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“ Nay, more, I hope the day will come when every State House in the land shall hold a tablet such as this, when every schoolboy shall read lessons from his life, when every human being who seeks partnership and title in the freedom of his kind shall, in his memory, cherish the name of Major General John Sullivan as one who deserves a niche unshadowed and a fame unscarred among the scanty array of those great souls whom the genius of Liberty proudly calls her own. ”

“ He courageously defended them from unjust attack and took every possible occasion to announce the splendor of their history and the value to American citizenship of their racial characteristics. Impressing himself on the country, and finally winning its confidence, he did more than any other one man has ever done to make the Irish people an active, useful, aggressive force in the community. He pointed out the way by which they have since risen from poverty, misery and persecution—from an isolation worse than the Ghetto—to a position so commanding as to seem almost miraculous. ”

“ Your Excellency, Members of the American Irish Historical Society, Ladies and Gentlemen: As Chairman of the Commission having in its care and keeping this beautiful State House it is my privilege to bid you welcome here today. We are assembled, not for an ordinary occasion, but for an extraordinary one. We are here to inscribe upon this marble wall the name of one who was patriot, soldier and statesman, the commander who planned and fought the Battle of Rhode Island in 1778. ”

“ Friends and kindred, religion and society grew up within our own experiences. The warm heart of the Irishman broadened; he grew, and when the country rang out the alarm, when the country announced that it was menaced with danger, in that Irish boy’s ears rang the traditions and the wrongs of ages. He buckled on his belt; he took down the flintlock from the wall; he marched forward anywhere, everywhere, under the command of Washington and Sullivan,—Washington, the ideal, and Sullivan, the son of an Irish exile. ”

“ Let us hope that the inspiration of this Society may lead some one to undertake this seemingly hopeless task of wresting from the past the record of those who, today unknown, did the work whose fruits we are all enjoying. All honor to the early exiles, whose very names are forgotten, and yet who, hungry, exhausted from toil, hated and despised, with their very heartstrings throbbing with the grief of a sensitive race justly proud of its glorious traditions, then scorned and derided,—yet in silence and resignation built deep and solid the foundations of the free institutions of our country. ”

“ No man ever knew as I have known what Irish friendship is, no man ever knew as I have known what Irish hospitality is, no man ever knew as I have known what Irish loyalty and patience is, without bowing in humble respect to it, whether he drew his blood from France or from Russia, from America or from England, each one of which owes Ireland a measureless debt. ”

“ The United States is ours, whether on the shores of California, Maine, Texas, or Washington. There is one freedom, one brotherhood of man.
“I could detain you longer, friends, but the time allotted me forbids. I have lingered longer than I should, but I know of no sentiment with which I might more fittingly conclude than that of one of your great New England worthies, the man who is enshrined in the sanctuary of your hearts, John Boyle O’Reilly. He says, in his own peculiar but grand way:
“‘No treason we bring from Erin, nor bring we shame nor guilt! ”

“ I am glad that this Society has taken up the work of developing the history of the Irish and their descendants in the United States, for it is a great and glorious feature in American history. While proud of the past, while proud of the achievements of those whose deeds we record, it is important, I think, that we should at the same time bear in mind the duty we owe to the future. ”

“ To promote and foster an honorable and national spirit of patriotism, which will know no lines of division, which will be based upon loyalty to the laws, institutions and spirit of the republic to whose upbuilding the Irish element has unselfishly contributed in blood and treasure, a patriotism whose simple watchwords will be true Americanism and human freedom and which has no concern for any man’s race, color or creed, measuring him only by his conduct, effort and achievement. ”

“ When the greatest crime of the nineteenth century was about to be perpetrated in the dismemberment of this Union the Irish people of the West, in goodly numbers, rushed to its defense and sealed with their blood, their love of the republic. You all, no 148doubt, have heard of a Sheridan, a Shields, a Corcoran, a Lawler, and others of the West, who died that the Union might live. Ingratitude has never been the failing of Irishmen. Gratitude for favors, even small ones, adherence to principle, through good and evil times, have ever been characteristic of the race. ”

“ Our more pressing call, it seems, is to emphasize the achievements of the Irish race in peace. After listening to those eloquent tributes in the Providence State House from the lips of Governor Higgins, Ex-Governor Lippitt and others, it was borne in upon me how easily a public man’s peaceful achievements may be eclipsed by his military exploits. John Sullivan was, as our tablet records, a statesman of distinction; as a jurist he left his mark upon the legal history of New Hampshire, and yet it is almost exclusively as the patriot soldier that he lives today in the popular mind. ”

“ Gentlemen, this essential quality of our organization is both forcibly and happily borne in upon us in these days when we hear that the land of our fathers is at last beginning to assert its power as a political unit by realizing that very idea of being ‘Irish first,’ that idea of national unity, her neglect of which has been the comfort of her enemies in times past. ”

“ Little could she have dreamt of the host of her sister voyagers who brought to this country the spirit of devotion, of self-sacrifice, of faithful discharge of duty, which ultimately forced itself upon the grudgingly-given attention of the community and admiration for which as well as for the tenderness and purity of the women of the Irish race was the most potent force in tearing down the wall of hostility and hatred which intolerance and ignorance had reared in the way of the progress of the Irishmen in this country towards recognition, equality and success. ”

