Opening

Opening

THE JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN IRISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY

BY

THOMAS ZANSLAUR LEE

Secretary General

VOLUME IX

PROVIDENCE, R. I. PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY 1910

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

QUINLAN, FRANCIS J. Frontispiece O’BRIEN, HON. THOMAS J. 32 DELANEY, WILLIAM H. 48 MULVY, THOMAS M. 64 GILROY, THOMAS F. 72 WALSH, THOMAS F. 80 ALEXANDER, CHARLES 96 MCGOWAN, PATRICK F. 104 FULTON, ROBERT 128 EMMET, WILLIAM TEMPLE 142 FITZGERALD, JAMES 160 CONNOLLY, JAMES 176 SHEEHAN, JOHN L. 182 FARLEY, REV. J. M. 192 BLISS, ZENAS W. 208 BOURLET, JOHN W. 224 LONERGAN, THOMAS S. 236 FITZPATRICK, THOMAS B. 240 BRENNAN, JAMES F. 246 MORRISSEY, REV. ANDREW 256 KEHOE, MICHAEL P. 258 SHEEDY, BRYAN DEF. 272 GAMBLE, ROBERT J. 288 RYAN, THOMAS J. 304 MEE, JOHN J. 320 MCCALL, EDWARD E. 336 O’NEILL, JAMES L. 338 O’SULLIVAN, JOHN 352 THOMPSON, JAMES 368 RATHBUN, ELMER J. 384 GRAHAM, JAMES M. 400 CONNOR, HENRY G. 416 O’MEARA, JOHN B. 432 BRADY, JAMES D. 442 FARRELLY, STEPHEN 448 MCCANNA, FRANCIS I. 464 WHITE, EDWARD D. 480 CHANDLER, WILLIAM E. 488 BARRY, THOMAS H. 496

=American Irish Historical Society.=

INTRODUCTORY.

Volume IX of the Journal of the American Irish Historical Society, containing the proceedings of the Annual Meeting of 1910, essays and papers by learned members on timely subjects within the scope of our work, and a substantial quantity of material of interest to the Society, is now presented in the hope that it will serve the purposes of its predecessors in making better known the Irish chapter in American history and disseminating valuable information, not only to the increasing number of public and private libraries, where our volumes are always most welcome, but to the public in general. The Society is to be congratulated on the large number of additions to its membership roll of persons of high standing in the country’s affairs, as well as the completion of the most prosperous year in its history.

I acknowledge with deep appreciation the kind assistance rendered by the Executive Council, the several learned members who have contributed articles of great historic interest and deep research, the Chairman of the Membership Committee, and the members of the Society, through whose hearty coöperation and helpful suggestions this Volume has been made possible.

THOMAS ZANSLAUR LEE, Secretary-General.

OFFICERS OF THE AMERICAN-IRISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

* * * * *

President-General, FRANCIS J. QUINLAN, M. D., LL. D., 33 West 38th Street, New York City.

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Vice-President-General, HON. THOMAS B. FITZPATRICK, Essex Street, Boston, Mass.

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Secretary-General, THOMAS ZANSLAUR LEE, ESQ., 49 Westminster Street, Providence, R. I.

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Treasurer-General, MICHAEL F. DOOLEY, ESQ., President National Exchange Bank, Providence, R. I.

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Librarian and Archivist, THOMAS B. LAWLER, ESQ., 70 5th Avenue, New York City.

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Historiographer, HON. JAMES F. BRENNAN, Peterborough, N. H.

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EXECUTIVE COUNCIL.

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The foregoing and

Hon. JOHN D. CRIMMINS, 624 Madison Avenue, New York City. Hon. WILLIAM MCADOO, 30 Broad Street, New York City. PATRICK F. MAGRATH, Esq., Binghamton, N. Y. Rev. JOHN J. MCCOY, LL. D., St. Ann’s Church, Worcester, Mass. THOMAS ADDIS EMMETT, M. D., LL. D., 89 Madison Avenue, New York City. Hon. EDWARD J. MCGUIRE, 52 Wall Street, New York City. Hon. JOHN F. O’CONNELL, 377 Westminster Street, Providence, R. I. JAMES L. O’NEILL, Esq., Elizabeth, N. J. STEPHEN FARRELLY, Esq., 39 Chambers Street, New York City. Rev. CYRUS TOWNSEND BRADY, LL. D., Haddon Hall, Kansas City, Mo. Hon. THOMAS J. LYNCH, Augusta, Me. Gen. PHELPS MONTGOMERY, 48 Church Street, New Haven, Conn. PATRICK CARTER, Esq., 32 Westminster Street, Providence, R. I. Hon. PATRICK GARVAN, 236 Farmington Avenue, Hartford, Conn. JOHN J. LENEHAN, Esq., 71 Nassau Street, New York City. Col. JOHN MCMANUS, 87 Dorrance Street, Providence, R. I. Hon. WILLIAM GORMAN, Stephen Girard Bldg., Philadelphia, Pa. J. LAWTON HIERS, M. D., Savannah, Ga. JOHN F. DOYLE, Esq., 45 William Street, New York City.

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STATE VICE-PRESIDENTS.

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Arizona—ROBERT DICKSON, Esq., Parker. California—Capt. JAMES CONNOLLY, Coronado. Colorado—Hon. THOMAS F. WALSH, Denver. Connecticut—DENNIS H. TIERNEY, Esq., Waterbury. Delaware—JOHN J. CASSIDY, Esq., Wilmington. Florida—JAMES MCHUGH, Esq., Pensacola. Georgia—Capt. JOHN FLANNERY, Savannah. Illinois—Hon. MAURICE T. MOLONEY, Ottawa. Indiana—Very Rev. ANDREW MORRISSEY, C. S. C., Notre Dame. Iowa—Rt. Rev. PHILIP J. GARRIGAN, D.D., Sioux City. Kansas—PATRICK H. CONEY, Esq., Topeka. Kentucky—JAMES THOMPSON, Esq., Louisville. Louisiana—JOHN T. GIBBONS, Esq., New Orleans. Maine—JAMES CUNNINGHAM, Esq., Portland. Maryland—MICHAEL P. KEHOE, Esq., Baltimore. Massachusetts—Hon. JOSEPH F. O’CONNELL, Boston. Michigan—Hon. HOWARD W. CAVANAGH, Homer. Minnesota—Hon. C. D. O’BRIEN, St. Paul. Mississippi—Dr. R. A. QUIN, Vicksburg. Missouri—Hon. JOHN BAPTISTE O’MEARA, St. Louis. Nebraska—Rev. M. A. SHINE, Plattsburg. New Hampshire—Hon. WILLIAM E. CHANDLER, Concord. New Jersey—Gen. DENNIS F. COLLINS, Elizabeth, N. J. New York—JOSEPH I. C. CLARKE, Esq., New York City. North Carolina—MICHAEL J. CORBETT, Esq., Wilmington. Ohio—JOHN LAVELLE, Esq., Cleveland. Oklahoma—JOSEPH F. SWORDS, Esq., Sulphur. Oregon—J. P. O’BRIEN, Portland. Pennsylvania—HUGH MCCAFFREY, Esq., Philadelphia. Rhode Island—Hon. CHARLES ALEXANDER, Providence. South Carolina—WILLIAM J. O’HAGAN, Esq., Charleston. South Dakota—Hon. ROBERT JACKSON GAMBLE, Yankton. Texas—JAMES MORONEY, Esq., Dallas. Utah—JOSEPH GEOGHEGAN, Esq., Salt Lake City. Vermont—Capt. WILLIAM CRONIN, Rutland. Virginia—Capt. JAMES W. MCCARRICK, Norfolk. Washington—DANIEL KELLEHER, Esq., Seattle. West Virginia—JOHN F. HEALY, Esq., Thomas, Tucker County.

