Louis Riel has been staying in Plattsburgh,…

Louis Riel has been staying in Plattsburgh, New York, with priests of the Oblate order, who had introduced him to Father Fabien Martin dit Barnabé in the nearby village of Keeseville.

It was here that he had received news of the fate of Ambroise-Dydime Lépine, who had been found guilty and sentenced to death following his trial for the murder of Thomas Scott, which had begun on October 13, 1874.

This had sparked outrage in the sympathetic Quebec press, and calls for amnesty for both Lépine and Riel were renewed.

This presents a severe political difficulty for Prime Minister Alexander Mackenzie, who is hopelessly caught between the demands of Quebec and Ontario.

However, a solution is forthcoming when, acting on his own initiative, the Governor General Lord Dufferin commutes Lépine's sentence in January 1875.

This opens the door for Mackenzie to secure from parliament an amnesty for Riel, on the condition that he remain in exile for five years