to his son John in order to get him which wife, the proof filler
was but badly handled in his old days Wm Slewarts family of changrous
for
are well the old couple are still alive M. Nelson is sliee able to
Inland that you are aware of the weighty change any father hard
teach of preach- I suppose any Mother was dead before you left
His affection for his children d desire to promote their happings
p.
but d man- the struggled hard with the world for he a course
interest prevented him from ever manying again, thish was
p
siderable lives comfortably He educated three of the youngest have
young time, but at last get the better of it, so that now
us at fruity W. Nelson's Academy of my Brother James of I
out here under the prospect of establishing ourselves as
Teachers come of the languages= Our Brother arthur, who is older line than
Sam, is also along I hopes to get forward in the farming the short
W. can a form no idea of our success from account we have time
have been yet in this country, but every
we received is funlty flatting W. had letters of recommendation
to some in & Baltimone, stop there, where only we that landed I did of they not in? wish
have to table ancourage upon me you avery weighty rent, besides I preferred the
readily gl some land into his six Haught d
the Washin country that my cloted brother might the more
in Nawtownard for upwand of years could
have academy ling happy will there had the times and got so
a
bad another however to make some money there I
come out in freetty asy incumstunecs Intend to strangle
of
from this to Thentretry I will rest for aweak or two with
In
John Kelly or John abrallister tite something turns up
yo
to our advantage We had some thoughts of commencing
he
in this city. but every thing is quity flatz discouraging here le
A to Iriland A is in amost writched state the resources the
the
people had for making money are completely extinot the farming
interest has undergond agreat change for the worrd d there is no
you
I
hope P any alteration or relief except in case of Revolution
The country is growing under annual exortitate larations then
go
can be no relief for Him independent of a Revolution because it
I
takes the most of the Revenues of the Empire to pay the interest
of the National otcht- England of Scotland are both nearly as
ill off I at the present time Ifinnly believe then is astronger
avolutionary spirit there, than was the time you
twined ant, g if they were not deterred by the points of the
2t a
abo
bayonets it would very soon break out the people may be
was
ace
4in
Daniel Polin, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to William Bennet, near Mercer, Mercer Co., Pennsylvania, 2 June 1818
Description
This is a fascinating letter by an idealistic Irish republican, probably a Catholic, from the vicinity of Saintfield, County Down, who landed in Baltimore just "a few days" before posting this letter to Bennet, an old family friend and neighbor. After upbraiding Bennet for not having written more than one letter to his sorrowing kinsmen in the many years since his emigration, Polin gives detailed news about Bennett's kinfolk and old neighbors, and about his own widowed father and his siblings, two of which, his elder brother Arthur and younger brother James, have accompanied Daniel to America. Daniel formerly taught at an "academy" in Newtownards, Co. Down. He and James hope to become "teachers of the languages" in America, while Arthur plans to become a farmer-which is why the brothers did not remain in Baltimore and came West instead. Conditions are unpromising in Pittsburgh, and so Daniel plans to travel further West to another Ulster emigrant, John Kelly, who lives in Springfield, Washington Co., Kentucky. The best part of Polin's letter is his detailed lament for Ireland's "wretched" economic and political condition. Irish farmers and manufacturers are going bankrupt, and the country is groaning under exorbitant taxation to pay off the national debt. Polin believes that there is no hope for Ireland except in a successful revolution (which he believes the oppressed people of Scotland and even England wish for, also), but the British government has succeeded in disuniting the Irish people, and Protestants (even including some Presbyterians) and Catholics are now hopelessly divided into Orangemen and Thrashers, respectively, and frequently engaged in violent confrontation-while the churches have become agents of the state. Polin thus views emigration as a form of political "exile" but also as a happy "escape" from tyranny to the US as a land of freedom and refuge to the "unfortunate and oppressed" of all countries. In sum, this is a classic statement of the idealized marriage of Irish and American republicanism.
