John Christian Schultz

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John Christian Schultz around 1870

Sir John Christian Schultz (born January 1, 1840 in Amherstburg , Upper Canada , † April 13, 1896 in Monterrey , Mexico ) was a Canadian politician . During the Red River Rebellion , he was one of the counter-rebels. From 1888 to 1895 he was Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba .

biography

Schultz grew up in modest circumstances in Amherstburg on Lake Erie in what was then Upper Canada. From 1858 to 1861 he studied medicine, but did not graduate.

In 1861 he moved to the Red River Colony , where his half-brother Henry McKenney was already living. He appeared there as a "doctor and surgeon", but from the mid-1860s mainly dealt with property speculation and was involved in his half-brother's trading company. After the bankruptcy of this company, there was a lengthy legal battle. Schultz was sentenced in 1868 to share some of the guilt, but refused and was arrested. He was forcibly rescued by a group of 15 friends and relatives, which is also due to the weakness of the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), to whose administrative area Assiniboia the colony belonged.

As early as 1864 Schultz had become a partner and in 1865 sole owner of Nor'Wester , the area's only newspaper. From then on, he expressed his radical opposition to the administration of HBC there, which remained so when it was taken over by a business friend in 1868. Equally radical was his ultra-Protestant stance, which made him the leader of a small, Anglo-Canadian group called the Canadian Party , which sought the annexation of the colony by Canada and its large-scale settlement by English-speaking Protestants regardless of its residents. Despite his extreme views, Schultz was involved in the development of the settlement, so he was a co-founder of the Ruperts Land Institute and laid the foundation stone for its museum. He was also a Freemason and the first 'master' of the Manitoba Lodge.

In 1869, the only two-year-old Canadian state bought all of the HBC's territory and sent surveyors to the colony close to the previous state territory. Many residents of the colony feared for their land rights, especially the Native American-French Métis , while Schultz befriended the surveyors and unscrupulously transferred extensive land rights. In the Red River Rebellion, the Métis, together with most of the other old settlers, sought an independent province in the Canadian state in 1869/70, the few opponents of the project in the colony formed a small group around Schultz. The rebels formed a provisional government based in Fort Garry . In December 1869, Schultz forcibly tried to withhold food supplies from the colony. He was arrested with around 50 other people, but was able to escape a little later and fled to Kildonan . There he persuaded settlers and militiamen from Portage la Prairie to attack the rebels in Fort Garry. When they learned shortly before Fort Garry that rebel leader Louis Riel had released all prisoners in the meantime, they lost faith in Schultz 'representations and wanted to break off the project. A part of the group was arrested by the rebels shortly afterwards. Schultz fled to Toronto , Ontario via Duluth . While most of the detainees were soon released, the rebels sentenced Schultz's associate, Thomas Scott , who had repeatedly threatened Riel to death, for insubordination , and executed him.

John Christian Schultz in the governor's regalia

Not least because of the execution of Scott, Schultz succeeded in Toronto to arouse great indignation at the rebels and their efforts. Although the Manitoba Act created a new province on May 12, 1870, which met most of the demands, the Provisional Government was denied an amnesty and Riel had to flee into exile in the United States . In the fall of 1870, Schultz was able to return to the Red River unmolested and even collect the then enormous sum of $ 32,000 as compensation for the damage allegedly caused by the rebellion. He re-launched a newspaper, the Manitoba News-Letter , in which he continued to express his radical views and attacking Lieutenant Governor Adams George Archibald for his conciliatory policies. He ran for the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba in December 1870 , but was defeated by the HBC representative Donald Smith . However, shortly afterwards, in March 1871, he won a seat in the Canadian House of Commons for the Lisgar constituency .

Schultz remained true to his radical convictions and methods. Together with his party friends, he assaulted Francophone Manitobans, raided the offices of the rival newspapers Manitoban and Le Métis and burned pictures of Riel in the streets. Military power on the ground was held by remaining Toronto militias, most of whom sympathized with Schultz, and so his actions went unpunished despite the lieutenant governor's open disapproval. Archibald turned repeatedly to Prime Minister John Macdonald and asked him to put a stop to Schultz's activities, but Macdonald tried to integrate Schultz into his Conservative Party and thus neutralize him, which both failed. While he was regularly re-elected to parliament in the following years, he vehemently agitated against the lifting of the banishment of Métis leader Louis Riel, who was also regularly elected to parliament, but was never able to take his seat due to the ban.

In 1882, Schultz missed the election to parliament, but was then appointed to the Senate by Prime Minister Macdonald . His health had deteriorated steadily over the years, and no one expected that he would be able to hold the office for long. However, he held up surprisingly and was even appointed lieutenant governor of Manitoba in 1888 by Macdonald . His office was last extended for the usual five years, but not by Macdonald, who died in 1891. The reason was probably the competition between two local candidates for the successor, between which one could not initially decide. In May 1895 he was knighted as Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG). In September 1895 his term of office ended and he went with his wife to Monterrey in Mexico because of a lung disease , where he died after a few months in April 1896.

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personal data
SURNAME Schultz, John Christian
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Canadian politician
DATE OF BIRTH January 1, 1840
PLACE OF BIRTH Amherstburg , Upper Canada
DATE OF DEATH April 13, 1896
Place of death Monterrey , Mexico