POSTING #145

NOTE: The next Posting, #146, will appear on May 20th, not May 13th, to give me a chance to do some volunteer work on the 1812 Bicentennial celebrations and to get our yard in shape. Sorry about that!

The Golden Dog/Le Chien d’or

As in the 2007 comedy, ‘Bucket List’, starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman, I have my own list of things I want to do before I get hit by the Big Bus. Things like visiting some new places abroad, and re-visiting some old ones.

I also have a collection of ‘shoulds’, things that a part of me feels I ought to do before it is too late. The ‘shoulds’ aren’t on any list. Instead, they’re stuffed---by another part of me---into a big sack, helter skelter. In my mind’s eye I see the sack as having a pull-string that tries to keep the bag shut, so that my remaining days won’t be bothered by these ‘shoulds’.

One of my ‘shoulds’ for a long time has been to read the 19th Century Canadian novel, ‘The Golden Dog/Le Chien d’or’ by William Kirby. An English professor at Queen’s argued that we couldn’t claim to be literate as Canadians if we hadn’t read Kirby’s novel.

Photograph of William Kirby, with his signature, ca 1865

I looked at it, flipped through the 600 plus pages, and decided that it was something for the ‘should’ sack, not for the ‘bucket list’.

Now here we are in the Niagara region, and every time we go to the restaurant at the Niagara-on-the-Lake Golf Club (it is open to non-members, like us) we pass the house at 130 Front Street where William Kirby lived from 1857 to his death in 1906.

Plaque in front of 130 Front Street.

And we notice the plaque that tells about The Golden Dog.

And I have always felt a twinge of guilt.

A side view of 130 Front Street.

Niagara-on-the-Lake has its tourist carriages. This scene in front of the Kirby House could have been from the 1800s, except for the people's clothes---and the ‘No Parking’ sign!

But I have managed to keep those twinges of guilt under control until recently.

A few weeks ago, Pat came home from her volunteer work at the Niagara Historical Society Museum where she is helping describe the Museum’s artifacts. She talked about a plaque she had been examining that depicted the legend of The Golden Dog.

Pat is still not sure about the history of this plaque, which is designed to hang on a wall. She thinks it could have been produced in the 1970s, perhaps to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the publication of the Golden Dog in 1877, or perhaps for tourists to Quebec. Her research continues. I would like to thank Sarah Maloney, Managing Director of the Niagara Historical Museum, for permission to include a photo of the Museum’s plaque.

Pat’s research had begun with questions such as when was the plaque made, by whom, probable value etc. but soon led into questions about the subject depicted on it, The Golden Dog.

At that point, my guilt got the better of me; I decided that the time had come to read the bloody novel. The Museum had a tattered copy of it on its ‘Sale’ table, which I bought.

The book, printed in 1914, has lost its back cover but all its 624 pages are intact.

I started like a swimmer going into the cold waters of the Atlantic off the coast of New England---very gingerly. But as I got immersed in the tale, I found that it was getting harder and harder to put it down.

After more than 600 pages, I didn’t want it to end.

I don’t have the time, energy, space, or (more importantly) skill to do justice to the plot of The Golden Dog or to the life of its remarkable author, William Kirby. (For more information on both, please click here for an article written by Mary Jane Edwards for ‘The Dictionary of Canadian Biography on Line’. )

Let me just sketch in a few details.

The title of the book comes from a sculpted plaque created by a farmer in 17th century France in memory of his dog, which was killed by a neighbour as part of a feud between the two farmers. The plaque showed a dog gnawing on a human bone while the words promised revenge for the killing of the dog.

A settler from the part of France where the feud had taken place had a gilded replica of the plaque placed above the doorway of his house in Quebec City. William Kirby saw the plaque on a visit to Quebec, was fascinated with its theme of revenge and decided to weave it into a novel about the turbulent period in New France before the conquest of the colony by the British in 1759. (I understand that the plaque is now mounted on a post office in Quebec City where lovers of The Golden Dog novel can photograph it.)

Using the history of the time and some Quebec folk stories he created a novel of romance, love, hate, bravery, lechery (warning: the scenes of debauchery at the Palace of the Intendant Bigot are graphic) and ultimately tragedy.

