The Loyalists of America and Their Times Volume II Part 29

[Footnote 167: The following extract from their report ill.u.s.trates the amicable spirit in which the Commissioners of the two provinces entered upon their work and arranged the matters committed to their trust:

"The Commissioners, as well as those for Upper Canada, being authorized to enter into an agreement for a further period, and being equally desirous to treat on the subject, which if unprovided for might give rise to difficulties hereafter; being at the same time most solicitous on both sides to preserve the harmony and cordiality which prevail between the two provinces, the article of the provisional agreement for two years was cheerfully a.s.sented to. By that article the province of Upper Canada is ent.i.tled to one-eighth part of the revenue already payable on goods, wares, or merchandise coming into Lower Canada, under an Act of the Legislature thereof; and to a.s.sure the most perfect freedom of trade with the sister province, it is provided that no imposts or duties shall be imposed or shall be laid by Upper Canada, which renders unnecessary the establis.h.i.+ng of Custom-houses on the line which divides the two provinces, but saves to both an expense which, in all probability, would far exceed any trifle of revenue that this agreement may take from one or the other of the provinces more than their legitimate proportion."]

[Footnote 168: The conduct and character of Lord Dorchester as governor and commander-in-chief of the army may be inferred from the following among many other notices in the Index to Bancroft's History of the United States, Vol. X., p. 616:

"Carleton, Guy, afterwards Lord Dorchester, colonel of Grenadiers in Wolfe's army; is wounded; is at Havana (one of the commanders in taking it); Governor of Canada; has full authority to arm and employ the Canadians and Indians against the Americans; abhors the scheme; takes measures for the defence of the province; the command of Canada a.s.signed to him, he will not turn the savages loose on the frontier; returns no answer to Montgomery's summons; repels the a.s.sault made by that general; is lenient to his prisoners; his humanity to sick Americans left behind; blamed for restraining the Indians; restrains the ravages of the Indians; the King and Ministers are displeased at this; Carleton prepares to invade the United States; is displeased at being superseded by Burgoyne; refuses to a.s.sist Burgoyne; is complained of by that officer; supersedes Clinton in America; his humanity; restrains Indian hostility."]

[Footnote 169: "It was also one of the grievances in Lower Canada that Protestants alone were appointed Executive Councillors, and that while the chief Protestant ecclesiastic was admitted, the Roman Catholic Church was not allowed to be represented. Great offence was also caused by this to the great majority of the inhabitants, which was made to be felt the more keenly by the determination of the Council not to acknowledge the t.i.tle, or even existence, of a Roman Catholic bishop in the province." (Miles' School History of Canada, Part III., Chap. ii., pp. 195, 196.)]

[Footnote 170: Miles' School History of Canada, Part III., Chap. i., pp.

192, 193.]

CHAPTER XLVI.

GOVERNMENT OF UPPER CANADA.

The Const.i.tution of Upper Canada was the same as that of Lower, established by the same _Const.i.tutional Act of 1791_, the Act 31 George III., Chapter 31.

Before the Const.i.tution of Upper Canada was established, when it formed part of the province of Quebec, Lord Dorchester, by proclamation, divided the now western part of the province, afterwards Upper Canada, into four districts with German names--namely, _Lunenburg_, extending from the River Ottawa to Gananoque; _Mecklenburg_, extending from Gananoque to the Trent; _Na.s.sau_, extending from the Trent to Long Point, on Lake Erie; and _Hesse_, including the rest of the western part of Upper Canada to the Lake St. Clair. To each of these four districts a judge and a sheriff were appointed, who administered justice by means of Courts of Common Pleas.

Under the new Const.i.tution, Upper Canada, like Lower Canada, had a Legislature consisting of a Governor, appointed by the Crown, and responsible only to it; a Legislative Council, appointed by the Crown, and the members appointed for life; and a Legislative a.s.sembly, elected by the freeholders of the country. The a.s.sembly was to be elected once in four years, but might be elected oftener if dissolved by the Governor, and was empowered to raise a revenue for public services, roads, bridges, schools, etc.; the Legislative Council consisted of seven members, appointed for life by the Crown; the House of a.s.sembly consisted of sixteen members, elected by the people.

