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“Already have most parts of the State and other parts of the Union, been moving on this Subject, and shall the citizens of Ogdensburgh---of the county of St. Lawrence, be the last or the least in rendering their aid? “: asked the executive committee of the St. Lawrence County Irish Relief Committee in their appeal to the residents of St. Lawrence County to contribute to Irish and Scottish relief during the Great Hunger in Ireland.1 Throughout St. Lawrence County andthe North Country residents rallied to the cause of Irish and Scottish relief. Isaac Stone, the minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Watertown, wrote a letter to the local newspaper calling on “Fellow Christians! Brethren in Christ!” proposing a public meeting “for the purpose of considering the condition of the people of Ireland” to devise a plan to raise donations “to bestow for their relief.”2 The editor endorsed Rev. Stone’s appeal “and we hope to see his suggestions seconded by a general move of the public.”3 Meeting on February 23rd, the citizens of Watertown issued an appeal to the people of Jefferson County “let, then, contributions in money, in provisions, and in clothing, be liberally made, and forwarded with the least possible delay to the scenes of suffering.”4 The residents of Watertown met at the local Universalist Church while the people of Ogdensburg met at the Presbyterian Church suggesting the ecumenical nature of American famine relief in 1847.
Three times in the 19th Century Americans joined in a voluntary campaign of Irish relief in 1846-47, 1862-63, and 1879-80. When members of the Jewish congregation Shearith Israel met in New York City in early 1847 to donate to the Irish victims of the Great Famine they joined in a statewide and national nonpartisan and ecumenical effort: “Our citizens have come forward with promptitude and generosity; contributions have poured in from all classes, from all sects.”5 According to the New York State Irish and Scottish Relief Committee, based in Albany, contributions raised in Albany represented “the equally mingled contributions of the Protestant and Roman Catholic, native and foreign-born citizens of the City of Albany.”6 The New York State Committee sent the donations to the Roman Catholic and Anglican (Episcopalian)archbishops of Ireland via the Society of Friends (Quakers) in Dublin, the primary distribution center of American aid during the Great Famine. The people of the North Country joined in this non-partisan and ecumenical effort. Most contributions from the North Country got channeled to either the State Committee or to the New York City Irish Relief Committee, the largest relief committee in the country that forwarded aid to Ireland.
Americans organized relief committees in almost every village, town, and city in the country, because President James K. Polk considered government aid to Ireland unconstitutional. Congressman Washington Hunt of Lockport in the House and John Crittenden of Kentucky in the Senate, both Whigs, proposed appropriating $500,000 for Irish and Scottish relief. The bill passed the Senate with Whigs and Democrats voting for the bill, but President Polk threatened to veto the proposed aid if the bill passed the House. Enough Democrats listened to the President and killed the legislation in the House. Instead, people across the country followed the suggestions of a public meeting, chaired by Vice-President George Dallas, in Washington in early February 1847. Many members of the House, Senate, and Supreme Court attended the meeting and drafted resolutions calling on Americans in every village, town, and city in the country to establish voluntary relief committees, collect aid, and send it to major port cities, like Boston or New York for shipment to Europe. This is exactly what the people of the North Country did. In St. Lawrence County, for example, every town established a relief committee to collect food, clothing, and money for Irish and Scottish relief.7
A potato blight hit Ireland and Scotland in 1845 and lasted to 1852 and in some districts to 1854. Over 1.5 million died in Ireland out a pre-famine population of 8.4 million in 1840. Thousands died in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. Word of the famine appeared in the American press in November 1846. Repeating news from British newspapers the St. Lawrence Republican reported: “the famine in Ireland is very severe, and many are dying of starvation.”8 Similarly, readers of the Essex County Republican in Keeseville could read of the “immense destitution” in the Highlands of Scotland and “in Ireland the poor have been reduced to the sad extremity of existing without the potato.”9 Readers of newspapers in the North Country learned of the impact of the famine starting in November 1846.