The novel moves along at a leisurely,19th century pace---think of Tolstoy’s ‘War and Peace’---with time for rich descriptions of life in New France for the habitants and the upper classes, and some philosophising about life, but the author keeps the plot moving along with more than enough suspense to keep the reader involved.

As I read the novel I kept asking myself how Kirby, an immigrant from England with limited education, could have managed to create such a detailed tapestry of 18th century Quebec life. He wrote like a graduate from Oxford or Cambridge but wasn’t. It reminded me a little of the controversy about whether Shakespeare could have authored the plays attributed to him.

As I was finishing the novel, Pat discovered---thanks to Google---that a friend of ours whom we hadn’t seen for some time, Mary Jane Edwards, Distinguished Research Professor and director of the Centre for Editing Early Canadian Texts (CEECT) at Carleton University, was the world’s leading expert on the novel. She had just completed a scholarly edition of The Golden Dog.

I bought a copy of the new edition as soon as it was published, and found that the section on Kirby solved my question about how he managed to write The Golden Dog.

Kirby who was born in Kingston-on-Hull in England in 1817, moved in 1832 to Cincinnati with his parents---his father was a tanner by trade. William was sent to a school started by a well-educated Scottish teacher, Alexander Kinmont, who instructed his ‘scholars’ in “the various branches of Classical, Mathematical and English education”. Kirby learned to read and write in French and Latin and was challenged to study books on a variety of subjects.

After a few, obviously formative years in this school, Kirby followed his father into the tannery trade. However, in 1839 he decided to move to the Canadas because of talk in the US, from Fenians and others, about a possible invasion of the Canadas. As a strong supporter of the British monarchy, he decided to move north to help repel any invaders.

In the new edition (on the left), the novel has 755 pages, not the 624 of the version I read. In addition the new edition has several hundred pages of introduction and explanatory notes

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Mary Jane’s version includes William Kirby’s entire novel, unlike the 19th century versions, which had been abridged to reduce the cost of printing. It also includes an introduction that provides a wealth of information about the writing of the novel, the various attempts to have it published, the eventual publishing of it, the fights over royalties (Kirby's total royalties amounted to only somewhere between $100-$200!), the reception the novel has had since its publication, and on and on.

The book also includes wonderfully helpful Explanatory Notes that explain some of Kirby’s references to history, mythology and the literature of various countries.  (Happily, the notes are not flagged in the text with those annoying and distracting footnote/endnote numbers. If the reader wants more information about something on, say, page 455, it is easy to flip to the back of the book where the notes are organized by page and line.)

Although, I treasure Mary Jane’s edition, I am glad that I read the novel before reading ‘about’ it. The tale is so well told that it carried me along even though some parts of it puzzled me. Now I have the joy of going back and reading parts that weren’t in my tattered version, and re-reading the parts that puzzled me, using Mary Jane’s introduction and explanatory notes.

If I have whetted your appetite and you feel you would like to add the Golden Dog to your ‘bucket list’, I would suggest getting Mary Jane’s version, rather than reading one of the older versions. I would also suggest rushing into the story---as though you are dashing into the Atlantic---without reading the introduction. Leave that until later.

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So, the Queen’s Professor was right---as usual--- and I was wrong. I just wish, however, that he had told us that The Golden Dog would be a fun read.

I am happy that through Pat’s work at the Museum I was encouraged to pull The Golden Dog from my ‘should’ sack, and read it.

And I am so grateful that Mary Jane Edwards has poured her body and soul into this monumental edition.

In her book, Mary Jane says that she grew up with The Golden Dog. Her mother, an immigrant from Britain, discovered it when she was searching for books that would help her understand her new country. She loved the novel, re-reading it often. I am sure she would be proud of her daughter’s accomplishment.


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See you on May 20, 2012 for Posting #146 with more stories from our family’s universe! If you have comments or suggestions, please drop me a line at johnpathunter@gmail.com.

Note:

In Posting #8 in the companion Icewine Guru Blog, the Guru offers his prediction on the US Supreme Court decision on the health care mandate. He and the Professor and their wives then discuss religion and politics. If you would like to read the Posting, please click on: http://theicewineguru.blogspot.ca/

POSTING #144

Potluck Posting from Virgil

I saw a poster this week for a church dinner, and it reminded me of the potluck dinners that churches in Arthur used to hold. In honour of those dinners, here is a motley collection of stories. As with the dishes at the church dinners---casseroles, potato salads, green Jell-O salads with marshmallows, cakes, pies, butter tarts and so on--- you will probably find that some are tastier than others.

