the existence of such a society as ours. Now let me call your
attention to an absolutely indispensable condition of our success in
the future, as it has been, I think, one great factor of our success
in the past. It is our aim to make better known the Irish pages of
American history. These pages do not refer, let us remember, to any
one section, type, class or creed of Irish-descended Americans, but to
all without discrimination. And this function of our Society evidently
will never be, could never have been, effectively discharged without a
hearty collective effort to sink all differences of religious belief
and of political connections. We must continue to act, within our own
body and in pursuit of our common object, independently of those
sectional, religious or political ties which bind us individually as
loyal citizens and as sincere Christians. From the days of Brian Boru
and of Dermot McMorough down to our own time we know that that little
isle where grows the ‘chosen leaf of bard and chief’ has been a prey
to the invader only because the invader knew how to foment dissension
among its native sons. Gentlemen, this essential quality of our
organization is both forcibly and happily borne in upon us in these
days when we hear that the land of our fathers is at last beginning to
assert its power as a political unit by realizing that very idea of
being ‘Irish first,’ that idea of national unity, her neglect of which
has been the comfort of her enemies in times past.
“Their proneness to dissension has been more or less facetiously
accounted for by the theory that the Irish are a nervously high-strung
race, who find a pleasant counter-irritant in the ‘man-enobling
conflict.’ It has been said that an Irishman would rather fight
another Irishman than a man of alien race, simply because he
recognizes in an antagonist of his own blood the most promising
opportunity of a truly exciting battle.
“The memory is still fresh upon me of that important event at which I
had the honor of assisting on the 16th of last month, the unveiling of
the beautiful tablet placed in the State House at Providence, Rhode
Island, to the glorious memory of Major-General John Sullivan of
Revolutionary fame. We all know that this splendid and public-spirited
memorial is one of the achievements of the past year on which our
Society has reason to congratulate itself. Let the still fresh memory
of that proud occasion be my excuse for dwelling at such great length
upon the warlike qualities of the Irish race. For these qualities, in
truth, are quite generally admitted by both friends and enemies. Our
more pressing call, it seems, is to emphasize the achievements of the
Irish race in peace. After listening to those eloquent tributes in the
Providence State House from the lips of Governor Higgins, Ex-Governor
Lippitt and others, it was borne in upon me how easily a public man’s
peaceful achievements may be eclipsed by his military exploits. John
Sullivan was, as our tablet records, a statesman of distinction; as a
jurist he left his mark upon the legal history of New Hampshire, and
yet it is almost exclusively as the patriot soldier that he lives
today in the popular mind.
“Another hero of the American Revolution whose memory we must tonight
recall with especial satisfaction was Commodore John Barry. We have
the right, gentlemen, and I think that we should insist upon it
strenuously in these days, to call Barry the Irish father of that
splendid American navy of which we are all so justly proud. And it is
matter for congratulation that, since our last annual meeting, and
largely through our own organized efforts, historical justice is now
at last to be done to the man who was a commissioned Captain in the
American navy when Paul Jones was only a Lieutenant. A prominent site
has been officially chosen for a statue of Barry at the national
capitol, and we have every reason to hope that the work will be
executed by some sculptor of great repute of Irish descent.
“But, proud as we must all feel of Irish services to the Republic ‘on
the decks of fame’ and on many a stricken field, is it not rather our
duty as an organization to shed the light of history upon Irish
services in the council chamber and the law court, in science and
scholarship, and the fine arts? In the retrospect of the year that is
gone, what Irish-descended American can fail to thrill with pride at
the spectacle of that distinguished and at the same time enthusiastic
assembly which paid honor to the memory of Augustus St. Gaudens, a
native of Dublin, and the foremost American sculptor of our own day?
“And in this retrospect we have to include at least one example of the
type of Irish descendant which rises to eminence in the peaceful
professions in our late-lamented and highly-respected
President-General, Thomas J. Gargan, whose obsequies in Boston last
fall were the occasion of so impressive a manifestation of civic
gratitude and esteem. Surely his life was in itself a powerful effort
to ‘place the Irish element in its true light in American history.’
Eminent in the legal profession in a community where the standards of
that profession are especially high, he also gave to the state of
Massachusetts as a trusted official such services as were duly
acknowledged by the presence in his funeral cortege of the Mayor of
Boston, the present and past Governors of Massachusetts, and an
immense multitude of citizens. And if this great lawyer’s career
brilliantly illustrated the truth that the Irish race excel in other
things besides fighting I must not pass over in silence that other
departed fellow-member, Major John Crane of New York, a man whose
career was illustrious both in war and in peace, a citizen who first
turned his back upon commercial success in order to take up arms for
what he considered the cause of the Republic, and then, when he had
won glory for himself in four years of active military service,
returned to the peaceful pursuits of commerce to achieve a place among
the leading merchants of New York, and at last to dispense his
honorably-acquired wealth and to apply his talents and his time in the
charitable relief of poverty and suffering.
