"My Ulster blood is a priceless heritage"
--James Buchanan, 15th President of the United States
The Orange Order in the USA is at
http://www.orangenet.org/loiusa/OrangeUSA.html
Orangeism reached the United States of America via New York, as early as
1820, with the first parade in Boston in 1824. The Institution was probably
taken to America by Ulstermen, many of whom were to make an impression on
the country at the highest level. Ulstermen in the armed forces, business,
and the professions, made an incredible impact on the country. Ulster
churchmen affected the Christianity of America so considerably that there
has remained a close affinity between the churches of Ulster and the United
States.
There was also a Canadian Orange influence in the early days of American
Orangeism. Soon it was to be a two-way thing, for American Orangemen found
employment in Canada, some of them to settle there permanently.
>From the beginning, "a number of free born Americans entered the ranks." By
the end of 1850, five states had Orange charters, and Orangemen had so
impressed the American people that they were invited to parade next to the
military at the funeral of President Taylor. William Shannon was named as
Grand Master.
In 1869, an application was made by the American Orange leaders to the Grand
Lodge of Ireland for National Grand Lodge status. The Grand Secretary of the
Grand Lodge of Ireland, John H. Nunn, Dublin, sent this certificate:-
"To all whom these presents shall come.
Greeting.
Know ye that we, the Grand Master and Members of
the Grand Lodge of lreland, do hereby certify that there
is no objection or impediment on the part of the Loyal
Orange Institution of Ireland to the formation of an
Independent Association of Orangemen in and for the
United States of America.
Signed on behalf of the Grand Lodge of Ireland.
January, 1870 Ennisskillen, Grand Master. "
The receipt of the certificate was acknowledged by John H. Bond, Grand
Master of the Loyal Orange Institution of the United States of America, in
correspondence dated, May 4, 1870, with thanks to the Grand Lodge of
Ireland.
At about the same time as the U.S. Grand Lodge application to Ireland for
recognition, the Orangemen of New York petitioned the Grand Lodge of Ireland
for recognition as a State Grand Lodge. The State Grand Lodge
of New York was founded in 1874. It incorporated Irish orientated lodges,
American orientated lodges, and the American Protestant Association.
The early years of American Orangeism were not easy. It was compelled to
face problems unknown in the British Commonwealth. It had to adapt to
republicanism. The imperialism of Orangeism elsewhere was suspect to
Americans.
The dissolution of the Orange Institution in Britain, in 1836, meant that it
ceased to function in America for a short period in the 1840s. But if the
Order was not working, the spirit of Orangeism remained strong. The American
Protestant Association, founded in Philadelphia in 1844, after the attempt
to prohibit the use of the authorised version of the Bible in public
schools, was apparently the Orange Order continuing.
The Orangemen of New York, from 1868, were to face annual assaults from
Irish Roman Catholics and in 1870, there was disruption of an Orange event
in Elm Park.
The accounts of the attacks on the Twelfth (of July) picnicers by 500-600
men makes a gory story; nine died in the affray, and, perhaps, 100 were
injured. A reporter of the "New York Times" blamed the Roman Catholics. He
said, "The attack was premeditated and altogether unwarranted."
The sympathy of the public was with the Orangemen, and their constitutional
right to parade on the Twelfth of July -- the anniversary of the Battle of
the Boyne in 1690 -- as the Hibernians did on March 17 (St. Patrick's Day).
The police arrested many of the rioters, although they were released quietly
shortly afterwards.
New York, at the time, had a most corrupt administration, for these were the
days of Boss Tweed, and Mayor Oakley Hall, of the Democratic Party and
Tammany Hall. Tweed and Hall were Protestants, but the Irish Roman Catholics
controlled Tammany.
In 1871 there was more aggravation, and confrontation between the Orangemen,
and the Irish Roman Catholics. Rumour, and press conjecture, was rife on
what the Roman Catholics would do to the Orangemen if they dared to march on
the Twelfth. The matter was brought to a head when John J. Bond, Grand
Master, asked if the Orangemen would be protected as they were entitled to
be as New York citizens. The question was answered in more than one way.
Many argued the right of the Orangemen, Irish Protestants, to march. After
all, the Irish Roman Catholics had the patronage of the city when they
marched each year. But "The New York Times" disagreed. It said: "We confess
our inability to see why the existence of one abuse should be made the
excuse for perpetrating another."
The Orangemen were determined to march, and the Hibernians promised to
prevent them. Oakley Hall favoured the Roman Catholics, for he had been the
first Mayor of New York to walk at the head of a St. Patrick's Day Parade.
Archbishop McCloskey, and the Irish clergy, who spoke against any counter
demonstration on the Twelfth, were attacked by Thomas Kerrigan, President of
the New York Hibernians, when he condemned the attitude of the churchmen,
and the Roman Church's attitude to Orangeism in Ireland. He promised that it
would not be permitted to act in the same way in America.
The New York Orangemen wrote to Mayor Hall about protection. But Hall
encouraged Superintendent Kelso, head of the New York Police Department, to
ban the Orange march. He did this on July 10. His decision was bitterly
denounced by uninvolved people, and organisations, and "The New York Times"
had a July 11 headline, "Terrorism Rampant. City Authorities Overawed by the
Roman Catholics." Even some Irish Roman Catholic organisations were appalled
at the decision, and angry at the Irish who had produced it.
The ban was revoked by Governor Hoffman. He promised the Orangemen
protection by the state and Federal authorities if the city of New York
could not provide it. Kelso, shamed, then offered protection.
