Virtual Museum of Art | Virtual Museum of History | Virtual Public Library | Virtual Science Center | Virtual Museum of Natural History | Virtual War Museum
   You are in: Museum of History >> Hall of North and South Americans >> William Lyon Mackenzie





The Seven Flags of the New Orleans Tri-Centennial 1718-2018

For more information go to New Orleans 300th Birthday

 

Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography, edited by James Grant Wilson, John Fiske and Stanley L. Klos. Six volumes, New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1887-1889 and 1999. Virtualology.com warns that these 19th Century biographies contain errors and bias. We rely on volunteers to edit the historic biographies on a continual basis. If you would like to edit this biography please submit a rewritten biography in text form . If acceptable, the new biography will be published above the 19th Century Appleton's Cyclopedia Biography citing the volunteer editor




Virtual American Biographies

Over 30,000 personalities with thousands of 19th Century illustrations, signatures, and exceptional life stories. Virtualology.com welcomes editing and additions to the biographies. To become this site's editor or a contributor Click Here or e-mail Virtualology here.



A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

 



William Lyon Mackenzie

MACKENZIE, William Lyon, Canadian journalist, born in Dundee, Forfarshire, Scotland, 12 March, 1795; died in Toronto, 28 August, 1861. He was educated imperfectly, owing to the death of his father, Daniel, when the son was an infant, and was obliged to work at an early age for his own support. When a mere lad, he entered a shop in Dundee, went thence into the countinghouse of a wool-merchant, and when seventeen years of age engaged in business himself by opening a small general store and circulating library at Alyvth. He was unsuccessful in business, and going to England in 1817 became managing clerk to a canal company in Wiltshire, and subsequently was for a short period in London. After visiting France, in the spring of 1820, Mr. Mackenzie emigrated to Canada, where he was made superintendent of the works of the Lachine canal, and afterward opened a drug and book store at Little York (now Toronto), in partnership with John Lesslie. This partnership was dissolved in 1823, and Mackenzie removed to Queenstown, where he opened a store, but abandoned it soon afterward to enter politics. In May, 1824, he issued the first number of the "Colonial Advocate," which he continued to publish until 1833. In June, 1826, the office of the "Advocate," which had been removed to Toronto, was forcibly entered, its contents destroyed, and most of the type thrown into Toronto bay. This act, which was doubtless prompted by persons that had been attacked by Mr. Mackenzie in his paper, made him more popular than before, and the large damages he received as a compensation for the outrage enabled him to continue more successfully than ever his appeals for reform in the government, and his denunciations of the official classes. In 1827 he was an unsuccessful candidate for the provincial parliament from York, and was elected in 1828; but, for alleged libel on the assembly, was expelled five times, only to be as often re-elected, until the government finally refused to issue another writ of election. In April, 1832, he went to London to present, to the home government a petition of grievances from the Reformers of Canada, and while there secured from the Whig ministry the dismissal from office of the attorney-general, and the solicitor-general of Upper Canada, and a veto of the Upper Canada bank bill. In March, 1834, the name of York was changed to Toronto, and Mr. Mackenzie was chosen its first mayor, thus being the first mayor in Upper Canada. In July, 1836, he issued the first number of " The Constitution," in which he attacked Sir Francis Bond Head, the lieutenant-governor of Upper Canada, for his arbitrary acts and interference with the freedom of election. In August, 1837, a manifesto appeared in " The Constitution," which was virtually a declaration of independence, and in December of that year he crowned his defiance of the government by instigating rebellion. He and Van Egmond, a retired soldier of the first Napoleon, who had been appointed general of the insurgents, appeared on Yonge street, near Toronto, at the head of an armed force, and demanded of the lieutenant-governor a settlement of all provincial difficulties by a convention, which demand was not acceded to. He now determined to march on the city, secure a quantity of arms that were stored there, arrest the governor and the members of his cabinet, and declare Canada a republic; but the government was soon in the field with a superior force. An encounter took place at Montgomery's hill, about four miles from the city, 7 December, 1837, when, after some skirmishing, in which several lives were lost, the insurgents fled, and took up a position on Navy island, in Niagara river. Here they were ***recuffreed by 500 American sympathizers, and Mackenzie established a provisional government, offering by proclamation, in the name of the new government, 300 acres of land and $100 to all volunteers to the army on Navy island, and a reward of £500 for the apprehension of Sir Francis Head, the governor-general. Navy island was now cannonaded by a force of royalists, and this and the opposition of General Winfield Scott, of the United States army, forced the insurgents to break up their camp. Mackenzie was taken prisoner, and sentenced to twelve months' confinement in Rochester jail. On being set at liberty, he found employment on the press of the United States, and was for five or six years a contributor to the "New York Tribune." During that period he published some political pamphlets, one of which, "Sketches of William L. Marcy, Jacob Barker, and Others" (1845), was compiled from papers that he found in the custom-house, where he held a clerkship for a short time. On the proclamation of amnesty in 1849, he returned to Canada, and in 1850, as an opponent of George Brown, was again elected to parliament, where he sat till 1858. From his retirement almost up to the time of his death he published in Toronto "Mackenzie's Message," a weeldy journal. Toward the close of his life his friends raised a sum to purchase for him an annuity and a homestead near the city, but, notwithstanding their liberality, he died in comparative poverty. All the reforms for which he contended so persistently for years, and for which he finally headed an armed insurrection, have been since granted. He was the author of "Sketches of Canada and the United States" (London, 1833). See "Life of William Lyon Mackenzie," by Charles Lindsev (2 vols., Philadelphia, 1862).

