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Ontario History

God & Government Exploring the Religious Roots of Upper Canadian Political Culture Denis McKim

Volume 105, Number 1, Spring 2013 Article abstract This article focuses on a debate that raged in Upper during the early URI: https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/1050747ar and mid-nineteenth century over the degree to which civil authorities should DOI: https://doi.org/10.7202/1050747ar assume responsibility for promoting societal virtue. Supporters of state-aided , many of whom were Tories, clashed with critics of close See table of contents -state ties, many of whom were Reformers. The catalyst for this conflict was the Clergy Reserves endowment. Drawing on works that situate British North American affairs in an expansive interpretive framework, this article Publisher(s) maintains that the Upper Canadian debate over state-aided Christianity was subsumed within a larger conflict regarding the church-state relationship that The Historical Society originated in early modern England and played itself out across the North Atlantic World. ISSN 0030-2953 (print) 2371-4654 (digital)

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Cite this article McKim, D. (2013). God & Government: Exploring the Religious Roots of Upper Canadian Political Culture. Ontario History, 105(1), 74–97. https://doi.org/10.7202/1050747ar

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By Denis McKim Introduction ers, who drowned out his remarks and subjected the would-be spokesman to a esse Ketchum, a prominent barrage of “eggs, apples, stones, and [oth- businessman and Reformer, er] such missiles.” e Tory “mob” then Jmounted a platform that had marched west along King Street from the been erected outside the courthouse in courthouse, which was located between York, , in March of 1832. Church and Streets, to the He intended to convey to the “very great Lieutenant Governor’s residence, which crowd” amassed before him the sense was located between Simcoe and John of disapproval felt by himself and other Streets, where they oered “three times “friends of reform” regarding an allegedly three cheers for the King [William IV], fraudulent petition that had recently cir- and three times three cheers for John culated among the town’s inhabitants. Colborne.” Still brimming with energy, Bearing upwards of 1,500 signatures, the Tories proceeded to make an egy the petition expressed “approbation of of , an associ- the administration of our worthy and ate of Ketchum’s and a leading Reformer, excellent Lieutenant Governor, Sir John which they hoisted on a pole and parad- Colborne.” Yet Ketchum’s attempts to ed through the “principal Streets” of the denounce the petition—and, by implica- town before nally burning it in front of tion, the colony’s conservative Lieuten- the oces of Mackenzie’s newspaper, the ant Governor—were rendered futile by Colonial Advocate.1 a rowdy contingent of Tory sympathiz- Responsibility for these events, in * For their helpful comments on dras of this article the author wishes to thank Helen Dewar, Brad Miller, Todd Webb, and Ontario History’s anonymous reviewer. 1 Christian Guardian, 28 March 1832, 79; Patriot 3 April 1832, unpaginated.

Ontario History / Volume CV, No. 1 / Spring 2013

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the opinion of “An Eye Wit- ness” writing in the Christian Abstract Guardian, lay not with the is article focuses on a debate that raged in Upper Cana- “poor ignorant creatures” who da during the early and mid-nineteenth century over the carried them out, but rather degree to which civil authorities should assume responsi- bility for promoting societal virtue. Supporters of state- with Upper Canada’s “state paid aided Christianity, many of whom were Tories, clashed priests.” ese individuals were with critics of close church-state ties, many of whom were purportedly guilty of inciting Reformers. e catalyst for this conict was the Clergy Re- the mob to behave in such a serves endowment. Drawing on works that situate Brit- disgraceful manner on account ish North American aairs in an expansive interpretive amework, this article maintains that the Upper Cana- of their desire to thwart the dian debate over state-aided Christianity was subsumed Reformers’ eorts to eliminate within a larger conict regarding the church-state rela- government aid for the clergy of tionship that originated in early modern England and certain churches. “An Eye Wit- played itself out across the North Atlantic World. ness” urged Reform-oriented Résumé: Cet article examine un débat qui a fait rage en Upper to continue Haut-Canada pendant la première moitié du 19e siècle, concernant le degré auquel les autorités civiles devaient their campaign against state- assumer la responsabilité de promouvoir la vertu dans sanctioned denominational hi- la société. Ceux qui préconisaient un soutien de l’État au erarchy, and to “prevail on His christianisme (dont grand nombre de Tories) s’opposaient Majesty’s Government to with- aux adversaires de liens étroits entre Église et État (en hold… support for all ministers grande partie des Réformateurs). Au coeur du conit étai- 2 ent les réserves du clergé (terres réservées au soutien du of religion.” clergé protestant). Se basant sur des oeuvres qui enisa- Recent years have wit- gent les aaires de l’Amérique du Nord Britannique dans nessed a veritable renaissance in un cadre d’interprétation plus large, cet article traite ce the writing of Canadian politi- débat du Haut-Canada comme partie d’un conit plus généralisé concernant les relations entre l’Église et l’État, cal history. oughtful works, conit qui a eu ses origines en Angleterre aux débuts de many of which pertain to the l’ère moderne et s’est manifesté par la suite dans tous les nineteenth century, have been pays de l’Atlantique du Nord. produced on topics ranging from the part played by ideas in shaping Canada’s political develop- all of their insightfulness and diversity ment, to the evolving role of the state, to such works have typically accorded short the contributions of ordinary people to shri to the close relationship between movements of political protest.3 Yet for religion and early Canadian political 2 Christian Guardian, 28 March 1832, 79. 3 For ideas see Jerey L. McNairn, e Capacity to Judge: Public Opinion and Deliberative De- mocracy in Upper Canada, 1791-1854 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2000); for the state see Bruce Curtis, e Politics of Population: State Formation, Statistics, and the Census of Canada, 1840- 1875 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2001); for popular politics see Ian Radforth, “Political Demonstrations & Spectacles During the Rebellion Losses Controversy in Upper Canada,” Cana- dian Historical Review 92:1 (March 2011), 1-41.

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culture that found expression in the re- is article, through an examination marks of “An Eye Witness.”4 is lack of of Upper Canadian political culture’s emphasis seems odd, given that several of deep religious roots, seeks to address the most contentious issues within pre- this historiographical gap. It focuses Confederation politics—debates over on a polarizing debate that raged in the which denominations’ clergy would be colony during the early and mid-nine- permitted to perform marriage ceremo- teenth century over the degree to which nies, struggles over sectarian schools, the civil authorities should assume responsi- ever-vexatious Clergy Reserves endow- bility for promoting societal virtue. e ment—were expressly religious concerns, debate brought into focus the existence while many of the people involved in in Upper Canadian society of ingrained determining the character of early Cana- politico-religious dierences of opinion. dian politics—John Strachan, Egerton Supporters of state-aided Christianity, Ryerson, George Brown—were deeply many of whom were Tories, clashed with religious individuals. e lack of empha- critics of close church-state ties, many sis devoted to the interplay between reli- of whom were Reformers. e catalyst gion and early Canadian political culture for this conict was the Clergy Reserves also seems odd in view of the fact that endowment, which Governor General historical works investigating politico-re- Lord Sydenham described in 1840 as “[a] ligious topics have proliferated in recent perpetual source of discord, strife and years elsewhere in the world, including hatred.” 6 Drawing on works that situate Britain and, especially, the United States, British North American aairs in an ex- with the latter playing host to lively de- pansive interpretive framework, this arti- bates over whether the early republic can cle maintains that the Upper Canadian be viewed as a “Christian Nation.”5 debate over state-aided Christianity was

4 For a noteworthy exception to this pattern see Michael Gauvreau, “Covenanter Democracy: Scottish Popular Religion, Ethnicity, and the Varieties of Politico-Religious Dissent in Upper Cana- da, 1815-1841,” Histoire Sociale 36:71 (2003), 55-83. For older works on politico-religious topics see John S. Moir, Church and State in Canada West: ree Studies in the Relation of Denominationalism and Nationalism, 1841-1867 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1959); and Goldwin French, Parsons and Politics: e Role of the Wesleyan Methodists in Upper Canada and om 1780 to 1855 (Toronto: Ryerson, 1962). 5 For perspectives on the intersection of religion and politics in Britain see J.C.D. Clark, English Society 1660-1832: Religion, Ideology and Politics During the Ancient Regime, Second Edition (Cam- bridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000); and David Hempton, Religion and Political Culture in Britain and Ireland: From the Glorious Revolution to the Decline of Empire (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 1996). For diering views on the “Christian Nation” debate see James Hutson, Forgotten Features of the Founding: e Recoery of Religious emes in the Early American Republic (New York: Lexington Books, 2003); and Jon Butler, “Why Revolutionary America Wasn’t a ‘Chris- tian Nation,’” in Religion and the New Republic: Faith in the Founding of America, edited by James Hutson (New York: Rowman & Littleeld, 2000), 187-202. 6 Paul Knaplund, ed., Letters om Lord Sydenham to Lord John Russell (London: Allen and Un- win, 1931), 43-44.

