A brief review of the settlement of Upper Canada

Front matter

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Preface

This work is designed for the information of those numerous generous hearted citizens of the United States, whe so nobly and manfully avowed their sympathy for the oppressed Canadians, when contending against the mighty power of Great Britian, for their liberty and independence; but who from the little interest they took jn the political affairs of Canada, previous to the out-break in December, 1837, are necessarily ignorant of the proportion that the ip : : . .

Canadian grievances bear to those which urged on the American as

Revolution, and whether they were of the nature to warrant an ape

Ny wv peal toarms. We feel convinced that the reader will find in peru- - sing the following pages, that the Colonial grievances of 1776, however oppressive they might have been considered, bear no resemblance in magnitude or degree to those borne by the Canadians in 1837. Although this work does not embrace all the grievances, political and religious, which they endured, yet it exhibits enough to satisfy every candid and rational mind, that any further endurance on their part, would be impiety towards God—treason to themselves and entailing on their mouldering dust the maledictions of an enslaved posterity. They have proved unsuccessful in their first effort ,

but let not the friends of freedom despair; the contest only is suse pended, not given up. The people are getting prepared ; they will succeed as sure as the revolution of 76 succeeded. They have suf

4 PREFACE.

fered, and know the value of liberty ;—they will endure but a little longer. The propitious day is fast approaching when they will arise in their might, and with a united effort substitute the Twin Star Spangled Banner of Independence for the Royal Tyrant Standard of England—then America from the Gulf of Mexico to the Artic ocean,will form one.great, whole, and happy republic. The British government, without designing it, is hastening on the great era of their birth as an independent people.

Canada must be free! With a fertility of soil and expanse of territory sufficient to maintain millions—with a people constantly gazing upon these prosperous and independent States—and oppressed as they have been, by British tyranny, they cannot long remain enslaved.— The broad ocean separates them from their oppressor,and and if once free, the impregnable walls of their Quebec, the Gibralter of America, will bid defiance to every attempt at future subjugation We fervently cherish the hope, that the day is not far distant when the Eaole of Liberty shall soar triumphant over this vast continent,— when a vestige of tyranny will not remain, and that the first step towards this glorious consummation, will be the liberation of Canada. .

Irom the first discovery of this continent in 1492, down to the _ glorious era 1776, the flags of the different Kuropeon powers, who claimed different portions of it, either by right of discovery or con. quest, floated undisturbed over their vast possessions, from Cape Horn to the Artic Ocean. :

The only wars thatarose were inthe adjustmentof their rival claims to territory ; andin these wars, the colonists ranged themselves according to their allegiance, with a feeling of loyalty of which that which is called the “French war” ending in 1763, with the treaty of Quebec, ig a memorable example. In this war, they freely spilled their blood and treasure in the quarrel of the mother country, without any advantage to themselves, other than what they derived from their being to some extent trained to arms—an advantage they were soon destined to turn to a great account.

At.the period of this treaty, Great Britain and Spain possessed, or claimed to possess, almost the entire northern continent, and, with the Portuguese, the French, and the Dutch, they divided the south-

PREFACE, 5 ern portion and the islands. These vast possessions were ruled over by lieutenants, chiefly military men, and the colonists enjoyed liberty in various degrecs, each bearing some analogy to the state of society amongst the people from which they sprung.

From that period to this, a period within the recollection of many now living, a change hastaken place which has no parallel in history, either in the magnitude of its conception, or in the grandeur of it results. Krom the time the first blood was shed at Concord, down to the present, the history of all the colonies—English, Spanish, Portuguese, French and Dutch-stretching along a continent of ma_ ny thousands of miles, has been one continued scene of successful revolt; and, although, as in the case of Washington’s disastrous retreat through the Jerseys, yet the glorious result has taught the world, that .

