias, after the issuance of the proclamation of the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts, authorizing and requiring preparations and efforts to be made incident to a state of hostility.

At the first recorded gathering of the Machias patriots, held in the east room of the Burnham Tavern,^[21] John O’Brien was present, and gave his hearty assent to the proposition for the erection of a liberty pole in the village, as a symbol of the freedom, for the achievement of which the people of that then isolated frontier town were willing, if need be, to sacrifice their fortunes and their lives. 386In procuring, and afterward raising the liberty pole, young O’Brien played a unique and conspicuous part.

When Captain Moore, the gallant young Irishman commanding the British armed schooner “Margaretta,” then lying at anchor in the Machias River, came on shore, and demanded that the liberty pole be taken down, John O’Brien, on behalf of the inhabitants, defiantly refused to accede to the peremptory demand of the King’s officer, The following conversation^[22] is said to have taken place:

“Who erected this pole?” inquired Captain Moore, as he came ashore from the “Margaretta”; to which the staunch Machias patriot, John O’Brien, replied:

“That pole, sir, was erected by the unanimous approval of the people of Machias.”

“Well, sir,” said Moore, “with or without their approval, it is my duty to declare it must come down.”

“Must come down!” repeated O’Brien, with warmth. “Those words are easily spoken, my friend. You will find, I apprehend, that it is easier to make than it will be to enforce a demand of this kind.”

“What! Am I to understand that resistance will be made? Will the people of Machias dare to disregard an order, not originating with me, but the government whose officer I am?”

“The people of Machias,” replied O’Brien, “will dare do anything in maintenance of their principles and rights!”

“It is useless to bandy words,” rejoined the officer, a little nettled at the determined spirit manifested around him; “my orders are peremptory, and must be obeyed. That liberty pole must be taken down, or it will be my painful duty to fire on the town!”

From that rash act, however, Moore was dissuaded by a mutual friend; and the liberty pole stood until it “rotted down!”

To John O’Brien, so it is said by some writers, belongs the honor of proposing, at a meeting of the Machias patriots, held in a private house soon after the notable gathering in the Burnham Tavern, that Captain Moore be seized while attending the village church, on the following Sunday; after which, in accordance with the well-conceived plan there agreed upon, the “Margaretta” was to be captured, also. In compliance with young O’Brien’s expressed wish, he was chosen to be the principal actor in the proposed seizure of Moore.

387John O’Brien, as he subsequently stated, hid his gun under a board, before entering the church. He was expected, at a signal to be given by one of the patriots outside of the church, to personally seize Captain Moore, when his compatriots were to come to his assistance. So far as young O’Brien was concerned, the preliminaries were well carried out. Because of the vigilance and prompt action of the British officer, however, the plan for the seizure miscarried. Receiving timely warning of the trap into which he was being lured, he escaped from the church by way of a low, open window. On reaching his vessel, he was quickly assisted on board by an officer awaiting his arrival; and, after firing a few shots over the villagers’ heads, for intimidation, he dropped down the river to a place of safety.

When it had been resolved by a few of the bolder spirits of Machias to attack and capture the “Margaretta,” by pursuing and boarding her, John O’Brien and his five brothers, Jeremiah, Gideon, William, Dennis and Joseph, were among the party of about thirty-five who sailed down the Machias River in the lumber sloop “Unity,” on that extremely hazardous undertaking. After the little American sloop had entered Machias Bay, and the “Margaretta” had been sighted, Jeremiah O’Brien was unanimously chosen to the command of the “Unity.”

“The first man who boards her (the “Margaretta”) shall be entitled to the palm of honor,” said Captain Jeremiah O’Brien, soon after taking command of the lumber sloop.

After the “Margaretta” had been sighted in Machias Bay, where she was becalmed, the American sloop was brought alongside of her. As the two vessels came together, the rigging of the “Unity” became entangled with that of the British vessel. The two vessels had no sooner touched, than John O’Brien, who was standing at the bow of the “Unity,” leaped aboard the “Margaretta.” Almost at the same moment, the American sloop, having no grappling-irons, the vessels suddenly parted and young O’Brien was left alone on the quarterdeck of the British schooner. Seven Britishers almost simultaneously fired at the intrepid Yankee boarder; but he was unhurt. The Britishers then charged upon O’Brien with their bayonets; and to save his life he jumped overboard and started to swim to the Yankee sloop, which had then drifted about seventy-five feet away.

On reaching the side of the American sloop, John O’Brien was 388promptly assisted on board. As he stepped upon the deck of the “Unity,” his brother, Captain Jeremiah, grasped him by the hand, exclaiming, as he did so:

“Brother John, you’ve won the palm;” and then addressing his men, he continued: “But man the sweeps, my hearties, and lay us alongside once more, and stand ready to fasten on to him when you reach him.”

For the second time the two vessels came together; and this time, in accordance with orders, they were fastened together.^[23] The “Margaretta” was boarded, and in an hour’s time was captured, and was taken in triumph up the river to Machias, reaching the wharf at about sunset of the same day, which was the 12th of June, 1775. Captain Moore, the gallant commander of the captured British vessel, was mortally wounded, and died next day in Machias.

John O’Brien, as a recognition of the conspicuous bravery exhibited by him in the capture of the “Margaretta,” was sent, by the Machias Committee of Safety to the Provincial Congress, then in session at Watertown, Massachusetts, to officially inform that body of the brilliant victory won, and to ask protection for the feeble settlements in eastern Maine, including Machias.

The news of the splendid victory in Machias Bay spread rapidly through the Colonies, and everywhere the colonists were stirred with the ambition to emulate the achievement of the Machias lumbermen.

The “Unity” was at once fitted out as a cruiser, the armament of the “Margaretta” being transferred to her. She was re-named the “Machias Liberty,”^[24] and Captain Jeremiah O’Brien was appointed as her commander.

After the capture, in July, 1775, of the British armed vessels “Diligence” and “Tapnaquish,” near Buck’s harbor, in which captures John O’Brien, on his brother Jeremiah’s vessel took part, the former vessel was refitted as an American cruiser. Of the “Machias Liberty” (or “O’Brien”), Jeremiah O’Brien was continued as commander; and his younger brother, William, was appointed First Lieutenant. John Lambert was appointed to the command of the “Diligence,” and John O’Brien was appointed as First Lieutenant. 389The “Diligence” had a crew of forty men, and carried eight guns and twenty swivels.

For nearly a year, the “Machias Liberty” and the “Diligence,” by order of the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts, cruised, chiefly up and down the eastern coast, protecting American shipping, and capturing British prizes. John O’Brien contributed in no small measure to the success of the cruise. Sometime in the early part of 1776 the “Diligence” was laid up; but the “Machias Liberty” was continued a few months longer in the Provincial service.

During the night following its capture, the “Margaretta” was taken up Middle River, a branch of the Machias River, a few miles, and there beached.^[25] “We cut down trees and bushes and enclosed her from view so much as we could and returned to Machias in season for a late breakfast,” said one who took an active part in the disposal of the captured British schooner.

Early in the autumn of 1776, John O’Brien, and a few others, uncovered and floated the “Margaretta,” and brought her down the Middle River and fitted her out as a privateer. New sails were made, a few five-pounders were placed on board; and with a crew of about twenty men she set sail, under the command of Captain John O’Brien, in search of British prizes, of which he brought several into Machias.

It was late in September or early in October, 1776, that the “Margaretta,” re-named the “Machias Cruiser,” sailed from Machias, going westward. When in the vicinity of Mt. Desert, O’Brien espied in the offing what he supposed was a British merchant vessel, going to the eastward. Upon drawing nearer to the vessel, with a view to giving her battle, O’Brien ascertained that she was a British warship. Crowding on all sail, he turned the prow of the “Machias Cruiser” away from the enemy, for which he well knew his vessel was no match. He hoped to be able to reach Machias Bay, and there find harbor and shelter. The British warship was gaining rapidly on the American vessel; sending a shot now and then after O’Brien, whose vessel, however, remained unharmed. When off Sawyer’s Cove, about forty miles to the eastward of Mt. Desert, O’Brien, who 390saw that he would be overtaken by his fleet pursuer, ran his vessel into the cove, beached her on the flats, and he and his men jumped into the shallow water and swam and waded ashore. They found shelter in half a dozen dwelling houses in the vicinity. This was the first and the last defeat Captain John O’Brien, in his long career, ever suffered.

As near as can now be ascertained, it was sometime during 1778 or early in 1779, that Captain John O’Brien removed to Newburyport, Massachusetts; and his brothers, Dennis and Joseph, soon after followed him to the same village in Newbury township. In Newburyport, the three brothers jointly engaged in mercantile and commercial pursuits.

On the 21st of September, 1779, Captain John O’Brien and Miss Hannah Tappan, daughter of Richard Tappan, were united in marriage. They had first met during a previous visit of Captain O’Brien to Newburyport. It is said that Miss Tappan was at first attracted to Captain O’Brien because of what she had heard of his highly meritorious connection with the capture of the “Margaretta”; in her eyes he was, therefore, a hero.

In Newburyport, Captain and Mrs. O’Brien moved in the best society of the place; his reputation as a prominent character in connection with the Revolution, and his upright, manly bearing, opening to him the avenues of entrance to society. As a full-dressed gentleman of the period, he is said to have made a very fine appearance. One of Captain John O’Brien’s descendants, a grandson, thus speaks of his ancestor: “In the olden times, when my grandfather was in his prime, his ships visited the Indies, and the rich owners lived in stately mansions and made a great display of style in dress and manner. The gentlemen of fashion almost outdid the ladies in the neatness of their attire. I have in my possession some articles of dress worn by my grandfather when he lived in Newbury; they answer to the description given by the historians of the time of the brilliant appearance which a full-dressed gentleman must have made in a social party. A long blue coat, with ample pockets and silver buttons; a white satin vest, of capacious dimensions; velvet breeches reaching to the knees and fastened there by silver buckles; silk stockings and buckled shoes; ruffles in the bosom, and at the wrists, and a richly embroidered scarf around the neck—all this gorgeous array presents a striking contrast to the studied simplicity of a gentleman’s 391dress in our day. Later in life, my grandfather laid off some of this finery; but he retained his ‘small clothes’ and knee buckles and silk stockings to the last.

During the summer of 1780, Captain John O’Brien and his brother Joseph built in Newburyport a vessel intended for the privateer service. She was named the “Hannibal,” and was to carry twenty-four guns and have a crew of one hundred and thirty men. On her first cruise, to Port au Prince, San Domingo, she was commanded by Captain John O’Brien; he captured several important British prizes.

After the capture of the “Hannibal,” while in command of Captain Jeremiah O’Brien, by the British,^[26] late in 1780 or early in 1781, Captain John O’Brien and a few others built in Newburyport another vessel for the privateer service, which was named the “Hibernia.” She was a small vessel, but a splendid sailer. The “Hibernia” carried six three-pound guns. Of this vessel Captain John O’Brien took command (Captain Jeremiah O’Brien was then on board the prison ship Jersey, at Wallabout Bay). Captain John O’Brien inflicted great damage upon British shipping with the “Hibernia.” On his first cruise, which lasted less than four weeks, he captured three brigs, a ship and two schooners from the enemy. During this cruise O’Brien met with a sixteen-gun British ship of war, with which he engaged in a fight lasting nearly two hours. From this evidently unequal encounter he escaped with the loss of three killed and several wounded. One of the wounded men on board the “Hibernia” had an arm shattered by a cannon-shot from the enemy. The surgeon on board, instead of proceeding to amputate the arm, stood trembling, afraid to undertake the operation. The wounded man was rapidly bleeding to death. Captain O’Brien drew his pistol, and, pointing it at the surgeon, said: “Do your duty, sir, or I’ll blow your brains out!” The arm was speedily amputated, and the man’s life was thereby saved.

As a result of a subsequent cruise in the “Hibernia,” Captain John O’Brien brought into Newburyport eleven British merchant vessels, all richly laden, out of a fleet of twelve with which he had fallen in off the mouth of the Narrows, below New York.

Captain O’Brien, while cruising in the vicinity of New York, 392espied a large vessel which he supposed was a British merchantman, and he at once “bore down” upon the craft. Upon ascertaining that the vessel was a British man-of-war, O’Brien immediately crowded on all sail, and, suddenly altering the course of the “Hibernia,” ran from the enemy’s vessel. The British man-of-war pursued the “Hibernia,” and as the former was the faster sailer, she was rapidly gaining on the American privateer. It was then nearly dusk. As soon as darkness settled down upon the water, O’Brien ballasted a hogshead, set firmly in one side of it a pole, at the top of which he placed a large, lighted lantern. Lowering the hogshead into the water, O’Brien ordered an anchor cast; the fog, by this time being so dense that the “Hibernia” could not be discerned by the British man-of-war. The heavy muffled sound of booming cannon was soon heard on board the American privateer. It proved to be the enemy furiously bombarding the floating hogshead, which had been taken by the British commander for the “Hibernia.” At length silence reigned. When morning broke, the British man-of-war was nowhere to be seen; the commanding officer no doubt congratulating himself upon the destruction of O’Brien’s vessel.

“It has been said,” remarks a Machias friend of Captain O’Brien, “and is doubtless in the main true, that the proceeds of the sales of the vessels and cargoes captured by Captain John O’Brien during the Revolution, contributed to the foundation of the fortunes of many of the residents of Newburyport, into which they were brought.” Captain O’Brien, upon delivering the captured prizes at the wharves or out in the harbor, would say: “Here, boys, you take care of these, and I’ll go out for more.” He evidently did not care so much for money as he did for the opportunity of seeing the British flag come down.

“He had a heart as big as an ox,” is the estimate of Captain O’Brien given by those well qualified to judge in the matter.

Of the home of Captain John O’Brien, in Newburyport, a granddaughter says, in some papers left by her at her decease:

“Most of my childhood and youth was spent in the house of my maternal grandfather. I loved my own home, my little flower bed, my dog, my brothers; I reverenced my father almost to idolatry, and doted on my sweet, indulgent mother, but I recollect no such expansion of feeling as I always experienced at my grandfather’s. There 393was a life and a movement in the family, a freedom just within the bounds of license, and an overflowing joyfulness which suited my buoyant and eager temper. His residence was in a large and pleasant seaport town in Massachusetts; the dwelling, a handsome three-story house, stood on a little eminence, withdrawn from the public road, and commanding from the upper windows a delightful view of the town, the surrounding country, and the distant sea.

“The house, in front, and at the ends appeared square, but on reaching the rear it was perceived that the ends projected perhaps twenty feet beyond the main body, leaving a deep recess which looked a little like the interior court in eastern dwellings. This was a cool and shady spot, the grass growing thick and green under foot, and all around the three enclosed sides of the house, immense bushes of roses, white and red, rich and fragrant enough for Paradise, climbed almost to the chamber windows. Through the centre ran a narrow gravel-walk to a door which opened opposite the large front entrance, and this arrangement gave in summer a delightful draft, and made this little court one of the pleasantest of retreats. A wooden platform, perhaps five feet wide, ran the whole length of the rear, and here, in a sunny day, lay old Bravo, that wondrous dog, who had gone through almost as many adventures as his master, basking in the warm beams. Here, too, in a warm afternoon, sat Uncle Joseph, that pleasantest of granduncles, in his morning gown, with his pipe in his mouth, ready with his joke for every passerby. I have good cause to remember him, for I was his pet and plaything, and was teased and indulged for his amusement more than was good for my temper.”

After the close of the Revolution, Captain O’Brien continued for several years to reside in Newburyport. In command of his own vessels he visited many ports, American and foreign; including Philadelphia, the West Indies, Liverpool, London, France and Spain. During one of his visits in London, he purchased some long silk stockings, such as were worn by gentlemen at the time. On the voyage home he opened the package only to discover that he had paid for a lot of stocking legs, minus feet. Being in London a few months later, he made a second purchase of silk stockings in the same store where the first lot had been purchased. The English merchant did not recognize his customer. The price asked by the 394merchant was very low for the quality of stockings offered. Taking advantage of the low price asked, Captain O’Brien made a large purchase, and laid the pay, in gold, on the counter. Upon seeing the merchant about to take the stockings purchased, away, ostensibly to wrap them, Captain O’Brien took the purchase from the counter, remarking, as he did so: “Don’t trouble yourself, I’ll take them as they are”; and, to the great disgust of the tricky Englishman, O’Brien at once left the store with his purchase. The London merchant was outwitted by the Yankee customer; for he intended to repeat the dishonesty of the first transaction.

Captain John O’Brien was once challenged by a Frenchman to fight a duel; the Frenchman having for some reason taken offense. The challenge was accepted, and as the challenged party, Captain O’Brien chose as his weapon, a cannon; and in accordance with the rules of duelling, he was to have the first shot. Upon being informed of the weapon chosen by the visiting Yankee, the Frenchman, hitherto so brave, was terrified, and withdrew his challenge.

Having disposed of his cargo in a foreign port into which he had sailed, Captain O’Brien went on board his vessel with the proceeds of the sale, which was in gold. This he had placed in his capacious satin vest pocket. During his absence on shore the crew of his vessel had formed a plot to kill him when he came on board, and take from him, and divide among themselves, the large amount of money they knew he would have about his person. Captain O’Brien had no sooner stepped upon the deck of his vessel than one of the crew, chosen for the work, struck him on the head with a mauling spike. He fell, stunned, upon the deck. After taking from his vest pockets the gold, several of the mutinous crew threw the unconscious officer overboard. As he struck the water (this he subsequently related), he partially recovered consciousness; but down, down, down he went, until his feet touched bottom, when he gave an energetic spring upward, and soon reached the surface. Having fully recovered consciousness, he swam for his vessel, which was but a short distance away. While Captain O’Brien was in the water the crew had attempted to kill his brother, William, the first mate; but he had escaped from his would-be murderers by seeking shelter behind one of the big guns on board. Unseen by the crew, Captain O’Brien reached the deck of his vessel, and immediately seizing a mauling spike, he rushed into the midst of the mutineers, swinging the heavy 395instrument to the right and left with tremendous vigor. Supposing Captain O’Brien to be an apparition, as they took it for granted he had been drowned, the mutineers became so thoroughly affrighted that they tumbled almost headlong down the hatchway, hastily closing it after them. Captain O’Brien, with the assistance of the first mate, at once securely fastened the hatchway. He then went on shore and notified the civil authorities of the mutiny of the crew, and of their attempt upon his life, and that of his brother, William. The mutineers, twenty-five in number, were arrested, tried, convicted and sentenced to death. Through the intercession of Captain O’Brien, however, the sentence of death was changed to banishment to a desert island. “My grandfather, though so bold, was also tenderhearted,” said one of his descendants, “and could not bear to have so many lives taken, especially as some of the crew had, he believed, been dragged into the mutiny; so he interceded for them with the government, and obtained a commutation of the penalty.”

“One day while in Madrid,” I now quote the words of a descendant, “he (Captain O’Brien) visited a friend at his house; and when leaving, toward evening, to return to the ship (the harbor was several miles from the city), he was presented with a stout cane, an Irish shilelah, with the remark that he might find it useful sometime for self-defense. My grandfather accepted the cane, and, thanking his friend, went out to hire a hack which should take him to the port. He passed along a row of carriages, but no driver was willing to go out of the city at so late an hour, till he reached the very last man of all. When asked whether he would go, he glanced at the sun, now almost down, and intimated that he would. He was a suspicious looking fellow, whom one would not care to meet in a lonely place, but there was no choice. So he mounted the carriage and was driven off. My grandfather was said to have never known fear, and his courage stood him in good stead now. There was a partition between the two men. When they were well out of the city, in the open country, my grandfather observed the driver making a movement as if to get nearer to him. Watching his chance, just as the fellow raised his body, my grandfather planted his feet against the driver and pushed him off the seat on to the ground. Then instantly jumping out, Captain O’Brien stood directly over the prostrate and astonished driver, with his stout cudgel in his hand, and exclaimed: ‘Now, get on that seat, and drive me as I tell you, or 396I’ll knock your brains out!’ The wretch taken by surprise, and perceiving that he had fallen into formidable hands, dared not disobey. As the driver sprang to his seat, my grandfather instantly followed him, holding over him his shilelah, ready to execute his threat. When they reached the port, the sun was set. My grandfather jumped off the carriage, threw some money upon the ground and went aboard his ship.

“Some years after, he chanced to meet his friend, who expressed great surprise at seeing him. ‘What, are you alive, Captain! When I learned that you had left the city with that villain of a driver, I never expected to see you again. It is notorious that he has killed many persons under similar circumstances.’

“‘Thanks for your shilelah,’ said my grandfather, ‘which through a kind Providence saved me from death. I shall always cherish it as a memento of my friend, and for the good service it did me.’”

In the year 1820, Captain John O’Brien removed to Brunswick, Maine, where he had purchased about twenty acres of land. Upon a portion of this land he built a house, said to have been the finest in the place. Here, Captain O’Brien resolved to spend the remainder of his days in well-earned rest from a long, arduous and highly eventful public career.^[27]

Another grandson of Captain O’Brien thus speaks of the latter’s home in Brunswick: “Without the slightest exaggeration I can say, that my grandfather’s place was a ‘glowing rose-garden of rapture,’ a paradise; and when its pearly gates now and then opened to let me in for a few days’ visit, I was perfectly happy. When the time came to leave, though I had a good home to go to, it was, I imagine, with some such feelings as Adam had when he turned his back upon Eden, only that I had this advantage over my unhappy progenitor, that I was not forbidden to return some happy day. What a halo about 397that spot, to my youthful imagination! There was no place like it in the world; how pleasant it lies in my memory, with a brightness that has never faded.”

During his residence in Brunswick, Captain O’Brien used occasionally to visit Machias, where his parents, and two brothers, Colonel Jeremiah, and Gideon, resided. On one of the visits to Machias a daughter accompanied him. As they were passing through a piece of dense, dark woods, many miles from a human habitation, a man climbed into the rear of the vehicle, for the purpose, evidently, of robbing Captain O’Brien. Doubtless the would-be robber thought an aged man, such as his prospective victim seemed to be, would be an easy case to deal with; but, as he soon ascertained, appearances are often deceiving. Placing the reins in the hands of his daughter, and instructing her to drive the horse at a rapid speed, he stood up in the vehicle, and, reaching round to the rear, he laid the whip on to the intruder with such great vigor that he jumped to the ground, and was soon left far behind.

While a resident of Brunswick, Captain O’Brien, through the intercession of Mr. Joseph Wheaton, a former Machias acquaintance, who then held a position under the Government, at Washington, was appointed postmaster.

Mr. Wheaton, who it should be said, took part in the capture of the “Margaretta,” thus writes Captain O’Brien, from Washington, with regard to his appointment, as postmaster, at Brunswick; the letter was written in 1823:

“I represented to him (Mr. Harris, of the House of Representatives) your ardent zeal for the country in your youth, your manly conduct in the affair you touched upon, relating to the Margaretta schooner and called to his recollection that in that action we became pirates, traitors and rebels, according to the laws of England at that time; that our success (established) the necessity of manly resistance everywhere or the consequences would have been more distressing than death—it would have been universal slavery to all the people; that Captain Moore was the first naval officer that fell in the Revolution; that your services had been uniform and of the highest manly character, and that you were now advanced in years and it would be most grateful to your feelings to receive some token that you were not refused a small favor.”^[28]

HON. JAMES M. GRAHAM.

Of Springfield, Ill.

Member of Congress from his state and an earnest member of the Society.

398A grandson of the subject of this sketch thus describes the character of his grandfather: “... my maternal grandfather developed a character in which energy and decision were prominent qualities. It was said of him later in life, that he never knew what fear was; but though possessed of a strong will and prompt to exact obedience when in command, he had a calm and reasonable temper and a gentlemanly bearing which gained for him the respect and confidence of the community. He was not a man to trifle with, neither was he a man to stand in dread of. He was just and honorable in his treatment of others, and gentle to the young and helpless.”

A most touching story is related concerning the burial of Mrs. John O’Brien, with whom the captain had lived happily for nearly fifty years. On the day of the funeral, held at his home, he was seen standing at the foot of the flight of stairs, leading from their bedroom down into the front hallway, as if he was waiting for some one to come down. For several years it had been his custom, on Sunday morning, to thus stand, and wait for Mrs. O’Brien to come down, to accompany him to the house of worship in the village. For a moment, on the occasion above referred to, he seemed to have forgotten that his wife was to be buried, and he was watching for her to come down stairs to go with him, as usual, to the village church. When he awoke to the fact that his beloved wife was that day to be buried, he was well nigh overcome with grief. This was in 1826.

About six years later, on the 8th of May, 1832, Captain John O’Brien died. He was then 82 years of age. He was buried in Brunswick, where his remains now rest.

All honor to his memory!

The writer of this sketch wishes hereby to gratefully acknowledge his indebtedness to Heman W. Chaplin, Esq., of Boston, for no inconsiderable portion of the materials drawn from in its preparation.

THE DICKSON LETTERS.

In “The Dickson Letters,” compiled and edited by James O. Carr, Esq., of the Wilmington, N. C., bar, appears a comprehensive sketch of the Dickson family, and “An act to erect and establish an academy in the County of Duplin,” the text of the act being as follows:

Whereas, the establishing an academy in the said County for the education of Youth, will be attended with great advantages to the State in general and the County of Duplin in particular:

1. Be it therefore enacted by the General Assembly of North Carolina, and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the same, that Thomas Routledge, James Kenan, Joseph Dickson, Thomas Gray, William Dickson, David Dodd, John James, Israel Bordeaux and James Gillespie, Esquires, be and they are hereby constituted and appointed trustees with full power and authority to receive into their hands and possession all monies and other property which have been or hereafter may be subscribed for the purpose of erecting an academy on the lands lately purchased of Nicholas Hunter in said County, by name of Grove Academy; and the said trustees and their successors shall be able and capable in law to ask for and demand, receive and possess of the several subscribers all sums by them respectively subscribed, and in case of refusal of any of them to pay the same, to sue for and recover by action of debt or otherwise, in the name of the trustees, the sum which such person so refusing shall have subscribed, in any jurisdiction having cognizance thereof; and the monies when collected and received, to be applied by the said trustees or a majority of them towards paying for the lands already contracted for, and erecting thereon a suitable and convenient house, to contract with and employ a tutor or tutors, and to perform every act or thing that they or a majority of them shall think necessary and expedient for the advancement of the said academy and the promotion of learning therein.

2. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that the trustees hereinbefore mentioned, shall, previous to their entering on the execution of the trust reposed by this Act, give bond to the court 400of the County, payable to the Chairman and his successor, in the sum of One Thousand Pounds specie, with condition that they shall well and faithfully account for and apply all gifts, donations, bequests and monies which they may receive of and by virtue of this act for the purposes aforesaid.

3. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that if any of the trustees by this Act appointed shall die, refuse to act or remove away that he cannot attend the duties of his appointment, the remaining trustees may appoint another in his stead, who shall exercise the same powers as trustees appointed by this Act: and when met together within the said County shall have power and authority to elect and constitute one or more tutor or tutors, and a treasurer, and also to make and ordain such rules and regulations, not repugnant to the laws of this State, for the well ordering of the students, their morals, studies and academical exercises, as to them shall seem meet; and to give certificates to such students as shall leave said academy, certifying their literary merit; in general they shall or may do all such things as are usually done by bodies corporate and politic, or such as may be necessary for the promotion of learning and virtue; and the said trustees, or a majority of them are hereby empowered, and shall have lawful authority to remove the tutor or tutors, treasurer or any of them if they shall find it necessary, and on the death, resignation or refusal to act of any of them, to appoint and elect others in the stead of those displaced, dead or refusing to act.

4. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that the trustees by this Act appointed, or a majority of them, and their successors, shall meet annually on the first Friday of March in each and every year, or at any other time they may find more convenient, and elect a proper person out of their own body to preside for the term of one year, who may convene the trustees at any time he may find it necessary. Provided always that he shall give ten days previous notice of such meeting and that the President and Treasurer shall be chosen on the said first Friday of March unless in cases of unavoidable accidents.

5. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that the treasurer of the said Board of Trustees shall enter into bond with sufficient security to the trustees, conditioned for the faithful discharge 401of the trust reposed in him by this Act, and that all monies and chattels that shall be in his hands, at the expiration of his office, shall be immediately paid into the hands of the succeeding treasurer; and every treasurer shall receive all monies, donations, gifts, bequests and charities that may belong or accrue to said Academy during his office, and at the expiration thereof shall account with the trustees or a majority of them for the same, and on refusal or neglect to pay and deliver as aforesaid, the same mode of recovering may be had against him as is or may be provided for the recovery of money from sheriffs or other public officers.

In his sketch of the Dickson Family the author says: Simon Dickson was born in England about the year 1607, or 1608. He was a stern English Puritan, an ardent adherent of Oliver Cromwell, and served faithfully as an officer in the Parliamentary army during that fierce struggle between Parliament and the King; his official rank, however, is unknown to us. After the Revolution was over, as a reward for his services, he received a grant of four hundred acres of valuable land within two miles of Dromore, in the county of Down, Ireland. Here he settled and had a numerous offspring, but the exact number of his children is unknown. At the restoration of Charles II, the land grants of the Cromwellian administration were annulled, and Simon Dickson became a tenant on the same land he had previously owned.

“Simon Dickson was the father of Joseph the first, who was the father of Joseph the second, who was the father of Michael, who was the father of John.” Joseph the second lived to be ninety-four years old, and Michael passed his eighty-fourth year.

John Dickson was born in Ireland about the year 1704 and died in Duplin County, North Carolina, on the 25th day of December, 1774, just at the beginning of the American Revolution. He emigrated from Ireland to the State of Pennsylvania in the year 1738 and settled in Chester County, where he resided several years and had two sons born to him, Michael and William. He then moved to Maryland, where he remained only a short while, and leaving there he came to Duplin County between 1740 and 1745. Upon his death in Duplin, in 1774, he left surviving him seven sons and one daughter, whose names are given in order of their age, as follows: Michael, William, Robert, Joseph, Alexander, Edward, James and Mary.

402Michael Dickson moved to Georgia just before or after the Revolution, where it is said he has many descendants, though no definite information about them can be obtained.

William Dickson, the second son of John Dickson, and the writer of the Dickson Letters, was born in Pennsylvania about the year 1740, and came to Duplin County with his father when quite a small boy. Upon arriving at manhood he took an active part in public affairs and during Revolutionary times he was the foremost man in his county as a leader in civil affairs, while his compatriot, Colonel James Kenan, was at the head of all military operations. It is probable, almost certain, that he entered the army as a regular militiaman under Colonel Kenan, and served through the entire war. His educational advantages were very limited, and a family tradition tells us that his school days were comprised within a space of three months. Notwithstanding this, he was a man of broad ideas, mature judgment, and profound wisdom; and he discussed political affairs with an intuitive knowledge and foresight that were remarkable. His comments on the American form of government (then an untried theory) in his letter of 1790, his reasons why North Carolina adopted the federal constitution, his prediction that “the southern states will not receive equal benefit in the government with the northern states” and that the North would eventually demand the emancipation of slavery (and this written seventy years before the Civil War)—all these are ideas worthy of a statesman and found conception in no ordinary mind.

He was a man of wonderful native ability; but was modest to a fault, and seldom in his letters to his cousin in Ireland does he even refer to the services he rendered in the Revolution. Tradition has it that he was for forty-four successive years clerk of the court in Duplin County; but the writer has not examined the records for a verification of this tradition further than to find that he served in this capacity for quite a long time. He was a delegate to the first provincial congress, held at Newbern on the 25th of August, 1774; to the second provincial congress, held at Halifax on the 3rd of April, 1775; to the third provincial congress, held at Hillsboro on the 21st day of August, 1775; and to the fourth provincial congress, held at Halifax on the 12th of November, 1776, which framed North Carolina’s first constitution. He also represented Duplin in the House of Commons in 1795. It is told of him that when Cornwallis’ 403army marched through the county on its way from Wilmington to Virginia he concealed the records of the county in an iron pot in Goshen Swamp to prevent their destruction by the British. He died in 1820, an honored and highly respected citizen.

Robert Dickson, the third son of John Dickson, moved to Virginia at the close of the Revolution, but returned to Duplin about 1784, where he made his permanent home. He has many descendants in North Carolina, chiefly in Cumberland County. He was a justice of the peace for Duplin for a number of years, and served as a member of the House of Commons in 1777, 1784, 1785, 1786, 1787 and 1788.

Joseph Dickson, the fourth son of John Dickson, emigrated west about the close of the Revolution; but, being dissatisfied, soon returned to his native county, where he reared a large family consisting of one daughter, Anne, and eight sons. He served in the capacity of Register of Deeds and also as county surveyor of Duplin, and represented his county in the House of Commons in 1780 and 1797. Anne Dickson, his oldest child and only daughter, married James Pearsall, many of the descendants of whom now reside in Duplin and adjoining counties. Later in life Joseph took his entire family of eight grown sons, together with other Dickson relatives, and moved to Tennessee in quest of large landed estates, a desire for which had become common in the family. Dickson County, Tennessee, takes its name from a member of the Duplin family.

Alexander Dickson, the fifth son of John Dickson, following the dreams of his brothers, and searching for fortunes elsewhere, emigrated to Virginia about 1781, and afterwards to Maryland; but returned in 1784 and took up his permanent abode in Duplin, where he accumulated considerable wealth. He died leaving no family, and bequeathed his property, as an educational fund, to the poor children of his county. This fund has commonly been known as the “Dickson Charity Fund”; but, through years of mismanagement and ill-directed investments, it has almost come to naught, and like most bequests of this kind has not served the high purpose for which it was intended.

Edward Dickson, the sixth son of John Dickson, had no ambition for political honors, but was one of the foremost and most prosperous citizens of Duplin. He married and reared a family in Duplin, and there was no man more highly esteemed and respected. His oldest daughter, Rebecca, married Rev. Jacob Williams, by whom she had 404a daughter, Ann, who married Dr. Stephen Graham, a noted physician of Duplin County in his day. Sarah Rebecca Graham, daughter of Dr. Stephen Graham and Ann Graham, and sister of the late Stephen Graham of Kenansville, married Owen R. Kenan, and, as a result of this union, left the following children: Thomas S. Kenan, of Raleigh; William R. Kenan, of Wilmington; James G. Kenan, and Annie Dickson Kenan, of Kenansville.

James Dickson, the youngest son of John Dickson, spent his entire life in Duplin County. He married twice and had fifteen children, eight boys and seven girls. We are told that as a reward for military services he received large grants of land in Tennessee from the United States Government; but we have no information as to what services he performed, and William Dickson in one of his letters says none of the brothers except himself actually took up arms and joined the army. He may have rendered some services in the war of 1812, but we have no direct information on this point. However, James Dickson owned large estates in Tennessee and his three oldest sons, Edward, William and Alexander, emigrated there in the early part of this century and took possession of them. Robert Dickson, the youngest son of James, married Mary Catherine Sloan, and was the grandfather of the writer.

Mary Dickson, the only daughter and youngest child of John Dickson, married William McGowan at the age of eighteen, and she has many descendants in this and other states. She was the great grandmother of Benjamin F. Hall of Wilmington.

The first three letters, which are made a part of the publication, and the fourth, which is an extract taken from an old copy of the Fayetteville Examiner, were written by William Dickson to his cousin, Rev. Robert Dickson, a Presbyterian clergyman, at Narrow Water, near Newry, Ireland; and are printed for their historical and literary value. The fifth letter was written by William Dickson to Linda Dickson, his niece, who was at the time visiting her older sister, Mrs. Elizabeth Johnson, of Charleston, S. C., and is printed to show the character of the writer in his domestic relations.

The originals of the first three letters are still in existence and bear on them the marks of having served their mission as a messenger of good news to a far-away cousin. Years after they were written, two young men, the sons of Rev. Robert Dickson, we think, came to this country, and in order to identify themselves brought the 405original letters with them. One of the young men was drowned, the other returned to Ireland, and the letters fell into the hands of John Dickson, of Cumberland County; and the family of the late Robert K. Bryan, Sr., of Scott’s Hill, N. C., and the Evans family of Cumberland County, who are descendants of the Dicksons, have carefully preserved them.

The fourth letter, or rather extract, is taken from an old copy of the Fayetteville Examiner, and the original cannot be produced, but there is conclusive evidence that it is genuine.

John Dickson, the father of William Dickson, had a brother by the name of William Dickson, who moved from Pennsylvania and settled in the Western part of the State, where he died on the first day of January, 1775. We have no record of his family, but it is reasonable to suppose that he was the father of General Joseph Dickson, of Lincoln County, who rendered valuable service in the Revolution, and was Congressman about 1800.

In editing these letters the writer has preserved intact the wording and phraseology of the original manuscript, but has made some slight changes in regard to capitalization, spelling and punctuation, and this has been done only for the purpose of making them conform to our modern usage in this respect, and where the change would in no way impair the sense or expression of the originals.

GENERAL JAMES SHIELDS, HERO OF THE MEXICAN AND CIVIL WARS AND UNITED STATES SENATOR FROM THREE STATES.—THE FRENCH-IRISH BRIGADES IN THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE.—BISHOP BERKELEY AND HIS PLANS FOR A GREAT AMERICAN UNIVERSITY. — General James Shields, Hero of the Mexican and the Civil Wars; U. S. Senator from Three States. — The French-Irish Brigades in the War of Independence. — Bishop Berkeley and His Plans for a Great American University.

In the Statuary Hall of the National Capitol, Washington, may be seen statues of the distinguished men of the different states of the Union, placed there under authority of a resolution or act of Congress, which provided that each state could place there two figures of its choice.

The State of Illinois, by an act of the General Assembly, determined that the statue of General James Shields should be one of those selected to represent Illinois. An appropriation was accordingly made for the statue of the soldier statesman, and it now stands in the “Hall of Fame” at the Capitol, where it was formally installed with befitting and notable public ceremonies.

Certainly, by this act the State of Illinois gave to the nation and to the world unequivocal testimony of the respect and esteem in which the soldier statesman is held by the people of the state where he first won recognition, and which he served in so many and so various public capacities with fidelity and renown.

A most interesting and unique figure in the history of Illinois is that presented by the career and character of James Shields. Member of the state legislature in early days, he became subsequently auditor, judge of the Supreme Court, general in command of a brigade of Illinois volunteers in the war with Mexico, and finally United States senator. These various offices and distinctions came to him from Illinois; and these, it might reasonably be supposed, would 407have sufficed to crown and complete the public career of a man so favored by political fortune. But this was not the end.

Failing of re-election to the United States Senate at the expiration of his term, because of changed political conditions, Shields removed to Minnesota, then a territory, and on its subsequent admission as a state he was elected one of the senators, the other being Henry M. Rice. Having drawn lots for the respective terms, Shields drew the short term, which terminated in 1860, and, having again failed of re-election from the same cause that defeated him in Illinois—the growing ascendency of the Republican party—he once more removed to another and more distant state, California, where he was settled at the outbreak of the Civil War. His sympathies and his military experience led him to offer his services to President Lincoln, who promptly commissioned Shields as brigadier general, and he was assigned to service in General Banks’ corps, then operating in West Virginia.

While in detached command he won the celebrated victory over the hitherto invincible Stonewall Jackson. Shortly after this he was nominated by the President as major general, but the Senate refused to confirm the nomination, being influenced partly, no doubt, by political considerations—Democrats were not at the time in great favor—and partly, also, no doubt, from misrepresentations regarding General Shields’ conduct in relation to a defeat suffered by a portion of his command at Port Republic. This defeat, as was demonstrated later, was due to the disregard of Shields’ orders; at all events, the hostile action of the Senate caused his withdrawal from the army. He resigned his commission and returned to California.

Shortly again his restless spirit stirred him to another change, and this time he sought a home in Missouri, acquiring a farm near Carrollton in that state. Here in 1877 political fortune once more opened to him the doors of the United States Senate. He was elected to fill an unexpired term, so that he now had the unique distinction of having been chosen to represent three different states of the Union—at, of course, different periods of time. This fact, unexampled, I believe, in his history of the Senate, excited wondering comment at the time, and may justify an inquiry into the circumstances and character of the man who was able to win for himself 408this remarkable degree of public favor from so many different states.

Born in the County Tyrone, Ireland, in 1806, James Shields came of a fighting stock. His progenitors had fought at the Boyne and Aughrim for the Stuart king and several had followed Sarsfield after the surrender of Limerick, to serve under the banners of King Louis on the continent. So it was that young Shields inherited the warlike tastes and the “rebel” sympathies common to his countrymen. The story of his boyhood shows that he early manifested a taste for military pursuits. He was the drill-master of his boyish companions at school, and headed them in many juvenile skirmishes and exploits.

He never gained the opportunity and advantages of a college or university education, but he made up for this by the industrious and persevering use of his opportunities in later life, so that he came to be recognized as an excellent classical scholar and even linguist.

His youthful attention was early drawn toward America—as indeed, is the case with nearly all Irish boys. In the instance of young Shields he was spurred to emigrate by the counsels of an uncle who had seen service in the revolutionary war, and who had written to the mother telling her that if James did not leave the country he would surely be shot or hung as a rebel! In 1823, when 17 years of age, James Shields set out for America. He first landed at Quebec. The uncle who had counseled his leaving Ireland and from whom he naturally expected aid and counsel, was dead, and he was thus left to his own scanty resources. He made his way to the States, and pushed westward to Illinois, until he reached Kaskaskia, then the capital of the state, and it was there he commenced his career, first as a school teacher, employing his leisure hours in reading law. That he made good use of his time, and had the knack of making friends, may be judged by his early election as a member of the legislature.

Shields had been admitted to the bar in 1832 and was elected to the legislature in 1836. In 1841 he was elected auditor and in 1843 he was elected judge of the Supreme Court of Illinois—pretty rapid promotion for the young Irishman.

He quickly entered the arena of national renown. President Polk in 1845 appointed Shields commissioner of the general land office 409in Washington, and when the war with Mexico was declared Shields offered his services and was appointed brigadier general of volunteers—this in 1846. His military career in the campaign in Mexico I scarcely need recall. It is to be found in the history of that war and in the official reports of the chiefs of the army. His dash and bravery as well as his signal military capacity were shown in every engagement from Cerro Gordo to Chapultepec and the City of Mexico.

He was reported by General Scott in dispatches as fatally wounded at Cerro Gordo, a ball having passed “clean through” his body. Happily the skill and dexterity of a Mexican surgeon—a prisoner—saved him. Some accounts say this surgeon was an Irishman who had seen service in the French army. This brings to mind an incident in the general’s later life. During a visit to Chicago on a lecturing tour I introduced the general to some of the “sights,” among other places to the board of trade, of which I was then a member. When the fact became whispered about that General Shields was on the floor the “pits” were quickly deserted, the operators evidently being eager to testify their respect or gratify their curiosity. As he stood acknowledging the salutations of the throng around him, a member of the board shook hands with him, saying: “General, do you remember me?” The general evidently did not and said so.

“Don’t you remember the soldier who tore off a piece of his shirt to stanch the blood from your wound when you lay on the field of Cerro Gordo?”

Sure enough, it was the very man! He, too, was a veteran of the Mexican war. I regret that I cannot now recall his name, which I heard at the time. Of course, there was a cordial reception and hand-shake between the two old soldiers.

On his return from Mexico at the close of the war, Shields was brevetted major general, and was nominated by the president governor of the territory of Oregon. This appointment Shields declined. In 1849 he was elected United States senator from Illinois, as associate to Senator Stephen A. Douglas.

There was a question raised in the Senate as to the regularity of Shields’ election. My impression is—I have not the data before me as I write—that the irregularity was on the issue of citizenship; at all events, the legislature cured the defect by electing Shields over again.

410According to the record, it was Shields who reported the bill making a grant of lands to aid in the construction of the Illinois Central Railroad, the credit of which is usually given to Senator Douglas who was no doubt also a warm champion of the measure. It was Shields who likewise introduced and pressed the passage of a bill granting “bounty lands” to the soldiers and sailors who had served in the war with Mexico. When England was threatening with her naval forces the little republic of San Salvador on some pretext, Senator Shields promptly introduced a resolution on the subject, invoking the authority of the Monroe doctrine.

Bills to aid other railroad projects in Illinois were favorably reported by him. At that time the West was clamoring for railroads, which were indispensable to its development. In these days the country seems to forget how much of its progress and prosperity has been due to the much maligned railroads. Space will not admit of even a summary of the important public measures that Shields had part in framing. The files of the Congressional Record bear testimony to his unceasing industry during his senatorial career. It is worthy of note that Shields was consistently opposed to the extension of slavery and his record shows it, although in this regard he was not always in harmony with his party.

The State of Illinois, by vote of the legislature, presented to General Shields a costly sword in recognition of his gallant services on the battlefields of Mexico. The State of South Carolina in like manner voted him a sword, “in testimony of her admiration of his gallantry in the Mexican war, and as a tribute of gratitude for his parental attention to the Palmetto regiment.” This regiment was in Shields’ brigade in several engagements.

At the expiration of his term in the Senate he failed to secure a re-election, Lyman Trumbull being chosen to succeed him. This result was due to dissensions in the party ranks in consequence of the slavery issue, and to the growing power of the incipient Republican party.

Shortly after this Shields removed to Minnesota, gathering about his new home the nucleus of an Irish colony which has since become the populous and prosperous settlement known as “Shieldsville.” In fact, this was the beginning of the colonization movement in that state to which Archbishop Ireland afterward lent his powerful aid.

411It was during Shields’ sojourn in Minnesota that the overture was made to him to take the command of the papal army. This was at the time when the revolutionary movement in Italy threatened the invasion and integrity of the papal states during the reign of Pius IX. Shields declined to accept. I had the details of the overture from the general’s own lips at a late period of his life.

When Minnesota was admitted as a state in 1858 Shields was chosen one of the two senators, his colleague being Henry M. Rice. Lots being drawn to determine the respective terms, the short one—two years—fell to Shields. At the end, as in Illinois, and from like cause, he failed of re-election, and soon he was again on the wing—this time for California.

The general opened a law office in San Francisco, and it was there he married. Soon the tumult and agitation of the secession movement, followed by the call for volunteers, stirred his patriotic spirit and martial ardor. He offered his services to President Lincoln, who commissioned him as brigadier general, assigned to General Banks’ corps in the army of West Virginia.

The veteran was quickly in the field of operations, soon at the head of a division. It was while in this command he encountered the renowned Stonewall Jackson, inflicting on this hitherto invincible confederate general a defeat which sent him “whirling up the valley.” The tidings of this remarkable victory caused great rejoicing throughout the North and gained great applause and commendations for General Shields. The army of Virginia up to this time had suffered a succession of disasters. The government was in a dilemma.

The command of the Army of the Potomac was at this juncture offered to General Shields. I make this statement on the authority of General Shields himself. Following his victory at Winchester, he said, a member of the cabinet arrived in his camp and on the part of the President proposed to him the command of the Army of the Potomac. The reasons suggested for this tender appeared to be, as I recall them, the necessity for a change of leaders owing to previous ill success; Shields’ established capacity for high command, as shown by his career in Mexico, his recent campaign and the enthusiasm and confidence his appointment would arouse in the ranks of the army, but the controlling motive appeared to be a political 412consideration—that Shields, because of his foreign birth, could not in the event of his success become a political factor or rival in the field of national politics—that is to say, in no event would it be possible to make of Shields a candidate for the presidency.

The suggestion appears to have been given to Shields in this same interview that the President was then contemplating and preparing to issue the emancipation proclamation. This latter determined Shields’ decision. He rejected the proposal made to him. This, in substance, is my recollection of the statement made by the general during one of his visits to Chicago late in the 70’s. Others besides the writer heard General Shields make this statement at the time.

The President sent Shields’ name to the Senate for confirmation as major general, and as the appointment was not ratified by that body Shields resigned and withdrew from the army. Likely this may have been partly in protest against the threatened emancipation policy. At all events, Shields returned to California. From there he shortly afterward removed to Missouri, settling on a farm near Carrollton in that state and devoting himself to the labors and duties of farm life. In 1877 he was elected member of the general assembly of Missouri, and the same year appointed adjutant general of the state militia. The death of Senator Bogg the next year caused a vacancy in the representation of Missouri in the United States Senate, and General Shields was appointed, thus giving him the distinction of having served in the United States Senate from three different states.

The term was short, and with its termination may be said ended General Shields’ public service as a legislator and statesman. He nevertheless continued an interesting figure before the public, appearing on many occasions in different cities as a lecturer and for addresses on various subjects of general interest. It was while engaged in a lecturing tour that the end came. He died suddenly while visiting a convent in Ottumwa, Iowa, June 1, 1879.

Few men in public life have filled so many and so various offices and employments. He had been school teacher, lawyer, legislator, 413jurist, state auditor, land commissioner, general in the Mexican and Civil wars, United States senator, adjutant general, farmer and lecturer. He might have been governor of Oregon, commander of the papal army and of the army of the Potomac (possibly), and he could have led the Fenians in their foolish raid on Canada had not his good common sense rejected the offer and condemned the project.

General Shields was warm and earnest in his Irish sympathies, and he showed this on many public occasions. It is to his honor that he lived and died a poor man. He never profited or sought to profit by the multiplied opportunities for personal gain which must have been open to him during his public career. In his old age, after all his notable services, he was receiving a pension of only $34 per month, and when he died all that he left his family was the farm, the swords voted to him by Illinois and South Carolina—and an untarnished name.

Illinois has since honored the memory of her one-time senator and general by causing his statue to be placed in the National Capitol. This was due largely to the active efforts and enthusiasm of a well-known Chicago attorney, William H. Condon, since dead, who also published the life of General James Shields.

The signal and important services of the French-Irish regiments in the American revolutionary war have scarcely ever found adequate recognition and acknowledgement at the hands of historical writers. Indeed, the same may be said of the great part France had in that war.

Of course, every school boy has read of the exploits of the youthful and enthusiastic Lafayette, and knows that Rochambeau with his army and De Grasse with his fleet were conspicuous in bringing about the surrender of Cornwallis and his forces at Yorktown. Only by the powerful co-operation of the French army and navy at the siege was the crowning victory of the war achieved, and that victory forced from the English king and his ministers the recognition of American independence. All this is well known, but the magnitude of the French aid all through the war is less familiar to the general reader.

HON. HENRY GROVES CONNOR,

of Raleigh, N. C.

An Eminent Jurist and Learned Historian.

Member of the Society.

414The army and navy registers in the French archives show that sixty-three ships of war, mounting 3,668 guns, manned by 32,600 officers and seamen, were employed in the naval operations on the American seaboard, and upward of 12,000 land forces. The financial cost to France of the fleets and armies and the loans and gifts in money to the colonies have been computed by a competent authority at $50,000,000.

My present design in this sketch is to emphasize the part the Irish brigades in the French army had in the American war. I do not need to recall to mind the historic renown of the Irish Brigade.

Almost every battlefield in Europe during the seventeenth century was flamed by their valor and crimsoned with their blood. In France, in Italy, in Spain and in the Low Countries these exiled soldiers fought with such furious impetuosity that even the bitterest enemies of their race were forced to pay them the reluctant tribute of their admiration.

King George II. is said to have exclaimed after witnessing the bravery of the Irish brigade at the battle of Dettingen: “Cursed be the laws that deprive me of such subjects.”

When the colonies had declared their independence of Great Britain and the aid of France was eagerly invoked the Irish troops in the French army pressed their request on the war office in Paris that they should be sent to America to fight the British, who were, they declared, their hereditary enemies. A copy of the French original of this document may be seen in the Royal Irish Academy, Dublin. In 1779 several Irish regiments were embarked in the French fleets for service against the English forces in the West Indies and on the American coast. Included in this contingent were the regiments of Dillon, Walsh, Berwick and Fermoy. These regiments being so designated in compliment to the colonel in command as the “Colonel Proprietaire.” In the fleet of the Count d’Estaing there was carried a considerable land force—mostly of the Irish brigade. Count Dillon was second in command to the admiral and at the siege of Savannah, then held by the British, he led his own regiment in the attack on the defenses.

There was, also, on the land side, an American co-operating force commanded by General Lincoln. The assault ended disastrously for both the French and Americans with severe loss in killed and wounded. Upward of 1,200 of the assaulting columns fell in the 415space of fifty minutes; of these 821 were of the French forces and the rest of the American. The utmost bravery was shown, both in the attack and in the defense, but the storming column, led by Count d’Estaing and Dillon, could not withstand the terrific fire of the batteries and were forced to abandon the assault.

D’Estaing was wounded and carried off the field. The gallant Pole, Count Pulaski, who served with the American forces, was killed. He was in command of a small force of regular cavalry of lancers. Among the list of the killed and wounded of the French attacking column I find the names of Brow, major in Dillon’s regiment; Moran and O’Neill, captains; Tauffe, lieutenant, and many other familiar Irish names; officers and subofficers of the brigade. The names of the rank and file are not given, but it is not difficult to surmise what must have been the gallantry of the assault when we see the heavy list of the killed and wounded.

The particulars of the memorable attack on Savannah are given with great fullness in a publication issued many years ago by the Georgia Historical Society, compiled from original sources. The gallantry of Sergeant Jasper, an Irishman, at the siege and his heroic death on the battlements while attempting to raise thereon the flag of his regiment, has immortalized his name and his bravery. A statue of Jasper in one of the public squares of Savannah fittingly commemorates the deed and memory of the gallant patriot.

Following the abandonment of the siege the French fleet withdrew and undertook the reduction of several of the English possessions in the West Indies. It is not my purpose to follow the subsequent career and fortunes of the fleet and forces under d’Estaing except to remark that the diversion made by these attacks on the islands under the British flag were naturally important aids to the cause of the colonies, since the English forces employed in their defense would otherwise have been in service, doubtless, in the attempt to subdue the colonies.

I am tempted to relate another incident in Count Dillon’s career of glory in the expeditions that followed the failure at Savannah. He had part in the attempts made by the French fleet and forces on 416several of the English possessions, notably in the attack made on the Island of St. Eustache.

The frigates being unable to approach sufficiently near to the fortifications to land aid, Dillon, with only 377 men, landed and in person led the assault. The Irish were at the head of the column, and such was the impetuosity of the attacking force that 840 regular troops of the English army laid down their arms and were made prisoners of war by less than half their number! Later on the Dillon regiment was employed in the siege of the important fortress and Island of St. Christopher, and the place was finally carried, Count Dillon remaining in command of the island as governor.

After the treaty of peace with France and the colonies, the island, under the terms of the treaty, was yielded back to Great Britain. Shortly afterward Dillon paid a visit to London in the train of the French embassy.

He was presented at the court and, having paid his respects to the king, George III., the lord chancellor, Loughborough, who was in attendance, crossed over to Dillon and said to him, after some preliminary compliments: “I must thank you for the equity and fairness of your decisions given whilst you were acting as governor of the island. My court has had occasion to pass on some of the cases you decided and we found no occasion to dissent from your judgments.”

Sad to say, this gallant soldier met his death on the scaffold, at the hands of the ruffians who were in the ascendance during the French revolution, as did so many thousands of the noblest and best of French men and women.

At the last moment, as he stood at the foot of the fatal guillotine, a lady who preceded him and who, like Dillon, was to meet her doom by the order of the same furies, turned to the count, saying: “Would you not oblige me by going first?”

“Certainly, madam,” was the answer of the chivalric Irishman, and ascending before the lady, in a moment the horrible instrument had ended the career of the heroic Count Arthur Dillon.

A namesake, Colonel Theobald Dillon, who had been with Rochambeau at Yorktown, was another of the victims of the French Revolution, under circumstances even more revolting. But I must stay my pen on this subject.

417The erection of the monument or statue of Lafayette in Paris a few years back, as a token and testimony of America’s gratitude to France, has since then been supplemented by the installation of a fine statue of Rochambeau in Washington—a like tribute to the value and importance of the aid given by France in the critical period of the Revolutionary War.

The inauguration of the Rochambeau statue, which is one of the finest and most impressive in the nation’s capital, was made the occasion of ceremonies and exercises of the highest dignity and importance. Of course, these were reported with great fullness at the time, and I have no need to dwell on the details now.

The government, by the action of Congress, has since published a large volume in which is given, I may say, not only a full narrative of all the proceedings in connection with the statue, but also a comprehensive story of French aid and services in the war for colonial independence.

The volume includes the “roster” of the French naval and military forces. The Irish regiments to which I have referred, of course, are given due notice, like the others; that is to say, the name of the regiment, together with the list of the chief officers, etc. Count Dillon’s regiment was present at the surrender of Cornwallis and the British army at Yorktown. The count himself was not there, being occupied at his post as governor of the island already referred to. His cousin, Colonel Theobald Dillon, was there, and many other French-Irish officers of the brigade.

It will be of interest to many to learn that efforts have been made to obtain from the French war office a full list of the officers and soldiers of the Irish brigades who served in the war of the American revolution. I am happy to state that a volume will soon be issued by the French government containing these names. The search for the necessary data was instituted at the request of M. Jusserand, the learned and accomplished French ambassador at Washington.

I trust I am not betraying a secret in stating that the initiative in the task of Irish historic interest has been due to Archbishop Ireland, who was himself a conspicuous figure in the ceremonies attending the celebration for Lafayette in Paris, and in the Rochambeau exercises at Washington and New York.

The records of Yale College bear testimony to the beneficence and liberality of an Irish bishop who, early in the eighteenth century, gave proof of his zeal for learning by bestowing on that institution, then lately founded—its charter is dated 1701—the dwelling house and farm in Rhode Island which he had purchased and occupied during his strange visit and sojourn in America.

The bishop likewise gave to the college on his departure the best and largest collection of books—nearly one thousand volumes—that had ever up to that time been brought over. The catalogue, or list of these works, is preserved in the Yale College library. Harvard is likewise indebted to the same benefactor for a collection of textbooks.

Bishop George Berkeley was a remarkable character in his day. An account of his career cannot but possess a certain interest for the general reader. He was the friend and associate of many of the literary celebrities of the time, Dean Swift, Addison and Steele, who esteemed his friendship and appreciated his amiable character and qualities.

Berkeley was born in the County Kilkenny, Ireland, the same year that James II. succeeded to the British crown. His early education was acquired in the same school in Kilkenny which Dean Swift had attended, and his subsequent studies were pursued at Trinity College, Dublin. It was said of him while at college that he was regarded by some of his fellow students as the greatest dunce in the institution, while others thought him a prodigy of learning and goodness, but all agreed that he was full of simplicity and enthusiasm—indeed, these latter characteristics remained with him through life. The results of his application to study is shown by his college record. He was elected “scholar” in 1702, a B. A. in 1704, and obtained his master’s degree in 1707, and the same year was admitted to a fellowship. The drift of his mind and of his studies was shown in the formation of a college society “to promote investigations in the new philosophy of Boyle, Newton and Locke,” a subject upon which he wrote many papers.

419Before leaving college to enter on his career in London, Berkeley had already acquired some reputation as a writer on philosophical subjects. It was Dean Swift who introduced his fellow countryman to the circles of influence in the British capital. In the “Journal to Stella,” the dean jots down under date of April 12, 1713: “I went to court today on purpose to present Mr. Berkeley, one of our fellows of Trinity College. This Mr. Berkeley is a very ingenious man and great philosopher, and I have mentioned him to all the ministers, and have given them some of his writings, and I will favor him as much as I can. This, I think, I am bound to—in honor and conscience to use all my little credit toward helping forward men of worth in the world.”

Swift introduced Berkeley to the Earl of Peterborough, then one of the most extraordinary characters in Europe. He had amazed the country a few years before by his wonderful achievements in Spain, during the war of the succession. Soldier, scholar and diplomatist, this singular man was eccentric in all his movements and actions—indeed, his career and character is still a favorite study and an enigma for the historian and biographer. The introduction obtained for Berkeley, the post of the chaplain and secretary to Peterborough, who had been appointed ambassador to the King of Sicily. It was little use the eccentric earl had for a chaplain, since he was himself a well-known skeptic and freethinker!

The post to which he had been appointed gave Berkeley the opportunity of making acquaintance with the continent—he had taken “orders” before Trinity College—and he now saw France and Italy for the first time. His letters describing his experience and observations in these countries are exceedingly interesting, but my limits will not admit of quotations. The death of Queen Anne during his sojourn abroad and the accession of George I. caused a change in his prospects and position. Peterborough was recalled by the new administration, and consequently Berkeley returned to England in August, 1714.

The change of administration in England blighted for a time Berkeley’s prospects of preferment. His friend, Dean Swift, was no longer in the ascendant, and his late patron, the Earl of Peterborough, 420had been deprived of place and influence. He was, nevertheless, a welcome guest and visitor in literary circles and in general society. He possessed a charm of address and manners that won friends to him on all sides. He shortly had the opportunity again to revisit the continent—this time as companion and tutor to the son of Sir George Ashe. While in Paris he had an interview and carried on a discussion with the celebrated Malebranche on points of philosophy and metaphysics which, it is said, became so animated and exciting that the Frenchman brought on himself a violent disorder which prostrated him and resulted in his death within a few days.

After an absence this time of five years Berkeley returned to England in 1720. He found the country in turmoil over the collapse of the South Sea bubble. The speculative mania which had spread widely in England led as usual to an era of extravagance and corruption. The disorders of society consequent on these conditions was general. Berkeley gave vent to his feelings on the situation by an essay that attracted wide attention, in which he sought to point out a remedy for the prevailing evils.

His suggestions may be briefly quoted as bearing equally on certain conditions not altogether unfamiliar to us in the United States. He argued that the persons who compose society must become individually industrious, frugal, public-spirited and religious. Sumptuary laws, he thought, might do something toward mitigating existing distress, and public amusements might be regulated, and masquerades prohibited. The drama, too, should be reformed. But the prime necessity was that sensuality must give way to religious love and reverence. “Let us be industrious, frugal and religious, if we are to be saved at all,” was his counsel.

In 1721 he returned to Ireland, from which he had been so long absent. He had retained all along his post in Trinity College, and was now shortly installed as chaplain to the Duke of Trafton, the viceroy.

There occurred in 1723 a curious and romantic incident in which Swift was concerned, or rather “Vanessa”—one of the two unhappy women whose passion for and devotion to the cynical dean have become familiar to all readers. Vanessa, like Stella, the other victim of unrequited affection, followed the dean to Dublin, and there learned of Swift’s connection with Stella—to whom he had been 421secretly married. Heart-crushed by the revelation, she revoked a will she had made in favor of the man she loved, and substituted Berkeley as the beneficiary and legatee. This is all the more curious and unaccountable as Vanessa (Esther Vanhumrigh) seems to have met Berkeley but once, and that only by chance. At all events he was the gainer by some 4,000 pounds.

Fortune had begun to favor him. He was appointed dean of Derry (Londonderry), an important ecclesiastical dignity in the Irish church, said to be worth £1,100 a year. While in possession of this lucrative position the project of the great university in the new world seems to have taken root in his mind, and quickly became a passionate enthusiasm. This is the project which links Berkeley’s name with America—indeed it was to recall his romantic initiative and devotion to this early scheme for higher education that I venture on this sketch.

Swift says the design had been long in Berkeley’s mind. His generous aim involved the surrender of his opulent position as dean, and the employment of his means, including the Vanessa legacy, in promoting this project, on which he had evidently set his heart, and it also necessitated other sacrifices as we shall see. Of course, it was not possible for him unaided to carry out or even to begin his undertaking. He relied on obtaining aid from sympathizers, and an indispensable charter from the king, George I.

It is a curious fact that he was indebted to a Catholic—the Abbe Gualteri, whom he had met in Italy—for the opportunity of making his application to the king under favorable conditions. The abbe was a distinguished Venetian scientist, who had the ear of court circles, and he interested himself warmly in Berkeley’s behalf, with the result that a charter was granted in June, 1725, for a college in the Island of Bermuda, and constituting “Dr. Berkeley, Dean of Londonderry, principal of said college.”

Berkeley’s enthusiasm and persuasive eloquence enlisted promise of support in other powerful quarters. The prime minister, Sir Robert Walpole, promised a grant of £20,000; the private subscriptions seem to have aggregated about £5,000.

All this took time and extensive preparation. The doctor or dean 422had secured the co-operation of several of the Trinity College fellows, who agreed to go out with him, and there was to be another addition to the party who was to intimately share the principal’s life and fortunes thenceforth—Mrs. Berkeley!

He had married during the progress of his negotiations for the university scheme, a daughter of the speaker of the Irish house of commons. The marriage took place August 1, 1728. It was said of Mrs. Berkeley that “she shared his fortune when he was about to engage in one of the most romantic moral movements of modern times, and when, in love with an ideal academic life in the Bermudas, he prepared to surrender preferment and social position at home in order to devote the remainder of his life to the great continent of the West.”

In the fullest confidence that he would be able to carry out successfully his favorite designs, Berkeley, with his wife and college companions, set sail for the sunny isle in the golden West, of which he had so long dreamed. He was then in his forty-fourth year. The voyage occupied four months, and the landing was made at Newport, R. I., where he had planned to sojourn until he should receive from England the promised grant from the government. It was necessary also that the good will and practical interest of the New England colonies should be enlisted in his efforts.

The population of Newport at this time is said to have been curiously cosmopolitan. As religious freedom prevailed there, thanks to the Quaker, Roger Williams, and was unknown in the other New England colonies, religious refugees found an asylum, as they did in the Catholic colony of Maryland under Lord Baltimore. The merchants of Newport appear to have been active and successful in the slave trade, so we shall be less surprised at the statement that Berkeley purchased several for service on the farm which he speedily acquired and settled on for the time being.

Berkeley was quite in demand for sermons. He preached in Trinity Church, Newport, three days after his arrival, and many times afterward. The Rhode Island aristocracy of those days maintained, according to accounts, a good deal of the style and manner of life of the English gentry, and we can read of fox hunting, and 423races, and festivities of various kinds as commonly indulged in. The delays reported from London, in carrying out the promises of aid gave Berkeley many anxious hours in his new world home. He found it expedient to build a house on the farm in the interior, at Whitehall, which he continued to occupy with his family until he sailed back to England. His house became the resort of the ministers and gentry of Rhode Island, who delighted in the society and conversation of the accomplished Irish dean.

Nearly three years passed in waiting and in expectation of the promised means which never materialized, beyond the sum of private subscriptions—which he afterward scrupulously returned. Meantime two children were born to him; one of these, a girl, died and was buried in Trinity churchyard, Newport. Three of Berkeley’s slaves, according to the records of the same church—“Philip Berkeley, Anthony Berkeley and Agnes Berkeley, negroes, received into the church, June 11, 1731.”

All his plans for the utopia he had nourished in his imagination faded utterly when authoritative news from London convinced Berkeley that the project must be abandoned. The grant of £20,000 assured by Walpole, and other important concessions, could not be realized. The prime minister had given up the project, and employed the proposed grant and concessions for other purposes. So in the fall of 1731 the disappointed philanthropist bade farewell to the new world and sailed homeward.

Berkeley’s subsequent career must be briefly told. On his return to London he wrote a great deal on his favorite philosophical subjects. In 1734 he was appointed bishop of Cloyne, in Ireland, and there he spent the next eighteen years of his life. He gave much attention to the social condition of Ireland, attended to his episcopal duties and occasionally occupied his seat in the Irish house of lords. His benevolence to the poor in the dark days of famine and disease was said to be boundless. He certainly won the esteem and gratitude of the Catholics of Ireland by his liberality and his freedom from the spirit of cant and proselytizing, then unhappily widespread in that unfortunate country. His advocacy of tar water as a universal specific for the cure of disease will be remembered as an example of his amiable philanthropic enthusiasms. He publishes a poem in 424praise of his panacea. He was offered further promotion in the Irish church—even the primacy; but he put these allurements aside and refused. “For doing good to the world,” he declared, “I may upon the whole do as much in a lower station.”

In 1752 he decided to resign his bishopric and seek retirement at Oxford. The unusual proposal excited the curiosity of the King, George II., who declared, when the application was made to him, that Berkeley might live where he pleased but that he should die a bishop! So he was permitted to retire from his see, still retaining his Episcopal rank.

He did not long enjoy the change. He died in Oxford the 14th of January, 1753, and was buried in the university chapel of Christ Church. His widow survived him thirty-three years, dying in her 86th year. A son and a daughter were living at the time of his death. In his will he provided among other items—“that the expense of my funeral do not exceed £20, and that as much more be given to the poor of the parish where I die.” He left a very small estate. The well-known lines of his poem, in which he sought to depict the prospects of his utopian project, may fitly close this sketch of the amiable and benevolent Irish dean and bishop:

THE RENAMING OF WOLHURST.

The following remarks were made by President Taft in renaming “Wolhurst,” the estate of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas F. Walsh, “Clonmel,” on September 22, 1909:

I think our bounteous and generous and lovely hostess and our host should have called in the clerical profession rather than a politician to baptize this new home, for it is a part of their profession, I think, to make sacred places that we all venerate; but I hope to be able to prove equal to the occasion, because a politician is subject to every sort of exigency. Because I am asked I re-baptize with great pleasure this beautiful estate and call it “Clonmel.” “Clonmel” is a beautiful place in the County Tipperary. The determined immigrants from Tipperary and from every part of the Emerald Isle have come to the front as they deserved in America. There is no element and no strain in our civilization that has manifested itself to be stronger, more enterprising, more shrewd in business, more tenacious of its principles than the Irishmen, from North and South, who come to this country to make it their own.

I have the greatest pleasure in calling this place after that beautiful town in the golden vale of Tipperary. I consecrate this the estate of “Clonmel.” I wish I could connect with it in some way the name of Walsh, but as that goes without saying, both in Denver and throughout the country, it is unnecessary.

I congratulate the people of this vicinity that Mr. and Mrs. Walsh are their neighbors. We in Washington feel delighted that they are neighbors of ours. Their generosity and kindly courtesy are known the country over.

HISTORICAL FALSIFICATIONS AGAINST THE IRISH.

The beginning of Scotch and English falsification of history against the Irish dates as far back as the end of the eleventh century. Taking full advantage of the civilization and education which the Irish Monks had gratuitously carried to them over seas and spent the best of their lifetime in diffusing amongst them, they used the very power with which the Monks thus endowed them to betray and despoil their benefactors.

“Those brilliant names in the history of European scholarship, who distinguished themselves under Charlemagne, and his son and his grandson, Clemens, Ducil and Scotus Erigena, who all taught in the Court schools, Dungal, who taught in Pavia, Sedalius, who worked in Luttich, Fergual who ruled in Salzburg and Morngal, the teacher of St. Gall, were not altogether without successors,” says Douglas Hyde, in his Literary History of Ireland.

“It is true,” he goes on, “that Ireland’s great mission of instruction and conversion came to a close with the eleventh century, yet for two centuries more, driven by the innate instinct for travel and adventure which was so strong within them that it resembled a second nature, we find Irish monks new foundations on the continent, especially in Germany.” The number of monasteries which Dr. Hyde names as being founded by these Irish monks on the continent during the next half century is simply amazing. “Most of these monks who came from Ireland brought books with them which they presented to the German monasteries.” Says Dr. Hyde again:

“The century which succeeded the Battle of Clontarf, was the most flourishing period of Irish monks in Germany. Once the English had commenced the conquest of Ireland the monasteries ceased to be recruited by men of sanctity and learning but were resorted to by men who sought rather material comfort and a life of worldly freedom. The result was, that towards the end of the thirteenth century most of the Irish establishments in Germany had 427come to an end, being made over to the Germans, like those of Vienna and Wurzburg, or else altogether losing their monastic character like that of Vuremberg.

“As for the parent monastery of St. James of Ratisbon, its fate was most extraordinary and deserves to be told at greater length. It had, of course, always been from its foundation, inhabited by Irish monks alone, and was known as the monasterium Scotorum, or monastery of Irishmen. But when in process of time the word Scotus became ambiguous, or rather had come to be exclusively applied to what we now call Scotchmen, the Scotch prudently took advantage of it, and claimed that they and not the Irish were the real founders of Ratisbon and its kindred institutions, and that the designation monasterium Scotorum proved it, but the Irish had gradually and unlawfully intruded themselves into these institutions which did not belong to them. Accordingly it came to pass, by the very irony of fate—analogous to that which made English writers of the last century claim Irish books and Irish script as Anglo-Saxon—that the great parent monastery of St. James of Ratisbon was actually given up to the Scotch by Leo X., in 1515, and all the unfortunate Irish monks there living were driven out. The Scotch, however, do not seem to have made much of their new abode, for though the monastery contained some able men during the first century of its occupation by them, it exercised, says Zimmer, no influence worth mentioning upon the general cultivation of the German people of that region and may be considered but a small contribution towards medieval culture in general, for the only share the Scotch monks can really claim in a monument like that of the church of St. James of Ratisbon is the fact of their having collected the gold for its erection from the pockets of the Germans. In comparison with these, how noble appear to us those apostles from Ireland of whom we find so many traces in different parts of the kingdom, of the monks from the beginning of the seventh to the end of the tenth century.”

How well Germany remembers her debt of gratitude to those early Irish monks was most eloquently expressed at the great German Catholic Congress at Dusseldorf, less than a year ago. A pilgrimage of the delegates to Keiserswerth to visit the grave of St. Suitbertus, the first Irish monk who spread the light of faith and learning in that land. During this pilgrimage Cardinal Fischer delivered an 428eloquent discourse on the brotherhood of nations in faith and spoke feelingly on the debt of Catholic Germany to the missionary monks of Ireland.

The one egregious thing which the reading of English history teaches is the English historian’s palpable inability to be candid and unbiased when he comes to deal with Ireland and the Irish. With the true-born Englishman this innate prejudice against his neighboring island and her people comes to him as a heritage of many ages. It is deep-rooted in his very nature and is nourished and fructified by his inordinate vanity and super-consciousness of his own real or imaginary superiority. The average Englishman believes himself and his little islanders to be divinely endowed with prerogatives and powers to govern the rest of the world in their own way. He goes about it in a supercilious, patronizing sort of fashion as though he were conferring an unspeakable kindness on the governed, even while he is shooting or bayoneting him into submission to his law.

The very fact, unnatural as it is, that the Englishman believes himself right and just in all this inhumanity should seem at least to be some palliation of his offences. But failing utterly to make the thus governed see his treatment of them in any such “kindly light” he governs them the more.

John Bull is, in fact, about the only ruler in the governing business who seems not to have yet learned that a people who are least governed are best governed. He has exploited his monarchical powers on about every continent and ocean of the globe with more or less success. The more heroic and manly was the resistance of a smaller country and weaker people to his invasions the more he misrepresented and traduced them in his press and on his platforms. England’s main purpose in this has even been to lower, even abase the countries and peoples which she has thus assailed, in the estimation of other nations. Nothing can be more offensive to the delicate sensibilities of truth and justice than the false show of benevolent unselfishness with which England has embarked upon her campaigns of conquest. She has ever been conspicuously, unmercifully cruel to her Irish subjects in their protests against her oppression. There is scarcely any limit to the extremes into which an individual or a nation’s vanity may lead them. England’s claiming Irishmen of 429great distinction in arts, arms, statesmanship, and the like to be real Englishmen is probably the most absurd case in point.

But it was left to the Scotch historian, David Hume, to most falsely and malevolently chronicle the dominant characteristics of the Irish people. He was, of course, writing English history from the then English standard viewpoint, at the time when the American colonists were about to rebel against the intolerable tyranny of George III. The Sons and Daughters of Liberty were, in fact, holding their meetings under the old Liberty tree in Boston at the very time Hume was writing his most false annals of Ireland and the Irish. Hearing of Jerry O’Brien’s capture of the British schooner Margaretta, in Machias Bay, several months before the Battle of Bunker Hill, no doubt intensified Hume’s dislike of the Irish. Nor does that “flavor of the old classical culture of Scotland,” pervading his work extenuate in the least the enormity of his falsehood. Nay, the very fact that he must have known better—he to whom was given as a historian “first rank among English writers,”—makes his offence against intellectual integrity all the more despicable. And yet it has been by just such means as this that England has, throughout the past ten centuries, succeeded in keeping the greater part of the rest of the world more or less ignorant of the real characteristics and acquirements of the Irish.

On page 99, Vol. 1, of Hume’s History of England, writing of the “State of Ireland—1172,” he says: “The Irish from the beginning of time had been buried in the most profound barbarism and ignorance....”

Now, with Hume’s wide knowledge of the civilized world, it can scarcely be believed that he wrote in real ignorance of the general status of the Irish people. His classical culture and profound erudition must certainly have enabled him to know the real facts in the case. He could not have so closely surveyed and studied the past history of “the Irish” without knowing that for centuries before the time of which he wrote, Ireland had excelled England in culture “to a very marked degree.” It had, indeed, been the custom for ages for the better class of Englishmen to not only send their sons to Ireland but to go themselves for their education, that they might learn Irish Gaelic, so that by means of it they might study Greek and Latin. “The fame of these early Irish schools,” says Dr. Douglas Hyde in his Literary History of Ireland, page 220, “attracted students in the seventh, eighth and ninth centuries from all quarters to Ireland, which had now become a veritable land of schools and scholars.” English, French and German princes flocked to Ireland to reap the benefits of the better educational advantages there than were to be had in their own countries. King Alfred of Northumbria, who was educated in Ireland, had been so pleased with the Irish ways that he ever after “aided and abetted the Irish in England in opposition to Wilfred, who opposed them.”

HONORABLE JOHN B. O’MEARA,

Of St. Louis.

Ex-Lieutenant-Governor of Missouri, and
Vice-President of the Society for Missouri.

430But the brilliant Irish scholar, Johannas Scotus Erigend, finally went over to England for the sole purpose of establishing at Oxford University the beginning of classical learning on English soil. He was also summoned to France by King Charles the Bold to lay the foundation of the classics in his kingdom. Yet for more than a century after the classics had been established at Oxford, well-born Englishmen continued to send their sons to Ireland, where the older seats of such learning offered more effective advantages for such studies. Nor was it for the study of the Humanities alone that they were sent. The arts of writing, illuminating and music were also taught with the success that is made possible only by centuries of cultured experience.

Speaking of King Edward’s last visit to Ireland at that time, Harper’s Weekly recently said, editorially, after relating in detail the many other ways in which “Ireland was England’s superior in culture” ... “the Harp, which is the National symbol of Ireland, is really the record of centuries of Musical culture.”

Knowing, as King Alfred certainly must have known, that as early as the beginning of the sixth century the heathen classics were taught by learned Irish monks in their schools of theology, it is easily understood how he came to have such admiration for the Irish and Ireland. Their skill in Greek and Latin poetry as well as in Irish appealed to him so that on leaving Ireland he wrote a poem of sixty lines in the Irish bardic manner. In this poem he compliments the five provinces for their several hospitalities and courtesies to himself. It breathes the spirit of thankful gratitude to the whole nation for all it had done for him.

No people buried in barbarism and ignorance “from the beginning of time” could have evoked such a tribute to their culture and hospitality as that, from an English King whom they had educated. (Pardon the hyperbole.)

431But it had not yet become the well established custom and purpose of the writers of English history to pervert their chronicles so as to traduce the Irish people all that their subject matter would bear without seeming to be deliberate untruth. There was, in fact, no English historian at all at the time Ireland’s scholars were thus laying the foundations of classical learning over a great part of Europe. The crowds of strangers that were meantime flocking to Ireland to receive the classical educations which could not be had in their own countries were not only warmly welcomed but were entertained and fed every day free of cost. Free books were furnished them and they were given gratuitous instructions by the Irish masters.

In this atmosphere of culture, hospitality and true Christian refinement was fostered that love of learning and of the unselfish characters of the men who imparted it to those strange princes and kings, which they took home with them to their own countries. Englishmen, especially, had long looked upon Ireland as “the land of scholars and the nurse of arms.”

This marvelous educational activity and open-handed generosity of the Irish had, in fact, become the wonder and admiration of the nations whose sons were being most benefited thereby. “This outburst of religious zeal, glorious and enduring as it was,” says Dr. Hyde, “carried with it, like all sudden and powerful movements, an element of danger.” The danger to which he here refers was that of a clash between the civil and religious authorities on some minor points of the administration of justice at home. Such obstacles in the way of human and spiritual amity seem to have never been for long inseparable from the lives of nations. They spring up suddenly. They are balked at for a time, and it often seems as if such barriers were destined to be the stumbling blocks over which kingdoms would fall.

But it was not until the Norman invasion and complete subjugation of England, and Norman laws, customs and ideals had completely dominated that country and the semi-Latin tongue now known as English had taken the place of the Anglo-Saxon spoken till the Normans came, that the real breach of amity between the English and Irish happened.

It was against the aggressive spirit of this Anglo-Norman power that Ireland first rebelled and rebels to this day. The Normans 432found the conquest of Ireland a far more difficult undertaking. They were, it is true, by their under-handed system of parceling out portions of the conquered sections to the traitor native chiefs, successful in dividing Ireland against herself. Yet during all the centuries of the persecution made possible by the weakness caused by this division, the Normans failed to dominate Ireland. The free Irish spirit outlived those centuries of “warfare and famine and prison.” Throughout the greater part of that beleaguered land Irish princes and Irish laws ruled. The soul of the nation was nurtured and sustained by the continued use of the mother tongue. To the ranks of the native Irish who were rendered disloyal to their country by Norman influences, the religious schism of the Reformation added many more. Cromwell’s disastrous invasion nearly a century later cut still wider gaps in the loyal ranks of the Irish. In addition to those who were starved or persecuted into submission to Cromwellian rule, many more who could not be tortured into such submission fled the country. Those were “the wild geese,” that flew hither and yonder, lighting, like birds of passage, where instinct or destiny led them.

But wherever they found refuge from the iniquitous powers, that thus made them exiles, they remained true to the ideals for which they were banished. In many instances they became in time honored acquisitions to the countries where they found homes, fitting in as leaders in arts, arms and statecraft. All this is, of course, no more than must be expected of men possessing heritages of many centuries of freedom, based on the American elective system of choosing their governing officials. From her very earliest colonial days down to the present, America derived more of her strength from Ireland, numerically as well as otherwise, than from any other single source. However, much of the fact of Irishmen’s numbers and achievements, in the upbuilding of this nation may have been omitted from our histories purposely or knowingly the facts remain. These mistakes the future historian must see corrected. Nor this alone. The Hume spirit and atmosphere must be forever eliminated from our history. It was the Hume falsehoods which half a century or more ago created in the youthful American mind such false impressions of the Irish character. Bancroft had not yet been introduced in the public schools during my early school days, so it was from Hume that as a twelve-year lad I first learned this false lesson of my native 433land. Nor can we wonder that Bancroft, with all his learning, has signally failed in many instances to give renowned historical characters their due. This fact came home to me quite recently, while canvassing for a petition to a certain congressman, urging him to press the passage of the bill for an appropriation to erect a monument in Washington to Commodore Jack Barry, Father of the American Navy. On presenting the petition the second time to this “representative and influential citizen,” he demurred, saying: “I don’t find much of anything about this Barry, in Bancroft’s History of the United States entitling him to any such honor as you folks are aiming to give him. So I don’t see how I can sign your petition.”

Such mistakes, or intentional omissions, of our country’s history, mischievous as they may otherwise appear, are here recurred to only to show the great need of a true history of the nation. It is no reflection upon the intellectual integrity of Bancroft to infer that he may have, in some ways been influenced by Hume, nay, is it not very probable that he was in dealing with the Irish heroes of our Army and Navy?

But in the light of modern research and scholarly devotion to truth such old world falsehoods and misrepresentations are being doomed to the oblivion that awaits all such evil doing. The causes and ideals for which Irishmen have lived, fought, suffered and died, need no apologist or vindicator, ancient, mediæval or modern, since St. Patrick’s time, at least. These causes have been mainly God, country, truth and freedom. It was Ireland’s devotion to her ideals and her sacrificial tenacity to her causes which, of course, led to England’s merciless, wholesale confiscation of Irish lands and estates, when she had gained sufficient mastery there by her Norman intrigues. During the reign of James I., Irish commerce and about all Irish industries were destroyed in like manner. The Irish schools in which English princes and kings had received their first lessons in classical learning were leveled to the ground, and the schoolmasters forced to teach under hawthornes and hedges. But even this did not, as was intended by the destroyer, quite destroy the love of culture in the Irish heart. Nor did the English soldiers’ desecration of the sanctuaries and the banishment of the priests in the least hinder the continuance of God’s eternal truth. Men died manfully for it. But the truth lived on and became more true because of their martyrdom.

434In every land to which these “wild geese” bore their messages of those eternal verities for which they were banished from their own country, their Irish ideals have, under a more human tolerance than that from which they flew, been steadily extending and exerting more beneficent influences over the lives of men and nations. This could not have been otherwise. Here, where they came more numerously for a century or more than was the emigration from nearly all the rest of Europe together, Irish ideals of the form of the modern elective system of government have been more dominantly interwoven into the web of our national life, more obvious still is the heritage of ancient Celtic culture to be seen in American art, literature and hospitality. Too faintly, perhaps, is it felt in poetry or heard in music, as if, as in Goldsmith’s time, “they wept their own decline.” Yet, as the old art spirit seems now to be steadily regaining its wonted power, it may shortly overcome the evil commercial craze which now infests the earth.

Oxford University, in which, as I have said before, the great Scotus Erigena first established the beginning of classical learning in England, is now having prepared for publication a volume of prose and verse to be printed in fac simile from old Celtic manuscripts, preserved in the great Bodleian library. This is being done under the direction of the great German scholar, Kunz Meyer. He is writing an introduction and notes to the work. No other man living, not even Dr. Douglas Hyde himself, is a more profound Gaelic scholar or a more ardent lover of that Gaelic culture which, as has been seen, did so much toward the enlightenment of the world, than he.

There are many other notable instances of the healthy and vigorous revival of the Gaelic culture spirit and language which space forbids being here added. The selfless interest and liberal aid taken in and extended to this movement by men of other races evinces the fact that it is more of a world-wide out-reaching for the lost inestimable treasures of what the movement means than any narrow exploitation of the achievements of a single race. If, by means of it we shall succeed in expurgating the histories of the civilized world of such pernicious falsehoods as that of Hume’s, we shall certainly have conferred a lasting benefit upon mankind.

THE LATE COL. JOHN F. FINERTY.

Col. John F. Finerty, who died in Chicago on June 10, 1908, was born in Ireland in 1846. In his youth he became connected with the Irish revolutionary movement and was forced to leave Ireland in consequence. He arrived in America in 1864 and immediately joined a New York volunteer regiment in which he served until its disbandment.

Mr. Finerty became connected with the Chicago daily press in 1866. In 1876 he was detailed by Editor Storey of The Times to accompany the column of General Crook against the hostile Sioux and Cheyenne Indian tribes. He was present at most of the Indian battles of that memorable year and was especially mentioned by General Crook in orders for good conduct in the field.

In 1877 he wrote up, among other things, the Rio Grande frontier trouble from both the Texan and Mexican sides of the river. In 1879 he made an almost complete tour of old Mexico, traveling on horseback or by buckboard from the capitol to El Paso del Norte. In July of that year he joined General Miles’ expedition against the Sioux in Montana, crossed the British line and visited the hostile village of Sitting Bull. In October he accompanied General Merritt’s column, operating against the Ute Indians, who had murdered Agent Meeker and killed Major Thornburgh in Colorado. In 1880 he made a complete tour of the southern states and later wrote up the country traversed by the Canadian and Northern Pacific Railroads, then in process of construction.

In 1882 Colonel Finerty severed his connection with the Chicago daily press and founded the Chicago Citizen, which he edited until his death. He was elected to congress in that year and distinguished himself in the House by effective speeches in advocacy of the new navy and coast fortifications bills. In 1884 he supported Mr. Blaine for the presidency. He was an enthusiastic supporter of Parnell in his struggle for Irish autonomy and was twice elected president of the United Irish League of the United States.

436Colonel Finerty delivered the Washington oration at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, February 22, 1891, and received an ovation from both the faculty and the students. He was also a principal speaker at the James G. Blaine and John A. Logan memorial meetings in Chicago.

In 1890 he published his personal narratives of the Sioux Wars, entitled “Warpath and Bivouac,” which was favorably received and had a large sale in the United States, Canada and England. He had another book in course of preparation at the time of his death. Mr. Finerty was a veteran lecturer on American, Irish and cosmopolitan subjects. He never used notes or manuscript, but having made himself familiar with his subject relied upon his memory for words fitting the subject.

During his journalistic career he reported the lectures of Wendell Phillips, Henry Ward Beecher, Carl Schurz, Edward Everett Hale, Father Tom Burke and many other celebrities, and became convinced that the speaker who did not use manuscripts took best with the American people.

No one could be intimately acquainted with Colonel Finerty without becoming fondly attached to him for his many noble qualities of head and heart. He was a fascinating conversationalist, a brilliant writer and a truly eloquent orator. The great storehouse of his mind unfolded itself in private conversation with the freshness of the running brook, in his writings with the diction and elegance of the classics and in his oratory like a mountain torrent.

Although a firm believer in the Catholic faith himself, every human being who loved justice and liberty and had the courage to avow it he regarded as his brother, no matter in what creed he saw fit to dedicate his thoughts to the Almighty.

In the death of John F. Finerty, Ireland has lost as devoted and self-sacrificing a son as was ever born upon that sacred soil, and the United States has lost as loyal and patriotic a citizen as ever fought either in the defense or in the assertion of American freedom; and the friends of liberty the world over have lost as true and generous an advocate of universal freedom as any country has ever produced.

At the big John F. Finerty memorial meeting, held in the new Seventh Regiment Armory, Chicago, in November, 1908, Hon. P. T. Barry presiding, Hon. Bourke Cockran delivered a most eloquent address in which he said in part:

437“Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen: If there could be the slightest doubt in the mind of anyone here as to the effect and power of that gift (oratory) which the chairman has described in terms so glowing, he himself has illustrated it in the highest degree. (Applause.)

“I know of no person who has presented the subject, for which a gathering has assembled, in terms so glowing, with an eloquence so splendid, with pathos so tender and with a feeling so true and sincere. I have come tonight to add the tribute of my admiration, my sincere respect and my affection as an Irishman to the memory which we have gathered to commemorate and honor. (Applause.)

“Listening to the words of your chairman, I feel most deeply that a great light has been extinguished which had lit for many thousands and hundreds of thousands the pathway of duty and of honor. A mighty oak under whose umbrageous shade many had been refreshed on the long, trying journey from aspiration to accomplishment, who otherwise would have fallen and fallen forever. A watchman, upon the tower of liberty had been relieved, who had never slumbered at his post. The earth had taken unto her bosom him who had been the embodiment of manly virtue, of manly faith and manly courage while he trod her surface—John F. Finerty lies in a Chicago cemetery. (Applause.)

“This gathering, vast in its numbers and intense in its feeling, is the most eloquent tribute to the respect he inspired, to the influence he wielded, to the fame he acquired, to the memory that he left. What can I say of his life, his achievements, of his personal virtues, to you who are his neighbors, the friends before whose edified eyes every day of his life was passed?

“I know of no life that has been fuller of achievement, more vibrant with strenuous effort and which is absolutely without stain, from the very hour, when he first raised his voice in behalf of his country to the period when he was followed to the grave by a long line of mourners who were privileged to assist at his interment. His death was mourned by hundreds of thousands of his countrymen whose cause he had served, and who had admired his virtues during his life.”

MEMORIAL TO JEFFREY ROCHE.

On May 31, 1909, a beautiful tablet was dedicated to Jeffrey Roche and the exercises in connection therewith in Holyhood cemetery, Brookline, Mass., were attended by hundreds who had known and loved the editor, poet and author. The eloquent eulogy was pronounced by Mr. Joseph Smith, one of the founders of our Society, and a devoted admirer of Mr. Roche.

The huge granite memorial was the gift of the John Boyle O’Reilly Club and bore a bronze plate with the following inscription in Gothic capitals:

A writer—he gave freely of his genius to humanity that the strong might be restrained, the weak strengthened and right might reign; a poet—patriotism, heroism and justice were the burden of his song; and author—his kindly wit and gentle satire were turned on folly and hypocrisy; an editor—his pen fought stoutly for the oppressed and persecuted of all races and creeds; a man—he never surrendered his principles to temptation, keeping his conscience clear and his mind free.

This tablet is erected by his friends, who loved and admired him in life and mourn and honor him in death.

A BRIEF SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF COLONEL JAMES D. BRADY.

(Through the courtesy of Joseph P. Brady, his son, Clerk of the U. S. Circuit Court of the Eastern District of Virginia.)

Colonel James D. Brady was born at Portsmouth, Virginia, April 3, 1843, and died at Petersburg, Virginia, November 30, 1900.

The death of his father in 1855, his mother having died during his infancy, made it necessary for him to leave his home in Virginia when a boy of eleven years of age, and go to New York City to live with a kinsman, and he was residing in that city at the time the Civil War broke out.

He enlisted March 9, 1861, as a private in Company A, 37th New York, “Irish Rifles.” On December 7, 1861, he was transferred to the 63d New York Volunteer Infantry, Meagher’s Irish Brigade, and commissioned its first lieutenant. Very shortly thereafter he was made the adjutant of the regiment. He was for gallant and efficient conduct successively promoted to Captain, Major, Lieutenant-Colonel and Colonel of the regiment, and as such last named officer was honorably mustered out of service May 26, 1865, claiming to be the youngest colonel in the Army of the Potomac.

COL. JAMES D. BRADY.

One of the founders of the Society and the father of Hon. Joseph P. Brady of Richmond, Va. Col. Brady deceased in 1900, honored and respected by all who knew him.

440Colonel Brady was at different times Judge Advocate, Adjutant-General and Inspector General of the First Division of the 2nd Army Corps.

Colonel Brady participated in all of the great battles in which the Irish Brigade was engaged. He commanded “The Color Company” in the battle of Fredericksburg, December 17, 1862, and while leading his company in the assault of the Irish Brigade upon Marye’s Heights on that day was wounded in the head. General Thomas Francis Meagher specially mentioned his conduct in that battle in his official report. He was slightly wounded in the leg in the “second day” battle of Fair Oaks, the morning that General Howard lost his arm. He was wounded in the mouth at Malvern Hill, and again wounded in the arm at Cold Harbor, June 3, 1864, in which battle he was dangerously wounded in the body. He was personally complimented by General Hancock at the battle of Fredericksburg on the afternoon General Zook was mortally wounded, Colonel Brady being with General Zook at the time he was shot.

After the war, Colonel Brady returned to Virginia, and was shortly thereafter elected Clerk of the Court of his native city. He held that position until President Hayes appointed him Collector of Internal Revenue for the Eastern Division of Virginia, which position he held under the administrations of Garfield, Arthur, Harrison and McKinley.

He was elected a member of the Forty-ninth Congress from the Fourth Virginia District, and held many other positions of emolument and trust, both under the State and Federal Government.

ENTERTAINMENT OF THE EXECUTIVE COUNCIL BY OUR FELLOW MEMBER, HON. CHARLES ALEXANDER, AT MACEDONIA, HIS SUMMER HOME, IN BARRINGTON, R. I. — PRESENTATION TO COLONEL ALEXANDER. — THE AMERICAN IRISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

The meeting of the Executive Council held in Providence, R. I., July 22, 1909, had a pleasant termination. Francis J. Quinlan, M. D., LL. D., President-General, Michael F. Dooley, Esq., Treasurer-General, Thomas Zanslaur Lee, Secretary-General, Hon. Edward J. McGuire, Hon. Thomas B. Fitzpatrick, Rev. John J. McCoy, D. D., John F. Doyle, Esq., Patrick Carter, Esq., Patrick F. Magrath, Esq., and Colonel John McManus, members of the Executive Council, assembled at the Society’s headquarters and, after considering the business that was brought to their attention, adjourned to accept the very kind invitation of Hon. Charles Alexander to spend the day with him at Macedonia, his beautiful summer home in Barrington, R. I.

The circular calling the meeting of the Council and notifying the members of the invitation was as follows:

There will be a meeting of the Executive Council Thursday, July 22d, at the summer home of Hon. Charles Alexander in Barrington, Rhode Island, who has invited, through Treasurer-General Dooley, the Council to partake of his hospitality on that day. As it is necessary that Mr. Alexander know just how many of the Council are to be present, will you kindly signify immediately on enclosed postal whether or not you will be present?

The members of the Council will assemble at the office of the Secretary-General, seventh floor Industrial Trust Company Building, No. 49 Westminster Street, Providence, Rhode Island, at 10.30 a. m., July 22d, 1909, and will be conveyed to Barrington, twelve miles distant, by automobiles, passing some of the most beautiful shore scenery in Rhode Island.

Luncheon will be served at twelve o’clock, and a genuine Rhode Island clambake will follow at two o’clock. The members will be brought back to the city in time to take trains for New York or other distant points.

The New York members may take the Providence Line Boat if they choose, leaving Pier 18, New York City, at 5.30 o’clock p. m., and arriving in Providence at 7. a. m. the next morning.

442As there is much business of importance to be transacted at the meeting, it is earnestly requested that you be present.

The members and invited guests were conveyed by automobiles through East Providence and along the shores of Narragansett Bay to Mr. Alexander’s house, where they arrived in season for luncheon, which was served at one o’clock in the casino adjoining his residence.

Following that the members inspected the beautiful grounds and buildings, engaged in the game of bowls on the lawn, examined the extensive plant for the artificial cultivation of Rhode Island clams, and spent a delightful time in social intercourse until three p. m., when a Rhode Island clambake was served, the menu of which was as follows:

At the conclusion of the dinner Colonel Alexander invited Treasurer-General Dooley to act as toastmaster, and the latter made a most interesting and timely address. Brief addresses were made by Colonel Alexander, President-General Quinlan, Monsignor Doran, Rev. Dr. McCoy, Mr. Fitzpatrick, Mr. Lee, Mr. McGuire, Judge Rathbun and Mr. Magrath.

The meeting of the Executive Council, not having taken an adjournment, was called to order again, and the following gentlemen, upon their application, were unanimously elected members of the Society: Hon. Charles Alexander, Rt. Rev. Mgr. Thomas F. Doran, V. G., LL. D., Hon. Elmer J. Rathbun, Charles B. Humphrey, Esq., and Rev. Owen F. Clarke.

It was unanimously voted “that the thanks of the Executive Council be and they hereby are tendered our most genial host for the 443splendid dinner and entertainment that the Executive Council have this day received at his hands.”

At the conclusion of the exercises the members and guests, after bidding Colonel Alexander good-bye and wishing him happiness and prosperity as long as he lives, returned to Providence and departed for their respective homes.

To Treasurer-General Dooley is rightly due the happy suggestion that brought about the invitation, and it was entirely through his influence that this excellent and dignified entertainment of the Executive Council took place.

The local members of the Executive Council, deeply appreciative of the nature and extent of the entertainment on July 22nd, 1909, decided to show their appreciation of Colonel Alexander’s generous hospitality in a substantial manner, and Treasurer-General Dooley caused to be made by the Watson & Newell Company of Attleboro, Mass., a punch bowl eleven inches high, holding two and one-half gallons, the edges of which are mounted with massive silver ornaments; two large silver shields are mounted on the bowl, one on the front and one behind. The front one has the American and Irish flags crossed, with the American eagle above and a wreath around the outside of the flags and eagle, the wreath being composed of shamrock entwined with stalks of ripened grain. On the reverse side of the bowl is a large shield with similar wreaths of grain and shamrock, within which is engraved the following inscription:

“Memoria tenere diem ambrosianam apud Macedoniam, Alexandri Maximi Domum, Societatis Historicæ Americo-Hibernicæ Sodales hanc crateram dedicaverunt die sexta decima julii A. D. MDCCCCIX.”

the translation of which is as follows:

“To perpetuate the memory of an ambrosian day at ‘Macedonia,’ the home of Alexander the Greatest, the members of the American Irish Historical Society have dedicated this bowl, the 16th day of July, 1909.”

444The letter accompanying the punch bowl when it was delivered to Colonel Alexander was prepared by Mr. Dooley and is as follows:

Dear Mr. Alexander:—We beg you to accept the accompanying souvenir of an occasion fraught with pleasure for all who participated in it. It is sent by the local members of the Executive Council of the American Irish Historical Society, and carries with it their best wishes for you and yours.

May “Macedonia” be its habitat and the scene of its triumphs, and while it will not add lustre to the glories of the “Home of Alexander,” nor bring greater sunshine within its portals than the gracious host himself always sheds about him, it will, we hope, abide with him as a pleasant remembrance of the donors who keep him in living, loving memory.

That our genial host was greatly pleased with the gift is evidenced by his very courteous letter in reply, which is as follows:

Gentlemen: I am in receipt of your cordial letter of October fourteenth and the splendid punch bowl for Macedonia. I heartily thank you for them both, and you may be sure that the home of the bowl will be Macedonia.

It certainly brings to my mind one of the pleasantest days of my life, and I truly hope that Father Time will deal gently with us so that at no distant date we will all meet again at Macedonia, and with good fellowship drink from the bowl to good luck and prosperity for all.

Thanking you for the kind remembrance, I remain,

The whole event from beginning to end was well managed and the gentlemen present enjoyed every minute of the time spent at Macedonia. The affair was managed by Colonel Alexander and Mr. 445Dooley, and not a single detail for the comfort or pleasure of the Executive Council was omitted. July 22d, 1909, and Macedonia will be long remembered by the members of the Executive Council who participated in this most enjoyable occasion.

FORT SHERIDAN.

BY LIEUT. ERNEST VAN D. MURPHY, FT. SHERIDAN, ILL.

In 1888 the United States Government, following its traditional policy in the bestowal of names on its fortifications and the stations of its armed forces, selected and gave to the new military post recently established on the shores of Lake Michigan, the name of “Fort Sheridan,” in commemoration of that illustrious Irish-American soldier, General Philip H. Sheridan, who had, but a few years previously, died while in chief command of the army. Placed as it is, on the high bluffs overlooking the blue waters of our exclusively American Sea, the natural advantages of the site combined with the carefully thought out scheme of construction, to say nothing of the care and interest that has been manifested by the various commanding officers, who have, since its foundation been charged with the carrying out of the designs of the War Department, all combine to make the post, as a whole, a worthy memorial of its gallant namesake.

The French, far back in the colonial period, recognized the importance, to their schemes of trade and colonization, of the control of the great natural channels of communication between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi Valley, and to secure their supremacy established a number of military posts in northern Illinois—Fort St. Joseph on the eastern side of Lake Michigan; Fort Crevecœur and Kaskasia among others. Following the French, the British and afterward the American Governments continued the policy of the French and kept up a number of establishments whose functions were mainly to provide a measure of control over the Indian inhabitants. Fort Dearborn, on the present site of the City of Chicago, was built in 1804 and was kept up until the settling of the country and the consequent removal west of the aborigines made its further maintenance unnecessary.

STEPHEN FARRELLY, ESQ.,

Of New York City.

A Life Member of the Society, and a Member of the Executive Council.

446These early posts in the northwest were, as a rule, mere stockades, with such block-houses and angles let into the trace as were necessary to prevent dead spaces and command the ditch. They provided shelter from the rifle fire of that day but were of little value against artillery. So today, Fort Sheridan, the successor of Fort Dearborn, is not, from a military standpoint, a place of even temporary defense, much less a stronghold. The control of the natural and artificial ways of communication between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi, is dependent now, as a century ago, not on heavy ordnance and great fortifications, nor on our naval strength on the lakes, for unfortunately we have none—but depends directly upon such forces of the mobile army as the government may have available at a crisis. Thus it may be seen that Fort Sheridan, as one of the largest stations of the regular army, plays an important part in the subject of the strategical defenses of our northern frontier. Its central location, with the unparalleled railroad facilities of Chicago at hand; the water routes of the lakes and the excellent road system of the northern-central states permit the garrison to be moved rapidly and surely to the points at which its presence, in time of national need may be necessary.

The reservation consists of about 700 acres of grass and woodland, nearly level and but very little cut up ravines. Not being handicapped by the presence of old structures, the barracks, quarters and other buildings built when the post was started present a handsome appearance. They represent the most approved methods of construction of their time and through their simplicity of design and large details they permit of ready and economical maintenance and bid fair to endure for years. During the summer months, from April to November, and in the winter when weather conditions are favorable the garrison, a regiment of Infantry, a squadron of cavalry, a battalion of Field Artillery, and such details of the special arms, the Signal Corps, Hospital Corps, etc., is busy carrying on its training for active service or in providing for its own immediate necessities. For it must be understood the government’s immense plant,—two hundred and odd buildings, five hundred horses and mules, the grounds and the valuable machinery of war must be cared for by the ones who use them. Thus it is that the 447soldier not only does his own cooking and general housekeeping but works for the general good of the little city in which he lives; grooming horses, driving teams, hauling supplies, or if his capabilities lie in that direction working as carpenter or mason on the buildings of the post. His housekeeping and other work, that in civil life is usually looked out for by his mother or wife, he must, in the army, do to live, after that comes the training in the fighting arts which finally decide wars. The military year is divided into two seasons, the season of practical work, carried out in the open, and the season of theoretical work, carried on indoors and outside as circumstances permit. The theoretical training is carried on usually in the winter but as a matter of fact there is some overlapping.

The pleasant summer weather brings thousands of the residents of Chicago to the post. Lunch basket in hand, they make a peaceful invasion and forget the heat, smoke and soot of their city surroundings as they wander through the clean grass and shady groves. Then, too, the training of the soldier, be he of the cavalry, the “eyes of the service”; the artillery with its scientific leanings; or of the “walk-a-heaps,” as the Indians call the infantry—the backbone of all armies; all present much of interest to the civilian, who, unless he visits their stations rarely sees the regular soldier, save, perhaps as he marches by in some celebration of national importance, or toils, in heavy marching order through the country districts carrying out some manœuvre problem.

Thus it may be seen that the American people, through their representatives, have, in Fort Sheridan, erected and maintained, to the memory of their gallant general, not a cold, dead memorial of stone, but a living, vital monument, a link in the defenses of the nation, and have placed it where his deeds and the work going on under the shadow of his name, serve as an inspiration to the patriotism of the youth of our second city.

THE IRISH ELEMENT IN AMERICA.

The Irish people have been coming to this country from the time of its earliest settlement. Many came involuntarily, having been deported hither by order of the Cromwell Government, and some historians assert that during the ten years succeeding the close of the Cromwellian war, in 1652, a hundred thousand young men and young women were shipped to the West Indies and to the colonies. Voluntary emigration, however, had not begun to any great extent before the opening of the 18th century. We have historical evidence, however, in support of the statement that the Irish came with the earliest settlers of the colonies.

Reverend William Elliott Griffis in his work, “Brave Little Holland and What She Taught Us,” says on page 208: “In the ‘Mayflower’ ... were one hundred and one men, women, boys and girls, as passengers, besides captain and crew. These were of English, Dutch, French and Irish ancestry and thus typical of our national stock.” We know from Hatten’s “Original Lists,” and other authorities, that Irish immigration to Virginia was in progress as far back as 1634–35. And Felt’s “Ecclesiastical History of New England” says that William Collins led a number of Irish refugees to Connecticut from the West Indies about the year 1640. Previous to the beginning of the 18th century Irish emigrants turned their faces towards Europe, where the young men entered the armies with the hope of some day returning to achieve the independence of their country. An idea can be formed of the extent of this emigration from a statement made by the Abbe Macgeoghan, who was chaplain to the Irish Brigade in France, who says that “the records of the War Office of France show that during the fifty years preceding the battle of Fontenoy, in 1745, over 450,000 Irishmen entered the service of that country alone.” When peace with England was declared in 1748 the Irish found, much to their disgust and contrary to their hopes and to the promises held out to them, that France had left them out of her reckoning and that their blood so lavishly shed 449for that country had been shed in vain, as far as any advantage to their native land was concerned. After that time the Irish ceased to emigrate to Europe to any great extent, and turned their faces to the great West, then opening up before the world, and since that time, now two hundred years ago, they have been coming in a steady stream to this country.

No statistics of the nationality of immigrants were kept by this Government until 1820, and we are kept in more or less doubt as to the exact number of our people who came here previous to that time. We have, however, historical evidence that this number was very large. Wilson in his “History of the American People,” speaking of the early years of the 18th century, says: “For several years after the first quarter of the new century had run out (that is, after 1725) immigration from the North of Ireland came crowding in twelve thousand strong to the year. In 1729 quite 5,000 of them entered Pennsylvania alone. From Pennsylvania they passed along the broad, inviting valley, southward, into the western part of Virginia.” Thomas Bond, British Consul at Philadelphia from 1787 to 1812, who is described as the most efficient of the British officials of the United States, writing to the Duke of Leeds, head of the English Foreign Office, in 1789, says: “The immigrants hither since the peace, my lord, that is since the conclusion of the war in 1783, have been much greater from Ireland than from all other parts of Europe. Of 25,716 passengers, redemptioners and servants imported since the peace into Pennsylvania, 1,893 only were Germans; the rest consisted of Irish and a very few Scotch. Of 2,167 already imported in the present year, 114 only were Germans; the rest were Irish.... I have not yet been able to obtain any account of the number of Irish passengers brought hither for any given series of years before the war, but from my own recollection I know the number was very great, and I have been told that in one year 6,000 landed at Philadelphia, Wilmington and Newcastle upon Delaware.”

Ramsay, the historian, writing in this same year (1789) says: “The colonies, which now form the United States, may be considered as Europe transplanted. Ireland, England, France, Germany, Holland, Switzerland, Sweden, Poland and Italy furnished the original stock of the population, and have been supposed to contribute to it in the order named. For the last seventy or eighty years no nation has contributed so much to the population of America as Ireland.” [The emphasis is mine.]

450This is significant and valuable testimony to our numbers in the years preceding the Revolution, and justifies the statements that have been made that the Irish element formed one-third of the population at the close of the colonial period. Doctor Lynch, Bishop of Charleston, South Carolina, says: “The Irish immigration almost took possession of the State. Irish family names abound in every rank and condition of life, and there are few natives of the State in whose veins there does not run more or less Irish blood.”

Sims’ “Life of General Marion” says: “The people of Williamsburg were sprung generally from Irish parentage. They inherited in common with all the descendants of the Irish in America a hearty detestation of the English name and authority. This feeling rendered them excellent patriots and daring soldiers wherever the British lion was the object of hostility.

“The most numerous name in the First Census of South Carolina is Murphy, there having been fifty distinct families of that name, although the forty-eight Kelly families gave them a close race. The Gill and McGill families run nip and tuck with the O’Neills and Nealls; there were thirty-four of the former to thirty-three of the latter. The O’Briens and O’Bryans ran the gauntlet of many changes. The Census enumerators failed to appreciate the significance of the regal prefix ‘O,’ so they wrote the name Obrient, Obriant, Bryan and Briant. There were fifty-three of these in South Carolina in 1790. The Celtic ‘Macs’ make a great showing. There are upwards of 1,000 of such families in all. When we consider that in 1790 the total number of free white males of 16 years of age and upward in South Carolina was only 35,766 we can readily understand that one thousand heads of families, with their wives and children, must have constituted a large percentage of the population. Among the ‘Macs’ are McCarts, McCarthys, McMahon, McClures, McMullens, McNeils, etc. Then there are forty-one distinct families of Bradleys, twenty-four Sullivans, twenty-eight Reynolds, twenty-three Connors and O’Connors, twenty-one Carrolls, etc.” (I have taken the foregoing from a very instructive article by Michael J. O’Brien in Vol. 8 of “The Journal of the American Irish Historical Society.”) The names are interesting as showing that the emigrants from Ireland to the colonies during the 18th century were not all from the North of Ireland, as is generally supposed.

451But the Irish were even more distinguished, if not more numerous, in Virginia than in South Carolina. I will mention only a single family, that of John Preston, who was born in Ireland and came to Virginia in 1735. Dr. R. A. Brock in his “Virginia and Virginians” says: “Scarce another American family has numbered as many prominent and honored representatives as that of the yeoman founded Preston, with its collateral lines and alliances. It has furnished the national Government a Vice-President (Hon. John Cabell Breckenridge); has been represented in several of the executive departments and in both branches of Congress. It has given Virginia five governors—McDowell, Campbell, Preston and the two Floyds—and to Kentucky, Missouri and California, one each, in Governors Jacobs, B. Gratz Brown and Miller; Thomas Hart Benton, John J. Crittenden, William C. and William Ballard Preston, leading molders of public sentiment; the Breckenridges, Dr. Robert J. and William L., distinguished theologians of Kentucky; Professors Holmes, Venable and Cabell of the University of Virginia, besides other distinguished educators.” To this family also belonged Generals Wade Hampton, Albert Sydney Johnston, Joseph E. Johnston, John B. Floyd, John C. Breckenridge and John S. and William C. Preston.

The families of Charles Carroll of Maryland and John Sullivan of Massachusetts, with their collateral branches, became as distinguished, if not as numerous, as the Preston family.

I cannot dismiss this part of my subject without mentioning one other distinguished Irish immigrant, the renowned Dean of Derry, known later as Bishop Berkeley, the friend of Swift and the founder of the school of philosophy which bears his name. He was a native of Kilkenny. He came to America to found a college for the conversion and education of Indians. Before he returned to Ireland he gave his private library to Yale College, the most magnificent collection of books that had been brought to America down to that day. Our University Town across the Bay is named after him.

