CONTENTS—The Six Nations in 1812—American Animus—“Manifest Destiny”—
Mohawk Indians—A right to defend their homes—Inconsistency—
American Savages—Extract from Playter—Brock’s proclamation—Indian
character, conduct, eloquence—Deserters in 1812—Few of them—
Court-martials—The attempts at conquest by the Americans—The
numbers—Result of war—Canadians saved the country—And can do so—
Fraternal kindness.
THE SIX NATIONS AS CANADIANS IN 1812.
Maintaining their wonted hostile attitude to the Mohawks, and continuing
to charge, upon the British and Canadian Governments, an uncivilized
procedure, the Americans have attempted to create a belief that we waged
not a warfare according to civilized ideas. Civilization consists, in
the minds of Americans, in just those views, theories, beliefs, and
proceedings, which belong to the Great United States, and nothing can
emanate from their government that is not in strict accordance with
civilization,—their civilization. It so happens that one of their
beliefs is that destiny manifestly intends that they shall possess all
of North America. In 1812, a pretext was formed under the question of
the right to search American vessels for deserters from British service,
to declare war against England. This was regarded by Madison and the
Government at Washington, a fitting opportunity to make the already
cherished attempt to obtain the British Provinces. It was not in
accordance with their ideas of liberty and civilization, to give the
slightest heed to the wishes of the loyalists whom they had, years
before, forced away, and who had already done much to convert the
wilderness into a noble Province; the British subjects who had emigrated
to America, and preferred the yet infant colony of Canada, to the more
advanced, but distasteful, United States. And still more, the Mohawk
Indians, whom they had so cruelly treated, who had found homes under a
benign and fatherly government, were not only disregarded, but their
very right to defend their homes was denied by the very civilized
government which longed to get Canada. And hence we find attempts made
to cast obloquy, upon the Canadians, in connection with the war of 1812.
The people who strove, but vainly, to enlist the Mohawks in their
service in 1776, with wonderful inconsistency, in 1812, issue
proclamations that no quarter will be given to Indians, nor the
Canadians who were found fighting side by side. Yet, in the same war
they had all the Indians they could get to assist in their invasion of a
peaceful Province, who actually assisted in the hellish work of plunder
in the Niagara region. The Senecas took sides with them. The Indians who
had found a home in Canada, had a right to defend their country, and
willingly did they march to the field. They rendered important service
at Detroit when the immortal Brock hurled back the braggart foe, took
General Hull and his army prisoners, and conquered the territory of
Michigan. They likewise did good service at Queenston Heights.
A few instances occurred where individual Indians did lapse into the
warfare nature had implanted into their breasts. But let it be
distinctly and emphatically stated that they were exceptions. “But the
savage conduct of the white United States troops, was worse than the
employment of savages. In civilized wars, or the wars of Christian
people with each other, (alas! that Christians and war should be
associated!) the usual rule is to harm only those who aim to harm, and
to pass by the peaceable and unarmed. Considering, too, that the
Canadian people were not enemies, but had always friendly dispositions
towards the United States, that the war was merely for remote and
abstract questions, that the British Canadians never set the example,
that marauding was not the rule of the British officers and armies (as
evinced before the world in the wars with Bonaparte),—the United States
Government selecting the province as a battle field, should have treated
the inhabitants without arms as mere spectators of the conflict. Shame
on President Madison, and his cabinet of Christian “(?)” gentlemen, for
ordering their General, McClure (under the name and seal of John
Armstrong, Secretary of War), to burn up the Town of Niagara, and turn
400 women and children into the snow and icy streets, on a December day
of a rigid Canadian winter! Had the cruelty been accomplished by a tribe
of Indians, no astonishment would have been felt; but for Christians
thus to treat Christians, and for people of the same ancestry, to show
such barbarity, shows that the bad passions of the human heart are the
same in the civilized as in the savage. The war might have been carried
on, so that friendship might soon be resumed; but the dreadful
aggravation, left in the bosoms of the Canadian settlers, such hatred as
remains to the present day. The writer has even heard women say, on the
banks of the St. Lawrence, that if the Americans ever invaded Canada
again, they would shoulder muskets with their husbands. The democracy of
the United States, like the democracy of the French Revolution,
proffered liberty with the left hand, and scattered the fire-brands of
savage war with the right.”—(Playtor.)
The invading general having issued a proclamation, declaring that
Canadians found fighting beside the Indians should have no quarter.
Major-General Brock, in an address, issued to the Canadians at Fort
George, July 22nd, 1812, referring to this matter, says:—
“Be not dismayed at the unjustifiable threat of the Commander of the
enemy’s forces to refuse quarter, should an Indian appear in the ranks.
“The brave bands of the Aborigines which inhabit this colony were like
His Majesty’s other subjects punished for their zeal and fidelity, by
the loss of their possessions in the late colonies, and rewarded by His
Majesty with lands of superior value in the Province. The faith of the
British Government has never yet been violated by the Indians, who feel
that the soil they inherit is to them and their prosperity, protected
from the base arts so frequently devised to over-reach their simplicity.
“By what new principle are they to be prohibited from defending their
property? If their warfare from being different to that of the white
people, be more terrific than that of the enemy, let him retrace his
steps, they seek him not, and cannot expect to find women and children
in an invading army.
“But they are men, and have equal rights with all other men to defend
themselves and their property when invaded, more especially when they
find in the enemy’s camp a ferocious and mortal foe, using the same
warfare which the American commander affects to reprobate.”
