Thomas D'Arcy McGee

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Thomas D'Arcy McGee

Thomas D'Arcy Etienne Hughes McGee (born April 13, 1825 in Carlingford , Ireland , † April 7, 1868 in Ottawa ) was an Irish - Canadian politician , author , editor and journalist . As one of the fathers of the Confederation , he was one of the pioneers of the Canadian state founded in 1867. In September 1867 he was elected a member of the lower house and a few months later he was assassinated.

biography

McGee grew up in the Irish city of Wexford , where his father worked for the Coast Guard . The mother was the daughter of a bookseller and introduced her son to literature. McGee received her education in a hedge school . In 1842 he emigrated to the USA and settled in Boston , where he found work for the Catholic newspaper The Pilot . He recruited new subscribers, wrote articles on the history of Irish literature and gave nationalist speeches to Irish immigrants. After becoming editor, he campaigned for Irish independence and the rights of Catholics in his articles; he also advocated the annexation of British North America by the US.

In 1845 McGee returned to Ireland to write for the nationalist publications Freeman's Journal and The Nation . He was involved in the Young Ireland movement , which called for an independent Ireland. After the failure of an armed uprising, he had to flee to the USA in 1848. In New York he published the newspaper Nation and fell out with the supporters of an Irish republic. From 1850 he published the American Celt ; first in Boston, later in Buffalo and finally from 1853 in New York. Increasingly, he condemned revolutionary liberalism as a threat to Christianity and civilization. Over time, a critical attitude towards Republicanism and the US expansionist policy emerged.

McGee moved to Montreal in 1857 and published the New Era newspaper for a year . He had now reconciled himself with British imperialism and was now convinced that the rights of Catholics were better protected here than in the USA. In his editorials, he condemned the influence of the Orange Order and called for increased economic development through the construction of railways and industries, as well as increased immigration. He also presented ideas for a Canadian state for the first time. In December 1857 McGee was elected to the lower house of the province of Canada, in parliament he supported the reformers around George Brown . In 1862 he was Minister for Agriculture, Immigration and Statistics in the Liberal government of John Sandfield Macdonald . After a short time McGee was fired from the government, whereupon he converted to the Conservatives.

Funeral procession for Thomas D'Arcy McGee in Montreal

In 1863 the Conservatives won the election and McGee was restored to his old ministerial post. As a delegate from the Province of Canada, he attended the Charlottetown Conference and the Québec Conference , where the founding of a Canadian confederation was decided. McGee was becoming increasingly estranged from his Irish electorate. He continued to vehemently oppose an Irish republic, calling the opposing views he had expressed earlier as youthful stupidity. He also condemned the repeated armed raids by the Fenian Brotherhood from US territory. Although he had turned his core electorate against him, he was elected, if only barely, in the first Canadian general election in the constituency of Montreal West in September 1867 .

The attack and the consequences

In the early hours of April 7, 1868, McGee returned to his apartment in Ottawa from a House of Commons meeting that lasted until after midnight. As he was about to enter the house on Sparks Street (the house owner had unlocked the door for him), he was shot in the back of the neck. Henry J. Friel , Ottawa Mayor, offered a $ 2,000 reward for catching the killer. McGee received a state funeral and was buried on April 13 in a crypt in the Notre-Dame-des-Neiges cemetery in Montreal .

More than 40 people were arrested on the day of the attack, the majority of them Fenian supporters of Irish descent. The most prominent suspect was Prime Minister John Macdonald's groom Patrick Buckley, who brought Patrick J. Whelan to the attention of the authorities. Whelan was soon considered the prime suspect and was charged with murder on April 9. Although the charges were based on circumstantial evidence , there was no direct evidence and various testimony appeared dubious, he was sentenced to death on September 15. The appellate court rejected the appeal against the judgment. Whelan was finally executed by hanging on February 11, 1869 in front of 5,000 spectators .

Works

Ottawa Mayor announces a reward for catching McGee's killer
  • Eva MacDonald, a tale of the United Irishmen (1844)
  • Historical sketches of O'Connell and his friends (1845)
  • A history of the Irish settlers in North America (1851)
  • A history of the attempts to establish the Protestant reformation in Ireland (1853)
  • The Catholic history of North America (1855)
  • A life of the Rt. Rev. Edward Maginn (1857)
  • Sebastian, or the Roman martyr (1861)
  • A popular history of Ireland (1863)
  • The poems of Thomas D'Arcy McGee (1869)

literature

  • David A. Wilson: Thomas D'Arcy McGee: Passion, Reason, and Politics, 1825-1857 . McGill-Queen's University Press, Montreal / Kingston 2008, ISBN 978-0-7735-3357-8 .
  • David A. Wilson: Thomas D'Arcy McGee: The Extreme Moderate, 1857-1868 . McGill-Queen's University Press, Montreal / Kingston 2011, ISBN 978-0-7735-3903-7 .

Web links

Commons : Thomas D'Arcy McGee  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikiquote: Thomas D'Arcy McGee  - Quotes

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Patricia Phenix: Private Demons, The Tragic Personal Life of John A. Macdonald. McClelland & Stewart. Toronto 2006, ISBN 0-7710-7044-6 , pp. 190-193.
personal data
SURNAME McGee, Thomas D'Arcy
ALTERNATIVE NAMES McGee, Thomas D'Arcy Etienne Hughes (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Irish-Canadian politician
DATE OF BIRTH April 13, 1825
PLACE OF BIRTH Carlingford , Ireland
DATE OF DEATH April 7, 1868
Place of death Ottawa