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subsumed within a larger conict regard- Reform-oriented opponents of state-sup- ing the church-state relationship that ported Christianity that it transcended originated in early modern England and the public sphere of reasoned dialogue played itself out across the North Atlan- and manifested itself in raucous public tic World.7 demonstrations and acts of violence.8 Ex- Aggravating politico-religious ten- amining the competing contentions that sions was the existence in Upper Canada lay at the heart of this struggle—which of competing strategies for the Chris- ultimately intersected with such crucial tianization of colonial society. Advocates considerations as justice, governance, and of religious establishments, who typically ethnicity—throws into relief religion’s viewed the propagation of Christianity as utter centrality to the political culture of a top-down process that was to be initiated Upper Canada. by clerical elites, conceived of the state as an essential ally in their campaign to foster e Establishmentarian Idea heightened moral standards among the hristian establishments, through Upper Canadian populace. By contrast, Cwhich civil authorities confer on opponents of close church-state ties, many one or more churches such benets as of whom were evangelical who reliable nancial support and legal privi- emphasized the primacy of repentant indi- leges, were among the most contentious viduals cultivating personal relationships politico-religious phenomena in post- with God, perceived civil intrusions in the revolutionary British North America. religious domain as a recipe for doctrinal e principal beneciary of establish- corruption and an obstacle to the propa- ment status was the Anglican Church, gation of the Gospels. or Church of England, which existed Participants on both sides of this de- alongside the Church of Scotland, a bate drew on the language of pro-British Presbyterian institution, as one of Great loyalism—albeit in diering ways—in Britain’s two state churches. e philoso- an eort to substantiate their divergent phy of Anglican establishmentarianism politico-religious arguments, which at- is premised on the notion that the Eng- tests to the resonance and elasticity of lish Church and the English state are “Britishness” as a cultural identity across organically interwoven. is perspective large swaths of Upper Canadian society. emerged as a result of two key sixteenth- So heated was the rivalry between Tory century developments—the Henrician advocates of religious establishments and , through which the English

7 See, for example, Nancy Christie, “ eorizing a Colonial Past: Canada as a Society of British Settlement,” in Transatlantic Subjects: Ideas, Institutions, and Social Experience in Post-Revolutionary British North America, edited by Christie (: McGill-ueen’s University Press: 2008), 3-44; and Elizabeth Mancke, “Another British America: A Canadian Model for the Early Modern British Empire,” Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History 25:1 (January 1997), 1-36. 8 For the emergence of a dynamic public sphere in Upper Canada see McNairn, Capacity to Judge.

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monarch supplanted the as head of gall power ought to serve for the good of the English Church; and the Elizabethan the bodie and not of the soule… as if God Act of Supremacy, which armed that had ordained Kings for no other ende… the English monarch was the “supreme but only to fatt up men like hogges?”10 governor” in both religious and temporal Bolstering Anglican establishmen- realms. Consequently, barriers separat- tarianism in the early modern era was a ing royal and ecclesiastical sovereignty in belief that non-Anglicans—chiey Puri- England were dissolved, and politico-re- tans, who were associated with the regi- ligious authority was consolidated under cide of Charles I, and Roman Catholics, the auspices of the Crown.9 who were implicated in the conspirato- Among the most articulate expo- rial Gunpowder Plot—were threats to nents of the notion that, in England, England’s stability. As a result of such church and state were tightly intertwined views, legislation designed to limit the was Richard Hooker, whose voluminous political inuence wielded within Eng- late-sixteenth-century work, Laws of Ec- lish society by non-Anglican groups, or clesiastical Polity, stands as a landmark in Nonconformists, was introduced follow- the history of Anglican thought. Hook- ing the Restoration of the Stuart regime. er took issue with English groups that Examples include Acts of the 1660s and sought to draw a distinction between civil 1670s that essentially prohibited Dis- and ecclesiastical spheres, arguing instead senting (or non-Anglican) Protestants that the Church of England and the Eng- from holding public oce and rendered lish state constituted a seamless whole. Roman Catholics ineligible to occupy He believed that England’s governmen- seats in parliament.11 e belief that tal authorities—including the monarch, and the English state were whose authority came from God—had a inextricably linked subsequently became responsibility to support the aims and ac- entrenched across much of English so- tivities of the nation’s established church, ciety—so much so that Edmund Burke, which in Hooker’s understanding repre- writing in the late eighteenth century, as- sented a uniquely righteous via media be- serted that the English people, a major- tween the extremes of Puritan fanaticism ity of whom belonged to the Anglican and Roman Catholic tyranny. “A grosse Church, viewed that institution “not as a errour it is,” he declared, “to think that re- thing heterogeneous and separable [from

9 Peter M. Doll, Revolution, Religion, and National Identity: Imperial Anglicanism in British North America, 1745-1795 (Madison, NJ: Farleigh Dickinson University Press, 2000), 15. 10 Richard Hooker, Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, edited by P.G. Stanwood (Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press, 1981), VIII: 343-44. See also Doll, Revolution, Religion, and National Identity, 16. 11 Michael R. Watts, e Dissenters: Volume II: e Expansion of Evangelical Nonconformity (Ox- ford: Clarendon Press, 1995), 417-18. 12 Edmund Burke, Reections on the Revolution in France, edited by L.G. Mitchell (Oxford: Ox- ford University Press, 1993), 99; Hempton, Religion and Political Culture in Britain and Ireland, 4.

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the state]… [but rather] as the founda- clause within the document conferring tion of their whole constitution.”12 on colonial governors the authority to When it came to British colonies of create “within every Township or Par- settlement imperial policymakers identi- ish... One or more Parsonage or Rec- ed state-aided Anglicanism as a means tory... according to the Establishment of by which loyalty and order could be in- the Church of England” made plain the culcated in the colonial consciousness. fact that imperial authorities envisioned is perspective crystallized in the aer- Anglicanism, at least, reaping the benets math of the American Revolution, which that derived from state aid.14) Tensions was largely attributed to the absence over which denominations had access to in the thirteen colonies of an Anglican these lands—the majority of which were bishop, and to the pervasiveness within located in Upper Canada—mounted in colonial society of such pernicious—and the 1820s as the endowment’s value in- allegedly interrelated—phenomena as creased on account of population growth, Dissenting and political and persisted through the Reserves’ secu- radicalism.13 larization in 1854.15 Anglican establishments, owing to e Clergy Reserves debate, perhaps such convictions, were installed as coun- predictably in view of its intensity and terrevolutionary mechanisms across post- duration, exerted considerable inuence revolutionary British North America. Yet within the domain of politics. Upper while it existed in the Maritime colonies Canada’s Tories—many of whom were and , the establishmentari- establishmentarian Anglicans—sought an phenomenon was most contentious in to attain on optimal degree of control Upper Canada. e key factor account- over the endowment, convinced as they ing for this fact is the Clergy Reserves oen were that “the powers and privi- endowment, substantial lands set aside leges… [of ] an Established Church… under the Constitutional Act for the belong only to the Protestant Church “Support and Maintenance” of an ill-de- of England.”16 Conversely, the colony’s ned “Protestant Clergy.” (While in this Reformers—many of whom were Protes- instance it was unclear which denomina- tant Dissenters—denounced state inter- tion the Act had in mind, a subsequent vention in the religious sphere, and called

13 Judith Fingard, e Anglican Design in Loyalist Noa Scotia, 1783-1816 (London: SPCK, 1972), 2-11. 14 Adam Shortt and Arthur G. Doughty, eds., Documents Relating to the Constitutional History of Canada, 1759-1791 (: King’s Printer, 1918), II:1045. 15 Alan Wilson, e Clergy Reserves of Upper Canada (Ottawa: Canadian Historical Association, 1969), 6. 16 Archives of Ontario (hereaer AO), John Beverley Robinson Papers, MS 4 Reel 3, “Copy of In- structions to Sir George Prevost… 22nd Day of October, 1811… [by John Beverley Robinson].” See also Terry Cook, “John Beverley Robinson and the Conservative Blueprint for the Upper Canadian Commu- nity,” Ontario History LXIV:2 (June 1972), 91-92.

