|
Pittsburg, Pa., May 29, 30,
31, 1890.
President, Robert Bonner,
New York City, N. Y.
Secretary, A. C. Floyd, Columbia, Tennessee.
The Congress was called to
order at 10 a. m., Thursday morning, May 29th, in Mechanical Hall of the
Exposition Building, by President Bonner, who said:
The Congress will now come
to order, and will be led in prayer by the Rev. Dr. Hayes.
Dr. Hayes:
Let us unite in prayer. Our
Heavenly Father, we recognize Thee as the Father, the Creator, and the
Preserver of all Thy creatures. We thank Thee that Thou hast made us
rational and intelligent beings. We bless Thee for all that Thou hast done
for us, and by us, and through us. We recognize Thee as the God of nations
and races, as well as individuals. We thank Thee for what Thou hast done
for us as a race; for the courage, the zeal, and the consecration which
Thou did'st breathe into our forefathers; for all they were enabled to
accomplish in other lands and in this land of freedom. And when we come
together in this Congress we invoke Thy divine benediction upon us, and as
we look each other in the face, and call to mind the deeds of our
forefathers, may our hearts grow warm to each other, and may this nation
be made closer and more earnest. May Thy divine blessing rest upon all the
members of this Society, the officers, and all these sympathizing friends
gathered here to-day, and all who shall unite with us in this interesting
service, and may Thou guide us by Thy counsel in our deliberations unto
the end. We ask all for Jesus's sake—amen!
Dr. Hayes then introduced
Mayor H. I. Gourley, as follows:
Mr. President, and
Gentlemen of the Scotch-Irish Society of America:— It gives me very great
pleasure, on behalf of our Local Committee, to extend to you, through this
Society and all its kith and kin, a very cordial and hearty welcome to
this great work-shop of America, which has been made so, to a great
extent, by the race to which we all are proud to belong. It is my pleasure
and it has been my duty to ask our worthy Mayor, H. I. Gourley, filling an
honorable place, and filling it honorably in this city, to address a few
words of welcome on behalf of the city. I take pleasure in introducing
Mayor Gourley. (Applause.)
Mayor Gourley said :
Gentlemen of the
Scotch-Irish Congress:—In briefly addressing you, I might speak of the
countries from which you inherit your name, I might refer to the land
rendered illustrious by the heroic achievements of William Wallace and
Robert Bruce, and made immortal by the poetic genius of Robert Burns, but
time will not permit; I might perhaps speak of that Emerald Isle in the
midst of the deep blue sea a thousand leagues away, and tell you of an
oppressed, but liberty loving people, but such is not within the province
of my duty.
You come here to-day,
gentlemen of the Scotch-Irish Congress, from all parts of our common
country, you meet together in this great center of a nation's industry, in
order that you may gaze upon each other, look into each others faces,
renew former friendships, and establish friendly relations with many who
have hitherto been unknown to you. You will no doubt look back over the
years that have passed away, and review the history of those who, by
conspicuous achievements, have honored your race and distinguished your
name. You meet together, I take it, not only as Scotch-Irish, but as
Americans (applause and cheers), who experience an undying pride in that
imperishable glory which attaches to American citizenship.
Your ancestors loved
liberty and law. Your fathers belonged to the patriotic army led by the
immortal Washington during a mighty revolution, which gave birth to a new
nation and made an epoch in the world's history. During those stormy days
when the sun was oft-times overcast and the moon was sometimes turned to
blood, the people of your race never faltered. (Applause.)
"If defeated every-where
else," said Washington, "I will make my last stand for liberty among the
Scotch-Irish of my native Virginia." (Cheers and applause.)
What your fathers helped to
establish, I know you will help to foster and maintain, to the end that
our nation shall not only challenge the admiration of the world, but
continue to occupy a position in the vanguard of human progress, destined
soon to usher in the "golden era of humanity and the universal monarchy of
man." (Applause.)
Gentlemen, on behalf of the
people of Pittsburg, whom I have the honor to represent in the capacity of
Chief Executive, I welcome you to our city. (Applause.) I greet you on
behalf of the banker and merchant, the manufacturer and mechanic, and
lawyer, the teacher and the student. On behalf of three hundred thousand
people devoted to all the diversified industries and occupations, I bid
you a cordial welcome. (Applause.)
