by Gerald Therrien
The Unveiling of Canadian History, Volume 3.
The Storming of Hell – the War for the Territory Northwest of the Ohio, 1786 – 1796.
During the American Revolution, when General Washington had asked General Wayne to undertake an extremely perilous enterprise – the storming of Stony Point, Wayne replied : “General, I will storm Hell, if you will only plan it.”
Part 2 – The Canadian Frontier
Chapter 12 – The ‘Indian Buffer State’ plan, March 16th 1792
While debating a bill to establish an elected assembly for Canada – which would remain under British control through the veto power of the Privy Council, a plan was also launched to create a ‘Indian Buffer State’ between the American states and the British provinces in Canada, to be used to stop the western expansion of the United States.
Henry Dundas, British Secretary of State for the Home Department
The disastrous harvest in France of 1788, and the actions of the Duke of Orleans to acquire the remaining supply of grain, ship it out of the country to Britain and store it on the islands of Jersey and Guernsey, led to a threat of famine, chaos and confusion.
After the King called for the meeting of the Estates General, for the first time since 1614, it was transformed into the National Assembly under the leadership of Bailly. A plot was organized by the Duke of Orleans and Jacques Necker, with the collaboration of British Intelligence agents such as Jean-Paul Marat, to assassinate Louis XVI, to eliminate the National Assembly and to install the Duke as king. This counter-revolution began on July 14th1789 with the storming of the Bastille.
A Note on Geneva:
Jacques Necker was not Swiss, but was a citizen of Geneva. Geneva was an oligarchically-controlled city-state that did not become a member of the Swiss confederacy until 1815, as part of the settlement of the Congress of Vienna.
Jean-Paul Marat was not Swiss, but was born in Boudry, in Neuchatel, a principality that was ruled by the King of Prussia. After his father converted to Calvinism, he moved the family to Geneva. Neuchatel became part of the Swiss confederacy in 1814.
Baron Besenval of Bronstadt, who commanded the foreign troops at the Bastille, was born in Solothurn in the Swiss confederacy, but his real pedigree can be traced to his serving as the aide-de-camp to the Duke of Orleans during the Seven Years War.
On August 26th 1789, the French National Assembly approved the ‘Declaration of the Rights of Man’, as a preamble to their new constitution, now under debate (that would be approved on September 3rd 1791.) This declaration was the cause of great concern in the British Empire’s ruling circles – how to prevent these revolutionary ideas from spreading into Britain.
In England, the Society for Constitutional Information was formed to repeal the Test Act – that excluded Catholics and protestant non-conformists from holding any official positions. In Ireland, the Society of United Irishmen was founded to unite the Catholics and Dissenters in a demand for equal rights for all. A Roman Catholic Relief Act would be passed in Britain in 1791 and in Ireland in 1793.
Would these revolutionary ideas also spread to Canada? How could granting rights to Catholic Canadians be done, without addressing those in Ireland and in Britain?
On November 1st 1790, Edmund Burke had published ‘Reflections of the Revolution in France’, and in response to Burke, on March 16th 1791, Thomas Paine succeeded in publishing ‘Rights of Man’ (part 1). When Paine’s pamphlet was printed in America, it was prefaced by a letter to the publisher from Thomas Jefferson, that said :
“I am extremely pleased to find that it is to be re-printed here, and that something is at length to be publicly said, against the political heresies which have sprung up among us. I have no doubt our citizens will rally a second time round the standard of Common Sense.”
John Quincy Adams answered in 11 anonymous letters, by Publicola, to the Columbian Centinel of Boston from June 8th to July 27th 1791, writing that :
“I am somewhat at a loss to determine, what this very respectable gentleman means by political heresies. Does he consider this pamphlet of Mr. Paine’s as the canonical book of political scripture? As containing the true doctrine of popular infallibility, from which it would be heretical to depart in one single point? … two pamphlets, founded upon very different principles, appear to have been received with the greatest avidity, and seem calculated to leave the deepest impression. The one written by Mr. Burke, which is one continued invective upon almost all the proceedings of the National Assembly since the Revolution, and which passes a severe and indiscriminating censure upon almost all their transactions: The other the production of Mr. Paine, containing a defence of the Assembly, and approving every thing they have done, with applause as undistinguishing as is the censure of Mr. Burke.”
John Quincy Adams was not only taking issue with Burke, but also with Paine.
During April and May 1791, Grenville’s Quebec bill was debated and passed in the House of Commons. The bill provided that, after his Majesty had split the province of Quebec into Upper Canada and Lower Canada, and that :
“his majesty … shall have power … by and with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council and Assembly … to make laws for the peace, welfare and good government … and that all such laws, being passed by the Legislative Council and Assembly … and assented to by his majesty … or assented to in his majesty’s name … are declared to be … valid and binding to all intents and purposes.”
