GOOD WILL ON ANCIENT BATTLEGROUNDS
By CARL WITTKE
In Dr. Quaife's announcement of plans
for the Maumee Val-
ley International Historical Convention,
I found the title and the
theme for my address this evening. The
purpose of the Conven-
tion, in the words of its general
chairman, is "to cultivate and
deepen our pride in the historical
heritage which is the common
possession of . . . four great
commonwealths . . ."; and "to
assemble in pleasant association men and
women of good will, rep-
resenting the two great North American
democracies, on the
scenes of their ancient battlegrounds,
there to strengthen the ties
of peace and concord which now for a
century and a quarter have
maintained inviolate the world's longest
unguarded frontier."
We meet on historic ground. The area to
be traversed by
the historical pilgrimage which begins
here in Toledo tonight was
one of the ancient battlegrounds in the
long struggle between
Britain and France for possession of the
interior of America.
Long-standing enmities, arising from the
rivalries of European
diplomacy, were transferred in the 18th
century to the New World,
where the interlocking and overlapping
of colonial claims furnished
new causes for conflict. More than two
centuries ago, the French
founded posts and settlements on the
Wabash and along the
northern tributaries of the Ohio, and by
the 1740's, they claimed
the whole Ohio and Great Lakes basin. In
their birch canoes,
French fur traders floated down these
lakes and forest streams
and established supply bases at such
strategic points as Detroit
and developed little farms near-by to
furnish pork and beans and
corn-meal for the French voyageurs. British
fur traders, on the
other hand, tried hard to divert the fur
trade of the Great Lakes
region from Montreal and Quebec to
British posts, and the fur
trade, with all its attendant advantages
and evils, became an im-
portant factor in the deadly rivalry
between the English and
(15)
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OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
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French for the interior of North
America. French plans in-
cluded a chain of forts from the head of
the Maumee down to the
Wabash in order to protect the vital
line of communications be-
tween Louisiana and Canada and to
counteract English influence
in the Ohio country, and throughout the
18th century, French and
English rivalry centered along this
Maumee-Wabash route.
In 1763, France, by the arbitrament of
war, lost her claims to
the area east of the Mississippi. The
rivalry between the French
and the English had always been marked
by Indian wars and
massacres, in which it would be
difficult to apportion the respon-
sibility fairly. But now, the transfer
of sovereignty over the
Indian country to the British increased
the anxiety of the Indians
to such proportions that it finally
burst forth in the famous
Pontiac's Conspiracy, in which many of
the chief events were
enacted in this section of the
Northwest.
The end of the French regime
foreshadowed the end of the
beneficent rule of the king of France
over his dusky forest chil-
dren. As the tribes' kindly father, he
had sent them priests and
presents. It was not difficult to
contrast the red flag of Britain,
as a symbol of ruthless power, with the
white lilies of France.
Control of Detroit gave the English
command of the passage from
Lake Erie to the upper Lakes; the
Indians could not fathom the
meaning of such startling changes of
policy, and the British soldier
had little talent for explaining the new
situation to the puzzled
Indians. When Major Robert Rogers
started west with 200 men
in fifteen whale boats to effect the
transfer of the northwestern
posts from the French to the British
flag, his route carried him
along the south shore of Lake Erie. On
November 29, 1760, the
white flag of France was hauled down at
Detroit and Major Henry
Gladwin was left to defend the newly
acquired British post.
The bewildered and rebellious Indians
found a leader in
Pontiac, an able chieftain who had
fought Braddock, and under
the French flag with Montcalm. Presently
the frontier was ablaze
with Pontiac's Conspiracy and within a
few weeks, every post
west of Niagara in the Great Lakes
country, with the exception
of Detroit, fell before Indian treachery
or Indian attack. The list
included Fort Sandusky, commanded by
Ensign Paully, and Fort
MAUMEE VALLEY HISTORICAL
PROCEEDINGS 17
Miami, on the Maumee, commanded by
Ensign Holmes. But the
tribesmen were eventually pacified and
forced to accept British
sovereignty. Pontiac's Conspiracy marked
the end of another
protest of the backwoods against
intruding civilization and, inci-
dentally, provided one reason for the
British ministry's decision
to keep a standing army in America and
to impose taxes on the
colonies for its support.
