Chapter II: Part 2

At the conclusion of General Ames’ acceptance Chairman Lee introduced Mayor McCarthy in the following words: “The thanks of the American Irish Historical Society are due and are hereby tendered to General Ames and to Hon. James M. Scott and Col. J. Edward Studley, the other members of the Board of State House Commissioners, for their great courtesy to us. It was to them we first addressed ourselves for permission to place our memorial to General Sullivan in the State House, and when it was ready for its permanent position a few weeks ago, we went to them again concerning the dedicatory exercises. Our comfortable seating was provided for, the freedom of this beautiful capitol extended us and an ample force of employees placed at our disposal. We may well be grateful for the uniform courtesy and consideration that marked all the Commission’s dealing with our Society.

“The Secretary of our committee is a very worthy member of the Society. As I happened to be the Chairman, it was my privilege to sign my name over his in issuing the invitations. It is the first time I have ever had an opportunity of putting my name before that of His Honor the Mayor, and I enjoyed the opportunity. But now, after doing his work as Secretary of the committee very faithfully, he has tendered his resignation, which we have most regretfully accepted, in order that he might do his duty as Chief Executive of the City of Providence. I have the honor to introduce to you our esteemed fellow-member, Hon. Patrick J. McCarthy of Providence, who will, I am sure, extend to us a warm welcome to the principal city of the State over the destinies of which he presides so ably.”

Mayor McCarthy said:

“_Mr. Chairman, Fellow Members of the American Irish Historical
Society, Ladies and Gentlemen_: I am deeply sensible of the honor my
official position and duty brings me on this occasion as Mayor of
Providence in greeting the representatives of The American Irish
Historical Society and its distinguished guests from many states; I
tender you a ‘Providence Welcome,’ and the freedom of the city.

“I thank the Society for its munificent gift of the beautiful bronze
memorial, which commemorates the heroic deeds of Major General John
Sullivan of the Continental Army and his services to his native State
(New Hampshire) as citizen, legislator, jurist and governor, and also
to the United States as a member of Congress.

“The people of Providence thank the State House Commissioners for
allotting space for the memorial in the Capitol Building of Rhode
Island; it is an appropriate place for a memento of the hero of the
Battle of Rhode Island. The good deeds of men live after them. General
Sullivan’s life was spent in the service of his state and country. He
was generously endowed by nature, with the mental and physical
qualities that are characteristic of his race, which enabled him to
perform his duty on the field, on the bench, as chief magistrate of
his State, and as a citizen, courageously and zealously with loyalty
to God and country—seeking honor only in the discharge of duty.

“The history of his life work survives him. We are assembled to honor
his memory. The memorial you have this day placed in this State House
is a page in bronze, of the history of the early struggles of our
countrymen for National Independence, equal rights, and freedom—a page
which future generations will read with inspiration to emulate the
honorable career of General Sullivan.

“We honor ourselves in dedicating this monument to his memory.
Providence is grateful to the Society for possession of it within the
city, and is modestly proud of the fact that it is the product of a
Providence artist and establishment.

“The dedication of permanent monuments in grateful recognition of the
noble service of good men inspires others to heroic deeds and
sacrifices, and perpetuates the history of such men and their
achievements.

“The American Irish Historical Society, in placing this beautiful
memorial in Rhode Island, commemorates one of the early battles in
support of the Declaration of Independence and for national separation
of the Colonies from Great Britain, fought by an American General of
the Irish race, ever loyal to the cause of freedom and equality and
commends the history of his life, and the history of the Irish race in
America to all men of good will.”

Chairman Lee: “A generous response to our invitations has been
received, nearly all our invited guests being present. We have
received letters of regret, however, from Rev. W. H. P. Faunce,
President of Brown University, Hon. Asa Bird Gardiner, Rt. Rev. Mathew
Harkins and one or two others whose letters are not this moment before
me. Our fellow-member, the President of the United States, in a letter
to us, tenders his regrets at being unable to be present, and cites
urgent business at home as the reason. Judging from the accounts in
the morning papers about his trouble with the yellow journals, I take
it he is pretty busy at this time in Washington.

