Resolutions of the Berthier Meeting: Difference between revisions

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The following was resolutions appeared in ''La Minerve'' on June 22, 1837 and were reproduced in the book ''Assemblées publiques, résolutions et déclarations de 1837-1838'', texts collected and presented by Jean-Paul Bertrand, Montréal, VLB Éditeur et l'Union des écrivains québécois, 1988, 304 p. ISBN 2-89005-313-X
{{title|Resolutions of the Berthier Meeting|British Subjects (Patriots)|June 18, 1837<br /><br />Translated in July 2007 by [http://www.marxists.org/admin/volunteers/biographies/mabidor.htm Meir Avidor] from:<br /><br />''[[biblio:Résolutions de l'assemblée de Berthier|Résolutions de l'assemblée de Berthier]]''|}}
 
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The following resolutions appeared in ''La Minerve'' on June 22, 1837 and were reproduced in the book ''Assemblées publiques, résolutions et déclarations de 1837-1838'', texts collected and presented by Jean-Paul Bertrand, Montréal, VLB Éditeur et l'Union des écrivains québécois, 1988, 304 p. ISBN 2-89005-313-X.
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Sur motion d'Alexis Mousseau, écuyer, M. P. P., secondée par M. Joseph Beaupré de la Valtrie.


<blockquote>RESOLVED, 1 : Que l'assemblée générale de ce comté a été convoquée, afin de manifester nos protestations solennelles et unanimes contre les mesures inconstitutionnelles et tyranniques récemment portées contre nous par les ministres de la couronne devant le parlement de la Grande-Bretagne et d'Irlande où elles ont été appuyées par de grandes majorités Whigs et Tories, que nous voyons étroitement liguées en une alliance peu naturelle, pour la destruction de droits coloniaux certains et consacrés par la lettre du statut déclaratoire de la 18me. année de George trois. Que ces mesures, si l'on y persiste et si le peuple s'y soumettait servilement, auraient l'effet de ruiner et de réduire à un honteux esclavage cette colonie d'abord, mais bientôt après étendraient leurs ravages destructeurs dans toutes les autres colonies britanniques, si dans aucun temps et dans aucune circonstance que ce fût, leurs représentants osaient avoir recours à l'usage légitime du pouvoir que jusqu'à ce jour l'on avait reconnu leur appartenir, de retenir l'octroi de subsides, pour assurer la réforme d'abus reconnus et flagrants.</blockquote>
On the motion of Alexis Mousseau, Esq., MPP, seconded by M. Joseph Beaupré of La Valtrie.


Sur motion de Norbert Eno, ecr., M. P. P., secondée par D. M. Armstrong, écuyer.
Resolved, 1: That the general meeting of this county was convoked in order to demonstrate our solemn and universal protest against the unconstitutional and tyrannical measures recently carried against us by the ministers of the Crown before the Parliament of Great Britain and Ireland, where they were supported by large Whig and Tory majorities, who we see tightly leagued in an unnatural alliance for the destruction of the sure and consecrated colonial rights consecrated by the letter of the declaratory statute of the 18th year of George III. That these measures, if they are persisted in and if the people were to submit to them in a servile manner, would ruin and reduce to a shameful slavery first this colony, but would soon after extend their destructive ravages to all the other British colonies if at any time or in any circumstances their representatives were to dare have recourse to the legitimate power that up till now had been recognized to be theirs, to maintain the granting of subsidies and to assure the reform of recognized and flagrant abuses.


<blockquote>RESOLVED, 2 : Que cette assemblée maintient que les représentants de cette province y doivent être de fait, comme ils y sont de droit, dans les mêmes rapports avec l'exécutif provincial et quant aux objets de législation interne, dans lesquels se trouve la chambre des communes avec le peuple et le gouvernement de la Grande-Bretagne et de l'Irlande : Que dans les matières d'argent et de revenus prélevés dans la colonie et quant à leur appropriation, ils en ont le contrôle exclusif aussi absolu que l'ont les communes sur celui de la Grande-Bretagne et d'Irlande, sans quoi ils ne nous resterait rien que nous pourrions appeler nôtre : les fruits de notre labeur et de notre industrie ne seraient pas notre propriété, mais que nous n'en aurions qu'une jouissance précaire et avilissante, révocable à la volonté du parlement britannique dans lequel nous ne sommes pas et ne pouvons pas être représentés. Que dès lors la tentative par ce pouvoir d'approprier notre revenu est tout aussi immorale que le serait celle de nos représentants d'approprier les revenus du peuple anglais, n'y ayant point d'autres différences dans les raisonnements que l'on pourrait faire à l'appui de l'une ou de l'autre mesure, que celle de la force brutale par laquelle le ministère prétend appuyer son usurpation.</blockquote>
On the motion of Norbert Eno, Esq., MPP, seconded by D.M. Armstrong, Esq.


