Indians believe that they would be soon driven by the English from
their forest homes and hunting grounds, and that their only hope was in
assisting France to restore her power in America. Many of these Indian
tribes, as well as French settlers, believed until the proclamation of
the treaty of Paris that Canada would be restored to the French.
Indian sympathy for France was intensified by the contumely and neglect
with which they were treated by the English traders and authorities.
The French, who thoroughly understood the Indian character, had never
failed to administer to their vanity and pride--to treat them as allies
and friends and not as a conquered and subject race. By the judicious
distribution of those gifts, on which the tribes had begun to depend
and receive as a matter of right, the French cemented the attachment of
the Indians. The English, on the other hand, soon ceased to make these
presents, and neglected the Indians in other ways, which excited their
indignation and wounded their pride.
Among the Western chiefs was Pontiac, whose name is as prominent in the
history of the past as the names of the Onondaga Garangula, the Huron
Kondiaronk (Rat), the Mohawk Thayendenagea (Brant), and the Shawanoese
Tecumseh. He was the son of an Ottawa chief and an Ojibway mother, and
had a high reputation and large influence among the {271} tribes of the
upper lakes. He showed in his career all the strength and weaknesses
of the Indian character--great courage, treachery, vanity, and
generosity, according to the impulses of the moment. The war in which
he took so prominent a part is generally called by his name; his is the
central figure in the striking drama which was enacted in the Western
and Ohio country for two years and a half before peace generally
reigned and Canada could be considered secure from Indian attacks.
At Detroit, where Major Gladwin was in command, Pontiac hoped to seize
the fort by a stratagem. The Ottawas and other Indians under that
chief were to meet the English officers in council within the fort at
an appointed time. They had filed off the tops of the barrels of their
muskets so as to conceal them easily under their garments. While in
council Pontiac was to give a signal which would tell the assembled
warriors that the time had come for falling on the garrison and taking
possession of the fort.[1] Some writers give credence to the story
that an Indian maiden, the mistress of Gladwin, warned him of the
scheme of the Indian chief, who came to the council, in accordance with
his intention, and found the garrison in arms and ready for any
treacherous movement on his part. He left the fort in anger, and soon
afterwards attacked it with all his force, though to no purpose, as
Gladwin was able to hold it for many months, until aid reached him from
{272} the east. As one Indian woman's devotion saved Detroit, so the
treachery of a Delaware girl gave Fort Miami and its little garrison to
the Indians encamped on the Maumee. Holmes, the commandant, was her
lover, and believed her when she told him that a squaw, who was
seriously ill in one of the wigwams, wished to see him. He proceeded
on his charitable mission, and was shot dead while about entering the
place of his destination. At Michillimackinac Captain Etherington was
surprised by a clever piece of strategy on the part of a body of Sacs
and Ojibways, who invited him to witness a contest between them at
their favourite sport of Lacrosse, which in these modern times has been
made the national game of Canadians. While the game was going on, the
gate was left open while the officers and soldiers stood in groups
outside, close to the palisades, watching the Indians as they tossed
the ball to and fro between the goals on the level ground opposite the
fort. The squaws, wrapped in their blankets, passed in and out the
fort, without attracting any attention from the interested spectators.
Suddenly, when the game was most hotly contested, the ball was
violently driven in the direction of the pickets of the fort. A crowd
of the savage players tumultuously followed the ball, and in a moment
were inside the fort where they snatched weapons from the squaws. One
officer and several soldiers were instantly killed, but Etherington and
the remainder of the garrison were taken prisoners. Etherington and a
well-known trader of the West, Alexander Henry, eventually escaped,
after having {273} been on several occasions on the point of death. In
six weeks' time from the first attack on Detroit, on the 9th of May,
1763, all the forts in the Western and Ohio country had been seized and
destroyed by the Indians, except Fort Pitt at the forks of the Ohio,
the one at Green Bay which was abandoned, and another at Ligonier. The
garrisons were massacred or made prisoners, and in many cases tortured
and even eaten. The frontiers of Virginia and Pennsylvania were laid
waste by hordes of savages, who burned the homes of the settlers,
murdered a large number, and carried off many prisoners, men, women,
and children, to their savage fastnesses in the western wilderness.