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OTHER VICE-PRESIDENTS.

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District of Columbia—Hon. EDWARD A. MOSELEY, Washington. Ireland—Dr. MICHAEL F. COX, Dublin. Germany—Hon. T. ST. JOHN GAFFNEY, Dresden. Australia—FRANK COFFEY, Esq., Sydney. Japan—Hon. THOMAS J. O’BRIEN, Tokyo.

PREAMBLE, CONSTITUTION AND BY-LAWS OF THE AMERICAN IRISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY ADOPTED AT THE ORGANIZATION MEETING JANUARY 20, 1897.

PREAMBLE.

Believing that the part taken in the settlement, foundation and upbuilding of these United States by the Irish race has never received proper recognition from historians, and inspired by love for the republic, a pride in our blood and forefathers and a desire for historic truth, this Society has met and organized.

Its mission is to give a plain recital of facts, to correct errors, to supply omissions, to allay passion, to shame prejudice and to labor for right and truth.

While we as loyal citizens of this republic are earnestly interested in all the various phases of its history, we feel that we should be false to its honor and greatness and recreant to our own blood if we did not make a serious effort to leave to those generations which will follow us a clearer and better knowledge of the important work done by men and women of the Irish race on this continent.

People of this race—men and women born on Irish soil—have been here from the first, prompted in their flight by the motives common to all immigration, dissatisfaction with the old order of things and the resolve to obtain a freer and better life in the new land under new conditions.

And so we have come together—natives of Ireland, American sons of Irish immigrants, and descendants of immigrants even unto the seventh, eighth and ninth American generations—to duly set forth and perpetuate a knowledge of these things.

In the days to come that lie in the womb of the future, when all the various elements that have gone and are going to make the republic great are united in the American—the man who in his person will represent the bravest elements of all the old races of the earth—we desire that the deeds and accomplishment of our element shall be written in the book of the new race, telling what we did and no more, giving us our rightful place by the side of the others.

To accomplish this is the purpose of this organization. It is a work worthy of the sympathy and aid of every American who can rise above the environment of today and look into the broad future. Fidelity, truth, honor are the watchwords of such a purpose, and under their noble influences should our work be done.

ARTICLE II. OBJECTS AND PURPOSES.

The objects and purposes of this Society are:

(1) The study of American history generally.

(2) To investigate, especially, the immigration of the people of Ireland to this country, determine its numbers, examine the sources, learn the places of its settlement, and estimate its influence on contemporary events in war, legislation, religion, education and other departments of human activity.

(3) To examine records of every character, wherever found, calculated to throw light on the work of the Irish element in this broad land.

(4) To endeavor to correct erroneous, distorted and false views of history, where they are known, and to substitute therefor the truth of history, based on documentary evidence and the best and most reasonable tradition, in relation to the Irish race in America.

(5) To encourage and assist the formation of local societies in American cities and towns for the work of the parent society.

(6) To promote and foster an honorable and national spirit of patriotism, which will know no lines of division, which will be based upon loyalty to the laws, institutions and spirit of the republic to whose upbuilding the Irish element has unselfishly contributed in blood and treasure, a patriotism whose simple watchwords will be true Americanism and human freedom and which has no concern for any man’s race, color or creed, measuring him only by his conduct, effort and achievement.

(7) To promote by union in a common high purpose a sincere fraternity, a greater emulation in well doing, a closer confidence and mutual respect among the various elements of the Irish race in America, that by putting behind them the asperities of the past they may unite in a common brotherhood with their fellow citizens for the honor of the race and the glory of the republic.

(8) To place the result of its historical investigations and researches in acceptable literary form; to print, publish and distribute its documents to libraries, institutions of learning, and among its members, in order that the widest dissemination of historical truth may be obtained and placed within the reach of historians and other writers and readers.

(9) To sift and discriminate every paper, sketch, document bearing on the Society’s line of work before the same is accepted and given official sanction in order that its publication may be a guarantee of historical accuracy; to do its work without passion or prejudice, to view accomplished facts in the true scientific historical spirit and having reached the truth to give it to the world.

ARTICLE III. MEMBERSHIP.

Any person of good moral character who is interested in the special work of this Society shall be deemed eligible for membership in the same. No tests other than that of character and devotion to the Society’s objects shall be applied to membership.

Every applicant for membership shall be recommended by two members of the Society before his application shall be considered by the Secretary-General, and the application shall be accompanied by the dues in the amounts laid down in the by-laws.

Members will be elected as follows: Candidates may send their applications—for which blanks will be furnished—to the Secretary-General, accompanied by the fee as provided in the by-laws, and each application must be endorsed by two members of the Society. The Secretary-General shall submit the application to the executive council, and a three fourths vote of that body by ballot or otherwise will be necessary to elect the candidate.

ARTICLE IV. CLASSES OF MEMBERS.

The Society shall comprise life members and annual members, who shall pay dues as provided in the by-laws. The Society may also choose honorary and corresponding members, who shall be exempt from dues but shall not have the right to vote.

ARTICLE V. OFFICERS.

The officers of The Society shall consist of:

1. A President-General.

2. A Vice-President for each state and territory and for the District of Columbia.

3. A Secretary-General.

4. A Treasurer-General.

5. A Librarian and Archivist.

6. An Historiographer.

7. An Executive Council.

(The word “General” herein to be considered equivalent to National.)

