OHIOANS AND THE CANADIAN-AMERICAN CRISIS
OF 1837-1838
by CARL
WITTKE
Professor of History and Dean of the
Graduate School,
Western Reserve University
The Canadian Rebellion of 1837, an
abortive, misguided up-
rising confined to small areas around
Montreal and Toronto, and
limited to a small minority of the
population, was neither a revolt
against Her Majesty, the young Queen
Victoria, nor against Her
Majesty's Government in London, but
rather an armed protest
against the abuses of colonial
administration in Quebec and
Toronto. In spite of its opera bouffe
character, the rebellion had
tremendous importance for the future of
Canada and the empire,
for among other things, it led to Lord
Durham's famous "Report
on the Affairs of British North
America," a document which proved
decisive in the evolution of modern
British colonial policy.1
With the failure of armed rebellion in
Canada, a number of
the leaders of the uprising fled across
the border into the United
States, and in the lake ports and border
towns of the American
republic, these refugees found
sympathetic supporters who fur-
nished them food and military supplies
for a continuance of their
struggle for liberty. The Detroit
Morning Post editorially summa-
rized the point of view of many
Americans when it commented,
shortly after the disturbances began in
Canada:
Although as a nation we would not be
justified in being otherwise than
neutral, yet as freeborn Americans-as
lovers of liberty-as believers in the
doctrine of equal rights-we cannot but
feel the warm gushings of sympathy
for those who are, like our forefathers,
oppressed, and who, like them a hand-
ful, are determined to meet the
innumerable horde of foreign mercenary
soldiers, and to obtain, in the
struggle, Victory or Death.2
The Canadian rebels who occupied Navy
Island on the Niagara
frontier late in 1837, received
reinforcements from the United
States, and this in turn led to such
border brawls as the capture
1 For details, see W. S. Wallace,
The Family Compact (Toronto, 1915); A. D.
DeCelles, The 'Patriotes' of '37
(Toronto, 1921); D. B. Read, The Canadian Rebellion
of 1837 (Toronto, 1896); Duncan McArthur, "The Canadian
Rebellion of 1837," in
Adam Shortt, ed., Canada and Its
Provinces (22 vols., Toronto, 1914), III, 361-383;
and Carl Wittke, A History of Canada (3d
ed., New York, 1941), chaps. ix-xi.
2 Quoted
in Cleveland Daily Advertiser, December 1, 1837.
21
22
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
and destruction, by a Canadian party, of
the American ship
Caroline, which had been carrying supplies to the insurgents from
Buffalo and lay at anchor at Fort
Schlosser, New York. Americans
regarded such incidents as flagrant
invasions of United States terri-
tory and a "wanton massacre"
which called for revenge; Canadians
looked upon the Caroline affair
as a justifiable retaliation provoked
by the failure of the government in
Washington to enforce neu-
trality. The incident remained a source
of diplomatic controversy
for a number of years.
Throughout 1838 relations were strained
along the Canadian
border largely because of the activities
of an organization known
as the Hunters' Lodges or the Lodges of
Patriots or Patriotic
Masons, a secret order equipped with all
the necessary parapher-
nalia of passwords and degrees and
dedicated to the emancipation
of "the British Colonies from
British thralldom." Acting in con-
junction with Canadian Patriots and
refugees, the organization at-
tempted several invasions of Canadian
territory in 1838. Ap-
parently, all sorts of Americans
belonged to this secret conspiracy.
Some no doubt honestly believed that the
Canadian issue of 1837
was the American issue of 1776 all over
again. Others craved ex-
citement and adventure and derived
particular satisfaction from
every opportunity to indulge in the
favorite American pastime of
twisting the tail of the British Lion.