I hope you will find something you can enjoy!

A New Niagara Winery 

Last week we visited the Megalomaniac Winery, which is carved out of the rock at the crest of the Niagara Escarpment, above the town of Vineland.

Before we go on, we better deal with the name.

The highly successful but not not-at-all-bashful entrepreneur, John Howard, who made a bundle of money from the sale of Vineland Estates Winery, decided to create a new winery on the Escarpment. Here is how he explains the name:

“I originally wanted to christen these wines in my name, John Howard…and then my friends accused me of being yet another '[profanity withheld] megalomaniac'. Regrettably, the name stuck.

And so, I now produce wines called Megalomaniac. Meant to be shared with friends of equivalent or even greater egos. Pairs extremely well with delusional fantasies of wealth, power, and occasionally, omnipotence.

Enjoy.”

The entrance to the winery is through high, totally splendid oak doors.

On the left is a tiny office for placing orders, while straight ahead is the working part of the winery, with shiny stainless steel tanks, black hoses winding along the wet floor, and in the rear stacks of wooden barrels going back into the ‘cave’.

Along one wall is a tasting bar.

The man at the tasting bar had obviously picked up Howard’s penchant for extravagant overstatement. As he offered us a taste of a reserve Merlot, he intoned, “When you taste this, you will think you are an angel on the doorstep of paradise.”

The wine was actually pretty good, if not heavenly, but, at $40 a bottle, a little out of our price range.

We bought a couple of quite acceptable, and more reasonably priced, Rieslings.

As we paid for the wines, we admired a Megalomaniac Tee shirt, black with a message in large white letters, “Intimidate, don’t imitate”.

The bottle labels convey the aristocratic, wealthy image  the Megalomaniac  Winery wants to project with  the elegant gentleman, bowler hat and all.

We will go back often to sample the wines and John Howard’s ebullient---and definitely un-Canadian---hutzpah.

And the view over Lake Ontario from the winery is not too shabby either.

The Revitalized Fort George

I’ve been embarrassed in the past to recommend that friends and relatives visit ‘our’ fort, Fort George.  At first it was because it had a dilapidated air, and then it was because it was always under construction, as the Federal Government spent huge amounts of money to restore it.

No more!

The restoration process is complete and the result is outstanding. And---as planned---just in time for the Bicentennial of the War of 1812.

We took our family and a friend (13 of us---but who’s superstitious) to the Fort last weekend.

Our guide/interpreter, Sonya, seemed to draw energy and enthusiasm from the changes that have been made to the Fort. She bounded around the displays as she skillfully and objectively outlined the history of the Fort and of the War of 1812. We were convinced that her presentational skills must have come from a background with the Shaw, but, no, she had been a teacher. She is priceless!

The artifacts are authentic and not to be missed.

The tour was followed with a musket demonstration. Our two year old grandson, with his hands over his ears, grinned and jumped as the guns boomed.

We were then free to explore the Fort. The younger and more nimble members of the family, including the two year old, raced to the powder magazine, and then through a tunnel to a lookout tower. Later on, the two year old kept repeating ‘cave’ as he tried, with his eyes dancing and his hands flying, to describe the tunnel and the tower.

The Fort is now ‘two thumbs up---away up’.

It is not to be missed.

And the gift shop, just outside the Fort, is also worth a visit. It is run by a volunteer group, Friends of Fort George, and is full of high quality souvenirs (schlock not permitted), books on Canadian history, patterns for 1812 costumes, and on and on.

We will be back often.

Niagara-on-the-Lake Has a Potter’s Field

A recent article in the St. Catharines Standard shocked and angered citizens of Niagara-on-the-Lake (that includes those of us who live in Virgil---our village was incorporated into the municipality of NOTL in 1970).

We discovered that a field owned by the provincial Ministry of Transportation in the southern part of our municipality, just off the QEW, is being used as a disposal site for ‘road kill’---for animals killed on the QEW and nearby roads. Apparently, a company has a contract to collect the dead animals, take them to the field, and cover them with gravel.

