FIRST CONGRESS TOWARDS IRELAND-CHARLES THOMPSON, OF MAGHERA, SEC- RETARY TO CONGRESS THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE -EIGHT IRISH SIGNERS THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION ADOPTED-SIX IRISH AUTHORS OF THAT WASHINGTON, PRESIDENT-PARTY ORGANIZATION INTO FEDERALISTS AND REPUBLI- CANS INFLUENCE OF JEFFERSON OVER THE IRISH COMMUNITY- THE UNITED IRISH ORGANIZATION IN AMERICA- ADAMS, PRESIDENT - THE ALIEN AND THE WAR BY LAND-BATTLES ON THE NORTHERN FRONTIER - MASON — O'NEALE LANDING OF GENERAL ROSS-TREATMENT OF NATURALIZED CITIZENS TAKEN IN KAVANAGH, MINISTER TO PORTUGAL-SENATOR PORTER JACKSON'S PARTIAL- ITY TO IRISH EMIGRANTS HIS INFLUENCE ON HIS PARTY HIS CHARACTER, AMERICAN SYMPATHY FOR IRELAND UNITED IRISHMEN THE CATHOLIC EMANCI- PATION MOVEMENT — IRISH JOURNALS—AGITATION FOR "A REPEAL OF THE UNION WITH ENGLAND INFLUENCE OF MR. O'CONNELL -THE ATTEMPTED REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT OF 1848- -SYMPATHY WITH ITS PRINCIPLES, THE IRISH FAMINES OF 1846-7 AND 1848 -AMERICAN SYMPATHY- MEETINGS IN PHILADELPHIA, BOSTON AND NEW YORK-NATIONAL MEETING IN WASHINGTON "NATIVE AMERICAN MOVEMENT OF 1844 THE PHILADELPHIA RIOTS THEIR PROBABLE ORIGIN CONDUCT OF THE MILITARY AND MAGISTRATES SIMILAR MOVEMENTS IN NEW YORK, BOSTON, AND OTHER TOWNS - RE-ACTION -RE- THE IRISH IN MEXICO-SAN PATRICIO COUNTY-MACGEE'S INCURSION ANNEXA- TION OF TEXAS-WAR WITH MEXICO-TAYLOR'S CAMPAIGNS-MAJOR GENERAL SCOTT'S CAMPAIGNS -COLONEL RILEY-BRILLIANT CHARGE OF KEARNEY AND MACREYNOLD'S DRAGOONS—RRIGADIER GENERAL SHIELDS — HIS RECEPTION ON NEW STATES OF THE SOUTH-WEST HON. W. R. KING JUDGE PHELAN- THE SHARKEYS - IRISH MILLIONAIRES — BEIRNE OF VIRGINIA, MULLANPHY OF MIS- SENATORS CASS AND FITZGERALD OF MICHI- GAN, ALLEN OF OHIO, AND HANNEGAN OF INDIANA - HON. MR. RYAN ILLINOIS HUGH O'NEIL OF INDIANA -THE DOWLINGS LIEUTENANT-GOVERN- THE CENSUS OF 1850 -IRISH CONTINGENT TO THE POPULATION OF THE UNION- CHARACTER OF FORMER IRISH EMIGRATIONS -THE POLITICAL REFUGEES OF 1848 -FATHER MATHEW'S VISIT MILITARY COMPANIES POSITION AND REQUIRE- INTRODUCTION. EUROPE AND AMERICA. THE fifteenth century in Spain (the point from which the discovery of America emanated) was marked by the cessation of the Crusades, by treaties, made between the Moors and Christians of Spain and France, the Porte and Venice, of amity and commerce. Asiatic arts and luxury, Asiatic idols, and Asiatic valor, had made deep and sensible impressions upon Christendom. The schools of Cordova, the chivalry of Grenada, the galleys of Fez, the grandeur of the Soldan, exercised a moral despotism throughout Europe. What Russian power and Russian pretensions are to Europe to-day, the Ottoman empire was to the Christian Europe of Columbus' youth. The exact sciences were, as yet, in a rude and chaotic state. Astrology, alchemy, and both magics had professors and postulants. Medicine was little better than herbal traditions, or a litany of incantations. Amulets blest by conjurers were worn, and the stars believed in by the highest intellects. It was then, -when star-gazers advised kings to peace or war, when brazen heads were fabricated by Albertus Magnus and Friar Bacon, when Aldrovandus had to dissect his own child, fearing to touch another human body, -with Fatalism enthroned in Asia, and Credulity in Europe, - it was then, that Columbus turned his piercing vision towards the West. Domestic slavery existed very generally through Europe. The lords of the soil exacted the services, lives, and the very honor, of their serfs. The serf was chained to his district and predestined to his profession. There was no freedom of will, or mind, among the populace. A few trading towns had, indeed, wrung chartered privileges from their sovereigns, but these privileges were confined to the class of master workmen, who held in servitude the great body of the citizens and apprentices. Chivalry had lost its charm, and was obsolete. The age of Commerce, which was felt to be approaching, was looked for exclusively in the East; so that, even in the knowledge of its own wants, Europe was in error. Two great facts of this century precede Columbus, and only two. The science of government was being studied carefully in Italy, France, and Spain, and the science of reasoning in the great colleges, since called universities. The fall of Constantinople, in 1453, sent the learned of the East for refuge into Italy, and new classic schools began to assume a regular existence at Rome and Florence, Bologna and Ferrara. While these mental possessions were beginning to accumulate in Europe, in the wisdom of Providence, a New World was about to become a sharer in their diffusion. Let us be just to the European thinkers of those days. With much that seems absurd in the "schoolmen," and |