Alexander McLeod

During the Upper Canada Rebellion, the American steamer Caroline had been used to ferry weapons to a group of 200-300 Canadian rebels on Navy Island. Her owner, William Wells, had purchased the boat six months earlier after it was seized for smuggling, and claimed to have unloaded a cask for the insurgents but to have been ignorant of its contents. ==Trial==

McLeod was the subject of a "curious spectacle" of a trial, in that his defence attorney Joshua A. Spencer had been appointed United States Attorney for the Northern District of New York, but chose to remain as McLeod's counsel. Governor William H. Seward wrote to President John Tyler, but was informed that it was up to Spencer how he wished to handle his own affairs. The indictment read by District Attorney J. L. Woods against McLeod stated that he had... Further counts of the indictment suggested that John Mosier, Thomas McCormick, Rolland McDonald, or "certain evil-disposed persons to the Jurors unknown" had been the actual gunman to kill Durfee, but that McLeod had been an accessory to the murder. Presided over by Judge Gridley, the case saw Charles O. Curtis, Dr. Edmund Allen, John Mott, Elijah Brush, Ira Byington, William Carpenter, Isaih Thurber, Peter Sleight, Asher Allen, Seymour Carrier, Eseck Allen and Volnev Elliott as the chosen jurors, nine of them farmers. The "gentle words" of Lord Ashburton were credited with allowing the acquittal to sink from public scrutiny. ==See also==