Two aspects of the story troubled us. First, it seemed that some of the animals were not being properly covered. Coyotes had discovered the field and found it easy to dig through the thin layer of gravel, and feast on the dead deer, raccoons, cats and so on.

And then, a pet dog, Jeremiah (part lab), who had been missing for several months was discovered by a woman who recognized him from photos she had seen in the newspaper. Apparently, the ‘road kill’ contractors hadn’t made any effort to notify the family of the death of their pet even though the dog was wearing a tag.

We are told that the Ministry of Transportation is preparing a new protocol that will make it clear to the contractor that dead animals are to be properly covered, and that efforts must be made to notify owners of dead pets.

I am sure that it is the first time that the words ‘Niagara-on-the-Lake’ and ‘road kill’ have been used in the same story.

And we don’t like it.

It is not good for our brand!

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As a digression, after I used ‘Potter’s Field’ in the title, I decided to look up the origin of the expression. It seems to have Biblical roots.

In Matthew 27:7, the disciples discussed what to do with the thirty pieces of silver that Judas had left behind after he hung himself, out of remorse for having betrayed Jesus. The 2007 New Living Translation of the verse is:

“After some discussion they finally decided to buy the potter's field, and they made it into a cemetery for foreigners.”

The ‘potter’s field’ was a place where a potter would have collected the clay needed for pots, bowls, and so on. Because of the clay, the field would not have been suitable for agriculture, but would have been perfectly suitable for the burial of people.

In North American, and perhaps elsewhere, the term has, of course, been used for the places in which the indigent (and the executed) were buried.

‘The Tragically Hip’ Are Coming to Niagara-on-the-Lake!

The Kingston, Ontario band, ‘The Tragically Hip’ (or just ‘The Hip’ to aficionados) is performing on June 30 in a large park in The Old Town, near the Butler’s Barracks. Some 20,000-30,000 people are expected to listen to the band, which at last count has won 14 Juno awards.

A concert with so many people has required some compromises from our small and staid community. The organizers of the tour held a well-attended public meeting, which from all reports proceeded in a very civilized manner. As a result of the meeting and subsequent discussions in the Town Council some changes were agreed upon.

First, the Town’s noise bylaw has had to be amended so that for June 30th (and for June 30th only) it comes into effect at 11PM, instead of10 PM. One senior resident of the area said that while she really didn’t appreciate the ‘so-called music of rock groups’, she supposed she could put up with the noise for one additional hour.

Secondly, a number of streets will have to be blocked off, with most of the music lovers being bused in from parking lots outside the town. The Shaw Festival has shown commendable community spirit by cancelling one evening performance and by shifting another to an afternoon matinee.

Our War of 1812 Bicentennial Committee will have a booth at the concert, in order to give out information on the events we are planning. I can report that many of our younger volunteers have bravely offered to ‘man’ the booth, despite the ‘noise’.

A ‘Shout Out’ for a Mystery Novel

I picked up a mystery the other day at our library, ‘The Wild Beasts of Wuhan’. I saw that it was by a Canadian author, Ian Hamilton, and decided to borrow it.

The name seemed familiar, and then it came to me. He had been in Canadian Immigration when I was with the service and our paths had crossed on one or two occasions.

Now retired from the public service, Ian has been using his experience with Canadian Immigration in the Far East and elsewhere in the world to write mystery novels. He introduced his heroine, Torontonian Ava Lee, in ‘The Water Rat of Wanchai’. This novel was followed by another in the series, ‘The Disciple of Las Vegas’. ‘The Wild Beasts of Wuhan’ followed and I understand Ian has a new book about to appear.

I found ‘The Wild Beasts of Wuhan’ a really good read. Clever plot, well developed characters, and fascinating (but not excessive) descriptions of life in China today.

I am now going to read the earlier novels, starting with ‘The Water Rat of Wanchai’.

I enjoy mysteries but I have been getting a little bored lately with some popular authors who seem increasingly to be writing to a formula.

Ian Hamilton doesn’t.

If you like mysteries, you may want to give him a try.

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I hope you enjoyed this potluck posting, and that you found something as tasty as a piece of Mrs. Workman’s never-to-be-forgotten peach pie!

