UNIVERSITY
OF FLORIDA
LIBRARY
THE GIFT OF
Carnegie Endowment for
International Peace
COLLEGE LIBRARY
I
Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2011 with funding from
LYRASIS IVIembers and Sloan Foundation
http://www.archive.org/details/minglingofcanadiOOhans
THE MINGLING OF THE CANADIAN
AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
THE RELATIONS OF
CANADA AND THE UNITED STATES
A SERIES OF STUDIES
PREPARED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE
CARNEGIE ENDOWMENT FOR INTERNATIONAL PEACE
DIVISION OF ECONOMICS AND HISTORY
James T. Shotwell, Director
THE
MINGLING OF THE CANADIAN
AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
VOLUME I
HISTORICAL
BY THE LATE
MARCUS LEE HANSEN
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS
COMPLETED AND PREPARED FOR PUBLICATION BY
JOHN BARTLET BREBNER
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
NEW HAVEN : YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS
TORONTO : THE RYERSON PRESS
LONDON:HUMPHREY MILFORD:OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
FOR THE CARNEGIE ENDOWMENT FOR INTERNATIONAL
PEACE : DIVISION OF ECONOMICS AND HISTORY
1940
32.<r. Ill
Copyright 1940 by the
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Printed in the United States of America
All Rights Reserved
INTRODUCTION
It is not too much to say that this volume contributes a new and fun-
damental chapter to the history of North America. The movement
of people to and fro across the Canadian-American boundary has
been regarded, until recent years, as one of those great natural phe-
nomena which are taken for granted in the lives of the two nations.
Canadians manned industries in New England, cleared forests in
Michigan, broke the sod of prairies in the Mississippi valley, helped
to build towns and cities from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and took a
leading part in organizing and operating the web of railways whose
center is Chicago ; while in somewhat lesser numbers, but with equal
freedom of movement, Americans shared everywhere in the exploita-
tion of Canadian farmland, mine and forest, and contributed to
Canadian life such technical experts as the builder of the first Cana-
dian transcontinental railroad.
So natural has been this interplay of populations in the North
American scene, that although it constitutes what is perhaps the
largest single reciprocity in international migration in history, his-
torians have hitherto given it little or no attention. This neglect was
bound to be the case so long as history was regarded as a subject
limited to political events, for the migration across the "imaginary
boundary" had little if any political significance, at least in the eyes
of the migrants themselves. While they were loyal citizens of either
country during their residence in it, their decisions to migrate were
determined, for the most part, by the same kind of non-political con-
siderations as had brought them or their ancestors overseas from
Europe or from the Eastern States into Ontario. The call to the set-
tler, the worker, the industrialist or the scholar was that of oppor-
tunity; the keynote to his thinking in all these matters was indi-
vidualism.
The world today can hardly understand this type of nationalism,
strong in its loyalties to community life and proud of citizenship in
a free country, but basing both pride and loyalty upon an intimate
personal sense of the dignity of man himself. It was a genuine Ameri-
can outlook. Although its origin lay for the most part in the tradi-
f^ f^i £- jp.
/ ' ,5 :i
vi THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
tions and institutions of English liberty, the United States and
Canada alike added to it the vital stimulus of frontier life. In this
larger commonwealth of ideas and ideals there was what one might
almost call a common citizenship of Enghsh-speaking North Ameri-
cans, a common sense of participation in the heritage of freedom.
Viewed in this light, a good deal of the story which Professor
Hansen and Professor Brebner teU in these pages is an expansion of
the great theme of American history which Professor Frederick Tur-
ner opened up in his studies of the history of the Westward Move-
ment. While it is possible to relate much of the movement to and fro
across the border to the general lines of expansion over the continent,
other parts of it belong to the reverse migrations which were stimu-
lated by the industrialization and urbanization of the eastern half
of North America. Unfortunately, the government statistics in both
countries furnish only moderately revealing information and that
for only part of the long story, and the social historian finds to his
surprise that the Anglo-Canadian emigrant settling in the United
States joined in with the members of his new community in so inti-
mate and natural a way as to make it often more difficult to keep
track of ex-Canadians in the American scene than of transplanted
residents of the Eastern States who settled in the Mississippi valley.
This could not, in the nature of the case, be equally true of the
Americans in Canada because in its smaller population the individ-
ual necessarily plays a more distinctive part, but the main principle
is equally true on both sides of the border.
The present volume is the historian's contribution to a joint enter-
prise of historians and statisticians. The measurements of the move-
ments here described are to be set forth in a parallel volume by Dr.
R. H. Coats, of the Canadian Bureau of Statistics, and Dr. Leon E.
Truesdell, of the United States Census Bureau, with whom other
specialists have cooperated. It was originally intended to publish the
two studies jointly, but each has grown into a full treatment by
itself, following, as was inevitable, the entirely different techniques
of descriptive narrative on the one hand and statistics on the other.
The student of this subject, however, will find that the volumes com-
plement each other, and that both are essential for a well-rounded
view of the subject as a whole.
No one who reads this volume can fail to regret the untimely
''Z*::f*CXJX[JJ^' i'^S&^iif'JIXKfi-ifi^XtSMSiKif'!^^
INTRODUCTION vii
death of its author, whose last thoughts were given to its unfinished
pages. Born on December 8, 1892, at Neenah, Wisconsin, the child
of a Danish father and a Norwegian mother who had been brought
to the United States by their parents early in the 'seventies, he saw
in his own household and in his father's congregations the transition
from Scandinavian speech and ways to the new American patterns
which were being composed in the trans-Mississippi West. As he
himself matured in this changing environment, he set himself the
task of describing and explaining the European migration to North
America as a dynamic and continuing process both at its source and
on the immense continent where its forces found play.^ Trained in
Iowa and Harvard Universities, he brought to his mission a strict
sense of historical objectivity, challenging accepted ideas wherever
the source material called for new and corrected perspectives, and
drawing his own conclusions from the evidence at hand. His years
of study in his chosen field of the history of American immigration
had provided him with a sure background for his work on this move-
ment within the American continent. But painstaking scholarship
was never allowed to lessen his interest in the figures which filled the
foreground, in whose lives and fortunes he shared imaginatively.
Fortunately Professor Hansen had carried his text so far that it was
possible for Professor Brebner to complete it and prepare the volume
for publication. Professor Brebner has worked with pious and anx-
ious care to keep the book as nearly that which Professor Hansen
had planned and would have desired as was possible under the cir-
cumstances. His own contribution has been real and important, as
can be seen from the concluding chapter and the maps. But the his-
tory, the judgments in it and the suggestions it offers are basically
the work of Professor Hansen.
J. T. S.
1. See his The Atlantic Migration, 1607-1860 (Cambridge, Mass., 1940).
mtmmt^tim'iiiiiwiiw Ml >!'■•>
FOREWORD
Ever since French Canadians settled in the Ilhnois country and
Louisiana during the last quarter of the seventeenth century, and
New Englanders supplanted the Acadians in Nova Scotia about the
middle of the eighteenth, the populations of the regions which are
now the United States and Canada have been spilling great waves of
men and women into each other's territories. Anyone at all inquisitive
about the distribution of human beings in North America cannot
fail to have been struck by the basic American stock of the Mari-
time Provinces and Ontario in Canada, the milhons of French Cana-
dians in New England and New York, the traces of the Canadian in
the American Middle West and of the American on the Canadian
prairies, and the persistent to-and-fro movement of both stocks along
the Pacific coast from Mexico to the Bering Strait. Here is a con-
tinent where international boundaries have been disregarded by rest-
less humans for almost two centuries.
Although the general features of the continental migrations which
had had such curious results were known to students, and although
some parts of them had been carefully investigated, until a short
time ago no one had ventured to compose the story as a whole. In-
deed, when the Carnegie Endowment's investigation of the relations
of Canada and the United States was being planned, and it was felt
to be imperative that so remarkable and fundamental a matter should
be thoroughly described, the historians who were first consulted were
very doubtful whether it could be done.
The source materials upon which an investigator must depend
were practically unobtainable, they pointed out, for great areas
along the migration routes. How could the Americans who poured
into what is now Ontario after 1783 be distinguished from the Loyal-
ists of the American Revolution whom they had submerged numeri-
cally before the War of 1812.^ Who had taken the trouble to sort
out the Canadians from the waves of North Americans and Euro-
peans which broke over the pine forests of the Lakes region and the
fat farm lands of the American Middle West .^ Indeed, would it have
been at all possible to sort them out, either there or when land-wise
X THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
North American farmers raced into the Canadian prairies knowing
that here was the last great area on the continent of the rich farm
land which mere vigor and enterprise could claim and make their
own? Finally, what could be made of the human ebb and flow which
has been going on along the whole length of the Pacific coast since
the end of the eighteenth century ?
In the pages which follow, the late Professor Hansen has suc-
ceeded remarkably in telhng the story and answering these ques-
tions, partly because from the beginning, refusing to be deceived by
political frontiers, he traced his North Americans on the march in
continental terms, and partly because he and his assistants uncovered
more and better evidence of what happened in the past than the
most optimistic questioner might have expected. In this book and in
the other monographs which Marcus Hansen left at his death, stu-
dents and readers are going to become acquainted with a fine scholar
who was too little known in his hfetime. It is to be hoped that his
demonstrations of what rich harvests of significant knowledge may
be reaped from the study of population movements by insight, intel-
ligence, and hard work will create the school of followers which would
certainly have been his had he lived on.
For one thing, the persistent North American intermingling
which he has portrayed in this book, startling as it may appear to
those who happen upon it unforeseen, is not unique in the world, or
even in North America, as those who know its Southwest can point
out. For another — and this seems more important — ^the knowledge
that at any time since colonial days what are now the United States
and Canada have contained substantial bodies of each other's human
stock should make it ridiculous that their peoples today should have
such distorted ideas of each other. Where, as in parts of Europe,
language and traditional ways of Hving differ sharply at the very
political frontiers, there is reason for such ignorance. It is absurd,
however, that the school children of Canadian Windsor and Ameri-
can Detroit, separated by no more than a river, should be shepherded
through the study of only their own halves of the continent. Their
forefathers revealed and developed it in unison — North Americans
all, and eminently capable of allegiance to one country one day and
to another the next.
Studies like this one make an excellent foundation for awareness
FOREWORD xi
of, and pride in, what our ancestors have done for us, irrespective of
whether their pohtical allegiances and ours have been the same.
There are North American famihes today, for instance, some of
whose members have changed political allegiance back and forth
about once a generation since 1750, as the continental migrations
have crossed and recrossed the international boundary. Excellent as
the reasons may be for warm American loyalty to the United States
and equally warm Canadian allegiance to Canada on the part of the
present generation, these sentiments should never be allowed to ex-
clude an equally justifiable pride in descent from the mingled peoples
of the past who created the common North American heritage.
The reader of a posthumous publication is entitled to know how it
was prepared in the absence of its author. In this case, Professor
Hansen had completed the drafts of ten chapters and had left some
notes for the concluding one. In the normal course of events his
manuscript would have been sent to Dr. J. T. Shotwell, Director of
the Division of Economics and History of the Carnegie Endowment
for International Peace, who would have submitted it for criticism
to one or more readers and have returned it to the author with his
comments as to final revision.
I have tried to put myself in what would have been Hansen's
place, with the advantage of having shared his enthusiasm for the
subject and of having talked and corresponded with him about it at
intervals during the two or three years before his death. Members of
his family have sent me portions of the materials which he had col-
lected and digested, and I was particularly fortunate in that Miss
E. E. McKenzie, his trusted principal assistant, was able to go over
the entire manuscript with me in a detailed and very helpful discus-
sion of doubtful points. I also profited greatly from the criticisms
of both Hansen's chapters and my own which were generously given
by three busy men — Dr. R. H. Coats, the Dominion Statistician,
Mr. M. C. MacLean, Chief of the Social Analysis Branch of the
Dominion Bureau of Statistics, and Dr. L. E. Truesdell, Chief
Statistician for Population of the United States Bureau of the Cen-
sus. These gentlemen are the authors of the statistical studies of
Canadian-American population movements since 1850 which are to
be found in the forthcoming companion volume to this one and which
Professor Hansen did not Hve to see. We agree in beheving that
xii THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
the double approach, historical and statistical, has benefited both
volumes.
Dr. Shotwell and I felt that any apparatus of brackets and aster-
isks to indicate meticulously the changes made from the original
manuscript would be both awkward and unnecessary. My task, on
the whole, has been that of supplying the minimum of literary re-
vision required to clarify some outlines, and occasionally to free
the flow, of Hansen's exposition in sections where his mortal weari-
ness had hampered him. I have added a little to the works of refer-
ence cited and have corrected a few errors of fact, emphasis, or inter-
pretation in the hght of evidence which Hansen himself would have
considered had he lived. Fortunately he and I discussed the maps
about a year before his death and I have carried out his wishes in
them. I have also done my best to take into consideration his frag-
mentary notes for the final chapter, but I must accept responsibihty
for it and for the title of these two volumes. All in all, readers are
asked to accept this book as a piece of pioneering scholarship by
Marcus Lee Hansen, prepared for publication by other workers in
the field where he was master.
Students may be interested to know that Professor Hansen's
notes, maps, and other materials have been deposited in the Widener
Library, Harvard University. For various reasons it seemed im-
practicable to compile a comprehensive bibliograpliical note to this
volume, but the index contains references to the first citation of all
monographs under their authors' names. While the index is other-
wise confined to names and places, treatments of special topics may
be located by using the detailed, paginated table of contents.
Since the customary acknowledgments of aid given and of collec-
tions opened to Professor Hansen in the preparation of this book
could not be more than partial, it has seemed best to omit them alto-
gether. Those who helped Professor Hansen in various ways and the
owners or custodians of the widely scattered source materials in the
United States and Canada upon which he drew so wisely will doubt-
less find reward enough in knowing that his distillation from long-
buried knowledge is now available to the public.
I should like to add mention, however, of the tributes paid to Han-
sen's scholarship in the form of generous aid in preparing the maps.
The United States Bureau of the Census and the Dominion Bureau
FOREWORD xiii
of Statistics, through Dr. Truesdell and Dr. Coats, were continu-
ously helpful, and Professor A. H. Moehlman of Ohio State Univer-
sity arranged for the loan of his unique population maps of the Red
River Valley. Mr. A. J. H. Richardson of the PubHc Archives of
Canada contributed not only a great deal of time but also the prod-
ucts of his unpublished researches into the settlement of northeastern
North America which make our map treatment of that area before
1815 a distinct contribution to knowledge. Miss McKenzie and Mr,
J. H. Thurrott were of great assistance in handling the exacting
details of pubhcation.
J. B. B.
Columbia University
July 1, 1939.
CONTENTS
Introduction v
Foreword . ix
Maps xix
Abbreviations xxi
I. The Unity of the Westward Movement 1
The dynamics of migration in North America ( 1 ) ; Canadian and
American advances from Atlantic to Pacific not parallel, but in-
tegral (2) ; the Atlantic base (3) ; columns of migration (6) ;
Atlantic (6) ; Kentucky and Tennessee (7) ; Ohio (8) ; Hudson,
St. Lawrence, and Great Lakes (8) ; the Mohawk gap through
the Appalachians (9); Lakes Ontario and Erie (11); joint ex-
pansion from the Atlantic base along the Lakes (13); the rail-
road unites and accelerates it (14); the trans-Mississippi West
(16); the Canadian West (18); the Pacific (19).
II. The Establishment of an Atlantic Base (1604-1775) . 20
Migrations in the coastal region (20); Newfoundland (21);
north and east from New England (22) ; conquest of Acadia
(23) ; Halifax vs. Louisbourg (24) ; Germans and Swiss at Lu-
nenburg (26) ; expulsion of the Acadians (27) ; their dispersion
in North America (28) ; the invitation to take their places (29) ;
reasons for the remarkable response (30) ; the New England mi-
gration (32) ; speculators (34) ; a "new New England" (35) ;
population figures, Acadians' vicissitudes (37) ; expansion into
northern New England and New York (39) ; the Champlain val-
ley (40) ; invitations to settle Quebec (41) ; consolidation of the
Atlantic base (42).
III. The Migration of the Loyalists (1775-1790) ... 43
The short interruption of the Revolution (43) ; destruction of
the Iroquois barrier (44) ; the Loyalist emigration (45) ; to
Quebec (47) ; British aid (49) ; follows old migration routes
(50); New York to Nova Scotia (61); Shelburne (53); New
Brunswick (55); Prince Edward Island and Cape Breton (56);
New York and New England to Quebec (57) ; exclusion from the
boundary region (57) ; and from the old seigniories (58) ; Ni-
agara and Cape Breton (59) ; Gaspe and upper St. Lawrence
(60) ; conditions of settlement (62) ; Detroit river (63) ; Ameri-
can tracts for refugee Canadians (63) ; number of Quebec Loyal-
xvi THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
ists (64) ; the pull of Quebec lands upon American migrants
(65).
IV. The Followers of the Loyalists (1785-1812) ... 66
Thirty years of American migration to British North America
(66) ; the reverse trend in the Maritime Provinces (66) ; from
New England and New York into Lower Canada (69) ; geog-
raphy, resources, markets (70) ; character of settlements (72) ;
disregard for the boundary (73) ; west of the Richelieu (74) ;
northern New York (75) ; non-agrarian emigrants to Canada
(77) ; lumber on the Ottawa (77) ; Upper Canada (78) ; Loyal-
ist land-jobbing (79); Simcoe's colonization (80); reasons for
American preference for Upper Canada (81) ; Pennsylvanian and
other Quakers (83) ; Mennonites and Dunkers (84) ; the influx
from New York (86); Selkirk's settlements (87); Talbot's set-
tlement (88) ; swelling tide of American immigration until War
of 1812 (89).
V. Pioneers and Immigrants (1812—1837) 91
American failure in the War of 1812 (91); neutrality in the
Maritimes and Lower Canada (92) ; disruption in Upper Canada
(93) ; post-war restrictions on American land-holding and immi-
gration (95); problems of citizenship (96); assisted British im-
migration (97) ; European preference for the United States
(99) ; assistance to distressed British citizens in leaving United
States and British Isles (100) ; a pause and readjustment, 1819—
1825 (102); the Upper Canadian strife over citizenship (103);
the Erie Canal deflects migration from Upper Canada (105);
consolidation of Canadian settlement (106) ; the timber trade and
European immigration via New Brunswick to the United States
(107); via the St. Lawrence to the Canadas (108); the Canada
Company (109) ; renewed popularity of the Canadas (110) ; the
Canadian route to the United States (112) ; Upper Canada as a
refuge for Negroes (113).
VI. The Beginning of the Southward Migrations (1837—
1861) 115
The balance tips to favor the United States (115) ; the Canadian
rebellions (115); border filibustering (116); the depression of
1837 and emigration from the Canadas (117) ; Union of the Can-
adas, public works, and free land-grants fail to stem the flow
(119) ; emigration of Nova Scotian fishermen (120) ; British free
trade and the emigration from New Brunswick and Nova Scotia
(121); the swelling tide of French-Canadian emigration (123);
marginal lands (124); seasonal labor (125); legislative investi-
CONTENTS xvii
gation (125); privileged proprietorship (126); the Church and
domestic colonization (127); French-Canadian migration to the
Middle West (128) ; Father Chiniquy (129) ; the pull of the for-
est industries and shipping of the Great Lakes area (130) ; Lake
Superior copper mines (132) ; gold in California (133) ; gold in
British Columbia (134) ; the Laurentian Shield deflects the Cana-
dian frontier of settlement into the American Middle West (135) ;
continued American drift into Canada (135) ; the Fugitive Slave
Act and Negro migration to Canada (136).
VII. The Interlude of the Civil War (1861-1865) ... 139
Reciprocity and Civil War (139) ; a temporary northward drift
(141); voluntary and "bounty" enlistment in the Union armies
(142) ; the substitute system and human brokerage (143) ; Brit-
ish North American totals and origins (146); prosperity in the
Maritimes (147); American "skedaddlers" (148); Southern
refugees (149); the war market calls for labor (150); the pull
of the Mississippi valley and Michigan (152) ; Wisconsin (153) ;
Lake Superior mines and the Red River valley (154); the Pa-
cific coast (155); repercussions of Confederate raids (156);
aftermaths of the war (158).
VIII. Expansion AND Depression (1865-1880) 159
Industrial activity in New England (159); its pull on the de-
pressed Maritimes (160); rural depopulation in New England
and the Maritimes (162); creation of the Dominion of Canada
(163); the effects of the Panic of 1873 on the Maritimes and
French Canada (164) ; permanent French-Canadian emigration
to New England mill-towns (166) ; estimates of its extent (167) ;
the repatriation movement (170); Canadian industries (171);
from Ontario to the trans-Mississippi West (172); the Chicago
colony (174); the Canadian West (174); French-Canadian mi-
gration from the United States to the Canadian AVest (177) ; the
Red River valley (178) ; railroads and steamboats (179) ; depres-
sion on the Pacific coast (180) ; industrial revival in the United
States and the dependable French Canadian (181).
IX. From the Provinces to the Prairie States (1880—1896) 182
Some statistics of the first Great Emigration from Canada (182) ;
economic revival in the United States (184); exodus from On-
tario (185); the distribution of Canadians in Middle West and
Northwest (188); the agricultural conquest of the Red River
valley (190); Northern Pacific and Canadian Pacific (191);
boom and collapse (191); movements to and fro (192); the
Canadian bid for American settlers (196); west of Manitoba
xviii THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
(197) ; ranchers and Mormons (199) ; gold again in British Co-
lumbia (201); economic revival on the Pacific coast (202); de-
pressions again (203) ; confusion of border crossings (204) ; the
Chinese (205); the pull of American cities (205); of railroads
and Great Lakes shipping (206) ; of forests and mines (207) ;
depression and emigration throughout the Maritimes (207) ;
large-scale emigration from Quebec to New England (211); to
New York, Michigan, and the trans-Mississippi West (215) ; re-
verse movements (216).
X. From the States to the Prairie Provinces (1896—1914) . 219
Prosperity and the turn of the tide towards Canada (219); the
American invasion of the northern prairie belt (220) ; Sifton's
advertising campaign (220) ; the land companies and American
counter-propaganda (222) ; farmers and farmers' sons move on
(223) ; tenants and laborers (224) ; the desirability of the Ameri-
can prairie pioneer (225) ; returning Canadians (227) ; reaching
out to the Atlantic and Pacific coasts (228) ; ranchers retreat,
Mormons and others irrigate (229) ; solid settlement (230) ; the
Peace River (231); late covered- wagon days (231); group set-
tlements (232) ; non-agricultural migrants (233) ; the British
Columbian boom (235) ; New Ontario (238) ; the Rainy River
district (239) ; Americans pick up Ontario farms (239) ; Ameri-
can branch factories (241); American efforts to turn the tide
(241) ; the slump of 1913-1914 (242).
XL War and Its Aftermaths (1914-1938) 244
The violent fluctuations of 1914—1933 leading to restriction of
international migration (244) ; population adjustment to eco-
nomic opportunity on a continental basis (245) ; statistical state-
ment of the second Great Emigration from Canada (246) ; the
depression of 1913—1914 (247); war, enemy aliens, enlistment,
conscription (248) ; war agriculture (249) ; war industry (250) ;
the United States gains in the competition for labor (251) ; the
international industrial areas (252) ; post-war problems (252) ;
American economic resilience and post-war policies act like a
suction pump on Canada (253) ; the depression of 1929 and sys-
tematic economic nationalism (255) ; economic and migrational
equilibrium (257) ; narrow restrictions on migration, enforced
repatriation (258) ; the impact of drought on the prairie settlers
(259) ; the relative economic advantage of the United States
(260) ; the American demand for technically and professionally
trained Canadians (261); the present unprecedented immobility
(263).
Index 265
MAPS
1. Expansion of Settlement from the Atlantic Base^ 1700-1815 . . 90
2. Transportation and Settlement in the Eastern Canadian-American
Region, 1815-1860 138
3. Canadian-Born Persons in the North Central States, 1890 . . . 189
4. The Advance of the Frontier in the Mid-Continent, 1850-1886 . . 195
5. Canadian-Born French Persons in New York and New England,
1900 214
6. United States— Born Persons in the Prairie Provinces, 1911 . . . 234
7. Transportation and Settlement in the Western Canadian-American
Region, 1861-1914 240
ABBREVIATIONS
A.R.F.C. Annual Report on Foreign Commerce (Washington).
B.C.: Sess. Pap. Province of British Columbia Sessional Papers.
C.R.U.S.F.C. Commercial Relations of the United States with Foreign Coun-
tries (Washington).
D. C. and T. Reports. Daily Consular and Trade Reports (Washington).
Dom. Can.: App. to Jour. H. of C. Appendix to the Journal of the House of
Commons of the Dominion of Canada.
Dom. Can. : Debates H. of C. Debates of the House of Commons of the Do-
minion of Canada.
Dom. Can.: Jour. H. of C. Journals of the House of Commons of the Domin-
ion of Canada.
Dom. Can.: Sess. Pap. Dominion of Canada Sessional Papers.
J.C.T.P. Journal of the Commissioners for Trade and Plantations (London).
M. C. and T. Reports. Monthly Consular and Trade Reports (Washington).
N.B.H.S. Collections of the New Brunswick Historical Society (St. John).
N.S.: App. to Jour. H. of A. Appendix to the Journals of the House of As-
sembly of Nova Scotia.
N.S.: App. to Jour, of Legislative Council. Appendix to the Journals of the
Legislative Council of Nova Scotia.
P.A.C. Public Archives of Canada, MSS Collections.
P.A.C.R. Public Archives of Canada, Reports (Ottawa).
P.C.: App. to Jour, of Legislative Assembly. Appendix to the Journals of the
Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada.
P.C.: Jour, of Legislative Assembly. Journals of the Legislative Assembly of
the Province of Canada.
P.C. : Jour, of Legislative Council. Journals of the Legislative Council of the
Province of Canada.
P.C. : Sess. Pap. Province of Canada Sessional Papers.
P.O.: Sess. Pap. Province of Ontario Sessional Papers.
P.Q.: Sess. Pap. Province of Quebec Sessional Papers.
P.R.O. Public Record Office (London), MSS Collections.
R.S.C. Proceedings and Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada.
THE MINGLING OF THE CANADIAN
AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION: THE UNITY OF THE
WESTWARD MOVEMENT
Since the coming of the white man, the continent of North America
has provided a vast arena for the interplay of insistently expanding
peoples. Historians have made a familiar story out of the clashes and
compromises since the end of the fifteenth century which have gradu-
ally brought about the present stable division of the land among
Canada, the United States, and Mexico, but they have tended to do
so in terms of rival political, economic, and social organizations, with
somewhat less regard for the mere dynamics of population. Where
the one group of forces begins and the other ends is, of course, im-
possible to say, but a shift in emphasis, particularly where the
United States and Canada are concerned, throws abundant new hght
on their individual and related histories. It will be seen that these
North American men and women, responding to pressures generated
by their own numbers, by the proportions of old and young among
them, or by new tides of immigration, moved about spasmodically
and with little regard for political allegiance, making and breaking
by their migrations states and systems of community Hf e.
On the continent of North America, settlement expanded across
the three thousand miles from coast to coast in the course of less
than three hundred years. During the nineteenth century, in par-
ticular, population was mobile. No affection for the acres tilled by
his father rooted the farmer in the place of his birth. A British ofii-
cial, in commenting on this characteristic of Americans, declared:
"They play at leap-frog with their lands ; so soon as they have culti-
vated a spot that any newcomer likes they sell it and remove higher
up in the country. ... I have known them to remove four times in
the space of a few years."^ Land policies encouraged the clearing
1. W. Knox to Clerk of the Council, 16 June 1806; Historical Manuscripts
Commission, Report on Manuscripts in Various Collections, VI (Dublin,
1909), 224.
2 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
and cultivating of new areas and land laws facilitated the alienation
of property from hand to hand. A world-wide demand for the staples
that the new regions yielded in abundance in return for determined
effort — ^wheat, cotton, timber, minerals — ^by assuring the pioneer
that his enterprise would be rewarded, encouraged adventurers to
move on and on in a never-ending search for easily acquired for-
tunes. The restless spirit that was in part the product of these mi-
gratory experiences grew in intensity as the century progressed, so
that it came in time to be the major consideration in interpreting
the characteristics of the population which were revealed in the pe-
riodic census reports.^
Stretching from ocean to ocean lay the international line that
marked the boundary between Canada and the United States. By the
close of the nineteenth century the Pacific coast of the Dominion as
well as of the RepubHc was peopled in general by settlers who had
migrated, either themselves or in the persons of their ancestors, from
the states and provinces bordering the Atlantic. The Canadian ad-
vance and the American advance are usually considered parallel
movements. They were, in fact, not parallel but integral. The settle-
ment of the Pacific area, north as well as south of the forty-ninth
degree of latitude, was the product of a westward tide of people that
was continental and international in origin and in route. The bound-
ary was disregarded by eager land seekers who thought much of
fertility and markets and httle of pohtical jurisdiction. In time,
transportation systems, land companies, and even governmental offi-
cials understood the fundamental character of this unconcern and in
adjusting policies to this realistic view recorded their recognition of
the unity of the westward movement.
Of this unity the pioneer was not aware. He considered himself in
all respects an individual and independent adventurer; and histo-
rians strengthened the tradition that he fostered by emphasizing the
exploits of the most self-reliant and colorful characters in the great
army that conquered the North American wilderness. But a more
reahstic study reveals that in the course of his migration he followed
a beaten path or a marked trail, finally striking off to the left or
2. Rudolf Heberle, Uber die Mobilitdt der Bevolkerung in den Vereinig-
ten Staaten (Jena, 1929), 1-30.
THE UNITY OF THE WESTWARD MOVEMENT 3
right, and only his last few miles were through an untrod forest or
over trackless prairie. At his journey's end he might live in an isola-
tion that seemed complete. But if it were broken even so seldom as
once a year by the appearance of a peddler or by his own visit to the
trading post where furs, skins, or potash were exchanged for salt,
powder, and lead, these acts established the fact that, albeit unwit-
tingly, he was part of one of the networks of moving people and
goods that together gave unity to the westward movement.
From the confused and incomplete picture that is reconstructed
out of a thousand stray items of contemporary information it seems
that east of the Mississippi the advancing pioneers were marshaled
into several great columns. Along the route that each of them traced
there flowed outward the few supplies that were essential for the
maintenance of the frontier settlements, and in return the ever-
increasing volume of products seeking a market that came from the
widening clearings. The exact course of any one of these channels
was determined by many factors of topography, resources, politics,
and chance. But all wound their way back to the Atlantic coast and
to that part of the coast which was the base of expanding population.
The Atlantic coast was not the base in its entirety. It would per-
haps be logical to suppose that when Europeans began the coloniza-
tion of the new continent they would occupy every mile of its eastern
shore where a human habitation could be established and then pro-
ceed, on a long front of a thousand miles, to sweep inland. Some
such idea was in the mind of the British authorities when they sliced
up the shore line into a series of colonies whose charters gave them
jurisdictions "from sea to sea" ; and at all promising and at many
unpromising points from Newfoundland to Florida, adventurers and
groups of settlers landed families and stock in optimistic attempts
to secure the foothold which should be the first step toward fortune.
Each of the communities that survived disasters and disappoint-
ments looked into the future and foresaw in itself a gateway through
which were to crowd throngs of followers.
This, however, did not always or speedily turn out to be the case.
Europeans continued to come, in increasing numbers, but after the
first groups of vessels (properly designated "expeditions") had dis-
charged their passengers at any colony, the subsequent peopling of
4 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
that province usually ceased to be a matter of promotional enter-
prise. Liberal policies in the distribution of land were often adopted,
and occasionally subsidies of supplies and equipment were granted.
But with that the concern of the authorities was at an end. The
colonial planter or employer who wanted labor had to seek it himself,
and the Britisher or Continental who wanted to adventure across the
Atlantic had to search out opportunities for passage. In both cases
the arrangements were usually made with the merchants and ship
captains who were building up the framework of Atlantic commerce ;
and when the demand for labor in the colonies became so steady that
it paid ship operators to cooperate in methods by which emigrants
could gradually "work off" their passage money (the "redemptioner
trade"), this early system was also forced to conform to the prevail-
ing routes of international exchange.^
The European commerce of the colonies tended to become con-
centrated in a limited number of ports. From Florida northward to
Cape Hatteras the hindrances to navigation were many : dangerous
shoals shifting with every change in winds and currents, sand bars
that blocked the mouths of rivers and harbors, and the constant
danger of hurricanes rushing up from the West Indies.* With the
exception of Charleston no port developed extensive trading connec-
tions with Europe; and in Charleston negro slaves, not white labor-
ers, were in demand.^ To the north, Newfoundland was ruled out as
a site for extensive settlement after the experiences of Gilbert and
Lord Baltimore ; and the colonization of the peninsula of Nova Scotia
was a French, not an English, venture. Englishmen did come to North
America by way of Newfoundland, but these were summer "hands"
in the fisheries who devised various schemes for getting farther on to
settled New England. By 1640 the sturdy stock that was to produce
the prolific race of Yankees was planted in the hinterland of Boston
and along the shores of Long Island Sound. During the remainder
3. Cheesman A. Herrick's White Servitude in Pennsylvania (Philadelphia,
1921) is a general study of the redemptioner system in the colony in which it
attained its widest use.
4. United States Coast Pilot, Atlantic Coast, Section D (Washington,
1936), 2.
5. Elizabeth Donnan, Documents Illustrative of the History of the Slave
Trade to America, IV (Washington, 1935), 241.
THE UNITY OF THE WESTWARD MOVEMENT 5
of the colonial era, emigrants from New England were more numer-
ous than immigrants from abroad.^
New York at the mouth of the Hudson River, Philadelphia and
Wilmington on the lower reaches of the Delaware River, and Balti-
more, Alexandria, and Norfolk on Chesapeake Bay were the seacoast
towns at which incoming Europeans, whether tradesmen, independ-
ent farmers, or bound servants, normally disembarked. They filtered
into the lands beyond these places, forming patches of settlement
that grew together into a bloc of occupied territory which extended
southward from Albany through the tidewater region of Virginia.
The New Englanders, multiplying township by township, steadily
approached the Hudson from the east; and in the meantime in the
valley of the St. Lawrence the few thousand French habitants who
had been sent to New France were taking possession of the banks of
the river. Increasing at a rate that equaled that of their Anglo-
Saxon neighbors, they were pioneering in the forests that bordered
the tributaries flowing from the south, thereby inaugurating the
movement that was ultimately to bring the two nationalities together.
Not until the early nineteenth century was the process of population
consolidation completed in the region from the St. Lawrence to Cape
Hatteras, but the historic function that the region was to perform
with regard to the rest of the continent had already been revealed.
Aufmarschgehiet is the suggestive word that has been applied to
the region by a German scholar who was impressed by the orderly
and coordinated nature of the process by which the settlement of the
continent was achieved in spite of the diversity in blood and experi-
ence apparent among the pioneers. The term, military in origin,
denotes the territory in which troops coming in various contingents
from many quarters deploy into Hne of action, making ready for a
concerted advance. '^ In this area, irregular in shape, were to be
6. M, L. Hansen^ "The Settlement of New England," Handbook of the
Linguistic Geography of New England (Providence, 1939), chapter ii.
7. Dr.-Ing. Blum, "Geographic und Geschichte im Verkehrs- und Sied-
lungswesen Nordamerikas," Archiv fiir Eisenhahnwesen, 57 (Berlin, 1934),
241-286, 553-616. H. Baulig, Amerique septentrionale (2v., Paris, 1935-
36). M. I. Newbigin, Canada, the Great River, the Lands and the Men (Lon-
don, 1928).
6 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
found descendants of four colonial empires — New France, New
Netherland, New Sweden, and New England (in the larger sense) —
and, during the nineteenth century, immigrants from every nation
of Europe. Here they were mustered into the ranks and, when the
signal to move forward was given, they marched into the forests,
fields, and mines of the undefined empire beyond known as the West.
A new generation of children and more recent immigrants appeared
as replacements and, by a process that historians have not yet suc-
ceeded in explaining, they, in turn, became part of the reserve, avail-
able for service when the next advance was under way.
The theme of these introductory pages is not the conquest of the
West, but the fashion in which the various geographical regions to
which the name was applied have determined the course of the popu-
lation relations between Canada and the United States. Neverthe-
less, the nature of the relationship may be emphasized by a brief
consideration of the various columns of pioneers that marched out
of the great mobilization camp along the coast. Of these columns
there were four. Each was fairly distinct, if not in the character of
its membership, yet certainly in time, in destination, and in signifi-
cance. It happened that the route of one of them lay along the great
internal waterway that was chosen to serve as a considerable part of
the boundary between two countries, with the result that, as it moved
forward, it wound over the line and back again, thereby setting in
motion some countermarches and provoking some political responses
which gave it an international character. Otherwise it would be con-
sidered as only another of the grand divisions of the continental
westward movement.
In considering these columns of migration, the one which might
be designated the first used the Atlantic as its highway. This was
more of a drift than a march. Since it was unnecessary to blaze a
trail or organize caravans, and since no frontier tales of adventure
and Indian warfare made it the subject of romance, this drift has
failed to receive the historical recognition that its importance would
warrant. But it was nonetheless real. New Englanders early began
to move down the coast. Before Massachusetts was a generation old,
it had sent a colony to Maryland ; and within the same length of time
after its first planting, New Haven had lost many of its prominent
THE UNITY OF THE WESTWARD MOVEMENT 7
families to New Jersey.^ A considerable Puritan colony from New
England was established among the first settlers of South Carolina.®
After the conquest of New Netherland in 1664, Dutch farmers left
the valley of the Hudson for more southern colonies and later the
authorities complained that many of the young people in the Middle
Colonies were departing for some southern destination/" The Albe-
marle region of North Carolina was largely peopled by the "over-
flow" from tidewater Virginia and for a century after its founding,
Georgia, colony and state, received newcomers from the north.^^
Many of the first American settlements on the Gulf of Mexico from
Florida to Texas were estabhshed by the traders who followed the
coastal route/^
The second column was led by the frontier heroes of the eighteenth
century : the Boones, the Seviers, the Hendersons. Mustered into its
ranks were the descendants of the mingled population that had first
settled the Middle Colonies and the formerly indentured persons
who had landed in Pennsylvania or New York and now, after a few
years of bound duty, were free to search out land where it was to be
had almost for the taking. As they passed through the valley of Vir-
ginia and the back country of Carolina they were j oined by farmers
from the tidewater and the children of the first pioneers who had
located beyond the Blue Ridge. Together they advanced along the
valleys of the rivers that cut through the mountains and by a dozen
branch trails spread over the meadows and into the open forests of
8. Edward Channing, A History of the United States, II (New York,
1918), 47. John L. Bozman, The History of Maryland, II (Baltimore, 1837),
411.
9. David Ramsay, History of South Carolina (Newberry, S.C., 1858), 5.
10. Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series, America and West Indies,
1669-7i (London, 1889), 277, 279, 280, 324, 579; 1689-92 (1901), 201,
266; 1693-96 (1903), 119, 236, 511; 1696-97 (1904), 88, 132, 189, 420.
11. John S. Bassett, "The Influence of Coast Line and Rivers on North
Carolina," Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the
Year 1908, I (Washington, 1909), 58-61. Richard H. Shryock, Georgia and
the Union in 1850 (Durham, N.C., 1926), 79-82.
12. G. W. Kendall, Narrative of the Texan Santa Fe Expedition (London,
1845), 6. Jedidiah Morse, The American Gazetteer . . . with a Particular
Description of Louisiana (Boston, 1804): see "population" under article
"Louisiana."
8 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
Kentucky and Tennessee. For a generation after the close of the
war with France in 1763, this was "the West," the goal of every
adventurer, land seeker, speculator, ambitious lawyer, and zealous
missionary.^^
Toward the close of the eighteenth century a new West became
the focus of pioneering interest and the third column followed a new
highway by mountain trail and river keelboat to new homes. The
banks of the Ohio River and its fertile tributary valleys extending
northward into the Old Northwest were the destinations of these
travelers. They, like the earHer migrants, came principally from the
prohfic homesteads of the Middle States and the immigrant ports on
the Atlantic where increasing numbers of arrivals were continually
disembarking. For two hundred miles from the coast they continued
along the old roads that had long witnessed similar scenes, but in-
stead of veering toward the south they crossed the mountains of
Pennsylvania and took to the westward-flowing waters at the fron-
tier post of Pittsburgh. Even the West that had always seen man-
kind on the move was startled by the crowds that jostled one another
on the narrow roads and ventured down the treacherous streams with
little, if any, knowledge of navigation.^* In particular, during the
restless years that followed 1815, when old America seemed to one
observer to be "breaking up," the Ohio Valley was the great highway
into the pioneer states and territories.^^ The route was never deserted.
The keelboat and flatboat gave way to the steamboat, and the Cones-
toga wagon was replaced by the railroad, but Pittsburgh remained
a gateway as long as Americans sought the opportunities of the mid-
continental empire.
Not a new West but the opening of a new route called the fourth
historic column into being. Although the last to take form, it became
the greatest in numbers, the most cosmopolitan in composition, and
the most persistent in retaining its identity as it pressed onward into
the territory beyond the Mississippi. Into its ranks came Canadians,
New Englanders, and new Americans from the immigrant sheds in
13. Archer B. Hulbert, Soil: Its Influence on the History of the United
States (New Haven, 1930), 174-191.
14. Frederick J. Turner, Rise of the New West (New York, 1906), 80-83.
15. Morris Birkbeck, Notes on a Journey in America from the Coast of
America to the Territory of Illinois (2d ed., London, 1818), 30.
THE UNITY OF THE WESTWARD MOVEMENT 9
New York, but the three did not mingle until after some century-
long preliminary movements had been completed. The small Cana-
dian nucleus had to expand mile by mile through the forests of the
St. Lawrence basin; the Yankees had to explore every hilltop and
mountain valley of their own Northwest and retain in cultivation
every farm that would support a family ; and New York, as well as
Quebec and Montreal, had to develop the overseas connections in
trade and personnel that were essential parts of the complicated
system of exchange of men and goods which was the foundation of
the nineteenth-century immigration.
Of all the approaches from the seaboard to the interior, that
known as the "Mohawk route" was the most favored by nature. For
a hundred miles west of its junction with the Hudson the Mohawk
River was navigable, with an occasional portage, for canoes and ba-
teaux ; and when shallow water and shoals made further progress by
boat difficult, the traveler had before him an almost level plain that
extended for two hundred miles to the shores of Lake Erie. This
valley route was the only break in the wall of the Appalachians other
than the mountain passes to the south, and this was not a rugged
cleft through inhospitable lands, but a belt of rich soil that was
destined to support tens of thousands of people as well as to provide
for hundreds of thousands access to no less attractive lands beyond.^"
But not until the European had been established for almost two
hundred years at the gateway from the east did the advancing army
of pioneers find the way open. Progress up the Hudson was blocked
by the great patroonships surviving from Dutch da^^s, on which the
acceptance of land involved a condition of dependence that no hb-
erty-loving and high-spirited settler was willing to acknowledge.
Beyond Albany, to the north and to the west the traditional enmity
with the French constituted a persistent threat, and the unhappy
experiences of the German Palatines who were located on the flats
along the Mohawk were a warning that discouraged all but a few of
the most adventurous. With the peace of 1763 this danger was re-
moved ; then, however, the decrees of the colonial administrators still
left an obstacle. For on the headwaters of the Mohawk and about the
16. Albert P. Brigham^ Geographic Influences in American History (Bos-
ton, 1903), 7-8, 155.
10 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
"finger lakes" that diversify the central New York plain lay the
home villages and cornfields of the Iroquois confederacy of Indian
nations. Friendship with these tribes was an essential part of British
frontier policy and the would-be settler on or near Indian lands was
regarded as an intruder to be removed by force/^
The American Revolution not only brought about a new frontier
policy: the events of the war destroyed the villages and ruined the
political power of the confederacy that had claimed lordship over
the natives as far distant as the Mississippi. Defeat scattered the
warriors and their families to various refuges in the region of the
Great Lakes. For many of the Americans the Indian campaign of
General Sullivan in 1779 was the most significant episode in eight
years of a revolutionary war. An army of a few thousand frontiers-
men turned a punitive expedition against the red men into a land
seekers' tour over their abandoned fields. This inaugurated a move-
ment of people that in the course of a decade drove westward a
wedge of settlement with its point in the headwaters of the Mo-
hawk.^^
Beyond this, however, it was difficult to go. A traveler of 1792
found a few farms established on the banks of the Genesee River.
But thence, ninety miles to Niagara, he saw "not one house or white
man the whole way. The only direction I had was an Indian path
which sometimes was doubtful."^^ The replacement of this path by
road and canal was ultimately to come, but for the time being large
investments and extensive works were out of the question. Men
17. Charles H. Mcllwain (ed.), Wraxall's Abridgment of the New York
Indian Records (Cambridge, 1915), xxxvii— xxxviii.
18. Ruth L. Higgins, Expansion in New York with Especial Reference to
the Eighteenth Century (Columbus, 1931), 101. The extent of settlement is
indicated on the "Area Map of the State of New York, 1790," printed in the
Rochester Historical Society, Publication Fund Series, VII (Rochester,
1928), following page 224..
19. "Extract of a Letter from a Gentleman upon his Return from Niagara,
Dated August 8, 1792," Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society
for the Year 1792, First series, I (Boston, reprinted 1806), 284-288; quota-
tion on page 286. P. Campbell, Travels in the Interior Inhabited Parts of
North America in the Years 1791 and 1792 (Edinburgh, 1793; reprinted edi-
tion by H. H. Langton, with notes by W. F. Ganong, Toronto, 1937), new
ed., 183-190, 207-232.
THE UNITY OF THE WESTWARD MOVEMENT 11
turned, therefore, to a more roundabout route which required only
moderate improvements in order to shorten the time of journeying
from the Hudson to Lake Erie. At the village of Rome on the Mo-
hawk a short portage led to the headwaters of Wood Creek. After
forty miles of meandering, this creek emptied into Lake Oneida
which, in turn, had an outlet into Lake Ontario by the Oswego River.
This was one of the traditional canoe routes of colonial times, known
to fur traders of all nations and followed by war parties of French,
English, and Indians.^"
The Western Inland Lock Navigation Company, incorporated in
1792, undertook to make of this primitive trail a highway of com-
merce. At Rome a canal was built joining the Mohawk River with
Wood Creek ; the watercourses were cleared of obstructions and the
channels widened and deepened.^^ This, the first man-made trans-
portation route from the Atlantic to the Lakes, was international in
character. For the fort at the mouth of the Oswego River was still
in the possession of British troops, and the westward-bound traveler
from Fort Oswego skirted the southern shore of Lake Ontario to
the Canadian side of the Niagara River and, there disembarking,
followed the road across the Niagara peninsula to Lake Erie. Ameri-
cans journeying to the Old Northwest passed through a corner of
Canada and officials of Upper Canada who sought the shortest route
to England reached the port of New York by way of these connect-
ing lakes and rivers.
Within a decade, however, a more direct way to the Niagara River
was open. Wide advertisement of the western lands and the success
of the first settlers there turned the current of New England migra-
tion, which was now beginning to flow in large volume over its
boundaries, into the state of New York. The Genesee country be-
tween the headwaters of the Mohawk and Lake Erie was the favorite
choice, but still farther west lay a region less fertile and more broken
where lands were cheaper. Those who could not pay New York prices
fixed their attention upon this New Connecticut, otherwise known as
the Western Reserve. The interest thus centered upon the southern
20. Archer B. Hulbert, Historic Highways of America, VII (Cleveland,
1903), 135-150.
21. American State Papers, Miscellaneous, I (Washington, 1834), 769-
789.
12 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
shore of Lake Erie grew and the number seeking a shorter route
than that via Oswego increased. Accordingly, in 1800 a road was cut
from the Genesee River to the mouth of Ruffalo Creek, where the
village beginnings of the future city were already in existence. ^^
During the following years, this became one of the principal high-
ways of migration; and when a branch was laid out to Lewistown
opposite the thriving settlements in Upper Canada, Yankees bound
for the Reserve mingled with families moving to the British colony.
Western Upper Canada exerted a powerful attraction upon west-
ward migrants who thoughtfully compared the friendliness of the
Indians toward the British with their hostility toward the Ameri-
cans.^^
By 1812 the eastern half of Lake Erie, Canadian as well as
American, was ringed with settlement and there was every prospect
that the process would be continued until the line of pioneers moving
north of the lake would be joined at the western end by that follow-
ing the opposite shore. But as a result of the war from 1812 to 1815
almost the whole American current was turned into Ohio, where for a
time most of it was absorbed. Detroit, farther on, was an old-estab-
lished post and into its environs came the advance guard of the
column, taking over the farms of the French and establishing them-
selves as merchants in the ambitious villages in the vicinity. How-
ever, the territory of Michigan lay outside the channel that gave
direction to the movement. Instead of turning to the north and fill-
ing in the peninsula between Lake Huron and Lake Michigan, it
continued to the west, reaching by the early 1830's Chicago and the
prairies stretching to the Mississippi.
The westward movement, as a whole, or in any of its parts, was
never constant or steady. Periods of rapid advance alternated with
periods in which progress was slow. But during each pause there
took place a filling in of areas that had been left unoccupied, even
although this process occasionally involved an almost complete re-
22. James H. Hotchkin, A History of the Purchase and Settlement of
Western New York (New York, 1848), 20.
23. For two contemporary investigations of comparative advantages, see
Michael Smith, A Geographical View of the British Possessions in North
America (Baltimore, 1814), Preface and passim; P. Campbell, op. cit., pas-
sim.
THE UNITY OF THE WESTWARD MOVEMENT 13
versal in direction. When the pioneers reached the prairies, hesita-
tion was inevitable. They knew only woodland farming; they were
dependent on the forest for wood and game; rivers and lakes were
essential links in the lines of communication which tied them to mar-
kets. W^ithout the sod plow, coal, and cheap lumber, and above all
the railroad, an attack upon the prairie was hopeless. It did not be-
come general until the 1850's.^*
The preceding fifteen years had been marked by many confusing
crosscurrents of population movement. One phase was the entwining
of lines of advance that had hitherto been entirely Canadian with
those that had been entirely American. All parts of the northern
Atlantic coast population base were now for the first time ready to
throw their forces into a joint conquest. Settlement that had risen
to the top of the New England hills started to recede when the farm-
ers, feeling the competition of the West, joined their competitors.
Their French neighbors on the north, forced to choose between at-
tempting to make homes in the inhospitable lands back from the St.
Lawrence and emigration to the alien states to the south and west of
them, were beginning to choose the latter. The slow process of inter-
nal expansion, accelerated by a fairly continuous flow of Americans
and Old Countrymen, had occupied most of the agriculturally de-
sirable parts of what is now the province of Ontario, and the chil-
dren of the households in that region, in lieu of a Canadian West,
were obhged to center their plans for fortune upon the West of the
Republic. Montreal and New York exported the timber and wheat
of the pioneer settlements and the returning vessels carried back to
their home ports migrating Europeans who were also in search of
land.
The upper lakes were the common highway of all these people.
The Irishman who landed at Montreal traveled up the St. Lawrence,
along the length of Lake Ontario, and by the Welland Canal
(opened in 1829) reached the steamboats on Lake Erie ; the German
who disembarked at New York followed the well-established route of
the Hudson River and Erie Canal to the same point; New Eng-
landers. New Yorkers, and Canadians were their fellow passengers
and, as they passed along by lake and river to the Straits of Macki-
24. W. P. Webb, The Great Plains (Boston, 1931).
14 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
nac and into Lake Michigan, representatives of the various groups
left them at every port of call.
Michigan, hitherto neglected, was the first state to profit from this
merging of the westbound streams of migrants. The early Yankee
settlers had established a few tiers of counties across the bottom of
the state and men from New York and New England j oined with the
children of these pioneers in an advance northward, township by
township, into the interior. To spread from Ontario across the St.
Clair River into the wooded valleys of the rivers that flow into Sagi-
naw Bay was a natural continuation of the movement that had
brought Canadians to the shores of their own Georgian Bay. French
Canadians from Quebec learned of small settlements of trappers and
Indian traders who spoke their language and were devoted to the
same faith ; thereafter each of these communities expanded by accre-
tion. Occasionally Germans and Irishmen (often because they had no
means to go farther) stopped at one of the numerous harbors on the
rim of the peninsula and, starting as laborers, became farmers and
permanent settlers. But the majority of the foreign-born continued
across Lake Michigan to the eastern shore of Wisconsin where a
northward movement, not unlike that under way in Michigan, was
creeping up toward Milwaukee and Green Bay.^^
When the railroad revolutionized transportation, it not only
shortened both the distance and the duration of the trip to the West ;
it gave to the current of population expansion an even more pro-
nounced unity than it had hitherto possessed.^® Seventeenth-century
explorers from Quebec had learned from the Indians of the trail that
led from the head of Lake Erie to the head of Lake Michigan, and
the "Chicago Road" which was constructed in the 1820's across the
peninsula from Detroit was only an improvement of the red man's
path. The surveyors who chose the course of the Michigan Central
Railroad did not wander far from the primitive route and after
1852, when trains were running the entire distance, the passengers
for the West gained several days by transferring from steamboat to
25. Joseph Schafer, Four Wisconsin Counties: Prairie and Forest (Madi-
son, 1927), 64-68.
26. W. J. Wilgus, The Railway Interrelations of the United States and
Canada (New Haven, 1937), 39, 40, 122.
THE UNITY OF THE WESTWARD MOVEMENT 15
railroad at Detroit. In the meantime the building of the New York
Central had made unnecessary the tedious trip by canal. The lake
journey from Buffalo to Detroit was the only gap in an all-rail
route from New York to Chicago.
Passenger agents and investors, looking at the map, realized the
advantages that would attend the construction of a line across On-
tario connecting at each terminus with an American railroad. In-
stead of a water journey of 'from twenty-four to thirty-six hours
on a lake on which navigation could be as dangerous as on the At-
lantic, a trip of only nine hours was promised. Not local traffic
within the province but the possibility of carrying the freight and
passengers that accumulated at Buffalo and Chicago from the lines
that radiated, fanlike, from either city was the inducement glow-
ingly portrayed in the prospectus. ^^ When completed in 1854 it bore
the appropriate name of "Great Western Railway." Here, between
1851 and 1856, John A. Roebling built his great suspension
bridge.^^
A second link was finished in 1879, when the Canadian Grand
Trunk Railway acquired control of several short Michigan lines and
by building connecting sections secured entrance into Chicago from
Port Huron, opposite its previous terminus at Sarnia. This line,
combined with extensions from Montreal reaching across New Eng-
land, provided another through system from the seaports on the
Atlantic to the central continental junction point at Chicago. ^^ With
the increase in the volume of middle western agricultural exports,
the great prize sought after by all companies engaged in transpor-
tation was a substantial share of this eastbound traffic; and in ac-
cordance with the general principle that migration and trade flow in
the same channel (although usually in reverse directions) Chicago
27. Charles B, Stuart, Report on the Great Western Railway, Canada
West, to the President and Directors (n.p., 1847), 2, 5, 7, 16, 19-22, 35.
28. American Railroad Journal, XXVII (New York, 1854), 105. W. J.
Wilgus, op. cit., 160.
29. William H. Breithaupt, "Outline of the History of the Grand Trunk
Railway of Canada," The Railway and Locomotive Historical Society Bulle-
tin, No. 23 (Boston, 1930), 37-74. See also G. P. deT. Glazebrook, A History
of Transportation in Canada (Toronto, 1938), 313—318.
16 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
became the immediate destination of westward-moving North Ameri-
cans and the distributing point for the population that was spread-
ing through the Mississippi and Missouri valleys.
During the quarter of a century that followed the close of the
Civil War in the United States the history of the economic develop-
ment of North America may be written in terms of the railroads.
They were not only carriers of commerce and people ; they were land
companies, endowed with millions of acres that had been granted as
an encouragement to construction; and the location of these lands
together with the poHcies adopted by the companies for their dis-
posal determined the destination and, in some degree, the extent of
the contemporary westward movement. Even the taking up of free
homestead lands was influenced by the facilities offered by the trans-
portation systems.
The area thus peopled by the railroads was the trans-Mississippi
Middle West : Iowa, Minnesota, the Dakotas, Nebraska, and Kansas.
The settlement of this region, between 1865 and 1890, was the great
population phenomenon of the time. To every American east of -the
Mississippi it was "the West" ; the Canadian, whether in New Bruns-
wick or Ontario, had it in mind when he spoke of "the West" ; and
every foreigner who landed in New York or Quebec with the inten-
tion of proceeding to "the West" meant that one of these states or
territories was his chosen destination. There was, it is true, a rival
West — new provinces and territories beyond Lake Superior which
the Canadian had in mind when he emphasized the pronoun in the
expression "our West." Manitoba in particular had its enthusiastic
advocates and for a short period in the early 'eighties, while the
transcontinental Canadian Pacific Railway was being built, pioneers
streamed out onto its prairies and built up mushroom towns with a
recklessness that only the wildest "booms" in the States could par-
allel. But in spite of the remarkable character of the years from
1880 to 1882, the peopling of the Canadian part of the Red River
Valley was only an offshoot from the far greater if less spectacular
column of settlers who were filling in every unoccupied quarter sec-
tion south of the forty-ninth parallel and east of the plains. They
traveled over the same railroad lines to Chicago, continued in the
company of many bound to Minnesota and the Dakotas through St.
THE UNITY OF THE WESTWARD MOVEMENT 17
Paul and on to Fargo, and did not finally part from their compan-
ions until the Canadian border was reached.
The pause that began in the late 'eighties and continued for well
over a decade was another period of consolidation. Novel problems
of crops, cultivation, and milhng were the local accompaniments of a
world-wide depression. "Hard times" was the term generally apphed
to the situation in which the pioneers found themselves : little money
because trainloads of new neighbors were not daily disembarking
upon the station platforms ; no improvements and Httle construction
because no one was building for the future; granaries glutted and
prices low because every farm now had a surplus of grain to send
to market. Irrespective of whether Winnipeg or Kansas City was
the marketing point, the newly established farmers suffered from the
same general conditions, but all were destined to profit from the
same forces of recovery. The recent expansion in the world's gold
production was reflected in a general rise of prices, beginning about
1895, and at once the rich prairie farms came into their own. Older
agricultural regions of the continent could seldom compete with the
fertile West in grain and livestock production, and if acres were not
abandoned, they were frequently converted into mixed farms and
dairy pasture. Freed from competitors, the Middle West had the
grain market of the world for its own. Prices demanded for land
gradually rose and finally reached a point that put it out of the
reach of the "hired man" who had aspirations of ownership and be-
yond the means of the farmers' sons who were eager to set up farm
homes of their own. A new Aufmarschgebiet which was merely the
historical projection of the old area along the Atlantic had been
created, and it was now ready to send out its sons and daughters and
its acclimatized and trained immigrants to new conquests wherever
opportunities might appear.
There was an immediate "West" for the Middle West, but it was
an empire of ranches and mines, scattered upon the semiarid plains
and among the mountains. Adventure in plenty was available for all ;
but it was not adventure and excitement that the young people of
the Middle West wanted. A hundred and sixty acres of wheatland
which he could cultivate by the methods that he already knew was
the physical expression of the young farmer's ambition. There was
18 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
no prospect of fulfilling this ambition in the old neighborhood; he
had to look beyond, and his choice lay between a Southwest and a
Northwest. Again the advertisers were in the field; agents swarmed
in the rural districts describing the opportunities offered by the
lands that they had for sale, and the special rates that every rail-
road gave to land seekers encouraged a wide response. The South-
west had many attractions in chmate, government projects of irri-
gation, and modified homestead provisions. But it was the North-
west which embodied most of the features that had made the old
West a promised land and in that direction the renewed current of
migration flowed.
The Northwest was the Canadian West, which now at last came
into the full sweep of the onward advance of population expansion.^"
Direct railroad connection with the other provinces in the East had
been established and the transcontinental lines on the American side
had built branches up to the boundary to tap the great supplies of
wheat for which the eastern ports and the European markets still
clamored. Foreigners and North Americans alike realized that again,
and perhaps for the last time, the possibility of obtaining a farm
merely by labor was at hand, and from 1902 to 1913 every spring
witnessed a procession of trains crowded with new pioneers and every
year recorded vast areas put under the plow. The international
boundary meant as little to the American farmers from the Middle
West as two decades before it had meant to the Ontario citizens who
had moved into the Mississippi Valley. From the Atlantic to the
Pacific the conquest of a wilderness of forest and prairie had been
their common task. At last the western ocean was reached and the
ranks of the army were demobilized and scattered.
Of the four columns that set out to cross the continent, that which
followed the northern route retained an identity that is recognizable.
The others mingled almost as soon as they had passed the Appala-
chians, to form the population of the Old Southwest — the states of
Kentucky and Tennessee. This region was, in turn, the base of a
further advance, sending out caravans of pioneers down to the Gulf
coast, across the Mississippi to Texas and over the Ohio into the Old
30. A. S. Morton and C. Martin, History of Prairie Settlement and "Do-
minion Lands" Policy (Toronto, 1938).
.'ri«7<.i«cni«-wrs3>^*4trw. ■■ ■ ■ - -'.dtMirnir.rtirr-r-^^^f^Wir^cfiiKAiimcrifSsuieeidn:^^
THE UNITY OF THE WESTWARD MOVEMENT 19
Northwest, and finally into the valley of the Missouri. The stream
of population which gradually wound its way along the Missouri
was the most direct continuation of the pioneer movement over the
mountains. However, it again tended to be lost as it spread over the
plains, providing first trappers, and then cowboys and ranchmen,
who were forced by incoming farmers farther and farther up into
the American Northwest until they also were beyond the interna-
tional line. Here, in Alberta, they enjoyed a brief period of ranch-
ing prosperity which at last met an inevitable end when the railroad
and the farmer took possession of the prairie provinces. ^^
Ultimately, descendants of the men and women who had moved in
every army of North American pioneers reached the British posses-
sions to the north — some as trappers, cattlemen, or farmers in the
foothills of the Rockies, others as miners, lumbermen, or fishermen
along the shores of the Pacific. Meanwhile, industrialization and
urbanization, both closely related to westward expansion and to the
increased production which accompanied it, were setting up new cur-
rents of North American migration from one end of the continent to
the other. Their interdependence, involving as it did both domestic
and international migrations, requires detailed examination of
causes, extent, and direction. Yet this can be made only after the
continental westward movement is understood. There was unity
within the westward movement and that unity makes clearer the pat-
tern that lies beneath the confusing wanderings in which the Ameri-
cans and Canadians were constantly engaged.
31. Manitoba Free Press (Winnipeg), Nov. 26, 1906. C. M. Maclnnes, In
the Shadow of the Rockies (London, 1930).
CHAPTER II
THE ESTABLISHMENT OF AN
ATLANTIC BASE
1604-1775
The westward march of the people of the United States and Canada
is such a romantic and colorful epic that it has dominated the dis-
cussion of the population history of both nations. But before they
could get under way, like any other advancing army, the North
Americans needed to create a base, and not until after 1815 had this
preliminary work been entirely accomplished. For two centuries
after the arrival of the first permanent colonists in Acadia in 1604,
Europeans and their American descendants were engaged in occu-
pying the plains and lowlands that sloped back from the Atlantic;
at all promising harbors along the coast and at the mouths of rivers
the^T^ estabhshed towns, surrounded them with farms, and began. the
slow but steady expansion of agricultural communities that gradu-
ally merged into one another.
The trend of these movements was inevitably from north to south
or from south to north. The Atlantic was the first and for long the
most convenient route of communication ; the great rivers of English
colonial expansion — the Merrimack, Connecticut, Hudson, Delaware,
and Susquehanna in the north and the Shenandoah in the south —
ran almost parallel to the sea. The confusing details of seventeenth-
and eighteenth-century population history reveal the resultant proc-
esses in operation: New Englanders setthng in every colony to the
south, Virginians moving to Maryland, Marylanders crossing over
into Pennsylvania, and finally Pennsylvanians, Marylanders, and
Virginians moving south into the back regions of the Carolinas. This
weaving together of human stuff was not hmited to the thirteen con-
tinental provinces that became the United States. The West Indies
occupied an essential position as a southern approach and center of
dispersion; and to the north and east there existed another area
which, by its position and the economic pursuits which it fostered,
served as a way station on the route between the British Isles and the
most populous parts of the colonies in America.
THE ESTABLISHMENT OF AN ATLANTIC BASE 21
Between the remote outposts of New England (in the seventeenth
century no farther from Boston than the mouth of the Merrimack)
and the old fishing stations of Newfoundland stretched five hundred
miles of coast line on which settlements of only the most precarious
and scattered nature existed. Both France and Great Britain claimed
the peninsula made up of the present-day Maine and Maritime Prov-
inces that juts out into the Atlantic; and during the seventeenth
century Englishmen fought against Frenchmen there, as did even
the possessors of concessions which had emanated from the same
Crown. The meager exchange of population that took place before
1700 between the two areas was incidental to this uncertainty and
these struggles. Expeditions of freebooting New Englanders at-
tempted to establish posts to the northeast of their home territory,
and deserting French soldiers and company servants sought refuge
in Boston.^
Entirely different was the situation with regard to Newfound-
land. The fisheries were prosperous and every season hundreds of
vessels from Europe visited its shores ; contemporaries compared the
island to a great ship anchored in the North Atlantic and this island
was recognized as one stopping place on the immigrant route to
America. For here the trading vessels from New England joined the
fishermen from the Old World and, when they returned to Massachu-
setts and Rhode Island, they brought with them deserters from the
British ships and servants who had tired of the dull routine of the
fish-drying stations on the bleak Newfoundland coast. This transfer
probably began almost as early as North American colonization,
and by the closing decade of the seventeenth century had reached
such proportions that fishing-company ofllcials were constantly com-
plaining to the colonial authorities of the desertion of skilled hands,
and the Admiralty was concerned over the loss of able seamen whose
services the navy might need at any time.^ But the route was never
effectively barred; it continued to serve throughout the colonial
period, not being superseded until after 1815, when the timber ships
1. The confused history of this period is outlined in J. B. Brebner, New
England's Outpost, Acadia before the Conquest of Canada (New York,
1927), 15-56, and the history of the region from 1710 to 1760 is taken up in
greater detail.
2. Susan M. Kingsbury, The Records of the Virginia Company of London,
22 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
of New Brunswick, returning to St. John and St. Andrews, provided
a more direct connection with ports to the south for immigrants
whose ultimate destination was the United States.^
The southward drift of this migratory population is an indication
of the close connection that the commerce of the EngHsh colonies had
established with the more northerly and eastern regions of the con-
tinent. On land even more than on the sea the outlook was toward the
north. This was particularly true in New England and New York.
With the exception of a few scattered outposts up the river the
seventeenth-century Dutch were clustered about the mouth of the
Hudson. The neighboring Puritan pioneers had taken possession of
the coast of Long Island Sound, Cape Cod, and the shores of Massa-
chusetts Bay. It was as natural for the young generation of that
time to look toward the north as for their successors of a later gen-
eration to center their futures in the west. New and fertile lands lay
up the valleys of the Connecticut, the Merrimack, and the almost un-
known rivers of the District of Maine. Many American colonists,
above all those who sailed the sea as well as farmed the land, .had
already looked upon the shores of Acadia and had marked the wealth
of timber and fish which might be exploited there. The star of empire
led to the north.
But the path to empire was blocked by rivals and deadly enemies.
Every frontier farm beyond Albany was a stockade; every adven-
turous youth who started a clearing in central New England had to
keep on the alert for Indian war parties and French patrols. Cape
Cod fishermen who wanted to become farmers and traders on the de-
batable land beyond the Kennebec were driven off by the French
officials at Port Royal.* When war between England and France
I (Washington, 1906), 269. Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series,
America and West Indies, 1669-74 (London, 1889), 257; 1667-80 (1896),
418, 491, 600; 1681-85 (1898), 105, 294, 708; 1697-98 (1905), 554.
J.C.T.P., 1704-1708/09, 103. R. G. Lounsbury, The British Fishery at
Newfoundland (New Haven, 1934), passim.
3. M. L. Hansen, "The Second Colonization of New England," The New
England Quarterly, II (1929), 539-560.
4. William D. Williamson, The History of the State of Maine; from Its
First Discovery, A.D. 1602, to the Separation, A.D. 1820, Inclusive, I (Hal-
lowell, 1832), 248, 249, 250.
THE ESTABLISHMENT OF AN ATLANTIC BASE 23
broke out in 1689, French frontier policy undertook the offensive:
now they were no longer content to keep out the advancing English-
men; they would drive them back from positions already occupied.
On all but one of the sectors their policy was successful. Acadia was
too weak in people and resources to undertake any schemes of con-
quest ; and it was too remote from the seat of the French Empire and
too exposed to naval attack to resist any determined onslaught. In
1690 Sir William Phips led a raiding expedition of Massachusetts
farmers and fishermen against Port Royal and the Bay of Fundy
settlements. The Acadians returned thereafter to their ravaged
homes and held oif conquest until they were overwhelmed in 1710 by
an Anglo-American expedition originally designed to conquer Can-
ada. By the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 Acadia was finally trans-
ferred from France to England.
The acquisition was an area rich in resources but poor in people.
As in Canada, no active colonization had been carried on during the
last quarter of the seventeenth century and in 1713 the Acadians
numbered only about two thousand. Most of them were settled at the
head of the Bay of Fundy on the rich alluvial lands that had been
reclaimed by dikes from Chignecto Bay and the Basin of Minas ; the
original settlements were clustered about the fort and government
buildings at Port Royal; and a few transients were at isolated fish-
ing stations along the coast. If it were land that the empire needed,
here was enough of it to accommodate tens of thousands of colonists
without disturbing any of the already established inhabitants.^
Acadia was promptly rechristened Nova Scotia (the name given it
in 1621 by James I), but with the new province in its hands the
British government seemed to lose all desire to follow a vigorous pro-
gram of development. The older British colonies still had a stronger
"pull" for intending settlers. The native French were hostile, but
time, it was believed, would mollify this feehng and no positive dan-
ger was seen in their presence. No official plan of settlement was
adopted, although various suggestions were made, among which the
proposal that soldiers demobilized after the long era of wars be used
5. The description of Nova Scotia in 1720 by Major Paul Mascarene is
printed in T. B. Akins (ed.), Nova Scotia Archives, I (Halifax, 1869), 39-
49.
24 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
as a nucleus for British colonization received the most attention.®
Year after year passed and no decision was reached, while at the
capital (now called Annapolis) a royal governor ruled over a hand-
ful of merchants, the small garrison, and minor officials. A descrip-
tion of about the year 1748 complained that Nova Scotia "has
continued about 40 years to this time, a nominal British province
without any British settlement, only an insignificant preventative but
precarious fort and garrison.'" In the meantime, the Acadians pros-
pered and increased in number to about ten thousand without devel-
oping either any strong allegiance or antipathy to the British crown ;
but the establishment by the French of the greatest fortification in
the world at Louisbourg on the neighboring Cape Breton Island
served notice that they, at least, considered the fate of the peninsula
far from determined.
Toward the close of the decade of the 1740's the British govern-
ment felt that it could dally no longer with vague projects of coloni-
zation in this spot whose strategic position made it so vital to the
empire.^ New England, which had captured Louisbourg in -1745
only to see it handed back in territorial bargaining at the peace
negotiations of 1748, was clamoring for effective occupation of the
Nova Scotian mainland at least, and past failures to stimulate volun-
tary settlement in this debatable land made it clear that assisted
colonization would be necessary. London decided to act. The plans
included a fortress to balance the French possession of Louisbourg
and some neighboring agricultural communities that would provide
6. The various projects for the settlement of Nova Scotia can be followed
in the J.C.T.P., 17 08 / 09-17 U/ 15, 434, 469, 582, 599, 603; 17U/15-1718,
216, 231, 234, 235, 318, 322, 351 ; 1722/23-1728, 90, 91, 99, 114; 1728/29-
1734, 14, 26, 69, 104; 17^1/4.2-1749, 71, 165, 390.
7. William Douglass, A Summary, Historical and Political, of the First
Planting, Progressive Improvements and the Present State of the British
Settlements in North America, I (London, 1755), 330.
8. Two examples of the pamphlet propaganda of the time are: The Im-
portance of Cape Breton Considered in a Letter to a Member of Parliament
from an Inhabitant of New England (London, 1746), and [Otis Little], The
State of Trade in the Northern Colonies Considered with an Account of Their
Produce, and a Particular Description of Nova Scotia (London, 1748). Breb-
ner, op. cit., 166—202, contains a detailed, analytical account of the new ex-
periment in Nova Scotia.
THE ESTABLISHMENT OF AN ATLANTIC BASE 25
grain and cattle for the garrison. To secure the first, the city and
defenses at Hahf ax were constructed ; and the second was attempted
by offering bounties for agriculture on the rocky shores surrounding
the harbor.
The site chosen for Halifax was symbolic of its purpose in the
scheme of empire. It faced the open waters of the Atlantic, and in
the commodious harbor merchant vessels trading between England
and the colonies and fishing craft from New England might find
shelter from storms or refuge from an enemy. From the naval base
the royal fleet could readily provide protection for English com-
merce and offer a threat to the French connection with the St. Law-
rence.^ But the surroundings were not encouraging to an intending
farmer. The prospects were barren and the soil rocky ; by laborious
effort these lands might be prepared for cultivation, but that was a
task of years and while it was being accomplished only the bounty of
the government could maintain the new colonists.
Accordingly, early in 1749 announcement was made in London of
the inducements offered to persons who would volunteer to go to
Nova Scotia as farmers or artisans : transportation, temporary vict-
ualing, and land. Former soldiers were particularly favored.^** But
since it was doubtful whether a sufficient number would come for-
ward in England, agents on the Continent were authorized to pub-
hsh the terms in Holland and Germany. The response was satis-
factory in England and enthusiastic on the Continent. So many
Germans and French Swiss indicated a willingness to go and so many
of them started out for London at once without waiting for formal
registration that the Board of Trade finally directed that further
advertising should be suspended.^^
The first expedition, that of 1749, marked the founding of the
settlement, but the influx continued for some years. New England
soon reacted to the stimulus that this enterprise gave to business.
9. "Copy of a Letter from One of the Settlers in Nova Scotia, Dated Che-
bucto Harbor, July 28, 1749," The Gentleman's Magazine and Historical
Chronicle, XIX (1749), 408-410.
10. This proclamation is reprinted in the Boston News-Letter, May 4,
1749.
11. J.C.T.P., 17Jfl/Jt2-17Jf9, 390, 391, 393, 411, 423, 472; 17^9/50-
1753, 3, 51, 60, 62, 63, 65, 81, 88, 93, 115, 157, 183, 248, 261, 392.
26 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
The demand for building materials and supplies produced a lively
trade to the north and the call for competent workers assured em-
ployment to all who came as passengers. New England soldiers who
had served in the recent campaigns were given the same inducements
that had been offered in the Old World/^ During the first year ap-
proximately a thousand arrivals from the colonies to the south were
noted and an official dispatch referred to them as "the best of
settlers."''
As many attempts before and since have demonstrated, the Euro-
pean immigrant with no experience in the wilderness made at best an
indifferent pioneer. The continental Europeans who were brought
to Nova Scotia remained ; there was little else they could do. But the
detailed and heavily subsidized plans to foster agriculture in the
vicinity of Halifax did not materialize in cultivated farms or garden
plots. Finally, in 1753, a new township was laid out at a more prom-
ising location to the south of the capital. In this township (named
Lunenburg) about fifteen hundred Germans and Swiss, transported
from Halifax, were planted. But it was a costly venture. For nine
years they were supported from the public stores before they could
care for themselves; and at the close of that period desertions had
appreciably reduced their numbers.'* Undoubtedly the expense and
confusion entailed in that experiment, contrasted with the aptitude
of the New Englanders, persuaded the government to invite in more
of the latter when next it undertook planned settlement.