‘* Freedom’s battle once begun,

Bequeathed from bleeding sire to son;

Though baffled oft, is always won’? for in no instance have the colonists of any European power, ever sheathed the sword after having drawn it, but as independent states,

The great work, however, is not yet done. One solitary power yet lingers; one link in the great chain remains to be broken, and that too, among a people who speak the same language, and are—

_ sprung from the same stock as the Americans. Among them, how ever, the Patriot drum has been beaten, and the Patriot standard” unfurled—but the measure of their sufferings is not yet full. Their — holy aspirations after liberty have brought upon them the very seventh vial of the wrath of their oppressors; and like the man of Ma cedonia in the Apostles’s vision they have stretched out their hands and cried “‘come over and help us.’ As yet, however, they remain in bondage—a bondage more cruel, and enforced by an 1 my more numerous than has been borne by any single colony on the entire continent ;—although the existence of such an army among them must show beyond all question, even to the power that claims _ a» their allegiance that nothing but that can prevent them from joining the great family of Republics. Their history for the last three years has been a history of deadly wrongs and outrages, borne only be-_ cause the oppressed were weak. Taxed without being represented; deprived of the right of habeas corpus—and of power over the sup-

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plies ;—deprived of arms; prevented from assembling in their townships—their best and bravest men executed or banished—a foreign soldiery quartered in their villages and hamlets ;—and arms in the hands of brutal and bloody orangemen only, while martial law supercedes the regular administration of justice. Thus, and thus only, does the last European power support itself in its last foothold on this continent, and by such unworthy means, the red cross of St George is still kept floating on the turrets of Quebe, and waves over the Canadas.. The United States cannot expect peace whilst Great Britian holds possessions on her borders; they must drive her from this land of promise. The Canadians from one extreme of the provinces to the other, hunger and thirst after liberty. They desire to be partakers of the free institutions of the U. 8S. Let it then be their part to: dispense to. them the heavenly gift,—for why should they hesitate ?

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INTRODUCTEON.

The immense natural advantages which Upper Canada possesses, for agricultural and commercial purposes, are unriva. - led, perhaps, in North America. A line of water ecommun’i cation extending a thousand miles, and upwards, upon its frontier, and embracing a territory of a richly varied and productive soil, with a salubrious climate, offer rare facilities for successful and rapid improvement. ‘The interior every where presents the appearance of a country peculiarly adapted to supply the wants created by civilization; and where enterprise and industry would be sure to meet an abundant reward. In addition to ail these, it will, no doubt, one day, appear, that Upper Canada is rich in all the useful, if not in the most precious minerals, which now lie buried beneath the surface for want of enterprise to stimulate the search. The full development of their internal resources, and their active adaptation to the wants of a growing empire, need hardly be looked for, so long as they remain a dependent colony of manufacturing England. It being a part of the colonial policy of that country to make her foreign possessions. the consumers of the surplus products of her overgrown manufactories. Such a course of proceeding is, no doubt, absolutely, necessary to support the excessive trading and manufacturing interests of Britain, and to preserve in some degree, the proper relation which ought to subsist between the parent state and the colony; and which, to some extent, might be rendered mutually. beneficial. But it is so absolutely destructive of that spirit of enterprise which transforms the wilderness into fertile fields 5 that speeds the plough; the shuttle and the hammer; plants cities, towns and villages; paves the streets, rears the college dome and academy hall; gives life and energy to trade and commerce, by cutting artificial channels from lakes to rivers, and approximates distant places by levelling hills and raising valleys; that gives impetus to the axle, and expansive force to steam; peoples the waters with WALKING THINGS OF LIFE; and spreads the. sail of commerce to every breeze, and wafts the treasures of the far

8 INTRODUCTION.

west and north to a populous and thriving emporium and depository of the nation’s wealth. Do we want proof of this ?— Look at Upper Canada with all its transcendent natural advantages, as it is, and by comparing with the adjacent parts of the United States. See what it ought to be, and might have been but for the fatal counteracting cause which sits like a mountain incubus upon Canadian enterprise, and paralizes every effort, made to advance its internal prosperity.

Sixty years and upwards has elapsed since the settlement of Upper Canada commenced under the auspices and protection of the British government; during forty-nine years of which, they have hada Parliament of their own, and what has been the result —with a territory containing millions of acres of a3 fertile a soil, as any on the face of the Globe, capable of producing all the necessaries, and many of the luxuries of life —watered by inn umerable streams, abounding with hydraulic privileges, and offering every facility to be desired, for the establishment of manufactories; the finest forests in the world for the ship yard, and every other purpose—the earth abounding in ores, and salt springs, sufficient, no doubt, to afford an adequate supply for the inhabitants, however numerous; and, above all, boasting of a constitution, (vain boast !) that is ‘the image and transcript of the Great Charter of English liberty!” —and there they are, more than a century in the rear of their republican neighbors, in all the essentials that mark the progress of improvement, and determine the state of society, and its advancement in the useful arts and sciences.

