Various

“ I am gratified beyond expression that this Society insists on seeing justice done to the race from which we have sprung. The work must be logical and correct. One of the most remarkable things is the intellectuality of the Irish race.
Wherever freedom’s flag is hoisted you will find an Irishman at or near that emblem. O’Higgins in South America is synonymous with liberty. On every battlefield in North America the Irishman is found, as he also is in poetry, history, arts and sciences. I would not adulate the race. The Irishman forms only a part of the American citizenship. ”

“ 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. We look to this Society for active, earnest, ardent work for the enlightenment, brotherhood and unity of this people first, and of all other peoples in the long event. ”

“ The work of presenting to the world the achievements of the Irish 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. ”

“ To all Americans, Bunker Hill was a battle cry and an inspiration during the seven long years of war necessary to obtain our independence. To-day its memories should rekindle our patriotism and prompt us to recall the story of the men who there died that a new republic might be born. ”

“ While there should be, in the ordinary affairs of life and of government, no discrimination on account of race or creed, as between citizens of our common country, each nationality that has borne a prominent part in its history should seek to perpetuate the record of its people.
In the war between the states Americans of Irish birth or descent stood for the right as they saw it, and fought for their principles and their convictions with a patriotic fortitude and heroic valor never surpassed in ancient or modern times. ”

“ What lover of the human race, animated by that noble sentiment of Terrence, “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. ”

“ We have solid reason to be proud of what the Society has accomplished during the three years it has been in the field. We have been accorded a generous welcome from historical societies long in existence; our advent has been hailed with satisfaction; our motives praised; our publications eagerly sought.
To-night we meet in New York city for the third time, and for 21the third time we are indebted to our New York members for unbounded hospitality, kindliest service and tireless efforts to make our annual gathering a success. ”

“ With such an inviting field of labor spread out before us, this Society not only supplies a long-felt want, but also a means of inspiration. Each member can contribute to the common fund of historical data, and the sum total of these contributions will go to make up a work of great value.
The need of such an organization as the American-Irish Historical Society being demonstrated, and its scope clearly defined, all that remains to be done to perpetuate its success is to continue in the work already so auspiciously undertaken. ”

“ Are some of us laboring under the delusion that we are called upon to govern the world, that we are to set forth with a few small Bibles and a large supply of arms to force what we call our civilization on an unwilling people in another hemisphere, while thoughtful men are staggered at the problems of government confronting us on the North American continent? ”

“ AUGUSTA, GA. The time has come when the history of the Irish people in America should be written. It will be a grand heritage for the Irish-Americans. It will show how many of their race fought and bled for liberty. ”

“ It would be, I think, the statesmanship of the superman, who may sometime exist, and who would be a citizen of all times and a spectator of all events. To steer the ship of state in this direction is to keep it true to the pole of human destiny. It is the work of the heavenborn pilot, who keeps his tiller true, and not of the star gazer. ”

“ The South had no more gifted son. He was proud of his Irish blood. His untimely death was a public bereavement. His genius and his talents have won for him a lasting fame.
The Hon. Alexander H. Stephens and the Hon. Joseph E. Brown were two of the most distinguished sons of Georgia. Mr. Stephens had Irish blood in his veins and Governor Brown’s ancestors emigrated from the north of Ireland to South Carolina. These were two of the wisest and greatest of Georgians. They were proud of their Irish blood and were the life-long friends of Ireland and the Irish people. ”

“ 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 ”

“ I have to go for England for ten or twelve months, to go to the baths for better health; if I can bring matters to bear to get to England, my next push will be to be seated in Ireland.... I am in the hands of a good God, who has the hearts of men at command; and if he sees that I can serve the interests of Christ’s church, either in the use of the English or Irish language, which you know I can write and read, and upon occasion could preach in, He will raise me up friends, and restore me to my native land, or near it—if not, His will be done. ”