--BEGIN-John McKeon

McKEON, John, lawyer, born in Albany, New York, in 1808; died in New York city, 22 November, 1883. He was graduated at Columbia in 1825, studied law, was admitted to the bar, and began to practise in New York city. He was a member of the lower house of the iegislature from 1832 till 1834, and subsequently was elected to congress as a Democrat, serving from 7 December, 1835, till 3 March, 1837, and from 31 May, 1841, till 3 March, 1843. He was appointed district attorney of the county of New York early in 1846, and the following year, the office having become elective, he was chosen for the full term of three years. He was resolute in the discharge of his duties, notably in securing the conviction of the notorious malpractitioner, Madame Restell, and in his determined hostility to criminals of all classes. After serving during the unexpired term of Charles O'Conor as United States district attorney for the southern district of New York, he resumed the practice of law in 1858. While holding the latter office he was engaged in prosecuting a number of important eases. Among them were the attempt to enlist men to serve in the British army during the Crimean war; the seizure of the filibustering ship "Northern Light," and the trial of Officer Westervelt, who had been captured on board the "Nightingale " by government cruisers, that vessel having in her hold 960 slaves. Although well advanced in years, he was nominated for district attorney in the autumn of 1881, and was elected to the same office that he had held more than thirty years before.

Edited Appletons Encyclopedia, Copyright © 2001 VirtualologyTM

Start your search on William Lyon Mackenzie.


 

 


 


Unauthorized Site: This site and its contents are not affiliated, connected, associated with or authorized by the individual, family, friends, or trademarked entities utilizing any part or the subject's entire name. Any official or affiliated sites that are related to this subject will be hyper linked below upon submission and Evisum, Inc. review.

Copyright© 2000 by Evisum Inc.TM. All rights reserved.
Evisum Inc.TM Privacy Policy

Search:

About Us

 

 

Image Use

Please join us in our mission to incorporate The Congressional Evolution of the United States of America discovery-based curriculum into the classroom of every primary and secondary school in the United States of America by July 2, 2026, the nation’s 250th birthday. , the United States of America: We The People Click Here

 

Historic Documents

Articles of Association

Articles of Confederation 1775

Articles of Confederation

Article the First

Coin Act

Declaration of Independence

Declaration of Independence

Emancipation Proclamation

Gettysburg Address

Monroe Doctrine

Northwest Ordinance

No Taxation Without Representation

Thanksgiving Proclamations

Mayflower Compact

Treaty of Paris 1763

Treaty of Paris 1783

Treaty of Versailles

United Nations Charter

United States In Congress Assembled

US Bill of Rights

United States Constitution

US Continental Congress

US Constitution of 1777

US Constitution of 1787

Virginia Declaration of Rights

 

Historic Events

Battle of New Orleans

Battle of Yorktown

Cabinet Room

Civil Rights Movement

Federalist Papers

Fort Duquesne

Fort Necessity

Fort Pitt

French and Indian War

Jumonville Glen

Manhattan Project

Stamp Act Congress

Underground Railroad

US Hospitality

US Presidency

Vietnam War

War of 1812

West Virginia Statehood

Woman Suffrage

World War I

World War II

 

Is it Real?



Declaration of
Independence

Digital Authentication
Click Here

 

America’s Four Republics
The More or Less United States

 
Continental Congress
U.C. Presidents

Peyton Randolph

Henry Middleton

Peyton Randolph

John Hancock

  

Continental Congress
U.S. Presidents

John Hancock

Henry Laurens

John Jay

Samuel Huntington

  

Constitution of 1777
U.S. Presidents

Samuel Huntington

Samuel Johnston
Elected but declined the office

Thomas McKean

John Hanson

Elias Boudinot

Thomas Mifflin

Richard Henry Lee

John Hancock
[
Chairman David Ramsay]

Nathaniel Gorham

Arthur St. Clair

Cyrus Griffin

  

Constitution of 1787
U.S. Presidents

George Washington 

John Adams
Federalist Party


Thomas Jefferson
Republican* Party

James Madison 
Republican* Party

James Monroe
Republican* Party

John Quincy Adams
Republican* Party
Whig Party

Andrew Jackson
Republican* Party
Democratic Party


Martin Van Buren
Democratic Party

William H. Harrison
Whig Party

John Tyler
Whig Party

James K. Polk
Democratic Party

David Atchison**
Democratic Party

Zachary Taylor
Whig Party

Millard Fillmore
Whig Party

Franklin Pierce
Democratic Party

James Buchanan
Democratic Party


Abraham Lincoln 
Republican Party

Jefferson Davis***
Democratic Party

Andrew Johnson
Republican Party

Ulysses S. Grant 
Republican Party

Rutherford B. Hayes
Republican Party

James A. Garfield
Republican Party

Chester Arthur 
Republican Party

Grover Cleveland
Democratic Party

Benjamin Harrison
Republican Party

Grover Cleveland 
Democratic Party

William McKinley
Republican Party

Theodore Roosevelt
Republican Party

William H. Taft 
Republican Party

Woodrow Wilson
Democratic Party

Warren G. Harding 
Republican Party

Calvin Coolidge
Republican Party

Herbert C. Hoover
Republican Party

Franklin D. Roosevelt
Democratic Party

Harry S. Truman
Democratic Party

Dwight D. Eisenhower
Republican Party

John F. Kennedy
Democratic Party

Lyndon B. Johnson 
Democratic Party 

Richard M. Nixon 
Republican Party

Gerald R. Ford 
Republican Party

James Earl Carter, Jr. 
Democratic Party

Ronald Wilson Reagan 
Republican Party

George H. W. Bush
Republican Party 

William Jefferson Clinton
Democratic Party

George W. Bush 
Republican Party

Barack H. Obama
Democratic Party

Please Visit

Forgotten Founders
Norwich, CT

Annapolis Continental
Congress Society


U.S. Presidency
& Hospitality

© Stan Klos

 

 

 

 


Virtual Museum of Art | Virtual Museum of History | Virtual Public Library | Virtual Science Center | Virtual Museum of Natural History | Virtual War Museum