Initially, reports of mass starvation in Ireland did not lead to organized activity in the North Country. Quakers and Irish Americans organized public meetings in major cities, like Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Savannah in November and December 1846. The arrival of the packet Hibernia in Boston in mid-January 1847 and Sarah Sands two weeks later in New York City brought reports of starvation and death in Ireland. The press in the North Country printed accounts of the grim news for the people in their communities to read reinforcing the previous accounts from November. “There is scarcely a county in Ireland but feels the presence of the gaunt spectre---famine,” the editor of the Herkimer Democrat concluded.10 The editor of a Watertown paper told his readers that based on the news recently brought from Europe: “It is really heart-sickening to read them--- whole families dying of starvation, and buried in a common grave, without coffins, and the bodies destitute of clothing!” 11 According to the Richland Courier, in Pulaski, Oswego County, “the accounts that reach us from this unhappy and distracted country are truly appalling.”12 The major newspaper in St. Lawrence County reprinted the stories from the British press brought by Hibernia and Sarah Sands “of starvation of the most dire description” killing many people in Ireland.13 “This distress in Ireland is unabated,” reported the Oswego Palladium based on news from Sarah Sands.14 Trying to be sensitive to its subscribers, “we will not shock our readers by giving the disgusting details of the famine which is daily carrying off its victims by the hundreds in Ireland,” noted the Essex County Republican in Keeseville.15 Residents of Plattsburgh and Clinton County learned “the destitution and suffering among the laboring population of Ireland…are almost incredible."16 By publishing these accounts, the press in the North Country raised public awareness of the crisis in Ireland. Anyone living in the North Country who read a newspaper in February 1847 could learn of the mass starvation and death in Ireland. This would lead to action in communities from Maine to Texas, including the villages and towns of the North Country. Newspaper editors encouraged and pushed their communities act and organize meetings for Irish relief. “Let all who can give any, even a trifling sum, stand ready to assist in this benevolent enterprise of saving their fellow men from starvation,” the editor of a Keeseville newspaper told his subscribers.17 The editor wanted the people of Essex County to joyfully donate to Irish relief, “let us not give grudgingly,” and urged the people of Keeseville and Essex County to contribute immediately because of the emergency in Ireland.18 The editor of an Oswego newspaper called on the residents of his county “to contribute something for the alleviation of the sufferings and woes of a literally starving and perishing people---Are we not right, Citizens of Oswego?”19 Newspapers in Watertown encouraged residents to join the national movement for Irish relief. One editor pushed his readers: “thousands and thousands will be saved from absolute starvation by the prompt benevolence of the American people.20 Another Watertown editor pleaded “shall not this village and county do something to alleviate the widespread suffering in the Emerald Isle?”21 The appeal from a Plattsburgh editor was direct and simple: “The starving people of Europe must be saved. The holy work is cast upon the American people. “The people of Plattsburgh and Clinton County would respond.22 He understood that Americans had an obligation to help the starving people of Ireland and Scotland. Residents of Clinton County must join in this national effort of voluntary philanthropy.Editors made it an issue of local pride that their communities participated. The press did the public’s business and demonstrated the public service role of journalism in stimulating participation in the campaign for Irish and Scottish relief.
