According to Ross, the
Colonists reasoned that "a man placed in Recorder Thom's position,
liable to be turned out of office at the Company's pleasure, naturally
provokes the doubt whether he could at all times be proof against the
sin of partiality. Is it likely," they said, "that he could always take
the impartial view of a case that might involve in its results his own
interests or deprive him of his daily bread?"
Likewise, on the part of the French half-breeds, there was the same
distrust in regard to the limiting of the privileges which they enjoyed,
while along with this it had been noised about that during the Papineau
trouble in Canada, the Judge was no favorite of the French. The French
half-breeds, accordingly, became strongly prejudiced against the new
Recorder.
In the year after the arrival of Recorder Thom, a most startling and
mysterious event--which indeed has never been solved to the present day,
happened in the case of Thomas Simpson, who it will be remembered had
roused by his crushing blow on the head of Larocque, the rage of the
whole French half-breed community. The case was that Thomas Simpson,
with a party of natives, had been going southward through Minnesota,
ahead of the main body of sojourners.
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