and organizing the militia of the county of Lanark, of which he was
Senior Colonel, and twice sent to the frontier detachments of several
regiments, going in command on one occasion himself. In 1841 he was
appointed Warden of the District of Johnstown, under the new Municipal
Council Act, and carried the law into successful operation. In 1844, he
was appointed a member of the Executive Council in Sir Charles
Metcalfe's Administration, and also Receiver-General of the Province. He
was a most efficient departmental officer, and proved himself to be what
Lord Metcalfe described him--a valuable public servant. While
Receiver-General, he introduced into that department a new system of
management, and paid into the public chest while he held the office
£11,000 as interest on the daily deposits of public money--an advantage
to the public which had never before been attempted. In 1846 he resigned
the office of Receiver-General, and was appointed President of the
Executive Council, the duties of which office he discharged with great
efficiency and vigour. In 1848, on the retirement of the Administration
of which he was a member, he retired to private life, with health
impaired by the assiduous attention he had given to his public duties.
Till the year 1853, when he was seized with the disease which eventually
terminated his career, he continued, when his health permitted, to take
an active part in the proceedings of the Legislative Council.
He was a clear, logical, vigorous speaker, and was always listened to
with respect; and having a very extensive knowledge of Parliamentary law
and practice, he did much to establish the character of legislation in
that branch of the Legislature of which he was so long a member; and
owing to his high moral character and his firm adherence to principle,
he wielded a very beneficial influence in that body. Few public men pass
through a life as long as his was, and carry with them more of public
confidence and respect than did Mr. Morris. He died on the 29th of June,
1858, in the seventy-second year of his age.
THE HON. THOMAS D'ARCY McGEE.
Thomas D'Arcy McGee, one of the most brilliant orators known to Canadian
Parliamentary history, was born at Carlingford, in the county of Louth,
Ireland, on the 13th of April, 1825. He was the fifth child and second
son of Mr. James McGee, an official in the Coast Guard Service, by his
wife, Dorcas Catharine Morgan. The latter was the daughter of a
bookseller in Dublin, who had been connected with the troubles of '98,
and who had been brought to ruin and imprisonment as a member of that
body known, by a strange misnomer, as "United Irishmen." The real or
fancied wrongs of the patriotic bookseller had made a profound
impression upon the susceptible mind of his daughter; an impression
which was never effaced, and which descended, by hereditary
transmission, to her children. The subject of this sketch, like his
little brothers and sisters, was taught at a very early age to hate the
name of the Saxon, and to long for the emancipation of Ireland from the
thraldom of her hereditary foe. His paternal grandfather had also been a
participant in the ill-advised attempt of Lord Edward Fitzgerald; and
when James McGee accepted employment in the Coast Guard Service we may
be sure that he was not actuated by any profound enthusiasm for the
duties of his position. He seems, however, to have discharged those
duties acceptably to his superior officers, and to have attained to a
position which enabled him to provide a comfortable home for his family.
The wrongs of his country were nevertheless a fruitful theme of comment
in James McGee's domestic circle, and the family traditions on both
sides of the house were constantly retailed for the benefit of the
younger members. Reared among such influences, it is not to be wondered
at if young Thomas D'Arcy grew up to manhood without any very fervid
sentiments of loyalty to the British crown. The mischief wrought by his
early training was great, and was destined to exercise a baneful
influence upon his future life. It was only after many years of severe
discipline, and after he had reached an age to think and reflect for
himself that he was able to unlearn the pernicious teachings of his
childhood. He never ceased to regard the land of his birth with the
affection of a large-hearted patriot, but he grew, in course of time, to
rate at their true value the wild revolutionary projects which for many
years impeded his intellectual advancement, and engrossed so large a
share of his energies. He outgrew the follies of his early youth, and
learned wisdom in the school of experience. He conceived nobler and more
practical schemes for the advancement of the race from which he sprang;
and there is abundant reason for believing that, had his life been
spared, he would have developed into a broad and enlightened
statesman. His untimely death was a loss to the "New Nationality"
which he had helped to call into existence, and a grievous, almost
irreparable loss to the Irish race in Canada. The assassin who sent him
to his doom perpetrated a crime against humanity, but more especially
against his fellow countrymen settled in this Dominion, when he shed the
blood of Thomas D'Arcy McGee.
