CiassfjJL^^aL. Book_^i-l^k^ 1* Digitized by tine Internet Arciiive in 2010 witin funding from Tine Library of Congress Iittp://www.arcliive.org/details/canadianconfeder01hamm CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS CANADIAN CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS M^b. HAMMOND WITH PORTRAITS '* Confederation has put a soul Into the Dominion, has put a national spirit into the people of Canada 'whose lustre and growth are at once the hope and glory of the British Empire." —EARL GREY at OTTAWA, 1909. NEW YORK GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY THE FATHERS OF CONFEDERATION H. Palmer Hewitt Barnard, (Secv.) W. A. Henry Charles Fisher George Coles W. H. Sleeves John Hamilton Grav MEMBERSI OF THE QUEBEC CONFERENXE, OCTOBER, 186i From the Painting by Robert Harris F. B. T. Carter Ambrose Shea E. B. Chandler J. C. Chapais R. B. Dickey John A. Macdonald p^fg^ Mitchell W, H. Pope J. M. Johnson Adams G. Archibald George Etienne Cartier Thomas H. Haviland J. H. Gray A. A. Macdonald Etienne Paschal Tach^ Alexander T. Gait J. Cockburn William McDougall J. McCully Edward Whalen Samuel Leonard Tillev Alexander Campbell Hector L. Langevin George Brown Oliver Mowat Thomas D'Arcy McGee Charles Tupper copyright, canada, 1917 By McClelland, goodchild & stewart TORONTO -^ys^s^ /^ ^ N ,% ^ X CONTENTS Members of the Quebec Conference, 1864. Frontispiece Preface vii The Fathers of Confederation ix Before Confederation 5 Upper Canada — Sir John A. Macdonald 17 . George Brown 45 Sir Oliver Mowat 67 William McDougall 83 John Sandfield Macdonald 97 Lower Canada — Sir George E. Cartier 113 Sir Alexander T. Gait 133 Thomas D'Arcy McGee 151 Sir Antoine A. Dorion 165 Christopher Dunkin 179 New Brunswick — Sir Samuel Leonard Tilley 193 Peter Mitchell 213 Sir Albert J. Smith 227 Nova Scotia — Sir Charles Tupper 243 Joseph Howe 265 William Annand 285 Prince Edward Island — David Laird 297 Rounding Out Confederation 313 Bibliography 321 Index 323 v PREFACE ri^HE Dominion of Canada is no longer an experi- -*- ment. The union now so prosperous and solidified was adopted in the face of much opposition, and vrith- out directly consulting the people except in New Brunswick. For many years the lack of progress under the new constitution was accompanied by doubt and resentment. Conditions have changed and the party strife of that era has passed with the death of the last of the Fathers of Confederation. It seems timely, therefore, to examine the part played by the leaders of that day in the various provinces in bringing about the union. In this volume an attempt is made to pre- sent this service in proper perspective. Most of the men described were favorable to union, others were opposed and fought it until the final decision. An arbitrary selection for such a series may be open to criticism, but it will be found that each of those sketched in the following pages was an important factor and leader of opinion. The writer is under obligation to the contents of many existing volumes of history and biography, to official reports and documents, to surviving contempo- raries of the Confederation leaders, and to a host of vii CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS friends who have aided with counsel and material at their disposal. Among the latter special gratitude is due to Hon. W. S. Fielding, Mr. Duncan Campbell Scott, Senator L. G. Power, Mr. E. J. Hathaway, Mr. William Houston, Mr. John Lewis, Mr. John Boyd, Mr. C. W. Young, Mr. Reuben Macdonald, Mr. A. F. Macdonald, Mr. C. W. Jefferys, Miss Katherine Hughes, Hon. Andrew Broder, and to the staff of the Toronto Reference Library. M. O. H. Toronto, May, 1917. Vlll THE FATHERS OF CONFEDERATION Delegates to the Quebec Conference, October, 1864. From Canada: Sir Etienne P. Tache, (1795-1865), Premier, Receiver-Gen- eral and Minister of Militia. John A. Macdonald, (1815-1891), Attorney-General for Upper Canada. George E. Cartier, (1814-1873), Attorney-General for Lower Canada. George Brown, (1818-1880), President of the Executive Council. Oliver Mowat, (1820-1903), Postmaster-General. Alexander T. Gait, (1817-1893), Minister of Finance. William McDougall, (1822-1905), Provincial Secretary. T. D'Arcy McGee, (1825-1868), Minister of Agriculture. Alexander Campbell, (1821-1892), Commissioner of Crown Lands. J. C. Chapais, (1812-1885), Commissioner of Public Works. Hector L. Langevin, (1826-1906), Solicitor-General for Lower Canada. James Cockburn, (1819-1883), Solicitor-General for Upper Canada. From Nova Scotia: Charles Tupper, (1821-1915), Premier and Provincial Sec- retary. William A. Henry, (1816-1888), Attorney-General. R. B. Dickey, (1811-1903), Member of the Legislative Council. Jonathan McCully, (1809-1877), Member of the Legislative Council. Adams G. Archibald, (1814-1892), Member of the Legisla- tive Assembly. jx CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS From New Brunswick: Samuel Leonard Tilley, (1818-1896), Premier and Provin- cial Secretary. William H, Steeves, (1814-1873), Minister without port- folio. J. M. Johnson, (1818-1868), Attorney-General. Peter Mitchell, (1824-1899), Minister without portfolio. E. B. Chandler, (1800-1880), Member of the Legislative Council. John Hamilton Gray, (1814-1889), Member of the Legis- lative Assembly. Charles Fisher, (1808-1880), Member of the Legislative Assembly. From Prince Edward Island: Colonel John Hamilton Gray, (1812-1887), President of the Council. Edward Palmer, (1809-1899), Attorney-General. William H. Pope, (1825-1879), Colonial Secretary. A. A. Macdonald, (1829-1912), Member of the Legislative Council. George Coles, (1810-1875), Member of the Legislative Assembly. T. Heath Haviland, (1822-1895), Member of the Legislative Assembly. Edward Whelan, (1824-1867), Member of the Legislative Assembly. From Newfoundland: F. B. T. Carter, (1819-1900), Speaker of the Legislative Assembly. Ambrose Shea, (1818-1905). CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS BEFORE CONFEDERATION BEFORE CONFEDERATION FIFTY years ago the Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia united as the Dominion of Canada under a federal system. Their acquaintance was slight, there were many in- congruous elements and there were protesting voices that could not soon be stilled. In joining for greater strength and security some local powers were naturally surrendered, and during the years of experiment critics were numerous and unsparing. A half century of Confederation has witnessed ex- pansion from ocean to ocean, and the foundations arc laid for a great commonwealth. The wisdom of the Fathers has been vindicated, an era has been closed by participation in a world war, and the future is faced with increasing confidence. Some voices call for fur- ther constitutional change, bringing the Imperial fami- ly closer together, while others ask only the continu- ance of the present freedom and healthy development. Looking over the brief cycle of the Dominion's history, courage seems to have been its watchword. It required courage to unite provinces distant and dis- similar, and to face the many differences which beset them. The same courage bridged the waste places with railways, carried canals over the resisting hills and opened new frontiers with a fresh summons to the world's pioneers. These measures followed naturally the leadership 5 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS of the builders of Confederation. These were the cream of the statesmen of their day. Both parties gave of their best. Each man was in his prime and an ex- perienced public servant. During the 'forties the Im- perial Government loosed the irritating colonial strings and allowed the embryo nations to settle their own pro- blems. Responsible government, which followed, soon bred a school of public men whose expanding vision naturally craved a union. When party government came to a standstill in the early 'sixties, decisive action was finally quickened by the entanglements of the American civil war. Canada's evolution to Confederation had been gradual. From Champlain's founding of Quebec in 1608 to the end of the French regime in 1763, Royal Governors, black-robed missionaries and adventurous fur-traders had given color, if not population, to the backward colony. Lord Dorchester was not long in charge of the ill-assorted races before he fathered the Quebec Act in 1774, authorizing a Council "to make ordinances for the peace, welfare and good govern- ment of the said Province." While it was declared to be "inexpedient" to give an Assembly, the right to the free exercise of their religion was guaranteed to the French-Canadians. Thus started towards self-government, the French reciprocated by staunch support of British rule despite the appeals of the revolting American colonies. The Revolution had another effect — in fact, the course of Canada was continually influenced by her neighbor. At the close of the war thousands of Loyalist refugees 6 BEFORE CONFEDERATION from the Atlantic States settled in the British colonies. Upper Canada thus began by a settlement at Kingston, while the migration to the St. John Valley cradled New Brunswick, which was detached from Nova Scotia in 1784. The growth of Canada resulted in the Consti- tutional Act of 1791, which, under Lord Dorchester's guidance, divided Quebec into Upper and Lower Can- ada, each with a Legislative Council and a Legislative Assembly. The Upper Province expanded under im- migration from the British Isles, and Governor Simcoe laid foundations for years to come. Canada became involved in the Napoleonic wars through the anger of the United States over the search of neutral vessels by British warships, and in 1812 the Republic declared war with all the hatred of a quarrel between blood relations. The war was inconclusive, but it determined once for all Canada's adherence to the British flag, and has ever formed a glorious memory by her heroic defence of her own soil. Inspiring though the memories were, Canada soon had internal troubles, which only ended when her con- stitution was remade. Immigration had poured in, public works kept pace with development, and settle- ment swept ever westward through the "Queen's Bush." But the Executive in both Provinces became less and less representative of public opinion. Finally, the dis- content crystallized under two leaders, Louis J. Papi- ncau in Lower Canada and William Lyon Mackenzie in Upper Canada, each representing the radical senti- ment of his Province. The "Family Compact" was denounced bitterly and the inevitable clash came. The 7 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS Rebellion of 1837 was short-lived. That it took that form was not the wish of many, even of the insurgents, but it served its purpose. Lord Durham, an advanced English radical, was sent as a special commissioner. At first he favored a federation of all the British North American colonies, but this was opposed by the Mari- time Provinces. Eventually, in a report which forms one of Canada's great charters, he recommended Re- sponsible Government, — that is, government by an Ex- ecutive in sympathy with the majority of the Legisla- ture, — together with the union of the two Canadas. The latter was passed by the British Parliament and became effective in 1841 ; but Responsible Government was not finally won until the electoral victory of Robert Bald- win and L. H. Lafontaine in 1847. The idea of a united British North America was an old one, but it did not become a practical question until the 'fifties of last century. It recurred in a far- off, academic way through the years following the American Revolution. Federation was urged in 1791 by Chief Justice William Smith, a Loyalist from New York, who suggested definite clauses for the Constitu- tional Act to avert another secession from the Empire. Lord Dorchester, his Governor, forwarded the idea to London, but almost eighty years passed before feder- ation was adopted. Soon after the union of the two Canadas in 1841 George Brown voiced Upper Canada's unrest at the sta- tionary representation of that Province in the face of its surpassing growth. He campaigned vigorously in The Globe and on the platform for Representation by Pop- 8 BEFORE CONFEDERATION ulation and prepared Upper Canada for constitutional change, whatever form it might take. In 1858 Alex- ander T. Gait, one of Lower Canada's ablest states- men, gave union a place in politics by advocacy in Par- liament, and a few months later carried it as a policy into the Cartier-Macdonald Cabinet. Meantime the seed of union was taking root in the Maritime Provinces. In 1854 Premier J. W. John- stone carried a resolution in the Nova Scotia Legisla- ture declaring: "That a union or confederation of the British Pro- vinces on just principles, while calculated to perpetuate their connection with the parent State, will promote their advancement and prosperity, increase their strength and influence, and elevate their position." Dr. Charles Tupper, a rapidly rising force in Nova Scotia politics, lectured in favor of federation in 1861, and at St. John, Samuel Leonard Tilley, after- wards a union leader in New Brunswick, was an ap- proving listener. The era of railways and canals had dawned, and with a scientific renaissance came a poli- tical awakening. The American Civil War was burn- ing at the doors of the British provinces, and with the ill-feeling engendered, threatened trouble at any time. Internal disputes joined with external dangers, and after the preliminary conferences had been held, the Fenians on the border helped to force the issue in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. Tupper and Nova Scotia led in calling the confer- ence at Charlottetown in September, 1864, which open- ed the way to Confederation. It was primarily to dis- 9 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS cuss a local union for Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island, but Canada, also eager for constitutional change, sent delegates, who secured a hearing for a larger union. The Conference at Quebec in the following month adopted seventy-two resolu- tions, which formed the basis of the British North America Act of 1867. It was attended by delegates from the Canadas, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland. Opposition to the Quebec scheme speedily de- veloped in Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island. Early in 1865 the Legislature of Newfoundland voted to defer action until after the next general election, the colony then being under the spell of a trade boom from reciprocity with the United States. The union scheme was never ratified, and although efforts were made again in 1868 and in 1893 to reach an agreement, the Island remains to this day outside Confederation. Prince Edward Island soon repudiated the action of its delegates to the Quebec Conference and resisted all efforts for union until 1873. By the British North America Act, passed by the British Parliament, the new constitution for the Dominion of Canada was "similar in principle to that of the United Kingdom." In fact the name "King- dom of Canada" was urged by John A. Macdonald during the framing of the bill, but subsequently aban- doned. It provided for a federal system, with a general government over all and a legislature for each pro- vince. The general government has power over trade and commerce, military and naval services and defences, 10 BEFORE CONFEDERATION banking and other matters of a national character, while the provinces control education, municipal and merely local affairs. The eastern provinces gained an objective in provision for an Intercolonial Railway from the St. Lawrence River to Halifax, while the Canadas solved their deadlock by the establishment of local legislatures. Further clauses provided for the admission of other parts of British North America. The struggle for Confederation covered years and called forth the best talent of the leaders of the pro- vinces. Their individual services in this peaceful though momentous evolution are to be told in the suc- ceeding pages. 11 UPPER CANADA SIR JOHN A. MACDONALD GEORGE BROWN SIR OLIVER MOWAT WILLIAM McDOUGALL JOHN SANDFIELD MACDONALD SIR JOHN A. MACDONALD SIR JOHN A. MACDONALD SIR JOHN A. MACDONALD (1815-1891) MANY men brought precious gifts for the minting of Confederation; John A. Macdonald brought the supreme gift of leadership. George Brown had paved the way in Upper Canada by years of agitation. George Etienne Cartier, with undaunted courage, over- came the racial opposition in Lower Canada. Samuel Leonard Tilley persisted until New Brunswick's dis- trust and suspicion melted away. Charles Tupper battered down Nova Scotia's hostility, and broke Joseph Howe, the idol of the Province. Each in his role was indispensable, but no other alone could have united the strong men of the scattered colonies. That was the peculiar task allotted by destiny to Macdon- ald. Brown suspended the political and personal hatreds of a lifetime to become Macdonald's ally. Cartier, champion of the French-Canadians, who still imagined the slights of a conquered race, rallied to the rival Upper Canadian. Tilley and Tupper were Mac- donald's friends from the first, and, inspired by him, fought the union cause to victory in their own Pro- vinces. With the exception of Brown the alliance between these four local leaders was enduring. The coalition formed and the foundations for union laid, he left the Cabinet on slight pretext, and the old relations of antagonism were resumed. Macdonald was richly dowered by nature for duties of leadership. He possessed that rare and in- 17 2 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS describable quality called personal magnetism, which attracted men even though political opponents. He had an insinuating voice and manner which command- ed affection, down through the decades from his entry into law until, as an old man, his name was surrounded by a party halo. In one of his first cases in a law court the argument became so hot that he got into a fight with the rival counsel. The court constable, who was an admirer, shouted the message of his duty, "Order in the court," but under his breath encouraged his friend with the words, "Hit him, John." And so throughout his life he took and gave many hard blows in politics, but compelled a personal following even within the opposing party. He was not a man of elo- quence, but he had a ready flow of aggressive argu- ment, and rarely failed to unite and stimulate his party. In a debate in the House he often turned his back on the Speaker to directly address his followers, and the appeal was so personal that when the division bells rang "John A." was secure against all assaults. He had an uncanny memory for names and details of family history, which bound even a casual acquaintance to him for all time. Laying aside, therefore, for the moment, Mac- donald's vision and statesmanship, his human qualities gave him a permanent ascendancy. In his day, when the country was smaller and contact with the people more intimate, this was important. Wherever he went he was followed by a crowd who unblushingly address- ed him as "John A." They flocked to his railway coach, they hung about his carriage, and they invaded 18 SIR JOHN A. MACDONALD his hotel rooms. This could not happen to any of his great contemporaries. Edward Blake, despite his great parli-amentary ability and his all-encompassing brain, was beside him a cold and austere figure. Alexander Mackenzie inspired confidence by his industry, his integrity and his platform gifts, but he had few social graces. Oliver Mowat was a faithful, honest public servant, who lived, comparatively, behind closed doors. George E. Cartier was a highstrung executive, with few moments of relaxation. Samuel Leonard Tilley, genial and straightforward, was encased in respectabil- ity. Charles Tupper was a bulldog for a hard, unpleas- ant party job, with a face and manner set for his task. John A. Macdonald lived almost his whole life in the country whose greatness owed much to his vision and statecraft. He was born in Glasgow, Scotland, on January 11, 1815. His father, Hugh Macdonald, was a manufacturer in a small way. Being somewhat un- successful, the family moved to the new world in 1 820, settling at Kingston, then the largest town in Upper Canada. It had a population of 2,500 and was adjacent to the Loyalist settlements lining the Bay of Quinte. A stage coach then ran to York (Toronto), which had still another rival in the then busy town of Niagara. Hugh Macdonald lived until 1841, and during his re- maining years settled at various points, including Adolphustown and Stone Mills, returning again to Kingston. His peripatetic habits gave the son glimpses of Canadian life in various beautiful settings, in an en- vironment breathing intense loyalty to the Sovereign. 19 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS It also bred self-reliance in a boy who had only five years in the Kingston Grammar School as a normal edu- cation before he set out in the world for himself and for the assistance of his mother and sister. His subsequent achievements were striking evidence of his natural abil- ity, his observation and experience. The lanky form of Macdonald thus bore more than one point of resem- blance to the rail splitter Lincoln of Illinois. "He was the biggest boy in school. I remember how hard he worked in those days," said Sir Oliver Mowat in recall- ing their school-days in Kingston. Young Macdonald began his legal studies at the age of 15 in the office of George Mackenzie of Kingston. By 1836 he was called to the Bar and opened an office of his own. The youth joined the militia during the Rebellion of 1837, and for some years later was a sym- pathizer with the Tory "Family Compact" party rather than with the agitators for constitutional change. He entered public life as an alderman in Kingston in 1843, and the following year was elected to the Assembly. It is a curious coincidence that at his first election he declared his "firm belief that the prosperity of Canada depends upon its permanent connection with the mother country," and that in his last campaign, in 1891, he gave his party the rallying cry, "A British subject I was born — a British subject I will die." It was not long before he became prominent in his party, and in March, 1847, he accepted the invitation of Prime Minister W. H. Draper to enter the Cabinet, but went out of office a few months later on the defeat of the Government. He joined in the fight in 1849 20 SIR JOHN A. MACDONALD against the Rebellion Losses Bill, which so roused Montreal that the Parliament Buildings were burned and Lord Elgin insulted by the angry mob. The mani- festo praying for annexation to the United States fol- lowed, but Macdonald refused to be stampeded into signing it. The Baldwin-Lafontaine Government, which had inaugurated responsible government, was nearing its end and retired in 1851. The Hincks- Morin Government ruled until 1854, when a coalition was formed which, largely through Macdonald's influ- ence, agreed to abolish seigniorial tenure in Lower Canada and to secularize the clergy reserves in Upper Canada, two reforms which had been sought by pro- gressive men for many years. By the next year Mac- donald and George E. Cartier were the real if not the nominal rulers, and their power lasted with few breaks until 1873. Other men, like Sir Allan MacNab and Sir E. P. Tache, held the Premiership for intervals, but Macdonald and Cartier were the master minds. Now began in earnest the long fight between Mac- donald and Brown, which in a measure hastened Con- federation, and yet which had to end in a truce before Confederation was possible. Macdonald and Cartier were in a hard-and-fast alliance, and the former would do nothing to offend Lower Canada. Brown, on the other hand, conducted a bitter campaign against the Lower Province and agitated for increased representa- tion for Upper Canada, whose growth was outstripping the other. Macdonald then, as ever after, upheld the French and the Roman Catholics, depending on other means for Protestant support. 21 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS On E. P. Tache's retirement in 1857 Macdonald became Premier, and in the ensuing election the Re- formers, led by Brown, advocated non-sectarian schools and representation by population. A defeat on a mo- tion opposing Ottawa as the permanent capital led the Government to resign, but after two days in office their successors, the Brown-Dorion Cabinet, also resigned and the readjusted Cartier-Macdonald Government took the reins. The country was now approaching its worst state of political backwater. There was neither safe major- ity nor stability for either party. Added to party warfare were inter-provincial and racial jealousies. Brown was insistent in his demand for the rights of Upper Canada, in view of her more rapidly growing population, and Cartier as strongly insisted on the bond of equal representation as laid down in the Union Act. The United Provinces drifted rapidly towards chaos and deadlock. In three years prior to the coalition of 1864 four Cabinets resigned and there were two general elections. Administrations held office as by a thread; partisanship and personali- ties clouded reason and prevented progress. In turn, the Cartier-Macdonald, the Sandfield Macdonald- Sicotte, the Sandfield Macdonald-Dorion and the Tache-Macdonald Cabinets were formed and went under. Though Canada was torn by party strife and the Maritime Provinces were looking for relief by a union of their own, events were shaping for a larger end than most men considered possible. George Brown's 22 SIR JOHN A. MACDONALD special committee reported on June 14, 1864, that "a strong feeling was found to exist among the members of the committee in favor of changes in the direction of a federative system, applying either to Canada alone or to the whole of the British North American pro- vinces." The events of this and succeeding days reflect the chaotic and changing state of the times. John A. Macdonald opposed the report submitted by Brown's committee, though in 1861 he had given it as his opin- ion that in "a union of all the British North American provinces would be found the remedy for the evils of which Mr. Brown and his friends from Upper Canada complained."* Before the end of June, 1864, Macdon- ald was fighting in the coalition negotiations for the larger union and Brown was striving to confine the scheme to the two Canadas. The Tache-Macdonald Cabinet was defeated on June 14, and on all sides it was recognized that dead- lock had come and only a daring course could save the situation. On the following morning George Brown spoke to several supporters of the administra- tion, "urging that the present crisis should be utilized in settling forever the constitutional difficulties between Upper and Lower Canada and assuring them that he was prepared to co-operate with the existing or any other administration that would deal with the question promptly and firmly." Alexander Morris and J. H. Pope carried the message to Macdonald and Gait, and on Thursday *Sir John A. Macdonald: A Memoir, by Joseph Pope, (London: Edward Arnold), Vol. I, P. 260. 23 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS afternoon the House had the spectacle, before the Speaker took the chair, of the two bitter rivals, Brown and Macdonald, in the centre of the room in earnest converse. Negotiations continued for several days, re- sulting in an agreement to form a coalition, to include three Upper Canada Reformers, one of whom must be Brown himself, as a guarantee for the adhesion of his friends. Brown's view during the negotiations was that union of all the Provinces "ought to come and would come about ere long; but it had yet to be thoroughly considered by the people, and even were this otherwise there were so many parties to be consulted that its adop- tion was uncertain and remote." Macdonald and Brown threw themselves with vigor into the work of the new alliance. News of a conference at Charlottetown,* at which Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island were to consider a Maritime Union, reached Quebec, and an order in Council was passed on August 29 permitting participation in that meeting, and after a telegram had been sent a party of eight Canadian Ministers left by the government steamer Queen Victoria for the Island capital. Looking at it now, this course of action appears exceedingly daring, but the Charlottetown *The delegates to the Charlottetown Conference were: — From Nova Scotia: Charles Tupper, William A. Henry, Robert B. Dickey, Jonathan McCully, Adams G. Archibald. From New Brunswick: Samuel Leonard Tilley, John M. Johnson, John Hamilton Gray, Edward B. Chandler, W. H. Steeves. From Prince Edward Island: Col. John Hamilton Gray, Edward Palmer, W. H. Pope, George Coles, A. A. Mac- donald. From Canada: George Brown, John A. Macdonald, Alexander T. Gait, George E. Cartier, Hector L. Langevin, William McDougall, T. D'Arcy McGee and Alexander Campbell. 24 SIR JOHN A. MACDONALD conferees graciously suspended action until the Can- adian party arrived, when they opened their doors to hear the visitors' views. There is a touch of irony about the Charlottetown Conference. It was called by the three Maritime Pro- vinces to consider a union of their own. Canada sent its delegates on chance and uninvited, as Sir John Macdonald afterwards said. They were captains adventurous, sailing uncharted political seas in search of a new Canada. The meeting was held in the capi- tal of the Province that was first to withdraw from the scheme after the Quebec Conference. But on the sur- face all was smooth sailing. Governor George Dundas of the Island welcomed the visitors, the meetings were held in the Provincial Building, which still stands, and, according to a chronicler of the day, "the delegates enjoyed the hospitalities of the town." The meetings were of the most secret character, and no one outside had the least comprehension of the far-reaching nego- tiations that were proceeding. Mr. Gait and other Canadians made such a favorable impression on the easterners that a Maritime Union was declared imprac- ticable, and it was decided to continue the deliberations at Quebec in October. Speeches made en route at Halifax, St. John and other points lifted the veil some- what, and in a few weeks the movement was widely known, though its details were as yet carefully guarded. At a banquet at Charlottetown Col. John Ham- ilton Gray, Premier of the Island and Chairman of the Conference, said he "sincerely and profoundly be- lieved that this visit would be productive of much good 25 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS and serve as a happy harbinger of such a union of sen- timent and interests among the three and a half millions of free men who now inhabit British America as neither time or change can forever destroy." This felicitous sentiment brought suitable response from John A. Macdonald, who thought the conven- tion would lead to the formation and establishment of a union which would enhance materially the indi- vidual and collective prosperity of the Provinces, and give them national prowess and strength which would make them "at least the fourth nation on the face of the globe." It appears from the above, and from Macdonald's speech at Halifax a few days later, that his views and his optimism for the union were rapidly evolving and developing. At the Halifax banquet on September 12 he said: "The question of colonial union is one of such magnitude that it dwarfs every other question on this portion of the continent. It absorbs every idea as far as I am concerned. For twenty long years I have been dragging myself through the dreary waste of colonial politics. I thought there was no end, nothing worthy of ambition, but now I see something which is well worthy of all I have suffered in the cause of my little country. This question has now assumed a posi- tion that demands and commands the attention of all the colonies of British America. There may be ob- structions, local prejudices may arise, disputes may occur, local jealousies may intervene, but it matters not — the wheel is now revolving and we are only the 26 SIR JOHN A. MACDONALD fly on the wheel ; we cannot delay it — the union of the colonies of British America under the Sovereign is a fixed fact." Macdonald pointed to the gallant defence then being made by the Southern republic of four millions, and declared that perhaps in ten years a united Canada would have eight millions, able to defend their country against all comers. Already he appealed for a strong central government for the new union and declared : "Then we shall have a great step in advance of the American Republic. It can only attain that object — a vigorous general government — we shall not have New Brunswickers, nor Nova Scotians, nor Canadians, but British Americans under the sway of the British Sover- eign. ... I hope that we will be enabled to work out a constitution that will have a strong central govern- ment, able to offer a powerful resistance to any foe whatever, and at the same time will preserve for each Province its own identity, and will protect every local ambition." After sowing the seed of union — but, alas, in stony ground at that time — in Nova Scotia and New Bruns- wick, the delegates, proceeding leisurely, made their way up the majestic St. Lawrence, whose autumn-tint- ed shores were a continuous stimulant for the avid tra- vellers, to Quebec, then the capital of United Canada. The occasion and setting of the Quebec Conference were worthy of the event. The cradle of New France, where Champlain had set up the first white man's habitation, in 1608, in what is now Canada, became the 27 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS base of the great Dominion. The Conference met in the Parliament Building near the Grand Battery, over- looking the St. Lawrence and the Beauport shore, the scene of the first settlements of a great Dominion. The guardian citadel towered above, and a little beyond lay the plains of Abraham where Wolfe wrested an empire from the declining France of that day. On the site of the Parliament Building once stood the Bishop's Palace, the home of Bishop Laval, and in its chapel met the first Parliament of Canada in 1792, called by Lord Dorchester after the passage of the Con- stitutional Act. There still lives in Quebec Mr. P. B. Casgrain, aged 90, who in his youth danced with a chaperone who as a debutante had danced with Lord Dorchester at the opening ball in the old building. Thus two lives have spanned and touched 125 fruitful years of Canadian history. It fell to the veteran Premier of Canada, Sir E. P. Tache, to preside over the Quebec Conference, which opened on October 10. Sir Etienne was a respected and experienced statesman, but he was now 69 years old and was past his prime as a political force. His selection was a compliment to his race, not without sig- nificance. John A. Macdonald was a vital influence in shaping the proceedings. He was now almost SO years old, and at the height of his powers. He knew when to "take occasion by the hand," and had thrown all his ardor into the cause of union. He had quietly made friends with the Maritime leaders, a circum- stance of much value later on. Macdonald moved, on the second day, the main 28 SIR JOHN A. MACDONALD affirmative resolution of the Conference, which was seconded by Tilley. This was to the effect that ''the best interests and present and future prosperity of Bri- tish North America will be promoted by a federal union under the Crown of Great Britain, provided such union can be effected on principles just to the several Pro- vinces." Speaking to this motion Macdonald said the time for union had arrived, and if the opportunity were let slip the scheme might be abandoned in despair. "Can- ada," he said, as reported in Pope's Memoir, "cannot remain as she is at present, and if we come to no de- cision here, we Canadians must address ourselves to the alternative and reconstruct our government. Once driven to that, it will be too late for a general federa- tion. We cannot, having brought our people to accept a Canadian federation, propose to them the question of a larger union." He remarked that in England feder- ation would be considered as showing a desire for in- dependence, and maintained that the colonial question had never been fairly represented to the people of England. "If organized as a confederacy, our increased importance would soon become manifest," he went on. "Our present isolated and defenceless position is no doubt a serious embarrassment to England. If it were not for the weakness of Canada, Great Britain might have joined France in acknowledging the Southern Confederacy. We must therefore become important, not only to England but in the eyes of foreign states, and especially of the United States, 29 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS who have found it impossible to conquer four millions of Southern whites. Our united population would reach that number. For the sake of securing peace to ourselves and our posterity, we must make ourselves powerful. The great security for peace is to convince the world of our strength by being united." Macdonald then laid down his beliefs in centrali- zation of power, a principle which brought him into conflict with Oliver Mowat later on. "In framing the constitution," he said, "care should be taken to avoid the mistakes and weaknesses of the United States sys- tem, the primary error of which was the reservation to the different states of all powers not delegated to the general government. We must reserve this process by establishing a strong central government to which shall belong all powers not specially conferred on the provinces. Canada, in my opinion, is better off as she stands than she would be as a member of a confederacy composed of five sovereign states, which would be the result if the powers of the local governments were not defined. A strong central government is indispensable to the success of the experiment we are trying. Under it we shall be able to work out a system having for its basis constitutional liberty as opposed to democratic license." With the spectacle of a rent and bleeding republic before them, with the possible menace of its vast mili- tary machine, once released from its deadly duties, the Conference proceeded rapidly to an agreement on the essentials of union. John A. Macdonald's view pre- vailed in regard to reserving the unallotted powers to 30 SIR JOHN A. MACDONALD the central government. An overwhelming majority favored a nominative Upper House, while provision was made for the admission of the great unknown Northwest Territories and British Columbia "on such terms as might be deemed equitable or agreed upon when they were admitted or applied for admission into the contemplated union." The financial question caused much vexation, be- cause the systems in Canada and the Maritime Pro- vinces differed so widely. The former had local gov- ernment and local taxation, while in the latter there was no such thing and the Provincial Government was the source of all public wealth and benefactions. When the effort to reach an agreement was all but abandoned a sub-committee of Finance Ministers reached a basis upon which all subsequently came together, resulting in the federal subsidy to the provinces according to population. The memorable Quebec Conference closed on October 28, and the delegates travelled in a body to Montreal, Ottawa, Kingston, Toronto, Niagara Falls and intervening points, shedding light as they went, encouraging support in the west but causing misgivings in the east. The Conference had been purely unofficial, and the delegates from each province returned to se- cure endorsation of the proposals. Canada's Ministers faced Parliament early in 1865 and the stage was set for the greatest debate in the his- tory of the country. Appreciating its importance, the Government arranged for a full report of it, which fortunately is available to posterity in a volume of up- 31 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS wards of 1,000 pages. Parliament opened in old Que- bec on January 19, and early in February the Quebec resolutions were up for debate. Sir E. P. Tache moved them in the Legislative Council and John A. Macdon- ald in the Assembly. Attorney-General Macdonald's speech was an exposition of the scheme in general terms; more detailed figures and arguments were left for succeeding speakers. Macdonald was able to say that the Quebec resolutions had met with general, if not universal, approbation in Canada. The subject was not a new one, he declared, but had attracted attention of statesmen and politicians for years. It had first been pressed on the attention of the Legislature by Mr. Gait some years before in an elaborate speech, but had not been taken up by any party as a branch of its policy until the formation of the Cartier-Macdonald Govern- ment a few months later in 1858. The deadlock in the United Provinces had reached its climax the previous year (1864), with "a danger of impending anarchy," and a succession of governments, weak in numbers, in force and in power of doing good. The coalition gov- ernment was formed, though the gentlemen composing it had been for many years engaged in political hostil- ities to such an extent that it affected their social rela- tions. But the crisis was great, the danger imminent, and they laid aside their personal feelings to reach a conclusion satisfactory to the country in general. "The very mention of the scheme," said Mr. Mac- donald, whose speech was marked by plain reasoning and devoid of eloquence in the accepted sense of the word, "is fitted to bring with it its own approbation. 