The patriotic founders of our government looked with disfavor upon the existence of large standing armies in times of peace for very many reasons. Not only did they consider them a tax upon industry and a drain upon the young manhood of the country, but they felt that their maintenance constituted a menace to liberty, and yet these wise and far seeing builders of the Republic realized that there could be no security for personal liberty or property rights in a State that had not at its command an armed force, and so we find imbedded in the fundamental law a provision that “a well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed” (Art. 2, 1st Amendts. U. S. Const. March, 1789). Freedom had just been achieved by the sword, and that reliance for its preservation must at all times rest upon arms was a doctrine to which the statesmen of the Revolution unreservedly subscribed. Soldiers were necessary but it was not necessary that all good soldiers should be professionals. To citizens engaged in the ordinary avocations of life, in industrial arts, in commercial pursuits, in commerce or trade, in the professions, military instruction could be given, opportunities for practice and drill formations afforded, including lessons in the organization and mobilization of armies, so that when necessity required, a well disciplined armed body might be readily summoned from civil ranks for service in the field and as readily absorbed back into industrial life when the hour of peril had passed, the threatened danger had been averted and the emergency no longer existed for martial music, emblazoned banners, marching legions and tented fields. Since the earliest settlement of this continent, the Irish race has been prominently identified with our history. Irishmen were among the first settlers; they continued to come uninterruptedly, they are still coming, and unless conditions change very much for the better in the Green Isle, they are going to keep on coming in the future. The spirit of Irish-Americanism is a spirit of intense Americanism; it stands for the Union of States, the sovereignty of the flag, obedience to the laws, loyalty to the government, good citizenship in peace, and in war, prompt response when volunteers are called for. Volumes would be insufficient to spread the record of the achievements of the sons of Erin upon American battlefields; individuals might be cited by the score or by the hundred whose intrepidity and devotion shed glory upon our arms on sea and shore.