The Life and Correspondence of Sir Isaac Brock, K.B.: Interspersed with notices of the celebrated Indian chief, Tecumseh, and comprising brief memoirs of Daniel De Lisle Brock, Esq., Lieutenant E.W. Tupper, R.N., and Colonel W. De Vic TupperBrock, Isaac, Sir
History
The Life and Correspondence of Sir Isaac Brock, K.B.: Interspersed with notices of the celebrated Indian chief, Tecumseh, and comprising brief memoirs of Daniel De Lisle Brock, Esq., Lieutenant E.W. Tupper, R.N., and Colonel W. De Vic Tupper
inheritance of this earth--a participation in the name,
character, and freedom of Britons!
The same spirit of justice, which will make every reasonable
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, the province will be eventually
abandoned; the endeared relations 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 and Ireland, 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 to refuse quarter, should an Indian
appear in the ranks. The brave bands of aborigines which
inhabit this colony were, like his majesty's other 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--the
Indians feel that the soil they inherit is to them and their
posterity protected from the base arts so frequently devised
to over-reach their simplicity. By what new principle are they
to be prohibited from defending their property? If their
warfare, from being different to that of the white people, be
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 all 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 same warfare which
the American commander affects to reprobate.
This 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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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