32 SIR JOHN A. MACDONALD Supposing that in the spring of the year 1865 half a million people were coming from the United Kingdom to make Canada their home, although they brought only their strong arms and willing hearts ; though they brought neither skill nor experience nor wealth, would we not receive them with open arms and hail their pre- sence in Canada as an important addition to our strength? But when by the proposed union we not only get nearly a million of people to join us — when they contribute not only their numbers, their physical strength and their desire to benefit their position, but when we know that they consist of old-established com- munities having a large amount of realized wealth — composed of people possessed of skill, education, and experience in the ways of the new world — people who are as much Canadians, I may say, as we are — people who are imbued with the same feeling of loyalty to the Queen and the same desire for the continuance of the connection with the mother country as we are, and at the same time have a like feeling of ardent attach- ment for this, our common country, for which they and we would alike fight and shed our blood if neces- sary. When all this is considered, argument is needless to prove the advantage of such a union." Mr. Macdonald explained the main features of the proposed constitution, the differences of opinion that arose, and towards the end of his speech made this prophetic utterance: "The colonies are now in a transition state. Gra- dually a different colonial system is being developed, and it will become year by year less a case of depend- 33 3 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS ence on our part and of overruling protection on the part of the mother country, and more a case of healthy and gradual alliance. Instead of looking upon us as a small dependent colony, England will have in us a friendly nation — a subordinate but still a powerful people — to stand by her in North America in peace or in war." The debate was rudely interrupted a month later by the news that the pro-Confederation Government in New Brunswick had been defeated, thus giving the scheme a decided set-back at the outset. Macdonald took a bold stand and declared to the Canadian House that the Government, "instead of thinking it a reason for altering their course, regard it as an additional reason for prompt and vigorous action." By March 11 the resolutions were adopted in the Assembly by 91 to 33 and in the Legislative Council by 45 to 15. For more than a year thereafter the union cause lay in the balance. Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island had definitely renounced the Quebec scheme for the time. The battle was yet to be won in New Bruns- wick and Nova Scotia, but by June, 1866, the former had voted "yes" and the latter was committed to at least further negotiation in London. Lord Monck, Governor-General of Canada, became impatient, and in a letter of admonition to Macdonald threatened to resign, but Macdonald somewhat tartly asked him "to leave something to my Canadian Parliamentary experi- ence." Progress was further delayed by the Fenian 34 SIR JOHN A. MACDONALD raid into Canada, and it was late autumn before the Canadian delegates left to join those from the Mari- time Provinces in London. The patience of the latter was sorely tried, for they had waited in England for several months. The British North America Act, founded on the Quebec resolutions, was framed by the delegates at a conference in London, lasting from De- cember 4 .to 24, at which, according to Lord Blatch- ford, Macdonald was "the ruling genius and spokes- man." The bill was passed as drafted by the Imper- ial Parliament, and received assent on March 29, 1867, becoming operative on July 1, following. During his stay in London Macdonald's second marriage took place, his bride being Miss Bernard, daughter of Hon. Thomas J. Bernard of the Jamaica Privy Council. Baroness Macdonald still (1917) survives. Macdonald's conspicuous part in the achievement of Confederation, as well as his experience and know- ledge of conditions, marked him as the natural choice for first Premier of the Dominion. He retained the coalition idea in his first Confederation Cabinet, though the diverse elements caused him no end of irritation. In the general elections that autumn he swept all the Provinces excepting Nova Scotia, which remained in a state of smouldering rebellion until the next election in 1872. An armistice was arranged in 1868 when Sir John Macdonald — who had been knighted at Confed- eration — undertook a delicate mission to Halifax, and with the offer of "better terms," moved Joseph Howe to his Cabinet and modified the discontent. 35 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS Peace in the East was followed by inevitable ex- pansion in the West. The rights of the Hudson's Bay Company over the Northwest Territory were pur- chased and the Province of Manitoba founded in 1870. British Columbia was equally necessary to give the Dominion a frontage on the Pacific, where a harassing boundary dispute was causing uneasiness. Terms, in- volving the construction of a railway from Canada to the coast, were agreed upon, and the Pacific Province entered the union in the summer of 1871. In the same year Macdonald took part in framing the Washington Treaty, for the settlement of disputes arising out of the Civil War, between Britain and Canada on the one hand and the United States on the other. The incident was an indication of the growing power of the Domin- ion in the councils of the Motherland. The coalition government which began in June, 1864, with such a noble object ended suddenly in De- cember, 1865, so far as George Brown was concerned, by his abrupt retirement. The ostensible cause was a difference of opinion as to the method of conducting the reciprocity negotiations with the United States. It was more likely the explosion of a condition, due to incompatibility. The two men were too headstrong to pull together in harness. Brown was not addicted to compromise and Macdonald was undoubtedly a jealous guardian of his own sway as leader. It is to the credit of both that the breach did not endanger Confedera- tion, to which Brown continued to give his loyal sup- port. But the pleasant relations were ended and the old enmitv was resumed. Years afterwards Macdon- 36 SIR JOHN A. MACDONALD aid described their attitude during and after coalition in the following words : "We acted together, dined at public places to- gether, played euchre in crossing the Atlantic, and went into society in England together; and yet on the day after he resigned we resumed our old positions and ceased to speak."* That Nemesis which pursues all governments and sooner or later brings them down overtook the Mac-, donald Government in 1873. Like a thunderbolt, one spring day, Lucius Seth Huntington, Liberal member for Shefiford, rose in Parliament and charged that the Government, in consideration of large sums of money supplied for election purposes, had corruptly granted to Sir Hugh Allan and his associates a charter for the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway. He asked for a committee of seven members to investigate, but the Government on a vote at once defeated this by 107 to 76. A few days later Macdonald carried a resolu- tion for a committee of five. This body, however, ow- ing to a technicality, never made an inquiry and was succeeded by a commission of three Judges. Mean- time the country was rent asunder by the charges of the Liberals and the denials of the Ministerialists. Party feeling was intense, but the accusers made head- way through the purloining and publication of some confidential documents. Macdonald's own name was freely connected with the negotiations with Allan, while Cartier's reputation suffered even more severely. *Sir John A. Macdonald : A Memoir, by Joseph Pope, Vol. I, P. 265. 37 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS It was plain that the Government was losing ground. Sir John, in a lengthy explanation to the Governor- General, the Earl of Dufferin, contended that two com- panies had wanted the charter, one in Ontario and one in Quebec, that the Government had told them it could only go to an amalgamated company, that notwithstand- ing this Sir Hugh Allan had subscribed to the party fund, although he could gain nothing thereby. Writing a cheery letter to Cartier, who was ill in England, a week after the charges were made, Sir John said: "The imprudence of Sir Hugh in this whole matter has amounted almost to insanity. His language has been as wild as his letters, and between you and me the examination must result greatly to his discredit." After the commission had closed its inquiry, Par- liament met on October 23 and immediately plunged into a bitter debate on the revelations. Sir John called his friends to speak in the defence, but the party's ranks were thinned by desertion, and disaster was seen to lie ahead. The Premier made a four-hour speech on the afternoon of November 3 and called to his aid the familiar human appeals which had never before failed to stifle discontent or rouse enthusiasm. "I throw myself upon this House, I throw myself upon this country, I throw myself upon posterity," he said, grandiosely; "and I believe and I know that notwithstanding the many failings in my life I shall have the voice of this country and this House rallying round me. And, sir, if I am mistaken in that, I can confidently appeal to a higher court — to the court of my conscience and to the court of posterity." 38 SIR JOHN A. MACDONALD It was the swan song of the Macdonald regime of that day. The forces of national indignation concen- trated in the succeeding speeches of Donald A. Smith and David Laird, and the Government resigned the next day. Alexander Mackenzie formed a Cabinet, and Sir John Macdonald packed up and moved to Toronto to practice law during his five years in Oppo- sition. By the elections which followed his defeat Macdonald was left with a party of only 45 in a House of 206 members. Defeated and crestfallen, people said Macdonald's day of power was over. But they did not know their man. He recovered his buoyancy, and his party pro- fited by external conditions. After several years of prosperity, a severe depression overtook the United States and Canada about 1873, a condition greatly to the disadvantage of whatever government might be in power. Alexander Mackenzie, as upright and zealous a Premier as ever served a country, was timid and devoid of the arts making for popularity. By 1876 Sir John Macdonald determined, after much pressure from Tupper and others of his own party, to adopt the "National Policy." This form of protection, which he presented in a resolution on March 10 of that year, called for increased protection for mining, manufac- turing and agricultural interests. During the succeed- ing two summers, with such lieutenants as Tupper and Tilley, he addressed a series of "political picnics." Aided by the hard times prevailing, the cause gained momentum and swept Macdonald back to power in September, 1878, where he remained until his death, 39 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS thirteen years later. His second term in office was marked by the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway, by the building of canals, and various public works, and by many items of general legislation of a constructive character. Sir John Macdonald was in harness to the very end. Early in 1891 Parliament was dissolved, and the party, though weakening under the burden of its lengthy record, passed successfully through another election aided by the magic of its leader. Sir John de- nounced what he termed the anti-British trend of the reciprocity policy of the Liberals, which had been adopted as a remedy for the wearisome trade depression which then existed. He was now an old and feeble man, whose asset was his record and his personality rather than any future work he might do. Opening his cam- paign at Toronto on February 17, he referred to him- self as "the aged leader, and perhaps the weak and inefficient leader (Cries of 'No,' 'No,'), but the honest and well-intentioned leader." He warned the people against the policy which if adopted "would lead to absorption into the United States," though his own Gov- ernment had sought a renewal of the reciprocity treaty — a more limited measure, it is true — in 1866. "I be- lieve," he said, "that this election, which is the great crisis on which so much depends, will show the Ameri- cans that we prize our country as much as they do, that we would fight for our existence as they would." Sir John won his last fight, but the lease of power given on March 5 was but a few weeks old when the 40 SIR JOHN A. MACDONALD country heard with a shock of his fatal illness. Though he was 76, his youthful spirits had seemed to suggest a draft at the mythical wells of Ponce de Leon. He was taken ill on May 22. For days the people of the Domin- ion waited and read the bulletins from Earnscliffe, the family residence by the banks of the Ottawa. When the end came on June 6, there was national mourning, and ^ memorable state funeral with burial at Kingston, amid the scenes of his youth in his adopted country. "I think it can be asserted," said Wilfrid Laurier, then Opposition leader, speaking in the House, "that for the supreme art of governing men Sir John Mac- donald was gifted as few men in any land or in any age were gifted — gifted with the highest of all qualities, qualities which would have made him famous wherever exercised, and which would have shown all the more conspicuously the larger the theatre." "From the grave of him who above all was the Father of Confederation," Laurier concluded, "let not grief be barren grief, but let grief be coupled with the resolution, the determination that the work in which the Liberals and Conservatives, in which Brown and Macdonald united, shall not perish, but that united, though Canada may be deprived of the services of her greatest men, yet Canada shall and will live." Lord Rosebery, a year later, unveiling a bust of Macdonald in St. Paul's Cathedral, said: "We know nothing of party politics in Canada on this occasion. We recognize only this, that Sir John Macdonald had grasped a central idea that the British Empire is the greatest secular agency for good 41 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS now known to mankind ; that was the secret of his suc- cess, and that he determined to die under it and strove that Canada should live under it." When "John A." died it was more than the loss of a statesman; it was the loss of a man as well. His very frailties, so freely admitted by himself, endeared him to many. His reply to an attack for intemperance was that he was sure his audience "would any day pre- fer John A. drunk to George Brown sober." He had made his way by his own merits and he lived and died a poor man. He was simple but distinctive in dress, His summer wear was a grey top hat, grey Prince Albert coat and grey trousers, with the inevitable red necktie. He was full of life, good humor, and enliven- ed many a dry debate by a spontaneous joke. Sir John was no saint and did not pretend to be. He was fond of power and kept the old idea that a politician's chief end in life was to hold ofBce. He used the means at hand to attain it, without scruples, and made no hypocritical declarations. In his day he was supreme, and as his life recedes his stature en- larges. He was slow to adopt a policy, but resolute to execute it. He followed others' lead in Confedera- tion and in Protection, but no other could have carried them without his adroitness and tenacity. He extended the Dominion across the continent and then devoted his life to laying foundations for the commonwealth that becomes more solid as each year passes. 42 GEORGE BROWN GEORGE BROWN GEORGE BROWN (1818-1880) EARLY in 1864 when party government in Canada had collapsed and leaders were casting about for a solution, George Brown secured the appointment by the House of Assembly of a committee of nineteen members to consider the difficulties connected with the government of Canada. When the committee met con- siderable time was consumed in banter and in debat- ing whether their meetings should be open or private. At last, when they had decided on the latter course, Brown walked to the door, locked it and put the key in his pocket. Then he said, to the astonishment of John A. Macdonald, George E. Cartier and others, ''Now, you must talk about this matter, as you cannot leave this room without coming to me." The incident, which Brown related years after- ward to a friend, is illustrative of his own dominating, downright character. He was as earnest as a crusader, as courageous as a knight at arms, and as unyielding as an oak. For thirty years he was a towering figure in Canadian life. He was a powerful and tireless campaigner, holding his audiences far into the night with long speeches replete with chastisement of his opponents. He was a fearless editor who filled the columns of The Globe with high-tensioned opinions on every phase of politics. He was a constructive states- man who was brave enough to forego his most precious possession — party solidarity — and join a coalition gov- ernment to remove the first obstacle to Confederation. 45 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS George Brown and John A. Macdonald were po- litical foes for more than twenty years. Their lives par- alleled and they constantly crossed swords. Each was the idol of his party, though Brown's unbending quali- ties frequently caused trouble with men of his own side. Macdonald, — human, winning and not less powerful, — was always in favor with his own party. The two were forever in each other's light and they were per- sonal as well as political enemies. Brown distrusted Macdonald for his sagacity and perfection of state- craft. Macdonald disliked the serious, bold, masterful Brown, whose editorial attacks were untempered and unrelenting. Macdonald was social and convivial by nature. Brown was stern and seriously attentive in his public duties. For years they were not on speaking terms; then for public reasons they joined in the coali- tion of 1864, yet a year later when Brown left the Cabinet their intercourse entirely ceased. In 1867. Brown, addressing the Liberal convention in Toronto when William McDougall and W. P. Rowland were read out of the party for remaining in the Macdonald Cabinet, declared his feelings towards Sir John Mac- donald by saying: "If, sir, there is any large number of men in this assembly who will record their votes this night in favor of the degradation of the public men of that party (the Liberal) by joining a coalition, I neither want to be a leader nor a humble member of that party. If that is the reward you intend to give us all for our services I scorn connection with you. Go into the same government with Mr. John A. Macdonald (Cries of 46 GEORGE BROWN *Never'). Sir, I understood what degradation it was to be compelled to adopt that step by the necessities of the case, by the feeling that the interests of my country were at stake, which alone induced me ever to put my foot into that government; and glad was I when I got out of it." These sentiments, making allowance for the ex- hilaration of a party convention, reflect the sacrifice which Brown suffered for Confederation. It is difficult in these days of temperate politics to appreciate the degree of his sense of humiliation. Macdonald was his chief adversary in life, the man whom tens of thousands of Canadians had heard him denounce in his campaign utterances, and who was daily the victim of his editor- ial lashings. Yet on almost a day's notice Brown, realizing the futility of further fighting along party lines, joined his opponent and made Confederation a possibility. Though Macdonald had many occasions to resent the attacks of Brown and The Globe, he was generous enough in 1866 in a speech at Hamilton to pay this tri- bute to Brown's service: "An allusion has been made to Mr. Brown, and it may perhaps be well for me to say that, whatever may be the personal differences which may exist between that gentleman and myself, I believe he is a sincere well-wisher and friend of Confederation. I honestly and truly believe him to be so, and it would be ex- ceedingly wrong and dishonest in me from personal motives to say anything to the contrary." On the other hand, Macdonald's personal feelings 47 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS towards Brown were vigorously expressed in a letter to his mother in 1856, in which he said: "I am carrying on a war against that scoundrel Brown, and I will teach him a lesson that he never learnt before. I shall prove him a most dishonest, dis- honorable fellow and, in doing so, I will duly pay him a debt I owe him for abusing me for months together in his newspaper."* Brown bore a relation of intimacy to Upper Can- ada similar to that of Howe in Nova Scotia. He tra- velled it from end to end and pierced the back settle- ments by horse and carriage long before the railways had laid their network of steel. To the pioneers in the "Queen's Bush" he carried the message of political argument for which they hungered, and gladly did they listen to his speeches until far beyond midnight. He moved among the farmers, inspected their schools, visited their homes, and talked sympathetically and knowingly of their crops. At night he would address them in the largest hall that could be found, and fre- quently an overflow meeting was necessary. Political beliefs were then held more tenaciously than now, and the antiseptic effects of independence had not made headway against the old "Grit" and "Tory" maladies. Many a meeting was held in the hall above a driving shed attached to a tavern, and the near presence of a bar did not lessen the enthusiasm of the occasion. Candles were the illuminant, and their tiny flames did little to pierce the gloom of the malodorous interiors. *Sir John A. Macdonald: A Memoir, by Joseph Pope, Vol. I, P. 162. 48 GEORGE BROWN Such heavy campaigning, combined with his edi- torial duties, would overtax most men. George Brown was no weakling in any sense. He has been described by a friend as a "steam engine in trousers," and had he lived in more recent times would no doubt be called "a human dynamo." He seemed never to stop working. His mind was ever on the alert, and his body was able to keep pace with it. Living before the advent of type- writers and the fashion of dictating, he laboriously wrote his editorials by hand, using a pencil never more than two inches long. Mr. J. Ross Robertson recalls the incident of the assassination of Lincoln in 1865. He was on The Globe stafif at the time, and on receiv- ing the despatch carried the news to Brown's house, and waited while his chief wrote an editorial on the subject, though it was then late at night. Brown's success and dominating place in the life of Upper Canada were not the result of accident. His parentage and early training were the natural prepara- tion for such a life. He was born at Alloa, near Edin- burgh, on November 29, 1818, his father, Peter Brown, being a respected citizen of the modern Athens, a friend of Scott and of other worthies of that day. Dr. Gunn, head of the Academy of Edinburgh, which George attended, spoke with insight at a public gather- ing when in introducing the lad as he was about to declaim an exercise he said: "This young gentleman is not only endowed with high enthusiasm, but he pos- sesses the faculty of creating enthusiasm in others." When George was twenty years old his father, hav- ing become heavily involved financially, set out for 49 4 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS America, bringing the youth with him. Peter Brown founded The Albion, a paper for British-born residents of the United States. In 1842 he founded The Week- ly Chronicle, with himself as editor and his son as business manager, and made it a paper for Scottish- Americans. A year later George Brown visited Can- ada to seek circulation for his paper, and the visit was the turning point in his career. Tall, graceful, of good address, he was welcomed wherever he went. After visiting Toronto he went to Kingston, where members of the Baldwin-Lafontaine Government enlisted his interest in the fight for responsible government, still far from won. George Brown persuaded his father to move to Toronto, where The Chronicle was changed to The Banner, making its first appearance August 18, 1843. The mission of The Banner as an organ of the Free Church was soon found too limited, and the Browns met the necessities of the case by founding The Globe, whose first issue appeared March S, 1844, it being the organ of the Baldwin-Lafontaine Government and the champion of "Responsible Government." No time was lost in declaring that "the battle which the Reformers of Canada will fight is not the battle of the party but the battle of constitutional right against the undue interference of executive power." Lord Metcalfe was quick to raise the loyalty cry, so often since used in Canadian elections, and his party declared the contest to be between loyalty on the one side and disaffection to Her Majesty's Government on the other. The Governor won in 1844, but the Re- formers swept the country in 1848, a result for which 50 GEORGE BROWN George Brown was largely responsible, and the battle for responsible government was won. Brown now required a fresh field for his endeavor, and in 1850 plunged into an agitation for the seculari- zation of the clergy reserves. The Baldwin-Lafon- taine Government retired in 1851 and its successor, the Hincks-Morin Government, met with the opposition of Brown and The Globe. About this time Brown be- came the recognized champion of Protestantism be- cause of his attack on the pronunciamento of Cardinal Wiseman, who had been sent to England by the Pope. This ultra-Protestant view, for which he has often been criticized on the broader ground of national sentiment, alienated the Catholic vote in Haldimand, where Brown was first a candidate for Parliament in 1851. His principal and successful rival was William Lyon Mackenzie, then returned from his exile. JBrown en- tered Parliament later in the year as member for the then backwoods county of Kent, and at once took a commanding place. Clergy reserves were secularized, and the seigniorial tenure was abolished a little later, but Brown demanded representation by population and the abolition of Separate Schools. His motion in 1858 disapproving of the selection of Ottawa as the capital of Canada was carried, the Government resigned, and Brown was called on to form a Cabinet. He chose his friend, A. A. Dorion, as associate from Lower Canada, but the Governor-General refusing a dissolution, the Premier and his Cabinet resigned after holding office for two days. The former Ministers returned to office 51 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS as the Cartier-Macdonald Government, following what is known as the "Double Shuffle." Such card game politics were but the beginning of the critical years leading up to 1864. In November, 1859, the Reformers of Upper Canada, as a great con- vention in Toronto, took an aggressive stand in de- nouncing the union of 1841. They declared it had fail- ed to realize the expectations of its promoters, and favored a federation of the two Canadas. Brown, in his speech, said some of his friends throughout the country were in favor of a federation of all the Provinces. "For himself, he would not favor a federation so far extended. No, let there first be a federation of the Canadas, and then bring in the other Provinces if they found it advisable. Perhaps in say- ing this he might be looked upon as behind the progress of the age. But he thought the great difficulty with Canada was that she was too vast. Instead of stretch- ing out, let them trim their sails and scud along under close reefed topsails until they got into smooth water." The Reformers' resolution was defeated in Par- liament at the next session, but it undoubtedly had an effect in crystallizing public sentiment. Brow^n was defeated in his riding in 1861, and went abroad for his health, returning late in the following year. The dead- lock was now rapidly developing, and the country's business came to a standstill. To add to the embarrass- ment of the situation, Britain was pressing Canada to take a greater share in her own defence, for the vast American armies were on the eve of release from the Civil War, with a bitter feeling against Canada for her 52 GEORGE BROWN alleged sympathy with the South. In yet another way Canada's interests were menaced by the impending abrogation of the Reciprocity Treaty which had brought prosperity to the country. Writing to his family on May 16, 1864, Brown sensed the crisis when he said: "Things here are very unsatisfactory. No one sees his way out of the mess — and there is no way but my way: representation by population. There is great talk to-day of a coalition; and what do you think? Why, that in order to make the coalition successful, the Imperial Government are to offer me the governorship of one of the British Col- onies! I have been gravely asked to-day by several if it is true, and if I would accept!! My reply was, I would rather be proprietor of The Globe newspaper for a few years than to be governor-general of Can- ada, much less a trumpery little province." On June 14 Brown, as chairman of the com- mittee named to consider the difficulties connected with the government of Canada, reported in favor of "a federative system applied either to Canada alone or to the whole of the British North American Provinces." On the same day the Tache-Macdonald Government was defeated and resigned. The time had now come for action that would clear up the chaos once for all. Coalition talk had been in the air for several weeks, and it is somewhat uncertain who first gave utterance to it. The records show that on the next day Brown spoke to two Con- servative members, Alexander Morris and John Henry 53 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS Pope, and promised to co-operate with any government that would settle the constitutional difficulty. A day later John A. Macdonald and George Brown met in reconciliation. Macdonald asked Brown if he had any objection to meet Gait and himself. Brown's reply was, ^'Certainly not," — the exact words have been care- fully preserved. The following day Macdonald and A. T. Gait called upon Brown at the St. Louis Hotel in Quebec, and negotiations began which resulted in the coalition being formed. Though the rival leaders were in amiable converse, there was still a secret mis- trust each of the other, as was shown by the careful set- ting down of the conversation and the points agreed upon. A farmer dealing with a lightning rod agent would not be more careful. The first meeting failed of agreement. Later Cartier joined the group and an agreement was reached in these terms : "The Government are prepared to pledge them- selves to bring in a measure next session for the purpose of removing existing difficulties by introducing the fed- eral principle into Canada, coupled with such provi- sions as will permit the Maritime Provinces and the Northwest Territory to be incorporated into the same system of government and the Government will seek, by sending representatives to the Lower Provinces and to England, to secure the assent of those interested which are beyond the control of our own legislation to such a measure as may enable all British North America to be united under a general legislature upon the federal principle." 