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See you on May 6, 2012 for Posting #145 with more stories from our family’s universe! If you have comments or suggestions, please leave a comment at the bottom of this posting, or email me at johnpathunter@gmail.com.

Note:
There is a new Posting (# 8) in The Icewine Guru blog. In it the Guru gives his prediction on the Supreme Court decision on the health care mandate. He and the Professor and their wives then discuss religion and politics. If you would like to read the Posting, please click on:
http://theicewineguru.blogspot.com/

POSTING #134

Note: Although the weather this fall has been unseasonably mild, the calendar insists that winter is fast approaching. I am feeling strong ancestral urgings to put the tools away in the barn, and push my feet into the oven for at least part of the winter---as I did last year.

This, therefore, will be the last Letter from Virgil Posting until February 12, 2012.

Pat and I wish readers a wonderful holiday season!

See you in February.

Niagara-on-the-Lake and the Bicentennial of the War of 1812-15

This is the official logo for the 1812 Bicentennial that is now appearing on souvenirs of all kinds, everything from hats to key chains.

For the last year or so, I have been working as a volunteer secretary to one of the committees organizing events for Niagara-on-the-Lake's 1812 Bicentennial. We have an excellent website that describes in colourful detail what will happen over the next three years. 

But I thought it might be helpful to provide a secretary's distillation of what, in my view, are likely to be the key events, events that you might like to consider attending.

On January 1, 2012,  the Ontario Lieutenant Governor, the Honourable David Onley, will hold his New Year's Levee, not in Toronto, but in Fort George, here in NOTL

United States President Madison declared war on Great Britain on June 18, 1812  and instructions were sent to the US military to invade Upper Canada. On the weekend of June 15, 16, and 17, 2012, the Bicentennial gets its official kickoff with grand opening celebrations we are calling the DECLARATION OF WAR! 

There will be a Military Ball in honour of General Brock put on by our Museum on the evening of June 16th. There will be a rich assortment of military and other events during Saturday and Sunday.

On July 13, 14, 15, 2012, in the Niagara River below Fort George there will be an event called The Navy of 1812: Sailors on the Lakes with at least 7 tall ships and 20 large bateaux.

Then the fighting starts!

In July, August, and September of 1812, there were some interesting and significant battles in other parts of the Great Lakes (for example, on August 16, 1812, General Brock persuaded the commandant of  Fort Detroit, General Hull, to surrender by pretending that he had far more troops than he in fact had)  but it was the Battle of Queenston Heights on October 13, 1812 that convinced the residents of Upper Canada that the Americans were not invincible. A recent book makes this point in its title, "12 Hours That Saved a Country" 

There will be a re-staging of this battle during the weekend of October 12 and 13, 2012 with over a thousand re-enactors coming from Canada and the US. It may be hard to get a position near the battle because of the tens of thousands of visitors expected but there will be lots to see in NOTL, especially in and around Fort George----and of course there will also be the Shaw!!

There will be a re-enactment of Brock's funeral on October 14th with his 'body' being carried on a horse-drawn wagon from the site of the battle in Queenston to a ceremonial 'burial' in Fort George.

In May 1813, the war turned against Upper Canada. The Americans, returning with stronger forces and better generals, captured Fort George, and occupied what is now Niagara-on-the-Lake.

In June 1813 in Queenston, Laura Secord overheard American officers, who had commandeered her house, planning an attack on the British/Canadian forces near the site of today's Brock University. Her famous walk through the bush and up the escarpment to warn the British/Canadian troops will be celebrated on June 22, 2013 with the Laura Secord Bicentennial Event and Walk.

To mark the Occupation of NOTL, Canadian flags will be taken down in May 2013, and only US flags of the period will be flown. Students dressed as US soldiers will patrol the streets of NOTL giving out leaflets telling the 'occupied' citizens how they must behave (e.g. no union jacks, no subversive toasts to the king etc.). Canadian and American tourists should enjoy this.

In December 1813 the tide of battle turned,  as British and Canadian forces fought their way back to NOTL. On December 10th, the US forces, frightened by the advancing troops, abandoned Fort George and fled across the Niagara River to Fort Niagara. Before fleeing, they burned almost all the homes and businesses in NOTL and Queenston, leaving the residents without shelter at the start of a hard winter.