[Illustration: THOMAS DARCY McGEE, signed as T. D. McGEE]
He was, of course, reared in the faith of his ancestors, and was
throughout his life a zealous adherent of the Roman Catholic Church. He
was christened, in honour of his godfather, Mr. Thomas D'Arcy, a
gentleman who resided in the neighbourhood of Carlingford, and who was a
personal friend of the family. His mother, who was possessed of a good
education, took a pride in directing his infant studies, and by her he
was taught to read and write. He seems to have been her favourite son,
and he returned her affection with all the enthusiasm of an ardent and
poetic nature. She was a melodious singer, and delighted to hold her
little boy on her knee while she sang to him those heart-stirring old
ballads which stir the blood like the blast of a trumpet. Sometime in
1833, when he was eight years of age, his father was promoted to a more
lucrative office than he had previously held. This promotion
necessitated the removal of the family to the historic old town of
Wexford, where the subject of this sketch began to attend a day-school.
We have no accurate information as to the course of study pursued by
him, but as this establishment afforded the only scholastic training
which he ever received, it is tolerably certain that he must have made
good use of his time, for in after years he gave evidence of possessing
a fair share of that peculiar knowledge which is seldom, if ever,
acquired outside the walls of the schoolroom. The family had not long
been settled at Wexford when it was deprived of its maternal head. The
memory of his dead mother was ever afterwards cherished by young McGee
with a hallowed fondness which found frequent expression. "Through all
the changeful years of his after life," says Mrs. Sadlier, "her gentle
memory shone like a star through the clouds and mists that never fail to
gather round the path of advancing life."[11]
Notwithstanding the hindrances under which his genius was developed,
Thomas D'Arcy McGee from a very early age gave unmistakable evidence of
the possession of uncommon abilities. He learned his lessons, whatever
they were, with astonishing rapidity, and without any apparent mental
effort. He was endowed with an ardent imagination, delighted in poetry,
and had ever at command a flow of that brilliant eloquence and wit which
are the especial birthright of so many of the sons of Erin. He read
much, and remembered everything of importance that he read. He had an
especial fondness for the history and literature of his native land, and
was never weary of declaiming to his youthful associates about
"Ireland's Golden Age." He lived an imaginative life, and indulged in
all sorts of wild dreams about the future of his race. He had his full
share of ambition, however, and saw no means whereby he could acquire
fame and influence at home. Like many another clever young Irishman, he
cast longing eyes across the Atlantic, to that favoured land where
hundreds of thousands of his race have found refuge from the buffetings
of adverse fortune. When he was seventeen years of age he emigrated to
the United States, accompanied by one of his sisters. After a brief
visit to a maternal aunt who resided at Providence, Rhode Island, he
repaired to Boston, whither he arrived in the month of June, 1842. A few
days later came the annual Fourth of July celebration, which afforded
him an opportunity of addressing a large crowd of his
fellow-countrymen. His various biographers unite in describing his
eloquence on this occasion as something marvellous. When it is borne in
mind that he was only seventeen years of age, and that his audience was
chiefly composed of emotional Irishmen, ready to applaud any sentiment
from the young orator's lips, so long as it was sufficiently
anti-British in its tone, a considerable discount from the
commonly-accepted estimate is permissible. The speech was probably a
fervid, audacious, emotional effort, partaking largely of the
"spread-eagle" character, and addressed to the prejudices of the
audience rather than to their calm judgments. It answered the speaker's
purpose, however, by attracting a due share of attention to himself. A
day or two later he obtained employment on the staff of the Boston
_Pilot_, a weekly newspaper which was then, as now, the chief exponent
of Irish Roman Catholic opinion in New England, and which was then, and
for many years afterwards, controlled and published by Mr. Patrick
Donahoe. To its columns young McGee contributed some "slashing"
articles, and numerous short poems on national subjects, all of which
were eminently calculated to compel admiration from its readers. Two
years later he succeeded to the chief editorship. He had meanwhile
acquired a good deal of additional knowledge as to the proper functions
of a journalist, and had adopted a somewhat more chastened style than he
had brought with him across the Atlantic. He had also begun to make a
figure on the lecture platform, and had thrown himself with great
