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Show IE PRESIDENT AND THE SONS Of ST. PATRICK I The Nation's Chief Executive Honors the Sons I of Erin on the feast cf Their I Patron Saint I M resident Roosevelt was tho guest of lienor on I 1 k night, of St. Patrick's day at the one hundred J : i. twenty-first dinner of iho Friendly Sons of St. I i .11 rick. He was roundly cheered by more than COO I ; embers of the society and its guests. He made a I . li before the society, closing: a day full of I : xndly greet jug.-, during, which he gave his niece I . vay in marriage. The banquet was given in tho I ; 'H 'ii dining hall at Delmonico's. The society I v obliged 1o refuse more than 2.000 applications I ; ii kois. The main banquet hall and tho annex I x ! beautifully decorated with festoons of tho I Mars and Stripes, in which was woven effectively k r i!:c preen and gold flag of Erin. The banquet tables I a ' re banked with roses and carnations. They were I . i off by garlands of green and gold electric lights I : t rung diagonally across the hall.' I Immediately back of and above the scat of tlie I 1 'resident were the Gaelic words. "Cead Millc Fail- I 1 he." in letters of lire. To the right and left of the I .vilest-' lable were tine medallions of Washington I ; nd Koosevrlt : illustrated by electric effects. The I tntrast of Washington and Koosevelt was sign.ifi- caM. The Friendly Sons of St. Fatrick entertained I Washington in 17v as the General in charge of the i.lonial armies. Koosevelt is the first President as I -uch that the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick has en- ' m-tained. t; The Tresiilont. arrived at tf:30 p. m., and for half I an hour held a. reception. Then, accompanied by I -Judge Fitzgerald, the president of the society and I i-;istmaster. President Roosevelt was conducted from the hall to 'the dining room. Many of the I guests waved the Stars and Stripes and the flag of I i'j'in enthusiastically. The President was.intro- I .'ii.- d by Judge Fitzgerald and in his response said: I 1 wish to read a telegram received tonight. It I ;- a sop to one of my well known prejudices. Tho i cipieut was a father tonight when he came to this I banquet. Now he is a grandfather. Here is the I ,t! legram: . , I "Peter McDonnell: Patrick just arrived. Tired i after parade. tSends his regards to President, lie i- the first on record since Teddy attended the f I'noridly Sons' dinner. He is a fine singer. No ; race suicide in this family. Weighs eight pound and looks like the whole familv. All is well. -ROBERT M'DOXNELL' I "And now. gentlemen,"' continued the President, "I want you 1o join me in drinking to the health of VrtT McDonnell, and, above all. to Mrs. McDon-nell.'. McDon-nell.'. After iho toast was drunk the President con-i con-i iioi.'d : Long before the outbreak of the Revolution ii.. re had begun on the soil of the colonies which afterward became the United States, that mixture ; of races which has been, and still is, one of the most : important features in our history as a people. At In- lime early in the eighteenth century when : immigrants from Ireland began first to come in numbers to this country, tho race elements in our f population were still imperfectly fused, and for -onie ihuH the new Irish strain was clearly distin- gui-hable from the others. .There "was a peculiarity about, these immigrants who came from Ireland to ' 'ii.- colonies during the eighteenth century, which i ha- never Ixen paralleled in tho case of any other i immigrants whatsoever. In all other cases, since i tlie very first settlements, the pushing westward of ! i!ie frontiers has been due primarily to the men of native birth. But the immigrants from Ireland in iiie eighteenth century pushed boldly through the v tiled districts and planted themselves as the ad- ? t vance guard of the conquering civilization on the . ' borders of the Tndian-haunted wilderness. In Maine. I and northern New Hampshire, in western Pcnnsyl- vaiiia, Virginia and North Carolina, alike this was true. ) I!y the time the Revolution broke out these men I 'd begun to mis with their fellows of other stocks, I r"A they furnished their full share of leadership in i 1 great struggle which made- up a Nation. Among I 'ii-ir jiuimVr was Commodore John Barry, one of 1 ' rce or four officers to whom our infantry owed I ' o t On land they furnished Generals like Mont- r ornery, w ho fell so gloriously at Quebec, and Sulli- v an, iiie conqueror of the Iroquois, who came of a N- w Hampshire family which furnished Governors I liiree New England states, while of the Conti- I -Mai troops, one of the hardest fighters among 'I W adiington's Generals was "Mad Anthony" Wayne, ! v 1 :o recruited so largely from ihis stock that "Light ( Horse"' Harry Lee always referred to them as "the- I l:..e of Ireland." Nor must we forget that of this i v:Tr.e stock was a boy during the days of the Revo- l-.oinn who'aftorward became the chief American J '" tirral of his time and. as President, one of the 1 public men who left, his impress most deeply upon I , Xat ion old Andrew Jackson, the victor of New 1 "rl.ans. . . , . 