TROUBLES OF THE TRANSFER OF RUPERT'S LAND.
Transfer Act passed--A moribund government--The
Canadian surveying party--Causes of the rebellion--Turbulent
Metis--American interference--Disloyal ecclesiastics--Governor
McDougall--Riel and his rebel band--A blameworthy Governor--The
"blawsted fence"--Seizure of Fort Garry--Riel's ambitions--Loyal
rising--Three wise men from the East--_The New Nation_--A
winter meeting--Bill of Rights--Canadian shot--The Wolseley
expedition--Three renegades slink away--The end of Company
rule--The new Province of Manitoba.
The old Company had agreed to the bargain, and the Imperial Act was
passed authorizing the transfer of the vast territory east of the Rocky
Mountains to Canada. Canada, with the strengthening national spirit
rising from the young confederation, with pleasure saw the Dominion
Government place in the estimates the three hundred thousand pounds
for the payment of the Hudson's Bay Company, and an Act was passed by
the Dominion Parliament providing for a government of the north-west
territories, which would secure the administration of justice, and the
peace, order, and good government of Her Majesty's subjects and others.
It was enacted, however, that all laws of the territory at the time of
the passing of the Act should remain in force until amended or repealed,
and all officers except the chief to continue in office until others
were appointed.
And now began the most miserable and disreputable exhibition of
decrepitude, imbecility, jesuitry, foreign interference, blundering, and
rash patriotism ever witnessed in the fur traders' country. This was
known as the Red River rebellion. The writer arrived in Fort Garry the
year following this wretched affair, made the acquaintance of many of
the actors in the rebellion, and heard their stories. The real, deep
significance of this rebellion has never been fully made known. Whether
the writer will succeed in telling the whole tale remains to be seen.
The Hudson's Bay Company officials at Red River were still the
government. This fact must be distinctly borne in mind. It has been
stated, however, that this government had become hopelessly weak and
inefficient. Governor Dallas, in the words quoted, admitted this and
lamented over it. Were there any doubt in regard to this statement, it
was shown by the utter defiance of the law in the breaking of jail in
the three cases of Corbett, Stewart, and Dr. Schultz. No government
could retain respect when the solemn behests of its courts were laughed
at and despised. This is the real reason lying at the root of the
apathy of the English-speaking people of the Red River in dealing with
the rebellion. They were not cowards; they sprang from ancestors who
had fought Britain's battles; they were intelligent and moral; they
loved their homes and were prepared to defend them; but they had no
guarantee of leadership; they had no assurance that their efforts would
be given even the colour of legality; the broken-down jail outside
Fort Garry, its uprooted stockades and helpless old jailor, were the
symbol of governmental decrepitude and were the sport of any determined
law-breaker.
It has been the habit of their opponents to refer to the annoyance
of the Hudson's Bay Company Committee in London with Canada for in
1869 sending surveyors to examine the country before the transfer was
made. Reference has also been made to the dissatisfaction of the local
officers at the action taken by the Company in dealing with the deed
poll in 1863; some have said that the Hudson's Bay Company officials
at Fort Garry did not admire the Canadian leaders as they saw them;
and others have maintained that these officers cared nothing for the
country, provided they received large enough dividends as wintering
partners.
[Illustration:
SOUTH AND EAST FACES, 1840.
From sketch by wife of Governor Finlayson.
Illustration:
EAST FACE, IN YEAR 1882, WHEN FORT WAS DISMANTLED.
X Spot where Scott was executed.
FORT GARRY--WINTER SCENES.]
Now, there may be something in these contentions, but they do not touch
the core of the matter. The Hudson's Bay Company, both in London and
Fort Garry, were thoroughly loyal to British institutions; the officers
were educated, responsible, and high-minded men; they had acted up to
their light in a thoroughly honourable manner, and no mere prejudice, or
fancied grievance, or personal dislike would have made them untrue to
their trusts. But the government had become decrepit; vacillation and
uncertainty characterized every act; had the people been behind them,
had they not felt that the people distrusted them, they would have taken
action, as it was their duty to do.
