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2. Causes of Confederation 1861-66
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| A. The Road to Confederation →→ 1. Growth and Change in B.N.A. → 2. Causes of Confederation 1861-66 → 3. The Path to Union 1864-67 → 4. Building the New Nation → 5. Confederation Today →→ B. All Aboard for the West |
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External Factors
A number of factors coalesced together - with fortuitous timing - to bring about the Confederation of Canada. Some of these causes emanated within the colonies of British North America, while arguably the bulk of them came from outside its borders. They were powerful enough to overcome the suspicions and anxieties of those involved. Grave concerns existed about any potential union. Could different cultures, French and English, with different languages, religions, and ways of life, find accommodation and live peaceably together? Could the Atlantic colonies, small, distant, and isolated suspend their worries about losing their unique identity in any possible union long enough to sign on with the deal? How would power be divided in the future nation in a way that would satisfy all parties concerned?
Several causes of Confederation are, perhaps ironically, to be found south of the border in the United States. By a coincidence of timing, at precisely the same time that British North American politicians were beginning to contemplate and debate a federal union, the Americans were experiencing their defining moment, the Civil War (1861-1865). That war, fought between North and South over the issues of states rights and slavery, had a profound impact on British North America.
First of all, despite the fact that nearly 40 000 people from British North America enlisted in the Lincoln's Union armies in what they perceived to be a crusade against slavery, the colony itself was diplomatically aligned with the secessionist Southern states. That resulted simply because British North America, as a colony, was forced to follow the lead of its mother country, Britain. The mother country, going through the Industrial revolution and needing Southern cotton, proclaimed neutrality, but in many ways supported the Confederate states. That meant that British North America did so too. That was to have major consequences for the colony. At the war's conclusion, having supported the losing side, many felt that an invasion of retribution from the Northern armies was imminent, especially since the defenses of British North America were so small and scattered.
 The San Jacinto and the Trent Britain Arms Canada - The Trent AffairOther incidents associated with the American Civil War further helped to push Canadian Confederation. Early in the War, on November 8, 1861, Union Captain Charles Wilkes of the USS San Jacinto stopped the British mail steamer RMS Trent in the old Bahama Channel (off Cuba). His sailors boarded the vessel and removed two Confederate diplomats en route to Europe, James M. Mason, former senator from Virginia and Chairman of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, and John Slidell, a former Louisiana senator, who are imprisoned at Fort Warren in Boston harbour. This event marked the beginning of the Trent Crisis as Britain demanded the release of the passengers. Britain had declared neutrality in May 1861 and recognized the Northern and Southern states as formal belligerents, which opened British ports to both Confederate and Northern shipping, and allowed British munitions and supplies to be transported by Union or Rebel vessels to North American ports. With the threat of war, Lord John Russell wrote to Palmerston that we may now expect 40 or 50,000 Federal troops to invade Canads.  Immediately upon hearing of the Trent incident and the warlike preparations of Great Britain, Czar Nicholas II of Russia dispatched a fleet of warships to New York and San Francisco. The Czar had a score to settle after the humiliation of the Crimean War and the assassination of his father, Czar Nicholas I, in 1855.  The admirals of the Russian fleets had sealed orders and were told to report to President Lincoln in the event of a declaration of war by England or France:
Had Russia declared war on England, France would have sided with England. Prussia undoubtedly would have attacked France and before long a world war would be in progress. US President Abraham Lincoln wisely backed down and ordered the release of Mason and Slidell on Christmas Day, declaring "One war at a time." |
in November 1861, the Trent Affair occurred. Two Confederate diplomats were sailing on a British mail steamer, the Trent, from Havana bound for England. Their aim was to negotiate an alliance between England and their own Confederate states. The North wanted to forestall any such possibility, and on November 8, the USS Jacinto, flouting international laws, stopped the Trent, forcefully arrested the Confederates and their secretaries and jailed them in Boston. On Christmas Day the prisoners were released and tensions eased. But the Trent affair caused a "profound sensation in British North America, as the Maritimes and the two Canadas realized they could become a battlefield in a potential Anglo-Northern war.
Britain responded forcefully. Just before Christmas, 1861, the Army dispatched 14 000 more troops to British North America to repel the American attack that was thought to be coming. Landing in winter, with the St. Lawrence River frozen over and no rail link available, the troops had to march more than a thousand kilometers through the snows. That event did much to renew interest in building the Intercolonial Railway, which would provide a physical link between the Maritimes and the Canadas.
During the US Civil War, BNA was an armed camp. In Halifax alone, the city's military reached 18,000 during the American Civil War. In Ottawa, Minister of Militia George-Etienne Cartier boosted the militia as well. By 1870, the active volunteer force in British North America numbered over 30,000 to defend against threats from the United States.
