Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 8.djvu/178

 IRISH

138

IRISH

securing the services of priests and the building of churches and schools, at the same time that homes and other material assistance were provided for them. These movements for the colonization of Irish immi- grants differed from the ordinary schemes of emigra- tion in that the promoters did not invite or encourage the Irish to leave their native land, but for those who had arrived or were resolved to come they sought to provide homes free from the distressing and degraded conditions which so many of those who remained in the large cities had to face.

The entire white population of the Colonies at the outbreak of hostilities in 1775 has been estimated by various authorities, including the historian Bancroft, at 2,100,000, of which about one-third was settled in New England and the remaining two-thirds in New York, Pennsylvania, and the Southern Colonies. Dr. Carroll estimated the Catholics in all the Colonies at that time at 25,000. It is well known that a consider- able number of the colonists were adverse to the War of Independence, and these refrained from giving any support to the struggling Colonies. Lecky estimates (England in the Eighteenth Century, IV, 153) that one-half of the Americans were either openly or secretly hostile to the Revolution. Other writers are content to fix the proportion of those who were disaffected towards the cause of the patriots at one-third of the entire population. But the records show very few, if any, Irish, whether Catholics or Protestants, among those lukewarm patriots. On the contrary, Irish im- migrants and the sons of Irishmen in the various colonies were among the most active and unwavering supporters of the cause of liberty. Ramsay says, in his "Historyof the American Revolution, 11,311: "the Irish in America, with a few exceptions, were attached to independence". Whether in the councils of state, or while enduring the hardships of military service, or by the material and financial support which they gave to the struggling colonists, they contributed so gener- ously of their blood and treasure that without their aid the issue of the contest may well appear doubtful.

In June, 1779, when Parliament was investigating the reverses sustained by the British armies in their American campaigns, Joseph Galloway, who had held various offices under the Crown in Philadelphia until the evacuation of that city in 1778, was asked : " That part of the rebel army that enlisted in the service of con- gress, were they chiefly composed of natives of America, or were the greatest part of them English, Scotch and Irish?" His answer was: "The names and places of their nativity being taken down, I can answer the question with precision. They were scarcely one- fourth natives of America; about one-half Irish; the other fourth English and Scotch." And this was con- firmed by the English Major General Robertson, who, testifying before the same committee, said: "I re- member General Lee telling me that half of the rebel army were from Ireland " (" House of Commons Re- ports", 5th Session, 14th Parliament, III, .303, 431; see also "The Evidence as given before a committee of the House of Commons on the detail and conduct of the American War, London, 1785", cited in Bag- enal, "The American Irish", p. 12). And these facts gave point to the taunt flung at the ministers by Lord Mountjoy during the debate in Parliament over the repeal of the Penal Laws: "You have lost America through the Irish." " It is a fact beyond question", says Plowden, "that most of the early successes in America were immediately owing to the vigorous exertions and prowess of the Irish emigrants who bore arms in that cause " (Historical Review of the State of Ireland, II, 178). The historians Marmion and Gordon write to the same effect.

Speaking of the Irisli immigrants, a recent American writer, Douglas Cunipbcll. says: "They contributed elements to American thought and life without which the United States of to-clay would be impossible.

By them American Independence was first openly advocated and but for their efforts seconding those of New England Puritans that Independence would not have been secured" (The Puritan in Holland, Eng- land and America, II, 471). And Lecky speaking of the Ulster emigrants writes: "They went with hearts burning with indignation and in the War of Inde- pendence they were almost to a man on the side of the insurgents. They supplied some of the best soldiers of Washington. The famous Pennsylvania Line was mostlj' Irish " (op. cit., II, 262). So, too, we may add, the Maryland Line was largely made up of Irish exiles or of the sons of Irishmen. The colonial records of New York, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, the Caro- linas, and other localities show that from Lexington to Yorktown Irishmen took part in every campaign, and W. E. Robinson declares, "there was no battle- field in the Revolution in which Irish blood did not flow freely for American Independence ". Nor did the Irish shrink from making large pecuniary sacrifices for the cause. In 1780 when the Continental Army, severely tried by nearly five years of exhausting struggle, was in desperate straits for necessary cloth- ing and supplies, to say notliing of the pay of the troops, a fund of two million dollars was raised by subscription from ninety of the most prominent Amer- ican patriots in the Pennsylvania Colony. Twenty- nine of these suljscribers were Irish either by birth or parentage, all members of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, and their united subscriptions amounted to four hundred and forty thousand dollars.

Among the signers of the Declaration of Indepen- dence thirteen (some authorities claim more) were of Irish origin. These were Matthew Thornton and William Whipple who signed for New Hampshire, James Smith, James Wilson, and George Taylor of Pennsylvania, Thomas Lynch, Jr., and Edward Rut- ledge of South Carolina, George Read and Thomas McKean of Delaware, Charles Carroll of CarroUton, Maryland, Thomas Nelson, Jr., of Virginia, William Hooper of North Carolina, and Philip Livingston of New York. It was promulgated over the signatures of the President of the Continental Congress and of Charles Thompson, its Irish secretary. Col. John Nixon, a member of the Committee of Safety and son of an Irishman born in the County of Wexford, first read that ilociuncnt to a great concourse of people assembled in tlic State House yard, Philadelphia, and it was first i^rinted from the press of another Irishman, John Dunlap from Tyrone, who had already (1771) started the "Pennsylvania Packet", the first daily newspaper published in the United States. The con- vention whose deliberation produced the wi'itten Con- stitution upon which the Government rests, included among its memliers a large proportion of Irishmen. Prominent among them were William Iji\ingston, the fir.st Governor of New Jersey, William Patcrson, later to be Governor of the same state, Daniel Carroll of Maryland, Thomas FitzSimons of Philadelphia, George Read of Delaware, Richard Dobbs Spaight, afterwards Governor of North Carolina and Hugh Williamson of the same state, Pierce Butler and John Rutledge of South Carolina, the latter to become afterwards C'hief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. One of the most influential men in the service of the struggling patriots was Charles Thomp- son, born in the Covmty of Derry, Ireland, who had arrived at Newcastle, Delaware, in 1740. He was the confidential friend of every leader in the Colonies throughout the struggle, and his knowledge of affairs and administrative capacity were so universally con- ceded that he was chosen secretary of the First Con- tinental ('(ingress, serving the succeeding congresses in the sam<' caiiaoity for a period of fourteen years.

Among the oliicers of Irisli nationality in the Con- tinental Army who won distinction l)y brilliant service, we may name the following. General Henry Knox, son