Such an outbreak was more
dangerous than Fenianism, for to the credit of the Irish in Canada, it
should be said that they gave no countenance to the Fenian intruders.
The French people in Quebec, however, had strong sympathies for their
race in the Red River Settlement. No one in Canada believed that any
injustice could be done to either the English or French elements on the
banks of Red River, but Sir George Cartier fought strongly for his own,
and was very unwilling to allow an expedition to go out to Manitoba with
hostile intent. Of the two battalions of volunteers that went out to Red
River, one was from Quebec, but one military authority states that there
were not fifty French-Canadians all told in the Quebec battalion. It had
been proposed that Col. Wolseley, who was to command the Red River
Expedition, should be appointed Governor of the new province of
Manitoba, but this was sturdily opposed by the French-Canadian section
of the Cabinet, and Hon. Adams G. Archibald, a Nova Scotian, was
appointed to the post of Governor. Hampered thus, in so far as exercising
any civil functions wereconcerned, Col. Garnet Wolseley was chosen by the
British officer in command in Canada--General Lindsay--to organize this
expedition.
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