James Douglas (Governor)
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- This article is about James Douglas, Governor of Vancouver Island Colony and later of British Columbia. For James Douglas, Governor of Vermont, see Jim Douglas.
Sir James Douglas, K.C.B, (August 15, 1803 – August 2, 1877), was born of a Scottish father and Creole mother in Demerara. From 1851 to 1864 he was governor of the colony of Vancouver Island. He then became first governor of the mainland Colony of British Columbia in 1858 in order to assert British authority during the Fraser River gold rush, which had the potential to turn the mainland into an American state. He remained as governor of both Vancouver Island and British Columbia until his retirement in 1864. He is often credited as "The Father of British Columbia".
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[edit] Early Life and Fur Trader
Douglas was born in a place in Demerara, British Guiana, the illegitimate son of a Scottish sugar planter and a "free coloured woman". In 1812 he was sent to Lanark, Scotland to be schooled. It is also believed that he went to school in Chester, England, where he learned to speak and write in fluent French.
At the age of 16 Douglas left Britain to enter the fur trade in the North West Company. He left Liverpool for Lachine, Lower Canada (now part of Montreal) in the spring of 1819. From 1819 until 1820 Douglas was stationed at the Fort William, Ontario (now part of Thunder Bay) as a clerk. In 1820 he was transferred to Ile-à-la-Crosse on the Churchill River in northern Saskatchewan. The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) was also active in this area and Douglas was caught up in at least one confrontation with the rival fur traders. At this post Douglas continued a policy of self-education by reading books brought over from Britain and meeting with many natives.
In 1821 the North West Company was merged into the Hudson's Bay Company and Douglas' contract was placed onto the HBC's payroll. He quickly moved up the strict structure of the company, and was put in charge of the foundation of the Fort Vermilion trading post in northern Alberta in 1825 before going to Fort St. James on Stuart Lake. In 1827 he established Fort Connolly on Bear Lake.
On April 27, 1828, Douglas married the daughter of Chief Factor William Connelly, Amelia Connelly. Amelia's mother had been Cree. Douglas was very close to William Connelly, his superior. Connelly was impressed by Douglas' skills and they got along well, resulting in Connelly agreeing to the marriage between the two.
In 1828, while Douglas was in charge of Fort St. James in Connelly's absence, two Hudson's Bay traders were murdered with the help of a Stuart Lake native. In one of the most controversial moments of Douglas' life he marched into the village and seized the accused murderer. Unfortunately the exact events of the day are not clear. In some accounts Douglas shot the native in the head on the spot with everyone watching. In others, Douglas simply dragged him out of the village to be executed at a later time. Another story is that Douglas attempted to shoot the man in the head but missed and had to get his partners to beat the accused before dragging him out of the village. Various stories were passed around the area and Douglas soon gathered a reputation. Connelly, fearing for Douglas' life, asked Governor George Simpson to transfer Douglas elsewhere. He was soon was moved to Fort Vancouver, where his wife joined him after the death of their first child in 1830. While in Fort Vancouver she gave birth to 10 more children (five died in infancy).
Douglas spent 19 years in Fort Vancouver, where for 15 years served as chief accountant until 1834 when he was promoted to Chief Trader of Fort Vancouver. This was a very important position - only held by 4 others. He received his commission as one of "the gentlemen of the interior" on June 3, 1835 in York Factory upon joining the Council of the Northern Department. In 1838 Douglas was put in charge of Fort Vancouver. While occupying the position Douglas denounced slavery of natives and made settlement with the Russian American Company, which had been active in the northern coastal fur trade. In return for the leasing of fur trading territory on the northern coast from Mount Fairweather south to 54° 40', the Russian American Company received 2000 otter pelts and a number of other supplies. He also created the Puget's Sound Agricultural Company in an attempt to bring more British into the Columbia River valley to overpower the American presence there.
