Canadian politician and Father of Confederation, Thomas D’Arcy McGee was assassinated April 7, 1868.

Thomas D’Arcy McGee
Part of the Historical Series featuring
Thomas D’Arcy McGee, Sir Wilfrid Laurier, Sir John A. Macdonald, Robert Baldwin, and Sir Louis Lafontaine
Issued by the Canada’s Post Office Department June 29, 1927 

 Engraver Elie Timothée Loizeaux used a photograph of McGee taken by William James Topley   

 

The stamp was originally approved October 8, 1925, and ordered the following November. Although originally slated for a February and July, 1926 release, it was held until the Canada’s Diamond Jubilee of Confederation, June 29, 1927.

McGee was a Canadian politician, journalist and poet who was born in Carlingford, County Louth, Ireland. He was one of the Fathers of Confederation who was murdered by a Fenian extremist.  

He was an advocate for minority rights at a time when the politics of ethnic and religious identity were intensely fraught. He was an incredibly eloquent public speaker and a passionate advocate for Canadian interests. However, his political transformation ultimately damaged his popularity with Irish nationalists, particularly the Fenians. Thomas D’Arcy McGee | The Canadian Encyclopedia

In 1866, the Fenian Brotherhood, seeking to free Ireland from British rule, launched cross-border raids into Canada. McGee’s denunciation of Fenianism led many Irish immigrants to see him as a traitor. On April 7, 1868, he was shot and killed on Sparks Street in Ottawa. This revolver was found in the pocket of Patrick James Whelan, who was arrested within hours of the assassination. It was later used to convict him, but doubts about his guilt have long persisted. He protested his innocence right up to the gallows. And although Whelan admitted that he did “know the man who shot Mr. McGee,” he never provided a name. Thomas D’Arcy McGee | Canadian History Hall | Canadian Museum of History (historymuseum.ca)