Various

“ The Society draws no lines of creed or politics. Being an American organization in spirit and principle, it welcomes to its ranks Americans of whatever race descent, and of whatever creed, who take an interest in the objects for which the Society is organized. ”

“ Historical Society, October 30, 1905: “But even a greater change than that from country village to suburban town has taken place here in Old Cambridge in the last seventy years. The people have changed. In my boyhood the population was practically all of New England origin, and in large proportion Cambridge-born, and inheritors of Old Cambridge traditions. The fruitful invasion of barbarians had not begun. The foreign-born people could be counted up on the fingers. ”

“ There is no system of calculation by which we could arrive at any adequate idea of the probable number of American descendants of those early settlers, but, if we adopt the simple method of taking 53the number of generations that have elapsed since their coming, and then apportion, say an average of five persons to each family for each succeeding generation, we can safely conclude that when American historians refer to the pioneers of the South as wholly “of Anglo-Saxon origin,” they are playing fast and loose with their imaginations. ”

“ But time works wonders and brings its revenges! The erstwhile tiny English and Puritan colony has become a great city, one of the greatest in America, in fact, and the stronghold of the Catholic and Kelt. Only the other day it was governed by a man of that faith and blood, and he was the successor of four other mayors born in Ireland or descended from Irish people, while the majority of the leading city officials were of the same class.
In the professions and business life also men of Irish blood are making a good showing here. ”

“ Thus we see what a great infusion of Irish blood Virginia and the Carolinas received in the year 1678 alone. Some of these were servants, but among them also were men of family, who either settled down on the plantations or received grants of uncultivated lands themselves, which, in course of time, they converted into fruitful estates. It has been well said that “the fighting races don’t die out,” and surely the blood of these early Gaels must have been a potent factor in moulding the Americans of later generations in the South. ”

“ It is only when a writer offers an easily accessible authority for his statements that the general reader can take the time and trouble, if so disposed, to investigate the reference and verify the accuracy or honesty of the author who professes to have quoted truly.
Mr. Henry Cabot Lodge has written, and the Century Magazine has published an article on “The Distribution of Ability in the United States,” in which he exalts the English race at the expense of some others, and depreciates the Irish race, with or without malice prepense, in a manner which is, to say the least, remarkable. ”

“ BY MICHAEL J. O’BRIEN, NEW YORK CITY. No section of the Union presents a wider or more diversified field for historical inquiry than the Carolinas and Virginia.
All the territory from the Delaware River south to Cape Fear was named “Virginia” by the English, and it is generally supposed that it was in the present state of Virginia the earliest colonists landed. It was, however, the Indians of North Carolina who were the first to set eyes on the white men who came to America with the famous navigator, Sir Walter Raleigh, in the year 1584. ”

“ Isaac McKim, another Irishman, founded the first free school set up in Baltimore. It still stands at Baltimore and Aisquith streets a monument to him, and has been in its day a strong sphere of influence. John Oliver, another Gael, founded the Oliver Hibernian Free School, which has been for nearly a century a wide center of influence for good. It was the first school established in the United States for the exclusive education of Irish-Americans, and was established at a time when Americans of other races were without free schools of any kind. ”

“ It is highly interesting to trace the rise and rule of these expatriated Irish merchants who came to Baltimore, many of them with money and business experience, driven from Ireland by England’s unjust tariff laws, the same in character as those which now apply to our “possessions,” Porto Rico and the Philippines, to “encourage” their trade and commerce. These men hated England as strongly as they loved fair play. They waxed rich and placed everything 69they had at the services of their fellow citizens and of their country. ”

“ Since his day the Irish have been in the forefront in Catholic affairs in Baltimore, and the pewholders and attendants at the Cathedral and other Catholic churches have included many of Baltimore’s leading citizens. St. Mary’s Seminary has educated hundreds of Catholic priests who have gone out and labored for the salvation of souls. Of these Levites the great and almost overwhelming majority have been Irish-Americans.
Many of these good men have spent their lives in this city and have proven great sources of influence for upliftment to their fellowmen. ”

“ The services of Charles Carroll of Carrollton and of his cousin, Charles Carroll, of Mount Clare, to the patriot cause and to the city and state, even the nation, it is needless to recount here, as they are well known.
They were Irish-Americans, however, and not ashamed of it, and their influence in the city and its environs were considerable along all lines. William Patterson gave Patterson Park to the city, and also contributed largely to the foundation of many public enterprises, some of which survive today as monuments to the activities of himself and his fellow Irishmen. ”

“ The first indication of the Irish in Boston giving any evidence of national spirit occurred in 1737, on St. Patrick’s Day, when twenty-six Protestant Kelts—they all belonged to the Irish Presbyterian Church—organized the Charitable Irish Society to aid unfortunate fellow countrymen and to cultivate a spirit of unity and harmony among all Irishmen in the Massachusetts colony and their descendants and to advance their interests socially and morally. ”

“ Keenan enjoyed public confidence to an extent attained by few men. He died in the fulness of man’s allotted years, with no tarnish on the honor he prized so much, and with only words of grief and praise from the friends who venerated him and the citizens he faithfully served. It is my privilege thus to express my sorrow at the loss of a friend whose conduct rewarded the trust I twice had the honor to repose in him. Respectfully, Geo. B. McClellan, Mayor. May 11. Admiral McGowan, president-general of the Society, sailed today from New York for Antwerp. ”