“We have letters of regret from other members of the Society who are
unable to be present. I will read the names only. Rt. Rev. Philip J.
Garrigan, Bishop of Sioux City; Rt. Rev. M. J. Hoban, Bishop of
Scranton; Hon. W. Bourke Cockran of New York; John Moriarty of
Waterbury, Conn.; J. B. Spillane of New York; M. C. O’Brien, M. D., of
New York; James H. Devlin, Jr., of Boston, Mass.; Rev. John J. McCoy,
LL. D., of Worcester, Mass.; John W. Bourlet of Concord, N. H.; Rev.
Gerald P. Coghlan of Philadelphia; Hon. Willis B. Dowd of New York;
Richard Worsam Meade of New York; Patrick Gallagher of New York;
Edward J. Brandon of Cambridge, Mass.; J. C. Griffin of Skowhegan,
Me.; W. P. Regan of Lawrence, Mass.; W. J. O’Hagan of Charleston, S.
C.; John J. Slattery of Louisville, Ky.; John F. Doyle of New York; P.
F. McBreen of New York; John J. Keenan of Boston, Mass.; William
Francis Byrnes, M. D.; Hon. J. C. Monaghan of New York; Wiliam B.
Sullivan of Boston, Mass.; Hon. P. J. Ryan, Mayor-Elect of Elizabeth,
N. J.; H. M. Cox, M. D., of New York; Dr. George McAleer of Worcester,
Mass.; William Gilbert Davies; Charles V. Dasey of Boston, Mass.;
Finley Peter Dunne of Chicago; Hon. John J. McDonough of Fall River,
Mass.; Eugene Lynch of Boston, Mass.; Stephen Farrelly of New York;
Mitchell McDonahue; Henry L. Joyce of New York; Major E. J.
O’Shaughnessy of New York; Lawrence Clancy of Oswego, N. Y.; Rt. Rev.
Thomas J. Conaty, Bishop of Monterey, Los Angeles, Cal.; Judge Mathew
Breen of New York; Capt. James Connolly of Coronado, Cal.; Gen. A. G.
Malloy of El Paso, Texas; John J. Daly of New York; Hon. Edward A.
Moseley of Washington; Judge Victor J. Dowling of New York; Rev. M. J.
Cooke of Fall River and Rev. Cyrus Townsend Brady of Toledo, Ohio.

“Before presenting the orator of the day I desire to say to all
members who have not visited the Society’s headquarters at the
Narragansett Hotel that luncheon will be served there after the
ceremonies here; delegates of all the organizations represented in
response to our invitation are also cordially invited to join us at
luncheon. The headquarters are in room 10 at the hotel, and luncheon
will be served in the main dining-room immediately upon our arrival
there.

“The Society is fortunate in having secured for the principal speaker
today a gentleman who knows perhaps more about the life and works of
General Sullivan than does any other in the United States; a statesman
whose record is widely known, and whose voice has been heard in
discussion of historical and other matters in the New York capitol at
Albany on many occasions. The son of a former governor of New York, he
has always been identified with New York institutions and New York
laws. Through his efforts the Legislature of that State recently
appropriated $10,000 for the purpose of erecting a suitable memorial
to General Sullivan, and, while the purposes of that resolution have
not yet been fulfilled, it will be but a short time before a fitting
tribute is paid by the State of New York to the memory of Major
General Sullivan. And the credit for that tribute will be due in large
part to the gentleman I now have the honor to introduce, Col. David C.
Robinson, of Elmira, N. Y.”

Colonel Robinson spoke as follows:

“_Mr. Chairman, Your Excellency the Governor, Members of the American
Irish Historical Society, Ladies and Gentlemen_: I should do less than
justice to the emotions of the hour if I did not, at the outset,
express my high appreciation of and my profound thanks for the honor
done me in the invitation from your Society to voice our mutual
sentiments upon so important an occasion as this. It is an honor to be
invited as a spectator to take part in such a ceremony as this; it is
a higher honor to be accounted worthy even by a few to say a word on
such an occasion; it is honor most of all that I have your unanimous
invitation to say that which I may be able to in memory of one of the
noblest and purest characters on whom the sun of history has ever
shone.

“It has been the habit of my life, my friends, to speak without a
note; the professional training of many years has made it easier. I do
remember many, very many things about Major General John Sullivan and
his life; I do not remember all that I should mention, for the line is
long, and I am, therefore, contrary to my usual custom, obliged to ask
you to bear with me while I refresh my recollection from time to time
with a memorandum of some of the most distinguished services with
which this man’s life was filled, to the end that I may impress the
lesson which speaks from this memorial, which speaks from the
long-drawn procession of brave and good and kind deeds with which the
life of the one whom we commemorate today is surrounded.

“And first, before I enter on that which I would say of this memorial
and of him to whose memory it is dedicated, I want to congratulate
this Society on that which it has even in the few years of its
existence accomplished, and on the labors, increased in volume every
year, by which it makes known the Irish chapter in American history.

“To trace that which we owe to the line of blood of which this man was
one of the most illustrious examples, is a duty which belongs to every
student of American history. Let us find, if we may, wherein lay that
in which he so far exceeded most of his fellowmen. Let us make it a
lesson not alone to say that this man was one of the greatest of
American Irish or Irish Americans, but that he illustrated a trait of
character which Americans and Irish American citizens all ought to
follow, ought to teach their children to follow, ought to endeavor to
perpetuate in the thoughts, the work, the labors of this land.

“Now we are met principally to do honor to the memory and the merits
of a brave and good man; that is our purpose; but in our acts and
words today, my friends, we do honor not only to him and to his
memory, but we do honor to ourselves and our countrymen. He belongs to
us and we appreciate it. The laurels which we lay on the graves of
such as he, who periled life, limb, fortune, happiness and health that
we might enjoy the blessings which are ours today, are laurels piled
upon our own characters, our own qualities.

“From this beautiful tablet, so fittingly placed in honor of him,
whose name in this hour fills all our hearts, the veil has just fallen
in your sight. I do not envy that American who, at such a time as
this, does not feel his heart swell with patriotic pride at the
thought of what this graven monument means to us and ours.

