The Canadian Portrait Gallery - Volume 3 (of 4)

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.

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."

This radical change of opinion was not brought about in a day, nor in a year. The progress of the mental revolution was slow, but certain, and by degrees the past of Thomas D'Arcy McGee stood revealed to him in all its insufficient barrenness. He fought against his steadily-strengthening convictions as long as he could, but his judgment and good sense at last won the day. In the month of August, 1852, he liberated his mind in a letter published in the Celt, and addressed to his friend Thomas Francis Meagher. In that letter he unfolded with much frankness the process by which he had been led to modify his opinions, and referred to the scheme of the past as "the recent conspiracy against the peace and existence of Christendom." His emancipation was complete, and from this time forward there was an entire revolution in the tone of all his writings and public speeches. Instead of writing diatribes against the irrevocable he adopted "Peace and good will among men" as his motto. Amicable relations were restored between him and the Roman Catholic hierarchy, and erelong, at the request of the late Bishop Timon, of Buffalo, he removed the office of publication of the Celt to that place. He continued the publication for about five years after the removal, during which time he made many friends and achieved a fair share of worldly prosperity. He was a diligent, albeit rather a fitful student, and amassed a considerable fund of political and general knowledge. His paper was regarded as the chief exponent of Irish Catholic opinion on this continent, and as a standard authority on all matters connected with Irish affairs. Some of his ablest lectures were composed and delivered during this period, and some of them were the means of greatly extending his reputation. Among those which evoked the most flattering criticism from the press, those on "The Catholic History of America," "The Irish Reformation," and "The Jesuits" occupy the foremost place. The many demands upon his time did not prevent him from engaging in various laudable enterprises for ameliorating the moral and social condition of his countrymen in America, and from putting forth many valuable suggestions for their guidance. It was his special object, says one of the most sympathetic of his critics, to keep them bound together by the memories of their common past, and to teach them that manly self-respect which would elevate them before their fellow-citizens, and keep them from political degradation. He strove to make them good citizens of their adopted country, lovers of the old cradle-land of their race, and devoted adherents of what to them was "the sacred cause of Catholicity." Among other schemes vigorously propounded by him for their material advancement was that of colonization — "spreading abroad and taking possession of the land; making homes on the broad prairies of the all-welcoming West," instead of herding together in the tenement houses of the large cities. In furtherance of this project he organized a Convention at Buffalo at which he addressed the assembled representatives with great eloquence. He began, however, to experience the pecuniary difficulties inseparable from the conduct of a newspaper which declines to ally itself with any political party, for he had persistently held aloof from the troubled sea of party-politics in the United States. These difficulties increased, and were sometimes so great as to occasion serious embarrassment. His future prospects were not bright, and he looked forward with some anxiety. When matters had reached a pretty low ebb with him he was advised to change his base of operations. His journalistic pursuits and his platform experiences had brought him into contact with many prominent Irish Canadians, with some of whom he had formed warm personal friendships. By these gentlemen he was urged to take up his abode in Montreal, where, as he was informed, the want of a ruling mind such as his was sensibly felt by the rapidly-increasing Irish population. It was further represented to him that the appreciation he had met with in the United States had been by no means commensurate with his deserts, and that his compatriots in Canada stood in urgent need of his services. To such representations he was not disposed to turn a deaf ear, more especially as the pecuniary outlook in Buffalo was far from encouraging. After careful deliberation he assented to the proposal which had been made to him, disposed of his interest in his newspaper, and removed to Montreal with his family early in 1857.

The manner of his reception in Montreal was such as could not fail to be highly gratifying to his feelings. His fellow-countrymen vied with each other in doing him honour, and in affording him material support. He established a newspaper called the New Era. His acquaintance with Canadian affairs at this date was not very wide, and he was compelled to take a somewhat non-committal stand on many questions which the public had at heart. On one subject, however, he spoke with no uncertain sound. He advocated with great energy and eloquence the scheme of an early union of the various British colonies in North America. The New Era did not realize, in a pecuniary sense, the expectations of its founder, but as matters turned out, its success or non-success was a matter of little importance. At the next general election Mr. McGee, after a close contest, was returned to Parliament as the representative of Montreal West. The publication of the newspaper was discontinued, and he devoted himself to his duties as a legislator.

