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thankfully accept his offer. Stuart wrote in reply that the offer had been his own spontaneous act, and as such it was accepted. During Mrs. Emmet's residence at Fort George she was confined. The child was called Jane Erin Emmet.

soners.

After a confinement of one year in the Dublin prisons and of three years in Fort George, in violation of a solemn engagement, the Government determined on the liberation of the priBut when the list of pardoned persons came to the Lieutenant-Governor from the Home-Office, it was ascertained that Emmet's name was not specified. The Lieutenant-Governor sent for Emmet, and with visible emotion told him there was no order for his liberation or removal. The cause of the omission of his name, and of making him an exception to the lenity of Government, as the liberation of the prisoners was then absurdly called could not be imagined. Stuart turning to him as he was about to leave the room, said, "Mr. Emmet, you shall go, I will take all hazards and all responsibility. You shall go to-morrow with the rest of the prisoners, and I will stand between you and the Government." The Emmets

parted with the good old man who had acted with so much kindness towards them as with an old friend. They embarked with the other state prisoners for Cuxhaven, on the 30th of June, 1802, and landed in Holland, on the 4th of July. Emmet and his family proceeded to Hamburgh. They spent some time at Amsterdam and Rotterdam, and passed the winter of 1802 in Brussels; there Emmet received intelligence of his father's death.* During his stay at Amsterdam, in 1802, he was visited by his brother Robert, about six months before the return of the latter to Ireland. The particulars of that meeting, and the circumstances which grew out of it, appertain more especially to the memoir of Robert Emmet, and are given in it. It may be sufficient to state that Emmet, in the beginning of 1803, went to France, and in the autumn of the same year took place those negotiations with Napoleon which are fully detailed in the memoir of Robert Emmet.

* Dr. Emmet was buried in the Church-yard of St. Anne's, in Dawson street, Dublin.

Dr. Madden mistakes in this particular. Judge Emmet says, that T. A. Emmet's last meeting with his brother Robert took place in Brussels.

In October, 1804, he embarked with his family at Bordeaux for America, and arrived in New York on the 17th of November same year.

Emmet's career in America has been traced by one of his professional friends in that country, Charles Glidden Haines, a gentleman distinguished at the bar, and one of the counsellors of the Supreme Court at Washington. This gentleman's eminence in his profession, his talents, and his close intimacy with Emmet, render him fully competent to the task undertaken by him.

In 1812, while he and Mr. Emmet were attending the Supreme Court of the United States, they lived together in the same house, and Emmet was prevailed on by his friend to give him a sketch of his career, which was committed to writing by the latter. It remained with him during his life unpublished, but after his decease it was given to the public along with a biographical memoir of himself in 1829.

The following extracts are taken verbatim from Mr. Haines's narrative:

"In 1804, we find Thomas Addis Emmet a resident of our own country. He now moves on a new theatre, and occupies a wide space in the consideration of a people to whom he was hitherto a stranger. He is no longer embarked in the troubled scenes of Europe. He commenced his career in the service of his country to aid in conducting a most important revolution to a successful issue, and he failed in his attempt. About six years of the most valuable part of his life has been lost by imprisonment and the calamities attendant on the part which he acted. He now commences a new career, and with what success, this narrative may present some slight proof.

"When Mr. Emmet came to the United States, he was about forty years of age. His fortune had been broken, and he had a family to sustain and educate. For some time he doubted which profession he would pursue-medicine or law. He was competent to undertake either. His friends advised him to go to the bar, and a great loss would have occurred to this country had he not done so. He then concluded to remove to the Western country-to the State of Ohio. He had landed in New York, and had soon after made a visit to some parts of the Southern country, and Walter Jones, Esq., a most eminent counsellor and advocate in the District of Co

lumbia, had procured Mr. Emmet's admission to the bar at Alexandria. A slave population prevented his residence at the South. He had selected Ohio as a future residence for

many reasons. Land was cheap and the country new; he had a rising and increasing family, which he wished to plant about him, the competition was not so closely waged at the bar as in some other places, and every thing was young and new in polity and laws.