To promote donations from New York City, Quaker Jacob Harvey emphasized the remittances sent by poor Irish New Yorkers to their friends and family in Ireland. Harvey expressed pride that the “Irish in America have always remitted more money, ten times over, than all foreigners put together.”26 During 1846 New York City’s Irish sent $808,000 to their suffering relatives and friends in the Emerald Isle. Some of the newspaper editors in upstate New York reprinted Harvey’s accounts from the New York press to show the charity of the Irish and to encourage people in their own communities to donate. “The poor Irish laborers in the Cities of New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, have remitted small drafts to their starving brethren in Ireland during the past year, the large sum of $1,001,660! This speaks volumes in favor of the benevolence of the Irish,” the Washington County Journal stressed to its readers.27 According to the editor of the Plattsburgh Republican “we published a few days since the statement of Mr. Harvey of New York, that the laboring Irish, male and female, of that city, have remitted to their poor friends in Ireland…$808.000” in order to remind subscribers of the charity of the poor Irish as an example for the people of Clinton County to follow.28 The editor of the St. Lawrence Republican in Ogdensburg printed the same story with the same goal, to encourage the residents of St. Lawrence County to donate to Irish and Scottish relief.29
A Watertown newspaper cited another upstate paper, Roman Citizen, for an example of the of the Irish heart. Apparently, the local Irish had collected $700 and “through their pastor…to their famishing brethren in Ireland.” This charity was noteworthy because the Irish were primarily day laborers who “are struggling hard against poverty.”30 Another Watertown newspaper “heard of several contributions made direct to Ireland by our adopted citizens which were very liberal, and characteristic of the Irish character.” The editor of the paper reported on remittances in Watertown to promote contributions from the people of Jefferson County.31 From Essex County the “Irish citizens of the valley of the Ausable have contributed …one thousand dollars this winter for the relief of their countrymen at home.”32 The Keeseville editor commented at length about the remittances of $25 a year by an Irish servant girl working for one of the locally prominent families. The servant girl wanted to send $50 in 1847 to friends in Ireland. Surprised by the poor Irish girl’s remittance, the editor wrote “such instances of benevolence are refreshing to the philanthropist in these days of selfishness.”33 In Plattsburgh Irish Catholic residents collected $1,800 and sent it via Rev. J. Rooney “to their suffering friends and relatives in Ireland.”34 Bishop John Hughes, in New York City, agreed to forward remittances from Irish Catholics in upstate New York to kith and kin in Ireland. Newspaper editors in northern New York highlighted the generosity of the Irish in their communities along with reprinting the report by Jacob Harvey of Irish remittances in New York City to promote the cause of Irish relief.
Citizens of Ogdensburg met on March 1, 1847 at the Presbyterian church to discuss the Irish Famine, and elected Henry Van Rensselaer to chair the meeting. Van Rensselaer “made some eloquent remarks” about the situation in Ireland followed by Judge John Fine who addressed the meeting “with warmth and eloquence.”35. One of the resolutions adopted by the meeting stressed the “thrilling tales of woe and starvation throughout the laboring classes of Ireland and North Britain {Scotland}.”36 The misery in Ireland and Scotland should lead the people of St. Lawrence County “to aid, as far as we can, the amelioration of such misery” and impel us to “rush forward and proffer our abundance to those gaunt and famishing men and women.”37 The Executive Committee created district committees in Ogdensburg to solicit donations and forwarded circulars to every other town in the county to contribute. David Judson, one of the members of the committee, volunteered that the St. Lawrence Steamship Company would transport to Oswego, without charge, all contributions of food and clothing. Members of the Executive Committee also drafted an appeal to the citizens of St. Lawrence County that they had a moral obligation to help as a people “blessed with abundance” to alleviate the suffering of the Irish who are dying “for the want of food.”38 In its appeal the Executive Committee emphasized that residents of St. Lawrence County as a people of plenty must help the starving in Europe. After reminding the people of the county of the actions for famine relief occurring in other parts of New York and the United States they asked a question: “shall the citizens of Ogdensburgh---of the county of St. Lawrence, be the last or the least in rendering their aid?”39 Pleased by the actions of the meeting the editor of the St. Lawrence Republican concluded: “all parties and all classes are thoroughly impressed with the importance of action” noted “the zeal with which they have gone to work.”40 A few days later the Executive Committee met on March 6th to appoint members of the ten district subcommittees for the town of Oswegatchie, and recommended that the committeemen circulate subscription papers within in their assigned neighborhoods.41 Members of the Executive Committee sent out a notice that “all persons desirous of aiding the cause” give their donations to the Treasurer, G.N. Seymour. If residents wished to donate food or clothing they should leave it at “the committee’s ware-room, under the Customs House, at the corner of the bridge.”42
