The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1899-05-27

ported to the European continent to
serve in foreign armies; but no provision
was made for the wives OF these men
or for the widows of their comrades
who had fallen on the field and their
numerous children. In this strait num-
Der of Bristol merchants put their heads
together and made proposals to Crom-
wells commissioners for. the shipment
Of these unhappy beings TO the tobacco
plantations of North America and the
West Indies. The offer was accepted,
sum of money was paid for each woman
and child and all were shipped off to
what was to all intents and purposes
state of slavery. For four years the
work OF transportation went on, and
during that time, according to Irish ac-
counts, about 100000 souls were trans
ported from Ireland
One of those periodical famines which
devastate Ireland occurred in the year
1862, and many Southern farmers, hear
ing of the success OF the Ulster emf
grants in the New World, sold their
stock and took shipping for the same
asylum OF the unfortunate. The elo-
quent pages OF Mr.. Bancroft tell us of the
persecution which awaited them in Ma
ryland, the colony founded by Catholics
on the basis of the broadest religious
liberty, and we learn from them also of
the liberality with which the state of
Pennsylvania received them
From 1875 to 1845 two million immi-
grants had landed on the American
shores. In 1886, the year preceding the
most awful of the Irish famines, the inn
migration suddenly assumed enormous
proportions, and from that period it has
continued, with more or less fluctuation,
to be the main feeder OF the vitality OF
this continent
1t is impossible to estimate the bene-
fits which the coming OF people OF
such qualities as these conferred upon
decaying and moribund population such
as existed in New England and many
other regions at the period when the
Irish immigration set in, like a physi-
illogical Gulf stream, to arrest the down.
ward tendency. Two eminent medical
authorities in Massachusetts,, DR.. Allen
ard DIR. Jesse Chickering, in analyzing
the registration and census returns for
that state thirty years ago, declared that,
were it not for the foreign element, the
population must in the course of few
decades die out.
1t should be observed that the census
returns are misleading on this subject
of foreign-born and native residents.
Every one born on this soil is claimed
as an American-and properly so, re-
garded from the point of view of citizen
ship and legal technicality. The children
OF Irish parents, if born here, are classed
as American. A very cautious estimate
OF the number of Irish immigrants since
the beginning of the century is four
millions. There have been nearly four
generations since then, and Irish fami-
lies in this country are large-probably
seven children on an average would not
be too high an estimate. In Ireland,
where, because of poverty, the marriages
are few, the average is five Gould we
add to these four millions the uncertain
ty Of any approximate total, we might
find ourselves confronted with the fact
that one-half-possibly a good many
more-of the people of this continent to-
day have Irish blood in their veins. So
much for the moral and physiological
sides of the investigation.
The intellectual qualities OF the Irish
race, as known here, should be judged
by their fruits 1t has been denied that
the Irish-American, either in the pro-
LESSONS, in politics or in trade, often
rises to high position. Generalities Of
this loose and sweeping kind are hardly
worth the trouble of answering. 1t is
not easy to pick out any individual Of
American birth, from the president
down to the policeman, who has not
some Irish blood in him. II we look to
the law where shall we find lights more
brilliant than Thomas Adds Emmet and
Charles O'Conor? The three most
prominent members OF the judicial
bench in New York, up to few months
ago, were Chief Justice DAILY, Judge
Sinyth and Recorder Gof. Two OF
these, if not all three, were Irish-born
l believe there are hundreds OF judges
throughout the states whose legal stand
ing is living refutation OF this shallow
absurdity. The Hon. Bourke Cochran
furnishes a proof that forensic ability
and oratorical power ard elegance are
by no means irreconcilable with the fact
OF Irish nativity. Literature and art are
as yet but young among us; but in what
we have of it Irish craft is not altogether
unknown. The names of Father Abram
Ryan, the poet priest OF the South,
Theodore O'Hara, Thomas Darcy Nc
Gee, John Boyle O'Reily, James Gil
mary Shea, Fitzjames O'Bricn, Maurice
F. Egan, James Jeffrey Roche, Louise
1mogen Guiney-to Gull only few from
g. goodly cluster-attest that Irish origin