54 GEORGE BROWN While Brown was ready to co-operate with Mac- donald to secure Confederation he was not ready to enter a Cabinet with him. Lord Monck, the Governor- General, now took a hand by urging Brown to take office. In his letter of June 21 Lord Monck said: "I think the success or failure of the negotiations which have been going on for some days with a view to forming a strong government on a broad basis depends very much on your consenting to go into the Cabinet. Under these circumstances I must again take the liberty of pressing upon you, by this note, my opinion of the grave responsibility which you will take upon your- self if you refuse to do so." Two days later Brown wrote to his family that in consenting to enter the Cabinet he was influenced by private letters from many quarters and still more by the urgency of Lord Monck. Further, and finally, there was the prospect that otherwise the whole effort for con- stitutional changes would fail and the advantages gained by the negotiations be lost. "And it was such a temptation," he adds, "to have possibly the power of set- tling the sectional troubles of Canada forever." "The unanimity of sentiment is without example in this country," he goes on, and then comes this introspective glance : "And were it not that I know at their exact value the worth of newspaper laudations, I might be puffed up a little in my own conceit. After the explanations by ministers I had to make a speech, but was so excited and nervous at the events of the last few days that I nearly broke down." 55 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS Mr. Brown was not the only man who was excited. Sir Richard Cartwright relates a comical incident of the day: "On that memorable afternoon when Mr. Brown, not without emotion, made his statement to a hushed and expectant House, and declared that he was about to ally himself with Sir George Cartier and his friends for the purpose of carrying out Confederation, I saw an excitable elderly little French member rush across the floor, climb up on Mr. Brown, who, as you remem- ber, was of a stature approaching the gigantic, fling his arms about his neck and hang several seconds there suspended, to the visible consternation of Mr. Brown and to the infinite joy of all beholders, pit, box and gallery included."* Once the Canadian Parliament was committed to a settlement of the constitutional question, events moved quickly. Mr. Brown joined his colleagues in the visit to the Charlottetown Conference, spoke with them afterwards in the Maritime Provinces, and took part in the Quebec Conference in October when the basis of union was drafted. During this conference some controversies arose and he was one of the majority who favored a nominated Senate, thus differing from Mowat and McDougall. He declared his belief that two elective chambers were incompatible with the British parliamentary system, and that an elected upper chamber might claim equal power with the lower, including power over money bills. The dele- *"Memories of Confederation," address by Sir Richard Cartwright to Ottawa Canadian Club, Jan. 20, 1906. 56 GEORGE BROWN gates then visited Canada and explained the terms of the proposed union. Brown was now a thorough convert to the idea of the larger union and expounded it with the same fer- vor that had lashed Upper Canada into discontent over the union of 1841. Speaking at Halifax after the Charlottetown Conference, he said : "Our sole object in coming here is to say to you — 'We are about to amend our constitution, and before finally doing so we invite you to enter with us frankly and earnestly into an inquiry whether it would be or would not be for the advantage of all the British American colonies to be embraced in one political system. Let us look the whole question steadily in the face — if we find it advantageous, let us act upon it, but if not, let the whole thing drop.' That is the whole story of our being here — that is the full scope and in- tention of our present visit." Mr, Brown also spoke at Montreal during the dele- gates^ tour, and at a great banquet in Toronto he ex- plained the scheme in detail. Upper Canada was now agog with interest in the proposals and when the dele- gates reached Toronto late at night a crowd of eight thousand met them at the station. Of the many worthy speeches delivered during the Confederation debate in the winter of 1865, Mr. Brown's stood out for its complete analysis and well considered arguments. It may not have been the most eloquent speech, but it presented the case for Confed- eration in an orderly and convincing manner. Mr. Brown spoke for four and one-half hours. 57 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS "For myself," he said, "I care not who gets the credit of this scheme — I believe it contains the best features of all the suggestions that have been made in the last ten years for the settlement of our troubles, and the whole feeling in my mind now is one of joy and thankfulness that there were found men of position and influence in Canada who at a moment of serious crisis had nerve and patriotism enough to cast aside politi- cal partisanship, to banish personal considerations and unite for the accomplishment of a measure so fraught with advantage to their common country. "One hundred years have passed away," he went on, "since the conquest of Quebec, but here sit children of the victor and of the vanquished of avowed hearty attachment to the British Crown — all earnestly de- liberating how we shall best extend the blessings of Bri- tish institutions — how a great people may be established on this continent in close and hearty connection with Great Britain. Where in the page of history shall we find a parallel to this? Will it not stand as an imper- ishable monument to the generosity of British rule? Does it not lift us above the petty politics of the past, and present to us high purpose and great interests that may yet call forth all the intellectual ability and all the energy and enterprise to be found among us?" Mr. Brown gave seven strong reasons for support- ing the union scheme : ( 1 ) Because it will raise us from the attitude of a number of inconsiderable colonies into a great and powerful people; (2) be- cause it will throw down the barriers of trade and give us the control of a market of four millions of people; 58 GEORGE BROWN (3) because it will make us the third maritime power in the world; (4) because it will give a new start to immigration into our country; (5) because it will enable us to meet without alarm the abrogation of the American Reciprocity Treaty in case the United States should decide upon its abolition; (6) because in the event of war it will enable all the colonies to defend themselves better and give more efficient aid to the Empire than they can do separately; and (7) it will give us a seaboard at all seasons of the year. Looking back, after fifty years, at Mr. Brown's arguments and expectations, it cannot be said that he overstated the case. His conclusion was equally re- strained and yet hopeful. "The future destiny of this great Province," he said, "may be affected by the decision we are about to give to an extent which at this moment we may be unable to estimate, but assuredly the welfare for many 3'ears of four millions of people hangs on our decision. Shall we then rise to the occasion? Shall we approach this discussion without partisanship and free from every personal feeling but an earnest resolution to dis- charge conscientiously the duty which an overruling Providence has placed upon us? It may be that some among us will yet live to see the day when as a result of this measure a great and powerful people may have grown up on these lands — when the boundless forests all around us shall have given way to smiling fields and thriving towns — and when one united government under the British flag shall extend from shore to shore; but who would desire to see that day if he could not 59 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS recall with satisfaction the part he took in this discus- sion?" Brown's connection with the coalition government was destined to be short-lived. He seemed never to re- gard it in any other light. After his return from the Quebec Conference, in a family letter he said : "At any rate, come what may, I can now get out of the affair and out of public life with honor, for I have had placed on record a scheme that would bring to an end all the grievances of which Upper Canada has so long complained." During the summer of 1865 he accompanied John A. Macdonald, Gait and Cartier to England to confer with the Imperial Government regarding federation, defence, reciprocity and the acquisition of the North- west Territories. In November of that year he re- signed from the Cabinet. The reason given was his difference with his colleagues regarding the form of the possible renewal of reciprocity with the United States; he favored a definite treaty as before, while they favored concurrent legislation. It is altogether likely that this explanation was a mask for his firmly held desire to make his exit from an unhappy environ- ment. On retiring he made it plain to Lord Monck that he would continue to support Confederation until the new constitution became effective. James Young in his "Public Men and Public Life in Canada" tells of a meeting with Mr. Brown at Hamilton station just after his resignation. He still showed signs of the mental and physical excitement through which he had just passed. During the con- 60 GEORGE BROWN versation Mr. Brown referred to the differences over reciprocity, but said the relations between himself and Macdonald had greatly changed since Brown had refused to consent to his rival's elevation to the Premiership. In short, Mr. Brown "had come to the conclusion that for some time Attorney-General Mac- donald had been endeavoring to make his position in the Cabinet untenable unless with humiliation and loss of popularity on his part." Having abandoned his temporary political allies — and sober historians of both parties view the step as a mistake — Brown set himself to reuniting his party. Oliver Mowat, who had gone into the Cabinet with him, was now on the Bench, and he had been succeeded by W. P. Rowland. William McDougall, the other Re- former in the coalition, and Rowland were pressed by Macdonald to remain in the first Confederation Ministry, and did so. Their day of reckoning soon came. On June 27, a few days before Confederation became effective, they attended the Upper Canada Re- form convention in Toronto, were harshly treated by the delegates when they spoke, and were read out of the party for their alleged "treachery." George Brown was the chief instrument of their undoing. Re roused the audience to indignation against his quondam friends. An impressive picture of his appearance and denunciation of Macdonald on this occasion is given by Sir George W. Ross : "I remember well his tall form and intense earnest- ness as he paced the platform, emphasizing with long arms and swinging gestures the torrent of his invective. 61 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS His manner was so intense, because of its flaming earnestness, as to overshadow the cogency and force of his arguments. Every sentence had the ring of the trip hammer. Every climax smelt of volcanic fire — sulphurous, scorching, startling — and the response was equally torrid.* Alongside George Brown's services for Confeder- ation must be placed his work for the acquisition of the Northwest Territory. He became interested in this question soon after his arrival in Canada, and in 1847 The Globe published in full a lecture by Robert Baldwin Sullivan, who knew the value of the country, and pointed out the danger of the westward trek of Americans resulting in their occupation of that terri- tory. Brown referred to the Northwest in his opening speech in Parliament in 1851, and in 1852 The Globe published an article declaring that the exclusion from civilization of half a continent for the benefit of 232 shareholders was unpardonable. The agitation was kept up despite the jeers of less discerning editors and politicians. In a speech at Belleville in 1858 Brown said: "Sir, it is my fervent aspiration and hope that some here to-night may live to see the day when the British American flag shall proudly wave from Labrador to Vancouver Island, and from our own Niagara to the shores of Hudson Bay." ♦Getting Into Parliament and After, by Sir George W. Ross, (William Briggs), P. 20. 62 GEORGE BROWN The seed had been sown largely through the vision and persistence of Brown, and the acquisition of the Northwest came in 1869, through the medium, it is true, of other hands. Brown's public life virtually ended at Confedera- tion by his defeat in South Ontario in 1867. Already in May of that year he had looked forward to the free- dom of retirement when in a letter to L. H. Holton of Montreal he said: "My fixed determination is to see the Liberal party reunited and in the ascendant, and then make my bow as a politician. . . . To be bebarred by fear of injuring the party from saying that is unfit to sit in Parliament, and that is very stupid, makes journalism a very small business. Party leadership and the conducting of a great journal do not harmonize." Brown thereafter gave little attention to politics except through The Globe. He left the party leaders free, save when they sought his advice, which was freely given. He was appointed to the Senate in December, 1873, but took little part in its proceedings. He found it a dreary and uninspiring place, and in writing of his reciprocity speech there in March, 1875, he said, "it was an awful job," and that "the Senate is so quiet." In the critical election of 1872 he made but one speech. He divided his interest between his newspaper and his high-class Bow Park Farm at Brantford. Here he spent happily the evening of his life, his hours filled with peace after the fretful years of politics. Mr. Brown was the second Father of Confedera- tion to die at the hand of an assassin. D'Arcy McGee 63 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS was shot in 1868; Mr. Brown was wounded by George Bennett, a discharged employee, on March 25, 1880, and died on May 10, following. The country was grieved at the tragic ending of so useful a career, and in the common sorrow criticism was stilled. A poli- tician who gave and received hard knocks was, after all, a warm-hearted husband and father, and a man known and personally loved by tens of thousands of his fellows. His passing caused a wave of regret, and the years have effaced party feeling and steadily magni- fied his part in laying the foundation of the expand- ing Dominion. 64 SIR OLIVER MOWAT SIR OLIVER MOWAT SIR OLIVER MOW AT (1820-1903) WHAT is the secret of the political success of Oliver Mowat? Long opposed by the fire and skill of W. R. Meredith in Ontario, and by the weight of Sir John A. Macdonald's great influence from Ottawa, he yet remained Premier of Ontario for twenty- four years, became Minister of Justice, and died as Lieutenant-Governor after a life of unbroken triumphs. Buttoned up in his dark Prince Albert, masked by heavy spectacles, and handicapped by short-sight and hesitating speech, he was known to relatively few of the millions he governed. He was not a popular orator and he was not a hail-fellow-well-met. On these grounds he was more of a tradition than a personality. The people knew that in some room in the Parliament Buildings a little, round-faced, earnest man was on the job, that he surrounded himself with able colleagues, that he was courteous to callers, if he did not grant all favors asked, and that somehow he contrived to express their wants for a strong provin- cial government, and to engender a wholesome senti- ment that pleased moral, church-going people. For fifty years the lives of Oliver Mowat and John A. Macdonald crossed and clashed in the public and private life of Upper Canada. They were boys together in Kingston, they were friends and rivals at the Bar, and Mowat once opposed Macdonald for Parliament. In the session of 1860 Mowat so taunted Macdonald 67 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS that the latter crossed the floor and threatened to "slap his chops." As an ally of George Brown, he was usually at war with Macdonald, but in 1864 he went with Brown and McDougall into the coalition Cabinet, and later joined the Quebec Conference to arrange Con- federation. Here Macdonald stood for a strong cen- tral government, while Mowat upheld the sovereign power of the local governments. This warfare contin- ued years later when Macdonald's invasions of provin- cial rights were resisted by Premier Mowat, and the Province's powers as construed by the "little tyrant of Ontario," as Macdonald called him, were upheld by the Privy Council in several memorable decisions. These included the insurance case, the liquor license law, the rivers and streams case, and the Manitoba boundary award.* Added to this was the covert aid given by Macdonald to his political allies who were fighting Mowat; but all were without avail against the commander of the Ontario citadel. The fact is that each man was supreme in his own way. Macdonald was what politicians are pleased to call a "mixer," with arms around the shoulders of ♦By decisions of the Privy Council in important appeal cases the rights of the Province of Ontario were upheld in disputes with the Domin- ion and the following points established : Lands of Canada escheated to the Crown for defect of heirs revert to the Province in which they arc situated; liquor licenses may be regulated by the Province, as under the Crooks Act; Provincial insurance regulations apply to insurers, whatever the origin of latter; sawlogs and timber may be floated down streams in respect of which the Province has authority to give this power; the boundary of Ontario was extended west to Lake of the Woods and north to Hudson Bay, thus more than doubling the area of the Province; Ontario secured the rights to timber and minerals on land formerly held by Indians and assigned to the Dominion by treaty; the Province has unlimited jurisdiction over penalties and punishments prescribed by itself, and has also the right to appoint Queen's Counsel. 68 SIR OLIVER MOW AT even casual friends, with a shout and a sally that attracted every man with red blood in his veins. Mowat, though not without restrained good humor and love of a joke, was never wholly divested of the air of the Bench which he once adorned, and cased in with dignity and aloofness contrasting strange- ly with his great rival. Macdonald was a master of strategy and a manipulator of men, one whose refusals even were couched in engaging language. Mowat was prolific of ideas, and had unusual natural gifts for pub- lic service. While Macdonald made friends by con- tact with the people, Mowat burned midnight oil and brought forth a full and lucid argument that was sel- dom broken by the enemy. Macdonald on the hustings stood forth radiant but belligerent, fluent of party doc- trine, and carrying the war into the enemy's camp. Mowat, with thin voice, hesitating delivery, and care- fully rehearsed sentences, made less impression on his hearers, but his powerful logical appeal when printed was a convincing document for his party. Oliver Mowat's ancestry and early life were typi- cal of his generation in Upper Canada. His father, John Mowat, came from Caithness, on whose storm- beaten coast his forefathers had lived for nearly five hundred years. The elder Mowat, born in 1791, ran away at sixteen and enlisted to fight Napoleon. In 1814 his regiment was sent to Canada to help close the war of 1812. Discharged a little later, he settled near King- ston, and hither came, alone, in 1819, Helen Levack, the sweetheart of his youth. He met her at Montreal, 69 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS where they were married, and afterwards drove to King- ston along the shores of the St. Lawrence. Five children were born to John and Helen Mowat, Oliver, the eld- est, seeing the light at Kingston, then the most impor- tant town in Upper Canada, on July 22, 1820. Oliver was carefully educated in private schools, and at sixteen entered the law office of John A. Macdonald, then a youth of twenty-one. Fate was already at work on its tapestry, for in this little office were three men, after- wards Fathers of Confederation, Mowat's fellow-clerk being Alexander Campbell, later also a Knight and Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario. During the Mackenzie Rebellion troubles of this time young Mowat became a member of the First Battalion of Frontenac Militia. In November, 1840, he came to Toronto to complete his law education, and entered the office of Strachan & Burns, the senior part- ner being a son of Bishop Strachan, and one of his fellow-students being John Beverley Robinson, after- wards Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario. From now on, for several years, he applied himself tenaciously to the study of law, so closely that Campbell, with whom he corresponded, reproached him for neglecting his health and recreation, a neglect which seemed to result in brooding and a fear that he "would never be anybody." He was called to the Bar in 1841, and formed a part- nership with Burns, his late principal. For a few months he lived in Kingston, during the location there of the Court of Chancery. He worked early and late at his office and in 1844 declared his ignorance of politics, and therefore his intention not to vote. About 70 SIR OLIVER MOW AT this time he became intimate with the family of John Ewart, builder and contractor, who erected the old Parliament Buildings in Front Street, and the Queen Street Lunatic Asylum, and in 1846 he was married to the youngest daughter, ''the beautiful Miss Ewart," as she was called, whose happy wedded life lasted until she passed away in 1893. Young Mowat's prosperity kept pace with his industry, his partners changed from time to time, and in 1853 he sent his brother John a substantial gift, saying, "A good Providence has smiled on me: health, a good wife, five children, agreeable friends, a pro- fession which I like, have been some of the blessings of my lot." He was enriching his mind from a store of general literature, and from companionship with the city's best, w^hom he entertained freely in his large house on the west side of Jarvis Street, north of Carlton. By the end of 1856 Oliver Mowat's natural gifts for public life could no longer be repressed and he was elected an alderman for St. Lawrence Ward. It seems a humble beginning, but even there he became the father of the city's park system. His greatest plunge came in the general elections of 1857, when he entered the lists for the Assembly in South Ontario. His opponent was Joseph Curran Morrison, and the fight was a memorable one. Mowat stood for representa- tion by population and non-sectarian schools, and closed his election address with these words : "If elect- ed my desire is to perform my duty in Parliament in the spirit and with the views which become a Christian 71 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS politician."* This lofty ideal became historic, and though Mowat was frequently taunted for it in after years, his record and his relation to the Presbyterian Church gave it a meaning which few attempted to destroy. The campaign closed with a majority of 778 for Mowat, who at once went into opposition to the Macdonald-Cartier Government of the day, saying in a letter to Alexander Campbell: "It did seem to me that opposition to such a government had become the duty of everyone." "I think," he added, "we should struggle to purify public sentiment and political senti- ment. I have taken great pains to be right in my start upon political life. I hope I have not made a mistake. I dare say I shall find I have lost Macdonald's friend- ship, and perhaps for awhile somewhat clouded Van Koughnet'sf also. I shall be very sorry for this ; but one must not shape one's political course by friendship."! The Canadian Assembly had already entered upon its most stormy period when Oliver Mowat took his seat on February 25, 1858. The session was long and boisterous, and the new member at once took his place with Brown as a strong Opposition figure. His speeches, while not oratorical, commanded attention for argument, and for his courtesy to opponents. In August the "Double Shuffle" took place, and Mowat was a member of the Brown-Dorion Cabinet during its two days' existence. He introduced a measure of *Sir Oliver Mowat : A Biographical Sketch, by C. R. W. Biggar, Vol. I, P. 70. t Philip M. S. Van Koughnet, (1823-69), a former law partner of Oliver Mowat, and colleague of John A. Macdonald from 1856 to 1862. + Sir Oliver Mowat: A Biographical Sketch, by C. R. W. Biggar. Vol. I, P. 74-5. 72 SIR OLIVER MOW AT law reform at the next session, the first of several con- structire measures during his early life in Parliament. Upper Canada's exasperation over the working out of the Act of Union found expression at the great Re- form convention in Toronto in November, 1859. Over five hundred delegates assembled in the old St. Lawrence Hall, which still stands, and opinion was divided over a demand for dissolution of the union or a federation of the two Provinces. A resolution was passed favoring federation, with two or more local gov- ernments to deal with local matters, and "some joint authority" to deal with matters common to both sec- tions. This resolution, which was strongly supported by Oliver Mowat, is generally regarded as pointing the way to the larger union of a later day. Oliver Mowat's speech was a careful balancing of the arguments on both sides, with unqualified condem- nation of existing conditions. "The feeling in favor of representation according to population has for some time been general," he said, "and there has been an impression as strong as any that ever was formed that if the union is to continue in its present form, that is the only principle that can be regarded as just or equal. . . . It is certain that there is the most resolute deter- mination on the part of Lower Canada to resist this de- mand, and if we ask for dissolution pure and simple it will take a long time to remove the obstacles thus pre- sented. . . . "In the meantime what are we not enduring? If we were only well governed by Lower Canada ; if she gave us good laws such as we desired, we might bear 73 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS with the power she has of preventing us from making such laws for ourselves — we might afford to wait. But she does not do so. The Lower Canadians impose upon us laws which we do not want. The legislation of the last two years has been legislation directed against Upper Canada and in favor of Lower Canada." During the next five years there was constant tur- moil in the politics of Canada, and Oliver Mowat was in the thick of it. He was re-elected in 1861 in South Ontario, but a contest with John A. Macdonald in Kingston at the same election brought defeat. When the Cartier-Macdonald Government fell in 1862, after Cartier's usual answer to criticism, "Call in de mem- bers," had lost its magic, Mowat was offered a seat in the Sandfield Macdonald-Sicotte Cabinet, but declined because the Ministry would not treat representation by population as a close question. When Sicotte was re- placed by A. A. Dorion in May, 1 863, Mowat accept- ed an invitation to become Postmaster-General and held this office until the Government resigned in the following March, resuming the post in June in the new coalition Government. This was the culmination of the years of bitterness and deadlock, and Mowat entered upon the duties that followed with the same ready efficiency that he applied to all his tasks. Oliver Mowat was not at the Charlottetown Con- ference, but he took a prominent part in the delibera- tions at Quebec. He drafted several of the resolutions which were finally adopted, principally those defining the respective powers of the general and local parlia- 74 SIR OLIVER MOW AT ments. In this connection the Canadian Fathers had before them the object lesson of the American Union, just then torn almost to distraction by a war involving states rights. John A. Macdonald w^as for a strong central power, while Oliver Mowat favored the doc- trine of local sovereignty. "The question of states rights," says the historian of the conferences, "which led to the frightful war in the United States, w^as forcibly enlarged upon, and an earnest desire expressed that in the framing of the new constitution difficulties which might lead to such results might be avoided."* Mowat's proposed clause defining the powers of the local parliaments to deal with education, agricul- ture, and so forth, was adopted with minor changes, and became the basis of section 92 of the British North America Act. One change of some consequence was made on motion of D'Arcy McGee, in giving the pro- vinces the right to legislate on education, by adding the words "Saving the rights and privileges which the Protestant or Catholic minority in both Canadas may possess as to their denominational schools at the time when the constitutional act comes into operation." Mowat joined William McDougall in pressing for an elective Senate, but the view of Brown and Mac- donald for a nominated Upper House prevailed, their contention being that two popular chambers were "in- compatible." Mowat, also, according to his biogra- pher, urged that the provincial parliaments be made co-ordinate with and not subordinate to the federal ♦Confederation, by John Hamilton Gray, P. 57. 75 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS parliament, and that the veto power over them be vested in the Imperial authorities, and not in Ottawa. Thus throughout the conference the aim of Mowat was to secure strong local parliaments. If he in a measure failed there, he was destined to move to a sphere where he could more completely implement his will. Meantime Oliver Mowat's political services came to an abrupt end for the time. During the sittings at Quebec Vice-Chancellor Esten of Upper Canada died, and John A. Macdonald offered the post to Mowat. He consulted his friends on both sides, re- ceived varying answers, and in November mounted the Bench, which he adorned by his judicial temperament and terse and lucid judgments until 1872. It is not a relevant part of this series to describe at length the services of Oliver Mowat as Premier of Ontario. His work is a part of the history of the Pro- vince for twenty-four years while foundations, sane and progressive, were laid for its future greatness. Its legislation under the federation had to be developed "broad based upon the people's will," and Oliver Mowat, with his rich experience in law, in Parliament, and on the Bench, coupled with his instinct for leader- ship and his enlightened conservatism, became the inevitable choice. At this time the masterful Sir John A. Macdonald was seeking wider outlets for his power by infringing on provincial jurisdiction. In 1872, when dual representation was abolished, Edward Blake,* *Edward Blake, (1833-1912), was one of the greatest intellectual figures in the history of Canadian public life. He entered the House of Commons and the Ontario Legislature in 1867, retiring from the latter in 1872, after one year as Premier. He was a member of the Mackenzie Cabinet from 1873 to 1878, and thereafter until 1887 leader of the federal Liberal party. From 1892 to 1907 he was member for South Longford in the British House of Commons. 76 SIR OLIVER MOW AT who had succeeded John Sandfield Macdonald as Pre- mier of Ontario, and Alexander Mackenzie* chose to remain in the federal field, and forsook the Legisla- ture. Blake and George Brown, one October morning, invaded the secluded home of Judge Mowat in Simcoe Street, and urged that considerations of political and public welfare demanded his resignation from the serenity and security of the Bench to become Premier of Ontario. Two days of consideration led Judge Mowat to become Premier Mowat, and the long years of struggle and repeated triumphs began. His politi- cal opponents bewailed the degradation which the Bench had suffered by Mowat's desertion of it for the "unclean" realm of politics. "I feel," Mowat replied, with spirit, "that I am as much discharging my duty now and acting upon as high moral principles as if I were still an occupant of the Bench." Thereafter the years were filled with constructive public service, a record of which would fill a volume. A large part of the Sandfield Macdonald surplus was distributed to the municipalities for public works, for which act the Government was charged with extrava- gance. Law reform was advanced step by step, the statutes were consolidated, voting by ballot was intro- duced, roads built, immigration and education en- * Alexander Mackenzie, (1822-92), began life as a stonemason, and was Premier of Canada from 1873 to 1878. He was a member of the provincial Parliament from 1861 to 1867, and in 1864 was one of a small group of Liberals who opposed for a time George Brown's entrance into the coalition government which brought about Confederation. From 1867 until his death Mr. Mackenzie was a member of the House of Commons, where his debating ability and his strict integrity won the respect of every one. 11 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS couraged, new parliament buildings erected, and a host of measures passed which led the way for other pro- vinces, and are now the very fibre of our common- wealth. In his relation to Confederation Oliver Mowat stands as the faithful champion of proyincial rights. His Premiership was marked for over a decade by re- curring strife with Sir John A. Macdonald. We have seen how the two men lined up on different sides at the Quebec Conference. After Confederation Macdonald sought repeatedly to encroach on provincial powers. In eight celebrated cases he was resisted by Mowat, and in the appeals to the Privy Council the Province won. These decisions constitute a charter of liberty for the provinces, and while the federal Government re- tains the veto and the residuum of power, the provin- cial status has been clarified and defined for all time. While these conflicts resulted in a public service, they also rendered a political service to the leader who so aggressively championed the rights of his Province, for Macdonald's actions drove Conservatives to support Mowat in the Provincial contest. "Sir Oliver Mowat's success in the courts of Can- ada, and particularly before the Privy Council,"' wrote Sir George W. Ross, for many years one of his col- leagues, "raised him greatly in the estimation of the whole people of Ontario. Were it not for these con- flicts with the Dominion Government I doubt if Sir Oliver would have survived the general election of 1883."* ♦Getting Into Parliament and After, by Sir George W. Ross, P. 187. 78 SIR OLIVER MOW AT Faced by the vigilant Meredith and menaced by the jealous federal Conservative organization, Mowat went his way. His courtesy to opponents, and his complete mastery of all subjects undertaken, coupled with a discernible degree of craft, swept difficulties from his path, and his leadership was ungrudgingly admitted and never questioned. He escaped the quick- sands of creed disputes over the French schools, and drew the fangs of the Patrons of Industry when the embattled farmers joined the pilgrims of unrest in the early 'nineties and almost won a balance of power in the Legislature. "Facts for Irish Electors" were shown to be far from the truth they were represented, the re- peated cry, "Mowat Must Go," spent its force against the rocks of public confidence, and the little "Christian Statesman" went his way securely if not always serenely. In the middle 'nineties the federal Conservative party broke down following the death of Sir John A. Macdonald, who had truly prophesied, "After me, the deluge." In 1896 the election of Wilfrid Laurier and the Liberals was almost a certainty. Mowat once more responded to the call from another sphere, and link- ing his name in the campaign slogan, "Laurier, Mowat and Victory," marched into the enemy's fortress, which had so long repelled siege. He was appointed to the Senate, and served as Minister of Justice for a year, when, his duty well done in the world of politics, he retired to the comparative calm of the Lieutenant- Governorship of Ontario. Here he could look on with sympathetic eye while others carried forward the tasks 79 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS he so long essayed. He was now 11 years of age, and his health gradually failed. He died in office on April 19, 1903. A few months earlier, in the sunset of his life, Oliver Mowat was asked if any one thing more than another had given him satisfaction as he looked over life's experiences. "It is a satisfaction to me," he replied, slowly, "now that I am an old man, two years past the four score limit, to think that throughout my life I have tried to do my duty." Sir Oliver Mowat's place among Canadian nation builders is already fairly defined. His public ser- vice of almost fifty years covered the period when con- structive work was of the highest value. A later age might call for a more radical temperament, for he was essentially conservative. In his day he brought to his duties moral and mental qualities that were as neces- sary as they were exceptional. His unblemished char- acter was an asset to his party and a guarantee for his country. He combined in rare degree the knowledge of the lawyer and the sagacity of the statesman, and was, as Sir Wilfrid Laurier said in announcing his death t(> Parliament, "the most correct interpreter of our con stitution that Canada has yet produced." 