Part 2

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 canceled.

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 No part of these by-laws shall be amended, altered, or repealed, unless proposition is submitted in writing covering the proposed amendment at least thirty days before the meeting when it is to be acted upon, when, if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.

After the reception and introduction of those present, dinner was served. Hon. Thomas J. Gargan presided, having as his guest Paul B. Du Chaillu, the noted explorer, author of _The Viking Age_, _The Land of the Midnight Sun_, and numerous other works.

Upon the conclusion of the dinner, Mr. Gargan arose and said:

“In the name of the committee who have issued the call for the organization of an American Historical Society, whose special line of research shall be the history of the Irish element in the composition of the American people, I congratulate you on the success of this initial movement and bid you a cordial welcome to this meeting.

“But little has yet been done to show how much the sons of Ireland and their descendants have contributed to the settlement, to the civilization and reclamation of this country, as also to its liberation from oppression.

“In our proposed work we will discard the legendary and the mythical. We recognize that we are living in a scientific age at the end of the nineteenth century, the age of the microscope and the X-ray, and we ask for the acceptance of no historical data that will not bear the modern search-light and that is not sufficiently proven.

“We claim that due credit has not been given to the Irish contributions. That through prejudice or through gross ignorance there has grown up a myth about the Scotch-Irish. Of all the myths that have crept into history this is the most mythical. Why any man should be ashamed of his honorable Irish ancestry surpasses my comprehension and subjects the man who attempts to deny it to the scorn and contempt of all honest and intelligent men.

[Illustration:

THOMAS J. GARGAN BOSTON, MASS. ]

[Illustration:

JAMES JEFFREY ROCHE BOSTON, MASS. ]

[Illustration:

JOHN D. CRIMMINS NEW YORK CITY ]

[Illustration:

JOSEPH SMITH LOWELL, MASS. ]

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

“Descendants of Irishmen may well feel proud of the honorable part which the Irish race has borne in the settlement and development of the country. As early as 1649, Cromwell, by his cruel policy, transported 45,000 of them beyond the seas. A large number came to Barbadoes. Many of them afterwards came to the continent of North America.

“The revolution of 1688 in England, and the acts of British Parliament to discourage manufactures in Ireland, drove 100,000 operatives out of Ireland, and a writer of that time says multitudes of them went to America.

“In 1729 a writer stated that 3000 males left Ulster yearly for the American colonies. And the arrivals at the port of Philadelphia for 1729 are set down as: English and Welsh, 267; Scotch, 43; German, 343; Irish, 5655, or a proportion of ten Irish immigrants to one from all other European nations. This constant influx continued, though not in so great proportion. So we see what an important factor they were in the settlement of the colonies.

“James Logan, of Lurgan, Ire., came over with William Penn, and complaint was made against him that public Mass was permitted in the colony.

“The name of Logan has through all our history been honorably identified with every step of our progress. In 1729 several families came from Longford, Ire., who were landed at Cape Cod, but made their way to New York. Among them was Charles Clinton, whose three children became historical men in the annals of New York. The colony of Maryland was largely settled from Ireland; the Carrolls, whose names are indissolubly associated with American history, coming to the colony in 1689.

“In 1710 we find in Virginia along the Blue Ridge, in what are now the counties of Patrick and Rockbridge, the McDowells, Breckenridges, McDuffies, McGruders, and others, and the two rivers Mayo, and the towns called McGaheysville, Healysville, Kennedysville, McFarland, Lynchburg, and Kinsdale,—all names that tell us plainly what was the origin of the settlers.

“In 1737 an Irish settlement was established on the Santee River in South Carolina, and the historian of that time says none has furnished so many settlers to this province as Ireland.

“In 1746 Daniel Boone commenced the settlement of Kentucky, and had with him Hugh McGrady, also Harland and McBride.

“In the Massachusetts Bay Colonies, prejudices against natives of Ireland existed almost from the settlement of the colony. There were restrictions as to land, and in 1720 the General Court warned settlers from Ireland to leave the colony within seven months.

“As you all know, in 1737 the Charitable Irish Society was founded here in Boston by twenty-six natives of Ireland, Robert Duncan heading the list. William Hall was the first president, and in that list of names are the founders of many distinguished Boston families, some of whom, I am sorry to say, are not inclined to own their origin, or choose rather to call themselves Scotch-Irish, an appellation which their ancestors would have despised. We find at Concord the burial place of Hugh Cargill, born in Ballyshannon, who came to this country, in 1744, a poor emigrant, acquiring no mean estate, leaving as a legacy the Stratton farm to the town of Concord to be used for the poor.