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with evermore fervency for the Reserves political institutions of England.”18 to be liquidated, with the proceeds be- Central to the Strachanite conception ing channelled into such non-denomina- of the church-state relationship was a de- tional initiatives as public education.17 cidedly hierarchical worldview. Strachan, John Strachan, educator, Anglican comparable to many of his conservative clergyman, and mainstay of the archcon- establishmentarian counterparts on both servative , articulated sides of the Atlantic Ocean, believed the establishmentarian outlook that that society was subsumed within a com- underpinned much of Upper Canadian prehensive universal design. Such views Toryism in a sermon delivered in 1825. were informed by the ancient idea of a rough the sermon, which empha- “Great Chain of Being,” which included sized the importance of religious estab- everything in ascending order from the lishments to the promotion of societal simplest inanimate object to the divine virtue, Strachan sought to obtain from creator himself. e unity and harmony imperial authorities additional nancial of this all-encompassing system—which support for the English Church’s activi- included the entirety of humanity—were ties in Upper Canada. “[It] is the duty perpetuated by complementary notions of every Christian Government,” he de- of paternalistic obligation, through which clared, to support Christian establish- the strong assumed responsibility for pro- ments, “[which] promote among all men moting the welfare of the weak, and defer- true morality and purity of life.” e ab- ence, through which the weak acquiesced sence of state-aided Christianity, Strach- to the leadership of the strong. Reinforc- an cautioned, would lead to widespread ing the hierarchical worldview among sup- irreligion or, equally distressing, to the porters of Christian establishments were enhanced inuence within colonial soci- the legacies of the American and French ety of Dissenting preachers hailing from Revolutions, the turbulence of which the “republican states of America,” who were attributed, respectively, to Dissent- would surely propagate among Upper ing Protestant and atheistic challenges to Canadian settlers unorthodox religious the providentially ordained status quo.19 views and subversive political doctrines For Strachan and other establish- that were “any thing but favorable to the mentarian Tories a reciprocal relation-

17 John S. Moir, e Church in the British Era: From the British Conquest to Confederation ( To - ronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 1972), 180-83. 18 John Strachan, A Sermon, Preached at York, Upper Canada, ird of July, 1825, On the Death of the Late Lord Bishop of (Kingston: James MacFarlane, 1826), 15-26. See also AO, John Strachan Papers, MS 35 Reel 2, “A Letter Addressed to R.J. Wilmot, Esq. by the Rev. Dr. Strachan… dated 16th May 1827; respecting the State of the Church…,” 1-2. 19 Curtis Fahey, In His Name: e Anglican Experience in Upper Canada, 1791-1854 (Ottawa: Carleton University Press, 1991), 113-22; Terrence Murphy, “ e English-Speaking Colonies to 1854,” in A Concise in Canada, edited by Terrence Murphy and Roberto Perin (Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1996), 125.

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ship between church and state was in- order.22 Downplaying the hierarchical dispensable to the persistence of the notions that lay at the heart of the es- universal hierarchy. e church bolstered tablishmentarian outlook, evangelical the system by encouraging the strong to Dissenters emphasized the equality of honour their obligations to nurture and all sinners—regardless of social rank—in defend the weak, and by encouraging the the eyes of God. Such spiritual egalitari- weak to accept with equanimity their anism contrasted sharply with the elabo- subordination to the strong. Moreover, rate hierarchy that typied the “Great the church instilled in its adherents the Chain of Being.” Similarly distressing belief that eorts to disrupt the status from the Tory perspective was the emo- quo amounted to an assault on the di- tionally unbridled manner in which the vinely sanctioned order, an oence for most fervent Dissenters expressed their which providential punishment would religious convictions. For conservative invariably be meted out, whether in this establishmentarians, these uncouth man- life or the next. “Christianity,” Strachan ifestations of evangelical zeal epitomized declared in the late 1820s, “[is] a con- the transgressive tendencies inherent in tinual lesson of obedience to the laws [of much of Dissenting Protestantism. Con- the state],” which in turn promote “sub- sider the remarks made by Strachan in mission” on the part of the populace “to 1806 about the Methodists, who were constituted authorities.”20 e state, for perhaps the quintessential Upper Cana- its part, facilitated the church’s eorts by dian evangelical constituency, and the conferring on its clergy stable nancial behaviour exhibited by adherents of this assistance and legal privileges, while also denomination at one of the emotionally formulating and enforcing laws that dis- charged revival festivals in which mem- couraged sinfulness—or, as Strachan put bers of the group took part. “ e Meth- it, the “malignant desires” and “secret en- odists,” he noted, vyings” that suused society.21 Dissenting Protestants, many of [are] lling the country with the most de- plorable fanaticism. You can have almost whom were galvanized by an evangeli- no conception of their excesses. ey will cal enthusiasm (about which more will bawl twenty of them at once, tumble on the be said), represented an existential threat ground, laugh, sing, jump & stamp [their feet] to the Tory conception of a universal and this they call the working of the spirit.23

20 John Strachan, A Speech, of the Venerable John Strachan…On the Subject of the Clergy Reserves (York, UC: Robert Stanton, 1828?), 27-28. e quintessential metropolitan exposition of the recip- rocal church-state relationship is William Warburton, Alliance between Church and State (1736). 21 William Westfall, Two Worlds: e Protestant Culture of Nineteenth-Century Ontario (Kingston and Montreal: McGill-ueen’s University Press, 1989), 22; Fahey, In His Name, 122; Robert Hole, Pul- pits, Politics and Public Order in England, 1760-1832 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), 3. 22 Murphy, “English-Speaking Colonies to 1854,” 125-26. 23 George W. Spragge, ed., e John Strachan Letter Book: 1812-1834 (Toronto: Ontario His- torical Society, 1946), vii.