Let me now call attention briefly to the part which the Irish element played in the Revolution. Did they ally themselves with the patriots of the day and were their services in any degree commensurate with their numbers and their wealth? In regard to the numbers of Irish in the Revolutionary army, the following testimony should be considered conclusive:

452In the British House of Commons’ report, fifth session, fourteenth Parliament, Vol. 13, page 303, the following report of an investigation of the causes of the defeat in the war with the colonies will be found. 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 from 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 he believed half the rebel army were from Ireland.” In Vol. 13, 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 one-fourth English and Scotch.” So much for the rank and file.

Among those who distinguished themselves during the Revolution were: General John Sullivan, the son of an Irish teacher; O’Brien, who, with his sons, won the first naval battle of the Revolution, known as the “Lexington of the seas”; Montgomery, who, after capturing Fort St. John and Montreal, was killed at Quebec; General Knox, commander of the artillery in the American army, and who commanded the American troops when they marched into New York after the evacuation of the British; General Reed, Major General Stark, the hero of Bennington, General Walter Stewart, who was a colonel in the American army before he was 21; John Barry, “Father of the American Navy”; General Anthony Wayne, General George Clinton, General Stephen Moylan, General John Fitzgerald, General William Irvine, General Richard Butler, Generals Campbell, Cochran, McDowell, McCall, McCreary, Jasper, Graham, Pickens and many others. It has been officially ascertained that out 453of 131 of the most prominent officers in the war for American Independence twenty were of English ancestry, twenty-five of French, ten of German and Dutch, eight of Scotch, two of Polish, and eighty-four of Irish and Welsh.

But the Irish were not less conspicuous in commercial and industrial life during the Colonial period, and the assistance which they gave to Washington and his army during the darkest days of the long struggle for independence contributed materially to his final success. In 1780, when the finances of the nation were at their lowest ebb, when the patriot army encamped at Valley Forge had neither sufficient food nor clothing, when discontent among the troops, in consequence, almost bordered on mutiny, when Congress importuned by Washington was unable to comply with his repeated demands for supplies, the business men of Philadelphia raised 315,000 pounds sterling and gave it to Congress. Of this amount the “Friendly Sons of St. Patrick” contributed £103,000. This timely contribution saved the national cause from disaster.

Among the signers of the Declaration of Independence of Irish birth or blood were John Hancock, descended from a County Down family; James Smith, George Taylor, George Read, Thomas McKean, William Whipple, Edward Rutledge, Charles Carroll, Matthew Thornton, born in Ireland; Thomas Nelson, Thomas Lynch, Robert Treat Paine, whose real name was O’Neill, but his father, to save an estate, changed his name from O’Neill to Paine, his mother’s family name. Thomas Nelson was also descended from the O’Neills of Ulster. He succeeded Jefferson as Governor of Virginia, and commanded the State’s troops during Lafayette’s campaign against Cornwallis, down to the surrender of Yorktown.

From the foregoing it will be seen that the Irish element contributed their full share to the building of the nation, pledging their lives and their fortunes to the cause of liberty, standing faithfully by Washington in every crisis of the prolonged struggle until the promulgation of the Declaration of Independence heralded the birth of a new nation, which was sealed and confirmed by the glory of Yorktown.

After the independence of the country had been established the Irish still continued to come in ever increasing numbers. It was not, however, until the great famine of 1846–1848 that the Irish began to come to this country in large numbers. That fearful 454calamity, that within two years sent into famine graves over 1,250,000 of the population of Ireland, sent millions to seek a home in foreign countries. The great bulk of the emigration came to this country, and even of those who emigrated to Canada and other countries thousands subsequently found their way into the United States. Between the years 1821 and 1890 Ireland gave 3,781,253 emigrants to the United States, a number greater than the entire population of this country at the time of the Revolution. Ireland contributed more than two-fifths of all immigrants from 1821 to 1850, more than one-third from 1851 to 1860, and very nearly one-fifth from 1861 to 1870. From 1891 to 1900 it gave but little more than one-tenth. The wonder is that after the fearful drain of the previous half century any were left. So much for the original stock. Of the children born of foreign parents, according to the census of 1900, 4,981,047 were born of Irish fathers, and those born of Irish mothers, with fathers of other nationalities, numbered 236,627. The census of 1900 shows that Irishmen and their descendants in the first degree in that year numbered nearly 7,000,000 in round numbers. When you consider the figures which I have given, taken from the most reliable sources, is it an exaggeration to assert, as some do, that one-third of the population of the country is of Irish descent, especially when the fecundity of the race, which is not excelled by that of any other people, is taken into account. To write the history, therefore, of the Irish element in the United States is to write the history of the country. When we add to the Irish element the German element, which for the past twenty-five years has largely outnumbered the Irish, is it not amusing to hear certain Anglo-maniacs speak of this country as “Anglo-Saxon?”

The part which the Irish immigrants played in the war of 1812 and in the war of the rebellion was not less conspicuous than that which their countrymen played in the Revolution. They gave to the Union cause an army greater by many thousands than that by which Wellington defeated Napoleon at Waterloo. Let me quote but two instances from many that could be given in which men of Irish blood rendered conspicuous services to the country.

For more than two years after the commencement of the rebellion the war was confined almost entirely to the Southern States. Soon after the opening of the campaign in 1863 Lee conceived the idea that he would change the theater of war by marching into Pennsylvania, 455defeat the Union army opposed to him, capture Washington and thus, perhaps, end the war and make secession an accomplished fact. The plan was cleverly thought out and to a man of Lee’s unquestioned military genius did not seem impossible of accomplishment. He therefore proceeded to put his plan into execution. With a force of 61,000 men he attacked Hooker, with an army of 105,000 men, at Chancellorsville and defeated him. Lincoln was in despair and preparations were made to evacuate Washington. Lee led his victorious army through the valley of Virginia, crossed the Potomac and entered Pennsylvania. The army of the Potomac retreated before him, keeping between the Confederates and the National Capital. On June 28 a new commander was given to the National army, Hooker was removed and General George G. Meade was appointed to succeed him. Meade was the grandson of George Meade, who was one of the founders of “The Friendly Sons of St. Patrick” in Philadelphia, twenty-seven of whom contributed £103,000 to Congress, to which I have already alluded. Three days after the armies came together again. On July 1, 1863, Lee attacked the Union forces on the heights of Gettysburg. For three days the awful conflict raged, each side knowing full well what the consequences of victory or defeat would be. After a battle almost unparalleled in human warfare, the army which Lee had whipped at Chancellorsville whipped him at Gettysburg, broke the back of the Confederacy, saved the National Capital and compelled Lee to recross the Potomac. Thus the descendant of an Irish emigrant saved the Nation from disaster, perhaps from dismemberment.

Once more, in 1864, Lee, hard pressed by the army under Grant, tried to create a diversion in favor of his army by sending General Jubal Early, the ablest of his cavalry generals, to surprise the national forces in camp at Cedar Creek, advance to the National Capital and thus compel the withdrawal of Grant’s army for the defense of Washington. With great quickness and secrecy he marched up the Shenandoah Valley, and on the morning of October 19th, under cover of a thick fog, which concealed his approach, he suddenly attacked the Union forces. Completely surprised, they hastily retreated and a great disaster threatened the army. The Eighth Corps was rolled up, the center gave way and soon the whole army was in rapid retreat. Sheridan had been in Washington, and was then in Winchester, twenty miles away, on his way to join his army, 456when he heard the firing. Rapidly riding toward the conflict, he found his army retreating in confusion. Raising his hat he shouted to his men, who were panic-stricken: “Face the other way, boys, face the other way; we are going back.” “Who is that?” a soldier asked of his comrade, for Sheridan is scarcely recognizable through the dust on his clothes and the foam on his black steed from hard riding. But there was no mistaking the manner of the man, and after closely scrutinizing the flying horseman, the comrade replies, “Little Phil, by G—!” and in his enthusiasm shouted, “Hurrah for Sheridan.” The enthusiasm spread, along the whole retreating line the shout went up, again and again repeated, and men who were flying in panic before the victorious army of Early, inspired with full confidence in that leader who had never lost a battle, reformed their lines and long before the close of that eventful day Sheridan was able to telegraph to Washington this characteristic despatch: “We have met the enemy under Early and have sent him whirling up the valley.”

Thus a second time was the National Capital saved by the genius and dash of the son of an Irishman.

Grant paid Sheridan the compliment of saying that he was the only man which the war developed capable of commanding a hundred thousand men under his own eye.

But it is not as soldiers alone that the Irish have won distinction; they have been conspicuous in every walk of life, in every department of human activity. They have filled with distinction the highest office in the gift of the American people, in giving to the Presidency such men as Andrew Jackson, who was the son of an Irish farmer; James Buchanan, the son of an Irish emigrant; James K. Polk, the grandson of Irish parents; Chester A. Arthur, the son of an Irish Episcopal clergyman; William McKinley, whose granduncle was executed by the British Government for participation in the Irish Rebellion of 1798. Claims of Irish descent have also been made for Taylor, Johnson and Cleveland (see “The Puritan in Holland, England and America,” Vol. 2, p. 493). In the long roll of distinguished names of the Senate and House of Representatives none stand higher for eloquence and statesmanship than those who trace their ancestry to Ireland.

In journalism men of Irish blood have been among the leaders of those who have moulded public opinion. Hugh Gaine, a native 457of Ireland, began the publication of the “Mercury” in 1752; Matthew Lyon, of Vermont, a native of Wicklow, started the “Farmers’ Library” and later the “Fairhaven Gazette.” He was known as a “peppery, red-headed Irishman.” He was indicted by the United States Court for an article reflecting on President John Adams, and was fined $1,000 and imprisoned for three months. One of the most interesting characters in the early history of journalism in this country was John Burk, a native of Ireland, who published “The Time Piece” in New York. John Dunlap, a native of Strabane, was the first Congressional printer. I can only give the names of a few of those who were prominent as publishers during colonial times and in the early days of the Republic. John Binn, William B. Kenny, proprietor of the “New Jersey State Gazette,” the first daily paper in that State; Henry O’Reilly, editor of the “Patriot” and later of the “Rochester Daily Advertiser,” the first daily paper between the Hudson River and the Pacific Ocean. We have Fitz James O’Brien, Col. James Mulligan, Thomas Francis Meagher, soldier, orator and writer; Robert S. McKenzie, Thomas Kinsella of the “Brooklyn Eagle.” James Gordon Bennett, Scotch by birth, was the son of an Irish mother. The roster of employees on the staff of the “Herald” during his life reads like the roll call of a Fenian regiment. Horace Greeley, one of the greatest of newspapermen, was the son of Irish parents. He made the “Tribune” the most influential paper in the United States during the war, and for ten years thereafter was a power in National politics. I cannot close this brief mention of Irishmen in journalism without naming one whose writings stirred not only America but all Europe, J. A. MacGahan. He was largely instrumental in bringing about the Bulgarian war of 1875, which changed the geography of Europe. John Boyle O’Reilly, of the “Boston Pilot,” exercised a wide influence by his writings, as did also his successor, James Jeffrey Roche. Patrick Forde, of the “Irish World,” has been a power in journalism for more than a quarter of a century.

It is unnecessary to call attention to the part which the Irish have played in the ecclesiastical history of this country. We need only look around us to see what they are doing today. From the Prince of the Church, Cardinal Gibbons, down through a long line of illustrious Archbishops and Bishops, to the latest arrival from Carlow or All Hallows, all zealous workers in the vineyard of the 458Lord. And what a harvest they have gleaned! And what the Irish are doing today they have been doing from the beginning—zealous, eloquent, self-sacrificing, untiring in the discharge of their duty, giving ungrudgingly to God’s service the best that is in them.

We have no reason to hang our heads at the part which our people have played in the history of the United States. No element that enters into the cosmopolitan population of this country has contributed more in every quality that goes to make a great people than the Irish. We have given eloquence to the bar, dignity to the bench, learning and virtue to the pulpit, wisdom to the Senate, and glory to the sword. We were present at the birth of the Nation and sustained its infantile arms during the years of its struggle for liberty, sharing in the hardships of Valley Forge and in the glory of Yorktown. We fought with Jackson at New Orleans and with Perry in Lake Erie; stormed Chapultepec with Shields, rode from Winchester down the valley of Shenandoah with Sheridan; stormed Marye’s Heights with Meagher and his brigade, and later climbed the heights of San Juan with Buckey O’Neill and “Rafferty of ‘F’.” On every field the Irish marched to the battle-front side by side with the Puritan from New England, the Knickerbocker from New York, and the liberty-loving dweller of the rolling prairies of Iowa and Illinois. In the same deep grave they sleep “the silent sleep that knows no waking.” The snows of winter, like a winding sheet, lie coldly above them, and as each returning spring awakens into life and beauty the sleeping forces of nature, the green grass grows and the wild flowers bloom above their common grave.

I will close by quoting the following tributes to the Irish by men who were not of our race: Col. John Parke Custis, the adopted son of Washington, says: “Then honored be the old and good services of the sons of Erin in the war of Independence. Let the shamrock be entwined with the laurels of the Revolution; and truth and justice, guiding the pen of history, inscribe on the tablets of American remembrance: ‘Eternal gratitude to Irishmen.’”

Similar sentiments were expressed by the late Senator Bayard, in the Senate of the United States. “If,” said he, “the names of the men of Irish birth and of Irish blood who have dignified and decorated the annals of American history were to be erased from the record, how much of the glory of our country would be subtracted? In the list of American statesmen and patriots, theologians 459and poets, soldiers and sailors, priests and orators, what names shine with purer lustre or are mentioned with more respect than those of the men, past and present, we owe to Ireland. On that imperishable roll of honor, the Declaration of Independence, we find their names, and in the prolonged struggle that followed there was no battlefield from the St. Lawrence to the Savannah but was enriched with Irish blood shed in the cause of civil and religious liberty.”

THE REMINISCENCES OF AUGUSTUS SAINT-GAUDENS, ONE OF THE FIRST MEMBERS OF THE SOCIETY, EDITED BY HIS SON, HOMER SAINT-GAUDENS, AND PUBLISHED THROUGH THE COURTESY OF THE CENTURY MAGAZINE.

My father began his reminiscences in the early spring of 1906, while recovering from a surgical operation in the Corey Hill Hospital of Brookline, Massachusetts. As he had spent a most active life, he chafed at that confinement until this scheme was devised to pass his hours; whereupon, to his great amusement, he dictated the first quarter of the work. Later, after his return to Windsor, when, to his bitter disappointment, he found that he could not for any length of time remain on his feet to model, he continued to write at odd moments up to the middle of the summer.

The contents of my father’s text itself I have left intact, save where exceptionally rough; but the order of thought and anecdote, which was badly tangled, owing to the lack of revision, I have shifted back and forth into a semblance of methodical progression.

My father begins:

“Reminiscences are more likely to be tiresome than otherwise to the readers of later generations; but among the consoling pleasures that appear over the horizon as years advance is that of rambling away about one’s past....

---

“I was born March 1, 1848, in Dublin, Ireland, near 37 Charlemount Street. If that is not the house, no doubt the record in the nearest Catholic church would give the number.”

460My uncle, Mr. Louis Saint-Gaudens, who visited Dublin in the summer of 1890, found the building at number 35, near the head of Charlemount Street and not far from a bridge built over the canal which runs by the southeastern part of the city. There, under the trees that line the banks and in sight of the Wicklow Hills, my father as a baby must have been carried by my grandmother.

The reminiscences continue:

“My mother’s maiden name was Mary McGuiness. Of her ancestry I know nothing except that her mother was married twice, the second time to a veteran of the Napoleonic wars.”

My father’s maternal grandmother’s name was Daly. She married Arthur McGuiness, of whom it is only recalled that he worked in the Dublin plaster mills and that he was a Freemason. Neither of the couple lived to be old. Their daughter Mary McGuiness was born to them at Bally Mahon, County Longford.

To return to the autobiography:

“Of my mother’s family the only member of which I have had a glimpse was her brother George McGuiness, whom I saw in Forsyth Street. I have a daguerreotype of his delightfully kind and extremely homely face—a face like a benediction, as I have heard some one describe it. He, of all men, became the owner of two slaves in the South, and, judging from a daguerreotype, married an equally homely and kindly-looking woman. He was in some way connected with the navy yard at Pensacola. The war cut off all further communication with him.

“Of my father’s birth and ancestry I am as ignorant as of my mother’s, knowing only that his father was a soldier under Napoleon, who died comparatively young and suddenly after what I suspect was a gorgeous spree.”

My father’s paternal grandfather was called André Saint-Gaudens. His wife’s maiden name was Boy. Tradition has it that she sold butter and eggs in the market-place at Aspet, and that she became a miser, leaving under her bed upon her death the conventional box crammed with gold pieces.

The reminiscences continue:

“My father’s full name was Bernard Paul Ernest Saint-Gaudens; Bernard Paul ‘Honeste,’ if you please, he called it later in life; it 461sounded nicer. He was born in the little village of Aspet, about fifty miles from Toulouse, at the foot of the Pyrenees, five miles south of the town of Saint-Gaudens, in the arrondissement of Saint-Gaudens, in the department of the Haute-Garonne, a most beautiful country, as the many searchers for health at the baths of Bagnères-de-Luchon know.”...

Three years my grandfather passed in London and, later, seven years in Dublin before he met his future wife in the shoe store for which he made shoes and where she did the binding of slippers. There, previous to my father’s birth, two sons, George and Louis, died, George at the age of six, and Louis in infancy. But when my father was six months old, “red-headed, whopper-jawed, and hopeful,” as he would repeat, the famine in Ireland compelled his parents to go with him to America, setting out from Liverpool, England, in the sailing-ship Desdemona.

The autobiography goes on:

“Father told me that an overcrowded passenger-list prevented his leaving Dublin with my mother, with me at her breast, in a ship named the Star of the West that burned at sea during the trip. But because he told me this does not mean that it was so. His Gascon imagination could give character or make beauty wherever these qualities were necessary to add interest to what he was saying.

“They landed at Boston town probably in September, 1848, he a short, stocky, bullet-headed, enthusiastic young man of about thirty, with dark hair cf reddish tendencies and a light red mustache, she of his height, with the typical long, generous, loving Irish face, with wavy black hair, a few years his junior, and ‘the most beautiful girl in the world,’ as he used to say.

“Leaving mother in Boston,—where, by the way, I am beginning this account in the hospital fifty-six years afterward,—he started to find work in New York. In six weeks he sent for her. He said we first lived in Duane Street. Of this I knew nothing.

“From there we went to a house on the west side of Forsyth Street, probably near Houston Street, where now is the bronze foundry in which the statue of Peter Cooper which I modeled was cast forty-five years later. There my brother Andrew was born on Hallowe’en in 1850 or 1851, and there I made the beginning of my conscious life.

FRANCIS I. McCANNA, ESQ.,

of Providence, R. I.

A Valued Member of the Society.

462“The beginnings of my father’s business were peculiar, since what interested him infinitely more than his store were the two or three societies to which he belonged and of which he was generally the ‘Grand Panjandrum.’ There were constant meetings of committees and sub-committees when there were not general ones. The principal society was the ‘Union Fraternelle Française,’ a mutual-benefit affair of which he was one of the founders and for many years the leading figure.”

My grandfather enjoyed as well the making of speeches at Irish festivals, where he would round off his conclusions with spirited perorations in the Gaelic tongue. Also he became an abolitionist, a “Black Republican,” during the Civil War; while, to involve matters still further, he was a Freemason who insisted on associating with the Negro Freemasons, and presiding at their initiations. The white Freemasons thereupon blacklisted him.

The reminiscences say of him:

“In the daytime, notwithstanding mother’s gentle pleadings, instead of preparing work, he was constantly writing letters about these societies, all naturally to the serious detriment of his affairs.

“Nevertheless, for so small an establishment, father had an extraordinary clientèle, embracing the names of most of the principal families in New York—Governor Morgan, General Dix, some of the Astors, Belmonts and the wife of General Daniel E. Sickles.”

Horace Greeley also was a steady purchaser, for he delighted to wrangle with this argumentative shoemaker upon the philosophy of footwear.

The reminiscences continue:

“No doubt those who came were attracted by my father’s picturesque personality, as well as by the fact that at that time everything French was the fashion, and by the steadiness of his assurance as to the superiority and beauty of his productions. His sign, ‘French Ladies’ Boots and Shoes,’ must have been irresistible when taken together with the wonderfully complex mixture of his fierce French accent and Irish brogue. This bewildering language was just as bad at the end of fifty years as when he first landed. In the family he spoke English to mother and French to the three boys; we spoke English to mother and French to him; mother spoke English to all of us.”

463Moreover, further to adorn his discourse, my grandfather constantly embroidered his remarks with fantastic proverbs of uncertain and international origin. “As much use as a mustard plaster on a wooden leg,” he would say; or, “Sorry as a dog at his father’s funeral”; or “As handy with his hands as a pig with his tail”; or “A cross before a dead man”; or (and this my father repeated after him through all his life) “What you are saying and nothing at all is the same thing.”

“In addition, close to that time my mother’s cousin, John Daly, a marine on one of the United States government ships, paid us a visit, when he read to us in papers brought from Honolulu and showed us great walrus teeth that had come from the Pacific. And finally I can see myself among the other children who attended the Sunday school of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Elizabeth Street.”

THE BATTLE OF COLLIERVILLE.

MEMORIAL TO ROBERT EMMET.

CELTIC CROSS ON IRISH FAMINE VICTIMS’ GRAVE.

In the presence of about 7,000 American and Canadian Irishmen a monument was unveiled and dedicated at Grosse Isle, Quebec, Aug. 15, 1909, to commemorate the spot where 12,000 Irish immigrants, victims of the famine fever and the ship fever of 1847–48, are buried in the long trenches at the Quarantine Station on Grosse Isle, in the St. Lawrence River, forty miles from Quebec. The monument is a beautiful Celtic cross and it was erected by the Ancient Order of Hibernians. The solemn ceremony was attended by many prominent Americans and Canadians of Irish blood.

The story which the monument will bring to the new people flocking to this great country will be a story filled not only with the heart’s blood of a great race, but with undying evidence of the equal faith, charity and hospitality of the French, who were the first settlers on these shores. A tale of terror and suffering, of faith and courage, of devotion to fellowman and unswerving loyalty to the faith of their fathers under the most bitter adversity is entwined about the great cross which now stands to mark the graves of ten thousand unknown martyrs.

Dignitaries of the Church, high officials of state, priests and laymen, Irish and French, humble and of high degree, stood side by side beneath the open sky, or kneeled silently before the great cross with but one thought—the honor of the martyrs who had died for their faith. To do honor to their memories men had gathered from a score of Provinces and States; many had traveled thousands of miles. Awe inspiring in its solemnity, the scene carried to every bowed heart a meaning far beyond the words of the speakers and left a mark which should last through a lifetime. A new epoch, a renewal of faith and brotherly love, was begun, and few there were in attendance who will not carry the spirit of the great gathering with them into daily life.

From every standpoint the great ceremony was a success. Not a flaw occurred in the arrangements or their execution. In spite of the comparative inaccessibility of Grosse Isle, every man, woman or child who wished to attend the ceremonies was provided for. A perfect day smiled on the scene, as boat after boat, crowded with passengers, 469left Quebec in the early morning. No one was left. No accident marred the occasion. Thousands had gathered in the city during the day and night. Special trains from Ottawa and Montreal brought their quota of members of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, of church dignitaries and government officials.

To the untiring zeal and energy of the A. O. H. officials was due the success of the great undertaking. P. Keane, P. Doyle, T. Heavers, P. Scullion, T. Heaney, J. Foley, H. N. Morrow, H. Cundy and other officers of the order in Montreal were in charge of the excursion from there. Having already taken a leading part in the movement with the national convention of the order in Indianapolis last year, which resulted in the decision to erect the great memorial cross, these men were vitally interested in the successful completion of the plan and their efforts were fully rewarded.

The train from Montreal, carrying a delegation of several hundred, left Saturday night, and the party arrived in Quebec by six o’clock Sunday morning. There they scattered about the old town until the sailing of the boats, between nine and ten o’clock.

From Ottawa almost an equally large delegation was in attendance. From Toronto, Winnipeg and other cities representatives of the Ancient Order of Hibernians flocked to the great celebration, and many States contributed their quota. As far away as Colorado branches of the order sent representatives, while four delegates traveled from Winnipeg. The States represented were Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont, New York, Wisconsin and Colorado.

The sail down the river from Quebec to Grosse Isle was a fitting prelude to the program which followed. Forming at the wharf on Grosse Isle the procession, headed by the band, moved toward the cemetery. Following were the Hibernian Knights of Montreal, Halifax, St. John, etc., the Hibernian Cadets of Montreal and Quebec, the National Board and officers, Hibernians of Montreal, Quebec and other cities, clergy, altar boys, invited guests and congregation. There Low Mass was celebrated by Father Hanley, C. SS. R., and following the sermon and attendant ceremonies the vast audience moved to the high promontory of Telegraph Hill, where the granite cross with its tablets overlooked the placid river.

Almost more impressive than the scene of the kneeling thousands before the open altar near the old cemetery was the scene at the foot 470of the great cross. Chief among the speakers at the monument was the Hon. Charles Murphy, Secretary of State. Introduced by Chairman C. J. Foy as a man who needed no introduction for his prominence in the country and his rise to power and influence, Mr. Murphy took the platform facing the cross and the broad expanse of the river, with the eager audience gathered in a natural amphitheater on the rock at his feet.

Tears came very near the surface as Mr. Murphy opened his address with the reading of a telegram which he had received from Vancouver, B. C., a day or two before. “This telegram,” he said, “means to me the undying loyalty and devotion of the Irish people, and coming as it does from a family scattered throughout the continent, for the memory of a grandmother long since dead, is particularly touching and typical.”

The telegram is self-explanatory. It follows:

Our beloved grandmother Graham was one of the fever victims of 1847. Enclose $10 for flowers for the monument, and accept thanks of,

Continuing Mr. Murphy took as the keynote of his address the fact that the monument now stood as much an evidence of an enduring bond between the Irish and the French as it did to the memories of the martyrs whose graves it marked.

Sir Charles Fitzpatrick, Chief Justice, also spoke briefly at the monument. The whole terrible tragedy was a manifestation of faith and loyalty, said he, which has helped and through the ages will help men to die as men should, or live as men should.

Continuing, he thanked the Papal Delegate and the Lieutenant-Governor for their presence and closed with the remark: “Ireland has not been desecrated and persecuted for nothing. It is her pride and her glory but to point to the Cross.”

At the early services at the open altar near the old cemetery the Rev. Father Maguire, Provincial Chaplain, A. O. H., preached an 471eloquent sermon, telling of the trials and sufferings of the ship fever victims and the devotion of the priests.

Mr. C. J. Foy, National Director A. O. H., presiding at the ceremonies at the monument, made a stirring address. Speaking briefly of the history of Ireland, he drew the great fact that though always persecuted, and always hounded, the Irish had never bowed in submission, and had never allowed a stain upon their religion or upon their homes. In this he cited the French as a nation of similar pride.

Mr. Matthew Cummings, National President of the A. O. H., made a touching and eloquent address, citing points in Irish history showing the sadness of the nation’s history.

Mr. J. Turcotte, M. P., delivered an effective speech in French, expressing the sympathy of the French Canadians with the Irish, their admiration for the abiding faith and their pleasure in assistance at this memorial for their martyrs.

A short address in Gaelic by Major McCrystal, National Director A. O. H., concluded the speeches.

Monsignor Sbaretti, Papal Delegate, then blessed the cross and the ceremonies were at an end.

Returning to Quebec in the early evening, the beauty and solemnity of the sunset on the river lent the final touch of grandeur to the day. In Quebec the delegations scattered and took their various trains during the course of the evening.

Among the prominent men present were Monsignor Sbaretti, Papal Delegate; Lieutenant-Governor Pelletier, Sir Charles Fitzpatrick, Chief Justice; Hon. Charles Murphy, Secretary of State; Mr. M. Cummings, National President, A. O. H.; the Hon. E. B. Devlin, M. P.; the Hon. C. R. Devlin, J. A. Turcotte, M. P.

Beautiful floral pieces were presented by the provincial government, the Ste. Jean Baptiste Society of Montreal and Ste. Jean Baptiste Society of Quebec, and an anchor from Mrs. Lemieux of Quebec.

IRISH PIONEERS IN SPRINGFIELD, MASS.

The early history of the Irish in Springfield and vicinity is of deep interest to those who are in sympathy with the sturdy people who are so important an element in our City, State and Nation. There are revelations in even a cursory insight into early Irish history hereabouts. Few persons imagine how early Irish people were settled in the vicinity of Springfield.

In “The Irish Pioneers of the Connecticut Valley,” by Edward A. Hall, and published in the “Papers and Proceedings of the Connecticut Valley Historical Society,” one may learn of the earliest records of the Irish in this vicinity. In 1684 Henry Chapin sold sixteen acres of land on the west side of the Connecticut to John Riley and this was described as “north of the Riley tracts,” so this was not the first land hereabouts owned by an Irishman. This is part of the so-called “Ireland parish” and the present site of the Brightside home. Miles Morgan made his mark upon the deed in the form of a pickaxe in witnessing it and it was recorded by John Holyoke.

It is probable that the Irish who were in New England at that time were those who came, under the contract made in 1642, to supply three hundred men and two hundred and fifty women in the prime of life for immigration to New England. These Irish men and women were drawn from near Cork, Kerry, Waterford, Wexford and Tipperary, from the purest blood of the south of Ireland. The early Irish who came to this city and vicinity probably numbered among them some who were in this first large migration to New England. Other towns about Springfield were able sooner to support a Catholic Church, for until about 1840 Springfield was a mission of Hartford or Chicopee. Rev. George Reardon, the first pastor, was not a resident pastor, but lived in Worcester and conducted many missions for miles about. Rev. John Dougherty, who came from Boston in 1848, was the first resident pastor. A house for him on Howard street was bought from Noah Porter.

The first church was bought of the Baptists and moved by George Dwight from its location at the corner of Maple and Mulberry streets to the corner of Willow and Union streets. This was bought 473in 1846 and cost $3,500. The lot on Union street added another $1,000 to the expense of getting the little seventy by forty-five foot church ready for the first Catholic services held in Springfield in a church building. Pastors from Hartford and other places had for years before this said Masses in the open air or in homes. But even with the starting of the new St. Benedict’s Church there was interruption of the regular services. The first resident pastor remained but three years, and for a time another could not be secured, services being conducted by the Chicopee priest.

Many Springfield Catholics walked to Sunday morning services at Cabot, now Chicopee Center. Rev. Michael P. Gallagher, the next priest, was the early Catholic clergyman here whose work was of the deepest importance. He bought in 1860 the property at the corner of State and Elliott streets, which has been added to until it has reached its present size and importance. Father Gallagher was a keen business man. The numbers of the Irish in Springfield increased rapidly during the second quarter of the nineteenth century. Two localities where the first Irish gathered their little houses were Ferry street and along old Mechanics row, which ran between Howard and Bliss streets. Some of these people came all the way from Ireland to the back yards of their future homes by boat. Irish residents of Springfield now can recall relatives of theirs who came from Ireland to New York, New York to Hartford and from Hartford to Springfield in little steamboats.

William Hart and Mrs. Timothy Kenefick came from Ireland in the same vessel in 1833, and records say that their children were the first Irish-Americans baptized in the city. Fathers Reardon and Brady performed the ceremonies at the time, when Mass was being said there once a month or so in the family of some Catholic. The numbers of Irish coming from their native country to America rapidly increased because of the inducements which labor held out in the building of railroads and the demand for factory employees caused by the rapid development of the country. The famine of 1847 caused a veritable stampede to America. It is said that there were twelve hundred Irish Catholics in the city when Rev. M. P. Gallagher took the pastorate in 1856.

There were well-known names among the early Irish who lived in Springfield. One of the most famous of these was Gen. Robert Emmet Clary, who fought in the Civil War. He and his brothers and 474his sisters were born in the home of their father, which was situated on Benton Park, at the corner of State and Federal streets. The father, Ethan Allen Clary, was a well-known figure in Indian wars and in the war of 1812, when he was Commissary of the Port of Boston. John Mulligan, president of the Connecticut River Railroad, was a well-known Irish-American. He came to the city nearly seventy years ago from Hartford, where his father lived. He was the first child of Irish parents born in that city. Mr. Mulligan came to Springfield to work for the Western Railroad and later came to be chief executive of the Connecticut River road, which was later absorbed by the Boston and Maine.

Those who remember the early Irish as they were characteristically are filled with astonishment at the contemplation of what some of the descendants of those people have become. Along in the first of the time the Irish were in Springfield in large numbers almost all of them were laborers. The men were employed any way that they could earn money without much skill. Many of the women were employed as servants. There was hardly an Irishman in business and for years not one in a profession. Many remember Malley’s little dry goods store, which was near where the Gilmore hotel is now, and which was burned in the big fire which took the Haynes Opera House. For years there was also a little shoe store on Main street, between Harrison avenue and Hilman street, kept by James Burke.

No one needs to have pointed to him the contrast which the virility of those early Irish have made possible in their descendants. Irish are in every activity of the city life, and the best of them are filling creditably positions in every profession and business.

CONFERENCE WITH THE VICE-PRESIDENT FROM VIRGINIA AND MEMBERS OF THE SOCIETY FROM THAT STATE. — SPLENDID ACHIEVEMENT IN ILLINOIS. — GOOD NEWS FROM CALIFORNIA. — LIFE MEMBERS.

In response to an invitation from Capt. James W. McCarrick, Vice-President of the Society for Virginia, to the general officers for a conference at Norfolk, Va., to discuss ways and means of adding to the Society’s membership rolls from the lists of eligible Americans of Irish blood in that State, President-General Quinlan, Chairman Lenehan of the Membership Committee, and the Secretary-General visited Norfolk June 24th last and were met at the steamship wharf by Capt. McCarrick, General McGinnis and Mr. John Burke, and were escorted to the Virginia Club, which was made headquarters during the day.

After a short visit to points of interest throughout the city the party returned to the club and from there went to Ocean View, where they were joined by Hon. Joseph T. Lawless, Mr. John O’Connell, Mr. George Maxwell of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, President W. R. Boutwell of the Pilot Association, and Capt. Foster of the William A. Graves Company, where a bountiful southern dinner was served, which for novelty and excellence was greatly appreciated by all present.

Further consideration of the work of the Society took place, and speeches were made of an encouraging nature by all present and plans laid for a campaign of membership in Virginia.

The party dispersed late that afternoon, and the officers returned to their homes in the north well pleased with their visit.

No less enthusiasm in the good work of swelling the ranks of the American Irish Historical Society is displayed by the Illinois Chapter thereof, and it is with great pleasure we are able to state the results of the excellent work done in that regard.

On October 19th, 1909, in response to a call from Vice-President Moloney, a meeting of the Illinois members was held at the Auditorium Annex in the city of Chicago, and, as a result of that meeting, fifty-one members of high standing and ability were enrolled on our books, forty-two of whom thus far have qualified.

476To Mr. Moloney is due most of the credit for obtaining these valuable acquisitions to our membership roll, and the thanks of the Society are hereby tendered him for the ability and painstaking efforts expended in its behalf. Our roster for Illinois is a constant reminder of the noble work accomplished by him, and a no more fitting tribute to his interest in the welfare of the Society can be paid than the character of the individuals whom he has submitted for membership and who represent the highest type of American citizenship.

The Knights of St. Patrick, one of the most worthy and respected organizations on the Pacific Slope, composed of Irish Americans, who are not only interested in the land from which their ancestors came but in the United States and its institutions, conceived a plan in April last to bring together a number of leading citizens who would become members of the American Irish Historical Society, with a view to joining in its work and if possible forming a State Chapter thereof.

Capt. James Connolly, Vice-President of the Society for California, and John Mulhern, Secretary of the Knights of St. Patrick, with earnest and most commendable effort discussed their plans with various individuals, and on February 17, 1910, sent the names of the following gentlemen to Treasurer-General Dooley, with checks for membership fees:

Immediately upon receipt of the applications for membership a copy of Volume VIII of the Journal of the Society, published in 1909, was sent to each of the new members, and a personal letter written apprising each member of the work and purposes of the Society and asking for biographical sketches.

At a meeting of the Executive Council held in New York March 12th last the efforts of Vice-President Connolly and Mr. Mulhern being called to its attention, a unanimous vote of appreciation and thanks was directed to be extended to these gentlemen. As the Knight of St. Patrick is a Life Member of the Society, it was also voted that the thanks and appreciation of the Society go forth to it as a body for the assistance it rendered in adding to our membership rolls this list of eminent men.

As an evidence of the appreciation of the work of our Society and the desire of gentlemen to join it, we cite the case of a gentleman high in banking and financial circles in one of the western states, who was so much impressed with what we are doing that he sent in his application for membership, accompanied by his membership fee, and in a few days later sent in an application, again accompanied by check.

HON. EDWARD D. WHITE,

Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.

A Friend of the Society.

MISCELLANEOUS. — HONOR FOR CAPT. G. S. ANTHONY. — THE FRENCH CAMP AT WATERBURY.

For information concerning Irishmen in the Civil War, persons desirous of enlightenment may consult with profit any of the following publications:

“Journal of the American Irish Historical Society,” Volumes I to IX.

“American Irish Historical Miscellany,” by John D. Crimmins.

“The Irish Ninth of Massachusetts in Bivouac and War,” by MacNamara.

“The Gallant Sixty-Ninth,” by F. S. Root.

“Life of Thomas Francis Meagher,” by Cavanaugh.

“Irish Soldiers,” by Colonel McGee.

“Life of General Sweeny,” by William M. Sweeny.

“The Irish Brigade,” by D. P. Conyngham.

“The Irish in America,” by Maguire.

“The Irish Race in America,” by Condon.

