Part 7

Of all those who by immigration have helped to people our country, the Irish have come imbued with the most intense feeling of loyalty towards our institutions, and it may be safely asserted that, since our independence of English rule was proclaimed, every true Irishman has felt, on landing in America, that the American shore was not a foreign shore for him. To perpetuate this feeling is the crowning object for which the society is organized.

Again sincerely thanking the society, through the committee, for the honor conferred upon him, President-General Moseley assured them that he would discharge the duties of the office to the very best of his ability.

In answer to the subjoined call the third meeting was held Nov. 16, 1897.

OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL, PAWTUCKET, R. I., Nov. 1, 1897.

DEAR SIR:—You are hereby notified that the third meeting of the American-Irish Historical Society will be held at Young’s Hotel, Boston, Mass., on Tuesday evening, Nov. 16, 1897.

There will be a business session of the society at 6.30 P.M., followed, at 7.30 o’clock, by a dinner and post-prandial exercises of an interesting nature.

The after-dinner features will include:

(1) An address by the presiding officer.

(2) The reading of letters from distinguished members of the society unable to be present.

(3) A paper by Mr. Dennis Harvey Sheahan, of Providence, R. I. (ex-clerk of the Rhode Island House of Representatives), on “The Need of an Organization such as the A. I. H. S., and its Scope.”

(4) A congratulatory letter from His Excellency Elisha Dyer, Governor of Rhode Island.

(5) An address by Mr. John Mackinnon Robertson, of London, author of _The Saxon and the Celt_.

(6) A communication to the society from Hon. Joseph T. Lawless, Secretary of State, Virginia.

(7) A paper on “The O’Briens of Machias, in the Revolution,” by Mr. H. W. Chaplin, of Boston, Mass., who is a descendant of the O’Briens.

Invitations to attend the dinner have been extended Rear-Admiral Belknap, U. S. N.; Dr. John Sullivan, a descendant of Gen. John Sullivan of the Revolution; and President Andrews, of Brown University. President Andrews’s work on American history is well known, and his patriotic address recently, before the Twentieth Century Club, will not soon be forgotten.

It is earnestly desired that every member of the society who can possibly be present at the coming meeting will attend and help make the event the great success it so richly deserves.

Fraternally, and in behalf of the Executive Council of the Society,

THOMAS HAMILTON MURRAY, Secretary-General.

The third general meeting of the American-Irish Historical Society was held at Young’s Hotel, Boston, on the evening of November 16, about seventy members being in attendance. Gen. James R. O’Beirne, Vice-President for New York, presided at the business session. Secretary-General Thomas Hamilton Murray made his official report, saying:

The society is steadily growing in membership, and is receiving an excellent class of active workers. Many of these new accessions are gentlemen of national reputation. Before the year closes it is expected that between five and six hundred members will have been enrolled. Since the founding of the organization last January, three members have died. They were Postmaster Coveney, of Boston; Rear-Admiral Meade, who was the first President-General of the society; and Lawrence J. Smith, of Lowell, Mass.

Twenty-eight states, the District of Columbia, and two foreign countries are now represented in the society’s membership. Since the last gathering of the organization the council of the society has held a number of meetings, and has materially furthered the movement.

The organization has enlisted widespread attention, and requests for genealogical information, historical data and facts relating to early Irish settlers in this country have been received almost daily. Several of the society’s members are of Revolutionary stock, and some are descendants of officers who served under Washington. Some of the members, too, trace their American ancestry back to a period anterior to King Philip’s War.

Since the last meeting an excellent article descriptive of the society and its purposes has been contributed to the _Granite State Monthly_, of Concord, N. H., by the Treasurer-General, John C. Linehan. A committee of Washington members of the society now has in preparation a diploma of membership and a seal. This committee will probably be ready to submit its designs at the next meeting. The members at the national capital have extended the society a cordial invitation to hold its coming meeting in that city, and have, in fact, already begun preparations for the event, under the direction of President-General Moseley. Gen. James R. O’Beirne, on behalf of the New York members, has also tendered the organization an invitation to meet in the near future in that city.

The last meeting of the society’s council was held in Pawtucket, R. I., as the guests of the members in that place and Providence. The meeting was very profitable to the cause. Several new members were obtained for the organization; and the entertainers’ hospitality was unbounded. The council has been invited to attend similar gatherings in Worcester, Lawrence, and other cities. This indicates the interest aroused. Massachusetts has at present the largest representation in the society; then follow in order Maine, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, and Pennsylvania.

At the conclusion of Mr. Murray’s report a committee of three was appointed to take suitable action on the death of Lawrence J. Smith, of Lowell, Mass. The committee consists of Joseph Smith, Lowell; Thomas B. Lawler, Worcester; and Capt. P. S. Curry, Lynn.