The war never ended until Virginia and Pennsylvania--where the Quaker
element still prevailed--were aroused from their apathy and gave the
requisite aid to an expedition under the command of an able officer,
Colonel Bouquet, who had been one of Brigadier Forbes's officers during
the campaign of 1759 in the Ohio valley. He rescued Fort Pitt, after
administering to the Indians a severe defeat at Bushy Run. A year
later he succeeded in taking a large force into the very heart of a
country where the Indians thought themselves safe from any attack of
their white enemy. His unexpected appearance on the banks of the
Muskingkum awed the Delawares, Shawanoes, and Mingoes, who gladly
agreed to terms of peace, especially as they knew that Colonel
Bradstreet was in their rear on the banks of Lake Erie. The prisoners,
whom the Indians had taken during their raids on the frontier
settlements of Virginia and {274} Pennsylvania, were restored to their
friends and relatives who had, in the majority of cases, never hoped to
see them again. The annals of those days tell us strange stories of
the infatuation which some young women felt for the savage warriors
whom they had wedded in Indian fashion. Some children had forgotten
their mothers, and Parkman relates in his graphic narrative of those
memorable times that one girl only recalled her childhood when she
heard her distracted mother sing a song with which she had often lulled
her daughter to sleep in happier days.
Peace again reigned in the West. Detroit, after repulsing Pontiac so
successfully, was at last relieved, and the red cross of England
floated above the forts of Chartres and Vincennes, which were given up
by the French.
By the end of the autumn of 1765 France possessed only a few acres of
rock, constantly enveloped in fog, on the southern coast of
Newfoundland, of all the great dominion she once claimed in North
America. Pontiac now disappears from history, and is believed to have
been killed by an Indian warrior of the Illinois nation, after a
drunken bout at the village of Cahokia--an ignominious ending to the
career of a great chief whose name was for so many months a menace to
English authority in that wilderness region, which was declared in
later years by an imperial statute, the Quebec Act, to be a part of
Canada's illimitable domain.
While this Indian war was going on, George III., in the autumn of 1763,
issued a proclamation establishing four new governments in North
America; {275} Quebec, East Florida, West Florida, and Grenada. The
governors were empowered to summon general assemblies, and to make laws
and ordinances for good government with the consent of the councils.
and the representatives of the people, and to establish courts of
justice. Members elected to the proposed assemblies had to take the
oaths of allegiance and supremacy, and the declaration against
transubstantiation. No assembly, however, ever met, as the French
Canadian population were unwilling to take the test oath, and the
government of the province was carried on solely by the
Governor-General--General Murray--with the assistance of an executive
council, composed of certain officials and leading residents in the
colony. From 1763 to 1774 the province remained in a very unsettled
state, chiefly on account of the uncertainty that prevailed as to the
laws actually in force. The "new subjects," or French Canadians,
contended that justice, so far as they were concerned, should be
administered in accordance with their ancient customs and usages. On
the other hand, "the old," or English subjects, argued from the
proclamation of 1763, that it was His Majesty's intention at once to
abolish the old jurisprudence of the country, and to establish English
law in its place.
Not the least important part of the proclamation of 1763 was that
relating to the Indians, who were not to be disturbed in the possession
of their hunting grounds. Lands could be alienated by the Indians only
at some public meeting or assembly called for that special purpose by
the Governor or {276} commander-in-chief where such lands were
situated. This was the commencement of that just and honest policy
towards the Indians which has ever since been followed by the
government of Canada. One hundred and ten years later, an interesting
spectacle was witnessed in the great Northwest Territory of Canada.
The lieutenant-governor of the new province of Manitoba, constituted in
1870 out of the prairie lands of that rich region, met in council the
representatives of the Indian tribes, and solemnly entered into
treaties with them for the transfer to Canada of immense tracts of
prairie lands where we now see wide stretches of fields of nodding
grain.
Governor Murray conducted his government on principles of justice and
forbearance towards the French Canadians, and refused to listen to the
unwise and arbitrary counsel of the four or five hundred "old
subjects," who wished to rule the province. He succeeded in inspiring
the old inhabitants of the province, or "new subjects," with confidence
in his intentions. The majority of the "old subjects," who were
desirous of ruling Canada, are described by the Governor in a letter to
Lord Shelburne, as "men of mean education, traders, mechanics,
publicans, followers of the army,"--a somewhat prejudiced statement.
As a rule, however, the judges, magistrates, and officials at that time
were men of little or no knowledge.
In 1774, Parliament intervened for the first time in Canadian affairs,
and passed the Quebec Act, which greatly extended the boundaries of the
province of Quebec, as defined by the proclamation of {277} 1763. On
one side, the province now extended to the frontiers of New England,
Pennsylvania, New York province, the Ohio, and the left bank of the
Mississippi; on the other, to the Hudson's Bay Territory. Labrador,
Anticosti, and the Magdalen islands, annexed to Newfoundland by the
proclamation of 1763, were made part of the province of Quebec.
