MEN OF IRISH BLOOD WHO HAVE ATTAINED DISTINCTION IN AMERICAN JOURNALISM.
BY MICHAEL EDMUND HENNESSY.[[21]]
In journalism, as in every other walk of life, men of Irish blood are, and have been, leaders of those who mould public opinion. As American newspaper men, Irish-Americans have added new laurels to the fair name of Erin’s sons. Irish in name, their intense Americanism pervades every cosmopolitan journal from the Atlantic to the Pacific and from the Canadian line to the Gulf of Mexico.
Irishmen were among the pioneers in the establishment of the early American newspapers. It would, indeed, be interesting to follow one by one, step by step, the career of the men of Irish blood who, more than a hundred years ago, braved blind prejudice and established newspapers which did so much for American freedom, and later labored so hard for internal improvements, the developing and the upbuilding of the great Republic.
Irishmen were among the first paper manufacturers in this country. Many of them, prior to the Revolutionary War, were engaged in the printing business. Naturally they drifted into publishing newspapers. At the period immediately following the Revolution, it is estimated by the census bureau that there were published in the United States two hundred papers. Of these, it is said, twenty-five were controlled by foreigners, and were, as a rule, the most influential papers published, and were issued in the large towns like Philadelphia, New York and Boston.
The election of John Adams as president, and the inauguration of his federal policy, brought into being a strong opposition press, which arrayed itself on the side of Thomas Jefferson. The editors of that period, not unlike the politicians of their time, did not mince matters. Their trenchant quills smote the Federalists with such force that the administration of Mr. Adams deemed it necessary to pass a law that would curb the spirit of the times and muzzle the opposition press. The result was the enactment of the Alien and Sedition act. The twenty-five papers which were controlled by the foreigners were the special mark of the alien and sedition laws.
Appleton’s Encyclopedia, speaking on this subject, says:
“The apology for the sedition act was the unquestionable licentiousness of the press, which, at that time, was chiefly controlled by refugees and adventurists from Great Britain and Ireland.”
Lossing, in his United States History, says, “that outside of New England, the most influential papers were controlled principally by foreigners.”
The majority of the refugees and adventurists, so called, were men of Irish blood; all of them men of learning, enterprise and push. They hated the Federalists for their pro-English leanings, especially President Adams, whom they believed to be friendly to England in the contest against France. Several of them had had a taste of British tyranny at home, and all were imbued with the spirit of ’98.
Among the very earliest newspaper enterprises was that of Hugh Gaine in New York city. Gaine was a native of Ireland. He began his new world career as a book-seller. In 1752 he commenced the publication of the Mercury. Hudson, in his history of journalism in the United States, says of the paper, that it was one of the best in all the colonies in the collection of intelligence. Hugh Gaine prospered as an editor, book-seller and publisher.
How noble was the attitude of Charles Carroll, of Carrollton, who lent his mighty influence to launching the Maryland Gazette. His financial and moral aid made possible its vigorous contest for the freedom of the colonies.
The alien and sedition act was particularly aimed at the Irishmen, who, almost to a man, arrayed themselves under the broad banner of Jefferson, the leader of the Republicans. The first man to suffer under the alien and sedition laws was an Irishman, Congressman Matthew Lyon of Vermont, a native of Wicklow, a printer, who started the Farmer’s Library, and later issued the Fairhaven Gazette. This “peppery, red-headed little Irishman,” as he was called by his contemporaries, hated everything that had the odor of Federalism about it, and for an article written by him, published in a Vermont paper, reflecting on President John Adams, he was indicted by the United States Court. A writer, speaking of the article for which he was indicted, says that “the language was decidedly Lyonesque.” He was fined $1,000 and imprisoned for three months. While in jail he was reëlected to congress, and on his release would have been rearrested on another charge under the same act, had he not availed himself of his constitutional rights and declared that he was on his way to Philadelphia to attend a sitting of Congress.
Lyon is remembered for his varied congressional life, and the episode especially with Congressman Griswold of Connecticut. Griswold referred to Lyon deprecatingly one day, and revived an old story of alleged cowardice during the Revolutionary War, which his political opponents used against him. The result was an exhibition of old-time pugilism on the floor of congress. For this offence an attempt was made to expel him from the house on two occasions, but each time it failed for want of a two-thirds vote.
