A History of the Nineteenth Century, Year by Year Part 28

In Upper Canada, Major Head--afterward Sir Francis Head--undertook to suppress the rebellion by throwing the Canadians on their honor. Trusting to the good will of the people, he sent all the regular soldiers out of the province to the a.s.sistance of Governor Gosford in Lower Canada. The plan worked well. The Canadians, proud of the confidence reposed in them, enrolled themselves in the militia to the number of ten or twelve thousand, and when Mackenzie and the rebels a.s.sembled to show fight, they were routed at the first encounter, and the rebellion in Upper Canada was at once suppressed. But Major Head's policy was not approved by the British Government, and Head had to make way for Lord Durham, the newly appointed Governor of Canada.

1838

[Sidenote: Lord Durham in Canada]

[Sidenote: Napierville]

[Sidenote: Prescott]

[Sidenote: Durham repudiated]

[Sidenote: Canadian interregnum]

Early in the year the Canadian insurgents and their sympathizers at Navy Island were compelled to surrender. United States troops were posted at the frontier. In the meanwhile Lord Durham had taken charge in Canada with dictatorial powers. He undertook to remodel the Const.i.tution of Canada. His first act was a proclamation of amnesty from the Queen. The beneficent effect of this was spoiled by a clause of exceptions providing for the perpetual banishment of a number of men implicated in the recent rising. On April 2, Lunt and Matthews, two conspicuous rebels, were hanged. Lord Durham's confession that his measures were illegal evoked a storm in Parliament. Lord Brougham, who had a personal quarrel with him, led the opposition there. In Canada, Mackenzie promptly proclaimed a republic. On June 5, a fight between the rebels and British troops near Toronto quelled the rebellion for a short time. Within a few months it broke out again at Beauharnais. A pitched battle was fought at Napierville early in November.

After their defeat there, the rebels made another stand at Prescott on November 17, but suffered so crus.h.i.+ng a defeat that the insurrection was believed to have been ended. In the meanwhile, Lord Brougham had succeeded in pa.s.sing a bill through the House disapproving Lord Durham's measures.

Durham, he said, had been authorized to make a general law, but not to hang men without the form of law. To save his own Administration Lord Melbourne on the next day announced that the Cabinet had decided to disallow Durham's expatriation ordinances. Durham was called upon to proclaim to the rebellious colonists that the ordinance issued by him had been condemned by his own government. Venting his mortification in a last indignant proclamation, he quitted Canada without waiting for his recall. By the express orders of the government the honors usually paid to a Governor-General were withheld from him. Lord Durham returned to England a broken-hearted and dying man. He was succeeded by Sir John Colbourne. His first measure was to offer a reward of 1,000 for the apprehension of Papineau. The storm of indignation that followed was so violent that Colbourne incontinently threw up his post, and hastened back to England.

The Hudson's Bay Fur Company improved the interval of the interregnum to monopolize the functions of government in the vast regions of the extreme north of America. An expedition was sent out to explore the northernmost coast. The United States also fitted out an Antarctic exploring expedition, consisting of six vessels, under the command of Lieutenant Wilkes.

[Sidenote: Renewed agitation in England]

[Sidenote: People's Charter]

In the British Parliament, the question of the adoption of the ballot was raised by Duncombe, but Lord John Russell spoke against it, stating that the majority of the people were against fresh changes, or any renewal of the agitating circ.u.mstances which preceded the Reform Bill. But twenty members voted with Duncombe, of whom six were asked to meet six members of the Workingmen's a.s.sociation to discuss a programme of action. At that meeting a doc.u.ment in the shape of a Parliamentary pet.i.tion was prepared containing "six points," which were: Universal suffrage, or the right of voting by every male of twenty-one years of age; vote by ballot; annual Parliaments; abolition of the property qualification for members of Parliament; members of Parliament to be paid for their services; equal electoral districts. At the conclusion of the meeting, Daniel O'Connell rose and handed the pet.i.tion to the secretary of the Workingmen's a.s.sociation, saying, "There, Lovett, is your Charter. Agitate for it and never be content with anything else."

[Sidenote: Feargus O'Connor]

[Sidenote: Chartist leaders]

The "People's Charter" was submitted to a large public meeting and enthusiastically approved, and the leaders of the movement began to organize. They soon fell into two factions; those who were in favor of force and those in favor of agitation only. The leader of both parties was Feargus O'Connor, an Irish barrister, and once a follower of O'Connell, with whom he subsequently quarrelled. a.s.sociated with him as leaders of the movement at various periods were Lovett, Heatherington, Henry Vincent, Ernest Jones, and Thomas Cooper "the poet of Chartism."

[Ill.u.s.tration: QUEEN VICTORIA TAKING THE OATH Painted by Sir George Hayter]

[Sidenote: French expedition to Mexico]

[Sidenote: Coast towns bombarded]

In France, the sympathies of the people with the cause of the French Canadians were kept under firm control by the government of Louis Philippe. A dissolution of the Chambers, which modified the condition of the a.s.sembly, served to strengthen the Ministry of Mole. To vent the feelings excited in behalf of the Frenchmen of Canada, the French Government picked a quarrel with the Republic of Mexico. Reparation was demanded late in March for injuries inflicted on French residents during the internal dissensions of Mexico. The demand was refused. A French squadron of wars.h.i.+ps, under Admiral Baudin and Prince de Joinville, was sent out to blockade the coast of Mexico. On November 27, San Juan de Ulloa was bombarded. Vera Cruz likewise suffered bombardment. The Argentine Republic became involved and declared war on France. French cruisers blockaded Buenos Ayres.

