February 10, 1864---O, Canada!

FEBRUARY 10, 1864:         

In modern times tens of thousands of people hold joint Canadian-American citizenship.  For generations (until the events of September 11, 2001), border crossings between the two countries were scarcely regulated. There are even towns through which the borderline runs, and the Canadian and American flags stand side by side in different jurisdictions. 

However, the relationship between the United States and “Our Friendly Neighbor To The North” were not always so chummy. Hardly any U.S. citizens and even fewer Canadians are aware that the Articles of Confederation include a long section regarding the incorporation of Canada into the United States, and, by an act of mutual national amnesia, nobody but an odd historian or two remembers that one of the U.S. goals in the war of 1812 was the conquest of Canada. 

In the early 19^th Century there were ongoing disputes over the borderline in Maine, U.S. claims on the Canadian maritime provinces, and nearly a war over the Pacific Coast (“54’40” or fight!”). 

On the American side, there was Manifest Destiny, which looked not just west to the Pacific, but south to Latin America and north to Canada. 

On the British side, there was a more than just nostalgic desire to reclaim the United States. The Union defeats in the early days of the Civil War gave impetus to British imperialists who wanted to see the Canadian border reach the Potomac.

Canadians themselves were badly split over the Civil War. Despite the continuing favoritism many Canadians expressed toward the Confederacy, there were more who favored a Union victory. Some, often the grandchildren of Tories who had left the States after the Revolution, contemplated an English-speaking North American Confederation that would exclude Quebec.  

The Globe of Toronto, British North America (Canada was not yet a unified country and wouldn’t be until 1867), was concerned enough about pro-Union sentiment in Canada to editorialize that “the assertion that the British provinces are anxious to join the Union is baseless and absurd.”