Mr. Dennis H. Tierney, who was active in the collection of funds for Capt. George S. Anthony, of New Bedford, received a very nice letter from the Captain and in return sent him a letter of which the following is a part:

“My Dear Captain—I received your kind letter of the 4th inst. containing the endorsed checks which the contributors to your fund desire to hold as souvenirs. A press of business prevented me from 479replying at once. It is indeed a great pleasure for me to be among the Irish gentlemen who have contributed towards the creation of a fund which will release the mortgage from the home of a man who exposed himself to the dangers incidental to the rescue of Irish political prisoners who were confined in bondage in western Australia; ‘their only crime being love of country,’ and for that brave and meritorious service in their rescue which occurred April 17th, 1876; and in reviewing the danger which you and your companions in a small boat were exposed to on that stormy night of April 17th, 1876, it is an incident worthy of the brush of Raphael and the pens of Moore and Davis; even those great geniuses in their respective professions would inadequately portray the thrilling incident, and therefore it is with pride and pleasure that I, an Irishman, extend to you the right hand of fellowship, and I believe my countrymen the world over are in sympathy with me in it and do approve of my act.”

Previous to going to New Bedford on December 17, the delegation, headed by Lawrence H. O’Brien and Mr. Tierney, paid a visit to headquarters in Providence, where they met Hon. Jno. W. Cummings of Fall River and Hon. Harry C. Curtis of Providence, and discussed the object of their visit to New Bedford, where they made formal presentation to Capt. Anthony of a check for $1,037.

Mr. D. H. Tierney, vice-president of the Society for Connecticut, has erected on the camp ground of the French army to commemorate its march through Waterbury, Conn., enroute to Yorktown, June 27, 1781, a handsome monument of rustic construction with a good foundation, securely cemented and with a polished granite slab on top on which the following words are cut: “Camp of the French Army enroute to Yorktown, June 27, 1781.” The date of the erection of the monument is cut on the lower left-hand corner which is “1904.” Mr. Tierney writes:

“The erection of this monument brought out and emphasized the fact that in the French army there were a large contingent of Irishmen. At the unveiling exercises, the monument was draped with the 480American, French and Irish flags. An American boy raised the American flag; a French boy raised the French flag; and my son, Mark Tierney, raised the Irish flag. At the unveiling of the monument, we had a large gathering of representatives of patriotic societies and citizens, and it was learned for the first time that in the French army there was a large delegation of Irishmen who participated with the French in helping the continentals to throw off the English yoke. It created such a controversy that I was compelled many times to give authentic proof concerning the fact that there were Irishmen in the French army on that occasion.

“At the time of the erection of this monument, I entertained hopes that others along the route of the French army would see fit to erect monuments in the different states commemorating the march of the French army while enroute to Yorktown.”

COUNTY NAMES OF IRISH ORIGIN.

HONOR FOR ENSIGN MONAGHAN.

One of the torpedo boat destroyers recently authorized by Congress will be named Monaghan, in memory of Ensign John Robert Monaghan, U. S. N., who was killed on April 1, 1899, by hostile natives in Samoa while engaged in a reconnaissance made by a combined force of British and Americans.

Ensign Monaghan was at that time attached to the Philadelphia. The expedition ashore was in charge of Lieutenant Lansdale. Ensign Monaghan stood steadfast by his wounded superior and friend—one rifle against many—one brave man against a score of savages. He knew he was doomed. He could not yield. He died in heroic performance of duty.

Ensign Monaghan was appointed to the Naval Academy on September 7, 1891, from the State of Washington. He was a son of Hon. James Monaghan, a member of the Society, who kindly contributed to the Society’s library a valuable and interesting work entitled “Life of John Robert Monaghan, the Hero of Samoa.”

MICHAEL HOGAN NAMED “CLAREMONT.”

ST. PATRICK’S HALF PENCE ONCE CURRENT IN NEW JERSEY.

The only specimen in gold known of the coin called in America the Mark Newby farthing was sold in London in June, 1909. These farthings have an interesting history. Many were struck in silver, copper, brass and even lead.

The obverse shows a crowned king kneeling and playing a harp. Above the harp is a crown, while around the border is the inscription “Floreat Rex.” On the reverse the principal device shows St. Patrick, with right hand outstretched, banishing the serpents from Ireland. In his left hand he carried a double or metropolitan cross and at the extreme right is a church. The inscription of the reverse reads “Quiescat Plebs.”

There are many varieties of these farthings, of widely differing weights but of nearly uniform size and with both plain and reeded edges. The silver pieces are very irregular in their weight, which ranges from ninety-eight to 176 grains, but all are about the size of an old fashioned copper cent. The coins struck in copper are more uniform, averaging about ninety-eight grains.

The coin is supposed to have had its origin in Ireland in the reign of Charles I., and it has been the subject of much discussion.

A party of immigrants from Dublin, among whom were Mark Newby (or Newbie) and his family, arrived in the Colony of New Jersey on November 19, 1681. Newby brought with him a quantity of the St. Patrick’s half pence, as they were termed in Ireland. At this period fractional currency was exceedingly scarce in the Colony and on May 8, 1682, the New Jersey authorities passed an act “for the more convenient payment of small sums,” which provided “that Mark Newbie’s half pence, called Patrick’s half pence, shall from and after the said 18th instant pass for half pence current pay of this province, provided he, the said Mark, his executors and administrators, shall and will change the said half pence for pay equivalent upon demand; and provided also that no person or persons be hereby obliged to take more than five shillings in one payment.” The full text is found in the “Grants, Concessions and Original constitutions of the Province of New Jersey.”

It is not known how many of the coins were brought over by Newby, but the quantity is supposed to have been large. Indeed, 485he is thought to have manufactured additional coins of similar design in this country. No repeal of the act making the St. Patrick’s half pence current appears on the New Jersey records.

There were also St. Patrick’s half pence of large size, some of them a third larger than those described. The larger pieces were struck in copper and weighed on an average 144 grains. The obverse design is similar to that of the farthings but the reverse is entirely different.

It showed St. Patrick with a trefoil in his right hand, a crozier in his left, surrounded by a crowd of people. On the left side is a shield with three castles. The inscription is “Ecce Grex.” These coins also occur with plain and reeded edges. The larger coins were called half pennies, while the smaller were termed farthings.

The coins must have passed current for many years after they were first made, both in Ireland and in this country.

The Mark Newby coins in copper are plentiful even at the present time and command premiums of from fifty cents to five dollars, according to condition and variety. Those of silver are scarcer.

CHAMPLAIN TER-CENTENARY CELEBRATION.

THREE “MOLL PITCHERS.” ONE WAS SURELY IRISH.

Professor Faust and other correspondents leave the reading public in a quandary regarding “the heroine of Monmouth.” One claims that she was German, another that she was American, and another, on the authority of the historian Lossing, declares that she was “a stout, red-haired, freckle faced young Irish woman.” One says she was “Moll Pitcher,” the wife of John Hays, a Pennsylvania artillery-man, and another that she was “Captain Molly,” the wife of a cannoneer from the banks of the Hudson in the State of New York.

HON. WILLIAM E. CHANDLER.

Formerly Secretary of the Navy and U. S. Senator from New Hampshire.
A New Member of the Society.

486It probably has not occurred to these writers that three different women representing three different sections of the country and three different nationalities help to make dubious this perplexing old story. In 1738 there was born at Lynn, Mass., a Mary Diamond, who married a man named Robert Pitcher and became a famous fortune teller. She died in 1813 and was buried in the Western Burial Ground, West Lynn, where Lynn people take pride in pointing out her grave, for barring the fact that she was a fortune teller she was a reputable woman and her memory is respected. Her fame lived after her and in 1832 Whittier wrote a poem about her which renewed and increased the interest in her. Then a Boston playwright named Jones wrote a drama called “Moll Pitcher, or the Fortune Teller of Lynn,” which for more than thirty years was a popular favorite on the New England stage. It was also played in other parts of the country and was everywhere well received. The Lynn woman is the only Moll Pitcher that figured in history; with her the name originated, and others who wear it are simply fakes and frauds.

The honors of the alleged incident at Monmouth are shared by two different women, one of whom was from the Highlands of the Hudson and was undoubtedly Irish, and the other was from Pennsylvania and undoubtedly German. Both, without any reason, are now frequently referred to as Moll Pitcher. The real name of the Hudson River woman is not known. Lossing calls her Captain Molly and E. P. Roe calls her Molly O’Flaharty. She was the wife of a gunner in Colonel Lamb’s artillery, whose name does not appear upon the records as O’Flaharty but in fiction as Larry O’Flaharty.

In May, 1876, a communication appeared in a Carlisle newspaper claiming that the Monmouth act had been performed by Molly McCauley, a woman who had lived, died and was buried at Carlisle, and that Molly McCauley was Molly Pitcher. A man who knew her in his early boyhood canvassed the town and raised a fund with which he erected and formally unveiled at her grave a handsome marker on which is inscribed: “Molly McCauley, Renowned in History as Molly Pitcher,” etc.

487As a matter of fact Molly McCauley never had any renown as Molly Pitcher, but because it is so stated on a tombstone many people who read no other history believe it and quote it as conclusive proof that she was the real Molly Pitcher.

THE IRISH ORIGIN OF “YANKEE DOODLE” AND “DIXIE.”

ARCHBISHOP McFAUL FIGHTING TUBERCULOSIS.

Archbishop James A. McFaul, of Trenton, N. J., has announced that he has purchased a farm of 131 acres near Bennington, which will be opened soon as a refuge for the consumptive people of that section of New Jersey.

They will have the run of the farm, upon which cottages will be erected, without expense and will be cared for without regard to race or creed. Sisters of Charity will serve as nurses. It is the plan of the archbishop to secure additional lands as they may be needed.

Archbishop McFaul was chairman of the commission appointed by Governor Fort to lead the fight against tuberculosis in New Jersey.

GOOD MEMBERSHIP SPIRIT.

BY COURTESY OF MR. FISKE O’HARA.

SENATOR GAMBLE’S ABLE ADDRESSES.

HON. LAWRENCE O. MURRAY ON PROBLEMS OF THE COMPTROLLER’S OFFICE.

MAILING LIST OF THE AMERICAN IRISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY. — College and University Libraries. — Other Libraries. — Societies, Etc.

Public Libraries.

Arlington, Mass.

Augusta, Me.

Baltimore, Md.

Bangor, Me.

Binghamton, N. Y.

Boston, Mass.

Bridgeport, Conn.

Brookline, Mass.

Brooklyn, N. Y.

No. 26 Brevoort Place.

Buffalo, N. Y.

Cambridge, Mass.

Charleston, S. C.

Chelsea, Mass.

Chicago, Ill.

Cincinnati, O.

491Cleveland, O.

Columbus, O.

Concord, N. H.

Cork, Ireland.

Dedham, Mass.

Denver, Col.

Detroit, Mich.

Dover, N. H.

Elizabeth, N. J.

Elmira, N. Y.

Fall River, Mass.

Fitchburg, Mass.

Hartford, Conn.

Havana, Cuba.

Haverhill, Mass.

Holyoke, Mass.

Indianapolis, Ind.

Jamestown, N. Y.

Lawrence, Mass.

Leavenworth, Kan.

Los Angeles, Cal.

Lowell, Mass.

Lynn, Mass.

Malden, Mass.

Manchester, N. H.

Manila, Philippine Islands.

Medford, Mass.

Melbourne, Australia.

Milwaukee, Wis.

Minneapolis, Minn.

Nahant, Mass.

Nashua, N. H.

New Bedford, Mass.

Newburg, N. Y.

Newburyport, Mass.

New Haven, Conn.

New London, Conn.

Newton, Mass.

New Orleans, La.

New York, N. Y.

Norwich, Conn.

Northampton, Mass.

Oswego, N. Y.

Philadelphia, Pa.

Pittsfield, Mass.

Peabody, Mass.

Peace Dale, R. I.

Peoria, Ill.

Peterborough, N. H.

Plymouth, Mass.

Portland, Me.

Portsmouth, N. H.

Providence, R. I.

Quincy, Mass.

Richmond, Va.

Rochester, N. Y.

Sacramento, Cal.

Salem, Mass.

San Francisco, Cal.

Saratoga, N. Y.

Savannah, Ga.

Sidney, Australia.

Somerville, Mass.

Springfield, Mass.

Stamford, Conn.

St. Louis, Mo.

St. Paul, Minn.

Syracuse, N. Y.

Taunton, Mass.

Troy, N. Y.

Toledo, Ohio.

Utica, N. Y.

Waltham, Mass.

Waterford, Ireland.

Watertown, Mass.

Woonsocket, R. I.

Worcester, Mass.

Yonkers, N. Y.

492

Boston University, Boston, Mass.

Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Me.

Brown University, Providence, R. I.

Catholic University of America, Washington, D. C.

Clark University, Worcester, Mass.

College of the City of New York, New York City.

Columbia University, New York.

Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y.

Dartmouth College, Hanover, N. H.

Dublin University (Trinity College), Dublin, Ireland.

Georgetown University, Washington, D. C.

George Washington University, Washington, D. C.

Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.

Irish College, Rome, Italy.

Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md.

Leland Stanford, Jr., Stanford Un., Cal.

Manhattan College, 130th Street and 10th Ave., New York City.

New York University, New York City.

Princeton University, Princeton, N. J.

Seton Hall College, South Orange, N. J.

Simmons College, Boston, Mass.

St. Francis Xavier College Library, No. 32 West 16th St., New York City.

St. John’s College, Fordham University, Fordham, N. Y.

St. Laurent College, St. Laurent, near Montreal, Canada.

St. Paul’s Library, East 117th St., near Lexington Ave., New York City.

Trinity College, Washington, D. C.

Tufts College, Medford, Mass.

U. S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, Md.

University of California, Berkeley, Cal.

University of Chicago, Chicago, Ill.

University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio.

University College, St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin, Ireland.

University of Georgia, Athens, Ga.

University of Laval, Quebec, Canada.

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich.

493University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Neb.

University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pa.

University of Texas, Austin, Texas.

University of Vermont, Burlington, Vt.

University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Va.

University of Washington, Seattle, Washington.

Washington University, St. Louis, Mo.

Wellesley College Library, Wellesley, Mass. Professor Emily G. Balch.

West Point Military Academy, West Point, N. Y.

Yale University, New Haven, Conn.

Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticano, Roma, Italia.

Biblioteca National, 20 Paseo de Recoletos, Madrid, Spain.

Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, France.

Boston Athenæum, Boston, Mass.

Carnegie Library, Order Department, Schenley Park, Pittsburg, Pa.

Cathedral Library, 123 East 50th Street, New York City.

Catholic Club, 120 Central Park South, New York City.

Chase Library, West Harwich, Mass.

Essex Institute, Salem, Mass.

Fraser Institute Free Public Library, Montreal, Canada.

Howard Memorial Library, New Orleans, La.

Irish Dominicans, St. Clement’s Church, Rome, Italy.

Irish Franciscans, St. Isidore’s Church, Rome, Italy.

Library of the British Museum, London, England.

Library of Congress, Washington, D. C.

Newberry Library, Chicago, Ill.

New Hampshire State Library, Concord, N. H.

New York State Library, Albany, N. Y.

Pennsylvania State Library, Harrisburg, Pa.

Providence Athenæum, corner Benefit St. and College Hill, Providence, R. I.

Redwood Library, Newport, R. I.

The Enoch Pratt Free Library, Baltimore, Md.

MAJOR-GENERAL THOMAS H. BARRY, U. S. A.

Copyright, 1909.

By Harris & Ewing.

494

The Albany Institute and Historical and Art Society, No. 125 Washington Avenue, Albany, N. Y. (Cuyler Reynolds, Curator.)

American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Mass.

American Catholic Historical Society, Philadelphia, Pa.

Association for International Conciliation, Sub Station 84, New York City. (F. D. Keppel, Esq., Secretary.)

Bar Association, No. 44 West 44th Street, New York City.

Cambridge Historical Society, Cambridge, Mass.

Catholic Club, 59 Jackson Street, Providence, R. I.

Connecticut Historical Society, Hartford, Conn.

Cooper Union, New York City.

Kansas State Historical Society, Topeka, Kan.

Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore, Md.

Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston, Mass.

Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul, Minn.

New England Historical Genealogical Society, 18 Somerset St., Boston, Mass.

Newport (R. I.) Historical Society, Newport, R. I.

New York Historical Society, 170 2d Ave., New York City.

Rhode Island Citizens Historical Association, Providence, R. I.

Rhode Island Historical Society, Providence, R. I.

Society of the Cincinnati, Providence, R. I.

Society of Colonial Wars, Providence, R. I.

Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wis.

NECROLOGY. — REV. DANIEL H. O’DWYER. — GENERAL ST. CLAIR A. MULHOLLAND. — MGR. B. C. LENEHAN. — JAMES McGOVERN. — REV. MICHAEL A. McMANUS. — PHILIP C. WALSH. — MAJOR JOHN W. BOURLET. — MAURICE O’MEARA. — GEORGE J. S. MURPHY. — PATRICK O’BRIEN.

The Rev. Daniel H. O’Dwyer, an esteemed member of the American Irish Historical Society and pastor of St. John’s Church at Kingsbridge Road and 232d Street, New York City, died on Sunday, November 14, 1909, of apoplexy, at the home of his mother, 122 Fordham Road West, New York City. His death occurred in the very room in which his father died on the previous Thursday night, at the age of 81 years.

Father O’Dwyer was a brother of Chief Justice Edward F. O’Dwyer, of the City Court of the City of New York; also a member of our Society, and a son of John O’Dwyer and Catherine Ryan, who came from Ireland to America in the early part of the last century.

Father O’Dwyer was born in New York City, in 1862, and was forty-seven years of age at the time of his death. He was educated at St. Francis Xavier’s College, West 16th Street, and entered Fordham University in 1882, graduating from the latter institution two years later. After graduation he entered St. Joseph’s Seminary, Troy, and was ordained on December 22, 1888.

From 1890 to 1893 Father O’Dwyer labored as assistant priest in St. Raphael’s Church, West 40th Street, and later went to the Church of the Blessed Sacrament, where he remained until 1903, when he became pastor of St. John’s.

He found St. John’s Church a frame building, unimposing and unattractive. His first effort as pastor was the establishment of a church fund to improve the place of worship of the fast growing congregation. St. John’s had been established in 1870 as a mission to the parish of St. Elizabeth at Fort Washington and was made a separate parish in 1886, sixteen years after. He immediately set about improving the parish generally. He changed and renovated the old church and began the erection of a new one. The new 496church, built on the site of the old one, was begun about four years ago. At the time of his death it had been finished but not yet dedicated. He devoted himself without reserve to the work of raising this splendid monument and labored tirelessly for the accomplishment of his great purpose. The result was a structure magnificent for the surrounding territory, and worthy of this great Metropolis. A spacious chapel occupied the basement, and in the rear was a Lyceum or club for boys, with athletic apparatus and other attractions for entertaining the youth of the neighborhood.

This soon became a social center. The young men found themselves in possession of a club with pleasant adjuncts and friendly companionship. He organized numerous societies for both men and women and threw his great energy into the effort to make the hall a center of interest, with such force and vigor that it soon became the meeting place for the youth of the vicinage and elevated the moral and social conditions of the parish, which grew and strengthened with his success, kindling ambition and toning up the character and bearing of the neighborhood. That parish ceased thereafter to be listless or easy-going. It blossomed with animation and interest. He called the hall St. John’s Lyceum. The new church, with its various attachments, cost in the neighborhood of $200,000; but there was entertainment and amusement for all the young men and women of his parish; and as they saw it grow in beauty and utility, witnessing the excellence of his ideas and the splendid manner of their execution, they knew their pastor worked unselfishly for them, and the amelioration of all conditions in his parish, uniting entertainment and instruction in his devoted purpose.

To aid the speedy completion of the church, he sought the help of a host of lifelong friends. Willing responses to a cheery appeal brought assistance from every side; and the work, ordinarily of years, grew to fruition within a few short seasons. His tireless efforts probably undermined his robust constitution. But loving his work and his people with all his golden heart, he cast himself with streaming courage into the battle, to win, in one brief spell, a victory that was fitting crown for a lifetime’s labor.

Everywhere Father O’Dwyer went he endeared himself to all with whom he came in contact. In appearance a striking figure, handsome, tall, well-proportioned and instinct with nervous force, he was a charming companion and a delightful speaker, versatile, amusing, 497instructive or learned as suited his varying purposes or the needs of the hour. Jovial and sympathetic in ordinary intercourse, he never forgot the necessity of inculcating at the proper times the sterner duties. Yet he was always the same wholesome force for the cheerful as well as the simple life.

An enthusiastic admirer of athletics he ever sought to perpetuate and assist in the games of his college as well as of his parochial school and the Lyceum.

He was elected President of the Fordham University Alumni Association for two terms, 1899–1901, and materially aided the work of the Association with his usual irrepressible zeal.

The funeral took place from St. John’s Church on Wednesday, November 17, 1909. His Grace, the Most Rev. Archbishop Farley, celebrated a Solemn Mass of Requiem. The church was packed to its utmost capacity and a multitude unable to gain admittance lined the outer roadway. A large attendance of clergymen and well-known laymen included many members of our Society, among them being Hon. John D. Crimmins, Justices Edward E. McCall, and John W. Goff. Monsignor Mooney preached a touching sermon wherein he spoke eloquently of Father O’Dwyer’s zeal and attainments. Many were visibly affected to tears. He said that although a comparatively young man his work was of the highest and most praiseworthy order.

“Today,” said the Monsignor, “a mourning people and weeping children, all must send up not the exultant song of fondest hopes fulfilled, but the low, sad plaint of sorrow for the soul of him who was their pastor kind and true. Twenty-one years ago he came forth with anointed hands from St. Joseph’s Seminary at Troy to begin the work that was appointed for him. His first labors were served in St. Raphael’s, where he spread the seeds of Christianity—seeds which quickly took root. None of the vigor and zeal of that manhood were lost which characterized his early work when he was transferred to the Blessed Sacrament church. A thread of gold seemed to run through his life. It was in the city of his birth that the whole years of his labors as a priest were spent. Six years of unabated toil marked his pastorate at St. John’s—six years spent in constant labors of love till God called him forth. He gave the 498best that was in him, he did the best for you, while he was permitted to remain with you. All the splendid manhood he brought with him when he came—his excellent equipment of mind and heart—he used to foster in his congregation the love of God. He knew no bounds in his devotion to you and your little ones. The anguish of that awful morning was so deep, so sudden, that as yet we are not able to take in its full realization.

“It was not deigned by heaven for him that he should ascend this altar and offer sacrifice—alas!—the first ceremony enacted within these walls was over his own remains. His life labors are done; well did he perform them. The God of Justice called him away, but you shall never forget him, his memory will be to you a proper inheritance till time shall call you on into eternity, where united with him there shall be no suffering in the everlasting Trinity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.”

General St. Clair A. Mulholland, one of the best known and most highly esteemed men in public life in Pennsylvania, and a life member of the American-Irish Historical Society, died on Thursday, February 17, 1910, after an illness of less than a week’s duration. Stricken on the 11th inst. in his office in the Federal Building, General Mulholland battled bravely to regain his health, but his advanced age—he was almost seventy-one years old—proved too great a handicap. Physicians ascribe his death to a general breakdown.

Brevet Major General St. Clair A. Mulholland, who at the close of the Civil War was one of the youngest of the major generals created during that struggle, was a native of the County Antrim, Ireland, where he was born in 1839. He came to this country with his parents when but eight years old. While still a very young man he became connected with the Pennsylvania militia, and when the Civil War broke out he entered the service. For a brief period he was a recruiting officer, but in 1862 he went to the front with the One Hundred and Sixteenth Pennsylvania Volunteers, which he helped to organize, as lieutenant colonel. This was in June, 1862, when he was only 23 years of age.

499Subsequently he was promoted to the colonelcy. He took part in the fights at Charlestown and Ashby’s Gap, Va., in October and November, 1862. He commanded his regiment at Fredericksburg, in the famous charge of the Irish Brigade, of which the regiment formed a part, and was severely wounded in the gallant attempt to storm Marye’s Heights. On February 27, 1863, he was appointed major of battalion. In the battle of Chancellorsville, Va., May 2, 3 and 4, 1863, he led his regiment, and distinguished himself in saving the guns of the Fifth Maine Battery, which had been abandoned to the enemy. For this he was complimented in general orders. In this campaign he was selected by General Hancock to command the picket line of the Second Corps, and while performing this duty covered the retreat of the Army of the Potomac from Chancellorsville across the Rappahannock, for which service he was awarded a Congressional medal of honor.

He participated in the fight at Thoroughfare Gap, Va., June 25, 1863. In the battle of Gettysburg he again led his regiment, which was practically annihilated. He then took command and led into action the One Hundred and Fortieth Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers. He was engaged in the fight at Jones’ Cross Roads, July 10, 1863; at Falling Waters, July 14, and in the battle of the Wilderness, May 5, 1864, where he was again wounded. For his gallant conduct on this occasion he was made brevet brigadier general. He was in the fight at Tod’s Tavern, May 10, 1864, and in the battle of Po River, where he was a third time wounded.

Having been sent to the hospital at Washington, he remained only ten days, and then resumed his command. He was engaged in the fight at North Anna and on the Pamunkey River, May 28, 30 and 31, 1864. At the battle of Topotomy Creek he was dangerously wounded by a musket ball through the groin.

He commanded his brigade in all the actions around Petersburg until the end of the war. He particularly distinguished himself during this time by storming a rebel fort in front of his brigade, and for this he was brevetted major general October 27, 1864.

When, in 1868, Daniel M. Fox was elected Mayor he called to his aid as chief of police General Mulholland, and it was due to the discipline which the latter inculcated that the force, before that time in some disorder, was brought to a fine condition.

After the election of President Cleveland General Mulholland 500was appointed pension agent at Philadelphia, a position he held continuously since 1894.

The activities of General Mulholland covered a large field, and he was known all over the State. As a speaker at Grand Army celebrations and in educational institutions he was always welcomed, and his vivid descriptions of events in war times were listened to with interest.

For many years he was a member of the Board of Prison Inspectors, and it is said of him that he personally helped more unfortunates to start life anew than any other man in the State. He made the subject of prison discipline and its reform a study, and it was he who formed the committee that drafted the new parole law, as presented in the Legislature by Senator Ernst L. Tustin.

He was a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, Loyal Legion, life member of the American-Irish Historical Society, Medal of Honor Legion and Friendly Sons of St. Patrick (of which he was president from 1892 to 1894). He was chairman of the committee of the Friendly Sons which had charge of the erection of the Barry monument in Independence Square, and at the time of his death chairman of the commission appointed by Governor Stuart to provide for the erection of the monument to the Pennsylvania soldiers participating in the battle of Gettysburg. He was a former president of the Catholic Alumni Sodality, and at the time of his death, as chairman of a committee of the sodality, was working to raise funds for the erection of a monument to Rev. William Corby, chaplain of the Irish Brigade, showing Father Corby in the act of administering absolution to the soldiers about to enter into battle at Gettysburg.

Himself an artist in water colors, General Mulholland during his trips abroad gathered many valuable paintings, which form a collection of worth at his home.

General Mulholland was twice married. His first wife was Mary Dooner, sister of the late Peter S. Dooner. His second wife was Mary Heenan, daughter of Colonel Heenan and sister of Dr. Thomas E. Heenan, now United States Consul at Warsaw, Russia. The daughters of the deceased are: Mrs. Ludwig E. Faber, Mrs. Joseph I. Comber, Miss Mary Mulholland, Miss Genevieve Mulholland, Miss Claire Mulholland.

General Mulholland was a brother of the late Rev. James E. 501Mulholland, rector of St. Patrick’s Church, who died suddenly in Alexandria, Egypt, in 1886.

The following Sunday the general’s old comrades in arms and members of the Loyal Legion, Grand Army of the Republic and delegations from other organizations visited the residence and held memorial exercises. About one hundred members of the parish Holy Name Society, of which the deceased was a member, accompanied by the rector, Rev. M. J. Crane, and the spiritual director, Rev. Thomas J. Hanney, recited the Office for the Dead at the house, as did also the Alumni Sodality, which had forty members present.

The funeral took place Monday morning, from the late residence of the deceased, 4202 Chester Avenue. Solemn Requiem Mass was sung in St. Francis de Sales’ Church by the rector, Rev. M. J. Crane. Rev. Joseph A. Whittaker was deacon; Rev. Thomas J. Hanney, sub-deacon, and Rev. Alfred C. Welsh, of Kennett Square, master of ceremonies.

The absolution of the body was performed by Right Rev. Monsignor William Kieran, D. D., rector of St. Patrick’s. In compliance with the wishes of the deceased, there was no sermon, but Monsignor Kieran, who read the funeral service in English as well as in Latin, made a brief address, alluding to the virtues and patriotism of this great man. The interment was in Old Cathedral Cemetery.

One of the leading journals of Philadelphia states editorially:

“After seventy-three years of life’s battling, General St. Clair A. Mulholland lies in a soldier’s grave. ‘After life’s fitful fever, he sleeps well.’ Those who live well and die well surely sleep well. And truly may it be said of the great and gallant Irishman who has laid down his sword and gone to rest in his soldier’s cloak that he did all a soldier could to live well and die well for the country of his adoption, since he could not offer it for that of his nativity. It was not his lot to fall on the field of his fame, but to rise from the blood-soaked soil more than once to take up the task of the soldier-saint, Louis of France, and reveal the tender heart of the woman beating beneath the cuirass of the soldier. To visit the prisons and to bear the message of solace to the despairing victims of a cruel fate was the task which he marked out for himself, and carried out to the very last healthful day of his official career. Many a stout and steadfast heart has ‘the black North,’ as his native Ulster is erroneously called, brought to the defense and glorification 502of the American Union, but none surpassing in beautiful qualities that of the quiet and unassuming soldier who now lies in a friendly grave in the land he served, but far from the hills of his native Ulster, the land of the O’Neills and the O’Donnells, and all the representatives of the modern chivalry of ‘the Red Branch’—saints like Columbkille and martyrs like Archbishop Plunkett.

“It is a unique glory that the flag of the American Union owns. She has lured the bravest and the most unselfish from all lands to defend her cause, and she lays the proud tribute of her gratitude and her sorrow on their biers with a hand that knows no discrimination as to nationality. The soldier from Antrim who gave his strong right arm, as well as his unselfish heart, to her service was worthy of her, and she of him. And so may it ever be as between America and Ireland. ‘Quis separabit?’”

Mgr. B. C. Lenehan, who died September 21 last at Fort Dodge, Ia., was born February 3, 1843, in New York City, and was baptized in the old New York cathedral. He settled in Dubuque with his parents when ten years of age, and received his education in the Dubuque schools and took his classical course at Vinentra college, Cape Girardeau, Mo., completing his work at Milwaukee, Wis. He was ordained December 8, 1867, by Archbishop Hennessey. He was stationed at Mount McGregor, Iowa, for some time before going to Sioux City.

Nowhere was the deceased clergyman better known or more loved than in Sioux City, where he spent fourteen of the most active years of his ministry.

In March, 1872, while a young priest, the monsignor was appointed pastor of Sioux City and during his fourteen years there he saw many changes in the city and the surrounding territory. The completion of new railroads had opened northwestern Iowa to settlement, and new settlers were coming in by thousands, many being Catholics. Sioux City was the nearest place where there was a church or a priest, and Father Lenehan was called on to attend to the spiritual wants of those settlers, scattered over an immense territory, including all that portion of Iowa west of the Little Sioux 503River and north to the Minnesota line, and consisting of about ten counties.

After several months of strenuous missionary work Father Lenehan was given an assistant in Sioux City in the person of Rev. John J. Cadden, who remained nearly two years, doing good work in city and country, wherever his services were needed. After leaving there he was sent to southern Iowa, and died several years later in the Davenport diocese.

In 1874 it became apparent that the congregation had outgrown the old frame church on West Seventh and Perry streets and that a larger and better building was needed. Father Lenehan erected a handsome brick church, which was dedicated under the patronage of St. Mary, Help of Christians, on the Sunday within the octave of the Assumption, on August, 1875, by Very Rev. John F. Brazil, of Des Moines, vicar general of the diocese. Rev. T. M. Lenihan, of Fort Dodge, was celebrant of the mass.

In February, 1886, after fourteen years of continuous and satisfactory service, Father Lenehan resigned his charge in Sioux City to the great regret of all, both Catholic and Protestant. He intended to become a Jesuit and took preliminary steps, but, the confinement not agreeing with his health, he returned to Iowa. A delegation was sent from Sioux City to Dubuque to make an effort to secure his return to Sioux City, but other arrangements had already been made for Sioux City, and Father Lenehan had been assigned to Denison. Later he was transferred to Boone, where he remained about sixteen years.

With the organization of the diocese of Sioux City and the appointment of Rt. Rev. P. J. Garrigan as its first bishop, there were several changes. At the close of the first diocesan retreat for the priests on August 22, 1902, the first diocesan synod was held, and diocesan officers were announced. Among the appointments was that of Father Lenehan as vicar general. In November, 1903, he was transferred from Boone to Corpus Christi Church, Fort Dodge, the oldest and one of the best parishes in the diocese.

During Father Lenehan’s long residence in Sioux City he endeared himself not only to his own flock, but to the people of every denomination and those of none at all. All admired him for his eloquence and his affability.

Honors only added to his natural and innate dignity of character. 504As Rt. Rev. Mgr. Lenehan, domestic prelate to the pope and vicar general of the diocese of Sioux City, he remained the same modest, unassuming priest, the same “teacher of the silver tongue,” the same genial, companionable, Christian gentleman, as when he was pastor of old St. Mary’s, and missionary teacher of half a diocese thirty years ago.

Mgr. Lenehan was a great friend of the younger priests, and his death will be sincerely mourned by many a clergyman who got much inspiration through acquaintance with this exceptional man.

James McGovern, a life member of this Society, was born of Irish parents in Brooklyn, N. Y., on the 31st day of August, 1854. When but fourteen years of age he began his business life in the employ of Coleman Benedict, a stock broker. His progress was remarkable. In twelve years he became a partner in the firm. He was elected a member of the New York Stock Exchange in 1880 and during his long business career he was universally regarded as one of the ablest and most honorable men on ’Change. He was honored time and again by election to its Board of Governors, serving on its most important committees. Because of his high character and broad knowledge of values his judgment on investments was widely sought. For example, he was for years a prominent member of the Finance Committee of the Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank and a director in the Kings Co. Trust Company, the Corn Exchange National Bank and the Home Life Insurance Company. He was also a member of the Chicago Stock Exchange, the New York Chamber of Commerce, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Natural History, the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, the Catholic and a number of other clubs in which he took an active and prominent interest.

Mr. McGovern’s charities were most liberal and carried on quietly, without ostentation. He was a benefactor of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul (a member of its Finance Committee) the Ozanam Club for Working Boys and many similar Societies. He 505was the President and best friend of the Dominican Sisters of the sick poor, a charity that appealed directly to his generous heart.

Mr. McGovern was especially proud of his Irish ancestry and never failed to respond to any call for help from the land of his forefathers.

He died on November 6, 1909, and in his death the community at large suffered a great loss.

Rev. Michael A. McManus, D. D., rector of St. Aloysius Church, Newark, N. J., died November 16, 1909. Deceased was the son of Lawrence A. McManus of Paterson, N. J. It was in that city that he was born September 29, 1849. When a boy he evinced his religious tendency and determined to become a priest. After obtaining permission from his parents, he went to Newark to consult with the late Archbishop Bayley, then Bishop of Newark. Bishop Bayley noticing the slight figure before him, at first did not appear inclined to give his consent but the determined manner and speech of the young man soon won the Bishop over.

When he was quite young his father sent him to St. Charles College, Ellicott City, Md., to begin his ecclesiastical training. He had previously received a classical education at a private school in Paterson. After four years at St Charles he entered Seton Hall College, where he was graduated, and then entered the seminary of the Immaculate Conception. He was ordained April 26, 1874, by the late Archbishop Michael Austin Corrigan, who was then Bishop of the diocese of Newark, which then comprised all of New Jersey. He was first sent to St. Michael’s Church, Jersey City. While attached to that Parish he became seriously ill and had to be sent to St. Francis Hospital. After recovering he went to the Southern States and did missionary work for a couple of years. On returning north he was sent as an assistant to the Church of the Assumption, Morristown, N. J. Within a couple of years he was made pastor of St. Patrick’s Church of Woodbury. He remained there until 1881, when the single dioceses comprised in the entire state, was divided by the establishment of the Trenton diocese.

506In 1881 he was sent to St. Joseph’s, Newton, N. J., remaining there until 1890, when Bishop Wiggar transferred him to Newark, and assigned to him the task of establishing the parish of the Sacred Heart. Finally he was transferred to St. Aloysius’ Church of the same city in June, 1906. Seton Hall College conferred on Father McManus the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. His unostentatious charity was something the extent of which was ever widening and often surprised those closest to him. In public affairs he was always interested. He served on the grand jury several years ago, being the first priest in the county who ever officiated as a member of that body.

St. Aloysius School is his monument. He had been secretary of the Board of Trustees of St. Michael’s Hospital for many years and was one of the prime movers in the movement for a public park in the twelfth ward, Newark, a movement which culminated in the establishment of Riverbank Park, now in process of completion. He was known for his sturdy loyalty to the cause of Ireland, and he never lost an opportunity to lend it his aid. He was strong also in his liking for the German people, whose language he spoke fluently.

The keynote of Father McManus’ character was a rugged honesty buttressed by a courage that brooked no opposition. His convictions were clear cut and what he thought, that he said, and that he fought for, even though his words occasionally gave some offense and his intensity provoked his opponents.

But it happened with him as it always happens with an honest man—it became apparent that he meant not to offend but to convince. With Father McManus the smile always beamed after a remark, before the frown had scarcely time to gather. He was never bitter though always earnest and sincere. With such a man there is always satisfaction in dealing, one knows where he stands and what to expect; the entanglements of deceit are absent. Father McManus was well-read and his scholarship won for him the degree of Doctor of Laws, from his Alma Mater. His administrative ability was great, as the numerous works and foundation of his parish attest.

He was a pious priest, but his piety was of the manly kind that rejects show or sentimentality. His faith was deep and earnest. He had a wholesome contempt for the modern juggling with fundamental tenets of Christianity.

