The journal of the American-Irish Historical Society, Vol. VIII, 1909

by Various

LATE PUBLICATIONS ON HISTORY OF INTEREST TO THE MEMBERS OF THE AMERICAN IRISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

BY THE SECRETARY-GENERAL.

Pacific Blockade. By Albert E. Hogan, LL. D.

This is the only treatise in English exclusively upon this subject, and the author has discussed a minor topic of international law fully and fairly. His views are briefly that pacific blockade (the right to blockade the ports of another state in time of peace and without war necessarily resulting) is too new a practice to have become entirely regularized; that the state blockaded as well as the blockader, but not the third powers affected, may decline to look upon a specific case of pacific blockade as consistent with peace, and thus consider war to be a fact; that notice, effectiveness, days of grace, etc., are to be observed much as in ordinary blockade; that, unlike ordinary blockade, it may be limited to a certain commodity or a certain traffic; that the ships of third powers, attempting to run a pacific blockade, can only be turned back or at most detained, never seized and confiscated as if war existed; that this kind of coercion is better than war for all parties.

Doctor Hogan is an Irishman and a professor of law at the University of Oxford in England, but his book and his views are being much discussed and widely criticised by American historical authorities.

The Mystery of the Pinckney Draught. By Hon. Charles C. Nott, formerly Chief Justice of the United States Court of Claims.

This work is interesting throughout. Pinckney was not a great constructive statesman, but in the work of the convention he rendered valuable service in formulating many of the details embodied in the Constitution. It was not so much a new instrument of government that Pinckney framed in his original plan as it was a revision of the Articles of Confederation. In the preparation of his plan, Pinckney drew extensively upon the Articles of Confederation and the various state constitutions, especially that of New York. On May 29th, 1787, Charles Pinckney presented to the Federal Convention “the draft of a federal government to be agreed upon between the free and independent states of America”; that the records note simply its submission to the convention, its reference on the same day to the Committee of the Whole House, and later to the Committee of Detail; and that when John Quincy Adams in 1818 applied to Pinckney for a copy of the missing plan, he received in reply a document so strikingly similar to the draft of a constitution reported by the Committee of Detail on August 6th that it was evident one document must have been taken from the other. The conclusion has been almost universally unfavorable to Pinckney. Judge Nott in his work takes the other side, and in an elaborate argument declares that the original Pinckney plan is lost to the world because it was used as “printer’s copy” by the Committee of Detail.

The Works of James Buchanan, Comprising His Speeches, State Papers and Private Correspondence. Collected and edited by Prof. John Bassett Moore. Volumes V and VI, 1841–1844, 1844–1846.

President Buchanan was an Irishman, and Professor Moore has undertaken a most meritorious work in bringing forth the speeches, state papers and private correspondence of this great American citizen. The volume now issued is the fifth, and covers part of the period that Mr. Buchanan was in the United States Senate, where his continued membership of the Committee on Foreign Relations and Committee on Manufactures brought him into close contact with many of the most pressing questions of the time. The great issues covered by these volumes were those of the northeastern and northwestern boundaries and the annexation of Texas. In 1844 Buchanan was a presidential possibility, and his letters, though few in number, show him willing to take, but unwilling to seek, this high office. An excellent review of these volumes has recently been made by Professor William MacDonald of Brown University, Providence, R. I., a member of the Executive Committee of the American Historical Association.

CHAUNCEY OLCOTT.
Of New York City, the Famous Actor.
A Life Member of the Society.

Old Times on the Upper Mississippi: The Recollections of a Steamboat Pilot from 1854 to 1863. By George Byron Merrick.

The author’s family were whalers from Nantucket. Mr. Merrick is a good story-teller, and his book abounds with tales of traffic on the Mississippi River from 1854 to 1863.

The author originally came from Nantucket, and began as a pantry boy on the Mississippi, occupying every position in the steamboat and flat-boat business for a great many years, and his tales of war-times are intensely interesting. The book is not well named, however, because steamboating was a large business for over thirty years before the narrative begins. He tells interestingly of bringing to the front in April, 1861, Sherman’s Flying Artillery, the most famous organization in the old army, stationed at the time at Fort Ridgely, high up the Minnesota River. The Fanny Harris, the largest boat which had ever gone up the stream, received the battery on board, its commander then being no other than John C. Pemberton of Pennsylvania, at first a loyal Union officer, although afterwards the Confederate lieutenant-general at Vicksburg. His lieutenant was Romeyn B. Ayres, than whom no Federal officer of the Civil War was braver. The river was at flood, the perils of navigation great, but the emergency was pressing. The Fanny Harris dashed on at full speed, sometimes in the tortuous channel, sometimes crashing through narrow barriers of land into inundated bottoms and even woods, the battery-men meantime exclaiming that the risk to life in battle was far less than among those pouring waters. Three hundred miles down the current was accomplished in two days. The boat was almost stripped of smokestacks, light upper work, and nearly all of her guards, but the battery was delivered, guns and men, at Prairie du Chien. Its style is simple, but very interesting, and the book is beautifully illustrated and printed.

Texts of the Peace Conferences at The Hague, 1899 and 1907, with English translation and appendix of related documents. Edited by James Brown Scott, technical delegate of the United States to the Second Peace Conference at The Hague.

The volume is published by Ginn & Company of Boston and New York, of which our Librarian and Archivist, Mr. Thomas B. Lawler, is a partner. There is a twenty-five page introduction, giving an analysis and discussion of the work of the conferences. Most of the documents have been published elsewhere, and some of them many times, but it is well worth while to have them brought together in this convenient form. Ex-Secretary Root thinks the work of the Second Conference presents the greatest advance ever made at any single time towards the reasonable and peaceful regulation of international conduct, unless it be the advance made at The Hague Conference of 1899. The volume is complete and treats of the important factors in both conferences, and publishes the very valuable documents.

The Bibliographer’s Manual of American History, containing an account of all state, territory, town and county histories, etc., compiled by Thomas Lindsley Bradford, M. D.

Three volumes have thus far been issued, and each volume shows improvement over its predecessor. It is a valuable work and a most excellent compilation of documents of great advantage to students of American history, and furnishes a good means of observation to the members of the American Irish Historical Society to take in at a glance the history of so many places in this country.

The American Executive and Executive Methods. By John H. Finley, President of the College of the City of New York, and John F. Sanderson, member of the Pennsylvania Bar.

The joint authors of this book have maintained the high standard of scholarship that has characterized the series of which the volume under review is the final number. There are fourteen chapters upon the executive department of the American state, and the other eight deal with the federal executive, to which is added an appendix upon the presidential electoral system. Throughout the work reference is made to the excellent achievements of many Pennsylvania Irishmen, but Mr. Marshall S. Brown, who prints a review of the work, finds, among other things, that the book reflects somewhat the defects inherent in a work of dual authorship.

Winthrop’s Journal, 1630–1649. Edited by James Kendall Hosmer. Two volumes.

This is one of the series of “Original Narratives of Early American History.” The old title, “History of New England,” is given in this edition only as a sub-title, and the volumes appear to be what they are—a journal. Nevertheless, the work is interesting throughout, and would be a valuable addition to the Society’s library.

The Province of New Jersey, 1664–1738. By Edwin P. Tanner, Ph. D., instructor in history in Syracuse University.

This is a detailed history of the political affairs and institutions of New Jersey during two generations of its provincial life. The peculiar land system of the proprietors in each of the two Jerseys, elements of the population, the personnel, legal position and activities of executive, council and assembly respectively, and their conflicts, the judicial system, financial affairs, militia system, etc., are carefully treated.

The Writings of James Madison. Edited by Gaillard Hunt.

This is much on the plan and fully as extensive as “The Works of James Buchanan” heretofore referred to, and eight volumes at present have been issued. The notes are excellent in respect to information and judgment, but not much of the matter set out is new, the author merely contenting himself by copying the writings of President Madison without making any specious comment on the same.

A Calendar of Confederate Papers, with a Bibliography of Some Confederate Publications.

This is a preliminary report of the Southern Historical Manuscripts Commission, and is one of the really monumental historical enterprises in the South. The commission is actively collecting, arranging and publishing various kinds of material relating to the Civil War, and to thoroughly appreciate the truly marvelous changes one should have known the conditions in the southern capitals a quarter of a century ago. Those directing this enterprise are so energetic, intelligent and ambitious that we believe the best fruits are yet to be gathered, although there is no room to doubt the value of several large collections already made. Mr. Douglas Southall Freeman is the director, and this calendar, orderly throughout and supplemented by careful notes, is very complimentary to him. Much historical data can be gathered for the Society from the southern states, where the recognition of Irishmen and their achievements was more free than in the New England states.

The Adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment. By Horace Edgar Flack, Ph. D.

Is a part of the Johns Hopkins University studies in historical and political science. So much has been heretofore said about these studies in the current magazines that we assume the members of the Society are familiar with them.

Collections and Researches Made by the Michigan Pioneer and Historical Society.

The Society has been at work many years, and now publishes its thirty-sixth volume. The usefulness of this work to members of our Society in Michigan who desire to record the history and achievements of Americans of Irish birth or descent cannot be overestimated.

Collections of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin.

This is the eighteenth volume of the publications, and is edited by Doctor Thwaites, Secretary and Superintendent of the Society. The Wisconsin History Commission, consisting of the governor of the state, the professor of American history in the state university, the secretary of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, the secretary of the Library Commission, and a representative of the Grand Army of the Republic, work with the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, and have already gathered and arranged the material for a history of Wisconsin’s part in the Civil War. A series of “Original Papers” has been inaugurated, on the line of the papers presented at our last meeting in Washington by Mr. Justice Dowling and Ex-Attorney-General Moloney, and are very interesting.

Lives of the Governors of Minnesota.

Is Volume XIII of the publications of the Minnesota Historical Society Collections, and is by James H. Baker, A. M., who has occupied several political positions in his state and has been closely associated with the men whose lives he has sketched. Mr. Baker is almost eighty years of age, and he has personal acquaintance with the governors from Ramsey, the first territorial governor in 1849, up to the present incumbent. Mr. Baker’s sketches of Gorman, territorial governor from 1853 to 1857; Sibley, first state governor from 1858 to 1860; Swift, third state governor from 1863 to 1864; McGill, 1887 to 1889; and Clough, 1895 to 1899; men of Irish extraction, are thorough and entertaining.

HON. T. ST. JOHN GAFFNEY,
Of New York.
Consul-General to Dresden, Germany.
Vice-President of the Society for Germany.

Transactions of the Kansas State Historical Society, 1907–1908:

This is Volume X of the publications of the Society, and is edited by the Secretary, George W. Martin. Fifty-six essays by nearly as many writers are presented. Several of the productions are composed of separate papers, such as the collections of biographical sketches of members of early legislatures, etc. A wealth of original material, well worth the notice of historians outside of the state of Kansas, is revealed, and forty-eight maps, plans, portraits and landscapes illustrate the text.

History of the City of Vincennes, 1702–1901:

An important contribution to the local history of Indiana, and a well written and authentic account of the oldest town in that state. By Henry S. Cauthorn.

History of Worcester:

A well written, authentic history of the Massachusetts town in the War of the Rebellion. By A. P. Marvin.

Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry History:

An account of the regiment from 1861 to 1865. By Edwin E. Bryant.

Professor Edward Channing of Harvard University has two volumes of a History of the United States already issued of a series of eight volumes. The title of Volume I is “The Planting of a Nation in the New World, 1000 to 1660”; Volume II, “A Century of Colonial History, 1660 to 1760.” The titles to Volumes III and IV, not yet issued, are “The American Revolution, 1760–1789,” and “Federalists and Republicans, 1789–1812,” while the titles to Volumes V to VIII have not as yet been selected.

