TORONTO, UPPER CANADA, _January 8, 1838_.
His Excellency HENRY S. FOX,
_Her Majesty's Minister, Washington_.
SIR: I have the honor to inclose you the copy of a special message sent
by His Excellency Governor Marcy to the legislature of the State of New
York, in relation to a matter on which your excellency will desire the
earliest and most authentic information. The message only reached this
place yesterday, and I lose no time in communicating with your
excellency on the subject.
The governor of the State of New York complains of the cutting out
and burning of the steamboat _Caroline_ by order of Colonel McNab,
commanding Her Majesty's forces at Chippewa, in the Province of Upper
Canada, and of the destruction of the lives of some American citizens
who were on board of the boat at the time she was attacked.
The act complained of was done under the following circumstances:
In Upper Canada, which contains a population of about 450,000 souls, the
most perfect tranquillity prevailed up to the 4th day of December last,
although in the adjoining Province of Lower Canada many of the French
Canadian inhabitants had been in open rebellion against the Government
for about a month preceding.
At no time since the treaty of peace with the United States in 1815 had
Upper Canada been more undisturbed. The real causes of the insurrection
in Lower Canada, namely, the national antipathy of the French
inhabitants, did not in any degree apply in the upper Province, whose
population, like the British and American inhabitants of Lower Canada,
were wholly opposed to the revolt and anxious to render every service in
their power in support of the Queen's, authority.
It had been reported to the Government some time before the 4th of
December that in a remote portion of the home district a number of
persons occasionally met and drilled with arms under leaders known to
be disaffected, but it was not believed by the Government that anything
more could be intended than to make a show of threatened revolt in order
to create a diversion in favor of the rebels in Lower Canada.
The feeling of loyalty throughout this Province was known to be so
prevalent and decided that it was not thought unsafe to forbear, for
the time at least, to take any notice of the proceedings of this party.
On the night of the 4th December the inhabitants of the city of Toronto
were alarmed by the intelligence that about 500 persons armed with
rifles were approaching the city; that they had murdered a gentleman
of great respectability in the highway, and had made several persons
prisoners. The inhabitants rushed immediately to arms; there were no
soldiers in the Province and no militia had been called out. The home
district, from which this party of armed men came, contains 60,000
inhabitants; the city of Toronto 10,000. In a few hours a respectable
force, although undisciplined, was collected and armed in self-defense,
and awaited the threatened attack. It seems now to admit of no doubt
that if they had at once advanced against the insurgents they would have
met with no formidable resistance, but it was thought more prudent to
wait until a sufficient force should be collected to put the success of
an attack beyond question. In the meantime people poured in from all
quarters to oppose the insurgents, who obtained no increase of numbers,
but, on the contrary, were deserted by many of their body in consequence
of the acts of devastation and plunder into which their leader had
forced them.
On the 7th of December an overwhelming force of militia went against
them and dispersed them without losing a man, taking many prisoners,
who were instantly by my order released and suffered to depart to their
homes. The rest, with their leaders, fled; some have since surrendered
themselves to justice; many have been taken, and some have escaped from
the Province.
It was reported about this time that in the district of London a similar
disposition to rise had been observed, and in consequence a militia
force of about 400 men was sent into that district, where it was
speedily joined by three times as many of the inhabitants of the
district, who assembled voluntarily and came to their aid with the
greatest alacrity.
It was discovered that about 300 persons under Dr. Duncombe, an
American by birth, were assembled with arms, but before the militia
could reach them they dispersed themselves and fled. Of these by far the
greater came in immediately and submitted themselves to the Government,
declaring that they had been misled and deceived, and praying for
forgiveness.
In about a week perfect tranquillity was restored, and from that moment
not a man has been seen in arms against the Government in any part of
the Province, with the exception of the hostile aggression upon Navy
Island, which I shall presently notice; nor has there been the slightest
resistance offered to the execution of legal process in a single
instance.
After the dispersion of the armed insurgents near Toronto Mr. McKenzie,
their leader, escaped in disguise to the Niagara River and crossed
over to Buffalo. Reports had been spread there and elsewhere along the
American frontier that Toronto had been burnt and that the rebels were
completely successful, but the falsehood of these absurd rumors was
well known before McKenzie arrived on the American side. It was known
also that the ridiculous attempt of 400 men to revolutionize a country
containing nearly half a million inhabitants had been put down by the
people instantly and decidedly without the loss of a man.
Nevertheless, a number of American citizens in Buffalo and other towns
on the frontier of the State of New York enlisted as soldiers, with
the avowed object of invading Canada and establishing a provisional
government. Public meetings were held to forward this design of invading
a country with which the United States were at peace. Volunteers were
called for, and arms, ammunition, and provisions were supplied by
contributions openly made. All this was in direct and flagrant violation
of the express laws of the United States, as well as of the law of
nations.
