The Irish in America

NYPL RESEARCH UBRARIES

,11111.

\

1-

rr

S^CTURH

^1>

U„. :AM, R.. GR

' of r Jaw York.

wT BOSTON i'. .THE,

:..-:c^Gi^iKi_vw:w Bros.,

CHICA.QO.

THE IRISH IN AMERICA.

A LECTURE

WILLIAM R. GRACE,

Mavok or M*w Yoiiic,

AT BOSTON THEATRE,

FEBRUARY ai. 1886.

MCDONNELL BROS.,

PUBLISHERS,

CHICAGO.

X886.

f< iff

BCC. lie.

' i t

i ,

'M

/' i

CoFTniouT, ieo6,
Br JJo DONNELL BKOS.,

rrcM oT J. J. Little & Oo^
Nofc «o to aa Astor PUcc, New Yort

THE IRISH IN AMERICA.

I DO not purpose to speak to you to-night of what has
been accomplished in the pursuits of commerce or of
war, in literature or in art, in science or in statesman-
ship by our countrymen or the descendants of our coun-
trymen whose names have been identified with the
growth and development of America, Nor shall I de-
scribe the hardships and the triumphs of the early set-
tlers, who, to escape religious persecution at home, or
to mend fortunes shattered by the harshness of a dis-
criminating and oppressive English policy, sought new
opportunities in a new world. In the one case the roll
is long and brilliant ; in the- other the impress, though
largely impersonal is definitely traceable in the history
of prosperous municipalities and States ; while in both,
might be found ample opportunity of drawing inspiring
lessons from the lives of brave and successful men.
There is, however, a phase of the much discussed prob-
lem of the Irish in America which is of even more in-
terest to the Irish here, as Irishmen, than the biogra-
phies of distinguished compatriots. The American Irish
are and have been an important factor in the political
history of this and the mother country. They have
created and modified public opinion in its relation to
themselves and to their kinfolk across the sea, and have
influenced and even determined State policy. Active,
aggressive, and at the same time loyal to a principle,

4 THE IRISH IN AMERICA.

their very community of race feeling has given them a
facility of organization which, while it may sometimes
leave them a prey to unscrupulous politicians, has, in
connection with the characteristics named, a permanent
political value. They themselves understand this, and
have, as a race, made more of it than any of the dis-
tinctly foreign elements which compose so large a portion
of the population of this country. Thus they have to
an extent, though not always in a manner distinctly
traceable, contrived to impress themselves upon national
conduct, and have in a large measure successfully met
and overcome those prejudices against their race and re-
ligion with which from the earliest times they have been
forced to contend. How bitter those prejudices have
been we all know. " The Irish are the spendthrift sister
of the Aryan race," says Mr. Froude, the most brilliant
as he is the least trustworthy of all anti-Irish historians.
And in this sentence he seems to have summarized the
judgment which those who have not been brought
directly in contact with them have formed. There need
only be added to the alleged attribute of improvidence,
those of weakness of purpose and of rashness of temper,
to complete a picture which to many minds is hardly re-
lieved by that personal loyalty and reckless generosity
which even Mr. Froude grudgingly admits to be strong
national characteristics.

But the benefits of the moral victory have not ac-
crued to the victors alone. I am firmly convinced that
the conduct of the Irish in America has been strongly
influential in winning for those at home that moral sup-
port which comes from the sympathy of strangers to the
blood, and which is in itself almost as valuable as the
material assistance which has been so lavishly bestowed.

THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 5

So, too, the lesson as to the practical value of organiza-
tion as a weapon of political warfare has not been lost,
and coupled with the organized effort of her people here,
has enabled Ireland to carry forward a land agitation
which, in its beginnings seemed based upon a forlorn
hope, but which now, in the light of recent events,
seems certain to be crowned with an abiding success.
Indeed, the fruits of a struggle renewed again and again
during the eighty-five years that have elapsed since the
union, are almost within reach, and the land agitation
which at first was only a phase of the irrepressible con-
flict, is likely to prove the key which is at last to solve
the problem of a home government for Ireland. Of
this result the American Irish may well feel hopeful, and
without them it is not too much to say its realization
would have been indefinitely postponed.

Hence it is in a double sense that the story of the
progress of the Irish in America is of interest. They
have shown powers of adaptability to new conditions
which have secured to them full recognition, while at the
same time, they have preserved their race individuality
to such an extent as to have profoundly influenced the
course of English politics in relation to the home country. '
In this twofold aspect, therefore, I desire to consider
the subject upon which I have been asked to address you
this evening. 'In the first place, to consider the course
of events in the political history of the United States,
which has most nearly affected the Irish'race in America,
and in that connection to describe its industrial cogidi-
tion at the present time. In the second, to sketch its
relation to the English politics from the earliest organ-
ization of that movement in this country, which has
already had so marked an effect upon the fortunes of

6 THE IRISH IN AMERICA.

Ireland, and briefly to suggest the attitude which it is
desirable for it to maintain at the present time, when
the fruition of its hopes seems so near at hand.

