McGEE, Thomas D’Arcy. Poems of Thomas D’Arcy McGee

With copious notes. Also an Introduction and Biographical Sketch by Mrs. Sadlier. New York: Sadlier, 1886. Sixth edition. pp. 612. Crown octavo. Blue cloth decorated in gilt and black. Ex lib with neat oval stamp. A very good copy.

Thomas D’Arcy Etienne Grace Hughes McGee, (1825-1868) was an Irish-Canadian politician, Catholic spokesman, journalist, poet, and a Father of Canadian Confederation. The young McGee was a Catholic Irishman who hated the British rule of Ireland, and worked for a peasant revolution to overthrow British rule and secure Irish independence. He escaped arrest and fled to the United States in 1848, where he reversed his political beliefs. He became disgusted with American republicanism and democracy, and became intensely conservative in his politics and in his religious support for the Pope. He moved to Canada in 1857 and worked hard to convince the Irish Catholics to cooperate with the Protestant British (members of the church) in forming a Confederation that would make for a strong Canada in close alliance with Britain. His passion for Confederation garnered him the title: ‘Canada’s first nationalist’. He fought the Fenians in Canada, who were Irish Catholics that hated the British and resembled his younger self politically. McGee succeeded in helping create the Canadian Confederation in 1867, but was assassinated by Patrick J. Whelan in 1868.

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