William Lyon Mackenzie

For the Toronto high school, see William Lyon Mackenzie Collegiate Institute. For the fireboat, see William Lyon Mackenzie (fireboat).

William Lyon Mackenzie
William Lyon Mackenzie, c. 1851–1861
1st Mayor of Toronto
In office March 27, 1834 – January 14, 1835
Preceded by	Alexander Macdonell (Chairman of York)
Succeeded by	Robert Sullivan
Member of the Upper Canada Legislative Assembly for York
In office January 8, 1829 – March 6, 1834 Serving with Jesse Ketchum (1829–1832)
Succeeded by	Edward William Thomson
Member of the Province of Canada Legislative Assembly for Haldimand County
In office 1851–1858
Preceded by	David Thompson
Succeeded by	M. Harcourt
Personal details
Born	March 12, 1795 Dundee, Scotland
Died	August 28, 1861(1861-08-28) (aged 66) Toronto, Canada West (now Ontario, Canada)
Resting place	Toronto Necropolis
Political party	Reform
Other political affiliations	Clear Grits
Spouse	Isabel Baxter
Children	14
Occupation	Journalist, Politician
Signature

William Lyon Mackenzie (March 12, 1795 – August 28, 1861) was a Scottish-born Canadian-American journalist and politician. He grew up in Dundee, Scotland and emigrated to York, Upper Canada, (later known as Toronto) in 1820. He published his first newspaper in 1824 called Colonial Advocate and wrote articles that aligned with the Upper Canadian political Reform movement. He was elected a legislator from York to the Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada and investigated corruption by Tory politicians (who were the political opponents of the Reform movement) and other elite members of Upper Canada, which he called the Family Compact. He brought grievances from Upper Canada citizens to the Colonial Office in London, England, causing the colonial secretary to propose reforms in the colony. In 1834, York became the city of Toronto and Mackenzie was elected by the city council to be its first mayor, but was not reelected the following year.

He lost his seat in the 1836 provincial election, causing him to believe that reforms to the Upper Canadian government structure could only happen after a rebellion. In 1837, he rallied farmers in the towns surrounding Toronto and convinced Reform leaders to support the Upper Canada Rebellion. Rebel leaders chose Mackenzie to be their commander and he marched the rebels towards Toronto to seize control of the Upper Canadian government. After a confrontation with government troops, the rebels retreated to their headquarters north of the city. Government troops defeated the rebels at the Battle of Montgomery's Tavern and Mackenzie fled to the United States. He tried to invade Upper Canada in the Patriot War but the American government arrested him for violating the Neutrality Act because he organised an army in the United States and led attacks into Upper Canada. Mackenzie was sentenced to eighteen months of imprisonment and stopped organising military campaigns. He was pardoned for his crimes by the American president Martin Van Buren.

After his release from prison, Mackenzie lived in various cities in the State of New York and tried to publish newspapers, but these ventures failed due to a lack of subscribers. He worked at the New York custom house and discovered documents that outlined financial transactions and government appointments by New York State government officials. He copied the documents and published them in two books. He received amnesty from the newly-established Province of Canada, formed by the merger of Upper and Lower Canada, in 1841. He represented the constituency of Haldimand County in the Province of Canada legislature from 1851 to 1858. His health deteriorated in 1861 until his death on August 28. In his obituaries, Mackenzie was described as an independent politician that fought corruption within government institutions. Mackenzie's influence on Canadian politics is debated among his contemporaries and historians; some believe he delayed the implementation of reforms to the Upper Canada government structure while others believe he exposed the corruption of government administrators.

Early life and immigration (1795–1824)

Background, early years in Scotland, and education

William Lyon Mackenzie was born on March 12, 1795, in Dundee, Scotland. Both of his grandfathers were part of Clan Mackenzie and fought for Charles Edward Stuart at the Battle of Culloden. His mother Elizabeth Chambers (née Maceknzie), a weaver and goat herder, was orphaned at a young age and a widow. Mackenzie's father was Daniel Mackenzie, a weaver and seventeen years younger than Elizabeth. The couple married on May 8, 1794. After attending a public dance, Daniel became sick, blind and bedridden. He died a few weeks after Mackenzie was born.

Although Elizabeth had relatives in Dundee, she insisted on raising Mackenzie independently. She was a deeply religious Calvinist and Mackenzie learned the teachings of the Presbyterian church. Mackenzie reported he was raised in poverty, although the extent of his family's wealth is difficult to authenticate. At five years old, Mackenzie received a bursary for a parish grammar school in Dundee. In 1810, he used the reading room of the Dundee Advertiser and possibly wrote articles for them under various pseudonyms. He was a founding member of the Dundee Rational Institution, a club for scientific discussion.

In 1813, Mackenzie moved to Alyth, Scotland, to help his mother open a general store. Mackenzie had a relationship with Isabel Reid, and she gave birth to his son James on July 17, 1814. His congregation agreed to baptise James after Mackenzie paid a fine of thirteen shillings and fourpence to the church and endured public criticism for his sin of pre-marital sexual relations. A recession followed the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 and Mackenzie's store went bankrupt. He moved to southern England and worked as a bookkeeper for the Kennet and Avon Canal Company and a newspaper in London. He spent his money on lavish fashion in Paris became a gambler, almost losing his wealth.

Early years in Canada

A portrait of Isabel, Mackenzie's wife, created in 1850

Mackenzie's friend John Lesslie suggested they emigrate to Canada, and they travelled there aboard a schooner named Psyche. When Mackenzie arrived in North America, he worked in Montreal for the owners of the Lachine Canal as a bookkeeper and The Montreal Herald as a journalist. He moved to York, Upper Canada, and the Lesslie family employed him at a bookselling and drugstore business where he received the profits from selling pharmaceutical drugs. In 1820, he wrote for the York Observer under the pseudonym Mercator. The Lesslies opened a second shop in Dundas, Ontario, and Mackenzie moved there to become its branch manager.

In 1822, his mother and son James immigrated to Upper Canada with Isabel Baxter, whom his mother had chosen to marry Mackenzie. Although they were schoolmates, Mackenzie and Baxter did not know each other well before meeting in Upper Canada. The couple wed in Montreal on July 1, 1822, and they would have thirteen children.