507He was an ardent American, and believed in accepting all the duties and burdens, as well as the privileges of citizenship.

Philip C. Walsh, a member of the American Irish Historical Society since 1897, died at his residence, 22 Grant Street, Newark, N. J., May 19, 1909, in the seventy-fifth year of his life. He was born in the City of Kilkenny, in 1834, was educated at St. Keren’s in that city, and emigrated to America in 1854, being associated with his uncle, Mathew Nolan, a retired seaman of the United States navy, at New Brunswick, N. J., where he married Annie Walsh of Gowran, Ireland, in 1858, removing to Newark, N. J., in 1865; while there he was engaged in the cattle business until 1880, when he began the iron and steel business of Walsh & Sons, of which he was the head, until his death.

From his youthful associations in Ireland, he imbibed a characteristic Irish antipathy to the government which had wrought such a malign influence upon his native land, and in America he promptly became a member of the Irish organizations that were laboring for Ireland’s cause, offering his time and his services as occasion demanded, to the Hibernian, Clan-na-Gael, Irish Volunteers and the American Irish Historical Society, the success of which he was very proud, as well of the Society as an organization tending to the uplift of the Irish, as he was of the distinguished eminence so many of its individual members had achieved.

During his long life, Mr. Walsh steadily acquired every conceivable kind of book relating to Ireland, the Irish people, and their just cause, for which they had struggled so valiantly, gradually obtaining a very large library of Irish works, some of them exceedingly rare and venerable, and by constant reading, study, and discussion with those well qualified, became a veritable encyclopedia upon Ireland and Irish history, being known as one of New Jersey’s great Irishmen, a position which he proudly enjoyed as one of the best distinctions he had.

Although not in good health, for the last two years, Mr. Walsh was about during the pleasant weather, meeting old friends, discussing 508with them Irish affairs, showing as devoted an interest as ever, and at the mention of any proposition that would benefit Ireland his eye would brighten and he would eagerly discuss every phase, from a position of genuine interest actuated by a sincere, pure, high-minded desire, for the progress and advancement of his native land which he always claimed would equal any nation in the world if but given a fair opportunity, and whose people, upon their native soil, would exhibit the same intelligence, ability and capacity, that they have exhibited in every walk of life elsewhere throughout the world.

Mr. Walsh’s personal traits were the admirable ones characteristic of the true Irishman, gentleness, kindliness and affection, mingled courage and tenacity. His family, to which he was most endeared, will ever regret his demise, and the sweet, gentle ties of father and children will ever remain with them, as long as life remains.

In a letter transmitting to the Secretary-General the above sketch “for the record of the Society,” Philip C. Walsh, Jr., a member of the municipal corporations committee of the New Jersey Senate, says:

Father had a very high regard for the Society, and was especially proud of the older members, who like himself, had been transplanted here, and never losing for a moment the great affection they bore their native land. The progress and advancement of the Society and its members always brightened his eye, and brought forth approving sentiments.

He was a typical Irishman—gentle, kind, affectionate and indulgent as a woman on one side and as fierce and courageous as a lion upon the other, the fighting spirit of his race, dominant when necessary; a curious combination of admirable characteristics, opposite in their nature, characteristics that seem more peculiar to Irishmen than any other people.

During his long life, he collected a great number of books dealing with Ireland and Irish affairs, all of which the writer is happy to state were given to me, and I earnestly hope that I may ever be as Irish as my dear father.

Major John W. Bourlet, secretary of the Rumford Printing Company of Concord, N. H., and for several years an esteemed member of the American-Irish Historical Society, died at Concord, January 19, 1910, after a protracted illness. Mr. Bourlet was born in New York City, March 7, 1850, but in 1859 removed with his parents to Concord and resided in or near that city until his death, more than half a century later.

At the age of seventeen, he entered the office of the Concord Monitor, as an apprentice to learn the printer’s trade and quickly became a proficient workman. He was advanced to the position of foreman of the job room and acquired prominence in his profession in the State of New Hampshire and beyond as the organizer of the first printers’ association in the capital of New Hampshire. In 1893, Mr. Bourlet was nominated by Governor John B. Smith as commissioner of the New Hampshire Bureau of Labor. This position he occupied until 1896 when upon the reorganization of the book and job printing department of the Monitor Company into a separate corporation, Mr. Bourlet was made superintendent of the plant and a director in and clerk of the corporation. These positions he held until ill-health compelled him to retire from active work in the autumn of 1909.

He was widely known as one of the most prominent Odd Fellows in the State and long published a magazine devoted to this order. There were indeed few members of the fraternity who were not acquainted with this devoted member and worker. The highest honors of the subordinate and grand orders were conferred upon him. He was Grand Master in 1891–2, and Grand Representative to the Sovereign Grand Lodge in 1892–3. He was also secretary of the Merrimack County Odd Fellows Relief Association. Mr. Bourlet was a member of the New Hampshire Press Association also for many years and a member of the Universalist Church of Concord. In 1871 Mr. Bourlet married Abbie A. Webster, who survives him. One son, John W. Bourlet, Jr., and two grandchildren survive.

In the course of his long and highly respected residence in Concord, Mr. Bourlet was honored by his fellow citizens with various positions of responsibility. In 1887 he was elected a member of the Legislature from the city of Concord and served as chairman of the 510Committee on Printers’ Accounts and as clerk of the Committee on Labor. He was clerk of the Merrimack County Convention and for two years was auditor of Merrimack County. His exemplary life, his agreeable personality, his extensive knowledge of his calling and widespread acquaintance made Mr. Bourlet one of the representative citizens of his city and state. The expressions of sorrow from a large number of persons in his own city and elsewhere in the state and beyond its borders brought forth by the announcement of his death were tributes of those who have known and appreciated his strong qualities as a citizen and a friend.

Every volume of the Journal of the Society was printed and published under Major Bourlet’s supervision, and most of its pamphlets and other publications passed through his hands.

Mr. Maurice O’Meara, who died of heart failure Friday, January 14, 1910, in his seventy-sixth year, at his home, No. 83 Eighth Avenue, Brooklyn, was born in New Street, New York City, and early became an expert in the various kinds and grades of paper and paper stock. He built up an immense trade, and in 1890 organized the O’Meara Paper Company of which he became president, with his three sons, Maurice, Jr., William and David, respectively, vice-president, treasurer and secretary. A year ago Mr. O’Meara celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of his business career, and a little later, on March 6, his golden wedding was an event that brought him congratulations from friends far and near. He left three sons and seven daughters. He was an earnest member of the American-Irish Historical Society; vice president of the New York Paper Dealers’ Association; a trustee of the Brooklyn Catholic Orphan Asylum, also a trustee of St. Francis Xavier’s Church, a member of the Montauk Club and many benevolent organizations.

George J. S. Murphy, secretary to the Elizabeth (N. J.) Board of Fire Commissioners and a valued member of this Society, died suddenly of heart disease September 2, 1909, in his thirty-ninth year, in a New York restaurant, as he was ordering dinner.

511Mr. Murphy was a son of the late Walter and Margaret M. Murphy, who were well-known residents of the old Eighth ward, Elizabeth, where he was born, his parents then residing at 726 Eugenia Place. His father was a carpenter and builder and for twenty years or more was an election officer in the Eighth ward.

As a boy, Mr. Murphy attended St. Mary’s parochial school and later on the Morrel street school, from which he was graduated high in his class. He next attended St. Peter’s College, in Jersey City, from which he also was graduated with honors.

Mr. Murphy entered upon his duties as secretary to the Board of Fire Commissioners when it was organized in 1901, and during all the years he served he never missed a single meeting, a record of which he felt justly proud. Mr. Murphy was a young man who believed in method, and the affairs of his office were conducted in a thorough, businesslike manner. He kept a record of everything of importance connected with his office and was able at an instant’s notice to place his hands on whatever record might be desired. He was of a genial, pleasant disposition and as one of the commissioners said: “He was the right man in the right place.” There were few men better known in Elizabeth than was Mr. Murphy.

He was a communicant of St. Mary’s Church and a member of the Holy Name Society connected with that parish. He was also a member of the Young Men’s Catholic Literary Association of St. Mary’s parish, and at one time a member of the board of directors connected with that association. He was also a member of and, at the time of his death, secretary of Elizabeth Council, No. 253, Knights of Columbus, and also a member and secretary of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, an organization in which he took a very deep interest. He was interested in the Elizabethport Building and Loan Association and served as one of its auditors.

He was unmarried and is survived by two brothers, John J. and William B. Murphy, the former manager of the Barrett Manufacturing Company. Mr. Murphy’s mother died nine years ago of heart trouble.

Patrick O’Brien, one of Lawrence’s leading citizens and business men, and a member of this Society, died shortly after noon Monday, June 21, 1909, at his home, 399 South Broadway. The deceased suffered a shock some time ago and had since steadily failed until death relieved his sufferings.

Mr. O’Brien was born in South Reading, now Wakefield, about fifty-seven years ago.

He was a member of Lawrence Council, No. 67, K. of C., Division 8, A. O. H., and Phil Sheridan Colony, U. O. P. F. He was alderman for one year from ward six.

His wife, Anna; two daughters, Mrs. John Dempsey of Wakefield, and Mrs. Frank Cotter, and four sons, Michael, Mark, Patrick, Jr., and Robert; one sister, Mary, and one brother, Dennis, survive him.

The funeral took place at St. Patrick’s Church, when a solemn high mass was celebrated. Rev. Fr. James T. Landrigan was the officiant, and was assisted by Rev. Fr. Farrell as deacon and Rev. Fr. John J. Gilday as sub-deacon. At the offertory Miss Mary Dolan rendered the “De Profundis.” The church was crowded with mourning relatives and friends of the deceased. Delegations attended from Division 8, A. O. H., and Lawrence Council, No. 67, K. of C.

The deceased was one of the older residents of the city and was held in high esteem and respect by all who knew him. He was prominent in the business world for many years and constructed many of the large buildings in the city.

The body reposed in a solid oak drop side, full couch casket, with oxidized silver extension bar handles, and the plate bore the following inscription: “Patrick A. O’Brien, 1850–1909.”

The following acted as pallbearers: John A. Driscoll, Michael Roache, William J. Carroll, James O’Neil, Thomas Gilmartin and Cornelius F. Lynch. Burial was in the family tomb in the Immaculate cemetery.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF NEW MEMBERS.

The members named below furnished biographical sketches at the request of the Secretary-General, and it is earnestly requested that those who have not furnished such sketches do so at their earliest convenience, as the Society desires to have its files complete as may be.

Brady, Joseph P., was born May 26, 1869, at Portsmouth, Virginia. He is a son of Margaret E. and the late Colonel James D. Brady, both natives of Portsmouth, Virginia. His paternal grandparents were born in Ireland. His maternal grandmother was also born there. Mr. Brady was educated at McCabe’s University School, the University of Virginia and Georgetown University, from which last named institution he graduated in 1896 with degree LL. B. He was admitted to practice law June 29, 1896, and was so engaged when appointed Clerk of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia on October 3, 1898. Mr. Brady was appointed United States Commissioner for the Eastern district of Virginia on April 6, 1897, and was on January 2, 1905, appointed Clerk of the United States Circuit Court for the Eastern district of Virginia, all of which positions he now holds with headquarters at Richmond, Virginia.

Burke, John E., was born in historic Richmond on the James, in the year 1858, where he received a public school education, graduating in the High school in 1874. His father and mother were both natives of Ireland, but came to Virginia in early life, the former being but eleven years of age and the latter nine; therefore the son can justly claim to be a thorough Irish-American. He was compelled, through force of circumstances, to go to work on the completion of his common school education. He selected as his avocation the printing business, and served a long and faithful apprenticeship in one of the largest establishments in the Capital city. He was ambitious, however, and after working for a short period in the capacity of journeyman printer in his native city, determined to make Norfolk 514his home, get down to hard and incessant toil, and eventually establish a business of his own. He was tendered the position of foreman of the Virginian job printing office by the late lamented Michael Glennan, the owner thereof, which he accepted, and at once entered upon his duties with that earnestness and vim which is characteristic of the man. His energy and executive ability proved valuable factors in making his administration a successful one, and he was highly commended therefor by his employer. A few months thereafter the business over which he had presided was purchased, a co-partnership was formed, and Mr. Burke became the senior proprietor. Today there stands in his adopted city, as a monument to his skill and good management, the largest and best equipped printing plant in this section of the Southland—owned and controlled by Burke & Gregory, sole proprietors. Mr. Burke was a member of Norfolk Typographical Union and worked hard with his fellow members for the uplift of the craft. He has also been an officer and influential member of the United Typothetæ, an organization of the employing printers, and his wise council was always invoked when questions of great moment presented themselves. He is generally considered an indefatigable worker for Norfolk’s interest. He is a member of the Business Men’s Association, 200,000 League, and kindred organizations. As an evidence of the people’s appreciation of him, Mr. Burke was elected sheriff in 1894, which position of trust he filled with signal ability. In 1902 he was elected a member of the City Council, and he championed the people’s interest on every question before that body. For his faithful performance of duty he was returned to the Council at two subsequent elections and remained a member thereof until he resigned, on account of change of residence into another ward of the city.

Cavanagh, Howard W., was born in Alpena, Michigan, June 12, 1867, and is the son of James and Mary Cavanagh, each of whom are of Irish extraction, James Cavanagh, who was born in Jefferson County, New York, being the son of Michael Cavanagh, who came to New York State from Ireland in 1826, and of Mary Wilkinson, his wife, born in Canada and the daughter of James Williamson, who came to Ontario from Ireland about the same time. Michael Cavanagh was a Catholic and James Williamson a Protestant. When the subject of this sketch was only four years old, his father and 515mother removed from Alpena, Michigan, to Oakville, Canada, where he remained and attended school, being an undergraduate of the University of Toronto, until the fall of 1885 when he started to attend the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, taking the law course and being admitted to the bar in April, 1887, and graduating with the degree of LL. B. in June, 1887, being then only 19 years of age and the youngest member of his class. Mr. Cavanagh spent one winter in Detroit in the law office of Hon. John W. McGrath, afterwards Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the State of Michigan, and when he was twenty-one he went to Alpena, Michigan, his birthplace, and practiced law for five years and subsequently, in 1896, he removed to Battle Creek, Michigan, and opened an office, from which place he removed to Homer, Michigan, where he has remained since. He is prosecuting attorney for Calhoun County with offices at Homer and Battle Creek, Michigan. His family consists of his wife and one daughter, having married Miss Ula M. Cunningham in 1899. His daughter, Helen M., was born in July, 1904. Mr. Cavanagh has held several offices in the town in which he has been living, having been village attorney, trustee, justice of the peace, member of the school board and has been identified with many fraternal orders, being a Shriner and Knight Templar.

Colton, Right Reverend Charles Henry, D. D., Catholic bishop of Buffalo; born in New York City, October 15, 1848; son of Patrick S. and Theresa (Mullin) Colton. He was graduated from St. Francis Xavier College, New York City, 1872; and in theology from St. Joseph Seminary, Troy, N. Y., 1876. He was ordained priest, June 10, 1876, and became assistant, 1876–1886, and rector, 1886–1903, of St. Stephen’s Church, New York City. He was chancellor of the archdiocese of New York, 1896–1903, and was consecrated bishop of the diocese of Buffalo, N. Y., August 24, 1903. Bishop Colton is author of: “Seedlings,” “My Trip to Rome,” “The Holy Land.” The Father of Bishop Colton was born in Ireland near Omagh, County Tyrone, and came to this country about 1818, settling first in York, Pa., afterwards in Baltimore, Md., till when he settled in New York City and remained till his death, August 11, 1876. He had one brother and three sisters, who remained in Baltimore and died there, leaving small issue. The mother of Bishop Colton was born in Ireland about 1824, of Thomas Mullin of Fintona, 516County Tyrone, and Mary Boyle of Donegal, County Donegal. She came to this country with her parents about 1827 and settled in New York City, St. Patrick’s Cathedral parish, Mott and Price streets. In 1846 she was married to Patrick Smith Colton by Bishop Loughlin of Brooklyn, N. Y., who then was Vicar General of the diocese of New York. She bore her husband nine children, viz.: John Smith, Charles Henry, Thomas Joseph, Francis, Mary Teresa, Catharine Alici, Margaret Anne, Josephine Baptista, and Mary Agnes. Francis and Catharine Alici died as infants. The rest are all living (April 25, 1909). Son John Smith Colton, who was ordained priest December 21, 1873, and died assistant pastor of St. Peter’s church, New Brighton, Staten Island, April 6, 1878, much beloved by everyone. Mrs. Teresa Augusta Colton lived in New York City from her coming about 1827 till her death, April 6, 1891. She had a brother and a sister, both born in New York City. The brother was John J. Mullin, who died September 17, 1861, unmarried. A young man of the highest character. He lived with his sister and her husband till death, aged thirty-one years. The sister, Mary Elizabeth Mullin, also made her home, as did her brother John, with Patrick S. Colton. Teresa A. Colton—She was born about 1836. When twenty-one years old, about 1859, she joined the Sisters of St. Joseph in the diocese of Brooklyn, and after filling several minor charges she was elected Superior of the Community in the year 1868 and continued Reverend Mother till August 15, 1892 (twenty-four years). She died aged fifty-six years, on January 1, 1893.

Conlon, Redmond P., was born on the family homestead near Amargh, Ireland, June 23, 1851. His father, William Conlon, was the only son of Redmond Conlon, who was a descendant of an old Irish family of that name, and who resided on the homestead farm where William and young Conlon first saw the light of day. His grandmother’s name was Phœbe Passmore, and his mother’s Catherine Sheridan, a descendant of the Sheridan family of Ballinarea. The subject of this sketch came to Newark, New Jersey, at the age of thirteen years and attended private schools and Bryant-Stratton and Newark business colleges. He spent one year at the carpenter’s trade, and was salesman for a local manufacturer for five years. In 1873, he entered the fire insurance business and is the senior member of the firm of R. P. Conlon & Son, Newark, New Jersey. 517He was commissioned by Governor Ludlow, lieutenant of Company A (Irish) First Regiment, N. G. N. J., in 1882, and was offered a higher command which he declined. He was appointed by Governor Abbett in 1891, Judge of the Second Criminal Court of the City of Newark, in which position he served until 1894, when the Courts were changed by the legislature. He has been an active member of the Newark Board of Trade for many years and is chairman of one of its most important committees. He has been a member of the society of The Friendly Sons of St. Patrick of Newark, New Jersey, since its incorporation in 1871. The two years he served as president were among the most successful in its career. It was during his term as president of the society that a real Irish musical entertainment was organized to celebrate the 124th anniversary of the birth of Thomas Moore, of which “The Newark Evening News” spoke in part as follows:—

“Irish folk songs, sung in the Gaelic tongue; old Celtic airs played by a band of harpists; the skirl of bagpipes in quicksteps to which the ancient clans of Erin marched to battle, and melodious settings of some of the lyrics which have immortalized Thomas Moore, helped to make the concert, commemorating the 124th anniversary of the birthday of that poet and patriot, given under the auspices of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick in the New Auditorium last night, the most unique and one of the most interesting and enjoyable musical entertainment to which attention has been invited here. The majority of persons in the large auditorium boasted Irish ancestors, but even to the most knowing music lovers among them much of what was heard was a revelation of Ireland’s riches in folk songs and other music of racial character and coloring, and of the beauty and charm of the Gaelic as a means of melodious utterance. It is generally conceded that the Italian language is more mellifluous than any other, when used in song. This assumption might well be disputed after listening to Mrs. O’Donnell’s singing in the Gaelic. Coming from her lips, the words which look so strange in print, and so opposed to beauty in utterance, melted into one another with a liquid smoothness comparable only to the purest effect obtained in Italian.”

It was on his advice that Grover Cleveland was invited to Newark on October 27, 1894, and acted as the Adjutant General in organizing 518the great demonstration which was the turning point of the campaign. In 1893, he was elected the first president of the New Jersey Association of Fire Underwriters and was four times re-elected. He was also president of the Underwriters’ Protective Association (Salvage Corps) Newark. At the formation of the Newark Fire Insurance Exchange in 1902, he was chosen president and declined re-election. On October 12, 1876, Mr. Conlon married Margaret Agnes Heery, daughter of Philip and Elizabeth Heery, of Newark, New Jersey. They have three daughters and four sons living. The eldest son, William R., is affiliated with his father in business. Francis is a surveyor and engineer. Philip is due to graduate from the University of Pennsylvania in June, 1910, and Joseph is a law student at the New York University.

Connor, Henry Groves, LL. D. Judge Connor was born in Wilmington, N. C., July 3, 1852; the son of David and Mary C. (Groves) Connor. He was educated in the town schools of Wilson; married in Wilson, Kate Whitfield, daughter of George Whitfield, afterwards his law partner; he practised at Wilson; was State Senator; Superior Court Judge, 1885–1893; Speaker of the House of Representatives, 1889; again member of the House of Representatives in 1901; was elected Associate Justice of the Supreme Court January 1, 1903, and still continues to perform the duties of that office. Judge Connor has always been a consistent Democrat, and his party has shown appreciation of his value, in the high offices to which he has been chosen. For many years he was President of the Branch Banking Company, Wilson, N. C. He was President of the State Literary and Historical Association, 1901–1902. He delivered an address before the Law Class of the University of North Carolina in 1899; and at the Civic Celebration at Trinity College, February 22, 1899; before the Colonial Dames of North Carolina on their annual pilgrimage to Old Brunswick, 1902. He contributed to “Great American Lawyers” a sketch of Judge William Gaston; to the Biographical History of North Carolina sketches of Judges George Howard and Charles M. Cooke; to the North Carolina Booklet, Vol. IV., an article entitled “The Convention of 1788,” and in the present number one on “The Convention of 1835.” In 1908 the State University conferred on Judge Connor the honorary degree of LL. D.

519Delehanty, John S., was born on April 6, 1851, in Albany, N. Y., was educated in the Christian Brothers Academy and finished schooling under the Rev. William Arthur, the father of the late President Chester A. Arthur, at Newtonville, N. Y. His early business training was with Edward Wilson & Co., successor to Erastus Corning & Co., in the hardware line from 1865 to 1870 inclusive. He left this concern to join his father in 1870, became a partner in 1880 and succeeded to the business on his father’s retirement in 1892. The concern is now in its seventieth year, being established in 1840. He has never held any political position but is a director of the Albany First National Bank, and a member of the Knights of Columbus, C. M. B. A. and Elks. He lost his wife in 1892 and has one daughter, Ethel M., and three brothers, Captain Daniel Delehanty, U. S. Navy (retired), Judge Francis B. Delehanty and William E. Delehanty, all of New York City. An elder sister is the wife of Ex-United States Senator Edward Murphy, Jr., of New York. There are two other sisters, Mary F. and Helen J.

Devine, Thomas J., life member of the Society, was born at Rochester, N. Y. He is senior member of the firm of Burke, FitzSimons, Hone & Co., engaged in the general dry goods business; is first vice-president of the Merchants’ Bank of Rochester; director and member of the executive committee of the Rochester Trust and Safe Deposit Company, and trustee of the Monroe County Savings Bank. Address, 122 Main Street, E., Rochester, N. Y.

Doyle, James G., son of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Doyle, born in La Salle, Ill., Feb. 20, 1880. Editor of The Daily Post of La Salle and Bureau counties, Ill.; member of the Democratic state central committee from the Twelfth Congressional district.

Dwyer, W. M., was born in 1879 in Utica, N. Y. Primary schooling received at Christian Brothers Academy of that city. Classical course made at Manhattan College, taking his A. B. in 1899. Theological studies made at St. Bernard’s Seminary, Rochester, N. Y., from which institution he received the degree of S. I. B. in 1903. In 1907 Manhattan gave him an M. A. Since ordination he has been curate at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, without intermission, having refused a professorship in St. Bernard’s, tendered by the Rt. Rev. B. J. McQuaid. He has lectured more or less during 520the past five years, chiefly on Irish topics. Last summer he delivered a brief course of lectures at the Champlain summer school on “The Irish Monks and Their Services to Literature,” and also contributed a few articles on historical topics to different Catholic magazines.

Fleming, Martin W., No. 3821 Sacramento Street, San Francisco, Cal.; born in Spencer, Mass., in 1859; educated in the public schools of Spencer and took a commercial course in Boston; entered the employ of the leading boot manufacturers of Spencer, and two years later removed to San Francisco; seven years ago was appointed Superintendent of the Municipal Hospital, and then Superintendent of the Hospital for Children, a private institution. He was married nearly twenty years ago, but his wife has deceased, leaving three children; is a member of the Knights of St. Patrick and The Young Men’s (Catholic) Institute, having been one of the founders of the latter organization.

Fleming, John J., of Burlington, Iowa, was born in Donaldsonville, La., March 19, 1851, and moved with his parents, in 1858, to Burlington, Iowa, where his father, Judge Michael Fleming, was for a number of years Judge of the Municipal Court. He was educated in the Parochial Schools and public High School of Burlington, and Notre Dame University. After leaving university he became assistant paymaster C., B. & Q. R. R.; later employed by National State Bank, Burlington, of which institution he became cashier, holding the position for fifteen years. He is at present vice-president of the Burlington Savings Bank; president of the Burlington Construction Co., and manager of the Rand estates; was State Deputy for Iowa of the Knights of Columbus from 1906 to 1909, and is a member of the board of governors of the Catholic Church Extension Society of America; one of the auditors of the same society; a member of the Catholic Club of New York; vice-president of the Burlington Free Public Library.

Foley, Daniel, was born August 3, 1846, in Kilgarven, Kerry, Ireland. He came to America at the age of seventeen and took employment with the Indiana Central R. R. Co., as laborer. At nineteen he was a foreman, at twenty-three a justice of the peace at Cumberland, now a suburb of Indianapolis, being elected. After two years he resigned to accept a position as a telegraph operator with the 521B. & O. and the Chicago and Lake Huron R. R. Two years later, he took charge of the Indianapolis end of the Panhandle R. R., as roadmaster, being twenty-seven years old then. He continued in that position until he was thirty-five when he entered into the grocery business. At thirty-eight he was a state representative and at forty and forty-two was elected to the state senate. At forty-four he was a contractor and at fifty-four he organized the American Construction Co. and became its president and is now in the same business doing general contracting. He is also a director of the Fidelity Trust and a stockholder, besides being interested in real estate and other business. He is considered successful financially and in good standing as a citizen of Indianapolis.

French, Charles F., born in Dublin, Ireland, June 26, 1861, of the Frenches of Castle French, Galway, Normans who settled in Ireland with Strongbow and later became prominent as one of the tribes of Galway. Educated in England, he was for a time subaltern in English service and militia. Took up newspaper work in London. Came to the United States in 1892 and interested himself in some unsuccessful electric railway investments. Returned to newspaper work. Was foreign editor on “Kansas City Journal” for a year, then took up residence in Chicago and was engaged editorially on leading dailies of that city and also in magazine work. In 1899 purchased “Iron and Steel,” a prominent trade organ, and two years later, with his wife, Florence French, the well-known critic and writer on musical topics, established “The Musical Leader,” now a weekly paper of world reputation published in Chicago with offices in New York, Berlin, Paris and London, and representatives in all the leading musical centers of this country and abroad. “The Concert Goer” of New York was purchased and combined with “The Musical Leader” in 1905 and this contributed materially to the paper’s success. Mr. French edited and published “The American-Irish in Chicago,” an expensive work, but the best-known history of Irishmen and those of Irish descent in the West. Also “History of Music in Chicago,” etc., and is an occasional contributor as his time permits to the magazines.

With his wife, formerly Florence Burt of London, and a family of six, two boys and four girls, he has his own home at 5850 Rosalie Court. He has a fine library and some notable paintings, old masters 522in the possession of his family for over a century. Mr. French is a life member of the Press Club of Chicago, the Chicago Athletic Association and the South Shore Country Club. Also of the Lotos Club, New York. With his closest friend, the late Colonel John F. Finerty, he was intimately associated in all the Irish movements of recent years in the West.

Gallagher, James T., was born in County Sligo, Ireland, in 1857. Educated in Queen’s College, Galway. Came to America in 1880. Studied medicine in Bellevue Medical College, New York; graduated 1888. Moved to Salem, Mass., 1892. Was elected to the board of education, served four years. Moved to Charlestown, Mass., in 1896, where he has since practiced his profession. Published one volume of poems in 1899, and is a popular lecturer on Irish historical subjects.

Gamble, Robert Jackson, LL. D., of Yankton, South Dakota, United States Senator, was born in Genesee County, N. Y., February 7, 1851; removed to Fox Lake, Wis., in 1862; graduated from Lawrence University, Appleton, Wis., in 1874, and received the degree of LL. D. from that institution in 1909; located at Yankton, S. D., in 1875, where he has since been engaged in the practice of law; was district attorney for the second judicial district of the Territory in 1880; city attorney of Yankton for two terms; State Senator in 1885, under the constitution adopted that year; was elected to the Fifty-Fourth and Fifty-Sixth Congresses, and was elected to the United States Senate, January 23, 1901, and re-elected in 1907. He was married to Miss Carrie S. Osborne in 1884. They have one son, Ralph A., who graduated from Princeton University in the class of 1909. He is a member of the Cosmos Club of Washington, D. C.

Garvan, Edward J., appointed last April member of the new Connecticut juvenile commission for one year, has devoted many years to the city’s service. He was born in East Hartford in 1871, the son of the Hon. Patrick Garvan, now of this city. Judge Garvan attended the Hartford Public High school, was graduated from Yale college in 1894 and from the Yale Law school two years later. For four years after beginning practice in Hartford he was clerk of the city court, and was also first clerk and attorney for the Hartford Business 523Men’s Association. In 1902 he was elected judge of the police court in which position he served five years, up to January 1, 1908. Under his régime two important movements were initiated, namely, the probation system for prisoners and the juvenile court. He resigned as judge to become vice-president of the P. Garvan Co., Inc. He organized the Riverside Trust Company in 1907 and made the nominating speech naming Lieutenant-Governor Everett J. Lake for governor at the last Republican State Convention. He is assistant quartermaster, with the grade of lieutenant, on the Staff of Major Frank L. Wilcox of the Governor’s Foot Guard, and is a member of the Hartford Club, Hartford Golf Club, the Farmington Country Club, the University Club of Hartford, the Twentieth Century and the Republican Clubs. He is not married.

Gleason, John H., 25 North Pearl Street, Albany, N. Y.; was born in Troy February 25, 1857; educated at the Christian Brothers Academy there; admitted as an attorney and counsellor at law January 30, 1880, at Albany, N. Y., and has since been engaged in active practice of the law at Watervliet and Albany; corporation counsel for West Troy and City of Watervliet several years, and is in partnership with his son at above address, and also at No. 1595 Broadway, Watervliet, N. Y.

Gorman, Patrick Francis, of Alexandria, Virginia, is an old “Confederate Veteran.” He was born in Powerstown, Kilkenny County, Ireland, February 14, 1842. His father was Edward Gorman of Mount Loftus, his mother Bridget Whitehead of Powerstown, his grandfather Patrick Gorman, a noted stone mason, architect and builder, of Mount Loftus, Kilkenny County. His father and family came to the United States in 1846, landed at Baltimore, Maryland, but soon went North, resided at Worcester, Mass., about two years, came South and settled in Alexandria, Va., in 1849, where he has resided ever since. He received his education at St. Johns Academy (a private school), was indentured apprentice to Green & Bro., large furniture manufacturers, in 1859. With permission from Messrs. Green & Bro. he enlisted as private in the Alexandria Light Artillery (better known as Kempers Battery), April 17, 1861, and served all through the Civil War. In 1863, on account of the scarcity of horses this company was transferred to the 18th Virginia Battalion Heavy Artillery, and served as infantry until the end of 524war. He was promoted to sergeant, was color guard at the Battle of Sailors Creek, April 6, 1865, just three days before the surrender of General Lee, was badly wounded in this battle, captured and sent to prison at City Point, thence to Baltimore and Fort McHenry, Md. He was released and sent home June 23, 1865, and was compelled to use crutches about a year and a half. He commenced boiler making with a partner early in 1867 under the firm name of Germond & Gorman, afterwards Gorman & Pettit, and later P. F. Gorman. He was married October 24, 1867, has eight children, five boys and three girls, all living at this time. Was elected City Tax Collector in 1889, and held office continuously and received democratic nomination (equivalent to election) for four years more, beginning January 1, 1910. He is a director in the leading building association of the city, also in the Alexandria National Bank and is an ex-Commander of R. E. Lee Camp, Confederate Veterans, and a Fourth Degree member of the Knights of Columbus.

Hamill, James A., A. M., of Jersey City, New Jersey, was born in Jersey City, New Jersey, March 30, 1877; received his education at St. Peter’s College, Jersey City, from which institution he was graduated in 1897, receiving the degree of A. B., and in the subsequent year that of A. M.; completed the regular course of lectures in the New York Law School and in 1899 obtained the degree of LL. B., was admitted to the bar of New Jersey in June, 1900; was elected in 1902 a member of the New Jersey house of assembly, where he served four consecutive one-year terms, during the last two of which he was leader in that body of the Democratic minority; was elected to the Sixtieth Congress and re-elected to the Sixty-first Congress.

Hogan, John P., B. A., was born in Chicago, Ill., June 12, 1881 (son of Denis John Hogan, also born in Chicago December 8, 1856); graduate University Preparatory School, Chicago, Ill., 1899; Harvard College, A. B., 1903; Lawrence Scientific School, Harvard University, S. B., 1904. Since leaving college he has been engaged in civil engineering work in New York City and vicinity and at present is Assistant Engineer, Board of Water Supply, City of New York, on construction of the Catskill Aqueduct, stationed at High Falls, N. Y.; member of Harvard Engineering Association, Municipal Engineers of New York City and Junior American Society of Civil Engineers.

525Hogan, Right Rev. John J., D. D., Bishop of Kansas City, Missouri; born in County Limerick, Ireland, May 10, 1829; ordained Priest in the Cathedral of St. Louis, Missouri, April 10, 1852; consecrated Bishop of St. Joseph, Missouri, September 13, 1868; transferred to the See of Kansas City, Missouri, September 10, 1880.

Hogan, John J., was born at Lowell, Mass., July 10, 1857. His father’s name is William Hogan, and his mother’s name Ellen (Ahearn) Hogan. Both his parents came to America in the year 1854, and lived continuously at Lowell, Mass., until their death. The family consisted of five boys and three girls, four of the boys now living, all the rest of the family being deceased. The sons now living are: John J. Hogan, William A. Hogan, David H. Hogan and Daniel E. Hogan, all of whom reside at Lowell, Mass. John J. Hogan attended the public schools of Lowell, and was graduated from the Lowell High School. He afterwards was tutored privately, and studied law in the office of Hon. Jeremiah Crowley of Lowell. He was admitted to the bar as an attorney-at-law in 1881, and has continued in active practice until the present time. He was city solicitor of the city of Lowell during the years 1891, 1892, 1893, 1894 and 1895, and tried as such a large number of cases, and is considered one of the best trial lawyers in the State of Massachusetts. He also has held many public offices. In 1883 and 1884 he was a member of the Common Council of the city of Lowell, and was president of that body in 1884. In 1885 and 1886 he was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives and served in that body during those years on important committees. He is a member of the Knights of Columbus, and a very prominent member of the Royal Arcanum, having served as Grand Regent of Massachusetts in the year 1908, and is now a member of the Supreme Council of that body. He is a director and counsel of the Lowell Trust Company, and is president of the Washington Savings Institution of that city, and is also president of the Washington Club of Lowell. Mr. Hogan married Marietta McEvoy on January 18, 1888, and has five children, viz.: Miss Marietta F. Hogan, Miss Helen L. Hogan, Miss Elizabeth I. Hogan, John J. Hogan, Jr., Miss Margaret Hogan. Mr. Hogan has offices at Lowell, Mass., and has associated with him his brother, William A. Hogan, the firm name being John J. & William A. Hogan.

526Hopkins, George A., Attorney at Law, 27 William Street, New York City, born in Detroit, Michigan, July 13, 1883; graduate of St. Mary’s Institute, Amsterdam, New York, 1901. Graduated from Princeton University, 1906, with degree of Litt. B.; received degree LL. B. from New York Law School.

Johnston, Mary H. S., was born in Red Wing, Minn., February 28, 1865. Her father was James Gallup Stoddard, a direct descendant of Elder William Brewster, who came in the Mayflower in 1620, and of Gov. Theophilus Eaton, one of the founders of New Haven Colony, Conn.; his father, Jonathan Stoddard, was the son of Mark Stoddard, sergeant of 10th Co., 6th Regiment, Connecticut Troops, at Battle of Bunker Hill, and Lucy (Ally) Stoddard, who was a sister to Captain Samuel Allyn, who was killed at Fort Griswold, Conn., at the time of Arnold’s invasion of Connecticut. The mother of James Gallup Stoddard was Hannah Morgan, a daughter of Captain Israel Morgan of Groton, Conn., who served under Gates during the Revolutionary War, and who was one of the defenders of Stonington, Conn., at its bombardment during the war of 1812; she was also a direct descendant of James Fitch, chaplain of the Connecticut forces during King Philip’s War under Majors Treat and Talcott, of Henry Wolcott, one of the early settlers of Windsor, Conn., and of Rev. Henry Whitfield of Guilford, Conn. The mother of the subject of this sketch was Margaret Barr, daughter of Andrew and Mary (Auld) Barr. Andrew Barr was born in Ireland in 1815 and was the son of Andrew and Martha (Douglas) Barr; he married in Ireland, in 1838, Mary Auld, daughter of Robert and Margaret (Stewart) Auld; they resided in Parish of Carmony, Town of Ballyhone, County Antrim, Ireland, until August, 1840, when they came to America, settling first at Henrietta, N. Y., thence to Wisconsin, then to Red Wing, Minn.; he enlisted in Company E, 3d Minnesota Volunteers, at the outbreak of the Civil War, where he served for five years, the latter part of his service acting as regimental veterinarian. She was educated in the schools of Humboldt, Iowa, graduating from the High School at the age of fifteen years. Upon leaving school she accepted a position with the Humboldt County Bank, now the Humboldt State Bank, where she has worked ever since, at the present time being one of the directors, secretary of the board of directors and assistant cashier. She was married June 27, 1888, at Humboldt, Iowa, to Robert J. Johnston, 527son of John and Jane (Porter) Johnston. Mrs. Johnston is interested in the work of patriotic societies and club work, and at the present time is State Historian of the Iowa Daughters of the American Revolution, vice-president of the Iowa United States Daughters of 1812, and state treasurer of the Iowa Federation of Women’s Clubs.

