A cartoon by Thomas Bengough in his satirical magazine Grip captured the popular view of Prime Minister Macdonald's dilemma. What few contemporaries or historians understood was that Sir John A. was unimpressed by outbursts of public opinion and he despised "mere newspapers." He had made up his mind by June that the law would take its course, and, as Riel himself came to understand, Macdonald regarded Riel's public execution as an assertion of Canada's control of the Northwest.