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ese remarks, coming as they did from cian who held “many ideological assump- a member of the Upper Canadian elite, tions” in common with the Family Com- may well have sprung from a haughty dis- pact, declared in 1837 that “it is the duty dain on Strachan’s part for the Method- of every Christian country to provide ists’ unrestrained displays of religious fer- some way or other for the spiritual wants vour. Yet they also betray a palpable sense of the people,” adding that “it would be of anxiety regarding the challenges posed an act of great injustice to subjects of by evangelical Dissenters to the colonial both Kingdoms [England and Scotland] status quo and the universal hierarchy of if these [Clergy Reserves] lands were ap- which it purportedly formed part.24 plied to any other purpose than the sup- It should be noted that, while Angli- port of religion.”25 cans like Strachan were closely associated A synthesis of political conserva- across much of Upper Canadian society tism and state-aided Christianity also with a synthesis of political conservatism informed the attitudes of Bishop Al- and Christian establishmentarianism, exander Macdonell, a Roman Catholic they were by no means the only expo- immigrant from the Scottish Highlands nents of such a combination of outlooks. whose loyalist leanings were cemented in On the contrary, colonial adherents of the aermath of the British government’s the Church of Scotland, a Presbyterian quashing of the Jacobite insurgency. institution that was recognized alongside ough he objected to Anglican attempts the Church of England as one of Great to monopolize the Clergy Reserves, Mac- Britain’s two state churches, were “[pil- donell “shared the assumptions and car- lars] of conservatism” who laid claim to dinal tenets” that undergirded Compact co-establishment status in Upper Canada Toryism, and viewed state aid as a vital alongside the English Church (through means by which notions of loyalty and which, among other things, they hoped obedience could be promoted among to attain a permanent share in Clergy Re- the colony’s Catholic minority. Govern- serves revenues). us, William Morris, a ment assistance to the Roman Church prominent Upper Canadian member of in the form of monetary support and the Church of Scotland and Tory politi- access to Crown lands, he stated in the 24 Especially disconcerting from the conservative establishmentarians’ perspective was the be- haviour of a particular Methodist faction—the Episcopals—that had extensive historical links to the United States. Neil Semple, e Lord’s Dominion: e History of Canadian (Montreal: McGill-ueen’s University Press: 1996), 46. e Episcopal Methodists’ radicalism diered signi- cantly from the comparatively conservative orientation of the Wesleyan Methodists, a large and inuential faction that had strong connections to Britain. See Todd Webb, “ e Religious Atlantic: British Wesleyanism and the Formation of an Evangelical Culture in Nineteenth-Century Ontario and uebec” (Ph.D. diss., York University, 2006). 25 Fahey, In His Name, 128-29; H.J. Bridgman, “Morris, William,” Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online, volume VIII, (accessed 24 Nov. 2011). Morris quoted in E.C. Kyte, “Journal of the Hon. William Morris’ Mission to England in 1837,” Ontario Historical Society Papers and Records, XXX (1934), 229-30.

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John Strachan, ineterate Upper Canadian Tory and stout defender of Anglican establishmentarianism (Ar- chives of Ontario, Accession Number: 619822)

in reference to the temporal and religious domains, “would contain itself within its own bounds—the one attending the worldly welfare of the commonwealth, the other with the salvation of souls—it is impossible any discord should ever have happened between them.”27 Such notions exerted tremendous inuence within colonial America and the early republic. ough Christian es- tablishments existed in pre-revolution- ary America—Congregationalism, be- ginning in the early seventeenth century, received state support in New England, early nineteenth century, would render while Anglicanism, by the early eight- Upper Canada’s Catholics “a strong bar- eenth century, enjoyed establishment rier against the contagion of Republican status in Virginia, the Carolinas, Mary- principles so rapidly diusing among the land, and parts of New York—the colo- people of this Province by… settlers from 26 nial populace had been emphatic in its the United States.” opposition to the creation of an Anglican Bishopric. e creation of such an oce, e Emergence of an it was felt, threatened to curtail not only Alternative colonial Americans’ religious liberties n early critique of the establishmen- by conferring special status on the Eng- Atarian outlook that informed the lish Church, but also their political ones views of Hooker, Burke, Strachan, and on account of Anglicanism’s links to the others appeared in John Locke’s Letter English state. e spectre of civil and re- Concerning Toleration (1689), in which ligious tyranny resonated with colonial he advocated the separation of church Americans in a way that purely secular and state as an antidote to the politico- political theory never could, eventually religious conict that contributed to serving as one of the catalysts for the out- such cataclysmic events as the English break of the Revolutionary War. While Civil War. “If each of them,” he explained in certain instances religious establish- 26 J.E. Rea, Bishop Alexander Macdonell and the Politics of Upper Canada (Toronto: Ontario His- torical Society, 1974), viii-ix; 21. 27 John Locke, Treatise of Civil Goernment and a Letter Concerning Toleration, edited by Charles L. Sherman (New York: D. Appleton-Century Company, 1937), 220.

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ments persisted at the state level into Britain’s increasingly inuential manu- the early nineteenth century, Americans’ facturing interests; and the alliances that deep-seated concerns regarding state- had been forged between opponents of sanctioned politico-religious hierarchy state-sanctioned religious hierarchy and found expression in the rst amendment advocates of liberalized trade policies and to the United States Constitution, which parliamentary reform. e most extreme denitively declared that, “Congress shall expression of British anti-establishmen- make no law respecting an establishment tarianism—the emergence of which coin- of religion, or prohibiting the free exer- cided with the rise of the nation’s middle cise thereof.” 28 class—was the politico-religious doctrine A large-scale anti-establishmentarian of voluntarism, which called not simply movement took longer to emerge in Brit- for an end to legalized discrimination ain than it did in colonial America and the against Nonconformists but also for the early republic. is was due in large part separation of church and state and, ulti- to the belief among a great many Britons mately, for the disestablishment of the that religious establishments were integral Church of England itself. Instead of rely- to the nation’s temporal stability and spir- ing on the bounties of the state, voluntar- itual welfare; and to the numerical domi- ists maintained, churches should draw nance of the established Churches of Eng- their support exclusively from the freewill land and Scotland, which in 1750 enjoyed oerings of devout individuals.30 the support of upwards of 90 per cent of Given the prominent position occu- Britain’s churchgoing population.29 pied by anti-establishmentarian attitudes Yet during the early nineteenth cen- in early America and nineteenth-century tury British anti-establishmentarianism Britain, it is hardly surprising that such began to gather momentum. is devel- sentiments rose to prominence in post- opment was attributable to such phenom- revolutionary British North America. ena as a marked increase in the number A spirited exposition of Upper Cana- of Britons belonging to Nonconformist dian anti-establishmentarianism was put churches (by the early 1850s non-Angli- forth in 1826 by a twenty-three-year-old cans comprised roughly half of England’s Methodist circuit rider named Egerton churchgoing population, due primarily Ryerson, whose anonymous response to to the dramatic ascent of Methodism); Strachan’s establishmentarian sermon of the disproportionately large number of the previous year was published to wide Nonconformists concentrated among acclaim in the Colonial Advocate. While

28 Patricia U. Bonomi, Under the Cope of Heaven: Religion, Society, and Politics in Colonial Amer- ica, Updated Edition (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003), 200-16; Mark A. Noll, e Old Religion in a New World: e History of North American Christianity (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2002), 29-31; 67-84. 29 Hempton, Religion and Political Culture in Britain and Ireland, 2. 30 G.I.T. Machin, Politics and the Churches in Great Britain, 1832-1868 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1977), 8-25.

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Ryerson, in future years, came to be as- ones—referring, for example, to Christ’s sociated with Upper Canada’s moderate assertion in John 18:36 that his kingdom conservatives—witness his support for was “not of this world.”33 the government in the “loyalty election” Ryerson also took issue with Stra- of 1836—his opposition in the 1820s chan’s contention that, in the absence and early 1830s to state-sanctioned reli- of state-aided Christianity, irreligion or gious hierarchy aligned him rmly with destabilizing political views imported the colony’s embryonic reform move- from the United States were liable to ment.31 is group, which enjoyed the proliferate. In dismissing the notion that support of members of various denomi- religious establishments were bulwarks nations—including numerous Method- against atheism and agnosticism, Ryer- ists, , and Congregationalists, as son noted that, while he was “no repub- well as anti-establishmentarian Presbyte- lican,” he could not help but notice that, rians and Anglicans—increasingly iden- in the American republic, where by the tied the eradication of religious estab- mid-1820s state churches were virtu- lishments, along with the achievement of ally anathema, a vibrant Christian cul- responsible government, as one of its two ture had taken root, one that was led by principal objectives.32 “men… [of ] piety, [and] learning.” As for While he began his response to Stra- Strachan’s charge that Upper Canada’s chan’s sermon by stating that he did not Dissenting preachers were chiey Ameri- object to the English Church’s “doc- can-born radicals, Ryerson declared that, trines, liturgy, or discipline,” Ryerson was in fact, they were overwhelmingly ei- unequivocal in his denunciation of his ther British-born or naturalized British Anglican counterpart’s contention that subjects. Moreover, he added that the “Christian governments” were obligated colony’s Dissenting clergy were largely to provide religious institutions with un- uninterested in worldly political matters, wavering material assistance. Ryerson, concerning themselves instead with such in substantiating his critique, deployed purely religious phenomena as the salva- both historical arguments—noting that tion of sinners, which amounted to a re- the Christian church “was never… so jection of the charge that they espoused pure, as she was in her rst three centu- subversive political doctrines.34 ries… [when she] was not only without It is possible to interpret Ryerson’s the aid of civil government, but was most remarks on the latter issue as somewhat violently opposed by it”—and scriptural disingenuous, given the anities that ex-

31 As the 1830s unfolded Ryerson parted company with zealous Reformers like Mackenzie on account of their burgeoning radicalism. Archives (hereaer UCA), Eger- ton Ryerson Papers, Box 1 File 10, John Ryerson to Egerton Ryerson, 7 November 1833. 32 John Webster Grant, A Profusion of Spires: Religion in Nineteenth-Century Ontario (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1988), 90; Moir, Church and State in Canada West, 16. 33 Colonial Advocate, 11 May 1826, 20. 34 Ibid., 20-28.