Our churches and
school-houses, our court-house and jail, our station-houses and lock-ups
are open to you (laughter), and if you should be so unfortunate as to be
detained in the latter, our police magistrates will see that you receive a
speedy hearing and swift justice. (Applause and laughter.)
Especially, let me ask you
to visit some of our wonderful manufactories. In glass, in iron, and in
steel, Pittsburg is doing a marvelous work. Her industries in these
respects exceed any thing that can be pictured by the most vivid
imagination. Go and see for yourselves, and thus obtain a more complete
knowledge touching the varied products of our manufacturers, which
constitute potent factors in the gradual advancement of a great nation,
and in the progress and development of the human race.
Gentlemen, I thank you for
your kind attention, and I sincerely trust your meeting in our city may be
profitable and pleasant to you and to our people. (Applause.)
Dr. Hays then introduced
Governor Beaver, as follows:
Mr. President:—We all think
here that Pittsburg is a very great place. Our worthy Mayor has given us
an exceedingly large view of it. But we also believe that Pennsylvania is
a Scotch-Irish state—the greatest Scotch-Irish state in America, in fact,
and it is the result of the pluck and daring of the Scotch-Irish people.
We are now going to ask our worthy Governor to say a word on behalf of the
state, and I know very well he will do it justice, for the reason that
while he may not be purely Scotch-Irish himself, he has a better half who
is Scotch-Irish through and through, and who will give him inspiration for
the occasion. (Applause.)
Governor Beaver said:
Ladles and Gentlemen:—The
position which I occupy in this presence is somewhat anomalous. You have
already been welcomed to Pittsburg in a manner which has evinced the
cordial good will of its people, and which has been generous and hearty in
the extreme. According to Pittsburg authority there is little outside this
busy city in Pennsylvania which is worth the welcome, and hence my
embarrassment. (Applause and laughter.) There was a time, I confess, in
the history of our goodly commonwealth, when the welcome extended to the
Scotch-Irish was neither cordial nor sincere, and in some localities some
significance might attach to the welcome extended by the chief executive
to the descendants of that sturdy race, but here it is not necessary. The
significance of such a welcome is lost, because you have made this region
what it is. It is yours already by discovery and conquest. You own it. You
have made it. (Applause.) All the influence which it possesses and exerts
is due to the Scotch-Irish, and it is therefore like "carrying coals to
Newcastle" to welcome you here. (Applause.)
As Dr. Hayes has very truly
said, the one kind of blood which does not mingle in my veins is
Scotch-Irish. There is not, so far as I know, a drop of Scotch or Irish
blood in my pedigree, and yet I am free to say that, to a large extent, I
am the subject of the molding influences of the Scotch-Irish race.
(Applause.) As I once said to an Irish society in Philadelphia, I inherit
all my Scotch-Irish blood through my children. (Laughter.) The days of my
boyhood were spent in a Presbyterian congregation, in one of the most
beautiful and secluded valleys of Pennsylvania, composed of the most
sterling and spirited Scotch-Irish people. The Campbells, the Wilsons, the
Flemings, the Barrs, the Wills, and others, were among the original
settlers of the valley. Boy as I was, I recognized their decision of
character, their sterling qualities and sturdy virtues, but could not
recognize then, as I clearly do now, the source whence all these valuable
qualities came. The unconscious influence of such surroundings and
associations are greater than we sometimes acknowledge.
A year or two ago we
celebrated the founding of the Log College in Eastern Pennsylvania. It was
established in a Quaker settlement in one of the three original counties
founded by Penn. The celebration was an occasion of much interest,
especially as showing the determination of the Scotch-Irish to educate
their own children, in their own way, under their own supervision. The
educational influences to which I was in large part subjected were in that
other log college which was founded by John McMillan in one of the
counties adjoining Allegheny. The influences of that institution have
manifested themselves for nearly a century along these two rivers which
unite at the very point on which we stand, and along all the tributaries
of the great Father of Waters, and have made to a very large extent this
western country of ours what it is. Whenever you go to one of the great
assemblages of the churches composed of Scotch-Irish people you will find
the influences of Washington and Jefferson College predominating to a very
large degree. In my day, and among the college men of my generation, the
names of Brown, Smith, Williams, Patterson, Jones and Frazier were
recognized as those of men descended from the Scotch-Irish and Irish and
Scotch, whose learning and personal influence told powerfully upon the
lives and characters of their students.
