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

16 | Evolving Occupation: Montréal and the Struggle for the Canadian Spirit

Chapter 16 Evolving Occupation Montréal and the Struggle for the Canadian Spirit There are so many Civil and Political Affairs that require the greatest Care and most Delicate Management. | General David Wooster to the Continental Congress, Montréal, 11 February 1776 A crueler dictatorship had never been seen. | Simon Sanguinet “To the Inhabitants of Canada,” March 1776 With renewed confidence at the end of January 1776,General David Wooster decided it was time to confront the Montréal militia officers decisively on exchanging their royal commissions for Continental equivalents.The general believed that “the whole posse of Tories”—men such as outspoken Tory Edward William Gray—“used their utmost endeavours to dissuade the French officers from complying” with his orders. Recognizing that Continental authority would “appear contemptible in the eyes of theTories and Canadians”if he did not enforce his demands,Wooster issued a final warning that resisters could expect confinement at Fort Chambly.1 On 2 February,James Price and William Haywood called a Montréal citizens ’meeting “to sound their opinions on different subjects.”After the city’s “respectable citizens”had gathered in the Recollet Church,2 Price immediately stole the floor,“ineloquently”arguing for the militia officers to surrender their commissions. Tired of the extended patriot monologue, coffeehouse owner Loubet interjected, suggesting a breakaway meeting in which other citizens might actually express their opinions.According to loyalist Claude Lorimier, Price promptly ordered Continental soldiers to take Loubet away,resulting in a general scramble for the doors. As citizens massed near the exit, Lori­ mier harangued against rebel injustice, declaring he would never surrender his commission.Without the solid foundation of a Montréal patriot committee Evolving Occupation 227 organization to build upon, this chaotic episode utterly failed to introduce a rebel “meeting culture” to the city—“an essential ingredient of revolution.” Instead of establishing a collective social force that might promote individual commitment to the patriot cause, the Continentals’friends undoubtedly left their citizen peers disgusted with the arbitrary and tyrannical proceedings they witnessed at the Recollet Church.3 No Montrealers seemed to have been arrested that day, but on the next, Wooster ordered Lorimier to headquarters. In the ensuing interview, the loyalist did not deny or recant his previous day’s statements, in which he had referred to “lousy” Americans. In response, the general informed Lorimier that he could see plenty of “well-disciplined” and uninfested troops, as he would be sent to New York within the week.4 When senior Montréal militia officers still failed to deliver their commissions that day, Wooster ordered the principals sent to Chambly, “pursuant to General Schuyler’s orders and my own sentiments.” Edward Gray, long a marked man,was accompanied by militia officers Colonel Dufy-Desauniers, Lieutenant-Colonel Neveu-Sevestre, and Major St-Georges Dupré, all of whom were allegedly sowing “improper conversation” and “refused to give parole” not to act against the Continentals. On 6 February, these gentlemen were escorted from the city.Twelve days later, another train of prisoners was sent farther, to the United Colonies. They were “British officers and their families, who had been permitted, for their accommodation, to remain at Montreal,”but who had subsequently proven themselves dangerous to good order in the city. Critics, both loyalists and conservative patriots, marked the 6 February militia officer arrests as a decisive point in Montréal’s “arbitrary” rule; yet in light of the contemporary anti-Tory activities of Lee and Schuyler, Wooster’s decisions seem prudent in this phase of the growing continental revolution, although his vacillating implementation of loyalist suppression measures warrants some criticism.5 General Wooster faced another critically important issue in Montréal in early 1776. As fur traders began to assemble spring shipments, they wondered if Continental authorities would permit their annual trade. If denied, the city’s principal business would be destroyed for the year. The issue was not new; merchants had raised it after John Brown’s spring 1775 visit and during Mon- 228 The Battle for the Fourteenth Colony tréal’s November capitulation. Albany fur traders faced a similar challenge, yet New York had the benefit of patriot government bodies to weigh in and prudently balance economics with security. In Montréal, the decision rested on a single heavily burdened Continental general,with no particular expertise on the subject.6 In late January,Wooster called a meeting of citizen “Indian traders.”When he...