“A thousand recollections sparkle in the chambers of memory as we
recall the chivalry, the worth, the dauntless courage and self-denying
loyalty of him whose heart, stilled in its own earthly tenement for
more than a hundred years, yet lives and throbs and pulses in the
hearts of every lover of his land and of human liberty the wide world
around; and, although appreciating to the fullest extent all that your
Mayor has so well said and the Chairman so ably suggested of the
beauty of this memorial, I may be pardoned for saying that no work of
art, no accomplishment of high design, no costly metal, no skilful
chiseling, no beautiful moulding, can make a memorial worthy of such a
man as was Major General John Sullivan.

“For when I think of what he was and what he did, when there rises to
my sight the sacrifice and effort, the combat and the stern endurance,
the privation and the grief, the sorrow and the pain, which marked his
labor and his life throughout the years which spanned the rise of
freedom, yea, the hope of men upon this continent, I feel sure that
pen may not write, voice may not sound, nor can the chisel of art
produce token worthy of his high deserving.

“I would that the task of voicing our sentiments upon this occasion,
the impressions of this hour, had fallen to other and to abler hands
than mine. I wish that some peerless orator, born of that great race
from which he sprang, might tell us here whence came the greatness,
the nobility, the grace and loveliness which were so gloriously his,
and, in telling that, might teach our children how he came to that
high state of manly quality which all the world now knows was his.

“But, friends of this great Society, whose well-bent efforts have done
so much to give deserving heroes the credit which was rightly theirs,
I know you will not let the awakened and quickening memories of this
great soul for one moment hesitate in their progress toward wider and
better appreciation.

“I know that my own shortcomings will be more than complemented by
your larger opportunity of bringing within the circle of his admirers
every patriotic citizen of this Republic. Nay, more, I hope the day
will come when every State House in the land shall hold a tablet such
as this, when every schoolboy shall read lessons from his life, when
every human being who seeks partnership and title in the freedom of
his kind shall, in his memory, cherish the name of Major General John
Sullivan as one who deserves a niche unshadowed and a fame unscarred
among the scanty array of those great souls whom the genius of Liberty
proudly calls her own.

“This is not the fulsome word of hyperbole; it is not the sounding
tinkle of rhetoric or idle eulogy. It is the measured testimony of
those who have read aright the history of the great struggle for
Independence, and have found therein no light or shadow in which the
great soul of Major General Sullivan did not sparkle with the luster
of a flawless diamond. And in this hour, beneath the lofty dome
henceforth to shadow this memorial, in this free atmosphere which
seems even now to echo with the guns he fired against his country’s
foes, in this bright light, not purer than the soul he wore upon his
sleeve, let us trace out a few of those strands of character which
made him what he was, and, in our speaking, draw some inspiration from
a few of the many debts which Liberty and our common country owe to
him.

“Ah, my friends, the account is long. We find him early trained as a
lawyer, and at the age of 32 Major of the New Hampshire Regiment; in
the spring of 1774, a member of the Provincial Assembly of New
Hampshire; in September of the same year and in 1775, a delegate to
the Continental Congress, by which he was in June, 1775, appointed a
Brigadier-General, and in 1776 a Major-General.

“Yet even while he was, at 34, only a New Hampshire Major, he had
accomplished perhaps the most daring personal feat of the Revolution
in the seizure of the powder and arms at Fort William and Mary in
Portsmouth Harbor. Do you realize what that meant? Little more than a
boy, anticipating, as he always anticipated, troubles to come, he
dealt a crushing blow to the greatest power on earth, a boy with a
dozen companions, and he sounded in that one daring act the keynote of
that grand chorus of Liberty whose majestic final chords were heard in
the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown.

“I challenge the world to find a busier or more useful life than his
for the five years from 1774 to 1779. No wonder, my friends, that no
memorial can do justice to this. We find him on Winter’s Hill at the
siege of Boston, working with all the energy of a vigorous manhood and
high purpose; again at Portsmouth to advise and assist in warding off
a menaced attack from the British fleet; thence hastily ordered to New
York to aid General Putnam with a powerful detachment.

“The pressing needs of the imperiled American army in Canada caused
General Washington, in the spring of 1776, to hurry him off with six
regiments to join its Commander at the earliest possible moment. Do
you realize, my friends, what a journey to Canada with six regiments—a
hasty journey—meant in those days? Yet Sullivan was there, only to see
the death of the Commander whom he had been ordered to assist, from a
malignant attack of smallpox; and himself suddenly succeeded to the
place of Chief Commander of the entire expedition.

“Nothing could exceed the vigor and discretion of his work as
Commander of this most difficult expedition. Washington wrote of him
at this time—and I love to quote of this man who has always been my
historical ideal the words of the greatest mind in war and peace this
country has ever known—Washington wrote of him at this time: ‘He is
active, spirited and zealously attached to the cause. His wants are
common to us all. He wants experience to move upon a grand scale, for
the limited and contracted knowledge which any of us have in military
matters stands in very little stead.’

“But Washington’s most competent biographer, Washington Irving,
declares with emphasis and truth: ‘This want was overbalanced on the
part of General Sullivan by sound judgment, some acquaintance with men
and books, and an enterprising genius.’