“Dr. John McLoughlin, the Victor of Oregon,” an authoritative biographical sketch, with abundant documents, by Frederick V. Holman.

“A Documentary Source-Book of American History,” by Professor William MacDonald of Brown University, author of “Select Charters,” “Select Documents,” and “Select Statutes,” etc. The work is in one volume, and includes all the most important documents contained in Professor MacDonald’s large works, but in some cases shortened by immaterial omissions.

GENERAL HISTORICAL ITEMS.

A very interesting document is the Report of the Committee on the Documentary Historical Publications of the United States Government, appointed by President Roosevelt in February, 1908, as an assistant committee to the Committee on Department Methods. Hon. Lawrence O. Murray, now Comptroller of the Currency at Washington, D. C., and at that time in the Department of Commerce and Labor, is a member of this committee, and the Society acknowledges with its thanks the receipt from him of a copy.

On February 11th, the President sent it to Congress with a message, and message and report have since been printed as Senate Document No. 714 of the session concluded March 4th.

The report contains a review of the course hitherto pursued by the government in the matter of historical publications; a general survey of the publications hitherto made, and of the gaps still existing between or among them; a body of recommendations for filling such gaps, especially by the inception of a series of National State Papers; and finally a series of suggestions for the organization of a permanent Commission on National Historical Publications, with a bill which, it is hoped, will be introduced in the sixty-first Congress.

The Fifth Annual Meeting of the Pacific Coast Branch of the American Historical Association was held at the University of California November 21st last. Papers were read by Professor E. D. Adams of Stanford University concerning the annexation of California, Mr. Don E. Smith and Professor J. N. Bowman of the University of California, and by Mr. F. J. Taggart. The proceedings lasted the entire day, sessions being held in the morning and afternoon, followed by a banquet in the evening.

The publications of the American Association for International Conciliation are being sent forward to the members of our Society, and are readable and interesting documents by learned authorities upon the subjects they present. At the suggestion of the Secretary of the Association, the addresses of our members were sent him, and he has written each that the publications of the Association will go forward to them if they so request it. All that it is necessary to do to receive them is to write the Secretary. His address is: “F. P. Keppel, Secretary, Sub-Station 84, New York City.”

Hon. Thomas W. Bicknell, Providence, R. I., President of the Rhode Island Citizens’ Historical Association and an applicant for membership in our Society, has recently published in the Journal of American History an interesting article entitled “First White Owners of Land in America.” Mr. Bicknell is also the author of “Sowans,” a work treating of the early history of Barrington and Warren in Rhode Island.

Among the contents of the last issue of the American Historical Magazine is “Heroes of the Battle of Point Pleasant,” by Delia A. McCulloch.

In the January issue of the Essex Institute Historical Collections is an article on “Captain John Manley of Marblehead, a Man of Irish Descent,” by Robert E. Peabody.

RECOMMENDATIONS.

It has been the custom of the Society since its organization to have one annual meeting and two or more field days each year. The annual meeting in each instance has been called for the early evening, and the business affairs finished in a few minutes; then a short reception would take place, followed by a dinner, on the completion of which some historical papers would be read and addresses of interest made.

This proceeding is not calculated to sufficiently advance the interests of the Society, or enable it to truly do the work for which it is organized. Some historical associations have annual meetings at which there is a morning and afternoon session, followed by a dinner in the evening, while others have sessions lasting two or three days. It is impossible to crowd into a single evening, part of which has been taken up in partaking of a good dinner, any significant number of historical papers, much less to have a discussion on them.

Valuable addresses have been made that have not been printed in the Journal, and all that is left of them in the minds of the members is hardly more than pleasant recollections of the speakers. All the leading historical associations procure valuable papers from members, and, after they are read, discussion upon the subject-matter is thrown open, the good points gathered, and all reported in print later for the use of the members.

This Society could profitably take a day and an evening for its annual meeting. A morning session should be had, called to order at ten o’clock. Two or three papers could be read and discussion had upon each, followed by a recess from one to three p. m. Further papers and discussion might then be entertained and the meeting adjourned, with all the business completely transacted, in time for the dinner in the evening, at which short and interesting speeches, good music and general recreation after the day’s work would be in order.

These annual conventions should take place in different parts of the country, and those interested in our work will be sure to be on hand. In looking over some of our old records, it appears that requests have been made by members for meetings to take place in Richmond, Va., Charleston, S. C., and Detroit, Mich. In neither of these places has an annual meeting or a field day of the Society taken place.

Members of the Society are earnestly requested to furnish the Secretary-General with correct addresses. When a member removes or changes his address, the Secretary-General should be notified immediately, otherwise the publications and communications of the Society may be lost or fall into unauthorized hands.

The necessity for prompt payment of dues ought to be manifest to every member. The Society has no income except from the $5 a year contributed by the annual members. No officer or member receives any salary, and the finances are carefully and economically managed by the Executive Council. We have no expense for rental for the Society’s headquarters, and have no recent record of any officer of the Society accepting even his traveling expenses in matters connected with the Society. Nevertheless, the income is small, and our expenditures for printing the annual volume, gathering historical matter, postage, stationery and typewriting are large and do not leave the Society at the end of the year with any substantial balance in the Treasurer-General’s hands.

COL. C. C. SANDERS (Deceased).
Gainesville, Ga.
Late Member of the Executive Council.

Donations of money or bequests by will or otherwise are earnestly and respectfully solicited, and any member who will take the trouble to read the constitution and note the purposes for which the Society is incorporated can readily see the great and lasting service to our people and American history in general that could be made, in addition to what the Society is now doing, to make better known the Irish Chapter in American History.

Some members well able to pay are in arrears from two to four years in their dues, notwithstanding the fact that several tactful circulars and repeated statements have been forwarded them by committees and officers of the Society. The attention of members is called to section 8 of the by-laws, which reads as follows:

“8. A member neglecting for two years to pay his annual fee shall be notified of such omission by the Secretary-General. Still neglecting for three months to pay the dues, such delinquent member shall be dropped as no longer belonging to the Society.”

Many of our members belong to other historical associations, and, by keeping in touch with their works, become of greater service to us. The American Historical Association, the headquarters of which are at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D. C., and the leading state historical associations are cordially recommended to our members.

Members are earnestly requested to furnish the Secretary-General with biographical sketches. It is necessary to have these for our archives, and we hope that no member will allow his feeling of modesty to interfere with keeping the records of the Society complete. These sketches will not be published in the Journal if a member shall so direct. Read over your biographical sketches in the membership roll, and if they are not correct or should have additions, notify the Secretary-General.

Current items of interest relating to the doings of Americans of Irish extraction are solicited from every member by the Secretary-General. If a good article is met with in a newspaper or magazine, it will be thankfully received and filed in the archives if you will send it forward. It is by keeping abreast with the current history that we fulfil one of our greatest duties.

Donations of historical works, ancient or modern, or, in fact, books of any description, are solicited for the Society’s library. Copies or originals of old deeds, wills, bills of sale of slaves, curiosities in American or Confederate money, plate, postage stamps, old prints, pictures and the like are also solicited. When received, they will be carefully indexed and filed, with the name of the donor attached. Every member can readily find something of interest to send, and the aggregation will form a nucleus for a good library and possibly a museum.

Volumes I, II, IV, V and VI of the Journal of the Society are out of print. We have fifty copies of Volume III and ten copies of Volume VII left. The Executive Council have ordered fifteen hundred copies of Volume VIII, so that we may be sure every member will have a copy and the Society have some to spare.

These volumes out of print have become very rare, and some of them are held at high prices. If a sufficient demand appears from members who desire to have a complete set of the Society’s publications, the subject will be brought before the Executive Council for action, with the possibility that some of the volumes may be ordered reprinted.