BIBLIOGRAPHY
No adequate biography of Thomas D'Arcy McGee has hitherto been written. Consequently the student of his life must depend upon sundry sources of information. Sir Charles Gavan Duffy's books, Young Ireland (New York, 1881), Four Years of Irish History (London, 1883), and My Life in Two Hemispheres (London, 1898) contain material on McGee's adventures as a Young Irelander.
For the study of his Canadian career, his own Speeches and Addresses, chiefly on the Subject of British-American Union (London, 1865) is of prime interest. This volume comprises his leading speeches on the subject of Confederation, but many more of his addresses must be sought for in the columns of Canadian newspapers, particularly in the Montreal Gazette. The Canadian Freeman, published in Toronto from 1858 to 1869, was a Catholic paper which gave special place to McGee's views. Of course, the New Era is also of interest. In the British American Magazine for August and October, 1863, McGee wrote articles on British American nationality. A few of his remarks in parliament on the same subject may be found in Thompson's Mirror of Parliament for 1860. Much interesting material will be found in the Memoirs of Ralph Vansittart (Toronto, 1924) by Edward Robert Cameron, a personal friend of McGee. W. A. Foster, Canada First (Toronto, 1890; with intr. by Goldwin Smith) is worth consulting for a contemporary opinion on McGee's influence over the younger generation of Canadians. George W. Ross, Getting into Parliament and After (Toronto, 1913) has a good, if brief, description of McGee as an orator. Joseph Pope, The Memoirs of the Right Hon. Sir John A. Macdonald (Ottawa, 1894) contains some information of interest. The Macdonald Papers in the Dominion Archives, have a fund of material on the movement of Confederation, with which McGee was so intimately connected. Sir Charles Tupper, Recollections of Sixty Years (London, 1914) has a few notes of interest.
The following brief sketches and studies may be mentioned: Fennings Taylor, Thomas D'Arcy McGee: Sketch of His Life and Death (Montreal, 1868). Henry J. O'C. Clarke, A Short Sketch of the Life of Thomas D'Arcy McGee (Montreal, 1868). N. F. Davin, The Irishman in Canada (Toronto, 1877), devotes a few pages to McGee. Charles Dent, Canadian Portrait Gallery, (Toronto, 1881), volume III, has a sketch of McGee's life. Robert McGibbon, Thomas D'Arcy McGee: An Address Before the St. Patrick's Society of Sherbrooke (Montreal 1884). J. K. Foran, Thomas D'Arcy McGee as an Empire Builder (Ottawa, 1906), an address before the Empire Club of Toronto. H. O. Hammond, Confederation and Its Leaders (Toronto, 1917), contains a brief chapter on McGee. W. S. Wallace, Growth of Canadian National Feeling (Canadian Historical Review, June, 1920), discusses McGee's part in the creation of a Canadian national sentiment. D. C. Harvey, Thomas D'Arcy McGee, the Prophet of Canadian Nationality (University of Manitoba, 1923) describes McGee as a Canadian nationalist and quotes from his speeches.
McGee's collected poems were edited and published by Mrs. Sadlier (New York, 1869). Mrs. Sadlier's introduction contains some valuable information concerning McGee's life.
The following is a list of the more important of McGee's other books: O'Connell and His Friends (Boston, 1845); Historical Sketches of Irish Settlers in America (Boston, 1855); Catholic History of North America (Boston, 1855); Life of Bishop Maginn (New York, 1857); Canadian Ballads and Occasional Verses (Toronto, 1858); The Irish Writers of the 17th Century (Dublin, 1863); Popular History of Ireland (New York, 1863); and Notes on Federal Governments Past and Present (Montreal, 1865).