“It is a source of profound regret to the thoughtful student of
American history that General Sullivan was not left in charge to work
out the problem of the Canadian expedition. True, he was only
thirty-six years of age and had had but limited experience, but his
successful combinations of a few years later leave it more than
possible that, with him as a leader, the whole of Canada might have
been added to the United States even at that early day, and the
Revolution there terminated in half the time it finally lasted.

“This was not destined so to be, for Congress somewhat hastily decided
to commit the command of the Northern army to the much older but, as
many of us now believe, far less competent hands of General Gates. I
should not do justice to General Sullivan’s character if I did not
concede that this replacement caused him some hurt, and I might say
grief, but his magnanimous and instant efforts in the very moment of
his return from Canada to serve his country by taking up as temporary
Commander the perilous work on Long Island which General Greene had
been compelled by illness to lay down, showed the soldier, the
gentleman and patriot as no less trying circumstances could.

“In the midst of the carnage of the disastrous battle of Long Island,
Sullivan was taken prisoner. At once paroled and soon after exchanged,
we find him in December, 1776, hastening to join General Washington.

“Let me now turn from the track of this all too historical resumé to
call your attention to the fact that, when Lord Howe paroled General
Sullivan, desirous then of accelerating and possibly terminating the
Rebellion without severance with the colonies, he selected John
Sullivan as the honored representative of the British Government to
convey his message to George Washington, and General Sullivan, under
his own parole, brought from Lord Howe to George Washington the
propositions which Lord Howe felt he could entrust to no more worthy
hands than those of this man who was the absolute and the untiring
enemy of Great Britain. That is a testimonial to General Sullivan
whose place no monument can take.

“In December, 1776, he hastened to join General Washington. On the
morning of the attack of Trenton, after a night of storm and cold so
bitter that some of his men were frozen to death and many of his guns
were rendered wet and useless, he reported to Washington the defective
condition of his muskets, as was his duty, but was ordered to advance
and charge, which he did with so much effect that his regiment was
really the first in action at the lower end of the town.

“Next we find him, September 11th, 1777, on the disastrous but
glorious field of Brandywine, every duty discharged with promptness,
cool courage and sound discretion and judgment, and even in the
closing hours of that struggle his was the foremost figure in the
desperate center of the fray.

“Brandywine and its disappointing finish was scarcely over before the
conflict at Germantown involved him with his division in another
desperate struggle, where an unfortunate and needless delay by General
Knox and the sudden rising of a dense and impenetrable fog snatched
from his hands a victory earned and well earned by every exhibition of
soldierly quality a commander could give. And even in the hour of
keenest personal disappointment, balked of a victory he had richly
earned, a victory which would have set his name ringing around the
world as its chief author and cause, his thoughts were not of himself,
but of the personal danger to Washington to whom he gave the lifelong
devotion which only lives in the breasts of noble men.

“Without a pang or plaint of his own peril and disappointment, he
writes: ‘I saw with great concern our brave Commander-inChief exposing
himself to the hottest fire of the enemy in such a manner that regard
for my country obliged me to ride to him and beg him to retire.’ And
in the longer account of which these words are a part, my friends, not
a suggestion can be found or guessed of the added peril which the
writer himself freely braved in the efforts to remove his Chief from
danger.

“This hasty and inadequate resumé of his service in the first two
years of the Revolution brings us to the great military operation of
which he was the chief and on which will always rest much of his
fame—the investment of Rhode Island and the series of movements of
which the State and coast of Rhode Island formed the picturesque
theater.

“The enterprise was a favorite one with Washington, who hoped, indeed,
that it would emphasize the French alliance at the outset by an
overwhelming and successful effect of an attack on the British army
almost within the sound of our voices. Its success was very dear to
Washington’s heart, and for it he chose three officers perhaps more
closely in his confidence and affection than any others in the
Revolutionary Army. Sullivan was in chief command, with Greene and
Lafayette as equal subordinate assistants, each having a division
comprising as nearly as possible half of the army.

“The plan of operations had been agreed upon between Washington and
the French Commander, and the conflict was laid out to be, as it
should have been, the first great effort of the allied French and
American forces against the British army of invasion.

“I am speaking to an audience whose youngest members should and
probably do know more of the details of these military movements than
I can ever hope to know.

“From first to last, down to the finest particular of necessary
prevision, General Sullivan was more than ready. All that a commander
could do to insure success, he had accomplished so well that the only
criticism made of his actions was that he had seized the British works
opposite the north end of the island one day ahead of time. At this,
the French General who had expected a joint attack to be made the next
day professed to believe his notions of military etiquette had been
shocked, but, as no harm resulted and a distinct gain in time had been
effected, he had small foundation for his complaint, which was soon
practically abandoned.

“There had been an excellent opportunity to make the joint undertaking
a magnificent success. If, as is now apparent, the attack had been
made in the latter part of July as it might easily have been in view
of Sullivan’s perfect preparations and the presence of the French
fleet, it is probable that the war would have reached a complete and
glorious close almost within sight of the ground upon which we stand
today. Postponed as it was from day to day until August 10th, the
British were given time to reinforce their fleet, hasten it to
Newport, and there engage the French fleet in dilatory manœuvering
which used up days of precious time and completely dissipated all hope
of substantial assistance from the French warships. The expected, or
that which should have been expected by the naval commanders, soon
happened; many of us who have spent much time around here would have
expected it to happen.