When Samuel A. Lane, an
Akron newspaper man, was initiated as a
Hunter, he found as-
sembled in his lodge some of the most
notorious violators of the
law in his community, as well as a
strange assortment of the more
respectable-lawyers, judges, doctors,
and councilmen.3
The problem of providing an adequate
defense of the long
Canadian border was the main task of
officials like Sir George
Arthur, the last lieutenant governor of
Upper Canada, and of his
superiors in Canada and London, and of
the British minister in
Washington. Arthur had to rely mainly on
volunteers and the
"Sedentary Militia," and on
such British regulars as he could get,
and such steamers as he could purchase
or rent on Lake Erie and
Lake Ontario, to keep the lines of
communication open on a fron-
tier that extended all the way to
Detroit. Arthur recruited among
3 Francis P. Weisenburger, The Passing
of the Frontier, 1825-1850, Carl Wittke,
ed., The History of the State of Ohio
(6 vols., Columbus, 1941-44), III (1941), 359.
CANADIAN-AMERICAN CRISIS 23
the Negro population of western Canada,
some of whom were
fugitives from the United States, and
made use of the Indians as
well, to "scour the woods" and
"bring out . . . these marauders."4
By October 1838, Arthur had called over
thirteen thousand militia
to the colors, at great expense to the
treasury, and to the great
annoyance of men who were eager to
return to their ploughs.
Though some of the militia fought well
enough, and indeed proved
more ferocious toward the invaders than
the better disciplined
regulars, they were handicapped by poor
equipment and supplies.
Arthur thought it "unjust" and
somewhat dangerous to send regu-
lars to the frontier, for so many of
them were Irishmen, "with
relatives and friends settled in the
States," and "what will bind an
Irish soldier if he has the opportunity
of seeing his cousin."5
To the Canadians, the invaders from the
United States were
"ruffians,"
"brigands," "assassins," "marauders," and
"banditti,"
"the demoralized and ungovernable
Mob of Citizens that dis-
grace the Frontier American Towns."6
Canadian and British con-
servatives believed that one cause of
Canada's discontent was "the
great number of American Citizens . . .
injudiciously invited to
settled [sic] in the fertile soil
of Canada," where they soon "desire
democratic institutions" and
"seduce" others to join them.
In the fall of 1838, responsible
authorities in Canada believed
that 6,000 Patriots were ready to invade
Upper Canada; that be-
tween 160,000 and 200,000 Americans
belonged to secret lodges
which were conspiring to attack Canada;
and that of this number,
40,000 were ready to march on short
notice. Recalling the part
which American frontiersmen had played
recently in the Texas
rebellion against Mexico, the Canadian
authorities were fearful lest
the Patriots and Hunters would
"pour in" upon them "as they did
upon Texas." "I do not
think," wrote Arthur on December 20,
1838, "such a multitude of Villains
could have been found in any
Nation on earth called civilized but in
the United States of
America!"7
Canadian officials, moreover, were
convinced that the Ameri-
4 The Arthur Papers, being the Papers
Mainly Confidential, Private and Demi-
Official of Sir George Arthur, K. C. H., edited by Charles R. Sanderson, Parts I and
II (Toronto, 1943 and 1947), II, 417, 432.
5 Arthur to Lord Fitzroy-Somerset,
November 24, 1838, Arthur Pavers, I, 398.
6 Arthur to Archbishop of Canterbury,
August 11, 1838, ibid., II, 254-255.
7 lbid., II, 475; also 303, 314.
24
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
can government in Washington either
could not, or would not, take
effective steps to prevent invasions of
the territory of its northern
neighbor. The British minister reported
to the state department
whatever data he collected on the
membership of the secret lodges,
and he described in detail the
ramifications of a conspiracy which
extended through New York, Pennsylvania,
Ohio, Michigan, and
Kentucky. Nevertheless, he waited until
after the gubernatorial
election in New York before filing a
formal note of protest in
Washington, for he had learned that Van
Buren's future depended
on the outcome, and he felt sure that
"they would not move hand
or foot, in anything that might endanger
the vote of the lowest
ruffian or patriot in that state."8
Reports of United States collec-
tors of customs indicated that the
Patriots had created a provisional
government for Upper Canada, with a full
complement of officials,
and a state bank, whose notes would be
secured by confiscating the
crown lands. Already some of this paper
money was in circulation
in New York, where Ebenezer Johnston, a
former mayor of Buffalo,
was regarded as one of the ringleaders
in the plot against Canada.9
In spite of such alarming information,
the British minister was
ready to believe that the American
president, his secretary of state,
and the top officers of the United
States Army, were ready to deal
with him in an honest and
straightforward manner. He described
General Winfield Scott, who was sent to
keep order on the border,
as "punctilious and incredibly
vain," but able. General Alexander
Macomb, however, he considered
"quite unfit for the occasion."10
Van Buren actually kept the British
minister informed of such de-
velopments in the conspiracy against
Canada as came to his atten-
tion, and Poinsett, the American
secretary of war, assured him that
all available regulars-a force of only
about four hundred men-
were already on duty on the northern
border. He added, quite
candidly, however, that "if the
militia were called out, they would
probably join the brigands."11
The Canadian authorities were not as
charitable in their ap-
praisal of American intentions as their
ambassador in Washing-
ton. Arthur collected evidence to prove
collusion and negligence
8 Fox to Aaron Vail, acting secretary of
state, November 3, 1838, ibid., II,
342-345.
