The Republic of Canada Almost

By Patrick Richard Carstens

The history of Canada since post War of 1812 to Confederation in 1867,
is an interesting chapter and not a well known part of our history.
The provinces of Quebec and Ontario were ruled by non elected
powers who controlled the governments. In Lower Canada (Quebec) it was
the Chateau Clique, and in Upper Canada it was the Family Compact, who
provided the fuel for the Rebellions of 1837-38. To fi nd the stories behind the
story, we started searching for roadside markers, historical plaques, monuments,
cemeteries and the tombstones to the fallen, the battlefi elds, and those who
fought and those who were key players in the rebellion. We are telling readers
why Canada was Almost! The Republic of Canada and why the Americans
who fought and those who lost their lives fi ghting to add the Canadas to the
United States of America.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jan 31, 2013
• ISBN: 9781479749171

Patrick Richard Carstens

PATRICK RICHARD CARSTENS, is a historian, with an interest in both ancient and modern history, and the researcher, and author of the book, The Republic of Canada - Almost! Patrick, semi retired with a military and engineering back ground, and with training in the fi eld of archaeology. He has worked in the Egyptian Delta, Sinai Peninsula and Luxor with a number archaeological teams and a frequent visitor to Egypt since 1982 to 2010. Previous Publications: Genealogy - The Carstens Family in South Africa,@ University of Toronto Press 1988, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Searching for the Forgotten War 1812.@ Vol. 1 Canada. Vol. 2 United States of America, Xlibris Publications, 2011, Bloomington Indiana, USA. Port Nolloth: The Making of a South African Seaport@ Xlibris Publications, 2012, Bloomington Indiana, USA Pending Publications: The Biographical Historical Encyclopedia of Nineteenth Century Egypt@ - Draft proposal submitted for publication (Under review). Contributor: Ancient Egypt, Foundations of a Civilization@ by Douglas J. Brewer, Printed by Pearson Longman, Great Britain 2005. TIMOTHY L. SANFORD, is a researcher and editor of the book Th e Republic of Canada - Almost! Timothy is also An Archivist at the Archives of Ontario since 1990. Prior to this assignment, worked at the Nova Scotia Archives from 1985 - 1990. Previous Publications: Searching for the Forgotten War 1812.@ Vol. 1 Canada. Vol. 2 United States of America, Xlibris Publications, 2011, Bloomington Indiana, USA.

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Copyright © 2013 by Patrick Richard Carstens and Timothy L. Sanford

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Contents

Acknowledgements

Foreword

Introduction

Chapter One

Building the Road to Rebellion 1815-1837

Chapter-Two

Prelude to Rebellion in Lower Canada 1832-1837

Chapters-Three

Rebellion—Lower Canada 1837-1838

Chapters-Four

Lower Canada—Aftermath of the Rebellion 1838-1840

Chapter Five

The Battle for Upper Canada 1837

Chapter Six

A Second Year of Troubles The Battle for Upper Canada—1838

Chapter Seven

The Aftermath to the Rebellion 1839-1867

Chapter Eight

Upper Canadian Justice on Trial Samuel Lount and Peter Mathews

Chapter Nine

Life and Times of William Lyon Mackenzie (1837-1861)

Chapter Ten

The Final Chapter The Fenian Raids into Canada 1865-1871

Chapter Eleven

Postscript—the Making of Canada 1867-1982

Biographies

The Role of the Key Players in the Rebellion of 1837/38

Upper Canada Rebellion

Party of Power—Family Compact The Leading Actors

Biographies

Key Players in the The Fenian Raids—1866-1871

References Consulted

Dedicated to:

The people of Manchester, by sacrificed their lives started the movement that eventually brought responsible government to

Great Britain, and its far-flung colonies in the nineteenth century.

image1.jpg

St. Peter’s Field Manchester—A painting of the Peterloo Massacre,

August 16, 1819

Published by Richard Carlile, Manchester Guardian.

"Down with ‘em!

Chop em down my brave boys

Give them no quarter

They want to take our Beef Pudding from us!

Remember the more your kill the less poor rates you’ll have to pay

Lads show your courage and your loyalty".

Eighteen people, including a woman and a child, died from saber cuts and trampling.

Over 700 men, woman and children received extremely serious injuries.