Lyon had the distinguished honor of having been elected as a representative from three states to congress,—Vermont, Kentucky and Arkansas. He learned the trade of a printer when a boy, ran away from the old country and settled in Vermont. Governor Chittenden took a great interest in the young Irish lad, and helped him in many ways. He married a daughter of the governor’s, and engaged in the manufacture of iron and paper. Becoming involved financially, in trying to build a flotilla of gunboats on the Delaware for the infant American navy, he moved to Kentucky, and there set up another printing office, the first in the state. He was elected to Congress in 1804, serving until 1810.
He was the first delegate to Congress from Arkansas, having taken up his residence in Little Rock, but he died before taking his seat. To Matthew Lyon also belongs the distinguished honor of having cast the vote of Vermont for Jefferson for president against Adams in that critical period of American history, when the choice of president was thrown into the house of representatives.
His son, Chittenden, was a prominent man of his day, a member of congress, and took an active part in public affairs. In 1840 congress refunded Matthew Lyon’s son the $1,000 fine imposed upon his father under the alien and sedition act.
In Massachusetts, Attorney-General James Sullivan, afterward congressman and governor, the son of Irish emigrants, wrote and published a most able paper entitled, “A Dissertation on the Constitutional Freedom of the Press,” severely arraigning the sedition law. After enumerating the power of congress, Mr. Sullivan said:
“It is very clear that, considering a libel as a private injury, the congress can have no authority to enact a law for its definition or punishment.... It went beyond what the constitution would warrant.” In his final summing up, Attorney-General Sullivan said, “that a reasonable, constitutional restraint, judicially exercised, is the only way in which the freedom of the press can be preserved as an invaluable privilege to the nation.”
The alien and sedition laws were soon effaced from the statute books when the Democratic party came into power under Jefferson. Inasmuch as these laws were aimed especially at the men of Irish blood, who sought freedom at home in vain and came here to enjoy it, it was especially fitting that an Irishman, Senator Smilie of South Carolina, should introduce the bill for their repeal. He was chairman of the committee on foreign affairs on the part of the senate.
John T. Morse, in his “American Statesmen” series, characterizes the alien and sedition laws as the “two great blunders of the Federal party,” and adds: “No one has ever been able heartily or successfully to defend these foolish outbursts of ill-considered legislation.”
Another Irishman, John Daly Burk of The Time-Piece published in New York city was arrested under the alien and sedition law. This John Daly Burk had a most interesting history. He published the first daily paper in Boston. Said to be of the same family as the great Edmund Burke, he was expelled from Trinity College, Dublin, for patriotic articles contributed to the Dublin Evening Post, a paper which advocated the cause of the people against the rule of England. The expulsion of young Burk from Trinity only rekindled his patriotism and he rallied around the young band of patriots who were getting ready for the uprising of ’98. A brother patriot was being led to the gallows one day. As the procession passed Trinity’s steps, where Burk, in company with about thirty young men, was standing, he called out that if there was an Irishman in the crowd, to follow him for the purpose of rescuing the prisoner. The attempt proved unsuccessful. Burk escaped to a house where lived a woman named Daly. She fitted him out in woman’s garb and in this disguise he escaped from Ireland, making his way to America, landing in Boston. Being without means and desiring to show his gratitude to his protectress, Burk assumed her name, and ever after he signed himself John Daly Burk.
Boston in those days was not a very hospitable town for an Irishman to settle in, but Burk fought against great odds and overcame what seemed to be insurmountable obstacles. On October 6, 1796, he issued the Polar Star and Daily Advertiser. It was the first daily paper published in the town. It was printed by Alexander Martin, at the corner of Water Street and Quaker Lane. Copies of the paper are extant, and are well worth perusal. It had considerable display advertising. It started out with a well written address to the public on the advantages of a daily paper. Speaking of the policy of the paper, the editor said: “It will have more frequent opportunities of defending the great principles of American Independence; encouraging the arts and chastising the enemies of the federal constitution whatever mask they may wear or whatever denomination they may assume.”
Further along in his address to the people, Burk apologized for calling the residents of Boston his fellow-citizens, but, he added, he was their fellow citizen, for the moment a stranger puts his foot on American soil “his fetters,” to use his own language, “are rent to pieces.”
