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John A. Macdonald and the Windmill Rebels
by Alastair Sweeny
On November 12, 1838, the steamboats Kingston and Brockville cast off from Scobels Wharf at the foot of Brock Street in Kingston, Ontario, and headed down the St. Lawrence. On board were four companies of British regulars of the 83rd Regiment of Foot, with two 18-pounder cannons and a howitzer. Their orders were to extract a party of heavily armed American invaders - popularly called "bandits" or "pirates" - who had barricaded themselves inside a large, stone windmill on the shore near Prescott.
The rebels were members of the Hunters Lodge, or Patriot Hunters, hard-line republicans from northern New York State. Mostly American, they sympathized with the Canadian radicals who had been defeated in 1837, and hoped to duplicate the success of the Texas rebellion two years before when Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie established a republic in northern Mexico. Detesting "tyranny and oppression wherever manifested," the Hunters were certain that all it would take was "a good stand maintained for a short time" to help Canadians win freedom from the British yoke.
But the Windmill was their Alamo, and Colonel Henry Dundas and his regiment made short work of the Hunters. Three days later they were back in Kingston with two boatloads of 160 prisoners.
During the recent rebellion Macdonald had volunteered for active service, but his military career never went farther than drilling and marching with a local militia unit, the Commercial Bank Guard, raised by one of his client firms.
The lead prisoner from the Battle of the Windmill was a tall, handsome man named Nils von Schoultz, dressed in tattered clothing and with a great cord knotted around his chest. Von Schoultz, a 33-year old Swedish soldier of fortune and revolutionary, had taken charge of the rebels when many American leaders had panicked during the invasion of Upper Canada and returned to Ogdensburg.
While John A. Macdonald could not participate in the court martial, he was approached by a Kingston resident to act for his brother-in-law, a rebel named Daniel George. from Pamelia, New York. Macdonald went immediately to Fort Henry to give counsel to George, as well as von Schoultz and another rebel leader, Dorethus Abbey, helping them write their personal statements to the court. The three men would be pleading for their lives, although von Schoultz intended to plead guilty as a matter of honour. Macdonald told him that if that was the case, he could do nothing to help him.
Macdonald had some experience dealing with the local mlitary. At the fall assizes, he had acted for a Kingston man who successfully sued the Fort Henry commandant, Colonel Henry Dundas, for wrongful imprisonment and false arrest.
The trial began on November 28, in the whitewashed casements of Fort Henry. Colonel John B. Marks of the Third Frontenac Regiment of the Upper Canada Militia was the presiding judge, and William Henry Draper, Solicitor-General of Upper Canada, served as prosecutor.
George and Abbey read their statements and were duly condemned to death. Von Schoultz, despite a dignified and impassioned defence that impressed the court, was also sentenced to be hanged. George and Abbey went to the gallows on December 12, followed by von Schoultz on December 18, and eight more rebels before January 4, 1839. Marks sentenced a few rebels to penitentiary terms, and released the rest, except about 60 prisoners he ordered shipped to Montreal in the summer of 1839 and put on board a prison convoy with nearly 200 other rebels and convicts, to be transported to Australia.
On November 21 1838, the US government passed an order that Americans entering Canada in violation of US neutrality law would not be given protection when they returned across the border. This effectively ended the activities of the Hunters Lodges, Frères chasseurs and other Republican factions, and from then until the US Civil War, the Canadas were left in peace.
Cartier Chooses Ottawa as the Capital
Cartier Chooses Ottawa as the Capital
D'Arcy McGee Assassinated
by Alastair Sweeny
Late in the evening of April 7, 1868, Montreal MP Thomas D'Arcy McGee sauntered back to his rooming house on Sparks Street after giving a passionate speech in favour of national unity in the House of Commons. While fumbling with his keys or trying to unlock the door, he was shot in the head, from behind, at close range.
The killing of McGee was the first and only assassination of a Canadian MP. Suspicion quickly fell on the Fenian Order, a radical group that dreamed of an Irish homeland in North America. A massive police sweep was conducted and dozens of possible suspects were detained. Within 24 hours of the crime, police arrested a young Ottawa tailor Patrick Whelan. He was carrying a Smith & Wesson revolver, fully loaded, in his coat pocket along with some ammunition.