Over the next three months the Executive Committee collected the contributions of the people of Ogdensburg and St. Lawrence County. Henry Van Rensselaer gave twenty barrels of flour, and Stephen Higbee donated ten yards of satinett for Ireland. Widow McCullough sent one and half bushels of wheat, Irad Spooner one bushel of barley, and Chiron Spooner donated eighteen pounds of pork. Isabella Maguire donated a ham and Hon. George Redington sent in fifteen bushels of wheat and one barrel of pork. Widow Vollans contributed one bushel of corn while Arthur Gilmore donated one pork shoulder for Ireland. In late March, the Massena Irish Relief Committee forwarded 237 bushels of wheat and eight and a half bushels of corn for Ireland. Potsdam’s Relief Committee collected 89 bushels of wheat, 131 bushels of rye, twelve bushels of corn, six bushels of beans, and fourteen barrels of flour. Citizens of Potsdam also donated six hundred and fifty dollars for Irish relief. Members of the Presbyterian Church in Hammond collected $66 for Scotland.43 The Scotch Church in Waddington sent thirty-two barrels of wheat flour, two barrels of oatmeal, and thirteen barrels of corn meal for Scotland. As another example, the Associate Reformed Church, in Oxbow, split its donations between Scotland and Ireland. This sampling of donations of food suggest the widespread support in St. Lawrence County for helping the Irish and Scots in 1847.
In the middle of June, the Executive Committee forwarded the last of the supplies collected from the citizens of St. Lawrence County to the New York City Committee, closed its books, and issued a report of its activities. Drafted by Daniel C. Judson, chair of the Executive Committee, and S.N. Sherman, secretary, the report expressed pride that the appeal of the committee “to their fellow citizens of the county, was more promptly and generally responded to, from the lateness of the season they had reason to expect.”44 The committee collected 315 barrels of provisions, mainly wheat flour, for Ireland, and 52 barrels, mainly wheat flour and corn meal,for Scotland, worth over $3,000. Cash contributions amounted to $446.25 according to Treasurer G.N. Seymour. Provisions and money were sent to Oswego, and then to the State Irish and Scottish Relief Committee in Albany ending up at the New York City committee. In its report, the Executive Committee especially thanked the local Irish Relief Committees in Canton, Potsdam, Massena, and Waddington for their prompt actions to collect provisions and money and praised Potsdam because “the aggregate of subscription exceeds any other town.”45 Judson, Sherman, and Seymour, on behalf of the Executive Committee congratulated each resident of St. Lawrence County who donated to Irish and Scottish relief because “each individual whose name is enrolled as one of the contributors must feel proud of having borne his part in the deed of charity.”46
By July, the provisions intended for Ireland reached New York City. The New York City Irish Relief Committee sent part of the donations aboard Saour to Galway and part on Free Trader to Cork for distribution by the Society of Friends in Dublin amongst “the most needy and deserving.”47 In many ways St. Lawrence County served as a model of famine relief in 1847.A public meeting established a voluntary citizens committee in Ogdensburg which acted as the county committee recommending the creation of relief committees in every village and town from Brasher to Waddington. Local committees sprang up, like those in Canton or Waddington, to solicit donations. Anyone who could donate, from Isabella Maguire’s donation of a ham to Ransom Lovejoy with a bushel of wheat, joined this voluntary campaign of Irish and Scottish relief. Women as well as men contributed to Irish relief. The relief campaign became a people’s movement where average citizens gave money or food in what became a national cause of international philanthropy. In neighboring Jefferson County, a Watertown newspaper promoted the cause of Irish relief by publishing an appeal from a New York City newspaper in early February.48 A week later, Rev. Isaac Stone, the minister at the Methodist church in Watertown, wrote a letter to the editor reminding readers “the cries of a starving population on the other side of the Atlantic have reached our shores.” The Bible and Jesus Christ demanded that the people of Watertown and Jefferson County act to aid the Irish---“we have delayed action too long on this subject!”49 Rev. Stone urged the citizens of Watertown to meet as soon as possible to devise a plan to raise funds for the Irish. The editor informed his readers of the meetings held in other towns and cities for Irish relief in the United States. After seconding Rev. Stone’s s suggestion, the editor asked “shall not this village and county do something to alleviate the wide-spread suffering in the Emerald Isle?”50