The Colonial Advocate and early years in York (1823–1827)

Creation of the Colonial Advocate

The partnership between the Lesslies and Mackenzie ended in 1823, and Mackenzie moved to Queenston in 1824 to open a new general store. In May 1824, he sold his store and bought a printing press to create the Colonial Advocate, a political newspaper. He refused government subsidies and relied on subscriptions, although he sent free copies to people he considered influential. He organised a ceremony for the start of the construction of the memorial to Isaac Brock and sealed a capsule within the stonework containing an issue of the Colonial Advocate, the Upper Canada Gazette, some coins, and an inscription he wrote. Lieutenant-Governor Peregrine Maitland ordered the capsule's removal a few days after it was placed in the monument because the Colonial Advocate was critical of the government.

In November 1824, Mackenzie relocated the paper and his family to York. Although the paper had the highest circulation among York newspapers, he still lost money on every issue because of low paid subscription numbers and late payments from readers. In 1826, James Buchanan Macaulay accused Mackenzie of improper business transactions and made jokes about Mackenzie's Scottish heritage and his mother. Mackenzie retaliated by pretending to retire from the paper on May 4, 1826, and published a fictitious meeting where contributors selected Patrick Swift as the new editor. Mackenzie used the Swift alias to continue publishing the Colonial Advocate.

Types Riot

In the spring of 1824, Mackenzie published articles in the Colonial Advocate under the Swift pseudonym that questioned the Family Compact's governance of the colony and described their personal lives. On June 8, 1826, rioters retaliated to these articles by attacking the Colonial Advocate office. They harassed Mackenzie's family and employees, destroyed the printing press and threw its movable type, the letters a printing press uses to print documents, into the bay. Mackenzie sued eight rioters in a civil suit and hired Marshall Spring Bidwell to represent him in the court proceedings.

Bidwell argued that Mackenzie lost income from the damaged property and his inability to fulfil printing contracts. Upon cross-examination, Mackenzie's employees confirmed that Mackenzie authored Patrick Swift's editorials in the Colonial Advocate. The court awarded Mackenzie £625 (equivalent to £67,170 in 2023) in damages which he used to pay off his creditors and restart production of his newspaper. One year after the riots, he documented the incident in a series of articles, which he later published as The History of the Destruction of the Colonial Advocate Press.

Reform member of the Legislative Assembly (1827–1834)

Main article: The Reform Movement (Upper Canada)

Election to the Legislative Assembly

John George Howard's portrait of the third Parliament Building in York, built between 1829 and 1832 at Front Street

Mackenzie announced his candidacy for the 10th Parliament of Upper Canada in December 1827 to become one of two legislators representing York County. The Types Riot settlement was used to fund his campaign and he cited the incident as an example of corruption in Upper Canada. Mackenzie ran as an independent and refused to buy alcohol and treats for supporters or bribe citizens to vote for him, as had been done by most politicians at this time. He published weekly articles in his newspaper called The Parliament Black Book for Upper Canada, or Official Corruption and Hypocrisy Unmasked where he listed accusations of wrongdoing by his opponents. He came in second in the election, becoming one of the representatives for York.

As a legislator, Mackenzie chaired a committee that evaluated the effectiveness of the post office and recommended that local officials obtain control of postal rates. He also chaired a committee that evaluated the appointment process of officials who administer elections in Upper Canada. He was a member of committees that looked at the banking and currency process of Upper Canada, the condition of roads, and the investigation of the Church of England's power. He opposed infrastructure projects until the province's debt was paid. He spoke against the Welland Canal Company, denouncing the financing methods of William Hamilton Merritt, the company's financial agent, and its close links with the Executive Council, the advisory committee to the lieutenant governor of Upper Canada.

In the 1830 election, Mackenzie campaigned for legislative control of the budget, independent judges, an executive council that would report to the legislature, and equal rights for Christian denominations. He was re-elected to represent York County in the 11th Parliament but the Reform group lost their majority in the legislature, reducing Mackenzie's influence. Outside the legislature, he focused on reforming institutions like an agricultural society and St. Andrew's Presbyterian, a congregation organized by Tories who supported the church–state connection. In the legislature he chaired a committee that recommended increased representation for Upper Canadian towns, a single day for voting in elections, and voting by ballot instead of voice.

During a legislative break, Mackenzie travelled to Quebec City and met with Reform leaders in Lower Canada. He wanted to develop closer ties between each province's reform leaders and learn new techniques to oppose Family Compact policies. He gathered grievances from various communities in Upper Canada and planned to present these petitions to the Colonial Office in England.

Expulsions, re-elections, and appeal to the Colonial Office

Mackenzie criticised the Legislative Assembly in the Colonial Advocate and called the legislature a "sycophantic office". For this, the assembly expelled him for libel of the character of the Assembly of Upper Canada. Mackenzie won the subsequent by-election on January 2, 1832, by a vote of 119–1. Upon his victory, his supporters gifted him a gold medal and chain worth £250 (equivalent to £31,111 in 2023) and organised a parade through the streets of York. He was expelled again when he printed an article critical of the legislators who voted for his first expulsion.

Mackenzie won the second by-election on January 30 with 628 votes against two opponents—a Tory who received 23 votes and a moderate Reformer (who assumed Mackenzie's expulsion barred him from becoming a legislator)—who received 96 votes. Mackenzie toured Upper Canada to promote his policies and Tory supporters, unhappy with his agitation, tried to harm him. In Hamilton, William Johnson Kerr organised an assault of Mackenzie by three men. In York, twenty to thirty men stole a wagon he was using as a stage while another mob smashed the windows of the Colonial Advocate office. On March 23, 1832, Mackenzie's effigy was carried around York and burned outside the Colonial Advocate office while James FitzGibbon arrested Mackenzie in an attempt to placate the mob. Mackenzie feared for his life and stopped appearing in public until he left for England.

In April 1832, Mackenzie travelled to London to petition the British government for reforms in Upper Canada. He visited Lord Goderich, the Secretary of State for the Colonies of the United Kingdom, to submit grievances he collected in Upper Canada. In November 1832, Goderich sent instructions to the Upper Canada Lieutenant Governor John Colborne to lessen the Legislature's negative attitude against Mackenzie and reform the province's political and financial systems. Tories in Upper Canada were upset that Mackenzie received a positive reception from Goderich and expelled him from the legislature; he was re-elected by acclamation on November 26 by his constituents. Mackenzie published Sketches of Canada and the United States in 1833 to describe Upper Canada politics and listed thirty people he considered Family Compact members. In November 1833, Mackenzie was expelled from the Legislature again.