In concluding his leading editorial, Burk said: “The Polar Star, like a stern and impartial tribune of criticism, shall be open to reasoning on both sides, but it will hear only reasoning. It will curb the spirit of faction; silence the clamor of revenge and heal the wounds of the unfortunate.”
Burk complained of the treatment accorded him by the other Boston papers of the period. In a paragraph, one day, he called attention to the fact that none deigned to notice the Polar Star, and remarked that if its promoters had not taken the trouble to register its birth in the temple of freedom, the world would not have been the wiser.
In another issue, he calls attention to the fact that “a gentleman possessing the wisdom of a Socrates,” declined to subscribe to his paper, “because the editor was an Irishman.” The italics are Burk’s.
The Polar Star and Daily Advertiser gave each political party an equal showing in its news columns, but its editor early incurred the enmity of President Adams. Of the presidential canvass preceding the election of John Adams, who was the candidate of the Federalists, Editor Burk observed in his paper:
“We hope the future president will be as good a Republican as Washington. Never has the venerable patriot been known to utter a sentiment favorable to royalty. He ought to be a friend to the revolution of Holland and France; he ought not to be willing to divide the people by any distinction; Americans should have but one denomination—the people.”
It would seem that President Adams kept a sharp eye on Burk while in Boston. It was his intention, says Burk’s son in his memoirs of his father, to hand the Boston editor over to the captain of a British frigate lying in Boston harbor. Great Britain at that time was claiming all her subjects, wherever found. Many an American vessel was searched for escaped Irish patriots, and on this right of search, the war of 1812 was waged. Had Burk ever been handed over to the British captain, there is no doubt but that he would have been hanged at the yard arm of the vessel. As it was, Burk was obliged to flee from Boston, fearing surrender to the British, leaving his daily paper on the hands of the printer, who soon afterwards abandoned it and removed to Philadelphia, then the seat of the Federal government.
It was Aaron Burr who gave Burk the first intimation of President Adams’ intention to turn him over to the British authorities, and in more ways than one Hamilton’s inveterate political enemy facilitated Burk’s escape to New York, where he published The Time-Piece. Thus, Boston lost a brilliant man and her first daily paper was reluctantly abandoned after six months’ existence.
While in Boston, Burk married a widow named Curtis, formerly Christine Borne. She bore him one son, John Junius Burk, who became a distinguished jurist of Louisiana. Mrs. Curtis had two boys by her first marriage. One of them married a sister of President John Tyler. John Junius Burk left several accomplished children who were justly proud of John Daly Burk, their grandfather, the pioneer of Boston daily journalism. After his New York experience Burk took up his residence among the Republicans of Virginia. Jefferson, Randolph and other distinguished patriots were proud to have him in their company. He wrote one of the best histories of Virginia published, and took an active part in public matters, being in great demand for public speaking.
In the Richmond Enquirer of May 27, 1808, were printed proposals for publishing the ancient and modern music of Ireland, by John McCreery and Skelton Jones. Burk wrote a fine essay on the subject for the work. This book, it is said, suggested to Thomas Moore his Irish melodies. Dr. Robinson, who wrote the preface to McCreery’s work, was a classmate of Moore at Trinity College, Dublin. Burk’s ending was dramatic. He was killed in a duel by a Frenchman in Virginia in 1808. Although Burk was the publisher of the first daily paper in Boston, the impartial historians of the Hub dismiss him by a mere mention of his name when they condescend to refer to his paper at all, but an honored son has preserved the important facts of his distinguished and interesting career.
A most interesting character in pioneer journalism in America was Andrew Brown, an Irishman who published the Federal Gazette in Philadelphia. He, too, was a graduate of Trinity college. He came to America when a young man, settled in Massachusetts, and fought on the patriots’ side at Lexington, Concord and Bunker Hill. He took an active part in the campaigns of Generals Gates and Greene.
Brown’s paper was the first to publish reports of the doings of Congress. He upheld the constitution when it was assailed, and earned the gratitude of men no less distinguished than Washington.