By usage and by approbation of the Imperial Government, though not by the provisions of the Const.i.tutional Act, the Lieutenant-Governor was a.s.sisted, mostly ruled, by an Executive Council, consisting for the most part of salaried officers, judges, and members of the Legislative Council, who were not responsible either to the Governor or to the Legislative Council, or to the House of a.s.sembly--an independent, irresponsible body--an oligarchy which exercised great power, was very intolerant, and became very odious.

The first Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada was General John Graves Simcoe, who had commanded the Queen's Rangers in the revolutionary war; he was a landed gentleman, elected to the British House of Commons, in which he supported the Const.i.tutional Act of 1791, and afterwards accepted the office of Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada created by that Act, and did all in his power to give beneficial effect to it. He arrived in Upper Canada the 8th of July, 1792, when the members of the Executive and Legislative Councils were sworn in at Kingston, and writs were issued for the election of members of the Legislative a.s.sembly.

After much hesitation and perplexity, the seat of government was first established at a village then called Newark, now Niagara, at the mouth of the Niagara River, where the Governor built a small frame house which had to serve as a Parliament House, as well as residence for the Lieutenant-Governor. The Governor, with the usual state and ceremony, opened the first session of the first Parliament of Upper Canada the 17th of September, 1792. There were present three members of the Legislative Council and five members of the House of a.s.sembly. The members of the a.s.sembly have been represented as "plain, home-spun clad farmers and merchants, from the plough and the store." The members of the Legislature have always, for the most part, been such from that day to this, but many of the members of the first Parliament of Upper Canada had possessed respectable, and some of them luxurious homes, from which they had been exiled by narrow-minded and bitter enemies; they had fought on battle fields for the country whose forests they now burned and felled; their home-spun garments were some of the fruits of their own industry, and that of their wives and daughters. Eight years had elapsed since 10,000 of these United Empire Loyalists, driven from their homes in the States, came into the dense wilderness of Upper Canada, to hew out homes for themselves and their families in the vast solitude, the silence of which was only broken by the barking of the fox, the howl of the wolf and the growl of the bear, and the occasional whoop of the Indian.[171]

The population of Upper Canada was, in 1792, about 12,000 souls. The Loyalist pioneers of Upper Canada fought as bravely against privations, hards.h.i.+ps, and dangers in founding their forest homes, as they had done in the Royal ranks in the defence of the unity of the empire. During the first ten years of their hard enterprise and labours, the forest began to yield to the axe of industry, and the little cabins, and clearings, and growing crops gave evidence of human life and activity; but there were no towns or large settlements; the inhabitants were scattered in little groups, or isolated log-houses, along the north sh.o.r.es of the River St. Lawrence, Lakes Ontario and Erie, and of the Detroit river, the only gathering of houses or villages being Kingston, Newark, and Amherstburg.

The first session of the first Parliament of Upper Canada lasted only four weeks, commencing the 17th of September, and closing the 15th of October, 1792; the first session of the Parliament of Lower Canada lasted nearly five months--from the 17th of December, 1792, to the 9th of May, 1793. During these nearly five months, the Legislature of Lower Canada pa.s.sed eight Bills, all well prepared and useful, but with much ceremony and delay from the polite French seignors; the Legislature of Upper Canada, in their session of four weeks, also pa.s.sed eight Bills, indicating no haste, well prepared, and of importance and useful. The Bills pa.s.sed provided for the introduction of English law; the trial by jury; for the charge of millers, limiting their allowance for grinding and bolting grain to the rate of one bushel for every twelve bushels ground; for the easy recovery of small debts; for the change of the German names of the four districts into which Lord Dorchester had divided what now const.i.tuted Upper Canada, and granted to the United Empire Loyalists. _Lunenburg_, extending from the River Ottawa to the River Gananoque, was now called the _Eastern District; Mecklenburg_, extending from Gananoque to the River Trent, was called the _Middle_ or _Midland District; Na.s.sau_, extending from the Trent to Long Point, on Lake Erie, was called the _Home_ or _Niagara District_; and _Hesse_, embracing the rest of Canada, west to the Lake St. Clair, was called the _Western_ or _Detroit District_. These districts were again divided into twelve counties. An Act was also pa.s.sed to erect a jail and court-house in each district.