The Chesapeake Incident
The Trent Affair was followed two years later by the Chesapeake Incident, where both Northerners and Confederates violated British neutrality. On December 7, 1863, a group of Confederates captured the merchant ship Chesapeake sailing between New York City and Portland, Maine. They took the ship into St. Margaret's Bay, Nova Scotia waters, planning to sell the ship's cargo, buy arms and convert her into a privateer to attack Northern commerce.
- Resource: The British Colonist on The Chesapeake Affair, Dec. 22, 1863.
Two US Navy warships chased the Chesapeake north, and captured her on December 16, in British territorial waters. They also searched a small Nova Scotia boat, the Investigator, looking for Confederate fugitives. Even though there were no serious consequences, the British colonies clearly saw that the South would try to use the Maritimes and Canada as a base for operations against the North.
The St. Alban's Raid
A year later, a more serious incident took place that proved to be a major irritant between British North America and its southern neighbour - but also proved to be a strong argument for Confederation. The St. Alban's raid in October 1864 took place at exact the same time as the delegates of British North America were meeting in Quebec to hammer out the specific satisfactory terms of a federal union, it did much to lend a note of urgency to their deliberations. By this point, the Southern Confederacy was becoming increasingly desperate, especially after major losses at Gettysburg and Vicksburg. They were beginning to embrace far-fetched ideas that might forestall their ultimate defeat. And that was precisely what the St. Alban's raid was.
On October 19, 1864, a former Confederate officer, Bennett H. Young, led a band of 23 rebels on an attack on St. Alban's, Vermont, just across the border. Starting from Montreal, they quietly stole into the US, robbed three banks in the town of over $250 000 and then escaped back across the frontier line on stolen horses, killing one American pursuer on the way. They were captured and tried before Judge C.J. Coursol in Montreal, but he released them arguing that they had done nothing illegal in the eyes of Canadian law.
- Resource: Montreal Gazette on the St. Albans Raid, Oct. 20, 1864
Even though most of the money was returned, these actions did not calm the fears or reduce the anger of the Northern states who saw in it hostility to the Northern cause. The North went white with rage claiming that British North America was either unable or unwilling to police its own borders and was becoming a haven for raiders. The Americans gave six months notice of their intention to cancel the Rush-Bagot Agreement, started requiring Canadians to carry passports while traveling in the United States, and said it would pursue raiders into Canadian territory in the future.
Indeed, after the raid, American troops had been ordered to pursue the raiders into Canada and wipe them out if necessary. This action would have violated Canadian neutrality and war could have resulted. But US President Abraham Lincoln wisely revoked the order, believing correctly that a Canada-US conflict would only serve to help the South. Nevertheless many American politicians seriously pushed for cancelling the Reciprocity Treaty to retaliate for the outrage.
The Americans Cancel Reciprocity
Originally signed in 1856 for ten years, the Treaty could be abrogated by either side by giving one year's notice. The Americans now announced that intention. They did so for a variety of reasons. They felt, especially during the Civil War years, that British North America benefited far more from the free trade arrangement than they did. They argued that existing tariffs, most notably the 1859 Galt Tariffs, violated the spirit of free trade. Finally, proponents of Manifest Destiny believed that should the Reciprocity Treaty be cancelled, British North America would be economically crippled, thereby inviting American takeover.
Nonetheless, the cancellation of the Treaty was yet another factor that helped bring on Confederation. The people of British North America began detecting a trend. In 1846, Britain had repealed the Corn Laws, which had ensured a protected market for the products of B.N.A. Now, two decades later, the American were pulling the economic rug out from under them. The only viable solution was not to look to others for their economic well being, but rather to unite it and seek it within their own borders through increased internal trade resulting from union. The American cancellation of the Reciprocity Treaty also left the newly elected A. J. Smith anti-Confederation government in New Brunswick with no economic policy and so it was defeated at the polls after only a very brief time in office.
New Threats From the South
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The threat of a mobilized and victorious North invading British North America had loomed in the backs of the minds of Canadians. When the Civil War ended with General Lee's surrender to General Grant that fear intensified greatly. After all, British North America had supported the losing side. Retribution could be easily sought with a quick invasion. More than ten percent of the Northern population - some two million out of 18.9 million - was part of the largest standing army in the world at the time. The fact that this force remained mobilized, even after the end of the Civil War, only added to the apprehension of Canadians. These were battle-trained, war-hardened troops right at their doorstep. British North America, by comparison, was wide open and vulnerable.
The Fenian Raids
That attack, albeit sporadically and greatly exaggerated, did come - but in the person of the Fenians. The wild, ragtag band of raiders could not have come at a better time as far as Macdonald, Cartier and the other supporters of Confederation were concerned. They were able to embellish the threat this group of Irish-American extremists actually posed, thereby winning over the reluctant and the undecided to the cause of a federal union with its promise of improved defenses.
