Background
Born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on the 10th of November 1844 to John Sparrow Thompson and Charlotte Pottinger, he was of Irish descent.
(Excerpt from Discours sur la Question Riel: Prononcé le 2...)
Excerpt from Discours sur la Question Riel: Prononcé le 22 Mars, 1886, à la Chambre des Communes Je regrette beaucoup que l'on soit arrivé à. Cette décision, mais nous avons 'cru que cela était notre devoir, et je ne considère pas que la Chambre soit le lieu convenable où l'on puisse refaire les proc s. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
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Born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on the 10th of November 1844 to John Sparrow Thompson and Charlotte Pottinger, he was of Irish descent.
He trained as a lawyer, and was called to the bar in 1865.
In 1871 he incurred much odium by leaving the Methodist Church, in which he had been prominent, and becoming a Roman Catholic, a change dictated solely by religious motives. In 1877 he was elected to the local legislature for Antigonish as a Conservative, and in 1878 became attorney-general. In May 1882 he became premier, but in June was defeated at the general election, though retaining his own seat, and in July was made a judge of the provincial Supreme Court. In September 1885, he was appointed minister of justice in the Federal cabinet, and soon after was elected member for Antigonish. In 1886 he successfully defended in the Federal parliament the hanging of Louis Riel, which had greatly angered the French Roman Catholics; in 1887-1888, together with Mr Joseph Chamberlain and Sir Charles Tupper, he arranged a Fisheries Treaty with the American commissioners, which was afterwards thrown out by the United- States Senate. During the following years he defended the government with great skill in various politico-religious disputes, and in November 1892 succeeded Sir John Abbott as premier of Canada. The length of time during which the Conservatives had held office had gathered around many parasites, and Thompson was compelled to face charges, some of them true, against prominent Conservatives, He promptly announced his intention to " lop the mouldering branches away, " and would probably have reorganized his party, but on the 12th of December 1894 he dropped dead at Windsor Castle, a few minutes after having been sworn in by Queen Victoria as a member of the privy council.
(Excerpt from Discours sur la Question Riel: Prononcé le 2...)
Thompson married Annie Affleck (1842–1913) in 1870. Annie Thompson was strong-willed and had the same kind of spirit that had driven Agnes Macdonald (another prime minister's wife) to ride the cowcatcher of a Canadian Pacific Railway train through the British Columbia mountains. During their courtship, Thompson was forced to write love letters in shorthand because of his soon-to-be wife's disapproving parents. Thompson's family life was marred by tragedy. A daughter, Annie, died at 1, while youngest son David lived to be 2. Two other children died at birth, but the Thompsons had five children survive childhood.