Kentucky Irish American. (Louisville, Ky.) 1898-1968, 1917-03-17

Sah(baAJAhB III duA Llthluf
Of Il an American shrine of patriot
ism. II was the hand of Ken
lucky Irishman, Col. Richard John
son, .afterward Vice President Of the
United States. that slew the great
Tecumseh. a good share of the
Kentucky and Tennessee fifemen
who at New Orleans stood behind
Andy Jackson's cotton bale breast
works. moving down Packenham's
Peninsular veterans and making
their red coats redder still with the
life blood of those invaders, were
freshmen, real Irishmen. They
proved their Irish lineage by the
fact that they fell out and quarreled
with Old Hickory. because he de-
MED them all the credit for winning
the fight, and he quarreled back,
for he was by way OF being an
freshman himself.
1t was a Kentucky frishman, DR..
Ephriam McDoyell. who performed
the first operation for ovariotomy---
performed II on a kitchen table
with mad husband standing over
ihim with a drawn revolver. threat
ening to shoot him IL his wife died
under the knife. But he went ahead
land ii was successful operation,
land II has brought relief and life
and sanity TO millions of women
all over the world. II was q Ken
lucky Irishman and a soldier,
Theodore O'Hara. who penned per-
haps the most beautiful lyric poem
and certainly the sweetest tribute
to the brave In our language, the
immortal "Bivouac of the Dead !"
It was another Kentucky Irishman,
the sanity poet-priest, Father
Ryan, whose hand wrote those two
fondest poems in memory of the
Lost Cause, 1.-The Conquered Ban
ner" and 1.-The Sword OF Robert e.
Lee."
In the civil war il was Ken
tuckian OF Scotch and Irish descent
who led the North--Abraham Lin
coln-and 1t was another Ken
tuckian Of mingled Irish and Scotch
lblood--Jefferson Davis--who was
President of the Confederacy. The
| historian Collins said the five great
est lawyers Kentucky ever produced
were Barry, Rowan, Haggin, Brock
inridge and Bledsoe-four Irish
names and one Indian name-and
yet these five have been called
Ambassadors, too.
What is true of Kentucky is to a
greater OF less degree true of the
rest of the South. II was an Irish
virginian, Patrick Henry, who
sounded the first keynote of the
American Revolution, and who at
the risk OF his life by his words
paved the way for the Declaration
- ~
| lima freshman, John c. Calhoun,
first raised the slogan of nullifica-
| ton, and 1t wac another Irishman,
Andrew Jackson, of Tennessee, who
gwore by the eternal to hang him
higher than Hannah il he carried
out his plan.
Tonight you have heard a tribute,
and a deserved one, to little Phil
Sheridan, of the North. but l. want
to couple his name with that of
Southern Irishman, the son of an
irish refugee, Pat Cleburne, of
Arkansas. one of the most gallant
leaders that the civil war produced.
Pat Cleburne died on one of the
bloodiest battletields of Christen-
dom IN his stocking feet because
as he rode into battle that morn
Ing he saw one of his Irish boys
from Little Rock tramping barefoot
ed over the frozen burrows of
wintry cornfield and leaving tracks
of blood behind him. SO he drew
off his boots and babe the soldier
put them on. and fifteen minutes
later he went to his God In his
stocking feet. Raleigh laid down
his coat before Good Queen Bess,
and has been immortalized for his
chivalry. but think a more courtly
deed was that of the gallant Irish
man, Pat Cleburne, for one was
kowtowing before royalty and the |
other had in his heart only thought
fulness and humility for the COM |
mon man afoot.
Sam Houston, the first President |
OF the Lone Star State, was a Ten
nessee Irishman, Irish through and !
through. and the present President
of the United States, Southerner
also, is half Irish. One of tine most
members of the Su-
prene Court in recent years was
Kentucky Irfshman, John M. Har-
Ian, and today two of the men who
SIT on that tribunal are Irishmen-
White, Of Louisiana. the dis
and honored Chief JUS
ice. and McReynolds. OF Tennessee.
could go on for hours, IL your
patience held out-and my throat
.elling of the achievements OF Irish
men and of the imperishable records
hat Irishmen have left on the his
DRY of that part of the Union from
which I came, but to call the roll OF
ne great men who have done great
hings and won achievement and
anne south of Mason's and Dixon's
inc since there was such a line.
would be almost like running
through the parish registers of the
ounties of Ireland, both North and
'outh. Indeed, in my opinion, II
3 not altogether topography or lR
geography or climate that has made
he South what 1t is and given 1t
hose distinguishing characteristics X
rhich adorn IT. The soft speech of
he Southerner, his warm heart and
is hot head, his readiness to be-
in a fight and to forgive his OPP
onent afterward, his veneration for
Tomen's chastity and his love for
ne ideals OF his native land--all
aese are herltages of his Irish an
estry, transmitted TO him through
To generations. The North has
ut her heroes on a pension. but
lie South has put hers on a pedes-
4. There is not Southern ham
4 OF any size today that has not \