The principal obstacle to the settlement of the peninsula was the
presence not of Germans but of Frenchmen — the native Acadians
who inhabited the most fertile meadows and who resisted by word
and deed the entry of any interlopers. Small colonies sent out from
the older Acadian settlements had gradually occupied all desirable
spots on the Bay of Fundy and continuation of this process would
inevitably hinder future British expansion in that direction. Many
12. The Gentleman's Magazine and Historical Chronicle, XIX (1749),
571—572. The London Magazine or Gentlemen's Monthly Intelligencer, XIX
(May, 1750), 196-197. Boston News-Letter, June 29, July 6, Aug. 17, 1749.
13. J.C.T.P., 1749/50-1753, 4, 116.
14. "Description and State of the New Settlements in Nova Scotia in
1761, by the Chief Surveyor," P.A.C.R., 190^., 289-300.
THE ESTABLISHMENT OF AN ATLANTIC BASE 27
of the foreign settlers who had been brought in and colonized at
public expense were deserting to the Acadian villages where they
were welcomed so warmly that others were encouraged to follow/^
Another struggle between the two rival powers was impending. The
local authorities beheved that the continued presence of the alien
group would be fatal when war did break out because it was appar-
ent already that the French of Canada and Cape Breton would make
it impossible for them to remain neutral. They hstened to the voices
of those advisers who said that expulsion was the only remedy : get
rid of them all — men, women, and children — and substitute for the
traitors a loyal and industrious population who were acquainted with
the agriculture of the New World and equipped to subdue the wil-
derness/^
In 1755, alarmed by news of Braddock's crushing defeat in the
Ohio country, the governor of Nova Scotia, Charles Lawrence,
reached a decision. Several prominent New Englanders to whose
counsel he lent his ear urged the most drastic of action and it was to
a Massachusetts officer. Colonel John Winslow, that the unpleasant
task of removing the Acadians was assigned. ^^ September was the
month chosen for the deportation. The residents were summoned
from the farms and herded together in the village churches ; their
fate was declared to them and then they were transferred to the wait-
ing ships. Crops that had been harvested were destroyed, the live-
stock confiscated, and all but a few buildings standing on remote
farms were burned. Such was the first step in the most violent popu-
15. P.A.C.R., 1894, 87, 194, 196, 197, 199.
16. The advisability of expulsion was discussed as early as 1745. Governor
Shirley of Massachusetts favored the removal of only those who were con-
sidered obnoxious ; Captain Charles Knowles, the governor of Louisbourg,
desired complete eradication. Brebner, op. cit., 122—133. Charles H. Lincoln
(ed.). Correspondence of William Shirley, I (New York, 1912), xxvi, 336,
354, 370, 371.
17. The decision to expel the Acadians was made by Lawrence and five
members of his council, three of whom were New Englanders, and all of
whom had been actively concerned for ten years in New England's expansive
policy. Brebner, op. cit., 203-233. For a contrasted account of this long-dis-
puted matter, see E. Lauvriere, La Tragedie d'un peuple (2d ed., 2v., Paris,
1926).
28 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
lation revolution in the history of the New World — the uprooting of
a well-established people.^^
Forced though it was, the expulsion was a form of migration. Of
the thousands who were expelled from their homes, perhaps two thou-
sand avoided seizure or escaped from the soldiers ; the rest, about six
thousand, were packed into transports and landed, some in each
colony, from Massachusetts to Georgia. Transportation was not
enough; the French blood must be diffused. To each colony was as-
signed a "quota," and in turn some of the colonies apportioned their
contingent of "French neutrals" among counties and towns in the
hope that in the even spread any perils inherent in their presence
might be dissipated.^^ During the next generation the Acadians
showed extraordinary determination in retaining their separate
identity. After the most varied vicissitudes in North America from
St. Pierre and Miquelon to the West Indies during the 'sixties, sub-
stantial groups reestablished themselves in Nova Scotia, Canada,
France, and Louisiana. A considerable number, however, could not
get away from the colonies to which they had been sent, and .were
lost in the general population — immigrants whose "Americaniza-
tion" was as rapid and significant as that of any other ahen group. ^°
For three years the lands lay waste ; the waters of the Bay broke
through the uncared-for dikes and flooded the luxuriant meadows.
18. The journal of Colonel Winslow is printed in the Collections of the
Nova Scotia Historical Society, III and IV (Halifax^ 1883 and 1885).
19. An extensive collection of documents relating to the expulsion and dis-
persion of the Acadians is printed in Placide Gaudet, "Acadian Genealogy
and Notes/' P.A.C.R., 1905, U, Appendix A: Bibliography, 357-361. See
also Ernest Martin, Les Exiles acadiens en France au XVIIIe siecle et leur
etablissement en Poitou and L'Evangeline de Longfellow et la suite merveil-
leuse d'un poeme (both Paris, 1936) ; and S. T. McCloy, "French Charities
to the Acadians, 1755—1799," Louisiana Historical Quarterly, XXI (July,
1938), 656-668.
20. Some estimate of the French element in the colonial population is made
in M. L. Hansen, "The Minor Stocks in the American Population of 1790,"
Report of the American Historical Association, 1931, I, Proceedings (Wash-
ington, 1932), 380-390. For the Acadians see 387, 389. See also R. A. Hud-
nut and Hayes Baker-Crothers, "Acadian Transients in South Carolina,"
American Historical Review, XLIII (April, 1938), 500—513; G. S. Brookes,
Friend Anthony Benezet (Philadelphia, 1937); and M. B. Hamer, "The
Fate of the Exiled Acadians in South Carolina," Journal of Southern His-
THE ESTABLISHMENT OF AN ATLANTIC BASE 29
The general war and the guerrilla raids in Nova Scotia were never
absent from the minds of administrators and people, and so long as
the French were secure behind the moats of Louisbourg all schemes
of occupying the Acadian lands had to be postponed. But in 1758
the French stronghold again fell before the assault of the British
Navy and New England militiamen and this time everyone knew
that, whatever the outcome of the war, diplomats would not dare to
take it out of the hand of the victors. Conditions now seemed favor-
able for the settlers to come.
Governor Lawrence of Nova Scotia was prepared to act. On Octo-
ber 12, 1758, he issued a proclamation inviting the loyal inhabitants
of the neighboring colonies to form associations that would be en-
couraged with liberal grants of land and assistance during the first
trying months of pioneering. ^^ To his surprise the response was not
great. New Englanders wanted to be assured of something besides
land : What would be the nature of the government ? Would there be
a popular assembly .^^ What assurance would be extended that the
local institutions which meant so much to them in church and com-
munity hfe would not be tampered with?
The governor was quick to respond. A second proclamation came
from his hand on January 11, 1759. In this document the constitu-
tion of Nova Scotia was explained, the franchise qualifications de-
scribed, and a guarantee of civil and religious liberties was ex-
tended. ^^ With this clarification the hoped-for interest on the part of
residents of the more southern colonies was at once revealed. But
active response was slow. War was still in progress; facilities for a
mass movement by individuals were lacking, and the colonizing asso-
tory, IV (May, 1938), 199—208. For the reestablishment of some Acadians
in Nova Scotia and the emigration of others, see J. B. Brebner, The Neutral
Yankees of Nova Scotia (New York, 1937), 44-49, 102-109. For their set-
tlement in Louisiana see E. Martin's volumes cited above.
21. Boston News-Letter, Nov. 2, 1758. The migration from New England
and the life of the province to the end of the American Revolution are dis-
cussed in detail in Brebner, Neutral Yankees, cited.
22. The second proclamation, which answers some of the questions that
had arisen concerning Nova Scotia, appears in the Boston News-Letter, Feb.
15, 1759, and is also printed in W. O. Raymond, "Col. Alexander McNutt
and the Pre-Loyalist Settlements of Nova Scotia," R.S.C., 1911 (Ottawa),
Sec. ii, 23—115, Appendixes.
30 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
ciations which the governor hoped would overcome this handicap
took time to organize, and even then lacked the capital and equip-
ment with which they might swiftly have accomplished their pur-
poses.
Judged by the standards of the time, the movement that followed
was a migration of unusual proportions. The field of settlement was
widened beyond the rather restricted limits of the deserted Acadian
acres. Every land association that was formed was invited to send a
committee to Hahfax where they would be provided with guides to
conduct them on exploring expeditions to whatever part of the
province they desired to view, and during 1759 and 1760 several
such delegations were engaged in sp3ang out the land, keeping in
mind the future possibilities of any particular location as well as its
present advantages. ^^ In general, the relatively barren southern
shore of the peninsula, facing the gales of the Atlantic, was neg-
lected, preference being given to the more sheltered coast line, well
studded with harbors, and the sunny, fertile farm lands that bor-
dered on the Bay of Fundy. Only the groups that had fishing, and
lumbering opportunities in mind planted themselves beside the open
Atlantic at convenient harbors along the South and Cape Sable
shores.
The lure of highly advertised lands was not the only factor that
set the northbound trek in motion. Certain areas in the older prov-
inces were like crowded beehives with occupants ready to swarm, and
the announcement of the new opportunities coincided with an eco-
nomic pressure that fell heavily upon the inhabitants of those places.
Emigrants set out from all the colonies north of Maryland, but the
overwhelming majority came from all parts of New England, no-
tably from eastern Massachusetts, eastern Connecticut, Rhode
Island, and the islands off the coast. The townships of this long-
settled and closely held area were congested with people, men with
young families who for years had been eager to strike out into the
wilderness, but who had been deterred by the unsettled status of a
23. The journal of Henry Evans, a land explorer for a Massachusetts asso-
ciation, is printed in W. A. Calnek, History of the County of Annapolis In-
cluding Old Port Royal and Acadia (Toronto, 1897), 148—151. See also The
New London Summary, Feb. 16, 1759; Oct. 24, Nov. 28, 1760; Feb. 20,
March 20, 1761.
M
THE ESTABLISHMENT OF AN ATLANTIC BASE 31
frontier where pioneers were too often the victims in the bitter con-
test between France and Great Britain and between their colonies.^*
Although this crowded area was part of three distinct colonial
jurisdictions, the sea gave it a unity otherwise lacking. The Atlantic
was a great highway and enterprising men sailed its waters in trad-
ing from place to place along the coast and in the more extensive
journeys with flour and fish to the West Indies and the shores of
Europe and Africa. But war interrupted the trade and French pri-
vateers seized the vessels that ventured beyond the protection of the
British Navy. It was dangerous for the fishermen of Cape Cod to
sail for the more distant banks; Nantucket whalers did not dare
start on long expeditions; and legal exports to the West Indies
practically came to an end.^^ The farmers who depended upon the
market that fishermen and traders provided suffered financial re-
verses as acute as those that depressed the towns. The newspapers of
1757 and 1758 bear evidence of the wartime depression in the col-
umns of advertising of bankruptcy proceedings;^^ and contempo-
rary observers comment on the decaying state of trade, the oppres-
sive burden of taxes incurred by the expense of keeping thousands
of men under arms, and the great deflation in the value of lands.
War brought its usual heritage of debts, of farms and shops lost by
mortgage, and of men discouraged by the experiences through which
they were passing. ^^
24. The importance of the problems concerning population and settlement
in the colonies is indicated by a report made by the Lords of Trade, June 8,
1763, which is printed in Adam Shortt and Arthur G. Doughty (eds.). Docu-
ments Relating to the Constitutional History of Canada, 1759—1791 (new
and revised ed., 2v., Ottawa, 1918), I, 132—147. See also Ian F. MacKinnon,
Settlements and Churches in Nova Scotia 174-9—1776 (Montreal, 1930), 39,
42. For the effects of land monopoly in the older colonies see R. H. Akagi,
The Town Proprietors of the New England Colonies (Philadelphia, 1924).
25. The difficulties under which the Quaker fishermen of Nantucket at-
tempted to carry on their trade and which led to their emigration to Nova
Scotia are described in Arthur G. Dorland, A History of the Society of
Friends (Quakers) in Canada (Toronto, 1927), 30, 31.
26. See, for example, the issues of the Boston News-Letter, Dec, 1757, to
April, 1758.
27. Andrew Burnaby, Travels through the Middle Settlements in North
America in the Years 1759 and 1760 (3d ed., London, 1798), 99, 111, 112.
Franklin B. Dexter (ed.). Extracts from the Itineraries and Other Miscel-
lanies of Ezra Stiles (New Haven, 1916), 50, 81.
32 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
The empty French farmsteads about the Basin of Minas natu-
rally attracted the first venturers to Nova Scotia. Perhaps the reports
of the New England militiamen who had herded out the unfortunate
Acadians had circulated among the would-be emigrants. In any case,
companies of settlers were readily formed in Rhode Island and east-
ern Connecticut and plans for moving in the fall of 1759 were drawn
up. But a threatened Indian war, in which the Frenchmen skulking
about on the isthmus between the Bay of Fundy and the Gulf of St.
Lawrence were suspected of having a part, postponed all activity
until after the fall of Quebec in September. This victory, together
with the surrender of the scattered Acadians who came into the mili-
tary forts and gave themselves up as prisoners of war, promised a
reasonable assurance of peace. But it was then too late in the season
to undertake any ventures. ^^
In the spring of 1760 the northward movement got under way.
From Salem, Boston, Plymouth, Providence, and New London ships
sailed for the new lands carrying the organized bands. In some cases
passengers were so numerous that a fleet of vessels was necessary.
The most famous of all was that made up of six transports which
departed from New London in June bound for the settlement at
Horton.^® With the professional aid of the captive Acadians the
dikes were repaired and the fields reclaimed for cultivation. The
townships of Cornwalhs, Horton, and Falmouth were begun, new
settlers came to Annapolis and Granville, Liverpool was founded,
other sites were investigated on the South and Cape Sable shores,
and all was ready for an acceleration of the movement in the follow-
mg sprmg.
During 1761 four new Minas townships began : the Rhode Island-
ers at Newport, and the Ulstermen, drawn partly from Massachu-
28. P.A.C.R., 189^, 217. Ray G. Huling, "The Rhode Island Emigration
to Nova Scotia," The Narragansett Historical Register, VII (Providence,
1889), 89-135.
29. W. A, Calnek, op. cit., 150. Arthur W. H. Eaton, The History of Kings
County, Nova Scotia (Salem, Mass., 1910), 67. The New York Mercury,
June 2, 30, Nov. 10, 1760.
30. Boston News-Letter, June 26, 1760. Arthur W. H. Eaton, op. cit., 67.
Benjamin Rand, "Glimpses of the Past: The New England Emigration,"
The Saint Croix Courier, Sept. 15, 22, 1892.
THE ESTABLISHMENT OF AN ATLANTIC BASE 33
setts and New Hampshire and partly from Ireland, who opened up
Truro, Onslow, and Londonderry at the eastern end of the basin.^^
These famihes and their predecessors of the previous year received
assistance in varying degree, an expense of which the Board of
Trade in London did not approve. But their prohibition did not
arrive early enough to influence provincial policy in the year 1761
and not until 1762 did it go even partially into effect.^" Meanwhile,
individuals and famihes continued to join relatives and friends who
had preceded them.^^ With the establishment of these townships, the
main outlines of the settlement about the Minas Basin were drawn.
To the northwest at the head of the Bay there were three embryonic
townships, but much of the land in that region was reserved for
other projects — an organized emigration from Ireland and a pro-
posed colony to be made up of the soldiers who would be disbanded
when the war was over.^*
An attempt was made to develop the vicinity of the old provincial
capital and two townships, Annapohs and Granville, were founded.
But the area did not stand in high favor with the prospectors for
new lands, and the presence of government reserves raised questions
as to the possibility of expansion. ^^ Higher hopes were attached to
the series of townships projected at harbors of the Cape Sable and
South shores whose combination of river meadows, thick forest, and
proximity to the fisheries might ultimately, it was believed, supplant
Cape Cod and Nantucket in the affections of emigrants from those
places, many of whom came with famihes and equipment in their own
ships. These newcomers planned to engage in farming and lumber-
ing as well as fishing, in order to be less dependent upon the uncer-
tain fortunes of the sea.^®
31. Edward L. Parker, The History of Londonderry, Comprising the
Towns of Derry and Londonderry, N.H. (Boston, 1851), 98, 200, 201. Ben-
jamin Rand, "New England Settlements in Acadia," Annual Report of the
American Historical Association for the Year 1890, 42.
32. P.A.C.R., 1894,228.
33. Boston News-Letter, Jan. 8, 15, March 19, May 7, 21, 1761; March
25, 1762.
34. P. A. CM., 1904, 296, 297.
35. Thomas C. Haliburton, An Historical and Statistical Account of Nova
Scotia, II (Halifax, 1829), 154.
36. Edwin Crowell, A History of Barrington Township and Vicinity,
34 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
Although the majority of the emigrants settled in the present-
day Nova Scotia, the foundation of the future province of New
Brunswick was also laid. The wilderness north of the Bay of Fundy
was in 1760 governed from Halifax and the officials were therefore
authorized to include parts of this territory in their grants. But at
first the region had a manifest disadvantage. Any settlement located
on the coast would back directly up against the primeval forest
peopled by Indians who would not for some time reahze that they
were now dependent on the English and must abandon their hostile
attitude. For traders and trappers the region had a powerful ap-
peal, and the first place that was occupied (Portland Point at the
mouth of the St. John River) was largely a post for the Indian
trade. But the hinterland that opened up along the valley of the
river was possessed of so many advantages in timber and soil that
the traders were soon followed by farmers, and in the years that fol-
lowed 1760 there was a substantial infiltration of settlers from the
lower colonies who located on the banks of the St. John and in the
valley of the neighboring St. Croix.®^
The obvious advantages to be gained from colonizing the Acadian
farm lands in Nova Scotia naturally attracted a cluster of official
and private speculators who gathered round the dispensers of land
in London and Halifax to snatch what profits they could. The earli-
est and most flamboyant of them was Colonel Alexander McNutt, a
Virginian gentleman of Ulster descent, who from 1760 to 1765 be-
wildered most onlookers by the contrast between the grandiose de-
signs he sketched and the meager results he attained.^^ In 1765 he
escorted to Nova Scotia a group of promoters from the Middle
Colonies who apphed for some 8,000,000 acres and secured about
Shelburne County, Nova Scotia, 1604-1870 (Yarmouth, N.S., n.d.), 85, 86,
104, 106, 109, 110, 115. George S. Brown, Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. A Sequel
to Campbell's History (Boston, 1888), 127. On pages 159—161 is a list of
settlers giving the year of arrival and place from which they came. For the
other coastal townships, see Brebner, Neutral Yankees, 52—56, 112—113.
37. William F. Ganong, "A Monograph on the Origins of Settlements in
the Province of New Brunswick," R.S.C., 1906, Sec. ii, 3—185, especially 42—
52: "The English Period (1760-1783)." The New London Summary, Sept.
26, 1760.
38. W. O. Raymond, op. cit. Brebner, Neutral Yankees, 37-41, 96-100.
The New York Mercury, Nov. 2, 1761.
THE ESTABLISHMENT OF AN ATLANTIC BASE 35
2,500,000 acres, including a township at Pictou in which Benjamin
FrankHn had an interest and which was known for some years as the
Philadelphia Plantation.^'' McNutt had hoped to organize a great
migration from the north of Ireland, but had been checked when the
Privy Council forbade such a movement for fear of depopulation/"
Now he and his associates planned to divert northeastward the men
and women of the Middle Colonies who were on the move in search of
cheap lands. These projects failed, partly for reasons of cost, but
largely because these restless people had their eyes fixed upon the
trans-Appalachian regions which they hoped to enter in spite of
London's prohibition and in spite of the remarkable Indian resist-
ance which Pontiac had organized all along the frontiers. Most of
the millions of Nova Scotian acres granted away in the land boom
of 1765 reverted to the Crown for nonfulfillment of settlement con-
ditions.
Yet in spite of the speculators a great outward movement from
New England was occupying Nova Scotia more thoroughly than the
Acadians had done. Every family narrative and every description of
institutional development — churches and schools — indicates how
completely the new Nova Scotia was the child of New England.
Ministers and schoolmasters came along with the farmers and their
imprint upon the impressionable society was so deep that the even
larger inflow of bitter and determined Loyalists two decades later
could not efface it. To many Nova Scotians for several decades New
England was considered "home."*^
The inrush of settlers had slowed down temporarily in 1763.
Governor Lawrence had died in 1760 and there were many questions
asked regarding the land transactions in which he had been involved
which led to a reluctance in granting more townships.*' Although
Lieutenant-Governor Jonathan Belcher issued a proclamation that
39. William O. Sawtelle, "Acadia: The Pre-Loyalist Migration and the
Philadelphia Plantation," The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biog-
raphy, LI (1927), 244-285.
40. P.A.C.R., 1894, 232.
41. Brebner, Neutral Yankees, chapter vii, "A New New England."
42. P.A.C.R., 1894, 222, 225. Ian F. MacKinnon, op. cit., 26, 34, 35, 46.
Margaret Ells, "Clearing the Decks for the Loyalists," Annual Report of the
Canadian Historical Association, 1933 (Ottawa, 1933), 45.
36 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
winter making valid the land titles granted by Lawrence and invit-
ing more settlers,*^ an influential factor in bringing about the decline
was the actual state of the settlements. They had suffered hardships
even more severe than those that were usually the lot of pioneers.
Late planting, summer droughts, and early frosts ruined the crops
of grain in the fall of 1761 and some communities were forced to call
upon the government for supplies in order to survive the winter.
The following season witnessed Httle improvement. Again drought
and vermin prevented the expected harvest and brought about a
second winter of suffering. The towns in which fishing was the prin-
cipal activity were also forced down to the poverty level because
their vessels were few and equipment meager.^*
Improved harvests and increasing mastery of the ways of Uving
which Nova Scotia demanded revived migration after 1763 and pro-
vided the setting for the land boom of 1765.*^ Indeed, a remon-
strance from the inhabitants of Hahfax to the Board of Trade com-
plained that there was being unloaded upon them "all the scum of
the colonies," useless and burdensome persons who were taken from
jails, workhouses, and hospitals and given free passage from the
older colonies who wanted to be reheved of them.*® Yet the new influx
was short-lived, for in 1768 the Treaty of Fort Stanwix, concluded
with the Indians, opened up a part of the fabulous Ohio country to
settlement and a long-dammed-up flood of land seekers burst through
the mountains. Nova Scotia at once felt the effects, for there began
the secondary migration that always passes on from any area con-
gested by the presence of prospective settlers who cannot decide
where to settle and the crowds of adventurers who have been drawn
along in the wake of the pioneers. To them only one course was avail-
able. They could not move on, so they moved back, and they set in
motion a reverse current that gained force when in the same year a
large part of the mihtary garrison was transferred from Halifax to
overawe the riotous population of Boston. Merchants, laborers, and
43. The New London Summary, Dec. 26, 1760.
44. "State and Condition of the Province of Nova Scotia together with
Some Observations etc. 29th October 1763/' Report of Board of Trustees of
the Public Archives of Nova Scotia, 1933 (Halifax, 1934), 21-26.
45. Margaret Ells, op. cit., 51.
46. P. A. C.R., 1894,270.
THE ESTABLISHMENT OF AN ATLANTIC BASE 37
military hangers-on also departed for southern ports when the troops
had gone; and the speculation in western lands that had gripped
Philadelphia and New York spread the repute of the "Ohio coun-
try" so widely that even from Nova Scotia a few restless spirits set
out for the distant Eldorado.*^
The extent of the New England colonization of Nova Scotia can-
not be exactly determined, partly because of the presence of Aca-
dians, Germans, Swiss, and groups of migrants from the British
Isles, and partly because the many returns of population after 1759
are both incomplete and contradictory. The figures for 1775, when
critically examined, probably convey the best idea, for the natural
increase since 1760 and the emigration after 1768 would somewhat
offset each other. These figures suggest a total population (exclud-
ing Indians) of about eighteen thousand, of whom at least two-thirds
and possibly three-quarters were New Englanders.*^ There were in
addition a few hundred Acadian, New England, and Middle Colo-
nies inhabitants of the Island of St. John (now Prince Edward
Island) and other non-Nova Scotian islands in the Gulf of St. Law-
rence, whose presence reflected both land hunger and certain special
kinds of exploitative and commercial activities in those regions.*^
The population history of Nova Scotia during the two decades
preceding the American Revolution is incomplete without some con-
sideration of the wanderings of the Acadians. For the majority the
expulsion of 1755 marked merely the beginning of travels. Within a
few months some were straggling back and during the succeeding
years others followed until in 1762 they were so numerous that when
the sudden attack of the French fleet upon Newfoundland aroused
the fear that Halifax would be the next objective, their presence
47. A list of arrivals at the port of Boston from 1763 to 1769 is to be
found in Boston: Record Commissioner's Report, XXIX (Boston, 1900),
245—318; for the emigration from Nova Scotia see J. Robinson and Thomas
Rispin, A Journey through Nova Scotia Containing a Particular Account of
the Country and Its Inhabitants (York, 1774), 14; Brebner, Neutral Yan-
kees, 94, 118, 164-166; Ian F. MacKinnon, op. cit., 56, 72.
48. For a collection and criticism of the available population returns, see
Brebner, Neutral Yankees, 95n; also chapters iii and v, passim.
49. "Report of the Present State and Condition of His Majesty's Prov-
ince of Nova Scotia, 1773," Report of Board of Trustees of the Public Ar-
chives of Nova Scotia, 1933, 28-34.
38 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
caused such a panic among the officials that a second expulsion was
determined on.^° In August, 1762, three transports bearing approxi-
mately a thousand of these "prisoners" sailed for Boston. But
Massachusetts had not forgotten the inconvenience and expense that
the first exiles had caused. The General Court directed the governor
to prohibit the landing of this second contingent, and Avithin a month
they were back in Halifax where the fear of a French invasion had
subsided and with it some of the anti- Acadian sentiment.^^
Yet the problem of the Acadians was by no means solved. Not
until the autumn of 1764 were instructions received from London
which allowed them to remain in Nova Scotia as settlers, and then
only upon taking the oath of allegiance which they had stubbornly
resisted for over fifty years. Their own lands were lost to them and
now thejT^ were not to be allowed to establish compact settlements. In
these circumstances, substantial groups of them in Nova Scotia and
the older colonies emigrated to French territory in the West Indies
and St. Pierre and Miquelon, or made their way to join the French-
speaking subjects of Spain in Louisiana or of Great Britain in Can-
ada. One large group in France itself, after discovering that as
North American pioneers they had developed traits which made
them intractable material for European landlords and even for a
well-meant physiocratic experiment in Poitou, finally secured per-
mission to join their predecessors in Louisiana. For a number of
these sorely tried people, however. Nova Scotia was a homeland
which they could not bear to abandon. These gradually learned that
the King of France had admitted that the King of Great Britain
had a right to dispose of them. In 1767 the news spread that the
French government had forcibly reduced the population of St.
Pierre and Miquelon to forty families and that two hundred Aca-
dians there had decided to become Nova Scotians. In 1768 a special
township was set up for solid Acadian settlement on not very de-
sirable lands around St. Mary's Bay at the southwestern corner of
the Nova Scotian peninsula. The tide had at last turned for the
Nova Scotian Acadians and now the land began to draw some of
50. P.A.C.R., 1894, 213, 229, 234, 236, 251.
51. J. S. Martell, "The Second Expulsion of the Acadians," The Dal-
housie Review, XIII (Halifax, 1933), 359-371.
THE ESTABLISHMENT OF AN ATLANTIC BASE 39
them home from their refuges in North America and in France. The
Nova Scotian authorities could secure very httle exact information
as to their numbers, particularly in the Cape Breton and Gulf of St.
Lawrence fisheries and along the forest fringes north of the Bay of
Fundy, but they probably amounted to about fifteen hundred per-
sons in 1775.^^
But these restless travels, however picturesque they were, could
not compare in importance with the influx of the New Englanders
who came to occupy the lands from which the Acadians had been
expelled. The full significance of this first important emigration
from the territory now the United States to the territory now Can-
ada can be appreciated only in reahzation of the fact that it was the
easternmost flank of a general colonial advance to the northward.
The decision of a family to settle in Nova Scotia was not based upon
the absence of any other choice. The same military events that had
removed the danger of the French from Nova Scotia had also
brought security to the frontiers of Maine; and many of the emi-
grants to the shores of the Bay of Fundy left their homes on Cape
Cod or in Rhode Island just when their neighbors set sail for the
broad estuaries that mark the mouths of the Kennebec, Androscog-
gin, and other rivers in Maine. ^^ In fact, the real agricultural colo-
nization of that part of Maine which lies north and east of Portland
began during the early 1760's ; and at the same time the young men
of central Connecticut and Massachusetts swarmed up the valley of
the Connecticut River into the area claimed by both New Hampshire
and New York, later to be known as Vermont.^*
Still farther to the west, beside the great north-and-south high-
52. Brebner, Neutral Yankees, 102-109. Martin, Les Exiles acadiens,
cited. P.A.C.R., 189^, 253, 254, 256, 259, 260, 262, 278, 281, 282, 283, 286.
London Chronicle, Dec. 2-4, 1762, 536; May 21-24, 1763, 494; Feb. 28 —
March 2, 1765, 214; March 30 — April 2, 1765, 818; Feb. 11-13, 1766, 150;
May 17-20, 1766, 478.
53. William D. Williamson, op. cit., II, 346. The geographical origin of
the population is discussed by B. Lake Noyes in Sprague's Journal of Maine
History, VI (1918), 28, 29.
54. Samuel Williams, The Natural and Civil History of Vermont, II (2d
ed., Burlington, Vt., 1809), 14. Zadoch Thompson, History of Vermont
(Burlington, Vt., 1853), Part II, 13, 16, 62, 85, 87, 88, 110, 129, 135, 144,
172.
40 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
way that nature had provided in Lake Champlain, the fall of Mont-
real in 1760 also opened for settlement lands that many wilderness
scouts had looked upon with favor. Here the northward expansion
of the English had met the southward expansion of the French. The
Canadian habitants hesitated to leave the banks of a river and the
process of settlement that had peopled both sides of the St. Law-
rence from Quebec to Montreal had started to move up the RicheHeu
toward Lake Champlain. The authorities at Quebec had disregarded
the undetermined status of the lands bordering the lake and had
granted seigniories to successful colonizers who awaited only the
coming of peace to bring in scores of eager settlers. Meanwhile the
New Yorkers in the Hudson and Mohawk valleys, blocked in any
movement toward the western and central regions of their province
by the presence of the Iroquois confederation and the conciliatory
attitude that the imperial officers adopted toward them, were being
forced into the same debatable ground.
The conquest and cession of Canada decided the fate of this de-
sirable area. As soon as the capitulation of Montreal on September
8, 1760, was known, the New Yorkers took possession of all vantage
grounds and began a steady march on a wide front that was ulti-
mately to bring the point of a wedge of American settlement almost
to the St. Lawrence. This prompt squatter action discouraged any
compromise which the British government might have made with the
claimants to the French grants ;^^ and it gave a new direction to the
course of French expansion, shunting it eastward from Quebec on
the south bank of the river and up the tributaries that pointed
toward Maine.
The transfer of jurisdiction over Canada had little immediate
effect upon its population. The habitant accepted the change with
little concern, being satisfied with the guarantees regarding lan-
guage and religion that the new regime offered. The officials of the
defeated empire went back to France and several hundred merchants
and professional men from the towns joined them.^^ Many problems
faced the new government in Canada and in most of them population
55. Ruth L. Higgins, Expansion in New York with Especial Reference to
the Eighteenth Century, 87, 88.
56. Emile Salone, La Colonisation de la Nouvelle-F ranee (3d ed., Paris,
n.d.), 443. London Chronicle, Jan. 31 — Feb. 2, 1765, 120.
THE ESTABLISHMENT OF AN ATLANTIC BASE 41
was involved. A rebellious spirit among the Indians in the West
could be appeased only by checking the inrush of colonial settlers
that now threatened; and the fear that the French Canadians, al-
though now quiet, would plot to overthrow the alien rule could be
allayed only by introducing so many subjects of whose loyalty there
would be no question that the French would become a minority. The
desire to achieve these two ends brought forth the historic Proclama-
tion of 1763 prohibiting settlement west of a line following the crest
of the Alleghenies."
It was hoped that those who were denied opportunity in the West
might be induced by substantial rewards to go to the Floridas and
to other newly acquired regions. Colonization in Canada was encour-
aged by the proclamation's offer of liberal grants of land to soldiers
and militiamen who were being demobilized from the armies ; and the
instructions that were issued to Governor Murray on December 7,
1763, authorized him to grant lands to civilians "in proportion to
their ability to cultivate."^^ It was not until the spring of 1765, how-
ever, that Governor Murray himself issued a proclamation calling
attention to the lands available for civilians and, in order to reach
the Americans who, it was hoped, would respond, provision was made
for its publication in the newspapers of New York, Philadelphia,
Boston, and New London."®
Yet actually the time had not come for a migration of this nature.
Not lack of encouragement but the absence of necessity stood in the
way. There was no need to cross the two hundred miles of wilderness
that intervened between the frontier of the older colonial settlements
and the new Canadian townships to find lands on which to establish
a home. The wilderness would be peopled first, and then, in due
course, the tide of pioneers would reach the valley of the St. Law-
rence. Only a few Americans, and these chiefly merchants and fur
traders, moved to Canada. The increase in the number of non-
French was slow. In 1766 they amounted to only six hundred and in
57. Shortt and Doughty, op. cit., I, 163-168.
58. Ibid., 181-205.
59. Alfred L. Burt, The Old Province of Quebec (Minneapolis, 1933),
93. This proclamation, which in rather unofficial language sought to dispel
the idea that Canada was a barren land of perpetual snows, may be found in
The New York Mercury, April 29, 1765.
42 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
1774 they were estimated at "about two or three thousand," and it is
impossible to distinguish between those who were natives of Great
Britain and those who came from the older colonies. The majority
were undoubtedly merchants, traders, and innkeepers. The agricul-
tural invasion had not yet commenced.^"
The decade from 1763 to 1773 was a very active period in the
thirteen English colonies. Dissension over stamp taxes and tea bore
testimony to increasing economic tension in the mercantilistic em-
pire, but the fluctuations born from tension and agitation in the
colonies gave a false impression of weakness. A large immigration of
propertied English farmers helped to fill in the remaining unoccu-
pied areas near the coast, and, when they brought means sufiicient to
pay for improved farms, the American colonials whom they dis-
placed struck out for the frontier lands. Many Irish and German
redemptioners also arrived, young men who, when they had served
their time, would also begin wilderness pioneering. By 1774) the
Atlantic population base was almost established and settlement was
proceeding from the older area toward the future Canada following
four lines: along the coast of Maine to the forests beyond the St.
Croix; up the valley of the Connecticut to the remote parts of the
Province of Quebec; along Lake Champlain, directed toward the
St. Lawrence Valley and the avenue it provided to Lake Ontario;
and westward into the country of the Iroquois and the peninsula
beyond the Niagara River. The events of the Revolutionary years
did not deliver a final check to these movements, but they did give
them a new and unexpected twist in character which for the next half
century profoundly affected the population relations between the
new republic and the provinces that remained faithful to the British
crown.
60. Shortt and Doughty, op. cit., I, 257, 457. For the difficulties attending
agricultural settlement at this time see Ivanhoe Caron, La Colonisation de la
Province de Quebec (Quebec, 1923), 143-150.
CHAPTER III
THE MIGRATION OF THE LOYALISTS
1775-1790
The war of the Revolution did not interrupt for long the rovings of
the restless American population. During the first three years of the
struggle while most of the battles occurred on northern soil, there
was a steady migration from the southern and central colonies over
the mountains to Kentucky;^ but after 1778 when the seat of the
war was transferred to the South, many of the northern regiments
were demobilized and the young men returned to their homes to face
the question of the future.
The northward and eastward migrations were resumed, but the
outlook had materially changed. The majority of the Nova Scotian
settlers, who were friendly to the revolutionary cause, after discover-
ing that their remoteness and Congress' naval weakness prevented
their incorporation in it, had followed the example set a generation
earher by the Acadians whom they had supplanted and had asked to
be regarded as neutrals. The most ardent revolutionaries among
them and others who were in bad odor with the loyal administration
at Halifax departed for New England, where a more congenial at-
mosphere could be found. There were also less rabid partisans of
the cause who felt so strongly the family and social ties that bound
them to their old homes and neighbors that they, perhaps regret-
fully, traveled back to the land of their birth. Thereafter, for a time,
Nova Scotia and New England became enemy countries almost as
remote from each other as they had been in the days of the French
regime,^
In northern New England, however, land-seeking youth could dis-
1. R. G. Thwaites and L. P. Kellogg, The Revolution on the Upper Ohio,
1775-1777 (Madison, Wis., 1908), 2, 3, 10, 16.
2. J. B. Brebner, Neutral Yankees, 291—353, and references cited therein.
J. Hannay, "The Maugerville Settlement, 1763-1824," N.B.H.S. (St. John),
I, 63-88, especially 76, 77. W. O. Raymond, History of the River St. John
(St. John, 1905), 426-504. E. M. Saunders, History of the Baptists of the
Maritime Provinces (Halifax, 1902), 103.
44 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
cover many opportunities. Except for the region from the Penobscot
to the St. John which the British conquered and held, here war had
come early and disappeared soon. Here men had been stirred by one
of the most spectacular exploits of the contest. Benedict Arnold's
campaign of 1775—1776 up the Kennebec River in Maine and across
the wilderness to Quebec had failed to conquer that stronghold or to
cause a rising among the French, but it had been a revelation of
power that impressed the Indian tribes almost all along the border
and mollified the hostility which they had hitherto exhibited to in-
truding settlers.^ The Battle of Saratoga, in which the militiamen
from the Green Mountains had joined with Continental Army troops
to check Burgoyne and his German mercenaries and Indian alhes,
had a similar pacifying effect throughout the entire upper Connecti-
cut River Valley. From 1779 to 1783 tier upon tier of townships
was erected there and settlements multiplied rapidly.* Every year
brought the fringe of the pioneer's frontier closer to the interna-
tional frontier that the peace negotiations at Paris had delineated.
Within a decade the two were destined to meet.
Changes even more profound in their nature transformed an-
other area which pointed directly toward the fertile lands north of
Lake Erie. When the Iroquois confederacy decided to assist the
British by harassing the scattered colonial communities along the
Pennsylvania frontier, they sealed their own doom and opened an
avenue that was to become the greatest of all routes of continental
migration. In 1779 most of the military interests of the revolution-
ary movement centered in the expedition of General Sullivan, which
moved northward from Pennsylvania bent not merely on the defeat
but on the destruction of the enemy warriors. The results satisfied
even the most vindictive among the invaders. Burned villages, ruined
fields, and Indian women and children scattered throughout the
woods marked the course; and when the destruction was complete,
the enterprise turned into an expedition of land seekers who noted
fertility and resources and vowed to return when the exigencies of
3. William D. Williamson, The History of the State of Maine; from Its
First Discovery, A.D. 1602, to the Separation, A.D. 1820, Inclusive, 11, 450,
506.
4. Zadoch Thompson, History of Vermont, Part II, 5, 27, 54, 70, 75, 123,
180.
THE MIGRATION OF THE LOYALISTS 45
the war had passed/ Many of them did, and during the twenty years
after 1783 the lake region of New York and the valleys of the Mo-
hawk and Genesee filled up rapidly with energetic pioneers, who
formed a vigorous and prolific base for a later advance to the west
and north.^
But it was not in these developments that the repercussions of the
Revolution upon North American population were immediately felt.
The breakdown of imperial administration turned many officeholders
out of stations high and low; the interruption of trade ruined the
business and prospects of many importers and exporters who were
agents of English firms. The response of these individuals to the
prevailing disorders was naturally one of opposition to the Revolu-
tion and, since many of them were English by birth, a return "home"
was the logical course for a goodly number to follow. In London they
were joined by later comers who not only sought safety far from
their persecutors but also hoped to find a practical sympathy ex-
tended by the government.^ A few of the more fortunate among
them received pensions or positions, but for the majority the war
period was a weary and tiresome wait that brought little financial
recompense and many expenses. One of the best known among them
warned a friend that those who came without any means of support
would "find to their cost the hand of charity very cold."^ A letter
written at the close of the war declared that London swarmed "with
Americans grumbling and discontented."^ For many of them the
5. Alexander C. Flick, "New Sources on the Sullivan-Clinton Campaign
in 1779," Quarterly Journal of the New York State Historical Association,
X (Albany, 1929), 185-224, 265-317.
6. O. Turner, History of the Pioneer Settlement of Phelps and Gorham's
Purchase, and Morris' Reserve (Rochester, 1851), 130, 134.
7. W. H. Siebert, The Flight of American Loyalists to the British Isles
(Columbus, 1911). W. H. Siebert, "The Colony of Massachusetts Loyalists
at Bristol, England," Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society,
LXV (Boston, 1912), 409-414.
8. Samuel Curwen, Journal and Letters, 1775—1784- (New York, 1842),
59. References regarding assistance given by the British government may be
found on pages 103, 280, 357, 364, 367, 368, 378, 411.
9. Colonel J. H. Cruger to Edward Winslow, London, March 13, 1784;
W. O. Raymond (ed.), Winslow Papers A.D. 1776-1826 (St. John, N.B.,
1901), 174.
46 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
truth of the matter revealed itself to be that they had become far too
truly Americans to find life in England congenial or even tolerable.^"
Other men who chose to remain faithful to the royal cause fol-
lowed a more active course and one that promised an adequate re-
ward when the rebelHon should be crushed. No provision existed by
which American Loyalists could enlist in the British Army, but one
after another several regiments made up of volunteers and ofiicered
by their own leaders were organized and mustered into the military
forces. The services of these soldiers who were acquainted with the
country and its resources were particularly effective in spying expe-
ditions and foraging raids ; but in conducting such enterprises they
became the especial object of patriot bitterness, and when the war
was over the majority understood that a return to their former
homes would mean a tar-and-feathering or imprisonment.^^ Some
hoped to continue in the military profession, but in 1783 the de-
mobilization of the British armies was proceeding rapidly and there
was already a larger number of officers commissioned than the peace-
time plans called for.^^ Emigration and a new start elsewhere were
the inevitable fate of these fighting Loyalists.
A third class of Loyalists was made up of the large group that
had no military talents nor taste for a life in camp or on the march.
They, and usually their famihes, sought the protection of the royal
army. During the first year Boston was the city of refuge and when
in March, 1776, General Howe decided upon evacuation, the civilian
adherents sailed away with him to Halifax.^^ But Halifax was too
small a place to accommodate many, and some enrolled in a regi-
ment that was recruited and sent to the scene of conflict ; a very few
others scattered among the Nova Scotia settlements and, for a time,
received a grant of provisions from government stores. The eastern
province seemed the natural rendezvous for exiles from New Eng-
land, but there was little prospect for their support there and the
scheme of erecting a Loyalist colony on the north bank of the Penob-
10. Chipman to Winslow, London, June, 1784; Marston to Winslow, Lon-
don, March 17, 1790; ibid., 209, 377.
11. W. O. Raymond, "Loyalists in Arms," N.B.H.S., V, 189-223.
12. Colonel Benjamin Thompson to Edward Winslow, London, July 8,
1783; W. O. Raymond (ed.), Winslow Papers A.D. 1776-1826, 104.
13. P.A.C.R., 1894, 349.
THE MIGRATION OF THE LOYALISTS 47
scot (which some geographers claimed was the eastern boundary of
Maine) brought many to the vicinity in 1779, where they remained
as long as the British maintained a fort for their protection/*
The British campaign of 1776 was directed against New York,
and the occupation of the city by the army of General Gage in Sep-
tember provided a new gathering place for the refugees. Not until
November, 1783, did the troops, in accordance with the treaty of
peace, sail away, and until that time New York gradually drew
within its lines Loyahst exiles from all the colonies. No charity was
necessary. The city was filled with soldiers and the navy was sta-
tioned in the harbor ; government money circulated freely and busi-
ness was lively. Gentlemen and their ladies may have found living
somewhat difficult, but artisans and laborers (and there were many
such among the refugees) enjoyed steady employment and good
wages.^^ When the success of the revolutionary movement became
assured in 1782, the number of temporary residents increased and
real refugee camps were established on Long Island, Staten Island,
and the adjacent shores of New Jersey. ^^
The close of the war revealed one other group of Loyalists for
whom provision would have to be made. Many of the conservative
Dutch, Scots, and Germans of the valleys of the upper Hudson and
the Mohawk had refused to join in the revolt; and when General
Burgoyne in 1777 started south from Canada with the army which
was expected to put an end to the uprising, they flocked to his stand-
ard and contributed supplies and information." The disastrous fail-
ure at Saratoga did not make them prisoners of war, but it did leave
14. J. B. Brebner, Neutral Yankees, 326-330, 339. W. H. Siebert, "The
Exodus of the Loyalists from Penobscot and the Loyalist Settlements at Pas-
samaquoddy/' N.B.H.S., IX, 485—529. Great Britain, Historical Manuscripts
Commission, Report on American Manuscripts in the Royal Institution of
Great Britain, I (London, 1904), 284.
15. The wages of unskilled laborers in the city were reported as being al-
most five times the rate prevailing before the war. Oscar T, Barck, New York
City during the War for Independence (New York, 1931), 141.
16. Great Britain, Historical Manuscripts Commission, Report on Ameri-
can Manuscripts in the Royal Institution of Great Britain, IV (Hereford,
1909), 28, 480, 481. N.B.H.S., V, 273.
17. William Canniff, History of the Settlement of Upper Canada {On^
tario) with Special Reference to the Bay of Quinte (Toronto, 1869), 59, 67.
48 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
them most obnoxious to their neighbors, so unpopular that flight was
the wisest poHcy. Oswego and Niagara remained in British hands
and about these posts many of them clustered, performing some
services and drawing supphes from the commissary/*
These frontier stations, however, did not offer the security that
the fleeing Loyalist and his family wanted. A few score miles to the
north royal authority was still preeminent and British garrisons held
every strategic point on the St. Lawrence and its approaches. Mont-
real and Quebec were symbols of something permanent and to reach
the safety of their environs became the goal of many of the troubled
residents of upper New York and western New England. They came
at first as families and unorganized groups. Many of the able-bodied
men among them were mustered into the companies of rangers and
scouts which very often sallied out on surprise raids into enemy ter-
ritory to rescue friends and relatives who could not find their way to
British territory alone.^^ The number of these refugees increased
rapidly and Governor Haldimand was faced with the problem of
finding for them a place of safety that would not hinder military
operations.
To allow them to congregate in Quebec or Montreal was unwise
since both places were congested with troops. It was dangerous to
permit them to remain near the outposts on the Richelieu River
where they usually entered the province because in case of invasion
the valley was bound to be the route of any army advancing north-
ward from the Hudson and Lake Champlain. After considering
various sites the governor finally chose the seigniory of Sorel, an
undeveloped tract at the junction of the Richelieu and St. Law-
rence. It was easy of approach from all directions and it could be
readily provided with supplies.^" Here a large part of the refugees
were assembled during the summer of 1778 and barracks were
erected for winter use. In the course of the five years that followed,
18. William Kirby, Annals of Niagara (Welland, Ont., 1896), 54, 62.
W. H. Siebert, "The Dispersion of American Tories," Mississippi Valley
Historical Review, I (1914), 185-197.
19. P.A.C.R., 1887, 370; 1888, 732. W. H. Siebert, "The American Loyal-
ists in the Eastern Seigniories and Townships of the Province of Quebec,"
R.S.C., 1913, Sec. ii, 3-41.
20. A. L. Burt, The Old Province of Quebec, 279, 280.
THE MIGRATION OF THE LOYALISTS 49
Sorel was the scene of much activity: arrivals and departures, re-
unions and separations. The sick and most needy, together with un-
attached women and children, were sent to the town of Machiche
(Yamachiche) , where food and clothing were dispensed with greater
liberality."^
Many hopes and fears occupied the attention of the refugees in
London, Nova Scotia, New York, and Canada as the conflict neared
its end. Little could be expected from the rebellious colonies if they
became independent and if the disposition of the Loyahst problem
were left entirely to them. But certainly the British diplomats who
were negotiating the treaty would not desert them; surely they
would insist that reparation be made for property seized and indig-
nities suffered. Yet the diplomats did almost desert them after a long
but fruitless effort, and the Treaty of Paris did not go beyond a
mild statement that Congress agreed to recommend to the states that
they put no obstacle to the restoration of confiscated property, and
an article providing that an exile might reside for a year in the
United States if necessary to facilitate the collection of his claims. --
When this agreement became known, hopes were shifted to Lon-
don in the expectation that the failure of the diplomats would lead
Parliament to make a prompt and generous appropriation for the
assistance of those who had remained faithful through an eight-year
struggle and had finally lost all but Hfe. The British ministry, how-
ever, was little more alert to their phght as revealed to them through
petitions for aid than the diplomats had been. The only legislation
was an act creating a board of commissioners to whom all claimants
might submit their cases and evidence. ^^ Its procedure was slow and
21. P.A.C.R., 1887, 338, 369, 381; 1888, 732, 734, 742. W. H. Siebert,
"Temporary Settlement of Loyalists at Machiche, P. Q.," R.S.C., IGlJf, Sec.
ii, 407-414.
22. Samuel F. Bemis, The Diplomacy of the American Revolution (New
York, 1935), 231-233, 237-238.
28. The legislation of Parliament concerning the Loyalists is summarized
in Thomas Jones, History of New York during the Revolutionary War, II
(New York, 1879), 645—663. Some of the Loyalist petitions were published
in the London Chronicle, March 7-9, 1782, 233; March 12-14, 1782, 253;
June 14-17, 1783, 572, 573. The proceedings of the commissioners in British
North America have been printed in Ontario Bureau of Archives, Second Re-
port (2v., Toronto, 1905).
50 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
its investigations were searching; so searching, in fact, that it was
popularly described as the "Inquisition."-* At best, the successful
petitioner would have to wait months, perhaps years, before a deci-
sion and some money recompense could be obtained.
In the meantime, the British mihtary authorities in New York and
the colonial administrations in Quebec and Nova Scotia were face to
face with a situation that was taking on an emergency aspect. The
former could not sail away leaving their civihan comrades with no
employment, no supplies, and no homes ; the latter could not support
the refugees as perpetual guests. While London was getting its cum-
brous machinery into motion, the authorities in America rapidly
combined their resources for an emergency policy whose result was
the migration of the Loyalists from the new United States into the
British provinces still remaining on the North American continent.
This migration was far from being a haphazard inrush of indi-
viduals who allowed chance to determine their fate, although fear
for the future was the principal stimulus. Contemporary dispatches
from New York reveal that the Loyalists felt their own position amid
the victorious colonists to be highly dangerous; already legislation
had been passed against the British supporters in various states and
property had been ahenated from them. The only logical procedure,
therefore, was that of removal to territory where loyalty to the Brit-
ish crown was an asset rather than a liability and a stigma. To that
end, not only those already resident within the New York lines pro-
posed to depart, but the LoyaHsts in surrounding states also made
their way to that refuge and from there embarked with their like to
Nova Scotia.^^
In working out their plans, the supervising authorities were domi-
nated by two circumstances: the concentration of the Loyalists at
the Port of New York, along the frontiers of New York State, and
in eastern Maine ; and the availabihty of lands within already estab-
lished loyal colonies. The net result, therefore, was that the involun-
tary Loyalist migrations followed and broadened North American
24. William Canniff, op. cit., 61.
25. London Chronicle, Aug. 22-24, 1782, 190; May 16-17, 1783, 471;
May 17-20, 1783, 480; June 5-7, 1783, 643, 644; June 7-10, 1783, 552;
June 12-14, 1783, 568; July 3-5, 1783, 21; Aug. 12-14, 1783, 154; Oct,
2-4, 1783, 336; Nov. 13-15, 1783, 447.
THE MIGRATION OF THE LOYALISTS 51
routes which had been estabHshed by voluntary land seekers long
before their day. Pre-Loyalists or Loyalists, they were all North
Americans bent upon doing the best they could for themselves on
the continent which they were making their own.
Land was the only asset that Nova Scotia (then including New
Brunswick) and Quebec (then including Ontario) possessed in abun-
dance. But land without people was profitless, whereas a skillful
handhng of the Loyahst problem should yield large benefits. As
early as 1781 General Clarke, acting governor of Quebec, had real-
ized the advantages to be gained, and had started the survey of a
range of townships in anticipation of the close of the war.^^ But it
was to Nova Scotia that the flood of people was at first directed be-
cause it was most accessible to those whose departure was most in the
nature of a flight.
The Loyalist community at New York enjoyed in its departure
the cooperation of the British Navy and the military authorities.
The martial air that pervaded the city undoubtedly facilitated the
organization of "loyalist companies" each of which was under the
direction of a "captain. "^'^ Some of these companies traveled as
units, one company to a vessel, in the "spring fleet" of 1783 (made
up of about twenty ships) and in the "fall fleet" of the same year.
Some, however, had gone as early as the fall of 1782 in government
transports and others came later, paying their own expenses, on
regular trading vessels.^* "Nova Scotia is the rage" and "Every-
body, all the world, moves on to Nova Scotia" were the reports that
came from the city while the movement was at its height. ^^
The military authorities, in addition to providing transportation,
also undertook to furnish provisions : full rations for the first year,
two-thirds the second year, and one-third for the last. With this
their responsibility ended and the duties of the Nova Scotia govern-
ment began. For several years that province had been losing popu-
lation to the south and west and there was still to be found much
unsettled land ; the policy in mind was logical — to fill in the agricul-
26. William Canniff, op. cit., 156. 27. N.B.H.S., VIII, 255.
28. H. P. Johnston, "Evacuation of New York by the British, 1783,"
Harper's New Monthly Magazine, LXVII (New York, 1883), 909-923.
Oscar T. Barck, op. cit., 207-230.
29. W. O. Raymond (ed.), Winslow Papers A.D. 1776-1826, 11, 124.
52 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
tural areas left unpeopled between the New England townships that
had been planted two decades before and to estabhsh villages from
which fishing and whaling might be carried on to advantage. "Nova
Scotia shall be made the envy of all the American states" was the
challenging statement of this program.^"
But giving away land was not the simple transaction that its
generous nature implied. At various times in the past, extensive
grants of territory had been made to individuals and groups ; all of
them had been contingent upon the introduction of a number of set-
tlers and in many cases the conditions had not been fulfilled. This
encumbrance could be done away with by having the grant revoked
but the legal proceedings necessarily involved some delay. ^^ In the
meantime the new arrivals, crowded together in camps, became im-
patient; many did not like the strict supervision that was exercised
over them. All were forced to perform a certain amount of labor and
it was difficult to persuade some of them who had lived on public
bounty to engage in this work. OflScials complained that they became
"indolent" and "mutinous" and when at last the distribution of- lots
began, many of them demanded that they be allowed to make their
own choice. One of the officials lamented that the "cursed republican,
town-meeting spirit has been the ruin of us already," and he dreaded
to see its spread among the people whose future he was determining.^"
The earlier colonization had left two principal regions on the
peninsula of Nova Scotia somewhat undeveloped. One was halfway
down the Fundy shore between the Basin of Minas and the town-
ships laid out in the 1760's near Cape Sable. The other was on the
Atlantic coast just east of Cape Sable. By estabhshing vigorous
communities at these points, it was hoped that the peninsula would
be practically fringed with vigorous townships which, in the course
of natural expansion into the interior, would people all the available
area in two or three generations.
30. Ibid., 170.
31. Margaret Ells, "Clearing the Decks for the Loyalists/' Annual Report
of the Canadian Historical Association, 1933, 53—59.
82. The diary of Benjamin Marston, who was engaged in laying out the
town of Shelburne, illustrates these difficulties. Extracts are published in
W. O. Raymond (ed.), "The Founding of Shelburne. Benjamin Marston at
Halifax, Shelburne and Miramichi," N.B.H.S., VIII, 204-277.
THE MIGRATION OF THE LOYALISTS 53
It is true that the first site for more than a century had been the
seat of government — French and EngHsh. But Port Royal and its
successor, AnnapoHs, had never been more than a village housing a
few officials, soldiers, and traders, and its surroundings were sparsely
settled. The townships of Annapolis and Granville had received a
few hundred New Englanders in 1761, but east and west of them
tens of thousands of acres were still available. To the Annapolis
Basin, therefore, several shiploads of Loyalists were sent and their
establishment was facilitated because many of them possessed funds
sufficient for the purchase of farms. The willingness of the "old
planter" to dispose of his property and move elsewhere to unim-
proved locations fitted admirably into the situation and the shift in
population that resulted from the sale and purchase made it un-
necessary for many of the Loyalists to attempt the strenuous busi-
ness of pioneering which, however courageous their spirit, was a task
that few could carry through with unquahfied success. ^^
Far different was the experience on the Atlantic side. Here the
harbor of Port Roseway, long known to traders up and down the
coast, was chosen as the rendezvous for the arriving exiles and the
city of Shelburne was projected as a future commercial metropolis.
The first two years of its history lived up to every hope of coming
prosperity that had been expressed. By the autumn of 1784 up-
wards of ten thousand ambitious people had gathered in the new
town and for a few months it enjoyed the distinction of having the
largest population of any city in British North America and rank-
ing next to Philadelphia, Boston, and New York in the list of the
cities on the continent, north of Mexico.^*
But the distinction was of short standing, and Shelburne was, in
fact, nothing but a great concentration camp that suffered from all
the disorders and discomforts of such a community. A considerable
number of free Negroes had come as refugees from New York and
33. W. A. Calnek, History of the County of Annapolis, 168, 169, 170, 211,
229, 243, 257. [S. HoUingsworth], The Present State of Nova Scotia with a
Brief Account of Canada and the British Islands on the Coast of North
America (2d ed., Edinburgh, 1787), 124.
34. N.B.H.S., VIII, 207. However, most of the contemporary estimates of
the population of Shelburne were greatly exaggerated. See the note in P. A.
C.R., 189i, 409.
54 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
these formed a town of six hundred famihes bordering Shelburne;
other laborers found it unpleasant to work in their company. A race
riot followed and ultimately, after an experiment in trying to make
settlers out of them, the authorities shipped many of the Negroes off
to the colony of Sierra Leone in Africa.^^ The cod fishing did not
prosper because the harbor was sometimes blocked by ice and the
fishermen did not possess the technical skill that their competitors in
Massachusetts had acquired in a century of experienced^ Many indi-
viduals dreaded the isolation of wilderness life and, deserting their
grants without an attempt at improvement, went away to Halifax to
find whatever employment offered. Some discovered that homesick-
ness was a stronger force than poHtical discontent and returned to
the United States. ^^
The majority gradually dispersed onto the allotted farms and
took up the serious routine of pioneering. Special arrangements had
been made for setthng disbanded mihtary companies and regiments
as units and several soldier townships appeared. Some smaller
groups were settled to the north and east of Halifax.^^ In ten years
Shelburne dwindled to a town of a few hundred, but it had served
its purpose and Nova Scotia as a whole had acquired an addition to
its population of almost twenty thousand souls — the second great
immigration from the south in its history.^^
35. A. G. Archibald, "Story of Deportation of Negroes from Nova Scotia
to Sierra Leone/' Collections of the Nova Scotia Historical Society, VII,
129-154. London Chronicle, May 25-27, 1784, 509; Dec. 4-7, 1784, 546.
Margaret Ells, "Settling the Loyalists in Nova Scotia," Annual Report of
the Canadian Historical Association, 1934, 106, 107.
36. N.B.H.S., VIII, 269.
37. Thomas C. Haliburton, An Historical and Statistical Account of Nova
Scotia, II, 193.
38. N.B.H.S., VIII, 256. The distribution of the Loyalist grants is de-
scribed in detail by M. Gilroy in Loyalists and Land Settlement in Nova
Scotia (Halifax, 1937).
39. A muster of the Loyalists (military and civilian) in Nova Scotia in the
summer of 1784 revealed a total of 28,347. "Report on Nova Scotia by Col.
Robert Morse, R.E., 1784," P.A.C.R., 188^, xxvii-lix. Subtracting the num-
ber in the settlements that were included in the new province of New Bruns-
wick (see note 43) leaves 16,444. Upon the basis of a careful and exhaustive
analysis of muster rolls and actual land-grant records up to 1800, Margaret
THE MIGRATION OF THE LOYALISTS 55
This figure would have been larger had not the old province of
Nova Scotia been divided in 1784 by the setting up of the part north
of the Bay of Fundy as the province of New Brunswick and of Cape
Breton as still another separate province. With the choice of the St.
Croix River as the eastern boundary of the United States at the
peace of 1783, it became desirable to plant a population that could
be trusted along that border and the high repute in which the lands
of the St. Croix and St. John valleys were held encouraged the
policy. Settlers from Maine had already located on the islands in
Passamaquoddy Bay and during 1783 and 1784 the east bank of
the St. Croix filled up rapidly with practical pioneers who under-
stood the advantages in agriculture, lumbering, and fishing that the
location offered.*"
It was to the new town of St. John at the mouth of the St. John
River that the largest wave of Loyalist emigration was directed.
Thirty miles up from the bay the river valley widened into broad
meadows that equaled in fertility the most favored spots in New
England. There were already perhaps as many as three thousand
settlers in the area, numbers of whom sold their "improvements" to
the newcomers and scattered to more remote regions, some of them
to the United States.*^ The settlers who now estabhshed homes in the
new province were remarkable for their variety. A large proportion
of the arrivals were military men from the Loyahst corps and from
two disbanded Scottish regiments that chose to remain in the New
World when the war was over. Three blocks of land were assigned to
the Negroes who had followed their masters into exile when the Revo-
lution began. There were also some Americans who were hardly en-
titled to be called Loyahsts; in fact, they were nothing but immi-
grants who thought it an act of foresight to move into an area that
was destined to enjoy so vigorous a growth. Many of the refugees
at Shelburne and AnnapoHs chose New Brunswick as their final
Ells, in her article "Settling the Loyalists" (cited), 105-109, gives the num-
ber of Loyalists settled permanently in Nova Scotia as 19,362. See also
M. Gilroy, op. cit.
40. N.B.H.S., IX, 502-519.
41. W. O. Raymond (ed.), Winslow Papers A.D. 1776-1826, 338. Breb-
ner. Neutral Yankees, 116-117.
56 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
destination.*^ All told, New Brunswick may have received as many as
fourteen thousand Loyahsts, even if it did not retain that many.
About six hundred went to Prince Edward (formerly St. John)
Island and about four hundred to Cape Breton.*^
But a great deal of population readjustment was necessary before
the settlers in New Brunswick were satisfied. The majority of the
Negroes drifted into the towns. Many of the Loyalists abandoned
their allotments and bought lands in the older townships. Some trav-
eled down to the coast and located in the numerous islands. A number
of families gave up their grants and trekked northward through the
wilderness to the valley of the Miramichi River, which flows into the
Gulf of St. Lawrence. The appearance of these thousands of new
inhabitants in the province of New Brunswick tended to accentuate
the segregation of the Acadians on the upper St. John near the
border of the United States, where they built up the district of
Madawaska, a frontier settlement that later was to send the first
French emigrants across the Hne into New England.**
The Loyalist migration was the last eastward thrust of popula-
tion along the Atlantic coast line. It completed the process of plant-
ing a fertile people in each of the valleys opening out to the sea.
During the next generation these centers gradually grew together
and at the same time a steady advance into the interior began. It is a
mistake to think that the American Revolution brought about the
occupation of the northeastern region. Actually its preliminaries and
its course interrupted or hampered it for about fifteen years. What
the Revolution did was to exercise a selective process upon a logical
movement of North American population and thereby cast a unique,
romantic color over the Loyahsts which has too often eclipsed the
42. W. F. Ganong, "A Monograph on the Origins of Settlements in the
Province of New Brunswick," R.S.C., 1904, Sec. ii, 3—185, especially 52—
73: "The Loyalist and Native Expansion Period (1783-1812)."
43. The settlement of these regions has not yet been exactly investigated,
and the estimates given here have been supplied by Professor D. C. Harvey,
author of The Colonization of Canada (Toronto, 1936). Colonel Morse's
muster of 1784 (see note 39) reported 9,260 on the St. John River, 1,787 at
Passamaquoddy, and 856 at Cumberland and other small settlements — a
total of 11,903. See also W. H. Siebert and F. E. Gillam, "The Loyalists in
Prince Edward Island," R.S.C., 1910, Sec. ii, 109-117.
44. R.S.C., 1904, Sec. ii, 69-62.
THE MIGRATION OF THE LOYALISTS 67
underlying character of the migration in which they took an invol-
untary part.
The authorities at Quebec and Montreal were faced with a situa-
tion no less pressing but even more complicated than that which wor-
ried the officials at Hahfax. There were many refugees from north-
ern New York and New England who had fled north by various
routes to be temporarily settled along the St. Lawrence; they had
followed the mihtary roads that led to Ogdensburg, or the natural
highways of Lake Champlain and the Richelieu River, or the Hud-
son River into the Mohawk and to Fort Stanwix, and thence by
waterways and portages to Oswego.*^ Settlers were welcome but the
choice of a location to which they should be directed involved such
delicate problems as their relationship to the French population and
their position with respect to the unguarded American frontier. Be-
cause of these considerations one of the areas which normally would
have received many of the refugees who had gathered in its vicinity
was passed over and a region more remote, less accessible, and more
primitive in its life was chosen.
St. John's on the Richelieu, where so many of the Loyahsts from
New England and New York had found refuge, offered one route
of expansion to the east and another to the west. The former led to
the uninhabited area which stretched between the French seigniories
on the St. Lawrence and the international boundary, the territory
later known as the "Eastern Townships." The latter was the way to
the triangle which lay between the river and the boundary to the
west — lands which had been granted as seigniories but which were,
as yet, unpeopled. These two regions, the administrators decided,
should, for the present, remain uninhabited, because there was no
natural boundary separating the province of Quebec from the States
and the population north and south of the as yet undetermined line
would probably form one community in trade and, perhaps, in
politics.*®
The prospective Loyalist settlers did not acquiesce gracefully in
this decision, which seemed to them arbitrary and unreasonable. Like
their brethren in Nova Scotia, they held indignation meetings. The
45. H. H. Van Wart, "The Loyalist Settlement of Adolphustown/' The
Loyalist Gazette, II (Aug., 1932), 2.
46. R.S.C., 1913, Sec. ii, 31-38.
58 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
northeastern shores of Lake Champlain bordered upon the area, and
the inlet known as Missisquoi Bay was a promising site offering fer-
tile soil and excellent communications with the outside world. But
Governor Haldimand was resolute in his earHer decision not to "give
an acre to gratify individuals at the expense of the pubHc good,"*^
and he fortified this decision by refusing to extend any supplies to
the Loyalists who persisted in remaining in that quarter/* Some of
them bought up a claim to the lands that was derived from a dubious
Indian treaty and started to make clearings. But the governor's
threat to burn down their houses when constructed put an end to this
activity and although a few pioneers did defy the authorities, the
real settlement of the region did not begin until a new policy of
colonization was adopted after 1791.*^
Although he did not prohibit it, Haldimand discouraged the Loy-
alists from becoming tenants upon the old seigniories. Some of the
refugees, weary of waiting for the government to announce a policy,
accepted lands from private owners on the customary Canadian
terms, and a general exception was made in the case of Soreh So
many official activities, military as well as civil, had centered about
the place that in 1782 the government bought the estate, and in 1783
when the war operations came to an end, the lands were divided into
small allotments and distributed among the residents already on the
ground. But they were not happy over these arrangements and a
decade later complaints regarding the feudal terms of tenure were
still coming in to the authorities.^" Thus two areas — the Eastern
Townships and the old seigniories (which were far from being com-
pletely settled) — having been eliminated, Haldimand was obliged to
look farther afield to discover lands on which to establish his scat-
tered subjects, who, after seven years or more of uncertainty, were
now bent on determining their future once and for all.
47. P.A.C.R., 1886, 414-.
48. Ihid., 418. C. C. Jones, "The U.E.L. Settlement at Missisquoi Bay."
The Loyalist Gazette, III, 5.
49. P.A.C.R., 1888, 711, 844. A. L. Burt, op. cit., 367. T. C. Lampee,
"The Missisquoi Loyalists," Proceedings of the Vermont Historical Society,
VI (2), 81-138.
50. P.A.C.R., 1888, 710, 845; 1891, 118.
THE MIGRATION OF THE LOYALISTS 59
A beginning had been made at Niagara. The fort was on the east
bank of the river, one of the posts that by the treaty was destined
to be handed over to the United States, but on the Canadian side a
permanent agricultural settlement had been established in 1780 in
order to provide supplies for the garrison and to turn consumers
into producers. At the close of 1782 the community numbered no
more than eighty-four, but with the disbanding of Butler's Rangers,
who had made Niagara their headquarters, a large addition was re-
ceived. By the summer of 1785 the population had reached a total of
770. But Niagara was remote from the main body of refugees and
the real significance of this pioneer beginning does not reveal itself
until a decade later. One other development on the Niagara frontier
facihtated the later influx of immigrants. The warriors of the Iro-
quois confederacy had fought vahantly for the British cause, which,
since it involved the protection of their lands, was their cause. Now
they were dispossessed and as much refugee Loyalists as many of
those who were receiving lands and provisions. Haldimand was re-
solved to slight none of the participants in the war and a tract of
land on the Grand River was set aside for the remnants of the New
York tribes that had taken refuge within the bounds of the province.
By this conciliatory poHcy the officials won the friendship of the
Indians ; and thus, at a time when pioneering in the United States
meant constant vigilance against the red man, the Canadian settler
was not distressed by this problem or distracted from the everyday
business of estabhshing a home.^^
Many of the Loyalists who were quartered along the St. Law-
rence looked toward the east. The vogue of Nova Scotia so prevalent
in New York also had its adherents in Canada, but the government
of the Atlantic province was already so flooded with helpless new-
comers that no special inducements were offered to anyone coming
from the west. Cape Breton, which had just been set up as an autono-
mous province, seemed hke a locality with a bright future and in the
fall of 1784 three vessels carrying 124 passengers sailed from Que-
51. W. H. Siebert, "Loyalists and Six Nation Indians in the Niagara
Peninsula/' R.S.C., 1915, See. ii, 79-128. E. A. Cruikshank, "Ten Years of
the Colony of Niagara, 1780-90," Niagara Historical Society Collections,
No. 17 (Welland, Ont., 1908), 3-44.
60 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
bee bound for the island. A more extensive project for settlement
there did not materialize/^ But Governor Haldimand did turn his
most serious attention to the peninsula of Gaspe, which marks the
southern entrance to the estuary of the St. Lawrence. In 1783 a
thorough investigation of its possibilities was conducted by one of
the governor's agents and between June and November, 1784, over
four hundred persons were sent on from Sorel and Quebec. They
were, however, far from contented with the conditions that they
found or satisfied with the prospects that the future offered.®^
These migrations to the east did not reduce materially the num-
ber of persons whose fate had to be determined by the governor of
Quebec and the loss had been more than balanced by the arrivals by
sea of several hundreds of Loyalists from the city of New York.^*
A certain Michael Grass, who had occupied a humble position as a
harness maker in that city, was the leader of this expedition and
with his appearance upon the scene there arose an insistent demand
for the immediate choice of locations. Grass, who in the course of
earlier military experiences had learned something about the coun-
try, was convinced that no site was more desirable than the area im-
mediately north of the east end of Lake Ontario known as Cataraqui.
Governor Haldimand had also, somewhat reluctantly, come to the
conclusion that somewhere in this vicinity the bulk of the people
would have to be placed.^^
French settlement had advanced along the north bank of the St.
Lawrence only as far west as Lake St. Francis, a widening of the
river about fifty miles above Montreal. Westward from this point,
continuing along the river and swinging around the north shore of
Lake Ontario, a succession of townships was surveyed ; and to these
lands which were still the deepest wilderness the refugees that were
quartered at a dozen different places and the troops stationed at
various posts were directed. The process of settlement was, however,
strictly supervised and as a first step all were ordered to rendezvous
52. P.A.C.R., 1886, 450, 452, 453; 1888, 707, 732, 738, 753, 754; 1895,
4, 13.
53. Ihid., 1888, 30, 752, 839; 1889, 108. W. H. Siebert, "Loyalist Settle-
ments on the Gaspe Peninsula/' R.S.C., 19H, Sec. ii, 399-405.
54. H. H. Van Wart, op. cit.
55. A. L. Burt, op. cit., 369.
THE MIGRATION OF THE LOYALISTS 61
at certain places where the soldiers were joined by their families and
the civilians were organized into loose settlement companies.^®
The settlements were arranged in two series. From Lake St. Fran-
cis to Lake Ontario were eight known as "royal townships" ; beyond
were five (later increased in number by subdivision) described popu-
larly as "Cataraqui." It was assumed that those who had been com-
rades in arms or in exile would be more congenial comrades in hard-
ships, and the general policy was to locate disbanded troops of the
same corps or regiment, or refugee civilians from the same camp, in
the vicinity of one another. As a result, at first, many of the town-
ships possessed a decided individuality — Hessians in one community,
Mohawk Dutch in another; Hudson River farmers in one place and
veterans of Jessup's Corps as their neighbors. Much of this indi-
viduaUty was lost, however, by the shifting of population that fol-
lowed the initial occupation. ^^
Not all the Loyahsts were eager to engage in the venture. They
questioned the terms on which the lands were granted, fearing a
system little different from the Canadian feudalism of the seign-
iories; they complained that the lack of cattle would make pioneer-
ing much more difficult. Cataraqui in particular seemed remote,
being accessible only by a tedious trip on the rapid-strewn river and
the lake. This disadvantage was the more annoying to those who had
centered their desires in the Eastern Townships, and only the con-
tinued refusal of the oflScials to reconsider the decision persuaded
them to set out for the destinations to which they had been assigned. ^^
It was, in fact, a very serious and, to many of them, a rather terri-
fying enterprise upon which they were embarked. Frontier pioneer-
ing was an experience with which not all of them were acquainted,
and only the government assistance and the encouraging presence
of government agents made it seem at all feasible. During the sum-
mer of 1784 several mihtary groups which, because of their organi-
zation, were ready to begin the adventure, were located, and in the
56. William Canniff, op. ciL, 62, 63.
57. R. W. Cumberland, The United Empire Loyalist Settlements between
Kingston and Adolphustown (^Bulletin of the Departments of History and
Political and Economic Science in Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario,
No. 45, May, 1923).
58. P.A.C.R., 1888, 710, 713, 714, 725.
62 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
following years, one after another, the townships were taken over by
the Loyalist families.
