There is a prevailing notion that this influx after the great famine was the commencement of Irish migration.  In reality it was only the climax.  Long before this, Irishmen were found in the colonies, chiefly as indentured servants; they were in the Continental Army as valiant soldiers; they were in the western flux that filled the Mississippi Valley as useful pioneers.  How many there were we do not know.  As early as 1737, however, there were enough in Boston to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, and in 1762 they poured libations to their favorite saint in New York City, for the Mercury in announcing the meeting said, “Gentlemen that please to attend will meet with the best Usage.”  On March 17, 1776, the English troops evacuated Boston and General Washington issued the following order on that date: 

     Parole Boston

     Countersign St. Patrick

     The regiments under marching orders to march tomorrow
     morning.  By His Excellency’s command.

     Brigadier of the Day

     GEN.  JOHN SULLIVAN.

Thus did the Patriot Army gracefully acknowledge the day and the people.

In 1784, on the first St. Patrick’s Day after the evacuation of New York City by the British, there was a glorious celebration “spent in festivity and mirth.”  As the newspaper reporter put it, “the greatest unanimity and conviviality pervaded” a “numerous and jovial company.”

Branches of the Society of United Irishmen were formed in American cities soon after the founding of the order in Ireland.  Many veterans of ’98 found their way to America, and between 1800 and 1820 many thousand followed the course of the setting sun.  Their number cannot be ascertained; but there were not a few.  In 1818 Irish immigrant associations were organized by the Irish in New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore to aid the newcomers in finding work.  Many filtered into the United States from Canada, Newfoundland, and the West Indies.  These earlier arrivals were not composed of the abjectly poor who comprised the majority of the great exodus, and especially among the political exiles there were to be found men of some means and education.

America became extremely popular in Ireland after the Revolution of 1776, partly because the English were defeated, partly because of Irish democratic aspirations, but particularly because it was a land of generous economic and political possibilities.  The Irish at once claimed a kinship with the new republic, and the ocean became less of a barrier than St. George’s Channel.

“The States,” as they were called, became a synonym of abundance.  The most lavish reports of plenty were sent back by the newcomers—­of meat daily, of white bread, of comfortable clothing.  “There is a great many ill conveniences here,” writes one, “but no empty bellies.”  In England and Ireland and Scotland the number of poor who longed for this abundance exceeded the capacity