The officers of the Society shall be elected annually.

ARTICLE VI. THE PRESIDENT-GENERAL.

The duties of the President-General shall be to open and preside over the Society during its deliberations, to see that the Constitution is observed and the by-laws enforced, to appoint committees, and to exercise a watchful care over the interests of the Society, that its work may be properly done and its purposes adhered to. In the absence of the President-General a presiding officer pro tem. may be chosen.

ARTICLE VII. THE VICE-PRESIDENTS.

It shall be the duty of the Vice-President of each state to represent the President-General at all meetings of state chapters of the Society and for the Vice-President of the state to which the President-General belongs, or in which the meeting is held, to represent him at all meetings of the parent Society when he cannot be present and in his absence to act as chairman pro tempore. In the absence of both the President-General and state Vice-President, a presiding officer pro tem. may be chosen from the assembled members of the Society.

ARTICLE VIII. THE SECRETARY-GENERAL.

The Secretary-General shall keep a record of all the proceedings of the Society and the executive council. He shall have charge of the seal and records. He shall issue and sign in conjunction with the President-General all charters granted to the subsidiary chapters, and shall with him certify to all acts of the Society. He shall, upon orders from the President-General, give due notice of time and place of all meetings of the body; give notice to the several officers of all votes, resolutions, orders and proceedings of the body affecting them or appertaining to their respective offices and perform such other duties as may be assigned him.

ARTICLE IX. THE TREASURER-GENERAL.

The Treasurer-General shall collect and receive all dues, funds and securities and deposit the same to the credit of the American-Irish Historical Society, in such banking institution as may be approved by the Executive Council. This money shall be drawn to the check of the Treasurer-General for the purposes of the Society and to pay such sums as may be ordered by the Executive Council of the Society in meeting, said orders to be countersigned by the President-General and Secretary-General. He must keep a full and accurate account of all receipts and disbursements and at each annual meeting shall render the same to the Society, when a committee shall be appointed by the President-General to audit his accounts. He shall present at annual or special meetings a list of members in arrears.

ARTICLE X. THE LIBRARIAN AND ARCHIVIST.

The Librarian and Archivist shall be the custodian of all published books, pamphlets, files of newspapers and similar property of the Society. He shall have charge of all documents, manuscripts and other productions not assigned by this Constitution to other officers of the Society, and shall keep the same in a place or places easy of access and safe from loss by fire or other causes.

ARTICLE XI. THE HISTORIOGRAPHER.

The Historiographer or official historian of the Society shall perform the duties usually pertaining to that office.

ARTICLE XII. THE EXECUTIVE COUNCIL.

The Executive Council shall consist of the President-General, Secretary-General, Treasurer-General, Librarian and Archivist, Historiographer and ten members, all to be elected by the Society. The Executive Council shall be the judge of the qualifications of applicants for admission and if satisfactory shall elect the same. The Council shall recommend plans for promoting the objects of the Society, digest and prepare business, authorize the disbursement and expenditure of unappropriated money in the treasury for the current expenses of the Society; shall prepare and edit—or cause to be prepared and edited—contributions of an historical or literary character bearing on the special work of the Society for publication and distribution; may appropriate funds for the expenses of special branches of research for historical data and for the purchase of works to form a library for the Society whenever it shall have a permanent home or headquarters. The Council shall have power to fill vacancies in office until the annual meeting, exercise a supervisory care over the affairs of the Society and perform such other duties as may be entrusted to them. At a meeting of the Executive Council five members shall constitute a quorum.

ARTICLE XIII. MEETINGS.

The annual meeting of this Society shall be held on the third Wednesday in January. A field day of the body shall be held during the summer of each year at such time and place as the Executive Council shall select, due regard being given to the convenience of the greatest number, and, as far as possible, the meeting place selected shall be one whose historical associations are of interest to American citizens.

The annual meeting shall be for the purpose of electing officers, hearing reports and transacting such other business as may come properly before it. Until otherwise ordered such meeting shall be held in the city of Boston, Mass. There shall be four stated meetings each year.

Special meetings may be called at any time by the Executive Council.

ARTICLE XIV. SUBSIDIARY SOCIETIES.

Chapters of the parent Society may be established in any city or town in the United States upon the petition of ten persons for a charter, and such charter shall be issued upon payment of the sum designated for such in the by-laws.

The President, Secretary, Treasurer, Librarian and Historiographer of all subsidiary societies shall be admitted to all meetings of the parent Society as members during their term of office, with all the privileges of membership except that of voting.

ARTICLE XV. AMENDMENTS.

Amendments to the Constitution shall be submitted to the Executive Council through the Secretary-General at least thirty days before the meeting of the Society. A vote of two thirds of the members present at the meeting shall be necessary for the adoption of such amendments.

BY-LAWS.

(1) The initiation fee shall be three dollars. The annual membership fee shall be three dollars, payable not later than the first day of February in each year.[1]

(2) Payment of fifty dollars in advance at one time shall constitute a life membership. Life members shall be exempt from further dues.

(3) The Executive Council shall provide for each regular meeting of the Society an address, essay or paper dealing with some topic in the Society’s line of work.

(4) A copy of all original productions read before the Society shall be requested for deposit in the Society’s archives.

(5) The annual field-day program shall include an oration, poem and dinner. Other features of an appropriate nature may be added.

(6) A fraternal spirit shall be cultivated with other American historical bodies. The Society shall also keep in touch with historical organizations in Ireland, France and other countries.

(7) Any person elected to membership in this Society who fails to pay his initiation fee within one year from the date of his election shall, having been duly notified by the Secretary-General, be considered as having forfeited his right to membership and his election shall be cancelled.

(8) A member neglecting for two years to pay his annual fee shall be notified of such omission by the Secretary-General. Still neglecting for three months to pay the dues such delinquent member shall be dropped as no longer belonging to the Society.

(9) The stated meetings of the Society shall be held in January, April, July and October. The President-General, upon receiving a request in writing, signed by ten members, asking for a special meeting, shall cause the said meeting to be convened forthwith.

(10) Ten members shall constitute a quorum at any meeting of the Society, except stated meetings, when fifteen members shall be necessary.

(11) The general order of business at meetings of the Society shall be as follows:

(a) Minutes of previous meeting.

(b) Report of Executive Council on candidates for membership.

(c) Balloting on candidates for membership.

(d) Reports of officers and committees.

(e) Unfinished business.

(f) New business.

(g) Adjournment.

(12) When not otherwise provided, Cushing’s Manual shall be the authority on points of procedure at meetings of the Society.

