FOOTNOTES:
[224] Yet while the American Government professed to declare a defensive war—a war in defence of their rights at sea—the first act was the invasion of Canada, for which they had been collecting men and arms for several months before the declaration of the war; and thus the first acts of the Canadians were to provide for the defence of their country and their homes against the American invasions. The facts show that the real object of the American Government was to take Canada, and their invaded rights at sea was a mere pretext.
CHAPTER LX.
Close of the War and of the History of the U.E. Loyalists—Defeat and Disgrace of the Democratic Invaders of Canada—Honour and Success of its Defenders—Comparative State of the United States and Canada at the Close of the War—Mutual Respect and Friendship between Americans and Canadians—Concluding Remarks.
Thus closed the war of the United States against Great Britain, in 1812-15—a war undertaken at the prompting of the scourge of Europe, Napoleon, but upon pretexts which were never so much as mentioned, much less reiterated, by the United States Commissioners when peace was proposed between Great Britain and America in 1815—a war in which the democratic rulers of the United States suffered both defeat and disgrace, while the loyal inhabitants of Canada maintained inviolate their honour and independence.
With the close of that war terminates the history of the United Empire Loyalists of Canada as a distinct and controlling class of the inhabitants; for their numbers had become so reduced by the ravages of time and war, and other classes of immigrants had become so numerous, between whom and the families of old Loyalists so many intermarriages had taken and were taking place, that the latter became merged in the mass of the population; and therefore my history of them as a distinct class comes to an end. All classes were Loyalists, and all had fought as one man in defence of their country during the recent war, although all had not fought for the life of the nation and the unity of the empire from 1776 to 1783, or been driven from their homes to Canada, to become the fathers of the inhabitants and founders of the institutions of our country. It would be out of place, and at variance with the title of my book, did I proceed to narrate and discuss the history of Upper Canada after the close of the war; but I may properly conclude my work by referring to a few facts leading to and arising out of the war, and the state of our country at its close.
The democratic party in the United States, which had confiscated the property of our forefathers, and exiled them from their homes, and compelled them to seek a home in the wilderness of Canada, had followed them with their enmities into their new place of refuge, and, by their emissaries, in conjunction with those of the French revolutionists, sought to insinuate a disturbing element into Canadian peace and safety from the commencement of the bloody French revolution to 1812, when it culminated, under the promptings of Napoleon and his obsequious tools, in the war of 1812-15, with a view to wrest Canada from Great Britain, and to divide the commerce of Europe between France and the United States. But how vain are the devices of men against the laws of God and of human society! The Gideon hundreds of loyal Canadians repelled and scattered, for more than two years, the Midian and Amalekite thousands of democratic invaders, until Great Britain, having chained the marauding tiger of Europe to the rock of St. Helena, despatched her thousands of soldiers to the aid of Canada, and sent her fleets across the Atlantic—sweeping the American coasts from Maine to Georgia—taking and burning their capital in retaliation for the American raid upon the capital of Upper Canada, and soon compelling the heretofore boasting Madison partizans to seek for peace without even the mention of their alleged causes of war with England. If the American armies were defeated and driven back in their repeated invasions of Canada, their commerce and commercial men suffered not less before the end of the war. Their annual exports declined, between 1811 and 1814, from £22,000,000 sterling to £1,500,000; their vessels to the number of 3,000 were captured; two-thirds of their commercial class were reduced to bankruptcy; an immense war tax was incurred; many thousands of lives had been sacrificed, and the Union itself imperilled by the threatened secession of the New England States.
On the other hand, Canada had felt deeply the calamities of war, it being the seat of the conflict, a large portion of its revenue and inhabitants having been diverted from their ordinary employments—having themselves chiefly to depend upon for their defence, while England was engaged in a twenty years' conflict for law and liberty in Europe. In the extremity of this contest, the democratic President of the United States combined with the tyrant despot of Europe to seduce and sever the Canadians from their British connection; but the Canadians nobly maintained their fidelity and triumphantly vindicated their honour and independence, though, in doing so, they suffered the desolation of many of their homes, shed many bitter tears for sires, and sons, and brothers, who had poured out their life's blood in defence of their country on the battle fields of both Upper and Lower Canada. Yet, upon the whole, the war did much good to Canada, apart from the success of its arms; it tended to cement the people together as one family; English, French, Scotch, Irish, and Americans had forgotten former distinctions and jealousies, and had all become Canadians, with increased devotion not only to the land of their nativity or adoption, but to the glorious mother country which had become the victorious champion of the liberties of Europe, and leader in the civilization of mankind.
Though, in the course of the war, Canada—especially Upper Canada, which had to bear the brunt of it—was greatly exhausted, emigration being checked, agriculture partially neglected, by the embodiments of militia and frequent mobilization of sedentary corps,—requiring some time after the war for the inhabitants to return to their old habits and resume their peaceful pursuits; yet Canada flourished financially during the war. Owing to England's supremacy on the ocean, Canadian trade and commerce were not seriously affected; taxes were light; not a few fortunes were made; money was plentiful, as the mother country paid most of the expenses of the war.