My Dear Mr. Moseley:—Your kind and sympathetic note of the 5th was most gratefully received, as was also the beautiful emblem of your society, which now rests on my father’s grave. On behalf of my mother and sisters, as well as myself, I want to thank you, individually, and the American-Irish Historical Society, for the touching tributes you have paid his memory. We shall not forget how much this crushing blow has been lightened by the sympathy of my father’s associates in the organizations of which he was a member.
Respectfully and sincerely yours,
(Signed) Richard W. Meade, Jr.
The council of the society, at its September meeting, was entertained by the Rhode Island members at a banquet in Pawtucket, at which Hon. Hugh J. Carroll presided. Mr. Thomas Hamilton Murray delivered the following address of welcome on that occasion:
Gentlemen of the Council of the American-Irish Historical Society,—We are glad to have the honor of your visit, and we hope that your stay in Pawtucket will be pleasant to you and profitable to the great movement in which you are engaged.
The organization you represent seeks to write an unwritten chapter of American history, an essential chapter which has been too long ignored. Yet, until this chapter is written and its prime importance recognized, American history as published will be radically defective.
Every American, therefore, no matter what his ancestry and no matter what his creed, must wish you Godspeed in your patriotic labors.
While supplying this missing chapter in American history, you are at the same time helping to supply a missing chapter in Rhode Island history.
The Irish chapter in the history of Rhode Island has its roots away back in the days of Roger Williams. But it is little known by this generation. In the old colonial days men of Irish blood figured prominently in this land of refuge. Like Williams and his colleagues, they found here a haven of peace, found rest and freedom.
Many soldiers of Irish birth or extraction battled during King Philip’s War, 1675–76, in defense of the homes and lives of the settlers. Not a few of them participated in the Great Swamp Fight in Southern Rhode Island, and settled here when that war had ended. We may mention as an interesting fact that an Irishman, Robert Beers, was killed by the Indians in 1676 within a few miles of where you meet to-night.