Montreal Annexation Manifesto

The Montreal Annexation Manifesto was a document signed at Montreal on September 14, 1849 document that called for the connection of the Province of Canada to the United States.

The Manifesto was published from October to December 1849 in two versions and published by the Annexation Association, an association of more than 300 business people from Montreal. The signatories were mostly English speaking members of the Conservative Party of Canada and French Canadians, led by Louis -Joseph Papineau, who favored the ruling in the United States form of government of the Republic. The signatories included, among other things, the future Prime Minister John Abbott. The document was adopted in response to the abolition of the Corn Laws by the British government and the consequent loss of benefits the province of Canada in trade with the United Kingdom. By, associated with the abolition of the Corn Laws elimination of tariffs, it was feared that there would be significant economic loss and a massive loss of jobs in the province of Canada. Another trigger for the adoption of the manifesto also applies to the British Government's agreement to the Rebellion Losses Bill, a law were in the payments to compensate for damage that had arisen in the rebellions of 1837, are provided. While the undersigned business in the annexation saw an opportunity to break through for their opinion on the strong influence of Great Britain in the province of Canada, it was the French Canadians in the same way, therefore, to free himself from the influence of France.

However, the manifesto was strongly opposed. So not only leading Canadian politicians such as Robert Baldwin and Louis -Hippolyte La Fontaine spoke out against a merger of the province of Canada with the United States, the American press was the idea rather critical. With the signing of the Canada-US treaty of 1854, which represented a far-reaching free trade agreement between the two countries, the annexation movement was at the end.