Prior to the American Revolution, though there had
been a steady tide of emigration from Ireland to this
country, it had not assumed anything like the propor-
tions which this century has witnessed. At different
times during the latter half of the seventeenth century
there were causes in operation which induced extensive
emin-ration to the various Catholic countries of the

o

Old World, and a few ship-loads of emigrants arrived at
Barbadoes. Under the Cromwcllian government, ship-
loads of Irish men, women, and children had been dis-
patched to the Colonies, including New England and
to the West Indies, under conditions which left them
little better than slaves. But with the restoration of
the Stuarts there came a suspension, not only of religious
persecution, but of the Navigation Laws, which formed a
leading feature of a policy for the repression of Irish
industries theretofore enforced by England. The expul-
sion of James II., and the accession of William and Mary
to the throne was accompanied by a revival of dis-
crimination against Irish manufactures, and a flood of
emigration to all parts of Christendom followed. Prot-
estants and Catholics were alike affected by these laws,
and for several years after 1688 several thousand a year
found their way to the British Colonies. These emi-
grants were widely scattered and leave no definite trace
behind them until we come to the settlement founded at
Logan, in Pennsylvania, which at that time (1699) was
a colony that afforded much greater freedom of religious
thought than others under British control. From this
time, until the close of the eighteenth century, there

THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 7

was a continuous stream of emigration, which, though
steady, was not large. No definite or trustworthy
knowledge as to their numbers is, so far as I am aware,
obtainable, there being nothing better than contempo-
rary estimates for isolated years, which, however, justify
the conclusion that probably not less than five thousand
Irish settlers arrived here per annum. Pennsylvania con-
tinued to be a favorite point of destination, though
various settlements were made in Maryland and Virginia,
and even in North and South Carolina, and in Ken-
tucky. In New England strong prejudices existed against
the Irish, which found hidden expression in laws govern-
ing the alienation of land, and open expression in the
courts through proceedings for ejectment. Settlers
were, however, not deterred from attempting to gain a
foothold, and besides adding largely to the population
of Boston, succeeded in establishing a settlement at
Concord, Mass. The opposition which they were thus
forced to overcome sprang largely from race hostility,
and was directed against those of Irish birth without
distinction of creed. Puritan New England afforded a
limited toleration to Catholics of all nationalities, though
as a class, it denied to them political privileges. The
Irish, nevertheless, favored either by a success attendant
upon combined effort, or by a gradual dying out of
hostility, demonstrated their fitness to survive, and flour-
ishing settlements were soon founded throughout all the
territory of New England.

It will thus be seen that the Irish effected at a com-
paratively early date, a definite and considerable occupa-
tion of most of the colonies. They were not localized,
save in one or two instances, as in Pennsylvania and in
Massachusetts, and did not, therefore, as a people, in any

8 THE IRISH IN AMERICA. |

sense take that distinctive part in colonization which
was taken by the EngHsh, the Dutch, the French or the
Spanish. Neither were rehgious questions the only
actuating motives of emigration. Protestants and Cath-
oHcs ahke had to encounter race prejudice, while Cath-
olics had, in addition, to meet religious opposition which
affixed political disabilities, and that even in Catholic
Maryland. It was at this time (1774) that the emanci-
pation of the Catholics in the United States first began.
It was a movement which had it,-, origin in the desire of
the English government to strengthen its own hands
against the colonies, and its action forced the Continental
Congress to a similar policy. The murmurs of discontent
which had gone forth from our colonial possessions, led
England to establish and extend the Province of Canada
for the purpose of checking any attempt at independ-
ence. England did not keep her promise to establish
a representative assembly, but by the Quebec Act, the
Crown was expressly authorized to confer " posts of
honor and of business upon Catholics." As Catholics
had previously been disfranchised, and as there were
grounds for believing that the reasons which suggested
the Act would furnish a motive for a liberal exercise of
the powers thus ceded to the Crown, the French Cana-
dians and Irish Catholics accepted this concession as
vastly more advantageous to them than a representa-
tive Assembly would have been. This move the Conti-
nental Congress of that day endeavored to meet. Its
members were not entirely emancipated from the spirit
of hostility to Catholicism, in which, as Protestants, they
had been bred, but considerations of expediency helped
them to smother their scruples. They sent an address
to the French Canadians, in which they eloquently dep-

THE IRISH IN AMERICA.

-^

recated the existence of religious jealousies, and urged
a union in the name of liberty. Mr. Bancroft truthfully
expresses the importance of this step : " Whether the .
invitation should be accepted or repelled," says he, " the /
old feud between the nations which adhered to the ^
Roman Catholic Church, and the free governments
"which had sprung from Protestantism was fast coming
to an end." The justice of this statement was soon
made manifest. Between 1775 and 1783 the great
principle of religious freedom found organized expres-
sion in the constitutions adopted by eight of the new-
born States. Its complete realization by all was not to
be long delayed. The Articles of Confederation were
silent on this subject, for it was a matter whose decision
the States jealously arrogated to themselves ; but when
it was determined to create a general government with
powers commensurate with its importance, a clause in <*
the Constitutionf^brief but broad, furnished a guarantee ^
of reliofious as well as of civil freedom, which has ever ''
since secured immunity to all. _<^

From the foregoing brief and necessarily imperfect/- t:
sketch it may yet be seen that the Irish element was
highly important in the struggle then to ensue between i>
the Colonies and the Crown. Probably its whole im- ":
portance has never been fully realized, but it did not ^
pass without recognition a that time. The Congress of <r^
'75 confidently counted on anti-British feeling in its ap-
peal to Irish Americans and for the purpose of alienat-
ing their sympathies from the royal cause, promptly is-
sued an address in which it drew a marked distinction
between the English and Irish Parliaments. Thus,
in the passage quoted by D'Arcy McGee, Congress
said: "Your (the Irish) parliament has done us no

