Banques, société et politique dans le discours politique d’Edmund Bailey O’Callaghan, 1833-1837

The author points out that at first glance it would appear that the radicalism of some New York Democrats regarding the social and economic consequences associated with the development of commercial capitalism found no echoes in the Lower Canadian press. However, he maintains, such a sensibility can be found in the discourse of the Irish-born Edmund Bailey O’Callaghan (1797-1880), Louis-Joseph Papineau’s principal lieutenant in the 1830s and editor of the Montreal newspaper, the Vindicator. While O'Callaghan was a tireless promoter of the Parti Patriote's positions in the 1830s, the author argues that O’Callaghan also demonstrated a marked independence of spirit, and his most notable deviation from the party line came over the issue of banks and their relationship to the working and agricultural classes of Lower Canada. Indeed, the author maintains that on the question of banks, O’Callaghan adopted a position which was significantly more radical than that of his colleagues from the French-language pro-Patriote Montreal newspaper, La Minerve, condemning all banks, including the Banque du peuple, for their manipulation of paper money. The author points out that O’Callaghan's position sparked sharp criticisms from other members of the Patri Patriote leadership and created a division which this Irish Patriote would long remember. In this sense, the author concludes, O’Callaghan resembles radical American democratic journalists such as William Legget (1801-1839), who led a crusade against the banks in the interests of the working classes of New York and Philadelphia.

Les Cahiers des Dix

No. 69

251-279

2015

fr