“There also came to Massachusetts the Limerick schoolmaster, John O’Sullivan, a name illustrious in our country’s annals. One of his sons was General Sullivan, of Revolutionary fame. One of his lineal descendants, Mr. Russell Sullivan, the well-known author, is one of the signers of our roll. There were Higginses and Reillys at Plymouth and along the shores of Cape Cod.

“One of the Indian transfers of land was to one of the Reillys.

“One of the most distinguished Irishmen who came to New England was George Berkely, a native of Kilkenny. Born near Thomaston, he came here to found a college for the civilization of the Indians. He is best remembered by his poems. Those of you who have visited the national capitol at Washington will see in fresco on the walls at the foot of the stairway portrayed by the brush of the artist in almost speaking pictures the story of the settlement and civilization of the United States, and you will see inscribed the lines which gave the artist inspiration, written by George Berkely:

Westward the course of empire takes its way; The four first acts already past, A fifth shall close the drama with the day: Time’s noblest offspring is the last.

“Yet we should not be vainglorious. We are but representatives of many nations who from the earliest settlement of the country have helped to plant here free institutions, but we are not intruders, nor are we here by the tolerance of any party. We live here under the constitution and laws of the country, and are vitally interested in its well-being and future prosperity. We, of this generation, decline to accept that series of lies which English historians and their imitators have agreed upon as truthful history of what the Irish have done in this country or any other country.

“We propose to investigate facts and ask for their impartial consideration.

“The object of this association is to call to mind those noble types of men and women that the Irish race have sent here, that we may receive credit for our fair share in the development and maintenance of a government founded upon manhood.”

Hon. John C. Linehan spoke briefly, saying: “I think there is not a prouder title than that of American citizen. I am proud of it. I glory in it. But as I believe that a man who cannot love his mother cannot love his wife, a man who is false to the land of his birth can never be true to the land of his adoption. New Hampshire presents a rich field for the society’s research.

“Our first governor was an Irishman. Darby Field, an Irish soldier, discovered the White Mountains, and there was not a battle of the French and Indian wars in which Irish blood was not spilt just as freely as in the battles of the Civil War.

“If we do our work, the American people, of whatever birth, will put the present Scotch-Irish myth where it belongs.”

Joseph Smith, secretary of the Lowell Police Board, urged work on the part of every member. “We cannot deal in hurrah business,” he said. “We must produce the cold documents and facts that no one can dispute, and eliminate from history its imaginary and fictitious bluffs. All must work in investigation in their own towns and vicinity. We must organize in every town and city, and every year have a meeting of this parent society to garner and publish our discovered and compiled facts. This cold documentary evidence cannot be disputed, and falsehood and fiction will cease.”

Osborne Howes, the seventh in line from an Irish settler of Cape Cod, said it was not so much a matter of self-laudation, but to create a spirit in the people. He believed in the necessity of a race living up to its ideal, and the higher the ideal could be placed the better for all of the race; they will have something to look forward to, something to eliminate.

Paul Du Chaillu heartily endorsed the purpose as a most laudable one. “But don’t be self-laudable,” he advised, “you want the facts, the truth; unearth the truth for truth’s sake; present it to the world and don’t be afraid of opposition. Defy it.”

Charles A. De Courcey, of Lawrence, spoke of the feeling and experience and slurs cast upon every school child of Irish parentage in the past, and to some extent to-day. “We were foreign. We did not feel at home. But we began to know. We began to feel at home. We learned of our race’s participation in the up-building of the nation. We will prove our part in America’s history; then the children as Americans can feel as Americans.”

The Rev. John J. McCoy, in an able speech, declared: “The records are so honorable that, although it is rather late to make the start, we all ought to find very pleasant work in assisting to look them up.”

Editor George H. Moses, of the _Concord Monitor_, Senator Chandler’s paper, ex-Mayor Hugh J. Carroll, of Pawtucket, and Hon. P. J. Flatley, of Boston, made speeches, urging the conduct of the research with true historic spirit.

Mr. Flatley, in his impromptu speech, handled the “Scotch-Irish” myth without gloves.

