Brock Centenary 1812-1912 Part 6

COLONEL GEORGE T. DENISON

Toronto

It is a great satisfaction to me to be here to-day and to know that so many patriotic societies and organizations have clubbed together to commemorate so splendidly the one hundredth anniversary of the notable victory gained upon this field.

The great, virile nations of the world have always commemorated the brave deeds and victories of their fathers. The Romans did everything in their power to inspire their young men with love of country by relating stories of their glorious past. Some of them were evidently legends, but they all tended to create and instil a pure national spirit.

For five hundred years after Marathon the Athenians commemorated the glorious victory won against overwhelming odds. The Spartans never forgot the death of Leonidas and his three hundred brave, unflinching followers, who died for the honour of their country at Thermopylae.

Pausanias the historian was able to read six hundred years after upon a column erected to their memory in Sparta, the names of the three hundred Spartans who had died with their king in that fight.

In Russia also the same spirit of reverence for their great heroes has always shown itself. Dimitry saved Russia by a great victory over the Tartars in 1380. Over five hundred years have elapsed, but still the name of Dimitry Donskoi lives in the memory and the songs of the Russian people, and still on "Dimitry's Sat.u.r.day," the anniversary of the battle, prayers are offered up in memory of the brave men who fell on that day in defence of their country.

Switzerland is another example of the patriotism of a free people. They won their freedom by three great victories won against overwhelming odds at Morgarten, Sempach and Naefels. Naefels was the final victory, and every year the people commemorate the great event. In solemn procession the people revisit the battlefield and the Landamman tells the fine old story of their deliverance from foreign rule. The five hundredth anniversary was celebrated in 1888, and people from all parts of Switzerland flocked to partic.i.p.ate in the patriotic and religious services. This national spirit has kept Switzerland free although surrounded by great powers. Her children are all trained as soldiers in their public schools, and compulsory training of all their youth is rigidly enforced. We could learn a lesson from them in this.

[Ill.u.s.tration:

Hon. R. A. Pyne, M.D., M.P.P., Minister of Education, Toronto.

James L. Hughes, LL.D., Chief Inspector of Schools, Toronto.

Colonel George T. Denison, Toronto.

SPEAKERS OF THE DAY]

Canada has shown the same virile spirit as other great nations, and we may take pride in the way in which our people have recognized what they owe to General Brock and the men who fought with him on this field one hundred years ago. This spot has seen several inspiring demonstrations.

Brock and Macdonell had been buried in Fort George in 1812. In 1824 their remains were removed and buried again under the first monument here. In 1824 there were no railways, practically no steamers, and the population of the Province was very small, and yet in the funeral cortege there were 560 men on horseback, 285 carriages and wagons, and thousands of persons on foot, in all estimated at about ten thousand people, who followed the remains the seven miles from Niagara to this place. That was a remarkable tribute to the memory of the great general.

In 1840 the monument was blown up on Good Friday by an Irish rebel or Fenian named Benjamin Lett. This aroused intense indignation throughout the Province, and a great demonstration was organized to arrange for building a new monument on a grander scale. The meeting was held in July, 1840, and a great number of the foremost men in public life attended. Ten steamers, all crowded with people, moved up the river in procession. About eight thousand persons were present. A new monument was decided upon and it is here above us now. It is a wonderful monument to have been erected by a small community when there was very little wealth in the country. This monument is as a column the finest and grandest I have seen. I put it far above the column to Alexander I. in front of the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg. It is about forty feet higher than the one to Nelson in Trafalgar Square. The National German Monument in the Neiderwald does not strike me as being so impressive.

In 1859, on the anniversary of the battle, there was another great gathering here for the inauguration of the monument. I was here with a detachment of my corps and there were a great many other detachments and people, and about two hundred of the old veterans of the war who came again to do honour to their dead chief. In the following year the late King was visiting Canada, and naturally he came here to do honour to the memory of the great general and to meet the surviving veterans of the war. There was another great demonstration and I was there on that occasion also. Could anything show more clearly the deep hold that General Brock had on the affection and memory of the Canadian people than these repeated gatherings? And now, after another fifty-two years, there is this splendid demonstration of respect and grat.i.tude. I am proud that our people have done their duty to-day, and I hope that our action will inspire our children a hundred years hence to commemorate the great event. I make no apologies for coming here to glory over the victory. Brock died on this field and our fathers fought here that we should be a free and independent people, and we have enjoyed that position for a hundred years, thanks to their efforts. How can we use that freedom better, than in testifying in the heartiest manner our grat.i.tude and appreciation for the priceless boon which we owe to those who then won it for us!

[Ill.u.s.tration: J. A. MACDONELL, K.C., GLENGARRY, ADDRESSING THE GATHERING.

Dr. Alexander Dame, Col. George Sterling Ryerson, Dr. James L. Hughes, Col. George T. Denison, Major W. Napier Keefer (next right of speaker), Major Gordon J. Smith, Dr. Charles F. Durand.]

MR. J. A. MACDONELL, K.C.

Glengarry, Ontario

Permit me to express on behalf of the members of this generation of the family to which the former Attorney-General Macdonell belonged, my warm appreciation of the honour which was done to that gentleman's memory, by the invitation which in terms so generous and complimentary and so appreciative of his services, was extended to me as the representative of his family, to be present on this most interesting occasion as the special guest of your Committee.

We are a.s.sembled here to-day to commemorate the Centennial Anniversary of the death of Sir Isaac Brock, to give evidence that we Canadians hold in grateful remembrance the inestimable services which he rendered to our country, and to record it as our firm and solemn conviction that it is to that ill.u.s.trious man of glorious memory we owe the preservation of this country, our connection with the Motherland and those British inst.i.tutions which it is our happiness now to enjoy.

It was indeed a privilege for any man to have served under Sir Isaac Brock, to have been in any way a.s.sociated with him, and more especially to have been placed in a position whereby he was enabled to second his indomitable efforts. It was the good fortune of Attorney-General Macdonell to have been a.s.sociated with him in a threefold capacity.

First he was connected with him by the most intimate ties of private friends.h.i.+p, for there existed between them the most perfect confidence and a mutual regard, amounting, as is frequently the case with men of generous impulse, to personal affection. Then as Attorney-General of the Province and chief law adviser of the Crown, he was the trusted legal adviser of General Brock in his capacity of President of the Council of the Province, and although but a young man he was equal to the exigencies of that critical period.

Upon the declaration of war, the House of a.s.sembly 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 Const.i.tution, 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 circ.u.mstances 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 Willc.o.c.ks, 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, Willc.o.c.ks 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 a.s.sault 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 a.s.sistance 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 pa.s.sed 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 pa.s.sing 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 pa.s.sed 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 ma.s.s 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 n.o.bly 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 grat.i.tude 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 G.o.d 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 n.o.ble 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 n.o.bly 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 hards.h.i.+ps endured willingly by Canadian women generally, as well as by proudly relating the n.o.ble work done by individual women, of whom Laura Secord was so conspicuous an example.

A certain cla.s.s 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 n.o.ble 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: