Note 183 — Chapter XLVIII
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"The Henry Plot (as it was denominated) was clamoured through America as a crime of the deepest dye on the part of Great Britain, tending to disorganize the Government, to dismember the Union, and to destroy the independence of the States. The fictitious and exaggerated importance which the American Government affected to attach to this trivial matter had, however, some influence in confirming the spirit of hostility towards Great Britain which at that time pervaded America, and shortly after broke out in open war. This self-sufficient miscreant having, as he fancied, taken ample vengeance upon the Government of his native country, could not, with any degree of decency, remain in the States, from whence he sailed for France in an American sloop-of-war, carrying with him the reward of his treason and the universal contempt of mankind." (Christie's History of the War of 1812, p. 55.)
Yet, at this very time, there were American and French emissaries in both the Canadas (as the proclamations of the Governors show), with a view of exciting disaffection to the British Canadian Government, in order to wrest the Canadas from England and subject them to France and the United States.
"The Americans had been declaring, for several years, that they would take the provinces. They had even boasted of the ease with which the intended conquest could be made by them whenever they pleased. They believed, or pretended to believe, that the majority of the people, owing to dissensions and a desire to be free from the mother country, would not take part against them in this contest with Great Britain." (Dr. Miles' History of Canada, Part III., Chap. iii., p. 201.)