The Rebellions of 1837

1
The Rebellions of 1837

• Family Compact
• The Chateau Clique
• Council of Twelve
• Lower Canadian Rebellion
• Upper Canadian Rebellion

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Lead up to Rebellion
Papineau

• Lower Canada lead by Louis-Joseph Papineau
  (aristocratic)
• Upper Canada lead by William Lyon Mackenzie
  (newspaperman)
• Reasons were the same a colonial administration
  out of touch with its subjects
• In Upper Canada political change
• In Lower Canada political change with language
  and culture

Mackenzie
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Political Problems

• The root problem was having elected assemblies
  under the control of appointed councils.
• Councils and assemblies could not get along.
• In Lower Canada the elected assembly was mostly
  French Canadian and the council was English
  Canadian.

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Chateau Clique

• Château Clique, a nickname given to the small
  group of officials, usually members of the
  anglophone merchant community.
• The term referred to the governor's residence and
  the location of government offices, Château
  St-Louis.

The Château St-Louis burned down in 1834.
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Chateau Clique

• Included James McGill and John Molson , who
  dominated the executive and legislative councils,
  the judiciary and senior bureaucratic positions
  of Lower Canada until the 1830s.

James McGill
McGill University
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Chateau Clique

• John Molson, brewer, banker, steamship builder.
• He also entered the lumber business during the
  building boom of the early 1800s, built a hotel
  and in 1821 established the colony's first
  distillery and financed the Champlain and Saint
  Lawrence Railroad, the first railway in Canada.

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Rule by Clique

• The French Canadians were still able to get
  French language as the language of government.
• The elected assemblies could only use their power
  in a negative manner.
• They could block the government from making laws
  but could make no law.
• British immigrants poured into Lower Canada.

• Two different types of immigrants
• Poor Irish coming to Canada to improve their
  lives came as human ballast on lumber ships.
• Middle class Brits looking to make it rich.
• Canada was settled by extremes of middle class
  and poor.
• America was settled by middle class.

8
Rule by Clique

• The Clique aggressively pursued canal building,
  the establishment of banking institutions, and
  the abolition of the Seigneurial System and
  French Civil Law.

• In the 1820s the Clique opposed efforts by the
  assembly to control public revenues and continued
  their efforts aimed at the assimilation of French
  Canadians.

• In 1822, the Clique supported a scheme to reunite
  Upper and Lower Canada.

• In the 1830s, the Clique blocked Louis-Joseph
  Papineau's resolutions demanding Responsible
  Government.

9
Family Compact

• In Upper Canada the oligarchy was called the
  Family Compact.
• Comprised of Conservatives, members of the
  Anglican Church, Loyalists and self proclaimed
  defenders of 1812.
• Most often the families were related in one way
  or another.

Bank of Upper Canada

• They were centered at York Toronto, linked
  by family patronage and shared political and
  social beliefs to the professional and
  mercantile upper middle class.

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The Family Compact

• The group emerged after John Graves Simcoe, Upper
  Canada's first lieutenant-governor, attempted to
  create a local aristocracy by appointing his
  Loyalist friends to government posts and granting
  them land.

John Graves Simcoe
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The Family Compact

• The next generation included Sir John Beverley
  Robinson and John Strachan, who were drawn into
  the governing Tory conservative elite.

John Strachan
Sir John Beverley Robinson
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A Deteriorating Situation

• In Lower Canada the seigneurial system had failed
  to protect the elites.
• By 1830 more than ½ of the estates were in
  English hands.
• It was the Molsons and the McGills that
  controlled the Clique.

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The Patriotes
The Patriotes was the name given after 1826 to
the Parti Canadien and to the popular movement
that contributed to the Rebellions of 1837-38 in
Lower Canada.

• Primarily francophone party,
• Led mainly by members of the liberal professions
  and small-scale merchants,
• Widely supported by farmers, day-labourers and
  craftsmen.

• Led by Louis-Joseph Papineau, Jean-Olivier
  Chénier and Wolfred Nelson.

Louis-Joseph Papineau
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The Patriotes
Besides Papineau, Wolfred Nelson and Jean-Olivier
Chénier were leading figures of the Patriotes.
Dr. Wolfred Nelson
Jean-Olivier Chénier
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The Patriotes

• The Patriotes dominated the elected House of
  Assembly in Lower Canada.
• Their adversaries, the merchant bourgeoisie,
  the aristocracy and the colonial administration,
  controlled the appointed Legislative Council,
  which held most of the power.

• The Patriotes demanded greater power for assembly
  members, including increased ministerial
  responsibility and eligibility for appointment to
  the council.

• Their demands, put forth in the name of democracy
  and the right of peoples to self-government,
  marked a liberal, nationalist and anticolonial
  ideology.

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The Patriotes

• In 1834, the Patriotes listed their major
  complaints in the "Ninety-Two Resolutions" sent
  to the British government.

• Britain rejected this call for reform, which
  caused many demonstrations verbal violence soon
  gave way to physical violence.

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Fights in the Streets

• Lower Canada crops had failed
• Immigrants were flooding into the colony
  (English, Irish)
• Cholera in the cities killing 1000s
• A violent clash between the Doric Club and the
  patriote organization the Fils de la Liberte on
  November 6, 1837 was a prelude to the Lower
  Canadian Rebellions of 1837.

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Fights in the Streets

• Doric Club, founded 1836 in Montréal, a
  paramilitary political association of young
  anglophone Tories.
• Set up by Adam Thom who later became a secretary
  for Lord Durham.
• The Doric Club dissolved when many of its members
  were recruited by General Colborne to fight the
  rebels.