Following the recommendations of Rev. Stone and the editor of the Northern State Journal the people of Watertown met on February 23. 1847 at the Universalist Church to discuss Irish relief. As another Watertown newspaper editor observed “the church was tolerably well filled, considering the extreme cold” and citizens attending felt it their “duty to contribute something to the Relief Fund.”51 Eli Farwell, the chair of the meeting, called for a divine blessing that Rev. Stone provided. A committee drafted resolutions and an address to the people of Jefferson County. The preamble to the resolutions emphasized the misery of the people of Ireland and “it is a duty imposed upon us all, by the obligation of humanity—by all the holy ties of Christianity, as men and as Christians” to help the starving Irish people.52 Resolutions adopted at the meeting expressed approval of the relief meetings held around the country as an encouragement for the residents of Jefferson County to “go and do likewise.”53 The resolutions and the appeal to the people of Jefferson County stressed the bleak situation in Ireland that demanded action to help people starving to death. One of the resolutions asked each town and village in the county to collect money, provisions, and clothing as soon as possible for “the relief of the starving and destitute poor of Ireland.”54 The appeal made the point that as a people of plenty with abundant supplies of food Americans must help the Irish. In every town and county meeting in the North Country authors of appeals stressed this theme. People living in a nation with abundant harvests had an obligation to aid the starving in Europe.
The local newspapers championed the cause of Irish relief and commended the actions of the citizens of the county. Residents contributed $375 at the meeting, and The Jeffersonian noted “several ladies---God bless them all for their active benevolence---contributed liberally.”55 Women actively participated in Irish and Scottish relief, but committees in the North Country did not include women as members, and women did not organize separate committees. In other parts of the state---for example, Binghamton and Brooklyn, women established their own relief committees. In Binghamton and Brooklyn women played a significant role initiating public meetings for Irish relief. However, in the North Country women’s roles remained confined to sending in donations.
Because of the urgency of the crisis the editor of The Jeffersonian “suggested the necessity of immediate attention throughout the county in behalf of suffering Ireland.”56 Another Watertown newspaper, published a few days later, expressed pleasure that the meeting “was well attended, and all seemed anxious to cast in their mite to the Relief Fund,”57 People of Watertown donated $600 by early March, and the editor reported that Brownville and Hounsfield “have already raised liberal sums.”58 He expected other towns to follow their example, and they did. Carthage, for example, held a “spirited meeting” and “a fair sum raised.”59 The editor reminded readers that the county appeal requested the clergy in each church take up subscriptions. Newspaper editors and public meetings in the North Country and throughout the country frequently asked for the participation of the clergy of all denominations. In Jefferson County, a few of the congregations that contributed included the Catholic churches in Rossie and Sterlingville; Baptist, Methodist and Presbyterian churches in Watertown. Meanwhile, the Watertown and Jefferson County Irish Relief Committee used the money donated to buy corn meal which it sent to Rome and forwarded by railroad to the State Committee in Albany. By end of August, contributions from Jefferson County reached New York City, and went on the Rochester to Liverpool and then to the Society of Friends in Dublin.60
After reporting on numerous meetings for Irish relief held across the country, the editor of a newspaper in Lewis County, asked “are there not some in this village who would gladly contribute their mite for that most praiseworthy object?” The editor in Lowville reminded citizens in Lewis County they could send donations to Watertown, and the people of Lowville must “give from their abundance to those in want.”61. People listened to the editor and on March 11th the paper published a notice by a group of citizens calling on the community to attend a meeting on the 13th “to adopt measures to assist in relieving those who are suffering and dying of starvation in Europe.” Organizers of the meeting for Irish relief told their fellow citizens to bring donations, food, and clothing and if they could not attend “send your aid.”62 The Northern Journal’s editor encouraged residents to attend and donate with the same enthusiasm as “characterized meetings held in our neighboring villages.” He also requested “our female friends” to “send in their donations of clothing” for the Irish.63 Citizens of Lowville met, established a relief committee, and appealed to people in other towns in the county to donate. Constableville, for example, held a meeting and raised $100. The