“ Carbray addresses the house in one or the other with equal elegancy, as circumstances may require. He also converses freely in Italian, Spanish and Portuguese. The high esteem in which he is held by his Irish fellow citizens is best shown by the fact that they have never missed an occasion to put him in every place of honor and trust within their gift. He is at present their worthy representative in the parliament of the Province of Quebec, as a member of the West Division of the city, which, though it contains the leading British commercial men of Quebec, is controlled by the Irish vote. ”

“ Prior to the Revolution the most important merchants and educators, and even professional men in the town, were Irish by birth. They laid the foundation of the town’s trade and commerce and built it up not only morally and physically, but financially. The man who laid the foundation of the town’s trade was Dr. John Stevenson, who, although a physician, had an eye to trade, and 68coming direct from Ireland deemed it wise to establish a line of ships between this city and Irish ports. ”

“ Prominent in the establishment of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and of the Northern Central Railroad were other Irish merchants and professional men, such as Robert Garrett, Alexander and George Brown, the latter of whom conceived the idea of building the road; Isaac McKim, Charles Carroll of Carrollton, John V. L. McMahon, the Irish American lawyer, who drew that first railroad charter ever drawn for the Baltimore and Ohio, which has served as a model ever since; Patrick McCauley, the Irish educator; Talbott Jones, Robert Oliver and others. ”

“ The board of government comprises a president-general, a vice-president-general, a secretary-general, a treasurer-general, a librarian and archivist, and an executive council. There are also state vice-presidents.
The Society has already issued several bound volumes and a number of other publications. These have been distributed to the members and to public libraries; also to historical organizations and to universities. Each member of the Society is entitled, free of charge, to a copy of every publication issued from the time of his admittance. ”

“ Patrick Allison, the first pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, and a remarkable man in many ways, who was the friend of Dr. Carroll, and his contemporary. Rev. John Glendy, a native of Ireland, who was a rebel in 1798, and had to fly for his life to this country, was the first pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church, and an orator of unusual ability. In their day they were strong men, and exercised an overmastering influence for good upon their flocks. Rev. John Healey was the first Baptist minister in Baltimore town, and founded the first Baptist chapel. ”

“ When twilight descended upon the scene, a spectacle was presented unequaled in warfare. At least three fourths of my command was composed of men of Irish descent and knew that the gallant dead in our front were our kindred of the land beyond the sea. When, one by one, the stars came out that night, many tears were shed by Southern Confederate eyes for the heroic Federal Irish dead.” During the war Colonel Sanders was offered the rank of brigadier-general but declined the same.
Sasseen, Robert A., 50 Pine Street, New York City; insurance investments. (Life member of the Society.) ”

“ What does he do with Philip Sheridan, who being neither an “immigrant” nor descended from pre-Constitution ancestors, is in a worse case than his namesake, Philip Nolan, being a “man without a race?” We cannot believe that Mr. Lodge ever intended committing such a palpable absurdity, because if carried to its logical conclusion, it would apply equally to distinguished men of all races. Mr. Lodge himself, for all that Appleton’s tells us to the contrary, never had a pre-Constitution ancestor, and has, therefore, no right to class himself among the 10,000 “English,” as he presumably does. ”

“ Some of the English adventurers in Ireland also engaged in the business of man-hunting on their own account, and we find from the records of Virginia that on April 12, 1621, Sir William Newce, an English officer who resided in the County of Cork, wrote to the governor “offering to transport two thousand persons to Virginia.” The same records indicate that Daniel Gookin, an Irish Quaker merchant of Cork City, was in the business of transporting cattle from Ireland to Virginia. ”

“ In 1680 Richard Kirle, who is described as “an Irish gentleman,” succeeded to the governorship, but he died six months after taking the reins of office.
Elsewhere we have referred to the wholesale exportation of the Irish by Cromwell, mainly to the Island of Barbadoes, during the first half of the seventeenth century. In time, those who survived the tropical climate became freemen, and eventually even some became landowners, planters and the business men of the island. Numbers of them, on gaining their freedom, sailed for the American coast with their families. ”

“ In addition to his other duties, he fills the important position of consul of Portugal at the port of Quebec. A Catholic in religion, Mr. Carbray has been honored by the St. Patrick’s congregation of Quebec with election and re-election as one of the trustees, and is also a trustee of that noble Irish Catholic charity, the St. Bridget’s Asylum of Quebec. He has taken an equally active and leading part in all the local national movements of his fellow countrymen, and has been president of the St. Patrick’s Literary Institute, the Irish National Association, and other Irish bodies in Quebec. ”

“ Here where the ravages of the Indians were so terrible, these Irishmen and boys, so rudely torn from their own country, inflicted on savagery many a mortal blow and opened the way for the civilization whose fruits we now enjoy. ”

“ The continued cry for settlers attracted the avarice of many of the Cromwellian adventurers in Ireland, who thus became most efficient aids in carrying on the barbarous work of the English commissioners, who were appointed by government to exterminate the Irish.
As Prendergast relates in his Cromwellian Settlement of Ireland, they had agents actively engaged throughout Ireland, “who were authorized by Parliament to seize women, orphans and the destitute 54to be transported to Barbadoes and the plantations of Virginia.” ”

“ In 1622 many of the colonists were massacred by Indians, after which the remainder were ordered to abandon the outlying plantations and to concentrate their forces about the stronger ones. Gookin’s Irish settlement, which had been located near the mouth of the James River, back of Newport News, was one of those ordered to be abandoned, but he refused to obey the order, and, “gathering together his dependants, who by that time numbered only 35, he remained at his post, to his great credit and the content of his adventurers.” (Stith’s History of Virginia.) ”