In September 1840 he was awarded with a commission as Chief Factor, the highest possible rank for field service with the HBC. As Chief Factor his first major contribution was to go on a personal visit south to California, where he met with a Mexican administrator and received permission to create a trading post in San Francisco. In 1841 Douglas was charged with the duty of setting up a trading post on the southern tip of Vancouver Island upon the recommendation by George Simpson that a second line of forts be built in case the Columbian River valley fell into American hands (see Oregon boundary dispute). So Douglas founded Fort Victoria, on the site of present-day Victoria, British Columbia. This proved beneficial when in 1846 the Oregon Treaty was signed, extending the British North America/United States border along the 49th parallel from the Rockies to the Strait of Georgia.
In 1849 Britain leased the entirety of Vancouver Island to the HBC with a condition that a colony was to be created. Douglas moved the headquarters of the western portion of the Company from Fort Vancouver to Fort Victoria. He was not initially appointed to be Governor of the Colony of Vancouver Island - the position instead went to Richard Blanshard, an English barrister. However, Douglas still carried a lot of weight in the colony, as the man in charge of its finances and land, and Douglas effectively drove Blanshard from the position. Douglas acknowledged the Royal Proclamation of 1763 and had a policy to trade the natives for their land. Costs for each parcel of land were usually in the form of blankets, often three for each man. This policy also stemmed from a desire to have interactions with natives while avoiding violence.
After the resignation of Blanshard in 1851, the British Government appointed Douglas as the Governor of Vancouver Island. However, he was still Chief Factor of the HBC, which led to a number of years of balancing the important and time-consuming duties of both positions and was often the subject of controversy in local political debates and editorial tirades.
[edit] Governor of the Colony of Vancouver Island
Douglas' largest job in the earliest stages of running the new British colony was the management of the current political situation of the times. He was 6000 miles away from Britain and his closest neighbour was the strong, anti-British United States of America. He realized early that he would have to fend for himself and would have to resist American expansion as much as possible.
Douglas created the Victoria Voltigeurs, Vancouver Island's first militia, using money from the Company and composed of the Metis and French-Canadians in the company's service. He also used the sparse presence of the Royal Navy for protection. During the Crimean War, in 1854, the British and French carried out an attack on Petropavlovsk and casualties were sent to Victoria. After facilities of this key port proved inadequate the British government charged Douglas with the creation of a hospital at Esquimalt harbour along with the improvement of Royal Navy supply capacity. This base proved to be important and successful when in 1865 the headquarters of the North Pacific Squadron were moved to Vancouver Island.
Douglas also had to take care of the San Juan Boundary Dispute, regarding the water boundary between Washington Territory and Vancouver Island. Douglas pressed for Britain to retain sovereignty over the islands in the Straight of Georgia, the largest being San Juan Island, which was immediately adjacent to Victoria and so of great strategic interest.
Douglas' largest problem in the mid- and late-1850s was that of the local Native American population - numbered at around 30,000 local Songhees, Cowichan, Nanaimo, Nuu-chah-nulth, including raiding Haida from the Queen Charlotte Islands and the Euclataws Kwakiutl of northern Georgia Strait and the Sechelt, Squamish Nation, and Sto:lo peoples of the Lower Mainland. In contrast, the whites numbered under 1000 men, women and children . Meanwhile, in neighbouring in Oregon and Washington Territorythe Cayuse and Yakima Wars and other conflicts between Americans and the aboriginal peoples were raging to the immediate south. Douglas was determined that there would be no similar clashes on Vancouver Island and feared for the survival of the native peoples of the as-yet-unchartered mainland. Nonetheless, wary of being seen in too pro-native a stance and thereby risking war with the United States, he supplied Washington Territory's Governor Isaac Stephens with arms and other supplies to assist the neighbouring regime. In addition to creating a standing force of thirty men, he upheld a long-standing policy to treat natives with respect while protecting them when possible. This policy stemmed from his days as a fur trader, which had made him many friends in the native community and, of course, his own wife was native.
