Authors: John Boyko
Blood and Daring (35 page)
Attorney General Macdonald and Governor General Monck had discussed Coursol’s decision to release the St. Albans raiders and agreed that it had been an abomination. They had correctly predicted the swift and negative American reaction.
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Macdonald, as always, remained calm in the face of crisis: “We must perform our duty, however, irrespective of the smiles or frowns of any foreign body and will never be hurried into extra exertions by proclamations like those of General Dix, or prevented by any feeling of indignation from carrying our laws into full force.
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On December 20, days after Coursol had made his fateful decision, Macdonald had approved a two-hundred-dollar reward for information leading to the recapture of Young and his men. Young was arrested later that day. Others were picked up in Maine where they had, surprisingly, tried to disappear by enlisting in the Union army. More were arrested in Newfoundland, having found work on a whaling ship. They were all brought back to Montreal to await a second hearing.
Meanwhile, Macdonald ordered an investigation of Coursol and Montreal police chief, Guillaume Lamothe, who had helped return the stolen St. Alban’s money to the thieves. Coursol was found to have made a decision far above his pay scale. Lamothe, meanwhile, had been motivated by politics: he was a Reform Party supporter determined to embarrass the Conservative government. The Canadian government announced that it would pay fifty thousand dollars to the St. Albans banks to cover the better part of the money that Lamothe had returned to the raiders.
With these short-term responses complete, Monck and Macdonald moved to implement changes that would address longer-term issues. The Western Frontier Constabulary Force was created to mirror work already being done in Canada East under the leadership of William Ermatinger, former police officer and field inspector of the volunteer Active Militia. Led by Gilbert McMicken, the new force would coordinate border patrols and improve surveillance on Union and Confederate activities. Macdonald spoke admiringly of McMicken: “He is a shrewd, cool and determined
man who won’t easily lose his head, and who will fearlessly perform his duty.”
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McMicken was a Conservative member of the legislature for Welland and mayor of the small border town of Clifton. McMicken had also worked with Confederate agent James Holcombe to gather Confederate soldiers in Canada and return them to the South, though there is no evidence that Macdonald knew about this.
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Macdonald drafted a new law granting the Canadian government the power it needed to better defend the border against American incursions and to arrest and deport Confederates attacking the North from Canada. Monck had communicated with Seward, Lyons and Cardwell about how the law should be structured.
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The Alien Act allowed for any foreign national even suspected of engaging in acts interpreted as hostile to a nation friendly to Canada to be fined up to three thousand dollars, have his property seized and be deported. It was overwhelmingly passed on February 6, 1865.
Canadian leaders were not the only ones worried about the ratcheting up of border tensions. In a report from London, American minister Adams reminded Seward that the British Parliament still contained many friends of the Confederacy and enemies of the North. He reported that Southern agents in Britain and Europe were taking full advantage of the propaganda gift the American actions of the past few weeks had handed them. He wrote to Seward on February 9: “The insurgent emissaries and their friends are busy fanning the notion that this is a prelude to war the moment our domestic difficulties are over.”
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He asked Seward to do all he could to defuse the situation.
Foreign Secretary Russell composed a remarkable letter addressed to European Confederate agents, including Mason and Slidell, with copies to Monck and Lincoln. The letter stated, in part, that the “so-called” Confederate States had been undertaking a number of violent acts, including raids onto American soil from Canada, with the intention of inciting an Anglo-American war. He cited recent actions taken by Canada to stop them and continued, “I trust you will feel yourself authorised to promise that such practices will cease, and shall be entirely abandoned for the future.”
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Lincoln was so pleased with the letter that he had General Grant send a
copy under a white flag of truce to General Lee. Lee refused to accept the letter, however, and sent it back to Grant with his compliments.
Unknown to all those trying again to avoid a broader war was that two months earlier, on December 3, Jacob Thompson had sat down in his Toronto hotel room and composed a long and detailed report to Confederate Secretary of State Benjamin. He acknowledged his failures but tried to sound hopeful: “I have relaxed no effort to carry out the objects the Government had in sending me here. I had hoped at different times to have accomplished more, but I still do not think my mission has been altogether fruitless.”
