The Saint-Jean-Baptiste Society, which was founded in 1834, adopted the maple leaf as its emblem. The Society was established to stimulate a nationalist spirit among French-Canadians and to encourage them to defend their linguistic and cultural heritage. The maple leaf symbolized the destiny of French-Canadians. As one speaker said:
ΓÇ£This tree which grows in our forests, on our rocks, at first young and beaten by the storm, pines away, painfully feeding itself from the earth which produced it; but soon it springs up, tall and strong, and faces the tempest and triumphs over the wind. The maple, it is the king of the forest. It is the emblem of the Canadian people.ΓÇ¥