It is truly humbling to the enlightened and enterprising spiritof a British subject, to make the comparison between Ogdensburg, Watertown, Sacketts Harbor, Oswego, Rochester, Lockport, Buffalo, Cleveland and Detroit on the one side, and Prescott, Kingston. Toronto, Hamilton, St. Catherines, Niagara, Queenston, Chippewa, Malden and Sandwich on the other, with the intermediate places of lesser note on either side, and the general appearance of the country, as it respects the degree of improvement, which each side exhibits to the eye of the most causal observer. From what cause results this amazing difference between the two countries ? It is not from the locality, nor the advantage derived froma superior soil, or more salubrious climate; these they possess in anequal degree. Nor is it because the Americans are naturally more enterpr ising or more intelligent, all things considered, than the Canadians. Then what is it, we ask again; (for the en:uiry isan

INTRODUCTION. 9 important one, ) that causes such marked difference, and so much to their disparagement? ‘The answer isa plain one. The Americans govern themselves; that is, they elect all their government officers for a limited period. From the chief magistrate, to the township constable, every officer holds his power immediately from the people—from whom he is taken to exercise its and into whose bosom he will return when his short term is out. This is the secrett—THE PEOPLE GOVERN THEM. SELVES. And if you want a sample of self-government, take its result in Western New York, and compare it with U. C., which was settled about the same time. See their cities and weli paved streets, populous towns, and flourishing villages;——see their colleges, seminaries, high schools, literary and scientific institutions; a common school under the immediate care of government in every neighborhood; canals, turnpikes, railroads, light houses, salt works, factories, &c. &c., with an extended and rapidly increasing commerce, yielding a revenue equal to some of the older statesin Hurope, and where real estate has advanced froma hundred to a thousand per cent. Now, let us turn to look at Upper Canada;—how changed the scene and how mortifying the contrast‘tto a high souled Englishman! <A governor irresponsible to the people, fettered with instructions from a colonial office four thousand miles otl,—— these often imposed against the very letter and spirit of the constitutional act of the 31st. Geo. I[];--a legislative Council, chosen by the King or Queen, for life, who have made themselves independent, alike of the crown and the peoples——a representation worse than nominal;—-the revenues squandered on worthless pensiouers, Bishops and Politico-Priests;—-the public lands frittered away by thousands to partizans and parasites;—- three millions of acres sold to a company of land-jobbing speculators, residing in London, for forty-three cents per acre, and resold by their agents, to the poor emigrant, at five, ten and twenty-five dollars peracre. The sales of these lands per year amount to one million; every cent of which is shipped to - London. Sixteen thousand dollars of the Post Office tax on letters and newspapers, pocketed ‘by the secret manager, and the balance sent to England without the consent of the province; the annual casual and territorial revenue, amounting to nearly half a million, never accounted for;——the proceeds of the sales of the clergy reserves paid into the military chest and incorporated with the finances of Great Britain, in lieu of being appropriated to oe purposes;-—the people taxed without i0 INTRODUCTION:

their consent; the money so raised apprporiated without their leave;--unequally represented in the assembly ;——the laws they pray for always negatived, by that mockery of a House of Lords, the Legislative Council;-—an Established church, with 15,000,000 acres or one seventh of the province as a reserve, (Canapa’s FIRST and LAST cURSE;)—their commerce restricted to the English markets—-having no voice in the enacting of the lawg regulating their trade;--their commercial prosperity retarded;—-immigrants of wealth and influence induced to avoid their shores as a land of pestilence and famine;——the Province millions in debts-—the St. Lawrence Canal ab ndoned, for want of means—a dark, dismal ditch in the midst of desolation——a monument of folly and mismanagement. Toronto, with its six or eight thousand inhabitants, the seat of government, the residence of her Majesty’s representative, and my Lord Chief Justice, of the Honorable and Right Reverend, and honorables without reverend, with all the sub and dishonorables, judges, counsellors, barristers, attorneys, magistrates, sheriff’s mayors aldermen, &c.,—Toronto, the senior of Rochester ay d Buffalo, some twenty years, a foul, loathsome, disgusting capital, abounding in filthy lanes and alleys; muddy and unpaved streets, and as a whole, presents a dreary and disagreeable aspect, both from its low situation, and the mean and contempti-— ble appearance of the buildings; generally, the contrast is so glaring, that the observer becomes disgusted with the latter, and delighted with the former.

