Montreal Annexation Manifesto
The Montreal Annexation Manifesto was on 14. September 1849 in Montreal signed document that the connection of the Province of Canada to the United States demanded.
The manifesto was published in two versions between October and December 1849 and was edited by the Annexation Association , an association of over 300 Montreal businessmen. Most of the signatories were English-speaking members of the Conservative Party of Canada and French Canadians , led by Louis-Joseph Papineau , who advocated the republican form of government in the United States . Among the signatories was the future Prime Minister John Abbott . The document was in response to the abolition of the Corn Laws by the British government adopted and the consequent loss of benefits of the Province of Canada in trade with the United Kingdom. The abolition of tariffs , which accompanied the abolition of the Corn Laws , feared that there would be considerable economic losses and massive job losses in the province of Canada. Another trigger for the adoption of the manifesto is the approval of the British government to the Rebellion Losses Bill , a law that provided for payments to make amends for damage caused in the rebellions of 1837 . While the undersigned businessmen saw the annexation as an opportunity to break through what they thought Great Britain had too strong influence in the province of Canada, the French Canadians were equally interested in freeing themselves from the influence of France .
However, the manifesto met with strong opposition. Not only did leading Canadian politicians like Robert Baldwin and Louis-Hippolyte La Fontaine speak out against a merger of the Province of Canada with the United States, the American press was also rather critical of the idea. With the signing of the Canadian-American State Treaty of 1854, which represented a far-reaching free trade agreement between the two states, the annexation movement came to an end.
See also
literature
- William Tatley: Cornelius Krieghoff, the Shakespeare Club and the Annexation Manifesto . Editor: McGill University. Montreal September 14, 2006 ( mcgill.ca [PDF; 87 kB ; accessed on August 29, 2013]).
- Jacques Monet: Annexation Association ( English, French ) In: The Canadian Encyclopedia . May 2013. Retrieved September 4, 2019.