“ Personally, James Jeffrey Roche was one of the most lovable and charming of men, who carried under a surface of wit and joyous frivolity a nature whose depth, sincerity, devotion to ideals, capacity for friendship, passion for freedom, love of race and motherland, high-minded patriotism and loyalty to duty and honor, were understood only by those who knew him intimately. ”

“ We have historical facts; they cannot be gainsaid; they stand out in bas-relief today; the story is plain and intelligent men accept it.
“Immigration! Do you know that as the years have gone by they have witnessed immigration from many lands? Germany has furnished us with some of the best bone and sinew of its country. England, through her unwise laws, through her erring principles of justice, exacted from the Irish people something that they would not give—taxation without representation, and surrender of civic and religious liberty. ”

“ And herein, my friends, to my mind, is illustrated and should be made prominent one grand characteristic which we have taken from the noble Irish race. The patience under disappointment which Major General John Sullivan illustrates, the patience under disappointment which again and again was manifestly the fault of men to whom he never gave a word of rebuke or complaint, the steadfast iron determination with which he set to work instantly to repair the ruin that some, associated in common with him, had wrought, is the brightest leaf in the chaplet which America has put upon his grave. ”

“ It is an honor to belong to that grand old race, aye, even to hold one drop of Irish blood in your veins, but, good friends all, with or without it, I am proud to testify to what Irish friendship, Irish loyalty and the matchless Irish courage can do. ”

“ This page stands out alone in the history of this Society of which I have the honor and rare privilege of being the Executive. Ladies and gentlemen, that Society has one purpose; that purpose is written between the lines of today’s event. We want to know the men who have lived, who have fought, who have bled, who have given everything to the cause of the American people. ”

“ We wish to record here the great benefits which we have received from the work and services of our first Secretary-General and pay tribute to his learning and ability; we further record the deep sorrow with which we look upon his vacant place, and, lastly, we record our loving tribute of affection for Thomas Hamilton Murray as a man, fearless, honest and faithful, an upright citizen and an earnest member of the Society. ”

“ It is true that the Celtic race has also been universally awarded an exalted place in the realm of poetry, oratory and song, as well as in devotion to family and in faithfulness to principle. It remains for the American Irish Historical Society to show other and equally important and admirable characteristics of the Irish race, and to point to other fields wherein Irishmen have distinguished themselves in meeting the current and pressing problems of America’s rapid and unparalleled development. ”

“ With profound regret and sincerely sympathizing with all his friends and fellow members, I am,
Faithfully yours,
Jno. J. Lenehan.
Elizabeth, N. J., June 7, 1908. Dear Mrs. Murray: Accept my sincere condolences on the death of your dear husband, which I read in the New York Herald this morning with profound sorrow.
We have lost a noble and a true friend to the American Irish Historical Society. In looking back over the past it is consoling to think his life has been a most exemplary one. How much better would our communities be, if we had more such men as your husband. ”

“ Again, sirs, I am pleased to accept in behalf of our State this splendid remembrance, to assure you of our profound appreciation, and to say that it shall ever remain as a memento of your patriotism and character, of the gratitude and appreciation of our good State, as an inspiration to all future generations and to all visitors to this splendid Capitol, of the value and eternity of that thankfulness which a grateful people feel for those who serve them well. ”

“ The Secretary of our committee is a very worthy member of the Society. As I happened to be the Chairman, it was my privilege to sign my name over his in issuing the invitations. It is the first time I have ever had an opportunity of putting my name before that of His Honor the Mayor, and I enjoyed the opportunity. But now, after doing his work as Secretary of the committee very faithfully, he has tendered his resignation, which we have most regretfully accepted, in order that he might do his duty as Chief Executive of the City of Providence. ”

“ What further tribute do we need, what other ratification or emphasis do we require than that which comes from one whose nation held us in subjugation, with its heel of tyranny upon our neck, for seven hundred years, when this offspring, eager to forget past enmities, frankly tells us in tones of eloquence that the Irish have been and always will remain loyal and true and constant and devoted to every cause they espouse! ”

“ Never in the history of the world have prisoners of war been made the victims of such unexampled cruelties as those practised on the Americans by the British in the Revolution, and it is a striking and never-to-be-forgotten commentary on British methods toward their enemies in war that the record of the prison-ships of the Revolution is deemed by all the world a black mark on English history. ”

“ He was a journalist by profession, an ornament, I may say, to American journalism, as so many good American Irish have been; and before this Society had come into existence he had already anticipated its aims, by rendering out of his own initiative and his own exertions no insignificant service toward placing the Irish element in its true light in American history. From its very inauguration our Society was aware that no other man in all the length and breadth of this country could have held his position with so much advantage to the cause which we have at heart. ”

“ I would that the Americans of Irish birth and descent in this country could unite their energies and make of this force in American life a leading force for higher conceptions of civic duty, a force looking to better living, a force working for a civilization such as has not been dreamed of by those who have struggled in the past. ”

“ The history of Ireland in itself is a sad one, but the high purpose and invincible courage of her manhood and her womanhood, their high ideals and devotion to liberty and to national integrity, have been fraught with blessings and have brought encouragement to human liberty the world over. ”

“ People of this race—men and women born on Irish soil—have been here from the first, prompted in their flight by the motives common to all immigration, dissatisfaction with the old order of things and the resolve to obtain a freer and better life in the new land under new conditions.
And so we have come together—natives of Ireland, American sons of Irish immigrants, and descendants of immigrants even unto the seventh, eighth and ninth American generations—to duly set forth and perpetuate a knowledge of these things. ”