Download
1 / 33
330 likes | 348 Views
Canada in the 1800s. A road to democracy?. Government and rebellion . Representative government: Representatives are elected by people to make laws on their behalf Responsible government: The government is ‘responsible to’ the people and can be voted out. BNA government in action.
E N D
Canada in the 1800s A road to democracy?
Government and rebellion • Representative government: Representatives are elected by people to make laws on their behalf • Responsible government: The government is ‘responsible to’ the people and can be voted out
BNA government in action • It is the year 2099 and you form part of Vancouver’s City Council • The council consists of a Grand Supreme Ruler, who has chosen a Council of Three, and a 24 person Assembly of the People • You are meeting to discuss Vancouver’s housing problems
The role of the assembly: • Vancouver (STILL) has a housing shortage. What are you going to do? • Choose one viable proposal from the following list: • Tax the wealthiest 10% of the population and use that extra money to build government subsidized housing • For the sale of every non-market unit built, collect a tax that goes to a building fund for subsidized rental units • Increase the tax on the large corporations on the city, and use that money for a subsidized building fund • Require families with less income to live in smaller homes and/or share homes • Give a very modest (0.05 %) tax increase to the large middle class, and use that money to provide subsidized rentals
The connection… • In the 1840s, there were no official parties • There had been an elected assembly (hurrah) since 1791 (the Constitutional Act), and all male citizens who owned property could vote for members of the Assembly • However, the executive branch (i.e. the equivalent of the Prime Minister and cabinet today), who were responsible for advising the British governor, were not drawn from those elected to the Assembly. • Rather, the Governor’s executive council was handpicked by the Governor, who had the power to appoint or to dismiss advisors, as well as to veto legislation
The Problem: • The Assembly wanted the government to spend money on ordinary projects that would benefit ordinary people, such as schools and roads, and it wanted land reform • However, the Councils (whose members came from guess where – yes, the Family Compact), wanted the government to build canals and improve businesses, and to ignore the problem of land speculation • Naturally – conflict was bound to occur
The general viewpoint: • "Why do they talk of responsible government when we have responsible government? As Governor of this country [Upper Canada] I am responsible to the King." • Sir Peregrine Maitland, Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia, 1828
Enter William Lyon Mackenzie • He was elected to the Legislative Assembly in1828 • Like many people in the area, he was fed up with the government and its land policies • However, was less interested in taking them on through negotiation and debate • Mackenzie bought a newspaper (The Colonial Advocate) and started publishing articles that strongly criticized the government and the Family Compact • When members of the Family Compact then ransacked his offices, he sued them • Soon he became a leader of the reform movement
The problem in Lower Canada • In some respects, the problems here were worse • The French had never completely adjusted to British rule • They had been exposed to the French and American revolutions, and found British rule without democracy difficult to accept • Control of the colony was in the hands of an oligarchy of merchants and ex-army officers – all English speaking • Because of the seigneurial system they did not have the same land problems, but they had other frustrations – such as feeling like the English had most of the advantages in the colony (they were still mad about an attempt to join the two colonies in 1822 and make English the official language of the union)
In addition… • The French Canadians also feared that Great Britain might be trying to solve its “French problem” by bringing more English-speaking immigrants into the colony • The government was also trying to change the old seigneurial system into a British freehold land system by offering land to people near Montreal who were from the British Isles • And later, when the ships started arriving with the cholera-stricken Irish immigrants, many French-Canadians even thought the British were trying to intentionally kill them off with disease
Enter Louis-Joseph Papineau • He became the leader of the Reformers in Lower Canada • He and his supporters believed that the Assembly should have complete control of the government’s budget, and wanted a more American-style republic.