10 THE IRISH IN AMERICA.

wrong. In defense of our persons and properties under
actual invasion we have taken up arms. When that
violence shall be removed and hostilities cease on the
part of the aggressors they shall cease on our part also ; ''
and they concluded by a skillfully expressed hope that
the course of the Colonies might have a wholesome
effect upon the policy of England toward the mother
country. Franklin himself had, as early as '71, foreseen
the importance of Irish sympathy to America in the
event of war, and during his visit to Ireland had been
at pains to acquaint himself with the drift of Irish senti-
ment. The result was a letter to the people of Ireland,
following closely upon the address of Congress, in
which he argued the justice of America's cause and
warmly pleaded for the moral support of Ireland's sym-
pathy. The Irish in America responded generously to
these appeals, and probably one-third of the officers and
a large proportion of the army were of Irish birth or
parentage. The Irish at home may well be supposed
to have had the success of the Colonies at heart, yet it
is curious to note the advantage which their Parliament
wrested from England's extremity. It began with a
warm protestation of devotion to the sacred person of
the king, and declared that it heard of the American
Rebellion with abhorrence. Lord North seized the op-
portunity which this astonishing burst of loyalty pre-
sented, to send to America a contingent of four thou-
sand troops taken from the Irish Army, which, at that
time, mustered only nine thousand men, and Ireland
was thus left practically defenseless. The opportunity
thereby presented was not lost, and an offer of a militia
organized and controlled by the government having been
unwisely refused by North, the Irish set about the for-

THE IRISH IN AMERICA. II

mation of armed bands of volunteers, which became a
/ source of great strength to them in the demands about
to be made upon the EngHsh Parliament. When the
time came the example of the Colonies had in the mean-
while had its effect, and Grattan successfully voiced the
demands of a now thoroughly aroused and defiant con-
sciousness of nationality. Lord North hesitated,
wavered, finally yielded in the fear of an army of fifty
thousand volunteers, and the Irish Parliament secured
freedom of trade with England, immunity from new
taxes, and a shortening of the period for which the or-
dinary supplies had been theretofore voted.

But this change of policy on England's part had
come too late to be of much service to any but the Irish
people. Had it preceded by some years the outbreak
of the Revolutionary War it might have partially stem-
med the outgoing tide which carried with it thousands
who revenged themselves by enlisting in the armies of
Washington. As it was, the hostile policy of the Anglo-
Irish Church forced large numbers of Irish Presby-
tyrians from their homes. To it Presbyterians were
fully as objectionable as the Catholics themselves. The
Established Church knew them as bitter opponents of
episcopacy, and the government could not but understand
that they were skeptical as to the divine right of kings
and had a pronounced sympathy with republicanism.
Thus they became strong supporters of the American
cause, and were by no means the least important factor
in bringing about the success with which that cause was
finally crowned.

After the conclusion of the war, however, and after
the practical demonstration of the weakness of the
Articles of Confederation which the four succeeding

12 THE IRISH IN AMERICA.

years furnished, came the Constitutional Convention.
There were several Irishmen among the thirty-six \
delegates who cannot, however, be said to have repre-
sented any ideas of policy with which the Irish in
America, as Irish, were concerned. The power to natu-
ralize was felt by all to be an essential power to an
efficient central government, and thus its reservation
was secured almost by common consent. The wisdom
of conferring powers of naturalization upon the new gov-
ernment was, therefore, not questioned, and the power
itself and the extent to which it should be exercised
became a matter of the first importance to those who
desired to become its citizens by adoption.

I have often been asked why it is that most Irish-
men are Democrats, and the answer to my mind has al-
ways seemed to lie on the surface. Immediately after
the adoption of the Constitution there were no parties.
The grounds of division had not taken definite shape,
and a coherent statement of principles had yet to be
made. Of course, the casting of party lines was not to
be long delayed, for party organization is vital to the
existence of representative government, and in the case
of the United States, the direction which these lines
should take, might readily have been foretold. With a
written constitution, the reason for the existence of
parties could only turn upon the nature of the construc-
tion to be placed upon the charter which defined the
powers of the Government. Questions of policy which
came clearly within the limits of federal authority, would
indeed become an incident of party life, and at times,
even an overshadowing incident. But the permanent,
underlying principle to which either party would appeal
in justification of its existence could only be, under our

THE IRISH IN AMERICA. I3

form of government, the looseness or strictness with
which the powers of that Government should be re-
garded. Of the then called Federal party, Hamilton
was the acknowledged leader, while of the Republican
party, whose mantle has fallen upon the Democratic
party of to-day, Jefferson was the guiding spirit The
Federalists insisted upon a liberal construction of the
powers ceded to the central government, while the Re-
publicans took the opposite view.

