OCR Text |
Show GEORGE FRISBSE HOAR'S TRIBUTE TO THE CELT Delivered Before the University of Iowa Ang!o-SaxoiT Race Derived its Quality from the Celt. Before an immense audience gathered together in Iowa City for the commencement of the University Uni-versity of Iowa, Hon. George Frisbie Jloa,1, United States senator from the state of Massachusetts, delivered a great address. Extracts from his speech follow : "Of the immigrants to the United States from 1821 to l'.lOO. which wo will call in round numbers 20,000.000. -,.000,000 came from Germany, l.OOO.OOo from Ireland. l.".(H).,00O from Xorway, Sweden and Denmark, and about. 3.000,1 MtO from Groat Britain. But of tlie 1,000,000 which came from Canada, a considerable number have doubtless been Irishmen, for whom Canada has been but the gateway to the United States. "f want to talk chiefly of the contribution of' that race to our mighty alchemy. I should get. very quickly and very far behind my dejith if I were to undertake to trace the race which is known as Celtic to its origin in the heart of Asia. But-it But-it has entered into many great nations. It has kept its quality wonderfully wherever you find it, in whatever national life it is mingled. The Irishman Irish-man in Ireland is by common consent the purest characteristic example of it in existence today. .The word "Celt" is said by some authors to mean "warrior." "war-rior." By others it is said to mean "woodsman." or "dweller in" the woods." The Celt has enterr.l into many nations. Wherever he goes he take-bis take-bis quality with him. 1 To is aKv.iys tie mint in the julep." "The Celts seem everywhere, to a superficial view, to be a losing race. But everywhere, in the quality the.-7 impart, they have conquered their conquerors. con-querors. Among all the great races, none was ever more distinguished for valor, for profound religious re-ligious feeling, for acute sensibility, for humor and tender sympathy. They have been wonderful fighters, from Charlemange down to Wellington and Montgomery and Andrew Jackson and Phil Sheridan. They have been wonderful orators, as witness Burke and Sheridan and Orattan and Cur-ran Cur-ran and Plunkett. They have always made a brave and long and sullen resistance when they were overcome by a superior force. They never would stay whippd and persevered under adversity and under the heel of oppression, for centuries long, their sublime and unconquerable discontent. They always had the same pertinacity that the Spaniards Span-iards imputed to us during the late war. Instead of retiring when they were beaten, as any gentlemen gentle-men should, they kept straight on." v "The staying and the growing and mastering quality had been shown by the Celtic race, wherever wher-ever it has been found. If the Celt had been oppressed op-pressed in Ireland, the Celt has given very largely the strength to England that has enabled her to oppress him." "There is one thing in which the Celt ha shown, in his purest existing type, the modern Irishman, that he has no superior in history-Everywhere history-Everywhere the great virtues, tlie corner-stone virtues vir-tues of the state, of all human society, are thei great loves love of country, love of woman, love of home. Was there ever an example of these like that given to mankind by the poor lirish immigrant of half a eenim ago? There were ten or eleven years in which the population of Ireland fell off one-fourth. But the migration, nearly all to the United States, amounted to 2,000,000 people. It was ascertained by official inquiry in England that these emigrants wore sending home the enormous sum of $5,000,000 every year to enable father and mother and brother and sister to follow them to their new country, or to live in comfort in the old. When we think of the poverty of the people, and their scant wages building our railroads for us at 00 cents a day, I believe there can be found no other like example in the world of a generosity so magnificent." "When Great Britain, at the accession of Elizabeth, Eliz-abeth, began the great career which led her to the primary among mankind, her people were I made, up of the same elements, in about the same proportion as our people, leaving out the negro, are today, and especially that the' predominating ; : power in that mixture which makes up Xew England, Eng-land, are what we are ant. without much historical accuracy, to call the Anglo-Saxon race, has derived de-rived its quality from the Celt. The Irishman never yet accepted contentedly the role of serf; through his long subjection he has kept his sublime discontent, which is to prevail at length. "In our relations with our Irish fellow citizens we have, unhappily, mingled wiih so much that U not delightful, memories growing out of religious differences. Thank God. they are fast passing away. "But one thing we want to do now tor ourselves our-selves in dealing with one another is to forget the things which make for strife, and cultivate the things that make for peace. Let us dwell side by side in the same neighborhood. " To each other's faults n. little blind. . And to each other's virtues ever kind." |