The semi-weekly messenger., 1901-05-14
dhr Wlessel,grr.
Entered at the Postofice at Whining
ton N. c.. as Second-Class
Matter April 13. 1879.
A STRIKING TRIBUTE TO THE
IRIsHMEN IN THE SOUTH.


to us always appeared to be very re-
markable when we recah Ireiahu
prosecutions and outrages perpetrateo
by England since the days Oh queen
Elizabeth and Cromwell later why
any of that race should have been VIII
ling to fight the south in its self-de-
fence and war for independence is sur
passing strange.
But the Irish race in the south has
been of another kind. 1t has made
fine record and been illustrated by
many men of brilliant parts and dis
tinguished services. Recently at Mont
gomery, Alabama, there was a banquet
given by Hibernian societies or that
city The orator was MI Alexander
Troy, of that place. Among the emil
nent men of Irish descent whom Mr..
Troy enumerated were Charles Carroll,
o. MARYLAND; Thomas Nelson, of Vir-
glnia; Edward Rutledge and Thomas
Lynch, of South Carolina, slgners OF
the Declaration of Independence. In
the Revolutionary war there were Will
liam Thompson, John Rutledge, Ruth
.erford, Howard, Mcclure, Read, Dooly
and hundreds of others. 1t was an in
trepid Irishman, Sergeant Jasper, who
in the British attack on Fort Moultre,
on June 2S, 1776, when the Flagstaff
which floated the crescent flag of South
Carolina was cut away by shot from
a. ! ritish frigate, sprang over the para
pei fastened the flag upon staft, ana
All. | a. storm of shot and shell, planted
it . Don the bastion. The Irish -Ameri-
cans Daniel Carroll, of Maryland;
Ge1rge Read, of Delaware; John Rut-
isage and Pierce Butler, of South car
.oIina, were among the trainers OF the
constitution. During the war with Mex
leo an Irish-American, James K. Polk,
was at the helm. Andrew jackson,
man who gloried in his Irish ancestry,
was elected president, and Jno Z. Cal
houn, another Irish-American, was
chosen vice president. Polk and jack
son were born North Carolinians. There
have been all along since revolutionary
times a long array of gifted and useful
and faithful sons of Erin. Speaking or
xbe Irish in the south Mr.. Troy Eve
quote from a summary we find in the
Baltimore Sum said, they have estap-
,ished colleges, said the orator, and
maintained them. They built railroads
and managed them. They have built
cities and governed them. They have
been in the legislative halls to make
laws and then sat on the bench as
Judges to construe them. They nave
,een representatives in congress, gov
-arnors. supreme court judges, United
States senators, cabinet ministers and
presidents They are in the south now
pursuing their peaceful vocatlons-
some in the sacred office of the priest
hood some as merchants, farmers, doc
tors. lawyers and in all the honorable
callings in civil life. 1--WE see southern
members of this race" added Mr.. Troy,
lin all the grand events of our race
We see the fire and enthusiasm of the
Irishman in Patrick Henry, in the Vir-
:syinia house of delegates, uttering the
hattie cry which won the revolutian-
Give me liberty or give me death We
see him in Charles Carroll, with price
z1pon his head, who scorned danger by
adding of Carrolton,' as an indelible
designation of the individual, to his
signature to the Declaration of 1nde-
pendence. We see him in battle al
Kings Mountain, the Cowpens, Gull
ford court house-in fact, in all the
battles of the revolution from Concord
TO yorktown. We see him in Andrew
jackson at New Orleans and in Stone
wall Jackson at Charlottesville"
He goes on to tell of General Pat Gle
burne, the "knightliest of knightly,
race whose bright sword waved and
.glitered in thickest of the fight; whoa
private soldier in 1861 and brigadier
general in 1862, after winning renown
and glory at Shiloh, Perryville, Muir
freesboro and Chickamauga, leading
his handful of men against 10000 of the
enemy, strongly intrenched behind
,breastworks, and carrying two of them,
laid down his life on the bloody field OF
Franklin" Among other Irishmen of
1the civil war period were Abram ]. Ry
an, the poet-priest, who touched his
harp and the air was filled with music"
Daniel j. Ryan, the young brother of
Father Ryan, who gave his life for the
confederacy; Pat O'Connor, who. NOR
tally wounded in battle. gave his
sword to his commading officer and
asked him to give it to his mother and
tell her there was no stain on it, And
80 on he tell story of the brave dashing
Irishmen who fought with the natives
~of the south against the cruel invaders,
in one Of the most Ubiquitous, Infamous
wars that history records. All honor
ito the heroic and daring men of Ireland
who sought to deliver the south from
its enemies.
Some years ago we made something
of a study of Ireland and its race in
another direction-the Indebtedness of
the reading world in the field OF states
zmanship and letters. We were led to
this investigation because we had been