Document generated on 09/28/2021 12:10 p.m. Ontario History “Union is Strength”: W. L. Mackenzie, the Children of Peace, and the Emergence of Joint Stock Democracy in Upper Canada By Albert Schrauwers Chris Raible Volume 102, Number 1, Spring 2010 URI: https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/1065604ar DOI: https://doi.org/10.7202/1065604ar See table of contents Publisher(s) The Ontario Historical Society ISSN 0030-2953 (print) 2371-4654 (digital) Explore this journal Cite this review Raible, C. (2010). Review of [“Union is Strength”: W. L. Mackenzie, the Children of Peace, and the Emergence of Joint Stock Democracy in Upper Canada By Albert Schrauwers]. Ontario History, 102(1), 129–131. https://doi.org/10.7202/1065604ar Copyright © The Ontario Historical Society, 2010 This document is protected by copyright law. Use of the services of Érudit (including reproduction) is subject to its terms and conditions, which can be viewed online. https://apropos.erudit.org/en/users/policy-on-use/ This article is disseminated and preserved by Érudit. Érudit is a non-profit inter-university consortium of the Université de Montréal, Université Laval, and the Université du Québec à Montréal. Its mission is to promote and disseminate research. https://www.erudit.org/en/ book revews 12 lery, plus the two American commanders, forensic methods have been able to dem- and the American defense fragmented. onstrate the brutal character of the battle, From initial surprise, to incipient disaster, possibly including battlefield executions. to sudden victory, the British organized a And thirdly, Elliott challenges the rather rapid retreat before dawn could reveal how perverse reinterpretation, by Victorian- low their strength really was. The Ameri- era citizens, of the meaning of the Stoney cans withdrew to Fort George amid fear Creek Battlefield Park for (apparently) of a counter-offensive by the Royal Navy, their own purposes. He claims that the and were on the defensive for the rest of park displays (including a monument built 1813. Elliott estimates that over 200 Brit- to rival Brock’s at Queenston Heights) do ish troops were imprisoned, wounded or not properly reect the military and politi- killed, a casualty rate of 25 per cent versus cal circumstances: a representative example the American rate of about 10 per cent. of the great power of military competition Elliott gives a stirring account of these that characterized eastern North America events but some contextual comments are until the War of 1812. Elliott finds the in order. Despite the strong production— park to have been, instead, an expression organization, maps, and historic images— of late nineteenth century imperialism, and his care in documenting both sides of focused on Canadian settlers who were by- the story in greater detail than ever before, standers in the clash, and celebrating peace some reorganization would help the nar- with the United States. This is all provoca- rative. Readers need a timeline. Failure to tive thinking, and it is a mystery why El- conclude the narrative with the American liott has relegated the role of critical versus evacuation in 1813 is odd. The appendices social memory to a remote part of such an could also be reordered, placing the rel- engaging manuscript. evant War of 1812 material first. Three of the appendices conceal what Robin Wylie I would regard as the most significant as- Douglas College, Vancouver, B.C. pect of the book: challenging assumed truths. First, Elliott debunks the claimed Bibliography: role of Canadian scouts like Billy Green, Canada: A People’s History, Videorecording. for which there appears to be no docu- Toronto: Canadian Broadcasting Corpora- mentation. Next, he shows how modern tion, 2000-2001. “Union is Strength”: W. L. Mackenzie, the Children of Peace, and the Emer- gence of Joint Stock Democracy in Upper Canada By Albert Schrauwers Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2009. 320 pages. $70.00 hard- cover. ISBN 978-0-8020-9927-3 (www.utppublishing.com) n this tightly-packed, ambitious is a tale of corporate, charitable, commer- volume, Albert Schrauwers depicts cial, and political development. If it has a a fresh version of the history of hero, it is not William Lyon Mackenzie UpperI Canada of the 1820s and 1830s. It (despite the book’s title), but David Will- 10 ONTARIO HISTORY son, founder of the elite—John Strachan, Children of Peace. Henry John Boulton, Union is Strength William Allan and combines Schrauw- others—controlled ers’ two main inter- the province through ests. One is the Chil- powerful chartered dren of Peace, the corporations, most religious community notably the Bank of best known today for Upper Canada. In the Sharon Temple, a opposition, an inter- stunning piece of ar- connected group of chitecture, now a mu- reformers directed seum near Newmar- various commercial ket, Ontario. Hardly a joint stock companies, withdrawn communal among them Farmers’ sect, the Children of Storehouse Company Peace under