The Irish standard., 1896-04-18
The Great Career OF Thomas Adds
AS Lawyer and Orator
In New York City.
He Fought Against An Opposition
and Won Friends and
EmoIument.
Other rlembers Of the Family That
Have Won Distinction
i'm America.

III America.
From Silken Thomas trace its glow
TO Hugh O'NeilI and Owen Roe;
And tho Lord Edward felt the blow,
It rose again!
And tho Wolfe Tone in prison died,
And Emmett bled by Liffeys side
Spite Of all England's power and pride,
Twill rise again!
Few, even Of hurrying pedestrians, says
the New York Journal pass the
Broadway front of St. Paul's chapel with
out noticing on the Fullerton street side
a tall granite shaft presenting the bas
relief near its apex Of grand head and
profile and containing near it's base the
sculpture of an American eagle and Of an
Irish harp, separated by marble hands
clasped III friendship.
The sides Of the shaft contain many
lines of epitaph, but these, after an ex-
posure Of nearly seventy years, are too
Eobliterated to be read unless closely ap-
tproached. But the head and epitaph re-
| fer to Thomas Adds Emmet, the elder
brother Of the world-renowned Irish mar
| tyr, Robert Emmett, whose 118th birth
| day anniversary on Wednesday evening
was celebrated by the Irish race.
The sculptured American eagle and
| Irish harp and clasping hands portray
the respect which New York felt for
Thomas Adds Emmett when he brought
his Irish harp of eloquence to the New
York Bar under protection of the Bird Of
Freedom. On the Vasey street side of st.
Paul's church yard will be observed also
a shaft to the memory Of DR. William j.
MacNiven, who was an Irish compat-
| riot Of the Emmets, and who also became
an exile to this country. Eloquent ora
/ tors on the anniversary occasion will re-
count the virtues, patriotism and brave
death Of Robert Emmet, Of whose. career
few school boys are ignorant.
| School boys also recall how Robert FSins,
met like his older brother, Thomas,
could have escaped to this country had
he not fingered to bid farewell to his s.
ancee, the daughter of the great Irish bar
/ rister, Curran, whose feminine beauty
and tenderness Thomas Moore In his
Irish melodies has immortalized in his
song beginning She is far from the land
where her young hero sleeps.
Although Americans are 50 familiar
with the story of Robert Emmet's career,
they, even New Workers. are not familiar
with that Of his elder brother, albeit he
Ilived a score of years in this city, became
| Attorney General of the State and died
| Of apoplexy in City Hall court room
while engaged in argument, and is here
buried and has an elegiac shaft at the
most crowded corner thOrOughfare Of
| this city.
| Like his father, Thomas Adds Emmett
at first WITH a degree Of M. p, embraced
the medical profession, but soon ex-
| changed it for that of law and had begun
4 practice as barrister in Dublin when he
/ too, became a United Irishman, joined
his brother in rebellion, was unsuccess-
4 full, and exiled himself to this country by
way Of France.
When he arrived he was cordially well
ccraed by Gov George Clinton, who was
himself Of Irish descent, and by Major
| ICadwallader Golden. BY their efforts
j although an alien, he was admitted to
the New York Bar in 1906 upon his pa
| pers as Dublin barrister. But the law
yers of the day did not take kindly to
him at first, and, fearing his rivalry
threw impediments in his way, and Went
SO far as to induce the Supreme Court to
| pass a rule, which appears in an early
volume of Johnson reports, forbidding
the admission thereafter of an alien
But the influence of Clinton and Golden
Emmets courtesy and geniality, sympa-
thy for him on account of his brother
Roberts recent execution and his Won
derful address, eloquence and display Of
learning, broke down all barriers of pre-
judice and opposition. James Kent was
| then Chief Justice of Supreme Court, on
the road to become Chancellor and write
his famed commentaries, and he, by
his amenities to Emmet also softened
the asperities, 50 that Emmet rapidly
rose at the Bar. As there was then dis
ltinction as III England, between attorney
and advocate, he, as a court pleader
was soon IN receipt of an annual income
OF SIC, 900, which in those days, was equa
in purchasing power to three times thai
sum now
How rapid and successful his rise wa:
may be- inferred from the fact that in
l1S12 he was appointed attorney genera
lby the Governor and Council, and led Ii
all criminal prosecutions, his knowledge
holding the dgree Of III. D.--of medica
Il Jurisprudence in one murder case great
ly contributing to his success
il He was now well established in New
\ York and Albany Knickerbocker society
II as we'll as in legal and commercial cir
a cles, but he declined reappointment a!
Attorney General because it interferet
with his private practice. Newspaper
files Of this city during the administra
ton Of Madison and Monroe show how
busily he was engaged at the Bar, espe
a cially in admiralty cases, growing out o
the naval war, and as q speaker on pub
lie occasions. As the trend of publ,
opinion was then bitter against Grea
britain, he, as one Of the oppressed vic