WHY WE SHOULD BE PROUD TO RECOGNIZE DR. WILLIAM DAWSON LESUEUR - THE MAN WHO NAMED OUR TOWN
AS A POSTAL AUTHORITY HE WAS FUTURE-MINDED - TO WRITERS LIKE STEPHEN LEACOCK - HE WAS AN UNWELCOME MEDDLER
THIS PAST SUMMER, I WROTE A SIGNIFICANT FEATURE SERIES ON THE 150TH ANNIVERSARY, OF THE NAMING OF OUR TOWN, IN AUGUST 1862, AFTER THE TITLE OF A BOOK, WRITTEN BY BRITISH AUTHOR, WILLIAM HENRY SMITH. HIS BOOK, PUBLISHED SHORTLY BEFORE THE OPENING OF OUR POST OFFICE, IN THE FORMER MCCABE'S LANDING, WAS ENTITLED "GRAVENHURST; OR THOUGHTS ON GOOD AN EVIL." I'M SURE YOU'RE GETTING TIRED OF READING ABOUT THIS, BUT TODAY I HAVE A RARE PIECE OF EDITORIAL MATERIAL, THAT PROFILES THE CHARACTER OF DR. WILLIAM DAWSON LESUEUR, CIVIL SERVANT BY DAY, LITERARY CRITIC AND HISTORIAN AFTER HOURS. HE BECAME A HIGHLY RESPECTED LITERARY CRITIC AND AN ACCOMPLISHED CANADIAN HISTORIAN. AND HE DECIDED THAT MCCABE'S LANDING JUST DIDN'T SUIT OUR HAMLET, IN 1862, BUT HE WAS THINKING WELL PAST THIS POST OFFICE OPENING. AS I HAVE REITERATED ABOUT LESUEUR, IN 1862, HE WAS KNOWN IN INTELLECTUAL CIRCLES, AS ONE OF THE FLEDGLING NATION'S BRIGHTEST MINDS. HE WOULDN'T HAVE SELECTED A NAME FROM A BOOK HE DIDN'T APPROVE. HE WASN'T KNOWN TO BE A PRACTICAL JOKER. IF HE HAD ONE GLARING FAILURE, IT WAS THAT HE FORGOT TO TELL THE FINE FOLKS OF "GRAVENHURST, ONTARIO," WHY HE SELECTED THE TITLE OF A BOOK, BY A BRITISH PHILOSOPHER, TO ADORN OUR NEW POST OFFICE. TO THIS DAY, IT'S THE ONE THING THAT STANDS IN THE WAY, OF THE TOWN'S ACCEPTANCE OF THIS CHAPTER OF LOCAL HISTORY……AND FROM ATTACHING ANY REAL SIGNIFICANCE TO THE RESPECTIVE PARTIES INVOLVED. WHICH IS A SHAME, BECAUSE LESUEUR WAS AN INCREDIBLY TALENTED WRITER AND HISTORIAN, AND SMITH WAS A HUGELY ACCOMPLISHED AUTHOR / PHILOSOPHER, AND IN FACT, THE BOOK WE ARE NAMED AFTER, IS STILL IN DEMAND TO THIS DAY, IN COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES AROUND THE WORLD.
A LITTLE BIT OF UNKNOWN HISTORY ABOUT W.D. LESUEUR
Why would we make a big deal out of a career civil servant? Would we be the first community in Canada, to erect a statue of a postal authority. For us, right next to Dr. Norman Bethune, in front of the Opera House? How weird would that be? Well, LeSueur was not as colorful and well known as Dr. Bethune, and it would be hard to relate even his historical authordom, to what Bethune was accomplishing on the battlefront. Field surgeon, surgical innovator, martyr? LeSueur, a Federal postal authority responsible for naming hamlet post offices, colleague to some of the best known philosophers of his time, and a Canadian historian who wasn't afraid of any one, including the future Prime Minister of Canada, Mackenzie King, grandson of the firebrand, William Lyon Mackenzie King. Mackenzie King was so pissed-off at LeSueur, for writing an expose, of his grandfather, that diminished his stature as a key player in the 1830's Rebellion in Upper Canada, that he lobbied his publisher to kill the project. When LeSueur dusted himself off, and went to another publisher, they too got a message that it wasn't a good idea to publish this particular biography. In fact, Mackenzie King was so determined to stop LeSueur, that protracted litigation kept LeSueur's book from being published until the late 1960's. Now it is an accepted and welcome edition to the study of William Lyon Mackenzie, and the rebellion of 1837 I believe. LeSueur had found information on Mackenzie, that determined him to have been nothing more than a Scottish pain in the ass, and that he caused more problems with the course of events, than if he had just followed the leadership of others. LeSueur was a big believer in the critical approach, and he was very interested in examining every possible source of information, before he compiled such a biography. What he found, with this in-depth research, was that history had been way too kind to Mr. Mackenzie, and he was intent on exposing the differences of opinion. His grandson, quite happy with the Mackenzie legend, didn't feel it was LeSueur's responsibility to change history, because of a few recollections of his grandfather, he hadn't heard before.
