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rangeism reached the United States
via New York City as early as 1820, with the first parade in Boston
in 1824. The Institution was probably taken to America by
Ulster-men, many of whom were to make an impression on the country
at the highest level. Ulster-men in the armed forces, business and
other 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 entity, for
American Orangemen found employment in Canada, some of them to
settle there permanently. From the beginning, a number of freeborn
Americans centered 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. In
1869, the American Orange leaders petitioned the Grand Lodge of
Ireland for National Grand Lodge status. The Grand Secretary of the
Grand Lodge of Ireland, John H. Nunn, sent this certificate:
"To all whom these presents shall gain. Greetings. Know ye
that we, the Grand Master and Members of the Grand Lodge of Ireland,
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, Enniskillen, 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 US Grand Lodge applied 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 comprised Irish
orientated lodges, American orientated lodges and the American
Protestant Association.
The formative years of American Orangeism were not easy. It was
compelled to face problems unknown in the British Commonwealth in
that 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
at work, the spirit of Orangeism remained strong. The American
Protestant Association, founded in Philadelphia in 1844, after the
attempt to prohibit the use of the authorized 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) picnic by 500-600 men makes a grisly story; nine
died in the altercation, and perhaps 100 were injured. A reporter
of the "New York Times" blamed the Roman Catholics. He
reported, "The attack was premeditated and altogether
unwarranted." The public was sympathetic to
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 quietly
released shortly after.
At that time, New York City had a severely 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 Protestant,
yet the Irish Roman Catholics controlled Tammany. In 1871, there
was more provocation and strife between the Orangemen, and the Irish
Roman Catholics. Rumor 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 receive the protection
that they were entitled to as 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. However, "The
New York Times" disagreed. It stated: "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 favored the Roman Catholics, since he
had been the first Mayor of New York City 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 manner in America.
The New York Orangemen wrote to Mayor Hall about protection, however
Hall encouraged Superintendent Kelso, head of the New York City
Police Department, to prohibit the Orange march. He did this on July
10. His decision was bitterly denounced by uninvolved people and
organizations. "The New York Times" had a July 11 head line:
"Terrorism Rampant. City Authorities Overawed by the Roman
Catholics." Even some Irish Roman Catholic organizations
were appalled at the decision and angry with the Irish who had
produced it.
The prohibition was retracted by Governor Hoffman. He promised the
Orangemen protection by State and Federal authorities if the City of
New York refused to provide it. Kelso, embarrassed, then offered
protection. The Orangemen were unaware of the prohibition being
retracted 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 retraction 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
surrounded by soldiers and policemen. After a march full of
problems 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 as well as 60 police officers and army
personnel. Only two Orangemen were
slightly injured.
Nearly 400 Irish Roman Catholics were arrested for various offenses,
however charges were not pressed against them. The organizers of
the attack were not even taken into custody, and 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." 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 session of the State Grand
Lodge of New York in June 1874, there were discussions regarding 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
favor of the society to have the same rights extended to them as
other societies, the right to parade is now deemed unnecessary . . .
that instead each lodge should meet at their headquarters and
celebrate the anniversary . . . by a social reunion."
The Twelfth of July 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 Enniskillen, and the stringency of Prince
William, but he would beseech them to be done with the enmities, to
cast aside the prejudices born in these hours of trial. The
"Americanization" 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
behavior 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
1894-1896 saw the Order in America expand by one- third. The growth
was due in part, to the appointment of 19 organizers with David
Graham, Past Grand Master, New York being the national organizer.
The organizers were appointed by the Grand Master for States that
didn't have a State Grand Lodge. By 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 for 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 that American Orangemen had of
hosting that eminent 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 the 20th century the American Institution split
due to interstate 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 reunited, after
a special session of Grand Lodge at the Orange Hall in Baltimore
Avenue, Philadelphia on November 26, 1930. The lodges settled their
respective differences, and amalgamation was affected when the
officers
relinquished their posts and new elections were held. The
settlement was received with gratitude, to those who had brought
reconciliation after years of division.
The subsequent history of the Orange 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's an organization which unites churchmen from different
denominations. It provides them with the comfort of a unity which
finds its strength in a threefold 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 flourish in California, Connecticut,
Delaware, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, and
Pennsylvania. One thing which may be said about Orangeism in
America; it cares about people - their bodies and souls, and their
constitutional rights and privileges. American Orangemen are
sensitive, community minded people with a strongly developed sense
of service to God and humankind.
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