All in the name of liberty. Democracy and freedom from poverty.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thanks the many people who have helped us gather the information that made it possible for us to write The Republic of Canada—ALMOST! The history and events of the Rebellion (1837-1838) in Upper and Lower Canada and the Fenian Raids (1865-1871). First are the many authors who went before us and compiled the background knowledge on the people, places and events that comprise these historical events that shaped the Canada we live in today. However, there are few organization and individuals to which we owe a special thanks.

Andrea Izzo—Ontario Historical Society, who provided me with a contact to learn more about the life and time of Samuel Lount.

Colonel Paul Hughes of the Queens Own Rifles who helped us locate the graves of Rifleman Mewburn and Rifleman Mackenzie.

Elvira Lount—Utopia Pictures Ltd, a CD on Samuel Lount, a man torn between his dreams of peace and passion for justice.

Fort Henry, Kingston—The knowledgeable staff who assisted me in finding John Montgomery’s escape route from Fort Henry’s prison cell during the Rebellion of 1837.

Holly Trinity Cemetery, Thornhill—The knowledgeable staff who assisted us finding the grave of Colonel John Moodie, the first casualty of the Rebellion of 1837/38

John Lalonde—who located and photographed the grave site of Colonel John Prince in Sault Ste Marie.

Lieutenant Colonel John Fotheringham of the Queens Own Rifles who helped us locate the graves of Rifleman Mewburn and Rifleman Mackenzie

Mackenzie House, Toronto—The knowledgeable staff who provided me with information of the life and times of William Lyon Mackenzie

Peter Rindlisbacher—who graciously allowed us to use his painting of the Battle of the Windmill adores the cover of this book.

Ridgeway Museum, Ridgeway, Ontario—The knowledgeable staff who assisted us with the change of the name of the battle for Line Ridge to Ridgeway.

St James Cemetery, Toronto—The knowledgeable staff who assisted me in finding the graves of those who fought and died or participated in the Rebellion of 1837 and the Fenian Raids.

The Holy Trinity Cemetery, Toronto—The knowledgeable staff who assisted me in finding the grave the grave of Lieutenant Colonel Robert Moodie who was killed in the Rebellion of 1837.

The Necropolis Cemetery, Toronto—The knowledgeable staff who assisted me in finding the graves of those who fought and died or participated in the Rebellion of 1837 and the Fenian Raids.

The Sharon Temple Museum, Newmarket—who allowed me to examine the seven Prison Boxes (aka Rebellion Boxes) in their collection.

The Barrie Union Cemetery, Barrie—The knowledgeable staff who assisted me in finding the grave the grave of John Montgomery who participated in the Rebellion of 1837.

Foreword

This book is a historical look at the history of Canada, posts War of 1812 to 1867 and beyond. The turbulent histories of Canada during the Rebellion of 1837 (1837-38) and the Fenian Raids (1866-71), are told chronologically using historical markers, plaques, tombstones, locations, battlefields and the people and places who tried to change our political system and to those who fought to save our country from becoming the Republic of Canada, a vassal of the United States of America in nineteenth century.

These almost forgotten periods of Canadian history are told in three interlinking accounts of events that shaped this country. This historical account of Canadian history is designed for the casual readers who is interest in why Canadians rebelled, the battles, the key players on both sides of the conflict and those who gave up their lives at the end of a rope, executed by a firing squad or exiled to distant lands for a cause that was destined to fail, and the few who by their death became martyrs’ on the road that end with the creation of the Dominion of Canada in 1867.

Special attention is given to events not widely known by most Canadians or by those living in this country, is the role of American citizens who created secret societies, often called the Hunter’s Lodges, their goal the eviction of the British Empire from North America and to liberate Canadians from what they perceived as British tyranny, a sentiment dating back to the years prior to the War of 1812.

John Adams Harper (1779-1816), the US Representative from New Hampshire, in the days leading up to the War of 1812, predicted that Canadians would greet American soldiers as liberators: They must sigh for an affiliation with the great American family—they must at least in their hearts hail that day, which separates them from a foreign monarch, and unites them by holy and unchangeable bonds, with a nation destined to rule a continent (Manifesto Destiny). They would not, after all, be invaded by some foreign people. Canadians would be brought back into the fold of American Revolutionary ideals. Many Americans believed in the so-called liberation of Canadians, to free them from oppression well before the War of 1812 and into the twentieth-century. However, history has proven that liberators very quickly become invaders and occupiers and are destined to fail. When the Rebellion of 1837-38 broke out, it did not take long for Americans to jump onto the republican bandwagon, and take up arms against Upper and Lower Canada

Another attempted invasion of Canada, by soldiers who had fought in the American Civil War on both sides of the conflict, known as the Fenians, most had some connection to Ireland and wanted to conquer Canada and hold the country at ransom to force Britain to free Ireland. However, like the War of 1812, all these attempted invasions failed.

