Who of Irish birth or descent can but read the rosters on sea and shore with a discriminating eye, to find his heart aflame with pride at the splendid and unanswerable percentage of men with the hot blood of the Celt and the high patriotism of the American, and who, next to the flag of our common country, revere the fact that they draw their lineage from the historic island across the sea. Surely they were not all Anglo-Saxons in name or race who went with Hobson in his grand and heroic endeavor, which takes its place as outstripping the classic legends of Greece and Rome. Surely no one will deny that the roster call of the marines at Guantanamo and the army at Santiago fairly teems with representatives of the historic Irish soldier.
The Sixty-ninth New York and Ninth Massachusetts would be far outstripped in numbers by the thousands of units scattered throughout our army and navy, regular and volunteer, for wherever the stars of the Republic light the gloom of the battle-field, or war thunders on the deep, there, his breast bared to her enemies, whoever they be, you find the most loyal and valorous Americans in the sons of the expatriated Irishman. While Anglo-Saxon statesmen may quibble in congress and Anglo-Saxon schoolmen criticise in college, “Like lions leaping at a fold when mad with hunger’s pang,” you will find in the forefront, disdaining quibble and laughing at criticism, the hot tide of valor and chivalry which, proud to be American, is not ashamed to be called Irish. Out upon the bigots who would do it injustice! Defiance to those who would deride its power or minimize its influence!
It asks no quarter in any field of industry, learning, or strife, and is as great in peace as in war. If its more acknowledged glories are of the more sanguinary fields when Mars sows in blood and night what Minerva reaps in the dews and light of the morning, it is not because of any undue pugnacity, any animal ferocity, but because the Irish Celt, threatened with an extermination more cruel than that of our red Indians, with the schoolhouse closed to his intellect, and the church to his conscience, had to take down the stainless and invincible sword of his fathers and become a universal soldier. In every land, from the Shannon to the Tiber, from the Tiber to the Ganges, from the Ganges to the Potomac, and from the Potomac to San Juan; on every battle-field from Clontarf to Fontenoy, from Fontenoy to Waterloo, from Waterloo to Marye’s heights, where the Irish brigade climbed steeps made slippery with their blood; and from Fredericksburg to Santiago and Manila, Irish valor has gleamed a star on the pages of universal history.
A MEETING IN PROVIDENCE, R. I.,
On April 19, 1899, to Observe the Anniversary of the Battle of Lexington, Concord and Cambridge.
The Council of the Society held a meeting at the Narragansett Hotel, Providence, R. I., on Wednesday afternoon, April 19, 1899, in honor of the anniversary of the Battle of Lexington, Concord and Cambridge.
President-General Gargan occupied the chair. A communication was read from the Society of American Authors, suggesting that the organization place itself on record in favor of recognizing December 14, next, as a “Washington Memorial Day” throughout the country.
The date mentioned is the centennial anniversary of the death of the Pater Patriæ. The suggestion was adopted, and the secretary was directed to communicate this action to similar organizations interested in the anniversary.
Communications were read from the Maine Genealogical Society, of Portland; the Minnesota Historical Society, of St. Paul; the Pennsylvania Historical Society, of Philadelphia; the Presbyterian Historical Society, of Pennsylvania, and the Pejepscot Historical Society, of Brunswick, Me.
A letter was read from the Navy Department, stating that the torpedo boat O’Brien would be launched at Elizabethport, N. J., on or about July 1, this year. It was voted to hold the annual field day of the Society at that time and place, and the secretary was empowered to make all necessary arrangements for the event.
Secretary-General Murray announced that since the last meeting four members of the Society have died, viz.: Hon. Patrick Walsh, Augusta, Ga.; Hon. John H. Sullivan and Col. Patrick T. Hanley, Boston, Mass., and Hon. Eli Thayer, Worcester, Mass.