It was never his good fortune to be the leader and master of a government or to have a free hand in the work of legislation. We are therefore left in the dark as to what he might have accomplished under more favourable conditions. Yet there is but little doubt that, had he remained in public life, the progress of Reform would have been greatly accelerated, and that such important measures as the establishing of free schools would have been brought about much earlier than was the case without his vigorous support. The faults of Wilmot were those that belong to an ardent, enthusiastic and liberty-loving temperament. He hated injustice in every form, and in his denunciation of evil he was sometimes led to use stronger language than men of cooler feelings approved. In this way he aroused opposition and left himself open to attack. Yet it is doubtful whether the censure of his enemies was as injurious as the flattery of some who professed to be his friends, and who were ready to applaud whatever he said or did. Being accepted as a leader when a mere youth because he had made a few eloquent speeches, he missed the wholesome discipline which most men have to undergo before they achieve fame. He would have been a greater and wiser man if he had been spared the unthinking flattery which was too lavishly bestowed upon him. Yet, after all has been said by those who would seek to minimize his merits, the fact remains that this son of New Brunswick stood for years as the foremost champion of the rights of the people, and that it is impossible to deny him a place among the great men who have assisted to build up Canada.
FOOTNOTES:
[9] The Aroostook War arose out of the unsettled boundary question between Maine and New Brunswick. There was a large area on the St. John River, the ownership of which was in dispute, and in 1839 the difficulty came to a head in consequence of the governor of Maine undertaking to solve the question in his own way by taking possession of the territory. Governor Fairfield, of Maine, sent eighteen hundred militiamen to the front and Sir John Harvey, the governor of New Brunswick, issued a proclamation asserting the right of Great Britain to guard the territory while it was in dispute, and calling on the governor of Maine to withdraw his troops. Fairfield denied the right to issue a counter proclamation and called on the state for ten thousand men. Sir John Harvey then sent Colonel Maxwell with the 36th and 69th Regiments and a train of artillery to the upper St. John to watch the movements of the militia. A large force of New Brunswick militia was also embodied and sent to the front. Fortunately, President Van Buren sent General Winfield Scott to Maine with full power to settle the difficulty. He got into a friendly correspondence with Sir John Harvey, which led to an understanding by which the troops on both sides were withdrawn and all danger of war averted. The boundary question was afterwards settled by the Ashburton Treaty.
