CAROLINE, The, an American steamboat used in 1837 by the American sympathizers with the Canadian insurgents under William Lyon Mackenzie (q.v.). The latter, after years of agitation, had gathered a band of insurgents in December, and attempted to seize Toronto, capture the lieutenant-governor and his cab inet and proclaim a republic. He was defeated. and fled to Navy Island on the British side of the Niagara River. Some hundreds of Ameri can sympathizers joined him, and he set up a *provisional government,' issued paper money and offered bounties for volunteers and a re ward for the apprehension of the lieutenant governor. On 29 December an American steamer, the Caroline, crossed over to his camp from Schlosser on the American side, laden with reinforcements, provisions and munitions; and returning, lay at Schlosser that night full of men presumably ready for a similar trip the next day. The Canadians, incensed at this outrageous violation of neutrality, sent over an armed party in boats to enforce it. They boarded the Caroline, hustled the passengers and crew ashore, killing one man (Amos Dur fee) on shore in the fray, towed the vessel out into the stream, set it on fire and sent it over Niagara. A great uproar ensued. President Van Buren issued a proclamation ordering the neutrality laws to be respected, and, calling out the militia under Winfield Scott, he then de manded reparation from the British govern ment. The latter naturally showed no great alacrity in responding. Shortly afterward, one
Alexander McLeod came over to the American side, boasting that he was one of the boarding party and had killed one of the Caroline's men with his own hand. He was arrested, indicted by the grand jury for the murder of Durfee and imprisoned to await his trial. Fox, the English Minister, demanded his release; the Secretary of State (Forsyth of Georgia) re plied that he was in the hands of justice in New York State and must await its course; Lord Pahnerston thereupon assumed for the English government full responsibility for the assault on the Caroline and again demanded his release. But Fox in his letter curiously added that the government had every reason to be lieve that McLeod was not one of the boarding party; in which case, of course, he was either a mendacious braggart or a common murderer, and the matter of the Caroline was irrelevant. Webster, now Secretary of State, replied, ignoring this point, that if the case were in a Federal court the President would order a soils proseqai entered; but it being in a State court, he could only await its action, and if it did not discharge McLeod, the case should go up to the United States Supreme Court In the July term of 1838 a writ of habeas corpus was sued for in the New York Supreme Court, but refused. McLeod was acquitted, however, and the whole affair dropped. See CANADA DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS OF THE UNITED STATES WITH.