Other actions during his time as governor include the creation of public elementary schools, attempts to control alcohol and the construction of the Victoria District Church (forerunner to the Christ Church Cathedral). He also acquired fourteen parcels of land from the native peoples through the aforementioned treaty process, totalling 3% of Vancouver Island's land mass. These transitions helped to establish Victoria as a potentially strong community, and set in motion a new attitude towards the Pacific Coast of British North America as a more attractive place to settle. This new attitude brought a number of well-educated settlers to the colony.
In 1856, as ordered by the British Government, Douglas reluctantly setup an elected Legislative Assembly. This was a turning point for Douglas, as he was used to controlling the colony with absolute power. The council was opposed to Douglas on many issues, and consistently criticized him for having a conflict of interests between the Company and the colony. The assembly also disallowed his policy to make treaties with the local natives before acquiring land from them, instead opting to simply take it. Thus only 3% of the total land on Vancouver Island was ever taken via treaty from the natives.
[edit] The Gold Rush
In 1856 gold was discovered in the Thompson River, a tributary of the Fraser River. In 1857 gold was found in the Fraser River itself and word of gold had spread quickly to California. Thousands of Americans flooded into British Columbia and Douglas had to deal with them by himself due to the slow speed of communications between Douglas and his superiors in London.
A major task during the huge inflow of settlers was to avoid all violence between the unruly and often lawless American settlers and the local natives. Due to the Indian Wars, American animosity against natives was high and some stated that they would shoot a native on sight and, in the fall of 1858, escalating tensions between the international miners and the Nlaka'pamux people of the central area of the canyon broke into the Fraser Canyon War.
One of his most important acts in office was the proclamation, in 1857, that mines in and north of the Fraser Canyon were the property of the British Crown, and therefore, any miner needed a license to exploit them. This proclamation was technically bogus, as he did not have the power to enact it until actual authorization came from London (eventually it did). It is generally conceded today, however, that this kept American miners at bay, potentially avoiding annexation to the United States, and bought enough time for the British empire to formally ratify Douglas' unilateral declaration of the mainland colony, and so maintained the remainder of the mainland north of the 49th Parallel under British control.
[edit] Governor of Two Colonies
In 1858 the British Parliament created the Colony of British Columbia, and appointed Douglas as Governor. It was after this act that Douglas was asked to resign as Chief Factor of the western portion of the Hudson's Bay Company. The Company's monopoly on B.C. mainland trade was not renewed and neither was Douglas' position as Chief Factor. A judge, Matthew Baillie Begbie(the so-called "hanging judge"), was sent out to help Douglas maintain order and uphold British law in the area. Along with the judge came a contingent of Royal Engineers, to construct an infrastructure to help open the resources of the land to be exploited by the colony.
Soon after his appointment as Governor Douglas was awarded with an appointment as a Commander of the Order of the Bath in recognition of his service as Governor of Vancouver Island.
In August 1858 news reached Douglas that two miners had been killed by natives. He believed that the whole region was on the verge of an Indian war and went out to investigate. There had been numerous minor clashes between natives and whites but they had not yet resulted in death. After investigating the situation he found that alcohol had been a major cause, and prohibited the sale of liquor to natives. While on the trip to the murder scene Douglas brought the Crown Solicitor of Vancouver Island in order to uphold the law and make a show that pronounced that British law was still in effect. During this trip he encountered a great number of squatting foreigners, reducing the total possible revenues for land sales to the government.
In attempt to keep unlawful acts as infrequent as possible Douglas setup regional constables, a Chief Inspector of Police (Chartres Brew) and a network of intelligence officials. He also created Assistant Gold Commissioners (the Chief Gold Commissioner was also Charles Brew) to look after mining and civil cases. The combination of the creation of all of these officials meant that the chaos of the Californian gold rush were not paralleled in British Columbia.
