Some Repatriement Dilemmas

Abstract

x• 1871 F•mn•AND GAGNON, a Canadian living in New England, declared: Tout hornrne bien n• doit airner son pays, et doit d•sirer, s'il enest •1oign•, de l'habiter. x T•lesphore St-Pierre, a Canadian with years of journalistic experience in the midwest, wrote in 1895: Les efforts de tousles homrnes qui ont •t cceur le bien de nos cornpatriotes doivent avoir pour but de les dissuader de ces voyages continueIs, dans desquels ils gaspillent leur capital et leur vie, sans profit pour euxrnSrnes etsans avantages pour leur pattie. 2 Both Gagnon and St-Pierre obviously believed that Quebec was the only horne for a Canadien. That rnany of their compatriots did not is abundantly clear, however, when we examine the frustrations these men, and others like them, experienced in the work of repatriation. Although emigration and, to a lesser degree, repatriation, have been intensively investigated by Canadian and American historians, it is di•cult to discern in most of these studies the feelin s and actions of those directl involved--the g y expatriates themselves. Through Gagnon and St-Pierre, however, it is possible to glimpse the core of French-Canadian society in the United States. Both men were hardworking journalists, familiar with grassroots parish and fraternal organizations. Both expatriates were intellectually committed to the French culture; their newspapers frequently were the only links that other expatriates had with Quebec. By the 1870s Canadian emigration to the United States was heavy, and increasing. The first significant movement had been during the political crisis of 1837-8. The American Civil War resulted in further emigration, as some Canadians joined the armies of the North, and 1Ferdinand Gagnon: Biographie, dloge J:undbre, pages choisies (Manchester, New Hampshire, 1940), p. 100. The bulk of this work, edited by Malvina Martineau, Gagnon's niece, consists of his speeches. gT•lesphore St-Pierre, Histoire des Canadiens du Michigan et du comtd d'Essex, Ontario ( Montreal, 1895), p. 307.