HISTORY

FROM SEA TO SEA

The Assassination of Thomas D’Arcy McGee
$ McGee started out as a rebel when he was a young man in Ireland. He belonged to the group Young
Ireland, and had to flee his homeland after the British put a price on his head because of his rebel
leanings.
$ After initially spending some time in the United States, McGee ended up in Montreal, and became a
Member of Parliament thanks to the support of the Irish population of that city. He became a man of
peace, and was well respected for wanting to bring people together rather than dividing them.
$ The Fenian Brotherhood was a secret society trying to cause trouble between England and the United
States by periodically attacking Canada. They believed in furthering their cause through violence.
$ The Fenians thought of McGee as a traitor who, because he was part of the Canadian government, now
sided with the British, his old enemy. McGee also spoke out publically against the Fenians, trying to get
people to turn away from them. As a result, the Fenians threatened McGee’s life.
$ McGee had a prophetic dream the day before he died about his own demise.
$ After a session of parliament that ran well into the night, McGee was shot and killed in front of his Sparks
Street boarding house.
$ Prime Minister John A. Macdonald had lost a close friend and ally with the death of McGee, and was
determined to bring the killer to justice and smash the Fenian Brotherhood. He suspended civil liberties
and authorized mass arrests in Ottawa by using the federal powers that guaranteed “peace, order, and
good government.”
$ James Patrick Whelan was arrested. He was Irish, Fenian, lived in Ottawa, and was found with a
recently-fired revolver. Although he claimed to be innocent, he was found guilty of the assassination of
McGee and was hanged.

Louis Riel
$ Louis Riel was a bright young man from Red River who left his community in his teens to attend a
seminary in Montreal to become a priest.
$ Riel was Metis, half-white and half native, French-speaking and Roman Catholic.
$ In his early twenties, Riel had to return home to look after his family after his father died. He returned
to find his people under pressure from advancing numbers of white, English-speaking, and Protestant
settlers from Ontario.
$ Due to his education and reputation, Riel became a natural leader and spokesperson for the Metis. The
Metis were angry at not being consulted over the transfer of Rupert’s Land to Canada from the Hudson’s
Bay Company. The traditional Metis use of the land, including the buffalo hunt, was being threatened by
surveyors who were plotting out the land to be used by white settlers for farming.
$ Riel led a band of 100 Metis to undefended Fort Garry and took it over. He declared a Provisional
Government, with himself as president. He declares he does not want trouble with either Canada or
Britain, only that the Metis wish to be part of the talks over the future of the land. Riel invites many of
the English-speaking inhabitants of Red River to join in his government as well.

Red River and the Provisional Government

$ Canada has no real military force to deal with the Metis uprising. Macdonald sends Lieutenant-Governor
William MacDougall to Red River to “take possession” for Canada, but he is stopped at the border by the
Metis who won’t let him take up his duties.
$ MacDougall tries to convince English-speaking settlers to plan an effort to take back Fort Garry from the
Metis. John Christian Schultz becomes a leader of such an effort, as does a man named Thomas Scott.
$ Riel becomes aware of the existence of such a plot and has most of the conspirators arrested and
detained at Fort Garry.

The Thomas Scott Affair

$ Thomas Scott is a hot-headed English Orangeman from Ontario. Orangemen are members of the Loyal
Order of Orange, a large an influential group of anti-Catholics.
$ Scott hates the Metis and Riel, and often taunts his guards and threatens to kill Riel if he is ever able to
escape from the Metis. He goes to far with his comments and is hauled before a military tribunal, where
he is found guilty and sentenced to death.
$ English-speaking inhabitants plead with Riel not to kill Scott for fear that it will provoke a strong reaction
in Canada. Riel won’t back down because he thinks the execution will show everyone that the Metis
mean business and must be taken seriously.
$ Scott is executed by a gun-shot in the back of the head. The reaction in Ontario is one of outrage. It is
seen as a bunch of French Catholics “murdering” an Englishman just because he was an Orangeman. A
price is put on Riel’s head in Ontario, and the province threatens to raise a militia to send to Red River to
punish Riel and the Metis.

The Manitoba Act

$ During the Thomas Scott affair, the federal government was secretly negotiating with the Metis about Red
River possibly joining Canada as a province. Prime Minister Macdonald thinks that Father Noel Ritchot,
the parish priest sent by the Metis as their representative will be a push-over and easy to handle.
$ Eventually, the federal government and the Metis reach a deal.

1. Manitoba will become Canada’s fifth province. It will be allowed Members of Parliament for the House of
Commons and Senators for the Senate.
2. Debts will be assumed by the federal government.
3. The federal government promises to build a railroad to link Manitoba with the rest of Canada.
4. Land will be set aside specifically for Metis ownership.
5. Metis have a right to be educated in French/Catholic schools.

$ The Manitoba Act of 1870 creates the Province of Manitoba, the “postage stamp” province, given that
name because of its tiny shape within the huge Northwest Territories.

Manitoba: The Aftermath

$ After Manitoba becomes a province, the federal government sends 400 regulars and approximately 1000
volunteers to the west to establish order in the new province. Secretly, their main focus is the capture of
Louis Riel, who will still be held legally responsible for the death of Thomas Scott. Riel escapes before
they arrive and flees to the United States. He will eventually settle there and begin a family, but remains
a fugitive from Canadian justice.
$ Most of the militia volunteers sent west are from Ontario and are hostile to the Metis, still angry over the
execution of Thomas Scott. With alcohol readily available, some of these militia treat the Metis very
roughly, with some even killing members of the Metis leadership, like Elzear Goulet, in a type of frontier
justice.
$ News of Ontario militia murdering French-Catholic Metis causes outrage and anger in Quebec, a French-
Catholic province. Now there are strong feelings in both Ontario and Quebec over events in Manitoba, but
Canada’s two biggest provinces are on opposite sides of the issue.
$ This places Macdonald on a political tightrope, as he does not want to offend either Ontario or Quebec.
These provinces have the most seats in the House of Commons, and Macdonald cannot risk losing seats in
the next election by appearing to side with one or the other. Personally, he is closer to the Ontario view
of things, but must make it appear that he is sensitive to Quebec’s concerns. “Strongly-worded” orders
are sent to Colonel Garnet Wolseley to take better control over the militia in Manitoba.

British Columbia
$ Another colony of Great Britain on the Pacific Coast, but divided from Canada by the Rocky Mountains.
$ Population of British Columbia is a mixture of English, Native Canadians, Russians, and an ever-increasing
number of Americans.
$ Gold is found in British Columbia, causing a crush of Americans to enter the colony seeking their fortune,
and making them the majority of the population.
$ The colony builds infrastructure to support the gold rush, things like roads, bridges, railways, and goes
into debt to finance the construction of these things. But when the gold rush comes to an end, there is a
massive exit of people leaving British Columbia, leaving a fairly small population with a fairly large debt.
$ Many inhabitants wish to join the United States. It is closer, there is already a lot of trade with that
 country, and many Americans already live in British Columbia. Also, in 1867, the United States purchased
Alaska from Russia for $7 million, and Alaska lay to the north of British Columbia. It was assumed that
the Americans would wish to physically join Alaska to the rest of the country. A petition urging joining
the United States, though, only attracted some 400 signatures.
$ Many people began to look at Canada as a solution to British Columbia’s problems. A newspaperman
named William Smith founded the Canada Party. Smith, who changed his name to Amors de Cosmos
(lover of the universe), wanted the colony to join Canada as he felt that the Canadians would rule the
northern half of the continent for “a thousand years.” He also knew that Canada would likely assume
British Columbia’s crippling debt.
$ Negotiators were sent to Ottawa to talk with the Canadians, and they were successful in hammering out a
great deal for British Columbia, since Canada was eager to gain possession of the Pacific colony and
stretch itself from sea to sea.
$ Included in the deal was the promise of a railroad through the Rocky Mountains linking British Columbia
with the rest of Canada. The colony really only expected some sort of wagon trail through the mountains,
but Canada promised to start construction of a railroad within two years and to have it completed within
ten years.
$ Despite the happiness on all sides over the entrance of British Columbia as Canada’s sixth province, the
Native people were ignored, and were not consulted at any time.

The Pacific Scandal

$ As the 1872 election approached, there was some fear in the Conservative government that seats would
be lost in both Ontario and Quebec. People were still upset over what had happened in Manitoba.
$ There had long been an association between big railway money (Grand Trunk) and politicians in Canada.
Sir Georges Etienne Cartier wrote a letter to Sir Hugh Allan, the wealthiest financier in Canada, asking
him to “donate” money to various Conservatives in an effort to help them win back their seats. Prime
Minister Macdonald received $25,000 and Cartier $20,000 in extra money to fight the election. There
was an expectation that Allan would be rewarded for his help.
$ Macdonald was able to win his seat back but Cartier lost his own seat in Montreal. Hugh Allan was named
chairman of the Canadian Pacific Railway and given the contract to build the railroad out to British
Columbia. His appointment raised immediate suspicions with the Opposition and the general public.
$ The Liberals bribed a clerk at the Montreal office of Allan’s lawyer to go through his papers and find
evidence of a scandal. Documents were found and stolen that proved that Allan had paid money to
Macdonald, Cartier, and others in the Conservative Party.
$ This Pacific Scandal led to Opposition and public demands that Macdonald resign and call an election. A
dejected and beaten man, Macdonald does so. In the election of 1874, the Liberals win a big victory and
form the government. Alexander Mackenzie becomes the new prime minister.
$ One reason for Macdonald’s depression was the death of Georges Etienne Cartier. Cartier became sick
after his election loss, eventually going to London to seek expert medical help. While in England, his
condition deteriorates and he dies. After losing Thomas D’Arcy McGee to an assassin’s bullet a few years
earlier, Macdonald had now lost his most important ally and friend.
$ Macdonald rose in the House of Commons to deliver a tribute to Cartier, but was overcome with emotion
and unable to speak, extending his hand out over Cartier’s desk and standing silently for a period of time.
Macdonald disappeared from public view for that entire summer, with reports even circulating that he
had drowned, one newspaper even reporting that he had attempted to commit suicide.
$ Macdonald re-appeared in late summer, and in a session of the House of Commons, rose to announce his
resignation. During this speech, he reminded everyone that no man had made a greater sacrifice of time,
energy, wealth, thought, or intelligence to the creation of the Dominion of Canada.