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isted in early-nineteenth-century Upper against them by members of the colony’s Canada between Dissenting Protestant- Tory—and largely Anglican—elite.36 For ism and Reform-oriented politics. Yet evidence one need look only to the recol- one could also contend that Dissenting lections of one Anson Green, a Methodist Protestant involvement in Upper Cana- preacher based in eastern Upper Canada da’s political aairs was motivated not who reected on the reactions of himself by temporal ambition, but rather by re- and one of his co-religionists to Ryerson’s ligiously based concerns. e political remarks following their reception of the activities of the colony’s Dissenters—in- edition of the Colonial Advocate in which cluding adherents of the American-in- they had been published. uenced Episcopal Methodist faction, …[We] went into the eld in the rear of the whose Reformist leanings were singled parsonage, sat down by the fence, and read out for criticism by Colborne in the early the review [Ryerson’s response to Strach- 1830s35—were actuated by a desire on an’s sermon of 1825]. As we read we wept, their part to eliminate state-sanctioned and speculated about the unknown author. denominational hierarchy, which as we Again we read and wept; and then kneeled shall see was viewed by numerous anti- upon the grass, and prayed and thanked God for the able and timely defense of truth establishmentarians as an obstacle to the against the falsehoods that were being circu- propagation throughout the colony of lated amongst the people.37 unalloyed Christian virtue. It is there- fore possible to conclude that fervent Competing Christianities Dissenters—including Reform-oriented he contrasting views put forth by Episcopal Methodists—who became in- TStrachan and Ryerson on the issue volved in Upper Canadian politics did of Christian establishments, which re- so, in keeping with Ryerson’s remarks, as veal the existence in Upper Canada of a result of an abiding preoccupation with ingrained dierences of opinion over the spiritual phenomena. church-state relationship, are indicative Whatever their merits, Ryerson’s re- of a larger politico-religious conict that marks came as music to the ears of Up- had its roots in early modern England per Canada’s Dissenters, many of whom and manifested itself on both sides of the objected to the conceptual foundations Atlantic Ocean. Exacerbating tensions on which establishmentarianism rested between Tory establishmentarians and and bristled at the allegations of disloy- Reform-oriented critics of state-aided alty and radicalism that had been levelled Christianity were nancial imperatives,

35 UCA, Ryerson Papers, Box 1 File 9, “Ocial Reply by Lieutenant Governor Sir John Colborne to an Address of the Methodist Conference in 1831.” 36 Paul Romney, “A Struggle for Authority: Toronto Society and Politics in 1834,” in Forging a Consensus: Historical Essays on Toronto, edited by Victor Russell (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1984), 12. 37 C.B. Sissons, Egerton Ryerson: His Life and Letters (Toronto: Clark, Irwin and Company, 1937), I:28.

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as participants on both sides of this con- of individual parishioners—especially ict struggled with one another over rev- in sparsely populated colonial commu- enues that could potentially be derived nities—were viewed as unreliable and, from Clergy Reserves lands. Yet to reduce oen, inadequate. Given the “total in- this conict solely to material considera- suciency of the voluntary principle to tions—to portray the Upper Canadian provide for the spiritual wants of a… peo- debate over religious establishments as ple,” it behoved “every [Christian] gov- little more than a confrontation between ernment to supply the means of religious one group of people who wanted to con- instruction to all classes of its subjects.”39 trol Reserves revenues and another group e withdrawal by the state of the ma- of people who wanted to see those rev- terial assistance that it had traditionally enues funnelled into ventures like public extended to the English Church would education—is to ignore the deep-seated therefore hobble that institution’s eorts convictions that lay at the heart of a vehe- to propagate Christian piety across Up- ment, decades-long rivalry. per Canadian society, leaving the colo- Fuelling the conict in Upper nial populace susceptible to the corrosive Canada between Tory proponents of re- eects of irreligion or, equally problem- ligious establishments and Reform-ori- atic, the destabilizing doctrines peddled ented critics of state-sanctioned religious by Dissenting preachers. hierarchy were competing strategies for Evidence of the pronounced extent the Christianization of colonial society. to which Upper Canadian establishmen- Establishmentarian Anglicans viewed tarians viewed the state as an ally in its the conversion of individual sinners to a campaign to Christianize Upper Cana- life of Christian righteousness as a grad- dian society can be found in a memorial ual process, one that could only be initi- composed in 1838 by the “Clergy of the ated by members of a highly educated Established Church of Upper Canada” and permanently endowed clergy whose and addressed to British Colonial Sec- ministrations would steadily inculcate retary, Lord Glenelg. Expressed in the religious virtue in people’s minds. Such memorial was a sense of opposition on a process, however, required access to the part of these colonial Anglicans to substantial lands and nancial resources a campaign underway in Upper Canada through which ecclesiastical institutions to end the monopoly that the English could be constructed and the initiatives Church had traditionally enjoyed over of clerical elites could be sustained.38 the Clergy Reserves and make the en- Only the state, establishmentarians dowment available to several denomi- reasoned, could provide the church with nations. ( is initiative, which aimed such assistance, as the voluntary oerings to alleviate politico-religious tensions

38 Westfall, Two Worlds, 22. 39 e Church, 6 May 1837, unpaginated.

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in the colony by widening access to Re- religious establishments perceived civil serves’ revenues, was patterned on legis- intervention in the spiritual domain as lation that had been introduced in New an obstacle to the diusion throughout South Wales through which public funds the colony of Christian precepts and that had traditionally been controlled by practices. Upper Canadian anti-estab- the Anglican Church were distributed lishmentarians, similar to many of their among various Christian groups.40) Protestant counterparts elsewhere in the Dividing the endowment in such a world, were inuenced by the phenom- manner threatened in the establishmen- enon of .42 is emotion- tarians’ view to “[to] alienate the Clergy ally charged form of Christianity origi- Reserves from the original objects of their nated among central European pietistic appropriation”—namely, “the religious sects in the aermath of the irty Years instruction of the people of this prov- War, and was subsequently propagated ince.” Carving up the endowment, they throughout much of the world via pat- elaborated, would “directly compromise terns of migration and missionary activi- the principles as well as the interests of ty. Evangelicalism took root in the Anglo- the Established Church,” which in turn American World during the eighteenth would “endanger the cause of Protestant- century largely as a result of the exertions ism” and act as a “permanent source of of such iconic preachers as Jonathan Ed- civil disunion.” Implicit in the memori- wards, George Whiteeld, and John and alists’ remarks was the conviction that Charles Wesley. Denouncing the tepid state aid in the form of a Clergy Reserves rationalism that had hitherto pervaded monopoly was essential to the Anglican much of western , these Church’s ongoing eorts to bring about gures were instrumental to the advent the moral edication of the populace.41 of religious revivals—intense demonstra- Whereas Anglican establishmentar- tions of popular piety—on both sides of ians viewed the state as an ally in their the Atlantic Ocean.43 e attendant surge quest to Christianize Upper Canadian in evangelical enthusiasm, which was sus- society, Reform-oriented opponents of tained in the nineteenth century by a vast

40 Roger C. ompson, Religion in Australia: A History (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1994), 8-9. 41Copies or Extracts of Correspondence Respecting the Clergy Reserves of Canada (London: Colonial Oce, 1840?), 137. Despite such concerns, the Clergy Reserves were divided among several denomina- tions in the early 1840s, although the Church of England retained a disproportionately large share of the endowment. Moir, Church in the British Era, 124-25. 42 It should be noted that, while evangelicalism was especially inuential among such Dissent- ing denominations as the Methodists, the Anglicans were not immune to this emotionally charged expression of Christianity. See, for example, Richard W. Vaudry, Anglicans and the Atlantic World: High Churchmen, Evangelicals, and the Quebec Connection (Montreal: McGill-ueen’s University Press, 2003). 43 Mark A. Noll. e Rise of Evangelicalism: e Age of Edwards, Whiteeld, and the Wesleys (Down- ers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2003).