Lands, supplies, and equipment were dispensed with a generous
hand. The officials were not governed by any definite instructions as
to what the extent of each grant should be. The standard was very
similar to that which had been established in the proclamations of
1763 and 1765. Military veterans were rewarded on a sliding scale
which ranged from five thousand acres for a field officer down to two
hundred acres for a private; and among civihans every adult male
and every widow usually received two hundred acres. But to this
generalization there are exceptions. Grants larger than five thousand
acres are recorded and some of the civilians who came later had to
be content with fifty or one hundred acres. ^® Evidence of the right
that any individual received was provided by a "location ticket"
which would finally be exchanged for a deed. The bounty of the gov-
ernment did not end with this. In these other matters there was again
a variation according to the needs of the settlers or the peculiar
circumstances of the environment. Rations and clothes were' dis-
tributed over a period of months, sometimes years. In general, after
1786 the settlers received no provisions. In some communities every
family received building materials and every group of five families
was provided with a set of tools, a musket, and forty-eight rounds of
ammunition.®"
L^nf ortunately, the "location ticket" was transferable. The holder
need only sign his name upon the back and all the rights to the land
indicated thereon passed to the new possessor. Speculators and their
agents were present in the camps buying up the tickets of those who
were discouraged or of others who were in such pressing need of
money that the future had to be sacrificed to the present. Store-
keepers did a thriving business in exchanging goods for certificates
— sometimes as little as a calico dress in return for one ticket — and
later selling the rights at two to four dollars an acre to immigrants
and investors who passed through the country. By such purchases
large areas came into the hands of men who were not interested in
immediate development and these spaces lay unoccupied, sometimes
59. Ontario Bureau of Archives, Second Report, 1, 12, 13.
60. William Canniff, op. cit., 184, 185, 200, 220.
THE MIGRATION OF THE LOYALISTS 63
for decades, in the midst of the thriving settlements that later
marked the townships of the Loyalist tract. ^^
There was one more center that brought together isolated traders
and settlers who could not forswear allegiance to the crown of Great
Britain. The post of Detroit remained in British hands during the
war and although the treaty of 1783 had determined its fate as being
on the soil of the United States, the final transfer did not take place
until 1796. Some disbanded soldiers had already been established at
Amherstburg on the Canadian side of the river and their number
was increased at the time of the transfer by the exodus from Detroit
of British people who had hoped in vain that the temporary reten-
tion would become permanent. A few of the more adventurous among
them pushed on into the interior of the Canadian peninsula and on
the banks of the Thames River made the pioneer clearings in what
was to become the agricultural center of the future province of
Ontario.^^
The bands of Loyalists moving to the north may have met occa-
sional individuals who were passing to the south for reasons similar
to theirs: dissatisfaction with the outcome of the struggle in which
they had been engaged. The latter numbered only hundreds instead
of tens of thousands but they, also, thought it wise to seek a refuge
on the other side of the boundary, and like the Loyalists they had a
claim on the generosity of the government to which they entrusted
their future. As early as 1780 Congress provided many of these
refugees with rations and the states of Massachusetts and New York
offered lands to such as desired a permanent location. In May, 1785,
three townships adjacent to Lake Erie were set off as a Canadian
refugee tract; but owing to the exposed position and the fact that
Congress had no jurisdiction over that land, the location was later
changed to the region near the mouth of the Great Miama River.
The majority, however, pressed their claims upon the Federal gov-
ernment, meeting with no satisfactory success until 1798, when
provision was made for compensating the refugees, their widows,
61. T. W, H. Leavittj History of Leeds and Grenville, Ontario, from 17^9
to 1879 (Brockville, Ont., 1879), 17. William Canniff, op. cit., 169-171.
62. Silas Farmer, History of Detroit and Wayne County and Early Michi-
gan, I (3d ed., Detroit, 1890), 335. Hugh Cowan, Canadian Achievement in
the Province of Ontario, I (n.p., 1929), 15, 104, 146, 157.
64 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
families, and heirs with gifts of land. A supplementary act in 1801
increased the amount given and set aside a strip four and a half miles
wide and forty-eight miles long in central Ohio as a "Canadian
Refugee Tract." This reservation included twice as much land as
was needed to satisfy the claimants, and although no figures are
available by which the extent of the movement may be measured, the
few hundred settlers that came from Canada present a startling con-
trast to the human tide that was flowing in the opposite direction.^^
A careful analysis of the available evidence reveals that 6,800
Loyalists were in the old province of Quebec (then all of Canada)
in 1785.^* But the arrivals of 1783 and 1784 were not the only per-
sons who had a fair claim to the title. Some others drifted in from
Nova Scotia and New Brunswick where they had been disappointed
in conditions and in their own prospects. Others were members of the
very mixed group that continued to come from the United States
during the latter half of the 1780's. They may not have been actively
engaged in opposing the establishment of the revolutionary govern-
ments, but they claimed to have remained loyal to the allegiance in
which they were born and, upon taking an oath renewing that alle-
giance, they were entitled to lands if not supplies. These immigrants
were not above suspicion ; indeed, the term "late Loyalist" was some-
thing of a gibe. A dramatic illustration of their mixed character is
that the executioner of Major Andre received a Loyahst land grant
at Kingston before being discovered and whipped out of town.®^
63. Carl Wittke, "Canadian Refugees in the American Revolution," Ca-
nadian Historical Review, III (Toronto, 1922), 320—333. Reports of Com-
mittee on the Petitions of Sundry Refugees from Canada and Nova Scotia
(Feb. 11 and 17, 1796). Report of the Committee on Claims to Whom Was
Referred . . . the Petition of Caleb Eddy (1802). The last two are pam-
phlets in the Central Reference Library, Toronto.
64. A. L. Burt, op. cit., 362-363.
65. Ibid., 362n. This man had been a Loyalist prisoner who, in disguise,
had acted as executioner under pressure from the American authorities and
had been rewarded with his freedom; Winthrop Sargent, The Life and Ca-
reer of Major John Andre (Boston, 1861), 393. These latecomers provide
some excuse for the traditional, but exaggerated, estimate of 10,000 Loyalist
immigrants into the old province of Quebec. A "Return of Disbanded Troops
on King's Land in Quebec, 1787" gives a total of 5,628 men, women, and
children; P.A.C.R., 1891, 17. It is estimated that by 1790, 3,000 settlers had
THE MIGRATION OF THE LOYALISTS 65
The Loyalist and accompanying migrations to Quebec fell off
somewhat about 1790 because 1788 and 1789 were seasons of scar-
city, governmental support had been withdrawn, and the early set-
tlers had not yet fully adapted themselves to altered circumstances. ®®
Yet, like the Loyalists of the Atlantic coast, these migrants had fol-
lowed the natural avenues of expansion. It was true that, owing to
official interference, they had passed over the fertile acres north of
Lake Champlain, but except for that they had acted as forerunners
for a mightier human tide to follow. Within New York State the
land seekers who were working up the Hudson and Mohawk valleys
were being kept out of the central and western sections of the state
by disputes over land titles, by speculative grants, and by lack of
roads. In contrast the broad lands of Canada lay invitingly open
and Loyalist settlements in the former wilderness acted like magnets.
North America was about to witness a thoroughly nonpolitical mi-
gration toward the north and west by pioneers who followed where
the Loyalists had trodden, but did so with next to no thought of the
boundary which the diplomats had laid down in 1783.
arrived at Niagara; Niagara Historical Society Collections, No. 10, 40. Since
neither all of these nor more than a handful of the settlers in the Detroit
region could properly be called additional Loyalists, the traditional total
would have to include many quasi-Loyalists to be true even in 1790.
66. J. H. Thompson, Jubilee History of Thorold Township and Town
(Thorold, Ont., 1897-98), 27, 29.
CHAPTER IV
THE FOLLOWERS OF THE LOYALISTS
1785-1812
For almost three decades following the peace of 1783 a current of
migration flowed from the United States into the British provinces
to the north. During the first years of that period observers had no
difficulty in characterizing the nature of the movement. The emi-
grants were for the most part Loyalists, faithful subjects of George
III, who for reasons of sentiment or policy believed that they would
be happier or safer under the British crown. Often the change in
residence was economically disastrous and their loyalty was the only
philosophy that justified the change. But as the years passed, senti-
ment ceased to be the predominant factor. To settle in Canada be-
came increasingly advantageous and as the opportunities were better
known, loyalism waned and, finally, all but disappeared. The migra-
tion of the Loyalists gradually shaded off into a migration of pio-
neer farmers whose only motive was the traditional American search
for better lands and a perfect home.
Even among the firstcomers between 1782 and 1785 there were
some whose loyalty was not strong enough to compensate for hard-
ships and uncertainty. This was particularly true among the motley
crowd that had congregated in the refugee city of Nova Scotia,
Shelburne. An official who visited that place in 1789 reported that
two-thirds of its inhabitants had disappeared, many of them having
gone back to the United States when the distribution of govern-
mental provisions had ceased. They "were not much burthened with
loyalty, a spacious name which they made use of," was his caustic
description of some of the people who had gathered there.^ It was,
however, entirely natural that many of them should return. Nova
Scotia had been easy of access from New York and the migration
had not been particularly closely supervised. Many of those who
1. P.A.C.R., 1921, Appendix E: "Letters from Governor Parr to Lord
Shelburne, Describing the Arrival and Settlement of the United Empire
Loyalists in Nova Scotia, 1783-1784/' 11.
THE FOLLOWERS OF THE LOYALISTS 67
came to Halifax were obliged to continue on a tedious land journey
to other parts of the province or an uncomfortable sea voyage to
the district that became New Brunswick. When it became necessary
to move, it was inevitable that many should prefer to return to the
old home instead of venturing into entirely new country.^
In the course of the population adjustment of the next years the
southward drift continued. Edward Winslow, who was the contem-
porary chronicler of the Maritime Provinces, wrote in 1784: "All
the great people of Halifax, men and women, have been and are still
flocking to the States to visit their rebel brethern.'" In later pas-
sages he records the outcome of these visits. At first the expatriate
Tories were received with suspicion by their republican friends; on
the second call a more cordial welcome was extended; and, finally,
they remained and accepted citizenship in the new republic. It was
shocking to his intense loyaUsm to note among them officers who
were receiving half pay from the British government.* The hard
years of pioneering in the later 1780's brought trying experiences
for which many of the settlers had no preparation; and the frag-
mentary information dealing with the two decades that followed tells
of farmers, tradesmen, and fishermen who decided that prospects for
the future were brighter in the United States. During these same
years there was taking place a considerable immigration from the
British Isles into the provinces, particularly Cape Breton. These
newcomers often caught the prevailing spirit of discouragement,
which in their case was intensified by the unsatisfactory terms of
land tenure that were offered, and they too joined in the southward
trek.^ The emigration which set in from Nova Scotia and New
Brunswick toward Upper Canada about 1800 indicates that these
provinces were losing their attractiveness to land seekers. The east-
2. N.B.H.S., VIII, 256.
3. W. O. Raymond (ed.), Winslow Papers A.D. 1776-1826, 232.
4. Ibid., 474-476. For a description of the corresponding emigration from
New Brunswick, see P. Campbell, Travels etc., cited, 282-284.
6. Cyrus Black, Historical Records of the Posterity of William Black
(Amherst, N.S.), 188. H. A. Innis and A. R. M. Lower (eds.), Select Docu-
ments in Canadian Economic History, 1783—1886 (Toronto, 1933), 392, 394.
William Gregg, History of the Presbyterian Church in the Dominion of
Canada (Toronto, 1885), 95. P.A.C.R., 1895, 42.
68 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
ward movement along the Atlantic coast had definitely come to an
end.^
The only exception to this general statement was incidental to a
new economic activity which ultimately was destined to influence the
course of all population movements in the northeastern part of the
continent. There nature had provided a fortune in the boundless
forests of pine and spruce that stretched back from the rocky shores
of New Brunswick and Maine. But the pioneer farmer in search of
land did not consider the forests an asset; with him, in fact, fire
played a conspicuous part in clearing them out of the way. Lumber-
men, on the other hand, had been active in the region for many years,
enjoying a moderate prosperity in time of peace, and profiting
mightily when the navies of the world had need of their tall masts and
stanch beams. This need arose forcefully and somewhat unexpect-
edly early in the nineteenth century when, as a result of the Napo-
leonic wars, England was no longer able to secure naval supplies
from the Baltic and in its stead imported timber from her colonies.^
This policy at once started a rage for cutting on the banks of "the
St. John and St. Croix and several settlements were formed in New
Brunswick by frontiersmen from Maine who were adept in the han-
dling of the ax. But the number was small and in no way com-
pensated for the steady loss from the agricultural parts of the
provinces.*
It was not in the vicinity of the Atlantic that the movement from
the United States into Canada was apparent. That phase of popu-
lation spread had now given way to a similar movement in an area
6. James H. Coyne (ed.), "The Talbot Papers/' R.S.C., 1907, Sec. ii, 121,
134, 186.
7. W. O. Raymond (ed.), Winslow Papers A.D. 1776-1826, 638. A. R. M.
Lower, "The Trade in Square Timber," Contributions to Canadian Econom-
ics, VI (Toronto, 1933), 40—61. D. G. Creighton, The Commercial Empire
of the St. Lawrence, 1760-1850 (Toronto, 1937), 148-150.
8. William F. Ganong, "A Monograph on the Origins of Settlements in
the Province of New Brunswick," R.S.C., 1905, Sec. ii, 116, 156, 157. An in-
dication of the steady influx into the timber region, much of which was in the
disputed territory between Maine and New Brunswick, is given in W. O.
Raymond (ed.), "State of the Madawaska and Aroostook Settlements in
1831. Report of John G. Deane and Edward Kavanagh to Samuel E. Smith,
Governor of the State of Maine," N.B.H.S., IX, 344-384.
THE FOLLOWERS OF THE LOYALISTS 69
that was one stage behind in development. The former had been an
extension of settlement in coastal New England. The next resulted
from the expansion of the vigorous communities that were steadily
occupying the longitudinal valleys in the interior of New York and
the New England states. Township by township the Yankees took
possession of the fertile meadows that bordered either side of the
Connecticut River and the American population which was deployed
to the right and left of the upper river presented a front not unlike
that of an army encamped along the international boundary and
about to invade the territory on the other side of the line.
The territory which they faced was known as the Eastern Town-
ships of Quebec. The first Loyalist refugees in the valley of the
Richelieu had known the region and its advantages, but Governor
Haldimand had stubbornly refused them permission to locate within
its bounds; he foresaw with a clearer vision than most of his con-
temporaries possessed the time when the French of the St. Lawrence
with a slower, although no less persistent, advance than that which
the Yankees to the south exhibited would reach the townships by
following the many tributaries of the St. Lawrence which drained
the region.^ The French, however, were still far distant. Large dis-
tricts within the ancient seigniories along the river were still un-
peopled and it was evident that a generation or two must elapse
before their search for farms would bring them so far into the
interior.^"
Following the division of the old province of Quebec into Upper
and Lower Canada in 1791, the administrators of each section em-
barked upon an energetic program of development. Above all they
needed people, and in Lower Canada Haldimand's earlier pohcy of
reserving lands for the grandchildren of the French was naturally
discarded. Whoever the people might be, they were welcome; the
New Yorkers and the New Englanders, ready to swarm over the
boundary, were the most available and were waiting to be invited.
Americans had already made their appearance. The prohibition
9. A. L. Burt, The Old Province of Quebec, 367, 368.
10. Georges Vattier, Esquisse historique de la colonisation de la Province
de Quebec, 1608-1925 (Paris, 1928), 38, 39. Ivanhoe Caron, La Colonisation
de la Province de Quebec. Les Cantons de I'Est. 1791-1815 (Quebec, 1927),
11.
70 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
of settlement had not included the seigniories already estabhshed
east of the Richelieu and on these estates a number of Loyalists from
the Hudson and the Mohawk had found homes. Here they were
joined by others from the old neighborhood who professed loyalty in
varying degrees. From this base, during the 'nineties, the more ven-
turesome among them, ignoring the estabhshed poHcy, moved onto
the forbidden lands and selected the most promising sites, particu-
larly those adjacent to Missisquoi Bay, the northeastern arm of
Lake Champlain.^^ Farther to the east, during the same decade,
Americans were also coming in from the New England states, squat-
ting in true frontier style wherever their practiced eyes spotted a
desirable location. If people were determined to come, the authorities
reasoned, it would be better for the methods and conditions of settle-
ment to be established officially than to allow the pioneers to choose
what they wanted, trusting to the future for a confirmation of their
claims.^^
There was, in fact, no practical way of keeping them out. Two
influential circumstances that usually fostered the settlement of an
area were present in this case : accessibihty and a market. The acces-
sibility was provided by roads that began reaching out toward Lower
Canada during the 'sixties and by a network of intertwining rivers ;
the market was found in Montreal. The natural window to the out-
side world for frontier Vermont and northeastern New York was
provided by the St. Lawrence.
Instead of drawing the boundary along the watershed separating
the rivers flowing to the south from those that emptied into the St.
Lawrence, the negotiators of the treaty of 1783 had selected the
forty-fifth parallel due west from its intersection with the Connecti-
cut River. This cut across the system of communications that nature
had provided. Easy portages led from one river system to another.
The line bisected Lake Memphremagog, the long trough in the hills
into which many of the minor streams of northern Vermont flowed.
From the north end of the lake small tributaries provided paths
11. See above, pp. 57—58. C. Thomas, Contributions to the History of the
Eastern Townships (Montreal, 1866), 15, 16. John P. Noyes, "The Canadian
Loyalists and Early Settlers in the District of Bedford," Third Report of
the Missisquoi County Historical Society (St. John's, P.Q., 1908), 90—107.
12. H. A. Innis and A. R. M. Lower, op. cit., 13, 14-.
THE FOLLOWERS OF THE LOYALISTS 71
leading to the St. Francis and the Yamaska, a second important
water route of the British province. From the southern end another
portage led to the Missisquoi River north of the British line, but the
river flowed over into the United States, turned toward the north-
west, and emptied into Lake Champlain at the boundary. Lake
Champlain was drained by the Richelieu into the St. Lawrence.
Geography had determined that in settlement this Canadian-Ameri-
can area was to be a unit.^^
The market that the pioneers enjoyed was called into being by
developments far distant from the hills of the Eastern Townships.
The rapidly expanding textile industry of England called for
bleaching and dyeing agents that the chemists of the day could pro-
vide only by extracting them by crude processes from natural prod-
ucts in which they were found in abundance. The "pot and pearl
ashes" that were secured by the burning of many varieties of hard-
wood yielded a high percentage of the chemicals, and the trees of the
Eastern Townships seem to have been unusually rich therein. Every
barrel transported to Montreal brought a cash price, and pioneer
history records some fabulous sums obtained from the cutting on a
single acre. When the clearing of land, which usually was nothing
but the preliminary step toward the securing of an income, became a
profitable venture in itself, the taking up of land was bound to pro-
ceed with unexampled rapidity.^*
The policy of encouraging settlement was inaugurated b}'^ a proc-
lamation of Lieutenant-Governor Clarke on February 7, 1792.^^ A
commission was appointed to receive applications for grants and to
formulate the plan under which the lands would be actually disposed
13. W. A. Mackintosh, "Canada and Vermont: A Study in Historical Ge-
ography," Canadian Historical Review, VIII, 9—30. John A. Dresser, "The
Eastern Townships of Quebec; a Study in Human Geography," R.S.C., 1935,
Sec. ii, 89-100.
14. John Lambert, Travels through Canada and the United States of
North America, in the Years 1806, 1807, and 1808, II (2d ed., London,
1814), 526. Francis A. Evans, The Emigrant's Directory and Guide to Ob-
tain Lands and Effect a Settlement in the Canadas (Dublin, 1833), 55, 94,
110, 111. P.C.: App. to Jour, of Legislative Assembly, X, No. V.
15. The proclamation may be found in Arthur G. Doughty and Duncan A.
McArthur (eds.). Documents Relating to the Constitutional History of Can-
ada, 1791-1818 (Ottawa, 1914), 60-62.
72 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
of. Under their regulations a township would be granted to a leader
acting for a group of settlers within a limited time. This was in its
essential features the traditional New England system of town
grants to a company of "proprietors" and probably because of their
familiarity with the method, New Englanders were not slow in offer-
ing to engage in the enterprise, there being no restrictions in the
matter of nationality either with respect to grantees or settlers. By
July, 1793, warrants had been issued for the survey of 173 town-
ships that had been petitioned for by 256 "leaders" and approxi-
mately ten thousand associates, most of them citizens of the United
States.'^
There were, however, many obstacles that delayed the actual proc-
ess of settlement. Just as in New York, official privilege and private
preemption hampered the actual land seekers. Officials could not
agree as to the scale of fees to be charged and there was uncertainty
regarding the number of acres that the associates would be allowed
to cede to the leader. Bona fide settlers who arrived found town-
ships unsurveyed and no one on hand to administer the oath of .alle-
giance that was demanded. Some returned to the United States;
others remained as squatters in the hope of a speedy adjustment of
their status. With the coming of a new lieutenant-governor in 1796
steps were taken by which order was finally estabhshed from the
tangled state of affairs. Some of the townships in which systematic
settlement had not begun were forfeited. In 1800 arrangements were
confirmed by the Executive Council whereby the amount of land
patented to any group of associates was made proportionate to the
extent of the preparatory work which they had already carried
through. The way was now open for the pioneers to secure a legal
title and after 1800 the business of peopling to^vnships with Yankee
immigrants was remarkably brisk.^^
From the local histories of the communities the general nature of
the settlement can be outlined. Quakers located in two townships;
among many others, a minority who claimed special concessions be-
16. Ivanhoe Caron, "Colonization in Canada under the English Domina-
tion from 1790-1796/' Statistical Y ear-Book of the Province of Quebec, V
(Quebec, 1918), 19-99.
17. Ivanhoe Caron, "Colonization in Canada under the English Domina-
THE FOLLOWERS OF THE LOYALISTS 73
cause of their Loyalist background congregated in the southwestern
settlements; proprietors and settlers from Vermont outnumbered
the Loyalists again in the more eastern sections/® There was, how-
ever, no regularity in the conditions on which the lands were held in
spite of the proclamations and instructions. Some proprietors were
rewarded for special services; others had borne the cost of survey
and therefore received more favorable terms. Between 1796 and 1814*
an estimated total of 2,203,709 acres was ceded, the greater amount
before 1805.^® In one feature there was uniformity : the actual tillers
of the soil, whatever their politics or status, were predominantly
American in blood and institutions. The officials had made no provi-
sion for the establishment of local government, but this neglect
caused no confusion in the new communities. The settlers, with a
tradition of more than a hundred years behind them, set about gov-
erning themselves.^"
In the routine affairs of daily life the international boundary was,
in fact, nonexistent. During the troubles of the Revolution many of
the people of northern Vermont had considered themselves "neu-
trals" and in the uncertain years that followed, an influential group
in the population had urged a union of the state with the British
provinces as a step economically sound and politically acceptable. ^^
Formal admission of that territory as a state of the Union in 1791
did not stifle the international spirit that prevailed along the border.
Some settlers afflicted with typical pioneer restlessness moved back
and forth across the line which they knew was somewhere in the
tion from 1796 to 1800," Statistical Y ear-Book of the Province of Quebec,
VI, 582—648. Ivanhoe Caron, "Colonization in Canada under the British
Domination (1800—1815)/' Statistical Y ear-Book of the Province of Quebec,
VII, 461—535. [John Cosens Ogden] A Tour through Upper and Lower
Canada by a Citizen of the United States (Litchfield, 1799), 36. L. S. Chan-
nell. History of Compton County and Sketches of the Eastern Toxvnships
(Cookshire, P.Q., 1896), 166, 214.
18. Ivanhoe Caron, La Colonisation de la Province de Quebec. Les Cantons
de I'Est. 1791-1815, 178, 180, 234.
19. Ibid., 219.
20. Montreal Gazette, Oct. 16, 1834, quoted in H. A. Innis and A. R. M.
Lower, op. cit., 34, 35.
21. W. A. Mackintosh, op. cit.
74 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
vicinity. Churches were constituted of members who Hved on both
sides of the boundary. Montreal was the natural market place of
northern Vermont and no pohtical regulations interrupted the trade.
In local transactions stores and mills served a chentele that was made
up of subjects of Great Britain and of the United States. ^^
The haphazard arrangements that prevailed in the granting of
land explain the absence of any official figures adequate to measure
the size of the American influx. In 1807 it was stated that approxi-
mately fifteen thousand had crossed the border to settle on the lands
of the Eastern Townships. ^^ Bishop Charles Stewart, writing at
about the time of the outbreak of the War of 1812, estimated the
total population at twenty thousand, derived almost entirely from
American stock which, with the exception of the Loyahsts from New
York, had been drawn from New England.^* The significance of the
movement, however, is illustrated not so much by figures as by the
predominance of the American element and by the cordial senti-
ments that the British authorities gradually came to entertain
toward them. These were sunmied up in the words of Bishop Stew-
art: "In many respects they make the best settlers in a new coun-
try."^^ Pioneering was more important than politics and as pioneers
they were welcomed and put to work.
That the influx into the Eastern Townships was far from being
caused entirely by the generous pohcy that ultimately prevailed in
the distribution of land is proven by the settlement that was taking
place in the region that occupied a corresponding position west of
the Richelieu River. Here no effort was made to encourage the com-
ing of Americans ; on the contrary, the proprietors looked upon them
with disfavor. Nevertheless the Yankees came and those in authority
were forced to compromise with a movement so vigorous in nature
22. Abby Maria Hemenway, The Vermont Historical Gazetteer, II (Bur-
lington, Vt., 1871), 228, 232, 285; III (Claremont, N.H., 1877), 33.
C. Thomas, op. cit., 55, 100. Ernest M. Taylor, History of Brome County,
Quebec (Montreal, 1908), 6, 7, 95, 263.
23. Hugh Gray, Letters from Canada Written during a Residence There
in the Years 1806, 1807, and 1808 (London, 1809), 349.
24. Charles Stewart, A Short View of the Present State of the Eastern
Townships in the Province of Lower Canada Bordering on the Line ^5°
North with Hints for Their Improvement (London, reprinted 1817), 8.
25. Ibid., 9.
THE FOLLOWERS OF THE LOYALISTS 75
that whatever opposition they could offer was doomed to be without
effect.2«
The triangle to the west of the Richelieu, bounded on the south by
the forty-fifth parallel and on the northwest by the St. Lawrence,
was early known as the District of Beauharnois and later as Hunt-
ingdon County. The Richeheu was the great road of commerce
toward the north, carrying not only the trade of the Canadian settle-
ments but most of the produce that the American pioneers sent down
the rivers and creeks to Lake Champlain. Many flourishing villages
and agricultural communities, some dating back to the French
regime and others to Loyalist days, hned its banks and those to the
west of it gradually extended toward the interior of the triangle.
But difficulties were many and before the British subjects had made
much progress through the swampy lowlands nearest the river, a
swarm of American invaders had already taken possession of the
most fertile meadows. ^^
This conquest on the part of the foreigners was facilitated by the
topography of the region. It was drained by the Chateauguay River
which flowed into the St. Lawrence but which originated in a score
of sources on the American side of the boundary. These sources were
enmeshed with the many tributaries of the rivers of northern New
York, and when once the peopling of the northern wilderness got
under way there was nothing to stop and much to encourage an
advance down the valley of the Chateauguay.
Northern New York remained a wilderness much longer than
other less favored and less accessible areas. Once the obstacle had
been the presence of the French and their hostile Indian allies ; then
it had been a land policy that tied up many of the most desirable
regions in the hands of speculators and large landholders. Ten towns
had been laid out along the New York shore of the St. Lawrence
River in 1787 but none of them flourished. ^^ Not until ten years
later when Nathan Ford, who had secured a large section in the
vicinity of the present Ogdensburg, set out with the aggressiveness
26. Robert Sellar, The History of the County of Huntingdon and of the
Seigniories of Chateauguay and Beauharnois (Huntingdon, P.Q., 1888), 35.
27. Ihid., 14, 19-21.
28. Charles H. Leete, "The St. Lawrence Ten Towns," Quarterly Journal
of the New York State Historical Association, X, 318-327.
76 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
of a modern land promoter to dispose of his holdings did the boom
times of northern New York begin. The enthusiasm of his campaign
affected other proprietors, encouraged the state to cut roads through
the forest, and made the "Black River Country" a rival of the
"Genesee Country" in popular favor.^^
Ford concentrated his agents and propaganda in Vermont, and
success attended the efforts. About 1799 a westward movement be-
gan to depopulate the towns of the Green Mountains and to send not
only sons but families into what was to them a distant west. For
several years the rush continued and as the fame of the new and
fertile lands spread, all parts of New England and even Pennsyl-
vania contributed to the migration.^" Few, if any, of these pioneers
had any thought of expatriating themselves, but those who had no
definite destination in view scouted about for beaver meadows and
millsites and in the course of such wanderings they often found
themselves north of the unmarked latitude of forty-five degrees.
Many of them considered the hardwood lands that they discovered
in British territory to be better in quaHty and, in addition,- the
Montreal market for potash offered its great advantages. ^^ Com-
pared with the great column of settlers that was attacking the
American forest this flank movement was a minor maneuver, but it
turned Huntingdon County into another international zone where
citizens of the United States concentrated upon earning a living and
paid little attention to questions of jurisdiction.
Again the international character of a border settlement is illus-
trated by many of the affairs of everyday life as told in the pages of
local history. Americans and Canadians crossed the boundary to
have their grinding done in the nearest mills and all of them pre-
pared potash and timber for the buyers of Montreal. Clergymen and
physicians performed their duties on both sides of the line. Revolu-
tionary soldiers went back once a year to collect the pensions that
the United States government owed them. The terms which the
29. Franklin B. Hough^ A History of Jefferson County in the State of
New York (Albany, 1854), 127, 229, 234, 309.
30. Gates Curtis (ed.), Our Country and Its People: A Memorial Record
of St. Lawrence County, New York (Syracuse, 1897), 392, 407, 519. L. D.
Stilwell, Migration from Vermont (1776-1860) (Montpelier, Vt., 1937).
31. Robert Sellar, op. cit, 15, 21, 33, 34, 39.
THE FOLLOWERS OF THE LOYALISTS 77
Canadian proprietors demanded of the settlers were somewhat
severe, but otherwise residence in Canada was Httle different from
that in the United States. ^^
Emigration from New England and New York into Lower Can-
ada was not confined to farmers in quest of lands. The unending
Yankee search for opportunities for making a Hving brought many
others into the British province. Travelers record that almost with-
out exception innkeepers in the river towns and along the post roads
were Americans. The "American tavern" was an institution wel-
comed by every wandering European writer. The most prosperous
and enterprising storekeepers, as, for instance, in the city of Mont-
real, were foreigners from New England. The country miller was
usually an immigrant from the south ; in fact, almost all the mechan-
ics who could perform the duties of a new settlement were of Yankee
origin ; and the troupes of strolling players and "artists" who enter-
tained the backwoods were on tour from the United States. ^^ Upper
Canada presented the same picture. Itinerant Methodist preachers
and Yankee schoolmasters served the frontier settlements as far west
as the Indian reservation on the Grand River. ^*
How far from home the New Englander would wander was illus-
trated by Philemon Wright of Woburn, Massachusetts. In 1797 he
was exploring the banks of the Ottawa River, and there, opposite the
site where later arose the capital of the Dominion, he discovered a
location which pleased liim. In the spring of 1800 he returned with
his family and a small colony of artisans and farmers who became
the pioneers of the town of Hull. But the enterprising leader had
not come merely to cultivate the soil. He turned his attention to the
32. Ibid., 29, 32, 178, 226.
33. John Lambert, op. cit., I, 97, 496, 527 ; II, 2, 531.
34. The Journal of Seth Crowell; Containing an Account of His Travels
as a Methodist Preacher for Twelve Years (New York, 1813), 12, 14, 31, 32.
William Canniff, An Historical Sketch of the County of York (n.p., n.d.),
xxi. J. Smyth Carter, The Story of Dundas Being a History of the County
of Dundas from 1784- to WOJ/. (Iroquois, Ont., 1905), 169. Illustrated His-
torical Atlas of the Counties of Frontenac, Lennox, and Addington (Toronto,
1878), 10. James Young, Reminiscences of the Early History of Gait and
the Settlement of Dumfries in the Province of Ontario (Toronto, 1880), 35.
H. H. Langton (ed). Travels in the Interior Inhabited Parts of North
America in the Years 1791 and 1792 by P. Campbell (Toronto, 1937), 166.
78 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
surrounding forests, his settlers displayed their mettle as woodsmen,
and in 1806 they sent their first raft down the river, thereby inaugu-
rating a new era in the commercial history of the Ottawa Valley.
Other Americans joined them in the neighboring townships, where
they and their sons developed into the well-known Ottawa raftsmen
who were to pilot logs down every river of the American north and
west.^^
The majority of the Loyalists who had departed to Quebec from
the new republic had settled their families and fortunes in Upper
Canada and it was to this province that the largest contingent of the
emigrating Americans who followed them flocked. During its early
stages this movement was not nearly so natural a phenomenon as the
steady and normal expansion of settlement that brought Americans
over the line into border counties farther to the east. Upper Canada
was still far away from the frontier communities of the United States
and the route was long, tedious, and dangerous. Loyalism, or at
least homesickness for British institutions, remained a factor induc-
ing and guiding the course of the influx for perhaps a decade longer
than elsewhere. Not until almost 1800 was this current of migration
drawn into and made an integral part of the continental westward
movement of the time.
The Loyalists who had settled along Lake Erie, even after the
early hardships of their adventure had been overcome, were far from
satisfied with their lot and prospects. During the first trying years
some, thoroughly discontented with conditions, returned to the
United States and there is no evidence that any who remained urged
others to join them. They were at that time residents of the old
province of Quebec in which law, religion, and land relationships
were all determined by the concessions that had been made to the
35. Andrew Picken, The Canadas (London, 1832), Appendix, xi— xxxiii:
"An Account of the First Settlement of the Township of Hull, on the Ottawa
River, Lower Canada, by P. Wright, Esq." Joseph Bouchette, The British
Dominions in North America (London, 1831), Appendix, article "Hull."
James Elliott Defebaugh, History of the Lumber Industry of America, I
(2d ed., Chicago, 1906), 155-157. C. Thomas, History of the Counties of
Argenteuil, Que., and Prescott, Ont. (Montreal, 1896), 25. A. R. M. Lower,
The North American Assault on the Canadian Forest (Toronto, 1938), 164,
167.
THE FOLLOWERS OF THE LOYALISTS 79
predominant French element. Although they were assured that they
would never be subjected to the feudal tenures of the French seign-
iories and would never see their political rights sacrificed in order to
hold the allegiance of the French majority, these assurances were
felt to be no more permanent than the authority of the administra-
tors who made them.^^ The desire for a separate government was
strengthened by a reahzation of these facts. The Colonial Office in
London was made aware of the position of these new settlers and
finally, by the Constitutional Act of 1791, Parliament authorized
the division of Quebec into two provinces, the upper one being guar-
anteed a representative assembly and the holding of lands in "free
and common socage."
A new activity was at once evident in all economic Hfe. About this
time, crops which for some years had been scanty became abundant
in yield, and satisfaction over this change for the better coincided
with the new contentment apparent in political affairs. Most of the
Loyahsts had relatives and friends still residing in the States and
although they differed with them over the issues of the Revolution,
they were interested in one another's personal fortunes and opinions.
Letters and occasional visits kept their friendship alive and as the
heat of political discussion cooled, interest was shifted to land, crops,
and markets. In discussing these matters the Loyalists became more
and more enthusiastic regarding the advantages of their province
and, aided by some British sentiments still latent among their Ameri-
can friends, they succeeded in persuading some to return north with
them.^^
The Loyalists often had a practical motive to strengthen the en-
thusiasm which they expressed. Almost every family was tempted to
become a real-estate jobber. Many had been endowed with more land
than could be readily cleared and cultivated and every child upon
reaching maturity would receive a grant of two hundred acres free
from all expenses or fees. These grants usually lay at a distance
from the family farm and since in these early days there was plenty
36. A. L. Burt, op. cit., 384-399.
37. William Canniff^ History of the Settlement of Upper Canada, 167,
196, 466, 585. Robert Gourlay, Statistical Account of Upper Canada, I
(London, 1822), 248. Illustrated Historical Atlas of the Counties of Fron-
tenac, Lennox, and Addington, 6.
80 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
to occupy the growing generation on the home acres, to sell them at a
bargain price was the simplest disposition. The trade in certificates
for unoccupied grants was a recognized branch of commerce in the
Canadas and the smallness of the sum necessary to secure a choice
farming location was a powerful magnet that drew Americans across
the lake into the territory of a foreign nation.^^
But these circumstances in themselves are insulRcient to explain
the numbers of immigrants. When the province received a new con-
stitution, it also received a new lieutenant-governor who was a man
of patriotism, vision, and energy. John Graves Simcoe was not con-
tent to rule over an undeveloped and sparsely populated wilder-
ness.^^ The war conditions prevailing in Europe created a demand
for products that Upper Canada could supply. It was his task to
secure the people and provide the facihties for transportation that
were essential if the market were to be satisfied. One of his first acts
was to authorize the cutting of two great arteries of travel and trade
through the forest: Yonge Street leading northward from York
(Toronto) to Lake Simcoe and Dundas Street that proceeded west-
ward from the head of Lake Ontario. Any history of the settlement
of the province must begin with these two highways that opened up
the interior by joining it to the route of the Lakes.*°
In the matter of settlers Simcoe knew that Europe, troubled with
revolution and the prospect of war, had relatively few to send ; more-
over, he realized that Europeans were not very capable of perform-
ing the services that pioneering entailed. He believed that many
Americans were still British in sentiment, and on February 7, 1792,
he issued a proclamation very similar to that which appeared on the
same day in Lower Canada. In Upper Canada townships were
granted to associations of settlers, and farm lots up to two hundred
38. P.A.C.R., 1892, 72. James Croilj Dundas; or a Sketch of Canadian His-
tory and More Particularly of the County of Dundas (Montreal, 1861), 135
39. Simcoe's plans for the province were outlined in a memorandum which
he drew up in June, 1791. E. A. Cruikshank (ed.), Correspondence of Lieut.
Governor John Graves Simcoe, I (Toronto, 1923), 27—34.
40. William H. Breithaupt, "Dundas Street and Other Early Upper
Canada Roads," Ontario Historical Society, Papers and Records, XXI (To-
ronto, 1924), 5-11.
■\*ijiim
THE FOLLOWERS OF THE LOYALISTS 81
acres in extent to individual petitioners, with occasional grants up
to one thousand acres. The only obligation that rested upon the
recipient was to take an oath swearing to maintain the authority of
King and Parliament/^
This proclamation was circulated throughout New York and New
England, but American landlords were not willing to see it posted
about in public places and ingenious methods had to be followed to
bring it to the attention of interested persons/" There was some
response. A considerable number of townships were assigned to vari-
ous groups, and individual families were reported as coming from
New England to claim the privileges offered by the proclamation.*^
But many of the immigrants probably would have come without any
positive invitations because they were still tinged with loyalism, and
the sense of allegiance that they still bore to the British crown was
awakened by the anti-English spirit which broke out in the United
States in 1793 and 1794 when the question of neutrality in the great
European struggle of the day was thrown into the politics of the
period.**
When the Americans who apphed for lands were asked why they
had chosen Upper Canada for their new home, they returned answers
that illustrate that the migration was already related to the general
conditions attending the westward movement. Land was cheaper in
the Canadas. In the United States the government as well as private
proprietors demanded a substantial price and a tract sufficient for a
farm cost several hundred dollars. In Canada it was practically free.
Indian difficulties still raged in the Old Northwest and even after the
campaign of Anthony Wayne in 1793-1795 had defeated the tribes,
41. This proclamation is printed in E. A. Cruikshank (ed.)^ Correspond-
ence of Lieut. Governor John Graves Simcoe, I, 108—109.
42. Ibid., I, 124, 312.
43. La Rochefoucault-Liancourt, Travels in Canada, 1795 (Thirteenth Re-
port of the Bureau of Archives for the Province of Ontario, 1916. Toronto,
1917), 75.
44. L. J. Burkholder, A Brief History of the Mennonites in Ontario (n.p.,
1935), 14—15. Justin Winsor (ed.). Narrative and Critical History of
America, VII (Cambridge, 1888), 465, 466. This British loyalism is from
time to time reflected in H. H. Langton (ed.), Travels . . . by Patrick
Campbell, cited.
82 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
the fear of renewed hostilities acted as a discouragement.*^ More-
over, access to the territory that became the state of Ohio was diffi-
cult. It might be reached via Pittsburgh — ^but that was a roundabout
journey for New Englanders. Not until about 1800 were the western
settlements, then along the Genesee River, connected by road with
the south shore of Lake Erie. Emigrants were obliged to travel down
the river to Lake Ontario, to sail or walk along its coast to the
Niagara River, then to pass onto Canadian soil, to proceed across
the peninsula of Niagara, and finally to cross the waters of Lake
Erie — if transportation could be found.*® Every prospective migrant
to the west who studied the route realized that Upper Canada could
be reached more easily and more cheaply.
Presumably the desire for free political institutions was a factor
of consequence that might have persuaded some Americans to endure
the hardships of the longer journey in order to continue living in a
republic. But their inquiries revealed that all the pohtical rights
that they treasured were also honored in the constitution of Upper
Canada and in practical workings the government was less burden-
some in its demands for service and taxes. King and Parliament were
remote and, instead of demanding contributions from the colonists
as assistance in bearing the expenses of empire, the mother country
made appropriations for some burdens that had to be carried by the
citizens in the United States.*^
Perhaps as good a summary statement as any of what American
45. J. B. Brebner, "Canadian and North American History," Canadian
Historical Association Report for 1931 (Ottawa, 1931), 37-48. Isaac Weld,
Travels through the States of North America and the Provinces of Upper and
Loxver Canada during the Years 1795, 1796, and 1797 (4th ed., London,
1800), 286. E. A. Cruikshank (ed.), Correspondence of Lieut. Governor
John Graves Simcoe, II, 109; III, 5Q. Robert W. Bingham (ed.). Reports of
Joseph Ellicott, I (Buffalo, 1937), 164.
46. History of Ashtabula County, Ohio (Philadelphia, 1878), 25, 250.
A. B. Hulbert, Historic Highways of America, XII, 95—100; a map of the
roads of western New York in 1809 can be found on p. 122.
47. The Canadian Antiquarian and Numismatic Journal, Third Series, I
(Montreal, 1898), 170. On pages 159-172 of this journal there is reprinted
"A Letter from a Gentleman to His Friend in England, Descriptive of the
Different Settlements in the Province of Upper Canada" which was pub-
lished at Philadelphia in 1795.
l«!Ra«<r.'.ristiiK:a^cif.' - •;^•32cnTMaswa3Ctta^r^/t5*J5*ata£S^^ -'■-jtfai^
THE FOLLOWERS OF THE LOYALISTS 83
immigrants thought of Upper Canada was provided by one of them
who, having lost his possessions there owing to the War of 1812,
could still write as follows in 1814 from his refuge in Virginia:
First, I am a native of the United States, was born in Pennsylvania,
ten miles from Philadelphia, and in the year 1808 moved with my family
to the province of Upper Canada, in order to obtain land upon easy
terms, (as did most of the inhabitants now there) and for no other rea-
son. I had not long remained in the province till I discovered that the
mildness of the climate, fertility of the soil, benefit of trade, cheapness
of the land, morals of the inhabitants, and equality of the government,
so far exceeded my former expectations and the expectations of the
public in general, that I deemed it my duty to make known the same;
especially when I considered that there were many thousands of my fel-
low citizens of the United States, who were without land, and prospect
of obtaining any in the United States upon such easy terms as they
might in Upper Canada ; nor had I then any expectation of war between
the two countries.
Even during the war he had published three large editions of his
booklet about Upper Canada and in 1814 was issuing it in enlarged
form from a Baltimore press/^
The nature of the impulses that governed the migration is further
illustrated by the experiences of some of the distinct groups whose
history can be more readily traced. The attention of Governor Sim-
coe was early directed to the possibihty of securing settlers from
among the Quakers of Pennsylvania, whose experiences during the
Revolution had been far from comfortable and many of whom still
lived under the suspicion of their neighbors that they had been
Tories at heart although they had maintained a neutrality during
the war.^^ Some of them were so strongly suspected that their prop-
erty had been confiscated and all of them felt the heavy burden of
the taxes that weighed upon landed property.
Simcoe promised them freedom from two requirements that other-
wise might have discouraged them from taking up lands in the prov-
48. Michael Smith, A Geographical View of the British Possessions in
North America, Preface.
49. Ezra E. Eby, A Biographical History of the Ehy Family (Berlin,
Ont., 1889), 6.
84 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
ince. Instead of swearing to the necessary oath of allegiance they
were allowed, as in Lower Canada, to make affirmation, and freedom
from the usual compulsory militia service could be obtained by the
payment of an annual fee. Persuaded by these concessions, an emi-
gration to the north got under way which, like all the other Quaker
migrations, continued over a long period of years and was more in
the nature of a drift than a migration: families reuniting after a
separation and members of one "meeting" joining friends that had
preceded. Quaker colonies came not only from Pennsylvania but
from the valley of the Hudson, Vermont, and New Jersey, and they
formed a substantial element in the population that opened the lands
off Yonge Street.^"
A broader view of the establishment of these Quaker communities
also reveals a relationship to the inevitable trend of continental
population. All American Quakerdom was in a state of flux during
the generation following the Revolution and when the Indian diffi-
culties of the Northwest had been quieted, the movement known in
Quaker annals as the "great migration" brought individuals and
congregations from all parts into the southern and middle districts
of Indiana. Compared with that later exodus the influx into Canada
was only an insignificant flank movement, but it came early and con-
firms the hypothesis that even among migrations that were believed
to be governed by specific and peculiar factors, the prevailing direc-
tion of population movement during any given time was faithfully
reflected."
Along with the Quakers came representatives of another religious
group whose beliefs and experiences were very similar. The Men-
nonites and Dunkers in the eastern counties of Pennsylvania had
also come through the Revolution under the shadow of disloyalty to
the patriot cause. The scriptures to which they so confidently turned
for guidance spoke to them more clearly of kings and kingdoms than
50. Michael Smith, op. cit., 54, 55. James Bowden, The History of the
Society of Friends in America, II (London, 1854;), 361—362. Friends' Miscel-
lany: Being a Collection of Essays and Fragments, etc.. Ill (2d ed., Phila-
delphia, 1845), 361—362. Annual Report of the American Historical Associa-
tion, 1896, I, 613, 645, 647.
51. Arthur G. Borland, A History of the Society of Friends (^Quakers')
in Canada, 53, 55.
THE FOLLOWERS OF THE LOYALISTS 85
of presidents and republics. Their creed of nonresistance had sub-
jected them to many annoyances during the war ; and the early years
of the Republic, disturbed as they were by Indian uprisings and
threats of domestic insurrection, promised little assurance of peace.
Moreover, famiUes increased rapidly in numbers and the prudent
father who wanted to establish his sons as independent farmers saw
no opportunity of doing so in a region which was already so crowded
that the price of land was mounting rapidly. Some new agricultural
location must be found, but none wanted to move to the south and
southwest where the institution of slavery was being revived. For the
time being their attention was turned to the north, which was acces-
sible, where land was readily obtained, and where British rule re-
minded them of the stability of earlier days.^^
A few of these Germans had come into Upper Canada with the
Loyalists. The first distinct community was founded as early as 1786
in the Niagara peninsula at a place known as "the twenty," but its
numbers never became very large. Within the next few years another
and larger group arrived and settled in Welland County. In 1799,
when the real emigration of the Mennonites got under way, it was
directed toward the Grand River, where in Waterloo township, about
the town of Berlin (now Kitchener) , the largest and most prosper-
ous settlement of Germans was gathered. In 1803, when some tem-
porary doubts arose as to the validity of the titles under which they
held their lands, a third colony was started at Markham, north of
York. The stream of Germans to the Waterloo Settlement doubled
its population during 1805—1807 and continued to add to it down to
the War of 1812.^^
Like the Loyahsts, the Mennonites kept up a direct connection
with the compatriots they had left behind. They often traveled back
to the eastern counties of Pennsylvania, stopping every night, it was
said, at the home of some Mennonite or Dunker, and this well-defined
route facilitated a continual movement into the province which kept
52. L. J. Burkholder, "The Early Mennonite Settlements in Ontario,"
The Mennonite Quarterly Review, VIII (Goshen, Ind., 1934), 103-122.
W. H. Breithaupt, "The Settlement of Waterloo County," Ontario Historical
Society, Papers and Records, XXII, 14. L. J. Burkholder, A Brief History
of the Mennonites in Ontario, 14, 15, 21, 24.
53. Ihid., 29-37.
86 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
up until the main current of Mennonite migration, like that of the
Quakers, was turned to Indiana and neighboring states. Not all of
the Germans who moved into Canada subscribed to the religious
tenets of those who had come first. The success of the pioneers in-
duced other Pennsylvania Germans to follow and to take up lands in
the neighborhood of the communities where their own tongue was
spoken and where their own accustomed ways prevailed.^*
Governor Simcoe proved to be far from successful in his handhng
of the land affairs of his province. Many of the townships which he
arranged for were never settled and the grants had to be revoked.
There was confusion in the conditions imposed upon individuals, and
there was no regularity in fees.^^ When he retired from office in 1796
an effort was made to secure more uniformity in policy and adminis-
tration and a stricter inquiry into the assets and desirability of peti-
tioners was inaugurated. A charge for surveying was levied.^® In
spite of this more rigorous procedure the number of applicants in-
creased and immigration swelled in volume. ^^ This was, in fact, what
was to be expected, because Upper Canada lay across the path of one
of the main currents of population spread.
The population of west central New York had now reached the
first stage of pioneer saturation at which some readjustment was
necessary. First settlers and younger sons were ready to make be-
ginnings elsewhere; restless families were ready to follow. They be-
gan to fill in rapidly the counties laid out in the western part of the
state, to move along Lake Erie to the famed Western Reserve, and
to cross the Niagara River onto the roUing lands that bordered that
lake to the north. This last destination rapidly gained in popular-
ity.^^ All of the advantages that the firstcomer had enjoyed were still
54. A. B. Sherk, "The Pennsylvania-Germans in Canada/' The Pennsyl-
vania-German, VIII (Lebanon, Pa., 1907), 101-104. W. H. Higgins, The
Life and Times of Joseph Gould (Toronto, 1887), 24.
55. H. A. Innis and A. R. M. Lower, op. cit., 73. E. A. Cruikshank, "An
Experiment in Colonization in Upper Canada," Ontario Historical Society,
Papers and Records, XXV, 32—78. E. A. Cruikshank (ed.). Correspondence
of Lieut. Governor John Graves Simcoe, IV, 276, 277, 338.
56. Ibid., 308.
57. For a description of the migration in 1799 see a letter from Fort Erie,
Jan. 20, 1799, in Ontario Historical Society, Papers and Records, XX, 47.
58. George Heriot, Travels through the Canadas (London, 1807), 151,
THE FOLLOWERS OF THE LOYALISTS 87
in evidence and Upper Canada became known as the place where the
poor man could most quickly work his way into the position of an
independent landholder.^®
Unfortunately, no one counted the immigrants that crossed the
river and the only estimate that has been preserved placed the num-
ber of new families that settled in the province at five hundred per
year.®" Whatever the actual figures were, settlers came in such num-
bers that some worried Canadians began to fear the results of this
invasion of repubhcan radicals. By 1806 a strong prejudice against
the growing strength of the American population was clearly evi-
dent and the desirability of continuing the liberal policy in dispos-
ing of the public lands was seriously questioned.®^
Two men whose names rank high in the hst of Canadian colonizers
were already making efforts to organize an imperial scheme of set-
tlement that would take the place of the planlessness that left the
peopling of the province to a haphazard immigration from Great
Britain and the overflowing from the American states. Thomas
Douglas, the Earl of Selkirk, had first considered the problem of
emigration from the viewpoint of a Scottish landlord and his initial
effort resulted in the establishing of eight hundred Highlanders
upon Prince Edward Island in 1803. Plans for settlements near
Oswego, near Lake St. Clair, and at Sault Ste. Marie failed to mate-
rialize as he had hoped. When an attempt to found a similar com-
munity in the Niagara peninsula could not overcome the opposition
of some of the authorities of Upper Canada, Selkirk turned his at-
tention to the far Northwest. A grant made to him by the Hudson's
Bay Company opened for colonization a tract of land almost as
large as Great Britain, and in each year from 1812 to 1815 Selkirk
sent out groups of settlers (including soldiers from a Swiss regi-
152, 182. Michael Smith, op. cit., 12. David WilHam Smyth, A Short Topo-
graphical Description of His Majesty's Province of Upper Canada in North
America (2d ed., London, 1813), 27, 31. H. H. Langton (ed.). Travels . . .
by Patrick Campbell, 189. Friends' Miscellany, II (2d ed., Philadelphia,
1836), 69.
59. D'Arey Boulton, Sketch of Her Majesty's Province of Upper Canada
(London, 1805), 3, 5, 8, 13.
60. P.A.C.R., 1892, 202.
61. Ibid., 38.
88 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
ment) to the valley of the Red River of the north.®^ For more than a
half a century this community, clustered about Fort Garry, remained
an outpost of empire that was of importance only to soldiers and
traders, but in time it became a focal point that more and more
directed the course of population movement as the sweep of conti-
nental migration rounded the Lakes and advanced toward the North-
west.
Of more immediate significance was the settlement venture of
Colonel Thomas Talbot, a man who had been associated with Simcoe
and, like him, admired the pioneering qualities of the Americans ; but
he was also anxious to turn the current of British emigration away
from the United States to the provinces. For some time the naval
and commercial interests in England had been concerned over the
increasing difficulty of securing an adequate supply of hemp, and
Talbot convinced the colonial authorities that Upper Canada was a
place where, with proper encouragement, it might be produced in
abundance. The encouragement was extended in the form of a grant
of five thousand acres on the north shore of Lake Erie and the prom-
ise of more. Talbot started operations in 1803, but for several years
his activity was limited to preparatory work and the people he intro-
duced were laborers and mechanics. Actual settlement began in 1809
with an influx of farmers from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New
York, the Maritime Provinces, and England.^^ The influence of the
project was, however, far wider than any catalogue of families
would indicate. Upper Canada was advertised as a desirable place
of residence by his agents throughout the eastern states, the mills
that were constructed served all settlers, and Talbot Road, which
was opened up along the shore of Lake Erie, long remained one of
62. Chester Martin, Lord Selkirk's Work in Canada (Oxford, 1916), 21-
36. H. I. Cowan, "Selkirk's Work in Canada," Canadian Historical Review,
IX, 299-308. A. S. Morton, "The Place of the Red River Settlement in the
Plans of the Hudson's Bay Co., 1812—1825," Canadian Historical Associa-
tion Report for 1929 (Ottawa, 1930), 103-111. L. A. Mills, Ceylon under
British Rule (London, 1933), 12, 13.
63. James H. Coyne, op. cit., 38—40. Gilbert C. Patterson, "Land Settle-
ment in Upper Canada, 1783—1840," Sixteenth Report of the Department of
Archives for the Province of Ontario, 1920 (Toronto, 1921), 188-190. Remi-
niscences of Early Settlers (St. Thomas, Ont., 1911), 86—87. N. Macdonald,
"Hemp and Imperial Defence," Canadian Historical Review, XVII, 385—398.
THE FOLLOWERS OF THE LOYALISTS 89
the great highways through the province which were followed by
pioneers in quest of lands.
The migration to the Canadas, instead of decreasing, gained in
strength. From 1807 to 1809 the pohcy of the United States govern-
ment swelled the number. Jefferson's embargo, in prohibiting the
export of the American products of which Europe was in such
urgent need, ceded to the British provinces the advantages that the
Republic had formerly enjoyed. American commerce came to an
immediate standstill. Sailors loitered about the empty docks ; team-
sters who had been busy hauling to the ports the products of the
fields put up their wagons; and throughout the countryside enter-
prising farmers saw their barns and granaries choked with harvests
for which there was no sale.®*
The effects of the embargo were felt from the Atlantic to the
Great Lakes. Nova Scotians in the fishing industry were faced by
such a grand opportunity that the authorities considered the possi-
bility of encouraging New England fishermen to move to the prov-
ince.®^ The stagnation in agriculture, trade, and forest industries of
the northern states was in gloomy contrast to the hopeful activity
apparent along the St. Lawrence, on Lake Ontario, and in the forest
clearings of Upper Canada. There was an immediate and unprece-
dented export demand in Montreal and Quebec for flour, lumber,
and fish. Large quantities of these articles were smuggled over the
border from the states and at the same time an impulse was given
to their protection within the provinces. In 1816 the editor of the
Montreal Gazette, looking back over the administrations of Jeffer-
son and Madison, wrote : "If the two last Presidents are entitled to
the honour of monuments, anywhere upon the globe, it surely is at
Montreal."®®
Settlement in Canada now became even more advantageous than
it had been before and an extraordinary influx of able and proper-
64. John Lambert, op. cit., II, 294.
65. P.A.C.: CO. 217/80 (N.S. A1S8), No. 146: Wentworth to Castle-
reagh, Feb. 3, 1806; CO. 217 /S^ (N.S. AU2), No. 24: Provost to Castle-
reagh, Nov. 4, 1808; CO. 217/82 (N.S. AUO), No. 185: Wentworth to
Castlereagh, March 28, 1808.
66. H. A. Innis and A. R. M. Lower, op. cit., 233. The quotation is found
on page 235.
90 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
tied Americans crossed into a country where their eiforts would not
be stifled by governmental policy. From the embargo to the outbreak
of the War of 1812 the trade of the United States with Europe was
never normal. As a result land sales fell off at home while the emi-
gration of Americans to Canada continued, and the volume would
have been even greater had some of the Canadian officials not dis-
couraged the solicitation of settlers on the other side of the hne and
had some proprietors not refused to receive Yankees upon their
lands.^^
Although no census or other official document records the extent
of the immigration during the twenty years preceding 1812, the
writer of an authorized gazetteer of the province estimated that in
that year eight out of every ten persons in Upper Canada were of
American birth or of American descent. One fourth of that number
were the Loyalists and their children, but these firstcomers were con-
centrated on the north shore of Lake Ontario and in the Niagara
peninsula. The townships recently settled along Lake Erie and in the
upper valley of the Thames River were peopled almost entirely by
pioneers from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York.^^ Since
there had been originally less than six thousand Loyalists in the
region and the population was now about one hundred thousand,
the province seemed more American than British to its anxious offi-
cials and military leaders.^'' When war began many observers on both
sides of the hne believed that the inevitable result of the conflict
would be to make Canada wholly American.
67. James H. Coyne, op. cit., 41. David Anderson, Canada: Or, a View of
the Importance of the British Colonies (London, 1814), 47, 49, 99. R. W.
Bingham (ed.), Reports of Joseph Ellicott, I, 394.
68. Michael Smith, op. cit., 51. The townships settled from the United
States are listed in Michael Smith, Geographical View of the Province of
Upper Canada and Promiscuous Remarks on the Government (New York,
1813), 9-17.
69. For the Loyalists, see A. L. Burt, op. cit., 362—363. For the population
of Upper Canada, 1806, 1811, 1814, see Seventh Census of Canada, 1931, I
(Ottawa, 1936), 146-7.
J
90 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
tied Americans crossed into a country where their efforts would not
be stifled by governmental policy. From the embargo to the outbreak
of the War of 1812 the trade of the United States with Europe was
never normal. As a result land sales fell off at home while the emi-
gration of Americans to Canada continued, and the volume would
have been even greater had some of the Canadian officials not dis-
couraged the solicitation of settlers on the other side of the Hne and
had some proprietors not refused to receive Yankees upon their
lands."
Although no census or other official document records the extent
of the immigration during the twenty years preceding 1812, the
writer of an authorized gazetteer of the province estimated that in
that year eight out of every ten persons in Upper Canada were of
American birth or of American descent. One fourth of that number
were the Loyalists and their children, but these firstcomers were con-
centrated on the north shore of Lake Ontario and in the Niagara
peninsula. The townships recently settled along Lake Erie and in the
upper valley of the Thames River were peopled almost entirely by
pioneers from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York.^® Since
there had been originally less than six thousand Loyalists in the
region and the population was now about one hundred thousand,
the province seemed more American than British to its anxious offi-
cials and military leaders.^^ When war began many observers on both
sides of the line believed that the inevitable result of the conflict
would be to make Canada wholly American.
67. James H. Coyne, op. cit., 41. David Anderson, Canada: Or, a View of
the Importance of the British Colonies (London, 1814), 47, 49, 99. R. W.
Bingham (ed.), Reports of Joseph Ellicott, I, 394.
68. Michael Smith, op. cit., 51. The townships settled from the United
States are listed in Michael Smith, Geographical View of the Province of
Upper Canada and Promiscuous Remarks on the Government (New York,
1813), 9-17.
69. For the Loyalists, see A. L. Burt, op. cit., 362—363. For the population
of Upper Canada, 1806, 1811, 1814, see Seventh Census of Canada, 1931, I
(Ottawa, 1936), 146-7.
EXPANSION OF SETTLEMENT FROM THE ATLANTIC BASE. 1700-1815
CHAPTER V
PIONEERS AND IMMIGRANTS
1812-1837
The outbreak of war between Great Britain and the United States
in June, 1812, resulted in innumerable complications in the every-
day life of the thousands of Americans settled in Canada. Their
presence created a problem which at first caused the colonial authori-
ties as much concern as the exposed military position in which both
Upper and Lower Canada were placed. The two circumstances were,
in fact, closely related. Many of the belligerent "War Hawks" in
Congress had openly expressed the behef that the conquest of the
provinces would be the first achievement of American arms, and even
after what proved to be an inglorious campaign had begun, former
President Jefferson wrote to a correspondent: "The acquisition of
Canada this year, as far as the neighborhood of Quebec, will be a
mere matter of marching."^ These patriotic hopes were brightened
by the belief that Canadian settlers of American birth and descent
would rise in revolt and welcome the invading armies as hberators.^
The events of the three years that followed were a happy surprise
to the governors of the two provinces. Disloyalty was evident, but
it never became organized as an effective threat. Faulty American
strategy, the blundering of the American commanders, the vigilance
of the British military leaders and the colonial officials, and the
apathy of the settlers who were located at the most strategic points
were responsible for the unexpected American failure to conquer the
Canadas.
The apathy was most noticeable in the lower province. Had
American strategy organized a campaign toward the St. Lawrence
to seize Quebec or Montreal and thus cut off the British forces
operating in the west, the cooperation of the Americans living in the
Eastern Townships and in Huntingdon County would have been an
1. H. A. Washington (ed.), The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, VI (New
York, 1854-), 75, 76: Jefferson to Colonel Duane, Monticello, Aug. 4, 1812.
2. William Dunlop, Recollections of the War of 1812 (Toronto, 1905), 19.
92 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
essential factor in any resulting success. Such a campaign was not
organized. In the matter of land operations, as in the agitation for
aggressive action, the war was primarily a western affair. Neither
the political leaders nor the people of the New England states and
New York were eager for any northern conquests and their half-
hearted response to the calls for militia to serve in the Federal forces
is a well-known chapter in the political history of the United States.^
In Nova Scotia, Lieutenant-Governor Sherbrooke on July 3,
1812, issued a proclamation ordering the inhabitants of his province
not to molest or disturb those Americans who were fishing if they
offered no sign of hostility. His final words — "It is therefore my wish
and desire, that the Subjects of the United States, living on the
Frontiers may pursue in peace their usual and accustomed Trade
and occupations, without Molestation" — indicate the lack of ani-
mosity on the coastal borders of the two countries. One week later
Lieutenant-Governor Smyth of New Brunswick issued an almost
identical statement.*
Governor Prevost of Lower Canada, however, unaware of the
actual state of public sentiment, issued a proclamation on July 9,
1812, ordering all Americans who would not take an oath of alle-
giance to leave the country within fourteen days.^ This alternative
offered a painful choice to the majority of settlers. Some departed,
some took the oath, and others did neither. The last class suffered
no molestation because of their disobedience. The governor had in-
tended none. Along with the proclamation he had sent to the com-
missioners authorized to administer the oath secret instructions di-
recting them to insist upon a declaration of allegiance only in the
case of those whom they suspected of disloyalty or treasonable in-
tentions.®
After the first excitement attendant upon the beginning of hos-
3. Henry Adams, History of the United States of America during the Ad-
ministration of James Madison, VIII (New York, 1930), 212-288.
4. W. Wood (ed.). Select British Documents of the Canadian War of 1812,
I (Toronto, 1920), 204, 205. P.A.C.: CO. 188/18 (N.B. A21) : Proclama-
tion of G. S. Smyth, July 10, 1812.
5. P.A.C.R., 1921, Appendix B: Proclamations of the Governor of Lower
Canada, 1792-1815, 158.
6. Robert Sellar, The History of the County of Huntingdon and of the
Seigniories of Chateauguay and Beauharnois, 26, 61—63.
PIONEERS AND IMMIGRANTS 93
tilities, the border communities of Lower Canada and of New Eng-
land and New York settled down to a routine of life which they de-
scribed as one of "neutrality." In the panic days of the summer of
1812, many had abandoned their farms and carried off their prop-
erty, but in time they drifted back to the homes they had cleared
and, far from the scene of war, carried on the normal social and
business intercourse which had hitherto disregarded the interna-
tional boundary.^ Even the miHtary expedition of Governor Prevost,
which in the late summer of 1814 advanced along the Richelieu
River until it was checked and turned back at the Battle of Platts-
burg on Lake Champlain, did not disturb the settlements that were
remote from the river. After the war refugee Americans came back
and met little hindrance except on one of the proprietorships in
Huntingdon County where the agent of the estate burned the cabins,
tore up bridges, and obstructed the roads to prevent the return of
the deserters. But his actions, the local historian explains, were not
the result of patriotic feeling ; his motive was to keep rightful claim-
ants out in order that he might appropriate the lands and improve-
ments for his own personal use.*
In Upper Canada the prewar population was more mixed, and
anti- American feeling had been becoming more bitter with each year.
The American settlements were not like those in Lower Canada, in-
ternational communities that straddled an artificial boundary ; they
were located in the interior and were often remote from the frontier.
A self-imposed neutrality was out of the question. With news of the
declaration of war there arose a general desire on the part of Ameri-
cans to retire to the land of their birth, many of them, undoubtedly,
in the belief that they would return with the victorious army from
the south. Although the authorities found the presence of these
aliens a perplexing problem, they were not ready to permit an exo-
dus of those who would take to the enemy's army information of the
greatest military value or return as guides in the ranks of invaders.
In fact, the authorities were caught in a medley of conflicting
motives. They did not want to lose the substantial American settlers
7. B. F. Hubbard, Forests and Clearings: The History of Stanstead
County, Province of Quebec (Montreal, 1874), 5, 30. Abby Maria Hemen-
way, The Vermont Historical Gazetteer, III, 32.
8. Robert Sellar, op. cit., 131.
94 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
and hoped that their stake in the country would induce them to be at
least benevolently neutral. On the other hand, they could not openly
countenance wholesale retention of avowed Americans, or risk their
concerted hostile action. Men without property were better out of
the province, it was felt, as were the clergy and other potential
molders of public opinion. The plan adopted, therefore, in the proc-
lamation of November 9, 1812, by General Roger H. Sheaffe was to
require every person in Upper Canada who claimed exemption from
military service because of American citizenship to report to a board
in his district.® Here a certain amount of discretion was exercised
in granting passports to thqse who proved their status and either
wanted to leave or were thought better away. Guards were placed at
the principal points of exit to regulate the movement. Naturally
enough, some desirable settlers either had their lands confiscated or
abandoned them. Some of these returned to their former homes in the
United States, but others found the Western Reserve to the south of
Lake Erie an attractive destination for able North American pio-
neers. At the same time, the war produced something of a converse
movement, for a number of French- and English-speaking Cana-
dians found it advisable or congenial to return to the shelter of the
British flag.^°
In the meantime all Americans in the province had awaited with
interest the action of the army under General Hull that had gath-
ered at Detroit. But the proclamation that Hull issued after crossing
the river, in which he advised all the inhabitants to remain at home
and threatened that there would be no quarter in case any of them
9. Michael Smith, A Complete History of the Late American War with
Great Britain and Her Allies (Lexington, Ky., 1816), 34. P.A.C: C688B ;
Proclamation of R. H. Sheaffe, Nov. 9, 1812; C688B ; Instructions ... to
the President of the Board Appointed at Niagara . . . ; C688B ; Report of
the Board at Kingston, Dec. 13, 1812.
10. W. W. Williams, History of the Firelands, Comprising Huron and
Erie Counties, Ohio (Cleveland, 1879), 456, 506. History of Sandusky
Comity, Ohio (Cleveland, 1882), 590, 704, 705. Thad W. H. Leavitt, History
of Leeds and Grenville, Ontario, from 1749 to 1879, 83. History of Ashta-
bula County, Ohio, 238. The difficulties experienced by an American family
settled in the province are described in "A Narrative of the Sufferings in and
Journey from Upper Canada to Virginia and Kentucky, of M. Smith, Minis-
ter of the Gospel" in Michael Smith, A Complete History, 229-287.
PIONEERS AND IMMIGRANTS 95
were found fighting along with the Indian allies of Great Britain,
alienated many." The rout of the army after it had advanced a few
miles into the province and its subsequent capture together with the
post of Detroit in August, 1812, put an end to all immediate concern
on the part of the officials. A year later when an invading army
again appeared upon Canadian soil, the Americans who remained
had become committed to the cause of the country in which they
lived and their attitude was no longer a questionable factor.^^
But the experiences of the war and fears arising from it were
bound to influence subsequent policy with regard to a matter which
was fundamental in determining the course of immigration — the dis-
position of land. That less encouragement would be held out to
Americans in the future was evident from a law adopted in March,
1814, which decreed that the lands of all settlers who had come from
the United States and had returned there without the prescribed
passport would be forfeited. ^^ No encouragement was to be held out
to induce the deserters to come back. But that their nationality as
well as the act of desertion was a factor was indicated in January,
1815, when Lord Bathurst, the Secretary for the Colonies, directed
Governor Drummond of the province to refuse any grants of land to
persons of American nationality and to prevent their coming in so
far as possible.^*
This regulation dammed up the stream that had hitherto brought
into Upper Canada most of its incoming settlers, and lowered the
price of land because there were fewer purchasers. "This was the
deadliest thrust ever made by folly at the prosperity and welfare of
Upper Canada" was the opinion expressed a few years later.^^ It
11. Hull's proclamation of July 12, 1812, may be found in Niles Weekly
Register (Baltimore), II, Aug. 1, 1812, 357, 358.
12. Michael Smith, A Complete History, 38, 45. The disappointment of
the pro-American element in Upper Canada over the outcome of Hull's sur-
render is described in Donald M'Leod, A Brief Review of the Settlement of
Upper Canada (Cleveland, 1841), 40-46.
13. Collection of the Acts Passed in the Parliament of Great Britain Par-
ticularly Applying to the Province of Upper Canada (York, 1818), 317, 318
(54 Geo. Ill, c. 9).
14. The letter of Lord Bathurst is printed in William Wood (ed.). Select
British Documents of the Canadian War of 1812, III, 507—509.
15. Robert Gourlay, Statistical Account of Upper Canada, II, 421.
96 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
provoked a discontent which reached such a point in 1817 that a
series of resolutions was brought forward in the Assembly to censure
the government's policy in this respect, and these proceedings were
halted only by the prorogation of the legislative body after the first
two resolutions had been adopted by the House/'' The dissatisfac-
tion grew from realization of the fact that many of the citizens of
the Republic were ready to join their friends who had gone to Can-
ada before the war just as soon as peace was reestabhshed, and that
presumably the momentous westward movement that agitated New
England and western New York in the years after 1815 would have
swept many land seekers around the north shore of Lake Erie. Some
did come. An official report referred to their arrival as a "rush," but
no other contemporary evidence indicates that the movement was one
of any considerable proportions.^^
In addition to the hostile official reception that awaited him, the
prospective settler from the Republic faced an uncertain status with
regard to the possession of landed property. The laws governing
naturalization in the British colonies dated back to the reign of
George II (13 Geo. II, c. 7) . This ancient legislation decreed that an
alien was obliged to Hve seven years in a province before he would
be entitled to hold land. On the other hand, by an imperial statute
passed after the Revolution and by Simcoe's proclamation in 1792
the only quahfications for holding land and for general admission to
the rights of British subjects were those of taking an oath of alle-
giance to the Crown and declaring the intention of residing perma-
nently in the province.^® Thus the strict regulation of naturahzation
had been generally neglected, but when the hostiHties were over it
was deemed desirable that the old law be enforced and an order
issued by the Colonial Office in November, 1817, directed the au-
thorities of Upper Canada to dispossess persons holding lands ille-
gally. But who was in illegal possession ? Were people aliens who had
been born before 1783 in the colonies that later became the United
States and who had lived in the States thereafter for some years
16. P.A.C.: G186, Bagot to Stanley, No. 76, April 9, 1842.
17. P.A.C.R., 1896, "State Papers of Upper Canada: Calendar/' 20.
18. 30 Geo. Ill, c. 27. For a succinct account of the alien question, consult
Aileen Dunham, Political Unrest in Upper Canada, 1815—1836 (London,
1927), 67-78.
PIONEERS AND IMMIGRANTS 97
before settling in the British dominions ? If they were not ahens were
their children, born after 1783, aliens? These questions, if raised
before, had received no judicial decision. Now it was desirable that
settlers already established and those who proposed to come should
know what their position was. The Executive Council, accordingly,
referred the problem to the law officers of the Crown and all con-
cerned could do nothing but patiently await a decision."
In the meantime any American who was content to endure a pos-
sible seven-year wait for the confirmation of his title was able to
secure a temporary grant of land. In the spring of 1817 the strict
prohibition of two years earlier was modified by a circular which
prescribed an oath of allegiance to be administered by appointed
commissioners to settlers from the United States who had been spe-
cially designated as eligible by the lieutenant-governor. This put the
control of immigration entirely in the hands of an official who could
be guided by his own ideas as to the class of people who should be
encouraged to enter the province.^"
The instructions of 1815 and the slight modification they received
in 1817 should not be judged as an ill-considered act of pique di-
rected against persons who had been lately alien enemies. For the
first time in the history of British Canada, the colonial authorities
had adopted a positive policy of settlement: Americans were to be
discouraged from entering, but the coming of trusted British sub-
jects was to be fostered and, if necessary, subsidized. No longer was
a vital frontier of the empire to be endangered by the uncertain loy-
alty of its people. ^^
The return to Great Britain of troops from Canada in the spring
of 1815 made possible a generous oifer. The transports that nor-
mally would go out from England empty could be put to service in
the carrying of settlers ; here would be an opportunity of removing
to the New World with little expense some of those famihes in the
distressed regions of Great Britain who for a decade or more had
been petitioning for assistance in crossing the Atlantic. Moreover,
19. Arthur G. Doughty and Norah Story (eds.), Documents Relating to
the Constitutional History of Canada, 1819-1828 (Ottawa, 1935), 1-9.
20. Robert Gourlay, op. cit., II, 426, 439, 440.
21. A. R. M. Lower, "Immigration and Settlement in Canada, 1812-1820,"
Canadian Historical Review, III, 37—47.
98 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
they would go to strengthen a British colony instead of the United
States. Scottish people were considered more tractable than Irish
and therefore more desirable as subjects for experimentation. In
February, 1815, announcement was made in the Edinburgh news-
papers of the liberal terms to be offered : transportation, free grants
of a hundred acres, rations for eight months, tools at less than cost.
In return, the prospective settler was obhged to present evidence of
good character and (what was more difficult and sometimes impos-
sible) deposit eighteen pounds as security that he would stay by the
venture — this amount to be returned to him in two years.
No one accounted the experiment a success. The escape of Na-
poleon from Elba and the Waterloo campaign, the unwillingness of
the Admiralty to cooperate in providing transports at the proper
time, the late arrival in the colony with the subsequent wintering in
government barracks, and delay in surveying the allotted district
resulted in uncertainty and grumbling. A year after sailing from
Scotland the settlers finally reached their lands and then began to
experience all the hardships and discouragements of pioneering.
