1. The initiation fee shall be three dollars.[1] The annual
membership fee shall be three dollars, payable not later than the
first day of February in each year.
Footnote 1:
The requirement that an initiation fee be paid is not yet
enforced.
2. Payment of fifty dollars in advance at one time shall constitute
a life membership. Life members shall be exempt from further
membership dues.
3. The Executive Council shall provide for each regular meeting of
the society an address, essay, or paper dealing with some topic in
the society’s line of work.
4. A copy of all original productions read before the society shall
be requested for deposit in the society’s archives.
5. The annual field-day program shall include an oration, poem, and
dinner. Other features of an appropriate nature may be added.
6. A fraternal spirit shall be cultivated with other American
historical bodies. The society shall also keep in touch with
historical organizations in Ireland, France, and other countries.
7. Any person elected to membership in this society who fails to pay
his initiation fee within one year from the date of his election
shall, having been duly notified by the Secretary-General, be
considered as having forfeited his right to membership and his
election shall be canceled.
8. A member, neglecting for two years to pay his annual fee, shall
be notified of such omission by the Secretary-General. Still
neglecting for three months to pay the dues, such delinquent member
shall be dropped as no longer belonging to the society.
9. The stated meetings of the society shall be held in January,
April, July, and October. The President-General upon receiving a
request in writing, signed by ten members, asking for a special
meeting, shall cause the said meeting to be convened forthwith.
10. Ten members shall constitute a quorum at any meeting of the
society, except stated meetings when fifteen members shall be
necessary.
11. The general order of business at meetings of the society shall
be as follows:
_a._ Minutes of previous meeting.
_b._ Report of Executive Council on candidates for membership.
_c._ Balloting on candidates for membership.
_d._ Reports of officers and committees.
_e._ Unfinished business.
_f._ New business.
_g._ Adjournment
12. When not otherwise provided, _Cushing’s Manual_ shall be the
authority on points of procedure at meetings of the society.
13. No part of these by-laws shall be amended, altered, or repealed,
unless proposition is submitted in writing covering the proposed
amendment at least thirty days before the meeting when it is to be
acted upon, when, if two-thirds of the members present and voting
express themselves in favor of the change, the same shall be made.
After the reception and introduction of those present, dinner was
served. Hon. Thomas J. Gargan presided, having as his guest Paul B. Du
Chaillu, the noted explorer, author of _The Viking Age_, _The Land of
the Midnight Sun_, and numerous other works.
Upon the conclusion of the dinner, Mr. Gargan arose and said:
“In the name of the committee who have issued the call for the
organization of an American Historical Society, whose special line
of research shall be the history of the Irish element in the
composition of the American people, I congratulate you on the
success of this initial movement and bid you a cordial welcome to
this meeting.
“But little has yet been done to show how much the sons of Ireland
and their descendants have contributed to the settlement, to the
civilization and reclamation of this country, as also to its
liberation from oppression.
“In our proposed work we will discard the legendary and the
mythical. We recognize that we are living in a scientific age at the
end of the nineteenth century, the age of the microscope and the
X-ray, and we ask for the acceptance of no historical data that will
not bear the modern search-light and that is not sufficiently
proven.
“We claim that due credit has not been given to the Irish
contributions. That through prejudice or through gross ignorance
there has grown up a myth about the Scotch-Irish. Of all the myths
that have crept into history this is the most mythical. Why any man
should be ashamed of his honorable Irish ancestry surpasses my
comprehension and subjects the man who attempts to deny it to the
scorn and contempt of all honest and intelligent men.
[Illustration:
THOMAS J. GARGAN
BOSTON, MASS.
]
[Illustration:
JAMES JEFFREY ROCHE
BOSTON, MASS.
]
[Illustration:
JOHN D. CRIMMINS
NEW YORK CITY
]
[Illustration:
JOSEPH SMITH
LOWELL, MASS.
]