Social studies 10 horizons chapter caph reform and rebellion companion readings

Social Studies 10

Canada: A People’s History

Rebellion and Reform

Companion Readings

The Economic Situation
At the beginning of
the nineteenth century, the timber industry had replaced the fur trade as the
economic engine of British North America.

Canada's economy depended heavily on
its export trade to England.

In 1806, Napoleon Bonaparte imposed
a blockade on all of Europe preventing
trade with England. Deprived of wood
from Scandinavia, England turned
instead to Canada's forests. The wood
was mostly used for building ships.
England had to build ships in order to
pursue its war against Napoleon.
In the first half of the 1800s, logging replaced the
fur trade as Canada's dominant industry. (AsEach year, hundreds of ships loaded
portrayed in Canada: A People's History)
with oak and elm left Quebec City, the
capital of Lower Canada, and Saint
John, New Brunswick, heading for Great
Britain. The Royal William, the first steamship to cross the Atlantic, was built in
Quebec, one of the main centres for shipbuilding.

In Lower Canada, land became more and more difficult to obtain under the
seigneurial regime.

The landowners, the seigneurs, demanded ever-higher rents. The shortage of new
land to clear forced many peasants to abandon agriculture and look for work in the
towns.

By 1830, Montreal had become the principal economic centre of the two Canadas. Its
wealth was controlled by a handful of merchants and industrialists from the
anglophone upper classes, men such as Peter McGill who became president of the
Bank of Montreal in 1834. Rue Saint-Laurent / St. Lawrence Blvd. became an
invisible barrier between rich and poor, anglophone and francophone.

Just before the rebellion of 1837, the economic situation became particularly difficult
in Upper and Lower Canada. Harvests had been bad. Near Quebec, the situation was
desperate.
On January 9, 1837, a correspondent from the newspaper Le Canadien reported:

"Times are so hard that some habitants have taken to eating their own horses.
Harvests have fallen short for four years now and many habitants don't have even a
potato. It is certain that most of them will die of hunger, if relief is not provided to
them."

In 1847, the economy of Upper and Lower Canada sustained a huge blow when
England adopted a free-trade policy. England abandoned preferential tariffs, which
gave raw materials from its colonies preferential access to the British market. The
Great Famine was devastating Ireland. In order to help its victims, England to had to
be in the position to buy food products, above all wheat, at the lowest cost.

Since they were no longer forced to pay higher prices for goods from the colonies,
English industrialists and merchants hailed the move.
They could now procure raw materials where they were the cheapest.

The economic future of a united Canada was uncertain: exports had slowed down
and jobs were scarce. Businessmen pointed the finger at the free trade policy
adopted by the British government. It wasn't until 1849 that Canada became
prosperous again

Rising Population and Immigration
During the first half
of the nineteenth century, the British colonies in North America experienced a strong
growth in population.

British North America now had about one million inhabitants. This growth was
generated by a wave of immigration from the British Isles. About 30,000
immigrants landed each year in Quebec City, the capital of Lower Canada. Some of
them remained in Lower Canada but the majority of the new arrivals went on to
settle in Upper Canada.

In 1830, Upper Canada had 260,000 inhabitants and the most rapid population
growth. On the other hand, Lower Canada still had the larger population with around
400,000 inhabitants.

In 1832, Quebec had 28,000 inhabitants while Montreal had 27,000. Between 1815
and 1851, Montreal 's population tripled, increasing from 15,000 to 57,000
inhabitants. In Upper Canada the city of York became Toronto in 1834.

Between 1832 and 1834 its population doubled, increasing to more than 9,000
inhabitants.

Immigrants arrived from Liverpool and London in England, from Greenock in
Scotland and from Dublin and Belfast in Ireland. The majority of them fled countries

that were in the grip of serious economic crises. They all hoped for a better future in
North America.

A young English writer, Catharine Parr Strickland, was dazzled by the beauty of her
new country. She and her husband, Thomas, were part of the thousand or so
pioneers who arrived each year to clear fertile lands in the young colony. In her
book, The Backwoods of Canada, she gave this description of her voyage along the
St. Lawrence:

"The misty curtain is slowly drawn up, as if by invisible hand, and the wild, wooded
mountains partially revealed, with their bold rocky and sweeping bays.

"At other times the vapoury volume dividing, moves along the valleys and deep
ravines, like lofty pillars of smoke, or hangs in snowy draperies among the dark
forest pines."

She had many hopes for her new land as well:

"Canada is the land of hope; here, everything is new, everything is moving forward;
it is unlikely that sciences, agriculture or industry should ever lose ground; they
must continue to progress."

Immigration also brought its misfortunes.

In 1832, a cholera epidemic killed more
than 9,000 people in the colonies.
In 1847, while the Great Famine was
reaching its peak in Ireland, the Syria
dropped anchor at Grosse Île, a
quarantine island. On board were 241
Irish immigrants. During the summer of
1847, 50 people died there each day.
Six men worked full time to dig graves.
The death toll was tragic: more than
20,000 Irish immigrants died that year.
English author Catharine Parr Traill immigrated to
Canada in May 1832 and helped develop the By 1849, British North America, United
country's literary culture. (As portrayed by Maxim
Roy in Canada: A People's History)
Canada (Upper and Lower Canada),
Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince
Edward Island and Newfoundland had 2
million inhabitants.

The Countryside of the Two Canadas
Between 1810 and
1830 the majority of British immigrants settled in Upper Canada.

In 1831, the colony already had 260,
000 inhabitants and its population
growth was the most rapid in British
North America. But Upper Canada
wasn't ready for such large numbers.

In order to reach Lake Huron the new
settlers had to cross great forests and
follow difficult roads:

"Much as I had seen and heard of the
badness of the roads in Canada,"
In the 1830s, Canadian pioneers appealed to the
government to improve services such as roads. (As
recounted Catharine Parr Traill, "I was
not prepared for such a one as we
traveled along this day: indeed, it
hardly deserved the name of a road
(...) - sometimes I laughed because I would not cry."

A string of villages, farms and inns linked Lake Ontario to Lake Simcoe but some
settlers felt isolated and forsaken in this vast country.

Robert Davis, a farmer of Irish origin,
was disappointed:

"He had in most instances to make his
own roads and bridges, clear his own
farm, educate himself and his children.
He had his bones broken by the fall of
trees, his feet lacerated by the axe, and
suffered almost everything except
death. He waited year after year in
hope of better days, expecting that the
government would care less for Receiving no help from the government, pioneers
themselves and more for the people. like Robert Davis were forced to build their own
roads and bridges, clear the land and educate their
But every year he was disappointed." children in early 1800s Upper Canada. (As portrayed
by Andrew Simms in Canada: A People's History)
Lower Canada remained the most
populated colony. Settled now for more
than two hundred years along the
banks of the St. Lawrence River, its population now had around four hundred
thousand inhabitants. The population growth made for a network of prosperous
villages.

The county of Two Mountains, to the
north of Montreal, and the Richelieu
valley to the southeast, were good
examples of this prosperity:

"Its banks, wrote Joseph Bouchette, the
surveyor general of Lower Canada, "are
diversified on each side by many farms
and extensive settlements, in a very
high state of improvement; some neat,
populous, and flourishing villages,
Upper Canada was the fastest growing colony in the handsome churches, numerous mills of
British Empire in the early 1830s. various kinds, good roads in all
directions, with every other
characteristic of a country inhabited by
an industrious population."

The parish of Saint-Denis on the Richelieu now had three thousand inhabitants.
Charles Saint-Germain owned the biggest hatmaking business in the colony.

François Gadbois sold his horse-drawn
carriages in Quebec City, Montreal and
even in Upper Canada. But not
everyone was as prosperous.

In the surrounding countryside,
peasants cultivated land that was not
their own. They lived under the
seigneurial regime. Year after year they
had to turn over a substantial portion of
their harvest to the landlord. During the
1870s and 1830s, land became more By the 1830s, Lower Canada had more than 400,000
and more difficult to obtain and the inhabitants.
rents became more and more
expensive.

A Petition against the Seigneurial Regime
The seigneurial
regime had been established during the era of New France, and it was intended to
promote the development of agriculture and increase the population of the colony.

The majority of the seigneuries had
been distributed along the Saint
Lawrence River: near Quebec, Trois-
Rivieres and Montreal (Ville Marie). At
the end of the seventeenth century,
other seigneuries were created along
the Richelieu River, in Beauce and
around Lake Champlain.

