In 1919, at the end of the First World War and two years before the devastation of the race riot at home, Tulsa city officials added their voice to the growing chorus of Irish-Americans arguing that Irish independence should be recognized by the delegates at Versailles.

WHEREAS the Great World War, by virtue of the Armistice that has been heretofore executed, is at a standstill, and

WHEREAS there is at this time assembled a conference of the representatives of the different Nations of the World being held upon French Soil, and

WHEREAS there has been suggested the names of delegates to this great peace conference that have not been accorded a seat thereat, and

WHEREAS, we feel that a country that has been the home of Statesment like Emmett, Curran, O’Conner, Parnell and the Hon. Horace Plunkett, should be representated at this Conference for,

As we look back over the pages of History we see in the distances a little colony of states that have, throughout the centuries, been struggling upward and onward and a colony that has produced some of the brightest minds, the greatest intellects, the finest orators and the sublimest statesment that have been permitted to get their feet upon the footstool of the Almighty.

This colony of states has been ruled and governed by the strong arm of a monarchy that has at times been of the most tyrannical nature that ever pressed down the crown of thorns upon the brow of human kind. A few of the many acts of tyranny that have been enforced by this monarchial form of government against this little colony during the years that have dawned and died, have been.

The coercion act in which the citizens were coerced into doing the things that were revolting to their manhood;

The suspension of the habeas corpus act by which thousands of the citizens of this colony were put in prison without charge or any means of any character afforded to them by which they could get release or relief.

The suspension of a trial by jury, the result of which meant new punishment or acts of tyranny against the individuals in such manner as might seem to be the pleasure of tyrannical judges to inflict.

A search by the Police without warrant or ceremony of any character, ruthlessly crossing the threshold of the home at any time that their own peculiar inclinations might suggest.

The innocent were fined and imprisoned for offenses committed by the guilty who were permitted to go without molestation.

The alien or foreign visitor have been expelled from this country.

The curfew law and the blood money of the Norman Conquerors have been exacted: the Press and the newspapers have been gagged, suppressed and in some instances, destroyed. This tyrannical monarchy has manufactured new crimes and offenses; and yet with it all and through it all, these few states of this Colony have struggled on and on, at all times looking towards the day when they could be free and independent and establish for themselves a republic and make a Democracy that would be a benefit to the States, a blessing to their inhabitants and an inspiration to the world.

The eyes of America turned at this time on the Irish people and their colonies. The world knows of the Sinn Feiners and to the people of America the Sinn Feiners are standing in the same attidute towards England today as the Thirteen Colonies along the Eastern shorts of the United States stood in 1775, and are making the same fight for their own Independence that the heroic men of Washington’s Army, and we sincerely hope that their success in obtaining their Independence will be equal to that obtained by John Jancock, Benj. Franklin and the signers of the Declaration of Independence of 1776.

It occurs to the people of the United States, or at least a large number of them, that the Sinn Feiners are the democratic organization of the Irish Colonies and their recognization and assertion that they never have relinquished their claim to separate Nationhood and to the establishing of an Irish Republic, and they feel that they have certain inalienable rights to sovereign independence and that they should choose their own form of government, and they deny the right of the British Parliament or British Crown or the right of any foreign government to legislate for the Republic of Ireland. The people of the United States feel the same as a “highly placed Englishman in Dublin” when he recently said “We have to choose now between recognition or Ireland’s rights or the loss of our hard won union with America with all that means to ourselves and to the world.” This is the cardinal fact, is the menace in the Ireland situation and the press of England’s answer appears to the Englishman to “use all their influence to divert the disaster to the world which this threatens,” and concluded by saying “A little longer and it will be to late” and we feel that they should be recognized and be permitted a seat at the Peace Session in Paris, and that inasmuch as Sir Horace Plunkett is one of the leaders of the Irish Convention which has proclaimed an Irish Republic, and has been suggested as a Peace Delegate.

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, by the Mayor and BOARD of Commissioners of the City of Tulsa, Tulsa County Oklahoma that the colony of states known as the Irish colonies should, and of right out to be free and Independent, and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that our government should lend its assistance to this struggling little country to aid it in establishing for its self a Democratic form of government, and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the representatives of our government now sitting at the Peace Table in the Republic of France should insist upon the recognization of the Hon. Horace Plunkett (illegible) as a duly qualified and regularly elected representative at said Conference, and

BE IT FUTHER RESOLVED that the Government of the United States should recognize the Republic of Ireland with its Democratic ideas, ideals and Independence as a free and independent nation, and accord to it all of the rights and privileges of any Republic.