Family Compact

Common card · No. 462687

The Family Compact was a small closed group of men who exercised most of the political, economic and judicial power in Upper Canada (mostly analogous to today's Ontario) from the 1810s to the 1840s. It was the Upper Canadian equivalent of the Château Clique in Lower Canada. It was noted for its conservatism and opposition to democracy. The Family Compact emerged from the War of 1812 and collapsed in the aftermath of the Rebellions of 1837–1838. Its resistance to the political principle of responsible government contributed to its short life. At the end of its lifespan, the compact was condemned by Lord Durham, a leading Whig, who summarised its grip on power: Fortified by family connexion, and the common interest felt by all who held, and all who desired, subordinate offices, that party was thus erected into a solid and permanent power, controlled by no responsibility, subject to no serious change, exercising over the whole government of the Province an authority utterly independent of...

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