The legislative council would consist of not fewer than 7 members in Upper Canada [i.e. Ontario], and not fewer than 15 members in Lower Canada [i.e. Quebec]; and members would serve for life, and include anyone having a hereditary title conferred upon them.
The legislative assembly would consist of not less than 16 members in Upper Canada, and not less than 50 members in Lower Canada; where members must possess lands or tenements of a yearly value of 40 shillings sterling, and chosen by voters possessing a dwelling house or lot of ground of a yearly value of 5 pounds sterling.
Tithes were to be continued, and land grants provided for the protestant clergy. All lands were to be granted, hereafter, in free and common soccage. No taxes would be imposed, except as it may be expedient to impose for the regulation of commerce.
This false independence – ‘the Carlisle option’ – that was rejected by the United States and later was given to Ireland, was now proposed for imposition upon Canada.
A Note on ‘the Carlisle option’:
On June 6th 1778, the Continental Congress received three acts of the British parliament, the Conciliatory bills. The third act, ‘An Act for removing all Doubts and Apprehensions concerning Taxation by the Parliament of Great Britain, in any of the Colonies, Provinces, and Plantations in North America and the West Indies’, repealed the 1773 Tea Act and declared that Britain would not impose any taxes except to regulate commerce.
This third act would be incorporated into the 1791 Quebec government Act.
On June 11th 1778, Congress was informed that the Earl of Carlisle, Mr. Eden and Governor Johnstone, the commissioners for restoring peace between Great Britain and America, are arrived at Philadelphia and on June 13th, a letter from the commissioners was read in Congress, which stated that their purpose was :
“in short, to establish the power of the respective legislatures in each particular state, to settle its revenue, its civil and military establishment, and to exercise a perfect freedom of legislation and internal government, so that the British states throughout North America, acting with us in peace and war, under our common sovereign, may have the irrevocable enjoyment of every privilege that is short of a total separation of interest.”
But their proposal was rejected because it lacked ‘an explicit acknowledgement of the independence of these states’.
In December 1780, in response to the Irish ‘Volunteer’ movement, the Earl of Carlisle was appointed the new Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, with Mr. Eden as secretary (the same Carlisle and Eden sent to America in June 1778 as peace commissioners) in order to provide Ireland with the same peace proposal that was rejected by the United States Congress.
After the ‘volunteer resolutions’ were passed in the Irish parliament, on May 17th 1782, a resolution introduced in the British House of Lords by Earl of Shelburne, and in the British House of Commons by Charles Fox, was passed whereby the British parliament gave up its authority over the Irish parliament, but whose laws were still subject to approval by the King’s Privy Council (!!!)
The Grenville plan, i.e. the false independence of ‘the Carlisle option’, was simply that there would be no American Revolution in Ireland or in Canada!
On June 8th 1791, Grenville became the new Foreign Secretary and Henry Dundas replaced Grenville, to become the new Home Secretary – in charge of the colonies.
On August 18th, Lord Dorchester left Quebec, to return to London to settle his personal affairs, while on September 22nd, Simcoe had left London and arrived in Canada on November 11th, but due to severe weather, Simcoe spent the winter at Quebec.
On March 16th 1792, Dundas wrote to Alured Clarke, lieutenant-governor of Lower Canada [Quebec], and to John Simcoe, lieutenant-governor of Upper Canada [Ontario], that :
“I transmit you inlosed copies of Lord Grenville’s letter to Mr. (George) Hammond [British minister to the United States] and mine to Lord Dorchester respecting the views of his majesty’s servants as connected with the present disputes subsisting betwixt the Indians and the American States. You will observe that Mr. Hammond is authorized to propose his majesty’s good offices for the establishment of a permanent peace between them, on the principle of securing to the latter such a territory as in those letters is particularly stated”
– i.e. the British policy of the ‘Indian buffer state’.
In his letter to Lord Dorchester, he wrote :
[of the] “intentions of his majesty’s servants to endeavour to secure what may operate as an effectual and lasting barrier between the territories of the american states and his majesty’s dominions.”
“The idea suggested was that his majesty and the American states should join in securing exclusively to the Indians a certain portion of territory lying between and extending the whole length of the lines of their respective frontiers.”
“Although in consequence of such a cession, the frontier posts now in his majesty’s hands would be given up … the objection to this measure would be much lessened by the circumstance of their not being to come into the possession of the American states, but to be ceded for the express purpose of becoming part of such territory as is to be reserved for the undisturbed and independent possession of the Indians.”