"The venerable George Clinton was then Governor of the State of New York, and the most popular and powerful man in the State. He was a plain, stern, ardent Republican, and of Irish blood. He sent for Mr. Emmet, and told him to remain in the city of New York. He said that Mr. Emmet's great talents would command patronage. General Hamilton, one of the brightest ornaments of the age in which he lived, had fallen in a private quarrel, and there was a great opening at the bar, which Mr. Emmet could occupy. As to the western country, Governor Clinton said it was a wilderness, and no place for a great lawyer. Mr. Emmet replied that he would gladly remain in New York, but he could not practise without a previous study of three years or perhaps six, in order to become a counsellor and advocate, such were the rules of Court adopted in New York, and while he was studying law his family would want bread. Governor Clinton told him, in answer, not to be discouraged, if the Supreme Court declined giving him a license, the Legislature would give him one by an express statute. George Clinton no doubt could have effected this offer. He was the idol of the people, and the guardian spirit which presided over the Republican party. De Witt Clinton was then Mayor of the city of New York, an office at that time attended with an income of twenty thousand dollars a-year. He was then a great leader in the Republican ranks, a statesman of uncommon promise, and had recently resigned his seat in the Senate of the United States. He also sent for Mr. Emmet, advised him to remain in New York, and tendered him his utmost services and influence. He thought with George Clinton, his uncle, as to the Supreme Court, and as to what could be done with the Legislature. Under these auspices, Mr. Emmet changed his plans of future life, and concluded to pursue fortune and fame in the city of New York. George and De Witt Clinton then made a formal

application to the Judges of the Supreme Court. ChiefJustice Spencer was then on the bench as a puisne Judge, Judge Thompson and Vice-President Tompkins were also there. Chancellor Kent was the Chief Justice. Spencer, Thompson, and Tompkins were found friendly, Kent peculiarly hostile. Judge Spencer was strong and decided, and Mr. Emmet always mentions the kindness, the friendship, and the effective aid of Vice-President Tompkins with many expressions of gratitude. Within the last two years he argued a most important cause for the Vice-President, without fee or reward, and obtained a verdict of 130,000 dollars, it being a Isuit with the United States. He said he did it with great pleasure, in remembrance of former friendship. Chancellor Kent was a warm, and I may almost say a violent Federalist. He execrated all Republican principles in Europe, and was the disciple of Edmund Burke as to the French revolution. He looked on Mr. Emmet with an unkind eye, and raised his voice against his appearing in the forums of our State. To the honour of the Chancellor, however, let it now be said, that he has more than once expressed joy to Mr. Emmet that the other judges overruled his illiberal objections. Mr. Emmet was admitted to the bar of New York without a resort to the Legislature. It was a violation of the rules of Court that his great talents and his sufferings palliated and excused.

"Mr. Emmet now commenced that splendid career at the American bar, that has not only elevated the character of the profession, but reflected back a lustre on his native land. The Irish bar have reason to be proud of the exile who has so essentially aided in giving immortality to Irish genius. Very soon after Mr. Emmet appeared at our bar, he was employed in a case peculiarly well calculated for the display of his extraordinary powers. Several slaves had escaped from a neighbouring State and found a refuge here. Their masters seized them, and the rights of their masters became a matter of controversy. Mr. Emmet, I have been informed, was retained by the Society of Friends-the real, steady, ardent and persevering friends of humanity and justice, and of course espoused the cause of the slaves. His effort is said to have been overwhelming. The novelty of his manner, the enthusiasm which he exhibited, his broad Irish accent, his pathos and violence of gesture, created a variety of sensations in the

audience His Republican friends said that his fortune was made, and they were right.

"Mr. Emmet's strong and decided attachment to Democratic principles was known even before he reached the American shore. Coming to a country where he could breathe and speak freely, he did not find it necessary to repress those bold and ardent sentiments which had animated his bosom while toiling for the emancipation of Ireland. He mingled in the ranks of the Republican party. Transatlantic politics it is well known had extended their agitations and influence to this country. The federal party hated France, hated Ireland in her revolutionary character, and hated Charles James Fox X and his Whig party in England. The line drawn in this country is still visible. Mr. Emmet was viewed by the opponents of Mr. Jefferson's administration as a fugitive Jacobin. Hence he was doomed to some little persecution even in this country. The great men of the New York bar were federalists. They therefore turned their faces against Mr. Emmet. They formed a combination, and agreed to decline all professional union and consultation with him. Mr. Emmet has told me the names of this shameful league, but as they are now his warmest friends and admirers, and as I respect and esteem them, their names shall not go from me. One man's name, however, I shall mention; for although a firm federalist, and an eminent man, he nobly denounced the combination, and all its objects. I speak of Cadwallader D. Colden. He and Mrs. Colden, an amiable and excellent lady, have paid Mr. and Mrs. Emmet the highest marks of respect and civility, ever since they became inhabitants of the United States. When Mr. Emmet ascertained the existence of the league, he did not hesitate what to do. His native boldness and decision of character governed his conduct. He determined to carry the war into the enemy's country. He did not wait for an attack. He proved the assailant. Wherever he met any of the league at the bar, he assumed the attitude of professional war. and he lost nothing by contact. If Mr. Emmet has any one extraordinary power, it is the ready talent of successful and over-awing reply. His spirit is always dauntless, fear he never knew. Hence he generally came off victorious in the wars against the combination.

The league was soon dissolved. Business flowed in, and Mr.

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