Governor Simcoe closed this session of the Parliament the 15th of October, 1792, and after complimenting both Houses on the business-like manner in which they had performed their legislative duties, concluded his proroguing speech with the following significant words:

"I cannot dismiss you without earnestly desiring you to promote, by precept and example, regular habits of piety and morality, the surest foundations of all private and public felicity; and at this juncture I particularly recommend you to explain _that this province is signally blessed, not with a mutilated Const.i.tution, but with a Const.i.tution which has stood the test of experience, and is the very image and transcript of that of Great Britain_, by which she has long established and secured to her subjects as much freedom and happiness as is possible to be enjoyed under the subordination necessary to civilized society."

When Governor Simcoe selected Newark as the seat of government, he thought that Fort Niagara, on the opposite side of the river, would be ceded to England, as it was then occupied by a British garrison; but when he found that the Niagara river was to be the boundary line between Great Britain and the United States, and that the British garrison was to be withdrawn from Fort Niagara, he judged it not wise that the capital of Upper Canada should be within reach of the guns of an American fort. He made a tour through the wilderness of the western peninsula, and proposed to found a new London for the Canadian capital, on the banks of what he then called the River Thames, the site of the present city of London, in the heart of the western district, and secure from invasion; but Lord Dorchester preferred Kingston, which he had made the princ.i.p.al naval and military station of the province. To this Governor Simcoe objected. It was at length agreed to select _York_, as it was then called, the site of an old French fort. Though the surrounding land was low and swampy, the harbour was excellent.

Governor Simcoe removed to the new capital before a house was built in it, and lodged some time in a large canvas tent, pitched on the site of the old fort, at the west end of the bay. He employed the Queen's Rangers, who had accompanied him, to open a main road--Yonge Street--from York to Lake Simcoe, called after the Governor himself. He proposed to open a direct communication between Lakes Ontario and Huron, and then with the Ottawa; and projected an enlightened and vigorous policy for promoting the development of the country, its agriculture, fisheries, population, trade, etc.; but before he had time to mature and give effect to his plans, he was suddenly removed, in 1796, from the government of Upper Canada to that of St. Domingo, in the West Indies.

He was succeeded in the government by the senior member of the Executive Council, the Hon. Peter Russel, who improved his two years'

administration, not by carrying out the patriotic plans of his predecessor, but by granting lands to himself and his friends for speculation, to the impediment of settlements and often to the disappointment and wrong of real settlers, whose applications for lands were rejected, which were afterwards granted to the land-speculating friends of the Governor, or to himself--whose grants to himself are said to have run something on this wise: "I, Peter Russel, Lieutenant-Governor, etc., do grant to you, Peter Russel, etc."[172]

General Simcoe zealously encouraged emigration to and settlement in the country, and during the four years of his administration the population increased to 30,000. There was a very considerable emigration from the United States of persons who did not like the new system of government there, and to whom the first Loyalist settlers had written, or visited, giving a favourable account of the climate and productiveness of the country.

