Part 5

Upon the declaration of war, the House of Assembly was hastily convened in extra session on the 27th July, when General Brock, in the Speech from the Throne, made use of those ever-memorable words: "We are engaged in an awful and eventful contest. By unanimity and despatch in our councils and by vigour in our operations we will teach the enemy this lesson: that a country defended by free men, enthusiastically devoted to the cause of their King and Constitution, can never be conquered." But the House proved recalcitrant, and refused to comply with Brock's request to suspend the Habeas Corpus Act. It was the Attorney-General who solved the difficulty by giving it as his legal opinion that Major-General Brock, as Administrator of the Province, under the authority of his Commission from the King, had the power to dissolve the House and proclaim martial law, and that under the circumstances it was his duty to do so. This opinion was concurred in by his colleagues in the Government, and, accordingly, the Government as such tendered it as their unanimous advice to the Administrator, who immediately acted upon it, and thereby saved the country.

As a consequence of this drastic measure, the three leaders of the Opposition in the Legislature--Joseph Willcocks, Benjamin Mallory and Abraham Markle--who had been chiefly instrumental up to this time in thwarting all Brock's efforts, immediately fled to the United States, with which they had long been in traitorous intercourse, and where all their sympathies lay, Willcocks being eventually killed at the battle of Fort Erie, in 1814, in command of an American regiment, and Mallory serving throughout the war as a major in the same corps.

This measure enabled Brock also to deal summarily with their disloyal partisans and followers, much more numerous and infinitely more dangerous than is now generally supposed. He immediately issued a proclamation ordering all persons suspected of conniving with the enemy to be apprehended, and treated according to law. Those who had not taken the oath of allegiance were ordered to do so or leave the Province; many were sent out of the country; large numbers left of their own accord; those who refused to take the oath or to take up arms to defend the country, and remained in the Province after a given date, were declared to be enemies and spies, and were treated accordingly; a large number of this disloyal element were arrested and imprisoned early in the war, as on the day of the Battle of Queenston Heights the jail and Court House at Niagara as well as the blockhouse at Fort George were filled with political prisoners, over three hundred aliens and traitors being in custody, some of whom were tried and sentenced to death, while others were sent to Quebec for imprisonment.

This pressing and important business having been accomplished, General Brock entered actively upon his campaign, and determined upon offensive measures by an assault upon Detroit. Colonel Macdonell accompanied him as his military secretary and aide-de-camp. When the American, General Hull, in command of a greatly superior force and in possession of a strongly fortified position, on the 16th August proposed a cessation of hostilities with a view to his surrender, it was Colonel Macdonell whom General Brock entrusted with the delicate and important task of preparing the terms of capitulation. He returned within an hour with the conditions, which were immediately confirmed by General Brock, whereby Fort Detroit with 59,700 square miles of American territory--the whole State of Michigan--was surrendered. 2,500 officers and men became prisoners of war, and 2,500 stand of arms, thirty-three pieces of cannon, the _Adams_ brig-of-war, and stores and munitions of war to the value of £40,000, all so sorely needed by the Canadian militia, were handed over to the British Commander.

General Brock in his despatch to the Home Government announcing the capture of Detroit, and which was published in a Gazette Extraordinary in London on the 6th October, with characteristic generosity bore testimony to the services of his friend in the following terms: "In the attainment of this important point gentlemen of the first character and influence showed an example highly creditable to them, and I cannot on this occasion avoid mentioning the essential assistance I derived from John Macdonell, Esquire, His Majesty's Attorney-General, who from the beginning of the war has honoured me with his services as my Provincial Aide-de-Camp."

Brock's biographer and nephew, Mr. Ferdinand Brock Tupper, graphically tells the end of them both, almost upon the spot upon which we now stand. After mention of the hasty gallop from Fort George, at dawn on the 13th October, when it was found that the Americans had during the night passed over the Niagara River and succeeded in gaining the crest of the heights in rear of the battery, and Brock's desperate effort to dislodge them, he goes on to say: "The Americans now opened a heavy fire of musketry, and, conspicuous from his dress, his height, and the enthusiasm with which he animated his little band, the British commander was soon singled out, and he fell about an hour after his arrival, the fatal bullet entering his right breast and passing through his left side. He lived only long enough to request that his fall might not be noticed, or prevent the advance of his brave troops. The lifeless body was immediately conveyed into a house at Queenston, where it remained until the afternoon, unperceived of the enemy. His aide-de-camp, Lieutenant-Colonel Macdonell, Attorney-General of Upper Canada--a fine, promising young man--was mortally wounded soon after his chief, and died the next day, at the early age of twenty-seven years. Although one bullet had passed through his body, and he was wounded in four places, yet he survived twenty hours, and during a period of excruciating agony his thoughts and words were constantly occupied in lamentations for his deceased commander and friend. He fell while gallantly charging, with the hereditary courage of his race, up the hill with 190 men, chiefly of the York Volunteers, by which charge the enemy was compelled to spike the eighteen-pounders in the battery there; and his memory will be cherished as long as courage and devotion are reverenced in the Province."

