Friends of Ireland: early O’Connellism in Lower Canada

2016 ◽  
Vol 40 (157) ◽  
pp. 43-65
Author(s):  
Shane Lynn
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
North America ◽  
The United States ◽  
Common Cause ◽  
Lower Canada ◽  
British North America ◽  
Reciprocal Interactions ◽  
Irish America ◽  
French Speaking ◽  
British North American

AbstractIn September 1828, societies of the ‘Friends of Ireland’ were founded throughout the United States and British North America for the purpose of raising funds and disseminating propaganda in support of the O’Connellite campaign for Catholic emancipation. In March 1831, the societies were briefly revived to agitate for repeal of the Union. The first Irish diasporic social movement to appear in Britain’s overseas empire, the British North American Friends of Ireland enjoyed greatest support in French-speaking Lower Canada, where for a time sympathetic local patriotes perceived a common cause with their new Irish neighbours. This article explores the transatlantic reciprocal interactions, cross-ethnic alliances and regional distinctions which characterised early O’Connellism in Lower Canada. It follows its initial successes to its virtual collapse in the early 1830s, as an increasingly polarised Lower Canada slid towards rebellion. Comparisons are employed with similar agitation elsewhere in British North America, in the United States, and in Ireland. It is argued that instrumentalist explanations for Irish diasporic nationalism, typically drawn from studies of post-famine Irish-America, do not convincingly account for the appearance and form of O’Connellite nationalism in British North America.

The Canadian-American Reciprocity Treaty of 1855 to 1866

1968 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 598-623 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lawrence H. Officer ◽  
Lawrence B. Smith
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
North America ◽  
Free Trade ◽  
Coastal Waters ◽  
The United States ◽  
Free Access ◽  
British North America ◽  
British North American ◽  
Atlantic Coastal ◽  
St Lawrence River

The Reciprocity Treaty between the British North American Provinces (Canada) and the United States was ratified in February 1855 and terminated in March 1866. It provided for free trade in all natural products, free access for United States fisheries to the Atlantic coastal waters of British North America, and access to the St. Lawrence River for American vessels under the same tolls as native vessels.

scholarly journals Les relations canado-américaines : Nationalisme et continentalisme

2005 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louis Balthazar
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
North America ◽  
Manifest Destiny ◽  
The United States ◽  
Cultural Integration ◽  
British North America ◽  
History Of ◽  
Canadian Nationalism ◽  
Set Up ◽  
National Perspective

This paper's objective is to bring forth some elements which confirm the following hypothesis : Canada is consigned to continentalism, namely to economic and cultural integration with the United States though this fact is shrouded in a Canadian nationalism of sorts. The continentalist mentality is rooted in the history of British North America, inhabited mostly by refugees from America who have remained inherently "Yankees" in spite of their anti-americanism. The Confederation itself is based on a sort of complicity with the United States. More recently there were talks of a "North American nationality", and continentalism both cultural and economic has come to be seen as a 'force of nature" which the governments, at the most, put into a chanelling process. Still, it is possible for Canadian nationalism to exist provided it does not go beyond the threshold whence it would run headlong into the continental mentality. Canada has defined itself through an international or non-national perspective far too long for today's nationalism not to remain weak and poorly established. But the Americans whose "manifest destiny" has succeeded in spreading over Canada without even their having tried to hoist their flag there find it to their advantage to maintain some form of Canadian sovereignty. Canada as a "friendly nation" can be of use to Washington. That is why there are almost as many advocates for Canada's independence in the United States as there are north of the border. Canadian nationalism can thus further the interests of some Canadian elites without seriously prejudicing continental integration which can very well afford not to be set up into formalized structures.

Refugiés Or Émigrés? Early Modern French Migrations to British North America and the United States (c. 1680 – c. 1820)

Itinerario ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 12-32
Author(s):  
Bertrand Van Ruymbeke
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
North America ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Political History ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
The United States ◽  
British North America ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
Gulf Of Saint Lawrence

Historians have traditionally paid relatively little attention to the French migrations to America. Although in the early modern period France was a demographic giant, had a deep – yet not enough recognized – maritime tradition, had many colonies in the Americas from the Gulf of Saint-Lawrence to the Amazon, and suffered from a tumultuous political history comparatively few of its people migrated to British North America and the United States. France has therefore and to some extent understandably enjoyed minimal visibility in the American ethnic landscape. There is, however, a long tradition of French migrations to America, beginning with the Huguenots at the end of the seventeenth century. At times these influxes were important in terms of number and influence, indeed in 1690 and in 1790 French was spoken in the streets of Charleston and of Philadelphia.