Keenan, Frank, was born April 8, 1859, in Dubuque, Iowa, where he lived for one year, moving to Boston with his parents, and attending the old Rice school in Boston. He made his first theatrical appearance on any stage at the Boston College in “Wild Oats” in 1876, and then started to learn the wholesale dry goods business. After several years he was sent out as a salesman on the road, later going into the wholesale cigar business as a traveling salesman. During this time he began to take up amateur theatricals, and gave imitations of popular actors whom he had never seen. Securing employment with the largest importers of German cutlery in New York, he left his samples in Connecticut town, slipped up to Boston and played “Green Jones” in “The Ticket of Leave Man,” in an amateur performance at Chelsea. On the strength of his performance he was engaged as leading man for “Musical Thompson’s repertoire company,” about to play the state of Maine, at a salary of $9 a week and board. He opened as Archibald Carlisle in “East Lynn,” and the next night played Tom Badger in “The Streets of New York.” This company carried its own scenery as the halls played had no scenery. The engagement was short-lived as salaries soon ceased to appear. His next professional engagement was with the tragedian Joseph Proctor. The part was Wenonga, the Indian chief in “Nick of the Woods,” under the management of that veteran stage manager and splendid actor, J. W. Lanergan, at his own theatre, the Lawrence Opera House at Lawrence, Mass. The repertoire included “Virginius,” “Damon and Pythias,” “Othello,” “The Red Pocketbook,” “Lady of Lyons,” “La Tour de Nelle,” and other sensational old timers. Under the direction of Lanergan this proved a successful and splendid school, such a one as does not exist today, for the young actor, for then one learned the trade, received the ground work of instruction—dramatic expression, movement, and grace. Following this came an engagement with Sol Smith Russell as the Deacon in his first play, “Edgewood Folks,” after which came an engagement 528with the Boston Museum Company, in the original production in this country of “Nunky,” afterwards called “The Private Secretary.” Then came the position of stage manager of a large company, having thirty-two plays in repertoire, touring New England; and engagements with prominent stars, including James A. Hearne, in “The Minute Man.” Then a starring engagement of his own in repertoire through the West, followed by “The Counterfeiter” in the original production of Steele Mackeye’s play, “The Noble Rogue,” in Chicago. This engagement was followed by a starring tour as “Terry Denison” in James A. Hearne’s play, “Hearts of Oak,” and a season co-starring with the Irish comedian, Billy Barry, in “McKenna’s Flirtation.” He then played “Fagin” in “Oliver Twist,” followed by the gypsy, “Miles McKenna,” in “Rosedale,” and stock starring in his own companies in Providence and Boston. A long engagement followed with the late Charles H. Hoyt and Frank McKee—in the New York production of “The Milk White Flag,” and “The Contented Woman.” This followed by his own production, the greatest scenic production ever made of “Oliver Twist.” This was followed by a return to the Hoyt forces. The next engagement was with “The Texas Steer,” in the part of “Maverick Brander,” under the late Sam S. Shubert, his first experience as a manager. Then came an engagement in Augustus Thomas’ play, “The Capitol,” under the management of James Hill, at the Standard Theatre, New York. This was followed by a performance of “The Major” in Jacob Litt’s original production of “The War of Wealth.” Then as director of the Pike Stock Company for a season in Cincinnati, Ohio, and on the collapse of the late Sol Smith Russell came a starring tour of two years in “The Poor Relation,” followed by another season starring in “The Honorable John Grigsby.” Then two seasons in vaudeville, after which came an engagement under the management of David Belasco, which lasted four years, including the parts of “Jack Rance” in “The Girl of the Golden West,” and “General Buck” in “The Warrens of Virginia.” Mr. Keenan is starring this season in “The Heights” under the management of Henry B. Harris.

Keenan, Walter F., was born in Philadelphia on October 20, 1855. His parents were Michael F. Keenan and Hannah Elizabeth Quigg, both also born in Philadelphia.

529Kehoe, Michael P., was born in Baltinglass, County Wicklow, Ireland, in 1873; son of Nicholas and Catherine Kehoe; was reared in Leighlingbridge, County Carlow, Ireland, and educated in the National schools. He quickly realized that the old land, under its alien rulers, offered very little encouragement for a patriotic, ambitious young man, so he turned towards this “land of opportunity,” arriving in the United States in 1893 and settling in Baltimore, Md. He became connected with a mercantile agency and diligently applied himself to master the business. With this end in view, while working daily at his regular duties, he attended a business college at night and became proficient in typewriting, stenography, accounting and the usual commercial studies. Later he attended the evening classes of the Baltimore Law School. He was admitted to the Baltimore Bar in 1904. In association with Robert W. Mobray, he formed the law firm of Kehoe & Mobray with offices at 502–506 Law Building, Baltimore, Md.

To add to his legal training he took post-graduate courses at the Catholic University of America at Washington, D. C., making a special study of corporation law. The University conferred on him degrees of LL. M. in 1906 and J. D. in 1907. He was elected to serve as a delegate from Baltimore County in the Maryland legislature for 1907–1908. He was a member of the corporations, claims and various other important committees. In the Spring of 1909, he delivered, by request, before the Philosophical students of the Catholic University, several lectures on the “Procedure of Legislative Bodies,” drawing upon his practical experience in the Maryland legislature. Mr. Kehoe has maintained unflagging, fervent interest in the movement to restore Home Rule to the land of his birth. Indeed, at one time he contemplated a return to Ireland to offer himself as a candidate for Parliament. He has been actively identified with the United Irish League of America, being among the first to welcome Messrs. Redmond, O’Donnell and McHugh when those gentlemen visited the United States to establish the League. He was a member of the Provisional Committee of the League which met at the Hoffman House, New York City, in 1901. He was also a delegate to the National Convention of the United Irish League when it met at Boston, Mass., in 1902. Mr. Kehoe has managed to make a thorough study of Irish history and the Irish National cause. He is especially well versed in the speeches of the great Irish orators, 530having made a careful study of them. He is in great demand by the various Irish societies as an orator. Not content with using his voice in behalf of the Irish race, he has also used his pen. He wrote an extended series of “Studies in Irish History,” for the Baltimore Catholic Mirror a few years ago. They attracted considerable attention and displayed extensive research and wide reading. He is a student of political and economic subjects. In politics, Mr. Kehoe is a Democrat, takes an active part in the management of the party, and is one of its recognized leaders in his county. He is County President of the Ancient Order of Hibernians in Baltimore County, and is an active member of the Catholic Benevolent Legion, the Elks, Knights of the Golden Eagle, Royal Arcanum, and the Tribe of Ben Hur. In 1900 he married Miss Catherine Byrne; the couple have six children. He is a director of and counsel for the Suburban Trust Company of Govans, Baltimore County, Maryland, where he resides.

Kelley, John W., was born December 3, 1865, in Portsmouth, N. H. Educated in public schools of Portsmouth. Graduated from Dartmouth College in 1888. Studied law with Hon. J. S. H. Frink at Portsmouth from the summer of 1888 to the spring of 1894, in the last three and one-half years of which he was principal of the Whipple school in Portsmouth. He has been in constant practice of law in Portsmouth since, up to the present time. Was City Solicitor of Portsmouth for two years, County Attorney of Rockingham County for five years, member of the School Board of Portsmouth for three years, member of the Water Board of Portsmouth three years. Roman Catholic; Republican; member of the State Republican Committee; United States Commissioner for the District of New Hampshire for the past eight years and is now; was a member of the United States Assay Commission in 1906. Mother born in County Clare, father born in County Cork; came to this country about 1850. He has a wife and two children, a boy and a girl.

Kelly, James E., was born in Ogdensburg, N. Y., November 23, 1853, and was educated in the public schools of Ogdensburg and the Ogdensburg Educational Institute, under the late Julius S. Grinnell, District Attorney of Chicago, and A. Barton Hepburn, of New York, the New York banker. He began life in 1866 as bookkeeper in the old Crichton brewery. About this time he lost his father and was suddenly left with a mother and her young family to care for. In 5311871 he entered the employ of C. B. Herriman as bookkeeper in the largest wholesale and retail grocery store and butter business in Northern New York. In 1876, through the influence of Hon. Daniel Magone, Mr. Kelly was appointed as manager of the manufacturing department of Clinton prison, serving in that capacity for two years. In 1880 the Ogdensburg Coal & Towing Company was organized with Hon. John Hannan as president, and Mr. Kelly entered that well-known and successful corporation, acting first as secretary and bookkeeper and from 1883 to 1892 as local manager of the concern’s interest in Montreal. In 1892 he was appointed sales agent at Utica for the N. Y. & O. W. R. R. in Central and Northern New York and Eastern Canada. About this time he entered the retail coal business in Ogdensburg with L. B. Leonard, which still continues. In 1894 Mr. Kelly was appointed postmaster of Ogdensburg by President Cleveland, holding the office for five years. Mr. Kelly is a Democrat in politics and has been a delegate five times in recent years to the State Convention of his party. He has been chairman of the Democratic city committee, for three years, and in 1902 was elected chairman of the county committee, succeeding Mayor Hall. Mr. Kelly has been on the city school board since 1895, being president in 1901 and 1902. Upon the establishment of a municipal civil service board in 1900 Mr. Kelly was made chairman of that board by Mayor Hall. Mr. Hall appointed Mr. Kelly president of the Board of Public Works in 1907 and Mayor Hannan reappointed him in 1908. When the St. Lawrence County Savings Bank was established in 1908 Mr. Kelly was chosen trustee and manager. He is an active member of the C. M. B. A., Knights of Columbus and Century Club. He is president of the Holy Name and St. Vincent de Paul Societies. The Oswegatchie Agricultural Association was reorganized in 1909 and has been conducted to the present year by Mr. Kelly as president. It is now the best agricultural fair in Northern New York. Mr. Kelly was married in 1886 to Miss Mary Spratt and has a family of one son and three daughters.

Kelly, John Joseph, General Agent in Missouri, State Mutual Life Assurance Company of Worcester, Mass., born in Albany, N. Y., May 23, 1871. Son of Thomas and Mary (Raleigh) Kelly, both of whom were born in Ireland; was educated in public schools of 532Albany, N. Y.; graduated with honors from St. Louis Law school, Washington University, LL. B., 1899; unmarried. Began business career as clerk in First National Bank, Albany, N. Y. Engaged in the life insurance business in 1893 and went to St. Louis same year; in 1903 received the appointment to present position with the State Mutual Life Assurance Company. Member of the Glen Echo Country Club and Aëro Club. Both parents born in Ireland.

Kerney, James, editor; born Trenton, N. J., April 29, 1879; son of Thomas Francis and Maria (O’Farrell) Kerney; educated in parochial schools; married Miss Sarah Mullen, of Trenton, October 4, 1897; employed as clerk in store 1887–1891; stenographer, Trenton and New York, 1891–1895; became reporter, 1895; editor of Trenton Times since 1903; vice-president Times Corporation; director Trenton Trust Company. Civil Service Commissioner for New Jersey, named by Governor Fort in 1908. Inaugurated movement for establishment of national park at Washington’s Crossing to commemorate place where the revolutionary general made his famous strategic move on night of Christmas, 1776; member of New Jersey Commission to coöperate with similar commission from Pennsylvania in establishing park. Independent in politics. Roman Catholic; member of Knights of Columbus, Lotus and Country Clubs. Home 373 West State street, Trenton.

Lally, Patrick E. C., was born about June 8, 1856, in the Townland of Slyngan Roe, Parish of Kilmaclasser, in the Barony of Burrishool South, County of Mayo, Ireland, the fifth child in a family of seven children, born to Peter and Nancy Corcoran Lally. In his eighteenth year he came to the United States, without a dollar, and took hold of the first thing that came to hand, to wit: working in a grocery store in Chicago, but not liking that method of making a livelihood, he left, went farther West, finally studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1880. On the first day of September of the same year, he married Kittie Hughes Lally, and they have been blessed with a family of eleven children, each and all alive and well. He is a Fourth Degree member of the Knights of Columbus, and tries to maintain an ideal Catholic home, surrounding his family with everything that makes for Christian refinement. There is scarcely a valuable book on Catholic topics, in the English language, for sale in American book stores, that has not a place on his library shelves, 533one of his aims and purposes being that his children shall know and be able to give a reason for the faith that is in them. He is a grandfather, four times over, and his daughters all graduated, those old enough, from convent schools. His oldest son graduated from the University of Notre Dame, and later from the law department of Harvard.

Larkin, Robert E., was born May 9, 1879, on a farm in Eagle Township about two miles west of Streator, Illinois, to Thomas Larkin and Delia (Conners) Larkin, both of whom were born in County Galway, Ireland, and were married in Eagle Township in 1863. He received his education in the public school at Kangley, Illinois, and in the high school at Streator, Illinois, completing the classical course at St. Bede College at Peru, Illinois. He then commenced the study of law in the law office of Lloyd Painter of Streator, Ill., in the Fall of 1903, under whom he studied law until his admission to the Illinois Bar, October 11, 1906. Immediately thereafter he opened up a law office at Streator and practiced alone until September 4, 1907, when he formed a law partnership with Patrick J. Lucey of that city, with whom he is still connected. He is unmarried and is a member of the Knights of Columbus.

Lonergan, John E., of Philadelphia, was born at Nicholastown, Parish of Grange, County of Tipperary, Ireland, May 25, 1841, of Pierce and Mary Tobin-Lonergan; when about five years of age, attended private school; later attended the “Model School” in Clonmell. In March, 1852, father, mother and three children, comprising entire family, came to America, settled in Bennington Co., Vermont; in 1862, moved into Massachusetts, where he learned the machinist’s trade. In 1867, he married Miss Mary A. Bowes, of Saxonville, Mass. He continued to follow his trade in various capacities for several years, and later engaged in locomotive engineering for a number of years and left it to engage in the manufacturing of mechanical appliances, under United States patents, which were granted him in 1872, first in Sacramento City, California, and in Philadelphia, Pa., since 1875. He is now president of the J. E. Lonergan Company, vice-president of the H. Brinton Company, both of Philadelphia, Pa., and president of the Cuba Fruit Company, of Von Tanamo, Cuba. His father died in 1884, in his seventy-fourth year, at North Adams, Mass., where his mother still lives in her 534ninety-seventh year, enjoying good health and retaining all her faculties practically unimpaired.

Lonergan, Thomas S., 408 East One Hundred and Forty-Ninth street, New York City, was born in Mitchelstown, Ireland, in the year 1864. He received his education in the schools of the Christian Brothers of his native town and at St. Colman’s College, Fermoy. He came to America in 1883 and became a full-fledged citizen in 1888. He had been only two weeks a citizen when his name was placed on the list of campaign speakers by the Democratic State Committee of New York. He is the author of “The Golden Age of Ireland,” and “The Fallacies of Socialism,” and numerous magazine articles on Irish, historical and political subjects. He is an able writer and brilliant lecturer. His eulogy on “Abraham Lincoln” is a master-piece. He is one of the lecturers of the Knights of Columbus. During the past ten years he has devoted considerable time and labor to historical research. His article entitled: “St. Brendan, America’s First Discoverer,” which was written specially for Volume IX. of the Journal of the American-Irish Historical Society, speaks for itself. He is very much interested in the history of the Irish element in America. He has been with the New York World during the past sixteen years and has been for the past four years manager of its Bronx office. Mr. Lonergan is the author of “St. Brendan, America’s First Discoverer,” published elsewhere in this volume.

Lucey, Hon. D. B.—One of the best known citizens of Ogdensburg is the Hon. Dennis B. Lucey. In his infancy, Mr. Lucey, who was born in Massachusetts, moved with his parents to St. Lawrence County, N. Y. After some time spent on a farm he graduated from the classical course of the Potsdam Normal School and for three years taught mathematics in the Ogdensburg Free Academy. In 1886 he was admitted to the bar. He entered partnership with the Hon. George R. Malby, and today the firm of Malby & Lucey is one of the most highly esteemed in the State. Mr. Lucey is a member of the State and National Bar Associations and also of the Bar of the U. S. District and Circuit Courts. His energies have been principally devoted to trial court work. In his work of referee in important cases referred to him, his decisions have been well sustained by the appellate courts. Politically Mr. Lucey is a Democrat. He has served as Mayor of Ogdensburg with great benefit to the city 535at large. He has also been president of the Board of Education, where his counsel has always been of valuable service. Mr. Lucey has also taken an active interest in commercial matters. He has been for a number of years a director of the National Bank of Ogdensburg. He is also a director of the O’Connor & Jones Tobacco Company and of the John B. Tyo & Sons Dry Goods Company, and a Trustee of St. Lawrence County Savings Bank and its attorney. He is also a veteran of the Spanish-American War. Socially Mr. Lucey is a member of the Century Club and of the Ogdensburg Club, and his home on Washington street is one which helps to make Ogdensburg noted as a city of beautiful homes.

Mahoney, Daniel Emmet, was born in St. Louis, Mo., on October 25, 1860, where his father, Daniel Q. Mahoney, a carpenter and builder, erected some fine churches, and served in the militia guarding government property on and along the Mississippi River at the time of the war between the North and South. His father was born in County Kerry, Ireland, near the Lake of Killarney, and his mother was born in County Kerry also. About the closing of the war his parents moved to New York City where they lived a few years, then moved to or near Matawan, Monmouth County, New Jersey. There the subject of this sketch began to till a few acres of land, and sell the vegetables from it, later moving to Keyport, where he opened a store for the sale of vegetables and fruits, then adding groceries, hay and grain, which he continues with his four other stores in neighboring towns, and his two farms to supply fruits and vegetables for the stores and hay for the horses. Strictly attending to business, and taking no part in politics, he styles himself a farmer and merchant.

McBreen, Patrick Francis, 404 Monroe street, Brooklyn, N. Y., of P. F. McBreen & Sons, printers, 47 Ann street, New York City.

McGinney, John H., No. 766 McAllister Street, San Francisco, Cal.; born in Providence, R. I., April 28, 1853, being the eldest son of Thomas and Margaret (Smith) McGinney; educated in the public schools of Providence until the age of eleven, when the family removed to San Francisco; education was completed in this city, and the trade of carriage blacksmithing was learned; worked at blacksmithing for twenty years and was appointed State Wharfinger April 7, 1887, serving for four years; married in June, 1889, Miss Mary 536Elizabeth Russell of Boston, two children being born of this union; appointed Deputy Superintendent of Streets in 1894; later was appointed Deputy Surveyor in the Engineering Department, Board of Public Works, which position he holds at the present time; has been treasurer of the St. Patrick’s Mutual Alliance Association of California for thirteen years, and a trustee of the Knights of St. Patrick for four years.

McGuire, Frank A., M. D., was born in the old Sixth Ward, No. 78 Bayard street, New York City, July 1, 1851, his father, James, keeping a bakery there. James McGuire was the eldest son of Philip and Ellen McGuire, his grandmother not changing her name when she married, all from Cloues, County Monaghan, North of Ireland, he coming here in 1847, and bringing out all his people, one of his sisters marrying a Fitzsimmons, who settled in Lonsdale, R. I., bringing up a large and respectable family among the number being the Hon. Frank E. Fitzsimmons, chairman of the Democratic State Committee of Rhode Island. His mother was a native New Yorker, her name being Catherine Ann McGuire. Her father was Daniel Joshua Thomas, born in Camavon, Wales; he served in the artillery in Canada, in the 1812 war on the American side, and her mother was a native of Philadelphia. The subject of this sketch was educated in De La Salle Institute, going there in the Fall of 1860, his father dying in December, 1860, being then a well-known flour merchant, member of the firm of Coulter & McGuire, 30 Front street. He afterwards went to Manhattan College, but took no degree, leaving school in 1868 and began the study of medicine in 1873, entering the University Medical College of the City of New York and graduated in 1877; was connected later with the Northeastern Dispensary and also assistant in the Demalt Dispensary Heart and Lung Division. Was President of the Metropolitan Medical Society and also of the Celtic Medical Society, serving two terms in the latter. Is a member of the County Medical Society, State Medical Society, American Medical and Physicians Mutual Association. He entered the public service receiving the appointment of visiting physician to the Penitentiary and Work House, Blackwell’s Island, on April 27, 1899, and on May 23, 1904, was transferred to the City Prison (or Tombs) with the title of City Physician. He has contributed to medical literature, a report of a case of bloody sweating (Hæmadrosions) before the Neurological Section of the Academy 537of Medicine, in 1879, a case of tumor of the Corpus Callosur (with autopsy), a contribution of work done and reported from the laboratory of Dr. E. C. Spitzka, the distinguished alienist and neurologist, and various other scientific papers. He has testified many times before lunacy commissions and in celebrated trials like that of Harry K. Thaw for murder. August 15, 1873, he married Emma L. Denmark, daughter of Alexander and Eleanor Denmark of Ireland, and they have five children living: Emma Frances, wife of Mr. William F. O’Connor of Syracuse, N. Y.; James Alexander, Harriet Lewis, wife of William Henry Herbst; L. Marion and Gertrude Eleanor, the latter in Normal College.

McGuire, Patrick Henry, was born in the city of Pittsburg, County of Allegheny, State of Pennsylvania, August 13, 1869, the ninth child and sixth son of Patrick McGuire and Margaret Wheeler, both Irish immigrants who came to this country about the year 1849, settled and were married in the city of Philadelphia, and came to Pittsburg about the year 1860. Two years after his birth, his folks moved to the city of Allegheny, Pennsylvania, where they lived until he was twenty years of age; in September, 1889, they moved to the Borough of Homestead, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, where he has since lived. He attended the public and parochial schools of the city of Allegheny until he was thirteen years of age, at which time he went to work in a rolling mill; and followed the iron and steel mills until the month of August, 1897. From 1889 to 1897 was employed in the Homestead Steel Works as a steel worker. February 18, 1895, was married to Mollie A. Boyle, of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, by Rev. Daniel Devlin, in St. Stephen’s R. C. Church, Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, and at once started housekeeping in Homestead. They have five children, all living, as follows: Margaret, fourteen years of age, January 20, 1910; Paul, twelve years of age, September 23, 1909; Francis, ten years of age, September 5, 1909; Mary Paulus, six years of age, February 14, 1910, and Patrick Henry, Jr., two years of age, August 5, 1909. In 1897, he was elected Grand Secretary of the Pennsylvania Grand Council Jurisdiction of the Young Men’s Institute, at a salary of $1,000.00 per year—when he quit the mill,—to which office he was re-elected five times and filled for nine consecutive years; after which he was elected Grand President. Almost immediately after his election as Grand Secretary of the Young Men’s Institute, he began to prepare himself for the study of law. This required 538him to pass a preliminary examination consisting of all the common school branches, natural science, civil government, Latin and higher mathematics, to do which he engaged private tutors, who instructed him during the evening hours. In addition, the Very Reverend John Murphy, C. S. Sp., and the Very Reverend M. A. Hehir, C. S. Sp., successive Presidents of the Pittsburg College of the Holy Ghost, very kindly assigned professors of that institution to teach him Latin and natural science, before the regular school hours in the morning. To Very Reverend John Murphy, C. S. Sp., he owes a debt of gratitude. After six years and a half of close study, he was admitted as a member of the Bar of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, of the State Courts and of the United States Courts, where he is still practicing. The last three of said six and one-half years were spent at the Pittsburg Law School, from which institution he was graduated on the sixteenth day of June, 1904, with the degree of LL. B. Served two terms as Solicitor of the Borough of Homestead—1905–1906 and 1906–1907, and is now serving as a member of the town council. He is a member of the Young Men’s Institute, Knights of Columbus, Ancient Order of Hibernians, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the Grand Fraternity.

McHugh, James, was born in the townland of Kelleter, Parish of Kel, County of Longfed, January 1, 1847. Got a very limited education; went to serve apprenticeship at Grog business in Longfed when thirteen years old. Later went to Liverpool, England, and served as clerk in gents’ furnishing goods. Left Liverpool the same day the Abyssinia expedition sailed, September 26, 1867; arrived in New York September 26. Left New York October 2 for New Orleans, La., where he went in the grocery business again as clerk. Opened business for himself in 1869 and married, from which union there were three children. In 1874 he moved to Pensacola. The city then had 4,000 population and now has 35,000. After vicissitudes his business was put on a foundation. He lost his first wife in 1878 and was again married in 1884, from which union there is a daughter that will be graduated from the Convent of Visitation, Mobile, Ala., in June next. His father was Patrick McHugh and his mother Anne Byrne, both of the County of Longfed. They arrived in America with six other children in 1869 and moved to St. Clair County, Mo., where the elder McHugh operated a large farm and died in 1901. A younger brother now operates the farm. 539The subject of this sketch has served the City of Pensacola as an Alderman for eighteen years and his last term would not expire until 1911, but having moved from his district he resigned. He served for seven years as a member of a volunteer fire company and also in the Escaubie Rifles of which company he was second sergeant. He has travelled extensively in the north and west. Mr. McHugh is Deputy Grand Knight, K. of C., Pensacola Court No. 778.

McKee, Edward L., of Indianapolis, is the son of Robert S. McKee, son of James and Agnes McMillan McKee. Robert S. McKee was born January 8, 1823, at Tully Carey, County Down, Ireland. His mother died in 1836, and was buried at Slan in County Down. His father died in 1864 at Wheeling, West Virginia. Robert S. McKee died June 10, 1904, at Indianapolis. He was the youngest of six children, William, James, Sophie, Margaret and Eliza. Edward was born at Madison, Indiana, March 13, 1856, his mother being Celine Lodge McKee, born January 16, 1826, died April 2, 1861.

McNaboe, James F., attorney-at-law, 68 William street, New York City; born at Manchester, Vermont, in 1866; son of Owen McNaboe and Mary (Kelly) McNaboe, both parents born in Ireland. Prepared for college in Burr and Burton Seminary; graduate of Middlebury College; studied law in New York Law School and New York University.

Meagher, Frederick Jefferson—Born December 21, 1876, at Binghamton, N. Y.; educated Binghamton public schools; graduated Hamilton College, 1899, Phi Beta Kappa Key; studied law at Binghamton 1899–1901; admitted to bar November, 1901; practiced law at Binghamton 1902–1907; consolidator with State Board of Statutory Consolidation, 1905–1907, at Albany; assistant corporation counsel of Binghamton, 1908; January 1, 1909, appointed district attorney of Broome County by Governor Hughes.

Mitchell, Richard H., was born in McKeesport, Pa., in 1869. He was educated at the Morrisania public school, then known as Grammar School No. 61, at the College of the City of New York, where he graduated in 1888, and at Columbia University Law School in 1890 and 1891, and in June of the latter year was admitted to the bar. He associated himself with Morgan & Ives, a well-known 540law firm of New York City, and soon after became a member of the firm with Rollin M. Morgan. The firm of Morgan & Mitchell has, during the last ten years, taken charge of much important litigation, and both members of the firm have been active in public affairs.

Mr. Mitchell is the younger son of Dr. James B. Mitchell and Emma Henry Mitchell. He is a descendant of Irish and German ancestors, his grandfather, James Henry, having been a native of the town of Coleraine, County of Londonderry, Ireland, and he is also related to the Eckfeldt family, of whom Adam Eckfeldt was an appointee of President Washington in the United States Mint. He has lived for the last thirty-four years in the Borough of the Bronx, in the part formerly known as Morrisania, and since 1890 has been well-known as a Democrat and a strong adherent of Tammany Hall. In 1897 he was elected Member of Assembly for the Thirty-Fifth Assembly District by a majority of 1,462 and the following year, 1898, he was elected Senator by a majority of 6,606. He remained in the Senate during the years 1899 and 1900, serving on the Judiciary Committee and the Committee on Privileges and Elections. In February, 1904, Corporation Counsel Delaney selected Senator Mitchell as one of his assistants, and placed him in charge of the Corporation Counsel’s Office in the Borough of the Bronx. He was continued in that office by Corporation Counsel Ellison and Pendleton. Mr. Mitchell is now a member of the Bar Association of the City of New York, Democratic Club, New York Yacht Club, Larchmont Yacht Club, Fordham Club, Jackson Democratic Club, Schnorer Club, Jefferson Tammany Club, Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, Kane Lodge, No. 454, F. and A. M., Jerusalem Chapter, Cœur de Lion Commandery, Pennsylvania Society, Pawnee Club League of American Wheelmen, Bar Association of the Borough of the Bronx, Alumni Association of College of City of New York, and Bronx West Side Association. Mr. Mitchell resides at 1362 Franklin avenue, Borough of the Bronx, New York City.

Moran, James T., lawyer and business man; born North Haven, Conn., September 19, 1864; son of Thomas and Maria (Cullom) Moran; grad. Hillhouse High School, New Haven, 1883; LL. B. Yale Law School, 1884; M. L., 1885; married, New Haven, April 27, 1898, Mary E. McKenzie. Has practised in New Haven since 1884; vice-president, director and general attorney, the Southern New England Telephone Co.; president New Haven Union Co. 541(newspaper); director Merchants’ National Bank, National Folding Box and Paper Co., Acme Wire Co.; trustee Conn. Savings Bank; member New Haven Board of Education, 1893–1909. Roman Catholic. Clubs, Graduates’, Knights of St. Patrick (New Haven); Yale (New York). Residence, 221 Sherman Avenue. Office, Southern New England Telephone Co., New Haven, Conn.

Mulhern, John, 140 Second Street, San Francisco, Cal., is a dealer in soda water machinery and supplies; was born in County Roscommon, Ireland, in 1848; came to Dorchester, Mass., in 1853, where he attended the old Mather School on Meeting House Hill; arrived in San Francisco in 1874. Member of Knights of St. Patrick, Celtic Union and Celtic Union Hall Association. Life member of the Society.

O’Brien, James, LL. D., was born at Castle Tymon, parish of Barn Dearig, in the County of Wicklow, Ireland, on Whit Monday, 1836. Left there with parents in May, 1849. Settled in Clark County, Ohio. Father was a carpenter. He attended school in Springfield, Ohio, till 1851, then went to Catholic colleges, winding up with Notre Dame University, where he was graduated as A. B. in 1859. He was then employed there as teacher till 1862, and thereafter studied law, and was admitted to practice in Dubuque, Iowa, in 1866. Practiced there and in Lansing, same state, till 1870, when he settled in Minnesota at Caledonia, the county seat of Houston County. Was soon after elected District Attorney, and re-elected successively for about twelve years. Was elected State Senator thereafter serving in that capacity in the years 1883 and 1885. Was chosen delegate to the National Republican Convention which nominated General Harrison for president, acting as chairman of the delegation. Was afterwards appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New Mexico, by President Harrison, which position he held till October, 1893. He then returned to Caledonia, where he has since resided. The University of Notre Dame, Ind., conferred on him the degree of LL. D. in 1908. Was married to Catherine Lyons, daughter of Michael and Mary Lyons, in 1864, at Galena, Ill. Ten children were the fruit of the union, five of whom survive. His life has been wholly uneventful, devoting himself exclusively to the study of law, and to the history of the Middle Ages. He has made a specialty of the Inquisition, particularly that of Spain.

542O’Brien, Thomas J., diplomat and lawyer, born at Jackson, Michigan, July 30, 1842; son of Timothy O’Brien and Elizabeth (Lauder) O’Brien. His early education was procured in the public schools of Michigan, and he then entered the law department of the University of Michigan, from which he was graduated as LL. B. in 1865. He then engaged in the practice of law with success, becoming assistant general counsel for the Grand Rapids and Indiana Railway in 1871 and its general counsel in 1883, and continuing in that capacity until 1905 when he was appointed envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of the United States to Denmark, in which position he continued until May 18, 1907, when he was appointed ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to Japan. Mr. O’Brien is a Republican; in 1883 he was the candidate of his party for Justice of the Supreme Court of the State of Michigan. He was a delegate-at-large to the National Convention at St. Louis in 1896 which nominated McKinley, and was again a delegate-at-large and chairman of his delegation to the Chicago Convention of 1904 which nominated Roosevelt. Mr. O’Brien married September 4, 1873, Delia Howard, and they have their home at Grand Rapids, Michigan. Address: American Embassy, Tokyo, Japan.

O’Meara, John B., was born in 1850 in St. Louis, was graduated A. B. in the Jesuit College (St. Louis University); worked as bank clerk, stock and bond broker and finally contractor. He married in 1874 Sallie Helm Ford (now deceased), granddaughter of Governor Helm of Kentucky, and grandniece of Brigadier-General Hardin Helm, late C. S. A., the latter being married to a Miss Todd, sister of the wife of the ever lamented Abraham Lincoln. He is secretary of the Hill-O’Meara Construction Company, and although offered minor political offices many times he declined to serve until 1894, when he was elected Lieutenant-Governor of Missouri on the Democratic ticket. He takes a very great interest in the National Guard, having been connected with it since 1872 and is now Paymaster General of the Missouri troops. Among the soldiers who surrendered at Limerick with Sarsfield, was an ancestor, Patrick O’Meara, who became a colonel of the Irish Brigade or more correctly speaking the “Legion Irlandais de France.” He afterward married a lady of a distinguished house of France, and reared a family, two sons of which, Jean Baptiste and Daniel, followed the footsteps of their 543father. When they became able to bear arms they also entered the “Legion,” one of them becoming “Lieutenant en premier” in Walsh’s Regiment, the other “Lieutenant en second” in Dillon’s Regiment of that corps. When Washington made his earnest and final appeal to Louis for more troops, the French king sent some twenty thousand picked men, with a splendid fleet under Count d’Estaing, and among these troops came Dillon’s and Walsh’s Regiments, bringing Jean Baptiste and Daniel O’Meara, John B’s grandfather and granduncle. The French ships engaged the British fleet off Savannah, Georgia, and although it was a drawn battle, owing to a severe storm, they bottled up the British fleet in Savannah, and prevented them from carrying out their plan to come to the assistance of Cornwallis. Meantime d’Estaing moved some of his ships lower down the coast, disembarked several regiments including Dillon’s and Walsh’s, which marched overland and happily met the retreating forces of Lafayette who were being pursued by a portion of the British force from Yorktown. Lafayette now being reinforced turned on his enemies, and drove them back to Yorktown where coöperating with Washington soon forced Cornwallis to surrender. When d’Estaing and his fleet, shortly after, sailed back to France, his grandfather and uncle being Frenchmen, went back with them. The revolution soon broke out, and his folks being Royalists and hating the sans culottes and proletariats, stood with the Legion which suffered terribly defending the King, until overpowered by numbers. His grandfather, disgusted with affairs in France, went back to the land of his forbears and settled in a little town called Athey, County of Kildare, the birthplace of the Duke of Wellington. There his grandfather married and there his father, Patrick, was born. He came to this country in 1832 and after living in New Orleans and in Boston settled and brought up his family, one of whom, a sister, Madame O’Meara, was superior of the Sacred Heart Order in New York City and is now superior of that order in New Orleans, Louisiana. The facts of the revolutionary story as above are in “United States Senate Document No. 77” entitled “Combattants Francais es dans Le Guerre Americain—1777–83.”

O’Shaughnessy, James, 2252 Giddings street, Chicago, son of James O’Shaughnessy of Gort and Catherine, née Mulholland; was born in St. Catherine, Mo., and educated in the parochial schools; took up the profession of teaching and then the study of law, which 544he abandoned to enter newspaper work. He was editor and publisher of the Catholic Tribune, St. Joseph, Mo., and afterwards engaged as reporter, correspondent and editor of daily papers in St. Joseph, Mo., Chicago and New York, and as syndicate correspondent in Europe in 1894 when he was a member of the International Jury of Awards of the Antwerp Exposition. Served as correspondent in Cuba for the Chicago Chronicle during the Spanish-American war and in the later Indian troubles in the Northwest. Political editor of the Chicago American until he abandoned editorial work to enter the field of advertising as writer and counsellor. Former president of Western Catholic Writers’ Guild, and Irish Fellowship Club of Chicago. He married Miss Mary Hynes, of the Hynes family of Galway.

Olcott, Chauncey, has never appeared in a play that was not clean and wholesome, or that contained a line, or an episode that was vulgar or even suggestive. Mr. Olcott is of Irish descent, and was born in the city of Buffalo. He was educated at the Brothers schools, from which he graduated with high honors. He was gifted by nature with an unusually sweet tenor voice, and at an early age started his professional career as a ballad singer in traveling minstrel days. During these years he won his first public recognition by his wonderful singing of favorite ballads. He then went to England for a short time, where his voice won praise for its sweetness and purity. During his sojourn in England he devoted his spare time to study. On his return he went to San Francisco and in connection with his appearances on the stage assumed the management of the Standard Theatre in that city. His next step was to desert minstrelsy and join Denman Thompson in “The Old Homestead.” After this he became the tenor of the Duff Opera Company and the McCaull Opera Company. At this period he determined to go to London, secure an engagement if possible and thoroughly cultivate his voice under the tuition of some good master. During Mr. Olcott’s stay in London he played for one year at the Lyric Theatre and one year at the Prince of Wales Theatre. He returned to America under engagement to his present manager, Mr. Augustus Pitou, to star in Irish singing light comedy rôles, making his first appearance in Mavourneen in November, 1893, at Yonkers, New York. That was sixteen years ago. During these 545years Mr. Olcott has produced eleven plays and written more popular songs than any other song writer of the day. On September 28, 1897, Mr. Olcott was married to Margaret O’Donovan, of San Francisco. The union has been a most happy and ideal one. Mr. Olcott has won for himself both fame and wealth, and what is better still, the admiration and respect of thousands of personal friends.

