ONLY AN IRISHMAN

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 57, 30 May 1874, Page 10

ONLY AN IRISHMAN

A Mrs Hyatt, Secretary to the Relief Commi'tee of the Youn" Men's Christian Association in Brooklyn, New York, wrote some time since to tho ' Brooklyn Eagle ' that sho considered " the lower class of Irish — those that go around the streets dirly and ragged, whiuin<* for assistance — as unworthy of help. My work (she adds) wa3 to assist recent, respectable people, and I do not consider the Irish as belonging to that class." These sneers have been ably answered by an article from the pen of the Hon. William E. Robinson, a veteran American journalist and politician, who is an enthusiast in his admiration of the Irish, of which nationality lie is himself a bright and shining example. After speaking of the action of Mrs Hyatt, he proceeds as follows :—: —

Now who, let me ask, are these horrible Irish? At home they have been known by many distinguished specimens. James Barry, the greatest British painter 5 Joseph Black, the greatest British phemist ; Robert Boyle, the greatest British philosopher ; Father Burke, the greatest pulpit orator ; Edmund Burke the greatest British statesmen; Sir Philip Francis, the greatest British satiiist ; Sir Hans Sloane, the greatest British naturalist ; Spranger Barry, the greatestBritish tragedian ; and John Tjndall the greatest British scientist. I might mention thousands of others — Bellew, Canning, Carleton, Ohnrlemont, Adam Clarke, Cooto, Cumin, Edgeworth, Emmet, Fitzgerald, Goldsmith, G-rattan, Hogin, Lever, Lover, Maxwell, Maclise, Father Muthew, Thomas Moora, Daniel O'Connell (whom the greatest living American orator pronounces as equal to Webster, Clay, and Calhoun rolled into one) Sheridan, Stcne, Swift, Usher, and Wellington ; and leave your readers to place thorn on their proper podestali of fame. I might also mention the Nugenrs, of Austria, the O'Donnells, of Spain, and others who, in all nations of the earth, assailed " Fame's steepest heights," and " walked ambition's diamond ridge " with firmest steps. The President of tho French Republic, MacMahon, and

the recent Republican President of Spain, Castelar, are of thia race of 11 qundrupedß. ' But the object of my noticing this matter at all is to try and correct the error into which some people who are ignorant of American history, and have not studied the origin of our people, fall when they speak of the Irish as something distinct from the American people. THX IRISH WKBE THE AMEBICANB in the days of George Washington, and every day since then they have been, as they will continue to be, more and more bo. Prior to the commencement of this century the emigrants to this country were in a large preponderance Irish. More Irishmen arrived in Philadelphia in 1729 than all the Plymouth and Jamestown colonies twice told. At the Revolution the Irish were Americans, the English were antiAmericans. There were ten Irish generals around Washington to one English general. Most of the English were Loyalists and Tories. Almost all the Irish were Pat riots and Republicans. It is a strange perversion of history that the true Americans should be called foreigners and the enemies of George Washington should be called Americans. *' HOLMES'S ANNALS OF AMEEICA " tell us that in 1720, there arrived in Philadelphia alone nearly seven thousand Irish immigrants. Duane's passages from Marshall's "Remembrances " inform us that in two months of the year 1774, nbout three thousand emigrants came to Philaoelphia from Antrim, Waterford, and Londonderry. Thia was only for fourteen months at oue port. How niany Irish arrived in the intervening half centnry at Boston, New York, Baltimore, Charleston, and other ports? All this time the Irish numbered ten to one of all other emigrants, and all these emigrants had children ranging up to ten and sixteen, and their children's children equally prolific. It is recorded of one Irishman of that day that he had over nine hundred great grandchildren. A book published in Dublin, in 1792, estimates that three thousand males left Ulster yearly for the Provinces ; this for ten years alone -would amount to thirty thousand. In 1775, 1 think, one-half of New England (leaving out the Tories who tried to defeat Washington) were of Irish birth and descent,, and that over two-thirds of the people of Virginia, Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Maryland were Irish. This country was largely Irish when English Corn wall is surrendered to Washington's Irish Generals. Since then the emigration from England lias not been more than one to ten. A report of the Committee on Foreign Affairs to the House of Representatives, in 1868, estimates twenty-nine millions of our population as emigrants and their descendenta since the acknowledgment of our independence. The last census givss the foreign- born of our population as five millions and a half, and about ten millions as the children of emigrants. Here are over fifteen millions, much more than one-third of our population, foreigners or their children. Now, add to these fifteen millions the descendents of the prolific thousands and tens of thousands multiplying from five to tenfold each generation for a century, and you have the American people. More than three-fourths of the American people are more or less Irish blood. The English element is almost extinct. The German element is vastly greater. There are as many descendents, and have been more distinguished Americans from the New Hampshire Irish than from the English of Plymonth. It was an Irish colony in M ecklenburgh that first proclaimed the doctrines of our independence, before Charles Thompson, of Ireland, and Thomas Jefferson, of Virginia, drafted it in Philadelphia. I can name a dozen Irish to one American General around Washington. The American army was an army of Irishmen, whom the English then as now hated and maligned. Glory be around the Butlers, Clintons, Hands, Irvines, Knoxrs, Montgomerys, Maylands, Starks, Sullivans, Thompsons, and Waynes, whoso Irish swords flashed brightest in the contest that won American independence, and bright be the light around the solitary English ray of patriotism that glistened on the blade of Gates ! Our navy, like our army, was Irish ; the O'Briens of Maine, its founders, and John Barry, ot Wexford, an Irish Catholic, loved and chosen by Washington, its first commodore.