Lord Stanley replaced Goderich as the colonial secretary and reversed the Upper Canada reforms. Mackenzie was upset by this and, upon his return to Upper Canada in December 1833, renamed the Colonial Advocate to The Advocate to signal his displeasure with the province's colonial status. He criticised Upper Canada's colonial government structure and its Tory officials in the by-election campaign after his November 1833 expulsion. He won the election by acclamation, but the Legislature would not let him participate in the legislature and expelled him again. Mackenzie was not permitted to be a legislator until after the 1836 legislative election.

Upper Canada politics (1834–1836)

Municipal politics

In 1834, York changed its name to Toronto and held elections for its first city council. Mackenzie ran to be an alderman on the Toronto city council to represent St. David's Ward. He won the election on March 27, 1834, with 148 votes, the highest amount among all candidates for alderman in the city. The other aldermen chose him to be Toronto's first mayor by a vote of 10–8. The city council and Mackenzie approved a tax increase to build a boardwalk along King Street despite citizen backlash. He designed the first coat of arms for Toronto and presided as a judge for the city's Police Court, which heard cases of drunkenness and disorderly conduct, physical abuse of children and spouses and city bylaw violations. Mackenzie chose the newly built market buildings as Toronto's city hall and moved the offices of The Advocate into a southern wing of the complex.

In July 1834, Toronto declared a second cholera outbreak. Mackenzie chaired the Toronto Board of Health in his role as mayor, which was tasked to implement the city's response to the outbreak. The board was divided between the Tories and the Reformers and they argued over Mackenzie's alleged interference with the work of health officers. He remained on the board when it restructured two weeks after the start of the outbreak, although he was no longer its chairman. He brought people to the hospital until he was also infected with the disease and remained in his home until he recovered later that year. Mackenzie declined the nomination for alderman in the 1835 municipal election, printing in his paper that he wanted to focus on provincial politics. Reformers included him on their ticket for the election, and he received the fewest votes in his ward. Mackenzie delayed collecting his mayoral salary of £100 (equivalent to £11,822 in 2023) until April 1836 because he wanted the city council to pass equitable assessment laws.

Provincial politics

Emanuel Hahn's "Mackenzie Panels" (1938) in the garden of Mackenzie House in Toronto. The panel is dedicated to reformers who argued for responsible government in Upper Canada.

Mackenzie was elected in the October 1834 provincial election for one of the newly split constituencies in the County of York by a vote of 334–178. After the election, he sold The Advocate to William John O'Grady because of its debt and to devote more time to his political career. On December 8, Mackenzie became the first corresponding secretary for the Canadian Alliance Society, whose mandate was to unite Reformers under a common election platform.

The legislature assigned Mackenzie as chairman of the Committee on Grievances and called several members of the Family Compact to answer questions about their work and government efficiency. The committee documented their findings in The Seventh Report from the Select Committee of the House of Assembly of Upper Canada on Grievances which expressed Mackenzie's concern on the power of the executive branch in Upper Canada and having government officials campaign for Tory politicians. It also criticised companies that mismanaged money given to them by the government and the salary of officials who received patronage appointments. Mackenzie used the Committee on Grievances to investigate the Welland Canal Company and was appointed one of its directors in 1835. He discovered parcels of company land were given to Family Compact members and the Anglican church for low prices or swapped with land that was of lesser value. Mackenzie printed his investigation in a newspaper he created that summer in the Niagara peninsula called The Welland Canal.

When the new lieutenant-governor Francis Bond Head arrived in Upper Canada, Mackenzie believed Bond Head would be allied with the reform movement. After meeting reformers, Bond Head concluded they were disloyal subjects of the British Empire. He wrote, "Mackenzie's mind seemed to nauseate its subjects" and "with the eccentricity, the volubility, and indeed the appearance of a madman, the tiny creature raved". Bond Head called an election in July 1836, and asked citizens to defend their British connection by voting for Tory politicians. Edward William Thomson defeated Mackenzie in the latter's reelection to the Parliament. Mackenzie was upset over this loss, weeping in a neighbour's home while supporters consoled him. Feeling disenchanted with the Upper Canada political system, Mackenzie created a new newspaper called the Constitution on July 4, 1836. The Constitution accused the government and their supporters of corruption and encouraged citizens to prepare "for nobler actions than our tyrants can dream of."

Upper Canada Rebellion (1837–1838)

Main articles: Rebellions of 1837 and Upper Canada Rebellion

Planning

In July 1837, Mackenzie organised a meeting with reformers dubbed the Committee of Vigilance and Mackenzie was selected as the committee's corresponding secretary. The committee supported self-government for the Upper Canada colony in opposition to the Tory-dominated legislature. Mackenzie published a critique of Bond Head describing him as a tyrant upholding a corrupt government. Mackenzie spent the summer of 1837 organizing vigilance committees throughout Upper Canada. He liked attending these meetings because they confirmed that his politics were aligned with Upper Canadians who were not involved with governing the colony. He attracted large crowds but also faced physical attacks from Family Compact supporters. During the fall of 1837, he visited Lower Canada and met with their rebel leaders, known as the Patriotes.

On October 9, 1837, Mackenzie received a message from the Patriotes asking Mackenzie to organize an attack on the Upper Canada government. Mackenzie gathered Reformers the following month and proposed seizing control of the Upper Canada government by force, but the meeting did not reach a consensus. He tried to convince John Rolph and Thomas David Morrison to lead a rebellion, but the two reformers asked Mackenzie to determine the level of support in the countryside for the revolt. He travelled north and convinced rural Reform leaders that they could forcefully take control of the government. Upon his return to Toronto, he informed Rolph and Morrison that the rebellion would begin on December 7, 1837.

Mackenzie wrote a declaration of independence and printed it at Hoggs Hollow on December 1. A Tory supporter reported the declaration to authorities, and a warrant was issued for Mackenzie's arrest. Mackenzie returned to Toronto and learned Rolph sent a message warning him of the warrant, but this message was forwarded to Samuel Lount instead. Upon receiving the warning, Lount marched a group of men towards Toronto to begin the rebellion. Mackenzie attempted to stop him but could not reach Lount in time.