80 WILLIAM McDOUGALL WILLIAM McDOUGALL WILLIAM McDOUGALL (1S22-1905) WILLIAM McDOUGALL plowed a devious and often lonely furrow in Canadian politics. He was a constructive and resourceful statesman, against whom the fates conspired at every crisis in his public life. The father of a radical platform in 1851, which he lived to see largely adopted by other politi- cians, he won no commanding place himself, and played a supporting part to other leaders, often of less ability. Joining George Brown as a Reformer in the coalition Cabinet of 1864, he later quarrelled with him and the party, and remained in the Macdonald Min- istry which introduced the union. He moved the reso- lutions in 1867 which resulted in the purchase of the Northwest from the Hudson's Bay Company, thus doubling the area of the Dominion, but as the first Governor of the new region he was ignominiously driven from the boundary by the angry half-breeds, and returned a broken and discounted figure. McDougall leaves as his contribution to the Confederation drama the memory of a skilful publicist, an artful orator, and an imaginative legislator. He was, however, the victim of an unexplained coldness and a mental inertia which handicapped his progress. A more attractive person- ality and a greater driving force would have carried him farther in the great tasks of his generation. His political misfortunes, which would have been avoided by a more crafty politician, earned him the name of 83 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS "Wandering Willie," and cast an undeserved aspersion on an earnest and faithful public servant. For a generation McDougall was a familiar and imposing figure on the Canadian political stage. As an orator he appealed to the intellect. His speeches were marked by a steady flow of highly compacted logical expression, while Brown, who possessed more enthusiasm, usually began hesitatingly, and warmed up as the audience responded. As a lad of fifteen William McDougall witnessed the burning of Montgomery's Tavern near his home north of Toronto by the Loyalists in 1837. The inci- dent, enacted by Sir Francis Bond Head "to mark and record by some act of stern vengeance the important victory," impressed him as a shameless vandalism by the oligarchy of those days, and one of the first acts of his manhood was the formation of the radical platform identified with the "Clear Grit" party of 1851. This movement, which at first was despised by even a wing of the Reform party, was undoubtedly a reflection on this continent of the Chartist and other liberal agi- tations of the time in Europe. It took form at a conven- tion at Markham, Ontario, in March, 1850, and asso- ciated with McDougall were Dr. John Rolph, Mal- colm C. Cameron, Peter Perry of Whitby, Caleb Hop- kins, David Christie and others. Thereafter Mc- Dougall gave currency to the "Clear Grit" planks by constant publication in his newspaper, The North American. Among the reforms advocated were: Elec- tive Institutions from the Highest Office of the Govern- ment to the Lowest, Abolition of Property Qualification 84 WILLIAM McDOUGALL for Members, Extension of the Elective Franchise to all Householders and Housekeepers, Vote by Ballot, Bien- nial and Fixed Parliaments, No Expenditure of Pub- lic Money Without the Consent of Parliament, Re- trenchment Through all Departments of State, Repre- sentation by Population, Application of the Clergy Re- serves to Educational Purposes, and Commercial Autonomy. Although McDougall lived to see most of these become part of the lav^s of Canada, he and his fellow^ radicals were referred to scornfully in The Globe as "Calebites," the "adoption of w^hose principles w^ould simply be a revolution." Theirs was the fate of many another pioneer, not to say of many another insurgent whose dreams divide his own party. McDougall, who was born on January 25, 1822, had been carefully educated in Toronto, and Victoria College, Cobourg, and was admitted as an attorney and solicitor in 1847. A natural controversialist and pub- licist, he quickly drifted into journalism, and despite his great ability never became eminent at the Bar. Be- sides founding and editing The North American, he had contributed to The Examiner and had established an agricultural paper called The Canada Farmer. Notwithstanding the spiciness of its articles, and the energy and constructive ability put into The North American, it was bitterly controversial and was not a success. In 1857 it was merged with The Globe. Its editor went with it, and was associated with George Brown for the next three years. 85 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS It was evident already that McDougall had abun- dant talent for public life. He was a ready speaker, having emulated Socrates and developed his oratory by rehearsing with the stumps on his father's farm for audience. He ran for Parliament in Perth in 1857, but several contests were necessary before Brown's in- fluence finally brought victory in North Oxford in 1858. He took a prominent part, in the Reform convention in Toronto in 1859, in shaping the resolu- tion which favored a federation of tht two Canadas. From then on he was conspicuous in the troubled politics of his day, and served in Sandfield Macdon- ald's cabinets until their retirement in 1864. With Brown and Mowat he entered the coalition preceding Confederation, and was joint Secretary with John Hamilton Gray at the Quebec Conference. He allied himself with Mowat at Quebec in urging an elective instead of a nominated Senate. Laudable as were the motives of the great rap- prochement wherein Brown and his colleagues sank party feeling to achieve Confederation, they were not at once understood or appreciated in Upper Canada by either party. McDougall, on seeking re-election in North Ontario, had an uphill battle from the first. Dr. Thomas Pyne, voicing Newmarket Conservative opinion, wrote asking Macdonald if he really wanted McDougall to win, and received an affirmative answer. Brown urged Macdonald to appeal to the electors in McDougall's behalf, and he did so. ''In order to pre- vent anarchy something had to be done," Macdonald wrote, "and a new coalition, which would attempt to 86 WILLIAM McDOUGALL settle the great constitutional question of parliamentary reform, was accordingly entered into." He was a strong party man and opposed to coalitions, he added, but no other course was left* Despite the heroic efforts of Macdonald and Brown, McDougall was defeated, and sought refuge in North Lanark. Subsequently he attended the London Conference, and returned to face a new difficulty in his own party. Brown had in 1865 retired from the coalition, which he held had performed the function for which it had come into being, namely, the passing of Con- federation in Canada, and had re-established himself as a critic of the administration. His magnetic and force- ful personality had ranged the Reform party solidly behind him, creating a formidable machine, which con- vened in Toronto on June 27, 1867. Macdonald had invited McDougall and Howland to remain in the new Cabinet which he was forming, wherewith to launch the Dominion on July 1 on the great journey of Con- federation. Six hundred delegates gathered in the Re- form convention which was to declare its attitude to- wards the new Government. McDougall and How- land attended by invitation, but the proceedings result- ed in their being read out of the party. McDougall was courageous in facing the crowded hall of noisy partisans, but Howland, as related by Col. Charles Clarke, who was present, shrank from the encounter. "William McDougall stood erect, folded his arms as *Sir John A. Macdonald: A Memoir, by Joseph Pope, Vol. I, P. 161. 87 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS if defiant of the noisy throng and calmly awaited the threatened onslaught." McDougall's utterances on that occasion have stood the test of time. "We think the work of coalition is not done, but only begun," he said. "We think that British Columbia should be brought into the Confederacy, that the great Northwestern Territory should be brought in, that Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland should be brought in. I say that the negotiation of the terms upon which these Provinces are to be brought in is as im- portant, and that it is as necessary that the government in power should not be obliged to fight from day to day for its political existence, as when Confederation was carried up to the point we have now reached. Those who are of a different opinion will have an opportunity at the elections of saying so by condemning us who think it our duty to remain in the Government. I think the coalition ought not to cease until the work begun under Mr. Brown's auspices is ended." Mr. McDougall denied that Mr. Brown was en- titled to all the credit of the new constitution. Public men of all parties had worked for it. "We have a clear slate," he said — "a tabula rasa, there is the consti- tution — there is the machine — work it." Tragic disappointment marked McDougall's con- nection with the event which almost made him father of the Canadian Northwest. As a writer in The Globe in the late 'fifties, when Confederation was as yet quite remote, he had demanded the acquisition of the vast areas of Rupert's Land and the Northwest Territory. 88 WILLIAM McDOUGALL • In 1864 Lord Monck in opening Parliament said the condition of the great region was daily becoming a question of great interest. McDougall, then Minister of Crown Lands, in the ensuing debate said the Gov- ernment had concluded it was time to determine whether that region belonged to Canada or some other country. But as late as September, 1868, according to a subsequent letter to Howe, every other member of the Government but himself and Tilley was ''either in- different or hostile to the acquisition of the Northwest Territories." A crisis over the route of the Interco- lonial Railway proved the solvent. The Government acted, and the House adopted in December, 1867, Mc- Dougall's resolutions on the subject, opening with this memorable declaration: "That it would promote the prosperity of the Canadian people and conduce to the advantage of the whole Empire if the Dominion of Canada, constituted under the provisions of the British North America Act, 1867, were extended westward to the Pacific Ocean." Speaking in support of his resolutions, McDougall said the union and consolidation of British America had been desired by British American statesmen for the last fifty years. It had been the dream of patriots and philosophers that our destiny was to be united as one great people, with a nationality extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific. There had been doubt as to the suitability of the soil and climate of the North- west Territory, but he was convinced it was adapt- ed to the production of the chief grains necessary for the support of human life, and that the climate was 89 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS quite equal to that of Canada. If the territory were joined to Canada he looked to a rapid increase in pop- ulation, but if not the people of the Red River would soon look elsewhere. It followed naturally that McDougall should be one of the commissioners to carry out this undertaking. In October, 1868, he and Sir George Cartier were sent to England to negotiate with the Imperial Government and the Hudson's Bay Company for the purchase of this inland empire. During a considerable part of his ab- sence McDougall was seriously ill, but eventually, when negotiations between the Canadians and the Gov- ernor of the Company had reached a standstill, the Secretary for the Colonies, Earl Granville, under pres- sure from Mr. Gladstone, made a proposal which both sides accepted. As a consequence the Hudson's Bay Company relinquished its rights of domain on payment of £300,000, the retention of one-twentieth of the lands, and some 45,000 acres adjacent to the trading posts. Peace had been made with the great Company, but the Canadian Government was a long way from peace with the inhabitants of the Red River country. In the fall of 1869 McDougall was appointed the first Governor of the new territory, the transfer of which was expected to take place on December 1. The pop- ulation of the Red River settlement was then 12,000 or 13,000, half of whom w^ere French half-breeds, chiefly engaged in hunting, trapping, trading and freighting. Naturally restless, they were fertile soil for the seeds of jealousy sown by Louis Riel. The appearance of Col. J. S. Dennis and a party of surveyors from Ottawa 90 WILLIAM McDOUGALL gave excuse for the mischief makers, and the condi- tions were distinctly dangerous when the new admin- istrator was due to take charge. Joseph Howe as Secretary of State preceded Mc- Dougall to Fort Garry, arriving in September, and it was the report of Postmaster Bannatyne afterwards that "Howe told him that he approved of the course of the half-breeds." Discontent increased, and by one of the accidents of history McDougall was not made aware of the real conditions. Late in October Howe left for the east, and as he crossed the Minnesota prairie he met and passed the imposing entourage of Mc- Dougall and his Council. It was in Howe's power to apprize McDougall of the real conditions, but he barely stopped to converse with the new Governor. Long afterwards McDougall, stung by this incident and its train of consequences in the years to come, wrote : "Howe knew that he had done me an ill turn and was ashamed to meet me." Howe's version was that a cold northwest wind was blowing in the face of McDougall and his children, and that "it would hare been barbarous to have stopped the cavalcade." McDougall passed on to Pembina, on the southern boundary of the Red River settlement, where he was met by a messenger hearing a letter signed by John Bruce, President, and Louis Riel, Secretary, of the Provisional Government, warning him not to enter the settlement without their permission. Weeks of vacilla- tion and bluffing followed, ending in McDougall, with no military force at his disposal, being forcibly escorted 91 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS across the boundary, with no other course than to return home. Sir John Macdonald called the episode a "glorious fiasco," while defenders of McDougall said he had lacked the firm support of the Ottawa Government from the first. His own letters declare that he protested against operations by the surveyors until the transfer from the Company had been effected. On McDougall's way out he had another historic meeting when he encountered on the jprairie Donald A. Smith and Dr. Charles Tupper. The former was en route to Fort Garry in the official role of peace- maker, a duty for which he was well fitted by his years in the wilderness, and by his connection with the Hud- son's Bay Company. Tupper was on a private mission to bring back his daughter, Mrs. Cameron, whose hus- band was attached to the Governor's staff. Expelled from the Reform party by George Brown, unsupported and abandoned by Sir John A. Macdonald, a failure in his last great effort to redeem the new empire, McDougall's plight was indeed un- happy. On arrival at Ottawa he promptly resigned the office of Lieutenant-Governor of the Northwest Territory, and thereafter used much ink in seeking to defend and justify his course. His country had now little to give to a man whose rating in a constituency, never high, had sunk to zero. Ingratitude is ever the sin of the politician, and it is especially in opera- tion against the man who has nothing to give in return. For several years McDougall filled small positions for 92 WILLIAM McDOUGALL the federal and Ontario Governments, including a mis- sion to Britain regarding the fisheries, an immigration post in Scandinavia, and a commissionership on the Ontario boundary. In 1875 he was elected to the Ontario Legislature, but took no leading part and dis- appointed his friends. He was now recognized as a Conservative and opponent of the Government of Oliver Mowat, who had been one of his Reform col- leagues in the coalition Government of 1864. His at- titude toward the Legislature was indicated by his reference to it as an "enlarged county council." Late in the 'seventies he enjoyed a temporary re- vival in public life by throwing himself into the fight for the National Policy, and joined Macdonald in stumping the country. In 1878 he was elected to the House of Commons for Halton and sat until 1882. In 1887, so swift were his changes, he was Liberal candi- date for Grenville, but was defeated. In the constructive period following Confedera- tion McDougall's logical mind and knowledge of affairs made him an asset to his leaders. Howe de- scribed him as "the ablest parliamentary debater I have ever heard," but he was intractable and could not get on with either Macdonald or Brown. Though he was one of the strongest speakers of the day, his instability lessened his influence, and on the stump he was some- times answered by quotations from his own previous speeches. McDougall's last years were spent in Ottawa, where as a counsel he had some slight success. Ill health, following his political disappointments, clouded his 93 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS later life, and he died on May 29, 1905. He had now largely dropped from public sight, but his work deserves recognition not always accorded. He was con- sistently a nationalist in spirit and a nation builder. He had vision and a mastery of detail to shape great issues on the anvil of public discussion. 94 JOHN SANDFIELD MACDONALD *1 JOHN SANDFIELD MACDONALD JOHN SANDFIELD MACDONALD (1812-1872) THE "Sandfield Macdonald surplus" was for almost a generation a monument to the principles and parsimony of the first Premier of Ontario. During its accumulation its fate was ever the subject of teasing and speculation by the Reform Opposition. In after years the Conservatives never failed to discount the savings of the Mowat Government by laying credit to the economies of John Sandfield Macdonald. How a surplus of three million dollars could be gathered in four years from the frugal revenues of that period will ever remain a mystery to the spenders of to-day. With Sandfield Macdonald, retrenchment was a reli- gion, and formed one of his vows on taking office. It was a justified and natural course in a new common- wealth barely emerged from pioneering, when food was plentiful but money was indeed scarce. Sandfield Macdonald was opposed to Confedera- tion until its passage was assured ; then, with the ready adjustment which marked his whole career, he accepted it and responded to Sir John A. Macdonald's call to form the first Government for Ontario. He was in public life almost continuously from 1841 till his death in 1872, was Premier of Canada for two years in the early 'sixties, and participated freely in the complex movements which preceded Confederation. By tem- perament he was unsuited to the compromises of office. 97 7 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS Conscious of this fact, he early described himself as a "political Ishmaelite." In an era when political lines were indifferently defined, he frequently shifted his allegiance. In 1864 he moved the resolution in the Reform caucus requesting George Brown to join the coalition government to promote Confederation, but failed to recognize that this implied sanction of the movement. His advancement in public life was due to native ability — , courage and undoubted integrity, to popularity among the Highlanders of eastern Ontario, and to his adherence to his own opinions. He was caustic of speech and often irascible, though he was capable of geniality and craft in settling political pro- blems that confronted him. During most of his political life he was in opposi- tion to George Brown, and at times exhibited jealousy of the Reform leader. While driving from Guelph to Elora to attend a meeting after the formation of the Brown-Dorion Government, a party of Reform leaders, including Sandfield Macdonald, Dorion, Mowat, Hol- ton and others, were met by a reception committee en route. One of these. Col. Charles Clarke, who relates the story, made a general inquiry as to why Brown was absent. "Can't you do without Brown for a single night?" came the snappish reply from a voice within the carriage, and the voice belonged to Sandfield Mac- donald. In 1858 John A. Macdonald, in a courteous and kindly letter, asked Sandfield Macdonald to join his Cabinet, offering him a choice of portfolios. The reply was a brusque telegram, saying simply: "No go." 98 JOHN SANDFIELD MACDONALD In spite of this, Sir John Macdonald had a kindly feeling for his namesake, and in 1863, while battering the walls of the Sandfield Macdonald-Sicotte Govern- ment in its declining days, was at pains to state that he bore no personal feeling against the head of the admin- istration. The same kindly attitude — combined, it may be, with political sagacity — led Sir John to ask Sandfield Macdonald to form the first Cabinet in Ontario. The two new Premiers faced the electors in their respec- tive spheres in 1867, in what the Liberals resent- fully described as "hunting in couples." The one con- dition imposed by Sir John was that the new Ontario Cabinet should be a coalition government, which was to include two Conservatives, and three Reformers, in- cluding the Premier. This condition led to bitter attacks by the Reform press, which generally followed Brown's lead in his denunciation of the "Patent Com- bination," as Sandfield Macdonald named his own Cab- inet. The opposition of Brown and the bulk of the Re- form party drove Sandfield Macdonald substantially into the Conservative camp, and his administration suf- fered a raking fire from Edward Blake and Alexander Mackenzie, then in their prime as destructive critics. Sir John Macdonald was at this time in poor health, and his last recorded references to his protege before the latter's death were of sorrow and disappointment at the overthrow of the Government in Ontario, whose head refused to take advice. Writing to John Carling a few days after the Government had resigned in De- cember, 1871, Sir John said: 99 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS "There is no use 'crying over spilt milk,' but it is vexatious to see how Sandfield threw away his chances. He has handed over the surplus, which he had not the pluck to use, to his opponents; and although I pressed him on my return from Washington to make a Presi- dent of the Council and a Minister of Education, which he half promised to do, yet he took no steps towards doing so."* John Sandfield Macdonald was a proud and fitting product of his environment. He was born at St. Raphael's, Glengarry County, Ontario, on December 12, 1812, his father being a Highlander and a Roman Catholic. It was characteristic of Sandfield that he attempted to run away from home while yet a boy, and when his service in a Cornwall store led to gibes from other boys at the "counter-hopper," he quit the store and took up the study of law. His education at this time was most imperfect, but so keen was his mind that in eight years, or by 1840, he was admitted as an attor- ney. The idol of the settlement, he soon developed a profitable practice and in 1841 was elected to the Assembly. His popularity with his constituents was without limit, and they returned him again and again, either by acclamation or with sweeping majorities, and once drove his opponent from the riding. He was an irresistible campaigner in his own riding, and his methods were not without originality. For election- eering journeys he secured a flimsy old vehicle, tied up *Sir John A Macdonald : A Memoir, by Joseph Pope, Vol. II, P. 142. 100 JOHN SANDFIELD MACDONALD its wheels with cord, and went among his people say- ing: "I am one of yourselves." Though he lived in comfort for those days, the farmers respected him for his success, and listened gladly to his hesitating but pungent speech. He was a keen student of human nature, and once when leaving home for a few weeks enjoined the chief town "rough," whom everyone feared, to guard his premises. The trust reposed in him led the incorrigible to half kill several prowlers. Mac- donald's standing in Glengarry was heightened by ad- dresses to the electors in Gaelic, a form of appeal used to advantage by other public men in the Scottish settle- ments of Ontario up to recent years. This tall, slight, impulsive young lawyer, with the massive head, speedily attracted notice in the Assembly of the new Union of Canada. He seconded the Address in September, 1841, and immediately joined in the Reformers' fight against Sir Charles Metcalfe and the "Family Compact." In 1849 he became Solicitor-Gen- eral for Upper Canada. When the Hincks-Morin Gov- ernment was organized in 1851 the portfolio of Com- missioner of Crown Lands was offered to him, but he declined, seeking unsuccessfully the post of Attorney- General West. Although he was elected Speaker, he held a grudge against Hincks for the fancied slight, and in 1854 recorded an adverse vote on the Address, and thus forced Hincks to resign. An illustration of Macdonald's courage and in- dependence was his advocacy of non-sectarian educa- tion, and for opposing Separate Schools he incurred the denunciation of his Church. Though brought up 101 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS a Roman Catholic, he was not a specially devout church member, and laughingly referred to himself as "an out- side pillar." Political alliances were often of unstable char- acter in those days of deadlock. Though Sandfield Macdonald and George Brown had opposed each other for years, in 1858 the feud was healed and Macdonald joined the Brown-Dorion Government as Attorney- General West. Brown and Macdonald soon separated and the gulf between them steadily widened. During the succeeding Cartier-Macdonald regime, Sandfield Macdonald alternately attacked the Government and the Opposition. When that Administration resigned in March, 1862, the Governor-General, much to the people's surprise, asked Sandfield Macdonald to form a Cabinet. The Macdonald-Sicotte Government was the result. The new Premier faced the abashed country with an extensive program. He called for the "double majority," a higher tariff for revenue purposes, re- trenchment in expenditures, a new insolvency law, and a new militia bill, but his silence on representation by population ofifended the Upper Canadians and led to vigorous attacks by George Brown and The Globe. This dissatisfaction grew as the months passed, and in the following May the Government went down under a double fire from John A. Macdonald on one side and George Brown on the other. Instead of resigning and retiring, the Premier came up with reconstruction. The expelled Ministers promptly joined the Opposition, and by March 21, 102 JOHN SANDFIELD MACDONALD 1864, the Sandfield Macdonald-Dorion Government resigned without even a want of confidence motion. Macdonald's speech announcing the resignation of the Government possessed a wistful note. "The time has come," he said, after reciting their troubles, "when we ourselves should make a fair acknowledgment of the difficulties in which we are constituted and place our resignations, as we have unanimously done to-day, in the hands of His Excellency." "Hear, hear. It ought to have been done long ago," broke in D'Arcy McGee, cruelly. "If I have said anything with the appearance of malice," the Premier added, "I did not intend it in the sense in which it may have been understood. I owe no grudge against anyone on the other side. I desire, so far as I am concerned, to give and take, and shall be as ready to forget as to forgive injuries." Sandfield Macdonald's opposition to Confedera- tion was captious rather than profound. It is true he maintained that union ought not to be effective without submission to the people, but his various speeches dur- ing the debates of 186S were marked by petty criticism. The delegates from the Maritime Provinces, he said, had gone to Charlottetown to form their own union, and their deliberations were interrupted by the mem- bers of the Canadian Government, who ofifered them greater inducements and undermined the plans for which they had met. The minds of the people of Can- ada, he said, had been unhinged by the proceedings of the past year, and political parties had been demora- 103 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS lized. "The Reform party," he declared, ''has become so disorganized by this Confederation scheme that there is scarcely a vestige of its greatness left. ... I never was myself an advocate of any change in our constitution; I believed it was capable of being well worked to the satisfaction of the people, and we were free from demagogues and designing persons who sought to create strife between the two sections." This disinclination to countenance change gives Sandfield Macdonald the color of a reactionary, de- spite his place in the Reform party during most of his public life. Sir James Whitney, who studied law in Macdonald's office, used to say that he was by habit of mind Conservative rather than Liberal.*' Although Sandfield Macdonald's comments on Confederation revealed a waspish habit of speech, there was much humor which the solemn 1865 Assem- bly enjoyed. He attacked the Coalition Government then in power, and said its record would be as bad as that of 1854. "Who moved that the honorable gentlemen repre- senting the Liberal party should go into the Govern- ment?" asked Alexander Mackenzie, significantly. "I found they were going — that the honorable gentlemen had full speed and that nothing could restrain them," was the evasive reply. Annexation talk was prevalent in the Maritime Provinces at this time, and Sandfield Macdonald used this fact in arguing against Confederation. If an *The Fathers of Confederation, bv A. H. U. Colquhoun, P. 151. (Glasgow, Brook & Co.) 104 JOHN SANDFIELD MACDONALD attempt were made to coerce them to join Canada, he said, they would be like a damsel who is forced to marry against her will, and who would in the end be most likely to elope with someone else. "Sir," he added with dignijfied emphasis, "it has been my misfortune to have been nearly nineteen years of my political life in the cold shades of Opposition, but I am satisfied to stay an infinitely longer period on this side of the House if that shall be the effect of my contending for the views which I have expressed." Even the enactment of Confederation was slow to mellow Macdonald's opposition, though he became at once a Provincial Premier. On July 23, 1867, speak- ing at Greenwood, in South Ontario, he said the new constitution "would not remedy the evils complained of in the past, but would increase them." Macdonald's political position was anything but clear from his addresses at this time. "If the Con- servatives expected I would yield to them," he said at Greenwood, "they were mightily mistaken." He said he was the most obstinate man in existence except George Brown, and yielded his opinions to nobody. He would like to see "John A." or anybody else dictate to him the course he would follow.* Late in August, in his nomination speech at Corn- wall, Sandfield Macdonald spoke of the peaceful revo- lution in Canada as evidence of the high enlightenment of the people and of their eminent fitness for self-gov- ernment. He sincerely hoped there might be no cause to regret the step taken. He had said in the last *Th^ Globe, July 26, 1867. 105 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS session that "now that the change was accomplished, he would give all the aid he possibly could to the new constitution." When Sandfield Macdonald met the Legislature in the autumn of 1868 he startled the House with his radical program. He proposed and put through measures to abolish the property qualification for members of the Legislature to establish one-day elec- tions, increase free grants to settlers from 100 to 200 acres, and to sweep away legislative grants to sectarian institutions. Problems of drainage, boundary awards and settlement of accounts with Lower Canada crowd- ed on the Government during these early days of Ontario. As the years passed, the Premier was growing petulant and at times gave offence to deputations by his outspoken utterances. A famous instance is when a party of men from Strathroy asked for a grant and were met by the insolent query, "What the h — has Strathroy done for me?" In the elections of March, 1871, the Liberal Opposition made undoubted gains. They claimed to possess a majority, though the same claim was made by the Government. When the House met on December 7 there were eight vacancies, and Premier Macdonald played for time that these might be filled. The Opposition, however, saw their chance, and bombarded the Government with want of confi- dence motions. The Government were unequal to the struggle. Their railway subsidies were especially attacked, and four times they failed to secure a majority 106 JOHN SANDFIELD MACDONALD on divisions. Edward Blake, then Liberal leader, de- manded a declaration of policy with regard to the sur- plus, and said the country was crying out for its dis- posal. Alexander Mackenzie and Sandfield Macdon- ald indulged in recriminations as to whether the latter had betrayed the Reform party, and who was really the leader of that party. Macdonald said that he was "now and since 1867 had been denounced simply be- cause he organized his own party and manned his own ship." One of the Ministers, E. B. Wood, gave way under the storm and resigned, and finally on Decem- ber 19 the Premier announced that he and his col- leagues had handed in their resignations. Then, in a rather painful scene, as all recognized that the end of a long, useful public career had come, concurrently with physical weakness, the Premier "appealed to the honorable gentlemen opposite if he had said anything of a personal character in the heat of the debate which had given offence, he asked forgiveness now, as he had intended no offence and hoped that this would be ac- cepted as an apology, and if they were as ready to for- give as himself, it would be mutual." Edward Blake. succeeded to the Premiership of Ontario; Sandfield Macdonald retired to his home in Cornwall, where he died on June 1, 1872, his end hastened by the sting of defeat. He was buried among his beloved Highlanders. Sir James Whitney, as Premier of Ontario, speak- ing at the unveiling of a monument to John Sandfield Macdonald in Toronto, in November, 1909, said: 107 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS "Mr. Macdonald was a man of great force of char- acter and individuality. These were his dominant characteristics. Once he formed an opinion or came to a conclusion, it was not easy to turn him aside. Con- sequently party limitations and conditions galled him, and as a rule he went his own way and voted as he thought proper. The position he occupied in the politi- cal world was indeed unique." On the same occasion, The Globe, writing of Mr. Macdonald, for so long a political opponent, said: "It fell to Mr. Macdonald's lot to organize the public ser- vice of this Province and give direction to its legisla- tion. How well he did this work is best shown by the fact that the lines he laid down and the precedents he set have never since been greatly departed from." 108 LOWER CANADA SIR GEORGE E. CARTIER SIR ALEXANDER T. GALT THOMAS D'ARCY McGEE SIR A. A. DORION CHRISTOPHER DUNKIN SIR GEORGE ETIENNE CARTIER SIR GEORGE ETIENNE CARTTER SIR GEORGE ETIENNE CARTIER (1814-1873) SIR GEORGE ETIENNE CARTIER sprang from stock whose roots were thrust deep in Canadian soil. His family, who, according to legend, were col- lateral descendants of Jacques Cartier, the discoverer of Canada in 1534, had lived in the St. Lawrence valley for nearly two centuries. Their later home by the Richelieu was on the great secondary highway of the ancient regime. Here settled in 1672 the officers of the Carignan-Salieres regiment, their light blue uni- forms and courtly manners soon to give place to the homespun and the neutral tints of a pioneer life. Nearby Beloeil lifts its shadowy mass above a wide, flat landscape, and the Richelieu gurgles complain- ingly over the rapids at Chambly as if in distress for its lost prestige. Such an atmosphere naturally created in a youth a strong love of French Canada, his homeland. Cartier was to Lower Canada what Brown was to Upper Can- ada, a leader devoted to the interests of his own people, and who upheld them even at the cost of alienating the neighboring Province. Brown roused Upper Canada into resentment against the French-Canadians. Cartier resisted Brown's demands for representation by popu- lation until deadlock and coalition raised both above party warfare and Confederation resulted. While Brown declared the union of 1841 a failure and 113 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS demanded its repeal, Cartier as firmly defended it and insisted on the maintenance of equal representation. It is instructive to compare Cartier with a great French-Canadian of a later day. Cartier was fiery, impetuous, full of energy; Laurier is serene, dignified and quietly efficient. Cartier led his people to Confed- eration in face of powerful opposition, but supported by the clergy; Laurier led Quebec in 1896 for toleration, despite the influence of the Roman Catholic Church. Cartier plodded patiently through a codification of laws and promoted the construction of the Grand Trunk Railway; Laurier inspired a great immigration policy to fill Canada's waste spaces, and projected a second transcontinental railway to give breadth as well as length to the Dominion. Each was of Canadian stock of many generations, but each rose to the call of his time in his national and imperial duty. Cartier's day ended just as Laurier's sun appeared over the morning horizon. After bitterly resisting Brown's plan of representa- tion by population because, he said, it would be unjust to Lower Canada, Cartier joined hands with Brown in 1864 for the greater union of the British North Ameri- can colonies. For his vision and statesmanship he paid the usual price demanded by smaller minds. He was accused of inconsistency, but he replied that he did not regret his earlier decision. He was taunted with sacrificing his race, but he responded that he was safeguarding their nationality and their religion. He was opposed by influential men of both races in his own Province, until almost alone among the influential men, he carried the banner of union. 