Volume II Part 32 (2/2)
[Footnote 189: ”A war with Great Britain had been long contemplated by the rulers in America, and a seasonable moment only was sought for, to grasp the provinces which they had fallaciously been induced to believe were ripe for revolt, and would therefore fall a willing conquest to America. The Peninsular war had engrossed the attention and resources of the mother country, and the Canadas were necessarily the less provided with means to encounter the struggle in which they were likely soon to be engaged. The coffers were exhausted, nor were hopes entertained of their being speedily replenished from home; the regular forces were too thin to preserve an extensive frontier of some hundred miles against the pressure of an enemy which, if united, must become irresistible; and the Canadians, though naturally brave and hardy, and attached to their Const.i.tution, might from recent occurrences be fairly presumed to have been so far disgusted as to leave doubt of their hearty co-operation and zeal in the cause.” (Christie's History of the War of 1812, Chap. iii., p. 48.)]
[Footnote 190: Christie's History of the War of 1812, Chap, iii., pp.
49-53.
”The Governor, by a General Order of the 28th of May, 1812, organized four battalions of embodied militia, in virtue of the late Act. The first battalion rendezvoused at Point-aux-Trembles, near Quebec, under the command of Colonel De Salaberry; the second at Laprairie, near Montreal, commanded by Colonel De Rouville; the third at Berthier, in the district of Montreal, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Cuthbert; and the fourth at St. Thomas, near Quebec, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Taschereau. The alacrity with which they were filled, and the cheerfulness with which the young men submitted to the restraints of discipline, reflected credit upon the military character of the Canadians. This proof of the zeal and the loyalty of the people inspired Government with hopes of successful resistance against the approaching war, and a reciprocal confidence between the Governor and the people seems to have resulted, as much from the danger of the moment as from any studied policy on the part of the present Administration. They who had incurred the displeasure of the late Government were treated with confidence, and gradually appointed to situations of trust.
”A regiment of Canadian Voltigeurs was recruited, and placed under the command of Major De Salaberry, of the 60th Regiment of Foot, which in the course of the war became eminent for discipline and its steadiness in action, as well as for the fatiguing duties on which it was unremittingly employed.”--_Ib._, pp. 55, 56.]
[Footnote 191: Christie's History of the War of 1812, Chap. iii., pp.
36, 37.]
[Footnote 192: Christie's History of the War of 1812, Chap. iii., pp.
57-60.]
[Footnote 193: Colonel Clarke remarks that ”the moderation of the different Acts which were then pa.s.sed, for the preservation and defence of the province, is an additional proof that _internal treachery_ was not one of the causes which were found.”]
CHAPTER LI.
FIRST AMERICAN INVASION OF UPPER CANADA BY GENERAL HULL, FROM DETROIT, WHOSE PROCLAMATION ”TO THE INHABITANTS OF CANADA” IS GIVEN ENTIRE, AND GENERAL BROCK'S n.o.bLE ANSWER TO IT, IN AN ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE OF UPPER CANADA.
In the meantime Canada, in its western extremity, had been invaded. The American Government had been for several months collecting an army of some 3,000 or 4,000 regular troops and militia, around and west of Detroit, in order to strike a blow upon Canada the moment war should be declared. General Hull was the Governor of the territory of Michigan, and Commander-in-Chief of the ”Grand Army of the West.” On the 12th of July he crossed the River Detroit with a force of 2,500 of the above troops, and a strong park of artillery, and planted the American standard on the sh.o.r.es of Canada, at Sandwich. He forthwith issued a pretentious, inflated, cajoling, patronising, threatening proclamation to the inhabitants of Canada, and p.r.o.nouncing instant death to any one who should be fighting in company with the Indians, while at the same time the Americans were employing in their army all the Indians they could induce to join them. The American democratic party which ruled at Was.h.i.+ngton had persecuted and driven the fathers of Canada from their homes in the United States, and had always been the enemies of their peace and prosperity in Canada; yet they were under the strange delusion that the people of Canada must be still as much in love with them as they were with themselves, and that the magnetism of their star-spangled banner planted in Canada would draw all Canadians to it; that an address from their commanding general would supply the place of armies, and that taking Canada would be but a holiday march, in which, as their language of the time was, they would ”breakfast at Sandwich, take dinner at York (Toronto), and sup at Montreal.” It was in this spirit of vanity and delusion that General Hull issued his famous proclamation, on his landing at Sandwich, and which I give entire in a note.[194]
In a n.o.ble address to the people of Upper Canada, General Brock answered the proclamation of General Hull, repelling and exposing with overwhelming power his misstatements, and answering with withering sarcasm General Hull's attack upon the Indians, and the ”barbarous and savage policy of Great Britain” in recognizing the Indians as allies and fellow-subjects, and their right to defend their homes and liberties against American invasion and rapine. We present the reader with the following extracts of this masterly address, transcribed from the ma.n.u.scripts of the Dominion Library at Ottawa.
In the course of his Address to the People of Canada, General Brock says:
”The unprovoked declaration of war by the United States of America against Great Britain and Ireland and its dependencies, has been followed by the actual invasion of this Province, in a remote frontier of the Western District, by a detachment of the armed force of the United States.
”The officer commanding that detachment [General Hull] has thought proper to invite his Majesty's subjects not merely to a quiet and unresisting submission, but insults them by offering with a call to seek the protection of his Government.
”Without condescending to notice the epithets bestowed, in this appeal of the American commander to the people of Upper Canada, on the administration of his Majesty, every inhabitant of the Province is desired to seek the confutation of such indecent slander in the review of his own particular circ.u.mstances.
”Where is the Canadian subject who can truly affirm to himself that he has been injured by the Government in his person, his property, or his liberty?
”Where is to be found in any part of the world a growth so rapid in prosperity and wealth as this colony exhibits? Settled not thirty years, by a band of veterans exiled from their former possessions on account of their loyalty, not a descendant of these brave people is to be found who has not, under the fostering care of their Sovereign, acquired a property and means of enjoyment superior to what were possessed by their ancestors.
”This unequalled prosperity would not have been attained by the utmost liberality of the Government or the persevering industry of the people, had not the maritime power of the mother country secured to the colonists a safe access to every market where the produce of their labour was in request. * *
”The rest.i.tution of Canada to the empire of France was the _stipulated_ reward for the aid afforded to the revolted colonies, now the United States. The debt is still due; and there can be no doubt but that the pledge has been renewed as a consideration for commercial advantages, or rather for an expected relaxation in the tyranny of France over the commercial world.
”Are you prepared, inhabitants of Canada, to become willing subjects, or slaves, to the Despot who rules the nations of continental Europe with a rod of iron?
”If not, arise in a body; exert your energies; co-operate cordially with the King's regular forces to repel the invader, and do not give cause to your children, when groaning under the oppression of a Foreign Master, to reproach you with having so easily parted with the richest inheritance of this earth--a partic.i.p.ation in the name, character, and freedom of Britons. * *
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