“By what new principle are they to be prohibited from defending their property? If their warfare from being different to that of the white people, be more terrific than that of the enemy, let him retrace his steps, they seek him not, and cannot expect to find women and children in an invading army.
“But they are men, and have equal rights with all other men to defend themselves and their property when invaded, more especially when they find in the enemy’s camp a ferocious and mortal foe, using the same warfare which the American commander affects to reprobate.”
“This inconsistent and unjustifiable threat of refusing quarter, for such a cause as being found in arms with a brother sufferer, in defense of invaded rights, must be exercised with the certain assurance of retaliation, not only in the limited operations of war in this part of the King’s dominion, but in every quarter of the globe; for the national character of Britain is not less distinguished for humanity than strict retributive justice, which will consider the execution of this inhuman threat as deliberate murder, for which every subject of the offending power must make expiation.”—(Signed, Isaac Brock.)
In concluding this subject, we will quote the language of one who rose to sublime eloquence in connection with another event.
Seeing the on-coming moment of the extinction among the Americans—vainly resisting the inevitable fate, but still lofty and noble. Thus spoke a Seneca chief:—“Who is it causes this river to rise in the high mountains, and to empty itself in the ocean? Who is it that causes to blow the loud winds of winter, and that calms them again in summer? Who is it that rears up the shade of those lofty forests, and blasts them with the quick lightning at his pleasure? The same spirit, who gave you a country on the other side of the waters, gave this land to us, and we will defend it.”
We would fail in our whole task did we not refer to one more topic; that concerning Deserters. There were, during the time of war, a few instances of desertion. There is every reason to believe, that the wily Americans sent emissaries into the country with the object of tampering with the Canadians. The following, while having a local reference, will explain the steps taken by Government to meet the requirements of the day in this respect:
President’s Office, Upper Canada, Kingston, 24th March, 1814.
His Honor the President has been pleased to appoint by commission, bearing this date, the under-mentioned gentlemen to be commissioners, for carrying into effect the provisions of an Act passed in the last session of the Legislature of this Province, entitled “An Act to empower His Majesty, for a limited time, to secure and detain such persons as His Majesty shall suspect of treasonable adherence to the enemy, in the several districts of this Province respectively:—For Midland District—The Hon. K. Cartwright, Alexander McDonell, Alexander Fisher, Thomas Dorland, Timothy Thompson, Thomas Markland, Peter Smith, John Cumming, James McNabb, Ebenezer Washburn, Robert C. Wilkins, James Young, William Crawford.”
In every war there will be some desertions, and during the war of 1812, there were found a few, and a few indeed, who were base enough to desert from the ranks of the Canadian Militia.
The several attempts at conquest of Canada were:—