9 Fox to Arthur, October 21, 1838, ibid.,
II, 313.
10 Ibid., II, 335-336, 422.
11 Fox to Arthur, November 5, 1838, ibid.,
II, 345.
CANADIAN-AMERICAN
CRISIS 25
on the part of the
United States government. He insisted that
Governor Marcy, and
Mason, the "Boy Governor" of Michigan,
were "deep in the
secrets" of the Patriot organization and wished
them well.12 He
was positive that "the American Government in-
tended on this occasion
to make another Texas affair of it,"13 and
he viewed with special
alarm the dispatch of ten thousand stands of
arms to Detroit, and a
recent gift of ten pieces of ordnance to
Buffalo, where they
might be seized by "the Brigands in an hour
if they pleased to take
them!"14
Though the British
minister in Washington regarded Van
Buren's proclamation of
neutrality as "little more than exhorta-
tions," he felt
that the president was doing his best in the face
of a large part of the
American population who hoped "by con-
tinuing their present
conduct-the multitude making war while
the Government
professes peace-to obtain Canada without the
risk of a national war."15
He believed that the real movers of the
invasion of Canada were
"the wealthy citizens of the great towns
within the American
border . . . villains [who] have a deep and
permanent
land-speculating interest, in maintaining the move-
ment."16 "All
Americans," the minister wrote on another occasion,
"have been born
and bred up in the expectation, that the Canadas
were necessarily
destined to belong, sooner or later, to them. ....
The secret wishes, of
even the most honest Americans, must be
against us, in every
struggle between the Authority of the Mother
Country and the People
of the Provinces."17 "The United States,"
he pointed out to Sir
Francis Bond Head, lieutenant governor at
the time of the
uprising of 1837, "have presented to us . . . the
extraordinary and
revolting spectacle, of entire communities, in a
state of boasted
civilization, devoting themselves to the interests of
gangs of outlaws,
robbers and assassins. The President has no
more power of
controlling these piratical communities, than the
Sultan of
Constantinople has generally had over the States of
Tripoli and Algiers,"18
and he concluded that "the Institutions of
the United States
render them unsafe neighbors for other nations;
12 Arthur to Fox,
October 31, 1838, ibid., II, 335-336; also 337, 341.
13 Ibid., II, 398.
14 Ibid., II, 392.
15 Fox to Arthur, ibid.,
II, 420.
16 Ibid., II, 422.
17 Ibid., I, 211.
18 March 11, 1838, ibid., I, 60.
26
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
they have before shown themselves so to
Mexico."19
It did not contribute to the restoration
of friendly relations
when Canadian officials received
anonymous and abusive letters
from the United States. A recruiting
sergeant for the American
Patriots in Philadelphia, called the
lieutenant governor a "foul
villain of the damned," an
"incarnate devil of hell," and an "in-
human butcher." "I am an
Irishman," wrote another of these
correspondents, "and the blood of
Emmett and of .98 is in soak
for every English damned murderer."