Phelan, James Duval, ex-mayor of San Francisco; born San Francisco April, 1861; sire James Phelan, a California Pioneer; A. B., St. Ignatius College; Ph. N., Santa Clara College; studied law at the University of California; unmarried; was lieutenant-colonel of the California National Guard; Commissioner and Vice-President of the World’s Columbian Commission; after the San Francisco disaster was President of the Relief and Red Cross Funds (a corporation); was designated by President Roosevelt’s proclamation to receive funds and use the U. S. Mint as depository; was a member of the committee of fifty and forty for relief and reconstruction; Chairman of the Charter Association which gave the new Charter to San Francisco; President of the Adornment Association, which procured the Burnham plans for the city; President of the Art Association; President of the California Branch of the American National Red Cross; President of the Native Sons’ Hall Association and Boys’ Club; member of the Society of California Pioneers. Clubs: Metropolitan, Washington; Metropolitan, New York; Pacific Union, Bohemian, University, Olympic. Director of the First National Bank; Mayor of San Francisco from 1896 to 1902; received complimentary vote for U. S. Senator in the California legislature in 1900; President of the Mutual Savings Bank. Office in the Phelan Building, San Francisco.

Quinn, Patrick Henry, born December 16, 1869, at Phenix Village, town of Warwick, Rhode Island, son of Peter and Margaret (Callaghan) Quinn. Father born in Armagh and mother in County Monaghan, Ireland. Was educated in public schools of Warwick, admitted to practice at Rhode Island bar in August, 1895, and in United States courts in January, 1897. Has practiced in Providence ever since; was Probate Judge and Town Solicitor of native town in 1899–1900, and again in 1905–1906. Was senior aide on personal staff of Governor L. F. C. Garvin.

Hon. Elmer J. Rathbun, A. B., LL. B., Justice of the Superior 546Court of the State of Rhode Island, was born in Coventry, R. I., April 16, 1870. He graduated from the East Greenwich Academy in the class of 1892, from Brown University in the class of 1896, and from the Boston University School of Law in the class of 1898, from the last institution with the highest honors. He was elected Justice of the Fourth Judicial District Court on November 8, 1900, and served until January 22, 1909, when he was elected Justice of the Superior Court of the State of Rhode Island. He was elected a member of the General Assembly of the State of Rhode Island from the town of West Greenwich May, 1897, and at the time of his election to the position of Justice of the Superior Court was the senior member of the lower branch in continuous service, having been elected representative twelve consecutive times, and was, for several years, chairman of the House Committee on Corporations. Judge Rathbun is the son of James and Melissa Rathbun.

Rigney, Joseph, was born in Dublin, Ireland, May 11, 1847, being the seventh in a family of eleven children of Hugh and Margaret Rigney. The name “Rigney” is that of a French Huguenot who came with William to Ireland and who was credited with the distinction of doing more than the average of his fellows in destroying the good Irishmen who upheld the cause of Shamus (Na Hocha) at the bloody battle of Auchram. He had the award usually given his kind—a gift of the plunder of the vanquished. Many generations of Rigneys lived more or less respected in King’s County, where all traces of the Huguenot’s religion disappeared from amongst them. The writer accompanied his father and mother, two brothers and two sisters, from Ireland to this country in October, 1868, to join four brothers who emigrated from Ireland five years before. His family settled in Bridgeport, Conn., November, 1868, where he lived until July, 1878, working part of the time as a machinist and later as mechanical engineer and superintendent of the Pacific Iron Works of that city. In 1878 he went to Havana, Cuba, where he engaged in engineering and later on in sugar manufacturing. His partners in the ownership of a sugar plantation were Franklin Farrel of Ansonia, Conn., and the late Hugh Kelly of New York. He greatly prizes his associations with these good men and mourns the loss of the best of friends in the untimely end of Hugh Kelly. At present he is associated with the engineering firms of “The Dyer Company” and Allis-Chalmers Company, with office at 54771 Broadway, New York. He is a member of the Catholic Club and the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick of New York City. He married in 1878 and has been supremely happy ever since.

Riordan, Charles F., was born in North Easton, Mass., the first day of April (Easter Sunday) in the year 1866, to John S. and Catherine M. Riordan, both of the best type of Irish people. Has been for many years the New England representative of several large distilleries. During an active business life in Boston has taken a prominent part in politics but has never accepted public office. Is very popular in his native State and many large banquets attended by leading citizens have been tendered him at various times.

Rossiter, William S., publisher, Concord, N. H., was born in Westfield, Mass., September 9, 1861. Educated Columbian University (now George Washington University), Washington, D. C., and Amherst College (Class 1884). Assistant to business superintendent, New York Tribune, 1884–1888; manager circulation, New York Press, 1889; treasurer New York Printing Company, The Republic Press, 1889–1899; in charge publications, U. S. Census, 1900–1903; chief clerk U. S. Census Office, 1903–1909; expert special agent, U. S. Census, for printing and publishing, 12th Census (1900) and Industrial Census, 1905; in editorial charge of all 12th Census Reports; selected by the President upon the recommendation of the Printing Commission of Congress to take charge of the Government Printing Office upon the suspension of Public Printer Stillings and prepare a complete report upon conditions in that office. Twenty-eight days later an exhaustive report was submitted to the President, and upon its findings, he at once requested the Public Printer’s resignation. Author of the Census Reports upon Printing and Publishing, 1900 and 1905, A Century of Population Growth in the United States (U. S. Census office 1909), and many statistical and historical papers in the Atlantic Monthly, North American Review, Review of Reviews, Outlook, World’s Work, the Printing Art, etc.

Seymour, John F., 52 Pierce Street, San Francisco, Cal., born in New York of Irish parents and in 1863 removed to California; in 1872 he started as an apprentice in a brass foundry, learning the trade of brass finisher, and worked at this trade until 1884, when he joined the San Francisco police department as patrolman. He 548was successively appointed Corporal, Detective Sergeant and Captain of Police, and in April, 1900, Captain of Detectives; served in this capacity about two years, during which time he earned distinction by his strict attention to duty and ability which he displayed in handling criminal cases of national note; in January 1902, he resigned from the police force to take a responsible position with the vast Fair estate; recently he was appointed Chief Special Agent of the Pacific Department of the Wells Fargo Express Company, which position he holds at the present time.

Shanahan, David E., Representative in the General Assembly from the Ninth (Ill.) district, was born on a farm in Lee County, Illinois, September 7, 1862, and from the time he was three months old has resided in Chicago. He received his education in the public schools, and graduated successively from the Holden grammar school, South Division high school and the Chicago law college. For the past twenty-five years he has been an active and potential factor in City, County and State politics. In 1885 he was elected South Town supervisor and the year following was re-elected to this position. He is best known by his long and valued service as a legislator. His first election to the House of Representatives occurred in 1894, and he was re-elected in 1896, 1898, 1900, 1902, 1904, 1906 and 1908. As a member of the Lower House of the lawmaking body of Illinois, Mr. Shanahan has been closely identified with the best legislation of recent years and has served as a member of every important committee. He was elected temporary Speaker in the Forty-Third General Assembly and was chairman of the Republican steering committee. In the Forty-Fifth and Forty-Sixth General Assemblies he was chairman of the committee on appropriations. He has served as a delegate to many of the City, County and State Republican conventions, was an alternate delegate to the Republican National convention of 1904 from the Fourth Congressional district, and in 1908 was elected a delegate to the Republican national convention held in Chicago. He is a member of the Knights of Pythias and the Royal Arcanum, and is engaged in the real estate and insurance business at 185 Dearborn street.

Sheedy, Bryan DeForest, graduate of the N. Y. U. Medical College, LL. B. Yale, Adjunct Professor Rhinology and Laryngology Fordham University School of Medicine, Instructor of 549Disease Nose and Throat N. Y. Post-Graduate Medical School and Hospital, member of American Medical Association, member of State and County Medical Societies of the State of New York, etc., etc., 164 West 73d street, New York City.

Smith, James E., was born in Rhode Island, graduated from Brown University in 1892, admitted to the New York Bar in 1894, member of the New York State Legislature 1899–1902.

Sullivan, Jeremiah B., was born in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, January 1, 1859. His father was born in the City of Cork, Ireland, and his mother the city of Kanturk. Mr. Sullivan first attended Parochial school at Mt. Pleasant, Iowa. He read law in the office of McDill & Sullivan at Afton, Iowa, and admitted to the Bar of the State of Iowa in 1881 and has been in the active practice since that time. Was City Solicitor of the City of Creston one term and elected on the Democratic ticket. Was a member of the Board of Education of that city two terms; was a Democratic candidate for Governor of the State of Iowa in 1903. Is now a resident of Des Moines, Iowa, and President of the Board of Education of that city. Is engaged actively in the practice of law; is interested in all Irish matters, having been State President of the Ancient Order of Hibernians for the State of Iowa. Was delegate-at-large from Iowa to the Democratic National Convention at Denver in 1908; is interested in educational matters. Belongs to the Ancient Order of Hibernians and Knights of Columbus and did his part in the promotion and advancement of these organizations; is interested in political matters and civic affairs and has at all times taken part in the public discussion of the topics in which the people are interested.

Tully, Michael P., was born near the historic village of Ballinamuck, County Longford, Ireland, October 15, 1836; arrived in New York in 1858, and after a few years in that city took up his residence in Newton, N. J., where he has lived continuously ever since. Was married in September, 1873, and is a life member of the Newton County Historical Society, trustee of the Dennis Library Association, member of the Catholic Club, and a director of the Merchants’ National Bank of Newton.

ADDITIONAL BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.

The following sketches of new members were received too late to incorporate in their proper alphabetical order.

Chandler, William E., was born in Concord, New Hampshire, December 28, 1835, second son of Nathan S. and Mary Ann Chandler. He was educated in the public schools and the academies at Thetford, Vermont, and Pembroke, New Hampshire. He began his law studies in Concord and attended the Harvard Law school, being graduated with prize honors in 1855. In the same year he was admitted to the bar and for several years practised in Concord. In 1859 he was appointed law reporter of the New Hampshire Supreme Court and published five volumes of Reports. Mr. Chandler was a Republican from the formation of the party, was the secretary of its first state committee and in 1864 and 1865, its chairman. He was elected to the legislature in 1862–3–4 and was twice chosen speaker. In November, 1864, he was employed by the Navy Department to prosecute the Philadelphia Navy Yard frauds and on March 9, 1865, was appointed the first Solicitor and Judge Advocate General of that Department. On June 17 of the same year he became assistant secretary of the treasury, resigning the position November 30, 1867. The next 13 years he devoted to his profession, except that he was a member of the state constitutional convention of 1876, a delegate to the Republican national convention in 1868 and secretary of the national committee from that time until 1876. In that year he was one of the counsel for the Hayes electors in Florida before the canvassing board of the state and the electoral commission in Washington. In 1880 he was a delegate to the Republican national convention, and a member of the national committee during the subsequent campaign. On March 23, 1881, he was nominated by President Garfield for Solicitor General, but was refused confirmation by the Senate, the vote being nearly upon party lines. In June of that year he was a prominent member of the New Hampshire Legislature. He served as Secretary of the Navy from April 7, 1882, to March 7, 1885, and is known and honored as “the father of the 551new navy.” He was elected to the United States Senate June 14, 1887, and served by re-elections until March 3, 1901. He was then appointed a member of the Spanish Treaty Claims commission and served until 1907, when he resigned. Since that date his time has been employed in the practice of his profession, his name being connected with several important cases. Through all his long, active and distinguished career he has been a prolific contributor to newspapers and periodicals, his style being remarkable for its vigor, force and clearness.

Corcoran, Richard B., veterinarian, United States Army; Knight of Columbus; first vice-president of the Knights of St. Patrick, San Francisco; was born in Clonmel, County Tipperary, Ireland, in December, 1844; is the son of Patrick Corcoran, mayor of that old borough and one of the oldest members of the reformed corporations in Ireland. His uncle was Rev. John Baldwin, parish priest of St. Mary’s, Clonmel. Doctor Corcoran was educated at St. Patrick’s College, Carlow, Ireland; came to New York in 1867, and resided there until his appointment as veterinarian, United States Army, in 1877. He has served in all Indian campaigns of note; on the frontier since that time, and was also in Cuba, being the first of his profession to land on that island. His record in the War Department is equalled by none in his branch of the service. Doctor Corcoran has been stationed at the Presidio of San Francisco for more than eight years, and takes a deep and active interest in everything pertaining to the welfare of his race and native land.

MEMBERSHIP ROLL OF THE AMERICAN IRISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

Adams, Hon. Samuel, 129 West 85th Street, New York City.

Adams, T. Albeus, 525 West Street, New York City.

Alexander, Hon. Charles, 63 Dyer Street, Providence, R. I. (Vice-President of the Society for Rhode Island.)

Aspell, John, M. D., 139 West Seventy-seventh Street, New York City.

Bagshawe, Mrs. Theodosia E., 4002 Lake Avenue, Chicago, Ill.

Bannin, Michael E., 83 and 85 Worth Street, New York City.

Bannon, Henry G., 107 East Fifty-fifth Street, New York City.

Barrett, Michael F., 308 Spring Street and 574 Hudson Street, New York City.

Barry, Hon. Patrick T., 87–89 South Jefferson Street, Chicago, Ill. (Life member of the Society.)

Barry, Major-General Thomas H., Washington, D. C.

Barry, William F., 249 Magnolia Avenue, Elizabeth, N. J.

Barry, William J., Barristers’ Hall, Boston, Mass.

Barry, James H., 1122 Mission Street, San Francisco, Cal.

Bayne, Prof. William, 53 Third Avenue, New York City.

Bealin, John J., 2334 Valentine Avenue, New York City.

Bergin, Patrick J., 169 Blackstone Street, Boston, Mass.

Blake, Michael, 149 Broadway, New York City.

Blake, Thomas M., 11 St. Luke’s Place, New York City.

Bliss, Hon. Zenas W., Providence, R. I.

Bodfish, Rev. Joshua P. L., 60 Robinwood Avenue, Jamaica Plain, Mass.

Boland, W. I., Toronto, Canada.

Boucher, Richard P., M. D., 116 Academy Avenue, Providence, R. I.

Bourke, Joseph P., World Building, Manhattan, New York City.

Boyle, John J., 251 West Fifty-first Street, New York City.

Boyle, Hon. Patrick J., Newport, R. I.

Bradshaw, Sergt. Richard, Fort Pickens, Fla.

Brady, Rev. Cyrus Townsend, LL. D., Haddon Hall, Kansas City, Mo. (Member of Executive Council of the Society.)

Brady, Daniel M., 95 Liberty Street, New York City.

Brady, James B., 170 Broadway, New York City.

Brady, Hon. Joseph P., 1634 West Grace Street, Richmond, Va.

Brady, Owen J., 224 Church Street, New York City.

553Branagan, William I., Emmetsburg, Ia.

Brandon, Edward J., Cambridge, Mass.

Brann, Rev. Henry A., D. D., LL. D., 141 East Forty-third Street, New York City. (Life member of the Society.)

Breen, Henry J., 243 West Ninety-ninth Street, New York City.

Breen, Hon. Matthew P., 243 West Ninety-ninth Street, New York City.

Brennan, Edward, Shamokin, Pa. (Life member of the Society.)

Brennan, George E., 206 LaSalle Street, Chicago, Ill. (Life member of the Society.)

Brennan, Hon. James F., Peterborough, N. H. (Historiographer of the Society and member of its Executive Council.)

Brennan, James F., 203 Maple Street, New Haven, Conn.

Brennan, Rev. M. J., Immaculate Conception Church, Carthage, Ill.

Brennan, P. J., 624 Madison Avenue, New York City.

Brennan, P. F., 34 Lincoln Street, Shamokin, Pa.

Breslin, Joseph J., 890 Broadway, New York City.

Brett, Frank P., 3 East Main St., Waterbury, Conn.

Britt, Philip J., 27 William Street, New York City.

Broderick, William J., 52 Morton Street, New York City.

Brosnahan, Rev. Timothy, St. Mary’s Church, Waltham, Mass.

Brosnan, Rev. John, Cornwall-on-Hudson, N. Y.

Bryan, Hon. J. P. Kennedy, 11 Broad Street, Charleston, S. C.

Buckley, John J., 99 Nassau Street, New York City.

Bunton, Richard, 1148 O’Farrell Street, San Francisco, Cal.

Burke, John, 60 West Fifty-first Street, New York City.

Burke, John E., 322 Pembroke Avenue, Norfolk, Va.

Burke, Robert E., Newburyport, Mass.

Burke, William E., 143 Liberty Street, New York City.

Burr, William P., Corporation Counsel’s office, New York City.

Butler, Francis X., 42 Broadway, New York City.

Butler, James, 230 West 72nd Street, New York City. (Life member of the Society.)

Butler, Lieut.-Col. John G., 20 Congress Street West, Savannah, Ga.

Butler, John R., 307 Sixth Avenue, New York City.

Butler, T. Vincent, 120 Central Park South, New York City.

Buttimer, Thomas H., Hingham, Mass.

Byrne, C. E., M. D., 229 East Forty-first Street, New York City.

Byrne, Joseph M., 800 Broad Street, Newark, N. J.

Byrne, Thomas F., 353 East Seventy-eighth Street, New York City.

Byrne, Rt. Rev. Mgr. William, D. D., V. G., St. Cecelia’s Church, St Cecelia Street, Boston, Mass.

Byrne, William Michael, 220 Broadway, New York City.

Byrnes, Patrick J., 105 East 31st Street, New York City.

Byrns, William Francis, M. D., 1923 Calvert Street, N. W., Washington, D. C.

Cahill, John H., 15 Dey Street, New York City.

Cahill, Rev. William F., Visitation Rectory, 843 West Garfield Boulevard, Chicago, Ill.

554Calnin, James, 101 Lakeview Avenue, Lowell, Mass.

Cannon, Thomas H., Stock Exchange Building, Chicago, Ill.

Cantillon, Thomas J., Lander, Wyoming.

Cantillon, William D., 928 Buena Terrace, Chicago, Ill.

Carey, Peter J., 536 West Twenty-third Street, New York City.

Carmody, Thomas F., Waterbury, Conn.

Carney, Michael, of M. Carney & Company, Lawrence, Mass.

Carr, James O., Wilmington, N. C.

Carroll, Edward, Leavenworth, Kansas.

Carroll, John L., 23 Division Place, Newark, N. J.

Carroll, Michael, Gleason Building, Lawrence, Mass.

Carroll, Thomas F., M. D., 219 Central Street, Lowell, Mass.

Carter, Patrick, 32 Westminster Street, Providence, R. I. (Life member of the Society and a member of its Executive Council.)

Carter, Hon. Thomas H., United States Senate, Washington, D. C.

Carty, John J., Short Hills, N. J.

Casey, Michael, Pittsfield, Mass.

Cashman, W. T., 88 Grasmere Street, East Cleveland, Ohio.

Cassidy, John J., 509 West Street, Wilmington, Del. (Vice-President of the Society for Delaware.)

Cassidy, Gen. Patrick, Norwich, Conn.

Cavanagh, Hon. Howard W., Linn Block, Homer, Michigan.

Cavanaugh, F. J., 31 Union Square, New York City.

Chandler, Hon. William E., Concord, N. H. (Vice-President of the Society for New Hampshire.)

Chittick, Rev. James J., 5 Oak Street, Hyde Park, Mass.

Clancy, Laurence, West Bridge Street, Oswego, N. Y.

Clare, William F., 71 Nassau Street, New York City.

Clarke, James, 29 West Thirty-second Street, New York City.

Clarke, Joseph I. C., 26 Broadway, New York City. (Vice-President of the Society for New York.)

Clarke, Rev. Owen F., Church of the Holy Name, 104 Camp Street, Providence, R. I.

Clary, Charles H., Hallowell, Me.

Clune, Frank R., 185 Dundaff Street, Carbondale, Pa. (Life member of the Society.)

Cockran, Hon. W. Bourke, 31 Nassau Street, New York City. (Life member of the Society.)

Coffee, Frank, Box 335, Australia. (Vice-President of the Society for Australia.)

Coffee, F. M., Jr., Box 1314, Vancouver, B. C.

Coggins, Jerome B., 920 17th Street, Denver, Colo.

Coghlan, Rev. Gerald P., 2141 North Broad Street, Philadelphia, Pa.

Cohalan, Daniel F., 2 Rector Street, New York City.

Coleman, Capt. John, 1100 Fourth Avenue, Louisville, Ky.

Coleman, James V., 711 Balboa Building, San Francisco, Cal. (Life member of the Society.)

555Colihan, William J., 141 East 95th Street, New York City.

Collier, Robert J., 416 West Thirteenth Street, New York City.

Collins, James M., 6 Sexton Avenue, Concord, N. H.

Collins, Hon. John S., Gilsum, N. H.

Collins, Brig.-Gen. Dennis F., 637 Pearl Street, Elizabeth, N. J. (Vice-President of the Society for New Jersey.)

Colton, Rt. Rev. Charles Henry, D. D., 1025 Delaware Avenue, Buffalo, N. Y.

Colton, Frank S., 227 Riverside Drive, New York City.

Conaty, Bernard, 30 Cypress Street, Providence, R. I.

Conaty, Rev. B. S., 596 Cambridge Street, Worcester, Mass.

Conaty, Rt. Rev. Thomas J., D. D., Los Angeles, Cal.

Coney, Patrick H., 316 Kansas Avenue, Topeka, Kan. (Vice-President of the Society for Kansas.)

Conley, Lieut.-Col. Louis D., 11 East 93d Street, New York City.

Conlon, Redmond P., 35 James Street, Newark, N. J.

Conlon, William L., Portsmouth, N. H.

Connelly, Cornelius E., 252 Court Street, Binghamton, N. Y.

Connelly, John M., Chamber of Commerce, Elmira, N. Y.

Connelly, L. J., Lieutenant U. S. Navy, U. S. S. “Missouri,” care of Postmaster, New York City.

Connery, John T., 125 Monroe Street, Chicago, Ill.

Connery, William P., Wheeler and Pleasant Streets, Lynn, Mass.

Connolly, Capt. James, Coronado, Cal. (Vice-President of the Society for California.)

Connolly, Rev. Arthur T., Center and Creighton Streets, Roxbury, Mass.

Connor, Hon. Henry Groves, Wilson, N. C.

Connor, Michael, 509 Beech Street, Manchester, N. H.

Conroy, Rev. Patrick Eugene, St. Martin’s Church, 1908 North Capitol Street, Washington, D. C.

Convery, William J., 113 Jackson Street, Trenton, N. J.

Conway, James J., Attorney at Law, 117 East Washington Street, Ottawa, Ill.

Conway, James P., 296 East Third Street, Brooklyn, N. Y.

Conway, Patrick J., 159 East Sixtieth Street, New York City.

Cooke, Rev. Michael J., Fall River, Mass. (Life member of the Society.)

Cooney, Brig.-Gen. Michael, U. S. A., 500 T Street, N. W., Washington, D. C.

Cooney, Terrence, Jr., Pittsfield, Mass.

Corbett, Michel J., Wilmington, N. C. (Vice-President of the Society for North Carolina.)

Corcoran, Cornelius J., Lawrence, Mass.

Corcoran, Dr. Richard B., Presidio, San Francisco, Cal.

Cosgrove, Hon. James, Charleston, S. C.

Coughlin, John, 177 Water Street, Augusta, Me.

Coughlin, Hon. John T., Fall River, Mass.

Coughlin, Michael J., 178 Bedford Street, Fall River, Mass.

Cox, Hugh M., M. D., 285 St. Nicholas Avenue, New York City.

556Cox, Michael Francis, M. D., F. R. C. P. I., M. R. I. A., 26 Merrion Square, Dublin, Ireland. (Vice-President of the Society for Ireland.)

Cox, Michael H., 28 Windemere Road, Dorchester, Mass.

Cox, William T., 12 South Second Street, Elizabeth, N. J.

Coyle, Rev. James, Taunton, Mass.

Coyle, Rev. John D., 79 Davenport Avenue, New Haven, Conn.

Creamer, Walter H., 4 Prescott Place, Lynn, Mass.

Crimmins, Cyril, 624 Madison Avenue, New York City. (Life member of the Society.)

Crimmins, Hon. John D., 40 East Sixty-eighth Street, New York City. (Member of the Executive Council and life member of the Society.)

Crimmins, Capt. Martin L., Fort Crook, Neb.

Cronin, Capt. William, Rutland, Vt. (Vice-President of the Society for Vermont.)

Croston, J. F., M. D., 83 Emerson Street, Haverhill, Mass.

Crowley, Harry T., 91 Essex Avenue, Orange, N. J.

Cruikshank, Alfred B., 43 Cedar Street, New York City.

Cummings, Matthew J., 616 Eddy Street, Providence, R. I.

Cummins, Rev. John F., Roslindale, Mass.

Cunniff, Michael M., 1032 Beacon Street, Brookline, Mass.

Cunningham, Hon. James, 277 Congress Street, Portland, Me. (Vice-President of the Society for Maine.)

Curley, Michael H., 115 Broad Street, Boston, Mass. (Life member of the Society.)

Curran, Philip A., Waterbury, Conn.

Curry, Edmond J., 28 East 95th Street, New York City.

Curtin, Daniel I., 332 East Twenty-fifth Street, New York City.

Daly, Edward Hamilton, 54 Wall Street, New York City.

Daly, Jeremiah P., 1747 Lexington Avenue, New York City.

Daly, John J., 212 Lenox Avenue, Westfield, N. J.

Daly, Hon. Joseph F., LL. D., 54 Wall Street, New York City.

Daly, William J., 820 Tremont Building, Boston, Mass.

Danaher, Hon. Franklin M., Bensen Building, Albany, N. Y.

Danvers, Robert E., 428 East 18th Street, New York City.

Davies, William Gilbert, LL. D., 32 Nassau Street, New York City.

Davis, John H., Seaboard National Bank, New York City.

Day, Joseph P., 31 Nassau Street, New York City.

Dayton, Charles W., Jr., 27 William Street, New York City.

Deasy, Hon. Daniel C., Mills Building, San Francisco, Cal.

Deasy, Jeremiah, 808 Cole Street, San Francisco, Cal.

Deeves, Richard, 305 Broadway, New York City. (Life member of the Society.)

Delaney, J. C., Harrisburg, Pa.

Delaney, Rev. William, S. J., University College, Dublin, Ireland.

Delaney, William J., Saratoga Springs, N. Y.

Delany, Patrick Bernard, E. E., Derrymore, Nantucket, Mass.

Delany, Capt. William H., 254 West Fourteenth Street, New York City.

557Delehanty, Hon. F. B., Court House, New York City.

Delehanty, John S., 107 Grand Street, Albany, N. Y.

Dempsey, George C., Lowell, Mass.

Dempsey, William P., Pawtucket, R. I.

Dennen, Rev. Christopher, St. Thomas’ Church, Wilmington, N. C.

DeRoo, Rev. Peter, St. Joseph’s Church, 1127 Corbett Street, Portland, Ore.

Devine, John T., The Shoreham, Washington, D. C.

Devine, Thomas J., Rochester, N. Y. (Life member of the Society.)

Devlin, James H., 35 Parsons Street, Brighton, Boston, Mass.

Devlin, James H., Jr., Barristers’ Hall, Boston, Mass.

Devlin, Thomas, Third and Lehigh Avenues, Philadelphia, Pa. (Life member of the Society.)

Dickson, Robert, Parker, Ariz. (Vice-President of the Society for Arizona.)

Dignan, J. H., 774 Cole Street, San Francisco, Cal.

Dillon, Thomas I., 712 Market Street, San Francisco, Cal.

Dixon, Richard, 52–54 William Street, New York City.

Dixson, Samuel Gibson, M. D., LL. D., Bryn Mawr, Pa.

Dolan, James A., 346 Broadway, New York City.

Dolan, Thomas E., M. D., 250 Elizabeth Avenue, Elizabeth, N. J.

Dolan, Thomas S., 105 Fifth Avenue, New York City.

Donahue, Dan A., 178 Essex Street, Salem, Mass.

Donahue, Rt. Rev. Patrick James, D. D., corner of Thirteenth and Byron Streets, Wheeling, West Va.

Donahue, R. J., Ogdensburg, N. Y.

Donnelly, Hon. Thomas F., 257 Broadway, New York City.

Donohoe, John P., care of Barclay-Westmoreland Trust Company, Greensburg, Pa.

Donovan, Daniel, 21 High Rock Street, Lynn, Mass.

Donovan, E. I., M. D., Langdon, North Dakota.

Donovan, Colonel Henry F., No. 504 Teutonic Building, Chicago, Ill.

Donovan, John Joseph, Bellingham, Washington.

Donovan, John W., 360 West One Hundred Twenty-fifth Street, New York City.

Donovan, Richard J., 170 Broadway, New York City.

Donovan, Dr. S. E., New Bedford, Mass.

Donovan, Thomas F., Young Building, Joliet, Ill.

Donovan, Col. William H., Lawrence, Mass.

Dooley, Michael F., Westminster Street, Providence, R. I. (Life member and Treasurer-General of the Society.)

Dooley, William J., 17 Gaston Street, Boston, Mass. (Life member of the Society.)

Dooner, Edward J., Dooner’s Hotel, Philadelphia, Pa. (Life member of the Society.)

Doran, Patrick L., Salt Lake City, Utah.

Doran, Very Rev. Mgr. Thomas F., V. G., LL. D., 92 Hope Street, Providence, R. I.

Dordar, John E., Forty-first Street and Park Avenue, New York City.

558Dorver, Rev. William J., St. Charles’ Church, Pittsfield, Mass.

Dowd, Willis B., 141 Broadway, New York City.

Dowling, Rev. Austin, 30 Fenner Street, Providence, R. I.

Dowling, Hon. Victor J., County Court House, New York City.

Downey, William F., 1622 L Street, N. W., Washington, D. C.

Downing, Bernard, City Hall, New York City.

Downing, D. P., Cambridge, Mass.

Doyle, Alfred L., of John F. Doyle & Sons, 45 William Street, New York City.

Doyle, David A., Katonah, N. Y.; postmaster.

Doyle, James, 455 West Twenty-eighth Street, New York City.

Doyle, James G., LaSalle, Ill.

Doyle, John F., 45 William Street, New York City. (Life member of the Society and a member of its Executive Council.)

Doyle, Nathaniel, 455 West Twenty-eighth Street, New York City.

Doyle, Hon. Thomas F., LaSalle, Ill.

Driscoll, Rev. John T., Fonda, N. Y.

Drummond, M. J., 182 Broadway, New York City.

Dufficy, Peter J., 120 West Fifty-ninth Street, New York City.

Duffy, Very Rev. Felix, Danville, Ill.

Duffy, Rev. Francis P., St. Joseph’s Seminary, Dunwoodie, Yonkers, N. Y.

Duffy, Patrick J., Ansonia Hotel, 73d Street and Broadway, New York City.

Duncan, Stuart, LaSalle, Ill.

Duncan, Vincent J., Attorney at Law, Ottawa, Ill.

Dunne, F. L., 328 Washington Street, Boston, Mass.

Dunne, Finley Peter, 341 Fifth Avenue, New York City.

Duval, C. Louis, 143 Liberty Street, New York City.

Dwyer, Thomas, Amsterdam Avenue and One Hundred and Thirty-ninth Street, New York City. (Life member of the Society.)

Dwyer, W. D., 202 Despatch Building, St. Paul, Minn.

Dwyer, Rev. William M., Cathedral Rectory, Syracuse, N. Y.

Editor of “The Rosary Magazine,” Somerset, O. (Life member of the Society.)

Egan, Rev. M. H., St. Bernard’s Church, Keene, N. H.

Egan, Hon. Patrick, 18 Broadway, New York City.

Ellard, George W., 180 Lisbon Street, Lewiston, Me.

Elliott, Dr. George W., Immigration Office, Ellis Island, N. Y.

Emmet, J. Duncan, M. D., 103 Madison Avenue, New York City.

Emmet, Robert, Moreton Paddox, Warwick, England.

Emmet, Thomas Addis, M. D., LL. D., 89 Madison Avenue, New York City. (Life member of the Society and a member of its Executive Council.)

Emmett, William Temple, 52 Wall Street, New York City.

Enright, Thomas J., 71 Center Street, Lowell, Mass.

Eustace, Hon. Alexander C., 334 East Water Street, Elmira, N. Y.

Fahy, Thomas A., 14 South Broad Street, Philadelphia, Pa.

Falahee, John J., 120 West Fifty-ninth Street, New York City.

559Fallon, Hon. Joseph D., LL. D., 789 Broadway, South Boston, Mass.

Fallon, Hon. Joseph P., 1900 Lexington Avenue, New York City.

Farley, Most Rev. John M., D. D., 452 Madison Avenue, New York City.

Farrell, Edward D., 18 West Eighty-sixth Street, New York City.

Farrell, Leo F., 171 Westminster Street, Providence, R. I.

Farrell, John F., 89 Worth Street, New York City.

Farrell, John T., M. D., 1488 Westminster Street, Providence, R. I.

Farrell, William J., 115 Maiden Lane, New York City. (Life member of the Society.)

Farrelly, Frank T., Main Street, Springfield, Mass.

Farrelly, Stephen, 9 Park Place, New York City. (Life member of the Society and member of its Executive Council.)

Farrelly, T. Charles, 39 Chambers Street, New York City.

Feely, Joseph M., 304 Powers Building, Rochester, N. Y.

Feeley, William J., 203 Eddy Street, Providence, R. I.

Fenlon, John T., 71 Nassau Street, New York City.

Ferguson, Hugh, George Street, Charleston, S. C.

Ferguson, Thomas D., 528 Walnut Street, Philadelphia Pa. (Life member of the Society.)

Finley, James D., Board of Trade, Norfolk, Va.

Finn, Rev. Thomas J., Box 242, Port Chester, N. Y.

Fitzgerald, Charles, 904 Main Street, Hartford, Conn.

Fitzgerald, Desmond, Brookline, Mass.

Fitzgerald, Rev. D. W., 9 Pleasant Street, Penacook, N. H.

Fitzgerald, Hon. James, County Court House, New York City.

Fitzgerald, James Regan, 90 West Broadway, New York City.

Fitzgerald, Thomas B., Elmira, N. Y.

Fitzgerald, Hon. William T. A., Court House, Boston, Mass.

Fitzgibbon, John C., 38 West 34th Street, New York City.

Fitzpatrick, Edward, New Albany, Ind.

Fitzpatrick, Hon. Thomas B., 104 Kingston Street, Boston, Mass. (Vice-President-General of the Society and member of its Executive Council.)

Fitzsimons, Thomas P., 169 West 76th Street, New York City.

Flannery, Capt. John, Savannah, Ga. (Vice-President of the Society for Georgia.)

Fleming, John J., 415 Tama Building, Burlington, Iowa.

Fleming, Martin W., 3821 Sacramento Street, San Francisco, Cal.

Flynn, Col. David M., Princeton, N. J.

Flynn, Thomas P., 172 East Washington Street, Chicago, Ill.

Fogarty, James A., 264 Blatchley Avenue, New Haven, Conn.

Fogarty, Jeremiah W., City Hall, Boston, Mass.

Foley, Daniel, 1530 E. Washington Street, Indianapolis, Ind.

Foley, Capt. Daniel P., Port Townsend, Washington.

Ford, Hon. John, County Court House, New York City.

Fornes, Hon. Charles V., 425 Broome Street, New York City.

French, Capt. Charles F., 5850 Rosalie Court, Chicago, Ill.

Gaffney, Hon. T. St. John, Dresden, Germany. (Vice-President of the Society for Germany.)

560Gallagher, Charles H., 11 Riverdrive Avenue, Trenton, N. J.

Gallagher, Daniel P., 27 East Twenty-second Street, New York City.

Gallagher, James, Cleveland, N. Y.

Gallagher, James T., M. D., 172 Bunker Hill Street, Charlestown, Boston, Mass.

Gallagher, M. D., 402 West 146th Street, New York City.

Gallagher, Patrick, 11 East Fifty-ninth Street, New York City. (Life member of the Society.)

Gamble, Hon. Robert Jackson, United States Senate, Washington, D. C.

Gannon, Frank S., 251 West End Avenue, New York City.

Garrigan, Rt. Rev. Philip J., D. D., Sioux City, Iowa. (Vice-President of the Society for Iowa.)

Garrity, P. H., 221 Bank Street, Waterbury, Conn.

Garvan, Hon. Edward J., 36 Pearl Street, Hartford, Conn.

Garvan, Hon. Francis P., 23 Fifth Avenue, New York City.

Garvan, Hon. Patrick, 236 Farmington Avenue, Hartford, Conn. (Life member of the Society and a member of its Executive Council.)

Gelshenen, William H., 100 William Street, New York City.

Geoghegan, Charles A., 537 West Broadway, New York City.

Geoghegan, Joseph, Salt Lake City, Utah. (Life member of the Society and its Vice-President for Utah.)

Geoghegan, Joseph G., 537 West Broadway, New York City. (Life member of the Society.)

Geoghegan, Walter F., 537 West Broadway, New York City.

Gibbons, J. F., M. D., 1944 California Street, San Francisco, Cal.

Gibbons, Hon. John, Chicago, Ill.

Gibbons, John T., corner of Poydras and South Peters Streets, New Orleans, La. (Life member of the Society.)

Gibbons, Peter J., M. D., 49 Park Avenue, New York City.

Giblin, John A., 10 East Main Street, Ilion, N. Y.

Gilday, Walter C., M. D., 44 West Thirty-seventh Street, New York City.

Gillespie, George J., 56 Pine Street, New York City. (Life member of the Society.)

Gilman, John E., 43 Hawkins Street, Boston, Mass.

Gilpatric, Walter J., Saco, Me.