Esq.. late Speaker of the House of Assembly of Pennsylvania. before the House of Commons. In a committee on the American Papers." published in London in 1779. and this book is accessible in the Library. Plowden. the historian. in his History of Ireland. published in 1809. said: It Is a fact beyond question that most of the early successes In America were immediately owing to the vigorous exertions and prowess of the Irish immigrants who bore arms In that cause. The Marquis de Chastellux. a Frenchman who spent some time in America in 1782. wrote: An Irishman the instant he sets foot on American soil becomes ipso facto an American. This was uniformly the case during the whole of the late war. While Englishmen and Scotchmen were treated with jealousy and distrust. even with the best recommendations of zeal and attachment to the cause. the native of Ireland stood in need of no other certificate than his dialect. Indeed. their conduct in the late war amply justified their favosable opinion. for whilst the Irish emigrant was fighting the battles of America by sea and land. the Irish merchants. principally of Charleston. Baltimore. and Philadelphia. labored with lndefatigable zeal at all hazards to promote the spirit of enterprise and increase the wealth and maintain the credit of the country. Their purses always were opened and their persons devoted to the countrys cause. and on more than one eminent occasion Congress itself. and the very existence of America probably. owed its preservation to the fidelity and firmness of the Irish.
Identified stereotypes
Generalization that all Irish immigrants were vigorous and devoted to the American cause.