Part 5

On arriving at Portsmouth they were joined by John Langdon with another party. They captured the fort, took the captain and bound him, and frightened away the soldiers. In the fort they found one hundred casks of powder and one hundred small arms. A portion of the powder was taken by Major Demerritt to his house in Madbury, but most of it was stored under the pulpit of the meeting-house in Durham. On July 19, 1775, as a final proof of Sullivan’s leadership in this movement, Matthew Patten, chairman of the committee of safety for the county of Hillsborough, wrote to General Sullivan congratulating him on his appointment to the rank of Brigadier-General, in which he said: “An appointment which, as it distinguishes your merit, so at the same time it reflects honor upon, and shows the penetrating discernment of those truly eminent patriots from whom you received it; nor are we less sanguine in our expectations of the high advantages which must result under God to the public by your military skill and courage, as you have been indefatigable in attaining the first, and have given a recent instance of the latter, to your great honor and reputation, in depriving our enemies of the means of annoying us at Castle William and Mary, and at the same time furnishing us with materials to defend our invaluable rights and privileges. This, sir, must ever be had in remembrance, and (amongst the actions of others, our heroes of 1775) handed to the latest posterity. That the Almighty may direct your counsels, be with you in the day of battle, and that you may be preserved as a pattern to this people for many years to come, is our frequent prayer.” In Sullivan’s reply he said: “It gives me great pleasure to find so respectable a number of the worthy sons of freedom, in the colony to which I belong, have so publicly given their approbation of my conduct in assisting to secure the warlike stores at Fort William and Mary, and thereby preventing these evils which must have resulted from our enemies having possession of them.”

Nothing further need be said regarding the value of the powder captured on this occasion, or the boldness of the act itself. At Lexington and Concord the British were the aggressors, the Americans

## acting on the defensive; but at Newcastle the Americans were the

aggressors, made the attack boldly in the open day, and as Quint said, “for the first time in American history the British flag was torn down by men in armed rebellion.” John Sullivan’s history is well known. He and his three brothers gave their best services to the land of their birth, and in memory of those services the state of New Hampshire erected a monument of Concord granite on the site of the church in Durham, under which was stored the powder, and in the presence of the governor, council, and other officials, state and national, and a large concourse of people on Thursday, Sept. 27, 1894, the one hundredth anniversary of his death, dedicated it with appropriate exercises. The inscription reads:

IN MEMORY OF JOHN SULLIVAN.

_Born Feb. 17, 1740._ _Died Jan. 23, 1795._

Erected by the State of New Hampshire upon the site of the Meeting-house under which was stored the gunpowder taken from Fort William and Mary.

The tributes paid to Sullivan’s worth on this occasion by every one of the speakers were ungrudging and hearty. Professor Murkland said: “This may never become a large community, but it will always be exalted by its association with John Sullivan, lawyer, soldier, statesman, and judge.

“The plain granite shaft, inadequate as it may appear, will yet serve, when we shall have been forgotten, to recall the life of one who served his country so bravely and so well that he made slander dumb and malice impotent.”

Gov. John B. Smith said: “It is no invidious distinction to say that of all the New Hampshire men of the Revolutionary period Sullivan was not only peer, he was preëminently chief. His life is a part of the country’s history, and now, by virtue of my office (an office I am all the more proud to hold because John Sullivan filled and honored it), I accept these grounds from the town of Durham, and this monument from the committee in behalf of the state.”

O’Meara said:

“Your deeds for all the land that hold your fame Shall link you now to love New Hampshire’s name, While throbs high manhood round her glistening hills— While patriot gleam or pristine glory thrills.”

Dr. Quint said: “To John Sullivan, the man who in all the American provinces was the first to take up arms against the king, New Hampshire erects this monument of native granite.”

Professor Hadley said: “Washington’s never-failing trust and ever-affectionate respect are of themselves sufficient to prove their possessor’s title clear to proud historic praise; and Sullivan’s name does belong of right to that choice list of eminent commanders which bears such other names as Greene and Knox, Steuben and Stark.”

Senator Chandler said: “John Sullivan was one of the finest characters of the Revolution. A great general, and as a lawyer, a legislator, a statesman, a governor, and a judge, ranked among the very greatest men of the Revolutionary period. The luster in our annals of the gift to our early glories, bestowed by Ireland in sending to us the family of Sullivan, will never be obliterated or forgotten.”

Senator Blair said: “There is no sphere of public life in which he was not eminent, nor of private life in which he was not influential and beloved. The whole list of Revolutionary worthies does not furnish one name which, on the whole, shines more resplendently in all the great department of public service than that of John Sullivan.”

Hon. Henry M. Baker said: “The influence of such a life never dies. Seldom is it the fortune of any one to serve his country in such diverse yet responsible positions as General Sullivan held and honored. Still more rare to discharge every duty with such great energy and ability.”