Introduction

Yes! "The Republic of Canada," well almost! The system of government we eventually inherited from one of our founding fathers was not a given. The evolution of what is Canada today was threatened on a number of distinct occasions in the nineteenth-century prior to and after the Confederation of Canada in 1867. The first attempt to make this country a republic was, the War of 1812, followed by the Rebellions of 1837-38, and the last attempt was a series of Fenian Raids between the years of 1866-1871. The War of 1812i is not the thrust of this book. This book covers the Rebellions of 1837-38 and the Fenian Raids are covered in the final chapter of this book.

The roots of the Rebellions of 1837-38 run deep and long and some of these roots are still alive and well in Canada in the twenty-first century. The roots of the rebellion in Lower Canada go back to the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, (aka the Battle of Quebec), which was the pivotal battle in the Seven Years Wars that ended on September 13, 1759, with the Treaty of Paris signed in 1763 to end the war and to give possession of parts of New France to Great Britain, including parts of what is Canada today and the eastern half of French Louisiana between the Mississippi River and the Appalachian Mountains.

The French population of Canada never accepted the Treaty of Paris. Two-hundred and fifty years after the battle, in 2009, the re enactment of the Battle of the Plains of Abraham was cancelled by the Federal Government as leaders of separatist parties in Quebec, described the event as a slap in the face for Quebecers of French ancestry, and as an insult against the Francophone majority. However, the rebellions in Upper and Lower Canadas, although different in many respects had one common element, the British Colonial Government failed to learn anything from the American Revolution (1776-1783) and set a course that resulted in a similar uprising against the Crown.

The Rebellion of 1837-38 copied other radical, social and political upheavals in the eighteenth-century, namely the American Revolution (1776-1783), followed by the French Revolution (1789-1799). These revolutions electrified the youth and rekindled the idea of full independence for the Canadas. Many would accept nothing less, and the seeds of a rebellion started to grow in Lower Canada, closely flowered by similar event in Upper Canada. What is a Rebellion? By definition it is a refusal of obedience or order. It may, therefore, be seen as encompassing a wide range of behaviours from civil disobedience and mass nonviolent resistance, to violent and organized attempts to destroy an established authority such as a government. Those who participate in rebellions are known as rebelsii.

In the Canadas, it translates to any attempt to overthrow the current government by a radical group of armed reformers who rebelled against the Crown. Twentieth-century terminology would define it as an act of terrorism against the British Colonial rule in the Canadas. Although British Colonial rule was the thrust of the rebellion, its tentacles were many and diverse. They varied, and included, religion, unchecked immigration, agriculture, land distribution, epidemics, and arrogance with roots leading back to the United States, Great Britain and France.

During and after the American Revolution, many American citizens who wished to remain loyal to the Crown, packed up and moved to various locations close to the American border in British North American as established by the Treaty of Paris. These immigrants are known as British Empire Loyalist or the more popular United Empire Loyalist (UEL). However, after the Treaty of Ghent was signed and ratified in 1815, officially ending the War of 1812, Americans continued to immigrate to the Canadas for what was considered to be cheap land with little regard or respect for the Crown. It should be noted that before and after the War of 1812, the governments in Canada continued to fear what it suspected might be a growing interest in American-inspired republicanism in the Canadas. Reasons for this can be found in the pattern of settlement over the previous half-century. The British had originally hoped that an orderly settlement in Upper Canada would inspire Americans to abandon their republican form of government. After an initial group of about seven-thousand United Empire Loyalists had settled thinly across the province in the mid-1780s, a far larger number of American settlers came after Lieutenant-Governor John Graves Simcoe offered cheap land grants to promote settlement. Although these settlers, known as Late-Loyalists, were required to take an oath of allegiance to the Crown in order to obtain land, their fundamental political allegiances were always considered dubious.

At the start of the War of 1812, unchecked immigration of American settlers had become acutely problematic since they outnumbered the original Loyalists by a margin greater than ten to one. It was one of the realities that led American Legislators under President James Madison (1751-1836) and his predecessor Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) to speculate that adding the Canadas (Upper and Lower) into the American fold would be a mere matter of marching. The United States declared war on June 18, 1812, knowing that Great Britain was fighting Napoleon in what history records as the Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815). The War of 1812 was a war the United States should have won, but did not, and it ended in a stalemate. However, many Americans believed in Manifest Destiny and that British North America (Canada) should be annexed to the Republic, if and when an opportunity arose to free those living under what was perceived as British tyranny.

