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Title: The Administration of Lieut.-Governor Simcoe,
   Viewed in his Official Correspondence
Author: Cruikshank, Ernest Alexander (1854-1939)
Date of first publication: 1891
Edition used as base for this ebook:
   Toronto: Canadian Institute, 1891
   [Transactions of the Canadian Institute,
   vol. II, pages 284-298]
   (first edition)
Date first posted: 31 December 2009
Date last updated: 31 December 2009
Project Gutenberg Canada ebook #445

This ebook was produced by: David T. Jones
& the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
at http://www.pgdpcanada.net

This file was produced from images generously made available
by the Internet Archive




THE ADMINISTRATION OF LIEUT.-GOVERNOR SIMCOE,
VIEWED IN HIS OFFICIAL CORRESPONDENCE.

BY ERNEST CRUIKSHANK.

                                          (_Read 28th March, 1891._)


Until very recently the materials for the history of the Province of
Upper Canada under the administration of Lieut.-Governor Simcoe and
his immediate successors, accessible to the inquirer, were scanty
indeed. Portions of some of Simcoe's earlier despatches had, it is
true, been copied many years ago for the Library of Parliament but
their fragmentary condition rendered them of little value. The entire
correspondence has now fortunately been transcribed under the
superintendence of the able Dominion Archivist and may be consulted by
anybody sufficiently interested in it to take that trouble. It may be
said, without exaggeration, to throw a flood of light not only on the
domestic affairs of the Province but also upon the relations of Great
Britain with the United States, and with the Indian tribes of the west
during a most critical period, and even upon the conduct and progress
of the war which was then being carried on by the United States
against those tribes.

I simply intend in this paper to refer to those parts of the
correspondence which relate to the internal affairs of the Province.
Simcoe was undoubtedly a man of an active and original turn of mind, a
forcible and voluminous writer of despatches and even when his
projects came to nothing, they seldom fail to be interesting and
ingenious. From the start, he based great hopes of the rapid
development of the colony upon the labors of the small military force
which he brought with him. In memorials addressed to Lord Grenville
and Mr. Dundas shortly after his appointment in 1791, he described his
intention of building barracks, grist and saw-mills near the head of
navigation on the principal rivers falling into Lakes Erie and Huron;
when this was accomplished, the soldiers would be engaged in opening
roads and building bridges. The barracks were then to be converted
into public houses to be let by auction and the licensing of all
others prohibited by Act of Legislature. The mills would be rented in
a similar manner. By this means he anticipated that a considerable
revenue would be obtained and the colonists enabled to devote their
whole time to the cultivation of the soil. The soldiers would then be
employed in the navigation of the king's ships upon the lakes. The
battalion raised for this service was to consist of four companies of
one hundred rank and file each, with the usual staff and an auxiliary
detachment of military artificers. The officers were selected without
exception from the half-pay list of Simcoe's disbanded corps, the
Queen's Rangers, or 1st American Regiment, so justly celebrated during
the revolution. A subsistence state for 1792 shows that the actual
strength of the battalion at the date of its arrival in Canada was
fifteen officers and 416 N. C. O. and privates.

The Reverend Samuel Peters, a distinguished loyalist exile, and the
author of a quaint history of Connecticut, well worth reading even
now, was recommended for the episcopate of the new Province, and it
was suggested that his influence might be used to attract many
colonists from the former scene of his labors, which was thought to be
overpopulated.

Five subjects were designated by Simcoe as deserving the special
attention of the settlers. These were the cultivation of flax and
hemp; supplying the Indians with rum distilled from parsnips;
discovering the best situation for iron forges; the manufacture of
salt from the salt springs; and lastly, that in founding villages,
they should select sites capable of defence by a few men against
numbers, particularly in places where they were exposed to "an attack
by Indians or North Americans."

