THE IRISH IN THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR.
Short Address Delivered by Master Karl Egan, at the Iowa Opera House, Emmetsburg, Iowa, March 17, 1909, During the Presentation of the Irish Drama, “The Hero of Wicklow,” under the Auspices of the Ancient Order of Hibernians. Some Facts of Interest to the People of Irish Birth or Ancestry.
Ladies and Gentlemen: On this important anniversary, which is associated with so many achievements of interest to the people of our race, it is fitting to enquire what part the Irish took in the Revolutionary War. What did they do for the cause of human liberty at this most critical time in the world’s history? All we ask is the truth. For some reason our ordinary school histories have never given us any credit for the prominent part our ancestors took in that great struggle. What I shall say will bear the closest historical investigation.
It was Patrick Henry, who, by his soul-stirring speech, aroused the members of the Virginia Assembly to a sense of patriotic duty. In 1776 he ran for governor on the Independence ticket and carried that important colony for the Revolutionary cause. Still, he claimed that John Rutledge of South Carolina was the greatest American orator of his time. The latter was also elected president of South Carolina in 1776, on the same ticket. John Rutledge and Patrick Henry were both sons of Irishmen.
MR. WILLIAM J. FEELEY.
Of Providence, R. I.
One of the Committee in charge of the Sullivan Memorial and under whose guidance the Memorial was designed and executed.
During the Revolutionary War men of Irish birth or ancestry served as governors in South Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts and New Hampshire. They were among the most ardent and fearless of the patriots of that history-making period.
It was in John Duggan’s tavern in Boston that the Boston Tea Party was planned. Several Irishmen were in the execution of the plan.
Eleven of the fifty-four members of the first Continental Congress were Irishmen and sons of Irishmen. Thomas Johnson, who nominated George Washington for commander-in-chief of the American forces, was a Celt of the old school.
The war began April, 1775, but it was not officially declared until July 4, 1776. October 15, 1775, Congress sent a committee to interview General Washington and to decide as to the advisability of continuing the struggle. Of the five who participated in that most important conference, Joseph Reed and Thomas Lynch were Irish. The other members were Benjamin Franklin, Colonel Harrison and General Washington.
A rough draft of the Declaration of Independence was prepared by Thomas Jefferson. It was re-written and carefully revised by Charles Thompson, who was styled the Samuel Adams of Philadelphia, and the life of the cause of liberty. When the Declaration was first proclaimed, it was signed by John Hancock, as president of the Continental Congress, and by Charles Thompson, as secretary. The other names were attached later. Thompson was an Irishman and Hancock an Irish American. John Nixon first publicly read it and Thos. Dunlap first printed it and published it to the world. Both were Celtic to the backbone. Who periled most in signing the immortal document? History answers, Charles Carroll of Carrollton, another Irish American.
Who fought the hardest in the British House of Parliament for the rights of American colonists? Edmond Bourk, an Irishman, and one of the greatest statesmen the world has ever known.
In placing his most important officers, General Washington had Morgan and Hand leading his rifles, Knox at the head of his artillery, John Dunlap as his life guard, Edward Hand as his adjutant-general, Andrew Lewis as his brigadier-general, Stephen Moylan and John Fitzgerald as his aids, and Ephraim Blaine as his quartermaster. All were Irish by birth or ancestry. When Washington was retreating through New Jersey, he sent word to Thomas Johnson, a Maryland Celt, that he had not enough men to fight the British and too few to run away with. Johnson raised a force of 1,800 men and hurried to his assistance.
All students of American history have read of the gallant Richard Montgomery, Mad Anthony Wayne, John Sullivan, Daniel Morgan, Stephen Moylan, John Fitzgerald, Henry Knox, Wm. Irvine, Richard Butler, and Generals Cochran, Campbell, McDowell, McCall, McClary, Jasper, Graham, Hazelett, Colonel Pickens, and many others who were among the most valiant and successful officers in that eventful conflict. All belonged to our liberty-loving, heroic race. It has been officially ascertained that out of 131 of the most prominent officers in the war for American Independence, 20 were of English ancestry, 25 of French, 10 of German and Dutch, 8 of Scotch, 2 of Polish, and 84 of Irish and Welch. Commodores Barry, Perry, McDonough and Stewart, of the wars of 1776 and 1812, were scions of brave-hearted exiles from the Emerald Isle.
