American Propaganda and the Struggle for Canada
Boston’s martyrdom had already aroused the countryside when fifty-six predominantly middle-aged Americans gathered in the first Continental Congress in Philadelphia to consult “on the present state of the Colonies.” For seven weeks, beginning on September 5, 1774, the delegates argued and debated “the unwise, unjust, and ruinous policy” of Great Britain. In late October, after adopting various anti-Parliamentary resolves and issuing several important political papers, they adjourned peaceably. One of those state papers was an appeal to the King for redress of grievances; another was a lengthy and indignant Address to the People of Great Britain, and a third was an Address to the Inhabitants of the Province of Quebec.
It is this latter document that particularly concerns us, because it was the beginning of an American propaganda campaign to bring Canada over to the side of the colonies. This campaign was highly successful in subverting the new and tenuous allegiance of the French Canadians to the British government, especially after the entrance of France into the war in 1778. The combined Franco-American verbal assault on the Canadian mind was so effective that the British authorities in Canada were placed al most entirely on the defensive. Indeed, so worried was the British government over the impact of the ideas emanating from the south that British commanders in Canada undertook to seal off the province from the colonies. With English bayonets a futile attempt was made to create an eighteenth-century “Iron Curtain” to halt the movement of American agitators and propaganda into that uneasy territory.
To understand why American propaganda to the north was so successful, we must review briefly Canada’s population complexion. Most of the white inhabitants of Canada at the time of the Revolution were of French descent, adherents of the Roman Catholic faith, and tenant-farmers by occupation. They had fallen under British rule as a result of England’s victory over France in the French and Indian War (Seven Years’ War). By 1763 the prolific French Canadian population had reached an estimated 70,000 persons, while the English residents totalled scarcely 400 people, these being mostly traders from the southern colonies or discharged British soldiers.
During the decade after 1763 the British military government—overseeing a large and formerly hostile Canadian population with but a small force of regular troops—was troubled by fears of a popular uprising. Rumors of Canadian plots were reported periodically to London by members of the British minority. In 1768 the military governor, Sir Guy Carleton, although unable to discover any of the supposed subversive plots, wrote to the London government that “there was no doubt of their secret and natural affection for France,” an affection which he said would continue so long as they were excluded from all appointments in the British service. Carleton was referring specifically to the French Canadian seigneurs and clergy, the privileged minority which had dominated the peasant class under French rule but which had lost much of its power under Britain.