Another boasted that before
"another mount pases away you will
see the Stripes and Stars on
eavary wall in Canada."20
It is not strange that in a time of such
excitement, the people
of northern Ohio, and especially those
in the larger lake ports,
should become interested and involved in
events across the lake in
Canada, and on the Niagara frontier. If
those events developed
into a war between England and the
United States, so much the
better! During the winter months, when
the lakes are closed to
navigation, hundreds of sailors,
boatmen, and longshoremen con-
gregated in the lake ports with little
better to do than to idle in
the taverns and look for diversion and
excitement. The many
Irish-Americans among them had a special
interest in any move-
ment that might bring new discomforts to
John Bull, their ancient
enemy.
On January 1, 1838, the Cleveland
Herald and Gazette re-
ported the appearance of placards all
over the city, announcing a
"Canada meeting" at the
courthouse. An officer from the ill-fated
rebel camp on Navy Island was expected
to attend, but the purpose
of the meeting was otherwise left a
mystery. A huge crowd, com-
posed of "friends of the Canadian
cause" assembled, and elected
a set of officers, Messrs. J. R. St.
John, Samuel Cook, T. Ingraham,
and F. W. Lawson. Thereupon they
listened to eloquent addresses
by Rev. M. Willey and
"General" Thomas Jefferson Sutherland.
Both speakers lauded the heroes of Navy
Island. The "General"
outlined Canada's grievances and
described her desire to end the
despotism of a foreign power over her
people. Appropriate reso-
lutions were adopted at the close of the
meeting expressing "strong
19 Fox to Arthur, November 5,
1838, ibid., II, 345.
20 Ibid., II, 382,
444-445.
CANADIAN-AMERICAN CRISIS 27
sympathy with the interests of liberty
in every country," and alarm
because of the "large bands of
blood-thirsty savages" who had
been mobilized by the British to
threaten "our unoffending brethren
adjacent to the Canadian frontier."
A committee was commissioned
to receive donations for the patriot
cause.21
Similar meetings of protest and sympathy
were held in Akron
and Massilon.22 The following
month, General Alexander McLeod
(whose name was variously spelled by
Ohio newspapers) addressed
a mass meeting of the citizens of Huron,
Ohio, and an overflow
crowd in the town hall of Painesville,
and managed to escape from
Drake's Hotel in Sandusky before General
Scott arrived.23 Mc-
Mauman, referred to as "the
engineer of the Patriot forces," regaled
his audiences at similar meetings with
atrocity tales about Canadian
patriots who were tortured in cold, damp
cells with iron bands
around their necks; who were chained to
the wall, fed on bread
and water once a day, and allowed
"to leave their cells to answer
the calls of nature" only once in
every twenty-four hours. He
painted for his credulous listeners
lurid pictures of dead bodies
lying in the cells and insisted that
what he recounted was "but a
faint picture of reality."24 A
meeting held at the Baptist church
in Conneaut, at which the mayor of the
town presided, yielded a
handsome collection for the Canadian
martyrs.25
On January 4, 1838, a political refugee
from London, Ontario,
arrived in Cleveland to tell the story
of the sacking of his home by
Canadian "royalists."
Passengers traveling by stagecoach from
Buffalo told of hearing heavy
cannonading on the Niagara frontier,
and presently rumors began to circulate
through Cleveland that
both Quebec and Malden had fallen into
the hands of the Canadian
Patriots.26 On January 8
eighty men left Cleveland for Canada,
via Michigan, to claim the three hundred
acres of land which was
promised every one who would volunteer
for the liberation of
Upper Canada. Several days later
Clevelanders rallied in great
excitement to repel an invasion reported
to be coming from Canada
21 Cleveland Daily Advertiser, January 3, 1838.
22 Scioto Gazette (Chillicothe), January 18, 1838.
23 Weisenburger, Passing of the
Frontier, 358.
24 Cleveland Daily Advertiser, February
21, 1838.
25 The Budget (Conneaut, Ohio) January 30, February 1, 1838. The
Budget was
a little daily issued from January 22 to
February 3, 1838, and devoted primarily to
news from Canada.
26 Cleveland Herald and Gazette, January 4, 6, 9, 19, 1838.
28 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL
AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
in a "long, low, black, piratical
looking schooner," carrying six
guns and a "long eighteen pounder
which turned on a pivot amid.
ship."27 The newspapers
generally ridiculed such absurd rumors,
and comforted their readers by noting
the arrival of lake steamers
from Buffalo, carrying United States
troops to protect the Michigan
border.