The new Lieutenant-Governor arrived at Quebec early in November, 1791,
but in consequence of a legal opinion delivered by Chief Justice
Smith, that the presence of a majority of his executive council would
be necessary to enable him to lawfully assume the administration of
the Province, he determined to await the arrival from England of Chief
Justice Osgoode and Mr. Peter Russell before proceeding to Upper
Canada. Although they were daily expected, he was actually detained in
this manner until the following June, when they finally reached Quebec
and accompanied him westward. He employed these months of enforced
inaction in making himself familiar, as far as lay in his power, with
the geography and resources of his government, about which very little
was known even there, except what could be gathered from the mouths of
hunters or traders. The letters written by him during this period
contain a variety of interesting information. A recent survey of the
Thames led him to anticipate that that river would furnish an easy
route from the head of Lake Ontario to Lake Huron, which would
supersede for all military purposes, the ordinary channel by way of
the Niagara and Lake Erie. Even then he foretold the future commercial
greatness of Toronto. The discovery of an unimportant salt-spring on
the river Trent filled him with hopes that the manufacture of salt
might become the source of considerable revenue to the Province, as
he noted the fact that salt smuggled from "licks" in the United States
was selling for as much as 5, New York currency, per bushel.

He endeavoured to conciliate Sir John Johnson, who was believed to be
discontented because he had not been appointed Lieutenant-Governor of
Upper Canada himself, and whose influence for the election of members
of the Assembly it was deemed of great importance to secure. Sir John
complained that after having been requested to furnish a list of the
"principal characters" in the western settlements to be recommended
for seats in the Legislative and Executive Councils, an ill-advised
and partial selection had been made, and most of those distinguished
in the Revolution had been passed over. Consequently he declined to
offer any further advice. He still continued to hold the important
office of Superintendent of Indian Affairs, being responsible to the
Governor-General alone, and any serious quarrel with him might have
very embarrassing results.

Simcoe lost no time for paving the way for immigration from various
parts of the United States. In one of his earliest despatches he
relates that a correspondent in Pennsylvania had informed him that a
great number of people in that State were disposed to remove into
Upper Canada, and others in Connecticut had assured him that the
appointment of Mr. Peters as Bishop would have the effect of
attracting many from that quarter, although he remarked that the delay
which had already occurred in granting a free constitution to the
Province had altered the views of many loyalists there. Hearing that
many Quakers intended to emigrate from the Eastern States, he decided
to send a confidential agent to confer with them on matters which they
were too cautious to commit to paper, in the hope of inducing them to
come to Canada also. Early in the spring of 1792, he caused a
proclamation to be published in English and French announcing that
free grants of land would be made to all persons desirous of settling
in the Upper Province, one-seventh of the land being reserved for the
support of a Protestant clergy, and one-seventh for the use of the
Crown. The settlers would be merely required to subscribe a
declaration that they would defend the "authority of the king in
Parliament." Not more than 200 acres would be granted in the first
instance to any one person, but the Government might subsequently
grant an additional tract not exceeding a thousand acres. He requested
Mr. Dundas to have this proclamation sent to the West Indian papers
for publication, believing this to be the surest means of scattering
it widely in the United States, as he felt satisfied that the land
speculators, if not the Government itself would endeavour to prevent
it from passing the northern frontier.

The negotiations concerning the boundary question then pending with
the United States naturally engaged much of his attention, more
particularly as he had been instructed to furnish Mr. George Hammond
the British Envoy at Philadelphia with all the information on the
subject he could obtain. The menacing movements of successive American
armies beyond the Ohio caused him great uneasiness as it was feared,
probably with some truth, that their ultimate aim was the capture of
the British garrisons on the great lakes.

One of his first measures was to advise the purchase of a tract of
land extending across the Georgian Bay peninsula from Sturgeon Bay to
be used as a camping-place by the traders frequenting that part of the
country. A map accompanying his letter to Mr. Dundas of the l0th
March, 1792, indicates that the Indian title had been already
extinguished in the lands included between the Ottawa, Rideau, and St.
Lawrence; in a second tract extending from the Bay of Quinte westward,
bounded on the north by the chain of smaller lakes and on the west by
a line drawn from Lake Simcoe to Lake Ontario, near Toronto, and
lastly in all that part of the Province lying south of a line
extending from the head of Lake Ontario, to the supposed source of the
river Thames and then following that river to its mouth excepting a
small Huron reservation on the Detroit, and Brant's grant of 306,250
acres on the Grand. The lands of the Six Nations had been surveyed and
the new Governor had assured them solemnly of his intentions of
carrying into effect all Lord Dorchester's promises to them, but he
remarked in this despatch that it was particularly unfortunate that
one of the first acts of his civil administration must be the trial of
two Indians closely related to Brant himself on a charge of murder.

