Thomas Lechmere warns against the threat of Irish immigration.

Citing the shortage of grain in the town, Lechmere warns, “These confounded Irish will eat us all up, provisions being most extravagantly dear and scarce.” Francis Cabot Lowell later writes, “Old Mr. Lechmere is a wonderful man for his years, eighty four. Seeing an American always puts him in fine spirits. He says he has never regretted leaving Boston but once, and that is ever since.”