Sur motion du capt. Paquet, de Berthier, secondée par Isaïe Fauteux, ecr. de St-Barthélemie.
Resolved, 2: That this meeting maintains that the representatives of this province should be ''de facto'', as they are ''de jure'', in the same relation to the provincial executive concerning objects of legislation as that of the Commons with the people and government of Great Britain and Ireland. That in matters of money and revenues withdrawn from the colony and their appropriation, they have as absolute a control as that of the Commons on those of Great Britain and Ireland, without which nothing would be left to us that we could call our own: the fruits of our labors and industry would not be our property. Rather we would have but a precarious and degrading enjoyment of them, revocable at the will of the British parliament, in which we are not and cannot be represented. That the attempt by the power to appropriate our revenues is every bit as immoral as would be that of our representatives to appropriate the revenues of the English people, there being no difference in the reasoning that could be made in support of the one or the other measure except that of the brute force by which the ministry claims to support its usurpation.  


<blockquote>''RÉSOLU, 3 : Que l'axiome que ci-devant répétaient avec confiance et satisfaction les sujets anglais dans les colonies aussi bien qu'au siège du gouvernement général de l'empire, que le pouvoir d'établir des taxes et de les approprier était inséparable du droit de n'y consentir que par ses représentants propres, paraît clairement n'être dans le sentiment du ministère actuel et des complaisantes majorités qui lui son asservies qu'un insignifiant mensonge politique ainsi qu'il paraît par leur spoliation du bien des habitants de cette province, qui rappelle fortement de pareilles tentatives faites dans le temps passé et qui si justement furent dénoncées alors comme étant la folie de l'Angleterre et la ruine de l'Amérique, et conduisirent néanmoins à cette juste résistance suivie de succès, qui a donné naissance à ces libres et heureuses institutions politiques qui ont si rapidement porté au plus haut point de puissance et de liberté nos proches voisins des États-Unis, dont le sort prospère et tel que tous les hommes d'État de la métropole depuis le plus grand jusqu'au plus bas, du meilleur au pire, de Fox à Stanley, ont reconnu que l'Angleterre ne pouvait retenir les Canadas que par un lien fragile et précaire, si elle ne les gouvernait pas de manière à ne leur laisser que peu de choses à envier à l'Amérique républicaine.''</blockquote>
On the motion of Cat. Paquet, of Berthier, seconded by Isaie Fauteux, Esq. Of St. Barthelemie.


Sur motion de Mr. Jean-Bte. Chennevert, père, de St-Cuthbert, secondée par le capitaine Destrampes.
Resolved, 3: That the axiom that was formerly repeated with confidence and satisfaction by English subjects in the colonies, as well as at the seat of the general government of the Empire, that the power to establish taxes and to appropriate them was inseparable from the right to consent to them solely through one’s own representatives, clearly appears to not be the sentiment of the current ministry and the accommodating majorities in its service, who take this to be insignificant political lie, as can be seen by their despoiling of the property of the inhabitants of this province, which very much resembles past attempts, and which were justly denounced as being England’s folly and the ruin of America, and which nevertheless led to that just resistance followed by success which gave birth to those free and happy political institutions that so rapidly carried our  next door neighbors in the United States to the highest points of might and liberty and whose prosperous lot is such that the statesmen of the metropole, from the highest to the lowest, from the best to the worst, from Fox to Stanley, have recognized that England could only retain the Canadas by a fragile and precarious tie if it didn’t govern them in such a way that they had little to envy republican America.


