When the execution took place, it made front-page news in the New York Times, with columns of text running from top to bottom of the page. In its editorial on the subject, the Times concluded: "As we have often said, there is nothing to be said against the execution of Riel from a legal point of view. He undoubtedly committed the crime with which he was charged, and of which he was convicted after a trial that was entirely fair.

In 1874, at the meeting of the French-Canadian Convention in Montreal, American delegates to the convention proposed a resolution asking that Riel and his compatriots be pardoned, and there was a bitter debate, "the Americans taunting the residents of Canada with being afraid to handle the question and boasting that they in the United States were more free than the Canadians in such matters."

At the same time (May 11, 1874), a correspondent in St. Paul, Minnesota submitted a Page 2 article to the Times saying that people in Minnesota "generally believe that Louis Riel has been greatly misrepresented."

In California, the Daily Alta California responded to news of Riel's 1885 trial with a short paragraph describing how Riel lived in San Francisco. In the Nov. 12 issue of the Alta California, the editorial staff posted a short message: "If the English expect to continue to govern Canada, they will do well not to hang Louis Riel." This was followed five days later with another message: "The sentence of death was yesterday executed upon Louis Riel. He met the death warrant with cheerful composure, and in his last hours seemed every inch a hero."

The Mariposa Gazette, also in California, published an editorial in its Nov. 21 issue. I can't tell whether it's picked up from another newspaper called The Evening Post, or if it was in the evening issue of the Gazette. In either case, it contains an interesting section:

"The bonds which hold together the confederated provinces are not over strong at best, and it is very probable that the hanging of Riel will hasten the process of disintegration. For the man himself wide-spread sympathy has been felt. Whatever his faults or mistakes may have been, there was a general recognition of the worthiness of his motives."