The Rebellions of 1837 • The Reformers in the different colonies, while dealing with different issues, ultimately believed in the same ideals, and kept in contact with each other • When it started to become clear that they would not be able to reform government from within, or to diminish the powers of the Family Compact/Chateau Clique, both Mackenzie and Papineau prepared for armed attacks • And you thought that Canada had no armed rebellions…
Lower Canada • There were two outbursts of violence, the first in November 1837, in a series of skirmishes and battles between Patriote rebels the British • The defeat of the disorganized rebels was followed by widespread anglophone looting and burning of French Canadian settlements. Papineau and other rebel leaders fled to the United States. • With the help of American volunteers, a second rebellion was launched in November 1838, but it too was poorly organized and quickly put down, followed by further looting and devastation in the countryside. • The two uprisings left 325 people dead, all of them rebels except for 27 British soldiers. Nearly 100 rebels were also captured. After the second uprising failed, Papineau departed the US for exile in Paris.
William Lyon Mackenzie; • Canadians! Do you love freedom? I know you do. Do you hate oppression? Who dare deny it? Do you wish perpetual peace and a government founded upon the eternal heaven-born principle of the Lord Jesus Christ – a government bound to enforce the law to do to each other as you would be done by? Then buckle on your armour, and put down the villains who oppress and enslave our country – one short hour will deliver our country from the oppressor; and freedom in religion, peace and tranquility, equal laws and an improved country will be the prize….Until then, brave Canadians! Gt ready your rifles, and make short work of it. Our enemies in Toronto are in terror and dismay.
Upper Canada • The insurgency in Lower Canada inspired anglophone radicals in Upper Canada to take their own action against the Crown, although theirs would be a smaller, less deadly revolt. • In 1837, after years of failed efforts at peaceful change, Mackenzie convinced his most radical followers to try to seize control of the government and declare the colony a republic. About 1,000 men, mostly farmers of American origin, gathered for four days in December at Montgomery’s Tavern on Yonge Street in Toronto. • On 5 December, several hundred poorly armed and organized rebels marched south on Yonge Street and exchanged gunfire with a smaller group of loyalist militia. The bulk of the rebel force fled in a state of confusion once the firing started. • Three days later, the remaining rebel group was dispersed from the tavern by loyalists
Upper Canada: the end of the rebellion • There was a small, second confrontation soon afterwards in Brantford, but again the insurgents were dispersed. • Mackenzie and other rebel leaders fled with about 200 followers to the US where, with the help of American volunteers, various rebel groups launched raids against Upper Canada, keeping the border in a state of turmoil for nearly a year. • With the support of Americans who wished to liberate Canada from British rule, Mackenzie took control of Navy Island in the Niagara River— just upriver from the falls — and proclaimed a republic of Upper Canada. • He was forced to withdraw on 14 January, after Canadian volunteers burned the rebel ship, Caroline, that was supplying Mackenzie’s forces and set it adrift over the falls • The insurgency fizzled after 1838. Mackenzie spent years in exile in New York, before returning to Canada following a government pardon in 1849. Others weren't so lucky. Although only three men —two rebels and one loyalist — were killed in the early stages of the rebellion, many captured rebels were executed by the government.