(13) No part of these by-laws shall be amended, altered or repealed unless proposition is submitted in writing covering the proposed amendment at least thirty days before the meeting when it is to be acted upon, when, if two thirds of the members present and voting express themselves in favor of the change, the same shall be made.

NOTE.

A committee consisting of Michael J. Jordan, Esq., Hon. Patrick J. McCarthy, Joseph T. Ryan, Esq., John E. O’Brien, Esq., and the Secretary-General, has been appointed by the President-General to revise the Constitution. As the report of this committee has not yet been adopted, the foregoing Constitution is still in force.

GENERAL INFORMATION REGARDING THE AMERICAN IRISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

The Society was organized on January 20, 1897, in Boston, Mass., and now has members in nearly all the states, the District of Columbia, one territory and four foreign countries.

The object of the organization is to make better known the Irish chapter in American history.

There are two classes of members—Life and Annual. The life membership fee is $50 (paid once). The fee for annual members is $5, paid yearly. In the case of new annual members, the initiation fee, $5, also pays the membership dues for the first year.

The government comprises a President-General, a Vice-President-General, a Secretary-General, a Treasurer-General, a Librarian and Archivist, a Historiographer and an Executive Council. There are also State Vice-Presidents.

The Society has already issued several bound volumes and a number of other publications. These have been distributed to members, public libraries, historical organizations and universities. Each member of the Society is entitled, free of charge, to a copy of every publication issued from the time of his admittance. These publications are of great interest and value, and are more than an equivalent for the membership fee.

The Society draws no lines of creed or politics. Being an American organization in spirit and principle, it welcomes to its ranks Americans of whatever race or descent, and of whatever creed, who take an interest in the objects for which the Society is organized. Membership application blanks will be furnished on request to the Secretary-General at his office, 49 Westminster Street, Providence, R. I., or to John J. Lenehan, Chairman of the Committee on Membership, 71 Nassau Street, New York City. Blank applications found at the end of this volume.

The membership includes many people of prominence and occupies a position in the front rank of American historical organizations.

The Society is a corporation duly organized under the laws of the State of Rhode Island and is authorized to take, hold and convey real and personal estate to the amount of $100,000.

Gifts or bequests of money for the uses of the Society are solicited. We depend entirely on our membership fees and dues, and if we had a suitable fund on hand its income would be most advantageously used for historical research, printing and issuing historical works and papers and adding to our library. The following is a form of bequest good in any state or territory:

“I give and bequeath to the American Irish Historical Society —— dollars.”

If desired, a donor or testator may direct the application of principal or interest of his gift or bequest.

A FEW OF THE INTERESTING PAPERS READ BEFORE OR REPRINTED BY THE SOCIETY.

“Irish Settlers in Pennsylvania.”

“Early Irish in St. Louis, Missouri.”

“Patriots Bearing Irish Names Who Were Confined Aboard the Jersey Prison Ship.”

“Commerce Between Ireland and Rhode Island.”

“Some Irish-French Officers in the American Revolution.”

“The Voyage of the Seaflower.”

“The Defense of Fort Stephenson on the Sandusky.”

“Irish Settlers on the Opequan.”

“Irish Pioneers in Boston and Vicinity.”

“The Irish in America.”

“Goody Glover, an Irish Victim of the Witch Craze, Boston, Mass., 1688.”

“Capt. Daniel Neill, an Artillery Officer of the Revolution.”

“Richard Dexter, One of Boston’s Irish Pioneers.”

“The New Hampshire Kellys.”

“Some Early Celebrations of St. Patrick’s Day in New York City, 1762–1788.”

“Master John Sullivan of Somersworth and Berwick and His Family.”

“Martin Murphy, Sr., an Irish Pioneer of California.”

“Historical Notes of Interest.”

“Irish Ability in United States.”

“The Affair at Fort William and Mary.”

“Incident of an Expedition under Gen. John Sullivan.”

“Irish Builders of White House.”

“Col. Francis Barber, a Soldier of the Revolution.”

“A Glance at Some Pioneer Irish in the South.”

“Walsh’s Irish Regiment of Marine Artillery, French Army.”

“Irish Influence in the Life of Baltimore.”

“A Bit of New York History.”

“The Kelts of Colonial Boston.”

“The Battle of New Orleans.”

“Battles of Lexington, Concord and Cambridge.”

“Matthew Watson, an Irish Settler of Barrington, R. I., 1722.”

“Irish Emigration During the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries.”

“Some Pre-Revolutionary Irishmen.”

“Some Irish Settlers in Virginia.”

“The ‘Scotch-Irish’ and ‘Anglo-Saxon’ Fallacies.”

“Early Irish Settlers in Kentucky.”

“The Irish in South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana and Tennessee.”

“Hugh Cargill, a Friend of Liberty.”

“The Irish Settlers of Pelham, Mass.”

“Thomas Fawcett, Irish Quaker, American Pioneer.”

“Early New Hampshire Irish; Some Pre-Revolutionary Dennises, Corneliuses, Patricks and Michaels.”

“The United States Torpedo Boat O’Brien.”

“Daniel Morgan and the Battle of Cowpens.”

“Irish Schoolmasters in the American Colonies, 1640–1775.”

“The Irish at Bunker Hill.”

“David Hamilton, a Soldier of the American Revolution.”

“Irish Pioneers in Texas.”

“The Irish Chapter in the History of Brown University.”

“Men of Irish Blood Who Have Attained Eminence in American Journalism.”

“William Prendergast, a Pioneer of Chautauqua County, N. Y.”

“The Battle of Rhode Island.”

“Rev. James MacSparran, Irishman, Scholar, Preacher and Philosopher, 1680–1757.”

“Irish Pioneers and Builders of Kentucky.”

“Rev. James Caldwell, a Patriot of the American Revolution.”

“Great Irishmen in New York’s History.”

“Life and Deeds of Major-General John Sullivan.”

“Irish Pioneers in New York.”

“Irish Pioneers of the West and Their Descendants.”

“Advantages of Historical Research to Irish Americans.”

“Proceedings and Addresses at Dedication of Sullivan Memorial.”

“Civic Value of Memorials.”

“Joseph O’Connor, Editor, Author and Poet.”

“History of the Society of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick in the city of New York.”

“Early Marine Wireless.”

“Sketches of William Dunlap, Thomas P. Johnson and Thomas Sharp.”

“Distinguished Irish Americans in Revolutionary Times.”

“The First Census of the United States with Pointed Comments on Taking Same and Results Thereof.”

“Memorial to Jersey Prison Ship Heroes.”