General Sheaffe, who succeeded General Brock upon the death of the latter, in his despatch announcing the victory which eventually crowned our arms, thus couples their names: ". . . No officer was killed besides Major-General Brock, one of the most gallant and zealous officers in His Majesty's service, whose loss cannot be too much deplored, and Lieutenant-Colonel Macdonell, Provincial Aide-de-Camp, whose gallantry and merit rendered him worthy of his chief."

The Prince Regent thus acknowledged the communication through the Governor-General, by whom it had been forwarded: "His Royal Highness, the Prince Regent, is fully aware of the severe loss which His Majesty's service has experienced in the death of Major-General Sir Isaac Brock. This would have been sufficient to have clouded a victory of much greater importance. His Majesty has lost in him not only an able and meritorious officer, but one who, in the exercise of his functions of Provisional Lieutenant-Governor of the Province, displayed qualities admirably adapted to awe the disloyal, to reconcile the wavering, and to animate the great mass of the inhabitants against successive attempts of the enemy to invade the Province, in the last of which he unhappily fell, too prodigal of that life of which his eminent services had taught us to understand the value. His Royal Highness has also been pleased to express his regret at the loss which the Province must experience in the death of the Attorney-General, Mr. Macdonell, whose zealous co-operation with Sir Isaac Brock will reflect lasting honour on his memory." In communicating the above to the father of the Attorney-General, Lieutenant-Colonel Coffin, P.A.D.C., under date York, March 20th, 1813, stated by command of His Honour the President that "it would doubtless afford some satisfaction to all the members of the family to which the late Attorney-General was so great an ornament to learn that his merit has been recognized even by the Royal Personage who wields the sceptre of the British Empire, and on which His Honour commands me to declare his personal gratification."

No medal was struck for Queenston Heights, but when some time afterwards the rewards for the capture of Detroit were distributed, gold medals were deposited by the Sovereign with the families of Major-General Brock and Colonel Macdonell, and the King stated in each instance that it was done "in token of the respect which His Majesty entertains for the memory of that officer."

The graciously worded despatch of the Prince Regent mentioned the only fault of Sir Isaac Brock. Like Nelson he was too prodigal of his life; but as, alike by his services and his glorious death, Nelson became the hero and the idol of the British people, so by his services and his death Brock became for all time the hero of the people of this Province, and his memory will never die. Although he had served ten years in Canada, he had held his position as Administrator of Upper Canada but a few days over a year; yet that short time was sufficient to obtain for his name immortality, so long as the English language can narrate what in that brief period he accomplished, and hold forth for succeeding generations of British subjects in Canada and throughout the Empire the bright example of his genius and his gallantry, and the indomitable spirit with which he contended and overcame difficulties, apparently insurmountable, and which were sufficient to appal a heart even as stout and to tax to the uttermost a mind as versatile and resourceful as his.

Under this stately column he found a fitting tomb, and the ardent young friend, Glengarry's representative, who fell with him, lies beside him.

DR. JAMES L. HUGHES

Chief Inspector of Schools, Toronto

I had the honour of requesting the Hon. Dr. Pyne, Minister of Education, to call the attention of the School Boards of Ontario to the importance of celebrating the hundredth anniversary of the victory so gallantly won on these heights, and of paying due tribute to the brave men and women who so nobly and heroically struggled to preserve for us the blessings of British liberty, and of unity with our motherland. To these men and women of firm faith and strong heart we give gratitude and reverence to-day, and especially to the statesman and hero who at the foot of these heights died a hundred years ago while leading Canadian volunteers to drive back invaders who without just cause had dared to come to Canada with the avowed purpose of forcibly taking possession of our country.

In the judgment of the committee that arranged for the celebration of the glorious deeds of our early history, it is most important that Canadian children should be trained to revere the memories of the great and true men and women of one hundred years ago, and to rejoice because of the victories won by them for freedom and for imperial unity.

There are men who have written to the newspapers objecting to the course we adopted. They seem to think it improper to let our children know that our country was ever in danger, and that it was saved by the unselfish devotion and the brave deeds of our ancestors. However, in spite of their protests, based on weak and unpatriotic sentiment, we intend to teach young Canadians to remember the patriotism and valour of the founders and defenders of Canada, and to train them to become worthy successors to the men and women who made such sacrifices for them.

