Several others were also present, but, coming in later, their signatures to this agreement were not obtained. They included Hon. Thomas J. Gargan and Osborne Howes, of Boston, Mass.; Charles A. De Courcy, of Lawrence, Mass.; Dennis H. Sheahan, of Providence, R. I.; and Thomas Carroll, of Peabody, Mass. Of these, Mr. Gargan, Mr. Howes, and Mr. Sheahan were among the signers of the call for the meeting. All expressed themselves in favor of the organization and a desire to be identified with it.
The following constitution was adopted:
Preamble.
Believing that the part taken in the settlement, foundation, and up-building of these United States by the Irish race has never received proper recognition from historians, and inspired by love for the republic, a pride in our blood and forefathers, and a desire for historic truth, this society has met and organized.
Its mission is to give a plain recital of facts, to correct errors, to supply omissions, to allay passions, to shame prejudice, and to labor for right and truth.
While we, as loyal citizens of this republic, are earnestly interested in all the various phases of its history, we feel that we should be false to its honor and greatness and recreant to our own blood if we did not make a serious effort to leave to those generations which will follow us a clearer and better knowledge of the important work done by men and women of the Irish race on this continent. 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.
In the days to come, that lie in the womb of the future, when all the various elements that have gone and are going to make the republic great, are united in the American,—the man who in his person will represent the bravest elements of all the old races of earth,—we desire that the deeds and accomplishments of our element shall be written in the book of the new race, telling what we did and no more; giving us our rightful place by the side of the others.
To accomplish this is the purpose of this organization; it is a work worthy of the sympathy and aid of every American who can rise above the environment of to-day and look into the broad future. Fidelity, truth, honor, are the watchwords of such a purpose, and under their noble influence should our work be done.