A History of the Irish Settlers in North America (e-book) (used book) | bookbook.eu

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Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XXIV. MEW STATES OF THE SOUTH-WEST HON. W. R. KINd JTTDOE PHELAN THB SHARKERS IRISH MILLIONAIRES BEIRNE OF VIRGINIA, MULLANPHX OF.MISSOURI, M'DONOGH OF NEW ORLEANS, DANIEL CLARKE AREANSAS. Within the memory of the present generation, seven states have been admitted into the confederacy, from what was at the south, Indian, or foreign territory. These states, from their tropical situation and their earliest origin, being cultivated chiefly by slave-labor, have not attracted a very numerous Irish emigration. The white race, however humbled by oppression at home, will not compete with the born slave, for work or wages, in the tobacco and cotton fields of that productive region. Hence, south of the Potomac, the history of the Irish settlers is rather a series of family anecdotes, than the various record of a widely diffused population. These families, however, are neither few nor undistinguished. For the most part, such families removed into the southern from the old midland states. This was the case with the Butlers, of both branches, and also with the Kings, of Alabama. The emigrant founder of this family first lived near Fayetteville, North Carolina, where he came from the North of Ireland. William Duffy, a lawyer of some celebrity, also a native of Ireland, was his neighbor and friend. In Fayetteville, April 7th, 1786, was born William R. King, who, after studying law with Duffy, removed to Alabama. For that state he sat as senator of the United Sates, from 1823 to 1844, without intermission. In the latter year he was sent as minister to France, from which he returned in 1846, and in 1848 was reelected to the Senate. In 1850, upon the death of President Taylor, and the consequent advancement of Vice-President Fillmore to the chief magistracy, Mr. K...