Is it any wonder, therefore, that the Irish element in the United States should be the first to raise the cry of alarm against the plot to make this great Republic in the very hour of its triumph a mere colonial dependency instead of a regnant and invincible nation? For myself I yield to no man living or dead in the quality of my Americanism. I came to the Republic and have received with unstinted hand the usufruct of its noble freedom, its generous institutions, its magnificent and dazzling opportunities held out to him, however humble, who cultivates the civic virtues, is able, industrious, courageous and honest. I yield to the Republic no double allegiance. I stand for the United States in its vast and tremendous interests here and everywhere against all other countries’ fatherlands and motherlands, without stint, without reservation or hesitation. I am proud of my Irish birth, but above all things I glory in my American citizenship. I glory in the Republic and the splendor of its achievements, and I transmit to my descendants for a thousand years as a priceless heritage, that exhibition of magnificent military courage where American arms, in spite of the axioms of military science, in spite of the handicaps under which they suffered, swept in magnificent fury and heaven-born courage upon the fire-fringed hills of San Juan, brave men dying gladly, to catch a glimpse of the blessed banner of the great Republic; ours and theirs the glory of those ships which thundered at Cervera, that lightened the gloom of barbarian Manila, and in those ranks of the marines at Guantanamo, and the heroes at Santiago. Who of Irish birth or descent can but read the rosters on sea and shore with a discriminating eye, to find his heart aflame with pride at the splendid and unanswerable percentage of men with the hot blood of the Celt and the high patriotism of the American, and who, next to the flag of our common country, revere the fact that they draw their lineage from the historic island across the sea. Surely they were not all Anglo-Saxons in name or race who went with Hobson in his grand and heroic endeavor, which takes its place as outstripping the classic legends of Greece and Rome. Surely no one will deny that the roster call of the marines at Guantanamo and the army at Santiago fairly teems with representatives of the historic Irish soldier.