“Many of those emigrants settled upon the lands of the West, though under disadvantageous circumstances. There are many townships in my county, and in adjoining counties, and indeed scattered all over the West, that have been settled almost exclusively by them. Those lands are now worth on an average $150 per acre. Measurably, this is true of the Middle West. It is literally true of Illinois.
“Nebraska settlement, as it was called, embracing all that territory from Kansas to Canada, and from the Missouri to the Rocky Mountains, was thrown open for settlement in 1854. A large number of Irish were among the early settlers. In 1857 a convention was held in Buffalo to perfect plans for establishing Irish colonies in the West. Delegates assembled from all over the country. Three large colonies started as a result of this convention—one led by Father Trecy founded St. Patrick’s Colony in Nebraska, now Jackson. Another, under Father Powers, of Pennsylvania, went to Missouri, and a third went to Minnesota. In the latter state, additional Irish colonies have been established. They endured almost untold trials and hardships in a new and wild country. Father Trecy’s colony celebrated its Golden Jubilee in July, 1907, a dozen of the original settlers being present. Greeley County, Nebraska, is practically an Irish county, being settled almost exclusively by Irishmen, especially is this true of the towns of Greeley Center, O’Connor, Spalding and O’Neill.
“Instances of this kind might be indefinitely extended. Notwithstanding this fact, we have been criticised for not going in larger numbers upon the broad prairies and fertile lands of the West. I admit the farmer’s life is the ideal one, but it took something more than hands and limbs and brains, too, to go upon a farm. It required money even when land was cheapest. How could a family in Ireland, turned out on the roadside by the crowbar brigade, who with the greatest difficulty could scrape enough together to pay their passage to America, be expected upon their arrival to purchase land and agricultural implements, to go farming with? It was hardly within the possibilities. Even if the father came alone, as he often did, he was compelled to go to work on the first opportunity to provide for his immediate wants and save something to send to the half-starving family at home or pay the passage to America. And, if it was a son or daughter who managed to come, they were ever striving to send for one more of the family or likely enough, to send the greater part of their hard earnings to pay the exorbitant rent of the heartless landlord. I know whereof I speak. I am a living witness of those happenings. As a boy, I was compelled to leave the land of my birth, and I can say without affectation, that I never experienced more real joy than I did when making my first remittance to Ireland. Though I knew the ultimate destination of most of it was the landlord’s pocket, still I think I had more pleasure in sending than he had in receiving it.
“‘More true joy Marcellus exiled feels,
Than Caesar with a Senate at his heels.’
“Of the gold seekers of ’49 who rushed to the coast, many of them were Irish. Many settled down in different parts of that slope and as you know, many of them became millionaires. I need only mention the names of Flood, O’Brien, Mackey, Phelan and others, to conjure up visions of wealth. But, cui bono. The richest people are not always the most interesting even when the wealth is honestly acquired, and here I may remark (though a little foreign to the subject) if the wealth of many of our multi-millionaires were tomorrow turned into the National Treasury, it would not begin to compensate for the moral shame and degradation their practices have brought on the republic. Kerosene colleges will never make straight, or light, Heaven’s pathway.
“When the greatest crime of the nineteenth century was about to be perpetrated in the dismemberment of this Union the Irish people of the West, in goodly numbers, rushed to its defense and sealed with their blood, their love of the republic. You all, no doubt, have heard of a Sheridan, a Shields, a Corcoran, a Lawler, and others of the West, who died that the Union might live. Ingratitude has never been the failing of Irishmen. Gratitude for favors, even small ones, adherence to principle, through good and evil times, have ever been characteristic of the race. Prior to that war, the hereditary enemy of our people despised America. Since its termination, they have hated, but fear it. You know Gladstone, when Jefferson Davis was inaugurated President, exclaimed that a new nation had been born. We may in the future as we sometimes have in the past, send de-natured Americans to London, but no occasional slobbering over the great republic by perfidious Albion can disguise that hatred. Napoleon said, scratch a Russian and you will find a Tartar, scratch an Englishman or an Irishman of the garrison, and almost invariably you will find a hater of America.
“In conclusion, let me say, and I say it with some pride, but in no boastful spirit, that the Irish people in the West, though having to struggle from the lowest rung of the ladder, are physically, intellectually, morally, and I might add, financially, the peers of their neighbors. They are not a dying race. I wish some competent hand would write their history.”
Mr. Moloney’s address was greeted with much applause and cheering, and at this point Senator Carter of Montana arrived in the hall and was escorted to his place at the head table by the Secretary-General and Mr. Moseley.
President-General Quinlan: “We are honored this evening by the presence of one of our most earnest members, whose distinguished services to his country in the United States Senate and earnest and unselfish devotion to the work of our Society endears him to all. It is with pleasure I introduce Hon. Thomas H. Carter, United States Senator from Montana.”