In 1774, the region where we meet today,
became a part of
the French-Canadian province of Quebec,
to be administered
thereafter as part of Canada. From
Quebec, nearly a century
earlier, had gone such French explorers
as Marquette and Jolliet
and La Salle to claim this West for
France and to scatter little
French settlements throughout the Ohio
Valley. The Quebec Act
of 1774, from the British standpoint,
was a masterpiece of states-
manship, for it saved Canada for the
British during the American
Revolution. Because "sedition and treason, like tobacco and
potatoes," in the words of a
British attorney-general, were "the
peculiar growth of the American
soil," England was eager to sat-
isfy the French Canadians and retain
their loyalty to the British
connection at a time when the thirteen
seaboard colonies were
seething with discontent. The Quebec Act
was passed "with an
eye to Boston." American colonials
denounced it as one of the
worst of the "coercive" and
"intolerable" acts leading to revolu-
tion, for it deprived them of their
claims to the trans-Appalachian
region and established Roman Catholicism
and autocratic govern-
ment at their very back doors.
Nevertheless, the Quebec Act, in
the words of the late Professor Alvord,
was "one of the few states-
manlike measures of the ministry."
For all its denial of an elective
assembly, the act "embodied a new
sovereign principle of the
British Empire: the liberty of
non-English peoples to be them-
selves." Canada remained loyal to
the Empire during the Ameri-
can Revolution. The Quebec Act kept
Canada British by allowing
it to remain French. Thus, it legally
recognized and perpetuated
that French nationalism which to this
day is a vital factor in
almost every phase of the life of the
Canadian Dominion.
In 1783, as a result of the American
Revolution, the North-
west was transferred from British
sovereignty to the United States.
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OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND
HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
What influence the daring exploits of
George Rogers Clark at
Vincennes and elsewhere had on this
transfer need not concern us
here. Historians are still debating the
issue, but none deny that
Clark's exploits will remain one of the
most romantic episodes in
American history. For twelve years after
the United States was
recognized as an independent nation, the
new Federal Government
was engaged in controversy with the
British over the ownership
and control of the Northwest posts.
England refused to surrender
them and justified her failure to
observe the Treaty of 1783 by the
countercharge that the United States had
violated its provisions
concerning the loyalists and British
debts. As a matter of fact,
the international boundary fixed by the
Treaty of 1783 had no
political meaning until thirteen years
later, and little economic
significance for even longer. Michigan,
to take but one example,
was for decades merely a part of a great
commercial and economic
system to which the St. Lawrence River
was the key, and its local
history had little meaning in these
early years unless related to this
international and transcontinental
system.
The British commander at Detroit worked
hard to retain con-
trol of the fur trade of the Maumee
Valley and the upper Wabash,
and to maintain peace among the Indians
so that there might not
be a second frontier tragedy like
Pontiac's Conspiracy. The Amer-
icans regarded British policy as an attempt
to incite the Indians
against the American frontiersmen, and
for several decades, the
record of British-American relations is
one of mutual distrust.
There is little doubt about the desire
of Canadian leaders for an
Indian barrier south of the Lakes and
north of the Ohio. Lord
Dorchester, governor of Canada, held an
Indian council at the
Maumee Rapids to preserve peace among
the Indians, and Colonel
John Graves Simcoe, of Upper Canada, had
similar plans to
mediate in Indian affairs to prevent the
American advance down
the Maumee Valley, and at one time
actually proposed that the
United States cede Detroit to Canada.
Tomorrow you will travel over some of
the ground made
famous by the ill-fated expedition of St.
Clair, the first governor
of the Northwest Territory, against the
Indians, and you will visit
the scene of Anthony-Wayne's invasion of
the Maumee country
MAUMEE VALLEY HISTORICAL.
PROCEEDINGS 19
and his famous victory over the Indians
at Fallen Timbers. When
Wayne marched northward f from Fort
Recovery to build Fort
Defiance, he might easily have proceeded
to attack a new fort
recently erected by the British on the
Maumee. Wayne defeated
the Indians at Fallen Timbers and
demanded the surrender of the
British fort, but finally refrained from
attacking it and moved on
to build Fort Wayne in the Wabash Valley
instead. In August,
1795, Wayne concluded the famous Treaty
of Greenville. Re-
cently, an "Altar of Peace" to
symbolize the kindling of the
council fire at Wayne's headquarters was
dedicated at Greenville,
Ohio, in commemoration of the treaty
which closed forty years
of warfare with the tribes in the Old
Northwest and opened the
floodgates to western immigration. In
1796, the British evacuated
the Northwest posts and Wayne's army
advanced to accept the
transfer of Detroit from British to
American control. Malden, in
Canada, now became the rendezvous for
large numbers of Ameri-
can Indians who went each year from the
Wabash villages to deal
with British and Canadian fur traders.