“The Irish in the Revolutionary War.”

“Hon. Eli Thayer, One of the Early Members of the American Irish Historical Society.”

PRESIDENTS-GENERAL OF THE SOCIETY.

1897. REAR-ADMIRAL RICHARD W. MEADE, U. S. N.

1897–1898. HON. EDWARD A. MOSELEY, Washington, D. C.

1899–1900. HON. THOMAS J. GARGAN, Boston, Mass.

1901–1902. HON. JOHN D. CRIMMINS, New York City.

1903–1904. HON. WILLIAM MCADOO, New York City.

1905. HON. JOHN D. CRIMMINS, New York City.

1906–1907. REAR-ADMIRAL JOHN MCGOWAN, U. S. N. (retired), Washington, D. C.

1908–1910. FRANCIS J. QUINLAN, M. D., LL. D., New York City.

RECORDS OF THE TWELFTH ANNUAL MEETING AND BANQUET OF THE AMERICAN IRISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY AT THE HOTEL PLAZA, NEW YORK CITY, JANUARY 8, 1910.

It having been voted at the Eleventh Annual Meeting in Washington to hold the next annual meeting in New York, the Executive Council considered the necessary arrangements and resolved to make the Twelfth Annual Meeting and Banquet the most notable in the Society’s history.

Heretofore it had been the custom to hold the meeting and banquet of the Society the same evening, commencing at six o’clock and ending toward midnight. This gave little opportunity for a discussion of the papers presented, and many members who had been invited at these previous meetings to prepare papers were obliged to submit them to the Secretary-General without reading, with the result that the other members obtained information as to the contents of these only after they were printed in the volume of the Journal issued next succeeding the meeting.

The President-General appointed the following gentlemen a Dinner Committee, to arrange the details of the meeting and dinner:

Mr. Stephen J. Farrelly, Chairman; and Messrs. Joseph I. C. Clarke, John D. Crimmins, Edmond J. Curry, Victor Herbert, John J. Lenehan and Joseph T. Ryan.

After negotiations with the various high-class hostelries in New York and exhibiting a desire to procure for the use of the Society the best accommodations to be found in New York, the Dinner Committee finally decided upon the Hotel Plaza as the place and arranged for the business meeting of the Society to commence at two o’clock in the afternoon and terminate at six, and the dinner to begin at seven o’clock.

The following circular was issued and sent to each member of the Society, containing the arrangements for the meeting:

THE AMERICAN IRISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

ANNOUNCEMENT FOR THE ANNUAL MEETING AND TWELFTH ANNUAL DINNER OF THE SOCIETY.

The Twelfth Annual Meeting of the American Irish Historical Society will take place at the Hotel Plaza, New York City, Saturday, January 8, 1910, commencing at two o’clock in the afternoon.

It has been the custom at previous meetings of the Society to assemble at six o’clock, hold a short business meeting, followed by a dinner commencing at seven o’clock, at the conclusion of which historical papers would be read.

It has been found difficult to properly appreciate the learning and research shown by the eminent authors of historical papers in the meagre time between the termination of a good dinner and the hour when the meeting should end, and this year the Executive Council has made a new departure in this regard, which it is earnestly hoped will meet with the approval of our members.

The meeting of the Society will be called to order at two o’clock in the afternoon in the New Banquet Room on the first floor of the Hotel Plaza by the President-General. The first business will be the presentation of reports of the President-General, Treasurer-General, and Secretary-General, followed by the election of General Officers, Executive Council and State Vice-Presidents for the ensuing year.

The Executive Council, at a meeting held in New York, November 12, 1909, nominated a board of officers to be voted upon at this meeting, the names of whom appear elsewhere in this circular.

The report of the Secretary-General will contain the statistics of the Society, the list of new members, names of those dropped for non-payment of dues, synopsis of the work the Society has done during the past year, and other interesting information.

It is expected that the business of the Society and the presentation of scientific papers will all be completed at an hour which will give members ample time to dress for dinner.

The Meeting Room will be open at 12.30 o’clock, and members on their arrival are requested to register themselves and their guests.

The annual dinner will take place in the Grand Ball Room promptly at seven o’clock, and the Dinner Committee are informed that the management of the hotel plan to give us a most enjoyable dinner and extend us every possible courtesy.

The Executive Council, following the departure inaugurated at the Eleventh Annual Meeting in Washington, D. C., January 16, 1909, have voted that members may invite ladies and gentlemen as guests.

The price of the dinner tickets is $5.00 each, and it is advisable to promptly send applications, accompanied by cheque to the Secretary-General, who is Secretary of the Dinner Committee; so that seats may be allotted. Allotments will be made in the order in which applications are received, and parties of six or more, desiring to be seated together, can be accommodated by making that fact known when the tickets are purchased.

Among those who will furnish scientific papers during the afternoon session will be Hon. Joseph F. O’Connell, Hon. Henry Groves Connor, John Louis Sheehan, LL. D., Hon. James Fitzgerald, M. X. Sullivan, Ph. D., Joseph I. C. Clarke, Esq., and Alfred J. Talley, Esq., Judge Joseph T. Lawless, and others.

The speakers at the dinner will be Hon. Michael F. Dooley, Hon. William McAdoo, Rev. J. Havergal Sheppard, D. D., Hon. William A. Prendergast, Hon. Joseph H. O’Neil, Hon. John W. Goff, Hon. Alexander C. Eustace and others.

Souvenirs of the occasion containing the seal of the Society, menu, list of speakers, officers and other detailed information, have been prepared, after competitive bidding, by the Gorham Manufacturing Company. These are very beautiful and artistic and will be distributed among members and guests at the dinner.

The committee of the Society having the dinner in charge is as follows:—Stephen Farrelly, Esq., Joseph T. Ryan, Esq., John J. Lenehan, Esq., Joseph I. C. Clarke, Esq., Hon. John D. Crimmins, Edmond J. Curry, Esq., Victor Herbert, Esq., and Hon. Edward J. McGuire, President-General Quinlan and the Secretary-General ex officio.

As the seating capacity of the Grand Ball Room of the Plaza is limited to 425, it is earnestly desired that members make applications for dinner tickets at once, in order that the Committee may complete arrangements as early as possible and bring about a pleasant reunion of our members and their guests.

Yours fraternally, FRANCIS J. QUINLAN, M. D., LL. D., President-General, 33 West 38th Street, New York City.

THOMAS ZANSLAUR LEE, Secretary-General, 49 Westminster Street, Providence, R. I.

