Brief Sketch of the Life and Times of the Hon. Louis Joseph Papineau: Difference between revisions

In 1818 he was united in what proved to be the happiest of marriages, with Mademoiselle [[Wikipedia:Julie Papineau|Julie Bruneau]], eldest daughter of [[Wikipedia:Pierre Bruneau|Pierre Bruneau]], Esq., merchant, of Quebec, and member of Parliament for that city. Superior in intellect and education and personal attractions, endowed with a rare prudence, she was through life the best wives and the best of mothers. A true woman, neither too forward nor too retiring, a devoted companion and wise counsellor, sympathizing in every thought of her husband, his ideas were her ideas, his friends her friends. With admiration for his character, and full faith in his future, she clung closely to him during his stormy parliamentary career, followed him cheerfully in exile to endure its privations, and, when domiciled in his [[Ottawa]] retreat, she was there rejoicing in his relief from cares, and continuing to exhibit with him, as they had from the beginning, a most perfect example of all that is excellent and to be admired in every relation of married life. Happily she lived till the storms had passed away, and their sacrifices were unfelt, to enjoy a new year's quiet repose and tranquillity in their last home, where she was the idol of her affections privileged to that rest and dignified leisure for which his soul had long yearned, with those cherished companions - the books of his favourite authors - around him. At [[Wikipedia:Montebello, Quebec|Monte-Bello]], on the 18th August, 1862, when apparently in her usual excellent health, surrounded by her children and grandchildren, she was suddenly stricken down, and after half and hour's illness, calmly her spirit winged its departure from a world that her whole life had so adored.

In 1822, Mr. [[Wikipedia:Edward Ellice (merchant)|Edward Ellice]] would, unknown to the people, have rushed a bill through the British Parliament, for uniting the two provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, had not Mr. [[Parker]], a retired Canadian merchant, not for any love for Canada, but in mortal hate to Mr. Ellice, for some old trick in trade between them, caused an opposition to be made, which gave time for Lower Canada to depute Mr. Papineau and [[Wikipedia:John Neilson|John Neilson]] to London, with the signature of sixty thousand people, and their representations, aided by Sir [[Wikipedia:James Mackintosh|James Mackintosh]] and Sir [[Wikipedia:Francis Burdett|Francis Burdett]], the project was abandoned.  

The session of Parliament meeting in September, 1836, was opened by Lord Gosford with a speech, vague and meaningless, except in showing that no determined attention had been given by the Colonial Office to Canadian complaints. This could be endured no longer. Fourteen years of neglect, procrastinations, prevarications, and delusions, carrying trifling beyond all limits, had exhausted all patience, and the Assembly, rising in their dignity, in the name of an insulted people, replied to the [[address]] (3d October, 1836) that they should adjourn their deliberations until his Majesty's Government should by its acts commence the great work of justice and reform; until grievances were in progress of redress, they would listen to no demand for supplies. This Parliament was prorogued at the end at the end of thirteen days - not one bill having been passed.

Though the word is familiar to us, future historians may hardly admit that there ever was a Lower Canada rebellion, and the whole record may be reduced  to read that the proceedings of the Colonial Office, in 1837, caused such excitement that towards the end of the year Lord Gosford, fearing a revolt, directed the [[Wikipedia:Attorney General|Attorney-General]] to obtain warrants for high treason against several leading men, which the judges, there not being sufficient grounds of action, would not grant; and recourse was then had to the weak instrumentality of two magistrates. Many arrests were made of persons against whom there was no charge; many escaped them by going to the United States. Three persons only - Doctor [[Wikipedia:Wolfred Nelson|Nelson]] at St. Denis, [[Wikipedia:Thomas Storrow Brown|T. S. Brown]] at St. Charles, and Doctor [[Wikipedia:Jean-Olivier Chénier|Chénier]] at [[Wikipedia:Saint-Eustache, Quebec|St. Eustache]] - headed resistance to these illegal warrants, which ended speedily in the dispersion of their adherents. Elsewhere, men where quietly pursuing their usual course of life, employed in their usual occupations.

In the so-called Rebellion, his responsibility was only that of one among many. The people, educated by him to a consciousness of their right to a government giving them the control of their own affairs, had become bold in their determination to accept nothing less, and he in 1837 had become less a leader than one marching with or impelled by them. Nothing with him was hidden or private. For his public teachings only was he responsible; and what were they? They may be found in the published speech made by him at the great [[meeting of the county of Montreal]], in May 1837, and speeches at many county meetings held in that year, ending with the [[meeting of the five counties at St. Charles]], on the 23d October. From hence to below Quebec, east and west, county meetings were held, and the roads he traversed from parish to parish were thronged with the populace; houses by the way-side were draped with flowers and flags; miles in length on horseback and in carriages escorted his march. But they were peaceful ovations; there were few symbols of war, and multitudes gathered round when he spoke, listening for hours to his eloquence; and what were his teachings? The people were exhorted to continue firm in support of their representatives in Parliament, with a new instruction to promote non-intercourse with Great Britain, by ceasing as far as possible from the use of her products, and to abstain as far as possible from the use of all duty-paying articles, to diminish by such sacrifices a revenue that was only paid to be stolen. The world would then see the earnestness of determination, and the British people be aroused to the danger of longer neglecting their remonstrances. This, with all right and justice on his side, he deemed sufficient to insure in the end the desired results; never advocating armed resistance or sanctioning arming or military preparations. At an important meeting of the principle men of his party, held in a previous year, one of the greatest influence (he soon after went over to Lord Gosford), who proposed as the most effectual measure of redress the purchase of twenty stand of arms, was at once put down by Mr. Papineau. In the summer of 1837, he severely reprimanded the writer of this article for making quiet inquiries in New York about the purchase of muskets. With the organization of the "[[Sons of Liberty]]", whose daring proceeding tended so much to bring on the final crisis, neither he nor any man of long prominent political standing, or member of Parliament, was concerned. The young men, rank and file of the party in Montreal, tired of the timid councils of the older, organized, not so much for immediate action as for the future defense of their political chiefs, who dreaded precipitancy and indiscretions, and few offered any encouragement; though recognition was forced upon them when it reached a sudden importance, and was hailed by the popular voice as a new power.

In 1839, Mr. Papineau visited France, where he remained till 1847 [''sic''], in quiet life, devoting himself to studies that were made most interesting by the intellectual treasures at his command, especially in all things relating to the earlier history of Canada, and to the society of congenial spirits, who so abound in Paris. A ''nolle prosequi'' in his case, unsolicited by him, entered in the court of Montreal in 1843,(t) and rightly too; for the information and proceedings on which a warrant for his arrest had been issued, and one thousand pounds reward offered for his capture, must have been contemptible in the extreme. The whole record would be interesting for publication now; but it was removed from the archives of the court here, and possibly destroyed by those who saw the shame such outrageous proceedings brought upon their party.

This left him in law precisely where he stood before the proceedings against him were instituted. Here was an acknowledgement that there had never been grounds for action. There was nothing to pardon, nothing to require [[amnesty]]. He had been driven into exile, with a price on his head, only to be told at the end of six years that the authorities were all in the wrong. Though free to return to the country when he pleased - safe from molestation - he only came four years afterwards. Four years of salary as Speaker of the House of Assembly, which in past years he refused to accept from the Governor, stood at his credit in the books of the Province, and was of right paid to him.

Small reasoners have spoken of Mr. Papineau as one possessed of no administrative or practical ideas of government, but a turbulent orator, impracticable and obstructive, excelling only in opposition or the work of demolition, and incapable to construct or to improve.  

To appreciate the magnitude of reform for which the subjects of Great Britain are indebted to this iron will and undaunted determination, the present generation must be told of British colonies scattered everywhere upon the earth's surface, each with a so-called constitutional government, composed, as modelled upon the home system, of an "Assembly," to correspond with the "Commons;" "Legislative Council," to correspond with the "Lords;" and some old military officer as Governor, to correspond with the "King." In theory this was a free government, but in early days the garrison was law to a colony as it is today to a village, and the people willingly permitted Governors, mere puppets in the hands of councillors and officials, to rule as arbitrarily as the Governor of a Spanish dependency, who was " ''Jeneral de los Reales Exereillos, Gobernador politico y Militar de la ____ ____ y sus Provincias, y  Gefe de la Real Hacienda.'' ". *

== Author's Notes ==

* Landing at St. Charles on the 18th November, I had not seen nor heard of Mr. Papineau for two weeks, and knew nothing of his whereabouts, when, by a singular coincidence, I met him and Doctor Wolfred Nelson on the bank. They were from St. Denis, and at that exact moment were passing up to St. Mathias. He visited me after I was established; but neither counselled nor advised, for I wished him to be free from all implication with what I supposed would be a general uprising of the people, that he would neither arrest or control, and in reserve for negotiations with the authorities, that I thought would follow. When parties, with whom I had no connection, organized an invasion of Canada in the winter of 1838, I went to Albany purposely to learn his opinion, and found that all was done without his concurrence or knowledge or approval. I found him, moreover, surrounded by personal friends of President Van Buren - the then rulers of New York - who, determined on the enforcement of neutrality laws to prevent misunderstandings with Great Britain, were directly opposed to such movements. - T.S.B.