The lifting of the ban was not known to the Orangemen until the Twelfth
morning. Because of that, a number of them having arranged to march in New
Jersey, had already left the city, the parade was much smaller than it would
have been had the notice of the lifting of the ban been received earlier.
Twelfth Day incidents were reported from 7.00 a.m. Mobs were gathering for
trouble. There was now no doubt that the march would be attacked.
At 2 p.m. the parade moved off with the Orangemen cocooned in the midst of
soldiers and policemen. After a march full of incident the Orangemen
dispersed at the Cooper Institute on Fourth Avenue.
The death toll of the day was 50 rioters and six policemen: 300 rioters were
injured, and 60 police and army personnel. Only two Orangemen were slightly
injured. Close on 400 Irish Roman Catholics were arrested for various
offences. But charges were not pressed against them. The organisers of the
attack were not even taken into custody, but the public outcry led to many
native Americans joining the institution.
People were to say: "Not only had the Orangemen a right to parade, but that
now it was their duty to parade as defenders of free speech, and the right
of free association."
In the Grand Lodge report of 1872 there is the statement that the
Institution "had more than doubled its membership in the past year,
especially in New York."
Sympathy
Because the Order represented the fight for freedom it had the sympathy of
all fair-minded Americans.
There was no trouble in the 1872 demonstration in New York and no
demonstration in 1873. AT the second sessions of the State Grand Lodge of
New York in June. 1874 there were discussions on a New York Twelfth march.
The report concluded: "The prevailing opinion is that parading through the
streets on the Twelfth of July is entirely unnecessary, and as the
authorities have decided in favour of the society have the same rights
extended to them as other societies -- the right to parade it is now deemed
not at all necessary ... that instead each lodge should meet at their
headquarters and celebrate the anniversary ... by a social reunion"
The Twelfth, 1874, being a Sunday, the brethren attended services at Holy
Trinity Church where the Rev. S. H. Tynge was the preacher. He said of the
Orangemen:
"They were American Protestants -- no longer Irish Protestants. They did
well to remember the deeds of the brave men of Ennisskillen, and sternness
of Prince William, but he would beseech them to be done with the emnities,
to cast aside the prejudices born in these hours of trial."
The Americanisation of the movement was under way.
There were no Orange parades in New York until 1890 when there was a march
with a picnic in Jones Wood at which 4,000 were present. The last New York
parade was in 1900 when the imperial Grand Orange Council of the World had
its sessions in the city. The Orange and Green were so agreeable together by
this time that there were no incidents.
The Orangemen, by winning the right to parade, had ensured civil and
religious liberty for all Americans. Their behaviour showed a resoluteness
to defend both "their inalienable rights," and a respect for the law, and so
they gained the regard of the American public. This aided the growth of the
institution at that time.
The years, 1894-6. saw the Order in America grow by one-third. The growth
was due, in part, to the appointment of 19 organisers, with David Graham,
Past Grand Master, New York. National Organiser. The organisers were
appointed by the Grand Master for States which had no State Grand Lodge. At
1897 there were State Grand Lodges in Connecticut, Nebraska, New Hampshire,
North Dakota, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Vermont,
Washington, Delaware, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas. Maryland, Missouri,
Montana. Massachusetts, Illinois, and Pennsylvania.
There is an account, in the report of 1900, of a visit to Grand Lodge of the
famous William Johnston, of Ballykilbeg, Past Imperial Grand President, and
Member of Parliament at Westminster for South Belfast. Johnston, in 1867,
had led 40,000 Orangemen in defiance of the Party Processions' Act in an
Orange march at Bangor, Co. Down, on the Twelfth. He had been imprisoned,
but far from harming the cause, his punishment had made him a national hero
and discredited his opponents. His efforts were largely responsible fur the
repealing of the Processions Act.
The Imperial Grand Orange Council of the World met in New York, in 1900.
That was the one opportunity American Orangemen has had of acting as hosts
to that august body. David Graham, New York, presided as Imperial Grand
President. He was regarded as the father of American Orangeism and was to
lay the foundation stone of the Orange Home in 1901.
In the early part of this century the American Institution split through
inter-state rivalry and two bodies emerged, each claiming to be the supreme
Grand Lodge.
One of the incontrovertible facts of Orange history is that the injuries of
this division made the Institution in America incapable of recovering its
original vitality and strength.
Eventually the two Orange bodies were re-united, after a special session of
Grand Lodge at the Orange Hall in Baltimore Avenue, Philadelphia on November
26, 1930, and of the International Orange Association meeting at the same
time in the same hall.
The lodges settled up their respective affairs, and amalgamation was
affected when the officers relinquished their posts, and new elections held.
The settlement was received, with gratitude, to those who had brought
reconciliation after years of division.
The subsequent history of the institution has been of a continuing campaign
to keep alive the great principles of a society which stands for civil and
religious liberty and for equal opportunities for all, special privileges
for none.
The Orange institution has been one of the aids to that development for some
men. It is an organisation which brings churchmen together, from different
denominational strands, and gives them the comfort of a unity which finds
its strength in a three-fold confidence -- in God; in men who have been
redeemed by Jesus Christ, and in the Christian duty, to witness to others of
the power of God to win them for Christ.
The Orange ideal is a lofty one. It takes a worthy man to subscribe to it.
Today Orange lodges still operate in California, Connecticut, Delaware,
Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, and
Pennsylvania.
One thing can be said about Orangeism in America, it cares about people,
their bodies and souls, and their rights and privileges. America Orangemen
are sensitive, community minded people with a strongly developed sense of
service to God and men.