Rebellion and retreat to the United States

Main article: Battle of Montgomery's Tavern

Lount's troops arrived at Montgomery's Tavern on the night of December 4. During a scouting expedition, John Powell murdered Anthony Anderson, the leader of the rebellion, and tried shooting Mackenzie in the face. Upon Anderson's death, the rebel leaders chose Mackenzie as their new leader.

Mackenzie gathered the rebels at noon on December 5 and marched them towards Toronto. At Gallows Hill, Rolph and Robert Baldwin announced the government's offer of full amnesty for the rebels if they dispersed immediately. Mackenzie and Lount asked that a convention be organised to discuss the province's policies and for the truce to be presented as a written document. Rolph and Baldwin returned, stating the government had withdrawn their offer. Mackenzie grew increasingly erratic and spent the evening punishing Tory families by burning down their houses and trying to force the Upper Canada Postmaster's wife to cook meals for his rebellion. Mackenzie tried marching the troops towards the city, but along the way a group of men fired at the rebels, causing them to flee.

Mackenzie spent the next day robbing a mail coach and kidnapping passing travellers to question them about the revolt. Mackenzie reassured the troops at Montgomery's Tavern that 200 men were going to arrive from Buffalo, New York, to help with the rebellion. Mackenzie also sent a letter to a newspaper called The Buffalo Whig and Journal asking for troops from the United States.

A proclamation posted on December 7, 1837, offering a reward of one thousand pounds for the capture of William Lyon Mackenzie

On December 7, government forces arrived at Montgomery's Tavern and fired towards the rebel position. Mackenzie was one of the last to flee north, leaving his papers and cloak behind. He met with rebel leaders who agreed the rebellion was over and that they needed to flee Upper Canada. Bond Head issued a warrant and a £1000 (equivalent to £120,633 in 2023) reward for Mackenzie's apprehension. Mackenzie travelled to the Niagara River and entered the United States by boat.

Attempted invasion from the United States

Main article: Patriot War

Mackenzie arrived in Buffalo on December 11, 1837, and gave a speech outlining his desire for Upper Canada to be independent of Britain. He blamed the failed rebellion on a lack of weapons and supplies. Josiah Trowbridge, Buffalo's mayor, and a newspaper called the Commercial Advertiser interpreted the speech as a rallying cry for help with the rebellion.

On December 12, Mackenzie asked Rensselaer Van Rensselaer to lead an invasion of Upper Canada from Navy Island. Van Rensselaer, Mackenzie and 24 supporters occupied Navy Island on December 14 and Mackenzie proclaimed the State of Upper Canada on the island, declaring Upper Canada's separation from the British Empire and himself appointed chairman of its new government. On January 4, Mackenzie travelled to Buffalo to seek medical help for his wife. On the way he was arrested for violating the Neutrality Act, a law that prohibited participating in an invasion of a country that the US government had not declared war against. He was released on $5,000 (equivalent to $139,897 in 2023) bail, paid by three men in Buffalo, and returned to Navy Island in January. British forces invaded the island on January 4, 1838, and the rebels dispersed to the American mainland.

Mackenzie wanted Canadians to lead the next invasion but still receive American assistance. He also contacted Reformers in Lennox and Addington counties in Upper Canada to coordinate a resistance with the Patriots invading Lower Canada. When Van Rensselaer attempted an invasion of Kingston from Hickory Island, Mackenzie refused to participate, citing a lack of confidence in the mission's success. The men from Navy Island were defeated in mainland America and Mackenzie stopped recruiting for Patriot forces to avoid ridicule.

Years in the US (1838–1849)

Support for Patriots and Mackenzie's Gazette

Mackenzie and his wife arrived in New York City and launched Mackenzie's Gazette on May 12 after soliciting subscriptions from friends. Its early editions supported the Patriots and focused on Canadian topics, but pivoted to American politics in August 1838. He suspended publication of his paper in the fall of 1838 and moved to Rochester to rebuild the Patriot forces. He did not want the Patriots to be funded by American land speculators so he created the Canadian Association as a separate organisation. The association struggled to attract Canadian members and unsuccessfully fundraised for Mackenzie to publish an account of the Upper Canada Rebellion. The money was reallocated to Mackenzie's defence fund for his upcoming trial. He restarted Mackenzie's Gazette in Rochester on February 23, 1839, but refused to send papers to clients who had not paid for them, as he had done previously with the Colonial Advocate. He hoped clients would pay their subscription fees to continue receiving the paper.

Neutrality law trial

The trial for Mackenzie's violation of American neutrality laws began on June 19, 1839; he represented himself in the proceedings. The district attorney argued that Mackenzie recruited members, established an army and stole weapons for an invasion. Mackenzie contended that Britain and the United States were at war because the British destroyed an American ship in the Caroline affair and the Neutrality Act did not apply. The judge prevented Mackenzie from stating that Upper Canada in a civil war because the American Congress did not declare this. Mackenzie was frustrated and he did not call further witnesses.

The judge sentenced Mackenzie to eighteen months in jail and a $10 (equivalent to $279 in 2023) fine. Mackenzie did not appeal the ruling after consulting with lawyers whom he did not publicly name. He said after the trial that he was depending upon key witnesses giving testimony, but they did not come to the courtroom. He also denounced the application of neutrality laws, wrongly stating the law had not been applied for nearly fifty years.

Imprisonment

The cover image for The Caroline Almanack, depicting the Caroline affair

Mackenzie was imprisoned on June 21, 1839. He chose to be jailed in Rochester to be closer to his family. He published The Caroline Almanack and drew an image of the Caroline affair for the cover. He also published issues of the Gazette, in which he described the trial and appealed for his release. Later issues reported on the upcoming New York state elections, the 1840 United States elections and the Durham Report.

