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Ontario History

Revolutions Across Borders:Jacksonian America and the Canadian Rebellion edited by Maxime Dagenais and Julien Mauduit Chris Raible

Volume 112, Number 1, Spring 2020

URI: https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/1069018ar DOI: https://doi.org/10.7202/1069018ar

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Publisher(s) The Historical Society

ISSN 0030-2953 (print) 2371-4654 (digital)

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Cite this review Raible, C. (2020). Review of [Revolutions Across Borders:Jacksonian America and the Canadian Rebellion edited by Maxime Dagenais and Julien Mauduit]. Ontario History, 112(1), 118–120. https://doi.org/10.7202/1069018ar

Copyright © The Ontario Historical Society, 2020 This document is protected by copyright law. Use of the services of Érudit (including reproduction) is subject to its terms and conditions, which can be viewed online. https://apropos.erudit.org/en/users/policy-on-use/

This article is disseminated and preserved by Érudit. Érudit is a non-profit inter-university consortium of the Université de Montréal, Université Laval, and the Université du Québec à Montréal. Its mission is to promote and disseminate research. https://www.erudit.org/en/ 118 ONTARIO HISTORY

Revolutions Across Borders Jacksonian America and the Canadian Rebellion Edited by Maxime Dagenais and Julien Mauduit

Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2019. 300 pages. $34.95 Paper. ISBN 978-0-7735-5665-2 (www.mqup.ca)

or many years, the common view of the 1837-38 Rebellions was that they were of but passing importance, odd Fblips in the narrative of our evolution to- wards nationhood. They erupted in Lower and Upper and were soon subdued, leaving a residue of regret and recrimination that, in time, faded. Meanwhile, south of the border, the Canadian rebellions aroused editorial vigour and prompted political un- ease at the time, but this interest was soon pushed aside by the more pressing passions editor Maxime Dagenais’ Introduction and perils of pre-Civil War America. With summarizes the Canadian Rebellion/Jack- this volume, ten scholars collectively call for sonian America connections that are the a reconsideration, a re-writing of the history. theme of this whole volume. Note “Rebel- Following the lead of American historian lion” not “Rebellions,” a nod to the notion, Allan Taylor and others, they insist that, proposed some years back by Alan Greer, in mid-century America, the Canadian-US that the Lower and out- border was not a barrier—economically, breaks be treated as a combined, single ef- politically, ideologically, or socially. In those fort. Nonetheless, throughout this volume, days, there was no wall. the two are largely treated separately, but The book opens with a Foreword by not equally—more Upper than Lower Ca- Ruth Dunley, an independent scholar who nadian. Also, the essays gathered here focus introduces Abram Daniel Smith, an Ohio more on the American (rather than Cana- supporter of the Canadian rebellion, later dian) “major social, political, and econom- a Wisconsin maverick Civil War jurist. ic changes taking place” (9). This Introduc- Dunley has spent two decades tracking tion offers a clear and useful summary of Smith— “who he was, and why—or if—he the continuing Rebellion of 1838—the matters.” She tells the story—sans source cross-border armed invasions of Canada, notes or bibliography—of “a forgotten manned largely (but not entirely) by sym- man on both sides of the border” (vii). He pathetic American volunteers. perhaps will continue to be forgotten. Co- The book’s main body has three sec- book reviews 119 tions. The first, “Economic Concerns,” and the Patriot Rebellion of 1837-1838,” consists of two essays. In the first, “Patri- Andrew Bonthius relates the career of an ots No More: The Political Economy of American journalist who became an ar- Anglo-American Rapprochement, 1825- dent supporter of the Canadian cause. A 1846,” Jason M. Opal offers is a helpful thoughtful idealist, at times an erratic en- reminder that American attitudes toward thusiast, Underhill filled the columns of Great Britain markedly changed in the his publications with news and views of the course of events between the close of the passions of the period. Bonthius is rightly and the outbreak of the Ca- admired for his 2003 study linking Mac- nadian rebellions. In the second, “Bank kenzie and the American political move- War in : The Rebellion and ment “Locofocoism.” Here he continues to the Market Revolution,” Robert Richard press his point: the “Patriot Rebellion” is would have us view the rebellions—in this best understood if viewed “within the larg- essay, the Lower Canada Rebellion—less as er context of the cross-border radical agrar- an ideological nationalistic narrative and ian, anti-bank Locofoco convulsions of the more as a consequence of the 1837 capi- times” (160). (The Bald Eagle was, by the talistic economic upheavals in the whole of way, but one of a number of 1838 Patriot North America. Hunter newspapers—including one put The second section, “Alternative Re- out by Mackenzie’s son James.) The last es- publics,” contains three essays. In “The say in this section is “‘The Road Not Tak- Lure of a Canadian Republic: Americans, en’: Duncombe on Republican Currency: the and Upper Canada as Po- Joint Stock Democracy, Civic Republican- litical, Social and Economic Alternatives, ism, and Free Banking” by Albert Schrau- 1837-1840,” Thomas Richards Jr. tells of wers, a York University economic anthro- the Rebellion’s attraction to Americans. pologist much admired for his books and The “Patriot War” (the 1838 drama south articles on Upper Canada. Here he focuses of the border) with its multiple battles (all on the life and thought of a single indi- failures) rallied thousands to the Canadian vidual: the leader of the rebels in western cause. Some “2,000 Americans fought… Upper Canada. Schrauwers concentrates against the British… another 2,000 bore more on Duncombe’s ideas than on his ac- arms but never had a chance to fight.” tions. A prominent doctor and medical in- Meanwhile, “thousands more Americans structor, an active Mason, a legislator pro- joined the secret Hunters’ Lodges organi- moting reform in prisons, lunatic asylums zations.” And “along the northern border… and educational institutions, Duncombe tens of thousands” more were passively sup- also ardently advocated economic reform portive of Patriot actions. Yet few Ameri- through “Republican Free Banking.” can historians have studied the Patriot The third section, “Continental Im- War and those who have, have paid little pact,” presents two more essays. In “John attention to “reasons why so many Ameri- L. O’Sullivan’s ‘Canadian Moment’: The cans staked their futures on the cause of a Democratic Review and the Canadian Re- Canadian republic” (92-3). Richards thus bellions,” Louis-Georges Harvey consid- firmly places the War within the context of ers the Democratic Review, a widely-read American migration and expansion in the monthly literary as well political journal mid-nineteenth century. In the essay “Bald financed by the Democratic party of Mar- Eagle over Canada: Dr. Samuel Underhill tin Van Buren. In several articles published 120 ONTARIO HISTORY