The seigneurs, whether English or
French, owned the land and demanded
In Lower Canada, most farmers did not own their rents from the peasants who cultivated
land but gave part of their harvest as payment to and lived on it. At the end of the 18th
the landowner. (As portrayed in Canada: A People's
century, in Lower Canada, most of the
History)
good land was taken and the seigneurs
demanded higher and higher rents.
Most families found this burden too
heavy to bear.

The system angered the peasants. On November 23, 1832 the habitants of the
county of Two Mountains sent a petition to their elected representatives:

"(...) a great many seigneurs [...] treated these lands as if they had absolute
authority over them, selling and transferring them at exorbitant prices, by means of
illegal contracts, while His Majesty's 'Canadien' subjects have not, until now, been
protected against these abuses."

The shortage of land forced the young habitants to clear lands in ever more remote
regions or to abandon agriculture altogether and find work in the city.

Discontent was growing in the
countryside of Lower Canada.

Louis Duquet and his family had to build a new
homestead after they were evicted from their farm
in Lower Canada for non-payment of rent. (As

The Cholera Epidemic of 1832
In June 1832, two
events stirred up political conflict in Lower Canada: the Place d'Armes by-election,
which turned into a tragedy costing several lives, and the cholera epidemic.

At the beginning of June, the Carrick, a ship that had come over from Ireland,
reached Quebec with a few feverish immigrants on board.

Three days later, cholera took its first
victim.

The illness spread like wildfire all the
way to Montreal and then to Upper
Canada. It quickly became an epidemic
that moved through the shanty
neighbourhoods of the urban poor,
which were breeding grounds for
contagion. The lack of sewers and
garbage collection contributed to water
Jean-Jacques Lartigue, the Bishop of Montreal, wrote contamination. Soon the epidemic was
to his cousin during the 1832 cholera epidemic out of control and hundreds died each
complaining of, "...the invasion of our uncultivated
day, mostly in the large towns.
land by British immigrants who threaten to drive us
out of our country and reduce our "Canadien"
population, year after year, by the spread of On June 14, 1832, La Minerve
disease." (As portrayed by Benoit Girard in Canada:
A People's History) newspaper verified the spread of
cholera.

"14 June, 1832: Since Monday morning
Montreal is in turmoil and the alarm is growing every minute. There is no longer
doubt that cholera is present. We recommend that the public observe strictly the
Regulations of the Board of Health."

La Minerve tried to prevent panic from spreading, advising that:

"There is no use in becoming alarmed.
When the illness appears, one must see a doctor and follow his instructions. The
apothecaries have the necessary remedies in stock and their prices are affordable to
all pocketbooks."

In reality, doctors were overwhelmed and powerless. They thought cholera was
transmitted by fumes carried through the atmosphere. To purify the air, English
officers tried firing off cannons and the Sanitary Office burned tar.

Alexander Hart, a Jewish merchant from Montreal, saw death all around him:

"None of us go into town anymore.
Many are moving into the country. Yesterday 34 corpses passed our house. Today,
23... not counting those in the old burial Ground and in the Catholic ground. 12 carts

are employed by the Board of Health to carry away the dead who are interred
without prayers."

By the end of 1832, the epidemic had claimed 9,000 lives, more than half of them in
Lower Canada. Some Canadians held England responsible for this misfortune, citing
its emigration policy for negligence, if not malevolence.

In a letter to his cousin, Jean-Jacques Lartigue, the Bishop of Montreal, spoke of the
Place d'Armes by-election and the cholera epidemic:

"The other subjects that seem to me most worthy of your attention at the present
time are: the murder of our "Canadiens" on May 21st, which the governor has since
officially condoned; and the invasion of our uncultivated land by British immigrants
who threaten to drive us out of our country and reduce our "Canadien" population,
year after year, by the spread of disease."

This climate of death, fear and loathing helped kindle a political firestorm in Lower
Canada.

The Colonial Regime and the "Family
Compact"
In the nineteenth
century, the colonial regime in Canada angered people who demanded ministerial
accountability.

Men such as William Lyon Mackenzie of
Upper Canada, Joseph Howe in Nova
Scotia and Louis-Joseph Papineau in
Lower Canada supported the right of
the colonies to self-government.

At the time, the ideals of justice and
freedom, which spread during the
French Revolution and the American
Revolution, were also fermenting in the
six colonies of British North America:
William Lyon Mackenzie, editor of the Colonial Upper and Lower Canada, New
Advocate in Upper Canada, advocated more Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Nova
democratic government in British North America. (As
Scotia and Newfoundland.
portrayed by Martin Neufeld in Canada: A People's
History)
Since 1791, the inhabitants of the
colonies except Newfoundland had the
right to elect representatives to the
local Houses of Assembly. (London didn't give Newfoundland the privilege of electing
a House of Assembly in 1832). These colonial Houses of Assembly adopted laws but
had no real power.

A governor appointed by London and
councillors named by him controlled the
decision-making process. As a result,
there were constant conflicts between
the representatives of the people and
an unelected government. Power
remained in the hands of an elite.

In 1833, William Lyon Mackenzie, a
journalist, originally from Dundee in
Scotland, denounced the leaders of the
colony in an editorial in his newspaper, Joseph Howe, editor of the Novascotian, accused the
the Colonial Advocate: Halifax elite of stealing public money. (As portrayed
by Randy Hughson in Canada: A People's History)

"The family connection rules Upper
Canada. A dozen nobodies, and a few
placemen, pensioners and individuals of well-known narrow and bigoted principles:
the whole of the revenue of Upper Canada are in reality at their mercy; - they are
paymasters, receivers, auditors, King, Lords and Commons."

He denounced the privileged families of Canada who grew rich from the colony and
controlled its destiny.

He coined the expression "Family
Compact". Mackenzie used his
newspaper to publish the names,
income and family connections of this
circle of people. The Attorney General of
Upper Canada, John Beverley Robinson,
bitterly criticized Mackenzie's actions
and words:

"Another reptile has sprung up in a Mr.
William Mackenzie (...) a conceited red-
The newspapers of British North America were headed fellow with an apron. (...) He
small-scale operations but were able to provoke and said that I am the most subtle advocate
irritate the colonial authorities. (As portrayed in
of arbitrary power (...) what vermin!"
Canada: A People's History)

But remarks from the Attorney General
didn't stop Mackenzie, who continued
his virulent attacks:

"I had long seen the country in the hands of a few shrewd, crafty, covetous men,
under whose management one of the most lovely and desirable sections of America
remained a comparative desert.
The most obvious improvements were stayed; dissention was created among
classes; large estates were wrested from their owners in utter contempt of even the
forms of the courts."

Joseph Howe was the son of a Loyalist but he too attacked the rules in his colony. He
caused a scandal by accusing the Nova Scotian elite of stealing public money.

"In a young and poor country, where the sons of rich and favoured families alone
receive education at the public expence - where the many must toil to support the
extortions and exactions of a few; where the hard earnings of the people are
lavished on an Aristocracy, who repay their ill timed generosity with contempt and
insult; it requires no ordinary nerve in men of moderate circumstances and humble
pretensions, to stand forward and boldly protest against measures which are fast
working the ruin of the Province."

The leaders of the colony dragged Howe into court on the criminal charge of
defamatory libel. Howe defended himself vigorously.

"I know them, as you know them - as the most negligent and imbecile, if not the
most reprehensible body, that ever mismanaged a people's affairs.
They may expect much from the result of this trial; but before I have done with
them, I hope to convince them that they, and not I, are the real criminals here."

When Howe was acquitted by a jury, his popularity was greater than ever and, like
Mackenzie, he went into politics.

"We are desirous of a change, not such as shall devide us from our brethren across
the water, but which will ensure to us what they enjoy...
Gentlemen, all we ask is what exists at home in England - a system of responsibility
to the people."

In Lower Canada, the reformists were members of the Patriote party. Their leader's
name was Louis-Joseph Papineau.

The Reformers and the Patriotes
During the 1830s,
the maintenance of the colonial system and the concentration of power and wealth in
the hands of a few families of Upper and Lower Canada's elite fuelled the people's
discontent.

The Patriote Party was comprised of
Lower Canada's reformers: mainly
French Canadians and immigrants from
Ireland, who shared a profound distrust
of British power. Louis-Joseph
Papineau, a seigneur and lawyer, was
the leader of the Patriotes.

