“Before I say anything further, however, let me briefly establish my right to be among you tonight upon a more intimate basis than that of a mere guest. This can hardly be done because of my being an Irish American, for I am only of Irish blood on my father’s side in the fourth generation. But my right to be one of you from another point of view is quite apparent. In the state in which I was born there lived an Irish American bearing the name of White. At a public dinner—I do not believe it was an Irish American affair—he sat near one whose name was O’Rourke. Leaning over to him he said: ‘Mr. O’Rourke, what countryman are you?’ ‘What countryman?’ said O’Rourke. ‘I am an Irishman. Why do you ask me?’ ‘Because I thought from your name you might be a Frenchman,’ was the reply. Quick came the retort: ‘That is more than I can think of you, for I can kick a White out of every sod in Ireland.’ “But there is a deeper claim than mere name on my part to be one of you, since going back over my whole life from the time when I sat as a boy learning to read out of a primer, down to this night, I can look back to nothing of joy or sorrow, of success or failure, where some Irish American friend did not stand near me aiding in the realization or accomplishment of the one or sustaining and supporting in submission to the other. “When the French Republic was born some one asked a great French orator to prove its existence. He said: ‘The Republic is like the sun; blind is he who sees it not.’ And so tonight I shall not attempt to recount the many and priceless services from the days of the Revolution to this time which the Irish American has rendered to the upbuilding of this great and free country which we possess and enjoy. Why should this be done, since their services shine down the pathway of our national life with an effulgence so bright that blind indeed must he be who sees them not. “The question which I ask myself, therefore, is not the superfluous one of what the Irish Americans have done for our country, but what they owe it. By what means were they enabled to render the great services which they have rendered? The answer is clear. Their possibilities arose from the wise, the free institutions which our forefathers founded and under the shelter of which the Irish Americans were enabled here to seek a haven and to establish their new homes, thus affording them the opportunity of rendering the services which they have rendered to the expansion and preservation of our institutions. “This being true, I ask myself the question, and I ask of each one of you, how best can we honor them? How best can we show our appreciation of the great work which they have done? The answer comes spontaneously to the mind: By preserving and perpetuating those institutions which have blessed them so much and which they have in return so helped to establish and preserve.