When this opportunity presented its self, many Americans took up arms against British North American as the Rebellion of Upper and Lower Canada entered the year 1838. The Hunter Patriots or Hunters’ Lodges, a secret society in the United States during the mid nineteenth-century, appears to have somewhat resembled Freemasons structurally and were dedicated to the eviction of the British Empire from North America and the Liberation of Canada. It is claimed that their lodges may have numbered as many as sixty-thousand members in some states.

The Hunters, as they were called, were associated with, and comrades in arms with the rebels in Upper Canada and launched attacks on Windsor, Ontario in 1838, but were driven off and dispersed after a number of pitched battles. Again in November 1838, a force of about fifteen-hundred men from New York State attempted to seal off the St Lawrence River, in support of a revolt in Upper Canada. About two-hundred men actually occupied and held a stone windmill at Prescott, Ontario where a five-day battle called The Battle of the Windmill was fought against British regulars and Canadian militias. The American patriots and Canadian rebels were eventually captured, tried, and, in some cases, executed.

However, that was not the end of American intrusions into Canada. At the conclusion of the American Civil War (1861-1865), soldiers from the Confederate and Union Armies joined forces under the banner of the Fenians and launched a number of raids into Canada between 1866-1871, all ended in failure to make this land a republican extension of the United States of American, and in doing so, contributed the creation of the Dominion of Canada in 1867.

Endnotes

i

The War of 1812 is comprehensively covered in two books dealing with that war by the authors of this book—entitled Searching for the Forgotten War 1812—Volume 1—Canada, and Volume 2 The United States of America.

ii

A limited rebellion is an insurrection, and if the established government does not recognize the rebels as belligerents, then they are insurgents and the revolt is insurgency. In a larger conflict the rebels may be recognized as belligerents, without their government being recognized by the established government, in which case the conflict becomes a civil war. There are a number of terms that fall under the umbrella of rebel and they range from those with positive connotations to those with pejorative connotations. Examples:

• Mutiny, which is carried out by the military or security forces against their commanders

• Nonviolent resistance or civil disobedience, which does not include violence or paramilitary force

• Resistance movement, which is carried out by freedom fighters, often against an occupying foreign power

• Revolt, a term that is sometimes used for a more localized rebellion rather than a general uprising

• Revolution, which is carried out by radicals, usually meant to overthrow the current government

• Subversion, which is non overt attempts at sabotaging a government, carried out by spies or other subversives

• Terrorism, which is carried out by different kinds of political or religious militant extremists

Chapter One

Building the Road to Rebellion

1815-1837

Unfortunately, for the British Colonies, events in the motherland were often paid for by its far-flung citizens and their perceived allegiance to the Crown. Events outside their geographical boundaries would influence their future, building a road that would force some Canadians to take up arms against the government of the day which had a number of starting points. The one chosen for this book was the decisive defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo on June 18, 1815. The defeat of Napoleon brought peace to Europe and the normalization of trade between continental Europe and the British Empire. However, to protect British landowners from cheap grain imports from Europe, the revised Corn Lawsi were introduced. This in itself, appeared to have little or no impact on the British Colonies, but in the Canadas it did. It was all about land and who owned and controlled it. Coupled with Americans who were immigrating in ever growing numbers and all they wanted was cheap land with little regard for the country or the Crown.

Fully aware of the goals of most Americans, following the conclusion of the War of 1812 and the Napoleonic Wars, the provincial government took active steps to prevent Americans from swearing allegiance, thereby making them ineligible to obtain land grants. Relations between the appointed Legislative Councilii and the elected Legislative Assemblyiii became increasingly strained in the years after the war, over issues of both immigration and taxation. Nevertheless, the seeds of republicanism had grown over the intervening years and would be ready to be harvested by the winter of 1837.

As stated, the prime reason for excessive American immigration was cheap land in Upper and Lower Canada, one of the most controversial issues in the early nineteenth-century was the allocation of land and who owned it. The distribution of land and who controlled it in both Upper and Lower Canada, and coupled with the events in Europe played a role. To protect Great Britain from cheap gain imports from Europe, revised, Corn Laws were introduced. It also set duties and subsidies on grain imports into Britain to protect British agriculture from outside competition. By the 1820s, increased food demands in Britain led to revisions giving preference (lower duties) to colonial farmers (i.e., Canadian Farmers) over foreign imports, thereby promoting an imperial grain supply. Preferential rates offset the costs of transatlantic imports for grains in British North American and built up a major colonial stake in wheat exports to Great Britain. The Corn Laws enhanced the profits and political power associated with land ownership in Upper Canada. The Family Compactiv profited by the Corn Laws, but it did little for the small farmer scratching out a living.

