UNREST IN RUPERT'S LAND (1844-69).
Discontent on Red River--Queries to the Governor--A courageous
Recorder--Free trade in furs held illegal--Imprisonment--New
land deed--Enormous freights--Petty revenge--Turbulent
pensioners--Heart-burnings--Heroic Isbister--Half-breed
memorial--Mr. Beaver's letter--Hudson's Bay Company notified--Lord
Elgin's reply--Voluminous correspondence--Company's full
answer--Colonel Crofton's statement--Major Caldwell, a
partisan--French petition--Nearly a thousand signatures--Love,
a factor--The elder Riel--A court scene--Violence--"Vive la
liberté"--The Recorder checked--A new judge--Unruly Corbett--The
prison broken--Another rescue--A valiant doctor--A Red River Nestor.
The fuller organization of Assiniboia, after its purchase by the
Hudson's Bay Company from the heirs of the Earl of Selkirk, encouraged
the authorities at Red River to assert the rights which the Company had
always claimed--viz. the monopoly of the fur trade in Rupert's Land and
the imposition of heavy freights on imports and exports by way of Hudson
Bay. The privilege of exporting tallow, the product of the buffalo, had
been accorded on reasonable terms to a prominent resident of the Red
River, named James Sinclair. The first venture, a small one, succeeded;
but a second larger consignment was refused by the Company, and, after
lying nearly two years at York Factory, the cargo was sold to the
Company.
Twenty leading half-breeds then petitioned the Company to be allowed
to export their tallow and to be given a reasonable freight charge. No
answer was returned to this letter. The half-breeds were thus rising
in intelligence and means; being frequently employed as middlemen in
trafficking in furs, they learned something of the trade and traffic.
The half-breed settlers of the Red River settlement have always
claimed special privileges in Rupert's Land as being descended from
the aboriginal owners. It was under such circumstances that Governor
Christie, following, it is supposed, legal direction, in 1844 issued
two proclamations, the first, requiring that each settler, before the
Company would carry any goods for him, should be required to declare
that he had not been engaged in the fur trade; the second, that the
writer of every letter write his name on the outside of it, in order
that, should he be suspected of dealing in furs, it might be opened and
examined.
This was a direct issue, and they determined to bring the matter to a
crisis. Twenty leading natives (half-breeds of Red River settlement),
among them a number well known, such as James Sinclair, John Dease, John
Vincent, William Bird, and Peter Garrioch, in 1845 approached Alexander
Christie, Governor of the settlement, requesting answers to fourteen
queries. These questions required satisfaction as to whether half-breeds
could hunt, buy, sell, or traffic in furs, and also what were the
restrictions in this matter upon Europeans, &c. A pacific and soothing
reply was made by Governor Christie, but the Company soon began to take
steps to repress the free trade in furs, and the Council of Rupert's
Land passed certain regulations, among others one placing a duty of
twenty per cent. upon imports, but exempting from their tax settlers
who were free of the charge of trading in furs. This was a vexatious
regulation and roused great opposition.
All these devices had a legal smack about them, and were no doubt the
suggestions of Judge Thom, the Recorder of Red River, a remarkable man,
who, six years before this time, had come from Montreal to put legal
matters in order in the Red River settlement. The Recorder entered
_con amore_ into the matter, and advised the assertion of claims that
had fallen into disuse for many years among the different classes of
residents in the settlement. The redoubtable judge, who, it will be
remembered, was said to have been at the elbow of Sir George Simpson in
writing his "Journey Round the World," now evolved another tyrannical
expedient.
A new land deed was devised, and whosoever wished to hold land in the
settlement was compelled to sign it. This indenture provided that if the
land-holder should invade any privileges of the Company and fail to
contribute to the maintenance of clergy and schools, or omit to do his
work upon the public roads, or carry on trade in skins, furs, peltry, or
dressed leather, such offender should forfeit his lands.
This was certainly un-British and severe, and we may look upon it as the
plan of the judge, who failed to understand the spirit of his age, and
would have readily fallen in with a system of feudal tenure. The writer
in after years met this judge, then very old, in London, and found him
a kindly man, though with Scottish determination, willing to follow out
his opinions logically, however rash or out of place such a course might
be. If the Hudson's Bay Company found itself in a sea of trouble, and
hostile to public sentiment in the settlement, it had to blame its own
creation, the valorous Recorder of Red River.
