Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-09-06
TERCENTENARy, OF QUEBEC
MUCH HISTORY MADE IN CANA
DIAN STRONGHOLD.
Olden Seat of French Power in the
Western World-The Seventy
Years War.

NHdfnplall. our nelSnDorS the lloIll,
properly appreciative of the notable part
played in their history by the rugged
rock city. are preparing to celebrate its
tercentenary with twentieth century pomp
and magnificence. For nearly a fortnight
there will be succession of splendid pa
geants illustrating every phase in the
city's development The picturesque
scenes connected with the coming of it's
founder. so graphically described by
Champlain himself. will be re-enacted.
The historic Plains OF Abraham will once
more ring with the tread OF an armed
host. Before unlocking thousands there
Will sweep a mighty fleet. dwarfiing by its
grizzly strength the craft that of yore
gave battle on the waters of the lordly
st. Lawrence. Living links with the won
derful past will be supplied by the pres
ence of representatives of families tracing
their descent back to the makers of Que
bec-and TO its conquerors. Frenchmen
and Englishmen will fraternize on the
spot where their ancestors fought and
died, and both will be made royalty well
come by the enthusiastic Canadians.
Americans will be there, too. and they
should be there in goodly numbers: nor
in the role of mere spectators. AS a his
torfcal heritage, Quebec is theirs fully
much as Ii belongs to the people of Can.
ada. 1t has exercised no less powerful an
influence on their destinies than on the
destinies of the Canadians. In fact, re-
mote as the connection may seem, Que
bee Is well entitled to rank with James,
town and Plymouth as q primal fountain
of American liberty. In one way and an
other, almost from its beginning it was
a foremost factor In developing the ideals
that eliminated in the Declaration of In
dependence. Not that it was a center
from which radiated sentiments of de-
mocracy and liberality. On the contrary,
even in it's days of infancy as a wilder
ness trading post, 1t was a citadel of alb
solutism. And, as time passed. its abso-
lutist characteristics became accumulated,
until on the eve of the conquest they
reached intolerable heights in the regime
of the bureaucratic Vaudreuil and the
Infamous Bigot. Nevertheless, Quebec re
manned a vital force in stimulating and
assisting the American people along the
path of freedom
The English Were Builders.
In this respect its influence was felt.
first of all and most Of all, through what
historians have termed the ''hinterland
movement Sharply contrasting pur-
poses animated the men from England
and the men from France, who. in the
far-off years of early colonization, voy-
aged across the stormy Atlantic to take
possession Of the new world. The Eng
lish came to America chiefly to win homes
would be free from the social. political
and religious disabilities under which they
had labored in their native land. The
French were inspired hardly at all by the
home-building spirit. Desire to amass
wealth. love of adventure and missionary
zeal were their great motives. Conse-
quently. while the English were content to
establish themselves in compact settle
ments along the coast, the ardent French
ranged far inland, making friends of the
Indians. trafficking with them, Christian
iZing them. Champlain himself had little
more than built his .habitation' at Que
bee before he was up and off on the ex-
ploratiops that have contributed so great
ly to his fame. Trader. adventurer and
priest followed him. pressing steadily and
rapidly toward the land of the setting
sun. Within decade of the founding of
Quebec, Recollet friar was laboring
among the Lake Huron savages. Only
few years more, and the daring young
Norman, Nicolet, was canoeing through
Wisconsin's network of streams. A little
later and the black-gowned Jesuits were
planting the Cross among the Indians of
Sault Ste. Marie.
All this time the English colonists had
made next to no progress. so far as west
ward expansion was concerned. By 1860.
or twenty years after the Jesuits reached
the Sault. the English 'farthest west
was but a few beggarly miles from the
coast, in the upper valley of the Connecti-
cut. In one important respect, however,
the jewellers by the sea had far surpassed
the pioneers of France, as the authorities
in Quebec saw with undisguised alarm. In
all Canada, including Acadia, the white
population barely exceeded 1900 souls: in
New England alone it was more than
$1,000. Clearly. if the English continued
to increase in this proportion, they would
soon overflow into territory claimed by
France. Already, indeed, there had been
an armed invasion of Acadia by yeoman
soldiery from New England. Something
m 10 n rot ard hni
ment and at the same time strengthen
French pretensions to new world domin-
ion. Louis XIV. the most ambitious
monarch who ever sat on the throne OF
France. lost little time in graphing with
the problem once the control of French
affairs passed into his powerful keeping.
Troops and colonists were sent out, the
trading company which had hitherto mis-
managed the interests of New France
was dissolved, and the colony was ele-
waited to the status of a royal province.
What was most important King Louis
found in Talon. Frontenac and La Sale
a trio of servants Jealous to advance the
power and prestige of France.
The French Policy.
With their advent new and vigorous
impetus was given to the hinterland
movement which for the first time be-
came a definite part of French policy III
America. 1t involved nothing less than
the exploration and occupation of the vast
Mississippi valley, and the creation of
chain OF forts and trading posts designed
to connect the mouth of the Mississippi
with the mouth of the st. Lawrence, and
to oppose an effectual barrier to the Eng
lish did they attempt to cross the Allie
ghanies The first steps in this gigantic
program were carried out by the building
of Fort Frontenac in 1913; and, in the
nv he III, I'll
of Marquette and Joliet down the Missis-
sippi. Thereafter. the advance of the
French into the great valley progressed
apace with the spectacular achievements
of La Sale, Tonti, Iberville and Benville.
At the same time. a means of masking
their operations in the interior, and also
for the purpose of weakening the English,
the rulers of New France embarked on
policy OF forceful aggression, enlisting the
services of Indian allies for series of de-
vastating border raids.
Out of this grew the memorable seventy
years war, usually subdivded by Ameri-
can historians into King Williams war.
Queen Anne's war. King Georges war
and the French and Indian war. Except
in its final stages. it was a conflict in
which the English colonists were virtually
left to fight their battles unaided by the
mother country. Had this aid been given
in anything like adequate degree. or had
the colonies presented a united front. the
war would speedily have come to an end.
But such were the jealousies prevailing
between colony and colony. union was
quite out of the question and the brunt
of the lighting fell on the colonies most