Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - October 22, 1964, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg free press thursday october 22, 1964 Macdonald saw Louis rid As annoying but harmless by Bruce Hutchison possibly if he had witnessed an obscure event near fort Garry on oct. 1s69, John a. Macdonald would have recognized an enemy More dangerous than any Man in politics an e Nemy in life and Long afterwards in death the posthumous wrecker of the Liberal conservative party Louis Riel had stamped his Moccasin on a Surveyor s measuring Chain and launched his queer epic. Here on the Banks of the red River in threatening the lands of Riel and his Metis people Macdonald s agents unwittingly had threatened to smash the new Canadian state. Of All Macdonald s enemies Riel was the strangest a Man of Only 24 years strikingly handsome with his Olive skin curly hair drooping moustache and dark hypnotic eyes a Man Well educated in Quebec but Given to vis ions and frantic eloquence driven by a mad dream born for judicial murder on the Gallows. Of All the follies in Mac Donald s life his treatment of Riel and the Metis was the least excusable. If Only he had applied to red River the lofty dictum which had ser Ved him so Well in Quebec. If Only he had seen in this Metis settlers a nation to be treated generously not a fac Tion to be coerced and made factious the double calamity of the West might have been averted. Too late now it was too late now. Mac Donald had decided that the Metis were Only miserable requiring Coer Cion. Macdonald himself had planted the seeds of the first Riel rebellion so called by failing when he. Bought the Prairies from the Hudson s Bay company for to assure the inhabitants that their property would be Safe in Canada. Riel and 15 armed horse men drove the government Survey party from the Banks of the red River because a Distant alien state apparently intended to seize their Little farms but they were not re Belling against Canadian authority. Canada had yet to take Legal Possession of the West. At this juncture no government existed Between the lakes and the Rockies. The Metis had stepped into a constitutional void. All they wanted was their land the free Way of life built Here by their fathers of mixed Indian French Cana Dian and scottish blood but quite unintentionally they had endangered the Keystone of Macdonald s transcontinental Arch. Some of these people must be helpless alone against Canadian Power but they were not alone. Macdon Ald s intelligence reports delayed and fragmentary told him that the americans just South of the Border saw in Riel their Long sought quis Ling. If he requested their intervention the United states might thrust it Power North Ward i the virtuous Rescue of an oppressed minority. Macdonald saw that danger late but he saw it clearly. The americans he wrote in sudden alarm Are resolved to do All they can Short of War to get Possession of the in part of her territory which had no government but his. Mcdougall cooped up in a log Cabin at Pembina under stood nothing consulted no body and meditated a supreme idiocy. Mcdougall had perceived his duty to the Queen had written a Royal proclamation forged her name to it and driven across the Border in a night of howling blizzard. While his companions held a tiny Union Jack in the wind and warmed themselves with rat whisky he had read his proclamation declared him self the Legal governor of red River and retreated half Frozen to Pembina. Just too much his farce quickly reported by a chortling american press was too much for Mac this is the third in a series of excerpts from Bruce Hutchison s new Book or. Prime minister. In this episode or. Hutchison tells of Macdonald s handling of Louis Riel and the Metis. Western territory and we must take immediate and vigorous Steps to counteract what Steps Riel and his horsemen had seized fort Garry without firing a shot. Now in boiled White shirt Tail coat Black trousers and beaded Mocca sins the Young Metis Prophet was presiding Over a Provis ional government. More disturbing he was supported by an american fifth column. Macdonald s first vigorous step was to unload an inconvenient Cabinet colleague and Send William Mcdougall West As governor of Rupert s land. Wandering that Man of impenetrable stupid Ity wandered northward from St. Paul his baggage in 60 wagons. At the Canadian Border he was politely turned Back by a band of silent Metis horsemen. Still Riel had committed no crime. He considered himself a Loyal subject of the Queen Donald. He fired wandering Willy. But he could not quickly suppress Riel. No armed Force could reach red River until summer opened the Overland Canadian Trail. The miserable half Breed had Defeated the prime minister. Since Riel could not be coerced he must be appeased. Macdonald sent his old Friend Donald Smith to red River where that wily Hud son s Bay trader harangued the Metis for two Days in the icy open air and persuaded them to negotiate with the Canadian government. The government of Canada had thus Given de Facto recognition to the government of Riel. In a clash Between the me trs and the Loyal canadians of red River Riel s horse men had captured a bluster ing Loose tongued fellow named Thomas Scott. The prisoner leaped upon Riel in elect capable metro candidates div. 1 october 28 div. 1 div. 3 div. 3 a. E. Bennett div. 4 f d. S. Dunnett div. 4 Sidney Green j. P. Sulymko div. 6 Ben Hanuschak Peter Taraska div. 7 div. 7 Jack Willis div. 9 Bernie Wolfe div. 9 Peter Mckall l. E. Ostrander a. H. Fisher c. R. Huband executive committee div. 10 Steve Patrick Assiniboia s b. Braker Brooklands Mcdowell Charleswood t. Mills East Kildonan j w. Scott Neal fort carry l. Pearce North Kildonan t. L. Ward old Kildonan c. E. Huot St. Boniface c. A. Ante bring St. James h. S. Paul St. Vital or. B. Egan Transcona w. J. Mckeag Tuxedo c. Scar re West Kildonan Culver Riley Winnipeg endorsed by metro election committee t. B. Findlay chairman a. R. Micah . Vice chairman w. C. Riley the fort Garry jail and tried to throttle him. The taut mind of Riel snapped. Scott was court Martiale and shot by a firing squad. He had become the inevitable Martyr and from Mac Donald s Point of View the worst possible Martyr a citizen of Ontario a protest ant and an orangemen Mur dered