1902. Aug. 29. Chief Justice Stiness of the Rhode Island supreme court wrote concerning our celebration on this date: “I have your very kind invitation to the banquet of your Society at the Narragansett Hotel in Providence, on the anniversary of the battle of Rhode Island, Aug. 29, in special honor of Gen. John Sullivan. I regret that I shall be unable to attend as I shall be absent from the state at that time. Your Society has reason to be proud of the young man, born of Irish parents, ... who held so high a place in the civil and military affairs of the colonies, and this state has reason to be grateful for the service he rendered in its defence at a critical period of the Revolution. Both as a member of the judiciary of the state and as president of the Rhode Island Historical Society, I congratulate your Society upon its efforts to call attention to service rendered our country by those of Irish descent.... I greatly regret my inability to be present at so pleasant an event and give you my best wishes for its interest and success.” 1902. Aug. 29. Hon. Pierre de Margerie, French Charge d’Affaires, wrote relative to the Society’s celebration held on this date: “His Excellency, Mr. Jules Cambon, being in France, I have received the note of August 5, in which you ask the French ambassador to be present at the exercises which will take place on the 29th of this month, at Narragansett Hotel, Providence, R. I. I am quite sure that, if Mr. Jules Cambon had been in this country, it would have been for him a great pleasure to be the guest of the American-Irish Society, on the anniversary of the battle of Rhode Island, and that he will regret very much to have been unable to accept your very kind invitation.”