June 16, 1779, Joseph Galloway, speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, who had to fly to England because of his sympathy with the Tories, was examined as a witness by a committee of the British House of Parliament, and he testified that the Irish constituted one-half of the American army, the native Americans one-fourth and that the other one-fourth were English and Scotch. This statement is corroborated by Lecky, the English historian, Lord Mountjoy, General Lee, Count Rochambeau, Col. J. C. Custis, the adopted son of General Washington, and Rev. P. Allison, the Presbyterian chaplain of Washington’s army. They are competent authorities. President Roosevelt and James G. Blaine, in public addresses, have acknowledged, in substance, the accuracy of this testimony. Hutchinson, the last royal governor of Massachusetts, declared that his colony would never have voted for independence, had it not been for the rebellious Irish.
There were 15 Irish in the battle of Lexington and 258 at Bunker Hill. The monument at Bunker Hill is covered with Irish names. Captain Parker, who commanded at Lexington, and who was killed, was Irish. Colonels Barrett, Smith and Davis, who commanded at Concord, were also Irish. When the American forces took possession of Boston, John Sullivan was officer of the day and the countersign was “St. Patrick.”
After the treason of Benedict Arnold, General Washington ordered that none but the Irish be placed on guard at West Point.
When the soldiers of Lafayette were half naked and starving, the Irish people of Baltimore, then a place of only one hundred homes, gave them food and clothing. In 1780, when the finances of the struggling republic were at the lowest ebb, when it took from $30 to $50 in paper to make $1 in specie, after our soldiers had suffered at Valley Forge and elsewhere, the business men of Philadelphia raised 315,000 lbs. sterling and gave it to Congress. Twenty-seven Irishmen of that city contributed 103,500 pounds of that amount. They were members of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, which gave 399 officers of the highest rank to the city, state and nation during its early history. Washington became an honorary member of that patriotic organization.
When our country so badly needed assistance, Bishop Carroll accompanied Benjamin Franklin to France to seek the aid of that country. It was secured. History gives Franklin the credit, but does not mention the name of Bishop Carroll, who really made the mission a successful one. Bishop Carroll also accompanied Franklin to the French Canadian provinces for a similar purpose.
There were twelve Irish delegates to the convention that adopted the Constitution, and there were five Irishmen in the first United States Senate of twenty-two members.
Dr. Hugh Knox educated Alexander Hamilton, who was a poor boy. Doctor Knox was a big-hearted Irishman. It was Matthew P. Lyon, an Irishman, who was sold as a slave in Connecticut when a mere boy, who, on the thirty-sixth ballot, as a congressman from Vermont, later in life, cast the deciding vote that elected Thomas Jefferson president of the United States over Aaron Burr.
Many who came with the French to assist the Americans were sons of Irishmen, who had been driven to France with Patrick Sarsfield after the treachery of the British at Limerick in 1691.
From 1691 to 1791, over 400,000 different Irishmen served in the French army. When the Revolutionary War broke out, they petitioned the French War Department to come to America to fight their national foes. There were entire Irish regiments in the French army when Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown. A young Irishman, Robert Wilson, was appointed to take charge of the surrendered flags and the news of the great victory was sent in haste to President Thomas McKean, of the Continental Congress at Philadelphia. McKean was one of the foremost Irish Americans of his time.
Molly Pitcher and Nancy Hart, two Irish women who participated in the Revolutionary War, deserve rank with the greatest heroines in history.
The Irish were among the leading educators, journalists, theologians, historians, scientists, canal constructors, and railway builders of the decades subsequent to the Revolutionary War. They were leaders in laying substantially the broad foundation for our material, educational and moral greatness. They gave us such statesmen as James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, John C. Calhoun, James K. Polk, and many others, who were among the very ablest national leaders in the early history of our republic.
I shall not refer to the part the Irish took in the War of 1812, the Mexican War, the great Civil conflict, or the Spanish-American struggle for supremacy. All I ask is for you to reflect on their great fight for liberty from 1775 to 1783—that struggle that has been felt around the world—and to tell the facts to your children, to your friends, and to your fellow citizens, for they will not, for some unknown reason, find it in ordinary histories. I can do no better than to quote, in closing, the words of Colonel John Parke Custis, the adopted son of General Washington:
“Then honored be the old and good services of the sons of Erin in the war of independence. Let the shamrock be entwined with the laurels of the Revolution; and truth and justice, guiding the pen of history, inscribe on the tablets of American remembrance: ‘Eternal gratitude to Irishmen.’”
HON. THOMAS HASSETT.
New York.
Elected a Life Member in 1908.