Their main opposition was the English
Party, which was mainly supported by
Lower Canadians of Scottish, English or
Louis-Joseph Papineau was leader of the Parti American origin and defended the
Patriote, a group of Lower Canadian politicians who colonial government.
controlled the elected but largely powerless
Legislative Assembly. (As portrayed by Alain
Fournier in Canada: A People's History) The reformist leaders, William Lyon
Mackenzie of Upper Canada, and Joseph

Howe of Nova Scotia, publicly criticized the ruling families. Joseph Howe went even
further and accused the elite in Nova Scotia of stealing public money.

In Lower Canada, Louis-Joseph Papineau was an advocate of American-style
democracy even though he had once been an admirer of the British Constitution.

He was particularly angered by the
power of the unelected Legislative
Council:

"It is certain that in a time not long
from now, all of America must become
republican. We need only to know that
we live in America and to know in what
condition we have lived there.

"The votes and measures adopted
everyday by the Councillors may only Journalists Daniel Tracey and Ludger Duvernay were
be explained by their impassioned sentenced to 40 days in jail for defamatory libel
after criticizing the colonial government. (As
hatred of the "Canadiens", their portrayed in Canada: A People's History)
insatiable lust for money and their
odious selfishness."

Papineau rejected Great Britain's colonial system in its entirety:

"I do not believe it possible to be happy and to be treated fairly under the colonial
system.
How can a governor act justly... even one who sincerely desires to do so... when he
is surrounded by such a pack of scoundrels?"

Two journalists from Montreal also criticized the Legislative Council, which was
appointed by the governor. Daniel Tracey, an Irishman, was editor of The Vindicator.
Ludger Duvernay, a French Canadian, published the newspaper La Minerve.

"As the present Legislative Council is perhaps our greatest nuisance", Duvernay
wrote, "we ought to seize the means to rid ourselves of it and demand its abolition."

La Minerve and The Vindicator spoke for the Patriote political movement that was
gathering momentum.

For publishing their criticism, they were sentenced to 40 days in jail.

The Place d'Armes By-Election
In April and May
1832, a by-election in Montreal set the Patriote party against the English party.

The outcome of this election was three
deaths are a farther deterioration of the
political climate.

The militants in the Patriote party were
mostly French-Canadians and Irish
immigrants, who shared a distrust of
British power. Louis-Joseph Papineau
was the leader of the Patriote Party.

The English Party (also known as
In the spring of1832, violence broke out between Tories) was mostly made up of
supporters of the Parti Patriote and the English Party conservative businessmen of Scottish,
during a hotly contested by-election. (As portrayed
in Canada: A People's History) English or American origin. Its members
supported the colonial government.

During the by-election, the poll would
remain open as long as voters continued to come forward. For the poll to close, one
whole hour would have to pass without a single vote being. An election could go on
for weeks. The Place d'Armes election lasted for 22 days.

"April 26...

It being ten o'clock in the morning, the
poll has not yet been able to open due
to the tumult going on outside (...)"

On May 21, the Patriote candidate took
a narrow lead. Emotions were running
high. A fight broke out and soldiers
from the 15th regiment were called in
and then opened fire in order to
disperse the crowd.

Three French Canadians were mortally Three French-Canadians were killed by gunfire from
wounded: Casimir Chauvin, Pierre Billet British troops in 1832 after fighting broke out
between political rivals in Montreal.
and François Languedoc. The day after
the shooting, the Patriote candidate was
declared victorious. He won by a margin
of four votes.

Louis-Joseph Papineau, greatly upset by at the death of his compatriots, wrote to the
Governor, Lord Aylmer:

"My heart is filled with sadness and my letter will find you in the same state, as you
will already have heard about yesterdays disastrous events that caused bloodshed in

our streets.
The troops sent to protect His Majesty's subjects fired upon them. Canada has never
before been afflicted with such miseries."

The 92 Resolutions
In Quebec, the
capital of Lower Canada, the Patriote Party had enjoyed a majority in the House of
Assembly for the last 15 years.

However, the reforms it proposed were
rarely accepted by the British
government. The Patriote politicians
demanded more power for the elected
Assembly and insisted that the
Legislative Council be elected by the
people.

In 1834, the Patriotes took their cause
directly to London with the "92
Resolutions." This list was made up of
In 1834, the Patriotes drew up a list of political all the grievances and claims of the
grievances, called the 92 Resolutions, and sent it to Patriotes in Lower Canada. They
the government in London. (As portrayed in Canada:
demanded that the budget be controlled
A People's History)
by the Assembly. They wanted the
same powers, privileges and immunities
as the British Parliament. Furthermore,
the Resolutions contained veiled threats of Lower Canada's independence and
annexation to the United States.

"Resolved, that this House is no wise disposed to admit the excellence of the present
Constitution of Canada..."

Louis-Joseph Papineau, leader of the Patriote Party, remained cautious:

"We will not cease our demands for full political rights and power.
And though we feel uneasy, we hope that the British government will at last grant us
justice. In this hope, we shall do nothing to hasten our separation from the mother
country, unless it be to prepare and lead the people towards that day, which will
know neither monarchy nor aristocracy.">

He hoped that the British government would finally grant the colony full autonomy:

"(..). and considers it inappropriate and inaccurate that His Majesty's Secretary of
State of the colonial office should claim that he conferred the institutions of Great
Britain on the two Canadas."

The Patriotes' protests and their landslide victory in the 1834 election brought a
backlash from the English Party.
John Molson, one of the most powerful businessmen in Montreal, issued a warning to

the Patriotes:

"Recent events have roused us to a sense of impending danger (...) the French party
may yet be taught, that the majority upon which they count for success, will, in the
hour of trial, prove a weak defence against the awakened energies of an insulted and
oppressed people."

Julie, Papineau's wife, spent long months in Montreal while her husband was involved
in parliamentary work in Quebec.
She was wary of the English Party:

"I harbour no idle fears but I can appreciate for what they truly are the rage and the
hatred that this party bears towards us, and I see that our position is a lamentable
one. They seek to prevail at all costs or trample us and if we do not have the energy
to escape from their power they will certainly find ways of doing us harm."

The Seventh Report on Grievances
In 1835, William
Lyon Mackenzie was now mayor of the new municipality of Toronto and member of
the Upper Canada House of Assembly.
He and the other Upper Canadian reformers made their protests known to the British
government in a 500-page document called the Seventh Report of Grievances. As
the Patriotes did in Lower Canada, this report called the whole colonial system into
question:

"One great excellence of the English constitution consists in the limits it imposes on
the will of a king, by requiring responsible men to give effect to it. In Upper Canada
no such responsibility can exist. The lieutenant-governor and the British ministry
hold in their hands the whole patronage of the province; they hold the sole
domination of the country, and leave the representative branch of the legislature
powerless and dependent."

Joseph Howe was elected to the legislature in 1836 in Nova Scotia.
In Halifax, political tension was mounting.

"I am approaching now the root of all our evils," wrote Howe in the Nova Scotian on
February 23, 1837, "... that gross and palpable defect in our local Government...
Compared with the British Parliament, this House has absolutely no power."

Howe also drew up a list of demands for political change. But he remained a
moderate reformer; his Loyalist roots prevented him from going as far as Papineau
and Mackenzie. He did not wish for a complete breaking of ties with Great Britain.

"I know that I shall hear the cries of republicanism and danger to the constitution...
But the idea of republicanism, of independence, of severance from the Mother
Country, never crosses my mind... I wish to live and die a British subject - but not a
Briton only in name."

Three years later, the British government refused all change and rejected the Ninety-
Two Resolutions. The British government believed that accepting the demands of the
Patriotes would mean the end of its colonial hold over British North America.

Papineau's Speech at Saint-Charles
In 1837, the
Patriote Party and its leader, Louis-Joseph Papineau spread revolutionary ideas and
appealed to the people to join them.

After three years of deliberation, the
British government rejected the 92
Resolutions. Many people joined in the
protest and numerous public
demonstrations were organized in the
colony.

The protest movement reached its
climax at the Six Counties Assembly in
October 1837. More than five thousand
people gathered at Saint-Charles in the
In 1837, the Patriotes started to organize public Richelieu Valley to hear Louis-Joseph
rallies in open defiance of the government Lower Papineau speak:
Canada. (As portrayed in Canada: A People's
History)
"Fellow citizens! Brothers of a common
affliction! All of you, whatever origin
language or religion you (may) be... To
whom equitable laws and the rights of man are dear...

