Borealia: “The Mighty Waters of Democracy”: Thomas Chandler Haliburton on American Populism, by Oana Godeanu-Kenworthy

Keith Grant Discussion
 
Recently at Borealia, Oana Godeanu-Kenworthy examines what early American populism looked like from British North America, by drawing on her research on C19 author, Thomas Chandler Haliburton. Here’s a taste of the essay:
 
"Canadian concerns over American populism and its impact on existing institutions are not new. In 1836, the conservative Nova Scotian judge and writer Thomas Chandler Haliburton (1796-1865) published The Clockmaker, a volume of satirical sketches that rapidly became a surprising global success. Its protagonist, Sam Slick, a charismatic and shrewd Connecticut Yankee, entertained colonial audiences with the shortcomings of the American political model, while ostensibly exalting “the greatest nation on the face of the airth, and the most enlightened too.” Haliburton’s America sounds hauntingly familiar. In the 1830s, the country was in the thralls of economic and political turmoil, of virulent populism and anti-elite antipathy, all punctuated by the extension of the franchise to white males, the expansion of slavery, and the Indian Removal. Like other early Canadians, Haliburton was watching with apprehension the chaotic political dramas unfolding next door, at a time when British North America itself was debating responsible government and elective councils. To be clear, Haliburton was never preoccupied with the welfare of ordinary people; minority rights would have concerned him only if as a white, propertied, and educated male he envisioned himself to be an endangered minority. His arguments against American-style colonial reform were rooted in the belief that institutions not only reflect the core values of the society that created them, they are also instrumental in shaping its long-term evolution. Haliburton’s main focus was the place of British North America in the larger imperial network. If American republican institutions had gradually given rise to the unruly populism of the Jacksonian years, what impact could more democratic institutions have on the fabric of colonial society in British North America and on its loyalty to the Crown?"
 

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