Editing Thomas Moore (section)

===Observations of America and duel with critic===
In the hope of future advancement, Moore reluctantly sailed from London in 1803 to take up a government post secured through the favours of [[Francis Rawdon-Hastings, 1st Marquess of Hastings|Francis Rawdon-Hastings, 2nd Earl of Moira.]] Lord Moira was a man distinct in his class for having, on the eve of the rebellion in Ireland, continued to protest against government and loyalist outrages,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Curtin |first1=Nancy |title=The United Irishmen: Popular Politics in Ulster and Dublin, 1791–1798 |date=1998 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-820736-8 |page=217}}</ref> and to have urged a policy of conciliation.<ref>Dickson, Charles (1997), ''Revolt in the North, Antrim and Down in 1798'', London, Constable, {{ISBN|0094772606}}, p. 103</ref> Moore was to be the registrar of the [[Admiralty court|Admiralty Prize Court]] in [[Bermuda]]. Although as late as 1925 still recalled as "the poet laureate" of the island, Moore found life on Bermuda sufficiently dull that after six months he appointed a deputy and left for an extended tour of North America.<ref name="Harry White">{{cite web |last1=White |first1=Harry |title=Moore, Thomas |url=https://dib.cambridge.org/viewReadPage.do?articleId=a5948&searchClicked=clicked&quickadvsearch=yes |website=Dictionary of Irish Biography |publisher=Royal Irish Academy |access-date=18 August 2020}}</ref> 

As in London, Moore secured high-society introductions. But of many of his hosts he had a low opinion including, with reports of a slave mistress ([[Sally Hemings]]), of President [[Thomas Jefferson]]: "The weary statesman for repose has fled/ From the halls of council to his negro shed . . . / And dreams of freedom in his slave's embrace!"<ref name=":5">{{Cite news |last=Montague |first=John |date=April 26, 2008 |title=The Man and his Melodies |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/archive/2008/0426/Pg049.html#Ar04900 |work=The Irish Times |pages=49}}</ref><ref name=":6">{{Cite book |last=Kelly |first=Ronan |url=https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Bard_of_Erin/YtaqRhv1oQYC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Ronan+Kelly,+Erin's+Bard,&pg=PT98&printsec=frontcover |title=Bard of Erin: The Life of Thomas Moore |date=2009 |publisher=Penguin Books Limited |isbn=978-0-14-103134-7 |language=en}}</ref> Moore later conceded that, having consorted too closely in America with émigré European aristocrats and their friends among the opposition [[Federalist Party|Federalists]], he had developed a somewhat "tainted", somewhat partisan, view of the new republic.<ref name="Poetry Foundation" /> United Irish exiles, among them Robert Emmet's brother, [[Thomas Addis Emmet]], a prominent [[Abolitionism|abolitionist]],<ref name=":02">{{Cite web |title=Thomas Addis Emmet |url=https://history.nycourts.gov/figure/thomas-addis-emmet/ |access-date=2023-01-10 |website=Historical Society of the New York Courts |language=en-US}}</ref> were in Jefferson's [[Democratic-Republican Party|Democratic-Republican]] camp.<ref name=":16">{{Cite thesis |last=MacGiollabhui |first=Muiris |title=Sons of Exile: The United Irishmen in Transnational Perspective 1791–1827 |publisher=UC Santa Cruz (Thesis) |url=https://escholarship.org/uc/item/75x28210 |pages= |year=2019}}</ref> 

Following his return to England in 1804, Moore published ''[https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Epistles_Odes_and_Other_Poems/z4K5zStZqO8C?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg Epistles, Odes, and Other Poems]'' (1806). In addition to complaints about America and Americans, this catalogued Moore's real and imagined escapades with American women. [[Francis Jeffrey, Lord Jeffrey|Francis Jeffrey]] denounced the volume in the ''[[Edinburgh Review]]'' (July 1806), calling Moore "the most licentious of modern versifiers", a poet whose aim is "to impose corruption upon his readers, by concealing it under the mask of refinement."<ref name="Poetry Foundation" /> Moore challenged Jeffrey to a duel but their confrontation was interrupted by the police. In what seemed to be a "pattern" in Moore's life ("it was possible to condemn [Moore] only if you did not know him"), the two then became fast friends.<ref name=":8" />{{rp|14}}

Moore, nonetheless, was dogged by the report that the police had found that the pistol given to Jeffrey was unloaded. In his satirical ''[[English Bards and Scotch Reviewers]]'' (1809), [[Byron]], who had himself been stung by one of Jeffrey's reviews, suggested Moore's weapon was also "leadless": "on examination, the balls of the pistols, like the courage of the combatants, were found to have evaporated". To Moore, this was scarcely more satisfactory, and he wrote to Byron implying that unless the remarks were clarified, Byron, too, would be challenged. In the event, when Byron, who had been abroad, returned there was again reconciliation and a lasting friendship.<ref name=":6" />{{rp|139-147}}<ref name="Poetry Foundation" />

In 1809, Moore was elected as a member to the [[American Philosophical Society]] in [[Philadelphia]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=APS Member History|url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Thomas+moore&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced|access-date=2 April 2021|website=search.amphilsoc.org}}</ref>