The following officers were elected:

Rear-Admiral Richard Worsam Meade, U. S. Navy (retired), President-General; Thomas Hamilton Murray, Pawtucket, R. I., Secretary-General; Hon. John C. Linehan, Concord, N. H., Treasurer-General; Thomas B. Lawler, Worcester, Mass., Librarian Archivist; Hon. Theodore Roosevelt, New York; James Jeffrey Roche, Boston; Augustus St. Gaudens, New York; Hon. Thomas J. Gargan, Boston; Dr. Thomas Dunn English, Newark, N. J.; Prof. Maurice F. Egan, Washington; Edward A. Moseley, Washington; Robert Ellis Thompson, Philadelphia; T. Russell Sullivan, Boston; Joseph Smith, Lowell, Executive Committee.

The vice-presidents are: Massachusetts, Osborne Howes, Boston; Connecticut, Joseph Swords, Hartford; Maine, James Cunningham; Rhode Island, M. J. Harson, Providence; Vermont, T. W. Maloney; New York, Gen. James R. O’Beirne; New Jersey, Hon. William McAdoo; District of Columbia, J. D. O’Connell, Washington; Pennsylvania, Gen. St. Clair Mulholland, Philadelphia; South Carolina, Hon. Matthew C. Butler; Georgia, Hon. Patrick Walsh; Ohio, Rev. George W. Pepper, Cleveland; Michigan, Thomas A. Weadock, Detroit; New Hampshire, T. B. Sullivan, Concord.

The position of historiographer has been left vacant until a subsequent meeting of the executive body.

Mr. Joseph Smith, of Lowell, in behalf of the committee appointed to prepare a constitution and by-laws, submitted a report, and the same met with the unanimous approval of the gathering. The preamble is as follows:

Believing that the part taken in the settlement, foundation, and up-building 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 passions, 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 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—duly to 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 earth,—we desire that the deeds and accomplishments 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 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 to-day and look into the broad future. Fidelity, truth, honor are the watchwords of such a purpose, and under their noble influence should our work be done.

Thomas Hamilton Murray, secretary of the meeting, was then introduced and stated that letters expressive of interest in the organization, acknowledging an invitation or giving an expression of opinion, had been received from a large number of people. The list of writers included the following:

HON. GEORGE F. HOAR, United States senator from Massachusetts.

REAR-ADMIRAL RICHARD W. MEADE, U. S. N. (Retired), Philadelphia, Pa., and Washington, D. C.

HON. THOMAS DUNN ENGLISH, Newark, N. J.

DR. THOMAS ADDIS EMMET, New York City.

SAMUEL SWETT GREEN, Worcester, Mass. (of the American Antiquarian Society).

HENRY STODDARD RUGGLES, Wakefield, Mass. (of the Sons of the Revolution).

HON. DANIEL H. HASTINGS, Governor of Pennsylvania.

PRESIDENT TYLER, Of the college of William and Mary, Virginia.

PRESIDENT LEE, Of Washington and Lee University, Virginia.

PRESIDENT MORRISSEY, Of the University of Notre Dame, Indiana.

REV. DR. CONATY, Rector of the Catholic University, Washington, D. C.

PROVOST HARRISON, Of the University of Pennsylvania.

H. B. ADAMS, Professor of American and Institutional history, Johns Hopkins University.

W. M. SLOANE, Professor of history, Princeton College, New Jersey.

EX-GOVERNOR WALLER, Of Connecticut.

GEN. FRANCIS A. WALKER, Boston, Mass.

EDWARD A. MOSELEY, Washington, D. C.

REV. J. GRAY BOLTON, D. D., (Presbyterian), Philadelphia, Pa.

REV. CYRUS TOWNSEND BRADY, Philadelphia, Pa. (Protestant Episcopal archdeacon of Pennsylvania).

REV. GEORGE W. PEPPER, (Methodist), Cleveland, O.

REV. GEORGE C. BETTS, (Protestant Episcopalian), Goshen, N. Y.

REV. THOMAS J. SHAHAN, Catholic University, Washington, D. C.

HON. PATRICK WALSH, Augusta, Ga. (ex-United States senator).

HON. THOMAS A. E. WEADOCK, Detroit, Mich. (ex-member of Congress).

COL. D. S. LAMSON, Weston, Mass.

JOHN P. DONAHUE, Wilmington, Del. (national commander, Union Veteran Legion).

HON. JOHN COCHRANE, President of the New York Society of the Cincinnati.

REV. W. A. MCDERMOTT, (“Walker Lecky”) Redwood, N. Y.

LETTERS OF WARM APPROVAL.

The following are the letters that were received:

_From Admiral Meade._

PHILADELPHIA, Dec. 8, 1896.