The chronic condition of helplessness and governmental decay was
emphasized and increased by a sad circumstance. Governor William
McTavish, an honourable and well-meaning man, was sick. In the midst
of the troubles of 1863 he would willingly have resigned, as Governor
Dallas assures us; now he was physically incapable of the energy and
decision requisite under the circumstances. Moreover, as we shall
see, there was a most insidious and dangerous influence dogging his
every step. His subordinates would not act without him, he could not
act without them, and thus an absolute deadlock ensued. Moreover, the
Council of Assiniboia, an appointed body, had felt itself for years
out of touch with the sentiment of the colony, and its efforts at
legislation resulted in no improvement of the condition of things. Woe
to a country ruled by an oligarchy, however well-meaning or reputable
such a body may be!
Turn now from this picture of pitiful weakness to the unaccountable and
culpable blundering of the Canadian Government. Cartier and McDougall
found out in England that sending in a party of surveyors before the
country was transferred was offensive to the Hudson's Bay Company. More
offensive still was the method of conducting the expedition. It was a
mark of sublime stupidity to profess, as the Canadian Government did,
to look upon the money spent on this survey as a benevolent device for
relieving the people suffering from the grasshopper visitation. The
genius who originated the plan of combining charity with gain should
have been canonized. Moreover, the plan of contractor Snow of paying
poor wages, delaying payment, and giving harsh treatment to such a
people as the half-breeds are known to be was most ill advised. The
evidently selfish and grasping spirit shown in this expedition sent to
survey and build the Dawson Road, yet turning aside to claim unoccupied
lands, to sow the seeds of doubt and suspicion in the minds of a people
hitherto secluded from the world, was most unpatriotic and dangerous.
It cannot be denied, in addition, that while many of the small band
of Canadians were reputable and hard-working men, the course of a few
prominent leaders, who had made an illegitimate use of the Nor'-Wester
newspaper, had tended to keep the community in a state of alienation and
turmoil.
What, then, were the conditions? A helpless, moribund government,
without decision, without actual authority on the one hand, and on
the other an irritating, selfish, and aggressive expedition, taking
possession of the land before it was transferred to Canada, and assuming
the air of conquerors.
Look now at the combustible elements awaiting this combination. The
French half-breeds, descendants of the turbulent Bois Brûlés of Lord
Selkirk's times; the old men, companions of Sayer and the elder Riel,
who defied the authority of the court, and left it shouting, "Vive
la liberté!" now irritated by the Dawson Road being built in the way
just described; the road running through the seigniory given by Lord
Selkirk to the Roman Catholic bishop, the road in rear of their largest
settlements, and passing through another French settlement at Pointe des
Chênes! Further, the lands adjacent to these settlements, and naturally
connected with them, being seized by the intruders! Furthermore, the
natives, antagonized by the action of certain Canadians who had for
years maintained the country in a state of turmoil! Were there not all
the elements of an explosion of a serious and dangerous kind?
Two other most important forces in this complicated state of things
cannot be left out. The first of these is a matter which requires
careful statement, but yet it is a most potential factor in the
rebellion. This is the attitude of certain persons in the United States.
For twenty years and more the trade of the Red River settlement had been
largely carried on by way of St. Paul, in the State of Minnesota. The
Hudson Bay route and York boat brigade were unable to compete with the
facilities offered by the approach of the railway to the Mississippi
River. Accordingly long lines of Red River carts took loads of furs to
St. Paul and brought back freight for the Company. The Red River trade
was a recognized source of profit in St. Paul. Familiarity in trade led
to an interest on the part of the Americans in the public affairs of Red
River. Hot-headed and sordid people in Red River settlement had actually
spoken of the settlement being connected with the United States.
Now that irritation was manifested at Red River, steps were taken by
private parties from the United States to fan the flame. At Pembina, on
the border between Rupert's Land and the United States, lived a nest
of desperadoes willing to take any steps to accomplish their purposes.
