NYC Mayor Hewitt's Refusal to Fly the Irish Flag on March 17, 1888 Cost him Re-Election

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New York City Hall, 1888

Abram Hewitt, mayor of New York City from 1887-1888, doomed his re-election by refusing to fly the Irish flag over New York City Hall on St. Patrick's Day, and refusing to participate in the St. Patrick's Day Parade.

His rationale, according to the Boston Evening Transcript, was that "'the danger line has reached where we must decide if native or foreign ideas are to rule' in the great metropolis." The Transcript went on to editorialize:

"How thoroughly grounded and fearless he is in his Americanism appears from the following abstract of his views: He says that as it is a part of the Irish demand for home rule that the Irish should rule Ireland, so they should concede the right of Americans to rule America. He calls attention to the fact that all foreign-born citizens have equal rights before the law with native-born Americans, and it would be manifestly wrong for a public officer to officially recognize one foreign nationality more than another."

According to The Boston Globe, "the Dublin branch of the Irish League has formally denounced Hewitt for his anti Irish acts and utterances." 

Mayor Abram Hewitt

Hewitt's stance angered many New Yorkers, especially the Irish-led Tammany Hall political machine led by Richard Croker, according to Bowery Boys Podcast and Terry Galway, author of Machine Made : Tammany Hall and the Creation of Modern American Politics.  

As a result, Hewitt was not nominated for a second term by the Democratic Party. He ran as a third-party candidate and finished third. His successor was Mayor Hugh Grant, who reinstated the raising of the Irish flag the following year, and also reviewed the parade, despite protests from the nativist American Party.

Mayor Grant said in a statement, 

"The display of the Irish flag with the American flag on St. Patrick's day is not an infraction of the dignity of American citizenship. The Irish people nave been conspicuously patriotic without abating in their devotion to their native land. The Irish flag is not a national standard and represents the aspirations of people for liberty. It has been the custom to display the flag on the occasion referred to and there is no reason to deviate from the practice."

Research + Text, Michael Quinlin




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