Happy Saint Patrick's Day!!! An Immigrant Holiday!

Happy Saint Patrick's Day! In past years, I have written about the religious nature of Saint Patrick's Day. Patrick was a remarkable missionary and a hero of the Christian faith. There are many blogs today celebrating that aspect of the day.

There is another aspect of Saint Patrick's Day that I will tackle today. Saint Patrick's Day is largely an immigrants holiday. I saw an interview with Paddy Moloney of the Chieftains saying how he preferred to spend Saint Patrick's Day in the US. In Ireland, it was largely a religious holiday. In the US, Saint Patrick's Day is a party. In the US, Saint Patrick's Day is more a celebration of Irish heritage than it is about the saint. It demonstrates the impact that a group of immigrants can have on a culture and a nation.

Irishmen were among the first colonists in the New World. They came to the New World in various employs of the British government and venture corporations. Later, Irishmen came to America to escape the oppressive and difficult life of Ireland. Ireland was ruled by a landed gentry that was British or appointed by the crown. The aristocracy of Ireland was thoroughly loyal to the crown and far removed from the majority of the Emerald Isle. The disparities became blatantly obvious when the primary food crop for the poor was destroyed.

Around 1845, the potato crop of Ireland was destroyed by blight. A large portion of the poor in Ireland relied upon the potato. To make matters worse, Ireland experienced a severe winter in 1846-47 that exacerbated the problem. The resulting famine added to the many points of conflict between the Upper and Lower classes. The lower class was mostly composed of Catholics that faced discrimination under British law. They were not fairly represented in Parliament. And while the poor starved in the streets, the wealthy ate sumptuously. There were other food crops in Ireland, but they were most exported to the foreign markets and overseas British colonies. The overall result was that over a million Irish died of malnutrition over a ten year period. Another million left Ireland to settle in the US, Australia, and other friendly nations. The disparities and injustices that occurred during the famine also contributed to the growing Republican movements that would lead to Irish freedom.

The response to the famine in the US was varied. When the Irish Famine began, the US was involved in a war with Mexico. Funds were raised across the US, and the first international relief effort by the United States was mounted. The sloop-of-war USS Jamestown was disarmed and filled with food.

American aid saved lives and started an American tradition of helping those in need. Americans were happy to send aid to Ireland, but as the Irish started arriving in American ports, things changed.

The Irish that came off the boats during the Great Famine were impoverished and malnourished. They dressed in worn and outdated clothing. Newspaper editorials portrayed the waves of Irish arriving on American shores as animalistic, backwards, uneducated, and immoral. They looked funny and worse yet, they were Catholic. Helping the Irish in Ireland was fine, but America didn't want any more Irish in America. Eventually, American ports started to close to ships coming from Ireland. The Irish were berated and belittled. Amazingly the caustic caricatures remain to this day (it's okay to use comic, demeaning Irish stereotypes in Saint Patrick's Day graphics on the local news, but they wouldn't dare wear black face or use minstrel show figures during February). This is an actual cartoon from Harper's Weekly, the Journal of Civilization.

The Irish were forced into the poorer districts of the cities, but they banded together. Before long the Irish were the business owners, politicians, and even in charge of organized crime! The Irish took the jobs that no one else would take. They loaded cotton bales on the Mississippi, a job considered too hazardous for slaves. They worked the bayous of Louisiana, mined coal in the Appalachians, and built the railroads. The Irish fought on both sides of the Civil War and rebuilt the nation in Reconstruction. The Irish that settled in the US were transformed by America and also transformed America. Saint Patrick's Day is a celebration of how much the Irish have contributed to the fabric of the United States. It is also a promise to immigrants today and for the future.

My great-great-grandfather came from Ireland during the Great Famine. He settled in Georgia just in time for the Civil War. Like many of the Irish he became a part of the fabric of America. The history of the United States is a history of the immigrant finding a home. Saint Patrick's Day in the United States is testimony of the impact immigrants can have on the nation.

Bad Judgment

On this day in 1857, the Supreme Court of the United States delivered their decision in the Dred Scott versus Sandford case. The court ruled against Scott and essentially ruled that slaves were not citizens of the United States. Slaves could not bring suit in Federal courts and limited the Federal government's role in regulating slavery in states established after the adoption of the Constitution. It was considered a major setback for abolitionists. While Chief Justice Roger Taney hoped that the ruling would settle the slave question, it helped prepare the way for the Civil War.

It is important to keep in mind that slavery was a legal institution under the Constitution of the United States. The court was upholding a Constitutionally protected institution that existed prior to the founding of the nation. Many legal scholars debate whether the court rendered the correct judgment. However, they approach the question with modern morality that abhors slavery (most of the time). But prior to the American Civil War the morality of slavery varied across the country. A significant number of Americans supported slavery as beneficial and necessary. Slavery was affirmed as legal, moral, and justifiable by the Constitution, public opinion, and the Supreme Court. Not everyone agreed with that. The Dred Scott case mobilized abolitionists, especially within the Republican party. The mobilization would eventually lift Abraham Lincoln to the White House and spark the Civil War.

Today we recognize that pro-slavery opinions were wrong. The Supreme Court only rules on what is legal under the Constitution, but they don't always rule on what is moral. Often the Supreme Court is considered the final arbiter. If Republicans had considered the Supreme Court the final arbiter in the 1850s, then slavery would have continued for several more decades. Many Americans recognized that the ruling of the Supreme Court was supporting something evil. They continued to work hard to end slavery in the United States. We should recognize that the Supreme Court and public opinion can be swayed to immoral positions that are acceptable to society. That does not make it right. Our standards for morality must come from a higher position and authority.

The First American Confederacy

On this day in 1781, the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union was ratified by the original 13 colonies. This document was crafted by the Second Continental Congress and formally established The United States of America. The document was drafted in 1776 and sent to the states for ratification in 1777. Some of the states were slow in ratifying it and, of course, there was the matter of a revolution. This document established the government that fought for independence from Great Britain.

The government established by the Articles of Confederation was a weak central government. Its primary duties were foreign affairs. The federal government took the responsibility to wage war, negotiate with foreign powers, and appoint ambassadors. The states were responsible for levying the taxes to run the government. The predominant power remained with the states though states agreed to share a common law. The Federalists thought this too weak a form of federal government and pressed for a new government document. Their objections led to the creation of United States Constitution, which was ratified on June 21, 1788.

The Articles created the office of President of the United States in Congress Assembled. Essentially, the president was the presiding officer of Congress and chaired the Committee of States, the government body that ran things when Congress was not in session. This arrangement was quite different from the office of the President under the US Constitution. Still, the leader of Congress was called the President, and you probably did not learn his name in elementary school. The first US president under the Articles of Confederation was Samuel Huntington. History is far more complicated than most people realize, and there are many great men who founded the US that are largely forgotten.