enthusiasm into the agitation on the subject of "Repeal," which was then
at its height both in Ireland and in America. His efforts on behalf of
this movement reached the ears of the great Liberator, Daniel O'Connell
himself, who, at a public meeting held in Ireland, referred to young
McGee's editorials and metrical effusions in the _Pilot_ as "the
inspired writings of a young exiled Irish boy in America." The result of
the notoriety thus gained was an offer to Mr. McGee from the proprietor
of the _Freeman's Journal_, of Dublin, to take the editorship of that
widely-circulated paper. The offer was accepted, and early in 1845, at
the age of twenty, our poet-journalist returned to his native land, and
"took his place in the front rank of the Irish press." His connection
with the _Freeman's Journal_, however, was not of long duration. The
line of editorial action prescribed by the management was altogether too
moderate for the radical young Irishman, who had had it all his own way
during his three years' sojourn in the United States, and who believed
himself well fitted to instruct his fellow-countrymen on all subjects,
whether political or otherwise. Mr. O'Connell had laid down certain
limits beyond which the National or Old Ireland Party must not pass. Of
that Party the _Journal_ was the accredited organ, and the editor thus
found himself out of harmony with his position. The Liberator was too
Conservative for him, and was seeking the enfranchisement of Ireland by
what he regarded as too slow a process. Conceiving himself to be fully
competent to instruct Mr. O'Connell as to the political necessities of
Ireland, he was not disposed to submit to dictation. The doctrine of
"moral force" advocated by the _Journal_ had no charms for him. He was
young, enthusiastic, and governed almost entirely by his imagination.
After a brief interval he withdrew from his editorial position, and
allied himself with the "Young Ireland" Party, as it was called. This
alliance brought him into intimate relations with Mr. Charles Gavan
Duffy, known to us of the present day as the Hon. Sir Charles Gavan
Duffy, Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Victoria, Australia. Mr.
Duffy, in conjunction with Thomas Davis and John Dillon, had several
years before this time established the _Nation_, at Dublin. The _Nation_
was written with that brilliancy of genius and that absence of judgment
which are not unfrequently found allied. It numbered among its
contributors many of the brightest young spirits in Ireland. It went far
beyond Mr. O'Connell and the _Freeman's Journal_ in its demands, and
notwithstanding the ability displayed in its columns, it was neither
more nor less than a disseminator of sedition. With the fortunes of this
paper, and of the "Young Ireland" Party whose platform it advocated, Mr.
McGee now associated himself. His excuse, as well as that of most of his
collaborateurs, is to be found in the attributes of youth. He himself
had not completed his majority, and very few members of the party were
ten years older. They were chiefly composed of briefless but brilliant
young barristers, fiery journalists, and hot-headed students. Their
scheme, in course of time, developed into an association which was
grandiloquently styled "The Irish Confederation," towards one of the
wings whereof Mr. McGee occupied the position of secretary. He
contributed spirit-stirring ballads and editorials to the _Nation_,
delivered vehement harangues to the committees, and went about as deep
into the insurrection as Smith O'Brien himself. He was necessarily
brought into intimate relations with Charles Gavan Duffy, who, in his
recent work entitled "Young Ireland," thus describes the effect produced
respectively upon himself and Davis by a first acquaintance with young
Thomas D'Arcy McGee: "The young man was not prepossessing. He had a face
of almost African type; his dress was slovenly, even for the careless
class to which he belonged; he looked unformed, and had a manner which
struck me as too deferential for self-respect. But he had not spoken
three sentences in a singularly sweet and flexible voice till it was
plain that he was a man of fertile brains and great originality: a man
in whom one might dimly discover rudiments of the orator, poet and
statesman hidden under this ungainly disguise. This was Thomas D'Arcy
McGee. I asked him to breakfast on some early day at his convenience,
and as he arrived one morning when I was engaged to breakfast with
Davis, I took him with me, and he met for the first and last time a man
destined to influence and control his whole life. When the Wicklow trip
was projected, I told Davis I liked this new-comer and meant to invite
him to accompany me. 'Well,' he said, 'your new friend has an Irish
nature certainly, but spoiled, I fear, by the Yankees. He has read and
thought a good deal, and I might have liked him better if he had not
obviously determined to transact an acquaintance with me.'"
