Mackenzie’s Gazette: An Aspect of W. L. Mackenzie’s American Years
ON DECEMBER 11, 1837, William Lyon Mackenzie, fleeing from his political enemies in Upper Canada, crossed the Niagara River to take refuge in the United States. Years later, he was enabled to return by the passage of the Amnesty Act of 1849. What activities had filled Mackenzie's years in exile, what light do they throw upon him as a reformer, and how did they affect his post-rebellion career in Canada? To answer these questions, a full-scale study of the American years would be needed. This article makes a beginning but is limited to one topic: Mackenzie's Gazette, published first from New York City, later from Rochester. The Gazette makes clearer Mackenzie's position as a Canadian reformer who wanted more than political changes. For him, the immediate practical methods of advancing the cause of social democracy were to restrict severely the note-issuing powers of the chartered banks and to prevent hem using public funds for private profit. In the United States this was again the theme of his writings and the supposed inconsistency, unreasonableness, and apparent dishonesty his critics saw in his support of Van Buren yield when tested against what was for Mackenzie the fundamental question: Van Buren's tand on the Independent Treasury. Why did not Mackenzie choose to publish his Gazette in Buffalo, from which point it surely would have been easier to get copies into Canada than from New York? He did propose it to the Buffalo Committee of Thirteen on the very day the withdrawal from Navy Island was decided upon? Apparently this suggestion was not sympathetically
The Decided Policy of William Lyon Mackenzie
• m•BETJJ•O• OF 1887 in the province of Upper Canada came as the climax of a long period of provincial discontent, the origin of which can be traced back, ff not to the very beginning of the colony, at least to 1800. This dissatisfaction, originating in the land regulations of Lieutenant-Governor Hunter, deepened uring the administration of his successor. The radical or pro-American party, to use a term with which it was found convenient to smear it, received a temporary setback during the War of 1812. It regained strength in 1817 and 1818 during the controversies over the admission ofAmerican settlers. Until 1821 the radicals were led by Robert Nichol who endeavoured tohave placemen excluded from the Assembly and to win for that body control of the provincial revenues. After Nichol's retirement from politics, the cause of reform was upheld by William Lyon Mackenzie, the editor and publisher ofthe Colonial Advocate and subsequently of the Constitution. Mackenzie, although the leader of the rebellion and the most radical of the reformers, did not dominate his party nor could he always carry it along his road. During the decade preceding the rebellion, Mackenzie advocated numerous reforms relating to the land system, the banking system, the customs dues, the heax T legal fees, the method of selecting juries, the powers of the appointed justices of the peace and sheriffs, the postal service, the activities of Orangemen, the school system, the Clergy Reserves, the granting of corporate privileges, the composition of the Legislative Council, open voting, and the appropriation of the public revenues? This wide range of interests on Mackenzie's part has caused him to be disparaged as a reformer. It has also enabled some who have taken him more seriously to maintain that he drew his
Religion, Law and Society
Issues concerning religion in the public sphere are rarely far from the headlines. As a result, scholars have paid increasing attention to religion. These scholars, however, have generally stayed within the confines of their own respective disciplines. To date there has been little contact between lawyers and sociologists. Religion, Law and Society explores whether, how and why law and religion should interact with the sociology of religion. It examines sociological and legal materials concerning religion in order to find out what lawyers and sociologists can learn from each other. A groundbreaking, provocative and thought-provoking book, it is essential reading for lawyers, sociologists and all who are interested in the relationship between religion, law and society in the twenty-first century.