Further on in my life, I
came under the molding influences of the Scotch-Irish race to a greater
degree. My wife is a descendant of the Scotch-Irish, who needs only to
point along her ancestral line to the McAllisters, the Thompsons, and the
Nelsons, to be recognized as one of your sort. You will not wonder,
ladies, under these circumstances, that I am, to a great extent, a
Scotch-Irishman, and ready to acknowledge the molding influences of the
Scotch-Irish race. (Applause.)
It has been said, and, I
believe, truthfully said, that the Scotch-Irish of Pennsylvania—and what
is true of them is true also of the race throughout the entire
country—have not done their duty to their posterity in preserving the
records of their lineage and achievements. There is, however, reason for
this. You do not expect a man who is in the fore-front of battle to write
history. He is making history. It is not his province to write it.
(Applause and cheers.) The Scotch-Irish people of this country have never
stopped at the frontiers. Mountains and rivers, which seemed to others
insurmountable difficulties, have only been incentives to them. They have
pushed forward to the fore-front of the fight of conquest and
civilization. They have not halted in their march, and hence they have not
had time to write history. They have not had time to stop and tell who
their fathers were, and what their fathers did, because they have been
constantly following in the line of the achievements of their fathers.
But, now that frontiers have been abolished, and that the returning tide
of population and achievement is coming back to us from the Pacific, it
seems to me that it is well for you to stop to consider and to determine
what your fathers have done, and what influence they have exerted, in
making our great country what it is, and in letting the world know the
history, (Applause.)
The influences and the
achievements of Puritan, Pilgrim, and Independent we're confined to a
little space, and have made themselves felt because of this confinement
and the disposition to tell the rest of the world what was being done. New
England has made much of her lineage and has carefully preserved it.
Whilst her people have been making history, she has been industrious in
writing it. This, among other reasons which I can not stop to enumerate,
accounts for her preponderating influence in the historical literature of
the country.
The Scotch-Irish, when they
landed in Pennsylvania, found scant welcome to those parts which were
settled, and, to a certain extent, civilized. When they came to the
eastern part of the state, they found it inhabited and occupied, to a
great extent, by the Quaker element, which naturally enough held Penn's
original settlement. Mountains and rivers were not, however,
insurmountable barriers. They found good land in the Pequa Valley; they
crossed the South Mountain and settled the Cumberland Valley. The Blue
Ridge was no insurmountable barrier, and Sherman's Valley gave them a
lodging place. The Tuscarora was crossed, and Juniata and Mifflin counties
opened their beautiful and secluded valleys to their enterprise and
determined efforts. They halted for a time at the Alleghanies, but only
for a time. These were scaled and crossed both in Pennsylvania and
Virginia, and this hardy people occupied Western Pennsylvania, West
Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee, and made the slopes and meadows on both
sides the Alleghanies the home, the magnificent heritage, of the
Scotch-Irish people. We see the influence which they set at work along
this great valley, north and south, and feel their results, and it seems
to me that as you gather here from other states, it behooves you to tell
the world what the influences were which founded these communities, built
these great cities, established these great institutions of learning and
industry, which are truly a blessing to the world to-day, and which may,
and we trust will, continue so for all the generations to come.
(Applause.)
