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 Dec, 18:37, when, after some skirmishing, in which several lives were lost, the insurgents fled, and took up a position on Navy island, in Niagara river. Plere they were re-enforced 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 Gen. Winfield Scott, of the U. S. 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 weekly 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 con- tended 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 Lindsey (2 vols., Philadelphia, 1862).
McKEON, John, lawyer, b. in Albany, N. Y., in
1808; d. in New York city, 22 Nov., 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 legislature from 1832 till 1834, and
subsequently was elected to congress as a Democrat,
serving from 7 Dec., 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 U. S.
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 cases. 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.
MACKEY, John, educator, b. in Charleston,
S. C., in 1765; d. there, 14 Dec., 1831. He was
educated as a physician and practised many years
in his native city. In 1812 he established there a
morning paper called “The Investigator,” which
he edited until 1817, when it changed hands and
became “The Southern Patriot and Advertiser.”
During the remainder of his life he devoted
himself to teaching and published “The American
Teacher's Assistant and Self-Instructor's Guide,
containing all the Rules of Arithmetic properly
Explained, etc.” (Charleston, 1826). This was the
most comprehensive work on arithmetic that had
then been published in this country. — His son,
Albert Gallatin, writer on Freemasonry, b. in
Charleston, S. C., 12 March, 1807; d. in Fortress
Monroe, Va., 20 June, 1881, obtained by teaching
the means of studying medicine, and was graduated
at the medical department of the College of
South Carolina in 1832. He settled in Charleston,
and was in 1838 elected demonstrator of anatomy
in that institution, but in 1844 he abandoned the
practice of his profession, and divided his time
between miscellaneous writing and the study of
Freemasonry. After being connected with several
Charleston journals, he established in 1849 “The
Southern and Western Masonic Miscellany,” a weekly
magazine, which he maintained for the following
three years almost entirely with his own
contributions. In 1858-'60 he conducted a “Quarterly,”
which he devoted to the same interests. He
acquired the Greek, Latin, Hebrew, and continental
languages almost unaided, and lectured frequently
on the intellectual and moral development of the
middle ages. Subsequently he turned his attention
exclusively to the investigation of abstruse
symbolism, and to cabalistic and Talmudic
researches. Besides contributing frequently to
periodicals, he published “A Lexicon of Freemasonry”
(New York, 1845; 3d ed., enlarged and improved,
Philadelphia, 1855); “The Mystic Tie” (Charleston,
1849); “Book of the Chapter” (New York,
1858); “A History of Freemasonry in South
Carolina” (1861); “A Manual of the Lodge” (1862);
“Cryptic Masonry” and “Masonic Ritualist”
(1867); “Symbolism of Freemasonry” and “A
Text-Book of Masonic Jurisprudence” (1869); and
“Masonic Parliamentary Law” (1875). His largest
and most important contribution to masonic literature,
however, is the “Encyclopaedia of
Freemasonry” (1874), the second edition of which,
published after his death, contains an extended
biographical sketch of the author. These works are
considered authoritative, and the majority of them
have passed through many editions both in this
country and in England.
MACKIE, John Milton, author, b. in Wareham, Plymouth co., Mass., 19 Dec., 1813. He was graduated at Brown in 1832, and studied at the University of Berlin, Germany, in 1833-'4. On his return to this country he was tutor from 1835 till 1838 in the former institution. Besides contributing to the “North American,” “American Whig,” and “Christian” reviews chiefly papers relating to German history and literature, Mr. Mackie has published “Life of Godfrey William von Leibnitz” (Boston, 1845); and “Life of Samuel Gorton” in Sparks's “American Biography” (1848); “Cosas de España, or Going to Madrid via Barcelona” (New York, 1848); “Life of Schamyl, the Circassian Chief” (1856); “Life of Tai-Ping-Wang, Chief of