It is a well known fact, that the better sort of British and Irish emigrants generaliy come by the way of New Yorks; and in passing from thence to Upper Canada, an ample opportunity is afforded them for witnessing the unparalleled prosperity and improvement, which is every where so conspicuous on the whole route,-they naturally enquire the cause,—it is ascertained, and from the glowing descriptions they have had of Upper Canada, they expect to meet with similar results there: but the sad disappointment they are doomed to experience, is fatal to the prosperity of that ill fated country,—nine cases out of ten, they become citizens of this great republic.

Could Upper and Lower Canada show them their young cities rising up, as if by magic, among the stumps and trees; could they show them their Oswegos, Buffalos Clevelands and Detroits--very Liverpools in miniature—-together with their liberally endowed colleges, scientific and literary institutions, flourishing academies in every district, and common schools in

INTRODUCTION. 1]

every neighborhood, an educated people, and above all, a government liberal in its views and measures, magnanimous and impartial in the distribution of public offices—-not engendering party feuds and sectarian jealousies, but pursuing a conciliatory, dignified course by harmonizing the great whole, wisely disposing of the public revenues, developing new resources, awakening the latent energies of the people, and directing to the accomplishment of deeds of noble enterprise;—could the Canadas do this, they might boast of a population abounding in wealth and enterprise; and for which, the most prosperous of the republican states might be searched for a paralle].—— Only let them have sucha government, as most certainly they will, sooner or later; and we will engage that the people of Unper and Lower Canada, who are not wanting in enterprise, will soon wipe off the reproach of national indolence and stupidity:——but let the government be republican—let true genuine democratic feeling flow through every vein to the fingers end of the body politic—let the government diffuse, by its own examples and measures, a high minded national spirit into the people—let every public institution be based upon the broad principle of democracy, and all preference to any favored sect withdrawn—let it frown upon every association whose object is to disturb the peace and quiet of others, and deprive them of the free exercise of their constitutional rights;—let this be done, for done it will be, and Canada will, then become a nation, ‘great, glorious and free.”’ It is sickening to review the narrow and illiberal course, pursued by the imperial government, towards her Canada possessions, for nearly fifty years. From the instant the machinery of her government was put in operation, ‘‘corruption took the lead of every manly virtue,” and the affairs of the government daily progressed from bad to to worse. The causes of this was, the irresponsible form of the government, in which, the people had no share; anda firrn determination on the part of those in power to resist those salutary reforms in their institutions, which the increasing wants and intelligence of the country rendered necessary. <A system of espionage and corruption, exercised on the elections, particularly at the election of Sir F. B. Head’s mock Assembly, rendered the franchise of no avail to the majority of electors. Trade ruined; public confidence destroyed; constitutional rights denied; a sham representation of the people; a mock House of Lords; a deaf and dumb executive council; an untir-

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ing effort of that bane of colonial prosperity, the legislative council to crush every measure intended to redress abuses: ail ‘of. which, considered, rendered their condition mean and miserable. What country under heaven not debased by total ignorance of right, liberty and justice eould submit so quietly, and so long, under oppressions so grievous and intolerable}— Their petitions were frequently answered by adding occasional links to their long chain of grievances; at other times soothing ~ them with promises, which were made, only to be broken, and, when deception, treachery and injustice had .roused them to desperation, in vindication of their constitutional rights, they were hunted as beasts of prey, arraigned by sanguinary courtsmartial; hung, banished, their properties burnt; women and cheldeed' turned out houseless, in the dead of the winter to beg or perish in the snow.

