Richard Henry Wilde (September 24, 1789 – September 10, 1847) was a
United States representative
The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Artic ...
and lawyer from
Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States
Georgia may also refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Georgia (name), a list of pe ...
.
Biography
Wilde was born in
Dublin, Ireland
Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...
, in 1789 to Richard Wilde and Mary Newitt, but came to America at age eight
[Old New Haven]
, Juliet Lapidos, ''The Advocate
An advocate is a professional in the field of law.
The Advocate, The Advocates or Advocate may also refer to:
Magazines
* The Advocate (magazine), ''The Advocate'' (magazine), an LGBT magazine based in the United States
* ''The Harvard Advocate' ...
'', March 17, 2005 and moved to
Augusta, Georgia
Augusta is a city on the central eastern border of the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. The city lies directly across the Savannah River from North Augusta, South Carolina at the head of its navigable portion. Augusta, the third mos ...
, in 1802. His brother was Judge John W. Wilde, a judge of Augusta, Georgia. He was a businessman and studied law. After gaining admittance to the state
bar in 1809, Wilde practiced law in Augusta. He served as the solicitor general of the superior court of
Richmond County, Georgia
Richmond County is located in the state of Georgia in the U.S. As of the 2020 census, the population was 206,607. It is one of the original counties of Georgia, created on February 5, 1777. Following an election in 1995, Augusta (the count ...
, and was also the attorney general of Georgia from 1811 to 1813 as a result of holding the Richmond County position.
In 1814, Wilde was elected as a
Democratic-Republican
The Democratic-Republican Party (also referred to by historians as the Republican Party or the Jeffersonian Republican Party), was an American political party founded by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison in the early 1790s. It championed l ...
Representative to the
14th United States Congress
The 14th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, consisting of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in the Old Brick Capitol in Washing ...
and served one term from March 4, 1815, until March 3, 1817, as he lost his reelection campaign in 1816. Upon
Thomas W. Cobb's resignation, Wilde successfully ran as a Crawford Republican to fill that seat in the
18th Congress and served only a month from February 7, 1825, to March 3, 1825. After several more unsuccessful Congressional campaigns in 1824 and 1826, Wilde ran again in 1827 as a Jacksonian to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of
John Forsyth and won election to fill that term. He was reelected to three additional terms (
21st,
22nd and
23rd Congresses) in that seat and served from November 17, 1827, to March 3, 1835.
Wilde lost his reelection campaign in 1834 and traveled in Europe from 1835 to 1840. In Italy he associated with
Edward Everett
Edward Everett (April 11, 1794 – January 15, 1865) was an American politician, Unitarian pastor, educator, diplomat, and orator from Massachusetts. Everett, as a Whig, served as U.S. representative, U.S. senator, the 15th governor of Mas ...
,
Horatio Greenough
Horatio Greenough (September 6, 1805 – December 18, 1852) was an American sculptor best known for his United States government commissions '' The Rescue'' (1837–50) and ''George Washington'' (1840).
Biography
The son of Elizabeth (''née ...
,
Hiram Powers
Hiram Powers (July 29, 1805 – June 27, 1873) was an American neoclassical sculptor. He was one of the first 19th-century American artists to gain an international reputation, largely based on his famous marble sculpture '' The Greek Slave''. ...
and
Charles Sumner
Charles Sumner (January 6, 1811March 11, 1874) was an American lawyer and statesman who represented Massachusetts in the United States Senate from 1851 until his death in 1874. Before and during the American Civil War, he was a leading American ...
.
In 1843, Wilde moved to
New Orleans
New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...
, returned to the practice of law and served as a professor of constitutional law at the University of Louisiana at New Orleans (current-day
Tulane University
The Tulane University of Louisiana (commonly referred to as Tulane University) is a private research university in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. Founded as the Medical College of Louisiana in 1834 by a cohort of medical doctors, it b ...
). Wilde died in New Orleans on September 10, 1847, and was interred in a vault in a cemetery in New Orleans. In 1854, he was reinterred at Sand Hill family burying ground near Augusta and then reinterred an additional time in 1886 in Augusta's City Cemetery.
Writings
Wilde wrote a well known poem ''
Hesperia'' about the
geography
Geography (from Ancient Greek ; combining 'Earth' and 'write', literally 'Earth writing') is the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. Geography is an all-encompassing discipline that seeks an understanding o ...
and
topography
Topography is the study of the forms and features of land surfaces. The topography of an area may refer to the landforms and features themselves, or a description or depiction in maps.
Topography is a field of geoscience and planetary sci ...
of the United States.
His
magnum opus
A masterpiece, , or ; ; ) is a creation that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career or a work of outstanding creativity, skill, profundity, or workmanship.
Historically, ...
was an unfinished poem called "My life is like the Summer Rose" that he wrote to remember his brother, James Wilde, who was killed in a
duel
A duel is an arranged engagement in combat between two people with matched weapons.
During the 17th and 18th centuries (and earlier), duels were mostly single combats fought with swords (the rapier and later the small sword), but beginning in ...
.
He wrote several other works, prompting
Rufus Wilmot Griswold
Rufus Wilmot Griswold (February 13, 1815 – August 27, 1857) was an American anthologist, editor, poet, and critic. Born in Vermont, Griswold left home when he was 15 years old. He worked as a journalist, editor, and critic in Philadelphia, New ...
to consider including him in one of his influential anthologies. Though he did provide several pieces for Griswold to include, Wilde responded, "As literature does no good for an advocate's reputation, I should be pleased if you will give my place... to somebody else."
The only complete book-length work published in his lifetime was ''Conjectures and Researches concerning the Love, Madness, and Imprisonment of
Torquato Tasso
Torquato Tasso ( , also , ; 11 March 154425 April 1595) was an Italian poet of the 16th century, known for his 1591 poem ''Gerusalemme liberata'' (Jerusalem Delivered), in which he depicts a highly imaginative version of the combats between ...
'' (1842). Two works left incomplete were ''Life and Times of
Dante
Dante Alighieri (; most likely baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri; – September 14, 1321), widely known mononymously as Dante, was an Italian Italian poetry, poet, writer, and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called ...
'' and ''Specimens of the Italian Lyric Poets''.
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References
Further reading
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External links
*
*
Duellist's Grave
historical marker
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilde, Richard Henry
1789 births
1847 deaths
Members of the Georgia House of Representatives
Georgia (U.S. state) state senators
Georgia (U.S. state) lawyers
Politicians from Augusta, Georgia
Politicians from Dublin (city)
Tulane University faculty
19th-century American poets
American male poets
Democratic-Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Georgia (U.S. state)
Jacksonian members of the United States House of Representatives from Georgia (U.S. state)
Members of the United States House of Representatives who owned slaves
Georgia (U.S. state) attorneys general
19th-century members of the United States House of Representatives