"We enjoin you now to adopt, thru (a) systematic organisation in your parishes and
in your respective townships, an attitude which alone can win respect for yourselves
and success for your demands."

Papineau urged the Patriotes to elect their own judges and militia officers to replace
those who remained loyal to the British Crown.

However, he harboured no illusions. He (As portrayed in Canada: A People's History)
knew that, without help from the
American republic and progressives in
London that he and the Patriotes could
not prevail:

"Assemble now!.... and elect your own justices' of the peace... as have done your
reformist brothers from Two Mountains, to protect the people from the vengeance of
the enemy."

For the radicals, Papineau had not gone far enough. Some English Canadians, such
as Dr. Wolfred Nelson, an English Canadian who supported the Patriote cause, and
called for armed insurrection.

He was born into an English protestant
family from Sorel, had married a French
Canadian and raised his children in a
French-speaking, Catholic environment.

Dr. Nelson called on Canadians to join
the Patriotes in armed insurrection:

"Well I believe that the moment has
come to melt down our tin plates and
tin spoons and forge them into bullets."
Cyrille-Hector Côté, a doctor from Napierville, spoke
at a Saint-Charles rally in 1837, "I also believe the
time for speeches has passed, it is lead [bullets] that
Cyrille-Hector Côté, a doctor from
we must now send to our enemies." (As portrayed in Napierville, was of the same opinion:

"I also believe that the time for
speeches has passed, it is lead that we
must now send to our enemies."

While the Patriotes were meeting in Saint-Charles, a severe warning was echoing
through the streets of Montreal.
Peter McGill, President of the Bank of Montreal, spoke to a crowd of four thousand
people gathered on the Place d'Armes.

"We must admit their constitutional right to meet and discuss (...), and to petition
and remonstrate (...), if they feel or fancy themselves aggrieved; but any and all of
them who overstep the bounds prescribed by the laws in doing so, who outrage the
feelings of loyal and well disposed peaceable citizens by overt acts verging on
rebellion, ought to be made to understand, that such conduct can be no longer
tolerated with impunity."

The Bishop of Montreal, Jean-Jacques Lartigue, believed the Patriotes capable of
repeating all the excesses of the French Revolution.
In a pastoral letter of October 24, 1837, he issued a warning to the Patriotes:

"Have you ever given serious thought to the horrors of civil war? Have you ever
imagined the streams of blood flooding your streets and countrysides, and the
spectacle of the innocent caught up with the guilty in the same awful web of
disaster? Have you considered that almost without exception, every popular
revolution is a bloodthirsty act?

Unrest in Upper Canada
In the autumn of
1837, while anger was brewing in Lower Canada and the Patriotes were encouraging
people to rise up and rebel, unrest was also spreading in Upper Canada.

William Lyon Mackenzie, a member of the Upper Canada House of Assembly and
Mayor of Toronto, gave up all his expectations of Great Britain.

London had rejected the Patriotes'
demands, in the form of the 92
Resolutions.

Mackenzie saw the events of Lower
Canada as a portent of what would
happen in his own colony:

"People of Upper Canada....
Canadians... Fellow colonists.... Behold
the oppressors!
In 1837, William Lyon Mackenzie traveled around In order to enslave a free People
the Upper Canada countryside to mobilize support encamp soldiers all over their country!
for political reform. (As portrayed in Canada: A
People's History) (...)
If the British Kingdom can tax the
People of Lower Canada against their
will, they will do so with you when you
dare to be free."

For several weeks, Mackenzie travelled through the countryside north of Toronto,
mobilized dissatisfied people who for years had been asking in vain for schools,
roads, and bridges.

"Oh, men of Upper Canada, would you murder a free people! Before you do so
pause, and consider the world has its eyes on you -- history will mark your conduct -
- beware lest they condemn.

"Oh who would not have it said of him that, as an Upper Canadian, ...

he died in the cause of freedom! To die
fighting for freedom is truly glorious.
Who would live and die a slave?"

Mackenzie organized more than a dozen
public meetings. He wanted to show the
British government and the "Family
Compact", the political and economical
elite of the colony, that people wanted
reform. Mackenzie supported the William Lyon Mackenzie's supporters began to train
with weapons as they moved closer to open rebellion
Patriote cause in Lower Canada. The in 1837. (As portrayed in Canada: A People's
protest movement gathered momentum History)
in Upper Canada. Mackenzie's
supporters began training with
weapons.
These activities did not go unnoticed.

John Macaulay, the surveyor general of Upper Canada, wrote to his mother:

"In the rear of the Town the disaffected meet in squads with arms and are drilling
and I have no doubt they are in correspondence with the Lower Canadian
Malcontents - The time may not be far distant when our muskets may again (bear)
requisition - not in foreign, but civil war - The Papineau and Mackenzie faction seem
almost infuriated and I do not see how matters can end but in a resort to arms."

Despite the popular unrest, the Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada, Francis Bond
Head, wanted to show that he had the situation under control and sent all his troops
to Lower Canada, which was considered the real threat.
By the late autumn of 1837, not one professional soldier remained in Toronto.

Violence in Lower Canada's Countryside
Beginning in
October 1837, violence broke out in Lower Canada's countryside.

In the county of Two Mountains and in the Richelieu Valley, Patriotes harassed local
officials who refused to join them.

intimidated local officials who refused to join their At the same time, the unrest was
cause. (As portrayed in Canada: A People's History)
spreading in Upper Canada.

The spreading violence preoccupied the
British military commander in North America, General John Colborne, a veteran of
the Napoleonic wars. On November 12, 1837, he wrote to the Governor General of
Canada, Archibald Acheson, the Earl of Gosford:

"(The) revolutionists are running over a large section of the country armed and
menacing every individual who hesitates to join them. (...) If we neglect to profit by
the offers from the Upper Province and those of the inhabitants of Montreal to assist
by raising corps, while we permit the declared revolutionists to arm quietly, we shall
lose the Province."

In Montreal, the arrival of soldiers from the neighbouring colonies heightened the
tension.

The Patriote leaders retreated to their strongholds: Saint-Benoît and Saint-Eustache
in the county of Two Mountains, or Saint-Denis and Saint-Charles in the Richelieu
Valley.

Among them was Louis-Joseph
Papineau.

Arrest warrants for high treason were
issued against them all by the
authorities. General Colborne wanted to
capture the leaders of the revolt:

"The civil authorities (...) have called for
the military to assist them in
apprehending these persons (...). It is
of the greatest importance to drag the General John Colborne commanded the British
leaders of the revolt from their meeting forces during the 1837 rebellion. (As portrayed by
Dennis St. John in Canada: A People's History)
places."

General Colborne ordered troops into
the Richelieu Valley.

He wanted to strike first, before the
insurgents could mount a serious milita

Patriote leaders retreated to their strongholds in
Saint Benoit, Saint Eustache and along the Richeliau
River in fall 1837.

The Battle of Saint-Denis
The first gunshots
of rebellion were fired on November 23, 1837 at Saint-Denis, in the Richelieu Valley.

Three hundred English soldiers
confronted eight hundred Patriotes.
About a hundred of the rebels took up
positions in front of the Saint-Germain
house on the main road to Sorel. Louis-
Joseph Papineau and the other Patriote
leaders placed Saint-Denis' fate in the
hands of Dr. Wolfred Nelson. From a
Sorel English family and married to a
French Canadian, Nelson was one of the
most radical Patriotes.
On November 23, 1837, 300 British soldiers
confronted 800 Patriotes at St. Denis at the start of Daniel Lysons was a lieutenant in the
the armed rebellion. (As portrayed in Canada: A
People's History)
First Regiment of Foot, the Royal Scots.
They had a reputation for being one of
the toughest units in the British Army:

"It soon became evident that the rebels were on the alert; the church bells were
heard in the distance ringing the alarm, and parties of skirmishers appeared on our
left flank."

Wolfred Nelson recounted:

"I told my companions that their lives were sought after, and that they must sell
them as dearly as they could; to be steady, take good aim, lose no powder and all
attend to their duty, their self-preservation."

The battle went on for six hours.

But musket fire was not highly
accurate, and so there were relatively
few victims. Philippe Napoléon Pacaud,
a notary, was in the thick of the action:

"I don't know how many I killed, but I
fired without remorse. It was not so
much from a sentiment of insults and
injustices, but the old instinct of
traditional hatred of the races that
awoke in us; we were fighting
despotism, but it was above all the The Patriote rebels surprised the British with a
English that we loved to aim at." stubborn resistance at the Battle of St. Denis on
November 23, 1837. (As portrayed in Canada: A
People's History)
The stubborn resistance took the
English by surprise, and their
ammunition was running low.

