The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-03-30


 Irfsh names.
 The first Governor of New York was Gen. George Clinton, whose brother James Clinton was a greater soldier. George Clinton was Cover nor for eighteen years and afterward sons of Charles Clinton of County Longford.
 The first Governor of Delaware was Dr. J ohm McKinly, 8 native of Ire land. The first Governor of South Carolina was the distinguished John Rutle dge, afterward Chief Justice of the Unsted States. His brother Ed ward Rutledge, was a signer of the Declaration of Independence; his oth- CT brother, Hugh. was Speaker of the South Carolina House of Representa- tives and Judge of the Court of Equity. These famous men were sons of pr. John Rutledge Of Ireland.
 Among the Igners of the Declara- ton of Independence, Matthew Thorn ton Of New Hampshire, George Smith and Matthew Taylor of Pennsylvania. were natives of Ireland. Thomas Mo Kaan of Rennsylvania, George Read of Delaware, Joseph Reed and John Hart of New Jersey, Charles Carroll of Carrollton, Thomas Lynch of South Carolina, Edward Rutledge and Will liam Whipp1e were Irish by blood, as also Robert Treat Paine of Massachu- sets, whose ancestor in Ireland changed his name from O'NeilI to Paine
 John Nixon. who read the Declara- tien to the people. was an Irishman's s son Jehn Dunlap, who first printed it, was an IrIshman, who published the first weekly paper in the United States. Charles Thomson, Secretary of the Congress that framed it, was a native of Ireland
 Irish generals, Hand, Thon pson, Lewis, Morgan, Piekens, Conway, side of the colonies. And in the dark est hours of the war, the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick. of Philadelphia- com posed of Protestant and Catholic Irish. subscribed over $517, 1000. to keep the flag flying. to keep the war go- ing, to fight on until victory or ex- termination should be the result
 The Irish nobly helped to win free dofn. They helped to make it secure. In the second war with England Mac donaugh victor of P1attsburgh, on Lake Cham plain, was of Irish blood. Perry9 the victor Of Lake Erie, and Charles Stewart the famous com rnander Of Old Ironsides,'' were of Irish blood. while the great military figure Of the war was Andrew Jack son, the victor of New Orleans, after ward President, the son of Irish par ents from Carrickfergus When Jack son was President. his Vice-Presfdent. John c. Calhoun, was also of Irish blood.
 The bonbardment of a fort near Baltimore led Francis Scott Key to write teThe Star Spangled Banner 2 The fort over which the passing of the night and the coming of the dawn revealed that the flag was still there,'' was Fort McHenry, named for T<1f l geon in the Revolution, and Secretary of War under George Washington.
 Beginning with about 1920 great immigration of Catholic Irish came to America They had been bitterly per secuted for centuries in Ireland They had been denied the right of suffrage, the right to hold office, the right to carry arms, the right to, have Irish names, the right to educate their chiIe dren as Catholics, the right to Wor- ship according to their faith. They had lived through sincessant persecu- ton and oppressive government and over-taxation- They sought liberty, opportunity and a new hope in Amer Sica. But they met persecution here. Their faith was hated. A great poldti- cal party sprang up based on opposf- ton to Catholicism. Irish and .tCathoIic's became syno1ymous. The initerate Catholics were derided, their churches were assailed. cut down in Iso,rdsvilIe. burned in PhiladeIpfia- The Ursuline convent in Charlestown. Mass, burned.
 But these Catholic Irish c1ung to their faith They brought their priests from Ireland They worked at the hardest labor. They dug the ditches. quarrfed the lodges, worked in the mines. built the railways and earned their bread in their sweat. Their children received what their fathers could not et-education--the he knowledge that is power, and up from the Irish tenement and shanty came the children of the Irish to place and power, judges senators. great profes- sforad men, great business sm eI1. men of mark and might, men Of influence in American life, American in every cu1e visited upon their parents, the Catholic immigrant Irish.
 They fought in the Mexican War. Gen. James Shields. from Tyrone, be- ing one of the brilliant figures He was afterward Governor of Oregon, Senator in the United States Senate from Illinois. Minnesota and Missouri, an ornament to his race and his faith and the only man to represent three states in the Senate
 Admiral Stephen C1egg Rowan, an Irishnaan, fought so valiantly on land and sea as to receive the thanks of Congress and promotion He was the father of that Lieutenant Andrew Rowan who took the message to Garcia just before the Spanish War, which made the Cuban patriots take heart and brought out the crisis that caused American intervention, and the liberation of Cuba
 In the great Civil War, the Irish sol dders and sailors and generals are too numerous to mention The Irish ers- vice was on the side of liberty and union. The south, then in revolt. was, as it is now, largely of native Ameri- can stock Nearly 10000 Irish had been coming to the United States each year from 1s45- The United States census of 1850 showed that of the for aivr-torri nopuIation the Irish were - "a sI,l,o r-ocords of fte