The progress of negotiations with the United States was delayed not
only by hostilities with the Indians but by rival commercial
interests. Three great fur-trading houses of Montreal warmly protested
against the surrender of the four barrier forts of Oswego, Niagara,
Detroit, and Mackinac and the concession of the Great Carrying-Place
at Sault Ste Marie, which would lie fifteen miles within the proposed
boundary line of the United States. Their chief trade-route would be
then placed in the hands of their rivals and their trade, they
averred, must be ruined in consequence. The annual value of their
transactions was estimated by themselves at 200,000 and a demand was
thus created for a large quantity of bulky British manufactures, upon
which the duty alone sometimes exceeded 30,000 in a single year.
Although sympathizing with the views of the merchants on the boundary
question and backing up their protest against the advanced position
already assumed by some American officials that they had a right to
prohibit all British traders from even entering the territory of
Indian tribes within the United States, Simcoe wisely remarked that
the fur-trade was of minor importance to the Province under his
administration and he was quite willing that the northwest traffic
should remain in the hands of these well-established companies, while
he would he content with encouraging the Indians of the locality to
bring their peltry to the nearest settlements. Yet he indulged in
visions of the time when British manufactures would find their way in
this manner even beyond the Mississippi and in the much wilder hope
that the independence of the Indian nations would he secured forever
in consequence, and they would form a bulwark against aggression for
his Colony.

His mind was forever occupied with fresh schemes for the benefit of
the inhabitants. He immediately observed the great inconvenience
arising from the scarcity of small coin. The farmers had no other
means of obtaining necessaries than by bartering their produce to the
local merchants who were accordingly enabled to fix their own prices
both on the articles sold and those taken in exchange for them. The
cost of manufactured goods rose progressively as they were sent
westward and at Detroit they sold for fully fifty per cent more than
in Montreal. In anticipation of this want the Governor had requested
before leaving England that a considerable quantity of copper coin
should be issued to the troops annually and he now asked that 500 in
sixpences should be added.

The subject of higher education also engaged his attention as a
question of great importance, since he foresaw that if provision was
not soon made for educating their children within the Province the
wealthier inhabitants would be tempted to send them to schools in the
United States where he feared they would become imbued with improper
opinions. For the present he thought that primary education might be
left in the hands of parents and relatives, but he recommended an
annual grant from the British Treasury of 1,000 for buildings and
salaries, and the establishment of a teacher of classics at Kingston
and another at Niagara with a salary of 100 each, and the foundation
later on of an university at the capital with a full staff of
professors, all of whom should be clergymen of the church of England
except the Lecturer in medicine.

Besides Toronto, he pointed out the sites of London, Chatham, and Port
Dover, as suitable places for the foundation of towns and at first he
favored London as the spot for the capital, chiefly however, for the
purpose of confirming British Influence over the Indian tribes of the
West by the presence of a strong garrison.

His more ambitious projects as a rule met with scant favour at the
Colonial Office. Even in respect to his efforts for encouraging
immigration, Dundas felt it expedient to cool his zeal by observing:
"I am not of the opinion that such emigration would be productive of
all the good results your mind would suggest. Population is often the
effect but never the cause of prosperity, especially in an ingrafted
population outrunning all laws, regulations, usages, and customs which
govern us and go hand in hand with a progressive and well regulated
population. I have said this not to check emigration from the United
States but because there is every appearance of sufficient numbers
coming of their own accord without going out of your way to entice or
allure them. If care be taken to render the situations settled under
your care comfortable, their fame will naturally spread and attract a
sufficient emigration. Nothing can be more justly offensive to other
nations especially the neighboring States than to make the emigration
of their subjects a proposed and avowed object of our Government," As
to the establishment of schools and an University he added, "I believe
only the first will be necessary for some time to come."

One of Simcoe's first executive measures upon assuming the functions
of Governor was to continue in force the courts of justice as they had
been previously established. Two men who had recently arrived in the
Eastern District from the United States had been arrested for uttering
seditious speeches, but although their guilt was amply proven they
were discharged with a reprimand.