“About the twentieth of August, one of those storms for which the
region of Point Judith is famous, set in with almost unexampled fury.
Land and water forces were alike put out of condition for offensive or
defensive operations. The French fleet limped away to Boston to refit,
and Sullivan, deeply chagrined at the utter failure of his naval
auxiliaries to render any assistance, set to work to protect his army
and extricate it from a position made perilous by the departure of its
entire marine support and the consequent desertion of most of his
militia.

“The story of his great achievement in retiring his entire force in
the face of a vastly superior English army, of the masterly retreat
covered by his most skilfully selected position at Butts Hill, as I
believe it is called—as to its proper name, I shall not attempt to
correct a Rhode Island audience—a retreat effected finally so
completely that not a man was left behind and not a single article
lost, while, in the course of that retreat, signal and marked
punishment was inflicted upon the British army, will ever read like a
romance of model leadership, and, if General John Sullivan had no
other memory, my friends, than of what he did within a radius of sixty
miles of this Capitol, his fame could be no less great and no less
enduring than it is, and, what is more, would be richly deserved.

“Thus briefly, as becomes my scanty time, I have sketched the work of
John Sullivan to the close of 1778. I have not made the motive of my
story clear if it has not already appeared that this man was greater
in the hour of undeserved disappointment than most men in the
exaltation of victory. Again and again, the fruits of deserved and
brilliant success were held to his lips, only to be dashed away by the
folly of the foibles of some weaker spirit necessarily entangled in
his plans. Yet never for an instant did he yield to the despair and
mortification which would have sunk less noble souls. Each
disappointment seemed to but nerve him to stronger and more brilliant
efforts. And herein, my friends, to my mind, is illustrated and should
be made prominent one grand characteristic which we have taken from
the noble Irish race. The patience under disappointment which Major
General John Sullivan illustrates, the patience under disappointment
which again and again was manifestly the fault of men to whom he never
gave a word of rebuke or complaint, the steadfast iron determination
with which he set to work instantly to repair the ruin that some,
associated in common with him, had wrought, is the brightest leaf in
the chaplet which America has put upon his grave.

“It is an honor to belong to that grand old race, aye, even to hold
one drop of Irish blood in your veins, but, good friends all, with or
without it, I am proud to testify to what Irish friendship, Irish
loyalty and the matchless Irish courage can do. No man ever knew as I
have known what Irish friendship is, no man ever knew as I have known
what Irish hospitality is, no man ever knew as I have known what Irish
loyalty and patience is, without bowing in humble respect to it,
whether he drew his blood from France or from Russia, from America or
from England, each one of which owes Ireland a measureless debt. And
all who love truth in history and gratitude for priceless gifts
received, will urge your Society onward every day and hour you labor
in the work you have so well begun till every heroic son of this great
line who has helped to build the fabric of American liberty shall have
his rightful place in history and the laurels he has fairly won.

“I have now come to that which, in justice to Major General John
Sullivan, I think should be related. I shall ask you to turn from the
beautiful State in which you live to that far off region of beauty in
which I have the honor to hold my home. In 1778 occurred in Wyoming
that awful massacre whose horrors yet ring in the history of our
country and in the hearts of the descendants of those who lost part of
their families, who lost limb, who lost health, who were maimed, in
that most horrible of savage invasions. Early in 1779 Congress,
representing a country which had been shocked to the limit by those
terrible outrages, passed a resolution of unlimited vigor, calling
upon Washington to arrange for their punishment. It was suggested at
first to Washington that General Gates should have the command, but
Washington, whose knowledge of Indian warfare was complete, wanted
General Sullivan, and to that officer was entrusted the conduct of
that great fight.

“In the history of Indian warfare in this country there is nothing
more successful, more thoroughly creditable to the commanding officer,
than the history of what General John Sullivan and his command did in
the then wilderness reaching from Wyoming to the Genesee; and today,
think of him what you may, build to him tablets as beautiful as this,
recall his manifestly skilful work in the State where you stand, and
you cannot accord to him one half the veneration and the love which
the citizens of the counties around me, now a million in number, feel
towards General John Sullivan for the work which opened up that
magnificent line of valleys unequalled in their fertility, and whose
line of bordering hills to this day, one hundred and thirty years
after, is resounding with thanksgiving and praise for what General
John Sullivan did there.

“Every morning when I look out of my window in the far distance I can
see in the battlefield which decided the ownership of that region a
tall and stately monument built by private subscription to General
Sullivan, to commemorate his work on that bloody day, and just below
it stands a magnificent marker of granite, placed there by the Sons of
the American Revolution to mark the very center of the conflict which
took those valleys away from the possession of the Indians and turned
them over to civilization and happy and peaceful occupation; and those
who know the iron will and determined character of John Sullivan know,
as we do, that when he got through with the Indians and their
worthless white associates they had no more thirst for blood. Sullivan
served notice on them and carried it out that if there was any more
blood shed in that part of the country the Indians would furnish the
blood.

“So perhaps, in an humble way, I have alluded to that feature of
Sullivans’ life—his closing campaign, which identifies him with
Northern Pennsylvania and Central New York.

