People v. M'Evoy

3 Wheel. Cr. Cas. 414
CourtNew York Court of General Session of the Peace
DecidedOctober 13, 1824
StatusPublished

This text of 3 Wheel. Cr. Cas. 414 (People v. M'Evoy) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Court of General Session of the Peace primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. M'Evoy, 3 Wheel. Cr. Cas. 414 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1824).

Opinion

The defendants.were indicted for an assault and bat '; tery on Henry Bush, on the 12th of July last, at Greenwich.

Mr. Graham opened the case for the prosecution.

Gentlemen of the Jury—The defendants are indicted for an assault and battery on H. Bush, on the 12th of July last, during a procession of Orangemen in the village of Greenwich, having this peculiarity, that it is one of the remote consequences of a very ancient feud, bottomed on passions of the most desolating character, partly political, but religious in a much greater proportion. The con[415]*415tending'parties have at differentperiods assumed different names, and have been actuated by passions varying in strength, but the nature of the quarrel has been essentially the same. Like the waters of the Nile, you can trace their animosities hack over vast and desert regions, sometimes descending in a widely spreading and majestic stream, sometimes dashing from precipices of tremendous height, foaming with awful grandeur in the gulph below; at others dragging itself along through the sluggish mud, and anon gentle, contracted, and diminishing, ending in a diminutive stream of two feet in diameter. In Ireland, the birth-place of their quarrels, they were originally designated English and Irish, afterwards Protestants and Catholics, and finally Orangemen and Ribbonmen. This last, being the character in which the parties appear before you, requires some explanation.

The distinction of Catholic and Protestant prevailed from the Reformation until 1793, when Wolfe Tone planned a society on principles analogous to those of the French Revolution. It was called u The Society of United Irishmen,” and it was composed chiefly, but not exclusively, of Catholics, all parties forgetting their distinctions in the ferment of political enthusiasm, which did what nothing else could have accomplished, uniting those who had for more than six centuries been tutored and trained to heat and extirpate each other. The professed object was “ a general amelioration of the Irish people by a reform of Parliament, and an equalization of Catholic and Protestant interests ;” hut par* liamentary change, and Catholic emancipation were only pretexts, the main object being to accomplish a revolution. When the Protestants had time to cool and reflect, and the fervor of the French Revolution had [416]*416quenched its rage in the hlood of its own votaries, they saw their error, and were shocked at the idea they had in a moment of phrenzy entertained, of casting off the protection of the British government. They suddenly repented, and with an impulse which usually follows political enthusiasm, they vibrated into the opposite extreme. To restore public confidence, and to secure themselves more effectually from the Catholics, they superadded to the oath of allegiance one of loyalty and renewed attachment to the government. And because the Protestant ascendancy was first achieved by William, Prince of Orange, they chose him as their patron saint, and renewed the celebration of the victory over James. The former derived the name of Orangemen from the Prince of Orange and emblems of that colour, the latter being distinguished as Ribbonmen, owing to a green ribbon, the badge of the order of the United Irishmen. The great political union being thus broken, the Catholics, cohered with more inflexible attachment to each other, and condensing their energies, directed them to their emancipation from penal laws, and ¡restoration to equal rights. With these motives and objects, and distinguished by their respective emblems, the Ribbonman has celebrated his Patrick’s day on the 17th of March, and the Orangeman his King William’s day on the 12th of July. In later years, these celebrations have been attended in Ireland with frightful breaches of the peace. The parties, armed and Unarmed, have, in imposing numbers, arrayed themselves -against each other, and prompted by the most infuriated passions, aided by traditional animosities, have steeped the adverse emblems in Mood. Whether these associations are legal in themselves, or become illegal only in their consequences. [417]*417may be a question, but is one of little moment. It is sufficiently manifest they cannot be endured. In Ireland they have been discountenanced, whether voluntarily as some, or by statute as others pretend, is immaterial.

Gentlemen—Those wild and crude transactions were formerly matter of history, or at the most, of information carried across the Atlantic from the troubled and bloody scene of action; but they have, in an evil hour, with all the secresy, malignancy, and wide-spreading mischief of a pestilence, found their their way to the peaceful bosom of society here. On this subject an experiment has been made in the neighbourhood of our city last July, into the nature and effects of which one jury has Inquired and passed as against the Orange party; and It is reserved for you, in the administration of even-handed justice, to inquire into and pass upon the demerits of the adverse party. It will appear that, early on the 12th, the Ribbonmen hung out a green flag in view of a few Orangemen at work in the shop of one Green ; that much abuse accompanied and followed the insult; that the party at Green’s subsequently erected a pole and crowned it with an Orange wreath; that shortly thereafter a party of Catholics' came round, armed with clubs, and challenged the Orangemen out to fight; that this being declined, they prepared themselves for a battle towards the evening, and actually fell upon two of three Orangemen, of which the complainant was one, in great numbers, and armed with bludgeons, which they used to the great terror of the neighbourhood, and the almost entire destruction of their adversaries.

Testimony on the Part of the Prosecution.

Henry Bush testified, that on the 12th of July last, a [418]*418party of Catholics were assembled at the house of one r . Morris, in Greenwich. They commenced with great abuse towards the Orangemen. About 8 or 9 o’clock, witness saw a green flag out of Morris’s window—Saw James Murney there. He, in particular, was very abusive. In the afternoon, Moore, Mullen, and Lowry had an Orange handkerchief on "a pole. Came to Morris’s with it. Went from Morris’s to M‘Keever’s, and then went towards their boarding-house. Witness then saw ten or fourteen men come from M‘Evoy’s yard towards the Orangemen. The Catholics, aided by about fourteen more, attacked the Orangemen, and when witness ran up to save Moore from being murdered, he was knocked down' by Cassidy, and beaten by all the defendants. Mrs. M‘Evoy struck witness after he was down. Witness was much hurt. Did not take part until the Orangemen cried “ murderafter they had been attacked by the Catholic party. Mrs. M‘Evoy had a club, and threw stones.

(Cross-examined by Mr. Sampson.)—Witness was not stripped to fight. Struck somebody on the head when they were; all coming upon him with bludgeons, but does not recollect who it was; defended himself all he could-Mrs. M‘Evoy struck witness with a club. Witness does not recollect that he struck Hugh M‘Evoy.: M‘Evoy struck with a pole; M‘Williams struck with a stick.— Witness and Ralph Irving did not go to Morris’s together. Witness went to ask the Orangemen to come home.

The Court—Gentlemen, had you not better confine yourselves to the circumstances immediately connected with the affray ?

Sampson—We introduce these circumstances to show [419]*419that the Orange party was engaged in an unlawful act.

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Bluebook (online)
3 Wheel. Cr. Cas. 414, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-mevoy-nygensess-1824.