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Upper Canada |
Lower Canada |
Northwest Rebellion
Louis Joseph Papineau became the leader
of the radical movement in Lower Canada in the 1830's.
His speeches, leadership and actions helped lead to the
rebellion that occurred in 1837.
Born on Oct 7, 1786 in Montreal, Louis
Joseph Papineau was destined to be a great name in the
annuals of French Canadian and Canadian history. He
was enrolled at a seminary and lake most French Canadian
leaders of the time, he went to law school and became a
lawyer. He quickly became involved in politics and was
elected to the legislative assemble in lower Canada and
by 1815 had been appointed the speaker of the assembly.
His challenge was to
reconcile the existing British Parliamentary traditions
and the Lower Canada system to politic action that would
give the general population some input into the ruling
of the colony. In 1820 the Governor of Lower Canada made
an attempt to draw Papineau into the executive by
offering him a seat on the Executive Council which
carried out the policies of the Governor. Papineau
quickly realized that the Council was not disposed to
take advice from the Legislative Assembly and were much
more like to formulate and implement policies that the
Governor and the upper class English elite of the colony
wanted. He joined the council and then very quickly
resigned once he realized that the offer was made to
silence him and not to help him bring about change.
Papineau, as Speaker of the assembly was
in a much better position to challenge the Governor and
the Executive Council. He eventually was able to start
blocking many of the London, the Governor and the
Executive Council wanted passed. He felt that he was
having an impact upon their agenda and without the
revenues to pay for those programs the Governor would
have to compromise and eventually start to allow more
input from the Elected Assembly.
The straw that broke
the camels back came in March of 1837 when Lord Gosford,
the Governor of Lower Canada, was ordered by the British
Government to ignore the need for Legislative approval
of bills and pay for the expenses of the government
directly from crown funds. Papineau called for a
meeting at St Charles, of all "patriotes", who were the
reform minded French Canadians, on October 23, 1837. The
topic of the meeting was to be justifiable armed
rebellion to oppose what Papineau and others felt was
the violation of their rights by the Governor and
British Government. The Governor caught wind of this
meeting and it's purpose and struck back with warrants
for Papineau's arrest under the charge of High Treason.
Wolfred Nelson organized a force of Patriote's and led
them against the British at Saint Charles on November
25th, 1837. The Patriotes initially had success when
they defeated the British but two days later the British
counter attacked and defeated them on November 125th and
then again at Saint Eustache on December 14th.
Papineau was forced to flee the colony
and took refuge in the United States and martial law was
declared. The authorities attempted to arrest about 26
members of the Patriote who choose to resist. In 1838
the Patriote's under Robert Nelson had organized
themselves in the United States and crossed the boarder
into Lower Canada. They were intent on defeating the
British military forces and forcing them out of the
colony thus establishing their own government. The
battle of Beauharnois took place in November of 1838 and
the British were also victorious here ending the
prospects of overthrowing the British.
Papineau remained in exile until 1847
when a general amnesty was proclaimed and he was allowed
to return to Lower Canada. Although he was re-elected to
the Legislative Assembly, a new generation of reformers
and Politian's had arrived on the scene and he was more
of a heroic reminder of past battles then an inspiring
leader of the new war.
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