Digital Archive
Daniel Polin, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to William Bennet, near Mercer, Mercer Co., Pennsylvania, 2 June 1818
Luaigh an doiciméad seo Amharcóir IIIF
Bailiúchán Polin Letter
Title 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.
Date 02/06/1818
Date Issued 27/03/2023
Cineál Acmhainne Text
Archival Record Id p155/6/6
Publisher University of Galway
Extent 7pp
Topic Polin Letter
Geographic Pittsburgh (city),Allegheny (county),Pennsylvania,United States,Mercer
Temporal Nineteenth century,Eighteen tens
Genre Transcript,Reproduction
Note Title, description and transcript text by Professor Kerby Miller.
Creator / Author Name Daniel Polin