THE AMEEICAN MIND WAB EDUCATED to independence by Irish teachers, such as Francis Allison, of Donegal, whom President Stiles, of Yalo College, pronounced the greatest classical scholar cf America, and Samuel Finlay, of Armagh, afterward President ot Princeton College. It was an Irishman, Berkeley, that pioneered New England education. The first American voyage to China was by an Irishman ; the first great commercial house of Brown Brothers were, and the venerable survivors are Irish; the first General that fell in the American cause, Montgomery, was Irish ; the last great battle of our recent war, at Gettysburgh, was fought under an Irish Catholic, Mcade. The first publisher of an American daily paper was a Tyrone Irishman, Duulap. The first printer and first public reader, as well as framer of our Declaration of Independence, were Irishmen. The American inventors of steamboat navigation, telegraphy and reaping by machinery, Fulton, Morse and McCormick, are Irish. Tne founder of the ' New York Tribune,' and the publisher and proprietor of the ' New York Herald, 1 are Irish, as were and are most of the writers, reporters, and editors of the leading periodicals of Great Britain and the United States. It is the statue of an Irishman, George Clinton, that has been sent to Washington, as worthiest to represent forever at the capital of Washington our own Empire State. It was an Irishman, that first planned the Erie Canal, and an Irishman's grandson, De Witt Clinton, that completed it. It was an Irishman, that wrote the firßt history of the United States. Our first explorers, Kane and others, as England's also, McClure and others, were Irish. The men that George Washington confided in and trusted, in New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia aad Balitimore, were John Rodgers, James Caldwell, Alexander McWhorter, George Duffield and Patrick Alliaon — all sons of Irishmen. It was an Irish society, " The Friendly Sons of St. Patrick," of Philadelphia, con • posed of Catholics and Protestants, that saved Washington's army from destruction at Valley Forge, through gratitude for which George Washington himself became a naturalised Irishman that he might become a Son of St. Patrick. The head of our Navy and our ViceAdmiral are Irish. The head of our at ray is no better than an Irish-

man, for his wife is a Catholic ; and our Lieutenant-General is Catholic and Irish. A. T. Stewart, the leading merchant of the world, and John Tyndall, the greatest scientist living, are Irish ; and Proctor, now charming our scientific circles is, I believe, a Catholic. The Mayor of Brooklyn is of Irish descent. The ablest judges, the most distinguished physicians, the most devoted clergymen, Protestant as well as Catholic, the most extensive merchants, the wealthiest and most public-spirited citizens of Brooklyn, are Irish by birth and blood. The most elegant, refined and hospitable mansions on the " hill " and heights are owned and occupied by Irish* Catholics. One- half of the real estate of Brooklyn is owned by Irishmen, who pay thdir full proportion of taxes. More than one half of the people who go to church or attend school in Brooklyn are Irish. It was Irishmen who by t)ngue, and pen, and sword, made America great, glorioua, and free. Of all the countries in Europe, Ireland is freest from crime, less given to drunkenesß. highest in art, and most distinguished for educa'!°r* g a^ an try, and virtue. Europe received from her its highest civilization and refinements, and England's most distinguished orators, composers, scientists, soldiers and writers were and are Irish.

Ido not deny that Irishmen have their faults here. Nine-tenths of their failings are due, however, to the poisoned liquor so easily obtained here. Many of them the victims of poverty at home, are looked upon as the representatives of the land which gave to America the gieatest portion of her population, manhood, and mind. These, however, are but the rust from her sabre and musket, which a little care and trouble will rub off, and leave the metal pure and bright. These are but the Bpots upon the sun. ' The light of Ireland's glory, in spite of these spots, still warms and illumines, as it has in days gone by, the universe of mind. What a Barry or a Berkeley, a Carroll or a Clinton, a Fulton or a Morse, a Knox or a Jackson, a Rowan or a Sheridan, a Montgomery or a Wayne, may be worth to. America I cannot tell, but the political economist knows that an able-bodied man is worth a thousand dollars to our national wealth. Even the poorest emigrant unlettered and unknown, who only digs and dies, is worth his weight in gold. Over every cradle, on every highway of labor, nearest to death on danger's pathway, over which our nation pursues her grand career, the Irishman, sustained and imbued with Irian virtue, love, fidelity, valor, skill, and labor, will work and toil, and live and die for the starry flag of his adopted land. There are many other things I should like to say, for the grand field of thought on this subject spreads itself out wide around me, but this letter is already too long. But I must Bay that I do really pity Mrs Hyatt, if she refuses to recognise the Irish and Catholics of this city and country. She cannot attend a Presbyterian or Methodist church, for Irishmen introduced them to America. She cannot attend the finest lectures on light and astronomy, for Tyndall and Proctor are Irish and Catholic. She cannot attend the opera or theatre, for the composers and actors are Irish . Should she visit France, she could not accept an invitation from Mrs MacMahon. Should she go to Washington, she could not call upon Mrs Sherman ; or to Chicago, she could not recognize Sheridan. She could not shop at Stewart's, nor lunch at Delmonico's. If she visits the Navy Yard, she cannot return the smile of Mrs Rowan ; if she crosses to the Marine Barracks, she could not accept the elegant hospitality of Mrs Broome ; and, worst of all, she cannot look to the next world for happiness in heaven, for there she must expect to meet some Irish of the poorest class, singing, perhaps, with a very celestial brogue ; and even Lazarus, who was very poor, and not over-cleanly, is likely to be as prominent in Paradise as the almoner of the Young Men* Christian Association of Brooklyn.