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2 March 1835 – The Honourable Alexander Stewart, C.B. (1794 – 1865) wrote to Joseph Howe on this day to congratulate him after Howe’s speech to the jury in his libel case; “Dear Howe – I congratulate you on your splendid defence. I hope ere tomorrow at this time that the jury will have done their duty as well as you did yours….” Indeed, after a six-hour trial in which Howe defended himself, the jury would find him not guilty of seditious libel. Howe and Stewart weren’t always in agreement though when it came to their political visions, victories and defeats.
Stewart had been first elected to the Nova Scotia House of Assembly for the County of Cumberland in 1826. He later became known for vindicating the rights of the people’s representatives as well as for religious liberty, and for better inclusion of rural representatives, and lastly, to reform the Nova Scotia Council (Thomas Chandler Haliburton had referred to Council as the “twelve old ladies”).
As a Conservative, Stewart is known historically as one of the leading members of the Nova Scotia House of the Assembly who set the ball rolling towards Responsible Government, though he wasn’t always in agreement with its full outcome.
3 March 1815 – Peace between United States and Great Britain was proclaimed in Halifax. The Treaty of Ghent had been signed earlier in the United Netherlands (now Belgium) on December 24, 1814 restoring the borders and normal relations to the time before the war had started in June 1812. It had been approved by the U.S. Senate a month earlier in February.
For the British, the war had been overshadowed by Napoleon’s return from exile in March 1815, and his subsequent defeat just a 100 days later at Waterloo. Many Americans on the other hand had seen the war as the ‘second war of independence.’
With the signing of the treaty, Halifax residents (population 8,000) experienced a sense of unity as part of the British Empire, for not only defeating Napoleon, but also seeing the war as a victory for freedom from American control. Further, both the Royal Navy and various militia units from Halifax had remained vigilantly on guard to repulse any American invasion plans. For example, by the time peace had come, the militia itself had 12,000 volunteer men of all ranks, ages 16 to 60, enrolled in 26 battalions across the province.
Soon, with the ensuing peace, General George Ramsay, 9th Earl of Dalhousie, would arrive as governor of Nova Scotia, serving from 1816 to 1820.
4 March 1923 – During the month of March, the Boston & Yarmouth Steamship Co. Ltd. posted its Freight and Passenger Service rates for the S.S. Prince George and Prince Arthur, doing four weekly return trips from Yarmouth to Boston for a fare of $9. They had no problem with docking arrangements.
5 March 1942 – During the months of March and April, communities across Nova Scotia conducted air raid blackout drills as the first tryout of the civil defence facilities and emergency systems in the province. Mayors across the province were advised to have their local organizations at the ready for surprise blackout tests that could come at any time, while civil defence units were to function as if a real air raid was taking place.
6 March 2000 – The Cape Breton Development Corporation – known locally as DEVCO, pleaded guilty on this day in Glace Bay to seven charges under the Atomic Energy Control Act for providing faulty radiation devices known as a fixed gauge at the Phalen Colliery at Lingan in July, 1999. It was believed that 10 miners were exposed to excessive levels of radiation and did not have any indication that what they were handling was dangerous. The bowling-ball-sized device used a beam of radiation to identify possible obstructions in a coal chute. (Source: Nova Scotia History Index by Ivan Smith.)
7 March 1876 – It was on this day that Alexander Graham Bell was issued U.S. patent number 174,465, having invented; “…certain new and useful improvements in telegraphy, of which the following is a specification…” The patent was for the invention of what later become very familiar to all: the telephone! (Source: The U.S. Patent Office, Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 174,465, dated March 7, 1876; application filed February 14, 1876.)
8 March 1849 – Upon the arrival in Halifax of the Cunard Royal Mail steamship the RMS “America,” the second pony express service left Halifax for Victoria Beach at Digby Gut taking eight hours 27 minutes (three hours less than it was done before).
There were two pony express groups: one funded by a group of New York newspapers called the Associated Press. The other express had been started by a group of American businessmen managed by Mr. Barnaby in Halifax, which was the one that came in three hours faster on this date.
The first express was managed by an agent in Halifax who contracted with Hiram Hyde who also ran the provincial stage-coach service. Both express services were performed by two riders who changed at Kentville, with fresh horses provided every 19km (12 miles).
Once at Victoria Beach, the printed news from England and mail were put on a waiting steamboat to Saint John where the news would be telegraphed to New York 18 hours from the time it arrived in Halifax. The express rider and horse had to be ready at any hour, night or day, when a mail steamer arrived in Halifax, as the requisite stops for refreshing horses. However, when telegraph service finally arrived in Halifax nine months later on November 15, news from England and Europe would arrive in Boston and New York before the steamboat left the harbour, and the gallop of the pony express service was heard from no more.
Leo J. Deveau is an independent librarian, researcher, speaker and author of 400 Years in 365 Days – A Day by Day Calendar of Nova Scotia History (2017). His most recent book is Fideliter The Regimental History of The Princess Louise Fusiliers (2020). He can be reached at 400years@formac.ca or at: www.400years.ca.
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