Another of the early Irish-American publishers was John Dunlap of the Pennsylvania Packet, the first daily published in America. He was born in Strabane, Ireland, in 1747. He died in Philadelphia in November, 1812. He was the first congressional printer, and acted as such to the Continental Congress. His paper was first to print the Declaration of Independence. He was an officer in the First Philadelphia cavalry which acted as Washington’s body-guard at Trenton and Princeton. Dunlap was an intense patriot, and during the Revolutionary War contributed more than £4,000 to the support of the Revolutionary army. He was a member of that noble band, the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, of Philadelphia, which furnished more field officers to the Revolutionary army and rendered more material aid to the colonists in the struggle for independence than any other single society.
Another prominent Philadelphia journalist of Irish birth was Mathew Carey, a native of Dublin. He landed in Philadelphia November 15, 1784. He had just been released from an English prison for political offenses. Two months later he issued the Philadelphia Herald. The Herald was the first paper to give correct legislative reports of Congress, Carey acting as his own reporter. For his vigorous opposition to English tyranny in his native land, he found himself one day a prisoner behind the bars at Newgate. Previous to this he was obliged to flee, for a vigorous use of his able pen in behalf of Irish freedom. He went to Paris and there made the acquaintance of the American minister, Benjamin Franklin, who gave him employment as clerk in the American embassy. After a year’s absence he returned to Dublin. He and Franklin were life-long friends, and it was he, I believe, who remarked to Franklin one day, that he agreed with the great philosopher in everything except religion.
He remained at his post editing his paper during the yellow fever epidemic in Philadelphia, when all other editors felt obliged to desert their posts. He wrote and published much on economic and political subjects. His articles on protection were translated into different languages, and had a large sale. He fought a duel with Colonel Oswald, editor of a rival journal, and was confined to his bed for sixteen months, the result of wounds received from his antagonist. Mathew Carey was the first publisher of an American history. It was written by an Irish Presbyterian, Dr. Ramsay.
Perhaps the most interesting character among the Philadelphia editors of Irish blood was William Duane. He was the editor of the Aurora. Born in New York of Irish parents, he was sent to Ireland to be educated, graduating at Trinity College with honors. In 1794 we find him in India where he started a paper called the World and accumulated quite a fortune. With his inherent love of freedom, Duane championed the cause of the colonists against the East India Company. He was invited to breakfast one day with the governor of the colony, was arrested and sent to London in irons without any explanation. After petitioning for redress he awaited the outcome. Meanwhile he was employed editing the General Advertiser, which was subsequently merged into the London Times.
In 1795 Duane gave up his hope of redress from the Company and left London in disgust, coming to Philadelphia, where he became the editor of the Aurora, the leading organ of the Democratic party. It was to him that Jefferson attributed his election, owing to the vigorous advocacy of his candidacy through the Aurora columns which at that time was regarded as the most influential paper in America. President Jefferson made him a lieutenant-colonel in 1805, and during the war of 1812 he was adjutant-general of the army, which afforded the editor of the Aurora an opportunity to retaliate on his old enemy, England. The change of the seat of government from Philadelphia to Washington, diminished the influence of his paper, and later he retired from its editorship. He traveled much after retirement from his editorial labors, and on his return from abroad devoted himself to literary pursuits. He published a great many works on military subjects.
His son, who was born in Ireland, was originally a printer and paper dealer in Philadelphia. He studied law, was admitted to practice and represented Philadelphia in the state legislature for many years. He, like his father, took a deep interest in public matters, especially the building up of the great common school system of Philadelphia. He was his father’s right hand man in his editorial labors and secretary of the treasury in 1833 under President Jackson. He was removed from his position by the president after a controversy, for his refusal to remove the deposits from the United States bank during the exciting bank troubles. He was an author of note and wrote much on political and economic subjects.
The Binns family who settled in Philadelphia at the close of the eighteenth century were natives of Dublin. John and Benjamin were printers. John was tried in England for “treason,” but escaped punishment. Soon after his acquittal he was rearrested on a similar charge and served three years in jail. He came to America in 1801. In 1802 he commenced the publication of the Republican Argus at Northumberland, Penn., and in 1807 issued the Democratic Press at Philadelphia. For many years it was a most influential paper. For twenty years John Binn was an alderman of the city of Philadelphia, and was always active in matters affecting his native land. He was the first man to print an absolutely correct copy of the Declaration of Independence. For this public service he received the thanks of John Quincy Adams and General Lafayette. Appended to the copy of the document was a fac simile of the signatures of the signers of the immortal Declaration.