By the end of January 1838, the
retreating Navy Islanders
were moving westward in squads of fifty
to sixty, living off the
country as they marched, begging for
food and lodging, "generally
without arms," and "not
communicative as to their destination."
Their progress was reported in the
papers as they moved through
Conneaut, Painesville, and Willoughby,
to Cleveland.28 Efforts to
engage boats for their transportation
having failed, the Patriots
were forced to continue westward beyond
Cleveland on foot. On
February 4 General McLeod of the
Canadian Patriot army, arrived
in the Forest City. Apparently, United
States citizens with relatives
in Canadian prisons, joined the marching
columns, and the Akron
Balance reported mysteriously that twenty-five "Fox
Hunters" had
left for the Northwest.29
On February 24 another large meeting was
held at the Cleve-
land courthouse to discuss the still
unsettled Caroline affair, and
"all persons . . . in favor of
preserving the dignity and Honor of
the American Nation" and protesting
the flagrant "invasion of
American soil in time of peace,"
were urged to attend. The Cleve-
land Herald and Gazette, which had hitherto favored peace and
strict neutrality, now joined in the hue
and cry for "prompt, de-
termined measures" to make clear to
the world "that our national
honor is not to be trifled with by the
minions of any nation upon
earth," and the editor vehemently
attacked the lieutenant governor
of Upper Canada for sending the governor
of New York an "in-
sulting communication" on the Caroline
affair.30 The Daily Adver-
tiser inquired, "Are we Americans, and can we sleep
under the foul
stigma of dishonor?"31 and Ohio's
Senator Allen presented to the
United States Senate a stiff memorial on
the Caroline case from
27 Cleveland Daily Advertiser, January
13, 1838.
28 Cleveland Herald and Gazette, February
2, 1838.
29 The Budget, January 31, 1838; Cleveland Herald and Gazette, January
30,
1838.
30 January 3, 12, February 20,
1838.
31 January 13, 1838.
CANADIAN-AMERICAN CRISIS 29
Belmont County, and another in February
1839 from Geauga
County, demanding a repeal of the
American neutrality law.32
Excitement mounted still higher because
of a false report that
a Clevelander was among the victims of
the burning of the Caroline,
and the Mt. Vernon (Ohio) Watchman
printed a fantastic tale to
the effect that the British were about
to burn a vessel which the
Patriots were fitting out in the harbor
at Cleveland, and that a
messenger had been hurried to Columbus
to get cannon to repel
the attack. One of the Patriots actually
carried off seventeen stands
of arms that had been stacked in the
Cleveland council room, only
to have them recovered at Dover. A
similar raid on a store in
Lower Sandusky yielded eighty rifles.33
The Toledo Blade reported
that large numbers of Patriots were
passing through that lake port,
bound for the Detroit frontier, and the Cleveland
Daily Advertiser
explained that many Americans were
expatriating themselves be-
cause of the insults that had been
heaped upon the American re-
public, and in order to help "a
country where energies are pros-
trated and resources dried up by
tyrants."34 The same paper re-
printed an "Address of the Sons of
Liberty of Montreal, to the
Young Men of the North American
colonies," from the Buffalo
Journal.35
Fortunately, the demonstrations about
the Caroline affair
passed without untoward incidents, but
public opinion was aroused
anew when Canadian courts began to
impose heavy penalties, in-
cluding banishment and hanging, on some
of the invaders who had
the misfortune to be captured on
Canadian soil and now were
charged with high treason. One of those
convicted, the son of a
Cleveland woman, managed to escape and
make his way back to
the city in the fall of 1838. The Cleveland
Herald and Gazette,
though still professing that its policy
was to quiet the "hot heads
on each side of the border line,"
denounced the "cool, deliberate,
murder-like spirit evinced by the
Canadian authorities . . . the
butchery of prisoner after prisoner,
most of them deluded young
men, who erred while acting under
motives that no freeman can
32 Weisenburger, Passing of the
Frontier, 357-360.