While imprisoned, Mackenzie's mother became sick. Mackenzie was denied permission to see her, so John Montgomery arranged for him to be a witness at a trial. Montgomery convinced the state attorney to hold the trial in Mackenzie's house, and the magistrate stalled the proceedings so Mackenzie could visit his mother. She died a few days later, and Mackenzie witnessed the funeral procession from his prison window. Mackenzie encouraged friends and readers of his newspaper to petition President Martin Van Buren for a pardon. Over 300,000 people signed petitions that were circulated in Rochester, Albany, Michigan, and Ohio. Van Buren did not want others to believe he supported Mackenzie's actions and increase hostilities with Britain, so he was reluctant to grant this pardon. He agreed to do so on May 10, 1840, after Democrats informed Van Buren that he needed Mackenzie's supporters to vote for him in the 1840 United States presidential election.

After the pardon

After a summer hiatus, the Gazette denounced all invasions and supported Van Buren's reelection. Patriots claimed Mackenzie was bribed to support Van Buren and Bill Johnston called him "William Lying Mackenzie". The paper's subscriptions continued to decline and the last issue was published on December 23, 1840. In April, he launched The Rochester Volunteer and printed negative articles on Canadian Tory legislators and how constituencies in Montreal and Quebec were arranged to the disadvantage of French Canadian voters. The Volunteer stopped production in September 1841, and Mackenzie moved back to New York City in June 1842.

Mackenzie worked for various publishers but refused to accept a job as an editor. In August 1842, he was elected as an actuary and librarian at the Mechanics' Institute but resigned because he did not receive his expected salary. Mackenzie became an American citizen in April 1843. He wrote a biography of 500 Irish patriots entitled, The Sons of the Emerald Isle; the first volume was published on February 21, 1844. He hoped the series would stop nativist attitudes towards immigrants to North America by reminding citizens that their ancestors were also immigrants. He co-founded the National Reform Association with the goal of distributing public lands to people who would live on the property, limiting the amount of land an individual could own, and outlawing the confiscation of free homesteads given to settlers. He spoke at many meetings and remained on the association's central committee until July 1844.

In July 1844, he was nominated as an inspector at the New York custom house, but this was withdrawn after Whig newspapers criticised Mackenzie for being an immigrant. He was appointed as a clerk in the custom house's archives office, a role with a lower wage. Mackenzie copied the private letters of Jesse Hoyt which described negotiations of the Albany Regency's financial transactions and appointments to government offices. Mackenzie resigned from the custom house in June 1845 and published some of the letters as Lives and Opinions of Benjamin Franklin Butler and Jesse Hoyt. It sold 50,000 copies and made a $12,000 (equivalent to $373,344 in 2023) profit before an injunction stopped the book's sale. Mackenzie gave the pamphlet's profits to the publishers because he did not want to benefit from exposing a scandal. In April 1846, Mackenzie published another book based on Hoyt's letters called Life and Times of Martin Van Buren: The Correspondence of His Friends, Family, and Pupils. This book focused on Van Buren and contained Mackenzie's commentary on American politics with supporting evidence from the letters.

In October 1845, Mackenzie published the second volume of The Sons of the Emerald Isle. Horace Greeley hired him to report on the New York State Constitutional Convention for the New York Tribune. After the convention he returned to New York City to work for the Tribune until he resigned in April 1848.

Return to Canada (1849–1858)

Amnesty and return to Canada

Lord Elgin, the Governor-General of the Province of Canada, was concerned that sympathisers of an independent Ireland would cause Canadians to become disloyal to the British monarch and bring unrest to the colony. He hoped pardoning participants of the 1837 rebellions would increase Canadian loyalty to Britain. He introduced a general amnesty bill to the Canadian Legislature in 1849, which allowed Mackenzie to return to Canada. Mackenzie travelled to Montreal in February and his arrival caused his effigy to be burned in Kingston and riots in Belleville and Toronto. He returned to New York on April 4 and documented his visit in A Winter's Journey through the Canadas. Greely hired Mackenzie to assemble Whig almanacs and the Business Men's Almanack, which were published in 1850. Mackenzie moved to Toronto in May 1850 with his family, wrote weekly articles for the Tribune and contributed to the Examiner and The Niagara Mail. York County and the provincial government accepted his claim for income he did not receive in the 1830s as a public servant and Welland Canal Company commissioner.

Return to the Legislature

Mackenzie in the 1850s

In April 1851, Mackenzie won a by-election in Haldimand County for the Parliament of Canada with 294 votes. Constituents voted for him because they did not like the government's Reform candidates and believed Mackenzie would be independent. In the legislature, Mackenzie proposed an investigation of the Court of Chancery, which Robert Baldwin had reorganised. Baldwin resigned from the ministry when the majority of Canada West legislators supported Mackenzie's proposal. In the October 1851 election, Mackenzie campaigned against reformers like Baldwin, Francis Hincks and James Hervey Price in their constituencies while winning his own election in Haldimand County with 63% of the vote.

Mackenzie refused to participate in the 1852 negotiations to merge the reform movement with the Clear Grits of George Brown. On October 5, 1852, Mackenzie wrote a letter to the Examiner that Lesslie wanted to edit before printing. Mackenzie rejected the edits and Lesslie did not publish any of Mackenzie's letters. Losing his only way to communicate with his constituents, Mackenzie began his own newspaper on December 25, 1852, called Mackenzie's Weekly Message which he later renamed the Toronto Weekly Message. Mackenzie faced a difficult reelection campaign in 1854 for his Haldimand seat. Local newspapers complained he only came to the constituency during elections and that the other legislators had a negative opinion of Mackenzie. His positions against religious school boards caused some voters to withdraw their support. He won the election by 54 votes, a smaller majority than the previous election.

In the 5th Parliament of the Province of Canada, Mackenzie opposed the MacNab-Morin coalition government and denounced Reform members who supported the administration. He believed it was unconstitutional when Lord Elgin did not give reform legislators a chance to form a government before accepting a Tory coalition. He was chairman of the Committee of Public Accounts and its reports criticised the province's disorganised record-keeping and exposed government expenditures that Parliament had not approved. Mackenzie proposed a resolution that condemned previous administrations for similar acts and he was removed from the committee by the Parliament in retaliation.

In 1855, Mackenzie's health deteriorated and in February he closed the Toronto Weekly Message. He wrote columns for Examiner until it merged with The Globe in August 1855. In December 1855, he revived the Message and published the Reader's Almanac in April 1856, outlining his arguments to split the union of Upper and Lower Canada. Mackenzie felt that tax revenue from Upper Canada was subsidizing infrastructure projects in Lower Canada and that the union maintained duplicate government officials, records and executives for each colony.

