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Indiana University 
there were renewed expressions of discontent at Selkirk and 
threats of annexation to the United States. 
After the crisis of the American Civil War in the summer 
of 1863, when disintegrating secession was rapidly losing, the 
possibility of postbellum American expansion into disunited 
Canada was seen in England.^^ Eastern Canadians who 
favored self-government in Canada, contemplating the com- 
plications which might result from foreign questions growing 
out of the war, also scented danger and suggested that Eng- 
land, if involved in war with the United States, should con- 
sent to establish the neutrality of Canada, whose material in- 
terests were largely dependent upon the northern part of 
the United States.^® The Confederate seizure of the Philo 
Parsons steamer on Lake Erie in September, 1864, and the 
later raid on St. Albans by Confederates from Canada pro- 
duced an unhealthy excitement along the northern border and 
resulted in notices by the American government to terminate 
the reciprocity treaty. 
The condition of affairs also stimulated Canada to take 
steps for a confederation. On October 10, 1864, delegates 
from the British North American provinces assembled in con- 
ference and agreed to the basis of the Act of Union, and sub- 
mitted their resolutions to the Legislative Assembly of Canada 
in January, 1865. These resolutions were debated from Feb- 
ruary 3 until March 14, when it was agreed by large majorities 
to ask the Queen to submit the plan to the British Parlia- 
ment.^^ In the debates, the confederation was urged as a 
measure to counteract the American ambition for acquisition. 
On February 9, Thomas d’Arcy McGee said that the Monroe 
Doctrine in popular paraphrase had become : 
No pent-up Utica contracts our powers 
But the whole boundless continent is ours.^" 
The later decision of Parliament in favor of confederation, 
by the passage of the North American Act and the authoriz- 
ing of a guarantee of a Canadian loan of $3,000,000 for the 
construction of the long desired intercolonial railway, was 
largely influenced by the American expression of annexation 
sentiment which attracted attention in England."" The act 
London Titnes, Septembei' 14, 1863, and July 1, 1864. 
Buchanan, Relations of the Industry of Canada with the Mother Country. 
Roberts, History of Canada, chap. xxii. 
32 E. W. Watkins, M.P., Canada and the States, 18ol-lS3'i (London, 1887). 
33 London Times, September 18, 1866. 