people of Lewis County, a rather sparsely inhabited county, joined in the national cause of Irish relief, and sent what they could in money, food, and clothing. “The destitution and want are beyond all description, and unless relief can be procured from this country of abundance, Ireland, especially will become ‘one great lazar house of the dead,’”a group of citizens of Plattsburgh argued in an appeal to residents of Plattsburgh to meet at the Court House on February 15 “to take into consideration the starving condition of the inhabitants of Ireland and Scotland.”64 In their opening address to the people of Plattsburgh the citizens committee requested that the clergy appeal for donations from their congregations and suggested that neighboring towns in Clinton County create their own relief committees to expedite raising funds for Ireland and Scotland. At the public meeting resolutions adopted stressed the distress in Ireland and Scotland and the obligation of the people of Clinton County living in a land of abundance to “afford such relief ad may be in their power to those of their
fellow human beings and brethren thus perishing with hunger and want.”65 Residents attending the meeting established a Central Committee with William Haile as chair and G.V. Edwards as secretary and treasurer. Members of the Central Committee established subcommittees in the town to canvass for subscriptions of cash, wheat, oats, corn, beans or peas.
A few weeks later Plattsburgh’s Central Committee reported “the latest news from Ireland gives us the most frightful accounts of misery, death, and want for food and clothing.” Members of the Central Committee wanted the people of Clinton County to understand the bleak situation in Ireland to encourage speedy donations to the relief cause. The committee instructed each town committee in the county to solicit subscriptions in each school district “that the humane feelings of every individual may be appealed to.”66 Over the next four months the Committee collected food and cash and sent the contributions to Myndert Van Schaick, chair of the New York City Irish Relief Committee, and John J. Palmer in New York City who handled donations for Scotland. 67
“Starvation---unrelenting, hopeless Starvation---seems to be staring almost every poor Irishman, woman, and child in the face,” warned the Oswego Palladium as it encouraged the residents of Oswego County to organize a meeting for Irish relief. The editor cited the examples of the recent relief meetings in Albany and Washington to stimulate action.68 Residents responded by attending a meeting on February 18th, “crowded to overflowing” for Ireland. People attending the meeting quickly subscribed $1,000, and “in proportion to the population and means of Oswego, her subscription is larger than has been made anywhere.”69
Similarly, in mid-February a newspaper in Keeseville in Essex County reported on the famine in Ireland and suggested “the duty of other people to hasten to their relief?”70 Responding to the appeal from the newspaper’s editor and clergymen in several of the churches in Keeseville townspeople met at the Methodist church on February 23rd. Elected chair of the meeting the Hon. George Simmons spoke about the suffering in Ireland, and several other individuals, including two ministers, delivered speeches about the famine and the need to help the Irish. Resolutions adopted at the meeting declared that the famine excited “the deepest sympathy…and demands the most prompt and decisive action for its relief.”Americans living in a “land with abundant harvests” must aid the starving in Ireland.71 The meeting elected a committee of nine---Keeseville Committee for the Relief of Ireland to solicit donations. In their appeal to the people of Essex County the committee emphasized that “vast numbers in that devoted land are dying from absolute and literal starvation.” Once again, citizens were reminded that they lived in a land of plenty and faith in “our common Savior” required charity and action now for “whilst we delay, men, women, and children are writhing with the pangs of hunger and dying of famine.”72 The editor of the Essex County Republican praised the committee and fund raising because “now is the time to establish the character of America as the friend and aider of the unfortunate and suffering of the world.”73 When contributions from Essex County reached the State Irish Relief Committee in Albany, Theodore Olcott, Treasurer, commended the committee, “nobly and handsomely done!” 74
The comment of Olcott provided a brief statement of praise that applied to all the people of the North County counties who participated in the famine relief campaign. People contributed what they could from twenty-five cents to twenty-five dollars, and donated food, whether the one bushel of corn from Widow Volans or the twenty barrels of flour from Henry Van Rensselaer. Myndert Van Schaick, the chair of the New York City committee, in writing to use it came from “those who depend on their daily labor for their daily bread.”a75 The Irish and Scottish relief campaign in 1847 in the North Country and United States turned into a people to people movement of kindness and generosity by Americans to starving people in Europe.
Newspaper editors, politicians, and clergy acted as the catalyst to push residents, whether in Ogdensburg or Keeseville, to organize meetings for Irish relief. Americans, whether in Virginia or the North Country acted in the same way. They established temporary committees that solicited donations of cash, food, and clothing, sent them to larger committees for transportation to Europe and disbanded when they accomplished their objective. In the nineteenth century, Americans joined voluntary organizations----churches, political parties, benevolent societies, and the famine relief committees adhered to this pattern of behavior. Although anti-Irish feeling would develop in the 1850s with the Know Nothing movement in 1847 the movement for Irish relief did not view the Irish as the despised “other.” People in Clinton County or St. Lawrence described the Irish as brethren who shared a common humanity and Christianity---not hated Catholics. Residents of North Country communities identified with the plight of the starving Irish and Scots and felt a moral obligation to help. Resolutions and appeals adopted by Irish relief committees repeatedly argued that Americans with abundant harvests must aid those in distress. The editor of the Essex County Republican understood that Americans could become the leaders in international philanthropy and in 1847 they did.
Americans of all religious denominations participated in this voluntary movement. Catholics,
Methodists, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Baptists, Reformed, Universalists, Quakers, etc. all
worked together to help Irish and Scots.
About the author: Harvey Strum is a professor of history and political science at the Sage Colleges. His most recent publications include American aid to Ireland during the Civil War in New York Irish History. 2016 and impact of World War I on the Jews of the Capital District, HRVR, Spring 2016.
End Notes
1 Ogdensburgh St. Lawrence Republican, March 2, 1847.
2 Isaac Stone to the Editor, Watertown Northern State Journal, February 17. 1847
3 Ibid.
4 Ibid, March 3, 1847.
5 “Meeting of the Jewish Population of New York in Aid of Ireland,’ Occident, 5:1 (April 1847).
6 Charles Jenkins, Chair, Irish Relief Committee, Albany, to the Society of Friends, Dublin, April
28, 1847, Albany Committee of Irish Relief Papers, Albany Institute of History and Art, Albany,
N.Y.
7 For the original copies of the bills, Original Senate Bills and Resolutions’, 29th Cong., 2nd
Session, (S184-Sen 29A-B4), Records of the Senate, Record Group 36, National Archives,
Washington, D.C. For the President’s veto, Milo Qualify, ed., The Diary of James K. Polk During
His Presidency, 1845-49 (Chicago: A.C. McClurg and Co., 1910), Vol. II, March 2, 1847, 307-08.
8 Ogdensburgh St. Lawrence Republican, November 24, 1846. Also, see November 17th.
9 Keeseville Essex County Republican, November 11, 1846.
10 Herkimer Democrat, February 4, 1847.
11 Watertown Northern State Journal, February 11, 1847.
12 Pulaski Richland Courier, February 25, 1847.
13 Ogdensburgh St. Lawrence Republican, February 2. 1847 for Hibernia. Sarah Sands in
February 16, 1847.
14 Oswego Palladium, February 16, 1847.
15 Keeseville Essex County Republican, February 20, 1847.
16 Plattsburgh Republican, February 13, 1847.
17 Keeseville Essex County Republican, February 27, 1847.
18 Ibid.
19 Oswego Palladium, February 16, 1847.
20 Watertown Jeffersonian, February 26, 1847.
21 Watertown Northern State Journal, February 17, 1847.
22 Plattsburgh Republican, March 6, 1847.
23 Lowville Northern Journal, March 11, 1847.
24 Ogdensburgh St. Lawrence Republican, March 2, 1847.
25 Ibid, February 16, 1847.
26 Jacob Harvey to Jonathan Pim, December 28. 1846, in Society of Friends, Transactions of the
Society of Friends During the Famine in Ireland (Dublin: Edmund Burke, 1996 reprint of 1852
original), 218.
27 Union-Village Washington County Journal, January 28, 1847.
28 Plattsburgh Republican, January 30, 1847.
29 Ogdensburgh St. Lawrence Republican, February 2. 1847.
30 Watertown Jeffersonian, February 20, 1847 citing Roman Citizen, February 19, 1847.
31 Watertown Northern Journal, March 3, 1847.
32 Keeseville Essex County Republican, March 13, 1847.
33 Ibid.
34 Plattsburgh Republican, April 3, 1847. Also, for earlier remittances, February 27, 1847.
35 Ogdensburgh St. Lawrence Republican, March 2, 1847.
36 Ibid.
37 Ibid.
38 Ibid.
39 Ibid.
40 Ibid.
41 Ibid, March 9, 1847.
42 Ibid.
43 Ibid, March 23, March 30, April 13, April 20, 1847.
44 Ibid, June 15, 1847.
45 Ibid. For the list of contributors in Massena, see June 22, 1847.
46 Ibid, June 15, 1847. For contributions from St. Lawrence County, Account Book, Theodore
Olcott, February 15-September 9, 1847. Albany Irish Relief Committee, Albany Institute of
History and Art. These are the records of the State Committee and a rare example of the
original manuscript records surviving.
47 James Reyburn, Irish Relief Committee, to D. C. Judson, Chairman, etc., July 23, 1847,
published in Ogdensburgh St. Lawrence Republican, July 27, 1847. Also, see Transactions, 337
for the Free Trader.
48 Watertown Northern State Journal, February 10, 1847. The paper published an article from
the New York Commercial Advertiser.
49 Ibid, Rev. Isaac Stone to the Editor, February 17, 1847.
50 Watertown Northern State Journal, February 17, 1847.
51 Watertown The Jeffersonian, February 26, 1847.
52 Ibid, Watertown Northern State Journal, March 3, 1847; Watertown Spectator, March 9,
1847. The three Watertown newspapers carried accounts of the relief meeting.
53 Ibid.
54 Ibid.
55 Watertown The Jeffersonian, February 26, 1847.
56 Ibid.
57 Watertown Northern State Journal, March 3, 1847.
58 Ibid.
59 Lowville Northern Journal, March 25, 1847.
60 For Jefferson County’s contributions, item 35, Receipts of shipping costs and Account Book,
Theodore Olcott, February 15-September 9, 1847, Albany Committee, AIHA.
61 Lowville Northern Journal, March 4, 1847.
62 Ibid, March 11, 1847.
63 Ibid, and March 25, April 1, 1847.
64 Plattsburgh Republican, February 13, 1847.
65 Ibid, February 20. 1847.
66 Ibid, March 6, 1847.
67 Ibid, July 3, 1847; General Irish Relief Committee. Aid to Ireland: Report of the General Relief
Committee of the City of New York (New York: The Committee, 1848),25, 35, 44.
68 Oswego Palladium, February 16, 1847.
69 Ibid, February 23, 1847.
70 Keeseville Essex County Republican, February 20, 1847.
71 Ibid, February 27, 1847.
72 Ibid.
73 Ibid.
74 T.W. Olcott to O. Keese,2nd, Treasurer, March 12, 1847 in Keeseville Essex County
Republican, March 20, 1847. For a brief report of the committee, see March 13th issue.
75 Myndert Van Schaick to Henry Burch, June 14, 1847, Aid to Ireland, 96.
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