I was attacked very bitterly by the few Independence papers on account of this speech, and the attacks continued for nearly six weeks. I was invited to address the United Empire Loyalist Centennial celebration at Niagara, which took place on the 14th August, 1884, and then replied to some of the arguments used by them. On the question of national sentiment I said:
Sometimes it is said by strangers and aliens amongst us that we Canadians have no national sentiment, that if we were independent we would have more of it, and it is the fashion to speak loudly of the national spirit of the citizens of the United States. I take issue on this point, and on behalf of our people I say that the pride of the native Canadian in his country is quite equal to the pride of the Yankee in his, while the willingness to defend it in case of need is far greater in the Canadian.
The strongest national sentiment that has yet been exhibited in the States was shown by the Southern people in their gallant struggle to destroy the Union. The national spirit shown by the Northerners where the bounties rose to about $1,800 a man, where patriotism consisted in hiring a man to go and fight while the citizen took a contract to supply the soldiers, as has been well said by their celebrated divine, Dr. Talmage, “With rice that was worm-eaten, with biscuits that were mouldy, with garments that were shoddy, with meat that was rank, with horses that stumbled in the charge, and with tents that sifted the rain into the faces of the exhausted.” The patriotism shown by three thousand Yankee Militia almost in sight of this spot in 1812, when they refused to cross at Queenston to aid their comrades, whom our volunteers shortly afterwards cut to pieces under their eyes, was very different from the patriotism of the Canadians who crossed the river and captured Detroit, or those who fought at Chrysler’s Farm, or those who drove back Hampton at Chateauguay.
Can we call to mind the Canadians who came back to Canada from every State in the Union to aid in defending her from the Fenians without feeling that we have in our people a strong national sentiment?
Wanderers and Bohemians, strangers and tramps may, because we are not traitors to our Government and our country, say that we have no national sentiment; they may not see or feel or appreciate the patriotic feeling of the Canadians, but we Canadians know that it is there. The Militia force is one proof of it, a finger-post to point out to all, that we intend to be a free people on this continent, and that, our liberties can only be taken from us after a desperate struggle.
These wanderers and Bohemians, with the charming impudence of the three tailors of Tooley Street, speak of themselves as the people of Canada. It is the fashion of men of their type always to talk loudly of the people, as if they were the people. But who are the people? The people of this country are the farmers who own the soil, who have cleared the fields, who till them, and who produce the food that feeds us. The people of Canada are the workers who work in her factories, who carry on her trade, who sail her ships and spread her commerce, the citizens who build her cities and work in them. These are the people of Canada, not the few agitators who serve no good purpose, and whose absence would be a relief if they went back to the neighbouring Republic from which many of them have drifted in to us.
The result of these demonstrations so directly appealing to the sentiments and feelings of the loyal element, which formed the vast majority of the people, discouraged the disloyal element, and for a year matters were rather quiet.
In March, 1885, the whole country was aroused over the outbreak of the North-West Rebellion, and troops from all over Canada were sent to aid in putting down the rebellion and re-establishing the Queen’s authority. One regiment came from Nova Scotia. The result of the affair was to consolidate the Provinces into a Dominion, in a way that was never felt before. This put the Independence movement quite out of sight, and during 1886, and until May, 1887, matters remained dormant. Particulars of the causes of this outbreak and some of the details of the operations will be found in my “Soldiering in Canada,” chapters xx. to xxv.