It seems to me also that
the coming together of all these descendants of the Scotch-Irish race is
of great benefit in another way. The prejudices of the Scotch-Irish, as
you know, are strong. They are a clannish people, and as you, come
together from North and South to re-establish the family lines, the clan
lines, the race lines, which were to a greater or less extent interrupted
and broken during our late civil convulsion, you should realize your
opportunity and the importance of firmly establishing cordial relations in
your great family. I found myself this morning seated on this platform
beside a distinguished citizen of Alabama. Many others whom I have had the
privilege of meeting since I came here are from the South and from the
West, and it has occurred to me—and the thought grows as I dwell upon
it—that if this Congress were to do nothing else, it would be of
inestimable benefit to this country if it were to establish these family
lines and race lines running north and south, and obliterate the
sectionalism which was once a menace to this country, making its different
sections so dissimilar in laws, interests, and institutions that they were
practically foreign to each other. The great problem of this generation,
so far as our own country is concerned, is unification, not in name only,
but in deed and in truth. As we consider the importance of this subject,
and the significance of the fact that your first meeting was held in
Tennessee last year, and that the second is now in session in
Pennsylvania, I know of nothing which can more powerfully tend to weld
into one homogeneous whole these diverse sentiments, feelings, interests,
and institutions than the influence which this Congress can bring to bear
upon the people represented here, and through them upon all parts of the
country. If this be in any degree the purpose and intent of your coming
together, and if your meeting has in any measure this tendency, surely I
can warmly and patriotically bid you welcome and wish you God speed in
your deliberations and success in your efforts. Divided families, divided
churches, diverse sentiments, alienated feelings—truly here is a great
field upon which the pertinacity of the Scotch-Irish may exert itself.
In conclusion, Mr.
President, let me say to you and to those whose honored representative you
are, that if there be any thing in Pennsylvania outside of Pittsburg worth
having or worth enjoying, you have only to ask for it and, so far as my
ability goes, you shall have it. You are welcome to Pennsylvania, ladies
and gentlemen, and I trust that your stay in this goodly state, and
especially in this prosperous city, will be one long remembered by all the
members of your society and representatives in this Congress. (Applause.)
President Bonner:
Mr. Mayor and Governor:—I
sincerely thank you on behalf of the Scotch-Irish Society of America, for
your very cordial welcome.
While listening to Governor
Beaver's most admirable address, which he found inspiration in delivering
from his Scotch-Irish wife, to whom he referred, I could not help
thinking, as he spoke of the molding influences of his wife, of a very
expressive Scotch-Irish phrase—"It is so seen on him."
A few years ago, On the
occasion of a visit to Kentucky, General Ekin, whose head-quarters were at
Louisville, called on me one morning and invited me to go to church with
him. On our way to church, in speaking of Pittsburg, I said to him,
thinking that I was giving him a piece of interesting information, that I
understood that the leading element in twelve of the churches of Pittsburg
was Scotch-Irish. The general, who is a native of Pittsburg, smiled and
said that the leading element in nineteen, instead of twelve, of the
Presbyterian churches in Pittsburg was Scotch-Irish. The fact is, that
Pittsburg has become so noted for the number of her churches and the
hospitality of her citizens with Scotch-Irish blood in their veins, that
we felt, in coming here, that we were coming to a city akin to the
birthplace of our fathers. Your cordial welcome has confirmed that
feeling, and, in the name of the Society, I again thank you for your
generous welcome to Pittsburg and to Pennsylvania. (Applause.)
Dr. Hays then read the
following report, and moved its adoption or reception by the convention.
The Report of the Local
Committee to the Scotch-Irish Society of America, in Session at Pittsburg,
May 29, 1890.
The Local Committee,
appointed by the citizens of Pittsburg to invite the Scotch-Irish Society
of America to hold its next annual meeting in this city, would report as
follows:
The citizens of Pittsburg
and vicinity, of Scotch-Irish extraction, having heard of the successful
organization of your Society in Columbia, Tenn., one year ago, and having
understood that you would not be averse to holding your next meeting at
the very heart and center of the Scotch-Irish population of this country,
held a meeting and agreed to extend a hearty invitation to you to do so,
and appointed a committee of seven, consisting of Colonel W. A. Herron,
Colonel John W. Echols, Rev. T. H. Robinson; D.D., Rev. Nevin Woodside,
Rev. Geo. W. Chalfant, J. McF. Carpenter, Esq., Rev. James Allison, D.D.,
and Rev. I. N. Hays, to confer with your officers, and to make all
necessary arrangements for your accommodation and entertainment while you
might sojourn in our midst.
