This Kindred People: Canadian-American Relations and the Anglo-Saxon Idea, 1895-1903

261 Pages·2004·14.022 MB·English

by  Edward P. Kohn

This Kindred People
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This Kindred People
Canadian-American Relations
and the Anglo-Saxon Idea,
1895-1903
EDWARD P. KOHN
McGill-Queen's University Press
Montreal & Kingston • London • Ithaca
© McGill-Queen's University Press 2004
ISBN 0-7735-2796-6
Legal deposit fourth quarter 2004
Bibliotheque nationale du Quebec
Printed in Canada on acid-free paper that is 100%
ancient forest free (100% post-consumer recycled),
processed chlorine free.
This book has been published with the help of a grant
from the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and
Social Sciences, through the Aid to Scholarly Publications
Programme, using funds provided by the Social Sciences
and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
McGill-Queen's University Press acknowledges the
support of the Canada Council for the Arts for our
publishing program. We also acknowledge the financial
support of the Government of Canada through the Book
Publishing Industry Development Program (BPIDP) for
our publishing.
National Library of Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Kohn, Edward P. (Edward Parliament), 1968-
This kindred people: Canadian-American relations and
the Anglo-Saxon idea, i895-i9O3/Edward P. Kohn.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-7735-2796-6
I. Canada - Relations - United States. 2. United States
- Relations - Canada. 3. Anglo-Saxon race. 4. Canada -
Foreign relations- 1867-1918. 5. United States - Foreign
relations - 1865-1921. i. Title:
FC249.K63 2004 327.7io73'o9'o34 C2004-902684-4
Typeset in Sabon 10/12
by Caractera inc., Quebec City
Contents
Introduction:
The Anglo-Saxon Mirror 3
I The Venezuela Crisis, Canada, and American
"Hemispherism": The North American
Context of the Rapprochement and
the Anglo-Saxon Response I3
2 John Charlton and the Limits of Anglo-Saxonism:
The Failure of Reciprocity and the Anglo-American
Joint High Commission 52
3 "White Man's Burden": English-Canadian
Anglo-Saxonism and the Spanish-American War 92
4 The Crest and Decline of North American
Anglo-Saxonism: The South African War,
the Alaska Modus Vivendi, and the Abrogation
of the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty 135
5 The Defeat (and Triumph) of North American
Anglo-Saxonism: The Alaska Boundary Tribunal I67
Conclusion: The Obsolescence of North American
Anglo-Saxonism I96
Notes 207
Bibliography 229
Index 247
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This Kindred People
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Introduction:
The Anglo-Saxon Mirror
The Anglo-Saxon leads the van.
And never lags behind,
.For was he not ordain'd to be
The leader of mankind?
Alexander McLachlan, "The Anglo-Saxon"
At the end of the nineteenth century, English-speaking North Ameri-
cans discussed race as later generations might discuss the weather. The
same subjects found a ready audience on both sides of the border. In
the press, in speeches, and in their letters to one another, Canadians
and Americans discussed the common issues of immigration, "Indians,"
Jews, blacks, and French Canadians. In his The Winning of the West,
Theodore Roosevelt made no effort to conceal his contempt for the
"savages," who were destined to be "displaced" on the continent.1 The
editor of Queen's Quarterly welcomed Americans to the Canadian west
because "they will help to give an Anglo-Saxon character to the social,
economic and political development of the west."2 France's "Dreyfus
Affair" incited anti-Semitism in much of North America. A frequent
resident of Paris, Henry Adams wrote to his good friend John Hay
about "Wall Street Jews," and to his brother Brooks wrote simply, "I
loathe the Jew."3 Writing from Toronto to a friend in I898 Goldwin
Smith urged sympathy for Spain because "she burned a good number
of Jews."4 Men in each country also discussed the unique racial makeup
of their neighbour. Theodore Roosevelt expressed alarm to Francis
Parkman about the number of French Canadians "swarming into New
England with ominous rapidity" and speculated that "their race will
in many places supplant the old American stock."5 For their part, Cana-
dians often argued against union with the United States because of
America's racial conflict. "There is no conflict of races in Canada,"
J. Schurman wrote in I889, arguing against political union with the
republic. "For that, in its most hopeless aspect too," he noted, "you