<blockquote>''RÉSOLU, 4 : Que loin de jouir d'un gouvernement libre et bien réglé analogue à ceux de l'Amérique affranchie et libre; d'un bon gouvernement choisi et accepté par le peuple et néanmoins périodiquement soumis à sa révision dans des conventions sagement prévues et indiquées d'avance à de certaines périodes fixes et chargées du soin unique d'examiner et de réformer, s'il est besoin, leurs institutions politiques, nous souffrons de maux innombrables qui découlent d'institutions vicieuses vicieusement administrées ainsi que l'a reconnu, il y a déjà près de dix ans un comité de la chambre des communes. Que le peuple et ses représentants avec un accord dont l'histoire n'offrira que peu d'exemples, ont insisté et demandé dans une proportion de plus des neuf dixièmes de la population, que la partie la plus vicieuse de ces institutions soit altérée par la suppression du conseil législatif actuel qui n'a été qu'une expérience désastreuse tentée à l'essai, comme l'a admis son auteur Mr. Pitt pour être plus tard altérée s'il ne répondait pas aux fins pour lesquelles il avait été créé; qui constamment a été un obstacle à la paix, à l'ordre et au bon gouvernement de cette province et qui néanmoins est conservé et défendu par ceux qui quelques fois libéraux en paroles seulement, ont toujours été tyrans par leur conduite envers cette province.''</blockquote>
On the motion of M Jan-Bte. Chennevert, pere, of St. Cuthbert, seconded by Captain Destrampes.


Sur motion de Mr. Pierre Eustache Destallaire de Berthier, secondée par Mr. Henri Fisette de St-Cuthbert.
Resolved, 4: That far from enjoying a free and well-regulated government analogous to that of liberated and free America, a good government chosen and accepted by the people, yet periodically subject to revision at conventions wisely foreseen and indicated in advance at certain fixed periods and charged with the sole concern of, if necessary, examining and reforming their political institutions, we suffer from the countless ills that flow from faulty institutions faultily administered, as was recognized by a committee of the House of Commons almost ten years ago. That the people and its representatives, in a common accord of which history offers few examples, have insisted and demanded, in a proportion of nine tenths of the population, that the most faulty part of these institutions be altered by the suppression of the current legislative council, which has been nothing but a disastrous experiment, as was admitted by its author Mr. Pitt, which should be later altered if it doesn’t answer to the ends for which it was created; which has constantly been an obstacle to the peace, the order, and the good government of this province, and which is nevertheless preserved and defended by those who, though sometimes liberal in words, have always been tyrants in their conduct towards this province.  


<blockquote>''RÉSOLU, 5 : Que nous remercions sincèrement cette grande majorité de nos représentants qui ont inflexiblement insisté sur l'absolue nécessité qu'il y a pour le retour de la paix et du contentement en cette province, de supprimer et anéantir le conseil législatif actuel pour le remplacer par un conseil électif. Que nous applaudissons aux mesures qu'ils ont prises pour obtenir le redressement de ce premier et et plus lourd des griefs qui affligent la province, telles que le refus des subsides et le refus de siéger avec ce corps qui presqu'invariablement n'accepte que les bills qui augmentent le pouvoir, le patronage, les émoluments de l'exécutif et de ses créatures, et rejette la plus grande partie de ceux qui leur sont envoyés pour procurer au pays une administration de la justice plus impartiale et moins coûteuse, pour faciliter la diffusion des lumières et pour l'avantage de la société, rendre générale l'instruction élémentaire, assurer l'administration des biens communs et des intérêts locaux du peuple dans les comtés, cités, paroisses et townships par le moyen d'officiers de son choix et de corporations électives, et tous autres projets de lois qui avanceraient au moral et au physique le bien être de la masse de la population sans distinction de classes, de croyances ni d'origines.''</blockquote>
On the motion of M. Pierre Eustache Destallaire of Berthier, seconded by M. Henri Fisette of St. Cuthbert.


Sur motion du capt. F. Olivier, de Berthier, secondée par Mtre. Jean-Baptiste Chenevert N. P. de St-Cuthbert.
Resolved, 5: That we sincerely thank that great majority of our representatives who have inflexibly insisted, in order for peace and content to return to this province, on the absolute necessity to suppress and do away with the current legislative council and to replace it with an elective council. That we applaud the measures they have taken to obtain the rectification of the former and the most serious of the grievances afflicting this province, such as the refusal of subsidies and the refusal to sit with this body, which almost invariably accepts only those bills that increase the power, the patronage, and the emoluments of the executive and its henchmen, and rejects most of those that are sent to them so as to procure for the country a more impartial and less costly administration of justice, to facilitate the extension of enlightenment and for the advantage of society, for rendering general elementary instruction, assuring the administration of common property and the local interests of the people of the counties, cities, parishes, and townships by means of officers of their own choice and elective corporations, and all the other laws that will advance the moral and physical welfare of the mass of the population, without distinction of class, belief or origins.


