The meeting for which, as has been said, a requisition had been prepared, was called for the 22nd July, and in addition to the formal posters issued by the acting Mayor on our requisition, Foster and I had prepared a series of inflammatory placards in big type on large sheets, which were posted on the fences and bill boards all over the city. There were a large number of these placards; some of them read, “Is Manitoba to be reached through British Territory? Then let our volunteers find a road or make one.” “Shall French rebels rule our Dominion?” “Orangemen! is Brother Scott forgotten already?” “Shall our Queen’s Representative go a thousand miles through a foreign country, to demean himself to a thief and a murderer?” “Will the volunteers accept defeat at the hands of the Minister of Militia?” “Men of Ontario! Shall Scott’s blood cry in vain for vengeance?”
The public meeting was most enthusiastic, and St. Lawrence Hall was crowded to its utmost limit. The Hon. Wm. Macdougall moved the first resolution in a vigorous and eloquent speech; it was as follows:
Resolved, that the proposal to recall at the request of the Rebel Government the military expedition, now on its way to Fort Garry to establish law and order, would be an act of supreme folly, an abdication of authority, destructive of all confidence in the protection afforded to loyal subjects by a constitutional Government—a death-blow to our national honour, and calls for a prompt and indignant condemnation by the people of this Dominion.
Mr. Macdougall in supporting this said that:
There were many of our own countrymen there who had been ill-treated and robbed of their property, and whose lives had been endangered. Were we to leave these persons—Whites and Indians—without support? Was this the way that our Government was to maintain its respect? How could we expect in that or any other part of the Dominion, that men would expose themselves to loss of property, imperil their lives, or incur any hazard whatever, to support a Government that makes peace with those assailing its authority, and deserts those who have defended it.
Ex-Mayor F. H. Medcalf seconded this resolution which was unanimously carried.
The second resolution called for the prompt punishment of the rebels. It was moved by James D. Edgar (afterwards Sir James D. Edgar, K.C.M.G.) and seconded by Capt. James Bennett, both members of the Canada First group.
The third resolution read:
Resolved, in view of the proposed amnesty to Riel and withdrawal of the expedition, this meeting declares: That the Dominion must and shall have the North-West Territory in fact as well as in name, and if our Government, through weakness or treachery, cannot or will not protect our citizens in it, and recalls our Volunteers, it will then become the duty of the people of Ontario to organise a scheme of armed emigration in order that those Canadians who have been driven from their homes may be reinstated, and that, with the many who desire to settle in new fields, they may have a sure guarantee against the repetition of such outrages as have disgraced our country in the past; that the majesty of the law may be vindicated against all criminals, no matter by whom instigated or by whom protected; and that we may never again see the flag of our ancestors trampled in the dust or a foreign emblem flaunting itself in any part of our broad Dominion.