"My country – may she never forget that for her we have died upon the scaffold! Patriots we have lived and patriots we die! Down with tyrants! May their domination cease! Long live Liberty! Long live Independence!"The Chevalier de Lorimer, 14 February 1839 • 1839 02 15 Execution of rebels in front of the Montreal Gaol. LAC, Acc. No. 1989-466-61, drawing by Henri Julien, 1852-1908
Random fact: the Caroline affair • The Caroline affair (also known as the Caroline case) was a diplomatic crisis beginning in 1837 involving the United States, Britain, and Canada • It began in 1837 when William Lyon Mackenzie fled to an island in the Niagara River, with support from nearby American citizens. • British forces then boarded their ship (the Caroline), killed an American crew member in the fighting, and then burned the ship and sent it over Niagara Falls • This action outraged the United States, so in retaliation, a group of American and Canadian raiders attacked a British ship and destroyed it. • There were several other attacks in 1838 between the British and Americans. The diplomatic crisis was defused in 1842, where both the Americans and British admitted to wrongdoing. • In the aftermath, the incident led to the legal principle of the Caroline test. The principle states that the necessity for [self-defense] must be "instant, overwhelming, and leaving no choice of means, and no moment for deliberation", • This was formulated in a response to British claims that they attacked the Caroline in self-defense. • According to some authors, the Caroline test remains accepted as part of international law today
Consequences of the rebellions • Historians have disagreed about how much popular support each rebellion received, and to what degree the uprisings were necessary. • One argument is that they were the inevitable result of undemocratic colonial systems, and an imperial government in London that was out of touch and unsympathetic to reform. • Another view is that the insurgencies amounted to pointless bloodletting, which may have even slowed the pace of reform. • One fact is clear: the rebellions prompted the appointment of Lord Durham and the writing of the Durham Report, which recommended the two colonies be united as one. The Province of Canada came into being in 1841, and this in turn led to the introduction of responsible government. • Although the rebel leaders were thwarted in their goals, Papineau and Mackenzie each found a place in history as unlikely folk heroes who fought for democratic ideals. • Their failure paved the way for more moderate reformists, such as Louis-Hippolyte LaFontaine in Canada East (formerly Lower Canada) and Robert Baldwin in Canada West (formerly Upper Canada), who would work together across language lines, to bring democratic reform and self-government to the newly united Canada.
Lord Durham • In 1837 Britain was at the peak of its power • Queen Victoria had just ascended to the throne, and was ruling over one of the largest empires in history • The Industrial Revolution had also changed Britain in to the “workshop of the world” - Britain produced more than half of the manufactured goods in the entire world • It was not very surprising that Britain had become rather easy going about Canada • The orderly development of the North American colonies was taken for granted, until the Papineau-Mackenzie rebellions happened • The British were shaken out of their ease, and reminded of the events of the 1770s that had led to the loss of the Thirteen Colonies • They decided a full investigation needed to be made, and so sent a leading political thinker to investigate the conditions in the colonies – John George Lambton, the Earl of Durham
The report: • Lord Durham realized very quickly that the executive councils were ignoring the wishes of the people • He therefore recommended “responsible government”, which obviously enraged the Family Compact + Chateau Clique • However, it naturally made the French and English reformers tres, tres happy
The report: • His second recommendation was much more controversial • He believed that the crux of the dilemma in Lower Canada was racial conflict between the French and the English: “I expected to find a contest between a government and a people: I found two nations warring within the bosom of a single state” • His answer to this was more than slightly controversial – his answer was to turn the French Canadians into English Canadians – and the way to do this in his mind was simple – merge the two provinces in the hopes of erasing French Canada, a people with “no literature and no history”
In their own words… • "There can hardly be conceived a nationality more destitute of all that can invigorate and elevate a people, than that which is exhibited by the descendants of the French in Lower Canada, owing to their returning their peculiar language and manners. They are a people, with no history, and no literature.“ Lord Durham, Report, 1839 • "It appears, then, from Lord Durham's own showing, that this 'family compact,' which his lordship deems it so advisable that the Queen should destroy, is nothing more nor less than that 'social fabric' which characterizes every civilized community in the world. It is that social fabric, or rather fortress, within which the British yeoman, farmer, and manufacturer is enabled to repel the extortionate demands of his labourers; and to preserve from pillage and robbery the harvest of his industry after he has reaped it!“ Sir Francis Bond Head, A Narrative , 1839
Act of Union: 1841 • The British government spent a while examining the report, and then accepted both of Durham’s recommendations • In 1841 the union of the two Canadas was approved, and by 1848 all of the British North America provinces had achieved “responsible government” • The Rebellions of 1837 had failed to achieve the reforms they sought immediately • However, in the long run they helped to achieve a pretty significant change in how the country was governed • However, this was accomplished without the support of the French, which created many problems that linger today.
Discuss: • "The winning of responsible government a century ago was neither a Colonial victory or a British defeat. It was the triumph of both British and Colonial reformers over conservatism, reaction and timidity on both sides of the Atlantic.“ George W. Brown, 1942