<blockquote>''RÉSOLU, 6 : Que nous recommandons fortement à nos représentants de maintenir en toutes occasions les principes énoncés dans les 92 résolutions adoptés par la chambre d'assemblée d'abord, sanctionnées ensuite par le résultat des élections générales qui suivirent de près leur adoption, et depuis par les requêtes de l'immense majorité du peuple de la province au parlement britannique, et toutes les conséquences qui en découlent. Que quoique des demandes aussi généralement appuyées aient été récemment rejetées par les ministres et le parlement mal guidés par des conseils aussi peu éclairés et aussi empreints de haine et de préjugés contre le peuple et les représentants de la province, que ceux qu'ont donné les trois commissaires royaux, qui avec une rare présomption, après avoir justement flétri la politique suivie dès le principe de ne pas donner à la représentation l'influence qu'elle devrait avoir dans le pays, avoir censuré toutes les autorités provinciales, avoir ravalé toutes les administrations passées, avoir attaqué la représentation actuelle toute comme le conseil, ont fait preuve en même temps de l'incapacité la plus grossière en ne suggérant aucune mesure de libéralité et de justice pour porter remède aux abus qu'ils dévoilent et qu'ils dénoncent, mais au contraire ont travaillé à en assurer le redoublement en suggérant les mesures iniques de coercition que le ministère adopte dans des vues de persécution, sur la foi sans doute de leurs assurances mensongères que leu peuple plierait et y acquiescerait si elles étaient appuyées par de larges majorités dans la chambre des communes.''</blockquote>
On the motion of Capt. F. Olivier of Berthier, seconded by Master Jean-Baptiste Chenevert,NP, of St. Cuthbert.


Sur motion du capitaine François Généreux de Berthier, secondée par M. Louis Marion de Lanoraie.
Resolved, 6: That we strongly recommend to our representatives that they on all occasions maintain the principles spelled out in the 92 Resolutions originally adopted by the House of Assembly, then sanctioned by the results of the general elections that closely followed their adoption, and since then by the requests of the vast majority of the people of the province to the British Parliament, and the consequences that flow from this. That these widely supported demands were recently rejected by ministers and a parliament misguided by counsels as unenlightened and marked with hatred and prejudice towards the people and the representatives of the province as those given by the three Royal commissioners, who with rare presumption, after having justly condemned the policy followed from the beginning to refuse the representatives the influence they should have over the country, having censured all the provincial authorities, having choked off all the preceding administrations, having attacked both the current representation and the council, have at the same time demonstrated the most blatant inability in not suggesting any measure of liberality or justice in order to remedy the abuses they uncover and denounce, but on the contract have worked to ensure their increase by suggesting iniquitous coercive measures adopted by the ministry with persecution in sight, doubtless based on their false assurances that the people will bow before them and acquiesce if they are supported by large majorities in the House of Commons.  