On the 20th August, 1792, a few days after his arrival at Niagara
where he was warmly welcomed by the inhabitants, the Governor
exultingly informed Mr. Dundas that there was every prospect of a very
great influx of immigrants from the United States and that he had in
consequence promised the same exemptions to the Quakers and kindred
sects that they had always enjoyed under the British Government. About
fifty families of reputed Loyalists had also been sent out from
England through the agency of the Rev'd Mr. Peters. They arrived at
Kingston about the beginning of October and were at once settled on
farms in the vicinity. It was however soon discovered that a number of
them had in point of fact never been in America before.

The battalion of Queen's Rangers was quartered for the winter in huts
at the "new landing" on the Niagara which then received the name of
Queenston in consequence, and the Governor announced that he intended
to establish military posts at Long Point and Toronto early next
spring and "to set myself down on the la Tranche."

In his despatch of the 4th of November, enclosing the journals of the
first session of parliament, he commented at some length on the
composition and proceedings of the two houses. He had been told on his
way up the St. Lawrence that there was a strong prejudice against the
election of half-pay officers, and that the popular feeling ran in
favor of men of less pretensions who ate at the same table with their
servants when they had any. Yet a fair proportion of the former class,
such as McDonell, Pawling, and Elliott had actually been chosen and as
a whole he described the House of Assembly as being composed of the
"most active characters in their several counties." "Many of the
members" he added, "were not averse to parliamentary wages," and a
bill was passed through the lower house imposing a duty of six pence
on the gallon of rum and spirits passing through the province which it
was anticipated would yield a revenue of 1,500 per annum. This bill
was warmly opposed in the Legislative Council where the large
merchants were predominant, on the ground that nearly the whole of
these goods belonged to Montreal houses, and it was summarily
rejected. The smallest tax on real estate was hotly resisted on the
pretext that it would discourage immigration, but probably the real
reason for the opposition lay in the fact that a majority of members
of both houses were already large proprietors.

A bill to validate the irregular marriages which had been contracted
throughout the province prior to its organization was also introduced
into the Legislative Council by the Hon. Richard Cartwright, who soon
gained the Governor's ill-will by a more or less pronounced opposition
to several government measures, and it was only withdrawn on a
definite pledge that the Attorney-General would frame a satisfactory
Act and send it to England for the approval of the law-officers of the
Crown. The House of Assembly exhibited a much stronger feeling in
favor of adopting the "elective principle" in municipal affairs than
Simcoe considered advisable, and he exerted his influence successfully
to secure the postponement of a measure which was introduced providing
for the election of all township officers by a popular vote. In order
to counteract the spirit of democracy and "to promote an aristocracy
most necessary in this country" he hastily appointed lieutenants for
the most populous counties and invested them with the same
recommendatory powers with reference to the selection of magistrates
and officers of militia which were exercised by similar officials in
England, but this attempt at transplanting aristocratic institutions
did not meet with the approval of the British Cabinet, as it was
thought that it would have a tendency to diminish the authority of the
Lieutenant-Governor, and Simcoe accordingly promised to make no
further appointments of that kind, and when these offices became
vacant they were not again filled.

Other subjects which had attracted the Governor's attention and which
he then brought to the notice of the Colonial Office were the increase
of his regiment by two companies to enable him to man the public
vessels on the lakes, the establishment of a port for the province to
render it independent of the merchants of Lower Canada, and he
suggested that communication with the ocean by way of the Mississippi
would be of vast importance. Owing to the critical state of relations
with the United States he requested that a small field-train of
artillery and a detachment of military artificers should be sent to
the province. French refugees might, he thought, be settled with
advantage near Detroit, where the French Canadian population already
possessed representatives of their own race and religion in the
Assembly and Legislative and Executive Councils. He inquired whether
the affirmation of a Quaker could be taken in place of the customary
oath to enable him to sit in the Legislature. He reiterated that
encouragement must be given to clergymen of the Church of England as
the inhabitants were chiefly dissenters and were already sending to
the United States for ministers.

When reporting the proceedings of the second session of parliament, he
observed that there did not seem to be any organized opposition to
Government measures, at least in the Assembly, but that in the
Legislative Council Messrs. Cartwright and Hamilton usually acted in
concert and assumed an attitude of defiance and even hostility which
plainly excited his keen displeasure. Hamilton, he asserted, was an
open and avowed republican.