Federation and the History of the Administration of Indigenous Affairs in Canada, the United States, and Australia: New Insights through a Transnational Approach

2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-53
Author(s):  
Ted Binnema
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
North America ◽  
Federal Government ◽  
Previous History ◽  
The United States ◽  
Federal States ◽  
British North America ◽  
Exclusive Jurisdiction ◽  
History Of ◽  
State Relations

The importance of decisions regarding the allocation of jurisdiction over Indigenous affairs in federal states can only be understood well when studied transnationally and comparatively. Historians of Canada appear never to have considered the significance of the fact that the British North America Act (1867) gave the Canadian federal government exclusive jurisdiction over Indian affairs, even though that stipulation is unique among the constitutional documents of comparable federal states (the United States and Australia). This article explains that the constitutional provisions in Canada, the United States, and Australia are a product of the previous history of indigenous-state relations in each location, but also profoundly affected subsequent developments in each of those countries. Despite stark differences, the similar and parallel developments also hint at trends that influenced all three countries.

Elite associations: from local to transnational

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tanja Bueltmann ◽  
Donald M. MacRaild
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
North America ◽  
Social Action ◽  
The United States ◽  
Geographical Range ◽  
Immigrant Community ◽  
British North America ◽  
The North ◽  
Transnational Communication ◽  
Emotional Aspects

Chapter 2 explores, first, the development of elite English associations in North America, focusing on St George’s societies. These earliest English societies were more than gentlemen’s dining and drinking clubs, and extended beyond the cultural life of the colonial tavern where they often met. Their roles encompassed social, cultural, civic and also emotional aspects of immigrant community life. Critically, however, the idea of charity underpinned them and provided the basis for all their activities, with the societies established for the purpose of aiding fellow English migrants who were in distress. This associational anchor of benevolence continues to be a mainstay for the St George’s societies that are still active today. And it was one that spread with the St George’s tradition—first to the largest centres of the original Thirteen Colonies and then, in the 1830s, to British North America. All this was in tune with the patterns of English migration, as well as its overall volume, with a plethora of new societies being founded in the mid-nineteenth century to cater for the mass arrival of migrants. Hence, while the associations’ leaders were comprised of the migrant elite, the work of St George’s societies had wider resonances for it embraced the poorest and most unfortunate of their fellow countrymen and women. Importantly, charitable culture also signifies the extent to which the English formed an active diaspora: that is, one denoted both by the geographical range of its adherents, transnational communication between them, and persistent social action. Indeed, transnational integration and the quest for consistently was fostered by the North America St George’s Union, which was founded in the 1870s for the purpose of bringing closer together the St George’s societies of the United States and Canada.

scholarly journals L'Église et l'État aux États-Unis: la langue et l'éducation

2005 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 359-379
Author(s):  
Edward G. Hudon
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
North America ◽  
Church And State ◽  
The United States ◽  
Consistent Pattern ◽  
British North America ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Case Basis ◽  
Language Question ◽  
Easy Solution

In both Canada and the United States, the relationship between Church and State has caused problems which have had to be resolved by the courts on a case by case basis. In Canada, much more than in the United States, there have also been problems over the language question which also have had to be resolved by the courts. Indeed, in Canada the language issue can be considered to be the counterpart of the black versus white problem of the United States. In both Canada and the United States, the question is the protection of the rights of the minority, but the constitutional provisions of each that relate to these rights have a different approach. In Canada they take the form of permissions which are found in Sections 93 and 133 of the British North America Act. In the United States they are in the form of prohibitions found in the First and the Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States. In Canada, the effect of the Constitutional provisions vary from Province to Province, depending on what the situation was in a Province at the time it became apart of the Dominion. In the United States, the Constitutional prohibitions apply to all of the States in the same manner. But whatever the nature of the Constitutional provision, in both countries there has not been a lack of cases. Moreover, in both countries a quick, easy solution to the problems presented will probably never be found. Meanwhile, about all that the courts of either country can do is to continue the case by case approach so that it will present a reasonably consistent pattern as new problems develop and passions erupt.

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