33 Cleveland Herald and
Gazette, February 10,
1838.
34 January 19,
1838.
35 Ibid.
30
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
repress."36 The Canadian
government was fully aware of the effect
which these trials and convictions were
having upon Canadian-
American relations, and there was sharp
disagreement among high
ranking officials as to whether leniency
or severity was the proper
approach to this vexing problem.
Meantime, Canadian dispatches, as well
as Ohio newspapers,
contained further references to what
Ohioans were doing in the
cause of Canadian liberty. In February
1838 it was reported that
a force of seven hundred to fifteen
hundred Patriots was planning
to leave Sandusky, cross the bay to the
peninsula, and then proceed
on the ice, from island to island, to
Pt. Au Pelee on the Canadian
mainland.37 Sir George Arthur
informed Colborne, his chief, that
a considerable expedition was about to
"make a descent" from
Cleveland upon Upper Canada,38 and
the British minister reported
to Toronto from Washington that
"the Town of Cleveland, in Ohio,
is represented to be the principal
centre or focus of the present
conspiracy; and it is suspected that
large quantities of arms are
concealed in that neighborhood,"
and cited the American secretaries
of state and war as the source of his
information.39 In another
communication, the ever-watchful
minister reported "that the Au-
thorities have intelligence of a large,
illegal deposit of arms at
Massillon, a town I believe in the State
of Ohio."40
Lieutenant Governor Arthur, meanwhile,
had established con-
tacts with a rather dubious character,
known as Mr. Kent, who was
described as "the gentleman who has
come from Cleveland." The
latter claimed to have spied on the
activities of the Patriot lodges,
and presently collected $150 and his
traveling expenses back to
Ohio, from the British embassy. Among
other things, he reported
that the second division of the
"Army of the intended Republic of
Canada" was located in Cleveland.41
Several weeks later, the British
minister informed the acting secretary
of state in Washington that
the Patriots had "Superior
Lodges" in Rochester, Buffalo, and
Detroit, but that "a Grand Central
Lodge, or Convention of Dele-
gates, is held at Cleveland," and
"another considerable Lodge is
36 March 2 and December 26, 1838.
37 Cleveland
Daily Advertiser, February 12, 1838.
38 Arthur Papers, I, 215.
39 Fox to Arthur, October 4, 1838, ibid., II,
294-295.
40 Ibid., II, 312.
41 Ibid., II, 317, 318, 346.
CANADIAN-AMERICAN CRISIS 31
situated at Cincinnati,"42 that
arms and stores had been assembled
in great quantities with the connivance
of the local magistrates and
that nine steamers were available on
Lake Erie to transport the
Patriot army.
A national convention of the Patriots
and Hunters actually
was held in Cleveland from September 16 to 22, 1838, with prob-
ably as many as 162 delegates in
attendance, though the newspapers
were strangely silent about the matter.
It was at this assembly that
the conquest of Upper Canada was planned
in detail, and the pro-
posal for a "Republican Bank of
Canada" approved. A. D. Smith,
a Cleveland justice of the peace emerged
from the convention as
"president of the Canadian
Republic"; a Cleveland wholesale
grocer was selected for the vice
presidency; and Lucius V. Bierce,
an Akron attorney, was designated
commander-in-chief of "the
Army of the Northwest," and later
commanded the attack on
Windsor.43 Cleveland papers continued to insist
that there were
"no leagued bandits . . . among
us," but New York papers, like the
Courier, referred to Cleveland as the headquarters of the
conspiracy
against Britain's North American
possessions.44
On November 21, 1838, Captain Drew of
the Canadian forces
was alerted to a possible "cross
from Cleveland" where "the bandits
are in great force," and were
expected to descend on Port Stanley
or Port Dover.45 Another
communication, addressed to Colonel
Fraser, contained information that
"a considerable force of Ruffians,
calling themselves Patriots," were
on their way from points in the
interior of Ohio and Michigan to attack
Upper Canada's western
frontier, and that they had established
a depot for supplies and
ammunition on "Put In"
Island.46 Arthur, still relying
heavily on
42 Fox to Aaron Vail, November 3, 1838, ibid.,
II, 343.
