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The Quebec Act and the Demise of Greater Britain UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones 8-1-2013 The Quebec Act and the Demise of Greater Britain Trevor Michael Henson University of Nevada, Las Vegas Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/thesesdissertations Part of the Cultural History Commons, and the Political History Commons Repository Citation Henson, Trevor Michael, "The Quebec Act and the Demise of Greater Britain" (2013). UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones. 1930. http://dx.doi.org/10.34917/4798001 This Thesis is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been brought to you by Digital Scholarship@UNLV with permission from the rights-holder(s). You are free to use this Thesis in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s) directly, unless additional rights are indicated by a Creative Commons license in the record and/ or on the work itself. This Thesis has been accepted for inclusion in UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones by an authorized administrator of Digital Scholarship@UNLV. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE QUEBEC ACT AND THE DEMISE OF GREATER BRITAIN By Trevor M. Henson Bachelor of Arts-Law City of London Polytechnic (now known as Guildhall University), United Kingdom 1992 Bachelor of Arts-History University of Nevada, Las Vegas 2008 A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Arts-History Department of History College of Liberal Arts The Graduate College University of Nevada, Las Vegas August 2013 Copyright by Trevor M. Henson, 2013 All Rights Reserved THE GRADUATE COLLEGE We recommend the thesis prepared under our supervision by Trevor Henson entitled The Quebec Act and the Demise of Greater Britain is approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts - History Department of History David Holland, Ph.D., Committee Chair Michelle Tusan, Ph.D., Committee Member Andrew Bell, Ph.D., Committee Member David Fott, Ph.D., Graduate College Representative Kathryn Hausbeck Korgan, Ph.D., Interim Dean of the Graduate College August 2013 ii ABSTRACT This study examines how events in one part of the British Empire had unintended consequences in another part of the empire through the examination of a much neglected piece of eighteenth century British legislation, the Quebec Act and the relationship within Greater Britain between the metropole and the American colonies. This examination of the Quebec Act involves, in part, analyzing the evolving national identities within Greater Britain in the framework of the principles of the Glorious Revolution and anti-Catholicism. The Quebec Act brought to the fore the differences of identity within Greater Britain through different interpretations of the adaptability of the Revolutionary Settlement and the suspicion of Roman Catholics. At the end of the seventeenth-century, the Glorious Revolution brought the identities of Britons and North American colonists closer together under the symbolic region of Greater Britain. Greater Britons shared similar attitudes towards constitutional tenets and religion as reaffirmed by the Revolutionary Settlement. In time, however, the principles of the Settlement and the attitude towards Romans Catholics would tear apart Greater Britain. This study contributes to the existing scholarship by connecting the reassessment of British and American national identities to their respective standings within the Empire. It argues that changes in the consciousness of sections of the populations of Greater Britain—the political and intellectual elite of Britain and the Patriots of the colonies— caused Britons and colonials to interpret the events of the 1760s and 1770s in different ways—igniting the misunderstandings of each other’s actions and the trigger for war. iii On one hand, modern scholars have more recently considered matters of national identity as the root of the issue and downplayed the importance of colonial unrest in the narrative of the genesis of the Act. Earlier scholars, however, considered the Act as a calculated response to colonial rebellion, and therefore downplayed the role a changing metropolitan culture. This thesis considers these two contradictory positions as complementary rather than mutually exclusive. Changing metropolitan views of British identity and the growing unrest in the colonies are not competing narratives, but are interrelated realities that shaped both each other and the Parliamentary action concerning Quebec. In sum, the Quebec Act is a significant topic for study to understand why British and American relations soured during the mid-1760s and early 1770s explaining, in part, the demise of the First British Empire. Furthermore, the Quebec Act reflected the diverging identities across the Atlantic, resulting in the divorce of the American colonies from the mother country. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express the deepest appreciation to my committee chair, Dr. David Holland, who has been patient, supportive, inspirational, and accommodating. Without his guidance and it is no exaggeration to say that completion of this project would not have been possible. I would like to thank my committee members, Dr. Michelle Tusan, Dr. David Fott, and Dr. Andrew Bell for their understanding, particularly as I changed the dates of my defense on more than one occasion. Moreover, I am grateful for the comments they have made on my manuscript that has helped improve the study. I owe my deepest gratitude to Dr. Nelson, who, together with Dr Holland, helped me pass my comprehensive exams, which like other students I thought I could never pass. I am indebted to the History department as a whole. The faculty and administrative staff continually assisted during my Masters degree encouraging me when I felt overwhelmed with the large amount of required coursework. Special note must go to Dr. Andy Fry, Dr. David Wrobel, and Dr. Colin Loader whom I took classes with and assisted in improving my writing and analytical skills. I also thank members of the faculty whom I did not take classes with who took the time to encourage and inspire me to succeed. I also wish to thank Lynette Webber, former administrative assistant in the History department, for her assistance in the administration issues involved in planning my program. v DEDICATION To my wife who has stood by me through the most difficult times of my degree, and to my parents who have given me the opportunity of an education in the United States and have supported me throughout my life. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………………...iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS…………………………………………………………….....v DEDICATION……………………………………………………………………………vi CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION: THE QUEBEC ACT, 1774…………………………1 CHAPTER 2 SYBOLISM OF THE GLORIOUS REVOLUTION: THE ATLANTIC IMPERIAL CONSTITUTION…………………………………………………………..18 CHAPTER 3 THE QUEBEC QUESTION…………………………………………….44 CHAPTER 4 THE RATIONALE OF THE QUEBEC ACT…………………………..52 CHAPTER 5 ENLIGHTENED EXPANSIONISTS AND RADICAL PATRIOTS…..77 CHAPTER 6 CONCLUSION…………………………………………………….........99 REFERENCES…………………………………………………………………………106 VITA…………………………………………………………………………………...126 vii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION THE QUEBEC ACT, 1774 It is a fundamental principle of the English Constitution that whenever territories are added to…the dominion of the Crown, the people of such territories shall enjoy the Laws and Liberties of Englishmen. The free Constitution of England abhors all ideas of Slavery, and does not admit that people inhabiting any part of its dominions should be under Arbitrary Power, and be slaves, instead of subjects, of the Crown. —Boston Gazette and County Journal, September 12, 1774 The narrative of the demise of the First British Empire and the rise of the new nation on the east coast of North America is a complex one. This study argues that the Quebec Act, an act “for making the more effective Provision for the Government of the Province of Quebec in North America,” is an excellent prism in which to study this complexity.1 Notwithstanding the numerous internal colonial issues that presented themselves before the American rebellion, the themes surrounding the quarrel between the colonies and Great Britain were paradoxical and in some cases contradictory. For example, a piece of British legislation for a newly acquired territory had unintended consequences in another part of the empire, and the American colonists were fervently anti-Catholic, yet the rebellious Patriots accepting the help of Catholic France to defeat the British. The Quebec Act created a colonial system of government, resolving a politically delicate problem, stemming from Britain’s acquisition of Canada from the French in 1 1763: How to integrate seventy-thousand French Catholic Canadians into an ostensibly Protestant empire. The Glorious Revolution of 1688 not only affirmed England as a Protestant state, but also, preordained England’s emerging empire as a Protestant empire. Until 1763, the empire was almost exclusively Anglo-Protestant and Britain had resorted to extreme measures to maintain the empire as such, whether by expelling a population from acquired territory or going to war with a close enemy. The acquisition of Quebec, however, forced British authorities to reassess this sense of Protestant mission, because the sheer number of remaining French-speaking Roman Catholics made
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