Thomas D’Arcy McGee and the American Republic

Thomas D'Arey McGee and the American Republic J. G. SNELL Thomas D'Arey McGee is one of the better known, if poorly understood, figures in mid-nineteenth century British North America. Famous for his oratorical abilities, for his frequent and forceful appeals to Canadian "nationalism/' and for the assassination which ended his life, McGee has become a minor folk-hero in Canadian history. Through these perspectives of his career, McGee's life and ideas have been distorted and his contributions to British North American developments often neglected . His eleven years in Canada offer numerous insights into such things as the Canadian political scene, the changing nature of urban Irish Canadians, and the economic and political views of Montreal. A study of McGee's career also provides considerable understanding of the nature of Canadian-American relations at this time. His ideas and actions regarding the United States were reflective of much of the Canadian climate of opinion. American responses to McGee mirrored many American attitudes towards British North America. The strained relations, evident through looking at McGee, were a product of a complex of attitudes, assumptions, and local problems on each side of the border. Born and raised in Ireland, McGee had early won notoriety as an outspoken Irish nationalist and republican. He was a leader of the Young Ireland movement and worked hard for the separation of his native land from British domination. In the conflict and tensions of 1848, the year in which revolutions were sweeping across Europe, McGee was forced to flee Ireland. America was the natural place of refuge. The United States was looked on as the Promised Land by many Irishmen: it was republican; it had thrown off British control; it was the land of opportunity. For McGee there was an added attraction in the American Republic. He had already spent three years in the United States in the early 1840's and his experiences in that period served to draw him back. Thomas D'Arey McGee gained quick success and recognition in his new land. A month after he had landed in Philadelphia, the young immigrant, just twenty-three years old, established a journal, the New York Nation. Two years later the American Celt was founded in Boston. For a few years THE CANADIAN REVIEW OF AMERICAN STUDIES VOL. III, NO. 1, SPRING 1972 after his arrival in America in 1848, McGee was fully committed to the United States. For the young editor the Republic was a land of freedom, a nation with a mission to the world, a land of refuge. It was symbolic of this commitment that McGee's first public act in the United States was an eloquent speech on the virtues of liberty, delivered at the July 4 celebrations in Boston in 1842. His poetry saluted his new land: Hail to the land where Freedom first Through all the feudal fetters burst, And, planting men upon their feet, Cried, Onward! never more retreat! Be it yours to plant your starry flag On royal roof and castle crag; Be it yours to climb Earth's eastern slope In championship of human hope. Your war cry, Truth! immortal word; Your weapon Justice! glorious sword; Your fame far travelled as the levin And lasting as the arch of heaven. Hail to the Happy Land !1 McGee advanced many of the ideas then current in the United States and elsewhere. He exhibited an intense bitterness towards Great Britain, and seemed to oppose the power of the Roman Catholic Church over its people.2 Thomas D'Arey McGee thus appeared to many Americans to be devoted to the Republic and its ideals. McGee was soon recognised as a leader of the Irish Americans, but he was never able to settle comfortably into his new life in the Republic. His place of residence changed frequently: New York City, Boston, Buffalo, New York City. As his knowledge and experience of the United States increased, the young editor became increasingly disillusioned with the American way of life. Prosperity continued to elude him. He found that other Irish Americans did not feel or think as he did, and the result was numerous public quarrels with leaders of the Roman...