McKee, the British Indian Department agent at Detroit, travelled to Montreal and met with Simcoe. On June 21st, Simcoe wrote to Dundas that :
“I have been most industriously employed in concert with Colonel McKee and the Indian Department in procuring every possible information to substantiate the claims of the Indian Americans to such lands as his majesty’s ministers have thought it proper in their wisdom that they should retain.”
Simcoe and McKee worked out a hypothetical boundary division with the creation of an Indian buffer state, that would include all the lands north of the Ohio river and west of the Muskingum river (as agreed by Dorchester and Brant), and also a strip of land 2 leagues deep, from the Miami Rapids eastward along the south shore of lake Erie – lands that were part of the United States!!!
This was a plan to completely seal off the British possessions in Canada from United States territory and thereby, to deny the Americans any access to the great lakes!
And the British-held frontier posts would become part of the Indian Territory, not part of the United States!!!
And, while the British were planning on manipulating the Indians to form their buffer state in the Northwest territory, there was also the border between Canada and New York state, along lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence river, to manipulate, using the traitor and spy, Aaron Burr.
This ‘Indian buffer state’ plan would be dusted off and tried again and again until Henry Clay and the ‘war hawks’ finally put an end to it with the War of 1812.
Note on border lands in New York State:
On April 1st 1788, Massachusetts had sold the rights to their 6 million acre territory within New York state to Phelps and Gorham, provided they could purchase the title to the lands from the Iroquois.
On July 8th Phelps and Gorham were able to secure the title to 2.25 million acres, and while they resold some of plots, they were unable to make their payments to Massachusetts, and defaulted. The unsold 1.25 million acres were then sold to Robert Morris on August 10th 1790, who sent Temple Franklin to London as his agent.
Pulteney Associates purchased the 1.25 million acres, and in 1792 would sent Captain Charles Williamson (of British intelligence!) to the United States as their land agent.
[This is the same Captain Williamson that will later meet with Aaron Burr in May 1804 to help plot his treasonous plan for western secession!]
Phelps and Gorham were also unable to secure from the Iroquois the title to the remaining 3.75 million acres, and in May 1791, Massachusetts sold the rights to this area to Robert Morris, who resold the 3.75 million acres to the Holland Land Company, and their agent, Theophilus Cazenove, on July 20th 1793.
In 1792, a financially troubled New York State sold over 4 million acres, lying on the east shore of lake Ontario and on the south shore of the St. Lawrence river, to Alexander Macomb and William Duer. New York Attorney General Aaron Burr was the lawyer and confidante of Captain Williamson, and the lawyer for the Holland Land Company, and for Macomb.
News would reach Simcoe on May 8th of the failure of 12 capital houses in New York, with Macomb and Duer in prison.
[Macomb and Duer, along with Edgar and Governor Clinton] “are the chief proprietors of that great tract of land from Oswego to St. Regis … It must now be resold to pay creditors. What an opportunity for England (by her agents) to become the purchaser of it. It will give us a good footing in the state of New York (as we would move a few troops into it), where we have a great many friends. Both sides of the St. Lawrence would then belong to your government … The ruin of America appears unavoidable as Jonathan will now be in a hurry to turn all his scrip, bank-notes, and every other species of paper currency into cash. The National Bank will not be able to stand the run upon it.”
However, the run on the Bank of the United States, caused by the speculators, was stopped by Treasury Secretary, Alexander Hamilton.
Now, in the midst of the French revolution – while plans were being made for an insurrection and a foreign invasion of France; and plans made for an Indian buffer-state to halt American frontier settlements, the British decided to give an elected assembly to Canada – 30 years after it was initially promised.
Elections were held in June 1792 and the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada began its first session on December 17th. Of the 16 English Canadian delegates – 12 had signed the ‘reform’ petition while 1 had signed the ‘friends’ petition, and 3 had signed neither; and of the 34 French Canadian delegates – 12 had signed the ‘reform’ petition while 13 had signed the ‘friends’ petition, and 9 had signed neither.
[next week – chapter 13 – The Beginnings of an Abolitionist Movement]
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For those who may wish to support my continuing work on ‘The Unveiling of Canadian History’, you may purchase my books, that are available as PDFs and Paperback (on Amazon) at the Canadian Patriot Review :
Volume 1 – The Approaching Conflict, 1753 – 1774.
Volume 2 – Forlorn Hope – Quebec and Nova Scotia, and the War for Independence, 1775 – 1785.
And hopefully,
Volume 3 – The Storming of Hell – the War for the Territory Northwest of Ohio, 1786 – 1796, and
Volume 4 – Ireland, Haiti, and Louisiana – the Idea of a Continental Republic, 1797 – 1804,
may also appear in print, in the near future, while I continue to work on :
Volume 5 – On the Trail of the Treasonous, 1804 – 1814.