They had access to all the mails which came from England to Canada
marked "Vià Pembina." Pembina was an outpost refuge for law-breakers
and outcasts from the United States. Its people used all their power to
disturb the peace of Red River settlement. In addition, a considerable
number of Americans had come to the little village of Winnipeg, now
being begun near the walls of Fort Garry. These men held their private
meetings, all looking to the creation of trouble and the provocation of
feeling that might lead to change of allegiance. Furthermore, the writer
is able to state, on the information of a man high in the service of
Canada, and a man not unknown in Manitoba, that there was a large sum
of money, of which an amount was named as high as one million dollars,
which was available in St. Paul for the purpose of securing a hold by
the Americans on the fertile plains of Rupert's Land.
Here, then, was an agency of most dangerous proportions, an element
in the village of Winnipeg able to control the election of the first
delegate to the convention, a desperate body of men on the border, who
with Machiavelian persistence fanned the flame of discontent, and a
reserve of power in St. Paul ready to take advantage of any emergency.
A still more insidious and threatening influence was at work. Here
again the writer is aware of the gravity of the statement he is making,
but he has evidence of the clearest kind for his position. A dangerous
religious element in the country--ecclesiastics from old France--who
had no love for Britain, no love for Canada, no love for any country,
no love for society, no love for peace! These plotters were in close
association with the half-breeds, dictated their policy, and freely
mingled with the rebels. One of them was an intimate friend of the
leader of the rebellion, consulted with him in his plans, and exercised
a marked influence on his movements. This same foreign priest, with
Jesuitical cunning, gave close attendance on the sick Governor, and
through his family exercised a constant and detrimental power upon
the only source of authority then in the land. Furthermore, an Irish
student and teacher, with a Fenian hatred of all things British, was a
"familiar" of the leader of the rebellion, and with true Milesian zeal
advanced the cause of the revolt.
Can a more terrible combination be imagined than this? A decrepit
government with the executive officer sick; a rebellious and chronically
dissatisfied Metis element; a government at Ottawa far removed by
distance, committing with unvarying regularity blunder after blunder;
a greedy and foreign cabal planning to seize the country, and a secret
Jesuitical plot to keep the Governor from action and to incite the fiery
Metis to revolt!
The drama opens with the appointment, in September, 1869, by
the Dominion Government, of the Hon. William McDougall as
Lieutenant-Governor of the north-west territories, his departure from
Toronto, and his arrival at Pembina, in the Dakota territory, in the
end of October. He was accompanied by his family, a small staff, and
three hundred stand of arms with ammunition. He had been preceded by
the Hon. Joseph Howe, of the Dominion Government, who visited the Red
River settlement ostensibly to feel the pulse of public opinion, but as
Commissioner gaining little information. Mr. McDougall's commission as
Governor was to take effect after the formal transfer of the territory.
He reached Pembina, where he was served with a notice not to enter
the territory, yet he crossed the boundary line at Pembina, and took
possession of the Hudson's Bay Fort of West Lynn, two miles north of the
boundary.
Meanwhile a storm was brewing along Red River. A young French
half-breed, Louis Riel, son of the excitable miller of the Seine of whom
mention was made--a young man, educated by the Roman Catholic Bishop
Taché, of St. Boniface, for a time, and afterwards in Montreal, was
regarded as the hope of the Metis. He was a young man of fair ability,
but proud, vain, and assertive, and had the ambition to be a Cæsar or
Napoleon. He with his followers had stopped the surveyors in their work,
and threatened to throw off the approaching tyranny. Professing to be
loyal to Britain but hostile to Canada, he succeeded, in October, in
getting a small body of French half-breeds to seize the main highway at
St. Norbert, some nine miles south of Fort Garry.
The message to Mr. McDougall not to enter the territory was forwarded by
this body, that already considered itself the _de facto_ government. A
Canadian settler at once swore an affidavit before the officer in charge
of Fort Garry that an armed party of French half-breeds had assembled to
oppose the entrance of the Governor.
Here, then, was the hour of destiny. An outbreak had taken place, it was
illegal to oppose any man entering the country, not to say a Governor,
the fact of revolt was immediately brought to Fort Garry, and no amount
of casuistry or apology can ever justify Governor McTavish, sick though
he was, from immediately not taking action, and compelling his council
to take action by summoning the law-abiding people to surround him and
repress the revolt. But the government that would allow the defiance of
the law by permitting men to live at liberty who had broken jail could
not be expected to take action. To have done so would have been to work
a miracle.
The rebellion went on apace; two of the so-called Governor's staff
pushed on to the barricade erected at St. Norbert. Captain Cameron,
one of them, with eyeglass in poise, and with affected authority,
gave command, "Remove that blawsted fence," but the half-breeds were
unyielding. The two messengers returned to Pembina, where they found Mr.
McDougall likewise driven back and across the boundary. Did ever British
prestige suffer a more humiliating blow?
The act of rebellion, usually dangerous, proved in this case a trivial
one, and Riel's little band of forty or fifty badly-armed Metis began
to grow. The mails were seized, freight coming into the country became
booty, and the experiment of a rising was successful. In the meantime
the authorities of Fort Garry were inactive. The rumour came that Riel
thought of seizing the fort. An affidavit of the chief of police under
the Government shows that he urged the master of Fort Garry to meet the
danger, and asked authority to call upon a portion of the special police
force sworn in, shortly before, to preserve the peace. No Governor
spoke; no one even closed the fort as a precaution; its gates stood wide
open to friend or foe.
This exhibition of helplessness encouraged the conspirators, and
Riel and one hundred of his followers (November 2nd) unopposed took
possession of the fort and quartered themselves upon the Company. In
the front part of the fort lived the Governor; he was now flanked by a
body-guard of rebels; the master of the fort, a burly son of Britain,
though very gruff and out of sorts, could do nothing, and the young
Napoleon of the Metis fattened on the best of the land.
Riel now issued a proclamation, calling on the English-speaking parishes
of the settlement to elect twelve representatives to meet the President
and representatives of the French-speaking population, appointing a
meeting for twelve days afterwards.
Mr. McDougall, on hearing of the seizure of the fort, wrote to
Governor McTavish stating that as the Hudson Bay Company was still the
government, action should be taken to disperse the rebels. A number
of loyal inhabitants also petitioned Governor McTavish to issue his
proclamation calling on the rebels to disperse. The sick and helpless
Governor, fourteen days after the seizure of the fort and twenty-three
days after the affidavit of the rising, issued a tardy proclamation
condemning the rebels and calling upon them to disperse. The Convention
met November 16th, the English parishes having been cajoled into
electing delegates, thinking thus to soothe the troubled land. After
meeting and discussing in hot and useless words the state of affairs,
the Convention adjourned till December 1st, it being evident, however,
that Riel desired to form a provisional government of which he should be
the joy and pride.
The day for the reassembling of the Convention arrived. Riel and his
party insisted on ruling the meeting, and passed a "Bill of Rights"
consisting of fifteen provisions. The English people refused to accept
these propositions, and, after vainly endeavouring to take steps to meet
Mr. McDougall, withdrew to their homes, ashamed and confounded.
Meanwhile Mr. McDougall was chafing at the strange and humiliating
situation in which he found himself. With his family and staff poorly
housed at Pembina and the severe winter coming on, he could scarcely
be blamed for irritation and discontent. December 1st was the day on
which he expected his commission as Governor to come into effect,
and wonder of wonders, he, a lawyer, a privy councillor, and an
experienced statesman, went so far on this mere supposition as to issue
a proclamation announcing his appointment as Governor. As a matter of
fact, far away from communication with Ottawa, he was mistaken as to
the transfer. On account of the rise of the rebellion this had not
been made, and Mr. McDougall, in issuing a spurious proclamation,
became a thing of contempt to the insurgents, an object of pity to the
loyalists, and the laughing-stock of the whole world. His proclamation
at the same time authorizing Colonel Dennis, the Canadian surveyor in
Red River settlement, to raise a force to put down the rebellion, was
simply a _brutum fulmen_, and was the cause to innocent, well-meaning
men of trouble and loss. Colonel Dennis succeeded in raising a force
of some four hundred men, and would not probably have failed had it
not transpired that the two proclamations were illegal and that the
levies were consequently unauthorized. Such a thing to be carried out
by William McDougall and Colonel Dennis, men of experience and ability!