Gov. Frederick Smythe said: “Wherever the rights of man are recognized, and so long as government by the people shall endure, the name of John Sullivan must be one of the imperishable, of those who were not born to die.”

Col. Daniel Hall said: “Sullivan is worthy of lasting commemoration as one of the most serviceable of the men it was New Hampshire’s great honor to contribute to the cause of American Independence.”

Secretary of State Stearns wrote: “Sullivan was a born leader of men, and preëminently a man for Revolutionary times. He was not a slave to ancient forms and customs, ruthlessly trampling upon the traditions of his time. He boldly assaulted the conservative barriers that confined the people of New Hampshire within the pale of accustomed usage.

“He early declared for a free government for a free people. In the march of events, when the people reached his early standpoint, the Constitution of 1776 was drafted on the line of his suggestions.”

“It is a century since the life of Sullivan was ended, and the qualities of his character and the magnitude of his work were submitted to the generous estimate of his fellow-men. His fame with the lapse of time suffers no impairment. A brilliant and an accomplished civilian, a distinguished lawyer, a matchless orator, a brave and an able general, a senator, a magistrate, and a governor, he bore his accumulating honors with modesty, and served the state which he loved with the restless power of a vigorous and versatile mind. The study of his life is instructive. Through the vista, obscured by a century, we read the story of his time in the light of the undimmed luster of his achievements.”

[Illustration:

REV. GEORGE W. PEPPER OHIO ]

[Illustration:

VERY REV. ANDREW MORRISSEY INDIANA ]

[Illustration:

COL. O’BRIEN MOORE WEST VIRGINIA ]

[Illustration:

JOSEPH T. LAWLESS VIRGINIA ]

VICE-PRESIDENTS

With tributes like these from the men who were associated with John Sullivan in the struggle for independence, as well as from their descendants who participated in the dedication of the monument to his memory, we, who are members of the American-Irish Historical Society, can well be proud of the character and the services of Maj.-Gen. John Sullivan.

Edward J. Brandon, Esq., city clerk of Cambridge, read the following paper:

On a certain April morning, one hundred and twenty-two years ago, Samuel Adams prophetically remarked, “What a glorious morning is this!” and, as I stand here, I cannot restrain the feeling that the shade of that illustrious and honored American makes use of the expression with much greater emphasis to-day.

For the accomplishments of his country during the past four generations, her marvelous strides in acquiring and attaining a potent position among the world’s nations, the tremendous development of her magnificent natural resources, the genius and perseverance displayed by her children, the prosperity and importance of her institutions, the advance of her people in culture, the triumph of her principles of democracy, with its lesson to the world that “the people can be trusted with their own,” are surely causes for congratulation and satisfaction. And all this reality dates from an incident comparatively slight in the world’s history, but which is an important epoch in the story of America.

The period of resistance by the Colonies to British tyranny antedates April 19, 1775, by many years, but the culmination of a series of oppressive acts was realized on that day, and in the exciting events preceding and following the fight at Concord and Lexington, the town of Cambridge acted well its part, and contributed its blood and treasure to the common weal.

All Cambridge knows and feels a glow of patriot’s pride in the Declaration of Independence of the people of Cambridge, made months in advance of the Declaration of the Continental Congress, when the town instructed its representative that if the Provincial Congress should for the safety of the Colonies declare them independent of the Kingdom of Great Britain, “we, the said inhabitants, will solemnly engage with our lives and fortunes to support them in the measure.”

In all the preliminary work of the period Cambridge was active and conspicuous, and the animosity aroused by the opposition of her citizens doubtless inspired the hatred of the retreating soldiery of Britain, and caused the shocking brutality which has been told and so often retold. But the history of the time records all these events, and it is needless for me to recite them.

The British troops landed at Lechmere Point on the night of April 18, and marched across the marshes to the Milk Row Road in Charlestown, now Somerville, thence by Beech Street and the present Massachusetts Avenue to Menotomy, Lexington, and Concord. Captain Thatcher and his Cambridge men were among the first to rally for the public safety, and the militia of Cambridge improved the opportunity to attest its loyalty to principle. The muster roll shows that they marched on the alarm, and did service as far as Concord.

Paige, Cambridge’s historian, tells us that from Lexington line to Beech Street the passage of the British troops in retreat was “through a flame of fire.” Despite the fact that the conflict of this day is generally known as Concord Fight or Lexington Battle, the carnage in Cambridge was greater than in any other place, greater than in all others combined; for, according to Rev. Samuel Abbott Smith, in his address at West Cambridge, “at least twenty-two of the Americans, and more than twice that number of the British, fell at West Cambridge.”

