After the election, the Secretary-General stated that several letters of regret had been received by the Society, and they were ordered read. They are as follows:
January 14, 1909.
My dear Doctor Quinlan:
Nothing could have given me greater pleasure than to be able to attend the annual meeting and reception to the American Irish Historical Society by President Roosevelt on Saturday evening, the 16th inst. Unfortunately, I am so tied up with engagements on that evening that it will be impossible for me to leave here, one being a dinner engagement of long standing, which, however, I might be able to break; but, in addition, I am scheduled to speak at the annual meeting and banquet of the field force of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, of which, as you know, I am a director, and which is to be held at Delmonico’s. This arrangement was made prior to the time when the date of the reception to your Society was fixed, and it is incumbent upon me to be present, and while I fully intended going to Washington and attending the reception, and so expressed myself to Judge Dowling, who, I understand, is to deliver an address, yet I now realize the impracticability of being in two places at the same time, and will therefore have to forego the pleasure of being there.
I trust you will appreciate my position, and I assure you that ordinarily I would be only too glad to break any engagement I might have and avail myself of the pleasure of being present on such an occasion, but in reaching a decision I could not do otherwise than give way in favor of the engagement which was prior in point of time.
I deeply appreciate your kind expressions, and the more than attractive manner in which you urge me to be present, all of which would be unnecessary in any matter in which you were concerned, because the mere expression of your wish that you desired my co-operation in any of the good works in which you are interested would always receive from me a prompt response.
With kind regards personally, believe me to be,
Sincerely yours,
Francis J. Quinlan, M. D., Morgan J. O’Brien.
33 West 38th Street, New York City.