The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1910-02-19
THE IRISH SOLDIER
IN THE CIVIL WAR

The following magnificent tribute to
the work of Irish soldiers, by General
Isaac X. Sherwood, representative in
Congress from the Ninth Ohio district.
viii be read with interest by everyone
who holds revered memories of the men
who fought and bled that the Union
might be maintained.
Matthew Arnold said over a half GEN.
fury ago: Inequality materializes the
upper classes, Vulgarizes the middle
classes, AID brutalizes the lower
classes" Patriotism, which unites the
love of country with the love of fellow
man, Is directly and inevitably opposed
to materialism, which means combi-
nation of selfisnneSs and greed, the sure
precursor of Vulgarity and inequality.
And today in the United States. all
students Of prevailing conditions admit
that we are living in material age,
when selflshness rules the courts and
the government, and the old patriotic
spirit is either dead or comatose.
Three Striking Epochs in Our History
There are three striking and startling
epochs in the history of this republic
in which the patriotic spirit was upper
most and a dominating force In the
decade 1868 to 177S; in the decade 1851 to
1861, and in the civic contest of 1865
TO 1872. / do not mention the actual
periods of war because | am not dis
cussing the intense patriotism of camp
and b1vOuac and battle, but the patri-
otism of peace. that goes with civic
government. For the purpose of illus
tration let me refer to local conditions
in Toledo, Immediately after the great
war of the rebellion, and Toledo fitting
ly illustrates the dominant and denom-
mating patriotic spirit everywhere in
evidence at that intense time
Among the first of new acquaintance
/ met on my return from the war in
July, 1865, was that broad-minded and
scholarly and patriotic Irishnan. Ste
phen j. Meany, then editor of the To-
ledo Morning Commercial | became
intimately associated with him on that
paper and through him first met Fa-
Their Hannin, one of the most enthusi-
astic and devoted patriots / have ever
met. He had more energy and vitality
than any human being | have ever
known, all the enthusiasm and intensity
of devotion of my valued comrade of
the war, Father O'Brien, of the Church
of the Good Shepherd. And as evidence
of the fact that Father Hannin was a
devotee of the Union soldiers, he never
missed inviting the writer and others of
the war to all his patriotic entertain
ments. l remember his famous celebra-
ton of st. Patrick's day in Whites
hall, Summit street, March H., 1866 On
that occasion Father Hannin assigned
me to the toast The Irish Soldier In
an old scrap-book / find the following
printed report of that speech:
Irish Heart and Impulse Always True
to Traditions of the Race.
eff l should say the Irish race is the
most belligerent race in the world you
would concede it without argument, but
when l say that the Irish race is the
strongest race in the world in blood,
strength and national vitality you may
call for the evidence. Let us see. The
Phonicians, the Spaniards, the French,
the Danes and the Britons-all invaded
Ireland by war-and each in turn was
absorbed and assimilated by the Irish.
The green isle is still Ireland, and the
Irish heart and impulse are still true to
the traditions of the Irish race.
And here is another characteristic of
the Irish race, No race ever crossed
the Atlantic or the Pacific that has so
rapidly and thoroughly assimiIated
with our free institutions. For instance.
Patrick Henry, half Irish in blood, and
all Irish in spirit, the foremost orator
of the decade preceding the war of the
revolution, was the first to eXclafm in
public. Give me liberty or give me
DEATH
Sheridan the Greatest Cavalry Gen.
eral of the Civil War.
THE Irish Catholics of Maryland led