Various

“ The Ninth Massachusetts Volunteers, though not entirely as is usually supposed of Irish blood, is yet so nearly so, that at home our people commonly speak of the splendid command, as “the Irish Ninth;” while the Second, which has won imperishable renown in Cuba, and has awakened the honest pride of every patriotic heart at 86home, in the valley of the Connecticut, upon the Berkshire hills, and along the quiet Quinsigamond, is spoken of by press and people as the ideal Massachusetts regiment, and as made up from the best blood of liberty-loving New England. ”

“ This Society is now endeavoring to collect records, letters and papers throwing light upon the part borne by the Irish race, that we may have our full share of the glory of our country; also that by critical scrutiny and analysis we may discover the truth, giving credit to all. This is a duty we owe these brave, devoted, self-sacrificing men who perilled so much for this government under which we live, and whose benefits we hope to transmit to our posterity. ”

“ Resolved, That this Society send greeting and sympathy to the embattled farmers of the South African republics; that we express admiration for the courage, faith, and manhood of a race which has thrown down the gage of battle to a rich and powerful aggressor to maintain its freedom; and that it is our earnest prayer that the God of the weak, the righteous, and the brave may crown their heroic struggles with glorious victory and political independence. ”

“ In all the history of this, our poor, crime-stained, unhappy world, there is no nation so free from the sin of persecution for conscience’s sake as poor, persecuted Catholic Ireland. Our national saints and martyrs have been Catholic and Protestant. We have never discriminated against any man because of his religious belief, but, rather, have been proud of following our leaders who loved Ireland first. ”

“ She contributed more than her quota of men to the Continental army, one hundred thousand dollars more than her proportion of money, and possessed within her borders fewer Tories than did any one of the original thirteen colonies. It has often and truthfully been said, “New Hampshire is a good state to hail from.” She gave you here in New York one of your most distinguished governors, Gen. John A. Dix, who, when the shadow of secession hung like a cloud all over the country, penned the memorable sentence, “If any man attempts to haul down the American flag, shoot him on the spot.” ”

“ We do not want any man to be called “Scotch-Irish” or “Anglo-Saxon,” because he did not happen to be of the same faith as Strongbow or Henry the Second, the Catholic invaders who first overran Ireland.
Emmet is ours as much as O’Connell; Parnell belongs to Ireland as much as Owen Roe. We do not discriminate between Andrew Jackson and Phil Sheridan when we glory in the deeds of Irish-Americans.
91We have only one living thought at present. Our faces are set against any alliance with the hereditary enemy of Ireland and of America. That feeling is not Irish alone; it is American. ”

“ While English in his remote racial root, his forbears lived long enough in Ulster to extract from the soil and atmosphere of Ireland that Celtic wit and pugnacity, that brilliance and originality so characteristic of the man. The transplantation of his immediate ancestors to American soil added to the mental celerity and nervous alertness of his fiber, giving to his personality that Gaelic flavor which the English-speaking races acquire under our skies in sloughing off the heavy heritage of insularity of the land of fogs. ”

“ While Anglo-Saxon statesmen may quibble in congress and Anglo-Saxon schoolmen criticise in college, “Like lions leaping at a fold when mad with hunger’s pang,” you will find in the forefront, disdaining quibble and laughing at criticism, the hot tide of valor and chivalry which, proud to be American, is not ashamed to be called Irish. ”

“ We all agree that much of the history that has been written in the past has been written by men who have preferred to see things through their prejudices rather than their eyes, and no people have suffered more from the ignorance and prejudice of writers—particularly English writers—than the Irish people.
Unfortunately, many New England writers inherited the prejudices of their English ancestors, and have either deliberately slurred the contributions of the Irish in our history, or have failed to record them. ”

“ It will be the work of the Society to show what a vast influence the Irish element had in building our free commonwealths whose alliance made the first great country of the people, in which with all its faults reposes the hope of the progress of the world into a world of the people instead of one of warring dynasties and vicious religious hatreds, setting nation against nation. ”

“ The most successful of Irish soldiers, as we gauge success, was Wellington, a man of Irish birth, whose family had lived in Ireland for three hundred years. Yet, if we may believe biography, he always called himself an “Englishman.” If he with three hundred years of Irish ancestry behind him was English, is there, on all this continent, such a being as an “American,” since not many of us can call ourselves “natives” by much over one century of heritage? ”