<blockquote>''RÉSOLU, 7 : Que nous ne comptons pas les voix, mais que nous pesons les raisons qui ont été données dans les chambres du parlement pour et contre les iniques projets du ministère. Que nous sommes fiers, reconnaissants d'avoir eu pour nous les sympathies et les raisonnements invincibles de ces durables et hautes réputations, de ces infatigables défenseurs des droits populaires dans toute l'étendue de l'empire, les Brougham, O'Connell, Hume, Robebuck, notre agent aussi zélé qu'éclairé, et de l'honnête et brillante minorité qui par le poids de bonnes raisons les a si puissamment secondés, et qu'autant ceux-ci ont droit à nos respects, à notre reconnaissance, à nos sincères remerciements que nous leurs faisons, ainsi qu'à l'association des artisans de Londres et aux autres portions du peuple des trois royaumes qui ont demandé justice pour nous, qui sommes leurs frères, et protection pour nos droits et libertés envahies qui sont leurs droits et libertés menacées, autant nos mépris profonds et notre haine inaltérable sont dus à nos persécuteurs. Que dans ces sentiments nous ne nous adressons plus au parlement britannique pour lui demander la justice qu'il nous refuse. Que nous n'acquiesçons pas à la dilapidation de notre revenu s'il la sanctionne; mais que nous ralliant inséparablement à la majorité de nos concitoyens qui dans les comtés de Richelieu, Montréal, Verchères, Deux-Montagnes, Chambly, Terrbonne, et dans la cité et banlieue de Québec, ont déjà manifesté de nobles sentiments d'attachement aux libertés publiques, nous approuvons leurs démarches, et prions nos concitoyens des autres comtés de n'en pas faire moins. Nous découragerons la consommation des articles importés qui pourront être remplacés par les nôtres, autant pour détruire le pouvoir de nos oppresseurs de nous coerciter, que pour nous encourager le moyen de notre propre protection; que quant aux spiritueux et aux sucres, nous ferons usage de ceux fabriqués dans le pays de préférence à ceux importés que nous recommandons en conséquences l'établissement de brasseries et principalement la culture du lin et la multiplication des moutons pour encourager et maintenir les manufactures domestiques de toiles, laines, et surtout de cotons, et pour stimuler l'industrie et le travail; que nous concourons dans l'adoption d'une pétition au Congrès des États-Unis d'Amérique pour solliciter la suppression des droits de douane prélevés sur leurs frontières lors de l'entrée des produits canadiens, et rendre plus libre et plus étendu entre ces pays limitrophes un commerce qui ne peut qu'être très avantageux à leurs intérêts mutuels.''</blockquote>
On the motion of Captain  Francois Genereux, seconded by M. Louis Marion of Lanoraie.


Sur motion de Mr. Louis Dubord dit Lafontaine de Lanoraie, secondée par M. Michel Grand'Pré, de St-Cuthbert.
Resolved, 7: That we don’t count the votes, but we weigh the reasons that were given in the houses of Parliament for and against the iniquitous projects of the ministry. That we are proud and grateful to have enjoyed the sympathy and the invincible reasoning of those durable and high reputations, of those indefatigable defenders of the people’s rights throughout the Empire, Brougham, O’Connell, Hume, our equally zealous and enlightened agent, and of the honest and brilliant minority which has so powerfully supported them with the weight of good reasons; and that as much as the latter have the right to our respect, our gratitude, and our sincere thanks, as well as to the artisan’s association of London and other portions of the people of the three kingdoms who have demanded justice for us, who are their brothers, and protection for our invaded rights and liberties which are their threatened rights and liberties, to just that degree our profound contempt and unalterable hatred are owed to our persecutors. That these being our sentiments we no longer address ourselves to  the British Parliament to ask of it the justice it refuses us. That we do not acquiesce in the dilapidation of our revenue if they sanction it, but that, inseparably rallying to the majority of our fellow-citizens who, in the counties of Richelieu, Montreal, Vercheres, Deux Montagnes, Chambly,Terrebonne, and in the city and suburbs of Quebec, have already demonstrated noble sentiments of attachment to public freedoms; we approve their acts and ask our fellow-citizens on the other counties to do no less. We will discourage the consumption of imported articles that could be replaced by ours, as much to destroy our oppressors coercive powers as to encourage the mean of our own protection; that as for spirits and other sugars, we will preferentially use those made in the country over those imported; that consequently we recommend the establishment of breweries and principally the cultivation of flax and the multiplication of sheep so as to encourage and sustain the domestic manufacture of cloth, wool, and especially cotton, and to stimulate industry and labor; that we collaborate in the adoption of a petition to the Congress of the United States of America for the soliciting the suppression of customs duties at their frontiers upon the entry of Canadian products and for rendering freer and more extensive a commerce between these two countries with common borders that can only be advantageous to their mutual interests.  