Complaints from the colony regarding administration, and from the
Treasury regarding expense, led to an abandonment of all thoughts
of continuing the scheme, and in 1816 and 1817 discharged soldiers
alone were offered transportation and the customary grant. Civilian
emigrants received nothing but land."^ A modified scheme in 1818
provided that any person of capital who would guarantee to take
out ten individuals or more would be rewarded by the grant of a
hundred acres for each and that space would be allotted on govern-
ment vessels. The support of the emigrants on board ship and dur-
ing the period of settlement would be borne by the enterpriser. Only
three groups were located in Canada under this plan, and in 1819
and after it was applied only in the case of British emigrants pro-
ceeding to the Cape of Good Hope.^^
The greatest obstacle to the success of Canadian colonization was
recognized by everyone. It lay in the popular preference for the
22. Helen I. Cowan, British Emigration to British North America, 1783—
1837 (Toronto, 1928), 66-74. P.A.C.: G7 , Bathurst to Drummond, June 13,
July 12, 1815.
23. Helen I. Cowan, British Emigration, 74-82.
PIONEERS AND IMMIGRANTS 99
United States that prevailed among those who were directly inter-
ested in emigration. With the return of peace and the onset of pro-
found economic depression in Great Britain, the methods that had
already launched tens of thousands of immigrants into the Republic
were restored. Ship captains began to circularize the rural districts
in the vicinity of the British ports. Redemptioner agents enrolled
penniless young men for service in the prospering states of America.
Landowners sought out yeomen farmers and persuaded them that
their modest capital invested in America would yield a fortune for
their children. As a result, from 1816 to 1819 a postwar exodus
brought into the United States upwards of 150,000 Europeans, a
migration the parallel of which had never before been witnessed. ^^
Those among them who were favored with capital, skill, and good
fortune discovered the future that they sought. But that was not
the lot of all. Many did not possess the resources or courage to pro-
ceed beyond the ports where they landed. New York and Philadel-
phia, in particular, became congested with unemployed artisans and
laborers and farmers who could not find a suitable job or location.
Even during 1817 and 1818 when every evidence of prosperity was
apparent in the country at large, distress and suffering were a prob-
lem for private charity ; and in 1819 when the boom times collapsed,
it proved impossible to satisfy hunger and provide shelter for all in
need.^^
The continental European immigrants of the time had been of a
substantial class who could provide for themselves. The majority of
the recent arrivals who suffered most from the emergency were per-
sons who still owed allegiance to King George, and they visited and
24. No official statistics of immigration were kept until September 1, 1819.
The total of 150^000 is derived from estimates made by Hezekiah Niles.
Niles Weekly Register, IX, Oct. 19, 1816; XIII, Sept. 13, 27, 1817; XVII,
Sept. 18, 1819.
25. John Bristed, America and Her Resources (London, 1818), 440. The
Second Annual Report of the Managers of the Society for the Prevention of
Pauperism in the City of New York (New York, 1820), 18, 20, 24. Wil-
liam T. Harris, Remarks Made during a Tour through the United States of
America in the Years 1817, 1818 and 1819 (London, 1821), 29, 35, 77.
J. Knight, Important Extracts from Original and Recent Letters, Second
Series (Manchester, 1818), 21, 34, 40.
100 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
sometimes stormed the British consulate begging for assistance or pas-
sage back to the country of their birth. ^® The consul at New York was
James Buchanan, brother of A. C. Buchanan, the British emigrant
agent at Quebec. The two were in accord as to what should be done.
Let the distress be an object lesson to those who contemplated leav-
ing the protection of the British government and let that govern-
ment show its paternalism by forwarding the stranded expatriates
to the colonies where they should have gone in the first place. As
early as December, 1816, Consul Buchanan had been authorized to
incur an expense not exceeding ten dollars per person in forwarding
British subjects who wanted to proceed from New York to the colo-
nies to the north.^^ During the first year more than 1,600 were sent
to Kingston and York and by 1819 the number totaled over 3,500.^*
But when the real depression began, the authorization was revoked
by the ofl5cials who undoubtedly feared that a great expenditure
would be incurred not only for transportation but also for the sup-
port of the destitute people when once they reached the provinces.^^
An offer was made by the government of free land to British citizens
in England and the United States, but the added prudent note that
a certain amount of capital was necessary served to make the offer
of no particular value to those most in need.^° Thus left to them-
selves, the immigrants were obliged to shape their own course. Some
found the means of returning to the country from which they had so
hopefully departed ; others, with the aid of charity, found a place in
the economic structure of the community in which they were located ;
and others struck out to wander over the countryside until some
chance opportunity provided employment and a home.
The disfavor into which the LTnited States now fell and the in-
creased demand for assistance in emigration that was expressed in
26. P'.R.O.: F.O. 5/144-' Letters of William Dawson, Baltimore, June 1,
Sept. 1, 1819; letter of George Manners, Boston, Feb. 4, 1819; letter of Gil-
bert Robertson, Philadelphia, July 1, 1819.
27. P.R.O.: F.O. 5/116: Letter of Foreign Office to Buchanan, Dec. 4,
1816.
28. P.R.O.: F.O. 5/125: Letter of Buchanan, New York, Nov. 5, 1817.
Helen I. Cowan, British Emigration, 125.
29. William F. Adams, Ireland and Irish Emigration to the New World
from 1815 to the Famine (New Haven, 1932), 265, 266.
30. P.A.C.: Gm, Richmond to Bagot, Feb. 13, 1819.
PIONEERS AND IMMIGRANTS 101
the petitions that flooded the Colonial Office persuaded the authori-
ties to venture into some new schemes of directed emigration.'^ Many
emigration societies had been formed among the distressed weavers
of Scotland and in negotiations with the Colonial Office it was agreed
that land and equipment would be provided for them upon arrival
in Canada, but that the expense of passage had to be borne by the
individuals or jointly by the society, and the settlers were pledged to
reimburse the government for some of the expenditures. Several hun-
dred families were established in the colony under these regula-
tions.^^ In 1823 and again in 1825 the British government, thinking
not so much of finding people for the provinces as of relieving the
congested rural sj^stem of Ireland out of which, it was believed,
most of the agrarian disorders of the time arose, sent out several
shiploads of Irishmen and planted them in colonies north of Lake
Erie.=^'
Had all these Scottish and Irish arrivals remained where official
bounty placed them, they would have had only a distant connection
with a discussion of Canadian-American population relations. But
rumors were frequent that many of the emigrants sold the supplies
and equipment that they had received and slipped off to the United
States. Naturally the public officials were emphatic in their declara-
tions that only a few, and those the least desirable, had decamped.^*
It is certain, nevertheless, that a number left the settlements and
took employment upon the public works in Canada, and of these it is
likely that a large proportion were finally drawn over the line by the
higher wages paid to laborers upon the canals and roads in the
States. ^^ Others who had relatives located in the Republic were per-
suaded to join them, and it was generally believed that so long as
the government demanded reimbursement for the supplies and equip-
ment that had been advanced to emigrants, the temptation to escape
31. Scores of petitions sent to the Colonial Office are filed in P.R.O.: CO.
38^/6, 384/7.
32. Helen I. Cowan, British Emigration, 84—95.
33. William F. Adams, op. cit., 146, 147, 275-283.
34. T. C. Hansard, The Parliamentary Debates, N.S., XII, 1358-1361
(April 15, 1825) ; XVI, 475-513 (Feb. 15, 1827).
35. United Kingdom, Parliamentary Papers, 1826, IV, "Report from the
Select Committee on Emigration from the United Kingdom," 18.
102 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
the obligation of repayment would persuade many to follow the same
route.^^
The uncertainty that surrounds this point is only a reflection of
the greater uncertainty that must prevail in any attempt to measure
the flow of population across the boundary line, toward the north as
well as toward the south. In the years immediately following the
panic of 1819, although there was a great deal of rather aimless
drifting about on the part of unemployed workers, the strong cur-
rent of westward migration which had in itself been one of the most
influential of the factors leading to the speculation of the times was
in abeyance. Eastern farmers could not sell their lands and western
banks could extend them no credit. So the prospective "movers" re-
mained where they were.^^ Every spring the frontier communities
eagerly awaited the "immigration season" in the hope that the re-
newal of settlement would put life into stagnant business, but it was
not until 1825—1826 that a decided and persistent movement again
got under way.^®
But during the preceding years there had been a considerable and
necessary readjustment in population distribution. Friends and
families were reunited and every crossroads village in the new coun-
try received its complement of useful artisans. Any person who did
possess ready funds could buy up a partially improved farm at an
attractive price and in so doing he brought to the West a little of
that capital which the new territory needed.^® This readjustment,
like the other population movements, ignored the boundary that the
governments had drawn. New Englanders continued to cross over
into the Eastern Townships and take up the sites that remained un-
cleared.*° Some Americans persuaded the officials of Upper Canada
36. The Quebec Mercury, Jan. 10, Aug. 26, 1826.
37. Detroit Gazette, April 28, 1820; Nov. 16, 1821.
88. Ihid., May 10, June 7, 14, 1822; Feb. 28, May 23, Oct. 3, 1823;
March 26, 1824; April 26, May 10, 24, June 28, Sept. 13, 1825; Jan. 3, May
23, June 20, 1826.
39. John Pearson, Notes Made during a Journey in 1821 in the United
States of America (London, 1822), 9, 19, 30, 49. [? Capt. Blaney], An Ex-
cursion through the United States and Canada during the Years 1822-23 by
an English Gentleman (London, 1824), 434.
40. C. Thomas, Contributions to the History of the Eastern Townships,
249, 326, 368.
PIONEERS AND IMMIGRANTS 103
that they could be safely accepted as settlers and to such grants were
made. Others bought lands from earlier private holders. The com-
plaints regarding the "swarms of mechanics and laborers" from the
United States who overran the country indicate that ambitious
North American artisans were paying Httle attention to political
allegiance when in search of a job.*^ Another group, the ubiquitous
Yankee schoolmasters and the popular circuit preachers from the
United States, aroused fear as well as dislike among the officials of
the Canadas because they might easily instill "republican" prin-
ciples.
When the westward tide was resumed about 1825—1826, condi-
tions on both sides of the line determined that the western states
rather than Upper Canada, which was still far from settled, should
be the popular destination. The provincial authorities were slow in
making up their minds as to what attitude should be followed with
regard to American settlers. Under instructions from the Colonial
Office, the legislation of George II's reign, demanding seven years of
residence and sundry oaths and declarations before naturalization,
was still in force, but the natural incUnation of American settlers to
elect their own kind to the Provincial Assembly provoked a crisis in
1821.*^ There ensued six or seven years of the greatest confusion,
not only because the Loyalists were anxious to circumscribe the po-
Htical rights of Americans whose citizenship was open to question,
but because the authorities involved in the matter were the British
courts and legislature as well as the Upper Canadian, and final
authority resided with the former.
Disregarding the long and confusing sequence of court decisions.
Assembly resolutions, rival colonial representations in London, and
inappropriate legislation,*^ the rather unsatisfactory outcome can be
41. Isaac Fidler^ Observations on Professions, Literature, Manners and
Emigration in the United States and Canada (New York^ 1832), 124^ 183,
194. Robert Gourlay, op. cit., I, 425. P.A.C.: QUO, Part II, Arthur to
Glenelg, No. Ill, Dec. 18, 1835; QJflO, Part II, Bishop of Montreal to Ar-
thur, Nov. 20, 1838; GJf2, Horton to Maitland, Oct. 7, 1826.
42. The case of the Bidwells, father and son; see A. Dunham, op. cit., 69-
71.
43. The principal documents in this matter may be found in Doughty
and Story, op. cit., and a narrative in A. Dunham^ op. cit., 68-78. A typical
pamphlet concerning the American cause is An Abridged View of the Alien
Question Unmasked by the Editor of the Canadian Freeman (York, 1826).
104 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
summarily indicated.** In 1826, the British Parhament passed an
act (7 Geo. IV, c. 68) to the effect that all persons naturalized by
act of the legislature of Upper Canada should be deemed capable of
sitting in the Assembly, voting, and being members of the council.
At the same time, the Upper Canadian Assembly was instructed to
legislate for the immediate naturahzation of those Americans who
had seven years of residence and naturahzation was authorized for
the others when their seven years were complete. This was done in an
unsatisfactory way early in 1827, but this act was disallowed and a
new one was passed early in 1828 which was much more pleasing to
resident Americans. It declared that all persons who had received
grants of land from the government, or who had held any pubhc
office, or who had taken the oath of allegiance and had been settled
in the province before 1820, should be admitted to the privileges of
British birth, while others should receive similar privileges on the
completion of seven years of residence. It did not, however, provide
for future arrivals, who could, therefore, be naturahzed only by spe-
cial acts of the provincial or the British legislature. It is a tribute
to the irresistible trends of North American migration that Ameri-
cans continued to pour into a province where the law was hostile and
where some of them could normally acquire lands only by private
purchase.
The long-protracted discussion brought out many proposals un-
favorable to American settlers and raised many doubts as to what
their fate might be. Particularly in 1827, when the nature of the
oath that a naturalized alien would take was under consideration,
many disquieting rumors were afloat. It was generally beheved that
an oath entirely different from any that had preceded would be de-
manded, one in which the taker not merely recognized the authority
of King and Parhament as before but swore perpetual allegiance to
the Crown. The inference that Canadians of non-Loyalist American
origin who had for years not thought of themselves as Americans
were somehow a "lesser breed" who needed to take special oaths to
become respectable citizens was so offensive to some that, according
44. A retrospective and full discussion of the alien problem is to be found
in P.A.C.: G186, Bagot to Stanley, No. 76, April 9, 1842.
PIONEERS AND IMMIGRANTS 105
to contemporary accounts, they preferred to return to the United
States/"
There is no evidence that any extensive departure of patriotic
Americans took place as a result of this legislation. Yet among po-
tential immigrants from the United States it could be considered
only as a victory for the anti- American element*^ and, accordingly,
it added another to the circumstances that tended to keep the New
Englanders and New Yorkers who were seeking new homes on their
own side of the hne, thereby diminishing what might have been a
larger movement to Canada.
These circumstances were related to the new conditions that at-
tended the settlement of the West. The completion of the Erie Canal
in 1825 had opened up an "all- American" water route from the in-
terior to the Atlantic, and now residence in Canada, which had meant
preferential treatment in the use of the St. Lawrence, ceased to pos-
sess one of its strongest advantages. As a natural response to the
creation of this new outlet to the sea, a great stimulus was given to
commerce upon Lake Erie. Steamboats and sailing vessels multiplied
in numbers, and emigration to the West, which had once meant long
and wearisome journeys upon rough roads and down winding rivers,
was shortened and made more comfortable.*^ All the new states and
territories, eager to become part of the great network of commerce,
entered upon ambitious schemes of development, thereby offering
employment for laborers and promising openings for investment. In
this new chapter in the expansion of settlement, to set out for In-
diana, Michigan, or Illinois was as logical as twentj'^-five years before
it had been to take the road to Ohio or the Canadas.
Although the destination of most westward-moving Americans
was American territory, some found it more convenient to reach
their new homes by passing through Upper Canada. Because of the
impassable condition of the swamps of northwestern Ohio, pioneers
bound for Michigan were obliged to use the Canadian roads if they
45. Detroit Gazette, May 1, 22, 1827.
46. P.A.C.: G69, Goderich to Colborne, Jan. 10, 1832, indicates the offi-
cial attitude toward the entrance of Americans.
47. Emay R. Johnson, History of Domestic and Foreign Commerce of the
United States, I (Washington, 1915), 221, 230.
106 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
traveled during the winter season when traffic on Lake Erie was sus-
pended, and so steady was the traffic that as early as 1828 a stage
line connecting the Niagara River with Detroit was organized which
brought passengers through in four days. Even after communica-
tions on the American side had been improved, emigrants from New
England bound for Michigan continued to follow the shorter for-
eign route.*^
Within the British provinces, as in the United States, consolida-
tion of population was accompanied by growth of a sense of pohtical
identity. Each country was now provided with a vigorous stock of
pioneers which in time (although it might be only in the course of
several generations) would occupy the vacant lands within its
bounds. The process was actively under way. In Nova Scotia and
New Brunswick the families established beside the coast and along
the rivers were sending their sons into the interior to found new
homes.*^ The children of the Eastern Township Yankees were mov-
ing down the rivers flowing toward the St. Lawrence to meet the
waves of French Canadians coming up from the seigniories.^" In
Upper Canada the patches of settlement between the Ottawa River
and Lake Ontario were growing together and in the western part of
the province settlers were taking possession of the vacant spaces on
either side of the government roads and pioneers were beginning to
advance into the Huron tract and adjacent regions to the north. ^^
In the colonization of their domains neither the United States nor
British North America was obliged to call in helpers from the terri-
tory of the other.
Had the westward movement been the only feature characterizing
48. Detroit Gazette, Jan. 30, May 22, 1818; Feb. 28, 1823; March 5,
1824; April 28, 1828. "From Vermont to Vermontville," Burton Historical
Collection Leaflet (Detroit, 1928), 61—76. St. Lawrence Republican and
General Advertiser (Ogdensburg, N.Y.), May 7, Sept. 24, 1833; April 15,
29, 1834.
49. William F. Ganong, "A Monograph on the Origins of Settlements in
the Province of New Brunswick," R.S.C., 1904, Sec. ii, 84-88.
50. Georges Vattier, Esquisse historique de la colonisation de la Province
de Quebec, 42.
51. C. Schott, Landnahme und Kolonisation in Canada am Beispiel Sudon-
tarios (Kiel, 1936), 136, 137.
PIONEERS AND IMMIGRANTS 107
the population history of North America at the time, the relations
between the two peoples might be dismissed with the generalization
that for the present they had ceased to be interdependent. But the
native North Americans who were filling up the back country were
not the only pioneers of the decade between 1827 and 1837. The
same forces of expansion and opportunity that summoned them into
the interior drew Europeans across the Atlantic and the immigration
of the period was as international in its nature as the course of
internal migration had ever been.
The emigrant ships of the 1830's, although they left no ruts in
their wake, followed routes almost as distinct as those cut a decade
later by the prairie schooners on the plains. In both cases commer-
cial considerations had as much or more to do with determining
routes and destinations as the wishes of, and opportunities open to,
intending emigrants. There was an imperative interplay between
human freights and other cargoes. In this sense, Canadian commerce
influenced the character of the immigration that reached the United
States and in many cases affected its distribution; and, to a lesser
degree, the commerce of the city of New York left an imprint upon
the human influx into Canada.
The northern part of the continent produced only one staple com-
modity of which Great Britain stood in constant need. The navy and
the mercantile marine, the factories and the building industry of the
kingdom gradually came to rely upon the timber of the northern
provinces, and New Brunswick was the first of the colonies to profit
from the growing market. Every spring a fleet of timber vessels set
out from the ports of Great Britain to bring back the winter's cut,
and these vessels, which otherwise would have gone out empty or
almost empty, offered convenient and cheap accommodation to pas-
sengers who would feed and care for themselves on the voyages.^- For
a few days after arrival at Miramichi, St. John, and the many tim-
ber landings on the St. Croix, the immigrants en j oyed remunerative
employment in loading the ships with lumber and deals (softwood
boards of special British specifications) , but after the fleet had sailed
52. Andrew Picken, The Canadas, 25. The Advantages of Emigrating to
the British Colonies of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, etc. hy a Resident of
St. John's, New Brunswick (London, 1832), 32-34, 43.
108 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
prospects darkened.^^ None had the skills required to go into the
forest and become axmen; few had the courage to undertake agri-
culture on the stump farms of the province. Of other employment
there was little to be found. There was no alternative but to pass on
and here, again, commerce had prepared the way.
A lively coasting trade had grown up between the ports on the
Bay of Fundy, the islands in Passamaquoddy Bay, and the eastern
cities of the United States as far south as Baltimore. As a whole, the
fishing stations and lumber camps of the north could not be ade-
quately supplied by the farms of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia,
and a fleet of hundreds of small sailing craft was employed in bring-
ing wheat and corn from American farms to this market. On the
return trips they carried fish, grindstones, and gypsum in the hold
and immigrants on deck, the latter paying only a dollar or two for
passage.^* Until the 1840's, when the export trade in New Brunswick
lumber declined, this route was recognized as providing the cheapest
method by which the poor of the British Isles might reach the United
States and it was followed, in particular, by the first immigrant in-
vaders of New England who gave to the cities and industrial villages
of the section their Irish cast.^^
Timber became a staple export from the St. Lawrence also. In
June and July of each year the harbor of Quebec was full of vessels
and the streets of the city were crowded with new arrivals. Some tem-
53. The Nautical Magazine, II (London, 1833), 136. The Quebec Mer-
cury, March 15, 1831.
54. P.R.O.: F.O. 5/S28: Letter of Gilbert Robertson, Philadelphia, May
4, 1827; F.O. 5/274: Letter of James Buchanan, New York, Jan. 2, 1832;
letter of Gilbert Robertson, Philadelphia, Dec. 31, 1822; F.O. 5/30^: Letter
of J. Sherwood, Portland, Jan. 5, 1835. Dublin Morning Post, Aug. 1, 1821:
Letter from Halifax on the trade of the Maritime Provinces. Eastport Sen-
tinel and Passamaquoddy Advertiser, June 15, 20, 1822; June 20, 1832.
Eastern Democrat (Eastport, Me.), June 8, 15, 1832. G. S. Graham, "The
Gypsum Trade of the Maritime Provinces," Agricultural History, XII
(Washington, 1938), 209-223.
55. P.R.O.: F.O. 5/285: Letter of George Manners, Boston, Jan. 4, 1833;
F.O. 5/324: Letter of J. Sherwood, Portland, Dec. 31, 1838; CO. 38^/35:
Letter of Lieutenant Friend, emigrant agent at Cork, June 30, 1834. A. C.
Buchanan, Emigration Practically Considered (London, 1828), 59, 60. The
Emigrant's Guide; Containing Practical and Authentic Information (West-
port, 1832), 96.
PIONEERS AND IMMIGRANTS 109
porary labor was available about the docks, but during the summer
all but the very poorest and those who were ill continued up the
river, passed along the Lakes, and were absorbed by the many enter-
prises that in the latter part of the decade of the 1820's gave to the
business of the country a hitherto unknown activity/^ In its early
attempts to further the settlement of Upper Canada, the Colonial
Office had struggled with the problem of providing the capital which
in a new community was essential if the penniless immigrants were
to get estabHshed. That problem it did not solve, as the failure of
its earher schemes indicates. But a new era in the life of the colony
began in 1826 when the Canada Company was chartered. To this
corporation were ceded the area east of Lake Huron known as the
Huron tract and scattered holdings elsewhere; British capitalists
put up funds for what was considered a promising investment ; and
in the years between 1827 and 1832 several thousand settlers were
aided in transportation, in getting estabhshed upon the lands, and
in learning the art of pioneering."^ The organization was favored
with vigorous leadership. Roads were opened, stores were estab-
hshed, and the new district was brought to the attention of the world.
Although the investors did not gain the profits for which they had
hoped, the company stimulated neighboring communities and the
government to engage in similar undertakings. During the first
years of the decade of the 'thirties every able-bodied arrival in the
colony was assured of employment. ^^
As a result, much of the prejudice that the emigrating classes of
56. The Quebec Mercury, July 25, 1826; May 20, 1828; March 17, 1829;
Feb. 20, May 18, June 12, 1830; April 30, May 12, 1831. P.A.C.: M173,
Evidence of A. C. Buchanan, Dec, 1828; Minutes of Evidence Taken . . .
Jan. 1832, Evidence of A. C. Buchanan.
57. A map showing the possessions of the Canada Company appears in
Oscar D. Skelton, The Life and Times of Sir Alexander Tilloch Gait (To-
ronto, 1920), 16. For the company's activities see C. Schott, op. cit., R. K.
Gordon, John Gait (Toronto, 1920); J. W. Aberdeen, John Gait (London,
1936).
58. Statistical Sketches of Upper Canada, for the Use of Emigrants, by a
Backwoodsman (London, 1832), 21. Thomas Dyke, Advice to Emigrants
(London, 1832), 33. Canada in the Years 1832, 1833, and 183^, by an Ex-
Settler (Dublin, 1835), 16. The Quebec Mercury, May 4, 1830, March 27,
1832.
110 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
Great Britain had always entertained against the British provinces
was dissipated, and the course of their movement was deflected to the
St. Lawrence. Most of them turned their hands to the simple muscu-
lar tasks that they could perform: the digging of canals, the con-
struction of roads, and the handling of freight. They all hoped to
gain funds and experience and finally arrive at every immigrant's
ideal: the position of an independent landowner. But so long as a
day's work would bring wages they were inclined to postpone the
hour when the clearing in the bush had to begin. ^®
Along with the laborers came the small propertied farmers who
had also caught the enthusiasm which the news of a prosperous Can-
ada had inspired in the Old Country. That the province was their
deliberate choice and the destination not accidental is proven by the
fact that many of them came to their new homes via the United
States by a route that was the reverse of that followed by the poor
emigrant who had centered his future in the Republic. Again the
conditions of an established commercial route provided an influential
factor. The vessels in the timber trade were the most unsatisfactory
afloat ; they were often the refuse of all the commercial routes of the
world. ^° Discomfort and danger had to be considered part of the cost
of passage and every season reported a heavy toll of shipwrecks in
the foggy channels that led up the St. Lawrence. Anyone who could
afford to travel by some other route was urged by emigrant advisers
to ensure safety by paying a higher rate.®^
The finest ships upon the Atlantic were the packets bound for
New York and although steerage passage was double that on vessels
sailing directly for Quebec, the yeoman farmer was willing to bear
the cost. The American customs regulations allowed the effects of
settlers destined for Canada to pass through without the payment of
duty and the Canada Company maintained an agent in the city to
59. P.R.O.: CO. 38^/35: Letter from A. C. Buchanan, Quebec, July 22,
1834. The Quebec Mercury, May 12, 28, Oct. 15, 1831.
60. John Rebans, Observations on the Proposed Alteration of the Timber
Duties (London, 1831), 24. United Kingdom, Parliamentary Papers, 18Jf.O,
V, "Report from the Select Committee on Import Duties," 23.
61. Thomas W. Magrath, Authentic Letters from Upper Canada (Dublin,
1833), 29. Canada in the Years 1832, 1833, and 1834, by an Ex-Settler, 36.
P.R.O.: P.O. 5/294: Letter of James Buchanan, New York, June 14, 1834.
PIONEERS AND IMMIGRANTS 111
assist the travelers on their way and, undoubtedly, to see that they
were not argued out of their plans. ®^ From New York they started
along the regular settlers' highway to the West, up the Hudson and
along the Erie Canal, branching off to cross Lake Ontario or the
Niagara River into the province of Upper Canada. It was generall}?^
stated that the number that came to Canada by this route was equal
to the number that continued from Montreal and Lake Ontario to
the western states. The one group balanced the other.®^ But along
with the former were found immigrants who had been residents in
the United States for a period of months or even years and who now,
disappointed in their fortune or with Yankee life, had determined to
try British territory.^*
The vigorous British interest in Upper Canada was not without
some response from the Americans of the eastern states. The land
offices and journaHsts of the province joyfully called attention to the
arrival of numbers of American citizens, but how long they had been
Americans no information indicates. ^^ Some exchange of people was
inevitable as a result of the family connections that had been estab-
lished a generation before. The situation was well summed up in
1831 by a New Yorker who, in speaking to a traveler regarding the
possibility of war between the United States and Canada, said:
"Well, sir, I guess if we don't fight for a year or two we won't fight
at all, for we are marrying so fast, sir, that a man won't be sure but
he may shoot his father or brother-in-law."®®
Not all of those who arrived at Quebec were determined to remain
in the provinces. They had chosen a cheap route by which to reach
62. On the relative cost of passage see The Quebec Mercury, July 17,
1830; P.R.O.: P.O. 5/29i: Letter of James Buchanan, New York, Sept. 1,
1834; Thomas W. Magrath, op. cit., 112; Official Information for Emigrants
Arriving at New York, and Who Are Desirous of Settling in the Canadas
. . . as Issued by A. C. Buchanan, Esq. (Montreal, 1834).
63. Hints to Emigrants Respecting North America (Quebec, 1831), 7.
The Quebec Mercury, Dec. 11, 1830,
64. Ibid., July 13, 1830.
65. Thomas Dyke, op. cit., 21. The Emigrant's Guide; Containing Practi-
cal and Authentic Information, 73. Isaac Fidler, op. cit., 205.
66. Adam Fergusson, Practical Notes Made during a Tour in Canada and
a Portion of the United States in MDCCCXXXI (2d ed., Edinburgh, 1834),
147-148.
112 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
the rising states of the West. Travel by the St. Lawrence and the
Lakes to Ohio and Michigan was considered as convenient and quick
as via New York and the Erie Canal. The number who reached the
province merely en route to the United States was variously esti-
mated, sometimes as high as two-thirds of the total, but there was no
way of judging and the proportion varied from year to year.®^ The
Canadian administrators would not admit that the immigrants
pushed on to the United States because of their disappointment with
the colony, and they accused agents of American land companies of
traveling along with the groups of immigrants on the St. Lawrence
boats and persuading them to continue farther west by false stories
of hardships in Canada and glorious opportunities in the States.^®
Not only did many of the individual immigrants who reached
Canada in any given season pass directly into the United States, but
settlers whose destination had been the colony of the Canada Com-
pany crossed over the border as well. One route to the Huron tract
passed through Detroit, where the company planned to meet the
arrivals and transport them to Goderich in a steamer maintained for
the purpose. But the management was not of the best and one ob-
server complained that because of neglect in meeting the passengers
on schedule, several hundred famihes who had been destined for the
colony remained in Michigan or moved still farther to the west.®®
Dissatisfaction with the company's terms and conditions caused
others who did take up lands to desert the enterprise and seek a
country where the soil was considered more fertile and the price
more reasonable and stable.^"
Toward the middle of the decade of the 'thirties the popularity of
L^pper Canada began to wane. Contemporaries blamed the decline
in the number of arrivals upon many superficial conditions : the ship-
wrecks in the St. Lawrence, the growing opposition among many of
the natives to the presence of paupers and sick, the threat of restric-
tive legislation on the part of the Assembly of the lower province
67. Helen I. Cowan, British Emigration, 236. P.A.C.: M173, Minutes of
Evidence . . . Jan., 1832. Evidence of A. C. Buchanan.
68. J. E. Alexander, Transatlantic Sketches, II (London, 1833), 218.
69. The Seventh Report from the Select Committee of the House of As-
sembly of Upper Canada on Grievances (Toronto, 1835), 26.
70. P.R.O.: CO. 384/36: Letter of G. I. Call, Bideford, July 12, 1834.
PIONEERS AND IMMIGRANTS 113
where the French element feared the growing power of the British
settlers/^ A broader view, however, suggests that the time for a
readjustment had come. A state of congestion had resulted from the
rapid development of land and resources, and disappointment was
the inevitable reaction among many. The United States, however,
continued to enjoy a prosperity that became more exuberant with
each year, and an increase in the migration southward across the
border was noticed by those who took a critical view of the situation
and was exaggerated by those who used it as evidence of the inade-
quacy of the government of the day/^
While this confused crossing and recrossing of the paths of the
pioneers and immigrants was taking place, one migration was under
way which had no relationship to the fundamental patterns of the
population history of the continent.
Negro slaves had been brought into Upper Canada by Loyalist
settlers, but the institution was not destined for a long life. A law of
1793 prohibited all future introduction of slaves and provided for
the gradual emancipation of those who were in service. The soil of
the province was no "freer" than that in the states of the Union that
were adjoining, but it was beyond the operation of the fugitive slave
laws which kept every runaway Negro in the western states in con-
stant fear. Moreover, here were no laws that placed disabilities upon
the economic and social activities of those who had been legally
emancipated, as was the case in many of the states. Canada became
the desirable refuge for fugitive Negro and freedman ahke.
So different was life on the frontier farms from plantation routine
that the individual Negro was lost. Only through cooperation with
men of the same color could he acquire economic independence. Land
was given to him on generous terms by the authorities, and in 1833
the Assembly decreed that no Negro could be extradited to the
United States except for larceny, murder, or crimes of the same
violent nature. With this encouragement and under this protection,
several settlements were founded that, when established, offered shel-
71. P.R.O.: CO. S84./S8: Letter of A. C. Buchanan, Liverpool, Nov. 20,
1835. The Quebec Mercury, March 11, May 1, 6, 1834.
72. Fragmentary statistics dealing with immigration into the United States
from Canada indicate a doubling of the movement after 1832. Walter F.
Willcox, International Migrations, I (New York, 1929), 401-409.
114 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
ter and a practical education for every new refugee from the States.
These settlements were scattered along the Thames River and east-
ward from Detroit along the edge of Lake Erie. Growth was slow.
The "Underground Railroad" was not yet functioning with the suc-
cess that twenty years later was to make it an issue in the domestic
politics of the Republic and to swell the number of Negroes in the
British province to a total that might ultimately cause not a little
concern. ^^
For the time being, however, the presence of the Negro was no
problem. Even had it been, any difficulties that he could have caused
would have been overshadowed by the vexing political disputes that
were beginning to disturb the peace that many had taken for
granted. In Upper Canada land-hungry pioneers looked with jeal-
ousy upon the clergy reserves that set aside for the minority in the
established churches some of the choicest locations ; a strong reform
party found fault with every poHcy of the authoritarian govern-
ment ; descendants of the first settlers failed to cooperate with those
recently arrived from the mother country. In Lower Canada dis-
putes regarding language, land, taxation, and representation were
approaching the point of violence. Before any of these difficulties
were to be resolved, rebellion was destined to take place in both prov-
inces and to inaugurate a new period in the course of population
movement.
73. W. R. Riddell, "The Slave in Upper Canada/' Journal of Negro His-
tory, IV (Washington, 1919), 372-395. Reminiscences of Levi Coffin (Cin-
cinnati, 1876), 250, 251.
CHAPTER VI
THE BEGINNING OF THE SOUTHWARD
MIGRATIONS
1837-1861
With the passing of the year 1837 the wavering balance of popula-
tion movements as between the United States and Canada began
sharply to favor the southern country. The attractions of the Re-
public, with the immense scale of such enterprises as canal building
and its wide stretches of available lands, had for some time been
drawing a few native-born Canadians and many recent immigrants
into the nation across the border ; but on balance compensation for
their departure had been provided by the arrival of Europeans who
traveled to the Canadas via New York and of Americans from the
eastern states who still considered the prospects offered by the north
more attractive than those available in their own west. But during
the hard times that followed the panic of 1837, the influx of Euro-
pean immigrants by all routes greatly declined and there was little
motive for Americans to move either to the north or to the west.
Special conditions in the Canadas, however, induced a marked south-
ward movement of their peoples, and when, in the middle 'forties,
prosperity returned to the continent of North America, it set under
way such vigorous activity in the industry of the eastern states and
such hopeful development of the agriculture and transportation of
the western states that for the time being the advantages to be found
in the provinces were almost eclipsed. Then Canadians joined with
Americans in the great expansion of settlement into the Mississippi
Valley and beyond that did much to stamp indelibly upon American
consciousness an infectious faith whose historical name is "Manifest
Destiny."
The first of the circumstances which favored Canadian emigration
were the political rebellions in both provinces which occurred in
1837 and 1838.^ These arose from the inadequacy of the representa-
1. For a brief discussion see W. P. M. Kennedy, The Constitution of
Canada (London, 1922), 114-115, 152-154, 156-166; also Antoine Roy,
116 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
tive government which had been established in 1791 when measured
against parhamentary reform in Great Britain and Jacksonian de-
mocracy in the United States. The executive branch of government
was so securely entrenched as to be able largely to disregard the
ambitions of the representative branch in the matter of such long-
seated grievances as the conflict between business and agriculture,
favoritism in the land system, and the landed endowment and educa-
tional monopoly of an established church whose adherents were in a
minority. In Lower Canada these circumstances were intensely ag-
gravated by the fact that the French-speaking population and the
English-speaking group who dominated them politically and eco-
nomically were separated by deep differences in outlook and in gen-
eral cultural heritage. The marvel is that the number of rebels and
of overt clashes with authority was so small, but the relatively minor
proportions of the rebellions were not reflected in a moderate ofiicial
attitude once they were suppressed. A stern policy of punishment
drove into exile all the participants who could escape, and the uncer-
tainty that at once grew up about the future of the provinces and
their governmental pohcies persuaded others to transfer their fami-
lies and movable property into the United States, where they found
sympathy and protection.^
The refugee who found safety in the United States came with no
intention of forgetting politics in following the peaceful career of a
settler. The United States was to serve as a base for offensive opera-
tions, and during the three years that followed, the border was con-
stantly disturbed by raids and demonstrations organized by the
exiles and their American sympathizers.^ When the hope of success
had faded, they settled down to make the Republic, which had been
"Les Evenements de 1837 dans la Province de Quebec," Bulletin des re-
cherches historiques, XXXVII (Levis, P.Q., 1931), 75-83; Canadian His-
torical Association Report for 1937 (Toronto, 1937), passim.
2. Plattsburg Republican (Plattsburg, N.Y.), Extra, Dec. 9-16, 1837.
Troy Budget (Troy, N.Y.), Dec. 25, 1837; Jan. 5, 1838.
3. This is the subject of a study by A. B. Corey which is to appear in the
Carnegie Endowment series. Detroit Journal and Courier, Jan. 9, 1838.
Victor Morin, "Une Societe secrete de patriotes canadiens aux Etats-Unis,"
R.S.C., 1930, Sec. i, 45-57. P.A.C.: Q250, Fox to Palmerston, Nos. 9, 10,
28. This entire volume contains material on the rebels along the border.
r
BEGINNING OF SOUTHWARD MIGRATIONS 117
the model of their endeavors, their permanent home, and when a par-
tial amnesty in 1843 and a general amnesty in 1849 permitted a
return to the provinces, only a few took advantage of their terms.*
More important as a factor in inducing emigration was the stag-
nation that in the winter of 18r37— 1838 settled down upon all busi-
ness enterprise. The "hard times" that came as the aftermath of the
panic of 1837 throughout North America and Europe were respon-
sible in part; the depression was intensified in the Canadas by the
prevailing fear that insurrection would again break out. Shipbuild-
ing, which had been the usual winter employment for carpenters and
laborers in the St. Lawrence cities, was at a standstill. All plans for
public improvements were dropped by the government. Immigra-
tion, which normally brought in the capital of substantial farmers as
well as the muscle of mere laborers, fell off in the ensuing season, and
the Canada Company was obliged to curtail the varied activities by
which it had stimulated the trade of the more remote sections.^ Many
of the recent comers who had been in doubt as to whether to remain
in the British dominions or pass on to the United States now chose
to follow the latter course. The superior popularity which for a
decade Canada had enjoyed among the emigrating classes of Great
Britain now came to an end.^
The departure of the people who had not attached themselves per-
manently to the economic life of the provinces had always aroused
concern, but it was to be expected. Now, however, the emigration of
native-born Canadians was a phenomenon that reflected the discour-
agement of the times and the dissatisfaction felt even by many citi-
zens who had no sympathy with rebelHon. In the spring of 1838 the
spirit of uneasiness gave rise to many rumors in Upper Canada : the
United States government was favorably inclined toward setting
aside a large tract of land for those who were willing to change alle-
giance ; an emigration society was being formed to found a colony in
the newly established territory of Iowa ; many whose patriotism could
4. Charles Lindsey, The Life and Times of William Lyon Mackenzie, II
(Toronto, 1862), 290, 292.
5. The Quebec Mercury, Jan. 27, Oct. 23, 1838; May 11, 1839.
6. P.R.O.: CO. 38^/52: Letter of T. F. Elliot, July 27, 1839. Patrick
Matthew, Emigration Fields: North America, the Cape, Australia and New
Zealand (Edinburgh, 1839), 34, 39.
118 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
not be questioned were becoming interested in schemes that involved
expatriation/
The scattered items concerning these inducements that appeared
in the newspapers indicate that, although no encouragement was
actually held out by officials of the United States and no organiza-
tion directed the movement, the emigration assumed disturbing pro-
portions. A thousand persons a week were reported as crossing the
Niagara River into the state of New York during July, 1838 ; and
from Detroit came similar accounts describing the extent of the exo-
dus during that and the succeeding year.^ From Iowa came the state-
ment that Canadian settlers were arriving not by the hundreds but
by the thousands.^ Later information revealed that, like most migra-
tions, its numbers were exaggerated in the pubhc mind ; but the local
histories of the counties in Michigan adjacent to Canadian territory
indicate that many of their pioneers came from the upper province
during the troubled years of 1838 and 1839.'"
Perhaps some of the most pessimistic forebodings of the time
might have materialized had the imperial authorities not taken
strenuous action to learn the true state of affairs. The appointment
of the liberal Lord Durham to the post of governor-general was a
reassuring gesture and his report, which admitted the presence of
the evils which had been the cause of the most bitter complaints on
the part of the reformers, seemed to promise an improvement in the
tone of the politics of the colony. In the report, the failure of the
colony to hold the great proportion of the newly arrived immigrants
and the emigration of well-established residents were recognized as
circumstances that should be remedied.^' All awaited eagerly the
7. Egerton Ryerson, The Story of My Life (Toronto, 1884), 184.
8. Fred Landon, "The Duncombe Uprising of 1837 and Some of Its Con-
sequences/' R.S.C., 1931, Sec. ii, 83—99. R. S. Longley, "Emigration and the
Crisis of 1837 in Upper Canada/' Canadian Historical Review, XVII, 29—
41. Burlington Free Press (Burlington, Vt.), May 31, 1839.
9. Niles National Register, LV, Oct. 20, 1838, 55, 115.
10. Portrait and Biographical Album of Sanilac County (Chicago, 1884),
454. George N. Fuller, Economic and Social Beginnings of Michigan (Lan-
sing, Mich., 1916), 149. North American (Swanton, Vt.), July 10, 1839.
11. Report of the Earl of Durham, Her Majesty's High Commissioner and
Governor-General of British North America (London, 1902), 3, 105-111,
122, 148-155, 201-203.
BEGINNING OF SOUTHWARD MIGRATIONS 119
legislative program that would assure a new era in economic as well
as political life.
The most far-reaching results of the investigation were the crea-
tion of a new constitutional framework and the promise of a large
British loan to be expended upon public works. Upper and Lower
Canada were merged into the one Province of Canada, with a single
governor and a single legislature. Not until this new regime went
into operation in 1841 could other promises be fulfilled. Two pro-
nouncements promptly outlined the attitude of the new administra-
tion to matters of population. A land law authorized free grants of
fifty acres to anyone who would actually clear ten acres and con-
struct a house and barn. By this disposition of crown lands it was
believed that more of the immigrants would stay in the province and
that the attractiveness of the United States where land had to be
paid for would be dimmed.^^ On the other hand, an effort to increase
the influx by encouraging the settlement of American citizens whose
pioneering talents were unquestioned met a determined, almost sharp,
rebuff from the governor-general. The new Canada was neither to
give its people to the neighboring republic nor to receive many set-
tlers from the States.^^
This officially desired independence was not achieved. Forces
stronger than any pubHcly proclaimed poHcies were in operation.
During the next twenty years the United States went through a
fundamental transformation : it acquired an empire in the west that
stretched to the Pacific ; milHons of fertile prairie acres were offered
for settlement ; industry supplanted agriculture as the predominant
economic activity in many sections of the northeast ; and on both the
Atlantic and Pacific oceans a new era in commerce launched hun-
dreds of vessels to carry the products of the farms and factories.
Each of these changes and developments resulted in shifts of popu-
lation that affected all parts of the continent and the people of the
British provinces reacted in much the same way as the Americans
12. Statutes of the Province of Canada, 4 and 5 Vic, c. 100. Hugh Mac-
kenzie Morrison, "The Principle of Free Grants in the Land Act of 1841/'
Canadian Historical Review, XIV, 392-407. P.A.C.: G^21, Arthur to Thom-
son, June 19, 1840.
13. P.C: Jour, of Legislative Council, I, App. No. 23, 507. P.A.C.: G390,
Sydenham to Russell, No. 179, Oct. 12, 1840.
120 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
who were engaged in the same pursuits. But so varied were the con-
ditions under which British Americans hved that no single group of
causes explains the migration that crossed the international bound-
ary southward, from the Maritime Provinces in the east to the terri-
tory of the fur traders in the west.
The Maritime Provinces escaped the political disturbances of
1837 and 1838 and until the revolution in British imperial trade
policy that came in the middle of the 1840's, a satisfactory if not
abundant prosperity favored Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. The
only inhabitants to suffer notably were the fishermen, who found it
difficult to meet the competition of the New England vessels whose
skippers succeeded in exercising a broad interpretation of the terms
of the treaty of 1818 which permitted them to carry on some of
their operations within the territorial waters of the provinces. The
presence of the Yankee fleets resulted in a constant drain on the man
power of the villages along the coast, a loss that continued through-
out the century. The American ships were larger, provided with bet-
ter equipment, and, most important of all, they enjoyed the advan-
tages of a large and protected market in the States. Each member
of the crew fished on shares, turning over to the owner a proportion
of his catch, but receiving for his own the American price. This sys-
tem offered obvious advantages to the Nova Scotians who were will-
ing to become a part of it. Many of them, leaving famihes at home,
went to Boston and Gloucester and signed up on the foreign vessels,
returned to the waters with which they were well acquainted, and
when the season was over remained in the province. Local observers
declared that upwards of a half and probably more of the men on the
American fleet were Nova Scotians, and an even larger percentage
of the captains were, in the words of their more patriotic neighbors,
"white-washed Yankees." In time, they tended to adopt the national-
ity of the ship in which they sailed and took their families to the
southern ports. It was a slow but persistent emigration that fore-
shadowed a much larger movement to follow.^*
What fishing meant to the coastal regions of Nova Scotia, the
timber trade and shipbuilding meant to New Brunswick. The for-
14. N.S.: App. to Jour. H. of A., 18U, No. 28, 49, 50; 1853, No. 4, 115;
185^, No. 2, 23, 27-30. N.S.: App. to Jour, of Legislative Council, 1852,
No. 3, 46, 47; No. 9, 81, 82.
BEGINNING OF SOUTHWARD MIGRATIONS 121
ests were so extensive and the demand so steady that farming be-
came a part-time occupation for the owners of land and most of the
laborers and artisans were employed either in the cutting of trees or
in the construction of vessels. Agriculture was neglected and the
province was dependent upon imported food. So long as the forest
industries flourished this situation caused Httle concern.^® The steady
flow of immigrants into St. John and their passing on to the United
States gave constant rise to suggestions for encouraging farming,
but no results came out of the agitation.^^ When the economic col-
lapse did come, it struck with a suddenness that revealed how essen-
tially vulnerable the organization of life in the province had been. In
1842 and again in 1846, reductions in the British timber duties
opened the market to the almost neighboring Baltic countries, a
step that quickly reduced the demand for the New Brunswick prod-
uct and lowered the price of the smaller quantity that was sold.^^
Commission merchants and landowners, woodcutters and river-
men, many of whom were already in debt, were ruined by this far-
reaching change. And the future held no brighter prospects for New
Brunswick because the mother country seemed firmly committed to a
program of free trade. ^^ But logging and lumbering were skilled
professions and in the tariff-protected United States, where rapidly
growing cities and an expanding marine called for all kinds of forest
products, every man who was expert with the ax or could pilot a raft
down a river was assured of employment. The Aroostook country of
Maine was the first destination of a large part of the discomfited
New Brunswick woodsmen, and out of this area many of them ulti-
mately moved on to wherever forests were being felled, a few to the
southern Appalachians, Pennsylvania, and New York, but the ma-
jority to the "big woods" that surrounded the Great Lakes.^^
15. Letters from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, Illustrative of Their
Moral, Religious, and Physical Circumstances, during the Years 1826, 1827,
and 1828 (Edinburgh, 1829), 156.
16. Abraham Gesner, New Brunswick; with Notes for Emigrants (Lon-
don, 1847), 318, 372, 373.
17. James Elliott Defebaugh, History of the Lumber Industry of America,
I, 107. Adam Shortt and Arthur G. Doughty (eds.), Canada and Its Prov-
inces, V (Toronto, 1914), 203, 204.
18. N.S.: App. to Jour. H. of A., 1849, No. 30, 279.
19. James F. W. Johnston, Notes on North America, I (Boston, 1851),
122 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
Soon after this dispersion from New Brunswick had started, a
succession of short crops afflicted Nova Scotia, and the province,
which even in the most satisfactory of years was obhged to secure
some of its food elsewhere, was forced to pay exorbitant prices for
imports. This situation coincided with the opening of the islands of
the British West Indies to American trade, and the resulting glut
of northern fish and wood products in the markets there reduced the
value of the exports that the Nova Scotians counted on to balance
accounts abroad. Commercial towns at once felt a sharp dechne in
the demand for shipping. Halifax, in particular, fell into a depres-
sion that gave no promise of improvement so long as the British
Empire continued its policy of free trade. Real estate dechned in
value and empty houses testified to the withdrawal of capital that
sought the larger interest yield offered by the expanding economic
structure of the United States.^"
Along with capital went people. Young men of enterprise sought
the possibilities to be found in New England and the west. It was
estimated that more than a thousand left in 1847 and by 1848 the
number of young men and young women emigrants was estimated at
eight thousand. ^^ Many of these, it is true, were gone for only a sea-
son to engage in summer work, but this temporary migration often
developed into a permanent absence and to emigrate as soon as one
grew up became the accepted custom in many communities. From the
towns, apprentices who had served their time and learned a trade
carried their skill to the cities and rapidly rising villages of the
south ; and farmers who were troubled by the prospect of seeing their
children leave were inclined to dispose of what property was salable
and, like many New Englanders of the time, to seek the western
states. ^^
37, 99; II, 146. For two interesting lives of migratory New Brunswick lam-
bermen, see Isaac Stephenson, Recollections of a Long Life (Chicago, 1915),
and J. E. Nelligan, "The Life of a Lumberman," Wisconsin Magazine of
History, XIII (Madison, 1929-30), 3-65, 131-185, 241-304.
20. N.S.: App. to Jour. H. of A., 18^9, No. 30, 277.
21. Abraham Gesner, The Industrial Resources of Nova Scotia (Halifax,
1849), 12,66.
22. N.S.: App. to Jour. H. of A., 1853, No. 45, 359, 360; 1857, No. 71,
413, 415, 421; 1858, No. 47, 368. The Christian Messenger (Halifax), Oct.
6, 1848, Sept. 7, 1849.
BEGINNING OF SOUTHWARD MIGRATIONS 123
The departures from the Maritime Provinces, although large,
were taken somewhat philosophically because of almost a century of
population interchange with New England. Far different were the
alarm and official interference that arose in French Canada when the
sons of the habitants began to leave. Their emigration was not only
a loss of friends; it was a weakening of vital French-Canadian
strength that neither the Catholic church nor the political leaders
would accept without opposition. The continuation and increase of
the movement, in spite of the naturally vigorous efforts made to stem
its flow, illustrate the deep-seated nature of the continental forces
that were operating.
It was not an unusual thing for descendants of the French voya-
geurs who had revealed and exploited so much of the continent to
stray far from the seigniories along the St. Lawrence. They were
still the traders and trappers of the west and at every frontier post
beyond the Lakes a small colony of French Canadians kept alive
many of the traditions of the old empire. ^^ It was not, however, to
these remote villages where the old language and rehgion were pre-
served that the young men were departing. New England was now
the magnet and there, in the enthusiastic Americanism of the times,
the characteristics that had been maintained in Quebec for more than
half a century in spite of English rule seemed about to be lost by
every emigrant who crossed into the young republic.
Long-continued repetition has estabhshed a historical tradition
that the first French-Canadian emigrants were the refugees from the
rebellion of 1837.^* But these exiles were not the pioneers. The early
settlers of towns in northern New York often depended upon Mont-
real for a labor supply. A traveler in 1806 discovered two young
Frenchmen working for the season on a Vermont farm, and in 1815
a Canadian family were living in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, where
23. For this persistence to our own time^ see J. M. Carriere, Tales from
the French Folk-lore of Missouri (Evanston^ 1937).
24. Marie Louise Bonier, Debuts de la colonie franco-americaine de Woon-
socket, Rhode Island (Framingham, Mass., 1920), 74. E. Hamon, Les Ca-
nadiens-Frangais de la Nouvelle Angleterre (Quebec, 1891), 164, 165. Abby
Maria Hemenway, The Vermont Historical Gazetteer, II, 298, 299. Alex-
andre Belisle, Histoire de la presse franco-americaine (Worcester, 1911), 10,
11.
124 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
they were joined by other families during the 1820's. In 1825
Father Matignon of Boston baptized several children of French par-
ents at Burlington, Vermont, and in 1831 there were about thirty
families at Lewiston, Maine, which they had reached by following
the "Kennebec Road" from the north.^^ Undoubtedly there were
many more scattered individuals and communities which escaped the
observation of travelers or priests.
After 1837 a marked increase in the movement began to attract
the attention of Canadians and Americans alike. In it political and
economic motives were mingled, as they had been in the situation
that had brought on the revolt. Stated very briefly, a rapidly grow-
ing French-Canadian population was finding that good new lands
within their old province had either almost disappeared or were in
the hands of Anglo-Canadian proprietors whose advantageous posi-
tion was closely related to their entrenched political privilege. French
Canada therefore embarked upon three activities that were to con-
tinue for a century. Some of the population grimly tried to develop
marginal and submarginal farms. Others were lucky enough to dis-
cover a few undeveloped regions where land was cheap and where its
fertility, combined with favorable climatic conditions, made a profit-
able agriculture possible. Still others began to spill over into the
former Upper Canada, into northern New York and New England,
and into northern or western New Brunswick, either to accumulate
a little capital in forest, farm, or factory employment, or to take up
farm land which others were anxious to dispose of before moving
farther west, but which was better value for the money than could be
obtained in the French homeland.
Few observers realized that the basic trouble was that old Quebec
could not support the growing number of her children, for there
were many secondary consequences of this which more easily caught
the inquiring eye. For instance, many commentators blamed the emi-
25. John T. Smith, A History of the Diocese of Ogdenshurg (New York,
n.d.), 77, 78. John Lambert, Travels through Canada and the United States
of North America, in the Years 1806, 1807, and 1808, II, 523. Marie Louise
Bonier, op. cit., 79. Louis de Goesbriand, Les Canadiens des Etats-Unis
(n.p., n.d.), 2. R. J. Lawton, J. H. Burgess, H. F. Roy, Franco-Americans of
the State of Maine (Lewiston, Me., 1915), 31. A. Desrosiers and Abbe
Fournet, La Race Frangaise en Amerique (Montreal, 1911), 218.
BEGINNING OF SOUTHWARD MIGRATIONS 125
gration on scanty harvests without going behind them to investigate
the reasons for soil exhaustion. The habitant, Hke his ancestor in
France, made bread the staple of his diet and his continued cultiva-
tion of wheat with no rotation of crops and httle attempt at ade-
quate fertiHzing brought about a steady dechne in the yield. In the
meantime f amihes increased and the size of farms dwindled with the
division of the small holdings among many heirs. Attempts to en-
courage more scientific methods met no popular response. Many a
farm could be held as a family unit only if some of the sons and
daughters found employment for wages elsewhere during some
months of every year.^®
The demand for laborers in New England, which was already fill-
ing the mill towns and railroad camps with Irish immigrants, began
to draw young French Canadians across the border.-^ They hired out
on the farms of Vermont and New Hampshire where the attractions
of the city had depleted the household of young people;^® they joined
the lumbermen from New Brunswick on the rivers of Maine ;^^ and
some, more adventurous, packed family belongings into a French
cart and set off on a several weeks' journey that brought them to the
industrial centers of Massachusetts and Rhode Island.^" The build-
ing of factories and long streets of tenement houses gave an impetus
to the manufacture of brick. In the brickyards young Canadians,
who were already inured to heavy labor in heat and cold, who had
the requisite skill, and who wanted only a seasonal job, made up the
majority of the workers.'^
By 1849 members of the legislature of Canada were so worried
that they authorized an investigation which revealed not only the
extent of the exodus but also the circumstances that set it in motion.
An estimate of seventy thousand was considered too high, but the
26. Henry Taylor^ The Present Condition of United Canada, as Regards
Her Agriculture, Trade and Commerce (London, Canada West, 1849), 6, 1,
8. E. C. Hughes, "Industry and the Rural System in Quebec," Canadian
Journal of Economics and Political Science, IV (Toronto, 1938), 341—349.
27. P.A.C.: 0.260, Part I, Colborne to Normandy, No. 118, Sept. 16, 1839
(enclosure).
28. L'Evolution de la race frangaise en Amerique, I (Montreal, 1921), 65.
29. Isaac Stephenson, op. cit., 48.
30. Marie Louise Bonier, op. cit., 87.
31. Ibid., 74. Alexander Belisle, op. cit., 4.
126 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
investigating committee agreed upon twenty thousand as being a
conservative figure to represent the number of French Canadians
who had emigrated during the preceding five years. Priests who ap-
peared as witnesses gave evidence regarding the unfavorable condi-
tions that caused emigration from their parishes: the higher wages
offered in the States, the dechne in lumbering operations along the
tributaries of the St. Lawrence, the difficulty of securing good land
in the vicinity of the old villages, and the unwillingness on the part
of the sons of proprietors to step down into the class of laborers.
One regrettable feature of recent years had been the increase in the
number of family groups that had gone — not to the industrial
centers of the east, but to the prairies of the west.^^
The question was repeatedly asked: why don't these young men
and families settle on the vacant lands so abundant in the remoter
parts of the province? This question was answered two years later
when a second legislative investigation made clear the difiiculties that
hindered colonization of this nature, especially in the unoccupied
portion of the Eastern Townships which was always pointed to as
the logical field for settlement. Here were large tracts of the most
desirable townships, but they were in the hands of speculators who
demanded a high price. Clergy reserves also helped to obstruct the
logical advance. Communications were nonexistent in many parts
and even the through roads that had been built at great expense were
not kept in a passable state. Finally, the British-American Land
Company, which had been chartered in the hope that it would foster
the development of the region in the way that the Canada Company
had improved the counties near Lake Huron, had title to much of
the unoccupied land but imposed terms that no penniless settler
could afford.^^
The realization of the existence of these conditions had already
set under way an agitation that for the next half century was to be
32. Rapport du comite special de I'Assemhlee legislative, nomme pour
s'enquerir des causes et de Vimportance de I'emigration qui a lieu tous les ans
du Bas-Canada vers les Etats-Unis (Montreal, 1849). Le Canadien emigrant
par douze missionaires des Townships de I'Est (Quebec, 1851), 16, 18, 24, 25.
33. "The French-Canadian Emigrant; or Why Does the French Canadian
Abandon Lower Canada.?" P.C.: App. to Jour, of Legislative Assembly, X,
No. V.
BEGINNING OF SOUTHWARD MIGRATIONS 127
closely associated with the French emigration and in time was to
influence both its nature and its course. The Catholic clergy had
been disturbed not only over the loss of parishioners, but by the
realization that those who took service with British and American
farmers in the Eastern Townships were surrounded by influences
that encouraged them to lose the faith into which they were born.^*
Efforts had been made to provide "colonization priests" who would
keep in touch with the individual settlers and laborers, but the latter
were too scattered to be served satisfactorily. A program of super-
vised settlement, it was believed, would aid the poorer colonists in
getting established and it would lead to the formation of compact
communities that would support the churches and schools to which
they were accustomed. In the spring of 1848 a colonization associa-
tion was organized under the presidency of the Bishop of Montreal
and the priests of the province became active agents in furthering
the formation of local societies that would undertake the enrolling
of settlers and sponsor their activities. ^^
As yet, however, assisted Canadian colonization on a scale that
could in any way affect the progress of emigration was a remote
ideal. Residents on the north bank of the St. Lawrence had for some
time been sending their children to the valley of the Saguenay, first
to exploit the forests and thereafter as settlers. The region immedi-
ately to the north and east of Montreal was being colonized by ex-
pansion from the river villages between 1830 and 1850.^'' But the
habitants on the south bank hesitated to cross into the wilderness on
the other side so long as they saw behind them a fertile and forested
area which they considered their birthright. The inertia of the gov-
ernment and the difficulties attending pioneering without roads and
without resources hindered settlement in these townships, whereas
short crops and distress discouraged movement to the Saguenay dur-
ing the 1850's.^^ Though ineffective at the time, the early considera-
34. Melanges religieux, scientifiques, politiques et litteraires, V (Montreal,
Feb. 24, 1843), 291.
35. Ibid., XI (March 21, April 7, 1848), 187, 188, 208, 209. Montreal
Weekly Witness, April 17, 1848.
36. Georges Vattier, Esquisse historique de la colonisation de la Province
de Quebec, 1608-1925, 42-44.
37. Le Canadien, Feb. 7, March 26, 1849; April 5, 1850; April 14, July
7, Sept. 10, 1852.
128 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
tion of preventive measures that could be employed against emigra-
tion yielded useful results at a later period when political was added
to religious influence in forcing the adoption of an ofiicial program.
During the decade of the 'fifties the colonization agitation had to
face the counterappeal of a more popular solution. Many observers
believed that emigration was inevitable and that effort given to di-
recting its course would be more effective than plans for damming
at the source. Not in emigration but in the fate to which most emi-
grants were condemned lay the danger. As day laborers in cities and
factory towns they lost everything that Canadians held highest : reli-
gion, language, nationality — all of which might be preserved under
the American as well as the British flag if the emigrants were con-
centrated in farming communities, preferably in the West where
society was still in the process of being formed.^®
The champions of this poHcy could point to the success that al-
ready had attended some unorganized pioneering. The interest in
the West that was apparent in all parts of North America in the late
'forties did not leave Lower Canada untouched. Many so-called
"Americans" of the Eastern Townships sold their farms (often to
French Canadians) and joined in the current that for a time threat-
ened to depopulate the hills and valleys of northern New England.^®
French Canadians also caught the spirit of the times and, like all
proceeding to the West, first sought Chicago, which still possessed
the nucleus of a French community in a group of retired voyageurs,
traders, and their children.*"
But it was not Chicago that was to become the new French Canada
of the West. Fifty miles south of the rising metropolis on the border
of the great central prairie of Illinois, a region where French North
Americans had been living since the end of the seventeenth century,
38. Melanges religieux, etc., XIV (Aug. 22, 1851), 373, 374.
39. Henry Taylor, Journal of a Tour from Montreal thro' Berthier and
Sorel, to the Eastern Townships (Quebec, 1840), 29, 32. C. Thomas, Con^
tributions to the History of the Eastern Townships, 140, 228, 369. Georges
Vattier, op. cit., 41. L. S. Chaimell, History of Compton County and Sketches
of the Eastern Townships, 35. Montreal Weekly Witness, Sept. 24, Oct. 22,
1849; July 22, 1850.
40. Melanges religieux, etc., XII (Nov. 17, 1848, May 22, 1849), 74, 303.
Le Canadien, Dec. 7, 1849.
BEGINNING OF SOUTHWARD MIGRATIONS 129
lay the marshes of the Kankakee which had long been the resort of
hunters and trappers. Here, in the 'thirties, a French trader and his
Indian wife lived in frontier splendor as the owners of thousands of
acres of tribal lands that had come into their hands. These lands
were acquired by some more energetic promoters, who set out to dis-
pose of their holdings to settlers, but in this process the area did not
lose its original French character.*^ One French family after another
joined the community, and inquiring Canadians who were uncertain
as to where to locate were advised, upon reaching Chicago, to pro-
ceed to the Kankakee country. During the last half of the decade of
the 'forties approximately a thousand French famihes had located in
the vicinity and were engaged in constructing a flourishing replica
of the society from which they had come. This was a model to encour-
age a greater enterprise.*^
The moving spirit in this project was a priest already recognized
as a crusading reformer. Father Charles Chiniquy was the Canadian
"apostle of temperance" honored in all the villages along the St.
Lawrence for his zeal for social betterment. On a visit to the United
States he was impressed by the difference between the squalor in
which the laborers of the east were obliged to work and the inde-
pendent comfort which the farmer of Kankakee enjoyed. After re-
turning he devoted his energies to the encouragement of emigration
to Ilhnois and announced that he would himself settle on the prairies
to aid in the development of a prosperous and happy community to
which all who were forced to leave the old home could come in the
assurance that they were not giving up everything.*^ Father Chini-
quy carried out his plans, settling at St. Anne in the midst of two
hundred families who followed him from Canada. In 1856 he claimed
that his parish numbered six thousand souls.** The ultimate results,
41. Charles Lindsey, The Prairies of the Western States (Toronto^ I860),
80-92.
42. Le Canadien, Jan. 29, April 3, 1850. Charles B. Campbell, "Bour-
bonnais; or the Early French Settlements in Kankakee County, Illinois,"
Transactions of the Illinois State Historical Society, for the Year 1906
(Springfield, 1906), Part II, 65-72.
43. Letter of Father Chiniquy in Le Canadien, Sept. 22, 1851.
44. Le Canadien, July 14, 1854. Les Annates de la propagation de la foi,
XXIX (Lyon, 1857), 120-128.
130 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
however, were far from a realization of first hopes. A quarrel with
church authorities ended in a complete break with the ecclesiastical
organization, and finally the priest and many of his parishioners
abjured the old faith to become Presbyterians/^ This apostasy
shocked the Catholic hierarchy in Canada into developing a closer
control over the French emigrants by advising them before depar-
ture and providing clergymen for the communities in which they
settled. In the meantime, the vogue of Illinois continued. Several
other settlements, with no particular religious affihation, were estab-
lished, and small colonies were sent out from the older towns to be-
come in turn places to which incoming French Canadians directed
their course.*^
Illinois was not the only destination of the emigrants from the St.
Lawrence. Before 1860, comparatively few had gathered about the
textile factories of New England where so many thousands were' to
assemble in the future. In the three northern states of the region
they were lumbermen, farm hands, and laborers. The city of Troy
was the center from which the thousands who came down the historic
route via Lake Champlain spread into the active towns that bordered
the Erie Canal. Ogdensburg and its neighboring towns on the St.
Lawrence were the homes of several thousands.*^ In the west, Michi-
gan was receiving an increasing number, many of whom came, not
from the old province, but from the French villages in Essex County
(the district opposite Detroit) to which Michigan was the natural
field of expansion.*^
Two forms of economic activity that during the decade of the
'fifties were enjoying an unusual expansion affected the distribution
of French Canadians, men from the Maritime Provinces, and to a
lesser degree emigrants from Upper Canada. By the middle 'forties
45. John G. Shea, History of the Catholic Church in the United States,
18 U to 1866 (New York, 1892), 618-619.
46. James Caird, Prairie Farming in America, with Notes by the Way on
Canada and the United States (London, 1859), 34, 36, 39, 63.
47. Les Annates de la propagation de la foi, XIX, 461, 465. Melanges re-
ligieux, etc., XIV (July 15, 1851), 331. Le Canadien, Sept. 19, 1851. Mont-
real Weekly Witness, Feb. 11, 1850. St. Lawrence Republican and General
Advertiser, April 12, 1842.
48. Telesphore St. Pierre, Histoire des canadiens du Michigan et du Comte
d'Essex, Ontario (Montreal, 1895), 221.
BEGINNING OF SOUTHWARD MIGRATIONS 131
settlement had reached the treeless prairies where, when a home was
to be built, lumber had to be imported from the northern forests.*®
This demand stimulated a vigorous activity on the upper tributaries
of the Mississippi and along the rivers that flowed into Lake Huron
and Lake Michigan, Bay City was the first of the distinctive "saw-
mill" towns in which Canadians gathered in large numbers and the
succession of lumber ports that appeared on the east shore of Lake
Michigan attracted many across the peninsula, Canadians coming
to Chicago in search of work learned of the opportunities in the
woods and mills for which their earlier life had provided a training.
Many of the proprietors of timberlands were Canadian capitalists
who had foreseen the coming market and had shifted, along with
their resources, the skilled woodsmen already in their employ.^" Sail-
ors from the Maritime Provinces followed the rivermen and took
command of the lumber vessels that multiplied so rapidly on the
waters of the upper lakes.
In Wisconsin the industry followed a similar course both in de-
velopment and personnel. The Green Bay region was the first to
attract attention, and here lumbermen from New Brunswick and
Maine put to use the methods invented in the Aroostook country.
Milwaukee and Chicago were the markets of this area.^^ Then, since
the settlements being formed in southern Minnesota and Iowa could
be reached more conveniently by the Mississippi, cutting began
along the Chippewa and St. Croix rivers to meet this need. Again
local history records the predominance of Canadians and Yankees
in the camps and on the rafts. Around each sawmill arose a hamlet
and logged-over lands were cleared of stumps to become the homes
of lumbermen who retired to the more permanent calling of farm-
ers.^^ In 1850, slightly over eight thousand Canadians were resident
49. History of Muskegon County, Michigan (Chicago, 1882), 21—24.
50. Augustus H. Gansser, History of Bay County, Michigan and Repre-
sentative Citizens (Chicago, 1905), 123, 464. David D. Oliver, Centennial
History of Alpena County, Michigan (Alpena, Mich., 1903), 85. History of
St. Clair County, Michigan (Chicago, 1883), 242, 503, 554, 570-572. De-
troit Free Press, Feb. 17, 1854; Feb. 7, 1855. Telesphore St. Pierre, op. cit.,
222, 223.
51. Isaac Stephenson, op. cit., 79—82, 104—105.
52. John G. Gregory, West Central Wisconsin; a History (Indianapolis,
132 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
in the state and the census a decade later indicates an increase of
ten thousand. They were particularly numerous in the counties
where logging activity was brisk. ^^
North of the timber belt the beginning of copper mining along
the south shore of Lake Superior also attracted Canadians. This was
more of an accident than the result of any technical ability that they
possessed. French Canadians who were making a far from satisfac-
tory living in the rapidly dechning fur trade wilHngly accepted the
employment that the opening of the mines offered.^* The first great
influx of prospective miners came in 1845 and after two years of
boom times the current settled down to a quieter annual addition to
the population. ®° It may well have been that the incoming French
Canadians found less employment in the mines than in the carrying
trade and fishing industry with which they were acquainted and both
of which received an impetus from the increased population of the
district. With the opening of the canal around the Sault Ste. Marie
rapids in 1855, access to Lake Superior was possible to sailing craft
and steamboats from the lower lakes. This development modernized
transportation upon Lake Superior and put an end to the regime
of the bateaux and voyageurs. But it was also accompanied by an
increased activity in the mines and a greater demand for laborers
that employed all the hands that could be found available in the
forests and about the lake and attracted workers from the remote
villages in Lower Canada. ^^
1933), 211, 218, 245, 250. A. B. Easton, History of the St. Croix Valley
(Chicago, 1909), 495.
53. The Seventh Census of the United States, 1850 (Washington, 1853),
Table XV. Population of the United States in 1860 Compiled from the Origi-
nal Returns of the Eighth Census (Washington, 1864), Table V. The dis-
tribution of Canadians in Wisconsin in 1850 by counties is indicated in a
table prepared by the staff of the Wisconsin Historical Society from the
original schedules. A copy was kindly furnished by Dr. Joseph Schafer, the
superintendent of the Society.
54. Detroit Daily Advertiser, April 6, 1844.
55. John Harris Forster, "Early Settlement of the Copper Regions of
Lake Superior," Report of the Pioneer Society of the State of Michigan, VII
(Lansing, Mich., 1886), 183-192.
56. Lahe Superior News and Miners' Journal (Copper Harbor, Mich.),
July 11, 1846. Detroit Free Press, April 26, May 23, 1854; June 28, Oct. 80,
BEGINNING OF SOUTHWARD MIGRATIONS 133
In the public mind developments along Lake Superior were over-
shadowed by the spectacular news that came from Cahfornia. Every
European nation and every state was represented in the crowds that
rushed to the diggings. It may be assumed that among the 5,437
Canadian-born Californians listed in the census of 1860 were miners
who came from every province/^ Many of them had been early upon
the scene because among the first arrivals had appeared such large
bands of adventurers from the old trading settlements north of the
Columbia River that those posts were in danger of losing all able-
bodied residents. ^^ On the whole, however, the number of Canadians
was not large and although Canadian newspapers were filled with
the contemporary accounts of the golden Eldorado on the Pacific
there are only a few items referring to actual departures.^'' One rea-
son may be found in the revival which the events of the decade
brought about in the shipbuilding industry. More than six hundred
vessels were withdrawn from the Atlantic to carry on the new com-
merce of the Pacific and every yard that could lay a keel was engaged
in the construction of ships to make good the loss.®"
During the next thirty years, until the northern part of the con-
tinent was spanned by the Canadian Pacific Railway, the Pacific
coast, British and American, was bound together into one unit in
trade and population. Evidence of this was provided in 1858 when a
1855. P.C.: App. to Jour, of Legislative Assembly, XV, No. 47: "Report of
the Special Committee on Emigration."
57. Population of the United States in 1860 Compiled from the Original
Returns of the Eighth Census, Table V. John Carr, Pioneer Days in Cali-
fornia (Eureka, Cal., 1891), passim. Carr spent his boyhood in Brockville,
Canada, which he revisited in 1852. "Out of one hundred and twenty or thirty
apprentices who served their apprenticeship during the time I was one, but
four were left in the town when I got back. Such is the way in which Uncle
Sam absorbs the bone, sinew and youth of British America." He also reveals
that the famous "Arkansaw Dam" on the Trinity River at Weaverville was
actually built by a gang of New Brunswick men.
58. Les Annales de la propagation de la foi, XXII, 155—159.
59. Le Canadien, April 4, Sept. 24, Oct. 3, 1849; Nov. 6, 1850. Montreal
Weekly Witness, Oct. 1, 15, 1849. The Calais Advertiser (Calais, Me.), Dec.
18, 1850, June 11, 1851; Frontier Journal (Calais, Me.), Feb. 6, Nov. 17,
1849. The Christian Messenger, Nov. 2, 1849. James F. W. Johnston, op.
cit., II, 216.
60. The Anglo-American Magazine, III (Toronto, 1853), 569.
134 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
consignment of gold dust from the Eraser River in British Columbia
reached San Francisco. The British authorities were more than will-
ing that Americans should take part in the exploitation of the pre-
cious metal.®^ More than seventeen hundred miners who were dis-
satisfied with their fate in California sailed for the north in a single
day and in the course of the first season approximately twenty-five
thousand persons representing all the nationahties that made up the
motley population of the state, as well as many from the Puget
Sound region, joined in the northward movement.®^ But with the
collapse of the first hopes a return exodus almost as precipitous set
in which brought many of the adventurers back into the United
States to await the excitement of the next British Columbian gold
discovery, which followed rapidly eighteen months later.^^ The Cari-
boo region did not leap quite so rapidly into prominence as had the
Eraser River, but in 1860 rumors were abroad of the gold to be
found there. Some were wary, having learned a bitter lesson from
the earlier rush, but many from Cahfornia and Oregon went north
again. Those from Oregon had a head start in the provision and
packing trades and it was here that many were found. The second
rush gathered force in 1861 and by 1862 had reached large propor-
tions, drawing more heavily, however, from the northern coast region
than had the earlier excitement.®* The importance of these move-
ments along the coast lies not only in the extraction of gold from
British soil by American miners, but also in the exploration and
knowledge of the regions south of British Columbia, much of which
led to later settlement by homeseekers from both sides of the line.
61. P.A.C.: G335, Lytton to Douglas, No. 2, July 1, 1858.
62. Daily Alta California (San Francisco), March 9, April 17, 21, 30,
May 3, 23, June 5, 11, 21, 22, 24, 1858. Henry de Groot, British Columbia;
Its Condition and Prospects, Soil, Climate, and Mineral Resources, Consid-
ered (San Francisco, 1859), 4, 13, 19. F. W. Howay, British Columbia from
the Earliest Times to the Present, II (Vancouver, 1914), 14—18. Adam
Shortt and Arthur G. Doughty (eds.), Canada and Its Provinces, XXI, 134,
140.
