Page:Aristopia (1895).pdf/235

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

the dominion of England for statehood in the American republic. But a majority of the inhabitants of the province of Ontario were English and Scotch, recent immigrants. They certainly would not have rebelled against England. Whether they would consent to unite with the other colonies was doubtful. Many of them certainly would not. They were few in number, and their majority in the region might be overcome. The Congress of Aristopia made an appropriation to pay the expenses of ten thousand families from Ohio and Alleghany, who consented to go and settle along the northern shores of Lake Erie and Ontario and on the peninsula opposite Detroit. This completely turned the scale, and it was now certain that a majority of the inhabitants of Upper Canada were in favor of union with the other colonies and independence of Great Britain.

The Acadians, remembering with fondness their old home, were induced to return there. Their friendship for Aristopia made them favor a union of Nova Scotia with the other colonies.

So, when England objected to giving up Canada on the ground that it had not revolted, but