The French Revolution of February, 1848, rendered these misguided young
men more impulsive and less discreet than ever, and they wrote,
published and uttered the most bloodthirsty diatribes against the
legitimate authorities. They held meetings at which motions of
congratulation to the Provisional Government of France were passed. At
one of these meetings Thomas Francis Meagher advocated the immediate
erection of barricades and the invocation of the God of battles.
Everybody knows the sequel, which would have been tragical had it not
been so inexpressibly ludicrous. The Confederation appointed a
formidable War Directory, and the redoubtable O'Brien himself took the
field at the head of his troops. It was a perilous time for the hated
Saxon, but somehow or other the hated Saxon did not seem to realize his
danger. When the insurgents broke out into open rebellion, a few
policemen were sent out against the portentous Confederacy, which was
soon scattered and dispersed to the four winds. O'Brien himself was
arrested in a cabbage garden near Ballingarry. He was tried on a charge
of high treason, convicted, and sentenced to death. The sentence was
commuted to transportation for life, and as soon as the Government could
do so with any show of decency, it permitted him and his fellow-rebels
to return to their native land. The subsequent history of some of the
leaders in this insurrection is instructive, as showing how little
unanimity of sentiment there was among them, and how little fitted they
were to be entrusted with the management of a great enterprise. O'Brien
had already shown by his unconstitutional conduct in Parliament that he
was lamentably devoid of self-control and common sense. A man labouring
under such deficiencies may very safely be left to destroy his own
influence in his own way. While in exile he fretted and fumed, but,
unlike some of his colleagues, had the manliness to keep his parole. It
must be confessed, however, that his motive for keeping it was not of
the highest. He kept it, according to his own admission, merely because
he did not want to do anything that would render it impossible for him
to return to Ireland. When the American Rebellion broke out, in 1861, he
issued a manifesto from Ireland--whither, by the clemency of the
Government which he had sought to subvert, he had been permitted to
return--on behalf of the Confederacy. John Mitchel, another leading
spirit in the fiasco of 1848, also became a fanatical champion of the
slaveholders. Thomas Francis Meagher took a military command in the army
of the North. Others headed the riots in New York, massacred a goodly
number of negroes and other peaceable citizens in the streets, and did
their utmost to destroy all law and order. "These," says Miss Martineau,
"are apt illustrations of the spurious kind of Irish patriotism, which
would destroy Ireland by aggravating its weakness, and by rejecting the
means of recovery and strength."
Mr. McGee's share in the treasonable schemes of the Confederation
rendered it impossible for him to remain in the British Islands without
constantly encountering the danger of arrest. A few months before the
collapse of the Ballingarry demonstration he had married, and his
complicity in the insurrection thus brought trouble upon another besides
himself. For some of his public utterances on the platform at Roundwood,
in the county of Wicklow, he was seized by the police; but as all
custodians of the peace were instructed to deal leniently with prisoners
who had not actually been taken with arms in their hands, he was allowed
to go his way. Nothing mollified by this mild treatment, he started for
Scotland, to stir up treason among the Irish population there. During
his sojourn in Glasgow he received intelligence of the bursting of the
bubble which he had assisted to inflate, and of the capture of O'Brien.
Hearing that a reward was offered for his own apprehension, he skulked
about from place to place in various disguises, and after some delay,
crossed over to the North of Ireland, where he took refuge in the house
of Dr. Maginn, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Derry. He had an interview
with his wife, after which he sailed for the United States in the guise
of a priest. On the 10th of October, 1848, he landed at Philadelphia,
but soon made his way to New York, where, with the assistance of some of
his compatriots he established a weekly newspaper called the _New York
Nation_. This enterprise started with fair prospects of success, for the
editor was well known to the Irish of New York and its vicinity, and was
regarded by them with a high degree of favour, as a man of strong
anti-British proclivities. The contents of the paper realized the most
sanguine anticipations of its readers, so far as their tone of fanatical
hostility to England was concerned; but the editor's want of judgment
once more involved him in difficulties. In commenting editorially on the
causes of the failure of the Irish insurrection in which he had borne a
part, he threw the blame on the Roman Catholic hierarchy, whose
influence, as he truly alleged, had been put forward to dissuade their
parishioners from joining the ranks of the insurgents. Bishop Hughes, of
New York, felt aggrieved on behalf of the Irish priesthood, and took up
their cause in the local press. It was, of course, not difficult for him
to show that the clergy had acted wisely in discountenancing an
insurrection of the success of which there had never been even the most
remote possibility. There were rejoinders from Mr. McGee in the columns
of the _Nation_, and surrejoinders by the Bishop in various newspapers.
The former must surely have seen that he had made a false move, but he
had not the good sense to profit by the knowledge by either withdrawing
from his position or holding his tongue. The religious sympathies of his
compatriots, and their profound reverence for the priesthood, were
forces against which he contended in vain. He lost caste with the better
class of his fellow-countrymen in America, and came to be regarded by
them as an unsafe mentor. According to their view of the matter, a Roman
Catholic who set himself up to criticize the clergy of his Church was
little better than an atheist. He was a man to be shunned, and, if
necessary, to be put down. The upshot of the controversy was the ruin of
the prospects of Mr. McGee's journal, the publication whereof was soon
discontinued.
He had meanwhile been joined by his young wife and infant daughter. His
prospects during these months were exceedingly problematical. In 1850,
however, he removed to Boston and began to publish the _American Celt_,
a paper which was of precisely the same cast as the defunct _New York
Nation_ had been. It was full to the brim of hatred and rancour against
Great Britain, and its "mission" seemed to be to influence all the evil
passions of the Irish race in America. By degrees, however, Thomas
D'Arcy McGee began to feel the influence of the civilized atmosphere in
which his life was passing. He figured conspicuously on the lecture
platform, and was necessarily brought into contact with men of good
intellect and high principles. These persons felt and expressed respect
for his abilities, but declined to sympathize with, or even to discuss,
the merits of English rule in Ireland. They tacitly refused to consider
that subject as an absorbing theme for discussion on this continent. He
received much wise counsel, the tenor of which led him, for the first
time in his life, to reflect seriously upon the errors of his past
career. He was apt enough to learn, and gradually the idea began to dawn
upon his mind that all the wisdom and justice in the world are not
confined to Irish bosoms. He began to perceive that there are nobler
passions in the human heart than revenge, and that if a man cannot make
circumstances conformable to his mind, the first thing in his power is
to conform his mind to his circumstances. "The cant of faction," says
Mrs. Sadlier, "the fiery denunciations that, after all, amounted to
nothing, he began to see in their true colours; and with his whole heart
he then and ever after aspired to elevate the Irish people, not by
impracticable Utopian schemes of revolution, but by teaching them to
make the best of the hard fate that made them the subjects of a foreign
power differing from them in race and in religion; to cultivate among
them the arts of peace, and to raise themselves, by the ways of peaceful
industry and increasing enlightenment, to the level even of the more
prosperous sister-island."