Peaceful relations between the United
States and Canada were
again interrupted by the War of 1812,
one of the most unsatisfac-
tory episodes in the long story of
Anglo-American relations. The
war was not desired by the British; it
was unpopular with a large
element in the United States; it began
after its alleged causes no
longer existed; it ended with a peace
treaty that made no reference
to these causes; and the one respectable
American military victory
was won after peace had been concluded.
Neither British nor
American historians can point with much
pride to the events of
the war, but Canadians cherish its
memories because of their heroic
and successful defense of their long
frontiers against the invader
from the south. American imperialism, as
manifested in the
desire for territorial expansion at the
expense of Canada, comes
nearer to explaining the war than any
other cause.
Here, in this general neighborhood, the
year before war was
declared, William Henry Harrison fought
Tecumseh's Indians at
the Shawnee village of Tippecanoe on the
Wabash. At Detroit,
General Hull surrendered after a long
march from Urbana through
the Maumee country and across the border
into Canada. The next
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OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
year, General Harrison, whose army had
been assembled at Fort
Meigs on the lower Maumee and on the
Portage and Sandusky
rivers, successfully fought the British
and the Indians at the Battle
of the Thames after Commodore Perry had
won control of the
Lake, and thus brought peace to the
Ohio, Indiana and Michigan
frontiers.
The war was a terrible blunder,
unnecessary and avoidable.
But Canadian victories became the
"title deeds of Canadian
nationality" and "the blood
pledge of the birth of a nation." The
development of modern Canadian
nationalism in a real sense be-
gins with Canada's experiences in the
War of 1812. The War
gave the United States one more lesson
that British North America
was not for sale, and that Canada did
not propose to change her
allegiance at the call of a foreigner,
even when the invader was
a blood brother from the south. The war
had one laudable after-
math. Almost before the smell of powder
had disappeared along
the Canadian-American boundary, England
and the United States
concluded the famous Rush-Bagot
disarmament agreement of 1817
inaugurating an era of peace along three
thousand miles of un-
defended frontier. After more than a
century and a quarter, that
agreement stands more secure than ever,
as a glorious lesson in
the practical benefits of real
disarmament based on mutual good
will.
In 1837, Canadians experienced a brief,
abortive rebellion in
their struggle for responsible
government. The rebellion was the
result not so much of a deliberate,
tyrannical policy of England,
but rather of misgovernment and
corruption by local cliques in
Quebec and Toronto. For several years,
the border remained in
an uproar. So-called "Hunters'
Lodges" sprang up along the
frontier from Vermont to Michigan and
tried to impose repub-
licanism upon Canada from without. Rebel
sympathizers appeared
in the Middle West to incite American
Republicans against British
rule in Canada and several boats were
captured, laden with sup-
plies and muskets, taken from the
Detroit jail. Two invasions of
Windsor from Detroit ended in failure,
but as late as December,
1838, four hundred "Hunters"
marched through Detroit, and
MAUMEE VALLEY HISTORICAL
PROCEEDINGS 21
crossed over to the Canadian side where
they set fire to some
Canadian shipping.
Almost simultaneously, Ohio and Michigan
were fighting their
famous, if ludicrous, Toledo War. We
meet on bloody ground
tonight, for near this spot, a little
more than a century ago Ohio
and Michigan mobilized their forces to
settle a boundary dispute
which was the product of a bad map drawn
in 1755, and which
involved a strip of land seven miles at
its western and eleven miles
at its eastern end, stretching across
Ohio from its present western
boundary to Lake Erie. Governor Lucas of
Ohio mobilized 10,000
militia to defend this area, and the
"boy governor" of Michigan
announced he would welcome them to
"hospitable graves." Bad
maps have produced a lot of history. The
Ohio militia encamped
at old Fort Miami, but the fighting was
mainly confined to the use
of fists in "The Toledo War"
over "The Black Swamp" of the
Maumee basin. The excitement spread to
Vistula, Port Lawrence,
Tremainsville and Monroe, and the files
of the old Toledo Gazette,
the Michigan Sentinel, and the
Detroit Free Press tell the story in
all its gory details. Ohioans were
denounced as "nullifiers" by
their Michigan opponents, while Governor
Lucas' paper thundered
that "Michigan must be taught to
understand that even the lion,
in the nobleness of his nature, can be
provoked to the assumption
of his rights."