[Sidenote: Louis Napoleon returns]

[Sidenote: Alexandre Dumas]

On the occasion of his mother's death, Prince Louis Napoleon returned to Europe. His book, "Idees Napoleoniennes," which was widely read throughout France, at once drew attention upon him. At the request of the French Government he was expelled from Switzerland. Louis Philippe's friend, Alexandre Dumas, at this time achieved a popular success with his book "Le Capitaine Paul." Dumas's romantic plays and several of his latest comedies, written in the style of Scribe, were at the height of their vogue.

[Sidenote: Daubigny]

In the French salon of this year, Francois Daubigny, the great pupil of Delaroche, first exhibited his early masterpieces, "Banks of the River Oulins" and "The Seine at Charenton." Both paintings were purchased by the French Government.

[Sidenote: Poe]

[Sidenote: Hawthorne]

[Sidenote: Emerson]

[Sidenote: Wendell Phillips]

In America, a new writer had arisen in Edgar Allan Poe, who disputed the field with Longfellow and Whittier. Poe's "Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym,"

a story of marine adventures, which had begun in Poe's own journal, "The Messenger," was published in complete form by Harpers. Before this several of his works, among them that of "Ligeia," had already brought him into some prominence. Nathaniel Hawthorne during this same year wrote his early stories, which were afterward collected under the t.i.tle of "Twice Told Tales." Ralph Waldo Emerson at Concord, Ma.s.sachusetts, had begun to deliver those penetrating lectures which, rewritten in the form of essays, later established his rank as the foremost philosophic writer in America. Wendell Phillips made his appearance as a lecturer against slavery in Boston.

Shortly before this a pro-slavery mob at Alton, Illinois, murdered the Rev.

E.P. Lovejoy and destroyed the press and building of his newspaper, published in the interests of abolition. Abraham Lincoln, who had been re-elected to the Legislature of Illinois, voiced a strong protest against this and other pro-slavery tendencies in Illinois.

[Sidenote: Removal of Cherokees]

Other acts of persecution during this year brought lasting disgrace upon America. In direct violation of the Federal treaties with the Indians the State troops of Georgia forcibly removed 16,000 Cherokees from their lands in that State. Nothing was done to alleviate the sufferings of the Cherokees, who were driven from their settlements in midwinter. The resulting death rate was fearful. More than 4,500 Indians, or one-fourth of the whole number, perished before they reached their destination in the distant Indian Territory.

[Sidenote: Persecution of Mormons]

The members of the new sect of Mormon, numbering some 12,000 souls, were driven from their homes at Nauvoo in western Missouri. They went across the plains of Iowa, stopping temporarily at Council Bluffs. From there they pa.s.sed over the great American prairies, and, crossing the Rocky Mountain range, settled near the Great Salt Lake of Utah.

[Sidenote: Record transatlantic trip]

Chicago was incorporated with a population of 4,170 residents. Much comment was excited by a record trip of the steamboat "Great Western," which steamed from Bristol, England, to New York in fifteen days. Among those who lived to witness this event was John Stevens, one of the pioneers of modern steamboat building. Shortly afterward he died in his eighty-ninth year.

[Sidenote: Indian truce broken]

[Sidenote: Betrayal of Osceola]

[Sidenote: Zachary Taylor in Florida]

Within a short time after suing for peace, the Southern Indians broke the truce and made a determined effort to take Fort Mellon. In this they were unsuccessful. In March, at Fort Dade, five of the chiefs signed an agreement, in which they stipulated to cease from war until the government decided whether they might remain in Florida. Some seven hundred Indians and negroes were taken by the government before its decision was announced, and were sent off to Tampa for s.h.i.+pment. In violation of a flag of truce, Osceola and several of his princ.i.p.al chiefs were seized and sent to Fort Moultrie as prisoners. Their treatment there was such that Osceola soon died. In May, Colonel Zachary Taylor succeeded Jesup. The remaining forces of the Indians were now wary. They scattered in the swamps, eluding attempts of organized troops to capture them. In December, Colonel Taylor set out with over a thousand men for their almost inaccessible haunts. On Christmas Day they found the Seminoles prepared to receive them near Okeechobee Lake. After a hard fought battle, in which Taylor lost 139 men, the Indians once more retreated into the swamps of Florida.

[Sidenote: Boers in Natal]

[Sidenote: Pretorius]

In South Africa during this year, the new community of Dutch settlers, who had evaded English jurisdiction, soon revived their peculiar inst.i.tutions in the region that is now Natal--from the Drakensberg to the sea at Durban, and from the Tugela River to the Umzimbolbu. The fight against the African savages continued. Early in the spring, a Boer expedition was defeated by the Zulus, who followed up their advantage by an attack on the nearest Boer laager. Seventy Boers, with their Kaffir servants, were ma.s.sacred. A large Boer settlement, numbering some 800 persons, was saved from extermination only by a timely relief expedition under Pretorius, in December. On the other side troubles arose between the Boers and the Bechuanas in consequence of King Moroka's prohibition of the importation of spirituous liquors into Bechua.n.a.land. The growth of a new Dutch State to the north of Cape Colony caused uneasiness among the British authorities at Cape Town. A movement was started to extend British rule to Natal, and to secure the important seaport of Durban.

1839

[Sidenote: French hold on Mexico]