By this time the demand for a marriage law had become much stronger
and more general, and as there were very few members of the Church of
England in either house there was a disposition to make the ceremony
of marriage much less formal and solemn than the Governor desired. In
fact the Assembly tacked an amendment to the government bill after it
had been passed by the Legislative Council which gave clergymen of
every sect and denomination authority to perform the rite. This was
however withdrawn upon an assurance being given that the Government
would introduce another and more liberal bill.

The main interest of the session centered on the act abolishing
slavery which met with keen opposition. Some persons having purchased
negroes at low prices from the Indians during the Revolution wished to
secure its rejection entirely. Others who wanted to supply themselves
with slaves in the future were anxious to have it modified in such a
manner as to permit their importation to continue for at least two
years longer. As usual the antagonists of the act of emancipation
dwelt upon the cost and difficulty of obtaining free labour.

A minute in the proceedings of the Executive Council shows that on
occasions the slave-owners did not hesitate to defy and thwart the law
in the most insolent manner. "On the 21st March, 1793, Peter Martin, a
negro in the service of Col. Butler, attended for the purpose of
informing the Council of the outrage perpetrated on Chloe Cooley, a
negro girl in his service by one Fromand (Vrooman?) of Queenston by
binding her and delivering her to certain persons unknown, against her
will. The evidence of William Grisley or Crisley was taken, that she
was tied and delivered as above stated, and that he saw a negro at a
distance also tied, and he had heard that many other people mean to do
the same by their negroes; and it was resolved that it is necessary to
take measures to prevent breaches of the peace and the
Attorney-General was instructed to prosecute Fromand."

A scarcely less important measure, passed at this session, was the
first municipal act. The Governor had by this time convinced himself
that to place the nomination of township officers entirely in the
hands of the magistrates as he had at first been inclined to do, would
be extremely unpopular and the great mass of the Loyalists were
decidedly of the opinion that these officers and particularly the
collectors of rates would be more readily obeyed if they were elected
by the ratepayers, and an act was passed accordingly under which
clerk, assessor, collector, wardens &c., were all to be elected
annually at a town-meeting held for the purpose.

The bill for imposing a duty on spirits in transit through the
province was again passed by the Assembly and defeated with much
difficulty in the other house, as its advocates hoped that it would
provide a fund for all purposes and leave a sufficient balance in the
Treasury for the payment of members' wages. It was then agreed that a
system of district assessments should be adopted for all local
improvements, by levying a rate upon all real and personal property,
and as a majority of members still insisted upon securing salaries, a
special rate was imposed on each riding for this purpose. Although the
sessional allowance was fixed at only two dollars a day, this act
caused considerable dissatisfaction among their constituents. At the
close of the session the Provincial Treasury was empty and the
Assembly was in consequence obliged to pass a resolution asking the
Governor for a loan to pay salaries and contingent expenses to be
repaid at the next session and the sum of 191 5s. was accordingly
advanced by him. The British Parliament had already voted 6700 to
meet all other expenses of the civil government of the province.

During the summer, surveys of the river Thames and the harbours of
Toronto and Long Point were completed. Simcoe still intended to fix
the capital at the place on which he had bestowed the name of New
London and to remove the naval stations from Detroit and Kingston to
those new ports as soon as possible. He also settled all doubts as to
the ownership of the lands bordering on Lake Erie by a new treaty with
the Mississauga Indians. He then urged that the regiments stationed in
the barrier forts should be at once completed to their full strength
to enable him to occupy all three points with a sufficient garrison,
but Lord Dorchester peremptorily declined to comply with this request.

The road from the head of Lake Ontario to Oxford where boat navigation
of the Thames began had been got well under way by the Queen's Rangers
and the headquarters of the battalion, owing to the unhealthy state of
the cantonments at Queenston, was removed to Toronto where a barracks
and block-house were commenced.

In October Simcoe personally explored the trail from Lake Ontario to
Lake Huron and visited the newly discovered harbor of Penetanguishene
with which he was delighted.

The prevalence of sickness in the Genesee country checked immigration
into the province from the United States, although numbers still
continued to come in, and the Governor recorded with pleasure the
arrival of a party of loyalists from North Carolina who first learned
that the King still had possessions in North America after reaching
the Genesee.