A little later an additional circular letter was issued and sent to each of the members, giving additional information about the meeting and dinner that was sought for by quite a few:

THE AMERICAN IRISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

TWELFTH ANNUAL MEETING AND DINNER AT HOTEL PLAZA, NEW YORK CITY, JANUARY 8, 1910.

The Dinner Committee are greatly pleased with the prompt purchase of tickets by so many members of the Society, and the absolute success of the Twelfth Annual Banquet is now an assured fact.

The President-General and the Executive Council respectfully request that those who intend to be present at the dinner, but have not yet taken tickets or ordered seats for themselves or guests, will do so at the earliest possible moment so that seats may be provided and their comfort looked after. The tickets are five dollars each, and may be had upon application to the Secretary-General, accompanied by check. Members may invite guests, ladies or gentlemen.

The business meeting will be called to order promptly at two o’clock p. m. in the New Banquet Room on the first floor of the Hotel Plaza.

Scientific papers will be presented by the following members: HON. JOSEPH F. O’CONNELL, HON. HENRY GROVES CONNOR, JOHN LOUIS SHEEHAN, LL. D., HON. JAMES FITZGERALD, M. X. SULLIVAN, PH. D., JOSEPH I. C. CLARKE, ESQ., ALFRED J. TALLEY, ESQ., and others.

The speakers at the dinner will be: HON. MICHAEL F. DOOLEY, HON. WILLIAM MCADOO, REV. J. HAVERGAL SHEPPARD, D. D., COL. CHARLES ALEXANDER, HON. WILLIAM A. PENDERGAST, HON. JOHN W. GOFF, EDWARD M. TIERNEY, ESQ., and others.

The Secretary-General will be in attendance at the Society’s headquarters at The Plaza after 9 a. m., the day of the meeting and banquet, and will have on sale tickets for those who up to that time have not been provided with them. The seats, however, will not be as desirable for those who wait until the day of the banquet to get their tickets, but there are plenty of desirable places remaining unsold.

The attendance of every member who can possibly be present is strongly urged, with the hope of making this meeting and banquet the greatest the Society has ever held. The Hotel Plaza is the most desirable place for a banquet in New York, and was selected by the Dinner Committee with the sole idea of having the best obtainable for our Society.

The management has given the members the benefit of a low rate for accommodations, and authorizes the following quotations to our members and guests:

Single rooms with bath for one person $4.00, $5.00 and $6.00 per day, according to location.

Double rooms with bath for two persons $6.00, $7.00 and $8.00 per day, according to location.

Dinner at seven o’clock in the Grand Ball Room. An exquisite souvenir designed by the Dinner Committee and executed by Gorham Company, containing program, songs and useful information about the Society, will be presented each member and guest in attendance at the dinner.

FRANCIS J. QUINLAN, M. D., LL. D., President-General, 33 West Thirty-Eighth Street, New York City.

THOMAS ZANSLAUR LEE, Secretary-General, 49 Westminster Street, Providence, R. I.

At the conclusion of the business meeting the assembly room was cleared and properly arranged for a reception to the members of the Society, to be given by the officers. This function was well attended, and the large assembly hall was filled to overflowing with members and their lady and gentlemen guests.

The programme of the evening was executed by the Gorham Manufacturing Company from designs and suggestions furnished by the New York members of the Dinner Committee, and is considered the most artistic programme ever used at a similar function in New York.

The menu of the dinner, which was served under the personal direction of Mr. C. E. Railing, the manager of the Plaza, was as follows:

Hors D’Oeuvre

————

Consomme Beatrice

Sherry

————

Supreme de Sole a la Russe

Sauterne

Filets de Boeuf Pique Garni Bouquetiere Pommes Fondantes

Margaux

————

Sorbet au Marasquin.

————

Poularde a la Broche Salade

————

Bombe Surprise Petits Fours

————

Cafe

White Rock Fonseca Cigars Cigarettes

This banquet was served in the principal dining hall of the Hotel Plaza, which, on account of the great number of tickets sold, was crowded to the doors with members of the Society and guests.

President-General Francis J. Quinlan presided at the meeting and later at the banquet, and divine grace was asked at the latter by Right Reverend James A. McFaul, D. D., Bishop of Trenton.

The Society acknowledges the many courtesies extended to it by the management of the Hotel Plaza and the earnest effort to do everything possible for our pleasure and comfort, and the painstaking efforts and excellent direction of Mr. C. E. Railing, in immediate charge in behalf of the Hotel Plaza of our arrangements, are gratefully appreciated by the Society.

The proceedings of the twelfth annual meeting and banquet of the Society were stenographically reported by Miss Viola Follis of Providence, R. I., whose faithful and accurate transcription of last year’s proceedings won so much favor.

MINUTES OF THE ANNUAL MEETING.

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:

LIFE MEMBERS.

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.

ANNUAL MEMBERS.

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.

Thomas 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.

Joseph 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.

Lieut.-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.

Dr. 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:

REPORT OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL.

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.

The 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 just 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 meeting. 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 part 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.

DONATIONS.

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 to 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.

ADMINISTRATION EXPENSES.

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 the 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, index 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.

PROVIDENCE, R. I., January 1, 1910.

PERMANENT FUND—AMERICAN IRISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

1910.

Jan. 1. Amount of deposit with the National Exchange Bank, Providence, R. I. $129.20

AMERICAN IRISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

Balance on hand at last report, January 15, 1909 $2,438.51

RECEIPTS.

1909.

Jan. Balance remaining from 1909 dinner account $47.00

Jan. Membership fees 615.00

Feb. Membership fees 710.00

March Membership fees 820.00

April Membership fees 490.00

May Membership fees 85.00

June Membership fees 180.00

July Membership fees 516.00

Aug. Membership fees 154.80

Sept. Membership fees 265.00

Oct. Membership fees 255.00

Nov. Membership fees 605.00

Dec. Membership fees 250.00

————————— $4,992.80

Dec. From Western News Company for one Journal 2.00

Exchange and Rebates .57

Interest on Bank Account 69.15

—————————

Total Receipts 5,064.52

—————————

$7,503.03

DISBURSEMENTS.

1909.

