The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1904-08-20
In Portland the Distinguished Visitor is
Given Great Ovation at the New
Columbia Theater.
Americas Debt to Ireland the Subject of an
Eloquent and Patriotic Address by
Wallace McCamant.

I blood meeting in county after county
of Pennsylvania, Virginia and the
Carolinas to hold up the hands of the
patriot leaders; always in the van of
public opinion; always bravely pro-
claiming the principles for which, as
free men, they We're ready to fight
and die. Men Of Irish blood pro-
claimed the AIecklenburg Declaration
of independence; defended the rail
fence at Bunker Hill; made up the
rank and file Of the victorious armies
which at Kings Mountain and the
Cowpens rolled back the tide of in
| vasion in the South.
$50 predominant We're they in the
various regiments of the Pennsylvania
line that Light Horse Harry Lee said,
These detachments had better have
been called the line Of Ireland
1T is significant Of their trustwor-
thiness and fidelity that when Wash
ington was apprised Of the treason Of
Benedict Arnold, when he knew not
whom to trust, he at once sent for
the Pennsylvania line, commanded by
Anthony Wayne, the grandson Of
Wicklow county Irishman, to occupy
West Point. These troops were at
Haverstraw, distant sixteen miles
from West Point and Washington's
message reached them at one in the
morning. By two o'clock they were
on the march. At six am, they
reached West Point and Washington
breathed freely in the confidence that
the Gibraltar of the Hudson was safe.
"Men of Irish blood made up Nor
gan's detachment Of rif1emen. Bur-
goyne told Morgan, when he met him
after the surrender at Saratoga, that
this was the finest regiment on earth.
Each man in the ranks wore a cap on
| which were inscribed the words Glib
erty or Death" On score of fields Of
| battle, from the snow-clad cliff of Que
bee to the uplands Of the Carolinas,
these men proved that these words
were no idle boast, but a principle
burned by persecution on the hearts
of liberty-loving race, making on
American soil it's final stand for all
that man holds dear. Ireland gave to
the American Revolution such men as
Montgomery, the hero Of Quebec, and
Stark, the hero Of Bennington; Stump.
ter, Pickens and Williams, the great
partisan leaders of the South; Clinton
the great war governor of New York
and Rutledge, the still greater wal
governor of South Carolina. At time
when there was no organized resist.
ance to the British either in South
Carolina or in Georgia immigrants
from Ulster, residing in the Williams.
burg district in South Carolina, sum.
moned Francis Marion to lead them,
and thus from men of Irish blood was
recruited Marion's brigade, which
gave to the world it's most splendid
spectacle Of partisan warfare.
"Of late years school of historians
has arisen who have taught that
American independence was won sole.
ly by the exertions Of the New Eng.
land Puritan.
''No intelligent man will attempt to
minimize the splendid services render.
ed by New England Puritanism to the
American Revolution, but men who
wrote in the days when revolutionary
recollections were fresh, in accounting
for the success of the American armies
were disposed chiefly to emphasize
the part played by Irishmen in that
epoch-making struggle. Plowden says
1T is a fact beyond question that most
Of the early successes in America
were Immediately owing to the vigor.
ous exertions and prowess of the
Irish immigrants who bore arms in
that cause Ramsay says: The Irish
in America were almost to a man on
the side Of independence. They had
fled from oppression in their native
country and could not brook the idea
that it should follow them Froude
says. Throughout the reyolted col
onies all evidence shows that the fore.
! 'impst the formidable, tie most deter.