In the 1857 election, Mackenzie was narrowly reelected to the constituency of Haldimand with 38% of the vote. He accepted Brown's invitation to caucus with opposition members against the Macdonald-Cartier Administration. When the government was defeated, he supported the Brown-Dorion Administration, although he criticised the differing viewpoints of ministers and was disappointed when he was not appointed to be a minister. Mackenzie resigned his seat on August 16, 1858, calling the legislature illegitimate after the Governor-General reinstated the Mackenzie-Cartier Administration without an election.

Later life and death (1858–1861)

The exterior of Mackenzie House. This house was built by the Homestead Fund to support Mackenzie in his retirement.

At the end of 1858, Mackenzie collected petitions for the dissolution of the Province of Canada and planned to deliver them to the Colonial Office in England. The Homestead Fund, set up by James Lesslie to financially support Mackenzie, refused to fund the trip, so he travelled to New York to fundraise. He was unsuccessful so he cancelled his trip and returned to Toronto. He wrote Almanac for Independence and Freedom for 1860, which outlined arguments for dissolving the Province of Canada. In October he moved to a home in Toronto purchased by the Homestead Fund and ended publication of the Message on September 15, 1860, because of a lack of subscriptions.

In 1861 his health deteriorated and he refused to take medication. At the end of August, he went into a coma and died on August 28. His funeral procession stretched a half-mile and included Reformers and Family Compact members. He was buried at Toronto Necropolis with a twelve-foot Celtic cross made of grey granite serving as a grave marker. He is buried with his wife, four of his children, his son-in-law Charles Lindsey and his descendants, and a woman who married a descendant of Mackenzie named Wanda Gzowski.

Writing style

The topics of Mackenzie's articles were not consistent or linked between issues. He wrote about current events and topics he was thinking about in a particular moment, causing the prose to ramble. His writing format was disorganised, with obscure references difficult for today's readers to understand. Historian Lillian F. Gates struggled to comprehend The Life and Times of Martin Van Buren because Mackenzie did not describe events chronologically and used too many footnotes and large lists. Frederick Armstrong, another historian, said Mackenzie used long examples and had "excursions into trivia". William Kilbourn described Sketches of Canada and the United States as unconcerned with conventional storytelling techniques or "a sense of order", and Charles Lindsey described the book as disregarding the order of the stories.

Kilbourn stated the Colonial Advocate's articles were better when read aloud and described Mackenzie's slow pace as "a three-volume Victorian novel". He described The Constitution as "baroque convolutions of style" adding "their harsh jumble of book learning are really not for the printed page". Anthony W. Rasporich differed in his analysis of Mackenzie's writing and believed it was exciting for both subscribers in the 1800s and contemporary readers in 1972. Mackenzie ignored possible consequences when publishing his work and chronicled other people's situations to explain complicated financial concepts. He sometimes plagiarised other newspapers, did not attribute direct quotations, and invented quotations he would misattribute. He also printed information after promising his sources that he would not.

Political philosophy and views

Political philosophy

Mackenzie promoted a wide range of policies but was never the lead advocate on any issue. He changed his stance on policies because he wanted a person's judgement, not predetermined ideas, to decide the best course of action. He constantly disagreed with the province's administrators and refused to compromise, believing political institutions were corrupt. Mackenzie chose his political positions impulsively and replaced rational arguments with energetic actions.

Mackenzie's articles in his newspapers favoured radical reform causes. He followed a political theory that believed outlining problems publicly would lead to solutions. He professed in the Colonial Advocate he was a Whig but became a Jacksonian democrat of the Locofocos faction after meeting Andrew Jackson in 1829. John Charles Dent said his policies aligned with Conservative Party policies of the 1880s. John King, Mackenzie's son-in-law, disagreed and stated all Canadian political parties adopted Mackenzie's policies and called him a Liberal. Armstrong described Mackenzie in the 1850s as politically left of the Clear Grits. John Sewell said previous biographers described Mackenzie as radical, but that current scholars regard him as "an ideologue ranting against the Family Compact".

The social causes Mackenzie supported were conservative for their time. He adopted a puritanical outlook towards gambling and prostitution and wanted women to return to an agrarian lifestyle of taking care of the home. He opposed performers coming to York because of their amoral skits and double entendres. Rasporich described his editorials on Jews, Catholics, French Canadians and black people as prejudiced and in opposition to reform causes. According to Armstrong, Mackenzie's views on minority groups depended on their support for his policies; he was not concerned with the social standing of impoverished or oppressed people. The income gap between the richest and poorest people in Great Britain disturbed Mackenzie and he wanted to avoid this disparity in North America.

Mackenzie wanted the Canadian colonies to keep the Constitution of the United Kingdom but believed British institutions had to be modified for the Upper Canadian social structure and agrarian society. He opposed Upper Canada's lack of representation in the British legislature, especially when they passed legislation governing the province. He believed the government would respond to the people's needs with more efficiency if the province elected lawmakers. He supported responsible government to solve the conflicts between the Legislative Assembly and Executive Council of Upper Canada. He wanted to include American ideas, like the election of town magistrates and governors, but avoided publicising these opinions until 1832 because of public sentiment in Upper Canada was against American political institutions. When exiled to the United States, Mackenzie declared himself a believer in social democracy and the equality of everyone in society and the law.

Religious views

Elizabeth Mackenzie gave her son a Presbyterian seceder education. William rebelled against the religion in his youth, but he returned to it upon his arrival to Canada and remained faithful for the rest of his life. R.A. MacKay said religion was "more formal than vital" to Mackenzie and he was less reliant on faith after reading texts from the Age of Enlightenment. Mackenzie supported the social gospel, believed clergy should advocate for equality among citizens and opposed clergy who tried to maintain the status quo in the United States and Canada. In the 1830 election, he campaigned for equal rights for religious denominations. He was against attacking Catholics or Protestants for their religious beliefs and believed all Christian denominations persecuted other faiths at various points in their history. However, he criticised the Papacy in the Message in 1859.