Washington had successfully endeavored to main-
tain a neutral course which preserved for him that grate-
ful affection, from the most zealous adherents of either
party, with which he had even been regarded. But even
his personality was not strong enough to repress dissen-
sion among the members of his own Cabine*" and Hamil-
ton and Jefferson soon became sharply 0|- posed. Thus
the policy of the Federalists was stigmatized as anglified.
Hamilton had a profound admiration for the English
Constitution, which he had studied long and knew well
Jefferson, on the other hand, was deeply imbued with
the spirit of the French philosophy of the last century,
and bitterly disliked all things British. How far the
predilections of their respective leaders influenced the
policy of either party, it is not necessary to discuss, but
it is true that the Federalists became responsible for
measures which bore harshly upon foreigners, and which
drove the foreign-born element of the population into
the ranks of the opposition. The liberal law passed in
1790, authorizing naturalization upon a residence of two
years in the United States, and of one year in the State
in which application was made, was in 1 792 extended to
five years, with a previous declaration of intention after
a residence of three years. In 1798 it was again ex-

14 THE IRISH IN AMERICA.

tended as to require a residence of fourteen years, and
a similar previous declaration after five years. In the
same year were enacted the famous Alien and Sedition
laws, which bore still more heavily upon foreigners ;
under the former the President was empowered to order
out of the country all such foreigners as he considered
dangerous, under pain of heavy penalties ; these meas-
ures were sharply but vainly opposed by the then Re-
publican party, and their enactment led to the adoption
of Jefferson's famous Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions
of '98, based upon a theory which was afterward logi-
cally and symmetrically developed by Calhoun into the
mischievous doctrine of nullification. The enactment
of these measures, and the gradual dying out of the war
spirit which the Federalists had succeeded in arousing
against France, were accompanied by a revulsion of
feeling in favor of the Republicans, and in 1801 Jeffer-
son was inaugurated. The majority of Republicans in
the House, which succeeded in electing him over Burr,
soon reversed the policy of the Federalists, The ob-
noxious Alien laws were repealed, and the period of
residence required before foreigners could become natu-
ralized, was reduced from fourteen years to five, and the
declaration of intention to two. This policy toward
foreigners has ever since remained fixed, and more
lately has been accompanied by a marked liberality on
the part of the newer Western States, which has contrib-
uted largely to their noteworthy prosperity. It has
made foreigners, and particularly the Irish, the tradi-
tional allies of the party whose name, rightly or wrongly,
has been identified with the principles most favorable to
their prosperity — in a word, it has made them Democrats.
It was not, however, until some time after the period

THE IRISH IN AMERICA. I5.

just discussed, that the effect of this policy in the pro-
motion of emigration became manifest. It may be that
the statistics bearing upon emigration which, up to
1 819, are meager and for the most part not wholly reli-
able, do not furnish a fair idea of the total number of
foreigners arriving at our shores. Yet there were
causes in operation which lead us lo believe that they
cannot be far out of the way. These causes led up to
the War of 1812, and during its existence, commercial
relations between England and the United States prac*
tically ceased. It was not, therefore, until 181 7 that
foreigners began to come in any numbers, and from that-
time on it may be said that they came in a constant-
stream. Thus, from 1820 until 1850, the minimum emi-
gration from Ireland was two hundred and eighteen
thousand, six hundred and twenty-six, in the following;
proportionate amounts.

From 1820 to 1830, 27,106.
1 83 1 to 1840, 29,188.
1841 to 1850, 162,332.

These constantly increasing numbers were viewed
with wonder which soon changed to alarm. Religious
animosities, so long silent, became aroused. Race jeal-
ousy again became active. Foreigners came to be
looked upon with suspicion and distrust. An early in-
cident, which marked the political struggle then about
to begin, was the burning of the Ursuline Convent in
1834, at Charlestown, not two miles from where we are
gathered to-night. This, however, was but a flame
which jetted out from the smothered fires of religious
fanaticism. It was not until a score of years later that
these fires finally blazed into the Know-Nothing ex-
citement, for as yet open expression was only given to

l6 THE IRISH IN AMERICA.

the then prevailing discontent at the great influx of
foreigners. Such was the basis of the Native-American
movement, whose earHest manifestation took the shape
of an address from the Louisiana Native-American
Association in 1839. T^^ address was couched in the
most inflated language, and was shortly followed by an-
other from the American Republicans of Philadelphia,
to the native and naturalized citizens of the United
States. These manifestoes had their effect throughout
the country, and helped to lead to the organization of
a party in the city of New York known as the Native-
American party, whose avowed object was to wrest
the control of the local government from naturalized
foreigners who were chiefly Irish. It succeeded in
carrying the charter election in the spring of 1844, and
in subsequent State elections returned a few members
to the Legislature. While the movement itself, as a
movement, soon spent its force, it was more than a
mere episode in the history of the politics of a State.
The Convention of a Democratic party, held at Balti-
more in the same year, for the purpose of nominating a
Presidential candidate, had at last selected Polk over
Van Buren. Clay, who was subsequently nominated by
the Whigs, was forced into a policy of wavering indis-
cretion which helped to secure his defeat. But his
defeat was not solely due to his own weakness. Then,
as now, New York exerted a powerful influence in the
determination of national contests, and the phases of
local politics were pronounced factors in the general
result. The effect of Native-Americanism had been to
divide the Whig party, whose legitimate successor is the
Republican party of to-day. It had also been influen-
tial in solidifying the ranks of the Democratic party

THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 1/

and in driving into them the foreign element in the
city of New York. Thus, such men as Greeley, Weed,
and Seward had opposed the Native-American party,
though their allegiance was still given to the Whigs in
the national struggle ; while the Irish, without much
regard to creed, felt that their future was dependent
upon the success of the Democrats. Native-American-
ism was hence a very important element in the Presiden-
tial struggle of that year, and, in connection with the
lesser Abolition and Anti-rent movements, may be
said to have had a strong influence in securing Demo-
cratic success.

