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2. Rebellion Events in Lower Canada
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| E. Conflict and Change →→ 1. Background of Discontent → 2. Rebellion Events in Lower Canada → 3. Rebellion Events in Upper Canada → 4. Invasion and Aftermath → 5. The Road to Responsible Government →→ A. The Road to Confederation |
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Contents |
The Ten Resolutions
The spark the set the 1837 rebellion ablaze came from England. After sending the Glenelg royal commission to study the problems of the colony, and after receiving the Ninety-Two Resolutions of the Lower Canada Assembly, the British government, utterly convinced that Papineau and his supporters wanted armed rebellion, did absolutely nothing.
On March 1, 1837, Colonial Secretary Lord John Russell announced to Parliament that he was presenting his own Ten Resolutions to handle the situation. Russell ignored all the grievances and reforms put forward by the Parti patriot and the Reformers in the Ninety-Two Resolutions, denied all reforms, and said that the Assembly of Lower Canada owed Britain the sum of £142,160.14s. 6d.
The Ten Resolutions gave the Governor complete control of the public purse, with power to pay salaries of officials without approval of the Assembly, and raise taxes and import duties to get the money. Thus the Ten Resolutions even rejected the only real power left to the Assembly, that of refusing to vote on money bills. The only options left for the people of Lower Canada were to refuse to pay taxes entirely, or armed rebellion.
The British Parliament passed Lord John Russell's Ten Resolutions on March 6, and a copy was soon making its way across the Atlantic. On April 10, it was published in Quebec, and a few days later in Montreal. On April 20, Duvernay's newspaper La Minerve announced the calling of a protest meeting in the Richelieu district to denounce the coercive measures taken by the British parliament.
Lower Canada Protests
Before the Assembly meeting due that August, the Patriotes determined to protest as far as they could without armed rebellion. On May 7, they held a protest meeting of about 1,200 people at St-Ours in the Richelieu Valley across from Montreal. Louis-Joseph Papineau was chosen leader of new group, the Permanent Central Committee of the Patriotes; they denounced Russell's Ten Resolutions, and adopted the Declaration of St. Ours, declaring smuggling a public duty.
On May 15, at a popular assembly at St-Laurent and St-Marc, Papineau went further, taking the American Revolution as an example, and arguing for a boycott of imports from Great Britain and engaging in illegal contraband to avoid import duties. On May 23, in Montreal, the Permanent Central Committee of the Patriotes passed a resolution demanding free trade with the United States. The PCC also asked the people to boycott all taxable British imports, as a way of starving the government of funds.
Governor Gosford responded with a proclamation against the holding of assemblies. Behind the scenes, he boosted the military strength in the province, and ordered Battle of Waterloo veteran John Colborne, Lord Seaton to transfer to Lower Canada as commander of forces in both Canadas. His nervousness spread to the business sector, and on May 18 all the banks in Lower Canada closed their doors, suspending payment. They would not open again until June 23, 1838.
On June 15, Gosford issued an order making all public meetings illegal, but this order was ignored by the PCC. On June 26, Patriotes held illegal protest meetings at St-Thomas, Bellechasse, L'Islet; on June 29, a Patriote assembly in Montreal demanded democratic rights.
On July 4, US Independence Day, at Stanbridge near the border at Missisquoi, many American sympathizers attended a Patriote assembly meeting to demand democratic rights. More illegal protest meeting were held that July, at Deschambault, Napierville, Yamachiche, l'Assomption and Vaudreuil. The Association of Patriotic Women (l'association des Dames Patriotiques) was founded in Montreal to urge the wearing of locally made clothing and homespun to avoid taxation.
On August 6, two weeks before the opening of the Assembly, a protest meeting at St-Constant in the country of Laprairie was attended by a M. de Pontois, French "ministre plénipotentiaire" in the United States, who was visiting Lower Canada on a fact-finding mission. While the French Ambassador to the US seemed to be lending his support to revolution, the Roman Catholic hierarchy of Quebec were not, and Monseignor Lartigue told his priests to warn their flocks that rebellion against the established authority was a sin.
One Last Chance
The fourth session of the fifteenth Parliament of Lower Canada opened on August 18. After a long debate, the Assembly refused the budget subsidies Gosford asked for, and and declined to pay the balance owing the Crown, forcing the Governor to act against their wishes. On August 22, he named 10 legislative councilors, without consulting the wishes of the Assembly. On August 26, the members voted to adjourn, and went home to plan for the inevitable rebellion, and its unknown outcome.
That evening, 500 young Montrealers, including Thomas Storrow Brown, André Ouimet and Louis-Joseph Papineau's son Amédée met in the Hotel Nelson on Jacques-Cartier Square, and founded a new political Society called l'Association des Fils de la Liberté (the Sons of Liberty, after the American revolutionaries of the same name). The gathering chose the maple leaf as their emblem, and sang George-Etienne Cartier's patriotic song, Avant Tout Je Suis Canadien.
