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 IRISH

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IRISH

In scientific invention and discovery, Robert Fulton, whose name is identified with the first success of steam navigation in America, Samuel F. B. Morse of electric telegraph fame, and Cyrus McCormick, the inventor of the mowing machine, which has revolu- tionized agricultural operations the world over, were sons or grandsons of Irish immigrants from Ulster. The cotton industry, to which New England owes so much of its wealth, had its beginning in the inven- tions and improvements in machinery designed by, and under the direction of, Patrick Tracey Jackson, the son of an Irish immigrant, who had settled at New- buryport, Mass. A cotton mill erected by him at Waltham, Mass., in 1S13, is said to liave been prol> ably the first one in the world that combined all the operations necessary for converting the raw cotton into finished cloth (see McGee, "Irish Settlers, etc. ", pp. 217-218). It was the same Patrick Tracey Jackson who founded the city of Lowell (named after his partner in business) and connected that city with the metropolis of New England by building the Boston and Lowell Railroad (McGee, op. cit., 220- 222).

Passing to the arts, we find in the country's history many representatives of the Irish race who have risen to eminence. Thus in sculpture Thomas Crawford, whose statue of Armed Liberty surmounts the dome of the Capitol at Washington, and whose bronze doors at the entrance to the building are a notable work of art; Launt Thompson; Martin and Joseph Milmore; James E. Kelly, and Augustus St. Gaudens, whose statues of Lincoln in Chicago, of Farragut and Sher- man in New York, and the JParnell memorial in Dub- lin (his last work) are among his admired productions. In architecture, the young Irishman, James Hoban, resident of Charleston, whose plan for the construc- tion of the Executive Mansion (the White House) at Washington was adopted in competition with others. In portrait painting, John Singleton Copley, Charles C. Ingham, and John Ramage, accounted the best miniature painter of his time (17S9), and to whom George Washington sat for his portrait; William Mc- Grath, J. Francis Murphy, Thomas Hovenden, and Thomas S. Cummings. Asa Gray, the famous botanist, was the grandson of an Irish emigrant from Ulster. In horticulture John Barry and William Doogue, who laid out the grounds of the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia and the Public Gardens at Boston, were of Irish birth. In music, Patrick S. Gilmore. As exponents of the dramatic art, Lawrence Bar- rett, John McCullough, William J. Florence, Dion Boucicault, John Brougham, John Drew, Barney WilUams (O'Flaherty) stand forth as types of Irish genius which instructed and delighted bygone gen- erations. In literature the American Irish may claim as representatives of their race the scholarly Kenricks, Francis Patrick, Archbishop of Baltimore, and Peter Richard, Archbishop of St. Louis, both born in Dub- lin, John England, Bishop of Charleston, a native of Cork, Edmunil R. O'Callaghan, the historian of New York, John Mitchell, Brother .\zarias (P. F. Mullany), John Gilmary Shea, John O'Kane Murray, Father James Fitton, the historian of the Church in New England, Rev. Stephen Byrne, O.S.D., Rev. John O'Brien, Rev. Bernard O'Reilly, Matthew Carey, James McSherry, Henry Giles, William E. Robinson ("Richelieu"), John R. G. Hassard, for many years managing editor of the " New York Tribune," D. P. Conyngham, and many others. Among the poets are John Savage, Rev. Abram J. Ryan, the "poet priest of the South", Rev. W. D. Kelly, Richard Dalton Williams, physician and lilUrateur, John Boyle O'Reilly, whose exquisite verse rivals, if it does not surpass his prose writings, Charles G. Halpine (Miles O'Reilly), and Theodore O'Hara, whose lyric the "Bivouac of the Dead" will ever remain a classic.

Among the journalists and publishers of Irish birth or parentage, we may name John Dunlap, pubhsher (1771) of the "Pennsylvania Packet"; Matthew Carey, who (17S5) founded the " Pennsylvania Herald" and in 1790 issued the first CathoUc Bible puljUshed in the United States; Matthew Lyon, the " Hampden of Con- gress", who (1793) published the "Farmers' Library", one of the earliest newspapers published in Vermont; George Pardow of the " Truth Teller" 1828; Rev. R. J. O'Flaherty, who edited "The Jesuit", and his succes- sors, the publishers and editors of the " Boston Pilot", namely, Patrick Donahue, Thomas D'Arcy McGee, Rev. John Roddan, John Boyle O'Reilly ; Thomas O'Conor, publisher of the "Shamrock", whose son C'liarles became the most distinguished jurist of his time ; Bishop Jolm England, who founded and edited the "Catholic Miscellany"; Rev. James Keogh, first editor of the "Philadelphia Catholic Standard"; Bish- op Michael O'Conor, who founded the "Pittsburg Catholic", and Rev. Tobias Mullen, afterwards Bishop of Erie, who continued its publication; Bernard Dor- nin, an exile with Emmet and MacNevin, and John Doyle, early publishers of Catholic books in New York; Dr. P. E. Moriarty, O.S.A., distinguished both as a writer and controversialist; Daniel W. Mahoney and Charles A. Hardy, who published "The Catholic Standard" of Philadelphia and later "The American Catholic Quarterly Review", under the editorship of the scholarly Dr. James A. Corcoran; James A. Mc- Ma.ster, editor of the "Freeman's Journal"; Patrick J. Meehan, of the "Irish American"; Edward Dimigan and James B. Kirker and their successor; Felix E. O'Rourke, Denis and James Sadlicr, all of New York; Eugene Cummiskey and John Murphy of Baltimore; Lawrence Kehoe of New York; besides many other Irishmen and sons of Irishmen whose names are iden- tified with Irish and Catholic journalism and with the publication of Irish and Catholic literature in the United States. Prominent in the ranks of secular journalism were Horace Greeley, of the "New York Tribune", E. L. Godkin, of the "New York Evening Post", William Cassidy, of the "Albany Argus", Henry O'Reilly, of the "Rochester Advertiser", and Hugh J. Hastings.

Nearly one-half of all the presidents of the United States have been of Celtic extraction. The Ust in- cludes James Monroe, James K. Polk, Andrew Jack- son, James Buchanan, Ulysses S. Grant, Chester A. Arthur, Benjamin Harrison, Andrew Johnson, and William McKinley. And at no time since the estab- lishment of the Government has the Irish race been without representation in Congress, among the judici- ary, in the diplomatic service, and in the cabinets of presidents. Many of the men named for their dis- tinguished military services afterwards held posts of honour in the civil service of the Government. To the names already mentioned of patriots of the Revo- lution, who afterwards became governors or chief ju-stices of their respective states, we may add William Claiborne, of Irish birth, first Governor of Louisiana, when that state was admitted to the L^nion (1812), Andrew Jackson, Governor of Florida, General James Shields, first Governor of Oregon Territory, Thomas F. Meagher, first Governor of Montana Territory, and Edward Kavanagh, Governor of Maine in 1843. At the bar and on the bench the list of names of men of Irish blood who acquired distinction would fill a volume. When the attempt was made in 1813 in a New York court to compel the Jesuit Father Anthony Kohlman to di.sclose matters communicated to him in confession, it was the Irish Presbyterian lawyer, Will- iam Sampson, one of the exiles of '98, who justified Father Kohlman's refusal to reveal the information thus acquired, and vindicated the principle (since in- corporated in statute law) protecting ministers of the Gospel against being compelled to disclose matters so communicated. Another Irish exile, Thomas Addis