“With the close of the campaign of 1779, which may be said to have
terminated his military career, General Sullivan resigned his
commission and retired from the army. The constant strain of five
years almost constantly in active and perilous service had wrecked a
constitution never of the strongest, and he felt he had given all of
his life and strength to the cause of Independence.

“His resignation was accepted with profound regret, although it was
universally felt that the reasons for his retirement were imperative.
Although he lived for fifteen years after his resignation, his health
was not robust and he died in 1795 at the early age of fifty-four,
universally admired and lamented. He had, however, no sooner left the
army than his brilliant legal and forensic talent was seized upon, for
such services to the country as his health would permit, in the
legislative halls of the nation, the executive chair of his own State,
and later upon the Federal Bench.

“In 1780–1781 he was a delegate to Congress. In 1782 he was appointed
the Attorney-General of New Hampshire and was re-appointed to that
office on the adoption of the new constitution of that State in 1784.

“In 1786–1787 he was President and Chief Magistrate of the State of
New Hampshire, an office equivalent to that of Governor at the present
time.

“In 1788 he was speaker of the House of Representatives of New
Hampshire and President of the Convention that ratified the
Constitution of the United States.

“In 1789 he was a presidential elector and voted for General
Washington for President of the United States, and in March of the
same year he was elected Chief Magistrate of the State for the third
time.

“Later in 1789 he was appointed by Washington, his affectionate friend
and admirer during his whole life, as Judge of the United States
District Court of New Hampshire, an office which he held with honor to
himself and the Judiciary until his death in January, 1795.

“I have thus briefly sketched the outline of a life which deserves an
autobiography perfect in every detail and of the highest grade.
History shows this man in more varied and brilliant lines than almost
any character in Revolutionary annals. Consider him, my friends, as a
young lawyer, prompt, keen, resourceful and competent, and you have a
model of early professional life. Mark him as an active officer of the
line, reckless of danger, ready to dare all that could be dared,
willing to do all that he had dared. Mark him again as a commanding
general, reliable, faithful, prudent and dauntless, unswerved by
passion, unstained by chagrin, unmarred by envy and uninfluenced by
clamor, steady and well-poised in the hour of peril or in a moment of
undeserved injustice. Consider him again, my friends, when after years
of fierce combat he is chosen for the command of such an expedition as
I have indicated, which needs great skill in combination and with such
resources in provision for the needs of a frontier army that his
success seems impossible.

HON. THOMAS H. CARTER.

United States Senator from Montana.

One of the Founders of the Society.
]

“And here let me digest for a moment words which, in my own hearing,
fell from the lips of the distinguished General Slocum, speaking of
General Sullivan’s great Indian campaign in the presence of General
Sherman thirty years ago on the one hundreth anniversary of the same.
General Slocum said:

“‘As I have sat listening to the speeches today, I have drawn a
parallel between those two expeditions. Sherman’s march was the longer
of the two, but, in many respects, he had greater advantages. While he
had a great distance to travel he had roads made for him by the enemy;
he had his produce brought by mule trains; while General Sullivan made
his march through trackless woods and carried his provisions upon the
backs of his soldiers. Sherman had good arms; General Sullivan had the
old flintlock musket. But after all, the spirit which prompted both
expeditions was the same. It was bold and daring, and, although there
was no great loss of life in either, yet the results of both were far
greater than many battles in which lives by the thousand and tens of
thousands were lost.’

“And on the same occasion—it is my excuse for quotations, my friends,
that I want you to hear these words from two of the greatest Generals
we have ever known—on the same occasion, remembering then, as we
remember today, how unjustly General Sullivan was at one time
criticised for the harshness of his treatment of the Indians on the
Susquehanna expedition, remembering, too, that he suffered these
criticisms in silence rather than to lay the blame upon his beloved
Chief, Washington, who had given him the orders which were condemned,
I quote from the words of General Sherman, spoken also in my hearing
on the same occasion:

“‘Our fathers, when they first landed upon this continent, came to
found an empire, based upon new principles, and all opposition to it
had to pass away, whether it were English or French on the north, or
Indians on the west; and no one knew it better than our father,
Washington. He gave General Sullivan orders to come here and punish
the Six Nations for their cruel massacre in the valley of Wyoming,
and to make it so severe that it would not occur again. And he did
so. General Sullivan obeyed his orders like a man and like a
soldier, and the result was from that time forward your people
settled up these beautiful valleys around here, and look at their
descendants here, a million almost. If it had not been for General
Sullivan and the men who followed him from Easton, and Clinton’s
forces that came across from Albany, probably some of you would not
have been here today.’

“I still read: ‘Battles are not measured by their death roll, but by
their results, and it makes no difference whether one man was killed
or five hundred if the same result follows. This valley was opened
to civilization. It came on the heels of General Sullivan’s army,
and has gone on and gone on until today. The same battle is raging
upon the Yellow Stone. The same men endowed by the same feelings
that General Sullivan’s army had today are contending with the same
causes and the same races two thousand miles west of here, not for
the purpose of killing, not for the purpose of shedding blood, not
for the purpose of doing wrong at all, but to prepare the way for
that civilization which must go along wherever yonder flag floats.’

