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The question of the Union is as follows: do you want the Union with all its advantages at the price of the loss of your nationality? Because it is the condition for it to never be a principle of public action, for it to fall asleep completely, and that is to want it to die. Nationality is the principle of life of peoples and somebody rightfully said the silence of a people is death. | The question of the Union is as follows: do you want the Union with all its advantages at the price of the loss of your nationality? Because it is the condition for it to never be a principle of public action, for it to fall asleep completely, and that is to want it to die. Nationality is the principle of life of peoples and somebody rightfully said the silence of a people is death. | ||
Is there not a reason to be astonished that there are, among us, men who want to maintain a state of affairs so destructive of our life as a people. "But", some will say to us, "you will awake antipathies and national hatreds". By grace, let us tell to these one hundred thousand to conceal their prejudices rather than to make six hundred thousand conceal their just complaints. We want but one thing: the conservation of our institutions, our language, our laws, our manners. Is there something in this which can irritate the national susceptibilities of an honest and sensible man? To obtain that, can we not respect the nationalities and manners foreign to us? Can't the entire history of our struggle with this enemy faction which oppressed us for so long to destroy this nationality, its eternal nightmare, be summed up in this motto of Polish nationality, "freedom for us, freedom for you"? Moreover, would it be decent for six hundred thousand individuals ask to one hundred thousand to teach them their language, to impose them their institutions because among these one hundred thousand are some bawlers who want to believe themselves oppressed | Is there not a reason to be astonished that there are, among us, men who want to maintain a state of affairs so destructive of our life as a people. "But", some will say to us, "you will awake antipathies and national hatreds". By grace, let us tell to these one hundred thousand to conceal their prejudices rather than to make six hundred thousand conceal their just complaints. We want but one thing: the conservation of our institutions, our language, our laws, our manners. Is there something in this which can irritate the national susceptibilities of an honest and sensible man? To obtain that, can we not respect the nationalities and manners foreign to us? Can't the entire history of our struggle with this enemy faction which oppressed us for so long to destroy this nationality, its eternal nightmare, be summed up in this motto of Polish nationality, "freedom for us, freedom for you"? Moreover, would it be decent for six hundred thousand individuals ask to one hundred thousand to teach them their language, to impose them their institutions because among these one hundred thousand are some bawlers who want to believe themselves oppressed the minute they are no longer the oppressors? These are not considerations that should make us conceal our principles. | ||
It is time for the people to know all the evils that the Union did to him; it is time that we indicate those of which it is presently threatened; it is time for him to knows, that he measures its importance to request the end of it. If he is unanimous, it will not be refused to him. These events which unceasingly burst in Europe give him the guaranties of success. The French revolution is bound to transform the world. The English people, crushed under the double weight of his secular and religious aristocracies will perhaps also make an effort. This general conflagration will be able to reach England; it must follow or precede a revolutionary movement in Ireland: and what one can expect as more probable is a war between England and some continental power. With an exhausted treasury, for little that we asks it with energy, England will not be tempted to refuse us this act of justice just when it is known that in order to maintain a state of affairs not profitable to her, she will need forces and expenses which she could so easily avoid by making of all Lower Canada a colony which could give her if needed help and protection against enemies from the outside and the inside. The time of danger will make her more careful and just, but it is necessary for the people of Lower Canada to be ready to ask when this hour will arrive; this hour could resound soon, calmness could then be restored for a long time. If we do take advantage of the circumstances, then the Union will remain were it to be be declared impracticable by all and harmful to the interests of all indistinctly. Its maintenance would depend upon the will of the Master who, when he was strong, always showed himself to be little concerned for the just complaints of the weak. | It is time for the people to know all the evils that the Union did to him; it is time that we indicate those of which it is presently threatened; it is time for him to knows, that he measures its importance to request the end of it. If he is unanimous, it will not be refused to him. These events which unceasingly burst in Europe give him the guaranties of success. The French revolution is bound to transform the world. The English people, crushed under the double weight of his secular and religious aristocracies will perhaps also make an effort. This general conflagration will be able to reach England; it must follow or precede a revolutionary movement in Ireland: and what one can expect as more probable is a war between England and some continental power. With an exhausted treasury, for little that we asks it with energy, England will not be tempted to refuse us this act of justice just when it is known that in order to maintain a state of affairs not profitable to her, she will need forces and expenses which she could so easily avoid by making of all Lower Canada a colony which could give her if needed help and protection against enemies from the outside and the inside. The time of danger will make her more careful and just, but it is necessary for the people of Lower Canada to be ready to ask when this hour will arrive; this hour could resound soon, calmness could then be restored for a long time. If we do take advantage of the circumstances, then the Union will remain were it to be be declared impracticable by all and harmful to the interests of all indistinctly. Its maintenance would depend upon the will of the Master who, when he was strong, always showed himself to be little concerned for the just complaints of the weak. | ||
However, while informing the people of the evils caused by the Union and its inevitable effect, it is wise to say that we will always support a liberal ministry in power: because we need it today to repair the evils caused by its predecessors. Agitation can be done apart from ministerial policy: and until the people are unanimous and the circumstances favourable, we will put under the eyes of our readers all the most important facts on this act of spoliation, of annihilation, this kind of political theft that the century seems to want to repudiate and avenge everywhere today. It is time to express how much it weighs on us. Each day that is spent without drawing public attention to a subject which interests us so highly is a step towards the destruction of our nationality. We will take the initiative on this. We want to offer our weak help to ''Canadien'' nationality. Whatever little of merit we will have in the end is not important because we will have at least offered the first support, we will have highly proclaimed its name. | |||
We enter this path following a deep reflexion, with firmness, and without ulterior motive, because we are persuaded that this path is the only one that can make us reach our destination. We will not accuse any one of ours; we want the wellbeing and the salvation of all. To have a principle of life, a principle of salvation prevail, a question of existence for the French Canadians, here is the goal to which our conviction point us to, without any consideration being able to divert us from it, and that we will seek to attain until the last last hope escapes us. | |||
Once again we repeat it, nationality can unite a people; it can give him the life, the movement and the energy which he needs to thrive; the consequence is not for this nationality, because it is united, strong and activate to have bad intentions and be heinous: no, we believe that this nationality must unite all its members, we believe that nationality will be the banner under which we will walk, we are convinced of it. That those who awaited help, sympathy and collaboration from the French Canadians in this project of reform and progress be not frightened; the support that they received from isolated individuals, they will have it but more regularized, more continuous, more effectively from these same individuals united as a body. Those who know the ''Canadien'' character will certify what we claim on this matter. They will say by looking at the past, by considering the national character, that any liberty will find in its midst the cordial, frank and sincere hospitality, which the traveller and the foreigner have always found in our homes. | |||
==Notes and comments== | ==Notes and comments== | ||
Source : This is an unofficial translation of an editorial entitled ''L'union et la nationalité'' published in the newspaper ''L'Avenir'' on April 15 1848, as reproduced in ''Le rouge et le bleu. Une anthologie de la pensée politique au Québec de la Conquête à la Révolution tranquille.'' You can read the original French language article [[L'union et la nationalité|here]] | Source : This is an unofficial translation of an editorial entitled ''L'union et la nationalité'' published in the newspaper ''L'Avenir'' on April 15 1848, as reproduced in ''Le rouge et le bleu. Une anthologie de la pensée politique au Québec de la Conquête à la Révolution tranquille.'' You can read the original French language article [[L'union et la nationalité|here]] | ||