APPENDIX C

Proclamations

Hull’s Proclamation, dated July 13th, 1812

“Inhabitants of Canada!

After thirty years of peace and prosperity, the United States have been driven to arms. The injuries and aggressions, the insults and indignities of Great Britain, have once more left them no alternative but manly resistance or unconditional submission. The army under my command has invaded your country and the standard of Union now waves over the territory of Canada. To the peaceful, unoffending inhabitant, it brings neither danger nor difficulty. I come to find enemies, not to make them. I come to protect, not to injure you.

Separated by an immense ocean, and an extensive wilderness from Great Britain, you have no participation in her councils, no interest in her conduct — you have felt her tyranny, you have seen her injustice; but I do not ask you to avenge the one, or redress the other. The United States are sufficiently powerful to afford you every security consistent with their rights and your expectations. I tender you the invaluable blessings of civil, political and religious liberty, and their necessary result, individual and general prosperity. That liberty which gave decision to our councils and energy to our conduct, in a struggle for independence, and which conducted us safely and triumphantly through the stormy period of the revolution.

That liberty which has raised us to an elevated rank among the nations of the world, and which has afforded us a greater measure of peace, and security, of wealth and improvement, than ever fell to the lot of any people.

In the name of my Country, and by the authority of the Government I promise you protection to your persons, property and rights. Remain at your homes; pursue your peaceful and customary avocations, raise not your hands against your brethren. Many of your fathers fought for the freedom and independence we now enjoy. Being children, therefore, of the same family with us, and heirs to the same heritage, the arrival of an army of Friends must be hailed by you with a cordial welcome. You will be emancipated from Tyranny and oppression, and restored to the dignified station of freemen. Had I any doubt of eventual success, I might ask your assistance, but I do not. I come prepared for every contingency — I have a force which will look down all opposition, and that force is but a vanguard of a much greater. If contrary to your own interests and the just expectations of my country, you should take part in the approaching contest, you will be considered and treated as enemies, and the horrors and calamities of war will Stalk before you.

If the barbarous and Savage policy of Great Britain be pursued, and the savages let loose to murder our citizens, and butcher our women and children, this war will be a war of extermination.

The first stroke of the Tomahawk, the first attempt with a Scalping Knife, will be the signal of one indiscriminate scene of desolation! No white man found fighting by the side of an Indian will be taken prisoner; instant destruction will be his lot. If the dictates of reason, duty, justice and humanity cannot prevent the employment of a force which respects no right, and knows no wrong, it will be prevented by a severe and relentless system of retaliation.

I doubt not your courage and firmness — I will (not) doubt your attachment to liberty. If you tender your services voluntarily, they will be accepted readily.

The United States offer you Peace, Liberty, and Security — your choice lies between these, and war, slavery and destruction. Choose then, but choose wisely; and may He, who knows the justice of our cause, and who holds in His hand the fate of nations, guide you to a result the most compatible with your rights and interest, your peace and happiness.

H.Q. Sandwich
July 13th, 1812
By the General,
A.F. Hull
Captain of 13th U.S. Regt. of Infantry & Aid-de-Camp

Cruikshank, Documents Relating to the Invasion of Canada and the Surrender of Detroit, 58–60; Casselman, Richardson’s War of 1812, 14–16 [LAC, C676, 168].

Brock’s Proclamation, dated July 22, 1812

The unprovoked declaration of War by the United States of America against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and its dependencies has been followed by the actual invasion of this Province, in a remote frontier of the Western district, by a detachment of the armed force of the United States. The Officer Commanding that detachment has thought proper to invite His Majesty’s subjects, not only to a quiet and unresisting submission but insults them with a call to seek voluntarily the protection of his Government. Without condescending to repeat the illiberal epithets bestowed in this appeal of the American Commander to the people of Upper Canada, on the administration of His Majesty, every inhabitant of the Province is desired to seek the refutation of such indecent slander, in the review of his own particular circumstances. Where is the Canadian subject who can truly affirm himself that he has been injured by the Government in his person, his liberty, or his property? Where is to be found in any part of the world, a growth so rapid in wealth and prosperity, as this colony exhibits — settled not thirty years by a band of veterans, exiled from their former possessions on account of their loyalty. Not a descendant of these brave people is to be found, who, under the fostering liberality of their Sovereign, has not acquired a property and means of enjoyment superior to what were possessed by their ancestors. This unequalled prosperity could not have been attained by the utmost liberality of the Government or the persevering industry of the people, had not the maritime power of the mother country secured to its colonists a safe access to every market where the produce of their labor was in demand.

