In all the battles of the Revolution, at Bunker Hill, Concord, Lexington, Monmouth, Valley Forge and Yorktown, we did our part. In the hour of the nation’s peril we gave freely of our substance. We helped to kindle and keep alive the flame of liberty. Wherever and whenever men were needed there were found Irish hearts and Irish hands ready to give up all for the establishment of free institutions, for the right of a nation to be free. Here at last we had found a country worth fighting for and worth dying for. Here we had found the principle of individual liberty a living, throbbing thing. We have been true to America, whatever our enemies may say; we are true to it today; and America knows that if ever the liberties of the republic are threatened the Irish, of whatever faith or political belief, will be found doing their part as of old.

In peace and in war we have done our part. We are doing it today and will continue to do so as long as the fame of Washington and Lincoln endure. We stand for patriotism, for respect for just laws, for the sanctity of the marriage tie, for the purity of our homes, the education of our children and the morality of the people. S. Banks Nelson, an Irish clergyman of this state, has stated that we govern every nation but our own. We also submit to government and the history of our own city of Providence for the last few years has shown that religious bigotry or race prejudice are not failings of the Irish race in Rhode Island.

All we ask is our share of that reward that goes to labor well performed. We ask to be treated justly. We do not claim office because we are Irish and, on the other hand, we insist that office shall not be denied us because of that fact. We have made mistakes and will make them, but they are not fatal. We stand on our record as American citizens and as such entitled to an equal share in its government. All we ask is that you sympathize with us in our struggle, that you teach your children some little knowledge of our history, that you learn to know us as we are and not as we are sometimes represented. Above all we ask you never to permit men or women, on the stage or elsewhere, to utter indecencies or obscenities in the name of our womanhood; for all must admit that our women, by their matchless purity and virtue, are the honor and glory of humanity.