The proprietor of the New Jersey State Gazette which was established in 1792, the first daily paper published in that state, was William B. Kenny, the son of Irish parents. Under President Fillmore he was American minister to Sardinia.
Dr. James Hagan, the fighting editor of the Vicksburg (Miss.) Sentinel, was one of the earliest daily newspaper men in the South. He was killed in the prime of life while on his way to his office one day in 1842, by the editor of the Vicksburg Whig, with whom he had had a controversy. Dr. Hagan’s associate in the enterprise was James Ryan.
In the early life of the nineteenth century we find Henry O’Reilly editing the New York Columbian. At seventeen he was editor of the Patriot, ably advocating, in 1842, the election of DeWitt Clinton, an Irish immigrant’s son, as governor of the Empire state. In 1826 the Rochester Daily Advertiser was issued and was the first daily between the Hudson river and the Pacific Ocean. O’Reilly was then only twenty-one years old, but was considered one of the ablest men in his profession at that time. He was a great advocate of the canal system of New York and was always ready to defend it from the attacks of designing politicians. He was one of the foremost champions of the great common school system of his state. To him belongs the credit of the establishment of the State Agricultural college. Almost every state in the Union has followed New York’s lead in this matter. As a promoter of the infant telegraph business, Mr. O’Reilly is acknowledged to have been the foremost man in the matter, assisting Morse with his pen and money. No man had more influence than O’Reilly throughout the state, and at the breaking out of the Rebellion he did yeoman service for the Union cause. He died in 1867, loved and respected by all.
William Cassidy, the son of Irish parents, was born in Albany, N. Y., in 1815. His father was a great friend of DeWitt Clinton, the governor of New York. Cassidy was the editor of the Albany Atlas and Argus which were united in 1856, taking the name of the Argus. From that date the Albany Argus has been one of the leading papers of New York state. Cassidy was a fine classical scholar, and for many years secretary of the Democratic state committee. He was a noted platform builder and often helped his party out of trying positions.
James McCarroll was a noted journalist of his day. He was born in the county Longford, Ireland, came to this country when a young man, and in 1845 was a proprietor of the Peterboro Chronicle. Later in life he was engaged as a musical and dramatic critic on New York daily papers. His father fell, fighting bravely for the Union, at Antietam.
Who is there that does not recall Fitz James O’Brien and his heroism on Union battlefields, that won him the official praise of two great generals? He lived a newspaper man, a poet, and a writer of preëminent ability. He died a Union soldier. He gave his life to his adopted country freely and without price. A record of heroic deeds on the battlefields survives him. Of him, suffice it to say, that during his ten years’ residence in America, this adopted citizen brought out some of the most brilliant writings of their class published. He died in Virginia, an aide in the staff of General Landers, from the effects of a wound received in a charge he led, and lies buried in Greenwood cemetery, New York, in an honored grave.
The mention of poor O’Brien recalls to mind Charles Dawson Shanley, another Irishman, who died in 1875. For eighteen years Mr. Shanley occupied a prominent place in American journalism, having been connected with several New York newspapers as editor and contributor. His poems and novels still delight the lover of realistic beauty. His old friend, William Winter, paid this tribute to him in the columns of the New York Tribune, April 19, 1875: “There is no one of the busy workers in journalism who will not be benefited by reflection upon a character so pure and simple, a life so industrious, useful and blameless, and an end so tranquil.”
Col. James Mulligan once edited a Chicago paper. General Thomas Francis Meagher, of ’48 fame, was editing the Irish News in New York at the breaking out of the Rebellion of ’61.
Robert S. McKenzie, a native of Limerick, Ireland, a graduate of Fermoy, was noted for his literary work, and was engaged in general newspaper correspondence for many years.
One of the most successful journalists of Irish blood was Thomas Kinsella, editor of the Brooklyn Eagle. Mr. Kinsella was born in Ireland in 1832, learned his trade as a printer and in 1861 was editing the Brooklyn Eagle. He was postmaster at Brooklyn, member of Congress, one of the original Brooklyn bridge trustees, and at one time president of the St. Patrick club of Brooklyn.
