The Exercises in the Evening.
The evening exercises at the Bellevue, Beacon street, Boston, were fully as enjoyable as those of the morning had been. Music was furnished by a ladies’ orchestra. President-General Gargan presided at the banquet. Among the members and guests present were:
- Elmer H. Capen, president of Tufts College, Mass.
- G. Stanley Hall, president of Clark University, Worcester, Mass., and Mrs. Hall.
- Mr. and Mrs. Thomas F. O’Malley, Somerville, Mass.
- Mr. and Mrs. M. J. Harson, Providence, R. I.
- Dr. Michael Kelly and Mrs. Kelly, Fall River, Mass.
- Mr. and Mrs. A. A. Elston, Somerville, Mass.
- Mr. and Mrs. Edmund Reardon, Cambridge, Mass.
- Dr. John F. Couch, Somerville, Mass., and Mrs. Ellen M. Couch.
- Hon. James F. Brennan, Peterborough, N. H.
- Rev. P. J. Kavanagh, Lexington, Mass.
- John E. Milholland, New York city.
- Stephen J. Geoghegan, New York city.
- James Jeffrey Roche, Boston.
- Thomas Hamilton Murray, Woonsocket, R. I.
- Joseph Smith, Lowell, Mass.
- T. St. John Gaffney, New York city.
- M. A. Toland, Boston.
- E. O’Meagher Condon, New York city.
- Hon. Richard Sullivan, Boston.
- Ex-Mayor John Breen, Lawrence, Mass.
- Ex-Congressman Joseph H. O’Neil, Boston.
- M. J. Jordan, Boston.
- P. J. Flatley, Boston.
- Timothy Donovan, Lynn, Mass.
- William Doogue, City Forester, Boston.
- Dr. T. J. Dillon, Boston.
- Dr. P. F. Gavin, Boston.
- Dr. W. H. Grainger, Boston.
- Patrick Gilbride, Lowell, Mass.
- Patrick M. Keating, Boston.
- George F. McKellegett, Boston.
- John J. Ahern, Cambridge, Mass.
- Martin Fay, Boston.
- James Mahoney, Boston.
- M. E. Hennessy, Boston.
- Herbert A. Kenny, Boston.
There were also present during the evening: Hon. John W. Corcoran, Boston, recently judge of the Superior court, and J. E. Burke, superintendent of public schools, Lawrence, Mass.
Upon the conclusion of the banquet the post-prandial exercises were opened by President-General Gargan, who said:
Remarks of President-General Gargan.
Members and guests of the American-Irish Historical Society:
To-day we commemorate the deeds of those heroic men who on April 19, 1775, on the green at Lexington, won a fame as imperishable as the men who fought at Marathon or Thermopylæ. Well might Sam Adams exclaim, “What a glorious morning for America is this.” As a distinguished foreigner has well said, “It is their sacrificed blood in which is written the preface of the nation’s history.”
At Lexington was the opening scene of a revolution destined to change the character of human governments and the condition of the human race. Yet I sometimes incline to the opinion, as I read the utterances of men who in our day are called statesmen, and some of the newspapers, that the age of patriotism has gone; that an age of selfish materialists, economists, and calculators has succeeded. Let us hope there is still a saving remnant in this republic which will rekindle the love and patriotism which actuated the men who established our government.
Do some of the people really understand the meaning of patriotism? Many seem to imagine it means blind obedience to any administration which may be insidiously laboring to destroy our institutions. But I have an abiding faith in the people of this country when they fully appreciate a threatened danger. I believe with Burke “that the people never give up their liberties but under some delusion.”