The Union and Nationality: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 04:22, 30 January 2011

The Union and Nationality

Editorial

in L'Avenir, April 15, 1848

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. 1760-1960 by Yvan Lamonde and Claude Corbo, October 1999, 584 pages ISBN 2-7606-1747-5 You can read the original French language article here.

*L'Avenir* of Montreal, special edition of March 18, 1848 reporting on the Revolution then simultaneously occurring in France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Austria and Roumania

For a long time compressed and choked in the name of public interest, the attachment to the nationality which characterizes us, seemed destined to become one of those prejudices which we can hold dear to the heart, but that reason proscribes as a weakness, an error of feeling. Nobody dared to claim [anything] in its name, by interest for a position which we had been led to by a succession of unhappy events; a position considered to be to our advantage, when all the benefits which could result from it were to be obtained at the sole condition of not giving any sign of life as a nationality. It was regarded as an acknowledged obstacle to obtaining political rights; it was necessary to get rid of it, to make abstraction of it, to sacrifice it even; to no longer consider ourselves French Canadians if we wanted to be something in this system of social organization; and thus, under the pretext of merging it, we drowned it in liberalism. The principle of nationality ceasing to be in honour, since we repudiated it by interest, was thus set to be weakened, to lose its moral fibre and soon end up being erased completely. So during nearly ten years, we saw even its name forgotten, and its sleep became so deep that its existence appeared null.

For as long as this state of affairs subsisted, the people of Lower Canada seemed stricken by a complete numbness which paralysed the public spirit. This torpor would still exist if it had not been for the alarm cry fortunately uttered by generous men, friends of their country and devoted to their nationality. They dared to break the silence in spite of its depth, to raise their voice and revive the memory of this nationality, by preaching a doctrine tending directly to its conservation. Why was it not done earlier. Why? Because there were interests imposing silence to us with threatening gestures; because the expectancy of a still dubious political wellbeing turned us timorous, under the pseudonym of careful; and the bad consequences required our national death to later obtain advantages from it, in exchange of this constitutional political freedom that we had so expensively bought along with it. The Union caused us incalculable evils, it weighs on our existence. Allured, amused to some extent by the details, we for a long time lost sight of the goal of this measure which nevertheless revealed itself day by day in this invasion of foreign ideas and institutions on top of our ideas and our institutions; which each day rendered the first desirable in the middle of this confusion of institutions, perfect maze of laws, manners and language; which by imposing a dual nationality to us, tended to make one necessary and the other one useless, that is to say, to make us lose ours by undergoing the other. Such indeed was the success of this machiavellic work. The Union was made with the goal of losing us and indeed loses us.

Subjected to the idea of the impossibility for us to ever see it destroyed, one is able to conceive the resignation, one can imagine the utility, the need for laissez-faire and silence; one can wish that this national death arrives lengthily, indirectly, and it is even conceivable that a people could be in such a position as to participate in the process, like a suicide in a state of hopeless sorrow; but what one cannot conceive, is for this state to be regarded as the best, the most desirable by those who are the victims of it, when one can find a means of returning life to this nationality, were it just for one more century; what one cannot conceive is that there be men who prefer the fusion, the death of this nationality to enjoy the pleasure of being reborn and resurrected in a foreign nationality.

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 someone rightfully said the silence of a people is death.

Flag of Poland, flown since 1831, official since 1919

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 that 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 to 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 them; it is time that we indicate those that they are presently threatened by; it is time for them to knows, that they measure its importance to request its end. If they are unanimous, it will not be refused to them. These events which unceasingly burst in Europe give them guaranties of success. The French revolution is bound to transform the world. The English people, crushed underneath the double weight of their secular and religious aristocracies will perhaps make an effort also. This general conflagration will be able to reach England; it must follow or precede a revolutionary movement in Ireland: and what we can expect as more probable is a war between England and some continental power. With an exhausted treasury, for little that we ask it with energy, England will not be tempted to refuse us this act of justice when it is well-known that in order to maintain a state of affairs not profitable to her, she will need forces and expenses that 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, peace could then be restored for a long time. If we do not take advantage of the circumstances, then the Union will remain, were it to be be declared impracticable 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.