The civil authority of Buffalo offered some slight shew of resistance to
the movement, being urged to interpose by many of the most respectable
citizens. But no real impediment was offered, and on the 13th of
December some hundreds of the citizens of the State of New York, as
an armed body under the command of a Mr. Van Rensselaer, an American
citizen, openly invaded and took possession of Navy Island, a part of
Upper Canada, situate in the Niagara River.
Not believing that such an outrage would really be committed, no force
whatever was assembled at the time to counteract this hostile movement.
In a very short time this lawless band obtained from some of the
arsenals of the State of New York (clandestinely, as it is said) several
pieces of artillery and other arms, which in broad daylight were openly
transported to Navy Island without resistance from the American
authorities. The people of Buffalo and the adjacent country continued to
supply them with stores of various kinds, and additional men enlisted in
their ranks.
In a few days their force was variously stated from 500 to 1,500, of
whom a small proportion were rebels who had fled from Upper Canada. They
began to intrench themselves, and threatened that they would in a short
time make a landing on the Canadian side of the Niagara River.
To prevent this and to keep them in check a body of militia was hastily
collected and stationed on the frontier, under the command of Colonel
Cameron, assistant adjutant-general of militia, who was succeeded in
this command by Colonel McNab, the speaker of the house of assembly,
an officer whose humanity and discretion, as well as his activity,
have been proved by his conduct in putting down the insurrection in the
London district and have been acknowledged in warm terms of gratitude
by the misguided persons who had surrendered themselves into his hands.
He received orders to act on the defensive only, and to be careful not
to do any act which the American Government could justly complain of as
a breach of neutrality.
An official statement of the unfriendly proceedings at Buffalo was
without delay (on the 13th December) made by me to his excellency the
governor of the State of New York, to which no answer has been received.
And after this open invasion of our territory, and when it became
evident that nothing was effected at Buffalo for preventing the
violation of neutrality, a special messenger was sent to your excellency
at Washington to urge your interposition in the matter. Sufficient time
has not yet elapsed to admit of his return. Soon after his departure
this band of outlaws on Navy Island, acting in defiance of the laws and
Government of both countries, opened a fire from several pieces of
ordnance upon the Canadian shore, which in this part is thickly settled,
the distance from the island being about 600 yards and within sight of
the populous village of Chippewa. They put several balls (6-pound shot)
through a house in which a party of militiamen were quartered and which
is the dwelling house of Captain Usher, a respectable inhabitant. They
killed a horse on which a man at the time was riding, but happily did
no further mischief, though they fired also repeatedly with cannon and
musketry upon our boats.
They continued daily to render their position more formidable, receiving
constant supplies of men and warlike stores from the State of New York,
which were chiefly embarked at a landing place on the American main
shore, called Fort Schlosser, nearly opposite to Navy Island. This place
was once, I believe, a military position, before the conquest of Canada
from the French, but there is now neither fort nor village there, but
merely a single house occupied as a tavern, and a wharf in front of it,
to which boats and vessels are moored. The tavern had been during these
lawless proceedings a rendezvous for the band (who can not be called
by any name more appropriate than pirates), and was in fact openly and
notoriously resorted to as their headquarters on the mainland, and is
so to this time. On the 28th December positive information was given to
Colonel McNab by persons from Buffalo that a small steamboat called the
_Caroline_, of about 50 tons burthen, had been hired by the pirates, who
called themselves "patriots," and was to be employed in carrying down
cannon and other stores and in transporting men and anything else that
might be required between Fort Schlosser and Navy Island.
He resolved if she came down and engaged in this service to take or
destroy her. She did come down agreeably to the information he received.
She transported a piece of artillery and other stores to the island, and
made repeated passages during the day between the island and the main
shore.
In the night he sent a party of militia in boats, with orders to take
or destroy her. They proceeded to execute the order. They found the
_Caroline_ moored to the wharf opposite to the inn at Fort Schlosser.
In the inn there was a guard of armed men to protect her--part of the
pirate force, or acting in their support. On her deck there was an armed
party and a sentinel, who demanded the countersign.