Though the seat of government was removed to Toronto in 1795, the Parliament continued to meet at Niagara until 1797. During its successive sessions at Niagara (then Newark), the Parliament pa.s.sed Acts for the civil and munic.i.p.al administration of the country, the construction of roads, fixing duties on goods imported from England and the United States, etc., etc. The Legislature gave a reward of twenty and ten s.h.i.+llings respectively for the heads or scalps of wolves and bears, an Act suggestive of the exposures of the early settlers; and allowed the members of the a.s.sembly ten s.h.i.+llings per day each. In the second session, the first Parliament pa.s.sed an Act forbidding the introduction of slavery into the province--ten years in advance of Lower Canada on this subject.

Major-General Hunter succeeded the Hon. Peter Russel, in 1799, as Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada. He possessed little energy or enterprise, and did little or nothing except as advised by his Executive Council of five; so that the Government of Upper Canada was practically an oligarchy, irresponsible alike to Governor and people, each member receiving 100 per annum as Councillor, besides the lands he was able to obtain. Yet the Government, upon the whole, was satisfactory to the country, and commanded for many years the support of its elected representatives.

When General Hunter first met the Parliament in Toronto, the 2nd of June, 1800, the growth of Upper Canada having been rapid, its population now numbered upwards of 50,000. This year, 1800, the Legislature pa.s.sed an Act prohibiting the sale of spirituous liquors to the Indians. In 1802, the Legislature of Upper Canada, as had that of Lower Canada, pa.s.sed an Act appropriating 750 to encourage the growth of hemp, in order to render England independent of Russia in the supply of hemp for cordage for the navy, as was being rapidly the case in the supply of timber to build s.h.i.+ps. As obstructions on the St. Lawrence rendered communication more difficult between Upper and Lower Canada than with Albany and New York, articles of commerce from Europe could be more readily brought in by that route than by the St. Lawrence; a considerable trade sprang up with the United States, which rendered necessary the establishment of custom-houses on the frontiers.

Accordingly, ports of entry were established at Cornwall, Brockville, Kingston, Toronto, Niagara, Queenston, Fort Erie, Turkey Point, Amherstburg, and Sandwich, the duties being the same on American as on English goods. The Governor was authorized to appoint collectors, at salaries not exceeding 100 currency per annum, except when the amount of duties collected at a port was less than 100, in which case the collector was allowed one-half of the amount collected in lieu of salary.

In 1807 Parliament made provision for eight masters of grammar schools, one for each district, and at a salary of 100 currency ($400) for each master.

In the meantime emigration continued large. Many of the emigrants were from the United States. The troubles of '98 in Ireland were followed by a large Irish emigration to Canada; there were also a considerable number of Scotch and a few English emigrants; but the larger number of emigrants were from Ireland and the United States.[174]

The Legislature continued from session to session to pa.s.s Bills for the various improvements of the country; after doing which its members did not give much attention to politics, but devoted themselves to the culture and enlargement of their farms, of which their descendants are at this day reaping large advantages.[175]

Mr. McMullen, in his History of Canada, speaking of the year 1809, says:

"No civilized country in the world was less burdened with taxes than Canada West at this period. A small direct tax on property, levied by the District Courts of Session, and not amounting to 3,500 for the whole country, sufficed for all local expenses. There was no poor rate, no capitation tax, no t.i.thes, or ecclesiastical rates of any kind.

Instead of a road tax, a few days' statute labour annually sufficed.

Nowhere did the working man find the produce of his labour so little diminished by exactions of any kind. Canada West literally teemed with abundance; while its people, unlike the early French and Americans, had nothing to fear from the red man, and enjoyed the increase of the earth in peace."

I have thus given a brief narrative of the formation of the government of Upper Canada, and of the first seventeen years of its operations, down to the period when the antic.i.p.ated hostilities between Great Britain and the United States--the latter being the tools of Napoleon to rescue Canada from Great Britain--rendered preparation necessary on the part of the Loyalists of Canada to defend their country and homes against foreign invasion.