Thanks to the politicians, the
controversy was settled by com-
promise on the eve of a national election,
when, as John Quincy
Adams said, the air was
"perfumed" with electoral votes. And
so it was that Ohio got the four hundred
square miles of disputed
territory, including the outlet of the
Maumee, and Michigan re-
ceived 9,000 square miles in the Upper
Peninsula, which Detroit-
ers at the time described as a region so
"sterile" that it was
"destined by soil and climate to
remain forever a wilderness."
Early in 1837, Detroit celebrated the
admission of Michigan
as a state, with a "grand
illumination," consisting of a tallow
candle set in every window of the
Michigan frontier town. Toledo
celebrated her victory in the
Ohio-Michigan boundary controversy
eight months earlier with a parade and a
tremendous dinner at
22 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND
HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
the old Mansion House, featured by
twenty-six toasts, after the
virile and bibulous fashion of our
ancestors.
I pass over other incidents in the
history of the Maumee Val-
ley, and in the long story of
Canadian-American relations, includ-
ing several foolhardy attempts by
misguided enthusiasts in the
United States to lure Canada from her
British allegiance, in order
to consider one final incident, the
American Civil War in its effect
upon the relations of these neighbor
states.
The Civil War preserved the unity of the
American Republic.
It also helped build the Canadian
confederation, and thus it made
nations of both the United States and
Canada.
Within a few months of the outbreak of
the American Civil
War, Canada's attitude had changed from
one of friendliness and
sympathy for the North to one of
suspicion, fear, and anger. This
was partly due to the strained relations
that had developed between
the United States and Great Britain as a
result of controversies
over neutral rights, blockade, shipping,
contraband, and the rec-
ognition of southern belligerency by the
British Government.
Another reason was the bluster of
American politicians and the
jingoism of American newspapers who
advocated that the losses
due to southern secession be balanced by
the annexation of Canada.
As the war progressed, Confederate
agents and refugees
gathered on Canadian soil to plot
attacks upon the northern border.
Confederate agents operating in Canada
financed various ventures
to burn shipping on the Great Lakes, to
free the Confederate
prisoners on Johnson's Island near
Sandusky, to raid various Lake
ports, to capture steamers on Lake Erie,
to seize the U.S.S.
Michigan at Sandusky, and to sink shipping in the Detroit River.
Rumors spread in 1863-1864 that a
hundred Confederates had left
Toronto for a raid across the Detroit
River, and thousands were
ordered to man the Lake steamers for
action against Confederate
agents. A fourteen pounder was shipped
from Guelph, Upper
Canada, to a port in Michigan in a box
marked "potatoes," and
Confederate agents plotted to get the
support of the Copperheads
who were especially strong in Ohio,
Indiana, and Illinois.
The Civil War was followed by a long
period of controversy
in Anglo-American relations, by the
repeal of the Canadian-
MAUMEE VALLEY HISTORICAL
PROCEEDINGS 23
American reciprocity agreement of 1854,
by the threat to end
disarmament along the border, and by an
actual invasion of Canada
by Irish-Americans who thought they
could advance Ireland's
independence by twisting the tail of the
British lion in Canada.
The Chicago Tribune, in January,
1866, regretted that Canada
had not been taken during the last war
with England and an-
nounced that if the chance ever
presented itself again, she would
"be snatched up by this Republic as
quickly as a hawk would
gobble a quail." Radical
Republicans, such as Chandler of Michi-
gan and Stanton of Ohio, favored
annexing Canada. The former
introduced a resolution in 1869 to the
effect that "the true solu-
tion of all the controversies between
Great Britain and the United
States will be found in a surrender of
all British possessions in
North America to the people of the
United States," and represen-
tatives from Ohio and Illinois argued
that it was "fated," "under
heaven," "that the American
flag shall wave over every foot of
this American continent in course of
time."
The Civil War made Canada fear the
United States and look
to her defenses, particularly in her
undeveloped western areas,
which were already being drawn within
the economic orbit of
San Francisco, and were in danger of
being overrun by American
immigrants surging westward across the
prairies. It was fear of
the United States, as well as the
example of the United States,
which stimulated the formation of the
present day Canadian
federation, and decisively affected its
form.
After 1874, a calm unknown for a quarter
century descended
upon Canadian-American relations. The
United States was busy
with hard times and political scandals;
Canadian confederation
was accepted as an accomplished fact,
and annexation ceased to
be advocated, at least in responsible
quarters.