This Committee went to work
at once to map out the work to be done, and to appoint the necessary
committees.
The details of the work to
be done was committed to a special Executive Committee, consisting of
Colonel John W. Echols, Secretary of the Local Committee, and Chairman of
the Executive Committee, with Colonel W. A. Herron and the Chairman of the
Local Committee. To Colonel Echols very much credit is due for his
continuous and laborious efforts put forth to make your meeting in our
midst a success.
We desire, in this most
public manner, to extend its sincere and hearty thanks to His Honor, Mayor
H. I. Gourley, H. P. Ford, Esq., President of Select Council; G. L.
Holliday, President of Common Council; Samuel Hamilton, Esq., Chairman of
Citizens' Committee, and all others who so generously aided us either by
their efforts or contributions.
You, having seen fit to
invite us here, to name three of the speakers on the occasion who would,
to some extent, represent the Scotch-Irish of this vicinity, we have
invited our worthy Congressman, Hon. John Dalzell, to give us an address
upon the Scotch-Irish of Pennsylvania; His Excellency, James E. Campbell,
Governor of Ohio, to speak of the Scotch-Irish of Ohio; and we had invited
Rev. Samuel J. Niccolls, D.D., LL.D., of St. Louis, who was a native of
Pennsylvania, to give us an address on the religious impression made by
the Scotch-Irish on the inhabitants of the great Mississippi Valley. We
are sorry to say that owing to pressing engagements, Dr. Niccolls will not
be with us, and we, therefore, ask that a brief but most excellent paper
on the settlement of the Scotch-Irish in Pennsylvania, prepared by one of
our most worthy and honorable citizens, Ex-Chief Justice Daniel Agnew, be
read in the place of the one which was to have been prepared by Dr.
Niccolls. As our venerable Ex-Chief Justice is far advanced in years, and,
owing to physical disability, and a failure of voice, is not able to be
with us, we have asked Prof. G. N. Sleeth to read this paper for him.
Fully realizing the fact
that your Society is neither partisan nor sectarian, and, therefore, could
not hold distinctively religious services under its auspices, we have,
nevertheless, taken it upon ourselves to arrange for an old-time
Scotch-Irish religious service to be held in this place, on Sabbath
evening after your sessions have closed. At this service, Dr. John Hall,
of New York, will preach the sermon, and others will participate. The
object of this meeting will be to give this generation some idea of the
kind 'of religious services our forefathers of some two hundred years ago
were accustomed to attend. These services will, of course, be somewhat
novel, but are expected to be deeply interesting and solemn. To this
service you are all most cordially invited.
Let this grand Congress of
the best blood of this Nation come to a close by recognizing the God of
our fathers, and communing with those grand old heroes, who stood for all
that is truest and best and grandest in that civilization which owes so
much to that thoughtful, sturdy, iron-sinewed race to which we all feel so
proud to belong.
All of which is
respectfully submitted.
I. N. HAYS, Chairman of the
Local Committee.
The report was received and
ordered to be placed upon the minutes.
The President then
introduced Rev. Dr. Mcintosh, as follows:
Last May, at our meeting at
Columbia, Tennessee, Dr. Hall stated that Dr. Mcintosh was so much in love
with America that he came over to this country to be born. But Dr. Hall
omitted to state that Dr. Mcintosh went back to Ireland to marry " the
girl that he left behind him." Dr. Mcintosh's subject is, "The Making of
the Ulsterman;" but I think he is of too gallant a nature to ignore the
making of the Ulster woman.
Dr. Mcintosh then addressed
the Congress on "The Making of the Ulsterman." (See Part II, page 85.)
President Bonner:
Our very efficient
Secretary, Mr. Floyd, who has had the laboring oar in the organization and
building up of our Society so far, will now read telegrams received, and
make some announcements.
Secretary Floyd then read
the congratulations of the Mayor of Belfast, Ireland, and the greetings of
Davy Crockett's grandson, appearing among the letters and telegrams
published at another place in this volume.
Dr. Hays then made several
announcements as to the meetings being open and the public being invited,
after which Secretary Floyd announced the business meetings, etc., and the
Congress took a recess until 3 o'clock p. m. |
