Yesterday, being the anniversary of St. Patrick, his patriotic sons met at Cape’s Tavern, where they gave an elegant entertainment to his Excellency the Governor, Lieut.-Governor, Chancellor and a number of other respectable gentlemen of this State. The day and evening were spent in festivity and mirth, and a number of suitable toasts were drunk upon this joyful occasion. The greatest unanimity and conviviality pervaded this numerous and jovial company, and perhaps this great Saint was never honoured with a concourse of more generous and truly patriotic sons than this assembly afforded.
Thus commenced (in the words of Curran), “those happy meetings when the swelling heart conceived and communicated the pure and generous purpose, the innocent enjoyment of social mirth expanded into the nobler warmth of social virtue, and the horizon of the board became enlarged into the horizon of man.” Almost uninterruptedly since quarterly and anniversary meetings of the Society have been held. Many of the leading men of the City and State are enrolled among its members, and the records of the Society from the beginning contain names prominent in the early history of the Republic. Social and friendly intercourse was promoted and maintained among the natives of Ireland and their kinsmen and descendants. Numbers of deserving, but less fortunate fellow-countrymen, were relieved by the bounty of the Society, implements and materials for domestic manufacture were furnished to the industrious poor. The needy were assisted with money, medicine, clothing and fuel, the destitute were provided with homes and, when necessary, were furnished with sufficient funds to enable them to return to their native land.
The design of the badge worn by members of the Society, and which appears on the cover of this book, is a facsimile of the “reverse” of the medal worn by the members of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick in Philadelphia in 1771. The following in reference to that medal is from Haverty’s American Almanac:
Each member was required to furnish himself with a gold medal of the value of three guineas, agreeably to the following description: On the right, HIBERNIA; on the left, AMERICA; in the center, LIBERTY joining the hands of HIBERNIA and AMERICA, represented by the usual figures of a female supported by a harp, for HIBERNIA; an Indian with his quiver on his back and his bow slung, for AMERICA; underneath, UNITE. On the reverse, ST. PATRICK tramping on a snake, a cross in his hand, dressed in pontificalibus, the motto, “HIER.”
These devices, designed some years before the Revolution, were certainly ominous, if not prophetic. The Goddess of LIBERTY joining the hands of HIBERNIA and AMERICA, with the superscription “UNITE,” was sufficiently significant, considering that the effect of that union powerfully promoted the subsequent dismemberment of the British Empire and the liberty and independence of America. The motto, HIER, or, without the aspirate, IER, in the Celtic language signifies “West,” and from it came the name of the country, Ere, Erin, or Ireland, and Ierna, aspirated Hibernia. But the word HIER had in it a duplicate and equivocal signification, peculiarly appropriate as the motto of a society whose object was to “Unite” in fellowship the sons of the little isle of the “West” with those of the great continent of the “West.” This medal the members were obliged to wear at the meeting of the Society under the penalty of 7s. 6d. for neglect to do so on St. Patrick’s day, and 5s. on the days of the quarterly meetings.[[2]]
[2]. The Friendly Sons of St. Patrick of Philadelphia was founded in 1771. George Washington, adopted a member December 17, 1781, dined with the Society on St. Patrick’s Day, 1782, and characterized it as “a society distinguished for the firm adherence of its members to the glorious cause in which we are embarked.” Other members were Generals Moylan, Shee, Wayne, Knox, Butler, Irvine, Hand; Commodore Barry, John Mease, who crossed the Delaware with General Washington on the memorable night of December 25, 1776, and surprised the Hessians; and his brother, Matthew, who commanded the quarter deck guns under Paul Jones in the Bonhomme Richard’s fight with the Serapis.
On June 17, 1780, twenty-seven of its members subscribed 103,500 pounds sterling to furnish provisions for the army, Robert Morris and Blair McClenachan each subscribing 10,000 pounds. William Constable, another member, an aid of Lafayette and partner of Robert Morris, was one of the founders of the New York Society.—Hood’s Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, 43–49 (Phila., 1844); Crimmins’ Early Celebrations of St. Patrick’s Day, 215 (N. Y., 1902).
The original records of the Society from 1784 to 1835, except the Treasurer’s Book from 1804, were lost by fire in August, 1835, being at that time in possession of the Secretary, whose place of business was destroyed.
The Society has been true to the principles on which it was founded. It has helped the needy and distressed, and has been the means of cementing lifelong friendships among its members and among those who participated in its festivities. From the Society grew the Irish Emigrant Society and the Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank. Uniting to the charitable and humane the friendly and social feelings, it seeks to keep ever vigorous the love of Ireland and of the Irish character. It celebrates the festival of St. Patrick as a national and immemorial custom, to commemorate the glory of Ireland, to drop a tear upon her sorrows and to express a hope for her regeneration. It has entertained illustrious and distinguished guests at its banquets. Among those of recent years may be mentioned President Theodore Roosevelt in 1905, and president-elect William H. Taft in 1908. A notable dinner was given on May 29, 1902, to the French Governmental Mission attending the Rochambeau Monument ceremonies, in acknowledgement of which the Republic of France presented to the Society a magnificent Sèvres vase, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Among the Society’s members have been many of the great merchants, business and professional men of the city. To pass over the living, on its rolls appear the names of Alexander Macomb, Hugh Gaine, William Constable, Dominick Lynch, DeWitt Clinton, John Caldwell, Thomas Addis Emmet, Robert J. Dillon, Joseph Stuart, Richard Bell, William Kelly, Joseph P. Kernochan, John Haggerty, Ogden Haggerty, William Sampson, David J. Graham, Charles O’Conor, James T. Brady, John R. Brady, Dr. Robert Hogan, Dr. William James MacNeven, Very Rev. Dr. John Power, Thomas W. Clerke, Daniel Devlin, Henry L. Hoguet, Eugene Kelly, Joseph J. O’Donohue, Richard O’Gorman, John Savage, Jeremiah Devlin, William Whiteside, Thomas Barbour, Hugh J. Hastings, Thomas Francis Meagher, James R. Cuming, Charles P. Daly, Frederick Smyth, William R. Grace, William L. Brown, Peter McDonnell, C. C. Shayne, Frank T. Fitzgerald, George C. Barrett, Samuel Sloan, James S. Coleman, John Crane, Vincent P. Travers, John Stewart, Daniel O’Day and Hugh Kelly. Grover Cleveland was an honorary member.