<blockquote>''RÉSOLU, 8 : Qu'un comité central de comté avec pouvoir de s'adjoindre tels membres additionnels que bon leur semblera soit nommé, chargé de correspondre avec les représentants de ce comté en session du parlement ou en convention, avec de semblables comités dans les autres comtés de la province, et pour agir de concert avec eux, autorisé à convoquer de nouveau ce comté si les circonstances leur font désirer une semblable réunion, d'organiser des sous-comités de paroisses et de townships à l'effet de seconder, faciliter et exécuter les différentes mesures adoptées dans cette assemblée et pour tous autres objets d'utilité publique; ces temps d'orage nécessitant l'attention vigilante et continuelle d'hommes qui honorés de la confiance publique doivent donner plus de leur temps et de leurs soins à veiller aux intérêts communs qu'il ne serait nécessaire de le faire dans des temps plus heureux; que les membres du comité déjà nominé à une assemblée générale précédente du comté, forment le dit comité de comté. Qu'en outre les Messieurs suivants, savoir : Messieurs Hercule Olivier, M. D. Armstrong, G. Mercure et Jean-Baptiste Lafontaine soient les députés nommés par cette assemblée à la convetion qui se réunira ci-après en cette province conformément aux résolutions déjà adoptées dans d'autres comtés et que les dits Messieurs seront aussi membres de comité de comté.''</blockquote>
On the motion of Mr. Louis Dubord, called Lafontaine de Lanoraie, seconded by M. Michel Grand’Pré of St. Cuthbert


Sur motion de D. M. Armstrong, écr., secondée par le Dr. Voyer de la Valtrie.
Resolved, 8: That a county central committee, with the power to add such additional numbers as they wish, be named, charged with corresponding with the representatives of this county during parliamentary session or in convention, with similar authorities in other counties of the province and to act in concert with them; authorized to again convoke this county if circumstances lead them to wish for such a meeting; to organize sub-committees in the parishes and townships so as to assist in, facilitate, and execute the different measures adopted in this meeting and for any other objects of public utility. These stormy times make necessary the constant and vigilant attention of those who, honored with public confidence, should give more of their time and concern to overseeing the common interests than would be necessary in happier times; that the members of the committee already nominates to a preceding general meeting of the county form said county committee. That in addition the following gentlemen, viz., Messieurs Hercule Olivier, M.D. Armstrong, G. Mercure, and Jean-Baptiste Lafontaine be the deputies named by this meeting to the convention that will later meet in this province in conformity with the resolutions already adopted in other counties and that said gentlemen will also be members of the county committee.


<blockquote>''RÉSOLU, 9 : Que les remerciements de cette assemblée sont dus et votés au président, pour la manière habile dont il a agi et son patriotisme dont ils a donné de nouvelles preuves dans cette occasion.''</blockquote>
On the motion of D.M. Armstrong, Esq., seconded by Dr. Voyer de la Valtrie
 
Resolved, 9: That the thanks of this meeting are due and voted to the chairman, for the able manner in which he has acted and for his patriotism, of which he has given new proofs on this occasion.


''La Minerve'' <br />
''La Minerve'' <br />
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* [[List of the public meetings held in Lower Canada between May and November 1837]]
* [[List of the public meetings held in Lower Canada between May and November 1837]]
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[[Category:Resolutions]]
[[Category:Translations]]
[[Category:1837]]
[[Category:2007]]

Latest revision as of 03:20, 30 January 2011


Resolutions of the Berthier Meeting
British Subjects (Patriots)
June 18, 1837

Translated in July 2007 by Meir Avidor from:

Résolutions de l'assemblée de Berthier




The following resolutions appeared in La Minerve on June 22, 1837 and were reproduced in the book Assemblées publiques, résolutions et déclarations de 1837-1838, texts collected and presented by Jean-Paul Bertrand, Montréal, VLB Éditeur et l'Union des écrivains québécois, 1988, 304 p. ISBN 2-89005-313-X.



On the motion of Alexis Mousseau, Esq., MPP, seconded by M. Joseph Beaupré of La Valtrie.

Resolved, 1: That the general meeting of this county was convoked in order to demonstrate our solemn and universal protest against the unconstitutional and tyrannical measures recently carried against us by the ministers of the Crown before the Parliament of Great Britain and Ireland, where they were supported by large Whig and Tory majorities, who we see tightly leagued in an unnatural alliance for the destruction of the sure and consecrated colonial rights consecrated by the letter of the declaratory statute of the 18th year of George III. That these measures, if they are persisted in and if the people were to submit to them in a servile manner, would ruin and reduce to a shameful slavery first this colony, but would soon after extend their destructive ravages to all the other British colonies if at any time or in any circumstances their representatives were to dare have recourse to the legitimate power that up till now had been recognized to be theirs, to maintain the granting of subsidies and to assure the reform of recognized and flagrant abuses.