We have no wish to fill the hearts of the pupils in our schools with animosity towards the great nation whose fertile fields and happy homes we see beyond the great river that separates it from our own fair land. We wish to develop in our children a spirit that will lead them to say to the people across our borderland not "Hands off Canada," but "Hands together to achieve for God and for humanity the highest and broadest and truest ideals that have been revealed to the Anglo-Saxon race."

We do not wish to make our children quarrelsome or offensive, but we do wish them to be patriotic Canadians, full of loyalty to their flag, their Empire, and their King. We wish them to understand what their predecessors did in order that they may have faith in themselves and in their country; and we intend that they shall learn the achievements of the past in order that they may have a true basis for their own manhood and womanhood. True reverence for courage and self-sacrifice, fidelity to principle, and devotion to home and country in time of need, is a fundamental element of strong, true character. The facts of history may have little influence in developing character, but the noble deeds of our ancestors performed for high purposes are the surest sources for the development of the strong and true emotions that make human character vital instead of inert. Emotions form the battery power of character, and among the emotions that give strength and virility and beauty to character, reverence for the dead who wisely struggled and nobly achieved, is surely one of the most productive of dignified and transforming character.

The history of the past is valuable chiefly for the opportunities it gives to be stirred to deep, true enthusiasm for heroism, for honour, for patriotism, for love of freedom, for devotion to duty, and for sublime self-sacrifice for high ideals. Whatever else we may neglect in the training of the young, I trust we shall never fail to fill their hearts with profound reverence for the men and women of the past to whom they owe so much.

We should teach other lessons from the War of 1812. We should fill each child's life with a splendid courage that can never be dismayed, by telling how a few determined settlers scattered widely over a new country successfully repelled invading armies coming from a country with a population twenty-fold larger. We should teach reverence not only for manhood but for womanhood by recounting the terrible hardships endured willingly by Canadian women generally, as well as by proudly relating the noble work done by individual women, of whom Laura Secord was so conspicuous an example.

A certain class of thoughtless people call us "flag-wavers" if we strive to give our young people a true conception of the value of national life, and of their duty to have a true love for their country and for their Empire. If a flag-waver means one who is proud of a noble ancestry, and determined to prove worthy of the race from which he sprung; one who knows that his forefathers gave a wider meaning to freedom, and who intends to perpetuate liberty and aid in giving it a still broader and higher value; one who is grateful because his Empire represents the grandest revelation of unity yet made known to humanity and who accepts this revelation as a sacred trust, then I am a flag-waver, and I shall make every boy and girl whom I can ever influence a flag-waver who loves his flag and waves it because it represents freedom, and honour, and justice, and truth, and unity, and a glorious history, the most triumphantly progressive that has been achieved by any nation in the development of the world.

We do well to celebrate the great deeds of the men and women of a hundred years ago, and teach our children to give them reverence, but it is far more important for us to consider what the people a hundred years hence will think of us than to glorify the triumphs of a hundred years ago. The work of the world is not done. Evolution to higher ideals goes ever on. Each succeeding generation has greater responsibilities and higher duties than the one that preceded it. The greatest lesson we can learn from the past is that we should prove true to the opportunities of our time; that we should with unselfish motive and undaunted hearts accept the responsibilities that come to us as partners in our magnificent Empire, and share in the achievement of greater triumphs for freedom and justice than have ever been recorded in the past.

Inspired by the records of such men as Brock, at the foot of whose monument we stand to-day and look with reminiscent glance over the marvellous progress of a hundred glorious years, let us determine that we shall do our part to make the coming century more fruitful than the past.

CHIEF A. G. SMITH

Six Nation Indians, Grand River Reserve

If a Mohawk Chief had in his make-up a particle of timidity I fear that your cheering would have frightened or disconcerted me.

Now, contrary to the usual preface to speeches on occasions of this nature, let me instead say that my pleasure in addressing you this afternoon is not altogether unalloyed, as I look back to the remote past, when my ancestors could make or unmake nations on this continent; their favour was then courted by the different European nations, until finally they entered into an alliance or treaty with the military authorities of the British nation, and which the Six Nations has ever held inviolate.

They, however, in my humble opinion, made a serious mistake in taking sides in the War of American Independence, as their treaty obligations only required them to assist the British when attacked by a foreign power and not in a case of family quarrel, so they could have consistently taken a neutral ground. It is not, however, so surprising that they took the step they did when we consider the influences that were brought to bear on them and the inducements that were held out to them. Consider the influence of Tha-yen-da-ne-gea--Brant, their war chief--and their own love of war. War with them was as religion. Add to these the influence of Sir William Johnson and others.