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Rebellion

• Britain sent an answer to the 92 Resolutions -
  the answer was NO!
• Lower Canada had waited for 3 years.
• Papineau spoke against the British rule.
• Dr. Wolfred Nelson, hero of the War of 1812,
  joined the patriotes.
• Revolutionary assembly would meet at St.-Denis.

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Battle of St.-Denis

• With the Richelieu Valley in revolt the governor
  sent British troops and Canadian militia to
  arrest the leaders.
• The Patriotes blockaded the streets in St.-Denis
  and waited for the British.
• In a few short minutes the British were forced to
  retreat.
• The Patriotes had won the battle.

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Battles of St.-Charles and St.-Eustache

• Two days later in November British troops killed
  60 Patriotes and arrested many others.
• The battle of St.-Charles was over quickly.
• With the rebellion over in the towns the governor
  turned to Montreal.
• The Patriotes had invaded the town of Oka and
  stole weapons.
• At St.-Eustache British troops and Canadian
  militia killed 100 Patriotes and set the town on
  fire.

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Death of a Dream

• The rebellion in collapse Dr. Robert Nelson
  (brother of Dr. Wolfred Nelson) went south to
  find Papineau.
• Papineau refused to fight.
• Nelson said of Papineau, A man fit only for
  words, but not of action.
• Nelson gathered troops in America and returned in
  1838.
• When he returned to the States he was arrested.

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Lord Seaton

• In 2 years of battles 27 soldiers and 300 French
  Canadians were killed
• Lord Satan John Colborne a former
  Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada put down the
  revolt.
• He had no love of the French Canadians he burned
  estates and arrested thousands.

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The Family Compact

• The Family Compact fought for Anglican Religion
  in schools
• the rebels in Upper Canada wanted public schools
  and a separation of church and state
• Many moderates fought within the system but
  accomplished little, William Lyon Mackenzie was a
  fiery newspaperman who did more.

• Mackenzie a penniless son of a widow
• Mackenzie was opposed to the large land grants
  given to the Anglican Church
• Mackenzie attacked the Family Compact over every
  matter
• The Compact harassed Mackenzie.

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Muckraker

• Hated by the establishment but loved by the
  people Mackenzie was a real muckraker
• Mackenzie was first elected to the assembly in
  1828 and kicked out by the rest of the members
• He was quickly re-elected and just as quickly
  expelled
• 4 times he was expelled by the ruling Tories

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Report on Grievances

• In 1834 William Lyon Mackenzie became the first
  mayor of Toronto Muddy York.
• All the while denouncing the ruling families of
  Upper Canada.
• Mackenzie roamed Upper Canada getting a list of
  all the wrongs of the ruling elite.
• The complaints came in at 500 pages, Upper
  Canadas idea of the 92 resolutions.
• Mackenzies was the Report on Grievances
• Demanded everything from responsible government
  to a new and lower postage stamp.

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Sir Francis Bond Head

• Along came Sir Francis Bond Head appointed as
  Lieutenant-Governor.
• A real Brit with the ideas of an upper class
  English gentleman.
• He did not trust reformers and hated Mackenzie.
• Reformers in the assembly stopped funds from
  going to the government.
• Bond Head called an election.

Sir Francis Bond Head
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A Bought Election

• Bond Head did not stay out of the election.
• He campaigned for the Conservatives and used
  bribes to get votes.
• Only landowners could vote so he gave grants of
  land to supporters.
• The bribes and scare tactics worked the
  Conservatives won a majority.

• Mackenzie could do worse
• changed the name of the newspaper from The
  Colonial Advocate to The Constitution
• Came up with the Toronto Declaration
• Inspired by the Lower Canadian Rebellion
  Mackenzie preached rebellion

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Montgomerys Tavern

• More than 600 men gathered at Montgomery's Tavern
  on Yonge Street.
• Bond Head said no reformers would try anything
  while he was in charge.
• He had sent the garrison to Montreal to put down
  the Lower Canadian Rebellion.

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Bar Room Brawl

• Mackenzies men and Sheriff Jarviss men met.
• Jarvis's men fired and everyone ran.
• The battle was over.
• The next day Bond Head took the militia to
  Montgomerys Tavern arrested the rebels and
  torched the tavern.
• Mackenzie escaped to America.

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British Values Win Again

• Mackenzie raised forces and money in America
  landed on Navy Island and declared himself
  president of the Canadian Republic.
• It was over quickly, more than 1000 rebels
  captured, 20 hanged, and 800 prisoners taken.
• The Judge that hanged them imprisoned them or
  sent them to Australia was a member of the Family
  Compact.

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A New Party

• The British pardoned both Papineau and Mackenzie.
• Wolfred Nelson could return and all were
  re-elected.
• Papineau and his reformers would set up the
  parti rouge later they would join with
  English-Canadian reformers and become the Liberal
  Party.
• Mackenzie dropped from sight.

Mackenzies Grave in Toronto
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Canadian Democracy is Born!

• Rebellions of 1837 as a struggle for democracy
  and self rule by elected representatives.
• The rebellions changed both the Canadas and the
  British Empire.
• Britain realized that if rebellions could happen
  in the most stable of colonies, they could happen
  anywhere.
• The Rebellions were American Revolutions in
  miniature, and though at the time they seemed to
  have failed, they cleared the way for
  self-government, and just beyond self-government,
  nationhood.

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Did You Know?

• William Lyon Mackenzie King, politician and prime
  minister of Canada during the periods of 1921-26,
  1926-30 and 1935-48 was the grandson of William
  Lyon Mackenzie.

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Did You Know?

• Canada sent a battalion of volunteers to fight in
  the Spanish Civil War in 1937.
• Most call this war the start of World War II,
  because it was a war of democracy against
  fascism.
• The battalion was called the Mackenzie Papineau
  Battalion
• or the MAC PAPS

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