United Irishmen, United States: Immigrant Radicals in the Early Republic

by David A. Wilson

Among the thousands of political refugees who flooded into the United States during the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries, none had a greater impact on the early republic than the United Irishmen. They were, according to one Federalist, "the most God-provoking Democrats on this side of Hell." "Every United Irishman," insisted another, "ought to be hunted from the country, as much as a wolf or a tyger." David A. Wilson's lively book is the first to focus specifically on the experiences, attitudes, and ideas of the United Irishmen in the United States. Wilson argues that America served a powerful symbolic and psychological function for the United Irishmen as a place of wish-fulfillment, where the broken dreams of the failed Irish revolution could be realized. The United Irishmen established themselves on the radical wing of the Republican Party, and contributed to Jefferson's "second American Revolution" of 1800; John Adams counted them among the "foreigners and degraded characters" whom he blamed for his defeat. After Jefferson's victory, the United Irishmen set out to destroy the Federalists and democratize the Republicans. Some of them believed that their work was preparing the way for the millennium in America. Convinced that the example of America could ultimately inspire the movement for a democratic republic back home, they never lost sight of the struggle for Irish independence. It was the United Irishmen, writes Wilson, who originated the persistent and powerful tradition of Irish-American nationalism.

Genres: American History, Nonfiction, Ireland

236 pages, Hardcover

First published May 19, 1998

About the author

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Reviews

[Mathieu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, this is a largely good book, and pleasant to read (even if a bit tedious sometimes*).

By focusing on the Irish refugees, especially the United Irishmen, who came to the US before or after the failed Rising of 1798, Wilson demonstrates that they had an important impact on the national politics, which has been too neglected.

Their contribution to the victory of Jefferson in 1800, to the struggle against Federalism, and to the debate about the Awakening of this period, is especially interesting. The chapter on their views on slavery, women equality and social issues is also one of the most interesting, as it underlines the dead-ends of the UI system of belief.

And yet, the book is also deeply frustrating, because it only brushes each individual that is cited in order to give just examples. At only very rare moments in the book are those individuals really treated for themselves, studied in their own terms, and thus the reader is able to better understand them. These rare moments concern mainly Thomas Leslie Birch and John Daly Burk, both individuals who would deserve an entire study of their own.

Now, the other issue I have with this book is about its historiographical premises, i. e. Wilson's perception on the UI and the Rising is mainly influenced by the revisionist school, and its criticism of the limits of the UI's political stance sometimes would merit discussion.

This is good complement to the (in my opinion) better Transatlantic Radicals by Michael Durey.

* The tediousness comes mainly from the fact that the book doesn't provide a bibliography, and the endnotes are sometimes imprecise. For instance, p. 134-136, Wilson explains that David Bailie Warden, UI and Presbyterian licentiate, translated Grégoire's book on "the intelligence of negroes", which is very interesting, because in this book, Grégoire assimilated Irishmen and blacks as victims of despotic laws which reduced and maintained them in an uncivilised state. But the endnote doesn't provide for the date of publication of this translation, and the absence of bibliography means that we are left in the dark.

[Lawrence A · Rating 4 out of 5]

So, what have the Irish bequeathed to the US apart from St. Patrick's Day, beautiful women, and Guinness stout? Lots, it turns out. Specifically, the Irish who immigrated to America after the Rising of 1798 against Britain joined together in an organization known as the United Irishmen. This group---consisting of both Catholics and Protestants---was organized mostly in New York City, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, and represented an early version of American democratic radicalism. Although the United Irishmen were not quite yet a working-class-conscious radical labor movement, they were a harbinger of things to come. They stood for Jeffersonian democratic-republicanism against the elite, pro-financier/pro-mercantile Federalists, as well as for universal white manhood suffrage, a broad distribution of real property, and the virtue of small producers and consumers, both urban and rural, along with the recognition of individual civil liberties and the right to engage in public affairs concomitant to that virtue. As one might expect, they were fiercely anti-British, and saw the Federalists' embrace of trade with Britain as a betrayal of the American Revolution. The United Irishmen were strong supporters of the French Revolution, at least until heads started to roll amongst all classes of the French people. They also viewed republican France as a natural ally against monarchical Britain in connection with the question of Irish independence, but realized that, once Napoleon seized power in France, Ireland would have become a vassal state of the French empire had Irish nationalists on the Emerald Isle itself invited French troops to stay. As expected, most Irish immigrants to the US, whether naturalized as US citizens or not, were strong supporters of US involvement in the War of 1812 against Britain.

This book was excellently written and paced, and illustrates one of the earliest examples of both ethnic and radical collective action in the early US republic, as well as the contradictions and tensions generated by the United Irish movement as the immigrants of 1798-1815 became more and more assimilated into American culture.

[Franklin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This ended up being focused very specifically on United Irishmen emigrants to the United States and their effect on the early republic. It assumes a lot of background knowledge about the overall United Irishmen and the political context in the early American Republic.

This would probably be useful to reference if you’re writing about either topic, but otherwise, I wouldn’t recommend.

[James Slaven · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good research and nice writing. Perhaps a bit more flow would be good and some background on the tangential groups, but quite an interesting read!