DEAR MR. ROCHE:—Your note of November 26 with its enclosure has only just reached me here. In reply I would say that you are at liberty to enroll my name as you desire. My ancestor, Robert Meade, who died in this city in August, 1754, was an Irish gentleman, who, having to choose between his conscience and his native land, chose to leave his native land for the sake of conscience and to cast in his lot with the people of the New World. He was one of the “Wild Geese.” His son, George Meade, born in this city, Feb. 27, 1741, died here in 1808. His life has been written for the volumes of the American Catholic Historical Society of this city. He was a patriot of the finest type, and his name is on the Roll of Honor in Independence Hall in this city.

Since then four generations have borne the name of Richard Worsam Meade, and all, I believe, with honor. My father’s younger brother, George Gordon Meade, is sufficiently well known to the country in connection with Gettysburg. In the life of George Meade, alluded to above, you will see what _I_ say about “Irishmen.”

My father’s mother was Margaret Butler, of this city, and she also traced her ancestry to a famous strain of Norman-Irish blood.

No, sir! None of the Meades or Butlers are ashamed of their Irish lineage! Rather the contrary do we rejoice that our forefathers came from the Emerald Isle, the land of dauntless men and pure women, and that they represented the best blood of the Island.

Very truly yours, R. W. MEADE, 3d, Rear-Admiral, U. S. N.

_From the Governor of Pennsylvania._

January 11, 1897.

MY DEAR SIR:—It would give me great pleasure to unite with yourself and other gentlemen who are interested in recording the relation and influence of Americans of Irish birth or lineage to the history of our country, were it possible for me to be away from the Capitol on the 20th inst. I am in entire sympathy with the movement and hope to render assistance along the lines indicated in your letter. My father was born in Londonderry and came to this country when a youth. I believe I am entitled to membership in the proposed organization.

Very truly yours, DANIEL H. HASTINGS.

_From the Rev. Dr. Shahan._

WASHINGTON, D. C., Jan. 18, 1897.

DEAR CAPTAIN TOBIN:—I regret to say that it will be practically impossible to go to Boston. I cannot very well leave all the work I have on hand, and I must go back again the following week, for Monday, the 25th, to Hartford. But I am entirely in favor of the good work, and I hope that from the beginning it will be a success. I regret again very much that so many duties all crowd in on the end of January, and make it impossible to be with so many men of one mind and one race next Wednesday. If members are proposed, please put me down as one.

Yours sincerely, THOMAS J. SHAHAN.

Judge Smith, of the Superior Court of Pennsylvania, wrote:

“I have just read the letter which you kindly sent me, giving in outline the scope and purpose of the proposed Historical Society and bearing the names of many distinguished citizens. I am very much pleased with the project and gratified to see that so many eminent gentlemen have become interested in the movement, and regret that official duties will prevent my attendance at the initial meeting. That the undertaking is needful and timely, the letter well demonstrates, and the broad foundation indicated will undoubtedly attract the moral and material support of all American citizens who want nothing but the truth recorded and preserved in the archives of history. May success attend the noble work of vindicating the worth and memory of a superior race!”

Henry Stoddard Ruggles, of Wakefield, wrote:

“Your proposal to found a society devoted to the preservation of records of the services of Irishmen in the colonization and subsequent history of America meets my approval. Although the biographies of some of the early pioneers of that race have been carefully and fully treated, owing to the devotion of their descendants to their memory, only a very small part has ever been written of the history of the stock as a whole, and some of their achievements have, through prejudice, been ascribed to another people. Many Protestants of Irish derivation are claiming a Scotch lineage for their immigrant ancestor, which he would have repudiated; and yet they are often innocent of intent to mislead; so thoroughly in certain quarters has the theory been nursed, that Protestant Irishmen, particularly those from the northern province, are invariably descended from the Scotch blood. As an American in the ninth American generation, who, by the services of three great grandfathers in the armies of the Revolution, holds membership in both the ‘Sons of the Revolution’ and ‘Sons of the American Revolution,’ and as a member of the ‘Essex Institute’ and ‘Roxbury Military Historical Society,’ both devoted to historical research, I naturally desire that all branches of our country’s history should receive the attention they deserve. That a race so prolific, so inwrought with the old stock of the land, so productive of men of mark and merit, should till now remain without a representative society to defend its record and its heroes, is most surprising. That it is soon to have such we may rest assured from the names of its sponsors, who are a guaranty of success.”

_From Rt. Rev. Dr. Conaty._

WORCESTER, Nov. 20, 1896.