63. Daily Alta California, Aug. 2, 6, 9, 21, Sept. 6, 7, 14, Oct. 14, 1858;
June 17, Dec. 10, 1859. British Colonist (Victoria, B.C.), Dec. 13, 1859.
64. Ibid., Sept. 15, 1860. Daily British Colonist (Victoria), Dec. 21, 1860;
Jan. 10, Feb. 13, 14, March 2, 11, Oct. 8, 15, Nov. 14, 1861 ; Jan. 21, May 9,
15, 1862.
BEGINNING OF SOUTHWARD MIGRATIONS 135
As yet, however, the Pacific coast was not the scene of the most
significant exchanges of population between territory that was Brit-
ish and that which was American, The settlement of the Middle West
was a necessary preliminary to any further advance of the agricul-
tural frontier and in this process farmers from Ontario mingled
with farmers from Ohio and the East. And here it must be remem-
bered that Canada had no Middle West of her own. The great in-
hospitable mass of the Laurentian Shield, which towered above the
fertile alluvial lands of the St. Lawrence and Ottawa valleys, came
down to form the very shores of Georgian Bay, Lake Huron and
Lake Superior, and did not give way to arable acres until the Mani-
toba Basin was reached. In spite of gallant, ill-calculated efforts to
drive roads across its rocky, shallow soil and filigree of lakes and
rivers, the Laurentian Shield neatly deflected Canadian expansion
to the south of Lake Huron and Lake Superior, and, until the west-
ward tide of population swung around these lakes into the Red River
corridor to the north, one great Canadian frontier of settlement was
in the United States. ^^ Probably because his career was less exciting
than that of the gold seeker and less colorful than that of the lum-
berman, the coming of the Canadian in search of a farm home left
little record on the pages of the local chroniclers. But this was the
objective, for instance, of the majority of the eight thousand natives
of British America who in 1860 were Hving in Iowa and the nine
hundred recorded in Kansas.®®
Although the trend was so decidedly out of Canada into the
United States, Americans continued to drift into that part of the
provinces that had been Upper Canada. All of the townships that
had been first settled by Quaker and Mennonite pioneers about the
year 1800 still showed, in the enumerations of 1851 and 1861, a
much larger percentage of American-born residents than did the
65. A. R. M. Lower, "The Assault on the Laurentian Barrier, 1850-1870,"
Canadian Historical Review, X, 294-307. J. B, Brebner, "Canadian and
North American History," Canadian Historical Association Report for 1931,
37-48.
QQ. Montreal Weekly Witness, Oct. 22, 1849; July 22, 1850. Burlington
Free Press, May 81, 1839. The Calais Advertiser, May 15, 1850. The Chris-
tian Messenger, Oct. 6, 1848. Population of the United States in 1860 Com-
piled from the Original Returns of the Eighth Census, Table V.
136 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
districts by which they were surrounded. These sectarian townships
were still a magnet that attracted surplus population from the par-
ent communities. Another band of townships in which the American
percentage was noticeable stretched from the Niagara River to the
Detroit River along the north shore of Lake Erie. This paralleled
the overland route by which many settlers proceeding from the east-
ern states to those of the west reached their destination. The figures
probably represented some that "dropped off" by the way, although
others may be the American-born children of British immigrants
who had tarried for a time in the Repubhc before continuing to the
British possessions.
One group of Americans was living under the British flag, not
because of any accidental choice, but because they wanted the pro-
tection that it offered. With the increasing bitterness of the slavery
controversy and the development of facilities for escaping forever
from the threat of being returned to their masters, the number of
Negroes in Canada increased rapidly. The passage of the Fugitive
Slave Act in 1850 made many thousands of presumably free Ne-
groes living in the northern states liable to seizure on suspicion, with
the possibility of being sent back into bondage. They now wanted
the security to be found on the other side of Lake Erie. The immi-
gration of so many families who had no immediate means of support
created a problem that the residents met by organizing several
charitable societies, among which the Canadian Anti-Slavery Society
founded in 1851 was the most important. For the next decade these
groups were active in providing for the refugees. No statistics of
arrivals were possible when people whose coming was naturally sur-
reptitious were involved ; but the estimate of sixty thousand Negroes
in Upper Canada in 1860 (including, as it does, those who were born
in the province) does not appear to be an exaggeration.^^
Several thousand Negroes were residents of the Maritime Prov-
inces in 1860, but almost without exception these persons were de-
scendants of the eighteenth-century refugees, slave and free, who
had fled from New York with the Loyahsts. A few fugitives had
67. Fred Landon, "Negro Migration to Canada after the Passing of the
Fugitive Slave Act/' Journal of Negro History, V, 22, 35. Carter G. Wood-
son, A Century of Negro Migration (Washington, 1918), 35, 36.
BEGINNING OF SOUTHWARD MIGRATIONS 137
found refuge in the Eastern Townships, coming in from New Eng-
land. It was in Upper Canada, and particularly in that part which
bordered the Detroit River, that the runaway Negroes were concen-
trated in the greatest numbers. Being conveyed across the river
under cover of darkness was an exciting experience, but, in spite of
the existence of organizations pledged to care for them, the trying
days were not over upon landing on territory that was uncondition-
ally free. The majority settled in the counties adjacent to the bor-
der ; some became members of the colonies that attempted to provide
a community life ; and a few drifted into the cities.®^
After 1857 a number of Canadian emigrants who were on the way
to becoming Americans returned to the land of their birth. The eco-
nomic crisis of that year ushered in another period of hard times
when construction ceased, day laborers were discharged, the west-
ward movement halted, and farm produce found no market. From
Nova Scotia to the remote townships of the West, outward migration
ceased and expatriates came back to parents and friends.®^ It was,
however, only a pause in a movement that was to attain even greater
proportions. But before it was resumed a bloody war was destined to
inaugurate a new era in the development of the Repubhc and to set
up new inducements to tempt Canadians from the allegiance in
which they had been born.
68. Benjamin Drew, A North-Side View of Slavery (Boston, 1856), gives
material on the previous history, entrance, and concentration of Negroes in
Canada at this time. Detroit Free Press, Feb. 4, 1854. W. H. Siebert, The
Underground Railroad (New York, 1899), 201-205, 218-225. Fred Landon,
"Negro Colonization Schemes in Upper Canada before 1860," R.S.C., 1929,
Sec. ii, 73-78.
69. N.S.: App. to Jour. H. of A., 1858, No. 47, 366. P.O.: App. to Jour,
of Legislative Assembly, XVI, No. 41 : Emigration Report for 1857.
CHAPTER VII
THE INTERLUDE OF THE CIVIL WAR
1861-1865
By the middle of the nineteenth century so close were the relations,
business and personal, between the British Provinces and the United
States that any violent change in the internal organization or domes-
tic affairs of the one created repercussions that would be felt in the
most remote districts of the other. Such an event occurred in 1861
and the shock was felt all the more because during the preceding
decade the ties of mutual dependency had been made even stronger.
In 1854 a series of reciprocity agreements between the United States
and the provinces (each of which, at that time, determined its own
tariff arrangements) provided for a mutual free exchange of natu-
ral products. To the American west this meant access to the com-
merce of Europe through the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence ; to
the Canadian east it opened the markets of New England and New
York for the fish, eggs, butter, potatoes, and oats of Nova Scotia,
New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island. New England received
privileges in the North Atlantic fisheries which she had long claimed
as of right ; and the Canadians traded freely north and south across
the Lakes as well as east and west with Montreal and Europe.^ Finan-
cial connections paralleled the routes of trade ; merchants and farm-
ers crossed and recrossed the boundary buying and selhng wherever
the greatest advantage could be found. The freedom in transit that
had characterized movements of population was now extended to
business and, as the latter widened its contacts, the flow of people
became an even more normal and everyday phenomenon.
During the autumn of 1860 every prospect foreshadowed a com-
plete recovery from the "hard times" of 1857 as soon as the uncer-
tainty of politics had been settled by the November presidential elec-
tion. But the choice of Abraham Lincoln brought secession and war
instead of peace. The disruption of the "southern trade" resulted in
1. N.S.: App. to Jour. H. of A., 1863, No. 18. The Islander (Charlotte-
town), Dec. 28, 1860. Montreal Weekly Witness, Sept. 4, 1868. D. C. Mas-
ters, The Reciprocity Treaty of 185 Jf. (London, 1937).
140 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
bankruptcy to hundreds of American commercial houses and banks,
and only those few factories that produced goods that were in demand
for the army camp or battlefield continued in operation. All building
construction and public improvements were suspended and until the
vessels on the Lakes and the railroads of the North could adjust
themselves to the situation created by the blocking of the Missis-
sippi, the products of the western farms piled up in the warehouses.
In the cities and in the country, the winter, spring, and early sum-
mer of 1861 were a period of unemployment and inactivity that
troubled Canada as well as the States.^
An almost complete cessation of emigration from Europe to the
New World was the natural result of the threatening state of af-
fairs.^ Canadians also were advised by their American friends to re-
main at home until chances for employment were improved, so that
during the season of 1861 migration across the border sharply de-
clined.* After the outbreak of hostilities a legal barrier added to the
inconvenience. An order from the Department of State required all
travelers entering or leaving the L^nited States by sea to be pro-
vided with passports.^ To the majority of British North Americans
a passport was an unknown document and not until January, 1862,
were facilities provided in various towns in the provinces for the
issuance of certificates that would serve the purpose.^ In March of
2. The Merchants' Magazine and Commercial Review, XLIV (New York,
Jan.-June, 1861), 414, 665, 787, 791; XLV (July-Dec, 1861), 105, 216,
301, 434, 546. P.O.: Sess. Pap., 1863, III, No. 5: "Report of the Commis-
sioner of Crown Lands." The situation among the laboring classes of the
city of New York is described in The Eighteenth Annual Report of the New
York Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor (New York, 1861),
14, 15, 17, 70.
3. Senate Reports, 38th Congress, 1st Session, Doc. No. 15, 2.
4. A letter from Boston published in The Islander, July 5, 1861, warns
Canadians to remain at home. For the decline in emigration see P.C. : Jour, of
Legislative Assembly, 1862, App. No. 1 : "Report of the Select Committee
on the Colonization of Wild Lands in Lower Canada."
5. Frank Moore (ed.). The Rebellion Record: A Diary of American
Events, III (New York, 1862), 92.
6. Dom. Can.: Sess. Pap., 1869, No. 75: "Correspondence with the Impe-
rial Government in Reference to the Outlay Incurred in Canada on the Fron-
tier in 1863-4," 28. P.A.C.: G229, Lyons to Monck, Nov. 28, 1861.
THE INTERLUDE OF THE CIVIL WAR 141
that year the order was rescinded, but aliens were warned that arrest
would be made of any person "who may reasonably be suspected of
treason against the United States,'"
Residents of the United States of British and Canadian birth were
well aware of these conditions and this realization as well as the un-
employment prevailing during the first months sent a steady stream
of dissatisfied persons northward into British territory. Some were
French Canadians who returned from the factory towns of New
England in the hope that the colonization projects devised for the
peopling of the Eastern Townships would assist them; some were
Irish and English artisans and laborers who readily found work;
some were Canadian-born farm hands whose American experiences
were an asset, giving them the preference among applicants for
positions. Others who traveled home as rapidly as possible were the
Canadians who often went south for the winter months to work in
the shipping or lumbering industries in the Gulf and Atlantic ports,
but who with the coming of the war found themselves without money
and had to be assisted on the way.® This movement continued until
1863 when employment conditions in the States changed and the
current reversed its course.
The war in its miHtary aspects was responsible for some more
direct movements, both to the north and to the south. The abolition-
ist element in the Federal states had a considerable following in the
provinces where the Canadian Anti-Slavery Society was engaged in
active propaganda for the cause. Negro refugees arriving destitute
and frightened were well-known figures and a constant source of
sympathy. Uncle Tom's Cabin was as popular a book as it was in the
States; it was translated into French, published at Quebec, and
enjoyed a wide circulation in the French communities. The outbreak
of a war in which the institution of slavery was the most evident issue
was bound to enlist active participants in what seemed to be a cru-
sade for freedom.®
7. N.S.: App. to Jour. H. of A., 1862, No. 31.
8. P.C: Sess. Pap., 1863, III, No. 4: "Annual Report of the Minister of
Agriculture and Statistics/' App. No. 8. P.A.C.: G166, Newcastle to Head,
No. 135, Aug. 6, 1861 (enclosure). Daily British Colonist, Feb. 1, 1861.
9. Fred Landon, "Canadian Opinion of Southern Secession, 1860—61,"
Canadian Historical Review, I, 255—266. For a comprehensive study, see
142 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
Early reports indicated that companies of volunteers would be
formed in various Canadian cities, but apparently none of them were
actually organized/" A royal proclamation issued in London on May
13, 1861, announced the neutrality of the empire in the impending
civil war and attention was directed to the Foreign Enlistment Act
of 1818 and the penalties to which anyone would be liable who under-
took the enlistment of British subjects for foreign service.^^ Never-
theless individual Canadians crossed the border and joined the regi-
ments being formed in every northern city. Even in the early months
the officials were far from satisfied that this volunteering was en-
tirely spontaneous, and a formal communication from the American
Secretary of War in October that no governmental authority had
been delegated to anyone to seek recruits abroad did not entirely
allay suspicion/^
Some undoubtedly did enlist out of sympathy, among them Ne-
groes from the refugee settlements who traveled to Massachusetts to
join the colored regiments that were mustered into service in that
state/^ Some, in particular j'^oung French Canadians, sought the
excitement offered by the campaigns as a welcome break in the rou-
tine of life/* Others were tempted by the liberal bounties that any
man enrolling in the forces after the first year of the conflict could
expect to receive.
It was, in fact, the bounty system that set in motion the migration
that attracted most attention. Lincoln's first call for volunteers met
a satisfactory response, but when successive calls had drained the
communities of the young men with the most enthusiasm or the few-
est responsibilities, it became difficult for the states and counties to
Helen G, Maedonald, Canadian Public Opinion on the American Civil War
(New York, 1926).
10. Chicago Press Tribune, June 15, 1861.
11. British and Foreign State Papers, LI (London, 1868), 165. P.A.C.:
G229, Lyons to Head, Oct. 25, 1861 (enclosure).
12. Dom. Can.: Sess. Pap., 1869, No. 75, 7.
13. Buffalo Express, April 9, Nov. 13, 1863. The Globe (Toronto), Feb.
25, 1864; Feb. 2, 1865.
14. P.C.: Sess. Pap., 1865, No. 6: "Report of the Minister of Agriculture
of the Province of Canada for the Year 1864," 23. Calixa Lavallee, composer
of the Canadian national anthem, was member of a Rhode Island regiment.
E. Lapierre, Calixa Lavallee (Montreal, 1938).
THE INTERLUDE OF THE CIVIL WAR 143
fill the quotas assigned to them.^^ But state and local pride demanded
that the number asked for be delivered and enlistment was encour-
aged by the offering of "bounties" that would enable recruits to meet
their outstanding obligations or provide them with a tidy capital
that would be an advantage with the return of peace. The competi-
tion of one district with another forced the amount upward, and
before the close of the war the volunteer might expect bounties (na-
tional, state, county, and sometimes city) totaling up to a thousand
dollars/®
By the summer of 1862, however, the modest bounties then being
paid could not fill the ranks with the hundreds of thousands of men
that the mihtary situation demanded. The Federal administration
decided to resort to a draft upon the mihtia of the states, but
adopted a law which allowed the citizen called into service to provide
a substitute who would not be subject to the draft.^^ This was the
alien's opportunity. Whatever financial arrangement the conscript
made with his substitute was no concern of the officials and the man
who could afford to pay for release could afford to have a representa-
tive found for him. The broker who dealt in men was the response
to this need and his business increased after March, 1863, when a
more severe and direct conscription act was passed.^^
Soldiers of fortune from all parts of the world and healthy for-
eigners who were willing to take the risk appeared. The trade in
Europeans was carried on briskly in New York.^^ Canadians found
their market in the border cities. Buffalo, in particular, was the
center of much activity but Detroit and northern New England were
busy with foreign recruitment as well.^° Young men from the Cana-
15. Fred A. Shannon, The Organization and Administration of the Union
Army, 1861-65, I (Cleveland, 1928), 259-263.
16. Ihid., II, 49-99.
17. Act of July 17, 1862. United States Statutes at Large, XII, 597.
18. Act of March 3, 1863. United States Statutes at Large, XII, 731. Ken-
nebec Journal (Augusta, Me.), Oct. 28, 1864. The Rutland Courier, Aug. 14,
1863. Montreal Witness, April 19, 1865. Detroit Free Press, July 24, 28,
1864; Jan. 6, 18, 1865. P.A.C.: G233, Lyons to Monck, Aug. 8, 17, 1864.
19. The Globe, Jan. 16, 25, 1864. Allgemeine Auswanderungs Zeitung
(Rudolstadt), March 3, June 2, 1864.
20. Montreal Witness, April 9, May 4, June 8, 1864. Detroit Free Press,
April 24, 1863.
144 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
dian side of the Niagara River had no difficulty in making the neces-
sary contacts. A newspaper advertisement illustrates the eagerness
with which they were sought :
Substitutes Wanted. On account of the great and increasing demand
made for substitutes, the subscribers are ready to pay the highest price
for aliens wilKng to take the places of conscripts. For such men as may
not have permanent residence in the city, the subscribers will furnish
board and lodging up to the time of their being sworn into the service. ^^
So long as the aliens came voluntarily, the business of the broker
caused no difficulties, but when his activities had to be extended
across the boundary in the search for Hkely young men, comphca-
tions of a serious international nature arose, very much hke those of
1855 when Joseph Howe of Nova Scotia tried to recruit in the
United States for the British Army in the Crimea.'" Fences and walls
in the Canadian cities were plastered with notices describing the op-
portunities for employment that existed in the States. Undoubtedly
some of these were legitimate ; others were nothing but bait to lure
the applicant into a situation where to enlist was his only recourse,
and warnings were printed cautioning those who accepted them as
vahd to investigate carefully before going to the United States. ^^
Personal sohcitation was an effective but more dangerous method.
According to the opinion expressed by the British consuls and the
colonial authorities, soldiers in the military forces stationed in Can-
ada were encouraged to desert.^*
The newspapers were outspoken in their reports, complaining of
the steady depletion of the garrison stationed in the border city of
21. Buffalo Express, Aug, 15, 1863.
22. J. B. Brebner, "Joseph Howe and the Crimean War Enlistment Con-
troversy/' Canadian Historical Review, XI, 300-327. Interestingly enough,
one of Howe's sons enlisted in the Union Army.
23. Montreal Witness, Aug. 13, Oct. 25, 1862; May 2, 1863; Jan. 13,
March 2, Nov. 30, 1864. Detroit Free Press, July 24, 1862. The Globe, Jan.
12, Feb, 2, 23, March 16, April 29, Nov. 3, 1864. P.C.: Sess. Pap., 1864., HI,
No. 32, Part III: "Report on Immigration to Canada for the Year 1868,"
App. No, 4, William F. Roney, "Recruiting and Crimping in Canada for the
Northern Forces, 1861—1865," Mississippi Valley Historical Review, X
(1923), 21-33.
24. Dom. Can.: Sess. Pap., 1869, No. 75, 10.
THE INTERLUDE OF THE CIVIL WAR 145
Kingston, of the assistance given the runaways in the neighboring
American towns, and of the willingness with which they were ac-
cepted in the volunteer regiments where no questions were asked. ^^
Mere boys, it was charged, were induced to leave home for the life
of army adventure.^® Liberal rewards were offered for the apprehen-
sion of the agents and occasionally one was caught. But the majority
were too wary, passing themselves off as buyers of stock or employ-
ers in search of laborers. ^^ Their methods became bolder in 1864* and
the early months of 1865,^®
The charges made by Canadian newspapers were countered by the
complaints of American army officers that many of those who en-
rolled of their own volition and collected the hberal bounties de-
camped at the first opportunity, slipped into Canada, and returned
for another profitable enhstment as soon as they thought it safe.
Some were accused of several transactions of this nature. Proof of
such charges was difficult, but "bounty jumping" was such a funda-
mental defect of the whole system that it cannot be doubted that
aliens who had a place of refuge at hand availed themselves of the
chance of making some easy profits.^® In 1864, when the American
government was confronted with the protests of the British ambassa-
dor regarding alleged recruiting activities, the Secretary of State
replied that, far from authorizing agents, the government did not
know of their existence ; aliens in large numbers, it was true, served
in the Federal army, but they had entered the country as immigrants
and service in the military forces was their own choice. ^°
25. The Globe, Jan. 13, Feb. 3, 12, 23, March 1, July 18, Aug. 20, Sept.
28, 1864. Montreal Witness, March 15, May 28, Aug, 13, 16, 1862; May 23,
Aug. 1, 1863; Feb. 3, 10, 13, 17, March 4, 30, 1864.
26. The Globe, Jan. 6, 1864.
27. Ibid., Jan. 11, 12, 14, 18, 27, Feb. 2, 16, 23, Sept. 8, Nov. 1, 1864.
Montreal Witness, Jan. 20, March 2, Sept. 21, 1864.
28. The Nova Scotian (Halifax), Jan. 30, 1865. The Christian Messenger,
April 13, 1864.
29. J. M. Callahan, "The Northern Lake Frontier during the Civil War,"
Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1896,
358. The Globe, March 16, 1864; March 3, 1865. The Rutland Courier, Aug.
28, 1863.
30. War of the Rebellion: Official Records (Washington, 1880-1901), Se-
ries III, Vol. IV, 455-457.
146 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
Whether volunteers, substitutes, or bounty jumpers, tens of thou-
sands of soldiers of Canadian birth served in the northern forces.
How many there were that came directly from Canada cannot be
stated with any certainty. The standard authority on the nativities
of the soldiers serving in the Federal armies (an investigation based
upon state and regimental records) lists 53,532 as being born in
the British- American provinces. New York led with about 20,000
and Illinois with 4,400 was second. Most of the other border states
had about 3,000 enrolled in their forces. Many of these aliens, how-
ever, were domiciled in the United States before enlistment, and
these figures can provide no evidence as to the extent of the influx
during the course of the war nor information regarding which prov-
inces contributed most liberally to the man power of the northern
army.^^
Without question, French Canada sent many more than any other
part of British America. Several of the Catholic bishops enjoined
their parish priests to warn the young men in their congregations
against the dangers of foreign military service,^^ and three state-
ments made at the close of the conflict emphasize the preponderance.
One of them estimated that out of 40,000 enlistments, 36,000 were
French Canadians; and another placed the proportion at 35,000
out of 43,000.^^ Ferdinand Gagnon estimated the number as 40,000
in the northern army.^* It was natural that the region that sent the
most emigrants in peace should contribute the most soldiers in war ;
and in some of the regiments formed in northern New England so
many of the privates were from Quebec that French was the prevail-
ing tongue.®^
Although Canadians appeared in Boston to volunteer or offer
themselves as substitutes, there is little evidence that the Maritime
Provinces sent any considerable number of their sons into the con-
flict.^^ The four years of war were four years of prosperity for
31. Benjamin Apthorp Gould, Investigations in the Military and Anthro-
pological Statistics of American Soldiers (New York, 1869), 27.
32. Helen G. Macdonald, op. cit., 133. Montreal Witness, April 30, 1864.
33. The Nova Scotian, March 6, 20, 1865.
34. Le Travailleur (Worcester, Mass.), Oct. 31, 1879.
35. The Globe, March 1, April 29, 1864,
36. Buffalo Express, Aug. 3, 1863.
k
THE INTERLUDE OF THE CIVIL WAR 147
them. Any young man who craved excitement needed only to join the
crew of one of the many blockade runners that swarmed out of Hali-
fax and St. John. Those that wanted work and attractive wages
could secure employment in fishing and lumbering, mining, ship-
building, and farming. The conditions imposed by the maritime war
gave an impetus to the first two of these industries. American schoon-
ers and American seamen were needed for other tasks, so that the
fishing grounds were left to be exploited by Nova Scotians. The
closing of the ports in the southern states prevented any of the tim-
ber of Georgia and the Carolinas from reaching the market and
lumbering enjoyed a renewed activity.^^
When the war began, Nova Scotia was living in the midst of a
gold excitement that had started in 1860 when miners who had re-
turned from California and Australia discovered paying lodes in
geological formations similar to those that they had learned to recog-
nize on the shores of the Pacific. No frantic rush of adventurers fol-
lowed the discovery, although a few restless Yankees appeared upon
the scene. Nevertheless, for several years the mine shafts yielded gold
in paying quantities and able-bodied men never needed to be without
a job.^^ The coal mines of Cape Breton received a stimulus that was
more directly a consequence of the war. The high rates of wartime
transportation lifted the price of coal in New England and New
York to a level at which the provincial mines could profitably export
to the United States. American capital and experienced American
workers moved north to seize the opportunity, and from 1863 to
1865 coal was exported in increasing quantities to the cities down
the coast. ^® Finally, farming also reaped its share of the financial
harvest. Agricultural exports had never been large, but potatoes, the
staple of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, and oats, the staple of
Prince Edward Island, were needed to feed the men and horses en-
gaged in war, and all kinds of craft were loaded with these products
37. S. A. Saunders, "The Maritime Provinces and the Reciprocity Treaty/'
The Dalhousie Review, XIV, 355-371. The Globe, Jan. 8, 1864. Eastport
Sentinel, April 29, Oct. 21, 1863. Kennebec Journal, Nov. 6, 1863.
38. N.S.: App. to Jour. H. of A., 1863, No. 6.
39. N.S.: App. to Jour. H. of A., 1863, No. 14, 15. Annual Report on
Foreign Commerce, Year Ended Sept. 30, 1866 (Washington), 71, 72 (here-
after ^.i^.F.C).
148 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
and sent off to the wharves of Boston and New York.*" It was not the
excitement of war, but the dull times that came with peace that
caused the "down-Easter" to leave his home.
The draft policy adopted in the summer of 1862 set in motion a
second current of migration that aroused as bitter comment in the
United States as the first had caused in Canada. Draft dodgers were
soon dubbed "skedaddlers" because of the unanimity with which they
sought to put themselves out of the reach of the provost marshal by
flight across the boundary. Every subsequent order of conscription
provoked another wave in the current and in the public mind the
fugitives were classed along with actual mihtary deserters who also
took refuge outside the jurisdiction of the government at Washing-
ton.*^ Desertion and draft dodging were noticeably prevalent in the
border states of Maine, New Hampshire, New York, Wisconsin, and
Minnesota ; and the streets of Montreal, Windsor, and Amherstburg
swarmed with these temporary, and in many cases undesirable, resi-
dents.*'
At first their presence caused little concern. The majority were
active young men, acquainted with American agricultural routine
and experienced in all the work that a farm demanded. There al-
ready was a shortage in labor caused by the great decline in immi-
gration from the British Isles, and Canadian landowners welcomed
the coming of hands who could be trusted with tasks that a "green"
worker could not perform. The early comers arrived in time to assist
in the harvest of 1862 and their presence materially reduced the
exorbitant wages that the farmers had expected to pa3^*^ But by the
next year the comments were not so cordial. A few of the refugees
were able to buy or rent farms, but the majority, even of those who
40. The Islander, Nov. 13, 1863; Nov. 25, 1864. The Nova Scot'tan, Feb.
20, 1865.
41. War of the Rebellion: Official Records, Series III, Vol. II, 329, 370;
Vol. Ill, 425, 426, 485. Buffalo Express, March 27, 1863. Eastport Sentinel,
Aug. 13, Nov. 11, 1862. The Rutland Courier, Aug. 8, 1862; March 13, 1863.
Kennebec Journal, Nov. 4, 1864. Detroit Free Press, Aug. 10, 12, 14, Sept.
13, 1862; Feb. 12, 1863. Montreal Witness, April 29, 1863.
42. P.C: Sess. Pap., 1864, HI, No. 32, Part HI: "Report on the Immi-
gration to Canada for the Year 1863," App. No. 4. Ella Lonn, Desertion dur-
ing the Civil War (New York, 1928), 207.
43. P.C: Sess. Pap., 1863, III, No. 4, App. No. 6.
THE INTERLUDE OF THE CIVIL WAR 149
had passed through the customhouse, had no baggage but a half-
filled carpetbag, and it was suspected that the much greater number
who came in surreptitiously possessed even less. By 1863, and to a
more marked degree in 1864, skedaddlers and deserters were so nu-
merous and so uniformly spread throughout the central and western
parts of the province of Canada that reports ran that native workers
found it difficult to compete with them in wage j obs and that farmers
could obtain all the helpers they wanted by promising nothing but
shelter and board."
Estimates of their number ranged up to fifteen thousand, and
angry American comment was aroused.*^ A background for this feel-
ing was provided by the belief that sentiment in the provinces was de-
cidedly pro-Confederate, and the reception given the refugees, how-
ever proper under the accepted rules of international law, was inter-
preted as a harboring of outlaws. The failure of the legislature of
Canada to take action in 1863 providing for the compulsory return
of all deserters from the United States Army intensified the dissatis-
faction,*^ Congress, however, was anything but vindictive. In March,
1865, when the value of every man who could serve in civilian or
military pursuits was rated high, a law was passed authorizing the
President to issue a proclamation giving all deserters sixty days
during which they would be pardoned upon returning to their regi-
ments and prescribing the loss of citizenship as punishment for fail-
ure to comply.*^
Canada was the home of another type of refugee whom the North-
erner feared as well as hated. During the prosperous years of the
1850's many cotton planters who came north for the summer passed
through the states in which abolitionist sentiment was strong and
lived for the season in the pleasant towns along the St. Lawrence.
The personal connections thus formed were remembered when civil
44. P.C: Sess. Pap., 1864, HI, No. 32, Part III: "Report on the Immi-
gration to Canada for the Year 1863," App. No. 3; 1865, III, No. 6, 127,
138. The Rutland Courier, April 3, 1863.
45. Ella Lonn, op. cit., 202.
46. Buffalo Express, April 27, 1863.
47. United States Statutes at Large, 38th Congress, 2d Session, C. 79, Sec.
21. The proclamation is to be found in John G. Nicolay and John Hay, Abra-
ham Lincoln: Complete Works, II (New York, 1894), 660-661.
150 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
war began. Men too old to fight, families of planters who were in
active service and, in time, veterans invalided out of the army gath-
ered in Montreal and elsewhere, where they were welcomed into the
most select circles of society/® Here they were joined by Confederate
sympathizers who brought with them capital and experience with
which they set up many kinds of business enterprise.*^ Residents on
the American side of the border had at first nothing to fear from
these gentlemen, but when the Confederate government sent military
agents to Canada to rally escaped Confederate soldiers and others
there for raids on the United States, the civilian refugees shared with
them the full wrath and angry protests of the North.®°
Until the year 1863, military considerations had been predomi-
nant in determining the population relations of the United States
and British North America. After years of conflict, economic factors
began to operate. By that time the business structure of the states
that remained in the Union had been adjusted to the new relation-
ships that existed among the different parts of the country ; an army
at the front had developed into a market to take the place of the one
that the manufacturers had lost in the secession of the southern
states; and crop shortages in Europe led to an export demand for
every bushel of wheat that the West could spare. A hitherto un-
known confidence in the successful outcome of the struggle was an
incentive to housing, factory, and railroad construction.^^ In eastern
industrial centers and in western farming communities the one re-
quirement that had to be satisfied before economic demands could
be met was more labor. Wages began to rise early in 1863, and by
48. J. E. Collins, Life and Times of the Right Honorable Sir John A.
Macdonald (Toronto, 1883), 268. Fred Landon, "Canadian Opinion," 255-
266.
49. P.C.: Sess. Pap., 1861f, III, No. 32, Part III: "Report on the Immi-
gration to Canada for the Year 1863," App. No. 1. The Globe, April 29,
1864. Montreal Witness, April 30, 1864.
50. War of the Rebellion: Official Records, Series I, Vol. XLIII, 930-935.
For a full account of the border problems during the Civil War see C. P.
Stacey, Canada and the British Army, 184-6-1871 (London, 1936), 117-178.
51. Edward Dicey, Six Months in the Federal States, II (London, 1863),
139, 140. Emerson D. Fite, Social and Industrial Conditions in the North
during the Civil War (New York, 1910), 17—154. S. M. Peto, Resources and
Prospects of America (New York, 1866), 47.
THE INTERLUDE OF THE CIVIL WAR 151
1864* skilled and unskilled workers demanded and received a scale
of payment that employers felt to be an insupportable handicap to
production.^^
The traditional American solution for this problem was a call sent
to Europe. The governor of Michigan expressed the need and pohcy :
"We want men, we want settlers ; and the true interest of the whole
state requires that immigration should be encouraged and fostered
by needful legislation."^^ Secretary of State Seward wrote: "The
government frankly avows that it encourages immigration from all
countries."^* No longer, however, was the plain news that labor was
needed sufficient to attract all who could be employed. Encourage-
ment and advertisement were necessary. Some of the states ap-
pointed commissions to draw as many of the newcomers as possible
in their direction, and in 1864 the Federal government set up its
own board, which was instructed to facihtate the influx of Euro-
peans and to use all means available to swell the incoming tide.
These beckonings to Europe could be successful only with time.
Meanwhile the Canadians who came into the Republic did so in re-
sponse, not to official blandishments, but to the inviting labor market
that existed. An exchange in population was the first phenomenon.
Skedaddlers and deserters had glutted the labor markets in the prov-
inces and the resultant dechne in wages there made American high
wages all the more noticeable. A "counteremigration" of Anglo-
Canadian workers set in, and as their success became known, neigh-
bors followed and immigrants recently arrived from Great Britain
joined in the movement.^^ French Canada also responded, perhaps
even earlier, because the contacts that bound the American indus-
trial districts to the St. Lawrence seigniories were many and fre-
quently personal. The current began to flow particularly strongly
in the summer of 1863, and instead of ceasing as was usual in the
52. For the high wages paid to agricultural laborers see the county by
county survey printed in the Third Annual Report of the Secretary of the
State Board of Agriculture of Michigan for the Year 186Jf. (Lansing, Mich.,
1865), 14-51.
53. Joint Documents of the State of Michigan for the Year 1862, Doc.
No. 2, 12.
54. War of the Rebellion: Official Records, Series III, Vol. IV, 456.
55. Buffalo Express, March 27, April 13, 1863.
152 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
fall of the year, it continued during the winter, attaining a new and
hitherto unknown volume in 1864. Habitants deserted the villages
and residents on the colonization lands abandoned clearings.^® A
bishop visiting his diocese that summer was much concerned to meet
on the roads caravans of carts filled with families and baggage mov-
ing down to the New England cities where every hand could find
employment."
Fortunately for the prairie farmers of the Mississippi Valley
states, farm machinery was steadily reducing the need for hired men,
and there are no contemporary accounts of any large influx of agri-
cultural laborers, although every one that appeared could have
counted upon immediate employment. But independent farmers from
Canada did come. Some settled in Kansas; some chose Missouri,
where the adoption of a law emancipating slaves seemed to promise
a new era in development; and others (perhaps the majority) moved
over into the neighboring state of Michigan, which could offer in-
ducements of a particularly favorable character. ^^ To this state
there had been granted by Congress large areas of so-called swamp
lands which the state, in turn, had disposed of to speculative buyers.
Ownership was represented by scrip which in the absence of pur-
chasers for several years had fallen in price. The prudent Canadian
landowner who wanted a larger estate was in a most advantageous
situation. His Canadian dollar, still on a gold basis, could be ex-
changed for two or more "greenback" dollars, and the latter were
used to buy up depreciated scrip. Excellent land could be secured
at prices that varied from twenty to thirty cents in gold per acre.®^
Another advantage was the insistent demand which the war pro-
duced for all manner of easily accessible Michigan products. For a
decade the exploitation of its timber resources had employed men
and capital; the war broadened the nation's needs. Southern seces-
sion and the blockade cut off the sources from which most of the
56. P.C.: Sess. Pap., 186^, III, No. 32, Appendix: "Report on the Colo-
nization Roads in Lower Canada"; Part III: "Report on the Immigration to
Canada for the Year 1863." Montreal Witness, April 30, 1864.
57. Louis de Goesbriand, Les Canadiens des Etats-Unis, 3.
68. Buffalo Express, March 23, 1865. A.R.F.C., 1867, 141. The Globe,
April 7, 1864.
59. David D. Oliver, Centennial History of Alpena County, Michigan, 115.
THE INTERLUDE OF THE CIVIL WAR 153
rosin, turpentine, tar, and pitch, so essential in the day of wooden
vessels, had come. In six months price quotations in New York ad-
vanced more than 200 per cent.^° The pine of Michigan, including
even the stump heretofore discarded, yielded these products satis-
factorily, so that the pioneer could sell the stumps which he pulled
from his cut-over lands. Meanwhile he had no difficulty in disposing
of his harvest of grain and other crops in the mill towns of the Sagi-
naw Valley.®^ These mills did not merely cut lumber and shingles.
The geologists had discovered the strata of salt that lay a thousand
or two feet below the surface of the soil, and every sawmill was neigh-
bor to a "salt-block" down into which its exhaust steam was forced,
later to be pumped up as brine and evaporated. Laborers as well as
farmers flocked into the valley, where typical boom times held sway.®^
Capitalists, loggers, and rivermen who wanted to pass over Michi-
gan could find opportunities almost as alluring in the forests of
northwestern Wisconsin. The prairie settlement that went on in spite
of the war created a demand for the lumber that even the humblest
homesteader had to secure before he could build the rudest sort of a
shack. Every raft of logs that was floated down the St. Croix or the
Chippewa was soon cut up in the mills along the Mississippi and
transported by railroad and wagon to the straggling frontier settle-
ments. In 1864 and 1865 the expansion of the industry was checked
by the need for more helpers ; wages in the pineries and on the rivers
were high and more lumbermen from Maine, New Brunswick, and
Quebec appeared to join the gangs of loggers and crews of rafts-
men.^^
The second important industry of the then far Northwest was
mining. As in other phases of economic life, the first shock of civil
war resulted in a stagnation which within two years gave way to an
unprecedented activity. The spring of 1862 found many of the Lake
60. The Merchants' Magazine and Commercial Review, XLV (July— Dec,
1861), 439.
61. David D. Oliver, op. cit., 93, 94.
62. Augustus H. Gansser, History of Bay County, Michigan and Repre-
sentative Citizens, 163.
63. Frederick Merk, Economic History of Wisconsin during the Civil War
Decade (Madison, Wis., 1916), 60, 76, 108, 109. Transactions of the Wis-
consin State Agricultural Society, VII (Madison, 1868), 50.
154 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
Superior mines closed. The price of copper was low and prospects
uncertain. It was reported that the miners had departed "in
droves."^* But in the middle of the summer came a favorable reac-
tion. A great increase in the demand for iron and copper reopened
the mines and called back the French Canadians who constituted a
large part of the working force. In spite of the tardy beginning, the
year 1862 was the most prosperous that the region had experienced
and each of the two years that followed witnessed an increase in pro-
duction over the preceding twelve months. Wages followed the
course of production, rising with each year and attracting laborers
from wherever they could be found.^^ The permanency of these mines
seemed now assured and communication with the industrial world
was facihtated by the construction of a "mihtary road" that reached
the western section, while a branch line of the Northwestern Rail-
road tapped the easternmost mines. Along with these improvements
new wedges of settlement were laid out.^°
Although the expansion of population and the development of in-
dustry in the Lake and upper Mississippi region were remarkable
for a period of war, the achievements actually fell short of what
would have been accomplished had not the red man brought war to
the adjacent frontier. The Sioux uprising of 1862, resulting in the
massacre of scores of pioneers, frightened away settlers who were
already taking up lands, and retarded the peophng of the American
part of the fertile valley of the Red River.®^ On the other hand, it
brought into prominence the advantages of settlement north of the
forty-ninth parallel, where British relations with the Indians were
conducted with less hostility, and the presence of an army of Hud-
64. P.C.: Sess. Pap., 186S, III, No. 5, App. No. 43: "Report on the Mines
of Lakes Huron and Superior."
65. Joint Documents of the State of Michigan for the Year 1862, Doc. No.
13: "Annual Report of the Superintendent of the St. Mary's Falls Ship
Canal for the Year 1862," 1, 8; ihid., 1863, Doc. No. 10, 4; ibid., 1864, Doc.
No. 14, 4, 5. Conditions in the Lake Superior mining region are described in a
letter in the Northwestern Christian Advocate (Chicago), July 2, 1862.
66. Robert M. Dessureau, History of Langlade County, Wisconsin (An-
tigo, Wis., 1922), 21, 263.
67. History of the Red River Valley, I (Chicago, 1909), 73. A. H. Moehl-
man, "The Red River of the North," Geographical Review, XXV (New York,
1935), 79-91.
THE INTERLUDE OF THE CIVIL WAR 155
son's Bay Company traders and half-breed trappers provided a wel-
come market.
The advantages that would result from the settlement of the lands
adjacent to Fort Garry were well known to British colonial authori-
ties, but the way in which it was being accomplished was far from
encouraging. Access from the province of Canada via Lake Superior
and the chain of rivers and lakes that had been the fur traders' route
was not practical for settlers, who were usually burdened with a
heavy load of belongings. The few who did move from the eastern
possessions of the British crown to those in the west traveled through
the L^ited States and often gave up the journey to locate in one of
the new American communities. In the meantime, residents of Minne-
sota were passing over the lands of their own frontier and taking
possession of the promising locations along the river in British terri-
tory. Observers realized that these pioneers were merely the fore-
runners of the irresistible line of settlement that was steadily, though
slowly, advancing across the continent. Unless it was checked by the
planting of loyal subjects, the area that should be the connecting
link between the British soil on the Atlantic and that on the Pacific
would fall into the possession of the land-hungry Yankee and, if
annexed by the United States, would destroy all hopes of a dominion
stretching from ocean to ocean. ^*
The new province of British Columbia, although firmly attached
to the empire by pohtical, naval, and military bonds, was in com-
merce and population a part of the Pacific region which had its
center at San Francisco. Agricultural resources remained undevel-
oped. Food and supplies of all kinds came up the coast from Cali-
fornia, Oregon, and Washington. Fully three-fourths of the fifteen
thousand miners who in 1864 made up the principal element in the
population were Americans, and half of the business houses were
branches of American establishments.^^ Before the close of the war
the gold-mining interest began to decline and a return movement
into the states, which by 1867 was to reduce the population to no
68. P.C: Sess. Pap., 1863, I, No. 29: "Copies of All Communications
Made or Orders in Council Passed in Relation to the Opening of a Route to
Red River or British Columbia and the Paciiic" ; VI, No. 33: "Memorial of
the People of Red River to the British and Canadian Governments."
69. A.R.F.C., 1862, 147.
156 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
more than six thousand souls, was already under way/" British Co-
lumbia no less than the territories of the Hudson's Bay Company
was rapidly becoming a problem that was to test the statesmanship
of the empire builders. Unless they made a vigorous effort to shape
the future, within a generation the westward and northward move-
ments and the annexationist ambitions of Americans threatened to
remove it from their sphere.
These problems, realized and discussed early in the 1860's, were
pushed into the background by international comphcations that de-
manded vigilance and skillful diplomacy. By 1864 the adventurous
Confederate refugees domiciled in Canada were ready to open a war
of terrorism against the unprotected towns of the northern states. ^^
An attempt to seize Johnson's Island in Lake Erie, where several
hundred Confederate officers were imprisoned, was frustrated.^^ A
small band of refugees and sympathizers crossed over into Vermont
and raided the town of St. Albans. ^^ An effort to burn the city of
New York was checked.^* These incidents, although largely chimeri-
cal, forced upon the administration of the Federal states a realiza-
tion of the dangers that might grow out of the complacency with
which they had accepted the unprotected and unguarded northern
frontier. The answer was a new pohcy in relation to migration.
On December 17, 1864, an order was issued directing all persons
entering the United States except those coming by sea to be pro-
vided with passports. The exception was in favor of European immi-
grants whose coming there was no reason to check. The purpose was
clearly stated in the sentence : "This regulation is intended to apply
especially to persons proposing to come to the United States from
the neighboring British provinces. "^^ Journalists explained that the
object was to compel the Canadian authorities to be more careful in
70. Ibid., 1867, 204-206.
71. War of the Rebellion: Official Records, Series II, Vol. VIII, 525.
72. Ibid., Series I, Vol. XLIII, 932-933.
73. John G. Nicolay and John Hay, Abraham Lincoln, VIII (New York,
1890), 24-26.
74. John W. Headley, Confederate Operations in Canada and New York
(New York, 1906), 274-307.
75. War of the Rebellion: Official Records, Series III, Vol. IV, 1020.
THE INTERLUDE OF THE CIVIL WAR 157
the observance of neutral duties along the border.^® American citi-
zens passing into Canada were also compelled to show their pass-
ports before they were allowed to leave the country. To the many
citizens of both nations who were constantly moving over the fron-
tier the order was an irritating nuisance. The phrases in which Cana-
dian editors expressed their disgust illustrate how nonexistent reah-
zation of the international boundary had been. One characterized the
order "a piece of stupidity" and another described it as "a disgrace
... an excrescence of despotism, which no country pretending to be
free would tolerate for a day."^^
Nonetheless the regulation was made effective. Much of the busi-
ness of the Grand Trunk Railroad was made up of the transit trade
from Buffalo to Detroit and this was now severely curtailed. ^^ The
railroad officials may have complained. Undoubtedly many Cana-
dians cooled in their sympathy toward the Confederacy after the St.
Albans raid had made them understand how serious the consequences
of a repetition might be. Whatever the motive or the impelhng force,
in February, 1865, the Canadian Parliament under a suspension of
rules rushed through a bill providing for the expulsion of any alien
who was suspected of engaging in acts of hostility against a friendly
power and for the seizure of any vessels or arms that obviously were
to be used for the same purpose. ^^ Probably satisfied by this action,
the United States government rescinded the passport order on
March 8.'"
Appomattox and the close of the war followed in quick succession.
Deserters, draft dodgers, and Confederate refugees had little reason
for remaining in the provinces and the only punishment that the
former had to fear was the loss of the rights of citizenship — a fear
76. Buffalo Express, Feb. 1, 1865.
77. The Globe quoted in Buffalo Express, Jan. 5, 1865. The Islander,
June 9, 1865. Eastport Sentinel, April 5, 1865. Montreal Witness, Jan. 11,
1865. Detroit Free Press, Jan. 7, 1865.
78. Buffalo Express, Jan. 2\, 1865.
79. P.C: Jour, of Legislative Assembly, 1865, 31, 54, 59, 63, 67, 77. P.C:
Jour, of Legislative Council, 1865, 76. The act (28 Vic, c. 1) is printed in
Statutes of the Province of Canada, 8th Parliament, 3d Session (Quebec,
1865), 1-9.
80. War of the Rebellion: Official Records, Series III, Vol. IV, 1238.
158 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
that was not strong enough to keep them in perpetual exile. The
amnesty proclamation of President Johnson issued on May 25, 1865,
assured the Confederate partisans that they would not suif er because
of the unsuccessful rebellion in which they had been engaged. Dur-
ing the summer the exodus was general and the emigrants left few
traces of their residence except an occasional place name like "Ske-
daddle Ridge" in New Brunswick which fifty years later still marked
the site of a temporary colony of Americans. ^'^ Even persons whose
residence antedated the war caught the spirit of the times and joined
in the movement back to the land in which they had been born.^-
The Civil War was more than a mere episode that during four
troubled years set in motion some unexpected and temporary ex-
changes of North American population. The course and outcome of
the struggle removed many of the obstacles to population expansion
that had arisen out of the slavery controversy. The Republic emerged
from the conflict with a new program for the disposal of pubhc lands,
a new policy in subsidizing railroad construction toward the Pacific,
and a determined resolve to remove the Indian menace from the
plains. A westward surge of population was the inevitable conse-
quence of these decisions and the British provinces that were blocked
by the Laurentian Shield from a west of their own were destined to
be as directly influenced as any eastern state of the Republic.
81. Buffalo Express, Aug. 1, 1865. The Nova Scot'ian, July 8, 1865. The
Globe, May 13, 1865. William F. Ganong, "A Monograph on the Origins of
Settlements in the Province of New Brunswick," R.S.C., 190Jf, Sec. ii, 99,
173.
82. A.R.F.C., 1867, 141.
CHAPTER VIII
EXPANSION AND DEPRESSION
1865-1880
During the decade and a half after 1865 economic conditions in
North America fluctuated violently — eight years of swelling pros-
perity, seven of virtual stagnation. During these fifteen years, popu-
lation movements, always responsive to the changing prospects of
business and agriculture, reflected first the hopes of the period of
expansion, then the fears of the succeeding depression.
Transition from war to peace was accomplished without much de-
rangement of New England's industry. Some individual firms that
produced only for men in the field were forced into bankruptcy, but
in general the falling demand from the army was met, buoyed up,
and finally expanded by the increasing needs of a growing country
that for four years had postponed all activities except those related
to the national emergency. Belated production was not the only cir-
cumstance that kept the wheels of industry turning. European har-
vests were not sufficient to feed the workers of Great Britain, and
every bushel of wheat that the American producer could spare
brought a welcome cash return that stimulated all the old farming
communities and called forth schemes for more ships, more railroads,
and more acres under cultivation. This buoyancy was transmitted to
the industrial towns. Cotton mills and shoe shops ran machinery day
and night in an attempt to fill the orders that poured in, only to
learn that their equipment was inadequate and their employees too
few. They drew up plans for new factory blocks and hung out the
sign: "Help wanted."^
The hill farmers of the northern states had not many more sons
to send away from home, and Europe with its seemingly inexhaust-
ible reserves of men was too far distant to be of immediate assistance.
But between the cities of New England and the villages and farms
1. E. E. Foster (ed.)^ Lamb's Textile Industries of the United States, II
(Boston, 1916), 367. The prosperity and labor demands in a typical mill
town in Maine are described in the Lewiston Weekly Journal, Oct. 18, 25,
Nov. 1, 22, 1866; Jan. 10, March 14, April 4, May 2, 9, 1867.
160 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES ^
of the provinces to the north and east the connections were many
and intimate. The favorable opportunities available for strong arms
and skillful hands were soon known in all the British North Ameri-
can districts from which emigrants had hitherto gone out in search
of a better fortune, and now the call had the greater appeal because
with the cessation of civil war in the Repubhc had come a sharp de-
pression in Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, and New Bruns-
wick, an economic decline which was the result of an inevitable ad-
justment that had no compensating features.
In political discussions the residents of these provinces blamed
their unsatisfactory condition upon the abrogation by the United
States in 1866 of the Reciprocity Treaty of 1854. Without doubt
the sudden loss of the open market where the "Maritimers" had
found ready sale for the fish, potatoes, and wood products, or the
gypsum and coal, that had frequently been taken to the wharf in
Boston or New York in a local small sailing vessel was a financial
setback of considerable importance.^ The American tariff barrier
could be surmounted only by accepting low prices. But other causes
were also at work, factors that were related to great technical changes
in agriculture, industry, and transportation which were transform-
ing economic hfe upon the continent of North America and on the
adjacent seas.
The Prince Edward Islanders complained that they could no
longer dispose of the oats that their fields yielded in abundance ; the
customary demand for fish from the West Indies had declined ; ships
that were constructed could not be sold and there was no employment
for them if they remained in the builder's possession. But more dis-
turbing, in view of the local decline in prices, was the operation of
the Land Purchase Act, a statute which sought to change the nu-
merous tenants of the large estates that had been established upon
the island into freeholders by providing government loans to those
who were willing to assume a heavy burden of debt. Too many of
them had been willing; they discovered that regular payments due
to the government could be just as oppressive as rents owing to a
landlord and now when income had declined the danger of losing
2. Montreal Weekly Witness, Jan. 25, March 8, 1867; Aug. 14, Sept. 4>,
1868.
EXPANSION AND DEPRESSION 161
possession by foreclosure was as threatening as the threat of eviction
had ever been. In an island community that offered little field for
enterprising youth there was only one way that a young man or
young woman could assist hard-pressed parents: that was to go
where service was rewarded with hberal wages. The ensuing exodus
of young people depleted the households of even the most substan-
tial farmers and tempted many of them to join their children in the
foreign country.^
The fishermen of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia also learned how
American protectionism and technical change could bring many dis-
advantages to them in their wake. After the wartime suspension the
skippers of Gloucester and Boston returned to the banks and the
waters of the St. Lawrence with new equipment and revived energy.
The older methods that still characterized the provincial fisheries
could not meet such competition successfully. The prevailing "credit
system," which resulted in all hands being continuously in debt to
the owners, coupled with a series of poor catches and the prevailing
low prices, discouraged the more energetic. Many transferred them-
selves for the season to American vessels, where their skill and knowl-
edge were in high repute and the catch had an open market. There
was a natural tendency among married men to move the entire fam-
ily to the States after a few trips of this sort, but the young unmar-
ried men usually returned to spend the winter in their native village
unless they were engaged to go out with the American winter fleet.
In 1875, out of the seven thousand men sailing in the Gloucester
fleet, three thousand had been born in the British provinces.*
Nova Scotia also suffered because of the collapse of the export
trade in coal upon which such optimistic hopes had been centered.
During the last year of the war the development of the mines had
3. The Islander, Aug. 9, Nov. 8, 1867; May 22, June 5, 1868; June 18,
Aug. 29, Sept. 24, Oct. 29, Nov. 5, 1869. Prince Edward Island, Report of
the Proceedings before the Commissioners Appointed under the Provisions
of the Land Purchase Act, 1875. Reported by P. S. Macgowan (Charlotte-
town, 1877), 28, 39, 99, 204, 379, 410, 448.
4. The Citizen (Halifax), Jan. 30, Aug. 24, 1872; March 14, 28, 1824.
Montreal Weekly Witness, Oct. 18, 1867. Yarmouth Tribune, Dec. 11, 1867;
Jan. 5, 1869; Dec. 7, 1870; April 12, 1876. George H. Proctor, The Fisher-
men's Memorial and Record Book (Gloucester, 1873), 119, 120.
162 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
been most promising. New England provided a market in which the
Nova Scotians enjoyed, under the conditions of the time, a virtual
monopoly. Then the advantage was lost as suddenly as it had been
gained. With peace, the Pennsylvania mines returned to uninter-
rupted production, and the consolidation of railroad lines cheapened
transportation to such a degree that American coal from the interior
could be sold at lower rates than the sea-borne provincial product.
As a result many of the Nova Scotia shafts were closed ; the workers,
many of whom were recent immigrants from the British Isles, passed
on to join friends in the United States; and farmers who had sup-
plied the operatives drifted along behind them.^
New Brunswick was no better off than its neighbors. A letter from
St. John described the situation in the spring of 1868 : "Our streets
are dull, our shops empty, our factories half employed, our ship-
yards silent, our tenement houses half deserted."® From 1866 on,
the departure of mechanics and laborers to seek employment in the
States was apparent to all observers and here again the American
tariff and new technical developments provided the explanation. The
day of sailing vessels was over. Iron and steam were taking the place
of wood and sails, and no longer were the craft built from New
Brunswick timber in demand in all the commercial ports of the world.
Vessels were still built and sold for the slower trades, but deserted
yards foreshadowed their impending disappearance from the seas.''
In all the British provinces along the Atlantic was heard the com-
plaint already familiar in every New England state — the young
people are not content to remain on the parental homestead but they
seek the more exciting life of the city or follow the lure of the West.*
Since the provinces had no great cities to absorb them and no west
to tempt them, leaving home meant expatriation, although motives
and causes were similar whether the adventurer set out from a rural
home in Nova Scotia or in Massachusetts. In both regions an agri-
culture which could not compete with western lands, once transpor-
5. N.S.: App. to Jour. H. of A., 1867, No. 7, 12; 1870, No. 14.
6. Montreal Weekly Witness, March 13, 1868.
7. Yarmouth Tribune, Aug. 8, 1866; May 26, 1869. Montreal Witness,
Sept. 27, 1865; Sept. 8, 1866. A.R.F.C., 1869, 209.
8. The Nova Scotian, June 8, 1868. Acadian Recorder (Halifax), April
11, 1872.
EXPANSION AND DEPRESSION 163
tation to the interior was developed, began to succumb in various
ways to its natural handicaps. In coastal New England and in the
Maritimes crops declined because small attempt had been made to
renew the fertility of the soil. Lack of capital prevented extensive
development of existing resources or improvement of less productive
lands. Hired help was usually wanted only at haying time or harvest.
Families were large and farms were small. Practically every home
had at least one son and one daughter whose services were not in
demand in the household or the neighborhood. For them, reaching
maturity involved emigration.^ But the movement, when once under
way, was not limited merely to farm workers who were superfluous.
Their going engendered a spirit of restlessness, and painters, black-
smiths, carpenters, and shoemakers saw apprentices sHp away as
soon as their terms were over. The dearth of domestic servants in the
cities was so annoying (girls from the Maritimes being in particular
demand in Boston) that the suggestion that Chinese might be intro-
duced was seriously offered.^"
The movement outward was not continuous, nor were the Mari-
times always affected in the same way at the same time as Quebec and
Ontario. The end of the Civil War and the termination of the Reci-
procity Treaty started exoduses which alarmed observers in all sec-
tions, but return movements and lessening of the emigration "fever"
between 1867 and 1870 bred false hopes which seemed to be justified
by a fairly general demand for labor all over the new Dominion in
1872. Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia had, on
July 1, 1867, set up the nucleus of a Federal Dominion of Canada
whose arms bore the motto A mari usque ad mare. This slogan was
promptly converted into reahty by the addition to the federation of
the Northwest Territories of the Hudson's Bay Company, a part of
which became the province of Manitoba in 1870. In 1871 the province
of British Columbia was added, and in 1873 the province of Prince
9. The American Canadian (Boston), March 27, 1865. Yarmouth Tribune,
Aug. 17, 1870. The Nova Scotian, May 25, 1868; April 5, 1869. N.S.: App.
to Jour. H. of A., 1867, No. 7.
10. The American Canadian, Nov. 21, 1874. Montreal Weekly Witness,
March 13, 1868. The Citizen, Sept. 17, 1872. Acadian Recorder, April 24,
1873, gives the occupations of those Nova Scotians entering Boston over a
three months' period; see also April 22, Sept. 18, Dec. 21, 1872.
L
164 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
Edward Island. Great hopes were entertained for the prosperity of
this transcontinental creation. The financial crash of 1873, however,
and the depression which followed it ushered in for Canada as a
whole a profoundly discouraging twenty -three years of f alhng prices
and shattered hopes.^^ Except for brief interludes, during the same
years the United States, thanks to its immense area of continuous
good lands (a Middle West instead of a Laurentian Shield) , weath-
ered the storm magnificently, growing great in the process. The in-
evitable result was that, while immigrants still poured into Canada,
so many Canadians and newcomers poured out into the United States
before the tide turned about 1895 that the new nation seemed des-
tined to be bled white by the process.
The emigration from the Maritimes of young people and of the
parents who followed them was not directed toward any one Ameri-
can community nor did they find employment in any single line of
economic activity. Fishing, lumbering, manufacturing in the East,
agriculture and commerce in the West claimed their services. Wher-
ever Yankees were located, there Canadians from "down East" could
be found as neighbors. Their speech, customs, and appearance were
alike and there was little to discourage constant association and ulti-
mate amalgamation. Only a strong national patriotism could ward
off this end and for the decade following 1865 national patriotism
was at a low ebb in the British provinces along the Atlantic.
In contrast, the folkways which sharply distinguished them from
other North Americans were exactly the characteristics to which the
French Canadians clung. The French language and the Catholic
faith were part of the nationalism which they had preserved for over
a century against the politically predominant Anglo-Canadians and,
although there were those who said that they preferred being Ameri-
canized to being Anglicized, few, if any, had the intention of giving
up what tradition considered sacred. ^^ A well-established routine di-
rected them to New England; the needs of the time, reinforced by
11. Yarmouth Tribune, May 4, Dec. 14, 1869; June 8, 15, Nov. 9, 30,
1870. Acadian Recorder, April 10, Dec. 21, 1872; April 24, Sept. 2, 22, Nov.
18, Dec. 20, 1873.
12. L'Echo du Canada. Organne de la population franco-canadienne des
Etats-Unis (Fall River, Mass.), Sept. 5, 1874.
EXPANSION AND DEPRESSION 165
the eloquence of agents sent to woo them, brought them into the
operating rooms of the mills. In this industrial world there seemed
to exist the possibiUty of almost unlimited expansion. Every family
that had estabhshed itself permanently in one of the industrial com-
munities became the nucleus of a growing colony, as the French
Canadians gradually displaced the English and Irish laborers who
only a short time before had supplanted the native workers in the
more skilled activities of the textile trade.^^
Many preferred the brickyards, where the labor, being seasonal,
made possible an extended annual visit to the home seigniories. Ac-
tive railroad construction in central and southern Maine absorbed a
great number of hands during the summer ; and logging operations
in the Penobscot region provided work in the forest in the winters
and on the river during the spring freshets. Digging canals, laying
foundations, and building factories and homes were tasks incidental
to the rapid expansion of the textile industries and in each of them
the hardy French Canadian performed satisfactory service. When
the job was over, he went home to await the next call for assistance.
The problem of relieving unemployment was not one that worried
the capitalists of the time.^*
Its migratory character was, in fact, the most noticeable feature
of the first wave of postwar French-Canadian migration. Within
New England they shifted from place to place, and in every town
one group replaced another during the first years of their presence.^^
13. Courrier de St. Hyacinthe (St. Hyacinthe, P.Q.)j July 2, 29, Oct. 23,
1869. Alexandre Belisle, Histoire de la presse franco-americaine, 8. Melvin T.
Copeland, The Cotton Manufacturing Industry of the United States (Cam-
bridge, 1912), 118, 120. Henry M. Fanner, History of Fall River, Massa-
chusetts (Fall River, 1911), 30.
14. Adrien Verrette, Paroisse Saint Charles-Borromee, Dover, New
Hampshire (n.p., 1933), 163. Montreal Weekly Witness, Aug. 7, 1868; June
11, 1869. Lewiston Weekly Journal, Feb. 3, 1870, May 22, June 19, 1873.
Courrier de St. Hyacinthe, April 16, May 29, Aug. 7, 1868; Aug. 6, 27, Oct.
23, 1869. E. Hamon, Les Canadiens-Frangais de la Nouvelle Angleterre, 8,
32, 33.
15. H. A. Dubuque, Le Guide canadien-frangais de Fall River et notes
historiques sur les canadiens de Fall River (Fall River, Mass., 1888), 123,
125.
166 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
When these nomadic tendencies had worn off and residence became
more permanent, most of them felt that at least once a year a visit
had to be paid to the family home in the province of Quebec. In
many cases there were obligations that could be met most satisfac-
torily by personal return. Some went to repay the village money-
lender who had financed their coming; others returned with the
funds to lift the mortgage from the acres that the family hoped to
retain as its own; a large proportion had parents whom they sup-
ported.^^ Finally, it was said, nineteen out of twenty expected to
leave the States permanently when their obligations had been re-
moved or a modest fortune acquired, so that there were many
friendly and business contacts which all wanted to maintain because
of this hope.^^
Had employment in the mills been limited to workers of adult age,
this hope probably would have been reahzed in a large percentage
of cases. But in time it ceased to be the hope. If the Canadian emi-
grant brought his family with him, the future had a way of shifting
from Quebec to the state in which he was settled. ^^ The firstcomers
(usually young, single men) had discovered that there was work for
their friends. So they sent for these friends. Then they learned that
neither age nor sex was a fundamental consideration in the mills;
there was work that a child could do and no laws barred even the
youngest of them from the factories. So they sent for the neighbor,
telling him to bring the family with him.^^ This sohcitation was en-
couraged by the employers, who often preferred to hire a family as a
unit. A Worcester, Massachusetts, placement bureau charged a five-
dollar family registration fee and among its advertisements were
listed an opening for a family of five at a lace factory and one speci-
fying a family of two or three girls or two boys at a linen establish-
ment."° Before long all observers commented, often in a facetious
16. L'Echo du Canada, July 4, 1874, L'Abbe T. A. Chandonnet, Notre-
Dame-des-Canadiens et les canadiens aux Etats-Unis (Montreal, 1872), 136,
137.
17. Le Foyer canadien. Journal de famille (Worcester, Mass.), June 17,
1873.
18. L'Echo du Canada, May 16, 1874.
19. Ibid., July 4, 1874.
20. Le Foyer canadien, March 25, 1873.
EXPANSION AND DEPRESSION 167
vein, upon the abundant supply of progeny that the arriving French
Canadian brought with him.^^
Children were the roots that struck deep into the social and eco-
nomic soil of the American community and planted the transient
worker as a permanent immigrant. Instead of boarding in the long,
gloomy brick barracks that the corporation had often built for the
sake of its combined cheapness and large capacity, the employee and
his family pooled their savings to buy a lot and build a cottage. ^^
Doctors and lawyers came across the line to serve in these new and
prosperous colonies and the far-seeing father began to train his
brightest son for one of the professions.^^ French newspapers were
established wherever a few hundred subscribers could be secured, and
the Canadians usually obtained permission from the bishop to build
a church of their own, where priests and language would remind
them of the parish from which they had come."* By 1873 this new
French Canada, although it had no intention of forgetting the old,
was well estabhshed.
No official statistics were kept at the border, and therefore no
immigration records are available to measure either the extent or the
fluctuations of the movement. The United States census of 1870 was
taken before the influx had reached its crest and that of 1880 after
several years of hard times had influenced many of the unemployed
French Canadians to find food and shelter in the paternal home.
Moreover, neither of these enumerations listed separately "British
Americans" of French descent. But in 1873 a special agent, the Rev-
erend P. E. Gendreau, was authorized by the Department of Immi-
gration of the Dominion of Canada to investigate the number and
status of Canadian-born residents of the United States with a view
to their possible repatriation. His information was derived from esti-
21. "A French Canadian and wife from Canada, by this afternoon's train,
brought only nine of their children with them." Lewiston Weekly Journal,
Dec. 5, 1872.
22. Ihid., April 4, July 18, 1867; June 26, 1873.
23. Ihid., June 27, Dec. 19, 1872; Feb. 13, 1873.
24. H. A. Dubuque, Les Canadiens-frangais de Fall River, Mass. (Fall
River, Mass., 1883), 5, 6. The important newspapers are listed in Compte-
Rendu officiel de la XVIIe convention nationale des canadiens-frangais des
Etats-Unis tenue a Nashua, N.H., les 26 et 27 juin, 1888 (Lewiston, Maine,
1890), 79, 80.
168 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
mates made by clergymen and editors, fragmentary figures provided
by transportation companies, and his own observations. His conclu-
sion was that 800,000 persons, Canadian-born of all languages and
blood, were hving in the States. Of these approximately 400,000
were French, who were distributed as follows : 200,000 in New Eng-
land, 150,000 in the "western states," and 50,000 "scattered.'"'
Within New England the course of migration was southward. A city
like Fall River, where only a few were established in 1865, had be-
come the site of flourishing colonies by 1873, and Worcester, sur-
rounded by many manufacturing villages, was recognized as the
"Canadian center" of the country.^®
Items in contemporary newspapers present some information re-
garding the ebb and flow of the movement. A short recession in the
general advance of business enterprise occurred in the spring and
summer of 1867. Many of the plants shut down; others restricted
operation to two or three days a week. This situation lessened the
usual spring flow of workers ; in fact, the movement was reversed, a
noticeable northward trek taking place. But by September orders
were coming in and all the spindles and looms began to turn with
increasing rapidity." This upswing with its accompanying call for
help reached a first peak in the spring of 1869. Every bit of infor-
mation indicates that the exodus attained starthng proportions at
that time. The demand for hands was so insistent that farms along
the St. Lawrence were abandoned, every member of the household
departing with no intention of returning in the fall of the year.^^ A
second peak was evident from the fall of 1872 to the spring of 1873.
Families numbering ten or twelve souls disembarked day after day
upon the New England station platforms and agents representing
the factories canvassed the Quebec countryside in an effort to enlist
workers, young and old, to man the machines that were never idle.
25. Dom. Can.: Sess. Pap., 187 Jf., No, 9: "Report of the Minister of Agri-
culture for the Calendar Year 1873/' 66-69.
26. H. A. Dubuque, Le Guide, 123. Le Foyer canadien, Oct. 21, 1873.
27. Montreal Weekly Witness, March 15, 1867. Lewiston Weekly Journal,
June 13, Sept. 5, 1867.
28. Montreal Weekly Witness, March 10, April 2, 16, June 11, 18, July
16, 1869. Courrier de St. Hyacinthe, March 19, April 2, 9, 23, 30, May 28,
June 4, 1869.
EXPANSION AND DEPRESSION 169
By June, 1873, it was estimated that one-fourth and perhaps one-
third of the lands usually tilled in the province were lying unculti-
vated because of the desertion of farm families and the shortage of
laborers."^
A large number of these newcomers were destined to experience
little but disappointment, for the world depression of the 'seventies
was imminent. For a few months the market absorbed the products
that came from the mills. But in the summer a crash occurred in the
lumber industry, which had overexpanded to meet building needs
that did not materialize. ^° A marked dechne took place in the rail-
road construction which had already outstripped the needs of the
population of the country.^^ In the early autumn some of the lead-
ing banks were forced to close and the textile industries of New
England, many of which were closely allied to the embarrassed
banks, suffered because of this connection and from the natural fall-
ing off in the demand for their goods. Hours and wages were reduced
and finally many of the plants were shut down to remain silent for a
much longer period than even the most pessimistic had feared. ^^
Thus was inaugurated the depression of the 'seventies. The first
notices of unemployment were warning signals which the more pru-
dent readily understood and many traveled back to Quebec knowing
that they could live more cheaply during the idle winter before them
among friends than among strangers. ^^ The stagnation in trade be-
came deeper as month followed month and with the increasing dull-
ness the return migration rose in volume. When the spring of 1874,
to which all had looked forward with hope, brought no improvement
in prospects, a further impetus was given to the flow which effectively
checked the usual spring exodus to the south.^*
The returned emigrants brought information to which the govern-
29. Le Foyer canadien, April 15, May 13, 20, June 10, 17, 1873. Lewiston
Weekly Journal, Oct. 10, 17, 31, 1872; April 3, 17, 1873.
30. Montreal Weekly Witness, July 11, 1873.
31. The Railroad Gazette, VI (New York, 1874), 12, 404.
32. Le Foyer canadien, Oct. 28, Nov. 4, 11, 1873; May 5, 1874. Lewiston
Weekly Journal, Nov. 20, Dec. 18, 1873.
33. Le Foyer canadien, Nov. 11, 18, Dec. 9, 1873. Montreal Weekly Wit-
ness, Sept. 5, 1873.
34. Le Foyer canadien, June 2, 1874.
170 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
ment of the province of Quebec listened attentively. They told of the
many who had wanted to accompany them but had been unable be-
cause of poverty; others had remained because interested parties
were advising them to stay; some hesitated because they had sold
their property in the province and did not know where to go.^^ The
reahzation of these facts revived the colonization plans that had been
promoted in the 'fifties but which had dechned during the 'sixties,
and it presented a new argument to those patriots who had been urg-
ing the authorities to undertake a comprehensive project for encour-
aging self -exiled Canadians to come back to the land of their birth. ^®
Repatriation was now a timely matter, but it was argued that those
who were sought could not be expected to come back and be satisfied
with the lands hitherto set aside for colonization in tracts that were
distant from roads and markets and notorious for the poor quaHty
of their soil. Attention was also directed to the urgency of the oppor-
tunity which the present offered : if ever the expatriates were to be
persuaded it must be before their children, American-born, obtained
the dominating voice in the family councils. ^^
The hope that success would attend such an effort was brightened
by the spirit manifested at a grand celebration staged by French
Canadians at Montreal in June, 1874. It was estimated that about
ten thousand emigrants came up from the United States to partici-
pate in the gathering and demonstrate that their interest and affec-
tion had not cooled.^® At the next session of the legislature three
townships of crown lands not far from the American boundary were
set aside for a repatriation colony to be known as "La Patrie" and
funds were appropriated to advertise the settlement and its advan-
tages among the unemployed and homesick Canadians of New Eng-
land. Ferdinand Gagnon, editor of Le Travailleur of Worcester,
Massachusetts, and one of the most influential persons in French-
Canadian circles in the United States, was appointed to the office of
35. L'Echo du Canada, May 16, 23, 1874. Acadian Recorder, May 26,
1874. Montreal Witness, June 23, 1874.
36. The difficulties attending colonization are described in the Montreal
Weekly Witness, Jan. 31, Feb. 21, 1868.
37. P.Q.: Sess. Pap., 1874-75, No. 4: "General Report of the Commis-
sioner of Agriculture and Public Works," vii, viii, 120.
38. E. Hamon, op. cit., 50, 52. Montreal Witness, June 30, 1874.
EXPANSION AND DEPRESSION 171
American agent. In addresses and by notices in the columns of his
paper the information was spread and in April, 1875, the settlement
of the first pioneers was begun. In October a census of the colony
reported more than a thousand inhabitants, but since the lands were
open to Quebec residents as well as to repatriates, only a half of the
number had come from the States. ^^ The first months were the most
prosperous. Not much of a harvest could be reaped in 1875 and that
of 1876 was a failure. The popularity of the project naturally de-
clined and although the season of 1877 yielded bountifully, the first
enthusiasm had waned and only a few additions were made to the
ranks of the settlers. Moreover, by this time the provincial project
faced the competition of a Dominion project which had behind it
greater resources and the promise of adventure that the West could
always offer. Repatriation to Manitoba rather than to Quebec stirred
the imagination of the hesitating Canadian American. ^°
Although official effort and public attention were centered upon
the special colony, this enterprise was not the only aspect of popula-
tion development to feel a repercussion from the severe check given
by depression to the movement of emigration. Farms that had been
abandoned were repeopled and some new life was instilled into the
inactive colonization societies. Moreover, for many, residence in the
United States had provided an industrial education, and manufac-
turing plants which had started up in the Dominion after the end of
the Reciprocity Treaty and which had from the beginning been
crippled by lack of skilled workmen now constantly received appli-
cations from spinners and weavers anxious to find employment in
Canadian factories where, it was believed, employment would be less
subject to the fluctuations that disturbed the course of business in
the States. Those who appeared at the factories in Montreal and
Hamilton seeking work were not turned away.*^
39. Le Travailleur, Nov. 27, 1874, April 1, 8, 15, 29, May 6, Sept. 9, 30,
1875. P.Q.: Sess. Pap., 1875, No. 4: "General Report of the Commissioner
of Agriculture and Public Works," 14, 15, 262, 364-367; 1876, No. 3, 8, 107,
150-153.
40. Ibid., 1877-78, No. 4: "General Report of the Commissioner of Agri-
culture and Public Works," 8, 114-116; 1878-79, No. 2, 27, 29, 164.
41. Dom. Can.: Sess. Pap., 1875, No. 40: "Report of the Minister of
Agriculture for the Calendar Year, 1874," iv-vi, 39; 1876, No. 8: "Report
172 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
Just as the emigration of the French-speaking Canadian always
aroused more concern than the departure of his EngHsh-speaking
fellow citizen, so his repatriation was heralded with more enthusiasm
than greeted the return of the young man who had left his home in
the Maritimes or in Ontario. Yet the onset of the depression pro-
duced enough of the latter to attract attention. To Hahfax and St.