Willson’s (a grain cooperative), guidance were fully and the Bank of the engaged in the po- People. Other un- litical and economic incorporated joint world around them. stock enterprises— They combined mor- Toronto House of al force, commercial Industry (charitable), acumen and electoral Mechanics’ Institute power to become inuential participants (educational), Canadian Alliance Society in the reform movement of the era. Schrau- (political), and Shepard’s Hall (a public- wers’ second interest is the “structural tran- spirited company) —were also linked to sition of Upper Canada’s economy to capi- the reform movement. The overlapping talism” fostered especially by joint stock boards of management—including James companies. (p. 7) These organizations, he Lesslie, Joseph Hughes, Joseph Shepard argues, produced a “joint stock democ- and others—collectively countered the ac- racy,” powerfully inuenced by British and tions of the notorious Family Compact. American socialist or co-operative move- Theirs was almost a “Reform Compact” ments inspired by the Scottish industrialist (my term, not Schrauwers’), a few leaders and idealist, Robert Owen. who united disparate organizations into a Schrauwers offers closely-knit, albeit powerful force for change. at times repetitive, arguments. The vari- These joint stock corporations were ety and scope of his intermingled ideas are founded on moral principles, and an ethi- suggested by chapter titles, such as: “Char- cal theme runs through much of Schrauw- ity, Owenism and the Toronto House of ers’ discussion, what he calls the economics Industry,” “The Economics of Respect- of respectability. Willson’s early support ability: the Farmers’ Storehouse (Banking) of the Farmers’ Storehouse Company was Company,” or “The Promise of Responsi- aimed less at members earning income ble Government.” In his portrayal of the than it was at their avoiding debt, with its drama of those times, an establishment accompanying social stigma and criminali- book revews 11 zation. Even the votes of freeholder debtor Upper Canada and its attorney John Henry inmates of the Toronto jail were dictated Boulton was only one of several themes in by their creditors. In the mid 1830s the Mackenzie’s writings that prompted a gang Bank of the People served clients other of young Tories to destroy the Advocate banks refused. In the hard times of 1836- printing office in 1826. Mackenzie collect- 37 reformers created the House of Indus- ed £625 in damages from the rioters, but it try to aid pauper immigrants, successfully is a stretch to suggest, even ironically, that resisting attempts by Lieutenant Governor the bank thus funded his election to Parlia- Bond Head, fresh from serving as an Eng- ment two years later. lish Poor Law commissioner, to apply rigid Schrauwers has combined his experi- regulations in Upper Canada. ence as an economic anthropologist, his Almost as an aside, Schrauwers con- admiration of David Willson and the Chil- trasts the 27 members of the Children of dren of Peace, his fascination with Robert Peace who were led in Rebellion down Owen and cooperative socialism, and his Yonge Street by Samuel Lount with the diligent research into the political and 54 men who stayed behind. As a group, economic development of Upper Canada the rebels were younger and more recent- to produce a history that is novel, insight- ly married. Schrauwers writes “it would ful, argumentative, and yet, alas, not fully be wrong to conclude that [men] joined convincing. The intertwined threads of his the rebellion because they, as the poorest themes do not weave a full tapestry. None- members, had nothing to lose. … They had theless, his work is a welcome addition to a the most to lose: their respectability. … It growing body of works by professional his- was precisely because they had the most torians—Jeffrey McNairn, Carol Wilton, to lose that they responded to Macken- and others—demanding a re-assessment of zie’s call.” (p. 201) Yet Schrauwers admits this era. The debate continues. that he is unable to explain why Lount rebelled while Joseph Hughes, a similarly Chris Raible prominent Children of Peace elder, did Creemore, Ontario not. Schrauwers utilizes Mackenzie’s politi- Bibliography: cal career as the narrative strand for Union McIntyre, W. John. Children of Peace. Montreal is Strength. Unfortunately, this procedure & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, results in a number of overstatements, and 1994. I cite a few examples. The purpose of Mac- McNairn, Jeffrey. The Capacity to Judge: Public kenzie’s 1832 journey to London was not Opinion and Deliberative Democracy in Upper to appeal his expulsion from the House of Canada, 1791-1854. Toronto: University of Assembly but, rather, to seek redress for a Toronto Press, 2000. whole catalogue of grievances brought by Schrauwers, Albert. Awaiting the Millennium: many thousands of petitioners. Excessive the Children of Peace and the Village of court costs incurred by debtors was hardly Hope, 1812-1899.