“ Enough has been shown to establish the fact that Irishmen by birth or blood may justly claim a large share of putting the American newspaper on its feet, so to speak. This is not said in any boastful vein. The only desire is to show that in the building up of this great industry Irishmen did their share of the work. Effort has been made to keep within the bounds of actual facts, most of them being obtained from unwilling witnesses, men who, when they are forced to include in their chronicles men of our race, endeavor oftentimes to make them out “Scotch-Irish.” ”

“ Then came the military act, and in February, 1775, parliament declared Massachusetts in rebellion. The instructions of Lord Dartmouth, the secretary of state for the colonies, to General Gage, the royal governor, ran like this: “Sovereignty of the king over the colonies requires a full and absolute submission.” What a striking similarity that has to some recent dispatches we have heard since we acquired distant possessions.
General Gage’s call for 20,000 men, the assembling of 5,000 troops at Boston, and the authority given to General Gage to fire on the people, made war inevitable. ”

“ At Lexington was the opening scene of a revolution destined to 35change the character of human governments and the condition of the human race. Yet I sometimes incline to the opinion, as I read the utterances of men who in our day are called statesmen, and some of the newspapers, that the age of patriotism has gone; that an age of selfish materialists, economists, and calculators has succeeded. Let us hope there is still a saving remnant in this republic which will rekindle the love and patriotism which actuated the men who established our government. ”

“ But I am quite sure that in the larger cities of San Francisco, Sacramento, Stockton and Los Angeles, there are many patriotic, true men and well-wishers of our race who will cheerfully join us in organizing a State Chapter, and to these I now appeal for coöperation to that end.
“Any person of good moral character, who is interested in the special work of the society, shall be deemed eligible to membership in the same. No tests other than that of character and devotion to the Society’s objects shall be applied to membership.” The only charge is an annual due of three dollars. ”

“ This temperament, too, is connected with the fecundity of the race, also in contrast with the Puritan New Englanders, who even in Boston may ere long have to hail the Irish race with morituri salutamus with a new meaning in it.
Second, the Irishman, like other men, is not always a man of peace. His blood is warmer on occasion and his interpretation of the strenuous life, which makes men loved for the enemies they make, is another quality which, when rightly trained and directed, is one of the greatest powers for good in the world. ”

“ A good, sturdy representative of the Fields to-day in New Hampshire, as Irish in blood as Darby Field was, is the Hon. John H. Field, who was a member of the state senate in 1899‒1900. His home is Nashua. He is of the faith of his fathers.
Darby Kelly was the ancestor of many American Kellys. His descendants are almost innumerable. Like Darby Field, he, too, was a soldier, as well as a schoolmaster and farmer. Gen. Benjamin F. Kelly, of West Virginia, was his grandson; the latter acquired distinction in the Civil War. ”

“ You are to take part in an interesting occasion at Nashville designed to bring before our American people the value of the generous, brave, honorable Irishmen. Your familiarity with our American history will serve you well; much of it was made by Irish valor.
“In our Confederate war the Irish were on both sides, winning distinction in both armies—and it is not at all strange that the two Irish sides were both right. No other people on earth except the Irish can espouse opposite sides and both be right. ”

“ Coming down to the present time, we would not be doing justice to ourselves did we not pause in admiration of the present gifted editor of the Pilot, James Jeffrey Roche, and also of Stephen O’Meara, the manager of the Boston Journal. Time permits only a passing notice of these brilliant lights in American journalism. In this hasty review of the men of Irish blood who have taken such an active part in American newspaper work, I doubt not that many worthy men have escaped notice. ”

“ More critical and scientific examinations have shown us that the Irish element contributed very largely to the settlement of the colonies from New England to Georgia, and were an important factor in bringing about the Revolution and establishing the government of the United States.
Our Society is now engaged in searching many of the colonial records, and I suggest that the members in the different states of the Union examine into the origin and ancestry of the prominent men in their states, prepare information and write papers that may be placed in the archives of this Society. ”

“ The passions, influences and conditions which generate, shape and control events, lend a coloring to their recital, which deep-hued 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. ”

“ 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. ”