43 Weisenburger,
Passing of the Frontier, 359. General H. Brady, of the United
States Army, with headquarters in
Detroit, on November 6, 1838, reported to Governor
Joseph Vance of Ohio that the vice
president of the newly planned "Canadian Re-
public" was a Colonel Williams of
the Ohio militia, and that Bierce, whose name he
misspelled "Burce," was a
general of the Ohio militia. Governor Vance was suf-
ficiently impressed to write to the
secretary of state in Washington, deploring his
inability to exercise greater control
over the arms and equipment of the Ohio militia,
because they were distributed among
various militia units, and were not in an arsenal
"or Secure place of deposit for
Military Stores," and therefore could easily be used
for illegal purposes. See "A
Sidelight on the Hunters' Lodges of 1838," documents
edited by William D. Overman, in the Canadian
Historical Review, XIX (June 1938),
168-172.
44 Cleveland Herald and Gazette, November 7, 22, 1838.
45 Arthur Papers, II, 386, 396.
46 Arthur to Col. F. A. M. Fraser,
December 14, 1838, ibid., II, 446.
32
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Kent's reports about new invasions from
Ohio and Michigan, con-
tinued to suspect Van Buren's policy of
neutrality and relied wholly
upon his own military forces. An agent
of the British government
returning from the West, reported that
the Hunters in Cleveland
had dwindled to 250, and a member of the
royal navy found no
forces on "Put in Island," but
Arthur continued to fill his dis-
patches with stories of large forces
that were assembling as far
south as Kentucky, and insisted that
there were from one thousand
to fifteen hundred "brigands"
at Huron, Ohio, and that Cleveland
remained "the Hot-bed for these
Vagabonds to the westward." 47
The meager accounts found in the Ohio
papers indicate that
the Patriots who actually crossed into
western Canada in December
1838 were for the most part recruits
from Ohio, and particularly
from Cleveland.48 Some notion
of the composition of this strange
assortment of patriots and adventurers
may be gained from the
sarcastic comments of Ebenezer Lane of
Norwalk. A Harvard
graduate and a member of the Ohio
Supreme Court, Lane could be
expected to take a very conservative
view of such demonstrations
in violation of the law. "We have
been holding meetings for
sympathizing with the suffering Patriots
in this town," he observed,
and "we have appointed a Committee
to defend our own soil from
Invasion and to 'encourage emigration'
to such benighted parts of
the world as need the promulgation of our
principles. A Band of
about 30 worthies, ragged, lousy, and
patriotic, passed this town
for the west on Saturday, to conquer
Maiden."49
Throughout 1838 the interest of
Clevelanders in meetings to
commemorate the Caroline affair
did not flag, and several petitions
were circulated demanding the repeal of
the American neutrality
laws. Excitement on both sides of the
international border undoubt-
edly was stimulated by "a Class of
Persons who are making a
Market of the times, by originating ...
stories."50 General Macomb
of the United States Army suspected that
rumors were deliberately
manufactured by men who sought
employment as spies, or by sub-
ordinate office-holders who wished to
impress their superiors by
47 Ibid., II, 404, 432.
48 See Scioto Gazette, December 20, 1838.
49 Quoted in Weisenburger, Passing
of the Frontier, 357.
50 Arthur
Papers, II, 368.
CANADIAN-AMERICAN CRISIS 33
their watchfulness. It is a fact that
some Americans offered their
services to the Canadian authorities.
