Thomas Addis Emmet (lawyer)

Thomas Addis Emmet

Thomas Addis Emmet (born April 24, 1764 in Cork , Ireland ; † November 14, 1827 ) was an Irish and American lawyer and politician . He was a member of the Society of United Irishmen in the 1790s and Attorney General of New York from 1812 to 1813 .

Early years

Thomas Addis Emmet, son of Elizabeth Mason of County Kerry and Dr. Robert Emmet of the town of Tipperary , was born during the reign of King George III. in marshland born Hammond near the city of Cork. The portraits of his two parents are now in the Crawford Art Gallery in Cork. He was the older brother of Robert Emmet , who led an unsuccessful uprising against British rule in 1803. Later he was captured and executed, which made him one of the most famous republican martyrs in Ireland . Thomas Addis Emmet visited the Trinity College in Dublin , and was a member of the Committee of the College Historical Society . He later studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh . During this time he attended Dugald Stewart's lectures in philosophy . After attending the chief medical schools on the continent, he returned to Ireland in 1788. The death of his older brother, Christopher Temple Emmet (1761–1788), led him to follow the advice of Sir James Mackintosh and give up medicine to become a lawyer. In 1791 he married Jane Patten.

Society of United Irishmen

Emmet was a man of liberal political views. In this context, he participated in the campaign to extend democratic suffrage to the Parliament of Ireland and to end discrimination against Catholics. He was admitted to the Irish bar in 1790 and soon afterwards set up his own legal practice. In the following years he worked as a consultant for prisoners who were charged with political offenses. He also became legal advisor to the Society of United Irishmen.

When the Dublin Corporation issued a statement in support of Protestant supremacy in 1792, the United Irishmen's response was their non-denominational manifesto, largely drafted by Emmet. In 1795 he officially took the oath of the United Irishmen, became secretary in the same year and in 1797 a member of the executive branch . When the United Irishmen were declared illegal, they went underground. All efforts for peaceful government reform and Catholic emancipation in Ireland were abandoned because they were futile. Their goal now was the creation of a non-denominational Irish republic, independent of Great Britain, which was to be achieved through an armed insurrection. Although Emmet supported this policy, he believed that the uprising should not start until help came from France . This view differed from that of the radical members, including Lord Edward Fitzgerald .

Imprisonment and exile

British intelligence had infiltrated the United Irishmen and managed to arrest most of their leaders on the eve of the uprising. Although he was not captured together at Oliver Bond's home on March 12, 1798, he was arrested around the same time. He was one of the leaders who was initially imprisoned in Kilmainham Prison and later moved to Fort George in Scotland , where he remained until 1802. After his release he went to Brussels , where he visited his brother Robert Emmet in October 1802. This informed him of the preparations for a new uprising in Ireland with the help of France. However, Emmet's requests for help from Napoleon Bonaparte were denied during the brief period of peace between France and Great Britain.

He received news of the failure of the uprising in July 1803 in Paris , where he was in contact with Napoleon Bonaparte. He then emigrated to the United States . He settled in New York. In the following years he was admitted to the bar and opened a lucrative legal practice.

Attorney General of New York

After the death of Matthias B. Hildreth , he was appointed Attorney General of New York in August 1812. He held the post until February 1813, when the opposing Federalist Party gained the upper hand in the Council of Appointment .

Later years

As a result of his skills and successes, his services were increasingly in demand. He has become one of the most respected lawyers in the nation over time. Joseph Story , United States Supreme Court Justice , declared him the favorite counselor of New York. In the landmark judgment of the Supreme Court Gibbons v. Ogden , 22 US 1 (1824) he referred to the trade and sovereignty clauses in the United States Constitution in favor of Aaron Ogden .

Death and legacy

Emmet died on November 14, 1827 while he was hearing a case in court. He was then buried in St Mark's-in-the-Bowery Churchyard in the East Village , a neighborhood in Manhattan .

Samuel FB Morse painted a famous portrait of Emmet, which was exhibited in the National Portrait Gallery and auctioned off by Sotheby’s in 2010 .

Thomas Addis Emmet was the father of prominent New York judge and Irish-American activist Robert Emmet, who was born in Dublin. He was the grandfather of another prominent New York judge and Attorney General Richard Stockton Emmet , great-grandfather of the distinguished American portrait painter sisters Rosina Emmet Sherwood , Lydia Field Emmet and Jane Emmet de Glehn, and her cousin Ellen Emmet Rand. Rosina's twin brother, Robert Temple Emmet , graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. He was later awarded the Medal of Honor . Thomas Addis Emmet was the great-great-grandfather of playwright Robert Emmet Sherwood. His grandson, Dr. Thomas Addis Emmet, was a prominent medical doctor and Irish-American activist. He wished that his body would be reburied in Ireland so that he could rest in the land from which my family came. Dr. Emmet was buried in Glasnevin Cemetery , Dublin, the final resting place of many Irish patriots. His tombstone was designed by the father and brother of the revolutionary Patrick Pearse .

biography

• Thomas Addis Emmet (1828-1919): Ireland under English rule, or a Plea for the plaintiff [With the Diary of Thomas Addis Emmet (1764-1827, grandfather), while acting in Paris as the secret agent of the United Irishmen, from May 30, 1803, to March 10, 1804], New York City, GP Putnam, 1903

literature

• Alfred Webb: Compendium of Irish Biography, Dublin, 1878
• CS Haynes: Memoirs of Thomas Addis Emmet , London, 1829
• Theobald Wolfe Tone: Memoirs, 2 volumes, London, 1827
• WEH Lecky: Hist. of Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, Volume 4, London, 1892

Individual evidence

1. ^ Patrick M. Geoghan: Robert Emmet: a life, Dublin, 2002
2. ^ Sotheby's, Important Americana, Auction Catalog, 22. – 23. January 2010, p. 59, item 424
3. ^ Obituary of Richard Stockton Emmet, New York Times , November 24, 1902
4. ↑ Frances Elizabeth Willard and Mary Ashton Rice Livermore: A Woman of the Century , New York: Charles Wells Moulton, 1893, p. 654
5. ^ Medal of Honor Recipients Indian Wars Period , Army Center of Military History
6. ^ The Journal of the American-Irish Historical Society , Volume 21, The Society, 1922, p. 186