In the Public Archives of Canada, the "W.D. LeSueur Papers," contain an interesting critique of the historical writing of well known Canadian author, Stephen Leacock. LeSueur was not at all impressed by the popular histories, of which Leacock had penned a timely version. On October 26, 1906, the man who afforded us the name "Gravenhurst," challenged Stephen Leacock, via letter, offering his opinion of the writer's version of what constituted important Canadian history. Here is how the challenge commences, in words from a fellow who factored heavily in our municipal history, here in South Muskoka. He named Bracebridge's post office, in 1864, after the titled of a book, written by American author, Washington Irving….."Bracebridge Hall."
In the words of Dr. LeSueur, in a letter penned to Stephen Leacock, (in regards to the history he wrote, that didn't quite measure up); "A few words now on the question of Responsible Government. I quite recognize that a book can be written on the lines of yours that will give satisfaction, to a large section of the public, but my feeling was that in dealing with Baldwin, Lafontaine and Hincks, an opportunity was afforded for doing something a little better, than repeating that twice told tale, however, skillfully, the retelling might be done," argued LeSueur, as diplomatically as he could, under the circumstances of reading a work he believed was shallow and complacent with accepted, convenient fact.
"I was hoping for a book that would make, or, if that is impossible, would at least invite people to think dispassionately and unconventionally on the course of Canadian history." He reports to Leacock, that "Considering the point at which we have arrived in our political development, and the many evils which have fastened themselves on our political system, the time is ripe for very critical treatment of our political conventions and catch words. The note of your book, on the other hand, is the one of finality. It is finished. We have Responsible Government.
"Yes we have 'Responsible Government,' and corruption has so enlarged itself that witnesses in the book almost jeer at the magistrate who enquires into their inequities, and a horrible cynicism in regard to every profession of political virtue, has taken solid possession of a very large portion of the community. Is this the time to persuade people that their welfare is accomplished, and that they may sit down in peace under Responsible Government, as under a combination vine and fig tree? I do not say you distinctly say so in your book, but I do say that you have done it negatively by missing a great opportunity of presenting certain questions, as open questions instead of as eternally settled ones. It is the note of enquiry, that not of what Balfour calls, 'philosophical doubt,' that I miss in a book that gave exceptional advantage - for more than the book I am writing - for introducing it."
If there is one opinion of W.D. LeSueur, that I have adopted as my own mantra, in the study of regional history, and the examination of politics, it is this statement: "Criticism should be the voice of impartial and enlightened reason. Too often what passes for criticism is the voice of hireling adulation or hireling enmity. Illustrations of this will occur to everyone, but there is no use blaming criticism, which, as has been said, is an intellectual necessity of the age: the foregoing remarks have been made in the hope that it may help to clear away some prevalent misconceptions, by showing the organic connection, so to speak, that exists between criticism as a function, or as a model of intellectual activity, and the very simplest intellectual processes. Such a mode of regarding it should do away with the odium that in so many minds attaches to the idea of criticism. Let us all try to be critics according to the measure of our abilities and opportunities. Let us aim at seeing all we can, at gaining as many points of view as possible. Let us compare carefully and judge impartially; and we may depend upon it; we shall be the better for the very effort."
The above biographical material was taken from the book by A.B. McKillop, Carleton University, and the biography, "A Critical Spirit - The Thought of William Dawson LeSueur." In McKillop's observation, "LeSueur deserves, then, the attention of anyone interested in the intellectual and cultural history of Canada."
We should of course, be proud in this town, of our inherent association with this Canadian scholar, William Dawson LeSueur, and author William Henry Smith. We got two historical legends in one simple act of naming a hamlet post office. Do you think one day, the Town administration will ever come to believe this is a story worth investing in……and promoting? An historian can always hope!
Or will they remember me, the badgering historian, who just now, as if an act of providence, wrote down the quotation, "Stop trying to explain the meaning of life….and just live it!" Let LeSueur's and Smith's reputations fend from their own ranking of distinction. God's telling me, you see, that there are bigger fish to fry…..in a proverbial sort of way!
Thank you for spending some time with me today. It's always as pleasure.
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