The journal of the American-Irish Historical Society, Vol. III, 1900Various
History
The journal of the American-Irish Historical Society, Vol. III, 1900
Various
American-Irish Historical Society -- Periodicals; Ethnology -- United States -- Periodicals; Irish Americans -- Periodicals
Gentlemen, there is a higher plane than that of the traditions,
current methods and policies of organizing colonial dependencies. It
is to believe that every growing race and ethnic stock has higher
possibilities in it; to hold that the diverse ways of civilization
are not all exhausted yet, and that instead of forcing other races
to take up the white man’s, or the Englishman’s burden, our policy
should be to keep off, where practicable, alien interference,
including our own, and to develop a new policy of protection and
thus to foster new and independent centers of social and political
development.
To my mind the tragedy of history is the perversion, repression or
destruction of budding nationalities of species, and perhaps genera,
different from our own, and the threatened uniformitization of the
entire world by civilization as we define and understand it. This is
the method of what, I think, we may call the higher anthropology. It
would be, I think, the statesmanship of the superman, who may
sometime exist, and who would be a citizen of all times and a
spectator of all events. To steer the ship of state in this
direction is to keep it true to the pole of human destiny. It is the
work of the heavenborn pilot, who keeps his tiller true, and not of
the star gazer.
These moments are big with destiny. Statesmanship is approaching the
time when it must take a cosmic view of human life as a whole, and I
have heard no note that rings so clear and pure to my ear with such
a true flavor of conviction as the plea for a larger ken by the
political nestor of this state and nation, who has grown not rich
but poor from a quarter century’s service for his state; who makes
no bid for the support of other parties, while speaking as many of
his colleagues in both parties privately declare they would do if
they spoke for themselves rather than for their constituency; a man
competent to-day to fill any one of three if not four
professorships; whose years admonish us that any such utterance may
be his last, and whom, as in the case of no other public man, his
political enemies vie with his friends to honor.
President Hall was followed by President Capen of Tufts College who also
delivered an entertaining address.
The historical paper of the evening was by Thomas F. O’Malley, of
Somerville, Mass., whose subject was “Hugh Cargill,” a patriot who took
part in the events of April 19, 1775. The paper displayed close
research.
There were also addresses during the evening by John E. Milholland,
Joseph Smith and E. O’Meagher Condon.
[Illustration:
GEN. RICHARD MONTGOMERY.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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