That said, while informing the people of the evils caused by the Union and its inevitable effect, it is wise to also say that we will always support a liberal ministry in power: because we need it today in order 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 support to the nationalité canadienne. Whatever little merit we will have had in the end is not important because we will have at least offered the first support, we will have proclaimed its name highly.

We enter this path after 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 our own; 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 points us to, without any consideration being able to divert us from it, and that we will seek to attain until the last hope escapes us.

Once again we repeat it, nationality can unite a people; it can give them the life, the movement and the energy which they need to thrive; the consequence is not for this nationality, because it is united, strong and active, to have bad intentions and to 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 effective, 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.

This text is licensed under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.

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-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]]
+{{title|The Union and Nationality|Editorial|in ''L'Avenir'', April 15, 1848}}
 ----
-For a long time compressed, choked in the name of public interest, the attachment to the nationality which characterizes us, seemed destined to become one of those prejudices which we can hold dear to the heart, but that reason had to proscribe as a weakness, an error of feeling. Nobody dared to claim in its name, by the interest for a position to which we had been led by a succession of unhappy events; a positition considered to be advantageous for us, when all the advantages which could result from it were to be obtained at the sole condition of not giving any sign of life as a nationality. It was regarded as an acknowledged obstacle to obtaining political rights; it was necessary get rid it, to make abstraction of it, to sacrifice it even; to no longer considered ourselfves French Canadians if we wanted to be something in this system of social organization; and thus, under pretext of merging it, we downed it in liberalism. The principle of nationality ceasing to be in honour, since we repudiated it by interest, was thus to be weakened, to lose its moral fibre and soone end up being erased completely. So during nearly ten years we saw even its name forgotten, and its sleep was became so deep that its existence appeared null.
+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. 1760-1960'' by Yvan Lamonde and Claude Corbo, October 1999, 584 pages ISBN 2-7606-1747-5 You can read the original French language article [[biblio:L'union et la nationalité|here]].
+----
+[[Image:L-avenir-montreal.jpg|thumb|''L'Avenir'' of Montreal, special edition of March 18, 1848 reporting on the Revolution then simultaneously occurring in France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Austria and Roumania]]For a long time compressed and choked in the name of [[Wikipedia:Public interest|public interest]], the attachment to the [[Wikipedia:Nationality|nationality]] which characterizes us, seemed destined to become one of those prejudices which we can hold dear to the heart, but that reason proscribes as a weakness, an error of feeling. Nobody dared to claim [anything] in its name, by interest for a position which we had been led to by a succession of unhappy events; a position considered to be to our advantage, when all the benefits which could result from it were to be obtained at the sole condition of not giving any sign of life as a nationality. It was regarded as an acknowledged obstacle to obtaining [[Wikipedia:Civil rights|political rights]]; it was necessary to get rid of it, to make abstraction of it, to sacrifice it even; to no longer consider ourselves French Canadians if we wanted to be something in this system of social organization; and thus, under the pretext of merging it, we drowned it in [[Wikipedia:Liberalism|liberalism]]. The principle of nationality ceasing to be in honour, since we repudiated it by interest, was thus set to be weakened, to lose its moral fibre and soon end up being erased completely. So during nearly ten years, we saw even its name forgotten, and its sleep became so deep that its existence appeared null.
-Tant que subsista cet état de choses le peuple du Bas-Canada sembla saisi d'un engourdissement général qui paralysait chez tous l'esprit public. Cette torpeur existerait encore sans le cri de réveil heureusement poussé par des hommes généreux, amis de leur pays et dévoués à leur nationalité. Ils ont osé rompre le silence malgré sa profondeur pour élever la voix et ranimer le souvenir de cette nationalité, en prêchant une doctrine qui tendait directement à sa conservation. Pourquoi ne l'a-t-on pas fait plus tôt. Pourquoi? Parce qu'il y avait des intérêts qui imposaient silence d'un geste menaçant; parce que l'expectative d'un bien-être politique toujours incertain nous rendait timorés, ous le pseudonyme de prudents; et les mauvaises conséquences pour en obtenir plus tard les avantages demandait notre mort nationale en échange de cette liberté politique constitutionnelle que nous avions si chèrement achetée avec elle. L'Union nous a causé des mots incalculables, elle pèse sur notre existence. Séduits, amusés en quelque sorte par les détails, nous avons pendant longtemps perdu de vue le but de cette mesure qui se révélait cependant tous les jours par cet envahissement d'idées et d'institutions étrangères sur nos idées et nos institutions; qui rendait chaque jour les premières désirables au milieu de cette confusion d'institutions, parfait dédale de lois, de moeurs et de langage qui nous imposant une double nationalité, tendait à rendre l'une nécessaire, l'autre inutile, c'est-à-dire à nous faire perdre la nôtre en subissant l'autre. Tel en effet fut le succès de cette oeuvre machiavélique. L'Union fut faite dans le but de nous perdre et nous perd évidemment.
+For as long as this state of affairs subsisted, the people of [[Wikipedia:Lower Canada|Lower Canada]] seemed stricken by a complete numbness which paralysed the public spirit. This torpor would still exist if it had not been for the alarm cry fortunately uttered by generous men, friends of their country and devoted to their nationality. They dared to break the silence in spite of its depth, to raise their voice and revive the memory of this nationality, by preaching a doctrine tending directly to its conservation. Why was it not done earlier. Why? Because there were interests imposing silence to us with threatening gestures; because the expectancy of a still dubious political wellbeing turned us timorous, under the pseudonym of careful; and the bad consequences required our national death to later obtain advantages from it, in exchange of this constitutional political freedom that we had so expensively bought along with it. The [[Wikipedia:Act of Union 1840|Union]] caused us incalculable evils, it weighs on our existence. Allured, amused to some extent by the details, we for a long time lost sight of the goal of this measure which nevertheless revealed itself day by day in this invasion of foreign ideas and institutions on top of our ideas and our institutions; which each day rendered the first desirable in the middle of this confusion of institutions, perfect maze of laws, manners and language; which by imposing a dual nationality to us, tended to make one necessary and the other one useless, that is to say, to make us lose ours by undergoing the other. Such indeed was the success of this machiavellic work. The Union was made with the goal of losing us and indeed loses us.
-Soumis à cette idée d'impossibilité pour nous de la voir jamais détruite, on peut concevoir la résignation, on peut imaginer l'utilité, la nécessité du laisser-faire, du silence; on peut désirer que cette mort nationale nous arrive longuement, indirectement, et même on conçoit qu'un peuple puisse dans une telle position mettre la main à l'oeuvre, comme le suicide dans un état de peine sans espoir; mais ce qu'on ne peut concevoir, c'est que cet état soit considéré comme le meilleur, le plus désirable par ceux mêmes qui en sont victimes, lorsqu'on peut trouver un moyen de rendre la vie à cette nationalité, ne fût-ce que la vie d'un siècle; ce qu'on ne peut concevoir, c'est qu'il se trouve de ces hommes qui préfèrent la fusion, la mort de cette nationalité pour avoir le plaisir de revivre et de ressuciter dans une nationalité étrangère.
+Subjected to the idea of the impossibility for us to ever see it destroyed, one is able to conceive the resignation, one can imagine the utility, the need for laissez-faire and silence; one can wish that this national death arrives lengthily, indirectly, and it is even conceivable that a people could be in such a position as to participate in the process, like a suicide in a state of hopeless sorrow; but what one cannot conceive, is for this state to be regarded as the best, the most desirable by those who are the victims of it, when one can find a means of returning life to this nationality, were it just for one more century; what one cannot conceive is that there be men who prefer the fusion, the death of this nationality to enjoy the pleasure of being reborn and resurrected in a foreign nationality.
-La question de l'Union se pose ainsi: voulez-vous l'Union avec tous ses avantages au prix de la perte de votre nationalité? Car la condition qu'elle ne soit jamais un principe d'action publique, est qu'elle s'endorme complètement, et c'est là vouloir qu'elle meure. La nationalité est le principe de vie des peuples et quelqu'un l'a dit avec vérité, le silence d'un peuple, c'est la mort.
+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 someone rightfully said the silence of a people is death.
-N'y a-t-il pas raison de s'étonner qu'il se trouve des hommes parmi nous, des hommes qui veulent maintenir un état de choses aussi destructif de notre vie comme peuple. Mais nous dira-t-on, vous allez réveiller les antipathies, les haines nationales. De grâce, dites-leur donc à ces cent mille de taire leurs préjugés plutôt que de faire taire les justes réclamations de six cent mille. Nous ne voulons qu'une chose: la conservation de nos institutions, de notre langue, de nos lois, de nos moeurs. Se trouve-t-il là quelque chose qui puisse irriter les susceptibilités nationales d'un honnête homme de bon sens? Pour obtenir cela, pouvons-nous ne pas respecter les nationalités et les moeurs étrangères aux autres? Toute l'histoire de nos luttes avec cette faction ennemie qui nous opprima si longtemps pour détruire cette nationalité, son éternel cauchemar, ne peut-elle pas se résumer par cette devise de la nationalité polonaise, liberté pour nous, liberté pour vous? D'ailleurs, serait-il décent que six cent mille individus demandassent à cent mille de leur enseigner leur langue, de leur imposer des institutions parce que parmi ces cent mille sont des criailleurs qui veulent se croire opprimés dès qu'ils ne sont plus oppresseurs? Ce ne sont pas là des considérations qui doivent nous faire taire nos principes.
+[[Image:Flag-of-poland.jpg|thumb|left|Flag of Poland, flown since 1831, official since 1919]]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 that oppressed us for so long to destroy this nationality, its eternal nightmare, be summed up in this motto of [[Wikipedia:Poland|Polish nationality]], "freedom for us, freedom for you"? Moreover, would it be decent for six hundred thousand individuals to 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.
-Il est temps que le peuple connaisse tous ces maux quie lui a faits l'Union; il est temps qu'on lui indique ceux dont il est menacé; il est temps qu'il en connaisse, qu'il en mesure toute la grandeur pour en demander la fin. S'il est unanime on ne la lui refusera pas. Ces événements qui éclatent sans cesse en Europe lui donnent des garanties de succès. La révolution française doit bouleverser le monde. Le peuple anglais écrasé sous le double poids de son aristocratie laïque et religieuse fera, lui aussi peut-être, un effort. Cette conflagration générale pourra atteindre l'Angleterre; elle doit suivre ou précéder un mouvement révolutionnaire en Irlande: et ce qu'on peut attendre de plus probable, c'est une guerre entre l'Angleterre et quelque puissance continentale. Avec un trésor épuisé, pour peu qu'on demande avec énergie, l'Angleterre ne sera pas tentée de nous refuser cet acte de justice lorsque, pour maintenir cet état de choses sans profit pour elle, il lui faudra des forces et des dépenses qu'elle pourrait si facilement éviter en faisant de tout le Bas-Canada une colonie qui pourrait lui donner au besoin aide, protection contre les ennemis du dehors et du dedans. L'heure du danger la rendra plus prudente et juste, mais il faut que le peuple du Bas-Canada puisse être prêt à demander lorsque cette heure arrivera; elle peut sonner bientôt, le calme peut ensuite se rétablir pour longtemps. Si nous ne savons pas profiter des circonstances, alors l'Union restera lors même qu'elle serait déclarée par tous impraticable, nuisible aux intérêts de tous indistinctement. Son maintien dépendrait de la volonté du maître qui, lorsqu'il est fort, s'est toujours montré peu soucieux des justes réclamations des faibles.
+It is time for the people to know all the evils that the Union did to them; it is time that we indicate those that they are presently threatened by; it is time for them to knows, that they measure its importance to request its end. If they are unanimous, it will not be refused to them. These events which unceasingly burst in Europe give them guaranties of success. The [[Wikipedia:French revolution|French revolution]] is bound to transform the world. The English people, crushed underneath the double weight of their secular and religious [[Wikipedia:aristocracy|aristocracies]] will perhaps make an effort also. This general conflagration will be able to reach England; it must follow or precede a [[Wikipedia:Irish Republicanism|revolutionary movement in Ireland]]: and what we can expect as more probable is a war between England and some continental power. With an exhausted treasury, for little that we ask it with energy, England will not be tempted to refuse us this act of justice when it is well-known that in order to maintain a state of affairs not profitable to her, she will need forces and expenses that 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, peace could then be restored for a long time. If we do not take advantage of the circumstances, then the Union will remain, were it to be be declared impracticable 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.
-Mais cependant, tout en instruisant le peuple des maux causés par l'Union et son effet inévitable, il est bon de dire que nous appuierons toujours un ministère libéral au pouvoir: car nous en avons besoin aujourd'hui pour réparer les maux causés par ses prédécesseurs. L'agitation peut se faire en dehors de la politique ministérielle: et jusqu'à ce que le peuple soit unanime et la circonstance favorable, nous mettrons sous les yeux de nos lecteurs tous les faits les plus importants sur cet acte de spoliation de l'annihilation à la fois, espèce de brigandage politique que le siècle semble vouloir répudier et venger partout aujourd'hui. Il est temps de faire sentir et d'exprimer combien il nous pèse. Chaque jour passé sans attirer l'attention publique sur un sujet qui l'intéresse aussi vivement est un pas vers l'anéantissement de notre nationalité. Nous prendrons l'initative. Nous voulons offrir notre faible secours à la nationalité canadienne. Quel que soit d'ailleurs notre peu de mérite nous aurons au moins celui d'avoir offert le premier appui, d'avoir hautement proclamé son nom.
+That said, while informing the people of the evils caused by the Union and its inevitable effect, it is wise to also say that we will always support a liberal ministry in power: because we need it today in order 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 support to the ''nationalité canadienne''. Whatever little merit we will have had in the end is not important because we will have at least offered the first support, we will have proclaimed its name highly.
-Nous entrons dans cette voie après mûre réflexion, avec fermeté, et sans arrière-pensée, parce que nuos sommes persuadés qu'elle est la seule qui puisse mener à bon port. Nous n'incriminerons aucun des nôtres; nous voulons le bien-être et le salut de tous. Faire prévaloir un principe de vie, principe de salut, question d'existence pour les Canadiens Français, voilà le but auquel la conviction nous fait tendre, sans qu'aucune considération puisse nous en détourner, et que nous chercherons à atteindre jusqu'à ce que la dernière planche de salut nous échappe.
+We enter this path after 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 our own; 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 points us to, without any consideration being able to divert us from it, and that we will seek to attain until the last hope escapes us.
-Encore une fois nous le répétons, la nationalité peut unir un peuple; elle peut lui donner la vie, le mouvement et l'énergie dont il a besoin pour prospérer; la conséquence n'est pas que cette nationalité, parce qu'elle est unie, forte et active soit mal intentionnée, mal disposée et haineuse: non, nous croyons que la nationalité doit unir tous ses membres, nous croyons que la nationalité sear la bannière sous laquelle nous marcherons, nous en sommes convaincus. Que ceux qui attendaient des Canadiens Français aide, sympathie, concours dans cette oeuvre de la réforme et du progrès ne s'effraient pas; l'appui qu'ils recevaient d'individus isolés, ils l'auront mais plus régularisé, plus continu, plus efficace, de ces mêmes individus unis en corps. Ceux qui connaissent le caractère canadien certifieront ce que nous avançons sur ce sujet. Ils diront en regardant le passé, en considérant le caractère de nationalité, que toute liberté trouvera chez elle l'hospitalité cordiale, franche et sincère, que le voyageur et l'étranger ont toujours trouvé dans nos foyers.
+Once again we repeat it, nationality can unite a people; it can give them the life, the movement and the energy which they need to thrive; the consequence is not for this nationality, because it is united, strong and active, to have bad intentions and to 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 effective, 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==
+{{GFDL}}
-Source : Editorial of the newspaper ''L'Avenir'', 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.''
+[[Category:Press articles]]
+[[Category:Translations]]
+[[Category:19th century]]
+[[Category:1848]]
+[[Category:2007]]

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