The Irish Presbyterians and Catholics were in full sympathy with this country during the Revolution, while in Ireland or elsewhere there were very few Scotch who favored the American cause. A noted exception to the rule was John Witherspoon, a signer of the Declaration of Independence from New Jersey, who was a devoted patriot. The only large settlement of Scotch in the colonies was formed in North Carolina by the British government, after the battle of Culloden, by transplanting the Highlanders. Among them was Flora McDonald, whose husband, with every other man in the settlement, espoused the English cause and fought against the Americans. It is full time that we divest ourselves of English influence in this country. Until this be done we will remain in ignorance of the truth relating to a large portion of our history, which has yet to be written in strict accord with the facts. [Illustration: HON. MORGAN J. O’BRIEN, A Justice of the New York Supreme Court. ] [Illustration: MR. JOHN CRANE, NEW YORK CITY. ] [Illustration: MR. STEPHEN J. GEOGHEGAN, NEW YORK CITY. ] [Illustration: MR. JOSEPH FORSYTH SWORDS, NEW YORK CITY. ] FOUR MEMBERS OF THE EXECUTIVE COUNCIL. SOME PRE-REVOLUTIONARY IRISHMEN. BY HON. JOHN C. LINEHAN, CONCORD, N. H. Two hundred and fifty years ago, the Five Nations, better known later as the Six Nations, was the most powerful confederacy of Indians in North America. The governor of the province of New York, in a communication to the committee of trade dated February 22, 1687, said, “The Five Nations are the most warlike people in America. They go as far as the South sea, the Northwest passage, and Florida to war. They are so considerable that all the Indians in these parts of America are tributary to them.” To gain the friendship of these people, was the constant aim of the French in Canada, and the English in New York and New England. The latter at the outset had an advantage from the fact, well-known, that the former under Champlain, had antagonized the confederacy, by forming an alliance with the Hurons whom it had not, up to that time, subjected to its rule. This advantage, however, there is good reason to believe, would not have inured to the benefit of the English, were it not for the influence of two men of Irish blood, who by their tact, discretion, and humanity, secured the alliance of the Six Nations for the British government. The union thus created was of the greatest possible benefit to the English colonies, and existed until the power of the confederacy was destroyed forever, and the Indians themselves, connected with it, almost swept from the face of the earth.