However, none of them succeeded in swaying the public opinion in Quebec. i Therefore, the Province of Quebec did not send any delegates to either Congress, nor did the habitants appeal to the proposition of mutiny.ii The likely causes of their indifferences were the cultural barriers. The habitants in Quebec regarded the forthcoming war as a "British family quarrel of no interest to them". Hence, they were not influenced by the appeal to the Rights of Englishmen guaranteed in Magna Carta, with which they had relatively little familiarity. Moreover, French-speaking residents were generally Catholics, for whom the protestant Continental Army had little respect due to the religious hostilities. iii Compared to the Thirteen Colonies, they would rather side with the British, who had treated them and their culture with courtesy since the Seven Years' War.iv Along with other three significant Anglo-French wars on the American continent between 1689 and 1763, the Seven Years' War, which had ended merely a decade ago, was a critical conflict that prompted the profound distrust and the antagonistic atmosphere between the former New France and the New England because the majority of garrison troops in America had been recruited from the local colonies. "Delenda est Canada", which meant "Canada must be destroyed", had become the rallying cry of New England throughout the conquest of Montreal in 1760.v When the Continental Army tried to enroll French-speaking residents in 1774, most Canadian veterans, having served with the French troops, could still clearly recall the decades of hostility. They concluded that the rebels, who had campaigned to conquer their territory, insulted the Catholic religion, and belittled their culture, should be kept outside of Quebec.vi Multiple cultural and historical disagreements had alienated the Province of Quebec, not to mention the fact that they had never really liked their southern neighbors under the pressure of commercial competitions.