On the motion of Norbert Eno, Esq., MPP, seconded by D.M. Armstrong, Esq.

Resolved, 2: That this meeting maintains that the representatives of this province should be de facto, as they are de jure, in the same relation to the provincial executive concerning objects of legislation as that of the Commons with the people and government of Great Britain and Ireland. That in matters of money and revenues withdrawn from the colony and their appropriation, they have as absolute a control as that of the Commons on those of Great Britain and Ireland, without which nothing would be left to us that we could call our own: the fruits of our labors and industry would not be our property. Rather we would have but a precarious and degrading enjoyment of them, revocable at the will of the British parliament, in which we are not and cannot be represented. That the attempt by the power to appropriate our revenues is every bit as immoral as would be that of our representatives to appropriate the revenues of the English people, there being no difference in the reasoning that could be made in support of the one or the other measure except that of the brute force by which the ministry claims to support its usurpation.

On the motion of Cat. Paquet, of Berthier, seconded by Isaie Fauteux, Esq. Of St. Barthelemie.

Resolved, 3: That the axiom that was formerly repeated with confidence and satisfaction by English subjects in the colonies, as well as at the seat of the general government of the Empire, that the power to establish taxes and to appropriate them was inseparable from the right to consent to them solely through one’s own representatives, clearly appears to not be the sentiment of the current ministry and the accommodating majorities in its service, who take this to be insignificant political lie, as can be seen by their despoiling of the property of the inhabitants of this province, which very much resembles past attempts, and which were justly denounced as being England’s folly and the ruin of America, and which nevertheless led to that just resistance followed by success which gave birth to those free and happy political institutions that so rapidly carried our next door neighbors in the United States to the highest points of might and liberty and whose prosperous lot is such that the statesmen of the metropole, from the highest to the lowest, from the best to the worst, from Fox to Stanley, have recognized that England could only retain the Canadas by a fragile and precarious tie if it didn’t govern them in such a way that they had little to envy republican America.

On the motion of M Jan-Bte. Chennevert, pere, of St. Cuthbert, seconded by Captain Destrampes.

Resolved, 4: That far from enjoying a free and well-regulated government analogous to that of liberated and free America, a good government chosen and accepted by the people, yet periodically subject to revision at conventions wisely foreseen and indicated in advance at certain fixed periods and charged with the sole concern of, if necessary, examining and reforming their political institutions, we suffer from the countless ills that flow from faulty institutions faultily administered, as was recognized by a committee of the House of Commons almost ten years ago. That the people and its representatives, in a common accord of which history offers few examples, have insisted and demanded, in a proportion of nine tenths of the population, that the most faulty part of these institutions be altered by the suppression of the current legislative council, which has been nothing but a disastrous experiment, as was admitted by its author Mr. Pitt, which should be later altered if it doesn’t answer to the ends for which it was created; which has constantly been an obstacle to the peace, the order, and the good government of this province, and which is nevertheless preserved and defended by those who, though sometimes liberal in words, have always been tyrants in their conduct towards this province.

On the motion of M. Pierre Eustache Destallaire of Berthier, seconded by M. Henri Fisette of St. Cuthbert.

Resolved, 5: That we sincerely thank that great majority of our representatives who have inflexibly insisted, in order for peace and content to return to this province, on the absolute necessity to suppress and do away with the current legislative council and to replace it with an elective council. That we applaud the measures they have taken to obtain the rectification of the former and the most serious of the grievances afflicting this province, such as the refusal of subsidies and the refusal to sit with this body, which almost invariably accepts only those bills that increase the power, the patronage, and the emoluments of the executive and its henchmen, and rejects most of those that are sent to them so as to procure for the country a more impartial and less costly administration of justice, to facilitate the extension of enlightenment and for the advantage of society, for rendering general elementary instruction, assuring the administration of common property and the local interests of the people of the counties, cities, parishes, and townships by means of officers of their own choice and elective corporations, and all the other laws that will advance the moral and physical welfare of the mass of the population, without distinction of class, belief or origins.

On the motion of Capt. F. Olivier of Berthier, seconded by Master Jean-Baptiste Chenevert,NP, of St. Cuthbert.

