V 



i6th April. 1907. 



Mr. John Horner in the Chair. 



THE SCOTCH-IRISH IN AMERICA. 



Rv The Hon. Samuel S. Knabenshue. 



(Abstract.) 



The most Irish city in the world is not Belfast nor Dublin, but 

 Boston It has more inhabitants of Irish lineage than either — 

 more even than New York, which is popularly supposed to be 

 " run " by the Irish. In the United States the term " Irish- 

 American " designates any resident who either was born in Ireland 

 or whose ancestors came from the Emerald Isle. The majority 

 of all who are Irish by birth or descent are to be found in the 

 States. Omitting the Irish who emigrated earlier, since the potato 

 famine of 1845 over 4,000,000 have gone thither, and the estimate 

 that there are at least ten million Irish-Americans in our 85,000,000 

 population is certainly within reason. 



The subject for immediate consideration, however, is not the 

 Irish- Americans as a whole, but that section of Scotch ancestry. 

 Viewed from the American standpoint, they are Scots who 

 sojourned for several generations in the North of Ireland, and 

 then sought new homes in the United States to secure religious 

 liberty. 



The thirteen original colonies of English-speaking people, which 

 formed the nucleus of the present American Union of 46 States, 

 formed a mere strip along the Atlantic seaboard. North and 

 south along the coast it is about 1,000 miles. Westward, the 

 settled portions reached to the Appalachian mountain system, 

 some 200 to 250 miles. The most easterly range of this system 

 is the Blue Ridge. Now, in this coastal strip there were four 



