THE HISTORICAL PLACE OF IRISHMEN IN CALIFORNIA.
A CIRCULAR ISSUED BY THE KNIGHTS OF ST. PATRICK, SAN FRANCISCO.
The Knights of St. Patrick of San Francisco, an organization of gentlemen of Irish birth or descent, has recently affiliated with the American-Irish Historical Society, whose purpose is the investigation, recording and presentation in appropriate literary form of the influence of the Irish element in the upbuilding of the Republic.
The Knights undertake, as their special share of a large and commendable work, an investigation of the historical place of the Irishman in California.
Each of the races claiming to form part of the primal stock of the Republic has its own historical association and has traced the movements of its own blood by special historical investigation. We have the story of the English, the Dutch, the Huguenot, the Spaniard. The story of one of the largest fractions of the parent people of the Republic, the Irish, is being written.
These special researches are admittedly of the highest value to general history. They can be prosecuted with the greatest success by particular work in each state. To this end, the Knights of St. Patrick desire to initiate a thorough, solid, sober investigation of the Irishman’s part in the life of California. Not to satisfy a prejudice or mere pride of race, but laboring for right and truth to impartially set forth the facts of its racial life, that they may “supply omissions, correct errors, allay passions and shame prejudice.”
The pioneers of this state, the men who made history, are rapidly disappearing. With them go the original sources of the most valuable information. If the work above described be not undertaken now, our posterity will face the same difficulties that confront our Eastern brethren in their present search for authentic information.
The Society, therefore, desires to begin its investigations at once and to extend them to every part of the community, placing them under the conduct of names that, assuring painstaking research and impartial and discriminating judgment, will certainly present the results of their labor in attractive literary form; so that the work, commanding the respect and attention of the community, may have a definite and permanent historical value.
The work of investigation is to be influenced neither by political nor religious divisions. The race is paramount. Whether it came from this part of Ireland or that; whether it worshiped at this shrine or that, is but a qualifying incident. We seek the life and labors of the race; to record its arrival, its participation in the civil, political, and military activities of the state, “to try truthfully and fearlessly to record its achievements.”
To this end, we invite and request your coöperation in procuring facts bearing upon our subject. You may possess original information or know from whom or where it may be obtained, the location or character of relics that would be of interest or value. You may be able to suggest a line of inquiry that would aid our purpose. Historical information flows from a thousand sources. A reminiscence, a relic, an old newspaper clipping, a letter, a bit of unwritten biography, may be a clew to important evidence or the prolific source of many unsuspected facts.