Ideas of Union in Upper Canada, 1822 – 1842
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“A Means to Every End” Ideas of Union in Upper Canada, 1822 – 1842 by Alex Martinborough Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts at Dalhousie University Halifax, Nova Scotia July 2017 © Copyright by Alex Martinborough, 2017 Table of Contents Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………...iii Acknowledgements……………………………………………………………………….iv Chapter One: Introduction……………………………………………………………….. 1 Chapter Two: Imperial Intervention: The Bill of Union and Early Expressions of Settler Nationalism, 1822 – 1828……………………………………………………..23 Chapter Three: A Vision of Stability: Rebellion and Union in the Canadas, 1837-1839……………………………………………………………………...57 Chapter Four: Enacting Union: Constitutional Reform and Empire, 1839-1841……......98 Chapter Five: Conclusion………………………………………………………………140 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………148 ii Abstract This thesis explores debates over inter-colonial union in the Upper Canadian public sphere from 1822 to 1842. In doing so, it examines the emergence of a distinct settler society through its political culture and constitutional development. It argues that these debates, which remained generally consistent over time, reveal the intellectual framework of settler debate bound by emerging and contested understandings of Britishness. Using the concept of settler nationalism to combine two rich intellectual traditions in Canadian historiography – the study of British imperialism and studies of loyalism and liberalism – this thesis emphasizes the similarities between opponents and proponents of union. It investigates the development of Upper Canadian identity and political culture, exploring the emerging dual identity as British subject and Canadian settler. The evidence demonstrates that the political and intellectual foundations of Confederation are far deeper than the scholarly literature has suggested. iii Acknowledgements To begin with, I’d like to thank my supervisor, Professor Jerry Bannister. I was somewhat worried about moving to Halifax and from the beginning he made it a lot less daunting. I am incredibly grateful for the excellent advice and guidance he gave me, which benefitted this thesis (and me) a great deal. I always came away from our meetings with more than enough new ideas to explore that made my time at Dal enjoyable and engaging. To my readers, Professors Shirley Tillotson and Justin Roberts, thank you for your support and your insightful and helpful comments that helped improve this thesis and have given me a great deal to continue to think about. Thanks also to Professor John Bingham for chairing my defence. I am also thankful to Val and Tina, who made the Department such a welcoming place. To my fellow MA students, thank you for the many conversations that created such an amazing space, for listening to what must have felt like my never-ending ramblings about Upper Canada, and for your constant support, friendship and writing company that provided an ideal environment for learning and growth. Thanks also to the folks at the Killam Library for their assistance throughout the year. I would like to thank my family, and especially my parents, for their constant and continued support and encouragement. To my friends back in Toronto for their patience and support throughout the writing process, and for being willing to discuss the project with me. Finally, to my partner, for her love and support from across the country, whose confidence in me and shared love of history made this thesis possible. iv Chapter One: Introduction Canada is experiencing a year-long celebration of the 150th anniversary of Confederation, a historical event that has often been falsely conflated in public and political memory with the obtaining of independence and the creation of a Canadian nation. This thesis challenges national mythology by tracing the development of a national identity and political culture by exploring ideas of inter-colonial union in the public sphere of Upper Canada between 1822 and 1842. It explores how union was discussed and the different ends its proponents sought to achieve, both of which reveal a great deal about Upper Canada’s political culture. Different imaginings of union drew on radically divergent identities and ideas of loyalty, liberalism, and purpose of government. Emerging citizens of British North America imagined their identities relationally, demonstrated through the framing of union in terms of their relationships with the imperial state, other British North American colonies, or with the United States. This thesis examines the political debates on union in newspapers, legislative proceedings, pamphlets and in letters from colonial and imperial officials. It investigates how these debates changed over time and explores the expression of identities and settler nationalism in the imagining of a broader British North American polity in Upper Canada from 1822-1842. This thesis uses settler nationalism to describe an intellectual framework within which participants simultaneously advanced a vision of colonial exceptionalism while promoting continued attachment to and affection for the imperial state, institutions, and 1 identity.1 Canadian settler nationalism was premised on participation in the British imperial project in British North America, was exclusionary, patriarchal, and built on the idea of consolidation and territorial expansion. This was based on ideas of Anglo-Saxon superiority and nineteenth-century British understandings of “race,” that drew racial divides between what we might now call ethnic groups, such as Irish or French, combined with the doctrine of terra nullius that encouraged the continuous immigration of British settlers to facilitate schemes of westward expansion. Using this terminology serves three purposes in this thesis. Firstly, to provide a means to unite two intellectual traditions in Upper Canadian historiography; the study of imperialism and British history with explorations of liberalism and loyalism as foundational components of Upper Canadian political culture. This thesis argues liberty and loyalty were mutually constituting, and reciprocal conditions. Secondly, it accounts for settlers’ identity as British and of a distinct Upper Canadian settler society, which like liberty and loyalty were complementary of each other rather than mutually exclusive. Thirdly, it emphasizes the similarities between different factions involved in Upper Canadian politics. Even as they framed their arguments in opposition to each other, they drew on the same language of Britishness and the British constitution. Examining the ongoing construction of a settler society, unique settler institutions, and political culture will add a new dimension to the study of what would become Confederation. Taking a longer view of union and pursuing themes of consolidation and expansion as the manifestation of a national identity and community premised on settler !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 1 Lorenzo Veracini, Settler Colonialism: A Theoretical Overview (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), 53- 74. This definition of settler nationalism draws on Veracini’s discussion of settler sovereignty – and the ideas of autonomy and isopolity that allowed for a pluralistic understanding of sovereignty and identity. 2 colonialism, this thesis addresses an often stated but thinly explored connection between early conceptualizations of union and its eventual achievement in the form of Confederation in 1867.2 Upper Canadian historiography holds a rich discussion of political culture, identity, and state formation, to which this thesis contributes. Drawing on the methodologies and theoretical frameworks pioneered by intellectual and political historians of British North America such as Jeffrey McNairn, Jane Errington, Michael Eamon, and Nancy Christie, this project explores ideas of settler nationalism and nation- building by tracing ideas of colonial union. Additionally, it draws on Cecilia Morgan’s Building Better Britains, investigating the significance of Britishness in the construction of a settler polity in British North America.3 How settlers understood their place as British often factored into their understanding of society and government, and influenced how institutions took shape in the colonies. Many of these institutions and norms remain in place, and understanding the development of ideas through the rhetoric of colonial politicians sheds light on the construction of those institutions. Despite the attention paid to the 1840 Act of Union and Confederation, key questions remain unanswered. Ideas of settler nationalism, liberty, and loyalty featured prominently in union debates and were central to the development of Canada’s political culture, institutions, and settler identity. Notably absent from analyses of Confederation is the space Indigenous people occupied in conceptualizations of union. How newspapers and pamphlets discussed, or did not discuss, Indigenous peoples and issues in the imagining of future political structures is crucial to understanding Canadian state !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 2 J.M. Bumstead, “‘Things in the Womb of Time’: Ideas of American Independence, 1633-1783,” William and Mary Quarterly, 31, no. 4 (1974). 3 Cecilia Morgan, Building Better Britains? Settler Societies Within the British Empire, 1783-1920, (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2016), 82. 3 development. Recent scholarship in American constitutional history has highlighted the contextual impact of