114 SIR GEORGE ETIENNE CARTIER Fortunately for Confederation, it was favored by the Roman Catholic authorities. That most conserva- tive influence now rallied to the side of British institu- tions, as against the dangers of American republicanism, just as it had rejected the overtures of Washington and D'Estaing during the American Revolution. Without Cartier's influence Confederation could not have carried in Lower Canada, at least without delay, and without Lower Canada it could not have become a fact. Cartier was honestly a convert to union at the hand of A. T. Gait. That champion of Protestantism gave a powerful speech for union in 1858. Cartier, who soon thereafter become Premier of United Can- ada, was so impressed he asked Gait to join his Cabinet. Gait did so on condition that union would become a Cabinet question. Cartier kept his word, and in 1859 made the first definite step towards union by despatch- ing a mission to England on the question, consisting of Gait, Ross* and himself. These delegates urged action by the Imperial authorities, but to their approaches the Maritime Provinces, save Newfound- land, responded that they were not yet ready to discuss the question. A network of electric and steam railways now pierces the alluvial valley of the Richelieu, once the highway of blood-thirsty Iroquois, and the home of Madeleine de Vercheres and her brave pioneer com- patriots. Walls of old stone windmills that creaked as they ground the habitants' grain still dot the landscape. *John Rose, (1818-71), President of Executive Council in the Cartier Administration, 1858, afterwards Speaker of the Senate. 115 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS It was here at St. Antoine that George Etienne Cartier was born on September 6, 1814. His grandfather, Jac- ques Cartier, was a man of some means, an exporter of wheat to Europe. The home was called "The House of Seven Chimneys," and in it centred the social life of the community. Here gathered the thrifty, simple-living habitants and joined in folk songs, such as "A la Claire Fontaine," luring, if weird, compositions that prevail to this day in Quebec, and constitute the only Canadian folk songs worthy the name. Cartier, even in his later years, had a good singing voice, and his own contribu- tion to the music of his country, "O Canada, Mon Pays, Mes Amours," written at the age of twenty, is still a popular song in his Province. Cartier's father was a man of genial spirit and his mother a woman of intelligence and piety. They realized the advantages of education, and when George was in his tenth year he was sent to the Montreal College, where he remained for seven years, graduating in law in 1835. At this time Lower Canada was aflame with the agitation for responsible government which culmin- ated in the rebellion of 1837. The magnetic Papineau* was the hero of hundreds of eager young minds. Cartier was soon to fall under his spell and take up the campaign against the conduct of the Governor and the Executive Council. Popular demonstrations against the authorities began in the spring of 1837, even the sedate Louis Hippolyte Lafontaine declaring: *Louis Joseph Papineau, (1786-70), a tribune of the people in Lower Canada, whose agitation against executive tyranny resulted in rebellion in 1837, followed bj an inquiry and the granting of responsible government. 116 SIR GEORGE ETIENNE CARTIER "Everyone in the colony is discontented; we have demanded reforms and not obtained them; it is time to be up and doing." The Sons of Liberty had attracted the impetuous support of Cartier in the 1834 elections, and he became the bard of the movement, composing the song, "Avant tout je suis Canadien" ("Before all I am a Canadian"). It v^ill thus be seen that French-Canadian indifference to the outside world is of long duration. Cartier, however, lived to be a rigid constitutionalist and stout champion of British connection. Indeed, he never admitted his part in the rebellion of 1837 was due to antipathy to Britain, but rather to the tyrannical government which then pre- vailed in Canada. Dr. Wolfred Nelson became the militant head of the rebellion in Lower Canada. He was a Montrealer, of English origin, 6 feet 4 inches tall and generally popular. In the skirmishes on the Richelieu Cartier was his aide, and at the fight at St. Denis brought reinforcements across the river. When the uprising failed Cartier fled towards the American boundary and later to Plattsburg, N.Y., whence he returned a few years later when the "patriots" had been forgiven. A man of Cartier's ardent temperament was quick to attach himself to a worthy cause, and Papineau hav- ing ceased to ht a political factor he allied himself in the early 'forties with Lafontaine, who, with Robert Baldwin, was called on to form a government — a responsible government — in 1848. This was, as F. D. Monk has said, "the blessed day of the birth of free gov- ernment for our country, the true birth of our nation."* ♦Speech at Montreal at laying of corner stone of Lafontaine mon- ument, June 24, 1908. 117 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS Cartier was now 34 years old, a successful lawyer, and a man of boundless energy. He had already worked on the fringe of politics, and in 1848 was elected to Parliament for the constituency of Vercheres. He entered the Assembly the next year, in time for the bitter debates over the Rebellion Losses Bill, ending in the burning of the Parliament buildings at Montreal on April 25. Cartier took little part in this struggle, and he was not one of the signers of the manifesto favoring annexation to the United States which was prepared that year by prominent Montreal men in their Gethsemane of political disappointment. Respon- sible government had been secured, and the next reform sought was the abolition of seigniorial tenure. Cartier supported Baldwin and Lafontaine in this cause, which finally triumphed in 1854. From then on, Cartier was almost steadily in office until his death. His law practice had given him a financial foundation and enabled him to live up to one of his beliefs that "property is the element which should govern the world." The all but universal suf- frage which prevailed in the United States was to him a matter of abhorrence. He joined the MacNab- T^che Government in 1855 as Provincial Secretary, and in 1857 became Lower Canada's leader in the Macdon- ald-Cartier Cabinet. During this period of prosaic service Cartier, while not himself a great jurist, carried through the codification of the civil laws and laws of procedure of Lower Canada, a work of several years and of the utmost value in a country of diverse races. When this task was completed in 1864 Cartier rose like 118 SIR GEORGE ETIENNE CARTIER a weary Titan and said: "I desire no better epitaph than this : *He accomplished the civil code.' " His effort to pass a militia bill providing for an active force of 500,000 to drill 28 days per year savored too much of militarism even in 1862, w^hen Canada was threat- ened from the warring republic to the south. The Gov- ernment was defeated on the issue and resigned. In the great transportation movement of the day, the building of the Grand Trunk Railway, Cartier took an aggressive part, corresponding to that of Sir Charles Tupper with the Canadian Pacific a generation later, or of Sir Wilfrid Laurier with the Grand Trunk Pacific in 1903. In 1852 he presented two acts in the Legisla- ture, one to incorporate the Grand Trunk Railway Company, to build between Toronto and Montreal, and the other to incorporate a company to construct a railway from opposite Quebec to Trois Pistoles, and for the extension of such railway to the eastern boundary of the Province. As early as 1846 he had been an ardent advocate of railway building, and in 1849 said, with vision : "There is no time to be lost in the completion of the St. Lawrence and Atlantic road if we wish to secure for ourselves the commerce of the West." During the construction of the Grand Trunk the company's credit on several occasions became danger- ously low, and Cartier led in the agitations for aid. For several years he was the company's legal adviser, but to criticism of this anomalous position for a Cabinet Minister he replied that the company was too poor to pay even a dividend. 119 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS Anyone familiar with lumbering operations in Canada knows the nature of a log jam. Timber dumped into a river floats down stream freely until it strikes an obstacle, when the logs pile up and make a blockade and seemingly hopeless confusion, only to be cleared when the "key log" is removed. The events leading up to the early 'sixties in Canadian politics may be likened to a log jam. Political cliques and the dominance of small issues, quarrels and jealousies between leaders, stagnation in public business — all these created a hopeless situation that called for decisive treatment. Men of outlook in all parties saw the solu- tion in a revolution which would bring about the union of the British American Provinces. Where was the "key log" of this confused situation? It was found in the idea of a coalition which was proposed and realized in 1864. George Brown had been pressing for years for representation by population, as Upper Canada was increasing much more rapidly than her sister Province, but to all these appeals Cartier turned a stony heart. "Has Upper Canada conquered Lower Canada?" he asked in 1858, and added, menacingly, "Lower Can- ada will adopt other political institutions before sub- mitting to such a motion as that of the member for Toronto" (Brown). In 1861 Cartier admitted that Upper Canada had 400,000 to 500,000 more population than Lower Canada, and if that progressive increase continued, it might be necessary to modify the nature of the union, but a year later, in a fiery reply to a similar demand from Upper Canada, he said he and John A. Macdonald were in agreement on the question and they 120 SIR GEORGE ETIENNE CARTIER "demanded the support of this House to maintain that equality which is the only foundation of the union." Cartier's obstinate rejection of Upper Canada's demands made the finding of the key log in the legis- lative jam all the more urgent. It came when Brown offered to join with any government to put union on the legislative program. Cartier, the "little corporal" of Lower Canadian politics, the defender of the most con- servative element in the two Canadas, the man who had gone to Ontario in 1863 to boldly challenge Brown and expound the French-Canadian viewpoint in the enemy's country — Cartier laid down his arms and entered into the negotiations which resulted in the coalition government. This resolution on the part of violent opponents to work together- for the common good, though an inspiring spectacle in the light of history, created astonishment and resentment among people who were too near great events to appreciate their significance. For the moment, however, the feeling of relief at the breaking of the deadlock overcame opposition, and the preliminaries to Confederation proceeded with des- patch. The memorandum sent by Cartier and his colleagues to the Colonial Secretary in 1858 asking for Imperial sanction of union was the first practical step. This had been followed by Brown's alternative plan to federalize United Canada by two or more local governments, with some joint authority to control matters common to both Provinces. When the issue was finally forced in 1864, Cartier's importance was derived largely from his power in Lower Canada, 121 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS though in framing the resolutions he was a weighty fac- tor in securing a federal rather than a legislative union. Sir Richard Cartwright, speaking in Parliament in 1881, acknowledged the services of Cartier in these words : "I believe that, save one other man, he (Cartier) did more, he risked more, he sacrificed more to bring about Confederation than any other man in Canada. The only man who risked as much and sacrificed as much as he did was the late Hon. George Brown. To these two gentlemen, I believe, the Confederation of these Provinces was largely due, and I am bound to say that to both of them, in that respect, this country owes a great debt of gratitude." Cartier joined his Canadian colleagues in attend- ing the Charlottetown and Quebec Conferences in 1 864. It is doubtful if any of them fully realized the full meaning of their mission as their steamer sailed into Charlottetown harbor that September morning, bear- ing Canadians to confer with the delegates from the Maritime Provinces. Before they returned, however, Cartier, speaking at a banquet, expressed the hope that there would result from their deliberations "a great con- federation which will be to the benefit of all and the dis- advantage of none." It is a part of the history of the period that the new idea was not quickly adopted, and, magnificent as was the vision of the eloquent promoters, years passed in the Maritime Provinces before union was sanctioned by the people. At the Halifax banquet a few days later Cartier reached a high note. 122 • SIR GEORGE ETIENNE CARTIER "We can form a vigorous confederation whilst leaving the provincial governments to regulate local affairs," he said. "There are no obstacles which human wisdom cannot overcome. All that is needed to triumph is a strong will and a noble ambition. When I think of the great nation we could constitute if all the pro- vinces were organized under a single government, I seem to see arise a great Anglo-American power. The Provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia repre- sent the arms of the national body embracing the com- merce of the Atlantic. No other will furnish a finer head to this giant body than Prince Edward Island, and Canada will be the trunk of this immense creation. The two Canadas extending far westward will bring into Confederation a vast portion of the western terri- tory." Though the Premier of Canada, Sir E. P. Tache, presided at the Quebec Conference, Cartier was a more influential figure from Lower Canada. In forming the resolutions, Cartier's master stroke, says John Boyd, his biographer, was in securing a federal instead of a legislative union, which would have swamped French- Canadian interests. His own view was for double chambers in the provinces, while Brown favored single chambers. As a consequence Ontario has a single chamber Legislature while Quebec followed Cartier's idea. The heavy artillery in the great Confederation fight in the Canadian Parliament in 1865 was soon brought into action. Macdonald, Brown and Cartier were early speakers, but they did not have it all their 123 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS own way. Powerful debaters took the opposite yiew, though the union cause succeeded after seven weeks. Cartier's speech was one of his greatest efforts. He spoke in French and occupied three hours. He defended his opposition to representation by population and said perpetual political conflict would have fol- lowed its enactment. On the other hand, he did not fear for French-Canadian interests under Confederation, even though in a general legislature they would have a smaller representation than all other nationalities combined. He saw dangers in the war then going on in the United States, and said: "We must either have a confederation of British North America or be absorbed by the American union." The duties of defence, he pointed out, could not be freely carried out without a confederation. Then followed a declaration showing the strong loyalty of the man who less than 30 years before had borne arms against the Canadian authorities : "Is the confederation of the British North Ameri- can Provinces necessary to increase our power and to maintain the ties which attach us to the mother country? As far as I am concerned I do not doubt it." The rejec- tion of the temptations of Washington in 1775, he showed, was "because the French-Canadians understood that they would preserve intact their institutions, their language and their religion by adhesion to the British Crown." "If Canada," he added, "is still a portion of the British Empire, it is due to the conservative policy of the French-Canadian clergy." 124 ..• SIR GEORGE ETIENNE CARTIER Cartier went on to say — and it is a statement worth recalling in later days of racial differences — that the clergy of Lower Canada were favorable to Confedera- tion. "Those of the clergy who are high in authority, as well as those in humbler positions, have declared for Confederation not only because they see in it all pos- sible security for the institutions which they cherish, but also because their Protestant fellow-countrymen, like themselves, are also guaranteed their rights." All was going well for the union cause, but shadows lay ahead. The trouble makers for Cartier were A. A. Dorion, L. H. Holton, L. S. Huntington, Christopher Dunkin and other influential Lower Can- adian members, from all wings of the Assembly, who strongly opposed Confederation. Dorion and Holton did not oppose the principle of union, but declared the time not yet ripe. Holton denounced the scheme as one which would "plunge the country into measureless debt, into difficulties and convulsions utterly unknown to the present constitutional system." While he would not despair of his country, he looked, if union carried, for "a period of calamity, a period of tribulation, such as it has never heretofore known." Henri Gustave Joly opposed the scheme because he believed it would be fatal to French-Canadian unity, while others accused Cartier of having surrendered to George Brown, who was pictured as the inveterate enemy of the race. H. E. Tachereau of Beauce, although elected a Government supporter, opposed the union as "a death-blow to our nationality, which was beginning to take root on the soil of British North America." 125 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS Public meetings in the Province followed, in an endeavor to rouse opinion against union, and in these Dorion was joined by L. A. Jette, afterwards Lieuten- ant-Governor of Quebec, L. O. David, now a Domin- ion Senator, and others. The opposition only confirmed Cartier in his determination. After the resolutions had been adopted in both Houses he joined Macdonald, Brown and Gait in a mission to England to discuss Confederation, defence, reciprocity and other matters. In a speech in London, he said: "We desire the adoption of Confederation, not only to increase our prosperity and our strength, but also to be in a better position to participate in the defence of the British Empire." Another ministerial visit to England was necessary at the end of 1866 to frame the British North Ameri- ca Act, and on their return in 1867 Cartier in a speech at Montreal made public the important fact that the Canadian constitution had been approved and con- firmed by the British Parliament in the form in which it was drawn by the delegates. This represented a long step in colonial self-government. Cartier said: " 'The Canadians,' said the English Ministers, 'come to us with a finished constitution, the result of an entente cordiale between themselves, and after mature discussion of their interests and their needs. They are the best judges of what will be suitable to them. Do not change what they have done; sanction their federation.' Yes, that is the spirit in which' England received our demand. We required her sanc- 126 SIR GEORGE ETIENNE CARTIER tion; she gave it, without hesitation, without wishing to interfere in our work."* During a visit to England in 1868 Cartier supple- mented this declaration in a speech at the Royal Col- onial Institute when he said: "It is a great source — I will not say of pride — but a great source of encouragement, to the public men who then took part in that great scheme, that it was adopted by the English Government and by the English Parlia- ment, without, I may say, a word of alteration." When Confederation honors were bestowed in 1867 Cartier declined to accept the proffered C. B., declaring it to be insufficient and therefore a slight to him as a representative of one of the two great Provinces of Confederation. Considerable feeling was aroused in Quebec, and shortly afterwards, on the intervention of Dr. Tupper, Cartier was made a baronet. The irony of it was that he had to borrow the money needed to pay the fees in connection with the decoration. The elections of 1867 confirmed Quebec in her acceptance of Confederation. Opponents of union main- tained their campaign before voting, but Cartier was strongly supported by the Roman Catholic ecclesiastics, both high and low, who threw the scale, as on previous occasions, in favor of British rule and against any danger of republicanism. Out of 65 seats in the Pro- vince the anti-unionists secured only 12. Cartier was now Minister of Militia and Defence in the first Con- federation Cabinet, and was one of Sir John A. Macdon- ald's most trusted colleagues. He was a potent force ♦Sir George Etienne Cartier, Bart, by John Boyd, P. 275. 127 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS in the construction of the Intercolonial Railway, that much delayed highway, and contended for the adop- tion of the northern, or Bay de Chaleur, route, both for commercial and military reasons. His organization of the Canadian defence prevailed, with additions, until the outbreak of the great war in 1914. Cartier accompanied William McDougall, a colleague, to England in 1868 when the negotiation for the purchase of the Hudson's Bay territory, now com- prising the great prairie Provinces of the West, from the Hudson's Bay Company, was carried out success- fully. Owing to McDougall's illness, the bulk of the work fell on Cartier. This was one of the last of the French-Canadian leader's great undertakings. He had much to do with the legislation connected with the Pacific Railway scheme in 1872, and introduced the bill providing for grants of 50,000,000 acres of land and $30,000,000 in cash, but before it was implemented he had broken down with an attack of Bright's disease and sought treatment by London specialists. In the election of 1872 Cartier suffered a crushing defeat by L. A. Jette, a rising young French-Canadian, whom he flouted by saying his conduct was "bold and foolhardy." Cartier's aggressiveness on this occasion, his trouble with the Church over a minor internal matter, and dis- satisfaction over his supposed desertion of the Catholics of New Brunswick, when non-sectarian schools were established there, brought disaster. In the hour of his humiliation he was forced to accept the seat of Proven- 128 SIR GEORGE ETIENNE CARTIER chcr in Manitoba at the hand of Louis Riel, the rebel leader of two years previous. Cartier reached London in October, 1872, and was encouraged to believe he would soon recover. His let- ters to Sir John A. Macdonald and others were full of hope and even defiance. The old lion was cornered but not cowed. In April the Pacific Scandal storm broke at Ottawa, and its thunder and lightning reached the sick room in London. Cartier was politically seriously com- promised by the charges. He had been an intimate of, and intermediary with, Sir Hugh Allan, head of the railway syndicate, who, as was proved in the inquiry, had contributed $350,000 to the Conservative campaign fund, and thousands of it had gone to Cartier's war chest, though his personal honesty was never called in question. He could not leave for Ottawa ; he could not meet the charges in London. He was marooned and condemned. He died on May 20, 1873, a broken- hearted man. Among Cartier's associates there was genuine sor- row at his passing, but party feeling at the climax of the scandal charges prevented crocodile tears from his political opponents. His body was brought to Montreal and given an imposing public funeral, after which his former colleagues had to return to their own defence. There was pathos in the death of Cartier. He had given his life to the service of his country. For thirty- five years he had been in politics. Much of that time he had labored incessantly, at high pressure for long hours. Nature had gifted him richly for administra- tive work, and leisurely colleagues were ever ready to 129 9 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS use him as a pack-horse. His body was the embodiment of nervous force and energy, his expression was one of vivacity and animation. The "little man in a hurry" was of medium height, strong and robust, of ruddy com- plexion, fastidious in dress and commonly wearing the Prince Albert coat affected by public men of his day. His courage was unbounded, his temperament dominat- ing and absolute. His wife, a daughter of Edward Raymond Fabrc, of Montreal, a woman of piety and devotion to her family of three daughters, survived until 1898. Cartier stands as the representative of the masses of Lower Canada at the critical hour of Confedera- tion. A Catholic and strong champion of his race, he was tolerant and even popular with Protestants. His vision marked him a nation builder, his strategy enhanced his power as a parliamentarian, his faithful performance of prosaic routine earned the gratitude of a nation in its birth throes. 130 SIR ALEXANDER T. GALT fM Hr IP' \M ^k'^'i^ky ^■H H B^^^^H^^^HHi ^^Mi£ SIR ALEXANDER T. GALT SIR ALEXANDER T. GALT (1817-1893) SIR ALEXANDER TILLOCH GALT was a reservoir of ideas, a peerless exponent of finance and the first man to force Confederation into practical poli- tics in Canada. As a father of protection, he penned a declaration of fiscal independence in 1859 which is one of the country's steps in self-government. As the first Canadian High Commissioner in London, he blazed a new Imperial trail and proclaimed sentiments of loyalty which effaced the annexation ideas of his early manhood. Throughout his public career he was the champion of the Protestants of Quebec, and when he felt their rights were prejudiced he resigned as Minister of Finance in 1866. His constructive ability com- manded general admiration, but fickleness and indepen- dence robbed him of the fame and influence he de- served. Gait's portly, erect form was familiar for a quarter century of public life, during which he coun- selled various leaders and supported different min- istries, but he never lost the respect of the people. His was the generous, amiable personality of a robust, healthy man. He was a sincere and earnest speaker, with a well-modulated voice and an amazing mastery of facts, but he was not an orator. His diction was simple, without flowers of eloquence, but was rather the cold, colorless language of the economist. 133 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS Gait was essentially a practical man in politics. He left a successful business and put at his country's service a financial expertness rare in public life. Wc think of Quebec as old and long settled, but Gait played a large part in colonizing the Eastern Townships in the 'thirties and 'forties of last century. His father, John Gait, the Scottish novelist, from whom he inher- ited his rich mental qualities, had preceded him in the land business, being the founder and Commissioner of the Canada Company, which colonized large tracts of the "Queen's Bush" between Toronto and Lake Huron and founded Guelph and Goderich. Alexander Gait was born in London on September 6, 1817, and came to Canada in 1834, as a junior clerk in the British American Land Company at Sherbrookc. He rose step by step until in 1844 he became Commis- sioner of the Company. He found its affairs in con- fusion, and by his ability and understanding brought them to order and prosperity. His business success attracted notice and in 1849 he was elected to Parlia- ment for the County of Sherbrooke. He sat through the stormy session of 1849, when the Parliament Buildings in Montreal were burned, after the passage of the Rebellion Losses Bill. This seemed to sicken young Gait of politics for the time, for he retired to private life. It was in 1849 that a group of influential Lower Canadians issued a manifesto favoring annexation to the United States. A. T. Gait was one of the signers of this document. It is easy now to condemn such an extreme view of the country's future, but Canadian 134 SIR ALEXANDER GALT prosperity was then endangered by the adoption of free trade by Britain in 1846, and Canadian pride was hurt by the indifference of British statesmen to their colonies. It was then the fashion in Britain to say the colonies cost more than they were worth. Gait was influenced, too, by a desire to secure relief from the domination of the Catholic Church. During the next four years Gait became President of the St. Lawrence & Atlantic Ry., extricated it from its difficulties by amalgamation with the Grand Trunk Ry., and participated in the construction of the Grand Trunk from Toronto to Sarnia. From 1852 to 1859 he was a director of the G.T.R. By 1853 he was back in Parliament, where he found scope for his talents in financial, trade and commercial questions. Upon the fall of the Brown-Dorion Government in 1858, Sir Edmund Head, impressed by Gait's striking speech that year in favor of a federal union, asked him to form a Cabinet, but, realizing that his independent course, while spectacular, left him without a following, he declined. George E. Cartier, who was called on at Gait's suggestion, took Gait as Minister of Finance, promising to adopt federal union as a Cabinet policy. The great issue of the time thus became a practical one. Before tracing more in detail Gait's contribution to Confederation, it is instructive to note his services in forming Canada's financial policy. His first duty in taking office in 1858 was to restore the shattered finances of United Canada. Revenues were low and expenses high. It was his opportunity. Cayley,* his ♦William Cayley, Inspector-General of Canada, 1845-48 and 1854-58. 135 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS predecessor, had been induced by Isaac Buchanan of Hamilton, the leading figure in the Association for the Promotion of Canadian Industry, to give protection in the tariff to several manufacturing industries. Gait went farther in 1859 and raised the tariff from 15 to 20 per cent, on unenumerated articles. The object of this tariff, he told the House on March 18, v^as "to encourage the industrial portion of the community and to equally distribute the taxes necessary for revenue purposes." He ridiculed the idea that British connec- tion would be endangered, but before many months his policy had made trouble in the old country and in the United States. An American commission reported in 1860 that they were strongly impressed with the lack of good faith shown towards the United States by Gait's policy, and Edward Porritt avers that feeling was so strong that even without the Alabama case, the St. Albans raid and other episodes, the reciprocity treaty would not have survived a day longer than it did.* If the United States was angry and retaliatory, the mother country was sullenly acquiescent. Sir Edmund Head, in forwarding the new tariff to the Colonial Secretary, was somewhat apologetic. "I must necessarily leave the representatives of the people in Parliament," he wrote, "to adopt the mode of raising supplies which they believe to be most beneficial to their constituents." Merchants of Sheffield protested against the new tariff and asked the British Government to discounten- *Sixty Years of Protection in Canada, by Edward Porritt (Mac- millan Co.) P. 144. 