Of the fierceness of the conflict we can to-day present ocular proof. The large number of bullet holes in the house then owned by Jacob Watson, some of which may be seen at this time, is one indication of the amount of fighting done in Cambridge; while the spoliation of Cooper’s Tavern in Menotomy and the Memorial stones all along the line of march teach the heat and bitterness of the strife. In our ancient burial ground, by which Lord Percy’s battalion marched to the relief, will be found a neat granite monument over the remains of John Hicks, William Marcy, and Moses Richardson, and in memory of these and of Jason Russell, Jabez Wyman, Jason Winship, buried at Menotomy—men of Cambridge who fell in defense of the liberty of the people.

These things are the inspiration which the Cambridge boy and girl breathe at every step, impelling influences to love of country and fearlessness in her defense.

The _Journal of the Provincial Congress_ estimates the loss of property in Lexington at £1761, in Cambridge at £1202, and in Concord at £274.

But when we consider these exciting events of that memorable day and read the stories of individual heroism, we feel a particular pride that our race was permitted to be a factor in the great result. It would be to us a matter of sincere regret if Ireland, who had contributed so much that was noble and sublime to the military history of other nations, had been deprived of the opportunity to manifest her sympathy by active participation in the “Lexington Fight.” More especially as the feeling of the people of Ireland was well known to Britain and Britain’s rulers, as is evident from the records of the House of Parliament in 1775, where it is of record that Governor Johnstone, in the debate at the opening of the session used these words:

“I maintain that the sense of the best and wisest men of the country is on the side of the Americans; that three to one of the people of Ireland are on their side; that the soldiers and sailors feel an unwillingness to service; that you will never find the same exertion of spirit in this as in other wars. I am well informed that the four field officers in the four regiments now going from Ireland have desired leave to retire or sell out.”

Again, Mr. George Washington Parke Custis, the adopted son of Washington, says that Ireland contributed men to the Continental Army at the rate of 100 to 1 of any nation before the coming of the French. General Lee—Light Horse Harry—said that one-half of the Continental Army was derived from Ireland. It is an undoubted fact that two hundred and fifty soldiers served in the Revolutionary War who bore the Christian name of Patrick. It is also undoubted that the rolls of the soldiers who served at Bunker Hill contained over one hundred and fifty typical Irish names. Verplank referred to the services of Irishmen in the Revolutionary War in these words: “Both in that glorious struggle for independence and in our more recent contest for American rights, England’s penal laws gave to America the support of hundreds of thousands of brave hearts and strong arms.” I might repeat many more instances did the time permit. Sufficient to say that the opportunity was accorded to Ireland’s sons to do glorious work in the first conflict of the Revolution.

Cullen says: “The Irish came into the full light of colonial history at Lexington and Concord. The cry of Paul Revere roused them to take their share in the defense of the common cause. Among them was Hugh Cargill, the Ballyshannon man. To his prompt response Concord owed the safety of her records.”

Rev. Mr. Maccarty is heard from in Worcester on that eventful morning of April 19, 1775. Lincoln’s history of Worcester states that as the minutemen were paraded on the green, under Capt. Timothy Bigelow, a fervent prayer was offered up by Rev. Mr. Maccarty, after which they took up their line of march.

“Another prominent name in the accounts of Concord and Lexington is Dr. Thomas Welsh, who was army surgeon to the patriots. He it was who met brave Dr. Joseph Warren as he rode through Charlestown at about 10 o’clock on the morning of that April day.”

With the evidence of participation indisputable, cannot we of Irish lineage feel the glory of this day as our own right, purchased by the self-sacrificing effort of our predecessors?

And can we not, in fullest measure, in dwelling on the great and famous events of April 19, 1775, exclaim with America’s noble son, “Thank God, I also am an American!”

Cullen (pp. 86, 88) gives the following names found on the rolls of minutemen at that period:

Joseph Burke, Richard Burke, Daniel Carey, Joseph Carey, Peter Carey, Patrick Carroll, Joseph Carroll, Cornelius Cockran, Daniel Connors, William Connors, James Dempsey, Philip Donahue, Joseph Donnell, John Donnelly, Andrew Dunnigan, John Farley, Michael Farley, John Flood, William Flood, John Foley, Matthew Gilligen, Richard Gilpatrick, James Gleason, Daniel Griffin, Joseph Griffin, John Hacket, Joseph Hacket, John Haley, John Kelly, Patrick Kelly, Peter Kelly, Richard Kelly, Stephen Kelly, Daniel Lary, John McCarty, Michael McDonnell, Henry McGonegal, John McGrah, Daniel McGuire, Patrick McKeen, John McMullen, John Madden, Daniel Mahon, James Mallone, John Mahoney, John Murphy, Patrick Newjent, Patrick O’Brien, Richard O’Brien, Daniel Shay, John Shea, John Walsh, Joseph Walsh.

Joseph Smith, Esq., of Lowell, read the following paper on “The Irishman Ethnologically Considered.”