A month later, Les Fils de la Liberté published a manifesto calling for the election of a republican government in Lower Canada. On October 22, about a thousand of these young Patriotes, went on manoeuvres in the outskirts of Montreal, to prepare for a great meeting the following day at St-Charles. Inside Montreal, a Loyalist Assembly took place on the Champ de Mars, opposing the demands of the Patriotes.
The Grand Assembly of the Six Counties
Patriote leader Dr. Wolfred Nelson opened the two-day Grande Assemblée des Six-Comtés at Saint-Charles-sur-le-Richelieu, welcoming 5,000 Patriotes from six counties - Richelieu, Saint-Hyacinthe, Rouville, Chambly, Verchères and L'Acadie - telling them that 'the time has come to melt our spoons into bullets'. At the instigation of their leader, Louis-Joseph Papineau, the conference delegates approved Thirteen Resolutions based on the Rights of Man adopted during the French Revolution. The young Sons of Liberty then erected a Column of Liberty surmounted by a bonnet in the square, with the inscription, "A Papineau, ses compatriotes reconnaissants, 1837".
On November 2, the Assembly of the Permanent Committee of Quebec declared solidarity with the Confederation of the Six Counties; on November 4, Les Fils de la Liberté announced a massive Patriote rally in Montreal on November 6.
The day before the rally, the government issued a proclamation banning any military drill or parades in Quebec and Montreal, and Colborne brought in the 24th Regiment from Toronto, Kingston and Penetanguishene to suppress any serious civil disobedience.
On November 6, Thomas Storrow Brown ignored the ban, and led the Sons of Liberty in an illegal Patriote rally in Montreal on the Place d'Armes. A riot broke out when members of the English Doric Club, (The Constitutionals), a group of young anglophone Tories, determined to 'crush rebellion in the bud', wrecked the offices of Brown's newspaper, The Vindicator. Brown and Chevalier de Lorimier were seriously beaten in the street fighting. Under the eye of the militia, the Constitutionals roamed the streets and stoned the houses of Louis-Joseph Papineau and André Ouimet, president of The Sons of Liberty.
First Military Action
The first shots in the rebellion were fired on November 10 at St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, when a group of Patriotes shot over the heads of a troop of militia led by Commander Malo, and harassed the soldiers with pikes; Malo asked for reinforcements to be sent from Montreal. Six days later, on November 16, at Longueuil, a Rebel force of 150 led by Bonaventure Viger and Dr. Timothée Kimber ambushed a fifteen-man troop of the Montreal Volunteer Cavalry led by Constable Malo en route to St-Jean to arrest Patriote leaders. Shots were fired directly, and there were several wounded on both sides.
On hearing the news of this action, Gosford immediately issued warrants for the arrest of 26 Patriote leaders on charges of high treason; Papineau and Wolfred Nelson were among those named. Papineau had already fled Montreal for St-Charles in disguise, and only five of the 26 leaders will be captured. A band of armed Patriotes freed two of their leaders near Chambly.
In Quebec City, a crowd of 1000 gathered at the Marché St-Paul on November 19 to support those Patriotes put in jail. After rioting broke out, military authorities locked the gates of the city at 8 pm.
The British military campaign began on November 18, when Col. George Wetherall and a detachment of 350 British troops left Montreal and set out for Chambly. Four days later, Lt-Col. Charles Gore 1793-1869 left Montreal for Sorel on the steamboat Saint George with 500 men; his plan was to meet up with Wetherall at St-Charles, and move with a combined force of 2,000 Waterloo veterans against the Patriotes in the Richelieu Valley.
Meanwhile, at St-Denis, the rebels holed up in Wolfred Nelson's distillery and behind the thick stone walls of the Maison Saint-Germain. Upriver at St-Charles, Thomas Storrow Brown, named "General" of The Sons of Liberty, had seized the manor of seigneur Pierre-Dominique Debartzch, south of the village of Saint-Charles, and established a camp with 100 rebels. They met with Papineau on November 22 and prepared for battle. North of Montreal, Patriote leader Amury Girod set up a rebel camp at St-Benoît on November 23, intending to march southward and attack the city.
The Battles of St-Denis & St-Charles
The first battle of the Rebellion saw a victory for the Patriotes. When Col. Charles Gore and his Waterloo veterans, 6 companies of infantry and a detachment of artillery, tried to enter the village of St-Denis on November 23, they had no success against the deadly fire of the rebels, one of whom was young George-Etienne Cartier from nearby St-Antoine. After seven hours of fighting, the British suffered 6 dead and 11 wounded. Nelson's Patriotes lost 12 men and seven wounded. A British prisoner, Lt. Jack Weir, was also killed trying to escape. Gore retreated back toward Montreal, while young Cartier and Thomas Storrow Brown fled to St-Hyacinthe, and then to Vermont.
The following day, George Wetherall continued his march from Fort Chambly through St-Hilaire toward St-Charles, with British regular troops, many battle-hardened from Waterloo. North of Montreal, Patriote leader Amury Girod urged a march on Montreal, but after a council of war, the rebels decided to go on the defensive.