136 SIR ALEXANDER GALT ance it as "a system condemned by reason and experi- ence." The Duke of Newcastle, in forwarding the protest, regretted that the law had been passed, but said he would probably have no other course than to signify the Queen's assent to it. The Duke was right, as he was pointedly told by Gait in the return mail. "The Government of Canada," Gait wrote, "acting for its Legislature and people, cannot, through those feelings of deference which they owe to the Imperial authorities, in any measure waive or diminish the right of the people of Canada to decide for themselves both as to the mode and extent to which taxation shall be im- posed. . . . Self-government would be utterly annihilated if the views of the Imperial Government were to be preferred to those of the people of Canada. It is, therefore, the duty of the present Government dis- tinctly to affirm the right of the Canadian Legislature to adjust the taxation of the people in the way they deem best — even if it unfortunately should happen to meet with the disapproval of the Imperial Ministry. Her Majesty cannot be advised to disallow such acts unless her advisers are prepared to assume the administration of the affairs of the colony irrespective of the views of its inhabitants." Another important achievement by Gait at this time was the introduction into Canada in 1858 of the decimal currency system, which replaced the pounds, shillings and pence of the motherland. There had been discussion of union of the British American Provinces for years, but Gait forced the issue 137 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS by his speech in the Assembly at Toronto on July 6, 1858. He then outlined roughly the plan of union which was subsequently adopted. He declared that unless a union was formed the Province of Canada would inevitably drift into the United States. He saw merits in the union of the two Canadas, which had organized municipal government, settled the clergy reserves and seigniorial tenure questions, and made the Legislative Council elective. Yet the present Govern- ment, the strongest for several years, were unable to carry their measures. The present system could not go on, it was necessary to change the constitution, to adopt the federal principle. Questions of religion and race now promoted disunion. If they adopted the federal principle each section of the union might adopt what- ever views it regarded as proper for itself. Canada, he said, looking to the future, was the foremost colony of the foremost empire of the world. But in five months they had disposed of measures that should have been passed in as many weeks. They had not been able to take up the great subject of the Hudson's Bay Company, and unless they extended themselves east and west and made one great northern confederation they must be content to fall into the arms of the neigh- boring federation. Was it nothing to them to control all this Hudson's Bay territory? Such a thing was never known before that a continent ten times as large as Canada was oflfered to a state. He desired to see a wide and grand system of federation for the British North American colonies. He believed a universal desire pre- vailed that we should be no longer a colony — that wc 138 SIR ALEXANDER GALT were fit for the dignity of nationhood. And to such an aspiration no bar was offered by the Imperial authority. He had no proclivities for office, he said. He only wished to see the necessary policy for the country adopted, and he would give his best support to any government who would carry out those principles. Gait presented a resolution favoring federation, in part as follows : "It is therefore the opinion of this House that the union of Upper with Lower Canada should be changed from a legislative to a federative union by the subdivi- sion of the Province into two or more divisions, each governing itself in local and sectional matters, with a general legislature and government for subjects of national and common interest." He also proposed : "That a general confederation of the Provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island with Canada and the western territories is most desirable and calculated to promote their several and united interests by preserving to each Province the language control, management of its pecu- liar institutions and of those internal matters respecting which differences of opinion might arise with other members of the confederation, while it will increase that identity of feeling which pervades the possessions of the British Crown in North America." Strange to say, this clear-cut program attracted little notice at the time. George Brown said he pre- ferred representation by population, but failing that he would take federal union of the Canadas. A little later 139 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS Gait entered Cartier's Cabinet, taking with him the policy of federation. Cartier, in announcing his Cabinet's program, gave definite form to the policy when he declared : "The expediency of a federal union of the British North American Provinces will be anxiously consid- ered, and communications with the Home Government and the Lower Provinces entered into forthwith on this subject." At this time the climax of the deadlock had not been reached, but political rivalries and racial jealousies were fast bringing about an impasse. There were able men in plenty in public life, but the inequalities between Upper and Lower Canada were causing ill-feeling and anxiety, with no solution in sight. Cartier implemented his promise, and with Gait and John Ross went to England. Their memorandum to the Colonial Secre- tary, Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, urged confederation on grounds peculiar to Canada and considerations affecting the interests of the other colonies and the whole empire. It referred to the demand for increased representation for Upper Canada, which had resulted in "an agitation fraught with great danger to the peace- ful and harmonious working of our constitutional sys- tem, and consequently detrimental to the progress of the Province." The memorandum set forth the desir- ability of uniting Canada, the Maritime Provinces and Newfoundland, and added : "The population, trade and resources of all these Provinces have so rapidly increased of late years, and the removal of trade restrictions has made them in so 140 SIR ALEXANDER GALT great a degree self-sustaining, that it appears to the Government of Canada exceedingly important to bind still more closely the ties of their common allegiance to the British Crown, and to obtain for general purposes such an identity of legislation as may serve to consoli- date their growing powers, thus raising in the British Empire an important federation on the North Ameri- can continent." Little encouragement followed this formal appeal. The Colonial Secretary showed no enthusiasm for the union, and writing a month later said the Imperial Gov- ernment could go no further at present, as they had received a reply on the subject from only one Province. Other events were to move the union scheme for- ward, and Mr. Gait found his opportunity first as a diplomat in arranging the coalition and afterwards as a Canadian delegate to the Charlottetown Conference. He was one of the Ministers to sail on the Queen Vic- toria, the ship of destiny freighted with the inarticu- lated hopes of a nation yet to be. Gait's unique powers as an exponent of finance were never used to better advantage than here. At that momentous gathering, called to discuss "the reunion of the Maritime Pro- vinces," as Tupper had aptly phrased it. Gait made an impressive address. "The financial position of Canada," says John Hamilton Gray, the delegate-historian of the Confeder- ation Conference, of Gait's speech, "was contrasted with the other Provinces, their several sources of wealth, their comparative increases, the detrimental way in 141 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS which their conflicting tariffs operated to each othcr*s disadvantage, the expansion of their commerce, the ex- pansion of their manufactures, and the development of the various internal resources that would be fostered by a further increase of trade and a greater unity of inter- est, were pointed out with great power by Mr. Gait in a speech of three hours. Statistics were piled upon sta- tistics, confirming his various positions and producing a marked effect upon the convention. It might almost be said of him on this occasion as was once said of Pope, though speaking of figures in a different sense : " 'He lisped in numbers — for the numbers came.' "* From now on, for the next two years, Gait was a virile leader in promoting the cause of union. At the Quebec Conference he played an important part in finally adjusting the financial relations of the Provinces under the union scheme, a point which at one time brought deadlock and almost wrecked the convention. At a banquet during the Quebec Conference Gait pro- phesied great prosperity as a result of Confederation, pointing to the enormous free trade area of the United States as an object lesson in promoting commerce. At Sherbrooke, on November 23 of the same year, in an important speech. Gait defended the union of 1841 as far as it had gone, and held that the concession of representation by population would be attended by a dangerous agitation. The Provinces of British North America, if united, he said, would form a power on the northern half of the continent "which would be able to make itself respected, and which he trusted would ^Confederation, by John Hamilton Gray, P. 31. 142 SIR ALEXANDER GALT furnish hereafter happy and prosperous homes to many millions of the industrial classes from Europe now struggling for existence." "By a union with the Maritime Provinces," he added, "we should be able to strike a blow on sea, and, like the glorious old mother country, carry our flag in triumph over the waters of the great ocean." If Gait meant the creation of a Canadian navy or a Canadian wing of the British navy, history has shown him too optimistic on that one point. In this speech Gait also upheld the rights of the minority in education in all Provinces, rights which he said must be protected in the new constitution. Mr. Gait made one of the important speeches dur- ing the Confederation debates in 1865, when in his thor- ough manner he discussed the economics of the situa- tion. He quoted the trade returns of the various Pro- vinces in 1863 as follows: Total exports and imports — Canada, $87,795,000 or $35 per head; New Brunswick, $16,729,680, or $66 per head ; Nova Scotia, $18,622,359, or $56 per head; Prince Edward Island, $3,055,568 or $37 per head; Newfoundland $11,245,032 or $86 per head; a total of $137,447,567. These figures compared with the total trade of the Dominion of Can- ada of over Wo billion dollars in 1916 — much of it, it is true, a forced development from the war — are a flashlight on the success which has followed Confeder- ation, at least in that direction. Gait foresaw much of this growth and in a passage in this speech gave rein to his imagination : 143 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS "Possessing as we do in the far western part of Canada perhaps the most fertile wheat-growing tracts on this continent, in central and eastern Canada facili- ties for manufacturing such as cannot anjrwhere be sur- passed, and in the eastern or Maritime Provinces an abundance of that most useful of all minerals, coal, as well as the most magnificent and valuable fisheries in the world; extending as this country does over two thousand miles, traversed by the finest navigable river in the world, we might well look forward to our future with hopeful anticipation of seeing the realization not merely of what we have hitherto thought would be the commerce of Canada, great as that might become, but to the possession of Atlantic ports which we should help to build to a position equal to that of the chief cities of the American continent." The spade work for Confederation in Canada had now been done, though much remained as yet to recon- cile Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Gait had his part in the mission to London in 1865. All was then smooth, but in August, 1866, he startled the country by resigning as Finance Minister on the determination of the Government not to proceed with the Lower Canada education bill. This bill was promoted by the Protes- tant minority of Lower Canada, and the Roman Catho- lic majority would not permit it to pass unless a simi- lar bill with reference to the Roman Catholic minority in Upper Canada was also enacted. John A. Mac- donald, in voicing the Government's position, said the policy advocated for the minorities would give the 144 V . SIR ALEXANDER GALT Maritime Provinces an unfortunate spectacle of two Houses divided against themselves. "Instead of a double majority," he said, "we should have a double minority." Notwithstanding his resignation from the Cabinet, Gait's abilities were requisitioned for the final stages of the Confederation bill, and he accompanied the Min- isterial delegation to England in the fall of 1866 to draft the B. N, A. Act. He entered the first Confedera- tion Cabinet as Minister of Finance and, like Cartier, revolted at the proffered C. B. as insufficient recogni- tion for his services, and was subsequently, in 1869, made a K. C. M. G. His tractability was of short dura- tion. In November, 1867, he resigned from the Cabinet, and there has always been an air of mystery as to the cause. Sir John Rose, who succeeded him, told friends that he found the business of the Depart- ment in ragged shape, so far as preparing for the next Budget was concerned, a fact which might indicate irresolution for some time. The correspondence sub- sequently made public shows that he resented the refusal of his colleagues to go to the rescue of the Commercial Bank, in which he was heavily interested. His letter of November 3 to Sir John Macdonald affirms his decision to "withdraw from official life until at least I have had the opportunity of putting my affairs in something like order."* The portfolio of Finance was again offered him in 1869 if he would renounce his views in favor of the independence of Canada, but he declined. Gait then ♦Sir John A. Macdonald: A Memoir, by Joseph Pope, Vol. II, P.5. 145 10 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS went into opposition to Sir John Macdonald, who recip- rocated the opposition with the utmost heartiness. Writing to Sir John Rose on February 23, 1870, Sir John said : "Gait has come out, I am glad to say, formally in opposition and relieved me of the difficulty connected with him. . . . He is now finally dead as a Can- adian politician." Gait was, however, far from dead and buried. In 1876, in a letter to Senator James Ferrier, he criticized Macdonald for his connection with the Pacific Scandal. The Conservative chieftain, then in defeat and dejec- tion, expressed the anger of a man wounded in the house of a friend, and responded half-heartedly to approaches for a renewal of friendship. A year later the Macken- zie Government used Gait's diplomacy with good result on the Fisheries Commission at Halifax, and in 1880 Sir John Macdonald made him the first Canadian High Commissioner to Great Britain, declaring him to be "the most available man for the position." To Gait, however, the post was a disappointment, as he felt he was little more than an emigration agent. He resigned in 1883. In a speech in London on January 25, 1881, Gait admonished the old country for not enter- ing upon a policy of settling her people in the Domin- ions. His words have a strange flavor of the year 1917. "I speak now," he said, "not of Canada alone, but of her sister colonies as well, when I affirm that within the limits of the British Empire everything required by civilized man can be produced as well as in the whole of the rest of the world; while if facility of access be 146 SIR ALEXANDER GALT taken into account Canada stands on more than an equal footing with her great riral, the United States. . . Can- ada is now doing her part in the effort to colonize British North America, and it rests with the Govern- ment and the people of England to do theirs." Gait's last ten years of life were spent in compara- tive retirement, interrupted by business investments in coal lands in western Canada. His death in Montreal on September 19, 1893, from cancer cvf the throat, fol- lowed a long illness. Sir Alexander Gait's death drew praise from far and wide for his services in shaping the young Canadian nation. He brought to the councils of State a clear mind, an alert business judgment, and an indepen- dent character. He left the memory of a sturdy, lovable man whose services were generous and unselfish, and who was too big to be controlled for sinister political purposes. 147 THOMAS D'ARCY McGEE THOMAS D'ARCY IVIcGEE THOMAS D'ARCY McGEE (1825-1868) MANY and various types of strong men were neces- sary to the attainment of Confederation. A political crusader like Brown, a human lubricant like J. A. Macdonald, an intellectual diplomat like Gait, or a stern fighter like Tupper could not alone accom- plish this peaceful evolution. Thomas D'Arcy McGee was a type apart in the select company of the Fathers. He was young Ireland incarnate, and brought to his service in Canada the mind of a poet and the ideas of a mellowed revolutionary. He carried his enthusiasm for union from province to province until his eloquent appeals fired the lagging decisions of men of less vision, and Confederation became inevitable. McGee's life was a strange vindication of the Bri- tish Government he was born to hate. He was raised in an atmosphere which "saw red" at the mere mention of England. He carried this hatred to the United States and later settled in Canada, where he lived and died a sedate constitutionalist and loyal citizen. His martyrdom was the fruit of his own development, but were he consulted he no doubt would have died gladly for the principles he then held so dear. When warned that the Fenians were after him, he replied, "Threat- ened dogs live long." His death by a Fenian assassin in 1868 filled with remorse a land still smarting from the invasion of two years before, and enhanced the love in 151 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS which he was held for his unselfish services for Con- federation. Though McGee's early record in the Young Ire- land party, with his flight during the outbreak of 1848, was well known, he had removed the stain by his ardent patriotic endeavors. From his arrival in Canada in 1857, after an early manhood in journalism in the Eastern States, he had constantly advocated the union of the British Provinces. He travelled widely, lectur- ing in his captivating tones and polished oratory on top- ics ranging from Columbus, Moore, and the American Revolution, to the various aspects of Confederation. Others might declaim the political and economic advan- tages of union; McGee's pictures glowed with the warmth of a true Hibernian imagination. "I look to the future of my adopted country with hope, but not without anxiety," he said in the Legisla- tive Assembly soon after election. "I see in the not remote distance one great nationality, bound like the shield of Achilles, by the blue rim of ocean. I see it quartered into many communities, each disposing of its internal affairs, but all bound together by free institu- tions, free intercourse and free commerce. I see within the round of that shield the peaks of the western moun- tains and the crests of the eastern waves, the winding Assiniboine; the five-fold lakes, the St. Lawrence, the Ottawa, the Saguenay, the St. John and the Basin of Minas. By all these flowing waters, in the valleys they fertilize, in all the cities they visit in their courses, I see a generation of industrious, contented, moral men, free in name and in fact — men capable of maintaining 152 THOMAS D'ARCY McGEE in peace and in war a constitution worthy of such a country." Thus was McGee the western tribune of Confed- eration. It was a day of closer intercourse between public men and the people; public meetings were a frequent duty apart from the necessities of a campaign. McGee traversed the land as the eloquent interpreter of the new Idea. Handsome he was not, but impressive he ever remained. "His face was flat and heavy," said Sir George W. Ross, describing his impressions of McGee at a meeting at London, Ontario, in 1865, — "a face that no one would turn around to look at a second time. . . . The mellow richness of Mr. McGee's voice and the rhythm and cadence of the Queen's English as it flowed from his lips greatly impressed me. I noted also the finish of his sentences, coupled with a poetical glow which awakened emotions and feelings never before touched by the human voice. Of course argument and fact and history were there, all beautifully blended."* Charles Mair aptly expressed the country's admir- ation in the hour of McGee's passing, when he wrote: "Yea, we like children stood When in his lofty mood He spoke of manly deeds which we might claim, And made responses fit While heavenly genius lit His melancholy eyes with lambent flame. And saw the distant aureoles And felt the Future thunder in our souls." t This was the man who spent three-quarters of his life absorbing and breathing hatred of the motherland, ♦Getting Into Parliament and After, by Sir George W. Ross, P. 3. t Dreamland and Other Poems, by Charles Mair, P. 136. 153 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS whose first mission to America had been to fan to still brighter hue the angry flames ever blazing among the Irishmen who had left Ireland for their country's good. McGee came honestly by his revolutionary beliefs. He was born at Carlingford, County Louth, Ireland, April 13, 1825, his father, James McGee, being a coast guard. For his mother, Catherine Morgan, whose father was a member of the ^'United Irishmen" in 1798, he had a deep affection, and from this attachment came the hatred of the Saxon which marked young McGec until late in the 'fifties. His school education was limited, but his ardent imagination and quick appre- hension soon made him an intelligent, if not deeply educated man. At seventeen he joined the tide of Irish- men flowing to America and landed in Boston in 1842, in the golden age of American literature. A few days later his fiery anti-British Fourth of July oration attracted notice, and he secured employment on the Boston Pilot, a weekly Irish Catholic newspaper. He soon became editor, and his "repeal" articles attracting the attention of the great Daniel O'Connell himself, he was invited in 1 845 — at the age of 20 — to take the editor- ship of the Freeman's Journal in Dublin. Though O'Connell had publicly praised "the inspired writings of a young exiled Irish boy in America," the young Irish boy was an intractable editor. He found O'Con- nell too conservative for his ardent spirits and soon withdrew to join the "Young Ireland" party, where he became intimate with Charles Gavan Duffy in the pub- lication of the Dublin Nation, a journal which gave 154 THOMAS D'ARCY McGEE free play to his anti-British ideas. Duffy years later thus described McGee's appearance at this time: "The young man was not prepossessing. He had a face of almost African type; his dress was slovenly even for the careless class to which he belonged; he looked unformed, and had a manner which struck me as too deferential for self-respect. But he had not spoken three sentences in a singularly sweet and flexible voice till it was plain that he was a man of fertile brains and great originality; a man in whom one might dimly discover rudiments of the orator, poet and states- man hidden under this ungainly disguise." McGee's associations with the leaders of the upris- ing in 1848 and his known ideas made his arrest certain. He was apprehended early in the trouble for his public utterances but allowed to go. He fled to Glasgow, thence back to Belfast, friends meantime supplying money. Then, disguised as a priest, he wended his lonely way along the Irish coast, presently took steamer for America and landed in Philadelphia on October 10, 1848. McGee was now only 23 years old, but he had lived as through "a cycle of Cathay." He was soon back in journalism, establishing first the New York Nation, Becoming involved in a dispute with the Bishops, he removed to Boston and published The American Celt, and, as in the other cases, filled it with his feelings of hatred of Britain. From this time dates the beginning of the change in McGee's views. He began to travel extensively as a lecturer, and as he met hosts of refined people his opin- ions moderated. The futility of mere denunciation 155 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS became apparent, and he resolved to elevate the Irish people by teaching them to make the best of their fate, instead of depending on schemes of revolution. By 1 852 he was able to write Thomas Francis Meagher, an old friend, of the change he had undergone, showing that peace and good will had become his motto. He removed his base to Bufifalo, but business not being satisfactory, he yielded to an impulse and the requests of friends in Canada, whom he had met on vacation tours, and settled in Montreal in 1857. The remaking of D'Arcy McGee was now almost complete. His warm heart responded to the Celtic welcome of Montreal, and within a year he was elected to Parliament. His venture in Canadian journalism, as publisher of The New Era, was soon dropped for the larger duty. From the first he ranged himself, as befitted his race and personality, "against the govern- ment," and it is to be feared marked his first year or two by many unpleasant and severe speeches, for the diversion of the galleries. He studied law and was called to the Bar in 1861, though he never seriously devoted himself to that profession. Gradually he became a better legislator, and in 1862, on the downfall of the Cartier-Macdonald Government, he accepted office as President of the Council in the Sandfield Mac- donald-Sicotte Cabinet. When that administration was reconstructed a year later Mr. McGee and several other Ministers were dropped, a fact that spurred them to bitter opposition. McGee joined forces with J. A. Macdonald, for whom he had formed a warm attach- ment almost from their first meeting, and together they 156 THOMAS D'ARCY McGEE stumped Upper Canada against the Government that fall. Their efforts had much to do with the defeat of John Sandfield Macdonald early in 1864. In the Tache-Macdonald Cabinet, then formed, Mr. McGee became Minister of Agriculture and held that post until Confederation. McGee played a direct and important part in inter- esting the Maritime Provinces in union. His lecture in St. John in 1863 had attracted wide notice to the sub- ject, and the following summer one hundred Canadian delegates visited New Brunswick and Nova Scotia as a result of a conversation between McGee and Sandf ord Fleming, engineer for the Intercolonial Railway, who desired by better acquaintance to promote the larger union. In fact, throughout the formative years of the union movement, which he had with great persistency and eloquence advocated from his arrival in Canada, he was able to add his influence when opinion had to be made and constantly reinforced. He coined the phrase "the new nationality," and to that had added the policy of the construction of the Intercolonial Railway and the development of intercolonial trade as necessary accom- paniments. Coupled with the poetic fervor that was part of his irresistible charm, was the logical argument for union which he presented in all parts of the country. He was impressed by the danger from the Fenians and other potential enemies in the United States, and referred to this repeatedly in support of the union case. At Port Robinson in Upper Canada in September, 1862, 157 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS he spoke of the "presence of the perilous circumstances that confront us on our southern frontier." "Rest assured," he said in Halifax in August, 1864, when the unofficial Canadian parliamentary and business delega- tion visited the city, "if we remain longer as frag- ments we shall be lost; but let us be united and we shall be as a rock which, unmoved itself, flings back the waves that may be dashed against it by the storm." At Mon- treal, later that year, he said the "delegates to the Que- bec Conference might look across the border and see reasons for the Conference as thick as blackberries." Equally impressive were his arguments for union V based on the necessities of defence. "About four years ago," he said in his memorable speech in the Confederation debate, on February 9, 1865, "the first despatches began to be addressed to this country from the Colonial Office upon the subject (of defence). From that day to this there has been a steady stream of despatches in this direction, either upon particular or general points connected with our defence ; and I venture to say that if bound up together the despatches of the late lamented Duke of Newcastle alone would make a respectable volume — all notifying this Government by the advice they conveyed that the relations — the military apart from the political and commercial relations — of these Provinces to the mother country had changed; and we were told in the most explicit language that could be employed that we were no longer to consider ourselves in relation to defence in the same position we formerly occupied towards the mother country." 158 THOMAS D'ARCY McGEE So great a change in McGee's viewpoint and loyalty to authority could not be wrought without some sacrifice. Signs accumulated of the irritation and anger he was causing among his former friends. He did his best to carry them with him, and on many public occa- sions pleaded for tolerance and the burial of old feuds. He told his constituents in Montreal in 1861 that there was nothing more to be dreaded in the country than feuds arising from exaggerated feelings of religion and nationality, and a year later he told Protestant Irishmen of Quebec: "We Irishmen, Protestant and Catholic, born and bred in a land of religious controversy, should never forget that we now live and act in a land of the fullest religious and civil liberty. All we have to do is each for himself to keep down dissensions which can only weaken, impoverish and keep back the country." It was in the spirit of broad tolerance that he revisited Ireland in 1865 and made the fateful speech at Wexford which inflamed the Fenian element against him. He left Montreal in April with a message of good will ringing in his ears, in which "men of all countries and creeds" joined in congratulating him on his mission to represent his Province at the Dublin Exhibition. Exhaling the spirit of the new world, McGee spoke at Wexford, where he told his co-religionists : "There ought to be no separation of the Kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland. Each country would suffer loss in the loss of the other, and even liberty in Europe would be exposed to the perils of shipwreck if those islands were divided by a hostile sea." He was equally candid in his words to Englishmen, whom he urged to 159 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS try kindness and generosity in their legislation for Ire- land. He asked them to treat Ireland as they treated Scotland — apply the golden rule. Barely had the news of this speech reached Mon- treal before the Fenian irreconcilables were ablaze with anger. A disclaimer was prepared and signed by six hundred Montrealers of Irish birth, repudiating the sentiments of the Wexford speech. They declared them to be "reflections upon the character, moral, social and political, of our fellow-countrymen in the United States of America, which we believe to be not only unhand- some and ungenerous but positively unjust." An observer at the time spoke of this disclaimer as "very suggestive and ominous," and McGee's enemies were soon to increase. At the next election, in 1867, he was viciously attacked in his Montreal riding, and his majority greatly reduced. This ingratitude broke his spirit and an illness followed. He recovered, a chastened and abstemious man, and attended the session of 1868, where his last words were a message of toler- ance and good will concerning the agitation in Nova Scotia for the repeal of the union. "We need above everything else," he said, "the healing influence of time." He reminded the troubled House that time would heal all existing irritations, and added : "By and by, time will show us the constitution of this Dominion as much cherished in the hearts of the people of all these Provinces, not excepting Nova Scotia, as is the British constitution itself." "We will compel them to come in and accept this union," he concluded, "we will compel them by our fairness, our kindness, our love, to be one ' 160 THOMAS D'ARCY McGEE with us, in this common and this great national work." These words of singular prophecy and solace were like a benediction. It was McGee's last appearance in the House. Some hours after midnight, when the adjournment came, he walked to his lodgings in Sparks Street in Ottawa. A stealthy assassin followed, and as McGee stooped to open the door with his key, a bullet crashed through his head and he died instantly. Sir John Macdonald was summoned from his home and was the first to raise the stricken head from the pave- ment. McGee was already dead. The country was shocked at the news. Sir John Macdonald, in informing the House the next day, said : "It is with pain amounting to anguish that I rise to address you. He who last night — nay, this morning — was with us and of us, whose voice is still ringing in our ears, who charmed us with his marvellous eloquence, elevated us by his large statesmanship, and instructed us by his wisdom and patriotism, is no more." Sir John, in a letter to Archbishop Connolly of Halifax some weeks later, stated that it had been arranged that McGee was to retire to the position of Commissioner of Patents that summer and devote his life to literature and other congenial employments.* McGee was buried at Montreal, where a sympa- thizing public joined in an imposing service on April 13. Several arrests were made for the assassination, but Thomas Whalen was convicted and executed on Febru- ary 11, 1869. ♦Sir John A. Macdonald: A Memoir, by Joseph Pope, Vol. II, P. 12. 161 11 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS McGee began life a hot-headed revolutionary in a land of perpetual unrest; he ended it a sane, tolerant statesman where his public services and w^arm person- ality were to keep his memory green for generations. A verse from his own "Canadian Ballads" might well be his epitaph : "Rob me of all the joys of sense. Curse me with all but impotence, Fling me upon an ocean oar, Cast me upon a savage shore ; Slay me! But own above my bier 'The man now gone still held yet here The jewel Independence.' " 162 SIR ANTOINE A. DORION SIR ANTOINE AIME DORION SIR ANTOINE A. DORION (1818-1891) JUDGED by the sordid standards of the spoilsman, the public life of Antoine Aime Dorion was a fail- ure; out of two decades of public life he held office for but a few months. Judged by standards of honest duty, his life was successful ; he held his ideals and remained an unblemished public servant. Dorion was the ally of George Brown, as Cartier was the ally of John A. Macdonald. Dorion and Cartier represented the age- long fight between progress and reaction; but it was Cartier's fortune to win and achieve, Dorion's to lose and oppose. While history justifies Cartier's advocacy of Confederation, it cannot wholly condemn the con- scientious objections of Dorion. Cartier was an impetu- ous optimist, who saw unlimited progress in union. Dorion was an honest pessimist, who believed a union of all the Provinces too great an undertaking. Cartier was converted to union in 1858 by the arguments of Gait. Dorion favored a federation of the two Canadas as early as 1856. Cartier was backed by the priesthood and lured by national expansion. Dorion by prophesy- ing the domination of the British province seriously threatened the Confederation cause. Dorion's steadfast opposition led to a pathetic breach with George Brown. They had been deskmates in the Assembly, their ideas were similarly radical, they consulted on all things and agreed on most things. 165 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS They joined in forming the Brown-Dorion Govern- ment, of a few days' duration, in 1858, but they parted on the coalition of 1864. Brown threw away his politi- cal advantages to join his foes and aid Confederation. Dorion and Holton* opposed the coalition and declared it was a mere scheme by Macdonald to hold office. This beautiful friendship between Brown and Dorion had stood the tension of interprovincial warfare, when Brown abused the Lower Canadians and Dorion cham- pioned his own people, but it split on the issue of union, to which Dorion's opposition was in detail rather than in principle. On Brown's resignation from the Cabinet, a year later, the old relations were resumed, and held until Brown's death in 1880. Antoine Dorion came of a noted family of French- Canadian public men, his father, P. A. Dorion, his grandfather, an uncle and a brother all being at some time members of the Assembly or Legislative Council. He was born in the parish of St. Anne de la Perade, in the County of Champlain, on January 17, 1818. After local schooling, his father, a general merchant, sent him to Nicolet College, and he was called to the Bar in 1842. He was soon conspicuous in law in Montreal, and showed political capacity, though he was not elected to Parliament until 1854. Papineau, then a veteran and bearing the tarnish of the Rebellion of 1837, was still powerful, and round him gathered a group of ener- getic young men, who in 1850 formed the Parti Rouge, asserting one of the most radical platforms ever pre- *Luther Hamilton Holton, (1817-80), a painstaking parliamentarian, an orator and highly respected public man ; entered Parliament in 1854 and remained a member almost continuously until his death. 166 SIR ANTOINE A. DORION sented in the country. The French revolution of 1848 had just inflamed the youth of Europe, and the young bloods of the Parti Rouge considered themselves worthy of the men of Paris. Their nev^spaper, L'Avenir, advocated universal suffrage, an elective judiciary, abolition of property qualifications for members of the Legislature, abolition of State religion, and even annex- ation to the United States. "In former ages," said UAvenir, "Christianity, sciences, arts and printing v^ere given to the nations to civilize them ; now^ popular edu- cation, commerce and universal suffrage will make them free." Before this onslaught, which had its counterpart in Upper Canada in the "Clear Grits" of the day, Lafon- taine retired from public life in 1851, despondent at the division in his party. The man who had accom- plished responsible government three years before was now too conservative! In 1854 Papineau's tempestu- ous public career ended, and with his retirement A. A. Dorion became the leader of the Rouges. The new party reached its zenith at the elections of that year, when nineteen Rouges were returned to the Assembly. The majority were young men of earnestness and ability, and their fault was in their youth. Time modified their views, and Dorion's radicalism was the foundation of the future Liberal party of Quebec. Dorion entered Parliament equipped for the large part he was to play in public life. He was already distinguished at the Bar, his education was thorough, and his manner courtly and polished. He declined to 167 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS join in the coalition of 1854, and for the next four years was a destructive critic of the Administration. Cartier offered him the post of Provincial Secretary in 1857, but he declined. In the elections of December and January following, the Rouges paid the penalty for their alliance with the "Clear Grits," and their ranks were sadly thin- ned. Dorion was returned, and in the following August he joined in the formation of the Brown-Dorion Gov- ernment after the fall of the Macdonald-Cartier Cabinet. The new Government's resignation after tw^o days followed a misunderstanding with the Governor, Sir Edmund Head, who refused a dissolution. The importance of this Ministry lies in the under- standing reached by Brown and Dorion on future policies. The French-Canadian leader agreed ''that the principle of representation by population was sound, but said that the French-Canadian people feared the conse- quences of Upper Canadian preponderance, feared that the peculiar institutions of French Canada would be swept away. He therefore thought that representation by population must be accomplished by constitutional checks and safeguards. Brown and Dorion parted in the belief that this could be arranged. They believed also that they could agree upon an educational policy in which religious instruction could be given without the evils of separation."