B. B. Morrill: A Letter from the Front, World War I
Dear Carl,
I often think of you all especially when the full moon floats over head and wish I might drop in and see you all—
Dear Carl,
I often think of you all especially when the full moon floats over head and wish I might drop in and see you all—
Upper Canada felt the sting in the opening days of the War of 1812. But for many residents of Lower Canada life continued as usual.
In the lovely windswept high places of early 19th century Dunham, among old-growth forests and newly ploughed fields, where the earliest beginnings of tender apple shoots were beginning to take root, a sinister and corrupt enterprise thrived and threatened to destroy the placidity of the newly settled pastoral community.
The border separating Quebec’s Eastern Townships from the United States was determined by the terms of the Quebec Act in 1774. At that time, both Canada and the American colonies to the south were dependencies of Great Britain. The border was established – on paper at least -- at 45 degrees north latitude.
Smuggling has been a problem in the Eastern Townships for a long time. At first, there were no customs offices at all. People could buy whatever they pleased in the U.S. and bring it back over the border, no questions asked. In 1821, the government set up a border post at Stanstead. Some people paid the duty, but many continued to smuggle.