Seemingly interminable negotiations with the United States and the
Western Indians consumed much of his time, and a singular and
embarrassing divergence of opinion on almost every conceivable subject
became apparent in his correspondence with Lord Dorchester, who still
exercised supreme authority in military affairs and all matters
connected with the Indian department.

In a despatch dated in February, 1794, Simcoe briefly described the
condition of the western part of his province. On the Bay of Quinte,
there was a flourishing and populous settlement of Loyalists. Thence
westward to Toronto, the north shore of Lake Ontario had scarcely
begun to be inhabited and a strip of thirty-six miles of Indian lands
separated the small new colony at York from Burlington Bay when the
Niagara settlement began. The latter he styled the "bulwark of Upper
Canada." As yet no lands had been granted west of Fort Erie as he
thought it prudent to occupy Long Point with troops before extending
the settlement in that direction. At Detroit the principal settlement
lay outside the boundary but great efforts had been made to induce the
inhabitants to remove into British territory though with only moderate
success. Dundas Street, intended to connect the settlements on the
Niagara with those on the Detroit and Lower Thames, was already half
completed, and it was proposed to extend it at once to York and
ultimately with the assistance of the inhabitants, to Kingston and
Montreal.

Again and again he reverted to his favorite project of the
establishment of a British factory on the west bank of the
Mississippi, a measure which he was led to believe from his
correspondence with the Baron Carondelet, (the Spanish Governor of
Louisiana,) would be regarded with satisfaction by Spain.

During the session of 1794 one of the chief government measures was a
Militia Act prompted by the continued precarious relations with the
United States. A bill for the establishment of Superior Courts was
vigorously opposed in the Legislative Council by Hamilton and
Cartwright, all the other members supporting it. It was then passed
through the Assembly without dissent and Simcoe related that it was
with difficulty that that House was dissuaded from reading the bill a
first, second, and third time on the same day, to mark their
disapprobation of the opposition it had received in the Council.

A new assessment law was enacted which remedied some of the defects of
the previous Act. Hitherto all persons rated below 50, being in fact
a majority of the inhabitants, had been entirely exempted from
taxation and the highest assessment of any individual had been fixed
at 400. Under the new law every householder was taxed at least two
shillings and those owning property to the value of more than 500
were to pay a rate of five shillings on the 100. It was hoped that
the revenue would be at least doubled in consequence of these changes.

As the large surplus of grain for which no ready market could be
found, had induced many of the inhabitants to set up private stills, a
small license fee was also imposed upon these at this session.

The situation of affairs with the United States daily grew more
threatening. A speech delivered by Lord Dorchester to a deputation of
Indian chiefs was interpreted even by Simcoe as being ominously
significant, and this was soon followed by instructions from the
Governor-General to take vigorous measures to prevent General Wayne
from seizing Detroit, which convinced him that war was believed
inevitable.

Accordingly, early in the spring of 1794 Simcoe hurried to Detroit,
mustered the militia into service, and armed them. Advancing with a
mixed force of regular troops and volunteers, he built and garrisoned
a fort at the foot of the rapids of the Miami, a few miles above the
site of the present city of Toledo, and occupied the island in the
mouth of that river while he sent out gunboats to patrol the southern
shore of Lake Erie.

A boat-load of stores ordered by Sir John Johnson from Albany for the
use of the Indians was waylaid by a party of armed men while ascending
the Mohawk River and plundered. Persons accused of giving information
respecting the smuggling of salt into Canada were publicly whipped at
Onondaga Lake. Philadelphia newspapers openly advocated the conquest
of Canada and every sympathy was expressed for such of the inhabitants
as were inclined to rebel against the Government. At the same time,
agents from the French Republic were known to have entered the lower
province with the same object.

Upon his return to Fort Niagara, Simcoe removed the greater part of
the regular garrison to Fort Erie, mustered and armed about 400
Militia and an equal number of Indians, collected boats and
provisions, and prepared artillery for a sudden and vigorous blow at
the frontier posts on the Alleghany and Ohio as soon as hostilities
began.[1] These active preparations for war occupied nearly the whole
of the Governor's time and kept the province in a ferment of
excitement and apprehension until late in the autumn when it became
known, greatly to the relief of the inhabitants, that a treaty had
been signed in London for the peaceful settlement of all matters in
dispute. The expectation of a contest called forth a most enthusiastic
and genuine expression of loyalty on all sides and Simcoe acknowledged
frankly that he believed there was no one on whom more dependence
could be placed, than that persistent opponent of Government measures,
Mr. Cartwright.

