We meet to-day on the anniversary of the Battle of Lexington and
Concord to attest anew our patriotism, our love, devotion and
allegiance to the Republic of the United States of America,—to
recall the lessons taught us by the yeomanry of those two little
Massachusetts towns, which unknown in history on April 18, 1775, yet
before the setting of the sun on the 19th had won for themselves
renown, as imperishable as that won at Marathon or Thermopylæ.
One hundred and twenty-four years ago, in the neighboring state of
Massachusetts, the first battle was fought to establish the
principle that there should be no taxation without representation;
and that all government should rest on the consent of the governed.
I will not trespass upon your time by recalling the events which led
up to the American Revolution, nor those seven years of bloody and
terrible war. We established a government and framed a Constitution
founded on universal suffrage, giving a vote to the good and the
vicious, the wise and the ignorant. Thus far we have been a
prosperous people, because in our Democracy there have been no
inequalities of wealth and condition that we believed would be
permanent.
We are a composite nation, comprising people from all the countries
of Europe with about one seventh of them of English origin; yet when
we hear the foolish speeches and read the foolish articles of the
minority in reference to Anglo-Saxonism, and blood being thicker
than water, we realize the importance and necessity of the work
inaugurated by the American-Irish Historical Society, in recalling
and recording the deeds of Irishmen and their descendants in
America.
We find on the rolls of the minute-men at the time of the Lexington
“alarm,” over 150 Irish names, and Col. James Barrett of Concord and
Dr. Thomas Welsh, who were prominent in the day’s battle, were of
Irish descent. We find also the name of Hugh Cargill, who, together
with one Bullock, saved the town records of Concord from the ravages
of the British soldiery. Cargill died in 1799, and the inscription
on his tomb records his birthplace as Ballyshannon, Ireland. He came
to America in 1774 in time for the Concord fight. He bequeathed to
the town the Stratton farm for the use of the poor.
Many of the men who fought on that as on every other day of battle
during the Revolutionary War, claimed Irish birth or Irish ancestry.
This Society is now endeavoring to collect records, letters and
papers throwing light upon the part borne by the Irish race, that we
may have our full share of the glory of our country; also that by
critical scrutiny and analysis we may discover the truth, giving
credit to all. This is a duty we owe these brave, devoted,
self-sacrificing men who perilled so much for this government under
which we live, and whose benefits we hope to transmit to our
posterity.
We are not unmindful of the dangers threatening us at the end of the
century from within and from without. We recognize the fact that if
the Republic is to be preserved we must call a halt to this awful
headlong rush for wealth, holding up some nobler object of ambition.
A great writer has said: “The finest fruit held up to earth by its
Creator is the finished man.” What our country needs to-day is true
men; men who recognize the truth of Plato’s maxim, “Justice is the
health of the state.”
Where can we find in history better types of true manhood than among
the founders of our Republic, many of them of our own race and
blood? This country has passed through four wars, and in our time
many are filled with the lust for new conquest. May we not well
pause on a day like this and see whither we are drifting? Shall we
seek the friendship and alliance of the great robber nation of the
world, whose flag is known where rapine and wrong has been done to
weak and feeble races, or shall we not rather adhere to the
doctrines laid down by the Father of our Country, and “observe good
faith and justice toward all nations; cultivate peace and harmony
with all?”