Resolved, 6: That we strongly recommend to our representatives that they on all occasions maintain the principles spelled out in the 92 Resolutions originally adopted by the House of Assembly, then sanctioned by the results of the general elections that closely followed their adoption, and since then by the requests of the vast majority of the people of the province to the British Parliament, and the consequences that flow from this. That these widely supported demands were recently rejected by ministers and a parliament misguided by counsels as unenlightened and marked with hatred and prejudice towards the people and the representatives of the province as those given by the three Royal commissioners, who with rare presumption, after having justly condemned the policy followed from the beginning to refuse the representatives the influence they should have over the country, having censured all the provincial authorities, having choked off all the preceding administrations, having attacked both the current representation and the council, have at the same time demonstrated the most blatant inability in not suggesting any measure of liberality or justice in order to remedy the abuses they uncover and denounce, but on the contract have worked to ensure their increase by suggesting iniquitous coercive measures adopted by the ministry with persecution in sight, doubtless based on their false assurances that the people will bow before them and acquiesce if they are supported by large majorities in the House of Commons.

On the motion of Captain Francois Genereux, seconded by M. Louis Marion of Lanoraie.

Resolved, 7: That we don’t count the votes, but we weigh the reasons that were given in the houses of Parliament for and against the iniquitous projects of the ministry. That we are proud and grateful to have enjoyed the sympathy and the invincible reasoning of those durable and high reputations, of those indefatigable defenders of the people’s rights throughout the Empire, Brougham, O’Connell, Hume, our equally zealous and enlightened agent, and of the honest and brilliant minority which has so powerfully supported them with the weight of good reasons; and that as much as the latter have the right to our respect, our gratitude, and our sincere thanks, as well as to the artisan’s association of London and other portions of the people of the three kingdoms who have demanded justice for us, who are their brothers, and protection for our invaded rights and liberties which are their threatened rights and liberties, to just that degree our profound contempt and unalterable hatred are owed to our persecutors. That these being our sentiments we no longer address ourselves to the British Parliament to ask of it the justice it refuses us. That we do not acquiesce in the dilapidation of our revenue if they sanction it, but that, inseparably rallying to the majority of our fellow-citizens who, in the counties of Richelieu, Montreal, Vercheres, Deux Montagnes, Chambly,Terrebonne, and in the city and suburbs of Quebec, have already demonstrated noble sentiments of attachment to public freedoms; we approve their acts and ask our fellow-citizens on the other counties to do no less. We will discourage the consumption of imported articles that could be replaced by ours, as much to destroy our oppressors coercive powers as to encourage the mean of our own protection; that as for spirits and other sugars, we will preferentially use those made in the country over those imported; that consequently we recommend the establishment of breweries and principally the cultivation of flax and the multiplication of sheep so as to encourage and sustain the domestic manufacture of cloth, wool, and especially cotton, and to stimulate industry and labor; that we collaborate in the adoption of a petition to the Congress of the United States of America for the soliciting the suppression of customs duties at their frontiers upon the entry of Canadian products and for rendering freer and more extensive a commerce between these two countries with common borders that can only be advantageous to their mutual interests.

On the motion of Mr. Louis Dubord, called Lafontaine de Lanoraie, seconded by M. Michel Grand’Pré of St. Cuthbert

Resolved, 8: That a county central committee, with the power to add such additional numbers as they wish, be named, charged with corresponding with the representatives of this county during parliamentary session or in convention, with similar authorities in other counties of the province and to act in concert with them; authorized to again convoke this county if circumstances lead them to wish for such a meeting; to organize sub-committees in the parishes and townships so as to assist in, facilitate, and execute the different measures adopted in this meeting and for any other objects of public utility. These stormy times make necessary the constant and vigilant attention of those who, honored with public confidence, should give more of their time and concern to overseeing the common interests than would be necessary in happier times; that the members of the committee already nominates to a preceding general meeting of the county form said county committee. That in addition the following gentlemen, viz., Messieurs Hercule Olivier, M.D. Armstrong, G. Mercure, and Jean-Baptiste Lafontaine be the deputies named by this meeting to the convention that will later meet in this province in conformity with the resolutions already adopted in other counties and that said gentlemen will also be members of the county committee.

On the motion of D.M. Armstrong, Esq., seconded by Dr. Voyer de la Valtrie

Resolved, 9: That the thanks of this meeting are due and voted to the chairman, for the able manner in which he has acted and for his patriotism, of which he has given new proofs on this occasion.

La Minerve
June 22, 1837

See also

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