“I have purposely left to the end of this retrospect my sincere
tribute to the memory of that man whose death, coming in the interval
since our last annual meeting, has been a peculiar loss to us as a
body. In addressing you two years ago, my distinguished predecessor,
Admiral McGowan, said, referring to our then Secretary, Thomas
Hamilton Murray: ‘A competent secretary is a priceless possession for
any society, and we have been especially fortunate in this respect.’
The distinguished Admiral was speaking in the presence of Mr. Murray
when he uttered those words. What may we not add now that death has
removed the restraints imposed in such circumstances by modesty and
good taste. Thomas Hamilton Murray was indeed a man to whom the
American Irish will forever owe a debt of gratitude for his work along
that line which we, as a society, have especially taken for our own.
He was a journalist by profession, an ornament, I may say, to American
journalism, as so many good American Irish have been; and before this
Society had come into existence he had already anticipated its aims,
by rendering out of his own initiative and his own exertions no
insignificant service toward placing the Irish element in its true
light in American history. From its very inauguration our Society was
aware that no other man in all the length and breadth of this country
could have held his position with so much advantage to the cause which
we have at heart. To say nothing of that which many of us must feel in
the removal of a dear friend, the Society cannot but be conscious of
the calamity it has sustained in the loss of this truly ‘priceless
possession’ to whom our rapid success in the past has been so largely
due.
[Illustration:
MICHAEL J. JORDAN.
Of Boston, Mass.
Vice-President of the Society for Massachusetts.
]
“In the year that has passed our Society has singularly suffered from
the loss of many of its ardent and enthusiastic workers. These
pioneers of our organization have been summoned from our midst, but
the heritage they have left is beyond measure or computation. Their
memory will always be fragrant with the sweetness of their lives, and,
whilst we chant their requiem, may they enjoy the hosannas that are
sung for them in their happier abode.
“Coming now to the actual aspect of our life as an organization, we
may congratulate ourselves, I rejoice to say, upon a thoroughly sound
and vigorous condition. Most especially would I single out for mention
the astonishing success of our new membership committee. That
committee, under the chairmanship of Mr. John J. Linehan, was
appointed in New York City, I need hardly remind you, scarcely two
months ago, with the object of promoting the numerical increase of our
membership, while of course taking due care that its quality should
not fall below the standard which we had thus far maintained. So
zealously and efficiently has the work of the committee been done, so
just and cordial has been the appreciation of the Society’s aims, that
within one month 125 new and good names were added to our roster, and
the total increment, I believe, since the appointment of the
committee, amounts at the present moment to something over 200. I am
sure that we all heartily welcome these new recruits, and in voicing
that welcome let me express the hope that every man of the new squad
intends to do his utmost for the furtherance of our great aims.
“To do this, gentlemen, no mere machine action of the Society will be
adequate. Our work is, remember, a work of enlightenment, therefore a
work dealing with the intellect of our times and our country, and not
to be accomplished without intellectual exertion. Now while societies,
academies and universities have their immense value as a directive and
unifying apparatus, the intellectual forces which operate under their
control must of necessity be individual. To be effectual all effort
must be controlled by system, but the most perfect system without an
abundance of individual effort must be like an elaborately-constructed
piece of artillery without a sufficient supply of ammunition.
“Our system has now been elaborated by the inauguration of the
_Recorder_, to be published at stated periods and which will serve as
a vehicle for such notices on topics of American Irish history as the
zeal and enterprise of individual members may prompt. It is
confidentially hoped that the supply of such material will be both
abundant and rich in quality, and that our _Recorder_ will become in
itself a valuable magazine of information in those lines of research
which are the Society’s special province.
“Let me even urge on members the advantage to our cause that would be
attained if every one of us will make a point of forwarding to the
Secretary-General, Judge Lee, who has assumed, in addition to the many
exacting duties of his present office, that of editor of our
_Recorder_, any newspaper clippings or other material concerning
contemporary happenings relating to our work.
“Finally, gentlemen, it is in no perfunctory spirit that I here
publicly render thanks to the members of our official staff, without
whose zealous coöperation our year could not have been brought to the
happy and glorious conclusion in which we rejoice tonight. Since the
death of our beloved Secretary-General six months ago Judge Thomas Z.