by a half Breed papist. Ontario s fury and the lib eral party s thirst for re Venge produced a political fact that Macdonald the Mas ter politician instantly comprehended. Quebec instinctively supported the French Canadian and Catholic Metis. The ancient racial clash had drawn blood again not much and that under Strong Provo cation but enough to revive the classic tension and expose the Achilles Heel of Canada. Driven to drink a half Breed Lunatic strut Ting across an empty Empire much larger than most civilized states a protestant mar Tyr dead in the Snow of a re Mote jail Yard it was enough to drive any prime minister to distraction. It drove Macdonald to drink. He was drunk in his office. He was seen reeling to the bar of the Russell House. Then he disappeared Alto Gether. As always Macdonald soon pulled himself together and made his decision. Once Spring opened the Trail an army would March Overland to conquer red River. Riel had won just the same. His delegates arrived in Ottawa to Lay Down their own terms. Red River was to enter confederation As the soverign province of Mani Toba. When Macdonald s army of 12.000 men wallowed next summer across the Continental Portage and through the red River mud Riel watched from fort Garry. As the sol Diers approached he crossed the Assiniboine on a Rait to begin his exile of 15 years in the United states. He was still dangerous. Dangerous enough at least to refuse the Canadian government s inadequate bribe of if he would remain in exile. Where was the rebel Mac Donald could Only say that he wished to god he knew. Of course he knew. Riel had been elected to parliament in absent a had turned up in Ottawa and with the Connivance of his French Canadian sympathizers had signed the members Roll of the House of commons. He had disappeared again but often lived in Canada and never lost touch with his race. Having pushed through parliament an act establish ing the province of Manitoba almost precisely As Riel had desired Macdonald persuaded the country and perhaps even himself that a defeat had been a Victory As it was for common sense. No Retreat fifteen years later Macdon Ald met his Nemesis again and this time there was no Retreat for either. The Metis had settled on the Saskatchewan River had set up at Batoche a tribal Rule under an intelligent Leader Gabriel Dumont and now were complaining about their treatment by the Cana Dian government. They wanted sure title to their squatters land they wanted scrip for supposed losses on red River they wanted More Money than any government could give. Mac Donald agreed to an Issue of scrip. Even the amazing news of Riel s return did not much disturb him. The exile now a married Man with two Chil Dren Middle aged almost patriarchal with his curly Brown Beard and mild Man Ner evidently had reformed had taken the mystical name of David and when do Mont summoned him to Saskatchewan had come quietly enough with his family be holding on the Way a vision of himself on a Gibbet. Unhappily he did not heed the vision. At Batoche he behaved peaceably. But strange Stor ies were soon coming from Saskatchewan. Riel had quarrelled with the Catholic priests who saw in him the madness that Mac Donald would not see. Re fused the sacraments As he began to talk of rebellion Riel declared that Rome has proclaimed the living Catholic apostolic and vital Church of the new world and presently announced to his dubious communicants the revelation that they had nothing to fear from heresy since hell might last for millions of years but not forever. Louis Riel surrounded by his Council 1869 to 1870 these were the sure symptoms of the mania which had often been treated in the asylums of Quebec. In another Crafty mood Riel was offer ing to sell his people out and leave the country if the government paid him a sufficient bribe. Macdonald heard the re ports from Batoche second hand and probably garbled. Riel s demands were absurd of course. His bribe would not be paid but he could be handled with patience and a Little Money for the Metis. Certainly there would be no second rebellion. Thus As in 1870, Macdon Ald totally misjudged the me tis and their Prophet. He was walking blindly into his Sec Ond error the worst by far of his life. The half Breed adventurer and Lunatic the Cool and calculating prime minister never seeing each other were bound together in a kind of weird Rotterdam me rung. Macdonald comforted him self with the thought that Riel was annoying Treacher Ous venal and harmless. He found the crowds of Toronto celebrating his 70th birthday with such an outburst of adulation As he had never seen before and from the Back of a crowded auditorium he heard a single voice pronounce the common people s myth you la never die John in a sense it was True. But it was drowned out in the news from Saskatchewan. Policemen killed Dumont and his 200 Sharp shooters hidden on a Hill Side near Duck Lake a detach ment of mounted police approaching on sleighs through a Spring blizzard Riel clutching a two fool wooden Crucifix in muttered prayer the crack of rifles 10 policemen dead on the Snow the rest in Retreat Dumont wounded in the Scalp blinded by blood but determined to follow and exterminate the enemy Riel shrieking la the name of god let them go there s been too m u c h bloodshed Al was the news from Saskatchewan. Throughout Canada a convulsion of anger in every town volunteers enlisting for a civil War in Ottawa a prime minister who saw re Bellion clearly at last. It was a mimic War but deadly. Dumont s Victory at fish Creek Indian massacre at Frog Lake siege of fort Pitt and Battleford Advance on Batoche a Brave Hope less defence by the Metis from their gun pits Riel s surrender. Dumont s escape to Montana the rebel s trial at Regina on charge of trea son his refusal to plead in sanity verdict of guilty from a jury of six White men his Corpse swinging from a Gib bet on a cold november morning and then Frozen carried to its grave at St. Boniface by a car thus ended the rebellion thus the value of the railway was demonstrated for All men to see and thus the government in its hour of Triumph was wounded fatally. A French Canadian Cath Olic had been hanged at re Gina. Quebec would never for give that affront to its race and religion. 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