The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1893-02-04


under Hoche. Thomas Adds Emmett,
member Of the directory and the real
civil leader of the conspiracy, was Or
rested before the outbreak in 1895, kept
in prison in Fort George, Scotland, till
1900 and finally came 10 America after
the tragic death of his young brother.
He became an eminent lawyer, was at~
torney general of New York, helped to
draw up the constitution OF Florida and
died in 1927. One Of his sons, Judge
Robert Emmett, presided over the first
national convention of the republican
party; one grandson, Temple Emmet,
was gallant officer OF Meagher's bri-
gade in the war for the union, and an
other, DR.. Thomas Adds Emmett, is now
one of the most eminent surgeons in
New York.
The story OF Robert Emmet's lifs is
known to every student of Irish history
and his death speech to every American
schoolboy. His attempt at insurrection
in 1903 was the last desparing effort of &
once formidable conspiracy, and the
tragedy begun at Green street court
house and closed on the scafold in
Thomas street put an end to Irish rebel
lions for nearly half century. Tho
trial was a mockery of justice. The
Judge, Lord Norbury, was a notorious
and brutal partisan; the jury was packed.
The prisoners address was the model for
those speeches in tho DOCK" like those
of Thomas Francis Meagher and Thomas
f.. Bourke, which have played promin-
ent part in subsequent Irish history.
Indeed, it will serve as q model for such
addresses for all time and showed extra
ordinary intellectual vigor for a young
man Of twenty three. From first to last
it was pitched in the highest key. His
def.nse of the motives of the United
Jrishmen was mastery and his arraign-
ment of the brutal judge terribly scath-
ing. But his peroration was gem that
the whole civilized world will never
cease admiring. Rebuking the judge for
his constant Interruptions and his evil
dent desire to hasten the sentence Of
death, he said:
am going to my cold and silent grave.
My lamp Of life is nearly extinguished.
My race is run. The grave opens TO re-
ceive mo and [ sink into it's bosom I
have but one request to ask at my de-
parture from this world: it is the charity
of it's silence Let no man write my
epitaph; for, as no man who knows my
motives dare now vlndicate them, let me
and them remain in obscurity and peace.
and my tomb remain uninscribed until
other times and other men can do justite
to my character. When my country
takes her place among the nations Of the
earth, then, aud not till then, let my
epitaph be written. have done.
Thomas Moore, who was Robert EN-
NETS fellow student and intimate friend
in Trinity College, has embodied this
idea of the ''uninscribed tomb" in the
following beautiful verses:
OH! BREATHE NOT HIS NAME.
Oh! breathe not his name; let it sleep in the
shade,
Where, cold and unhonored, his relics are laid
| Sad, silent and dark be the tears that we shed
As the night dew that falls on the grass DER his
head.
But the night dew that falls though in silence
it itweeps,
Shall brighten with verdure the grave where he
| sleeps:
And the tear that we shed, though in secret il
rolls.
Shall long keep his memory green in our souls
And the same bard, who, while petted
and pampered by the English aristocracy
never forgot the friend of his youth, thus
sings of Emmet's motives:
WHEN HE WHO AZORES THEE.
| When he who adores thee has left but the name
| OF his faults and his sorrows behind,
| Oh! say wilt thou weep when they darken the
fame
! Ofa life that for thee was resign'd?
Yes, weep, and however my foes may con-.
denim,
Thy tears shall efface their decree:
For heaven can Witness though guilty to them,
I have been but too faithful to thee.
With thee were the dreams of my earliest love;
Ev'ry thought of my reason was thine;
In my last humble prayer to the spirit above
| Thy name shall be mingled with mine.
Oh! blest are the lovers and friends who shall
| live
The days of thy glory to see:
But the next dearest blessing that heaven can
give,
| Is the pride of thus dying for thee.
The story of Robert Emmet's love for
Sarah Curran is the saddest and most
touching romance in all Irish history.
Sarah's father, the great advocate who
defended the United Irishmen, was
cowed by the reign Of terror and for
bade his daughter to meet her lover.
But they met clandesttnely, Drawing the
greatest dangers, and their second and
last meeting cost Emmett his life. he
had made all arrangements to sail fol
| France an the vessel of q trusty Wick.