Lee of Rhode Island has fulfilled in large measure the colossal duties
of that office, and to whom the Society owes more than mere words of
thanks. With him I associate in my heartfelt gratitude our esteemed
and respected Treasurer-General, Mr. Michael F. Dooley, whose devotion
to our work and our interests has been, I may say without
exaggeration, heroic. And, gentlemen, I must not conclude without
expressing in both my own behalf and that of the Society as a whole
those thanks which are fairly due to the various committees who have
so successfully carried out the work of organizing this meeting. I
hold that the manner in which that labor of love has been performed
has been in itself a very positive demonstration of the faculty of
concerted action which belongs to our race, at least on this side of
the Atlantic, if not everywhere and always. And now I conclude with my
personal thanks to all who are here tonight, especially the ladies,
who have given a fine atmosphere to this occasion and without whose
hearty and sympathetic countenances our gathering could not have been,
as I am confident it will be, a memorable one in the history of the
American Irish Historical Society.”
HON. PATRICK J. MCCARTHY: “Rhode Island proposes three cheers for the
ladies.”
This suggestion met with a hearty response, and was quickly followed by
similar proposals from representatives of Boston and New York.
PRESIDENT-GENERAL QUINLAN: The first toast on the program is “The
President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt.”
This was drunk standing and was followed by three ringing cheers. The
orchestra then played “The Star Spangled Banner,” which was sung by the
assemblage.
PRESIDENT-GENERAL QUINLAN: We will now turn to the serious aspect of
this page in our history. This evening we are especially honored, ladies
and gentlemen, by having at this table one of the most distinguished
men, not only in the United States, but in the world. Without further
ado, without further expression, because it is like carrying coals to
Newcastle, I will go on and introduce to you Hon. Edward D. White,
Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States of America.
Mr. Justice White was greeted with hearty applause and cheering as he
arose, and, after order was restored, he spoke as follows:
“_Mr. President-General, Gentlemen of the American Irish Historical
Society, Ladies and Gentlemen_: When the privilege was extended to me
of coming here tonight there was also a request which was by me
declined, to respond to one of the set toasts. This was done because
it has been my wont since taking up judicial duty in Washington to
eschew as far as I could public speech-making, because the thought has
always been mine that if public speech-making were indulged in, even
occasionally, the habit might grow and thus I might become what it
seems to me is an abomination—a too loquacious and indiscreet
speech-making judge. Strange as it may seem to any of you who have had
to go over ponderous judicial opinions, the result of judicial work is
to cause one to hesitate about words. They come to the one who does
such work to be things which may be productive of great wrong if
misused or misapplied. True as this is as to judicial work generally,
it is more so when the character of that work in our own country is
considered. Under our system judicial duty is not confined to the
settlement of controversies between men. It is more extensive, since
it controls man in his relations to government and the relations of
government to the individual. It involves the power to limit
government itself, since upon it is cast the ultimate duty to maintain
the Constitution and apply its limitations. It, therefore, in a sense
not only restrains both the national and State governments, but
regulates their relations one to the other. From this all-embracing
extent of the judicial authority it must be apparent that in our own
country much more than in any other the discharge of judicial duty
involves the dealing with subjects of the most acute public concern,
where passion and political agitation are flagrant. When these things
are considered it is certain that the performance of the judicial
function in our country—to paraphrase the words of the Romans—involves
the science of all things human and divine, the knowledge of all
things good and evil.
“With these thoughts in my mind I stand up upon the generous
solicitation of your President and look into your kindly faces and
form the purpose to say a few words concerning your and my duty to
preserve the institutions of government with which we are blest, and
with the thought comes the admonition that I must be circumspect and
say nothing which ought not to be said. Indeed, as I speak, there
comes unbidden to my mind that beautiful prayer of the Catholic
Liturgy where the Priest, as he approaches the Gospel, invokes the aid
of Almighty God to cleanse his mouth as with a living coal in order
that his lips may be worthy to syllable the inspired subject which he
is about to approach.
“Before I say anything further, however, let me briefly establish my
right to be among you tonight upon a more intimate basis than that of
a mere guest. This can hardly be done because of my being an Irish
American, for I am only of Irish blood on my father’s side in the
fourth generation. But my right to be one of you from another point of
view is quite apparent. In the state in which I was born there lived
an Irish American bearing the name of White. At a public dinner—I do
not believe it was an Irish American affair—he sat near one whose name
was O’Rourke. Leaning over to him he said: ‘Mr. O’Rourke, what
countryman are you?’ ‘What countryman?’ said O’Rourke. ‘I am an
Irishman. Why do you ask me?’ ‘Because I thought from your name you
might be a Frenchman,’ was the reply. Quick came the retort: ‘That is
more than I can think of you, for I can kick a White out of every sod
in Ireland.’
“But there is a deeper claim than mere name on my part to be one of
you, since going back over my whole life from the time when I sat as a
boy learning to read out of a primer, down to this night, I can look
back to nothing of joy or sorrow, of success or failure, where some
Irish American friend did not stand near me aiding in the realization
or accomplishment of the one or sustaining and supporting in
submission to the other.