during the first year-and-a-half of his jour- election. The volume is brought to a close nal, editor O’Sullivan described in detail with an Afterword: “‘The Practicability of and cogently commented on the “Cana- Annexing Canada’: Or, the Manifest Des- dian Question.” He viewed the instigators tiny of Canada, According to the United of the Rebellion as the clear ideological de- States” by Amy S. Greenberg. The oft- scendants of the founders of the American quoted “manifest destiny” phrase is here republic. They were thus deserving active used to describe how and why Canada was support—in the cause of the liberty of a not annexed by the US in mid-nineteenthh free people—but not as way to expand the century. It thus adds another reminder of United States. (Yet, this same O’Sullivan the value of considering the Rebellion in a coined the American phrase “manifest des- larger American context. tiny” a few years later while advocating the As a whole, this compendium of cross- annexation of Texas.) In the last essay, “Ca- border studies in the 1838 (second stage) nadian Interference in American Politics: Canadian Rebellion, is indeed much to be The 1840 Presidential Election,” Julien admired. Alas, a comprehensive scholarly Mauduit carefully canvasses the contest be- work on these incursions and their abiding tween Van Buren and Harrison, between importance to the whole of North Ameri- Whigs and Democrats. He views “the ca has yet to be published. Until that day, 1840 election through a Canadian lens”— we can only hope that other scholars—en- a perspective rarely considered by histori- couraged perhaps by this fine volume—will ans on either side of the border. It is an in- offer their own related studies. The making triguing notion: that active and of a new mosaic will require many tiles. Canadian sympathizers might effectively influence the outcome of an American Chris Raible, Creemore, Ontario

The Constant Liberal Pierre Trudeau, Organized Labour, and the Canadian Social Democratic Left By Christo Aivalis

Vancouver: UBC Press, 2018. 278 pages. $34.95 Paper. ISBN: 9780774837149. $89.95 Hardcover. ISBN: 9780774837132. $34.95 EPUB. ISBN:9780774837163. (www.ubcpress.ca)

anada’s fifteenth prime minister has -in Trudeaumania. So, it is with great interest Cspired numerous works. It is protocol that I read The Constant Liberal, Christo when writing about Pierre Elliott Trudeau Aivalis’s contribution to a crowded field. to acknowledge the abundance of the body As Aivalis notes, “Early works on Trudeau, of work about him, a body that spans over written while he was still governing, delved fifty years. Trudeau was the subject of my into his systems, policies, affiliations, con- own honours history graduating essay, and troversies, and public image. Works writ- since completing my undergraduate degree ten from his retirement to his passing a decade ago yet more books about him gained greater historical focus yet lacked have been published, including two titled sufficient distance from his times” (ix).