The question has been asked, would it not have been better for the northern half of this continent if the Eddy rebellion had succeeded and what is now Canada had become one country with the United States? The name Americans could then fairly have been claimed by the citizens of the great Republic and a people whose interests and aspirations are identical, and whose religion, language and customs are the same, would have been united in carrying out the destiny of the Anglo-Saxon in America.This may sound very well, but events have transpired in the last hundred and twenty-five years that point unmistakably to the conclusion that the God of history intended this northern land called Canada to work out its own destiny independent of the southern Republic.At the period of the Eddy rebellion Nova Scotia was still in the cradle and had no grievances to redress.New Brunswick as a Province had no existence.Never in all history had a conquered country been treated so justly by the victors as had Quebec.Ontario at this time was but a western wilderness.It will thus be seen that there would have been no justification for the new settlers in this northern land to have joined hands with the thirteen older colonies.
Another preliminary objection can be found in the situation of the Loyalists of 1783, from the fact that one of the grandest band of exiles that was ever driven from fireside and country would have found no place on the continent to make new homes for themselves.This would have placed them in infinitely worse circumstances than that body of noble men and women of another race that twenty-eight years earlier in the century had been driven out as exiles to wander in hardship and want on that same New England coast.These Loyalists brought to Canada the sterling principle, the experience in local Government, the sturdy, independent manhood and business experience and energy which this northern land needed to make it one of the most prosperous and best governed countries in the world.To think what Canada would have been without the Loyalists helps one to see more clearly how fortunate it was that the Eddy rebellion was crushed.