Such are the outlines of Canadian grievances and miseries, in the year 1837. But we are much deceived in the signs of the times there,ifthe Canadas are not on the eve of taking an onward and a glorious march towards liberty and independence. The sordid baseness of the sanguinary compact; the grovelling insolence) of the orangemen, the injustice of half a century, the determination 1a maintain an irresponsible government, and the atrocious climax of the wholesale burnings and banishments, must awaken a storm, that will desolate the last fortress of despotism in North America.

ight

CHAPTER LT * “Pip Settlement of Upper Canada, by the U. E. Loyalists. ,

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Previous to the Arigna revolution, numbers of the timid settlers, residing in the middle, northern, and eastern provinces, forseeing the rapid approaches of an inevitable storm, and in order to avoid the horrors of a civil war, emigrated with their families to different parts of what | is now called, Upper Canada. These, though they depre- | cated resistance to the constituted authorities, vet secretly | wished well to the cause of freedom and the rights of man. | _ On writing back to their friends, they represented Upper | Canada to be superior in soil, and as genial in climate as the | land they had left, and induced hundreds to dispose of their | property and seek refuge in the wilds of the north. When _ the revolution broke out in all the fury of civil war, hundreds more followed their example, wending their way | through forests and swamps, in dread of the Indians by . | day, the wolves and panthers by night; enduring every | species of hardship and privation. Many of them perished | in the wilderness, from extreme suffering and want. During the heat and progress of the revolution, ‘there was a certain | class of unprincipled tories, who were too cowardly to | serve in the ranks of the oppressors of their country, whose | cause they traitorously favored, and who, |like all freebooters, _ plundered the unoffending of either side, indiscriminately. | These, as they rendered themselves obnoxious, sought an | asylum in Upper Canada, to avoid the righteous vengeance _ of an insulted and outraged community. The descendants _ of these worthies constitute the bulk of what is now called | the Family Compact. 'They inherit all the tory rancor and _ bitterness of their ancestors against republican principles _ and free institutions.

_ In 1783, after the ratification of peace, the royal provin- | cial corps, raised during the sanguinary but triumphant | “Contest, to aid the oppressor against the oppressed, were, by a general order, marched to be disbanded, some at St. John’s in the Lower, and some at Niagara, in the Upper Province. By a royal proclamation, issued some time previous to their disbandment, it was stipulated that each individual composing these corps, as well as those who otherwise assisted the royal cause, and all those remaining in the United States, who still adhered to their allegiance, and were desirous of accepting his majesty’s gracious proffer, should receive grants of land—the former according to the rank each respectively held in the service, and the latter the same as the privates. 'l'o each of these, by the proclamation, was alloted two hundred acres, as a royal bounty, and another two hundred as a consideration for his services— his wife was to receive two hundred acres more, and their issue, also, as they became of age, two hundred each, whether male or female, free of all fees and charges whatsoever. How far this was adhered to by the Canadian government, will hereafter appear. | :

‘hese two classes formed the first permanent settlers of Upper Canada, and were distinguished from other British emigrants, by the term of United Empire Men, or, as they are now generally known, U. B. Loyalists. From 1783 to 1812, the province was rapidly settling by emigrants from Europe and the United States. In 1789, the population, although very scattering, amounted to nearly sixty thousand souls. At this period, a convention of delegates from the different sections met, to take the affairs of the province into consideration. In the course of their deliberations, it was unanimously resolved to petition the [mperia] Parliament to set them apart fromthe Lower province, and grant them a government, based on the British Constitution. i

Here it may not be amiss to show the folly of those ignorant delegates, as it respects the British Constitution.— Correctly speaking, there is no such thing in existence. There is, doubtless, and has been, for ages, plenty of gov-_. erning power in England; but, asto a Constitution, or supreme law, regulative of that power, there is no such | thing. The British government is made up of old USages, | old charters, old fictions, and old prejudices; . ay