The Fenian Order was a fanatical group of Irishman who hoped ultimately to win independence for their homeland by force from the hated British. Their 'plan' was to attack British North America and use it as a base of attack for a final assault on Britain and the ultimate liberation of Ireland.
They did make some sporadic - and largely disorganized - attacks on British North America in 1866. However the threat was real. The main attack was led by Brigadier General John O'Neill, a former Union cavalry commander, who had pulled together several companies of recently demobilized Civil War veterans carrying rifles and large quantities of ammunition.
Starting on the night of May 31, while American authorities looked the other way, O'Neill moved 800 Fenians across the Niagara River in boats from Buffalo, New York to Fort Erie, and after dawn drew his "Irish Republican Army" up on a height of land called Limestone Ridge, north of the Ridgeway railway station. That night, several companies of raw young Canadian militia - the 2nd Battalion Queen's Own Rifles (Toronto), the Caledonia and York County companies and the red coated 13th Battalion Volunteer Infantry (Hamilton) arrived at Ridgeway by train. Led by part-time militia Colonel Alfred Booker, a Hamilton auctioneer. most of the 900 militia were university students, factory workers and farm boys, clearly no match for O'Neill's battle-hardened Civil War veterans.
At 7:00 am the following morning, June 2, Booker ordered the Canadian militia to advance toward the waiting invaders. Fenian skirmishers hidden in the woods repeatedly fired and then withdrew up the ridge, trying to lure and trap the Canadians, forcing them to advance through open fields toward the hidden main body waiting on the ridge.
After ninety minutes the tide changed. One account says that some of Booker's militia spied American scouts on horseback, and thinking they were facing a cavalry unit, started to fall back and retreat. Another source suggests that that the green clad Queen's Own troops mistook a company of 13th Battalion infantry for British regulars coming to their relief, and began to pull back from the ridge. That may have triggered a panic among other troops who mistook the QOR withdrawal for a retreat. Others relate that Booker simply ordered a withdrawal when he saw the young troops panicking. Apparently O'Neill then ordered a bayonet charge when he saw the militia in chaos. in any event, the Canadian militia's disorganized retreat clearly saved them from a worse fate - engaging the main Fenian body over the ridge - which would have seen them slaughtered.
The battle suddenly ended when Fenians scouts reported that 5,000 British regulars and Canadian militia were indeed coming up to relieve Booker. O'Neill quickly ordered his force to move back to Fort Erie, burning Ridgeway as they went. By 4:00 pm, the remaining 500 or so Fenians (many had deserted) entered the outskirts of Fort Erie, where they were met by 71 Canadians of the Welland Canal Field Battery and Dunnville Naval Brigade, led by militia Colonel John Stoughton Dennis.[1] Heavily outnumbered in the ensuing firefight, they were saved by Fenian nervousness about the arrival of regulars, and half of the Canadians got away on a gunboat. Dennis, a Toronto land surveyor, had to hide in a house and disguise himself as a labourer to prevent capture. Later that evening, the bulk of the Fenians had returned to the United States, where O'Neill and his troops gave up their arms and captives to a U.S. naval party from the USS Michigan. The bodies of seven Fenians lay behind on the battle field.[2]
Ridgeway: The Canadian Army's First Battle?Ridgeway was significant in a number of ways. It was a Canadians only operation and the first national battle by a unit of what would become the Canadian army, formally established in 1883. The nine young militia soldiers killed at Limestone Ridge were Canada’s first combat casualties. Ensign (2nd Lieutenant) Malcolm McEachren of No. 5 Company, Queen's Own Rifles, shot in the first minutes of the battle, was the first Canadian military officer to fall, and the battle also claimed the army's first sergeant, first corporal and the first six privates. Alexander Muir, author of "The Maple Leaf Forever", fought with the Queen's Own at Ridgeway. |
The Fenians, with tacit American support, had their greatest impact in New Brunswick. By holding a "convention" (an exaggeration given the tiny numbers involved) in nearby Maine and launching a small raid into New Brunswick they struck fear into the colony's population.
If B.N.A. had difficulties with this band of wide-eyed extremists, what would happen if the United States brought its full force to bear in an invasion of British North America? Clearly, they would not stand a chance.
The Fenian raid, coupled with the American decision to cancel the Reciprocity Treaty, helped topple A. J. Smith's anti-Confederation government in New Brunswick. Playing on the looming threat of future Fenian raids Samuel Leonard Tilley's pro-Confederation party was swept back into office in 1866.
