Page:Dictionary of National Biography. Sup. Vol I (1901).djvu/214

 paid spy, under cover of an active membership of the Fenian body, Le Caron continued in direct and frequent communication with the British or Canadian government from this time till February 1889.

Immediately after his return he resumed relations with the Fenian leader O'Neill, now United States claim-agent at Nashville. On 31 Dec. 1867 O'Neill became president of the Fenian organisation (Irish Republican Brotherhood), and soon afterwards Le Caron began to organise a Fenian circle in Lockport, Illinois. As 'centre' of this he received O'Neill's reports and sent them and other documents to the English government. At this time Le Caron was at Chicago as resident medical officer of the state penitentiary (prison), but resigned the position in the course of the year, when he was summoned by O'Neill to New York, and accompanied him to an interview at Washington with President Andrew Johnson, the object of which was to obtain the return of the arms taken from the Fenians in 1866. He was now appointed military organiser of the 'Irish Republican Army,' and sent on a mission to the eastern states. At the Philadelphia convention of December 1868 a second invasion of Canada was resolved on by the Fenians. Le Caron, who was entrusted with the chief direction of the preparations along the frontier, paid a visit to Ottawa and arranged with the Canadian chief commissioner of police (Judge M'Micken) a system of daily communications. He dissipated some suspicions that were entertained of him by the Fenians, and early in 1869 he was appointed their assistant adjutant-general, and forwarded to the authorities copies of the Fenian plans of campaign. He had already obtained a dominant influence over Alexander Sullivan, an important member of the brotherhood, and in the winter of 1869 he further strengthened his position by providing O'Neill with a loan wherewith to cover his embezzlement of Fenian funds.

Early in 1870 Le Caron, who now held the rank of brigadier and adjutant-general, had distributed fifteen thousand stand of arms and three million rounds of cartridge along the Canadian frontier. Owing to information furnished by Le Caron to the Canadian authorities, the invading force at once (26 April) fell into an ambush, and were obliged to retreat. O'Neill was arrested by order of President Grant for a breach of the neutrality laws. Le Caron fled with his followers to Malone, but on the 27th made his way to Montreal. Next day he set out for Ottawa, but was arrested at Cornwall as a recognised Fenian, and was only allowed to proceed under a military escort. After a midnight interview with M'Micken he left Canada early next day by a different route.

After the repulse of the second invasion Le Caron resumed his medical studies, but was soon invited by O'Neill, who suspected nothing, to help in the movement being prepared in conjunction with Louis Riel [q. v.] Le Caron betrayed the plans to the Canadian government. In consequence of his action O'Neill was arrested with his party at Fort Pembina, on 5 Oct. 1871, just as they had crossed the frontier, and Riel surrendered at Fort Garry without firing a shot. O'Neill was given up to the American authorities, but was acquitted by them on the ground that the oft'ence was committed on Canadian soil. Le Caron incurred some blame in Fenian circles in consequence of the failure of the last movement, and for the next few years was chiefly occupied in the practice of medicine, first at Detroit (where he graduated M.D.) and then at Braidwood, a suburb of Wilmington. But at Detroit he watched on behalf of the Canadian government the movements of Mackay Lomasney, who was afterwards concerned in the attempt to blow up London Bridge with dynamite ; and he was still in the confidence of former Fenian friends.

Le Caron was not an original member of the Clan-na-Gael (the reorganised Fenian body). But by circulating the report that his mother was an Irishwoman, he gradually regained his influence and obtained the 'senior-guardianship' of the newly formed 'camp' at Braid wood. He was now able to send copies of important documents to Mr. Robert Anderson, chief of the criminal detective department in London. In order to do this, however, he was obliged to evade by sleight of hand the rule of the organisation that documents not returned to headquarters were to be burned in sight of the camp.

The years 1879-81 witnessed what was called 'the new departure' in the Irish-American campaign against England, whereby an 'open' or constitutional agitation (represented in Ireland by the Land League and its successor) was carried on side by side with the old revolutionary Fenian movement. The relations between the two were very intricate, and Le Caron was closely connected with both. Pie entertained at Braidwood and professionally attended Mr. Michael Davitt when he came to America to organise the American branch of the Land League, and early in 1881 he saw much of John Devoy, who represented the