Canada: The Struggle for the Fourteenth State
For several generations, writes Arnold Whitridge, Americans thought it inevitable that the Canadian provinces would join the United States.
In our two hundred years as an independent nation, God may be said to have disappointed the American people only once. Contrary to the hopes and prophecies of our wisest statesmen, Canada has not become a part of the United States. From the point of view of the founding fathers, George Washington and Benjamin Franklin among them, it was inevitable that the thinly populated British possessions to the north should sooner or later be swept into the orbit of her more powerful neighbour.
Before the Declaration of Independence was signed, the Colonists, headed by Richard Montgomery and Benedict Arnold, had come within an inch of winning Canada to their side. After Yorktown, Washington would have liked to make another attempt. With a much better equipped army and with the help of his French allies, he had high hopes of capturing Quebec, driving the British out of Canada and ending the war with another resounding victory.
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