“This inconsistent and unjustifiable threat of refusing quarter, for
such a cause as being found in arms with a brother sufferer, in defense
of invaded rights, must be exercised with the certain assurance of
retaliation, not only in the limited operations of war in this part of
the King’s dominion, but in every quarter of the globe; for the national
character of Britain is not less distinguished for humanity than strict
retributive justice, which will consider the execution of this inhuman
threat as deliberate murder, for which every subject of the offending
power must make expiation.”—(Signed, Isaac Brock.)
In concluding this subject, we will quote the language of one who rose
to sublime eloquence in connection with another event.
Seeing the on-coming moment of the extinction among the Americans—vainly
resisting the inevitable fate, but still lofty and noble. Thus spoke a
Seneca chief:—“Who is it causes this river to rise in the high
mountains, and to empty itself in the ocean? Who is it that causes to
blow the loud winds of winter, and that calms them again in summer? Who
is it that rears up the shade of those lofty forests, and blasts them
with the quick lightning at his pleasure? The same spirit, who gave you
a country on the other side of the waters, gave this land to us, and we
will defend it.”
We would fail in our whole task did we not refer to one more topic; that
concerning Deserters. There were, during the time of war, a few
instances of desertion. There is every reason to believe, that the wily
Americans sent emissaries into the country with the object of tampering
with the Canadians. The following, while having a local reference, will
explain the steps taken by Government to meet the requirements of the
day in this respect:
President’s Office, Upper Canada, Kingston, 24th March, 1814.
His Honor the President has been pleased to appoint by commission,
bearing this date, the under-mentioned gentlemen to be commissioners,
for carrying into effect the provisions of an Act passed in the last
session of the Legislature of this Province, entitled “An Act to empower
His Majesty, for a limited time, to secure and detain such persons as
His Majesty shall suspect of treasonable adherence to the enemy, in the
several districts of this Province respectively:—For _Midland District_—
The Hon. K. Cartwright, Alexander McDonell, Alexander Fisher, Thomas
Dorland, Timothy Thompson, Thomas Markland, Peter Smith, John Cumming,
James McNabb, Ebenezer Washburn, Robert C. Wilkins, James Young, William
Crawford.”
In every war there will be some desertions, and during the war of 1812,
there were found a few, and a few indeed, who were base enough to desert
from the ranks of the Canadian Militia.
The several attempts at conquest of Canada were:—
1st Invasion Gen. Hull at Sandwich with 3,000 men.
2nd Invasion Gen. VanRansler at Wodworth with 2,000 men.
3rd Invasion Gen. Smyth at Fort Erie with 3,000 men.
4th Invasion Gen. Pike at York with 2,500 men.
5th Invasion Gen. Dearborne at Fort George with 3,000 men.
6th Invasion Gen. Winchester, for at Chryslers Farm with 3,000 men.
Montreal,
7th Invasion Gen. Hampden at Chateauguay R. with 8,000 men.
8th Invasion Gen. Brown at Fort Erie with 5,000 men.
9th Invasion Gen. Brown at Lundy’s Lane with 5,000 men.
10th Invasion Gen. Izzard at Fort Erie with 8,000 men.
11th Invasion Gen. Wilkinson at Lacate Mills with 2,500 men.
———————
Total number of men 45,000.
“The foregoing is an aggregate of the attempt to invade Canada by the
United States forces when they sued for peace; and, when such was
proclaimed, they did not find themselves in possession of one inch of
Canadian Territory.”—(Clark.)
This glorious result was due, in a great measure, to the loyalty and
bravery of the Canadian Militia. The first year, the Militia alone saved
the Province.
The close of the war left no unpleasant remembrance. Called to arms for
the most noble purpose, that of defending their homes, they discharged
their duty bravely, but without unnecessary violence. There were no acts
of cruelty to be laid to their charge. It was only the unprincipled foe
that could be guilty of deeds of barbaric darkness. It remained for the
American General Harrison to burn, contrary to the rules of civilized
warfare, a peaceful village, and for General McClure to apply the torch
to the building which protected the wounded men, women, and children,
from the piercing cold of a December night, an outrage only equalled by
their firing on a British flag of truce, under General Ross, before the
capital Washington. These acts of villany met a just retribution. The
former by destroying the frontier settlements from Lewiston to Buffalo,
the latter by the destruction of the Capital. Canadians—Britons can deal
out just retribution, as well as they can defend their homes. And the
Americans ought to know, and remember, that no acts of cowardly villany
toward us will for ever go unpunished. They incited rebellion among us
in 1837–8. They have encouraged Fenianism, and assisted them as a people
to invade our territory, and kill our young men. For this will come a
day of judgment. It may not be this century, but it will come. Let but
one more attempt be made to secure a footing on our soil, and the
Americans will learn that Canadians can, and will, retaliate. The hardy
honest Canadian goaded to seek justice, will play the raider also. Ours
is a frontier, over which they may come and do much mischief; but
their’s is equally lengthy, and exposed. A sheet of flame will burst
along their frontier as well as ours, the destruction will not be all
one side.
During the Crimean war, the Canadians took great pleasure in giving
contributions for the relief of the soldiers, wives and children. But
this was only returning a like kindness displayed by England at the time
of the invasion and rapine in 1812. The wanton destruction of Canadian
homes brought much distress. By the _Kingston Gazette_ of 5th December,
1813, we see “that the total sum subscribed in the City of London for
the relief of the sufferers in Canada (which has come to our knowledge),
amounts to £10,419 10s. 0d.” And the same year “The General Assembly of
Nova Scotia gave to the distressed of Upper Canada £2,500.” An act of
fraternal kindness that Canadians have been ready to return during the
last year.
DIVISION XI.
ADVANCE OF CIVILIZATION.