In Indiana, no two newspaper men of their time were better known than Thomas and John Dowling in the early part of the nineteenth century.
A son of Judge John D. Phelan of Tennessee, who graduated with high honor at Nashville University, started a Democratic paper in Huntersville, conducting it with success. Editor Phelan was a leading figure in politics and at his death was a judge of the supreme court of Tennessee.
Michael Burnham was the name of the man, who, when the century was young, issued the New York Post and Herald.
Although the founder of the New York Herald, James Gordon Bennett, was of Scotch birth, his mother was an Irishwoman, being the descendant of an old and honorable Dublin family. Mr. Bennett studied for the priesthood in the old country, but soon abandoned the idea, came to Boston where he read proof for a while, and after a varied experience in newspaper life settled in New York and in 1835 started the New York Herald.
James Gordon Bennett’s great competitor, Horace Greeley, of the New York Tribune, was a New Hampshire boy, born of Irish parents in the town of Amherst. No man carried more influence than Greeley, and in the days of the war and the decade following it the Tribune was a great power in national politics.
One of the foremost newspaper men of the South was the late United States Senator Patrick Walsh of Georgia. He was a native of Limerick. He came to America with his parents when a child. He was a hard worker in his youth and earned enough money sticking type to pay his way at Georgetown college. He was at college when his adopted state seceded and he went home to join the Meagher Guard, an Irish company attached to the first regiment of South Carolina. He had filled every position on the paper, and in 1873 became one of the owners of the Augusta Chronicle.
Few journalists in America occupy the high position in their profession that Col. Alexander Kelly McClure, who, with the McLaughlin brothers, started the Philadelphia Times, one of the leading papers in the country to-day. Mr. McClure comes from the Pennsylvania Irish which has furnished so many remarkable men in American history. He has been an important factor in journalism for nearly half a century now and counts among his nearest friends the leading men of the nation. He was particularly prominent in the War of the Rebellion and was on the most intimate terms with President Lincoln.
As a war correspondent Joseph B. McCullagh, late editor of the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, had few equals. He was a native of Dublin, which he early left, coming to America when a boy. He had a varied and successful newspaper career. He was in the Wilderness with Grant and with Sherman on his march to the sea. In his campaign with Grant a friendship was formed which lasted until the death of the hero of the Rebellion.
One of the leading newspaper men of Pittsburg to-day is Thomas J. Keenan, the son of an Irish-American soldier distinguished for his bravery. Mr. Keenan recently gave a $30,000 home to the newsboys of Pittsburg.
Thomas Fitzgerald, for many years connected with the New York Commercial Advertiser, and the Item, of Philadelphia, which he founded, was in his day one of the leaders in American journalism. He died in 1891, after turning his paper over to his son. He was a noted dramatist, and during the War of the Rebellion was an intense patriot. He was a noted public speaker. Charles Sumner said of a speech of his delivered in Boston, that it was one of the best extemporaneous addresses he had ever listened to.
At the head of the Scranton (Pa.) Truth is James Joseph Jordan, born of Irish parents, while the Farrells of Albany, N. Y., are also well-known and influential in the newspaper world.
The late Joseph Medill, of Chicago, the son of Irish parents, made the Chicago Tribune a great newspaper. He ranked with Charles A. Dana of the N. Y. Sun.
Thomas O’Conor, the father of New York’s greatest jurist, Charles O’Conor, was among the best known and gifted newspaper men in the early ’40’s.
Theodore O’Hara, the gifted poet of the South, was a newspaper man of wide experience. Himself a Kentucky soldier, he wrote the beautiful poem entitled “The Bivouac of the Dead,” when the remains of the Kentucky soldiers who fell at Buena Vista in the Mexican War were brought home to their native state. Lines from his poems are inscribed over the entrances of several of the national cemeteries. By a resolution of the Kentucky legislature, his remains were conveyed from Georgia, where he died, to his native state and they now lie beside those whom he had commemorated in his beautiful lines, and beside whom he had fought the battles of his country.
Daniel Kane O’Donnell as an all round newspaper man and a war correspondent, had few equals. He represented the Philadelphia Press on Sherman’s march to the sea. After the war he became connected with the New York Tribune, and was made correspondent of the paper in Mexico, and later in Cuba, his interesting letters attracting world-wide attention. Subsequently, he returned to the home office and was given charge of the foreign affairs of the paper.
