Colonial+Government+and+the+Need+for+Reform+(Part+2)

= **__REBELLION IN UPPER CANADA__** = = = - **Situation in** **Upper Canada****:**

 Moderate reformers lost hope in getting a responsible government after John Russell’s Ten Resolutions and the appointment of Sir Francis Bond Head as governor in 1836 as he:

-  sympathized with the Family Compact. -  employed heavy handed administration. - dissolved the House after being reprimanded by the Assembly. - advocated loyalty to Britain.



- **William Lyon Mackenzie:** - was a radical leader who wanted an American style democracy, which d istanced him from English immigrants (who thought of the Americans as an enemy power).  - took the defeat of the reform movement (appointment of Head) as a call to arms, and thus rebellion . - organized the resistance to government and trained rebels to fight, but  had only minimal military experience.



- **The Rebellion:**  Mackenzie decided to strike after hearing that Governor Head had sent soldiers to help fight rebels in lower Canada (leaving Toronto – renamed York – almost unguarded). He... - planned a quick march where the rebel force would take over arms and ammunition in the arsenal . - also planned to take Governor Bond Head prisoner . - wanted to set up a new and independent government if rebel demands were not met.  Other radicals would not join Mackenzie, but he decided to order attack anyway.  - He led the attack in person, and his f orce met a small group of militia led by Sheriff Jarvis, who was a local official.  - Jarvis’ men fired and ran away, and the rebel troops became confused due to their lack of military experience) so they a<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> bandoned the battlefield and retreated .<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> - They were defeated by militia led by Colonel Alan MacNab .<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> - Mackenzie escaped to America disguised as a woman and worked to keep the rebellion alive from across the border. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> Rebel incidents continued until 1838, but the Rebellions of 1837 were FAILURES.

= **__AFTERMATH OF BOTH REBELLIONS (upper and lower)__** =

//__ - Punishing the Rebels __// The <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> British legal code, which prevailed in colonies, prescribed the death penalty for insurrection against the government as... > <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> British justice concentrated on punishment (not rehabilitation). >> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> judges hoped quick and severe punishment would deter others from committing similar acts. >>> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> Ex. Flogging was common.

The m<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> ajor leaders of the revolt were...

- Publicly hanged or - "Transported" to Bermuda or Australia for seven years.

- - The transportation itself was a kind of torture. Prisoners were...

- - - kept in low-ceilinged, cramped lock-up between decks. - - - <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> chained to walls or deck with no bathroom or ventilation (beyond small grate or window). - - - used as slave labour upon arrival (many of Australia’s early settlers were convicts) .__



Lord Durham’s Report __ A<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> fter the 1837 rebellion, Britain realized that administration of colonies needed changing, so they <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> established commission to investigate the situation & recommend solutions. This was <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> led by John Lambton, the Earl of Durham (aristocrat and reformer position appointed Governor-in-Chief of the Canadas).



-<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> **Lord Durham's Strengths:**

- - He was s<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> een as an independent representative of a powerful empire, while o<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> ther governors blended into local power structure of Clique and Compact.

- - <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> He appointed colonial experts to staff. - - - ex.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> Charles Buller, Thomas Turton, Gibbon Wakefield.

- - He t ravelled to America and patched up relations there, which was s<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> trategically important because it froze support for rebels operating out of there.

- - <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> He treated rebels as leniently as possible, and even pardoned most of them.

-<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> **Durham****’s Resignation:**

- <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> Those who had fought the rebels or had had property destroyed in rebellions were angry with Durham though the results of of his actions were beneficial. They h<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> ad legitimate complaints that could be used against him in Britain - Durham s<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> aw that he had little support in the Canadas (even his pardons were overturned) so he r<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> esigned and went home.

-<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> **Lord Durham’s Report:**

- <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> Durham completed his report at home. It came from his own liberal ideas & those of Gibbon Wakefield, Robert Baldwin (reform leader), and Louis Lafontaine (reform leader)

- He r<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> ecommended... - - that colonies be joined together and that they be given responsible government. - - t hat all of British North America be united in time.

- He was n ot well-received by the French in Lower Canada, as his g<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> oal, through unity, was to force the French to assimilate into English culture. - He r<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> easoned that peace would never be achieved without some form of democracy (hence his recommendation for responsible gov.) - - <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> The US was too close for comfort. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> - <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> Durham’s proposal would not be implemented for several years as s <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> uccessors were unwilling or unable to institute recommendations. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> But it would become the basis of our present system of government.

- **Implementation of Durham’s proposal:**

- <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> Reform leaders in Lower Canada & Upper Canada continue to press for responsible government.

- <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> The proposal for was accepted by British gov. & Lord Sydenham (one of Durham’s successors). - - <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> They were instructed by British to press for unity and did, in spite of protests from Lower Canada’s reformers.

- The proposal was n<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> ot popular with French-Canadians as they had great interest in transportation and development projects. - It was dear to the hearts of Clique and Compact but not the French. - <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> The Act of Union united Upper Canada and Lower Canada in 1841. - - It was<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> accomplished without the support or participation of French, which created many problems that linger to the present day.

Check your understanding: Who was William Lyon Mackenzie? What were some prevalent characteristics of Lord Durham? How did Lord Durham implement his proposal?

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