British Support
The British had promised the colony responsible government in Durham's Report of 1838 and formally granted it in the Act of Union of 1840-41. The British adoption of free trade meant the cancellation of the Corn Laws in 1846 and the ending of the preferential trade arrangements between mother country and colony. A group called "the little Englanders" supported free trade and saw colonies as a burden and liability.
As a result, increasing support for Canadian Confederation came in Britain. The British appointment of pro-Confederation Lieutenant-Governors, most notably Arthur Gordon in New Brunswick, did much to turn the tide in favour of federal union. Finally, the British willingness to host the final London Conference and Westminster's speedy passage of the British North America Act all helped push Confederation along.
Political Deadlock
While there were powerful external forces spurring on Confederation, internal factors also drove the cause. The major factor was political deadlock. The fact of equal representation for Canada East and Canada West in the united parliament sowed the seeds for stalemate. Both Canada East and Canada West were granted 42 members. Not surprisingly often what one side wanted, the other side voted down.
Little could get accomplished under this state of affairs. In slightly more than fifteen years, Canada experienced fifteen different ministries and more than half a dozen elections. No government, given equal representation and the presence of "loose fish" members, could hold power for an extended period of time. They had to find a way out.
On the very day that the Taché-Macdonald ministry fell in 1864, George Brown's committee, which had been struck to investigate political deadlock, reported back. Their proposed solution was a federal union.
New Leadership
George Brown himself was a major force behind Confederation. He was the leader of the new Clear Grit party of Canada West. He represented the rural, agrarian element which wanted to open up the Northwest and better relations with the United States. But Brown had a thorough dislike for French-Canadians. And he latched onto a new representation system not only as a way out of political deadlock but also to reduce the impact of the French. His major platform was "rep by pop" (representation by population).
The population of the united colony of Canada was growing quickly, but nowhere more than in the English-speaking regions of Canada West. The 1861 census revealed a startling fact. For the first time in history, the English out-numbered the French. Canada West had a population of 1.6 million while there were only 1.1 million in Canada East. But the seats were still 42 for each. For Brown's rural constituency, this was grossly unfair and had to be changed. "Rep by Pop" became his - and their - slogan and his cause.
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Another factor in helping to bring about a federal union is to be found in railways. They had not only economic and strategic importance, but also would improve transportation and communication in any fledging country. However, if the colonies were to remain scattered and disunited colonies, they would remain pipe dreams. Investors would seem them as too risky. Engineers would regard them as impossible to build. However, if the colonies became united, such vital railway links could be built.
Railways would provide legitimacy and reality to what was then merely a theoretical notion of a united nation. They would bring the colonies and people together. They would reduce distances, improve defenses, and stimulate trade. It was scarcely accidental that many of the leading proponents of a federal union were also railway promoters. Perhaps most notable among them was George-Étienne Cartier, a rebel in 1837 and now both Solicitor General for the Province of Canada and solicitor of the Grand Trunk Railway.
Notes
- ↑ Dennis narrowly escaped court martial for his cowardice. In 1869, his military career in tatters, he was sent by William McDougall, Canadian minister of public works, to the Red River Settlement as a temporary employee of the Canadian government to survey lots for prospective settlers. The Métis of Red River were angry at Dennis for threatening their existing river lot holdings. After Louis Riel obstructed a survey team on André Nault’s farm on October 11, 1869, Dennis tried in vain to persuade HBC Governor William Mactavish to punish the perpetrators. George-Etienne Cartier was furious, and John A. Macdonald called Dennis' actions “exceedingly injudicious.”
- ↑ As for O’Neill, he was charged with breaking the U.S. neutrality laws, but the charge was later dropped. By 1869, O’Neill’s Fenian Brotherhood had been penetrated by a Canadian agent, Henri Le Caron (Thomas Beach), in the employ of Gilbert McMicken, chief detective of the Dominion Police. On May 25, 1870, he mounted a raid at Eccles Hill on the border near Frelighsburg, Quebec, but his force was fired on as soon as it crossed the border. O’Neill was arrested by a United States marshal and sentenced to two years’ in jail; he and other Fenian prisoners were pardoned by President Ulysses S. Grant that October. Shortly after, he was contacted by William B. O’Donoghue, who had been a member of Louis Riel's provisional government at Red River. On October 5, 1872, in his last raid, he and a small gang of supporters seized the Hudson’s Bay Company post at Pembina, then disputed territory on the border. He was quickly arrested by U.S. troops, but discharged by an American court on the ground that his offence had been committed in Canada.
| Causes of Confederation - Gallery | Stories & Texts | Web Links | Student Activities | Student Projects |
| A. The Road to Confederation →→ 1. Growth and Change in B.N.A. → 2. Causes of Confederation 1861-66 → 3. The Path to Union 1864-67 → 4. Building the New Nation → 5. Confederation Today →→ B. All Aboard for the West |
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