John came disappointed natives of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick
bringing gloomy reports of the conditions that they had left ;*^ and
Toronto and Hamilton were overrun by wandering laborers who,
failing to find work, sought shelter in the city jails and depended on
charity for their daily support.*^ Others, who were provided with
some savings, moved on to the lands bordering upon Georgian Bay,
where since 1868 free homestead grants of a hundred acres had been
available for anyone who would undertake the laborious task of
forest pioneering.** Canadians were not the only participants in this
movement. Natives of Great Britain who had emigrated to the
United States accompanied them, and the presence also of numbers
of native Americans demonstrated that a longing to return to alle-
giance to the British crown was not the only factor involved.*^
But the return of expatriates to Ontario could not be so extensive
as that of the French Canadians to their province because their emi-
gration had been of a different character. During the years that
booming industry had attracted the inhabitants of the province of
Quebec into New England, the lure of western prairies had proved
as tempting to the ambitious farmers of Ontario as it was to their
American neighbors in Ohio and Indiana. The fundamental impulse
of the Minister of Agriculture for the Calendar Year, 1875/' 35 ; 1879, No. 9:
"Report of the Minister of Agriculture for the Calendar Year, 1878," 64.
Dom. Can.: App. to Jour. H. of C, 1876, No. 3: "Report of the Select Com-
mittee on the Causes of the Present Depression of the Manufacturing, Min-
ing, Commercial, Lumber and Fishing Interests," 129, 130, 137, 139, 146.
P.O.: Sess. Pap., 187 Jf, Vol. 8, Part II, No. 3: "Report of the Immigration
Department for 1874."
42. The American Canadian, Aug. 12, 1874. The Citizen, Dec. 22, 1874.
Acadian Recorder, Sept. 2, 22, Nov. 18, 1873.
43. Montreal Weekly Witness, Nov. 21, Dec. 12, 1873.
44. Dom. Can.: App. to Jour. H. of C, 1877, XI, 46, 50.
45. Dom. Can.: Sess. Pap., 1876, No. 8: "Report of the Minister of Agri-
culture for the Calendar Year, 1875," 36, 41.
EXPANSION AND DEPRESSION 173
was provided by the natural westward surge of population that fol-
lowed the close of the Civil War. Throughout the states of the upper
Mississippi Valley, farm and harvest hands received wages that were
always an attraction to the young men on the more crowded farms
to the eastward ; and fertile government lands open to homesteading
and more accessible lands for sale by the railroads were an induce-
ment to the head of the family who was worried about the future of
his children.*^ Kansas and Nebraska were the western states that
were settled most rapidly during the course of the first years of this
new advance to the westward.*^
The background of the emigration from Ontario was not unlike
that which explains the loss of population suffered by the states of
the Old Northwest. Woodless prairies had an appeal to men who had
struggled all their lives with trees and stumps, and although they
could still secure free lands within their own province, they knew
that the clearing of every acre would cost from twelve to fifteen dol-
lars if not done by their own labor.*^ In the face of western competi-
tion, wheat and barley, which had hitherto been the staple products,
were now being supplanted by cattle and dairy products for which
there was a ready sale in Canada as well as in the States, and the
smaller amount of labor necessary to carry on this agriculture made
it possible for the farmer to remain and make a living after his sons
had left.*'^ In the more recently settled regions about this time many
farm mortgages were revealed to be far out of hne with the income
that could be made, and the discouraged debtor, seeing no prospect
of repaying his creditor, decamped, leaving buildings and fences to
decay and fields to revert to wilderness. ^° The provision in the Ameri-
can revenue laws permitting an immigrant to bring in his household
46. For the high wages being paid to farm hands see The Prairie Farmer
(Chicago), April 25, Aug. 1, 8, 15, 29, 1868; Aug. 16, 1872.
47. Montreal Weekly Witness, June 3, 1870. A. E. Sheldon, Nebraska,
the Land and the People, I (Chicago, 1931), 473.
48. P.O.: Sess. Pap., 1871-72, Vol. IV, Part II, No. 56: "Report of the
Commissioner of Agriculture and Public Works." On the cost of clearing
land see the Montreal Weekly Witness, Feb. 23, 1872.
49. Ibid., Nov. 11, 1870. Fred Landon, "Some Effects of the American
Civil War on Canadian Agriculture," Agricultural History, VII (1933),
163-170.
50. Montreal Weekly Witness, April 1, 1870.
I
174 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
goods and one team of horses free of duty encouraged the movement
of small farmers across the border. ^^
Kansas and Nebraska were not the only destinations. Missouri
and Minnesota and the eastern districts of the Territory of Dakota
received many settlers from Ontario. °^ Population also flowed over
into Michigan where the building of roads in the more northern sec-
tion of the state opened new counties that could be reached from the
border in a few days of travel by wagon.^^ Settlement, however,
meant more than the taking up of lands. Railroads and commerce
accompanied, indeed often preceded, the advance of population. Vil-
lage mechanics went along with their rural friends and the oppor-
tunities offered by the expanding railway network on the prairies
attracted many engineers, clerks, trainmen, and telegraphers who
had received their training on the Great Western and Grand Trunk
lines in Canada.^* In Chicago a colony of fifteen thousand Canadians
was employed in the trades, machine shops, and commercial estab-
lishments, especially those related to the grain interests which had
close connections with the shippers of Montreal.^^
The only explanation that comforted patriotic Canadians who
were concerned over the loss of man power that resulted from this
exodus was the statement that the westward trend was inevitable and
the Dominion had no West. But this did not satisfy all. Those who
knew more about geography and resources maintained that there
was a West that was deficient only in accessibility and they argued
that if communications were open between Lake Superior and the
Red River, a new empire of prairies and mountains would be avail-
able to the enterprising and adventurous, a field of achievement that
could mean as much to Canadians as the trans-Mississippi empire
did to the Americans. ^^ This thesis had been one of the powerful
underlying elements in the federation of the British North American
colonies which made its start in 1867, and it endowed the new Do-
51. A.R.F.C., 1867, 160. Montreal Weekly Witness, Feb. 23, 1872.
52. A.R.F.C., 1867, 141.
53. Joint Documents of the State of Michigan for the Year 1870, I (Lan-
sing, 1870), No. 2: "Biennial Message of the Governor, Jan. 4, 1871," 3, 4.
54. Montreal Weekly Witness, March 8, 1867.
65. Ibid., Jan. 3, 1873. 56. Ibid., Dec. 13, 1867.
ki!^-
EXPANSION AND DEPRESSION 175
minion with a sense of mission which helped to carry it through the
difficult early years.
The barrier of low, rocky terrain, muskeg swamps, lakes, and tor-
tuous rivers that nature had placed between Georgian Bay and the
Manitoba Basin was not the only hindrance that blocked approach
to this empire. It was still the domain of fur trader, Indian, and
half-breed and the Hudson's Bay Company still enjoyed most of the
rights of government that its seventeenth-century charter had con-
ferred. But the twelve thousand inhabitants were restless under its
rule and apprehensive about the impact upon them of the expanding
Eastern regions, and the six years between 1865 and 1871 were
troubled times, marked by revolt and by fihbustering expeditions
that had their origin in the frontier outposts below the forty-ninth
parallel. ^^ Unless some satisfactory political arrangement could be
made that would ensure to the inhabitants all the benefits of union
with the confederation, the rising desire for annexation to the United
States might easily develop into a more formidable revolt that would
heighten the tension already existing between Great Britain and the
United States and make more hkely the war that some men hoped
for and some men dreaded.^*
The emergency was met in 1868 when the company sold most of
their rights to the British government for transfer to Canada, and
the situation was further cleared when, in 1870, delegates from the
province of British Columbia agreed to enter the Dominion upon
the promise of a transcontinental railroad that would bind it to the
other parts of the new state. The way was now open for the planting
of that mid-continental settlement which, it had always been under-
stood, was a necessity if the East and the West were to be linked in
population as well as government. ^^ Liberal land inducements were
offered — a 160-acre homestead grant for ten dollars, and preemp-
tion rights to another quarter section at the end of three years of
57. Alexander Begg, History of the Northwest, I (Toronto^ 1894), 373-
460. G. F. G. Stanley, The Birth of Western Canada (New York, 1936).
58. Senate Executive Documents, 41st Congress, 2d Session, Doc. No. 33:
"Affairs in the Red River."
59. F. W. Howay, British Columbia from the Earliest Times to the Pres-
ent, II, 277-298.
176 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
residence on the payment of a dollar an acre.®" Settlement under the
new regime began in 1871 and the Americans who were already
swarming into the Red River Valley on their side of the line and
rapidly occupying the narrow wooded strip that bordered the stream
were ready to take possession of the corresponding opportunities
within the new province of Manitoba.®^
Canadians were in no mood to allow the peopling of the province
to fall into the hands of Americans and in 1871 the sons of the Do-
minion started to move into their own West by an "all-Canadian"
route. This line of approach, which followed in general the century-
old canoe trail of the voyageurs from Lake Superior to Lake Winni-
peg, had been constructed in 1870 by an engineer in the Department
of Pubhc Works, S. J. Dawson, to facilitate the advance of the mili-
tary expedition that was dispatched to quell the uprising in Mani-
toba of the half-breed Louis Riel. Waterways had been cleared of
obstructions and small steamers had been placed on the lakes and
rivers ; corduroy roads had been built at all the portages and at con-
venient stations buildings for the accommodation of travelers had
been provided. Three hundred and ten miles of navigable water and
twelve portages constituted the "Dawson Route" between Port
Arthur and Winnipeg.®^
Although to follow the all-Canadian Dawson route was a patriotic
venture, it was neither so convenient nor so comfortable for the emi-
grant from the eastern provinces who was bound f c - the Red River
as an American route which became available the same year. The
Northern Pacific Railroad pushing westward from Duluth reached
the Red River at Moorhead, where connection was made with the
small steamers that brought Winnipeg within two days' journey.®^
60. "Recent Progress in Manitoba/' Chamber's Journal, Series 4, Vol. 17
(London, 1880), 65-67. A. S. Morton and C. Martin, History of Prairie
Settlement and "Dominion Lands" Policy.
61. History of the Red River Valley, I, 73, 76, 80; II, 581. A. H. Moehl-
man, "The Red River of the North," Geographical Review, XXV, 79-91.
62. The Weekly Manitoban (Winnipeg), Feb. 12, 1872. Manitoba Gazette
(Winnipeg), May 13, 1874. Montreal Witness, May 23, July 2, 1874. Dom.
Can.: Sess. Pap., 1875, No. 7, "General Report of the Minister of Public
Works," 181-185.
63. W. W. Folwell, History of Minnesota, III (St. Paul, 1921), 61. Har-
EXPANSION AND DEPRESSION 177
The advantages of this route were so obvious that it at once became
the estabhshed course, and the only remaining inconvenience was re-
moved in 1872 when the Secretary of the Treasury decreed that
Canadians in transit might pass with team and household effects
through American territory without payment of duty upon giving
bond to be forfeited in case the through journey were not actually
completed.^* So great was the tide of humanity that flowed into the
valley on both sides of the line that by 1873 plans were ready for a
northward branch of the railroad that would connect with a Cana-
dian project that was to be built southward from Winnipeg.®^
Not for six years did this plan become a reality. The panic of
1873, so clearly the product of overexpansion of railroads, put an
end to their construction and for the time being halted the westward
movement. The panic year was followed by the grasshopper scourge
of 1874 and reports from both the Canadian and American Wests
told of a retreating frontier, destitution, and public relief instead of
alluring stories of fertile fields and golden opportunities.®^ Immigra-
tion, which was the Hfeblood of the new communities, came to an end
and the dullness that fell upon manufacturing enterprise in the East
was equaled by the stagnation that halted the business of railroads
and turned many prospective cities of the West into towns dead and
deserted.
Thereafter western settlement, if it were to flourish, had to be sub-
sidized, and the interest that the government of the Dominion took
in the vital task of establishing a loyal colony on the Red River
initiated a scheme of repatriation broader than that sponsored by
the province of Quebec. To begin with, many of the old white and
half-breed settlers were French-speaking parishioners of a vigorous
Roman Catholic diocese. Now two agents were appointed to travel
through the Canadian- American settlements, one in the West, the
other in New England. The latter was authorized to offer attractive
old E. Briggs, "Pioneer River Transportation in Dakota/' North Dakota
Historical Quarterly, III (Bismarck, N.D., 1929), 159-181.
64. Montreal Weekly Witness, Feb. 23, 1872.
65. A.R.F.C., 1871, 650.
66. Centennial Edition of the Fourth Annual Report of the State Board of
Agriculture to the Legislature of the State of Kansas for the Year Ending
Nov. SO, 1875, 24.
178 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
terms : an advance of a large part of the railroad fare, travel in con-
ducted parties, and assistance in the acquisition of farms.®^ With the
encouragement of repatriation societies and of the publicity given
by the paper Le Travailleur, beginning in 1875 and continuing
until the end of the decade, every year saw the introduction of sev-
eral hundred French Canadians from the manufacturing cities of
New England and the addition of an uncounted number of repatri-
ates from the more scattered settlements in the central and western
states.^^
About 1876 the tide of migration had again started toward the
West. The painful process of bankruptcy proceedings had restored
financial health to the railroads and they were ready to undertake
reasonable and needed additions to their lines. Cheaper transporta-
tion lowered the cost at which American grain could be delivered in
the European ports and a widened market was opened to farm ex-
ports. To take up lands was once more a promising venture and year
by year the number of homesteaders and pioneers who set out for
the prairies increased. Perhaps most important of all, stubborn pio-
neers were tediously acquiring the new and often strange techniques
of seed, cultivation, and harvest which the high, dry midlands re-
quired, and millers were both working out the special machinery
necessary to handle the hard grain and persuading consumers to
receive a new and wonderful kind of flour. The valley of the Red
River then gradually won its way into favor and for a second time
Canadians and Americans mingled on the way to their destination
and exchanged nationahty with a surprising unconcern. ^^
For some time a steady drift of population had been carrying the
half-breeds and pioneers of Manitoba out to the valley of the Sas-
katchewan, and the farms along the Red River which they were
67. Dom. Can.: Jour. H. of C, 1875, App. No. 4: "First Report of the
Select Committee on Immigration and Colonization/' 6. Dom. Can,: Sess.
Pap., 1880, No. 10: "Report of the Minister of Agriculture for the Calendar
Year, 1879," 76, 77.
68. Ihid., 1876, No. 8: "Report of the Minister of Agriculture for the Cal-
endar Year, 1875," 179-180; 1878, No. 9: "Report of the Minister of Agri-
culture for the Calendar Year, 1877," 61-63, 75-76. Le Travailleur, April 4,
May 9, 1878; May 22, 1879.
69. History of the Red River Valley, I, 90; II, 581, 824.
- 'rac3Bai!OK:ra««r.r ■ -imxpfMniissi^i
.^.A
EXPANSION AND DEPRESSION 179
willing to sell were attractive locations for incoming settlers who
were comfortably provided with funds/" This helped to make Mani-
toba become a particular destination for emigrating farmers from
Ontario, and the railroad from Duluth to the Red River was well
patronized by migrants from one part of the Dominion to another.
To facilitate this movement, the Canadian Department of Immigra-
tion stationed a representative at Duluth to act as official bondsman,
to assist the travelers in the transfer of their belongings from steam-
boat to railroad, and undoubtedly to protect them from the Ameri-
can "so much per head" agents who were reported to lie in wait for
the incoming prosperous Canadian and persuade him to buy Minne-
sota or Dakota lands/^ By 1877 the journey to Winnipeg had be-
come easier, although the all-rail route was not completed. A branch
north from the main line to the West led up to Crookston, Minnesota,
and there a stub line a few miles in length connected with Fisher's
Landing on the Red Lake River, not far from the point where it
flowed into the Red River. This was the new terminus of the Winni-
peg steamboats and here an immigrant-receiving house provided ac-
commodations for four or five hundred passengers while they awaited
the departure of the river boats. ^^
The agents of whose activities the sponsors of Manitoba coloniza-
tion stood in fear were successful in persuading some of the Cana-
dians to interrupt their journey to look at the lands that they had to
offer. What they saw and the cordiahty which they met on every
hand were factors that often brought the trip to an end within the
United States. Approximately 5 per cent of those who entered at
Duluth bound for Manitoba failed to appear at the border and they
were listed as "lost" in transit. '^^ Their number, however, was small
70. Dom. Can.: Jour. H. of C, 1876, App. No. 8: "Report of the Select
Committee on Immigration and Colonization," 29.
71. The Weekly Manitohan, Feb. 12, 1872. Montreal Witness, March 12,
1879. Dom. Can.: Sess. Pap., 1879, No. 9: "Report of the Minister of Agri-
culture for the Calendar Year, 1878," xxxii; 1880, No. 10: "Report of the
Minister of Agriculture for the Calendar Year, 1879," 53.
72. Ibid., 1878, No. 9: "Report of the Minister of Agriculture for the Cal-
endar Year, 1877," 52.
73. Dom. Can.: Jour. H. of C, 1879, App. No. 1: "Report of the Select
Standing Committee on Emigration and Colonization," 20, 67, 84.
180 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
in comparison with those who deliberately chose Dakota and Minne-
sota before leaving home, and in the American part of the valley
many compact colonies from the provinces in the East bore testi-
mony that a favorable farm site predominated over patriotism when
it came to choosing the spot where family fortunes should be re-
established/*
While expansion and depression were determining the population
relations between provinces and states in the East and central West,
the Pacific coast was as usual responding to circumstances peculiar
to itself. Shortly after 1865 all excitement died out of the gold fields
of British Columbia. The more restless, disappointed, or venture-
some moved away to prospect in the mountains of Montana and later
in the unknown valleys of the new territory of Alaska.^^ During the
decade of the 'seventies the population of miners remained almost
stationary and few farmers came in to provide for their needs. ^®
The grain of Washington and Oregon was imported too easily to
encourage local agricultural settlement and all business felt the dull-
ness of the time. Many of the men connected with commercial enter-
prises went back to Cahfornia, which had entered upon its second
period of development, the era of exploitation of agricultural re-
sources and the opening of lumbering activities. The Puget Sound
region also, in spite of rather violent fluctuations in its needs for
labor in the forests, drew off a goodly number of persons from quies-
cent British Columbia.^^
The new surge of prosperity that in the summer of 1879 restored
confidence to all phases of economic life in both the United States
and Canada was foreshadowed and then spectacularly accompanied
by North Americans on the march. The tragedy for Canada was
that continental forces shepherded so many Canadians into the
United States. Again the smaller, but ambitious, farmer of Ontario
74. History of the Red River Valley, II, 863.
75. A.R.F.C., 1879, 308.
76. The number of miners in the province during each year between 1858
and 1879 is tabulated in B.C.: Sess. Pap., 1880, 233.
77. Bom. Can.: Jour. H. of C, 1876, App. No. 7: "Report of the Select
Committee Appointed to Consider the Agricultural Interests of the Domin-
ion," 2. Puget Sound Weekly Courier (Olympia, W.T.)^ March 13, July 31,
1876; June 16, 1876; Aug. 16, 1878; Feb. 20, 1880.
EXPANSION AND DEPRESSION 181
set out with his sons in search of new lands and promising opportuni-
ties in Michigan and the West." In the Maritime Provinces, as in
New England, lumbering and shipbuilding remained stagnant and
artisans as well as farmers joined in an exodus that aroused exten-
sive comment in the contemporary press and pubHc documents. Pa-
triots tried to explain the movement as the departure of former
exiles who had been at home awaiting the first encouraging sign, but
the events of the next decade were to prove that the permanent emi-
gration which they most feared was again under way.'^^
By the spring of 1879 only one development was necessary to re-
store to population movements the lively activity that they had ex-
hibited a decade before. That change came in the summer of the year
when, as a startling surprise — so sudden was the improvement —
orders began to pour into all the factory offices. Again a call was
sent up to the villages and seigniories of Quebec and this time it was
a truly cordial invitation. For the events of recent years had re-
moved the last prejudices that manufacturers had felt against the
French-Canadian worker. When English and Irish laborers engaged
in a strike, the French Canadian remained at his work if he possibly
could, and he had no hesitation about taking the place of the dis-
satisfied employee who walked out on his job.*" He, and his children
even more, had become Americanized to a considerable degree. They
had grown accustomed to, almost dependent on, ways of hving and
articles of consumption which they could not find at home in Quebec,
and return to the old province was no longer the dominating motive
in their hves. Their dependability had endeared them to local mer-
chants as well as to employers of labor. Now, when workers were once
more in demand, in so far as French Canadians could provide the
desired numbers the jobs in the mills and factories of New England
were theirs.*^
78. A.R.F.C., 1879, 298, 315, 327, 328, 380, 395.
79. Acadian Recorder, Oct. 12, 1878; June 12, Oct, 9, 1879. Yarmouth
Tribune, June 4, Oct. 22, 1879. Dom. Can.: Sess. Pap., 1880, No. 10: "Re-
port of the Minister of Agriculture for the Calendar Year, 1879," 118.
80. La Repuhlique : Journal hebdomadaire (Fall River, Mass.), April 15,
1876. A.R.F.C., 1879, 298. State of Massachusetts, Report of the Bureau of
Statistics of Labor, XI (Boston, 1880), 59; XIII (1882), 64.
81. Ibid., 81, 89, 90.
CHAPTER IX
FROM THE PROVINCES TO THE
PRAIRIE STATES
1880-1896
The statement made earlier,^ that the twenty-three years after the
panic of 1873 were profoundly depressing for Canada because of
the immense outflow of population to the United States, might ap-
propriately be amplified here before turning again to the actual
annals of the migrations.^ It can be said in general that during the
'sixties and 'seventies, while many native Canadians did leave their
country, the exodus was predominantly one of immigrants to Can-
ada. During the decade of 1851—1861 the immigrant population
had increased by about 200,000 persons,^ but during the next decade
it actually decreased by over 91,000, although 179,000 more new-
comers had announced their intention of remaining, and from 1871
to 1881 it increased by only 11,409 in the face of 342,000 similar
declarations. During these last two decades, on the other hand, the
main tendency of native Canadian migrants was to move outward to
fill up the more thinly occupied areas in Canada. This was accom-
panied by a relatively minor, if increasing, wilhngness to leave Can-
ada for the United States.
This minor tendency expanded to major proportions between
1. See above, p. 164.
2. The information for this and the succeeding paragraph is drawn from
Seventh Census of Canada, 1931, I (Ottawa, 1936), Part II, chapter i (1),
"The growth of population in Canada/' 99-132, and tables, 348-372. This
summary volume repeats, much more elaborately, the procedure of the first
volume of the first Dominion census (1871), by providing historical treat-
ment. This, combined with close periodical statistical analysis of population
change, makes it an invaluable aid to understanding the pattern of the growth
and distribution of the Canadian peoples in North America as a whole.
8. A number practically equivalent to the declared intending settlers of the
decade. From 1851 to 1901 about half the immigrants to Canada were de-
clared intending settlers and half declared in transit to the United States.
About one out of three intending settlers actually stayed in Canada; ibid.,
121.
FROM PROVINCES TO PRAIRIE STATES 183
1881 and 1901. The rate of increase in native population abruptly
fell well below the rate of natural increase, being only 12.6 per cent
for 1881—1891, and 11.5 per cent for 1891-1901. Canada was very
clearly losing native Canadians on a large scale. Including natives
and established and recent immigrants, Canadian emigration to the
United States from 1881 to 1891 exceeded one million persons. By
1896 the rate of total population increase had about reached the
vanishing point, and had it not been for the great increase in the
westward and northward migrations in Canada after 1901 "the
population would have been all but stationary in another twenty
years."*
By comparing Canadian and American population changes from
1851 to 1891, and by inquiring into the waxing and waning of
Canadian counties in east and west,^ it is possible to indicate in gen-
eral what had been happening within Canada. As early as 1851 there
could be detected in eastern Canada clear signs that some counties
had become "overpopulated" ; that is, had reached their maximum
density in terms of the unwilhngness of some inhabitants to accept
a lower standard of living. A few of these counties actually began to
decline in population, while many others failed to hold their natural
increase. This trend had relatively httle to do with the rise of cities
and it deepened with the years. The inevitable outcome was an ex-
pansion into contiguous more thinly inhabited areas, within Canada
if possible, but in the United States if not. Quebec felt the pressure
first, in the decade of 1851—1861, and her "surplus" moved outward,
as we have seen, within and without Canada to all points of the com-
pass. Ontario was next, 1861—1871, and when her marginal lands to
the north had taken what they could, most of her "surplus" went
south or west into the United States, although the Canadian West
beyond the Lakes and the Laurentian Shield was beginning to attract
some. By the time, 1881—1891, that signs of "surplus" population
were emphatically confirmed in the Maritimes, although the United
States was still the principal destination, the transcontinental Cana-
dian Pacific Railway was luring increasing numbers of eastern Cana-
dians from all three regions into their new West. It is clearly neces-
sary to think of these years (1861—1896) as a period when substan-
4. Ibid., 104. 5. Ibid., 352-354.
184 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
tial parts of the Canadian population, native and immigrant, formed
"an aggregate of persons temporarily established at points of dis-
tribution,"^ whence they were constantly moving in order to main-
tain or to improve their accustomed standards of living, often with
necessarily little regard for political allegiance. In spite of the
greater accessibility and often superior inducements of life in the
Republic, more than half of the Canadian migrants of the period
managed to find new homes in the Dominion. Meanwhile, however,
the Canadian-born population of the United States grew as follows -J
1851 147,711 1881 717,157
1861 249,970 1891 980,938
1871 493,464 1901 1,179,922
The generalizations above, while they are statistically sound and
while they accurately reflect a thoroughly disquieting period in
Canadian history, are also so sweeping and impersonal as to carry us
rather far from the immediate motives to which the North American
migrants felt they were responding and also from what contempo-
rary observers thought about these movements. The drama becomes
more intimate and realistic if we turn from ingenious statistical re-
constructions to describe again how the people were acting from
year to year and from region to region.
The activity that became so evident during the summer of 1879
in all the industrial communities in the United States was not the
only evidence that depressing business conditions had come to an
end. Optimism had also returned to the prairie states and territories.
For two or three years past, the number of settlers taking up land
had increased from season to season. Now the movement to the West
swelled to unprecedented proportions and along with the farmers
came mechanics and tradesmen and professional speculators who
plotted towns and mapped railroads and promised a fortune to all
who could provide some of the funds with which to inaugurate any
one of the enterprises that their fertile minds had invented. A new
western "boom" was under way.
Every section of the United States west of the Mississippi and
many of the less developed regions to the eastward felt the impulses
6. Ihid., 99. 7. Ihid., 131.
FROM PROVINCES TO PRAIRIE STATES 185
awakened by the belief that a new era was at hand. The foreign de-
mand for American wheat was so insistent that to say that the prai-
ries would feed the world was only to repeat a truism. At first the
rush seemed to be nothing but a stampede to occupy every acre on
which grain would grow. From the states that had been settled a
generation before, young men went out to repeat the pioneering ex-
periences of their fathers ; and families in which children were plenti-
ful made a profitable exchange when they sold their farms and
bought extensive stretches of railroad lands or homesteaded along
the Missouri and beyond.
Ontario was one of those older settled areas and the exodus that
took place from the townships north of Lake Erie was not unlike
that which was evident to the south. To leave Ontario usually meant
to leave Canada and although everyone deplored the expatriation, a
few penetrating observers viewed the situation with equanimity. It
was all part of the continental westward march ; and that the son of
an Ontario or Quebec farmer should set out from his paternal home
was no more of a reflection upon the society and politics of the Do-
minion than that the departure of the young people of the eastern
United States was an indication that something was wrong with the
Republic. Someday the westward tide would sweep across the Cana-
dian prairies. The less the movement was interfered with the better it
would be for all concerned. Like all its predecessors it would come to
an end with time.*
Nevertheless, more immediate explanations were offered and the
scores of American land agents that swarmed over the province were
cited as an obvious cause of the emigration.'' Undoubtedly they did
induce some to go. Many of the potential emigrants were already
favorably inclined to a change, but needed direct personal persua-
sion. Yet in most cases agents were effective only in turning a move-
ment already under way in a particular direction. All the American
land-grant railroads had representatives in Canada who not only
could argue the advantages of settlement near a line of communica-
tion, but could also offer special inducements in the matter of rates
8. The Globe, July 17, Nov. 23, Dec. 4, 1880.
9. Southern Manitoba Times (West Lynne, Man.), March 19, 1881. U.S.
Consular Reports, 1882-83, 30.
186 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
on household goods and equipment to those who bought their lands.
The Canadian railroads, realizing that a part of the traffic would
fall to them, cooperated in the distribution of pamphlets, handbiUs,
and newspapers/" It was charged that in some cases ticket agents
received a higher commission percentage on passages sold to one of
the western states than on passages to Manitoba.^^ American con-
sular officers in Canada were the special target of patriotic criticism.
Official duties consumed only a part of their time and many of them
served as agents for land and railroad companies, their position giv-
ing weight to the arguments they presented.^^ So strong was the re-
sentment against all these inciters to emigration that an attempt
was made in the Canadian ParKament to secure legislation that
would curb their activities.^*
But the real incitement to emigration was not found in advertise-
ment and propaganda. It lay deeper, in the fundamental changes
then affecting the agriculture of the province. The farms in the old
settled parts were small. Usually the future of only one child could
be provided for. The other children had traditionally moved away,
striking off into the backlands of the community or into the new
townships that were opened up to the west and north.^* But now the
limit of desirable agricultural settlement within Ontario seemed to
have been reached and the present phase of the migration was dif-
ferent only in that the young people were obhged to go farther from
home, crossing the international boundary on the way. There was
nothing revolutionary about this ; but there was a new and disturb-
ing note in the growing tendency toward consolidation of farms, a
process that inevitably squeezed out the more mobile, the more ad-
venturous, or the less fortunate family in the vicinity.^^
Consolidation was, in fact, the reflection of the growing prosper-
ity enjoyed by some of the more successful farmers who wanted to
10. Dom. Can.: Jour. H. of C. Sess. 1880-81, App. No. 1, 23, 32, 39, 111.
Dom. Can.: App. to Jour. H. of C. Sess. 1892, No. 2, 158. Dom. Can.: Sess.
Pap., 1891, No. 6, 158 ; 1892, No. 7, 185.
11. Dom. Can.: Jour. H. of C. Sess. 1880-81, App. No. 1, 42.
12. Ihid. 1887, App. No. 4, 33.
13. Dom. Can.: Debates H. of C. Sess. 1881, X, 1303.
14. Dom. Can.: Jour. H. of C. Sess. 1889, App. No. 4, 62, 81.
15. Ibid. 1880-81, App. No. 1, 68.
FROM PROVINCES TO PRAIRIE STATES 187
add to their acres and thereby advance into the ranks of the country
gentlemen.^® It was also closely related to changing market conditions
which made the fattening of livestock or skillful dairying more re-
munerative than the mixed farming that had hitherto prevailed. Im-
ported western wheat forced down the price of grain and the farmers
of Ontario, many of whom were renters or mortgagors, and all of
whom were paying high taxes and high wages for harvest help,
learned that it was unwise to continue the competition. On the other
hand, stock raising paid well and the demand that came from the
growing metropolitan centers of eastern Canada and the United
States for cheese and butter encouraged a shift in land use. Conse-
quently, some farmers were willing to buy land and others were will-
ing to sell.^^ As in every period of transition, discontent and discour-
agement were present among the less successful, and the sovereign
device of trying one's luck elsewhere swelled the number of sellers.^*
During the decade of the 'eighties the emigration expanded. Cana-
dian officials and American officials differed as to its numerical totals.^^
To secure any exact enumeration was, in fact, impossible. Many
farmers crossed the border on exploring expeditions and then re-
turned to guide their families to the new home.^° Others crossed only
once, having disposed of furniture and equipment before departure ;
they were considered ordinary travelers, or designated "gripsack
emigrants" by those who recognized their nature.^^ The American
consuls who issued the certificates that allowed bona fide settlers to
16. Ibid., 26, 34.
17. Emerson International (Man.), April 6, 1882. Montreal Weekly Wit-
ness, June 30, 1880; July 19, 1882; July 21, 1886. P.O.: Sess. Pap., 1882,
XIV, No. 6, 34, 35 ; 188^, XVI, No. 83, vi. Bom. Can.: Sess. Pap., 1880-81,
No. 12, 19; 1887, No. 12, 25; 1888, No. 4, 42. Commercial Relations of the
United States with Foreign Countries, 1886—87, 524 (hereafter C.R.U.S.
F.C.).
18. Canadian American (Chicago), June 11, 1885. C.R.U.S. F.C., 1885 and
1886, 1, 848.
19. Regarding the great difference of opinion as to the number of Ca-
nadians emigrating by the Sarnia— Port Huron route, see Dom. Can.: Sess.
Pap., 1885, No. 8, Annex: "Report on the Alleged Exodus on the Western
Frontier."
20. C.R.U.S.F.C., 1884. and 1885, I, 610.
21. Ibid., 1885 and 1886, I, 851. Western British American (Chicago),
March 3, 1888.
188 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
bring in household effects and some hvestock free of duty ventured
no estimates of the total, but merely reported that the movement was
large and that, judging by those whom they saw, the typical emi-
grant was a farmer of the "better class," well provided with children
and with sufficient means to buy cheaper and more fertile lands in a
newer part of the continent. ^^
The trend, however, was unmistakable. The United States census
of 1890 reveals the presence of Canadian-born residents in all of the
states that had been growing from the influx of settlers. Michigan,
in particular, had drawn many from Ontario. The wooded landscape
that was so similar in soil and terrain to that which they had known
in their province, cheap rates and accessibility, and the opportunity
of working in the lumber camps and buying cut-over lands at from
twenty-five cents to two dollars an acre were all factors that had
led to their presence. The counties that bordered Lake Huron had
been increasing in population very rapidly'^ and the growth of the
Canadian stock, although the increase in number of Canadian-born
did not quite equal the recorded rate of local growth, clearly kept
pace with it if it is remembered that any children added to the Cana-
dian family were listed in the column of American natives.
Throughout the states that lay beyond the Great Lakes, infiltra-
tion had also been taking place. There were no great colonies of
Canadians, no large groups that dominated a county or a number
of counties in the way in which German and Scandinavian immi-
grants in the same period took over parts of the Mississippi Valley
and created a New Sweden or a New Germany. An analysis of the
census figures reveals a very even distribution of Canadians in the
agricultural areas. There was some variation in the percentage of
Canadian-born from county to county, but in most cases the shading
off was gradual, the exceptions being found in areas where com-
munities of French Canadians had been established. As in all migra-
22. C.R.U.S.F.C., 1882 and 1883, U, 154; 1886 and 1886, I, 848: 1887
and 1888, 22. U.S. Consular Reports: House Misc. Doc. No. 232, 51st Con-
gress, 1st Session, Oct., 1889, 235; House Misc. Doc. No. 18, 52d Congress,
1st Session, July, 1891, 434.
23. Dom. Can.: Jour. H. of C. Sess. 1880-81, App. No. 1, 68, 77; Dom.
Can.: Sess. Pap., 1880-81, No. 12, xli; 1892, No. 7, 187; 1893, No. 13, Part
VI, 101. C.R.U.S.F.C., 1884 and 1885, I, 615.
to
Z
o
CO
LU
CO
LU
I-
i<
CO
<
Z
<
u
Z liJ <
^ E S
O H I-
4 Z g
00
I
I-
o
c
o
a
o
O
T5
CD
C
O
i
I
190 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
tion movements, family and neighborhood ties caused an occasional
concentration of the Canadian stock. But it was no more usual than
in the case of Pennsylvanians and New Yorkers ; and all the circum-
stances of origin and destination confirm the judgment that the in-
flux from across the border was only one phase of the prevailing
continental westward flow.
One exception demands consideration, not only because it was an
exception but because it illustrates significantly how closely related
the settlement of adjacent areas located on opposite sides of the hne
happened to be. In 1890 the northern and eastern districts of North
Dakota and the northwestern districts of Minnesota reported the
presence of thousands of Canadians, in totals that amounted to a
distinct concentration and a very high percentage in the general
population.^*
During the preceding decade much had been said and written
about the "Dakota boom" and the "Manitoba boom." But both were,
in fact, only part of a more comprehensive development: the "Red
River Valley boom." In addition, both represented the violent ups
and downs of a great adventure in North American agriculture.
Easterners swarmed into the Red River Valley expecting to farm as
they had farmed at home, only to learn by years of painful experi-
ence that they had many new problems to solve. They needed heavier
plows ; they had to learn something about dry farming ; and they had
to experiment in the field with Canadian, American, and foreign
wheats to find varieties that would ripen quickly or else end up their
hard year's work with musty, frostbitten, partially ripened grain.
Every prospect of treeless land, deep black soil, and gently rolling
prairie had been incredibly inviting, but the destruction which the
excessively cold winters of the mid-continent wrought upon fall-
sown grain, the dehcate balance between excessively hot summers and
early-encroaching frosts, and the hazards of rust and smut and
grasshoppers broke the spirits of thousands before hard spring
24. Montreal Weekly Witness, May 25, 1881. Canadian American, Feb. 16,
March 3, 30, April 13, June 8, 1883. In 1890 the percentages of Canadian-
born in the total population of the four northeasternmost counties of North
Dakota were: Pembina, 38.2; Cavalier, 37.8; Walsh, 20.3; Grand, 14.5. In
the adjoining counties on the Minnesota side of the Red River the percent-
ages were: Kittson, 13.6; Marshall, 5.8; Polk, 11.6.
FROM PROVINCES TO PRAIRIE STATES 191
wheat began the triumphant march which was to carry it to its most
perfect development more than a generation later far to the north in
the Peace River Valley.
In 1879 a railroad connected Winnipeg with the main hne of the
Northern Pacific and travelers and trade were no longer dependent
upon the primitive Red River carts or the uncertain steamboat traffic
upon the river.^^ After a series of false starts during the 'seventies,
the Dominion government in 1880 put the full weight of its mate-
rial and other encouragement behind an adventurous group of Cana-
dian, Canadian- American, and American railway builders and finan-
ciers who formed the Canadian Pacific Railway Company. In spite
of the embittered gibes and open hostihty of J. J. Hill, the Canadian
head of the rival Northern Pacific, W. C. Van Home, the American
construction boss of the Canadian hne, had managed by 1885 to
drive it not only across the forbidding Laurentian Shield from the
Ottawa Valley to Winnipeg but also through the Rocky Mountain
ranges to the shores of the Pacific. Roseate expectations of the pos-
sibilities that would fall to the lot of those pioneers who were estab-
lished when the last railroad links were connected turned the atten-
tion of many land seekers to the Red River Valley and the railroad
and land companies were not slow in strengthening the interest and
facilitating the process of settlement.
To these inducements had been added the motive of patriotism.
There were many Canadians in the old provinces and in the States
about 1880 who were willing to move and to whom pohtical alle-
giance had considerable importance. Now that the Dominion had a
West of its own which in a few years would be as accessible as any
part of the Mississippi Valley, the attraction of Manitoba was
doubled.^^ The Immigration and Land departments of the Dominion
and of the new province strengthened the sentiment by means of
their advertisements and through the activities of their representa-
tives."^ The influx started in 1879, increased in the succeeding years,
and culminated in 1882 when the rush was characterized by a fever-
ish excitement that indicated that not only homeseekers but specu-
25. Robert England, The Colonization of Western Canada (London,
1936), 65.
26. Emerson International, Jan, 9, 1879.
27. Bom. Can.: Jour. H. of C. Sess. 1880-81, App. No. 1, 61.
>.j^aji»2rt««>oc«»-^**;»«*«i=*-'>o>"«« V. ■ . •.•.S3ic«it«ci'^«t«»>frWs»a«i*i.''.". -»"■<••■•*'.■* ■! V""*" »niiii«ui«'*»
192 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
lators were on hand. Trains were crowded, hotels were full, and
everywhere villages and towns were rising on the prairie. Winnipeg
prospered the most and there the crash came first.^® Ignorance of
prairie agriculture and inflated anticipation of a still distant future
reaped their toll. In 1883 the labor market was flooded with unem-
ployed workers and paper fortunes were lost by the score. But the
taking up of land in the adjacent agricultural regions did not cease
and although its volume decreased, settlement did not come to an
end.^^
The "Manitoba boom" added an impetus to that already under
way in the adjoining Territory of Dakota. Both directly and indi-
rectly, the American landowners profited from the human current
that was flowing in such a strong volume along the borders. The
railroad route from Ontario still passed through the United States,
and at every junction point along the way the travelers were sub-
jected to solicitation on the part of American agents. When success
attended these efforts, the Canadians, it was said, were "kidnaped."^"
So strong was the danger made out to be that the Canadian land
companies stationed their own representatives in St. Paul to give
information to bewildered passengers and to guard them from the
wiles of competitors.^^ Here and there in the course of the journey
some of the migrants dropped off to remain in the United States,
and only those who traveled on the specially chartered trains that
ran through from Toronto to Manitoba were considered to be en-
tirely safe.^^
But crossing the border from Minnesota into Manitoba did not
mean that the prospect was forever lost to Dakota. Some of the pas-
sengers were deliberately following a roundabout route because of
certain advantages that it brought. The customs examination at
Detroit was considered very searching. On the other hand, the
28. Ibid. 1887, App. No. 4, 20. Southern Manitoba Times, April 2, 1881;
Feb. 3, June 23, July 11, Nov. 17, 1882. Emerson International, April 29,
1880; March 9, 1882.
29. Montreal Weekly Witness, May 16, 1883. Robert England, op. cit., 56,
67.
30. Dom. Can.: Jour, H. of C. Sess. 1880-81, App. No. 1, 21. The Globe,
July 20, 1880.
31. Dom. Can.: Jour. H. of C. Sess. 1880-81, App. No. 1, 43.
32. Ibid. 1880-81, App. No. 1, 21 ; 1885, App. No. 3, 82, 83.
FROM PROVINCES TO PRAIRIE STATES 193
American inspectors stationed at Pembina, Dakota, were less thor-
ough and less inclined to exact a duty upon every article that was
liable. Goods and stock were shipped through the United States in
bond, but as soon as the boundary was crossed at Emerson, Mani-
toba, the freight could be unloaded, the team could be hitched to the
wagon, and the family and their belongings might proceed across
the river and, turning south, pass back into the United States
through Pembina, where only a superficial examination was made.
One observer maintained that 25 per cent of the arrivals at Emerson
were really bound for Dakota.^^
These were not the only apparent settlers that the province lost.
Pioneers were proverbially restless and inchned to shift their resi-
dence in the hope that some hardship or grievance could be ehmi-
nated by a change of even a few miles. ^* The hardships of Manitoba
were those that were common to all prairie beginnings. But some of
them were felt more acutely because the effective economic base of
the settlement was in a foreign country. Lumber was an expensive
essential and, since it was usually lumber from the Minnesota mills,
its price was increased by the tariff the importers had to pay. Farm
machinery was a necessity, but the Manitoba farmer was charged 20
to 30 per cent more for his implements because of the duty levied
upon them as they crossed the boundary from the Chicago fac-
tories.^^ Oiily the adoption of free trade would have removed these
disadvantages, but the depression of the 'seventies had bred high
protectionism in Canada, the so-called "National Policy" of 1878.
Other circumstances were effective in persuading new arrivals that
their lot could be made more fortunate by a short journey over the
boundary. The plan used in the distribution of land in Manitoba
reserved alternate "blocks" for future occupation. Settlement, there-
fore, could not be immediately continuous, but was broken by patches
of open prairie that were depressing to the spirits and caused incon-
venience in travel.^^ Moreover, large areas had been granted to per-
33. Ibid. 1880-81, App. No. 1, 26, 27.
34. The Globe, Aug. 7, 1880.
35. Emerson International, Dec. 16, 1880. Montreal Weekly Witness, May
25, 1881.
36. P. H. Bryce, "The Immigrant Settler," The Annals of the American
Academy of Political and Social Science, CVII (Philadelphia, May, 1923),
194 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
sons and corporations who held land on speculation, thereby inten-
sifying the patchwork nature of the communities.^^ In the province
there were no herd laws such as those which in Dakota and Minne-
sota protected the crops and the young trees of the pioneer from
droves of wandering cattle. Safety was assured only when an expen-
sive fencing of the fields had been accomplished.^* Titles in some
districts were uncertain and if investigation proved that a settler
was consciously or unconsciously a "squatter," he had no right of
preemption to the land that he had improved. ^^ These were some of
the conditions cited by contemporaries in explanation of the con-
tinual southward drift of people whose original intention was to re-
main under the British flag. Every departure meant more than the
loss of an individual or a family. For although some of these condi-
tions were soon remedied, the openly voiced grumbling of the first
arrivals deterred others from going into the province and their re-
moval to Dakota tended to draw neighbors and relatives into that
territory.*"
Among those who engaged in a second migration were many home-
steaders. The Canadian laws were in many respects more liberal than
the homestead regulations of the United States but both were alike
in that a citizen was allowed to exercise his right only once. From
the point of view of the government this was a very reasonable re-
striction, but the settler saw in it a barrier to what he considered a
legitimate profit. A large percentage of those coming into the prov-
ince, particularly in the boom year of 1882, brought some capital.
They had no desire to take up unimproved lands and begin with
breaking the unexpectedly tough prairie sod. Prairie pioneering was
a skilled trade in which they had had no training and for which they
had no desire. They were eager to do business with the homesteader
35—45. For a systematic analysis of Western Canadian settlement, see A. S.
Morton and C. Martin, History of Prairie Settlement and "Dominion Lands"
Policy.
37. The Globe, June 16, Nov. 20, 22, 23, 1880. J. B. Hedges, The Federal
Railway Land Subsidy Policy of Canada (Cambridge, Mass., 1934), and
Building the Canadian West: The Land and Colonization Policies of the
Canadian Pacific Railway (New York, 1939).
38. Emerson International, July 17, 24, 1879.
39. Ibid., Jan. 6, 1881.
40. Ibid., May 6, 1880; July 27, 1882. The Globe, Nov. 23, 1880.
Reproduced through the courtesy of Professor A. H. Moehlman and of the Geo-
graphical Review published by the American Geographical Society of New York.
196 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
who had "proved his right" and was willing to sell. The latter was
then in a position to homestead again (very often in the company of
his sons who were also eligible) , and with the funds from the sale of
the first improvement capital would be available with which to ac-
quire implements and stock and make of the second experience a far
more successful venture. To go through with this procedure would
be impossible if he remained in Canada, but there was nothing to
prevent him from accepting the buyer's bid, traveling across the line
into Dakota and there, after declaring his intention of becoming an
American citizen, homesteading again.*^
This was a solution that was applied in the other direction as well.
Among the immigrants into Manitoba were American farmers and
their sons who came from Nebraska and Kansas where they had sold
their holdings at from twenty to thirty dollars an acre and now ac-
quired Canadian government land to the full extent of their home-
stead rights and often bought additional railroad land grants at
three dollars an acre. Some Americans who had never homesteaded
chose Manitoba instead of Dakota because in the former three years
instead of five was the required period of occupation, and young men
aged eighteen instead of twenty-one could enter upon residence.*^
The immigration of American citizens into Manitoba was not
large in proportion to the magnitude of the migration that was
carrying tens of thousands of settlers into the states of Minnesota
and the territories that lay to the west of them. Some of these Ameri-
can immigrants were persons of Canadian birth who had been natu-
ralized in the United States and now, disappointed in their condition
and prospects, or having acquired a modest fortune, were desirous
of returning to their first allegiance. Some were Canadians of French
stock who were brought in by means of the subsidized repatriation
efforts that were still being carried on in a rather dilatory way.*^
The Dominion authorities recognized the desirability of making ef-
forts to encourage the return of their former citizens from the States
41. Dom. Can.: Jour. H. of C. Sess. 1880-81, App. No. 1, 29; 1887, App.
No. 4, 25. Emerson International, June 8, 15, 1882.
42. Dom. Can.: App. to Jour. H. of C. Sess. 1894, No. 4, 204. Emerson
International, April 20, 1882.
43. Dom. Can.: App. to Jour. H. of C. Sess. 1884, No. 1, 110. Dom. Can.:
Jour. H. of C. Sess. 1885, App. No. 3, 17-18. Le Travailleur, Feb. 2, 1880;
April 8, 1881 ; April 1, 1884; April 8, 1887.
FROM PROVINCES TO PRAIRIE STATES 197
and they also understood the value of the pioneering qualities pos-
sessed by the Yankee who had had a frontier training. Accordingly,
agents were commissioned to travel about in parts of the United
States in which the current of westward migration had its origin.
These representatives visited prospective migrants, delivered lec-
tures, and distributed literature, using, in fact, the methods that
their American rivals had found so successful in Ontario. Activities
were gradually broadened and personnel increased. At Portland,
Rochester, Chicago, Duluth, and other strategic points immigration
offices were opened. At one time six agents were operating in Michi-
gan alone, a state which was considered an unusually promising field,
partly because of its large Canadian-born population and partly be-
cause of discouraging local agricultural conditions.** The efforts
swelled mightily in 1893 when the World's Fair brought a large
number of the residents of the Middle West to Chicago. At first the
authorities of the fair refused to allow any advertising of opportuni-
ties offered by a foreign country, but finally the rules were relaxed
and five men were stationed at the Canadian exhibit to answer the in-
quiries of visitors.*^ The historian of the settlement of Saskatchewan
records that the first American emigration to that province grew out
of this demonstration of what the prairies of the northwest had to
offer.*'
But the day of Saskatchewan had not yet come. No such province
was, in fact, in existence. The region to the west of Manitoba was
organized as the Northwest Territories and Indian tribes and half-
breed traders made up the majority of the inhabitants. The steamers
on the north branch of the Saskatchewan River constituted the prin-
cipal line of communication toward the mountains and a few settle-
ments had grown up about the trading posts along its course.*^ Each
of these places looked into the future with anticipations of great
growth; and their hopes were not unfounded, because the original
44. Dom. Can.: Jour. H. of C. Sess. 1893, App. No. \, 143, 144. Bom.
Can.: Sess. Pap., 1888, No. 4, 129; 1893, No. 13, 99.
45. Bom. Can.: App. to Jour. H. of C. Sess. 1894, No. 4, 196, 197.
46. E. H. Oliver, "The Settlement of Saskatchewan to 1914," R.S.C.,
1926, Sec. ii, 63-89.
47. The classic description of the Saskatchewan country at this period is
Rev. William Newton, Twenty Years on the Saskatchewan, N.W. Canada
(London, 1897).
198 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
route surveyed for the Canadian Pacific Railway followed the valley
of the river. There was some immigration, principally on the part of
the younger members of the old famihes settled in Manitoba, but the
possibihties of an early agricultural boom were soon dissipated/*
For the route of the railway was abruptly changed and, instead of
swinging in a half circle through the more fertile northern park
lands, it cut directly toward the west from Winnipeg, passing
through the less inviting dry plains area that projected northward
across the forty-ninth parallel from the United States.*® For up-
wards of twenty years the valley of the North Saskatchewan was
neglected. Lands remained unsurveyed, no publicity was given to
the region, and the few settlers that did stray in found no provision
made for the education of their children.^"
The change in the route of the railroad shifted the current of mi-
gration to the south, nearer the international boundary, where its
proximity to the American states might lead to the expectation that
citizens of the United States would appear to pioneer on the lands
now opened up. They did come, but not in large numbers. A provi-
sion in the charter of the Canadian Pacific which prohibited connec-
tion with the hnes in the neighboring Republic was not removed for
several years and an all-rail journey could be made only through
Winnipeg. ^^ In 1885 the rising of the frontier half-breeds, once more
under the leadership of Louis Riel, brought the Canadian Northwest
to the notice of all newspaper readers, but this relatively mild inci-
dent was exaggerated into a lurid story of Indian massacres in the
traditional frontier style and a campaign for settlers that had been
planned for that year had to be abandoned.®^ Canadians who had
volunteered for service in putting down the rebellion were rewarded
by generous gifts of land in the region and in 1886 a considerable
48. Saskatchewan Herald (Battleford), Aug. 11, 29, 1879; May 13, 1882.
49. H. A. Innis, A History of the Canadian Pacific Railway (London,
1923), 102, 103.
50. Saskatchewan Herald, July 28, 1879; Feb. 25, 1882; June 9, 1883;
Aug. 23, Nov. 28, 1884; March 3, 1888; Jan. 5, 1889. Manitoba Free Press
(Winnipeg), July 25, 1905.
51. C.R.U.S.F.C., 1888 and 1889, 292.
52. Canadian American, April 23, 1885. Le Travailleur, May 1, 1885.
Dom. Can.: Sess. Pap., 1886, No. 10, 139. U.S. Consular Reports: House
Ex. Doc. No. 167, 49th Congress, 2d Session, 602.
FROM PROVINCES TO PRAIRIE STATES 199
number of them came west to occupy their grants/^ Occasionally an
American family drove over the border in a covered wagon and some
exiled Canadians repatriated themselves by joining the settlers who
came from the old provinces.^* But the movement was not yet charac-
teristically an international one because the typical American land
seeker could still find what he wanted on his own side of the Hne.
There were, however, two kinds of Americans who were not typical
of the mass, and in the 1880's they arrived as a kind of vanguard for
the great crowds that in a little over a decade were to swarm into the
new Northwest. They were representatives of two elements in the
army of American pioneers which had been far in advance within
their own country, and their early appearance in western Canada is
another evidence of the continental character of the spread of the
expanding population. By 1890, ranchers and Mormons had moved
over the line.
The history of the American ranching industry is marked by a
persistent drift toward the northwest. Cattlemen and their herds
followed the retreating buffalo along the natural grazing pastures
that skirted the Rockies and finally reached the valley of the Bow,
the principal tributary of the south branch of the Saskatchewan.
Here, in the "land of the Chinook," mild winters made year-round
grazing possible, and the attention of British capitalists was directed
to the attractive profits to be found in the raising of stock. In the
early 'eighties the region now included in the southern part of Al-
berta was dotted with ranch houses and the plains were alive with
cattle. Proprietors were usually Englishmen or Canadians, but the
cowboys as well as the herds were immigrants from Montana, and
the cow towns on the American side of the line were both the base of
supplies and the marketing points. ^° For a quarter of a century the
53. Dom. Can.: Sess. Pap., 1887, No. 12, 124.
54. Norman F. Black, History of Saskatchewan and the Old North West
(Regina, 1913), 418. Dom. Can.: Sess. Pap., 1889, No. 6, 133; 1893, No. 13,
89, 90.
65. John R. Craig, Ranching with Lords and Commons (Toronto, 1903),
9-11, 22, 83, 88, 253, 293. M. A. Leeson (ed.). History of Montana, 1739-
1885 (Chicago, 1885), 436. Alva J. Noyes, In the Land of the Chinook or
the Story of Blaine County (Helena, 1917), 26. C. M. Maclnnes, In the
Shadow of the Rockies, passim.
200 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
rancher ruled the border country until he was crowded out, as he had
been crowded out elsewhere, by the inrush of settlers.
That the farmer would ever come to this region, or stay if he
arrived, was doubted by many observers. Rainfall was scanty and it
was questionable whether agriculture could ever be carried on with
success. This condition was no deterrent to the Mormons of Utah,
however, for they were skilled in dry farming and in the late 'eighties
and early 'nineties they were looking about for promising fields for
occupation. A general dispersion was taking place from the old set-
tlements around Salt Lake where large families and restricted op-
portunities made some emigration necessary. Several new Mormon
communities were founded in various western states and territories ;
but the hostile attitude then being exhibited toward adherents of the
faith by the citizens and authorities of the United States induced
many of them to seek homes outside the confines of the Republic.
Some went to Mexico and others explored Canada.^®
To the latter the advantages of the area directly north of the
boundary were evident — an agreeable climate, enough water for irri-
gation, a market among ranchmen, easy access from Utah. In 1887
the first group of Mormons came northward through Montana, and
in the succeeding years they were joined by one party after another
until by 1905 they numbered six thousand. Cardston, Alberta
(named in honor of a daughter and a son-in-law of Brigham Young
who were members of the pioneer group), became the center of a
prosperous agricultural section because the men from Utah under-
stood irrigation and because in sugar beets they found a product for
which the soil was suitable and the market encouraging. Salt Lake
City remained the ecclesiastical and social capital for this colony ; to
it they made religious pilgrimages and the young people traveled
south to be married in its tabernacle. Moving back and forth, they
undoubtedly did much to advertise the new country and, without
question, their successful beginnings prompted the later extensive
irrigation enterprises that became the basis of agricultural life in
southern Alberta.^^
56. Puget Sound Weekly Courier, May 28, 1880.
57. There is a brief history of the Mormon settlement in the Manitoba
Free Press, Nov. 18, 1905. See also: Seattle Weekly Post-Intelligencer, May
30, 1889; Manitoba Free Press, Jan. 26, 1907; James Mavor, "Report on the
FROM PROVINCES TO PRAIRIE STATES 201
The Canadian Pacific was completed to the coast in 1885. The
Northern Pacific, following a route three hundred miles to the south,
had passed down the valley of the Columbia River, reached Portland
in 1883 and, through a branch line that had already been built,
established connections with Puget Sound. The appearance of these
two new arteries of commerce inaugurated a new era in the history of
the Pacific Northwest. But they came too late to influence materially
the course of settlement during this period. That was already de-
termined.
Another "gold rush" in 1879-1880 had illustrated the north-
south tendency in the population movements along the coast. In the
autumn of 1878 gold was discovered among the headwaters of the
Skagit River, a stream rising in British Columbia west of the Cas-
cade Range and a few miles above the forty-ninth parallel, which,
after looping toward the north, flowed southwestwardly through the
Territory of Washington into Puget Sound.^^ During the winter
former miners and farmers from all points on the coast gathered at
Seattle and Victoria, shouldered their packs, and struck off up the
valley or across country to the new "diggings. "^^ Reports from the
mines varied and arguments with regard to routes and jurisdiction
were frequent; but by the summer of 1880 information from "the
Skagit" was eclipsed by the knowledge that prosperity had returned
to the coast, and the parties of men hunting for gold became but a
trickle compared with the flood of humanity that was flowing toward
the shores of Puget Sound.
The return of prosperity was doubly welcome because in the Pa-
cific Northwest, on both sides of the hne, the last years of the decade
of the 'seventies had been a period of inactivity and pessimism. Brit-
ish Columbia and Washington Territory were full of men waiting
North West of Canada with Special Reference to Agricultural Production,"
United Kingdom, House of Commons Sessional Papers, 1905, LIV, 13, 18;
J. D. Rogers, A Historical Geography of the British Colonies, Y, Part III
(Oxford, 1911), 241.
58. There is a description of the Skagit River region in the Seattle Weekly
Post-Intelligencer, May 29, 1884. On the subject of American mining pene-
tration into British Columbia, consult W. J. Trimble, The Mining Advance
into the Inland Empire (Madison, Wis., 1914).
59. Puget Sound Weekly Courier, Nov. 7, 1879; March 26, April 16, June
4, 1880. The Weekly Intelligencer, April 26, Nov. 29, 1879; Feb. 28, 1880.
202 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
for work to begin on the westernmost Hnes of the Northern and the
Canadian Pacific and the postponement of construction had kept all
business in a state of continued stagnation.®" Oregon and Washing-
ton were also affected in other ways. There was little market for
timber and for several years lumbering operations had been at a
standstill and mills were closed. Farming on cut-over lands had few
attractions and the unemployed had little incentive to take up agri-
culture.®^ But the revived economic activity that in 1879 had ap-
peared in all the industrial centers of the East spread to California
during the course of the following winter and the ensuing demand
for timber in railroad and city construction at once raised the price,
started the lumber mills on Puget Sound sawing the supply of logs
on hand, and sent gangs of choppers out into the woods.®^ By June,
1880, there were no more workless men and the reports of the three
following years tell of a condition never before witnessed — railroads,
building contractors, and timber operators constantly calhng for
workers and the supply never meeting the demand.®^
In response there began an influx from Cahfornia, the intensifica-
tion of a population movement that had already been under way.
So long as there was only one railroad across the continent, Sacra-
mento and San Francisco were the destinations of emigrants from
the East who had fixed upon the Pacific coast as their future resi-
dence. But not all found what they had hoped for in Cahfornia, and
these, along with others who after a few years of farming or mining
there wanted to move on to more promising fields, trekked toward the
north into western Oregon or in increasing numbers followed up the
Columbia River to engage in the production of wheat on the plateau
of eastern Washington.®* Every European nation and every state
and province that had sent its people into the Pacific West was repre-
sented in this expansion of population. Another wave of migrants
60. Ihid., Sept. 13, Dec. Q, 1879.
61. Ihid,, June 21, July 4>, 1879; June 12, 1880.
62. Ihid., Nov. 22, 1879; June 19, Sept. 15, Nov. 6, 1880.
63. Ihid., May 14, June 11, 1881. The Seattle Weekly Post-Intelligencer,
March 24, June 16, Nov. 24, 1882; Jan. 5, Aug. 2, 1883.
64. Puget Sound Weekly Courier, June 13, 1879; Aug. 30, 1880. The
Weekly Intelligencer, June 14, Aug. 2, 1879; Sept. 15, Nov. 6, 1880; Feb. 5,
1881. The Seattle Weekly Post-Intelligencer, May 5, 1882; April 19, 1883;
March 6, May 15, 1884. Canadian American, March 22, 1883.
FROM PROVINCES TO PRAIRIE STATES 203
went up to Puget Sound by steamer and, in the light of the fact that
logging and lumbering were the activities most in need of workers,
men from Maine and New Brunswick were largely represented
among the arrivals.®^ In 1882 a "Canadian Society" was organized
by residents of Washington and Oregon who had been born in the
Dominion.^®
In the recovery from the "hard times" British Columbia lagged
behind its American neighbors. But in 1881 construction on the
western end of the Canadian Pacific began and there was abundant
employment for carpenters and laborers, bridge builders and me-
chanics. Many of them came by steamer from the American ports
and they had no difficulty in finding work.^^ In their company ap-
peared land seekers from the western states who were less fortunate.
The areas available for agricultural settlement were scattered and
the facilities for providing information about them were not well
organized. Accordingly a large proportion of the intending farmers
who arrived remained only a short time and, disappointed in their
prospects, took the boat for Seattle to become farmers again within
the United States."'
The entire Pacific coast experienced a recession in all activity
during the years 1884 and 1885. The depression continued a few
months into 1886 and then a returning prosperity, unprecedented
even in a land of booms, acted like a magnet to draw coastal Ameri-
cans into British Columbia and midland Canadians into the states
from California northward."" The completion of the Canadian Pa-
cific in 1885 led to a temporary flooding of the labor market in the
province. '^^ Within a few months, however, the surplus had been
65. Puget Sound Weekly Courier, Feb. 20, 1880. The Seattle Weekly Post-
Intelligencer, May 10, 1883. Dom. Can.: Jour. H. of C. Sess. 1890, App. No.
6,69.
QQ. The Seattle Weekly Post-Intelligencer, Sept. 22, 1882.
67. The Weekly Intelligencer, April 2, 9, 1881. The Seattle Post-Intelli-
gencer, Sept. 1, 1882.
68. Ihid., March 30, 1883. B.C.: Sess. Pap., 188 Jf, 301.
69. The Seattle Weekly Post-Intelligencer, June 26, July 31, 1884; Jan.
6, 1887. Southern Manitoba Times, May 31, 1885. B.C.: Sess. Pap., 1885,
304.
70. Dom. Can. : Sess. Pap., 1886, No. 10, 131. B.C.: Sess. Pap., 1886, 490,
617.
204 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
drained off and, until the severe collapse of 1893 introduced a pro-
longed period during which all expansion lagged, every year saw an
increase in population, important elements among the newcomers
being made up of merchants from Puget Sound and California, capi-
talists from Michigan and Wisconsin who were interested in invest-
ing in timberlands, and men skilled in the building trades J^ For the
farmer, opportunities in the United States were more encouraging
and the excitement described as the "orange-grove mania" launched
a number of Canadians into the fruitgrowing districts of Cali-
fornia/^
After through service had been provided upon the Canadian Pa-
cific Railway, a new factor influencing population relations made its
appearance. Many Europeans arriving at Quebec and Montreal, fol-
lowing the tendency of the time, set off for British Columbia with
the intention of locating in that part of the Dominion, but not find-
ing at once the opportunity for which they had hoped they con-
tinued by steamer for Seattle, Portland, or San Francisco." This
circling was rather less remarkable than the use of the Canadian line
by passengers from the eastern United States bound for the Pacific
states. The Canadian Pacific was not subject to any of the rulings
of the Interstate Commerce Commission of the United States and it
refused to enter into any rate agreements with American railroads.
As a result it offered passage across the continent more cheaply than
any of its competitors, and it advertised widely the convenient boat
connections at Vancouver that would carry travelers at once to their
American destinations.^* An official estimate made in 1890 stated
that about 75 per cent of those arriving in British Columbia via the
railroad were through passengers of American origin."
So confusing was the situation that to classify those crossing the
border in either direction as emigrants or immigrants was an impos-
71. Dom. Can.: Sess. Pap., 1888, No. 4, 77, 79, 82; 1889, No. 5, 62, 65;
1890, No. 6, 118; 1891, No. 6, 141, 142; 1892, No. 7, 139, 140. B.C.: Sess.
Pap., 1889, 288.
72. Dom. Can.: Sess. Pap., 1888, No. 4, 82. Canadian American, Jan. 5,
1888. Montreal Weekly Witness, Feb. 9, March 2, 1887.
73. Dom. Can.: Sess. Pap., 1889, No. 5, 46.
74. The Seattle Weekly Post-Intelligencer, Aug. 26, Oct. 7, Nov. 12,
1886; April 21, July 14, 1887.
75. Dom. Can.: Sess. Pap., 1890, No. 6, 113.
FROM PROVINCES TO PRAIRIE STATES 205
sibility and the effort was not made. In so far as the United States
government was interested in any migration of this nature, its con-
cern was directed toward one special group — ^the Chinese. Before the
American act of 1882 prohibited the immigration of the Orientals,
Victoria was the leading center in the Northwest for the distribution
of Chinese laborers. ^^ The passage of the law did not put an end to
the activity. So great was the demand for workers that every person,
irrespective of race, could find employment, and whoever would en-
gage in human smuggling could ask a hberal reward for his services.
The island-dotted waters of Puget Sound were ideal for carrying on
the traffic. Many of the small trading sloops and fishing craft that
sailed in and out made the most of the opportunity because the risk
of detection was small and when the cargo was once landed on Ameri-
can soil no questions were asked.^^ In the autumn of 1885, during the
temporary business recession, anti-Chinese riots were general along
the coast. ^^ The Dominion passed a law prohibiting their importa-
tion and many employers refused to hire them. Thereafter the influx
was small. Many of those who were already in British Columbia
moved eastward and scattered in the older provinces. ^^ A stricter
border administration prevented easy entrance into the United
States, and, except for those who drifted into Washington by work-
ing along the old placer-mining camps on the banks of the rivers
that crossed the boundary (camps that were deserted by all except
Chinese), the movement was largely at an end.^°
The emigration from the provinces to the prairie states and be-
yond was not composed entirely of farmers and their families in
search of land. Some of the emigrants wanted to get away from the
land and they sought the rising West where every town might become
a city and where business was expanding to include a new empire.
Like the old agricultural sections in the United States, Ontario had
produced a class of young people who were not satisfied with the
routine of rural life. Some had received a higher education and
76. Montreal Weekly Witness, Nov. 16, 1881. The Weekly Intelligencer,
July 31, 1880; May 14, 1881. The Seattle Weekly Post-Intelligencer, May
19, June 2, 30, 1882.
77. Ibid., Sept. 27, 1883; Nov. 13, Dec. 4, 25, 1884.
78. Ibid., Sept.-Nov., 1885. 79. Ibid., July 30, 1885; Aug. 9, 1888.
80. Ibid., Feb. 4, 1886; July 26, 1888.
206 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
found little call for their services; some had prepared for profes-
sions which were already crowded ; some were experienced in trades
or commerce but lived in communities where no opportunities for
advancement were at hand.®^ For all such the growing cities in the
neighboring States possessed an almost irresistible appeal. The
young men of Ontario, it was explained, "look upon Chicago as the
Mecca of their ambition ; . . . the average young Canadian holds
this city as the goal of his fortunes."®^ Reports from the city told
of hundreds of Canadians employed in the printing establishments,
of the men from the provinces who were connected with every bank-
ing institution, of young medical graduates who were starting prac-
tice, and of enterprising merchants who were opening stores. The
many social organizations composed of Chicago residents who wished
not to forget their Dominion birth testify to the presence of many
energetic young people.^®
Chicago was only one city from which such reports might come.
Particularly in railroad centers men from Ontario were numerous.
The Grand Trunk and Great Western railwa3^s of Canada were con-
sidered very efficient "training schools," and those who had learned
railroading upon these lines always claimed that they had no diffi-
culty in securing positions upon the expanding railway systems of
the United States. In the business departments, mechanical shops,
and telegraph offices Canadians were particularly evident, many of
them occupying positions of the highest authority.^* Transportation
had, in fact, always been an important feature of Canadian economic
life, and so long as the Great Lakes continued to carry a part of the
commerce of the Middle West, sailors of Canadian nationality were
numerous among the crews of vessels that were registered at Cleve-
land, Chicago, and Port Huron. ®^
81. Bom. Can.: Jour. H. of C. Sess. 1889, App. No. 4, 52, 81. Bom. Can.:
Behates H. of C. 1891, XXXIII, 5227. Montreal Weekly Witness, March 12,
1879.
82. Canadian American, April 17, 1884.
83. Ihid., Feb. 8, March 27, April 10, 1884; Feb. 5, Aug. 6, May 14, 1886;
Nov. 25, 1887. Western British American, Feb. 4, 1888.
84. Canadian American, March 16, May 4, 1883; April 10, 1884; March
5, 12, May 15, 1885; Jan. 22, Feb. 19, July 2, 30, 1886. J. J. Hill is prob-
ably the most conspicuous example.
85. Bom. Can.: Jour. H. of C. Sess. 1890, App. No. 4, 9. Bom. Can.: Sess.
Pap., 1882, No. 11, 215.
FROM PROVINCES TO PRAIRIE STATES 207
The history of the personnel of every economic activity in the
United States might include a chapter on the Canadian-born. In two
fields they were so numerous as to warrant special mention : lumber-
ing and mining. Many of the woodsmen were not emigrants in the
true sense of the word. Those who went to Michigan should on the
whole be classified rather as seasonal workers. ^^ When cutting was
about to begin in the pinewoods special trains were made up at vari-
ous Canadian points to collect the laborers. ^^ How many of them
remained in the United States it was impossible for the railroad offi-
cials to state, because those that came back usually returned in the
spring after the opening of navigation and traveled by steamer in-
stead of by rail.^® But there certainly was a residue left at every
sawmill town and to take up cut-over land was a recognized way of
becoming established in agriculture. ®® Those who set out to work at
more distant points were naturally more inchned to remain, and at
every lumber district in the West — in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Colo-
rado, Montana, Idaho, and on the Pacific slope — Canadians were
found in the woods, in sawmills and planing mills, and in the mer-
chandising of timber products.®"
Miners were not so numerous because mineral industries were not
yet an important feature of Canadian economic life except in that
part of the province of Nova Scotia known as Cape Breton. Here
coal deposits had been worked for a century with varying success as
a business venture, the determining factor being the demand from
the American market. During the 1880's that demand lagged and
many of the pits were closed, forcing the miners either to attempt
to make a living from the barren and rocky countryside or to depart
for some place where their technical skill could be put to use."^ Those
that emigrated sought the new western mining regions in preference
to the old ones in the East, and in Montana, Idaho, and Colorado,
86. Dom. Can.: Jour. H. of C. Sess. 1880-81, App. No. 1, 17, 25, 76.
87. Bom. Can.: Sess. Pap., 1880-81, No. 12, xxxix.
88. Bom. Can.: App. to Jour. H. of C. Sess. 188^, No. 1, 3.
89. Bom. Can.: Sess. Pap., 1893, No. 13, 101.
90. Canadian American, March 16, 30, 1883; May 1, 1884; Jan. 14, 1887.
Bom. Can.: Sess. Pap., 1888, No. 4, 130. Acadian Recorder, March 30, 1880.
91. The Morning Chronicle (Halifax), Sept. 26, Oct. 16, 1879. Montreal
Weekly Witness, April 12, 1882.
208 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
Canadians were engaged in the varied branches of mining and
smelting.®^
The phght of the Cape Breton miner did not receive the attention
that he might have expected because all of his provincial neighbors
had some complaints to air. That the fishermen of the Maritime
Provinces were suifering was clear, and that their condition was
affected by Dominion politics was just as evident. Since early in the
nineteenth century, many of them had preferred to spend some sea-
sons at least on the American vessels that sailed out of Gloucester,
claiming that conditions on board ship in the matter of provisions
and equipment were more satisfactory and the wages higher and
more promptly paid."^ Every spring about five hundred Nova Sco-
tians set out for the Massachusetts port, returning at the expense of
the fishing masters when the crew was disbanded.®* This practice was
sharply stimulated when, on July 1, 1885, the fishing articles of the
Treaty of Washington of 1871 lapsed. By that agreement, in return
for the privileges that the United States enjoyed in the British
waters off the provinces, fish shipped from Nova Scotia and New
Brunswick had been allowed to enter American ports duty-free. But
beginning in 1886 (to avoid confusion the agreement was extended
by special arrangement until the end of the season of 1885) the
American tariff wall shut the Canadian fishermen out of their best
market. With no future agreement in sight, all prospects were dis-
couraging and prudence suggested that it would be well for the fish-
erman to attach himself permanently to the Gloucester fleet. He mi-
grated again, this time with his family, and his departure was cited
in the arguments of the political partisans as evidence that the in-
terests of the Maritime Provinces were being sacrificed for the sake
of general Canadian pohcies that benefited them not at all.^^
Along with the decline of fishing went the decline of shipping.
92. Canadian American, Aug. 21, 1884; April 30, 1886. Dom. Can.: Sess.
Pap., 1888, No. 4, 137, 138.
93. Canadian American, April 10, 1884; Dec. 16, 1887. Yarmouth Times
(N.S.), March 14, Aug. 1, 1883.
94. Dom. Can.: Sess. Pap., 1882, No. 11, 230.
95. Acadian Recorder, June 27, 1885; Jan. 4, 1886. Montreal Weekly
Witness, July 8, 1885; March 9, 1887. J. M. Callahan, American Foreign
Policy in Canadian Relations (New York, 1937), 345, 361-370.
FROM PROVINCES TO PRAIRIE STATES 209
This could not be so convincingly ascribed to politics. Life at sea was
proving to be less attractive to the younger generation than it had
been to their fathers who had had fewer opportunities for adventure
on land. A captain now found it a difficult matter to secure sufficient
hands.®^ But even had this difficulty been overcome, the Maritime
shipbuilders and operators could not have hoped for a return of
prosperous times. The day of the wooden ocean carrier had passed,
and, in the expression of a journalist, the future fortunes of the
commercial families were shelved as "high and dry" as the vessels
that they discarded."^ Shipbuilding, which had once been one of the
most important activities in the provinces, now came to an almost
complete standstill and in the city of St. John the streets in which
the carpenters had lived were left almost deserted by the departure
of the workmen.®*
The emigration of fishermen and shipwrights was small in com-
parison with the exodus of young people of all classes, but particu-
larly the sons and daughters of the farmers. They complained of no
special grievance but the dullness of rural life and the feeling of
hopelessness regarding the future that prevailed during the decade.^®
The local atmosphere was in striking contrast with the opportunities
that the neighboring New England states could offer. What Chicago
was to Ontario, Boston was to the Maritime Provinces — the goal of
ambitious youth.^°" Everyone could point to the five natives of New
Brunswick and Nova Scotia who occupied chairs in the faculty of
Harvard University.^°^ Steamship rates to the city were low, and if
the young woman did not at once secure a position as a domestic
servant or the young man find an opening as a mechanic or trades-
man, a score of other cities were within a short distance.^"' The news-
96. Yarmouth Tribune, Oct. 4, 1882. 97. Ibid., Oct. 26, 1881.
98. The Morning Chronicle, Oct. 18, 1879. C.R.U.S.F.C., 1886 and 1887,
539.
