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Mémoires de Louis Riel, [St-Vital]
- Fonds / Collection
- Louis Riel
- Description Level
- Document
- Document Type
- documents textuels
- Date
- [?? janvier 1873]
- Date
- [?? janvier 1873]
- Document Type
- documents textuels
- Fonds / Collection
- Louis Riel
- Description Level
- Document
- Fonds No.
- 0003
- Reference No.
- 0003/1093/529
- Creator
- Riel, Louis
- Signatory
- Riel, Louis
- Physical Description
- 8 f. de documents textuels
- Language(s)
- Français
- Notes
- Copie numérisée sur le CD086.
- Scope and Content (English)
- On the subject of existing troubles at Red River some people are scandalized, deplore the easy blindness into which the French Metis have fallen; recall to us our duties and call us rebels; a rebel is one who revolts against the authority which has the right to govern him legitimately; if we have never had legitimate civil authority it could come only from the power of England; could you who call us rebels (procure authentic acts by which the power of England wished to establish authority here;) did this power not regard us as subjects from which it expected submission, obedience and fidelity; if it had been its wish it would have manifested it at least once, it would have promulgated its laws, would have given us the power to execute and respect them, it would have taken us under its protection, and defended us against our enemies and punished murderes and thieves; until today having been abandoned to ourselves it was difficult to be rebels to the authority of England; should people who have never disobeyed their sovereign be treated as rebels; in order to disobey one must know the wishes of the master; could a people who have never known, who could never know the wish of its sovereign be disobedient; on the map you will see the place we live enclosed by the title "Amerique Britannique"; we are under the dominion of the Queen; the sovereign must make known the obligations of its subjects; a sovereign has obligations to its subjects; the Company was invested with power and was the mediatory ruler in the country; when the Company was given a Charter there were neither whites or Metis; power was not given over them, only over the natives; since the Charter we do not know what other power has been given; its control over the animals has been scrupulously exercised; who knows how many thousands and millions have perished; if a colony exists at present do not accuse the Company, it is not guilty of this transgression; during its rule it never ceased to crush it; with such powers was a colony possible; a man one meets rarely conceived a bad plan, that of forming a colony at Red River; Lord Selkirk had all the qualities and the means of putting a plan into execution; he was not long in perceiving that his plan displeased the Company which set out to ruin and paralize his efforts; outsiders were not to be permitted to increase the families there, persons not born in the country could not remain; retired servants of the Company were forbidden to settle at Red River, were free only to go to York where they embarked for their country; the Canadians were free only to go to Montreal; in spite of the Company's intention and wishes the wicked ones coming to Red River were not put to death but a good part of their money was retained; if any power was given to it over the colony it was only a power of destruction; does not the government that you have at Red River come from the Queen; on occasions the population had recourse to Mc(Tavish) in charge of Fort Garry, and Governor of Assiniboia; for fifty years the title had been given to a member of the Company but it was pure convention given freely by the people and accepted by those on whom it feel; the government, the governor never dared extend their authority to the settlements of Manitobah and Portage de la prairie, if the Metis had revolted against the government it would be against the one here and not against that of England; they did not revolt against the first; they saw it expire in a most comical step which reduced to nothing the one who was at the head of it; but you revolted against Canada? no; the government of Canada is not ours as ours is not theirs; it promised to give $300,000; it can double the sum and no one among us will reproach it; the appetite oe the Company grew; today the great traders traffic not only in negroes, in the centuries of progress and invention there are many things which strike an astonished universe; we are not the plaything of your imagination; white men ought not to be an article of trade; ought not be the cause of trade when it is a question of being created in the image of God; because it has a good market the Company does all in its power to deliver us and Canada threatens that if we do not yield gladly their army will come; beyond the fact that the merchandise is not saleable the Company sold an object which does not belong to it; the rights that if sold never belonged to it; in selling its rights will it say it did not intend to sell the nation; to sell men; if it had not been sold it could not be delivered; contempt for our nation does not surprise us at all; why then so much effort for a thing so contemptible; why in such an immense country in the very place we cultivated and settled, why come to surround us, oppress us, take away our comforts; they want us to cede the place and become their slaves; England ceded its rights to Canada; it is difficult to recognize these rights and to show them; when the French were forced to cede Canada to the English they did not cede what they did not occupy; the country; in which we live was never conquered; it was with fear and courtesy that the English valued the favour that the tribes accorded them; if Red River is now set apart from the Indian country it is the French Metis who through their right or birth have conquered it at the price of their blood, have conserved it through thousands of dangers, gained liberty in 1849 and in 1869 defended it against Canada; the rights that England had were not the fights of conquest.
- Name Access
- Riel, Louis
- Storage Location
- PAM MG 3 D 1, 529
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