The Peterloo Massacre-1819

The winds of change were not only blowing in the Canadas, but events that had nothing on the surface to impact British North America took place on August 16, 1819. The huge open area around what is now St Peters Square, Manchester (UK), played host to a protest of more than 60,000 peaceful pro-democracy and anti-poverty protesters, an event which became known as the Peterloo Massacre as a result of the Corn Laws that favoured the aristocracy.

• The original historical plaque: the Site of St Peter’s Field, Where on 16th August 1819, Henry Hunt, Radical Orator, Address on Assembly of, About 60,000 People, There Subsequent Disposal, By the Military, is Remembered as Peterloo.

• The replacement historical plaque: St. Peter’s Field, the Peterloo Massacre, On 16th August 1819 a peaceful rally, of 60,000 pro-democracy reformers, men, women and children, was attacked by armed cavalry, resulting in 15 deaths and, over 600 injuries.

Footnote: The original plaque was considered an insult to the events of August 16, 1819 by the decedents of those whose families were killed and injured during the Peterloo Massacre.

An estimated eighteen people, including a woman and a child, died of saber cuts and were trampled to death by the hooves of horses. More than seven hundred men, women and children received extremely serious injuries, all in the name of liberty and freedom from poverty. The massacre occurred during a period of immense political tension and mass protests. Fewer than 2% of the population had the vote in Great Britain as it was in its colonies, but in the homeland hunger was rife with the disastrous Corn Laws making bread unaffordable.

Local magistrates near the field (St Peters Square), panicked at the sight of the crowd and read the riot act, effectively ordering what little of the crowd could hear them to disperse. After an attempt to arrest the speakers, about six-hundred Hussars (light cavalry), several hundred infantrymen, an artillery unit with two six-pounder guns, 400 men of the Cheshire Cavalry and four hundred special constables stood at the ready. The order was given to charge, but the crowd linked arms to try and stop the arrests, to no avail. Within minutes the protest was over, leaving the field full of abandoned banners, dead and injured protesters. The British Government reacted and the speakers and organizers of the anti-government protest were put on trial, at first charged with high treason—a charge that was reluctantly dropped by the prosecution. The Hussars and Magistrates received a message of congratulations from the Prince Regent (later George IV), and were cleared of any wrongdoing by the official inquiry.

Historians acknowledge that Peterloo was hugely influential in ordinary people winning the right to vote, and led to the rise of the Chartist Movementv that gave birth to the creation of Trade Unions, and also resulted in the establishment of The Manchester Guardian newspaper. According to Nick Mansfield, director of the People’s History Museum in Salford, Peterloo is a critical event not only because of the number of people killed and injured, but because ultimately it changed public opinion to influence the extension of the right to vote and give us the democracy we enjoy today as part of the British Empire and now called the British Commonwealth of Nations. It was critical to our freedoms. The same set of circumstance existed in Upper and Lower Canada and the massacre was viewed as a course of action the Crown would take to support the elite if similar demonstrations took place in the Canadas. Footnote: The term Peterloo, was intended to mock the soldiers who attacked unarmed civilians by combining the location of the massacre in St. Peter’s Square and echoing the term ‘Waterloo’ to the soldiers from that battle being seen by many as genuine heroes. An eyewitness account of the massacre, as recorded in Shelley’s Poem The Masque of Anarchy is a political poem written in 1819 by Percy Bysshe Shelley following the Peterloo Massacre. In his call for freedom, it is perhaps the first modern statement of the principle of nonviolent resistance. The poem was not published during Shelley’s lifetime and did not appear in print until 1832. The first stanza of the poem:

"Stand ye calm and resolute, Like a forest close and mute,

With folded arms and looks which are Weapons of unvanquished war.

And if then the tyrants dare, Let them ride among you there,

Slash, and stab, and maim and hew, What they like, that let them do.

With folded arms and steady eyes, And little fear, and less surprise

Look upon them as they slay Till their rage has died away

Then they will return with shame To the place from which they came,

And the blood thus shed will speak In hot blushes on their cheek.