At the head of the war correspondents of the Orient and Europe stands Januarius Aloysius McGahan, an Irish-American journalist. His first notable newspaper connection was as the Paris correspondent of the New York Herald. McGahan was about to return from Europe after a course in international law, when he was retained by Mr. Bennett as the Herald correspondent.
He overtook the retreating Frenchmen at Bordeaux and accompanied them to Lyons, sending graphic dispatches to his paper in the form of interviews with the leaders of all parties. This surprised the European newspapers, as it was the introduction of newspaper interviewing in the old world. He was the only correspondent who remained in Paris during the commune, and kept the readers of the Herald thoroughly informed as to what was going on in the turbulent French capital. He was arrested by the French government for intimacy with the rebels, but through the intercession of the American minister was released.
After this he was made correspondent at St. Petersburg by the Herald, and was on the most intimate terms with the czar. He was at the bombardment of Khiva, and in 1874 reported the Carlist war, living in the saddle and being frequently under fire. To follow McGahan would require a whole evening. He continued to be the most renowned correspondent of his day, and died of fever at his post of duty during the Bulgarian war in 1875.
Another famous New York Herald war correspondent was James O’Kelly, who made a world-wide reputation in his dispatches from Cuba in the early ’70’s. Born in Ireland, a French soldier in Mexico, he came to America and engaged in the newspaper business, becoming an attache of the New York Herald. He was condemned to death for his part in the Cuban insurrection, but was saved that fate by the state department. After his release he returned to Ireland, and was elected to parliament on entering politics.
It was Daniel O’Neil, a native of Wexford, who started the Pittsburg Dispatch, one of the leading papers of the West to-day. His brother, Eugene O’Neil, is now the editor.
Ex-Mayor Hugh O’Brien, of Boston, scored a signal success as a journalist.
James McConnell, who died recently, was one of the best known newspaper men of Philadelphia. He learned to set type at the case adjoining that of the late John Russell Young. Later, he became proofreader on the Philadelphia Press, then owned by John Forney. He became night editor, and during the Civil War war correspondent of that paper. When John Russell Young became managing editor of the New York Tribune under Horace Greeley, Mr. McConnell came to New York and while with the Tribune was successively day editor, Albany correspondent, traveling political correspondent, night editor and political editor in the office. After serving the Tribune he went to Philadelphia and associated himself with the Evening Star, and at the time of his death was managing editor of the Star.
Add to this already remarkable list, a Grady in the South, a Blaine in the North. Nothing that I might say regarding these distinguished men of Irish origin would add to the already large stock of knowledge possessed by the public concerning them. Their names are household words. They lived but as yesterday. Their influence is still felt.
In treating a subject of this character one could hardly forget the debt of gratitude the Irish people in America owe to Patrick Donahoe, the venerable founder of the Boston Pilot, and his brilliant and scholarly successor as editor of that paper, the lamented John Boyle O’Reilly. 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. It is inevitable in such an undertaking. Experience teaches that if one were to put the works on the Irish in America together, something and somebody would be missing.
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.”
Men like Burk, Carey, Dunlap, Brown and Duane may have been “adventurists and refugees.” God grant us more such “adventurists and refugees,” for they lived useful lives here. They left their imprint on the land. The historian who would apply the term “adventurists and refugees” to such men should reflect that, had the American cause failed, Washington, Adams, Jefferson and many other patriots would have come within their term of “adventurists and refugees,” and probably would have been seeking liberty elsewhere, as were these men, far from the land of their nativity.
These pioneers in American journalism came here,
“Where no caste barrier stays the poor man’s son,
Till step by step the topmost height is won;
Where every hand subscribes to every rule,
And free as air are voice, and vote, and school.”
“They may sleep in their silent tomb,” to quote the words of Thomas D’Arcy Magee, another brilliant Irish-American journalist, “but the remembrance of their virtue will be cherished while liberty is dear to the American heart.”
A distinguished man, Gen. Patrick A. Collins, once observed that of all the brilliant Irishmen he ever knew—and he has known many—John Boyle O’Reilly and D’Arcy Magee could do more things and do them better than any of their contemporaries.