With the Philadelphia riots of 1844, the movement
as a movement subsided, only to develop ten years later
under another form. In the interval emigration from
Ireland had gone on in an increased ratio, as we have
seen, and religious prejudices had become more and
more embittered. With 1850 there opened a fruitful dec-
ade in the history of the United States, accompanied as
it was by the dissolution of the old Whig party, and the
agitation of the questions of slavery and States' rights.
It is of particular interest to us, moreover, since it is the
era in which the Republican party had its birth, " the his-
tory of whose formation," as one writer has observed,
"resulted very considerably from the recurrence of opin-
ions and prejudices against foreigners and Roman Ca-
tholicism." These prejudices assumed political signifi-
cance in the Know-Nothlngism of 1854. The origin of
the name as well as the purpose of the movement is
familiar, and may be briefly indicated. It started as a
secret organization into which none but native-bom cit-
izens, born of Protestant parents and themselves Prot-
estant, could be admitted. Its object was to resist "the

l8 THE IRISH IN AMERICA.

insidious policy of the Church of Rome, and other for-
eign influence against the institutions of our country, by
placing in all offices in the gift of the people or by
appointment none but native-born Protestant citizens."
Of course, every member protested his ignorance of
the purposes of the organization which thus became
known as the Know-Nothing party. The movement
drew its life from the old Free-Soil Abolition and Whig
parties, and soon spread throughout the country. But
if it had a rapid growth, its decay was no less speedy.
There could, of course, be nothing of permanency in an
organization founded upon such principles, inimical as
they were to a policy to which the United States owed
so much of its prosperity, and the agitation going on upon
the more vital questions of slavery and of States' rights
soon helped to kill it. It had, nevertheless, obtained a
considerable success, especially in the Eastern States.
It gained the day in the State elections of New Hamp-
shire, Connecticut and Massachusetts, and in this last State
succeeded in electing Governor Gardner, who, in 1855,
attempted, by proclamation, to disband several militia
companies of foreign birth. American-Irish leaders, how-
ever, preserved an attitude which was highly creditable.
They firmly and justly insisted upon their constitutional
rights and availed themselves of legal means to preserve
those rights. But what is of more importance to us, it
gave them a reason for organization and a determina-
tion to labor for the success of that party which, whatever
its motives may have been, was committed to the preser-
vation of the privileges granted to them under the Con-
stitution and the laws.

Such were the Native-American and Know-Nothing
movements in their relation to the Irish in America.

THE IRISH IN AMERICA. I9

They were the outbursts of an under-current of feeling
which still runs beneath the surface of American thought,
but with largely abated force. Every day weakens the
tide of prejudice against foreigners. Every day deepens
the tendency toward homogeneity of national life and
consciousness. And the time is coming when Native
Americanism will be looked back to with a curiosity, not
unmixed with wonder, that the motives which lay at the
bottom of such movements could ever have had a promi-
nent part in the political life of a great people.

In describing the present position of the Irish in its
industrial aspect, I can only briefly summarize the facts
disclosed by the last national census of 1880. Such facts
have relation only to those of Irish birth in this country,
and cannot, therefore, be regarded as complete. They,
however, point the existence of certain tendencies in
Irish immigrants, which I cannot but regard as unfortu-
nate, and which have prevented them, as a class, from
achieving as much as, under other circumstances, they
might have.

At the last census the total number of the population
of Irish birth in all the States and Territories of the
Union was 1,854,571. The ten years ending in 1880
show that there were landed at the port of New York
alone, a total of 379,368 Irish emigrants. This popula-
tion is distributed in the following manner : 1,126,367, or
nearly two-thirds of the whole, arc located in the five
States of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New
Jersey and Pennsylvania ; 391,632, or more than one-half
of the remainder, are scattered through eight of the
Western States, from Michigan to Kansas, more than
one-half of this latter amount having settled in Ohio
and Illinois. This accounts for five-sixths of the total

20 THE IRISH IN AMERICA.

native Irish population, the bulk of the remaining one-
sixth being located in the other Eastern States, and in
the States of Minnesota and California. A glance at
these figures shows that the Irish have distributed them-
selves among the States containing the largest cities,
and we are therefore not surprised to find that just
about one-half of the whole number is spread among
fifty of the principal cities of the United States, the five
great cities of New York, Philadelphia, Brooklyn, Chi-
cao^o and Boston absorbing: more than one-fourth of the
whole. Indeed, more than one-seventh of the entire
population of New York is of Irish birth. I cannot but
regard this tendency to gravitate to the centres of popu-
lation as unfortunate in its effect upon the condition of
the Irish, and I will ask your indulgence for a moment
to a few statistics showing what this effect is. Of the
total number of Irish born in this country 978,854 are
industrially occupied. Of this number, 140,307 are en-
gaged in agriculture — 24,236 being agricultural laborers,
and 107,708 being farmers and planters. Of this num-
ber, too, 415,854 render personal services, 122,194 being
employed as domestic servants, and 225,122 as laborers,
the small remainder (68,538) rendering services of a
higher grade ; 138,518 are engaged in trade and trans-
portation, a large part of this number being clerks and
railway employees not clerks ; 284,175 are in manufac-
turing, mechanical and mining industries, the majority
being blacksmiths, carpenters, shoemakers, mill opera-
tives and miners. It would be interesting, if time per-
mitted, to make a comparison of these figures with those
in reference to other nationalities. I can pause only to
note, however, that of the whole number employed only
one-ninth are engaged in agriculture, while nearly

THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 21

one-half render personal services of a not very high
grade.