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network of and missionary societies, models of piety for the populace through had important implications for the way in their own everyday behaviour, and could which Upper Canada’s Dissenters viewed elicit within their parishioners a yearn- the church-state relationship. ing for redemption by exhorting them Evangelicals typically viewed conver- to lead lives of Christian righteousness. sion to a life of Christian virtue not as Yet evangelicals were also convinced that a gradual process that was to be led by the all-important process of conversion members of a clerical elite, but rather as ultimately hinged not on the initiatives a sudden experience that roused people of ministers, but rather on the forging of from states of religious indierence and personal relationships between repent- complacency and alerted them to the ant individuals and God.45 possibility of redemption. e emotional It followed for many evangelicals intensity of this spontaneously occurring that civil intervention in the spiritual do- phenomenon is captured in the remarks main—as expressed, for example, in the of Ryerson, who reected in his autobi- creation of religious establishments—was ography on the evangelical conversion not only unnecessary, but also unhelpful. experience that he had undergone in the Government ocials, by meddling in middle of the night as a twelve-year-old. the religious realm and erecting denomi- My consciousness of guilt and sinfulness was national hierarchies, invariably created humbling, oppressive, and distressing; and my obstacles to the achievement of poten- experience of relief… was clear, refreshing, and tially soul-saving relationships between joyous. In the end I simply trusted in Christ, individual sinners and their creator, thus and looked to Him for a present salvation…. I inhibiting the diusion of true Christi- turned, rose to my knees, bowed my head, and covered my face, rejoiced with trembling, say- anity. e belief that civil authorities’ ing to a brother who was lying beside me, that involvement in the aairs of the church the Saviour was now near us…. I henceforth served only to impede the propagation had new views, new feelings, new joys, and of religious virtue featured prominently 44 new strength. in the statements of George Brown, who e belief that conversion was sud- in the 1840s replaced Ryerson as Upper den and spontaneous prompted numer- Canada’s most inuential critic of state- ous evangelicals to reject the notion that aided Christianity. Consider his remarks clerical elites had an essential mediatory at a meeting of the staunchly voluntaristic role to play between individual sinners Anti-Clergy Reserves Association held in and their creator. is is not to suggest Toronto in 1851. Brown, a Free Church that evangelicals viewed clerical ministra- Presbyterian and vigorous Reformer tions as unimportant. Far from it—they whose statements reputedly elicited “loud believed that clergymen could serve as cheers” from the Association’s members,

44 Egerton Ryerson, e Story of My Life, edited by J. George Hodgins (Toronto: William Briggs, 1884), 27. 45 Westfall, Two Worlds, 26; Noll, Rise of Evangelicalism, 15-19.

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informed his audience that, “the Church vocates of religious establishments and which cannot be maintained by the vol- critics of “State Churchism” drew on the untary contributions of the Christian vocabulary of pro-British loyalism—al- people is not worth supporting.” Central beit in diering ways—in attempting to to his denunciation of religious establish- substantiate their divergent arguments, ments was the belief that they corrupted which brings into focus the tremendous the purity of Christ’s teachings, and pre- importance and exibility of “British- vented them from being propagated as ness” among a variety of Upper Cana- widely as possible. “State Churchism,” in dian communities. British imperial en- Brown’s view, “[had a] degenerating ef- thusiasm, as a spate of recent works have fect… on the purity and simplicity of the demonstrated, was a compelling phe- Gospel,” and “turned men’s minds from nomenon for many British North Amer- its great truths as a religion of the heart, icans.48 Yet highly inuential though it to the mere outward tinsel.”46 For Brown may have been, the sense of attachment and his voluntaristic supporters, then, that bound numerous colonials to Brit- religious establishments were objection- ain was by no means monolithic. On the able largely because of their capacity for contrary, notions of “Britishness” mani- inhibiting the propagation of uncorrupt- fested themselves in diverse ways, rang- ed Christianity.47 ing from a sense of ethnic identication with the peoples of the British Isles to an Contesting Christian Loyalty appreciation for such British institutions articipants on both sides of the po- as parliamentary democracy. While this Plitico-religious struggle between ad- diversity did not detract from the inten- 46 Globe, 26 July 1851, 354. Although they did not object to the principle of religious estab- lishments per se, Brown and the Upper Canadian Free Church constituency to which he belonged emerged in the mid-nineteenth century as de facto voluntarists. John S. Moir, “‘Who Pays the Piper...’: Canadian and Church-State Relations,” in Early Presbyterianism in Canada: Essays by John S. Moir, edited by Paul Laverdure (Gravelbourg, : Gravelbooks, 2003), 16. 47 e arguments of Brown and other anti-establishmentarians were fuelled in the mid-nine- teenth century by an anti-Catholic animus. is perspective emerged as a result of both domestic circumstances—including the belief that Roman Catholics from Canada East impeded the seculari- zation of the Clergy Reserves because of the negative ramications that such a development could have on their own church, which had long enjoyed state support—and external ones—including the so-called “Papal Aggression” controversy of the 1850s, through which Pius IX attempted to rein- vigorate English Catholicism and, allegedly, challenge the Protestant foundations on which British society rested. J.M.S. Careless, Brown of the Globe (Toronto: Macmillan, 1959), I:114-25. See also J.R. Miller, “Anti-Catholic ought in Victorian Canada,” Canadian Historical Review LXVI:4 (December 1985), 474-94. On metropolitan anti-Catholicism see Linda Colley, Britons: Forging the Nation, 1707-1837 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992), 11-54; and Colin Haydon, “‘I love my King and my Country, but a Roman Catholic I hate’: Anticatholicism, Xenophobia and National Identity in Eighteenth-Century England,” in Protestantism and National Identity: Britain and Ire- land, c. 1650-c.1850, edited by Tony Claydon and Ian McBride (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998), 33-52. 48 Examples include Christie, ed., Transatlantic Subjects; Phillip Buckner, ed., Canada and the

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sity of their attachment to Britain—in- tiplicity of socioeconomic backgrounds. deed, the fact that “Britishness” could as- us, while it was rooted in a funda- sume diering forms arguably enhanced mentally coherent ethos of allegiance to its potency by allowing it to be invoked Britain, loyalism existed in British North for various reasons and in various con- Americans’ collective consciousness as a texts—it does attest to its elasticity as a malleable and multifaceted imaginative cultural orientation.49 construct.50 e same could be said for the dis- e diversity of “Britishness” and the course of loyalism through which Brit- discourse of loyalism can be seen in the ish North Americans conveyed notions protracted politico-religious struggle that of fondness for the imperial metropole. lay at the heart of Upper Canadian po- is discourse came to occupy a salient litical culture. Participants on both sides position in British North America as a of the conict that pitted establishmen- result of such phenomena as the Ameri- tarian Tories against anti-establishmen- can Revolution, the , and the tarian Reformers drew on the language post-1815 surge of British immigrants of pro-British loyalism in attempting to into colonial society. Yet much like “Brit- sharpen their competing contentions. ishness” it had diverse meanings. For For instance, Strachan, writing in the example, from the perspective of hide- early 1830s, invoked notions of impe- bound Tories loyalism required unswerv- rial delity in denouncing the forces of ing obedience on the part of the populace “liberalism” that in his conception men- to colonial authorities while, for fervent aced Upper Canada’s Anglican establish- Reformers, it was entirely compatible ment. e eorts of the colony’s anti-es- with hard-driving campaigns to secure tablishmentarians, Strachan observed, for the colonies’ inhabitants liberties en- were reminiscent of the activities of “the shrined in the British constitution. e enemies of British principles and of the discourse of loyalism also resonated with Church of England” in Revolutionary a broad cross-section of colonial society, America. Such initiatives were especially including men and women, Aboriginals, “appalling” in view of the fact that Up- blacks, and whites, members of various per Canada’s aging loyalist contingent, religious groups, and peoples from a mul- “[had] peculiar claims to the Protection