1 In lhe second great crisis of our country's his- v-iho period of the Civil war the part played 1 i y ihe men of Irish birth or parentage was no less 1 -'liiingtlian ithadbeenin the Revolution. Anuiog 1 -.lu t !,,-, ,; or four great Generals who led the North- , i. ru armv in lhe war stood Thil Sheridan. Some of ' ' whom I sun now addressing served in that im- I luortal brigade whicli, on the fatal day at ycder- I i Uburg. left its dead closest to the stone wall which.. marked He limit thai could not be overpassed even I bv iho. highest human valor. I The people who hare come to this country from Inland have contributed to the stock of our corn- ""i. citizenship qualities which are essential to the Hare of every great nation. They are a master- , I ful ra.e 0f rugged character a race the qualities 1 - r v. bo,,, womanhood have become proverbial, while ; ra-n have the elemental, the indispensable yir-f yir-f "les of working hard in time of peace and fighting s. in t iniA of war. In every walk of life men ot i 'Ms blood have stood, and now stand, pre-eminent - 'tatesmpn and soldiers, on the bench, at the bar cd in buancss. They are doing their full thare " 4 I' ' ' ! " '- " ' : , , ' .. . . '- PRESIDENT KOOSEVELT. toward the artistic and literary development of the country. And right here let me make a special plea to you. We Americans take a just pride in the development develop-ment of our great universities, and more and more we arc seeking to provide for original and creative work in these universities. I hope that an earnest effort will be made to endow chairs in American universities for the study of Celtic literature and for research in Celtic antiquities. It is only of recent years that the extraordinary wealth and beauty of the old Celtic sagas have been fully appreciated, and we of America, who have so large a Celtic strain in our blood, cannot afford to be behindhand be-hindhand in the work of adding to modern scholarship scholar-ship by bringing within its ken the great Celtic literature lit-erature of the past. My fellow countrymen, I have spoken tonight especially of what has been done for this Nation of ours by its sons of Irish blood. But, after all, in speaking to you or any other body of my fellow citizens, no matter from what old-world country they themselves or their forefathers may have come, the great thing to remember is that we arc all of us Americans. jot us keep our pride in the stocks from which we have sprung, but let us show that pride not by holding aloof one from another, least of all by preserving the old-world jealousies and bitternesses, but by joining in a spirit of generous' rivalry to see which can do most for our common country. Americanism is not a matter of creed, or birthplace, or descent. That man is the best American Amer-ican who has in him the American spirit, the American soul. Such a man fears not the strong and harms not the weak. He scorns what is base or cruel or dishonest. He looks beyond the accidents acci-dents of occupation or social condition and hails each of his fellow-citizens as his brother, asking nothing save that each shall treat the other on his worth as a man, and that they shall join together to do all that in them lies for the uplifting of this mighty and vigorous people. In our veins runs the blood of many an old-world nation. We are kin to each of those nations, and yet identical with none. Our policy should be. one of cordial friendship for all, and yet we should keep ever before our eyes the fact that we are ourselves a separate people, with our own idals and standards, and destined, whether for better or. for worse, to work out a wholly new national type. The fate of the twentieth century will in no small degree depend upon the quality of citizenship developed on this continent. Surely such a thought must thrill us with the resolute purpose pur-pose so to bear ourselves that the name American shall stand as the symbol .of just, generous and fearless fear-less dealing with all men and all nations. Let us be true to ourselves, for we then cannot be false to any man. |
