The patriot war of 1837-1838: locofocoism with a gun?

Labour/Le Travail, Fall, 2003 by Andrew Bonthius

THIS PAPER PRESENTS a reinterpretation of the causes for the us Patriot movement of 1837-38, which rose up in support of the Canadian rebellion in Upper Canada (UC) initiated by William Lyon Mackenzie (the companion rebellion in Lower Canada is not considered in this paper since its causation was arguably considerably different). Most traditional treatments of this event, by Us historians in particular, are stuck in narrative mode and lack convincing interpretation and analysis. The US Patriot war is usually quickly dismissed as the work of a few Anglophobes and adventurers seeking land and coin. The hypothesis advanced here suggests that the us Patriot movement and its progenitor rebellion in UC may be seen as an expression of the social class tensions growing out of the transition from a subsistence-barter/ household economy and culture to the more impersonal commodity market economy--a transition that was proceeding in an uneven and combined manner on both sides of the nominal Canada/US border. Mackenzie's UC rebellion was both motivated by and encouragement to radical Democratic anti-bank forces in the us. Historians are urged to consider the Patriot movement in the larger context of class conflict and accommodation then being played out on a shared Canadian/American stage.

CET ARTICLE PRESENTE une nouvelle interpretation des causes du mouvement des patriotes americains de 1837 a 1838, qui s'est forme pour appuyer la rebellion canadienne du Haut-Canada lancee par William Lyon Mackenzie (la rebellion connexe au Bas-Canada n'a pas ete prise en consideration dans cet article etant donne qu'il est permis de penser que ses causes sont remarquablement differentes). La plupart des traitements traditionnels de cet evenement, par les historiens americains en particulier, se sont arretes au mode narratif et manquent d'interpretation ou d'analyse convaincante. La guerre des patriotes americains est souvent rapidement rejetee comme l'oeuvre de quelques anglophones et aventuriers qui cherchaient de la terre et de l'argent. L'hypothese avancee ici suggere que le mouvement des patriotes americains, comme la rebellion du Haut-Canada, peut etre considere comme une expression des tensions de classes sociales provenant de la transition d'une culture ou d'une economie de subsistance, d'echange/menage a une economie de marche de produits de base plus impersonnelle--une transition qui se poursuivait d'une maniere irreguliere et combinee des deux cotes de la frontiere canado-americaine. La rebellion du Haut-Canada de Mackenzie a ete a la fois motivee et imitee par les forces democratiques [??] anti-banques [??] aux Etats-Unis. Les historiens sont encourages a prendre en consideration le mouvement des patriotes dans le contexte plus large de conflits et d'accommodation de classes presentes sur une scene partagee entre le Canada et les Etats-Unis.

Revolution in Upper Canada

To be sure, blood has not yet been shed, neither have the Canadas waged war with the parent government, but they have taken a stand which will soon bring them to that course. The people of Canada have passed the Rubicon.... Canada will now demand the full rights of freeman; and they will demand more than England will ever, consistently with its previous course, grant. With this state of things we confess ourselves highly gratified. (1)

ONE MIGHT EXPECT that in the autumn of 1837 the fires of revolutionary America had all but expired and that popular energies were entirely focused on the westward movement or the raging depression. Indeed, for most Americans these were the major preoccupations of the day. However, for inhabitants on the northern frontier, which stretched from Maine along the St. Lawrence Seaway and the Great Lakes to Wisconsin, the fight for land and liberty, and hatred of British colonial oppression, remained burning issues as well. The focus of their concerns was the ensuing rebellions against British Crown rule to the North, led first by Louis-Joseph Papineau in Montreal, Lower Canada (LC), and shortly thereafter by William Lyon Mackenzie in Toronto, Upper Canada (UC). Nearly two decades of fruitless reform struggle against the intransigent rule of the Family Compact in UC and the Chateau Clique in LC had made it a relatively foregone conclusion that the reformers would be pushed to the barricades. These two hereditary oligarchies held a monopoly on land, maintained a political choke-hold on legal and political institutions, stifled religious liberty, retarded the spread of public education, and thus ruled, in the colourful words of Mackenzie, as a "venal tribe, who ... are now fattening on the spoils of this country." (2) The uprisings had been widely anticipated on both sides of the United States/Canada border for months. Ill-prepared for their first attempts, Papineau and Mackenzie, along with hundreds of their troops, were quickly routed and forced to flee south to the us where they were welcomed with open arms by the vast majority of Americans. Allied with their Canadian brethren, Americans on the northern border eagerly joined what they called the Patriot movement to sweep British tyranny from the continent. (3) Until late 1838 this movement engulfed the northern frontier of the us involving many thousands of Americans in military efforts to replace British "thralldom" in Canada with a radical republican form of government.