The Irish standard., 1909-08-14
THE SUPERINTENDENT.

ant, who happens TO De frOteStdll,
performs a meritorious deed or rises
to distinction in the United States,
the newspapers. in nine cases out OF
ten, are apt to refer to him as Scotch
Irish. The average newspaper report
er, If asked what is meant by the
phrase Scotch-Irish, would answer that
the term is applied to the Presbyter-
ians of the North Of Ireland and their
offspring in this country. AS mat
ter of fact, the Scotch settlers OF
Ulster and their descendants have
never assumed that appellation In Ire
land The leading men of that stock
who figure prominently in Irish his
tory of the 18th century always called
themselves Irish and nothing else The
organizers of the United 1rishmen
never called themselves Scotch-lrish.
The Orrs, the McCrackens, the Mon
roes, the McKinleys and their COM
patriots who suffered death for Ire
land in 1898 were Irishmen of the best
type and very proud Of the country
that gave them birth. They loved it
so intensely that they undertook to
free it from the British yoke. No
nobler set Of men ever attempted to
make ireland a republic than the men
of Scotch origin who organized the
United Irishmen. They failed, but
their memories live and are honored
by their Catholic fellow-countrymcn.
The word Scotch-Irish was coined
in America by the degenerate descend
ants Of those noble 1rishmen Of the
past and we find 1t used in connec-
ton with the name Of General Mont
gomery in Bancroft's history. The
Offspring of the Irish Of Ulster who
settled in New Hampshire and other
eastern states considered themselves
superior to the Celtic natives Of Ire
land and began to use the hyphenated
word Scotch Irish as a mark of dis
tinction. They organized what is
known as the Scottish-American His
torical society and claimed every Irish
man Of prominence in American history
whose name did not begin with o or
Mac. President Mckinley was in
duced to join it, and for number CT
years the society cut quite a figure
until the American-Irish Historical So
ciety arose and cast it into the shade.
The Boston Herald recently published
from its New York correspondent a
eulogy of Samuel Sloan, who was
identified with a great railroad COM
pany, and said Of him: by reason Of
Mr.. Sloan's acute Scotch genius the
Lackawanna property he did so much
to develop is able to match, and more
than match, the financial achievement
in the way Of stock dividends Of
Commodore Vanderbilt"
No sooner had he read the quoted
sentence about Mr.. Slodn's Scotch
genius" than Joseph Smith. a leading
member Of the American Irish society,
took up his pen and wrote as follows
to the Boston Traveller:
Where did old Sam Sloan get his
Scotch genius? Sam Sloan was a
plain freshman. who was lifelong
member Of the Friendly Sons Of St.
Patrick Of New York, and a pretty con-
all ~ .s1,,S-
Day dinners while his health lasted.
When that amusing body which called
itself the Scotch Irish society Of
America was organized by a bunch Of
Pennsylvania Presbyterians who for
got where their fathers came from.
they invited Sam Sloan to become a.
member. Gentlemen said the shrewd
old man, I never in my life heard
of such breed as the Scotch Irish.
There is nothing Scotch about me:
am plain Irish like my fathers before
me, and I shall continue to be Irish
until I die We never knew a self
respecting Scot or 1rishman who
wasn't quite satisfied to be Scot or
an 1rishman; and we never met man
who called himself Scotch Irishman
who was not consciously advertising
his ignorance Of ethnology and history
1.-THE rule in America among the
half-baked writer's Of history is to call
every Protestant Irishman a Scotch
1rishman and adversely a Catholic
Irishman is an Irish 1rishman. Thus
theology becomes the basis Of eth
nology and change Of churches be-
comes a change Of bloods. and we
suppose this peculiar absurdity is a
survival of that provincial America