_American Celt_. When he changed his former attitude of opposition to
British rule in Ireland he was attacked by the extreme Irish patriots
in the United States and in consequence moved to Canada, where he
founded the _New Era_ and began to practice law. Subsequently, with
the support of the Irish Canadians, he represented Montreal in the
Parliament of United Canada (1858) and was President of the Council
(1862) in the John Sandfield Macdonald Administration. When the Irish
were left unrepresented in the reorganized Cabinet in the following
year, McGee became an adherent of Sir John A. Macdonald, and in 1864
he was made Minister of Agriculture in the Taché-Macdonald
Administration. An ardent supporter of the progressive policies of his
adopted country, he was one of the Fathers of Confederation and was a
member of the first Dominion Parliament in 1867. His denunciations,
both in Ireland (1865) and in Canada, of the policies and activities
of the Fenians led to his assassination at Ottawa on April 7, 1868.]




CHAPTER VI

THE TEUTONIC TIDE


As the Irish wave of immigration receded the Teutonic wave rose and
brought the second great influx of foreigners to American shores. A
greater ethnic contrast could scarcely be imagined than that which was
now afforded by these two races, the phlegmatic, plodding German and
the vibrant Irish, a contrast in American life as a whole which was
soon represented in miniature on the vaudeville stage by popular