Rise like Lions after slumber In unvanquishable number,

Shake your chains to earth like dew Which in sleep had fallen on you-

Ye are many—they are few"

Planting the Seeds of a Rebellion—1824

Fresh on the heels of the Peterloo Massacre, the man who would eventually light the fuse that would start the rebellion arrived in Upper Canada from Scotland in 1820. William Lyon Mackenzie (1795-1861) would become the architect and leader of the failed rebellion in Upper Canada. Within a few years he was the owner and editor of The Colonial Advocate in Queenston, Ontario.

Mackenzie, a man who once believed that the pen was mightier than the sword, embarked on a road that eventually ended in a short-lived rebellion in Upper Canada thirteen years later. He became appalled at what he perceived as the wide spread abuses of the system of government. Upper Canada was governed by a lieutenant-governor with dictatorial and supreme powers. Mackenzie’s newspaper soon began to criticise the people who were part of the Civil List Systemvi of bureaucratic control of Upper Canada. He fervently believed in the freedom of the press, and Mackenzie used The Colonial Advocate to denounce the leading citizens of society and to urge his readers to press for a more representative form of government. He advocated the confederation of the British North American colonies as early as 1824. A crusader for democracy over autocracy, Mackenzie championed the cause of the common man and woman and the struggle of many against the few.

One of Mackenzie’s targets, were the land the speculators, hypocritical clergy of the Church of England and dishonest officials controlled. However, Queenston was no place to launch a campaign against bureaucracy, so to get closer to the political action, Mackenzie moved his newspaper to Toronto in 1825. At a time when voicing one’s opinion in speech or in the press was rare, and soon his paper became the voice of the common man against the establishment. Mackenzie attacked whatever he perceived as government injustice and a parliament, without a vote in the nomination of the persons forming the government of the day.

His favourite target to be blasted broadside was the Family Compact, a select group of men linked by political, social, family and religious ties (See Appendix B). This close-knit clique exercised control over government that was completely independent of the people and their representatives. Most of the land was set aside as Crown Reserves (aka clergy reserves) or for the support of the Anglican Church. These reserves represented unworked land that lowered the value of neighbouring farms because isolated farms were less efficient than farms close together. The British government’s system of allocating land was seen by many as excessively bureaucratic when compared with the American system. In many respects, the Government of Upper Canada was the private preserve of the wealthy owners of most of this reserve land, who were members of the Family Compact.

The Family Compact was the term to describe wealthy Anglican, conservative elite of Upper Canada in the early nineteenth-century. It was one of a number of Tory-dominated compact governments that ruled the colonies of British North America. It was an exclusive closed oligarchy of landowners, administrators, churchmen and businessmen who virtually monopolized public office and who were appointed rather the elected. They controlled the economy of the province after the War of 1812. Power was in the hands of a few, and their grip remained secure up until the creation of the Dominion of Canada (1867). Bishop Johannes (John) Strachan, the Anglican Archbishop of Toronto was the driving force and the influential advisor behind the Family Compact, many members were his former students who used the clergy reserves for themselves.

The control exercised by this close knit family was one of the chief concerns and it turned some liberal-minded citizens into reformers and some of these reformers ended up as rebels in the Rebellion of 1837. Anti-Anglican sentiment was one of the driving forces to get rid of the Family Compact. Those belonging to other religious sects, particularly Methodists, Presbyterians and Roman Catholics, resented the preferential treatment given to the Anglican Church. This problem was alive and well in Lower Canada, and as the same religious divide was at play, only the name change and was called the Chateau Cliquevii

Mackenzie did not waste words when attacking members of the Family Compact. He used caustic comments which included such terms of endearment as tools of a servile power, official fungi, pestilential sycophants and villainous despots. Using the columns of his newspaper, Mackenzie poured out his venom for the most part, undeniably true, but Mackenzie had such an offensive way of expressing himself, he brought down upon his head deep-seated resentment of those who were the objects of his attacks. Mackenzie was now transformed from a person of no significance to a persona non grata in the eyes of the Family Compact.

Footnote: Strachan is well remembered in Toronto’s King’s College, an Anglican University, although it was not actually created until 1843 is credited to him. Strachan Avenue, running from the original site of Trinity College to Lake Shore Blvd., is also named in his honour. Strachan is buried in a bricked up Crypt, marked by a Brass Memorial Plate on the floor of the Chancel in front of the Choir Stalls in St. James’ Cathedral at the intersection of King Street and Church Street. St James Cathedral is also the final resting place for a number of members of the ruling Family Compact.