[Footnote 1: His scheme of operations was bold and well-planned. "Had
Wayne besieged Fort Miami, I hoped to relieve it having made all
preparations for that purpose. Had he been repulsed, the Indians would
have regained their spirits, and joined by the Canadian militia and
200 British troops, would have destroyed his army. . . . . . I should
have known of these hostilities before the government of the United
States. I should have, I had decided, surrounded Fort Le Boeuf, cut
off Fort Franklin--they could not have held out an hour before my
cannon. There would not have been an Indian of the Six Nations who
would not have taken up arms. By small parties of white men as the
mildest form of war, I would have burnt every mill on the Susquehanna
to Northumberland or Sunbury, and on the Delaware to Minnesink, and in
three weeks the whole of the Genesee would have been abandoned. There
is not an Indian in North America who would not have flown to arms.
The British Militia to a man on the first appearance of hostilities,
have avowed the most determined loyalty. They are well calculated for
offensive warfare. There are few families among them who cannot relate
some barbarous murder or atrocious requisition on the part of the
rulers of the United States. It is possible that the people near
Pittsburg may have broke out into the late violences in the hope of
Great Britain and the United States going to war." The recent
disasters that had overwhelmed the armies of Harmar and St. Clair made
the success of these operations quite probable.]

During this time, Dundas Street was opened as far as the crossing of
the Grand River, and Yonge Street was nearly completed to the Holland
River. The banks of the Thames had also been settled with great
rapidity by emigrants both from Detroit and Niagara. The water-route
from Lake Simcoe to Matchedash Bay, and the harbor of Penetanguishene
were surveyed and a considerable settlement formed at York and along
Yonge Street.

Although the fur-trade of the west had suffered materially from the
war between the Indian tribes and the United States, it continued
still to be of considerable importance and was entirely in the hands
of British merchants having their head quarters chiefly in Montreal,
who also supplied the isolated French and Spanish settlements on the
Illinois and Mississippi with manufactures. In the work of
transportation through Upper Canada many hundreds of men were
employed. Already they possessed a chain of trading posts extending
along the Mississippi, from the Illinois to the mouth of the Missouri
(then generally known as the St. Peter) which their agents frequently
ascended almost to its source.

The winter of 1794-5 was spent by the Governor chiefly in
superintending the construction of the military roads already
commenced and the public buildings and a wharf at Toronto which was
then formally designated as the future capital under the name of York.
He requested that all moneys derived from the management of the Crown
Lands should be applied for similar purposes and advised that these
lands should not be sold but leased. Learning that some merchant
vessels on the lakes were to be sold in the spring, he hastened to
urge that they should be purchased by the province to prevent them
falling into the hands of Americans. A block-house was built at
Chatham as a preparatory step to the establishment of a dock-yard
there. A satisfactory agreement was made with the Indians for the
purchase of a tract of land at Penetanguishene whither he proposed to
remove the garrison of Mackinac and part of the Lake Erie squadron,
upon the evacuation of the "barrier forts."

When war with the United States seemed probable, a number of British
half-pay officers living there had made arrangements to remove and
join Simcoe's forces. When danger of hostilities no longer existed he
proposed to settle these gentlemen and their followers on lands near
Long Point, and to station a detachment of troops there, but as the
latter was disapproved by Lord Dorchester, he was obliged to be
satisfied with forming the settlement only, and encouraging the
construction of saw and grist mills.

The parliamentary session of 1795 was uneventful. There was not a
shadow of opposition to any government measure. The rapid increase of
population by immigration from the United States already rendered it
necessary to pass a bill defining the qualifications of members of the
Assembly. A petition was presented from the Presbyterians and other
Nonconformists praying for the repeal of certain clauses in the
Marriage Act and Judicature Bill which prevented their clergymen from
performing the marriage ceremony. Means were taken to shelve the
petition for the moment but Simcoe gloomily predicted that the matter
would be seriously agitated. A Presbyterian minister had lately
arrived from Scotland and dissenters of all denominations united to
build a church for him at Niagara, while Mr. Addison, the clergyman of
the Church of England remained without a church and almost without a
congregation. Dissenters were also numerous in other parts and
everywhere they were naturally inclined to protest against the
unfairness of the law.