The imposition of enormous freights, adopted at this time for carrying
goods by way of York Factory to England, in order to check trade, was
a part of the same policy of "Thorough" recommended by this legal
adviser. Sinclair, already mentioned, became the "Village Hampden" in
this crisis. Taking an active part in his opposition to this policy of
restriction, he found that he was to be punished, by the "Company's
Ship" from England to York Factory refusing to carry for him any
freight. It was partly the Oregon question and partly the unsettled
state of public opinion in Red River that led to a British regiment
being for a time stationed at the Red River settlement. On the removal
of these troops the pensioners, a turbulent band of old discharged
soldiers, came from Britain and were settled upon the Assiniboine, above
Fort Garry. A writer who knew them well ventures to suggest that they
were of the same troublesome disposition as the former De Meurons of
Lord Selkirk. Coming ostensibly to introduce peace they brought a sword.
Sooner or later the discontent and irritation produced by Judge Thorn's
inspiration was sure to reach its culmination, and this it did in the
Sayer affair afterwards described.
The cause of the complaints from the Red River settlement found a
willing and powerful advocate in Mr. Alexander K. Isbister, a young
London barrister, and afterwards a prominent educationalist. He was a
native of Rupert's Land, and had a dash of Indian blood in his veins,
and so took up the brief for his compatriots in a formidable series
of documents. Mr. Isbister's advocacy gave standing and weight to the
contention of the Red River half-breeds, and a brave and heroic fight
was made, even though the point of view was at times quite unjust to the
Company.
In 1847, Isbister, with five other half-breeds of Red River, forwarded,
to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, a long and able memorial,
setting forth the grievances of the petitioners. The document sets
forth in short that the Company had "amassed a princely revenue" at the
expense of the natives, allowed their wards to pass their lives in the
darkest heathenism, broke their pledges to exclude strong drink from the
Indian trade, were careless of the growing evil of want and suffering in
the territory, paid little for the furs, and persecuted the natives by
checking them in their barter of furs, and followed a short-sighted and
pernicious policy.
This was assuredly a serious list of charges. Earl Grey in due time
called on Isbister and his friends for a more specific statement of
the grievances, and wrote to the Governor of Assiniboia, to the London
Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company, and to the Governor-General of
Canada, Lord Elgin, asking their attention to the allegations of the
petition.
Some two months after Lord Grey's letter was received, the Hudson's Bay
Company Governor, Sir J. H. Pelly, submitted a long and minute answer
to the various charges of the petitioners. As is usually the case, both
parties had some advantages. As to the enormous profits, the Company
were able to show that they had unfortunately not been able to make
"more than the ordinary rate of mercantile profit." They replied as to
the religious interests of the natives, that their sole objects, as
stated in the Charter, were trade and the discovery of a North-West
Passage, but that they had helped at a considerable annual expense the
Church Missionary Society, Wesleyan Missionary Society, and a Roman
Catholic Missionary Society. The Company gives a most indignant denial
to the charge that they had resumed the trade in spirituous liquors with
the Indians, though admitting in the neighbourhood of Red River the use
of small quantities of strong drink in meeting the American traders.
This answer did not, however, quiet the storm. Isbister returned to
the attack, giving the evidence of Mr. Alexander Simpson, a trader on
the Pacific Coast, and the extensive and strong letter of the Rev.
Herbert Beaver, the former chaplain of the Hudson's Bay Company at Fort
Vancouver. Isbister also raised the question of the validity of the
Company's Charter. The Company again replied, and so the battle raged,
reply and rejoinder, quotations and evidence _ad libitum_. Isbister may
not have proved his case, but his championship won the approbation of
many independent observers.
Lord Elgin, the efficient and popular Governor-General of Canada, gave
such reply as he was able. He states that the distance of Red River
was so great and the intercourse so little, that taking into account
the peculiar jurisdiction of the Company, he found it difficult to
obtain the information sought. As to the complaints about the religious
neglect of the Indians, Lord Elgin states that disappointments in this
matter occur in other quarters as well as in the Hudson's Bay Company
territories, but declares that the result of his inquiries in the matter
"is highly favourable to the Company, and that it has left in his mind
the impression that the authority which they exercise over the vast and
inhospitable region subject to their jurisdiction is on the whole very
advantageous to the Indians."
