The man born on Irish soil, breathing Irish air, drinking in the beauty of the hills and vales and streams and loughs of Ireland, listening to whispering winds of Irish seas, hearing the story and legend of the Irish days long gone, his heart and soul responding to the hopes of those around him, be his father English or Norman, Scotch or Welsh, Dane or Norse, French or Dutch, that man will grow into an Irishman. This is the verdict of history; this is the experience of seven centuries. Let them come from where they will, those who plunge into the Irish Lethe emerge on the other bank Irishmen, better betimes than the son of the older race, more Irish than the Irish. Conditions, climate, environment are more potent than blood; they are the instruments with which God works. The normal man born on Irish soil and growing to manhood on it is an Irishman. Carry him to the most remote quarter of the earth, and he is still Irish, and his children even to the tenth generation. On May 4, 1897, the sad tidings reached the society of the death of Admiral Meade, the President of the society. He was born in New York City, 1837; appointed midshipman Oct. 2, 1850; first sea service in sloop-of-war _Preble_, 1851; warrant as master and commission as lieutenant, 1858; lieutenant-commander, 1862; was a commander in 1870; commissioned captain in 1880; became a commodore in 1892, and rear-admiral in 1894; admitted to the society at its organization, Jan. 20, 1897, and chosen President-General of the same, being the first to hold the office. The Meade family has been to a wonderful extent identified with the growth and development of our national life. A glance at the societies of which Admiral Meade was a member, will show the active and heroic part this family has taken in every movement since the settlement of the land. * * * * * 1. The Order of the Founders and Patriots of America, 1607–57, 1775–83. (Councillor of New York Society.) _Period 1607–57._ _Ancestors._ 1) Vincent Meigs, 1583–1658. 2) John Meigs, 1st, 1612–72. 3) John Meigs, 2d, 1640–91. [Illustration: THEODORE ROOSEVELT NEW YORK CITY ] [Illustration: PATRICK WALSH GEORGIA ] [Illustration: THOMAS ADDIS EMMET NEW YORK CITY ] Vincent Meigs and his son John, 1st, were emigrants to Connecticut in 1637–38, and in 1639 were among the founders of Guilford, Conn. John Meigs, 2d, was one of the patentees of Guilford mentioned in the Charter granted by James II to the town, May 25, 1685. _Period 1775–83._ The patriot progeny of the above-named who made their mark in the War of Independence were four brothers (sons of Admiral Meade’s maternal great-great-grandfather, Return Meigs, of Middletown, Conn., born 1708, died 1770) as follows: