Reply of the Central and Permanent Committee of the County of Montreal to the Address of the London Working Men's Association: Difference between revisions
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
No edit summary |
No edit summary |
||
| Line 5: | Line 5: | ||
Your nation has always prided herself of the democracy which allowed her, in the course of long and hard battles, to preserve a freedom and a political power higher than those of her neighbours of Europe. We thus accept with gratitude the sympathy of a democracy animated by feelings so high and so just on the nature of government. | Your nation has always prided herself of the democracy which allowed her, in the course of long and hard battles, to preserve a freedom and a political power higher than those of her neighbours of Europe. We thus accept with gratitude the sympathy of a democracy animated by feelings so high and so just on the nature of government. | ||
[[Wikipedia:Aristocracy|Aristocracy]] is foreign for us. We do not share any principle in common with it. Thanks to the facility with which our ancestors could obtain fertile lands on an immense territory, thanks to our [[laws against the accumulation of hereditary fortunes]], almost all our population draws its subsistence from manual or intellectual work. We respect men for their good work; we scorn them for their misdeeds, no matter the merits of their fathers. We honour that one who makes two corn shoots germinate where only one grew before; that one who goes forward and makes the forest disappear in front of his steps. We scorn the idler who vegetates on the land and is satisfied to consume what men better than him have produced. The quite characteristic names of your various trades are more respectable to our eyes than the [[Wikipedia: | [[Wikipedia:Aristocracy|Aristocracy]] is foreign for us. We do not share any principle in common with it. Thanks to the facility with which our ancestors could obtain fertile lands on an immense territory, thanks to our [[laws against the accumulation of hereditary fortunes]], almost all our population draws its subsistence from manual or intellectual work. We respect men for their good work; we scorn them for their misdeeds, no matter the merits of their fathers. We honour that one who makes two corn shoots germinate where only one grew before; that one who goes forward and makes the forest disappear in front of his steps. We scorn the idler who vegetates on the land and is satisfied to consume what men better than him have produced. The quite characteristic names of your various trades are more respectable to our eyes than the [[Wikipedia:Hereditary title|pompous titles]], the oppressive privileges, and the laws against nature based on heredity, all things which were usurped and granted by the sovereigns and recorded at the office of armoury with the futile intention to create two orders of intelligence where nature only made one. | ||
We live in a hemisphere whose destiny is to see democracy being exercised and grow in complete freedom, far from an aristocracy, whose deep roots would exhaust the soil. The rare exotic elements of this tribe that were transplanted from another world fade and disappear from this land which offers no food to their order and on which the words "Equality of Rights" were engraved in eternal types as soon as it emerged from chaos. | We live in a hemisphere whose destiny is to see democracy being exercised and grow in complete freedom, far from an aristocracy, whose deep roots would exhaust the soil. The rare exotic elements of this tribe that were transplanted from another world fade and disappear from this land which offers no food to their order and on which the words "Equality of Rights" were engraved in eternal types as soon as it emerged from chaos. | ||
| Line 11: | Line 11: | ||
The indigenous Masters of the wild regions of America knew neither lords nor kings; they freely chose the most deserving as chief of the council and chief of war. When, fond of freedom, the [[Wikipedia:Pilgrims|pilgrims]] of England approached for the first time the desolated shores of [[Wikipedia:New England|New England]], they brought good seeds to a land which was already prepared to receive them and from where they would be propagated and borne fruit. And, although Europe undertook to confine its nations in various parts of this sanctuary, the corruptions which came in their wake disappeared under the intense light of these principles recognized, proclaimed and applied by a group of wise and virtuous democrats who faced and overcame the difficulties of their new colony, not for some reason related to wealth or by thirst for spoils, but to establish on more solid principles the science and the economy of government. | The indigenous Masters of the wild regions of America knew neither lords nor kings; they freely chose the most deserving as chief of the council and chief of war. When, fond of freedom, the [[Wikipedia:Pilgrims|pilgrims]] of England approached for the first time the desolated shores of [[Wikipedia:New England|New England]], they brought good seeds to a land which was already prepared to receive them and from where they would be propagated and borne fruit. And, although Europe undertook to confine its nations in various parts of this sanctuary, the corruptions which came in their wake disappeared under the intense light of these principles recognized, proclaimed and applied by a group of wise and virtuous democrats who faced and overcame the difficulties of their new colony, not for some reason related to wealth or by thirst for spoils, but to establish on more solid principles the science and the economy of government. | ||
For a long time united to you as subjects of the same sovereign, we too have felt the drying influence of an aristocracy, which, cherished in the Eastern hemisphere, was authorized, for our misfortune, to obstruct the Western hemisphere. Although we are confident that our democratic continent could not remain subjugated for long to a principle so disastrous and contrary to nature, we fear like you that the hereditary veneration towards certain families, the dangerous accumulation of immense fortunes in the hands of a few, and the corrupting practices of a government perverted by the distribution of favours, has so greatly wasted the benefit which the glorious [[Wikipedia:Magna Carta|charter of your rights]] should have given you that, undoubtedly, it will take years before you touch your ancestor's heritage of freedom to enjoy it fully. The accession of a [[Wikipedia:Queen Victoria|young queen]] to the throne created an occasion favourable to the renewal of the terms of the [[social contract]] and your [[contract of allegiance]]. Co-heirs with her of the institutions of your country - this country for whose defense you have poured your blood many times -, you have, by the persevering labour of your daily work, brought this country to the ridge of richness; and now, in the middle of this blinding splendour, the fruit of your untameable energy, one robs you trough unequal and unjust laws, one overburdens you with taxes, depriving to you of the bare essential, in order to insure abundance to an arrogant caste busy to hamper you in its snares, you who work honestly and conscientiously to create and maintain its immense fortune, which is at the same time its quota and the instrument of your political subjection. Although some of your acts, filled with the dignity which the conscience of one's own strength confers, were crowned with success, too often we had the sorrow to see some of your more valorous friends left behind in your recent elections, and a portion of the people behave like indifferent spectators, as consenting auxiliaries or servile mercenaries of one or the other of the aristocratic factions which dispute the privilege to hold you under their yoke, completely indifferent to your interests, except insofar as the reform of an abuse tends to strengthen their own power. | For a long time united to you as subjects of the same sovereign, we too have felt the drying influence of an aristocracy, which, cherished in the Eastern hemisphere, was authorized, for our misfortune, to obstruct the Western hemisphere. Although we are confident that our democratic continent could not remain subjugated for long to a principle so disastrous and contrary to nature, we fear like you that the hereditary veneration towards certain families, the dangerous accumulation of immense fortunes in the hands of a few, and the corrupting practices of a government perverted by the distribution of favours, has so greatly wasted the benefit which the glorious [[Wikipedia:Magna Carta|charter of your rights]] should have given you that, undoubtedly, it will take years before you touch your ancestor's heritage of freedom to enjoy it fully. The accession of a [[Wikipedia:Queen Victoria|young queen]] to the throne created an occasion favourable to the renewal of the terms of the [[Wikipedia:social contract|social contract]] and your [[Wikipedia:Oath of Allegiance (United Kingdom)|contract of allegiance]]. Co-heirs with her of the institutions of your country - this country for whose defense you have poured your blood many times -, you have, by the persevering labour of your daily work, brought this country to the ridge of richness; and now, in the middle of this blinding splendour, the fruit of your untameable energy, one robs you trough unequal and unjust laws, one overburdens you with taxes, depriving to you of the bare essential, in order to insure abundance to an arrogant caste busy to hamper you in its snares, you who work honestly and conscientiously to create and maintain its immense fortune, which is at the same time its quota and the instrument of your political subjection. Although some of your acts, filled with the dignity which the conscience of one's own strength confers, were crowned with success, too often we had the sorrow to see some of your more valorous friends left behind in your recent elections, and a portion of the people behave like indifferent spectators, as consenting auxiliaries or servile mercenaries of one or the other of the aristocratic factions which dispute the privilege to hold you under their yoke, completely indifferent to your interests, except insofar as the reform of an abuse tends to strengthen their own power. | ||
In the free exercise of the privileges which are recognized to us - to defend the dear rights which are guaranteed to us, we have held [[Wikipedia:List of the public meetings held in Lower Canada between May and November 1837|public meetings in our various counties]], as a preliminary step, in order to solemnly protest against an infamous violation of our fundamental powers. Conscious of our strength and our right, we treated with contempt the stupid [[proclamation]] emitted by an ignorant governor against such meetings. We hope that this lesson will be understood. We are confident it will prevent, in the future, here like elsewhere, any presumptuous attempt against the prerogatives of the people. We are happy that our prompt response to the attack of the [[British Parliament]] against our possessions has gained your approval. Did you consider how enormous is the responsibility which the people of our province are invested with towards all the [[British Empire]]? - Never the [[British cabinet]] could have had your Parliament adopt a monstrous measure in order to destroy the powers of a democracy, for sole purpose of hastening the payment of some ridiculous civil servants' wages, when this objective could have been achieved by simple and honest ways, if your aristocracy did not weave an impious plot against your own freedoms. One makes Lower Canada the theatre of this experience because it is believed that in spite of the constant abuses or the arbitrary exactions of which it is the victim, the majority of the population, being of French ascent, will not wake any sympathy among the English race which surrounds it. | In the free exercise of the privileges which are recognized to us - to defend the dear rights which are guaranteed to us, we have held [[Wikipedia:List of the public meetings held in Lower Canada between May and November 1837|public meetings in our various counties]], as a preliminary step, in order to solemnly protest against an infamous violation of our fundamental powers. Conscious of our strength and our right, we treated with contempt the stupid [[proclamation]] emitted by an ignorant governor against such meetings. We hope that this lesson will be understood. We are confident it will prevent, in the future, here like elsewhere, any presumptuous attempt against the prerogatives of the people. We are happy that our prompt response to the attack of the [[Wikipedia:British Parliament|British Parliament]] against our possessions has gained your approval. Did you consider how enormous is the responsibility which the people of our province are invested with towards all the [[Wikipedia:British Empire|British Empire]]? - Never the [[Wikipedia:British cabinet|British cabinet]] could have had your Parliament adopt a monstrous measure in order to destroy the powers of a democracy, for sole purpose of hastening the payment of some ridiculous civil servants' wages, when this objective could have been achieved by simple and honest ways, if your aristocracy did not weave an impious plot against your own freedoms. One makes Lower Canada the theatre of this experience because it is believed that in spite of the constant abuses or the arbitrary exactions of which it is the victim, the majority of the population, being of French ascent, will not wake any sympathy among the English race which surrounds it. | ||
The conscience of baring this heavy responsibility, far from discouraging us, reinvigorates us, because we know that, from one end to another of the Empire, all the energetic and free minds follow our courageous fight with the greatest of interest - send us their wishes and wish to see us successfully defend the rights of all. For our part, you can be sure of it, we are determined never to subject to the usurping intentions of the ministry - never to live in being an object of derision for the whole world, as a people, more ignorant than slaves being traded, that would let their birth right be taken away, thus creating a precedent so that a similar aggression is perpetrated against the freedoms of their brothers in all the other colonies of the Empire. | The conscience of baring this heavy responsibility, far from discouraging us, reinvigorates us, because we know that, from one end to another of the Empire, all the energetic and free minds follow our courageous fight with the greatest of interest - send us their wishes and wish to see us successfully defend the rights of all. For our part, you can be sure of it, we are determined never to subject to the usurping intentions of the ministry - never to live in being an object of derision for the whole world, as a people, more ignorant than slaves being traded, that would let their birth right be taken away, thus creating a precedent so that a similar aggression is perpetrated against the freedoms of their brothers in all the other colonies of the Empire. | ||
| Line 31: | Line 31: | ||
[[RAYMOND PLESSIS]], Chairman <br /> | [[RAYMOND PLESSIS]], Chairman <br /> | ||
L.-J. PAPINEAU <br /> | L.-J. PAPINEAU <br /> | ||
[ | [http://www.biographi.ca/EN/ShowBio.asp?BioId=37463 C.-H. CÔTÉ] <br /> | ||
[[JOSEPH LE TOURNEUX]] <br /> | [[JOSEPH LE TOURNEUX]] <br /> | ||
[[PIERRE CADIEUX]] <br /> | [[PIERRE CADIEUX]] <br /> | ||
[ | [http://www.biographi.ca/EN/ShowBio.asp?BioId=41660 CHAMILLY DE LORIMIER] <br /> | ||
[ | [http://www.biographi.ca/EN/ShowBio.asp?BioId=38235 ANDRÉ OUIMET] <br /> | ||
[[J. PHELAN]] <br /> | [[J. PHELAN]] <br /> | ||
[[C.-O. PERRAULT]] <br /> | [[C.-O. PERRAULT]] <br /> | ||
[[E. B. O'CALLAGHAN]] <br /> | [[Wikipedia:Edmund Bailey O'Callaghan|E. B. O'CALLAGHAN]] <br /> | ||
[[ROBERT NELSON]] <br /> | [[Wikipedia:Robert Nelson|ROBERT NELSON]] <br /> | ||
[[J. BOULANGET]] <br /> | [[J. BOULANGET]] <br /> | ||
[ | [http://www.biographi.ca/EN/ShowBio.asp?BioId=38776 LOUIS PERRAULT] <br /> | ||
[[W. GALT]] <br /> | [[W. GALT]] <br /> | ||
[ | [http://www.biographi.ca/EN/ShowBio.asp?BioId=38028 E.-R. FABRE] <br /> | ||
[[T. S. BROWN]] <br /> | [[Wikipedia:Thomas Storrow Brown|T. S. BROWN]] <br /> | ||
[[E.-N. DUCHESNOIS]] <br /> | [[E.-N. DUCHESNOIS]] <br /> | ||
[ | [http://www.biographi.ca/EN/ShowBio.asp?BioId=38415 JOSHUA BELL] <br /> | ||
[[CHEVALIER DE LORIMIER]], Secretary <br /> | [[Wikipedia:François-Marie-Thomas Chevalier de Lorimier|CHEVALIER DE LORIMIER]], Secretary <br /> | ||
[[GEORGE-ÉTIENNE CARTIER]], Secretary <br /> | [[Wikipedia:George-Étienne Cartier|GEORGE-ÉTIENNE CARTIER]], Secretary <br /> | ||
{{GFDL}} | {{GFDL}} | ||