Lord Elgin states that he is much indebted for his information to
Colonel Crofton, the commander of the 6th Royal Regiment, which we
have seen was stationed for a time at Red River. Colonel Crofton
afterwards gave to the Colonial Secretary what one would say was
rather an unjudicial reply. He said, "I unhesitatingly assert that the
government of the Hudson's Bay Company is mild and protective, and
admirably adapted, in my opinion, for the state of society existing in
Rupert's Land, where Indians, half-breeds, or Europeans are happily
governed, and live protected by laws which I know were mercifully
and impartially administered by Mr. Thom, the Recorder, and by the
magistrates of the land." In regard to this opinion, while no doubt an
honest expression of views, it is plain that Colonel Crofton did not
understand the aspiration for self-government which prevails in Western
communities. The reply of the Governor of Assiniboia, Major Caldwell,
was likewise favourable to the Company. Alexander Ross, in his "Red
River Settlement," criticizes the method taken by Major Caldwell to
obtain information. According to Ross, the Governor sent around queries
to a few select individuals, accepting no one "below what the Major
considered a gentleman." This, the critic says, was the action of a man
"who had never studied the art of governing a people." Ross, who did not
admire the Company greatly, however, sums up the whole matter by saying,
"The allegations of harsh conduct or maladministration preferred against
the Hudson's Bay Company by Mr. Isbister and his party were in general
totally unfounded and disproved," and therefore neither Major Caldwell's
inquiries nor the inspiration of his genius were required.
Notwithstanding Major Caldwell's optimism and Lord Elgin's favourable
reply, there was really a serious condition of affairs in Red River
settlement. Along with the petition of Isbister and his five English
half-breed compatriots, there was one far more formidable from the
French half-breeds, who to the number of nine hundred and seventy-seven
subscribed their names. Presented to Her Majesty the Queen, in most
excellent terms, in the French language, their petition sought, decrying
the monopoly as severe:--
1. That as good subjects they might be governed by the principles of the
British Constitution;
2. That as British subjects they demanded their right to enjoy the
liberty of commerce;
3. They requested the sale of lands to strangers, and that a portion of
the proceeds should be applied to improve the means of transport.
French and English half-breeds were now united in a common purpose. A
strange story is related as to the way in which the English-speaking
half-breeds came to throw in their lot with their French
fellow-countrymen. A Company officer had left his two daughters at Fort
Garry to be educated. One of them was the object of the affection of a
young Scotch half-breed, and at the same time of a young Highlander.
The young lady is said to have preferred the Metis, but the stern
parent favoured the Highlander. The Scotchman, fortified by the father's
approval, proceeded to upbraid the Metis for his temerity in aspiring to
the hand of one so high in society as the lady. As love ruined Troy, so
it is said this affair joined French and English half-breeds in a union
to defeat the Company.
The agitation went on, as Isbister and his friends corresponded with
the people of Red River and succeeded so well in gaining the ear of the
British Government. Among the French people one of the fiercest and most
noisy leaders was Louis Riel, the revolutionary "miller of the Seine."
This man, the father of the rebel chief of later years, was a French
half-breed. A tribune of the people, he had a strong ascendency over the
ignorant half-breeds. He was ready for any emergency.
It is often the case that some trifling incident serves to bring on a
serious crisis in affairs. A French settler, named Guillaume Sayer,
half-breed son of an old bourgeois in the North-West Company, had
bought a quantity of goods, intending to go on a trading expedition to
Lake Manitoba. The Company proceeded to arrest him, and, after a stiff
resistance, he was overcome by force and imprisoned at Fort Garry.
As the day of trial drew near the excitement grew intense. Governor
Caldwell was a well-known martinet; the Recorder was regarded as the
originator of the policy of restriction. He was, moreover, believed
to be a Francophobe, having written a famous series of newspaper
communications in Montreal, known as the "Antigallic Letters." The day
of trial had been fixed for Ascension Day, May 17th, and this was taken
as a religious affront by the French. The Court was to meet in the
morning.
On the day of the trial hundreds of French Metis, armed, came from all
the settlements to St. Boniface Church, and, leaving their guns at the
church door, entered for service. At the close they gathered together,
and were addressed in a fiery oration by Riel. A French Canadian
admirer, writing of the matter, says, "Louis Riel obtained a veritable
triumph on that occasion, and long and loud the hurrahs were repeated by
the echoes of the Red River."
Crossing by way of Point Douglas, the Metis surrounded the unguarded
Court House at Fort Garry. The governor, judge, and magistrate arrived,
and took their seats at eleven o'clock. A curious scene now ensued: the
magistrates protested against the violence; Riel in loud tones declared
that they would give the tribunal one hour, and that if justice were
not done them, they would do it themselves. An altercation then took
place between Judge Thom and Riel, and with his loud declaration, "Et
je déclare que de ce moment Sayer est libre----" drowned by the shouts
of the Metis, the trial was over. Sayer and his fellow-prisoners betook
themselves to freedom, while the departing Metis cried out, "Le commerce
est libre! le commerce est libre! Viva la liberté!" This crisis was a
serious one. Judge Thom, so instructed by Governor Simpson, never acted
as Recorder again. The five years' struggle was over.