And there was the very strong inducement that they would be guaranteed a perpetual independence and self-government, and also that they would be amply indemnified for any and all losses that they might sustain by their services. Now we know that these pledges were not adequately fulfilled, yet, notwithstanding this fact, the Six Nations remained faithful in their adherence to the British Crown.

And now allow me to come down to the eventful times which more immediately concern us this afternoon. Let me at the outset briefly but most emphatically assert that in those troublous times no followers of the illustrious Brock, whose fall and victory we are this afternoon commemorating, fought more bravely than the Six Nations; their very admiration of that great and brave general was as a spur to their bravery.

I think I may truthfully say that had it not been for the bravery of the Six Nations the Union Jack would not to-day be waving over these historic heights.

The Six Nations have never had an historian of their own to record the brave deeds of valour of their warriors, and therefore get but scant justice in the historical records of this country; naturally the historians magnify the achievements of their own peoples, while I claim that more credit should be given my own people.

Let me instance one or two samples of justice doled out to my people in various lines. You know that in Ontario manhood suffrage prevails in political elections, so that any foreigner after six months' residence can have every privilege of a full citizen, although he may have no higher interest in the country than as a place in which to earn his bread and butter, and whose ancestors have never shed a drop of blood for its retention by Britain, and who himself may never fight in its defence, but who may go back to fight his own country's battles, perhaps even against Britain.

But the original owners of this country, proved to be men on many a battlefield, who fought and won Britain's battles, ceased to be men and became minors after the battles were won and British predominance secured, and therefore are not allowed men's privileges.

I contend that if Canada is to do justice (and I believe it will) to the Six Nations, it will have to give them representation on the floor of the House of Commons and also respect the treaty concessions made to them, instead of gradually curtailing their tribal rights and privileges. These blood-bought rights and privileges are just as dear to the Six Nations as similar ones are to any other nation.

I fear, Mr. Chairman, that I have already taken up my allotted time, so will refrain from giving all the examples of our loyalty I would have liked to present to this vast assemblage. Allow me, however, to say that as this is an influential gathering, so I hope that each individual of influence will go back to his or her sphere of usefulness and listen to the cry for justice on behalf of the Six Nations, fully appreciating the fact that it is "up to you" to see to it that justice is done this people who have rendered such inestimable service to this country and to Britain.

My remarks may not suit everyone, but I cannot help that. I am not courting popularity, for I am getting too old for that, and I am descended from too long a line of brave warriors to be afraid to speak the truth, whether it be pleasant or otherwise.

Thanking you, Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, for the privilege and honour of addressing this influential assemblage and for the kind hearing and attention accorded to me.

* * * * *

[At the conclusion of Chief Smith's speech three rousing warwhoops were given, led by Chiefs Johnson and Elliott, and joined in by all present.]

WARRIOR F. ONONDEYOH LOFT

Six Nation Indians

We are assembled to-day on this historic spot to commemorate the memory of a great soldier, a patriot and renowned son of the Empire of which we are a part.

I am pleased to note the presence of so many chiefs and warriors of the Six Nations who are here assembled on the basis of one common citizenship with you, to join with our white brethren to pay respect and homage to the late hero, General Sir Isaac Brock, who offered his life as a sacrifice in the cause he so gallantly defended. He was the brave leader who led the white man and Indian in the defence of our country, our flag, and all that pertained to the maintenance of British institutions.

Our act to-day is a noble one. It is of a kind that touches deep down into the heart that throbs with affection's glow. It is one worthy of emulation by our posterity. We as a people should never lose sight of the great importance that must attach to this occasion, and of the duty we owe to our children to do all we can to impress their minds with the precepts of loyalty to the king and crown, that should be ever steadfast and immovable.

As a member of the Six Nations it is not altogether my wish that I should be looked upon on this occasion as a mere representative of my nation, but rather as a representative of the noble native Indian race which has so conspicuously identified itself with British arms at critical periods in the history of our fair Dominion.

One hundred years ago our country and people were befogged by conditions that were grey and ominous. It was very uncertain as to the part, if any, the Indians would take in the impending conflict.

From this spot, almost, General Brock set out for Amherstburg to arrange plans of campaign, and there met and shook hands with Tecumseh, this patriot Indian giving the assurance to his chief in command of the forces that he and his united Indian tribes composed of the Shawanoes, Wyandottes, Chippewas, Ottawas, Foxes and others, were ready to go into the field of action in defence of the British cause.