The Prophetic Anti-Gallic Letters Adam Thom and the Hidden Roots of The Dominion of Canada

The Anti-Gallic Letters by Adam Thom was published in 1836 based on Thom’s editorials in Montreal Herald written under the pseudonym “Camillus” in the previous two years. They were never reprinted, despite their importance and above all for the people for whom Thom was the public voice. More than an anti-French, anti-Republican tract, The Anti-Gallic Letters are crucial to understanding how British North America mutated into the Dominion of Canada in 1867.

François Deschamps is a historian who has specialized in the history of the revolts of 1837-38 in Lower Canada (now Quebec) and particularly the role of the ultra-Tory Montreal Herald. Adam Thom (1802-1890) was born in Scotland and immigrated to Montreal in 1832. Appointed editor of the Montreal Herald in January 1835, he led the journalistic assault on the vast French Canadian majority and on the “conciliatory” British government policy towards the French-speaking majority leading up to the rebellions of 1837-1838.