KIEL, LOUIS. 



711 



Democratic nominees were: Governor, Ziba 

 O. Slocum ; Lieutenant - Governor, Jonathan 

 M. Wheeler ; Secretary of State, Thomas Rob- 

 inson ; Treasurer, John G. Perry ; Attorney- 

 General, Frank H. Jackson. The election oc- 

 curred on April 1, and resulted in the success of 

 the Republican ticket. The vote for Governor 

 was: Republican, 12,563 ; Democratic, 8,574; 

 Prohibition, 1,206 ; scattering, 5. The Legis- 

 lature chosen at the same time is thus consti- 

 tuted: Senate, 28 Republicans and 9 Demo- 

 crats ; House, 53 Republicans and 19 Democrats. 

 On Feb. 5, Nathan F. Dixon (Republican) was 

 elected Representative in Congress from the 

 Second District, to succeed Senator Chace. 



KIEL, LOUIS, the leader of the Red river re- 

 bellion of 1869 and the Northwest rebellion 

 of 1885. born at St. Boniface (opposite where 

 Winnipeg now stands), in 1847"; executed at 

 Regina, Northwest Territory, Nov. 16, 1885. 

 He was the son of Jean Baptiste Riel, a mem- 

 ber of the Metis race, or Franco-Indian half- 

 breeds of the Northwest, who in 1849 led a 

 revolt against the authority of the Hudson 

 Bay Company. Louis Riel was a protege of 

 Archbishop Tache\ of St. Boniface, and was 

 educated at the Jesuits' College in Montreal. 

 His educational advantages gave him consid- 

 erable influence over the Metis, and from an 

 early age he posed as the champion of his race. 

 On the transfer of the Northwest Territories 

 to the Dominion of Canada by the Hudson Bay 

 Company in 1869, the half-breeds demanded 

 a portion of the purchase-money, denied the 

 right of the company to make such a bargain, 

 and refused allegiance to the Dominion Gov- 

 ernment. Practically the half-breeds, who 

 were the descendants of the company's ser- 

 vants and their Indian wives, claimed property 

 and sovereign rights in the lands of the North- 

 west. Riel, at the head of the half-breeds, 

 opposed the entry of the Hon. William Mc- 

 Dougall, the first Lieutenant-Governor appoint- 

 ed to the Territories, and formed a provisional 

 government on Dec. 8, 1869, after his insur- 

 gent followers had taken possession of Fort 

 Garry and captured Dr. Schultz and forty-four 

 Canadians. In February, 1870, Archbishop 

 Tache, who had been sent for from Rome, was 

 authorized by the Canadian Premier, Sir John 

 Macdonald, to promise a general amnesty to 

 the rebels. On Feb. 17 Riel captured Maj. 

 Bolton and forty-seven men, and on March 4 

 he ordered out for instant execution one of his 

 prisoners, Thomas Scott, an Ontario Orange- 

 man. Archbishop Tache arrived at Red river 

 five days later, and promised an amnesty for 

 all offenses, including the murder of Scott. The 

 questions whether the archbishop was justified 

 in making this promise and whether her Maj- 

 esty's Governments were bound by it were the 

 subjects of hot controversy. Riel evacuated 

 Fort Garry when the Red river expedition un- 

 der Gen. Wolseley was in sight of the fort. 

 On Lieut.-Governor Archibald's issuing a proc- 

 lamation calling for volunteers against the Fe- 



nians, Riel advised his friends to defend the 

 Government. The Lieutenant-Governor accept- 

 ed Kiel's services, complimented him upon his 

 loyalty, and reviewed his forces. On Jan. 1, 

 1872, Riel accepted $1,600 from the Canadian 

 Government, through the hands of Archbishop 

 Tach6, as an inducement to leave the country, 

 and in February he was conveyed to the front- 

 ier under the protection of a police escort. 

 In September, 1872, Riel declined the nomina- 

 tion for the representation of Provencher in the 

 Canadian House of Commons in favor of Sir 



LOUIS BIEL. 



George Cartier, but in October of the following 

 year he was returned by acclamation, and he 

 was again returned in January, 1874. At this 

 time the Dominion Government was express- 

 ing the utmost anxiety to capture Riel, and 

 the feeling against him in Ontario on account 

 of the murder of Scott was most bitter ; but at 

 the end of March Riel appeared suddenly and 

 mysteriously in the Clerk's room of the House 

 of Commons, signed the roll of membership, 

 and disappeared as suddenly. On April 16, 

 1874, the House expelled him by a vote of 124 

 to 68. In September he was once more elect- 

 ed by Provencher. and in the same month he 

 was outlawed. In February, 1875, he was 

 sentenced to five years' banishment and for- 

 feiture of political rights. In 1877 he was in- 

 carcerated for several months in Beaufort Lu- 

 natic Asylum, Quebec, under an assumed name ; 

 but whether on account of insanity, or for the 

 sake of protection and concealment, is a dis- 

 puted point. (An account of RieFs connection 

 with the rebellion of 1885 is given in the arti- 

 cle on CANADA, page 124.) He was tried at Re- 

 gina before Hugh Richardson and a jury of six, 

 upon an indictment containing six counts. The 