Although his paper The Colonel Advocate was well received by those outside the controlling strata, but as time passed, his customers could not pay and Mackenzie encountered serious financial difficulties. The Colonial Advocate was in financial trouble, with little more than 800 subscribers by the beginning of 1825, and he faced stiff competition from another reform newspaper, The Canadian Freeman. With his subscribers not paying, the cost of collecting reduced profits to little or nothing. Soon publication of the paper became irregular and the intervals between issues were often lengthy, creating additional problems. Mackenzie continued to amass debts and in May 1826, unable to pay, Mackenzie fled across the border to Lewiston, New York to evade creditors. Mackenzie and his paper were on the brink of failure, when an unexpected good fortune came knocking at his doors, or perhaps kicking down the door.

Although unexpected, a gang of fifteen young Tories, the sons of eminent members of the Family Compact, led by Samuel Peter Jarvis (1792-1857), thinly disguised as Indians rowdies, bent on the destruction of "The Colonial Advocate," broke into and wrecked Mackenzie’s newspaper and threw the printing press into the Toronto Harbour. However, the attack on The Colonial Advocate resulted in righteous anger against the perpetrators and sympathy for Mackenzie. Instead of shutting down the paper, it gave the paper a new lease on life. Mackenzie took full advantage of the incident, returning to York (Toronto) and suing the perpetrators in a sensational trial, which propelled Mackenzie into the ranks of the martyrs of Upper Canadian liberty, alongside Robert Thorpe (1764-1836) and Robert Fleming Gourlay (1778-1863). Mackenzie refused a settlement of £200 (approximately the value of the damage) and insisted on a trial.

His legal team, which included Marshall Spring Bidwell (1799-1872), argued effectively and the jury returned a verdict of £625, far more than the amount of damage done to the press. With the generous settlement received, Mackenzie bought a better printing press and resumed his attacks on the establishment with vengeance. However, Mackenzie’s renewed attacks did not result in new readers, believing his words were falling on deaf ears, and that some future generations would better understand what he was fighting for. Mackenzie, decided to entomb a copy of The Colonial Advocate wrapped in otter skin and hide it inside, the Sir Isaac Brock Monument in Queenston under construction since 1824. Mackenzie hoped it would be found and read in the future, discovered hid among the wrecks of ages (a time capsule). However, it did not last quite that long, because as soon as the Lieutenant-Governor, Sir Peregrine Maitland (1777-1854) learned of its presence, he was outraged and ordered that rag removed! Carrying out the governor’s command, it was accomplished, and pulling down the 48 feet of the newly completed monument, however, that was not necessary.

Events in Europe added fuel to the fires of rebellion. The revolt in France establishes a constitutional monarchy in 1830. Other revolutionary upheavals affect Europe and result in Belgium and Greece declaring their independence. These rebellions were not lost on those seeking changes in both Upper and Lower Canadas and potential’s leaders were emerging, William Lyon Mackenzie and Louis-Joseph Papineau.

The execution of Charles French

The seemingly unrelated murder took place between a person with connections to the Family Compact and Charles French, an apprentice working for Mackenzie’s newspaper. A fight broke out after French attended an evening entertainment at the Colborne Street Theatre that ended in the death of a man named Nolan. After the altercation, French returned to his lodging at the Black Bull Tavern on Queen and Peter Street in Toronto and soon afterwards arrested and charged with murder.

After a quick trial, Charles French found guilty and hung, all within two weeks after the murder. The speed of French’s trial and execution gave Mackenzie more ammunition and suggested that if Nolan did not have influential friends, justice would not have been so swift. The hangman for Charles French, was none other than the High Sheriff of York, William Botsford Jarvis (1799-1864), a member within the inner circle of the Family Compact who in turn billed the province £92 for the hanging of French. Based on the currency of day, a hangman was well paid.

However, the hangman had to pay for the construction of the gallows (lumber and labour). The cost for the gallows was usually around £40, but still a profitable venture. Charles French, was the first person hung behind the Home District Court House and jail at 57 Adelaide Street East in Court House Square on October 23, 1828. The square was also used for public floggings and punishment in the stocks, and was last used for disorderly conduct in 1834.