The movement for liberty continued to stimulate the people. Five years
afterward the plan of the agitators was to obtain the intervention of
Canada. Accordingly a petition, signed by Roderick Kennedy and five
hundred and seventy-four others, was presented to the Legislative
Assembly of Canada. The grievances of the people of Red River were
recited. It was stated that application had been made to the Imperial
Parliament without result, and this through "the chicanery of the
Company and its false representations." In 1857 the Toronto Board of
Trade petitioned the Canadian Assembly to open the Hudson's Bay Company
territories to trade. Restlessness and uncertainty largely prevailed
in Red River, though there were many of the colonists who paid little
attention to what they considered the infatuated conduct of the
agitators.
No truer test of the success of government can be found than the respect
and obedience shown by the people for the law. Red River settlement,
judged by this standard, had a woful record at this time. After the
unfortunate Sayer affair, Recorder Thom was superseded, and for a
time (1855 to 1858) Judge Johnson, of Montreal, came to Fort Garry to
administer justice and to act as Governor.
Judge Black, a capable trader who had received a legal training, was
appointed to the office of Recorder, but soon found a case that tried
his judicial ability and skill. A clergyman named Corbett, who had been
bitterly hostile to the Company, testified to certain extreme statements
against the Company in the great investigation of 1857. He then returned
to his parish of Headingly in the settlement. A criminal charge was
brought against him, for which he was found guilty in the courts and
sentenced to six months' imprisonment. The opponents of the Company,
seemingly without ground, but none the less fiercely, declared that the
trial was a persecution by the Company and that Corbett was innocent.
Strong in this belief, the mob surrounded the prison at Fort Garry,
overawed the old French jailor, and, rescuing Corbett, took him home to
his parish.
Among those who had been prominent in the rescue was James Stewart,
long afterward a druggist and meteorological observer in Winnipeg.
Stewart and some of his companions were arrested for jail-breaking and
cast into prison. Some forty or fifty friends of Stewart threatened
violence should he be kept a prisoner. The Governor, bishop, and three
magistrates met to overawe the insurgents, but the determined rescuers
tore up the pickets enclosing the prison yard, broke open the jail, and
made the prisoner a free man.
Such insubordination and tumult marked the decline of the Company's
power as a governing body. This lawlessness was no doubt stimulated
by the establishment of a newspaper in 1859--_The Nor'-Wester_--which
from the first was hostile to the Company. The system of government by
the Council of Assiniboia had always been a vulnerable point in the
management by the Company, and the newspaper constantly fanned the
spirit of discontent. In the year 1868, when the Hudson Bay Company
régime was approaching its end, another violent and disturbing affair
took place. This was the arrest of Dr. Schultz, a Canadian leader of
great bodily strength and determination, who had thrown in his lot with
the Red River people. As a result of a business dispute, Schultz was
proceeded against in the Court, and an order issued for seizure of his
goods. On his resisting the sheriff in the execution of his duty, he
was, after a severe struggle, overpowered, taken captive, and confined
in Fort Garry jail.
On the following day the wife of Dr. Schultz and some fifteen men
forcibly entered the prison, overpowered the guards, and, breaking open
his cell, rescued the redoubtable doctor. Hargrave says, "This done, the
party adjourned along with him to his house, where report says, 'They
made a night of it.'"
These events represented the decadence of the Company's rule; they
indicated the rise of new forces that were to compel a change; and
however harmful to those immediately involved they declared unmistakably
that the old order changeth, giving place to new.
Typical of his times, there sat through the court scenes of these
troublous days the old "clerk of court and council," William Robert
Smith. With long grey beard he held his post, and was the genius of
the place. He was the Nestor of Red River. A Bluecoat boy from London,
he had come from school far back in 1813, to enter on the fur trade
in Rupert's Land. At Oxford House, Ile à la Crosse, Little Slave
Lake, and Norway House, he served eleven faithful years as a clerk,
when he retired and became a settler of Red River. He was the first
to settle near Lower Fort Garry, and named the spot "Little Britain,"
from one of his old London localities. Farming, teaching, catechizing
for the church, acting precentor, a local encyclopædia, and collector
of Customs, he passed his versatile life, till, the year before the
Sayer _émeute_, he became Clerk of Court, which place, with slight
interruption, he held for twenty years. How remarkable to think of the
man of all work, the Company's factotum, reaching in his experience from
the beginning to well-nigh the ending of the Selkirk settlement! One who
knew him says, "From his long residence in the settlement he has seen
governors, judges, bishops, and clergymen, not to mention such birds
of passage as the Company's local officers, who come and go, himself
remaining to record their doings to their successors."
[Illustration: COUNCIL OF HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY COMMISSIONED OFFICERS
HELD IN WINNIPEG, 1887.
(_See_ Appendix G. for names.)]