The unavoidable and immediate consequence of a separation from Great Britain must be the loss of this inestimable advantage. And what is offered you in exchange? To become a territory of the United States, and share with them that exclusion from the ocean which the policy of their present government enforces. You are not even flattered with a participation of their boasted independence, and it is but too obvious that once exchanged from the powerful protection of the United Kingdom, you must be re-annexed to the dominion of France, from which the Provinces of Canada were wrested by the arms of Great Britain, at a vast expense of blood and treasure, from no other motive than to relieve her ungrateful children from the oppression of a cruel neighbour; this restitution of Canada to the Empire of France was the stipulated reward for the aid afforded to the revolted colonies, now the United States; the debt is still due, and there can be no doubt the pledge has been renewed as a consideration for commercial advantages, or rather for an expected relaxation in the tyranny of France over the commercial world. Are you prepared, Inhabitants of Upper Canada, to become willing subjects, or rather slaves, to the Despot who rules the Nations of Europe with a rod of iron? If not, arise in a body, exert your energies, co-operate cordially with the King’s regular forces, to repel the invader, and do not give cause to your children, when groaning under the oppression of a foreign master to reproach you with having too easily parted with the richest inheritance on Earth — a participation in the name, character and freedom of Britons.

The same spirit of justice, which will make allowance for the unsuccessful efforts of zeal and loyalty will not fail to punish the defalcation of principle. Every Canadian freeholder is by deliberate choice bound by the most solemn oaths to defend the monarchy as well as his own property; to shrink from that engagement is a treason not to be forgiven. Let no man suppose that if in this unexpected struggle, His Majesty’s arms should be compelled to yield to an overwhelming force, that the Province will be abandoned. The endeared relation of its first settlers, the intrinsic value of its commerce, and the pretensions of its powerful rival to repossess the Canadas are pledges that no peace will be established between the United States and Great Britain of which the restoration of these Provinces does not make the most prominent condition.

Be not dismayed at the unjustifiable threat of the commander of the enemy’s forces if an Indian appear in the ranks. The brave bands of natives which inhabit this colony were, like His Majesty’s subjects, punished for their zeal and fidelity, by the loss of their possessions in the late colonies, and rewarded by His Majesty with lands of superior value in this Province. The faith of the British government has never yet been violated; they feel that the soil they inherit is to them and their posterity protected from the base arts so frequently devised to overreach their simplicity. By what new principle are they to be prevented from defending their property? If their warfare, from being different from that of the white people, is more terrific to the enemy, let him retrace his steps, they seek him not and cannot expect to find women and children in an invading army; but they are men, and have equal rights with other men to defend themselves and their property when invaded, more especially when they find in the enemy’s camp a ferocious and mortal foe, using the warfare which the American commander affects to reprobate.

The inconsistent and unjustifiable threat of refusing quarter for such a cause as being found in arms with a brother sufferer in defence of invaded rights, must be exercised with the certain assurance of retaliation, not only in the limited operations of war in this part of the King’s Dominions, but in every quarter of the globe, for the national character of Britain is not less distinguished for humanity than strict retributive justice, which will consider the execution of this inhuman threat as deliberate murder, for which every subject of the offending power must make expiation.

God Save the King.
Isaac Brock, Maj. Gen. and President
Head Quarters, Fort George, 22nd July 1812
By order of his Honor the President J.B. Glegg, Capt. A.D.C.
DHC, 3, 135–38; Quebec Mercury, August 11, 1812, 253

For an informative discussion of these two proclamations see R.A. Bowler, “Propaganda in Upper Canada in the War of 1812,” in War Along the Niagara: Essays on the War of 1812 and Its Legacy, A. Bowler, ed. (Youngstown, NY: 1991), 77-92. Compare Hitsman, Incredible War, 68, and Stanley, War of 1812, 104-5.

Brock’s Proclamation to the Inhabitants of Michigan, August 16, 1812

Whereas the territory of Michigan was this day by Capitulation ceded to the arms of His Britannick Majesty without any other condition than the protection of private property, and wishing to give an early proof of the moderation and justice of His Majesty’s Government, I do hereby announce to all the Inhabitants of the said Territory, that the Laws heretofore in existence shall continue in force until His Majesty’s pleasure be known, or so long as the peace and safety of the said territory will admit thereof. And I do hereby also declare & make known to the said Inhabitants that they shall be protected in the full exercise & enjoyment of their Religion — Of which all persons both Civil and Military will take notice, and govern themselves accordingly.

All persons having in their possession, or having any knowledge of any public property, shall forthwith deliver in the same, or give notice thereof to the Officer Commanding, or Lt. Colonel Nicholl, who are duly authorized to receive and give proper receipts for the same.

Officers of Militia will be held responsible, that all arms in possession of Militia Men be immediately delivered up, and all individuals whatever who have in their possession arms of any kind, will deliver them up without delay.

Given under my hand at Detroit, this sixteenth day of August 1812, & in the fifty-second year of His Majesty’s reign. Isaac Brock, Maj. Gen.

SBD, I, 473.