William McConway, of Pittsburg, Pa., presented a check for $50 to the society.

It was voted to hold the next meeting of the society in New York City.

The business session then adjourned, and the company proceeded to dinner.

Hon. Thomas J. Gargan presided; and seated on his right and left were John Mackinnon Robertson, of London; Admiral Belknap, U. S. N.; Gen. J. R. O’Beirne, New York; Hon. P. A. Collins, Boston; Col. John C. Linehan, Concord, N. H.; Rev. Edward McSweeney, Bangor, Me.; James Jeffrey Roche, of Boston; Thomas B. Lawler, of Worcester; and Joseph Smith, of Lowell.

Around the tables were noted: the Revs. William P. McQuaid, Boston; John Harty, Pawtucket, R. I.; J. H. Lyons, Boston; Dr. W. D. Collins, Haverhill, Mass.; Dennis H. Sheahan, Providence, R. I.; Stephen J. Casey, Providence; Osborne Howes, Boston; Humphrey O’Sullivan, Lowell, Mass.; J. F. Brennan, Peterboro, N. H.; Representative John Jolly, Alderman Thomas O’Brien, and Hugh J. Lee, Pawtucket, R. I.; Daniel Donovan, Timothy Donovan, and P. S. Curry, Lynn, Mass.; Hon. Joseph H. O’Neil, Dr. William H. Grainger, Dr. P. J. Timmins, M. A. Toland, Edward A. McLaughlin, M. J. Jordan, Dr. P. F. Gavin, Charles E. S. MacCorry, Joseph P. Flatley, Jeremiah W. Fogarty, all of Boston; Edmund Reardon, Capt. J. F. Murray, and Edward M. Manning, of Cambridge, Mass.; James Cunningham and Frank W. Cunningham, of Portland, Me.; and many others.

After dinner a short but stirring speech was made by the presiding officer, Hon. Thomas J. Gargan, who said in part:

It cannot be otherwise than interesting to analyze the materials entering into the warp and woof of our democratic fabric. We are a nation receiving emigrants from almost every country on the face of the globe. We are endeavoring to amalgamate people of different races, languages, and religions into a homogeneous mass, eliminating all that is vicious, and so refining what is good, hoping to evolve the best type of manhood and womanhood to be found in the coming century.

Doubtless the descendants of each race making contributions to our population will perform their share of the work in tracing their early settlements and their efforts in up-building the Republic. Our share of the work is to examine the data and preserve the records of the Irish and their descendants, and their contributions to the settlement of the original Colonies, the founding of the nation, the upholding of the Union, and the maintenance of democratic institutions.

Proud of our ancestry, yet loving the United States and loyal to our citizenship, we desire a fair share of credit for what they have accomplished. We respect the Germans, the French, the Italians, and the genuine Scotchman; but for that masquerading misnomer, the Scotch-Irishman, who claims no ancestry and no country as his own, we have only contempt; and he will go down to posterity as he deserves, “unwept, unhonored, and unsung.”

A distinguished man has said “the Irish have fought successfully the battles of all countries but their own.” They have also contributed their full share to the civilization and progress of all English-speaking people. That they possess brilliant qualities is not denied; but it is charged that they lack steadiness of purpose. I think a careful and critical study of the history of this country will refute this assertion.

To assert that they have imperfections is but to say they are human. For much of their humanity, I say God bless them. I wish there was a little more humanity in the world in our day.

We of this society are only asking that they may be spoken of and written of impartially, truthfully. “Nothing extenuate, nor set down aught in malice.” We will accept our share of just criticism. The malice and insolence of ignorance have unfortunately held the platform too long. It is our duty to endeavor to refute errors with clear statements of cold facts. For such purposes this society was organized; and it is very gratifying to be able to announce that in ten months since its organization we have already a list of nearly five hundred members coming from almost every state in the Union, representing some of the most distinguished men and families of the Republic. I congratulate you, fellow-members, on this signal success.

Mr. Gargan then introduced Mr. John Mackinnon Robertson, of London, author of many striking books and pamphlets, but most widely and favorably known to members of the Society and Irish-Americans generally by his masterly work, _The Saxon and the Celt_. Mr. Robertson is a tall, handsome man of forty, with dark hair, moustache and beard, and a well-modulated voice, which without effort reached the furthest part of the room. He gesticulates very seldom, and uses none of the tricks of the practiced orator; but he held his audience in rapt attention throughout his whole discourse, evoking applause and laughter at frequent intervals. He is a firm believer in the ultimate and not far distant triumph of Home Rule; and his advice to the American friends of the cause had the merit of novelty at least.

MR. ROBERTSON’S ADDRESS.