British Empire (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008); and Katie Pickles, Female Imperialism and National Identity: Imperial Order Daughters of the Empire (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2002). 49 Buckner, “Introduction,” in Canada and the British Empire, 6. For a somewhat dierent per- spective see Michael Gauvreau, “ e Dividends of Empire: Church Establishments and Contested British Identities in the and the Maritimes, 1780-1850,” in Transatlantic Subjects, 203. 50 See Maya Jasano, Liberty’s Exiles: American Loyalists in the Revolutionary World (New York: Knopf, 2011); and Jerry Bannister, “Canada as Counter-Revolution: e Loyalist Order Framework in Canadian History, 1750-1840,” in Liberalism and Hegemony: Debating the Canadian Liberal Rev- olution, edited by Jean-François Constant and Michel Ducharme (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2009), 98-146.

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of the Government,” as they had already insuring stated instruction in the truths of been “driven from their homes by rebel- .” Yet in addition to emphasiz- lion” in the late eighteenth century. e ing establishmentarianism’s conceptual assaults of Upper Canada’s anti-establish- underpinnings, the address also gave pride mentarians were also upsetting because of place to themes of pro-British loyalty. they threatened to deprive metropolitan It suggested that, if imperial authorities immigrants of the state-aided Christian- acquiesced to the colonial anti-establish- ity to which they were entitled as British mentarians’ eorts to eliminate the “grants subjects. He remarked on the “melan- and endowments” that bolstered the min- choly reections” of immigrants who, on istrations of Anglican clergymen, they leaving their native shores in Britain and would likely compromise the longstand- relocating to Upper Canada, “did not ing ties that bound colonial adherents of conceive that they le their birthright be- the Church of England to the metropoli- hind them,” and “[did not] expect that in tan state. “[ e] sanction by your Majesty passing to a British Colony” they would of the godless character just passed by our be “depriving themselves of the Privileges Legislative Assembly,” the address asserted, of the British Constitution.”51 “would have the inevitable eect of speed- Likewise, the “Clergy and Laity” of ily alienating from Your Majesty’s rone the Anglican Church in Upper Canada and Royal House the loyal attachment of a summoned up notions of loyalty in the large number of Your Majesty’s most faith- summer of 1850 in an address to ueen ful and devoted subjects.”52 Victoria. e authors of the address urged Upper Canadian critics of religious the British monarch to thwart a motion establishments also invoked themes of that had been passed in the Canadian leg- “Britishness” and loyalty, albeit in dif- islature “which aims at the abolition of fering ways, in attempting to substanti- all [government] grants and endowments ate their politico-religious arguments. for religious instruction in the Province.” While this tendency intensied in the Establishmentarian featured aermath of the ill-fated Upper Cana- prominently within the address itself, with dian Rebellion (in which Dissenting the authors warning that the elimination Protestants had played a disproportion- of government assistance for the Church ately large role), it certainly existed prior of England would deal “a heavy blow to to 1837.53 For example, members of the the inuence and spread of true religion Upper Canadian legislature composed in the Province,” not least because of vol- an address to King George IV in the mid- untarism’s inability to provide the inhabit- 1820s in which they couched their objec- ants of “rural districts… with the means of tions to an Anglican monopoly over the

51 Spragge, ed., e John Strachan Letter Book, 222-23. 52 Church, 4 July 1850, 194. 53 Colin Read, e Rebellion of 1837 in Upper Canada (Ottawa: Canadian Historical Association, 1988), 18.

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Clergy Reserves in unmistakably loyalist Churchism,” was greeted in the town of language. “We… most humbly represent,” Strathburn by a procession that featured the petition declared, “a long train of horsemen and wagons that the lands set apart in this Province for loaded with the freeholders of Middle- the maintenance and support of a Protestant sex [County],” as well as “forty carriages clergy, ought not to be enjoyed by any one bearing some 250 persons.” Brown and denomination of Protestants, to the exclu- the procession’s organizers were placed at sion of their Christian brethren of other de- the head of the procession “[in] a large nominations… [who are] equally entitled as car drawn by four horses,” which subse- dutiful and loyal subjects, to the protection quently crept along streets “thronged of your Majesty’s benign and liberal govern- ment.54 with people” to a public square in the town’s west end. e event’s chairman, e petitioners’ opposition to mani- “James Gardner, Esq., J.P.,” proceeded to festations of establishmentarian privilege, lavish praise on the guest of honour from which dovetailed with one of the primary a podium that had been positioned in the objectives of the burgeoning Upper Ca- centre of the square. He lauded Brown nadian Reform movement, made plain for being “ever ready to promote meas- the fact that loyalty to the British Crown ures of a progressive character,” and took and opposition to “State Churchism” in pains to describe Brown’s criticisms of the form of a Church of England mo- the Clergy Reserves as “fair and candid.” nopoly over the Clergy Reserves were by Speaking on behalf of those in attend- no means mutually exclusive phenom- ance, Gardner ultimately declared that, ena. While such arguments likely sprang “We are proud of you as an Independent from a genuine sense of pro-British loy- Representative of the Canadian people… alty, they also served a utilitarian pur- [and] we are doubly proud of you as the pose in that they helped to shield Upper Champion of truly British principles!”55 Canada’s anti-establishmentarians from allegations that they were exponents of Violent Conict and the revolutionary political views. Church-State Relationship Sentiments of “Britishness” and o acute were animosities between par- anti-establishmentarianism also fea- Sticipants on either side of the Upper tured prominently during a visit made by Canadian debate over religious establish- George Brown in 1853 “to the Western ments that they transcended the public Townships of the County of Middle- sphere of reasoned dialogue and mani- sex.” Brown, who was widely viewed as fested themselves in spectacular events an icon of Reform-oriented anti-“State that were far more tumultuous than the

54 Journal of the House of Assembly of Upper Canada, om the 7th No, 1825 to the 30th Jan., 1826… (York: W.L. Mackenzie, 1826), 83 (accessed 3 Nov. 2011). 55 Globe, 20 October 1853, 534.

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George Brown, ca. 1885, evangelical Pres- byterian and strident critic of state-sanc- tioned denominational hierarchy (Archives of Ontario, Collection of Dr. O.L. Stanton, Reference Code: F 4634-0-0-0-4)

proceedings in Middlesex Coun- ty to which I have referred.56 In- dicative of this fact are the events of July 1851, which featured clashes in Toronto between con- servative establishmentarians and their Reform-oriented anti- establishmentarian counterparts. e catalyst for these events was a meeting of the Anti-Clergy Re- serves Association that occurred in early July in St. Lawrence Hall on King Street. e meeting, de- pending on one’s perspective, was either “crashed” or attended by the Association’s establishmen- tarian adversaries, whose pres- ence at the event sparked a con- troversial sequence of events. Tensions at ly gave way to displays of rowdiness and the meeting revolved around whether the threats of violence. For example, the eorts gathering of the Anti-Clergy Reserves As- of omas David Morrison, a member of sociation’s members was one “of an Asso- the Anti-Clergy Reserves Association, to ciation,” in which case backers of religious demonstrate that the establishmentarians establishments were ineligible to attend, were in fact ineligible to participate in the or a “public meeting,” in which case all gathering were “rendered wholly inaudible peoples—including ardent establishmen- by the hisses and groans of a party of Or- tarians—were permitted to be on hand.57 angemen.”58 Members of the latter group, Rational debate on this matter quick- which had longstanding ties to Upper Ca-

