Alexander McLeod
Encyclopedia
Alexander McLeod was a Scottish-Canadian who served as sheriff in Niagara, Ontario. After the Upper Canada Rebellion
Upper Canada Rebellion
The Upper Canada Rebellion was, along with the Lower Canada Rebellion in Lower Canada, a rebellion against the British colonial government in 1837 and 1838. Collectively they are also known as the Rebellions of 1837.-Issues:...
, he boasted that he had partaken in the 1837 Caroline Affair
Caroline affair
The Caroline affair was a series of events beginning in 1837 that strained relations between the United States and Britain....
, the sinking of an American steamboat that had been supplying William Lyon Mackenzie
William Lyon Mackenzie
William Lyon Mackenzie was a Scottish born American and Canadian journalist, politician, and rebellion leader. He served as the first mayor of Toronto, Upper Canada and was an important leader during the 1837 Upper Canada Rebellion.-Background and early years in Scotland, 1795–1820:Mackenzie was...
's rebels with arms. Three years later, he was arrested by the United States and charged with the murder of the sailor killed in the attack, but his incarceration infuriated Canada and Great Britain, which demanded his repatriation in the strongest terms; suggesting that any action taken against the Caroline had been taken under orders
Command responsibility
Command responsibility, sometimes referred to as the Yamashita standard or the Medina standard, and also known as superior responsibility, is the doctrine of hierarchical accountability in cases of war crimes....
, and the responsibility lay with Great Britain, not McLeod himself.
President Martin van Buren
Martin Van Buren
Martin Van Buren was the eighth President of the United States . Before his presidency, he was the eighth Vice President and the tenth Secretary of State, under Andrew Jackson ....
ignored the demands for repatriation, leading Lord Palmerston to threaten that a continued refusal to repatriate McLeod would result in "war immediate and frightful in its character, because it would be a war of retaliation and vengeance".
McLeod was tried in a "curious spectacle". He was acquitted on the basis of an alibi that supported his non-participation in the Affair.
Caroline Affair
During the Upper Canada RebellionUpper Canada Rebellion
The Upper Canada Rebellion was, along with the Lower Canada Rebellion in Lower Canada, a rebellion against the British colonial government in 1837 and 1838. Collectively they are also known as the Rebellions of 1837.-Issues:...
, it was believed that the American Caroline had been used to ferry weapons to a group of 200-300 rebels on Navy Island
Navy Island
Navy Island is a small island in the Niagara River in the province of Ontario, managed by Parks Canada as a National Historic Site of Canada. It is located about upstream from Horseshoe Falls, and has an area of roughly...
. Her owner, William Wells, had purchased the boat six months earlier after it was seized for smuggling, and claimed to have unloaded a cask for the insurgents but to have been ignorant of its contents. Furious Canadians traveled to New York, where they found the ship in dock, and set upon it - destroying the ship, and shooting a man.
Described as "a man of gentlemanly bearing and demeanor", McLeod was arrested on November 12, 1840, after visiting Lewiston, New York
Lewiston, New York
Lewiston is a village in Niagara County, New York, United States. The population was 2,781 at the 2000 census. The village is named after Morgan Lewis, an early 19th-century governor of New York. It is part of the Buffalo–Niagara Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area.The Village of Lewiston,...
and boasting that "his sword had drank the blood of two men on board the Caroline" three years earlier. He was subsequently charged with the murder of Amos Durfee - an African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
sailor found dead near the dock after the boat was destroyed, and held in Lockport Jail.
On April 17, Michael Hoffman
Michael Hoffman (congressman)
Michael Hoffman was an American lawyer and politician. He was U.S. Representative from New York from 1825 to 1833-Personal life:...
of the New York State Assembly
New York State Assembly
The New York State Assembly is the lower house of the New York State Legislature. The Assembly is composed of 150 members representing an equal number of districts, with each district having an average population of 128,652...
moved the Committee of the Judiciary to pass a bill granting McLeod safe conduct out of the state and the abandonment of criminal charges against him, stating that "if it be true that the local authorities of Canada under the belief that they were imminently endangered by the hostile gathering on Navy Island, did order this expedition", then McLeod did not bear the blame for the death of any killed as a result. However this was ignored, and a trial date was set for the following October.
