"Tyrant and Oppressor!"1: Colonial Press Reaction to the Quebec Act

September 1774, Guy Carleton, lieutenant governor of the Quebec province, arrived in Quebec to make official the news that would escalate the rising tensions experienced throughout the British North American Colonies. Carleton was received by the lieutenant Governor, and all the French clergy, at his landing, when he had the honor to be kissed by the Bishop, and afterwards very genteelly introduced Popery.2 The Quebec Act, while an attempt to appease the dominant Roman Catholic religion in the province, resulted in an increased opposition to the arbitrary nature of British government throughout the North America colonies. Opposition toward the Crown on this matter was expressed through colonial newspapers. This emerging platform spread dissent among its colonial readership.3 The increased distribution of the press in the years preceding the American War of Independence provided editors with a method to express concern regarding the Quebec Act, legislation that many feared would establish a more despotic government over North America. Historians have examined the impact of the colonial press upon the mounting resistance to Britain following the Seven Years War. Arthur M. Schlesinger stated, Not until the rise of troubles with Britain did the editor come to think of himself as a maker of opinion as well as a transmitter of news and literary offerings. Yet he unwittingly did something, however little, in that direction by the very act of deciding what to put in or leave out of his paper, and once in a great while he offered a terse comment of his own.4 This surge of antagonism being presented by the colonial press resulted in editors becoming players in shaping public opinion. With the enduring opposition in the newspapers pertaining to the Tea Act and the Coercive Acts, the Quebec Act provided these individuals another such opportunity.5 However, historians have rarely examined press opinion solely concerning the Quebec Act. The more common practice is to incorporate this bill into press opinion regarding the Coercive Acts of 1774 or inclusion into a larger overarching presentation.6 Absent are examinations of the colonial newspapers' response to the Quebec Act and an assessment of the messages being expressed by these colonial presses regarding this legislation. Such an approach is necessary given that the Quebec Act was not a punitive measure, as the Coercive Acts were upon Boston; therefore, the bill could be perceived as an expression of Britain's constitutional intentions in North America. An examination of press opinion concerning the Quebec Act provides significant insight into the motives of colonial editors, illustrating that colonial newspapers used the Quebec Act as a metaphor for the continuing loss of within Britain's North American colonies.7 printing anti-government writings, these editors and their allies and sponsors sought to establish opposition to the Crown and Parliament. The enactment of the Coercive Acts earlier in 1774 and the enforcement of perceived tyrannical laws in Quebec confirmed, according to colonial papers, that colonists' liberties were being systematically eliminated.8 Such an interpretation alters the notion that the colonies possessed resentment toward the once French colony of Quebec, when in fact empathy was demonstrated for the fellow British colony. Consequently, editors used the Quebec Act as a catalyst against the use of arbitrary power that would deny the colonies their existing liberties. When discussing the term liberty during the colonial era, one must recognize the evolution of its meaning over time and examine the interpretation of this word as perceived by eighteenth century society.9 John Phillip Reid stated, In the meaning of during the age of the American Revolution the equation was plural, not singular. Liberty meant that individuals had rights, true enough, but so did society.10 Colonial subjects feared that the use of arbitrary power by the British government would deny colonists these rights:11 Americans as well as some sympathetic British understood primarily in terms of their desire to secure freedom against arbitrary governmental power. …

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