It is almost as hopeless a task to define an Irishman as it is to give the dimensions of a perfume; for the Irishman is as evasive and delusive, as pervasive and variable in type and character as the sweetness rising from the glowing bed of flowers.

If this society is to have a logical and reasonable plea for existence, if its title of American-Irish is to mean anything, we must reach some solid basis upon which to build our fabric; we must agree upon an acceptable definition of what is an Irishman.

This is what I shall try to do rather than attempt to show the ethnical components that enter into the Irishman. I have gone past the point in my speculations and theories on the Irishman where I place much stress upon the racial elements that go to make the Irish nation. We must start with these facts—the race and the nation are two distinctly different things; the terms Celtic and Irish are not synonymous.

I will state, so as to avoid the polemics of ethnology, just a few facts upon which all people are agreed, to explain why I attach so little importance to the merely racial elements that go to make up a nation. The islands of Ireland and Great Britain were at one time peopled by the one race which was known variously as the Celtic, Cymric, and Gaelic. By emigration, conquest, settlement, slavery, and intermarriage, and all those causes that mix races, Dane, Norse, German, Norman-French, Dutch, French, Walloon, and Flemish were mingled and intermingled with the original race, the constituent elements varying with time, place, and circumstances. So we have to-day in Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and England four distinct peoples different in characteristics, temperaments, thought, and methods, peoples made up practically from the very same elements. As the different sections of Great Britain are separated by purely artificial frontiers, they do not differ as profoundly as do the people of Ireland from those of the neighboring island. We observe in this republic people who claim a direct descent from English and other stocks producing a people as widely separated in thought, ideals, and physical appearance, and other distinctive features from the stock of the old countries as the Russian is from the Spaniard.

It is clear to me that there are other and more potent elements that make and differentiate peoples than mere racial admixtures.

The Irish, though speaking the English tongue and living under laws foreign to the instincts of the people, are a nation apart from the English, hating intensely the tie that binds them, out of sympathy with English ideas, ambitions, religions, and methods; and yet they are both the product of the same racial elements, the alleged preponderance of the Celt in the Irish being largely a matter of doubt and speculation.

What is it, then, that makes this tremendous difference in the two nations? What were the forces that were at work to produce from the same ingredients such profoundly different results? That is the question we must answer; and in answering it we will reach the basic idea of this society. Let me try and answer it in my way, and endeavor to show as simply as possible what an Irishman is.

There are in England as well as in America, among that class that for lack of a better term we must call Celtophobes, those who have an original if unsatisfactory and unscientific way of answering this question which adds to the accumulation of their stolen laurels and seems to afford them much satisfaction. If an Irishman break the record in science, art, literature, or any department of human

## activity, he is at once classed as an Englishman in England, an

American in America; if, however, he merely break the Decalogue, the law, a bank, or his mother’s heart, he must perforce be an Irishman. This differentiation will not do for us, however.

There are some things we must remember, for our work has to bear the closest scrutiny and the most searching criticism.

The characteristics which we deem essentially Irish are not distinctly Irish; they are merely more widely distributed among the Irish. Wit, humor, poesy, melancholy, loyalty to faith and fatherland, patience under trial and hardship, daring in adventure, valor in battle,—these are found in all lands, among all peoples, though the Irish have displayed them so conspicuously in all the centuries that some, aye, many of our own people have come to regard them as exclusively theirs. While good blood will tell and bad, we must look to other things, we must consider other causes than race and blood, if we are to understand the workings of a mysterious Deity and learn how he makes nations and differentiates peoples.

The crude ore lies in the mines of the hills all over the earth, potential in its possibilities, yet heavy, dull, inert, awaiting the day when man shall dig it from its hiding place, try it in the fires of the furnace, beat it on the anvil and transform it into the polished rail that ties together the ends of civilization, that will shape it into the massive engine that carries the fruits of industry and commerce to the uttermost parts of the world, that moulds it into the type and press that spreads intelligence and frees the soul, and that fashions it into the sword that frees the slave. And as the ore, so is man; he must be tried in the fires to be re-made for the work he is to do. The elements lie everywhere; circumstances and conditions weld and mould him into nations. He may creep on into the centuries dull, heavy, oppressed, carrying the thrall of the master, content that he shall eat and drink and sleep in the peace of ignorance, content that his master shall do his thinking and fighting, heedless who the master is, for the hands of all are heavy; taking his religion and his lot from him who rules and starves him.

Others there are who have lived for centuries watching the tide of civilization and the higher life sweep by them, too hotly engaged in the struggle of life and death to snatch the prizes as they go by. Such a land for the long centuries has been Ireland. Seven hundred years has Ireland felt the edge of the sword, and for seven centuries she has shown the naked breast and empty hand to the oppressor, beaten but unsubdued.