Political Life
Uniacke completed his law studies and became a lawyer at King's Inns, Dublin, in 1779.
Although, upon his return to Halifax, Uniacke held the appointment of solicitor general, the position alone would not support him and his growing family. In 1781, Uniacke established a successful law practice which would become the largest in the Province. In 1783 he ran for a seat in the House of Assembly, representing Sackville and was appointed the Clerk of the House when he took up his seat. Uniacke was opposed to the partition of Nova Scotia which generated the creation of New Brunswick. His opposition to the creation of the new colony may have partly been due to the fact he would lose his seat as it would then lay outside the jurisdiction Nova Scotia. In 1784 he acquired the lucrative position of Advocate General of the Vice Admiralty Court of Nova Scotia. Uniacke held investments in privateering ventures so it is not surprisining he was quick to condemn captured ships taken by Nova Scotia privateers. By 1814 he had amassed a £50,000 fortune from his Vice Admiralty fees. In 1785 Uniacke again ran for the House of Assembly, winning his Halifax seat. From this seat, in 1788, he was appointed Speaker of the House. In the election of 1793 Uniacke lost his seat. By the next election (1797), Uniacke stood for a seat in Queens County, which he won and held onto in the election of 1799. Prior to the 1799 election he was named Speaker of the House and reaffirmed in this position after that year's election; a position he held until his resignation in 1805. In 1808 he was appointed to the Council (Just become his death in 1830 he succeeded Blowers to the Presidency of the Council).
The political infighting that accompanied the vying for patronage positions since the arrival of the Loyalists spilled over into outright animosity between opposing participants. Just such a situation arose between Samuel Blowers (appointed attorney general in 1784) and Richard Uniacke. Uniacke, since the time of the Eddy Rebellion, had developed an animosity for the New Englanders, once stating they were " a race of the most lawless profligate and wicked monsters that exist on the face of the earth". In 1791 Uniacke uttered "rude things" to Blowers and as a result Blowers challenged him to a duel. Uniacke was eventually convinced by Justice Strange to apologize for the slight to Blowers' honour, thus avoiding potential bloodshed. In 1798 Blowers again challenged Uniacke to a duel but the situation was defused by the city magistrates. (In 1819, Uniacke's son Richard John Uniacke, Jr. was also in a duel. He killed his opponent. He was tried for murder and acquitted.)
As a strong promoter of his adopted homeland, Uniacke constantly strived to build a strong economy in Nova Scotia. Since the end of the American Revolution, Nova Scotia's trade had suffered major inroads from the merchants in the new United States. Nova Scotia's American competitors were free to attempt to trade where they chose, and had won in the treaty of 1783 access to the rich fishing grounds off Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. Nova Scotia merchants and shipping interests were hampered by the British Navigation Acts that required all foreign trade by the British colonies to enter Britain and pay various duties. In the 1790s Uniacke lobbied the British government to relax or exempt Nova Scotia from the Navigation Acts as well as to open several freeports in the colony. He also supported the lobby to close British Caribbean ports to American trade and shipping. By the early nineteenth century many of these ideas had been implemented and Nova Scotia’s economy had rebounded. The Navigation Acts were completely repealed in 1825.
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