The public business had frequently been delayed by the absence of
members of the Executive Council of whom no less than three lived at
Detroit, and the Governor warmly complained that the salaries of all
government officials were so small that none of them were able to live
within their incomes.

In November, 1795, Lord Dorchester in his capacity of commander of the
forces formally announced his intention of withdrawing the whole of
the regular troops from Upper Canada with the exception of the four
companies of Queen's Rangers and a small party of artillery-men which
would be left to garrison two block-houses which he ordered to be
built at Amherstburg and Niagara. This resolution, Simcoe regarded as
dealing a death-blow to all his projects for the benefit of the
province and strongly protested against it. The removal of the troops,
he asserted, would destroy all confidence in British power among the
Indians beyond the boundary, and render them presumptuous and
troublesome neighbors to the new settlements. Already four whites had
been killed by them near Detroit and serious commotions had occurred
among the Grand River tribes arising through a determined attempt to
assassinate Joseph Brant, made by one of his own sons, in which the
young man lost his life.

For some years the wily Mohawk chieftain had been suspected of
double-dealing and the Governor had just been informed that he was
then on his way to consult secretly with the American Superintendent
of Indian Affairs.

In his despatch to the Duke of Portland remonstrating against the
withdrawal of the troops, Simcoe bluntly declared that he was unable
to comprehend either the civil or military policy of Lord Dorchester
in respect to his province. Profound disgust at finding all his
objections overruled, combined with failing health, finally determined
him to solicit leave of absence for an indefinite period, or if this
were refused, permission to resign. On the 1st December, 1795, he
announced that he had been suffering from a slow fever for nearly four
months and that his physician advised him to leave Canada in time to
escape the hot weather in autumn.

Owing probably to ill-health and despondency the closing months of his
administration were not marked by the same restless energy which
hitherto distinguished it. His mind was evidently filled with gloom at
the thought that all his labor had been bestowed in vain.

The government buildings at York were, however, proceeded with and the
military road finished from that place to Oxford.

The last session of the first parliament began at Niagara in May, 1796
and again all the government measures were passed as smoothly into law
as anyone could desire. Both houses had become tractable beyond
expectation. The great increase of population induced the repeal of
certain parts of the act offering a reward for the destruction of
wolves. The sole question which threatened to provoke controversy was
the presentation of a second petition for the amendment of the
Marriage Act which the Governor angrily denounced "as highly improper
and menacing" in its language. It was generally believed to have been
written by the Reverend John Bethune, a Presbyterian clergyman,
formerly chaplain of Sir John Johnson's regiment during the
Revolution, of stainless reputation and unquestioned loyalty, yet
Simcoe openly spoke of it with needless and exasperating bitterness as
"the production of a wicked head and a most disloyal heart." Religious
ardour seldom failed to reveal the narrowest side of his character.
His determined hostility again caused the question to be postponed and
the session terminated "with every mark of good-will and respect for
the Government." With the dissolution of the Assembly, Simcoe's
connection with the province may be said to have ended, although he
continued to be Lieutenant-Governor in name for some time longer.

He returned to England much enfeebled in health and mortified beyond
expression at the strangulation of so many ambitious projects for the
advancement of his colony. Yet in the face of much apparent failure,
Governor Simcoe deserves an honorable place on the stately roll of
those who have labored earnestly and well "to lay broad, lay strong,
lay deep" the foundations of the British Empire of to-day.


Transcriber's Notes:

Document is an extract from Vol. II of the "Transactions of the
Canadian Institute", pages 284-298.

1. page 289--replaced typo "producive" with "productive"

2. page 289--removed extraneous quote mark in phrase "As to the
   establishement..."

3. page 297--added words due to a smudge on the page: "...and the
   Governor had just been [informed] that he was then on his way
   to consult secretly with the [American] Superintendent..."




[End of _The Administration of Lieut.-Governor Simcoe,
Viewed in his Official Correspondence_ by Ernest Cruikshank]
