Michael O'Sullivan (politician)

O'Sullivan's first principal, Viger, was a nationalist who supported the Parti canadien, which represented the interests of French-speaking Canadiens. The Parti canadien members of the Assembly opposed the policies of the British governors, who generally favoured the English-speaking merchants and landholders. During his time with Viger, O'Sullivan began writing articles for Le Canadien, a newspaper which supported the nationalist position.^[1][2]

In 1814, O'Sullivan was elected to the two-member constituency of Huntingdon county, south of Montreal, alongside Austin Cuvillier, who would go on to be the first Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada. O'Sullivan was re-elected in the election of 1817 and the two elections of 1820, but did not stand for re-election in 1824.^[1][2]

In the Assembly, O'Sullivan tended to support the Parti canadien and his friend, James Stuart, which suited his reformist tendencies at that time. However, he was more interested in issues of government administration and judicial matters than the battles over constitutional principles which increasingly occupied the Parti canadien. His decision to leave politics at the 1824 election may have reflected his movement away from the increasingly nationalist tone of the Parti canadien, which became known as the Parti patriote a few years later. A classmate from the Collège St-Raphaël, Jean-Moïse Raymond, was elected in his place in 1824.^[1][2]

O'Sullivan had a lifelong connection with the French Sulpician order of Catholic priests, who had taught him at Collège St-Raphaël. He acted as their lawyer on a number of matters, and also became involved in a dispute over the 1821 appointment of Jean-Jacques Lartigue as the auxiliary and suffragan Bishop of Montreal, acting for the Archbishop of Quebec, Joseph-Octave Plessis. Although Lartigue was also a Sulpician and graduate of Collège St-Raphaël, he was a native canadien. The predominantly French Sulpicians viewed his appointment as an encroachment on their dominance in Montreal, and made life unpleasant for the new suffragan bishop, including one challenge in 1823–1824 to the canonical validity of his appointment. O'Sullivan gave advice on the civil and canon law aspects of the dispute to the person who brought the challenge. He also toured Europe, supposedly on vacation, but in actuality to lobby against the appointment of Lartigue. O'Sullivan may have been involved in the movement to construct the new Notre-Dame Basilica, replacing the old Notre-Dame church, which prevented building a cathedral for the new bishop.^[2][5]

The whole affair also had political implications, as Lartigue was the cousin of both Louis-Joseph Papineau and Viger. Both were ardent nationalists and leading members of the Parti canadien. They supported their cousin in the dispute. The timing of the dispute, and O'Sullivan's decision not to seek re-election in 1824, may have been related, and may have contributed to O'Sullivan's gradual movement away from the nationalist Parti canadien.^[2][5]

In 1819, while still a member of the Legislative Assembly, O'Sullivan fought a duel with a Montreal doctor, William Caldwell, over the proposal to build a new hospital for Montreal.^[2] The cause of the duel was a speech O'Sullivan gave in the Assembly. Both men were wounded and survived, each with a permanent disability.^[6][7][8]

Montreal in 1819 had two hospitals, Hôtel-Dieu de Montréal and Hôpital général des frères Charron (also known as the Grey Nuns Hospital), both operated by the Catholic church, in French. The dispute began in January 1819, when John Molson, a prominent brewer and businessman, presented a petition to the Legislative Assembly calling for the creation of a third hospital, non-denominational, to operate in English and serve the English-speaking community of Montreal. The supporters of the project argued that the Hôtel-Dieu was over-crowded and could no longer serve the Montreal population, which had been steadily expanding. The Montreal Gazette editorialised against the project, saying that the Hôtel-Dieu could fulfill Montreal's needs for the foreseeable future.^[6][7][8]

O'Sullivan, a strong supporter of the Catholic church, opposed the proposal. In a provocative speech in the Assembly, laced with satire, he spoke fervently against the need for a new hospital, arguing that expanding the Hôtel-Dieu was preferable to wasting funds on building a new one, and hinted that the new hospital would conduct experiments on its patients. He also likely feared that the new hospital would attract patients away from Hôtel-Dieu.^[2][6][7][8]

Dr Caldwell, a Montreal physician and surgeon, was one of the principal proponents of the new hospital. He wrote a letter to the Canadian Courant newspaper, giving a reasoned response to the criticisms that O'Sullivan had raised, but ended the letter by implying that O'Sullivan lacked personal courage. O'Sullivan responded by challenging Caldwell to a duel, a challenge accepted by Caldwell, a Scottish veteran of the Napoleonic Wars.^[2][6][7][8]

The two ex-military men met at 6 am on April 11, 1819, accompanied by their seconds, near the future site of the Victoria Bridge. The duel was fought with pistols, and may have been the longest duel ever fought in Canada. Unusually for the dueling code of the time, it was agreed that each would fire five shots, instead of the customary one or two. It appeared that both men had fiery temperaments. A contemporary report indicated that both were wounded. One of Caldwell's arms was shattered by a ball, an injury that prevented him from practising surgery ever again. O'Sullivan was hit twice, including one wound that left a ball lodged close to his spine in an inoperable position. He walked with a limp for the rest of his life, sometimes in severe pain.^[2][6][7][8]

In the end, the Montreal General Hospital opened in 1823, financed by private donations, along with the Montreal Medical Institution, the forerunner to the McGill Medical School. Caldwell taught medicine at the Institute and later the Medical School.^[7][8]

By the 1830s, O'Sullivan had gradually moved towards the Tory political viewpoint. His second wife's family and associates tended to the more conservative positions, and one of the witnesses to their marriage was Joseph Papineau, the conservative father of the Patriote firebrand, Louis-Joseph Papineau. In 1833, the Governor General appointed O'Sullivan to the position of solicitor-general of Lower Canada, citing O'Sullivan's "Public Estimation in this Province for probity, Professional ability & sound constitutional principles in politics."^[1][2]

In November 1837, as the unrest grew which would culminate in the Lower Canada Rebellion, O'Sullivan, along with Attorney General Charles Richard Ogden, wrote a legal opinion for Governor General Lord Gosford, which held that the Governor General had the power to declare martial law in the event of a rebellion. Gosford relied on that opinion when he declared martial law in the district of Montreal on December 5, 1837.^[9]

In November 1838, O'Sullivan was appointed Chief Justice of the Court of Queen's Bench for the district of Montreal, but only served for a single term in February 1839. He died on March 7, 1839, aged 54. An autopsy found Caldwell's ball from the duel 20 years prior lodged against the middle of O'Sullivan's spine. He was buried from Notre-Dame in Montreal.^{[1][2][7][10]}