No. 3. Comparative statement of the value of goods enumerated in the reciprocity treaty, being the growth and produce of the United States, and imported into Canada during the years 1859 and 1860. I respectfully submit a few practical observations upon the foregoing tables. 1. I anticipate no further complaint upon the relative rates of the Canadian and American tariffs. If, in 1857, the American legislature sensibly reduced the tariff, it was found expedient, in 1861, materially to advance the duties. In this we followed the Canadian example of 1858-'9. In neither case exists any just ground of complaint. The interests of revenue were exclusively consulted by both governments. 2. It will be seen, from the table of Canadian importations from the United States, that articles valued at $8,532,535 paid Canadian duties, and consisted for the most part of American manufactures. Including a nearly equal amount of articles admitted free under the reciprocity treaty, they comprise a trade which benefits almost every possible form of American industry. 3. The above is an enumeration of our commercial relations with the United Canadian provinces. I refer to the United States treasury report upon commerce and navigation for the year ending June 30, 1860, for similar statistics in respect to other British possessions in North America, of which only Newfoundland, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia are included within the provisions of the reciprocity treaty. 4. With the permission of the department I shall reserve for another communication the subject of our commercial relations with the territory northwest of Minnesota, now occupied by the Hudson Bay Company, and with British Columbia. These rest on a basis so distinct from the trade and intercourse of the lake and Atlantic coasts as to suggest a separate discussion. Respectfully submitted. Hon. S. P. CHASE, Secretary of the Treasury. JAMES W. TAYLOR. EXHIBIT F a. SIR: I beg your attention to the following the newspaper printed at Selkirk settlement. ronto Globe. ST. PAUL, December 17, 1861. extracts from the "Nor'wester," The italics are those of the To [From the Nor'wester of October 15.] "The progress of our republican neighbors in opening up, settling, and organizing new territories is something wonderful. Idaho, Nevada, Dakota, and Chippewa, were heard of for the first time as names indicating important geographical areas of the North American continent. Just before these we had Oregon, Kansas, Nebraska, Utah, and Washington. What an array of names! What amazing progress in occupying and settling a wild unpeopled country! We cannot regard with indifference this rapid march of civilization at our very doors. The boundary lines of Minnesota and Dakota sweep past us at the short distance of but 60 or 70 miles, and the progress of settlement in those regions must to a great extent affect us here. The first Dakota elections came off yesterday fortnight, and our neighboring communities, Pembina and St. Joseph, have taken their part in them. Messrs. J. McFetridge and Hugh S. Donaldson-both well known here—have been candidates. The former ran for the upper house and the latter for the house of representatives. Mr. Donaldson has been elected without opposition. Mr. McFetridge is not certain of his election. as his council district includes some portions of southern Dakota, where he will get no votes at all. The total number of votes polled at Pembina and St. Joseph was 186. We congratulate our friend Mr. Donaldson on his election, and we hope we may be able to do the same to Mr. McFetridge. We have said that Pembina and St. Joseph have, for the first time, cast their votes. Auspici ous era for them! Lucky they truly are to be thus early enfranchised, when we, a large, populous, and well-to-do community of 50 years standing, are still in swaddling-clothes, under a fostermother's patronising rule! Shame on the British government that this is the case! How much longer is it to continue? Are they waiting till we make short work of our destinies by voting annexation to Minnesota or Dakota, or till we take the reins of government with a rude grasp and proclaim independence of both American and British rule? One or other alternative will assuredly come some day, unless a change in our governmental system take place; but why tempt such a result by delay and indifference? Why alienate this important community and jeopardize Central British America, by making us such nonentities as we are at present? We speak advisedly when we say that the people of Red River are becoming indifferent to British connexion. They care very little for it; they would bear a severance without much regret. And can they be reasonably blamed for this questionable loyalty? Has anything been done by the mother country to retain, strengthen, and foster allegiance to the British crown? Nothing-literally nothing. But more of this by and by." Again: [From the Nor'wester of November 15 ] "ASSINIBOIA. "We have not, as yet, the honor of ranking ourselves among the 'Colonies,' technically so called, of Great Britain. In the strict and literal sense of the term, we are; but this affords poor consolation to our pride and our ambition, when we remember the important distinction existing between the literal or etymological sense in which we are a colony, and the conventional, technical sense in which we are not. We are upon British territory; our population consists of British-born subjects and their descendants; this place or district was first colonized by immigrants from the old country. These facts warrant our denominating ourselves a colony of the British empire. But there is an emptiness in the appellation which jars unpleasantly with our self-importance. In conversing or corresponding' with foreigners, we assume the name with self-complacency or pretended satisfaction; but when we reflect upon the hard facts of our actual condition, position or status, our forced pleasure at once gives place to a feeling of mortification. The sense in which we are not a colony of Great Britain, and in which we desire and ought to be, is this: that we have no official recognition at the colonial office; that our governor does not hold a commission directly from her Majesty, and that 'Assiniboia' does not figure in the same list as Barbadoes, New Brunswick, Queensland, Cape of Good Hope, British Guiana, and Canada. This is our grievance and our mortification. Not being recognized at Downing street-our governor having nothing to do with the secretary of state for the colonies-we are nothing, nowhere, of no consequence. Canadà, Nova Scotia, and even such an upstart as British Columbia, repudiate relationship with us; the colonies deny us the honor of their society; being themselves sisters of equal standing, they set us down as a stranger or pretender, and question our legitimacy. "That we shall not always smart under our present mortification is very certain. Time and the force of circumstances will give us our coveted status, and we must, for the present, bear our humiliation with the best grace possible. When the change does come, and we have reason to think it not far, important questions will at once arise regarding the form of our government, the nature of land tenure, administration of justice, interests of education, public revenue, &c., &c. It is needless as yet to speculate and theorize on any of these topics. Important as they are even now, they will at once become tenfold more so under a change, and they will receive what they deserve, a full and earnest discussion." |