Jan. 16. Mrs. Murray, salary and telephones $51.50

Jan. 21. Akerman Co., record book, Secretary-General 7.85

Jan. 23. Viola Follis, expenses as stenographer 42.20

Jan. 27. Snow & Farnham Co., printing for Secretary-General 16.25

Jan. 29. Library Bureau, files and cards for Secretary-General 72.55

Feb. 1. Viola Follis, clerical services, Secretary-General office 40.00

Feb. 2. John J. Lenehan, expenses, New Members Committee 78.49

Feb. 5. Mrs. Murray, expenses to Sea View 5.00

Feb. 18. Snow & Farnham Co., postage $40; Secretary-General office printing $18.98 58.78

Feb. 18. Postage, Treasurer-General 1.00

Feb. 25. Reynolds Stamp Works, stamps, Secretary-General 2.30

March 2. John J. Lenehan, expenses New Members Committee 41.75

March 4. Library Bureau cards, Secretary-General 5.50

March 4. Snow & Farnham Company, stamped Envelopes, Secretary-General 22.99

March 4. Snow & Farnham, general printing, Secretary-General 12.50

March 4. Reynolds Stamp Works, Secretary-General office 2.00

March 8. Mrs. Murray, expenses to Sea View and postage 6.00

March 10. Viola Follis, clerical help, Secretary-General office 20.00

March 10. Stenographer’s services, Committee on Revision of Constitution 4.00

March 10. Expenses of Secretary-General office 56.22

March 12. Remington Printing Company, printing, Secretary-General’s office 5.75

March 15. E. L. Freeman Company, books, Secretary-General’s office 1.30

March 29. John J. Lenehan, expense New Members Committee 132.50

March 29. John J. Lenehan, expense New Members Committee 66.00

April 6. Library Bureau cards, Secretary-General 3.00

April 15. Providence Linotype Composing Company, printing by-laws 20.00

April 16. Expenses, Secretary-General office 127.45

April 20. Viola Follis, clerical help, Secretary-General office 20.00

April 29. Howard W. Damon, expressing 20.00

May 3. John J. Lenehan, expenses New Members Committee 84.00

May 4. A. J. Tally, publication of death notice 9.20

May 3. John J. Lenehan, expenses New Members Committee 61.00

June 16. Viola Follis, clerical help, Secretary’s office 50.14

June 19. Sun Printing Co., stamped envelopes and printing same 24.99

June 29. General Treasurer, state of R. I., articles of association 5.00

June 30. Secretary of State of Rhode Island, articles of association 1.00

July 1. John J. Lenehan, expenses New Members Committee 57.75

July 24. Kinsley-DeFelice studio, 200 parchment life membership certificates 262.71

July 24. Remington Printing Company, printing, Secretary-General’s office 7.50

July 26. Rumford Printing Company, printing and shipping 1500 Journals 1,550.19

Aug. 2. Expenses, Secretary-General’s office 41.31

Aug. 9. Viola Follis, clerical help, Secretary-General’s office 45.00

Aug. 12. Transportation for Executive Committee 20.00

Sept. 11. T. C. Marceau 2.50

Sept. 18. Kinsley-DeFelici studio .75

Sept. 21. John J. Lenehan, expenses New Members Committee 18.00

Sept. 27. Expenses, Secretary-General’s office 16.44

Sept. 27. Viola Follis, clerical help, Secretary-General’s office 20.00

Oct. 15. Snow & Farnham Printing, Secretary’s office 5.00

Oct. 16. Remington Printing Company, stamped envelopes 47.50

Nov. 1. John J. Lenehan 194.11

Nov. 10. Dr. Quinlan, newspaper notice 4.40

Nov. 23. Expenses, Secretary-General’s office 41.06

Nov. 27. Viola Follis, clerical help, Secretary-General office 45.00

Dec. 10. John J. Lenehan, expense Committee on New Members 32.98

Dec. 31. Remington Printing Company, printing for Secretary-General 46.00

—————

Total Disbursements $3,636.41

Balance on hand Jan. 1st, 1910 3,866.62

—————

$7,503.03

SUMMARY OF RECEIPTS AND DISBURSEMENTS.

From January 15, 1909, to January 1, 1910.

Balance on hand, January 15, 1909 $2,438.51

RECEIPTS.

Membership fees from old members $2,736.00

Annual fees from 236 new members 1,189.80

Life membership fees from old members 220.00

Life membership fees from 16 new members 800.00

Balance remaining from 1909 dinner account 47.00

For one Journal 2.00

Exchange and rebates .57

Interest from bank 69.15

—————————

Total receipts $ 5,064.52

—————————

$7,503.03

DISBURSEMENTS.

Mrs. Murray, salary and expenses $62.50

Printing Journal and shipping charges 1,550.19

Expenses of Committee on New Members 766.58

Expenses of Treasurer-General, postage 1.00

Expenses of Secretary-General’s Office:

Books $9.15

Cards and files 81.05

Printing 127.46

Clerical 282.34

Postage 120.00

General and incidental expenses 289.08

————————— $909.08

Stenographers for Committee on Revising Constitution $4.00

Printing by-laws 20.00

Expressing 20.00

Publication of death notices 13.60

Expense of articles of association 6.00

Life membership certificates 263.46

Executive Committee transportation 20.00

—————————

Total disbursements $3,636.41

Balance in National Exchange Bank of Providence, R. I.,

January 1, 1910 $3,866.62

—————————

$7,503.03

MICHAEL F. DOOLEY, Treasurer-General.

REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON MEMBERSHIP.

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 Secretary-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?

MR. 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.

The 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.

DR. 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.

MR. 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, as 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.

MR. 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 to 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 meeting, and the same were elected by unanimous vote to serve until the next meeting and until others are chosen in their stead:

President-General,

FRANCIS J. QUINLAN, M. D., LL. D., 33 West 38th Street, New York City.

————

Vice-President-General,

HON. THOMAS B. FITZPATRICK. Essex Street, Boston, Mass.

————

Secretary-General,

THOMAS ZANSLAUR LEE, ESQ., 49 Westminster Street, Providence, R. I.

————

Treasurer-General,

HON. MICHAEL F. DOOLEY, President National Exchange Bank, Providence, R. I.

————

Librarian and Archivist,

THOMAS B. LAWLER, ESQ., 70 5th Avenue, New York City.

————

Historiographer,

HON. JAMES F. BRENNAN, Peterborough, N. H.

EXECUTIVE COUNCIL.

