The country was rent to pieces by political factions,
and a fierce hostility existed between the native born Canadians - the
first pioneers of the forest - and the British emigrants, who looked
upon each other as mutual enemies, who were seeking to appropriate
the larger share of the new country.
Those who had settled down in the woods were happily unconscious
that these quarrels threatened to destroy the peace of the colony.
The insurrection of 1837 came upon them like a thunder clap; they
could hardly believe such an incredible tale. Intensely loyal, the
emigrant officers rose to a man to defend the British flag and
chastise the rebels and their rash leader.
In their zeal to uphold British authority, they made no excuse for
the wrongs that the dominant party had heaped upon a clever and
high-spirited man. To them he was a traitor, and, as such, a public
enemy. Yet the blow struck by that injured man, weak as it was,
without money, arms, or the necessary munitions of war, and defeated
and broken in its first effort, gave freedom to Canada, and laid
the foundation of the excellent constitution that we now enjoy.