Surely there could be no greater fiasco!
The Canadian people were now in a state of the greatest excitement, and
the Canadian Government, aware of its blundering and stupidity, hastened
to rectify its mistakes. Commissioners were sent to negotiate with
the various parties in Red River settlement. These were Vicar-General
Thibault, who had spent long years in the Roman Catholic Missions of the
North-West, Colonel de Salaberry, a French Canadian, and Mr. Donald A.
Smith, the chief officer of the Hudson's Bay Company, then at Montreal.
On the last of these Commissioners, who had been clothed with very wide
powers, lay the chief responsibility, as will be readily seen.
A number of Canadians--nearly fifty--had been assembled in the store
of Dr. Schultz, at the village of Winnipeg, and, on the failure of Mr.
McDougall's proclamation, were left in a very awkward condition. With
arms in their hands, they were looked upon by Riel as dangerous, and
with promises of freedom and of the intention of Riel to meet McDougall
and settle the whole matter, they (December 7th) surrendered. Safely in
the fort and in the prison outside the wall, the prisoners were kept by
the truce-breaker, and the Metis contingent celebrated the victory by
numerous potations of rum taken from the Hudson's Bay Company stores.
Riel now took a step forward in issuing a proclamation, which has
generally been attributed to the crippled postmaster at Pembina, one of
the dangerous foreign clique longing to seize the settlement. He also
hoisted a new flag, with the fleur-de-lis worked upon it, thus giving
evidence of his disloyalty and impudence. Other acts of injustice, such
as seizing Company funds and interfering with personal liberty, were
committed by him.
On December 27th--a memorable day--Mr. Donald A. Smith arrived. His
commission and papers were left at Pembina, and he went directly to Fort
Garry, where Riel received him. The interview, given in Mr. Smith's
own words, was a remarkable one. Riel vainly sought to induce the
Commissioner to recognize his government, and yet was afraid to show
disrespect to so high and honoured an officer. For about two months
Commissioner Smith lived at Fort Garry, in a part of the same building
as Governor McTavish.
Mr. Smith says of this period, "The state of matters at this time was
most unsatisfactory and truly humiliating. Upwards of fifty British
subjects were held in close confinement as political prisoners; security
for persons or property there was none.... The leaders of the French
half-breeds had declared their determination to use every effort for the
purpose of annexing the territory to the United States."
Mr. Smith acted with great wisdom and decision. His plan evidently
was to have no formal breach with Riel but gradually to undermine him,
and secure a combination by which he could be overthrown. Many of
the influential men of the settlement called upon Mr. Smith, and the
affairs of the country were discussed. Riel was restless and at times
impertinent, but the Commissioner exercised his Scottish caution, and
bided his time.
At this time a newspaper, called _The New Nation_, appeared as the organ
of the provisional government. This paper openly advocated annexation
to the United States, thus showing the really dangerous nature of the
movement embodied in the rebellion.
During all these months of the rebellion, Bishop Taché, the influential
head of the Roman Catholic Church, had been absent in Rome at the
great Council of that year. One of his most active priests left behind
was Father Lestanc, the prince of plotters, who has generally been
credited with belonging to the Jesuit Order. Lestanc had sedulously
haunted the presence of the Governor; he was a daring and extreme man,
and to him and his fellow-Frenchman, the curé of St. Norbert, much of
Riel's obstinacy has been attributed. Commissioner Smith now used his
opportunity to weaken Riel. He offered to send for his commission to
Pembina, if he were allowed to meet the people. Riel consented to this.
The commission was sent for, and Riel tried to intercept the messenger,
but failed to do so. The meeting took place on January 19th. It was a
date of note for Red River settlement. One thousand people assembled,
and as there was no building capable of holding the people, the meeting
took place in the open air, the temperature being twenty below zero.