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He admitted, “A large sum of money has been expended in fostering and furthering these operations and it now seems to have been too little profit. But in reviewing the past I do not see how it could have been avoided, nor has it been spent altogether in vain. The apprehensions of the enemy have caused him to bring back and keep from the field in front at least 60,000 to watch and browbeat the people at home.”
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Thompson wasn’t finished, but he realized that his mission needed to wind down. With Beall’s botched December train-highjacking attempt outside of Buffalo, Thompson had been forced to listen to yet another report rife with excuses and failure. He told those who wished to leave to pack up and return to the South, and paid the travel expenses of any who asked. The next week, Brigadier General Edwin Gray Lee, Robert E. Lee’s cousin, arrived at Toronto’s Queen’s Hotel with a message. Thompson was to be relieved. Benjamin’s letter praised the work Thompson had done, but said, “From reports which reach us from trustworthy sources, we are satisfied that so close espionage is kept upon you that your services have been deprived of value which is attached to your further residence in Canada. The President thinks, therefore, that as soon as the gentleman arrives who bears this letter … that you transfer to him as
quietly
as possible all of the information that you have obtained and the release of funds in your hands and then return to the Confederacy.”
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The news surprised and angered Thompson, who argued that he had a great deal of work left to do. He shared the information he had with Lee but made no preparations to leave.
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With Lee establishing
himself first in Montreal, Thompson remained active in Toronto. Many of his compatriots were in jail in Toronto, New York and Chicago, and he was determined to do all he could to help them. He forwarded money to help defray the legal costs of Bennett Young and his co-perpetrators of the St. Albans raid. Thompson also wrote letters to Jefferson Davis asking for copies of the men’s commissions so that they could be tried as prisoners of war rather than spies or common criminals. He did the same for Beall, who was on trial in New York. Confederate secretary of the navy Stephen Mallory sent copies of Beall’s commission with a note stating that Jefferson Davis had authorized everything that Thompson and his men had done.
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On January 4, Confederate courier Lieutenant S.B. Davis arrived in Toronto. The presence of Macdonald’s newly hired and empowered detectives, along with Seward’s ever-present spies, meant that that the Queen’s Hotel was no longer safe, so Davis was spirited to George Denison’s home. Thompson gave the messages he needed Davis to deliver to Richmond to Denison’s wife, who had been helping Confederate couriers sneak information across Union lines for some time. Secret pockets were sewn into the linings of clothing and boots, and photographs miniaturized and hidden in the back of buttons. Messages were sometimes written in pencil on silk ribbons and then sewn into clothing. In Davis’s case, Mrs. Dension sewed Thompson’s letters into the civilian clothing they had procured for him. Davis dyed his light hair black and then Lt. Colonel Denison hid him in a carriage and drove him to the Mimico train station.
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Despite the precautions, on January 15, Lieutenant Davis was arrested in Newark, Ohio, found guilty of treason, and sent to Andersonville prison to await his hanging.
Thompson wrote directly to his old acquaintance Abraham Lincoln. He noted that Lieutenant Davis was a Confederate officer who had been acting on his behalf to gather documentation for an upcoming extradition trial. His letter concluded, “You have a right to retain him as a prisoner of war, but I declare on my honor he is not a spy.”
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Lincoln intervened and Davis was paroled.
Davis had been carrying messages regarding Acting Master Bennett Burley, the ammunitions dealer who had been doing business from the foundry in Guelph, Canada West. He was on trial in Toronto for his part in the
Philo Parsons
adventure. Burley had been found guilty of unlawful warfare and ordered extradited to the United States, but the verdict was under appeal. While waiting for Burley’s day in court, Thompson had written to James Mason, the Confederate minister in London. He sent copies of court transcripts with an appeal: “I think you will agree with me that in this case not only is a great outrage about to be perpetrated on a citizen, but a great wrong is to be done and an insult offered to the Confederate States.”
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He asked Mason to put pressure on the British government to demand that Governor General Monck intervene and stop the extradition of Burley to the United States. Thompson was obviously unaware of the fact that Mason’s power had shrunk to a size as pitiable as his ability to manoeuvre.
