The Battle for the Fourteenth Colony: America’s War of Liberation in Canada, 1774–1776

6 | That Damned Absurd Word "Liberty": Quebec’s Own Rebellion

Chapter 6 That Damned Absurd Word “Liberty” Quebec’s Own Rebellion The Quebeck Bill is of no use; on the contrary, the Canadians talk of that damned absurd word liberty. | Thomas Gamble to Major Shirref, Quebec, 6 September 1775 These attempts of the seigniors have so disgusted the peasants of the seigniories . . . that they have broke out into acts of open violence to resist them. | A Gentleman of Quebeck, of Exceeding Good Sense, 1775 In Montréal, the atmosphere relaxed somewhat by the end of May, as the chaos of the St-Jean raids slipped into the near past; but there were still tensions among the populace. Garrison commander Lieutenant-Colonel Templer sent his eight French-Canadian elite appointees1 through the city and suburbs to enroll citizens for the militia, anticipating future threats. Many citizens demonstrated displeasure over the mission of these militia officials, especially in the west suburb of St-Laurent, where women even threatened to stone them. Overall the party had meager success; Governor Carleton reported, “though the gentlemen testified great zeal, neither their entreaties or their example could prevail upon the people.” Working-class Canadiens demonstrated their clear unwillingness to take up arms for the government.2 The most recent crises only served to encourage British Party radicals who continued to preach politics to habitants and laborers.“These Parochial orators held forth, that the liberty” the Canadiens “had enjoy’d for fifteen years was to be taken from them.”The seigneurs, “tools of the Governor,” would keep them enslaved; they would be taxed to pay “exorbitant”salaries for administration lackeys, and common people would be enlisted and sent from home 72 The Battle for the Fourteenth Colony “to enslave their brethren of the lower Provinces.” Government supporters noted that the speeches of “these ill-intentioned old subjects”were generally well received. As summer approached, all Quebec was aflutter.3 Quite early, the Canadian Church hierarchy committed itself to reinforcing government authority. On 22 May, just as Governor Carleton left Québec City for Montréal,Bishop Jean-Olivier Briand issued two mandates (mandements ) to his flock.The first was expected; it officially announced the bishop’s third diocesan tour and addressed specific Church issues. In many parishes, habitants had been showing “disobedience . . .outrages . . .disdainful insults” to their priests, and Briand reminded them, “The Church has lost none of its authority.”While hoping that “the way of kindness” would win parishioners ’hearts, he cautioned that the Church still held its ultimate “weapon”— ​ interdict or excommunication.4 The second mandate was far less routine; titled “On the American Invasion of Canada,”it dealt specifically with the current political crises.Having been a ceaseless British government advocate since the French capitulation of the last war, Briand ensured that his flock understood that his position remained unchanged.Beyond scriptural direction that “every soul be subject unto the higher powers”and that “Whosoever resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God to obey civil authority”—as well as the Quebec Act’s reassurances of religious freedom — the bishop had more mundane reasons to throw his weight behind Carleton. Bishop Briand was a respected confidant of the governor, and also received a £200 annual stipend from England.5 When Carleton asked Briand to issue Church guidance on the recent rebel “invasion,”Briand initially planned to produce a circular letter.The governor requested a mandate instead, a form implying greater episcopal emphasis. The resulting mandate opened by maligning the rebels, who had “just burst into this Province,less in hope of being able to sustain their attack than with a view to dragging you into their revolt.”The bishop expected Canadiens to support the Crown, not only out of gratitude for the “outstanding kindness and mildness” their sovereign had shown, but also because their post-Conquest “oaths and religion” imposed an “indispensable obligation to defend” their country and king. When British Party zealots warned that habitants That Damned Absurd Word “Liberty” 73 were just being enlisted to be sent to distant lands, Briand explained that their only obligation was “to strike a blow to repel the enemy and halt the invasion,”defending their own colony and property. Recognizing the role of proselytizing radicals in the recent Canadian unrest,Briand warned his “Dear Canadians” to close their ears, and not listen to the “seditious people” who were trying to extinguish Canadiens’ sense of “submission to . . . legitimate superiors.” The mandate left no doubt that...