Irish -- United States, Irish Americans, Ireland. Irish Land Act, 1870, Ireland -- History -- Famine, 1845-1852, Aliens -- United States -- Law and legislation, United States -- Emigration and immigration, Anti-Catholicism -- United States, Fenians, Land League (Ireland), Parnell, Charles Stewart, 1846-1891.
This speech contains a discussion of the problem of the Irish in America. Pro-Irish, it cites such remarkable traits as adaptability and the organization of the Irish community for political purposes. Mentions Cromwell's Navigation Laws and the Irish community of Logan founded in Pennsylvania in 1699. Speaks of the Quebec Act, which allowed Catholics to hold positions in business and politics in English colonies. Points to the anti-Catholic sentiment of the original colonies, which they attempted to overcome in their appeal to Quebec during the Revolution. Notes the anti-Presbyterian sentiment in England and the work of the members of the sect in the Revolutionary War. Discusses the immigration laws of the newly formed republic and the early Alien and Sedition laws. Mentions the uprising of anti-Irish feeling as immigration grew, and the 1834 burning of the Ursuline Convent in Charlestown. Speaks of the Native American movement, its attempted takeover of local government and its role in the split of the Whig party. Notes the Protestant Know-Nothingism movement of the mid-19th Century. Gives the figures for American-born Irishmen and their various industries. Speaks of Fenianism and the Land League, as well as James Stephens and Charles Stewart Parnell, as well as Michael Davitt and the Fenian Brotherhood. Discusses sharecropping in Ireland and the Land Bills of 1870 and 1881. Ends with a discourse on Parnell and the other Irish in Parliament.