The Quebec Act created much debate in the House of Commons. The Earl
of Chatham, in the House of Lords, described it as "a most cruel, and
odious measure." The opposition in the province was among the British
inhabitants, who sent over a petition for its repeal or amendment.
Their principal grievance was that it substituted the laws and usages
of Canada for English law. The Act of 1774 was exceedingly unpopular
in the English-speaking colonies, then at the commencement of the
revolution on account of the extension of the limits of the province so
as to include the country long known as the old Northwest in American
history, and the consequent confinement of the Thirteen Colonies
between the Atlantic coast and the Alleghany Mountains, beyond which
the hardy and bold frontiersmen of Virginia and Pennsylvania were
already passing into the great valley of the Ohio. Parliament,
however, appears to have been influenced by a desire to adjust the
government of the province so as to conciliate the majority of the
Canadian people at this critical time.
The advice of Sir Guy Carleton, afterwards Lord Dorchester, who
succeeded General Murray as {278} Governor-General, had much to do with
the liberality of the Quebec Act towards the French Canadians. After a
careful study of the country he came to the conclusion that the French
civil law ought to be retained, although he was met by the earnest
advice to the contrary of two able lawyers, Chief-Justice Hay and
Attorney-General Masères, who believed a code adopted from English and
French principles was preferable. Masères, who was of Huguenot descent
and much prejudiced against Roman Catholics, was also an advocate of a
legislative assembly to be exclusively Protestant--in other words, of
giving all power practically into the hands of a small British
minority. When the subject of a new Canadian Constitution came to be
discussed in England, Carleton crossed the Atlantic in 1769 and
remained absent from Canada for four years. He returned to carry out
the Quebec Act, which was the foundation of the large political and
religious liberties which French Canada has ever since enjoyed.
The new constitution came into force in October, 1774. It provided
that Roman Catholics should be no longer obliged to take the test oath,
but only the oath of allegiance. The government of the province was
entrusted to a governor and a legislative council, appointed by the
Crown, inasmuch as it was "inexpedient to call an assembly." This
council had the power, with the consent of the Governor, to make
ordinances for the good government of the province. In all matters of
controversy, relative to property and civil rights, recourse should be
had to the French civil procedure, whilst the law of {279} England
should obtain in criminal cases. Roman Catholics were permitted to
observe their religion with perfect freedom, and their clergy were to
enjoy their "accustomed dues and rights," with respect to such persons
as professed that creed.
Sir Guy Carleton nominated a legislative council of twenty-three
members, of whom eight were Roman Catholics. This body sat, as a rule,
with closed doors; both languages were employed in the debates, and the
ordinances agreed to were drawn up in English and French. In 1776 the
Governor-General called to his assistance an advisory privy council of
five members.
When Canada came under the operation of the Quebec Act, the Thirteen
Colonies were on the eve of that revolution which ended in the
establishment of a federal republic, and had also most important
influence on the fortunes of the country through which the St. Lawrence
flows.
[1] The siege of Detroit by Pontiac inspired one of the best historic
novels ever written by a Canadian--_Wacousta, or the Prophecy_, by
Major Richardson, who was the author of several other books.
{280}
XX.
THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION--INVASION OF
CANADA--DEATH OF MONTGOMERY--PEACE.
(1774-1783.)
The Canadian people had now entered on one of the most important
periods of their history. Their country was invaded, and for a time
seemed on the point of passing under the control of the congress of the
old Thirteen Colonies, now in rebellion against England. The genius of
an able English governor-general, however, saved the valley of the St.
Lawrence for the English Crown, and the close of the war for American
independence led to radical changes in the governments of British North
America. A large population, imbued with the loftiest principles of
patriotism and self-sacrifice, came in and founded new provinces, and
laid the basis of the present Dominion of Canada.