Mackenzie initially praised clergy reserves and their role in creating a colonial upper class, although he believed all Christian sects should benefit from them. Mackenzie changed his position between 1824 and 1830 and opposed government funding to churches. He criticised a government grant given to British Wesleyans to proselytise to Indigenous communities in Upper Canada, causing Egerton Ryerson and Methodists to withdraw their support for the Reform movement in 1833. In his State of Upper Canada constitution, Mackenzie proposed religious equality and a separation of the government and religious institutions. His state would transfer ownership of clergy reserves to the legislature and distribute funds from their sale to municipalities. He wanted to abolish a religious test for employment and services and opposed creating an established church within Upper Canada.

Economic policies

Mackenzie's economic policies focused on an agrarian structure where agriculture was the foundation of an economy. His ideal economic society contained educated farmers and small business owners served by printing presses. His State of Upper Canada constitution proposed a ban on banks and trading companies, declaring the only way to generate wealth was through labour. He wanted labourers to profit from their work instead of giving payments to privileged politicians, religious leaders or economic institutions. He was against anything perceived as a monopoly and worked to dismantle banking institutions and end a printers union strike in 1836.

Mackenzie struggled to understand how stocks and banknotes denoted wealth. His State of Upper Canada constitution established gold and silver as the only legal tender and would only use coins as currency, whose value the legislature would regulate. He was critical of granting state aid or privileges to companies that would make them monopolies. He wanted tougher laws for lending money to corporations. In 1859, he proposed a requirement for three-fourths of Parliament, and approval from the government leader, before the government could provide a loan. He opposed farmers buying land on credit because it caused them to buy more property than they could afford. Mackenzie wanted the government to give free plots of land to immigrants or allow people to work in government projects to save enough money for land purchases. He supported tariffs to stop lower-priced products from entering Canadian markets. In the 1830s, he advocated letting the province choose which countries it could trade with because it gave farmers access to cheaper goods and reduced Upper Canada's dependence on British markets.

Legacy

Historical reputation

Upon his death, newspapers printed obituaries emphasising his independence, desire for honest public administration, and misguided patriotism. George Brown wrote he was "a man of impulse, prompt in action, full of courage and fire". John King called him "one of the greatest Liberal leaders in Canada". Historian Albert Schrauwers described Mackenzie as the "best-known reformer" of the early 1800s.

John Dent criticised Mackenzie's leadership of the Upper Canada Rebellion and his personal character. His research was refuted by Mackenzie's son James and John King, with the latter publishing his opinion as The Other Side of the "Story". A manuscript written by William Dawson LeSueur for the Makers of Canada series was rejected by its publishers because it did not portray Mackenzie as an influencer in Canada's creation. Instead, the publishers asked Lindsey and his son to condense his previous biography for its inclusion in the series.

Mackenzie emphasised the moral and political failings of the government but was unsure of how to create his ideal society. His term as mayor was overshadowed by a desire to reform government institutions instead of focusing on the problems of the city. Mackenzie struggled to influence legislation and his amendments to government bills were often rejected by the Assembly. Many of Mackenzie's biographers agree that he delayed the implementation of responsible government because the Upper Canada Rebellion caused an exodus of reform politicians from the colony. These politicians could have advocated a quicker implementation of reforms if they were able to stay.

Depictions and in memoriam

Walter Seymour Allward's bust of William Lyon Mackenzie outside the Legislative Assembly of Ontario in Toronto

Mackenzie's last home was designated as a historical site in 1936 to prevent its demolition. The Mackenzie Homestead Foundation turned the building into the Mackenzie House museum and operated the facility until it was sold to the City of Toronto in 1960. The William Lyon Mackenzie Centennial Committee commissioned a statue of Mackenzie which was sculpted by Walter Seymour Allward and placed in Queen's Park west of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario in 1940. Dennis Lee included Mackenzie in his poem 1838 and John Robert Colombo called Mackenzie a hero in The Mackenzie Poems. In 1976, Rick Salutin wrote a play about Mackenzie and the Upper Canada Rebellion called 1837: The Farmers' Revolt. In 1991 a group of volunteers opened the Mackenzie Printery museum in Mackenzie's Queenston home to document the newspaper industry in North America.

In the Spanish Civil War Canadian volunteers formed the Mackenzie–Papineau Battalion, naming it after Mackenzie and the leader of the Lower Canada Rebellion, Louis-Joseph Papineau. In 1960, Southview Collegiate in North York was renamed William Lyon Mackenzie Collegiate Institute after students suggested the name. The Toronto Fire Services named a fireboat the William Lyon Mackenzie in 1964. "The Rebel Mayor", a Twitter account which posted satirical comments on various candidates in Toronto's 2010 mayoral election, was written in Mackenzie's persona. Shawn Micallef, a journalist for Eye Weekly and Spacing magazine created the feed.

Notable works

• The History of the Destruction of the Colonial Advocate Press by Officers of the Provincial Government of Upper Canada and Law Students of the Attorney & Solicitor General (1827)
• Catechism of Education: Part First (1830)
• Sketches of Canada and the United States (1833)
• Mackenzie's Own Narrative of the Late Rebellion (1837)
• The Caroline Almanack (1840)
• The Sons of the Emerald Isle, or Lives of One Thousand Remarkable Irishmen (1845)
• The Lives and Opinions of Benj'n Franklin Butler, United States District Attorney for the Southern District of New York; and Jesse Hoyt, Counsellor at Law, formerly Collector of Customs for the Port of New York (1845)
• The Life and Times of Martin Van Buren: the Correspondence of his Friends, Family and Pupils (1846)
• Almanac for Independence and Freedom for 1860 (1860)

See also

• List of people pardoned or granted clemency by the president of the United States

