The history of louis riel

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In 1874, he was convicted of murder and sentenced to death for the 1870 execution. Believing he would be safer among his friends, Riel returned to Red River in late June.

Dubuc and others now urged Riel to be a candidate for the riding of Provencher in the September 1872 federal general election. Riel’s hopes for the “New Nation” with full and effective biculturalism were doomed from the start.

From St Paul Riel carried on an extensive correspondence with his friends in the settlement, particularly with Joseph Dubuc*, who had moved to St Boniface from Quebec in 1870 at the urging of Riel, Ritchot, Taché, and Cartier. Although it differed little from that of Thibault and Salaberry, it was received calmly.

But Riel saw himself primarily as the advocate of justice for the Métis. Riel pleaded not guilty. Roy was subjected to a savage cross-examination by Osler, whose questions implied that Roy had a financial interest in keeping patients in his custody. Riel was captured, and prepared to defend himself and the Métis cause. On 6 November Riel issued an invitation to the English-speaking inhabitants to elect 12 representatives from their parishes to attend a convention with the Métis representatives.

Not only was his examination superficial, but defence counsel Charles Fitzpatrick elicited that Wallace had never read the works of the leading French authorities on megalomania. Schultz, on the other hand, had fortified his house and store, and recruited about 50 followers as guards. Smith thereupon declared that he had been authorized to propose the sending of a delegation to Ottawa which would be given “a very cordial reception.” The proposal, which would entail direct negotiations between Canada and the settlement, was what Riel had planned and advocated from the beginning of the resistance, and it was accepted with enthusiasm.

Late in 1878 he went to St Paul. Dumont, the witnesses implied, had been responsible only for the tactics adopted in the engagements. But Macdonald sadly misjudged the explosion of emotions in Quebec. Both his parents were westerners, and he is said to have had one-eighth Indian blood, his paternal grandmother being a Franco-Chipewyan Métisse.

Riel was the author of L’amnistie: mémoire sur les causes des troubles du Nord-Ouest et sur les négociations qui ont amené leur règlement amiable ([Montréal], 1874), which appeared under the same title in Le Nouveau Monde, 4 févr. 1874, and also under the title L’amnistie aux Métis de Manitoba: mémoire sur les causes des troubles du Nord-Ouest et sur les négociations qui ont amené leur règlement amiable (Ottawa, 1874).

The “List,” probably composed by Riel, consisted of 14 items.