“It might be thought perhaps, my friends, that this rehearsal of the
opinions of General Sherman and General Slocum, two of the greatest
military leaders of our country, might have been more properly used
here than on the dedication of a tablet somewhat, in its scope as a
memorial, limited to your own State, but it has been my purpose, my
friends, to illustrate General Sullivan as one of the most admirable
representatives of his race; and when I have set before you a parallel
drawn in the presence of General Sherman himself between the
difficulties and the success of Sullivan’s march from Wyoming to the
Genesee and Sherman’s own march to the sea, and have given you the
opinions of both General Sherman and General Slocum, I have
illustrated my proposition that of all the debts which America owes to
Ireland, God bless her, General John Sullivan, in his varied talents,
in that which he accomplished, in every spot and place in which we put
him, is entitled to rank with the noblest and purest contribution
which we, in America, have from the grand old Irish race.

“My friends, my words are in substance ended. I have detained you
longer than I meant to, but they who live around me could have told
you that you have only to mention the name and memory of Major-General
John Sullivan to set going any thoughtful student of American history
who lives in the magnificent valleys of the Susquehanna, the Wyoming,
and the Genesee. What we owe to this man we can never repay.

“I am proud and happy to have been allowed to participate in the
unveiling of such a tribute as this. As I said at the outset, I hope
the day will come when every State House in this land will have one,
and yet, when I think of what he was and what we owe him, I feel that
no monument can make him greater than he is in the affections of our
people a hundred and thirty years after his death. And yet I am proud
for our own sake, for the uplifting of our own people, that we have
thus recognized that which we know of his worth. I might have spoken
in his behalf with truth the words of the great Roman: ‘_Exegi
monumentum aere perennius_’—‘I have builded a monument more enduring
than brass.’”

Former Governor Lippitt was the next speaker, introduced by the
Chairman as follows: “One of our invited guests, representing the
Society of the Cincinnati, is obliged to go to a neighboring city
within the next hour to deliver an address, and we will not have the
pleasure of his company at our luncheon or the benefit of any words
from him afterwards. I will therefore introduce him at once.

“As General Sullivan was one of the original members of the Society of
the Cincinnati, it is singularly fitting that we call on an honored
Rhode Islander, whose father as well as himself has served the state
as Governor, and whose devotion to the history and affairs of the
commonwealth has given him a well deserved position as an authority on
his subject.

“It gives me great pleasure to introduce Hon. Charles Warren Lippitt,
ex-Governor of Rhode Island.”

“Mr. Chairman, Members of the American Irish Historical Society,
Ladies and Gentlemen: I feel surprised at finding myself somewhat
unexpectedly in this position, but will try to aid in honoring this
occasion.

“Veneration for General Sullivan, for his services on the Island of
Rhode Island, and for his noble victory, has always been mine. That he
was of Irish extraction, and that his ancestors, like those of all the
rest of us who are not descended from Indians, emigrated from a home
land to this new country in the western hemisphere, is well known. My
descent is from the English, with a strain of the French and the
German races rather than from the Irish. No one in any way familiar
with American history can hesitate an instant in according to the
Hibernians the honor of many noble actions and the respect due to
sacrifice of untold value, in every emergency of our common country.

“General Sullivan came of a sturdy race. His father was born during
the siege of Limerick, away back in 1691, of such good stock that he
outlived the century and did not pass away until 1796, at the age of
one hundred and five. It was his son that gave so much of his life and
energy, his intelligence and ability, to the cause of American
freedom. That he served with distinction in the Continental Army goes
without question. That he was at Trenton the night before Christmas
and aided in the defeat and capture of that hated Hessian contingent
that had been marauding up and down New Jersey is also an established
fact. It is equally true that with the three Rhode Island regiments,
forming a material part of Washington’s army, he braved the elements
in that historic night march from Trenton to Princeton, fought the
next morning in the battle of Princeton, and successfully assisted in
driving Cornwallis out of New Jersey. It was the crisis of the
Revolution. In that time of stress and doubt John Sullivan, the
descendant of an Irishman, like so many others of his race, stood
shoulder to shoulder with the descendants of the English and the
French in securing for us and the millions that have inhabited this
land the priceless privileges of liberty.

“His course in the Genesee Valley and the very proper punishment he
administered to the savages who committed the horrible massacre at
Wyoming has been eloquently traced. His campaign in Rhode Island has,
perhaps, been studied in rather more detail in this neighborhood than
in other parts of the country.

“History records and practically every American schoolboy can tell how
the Americans fought at the battle of Bunker Hill. Wherever the
Revolution is known there is an intimate knowledge of that great
conflict. We all of us glory in its story, and remember with gratitude
and sympathy the bravery of those untrained patriots who administered
such a fearful blow to British power and prestige.

“Compare for a moment the battle on Rhode Island and the results
secured by Sullivan’s generalship with the circumstances and the issue
on that hill near Boston. The loss of the English at Bunker Hill was
1,054 men, that of the Americans 449. Until the British entered the
redoubt, the Americans fought behind entrenchments. In the third
attack the British captured the redoubt, drove the Americans from the
hill, and retained undisputed control of the battlefield.