One wrote quite brazenly
that he would gladly have himself
elected secretary of the local
Patriots who met in his tavern, provided
he would be well paid
for divulging their plans to the
Canadian government. "As money
is my only object and very little
Patriotism," he concluded that
£500 down and £50 a month "will buy
me."51
Actually, the only serious raids into
Canada by the Hunters
and Patriots occurred at Prescott on
November 11, 1838, and across
the Detroit River, on Windsor on
December 4. Both turned out to
be tragic fiascos. The Patriots were
quickly repulsed, and in the
case of the western invasion, sought
safety at once in cowardly
flight, although their own accounts give
quite a different im-
pression.52
The Cleveland Herald and Gazette probably
expressed the con-
clusions of the sober-minded majority of
Ohioans, when it observed
editorially on December 18, 1839,
"We cannot believe any of the
people of the United States so foolhardy
as to engage in further
'Patriot expeditions,' at least until
the Canadians make a move for
liberty themselves," and the
Columbus Ohio Statesman added, "We
hope everyone concerned in the Canada
difficulty will not forget
that if Canada is made free, it must be
done on the other side of
the line."53 The Scioto
Gazette of Chillicothe wisely observed that
in view of the "character of those
who compose the Patriot force,"
their number would diminish rapidly upon
the return of spring
and the reopening of navigation on the
lakes and canals.54
Van Buren's attempts to enforce
neutrality in due time proved
successful. The secret organizations
which had kept the border in
turmoil for more than a year were
ordered to disband. No serious
incidents occurred after 1838, but as
late as 1840, a citizen of
Canton inquired of President Van Buren
why the leader of the
Upper Canadian rebellion was still being
held in an American jail,
51 Ibid., II, 438, 439.
52 See Robert B. Ross, "The Patriot
War," published in the Detroit Evening
News, 1890. J. Davis Barnett has reviewed "The Books of
the Political Prisoners and
Exiles of 1838," in Ontario
Historical Society, Papers and Records, XVI, 10-18.
53 Quoted in Weisenburger, Passing of the Frontier, 360.
54 February 22, 1838.
34
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
and the Democratic state central
committee of Ohio pointed out the
bad effect of such a policy on the
voters of Ohio.55 The Hunters
and Patriots lodges did not dissolve
until after Van Buren had
ceased to be president.
55 Weisenburger, Paising of the
Frontier, 361.
OHIOANS AND THE CANADIAN-AMERICAN CRISIS
OF 1837-1838
by CARL
WITTKE
Professor of History and Dean of the
Graduate School,
Western Reserve University
The Canadian Rebellion of 1837, an
abortive, misguided up-
rising confined to small areas around
Montreal and Toronto, and
limited to a small minority of the
population, was neither a revolt
against Her Majesty, the young Queen
Victoria, nor against Her
Majesty's Government in London, but
rather an armed protest
against the abuses of colonial
administration in Quebec and
Toronto. In spite of its opera bouffe
character, the rebellion had
tremendous importance for the future of
Canada and the empire,
for among other things, it led to Lord
Durham's famous "Report
on the Affairs of British North
America," a document which proved
decisive in the evolution of modern
British colonial policy.1
With the failure of armed rebellion in
Canada, a number of
the leaders of the uprising fled across
the border into the United
States, and in the lake ports and border
towns of the American
republic, these refugees found
sympathetic supporters who fur-
nished them food and military supplies
for a continuance of their
struggle for liberty. The Detroit
Morning Post editorially summa-
rized the point of view of many
Americans when it commented,
shortly after the disturbances began in
Canada:
Although as a nation we would not be
justified in being otherwise than
neutral, yet as freeborn Americans-as
lovers of liberty-as believers in the
doctrine of equal rights-we cannot but
feel the warm gushings of sympathy
for those who are, like our forefathers,
oppressed, and who, like them a hand-
ful, are determined to meet the
innumerable horde of foreign mercenary
soldiers, and to obtain, in the
struggle, Victory or Death.2
The Canadian rebels who occupied Navy
Island on the Niagara
frontier late in 1837, received
reinforcements from the United
States, and this in turn led to such
border brawls as the capture
1 For details, see W. S. Wallace,
The Family Compact (Toronto, 1915); A. D.
DeCelles, The 'Patriotes' of '37
(Toronto, 1921); D. B. Read, The Canadian Rebellion
of 1837 (Toronto, 1896); Duncan McArthur, "The Canadian
Rebellion of 1837," in
Adam Shortt, ed., Canada and Its
Provinces (22 vols., Toronto, 1914), III, 361-383;
and Carl Wittke, A History of Canada (3d
ed., New York, 1941), chaps. ix-xi.
2 Quoted
in Cleveland Daily Advertiser, December 1, 1837.
21