John Neilson (Lower Canada politician)

Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada, meeting in the Bishop's Chapel, Quebec

Louis-Joseph Papineau, Neilson's onetime ally in the Assembly, later bitter rival

Neilson has been termed a moderate reformer or moderate liberal. Unlike some of the other Lower Canada newspapers, the Quebec Gazette did not take radical positions. He had a strong admiration for the British constitution, and also sympathies for the political concerns of French Canadians, such as increased popular control over the provincial government and the abolition of the seigneurial system. He was also strongly committed to the existing constitutional structure of Lower Canada, set out in the Constitutional Act, 1791. He was gradually attracted to politics, at first supporting Pierre-Stanislas Bédard, an early leader of the Parti canadien, then Charles Stuart, and then moving towards Louis-Joseph Papineau. Bédard considered Neilson to be one of his most important supporters.[5] Neilson was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada in a by-election in 1818, representing Quebec County, the rural areas surrounding Quebec City. He was re-elected in four subsequent elections.[1][2][6]

As a member of the British merchant class, Neilson brought some support from British Canadians to the Parti canadien, particularly by his reliance on British constitutional principles and commitment to the monarchy.[7] At the same time, through his personal qualities of patience and perseverance, he helped support Papineau, who admitted that he was not strong in those qualities.[2]

In 1823, the British government began to consider reunifying Lower Canada with Upper Canada. Neilson accompanied Papineau to London to lobby against the union project in the name of the majority of the MPs in the Legislative Assembly. The British government did not proceed with the proposal at that time.[2][8]

In 1828, he was again part of a delegation sent to London, this time with Austin Cuvillier and Denis-Benjamin Viger, to present the party's demands for reform of the provincial government, particularly that the Assembly needed to have greater control over the provincial finances. They presented a petition with 80,000 signatures supporting the demand for greater local control. The British government offered significant concessions on the points raised by the Lower Canada delegation, leading to Papineau writing a letter of thanks to Neilson on his return.[2][9]

During Neilson's time in the Assembly, he was a strong advocate for the censitaires, the tenant farmers who held their land under the seigneurial system. The possible abolition of the seigneurial system was one of the major issues of the day, with competing interests of the feudal seigneurs and the tenant censitaires. He took the position that if the seigneurial system were abolished, the censitaires should receive title to their plots at no cost.[2] He was also concerned that the seigneurial system was itself making it difficult for farmers to obtain arable land, with conflicts between the censitaires and the seigneurs over land use.[10]

By 1830, Neilson began to distance himself from the Parti canadien, now referred to as the Parti patriote, which Neilson considered to be too radical and republican. He had always appealed for moderation, toleration, respect for ethnic and religious differences, and working within the constitutional framework. He began to see Papineau as a radical who detested the constitution and favoured anticlericalism and nationalism. He feared the economic consequences of the increasing radicalism of the Patriotes. In 1833, he wrote an editorial in the Quebec Gazette stating that it was now the radicals in the Assembly who were betraying the constitution. Papineau responded with public insults.[1][2][11][12]

In 1834, Neilson opposed the Ninety-Two Resolutions introduced by Papineau in the Assembly, a rewrite of the 1828 demands for reform with a radical, republican tone. In his private journal, he summarised his view of the resolutions: eleven were true, six were mixed with falsehood, sixteen were false, seventeen doubtful, twelve ridiculous, seven repetitious, fourteen very abusive, four false and seditious, and five good or indifferent. Neilson's main point of disagreement was Papineau's insistence on an elected Legislative Council, which Neilson considered to be contrary to the spirit of the 1791 constitution. In the debates on the Resolutions, Neilson was one of the leading opponents, and moved three amendments, which were defeated. For his rejection of the Resolutions and break with Papineau, he was called a "chouayen", or "turncoat".[1][2][12][13]

In the general election of 1834, Neilson was badly defeated in his seat in Quebec County. Papineau had established a strong party apparatus for the Patriotes and specifically targeted Neilson, his former colleague. Worried by the trend in politics, Neilson then helped set up "constitutional associations" in the province, to argue in favour of solutions through constitutional means, and potentially to be the base for a new political party.[2][14] In 1835, he again travelled to London, this time with William Walker, as delegates from the constitutional associations of Quebec and Montreal. They lobbied members of the British government for changes to the provincial government and constitution, asking them to carry through with the British parliamentary committee's recommendations in 1828. Neilson sought, unsuccessfully, to avert the possibility of rebellion in Lower Canada.[2][14]

In August, 1837, the governor appointed him to the Executive Council of Lower Canada and to the Legislative Council. He refused the appointment to the Executive Council, but accepted the appointment to the Legislative Council. Later that year, the Lower Canada Rebellion broke out. The British government suspended the constitution of Lower Canada and created a Special Council to govern the province, chaired by the governor. Neilson was a member of the Special Council from April to June, 1838, and again from November 1838 until the creation of the Province of Canada in February, 1841.[1][2]

John Neilson, c. 1840

Following the rebellion in Lower Canada, and the similar Upper Canada rebellion the same year, the British government decided to merge the two provinces into a single province, as recommended by Lord Durham in the Durham Report. The Union Act, 1840, passed by the British Parliament, abolished the two provinces and their separate parliaments. The act created the Province of Canada with a single Parliament for the entire province, composed of an elected Legislative Assembly and an appointed Legislative Council. The Governor General retained a strong position in the government.[15][16][17]

Neilson opposed the Union after its enactment. In 1841, he stood for election to the Legislative Assembly of the Parliament of the Province of Canada, campaigning against the union. He was elected by acclamation in his old riding of Quebec County. He was also one of the leading organisers of candidates opposed to the union in the Quebec region, under the general name of the Comité canadien de Québec. He garnered support from the Roman Catholic hierarchy, which saw the union as an attack on the Catholic nation canadienne. He also won support from Papineau, Denis-Benjamin Viger, and the more radical element they represented, although Papineau was in exile in France. Neilson initially aligned with the younger Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine, who also opposed the union, but unlike Lafontaine, he considered responsible government a trick. Neilson's efforts paid off: out of the forty-two seats in Canada East, twenty or so were won by French Canadians opposed to the union.[1][2][18][19]

When the new parliament convened in Kingston, Canada West, Neilson was one of the leaders of the French-Canadian group in opposition to the union. Neilson brought a motion condemning the union. After a lengthy debate, it was defeated, 50 to 25, the first major vote in the session. Neilson was one of nineteen members from Canada East who voted against the union, along with six Ultra-Reformers from Canada West. During the rest of the first session, he was a consistent opponent of Governor General Lord Sydenham, voting with the French-Canadian group in a loose alliance with the Canada West Reformers.[20][21]

However, in 1843, there was a notable break in his voting pattern. In that session, there was a ministerial crisis between the primarily Reform ministry and Governor General Metcalfe, leading to the resignation of most of the ministry. In a vote in the Assembly, Neilson voted in support of the Governor General, and against the former ministry. He understood the system of working with a governor, and was suspicious of the new concept of responsible government.[22][23]

Neilson stood for re-election in the general election of 1844, but was defeated by a more reform-minded candidate, Pierre-Joseph-Olivier Chauveau, representing Lafontaine's new Reform group. Shortly afterwards, the Governor General appointed Neilson to the Legislative Council, the upper house of the Parliament. He held that position for the remaining four years of his life.[24][25][26][27]