Thompson also wrote to Jefferson Davis, who sent a letter directly to the court on Burley’s behalf. It is important for what it revealed about Davis’s view on all that had been transpiring in Canada.
Now, therefore, I, Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America, do hereby declare and make known to all whom it may concern, that the expedition aforesaid undertaken in the month of September last, for the capture of the armed steamer
Michigan
, a vessel of the war of the United States, and for the release of the prisoners of war, citizens of the Confederate States of America, held captive by the United States of American at Johnson’s Island, was a belligerent expedition ordered and undertaken under the authority of the Confederate States of America and that the Government of the Confederate States of America assumes the responsibility for answering for the acts and conduct of any of its officers engaged in said expedition, and especially of the said Bennett G. Burley, an Acting Master of the Confederate States Navy.
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Davis went on to write that all those involved had been ordered to “abstain from violating any of the laws and regulations of the Canadian and British authorities in relation to neutrality.”
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Burley was released.
Confederate Captain John Beall was not so lucky. Beall was on trial in New York City for his involvement in a number of Thompson’s activities. The court found that he was an officer of the Confederate government acting on orders, but that no soldier is immune from prosecution for illegal actions based on that excuse. Judge Advocate-General John Bolles submitted: “If, then, such unlawful command be given and obeyed, its only effect is to prove that both he who gave and he who obeyed the command are criminals, and deserve to be gibbeted together.”
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Beall was found guilty and on February 24 was hanged.
Having made efforts to avert war and ease cross-border strains and mistrust, the Canadian legislature re-initiated its delayed deliberations on Confederation. The debates began on February 6, 1865, with a long and detailed oration by John A. Macdonald. He was followed the next day by Cartier and the next by Brown. All the old arguments were restated in long but articulate and persuasive speeches. The need for increased defence capability took a more central place than had been the case even the previous September and October. Nearly every member spoke, and sixty made direct mention of Confederation as being necessary to create a state that was larger, more stable and better able to protect itself against American aggression. McGee was perhaps most inflammatory in his speech:
They coveted Florida, and seized it; they coveted Louisiana, and purchased it; they coveted Texas, and stole it; and then they picked a quarrel with Mexico which ended by their getting California. They sometimes pretend to despise these colonies as prizes beneath their ambition; but had we not had the strong arm of England over us we should not now have a separate existence. The acquisition of Canada was the first ambition of the American Confederacy, and never ceased
to be so, when her troops were a handful and her navy scarce a squadron. Is it likely to be stopped now, when she counts her guns afloat by the thousands and her troops by hundreds of thousands?… only vigorous and timely preparation would protect British North America from the horrors of a war such as the world has never seen.
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While less flamboyant, George Brown made the point most effectively:
A revolution has occurred in Great Britain on the subject of colonial relations to the parent state—the government of the United States has become a great warlike power—our commercial relations with the republic are seriously threatened—and every man in British North America has now placed before him for solution the practical question: What shall be done in view of the changed relations on which we are about to enter? Shall we continue to struggle along as isolated communities—or shall we unite cordially together to extend our commerce, develop the resources of our country, and to defend our soil?
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Opponents of Confederation also presented their arguments, but it appeared that the well-organized government, confident in its argument and parliamentary majority, would win the day. Then disturbing news came from New Brunswick. Premier Leonard Tilley had been a strong advocate of Confederation throughout the two conferences and had returned to Fredericton determined to see the resolutions ratified. A quiet, cautious, churchgoing, teetotalling widower and father of seven, Tilley faced an unexpected storm of opposition to Confederation with the stoicism for which he was known. Then he made a mistake. The electoral timetable was against him, as he was scheduled to go to the people in March. Nova Scotia’s premier, Charles Tupper, and Macdonald both wrote a number of letters to Tilley urging him to present the resolutions to his House before dissolution.
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With his majority and opposition leaders behind him, ratification could have been easy. More than that,
Macdonald argued, the debate would educate the people and thereby ease his re-election by developing support for the cause.
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