Finally, Colonel Charles Gore ordered his men to retreat.

Twelve soldiers and 13 Patriotes were
dead.

Louis-Joseph Papineau was not at
Saint-Denis to celebrate the victory.
Some said that Wolfred Nelson ordered
him to leave the village for his own
safety. Others accused him of fleeing
the battlefield. While his men were
celebrating, Nelson reflected on the
consequences of this battle.
After six hours of fighting, British soldiers retreated
from St. Denis leaving 12 soldiers and 13 Patriotes
"We have now passed the Rubicon - our
dead. (As portrayed in Canada: A People's History)
very lives are at stake - there is no
alternative; even a mean, cringing
submission will scarcely protect us from
every kind of ignominy, insult and injury, worse to bear than death itself, if, indeed,
this event do not befall us at once.
We see, now, but the painful necessity of taking up arms in good earnest, and
manfully awaiting the occurrences which our attitude may provoke."

General John Colborne was shaken by the Patriote victory. He wrote to the lieutenant
governor of Upper Canada, Sir Francis Bond Head:

"The Civil War has now commenced in this Province. I entreat you, therefore, to call
out the Militia of Upper Canada and endeavour to send to Montreal as many corps as
may be inclined to volunteer their services at this critical period."

All eyes were now turned to Lower Canada.
The battle of Saint-Denis was only the first in a series of bloody confrontations.
Rebellion would spread all the way to Upper Canada. Hundreds of men would fall on
the battlefields. Women and children would be dragged into misfortune and despair.

The Battle of Saint-Charles
In the autumn of
1837, armed conflict erupted in Lower Canada after decades of political struggle.

In November, at Saint-Denis in the
Richelieu Valley, the Patriotes won an
unexpected victory. At the same time,
encouraged by this news, rebels in
Upper Canada decided to march on
Toronto. On November 25th, 1837, the
British army was determined to crush
the Patriote resistance. The fate of the
rebellion in Lower Canada would be
decided at Saint-Charles, in the
Richelieu Valley.
British troops killed 150 Patriotes and dealt a severe
blow to the Lower Canada rebels at the Battle of Two hundred and fifty Patriotes took up
Saint Charles in the Richelieu Valley on November
25, 1837. (As portrayed in Canada: A People's
position behind a barricade they had
History) thrown up around the seigneurial manor
house. Colonel Wetherall was prepared
for the attack with his 425 soldiers from
Fort Chambly.

Jean-Philippe Boucher-Belleville, a journalist and teacher, was one of the rebels. In
his Diary of aPatriote, he wrote:

"We were on the defensive, there was no doubt about it, and for us the whole
question came down to this: were we to yield up our property, our women and
children, to a horde of barbarians, without so much as a struggle? To barbarians who
had come, not to obey the law, but to plunder us by fire and sword and fill their own
pockets?Much as in St.

Denis, most of our brave blue-hatted
Patriotes showed a zeal and courage
that could only bring us victory. Even
the women cast bullets and made
cartridges; the elderly and children
wanted to share in the dangers of
combat."

The painter, Charles Beauclerk, was one
of the officers in command of the British
soldiers at Saint-Charles.
Jean-Philippe Boucher-Belleville was one of the 250
"Colonel Wetherall hoped that a display Patriote rebels at the Battle of Saint-Charles. (As
of his force would induce some
defection among the infatuated people;
but, unfortunately for the sake of
humanity, it was far otherwise.
This gave rise to an order for the three centre companies, to fix bayonets and charge
the works."

Covered by their comrades' fire, the Royal Scots, one of Britain's fiercest regiments,
closed ranks and advanced on the barricade.
The opposing forces were not equally matched. Most of the Patriotes, who were
badly equipped and inexperienced, surrendered. But others refused to admit defeat.

The Battle of Saint-Charles ended in a bloodbath. One hundred and fifty Patriotes
were killed in combat but only seven British soldiers.

Louis-Joseph Papineau, Wolfred Nelson, Jean-Philippe Boucher-Belleville and
hundreds of Patriotes fled the Richelieu Valley to seek refuge in the United States.
Some were captured and ended up in the Prison of Montreal.

The Battle of Yonge Street
Encouraged by the
news of the Patriote victory at Saint-Denis in the Richelieu Valley, rebels in Upper
Canada decided to prepare their attack at the beginning of December 1837.

William Lyon Mackenzie, a member of the Upper Canadian Legislative Assembly and
Mayor of Toronto, was convinced the time was ripe to march on Toronto.

In the absence of British troops, who
hade all been dispatched to Lower
Canada, he hoped to seize power and
form a provisional government in Upper
Canada.

Most of Mackenzie's followers were
disaffected farmers. He summoned
them to Montgomery's Tavern, a few
miles north of Toronto. On December
4th, only 150 men had answered
On December 4, 1837, 150 men assembled at Mackenzie's call. They were tired,
Montgomery's Tavern, just north of Toronto, to plan famished and poorly organized.
an armed revolt against British authorities. (As
A rebel recounted:

"Little Mac conducted himself like a
crazy man all the time we were at Montgomery's. He went about storming and
screaming like a lunatic, and many of us felt certain he was not in his right senses."

Mackenzie and his second-in-command, Samuel Lount, a surveyor and blacksmith,
were unable to agree when exactly they should march on Toronto.

They decided to sleep on it. The next day, Mackenzie and Lount decided to act.
Twenty militiamen, loyal to the British crown, were waiting for them along Yonge
Street. Mackenzie gave this account of what happened next:

"Colonel Lount and those in the front fired - and instead of stepping to one side to
make room for those behind to fire, fell flat on their faces. The next rank did the
same thing. Many of the country people, when they saw the riflemen in front falling
down and heard the firing, they imagined that those who fell were killed by the
enemy's fire, and took to their heels. This was almost too much for the human
patience.
The city would have been ours in an hour, probably without firing a shot. But 800
ran, and unfortunately the wrong way."

Two days later, another confrontation took place. This time it was Mackenzie's men
who were waiting along Yonge Street to confront the advancing militia. Half the
rebels had firearms; the rest only had pikes and cudgels.

The clash was brief. The rebels dropped their weapons in front of the soldiers and
fled. Militiamen and volunteers ransacked Montgomery's tavern and set it on fire.

Mackenzie, along with some of his comrades, made his way to the United States to
seek refuge. But others were not so lucky. Samuel Lount and Peter Matthews were
hanged in front of the Toronto jail four months later.

The rebellion in Upper Canada lasted less than a week.

The Battle of Saint-Eustache and its
Aftermath
After the battles of
Saint-Charles and Saint-Denis, there remained only one rebel stronghold in Lower
Canada: the county of Two Mountains, to the north-west of Montreal.

On December 14 1837, General John Colborne led an expedition to the village of
Saint-Eustache.

A young woman, Émélie Berthelot, watched his arrival.

"At ten o'clock in the morning, on a Thursday... a cold, clear beautiful day... the
English troops marched down the King's Road, fifteen hundred strong, infantry,
artillery, cavalry, the officers in full dress regalia. (...) The entire parade filed by at a
leisurely pace, with a kind of defiance."

For most of the Patriotes, resistance against such a force seemed impossible. They
retreated.

One of the Patriote leaders, Dr. Jean-Olivier Chénier, was determined to fight back.
He and a few dozen men occupied the village church.

General Colborne ordered his artillery to
fire on the Patriote stronghold. The
parish priest, Jacques Paquin, who was
opposed to the rebellion, witnessed the
cannonade.

"All the cannons began firing together,
battering the church with astonishing
rapidity. The masonry was extremely
solid and resisted a tremendous number
of cannonballs as they were fired off,
one after the other." Patriote rebels and British troops fought in a church
in the village of Saint-Eustache on December 14,
1837. (As portrayed in Canada: A People's History)
The church held out against the cannon
fire for two hours. At dusk, General
Colborne ordered a detachment of the
Royal Scots to dislodge the Patriotes from their fortress at all costs. Lieutenant
Lysons was among them.

"We got round to the back of the church and found a small door leading into the
sacristy which we battered in (...).
We then turned to our left and went into the main body of the church (...) here the
rebels began firing down our heads. We could not get up to them for the staircases
were broken down, so Ormsby lighted a fire behind the altar and got his men out."