Footnote: Nolan in the Colborne Street Theatre Historical Plaque, the correct spelling is Knowlan, the man’s full name is Edward Knowlan

The Courthouse Square was also used for a variety of religious and political gatherings. The Children of Peace belonging to Sharon Temple in Sharon (Newmarket, ON) often used the square. David Willson (Wilson) (1778-1866), a religious leader and mystic who sympathized with the movement for political reform in Upper Canada, and a supporter of William Lyon Mackenzie and one of his followers Samuel Lount (1791-1838), became embroiled in the Rebellion of 1837. Involvement in reform politics brought Willson and his community into direct conflict with the political establishment of the province, in particular Bishop John Strachan and the Family Compact. However, several members of Willson’s sect, including two of his sons, participated in the armed rebellion in 1837. There was even discussion of destroying the community’s meeting houses and its iconic Sharon Temple.

The Cholera Epidemic of 1832

By the end of the decade, Mackenzie realized that although his newspaper was hitting home at what he perceived as the real cancer in Upper Canada, the Family Compact, he turned his attention to and threw his hat into the political arena. Mackenzie was elected to the 10th Parliament of Upper Canada in January 1829. In his new position, Mackenzie now launches attacks on the Bank of Upper Canada, the Welland Canal Company, and the Post Office as it was used to make a profit for British businessmen and he wanted it under local control. It was around this time in his life that he became an American at heart. He travelled the United States to study President-elect, Andrew Johnson (1808-1875) and the American system of government and the seeds of the Republic of Canada started to manifest in his mind. [See Chapter 9—The Life and Times of William Lyon Mackenzie].

Complicating things, the Colonial Government feared that cholera carried by European immigrants would arrive on the shores of British North America, especially in 1831, when the Asian Cholera devastated Europe. From Great Britain, the pestilence was carried to Canada by impoverished immigrants seeking a new life in a new land. Cholera arrived in Canada in 1832, less than two years later the disease struck again, followed by sporadic outbreaks which occurred throughout the century. New regulations forbade the local population visiting ships in port. Sanitation committees were set up early in 1832, quarantine laws were strengthened and Grosse Isle, Quebec was placed under military command. However, one ship was given permission to leave the quarantine station, and this irresponsible act was responsible for the cholera epidemic in 1832.

William Lyon Mackenzie, the outspoken critic of the Family Compact was sceptical of reports forecasting a cholera epidemic in Canada, and suspected a government plots to frighten off the poor and under privilege who favoured the reform movement. However, when the cholera epidemic arrived at his doorstep, and as the death toll rose in York (Toronto), he changed his mind. As mayor of Toronto, Mackenzie outlawed the building of further shanties along the waterfront, fearing their potential as a breeding-ground for cholera. Although no one was immune to cholera, which was responsible for the deaths of some six-thousand people in the Canadas alone. Noting, that the epidemic killed more people in the lower classes in society, taking its toll among the poor was a contributing factor in recruiting members to join the reformers in Upper Canada. By August 1834, a second cholera epidemic struck Toronto, killing according to some reports an estimated forty or fifty per day. In Toronto those who had the means to flee the city did so, leaving the hospitals short-staffed. Mackenzie wrote in The Colonial Advocate:

So far as our recollection goes, not one of the officers of the government died of cholera either in 1832 or 1834.

Mackenzie stayed and assisted in transporting cholera victims to hospitals, he eventually contracted the disease himself. In the midst of this city wide crisis, Mackenzie suffered through a personal tragedy, the death of his infant daughter, born on August 12, she survived only a few hours. The city virtually shut down. Mackenzie recovered, but two members of his council perished. By September, the disease was on the wane. Toronto’s population of ten-thousand citizens, more than five hundred people including entire families were lost to cholera.

The Harvest of 1835

Those who survived the cholera epidemic were at a lower end of the social scale, now were faced with a poor harvest in 1835, which added fuel to the rebellion movement. During the years 1836 and 1837, Mackenzie started to gather support from poor farmers in and around Toronto, who were sympathetic to his cause. A bad harvest led to a recession, and the banks controlled by elite (Family Compact) tighten credit and recalled loans. The battle lines were becoming clear, those who wanted reform against those who wanted to keep the status quo. The age-old battles between the haves and the have nots, those who had nothing to lose against those who had everything to lose. It was a time of economical difficulties for all those living north of the border. In Lower Canada, poor harvests brought many small farmers to the brink of starvation. The discriminatory policies of Lieutenant Governor Francis Bond Head (1793-1875), in supporting the Family Compact and the recently-arrived British immigrants, infuriated the long-established colonists of American origin, who now believed more than ever in republican virtues.