I have also given some account of the first settlement of the country, and the privations and hards.h.i.+ps of the first settlers. But believing that a narrative from a single pen could not do justice to this subject, or could present to the reader, in so vivid and interesting a light, the character, sufferings, courage, and enterprise of our country's forefathers and founders, as narratives from themselves, with the diversity of style characteristic of communications from various sources, I have therefore inserted in Chapter XLI. those interesting papers transmitted to me from time to time, at my request, during the last twenty years.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 171: But the Indians were friendly to white settlers, as they have always been. Almost the entire Mohawk tribe, with other loyalist Indians, under their chief, Joseph Brant, followed the fortunes of their white loyalist brethren, and settled on their reservation on the Grand River. Brant had been educated in a Christian school in Philadelphia; had a comfortable home, and lived respectably on the Mohawk river before the American revolution; had entertained missionaries, and had a.s.sisted one of them in translating a part of the New Testament and Prayer Book into the Mohawk language. Colonel Stone, in his "Life of Brant" and the "History of the Border Wars of the American Revolution," has n.o.bly vindicated the character of Brant, and of his brethren of the Six Nations, from the misrepresentations and calumnies of American historians. Brant was a member of the Church of England, and built a church in his settlement in 1786, in which was placed the first church bell ever heard in Upper Canada.]

[Footnote 172: "During Colonel Simcoe's administration he had been exceedingly careful with regard to the distribution of lands; but immediately on his departure, irregularities began to creep into the Crown Land Department, just as it had in Lower Canada, and great injustice was done to the actual settlers. Large tracts of the most eligible sites were seized upon by Government officials and speculators, and the actual settlers found themselves in many instances thrust into out-of-the-way corners, and cut off from intercourse with any near neighbours for want of roads." (Tuttle's History of the Dominion of Canada, Chap. lx.x.xiii., p. 387.)

"On the removal of Governor Simcoe,[173] of his wise schemes fell through. Land designed for settlements was seized by speculators, especially in the vicinity of Toronto, and the general development of the country was greatly r.e.t.a.r.ded." (Withrow's History of Canada, Chap, xvi., p. 293.)

Scarcely any--if any--of these early land speculators had served as _United Empire Loyalists_ during the revolutionary war; and their descendants, if existing, are as little known as if their fathers had never lived.]

[Footnote 173: Lord Dorchester did not endorse Governor Simcoe's policy, as the latter had not concurred with the former in giving German names to the four first districts of Upper Canada, and in the selection of the seat of government. The American Government represented Governor Simcoe as exciting the Iroquois or Mohawks, both in Canada and Western New York, against it--representations in which there was not a shadow of truth, though Americans were endeavouring to excite disaffection to the British Government and sympathy with republican France against England in both Upper and Lower Canada, especially in the latter province. But by these representations, and those of disappointed local speculators, the Home Government removed Governor Simcoe, the father of const.i.tutional, pure, and progressive government in Upper Canada.]

[Footnote 174: "In Upper as well as Lower Canada the first sixteen years' experience of the new Const.i.tution had been very encouraging. All concerned in working it out during that period kept as clear as possible from causes of discord. The consequence was that harmony and good progress marked the early career of the province." (Miles' School History of Canada, Part III., Chap. i., pp. 193, 194.)]

[Footnote 175: "Meanwhile the country had steadily prospered, undisturbed in its forest isolation by the great European war, which was deluging with blood a hundred battle fields and desolating thousands of homes. By the year 1809, the population had increased to about 70,000.

Taxes were exceedingly light. The Customs revenue, derived princ.i.p.ally from the imports of groceries--for clothing was chiefly home-spun--amounted to 7,000." (Withrow's History of Canada, Chap.

xxi., p. 296.)]

CHAPTER XLVII.

WAR BY THE UNITED STATES AGAINST GREAT BRITAIN, FROM 1812 TO 1815--INTRODUCTORY AND GENERAL REMARKS.

The war between Great Britain and the United States, from 1812 to 1815, furnishes the strongest example of the present century, or of any age or country, of the attachment of a people to their mother country, and of their determination, at whatever sacrifice and against whatever disparity, to maintain the national life of their connection with it.