Before leaving the church, the soldiers set fire to the altar cloth. The Patriotes feared
being roasted alive and so one by one had to flee.

Father Paquin witnessed the last moments of the battle.

"Realizing that all hope was lost, Dr. Chenier saw that he could no longer defend
himself from inside the church, for it had completely succumbed to the flames.
He gathered up several of his men and jumped out of the windows with them, on the
convent side. He was trying to escape, but he could not get out of the cemetery, and
was soon struck by a bullet and collapsed. He died almost immediately."

Seventy Patriotes and 3 soldiers died.

In the days that followed, soldiers and volunteers terrorized the county of Two
Mountains. Saint-Eustache and Saint-Benoît were looted and burned. In Saint-
Joachim, Sainte-Scholastique and Sainte-Thérèse, the army burned the houses of
the rebellion's leaders.

Some of the rebels tried to make it to the American border. But hundreds were taken
prisoner. Dr.
Wolfred Nelson and the journalist Jean-Philippe Boucher-Belleville were among them.

Louis-Joseph Papineau, exiled in the United States, wrote to his wife Julie, who had
taken refuge in Saint-Hyacinthe with their children:

"My dear and cherished wife - In my (...) flight I escaped so many and such close
dangers, felt such tormenting anguish at the sight of the misfortunes of my country,
my family, my friends (...) I sometimes think, in spite of the immense disasters
suffered, that Providence will one day shine on us, liberating our unfortunate
country, and uniting our family once again."

Julie replied to him:

When your letter arrived telling us that our future is as uncertain as the present (...)
I was utterly disheartened.
Now that martial law has been reinstated and the troops to be deployed throughout
the countryside have arrived, I am terribly afraid that we are to have our share of
troubles, just as we had for a good part of the winter."

The Frères Chasseurs (Hunters' Lodge)
After the battles of
Saint-Charles, Saint-Denis and Saint-Eustache in the autumn of 1837, the Patriotes
seemed to have been dispersed forever.

But the beginning of 1838, some radical
Patriotes formed a secret society called
the Frères Chasseurs (also known as
Hunters' Lodge).

The Frères Chasseurs were preparing a
new insurrection when a new Governor
General, John George Lambton, first
Earl of Durham, was sent to Canada to
investigate the causes of the rebellion.

The organization recruited members in Lower Canada and among exiled Patriotes in
the United States. But Louis-Joseph Papineau dissociated himself from the group. He
believed that the United States would refuse to back a new uprising, and he
concluded that a second rebellion would end in failure.

Robert Nelson, a respected Montreal surgeon, led the Frères Chasseurs.

He was the brother of Wolfred, who had
participated in the battles of Saint-
Charles and Saint-Denis and who had
been imprisoned in 1837. With him was
Chevalier de Lorimier, an idealistic
notary who yearned to take up the fight
once again.

The Frères Chasseurs hoped for broad
support. Recruits had to take an oath:

"I solemnly swear, freely and before Lower Canadian rebels called the "Frères Chasseurs"
almighty God, to observe the secret and swore to give their lives for freedom before a second
rebellion in autumn 1838. (As portrayed in Canada:
mysterious signs of the Hunters' Lodge, A People's History)
to obey all the rules and regulations the
Society may establish. I commit to this
unreservedly, failing which I consent to
my property being destroyed and my own neck severed to the bone."

Joseph Séné was one of the recruits.

"(I was told) that the Americans would come...
with arms and that they would also be supported by men from other countries, who
would all rise up in unison, and that with these forces we would attack at the same
time in different places, that the present government would be overthrown and that
another based on the government of the United States would be established."

In the autumn of 1838, the Frères Chasseurs sparked a second rebellion in Lower
Canada. Another faction of the society organized raids along the American border
including at Fort Malden, Fighting Island, the Thousand Islands, Short Hills and
Prescott.

The Second Rebellion and its Reprisals
In the autumn of
1838, while a group of Patriotes, the Frères Chasseurs, sparked a second rebellion in
Lower Canada.

One of the the Frères Chasseurs' first
targets was the manor house of the
seigneury at Beauharnois. Inside were
the seigneur's son, Edward Ellice, and
his wife Jane, who saw her captors as
French revolutionaries:

"My sister and I were left seated en
chemise de nuit and robe de chambre,
in the midst of five or six of the most
ruffian looking men I ever saw except in
Lower Canada rebel Chevalier de Lorimier wrote, my dreams of Robespierre and without
"Long live independence," a few hours before his a single being to give us either advice
execution for high treason after the 1837-38
or assistance."
rebellion. (As portrayed in Canada: A People's
History)
The second revolution was quickly
defeated. Julie Papineau, who had
joined her husband in the United
States, wrote to her son, Amédée:

"You say you do not understand why the country has not risen up en masse? After
all, the people were told that they would be provided with arms and money and a
that a great army would come from the States: they were told...
a thousand tales."

The whole region south of Montreal paid a high price for the second uprising. A
thousand Glengarry Highlanders, militiamen from Upper Canada, burned and pillaged
everything in their path.

A Montreal Herald journalist described the reprisals.

"What an awful sight!...All the country back of Laprairie presented the frightful
spectacle of a vast expanse of livid flame (...) It is sad to reflect on the terrible
consequences of the revolt, of the irreparable ruin of so great a number of human
beings, whether innocent or guilty.
Nevertheless the supremacy of the laws must be maintained inviolate, the integrity
of the Empire respected, and peace and prosperity assured to the English, even at
the expense of the whole Canadian people."

Jane Ellice also witnessed to the devastation:

"The Glengarries boast is "No fear of our being forgotten, for we've left a trail six
miles broad all thro' the country." They seem to be a wild set of men. One of them
told me that the houses they had spared in coming down the country, they would
surely burn in going back."

Hundreds of rebels were convicted of high treason. In Upper Canada, 17 men were
executed.
In Lower Canada, 12 men died on the gallows. Chevalier de Lorimier, an idealistic
notary, was one of them. Before being executed, he wrote these words:

"I have only a few hours left to live but I wish to share this precious time between
my religious duties and those I owe my compatriots; for them I die the inglorious
death of the common murderer, for them I leave behind my young children and my
wife who have no means of support, and for them I die crying: Long live freedom!
Long live independence!

More than 140 prisoners from Upper and Lower Canada were deported.

Lord Durham's Mission
In the spring of
1838, a new Governor General arrived in Quebec, John George Lambton, first Earl of
Durham.
His orders were to investigate the causes of the rebellion. He was an aristocrat, a
liberal and a reformer. He was charged with a delicate mission:

"I beg you to consider me as a friend and arbitrator - ready at all times to listen to
your wishes, complaints, and grievances, and fully determined to act with the
strictest impartiality."

Lord Durham's first task was to decide the fate of the Patriotes languishing in prison.

On Queen Victoria's coronation day, 150 prisoners were freed. In exchange, eight
leaders pleaded guilty, and were exiled to Bermuda.

Among them was Wolfred Nelson who was preparing to leave the land of his birth:

"We belong to our country and we will willingly sacrifice ourselves on the altar of her
liberties.
We have revolted neither against the person of Her Majesty, nor against her
government, but against a vicious colonial administration."

Patriote leaders who had taken refuge in the United States were banished for life by
Lord Durham. In a letter to Queen Victoria, Lord Durham prided himself on having
restored peace to the colony:

"Not one drop of blood has been shed. The guilty have received justice, the
misguided mercy; but at the same time, security is afforded to the loyal and
peaceable subjects of this hitherto distracted province."

But Lord Durham's mission ended abruptly.
In the autumn of 1838, the British government disavowed him. Lord Melbourne, the
Prime Minister, criticized him for exceeding his powers by sentencing the Patriote
leaders into exile without trial. He promptly resigned and returned to England.

"I little expected the reward I have received from home, - disavowal and
condemnation. In these circumstances I have no business here - My authority is
gone - all that rests is military power, that can be better wielded by a soldier, and Sir
John Colborne will, no doubt, do it efficiently," wrote Lord Durham.

As Lord Durham set sail for England, a second rebellion broke out in Lower Canada.
This uprising was organized by the Frères Chasseurs, a group of radical Patriotes.
Their first victories were fleeting. In less than a week the rebellion was snuffed out.