These figures prepare us for facts disclosed by vital
statistics as to births, marriages and deaths among the
Irish. I shall confine myself to the city of New York,
and to the year 1880, referring to statistics of certain
European cities only for the purpose of justifying one
or two conclusions which I propose to draw which are
at variance with those of certain writers who, though fa-
vorable to the Irish, have not given them full credit for
the improvement which they have made.

The statistics with reference to births and marriages
I shall not give, as they are untrustworthy and in-
complete.

In New York City the death rate for the entire city
was 26.47 per thousand. Among the population of Irish
birth it was 28.02 ; of English birth 20.09 J ^^ German
birth 19.96. The fact, therefore, is undoubted that the
condition of the Irish in large cities cannot be success-
fully compared with the Germans, or even with the
French or the English. But upon the condition of the
Irish in the larger cities in Ireland the mortality statis-
tics given not only show an improvement, but a ratio of
improvement which may be favorably compared with
the ratio presented by the statistics of the larger cities
of other foreign nationalities. Thus the death rate of
Dublin is 35.94 ; of Cork, 30.85 ; of Belfast, 28.33 i that
of the Irish in New York being but 28.02 ; that of Liver-
pool is 27.22 ; of Manchester, 25.29; of London, 22.14^
that of the English here being 20.90. That of Berlin is
29.73; of Hamburg, 26.14; of Dresden, 24.93; that of
the Germans in New York being 19.96.

If the mortality rate be a safe index to the relative

22 THE IRISH IN AMERICA.

conditions of various nationalities in New York, it is
therefore just to conclude, that while they are worse off
than the Germans and the French they are better off
than those at home. Thus, while fully recognizing the
poverty and wretchedness of most of the tenement Irish
in New York it is certain that they have improved their
condition by immigrating. How much further they
might have improved it, is a wider question and one to
which I can only allude. Yet it is true, as has been
said, "that the great majority of the Irish emigrants
drop like tired migratory birds upon the Eastern
shores of the shelter Continent with the impulse of
emigration exhausted." Those who by education are
well fitted to become farm helpers or agricultural
laborers choose rather to be domestic servants or
laborers in cities. The choice is not unnatural, if we
consider antecedents, but certainly is unwise, and I,
myself, am fully convinced that the most fruitful direc-
tion that practical philanthropy, having for its object
the relief of the Irish in cities and of Irish emigrating,
can take, is to be found in colonization projects which
avail themselves of the advantages offered by Western
States and Territories.

Turning now to the second general branch of the
subject, I have to consider, in a very brief manner, the
connection of our people here with the land and repeal
agitation which is now, and has been, occupying the
public mind both in America and in England. How in-
timate that connection is may be seen from the remark
of an English writer who, though evidently animated by
a desire to discuss the whoie question in a spirit of fair-
ness, is still unable to divest himself of Tory prejudices.
" It is now two years," says he, writing in 1882, "since

THE IRISH IN AMI-viCA. 2$

I first Stated my conviction that the roots of the
agitations and disturbances which have convulsed Ire-
land and shaken England, were to be found in America.
Although I had always felt that without American-Irish
aid and that material assistance which always forms the
real sinews of war, as well as of business, the efforts of
Mr. Parnell and his party must have been comparatively
feeble, I never completely realized the feeling of the
Irish in America until I had myself worked among them,
and in the cities and the States of the Union appreciated
to the full the existence, three thousands of miles away, of
a people numerous and influential, animated by a spirit
of nationality beyond ail belief, and impelled to action
by a deep-seated hostility to the English Govern-
ment."

I do not think that this is in any sense an overstate-
ment. The Irish have, ever since '48, realized the im-
portance of the aid which their countrymen in America
might render, and have made overtures to which the
response has not been backward. The events of that
year in France swung the pendulum of revolution to the
furthest point of the arc, and its oscillation manifested
itself upon the dial of Irish feeling. Yet the hands
were destined to catch. Fenianism, which may be said to
have then taken its origin, miscarried; but the seed from
which it sprang was not without d uit, and to it the Land
League of these days owed no small part of its exist-
ence. Stephens may fairly be said to be the precursor
of Parnell, who has reaped so much from his labors.
The purposes of the two movements have something in
common, and yet Parnell has skillfully concealed his ul-
terior purpose of securing local independence, and has dis-
played an amount of tact which has won much sympathy

24 THE IRISH IN AMERICA.

for the methods which he has so persistently advocated.
Fcnianism itself I shall not discuss further than to again
remark the strong relation which it bears to the move-
ment of to-day among the American Irish. It success-
fully appeak:d to the sentimental side of Irish character
and fanned a flame of patriotism which burns strong in
the Irish breast even to the second and third generations
of those who have left their native land forever. Thus
it showed a source of strength which the present agita-
tors have not been slow to avail themselves of, and hence
its value.

