“Proportions of Original Races in America.
“In writing these letters to the Boston Daily Advertiser, I attempted to confine myself to the facts which directly affect legislation or charitable action. There is, however, a curious question as to the effect to be produced on national character by intermixture of blood and race, produced by such large emigration as we see. What I have said in my last letter has been carefully guarded, so as to refer everywhere to the absolutely unmixed Celtic race. Of its value intermixed I have spoken as highly as I could.
“An anxious question is asked, however, by men of the old American blood, whether there is not an over-preponderance of the Celtic element coming in upon us? I do not profess to answer the question, how far the origin of the native American blood is Celtic.
“In what proportions do the Celtic and Gothic or Germanic elements mingle in the Englishman of today (1852) and, of course, in the American of today? Dr. Kombst estimates in 1841 that there are of pure German blood in England 10,000,000. Of mixed blood where the Teutonic prevailed in England and the northeast of Ireland, 6,000,000. Of mixed blood, where the Celtic prevailed in England, Scotland and Ireland, 4,000,000. And of pure Celtic in Scotland, Wales and Ireland, 6,000,000.
“But Dr. Lantham, with more reason, I think, doubts the purity of any Germanic blood in England, saying that ‘a vast amount of Celticism, not found in our tongue, very probably exists in our pedigrees.’ And in another place he says that in nine-tenths of the displacements of races made by conquest the female half ancestry of the present inhabitants must have belonged to the beaten race.
“I think the history of the Saxon invasions is such as to give color to this idea in the case of England. And I am not sure, but what it could be made out, that the American people, before the recent Irish invasion, showed in their proportion of black-haired men of dark complexion and other Celtic signs that as large a fraction as two-thirds of its blood ran in the dark ages of the past in Celtic veins. If this be so, if the proportion, two-thirds Celtic to one-third Gothic or Germanic, is the proportion which makes up that ‘perfect whole,’ the ‘true American,’ which considers itself so much finer than either of the ingredients, the recent emigrations furnish a happy co-incidence with the original law. For five past years the arrivals at New York, which are three fourths the whole, and represent it in kind exactly, have been 547,173 Irish; 278,458 Germanic; 153,969 English and Scotch; 71,359 others. Now keep these 71,359 ‘others’ for condiments in the mixture. There are Norwegians and French, Belgians and Spaniards, Swiss and Italians, balanced against each other (and a few Magyars).
“The English, of course, we need not count; but of pure Celts and pure Germans we have to fraction just two to one; and in that proportion are they to affect the blood of the American people.
“This computation which I had prepared before I read a courteous article in the American Celt of January 24, 1852, will, perhaps, show to the writer of that paper, that we are not so far apart in our views as he supposed.”
Mr. James Anthony Froude, in his history of Ireland, maligned the Irish people and did much to prejudice the world against them. Previous to his death he tried to undo the injustice he had done them. The following letter from Mr. Philbrick, superintendent of schools, explains itself:
Donohue’s Magazine, August, 1855, taken from Boston Transcript letter by Mr. Philbrick, superintendent of schools in Boston.
“James Anthony Froude, in his recent rapid passage across the country on the homeward stretch of his round-the-whole trip, was interviewed in New York and among other things was asked for reminiscences of his visit to the United States.
“The reading of the notice of his interview revived the memory of an incident of that visit, which is perhaps worth relating.
“During this visit, Mr. Froude delivered lectures in the principal cities on the Irish question. The theory which he propounded and advocated was, that the troubles in Ireland were not the result of bad government at all, but of bad blood in the Irish race. But he was anxious to get more light on the subject, if possible, and so, when in Boston, he wanted to visit public schools which were frequented by children of the Irish race. Accordingly, I took him to some boys’ schools and some girls’, where the children were almost wholly of Irish parentage. At the last of these girls’ schools, of the grammar grade installed in a splendid new school house of large size, after passing through twelve or fourteen rooms, filled with bright, well-dressed girls full of animation in their recitation in the various branches of instruction, Mr. Froude asked: ‘Do you mean to says that these are the children of Irish immigrants?’ ‘Yes,’ I answered, ‘I believe there is not a single pupil in this school of the Yankee race.’ ‘Well,’ he continued, ‘I must confess I’m staggered.’ ‘Now,’ said I, ‘I will take you to a mixed school (boys and girls being in separate rooms and classes), which stands on a spot that two years ago was a mud hole in a marsh surrounded by poor dwellings, mostly occupied by Irish immigrants.’
“After passing through most of the rooms in the fine building, in which were neatly-dressed pupils in the most perfect order, earnestly engaged in their work, we came to a boys’ room where a recitation in history was in progress. Here he took a seat and proceeded to question the class, from which he got very prompt and appropriate answers. At length, he singled out a little tan-headed boy of the Irish nationality and plied him with a lot of pretty hard questions, but every one was answered with admirable promptness and accuracy. Mr. Froude stopped, remained silent for a short time with his eyes cast down as though in a profound study. He then addressed the boys again and said: ‘My boys, where did you learn this?’ ‘Out of a book, sir,’ was the ready reply. ‘And where did you get the book?’ ‘Out of the public library,’ was the answer.
“Mr. Froude then arose to leave and I said: ‘Now, Mr. Froude, I will take you to the Girls’ High School, where you will find representatives of the Irish nationality in a higher grade of instruction.’ ‘Well,’ replied Mr. Froude, ‘you may take me where you please; it makes no difference; I’m full; I can’t hold any more.’”
Spencer says: “The Irish had the use of letters long before the English, and that Oswald, a Saxon king, applied to Ireland for learned men to instruct his people.”
Camden says: “Ireland abounded with men of genius and erudition when learning was trampled on in every other quarter of the globe.”
Plutarch calls Ireland, “Ogygia,” i.e., the most ancient isle.
Ralph Waldo Emerson says: “The sources from which tradition derives their stock are mainly three. And, first, they are of the oldest blood in the world, the Celtic. Some people are deciduous or transitory.
“Where are the Greeks? Where the Etrurians? Where the Romans?
“But the Celts or Sidonides are an old family, of whose beginning there is no memory and their end is likely to be still more remote in the future; for they have endurance and productiveness. They planted Britain, and gave to the seas and mountains names which are poems and imitate the pure voice of nature.
“They are favorably remembered in the oldest records of Europe. They had no violent feudal tenure, but the husbandman owned the land. They had an alphabet, astronomy, priestly culture, and a sublime creed and precarious genius. They made the best popular literature of the middle ages in the songs of Merlin and the tender and delicious mythology of Arthur.”
The most ancient manuscripts in the world are in the Irish language and the oldest Latin manuscripts were written by an Irishman.
The Irish language is as old as Hebrew and more ancient than Greek or Latin.
Matthew Arnold made the statement: “If Celticism had not moulded England she would not have produced a Shakespeare.”
There were a few Irishmen evidently in business in Boston before 1847–8. The Columbian Centennial of May 12 and March 17, 1812, gives James Magee, owner of Coffee Exchange House; William Barry, Dealer in Hats and Furs; William Sullivan, Corn Hill Square, Sale of farms; J. L. Sullivan, Manager of Merrimac Boating Co.; William Sullivan’s orations for sale; James Barry, Fish, Pork and Lard Dealer; Walter Welsh, Real Estate.