Mr. Robertson expressed the satisfaction with which he found himself at a union of an Irish society whose purpose was the systematic and dispassionate study of a department of the history of the race. The new movement was the more hopeful, seeing that it proceeded on democratic lines. It was said that war could not be carried on by a committee. If the military gentlemen present would forgive him, he would confess that he wished it could not be done in any other way, either (laughter); but he was sure that historical research could very well be so carried on. In so far as the Nationalist movement had of late years lost headway, it could fairly be said that it was because of an imperfect application of the spirit of democracy in its ranks. A great man was at once one of the greatest boons that could befall any cause, and one of the greatest dangers, because where the great man was all in all, the powers of the lesser men were undeveloped, and their faculty of coöperation was in a measure destroyed. The Nationalist movement had been shattered somewhat as the party of Cromwell was shattered at his death; but it would find the cure which, in the old case, had not been forthcoming (applause). Every development of democratic methods would make for reconstruction.

Above all, the present movement was full of promise, because it was essentially scientific in its aim.

Dennis Harvey Sheahan, of Providence, R. I., read the following paper on “The Need of an Organization such as the American-Irish Historical Society, and its Scope”:

The history of a country is dear to the heart of the lover of that country. By the aid of historical study we learn of the origin, growth, and development of a race of people; their customs, religions, laws, governments; their accomplishments and what they have contributed to the economy of the world. The historian points out the past to the present and future. He puts aside the veil that has gathered about the dim past, opens up to the gaze of the bright present the panorama of human achievement, and blazes the way for his successor in the rosy future.

What the clergyman learns from the theological disputations of the past, the poring monk has gathered together; what the physician now acquires with comparative ease is furnished him by the knowledge garnered from the experience of his brethren from the time when man learned that pain and aches affected his being; what the lawyer gains from precedents is a guiding light which sheds its rays upon problems of jurisprudence that the legal lore of the past generations has taken from the leaves of experience; what formulæ the scientist is able to demonstrate he owes to the observations of men who, through the ages, have chronicled the phenomena of nature; the statesman is able to meet the crises of the present by being informed as to other crises in governmental affairs.

The citizen of a republic who neglects to learn the fundamental principles upon which rest the laws of the land, who does not know how the country was developed and maintained, is as a blind man, and is not able to bring to the exercise of his suffrage the amount of intelligence that the country has a right to require from him.

This obligation comes to us in a twofold capacity. We, as citizens of this great Republic, should study the history of our country from a patriotic standpoint, while as Irishmen, or descendants of that race, it should be not only a duty but a pleasure to learn of the deeds of Irishmen in America.

Therefore, an organization such as the American-Irish Historical Society, if it had no other _raison d’être_, would accomplish a patriotic purpose if it served only as an incentive to the study of the deeds of Irishmen in America.

It has become almost a maxim in historical matters that the history of events cannot be accepted as facts until the generation which lived at the time said events occurred has passed away.

The passions, influences, and conditions which generate, shape, and control events lend a coloring to their recital which, deep-lined or faint as painted by the writer at the time, are toned down or made stronger by the historian of a future generation who, unmindful of passions, influences, or conditions, and with an eye single to the preservation of history by means of the truth, makes past occurrences stand out in their true light.

Deeds that have received but a passing mention from writers whose minds were biased are rescued from an unmerited insignificance and placed high in the Temple of Fame, while highly extolled acts, given an undue prominence by a partisan writer, are consigned to a merited oblivion by the historian of a later but more impartial epoch.

It is not often true of history that the stone which was rejected by the builder becomes the corner stone of the edifice.

A member of the Society of Friends who desires to familiarize himself with the history of his sect in New England would find but little of the truth in the writings which have come from such intellectual dyspeptics as Cotton Mather and his disciples. But in the unwritten history of Quaker persecutions that have become legendary, by the purity of their lives, by their nobility of character and their Christianizing influences, the pioneers of that faith stand out in bold relief in the religious history of Puritan New England, with its dark background of scourging, mutilation, banishments, and hangings.

By analogy, how can the Irish-American race expect that the history of Irishmen in New England can be presented in just proportion to the true merits of the case?

In fact, who has heard much of Irishmen in New England until the present generation? As in New England, so throughout the Colonies. The Virginia Cavalier was not less hostile to the Irish than the Massachusetts Puritan.

Should the American-Irish Historical Society go out of existence to-night, it would have already accomplished a grand mission in this: that it has brought forth from obscure records the deeds of Irishmen in America, and has laid the foundation for the erection of an historical monument to Irishmen that, with its base laid in colonial times, and still being constructed, challenges the respect and admiration of all lovers of American history.

The work of this society has been thus far practically confined to research of New England records. This research has been fruitful of good results.

Among other things we learn of the Irish as brickmakers of Rehoboth and settlers in Salem and Lynn in early colonial times.

