Riep IADA might have been only the country she is today, -U.S. frontier instead of the . Ocean for her western ary, had Louis Riel been 2 of man so falsely depict- bourgeois historians. ere was a perilous moment Mcertainty in this country’s a to nationhood, when the tinge of U.S. territorial ambi- 5 a across the mid-conti- “nlal Northwest; when two mil- lion square miles of land — from 49th parallel and the western tee of Ontario to the Rocky oes: stood in real danger ‘Yankee acquisition. dian this might have been; Cana- a history and geography could aoe a different course. The | t that it didn’t happen is due, €ly,'to the wise statesmanship the profound patriotism of faye. Such is the stuff of aad that has yet to be admit- (ea written, the very tissue ~ wur national life and existence. ik peiten history, as it is taught ag ur schools today, brands Riel i traitor to his country. This is ie the great frauds of a vin- We class that seeks to de tholj : beet an immortal name and ie tage in the gallery of Can- ®’s builders, tite as Riel was denounced by ee sought to serve their 4 Interests, even at the risk hs fa cition by the U.S. so to- € cry of traitor is levelled and or Canadians who condemn Son the outright surrender S0veRa territorial, political and ion eign rights to the domina- The. US.. imperialism. tema full and true story of this i, Kable man is slowly emerg- eve from the abyss of the big lie, Sg + the struggle for the na- Ot on t2Y moves to the centre Somtemporary history. an, pening is already known, each ie comes to light with ay that passes, of Louis leadership of the struggles govern Northwest for responsible of t Bent, ot his establishment ea government west of inee of’ his founding of the prov- TeMittin toa and of his un- Peopie § fight for justice for his Tights » and for French-Canadian e IN territory outside Que- ae Riel also fought for the 33 of the Canadian nation. Canad Sense, his contribution to Upon Mg Nationhood converged “nteder: broad historic aims of - see And it is here Mali S least known and most ho ‘Shed, For the sinister false- ang ,2,Riel’s so-called treachery €qualy trayal is based on the Poseq tye wiSe Premise that he op- ‘ Prac unification of the coun- apay SCUSht to build a nation hie _ Rie : in ihe as the father of democracy tect or post Was also the archi- Peopie the terms on which the to cet the Northwest came in- tle g tee ration. In the drama- Proviness © for local democracy, Jal autonomy and rights Han ae Concept of the Cana- ee the Red River com- sein); on an organized and Fac existence, hastened the non oF the territory in the hop dominion, and dashed Atlonists. of the Yankee annex- Useq, SPecifically, while Riel Yankee © prevalent threat of Strength €rritorial ambitions to No €n his bargaining posi- IMPlacsy ems With Ottawa, he e , Use ree ©pposed all moves to Req : ™ the struggles of the Vantas, 1..Settlers to U.S. ad- lan ;,.,, “© believed in Cana- t ig ttionhood. Non ou this significant contribu- Meaghyp OUs Riel that the full 8 °f his patriotism is to be Phase 004, worthy of Temorat 1S on this 68th com- ton of hi , ber 16, ned execution on he 2 Who sea of Confederation, t to unite the colonies On from the Atlantic to Ve 0 YY YY 8 SS Pa Dt ah The man who saved the West OOOO: } MITCH AY) C7 ¢ of that period and save Canada from being seized by the United States, also had their eyes on the Northwest. Here, too, there was strong fear of American aggres- sion before the Canadian nation was established and in control, Already there was a great de- velopment in the mid-continent, where, for example, Minnesota, a territory with some 6,000 people in 1850, was a state of 172,000 people only 10 years later. In the words of Joseph Kinsey Howard, “the struggle for the Oregon in the forties, the inva- sion of the crown colony of Brit- ish Columbia in the fifties by Cali- fornia prospectors, the piratical practicies of Yankee traders in the Red River Basin in the sixties, and the westward thrust of the Union Pacific, the first transcon- tinental railroad, completed in 1869—all contributed to the con- viction that unless Britain be- stirred herself, the West would soon be lost.” This historian further notes that while the Canadian negotia- tors were busy in London, Sec- retary of State William H. Sew- ard and Senator Charles Sumner managed to put over the USS. purchase of Alaska from the Rus- sians. Seward then announced publicly that the whole continent sooner or later would come with- in the confines of the American Union. Similarly Presidents John- son and Grant, and the latter's Secretary of State Hamilton Fish, made no secret of their annexa- tionist ambitions. One thing had been clear for some time, both in Canada and the U.S., the Hudson’s Bay Com- pany could not maintain the Brit- ish Northwest for the Crown. In one of the series of resolutions by McDougall in the Dominion parliament, only five months after the effective date of the British North America Act, this estimate of the company’s waning power was confirmed: “The vast territory which lay between the Lake of the Woods and the Rockies must be wrest- ed from the relaxing grip of the Hudson’s Bay Company, which has shown itself wholly unable to control the Indians, those half-savage Metis, or the Americans who moved freely north and south along the Red River, Upper Missouri and Brit- ish Columbia trails.” The same resolution proclaimed that it was time to extend Can- ada to the Pacific, to promote the prosperity of the new dominion and to strengthen the empire. Barely two months later, in St. Paul, Minnesota — a major base of operations for the geopoliti- cians of U.S. expansion—a resolu- tion by James Wickes Taylor be- fore the Chamber of Commerce, demanded the annexation of Brit- ish Northwest America. “Tf the country at large shall acquiesce,” it read, “a public sentiment, already manifested quite distinctly in San Fran- cisco, will become general, that the intervening territories (be- tween St. Paul and Alaska), if possible, shall be annexed to