Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

1775]

THE PRESENT DUTY.

401

culminated in the disruption of the empire, from which as a people they sprung and to which they owe so much. The one effort should be to reach the truth, not to magnify the causes of discord and invent reasons for the perpetuity of the enmity which then arose. It is the duty of the first minds in the republic, to probe with philosophic calmness the character and motives of the instigators of the quarrel, to note how the points of dispute were changed and extended, as they became developed into the desire for separation, and how fresh fuel was constantly added to the old fire. There was much greatly to be blamed and condemned in the conduct of the mother country, but the time has arrived when the fact must be honestly avowed, that the censure did not all lie on that side.

2B

BOOK XVIII.

THE INVASION OF CANADA BY THE TROOPS OF

CONGRESS, 1775-1776.

1775]

CONDITION OF CANADA.

405

CHAPTER I.

As the discontent in the old British provinces increased in intensity and plainness of speech, the desire of including the new province of Canada in the agitation became stronger and more general. I have related in a previous book the effort made to obtain the co-operation of the French Canadians, by a printed appeal to their prejudices and interest, actively distributed among them, and earnestly sustained by men in sympathy with the colonial cause. As it generally happens in any revolutionary movement, those who were in the first rank in urging matters to extremity, took the most sanguine view of the situation, and prophesied the certain success of a well-directed attack against the province. The most prominent of the English speaking population, who were in communication with the New England leaders, represented that the weak condition of the province, from being almost denuded of troops, made any organized defence impossible; and while they recommended, that the troops of congress should invade Canada, they pledged their own adhesion and support to the attempt. The French Canadians, under the most unfavourable estimate of the course they would take, were looked upon as certain to remain neutral, while many were counted upon as likely to prove active partisans. Accordingly, it came to be regarded as an established fact by the provincial leaders, that the possession of Canada could, without difficulty be obtained, whenever the attempt was

made to seize it.

It has been stated that on the affair at Lexington on the 19th of April becoming known, the forts of Ticonderoga and Crown Point were surprised and taken in possession. As the attack was made on the 10th of May, within a month of the first act of resistance, it is not easy to trace the influences

1

« AnteriorContinuar »