99. Acadian Recorder, June 12, Oct. 9, 1879. Dom. Can.: Debates H. of
C. Sess. 1891, XXXIII, 5255.
100. "Boston Is the Promised Land of Canadians," The Prince Edward
Island Magazine, I (Charlottetown, P.E.I., 1899-1900), 82.
101. The British American Citizen (Boston), Dec. 28, 1889.
102. Reports from the Consuls of the United States, 1880—81 (Washing-
ton, 1881), 59. Bom. Can.: Jour. H. of C. Sess. 1890, App. No. 5, 71. Note
the advertisement for "one thousand Protestant girls for general housework"
in The British American Citizen, Jan. 18, 1890.
210 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
paper accounts of the exodus are monotonous reading when repeated
year after year. Some editors questioned the vaHdity of the reports
and explained the heavy passenger Hsts as being made up of tourists
who had enjoyed a vacation in the quiet provinces or emigrants of a
previous period who had been on a visit to the old home/"^ But the
state censuses of Massachusetts and Rhode Island of the year 1895,
which record the provincial origin of the Canadian-born, indicate
their presence in every community where maritime skills or commer-
cial capacities were likely to be in special demand.^°^
Perhaps as startling as the proportions of the emigration was the
philosophical attitude of the parents who saw their children depart.
"They will do better away" was the common remark in Prince Ed-
ward Island.^°^ The emigration of family groups was not so common
in eastern Canada and when it occurred it was usually directed to the
western states where agriculture was the attraction.^"^ The loss of so
many of the young people naturally created some problems. There
was a lack of domestic servants and an acute shortage in farm labor-
ers that caused the provincial governments to renew efforts, not to
stop the emigration (which now had come to be taken for granted) ,
but to turn a larger part of the European immigration into North
America in the direction of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.^"'^ By
advertisements and in some cases by financial assistance these efforts
enjoyed some success, but they were discontinued because so many
of the new arrivals caught the prevailing spirit and moved on to the
United States before they had acquired any permanent interests in
the provinces. Not until the early 1890's was there any stoppage of
the outward movement of the residents, either native or foreign-
born."'
103. Acadian Recorder, March 22, 1880; March 30, May 15, June 13,
1882; Sept. 18, 1883; Jan. 14, 1886; April 4, 1887; April 5, 1888. The
Globe, June 19, 1880. The Morning Chronicle, Oct. 9, 1879.
104. Census of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1895, II (Boston,
1897), 581-715. Census of Rhode Island, 1895 (Providence, 1898), 262-263.
105. Montreal Weekly Witness, Nov. 22, 1882.
106. Dom. Can.: Jour. H. of C. Sess. 1890, App. No. 5, 71. Acadian Re-
corder, June 13, 1882.
107. Dom. Can.: Debates H. of C. Sess. 1891, XXXIII, 5234.
108. British American Citizen, Oct. 25, 1890.
FROM PROVINCES TO PRAIRIE STATES 211
From the Eastern Townships of Quebec the accounts read the
same : enterprising Anglo-Canadian youth, so soon as they were able
to shift for themselves, set out for the cities in their own province
and the United States or for the "Far West."^°^ Little attention,
however, was paid to this, for it had come to seem an entirely natural
phenomenon. It was among their French neighbors who had taken
up land in the Townships and among the habitants in the parishes
to the north that emigration became a matter for concern. Not that
it was anything new; but in its extent the movement was unparal-
leled, and the characteristic tendency to settle permanently in the
industrial sections of New England indicated that migration was no
longer a seasonal search for work, but a transfer of family and prop-
erty into a new home.
The reports of high and increasing wages and the activity of labor
solicitors would not in themselves have caused a response of such
unusual magnitude.^^° The habitant was in debt. The preceding hard
years (1873—1880), during which fewer sons had added to the
household income by an annual visit to southern brickyards and fac-
tories, had left many families involved in obligations from which
they could be freed only by concerted and vigorous action."^ During
the decade of the 'eighties the situation did not greatly improve. The
Dominion tariff of 1879 increased the price of the implements that
the farmer used and in the purchase of which he often went into
debt; and in 1890 the McKinley Tariff in the United States, by put-
ting a duty on agricultural imports, shut off the most accessible
market, the great urban communities not far below the line.^^" Meas-
ured by their production, the habitant's home acres were few ; winter
idleness was inevitable because there was little employment outside
the home for adults or children; the great demand from the States
was for year-round, not seasonal, workers. Therefore, encouraged by
the low rates that the railroads offered, he closed the house, took wife
and family, and left, abandoning his fields until such time as he could
109. Montreal Weekly Witness, June 14, 1882.
110. For labor solicitation see L' Independent (Fall River), April 23,
1866; Le Travailleur, Nov. 23, 1881.
111. Le Courrier de Worcester, June 3, 1880. P.Q.: Sess. Pap., 1890,
XXIV, No. 2, 281.
112. P.Q.; Sess. Pap., 1891, XXV, No. 2, 156-157.
212 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
return and pay off the mortgage and square accounts with the vil-
lage merchants/^®
Inevitably there were famihes that did not come back. The chil-
dren who grew up in the new environment were only one tie that
made their elders stationary. A new environment surrounded the
parents as well. It was no longer entirely Yankee. Industry was
American, but society could be French, for there were French par-
ishes and parochial schools, and French clubs.^^* The excitement that
attended the uprising of Louis Riel, although the event took place
far off upon the Canadian prairies, did much to reawaken national-
istic sentiments among the expatriates.^^^ But it was a new kind of
nationalism, one that was strongly tinged with Americanism. It was
the feeling of a minority struggling to secure recognition and organ-
izing to obtain its share of pohtical preferment. During 1886 natu-
ralization became a much agitated question in the French- American
communities, with the leaders of local opinion strongly favoring the
step,"® This logically hastened a process that was already under way :
the securing of real property — houses and lots ; and in Rhode Island,
where the French element was strong, naturahzation fostered such
purchases to a remarkable extent because that state required that a
naturalized citizen must be the possessor of some property in order
to vote, whereas the native-born was exempt."^ Permanency encour-
aged the coming of doctors, lawyers, and teachers from Quebec,
where all professions were crowded, and they, in turn, made life more
congenial for those who had once been considered exiles."^
113. Le Courrier de Worcester, April 1, May 20, 1880. Le Travailleur,
Nov. 12, 1880.
114. Ibid., Nov. 23, 1881; Oct. 2, 1885; Oct. 18, 1888. U Independent,
July 23, Oct. 8, 1886. P.Q.: Sess. Pap., 1889, XXII, 282.
115. L'Independent, Dec. 11, 1885; Nov. 19, 1886.
116. Ibid., Oct. 8, 15, 22, 29, Nov. 5, 1886. Le Travailleur, Aug. 6, 1886.
"Naturalization without assimilation" was the expression of the ideal.
Compte-Rendu de la seizieme convention nationale des canadiens-frangais des
Etats-Unis tenue a Rutland, Vt., le 22 et le 23 juin, 1886 (Plattsburg, 1886),
13.
117. Courrier de Worcester, Aug. 16, 1883. L'Independent, April 16, 30,
Oct. 22, 1886.
118. Courrier de Worcester, Nov. 3, 1882. L'Independent, Feb. 5, 1886.
P.Q.; Sess. Pap., 1881-82, XV, No. 5, 131; 188^-85, XVIII, No. 5, App.
No. 1, 152.
FROM PROVINCES TO PRAIRIE STATES 213
Until the family was rooted by the possession of real estate, there
was much coming and going in all the French communities. Some
went back to reoccupy the farms that had not been sold; others to
take up lands in the Quebec colonization areas. Even in the years
when the immigration into New England was greatest, return travel-
ers were so numerous as to arouse comment. A constant replacement
in personnel was evident in the mills, those who were going ceding
their places to those that came.^^^ It was a realization of the exist-
ence of this return instinct that caused the province of Quebec to
persist in its schemes for repatriation in spite of the insignificant
results that had come out of the earlier ventures. Agents were sent
out to organize clubs that would return as a group and free grants
were made available along the colonization roads north of the St.
Lawrence.^"" The French-Canadian newspapers in the States, how-
ever, fought all schemes that would deprive them of subscribers,
arguing that people who were now, after hard struggles, comfort-
ably settled should hesitate before making another and uncertain
beginning.^-^ But prosperity was the principal deterrent. The emi-
grants did not want to be repatriated and a mass return movement
was never successfully organized.^"^
Between 1879 and 1893 the influx varied in keeping with the
trends exhibited by the figures of general immigration. The years
1880, 1881, and 1882 witnessed a southward exodus that attracted
widespread attention.^^^ Again in the latter part of 1885 and 1886,
after a short period of closed mills, strikes, and lower wages, the
119. Courrier de Worcester, April 13, 20, June 23, 1882. L' Independent,
April 16, Oct. 22, 1886. Le Travailleur, June 16, 1882. Dom. Can.: Sess.
Pap., 1894, No. 13, Part III, 117. P.Q.: Sess. Pap., 1886, XVIII, No. 2, 3,
87, 96, 119.
120. L'Independent, Aug. 20, Sept. 10, 1886. U.S. Consular Reports:
House Ex. Doc. No. 157, 49th Congress, 2d Session, 571-572. P.Q.: Sess.
Pap., 1883, XVI, No. 2, App. No. VII, 117, 119.
121. L'Independent, Nov. 19, 1886. Le Travailleur, Sept. 12, 1890.
122. Ibid., Nov. 5, 1889. P.Q.: Sess. Pap., 1891, XXV, No. 2, 161. A. Des-
rosiers and Abbe Fournet, La Race frangaise en Amerique, 221. A. Labelle,
Considerations generates sur V agriculture, la colonisation, le repatriement et
I'immigration (Quebec, 1888), 17.
123. Courrier de Worcester, April 1, May 6, 20, 1880; May 19, 1881;
April 20, 1882. Le Travailleur, March 26, May 11, 14, 1880; April 22, May
6, 1881; Jan. 10, 1882.
o
b
0
A
m
Z
Q
o
Z
CO
LLI
3
I/)
z
c
I
LU
o
u
z
5
t/)
LU
LU
ORN FR
IN
z
Q
Z
<
o
o
ON
o
o
in
o
CD
:i^
"D
Z
Qi
c
<
o
O
Q
<
5
Z
LLI
<
z
u
I
3
FROM PROVINCES TO PRAIRIE STATES 215
current was strong.^^* In 1890 and 1891, an exodus reported to be
without parallel in the history of French-Canadian emigration took
place.^^^ The check did not come until the year 1893, when the sud-
den closing up of factories started a backflow that would have been
considered unbelievable a short time before.^^®
New England was not the only destination of emigrants from
Quebec. The Hudson Valley still provided employment for thousands,
and in the woods of Michigan crews of French loggers hired along
the St. Lawrence made an annual appearance.^^^ Detroit and Bay
City became considerable centers of French population and society,
and it was estimated that more than 25,000 had made their homes
in Chicago.^^* In fact, in all the western states where the Enghsh-
speaking Canadians were numerous, the French were also on hand.
In the buoyant season of 1880 they came to the upper peninsula of
Michigan in such crowds that a newspaper declared : "About half the
population of Canada has arrived here during the month past."^^®
They worked in the lumber mills and mines from the Mississippi to
the Rockies and planted large colonies in Minnesota, Nebraska, and
Dakota. Former fur-trading centers hke St. Paul continued to draw
in relatives of the old voyageur families and new settlements were
formed to attract land seekers from both Canada and New Eng-
land.^^° The most flourishing of these colonies was that founded dur-
124. Dom. Can.: Sess. Pap., 1884., No. 14, 125; 1885, No. 8, 86. L'lnde-
pendent, Oct. 9, Nov. 27, Dec. 4>, 24, 1885; Jan. 1, March 26, April 2, 9, 16,
May 21, 1886. Le Travailleur, March 10, 1885; May 21, 1886; April 29,
1887.
125. P.Q.: Sess. Pap., 1891, XXV, No. 2, 154. Le Travailleur, Sept. 12,
1890.
126. Montreal Weekly Witness, Aug. 16, 23, 1893.
127. Le Travailleur, June 21, 1881. Montreal Weekly Witness, Dec. 28,
1881. Dom. Can.: Sess. Pap., 1882, No. 11, 215. Bom. Can.: App. to Jour.
H. of C. Sess. 188Jf, No. 1, 3. E. Hamon, Les Canadiens-Frangais de la Nou-
velle Angleterre, 12, 452.
128. Le Travailleur, June 5, Dec. 18, 1888; Dec. 13, 1889. Canadian
American, Nov. 4, 1887.
129. The Mining Journal (Marquette, Mich.), July 3, 1880. See also Rev.
Antoine Ivan Rezak, History of the Diocese of Sault Ste. Marie and Mar-
quette, II (Houghton, Mich., 1906), 205, 207, 220, 225, 230, 368, 420.
130. N. E. Dionne, Etats-Unis, Manitoba et Nord-Ouest. Notes de voyage
(Quebec, 1882), 90, 135, 142. Le Travailleur, Nov. 11, 1879; Nov. 16, 1888;
216 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
ing the depression of the 1870's by some residents of MinneapoHs
and St. Paul in the vicinity of Crookston, Minnesota. Being located
on the edge of the Red River Valley, they profited from the inrush
of settlers in the early 'eighties and in 1883 it was estimated that
over eight thousand persons of French-Canadian birth or descent
had located in the colony or had taken up residence in the town.^^^
So strong and persistent was the drift of population during these
years from all parts of Canada into the United States that little at-
tention was paid to the reverse movement. Nevertheless there was a
steady immigration, the results being revealed by the census figures
showing the distribution of American-born in the Dominion in 1891.
Some of these were the children of Canadians who had returned after
a residence in the Republic. Some were bona fide immigrants who
had come in, particularly to the large cities, to act as representa-
tives of the business enterprises in the United States that were ex-
tending operations across the line. Many of them were skilled fac-
tory operatives who had deliberately chosen Canada as a promising
field where they might profit from their experience and training.
The "National Policy," or high protectionism of the Canadian
Conservative party, was the agency that had drawn these Americans
over the border. During the depression years sentiment for a protec-
tive tariff grew steadily, and it culminated in 1878 in the creation
of a customs structure to which this patriotic title was applied. The
hope had been held out that by creating opportunities for employ-
ment at home the necessity for emigration would be removed. Such
was not the outcome."- The Canadians did not cease to emigrate,
but the loss in population was not quite as great as would otherwise
have been the case because of a moderate increase in industrial em-
ployment. Some of the skills that could not be found in the Dominion
Aug. 9, 1889; July 11, 1890. P.Q.: Sess. Pap., 1886, XIX, No. 29, 27. Dom.
Can.: App. to Jour. H. of C. Sess. 188 Jf, No. 1, 3, 101. Dom. Can.: Sess. Pap.,
1890, No. 6, 166. The wide distribution of the French-Canadian emigrants is
illustrated by the lists of names published in E. Z. Massicotte, "L'Emigration
aux Etats-Unis il y a 40 ans et plus," Bulletin des recherches historiques,
XXXIX, 21-27, 86-88, 179-181, 228-231, 381-383, 427-429, 507-509,
660-562, 697, 711-712.
131. Description de la colonic canadienne du comte de Polk (Crookston,
Minn., 1883), 5, 6, 8, 16, 18. Le Travailleur, July 14, 1882.
132. Reports from the Consuls of the United States, 1880—81, 556.
FROM PROVINCES TO PRAIRIE STATES 217
were available among enterprising artisans in the United States,
who, provided with some funds, were choosing Canadian localities in
which to begin as independent operatives. Larger concerns were in-
corporated by both Canadian and American capitalists to manufac-
ture for the newly protected Canadian market, and many of these
enterprises could not get under way until workers and managers had
been secured from factories in the States. The reports of the immi-
gration inspectors, from New Brunswick to Ontario, make constant
mention of the entrance of mechanics and weavers in response to this
need.^^^
The modest industrial expansion of this period in Canada came
to an end with the decade of the 'eighties. The report for 1890 re-
vealed that there was no longer any demand for more hands and that
some of the Canadian mills were shutting down.^^* But at the same
time there were evidences that in Ontario the movement of emigra-
tion had also run its course.^^^ The attractions of the western prairies
were being dimmed by news that disillusioned the most credulous.
Drought and frost, declining prices coupled with high taxes and
high interest rates, crop shortages and crop failures, scanty supplies
of timber and fuel, and dry wells were experiences that were never
forgotten by the pioneers of Dakota. Other western states were Kttle
better off and the westward movement of people first halted and then
receded. Discouraged homesteaders went back to Iowa, Indiana, and
Ontario. By 1890 a withdrawal of the frontier had started.^^^ The
wheels of industry were kept turning by some temporary and fortu-
nate demands, but they could not be kept going very long after the
stimulus of an expanding West had been removed. In the spring of
133. P.O.: Sess. Pap., 1882, XIV, No. Q, 34; 1882-83, XV, No. 6, 37.
Dom. Can.: Sess. Pap., 1882, XV, No. 10, 82; 1883, No. 14, 127; 1886, No.
10, 34, 97; 1889, No. 5, 29, 77; 1890, No. 6, 57. U.S. Consular Reports
1882, 427; 1882-83, 43, 218; 188j^, 106; House Ex. Doc. 157, 49th Con-
gress, 2d Session, 604. C.R.U.S.F.C., 1886 and 1887, 520. H. Marshall, F. A.
Southard, and K. W. Taylor, Canadian-American Industry (New Haven,
1936), 12-15.
134. Dom. Can.: Sess. Pap., 1891, No. 6, 31.
135. Dom. Can.: Jour. H. of C. Sess. 1890, No. 6, App. No. 5.
136. Ibid., 69. Dom. Can.: App. to Jour. H. of C. Sess. 1891, No. 5, 118,
119, 130. Dom. Can.: Sess. Pap., 1889, No. 5, 97, 113; 1890, No. 6, 133;
1891, No. 6, 130, 131, 151, 158, 159, 160, 170.
218 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
1893 the depression already present in agriculture reached the fac-
tories, the warehouses, and the banks. The stagnation of the 'seven-
ties had come back and with its appearance Canadians and Ameri-
cans remained where they were, content to let dreams of new homes
and new fortunes await the return of more hopeful days.
'/Jf:SiSiSSSl3^£kliiSiil&£&i^^fi.ili?-isi!^iimiiiSi,^A
CHAPTER X
FROM THE STATES TO THE PRAIRIE
PROVINCES
1896-1914
To Sir Wilfrid Laurier, Prime Minister of Canada from 1896 to
1911, was ascribed the sentiment that, just as the nineteenth century
had belonged to the United States, the twentieth would be that of
Canada/ During the first decade of the century every aspect of eco-
nomic Hfe in the Dominion corroborated the confident optimism of
the Premier. Work was plentiful and capital was abundant. Every
year saw the completion of hundreds of miles of railroad and the
breaking of thousands of acres of land. Mounting figures of wheat
exportation indicated that Canada was a land of plenty, and the
rising curve of immigration statistics proved that to Europeans it
was as much a land of promise as the United States. From 1896 until
1913, with only a slight break in 1907 and 1908, the prosperity con-
tinued. Bumper crops in the West and high prices in the markets of
the world were the fundamental reasons for this good fortune ; and
the influx of hundreds of thousands of farmers who left the Ameri-
can states to take advantage of the opportunities offered by the
prairie provinces makes the period an important chapter in the his-
tory of Canadian-American population relations.
This was all in sharp contrast with the depression that had pre-
vailed in the middle of the 'nineties. Agriculture as well as industry
had then been in a state of stagnation and people had remained
where they were unless the most real necessity forced a change. The
Canadian government recalled its salaried immigration agents from
the States and the reports that it received from other representatives
brought the information that, although many Americans were re-
vealing an interest in the free lands of Canada, difficulty in dispos-
ing of property and the burden of indebtedness that could not be
liquidated rendered migration impossible."
1. Manitoba Free Press, July 4, 1906.
2. Bom. Can.: Sess. Pap., 1896, No. 13, xi; Part III, 4, 74; 1896, No. 13,
Part IV, 47.
220 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
A gradual improvement in trade and rise in prices for most com-
modities set in during 1896. The same year was marked by the adop-
tion of a more intense Dominion immigration poHcy. These two
forces, operating together, combined to bring almost a million
Americans over the international line into the great wheat belt that
extended westward from the Red River to the foothills of the Cana-
dian Rockies during the succeeding fifteen years. The movement, in
its direction, at least, was natural. The farmer was only following
the northward extension of the prairie land of the middle western
states that had been put under the plow twenty years before. Within
the United States the great prairies merged into the great plains,
where bitter experience had taught that only a new agricultural
technique could produce grain. But a little north of the forty-ninth
parallel the prairie belt curves to the west and before reaching the
Rockies turns to the southwest. WHien viewed upon a map of North
America it forms a gigantic question mark, the upper loop being
filled by a bulge of the American high plains extending beyond the
boundary to form the semiarid lands of southern Alberta.^ That this
northern prairie curve was fertile had long been known ; that it could
produce wheat in spite of early frosts had to be demonstrated. But
by 1900 this was done and a few years later Americans were reading
with amazement that northwest Canada possessed a potential wheat
area four times as large as that of the United States. It was inevi-
table that in a world demanding more and more wheat these acres
should be peopled by Canadians, Americans, or Europeans,*
The new governmental policy made it more certain that Americans
should have an active part in the process. In 1896 Clifford Sifton
became Minister of the Interior. He set out to advertise the new agri-
cultural empire throughout the upper Mississippi Valley, knowing
well that in these states were to be found farmers and farmers' sons
3. A map of the soil quality can be found in J. G. Bartholomew^ An Atlas
of Economic Geography (London, 1914), 41, 42. See also W. A. Mackintosh,
Prairie Settlement, The Geographical Setting (Toronto, 1934), 22, 23.
4. C.R.U.S.F.C., 1903, I, 125; 190i, 439, 440, M. C. and T. Reports,
Nov,, 1905, 9. The Nation (New York), July 2, 1903, Vol. 77, 6, For close
analysis of prairie settlement, consult A. S, Morton and C, Martin, History
of Prairie Settlement and "Dominion Lands" Policy; J. B. Hedges, The
Federal Railway Land Subsidy Policy of Canada; and his Building the Cana-
dian West.
FROM STATES TO PRAIRIE PROVINCES 221
gathered like bees ready to swarm, and appreciating to the fullest
the pioneering virtues that they could offer. Pubhcity and persua-
sion were only the beginning of the program. Special rates on rail-
roads, barracks for waiting settlers, and a general watchfulness over
their subsequent well-being were other elements.^ Among the offices
opened was one in Omaha. During 1896 the agent stationed there
was successful in sending only one settler who was wilhng to venture
into what his neighbors described as a "frozen country." In 1897 the
same office persuaded ninety to go.® Meanwhile, another method was
inaugurated. Capitahsts in the United States were induced to buy
wide stretches of land at bargain prices and the companies that they
formed then adopted their own advertising and selling procedure,
entering into the campaign with the vigor of experienced real-estate
promoters. It was common for a company of this nature to pay its
local representative a dollar for every acre that he sold, thereby
encouraging persistent work.''
The pubhcity efforts of the Immigration Department expanded
with the years. From the beginning advertisements were inserted in
local newspapers and agricultural journals, and in 1902 they ap-
peared in about seven thousand periodicals. At state and county
fairs and at larger expositions, such as those at Buffalo in 1901 and
at St. Louis in 1903, exhibits of the agricultural products of the
northwestern provinces aroused interest and provided hsts of pros-
pects. Printed information was forwarded to inquirers and distrib-
uted by the bureaus that were opened in the most promising locali-
ties. Salaried general agents were sent to the border and middle
western states and a great number of commissioned representatives
were appointed who received three dollars for every man, two dollars
for every woman, and one dollar for every child whom they per-
suaded to emigrate to Canada.* The government did not, however^
5. Manitoba Free Press, Oct. 22, 1906. Canadian American, June 4, 1898.
John W. Dafoe, "Western Canada: Its Resources and Possibilities," The
American Monthly Review of Reviews, Vol. 35, 697—710. John W. Dafoe,
Clifford Sifton in Relation to His Times (Toronto, 1931), 131-141.
6. Canadian American, July 15, 1911.
7. Ibid., Feb. 10, 1906. Manitoba Free Press, Nov. 27, 1907. C.R.U.S.F.C,
1903, I, 125.
8. Dom. Can.: Sess. Pap., 1898, No. 13, 27; 1900, No. 13, Part II, 178;
222 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
provide any free transportation. The railroads of the western prov-
inces granted a special rate of one cent a mile from the international
boundary to his destination to anyone who was certified by some
immigration agent as a bona fide land seeker and if he returned for
his family the same concession was made to them.®
The private land companies were more generous. They also adver-
tised widely, both in their individual capacities and as members of
a joint organization known as the Western Canada Immigration
Association, Excursions for invited guests, who in the course of two
or three weeks visited the most rapidly developing areas and the most
scenic spots, were numerous and effective. The guests were usually
professional journalists of established reputation who were con-
nected with periodicals of wide circulation, some of them the "muck-
raking" periodicals that were reaching dissatisfied workers and
farmers at that time. The glowing descriptions of new farms, new
towns, and new railroads were often successful in arousing a curiosity
that could be satisfied only by a personal visit, and if the interested
person were considered one whose judgment enjoyed great respect
among his neighbors, a land company did not hesitate to pay his
expenses on a tour of observation.^"
A generation earlier, when Canadians had been leaving for the
western states in numbers that aroused concern, many patriotic ob-
servers maintained that propaganda was the only cause and urged
that steps be taken to curb the operations of land companies and
their agents. Now it was the turn of Americans to feel the same way
and make the same suggestions. In the United States, however, the
opposition was a little more practical, because there were rival
organizations that were conducting their own campaigns : railroads
that still had millions of acres of their original grants unsettled, log-
ging companies in Michigan and Wisconsin that possessed tracts
from which the timber had been cut and which they now wanted to
dispose of to farmers, states that had unoccupied school and swamp-
lands.^^ Their counterpropaganda of detrimental reports regarding
1902, Part II, 144. M. C. and T. Reports, Jan., 1905, 306. A typical adver-
tisement is printed in The Prairie Farmer, Feb. 2, 1905.
9. Manitoba Free Press, March 9, 1906.
10. Dom. Can.: Sess. Pap., 1898, No. 13, Part IV, 168. M. C. and T. Re-
ports, Nov., 1905, 5. Manitoba Free Press, Jan. 6, 1905; April 11, 1907.
11. Dom. Can.: Sess. Pap., 1902, No. 25, Part II, 145, 153, 175; 1903,
FROM STATES TO PRAIRIE PROVINCES 223
the western provinces was not, however, successful. It was discounted
by those who had friends among the settlers, from whom they were
receiving encouraging letters, and it was often answered by the pres-
ence of the prosperous emigrant himself who had returned to pass a
winter in his old home and conduct a party of his neighbors back
with him. In some places the American rivals succeeded in persuad-
ing the directors of fairs to prohibit the showing of Canadian ex-
hibits, and numerous state and regional immigration societies were
formed in the United States to use the same methods of advertise-
ment and pubhcity that the Dominion officials had found so suc-
cessful/^
Propaganda, however, was not the basic cause of the migration
across the line, and propaganda could not bring it to an end. Ex-
panding population forced an emigration from the farms of the
Middle West and opportunity directed the course of the current
toward Canada. The farmer with several sons growing into manhood
was anxious regarding their future. His own career had probably
been fortunate. The homestead on which he had pioneered had by
1912 become a. valuable farm which could be sold for from seventy-
five to a hundred dollars an acre. But that had been the experience
of all his neighbors as well ; and the lands that belonged to him were
surrounded by lands that could command the same price. To buy
every son a farm large enough to support a family was out of the
question. Some sons entered the professions and others were at-
tracted by the lure of the city which the morahsts of the time so
zealously deplored. But in the well-filled households there were still
many sons left over, each of whom had the ambition of becoming the
owner of a hundred and sixty acres of good wheatland which he could
cultivate in the ways that he had learned at home.^^
That was not a new problem in rural America. But the father and
No. 25, Part II, 160; 1905, No, 25, Part II, 32, 41; 1906-07, No. 25, Part
II, 79.
12. Ibid. 1904, No. 25, Part II, 138, 139; 1905, No. 25, Part II, 33, 39;
1906-07, No. 25, Part II, 79, 80. The Globe, Dec. 14, 1909; June 13, 1912.
Manitoba Free Press, Sept. 26, 1905; Jan. 16, 1906; Nov. 27, 1907; March
30, 1908.
13. C.R.U.S.F.C., 1903, I, 125. The Literary Digest (New York), Dec.
28, 1912, XLV, 1217-1219. Bom. Can.: Sess. Pap., 1899, No. 13, Part II,
284. Manitoba Free Press, April 25, 1905.
224 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
grandfather had solved it by "moving west" and with sHght varia-
tions continuing the agriculture that they already knew. Free land
had not disappeared by 1900, but the acres that were available as
homestead grants, instead of black prairie, were of soil that had to
be irrigated or farmed by a new routine that conserved the moisture.
In the states in the Pacific Northwest and in California and the
Southwest, land was also available either from the government or at
prices that were low. But here also methods had to be changed.^* In
the wheat provinces of Canada, however, Httle modification was
necessary. Crops were the same and, except for a shorter growing
season and different seed and planting, conditions were about the
same as at home. The prudent father, therefore, sold his farm and
with the proceeds bought lands several times the extent of the farm
he had given up, constructed the necessary buildings, and often had
cash left over for a reserve. Thereafter the future of the sons was
assured.^^
Canada also offered opportunity to less prosperous Americans.
Some of these had been unable to recover from the poor crops and
low prices of the 1890's, and a new start in a new country seemed
more hopeful than a continued struggle with mortgages and high
taxes or high rents. To the tenant class, also, many advertisements
were directed ; and the argument that the man who was paying ten
dollars an acre rent could purchase in Canada land at ten dollars an
acre that would yield him an income of ten dollars per acre was irre-
sistible. The "hired men" also looked to the Northwest with hopes.^®
The labor history of the Canadian prairie region during the ten
years following 1900 was a record of widening demand and rising
wages. Farmers offered year-round employment at a rate which made
it possible for the worker to accumulate in a short time sufficient
capital to enable him to purchase a hundred and sixty acres of his
own. In the States, the most that he could expect was to save enough
to buy the equipment necessary for a renter. The pioneer settler
whose resources were slender could find a job for himself and his
team upon the railroad projects that were gradually being woven
14. The Prairie Farmer, Jan. 11, 1909.
15. D. C. and T. Reports, Oct. 18, 1910, No. 90, 235.
16. The Canadian, II (New York, July 1905), 29. Manitoba Free Press,
Nov. 4, 1905. Dom. Can.: Sess. Pap., 1898, No. 13, Part IV, 108, 109.
FROM STATES TO PRAIRIE PROVINCES 225
together into a comprehensive network of transportation. Harvest
hands were always in seasonal demand and it was not unusual for a
laborer who had worked his way with the harvest up the prairie belt
and across the line to remain in the provinces when he learned at first
hand that a few years of steady service would assure him the position
of an independent landowner/^
But tenants and laborers were not the class that the agents of the
Dominion were seeking from the United States. A growing flood of
immigration from Europe was pouring into the ocean ports on the
St. Lawrence. These newcomers had muscle, energy, and ambition.
Many of them were absorbed in the prosperous cities and towns of
Quebec and Ontario; many were routed through to Winnipeg and
beyond. Here as servants and laborers they could take an active part
in the great forward movement of development. But the Europeans
usually lacked capital and they had had no North American experi-
ence, two factors that were almost as indispensable as labor for estab-
lishing new farms. It was these two essentials that the authorities
recruited chiefly in the middle western states. ^^
The pioneering qualities of the American were well known. He was
accustomed to prairie farming; an unbroken expanse of grass was
not a terrifying scene. He struck out boldly and confidently, know-
ing how to turn the sod and plant the wheat. The European, unless
he came from the eastern European steppes, and to some extent even
the American and Canadian from the old farming sections to the
east, hesitated to leave the vicinity of the railroad and his beginnings
in agriculture were timid and uncertain. Provide an Englishman and
an American with the same amount of capital, so the saying went,
and the former will prove himself an amateur and secure only a
scanty return, whereas the latter will enjoy success. The settlers from
the United States usually had their land under crop by the second
year and had estabhshed churches and schools for the community.
The American was thought of as an immigrant in a sense different
from the meaning of the word when it was applied to other arrivals. ^^
17. Canadian American, Aug. 7, 1909. The Globe, Aug. 2\, 1909. Mani-
toba Free Press, March 10, 1906. Dom. Can.: Sess. Pap., 1900, No. 13, Part
II, 80, 141 ; 1903, No. 25, Part II, 126; 190^, No. 25, Part I, 11 ; 1912, No.
25, Part I, 13.
18. The Literary Digest, Dec. 28, 1912, XLV, 1217-1219.
19. The Prairie Farmer, April 15, 1909. Manitoba Free Press, July 17,
226 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
In like manner, the capital brought in by the farmer from below
the line was in a form that made it possible to put it to work at once.
In addition to the sums which he used to pay for land, he was gener-
ally provided with a cash reserve that in some years was estimated to
average as much as a thousand dollars a family. This was good for
local business, but in the long run it was not so significant as the
working equipment that came in as "settlers' goods." The horses,
cattle, and implements of one family often filled a car and sometimes
two. What the value of this property was could at no time be stated
with any certainty. Customs officials were generous in their interpre-
tation of tariff regulations when goods were brought in by bona fide
settlers. Two thousand dollars a family was the estimate made by an
American consul in 1909, and in that year a magazine writer de-
clared that the immigration of Americans during the preceding six
years represented an investment of a billion dollars.^"
During the early years of the great influx, homesteads had un-
doubtedly the largest drawing power. Free lands alternated with
purchase lands, and the observant settler who was provided with
some means could buy a desirable section or more, not far from the
hundred and sixty acres that he was developing under the provisions
of the homestead regulations. Rapid occupation quickly removed the
most promising opportunities and although new areas were opened
for entry, the process did not keep pace with the advance of settle-
ment. Homesteaders who were delinquent in fulfilling the require-
ments were at once turned out. Other pioneers were ready to step in
and continue improvement.-^ But in spite of the decline in the avail-
ability of free land, the immigration movement increased and many
of the arrivals deliberately chose to buy without wasting any time
in a search for what was difficult to find. As early as 1905 it was
1905. Agnes C. Laut, "The Last Trek to the Last Frontier," Century Maga-
zine (New York), new series. Vol. 56, 99-112. C.R.U.S.F.C, 1903, I, 124-
125. M. C. and T. Reports, Nov., 1905, 5. Bom. Can.: Sess. Pap., 1902, No.
25, Part II, 133.
20. Ihid., 1899, No. 13, Part II, 259; C.R.U.S.F.C, 1909, 435. M. C. and
T. Reports, Nov., 1905, 5. The Globe, June 11, 1909. Agnes C. Laut, op. cit.,
99-116.
21. Dom. Can.: Sess. Pap., 1899, No. 13, Part II, 258; 1906, No. 25, Part
I, 13; 1906-07, No. 25, Part II, 81 ; 1907-08, No. 25, Part I, 11 ; 1912, No.
25, Part II, 93. C.R.U.S.F.C, 1903, I, 124, 125; 1909, 435.
FROM STATES TO PRAIRIE PROVINCES 227
recognized that homesteaders who came from the United States were
generally from the less prosperous parts of the Republic. The
wealthier American immigrants bought from the railroad corpora-
tions or from some resident who, coming early, had invested in a
larger tract than he could cultivate and was now wilhng to dispose
of part of his holdings at a substantial profit. The financial success
of these early arrivals, many of whom multiphed their original capi-
tal several times, encouraged the emigration of others who learned
what their fortune had been. The successful one often went back to
the States, but he left several Americans in his place.^^
Except for some fluctuation in numbers, the succeeding years of
immigration revealed few new features. The statistics of the move-
ment were incomplete at best and left unanswered many questions as
to origin and condition which would provide an enlightening com-
mentary on the nature of the migration. However, information de-
rived from many sources indicated that among the first arrivals from
the States were many who were Canadian by birth or the children
of Canadians who, a generation earlier, had been carried by the
trend of the time into the Mississippi Valley. Professor George
Bryce, who knew the situation well, estimated that one-half of the
entrants to western Canada were of Canadian stock. "^ It was natural
to ascribe this return to the old allegiance to a deep-seated patriot-
ism that could not forget the Dominion. Undoubtedly sentiment was
a factor in many cases, but it was only one of several. The early
agents that were sent out to advertise the Northwest concentrated
their first efforts in communities where ex-Canadians were numerous
and met an encouraging response. The drawing power of the new
lands was felt first in the state of North Dakota and in the adjacent
parts of Minnesota, an area in which many expatriate Canadians
had taken up lands. ^* They were a border people and the sweep of
22. Manitoba Free Press, April 8, 1905; May 15, 1907. John W. Dafoe,
"Western Canada," The Literary Digest, Dec, 28, 1912, 1217-1219. M. C.
and T. Reports, Nov., 1905, 5-6.
23. Canadian American, June 30, 1906. The Globe, Dec. 22, 1909. M. C.
and T. Reports, Nov., 1905, 4—5. Castell Hopkins (ed.). The Canadian An-
nual Review of Public Affairs, 1902, 333.
24. Dom. Can.: Sess. Pap., 1898, No. 13, Part IV, 111. C.R.U.S.F.C.,
1903, I, 125.
228 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
the westward movement merely carried them once more over the in-
ternational hne.
This broader explanation of the high proportion of returning
Canadian stock is strengthened by the fact that during the first five
years of the century the states of the upper Mississippi Valley con-
tributed to the migration in proportions that were directly related
to their nearness to the Northwest. Thereafter more remote states
began to send increasing numbers. By 1907 it was realized that in
the Middle West the people who could be most easily moved had
already departed for Canada or elsewhere, and sohcitation was there-
upon intensified in New England, where presumably many homesick
Canadians might be found, and in New York, Pennsylvania, and
Ohio, where farm prices were also high and where a "back to the
land" movement was evident among industrial workers. ^^ Somewhat
surprising was the interest in the Canadian provinces which was
manifested in the Pacific states. The office of the agent in Spokane
was crowded with inquirers and in 1910 Washington was the border
state that sent the largest number to Canada. But this was in no
sense abnormal. It was merely a continuation of the northward flow
of population that had been the underlying characteristic of the
settlement of the country to the west of the Rocky Mountains. ^^
The location of Americans in the Northwest was closely associated
with the opening of rail communications. Manitoba did not receive
many at this time. Its boom had occurred twenty years before and,
although there were sections within its boundaries as yet unpeopled,
the brightest opportunities were offered by the territory bordering
it on the west, which, in 1905, was divided into the two provinces of
Saskatchewan and Alberta. Almost up to the opening of this period
the Canadian Pacific had been the only line of importance, and west
of Manitoba it passed through a region in which stockmen had staked
out ranches wherever water and grass could be found." In 1894 the
"Soo Line," running northwestwardly from St. Paul, after cutting
25. Manitoba Free Press, June 27, 1907. A. S. Hard, "The Foreign In-
vasion of Canada," The Fortnightly Review, Dec., 1902, Vol. 72, 1055. CM.
U.S.F.C., 1909, 414.
26. Canadian American, April 10, 1909. Dom. Can.: Sess. Pap., 1897, No.
13, Part IV, 154. D. C. and T. Reports, June 24, No. 147, 1319.
27. W. A. Mackintosh, Prairie Settlement, 46, 48-52, 53, 54, 59.
FROM STATES TO PRAIRIE PROVINCES 229
diagonally through North Dakota, crossed the boundary at Portal
and established connections with the Canadian Pacific. This route
became the great highway of middle western migration. During the
season, night after night, trains left St. Paul with from three to five
hundred settlers aboard, whose immediate destination was Moose Jaw
and the neighboring Regina in Saskatchewan. Thence they spread to
the north and west.^^
The rancher could not maintain himself in the face of this influx.
His experience in the states to the south was repeated : the cattleman
was compelled to surrender when he began to be surrounded by
homesteaders. Any land that was suitable for agriculture was taken
up by farmers and many of the large ranching enterprises went out
of business. In Saskatchewan some retreated to the broken country
known as the Cypress Hills and in Alberta others were crowded up
into the foothills of the Rockies. There were still numbers of huge
estates known as "ranches" and many of the settlers who came from
Montana and Wyoming made the raising of stock their principal
concern. But the open range had passed.^^
In the most southern part of Alberta two conditions operated to
force the American from the Mississippi Valley to pass farther on.
This area was the northward projection of the great plains and in
much of it only the construction of extensive systems of irrigation
would make possible the production of grain. The second deterrent
was the presence of the Mormons — ^not that they were unpleasant or
inhospitable neighbors, but the community feeling was strong among
them, so strong that when land in the vicinity appeared upon the
market some adherent of the faith was wilhng to pay a price a little
in advance of the prevailing rate in order to assure the maintenance
of the original character of the community. The close connection
that the colony retained with their original home and the success that
attended their ventures in sugar-beet raising resulted in a steady,
28. Manitoba Free Press, April 25, July 17, 25, Nov. 11, 1905. The Globe,
March 18, 1909; March 29, 1910. Dam. Can.: Sess. Pap., 1902, No. 25, Part
I, 109; 1906, No. 25, Part I, 14, 17.
29. Manitoba Free Press, March 5, July 19, 1905; Feb. 18, 1907. Dom.
Can.: Sess. Pap., 1902, No. 25, Part I, 22; 1906, No. 25, Part I, 19, 23,
Part II, 70. The Prince Edward Island Magazine, V, 309. A map of the
ranching areas can be found in W. A. Mackintosh, Prairie Settlement, 130.
h
230 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
although not large, annual influx from Utah. In 1912 it was esti-
mated that their numbers totaled over twenty thousand.^"
These immigrants, being acquainted with canal engineering and
the science of cultivating the soil under artificial conditions, used
irrigation whenever it was considered desirable. The example was not
lost upon the government or the private owners of the semiarid dis-
tricts. Early in the century several companies and syndicates were
organized to secure the title to extensive tracts and to construct the
necessary canals. They had no difficulty in securing settlers, many
of them being laborers who had originally come in to work upon the
projects, but who, becoming interested, returned to the States and
brought back their families to a permanent home.^^ The largest pri-
vate landholder, the Canadian Pacific Railway, was somewhat slow
in getting started on such enterprises, but when it did, it undertook
a development that was in keeping with its resources and prestige. In
1903 the surveying of a three-million-acre tract began and by 1905
the first irrigated farms were available. Although the land sold at
thirty dollars an acre and was subject to an annual water fee of fifty
cents, apphcants were numerous from the central and Pacific states
where irrigation was no mystery. Not until hard times came in 1913
did they complain about the terms to which they had agreed. ^^
Until the completion of these schemes, the majority of the arrivals
from the United States located either to the north of Regina or along
the branch of the Canadian Pacific from Calgary to Edmonton. This
line, opened in 1891, attracted many from 1902 on, and by 1906 all
land set aside for homestead occupation that was within a reasonable
distance of the railroad had been taken up.^^ By this time the ar-
rangement of the settled areas in the two new provinces had assumed
30. Canadian American, April 8, 1905. The Globe, March 25, 1912. Dom.
Can.: Sess. Pap., 1899, No. 13, Part II, 262; 1900, No. 13, Part I, 17, Part
II, 154; 1901, No. 25, Part II, 145; 1904, No. 25, Part II, 111.
31. Ibid., 1895, No. 13, xx; 1897, No. 13, xxvii; 1900, No. 13, Part I, 17,
27; 1906, No. 25, xxvii; 1906-07, No. 25, xxix, xxx. Part I, 72; 1912, No.
25, Part I, 36.
32. Canadian American, Oct. 14, 1911. Manitoba Free Press, Jan. 13,
April 4, Dec. 22, 1906. Dom. Can.: Sess. Pap., 19 H, No. 25, Part VII, 4.
D. C. and T. Reports, June 7, 1912, No. 134, 981.
33. Bom. Can.: Sess. Pap., 1902, No. 25, Part II, 109; 1906, Part I, 14.
C.R.U.S.F.C., 1903, I, 124, 125.
FROM STATES TO PRAIRIE PROVINCES 231
a form that suggested a hollow square: the north and south belt
through central Saskatchewan extending from the border to the
Saskatchewan River at Prince Albert; the east and west block that
filled in the region between the Canadian Pacific Railway and the
boundary ; and the western area from Calgary to Edmonton.^* The
north, alone, was open — the valley of the North Saskatchewan River
where transportation was still about as primitive as in the days be-
fore the railroad had reached the great prairies. But the Grand
Trunk Pacific was already building from Saskatoon to Edmonton,
and in 1907 the tide of immigration began to flow along this new
course. The connections were more directly with the east than with
the south, however, and Europeans and Canadians, rather than
Americans, were the pioneers.^^
Every traveler through Edmonton heard of an agricultural em-
pire still farther to the north. This was the Peace River district, an
area as large as Texas, where the Northwest's staple, wheat, could be
grown with every prospect of success. As early as 1907, some adven-
turous Americans had gone up and found the lands to their satisfac-
tion. The long wagon journey and the slow river steamers which
formed the only transportation system were a distinct drawback and
tardiness in surveying and in establishing land offices slowed up the
progress of development. Nevertheless settlement continued and
numbers increased until an ambitious project brought a railroad to
the edge of the district in 1912. The result was the "rush" of 1913, a
movement that foreshadowed what would have happened had not the
prairie depression of that year introduced caution into public and
private enterprise alike.^®
Important though the railroad was in determining the course and
outline of settlement, some of the immigrants dispensed with it alto-
gether. There was one more chapter to be written in the epic of the
covered wagon. For the residents of the border states who were, per-
34. W. A. Mackintosh, Prairie Settlement, 62-64.
35. Dom. Can.: Sess. Pap., 1906-07, No. 25, Part II, 93, 94, 98; 1907-08,
No. 25, Part II, 94, 95, 100.
36. Canadian American, Feb. 3, 1912. Manitoba Free Press, Oct. 10,
1906; June 8, 1907; May 8, 1908. Dom. Can.: Sess. Pap., 1907-08, No. 25,
Part II, 95; 1912, No. 25, Part I, 29; 1915, No. 25, Part I, 22, 23. C. A.
Dawson and R. W. Murchie, The Settlement of the Peace River Country
(Toronto, 1934), 22, 23, 27.
232 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
haps, within a hundred miles of their Canadian destination, travel-
ing by road involved less trouble and consumed little more time than
the loading and unloading of a earful of household effects and imple-
ments, and it eliminated the worry and care that attended the trans-
portation of livestock by rail. It was also less expensive. Others more
remote from Canada also considered the traditional pioneer way of
moving feasible. It was the customary manner in which the Mormons
traveled from Utah to Alberta ;^^ and when emigration from Ne-
braska and Iowa assumed large proportions, wagon trains, often
including a hundred vehicles, set out from the rendezvous at the hay-
market in South Omaha and followed the old trail along the Missouri
River to Fort Benton, in Montana, and thence, striking off to the
north, finally reached their destination after an overland journey
of eight hundred or a thousand miles. ^^ Smaller companies of rela-
tives and neighbors started from many locahties and the questions
and comments that they provoked en route provided constant adver-
tisement of the new lands to the northwest.^® In estimating the immi-
gration in any year, the authorities added 20 to 25 per cent to the
number who entered through the customs stations at the railroad
crossings in order to account for those who simply drove across the
line with family and property.*"
Although many traveled in groups, group settlement was not
typical. The American pioneer was still an individual. The excep-
tions were the Mormons, already mentioned, and residents of the
United States of foreign birth or descent who were bound together
by the common tie of language and often of religion.*^ Western Can-
ada had always been more friendly toward communities of this na-
ture than the United States, in which social minorities of European
37. Dom. Can.: Sess. Pap., 1899, No. 13, Part II, 230; 1900, No. 13,
Part II, 114; 1903, No. 25, Part II, 99. Donald W. Buchanan, "The Mor-
mons in Canada," Canadian Geographical Journal, II (Montreal, 1931),
259.
38. Manitoba Free Press, April 8, 1905. Bom. Can.: Sess. Pap., 1901, No.
25, Part II, 164.
39. Manitoba Free Press, July 25, 1905.
40. Dom. Can.: Sess. Pap., 1902, No. 25, Part II, 109. M. C. and T. Re-
ports, Nov., 1905, 6.
41. Donald W. Buchanan, op. cit., 262. W. A. Mackintosh, Prairie Settle-
ment, 83, 84.
FROM STATES TO PRAIRIE PROVINCES 233
nationalities were almost as unwelcome as if they were political mi-
norities. Accordingly, when a colony of immigrants in the United
States had reached the stage in development at which it began to
feel symptoms of overpopulation, instead of looking about in the
western states for a promising spot to which a subcolony of young
people and newcomers might be sent, many of them turned their at-
tention to the much advertised provinces. Conversely, land promoters
and the immigration agents realized that if a party of settlers of this
nature were once planted, large numbers would follow, and they were
therefore active in spreading among them information regarding the
advantages that Canada could offer. Any history of this phase of the
movement would be a catalogue of colonization projects of various
origins, various nationalities, and various destinations. The group
settlements in western Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta were
arranged in no pattern, but were scattered in a way that proves that
no coordinated program was behind their coming. Although there
migrated from the United States groups of Austrians, Russians,
Dutch, Belgians, and Jews, Germans from Michigan and Swedes and
Norwegians from Minnesota and North Dakota predominated.*-
The coming of several hundreds of Negroes from the cotton states
in 1908 and again in 1911, to locate in a half dozen townships west
of Edmonton, was an event that aroused considerable publicity and
some apprehension at the time.*^
The immigrants from the United States were not all from the
rural sections, but the movement was predominantly agricultural
and the preponderance of farmers among the arrivals was a striking
feature that impressed all observers. Many of those who came with
no intention of taking up lands were nevertheless in some way con-
nected with the agricultural expansion. Experienced real-estate
operators closed their offices in the States and hung up their signs
in the new boom country. Professional grain men from Minneapolis
42. A map showing racial origins of the settlers in the Canadian northwest
in 1905 can be found in the report by James Mavor in United Kingdom,
House of Commons Sessional Papers, 1905, Vol. 54. Map IV; see also C. A.
Dawson, Group Settlement: Ethnic Communities in Western Canada (To-
ronto, 1935).
43. Canadian American, June 6, 1908; March 4, April 1, 1911. Manitoba
Free Press, March 17, April 20, 1908. The Globe, March 23, April 4, May
27, 1911.
(0
hi
U
o in in lO
UJ >^ I 1 1 I I I
-J wcoioOioin
- - N
FROM STATES TO PRAIRIE PROVINCES 235
established commission houses in Winnipeg and appointed buyers in
every railroad town. The market for farm implements was ever
widening and the manufacturers of the United States sent repre-
sentatives to serve as salesmen and distributors of their products.
Commercial opportunities existed in every community, so that the
young man in Indiana or Nebraska who found all lines of business
crowded with competitors, if he could muster any capital, need only
choose where he would open up shop in Canada. Every year hun-
dreds of new schoolliouses were built and hundreds of additional
teachers were needed to meet the demand.**
Prairie settlement was such an amazing phenomenon, both in num-
bers and in the extent of the country occupied, that it has overshad-
owed some other Canadian developments of the period that were just
as significant in their own areas and which also drew upon the great
reservoir of man power available in the States. The advance of popu-
lation into Saskatchewan and Alberta was paralleled by a contem-
porary movement into Montana, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington.
Irrigation and dry farming were the words that encouraged the tak-
ing up of lands that lay in the areas of scanty rainfall, and fruit
raising was the attraction that drew others into the sheltered moun-
tain valleys. Among these migrants were the usual proportion who
soon experienced pioneer dissatisfaction and felt the restless urge to
move on and try again. Immigration agents persuaded some of them
to take the short journey over the forty-ninth parallel into Alberta;
and reports concerning the prosperity that was visiting British Co-
lumbia were arguments in favor of continuing on toward the
Pacific.*^
Periods of prosperity and rushes of people were nothing new in
the history of British Columbia. But between 1896 and 1913 activity
was in evidence, not in a single hne of economic enterprise, but in all.
Mining and lumbering, which were old industries in the province,
felt a renewed impulse and fishing, salmon canning, and agriculture
rose to new importance.*® To some extent the activity was but the
response to the demands created by the settlement of the treeless
44. Canadian American, May 14, 1910. Manitoba Free Press, Sept. 14,
1905; Jan. 8, 1906. D. C. and T. Reports, Aug. 15, 1911, No. 190, 710.
45. Alva J. Noyes, In the Land of the Chinook, 25, 26.
46. B.C.: Sess. Pap., 1902, 5.
236 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
prairies. The construction of hundreds of thousands of homes and
farm buildings kept the sawmills on the coast busy, and British Co-
lumbia fruit and vegetables were sold in the markets as far east as
Winnipeg. To develop new timberlands more railroads were neces-
sary and branch lines were built up into the valleys to reach the
more remote forests.^^ At the same time a semi-leisured class of people
came in to take up residence in the vicinity of the cities of Vancou-
ver and Victoria. Among them were retired farmers from the Cana-
dian and American W^est who, after a hfetime of pioneering, were
now able to dispose of their holdings on advantageous terms and
locate in a more balmy cHmate for their decHning years. Urban
growth was no less notable than the busy scenes witnessed in every
mining, lumbering, and railroad camp.*^
Capital and labor were necessary for the continuation of this ac-
tivity on an increasing scale ; large amounts of both came from the
United States. Fortunes had been made on the American side of the
line when the same development had been going on in Oregon and
Washington, and investors were eager to repeat the process. They
provided the funds for the opening up of copper and gold proper-
ties; they bought timber preserves that were measured in hundreds
of square miles ; they built lumber mills and financed the working of
coal deposits. British capital was usually invested before it could
reach the most remote of the Canadian provinces, and American
banking houses, financial syndicates, and private individuals seized
many of the opportunities as they arose.*''
There had always been a large supply of floating labor that moved
up and down the Pacific coast as the need for workers shifted from
place to place. Now the summons of British Columbia became insist-
ent, and until 1913, except during certain winter seasons when the
47. Manitoba Free Press, Oct. 28, March 3, June 17, 1905; Jan, 1, 12,
1907. B.C.: Sess. Pap., 1902, 5; 19U, D71. W. A. Carrothers, "The Forest
Industries of British Columbia," in A. R. M. Lower, The North American
Assault on the Canadian Forest.
48. The Globe, Jan. 10, April 6, 1912. Manitoba Free Press, April 8,
Sept. 2, 1905. B.C.: Sess. Pap., 1906, F79.
49. Manitoba Free Press, July 24, Sept. 23, 1907; May 1, 1908. Agnes C.
Laut, op. cit., 99-116. C.R.U.S.F.C, 1900, I, 428. D. C. and T. Reports,
Sept. 27, 1910, No. 72, 940. Marshall, Southard, and Taylor, Canadian-
American Industry, 6, 55-56, 89, 91, 92, 102, 111, 121.
FROM STATES TO PRAIRIE PROVINCES 237
employment in fishing and construction slackened, every man who
applied ready for work was soon drawing a day's wage. The capi-
talists who invested their fortunes in the mills and mines usually
sent over American managers to conduct the operations and they,
in turn, encouraged the coming of skilled laborers with whose meth-
ods and temperament they were acquainted.^" In addition to these
immigrants who had dehberately chosen British Columbia for a
home, the province also received from Alberta an overflow of Ameri-
cans who had not found everything in the prairie districts to their
liking.
Mines and mills were not all that British Columbia had to ojffer.
Agriculture was also entering upon an encouraging period of devel-
opment. An ideal home market existed in the cities and in the camps
and villages where thousands of men were dependent upon food that
was raised by others. The farmer who could locate some alluvial
acres near these enterprises was assured of a profitable cash return
for all that he produced. Expansion was hindered only by the diffi-
culty of securing help, for men preferred the highly paid although
seasonal work in the industries to the routine of year-round farm
life. Only the assistance of Indians and Orientals made possible the
gathering of the harvests. The average farmer was not much inter-
ested in expansion. He was generally a person from the prairie states
or provinces, a man with some savings who had given up the respon-
sibility and uncertainty of a hundred and sixty acres of wheat for
twenty acres of fruit, vegetables, and poultry, and who had ex-
changed hot summers and cold winters for the more equable tempera-
ture of the Pacific valleys. Fruit raising on a large scale and for the
export trade was growing in popularity in the southern parts of the
province, however, and trained growers passed over the high-priced
fruit lands in Washington to plant more extensive orchards in Brit-
ish Columbia. ^^
50. Manitoba Free Press, Jan. 1, 1907. B.C.: Sess. Pap., 1900, 40. C.R.
U.S.F.C., 1901, I, 320. D. C. and T. Reports, July 6, 1910, No. 2, 25; July
20, 1911, No. 168, 293-294; Nov. 25, 1911, No. 277, 1018. H. A. Innis,
Settlement and the Mining Frontier (Toronto, 1936), 270-320.
51. Manitoba Free Press, Jan. 12, 1907. M. C. and T. Reports, March,
1903, 452. B.C.: Sess. Pap., 1902, 11, 40, 82, 517-519; 1905, 83, 84; 1906,
F79.
238 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
One other part of the Dominion was attracting the attention of
investors and settlers — ^the wilderness to the northeast and northwest
of Lake Superior. The Canadian Pacific Railway had been built, not
to open up the resources of this almost unknown territory, but to
reach the western prairies. Its development awaited the time when
prospectors reported the presence of minerals and the province of
Ontario became interested in the use of its lands. This time came
shortly before 1900. The fabulous wealth coming out of the copper
and iron ranges in Minnesota stimulated the search for similar de-
posits in areas of like geological formation in Ontario, and the search
was rewarded to such an extent that American capital considered it
worth while to undertake mining operations. The construction of a
railroad northward from Sault Ste. Marie to connect with the main
line of the Canadian Pacific made the region directly accessible from
Michigan and Wisconsin, and people from these states, both as in-
vestors and as laborers, had a hand in the development.^^
New Ontario was the name given to the district, an area that ex-
tended westward from the Ottawa River to Port Arthur and Fort
William. There was no uniformity in conditions and there was no
concerted effort to bring in people. Nevertheless they came, to farm
as well as to mine. The Algoma Central Railroad had been given a
grant of land on condition that a thousand settlers be located along
the line each year for ten years; and in 1905 a Bureau of Coloniza-
tion was set up by the province of Ontario. The advertisements issued
by these two agencies succeeded in starting an inflow of population :
French Canadians from the mines of Michigan, and Scandinavians
from the woods of northern Wisconsin and Minnesota. But getting
a farm established in a region of such difficult pioneering was bound
to be slow and no fortune could be made in places where supplies
were expensive and harvest labor scarce. Not until 1912 did it seem
that the response to the opportunities would be at all general and
then the great wave of Canadian prosperity had almost run its
course.®^
62. A. J. Herbertson and O. J. R. Howarth (eds.), The Oxford Survey
of the British Empire: America (Oxford, 1914), 112. CM.U.S.F.C, 1906,
62. Dom. Can.: Sess. Pap., 1906, No. 25, Part II, 79. H. A. Innis, Settle-
ment and the Mining Frontier, 321—371.
53. Canadian American, June 15, 1912. Dom. Can.: Sess. Pap., 1901, No.
FROM STATES TO PRAIRIE PROVINCES 239
Beyond New Ontario lay the Rainy River district, stretching from
Lake Superior to the Lake of the Woods. This was a second border
section that felt the impulses arising out of the early twentieth-cen-
tury boom. The building of a railroad from Port Arthur to Winni-
peg that followed the old canoe route from the Great Lakes to the
Northwest was projected as a link in a new transcontinental system.
While construction was in progress, there was need of much labor,
and the future of the new towns and of the scattered agricultural
areas along the route was so encouraging that, in anticipation of a
rise in values, farmers and tradesmen moved in from the United
States and laborers on the railroad sent for their families. The year
1905 marked the completion of the line and thereupon much of the
activity came to an end. An unprecedented number of immigrants
arrived in that year, but thereafter settlement lagged, for the region
offered no opportunities that were not present elsewhere and usually
with more promise.^*
Although the province of Ontario was not successful in any pro-
gram of attracting experienced pioneers from the United States to
settle its frontiers, nevertheless immigrants from the Republic did
come. The history of population expansion in North America reveals
that in the last stages of every great westward surge of settlement a
reverse movement set in. This was made up of prudent buyers who
realized that the departure of farmers had depressed the price of
lands below their true v^alue and that the purchase of a farm that was
near city markets would be a wise investment. During 1911 and
1912, residents of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois turned their attention
to bargains available in the western counties of Ontario. Families
who sold their lands in the middle western states at from $125 to
$150 per acre bought farms just as fertile, not far from the city of
Detroit but on the Canadian side of the river, at prices that ranged
25, Part II, 172; 1906, No. 25, 90; P.O.: Sess. Pap., 1896, XXVIII, No. 6,
19; 1901, XXXIII, No. 29, 8, 11, 12. M. C. and T. Reports, July, 1900,
390. D. C. and T. Reports, Sept. 7, 1912, No. 211, 1223. A. R. M. Lower,
Settlement and the Forest Frontier in Eastern Canada (Toronto, 1936), 58—
75 and passim.
64. Dom. Can.: Sess. Pap., 1899, No. 13, Part II, 290; 1900, No. 13, Part
II, 188, 197; 1902, No. 25, Part II, 171; 1903, No. 25, Part II, 154; 1905,
No. 25, Part II, 60. M. C. and T. Reports, June, 1901, 164.
J*
o
Si.
FROM STATES TO PRAIRIE PROVINCES 241
from $60 to $85 per acre. Real-estate operators saw the possibilities
and, taking options upon available lands, advertised them in the
neighboring states. ^^
Not much publicity appeared regarding this movement or regard-
ing another that was taking place at the same time. For reasons of
good will as well as because of the tariff, American manufacturers
considered it wise to build branches of their establishments within
the Dominion. At the beginning of 1910 an estimate placed the num-
ber of factories operated by Americans within Canada at two hun-
dred. Every factory of this nature meant American foremen and
superintendents, and occasionally skilled workers, who often entered
for a temporary stay which tended to become permanent.^®
The migrations of men, capital, and skill that were noticeable
along the international boundary from Quebec to British Columbia
occasionally aroused worried comment in the American press. Do-
mestic land companies and railroads entered upon advertising cam-
paigns and adopted pohcies that were intended to counteract the
attractions of the neighboring country. Several of the states that
were painfully aware of the loss subsidized bureaus of immigration
whose duty was not only to invite outsiders into the state but also to
persuade the residents to remain. ^^ The American Federal govern-
ment took no direct steps to stem the tide, but some of its land poli-
cies undoubtedly had the effect of cutting down the number by shift-
ing part of the current and inducing some prospective emigrants to
hesitate. The opening for settlement of certain lands that had
hitherto been set aside for Indian reservations in South Dakota and
Nebraska reduced the flow of immigrants into western Canada in
1905 ; and the Kincaid Law of the same year which offered home-
steads of 640 acres in the "dry belt" on the same terms as the tradi-
tional 160 acres elsewhere was thought to have exerted a similar
55. The Globe, July 10, 1912. D. C. and T. Reports, July 15, 1911, No.
164, 230, 231 ; Jan. 3, 1912, No. 2, 42. Dom. Can.: Sess. Pap., 1901, No. 25,
Part II, 173. B. Hudgins, "Tobacco Growing in Southwestern Ontario," Eco-
nomic Geography, XIV (July, 1938), 223-233.
56. Canadian American, Jan. 13, 1906; Jan. 22, 1910. C.R.U.S.F.C., 1906,
35, 42, 60, 70 ; 1909, 494. Marshall, Southard, and Taylor, op. cit., 29-87.
57. Manitoba Free Press, Jan. 16, 1906. Dom. Can.: Sess. Pap., 1905, No.
25, Part II, 31, 32; 1906-07, No. 25, Part II, 79; 19U, No. 25, Part II,
105, 112.
242 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
influence. The irrigation and reclamation plans that were being
pushed so enthusiastically in the years from 1905 to 1912 would, it
was believed, when completed, turn the course of American westward
migration back into American channels.^^
Those who were worried could find some consolation in the fact
that the flow of people was not entirely away from the United States.
From the Maritime Provinces there was still a steady migration of
young people to the commercial cities of New England and beyond
which was so persistent that farms and shops complained of the difii-
culty of securing the necessary help, and the provincial governments
were induced to renew their efforts to secure the location of immi-
grants from Europe within their boundaries. ^^ Quebec, also, sent its
annual contingents down to the textile centers from the French vil-
lages that seemed to be always stocked with young people; and al-
though some workers returned to settle upon lands in the province
of their birth, the balance was decidedly in favor of the States. More-
over the emigration of well-to-do Ontario farmers to the United
States had not entirely come to an end.^°
Any program that the Federal government of the United States
might have undertaken would have been unnecessary after 1913.
That date rather than 1914 marked the end of the boom and an
accompanying slump in migration. British Columbia was the first
region to feel the recession. There had always been some who were
concerned over the unsatisfactory character of its development.
Many of the local farmers failed in the new type of agriculture that
they undertook to practice. Not all could shift successfully from the
cultivation of grain to the raising of fruit and vegetables, and after
a few years of failure the temptation to enter the mills and the mines
could no longer be resisted. Others who did not actually fail in agri-
culture did not like the isolation of farms, often rather inaccessible,
and they also joined the industrial ranks. So long as the export de-
68. The Globe, July 10, 1912. Doin. Can.: Sess. Pap., 1905, Part I, 33;
Part II, 51 ; 1906, No. 25, Part II, 74; 1906-07, No. 25, Part II, 79, 94.
59. C.R.U.S.F.C., 1904, 463; 1908, II, 48; 1909, 444. M. C. and T. Re-
ports, Oct., 1906, 54; May, 1907, 83. D. C. and T. Reports, Aug. 11, 1910,
No. 33, 451 ; Nov. 19, 1913, No. 271, 924, 925.
60. C.R.U.S.F.C., 1903, II, 106; 1909, 466, 494. B. C. and T, Reports,
Sept. 7, 1912, No. 211, 1223.
FROM STATES TO PRAIRIE PROVINCES 243
mand for lumber continued, the presence of these men caused no diffi-
culties. But building operations could not go on forever at the pace
that had continued for a decade, and when the demand from the
prairies abruptly declined, mills shut down, camps were closed, and
railroad construction came to an end.^^
Nature, which had given rain and sunshine in abundance for sev-
eral years, did not continue to favor the prairies. In South Dakota
some seasons had already been producing crops so short that they
could be characterized as failures. Farmers there who wanted to
better their condition by emigration to Canada could not find pur-
chasers and therefore lacked the money to finance the change. In
western Canada the summer of 1912 was a disappointment and early
frosts destroyed the hopes that remained when autumn had begun.
During 1913 a financial stringency was apparent; there was less
buying and employment. In the summer it became evident that the
movement of European immigration was declining in volume. The
whole world was feeling a severe economic contraction. The first part
of the year 1914 was marked by poor business and an oversupply of
men seeking work.^^ Whether this was the beginning of a prolonged
agricultural depression, or merely a pause in what was destined to
be a steady progress, was a question which was repeatedly asked. It
was, however, never answered. Before the summer of 1914 was over
the British Empire was at war, and for the next four years, indeed
for several years thereafter, the course and the aftermath of that
conflict determined the nature of the population relations that
existed between the Dominion and the neighboring Republic.
61. B.C.: Sess. Pap., 1902, 518; 1903, J31 ; 19H, D57, D69, D71. Bom.
Can.: Sess. Pap., 1915, No. 25, Part I, 27. D. C. and T. Reports, March 26,
1912, No. 72, 1245; Oct. 22, 1913, No. 247, 415.
62. The Globe, Jan. 1, Nov. 20, 1912. Bom. Can.: Sess. Pap., 1913, No.
25, Part I, 38;1914., No. 25, Part II, 108; 1913, No. 25, xxxv, Part I, 14.
CHAPTER XI
WAR AND ITS AFTERMATHS
1914.-1938
Between 1914 and 1933 the United States and Canada passed
through a rapid sequence of violent experiences out of which emerged
their first systematic efforts to curb the free interchange of their
peoples. The demands of the war of 1914—1918, which had engaged
Canada actively from its beginning and the United States from
April, 1917, evoked tremendous increases in the productivity of
North America. Not only did both countries expand their agricul-
ture to unforeseen heights, but they also built up industrial appara-
tus of such magnitude as considerably to alter their economic, social,
and political organizations, domestically and internationally. In
four years the United States was transformed from a debtor into a
creditor nation and Canada rose cometlike to take and hold her place
as the fifth among the trading nations of the world.
Vulnerable because so much of her prosperity depended on her
ability to sell her products abroad, Canada felt the effects of the
immediate postwar depression longer than did the United States, but
from 1923 to 1929 both countries "boomed" dizzily until they top-
pled over the edge of a depression whose bottom was not reached
until 1933. In that depression, when bread lines scarred the cities,
and drought and falling prices set farmers drifting across the con-
tinent, each country began to repatriate the immigrants from the
other who had become public charges, to discourage the entry of im-
migrants who would be competitors for the seriously reduced oppor-
tunities for employment, and in many other ways to cut down the
old free migration to and fro across the boundary. Such border re-
gions as those along the Detroit and Niagara rivers, where residents
of both countries had frequently lived on one side of the boundary
and worked on the other, and where there were Americans who had
chosen to Hve in Canada because alcoholic beverages were obtainable
there, underwent serious and prolonged disruptions while working
out a modus vivendi. The streams of Canadians and Americans bent
on transferring residence from one country to the other dwindled to
WAR AND ITS AFTERMATHS 245
comparative trickles, and only the enormous seasonal waves of tour-
ist interchange served as reminders of the earlier, easier days.^
The same years gradually brought home to some Canadians, at
least, an underlying fact which had been somewhat obscured in the
past by the surges and excitements of the North American migra-
tions and by the waves of immigration from Europe. This was that
North America north of the Rio Grande contained at any given
moment what amounted approximately to a single structure of op-
portunities for making a living. The inhabitants of older settled
regions and newcomers from abroad had never ceased moving out-
ward, north and south and east and west, to occupy good new lands,
as transportation reached them and provided outlets to markets, or
to seize upon other opportunities. The migrants themselves had paid
next to no heed to territorial sovereignty, so that the combined popu-
lations of the United States and Canada had always presented a pic-
ture of one body of North Americans making the best livings they
could from what the whole continent offered at any one time.
The logical consequence of all this, however, once almost the last
cheap good lands in western Canada were gobbled up between 1895
and 1914, was that a general readjustment began to take place as
restless Americans and Canadians looked about them with an eye to
improving their condition. Distinct movements inward became no-
ticeable. All sorts of old and new factors could now be clearly seen
operating in a relative way — cheapness and goodness and accessi-
bility of farms and fisheries, forests and mines ; the pulling power of
cities and metropolitan areas; the effects of protective tariffs on
markets and on the location of industries ; and the appetite for labor
of industrial enterprises. No one in the United States paid much
attention to these circumstances as they operated on American and
Canadian residents of Canada except a few anxious labor leaders
1. During the depression year 1931—1932, according to the relatively un-
satisfactory border records, some 10,500,000 Canadian visits of business or
pleasure were made to the United States and about twice as many American
visits to Canada, or, at least 30,000,000 border crossings in all. "If we add
in our 345,000 permanent American-born we might almost say that every
tenth person the ordinary active Canadian meets as he goes about his busi-
ness is or has been an American." R. H. Coats, "Movements of Population,"
in R. G. Trotter et al. (eds.), Conference on Canadian-American Affairs
(Boston, 1937), 120.
246 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
along the border, but Canadians, alarmed by a great exodus to the
United States, began to realize that their Dominion could retain
only as many North Americans as were at any particular time satis-
fied that they were better off there than south of the international
boundary.
Statisticians set to work on the population movements after 1867
and were able to show that neither country's records of border cross-
ings were at all adequate to explain what the decennial censuses so
clearly suggested; that is, that Canada's population relative to
North America's represented her share of the total in terms of the
profitable economic opportunity which she could provide.^ In fact, a
few observers were prepared to maintain that Canada's share of the
total population of North America in 1931 would have come to be
approximately the same by natural increase and immigration even
if no efforts had been made by pubhc authorities to attract immi-
grants since the founding of the Dominion in 1867.
The situation can be sharply summarized statistically. Whereas
it had been estimated that over 2,000,000 Americans had entered
Canada with the purpose of settlement during the thirty years be-
fore the census of 1931, the Canadian census takers could find only
344,374 American-born residents in that year, an increase for the
same period of only about 217,000. A year earlier the American
census takers had revealed another aspect of the obvious exodus from
Canada in the fact that there were 1,286,389 Canadian-born resi-
dents of the United States, an increase of about 106,000 since 1901.
These figures took no account of foreign-born North Americans who
had moved to and fro between the two countries, nor were the records
of all kinds of migrants which were kept by border officials of much
2. Interesting examples of this statistical inquiry are R. Wilson, "Migra-
tion Movements in Canada, 1868—1925," Canadian Historical Review, XIII,
156—182; A. R. M. Lower, "The Growth of Canada's Population in Recent
Years," ibid., 431-435; W. B. Hurd, "Population Movements in Canada,
1921—31, and Their Implications," Proceedings of the Canadian Political
Science Association, VI (1934), 220-237; W. B. Hurd and J. C. Cameron,
"Population Movements in Canada, 1921—1931 — Some Further Considera-
tions," Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science, I, 222—245 ;
W. B. Hurd, Racial Origins and Nativity of the Canadian People, reprinted
from Seventh Census of Canada, 1931, XII (Ottawa, 1937) ; R. G. Trotter
et al., op. cit., 106—132.
WAR AND ITS AFTERMATHS 247
help in measuring the exodus.^ Obviously thousands of North Ameri-
cans, native and foreign-born, had found it inconvenient to inform
the border officials of their intentions. Many long stretches of the
international boundary, with countless road crossings, had so few
control offices that, as in Montana and Idaho in 1913—1914: "It
would be such a hardship and inconvenience for them [migrant
farmers] to enter by rail through one of our established ports of
entry that they can hardly be blamed for entering as they do, by
driving across the boundary with all their equipment and effects
along the overland trails" ; or in the state of Washington : "Thou-
sands have walked across the border. Several hundred aliens have
been arrested and returned to the border ports of Blaine and Sumas
for examination. Hundreds of others have undoubtedly crossed the
border during the night-time, thus evading our officers."* Native
North Americans and immigrants from other countries were behav-
ing true to type and they continued to do so remarkably freely until
a sort of economic equilibrium between the two countries was estab-
lished in the late 1920's.
From the figures which are available® it appears that more Ameri-
cans were continuing to go to Canada than Canadians to the United
States down to and including 1914, in spite of the disastrously de-
flationary effects on western Canada, and notably on British Colum-
bia, of the world credit contraction of 1912—1914. Crops were poor
or unremunerative in 1912, 1913, and 1914; railway and other con-
struction was at a standstill; forest and mine operations contracted
sharply; and where real-estate booms had been youngest and most
vigorous, as in Vancouver, their collapse was most abject. Appar-
3. The following recent statistical reconstructions give the general picture
by decades: 1901—1911, immigration to Canada, 1,847,651, estimated emigra-
tion, 865,889; 1911—1921, immigration, 1,728,921, estimated emigration (in-
eluding military losses), 1,297,740; 1921-1931, immigration, 1,509,136, esti-
mated emigration, 1,245,555. The emigration was chiefly to the United States.
The net gain of population (two-thirds by natural increase), 1901—1931, was
5,005,471, or about 93 per cent. Canada Year Book, 1936 (Ottawa, 1936),
107.
4. Annual Report of the U.S. Commissioner General of Immigration. Fis-
cal year ending June 30, 1914 (Washington, 1915), 296, 306.
5. For example, see J. C. Hopkins (ed.). The Canadian Annual Review,
1920 (Toronto, 1921), 241.
248 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
ently because both countries were adversely affected, distressed
American farmers from Atlantic to Pacific still calculated that one
of the best ways to escape debt troubles at home was to clear out
with their remaining capital and equipment to make a fresh start in
the Canadian West, even though they met distressed Canadians on
their way to the United States.^ In those days, too, agricultural ma-
chinery had not yet rendered superfluous the annual harvesters' ex-
cursions on which so many farmers and farmers' sons from older set-
tled regions went to spy out new lands. Probably it is best to think
of the two and a half years before the war of 1914 as a very trying
period during which transient labor and men whose property margin
was wiped out tended to scurry for shelter to the broader economic
wings of the United States, at the same time that experienced farm-
ers in that country who had been through economic fluctuations be-
fore still saw manifest gains to be made by moving to western
Canada.
The war years, 1914—1918, were marked by a great variety of
often conflicting influences on North American migrations. For a
few months after August, 1914, the economic dislocation was serious
and bewildering to peoples accustomed to peace. In addition, on the
one hand Canada contained thousands of immigrants whom the war
had converted into "enemy aliens," many of whom as reservists of
European armies either sought refuge in the United States from
Canadian action or went there so as to be able to return home;
whereas on the other hand the United States contained thousands of
recent male emigrants from the British Isles and other adventurous
or unemployed men, who hurried to Canada to enlist in the armed
forces.^ Then again, up to the United States' entry into the war in
April, 1917, that country provided a convenient, easy refuge for
6. Royal Commission on the Natural Resources, Trade and Legislation of
Certain Portions of His Majesty's Dominions (Cd. 8458, Feb., 1917), Part I,
passim. Farmer's Advocate and Home Journal (Winnipeg), Feb. 10, 1915.
7. The early Canadian contingents contained very high percentages of
British-born. There was a great deal of loose comment on the possibility of
solidly American battalions and even brigades (see for instance The Times
[London], Oct. 28, 1914; Feb. 8, 1915; Dec. 11, 1915), which for various
reasons proved to be impracticable. Large numbers of Americans did enlist
in Canada, but owing to such complications as their change of citizenship the
exact totals are not obtainable. Unofficial estimates varied widely.
WAR AND ITS AFTERMATHS 249
Canadians who did not want to enlist or to be called "slackers" for
not doing so. In 1917, however, ironically enough for the diffident in
both countries, the United States instituted conscription from the
beginning of its active participation, thus anticipating the Canadian
conscription of that year. Ultimately, early in 1918, the two coun-
tries reached an official agreement on methods by which they at-
tempted to control and distribute their man power.*
Meanwhile, a world at war was consuming food products at rates
which sent prices soaring and made farmers rich. The United States
and Canada responded to these demands by expanding their acre-
ages and their flocks and herds with full confidence that everything
they produced would command a market. Yet the farmers of both
countries were confronted by a serious and novel problem. The war
had shut off practically completely the hitherto sustained flow of
labor from across the Atlantic, and the opportunity of enlistment in
the Canadian Army, followed as it was by conscription in both coun-
tries, had dried up much of the available North American reservoir
of farm hands. In spite of vast adventures in large-scale farming in
the United States, Canada continued to attract a substantial, if
dwindling, stream of propertied farmers from all along the northern
fringe of states, and until the United States entered the war, she
systematically, if expensively, recruited farm labor there as well.
Only a war agriculture could have stood this competitive strain,
however, and by the end of the war agricultural intermigration had
fallen to small proportions, except for, the seasonal movements of
American harvesters following the ripening grain or sugar beets
northward, or Canadian hay cutters and potato pickers going south
to meet the season before it reached their own fields.
These were years when considerable numbers of fortunate "wheat-
miners," in Canada as well as in the American Northwest, found it
possible to sell out at a profit and trek southward to swell the popu-
8. Annual Report of the U.S. Commissioner General of Immigration. Fis-
cal year ending June 30, 1918 (Washington), 17. The Globe, April 16, 1917,
estimated the recent exodus from Canada as "of large proportions, averaging
some weeks fully one thousand per day," and the total during the past two
years as "probably over 200,000." Its issue of April 24, 1917, contained par-
ticulars of the cessation by Canada at Washington's request of advertise-
ments in the United States of high wages for farm labor with exemption from
military service. See also The Times, Jan. 21, 1916; Jan. 8, Feb. 7, 1917.
250 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
lation of California.® They were also the years when high prices jus-
tified the introduction of laborsaving machinery which decreased the
farmer's dependence on seasonal labor. With the help of increased
pubhc and private capital, development was accelerated and ex-
panded in large-scale irrigation enterprises which brought American
and Canadian dry lands into production. Only a few keen observers
foresaw the mountainous burden of debt to be carried by someone
when peace came and prices fell.^°
The armies had an insatiable appetite for manufactured goods as
well as food — ships, guns, munitions, motor vehicles, clothing, boots
and shoes, and equipment. At the beginning of the war, American
manufacturers rushed in to fill real or imaginary deficiencies in Can-
ada's industrial equipment and capital resources ; then Canada sys-
tematically adjusted production to the new demands, and, as the war
went on, both countries were called upon increasingly to manufac-
ture and to finance manufacture for other countries as well as them-
selves.^^ North America had never before seen such a feverish expan-
sion of industrial production. Factories and shipyards sprang up
like mushrooms. Allied missions stimulated the organization of great
industrial combinations to which they rushed plans and specifica-
tions across the Atlantic for a mad succession of products in a des-
perate technological race. Great Britain scoured the world for gold
coin and bullion and dispatched it to the mint at Ottawa, where it
was standardized before the inevitable rail journey to New York.
Gradually both countries discovered to their surprise that in a world
of rising prices and currencies divorced from gold their national
money incomes had risen to a point where their own peoples could be
depended upon to contribute or lend the funds necessary to carry
on the war.
The reflections in population movements of these frenzied develop-
ments were complicated in the extreme. While the food industries
9. Canadian-born in California: 1910, 44,647; 1920, 59,686; 1930, 101,-
677.
10. The Canadian agricultural situation can be seen in convenient sum-
mary in Royal Commission on the Natural Resources, etc., cited.
11. The authoritative treatment of the migrations of industry and capital
between the United States and Canada is H. Marshall, F. A. Southard, and
K. W. Taylor, Canadian- American Industry.
WAR AND ITS AFTERMATHS 251
laid their demands on the farms, the other industries stimulated the
mining and forest producers beyond their accustomed peaks of ex-
ploitation to the opening of new mines and timber limits. Since the
United States was not at war until 1917, and had much the larger
and more capable industrial equipment to start with, the flow of
labor was for over two years overwhelmingly from Canada to the
United States. Demands for raw materials, however, the oil and
gasoline, wood products, copper and other minerals which were being
consumed as never before, and the desire or need to share in Canada's
expanding industrial economy gradually brought about some return
movement. American oilmen revealed that the high plains of Alberta,
like those of Texas, lay above oil-bearing sands. The lumbering fami-
lies which had during the past three generations played leapfrog
across the international boundary from the Maritime Provinces and
New England to the Pacific coast laid greedy hands on the magnifi-
cent forests of British Columbia. American mining engineers poured
into British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec, and Nova Scotia bringing
some advanced techniques and learning of or helping to develop
others.
Yet oddly enough, American labor, except for a relatively small
number of speciahzed technicians, did not follow American dollars.
Canadians and Canadian conditions were so like Americans and
American conditions that it was not necessary for them to do so, and
anyway the United States could use at home all the man power she
could rally.^^ The two countries were actually competing for the
workers in their factories as well as in their armies, and the agree-
ment of early 1918 referred to above was designed to regulate both
kinds of demand. Industry in both countries drew off what the
armies left of the transient labor which had found refuge in the
cities during the depression of 1912—1914, but industry as well as
agriculture was being forced into the adoption of more and more
laborsaving machinery and routine.
Perhaps the most important consequence (as affecting population
movement) of the great industrial development was the clear emer-
12. The only serious attempt which has been made to investigate the rela-
tive attractions for labor in the United States and Canada is by H. A. Logan,
"Labor Costs and Labor Standards," in N. J. Ware and H. A. Logan, Labor
in Canadian-American Relations (New Haven, 1937).
252 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
gence of certain international industrial areas where workers devel-
oped the habit of disregarding the boundary in their choice of em-
ployment. The forest industries of the Pacific coast threw Seattle
and Vancouver together; the mining industries of the Rockies tied
south central British Columbia to Washington and Idaho ; the mill-
ing industry embraced Winnipeg and the Twin Cities; the same
internal-combustion engines were manufactured on both sides of the
Detroit River; Niagara power-transmission lines, lake transporta-
tion, and the Welland Canal created another great international in-
dustrial region at the western end of Lake Ontario; the upper St.
Lawrence, the Montreal region, and northern New York drew farm
boys and girls to its mills and factories from the same rural regions ;
and down at the Atlantic end of the Maine— New Brunswick boundary
the population and the local products went to and fro with a freedom
which would have appalled the officials of stricter regions, and Calais
(Maine) and Milltown and St. Stephen (New Brunswick) pooled
their water supply, hospital services, and fire-fighting equipment.^^
Seen in the large, the war period had on the whole conformed to
the clockwise circular exchange of population which had set in with
the industrialization of eastern North America and the penetration
of the Far West by railways. Canadians moved into the northeastern
and central states while Americans moved into the western provinces.
The end of the war, however, ushered in a new phase in North Ameri-
can development whose poHtical and economic particularisms were to
interfere seriously with the old rhythms.
At the end of 1918, the United States and Canada, still intoxi-
cated beyond the capacity for exact thinking about their domestic
economic structures because still under the impetus of their amazing
expansion, had to face at the same moment three serious problems —
the repatriation and resettlement in civilian pursuits of their very
large armies, the contraction of their productivity to the shrunken
demands of foreign customers whose impoverishment by war was
sharply felt at the end of hostilities, and the reaching of some deci-
sion as to policy toward the hundreds of thousands of distressed
Europeans who wanted to emigrate to North America. Both coun-
13. See remarks by H. A, Davis in R. L. Morrow (ed.), Conference on
Educational Problems in Canadian- American Relations (Orono, Me., 1939),
112-114.
WAR AND ITS AFTERMATHS 253
tries had grown accustomed to borrowing in what would have seemed
in 1913 astronomical proportions, so that both were prepared to
carry their populations through the difficult transition from war to
peace by further deficit financing in the name of "reconstruction."
The United States suffered severely from 1919 to 1921 in the
processes of readjustment, but she enjoyed the advantage of an
enormous domestic market whose consumers had grown accustomed
during the war years to a high standard of living unique in the
world. Immense profits had been reaped from the war, and during it
the automobile had, under rationalized production, been brought
down to a price where the upper and middle classes, at least, could
afford to buy new cars and the less weU-to-do take up the second-
hand ones. This combination of 105,000,000 consumers, of vast new
wealth, and of an expansive new industry had begun to pull the
United States out of the depths of depression by the middle of 1920.
About the same time, the postwar mold of American thinking began
to harden. Not only would the United States withdraw from the
iniquities of world politics, but she would set up almost prohibitive
tariff barriers against those foreign goods whose equivalents she
could produce at home, and she would estabhsh quotas to end mass
immigration from abroad, substituting for it the entry of modest
numbers in as close a ratio as possible to the existing elements in her
population. Characteristically enough and in harmony with past
North American history, however, this quota system was not to
apply to those born in the neighboring North American countries.
Canada, on the other hand, was far less able to rebound from the
postwar deflation because of the great dependence of her standard of
living on continued high purchasing power abroad. Her postwar de-
pression, therefore, persisted until 1923. The consequences can
easily be guessed. The United States, expanding once more from
1920 onward, and having sharply reduced her usual flow of labor
from Europe, began to act like a suction pump on the sections of
Canada near her great cities and industrial regions. The result was
what Canadians have called the Great Emigration,^* and, since the
industrial center of the United States had moved well into the Mid-
dle West, Ontario now began to suffer as well as Quebec and the
14. Thus forgetting the much more debilitating outflow of 1873-1896. See
chapters VIII and IX.
254 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
Maritimes. Even when world trade began to recover and to lift Can-
ada's exports with it, Canada as an economic internationalist state
found it impossible to check the loss of her people to the economic
nationalist state next door. In the end, as we shall see, she chose to
fight fire with fire.
After the war, as before it, emigrating Europeans often failed to
differentiate between the United States and Canada once they had
decided to go to "America." Now, with the United States closing her
doors against them, they began to pound at the portals of distressed
Canada. The Canadian government dealt with the situation by
adaptable administrative enactments rather than by a precise stat-
ute, sending a large corps of inspectors to European ports of exit to
sift out the applicants. None were wanted for the cities except do-
mestic servants, but those who would go to the farms and forests and
mines and who carried enough capital beyond costs of transportation
to give them a start were still welcome. The emigrant sheds of
Europe saw tragic scenes as thousands were turned back, or when,
as in December, 1920, the capital requirement was raised from $50
to $250.^^
It speedily became apparent, however, that many of these Euro-
peans had no intention of staying in Canada. They counted on slip-
ping over the border into the United States as thousands had done
before them, and, when American controls were tightened up, they
were willing to pay large sums to skilled smugglers who evaded them
with relative ease.^'' From the Canadian point of view the most re-
grettable feature of the situation was its combination with the privi-
leged position of born Canadians as nonquota immigrants to the
United States. Since they could always be admitted, they were all
the more easily dislodged by newcomers from Europe. Europeans
came in and Canadians moved out. National concern over the pros-
15. Labour Gazette (Ottawa), Jan., 1921, 2.
16. See Annual Report of the U.S. Commissioner General of Immigration.
Fiscal year ending June 30, 1923 (Washington), 23, 25, 26. "During the
past winter the St. Clair River for practically its entire length was an ice
bridge, and at many points down river jitney busses [private cars carrying
passengers for hire] were in operation between Michigan and Ontario." Also
same Report for 1924, 14, 15; and same Report for 1925, 14. "When 'rum
running' . . . ceased to be as profitable as in previous years ... it was only
a short shift ... to illegal transportation of aliens."
WAR AND ITS AFTERMATHS 255
pective alteration in the component stocks of Canada was continu-
ously reflected in Parliament and periodicals as late as 1929 and was
the subject of earnest statistical inquiry after the census of 1931.^^
The soaring North American boom which halted in 1929 and dis-
solved in 19S0 swept Canada as well as the United States to remark-
able economic heights and dropped them both to equally remarkable
depths. During the expansion period the capacity of the United
States to absorb Canadian men and Canadian materials superficially
appeared to be almost limitless. Below the surface, however, an equi-
librium in population was being achieved as the indirect consequence
of such conspicuous arrangements as tariffs, and in odd, piecemeal
ways which were comparatively inconspicuous at the time and whose
combined operation was often overlooked during the miseries of 1929
to 1933.
It is out of the question to go into the details here of how, between
1918 and 1938, the United States and Canada hammered out the
compromises between their half rival, half complementary economic
structures, which in turn have gone far to influence their present
sharing of North American population. As might have been expected
in a neomercantilistic world, the most conspicuous landmarks were
the rival tariff walls. Beginning in 1921, the United States pro-
ceeded steadily and systematically to protect home industries by
building higher and higher tariff barriers against products from
abroad which competed with them. While a number of important
Canadian products remained on, or nearly on, the free list, many
others were practically excluded and the process reached its peak in
the curiously defiant tariffs set up against Canadian copper and cer-
tain wood products just before the British nations were convoked to
17. See note 2, p. 246 above. Also Dom. Can. : Debates H. of C, 192S, v. 1,
43, 67, 77, 628, v. 2, 1082, 1093, 1125, 1129, 1165, 1245, 1339, 1341, 1404,
1892, 1975, V. 3, 2400; 1925, v. 1, 26, 156, 184, 204, 600, v. 2, 1907; 1926,
V. 3, 2086, 2228, 2290, 2363, 2530, 2693, v. 4, 3402, v. 5, 4182-4183. The de-
bates for succeeding years reflect continued concern down to 1929 in spite of
a substantial return movement of Canadians and a swelling tide of European
and American immigration from 1923 to 1929. Also, "Drain on Canada: The
Drift to the States, from a Canadian Correspondent now in California," The
Times, Jan. 27, 1925, 15; D. McArthur, "What Is the Immigration Prob-
lem?" Queen's Quarterly, XXXV, 603-614 (1928); and A. R. M. Lower,
"The Case against Immigration," ibid., XXXVII, 557-574 (1930).
256 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
consider economic reorganization of the empire at Ottawa in the
summer of 1932. Great Britain had just adopted protection and was
prepared to embark for the first time in a century on the world game
of bargaining in tariffs.
As has been noticed, Canada was converted to protectionism late
in the 1870's and in spite of changes of government she had accepted
it as a regular practice. Because of her vital need of foreign mar-
kets, however, she was much less thoroughgoing about it than the
United States, and at the end of the nineteenth century she turned
to what was to become her characteristic bargaining instrument, the
bilateral trade treaty. The main outlines of her trading position
came to be that she bought much more from the United States than
she sold to her, but made up for this by the opposite relation with
free-trading Great Britain. Her principal response to increasing
American protectionism was to raise tariffs against American manu-
factured goods until the manufacturers found it more profitable first
to erect assembly plants and then complete manufacturing units on
Canadian soil, thus employing Canadian labor, if making profits for
American capital. Canadian manufacturers in turn invaded the
United States. ^^ The net effect during the 'twenties was perceptibly
to slow down the loss of population to the United States, both by the
greater encouragement to Canadians to stay at home and by induc-
ing some of those who had emigrated to return.^^
By the various bilateral trade agreements adopted at Ottawa in
1932, Canada took advantage of Imperial sentiment to secure her
great market in the British Isles and to expand her sales to Imperial
countries by giving British and Imperial goods a moderate prefer-
ence over American and other foreign goods in the Canadian market.
It took some time for Washington to change its habits in response,
but the Roosevelt administration finally secured legislation enabhng
the United States to bargain for tariff reduction in bilateral pacts,
and its first great accomplishment under the act was the trade treaty
18. On the whole subject of Canadian response to American tariffs, see
J. M. Jones, Tariff Retaliation (Philadelphia, 1934). For a comprehensive
study of American enterprise and investment in Canada and vice versa, see
Marshall, Southard, and Taylor, op. cit.
19. For estimates of this movement, consult the headings "Elements of
Growth" and "Emigration from Canada" in the Canada Year Booh for the
years after 1924.
WAR AND ITS AFTERMATHS 257
with Canada of November, 1935. This in turn necessitated a new
Anglo-Canadian agreement and the process reached something Hke
a logical conclusion in November, 1938, when the United Kingdom,
the United States, and Canada agreed upon regulations governing
by far the mightiest triangular exchange of commodities in the
world. The three countries as it were "froze" their economic compe-
tition and cooperation in an agreed-upon pattern. They had already
worked out arrangements which ensured for their currencies a rough
parity and a stability which were quite remarkable considering the
violent disruptions going on in the world. In effect, the United States
had broken inside the British system created at Ottawa in 1932, at
the price of reducing her own tariffs and, in particular, of recogniz-
ing as normal the flow into the United States of a large number of
raw and semimanufactured products from Canada. ^° This great
commercial compromise provided the most comprehensive illustra-
tion of an economic stabilization, to which migratory North Ameri-
cans found themselves responding.
Behind this spectacular tariff war a number of other developments
had been taking place which helped to determine the distribution of
population within North America and the proportions of the flow
from abroad. It is impossible to indicate the weight of importance
to be attached to each, but mere mention of them will give a broader
idea of the complex circumstances which had to be resolved in the
achievement of something Hke economic and migrational equihbrium.
Unquestionably the most noticeable problem was that created by
the international industrial areas at various points along the bound-
ary, most notably along the Detroit and Niagara rivers. Here the
"border commuters" had emerged as a problem, in the United States
almost as soon as American immigration restriction had begun to
operate, and in Canada when Americans came over to hold key jobs
in branch factories at a time when Canadian unemployment was still
serious. Arrangements were soon worked out for identification of the
"commuters," but the inevitable friction and suspicion which arose
forced the matter into diplomatic channels and carried it before the
20. The economic unity of North America is graphically epitomized by a
remarkable map of the Canadian-American railway structure in W. J. Wil-
gus, The Railway Interrelations of the United States and Canada, opp. p.
304.
258 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
courts of both countries. ^^ The early outcome was agreement in 1928
that properly identifiable Americans and Canadians might freely
cross the border, and even hold jobs after fulfilling certain rather
expensive formalities, but, when the depression came, both countries
by administrative devices practically withdrew from alien commuters
or new entrants the privilege of employment.
A Windsor man might go to a ball game or theater in Detroit, or
a Buffalo man continue to use his Canadian summer cottage or at-
tend the Toronto Exhibition, but only in narrowly limited circum-
stances could either obtain or hold a job across the line from his
home. The seasonal transborder migrations of lumbermen, potato
and beet pickers, cannery workers, and grain harvesters presented
less of a problem, for it was simple to set up a bonding arrangement
which ensured their return after a brief spell of work in pursuits
which had always required temporary labor reinforcements.
The appalling proportions of unemployment in both countries
which developed unchecked from 1929 to 1933, and which persisted
on a large scale even after both countries had loosened some of their
economic fetters by changing the relation to gold of their currencies
and their debt structures, meant that central and local authorities
began to apply citizenship tests when it came to dispensing relief.
Alien public charges were unceremoniously repatriated, and in both
countries, but more notably in the United States, this often involved
the discovery of European immigrants whose entry had been irregu-
lar. In some cases the alien of illegal residence in the United States
could show that he had a legal claim on Canada by previous resi-
dence or naturalization, but for thousands the depression meant
being herded into the immigration buildings at New York, St. John,
Halifax, Quebec, or Montreal, to be returned to lands made unfa-
miliar by years of North American hfe. This whole field of activity
was of course blended with the limited legal migration to and fro
between the United States and Canada and with the voluntary re-
turn movements which were bound to occur (French-Canadian repa-
21. The materials in public law are conveniently assembled in N. A. M.
MacKenzie and L. H. Laing, Canada and the Law of Nations (Toronto,
1938), 221-229, 242-247, 251-252, 269-282, 283-286, 479-484, 516-521,
521-527 (the test case in U.S. Supreme Court, 1929, Karnuth v. United
States, 279 U.S. 231). See also P. E. Corbett, The Settlement of Canadian-
American Disputes (New Haven, 1937), 100-101, 105-108.
WAR AND ITS AFTERMATHS 259
triation organizations were particularly active), but it also had in-
teresting effects on the exchange of population between Canada on
the one side and the United States and the British Isles on the
other. ^^ During the calendar years 1930-1936, inclusive, about
100,000 Canadians returned home from the United States, and until
1936, so far as border officials could record the movements, the bal-
ance in the exchange favored Canada. In 1936 the trend was slightly
reversed, with a loss to Canada in 1937 of about 8,000 persons. Dur-
ing the same years, some 50,000 immigrants came to Canada from
the British Isles, but 103,000 British nationals returned home. The
loss by this movement was about 6,000 in 1937.
Another major phenomenon of the postwar period was the disaster
which overtook the western grainlands of North America. The acre-
ages were too great, once the World War ended ; the debt structure
based upon wartime prices was too heavy for average peacetime to
bear; the expenditure on expensive laborsaving machinery and on
many of the irrigation projects was also out of proportion to the
cash return for crops; and, worst of all, the huge region entered
upon a drought cycle, intermittent in its effects down to 1928,^^ but
settling down in grim earnest in 1929 and persisting till 1937 in the
United States and 1938 in Canada. The postwar recovery in agricul-
tural prices which was perceptible by 1924 had held up fairly well
until the abrupt descent of 1930 and it gave the West a feverish and
irregular prosperity during those years. But during the same years
Russia had worked back into production for export, and many of the
consuming regions of the world were building up their own agricul-
tural productivity and sternly rationing imports. North American
agriculture faced an inevitable decline when prices crumbled and
drought set in persistently.
The effects of the twenty postwar years on population movement
in the West simply cannot be estimated, largely because the same
picture of abandoned farms on subhumid lands greeted the visitor
in both countries, but also because no border posts or patrols could
pretend to keep track of the populations set adrift. American farm-
22. Prosperity had drawn back 246,000 Canadians from the United States,
1924—1929. For statistics of these movements, see Canada Year Booh (1938),
210-211.
23. The bad years were 1918-1921 and 1924. Ihid. (1929), 230.
260 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
ers continued to enter Canada and continued to be purchasers of
farms rather than homesteaders, but unquestionably more Ameri-
cans left Canada than entered and they were accompanied by even
more Canadians. Certain distinct trends were detectable, but they
were intranational as well as international. The least firmly anchored
westerners abandoned ever3rthing and made for the cities where rehef
was available. The better-off stuck to their farms until debt reduc-
tion and relief were extended to them there. Seekers for greener pas-
tures farther on loaded up their belongings in carts, or in cars and
light trucks which horses sometimes had to haul for want of gasoline,
and made for the moist Pacific slope, or for the last watered prairie
land in the Peace River district.^* The principal reasons for believ-
ing that the United States gained population at Canada's expense in
these migrations are that the United States succeeded somewhat in
bolstering up grain prices by protective tariffs for some years before
Canada subsidized her grain growers, that there were more and
larger cities south of the forty-ninth parallel than north of it, that
the large proportion of American settlers in western Canada would
be likely to strike for the land of their birth when troubles came, and
that there were more and better roads through lower mountains to
the Pacific coast in the United States than in Canada.
In spite of there being two depressions to one boom for Canada
during the postwar years, her total productivity increased enor-
mously, partly because her population increased, and partly because
of the great invasion by American and British manufacturing estab-
lishments, but also because she greatly expanded her pulp and paper
industry, her mining and oil-extraction industries, and the hydro-
electric power industry which normally accompanied the first three
of these. The statistics of these expansions are remarkable and ex-
plain to a large degree Canada's persistent relative well-being. In
particular, the abrupt rise in the dollar value of gold in 1931 stimu-
lated an already swiftly expanding industry and raised the return
from $43,000,000 in 1930 to $143,000,000 in 1937. Yet these devel-
opments, when set over against American economic expansion, were
either so much less attractive to labor or required so little that they
accomplished not much more than to diminish the exodus of popula-
24. C. A. Dawson and R. W. Murchie, The Settlement of the Peace River
Country, covers the years to 1931.
WAR AND ITS AFTERMATHS 261
tion to the United States. Only the industrial districts around Mont-
real and the Niagara peninsula, the forest and mining districts of
British Columbia, and the mining industry of Northern Ontario and
Quebec, visibly exerted a pull on the northern margin of the neigh-
boring states at all comparable to that of numerous urban and
industrial regions in the United States.
One consequence of the relative rise in the importance of industry
in postwar Canada was a notable growth in urban as compared with
rural population,^^ and this in turn accentuated the effects of an old
influence which had always drawn Canadians to the United States.
The growth of cities meant the growth and improvement of educa-
tional institutions, both the schools and technical schools which fed
commerce and industry and the colleges and universities which
trained men and women for the higher professions. For many years
before 1914, Canada had produced more railroad men, artisans,
nurses, teachers, engineers, writers, actors, doctors, and clergymen
than she could profitably employ, but for real or imagined reasons
there had been a distinct appetite for their services in the United
States, so much so that American employers had the habit of send-
ing agents to, or retaining them in, Canada in order to be sure of a
Canadian supply. Americans cherished a kind of romantic notion
that Canada was unspoiled, and that education, home background,
and morals there were more sohd and produced more dependable
employees than did their counterparts in the United States.
These beliefs and tastes persisted after the war and reinforced the
very natural desire on the part of Canada's surplus production of
some kinds of technically and professionally trained persons to
secure the employment for which they were educated. ^*^ Canada began
to export, if not the cream, at least the top milk of her population in
25. See the figures for city populations, 1911, 1921, 1931, in order of 1931
magnitude, in Canada Year Book (1938), 146-148.
26. See J. E. Robbins, Supply and Demand in the Professions in Canada
(Ottawa, 1937), a study which covers 1920-1936, inclusive. In a study, made
by the U.S. Bureau of the Census, of statistics collected in 1910, and to be
published for the first time in the companion volume to this one, certain in-
teresting facts about Canadian employment in the United States appear. Dr.
L. E. Truesdell, Chief Statistician for Population, believes that the situation
is little altered today. English Canadian-born persons were more commonly
employed than the general white population as "professional persons," "pro-
262 THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
very large numbers, at the same time that she was importing, largely
from the British Isles but also from the United States, substantial
numbers of specially trained professionals.^^ It seems significant that
of six groups of professional graduates from Canadian universities,
1920—1936 inclusive, the three which show an absolute increase in
number (doctors, clergymen, and engineers) were commonly in de-
mand in the United States, whereas lawyers unfamiliar with Ameri-
can law, dentists confronting the home of modern dental science, and
pharmacists facing a profession unnaturally inflated by Prohibition
show absolute declines.^* It is an open question whether the com-
monly offered explanation for this Canadian exodus, that American
salaries and wages^^ were much higher than Canadian, is at all ade-
quate. Canadian emigrants characteristically tended to go to cities,
and there American standards and costs of living were higher than
at home. Patriotism and sheer inertia would have been enough to
keep Canadian technicians and professionals from leaving, had Can-
ada been able to offer enough of the positions for which these emi-
grants were prepared. The head of the Dominion Bureau of Statistics
has said : "As between Canada and the United States the interchange
on an occupational basis has been without apparent system,'"" but
the origins of Canada's proportionately greater loss of highly
trained persons by the exchange lay in her excellent educational
institutions, in her smaller total population, in the special American
appetite for Canadian skilled employees, and in the greater economic
activity of the southern partner in North America.
The statistics of the period between 1930 and 1938, when read
prietors" other than farm owners and tenants and wholesale and retail deal-
ers, "clerks and kindred workers," "skilled workers and foremen," "semi-
skilled workers," and "servant classes." French Canadian-born persons ex-
ceeded the proportions of the general white population as "skilled workers
and foremen," "semi-skilled workers," and "laborers" other than farm labor-
ers. Comparisons for the states most favored by Canadians are not available,
but these would no doubt afford sharper contrasts than the United States as a
whole.
27. R. H. Coats, M. C. MacLean, and E. E. Ware contribute interesting
information on the employment of Americans in Canada and vice versa in
R. G. Trotter et al., op. cit., 106-129.
28. Robbins, op. cit., 21.
29. H. A. Logan, op. cit., examines wages, but not professional salaries.
30. R.H. Coats, op. cit., 118.
WAR AND ITS AFTERMATHS 263
against the background of politico-economic endeavors by the United
States and Canada to hold their own for their own, convey a picture
of an immobility among North Americans which contrasts sharply
with that of any other time in the continent's history after 1760.
The two nations appear to have worked out an artificial economic
equilibrium between them with which their peoples seem to be con-
forming. The last great areas of profitable agricultural lands seem
to have been occupied. The day of great migrations seems to have
passed. Even the natural increases in the two countries seem at last
to distribute themselves within their native boundaries. Yet the leg-
acy from the past remains significant. "If we count all of Canadian
stock," reported the Dominion Statistician in 1937, "perhaps a third
of us are south of the line, whilst certainly not more than 1 per cent
of the Americans are north."^^ North Americans, particularly Cana-
dians, have always refused to be tied down, and they have never
really policed their common boundary. Drought cycles have come
and gone before. North America has never yet failed to provide new
opportunities for exploitation, and it may be that Canada's rapidly
expanding mineral and oil production is to be the next opening of
the treasure house. If so, Americans will almost surely be found
where the economic opportunity invites. Whatever happens, it seems
likely that Americans and Canadians will continue to mingle a good
deal as they have in the past and as some thousands of them are
openly or surreptitiously still changing residence today. Canada
shows no signs of wanting a political merger with her powerful
neighbor, and the United States no signs of wanting to force one.
Even granting the extraordinary unpredictability of international
affairs today, it seems reasonable to expect that the governments of
the two countries will look on, perhaps with formal disapproval, but
actually with comparative equanimity, as their restless peoples dis-
tribute themselves in a pattern roughly corresponding to the best
chances of making a living which they can find anywhere on the
continent which they have hitherto developed in remarkable unison.
The American poet Robert Frost reminds his readers of the New
England saying that "good fences make good neighbors," but in the
case of the United States and Canada, at least, history would seem
to justify some very substantial doubts.
31. Ibid., 114.
INDEX
[Names, places, and first citations of authors]
Aberdeen, J. "W., 109 (cited)
Acadia, 20, 22, 23. See Nova Scotia
Acadian lands, 29, 30, 34, 35, 43, 56
Acadians, 26, 27, 28, 32, 37, 38
Adams, Henry, 92 (cited)
Adams, William F., 100 (cited)
Akagi, R. H., 31 (cited)
Akins, T. B. (ed.), 23 (cited)
Alaska, 180
Albany, N.Y., 5, 22
Albemarle region, 7
Alberta, 19, 199, 200, 220, 228, 229, 232,
233, 235, 237, 250
Alexander, J. E., 112 (cited)
Alexandria, Va., 5
Algoma Central Railroad, 238
Alien Question, An Abridged View of
the, 103 (cited)
Allegheny Mountains, 41
Amherstburg, Ont., 63, 148
Anderson, David, 90 (cited)
Andre, Major John, 64, 64 n
Androscoggin River, 39
Annapolis, N.S., 24, 32, 33, 53, 55. See
Port Royal
Annapolis Basin, 53
Appalachian Mountains, 18, 121
Appomattox, 157
Archibald, A. G., 54 (cited)
"Arkansaw Dam," 133 n
Arnold, Benedict, 44
Aroostook country, 121, 131
Ashtabula County, Ohio, History of, 94
(cited)
Australia, 147
Austrians (in Canada), 233
Baker-Crothers, H., 28 (cited)
Baltimore, Lord, 4
Baltimore, Md., 5, 108
Barck, Oscar T., 47 (cited)
Bartholomew, J. G., 220 (cited)
Bassett, J. S., 7 (cited)
Bathurst, Lord (Secretary for the Colo-
nies), 95, 95 n
Baulig, H., 5 (cited)
Bay City, Mich., 131, 215
Beauharnois, District of, 75
Begg, Alexander, 175 (cited)
Belcher, Lieutenant-Governor Jonathan,
35
Belgians (in Canada), 233
Belisle, Alexandre, 123 (cited)
Bemis, Samuel F., 49 (cited)
Berlin, Ont., 85. See Kitchener, Ont.
BidweU case, 103 n
Bingham, Robert W., 82 (cited)
Birkbeck, M., 8 (cited)
Black, Cyrus, 67 (cited)
Black, Norman F., 199 (cited)
Black River country, 76
Blaine, Wash., 247 '
Blaney, Captain, 102 (cited)
Blue Ridge Mountains, 7
Blum, Dr.-Ing., 5 (cited)
Bonier, Marie Louise, 123 (cited)
Boston, Mass., 4, 21, 32, 36, 41, 46, 120,
124, 146, 148, 160, 161, 163, 209
Bouchette, Joseph, 78 (cited)
Boulton, D'Arcy, 87 (cited)
Bowden, James, 84 (cited)
Bow Valley, 199
Bozman, J. L., 7 (cited)
Braddock's defeat, 27
Brebner, J. B., 21 (cited), 29 (cited), 82
(cited), 144 (cited)
Breithaupt, William H., 15 (cited), 80
(cited), 85 (cited)
Briggs, Harold E., 177 (cited)
Brigham, A. P., 9 (cited)
Bristed, John, 99 (cited)
British-American Land Company, 126
British Columbia, 134, 155, 156, 163, 175,
180, 201, 203, 204, 205, 235, 236, 237,
241, 242, 247, 251, 252, 261
Brockville, Ont., 133 n
Brookes, G. S., 28 (cited)
Brown, George S., 34 (cited)
Bryce, George, 227
Bryce, P. H., 193 (cited)
Buchanan, A. C, 100, 108 (cited), 109
(cited), 111 (cited)
Buchanan, Donald W., 232 (cited)
Buchanan, James, 100
Buffalo, N.Y., 12, 15, 143, 157, 221, 258
Buffalo Creek, 12
Buffalo Exposition, 1901, 221
Burgess, J. H., 124 (cited)
266
THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
Burgoyne, General John, 44, 47
Burkholder, L. J., 81 (cited), 85 (cited)
Burlington, Vt., 124
Burnaby, A., 31 (cited)
Burt, Alfred L., 41 (cited)
Butler's Rangers, 59
Caird, James, 130 (cited)
Calais, Me., 252
Calgary, Alta., 230, 231
California, 133, 134, 147, 155, 180, 202,
203, 204, 224, 250
Callahan, J. M., 145 (cited), 208 (cited)
Calnek, W. A., 30 (cited), 53 (cited)
Cameron, J. C, 246 (cited)
Campbell, Charles B., 129 (cited)
Campbell, P., 10 (cited)
Canada (British), 41, 59
Canada (French), 27, 28
Canada, Dominion of, 163, 167, 171, 174,
175, 177, 179, 182, 183, 184, 185, 186,
191, 196, 203, 204, 205, 206, 208, 216,
219, 223, 225, 227, 238, 243, 246, 255
Canada, Province of, 72, 97, 119, 155, 157
Canada Company, 109, 110, 112, 117, 126
Canada in the Years 1832, 1833, and 1834,
109 (cited)
Canadian Anti-Slavery Society, 136, 141
Canadian Army (World War), 248, 249
Canadian Pacific Railway, 16, 133, 183,
191, 198, 201, 202, 203, 204, 228, 229,
230, 231, 238
Canadian Refugee Tract, 63, 64
Canadian Society, of Washington and
Oregon, 203
Canniff, William, 47 (cited), 77 (cited),
79 (cited)
Cape Breton, 24, 27, 39, 55, 56, 59, 67,
147, 207, 208
Cape Breton, Importance of, Considered,
24 (cited)
Cape Cod, 22, 31, 33, 39
Cape of Good Hope, 98
Cape Hatteras, 4, 5
Cape Sable, 30, 32, 33, 51
Cardston, Alta., 200
Cariboo region, 134
Carolinas, 20
Caron, Ivanhoe, 42 (cited), 69 (cited), 72
(cited), 73 (cited)
Carr, John, 133 (cited)
Carri^re, J. M., 123 (cited)
Carrothers, W. A., 236 (cited)
Carter, J. Smyth, 77 (cited)
Cascade Range, 201
Cataraqui, 60, 61
Catholic church, 123, 127, 130, 146, 164,
177
Cavalier County, N.D., 190 n
Chandonnet, Abbe T. A., 166 (cited)
Channell, L. S., 73 (cited)
Channing, E., 7 (cited)
Charleston, S.C., 4
Chateauguay River, 75
Chesapeake Bay, 5
Chicago, 111., 12, 15, 16, 128, 129, 131, 174,
193, 197, 206, 209, 215
Chicago Road, 14
Chignecto Bay, 23
Chinese immigrants, 163, 205, 237
Chiniquy, Father Charles, 129
"Chinook, land of the," 199
Chippewa River, 131, 153
Civil War, 139-158, 163, 172
Clarke, Lieutenant-Governor Alured, 51,
71
Cleveland, Ohio, 206
Coats, R. H,, 245 (cited)
Coffin, Levi, Reminiscences of, 114 (cited)
Collins, J. E., 150 (cited)
Colorado, 207
Columbia River, 133, 201, 202
Confederate government, 150, 157
Confederates in Canada, 150, 156, 157
Connecticut, 30, 32, 39
Connecticut River, 20, 22, 39, 42, 70
Connecticut Valley, 44, 69
Constitutional Act of 1791, 79
Copeland, Melvin T., 165 (cited)
Corbett, P. E., 258 (cited)
Corey, A. B., 116 (cited)
Cornwallis, N.S., 32
Cowan, Helen I., 88 (cited), 98 (cited)
Cowan, Hugh, 63 (cited)
Coyne, James H. (ed.), 68 (cited)
Creighton, D. G., 68 (cited)
Crimea, 144
Croil, James, 80 (cited)
Crookston, Minn., 179, 216
Crowell, Edwin, 33 (cited)
Crowell, Seth, Journul of, 77 (cited)
Cruger, Colonel J. H., 45 n
Cruikshank, E. A., 59 (cited), (ed.), 80
(cited), 86 (cited)
Cumberland, N.B., 56 n
Cumberland, R. W., 61 (cited)
Curtis, Gates, 76 (cited)
Curwen, Samuel, 45 (cited)
Cypress Hills, Sask., 229
INDEX
267
Dafoe, John W., 221 (cited)
Dakota, Territory of, 16, 174, 179, 180,
193, 194, 196, 215, 217. See North and
South Dakota
Dakota boom, 190
Davis, H. A., 252 (cited)
Dawson, C. A., 231 (cited), 233 (cited)
Dawson, S. J., 176
Dawson Route, 176
Defebaugh, James Elliott, 78 (cited)
Delaware River, 5, 20
Desrosiers, A., 124 (cited)
Dessureau, Robert M., 154 (cited)
Detroit, Mich., 106, 112, 114, 118, 130, 143,
157, 192, 215, 239, 258
Detroit (fort), 12, 14, 15, 63, 94, 95
Detroit River, 136, 137, 244, 252, 257
Dexter, F. B. (ed.), 31 (cited)
Dicey, Edward, 150 (cited)
Dionne, N. E., 215 (cited)
Donnan, Elizabeth (ed.), 4 (cited)
Dorland, A. G., 31 (cited), 84 (cited),
(ed.), 31 (cited)
Doughty, Arthur G. (ed.), 31 (cited),
(ed.), 71 (cited), (ed.), 97 (cited),
(ed.), 184 (cited)
Douglas, Thomas, 87
Douglas, W., 24 (cited)
Dresser, John A., 71 (cited)
Drew, Benjamin, 137 (cited)
Drummond, Governor Gordon, 95
Dubuque, H. A., 165 (cited)
Duluth, Minn., 176, 179, 197
Dundas Street, 80
Dunham, Aileen, 96 (cited)
Dunkers, 84, 85
Dunlop, William, 91 (cited)
Durham, Lord, 118
Durha/m, Report of Earl of, 118 (cited)
Dutch, 47, 233
Dyke, Thomas, 109 (cited)
East (region of North America), 135,
164, 177, 180, 207
Eastern Townships, 57, 58, 61, 69, 71, 72,
73, 74, 91, 102, 106, 126, 127, 128, 137,
141, 211
Easton, A. B., 132 (cited)
Eaton, Arthur W. H., 32 (cited)
Eby, Ezra, 83 (cited)
Edinburgh, Scotland, 97
Edmonton, Alta., 230, 231, 233
Ellicott, Joseph, Reports of, 82 (cited)
Ells, Margaret, 52 (cited), 54 (cited)
Emerson, Man., 193
Emigrant's Guide, 108 (cited)
England, Robert, 191 (cited)
Erie Canal, 13, 105, 111, 112, 130
Essex County, Ont., 130
Evans, Francis A., 71 (cited)
Evans, Henry, 30 n
Fall River, Mass., 168
Falmouth, N.S., 32
Fargo, N.D., 16
Farmer, Silas, 63 (cited)
Fenner, Henry M., 165 (cited)
Fergusson, Adam, 111 (cited)
Fidler, Isaac, 103 (cited)
Fisher's Landing, Minn., 179
Fite, Emerson D., 150 (cited)
Flick, Alexander C, 45 (cited)
Florida, 4, 7
Folwell, W. W., 176 (cited)
Ford, Nathan, 75, 76
Foreign Enlistment Act, 142
Forster, John Harris, 132 (cited)
Fort Benton, Mont., 232
Fort Erie, 86 n
Fort Garry, 88, 155
Fort Niagara, 48, 59
Fort Oswego, 11, 12, 48, 57
Fort Stanwix, Treaty of, 36
Fort William, Ont., 238
Fostor, E. E. (ed.), 159 (cited)
Fournet, Abbe, 124 (cited)
France, 23, 24, 25, 28, 38, 39
Franklin, Benjamin, 35
Eraser River, 134
French Canadians, 14, 41, 44, 69, 106, 123,
124, 125, 126, 128, 129, 130, 132, 141,
142, 146, 151, 152, 154, 164, 165, 166,
167, 167 n, 168, 170, 171, 172, 178, 181,
188, 196, 212, 213, 215, 216, 238, 258,
262 n
Fugitive Slave Act, 136
Fuller, George N., 118 (cited)
Fundy, Bay of, 23, 26, 28, 30, 32, 33, 34,
39, 52, 55, 108
Gage, General Thomas, 47
Gagnon, Ferdinand, 146, 170
Ganong, William F., 34 (cited)
Gansser, Augustus H., 131 (cited)
Gaspe Peninsula, 60
Gaudet, P., 28 (cited)
Gendreau, Rev. P. E., 167
Genesee country, 11, 76
Genesee River, 10, 12, 82
Genesee Valley, 45
268
THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
George III, 66
Georgia, 7, 147
Georgian Bay, 14, 135, 172, 175
Germans, 13, 14, 25, 26, 37, 42, 47, 61, 85,
86, 188, 233
Gesner, Abraham, 121 (cited), 122
(cited)
Gilbert, Humphrey, 4
Gillam, F. E., 56 (cited)
Gilroy, M., 54 (cited)
Glazebrook, G. P. deT., 15 (cited)
Gloucester, Mass., 120, 161, 208
Goderich, Ont., 112
Goesbriand, Louis de, 124 (cited)
Gordon, R. K., 109 (cited)
Gould, Benjamin Apthorp, 146 (cited)
Gourlay, Robert, 79 (cited)
Grand County, N.D., 190 n
Grand River, 59, 77, 85
Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, 231
Grand Trunk Railway, 15, 157, 174, 206
Granville, N.S., 32, 33
Granville Township, N.S., 53
Grass, Michael, 60
Gray, Hugh, 74 (cited)
Great Britain, 23, 24, 35, 49, 104
Great Britain (Colonial Office), 96, 101,
103, 109
Great Lakes, 109, 112, 121, 139, 140, 154,
183, 188, 206, 239
Great Miama River, 63
Great Western Railway, 15, 174, 206
Green Bay, 14
Green Bay region, 131
Green Mountains, 76
Gregg, William, 67 (cited)
Gregory, John G., 131 (cited)
deGroot, Henry, 134 (cited)
Gulf of Mexico, 18
Haldimand, Governor Frederick, 48, 58,
59, 60, 69
Haliburton, Thomas C, 33 (cited)
Halifax, N.S., 25, 26, 30, 34, 36, 37, 38,
43, 46, 54, 57, 67, 122, 146, 172, 258
Hamer, M. B., 28 (cited)
Hamilton, Ont., 171, 172
Hamon, E., 123 (cited)
Hannay, J., 43 (cited)
Hansen, M. L., 5 (cited), 22 (cited), 28
(cited)
Hard, A. S., 228 (cited)
Harris, William T., 99 (cited)
Harvard University, 209
Harvey, D. C, 56 (cited)
Hay, John, 149 (cited)
Headley, John W., 156 (cited)
Heberle, R., 2 (cited)
Hedges, J. B., 194 (cited), 220 (cited)
Hemenway, Abby Maria, 74 (cited)
Herbertson, A. J. (ed.), 238 (cited)
Heriot, George, 86 (cited)
Herrick, C. A., 4 (cited)
Hessians, 61
Higgins, R. L., 10 (cited)
Higgins, W. H., 86 (cited)
Hill, J. J., 191, 206 n
HoUingsworth, S., 53 (cited)
Hopkins, Castell (ed.), 227 (cited)
Horton, N. S., 32
Hotchkin, J. H., 12 (cited)
Hough, Franklin B., 76 (cited)
Howarth, O. J. R. (ed.), 238 (cited)
Howay, F. W., 134 (cited)
Howe, Joseph, 144, 144 n
Howe, General William, 46
Hubbard, B. F., 93 (cited)
Hudgins, B., 241 (cited)
Hudnut, R. A., 28 (cited)
Hudson River, 5, 7, 11, 13, 20, 22, 48, 57,
111
Hudson Valley, 40, 47, 61, 65, 70, 84, 215
Hudson's Bay Company, 87, 155, 156, 163,
175
Hughes, E. C, 125 (cited)
Hulbert, A. B., 8 (cited), 12 (cited)
Huling, Ray G., 32 (cited)
Hull, Que., 77
Hull, General William, 94, 95 n
Huntingdon County, Que., 75, 76, 91, 93
Hurd, W. B., 246 (cited)
Huron Tract, 106, 109, 112
Idaho, 207, 235, 247, 252
Illinois, 105, 128, 129, 130, 146, 239
Immigrants, British, 67, 99, 162, 172, 248
Immigrants, Chinese, 163, 205, 237
Immigrants, English, 42, 88, 141, 165, 181
Immigrants, German, 13, 14, 188
Immigrants, Irish, 13, 14, 97, 101, 108,
125, 141, 165, 181
Immigrants, Scandinavian, 188
Immigration, Department of. Dominion
of Canada, 167, 179, 191, 221
Indians, 34, 35, 40, 41, 44, 81, 84, 85, 95,
154, 158, 197, 198, 237
Indian reservation (on Grand River), 77,
(in S.D.), 241
Indian traders, 14
Indiana, 84, 86, 105, 172, 217, 235, 239
INDEX
269
Innis, H. A., 67 (cited), 198 (cited), 237
(cited)
Interior, Department of. Dominion of
Canada, 220
Interstate Commerce Commission, 204
Iowa, 16, 117, 118, 131, 135, 217, 232
Ireland, emigration from, 33, 35, 41
Iroquois confederacy, 10, 40, 44, 59
Iroquois country, 42
Jefferson, Thomas, 89, 91
Jessup's Corps, 61
Jews (in Canada), 233
Johnson, Andrew, 158
Johnson, Emay R., 105 (cited)
Johnson's Island, 156
Johnston, H. P., 51 (cited)
Johnston, James F. W., 121 (cited)
Jones, C. C, 58 (cited)
Jones, J. M., 256 (cited)
Jones, Thomas, 49 (cited)
Kankakee country, 129
Kankakee River, 129
Kansas, 16, 135, 152, 173, 174, 196
Kansas City, Mo., 17
Km-Tiuth V. United States, 258 (cited)
Kellogg, L. P., 43 (cited)
KendaU, G. W., 7 (cited)
Kennebec River, 22, 39, 44
Kennebec road, 124
Kennedy, W. P. M., 115 (cited)
Kentucky, 8, 18, 43
Kincaid Law, 241
Kingsbury, S. M. (ed.), 21 (cited)
Kingston, Ont., 64, 100, 145
Kirby, William, 48 (cited)
Kitchener, Ont., 85
Kittson County, Minn., 190 n
Knight, J., 99 (cited)
Knowles, Captain Charles, 27 n
La Patrie, Que., 170
Labelle, A., 213 (cited)
Laing, L. H., 258 (cited)
Lake Champlain, 40, 42, 48, 57, 58, 65, 70,
71, 75, 93, 130
Lake Erie, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 63, 78, 82, 86,
88, 90, 94, 96, 105, 106, 114, 136, 156, 185
Lake Huron, 12, 109, 126, 131, 135, 188
Lake Memphremagog, 70
Lake Michigan, 14, 131
Lake Oneida, 11
Lake Ontario, 11, 13, 42, 60, 61, 80, 82,
89, 90, 106, 111, 252
Lake St. Clair, 87
Lake St. Francis, 60, 61
Lake Superior, 16, 132, 133, 135, 154, 155,
175, 176, 238, 239
Lake Winnipeg, 176
Lake of the Woods, 239
Lambert, John, 71 (cited)
Lamb's Textile Inckistries of the United
States, 159 (cited)
Lampee, T. C, 58 (cited)
Lands, Department of, Dominion of
Canada, 191
Land law of 1841, 119
Land Purchase Act, 160
Landon, Fred, 118 (cited), 136 (cited),
137 (cited), 141 (cited), 173 (cited)
Langton, H. H. (ed.), 10 (cited)
Lapierre, E., 142 (cited)
Laurentian Shield, 135, 158, 164, 183, 191
Laurier, Sir Wilfrid, 219
Laut, Agnes C, 226 (cited)
Lauvri^re, E., 27 (cited)
Lavallee, Calixa, 142 n
Lawrence, Governor Charles, 27, 29, 35, 36
Lawton, R. J., 124 (cited)
Le Travailleur, 170, 178
Leavitt, T. W. H., 63 (cited), 94 (cited)
Leeson, M. A. (ed.), 199 (cited)
Leete, Charles H., 76 (cited)
Lewiston, Me., 12, 124
Lincoln, Abraham, 139, 142
Lincoln, C. H. (ed.), 27 (cited)
Lindsey, Charles, 117 (cited), 129 (cited)
Little, O., 24 (cited)
Liverpool, N.S., 32
Logan, H. A., 251 (cited)
London, Eng., 45, 46, 49
Londonderry, N.S., 33
Long Island, 47
Long Island Sound, 4, 22
Longley, R. S., 118 (cited)
Lonn, Ella, 148 (cited)
Louisbourg, 24, 27 n, 29
Louisiana, 28, 38
Lounsbury, R. G., 22 (cited)
Lower, A. R. M., 67 (cited), 68 (cited),
78 (cited), 97 (cited), 135 (cited), 239
(cited), 246 (cited), 255 (cited)
Lower Canada, 14, 69, 70, 77, 80, 84, 91,
92, 93, 112, 114, 116, 119, 123, 128, 132
Loyalists, 35, 45-63, 66, 67, 69, 70, 73, 74,
79, 85, 90, 90 n, 103, 113, 136
Lunenburg, N.S., 26
McArthur, Duncan A., 71 (cited), 255
(cited)
270
THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
McCloy, S. T., 28 (cited)
Macdonald, Helen G., 142 (cited)
Macdonald, N., 88 (cited)
Macgowan, P. S., 161 (cited)
McIIwain, C. H, (ed.), 10 (cited)
Maclnnes, C. M., 19 (cited)
MacKenzie, N. A. M., 258 (cited)
McKinley TariflF, 211
Mackinnon, I. F., 31 (cited)
Mackintosh, W. A., 71 (cited), 220
(cited)
MacLean, M. C, 262 (cited)
M'Leod, Donald, 95 (cited)
McNutt, Colonel Alexander, 34, 35
Machiche, Que., 49
Mackinac, Straits of, 13
Madawaska, 56
Madison, James, 89
Magrath, Thomas W,, 110 (cited)
Maine, 21, 22, 39, 40, 42, 44, 47, 50, 55, 68,
68 n, 121, 124, 125, 131, 148, 153, 165,
203, 252
Manitoba, 16, 163, 171, 176, 178, 179, 186,
190, 191, 192, 193, 196, 198, 228, 233
Manitoba Basin, 135, 175
Manitoba boom, 190, 191, 192
Maritime Provinces, 21, 67, 88, 120, 123,
130, 131, 136, 146, 160, 163, 164, 172,
181, 183, 208, 209, 242, 251, 254
Markham, Ont., 85
Marshall, H., 217 (cited)
Marshall County, Minn., 190 n
Marston, Benjamin, 51 n
Martell, J. S., 38 (cited)
Martin, Chester, 18 (cited), 88 (cited)
Martin, E., 28 (cited)
Maryland, 6, 20, 30
Mascarene, Major Paul, 23 n
Massachusetts, 6, 30, 32, 38, 39, 63, 125,
142, 162, 208, 210
Massachusetts Bay, 22
Massicotte, E. Z., 216 (cited)
Masters, D. C, 139 (cited)
Matignon, Father, 124
Matthew, Patrick, 117 (cited)
Mavor, James, 200 (cited)
Mennonites, 84, 85, 86, 135
Merk, Frederick, 153 (cited)
Merrimack River, 20, 21, 22
Methodists, 77
Mexico, 200
Michigan, 12, 14, 105, 106, 112, 118, 130,
151, 152, 153, 174, 181, 188, 196, 204,
207, 215, 222, 233, 238, 254 n
Michigan Central Railroad, 14
Middle Colonies, 34, 35, 37
Middle West, 105, 111, 112, 128, 135, 137,
162, 164, 168, 171, 177, 178, 179, 180,
181, 184, 207, 217, 223, 225, 228, 236,
239, 253
Milltown, N.B., 252
Mills, L. A., 88 (cited)
Milwaukee, Wis., 14, 131
Minas, Basin of, 23, 32, 33, 52
Minneapolis, Minn., 216, 233, 252
Minnesota, 16, 131, 148, 155, 174, 179, 180,
188, 192, 193, 194, 196, 207, 215, 227,
233, 238
Miquelon, 28, 38
Miramichi, N.B., 107
Miramichi River, 56
Missisquoi Bay, 58, 70
Missisquoi River, 71
Mississippi River, 18, 131, 140, 153, 154,
173, 215
Mississippi Valley, 16, 18, 115, 152, 188,
191, 220, 227, 228, 229
Missouri, 152, 174
Missouri River, 19, 185, 232
Missouri Valley, 15, 19
Moehlman, A. H., 154 (cited)
Mohawk River, 9, 11, 57
Mohawk route, 9
Mohawk Valley, 40, 45, 47, 65, 70
Montana, 180, 199, 200, 207, 229, 232, 235,
247
Montreal, 13, 15, 40, 48, 67, 60, 70, 71, 74,
76, 77, 89, 91, 111, 123, 127, 139, 148,
149, 169, 171, 174, 204, 252, 258, 261
Montreal, Bishop of, 127
Moore, Frank (ed.), 140 (cited)
Moorhead, Minn., 176
Moose Jaw, Sask., 229
Morin, Victor, 116 (cited)
Mormons, 199, 200, 229, 232
Morrison, Hugh Mackenzie, 119 (cited)
Morrow, R. L. (ed.), 252 (cited)
Morse, Colonel Robert, 54 n, 56 n
Morse, J., 7 (cited)
Morton, A. S., 18 (cited), 88 (cited)
Murchie, R. W., 231 (cited)
Murray, Governor James, 41
Muskegon County, Michigan, History of,
131 (cited)
Nantucket, 31, 33
"National policy," 193, 216
Nebraska, 16, 173, 174, 196, 215, 232, 235, 241
Negroes, .53, 54, 55, 56, 113, 114, 136, 137,
141, 142, 233
INDEX
271
Nelligan, J, E., 122 (cited)
New Brunswick, 16, 22, 34, 51, 54 n, 55,
56, 64, 67, 68, 68 n, 92, 106, 107, 108,
120, 121, 122, 122 n, 124, 125, 131, 133 n,
139, 147, 153, 158, 159, 162, 163, 172,
203, 208, 209, 210, 217, 252
New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Advan-
tages of Emigrating to, 107 (cited)
"New Connecticut." See Western Reserve
New England, 4, 5, 7, 12, 13, 24, 25, 29,
30, 32, 35, 37, 43, 48, 57, 69, 70, 76, 77,
81, 92, 93, 96, 106, 108, 120, 122, 123,
124, 125, 128, 130, 137, 139, 141, 143,
146, 147, 152, 159, 162, 163, 164, 165,
168, 169, 170, 172, 177, 178, 181, 209,
211, 212, 213, 215, 228, 242, 251
New Englanders, 13, 39, 69, 72, 89, 102,
105, 122
New France, 6
New Hampshire, 32, 39, 125, 148
New Haven, Conn., 6
New Jersey, 7, 47, 84, 88, 90
New London, Conn., 32, 41
New Netherland, 6, 7
New Ontario, 238, 239
New Sweden, 6
New York, 7, 11, 39, 41, 45, 48, 50, 57, 63,
65, 69, 70, 72, 75, 76, 77, 81, 86, 88, 90,
92, 93, 96, 112, 118, 121, 123, 124, 136,
139, 146, 147, 148, 228, 252
New York Central Railroad, 15
New York City, 8, 13, 15, 16, 47, 49, 50,
61, 59, 60, QQ, 99, 100, 107, 110, 111, 115,
143, 148, 153, 156, 160, 250, 258
New Yorkers, 13, 14, 69, 74, 105, 111, 190
Newbigin, M. I., 5 (cited)
Newfoundland, 4, 21, 37, 161
Newport, N.S., 32
Newton, Rev. William, 197 (cited)
Niagara (fort), 48, 59
Niagara Peninsula, 85, 87, 90, 244, 252,
261
Niagara River, 11, 42, 82, 86, 105, 111,
136, 144, 244, 257
Nicolay, John G., 149 (cited)
Niles, Hezekiah, 99 n
Norfolk, Va., 5
North Carolina, 7, 147
North Dakota, 190, 227, 229, 233. See
Dakota Territory
North Saskatchewan Valley, 198, 231
Northern Pacific Railroad, 176, 191, 201,
202
Northwest Territories (of Hudson's Bay
Co.), 163, (of Canada), 197
Northwestern Railroad, 154
Norwegians (in Canada), 233
Nova Scotia {see Acadia), 23, 24, 25, 26,
27, 28, 34, 36, 38, 43, 50, 51, 52, 54, 54 n,
55, 57, 59, 64, 66, 67, 89, 92, 106, 108,
120, 122, 137, 139, 144, 147, 159, 161,
162, 163, 172, 207, 208, 209, 210, 251
Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, Letters
from {1826, 1827, 1828), 121 (cited)
Noyes, Alva J., 199 (cited)
Noyes, B. Lake, 39 (cited)
Noyes, John P., 70 (cited)
Ogden, John Cosens, 73 (cited)
Ogdensburg, N.Y., 57, 75, 130
Ohio, 12, 64, 82, 105, 112, 135, 172, 228,
239
Ohio country, 36, 37
Ohio River, 8, 18
Old Northwest, 8, 11, 18, 81, 84, 173
Oliver, David D., 131 (cited)
Oliver, E. H., 197 (cited)
Omaha, Neb., 221, 232
Onslow, N.S., 33
Ontario, Province of, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 51,
63, 135, 163, 172, 173, 174, 179, 180, 183,
185, 186, 187, 188, 192, 197, 205, 206,
209, 217, 224, 238, 239, 242, 251, 253,
254 n, 261
Oregon, 134, 155, 180, 201, 202, 203, 235,
236
Oswego (fort), 48, 57
Oswego, N.Y., 87
Oswego River, 11
Ottawa, Ont., 250, 256, 257
Ottawa River, 76, 106, 238
Ottawa Valley, 78, 135, 191
Pacific Coast, 133, 134, 135, 147, 155, 158,
180, 202, 203, 207, 228, 229, 235, 236,
237, 251, 252, 260
Palatines, 9
Paris, Treaty of (1783), 49, 70
Parker, Edward L., 33 (cited)
Passamaquoddy Bay, 55, 56 n, 108
Patterson, Gilbert C, 88 (cited)
Peace River District, 231, 260
Peace River Valley, 191
Pearson, John, 102 (cited)
Pembina, N.D., 193
Pembina County, N.D., 190 n
Pennsylvania, 7, 8, 20, 76, 83, 84, 85, 86,
88, 90, 121, 162, 190, 228
Penobscot region, 165
Penobscot River, 44, 46
272
THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
Peto, S. M., 150 (cited)
Philadelphia, Pa., 5, 41, 83, 99
Philadelphia Plantation, 35
Phips, Sir William, 23
Picken, Andrew, 78 (cited)
Pictou, N.S., 35
Pittsburgh, Pa., 8, 82
Plattsburg, Battle of, 93
Plymouth, Mass., 32
Poitou, France, 38
Polk County, Minn., 190 n
Polk, Description du C07nt4 de, 216
(cited)
Pontiac, 35
Port Arthur, Ont., 176, 238, 239
Port Huron, Mich., 15, 206
Port Roseway, N.S., 53. See Shelburne
Port Royal, N.S., 22, 23, 53. See Annapolis
Portal, N.D., 229
Portland, Me., 39, 197
Portland, Ore., 201, 204
Portland Point, N.B., 34
Presbyterian church, 130
Prevost, Governor George, 92, 93
Prince Albert, Sask., 231
Prince Edward Island, 37, 56, 87, 139,
147, 160, 161, 163, 210
Proclamation of 1763, 41
Proctor, George H., 161 (cited)
Providence, R.I., 32
Public Works, Department of. Dominion
of Canada, 176
Puget Sound, 201, 202, 203, 204, 205
Puget Sound region, 134, 180
Quakers, 31 n, 72, 83, 84, 86, 135
Quebec, City of, 16, 32, 42, 44, 48, 57, 59,
60, 89, 91, 100, 108, 110, 111, 141, 204,
258
Quebec, Old Province of, 42, 51, 57, 64,
65, 69, 78, 79
Quebec (1841-1867), 124, 146, 153
Quebec, Province of (after 1867), 163,
165, 168, 169, 170, 171, 172, 177, 181,
183, 185, 211, 212, 213, 215, 224, 239,
242, 251, 253, 261
Rainy River District, 239
Ramsay, D., 7 (cited)
Rand, Benjamin, 32 (cited), 33 (cited)
Raymond, W. O., 29 (cited), 43 (cited),
45 (cited), 46 (cited), 52 (cited) (ed.),
68 (cited)
Rebans, John, 110 (cited)
Rebellions of 1837-1838, 115, 116, 117, 120
Reciprocity Treaty of 1854, 139, 160, 163,
171
Red Lake River, 179
Red River, 135, 174, 176, 177, 179, 220
Red River Valley, History of, 154
(cited)
Red River Valley, 16, 88, 154, 155, 176,
178, 180, 190, 191, 216
Red River Valley boom, 190
Regina, Sask., 229, 230
"Return of Disbanded Troops in Quebec,
1787," 64 (cited)
Rezak, Rev. Antoine Ivan, 215 (cited)
Rhode Island, 21, 30, 32, 39, 125, 142 n,
210, 212
Richelieu River, 40, 48, 57, 70, 71, 74, 75,
93
Richelieu Valley, 69
Riddell, W. R., 114 (cited)
Riel, Louis, 176, 198, 212
Rispin, Thomas, 37 (cited)
Robbins, J. E., 261 (cited)
Robinson, J., 37 (cited)
Rochefoucault-Liancourt, Due de, 81
(cited)
Rochester, N.Y., 197
Rocky Mountains, 19, 191, 199, 215, 220,
228, 229, 252
Roebling, John A., 15
Rogers, J. D., 201 (cited)
Rome, N.Y., 11
Roney, William F., 144 (cited)
Roosevelt, F. D., 256
Roy, Antoine, 115 (cited)
Roy, H. F., 124 (cited)
"Royal Townships," 61
Russia, 259
Russians (in Canada), 233
Ryerson, Egerton, 118 (cited)
Sacramento, Cal., 202
Saginaw Bay, 14
Saginaw Valley, 153
Saguenay Valley, 127
St. Albans, Vt., 156, 157
St. Andrews, N.B., 22
St. Anne, 111., 129
St. Clair County, Michigan, History of,
131 (cited)
St. Clair River, 14, 254 n
St. Croix River, Me., 34, 42, 55, 68, 107
St. Croix River, Wis., 131, 153
St. Croix Valley, Me., 55
St. Francis River, 71
INDEX
273
St. John, N.B., 22, 55, 107, 121, 146, 162,
172, 209, 258
St. John Island, 37, 56. See Prince Ed-
ward Island
St. John River, 34, 44, 55, 56, 56 n, 68
St. John Valley, 55
St. John's, Que., 57
St. Lawrence, Gulf of, 32, 87, 38, 56
St. Lawrence River, 5, 13, 40, 48, 57, 59,
60, 69, 70, 71, 75, 89, 91, 105, 106, 108,
110, 112, 117, 126, 127, 129, 130, 139,
149, 151, 161, 168, 213, 215, 225
St. Lawrence Valley, 42, 135
St. Louis Exposition, 1903, 221
St. Mary's Bay, 38
St. Paul, Minn., 16, 192, 215, 216, 228,
229, 252
St. Pierre, 28, 38
St. Pierre, Telesphore, 130 (cited)
St. Stephen, N.B., 252
Salem, Mass., 32
Salone, Emile, 40 (cited)
Salt Lake City, Utah, 200
San Francisco, Cal., 134, 155, 202, 204
Sandusky County, Ohio, History of, 94
(cited)
Sanilac County, Portrait and Biographi-
cal Album of, 118 (cited)
Saratoga, Battle of, 44, 47
Sargent, Winthrop, 64 (cited)
Sarnia, Ont., 15
Saskatchewan, 197, 228, 229, 231, 233, 235
Saskatchewan River, 197, 199, 231
Saskatchewan Valley, 178, 198, 231
Saskatoon, Sask., 231
Sault Ste. Marie, 87, 132, 288
Saunders, E. M., 43 (cited)
Saunders, S. A., 147 (cited)
Sawtelle, William O., 35 (cited)
Scandinavians, 188, 238
Schafer, Joseph, 14 (cited), 132 n
Schott, C, 106 (cited)
Scottish settlers, 47, 87, 97, 101
Seattle, Wash., 201, 203, 204, 252
Selkirk, Earl of, 87
Sellar, Robert, 76 (cited)
Seward, William, 145, 151
Shannon, Fred A., 143 (cited)
Shea, John G., 130 (cited)
Sheaffe, General Roger H., 94
Shelburne, N.S., 52 n, 53, 53 n, 54, 55, 66
Sheldon, A. E., 178 (cited)
Shenandoah River, 20
Sherbrooke, Lieutenant-Governor John
C.,92
Sherk, A. B., 86 (cited)
Shirley, Gov. William, 27 (cited), 27 n
Shortt, A. (ed.), 81 (cited), 134 (cited)
Shryock, R. H., 7 (cited)
Siebert, W. H., 45 (cited), 46 (cited), 48
(cited), 49 (cited), 56 (cited), 59
(cited), 60 (cited), 137 (cited)
Sierra Leone, 54
Sifton, Clifford, 220
Simcoe, Lieutenant-Governor John
Graves, 80 (cited), 80, 83, 86, 88, 96
Sioux uprising of 1862, 154
Skagit River, 201
Skedaddle Ridge, N.B., 158
Skelton, Oscar D., 109 (cited)
Smith, John T., 124 (cited)
Smith, Michael, 12 (cited), 83 (cited), 90
(cited), 94 (cited)
Smyth, David William, 87 (cited)
Smyth, Lieutenant-Governor George S.,
92
"Soo Line," 228
Sorel, Que., 49, 58, 60
South Carolina, 7, 147
South Dakota, 241, 243. See Dakota Ter-
ritory
South Shore, N.S., 29, 32, 83
Southard, F. A., 217 (cited)
Southwest, 18, 224
Spokane, Wash., 228
Stacey, C. P., 150 (cited)
Stanley, G. F. G., 175 (cited)
Stanton, Edwin, 142
Staten Island, 47
Stephenson, Isaac, 122 (cited)
Stewart, Bishop Charles, 74, 74 (cited)
Stiles, Ezra, 31 (cited)
Stilwell, L. D., 76 (cited)
Story, Norah, 97 (cited)
Stuart, Charles B., 15 (cited)
Sullivan, General John, 10, 44
Sumas, Wash., 247
Susquehanna River, 20
Swedish settlers (in Canada), 288
Swiss, 25, 26, 37, 87
Talbot, Colonel Thomas, 88
Talbot Road, 88
Taylor, Ernest M., 74 (cited)
Taylor, Henry, 125 (cited), 128 (cited)
Taylor, K. W., 217 (cited)
Tennessee, 8, 18
Texas, 7, 18, 231, 250
Thames River, 63, 90, 114
Thomas, C, 70 (cited), 78 (cited)
274
THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN PEOPLES
Thompson, Colonel Benjamin, 46 n
Thompson, J. H., 65 (cited)
Thompson, Zadoch, 39 (cited)
Thwaites, R. G., 43 (cited)
Toronto, 80, 172, 192, 258. See York
Toronto Exhibition, 258
Trade, Board of, 25, 31 n, 33, 36
Trimble, W. J., 201 (cited)
Trinity River, 133 n
Trotter, R. G. (ed.), 245 (cited)
Troy, N.Y., 130
Truesdell, L. E., 261 n
Truro, N.S., 33
Turner, F. J., 8 (cited)
Turner, O., 45 (cited)
Ulstermen, 32
Uncle Tom's Cabin, 141
Underground Railway, 114
Union Army, 145, 146, 149
United States, Congress, 49, 63, 149, 152
United States, Department of State, 140
Upper Canada, 11, 12, 67, 69, 78, 79, 80,
81, 82, 83, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 93,
94, 95, 96, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 109,
111, 112, 113, 114, 117, 119, 124, 130,
135, 136, 137
Upper Canada, Statistical Sketches of,
109 (cited)
Utah, 200, 230, 232
Utrecht, Treaty of, 23
Van Home, W. C, 191
Van Wart, H. H., 57 (cited)
Vancouver, B.C., 204, 236, 247, 252
Vattier, Georges, 69 (cited)
Vermont, 39, 70, 73, 76, 84, 123, 124, 125,
166
Verrette, Adrien, 165 (cited)
Victoria, B.C., 201, 236
Virginia, 5, 7
Voyageurs, 123, 128, 132, 176, 215
Walsh County, N.D., 190 n
"War Hawks," 91
War of 1812, 83, 85, 90
Ware, E. E., 262 (cited)
Ware, N. J., 251 (cited)
Washington, H. A. (ed.), 91 (cited)
Washington, 228, 235, 236, 237, 247, 252.
See Washington Territory
Washington Territory, 155, 180, 201, 202,
203, 205
Washington, Treaty of (1871), 208
Waterloo campaign, 98
Waterloo Township, Ont., 85
Wayne, Anthony, 81
Weaverville, Cal., 133 n
Webb, W. P., 13 (cited)
Weld, Isaac, 82 (cited)
Welland Canal, 252
Welland County, Ont., 85
West (American), 13, 16, 174, 177, 184
West (Canadian), 13, 16, 18, 174, 175, 176,
177, 183, 191, 197, 199, 211, 219, 224,
227, 228, 236, 239, 241, 245, 248, 252
West (North American as a whole), 18,
201, 205, 224, 231, 259
West Indies, 4, 20, 28, 31, 38, 122, 160
Western Canada Immigration Associa-
tion, 222
Western Inland Lock Navigation Com-
pany, 11
Western Reserve, 11, 12, 86, 94
Wilgus, W. J., 14 (cited)
Willcox, Walter F., 113 (cited)
Williams, Samuel, 39 (cited)
Williams, W. W., 94 (cited)
Williamson, W. D., 22 (cited)
Wilmington, Del., 5
Wilson, R., 246 (cited)
Windsor, Ont., 148, 258
Winnipeg, Man., 17, 176, 177, 179, 191,
192, 198, 225, 235, 236, 239, 252
Winslow, Edward, 45 n, 46 n, 67
Winslow, Colonel John, 27, 28 n
Winsor, Justin (ed.), 81 (cited)
Wisconsin, 14, 131, 148, 153, 204, 207, 222,
238
Wittke, Carl, 64 (cited)
Woburn, Mass., 77
Wood Creek, N.Y., 11
Wood, W., 92 (cited)
Woodson, Carter, 136 (cited)
Woonsocket, R.I., 123
Worcester, Mass., 166, 170
World War, 248, 249, 250, 251, 259
World's Fair, 1893, 197
Wraxall, P., 10 (cited)
Wright, Philemon, 77
Wyoming, 229
Yamachiche, Que., 49
Yamaska River, 71
Yonge Street, 80, 84
York, 80, 85, 100. See Toronto
Young, Brigham, 200
Young, James, 77 (cited)
UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA
3 12bE 0
4210 D3T5
127591
3 ;? .5-: -2 7/
Live Music Archive
Librivox Free Audio
Metropolitan Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Internet Arcade
Console Living Room
Books to Borrow
Open Library
TV News
Understanding 9/11