On December 7, 2013, we will be staging a Son et Lumière, "Niagara on Fire", at the NOTL Courthouse with videos depicting the burning of the towns and the hardship caused to the residents.

Both Canadian and American historians agree that the burning of NOTL was a colossal military blunder. It can be argued that if the Battle of Queenston Heights convinced the residents of Upper Canada that the forces of the US were not invincible, then the burning of NOTL and Queenston convinced them that they had no choice but to expel the invaders, and build a separate nation.

The War of 1812 was ended by the signing of the Treaty of Ghent by Britain and the US on December 24th. The treaty was ratified by the US Congress on February 16, 1815.

Although the treaty wasn't ratified until February 1815, peace was effectively restored in the Niagara Peninsula in the summer of 1814. We have decided therefore to commemorate the signing at some point in September 2014 (dates not yet decided) when the weather will be more pleasant. This will be an enormous Bi-National event to celebrate 200 years of peace, with, we hope, the President of the US and the Prime Minister of Canada.

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Niagara-on-the-Lake is not a big town---only 15,000 souls---but it loves its history and it thinks big.

The next three years are going to be exciting!

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If you would like to learn more about the War of 1812, I would suggest checking PBS program listings to see when they will be re-broadcasting their superb video, The War of 1812, first shown in October this year. We decided to buy a copy, to keep (available through PBS or Amazon for about $20).

I would also recommend Cameron Porteous', "12 Hours That Saved a Country", mentioned above---a slim book, illustrated with paintings by Porteous. The author, who has a home in Queenston, has worked hard to get his facts right and to give us a vivid, visual understanding of what happened during those critical 12 hours.

For a definitive (in my opinion) account of the war, I would recommend Professor Alan Taylor's book "The Civil War of 1812". You may wish to check my Posting #96 in which I discussed attending a lecture by Prof. Taylor on his book.

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See you on February 12, 2012 for Posting #135 with more stories from our family’s universe! If you have comments or suggestions, please leave a comment at the bottom of this posting,  or email me at johnpathunter@gmail.com.

Note:

I have just uploaded Posting # 6 on my The Icewine Guru blog. You can read the Guru's year-end thoughts at http://theicewineguru.blogspot.com/

POSTING #96

"The Civil War of 1812"

I have a confession to make.

While I was studying Canadian history at high school and later at university I found the War of 1812 boring---extremely, even deadly boring.

To be sure there was the tragic story of brave General Brock being shot and killed by an American sniper as he led his troops up the hill in an effort to retake Queenston Heights from an American force that had managed to capture it.

And I liked the story about the tall monument on the top of Queenston Heights built in his honour by a grateful nation, topped with an immense statue of the General with a finger pointing---it is claimed---at Washington, with the implicit message, 'Don't ever try that again!'

I also admired the bravery of Laura Secord who trekked through dense bush to warn the British that the Americans had invaded---although I didn't much like her chocolates.

But the War seemed to be about several years of border skirmishes, the dates and locations of which I had trouble remembering. And when it ended, the pre-war borders remained intact.

My views about the War began to change after we moved to Virgil 2 years ago. Planning for a War of 1812 Bicentennial was heating up. I joined  one of the Niagara-on-the-Lake Bicentennial committees and started dipping into some histories about the War.

But last weekend, my views about the War did a sudden shift to a full 180 degrees away from 'boring'. I went to Buffalo for a lecture given by Professor Alan Taylor who has just finished a massive history of the War, called "The Civil War of 1812". (Pat couldn't come---she was attending a lecture on how to cut out patterns to make 1812 vintage clothes for us to wear during the Bicentennial!)

Taylor, a native of Maine,  teaches American and Canadian history at the University of California at Davis and has received a number of prestigious awards for previous books, including a Pulitzer Prize.

As I listened to the professor, I remembered a discussion with a retired historian in Kingston. She said that in history it was not important to know that the Battle of Hastings took place in 1066. Instead, it was important to know why it couldn't have taken place in 966 or 1166.

Professor Taylor's talk was full of the 'why's' of the War of 1812.

And suddenly, I saw the War in a new light and realized that it wasn't boring at all.

