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PREFACE
As no Indian pen
has ever traced the history of the aborigines of America, or
recorded the deeds of their chieftains, their “prowess and their
wrongs”—their enemies and spoilers being their historians; so the
history of the Loyalists of America has never been written except by
their enemies and spoilers, and those English historians who have
not troubled themselves with examining original authorities, but
have adopted the authorities, and in some instances imbibed the
spirit, of American historians, who have never tired in eulogizing
Americans and everything American, and deprecating everything
English, and all who have loyally adhered to the unity of the
British Empire.
I have thought that the other side of the story should be written;
or, in other words, the true history of the relations, disputes, and
contests between Great Britain and her American colonies and the
United States of America.
The United Empire Loyalists were the losing party; their history has
been written by their adversaries, and strangely misrepresented. In
the vindication of their character, I have not opposed assertion
against assertion; but, in correction of unjust and untrue
assertions, I have offered the records and documents of the actors
themselves, and in their own words.
To do this has rendered my history, to a large extent, documentary,
instead of being a mere popular narrative. The many fictions of
American writers will be found corrected and exposed in the
following volumes, by authorities and facts which cannot be
successfully denied. In thus availing myself so largely of the
proclamations, messages, addresses, letters, and records of the
times when they occurred, I have only followed the example of some
of the best historians and biographers.
No one can be more sensible than myself of the imperfect manner in
which I have performed my task, which I commenced more than a
quarter of a century since, but I have been prevented from
completing it sooner by public duties—pursuing, as I have done from
the beginning, an untrodden path of historical investigations. From
the long delay, many supposed I would never complete the work, or
that I had abandoned it. On its completion, therefore, I issued a
circular, an extract from which I hereto subjoin, explaining the
origin, design, and scope of the work :—
“I have pleasure in stating that I have at length completed the task
which the newspaper press and public men of different parties urged
upon me from 1855 to 1860. In submission to what seemed to be public
opinion, I issued, in 1861, a circular addressed to the United
Empire Loyalists and their descendants, of the British Provinces of
America, stating the design and scope of my proposed work, and
requesting them to transmit to me, at my expense, any letters or
papers in their possession which would throw light upon the early
history and settlement in these Provinces by our U. E. Loyalist
forefathers. From all the British Provinces I received answers to my
circular; and I have given, with little, abridgment, in one chapter
of my history, these intensely interesting letters and papers—to
which I have been enabled to add considerably from two large quarto
manuscript volumes of papers relating to the U. E. Loyalists in the
Dominion Parliamentary Library at Ottawa, with the use of which I
have been favoured by the learned and obliging librarian, Mr. Todd.
“In addition to all the works relating to the subject which I could
collect in Europe and America, I spent, two years since, several
months in the Library of the British Museum, employing the
assistance of an amanuensis in verifying quotations and making
extracts from works not to be found elsewhere, in relation
especially to unsettled questions involved in the earlier part of my
history.
“I have entirely sympathized with the Colonists in their
remonstrances, and even use of arms, in defence of British
constitutional rights, from 1763 to 1776; but I have been compelled
to view the proceedings of the Revolutionists and their treatment of
the Loyalists in a very different light.
“After having compared the conduct of the two parties during the
Revolution, the exile of the Loyalists from their homes after the
close of the War, and their settlement in the British Provinces, I
have given a brief account of the government of each Province, and
then traced the alleged and real causes of the War of 1812-1815,
together with the courage, sacrifice, and patriotism of Canadians,
both English and French, in defending our country against eleven
successive American invasions, when the population of the two
Canadas was to that of the United States as one to twenty-seven, and
the population of Upper Canada (the chief scene of the War) was as
one to one hundred and six. Our defenders, aided by a few English
regiments, were as handfuls, little Spartan bands, in comparison of
the hosts of the invading armies; and yet at the end of two years,
as well as at the end of the third and last year of the War, not an
invader’s foot found a place on the soil of Canada.
“I undertook this work not self-moved and with no view to profit;
and if I receive no pecuniary return from this work, on which I have
expended no small labour and means, I shall have the satisfaction of
having done all in my power to erect an historical monument to the
character and merits of the fathers and founders of my native
country.”
E. RYERSON.
“Toronto, Sept. 24th, 1879.”
Volume 1 |
Volume 2
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