May I close these remarks, I hope not
altogether inappropri-
ately, by commenting briefly on present
day Canadian-American
relations now that Canada is again
involved in a great Empire
War. It was Andre Siegfried who said
that all of North American
life is the result of the struggle
against two axes--the North--South
axis of geography, and the East-West
axis of history. This is
particularly true of Canada, whose
allegiance to the mother coun-
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OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
try is deep and genuine, but many of
whose interests are with the
United States. Fear and dislike of the
United States, at least in
past years, have been the foundation of
her national feeling.
Canada's anomalous position has at times
made her hard to live
with, both for Great Britain and the
United States. Her loyalties
pull in one direction; her interests
often in another.
The Canadian Dominion has achieved a
recognized sovereign
status internationally by developing her
national sovereignty, not
in complete isolation, but within the
British Commonwealth of
Nations. To a large measure, her fear of
being absorbed or domi-
nated by her powerful neighbor to the
south has been responsible
for this choice. At the same time,
American and Canadian cul-
ture, existing side by side in these
days of rapid and complete
intercommunication, is bound to make
these two peoples more
alike.
There are many Canadians who still feel
a certain mortifica-
tion because the United States and
Canada are not equals in power
and influence, and these people
sometimes seek compensation for
their inferiority feeling by pointing
out, with considerable justifica-
tion, the superiority of Canadian
judicial procedures over Ameri-
can "corrupt" judges,
"shyster" lawyers and "sentimental" juries,
or by stressing Canadian superiority in
all the primary virtues, such
as honesty, religion, and morality.
Unfortunately, there is a Canadian
stereotype of Americans,
perhaps largely due to American
newspapers, magazines, and films,
from which it is easy to infer that the
United States is a boastful,
erratic, and irresponsible nation of
racketeers, tree- and flag-pole
sitters, dance marathoners, bridge
hounds, and seekers after pub-
licity. If Canadians frequently give
little recognition to the great-
ness and generous qualities of the
American people, Americans
contribute to the super-sensitiveness of
Canadians by their colossal
ignorance of Canadian history, and their
boastful comments upon
everything that is "bigger and
better" in the United States.
It is conceivable that Canada's
importance may so increase in
the years ahead that she may well become
the heart of the British
Empire. Nature has made Canada a liaison
nation between the
United States and Great Britain. Our
Monroe Doctrine, in times
MAUMEE VALLEY HISTORICAL
PROCEEDINGS 25
of international crisis, is a guarantee
of Canadian nationhood.
Canada's almost inevitable participation
in Europe's wars, even
though it be by her own free choice,
makes isolation for the United
States so difficult that the Monroe
Doctrine may well become, in
this sense, an entangling alliance for
the United States. Canada
has remained and will remain British. At
the same time, she is
steadily becoming more North American.
Will she eventually
join the Pan-American Union, and thus
merge the Pax Britannica
into a Pax Americana?
For more than a century and a quarter,
we have been at peace.
It has been a "peace with
friction," but mutual good will and
common sense have always triumphed in
the end. In the routine
of every-day life, the international
boundary has been practically
non-existent, and as the flow of
population proceeded from East
to West, pioneering was far more
important than politics. Before
1837, swarms of Americans crossed the
boundary to settle down
and seek a livelihood in British North
America; since 1837, popu-
lation flowed southward from Canada into
the United States, and
Canadians joined with American pioneers
in settling the Mis-
sissippi Valley. Canada had no Middle
West of her own because
the inhospitable Laurentian shield
deflected the tide of Canadian
settlement to the south of the Lakes
into the United States, and so
Canadians shared in clearing the forests
of Michigan, in turning
the prairie sod of the Mississippi
states, and in building the rail-
roads running into Chicago. In every
period, from the days of the
Loyalists of the American Revolution to
the recent American
invasion of the Dominion's western wheat
belt, Americans have
likewise shared in the building of the
Canadian Dominion. Indeed,
there are some North American families
that have changed
political allegiance once every
generation since 1750. Not until
1933, as a result of the war and the
depression, was any systematic
effort made to curb the free interchange
of population between
Canada and the United States, and we may
assume that present
restrictions will be only temporary.
"Good fences make good neighbors,"
but better than fences
is the spirit of mutual respect and good
will which motivates the
relations of the two great
self-governing nations that have devel-
26
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
oped from common Anglo-Saxon origins on
this North American
continent. The spirit of our peoples
springs from an unshakable
devotion to the principles of human
freedom and democratic living,
and in the words of Matthew Arnold,
"What attaches people to
us is the spirit we are of, not the
machinery we employ."