Works cited

• Armstrong, Frederick H. (1971). "William Lyon Mackenzie: the persistent hero". Journal of Canadian Studies. 6 (3): 21–36. doi:10.3138/jcs.6.3.21. ISSN 0021-9495. S2CID 151561718. ProQuest 1300016915. Archived from the original on January 5, 2021 – via ProQuest.
• Armstrong, Frederick H.; Stagg, Ronald J. (1976). "Mackenzie, William Lyon". In Halpenny, Francess G. (ed.). Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Vol. 9. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. ISBN 978-0-8020-3320-8.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
• Bilson, Geoffrey (1980). A Darkened House: Cholera in Nineteenth-Century Canada. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. ISBN 978-0-8020-2367-4.
• Bonthius, Andrew (2003). "The Patriot War of 1837–1838: Locofocoism with a Gun?". Labour/Le Travail. 52: 9–43. doi:10.2307/25149383. JSTOR 25149383 – via JSTOR.
• Davis-Fisch, Heather (May 1, 2014). "Lawless Lawyers: Indigeneity, Civility, and Violence". Theatre Research in Canada. 35 (1): 31–48. doi:10.3138/tric.35.1.31. ISSN 1196-1198 – via Érudit.
• Dent, John Charles (1885a). The Story of the Upper Canadian Rebellion: Volume 1. Toronto: C.B. Robinson. ISBN 978-3-337-18647-0. Archived from the original on January 5, 2021.
• Dent, John Charles (1885b). The Story of the Upper Canadian Rebellion: Volume 2. Toronto: C.B. Robinson. ISBN 978-3-337-18647-0. Archived from the original on January 5, 2021.
• Dunham, Aileen (1963). Political unrest in Upper Canada, 1815–1836;. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart. ISBN 978-0-7735-9122-6.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
• Flint, David (1971). William Lyon Mackenzie – Rebel Against Authority. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-540184-4. Archived from the original on January 5, 2021.
• Gates, Lillian F. (1996). After the Rebellion: The Later Years of William Lyon Mackenzie. Dundurn Press. ISBN 978-1-55488-069-0.
• Gates, Lillian F. (1986). "Mackenzie's Gazette: An Aspect of W.L. Mackenzie's American Years [Essays in Canadian Bibliography: Bibliographical Studies in Reprint]". Papers of the Bibliographical Society of Canada. 25 (1). doi:10.33137/pbsc.v25i1.17628. ISSN 2562-8941. Archived from the original on January 5, 2021 – via Scholars Portal Journals.
• Gates, Lillian F. (1959). "The Decided Policy of William Lyon Mackenzie". Canadian Historical Review. 40 (3): 185–208. doi:10.3138/CHR-040-03-01. ISSN 0008-3755. S2CID 163022981 – via Project MUSE.
• Gray, Charlotte (1998). Mrs. King: the life and times of Isabel Mackenzie King. Toronto: Penguin Canada. ISBN 978-0-14-025367-2.
• Hamil, Fred Coyne (1967). "The Reform Movement in Upper Canada". Profiles of a Province: 9–19.
• Hoar, Victor (1969). The Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion: Canadian Participation in the Spanish Civil War. Toronto: The Copp Clark. ISBN 978-0-7735-8257-6.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
• Kilbourn, William (2008). The Firebrand: William Lyon Mackenzie and the Rebellion in Upper Canada. Toronto: Dundurn. ISBN 978-1-77070-324-7. Archived from the original on January 5, 2021.
• King, John (1886). The Other Side of the "Story". Toronto: J. Murray & Company. ISBN 978-0-665-07822-4. Archived from the original on January 5, 2021.
• Kingsford, William (1898). The History of Canada: Canada under British rule. Roswell & Hutchinson. ISBN 978-0-665-94039-2. Archived from the original on January 5, 2021.
• Leacock, Stephen (1926). Mackenzie, Baldwin, LaFontaine, Hincks. Toronto: Oxford University Press. OCLC 1006688974.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
• Lindsey, Charles (1862). The Life and Times of Wm. Lyon Mackenzie: With an Account of the Canadian Rebellion of 1837, and the Subsequent Frontier Disturbances, Chiefly from Unpublished Documents, Volume 1. Toronto: P.R. Randall. ISBN 978-0-665-41315-5. Archived from the original on January 5, 2021.
• MacKay, R. A. (1937). "The Political Ideas of William Lyon Mackenzie". The Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science. 3 (1): 1–22. doi:10.2307/136825. ISSN 0315-4890. JSTOR 136825. Archived from the original on January 5, 2021 – via JSTOR.
• Raible, Chris (1992). Muddy York Mud: Scandal & Scurrility in Upper Canada. Curiosity House. ISBN 978-0-9696418-0-3. Archived from the original on January 5, 2021.
• Raible, Chris (2008). "'The threat of being Morganized will not deter us': William Lyon Mackenzie, Freemasonry and the Morgan Affair". Ontario History. 100 (1): 3–25. doi:10.7202/1065725ar. ISSN 0030-2953. Archived from the original on January 5, 2021 – via Érudit.
• Raible, Christopher (2016). "'A journey undertaken under peculiar circumstances': The Perilous Escape of William Lyon Mackenzie December 7 to 11, 1837". Ontario History. 108 (2): 131–155. doi:10.7202/1050592ar. ISSN 0030-2953. Archived from the original on January 5, 2021 – via Érudit.
• Rasporich, Anthony W. (1972). William Lyon Mackenzie. Toronto: Holt, Rinehart and Winston of Canada. ISBN 978-0-03-925859-7. Archived from the original on January 5, 2021.
• Romney, Paul (1975). "William Lyon Mackenzie as Mayor of Toronto". Canadian Historical Review. 56 (4): 416–436. doi:10.3138/CHR-056-04-02. ISSN 0008-3755. S2CID 153806576 – via Project MUSE.
• Schrauwers, Albert (2007). "A Farmer's Alliance: The Joint Stock Companies of the Home District and the Economic Roots of Deliberative Democracy in Upper Canada". Ontario History. 99 (2): 190–219. doi:10.7202/1065739ar. ISSN 0030-2953. Archived from the original on January 5, 2021 – via Érudit.
• Schrauwers, Albert (2009). Union is Strength: W. L. Mackenzie, the Children of Peace and the Emergence of Joint Stock Democracy in Upper Canada. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. ISBN 978-0-8020-9927-3.
• Sewell, John (2002). Mackenzie: a political biography of William Lyon Mackenzie. Toronto: James Lorimer Limited. ISBN 978-1-5502-8767-7. Archived from the original on January 5, 2021.
• Wilton, Carol (1995). "'Lawless Law': Conservative Political Violence in Upper Canada, 1818–41". Law and History Review. 13 (1): 111–136. doi:10.2307/743957. ISSN 0738-2480. JSTOR 743957. Archived from the original on January 5, 2021 – via JSTOR.

External links

• Mackenzie – Lindsey family documents given to the Archives of Ontario.