Papineau, Louis Joseph

Papineau, Louis Joseph (lwē zhôsĕf ` päpēnō`), 1786–1871, French Canadian political leader and insurgent, b. Montreal. After serving as an officer in the War of 1812, he entered (1814) the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada (Quebec), of which he was (1815–37) speaker. Eloquent and able, he soon became leader of the French Canadian Reform party. His hostility to the British government in Canada, whose measures he considered unfair to the French Canadians, inflamed some of his followers, the Patriotes, to open rebellion in 1837; shortly afterward a rebellion incited by William Lyon Mackenzie broke out in Upper Canada (Ontario). Papineau took no active part in the uprisings but fled to the United States, where he sought assistance for the Canadian colonial cause. Failing in his effort, he went to France. He received full amnesty in 1844 and returned to Canada in 1845. He reentered politics and again sat (1848–54) in the Canadian legislative assembly, but he never regained his former influence.

Bibliography

See biographies by A. D. De Celles (in "Makers of Canada" series, Vol. V, 1926) and F. Guellet (1961).

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Papineau, Louis Joseph

(born Oct. 7, 1786, Montreal, Que.—died Sept. 23, 1871, Montebello, Que., Can.) Canadian politician. He was elected to the legislative assembly of Lower Canada (now Quebec) in 1808 and became its speaker in 1815. A leader of the French-Canadian Party, he opposed the British-dominated government of Lower Canada. In 1834 he helped draft the 92 Resolutions, a statement of French-Canadian demands and grievances. When the British governor rejected the resolutions, hostilities broke out. Papineau escaped to the U.S. and then to France, where he lived from 1839 to 1844. He returned to Canada under an amnesty in 1844 and served in the Canadian House of Commons from 1848 to 1854, though he never regained his leadership of the French-Canadians.

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Papineau, Louis Joseph 

Born Oct. 7, 1786, in Montreal; died Sept. 23, 1871, in Montebello, Quebec. Canadian politician.

A lawyer by profession, Papineau was a deputy to the Legislative Assembly of the British colony of Lower Canada from 1808 to 1837 and a member of the Executive Council of Lower Canada from 1820 to 1823. After 1815 he was the leader of the French-Canadian patriotes, advocates of reforms and opponents of the British authorities. One of the leaders of the 1837–38 rebellion in Lower Canada, Papineau fled to the USA in November 1837. In 1839 he emigrated to France. He returned to Canada in 1845 and served as deputy to the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada in the years 1848–51 and 1852–54. Papineau withdrew from politics in 1854.