The foregoing and

Hon. JOHN D. CRIMMINS, 624 Madison Avenue, New York City. Hon. WILLIAM MCADOO, 30 Broad Street, New York City. PATRICK F. MAGRATH, Esq., Binghamton, N. Y. Rev. JOHN J. MCCOY, LL. D., St. Ann’s Church, Worcester, Mass. THOMAS ADDIS EMMETT, M. D., LL. D., 89 Madison Avenue, New York City. Hon. EDWARD J. MCGUIRE, 52 Wall Street, New York City. Hon. JOHN F. O’CONNELL, 377 Westminster Street, Providence, R. I. JAMES L. O’NEILL, Esq., Elizabeth, N. J. STEPHEN FARRELLY, Esq., 39 Chambers Street, New York City. Rev. CYRUS TOWNSEND BRADY, LL. D., Haddon Hall, Kansas City, Mo. Hon. THOMAS J. LYNCH, Augusta, Me. Gen. PHELPS MONTGOMERY, 48 Church Street, New Haven, Conn. PATRICK CARTER, Esq., 32 Westminster Street, Providence, R. I. Hon. PATRICK GARVAN, 236 Farmington Avenue, Hartford, Conn. JOHN J. LENEHAN, Esq., 71 Nassau Street, New York City. Col. JOHN MCMANUS, 87 Dorrance Street, Providence, R. I. Hon. WILLIAM GORMAN, Stephen Girard Bldg., Philadelphia, Pa. J. LAWTON HIERS, M. D., Savannah, Ga. JOHN F. DOYLE, Esq., 45 William Street, New York City.

STATE VICE-PRESIDENTS.

Arizona—ROBERT DICKSON, Esq., Parker. California—Capt. JAMES CONNOLLY, Coronado. Colorado—Hon. THOMAS F. WALSH, Denver. Connecticut—DENNIS H. TIERNEY, Esq., Waterbury. Delaware—JOHN J. CASSIDY, Esq., Wilmington. Florida—JAMES MCHUGH, Esq., Pensacola. Georgia—Capt. JOHN FLANNERY, Savannah. Illinois—Hon. MAURICE T. MOLONEY, Ottawa. Indiana—Very Rev. ANDREW MORRISSEY, C. S. C., Notre Dame. Iowa—Rt. Rev. PHILIP J. GARRIGAN, D. D., Sioux City. Kansas—PATRICK H. CONEY, Esq., Topeka. Kentucky—JAMES THOMPSON, Esq., Louisville. Louisiana—JOHN T. GIBBONS, New Orleans. Maine—JAMES CUNNINGHAM, Esq., Portland. Maryland—MICHAEL P. KEHOE, Esq., Baltimore. Massachusetts—Hon. JOSEPH F. O’CONNELL, Boston. Michigan—HOWARD W. CAVANAUGH, Homer. Minnesota—Hon. C. D. O’BRIEN, St. Paul. Mississippi—Dr. R. A. QUIN, Vicksburg. Missouri—Hon. JOHN BAPTISTE O’MEARA, St. Louis. Nebraska—Rev. M. A. SHINE, Plattsburg. New Hampshire—Hon. WILLIAM E. CHANDLER, Concord. New Jersey—Gen. DENNIS F. COLLINS, Elizabeth, N. J. New York—JOSEPH I. C. CLARKE, Esq., New York City. North Carolina—MICHAEL J. CORBETT, Esq., Wilmington. Ohio—JOHN LAVELLE, Esq., Cleveland. Oklahoma—JOSEPH F. SWORDS, Esq., Sulphur. Oregon—J. P. O’BRIEN, Esq., Portland. Pennsylvania—HUGH MCCAFFREY, Esq., Philadelphia. Rhode Island—Hon. CHARLES ALEXANDER, Providence. South Carolina—W. J. O’HAGAN, Esq., Charleston. South Dakota—Hon. ROBERT J. GAMBLE, Yankton. Texas—JAMES MORONEY, Dallas. Utah—JOSEPH GEOGHEGAN, Esq., Salt Lake City. Vermont—Capt. WILLIAM CRONIN, Rutland. Virginia—Capt. JAMES W. MCCARRICK, Norfolk. Washington—DANIEL KELLEHER, Esq., Seattle. West Virginia—JOHN F. HEALY, Esq., Thomas, Tucker County.

OTHER VICE-PRESIDENTS.

District of Columbia—Hon. EDWARD A. MOSELEY, Washington. Australia—FRANK COFFEY, Sydney. Ireland—MICHAEL F. COX, M. D., M. R. I. A., Dublin. Germany—Hon. T. ST. JOHN GAFFNEY, Dresden. Japan—Hon. THOMAS J. O’BRIEN, Tokyo.

* * * * *

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 by 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:

J. I. C. Clarke $5.00 Dr. Quinlan 5.00 J. O’Sullivan 5.00 Mr. McKenna 5.00 F. X. Curry 5.00 F. X. Butler 5.00 E. J. McGuire 5.00 Richard Donovan 5.00 M. J. Mulqueen 5.00 Patrick McGowan 5.00 William J. Delany 5.00 Mr. Joyce 5.00 William J. Farrell 5.00 Philip Kearns 5.00 William M. Byrne 5.00 A. J. Talley 5.00 J. J. Boyle 5.00 Dr. Mooney 5.00 Mr. O. J. Brady 5.00 Mr. O’Brien 5.00 T. V. Butler 5.00 J. J. Falahee 5.00

BY CHECK.

J. J. Rooney 5.00 D. Healy 5.00 D. Spellisy 5.00 ——————— $125.00 Contribution 1.00 ——————— $126.00

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

The disbursements are:

May 10. For printing $14.49

Delmonico’s 21.50

June 11. Delmonico’s 7.33

Oct. 6. By check to President of the State Chapter, 75.00 Mr. Clarke, for pamphlets distributed on boat

—————— $118.32

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 guaranteed 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.

JUDGE 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 Republic 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 in 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.

I 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 notified 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 not 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 St. 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.

You 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.

DR. 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.

ANNUAL BANQUET.

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.)

As 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.)

It 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.

This 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 that 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.

I 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:

“NEW YORK, January 8, 1910.

“DR. FRANCIS J. QUINLAN, “President-General American-Irish Historical Society, “New York City.

“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.

“VICTOR HERBERT.”

(Applause.)

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

“CONCORD, N. H., January 6, 1910.

“My Dear Mr. Lee:

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

“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.

“Very truly, “WM. E. CHANDLER.”

“WASHINGTON, D. C., January 6, 1910.

“My Dear Mr. Lee:

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

“Hastily yours, “WM. E. CHANDLER.”

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.)

TREASURER-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 an 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 said 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.

The 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 common 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.”

The 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 of 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, said, “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 came 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 broke 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 their 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 estimate 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 their 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 asking 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 thought. 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 years 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 them. 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 Island, 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. It 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.

Simultaneously 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 enough 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.”

God 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 cheer 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.

Let 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 Jack 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!”

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?

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.

With 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. 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, under 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 guide 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 ago 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.

A 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.

BY JOSEPH I. C. CLARKE, ESQ., VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE SOCIETY FOR NEW YORK.

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