The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1882-02-16
TINE HARP THAT ONCE
1HR0Nc TARA'9
AAII8l"


THRoNc TARA'9
HAll8I"
WhatAmerIca Owes to ireland.
Extract from the speech Of Richsneu Robinson
in Congrsssl
"But what has ireland done that il
should be considered treason to low
her and death to defen13" Let rs SD
what she is and what she has done.
More than two-thirds of the people o.
the United States have Irish blood in
their veins, inherited either by mater
nal or paternal ancestors. There II
perhaps no man living who has known
more Of the public men of this countr!
and has devoted more time to the study
of their origin than myself, and l re
member nc prominent men in this coun
try who did not. after fully recalling
his ancestry, acknowledge that he hac
inherited more or less of Irish blood,
I think more than one-half Of the peo-
pie of New England at the time o
the revolution had more or less o.
Irish blood. The Plymouth colony
from England came to Massachusetts
in one ship, and most of them died in
q few months, leaving no children,
An Irish colony came to Massechus
! etts in five ships. | could enumeratt
dozens Of them who lived to be eighty
and ninety years Of age, and left each
from fifteen to twenty-one children,
now increased to n or two thousand
| descendants from each.
[ call the attention of the House to
| one Irshman and his descendants in
this country, from which we may judge
| of the composition of the American
people.
John Preston, of Derry, and Eliza
beth Patton, his wife, from Donegal,
with their five children, one son and
four daughters, all born in Ireland,
came to this country in l74O and set
tied in Virginia, and from him were
descended four or five governnrs Of old
Virginia; four or FIVE cabinet minister.
of different administrations, from Jeffer-
sons to Lincoln's, two United States
Ministers to France and Spain, one
Vice President of the the United States,
two candidates for Vice-President on
the regular Democratic ticket with
Horatio Seymour and Horace Greedy,
several eminent doctors Of divinity,
presidents and professors of colleges,
distinguished editors, fifteen or twenty
members of this House, fifteen senators
OF the United States, and over one
hundred of the most gallant officers,
several of them major-generals, that
fought and fell on both sides In the
recent war. Among these descend
ants were Major General Francis P.
Blair, Postmaster Genera! Montgomery
Blair, Acknowledgement John Breck-
enridge, Vice-President John G. Brock
enridge, Senator B. GRAFT Brown, Sen
ator and United States Minister James
Mcdowell, Governor James Patton
Preston, Major-General William Pres
ton, Senator William c.. Preston. Of
South Carolina. Secretary of the Navy
William p. Preston, Mrs. General
Fremont, Colonel Peter A. Porter, Gen
eral Ed ward G. Darlington, United
States Attorney for the District of
Columbia, Mrs. Senator Wade Hamp-
ton, Mrs. Albert Sidney Johnston,
Mrs. Senator John w. Johnston, Mrs.
Senator Thomas Hart Benton, Mrs.
Robert Wick!ife, of Kentucky, and
my distinguished and gallant friend,
the First District of Louisiana, and al
ready elected by a unanimous vote as
from that State on the expira-
ton OF his p esent term here All
these and hundreds more Of distin-
guished Americans, intermarrying
with the families of Washington, Pat
rick Henry, and Henry Clay, and all
descended from one of Thousand Of
Irish emigrants landing here half a Gen.
fury before the Revolution. giving
bravery and beauty, manhood and wis
dom to the American people.
An IrishmaD from Limerick settled
in Maine, called his new home in
America BY the name Of his native place
married an Irish girl that came on the
same ship with him. He gave two
sons to the service of the country, one
John Sullivan, a faverite general Of
Washington, and another james Sui
Ivan, governor of Massachusetts,, and
from them a number of Massachusetts,
most distinguished scholars and citi-
zens are descended.
Another Irishman, Ephraim Brevard,
in North Carolina, married an
girl named McNitt, who came
over with him, and their son, DR..
Ephraim Brevard, was the author of
the Mecklenberg declaration Of indie
that preceded Jefferson's by
over a year, in pledgins their lives,
fortunes, and sacred honor for the In
of the colonies.
Can the desc ndants of these men
stand by now unmoved while Ireland
struggling for what they achieved for
America2
Sir, that little society of Philadel-
phia, called The Friendly Sons Of
Saint Patrick" gave Washington
more generals that New England gave
to Neutrality-suspicious. Sullivan, john
and Henry Knox-wcre all
Irish; and am [. an American Con-
gresham, standing in the Capitol Of a
country whose independence was won
by such conspicuous services Of Irish
men, afraid to say a kind word for
Ireland through fear of the tOadies of
England. who thirsted for the blood of
Washin gten and gloried in the smoke
Of this Capitol's burninga
Look at the records of our revolution,
Were it not for the Irish soldiers under
Washington we should have no York
town auG nc Congress. Read the
names Of the Irish singers of the Dec
leratien of Independence of the gen.
erals in our war Of Independence:
John Armstrong, father and sen, the
latter the grandfather Of the present
John Jacob Aston; Richard Butler,
n OF the i've brothers serving in our
reyulutiOn John Gibson and his broth.