Thus identified as she was with the force which in defiance of the law
of nations and every principle of natural justice had invaded Upper
Canada and made war upon its unoffending inhabitants, she was boarded,
and after a resistance in which some desperate wounds were inflicted
upon the assailants she was carried. If any peaceable citizens of the
United States perished in the conflict, it was and is unknown to the
captors, and it was and is equally unknown to them whether any such were
there. Before this vessel was thus taken not a gun had been fired by the
force under the orders of Colonel McNab, even upon this gang of pirates,
much less upon any peaceable citizen of the United States. It must
therefore have been a consciousness of the guilty service she was
engaged in that led those who were employing her to think an armed guard
necessary for her defense. Peaceable citizens of the United States were
not likely to be found in a vessel so employed at such a place and in
such a juncture, and if they were there their presence, especially
unknown as it was to the captors, could not prevent, in law or reason,
this necessary act of self-defense.
Fifteen days had elapsed since the invasion of Upper Canada by a
force enlisted, armed, and equipped openly in the State of New York.
The country where this outrage upon the law of nations was committed
is populous. Buffalo also contains 15,000 inhabitants. The public
authorities, it is true, gave no countenance to those flagrant acts, but
it did not prevent them or in the slightest degree obstruct them further
than by issuing proclamations, which were disregarded.
Perhaps they could not, but in either case the insult and injury to the
inhabitants of Canada were the same and their right to defend themselves
equally unquestionable.
No wanton injury was committed by the party who gallantly effected this
service. They loosed the vessel from the wharf, and finding they could
not tow her against the rapid current of the Niagara, they abandoned the
effort to secure her, set her on fire, and let her drift down the
stream.
The prisoners taken were a man who, it will be seen by the documents
accompanying this dispatch, avowed himself to be a subject of Her
Majesty, inhabiting Upper Canada, who had lately been traitorously in
arms in that Province, and, having fled to the United States, was then
on board for the purpose of going to the camp at Navy Island; and a boy,
who, being born in Lower Canada, was probably residing in the United
States, and who, being afraid to land from the boat in consequence of
the firing kept up by the guard on the shore, was placed in one of the
boats under Captain Drew and taken over to our side, from whence he was
sent home the next day by the Falls ferry with money given him to bear
his expenses.
I send with this letter, first, a copy of my first communication to His
Excellency Governor Marcy,[27] to which no reply has reached me; second,
the official reports, correspondence, and militia general order
respecting the destruction of the _Caroline_, with other documents;[27]
third, the correspondence between Commissary-General Arcularius, of the
State of New York, respecting the artillery belonging to the government
of the State of New York, which has been and is still used in making war
upon this Province;[27] fourth, other correspondence arising out of the
present state of things on the Niagara frontier;[27] fifth, the special
message of Governor Marcy.[27]
It will be seen from these documents that a high officer of the
government of the State of New York has been sent by his excellency
the governor for the express purpose of regaining possession of the
artillery of that State which is now employed in hostile aggressions
upon this portion of Her Majesty's dominions, and that, being aided and
favored, as he acknowledges, by the most friendly cooperation which the
commanding officer of Her Majesty's forces could give him, he has been
successfully defied by this army of American citizens, and has abandoned
the object of his mission in despair.
It can hardly fail also to be observed by your excellency that in
the course of this negotiation between Mr. Van Rensselaer and the
commissary-general of the State of New York this individual, Mr. Van
Rensselaer, has not hesitated to place himself within the immediate
jurisdiction of the government whose laws he had violated and in direct
personal communication with the officer of that government, and has,
nevertheless, been allowed to return unmolested to continue in command
of American citizens engaged in open hostilities against Great Britain.
The exact position, then, of affairs on our frontier may be thus described:
An army of American citizens, joined to a very few traitors from Upper
Canada, and under the command of a subject of the United States, has
been raised and equipped in the State of New York against the laws
of the United States and the treaties now subsisting, and are using
artillery plundered from the arsenals of the State of New York in
carrying on this piratical warfare against a friendly country.
The officers and Government of the United States and of the State of New
York have attempted to arrest these proceedings and to control their
citizens, but they have failed. Although this piratical assemblage are
thus defying the civil authorities of both countries, Upper Canada alone
is the object of their hostilities. The Government of the United States
has failed to enforce its authority by any means, civil or military, and
the single question (if it be a question) is whether Upper Canada was
bound to refrain from necessary acts of self-defense against a people
whom their own Government either could not or would not control.
In perusing the message of His Excellency Governor Marcy to the
legislature of the State of New York your excellency will probably feel
some degree of surprise that after three weeks' continued hostility
carried on by the citizens of New York against the people of Upper
Canada his excellency seems to have considered himself not called upon
to make this aggression the subject of remark for any other purpose
than to complain of a solitary act of self-defense on the part of Her
Majesty's Province of Upper Canada, to which such unprovoked hostilities
have unavoidably led.
I have the honor to be, sir, your excellency's most obedient, humble
servant.