“ BY HON. JOHN C. LINEHAN, CONCORD, N. H. Two hundred and fifty years ago, the Five Nations, better known later as the Six Nations, was the most powerful confederacy of Indians in North America. The governor of the province of New York, in a communication to the committee of trade dated February 22, 1687, said, “The Five Nations are the most warlike people in America. They go as far as the South sea, the Northwest passage, and Florida to war. They are so considerable that all the Indians in these parts of America are tributary to them.” ”

“ Patrick was not only a Scot, but also a Calvinist—centuries ere Calvin was born? We can afford to ignore the fables of what is, to us, comparative antiquity.
The point that I wish to make is this: I concede willingly, and, I may say, gladly, that the founders of the great Irish-American societies in America, a century or a century and a half ago, were not all of the distinctively Irish race whose faith was Catholic; but of their nationality there was not the shadow of a doubt. They were Irish, and proud to call themselves such. They were not “Scotch-Irish,” nor “Anglo-Irish.” ”

“ The danger of an Anglo-American alliance is imminent. Its effect on Ireland is comparatively trivial. Its effect on America is immeasurably disastrous. By it we should forfeit the friendship of France, whose men and money made our freedom possible, and of Russia, whose timely aid saved us from disintegration during the Civil War. ”

“ For myself I yield to no man living or dead in the quality of my Americanism. I came to the Republic and have received with unstinted hand the usufruct of its noble freedom, its generous institutions, its magnificent and dazzling opportunities held out to him, however humble, who cultivates the civic virtues, is able, industrious, courageous and honest. I yield to the Republic no double allegiance. I stand for the United States in its vast and tremendous interests here and everywhere against all other countries’ fatherlands and motherlands, without stint, without reservation or hesitation. ”

“ The purpose of our Society is not to attribute all our splendid traits and achievements alone to the Irish element in our composition. Unlike our Anglomaniac brethren, who contend that everything great and good must be Anglo-Saxon, we merely claim credit for a just share in the upbuilding of the nation. ”

“ As an American I would gladly have laid aside all religious appellations if it had been possible otherwise to have done justice to my subject, but unfortunately, as a consequence of the prejudices of centuries, not a few people regard the “Protestant Irishman,” the “Presbyterian Irishman,” and the “Catholic Irishman” as so many distinct species of the human family. The necessity, therefore, exists in doing justice to Ireland, that all at least in relation to the Catholic portion should be made prominent, as this precludes the plea of being either English or “Scotch-Irish.” ”

“ Resolved, That the American-Irish Historical Society is inflexibly opposed to any entangling foreign alliances, and particularly to any alliance between the United States and the government of England, which has so frequently sought by war and intrigue to destroy this Republic, and it pledges itself, through its membership, to strive to curtail the political career of any public official, who formulates, advocates, counsels, aids, or abets any such alliance. ”

“ It is not too much to say that, practically, George Washington Whistler laid down the lines upon which the American railroad system was built, and along which it has grown to be the most splendid and advanced in the world, the most potent agency in the progress and civilization of the republic. ”

“ During the time of disease, a horror of war more trying than battle, he was unceasing in his labors for the sick, going from one end of the brigade to the other daily, and reeking with sweat during the heat of the day. His cheerful countenance and kindly disposition in his daily work brought comfort and true sunshine to many a drooping soldier irrespective of creed or race. ”

“ Realizing who was to be held responsible for the storming of the fort at Newcastle, Peter Livius, a Royalist refugee, who had been chief justice of New Hampshire, wrote him in June, 1777:
“You were the first man in active rebellion, and drew with you the province you live in. You will be one of the first sacrifices to the resentment and justice of the government. Your family will be ruined, and you must die with ignominy.” This was the man to whom Washington turned for a leader when Congress determined, in 1779, to organize an expedition for the destruction of the Six Nations. ”

“ John D. Crimmins of New York is but one of a splendid army of men of Irish birth or descent who are in the very forefront of the great industrial armies as captains and generals of those tremendous forces which nowhere play so important a part as in the United States, and which nowhere have competition among them more keen, nay, more deadly, nor requiring higher talents and greater courage. ”

“ Great talents are seldom transmitted from one generation to another, yet certain characteristics which are physiological rather than psychological, may mark the branches of a common family tree. Whistler owes his intellectual qualities to his racial fiber, to his mixture of blood and the changing environments of his ancestors; they are in fact highly developed racial characteristics, while his artistic instincts—raised in him to the plane of genius—are a family inheritance. His wit, humor and mental dynamics he owes to his Irish fathers ”