ABSTRACT
An association, be it political, industrial, commercial, or even literary or scientific, is an educated and powerful body of citizens which cannot be twisted to any man's will or quietly trodden down, and by defending its private interests against the encroachments of power, it saves the common liberties. In other words, associations provide localized and concrete protections against the centralization of power. Associations also have the effect of “refreshing the circulation of feelings and ideas among a great people” and fostering “the understanding developed only by the reciprocal action of men one upon another”. Like the “art of association,” the “art of congregation” is the process by which individuals come together as a community. The mutual feelings and sentiments that the “art of congregation” fostered among the French Canadians were just as important as their united wills.
