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THE American Revolution successfully vindicated
some correct principles of government, but it was attended by
circumstances which have cast discredit on the people of the
revolting colonies. While able men in the press and on the public
platform declared the justice of their cause and their right to
rebel against usurped authority, riotous mobs acting under the
orders of unscrupulous leaders, engaged in robbing their neighbours
who remained loyal to the government, and, not content with taking
their property, subjected them to personal violence, and, in some
cases, deprived them of life. There is no doubt that in most cases,
the object of these mobs was simply plunder, while the principal
motive, which was behind the more regular proceedings of the men who
procured the passing of prescription acts, was confiscation. Many of
the persons who adhered to the government, were rich, and it was
thought fitting that they should be deprived of their property. They
were denied the right to hold any other opinions on the great
questions involved, than those which were avowed by what claimed to
be a majority of the people. Finally at the close of the war they
were driven from the country of their birth and forced to seek new
homes in a strange land.
The final outcome of the war was that all those
colonies in North America, which had been settled by Englishmen,
were lost, while those which had been wrested from France, were
preserved to the British crown. This was certainly a singular
feature of the conquest, especially in the case of Canada, for it
must be remembered that this colony had been in the possession of
Great Britain less than fifteen years when the war commenced, and
that France, the mother country' of Canada, was the main instrument
in enabling the revolting English Colonies to achieve their
independence.
It certainly was not the fault of the
Continental Congress that Canada was preserved to England, for one
of the first efforts of the war was made by that body for its
conquest. In the autumn of 1775, Montreal was occupied by an
American army under Richard Montgomery, a renegade Irishman, who had
received his military education in the British service. Another
American force under Benedict Arnold, advanced against Quebec by way
of the Kennebec, and a union with Montgomery's army was effected
under its walls. Quebec, was for the moment, the only place in
Canada held by a British force and, hail the assault upon it
succeeded, it might have been lost forever to England. But the
assault failed, Montgomery was slain, and a few months later the
Americans were driven out of Canada.
The invasion of 1775 was but the sequel of the
address sent by Congress to the people of Quebec in October 1774. In
that document the Canadians were invited to unite with the English
Colonies and send delegates to Congress. Any one who wishes to
understand the utter hypocrisy of the authors of the numerous
addresses sent out by Congress at this, time should read the Quebec
address in connexion with another, which Congress then forwarded to
the people of Great Britain in which the Government is savagely
attacked for having passed an Act of Parliament giving freedom of
religion and the French Civil Law, to the people of Quebec. After
such a document had been made public, it required no small amount of
assurance to enable the Americans to enter Canada proclaiming
themselves the friends of the French people, their religion and
their laws. Those of the French who were weak enough to trust the
professions of the invaders, soon discovered that they were dealing
with a people who had no sympathy whatever with their religion or
their laws, and whose rapacity was extreme. The conduct of the
Americans while in Canada, did more to estrange the French
inhabitants from their cause, than any plan that the British
Government could have devised for accomplishing such a result.
In the address to the people of Quebec, it was
stated that the injuries of Boston had aroused and associated every
colony, from Nova Scotia to Georgia. The statement was misleading so
far as Nova Scotia was concerned, for at no period during the war,
did its legislature act otherwise than with loyalty to the parent
state. From the beginning of the troubles, however, the
revolutionary party in .Massachusetts did their best to detach No\a
Scotia from its loyal position. As early as February, 1708, the
House of Representatives of Massachusetts addressed the House of
Assembly of Nova Scotia inviting its co-operation in the
remonstrances then being forwarded against the measures of the
British Government. At a later period these invitations were
renewed, but the Nova Scotia house took no notice of them, nor did
it pay any heed to the non-intercourse resolves of Congress, which
were forwarded to it in 1775. That year, however, the house seems to
have thought it expedient to pass an address to the King and
Parliament on its own account, and this was duly forwarded to
England in the course of the summer. This address, which was very
loyal in its tone, acknowledged the supremacy of Parliament, and
made a number of recommendations with regard to taxation and other
matters, some of which have rather a strange sound at the present
day. This address was not forwarded through the Governor, but sent
direct by the Speaker to the Lord Chancellor.
But, while the Legislature of the Province thus
declared its loyalty and attachment to British institutions, there
were in Nova Scotia, many disaffected persons who were determined,
if possible, that it should cast its lot with the other British
colonies. The population was very small, being estimated in 1772 at
17,000 souls, exclusive of Acadians, and in some of the settlements
the disloyal greatly predominated. We have seen that, in some cases,
whole townships had been settled by people from Massachusetts and
Connecticut, and these people, who had kept up a constant
correspondence with their friends in the colonies they had left,
were, as a rule, in sympathy with the doings of Congress and hostile
to the British Government. But, while this was the rule, it was by
no means of universal application and some of the firmest friends of
British connection were to be found among the settlers from New
England. On the other hand, most of the emigrants from the British
Islands were strong in their loyalty and wholly opposed to the
proceedings at Philadelphia. Yet, it is nevertheless true that the
most dangerous enemy the British Government had in Nova Scotia was a
Scotchman. The people of Truro, Onslow, and Londonderry, who, in
1777, refused to take the oath of allegiance, were all
Presbyterians, the descendants of men, who, in 1719, went to New
Hampshire from the North of Ireland. The active resistance to the
royal authority in Nova Scotia was, therefore, ;n the
main, confined to the New Englanders, while the English were
universally loyal and most of the Scotch and Irish equally firm in
their allegiance.
The Governor of the Province, Mr. Legge, was
very unfit to face the serious difficulties now before him. Although
a military man by profession, he seems, at first, to have given much
more attention to matters of book-keeping than to those measures
which were necessary to the proper defence of his government. At a
time when every nerve should have been strained to strengthen the
forts and garrison them with trusty men, he was engaged in searching
up imaginary defalcations in the public accounts, some of which, if
they had any existence, had occurred twenty-five years before. By
this means he contrived to quarrel with most of the older officials
and to incur the hostility of the leading men of the Province, who
felt themselves compromised hy these pretended disclosures. He was
at hitter feud with the Lieutenant Governor, Mr. Michael Francklin,
who was certainly a very diligent and zealous official, and his
conduct was generally complained of as arbitrary and tyrannical in
the extreme. Legge was in fact that most disagreeable of characters,
a busybody, without capacity except to insult and annoy those with
whom he was associated in the government, the very reverse of the
kind of man required for such a crisis, which demanded a governor
with a firm hand and a conciliatory disposition. Fortunately the
British Government discovered Mr. Legge's deficiencies in good time,
and in 177G recalled him to England, the duties of his office being
performed by successive Lieutenant Governors in his absence. He was
not permitted to return to America, yet such was the interest of his
family, that he was allowed to hold the position of Governor of Nova
Scotia until almost the close of the war.
When hostilities commenced in 1771, Nova Scotia
was in no condition to resist any serious-attack. Nearly all the
soldiers had been sent to Boston and there were but thirty-six men
in the garrison at Halifax. St. John, Annapolis and Fort Cumberland
had no soldiers whatever, with the exception of a corporal's guard
of three or four left to take care of the buildings. The militia of
the Province had not been embodied, and there were serious doubts as
to how far they could be made available for defence, in view of the
sentiments of the people of many of the settlements. The defences of
Halifax were in a wretched condition, provisions were scarce and
some of the inhabitants were in constant communication with the
enemy. This was shown pretty clearly hy the burning of a quantity of
hay in Halifax, which was known to have been purchased for the use
of the British cavalry in Boston, and by other acts of a similar
character. The knowledge of the fact, that there were traitors in
their midst, naturally made men distrustful of each other, and
prevented that complete union which was necessary at such a time.
Nor were these the only evils from which they suffered. The people
of Machias, a Maine settlement near the borders of Nova Scotia,
finding their struggle with a rocky anil barren soil somewhat
unprofitable, and their young men, as they stated, being out of
employment, began to turn their attention to the business of
privateering. Their first exploit was the capture, in June, of a
small British armed vessel named the "Margaretta" which was lying at
Machias, unsuspicious of any danger. A small English surveying
schooner named "The Diligent" was soon afterwards surprised and
captured in Buck's Harbour and fitted out as a privateer to sail in
company with a Machias privateer named "The Liberty". These vessels
were sent into the Bay of Fundy to commit depredations and to
capture any vessels from Nova, Scotia with supplies for the British
troops in Boston, and Marblehead ; and other towns on the New
England coast also fitted out privateers, a number of which were
constantly scouring the coast of Nova Scotia, plundering and
insulting the inhabitants and destroying property that they were
unable to remove. These marauders, who figure as great patriots in
most American histories of the war, were guilty of such ,n famous
conduct as to provoke the remonstrances of men of their own party,
who were none too scrupulous "n the use of means for the purpose of
annoying those who remained loyal to Great Britain. When even
Colonel John Allen felt impelled to address the Massachusetts
Council on the "horrid crimes" and "cruel depredations" committed by
the privateersmen on the coast of Nova Scotia, the reader will be
able to form some idea of the barbarous nature of the warfare which
was waged on the unoffending people of Nova Scotia, whose only crime
was attachment to the flag under which they had been born and
beneath which they wished to die.
The unprotected state of the settlement at the
mouth of the St. John, naturally made it an object of attack. In
August, 1775, a privateer from Machias, commanded by Stephen Smith,
entered the harbour and captured there a small brig laden with oxen,
sheep ami other supplies for the troops in Boston. Fort Frederick,
which had been abandoned as a military post for several years, and
the barracks connected with it, were then burnt, and four men who
had been left in charge of the place taken prisoners. From that time
until the erection of Fort Howe, in 1778, the settlers about St.
John harbour were constantly exposed to attacks bv raiding parties
from the westward. Quite a number of persons had been settled on the
western side of the river, in what is now the Parish of
Lancaster, under deeds from Hazen and White, who
had a grant of the land there. The contemptible nature of the
warfare that was waged by these Yankee patriots may be judged, from
the fact that, these poor settlers were objects of plunder, and most
of them were finally obliged to abandon their little clearings and
seek safety among the settlements farther up the river.
The autumn of 1773 was a period of great alarm
all over Nova Scotia. Many of the settlements had been attacked and
plundered, and no man who had a residence near the coast, felt
himself safe from robbery. Applications were sent in from nearly all
the settlements, calling on the governor to send supplies of
ammunition for the use of the militia, and these requests were, as a
rule, granted, the work of distribution being entrusted to local
gentlemen of standing, most of them officers in the militia. In
Halifax the militia were called out to mount guard over the town at
night. Light infantry companies to the number of one thousand men in
all, were ordered to be formed at Halifax, Lunenburg, Annapolis,
Cumberland and other places, and all persons were required to swear
allegiance to the Crown. An organization which was entitled "The
Association for Loyal Allegiance'" was started in Halifax by Chief
Justice Belcher, at the opening of the September quarter sessions in
Halifax, and numerously subscribed to in Halifax, Kings and
Annapolis counties. Finally, in December, martial law was proclaimed
and all strangers coming into the Province were required to report
themselves to the magistrates, under penalty of being considered as
spies. Ships of war were stationed in the Bay of Fundy and on the
Atlantic coast, to protect the settlements and convoy the vessels
carrying supplies to the army in Boston. Vigorous efforts were made
to strengthen the defences of Halifax, the garrison having been
reinforced by the arrival of about 350 men of the 14th and Loyal
American Regiments, under Lieut. Colonel Gorliam. Soon afterwards
the 27th Regiment arrived, as well as some other detachments, so
that the bringing of the militia from the out-countries to Halifax,
which had been contemplated, became wholly unnecessary, and the
Halifax garrison was able to spare a few regular troops for the
other military posts throughout the Province.
It was fortunate that the services of the
militia were not required just then, for some of them were little to
be relied on in case of hostilities. Certain disaffected persons had
spread among thern the rumor, that it was the intention of the
Government to send them to Boston as soon as they could be assembled
at Halifax. Accordingly when Governor Legge proceeded to embody a
part of the militia, he was met by remonstrances from many
districts. Numbers of persons in Annapolis and Kings counties
refused to serve, and long memorials against the militia law, were
sent from Truro, Onslow and Cumberland. The Onslow memorial asserted
that the families of the signers would be exposed to ruin, if they
were obliged to serve in the militia. The Truro petition urged the
dangers to which the settlement would be liable, if the able bodied
men were drawn away from it. The Cumberland document took a bolder
tone and declared it to be "a great piece of imposition" to ask
those of them who were from New England to march against their
friends and relations. This statement, as their subsequent conduct
showed, was simply a pretence to ensure their being let alone until
their treasonable designs were matured. Fortunately, there had been
a couple of years previously, a large importation of settlers into
Cumberland, from Yorkshire and other parts of the north of England.
These men were intensely loyal, and they served, in a large measure,
to keep in check the disloyal New Englanders in that fine country.
The latter had been presented by the British Government, with
splendid farms in what is perhaps the richest piece of territory in
all North America, and they showed their gratitude by rebelling on
the first opportunity against the government which had loaded them
with favours, from which they had never received aught but kindness.
This conduct, however, base as it was, was strictly in keeping with
that inheritance of bad faith with the Government, which had
descended to them, from father to son, from their remote Puritan
ancestors.
The chief instigator of the Cumberland manifesto
was, however, neither a New Englander nor a descendant of the
Puritans. Among those who came out to Halifax, was a Scotch
quarter-master, named William Allan, who had been in the fourth
troop of Horse Guards. Allan brought with him, his wife and one
child, a boy, who had been born in Edinburgh Castle a few weeks
before the battle of Culloden. William Allan, after a short
residence in Halifax, went to form one of the garrison of Fort
Lawrence, and afterwards resided in Fort Cumberland until the close
of the war. He then settled on a portion of the abandoned Acadian
lands of that district, and, in 1701, was one of four commissioners
appointed to divide the forfeited lands in Cumberland. William Allan
was a loyal man and a good citizen, and lived in Cumberland to a
good old age, dying about the year 1790. His eldest son, John Allan,
was a very different kind of man from his father. Restless and
ambitious from his youth upwards, he early became, estranged from
his parent by his singular conduct. He was much fonder of talking
politics, or spending his time among the Indians, than of attending
to the legitimate duties of his station. He was much away from his
father's house, and in 1707, before he was nineteen years old, got
married, and resided for a year or two afterwards at Halifax. He
then removed to Cumberland and received a fine farm from his father,
on which he resided when the war broke out. From the first lie seems
to have been in correspondence with the Massachusetts Congress, and,
at their instance, took an active part in promoting disaffection in
Cumberland. In 1775, he succeeded in having himself elected to
represent the township of Cumberland in the Provincial Assembly, but
he never seems to have taken his seat, as before the Assembly met,
he was too much compromised to venture to Halifax. Allan seems to
have been led to become a rebel solely by his ambition and vanity,
but he miscalculated the forces opposed to him, and his attempts
only ended in his own ruin, and that of most of those who were
associated with him.
VOTE for
BOB
The
Man of the people.
FIRST POLITICAL CARTOON. Hon. Robert L.
Hazen as portrayed by a local cartoonist of 1844
There were three other men of prominence
implicated with Allan in the work of fomenting rebellion in
Cumberland. The principal of these was Jonathan Eddy, a native of
Norton, Mass., who had been the representative for Cumberland
Township in the Assembly. The other two were Captain Samuel Rogers,
who was the member for Sackville, and William Howe. It is worthy of
note that among the disloyal men of that period in Nova Scotia,
there were eight or nine who were, or recently had been, members of
the House of Assembly. Eddy, who was the oldest of the conspirators
as well as the most enterprising, conceived the bold plan of seizing
Fort Cumberland and holding it for the American Congress. The fort
was then without a garrison, and, had Eddy been able to obtain arms
and stores, there can be no doubt that he might have held it for a
considerable period. But while Eddy and his associates, among whom
were a number of rebel spies from Massachusetts, were debating the
question of ways and means, a detachment of troops arrived from
Halifax to garrison the fort, and the Isthmus, for the time, was
safe.
From the beginning of the troubles, refugees
from the other colonies had been arriving in Nova Scotia in
considerable numbers, most of them having been obliged to fly from
their homes in consequence of the violence of the rebel mobs.
Provision had been made by the Government for the relief of those
people, but the majority of the first arrivals did not require any
assistance, having saved something from the wreck of their fortunes.
The evacuation of
Boston by the British forces under General Howe,
however; caused the arrival of about fifteen hundred refugees who
had been residents of that town or its vicinity, and wdio preferred
to brave the hardships of exile, rather than trust themselves to the
tender mercies of Washington and the Whigs. With them came more than
three thousand soldiers, so that Halifax was full to overflowing,
the rents of buildings were doubled, and provisions threatened to
grow so dear that the governors were obliged to fix by proclamation,
the prices at which meat, milk, butter and other necessaries should
be sold. At this time two important changes took place in the
government of the Province, Michael Francldin, who had been
Lieutenant Governor for ten years; being removed, and Governor Legge
being recalled to England to answer certain charges, which had been
made against him by five members of the Council and a number of the
principal inhabitants of the Province. Legge never returned to Nova
Scotia, and the Government was administered by Commodore Mariot
Arbuthnot, who was now appointed Lieutenant Governor. He proved
himself a capable officer and, (luring the two years of his
administration, exerted himself, with success, to preserve the
province to the British Crown. The force at his disposal was by no
means large, for General Howe, early in .Tune transferred his army
to New York, leaving only a few hundred men under General Massey to
defend the province against domestic traitors and outside enemies.
That it was successfully defended against both, reflects credit both
on the Lieutenant Governor and the officers in command of the
troops. Where so large a proportion of the people was disloyal,
great zeal and much energy were required to preserve Nova Scotia to
the Empire. |