* The agreement was destined to failure through the return of the Cartier-Macdonald Government to office by the "Double Shuffle." Dorion was defeated in 1861, *Georgc Brown, by John Lewis, (Morang & Co.), P. 101. 168 SIR ANTOINE A. DORION Sicotte* becoming Rouge leader, but returned the next year and held office as Provincial Secretary for a few months in the Sandfield Macdonald-Sicotte Govern- ment. Dissatisfaction with the Government's policy on the Intercolonial Railway led to his resignation in January, 1863, but he was again in office for a few months as Attorney-General East in the reconstruc- ted Sandfield Macdonald-Dorion Cabinet. This ended Dorion's Cabinet service, except for six months in the Mackenzie Government a decade later. His intervening years were marked by the many duties of an Opposition critic armed with a rapier, and never using the coarser weapons of an untrained mind. The Confederation battle in Lower Canada was marked by party, racial and personal considerations. It was the heyday of George Etienne Cartier, and his dashing courage attempted to carry all before it. Dorion was one of a group of exceedingly able men who opposed him. Dorion's position bears some resem- blance to that of Joseph Howe in Nova Scotia. Like Howe, he had been an early advocate of a form of fed- eration. As early as 1856 he had moved this resolution : "That a committee be appointed to inquire into the means that should be adopted to form a new political and legislative organization of the heretofore Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, either by the establish- ment of their former territorial divisions or by a divi- sion of each Province, so as to form a federation having *Louis Victor Sicotte, (1812-89), in Parliament from 1852 to 1863; Judge of the Superior Court 1863 to 1887, a leader of moderate Reformers and member of the Macdonald-Sicotte Administration 1862-63. 169 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS a federal government and a local legislature for each one of the new Provinces, and to deliberate as to the course w^hich should be adopted to regulate the affairs of United Canada in a manner which would be equit- able to the different sections of the Province." Thus Dorion admitted the unsatisfactory condi- tions which then existed. Brown, his deskmate, was preaching the failure of the union, and in 1859 the Upper Canada Reformers called for its repeal. The union, which began in 1841 with equal representation, though Lower Canada then had 625,000 people to Upper Canada's 455,000, was an increasing annoyance with 890,000 in Lower Canada and 952,000 in Upper Canada by 1851. Lower Canadians could point to their own generosity in granting equal representation, but the disparity grew so rapidly as to accelerate the dis- content beyond the Ottawa. It might have been expected that Dorion would have followed the gleam and taken the larger view. In 1859 he saw only two logical alternatives : dissolution of the union or federation, on the one hand, and repre- sentation by population on the other. Two years later he had admitted the time might come when a federation of all the Provinces might be necessary. But when the great test came he broke with Brown, fought Cartier and the Church — which in turn bitterly opposed the Rouges — and assumed the role of a Faint-heart. Before the Quebec Conference was a month over, Dorion was on record as an opponent of the scheme and issued a lengthy manifesto to his constituents in Hoche- laga. "It has always appeared to me," he said, "that the 170 SIR ANTOINE A. DORION present circumstances of the several Provinces do not render such a union desirable, and that we might by a treaty of commerce and reciprocity assure to each Pro- vince all the advantages which might be procurable or derived from a union. I do not see anything in the scheme of federation to induce me to alter my opinion." Dorion's speech in the Confederation debates, on February 16, 1865, was one of the ablest contributions from the opponents of union. Some of his prophecies of evil, such as his strictures on the nominated Senate, have been justified ; others were unfounded and quickly forgotten. True to his early advocacy of elective pub- lic servants, Dorion opposed the nomination of Gov- ernor-General, local Governors, Senators and Legisla- tive Councillors as portending "the most illiberal con- stitution ever heard of in any country where constitu- tional government prevails." As a consistent opponent of the Intercolonial Railway, he pictured the Grand Trunk as backing the new project of Confederation in order to secure the building of the new line to the east- ern Provinces. That railway, it is quite true, has brought deficits and patronage evils, but its value as a backbone of national connection and sentiment cannot be denied. Dorion, like Oliver Mowat in Upper Can- ada, was strong for provincial rights, and opposed the veto power retained by the central government. "Do you not see," he said, "that it is quite possible for a majority in a local government to be opposed to the general government ; and in such a case the minority would call upon the general government to disallow the laws enacted by the majority? . . . What will be 171 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS the result in such a state of things but bitterness of feel- ing, strong political acrimony and dangerous agita- tion?" It is fair to say that, while the powers of the central government have been restricted under court decisions, the value of a strong authority has been generally con- ceded. Dorion declared he would not say he would be opposed to Confederation for all time. Population might extend over the wilderness between the Maritime Provinces and Canada, and commercial intercourse might increase sufficiently to render Confederation desirable. He denied that he had ever favored union of all the Provinces, and declared he stood, as for years past, for a federation of the two Canadas. On one thing Dorion was firm, and that was the protection of the interests of the people of Lower Can- ada, whom he saw threatened with a legislative union. "The people of Lower Canada," he said, picturing the feared oppression of a minority, "are attached to their institutions in a manner that defies any attempt to change them in that way. They will not change their religious institutions, their laws and their language for any consideration whatever. A million of inhabitants may seem a small affair to the mind of a philosopher who sits down to write out a constitution. He may think it would be better that there should be but one religion, one language, and one system of laws, and he goes to work to frame institutions that will bring all to that desirable state; but I can tell honorable gentle- men that the history of every country goes to show that 172 SIR ANTOINE A. DORION not even by the power of the sword can such changes be accomplished." Dorion's pessimistic view reached its climax in his conclusion : "I will simply content myself with saying that for these reasons, which I have so imperfectly exposed, I strongly fear it would be i dark day for Canada when she adopted such a scheme as this. It would be one marked in the history of this country as having had a most depressing and crushing influence on the energies of the people in both Upper and Lower Canada, for I consider it one of the worst schemes that could be brought under the consideration of the House, and if it should be adopted without the sanction of the people, the country would never cease to regret it." Barely was the momentous debate in Quebec con- cluded before Dorion and his Rouge associates were at work among the people. A score of French-Canadian counties favored a plebiscite, and more than 20,000 persons signed petitions against final action without a popular vote. Dorion, L. O. David, Mederic Lanctot and others spoke against the union measure. Wilfrid Laurier, then a young lawyer of twenty-three, spoke at St. Julie, in Montcalm County, in February, 1865, along with other opponents, including the fiery Lanctot, then his law partner. Laurier's words are not recorded, except to say that he supported the other speakers, and resolutions in support of Dorion's policy were adopted. So the battle went on, the Rouges meeting the people, but unable to make headway against the com- bined Cartier and clerical influence, then sweeping the Province. 173 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS Dorion and nineteen other members of the Assem- bly, including Holton and Huntington, issued a final "Remonstrance" in October, 1866, addressed to the Earl of Carnarvon. In this they asked, in moderate lan- guage, for the submission of union to the people before it became effective. "We seek delay," they said, "not to frustrate the purposes of a majority of our couqtrymen, but to prevent their being surprised, against their will or without their consent, into a political change which, however obnoxious and oppressive to them it might prove, cannot be reversed without such an agitation as every well-wisher to his country must desire to avert." Such appeals to reason broke down before the forces united for union. The final undoing of the opposition came through a characteristically adroit move by Sir John A. Macdonald. In the summer of 1867 he chose as the first Premier of Quebec, P. J. O. Chauveau,* a friend and former follower of Papineau, but now a staunch upholder of Catholicism. With Cartier at Ottawa and Chauveau at Quebec, the habi- tant was not alarmed for his future. Dorion was elected to the House of Commons in 1867 and continued, in the reunited Liberal party, an alert critic of the new Administration. In the first ses- sion he resumed his activity against the Intercolonial Railway by moving — unsuccessfully, of course — that *Pierre Joseph Oliver Chauveau, (1820-90), was an influential figure in Lower Canadian public life. He entered Parliament in 1844; was Superintendent of Education for Lower Canada 1855-67, Premier of Quebec 1867-73, Speaker of the Senate 1873-74, afterwards Sheriff of Montreal. He was widely known as a writer, orator and poet, as well. 174 SIR ANTOINE A. DORION the route should not be determined without the consent of Parliament. In 1873 he was associated with Edward Blake as Liberal member of the Committee to probe the Pacific Scandal, but they eventually refused to act in the capacity of a commission as asked by the Govern- ment, when the Oaths Act had been disallowed as ultra vires. When the Mackenzie Government came in on the wave of anger aroused by the scandal, Dorion became Minister of Justice. His few months of office at this time were marked by the passage of the electoral law of 1 874 and the Controverted Elections Act. Dorion was now fifty-six years old, and twenty years in politics had worn his body and absorbed his means. He was offered and accepted the office of Chief Justice of Quebec, for which his legal abilities and his just character eminently fitted him. Seventeen years of unswerving devotion to duty on the Bench enhanced the respect and affection in which he was held. At the end of May, 1891, while political strife throughout Canada was hushed as citizens of all parties watched the passing of Sir John A. Macdonald, Dorion was stricken with paralysis, in the midst of his service, and died at his home in Montreal on the last day of the month. The Conservative chieftain, who had been his antagonist for so many years, followed in less than a week. A polished gentleman of another day passed in Dorion. "A man of exquisite courtesy of manners," Sir Wilfrid Laurier wrote of him, "he yet always was somewhat distant. He never had recourse to the easy method of winning popularity by promiscuous fam- 175 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS iliarity. He never pandered to the vulgar tastes, never deviated from the path which seemed to him the path of truth. He never craved success for the sake of suc- cess; he steadily struggled for the right as he saw the right. He met defeat without weakness, and when suc- cess came, success found him without exultation."* Dorion's actual accomplishment in legislation is slight; his noble and serene character stands out with a white light in the murk of political warfare. "Canada has had few nobler servants than Antoine Dorion," wrote J. S. Willison in "Sir Wilfrid Laurier and the Liberal Party." "A man of magnanimous spirit, of beautiful character, and of rare sagacity, he fought through a long public career, in a bitter and factious time, without a stain upon his shield, unsoured by reverses and untouched by sordid bargainings for the spoils or the dignities of office." *"Sir Antoine Aime Dorion," by Wilfrid Laurier, The Week, Sept. 26, 1890. 176 CHRISTOPHER DUNKIN ft 12 CHRISTOPHER DUNKIN CHRISTOPHER DUNKIN (1811-1881) AN under-sized, slim, wiry man, with a nervous, energetic air, a lawyer whom D'Arcy McGee called a "hair-splitter," — this was Christopher Dunkin, who introduced temperance legislation into the Pro- vince of Canada, and who delivered the ablest speech against Confederation in the memorable debates of 1865. On temperance the world in general, and Can- ada in particular, has moved far beyond him. On Con- federation his doleful prophecies have not been realized, though events have justified some of his criticisms. It is a curious fact that A. A. Dorion, the French Catholic, feared that Confederation would overwhelm the French race in the Dominion, while Dunkin, the Protestant, was alarmed, in turn, for the welfare of his own race under the local government of Quebec. Time has shown that no Canadian Government could live without liberal support from Quebec, while the chief complaint of Quebec Protestants is that the French are crowding them out by increase of population. Christopher Dunkin was the lawyer in politics. He was voluminous in speech, drew fine distinctions, often not obvious to others, and he was totally lacking in eloquence. He was serious, earnest, and scholarly, and, as Sir William Dawson has said, would have made a good college president. His professional life was successful, and many a wealthy client found his way to 179 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS the office of Bethune & Dunkin in Little St. James Street in Montreal, a thoroughfare so narrow that dex- terous young men might almost leap across it. Mon- treal in those days was still largely British and Protes- tant, a survival of early fur trading days, as contrasted with the overwhelming French element of the present time. Dunkin took up law late in life, being called to the Bar in 1846, at the age of 35, but except for four years of public office, from 1867 to 1871, he gave the rest of his years to that profession, the last ten being spent on the Bench. Dunkin was born in London, England, on Septem- ber 24, 1811, and after an education at London and Glasgow Universities he migrated to the United States, where he taught Greek for a time at Harvard Univer- sity. He came to Lower Canada a little later and edited The Morning Chronicle in Montreal for a year, in 1837-8. About this time he came under the notice of the Earl of Durham, and was appointed Secretary of his Education Commission, and later was Secretary of the Post Office Commission. On the adoption of Union in 1841 he was appointed Assistant Secretary for Lower Canada, holding the post until elected to the Assembly in 1847. These varied experiences, together with his legal training, gave Dunkin an education for public life. He sat for Drummond and Arthabaska until 1861, andior Brome from 1862 until his retirement. Yielding to a clamor for a resident member, he moved to Knowl- ton in the middle 'sixties, and with his wife, formerly Miss Mary Barber of Montreal, a superior woman, took part in welfare work for the benefit of immigrant girls. 180 CHRISTOPHER DUNKIN His party affiliations were Conservative, but on the issue of Confederation, as in other matters, he acted with independence. One of Dunkin's historic legal cases was his argu- ment on the seigniorial tenure question. In 1853, when L. T. Drummond introduced a Government measure proposing to reduce such of the lands as were held to be exorbitant, and to obtain judicial decisions as to their legality, Dunkin appeared at the bar of the House, and for an entire evening presented with great skill the question from the seigniors' point of view. The bill was finally passed by the Assembly, but rejected by the Legislative Council. Dunkin's great speech against Confederation was made during the lengthy debate at Quebec in the winter of 1 865. Though he apologized for being physi- cally unfitted for the task before him, he occupied the evening of February 27 and the entire afternoon and evening until almost midnight of the next day. He began with a well sustained prepared utterance, but, as he proceeded, the interruptions of other members, chief- ly his opponent Cartier, though good-natured, broke its continuity and resulted in a certain diffuseness. Dun- kin's speech was not eloquent, but it is regarded as the most elaborate and effective argument given against union. He said he believed he was opposed to powerful odds, and that there was a feeling of hurry and impa- tience in the House. He had always been a unionist in the strict and largest sense of the term, he said. "I desire to perpetuate the union between Upper and Lower 181 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS Canada. I desire to see developed the largest union that can possibly be developed — I care not by what name you call it — between all the colonies, provinces and dependencies of the British Crown." In this sentiment Dunkin resembled Howe of Nova Scotia, another Imperial federationist. Half a century was to pass without the idea being advanced in any formal way, though the outbreak of war in 1914 revealed an Imperial unity of feeling that no mere fed- eration of parliaments could have developed. Dunkin said the Confederation scheme amounted practically to a division of Upper and Lower Canada, and on that account he was irrevocably opposed to it. He even saw in it a tendency to a not distant division of those Provinces from the British Empire. He favored rather a slow change and growth as in the physical world. There had been no demand for Confederation ; the idea had no place in the public mind. Representa- tions had been made to the Imperial Government in 1858, and when the despatches were laid on the table in 1859 "nobody asked a question about them." In 1864, Dunkin recalled, George Brown had secured a committee to consider constitutional changes. "That honorable gentleman did a very clever thing in embodying in his motion extracts from the unfortunate defunct despatch of Messrs. Cartier, Gait, and Ross." "It was a fortunate despatch," Cartier broke in, — "unfortunate for you but fortunate for us." "It is an old proverb that says, 'He laughs well who laughs last,' " Dunkin replied. "I expect to laugh the last," answered Cartier. 182 CHRISTOPHER DUNKIN "We have yet to see," Dunkin went on, "in the first place, whether the thing is done, and then, if it is done, if it succeeds." "If 'twere done, 'twere well it were done quickly," was the ready sally from D'Arcy McGee. Dunkin admitted that he had voted and spoken for Brown's committee, and had sat on it, but claimed the Confederation part of their report had been opposed by John A. Macdonald himself and had been inserted unexpectedly at the last moment. Analyzing the scheme in greater detail, Dunkin said it promised everything for everybody, and yet the terms were ambiguous, unsubstantial, and unreal. They were called upon to admit that the work of 33 gentle- men done in seventeen days was much better work than that of the f ramers of the United States constitution, or even the constitution of the motherland. The House of Commons was to follow largely the American House of Representatives, which he considered the wrong model. He regarded the American Senate as "the ablest deliberative body the world has ever known," but the method of choosing the Canadian Upper House would make for a lower quality of men. The duty of advising and aiding the head of the government in the discharge of executive functions fell wholly upon the executive council, while in the United States the Senate had large executive functions. "Without responsibility for their advice," said Cartier, interrupting. "We have responsibility, and in that respect our system is better." Dunkin then prophesied there would be difficulty 183 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS in giving all classes and sections of the country repre- sentation in the Cabinet, a prophecy which was sub- sequently justified by Sir John A. Macdonald's experi- ence in forming his Cabinet in 1867. "It will be none too easy a task," Dunkin said, "to form an executive council with its three members for Lower Canada, and satisfy the somewhat pressing exigencies of her creeds and races." "Hear, hear," said Cartier. "The Honorable Attorney-General East probably thinks he will be able to do it," said Dunkin. "I have no doubt I can," responded the man of action, with his usual confidence. Lack of uniformity, Dunkin said, would character- ize the constitutions and legislation of the various pro- vinces. The federal right of disallowance would result in clashes with the local governments. Dunkin expressed fear that lieutenant-governors would be appointed whose past political career might render them unwelcome to the majority in the provinces. Experience has not found this a substantial griev- ance, as lieutenant-governors are a social rather than an executive force. Though the champion of the Protestants of Que- bec, Dunkin sought to awaken the fears of the French. "The moment," he said, "you tell Lower Canada that the large sounding powers of your general government are going to be handed over to a British American majority, decidedly not of the race and faith of her majority, that moment you wake up the old jealousies and hostility in their strongest form. The French," he 184 CHRISTOPHER DUNKIN continued, "will find themselves a minority in the gen- eral legislature, and their powers in the general govern- ment will depend upon their power within their own province, and over their provincial delegations in the federal Parliament. They will themselves be com- pelled to be practically aggressive to secure and retain that power." The financial outlook caused anxiety for Mr. Dun- kin. Local governments would depend largely on the general government for revenue. He pictured provin- cial candidates boasting to their electorate of the in- creases in subsidies they had secured from the Domin- ion, and added: "I am afraid the provincial constitu- encies, legislatures, and executives will all show a most calf-like appetite for the milk of this most magnificent government cow." Dunkin had no love for the Intercolonial nor for the idea of Western expansion. He saw no great com- mercial or military advantages in the former, and if it had political value the mother country should aid in its construction. Expansion could only be coupled with expenditures they had not yet dreamed of. One of his last arguments was an appeal to local pride : 'The Federal Government of the United States takes its place in the great family of nations of the world ; but what place in that family are we to occupy? Simply none. The Imperial Government will be the head of the Empire as much as ever, and will alone have to attend to all foreign relations and national matters; while we shall be nothing more than we are now. Half a dozen colonies federated are but a feder- 185 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS ated colony after all. Instead of being so many separate provinces with workable institutions, we are to be one province, most cumbrously organized — nothing more." Why not, he concluded, go on with the institutions they had? The one thing needed was "the exercise by our public men and by our people of that amount of discretion, good temper, and forbearance which sees something larger and higher in public life than mere party struggles and -cries without end; of that political sagacity or capacity, call it what you will, with which they will surely find the institutions they have to be quite good enough for them to use and quietly make better, without which they will as surely find any that may anyhow be given them to be quite as bad for them to fight over and make worse." Though Dunkin had argued almost exhaustively against Confederation, when it became apparent that no action on his part could achieve its defeat he declared, in 1866, his determination to aid in making it as benefi- cial as possible. He assisted in forming the preparatory legislation and championed the educational rights of the minorities in both Upper and Lower Canada. When the first Quebec Cabinet was being formed in 1867 by Mr. Cauchon,* Dunkin declined a portfolio on the ground that Cauchon had been unjust to the Protes- tants of Quebec in opposing Langevin'st bill, giving *Joseph 6douard Cauchon, (1816-85), a fiery, though intellectual French-Canadian, who entered Parliament for Montmorency in 1844, held office in various Cabinets, and was Lieutenant-Governor of Manitoba 1877-82. tSir Hector L. Langevin, (1826-1906), once a law student in the office of Sir George E. Cartier, and after the latter's death, leader of the Conservatives in Quebec. He entered Parliament in 1857, attended the Charlottetown and Quebec Conferences, and was long a Cabinet colleague of Sir John A. Macdonald. 186 CHRISTOPHER DUNKIN them control of their own schools. As Dunkin's decision was followed by other Protestants' refusal, Cauchon could not form a Cabinet. Chauveau was called on, and Dunkin entered his Administration as Treasurer. Two years later he joined the Dominion Cabinet as Minister of Agriculture and Statistics, and in October, 1871, was made a puisne Judge of the Superior Court of Quebec. Christopher Dunkin's name is inseparably con- nected with temperance in Canada. He was a religious man with a strong sense of public duty, and the Temper- ance Act which bears his name was a pioneer measure of reform. When taunted with the statement that no county would carry it, he said he would resign if his own county of Brome would not accept it. It was adopted and remained in force during his lifetime. When Dunkin introduced his temperance bill in 1864 he naturally did not attract enthusiastic notice. The country was honeycombed with taverns and distil- leries, and no social gathering was considered complete without the liquor that then had few enemies. There had been agitations in the Maritime Provinces and in the United States against the "demon rum," but the per- missive legislation known in history as the Dunkin Act was the first measure of its kind in Canada. Its title in the Statutes of 1864 is: "An Act to amend the laws in force respecting the sale of intoxicating liquors and the issue of licenses therefor, and otherwise for repression of abuses resulting from such sale." It was the fore- runner of the Scott Act and the local option laws of later days, and for some years a sprinkling of municipalities became comparatively "dry" under its provisions. 187 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS Mr. Dunkin's explanation of the bill attracted al- most no notice in the newspapers of the day, a fact which illustrates the paucity of interest in the subject. The Globe's despatch from Quebec on May 12 said: "Mr. Dunkin, in moving the House into committee on his Temperance bill, explained its provisions clause by clause, speaking upwards of two hours, and after- wards repeated some of his explanations in French, which language he speaks with much fluency and cor- rectness." On the 18th the House spent the afternoon and evening in committee on the bill, made some amend- ments and reported it, thus giving a start they doubtless little appreciated at the time to a chain of legislation which has since covered the greater part of Canada in much more drastic form. In the serenity of age Judge Dunkin passed his ten years on the Bench, going about among his own people in a dignified and altogether suitable profession. His circuit of Bedford and Beauharnois gave him contact with the two races whose language he had mastered and whose contrasting peculiarities he understood. He was a painstaking and earnest Judge, holding the respect of lawyers and enjoying the confidence of litigants. He encouraged agriculture and was an inspiration to the progressive farmers of that stock-raising region. Judge Dunkin passed away at his home at Knowl- ton on January 6, 1881, having reached his three score and ten, leaving a reputation for singular uprightness and devotion to duty. 188 . NEW BRUNSWICK SIR SAMUEL LEONARD TILLEY PETER MITCHELL SIR ALBERT J. SMITH SIR LEONARD TILLEY SIR SAMUEL LEONARD TILLEY SIR LEONARD TILLEY (1818-1896) TTTHILE Upper Canada was all but unanimous for » ▼ Confederation, and in Lower Canada Cartier was rapidly conquering opposition, down in the Maritime Provinces there was antagonism which almost para- lyzed the whole movement. The burden of the battle for union in New Brunswick fell largely on Samuel Leonard Tilley, once an apothecary's apprentice, later Premier of his Province, and destined to stand high in the councils of the new, wide Dominion. For his trying task, Tilley brought qualities of no ordinary strength. He was energetic, kindly, honest, gentlemanly, with scarceljr an enemy in the world. He was a fluent, force- ful speaker, with an attractive presence and a penetrat- ing political judgment. He was a Puritan in principle and the first statesman in British North America to introduce a prohibitory liquor bill. Tilley's strong principles did not lessen his friends, for he had a saving sense of humor. When he was Finance Minister at Ottawa he carried his temperance practice into effect at his official dinners. But on one occasion, as the plum pudding was brought in, covered with a rich blue blaze, John Henry Pope, of Compton, one of the members present, said in a stage whisper: " 'Pon my word, I never saw ginger ale burn like that." Tilley joined in the roar of laughter that followed. 193 13 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS Isolated, unprotected and in need of liberal devel- opment, New Brunswick early felt the need of union. In 1853 when the first sod was turned for the railway from St. John to Shediac, the directors of the new line, addressing Sir Edmund Head, then Governor, expressed the hope that the British Provinces should become "a powerful and united portion of the British Empire." Sir Edmund Head endorsed the sentiment and hoped the people of Canada and the Maritime Provinces would speedily realize that their interests were iden- tical. The desire for railways was an abiding ambition for the Province, and the Intercolonial was one will-o'- the-wisp that hastened consideration of Confederation. Tilley had been an approving listener in 1860 when Dr. Charles Tupper, lecturing in St. John, advocated a union of British North America. Two years later he attended the conference at Quebec regarding the Inter- colonial Railway, and visited Upper Canada, when delegates informally urged a union of the Provinces. The Trent Affair, and the despatch to Canada of troops who had to be sent overland to Quebec on sleds in win- ter, enforced the need of a railway when the delegates from the various Provinces went later to England to seek Imperial aid. Despite the urgency of the plea of Tilley and Howe, terms were not agreed upon, and the project was delayed indefinitely. It became, however, a live issue at the Quebec Conference in 1864. Tilley, who had joined with Tupper in organizing the Char- lottetown Conference for a Maritime union, was out- spoken at Quebec on the railway question. 194 SIR LEONARD TILLEY "The delegates from the Lower Provinces were not seeking this union," he said at the banquet, "They had assembled at Charlottetown in order to see whether they could not extend their family relations, and then Canada intervened and the consideration of the larger question was the result." Alluding to the Intercolonial Railway project he said: "We won't have this union unless you give us the railway. It was utterly impos- sible we could have either a political or commercial union without it." Tilley's genius for finance was a factor in the for- mation of the resolutions at Quebec, and his attractive personality radiated good-will and won friends every- where during the visit to Upper Canada. But there was an awakening when he returned to his own Pro- vince. He was not long at home before mischievous criticisms appeared. The secrecy of the Conference gave rise to many of the early misconceptions. A few days after the Charlottetown Conference closed the St. John Globe said : "We should not be surprised to find that the federation meeting at Charlottetown will result in a 'great fizzle.' The doings of any convention or associa- tion that meets nowadays with closed doors rarely amount to anything in so far as they affect the public. The members of the convention made a great mistake in not inviting the press to attend their deliberations. They could have had very little to say that the public ought not to hear." Before November had ended it was clear that union was in for a stiff struggle in the Province. A for- 195 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS midable opposition was already growing up, and a num- ber of the ablest papers in St. John were trying to turn the whole thing into ridicule. Tilley was already on the defence with a declaration that he would submit the question to the people. In a speech he pointed to the enlarged market the manufacturers of New Brunswick would have under union. He referred good-humoredly at St. John to the aspersions cast on Upper Canadian politicians, and said one would imagine that all at once the politicians of New Brunswick had become wonder- fully pure and patriotic. He analyzed the financial aspects of the agreement, and declared their revenue under union would be equal to what they would derive from an increase of 200,000 in population under the old conditions. He was confident that Upper Canada could not carry out schemes for her own aggrandize- ment, for her 82 representatives would be opposed in such a case by 65 from Lower Canada and 47 from the Lower Provinces. Nor were dangers from without forgotten by Mr. Tilley. He said he had nothing but the most kindly feelings towards the American people. "It was plain, however, that the English public, as well as the British Government, have felt for some time that our position with reference to the United States is not as satisfactory as it was in times past." The low values of colonial securities also reflected the feeling of uncertainty of British capitalists with reference to the future destiny of British America, while Lord Stanley had declared that Canada was the most indefensible country in the world. 