Westward Cork Migration by Sail 1815-1860 by John Sutton

PART II EMIGRANT PERSPECTIVE

crime … and that was the crime of proximity to England” (ibid p.247). Even Whig President Millard Fillmore , a nativist who despised Irish immigrants, overtly sought release of the prisoners in December of 1852. 1852. Thomas Francis Meagher arrives in New York (US). Thomas Francis Meagher, imprisoned Young Irelander, escaped and arrived in New York City 27 May 1852 to a large celebratory welcome. He had been sentenced to life-time transportation to Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania) for sedition after the 1848 Young Ireland Rebellion. After a dramatic escape, he evaded capture and rendezvoused in the Bass Strait with the now familiar Elizabeth Thompson which voyaged around Cape Horn with wool for England. He disembarked at Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil, and obtained passage on the brig Acorn to New York (ibid p.246) (also Part l). 1852. Cholera and the Isthmus of Panama (US). Captain Ulysses S Grant (future General and President), having served with distinction in the Mexican American War, was charged as quartermaster in bringing his regiment, the Fourth Infantry, from New York via Panama to augment the San Francisco military in 1852 during the Gold Rush. He sailed from New York 5 July 1852 with several hundred troops and a large number of passengers, bound for San Francisco, and arrived at Aspinwall (Colón) without difficulties, but was presented with logistic problems and disease when cholera broke out on the challenging sixty-mile transit to Panama City (on the Pacific coast). He received high praise for his management of this crisis, although one-third of the passengers and one- tenth of his soldiers succumbed to cholera ( civilwartalk.com ). Grant later claimed this to have been one of his most challenging life-time military assignments. This incident, and the prevalence of bandits, must have concerned California-bound migrants. The Panama inter- ocean traverse would become much faster and safer for migrants when the Panama railway was completed in 1855 . 1852. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. The Railroad, chartered in 1827, opened passenger service between Baltimore Maryland and Wheeling West Virginia on the Ohio River in 1852 . 1853. John Mitchel arrives in New York (US). John Mitchel, the Irish nationalist who spent 5 years in prison for treason felony , arrived in New York 29 November 1853 to a hero’s welcome. Sentenced in 1848 for transportation to Bermuda for fourteen years, he was transferred after one year, finally ending in Van Diemen’s Land. After surrendering his ticket of leave (parole), he escaped from his district on 9 June 1853 and evaded capture until boarding a passenger brig in disguise 18 July 1853 , downriver from Hobart and bound for Sydney Harbour. On 2 August 1853 his escape continued on the English bark Orkney Lass for Tahiti, where he shed his disguise after transferring to the American bark Julia Ann for San Francisco. Arriving on 3 October 1853 he dined in the company of the mayor of San Francisco and spent time with Terence McManus, before travelling on to New York via a Costa Rica/Nicaragua route. The Irish community in California was fast expanding. 1853. The St Lawrence and Atlantic Railroad (BNA US). The first international railroad, connected Montreal , the largest Canadian city, to Portland Maine , providing Montreal direct rail access to an ice-free port. 1854. American Party (US). This political party, established by nativists, embraced a negative anti-emigrant sentiment. They enjoyed their title of ‘Know Nothings’ and failed in their attempt to nominate Millard Fillmore back to the Presidency of the USA in 1856. 1854. Lord Elgin Retires (BNA). Lord Elgin, Governor General of the Province of Canada, who signed into law the contentious Rebellion Losses Bill in 1849, retired. In the signing, on the advice of the Majority Party at that time, he was considered to have established the principle of ‘responsible government’ in the Canadas. Sir Alan McNab, who had possibly

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