Trial
McLeod was the subject of a "curious spectacle" of a trial, in that his defence attorney, Ambrose Spencer, was actually named the federal district attorneyDistrict attorney
In many jurisdictions in the United States, a District Attorney is an elected or appointed government official who represents the government in the prosecution of criminal offenses. The district attorney is the highest officeholder in the jurisdiction's legal department and supervises a staff of...
for New York, but chose to remain as McLeod's counsel. Governor William H. Seward
William H. Seward
William Henry Seward, Sr. was the 12th Governor of New York, United States Senator and the United States Secretary of State under Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson...
wrote to President John Tyler
John Tyler
John Tyler was the tenth President of the United States . A native of Virginia, Tyler served as a state legislator, governor, U.S. representative, and U.S. senator before being elected Vice President . He was the first to succeed to the office of President following the death of a predecessor...
, but was informed that it was up to Spencer how he wished to handle his own affairs.
British ambassador Henry Stephen Fox
Henry Stephen Fox
Henry Stephen Fox was a British diplomat.-Life:As the only son of General Henry Edward Fox , Henry was educated at Eton College. Matriculating from Christ Church, Oxford in 1809, his wit, charm, love of gambling and manners made him popular in fashionable circles...
initially informed the Americans that the legal precedent established in handing over a man named "Christie" three years earlier after his arrest for the Caroline burning would also be applied to McLeod.
The indictment read by District Attorney
District attorney
In many jurisdictions in the United States, a District Attorney is an elected or appointed government official who represents the government in the prosecution of criminal offenses. The district attorney is the highest officeholder in the jurisdiction's legal department and supervises a staff of...
J. L. Woods against McLeod stated that he had...
Further counts of the indictment suggested that John Mosier, Thomas McCormick, Rolland McDonald, or "certain evil-disposed persons to the Jurors unknown" had been the actual gunman to kill Durfee, but that McLeod had been an accessory to the murder. Theodore Stone, the sheriff in Niagara, was the subject of penalty for refusing to testify on the prosecutions defence.
Presided over by Judge Gridley, the case saw Charles O. Curtis, Dr. Edmund Allen, John Mott, Elijah Brush, Ira Byington, William Carpenter, Isaih Thurber, Peter Sleight, Asher Allen, Seymour Carrier, Eseck Allen and Volnev Elliott as the chosen jurors, nine of them farmers. Henry Addington of Paris, Ontario
Paris, Ontario
Paris, Ontario is a community on the Grand River in Ontario, Canada. The town was established in 1850. In 1999, its town government was amalgamated into that of the County of Brant, Ontario, thus ending about 149 years as a separate incorporated municipality.-History:The town was first settled in...
pleaded that his religious views forbade him from serving on a jury and was excused.
The key witnesses expected to testify that they recognised McLeod from the attack never materialised, weakening the prosecution's case. Since nobody saw Durfee get shot, the question of which of the Canadians - if indeed it had been a Canadian - had pulled the trigger was the focus the second day's witnesses. Wells, the owner of the Caroline, testified that he did not believe any of his men carried firearms themselves and thus it had to have been one of the attackers who shot Durfee, although a boatman who was traveling on the ship stated that he believed he had seen guns held by crewmen the day before the attack.
The defence attorney tried to press the fact that a musket
Musket
A musket is a muzzle-loaded, smooth bore long gun, fired from the shoulder. Muskets were designed for use by infantry. A soldier armed with a musket had the designation musketman or musketeer....
had been seized from the nearby Field's Tavern which had evidence of being fired that night, and suggested that somebody in the nearby tavern may have taken a shot at the scuffle atop the Caroline and hit Durfee by mistake. One witness suggested that a Captain Keeler had taken the gun and run out into the night, firing the weapon into the air aimlessly. This was contradicted by the owner of the tavern, who said that one of his patrons had taken the gun outside and deliberately fired towards the men taking control of the Caroline, until he persuaded the man that such aggression might cause the attackers to target the tavern.
The jury deliberated only twenty minutes, before returning to find McLeod not guilty, noting his alibi that he had been elsewhere at the time of the attack and had falsely boasted of involvement. The "gentle words" of Lord Ashburton were credited with allowing the acquittal to sink from public scrutiny.