56 For the role of spectacle in pre-Confederation politics see Radforth, “Political Demonstra- tions & Spectacles During the Rebellion Losses Controversy in Upper Canada”; and Bruce Curtis, “ e ‘Most Splendid Pageant Ever Seen’: Grandeur, the Domestic, and Condescension in Lord Dur- ham’s Political eatre,” Canadian Historical Review 89:1 (March 2008), 55-89. 57 Globe, 10 July 1851, 327; Church, 10 July 1851, 397. e following discussion is based on a synthesis of material drawn from the Globe, a publication that typically opposed religious establish- ments, and the Church, a publication that typically supported them. 58 For fresh perspectives on the Orange phenomenon in Canada see David A. Wilson, ed., e

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nadian conservatism, exhibited support in loud that the actual articulation of the this instance for such Tory establishmen- establishmentarians’ amendment was tarians as John Beverley Robinson, who inaudible, and that its content had to be was adamant that supporters of religious obtained in writing later on by one of the establishments had every right to be on paper’s reporters.) Following the adop- hand. Tensions, which were already run- tion of the amendment, the belligerent ning high, were ratcheted up even further Orangeman mounted the “reporters’ when members of the Association at- table” that lay at the front of the venue, tempted to pass a resolution denouncing “and declared his attachment to the the Clergy Reserves. e Association’s op- Church [of England], and his hatred of ponents responded by storming the stage the ______dissenters.” e outbreak of on which several anti-establishmentarians a “serious riot” involving supporters of stood, “[jumping] upon the seats in front religious establishments and their anti-es- of it, and [shouting] most vociferously.” tablishmentarian opponents who had re- One such supporter of state-aided Chris- mained on hand was a distinct possibility tianity, described by the Globe as a “jour- until a contingent of policemen arrived neyman shoemaker” and Orangeman, on the scene and restored a modicum proclaimed his support for Robinson and of order to the proceedings. e events the other establishmentarians in attend- at St. Lawrence Hall concluded with the ance, and challenged to a stght “anyone establishmentarians burnishing their who raised a voice in support of order.” support for state-aided Christianity and Convinced by this point that the circum- the “British connection,” oering “three stances for a meeting were unfavourable, cheers for the maintenance of the Clergy members of the Anti-Clergy Reserves As- Reserves—three cheers for the Bishop of sociation elected to dissolve the gathering Toronto [Strachan]—and three cheers and reconvene at another time.59 for the ueen.”60 Bedlam ensued. e establishmen- e Anti-Clergy Reserves Associa- tarians, led by Robinson, took over the tion reconvened two weeks later in St. event, eventually moving—and pass- Lawrence Hall, which played host to “a ing—an amendment of their own, which most respectable and deeply interested au- declared “ at the voluntary principle dience” comprised exclusively of anti-es- [was] notoriously insucient for the tablishmentarians. Although the Associa- adequate maintenance of religion and tion’s meeting, in this instance, was able to [the] diusion of Christian knowledge run its course, the proceedings were by no throughout this Province.” ( e Globe, means devoid of controversy. In the days in recounting these events, noted that leading up to the gathering, placards were the din in the hall was by this point so placed throughout the city advertising an Orange Order in Canada (Dublin: Four Courts, 2007). 59 Globe, 10 July 1851, 327. 60 Ibid.; Church, 10 July 1851, 397.

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establishmentarian counter-meeting that to intrude on the Association’s meeting was to take place on the same day and at and, following a heated exchange, they the same time as the Anti-Clergy Reserves were expelled from the building.62 Association’s function. e counter-meet- e mob was undeterred. Following ing, which was held outdoors behind the their expulsion from the hall the estab- venue in which the anti-establishmentar- lishmentarians smashed the windows ians were scheduled to gather, was led by of the room in which the Association’s outspoken proponents of state-supported members were seated, and tossed through Christianity, including G.E. O’Brien, the shattered panes of glass “brick bats” owner of the Tory newspaper the Patriot. that were intended to injure the anti-es- O’Brien, in addressing the establishmen- tablishmentarians located inside. Mem- tarians who had assembled for the event, bers of the Association, who were by no denounced the “Godless” Anti-Clergy Re- means passive observers, retaliated by serves Association, whose eorts to “pull tossing objects—it is unclear whether down the Clergy Reserves” would “not they were “walking sticks” or “billets of only cause the severance of [the] British re-wood”—through the broken win- Connection,” but also usher in a frightful dows and onto the establishmentarians ethos of “Socialism, Republicanism, and amassed beneath them. e establish- Indelity.”61 mentarian mob subsequently “besieged” When the counter-meeting broke up the building, and assaulted several peo- at roughly nine o’clock a group of “ruf- ple—including the Mayor, whose eorts ans” resolved to disrupt the Anti-Cler- to promote order resulted in a “severe” gy Reserves Association’s meeting that gash over one of his eyes—as they made was still underway by “thrashing those their way out of the building. Chaos present.” Accordingly, a “large party” of reigned for several hours, until soldiers establishmentarians surged toward St. who were stationed in a barracks nearby Lawrence Hall, “cheering and shouting were dispatched to the Hall in hopes of as they went.” Yet while they succeeded restoring some semblance of calm. Yet in entering the building, the mob was while the most extreme displays of vio- confronted outside the door in which the lence subsided as a result of the soldiers’ meeting was taking place by the Mayor, arrival, clashes between members of the John G. Bowes, two aldermen, and the two groups continued to are up spo- city’s “Head Constable,” who was anked radically until midnight.63 Such events by several policemen. e establishmen- lay bare the deep-seated animosities that tarians were informed in no uncertain fuelled the Upper Canadian conict over terms that they would not be allowed state-aided Christianity.

61 Globe, 26 July 1851, 355. 62 Ibid. 63 Church, 24 July, 1851, 242; Ibid., 31 July 1851, 417; Globe, 24 July 1851, 350; Ibid., 29 July 1851, 412.

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Toronto’s St. Lawrence Hall (1867) witnessed clashes in the early 1850s between Tory es- tablishmentarians and their Reform-oriented rivals (Archives of Ontario, Collection of Octavius ompson, Reference Code: F 4356- 0-0-0-43)

Conclusion eligion was central to Upper RCanadian political culture. During the early and mid-nine- teenth century the colony wit- nessed a struggle between Tory advocates of Christian establish- ments and Reform-oriented crit- ics of state-supported religion over the degree to which civil authorities should assume re- sponsibility for promoting heightened the language of pro-British loyalism in an moral standards among the populace. eort to strengthen their competing con- is conict, which threw into relief the tentions, a fact that underscores the per- existence in pre-Confederation Canada vasiveness and elasticity of “Britishness” of diametrically opposed politico-reli- as a cultural identity in post-revolution- gious perspectives, was bound up with a ary British North America. Divergent larger controversy regarding church-state perspectives on the church-state relation- relations that originated in early modern ship thundered from pulpits and cropped England and played itself out on both up with unmistakable frequency in the sides of the Atlantic Ocean. pages of pamphlets and newspapers. Compounding tensions between es- ey also expressed themselves in tumul- tablishmentarian Tories and anti-estab- tuous public demonstrations and street lishmentarian Reformers were compet- ghts, as evidenced by the chaotic events ing strategies for the Christianization of that occurred in Toronto in July of 1851. colonial society. e former viewed the ese factors account for the intensity in state as an ally in its campaign to pro- Upper Canada of politico-religious con- mote the moral edication of the popu- ict, which continued to exert inuence lace, while the latter viewed government in the late nineteenth and early twentieth intervention in the religious sphere as centuries as Ontarians became embroiled an obstacle to the propagation of uncor- in Dominion-wide debates over such po- rupted Christian piety. Participants on larizing issues as the Jesuit Estates and both sides of this controversy invoked Schools controversies.

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