During the revolution emphatic appeals were made to the Canadian French
to join the English colonies in their rebellion against England. With
a curious ignorance of the conditions of a people, {281} who could not
read and rarely saw a printed book, and never owned a printing-press[1]
during the French régime, references were made by the congress that
assembled at Philadelphia in September in 1774, to the writings of
Beccaria and the spirit of the "immortal Montesquieu." The delegates
attacked the Quebec Act as an exhibition of Roman Catholic tyranny at
the very time they were asking the aid and sympathy of French Canadians
in the struggle for independence. A few weeks later the same congress
ignored the ill-advised address and appealed to the Canadians to join
them on the broad grounds of continental freedom. The time, however,
was too short to convince the clergy and leading men of the province
that there was a change in the feeling of the majority in the congress
with respect to the Roman Catholic religion. The mass of the French
Canadians, especially in the rural districts, no doubt looked with
great indifference on the progress of the conflict between the King of
England and his former subjects, but in Quebec and Montreal,
principally in the latter town, there were found English, as well as
French-speaking persons quite ready to welcome and assist the forces of
congress when they invaded Canada. On the other hand, the influences
of the Quebec Act and of the judicious administrations of Murray and
Carleton were obvious from the outset, and the bishop, Monseigneur
Briand--who had been chosen with the silent acquiescence of the English
Government--the {282} clergy of the Roman Catholic Church, and the
leading seigniors combined to maintain Canada under the dominion of a
generous Power which had already given such undoubted guaranties for
the preservation of the civil and religious rights of the "new
subjects." In fact, the enemies of England were to be found chiefly
among the "old subjects," who had attempted to obtain an assembly in
which the French Canadians would be ignored, and had been, and were
still bitterly antagonistic to the Quebec Act, with its concessions to
the French Canadian majority. Many of these disaffected persons were
mere adventurers who were carrying on a secret correspondence with the
leaders of the American Revolution, and even went so far as to attempt
to create discontent among the French Canadians by making them believe
that their liberties were in jeopardy, and that they would have to
submit to forced military service, and all those exactions which had so
grievously burdened them in the days of the French dominion. The
_habitants_, ignorant and credulous, however, remained generally inert
during the events which threatened the security of Canada. It was left
to a few enlightened men, chiefly priests and officers of the old
French service, to understand the exact nature of the emergency, and to
show their appreciation of what England had done for them since the
cession.
When the first Continental Congress met at Philadelphia, on September
5, 1774, the colonies were on the eve of independence as a result of
the coercive measures forced on Parliament by the King's pliable
ministers, led by Lord North. The "declaration," {283} however, was
not finally proclaimed until nearly two years later--on July 4,
1776,--when the Thirteen Colonies declared themselves "free and
independent States," absolved of their allegiance to the British Crown.
But many months before this great epoch-making event, war had actually
commenced on Lake Champlain. On an April day, in the now memorable
year, 1775, the "embattled farmers" had fired at Concord and Lexington,
the shots "heard round the world," and a few weeks later the forts of
Crown Point and Ticonderoga, then defended by very feeble garrisons,
were in the possession of Colonial troops led by Ethan Allen and Seth
Warner, two of the "Green Mountain Boys," who organised this
expedition. Canada was at this time in a very defenceless condition.
Only eight hundred regular troops altogether were in the colony, very
many of the English residents of Montreal and Quebec were of doubtful
loyalty, the majority of the French Canadians were indifferent, and
could not be induced to rally in any numbers to the defence of the
province. Happily for the best interests of Canada at this crisis
there was at the head of the administration one of the ablest men who
have ever been sent to Canada--a governor-general who may well be
compared with Frontenac as a soldier and Lord Elgin as a statesman--and
that was Sir Guy Carleton, the friend of Wolfe, with whom he had served
at Quebec. His conciliatory attitude towards the French Canadian
population, and his influence in moulding the Quebec Act, gave him
great weight with the bishop and clergy of the Roman Catholic {284}
faith and leading men of the majority. The British Government, with
culpable neglect of his warnings and appeals, left him unsupported
until the very last moment, when the fate of Canada was literally
trembling in the balance. In the autumn of 1775 General Montgomery, at
the head of a considerable force of congress troops, captured the forts
of Chambly and St. Johns on the Richelieu, and a few days later
occupied Montreal, which had been hastily evacuated by Carleton, who at
once recognised the impracticability of defending it with any chance of
success, since he had an insufficient force, and could not even depend
on the fealty of the inhabitants. Quebec, at this juncture, was the
key to Canada, and there he determined to make his fight. He passed in
the night-time the batteries which the congress troops had built at
Sorel and the adjacent islands. The oars of his boat were muffled, and
when in close proximity to the enemy the men used the palms of their
hands. He reached Quebec safely, and at once inspired the garrison and
loyal residents with his courageous spirit. He arrived not a moment
too soon. General Benedict Arnold--a name discredited in history--had
succeeded in reaching Quebec by the route of the Kennebec and Chaudière
rivers--a route which in early times had been followed by the Abenakis,
those firm allies of the Canadians. Arnold was not able to commence
any active operations against Quebec until the arrival of Montgomery
from Montreal, with a force of fifteen hundred men, of whom a very
small number were French Canadians. At this time there were in {285}
Quebec only some eighteen hundred regular and militia troops, of whom
over five hundred were French Canadians, under Colonel Voyer. No doubt
the American commanders confidently expected to find in Quebec many
active sympathisers who would sooner or later contrive to give the town
into their hands, when these learned that all Canada except the capital
was in the possession of the invading forces.