the United States. Their inhab- itants, largely immigrants from the United States, will never consent to be transferred by parliamentary edict and with- out a popular vote to the dist- ant and feeble Confederation of Canada. ....” And further— “Our fellow citizens of the Pacific coast and the people of the Northwestern states have The rectory at Batoche. their independence. Inside the vestibule is a warm tribute ta Louis Riel, Gabriel Dumont, the Metis and Indians who fought for This stone marks the grave of the Metis killed at Batoche in 1885, Gabriel Dumont is also buried in this cemetery overlook- ing the Saskatchewan River. resolved that the Dominion. of Canada shall find its western boundary on the 90th meridian of longitude .. .” (a north-south line just west of Fort William). This was not the first time that Taylor had proposed annexation. Two years earlier, in a trade re- lations report to Congress, his am- bitions for a territorial grab of the British Northwest found ex- pression, and were incorporated in a bill proposed by General N. FP. Banks, chairman of the House foreign relations committee. The Banks bill caused such a furore in the Canadian territory that it was discreetly. dropped without debate. James Wickes Taylor, lawyer and journalist, upon coming to St. Paul early in his career, rap- idly made himself the foremost authority on the geography, economic and social conditions of the U.S. northern frontier. At the time Taylor presented his provocative memorandum to Congress, for endorsation by the St. Paul Chamber of Commerce, he was completing 10 years’ ser- vice as a special agent of the United States Treasury, with the specific assignment of investigat- ing trade with British North Am- erica and transportation. A U.S. government official, he was .to all intents and purposes an Ameri- can spy in Canada, although he . successfully maintained an effec- tive appearance of friendship for the country. A month after the rebellion broke out, Secretary Fish secret- ly commissioned Taylor as a spec- ,ial agent of the U.S. State De- partment to report on the trouble in Rupert’s Land and keep Wash- ington posted. Taylor was asked not to reveal his commission which was brought to him through Senator Ramsey,. and thus—in addition to his other activities, operated as a American spy. He ‘visited Rupert’s Land and Otta- wa in the course of this work, and completed his reports finally in Washington. The St. Paul resolution for an- nexation, so “dexterously throwg by Taylor, was picked up by Min- nesota’s Senator Ramsey. In July; 1868, the U.S. Senate adopted Ramsey’s resolution instructing the state department to look into the prospects for buying out their holdings of the Hudson’s Bay Company. Then the diplomacy of the Yankee dollar came into play. The U.S. talked of $10 million in payment for the vast domain of the Hudson’s Bay Company, as against the Canadian offer to the company of a $1% million. The Americans said that there would be money in the deal for the peeved winterers (who were left out in the cold in the pro- posed Canadian transaction). The US. would immediately begin ceenstruction of a Northern Pa- cific railroad, something that the Dominion of Canada could not achieve in a hundred years! The American package deal, as a sop to the new Dominion of Can- ada and as compensation for a permanent boundary on the West- ern extremity of Ontario, held out the prospect of free trade, which, the Americans boasted, would immediately boost the value of every Canadian farm and business by ten percent! High in the councils of Ameri- can intrigue for annexation was the legless schemer of Pembina, Enos Stutsman. US. customs agent to check smuggling activi- ty on the Red River trails, he was a practising lawyer, hotel owner, state legislator and gifted propa- gandist. Time and again, Stuts- man, cripple that he was, would drive or ride the 70 miles to Fort Garry for chats with the Metis, to win their support by glowing accounts of wealth and great per- sonal riches under the Stars and Stripes. Stutsman wrote President Grant, “I should be deficient in my duty both as an official and as an American citizen if I did not solemnly call your attention to the situation as it exists in this part of the continent of North America and the opportunity it offers for instant and decisive ac- tion on the part of the govern- ment of the United States,” ex- aggerating, as he always did, the extent of the. pro-American sen- timent north of the 49th parallel. The American press was whip- ping up annexation fever, remind- ing Minnesotans of the bloodless conquests of Oregon; playing up President Johnson’s message to Congress, in which he had ap- proved annexation of the British Northwest. Ottawa’s Governor - designate, William McDougall, stalled in Pembina with his retinue, ner- vously reported to the Canadian government that he was hedged about with conspirators. He voic- ed fears of an aggressive expedi- tion from St. Paul, Sir John A. MacDonald dismiss- ed these warnings with the obser- vation that “the Yankees would like to have a finger in the pie, I dare say, and so would the Fenians, but the march of four hundred miles from St. Cloud to Fort Gary and the carriage of provisions for such a force is quite sufficient protection from that quarter.” This was a surprisingly naive statement as subsequent events were to prove. In official testimony quite some time later, Bishop Tache of St. Boniface testified that more than $4 million had been pledged by unidentified Americans, in addi- tion to men and guns, to support any movement to annex Rupert’s Land to- the United States. And Donald A. Smith told the Cana- dian parliament, 20 years after, that a half-million at least had been offered by Minnesotans. . “There was ungestionably a very great danger at that time,” he said, “of the country being absorbed into the United States.” Smith reminded his listeners that it was impossible in less than two CONLUDED ON NEXT PAGE PACIFIC TRIBUNE — NOVEMBER 20 ,1953 — PAGE 9 ~