Around 1837, Niagara County residents were living in fear of a possibile third war with England. Local residents had become embroiled in a rebellion in Canada called the Patriot War. Canadian leader, William Lyon Mackenzie, had fled to Navy Island near the American shore of the Niagara River. Once there, Mackenzie declared the island to be a new nation, separate from Canada. On December 29, 1837, in retaliation for U.S. support of Mackenzie, a group of British supporters attacked the U.S. steamer Caroline, killing Captain Amos Durfee. The British Loyalist forces then towed the ship into the middle of the river, set it afire, and sent it blazing down the rapids toward Niagara Falls. The citizens of Niagara County were indignant about the loss of U.S. property and the killing of a U.S. citizen, and demanded the perpetrators be brought to justice. A grand jury was convened in the county seeking action against Alexander McLeod, a Canadian Deputy Sheriff, who was accused of Captain Durfee’s murder. In September 1840, nearly three years after the Patriot War, McLeod was finally arrested and placed in the jail at Lockport. A Niagara County judge discharged McLeod when a question of his actual identity was raised. After great public outcry, McLeod was arrested again under a warrant issued by a Lewiston town justice and was held awaiting the action of a county grand jury. The judge set bail in the sum of $5,000 and two men were found in the county who consented to become his bondsmen.

Niagara County residents were outraged at the thought of setting McLeod free, and they demanded a public meeting to express their dissatisfaction. Speeches were made, bells rung and cannon fired. Bands marched back and forth, playing patriotic music with vigor. One legislator was quoted as saying, “there was not gold enough in Great Britain to take this man's body out of the county of Niagara, until he shall have gone through the form of a trial." The spirit of indignation was so strong that one of the bondsmen withdrew his offer, and amidst the tempest of excited passions, it was determined that the prisoner would not be released. British officials who supported the prisoner stated, "McLeod's execution would produce war, war immediate and frightful in its character, because it would be a war of retaliation and vengeance."

In February, a county grand jury ruled against McLeod, charging him with the burning of the Caroline and murder of Durfee and the prisoner remained confined in jail at Lockport awaiting trial. In the meanwhile, insurgents began to wreak havoc and succeeded in blowing up Brock’s monument in Queenston and damaged a lock on the Welland Canal. The officials feared McLeod’s friends might try to break him out of jail or worse yet, he might be taken out and lynched by those enraged by the memory of the murderous assault. As a result, Governor Seward decided it would be in everyone’s best interest if the trial were moved to another part of the state. In the ensuing much publicized trial in Utica, several witnesses provided a strong alibi for McLeod and he was found not guilty after the jury deliberated only twenty minutes. Court officials arranged for the prisoner’s safe return to Upper Canada through Lake Champlain, rather than through the Niagara region.

Douglas Farley, Director
Erie Canal Discover Center
24 Church St.
Lockport NY 14094
716.439.0431
CanalDiscovery@aol.com
www.NiagaraHistory.org