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The first hundred years in the history of a Province or a people have, of necessity, an important bearing on their future. It is fitting, therefore, that the lessons to be drawn from them should be carefully considered. The Loyalist founders of the Province were very different in education, experience and intention from the pioneers of new settlements in our day, and no review of the events which have occurred within our borders since 1783 will be accurate unless this fact is borne constantly in mind. Our Loyalist ancestors were not men urged by the tireless spirit of unrest and speculation to seek new fields for their energy and enterprise; they did not come to these then inhospitable shores because in coming they saw a prospect of prosperity, which the circumstances of the land from whence they emigrated rendered impossible of realization there. Probably none of them expected to better themselves, and all would have been well situated, in a temporal point of view, if they remained in the revolted colonies. They preferred privations and banishment to comfort and old associations, when the price of the latter was the abandonment of principles, which they held sacred. It is not necessary to analyze the motives of individual Loyalists closely. Perhaps many of them, when the time of embarkation came, regretted that they were committed to so disastrous a step, and would have willingly have remained where they were, if they could have done so with any prospect of regaining their lost standing. But the underlying motive in all cases, no matter how it may have developed in particular instances, was fidelity to the British Crown and faith in the monarchical idea. Of their descendants, probably not corporal’s guard could be found ready to sacrifice their lives and fortunes to these principles as understood by the Loyalists We have outgrown their ideas; we have become, if possible, even more democratic than the nation which founded its constitution…of the perfect equality of man; and we have self-government to a degree far beyond the most extreme claims made by the revolutionary party; yet the history of the Province has been moulded by the principles of the Loyalists; their character is stamped indelibly upon the century which has just closed.
The Loyalist pioneers of New Brunswick were, as we have said, not prompted by a hope of improving their temporal position. They knew that at best long years of toil and discomfort awaited them in their new home, but they trusted in the British Government for aid. It is a well known fact that of the party who settled at Fredericton many died from the hardships, and the survivors narrowly escaped from starvation, caused by the failure of supplies from England to reach them before the winter set in. Women, delicately reared, gave birth to children beneath canvas tents, rendered habitable only by the banks of snow which lay six feet deep in the open spaces in the forest. Men, unaccustomed to toil looked with dismay towards a future which seemed hopeless, and as one said, who as a child passed through these dreadful days, “Strong, proud men wept like children and lay down in their snow bound tents to die.” Succour came at last, the shattered colony recovered hope and courage, and in the struggle for existence gained strength; but we learn from this story of the pioneers of Fredericton, better perhaps than in any other way, how unprepared the first settlers were for work of colonization. Of the Loyalists a large proportion were disbanded soldiers, and of the principal men among them many had held commissions in the army. All of them, no matter what their rank or station, regarded themselves as dependents upon a country nearly three thousand miles away and separated from them by an ocean which it sometime took months to cross. Thus the founders of our Province, though they started in their new career from a high platform of education, refinement and good citizenship, were poorly equipped in the more rugged qualities of self-reliance, of rough and ready adaptation to circumstances, and generally of suitableness for the kind of life and labor in store for them. Perhaps it is better to have sprung from such a race than from one whose sole ambition is the acquirement of personal advantage; perhaps in the long run the characteristics which, as a people, we have inherited from the exiles of 1783, will prove of infinitely greater value than mere love of temporal prosperity; but be this as it may, when we consider the work which the Loyalists and their descendants have accomplished and compare it with the progress of other lands, we must not forget who they were, why they came here and what was the character of their ruling ideas.
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So we may divide the century into two periods of fifty years each; the first marked by aristocratic notions and dependence upon the home government, and little advancement; the second by the growth of democratic ideas, the passing of the control of affairs into the hands of the common people, and marked and most satisfactory progress in material prosperity. To read of the manner in which public affairs were conducted in New Brunswick a half century or so ago is like turning over the pages of a romance. It scarcely seems as if the extraordinary things which are told can be true. The governing class controlled the Province as completely as, if with less severity than the Czar rules Russia, and their tyranny took a hundred petty shapes. The intention was not to be tyrannical. Among the men who led the exiles of 1783, and those who were charged with the management of affairs for the next fifty years, were some of the noblest spirits which any land ever produced; men of high intelligence and education, of noble piety and love of country, but they had learned politics and social laws in a school which could not fit them for their new position, and the principles which governed their action, though conscientiously applied, did not suit the necessities of a young and struggling province, where forests had to be cleared and latent resources discovered; where new products would demand new markets; where nature herself revolted against invidious class distinctions.
The circumstances under which New Brunswick was settled were not calculated to attract much attention in England outside of the official class. The close of the last century and the beginning of the present one was an era of great occurrences and of slow and interrupted communication. It could not be expected that in the whirl of events, in the loss of such an empire as the thirteen revolted colonies, in the struggle by sea and land which have inscribed the names of so many signal victories and of so many illustrious heroes upon the scroll of fame, the affairs of a few thousands of Loyalist refugees and disbanded soldiers would attract much attention, or that the people at large would care to enquire as to the character of the country in which the exiles had settled. The result was such as might have been looked for. New Brunswick, during the first half century of its existence, was almost an unknown land to the people of the Mother country, or what was even worse, the few disconnected ideas in respect to it, which were abroad, were so wide of the facts and so prejudicial that the second century has scarcely sufficed to make its real character known to those to whom we look as probable immigrants or investors. No county could labor under greater disadvantages in this respect than New Brunswick had done. In the meantime the neighboring states by the achievement of their independence attracted the attention of the civilized world, and the national life which was developed in the conflict with the parent state, gained new strength and was directed in the practical utilization of the abundant advantages which nature had bestowed upon them. Their progress was watched, while ours was unheeded, or if the two countries were compared New Brunswick suffered so much by the comparison that it was a charity to leave us in our seclusion. At the time of the revolution New England had one hundred and fifty years of advancement upon which to build her future. In point of years, the middle of the next century will have to have passed before we stand upon the same place with our more southern neighbors. They had overcome the difficulties with which New Brunswick had begun to contend one hundred years ago, consequently it is not a cause for surprise that in the race for prosperity our own land lagged far behind its wealthier and older rivals. There can be no doubt that if Nova Scotia (which included New Brunswick) had joined the revolted colonies her progress during the first fifty years would have been far more rapid than it was. One may say this without disloyalty and without expressing any opinion as to the ultimate advantage of such a connexion. But now that we look back over the past and consider all the difficulties which surrounded the way by which we have come to our present position, feelings of hope are stimulated and the future of our country seems bright. The century which has closed should teach us many lessons, but none should impress it more firmly upon us than that we be self reliant and have faith of our country. In this we will find the secret of that success and inherent prosperity which all good citizens so ardently desire.