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<nettime> M. Century: 'A non-revisionist note on Operation Quebec Freedom, 1775' |
[via <tbyfield@panix.com>, at the author's tentative suggestion.] < http://www.nextcentury.ca/iraquebec.html > A non-revisionist note on Operation Quebec Freedom, 1775 By Michael Century, July 22, 2003 In the New York Times on July 19, 2003 Mary Beth Norton firmly chides Defense Secretary Rumsfeld for over-stating Revolutionary Era chaos to soften the effect of dismal reports from occupied Iraq ("The Founders and the Fedayeen"). Mr. Rumsfeld could also benefit from attending to a little known episode from the War of Independence that may be somewhat more chastening. Benjamin Franklin was sent by the fledgling Congress on a diplomatic commission to Montreal in April, 1776, to salvage a derailed military campaign and occupation that was proving increasingly unpopular. The attack on British forces in Canada, seen at first as a push-over, was going from bad to worse, support from the Canadians slipping away, and Franklin's immediate assessment to John Hancock, in a letter of May 6, 1776, was blunt. The Fact before your Eyes, that the powerful British Nation cannot keep an Army in a Country where the Inhabitants are become Enemies, must convince You of the Necessity of Enabling Us immediately to make this People our Friends. Hoping to snatch Quebec as a 14th colony in a swift pre-emptive strike, the first Continental Congress had sent a manifesto to the people of Quebec in March 1775 inviting them to "unite with us in one social compact, formed on the generous principles of equal liberty". The pamphlet begins by warning that under continued colonial administration, "even the Inquisition itself" could be re-established. Hardly a savvy insinuation to a mainly Catholic population to which King George had, in the Quebec Act of 1774, just granted re-establishment of all its customary legal and religious institutions. The American entreaty was to an "Unhappy people! Who are not only injured but insulted Nay more!" In a darker register, the Canadians are urged to "Join us as brothers in revolt, or to risk "becoming tools to assist the British in taking that freedom from us, which they have treacherously denied to you". A small expeditionary force was sent north in the fall of 1775, for whose prospects Washington wrote that he had "the greatest Reason to expect that Quebec will fall into our Hands a very easy Prey." Montreal was captured in Nov. 1775, and the British forces retreated down river to the much better fortified city of Quebec. American occupation authorities showed little evidence of any practical or even coherent plan to win the hearts and minds of the local population to the Revolutionary cause. Trade with the Indians, central to Quebec's fur economy, was banned. Lacking legal tender to pay their keep, American officers permitted, even commanded plunder and pillage of Quebec farms and stores. The Catholic majority was hounded in acts of anti-papist thuggery. When Washington caught wind of this religious harassment carried out by his troops in November, 1775, he let loose magisterially: As the Commander in Chief has been apprized of a design form'd for the observance of that ridiculous and childish custom of burning the Effigy of the pope--He cannot help expressing his surprise that there should be Officers and Soldiers in this army so void of common sense, as not to see the impropriety of such a step at this Juncture; at a Time when we are solliciting, and have really obtain'd, the friendship and alliance of the people of Canada, whom we ought to consider as Brethren embarked in the same Cause. The defence of the general Liberty of America: At such a juncture, and in such Circumstances, to be insulting their Religion, is so monstrous, as not to be suffered or excused; indeed instead of offering the most remote insult, it is our duty to address public thanks to these our Brethren, as to them we are so much indebted for every late happy Success over the common Enemy in Canada. By the winter of 1776, the entire campaign on the ropes, the Continental Congress dispatched Franklin to Canada as diplomatic fixer, along with a Jesuit priest who it was hoped could smooth things over with the Catholic clergy. Delayed by weather, the Commissioners arrived in May, and they were swift in sending an unembroidered dispatch to Hancock and the Congress, requesting no less than 20,000 pounds in hard cash . "... the want of money frequently constrains the Commanders to have recourse to violences in providing the army with carriages, and other conveniences, which indispose and irritate the minds of the people. We have reason to conclude that the change in the sentiments, which we understand has taken place in this colony, is owing to the above mentioned cause, and to other arbitrary proceedings. If hard money cannot be procured and forwarded with dispatch to Canada, in our opinion, to withdraw our army and fortify the passes on the lakes to prevent the enemy, and the Canadians, if so inclined, from making irruptions into and depradations on our frontiers. (May 6, 1776) Only two days later, in the dispatch already quoted, Franklin held out little hope for an occupation project which has come to: "..look contemptible in the Eyes of the Canadians, who have been provoked by the Violences of our Military in Exacting provisions and Services from them, without Pay; a Conduct towards a people, who suffered Us to enter their Country as Friends, that the most urgent Necessity can scarce excuse, since it has contributed much to the Changing their good Dispositions towards us into Enmity, makes them wish our Departure; and accordingly We have daily Intimations of Plots hatching and Insurrections intended for Expelling Us, on the first News of the Arrival of a british Army. You will see from hence that your Commissioners themselves are in a critical and most irksome Situation, pestered hourly with Demands great and small they cannot answer, in a place where our Cause has a Majority of Enemies, the Garrison weak, and a greater would, without Money, increase our Difficulties. On May 10 Americans forces suffered a rout at the hands of fresh British troops at Quebec City, and the retreat from Quebec was complete by the end of month. After an occupation of 188 days, the British were once again in control of Montreal. George Washington wrote to Benjamin Franklin on May 20th upon learning of the failure of the operation he had ordered for the "reduction of Quebec and our consequent possession of the Important Country to which It belongs." The first Commander in Chief consoled Franklin personally, but inserted this telling reflection on defeat: To what cause to ascribe the sad disaster, I am at loss to determine, but hence I shall know the events of War are exceedingly doubtfull, and that Capricious fortune often blasts our most flattering hopes". On May 24, Hancock and Congress replied to Franklin, forwarding 1,662 pounds, "which was all that was in the Treasury" Mssrs. Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Cheney, and Bremer might all ponder with profit the debacle that was "Operation Quebec Freedom". Administrative incompetence, cultural wooden-headedness, and dishonorable financial dealings were instrumental in conjuring America's first setback on foreign soil. As President Bush and company are now reckoning in their own way with capricious fortune, though infinitely far from Washington's lofty heights, we may be sure they have never even heard of the botched campaign for Quebec. Americans, if they know anything at all about their first failed invasion of Canada, tend to blame the hostility of the locals on the political immaturity of a backward feudal population not prepared for liberty. Canadians, on the other hand, and uniquely, are able to look back at the Revolutionary Era as an episode that concluded with neither the British or the Americans being able to impose a single continental system over all of North America. In Iraq, 228 years later, America and England are still fumbling the affairs of the world. Source for Franklin quotes The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, volume 23. Yale University Press, 1982 Source for Washington Quotes Library of Congress http://memory.loc.gov/ The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources, 1745-1799. John C. Fitzpatrick, Editor. The First Continental Congress manifesto to the "Province of Quebec" appears in many documentary sources. # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: majordomo@bbs.thing.net and "info nettime-l" in the msg body # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@bbs.thing.net