From the time of first taking his seat in Parliament he was a conspicuous figure there; but it must be confessed that during the earlier sessions of his Parliamentary career he did little to inspire the public with any belief in his profound statesmanship. He arrayed himself on the side of the Opposition, and attacked the then-existing Cartier-Macdonald Administration with all the fiery eloquence at his command. "It was observed," says Mr. Fennings Taylor, "that he was a relentless quiz, an adroit master of satire, and the most active of partisan sharpshooters. Many severe, some ridiculous, and not a few savage things were said by him. Thus from his affluent treasury of caustic and bitter irony he contributed not a little to the personal and Parliamentary embarrassments of those times. Many of the speeches of that period we would rather forget than remember. Some were not complimentary to the body to which they were addressed, and some of them were not creditable to the person by whom they were delivered. It is true that such speeches secured crowded galleries, for they were sure to be either breezy or ticklish, gusty with rage, or grinning with jests. They were therefore the raw materials out of which mirth is manufactured, and consequently they ruffled tempers that were remarkable for placidity, and provoked irrepressible laughter in men who were regarded as too grave to be jocose. Of course they were little calculated to elicit truth, or promote order, or attract respect to the speaker. Mr. McGee appeared chiefly to occupy himself in saying unpleasant and severe things; in irritating the smoothest natures, and in brushing everybody's hair the wrong way." The personalities in which he permitted himself to indulge were frequently in the worst conceivable taste, and he raised up for himself many enemies. It began to be suspected that this brilliant Irishman, whose advent into Canadian political life had been heralded with so loud a flourish of trumpets, was no heaven-born statesman, after all. He said some clever things in the course of his speeches, and a good many other things that were neither clever nor sensible. There was an evident desire on his part to attract attention to himself, and his self-consciousness was sometimes so marked as to be positively offensive. It was difficult to say why he had joined the ranks of the Opposition. Of the local politics he, at the time of his entry into Parliament, knew little or nothing, and there was not much in common between him and the leaders of the Party to which he had attached himself. The latter could not feel as though their ranks had been very powerfully strengthened by such an accession. As the years passed by, however, D'Arcy McGee became more tractable, and — be it said — more sensible. He never entirely overcame his fondness for displaying his Irish wit on the floor of the House, but he taught himself to be more amenable to certain rules of debate which are tacitly recognized among the members of all grave deliberative assemblies. To put the matter in plain English, he less frequently transgressed the bounds of decorum and sober good-breeding. With increase of years came increase of knowledge as to the needs of the country, and as to the proper functions of a legislator. His intellectual vision became keener, and his views acquired breadth. It began to be apparent that there was a serious side to his character, and that he could rise to a high level upon a great occasion. No one had ever doubted that he possessed a goodly share of genius, but he began to show that he also possessed more practical qualifications for a statesman. Though largely endowed with the poetical temperament, he did not disdain to interest himself in such prosaic matters as statistics, and could make an effective speech of which figures formed the main argument. His oratory, though florid and discursive, began to exhibit symptoms of a genuine manly purpose. He studied law, and in 1861 was called to the Bar of the Lower Province, though he never seriously devoted himself to the practice of that profession. He continued to fight in the Opposition ranks until the downfall of the Cartier-Macdonald Ministry in the month of May, 1862. In the Administration which succeeded, under the leadership of John Sandfield Macdonald and Louis Victor Sicotte, he accepted office as President of the Council. After the resignation of the Hon. A. A. Dorion, he also acted for some time as Provincial Secretary. Upon the reconstruction of the Administration in the following year he was not invited to take a portfolio, and his dissatisfaction at the cavalier treatment to which he had been subjected soon began to make itself apparent. He crossed the House, and voted against the new Government, accompanying his votes with remarks the reverse of complimentary to the Premier. Upon the formation of the Taché-Macdonald Government, which was nothing if not Conservative, in March, 1864, Mr. McGee became Minister of Agriculture; a position which he continued to hold until the accomplishment of Confederation. He had thus completely changed sides, though it does not appear that his party convictions had undergone any material modification, and it was alleged, with some show of truth, that he was actuated more by pique than by principle.