Continuing his service as governor of Vancouver Island, he constructed the government buildings known as the "Birdcages" in 1859. Then in 1862, with the discovery of rich gold deposits in the Cariboo region, Douglas ordered the construction of the Cariboo Road - an engineering feat running 400 miles from Fort Yale to Barkerville through extremely hazardous canyon territory. Cariboo road was also called the "Queen's Highway" and the "Great North Road".
Near the end of his rule as Governor, Douglas was criticized for not changing the colony into a self-governing body. Instead, the only act of reform in this fashion was in the creation of an elected Legislative Council. His argument against the creation of a self-governing colony was the state of the population: few were British subjects, most did not hold permanent residence within the colony and of those few owned property.
He was friends with Robert Ker the First Auditor General of the Two Colonies of British Columbia, and John Sebastian Helmcken a future Speaker of the House of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia both including Douglas are considered founding fathers of British Columbia. John Sebastian Helmcken married Cecilia Douglas's daughter.
[edit] Retirement and Death
When his service to the Empire ended, Queen Victoria increased his position in the Order of the Bath to Knight Commander. Upon his retirement Douglas was honoured with banquets both in Victoria and New Westminster, the capital of the mainland. He also received a thank you on paper signed by 900 people.
In 1864 and '65 Douglas toured Europe. He visited relatives in Scotland and a half-sister in Paris. However, he had to come home after his daughter, Cecilia, died.
Douglas kept an active lifestyle but stayed out of politics in all forms. He died August 2, 1877 at 73 years of age due to a heart attack. His funeral procession was possibly the largest in the history of B.C. and he was interred in the Ross Bay Cemetery.
[edit] Places named for Douglas
- Port Douglas, British Columbia is a former community located on the northern end of Harrison Lake.
- The Douglas Road was an important wagon road that ran by stages from Harrison Lake north to Lillooet.
- Douglas is the name of a border crossing near White Rock, just north of Blaine, Washington.
- Douglas Peak is a 1486 m mountain of the Vancouver Island Ranges, located southeast of Port Alberni.
- Mount Douglas is a prominent, 260 m hill in the Greater Victoria municipality of Saanich. It lends its name to a high school, road, municipal park, neighbourhood, and several businesses.
- Douglas Channel is a 90 km inlet on British Columbia's northwest coast, just southwest of Kitimat.
- Douglas Inlet lies on the west side of Moresby Island in the Queen Charlotte Islands.
- Douglas Island lies east of Vancouver Island, between Parksville and Nanaimo. The island was renamed Protection Island in the 1960s.
- Douglas Street (Highways 1 and 17) is a major thoroughfare in Victoria, running south from Dallas Road (Mile "0" of the Trans-Canada Highway) north to Dieppe Road in the Broadmead neighbourhood of Saanich.
- Douglas College, is a publicly funded community university transfer and vocational college with campuses in New Westminster and Coquitlam.
- James Island is a privately owned, 315 ha island located to the east of the Saanich Peninsula, opposite Sidney.
- James Bay, a small bay near Victoria, and the historic neighbourhood which surrounds it.
- Douglas Hall, a residence hall at Trinity Western University in Langley, BC
- It is important to note that the famous Douglas Lake Cattle Company, and the lake, creek, and plateau in the area are not named for Douglas, but for a local settler.
| Preceded by: John McLoughlin |
Chief Factor of Hudson's Bay Company 1840-1858 |
Succeeded by: A.G. Dallas |
| Preceded by: Richard Blanshard |
Governor of Vancouver Island 1851-1864 |
Succeeded by: Arthur Edward Kennedy |
| Preceded by: Position Nonexistent |
Governor of British Columbia 1858-1864 |
Succeeded by: Frederick Seymour |
[edit] References
- Smith, Dorothy Blakey. James Douglas (Oxford University Press, 1971). ISBN 0-19-540187-5
- Hauka, Donald J.. McGowan's War (New Star Books, Vancouver, 2003). ISBN 1-55420-001-6
- Adams, John D. Old Square Toes and His Lady (Horsdal and Schubart, 2002). ISBN 0-920663-77-X
