MacDonald rushes Patrick Whelan’s trial and execution, Why? I think that John A. MacDonald rushes Patrick Whelan’s trial because he was trying to get revenge. D’arcy McGee was an important person because he was a father of confederation, he was a member of the House of Commons and when he was shot, Sir John A. MacDonald picked his blood-soaked body up and carried him inside of his house. Patrick Whelan’s story was odd, he was accused of many crimes, one being the murder of D’arcy McGee. When the war between the British and the Irish (Fenians), he was from the Fenian colony but fought against his colony along with the British. When D’arcy McGee was assassinated on April 7th, 1868, a few hours after the shooting, over 40 Irish-Canadians were arrested, including Sir John A. MacDonald’s stable hand- who gave the police the name of Patrick Whelan. He was taken to the police and they told him to turn out his pockets, he emptied out: irish dance tickets, a membership to an Irish social club, a picture of a lady and a pistol that matched the exact one that had shot McGee. But, the pistol still had all of its bullets in it. …show more content…
During the trial, Sir. John A. MacDonald got up out of his seat and sat next to the judge. Only 1 witness testified to Whelan being upset about McGee’s politics, on the other hand 7 others said that Whelan had no interest in politics. Whelan was extremely calm and standoffish in the trial, he had his feet up on the desk, chomping away at an apple and he laughed hysterically when a police fell onto the floor and at the fact that because the trial was rushed, they brought in the wrong witness. A witness had stated that Whelan had tried to sell his pistol 6 weeks prior to the shooting. There was a rumour going around of witness bribery, so the judge had all the witnesses swear on a bible in front of everyone, saying that they weren’t