I have already said that a land agitation was a phase,
and the earliest phase, of the irrepressible conflict during
the last three decades. The Irish leaders of '48 were
revolutionists in the fullest sense of the word. Their
creed meant complete separation, and not merely local
independence, or a reform in land tenures. Yet even at
that day there was one man who clearly saw, to quote his
own words, " That the land question contained, and the
legislative question did not contain, the materials from
which victory is manufactured." This man was James
Fenton Lalor, a contributor to the paper known as the
Irish Fclo7i, which was started after the suppression of
John Mitchell's United Irishmen. Lalor was a man
possessed of a mind which worked in logical grooves,
and was, moreover, gifted with a faculty of concise and
lucid exposition. His ideas, however, though capable
of practical development, as subsequent events have
shown, were not so adapted to facts as to have been of
use at the time they were given out. At a later day
they were adopted, and whether by design or by a
happy coincidence, became the motive of the Land
League organization. Stephens had used them in his

THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 2$

paper called the /rz's/i People in 1863, as an inducement
to popular organization, but to him they furnished a
subordinate or collateral aim which fell with the failure
of his principal purpose. After that, in 1878, Michael
Davitt and John Devoy began an active and stirring
appeal to the Irish in America, by laying out a pro-
gramme which embodied a land agitation as its chief
feature. It was upon this basis that they secured the
co-operation of the American-Irish papers, and it was in
this city that Davitt first outlined his project in a lecture
delivered to American Irishmen. As has been said,
" the plan laid down was simply to honeycomb the prov-
vinces (of Ireland), with organized bodies of men, the
exact counterpart of the Fenian Brotherhood, but with
none of its secresy." It embraced the establishment of
a supreme virgilance committee, having under its con-
trol a large number of small land centres. Its ultimate
object was the depreciation of land values by processes
strictly constitutional. In short, it comprehended a
policy of exasperation which saved its exponents from
treatment as social offenders, while it promised a sure,
if not a speedy outcome to their purpose.

Davitt on his return to Ireland went actively to work.
He gathered up the broken threads of Fenian organiza-
tion, and enlisted a hearty co-operation of men schooled
in the traditions of Grattan and O'Connell, and animated
by the enthusiasms of Lalor and of Stephens. The fail-
ure of the potato crop in Western Ireland in '78 and '79
assisted him, and Connaught became then the scene of
his earliest efforts. Mr. Parnell had at that time become a
leader of the movement, and after his departure for
America, Davitt and his lieutenants aimed to extend
their operations from Western Ireland to all the prov-

26 THE IRISH IN AMERICA.

inces, by transferring the seat of the Land League or-
ganization to Dublin.

From this point I shortly follow the course of events
in America. Mr. Parnell's visit to this country at the
juncture to which I have just alluded, was a memorable
one in Irish history. He successfully appealed to all
shades of thought among the Irish people here and skill-
fully influenced the sympathies, already active, which
they felt for those at home. He did not remain long,
beinsf called back in a short three months after the
beginning of 1880, by the dissolution of Parliament.
In that short time he had, however, accomplished much.
Assisted by the co-operation of patriotic Irishmen here,
he accented the desire for organization among the Irish,
and it was not longf before the Land Lcasfuc in America
became an accomplished fact. It succeeded in creat-
ing a public sympathy with the course of Irish leaders,
which I deem hardly less valuable than the money,
without which the parent organization in Ireland must
have signally failed. It is unnecessary in the city of
Boston, where the work accomplished by Collins and
O'Reilly is so well known, to describe the details of the
movement, spreading as it did from the Atlantic to the
Pacific, and far into the North-west. It fulfilled the
purpose for which it came into existence, and it at last
changed its identity only when events at home had termi-
nated the life of the Land League in Ireland.

In the meanwhile the elections consequent upon the
dissolution of Parliament had taken place, and the Irish
party had had an accession of strength which made
them a formidable factor in any legislation affecting
Ireland. They at once adopted tactics in strict accord
with the programme laid out for the land league, and

THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 2/

which had been used, though by no means to the same
extent, nor with the same degree of success, by the
Home Rule party in the previous Parliament. They
used every weapon which the rules of the House, adapted
as they were to the facilitation of debate, put in their
hands. They impeded legislation so successfully that
some form of cloture, or, as we know it, some form of
previous question, was felt by Liberals and Conserva-
tives alike to be a necessity. Mr. Gladstone brought
forward a resolution giving the Speaker the powers of a
dictator when urgency was declared, which, with amend-
ments proposed by the Opposition, was adopted. The
radical nature of this step is emphasized by the fact that
but once in the course of two hundred years had a
motion that a member be no longer heard been made.
The House was thus enabled to pass the coercion bills
which Forster had brought forward, and, after the trans-
action of necessary business, proceeded to the discus-
sion of that remarkable measure, the Land Bill of 1881.
Those of us who can look back, as I can, thirty-five
or forty years ago, to the condition of the peasantry of
Ireland, have a realization of the then existing need of
change in land tenures which none but an eye-witness
can understand. The majority of the holdings in Ire-
land were at the mere will of the landlord. By a sys-
tem of class legislation in favor of landlords, the process
of eviction had been made inexpensive and summary,
furnishing a marked contrast to that in use in England,
which was tedious and costly. A tenant made improve-
ments at his peril. His rent was certain to be raised
by grasping landlords, or by the heartless agents of
absentees, whose only interest in Ireland was satisfied
by a heavy rent-roll. Eviction followed upon his failure