“When the French Republic was born some one asked a great French
orator to prove its existence. He said: ‘The Republic is like the sun;
blind is he who sees it not.’ And so tonight I shall not attempt to
recount the many and priceless services from the days of the
Revolution to this time which the Irish American has rendered to the
upbuilding of this great and free country which we possess and enjoy.
Why should this be done, since their services shine down the pathway
of our national life with an effulgence so bright that blind indeed
must he be who sees them not.
“The question which I ask myself, therefore, is not the superfluous
one of what the Irish Americans have done for our country, but what
they owe it. By what means were they enabled to render the great
services which they have rendered? The answer is clear. Their
possibilities arose from the wise, the free institutions which our
forefathers founded and under the shelter of which the Irish Americans
were enabled here to seek a haven and to establish their new homes,
thus affording them the opportunity of rendering the services which
they have rendered to the expansion and preservation of our
institutions.
“This being true, I ask myself the question, and I ask of each one of
you, how best can we honor them? How best can we show our appreciation
of the great work which they have done? The answer comes spontaneously
to the mind: By preserving and perpetuating those institutions which
have blessed them so much and which they have in return so helped to
establish and preserve.
“As I look, Mr. President, at present conditions in our country, there
are indications to my mind of great danger to our institutions. It
seems to me I observe a tendency in the minds of the people to forget
how vital to their perpetuation is the preservation of all the wise
limitations which our forefathers ordained. It seems to me that there
is a growing forgetfulness of the fact that the liberty which our
fathers founded was not license but a liberty restrained by law; that
the government which they established was one of limited powers and
divided authority, national and local, each fulfilling their separate
functions and each intended to move in their allotted sphere like the
orbs of the Sidereal universe, thus securing the plenitude of local
rights whilst at the same time obtaining national power and authority,
not unlimited, but confined to its allotted orbit.
“I say that it seems to me there is a tendency to forget these things
because it is observable at the present time that wherever an evil
obtains which needs remedying the tendency of the public mind is to
attribute the evil, not to a mistaken administration, but to the
existence of some one of those great safeguards upon the preservation
of which our institutions depend. So also it seems to me it is
observable that there is a great tendency in the public mind, whenever
it is deemed that a wrong requires remedy, to grow restive under the
restraints imposed by constitutional limitations, to regard them as
antiquated or obsolete, and thus seek to redress the wrong without
regard to those limitations, forgetful of the great truth that
whatever may be the temporary good to be accomplished by a disregard
of the fundamental limitations of our Constitution, such good is
insignificant in comparison with the untold harm which must result
from overthrowing the very foundations upon which our government rests
and by the adhering to which alone it can endure.
“Again, it seems to me that this tendency in the mind of the people
generally finds manifestation in the exertion of the powers of
government. There seems to me to be a growing tendency to chafe at the
limitations on power which the Constitution imposes; to seek to
accomplish some temporary good by means deemed to be the most direct,
wholly without reference to the question whether the resort to such
means will conflict with or set at naught those essential limitations
upon power which the Constitution was expressly adopted to secure.
“With this danger confronting us may I not say that if we would honor
and reverence the memory of the Irish Americans who have done so much
for the upbuilding of our institutions, that we may best do it by
seeing to it that the institutions which they have helped to build up
shall be preserved in all of their integrity. Ah, then, if we would
perform the duty of honoring those who have gone before, let us each
and all fix in our hearts the enduring purpose to see to it that these
evil tendencies are corrected and thereby renew and revivify our
resolution to preserve and perpetuate our institutions.
[Illustration:
HON. VICTOR J. DOWLING.
Justice of the Supreme Court of the State of New York.
Jurist, Author and Historian.
]
“With this in mind, before I take my seat let me propose to you a
toast: ‘The Irish American of today, and the Irish American to come.
May they honor and reverence the memory of their forerunners by
bringing the splendor of their courage, the generosity of their
devotion and the keenness of their intellect to the perpetuation of
the government which the fathers founded, embodying, as it does,
liberty restrained from license, government, both national and local,
with limited and defined powers in the continued existence of which
our future of peace and prosperity are bound up and in whose
perpetuation the hopes of all mankind who value true liberty are so
intimately involved.’”
Mr. Justice White’s eloquent and graceful address received the closest
attention, and great applause and cheering followed the stirring toast
at the end.
PRESIDENT-GENERAL QUINLAN: “Ladies and Gentlemen, some time ago I was
present at an entertainment where the orator of the occasion bore an
international reputation. The chairman of the evening took an hour and a
quarter to introduce the gentleman, but his speech lasted only a quarter
of an hour. Now I could take an hour and a half to introduce the next
speaker to you, but I will just announce his name, the Hon. Victor J.
Dowling, Justice of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, who will
respond to the toast “Irish Pioneers in New York.””
Judge Dowling said: