Abstract Potent Legacies: the Transformation of Irish
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ABSTRACT POTENT LEGACIES: THE TRANSFORMATION OF IRISH AMERICAN POLITICS, 1815-1840 Mathieu W. Billings, Ph.D. Department of History Northern Illinois University, 2016 Sean Farrell, Director This dissertation explores what “politics” meant to Irish and Irish American Catholic laborers between 1815 and 1840. Historians have long remembered emigrants of the Emerald Isle for their political acumen during the 19th century—principally their skills in winning municipal office and mastering “machine” politics. They have not agreed, however, about when, where, and how the Irish achieved such mastery. Many scholars have argued that they obtained their political educations in Ireland under the tutelage of Daniel O’Connell, whose mass movement in the 1820s brought about Catholic Emancipation. Others have claimed that, for emigrant laborers in particular, their educations came later, after the Famine years of the late 1840s, and that they earned them primarily in the United States. In this dissertation, I address this essential discrepancy by studying their experiences in both Ireland and America. Primarily utilizing court records, state documents, company letters, and newspapers, I argue that Irish Catholic laborers began their educations in Ireland before emigrating in the late 1820s and early 1830s. Yet they completed them in America, particularly in states where liberal suffrage requirements permitted them to put their skills in majority rule to use. By 1840, both Whigs and Democrats alike recognized the political intellects of Irish-born laborers, and both vigorously courted their votes. Indeed, the potent legacies of their experiences in Ireland made many the unsung power brokers of the early republic. NORTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY DE KALB, ILLINOIS DECEMBER 2016 POTENT LEGACIES: THE TRANSFORMATION OF IRISH AMERICAN POLITICS, 1815-1840 BY MATHIEU W. BILLINGS © 2016 Mathieu W. Billings A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY Doctoral Director: Sean Farrell DEDICATION For Christine TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Acknowledgements ………………………………………………………………………… iv Abbreviations ………………………………………………………………………………. vi Introduction ………………………………………………………………………………… 1 Part I Matriculation: The Makings of a Political Education in the Irish Midlands, 1815-1833 Chapter 1 Informal Politics and the Revolutionary Royal Canal, 1815-1823 …............ 46 Chapter 2 Into the Realm of Formal Politics: Getting a Political Education, 1824-1826 111 Chapter 3 “A Moral Electricity”: The Transformation of Politics in the Irish Midlands, 1827-1833 …………………………………………………. 175 Part II Commencement: The Completion of a Political Education in the United States, 1834-1840 Chapter 4 The Politics of Faction in Maryland, 1834-1840 …………………………... 238 Chapter 5 Indiana’s “Irish War” and the Rise of Whig Party Politics, 1835-1840 …… 303 Chapter 6 Illinois’ “Irish Rebellion”: The Beginnings of Irish American Politics in the Prairie State, 1837-1840 ……………………………………................... 361 Chapter 7 New York’s “Croton Campaign”: The Politics of Irish Laborers in Westchester County, 1838-1840 …………………………………………... 422 Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………………..... 479 Bibliography ……………………………………………………………………………….. 493 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I must thank my dissertation director, Professor Sean Farrell, for his belief in this project, as well as his patience and supervision. A consummate professional and mentor, Professor Farrell helped me chart a clear course for my research and assisted me in identifying its historical significance. His breadth and depth of knowledge in 19th-century Irish history is awe-inspiring. Six years in the making, this dissertation would never have been written if not for his direction and enthusiastic support. I could have not asked for a better adviser. Thank you. I must also extend my deepest gratitude to committee members Professors Jim Schmidt, Aaron Fogleman, and Natalie Joy. They challenged me to ask tough questions and think big. In my writing and in my teaching, they have influenced me in countless positive ways. I am glad to know them. It is with a profound sense of appreciation that I acknowledge my mentors and colleagues at the American Conference for Irish Studies. Special thanks to James S. Donnelly, Timothy McMahon, Laura Kelley, and Timothy O’Neil for their comments and consideration regarding this project over the years. To my fellow comrades Ian Burns and David Downs, who traveled with me to conferences and helped me prepare for many presentations, thank you. I am fortunate to have gone through these experiences with such good scholars and great people. This dissertation was funded primarily through grants provided by the Northern Illinois University History Department. Without the Large Grant and Hayter-Young funds, I would v never have been able to travel so extensively. Many thanks to Anne Hanley and the allocation committees for their generosity. I truly wish that I could offer individual acknowledgements to all of the archivists and librarians who assisted me in my work. Alas, there are too many. But in Ireland and the United States, their steadfast professionalism and dedication to their jobs made this project possible. To my parents, David and Gail Billings, I am grateful for your continued support. You were my first teachers, and I am lucky to have had such good ones. Thank you. Last, but certainly not least, I owe a debt of deep appreciation to my wife and children for their unwavering patience, love, and encouragement. Leif and Enson, you can scarcely imagine how much you have inspired me in this endeavor. One day, I hope to tell you more about it over a pint somewhere in Dublin. To my wife Christine, I am humbled by your generosity. You know more about Irish American politics than many minted scholars. Indeed, I am lucky not only to be married to someone willing to support my work, but also to someone who has worked alongside me. For all of the photographs you have taken, the newspapers you have skimmed, and the books you have requested, thank you. I dedicate this work to you. ABBREVIATIONS NLI National Library of Ireland, Dublin, Ireland NAI National Archives of Ireland, Dublin, Ireland IFC National Folklore Collection of Ireland, Dublin, Ireland TCD Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland NAUS National Archives of the United States, College Park, Maryland MSA Maryland State Archives, Annapolis, Maryland PSA Pennsylvania State Archives, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania ISA Indiana State Archives, Indianapolis, Indiana IHS Indiana State Historical Society, Indianapolis, Indiana WCC Wabash County Courthouse, Wabash, Indiana LCC LaSalle County Courthouse, Ottawa, Illinois WCA Westchester County Archives, Elmsford, New York NYSA New York State Archives, Albany, New York ACHR Albany County Hall of Records, Albany, New York INTRODUCTION THE TRANSFORMATION OF IRISH AMERICAN POLITICS, 1815-1840 This is a dissertation about an often overlooked group of power brokers, about people who learned in the span of a generation how to adapt their experiences as marginalized laborers into skills that made them potent electors. This is a story of Irish emigrants who, despite having been born into a society that discriminated against them for their religion as well as their class, played key roles in forcing the British Empire to emancipate Catholics and American political party leaders to heed their desires. It is an account of a transformation that, while neither linear nor inevitable, saw ordinary individuals invent, learn, and improve upon extraordinary methods of politicking that gave them voice to address their most pressing needs. It is a narrative of the origins of heretofore anonymous emigrant laborers who came from the Irish midlands before the catastrophic Famine of the 1840s, and how they established the cultural foundations that led to machine politics and the modern American electoral process. Initially, I began researching Irish emigrant laborers of the 1830s to determine why factions known as Fardowns and Corkonians went to “war” in the United States, but the evidence steered my questioning in another direction. I discovered an abundance of primary sources, including clippings from Democratic and Whig newspapers, claiming that the people of these factions actively engaged in electoral politics. “All the Irish on the canal,” the Chicago Democrat reported in November 1838, “to the number of five thousand, voted at the late state election.” What is more, the National Banner declared, “an Irishman” ran against a native-born 2 “American citizen for Sheriff, and though the Irishman had been but 7 months in the country, he was elected!!” This was not supposed to be. Since the 1990s, historians have generally depicted emigrant Irish laborers as transient, migratory, and marginalized—certainly not as unsung power brokers of the early republic. Peter Way, the foremost scholar of canal workers, has argued that their “limited access to the power structure” meant that Irish canallers were “rarely courted as valued constituents.” Kevin Kenny, one of the leading historians of Irish America, has echoed this view, describing the current historiography of canal culture as one “marked by transience, appalling living conditions, a highly dangerous work environment, self-destructive expressions of masculinity (including alcoholism and faction fighting) and general social degradation.” Indeed, as Joseph Lee has put it, “it might seem they brought as