1839 - Lord Durham's Report
By 1839, the
rebellions were over but Upper and Lower Canada were plunged into a period of
despair and bitterness.
More than two hundred Patriotes and Upper Canadian rebels had died on the
battlefield while others had been hanged or sent into exile. The forces of reform were
decisively defeated and the economy took a turn for the worse. Poor harvests
reduced numerous many farmers to poverty.

Upon his return to London in 1838, John George Lambton, the Earl of Durham tabled
his report, which outlined the conclusions he had drawn during his stay in the British
colonies of North America. Lord Durham paid particular attention to the relations
between the English and the "Canadiens" of Lower Canada. In his opinion, it was
necessary to give the elected assembly more power.

"It is not by weakening but in strengthening the influence of the people on their
government," he wrote, "that it will be possible, in my view, to bring about concord
where discord has so long reigned, and to introduce a hitherto unknown regularity
and vigor into the administration of the provinces."

He proposed that the Governor choose his advisers - in effect, his cabinet - from
among men who enjoyed the confidence of the Assembly.
In this respect, Durham seemed to agree with the reformists Louis-Joseph Papineau,
of Lower Canada, William Lyon Mackenzie, of Upper Canada and Joseph Howe, in
Nova Scotia.

Durham realized there was another, more serious problem, in the case of Lower
Canada.

"I expected to find a conflict between the government and the people: instead, I
found two warring nations within a single State; I found a struggle, not of principles,
but of races.
And I realized that it would be pointless to try to improve the laws or institutions
without succeeding in extinguishing the mortal hatred which now divides the
inhabitants of Lower Canada into two hostile groups: French and English."

To solve the problem, Durham proposed to unite Upper and Lower Canada, as the
English party had previously suggested. By uniting the two Canadas, the English
would become dominant and the French Canadians would become a minority. He
thought that French Canadians, whom he described as a people "without history and
without literature", would gradually abandon their identity.

"The language, the laws and the character of the North American continent are
English, and every other race than the English race is in a state of inferiority.
It is in order to release them from this inferiority that I wish to give the Canadians
our English character."

Despite Lord Durham's recommendations, the British government refused to give the
colonists more power. The British ministers worried that colonial autonomy would
lead to the disintegration of the British Empire. Nevertheless, the uniting of the two
Canadas was an opportunity to solve the French problem once and for all.

In Halifax in 1840, Joseph Howe, who had been a member of the Assembly for four
years, was in favour of Lord Durham's reforms and wrote to the British Colonial
Minister in London to support them.
Howe was deeply disappointed when the government refused to reform the colonial
parliamentary system.

"We must hasten," wrote Howe, "to bring to the colonies the principle of self-
government, a government accountable to the people. It is the only straightforward
and certain solution capable of curing a deep rooted and far-reaching affliction."

The Reform Alliance
In 1840, the British
government decided to unite Upper and Lower Canada.

However, it refused to reform the
colonial parliamentary system, as
recommended by Lord Durham, the
former Governor General of the colonies
of British North America.

Robert Baldwin, a lawyer from one of
Toronto's richest families, now tried to
pick up the pieces of the reform project.

He sent a letter to Louis-Hyppolite La
In 1840, Robert Baldwin proposed that the Lower Fontaine who, since the exile of most of
Canadian Patriotes join Upper Canadian reformers to the Patriote leaders, had become one of
form a reform majority in the Legislative Assembly
of United Canada. (As portrayed by Ted Atherton in the most influential politicians in Lower
Canada: A People's History) Canada. La Fontaine had risen from
modest origins in Boucherville to
become a respected lawyer and
politician.

Baldwin proposed an alliance between the Upper Canadian reformers and the Lower
Canadian Patriotes. Together, they would command a reform majority in the new
House of Assembly when the two Canadas were united.

"There is, and must be no question of races.

It were madness on one side, and guilt,
deep guilt on both to make such a
question. The Reformers of Upper
Canada are ready to make every
allowance for the unfortunate state of
things and are resolved, as I believe
them to be, to unite with their Lower
Canadian Brethren cordially as friends,
and to afford every assistance in
obtaining justice."

La Fontaine saw the Union of the French Canadian Louis-Hippolyte LaFontaine gave a
Canadas as a despotic and unjust act, boost to the reform movement when he was elected
to the Assembly for a Toronto riding. (As portrayed
as far as Lower Canada was concerned. by Robert Daviau in Canada: A People's History)
But Baldwin's letter gave him hope.

"It is in the interest of the reformers of
both provinces to come together in the legislature, in a spirit of peace, union,
friendship and fraternity.
United action is needed now more than ever."

In an open letter to voters at Terrebonne on August 28 1840, La Fontaine declared:

"I have no doubt that the advocates of reform in Upper Canada feel the need, as we
do, [to join forces] and that, in the first sitting of the legislature, they will show us
some unequivocal evidence of this, which I hope will be the sign of a lasting and
mutual bond of trust."

In February 1841, United Canada's new constitution came into effect. Kingston was
chosen as capital. In the new House of Assembly, the two former provinces had the
same number of representatives; a system designed to reduce the political clout of
French Canadians.

The reform alliance underwent a baptism of fire in the first election after the defeat
of the Rebellions.

1841 - The First Election after the Act of
Union
In February 1841,
United Canada's new constitution came into effect.

Upper Canada became West Canada
and Lower Canada was known as East
Canada. Even though Lower Canada
had approximately 200,000 more
inhabitants than Upper Canada, the two
former provinces had the same number
of members in the new Legislative
Assembly. The system was designed to
reduce the political clout of French
Canadians and to facilitate their
assimilation. English became the official
Louis-Hippolyte LaFontaine withdrew from a Lower
language of the legislature and Kingston
Canadian election when confronted by a mob near was chosen as capital.
the only polling place in a mostly English village. (As
The British government refused to
reform the colonial parliamentary
system to make it more democratic. As
it stood, the Governor General and councillors that the British government appointed
still held almost all the power.

During the election of 1841, Lord Sydenham, the Governor General, supported the
Conservative cause: in Lower Canada he modified electoral constituencies and set up
polling offices as far as possible from villages that had a majority French Canadian
population.

During the election, there was
widespread violence and even death.
The army would only intervene to
defend candidates from the English
Party.

Louis-Hyppolite La Fontaine was
seeking re-election in Terrebonne, a
county he represented before the
Rebellions. In his riding, the polling
office had been placed at the entrance
to New Glasgow, a village that was In 1841, the Act of Union united Upper and Lower
mostly English. When La Fontaine and Canada into one colony - Kingston the capital - with
one governor, one elected assembly and one
his supporters showed up to vote, a language, English.
mob was waiting. To avoid bloodshed,
La Fontaine was forced to withdraw:

"And so I informed the reporting officer that in order to avoid bloodshed and the
massacre of great numbers, I was withdrawing from the contest."

Without La Fontaine in the House of Assembly, the reform alliance was in danger.
Robert Baldwin asked his father, who was running as a candidate in a Toronto riding,
to withdraw and to let La Fontaine run in his place:

"I think it would be very desirable that you should even tho' you may have already
accepted the nomination for North York suggest to them the expediency of accepting
your retirement and of returning Mr. La Fontaine, if he will accept the nomination
instead of you. I am satisfied that nothing could be done at this conjuncture that
would have a better effect upon the state of parties in the House than his return just
now for North York."

William Baldwin accepted his son's proposition.
The francophone candidate won the election in the Upper Canadian riding of North
York. In 1849, La Fontaine returned the favour to Robert Baldwin, who was elected
in the riding of Rimouski, in the Lower Saint Lawrence.

These gestures of goodwill strengthened the alliance between reformers from both
Canadas and the personal friendship of the two men.

In the years to come, Baldwin and La Fontaine together led the battle for a
government run by the people's elected representatives.

And La Fontaine could rely on Baldwin's support to restore the French language in
Parliament.

A Responsible Government
Once the British
Empire adopted a policy of free trade, there was less reason to control the internal
politics of its most developed colonies.
The Great Famine that was devastating Ireland forced England to adopt this
measure. In order to come to the aid of its victims, England had to be in the position
to buy food products, above all wheat, at the least cost. This measure was hailed by
the merchants and the English industrialists. They could now procure raw materials
where they were the cheapest.

For more than 50 years, the people of Upper and Lower Canada, New Brunswick,
Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island had the right to elect representatives to the
their House of Assembly Newfoundland was not granted this privilege until 1832. But
the elected representatives had very little power. The Governor, appointed by the
British government, selected his advisers and none of them came from the House of
Assembly.