Let me jot down some points that I took away from his talk and from the questions period that followed. I should stress that these are my conclusions, not necessarily those of the good professor.

1. Americans have been taught that the British started the war, and that it consisted mainly of some naval battles and the glorious victory at New Orleans when General Andrew Jackson defeated an invading British force (this was in January 1815, a month after a peace treaty had been signed in Europe but word hadn't yet reached the North America combatants). Out of this battle came the US national anthem and the myth that the US won the War.

2. In fact, the US started the war, with a Declaration of War passed in 1812, primarily with the support of southern and western members of Congress. Congress decided to leave town without voting tax increases for the cost of the war, the argument being that the war would  cost very little because the residents of Upper Canada would welcome the US troops as liberators and would provide them with free shelter and food. (Remind you of another war?)

3. Americans have not been taught that most of the fighting in the War took place in the Great Lakes basin and that the US lost most of those battles.

4. The War should be seen as a kind of civil war with Americans, British Subjects, Irish settlers and natives on both sides of the border fighting each other, sometimes literally brother against brother.

5. Canada would almost surely have lost the war if it had not been for the support of native warriors at critical points. Instead of rewarding the natives for their invaluable help, Canadian authorities treated them abominably.

6. By the autumn of 1814, the War had almost bankrupted the US, and states in the north-east which were furious at the western and southern states who had pushed for the War, were threatening to secede from the union. If Britain hadn't offered the US a peace treaty, the US would probably have gone broke and split up.

7. Taylor argues that the War was not inconsequential as many American histories have suggested but that it had profound consequences for the US.

8. He sees the American Revolution as having two acts. The first act was the successful fight by the American colonies against the British in the period from 1776-1783. But that act left unresolved the issue of whether the new nation would tolerate a northern nation that was British. The second act was the War of 1812 in which the US attempted to finish the revolution by taking over its northern neighbour.   

9. The failure of the US invasion in the Great Lakes basin convinced most Americans that they had to share North America, and this in effect marked the true end of the American Revolution.

10. And on this side of the border, the War convinced Upper Canadians that they had to create their own country, a country that would have friendly relations with the US but would have to have its own institutions and values.

So, both nations were dramatically shaped by what I had thought was a boring War.

Not boring, at all.

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My experiences with the border officers as I travelled to Buffalo for the lecture and later returned to Canada were interesting.

At the US border, the officer when he heard I was going to hear a lecture on the War of 1812 said, "Wow, I love the history of that period. I wish someone had told me about the lecture."

At the Canadian border on the way home, the officer when he heard that I had been to the War lecture almost hissed, "How biased was it?"

I said that I thought the lecture was fair and even-handed.

Looking skeptical, he asked, "Did they tell you that General Brock died when he fell off his horse, not when he was leading his troops into battle---stuff like that?"

I shook my head, and said that the speaker hadn't said anything like that.

With a look that said he was disappointed in how gullible I was, he waved me through.

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One shouldn't extrapolate from two brief encounters.

But I will, anyway.

It seems to me that many Americans, including tourists who will come to our Bicentennial, are ready for a more accurate account of the War---an account of the kind conveyed in Professor Taylor's book.

For our part, we will have to suppress the urge to get even for past insults and slights. I believe the expression is, 'suck it up'.

In that connection, I am told that when the Bicentennial folks in Niagara-on-the-Lake were trying to find a motto to go below the logo they were developing, someone facetiously suggested, 'We Beat the Bast--ds!'.

It was decided to go with 'Upper Canada Preserved".

A wise choice!

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If you like history, and relatives or friends are asking for hints about what you would like for Christmas, you might suggest Professor Taylor's book. I bought a copy at the lecture and it is a wonderful read.

Taylor is a skilled, subtle and good-humoured story teller who, I believe, has 'reset' the history of that period. All future histories of the War of 1812---whether written by Canadians or Americans---will have to start with his work.

Here are the details of the book:

The Civil War of 1812: American Citizens, British Subjects, Irish Rebels, & Indian Allies by Alan Taylor, published by Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group,

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See you on November 28th for Posting #97 with more stories from our family’s universe! If you have comments or suggestions, please leave a comment at the bottom of this posting,  or email me at johnpathunter@gmail.com.