Soon after the departure of Mr. Vail occurred the trial and conviction of Charles Durand. Durand's case was peculiar, and noteworthy as illustrating the methods employed by Arthur and his Executive Council to stamp out disaffection. Durand was put on trial for high treason, the chief evidence against him being a letter which was found in his house among his papers addressed to W. L. MacKenzie, and which contained within it charges against the Executive Council and Family Compact generally. This letter was never sent and MacKenzie in his Gazette denies ever having seen it. It was, therefore, a high handed proceeding to sentence a man to death on the evidence of a private paper which was never published. Durand was afterwards respited and banished to the United States, but his trial and conviction on the 7th of May did not tend to increase the popularity of the Lieutenant-Governor and his Executive Council.
Durand's letter certainly was written in no mild tone and it still breathes forth the spirit of disaffection. But it was never published and as such should not have been used to convict its author. The following-sentences will serve as a sample of the whole:
"The principles of the reformers are those of truth, are those that tend to promote the happiness of the many—instead of the few. Although in common with thousands of the old farmers in Canada, with thousands of the sons of U. E. Loyalists, I was willing to petition the mother country for the redress of our political wrongs, and even to petition them again and again, yet when I see insult upon insult heaped upon the reformers of this Province: our Governors allowed with impunity to slander and laugh at the people and their House of Assembly—when I see Governors who have held up with both hands the gracious despatches of the deceitful and tyrannical Colonial Office—conspiring against the liberties of this colony by establishing a 'Dominant Church' and 'English Church Rectories' amongst us against our will and desire, raised, promoted and applauded for deceiving the people here, when I see Judges suspended and dismissed from their offices for voting for liberal men and the elective franchise, the only spark of liberty we can boast of, trampled down by office holders, and done away with by the Governor issuing thousands of patent deeds to his favorites and officials, I begin to ask myself, shall I, shall we, who have made the country what it is, be used thus with impunity? Shall we, the native Canadians, the sons of U. E. Loyalists, be called aliens in the land of our birth, and by the fluttering officials that hang on the smiles of a Governor's brow—I say nay. I feel that we are too tame—that we have forgotten that we are free—that we are in America,"[[26]] etc. etc.
There is no need to quote more of this verbiage. The above is sufficient to show that Durand was able to "tear a passion to tatters, to very rags," and if he had ever had this letter published it would have doubtless "split the ears of the groundlings." The curious thing it that a man should be condemned to death for writing such a letter. Truly Arthur and his Executive Council lacked a sense of humour!
About this time a new movement against Canada was on foot in the United States. "Hunters' Lodges" were formed with the object "never to rest, till all tyrants of Britain cease to have any dominion or footing whatever in North America."[[27]] This new organization seems to have originated in May, 1838, and to have spread rapidly, especially through the states bordering on Upper Canada. Lindsay tells us that at a convention of the Hunters' Lodges of Ohio and Michigan held at Cleveland from September 16th to 22nd[[28]] of that year, seventy delegates were present. At this meeting a republican government was appointed for Upper Canada, including a president and complete cabinet. A "republican bank of Upper Canada" was projected which was to issue a paper currency adorned with the heads of Lount, Matthews and Moreau who took part in the Short Hills affair in June, 1838, to which reference will shortly be made. But the members of the "Hunters' Lodges" though full of enthusiasm were short of funds, so the bank did not prosper.
Before this grandiloquent meeting at Cleveland there had been several disturbances along the border. The first of these was the destruction on May 30th, of the Canadian passenger steamer "Sir Robert Peel" at Wells' Island by American sympathizers. Wells' Island, one of the Thousand Islands, is situated in American waters and so the authorities of New York state were to a certain extent negligent in allowing the incident to occur. The destruction of the "Sir Robert Peel" seems to have been regarded by the "patriots" who boarded her as an act of revenge for the burning of the "Caroline." But whatever the motives of those concerned the incident caused bad feeling along the border. An American steamer, the "Telegraph," was fired upon on June 2nd by the Canadian sentries at Brockville, the excuse given that the "Telegraph" had not answered when hailed by the sentries. An investigation was held at which the authorities of St. Lawrence County, N.Y., were present, and it was ascertained that the sentries had acted without orders.
A few days after these incidents a body of "patriots" under the leadership of James Moreau crossed the Niagara frontier in order to free Upper Canada. Moreau, who is called Morrow in the Canadian records, issued a proclamation which called upon the Canadians to come to his assistance and proclaimed that this was the hour of their redemption. The answer of the "oppressed Canadians" was the engagement fought at the Short Hills on June 21st when the "patriots" were defeated by the Canadian militia. Moreau fled with a price on his head but was captured, tried and condemned to death. The Executive Council on July 26th refused to reprieve him since he was considered a proper case for capital punishment under an Act of the Parliament of Upper Canada passed the previous session in order "to protect the Inhabitants of this Province against lawless aggressions from Subjects of Foreign Countries at Peace with Her Majesty." Moreau was accordingly executed at Niagara on July 30th. If Sir George Arthur had had his way there would have been more executions, but Lord Durham intervened.
The next serious outbreak on the frontier was the attack of von Schoultz near Prescott on November 11th. The invaders seized a point of land on which a stone windmill had been built and fortified the place. An engagement ensued and the invaders were driven back to shelter within the windmill. On the 14th of November British reinforcements, including artillery, arrived, and two days later an attack was made at the distance of only 400 yards. The garrison of the windmill then surrendered and nearly 160 prisoners were taken.[[29]] Von Schoultz and nine others were executed in Kingston. Von Schoultz was defended by Sir John A. Macdonald, then a young barrister just beginning his profession, but there was little that could be said in his defence.
The last movement against Upper Canada took place on December 4th, when an attack was made on Windsor. This affair is thus described in the District General Orders of December 10th, dated at Toronto:[[30]]
"A large body of pirates and brigands, belonging to the hostile combination in the neighbouring country which has of late so much disturbed the peace of this province, after assembling in the neighbourhood of Detroit, and showing themselves at different points in the vicinity, at length had the hardihood to effect a landing near Windsor, about three miles from Sandwich, on the morning of the 4th instant, where they commenced their work of destruction by burning a steam-boat called the "Thames," and a house used as a barrack, making prisoners a small but gallant party of militia quartered therein, who, in defending themselves against the attacking banditti shot their leader and eventually effected their escape."