In November 1847, Lord Grey, Secretary of State for the Colonies, declared to John
Harvey, Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia:

"It is neither possible nor desirable, to govern any of the British provinces of North
America in opposition to the opinion of its inhabitants."

In 1848, the British government finally granted British North America's reformers
what they had been after for years: the power to govern themselves.
Henceforth, even though they were appointed by London, the Colonial governors
were obliged to choose members of the Executive Council from those elected to the
House of Assembly.

Nova Scotia became the first colony of the British Empire to obtain responsible
government.

The Reformers' Victory
At the beginning of
1848, Joseph Howe's reform party won the elections in Nova Scotia and took power,
forming the first colonial government within the British Empire to be popularly
elected.

Henceforth, the party that held the majority in the Assembly would lead the
colony. Howe became Premier:

"It will be our pride to make Nova Scotia a Normal School for the rest of the
Colonies," wrote Joseph Howe, "showing them how representative Institutions may
be worked, so as to insure internal tranquility, and advancement, in subordination to
the paramount interest and authority of the Empire."

A few weeks earlier, in December 1847, United Canada was in the middle of an
election. The reformers, led by Baldwin and La Fontaine, were victorious there as
well.

La Fontaine wrote:

"...the goal of the union of the two provinces was the destruction of the French
Canadians.

Since then, things have changed. The
author of this measure was mistaken.
He wanted to lay low a whole category
of citizens. But today the facts show
that everyone is on an equal footing."

It was a great victory for Robert
Baldwin. While addressing voters in the
riding of York, he declared:

"The Province has passed through a
long and arduous struggle for the French Canadian Louis-Hippolyte LaFontaine gave a
establishment of a system of boost to the reform movement when he was elected
to the Assembly for a Toronto riding. (As portrayed
government founded on the broad basis by Robert Daviau in Canada: A People's History)
of British Constitutional principles. Your
favour, and the confidence of a large
portion of the people of my country,
placed me in a position in which I was called upon to perform no unimportant part in

the great battle of the constitution.
The battle has been fought. The victory has been achieved."

Louis-Joseph Papineau received amnesty in 1845 and returned to Canada. The
former leader of the Patriotes was elected in the county of Saint-Maurice in the 1848
election, and called for repeal of the Union. But times had changed. He did not find
many supporters for his views, apart from the young radicals of the newspaper
L'Avenir. His former allies had moved over to support La Fontaine. Wolfred Nelson,
the hero of Saint-Denis, accused his former leader of cowardly flight from the
battlefield in 1837. Newspapers circulated rumors in the hopes of discrediting
Papineau. He abandoned public life and withdrew to his manor at Montebello.
By now, almost all the Patriotes and Upper Canadian rebels had been granted
amnesty. In 1849, William Lyon Mackenzie was the last to request and obtain
amnesty.

The Rebellion Losses Bill: the First Test
In 1848, United
Canada's Parliament was now located in Montreal.

The Baldwin-La Fontaine reform
government introduced a bill that would
put self-government to its first, crucial
test.

It proposed paying compensation to
Lower Canadians whose property had
been destroyed during the Rebellions.
All those who could prove their losses,
and had not been convicted of sedition,
would be compensated.
Self-government was put to a crucial test in 1849
when politician Louis-Hippolyte LaFontaine proposed
In the spring, the new Governor
paying compensation to Lower Canadians whose
General, Lord Elgin, a skillful diplomat
property was destroyed during the Rebellions. (As
portrayed in Canada: A People's History) from a powerful Scottish family, was
faced with a difficult decision. If he did
not accept the Rebellion Losses Bill, he
would undermine the foundation of
responsible government. If he did approve the bill, then he would antagonize a good
part of the English population of Lower Canada, who saw it as a measure to reward
traitors:

"A good deal of excitement and bad feeling has been stirred (...) The opposition
leaders who are very low in the World at the moment, have taken advantage of the
circumstance to work upon the feelings of the old loyalists as opposed to Rebels, of
British as opposed to French, and of Upper Canada as opposed to Lower, and thus to
provoke from various parts of the Province the expression of not very temperate or
measured discontent."

Lord Elgin finally decided to accept the bill.

As he left Parliament, an angry mob
awaited him.

Many of the English in Montreal felt
betrayed by the governor and by
England.

On April 25 1849, the Montreal Gazette
issued a call to arms:

"The Disgrace of Great Britain
accomplished! Governor General Elgin approved the controversial
Rebellion Losses Bill proposed by political reformers
Canada Sold and Given Away! (...) in 1849. (As portrayed in Canada: A People's
The End has begun. History)
Anglo-Saxons you must live for the
future.
Your blood and your race will now be
supreme (...)

A Mass Meeting will be held on the Place d'Armes this evening at 8 o'clock.

To the struggle, now is your time."

That evening, the crowd marched in fury on Parliament.
The rioters broke down the doors and set fire to the building, which housed both the
Parliament and the parliamentary library

1849 - The Burning of Parliament
That evening, the
crowd marched in fury on Parliament.

The rioters broke down the doors and
set fire to the building, which housed
both Parliament and the parliamentary
library.

"Last evening around 8 o'clock, while
Parliament was in session," wrote
William Rufus Seaver, a
Congregationalist pastor who witnessed
the riot, "a rabble (for that is the only
name to call it, even if it was made up
An angry mob confronted Governor General Elgin of some of our finest citizens)
after he approved The Rebellion Losses Bill in 1849. surrounded the building and started
(As portrayed in Canada: A People's History)
ransacking it by smashing in the
windows, etc. Soon the doors were
broken down, and a strapping young
man dashed forward to the Speaker's Chair and shouted: "I hereby dissolve
Parliament!" This was a signal, and immediately in front of the deputies and many
spectators, they lit the gas mains in a dozen places and the building was engulfed in
flames.

"The furious mob grabbed the golden mace, the sacred symbol of Royalty, and
carried it into the street yelling scornfully and disdainfully all the while.

The deputies barely escaped death and
the splendid building which contained
rare paintings, all the province's
archives since the beginnings of the
colony, all the laws of Parliament, this
library which alone was worth some
100,000 pounds sterling, was totally
destroyed. The magnificent portrait of
the Queen, which you must surely
remember, was thrown into the street
and torn apart. Everything was lost,
nothing could be saved, all that Opponents of reform burned down the Parliament
remained was a pile of smoking ruins... buildings in Montreal in 1849. (As portrayed in

"This quarrel is a war between races.
The British do not accept answering to a
Canadian government and nobody can foresee the end of hostilities. Will this mean
the extermination of the Canadian race? God only knows. We are living in troubled
times and more blood will flow than ever during the rebellion of 1837."

Joseph Howe, the Premier of Nova Scotia, was shocked to learn what had happened
in Montreal. He condemned the rioters:

"We hear a great deal about anglifying the French-Canadians; and a union of the
Provinces is sometimes advocated with a view to swamping and controlling that
portion of the population which, being of French origin, still preserve their ancient
religion, manners and language. (...) If the process of anglifying is to include any
species of injustice to that large body of British subjects, who already form at least
one-half of the population of United Canada, to such a design, no matter in what
form pressed or by whom entertained, we will be no parties."

The burning of Parliament was a last, desperate act by the opponents of reform.
These men, with their privileged connections to England, were now terribly
weakened. By signing the Rebellion Losses Bill, Lord Elgin had confirmed that the
colonists could make their own decisions from now on. Robert Baldwin and Louis-
Hyppolite La Fontaine had shown that Canada's future depended on collaboration
between the English and the French.

The End of an Era
In 1849, two and a
half million people lived in the colonies of British North America.

Thousands of immigrants from the British Isles were settled in Newfoundland, Nova
Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Upper and Lower Canada.

Peace and prosperity had returned.
Harvests were good and sawmills were selling their wood to the United States.
Industries used hydraulic energy in shipyards and in foundries. In Canada, new
canals linked the Saint Lawrence to the Great Lakes.

The granting of self-government granted the colonies much greater autonomy in
relation to the British government.

Robert Baldwin, the reformer from Upper Canada, retired from public life in 1851. He
was only 47, but the parliamentary battles he had led for a decade had completely
exhausted him. He died eight years later.

Louis-Hyppolite La Fontaine left politics only a few months after his friend Baldwin.
He was also tired and ill. He died at the age of 56.

After his return from exile, William Lyon Mackenzie was elected to the Parliament of
the Province of Canada.

Social studies 10 horizons chapter caph reform and rebellion companion readings

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