The outcome of this meeting was the election and subsequent assembling
of forty representatives--one half French, the other half English--to
consider the matter of Commissioner Smith's message. Six days after
the open-air meeting the Convention met. A second "Bill of Rights"
was adopted, and it was agreed to send delegates to Ottawa to meet
the Dominion Government. A provisional government was formed, at the
request, it is said, of Governor McTavish, and Riel gained the height
of his ambition in being made President, while the fledgling Fenian
priest, O'Donoghue, became "Secretary of the Treasury."
The retention of the prisoners in captivity aroused a deep feeling
in the country, and a movement originated in Portage La Prairie to
rescue the unfortunates. This force was joined by recruits at Kildonan,
making up six hundred in all. Awed by this gathering, Riel released
the prisoners, though he was guilty of an act of deepest treachery in
arresting nearly fifty of the Assiniboine levy as they were returning
to their homes. Among them was Major Boulton, who afterwards narrowly
escaped execution, and who has written an interesting account of the
rebellion.
The failure of the two parties of loyalists, and their easy capture by
Riel, raises the question of the wisdom of these efforts. No doubt the
inspiring motive of these levies was in many cases true patriotism, and
it reflects credit on them as men of British blood and British pluck,
but the management of both was so unfortunate and so lacking in skill,
that one is disposed, though lamenting their failures, to put these
expeditions down as dictated by the greatest rashness.
The elevation of Riel served to awaken high ambitions. The late
Archbishop Taché, in a later rebellion, characterized Riel as a
remarkable example of inflated ambition, and called his state of
mind that of "megalomania." Riel now became more irritable and
domineering. He seemed also bitter against the English for the signs
of insubordination appearing in all the parishes. The influence of the
violent and dastardly Lestanc was strong upon him. The anxious President
now determined to awe the English, and condemned for execution a young
Irish Canadian prisoner named Thomas Scott. Commissioner Smith and a
number of influential inhabitants did everything possible to dissuade
Riel, but he persisted, and Scott was publicly executed near Fort Garry
on March 4th, 1870.
"Whom the gods destroy, they first make mad." The execution of Scott
was the death-knell of Riel's hopes. Canada was roused to its centre.
Determined to have no further communication with Riel, Commissioner
Smith as soon as possible left Fort Garry and returned to Canada.
The arrival of Bishop Taché, who had returned at the request of the
Canadian Government, took place in due time. Probably the real attitude
of Bishop Taché will never be known, though his strong French Canadian
associations and love of British connection make it seem hardly possible
that he could have been implicated in the rebellion. Bishop Taché
endeavoured to overcome the terrible mistake of Riel. Commissioners were
despatched to Ottawa, the most important of them Father Ritchot, of St.
Norbert, whose hand had been in the plot from the beginning. Carrying
down a "Bill of Rights" from the provisional government, which, however,
there is clear evidence Ritchot and others took the liberty of altering,
they were instrumental in having a Bill passed through the Dominion
Parliament, establishing Manitoba as a province.
For the establishment of peace, an expedition was organized by Canada,
consisting of British regulars and Canadian volunteers, under Colonel
Wolseley. Coming from Canada up the fur-traders' route, through Lake
of the Woods, down Winnipeg River, across Lake Winnipeg, and up the
Red River, the expedition arrived, to the great joy of the suffering
people of the settlement, on August 24th, 1870. After eleven months of
the most torturing anxiety had been endured, the sight of the rescuing
soldiery sent the blood pulsing again through their veins. As the
troops approached Fort Garry, three slinking figures were seen to leave
the fort and escape across the Assiniboine. These were the "President
Riel," "Adjutant-General" Lepine, and the scoundrel O'Donoghue. "They
folded their tents like the Arabs, and as silently stole away." Colonel
Wolseley says, "The troops then formed line outside the fort, the Union
Jack was hoisted, a royal salute fired, and three cheers were given for
the Queen, which were caught up and heartily re-echoed by many of the
civilians and settlers who had followed the troops from the village."
The transfer of Rupert's Land had been completed, and the governing
power of the famous old Company was a thing of the past.