CHAPTER XXXI.

DR. MONEVEN SETTLES IN NEW YORK.-CHOSEN PROFESSOR IN THE COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS.-MARRIES AN AMERICAN LADY.-EFFORTS FOR IRISH EMIGRANTS.-SAMPSON RESUMES THE PRACTICE OF LAW.-FRIENDSHIP OF THE EXILES.-THEIR FAMILIES CONNECTED BY MARRIAGE.-HAPPY DAYS.-DEATH OF SAMPSON AND MCNEVEN. THEY ARE BURIED SIDE BY

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MCNEVEN followed Emmet to America in 1805. He landed in New York on the 4th of July. He often spoke of his feelings, as he stepped on the Battery, and found himself in the midst of a crowd of military and citizens, celebrating their deliverance from that power which still oppressed his own land. "His heart warmed to his new brethren," but he knew no one, and as he walked up Broadway to the City Hotel, he felt that he was a stranger in a strange land. By a singular coincidence Sampson landed in New York the same day of the following year.

Neither McNeven nor Sampson had reason long to feel that they were strangers. McNeven resumed the practice of medicine in which he soon became honorably distinguished, and was appointed to a professorship in the College of Physicians and Surgeons.

In America he found a home and a wife. In 1810 he married a lady of one of the oldest families of New York.

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He had now every thing to make him feel that he was an American citizen. He accordingly entered with interest into the political questions of the day, and took pride in the prosperity and power of his adopted country.

Still he never lost his affection for Ireland. He followed with interest its political agitations, and sympathized warmly in the exertions of Q'Connell. He lived to see Catholic Emancipation, which had been the great measure of his early life, triumph gloriously after a struggle of forty years.

McNeven took much to heart the unfriended condition of Irish emigrants, arriving in great numbers in America without friends and without a guide. In 1816 he opened a free office for procuring them employment, and afterward a free registry office for servants.

Sampson resumed the profession of law, and rapidly rose to eminence. He was the legal adviser of Joseph Bonaparte and of the most distinguished French refugees who came to America on the fall of Napoleon. Some of these had befriended him when in exile, and it was now his power and his happiness to aid and cheer them in their banishment.

He had come to America alone, but in 1810 he was joined by his wife and family, from whom he was never again separated. The stormy scenes through which he had passed in his own country, set in brighter relief the repose which he found in ours. He was peculiarly fitted for domestic pleasures. He had that union of gentleness with intrepidity which marks the heroic character. His

warm Irish heart, his placid temper, and cheerful spirits, enlivened every circle into which he entered. In the society of New York he frequently met Englishmen, who were perplexed to find that the atrocious rebels of whom they had heard, were humane and kind-hearted men, and of the most gentle and courteous manners.

The Irish exiles among themselves always maintained intimate and affectionate relations. Their families were afterward connected by marriage. Among the French

emigrants who were befriended by Sampson, was the only son of Wolfe Tone. He had thrown up his commission in the French army on the fall of Napoleon, and now sought a home in America. Mr. Sampson received him into his office as a student of law. After a few years, when he had entered on his profession, he was married to the only daughter of Sampson. The eldest son of Emmet had already been married to the step-daughter of McNeven.

In Madden's Lives of the United Irishmen there is a sketch of McNeven by his daughter, which contains a pleasing reference to the intimacy which existed between the Irish families then settled in New York:

"At the period of Mr. Emmet's death I was too young to have many personal recollections of him; but of Mr. Sampson I have the most vivid and affectionate remembrance. His family and ours have ever been united in the warmest friendship, and when I look back, the pleasantest of our past recollections are connected with him. He possessed, more than any one I ever knew, the power of creating enjoyment; it was impossible that any company could be dull of which he was a part. His brilliant wit

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and pleasant fancy enlivened and adorned the conversation, whether grave or gay. I wish it were in my power to describe, as I remember it, the delightful social intercourse between our families.

"My grandfather, Mr. Riker, a descendant of the early Dutch settlers, resided on his farm, on the shore of a beautiful bay about eight miles from the city. He had served his country through her revolutionary struggle, and afterward as a representative in Congress; and had a mind and heart to appreciate and understand men like my father and Mr. Sampson, whose society he greatly enjoyed. Mr. Sampson, to the great qualities of his mind, added a refinement, I may say a poetry of feeling, which enabled him to relish keenly the beauties of nature, and to tinge even the commonplace realities of life with a bright and pleasing coloring. He had always great delight in boating, and during his years of health and vigor, was never without a boat large enough to hold himself, his friends, and their families, and it was one of his greatest pleasures to collect them together, and make excursions up the river, to visit the Rikers, his friends at Bowery Bay. The sail from New York up the East River is one of much variety and beauty, with just sufficient peril in passing through the narrow passage called Hellgate, to give it a romantic interest; but Mr. Sampson was a master of boat-craft, and used safely to conduct his little vessel through all dangers, until it entered the smooth waters of the bay, when he would give notice of his approach, by playing an air on his flute, always his companion, and he was greeted by a hearty welcome before his boat could reach the shore.

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Sometimes the sound of his flute might be heard at the quiet farm-house; of a moonlight night, as late as eleven ⚫ or twelve o'clock. The doors were immediately thrown open to receive the party, and after passing an hour or two in cheerful conversation, he and his friends would take the turn of the tide and sail gayly back to the city. I have often, in thinking of these scenes, contrasted the peaceful serenity and pure pleasures of the exiled lives of my father and his friends, with the stormy and painful ordeal they had encountered in their native land."

In 1829, Sampson writing to his old friend Hamilton Rowan, says, "It is so long since I have encountered any hostility or ill office, or envious or angry words from any man, that I may truly say, I live in charity with all mankind, in which blessed spirit, as they say at the end of all sermons, may we all live."

Thus happy in the bosom of his family and respected by all who knew him, he lived here in peace and honor thirty years.

But the longest and brightest day must come to a close. In 1820 Sampson had received a severe shock in the death of his only son, who bore the name of Curran, and had been educated for the bar. He had studied at the law school in Litchfield, and in 1818 entered upon practice in New Orleans. Here he had great advantage from speaking the French language with the same facility as the English. His Irish warmth of manner, and his liberal political opinions, made him a favorite with the French population. This, united with fine talents and a thorough education, gave promise of high success. He had already entered on