Again, we learn that the Irish in the Granite State had become so numerous in colonial times that the General Court of Massachusetts passed a law prohibiting the “wild Irishmen of New Hampshire” from coming across the state line, lest they should drive out the people of the older colony. As long as that state shall last the glory and the fame of the Sullivans and their contemporaries of the Irish race will remain illustrious.

The history of Irishmen in Maine will be dwelt upon in the address of one of the gentlemen who is to follow on the program.

This research has extracted from the records of Rhode Island the influence of the Irish schoolmaster, McSparren, in moulding the intellectual development of that colony; it has called attention to the work of Bishop Berkely in the promotion of education there, and what is to me, personally, exceedingly pleasant information, that Brown University, my beloved Alma Mater, in its infancy was succored by the contributions of worthy people residing in Ireland.

The work of presenting to the world the achievements of Irishmen in America, in its just proportion to the achievements of men of other races in the colonization, struggle for independence, and the creation of a republic, the development of that republic from a theory into a concrete nation, and the perpetuation of that nation, is a duty not only to the men whose deeds are to be chronicled, but also a debt which we owe to ourselves, which we should cheerfully assume.

The labor involved in this from its very nature is such as can only be performed by an organization such as the American-Irish Historical Society.

The true status of the Irish in America, notwithstanding the fact that their brain and brawn have been interwoven in the woof and web of our nation’s fabric, has never been fully appreciated, by reason of the prejudices which have been associated with anything that bore an Irish name. This prejudice, in no small part, arose from misconception and misunderstanding of the Irish nature, temperament, and characteristics. There is a brand of bigotry that is sometimes designated as inborn. In the case of a bigot whose bigotry is congenital, it is well to follow the scriptural injunction to reason not with a fool lest he grow wise. But in the case of those persons who, by reason of misconception or want of acquaintance with Irishmen, cannot properly estimate our race, yet whose minds are broad enough to cherish the worth of a man when demonstrated, and whose patriotism counts every man a friend who has contributed to the glory of his country, an impartial history of the deeds of Irishmen in America would effectively serve to displace any prejudice.

What lover of the human race, animated by that noble sentiment of Terence, “I am a man, and I think nothing human foreign to me,” can fail to appreciate the sturdy virtues of the Irish people in America, their patient industry, their obedience to constituted authority, their domestic constancy, their desire to provide homes for their families and education for their children?

What patriotic American can fail to be moved by emotions of gratitude when he learns among other facts that the Irish in Ireland assisted with food and provisions the struggling settlers of Boston in a time of dire distress; that Irishmen of Philadelphia contributed large sums of money to the famished Revolutionary heroes at Valley Forge; that George Washington considered himself honored in being elected a member of an Irish society; that nine of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were men of Irish blood; that on the field of war, and in the council chamber of the nation, as well as in the administration of national, state, and municipal affairs, from the time of our earliest history to the present time, men of that race have given their lives and property to the nation’s cause? The work of this society thus far in this direction gives promise of either destroying the prejudices that have hitherto existed against the Irish people, or removing the venom from the fangs of bigotry.

To my mind the most urgent need of a society of this nature is the means it affords of preserving Irish history in America. It would be a great misfortune if the history of the Irish people in America, at present fragmentary at best, yet gathered together under favorable conditions and after the most careful and painstaking labor, could not find some secure lodgment.

What more suitable abiding place than the cabinet of the American-Irish Historical Society, from whence it could find its way into the private and public libraries, not only of our own country, but of the civilized world?

This society in the short time it has been in existence has accomplished so much in its chosen field as already to have demonstrated quite clearly its scope. From the publications issued by its members, notably the work of our Secretary-General in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, General Linehan in New Hampshire, Senator Walsh in Georgia, Hon. Joseph T. Lawless in Virginia, and others, our society has already contributed a fund of rich historical value to the history of this country. It would suffice to cite this labor to show the scope.

The thought has occurred to me that it might be well, however, to suggest a specialization of this work and to provide avenues for its dissemination. The society should pursue the line of procedure already mapped out by extending its membership to every state in the country. Membership should be selected from men of scholarly attainments devoted to historical research. This membership should be so catholic as to include men of all religious denominations and nationalities.

Apropos of this I beg leave to call attention to the great work done and being done by German scholars in the study of Celtic, to illustrate the probable value of assistance that might be rendered to us by men of other nationalities. The society should coöperate with the movements in the other states, looking to the establishment of record commissions, and in states where such movements have not been set on foot, to labor to create such movements. In addition to this the products of the research of the society should be edited, and when preserved in book form copies of these should be distributed to other historical societies and placed in public and private libraries. Volumes could be printed from time to time, a number of which could be placed on the market for sale, thereby defraying the expenses of publishing the same.