(Band plays “Oh, Mr. Dooley” amid hearty applause.)
Treasurer-General Dooley: This is not the first time I have been greeted with that song, and, while the voices here tonight have been exceedingly delightful to listen to, I can’t help thinking of a criticism that was once passed by the New York Sun upon the “Boston Ideals,” who had been singing English opera, and had done it splendidly. They came to New York determined to enter the field of Italian opera, and the morning following their first night the Sun, in its criticism, started in by saying: “Ideals rush in where artists fear to tread.” I congratulate you upon the song; you sang it so well.
I regret very much that an imperfect memory makes it necessary for me to read this paper to you, but its brevity, I hope, will make good what it otherwise lacks.
AN UNSOLVED PHASE OF AMERICAN HISTORY.
The hoary and honored dictum that “History is a conspiracy against truth” is like the cry of David in his desolation calling all men liars. There is food for meditation in the two utterances, and candor compels the admission that the world believes there is more than a modicum of justification for them both.
And this reminds me that a meeting of the American Historical Society was held at New York a few days ago at which Professor Albert Bushnell Hart of Harvard, an authority of high repute, and a man of great critical judgment and learning, delivered an address on “Imagination in History.” He told his hearers among many other things well worth remembering, that “even historical scholars are not without their failings, their prejudices and their falsehoods.”
Now, while the discovery is not new, the announcement of it has never found more forceful expression or been backed by a more expert opinion—and it is of more than passing interest to our Society whose cardinal principle is “to make better known the Irish Chapter in American History.” It emphasizes the usefulness and necessity of this and kindred organizations to make straight the crooked ways, to save from obscurity the names and deeds of those who achieved, and if they do not live, to have live in our country’s annals the Irishmen and the sons of Irishmen worthy of the honor.
In the days before the Christian era and for long after, it was not an infrequent practice for the Roman people to deify their great men and erect temples in their honor, worship at their shrines, and pay reverence to their memory. Among those to whom such honors were paid were deities of Greek origin, who had been adopted by the Romans, either under their own names or under others that equally as well served; but they were always Romans, their origin being obscured or totally ignored. This custom has not been unknown among the moderns, and should a general apotheosis occur in our country, it is but fair that among the shrines in the temple some few be reserved, if they deserve it, for that people who contributed at least 5,000,000 souls, living, creative and creating to the growth and greatness of the land.
It is needless to enter upon the social, political and religious conditions which brought to these shores in mid-colonial times, a considerable number of Irish, whose identity became merged in the great mass of the people. I speak of it only to note the fact that there was such an immigration, and that the influence of this stranger people upon the habits and character of the colonists must have been felt in some degree, however insignificant, in the communities in which they and the Irish dwelt together. For, in the lapse of time by intermarriage and the daily routine of life, whether as master and servant, landholder and tenant, or husband and wife, there could not fail to come a slow, perhaps, but sure blending of qualities and characteristics that influenced the evolution and development of the American man as we find him in certain parts of the South at the time of the Revolution. This intermixture of races can be readily understood as not difficult of accomplishment when it is recalled that they both spoke the same tongue, and were generally in large part of the same religion if not of the same church.
At the outbreak of the Revolution many of those belonging to this emigrant class, or their sons, had risen to prominence and already made themselves felt in the trade and commerce of their communities, or had become land owners of importance.