BY THE U. E. LOYALISTS. 15 also be added, old and new corruptions—the whole, together, presenting a standing, and wonderfully lasting, scheme of mystification. EXxamine it in the whole, or in its parts, the sign may be found, but the substance will be missing—the name, but never the thing. The key to the trick consists in lodging the whole controlling power of the state in the hands of a body of individuals, called the Commons, or representatives of the common people or working classes ; but who, in fact, represent the three bodies of men living at the expense of the people, viz. holders of Jand; holders of real, and of false capital; and holders of office, place or pension, in the gift of the crown, either directly or indirectly. With the assembly thus composed, is lodged the power of statute-making; and the accumulation of statutes, superadded to the two old royal charters, called Magua Charta, and the Bill of Rights, whose few popular and not quite obsolete provisions, the irresponsible and omnipotent statute-power cam abrogate or suspend, whenever they threaten to be troublesome— the accumulation of its statutes, as made, altered, and revised, to fit every exigence of the hour, is ingeniously styled the British Constitution. America’s first political fathers had evidently, deeply studied the complex machinery of British government, and distinguished where the shoe pinched. ‘The Puritans of New-England, the choice spirits of the commonwealth of the mother country, came hith- _ er determined to establish popular power in its reality. They did so; and their descendants are now enjoying the distinguished privileges of the most liberal institutions, and popular government, the ingenuity of man ever devised. How different was their opinion of the British Constitution to that of the Canadian delegates! The former prefered the rights of man in general, and acted accordingly; the latter, the corruption of the past and present ages—the rights of the privileged few to govern the mass. The one enjoy liberty, in its widest sense ; the other are curtailed of all its essentials. But to return: In 1791, the Imperial Parliament enacted the 31st Geo. III, dividing the province of Quebec, into the Upper and _ Lower Provinces, The same year, Gen. Simcoe was acie ¥ ; ai ; # “ie r credited the first Governor of the Upper Province, with instructions to explain to the people the nature of the new constitution, which was granted agreeably to their request. In his opening speech from the throne, to their first assem-

bly, he said: “He was the bearer of a boon, which had es- _ tablished the British Constitution, and all the forms which secure and maintain it, in that country ;” and in closing the same session, he said, “ At this juncture, L par ticularly recommend to you to explain to your constituents that this province is singularly blessed, not with a mutilated constitution, but with one which has stood the test of experience, and ts the very image and transcript of that of Great Britain!!”

Reposing all confidence in these glowing assurances from the Crown, the settlers vainly exulted in the possession of the British Constitution, instead of an independent republic, and under it they dreamt of all the blessings of civil and religious liberty under good and responsible government. This Constitution, so ) highly spoken of, as the crand result of the wisdom of successive enlightened g generations, with all its supposed attractive beauties, turned out, in reality, a mere delusion, without tangibility, torm, or comeliness ; a jack-’o-the-lantern, receding and changing its position as often as it is approached ; a kind of Proteus or chameleon, assuming any shape or any color required. The colonists in vain attempted to comprehend its principles and define its limits; for like the north-eastern boundary of the United States, it was neither here, nor there, and vet presumed to be somewhere. Had these simple settlers reflected, for one moment, they would never have petitioned for the “wnage and transcript” of a constitution so extremely complex and intangible as that under which the government of Great Britain is administered. ‘This “image and transcript’’ of the British Constitution granted to the Canadas, and which Gov. Simeoe lauded so highly, has Ireland’s bane, and Canada’s first and last curse, written on itin bold relief, viz. one seventh of the province, — or 15,000,000 of acres, appropriated forever to an established clergy, whose members never did, nor do, and perhaps never will, number over one to ninety and nine of the

BY THE VU. E. LOYALISTS. VF other churches, taken together. It certainly was a wickedly contrived act on the part of those who framed it, inasmuch as their own experience must have convinced them that, in the very wording of the act, “a protestant clergy” would always create serious clerical contentions.

The English Episcopal Church, being the established church of England, and the Queen its defender, has sans ceremonie, claimed, and without asking the people, taken possession of the whole, from the first; snapping her pious fingers in defiance of all the other christian churches, to the no small annoyance of the province. The consequence is, that pensioned hypocrites and hireling priests are daily multiplying by its means, for base political purposes. ‘The whole history of these “reserves” has been, and still continues to be, one of ceaseless discord, bitterness, and angry strife. ‘Their very title bears the imprint of a moral pestilence. ‘There is but one voice, through the length and breadth of the ech regarding them ; and, if they are not speedily disposed of, to the satisfaction of the people, the sequel will yet be written in the blood of her choicest sons. As these “reserves” are situated, they form a great obstacle to the improvement of the province, without being productive of any corresponding advantage.