28 THE IRISH IN AMERICA.

to pay, and his improvements were confiscated. One
German writer, at a loss for an equivalent for the term
tenant-at-will, says : *' How shall I translate tenant-at-
will ? Shall I say serfs ? No ; in feudal times serfdom
consisted rather in keeping the vassals attached to the
soil, and by no means in driving them away. An an-
cient vassal is a lord compared with the present tenant-
at-will, to whom the law affords no defense." Such were
the mischiefs which the Land Bill of 1870 had been in-
tended to remedy. Ten years' experience had shown that
that measure, far-reaching as it was in principle, was in-
sufficient to achieve the ends for which it was designed.
Its first part had established a scale of compensation
for improvements to be paid to the tenant before he
could be evicted. The second and third parts, known
as the Bright Clauses, went further. Landlords pos-
sessed of certain defined estates were authorized by the
second part to agree with tenants for a sale of the estate,
and, upon application to the Land Court established by
the act, the estate of the landlord became vested in the
tenant free from incumbrances. By the third part the
Board of Public Works was authorized to advance to
tenants, for the purchase of their holdings, an amount
not exceeding two-thirds of the price. The second part,
however, failed by reason of the cost attendant upon an
application to the Court, and the third part chiefly by
reason of the construction placed upon it by the judges
themselves. By the Land Bill of '81, therefore, it was
attempted to secure to tenants a fair rent, a fixity of
tenure and the right of free sale or assignment. Rent
was thereafter to be determined either by agreement,
by arbitration or by an application to the Court. When
fixed, the tenant held by a tenure which secured him the

THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 2g

possession of his holding for fifteen years, with a right
of perpetual renewal. Eviction might be had for speci-
fied causes after due notice, but a liberal time was allowed
the tenant for redemption.

Such was the measure which the agitation, conducted
upon the lines laid down by the Land League, had suc-
ceeded in securing. Lalor's plan of a moral insurrec-
tion has stood the test of trial, and the name by which
it has come to be familiar has passed into the language
of two worlds. Boycotting has proven a surer weapon
than bayonets, for it has pushed the English Govern-
ment back step by step from its determination to con-
trol the movement through the ordinary processes of
law, and has placed it in the extraordinary and question-
able position of meeting a perfectly legal combination
by the exercise of arbitrary power, by the suspension of
the usual writs and by the passage of measures of coer-
cive nature intended to compass the destruction of the
League. How successful this attempt has been we all
know. The Land League crushed to earth has again
risen under a new name, with new life and with brighter
chances of success than ever. The Clan-na-Gael and
the National League are the heirs of all that it has
accomplished, and with so rich a heritage may be con-
fidently looked to to achieve the ends for which they
exist.

In the meantime there have been changes and
changes, and the English-speaking world is to-day
watching intently the course of events in Great Britain.
The recent elections have been so shrewdly managed
by Mr. Parnell and his coadjutors, that the desire of
either party for power can only be gratified by combina-
tion with him. How long it will be before he and the

30 THE IRISH IN AMERICA.

Irish people will be paid the consideration of any con-
tract, express or implied, which he may make as the
condition of his support cannot be prophesied with
certainty. But we may surely reckon that within the
next three years we shall have a solution of the Irish
question which, while it may leave Ireland something
still to strive for, will be worth all that it has cost.
There is but one way for Englishmen to defeat the
logic of events, and that way is revolutionary. It is to
expel the Irish party from Parliament ; to deprive the
electors whom they represent of all voice in the councils
of the Empire ; to say to Parnellite members, " although
you speak as the accredited representatives of voters
whom, under the Constitution, we are bound to hear, we
will not listen to you." I need hardly say that this ac-
tion is to be feared from neither of the great English
parties, unless one of them be willing to sacrifice its
identity by combination with the other. Less is to be
feared from the Liberal party with whom Parnell finds
his more natural alliance. The proverbial conservatism
which tempers even a radical Englishman will call a halt
in any march toward such a goal. Irishmen are to-day
sure of a hearing, and a respectful hearing, from those
who heretofore have had the power and the inclination
to close discussion. Their opportunity has, indeed,
come, and I, for one, am satisfied that their leaders have
the skill to seize it and to turn it to the utmost ad-
vantage.

Yet the situation is full of difficulties. Three years
agro Mr. Gladstone challencred the Irish members to
draw a line of demarcation between local and impe-
rial affairs. I believe that challenge to have been hon-
estly made, and that Mr. Gladstone fully realized the

THE IRISH IN AMERICA. 3I

number and complexities of the compromises involved
in any scheme of home government for Ireland. I
believe, too, that no man is so fitted to disentangle
those complexities as he ; that to his wise patriotism
and broad statesmanship Ireland owes much of what
she has already gained, and that to him she will owe
much of whatever measure of concession may be secured
to her by the future. He has, indeed, been betrayed
into many inconsistencies. He has frequently yielded
positions which his own sincerity of intention would
have led him to maintain, had not events left him tram-
meled in his purpose. But that he earnestly desires to
crown his long and useful life, remarkable in the annals
of statesmen, by an achievement more splendid than
anything he has yet accomplished, I do not for an
instant doubt. Through him, if his life be spared, and
through Mr. Parnell, not less than through him, will
that end be attained, which has been so earnestly, so
faithfully and so unselfishly labored for by the Irish in
America.

"^^;:?s-f:||?'':;T?i:Ki;lfll|^|^s