On November 25, while a funeral was being held for the Patriotes killed at St-Denis, Col. George Wetherall and 350 British troops reached St-Charles and immediately attacked the 100 Patriote rebels holed up in the Debartzch manor house south of the village; in two hours of fighting, they lost 7 dead and 23 wounded; the Patriotes lost about 30 wounded and 28 dead, some were shot as they swam across the Richelieu River. Patriote leader Thomas Storrow Brown fled the battle before it was over, and the spirit of the Patriote forces, elated after the victory of Saint-Denis, was crushed. The British burnt the village before heading back toward Montreal.
Three days later, at St-Mathias, Edouard Malhiot led Patriote rebels in a skirmish against Wetherall's British troops; two were killed at Pointe-Olivier. But most of the rebels had fled on hearing of the defeat at St-Charles. On November 30, Col. George Wetherall and his troops made a triumphal return to Montreal with 30 prisoners and the Liberty Pole that had been erected at Saint-Charles.
On December 1, Gosford issued a proclamation in French and English promising an reward of 1000 pounds in provincial currency (4000 piastres) to anyone who could apprehend and hand over rebel leader Louis-Joseph Papineau. But Papineau had already crossed the US border at Middlebury, Vermont, with Edmund Bailey O'Callaghan. On December 2 they had an angry meeting with Wolfred Nelson, and broke with Nelson's more radical wing of the rebellion, who decided to keep on fighting.
On December 2, Lt-Col. Gore started mopping up operation in the Richelieu, and hunting for rebels to arrest. He returned to St-Denis, and ordered his troops to sack and burn the village; he headed to to St-Charles the following day, then to St-Hyacinthe, then back to Montreal on December 7.
The last scrap of the rebellion south of Montreal occurred on December 6, when Militia Colonel Kemp and 300 Canadian volunteers ambushed a group of 80 of Wolfred Nelson's rebels at 8 pm coming across the US border at Moore's Corner (Philipsburgh) with newly acquired weapons and 2 cannon. During the 20 minute skirmish, 4 Patriotes were captured, one killed; the rest retreated across the border when Colborne dispatched 600 British regulars and 3 cannon to St-Armand.
Slaughter at St-Eustache
On December 5, Gosford proclaimed martial law in Lower Canada, and ordered the military to turn its attention to the rebels north of Montreal. Spies told him that Patriote leaders Dr. Jean-Olivier Chénier and Amury Girod had tried to secure weapons at Oka. On December 10, troops were sent to St-Martin to guard the bridge leading to St-Eustache and St-Benoît against Patriote rebels.
On December 13 John Colborne set out toward St-Eustache in the County of Deux-Montagnes 31 km northwest of Montreal. He had a force of 1,200 British Army regulars commanded by Wetherall, a regiment of 600 from the Quebec garrison led by Maitland, and 200 militia. Colborne arrived at St-Eustache the following day; most Patriotes had fled, but 400 rebels remained, led by Dr. Jean-Olivier Chénier and Amury Girod, holed up in the church, the presbytery, the convent and neighbouring houses.
On December 15, Colborne marched from St-Eustache to St. Benoît; and got the remaining 150 Patriotes to surrender their arms without a fight; the following day, Colborne ordered them released, but put the village to the torch. He then ordered Colonel Maitland to pacify St-Scholastique and Ste-Thérèse. On December 19, he freed 64 of the 120 Patriote prisoners taken at St-Eustache, then returned to Montreal.
On December 21, in order to assure the loyalty of his civil service, Lower Canada Governor Gosford delegated to certain officials the power to swear oaths of allegiance; those who refused were arrested under martial law.
- "Toute la belle partie du village n'était plus qu'un amas de ruines fumantes où l'on trouvait ça et là des cadavres défigurés, sanglants, à demi brûlés. L'église était réduite en cendres... Le nombre des maisons brûlées s'élève à 60, à peu près les plus belles. Tout dans cette scène de désolation rappelait le carnage et la vengeance. Saint-Eustache était tout en ruines et ses cendres fumaient encore, et cependant il y avait des gens assez barbares pour achever de détruire ce que le feu avait épargné. Des morceaux même de la cloche devinrent la proie de ces ravisseurs".
"All the beautiful part of the village was a heap of smoldering ruins where you found here and there disfigured corpses, bloody, half-burnt. The church was reduced to ashes ... The number of houses burned was 60, most of them the most beautiful. Everything in this scene of devastation reminded me of carnage and revenge. St. Eustache was all in ruins and the ashes were still smoking, and yet there were enough barbarians there to destroy what the fire had spared. Even pieces of the bell became the prey of these ravagers."
| Rebellion in Lower Canada - Gallery | Stories & Texts | Web Links | Milestones | Student Activities | Student Projects |
| E. Conflict and Change →→ 1. Background of Discontent → 2. Rebellion Events in Lower Canada → 3. Rebellion Events in Upper Canada → 4. Invasion and Aftermath → 5. The Road to Responsible Government →→ A. The Road to Confederation |
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