The Society of the Friendly Sons & Daughters of St. Patrick
History
The time during which the Society of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick existed, from 1771 to 1798, —The Members of whom it was composed, some of the most active and influential patriots of the country, including John Dickinson, Robert Morris, Thomas Fitzsimons, Generals Wayne, Irvine, Butler, Thompson, Hand, Cadwalader, Moylan, Knox, and Stewart, Commodore Barry and numerous others, distinguished in the Army, Navy, Cabinet, and Congress, —the place in which the Society was formed and met, Philadelphia, then the focus of every political and diplomatic movement, the Capitol of the nation, where Independence was declared, national conventions and Congress met, the seat of the confederated Federal and State Governments, the residence of the Foreign Ambassadors and ministers, and occasionally the theatre of war —all these circumstances of time, persons and place combine to give additional interest, if not importance to its memoirs. The devotion of its members to the cause of liberty rests not on high testimonials of Washington alone, but on the history of the society itself, and of its individual members