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7. The Patriot War
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102 7 } The Patriot War Michigan’s exposed position on the western frontier left it vulnerable to Indian attack and to mischief from the British. The latter had maintained a strong presence in the Great Lakes because of their forts and the fur trade. In addition, the British found it useful to buy the friendship of the Indian tribes in making trouble against the Americans. At no time was this more evident than in the War of 1812. Despite a treaty negotiated with the Indians in 1807 involving the southeastern portion of the territory of Michigan, there were constant threats from British-incited Indians. The great Shawnee warrior Tecumseh attempted to unite western tribes, hoping to halt the region’s pioneer settlements. He was eventually chased into Upper Canada (now Ontario), and he and his British allies were defeated at the Thames River there (near present-day London, Ontario) by forces led by William Henry Harrison. The War of 1812 claimed a great tragedy for Michigan along the River Raisin at Frenchtown (now Monroe) on January 22, 1813, when a detachment of Kentucky militiamen under General James Winchester was overwhelmed by a force of British soldiers, Canadian militia, and Indians. The Indians, likely fortified by liquor and angry at their losses from the day before, came back the next day, scalping and murdering the prisoners and wounding those who had been promised safety from the Indians’ blood rage. “Remember the Raisin” became a battle cry that motivated the Americans until the end of the war, as the memories of that massacre remained strong from constant retelling. This is the Michigan lore in which Stevens T. Mason was steeped, a process helped along by the fact that it was the young men from his state of Kentucky who shed their blood on the banks of the River Raisin. He would have known The Patriot War 103 all about the role of Kentucky in the War of 1812, and he would have shared in the general dislike of the British Lion. Now, as if he didn’t have enough on his plate in 1837, Governor Mason faced trouble brewing across the international boundary. A rebellion broke out in Canada at the end of 1837, with the rebels, otherwise known as Patriots, often finding support, weapons, and a place of refuge in Michigan for the duration of the rebellion. Governor Mason was soundly criticized by the Canadian government for doing too little to help put down the insurrection. Mason tried to play it down the middle. He couldn’t very well violate neutrality laws by appearing to aid the British in their internal problem, and he was keenly aware of public opinion, held in Michigan and throughout the United States, that the Canadian people had a right to be free and to choose their own government. Mason undoubtedly had those opinions himself, along with a genuine sense of alarm over the vulnerability of Michigan if the British should decide to invade from Upper Canada. The Patriot War began with revolts against the authorities in both Upper Canada and Lower Canada (Quebec). As one historian explains, “It was an attempt by the French in Lower Canada to overturn the British government and to gain independence, and by the British in Upper Canada to remove from power a selfish ruling group.”1 When the Patriots withheld paying their taxes and took up arms, it looked as though the Mother Country might have yet another revolution on its hands, similar to the one the American colonies had instigated. At this time, Canada was an oligarchy, into which it had evolved by increments since about 1790. The British Crown had divided Canada into two districts with separate legislatures—one English and the other French. Lower Canada had its own constitution and governor, as did Upper Canada; the people were represented in the lower house of Parliament, but the upper house controlled legislation and wielded power. In Upper Canada, a comparatively small group monopolized government offices, controlled the courts, and dominated business. The “Family Compact,” as it was known, had ruled Upper Canada pretty much as it pleased for more than two generations. The opposition was especially deep-seated in Lower Canada, but it could well be said that grievances of one kind or another went back forty years in both regions. “The poor people,” writes one historian, “finding that they had no direct appeal to the crown for redress of their wrongs at the hands of these...