On April 9, 1868, Whelan was charged with the murder of Thomas D’Arcy McGee. His trial took place in the Court of Common Pleas in Ottawa that September. The trial lasted eight days and received international publicity. He was defended by John Hillyard Cameron, Grand Master of the Orange Order. The prosecutor was James O’Reilly. Presiding over the trial was Chief Justice William Buell Richards. The trial generated much interest and almost every detail of the "tailor with red whiskers" (Whelan) was noted and reported on.
A contemporary report describes Whelan as appearing in court wearing a small green rosette, white vest and garnet cufflinks.
During the trial, the key piece of evidence was the revolver taken from Whelan’s pocket during his capture. Court records describe it as a .32 caliber Smith & Wesson Type 2 six shot revolver with serial number 50847. A police expert said that it likely shot the bullet that had been pried out of McGee's skull. On the eighth and final day of the trial Whelan was convicted and sentenced to death by hanging.
On a cold and bleak morning of February 11, 1869, Patrick James Whelan, the convicted assassin of Thomas D’Arcy McGee, met his death on a scaffold erected at the Carlton County jail. A crowd of more than 5,000 people attended the event despite a snowfall earlier that morning. Whelan’s execution was the last public hanging to take place in the Dominion of Canada.
Footnote:
In May of 2005, The Canadian Museum of Civilization acquired at auction for $105,000 the Smith and Wesson .32 Caliber Model 2 Tip Up Revolver, serial numbered 50847, seized from the pocket of James Patrick Whelan during his arrest following the assassination of Thomas D'Arcy McGee. A private bid proved too rich for the Bytown Museum, who dropped out of the bidding at $55,000.
"I'm very pleased we got it. McGee played a key role in Confederation, he was a major peace broker between Irish Catholics and the Orange (Order) Scottish Protestants like Sir John A. Macdonald," he said in an interview from his home.
"McGee was one of the architects of Canadian unity and diversity -- which may be one of the reasons he was shot."
"The gun is best with us. We represent the whole country. Our country doesn't have enough of this -- icons of Canadian history. Canadians don't take their history seriously the way Americans do. Now (the gun) is part of the national collection for all Canadians."
The Bytown Museum had mounted a spirited fundraising campaign to buy the revolver, including a rally on Sparks Street. It raised donations from the City of Ottawa, D'Arcy McGee's Irish Pub, the National Capital Irish Society and many average citizens. Carolyn Cook, the museum's curator, called the outcome "the best of the worst situations." She said the Museum of Civilization has promised to lend the gun to the smaller institution for display some time in the future. "We're happy it's staying in the region," Ms. Cook said in an interview from the museum.
The late T.P. Slattery, a respected Montreal lawyer and legal historian, has made a convincing argument that neither Whelan nor his gun murdered McGee. He wrote that Whelan was railroaded and the ballistics evidence was faulty.
Mr. Morrison conceded the value of his museum's revolver would drop if Whelan's innocence was proven -- but he noted Whelan was convicted and there's no doubt this was his weapon. "We would put it on display as the gun that shot D'Arcy McGee," Mr. Morrison said. Ms. Cook, from the Bytown Museum, said the debate over Whelan's guilt only adds to the mystery surrounding McGee's murder and public interest in the revolver.
Another mystery is how the valuable weapon found its way to its last private owner, Scott Renwick, an auto mechanic from Dundalk, in southwestern Ontario. Mr. Renwick's friend, Mark Van Dusen, said in an interview it's believed the original investigating officer gave the weapon to an ancestor of Mr. Renwick's and it has passed down through the family ever since. "Scott is ecstatic that it sold at auction, the fair way to do it ... and that it will be in a place where all Canadians can see it," Mr. Van Dusen said.
Here's the description of the revolver from Jeffrey Hoare Auctions Inc.:
"The internal mechanism of the gun is in very good condition, showing little use. The bore is clean, the rifling sharp and discernable without evidence of pitting. The cylinder is tight, as is the tip up release which clicks sharply into position. The revolver retains about 50% of the original iridescent bluing, with the grips having the original varnish mostly in place. Overall, the gun shows some light rust and wear on the outside surfaces, mainly attributed to handling rather than use. An exceptional piece of Canadian history."
SOURCE: Jeffrey Hoare Auctions Inc.
