The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1892-07-29
TRIBUTES TO FRESHMEN.

Gen. Francis A. Walker, President of
the Boston Institute of Technology, lately
at the bi-centenary of Trinity College,
Dublin, and the Independent of that city
pays him this tribute:
Gen. Walker of Boston was more sur
prising than most Americans. The col
lege will take a considerable time to re-
cover from its alarm, for he ruthlessly
violated its old traditions with the most
unconscionable ease and imperturbabil-
ity. Of all places in the world, it SEEM
ed strange to hear an orator addressing
the board and professors of Trinity on
the gallant acts of exiled Irishmen who
died in the wake of an Irish flag of green.
Thomas Francis Meagher was actually
praised from the dais of the terror room
of the college, and by an old brother-in-
arms.
"The tables seemed to be turned on
the professors and all the leading men of
the college, while their American friend
spoke to them of subject which not on
ly suggested, but formed part of Irish
history as distinctive from the history of
Ireland as portion of the British en-
pire. The dons received his information
about Irish valor in stony silence which
it was curious to witness, and which sug-
gested the idea that they did not appar-
emily appreciate the peculiar character
of General Walkers "reminiscences.
'But the overwhelming delight OF some
of the students quite made up for the
languid and dreamy politeness of the
front benches. There were frequent and
loud cheers from the back of the hail.
and General Walker had, at any rate, the
happiness to perceive that portion of
the college was in this country, and
apparently willing to make it known
that it was Irish, not only geographically
but in national sentiment. From his
speech, as well as from its reception,
there could be drawn the idea that the
Irish, as nation were located not in
Ireland, but in America"
In the course of the address Gen.
Walker SAID he came from a country
which had in it more Irish blood than
Ireland possesses, and that he had sailed
from the port which was the largest
Irish city in the world. 1t has been said
at the presentation of the addresses in
the Leinster Hall that Ireland knew no
bounds; but, after all, blood was thicker
than water, and he came before the
graduates with some added confidence
in kind reception, because he was an
American.
|
work it had been his proud privilege to
act as the Adjutant General of that corps
of the United STATES army which includ-
ed the two brigades distlnctively and ex-
clusively Irish loud cheers and during
that time he bore on his breast the Off
cial sign of his corps-the shamrock.
| Cheers. What prodigies of valor were
performed by the Irish regiments! Their
numbers were best known in the history
of Irish valor. Did they not remember
the sixty-ninth and the eighty-eighth
Irish? His auditors were, he said, doubt
less familiar with the history of Irish
valor which had been illustrated in Elan
ders, India and the Crimea, but he feared
they knew little of what their country
men did in maintaining the unity of the
new nation of the West and in Tescuing
the cause of human liberty from one
of the dealliest perils it had encounter
ed.
But what Irishmen had done for
America in arms was after all far less
than what Irishmen had done for Ameri-
ca in upbuilding great free States, mag
nificent in their present wealth and full
of illimitable possibilities of glory and of
greatness.
Among the many distinguished seats
of learning of the Old World there had
always seemed to Americans to be some
thing peculiarly free about Trinity Col
| lege; it seemed to them that there wit
and wisdom, grace and strength were
mingled with complexion and harmony
which were nowhere else to be found.
He wished prosperity to the country,
its capital and to the university
Cheers.