“In the campaign on Rhode Island the inability of the French to
control the sea obliged the Americans to retire to Butts Hill. In the
valley separating it from Quaker, Turkey and Anthony hills,
immediately south, a battle was fought, not behind entrenchments, but
in the broad open, where each army had equal advantages and success
was won by brilliant tactics and skill and spirit in using weapons. In
the retreat and in the battle between the nearby Rhode Island hills,
the English lost 1,023 and the Americans 211. After repulsing two
vigorously and pertinaciously pressed charges of the English army, the
Americans were obliged in the early afternoon to face a last violent
onset that almost broke the right wing of Sullivan’s army under the
immediate command of General Greene. Jackson’s regiment connected with
Colonel Livingston’s detachment, that had contested during the early
morning the British advance up the island, after a needed rest on the
north side of Butts hill were marched around the rear of the army, by
Sullivan’s direction, to the extreme right of General Greene’s
command. The British and Hessians charged down the slope of Anthony
hill and were met in the valley by Greene’s somewhat exhausted forces.
It was the final struggle for victory. At this critical moment Colonel
Livingston led Jackson’s regiment, using the cold steel, in a fierce
onslaught against the enemy’s flank that gave the British the final
blow and sent them scurrying up the slope of Anthony hill to their
entrenchments on the top. The Americans, closely following the flying
foe, captured Brady’s battery as an evidence of their victory.

“The Americans maintained absolute control of the battlefield. Colonel
Campbell of the Twenty-Second British Regiment sent to General
Sullivan the day after the battle and asked permission to search among
the dead for the body of his nephew, who had been killed the day
before by his side, but whose body he could not remove they were so
closely pursued.

“The Battle of Rhode Island was a gratifying success for the
Americans. Victory was due to the skill, the intelligence, the courage
and the audacity of General Sullivan, and to his brave officers and
men. Lafayette characterized it as ‘the best fought action of the
war,’ and the statement accords the highest compliment to the military
skill of General John Sullivan.

“It is a great pleasure to participate with so many friends in
expressing our high appreciation of the services of Sullivan that have
been so adequately and happily recognized by the American Irish
Historical Society. It is an intense gratification to contemplate the
success of these ceremonies and to sincerely join in congratulation
and in commendation of efforts that have resulted in adorning this
noble State House with this beautiful, substantial and enduring tablet
to our heroic dead.”

President-General Quinlan of the Society was then introduced by the
Chairman, as follows: “I have the pleasure now to call upon the
President-General of the American Irish Historical Society, under
whose careful and enthusiastic administration it has been possible to
erect and dedicate this tablet. There never has been a time when his
efforts, his energy, and all his powers were not at our disposal.
There never has been a time when we have called on him for anything
since the memorial has been under way that he has not promptly and
vigorously responded. I have the great honor of introducing to you,
ladies and gentlemen, our President-General, Francis J. Quinlan, M.
D., L. L. D., of New York City.”

President-General Quinlan said:

“Mr. Chairman, your Excellency, Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen:
Before I attempt to say a few words in honor of the auspicious event
of this day, I will take occasion to render the tribute of my personal
thanks and of the collective thanks of our Society to the
distinguished assemblage gathered here to do honor to our illustrious
hero by the loyal support of their presence.

“I take occasion, first of all, to thank the Ex-Governors, the present
Governor, the Governor-elect, and the Department of the G. A. R., an
association that to me is representative of the rarest and choicest
texture of the loom of American Independence. (I would rather wear
their button than be decorated by one hundred kings.) To those who
represent the Society of Colonial Wars I extend my heartfelt thanks
for their presence. To the Daughters of the American Revolution and to
the distinguished Sons, as well as to the Sons of Veterans and also
the illustrious Society whose early achievements in this country need
no word of commendation from me,—the Society of the Cincinnati,—to
them and to their representatives I extend my thanks and my greetings.
To the Rhode Island Citizens’ Historical Association I also offer
welcome. To those who are associated with none, but whose attendance
is due to their interest in these exercises, I am thankful for their
presence here today.

“Now, ladies and gentlemen, you have heard the stirring notes of
welcome that have rung out in this beautiful building, the tributes
that have been paid by those gentlemen, one of them with a line of
nine generations of pure and unsullied English blood. What further
tribute do we need, what other ratification or emphasis do we require
than that which comes from one whose nation held us in subjugation,
with its heel of tyranny upon our neck, for seven hundred years, when
this offspring, eager to forget past enmities, frankly tells us in
tones of eloquence that the Irish have been and always will remain
loyal and true and constant and devoted to every cause they espouse!
We need but little further argument to justify our existence, but it
behooves me, on an occasion of this kind, not apologetically, but in
bold words, to explain the purpose of the American Irish Historical
Society.

“It has been truly said by the Chairman of this meeting that this
Society was born in the City of Boston in the year 1897, for the study
of American history generally, as well as to trace the immigration of
the people of Ireland to this country, to correct erroneous and
distorted views of history in relation to the Irish people in America,
and to encourage and promote the formation of local associations in
American cities and towns as aids in the work of the parent Society.
These purposes have been so enlarged upon by the Chairman that they
need no word of encouragement from me.