196 SIR LEONARD TILLEY Hostility to the union scheme increased, fanned by resourceful opponents who did not want their own sphere of officialdom eclipsed. Early in March, 1865, the crash occurred. While the Confederation debate was in full swing at Quebec, the message came one day that Tilley's Confederation Government, in the first of the Provinces affected to consult the people, had been defeated, having carried only 6 out of 41 seats. Unionists were staggered and anti-unionists took hope that they might yet overthrow the scheme then being forced through three legislatures. The alarm which had prevailed in the Maritime Provinces took on a more acrid form, and broadsides of abuse and misrepre- sentation were fired on the union cause. New Bruns- wick was afire with excitement and the country was overrun with pamphleteers and propagandists. The bogey of direct taxation was held before the people and gained much headway before the true nature of the resolutions could be presented. As in Nova Scotia, the electors were told that they had been sold to the Can- adians for 80 cents per head, a reference, of course, to the subsidy of that amount which the Dominion would pay to the Provinces. It might have been said with as much truth that the Canadians had similarly been sold to New Brunswick. As in the other small Provinces, the cause of union met obstacles inherent to the circumstances. The Legis- lature had authorized a conference on Maritime union; a larger union was proposed without consulting the electorate. Mr. Tilley had doubtless relied on his elo- quence and power to carry a scheme which the people 197 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS did not understand, and which appeared to be born of the political necessities of Canada. The Province would have additional taxation, the opponents said, and its political independence would be destroyed. It was Tilley's task to dissolve this vapor of ignor- ance and suspicion. This he did by a campaign of energy and persistence, covering almost every part of the Province. He was now a private citizen, he and all his colleagues having been defeated in the March elec- tions. He was in the prime of manhood, his figure was attractive, his manner impressive and his voice con- vincing to a people misled by agitators and ready to learn. "I will make a house-to-house canvass of the Pro- vince," he declared, and he almost redeemed his threat. He appealed to the patriotism of the people as he went from county to county, telling of the desire of the motherland that union should be adopted. "Are you afraid?" he thundered, with his organ-like chest, to a hostile St. John audience, as he entered on the great campaign. At this time the part of Arthur Hamilton Gordon (afterwards Lord Stranmore and uncle of the Earl of Aberdeen, recently Governor-General of Canada), Governor of New Brunswick, became a matter of im- portance. Gordon had opposed Confederation, but a visit to England gave him new light. Not long after the new Government of Albert J. Smith took office in 1865, the Colonial Secretary wrote this advice to Gordon : 198 SIR LEONARD TILLEY "You will impress the strong and deliberate opin- ion of her Majesty's Government that it is an object much to be desired that all the British North American colonies should agree to unite in one government." A series of events then promoted a revulsion of feel- ing. Dissension sprang up in the Smith-Hatheway Cabinet. The Legislative Council, led by Peter Mitchell, in reply to the Speech from the Throne, endorsed union, and Governor Gordon accepted this Address without consulting his advisers. The Cabinet had no course but to resign, their resolution being forti- fied by a threatened Fenian invasion and by defeat in an important by-election. Governor Gordon, whose conduct has been criti- cized as contrary to the principles of responsible govern- ment, was now a firm friend of union and did not hesi- tate to stretch his powers to aid the cause. Lengthy correspondence took place between him and Premier A. J. Smith, in the course of which, writing on April 12, 1866, Gordon said: "He has no doubt as to the course which it is his duty to pursue in obedience to his Sovereign's com- mands and in the interests of the people of British North America. His Excellency may be in error, but he believes that a vast change has already taken place in the opinions held on the subject in New Brunswick. He fully anticipates that the House of Assembly will yet return a response to the communication made to them not less favorable to the principle of union than that given by the Upper House, and in any event he relies with confidence on the desire of a great majority 199 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS of the people of the Province to aid in building up a powerful and prosperous nation under the sovereignty of the British Crown. To this verdict his Excellency is perfectly ready to appeal."* Tilley watched the constitutional struggle from the cool shades of private life. He had been out of office for almost a year, but he was far from being out of touch. He had formed a warm friendship with John A. Macdonald, and on April 14, 1866, he wrote the Conservative leader an extended account of the situa- tion. He told of the break-up of the Smith Government through the quarrel with Governor Gordon, and the appeal to the country by Smith against the Governor's conduct in answering the Legislative Council's Address in favor of union before he consulted with his advisers. "Had the break-up occurred in any other way," he said, "we could without doubt have put the Nova Scotia resolutions through this House and have a majority to sustain the new Administration. As it is, I see nothing before us but a general election, and we shall have to fight the Opposition upon less favorable ground than we would if the simple question of Confederation was at issue. The new Government will probably be formed to-day, and I suppose I must go into it, and fight it out upon the Confederate line."t When the Smith Government resigned, the Gover- nor called on Peter Mitchell to form a Cabinet. Though Mitchell was an active unionist, he advised the *Life and Times of Sir Leonard Tilley, by James Hannay (St. John, 1897), P. 321. tSir John A. Macdonald: A Memoir, by Joseph Pope, Vol. I, P. 297. 200 SIR LEONARD TILLEY Governor that Tilley was the proper person to form an administration, but the latter declined on the ground that he was not a member of the Legislature. A Cabinet was then formed by Mitchell and R. D. Wilmot,* with Tilley as Provincial Secretary. The aggressive cam- paign was continued, and the elections returned a large majority for Confederation, the popular vote being 55,665 for union and 33,767 against. The battle for Confederation was completed by the adoption of the Nova Scotia resolutions and the participation in the London Conference to frame the bill. In this Tilley had a part, though the delay in the arrival of the Can- adian delegates was a trying incident. Union was un- doubtedly hastened in New Brunswick by the Fenian scare, and was received in 1867 with more general approval than in Nova Scotia. Tilley's seventy-eight years of life epitomized the evolution of his Province. At his birth New Bruns- wick had but 50,000 people, and it was only 34 years since the Loyalist immigration reached the St. John Valley. Wooden buildings were universal, people cooked and warmed themselves by the open fireplace, homespun comprised everyone's clothing, and farm implements showed little advance on a thousand years before. Tilley lived to see New Brunswick with over 300,000 inhabitants, its prosperous settlements border- ing the coasts and rivers, but its interior still largely in possession of the lumberman and the moose. St. John *Robert Duncan Wilmot, (1809-91), member of New Brunswick Parliament 1846-61 and 1865-67; member of Senate 1867-80; Lieutenant- Governor of New Brunswick 1880-85; Privy Councillor 1878-91. 201 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS had become an important ocean port, and progress in manufacturing kept pace with farming. Tilley was born at Gagetown, a picturesque village on the St. John River, on May 8, 1818. His ancestors were Loyalists, his great-grandfather, Samuel Tilley, migrating from Long Island after the American Revo- lution. His father, Thomas Morgan Tilley, was a house joiner and builder. The youth attended the Gagetown Grammar School, and at 13, with soar- ing ambition, went to St. John, where he became an apprentice in Dr. Henry Cook's drug store. A little later he entered the store of William O. Smith, a shrewd business man of public spirit, from whom he derived many political ideas. A smart, active and pleasing youth, he attracted attention and soon joined the St. John Young Men's Debating Society, where, like many another public man, he had his first and most helpful training in public speaking. In 1 837 he enlisted in the cause of temperance, and his prominence in this did much to draw him into politics later. The next year he entered a drug partnership, and so successful was his business life, in the growing port of St. John, that when he retired in 1855 he was wealthy. Tilley's life-long belief in protection led him to support the can- didature in 1849 of B. Ansley on a high tariff platform. The following year he was a foremost member of the New Brunswick Railway League, an organization formed as a protest against the Legislature's failure to assist railways, and having a line from St. John to Shediac as its chief objective. In June of that year, after a useful municipal career, Tilley was elected to 202 SIR LEONARD TILLEY the Legislature during his absence from the city, and thereafter was never long free from public duties. Responsible government had just been won under the leadership of Lemuel A. Wilmot,* and a new era began. It is unnecessary to trace the deviations of New Brunswick politics in the early years of Tilley's public life. As in Canada, there were factions and defections during a period of shadowy party boundaries. After an absence of three sessions, Tilley was re-elected in 1854 and entered the first Liberal Government of the Province, that of Charles Fisher,t who was also a Father of Confederation. In 1855 Tilley, prematurely, as it proved, implemented his temperance beliefs by putting through a bill prohibiting the importation, manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquor. Surveying the conditions from this distance, Tilley's prohibition measure seems to have been the result of zeal rather than judgment. Those were the days of almost universal drinking. No social gather- ing was considered complete without it, and in that damp climate in the pioneer age, liquor was the "cure- all" for the ills of men. The square-rigged barques that carried timber to the seven seas returned with vinous and spirituous cargoes, the favorite being Jamaica rum from the West Indies. In 1838 the 120,- ♦Lemuel Allan Wilmot, (1809-78), a progressive whose service ranks with that of Robert Baldwin in Upper Canada and Joseph Howe in Nova Scotia. He entered Parliament in 1834, achieved responsible government in 1848 and accepted a seat on the Bench in 1851. He was Lieutenant- Governor of New Brunswick from 1868 to 1873. + Charles Fisher (1808-80) who assisted L. A. Wilmot in the fight for responsible government, sat in the New Brunswick Assembly, with short interruptions, from 1837 to 1868, after which he served as a Judge in the New Brunswick Supreme Court until his death. 203 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS 000 people of New Brunswick consumed 312,298 gal- lons of rum, gin and whiskey and 64,579 gallons of brandy. Tilley introduced his prohibition bill as a private member. It was first considered on March 19, and passed on the 27th. The narrow margin of 21 to 18 should have warned the promoter, but on the last day of the year the supposed end of the reign of King Alcohol was celebrated by the pealing of bells at mid- night. It was not long before the law was seen to be a dead letter. There were 200 taverns in St. John and suburbs alone, and liquor continued to be sold. In a few months an unsympathetic Governor, H. T. Manners-Sutton, dissolved the Assembly, the Govern- ment was defeated and the new Gray-Wilmot Ministry repealed the act. Fisher and Tilley gained power again in 1857 and enacted much advanced legislation, includ- ing vote by ballot, the enlargement of the franchise and quadrennial parliaments. During his long public service Tilley was essen- tially the business man in politics. A man who could retire with a competency at 37 was one whose advice was sought by visionary and impractical politicians. His sound character and judgment put him in the fore- front wherever he happened to be. He took part in the early conferences at Quebec regarding the Interco- lonial Railway, the construction of which was greatly delayed by circumstances. He was an influential figure at the Charlottetown and Quebec Conferences, and helped frame the B.N.A. Act in London. When he had 204 SIR LEONARD TILLEY at length secured the adoption of union in his own Pro- vince he turned his hand to the cause elsewhere. As so often happens in personal intercourse, the contrast between him and John A. Macdonald made them fast friends. In 1867, when forming his Confederation Cabinet, Macdonald asked Tilley to join and to choose his own colleague from New Brunswick. He entered as Minister of Customs and took Peter Mitchell as Minister of Marine and Fisheries. An important part was played by Tilley in 1868 in reconciling Howe and Nova Scotia to union. Howe had just returned from his fruitless quest in Britain for repeal. Tilley wrote Macdonald from Windsor, N.S., on July 17, that he had had breakfast with Howe and found him ready to consider Confederation if some concessions could be made. "The reasonable men," Tilley wrote, "want an excuse to enable them to hold back the violent and un- reasonable of their own party, and this excuse ought to be given them." He urged Macdonald to visit Nova Scotia at once, and said the nature of the concessions was not as important as the fact that concessions would be made. "I am not an alarmist," he added, "but the position can only be understood by visiting Nova Scotia. There is no use in crying peace when there is no peace. We require wise and prudent action at this moment; the most serious results may be produced by the opposite course." Macdonald was discerning enough to act upon this advice. He hastened to Halifax, made concessions 205 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS to the anti-unionists, Howe joined his Cabinet, and serious trouble was avoided. Though originally a Liberal and responsible for some advanced legislation, Tilley was now firmly estab- lished in the political family of Sir John Macdonald. From February until November, 1873, he was Minister of Finance, resigning to become Lieutenant-Governor of New Brunswick. The barefoot messenger boy of 1831 had come home in the trappings of a gilded gov- ernor, and he now had years of dignity and calm in his own Province. But the call of active politics was again to be heard and answered. After Sir John Macdonald and Sir Charles Tup- per had swept the Dominion in 1878. on the new National Policy platform, it fell to Tilley to introduce the new tariff. He had abandoned the ease and com- fort of Government House at Fredericton to return to the hurly-burly of political life. He became Minister of Finance in the joyous home-comin'g of the Conserva- tives, and on March 14 following enunciated the National Policy. His three hours' speech was some- what dreary, as he lacked the magic to make figures glow, but it stands as the argument for the policy which has persisted ever since with little modification. He could refer with truth to the depressed conditions which then existed. In 1873, he said, he could point with pride and satisfaction to the increased capital of the banks and the large dividends they paid. "To-day, I regret to say, we must point to depreciated values and to small dividends. Then I could point to the 206 SIR LEONARD TILLEY general prosperity of the country. To-day we must all admit that it is greatly depressed." What was afterwards for years denounced by the Liberals as the "Red Parlor" had its origin at this time. This was the consultation between the Government and the manufacturers as to the amount of protection vari- ous industries ought to have. "We have invited," said Tilley, "gentlemen from all parts of the Dominion and representing all the inter- ests in the Dominion, to assist us in the readjustment of the tariff, because we did not feel, though perhaps we possessed an average intelligence in ordinary govern- ment matters, we did not feel that we knew everything." The Government was confronted at the time with falling revenues, for the ad valorem duties generally in force in Canada made the customs receipts drop as values fell. Tilley said he regretted the necessity for increased taxation, but promised that taxation would be heavier on goods from foreign countries than from the mother country. So far as the United States was concerned he expressed no regret, for Canada had expected to lead them into better trade relations, but in vain. The new schedules, generally speaking, increased the rates from \7V2 per cent, to 20 and even to 40 per cent. Tilley said he thought these "would be ample protection to all who are seeking it and who have a right to expect it." "The time has arrived, I think," he said, "when it becomes our duty to decide whether the thousands of men throughout the length and breadth of this country who are unemployed shall seek employment in another 207 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS country or shall find it in this Dominion; the time has arrived when we are to decide whether we shall be sim- ply hewers of wood and drawers of water; whether we shall be simply agriculturists raising wheat, and lum- bermen producing more lumber than we can use, or Great Britain and the United States will take from us at remunerative prices ; whether we will confine ourselves to the fisheries and certain other small industries and cease to be what we have been, and not rise to what I believe we are destined to be under wise and judicious legislation — or whether we will inaugurate a policy that will by its provisions say to the industries of the country : We will give you sufficient protection ; we will give you a market for what you can produce ; we will say that while our neighbors built up a Chinese wall, we will impose a reasonable duty upon their products coming into this country; at all events, we will main- tain for our agricultural and other products largely the market of our own Dominion. The time has certainly arrived when we must consider whether we will allow matters to remain as they are, with the result of being an unimportant and uninteresting portion of her Majesty's Dominions, or will rise to the position which I believe Providence has destined us to occupy by means which, I believe, though I may be over-sanguine, which the country believes are calculated to bring prosperity and happiness to the people, to give employment to the thousands who are unemployed, and to make this a great and prosperous country, as all desire and hope it will be." 208 SIR LEONARD TILLEY Sir Leonard (he had been knighted in 1879) con- tinued as Finance Minister until October 31, 1885, when failing vigor compelled him to resign as his "only chance of a measure of health and possibly a few more years of life." He was again appointed Lieutenant- Governor of New Brunswick, and continued to hold office for almost eight years further. He was now the victim of an incurable disease, and when he finally lay down the reins he knew he had not many years to live. He went in and out among his people for three years more, respected and loved by the thousands to whom he was personally known and for whose welfare he had always been solicitous. In June, 1896, his illness took a fatal turn, and he passed away on the 25th. Just before he lost consciousness on the 23 rd the first returns of the Dominion election which was to sweep his party from power were given him. At that moment they appeared favorable and the dying gladiator said : "I can go to sleep now; New Brunswick has done well." Thus passed a statesman whose life was an example and whose record was an inspiration. He was a lucid but not a brilliant speaker. He was a man of sense and judgment rather than emotion and display. He was honest and he ever looked for the good and noble in others. As New Brunswick's foremost son he takes his place among the greatest of the builders of the new Dominion. 209 PETER MITCHELL PETER MITCHELL PETER MITCHELL (1824-1899) PETER MITCHELL divides with Tilley the honor of luring timid New Brunswick into the path of Confederation. Later he assisted in breaking the lead- ing strings with which the mother country sought to guide the young Dominion, and to exercise too great control over her natural resources. For these duties he possessed qualities of stubbornness and dash which differed from the character of Tilley. Mitchell was a strong, dominating character, rough and ready, and not moderated by deference. Tilley was of a finer mould, gentlemanly and courteous. Mitchell was a shipbuilder and contractor, a man of the world ; Tilley was a druggist, a temperance advocate, and a devoted churchman. Mitchell's seventy-five years of life were crowded with business, politics and the enjoyment of life. His resolute character made him a force in any environment, but he did not accomplish the work nor reap the honors that his abilities warranted. Though counted by contemporaries an abler man than Tilley, he had less stability, and therefore less usefulness in an era of great issues and great men. Tilley was a gentle and loyal colleague of Sir John A. Macdonald; Mitchell was headstrong, quarrelled with Sir John, and naturally fell by the wayside. Peter Mitchell was a characteristic product of his environment and his time. He was born at Newcastle, 213 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS N.B., on January 4, 1824. His parents, natives of Scot- land, had settled on the Miramichi six years previously. He was educated at the local grammar school, studied law, and was called to the Bar in 1848. The east coast of New Brunswick, then raw and new, was embarking in the lumber business, which has persisted to this day, and young Mitchell, with an energetic disposition, was soon immersed in lumbering, shipbuilding and other industrial vocations. As he had a ready tongue and was popular, he had made his first political speech at seven- teen, and was soon in politics. He was elected to the Legislative Assembly in 1856, where he remained four years. From 1860 until Confederation he sat in the Legislative Council, where he became a leader. In 1867, on joining the federal Cabinet, he was appointed to the Senate. He left that silent chamber in 1874 for the House of Commons, but was defeated in 1 878. He sat again in the House from 1882 to 1891 and met his final defeat in 1896* Such a catalogue of dates gives a poor idea of the stormy career of this restless, often bitter, fighting Father of Confederation. Mitchell was not a party man. His leanings were Liberal, but he joined the Macdonald Cabinet, and he often referred to himself as "the third party." He was intractable and impatient of discipline. He was often irritating in manner, even causing annoyance to Sir John Macdonald, that master of men in their varied moods. On one occasion Mitchell threatened to hold up the Intercolonial Rail- way estimates until the Government paid for a cow, 214 PETER MITCHELL owned by a widow in New Brunswick, which had been killed by a train. The cow was paid for. Mitchell had a firm and resolute manner which impressed people. He spoke well, without notes, stood with his hands in his pockets, and came down hard on his heels by way of emphasis. He gave the impression of mental as well as physical power, and, though like- able, was as bold as a lion. Early in his public career Mitchell was an advo- cate of the union of the Provinces. He spoke with Howe, McGee and others at Port Robinson, Upper Canada, in September, 1862, and presented arguments for union when as yet such concrete suggestions were rare. Speaking of the people of New Brunswick, Mitchell then said: "They were prepared to go into anything and support anything which would ad- vance the character of the colonial possessions of Great Britain by bringing them into closer union. Disunited, these colonies were weak. United, acting together, gov- erned by one public sentiment, they would be powerful and strong, and so far from their attachment to Great Britain being weakened, would add lustre to her throne." By 1864 Mitchell was a considerable figure in New Brunswick, and attended the Charlottetown and Quebec Conferences to arrange the union scheme, and after- wards went to the London Conference, where he sup- ported Cartier against Macdonald in securing the adop- tion of a federal rather than a legislative union. Before the London Conference could be called, 215 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS Mitchell and Tilley passed through the first life-and- death struggle of the union scheme. It had been agreed to test public sentiment first in New Brunswick, but the Province was uninformed and unsympathetic; Tilley, then Premier, Mitchell and the other Ministers were defeated by three to one in March, 1865. "I thought at the time, and think still, that with proper management we ought not to have failed," Mitchell wrote years afterwards, "and believe the one chief cause of our failure was an injunction placed upon us of New Brunswick at the Quebec Conference that we were not to make public the conclusions of the conference until all the delegates had arrived at their several Provinces and had reported at headquarters, and in consequence of that silence the suspicions of the mem- bers and the people of our Province were excited and set the tide against us, and we were beaten."* Mitchell records that on the day the Cabinet resigned he prophesied in a conversation with Lieuten- ant-Governor Gordon, that a change of opinion would take place within twelve months. Subsequent com- munications between Mitchell and Governor Gordon had a most disturbing effect on New Brunswick politics. Gordon was recalled to England for a visit, and on his return he was seen to be a convert to the union cause, under pressure from the Home Government. The Gov- ernment of Albert J. Smith was in power, and Tilley and Mitchell were spreading the doctrines of Confed- eration among the people. ♦Reminiscences of Hon. Peter Mitchell, Toronto News, February 15, 1894. 216 PETER MITCHELL Mitchell, in his reminiscences, sets forth that Gordon called him to Fredericton and asked him if he would support Smith, who, Gordon believed, "could be persuaded to agree to certain terms of union," and wished Mitchell to take a seat in Smith's Government, the Premier being anxious for it. Mitchell replied that he could not do that, as Smith had been elected by an overwhelming majority against union only six or seven months before. "I said," Mitchell writes, "that, while I would not go into his Government, I would undertake, on behalf of the party I represented — as I was more of a patriot than a politician or partisan — to induce our party to support Mr. Smith in that measure if he was sincere — which I told the Governor I doubted — although by so doing he would forego all the immense patronage which the first Government of Confedera- tion would have at the disposal of New Brunswick." Negotiations proceeded, and when Mitchell insisted on a paragraph approving Confederation being inserted in the Speech from the Throne when the Legislature met, the members on the Government side balked — as Mitchell expected — and the Cabinet resigned. Mitchell states that his steps were taken after consultation with Tilley and Charles Fisher, but when the crisis came Tilley would not take the Premiership and risk another defeat at the polls. "So there was nothing left for it," Mitchell writes, with no evidence of self-effacement, "but to accept it myself. And I did, and Mr. Tilley seconded me ably and well. I believed we would succeed, and after going to the country on the very same issue on which our Gov- 217 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS ernment was defeated nine months before, I came back with a majority behind me of nearly four to one, and thus was the most active and principal means of carry- ing Confederation." Passage of the Confederation resolutions was then but a formality, and Mitchell went with Tilley into the first Federal Cabinet. One of the earliest and greatest struggles for Mari- time Province men at Ottawa concerned the route of the Intercolonial Railway. Its construction was a part of the Confederation agreement, for the shreds and patches of the new union could not subsist on summer communi- cation only. Mitchell favored the route along Bay de Chaleur and the east coast, while Tilley wanted the rail- way to follow the St. John River, or central, route, which was the more fertile and populous. The question became an acute one, and seriously threatened the Gov- ernment's stability, owing to the strength at Tilley's dis- posal from the Opposition ranks.* In the end, the argument in favor of the east coast route, supported by a recommendation from Mr. (after- wards Sir) Sandford Fleming, the engineer in charge, prevailed for military reasons. Mitchell's force of character no doubt had much to do with the decision, as he himself freely admits. "Mr. Tilley knew the difficulty," he writes, "but being pledged to the southern route, and I to the *Mr. William Houston, of Toronto, an intimate journalistic friend of Alexander Mackenzie, informed the writer that Mr. Mackenzie, who was then leading the Liberals in the House of Commons, told him that he had offered Tilley the solid support of the Opposition in favor of the St. John River route, but Tilley, for some reason, did not force the issue and accept it. 218 PETER MITCHELL northern, he would have much preferred a River St. John man to myself (for the Cabinet), and I believe intended to take him. We had some very angry words over it, but my force of character settled the matter." Though Mitchell was Premier of New Brunswick during the last, and successful, stage of the Confedera- tion battle, John A. Macdonald looked upon Tilley as the real leader, and in 1867 asked him to join the first Dominion Cabinet and to choose his own colleague from his own Province, and this slight in favor of one whom Mitchell tersely terms as "my subordinate" forms one of several indictments which he makes against Macdonald in his reminiscences. He wrote the Dominion Premier in protest, and says he received an apologetic reply. At least it is unthinkable that Mac- donald could not rise to such a situation, for political jealousies were one of his most frequent subjects of trouble — and adjustment. When Mitchell arrived to claim his portfolio there were only two left, Secretary of State for the Provinces and Marine and Fisheries, in neither of which posts was there anything to do, Mac- donald told him. But Mitchell took the latter, and to his everlasting credit he found much to do. It was a new department, and he laid it out along bold and ener- getic lines. He established lighthouses and other aids to navigation on lake and sea coast, and organized the first fleet of cruisers for the protection of Canadian fisheries. It was as the advocate of Canadian rights in regard to fisheries that Mitchell advanced self-government 219 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS another important stage. In his despatches in this con- nection he gave the keynote for subsequent negotiations which put a curb on the encroachments of the United States in her dealings with Canada. He was a thor- ough enthusiast in his attitude towards Canadian fish- eries. "As a national possession they are inestimable," he wrote in 1870, "and as a field for industry and enter- prise they are inexhaustible." Mitchell's despatch to the Imperial Government in the same year firmly set forth Canada's position re- garding the ownership of her fisheries. He pointed out that in the previous December the Canadian Cabinet had approved a report by him, in which he declined to act on the suggestion of Her Majesty's Government that Canada should open her coasting trade to the United States, as Great Britain had done, while the United States continued to close theirs against Canada. The true policy of Canada, he insisted, was to retain all the privileges it then possessed until fresh negotiations in regard to trade relations might reopen the whole question. Mitchell's concluding words in his report to Coun- cil sound like a Bill of Rights declared against the mother country. He said : "The active protection of our fisheries was the first step in our national policy, as viewed from the colonial standpoint, and has since been followed up by legisla- tion which has imposed certain charges upon shipping and imposts upon articles of trade. It should, however, be clearly understood that these restrictions and charges we are prepared to remove whenever the United States 220 PETER MITCHELL are prepared to give us reciprocal treatment. Till then, the public sentiment of this country calls for vigorous action at the hands of the Canadian Government, and demands that this, the greatest and largest question of them all, and one which our neighbors most appreciate, shall be dealt with with spirit and vigor and form part of an important national policy. . . . "As part of the Empire, Canada is entitled to de- mand that her rights should be preserved intact, and at least it cannot be said that Council will have performed its duties if we silently permit ourselves to be divested of them piecemeal, as is the case with our fishery interests, and the people consider that their valuable fisheries are a trust incident to Canada, and involve interests which Her Majesty holds for the benefit of her loyal subjects, and which should not be abandoned nor their protec- tion neglected." In 1870 Mitchell engaged in a controversy with President Grant over Canada's fishing rights, and pub- lished a reply to Grant's message to Congress on the subject. He also rendered lasting service by arranging for the fisheries arbitration at Halifax, which resulted in an award of $4,500,000 to Canada for the use of Can- adian fisheries by United States fishermen. Though Mitchell as a Liberal had joined the Mac- donald Cabinet, he was not within its inner councils. At the end of the session of 1873, he says, he asked Sir John to allow him to resign, as he felt he had been slighted, but was persuaded to remain until after the recess. Meantime the Pacific Scandal storm broke in 221 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS all its intensity. Mitchell hastened to Ottawa, but declares he was given no explanation, and had no infor- mation except what all could read in the newspapers. In the House, after it was called, the charges and replies dragged on for days, but Mitchell declined to speak in defence. One dramatic incident, however, he witnessed and describes. There was much concern over the expected speech and attitude of Donald A. Smith (afterwards Lord Strathcona), and Mitchell, at Tup- per's request, arranged an interview between Macdon- ald and Smith with a view to a reconciliation. When Smith came from Macdonald's room the failure of the purpose was evident. Mitchell says : "I saw by the expression and color of his face that he was very much excited, and I feared it was all up with us. Mr. Smith came along to where I sat and said to me: " *Oh! Mitchell, he*s an awful man, that. He has done nothing but swear at me since I went into the room.' "Mr. Smith said : *I don't want to vote against your Government, and particularly on your account, Mr. Mitchell, because you have always treated me very fairly, but there is nothing else for me to do, and I will have to do it.' " Smith's arraignment of the Government that night marked the turning point, and the Government resigned next day. Mitchell's later years were somewhat embittered and uneventful. He used to say that, after all, there was 222 PETER MITCHELL small satisfaction in serving one's country, for no matter what one did it soon forgot one. He became proprietor of the Montreal Herald in 1885, but took little part in its editorial management. He was not in Parliament after 1891, and after unsuccessfully seeking an appoint- ment from the Conservative Government, was made Inspector of Fisheries for Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia by the Laurier Government in March, 1 897. He was then an old man, and lived by himself at the Windsor Hotel in Montreal. In the summer of 1899 he had a partial stroke of paralysis while in Ottawa, but afterwards went about apparently in good health. On October 25 the second attack came, and the next morning he was found dead in his room at the hotel. Peter Mitchell was buried in his native town of Newcastle, N.B., and though he had outlived nearly all of his political contemporaries, his death removed a valiant, if stormy statesman, whose services become more significant as the years pass. 223 SIR ALBERT J. SMITH IS SIR ALBERT J. SMITH SIR ALBERT J. SMITH (1822-1883) WHEN the Confederation wave at last swept New Brunswick in 1866, it broke down the dykes of fear and jealousy carefully reared by Albert J. Smith when he defeated Tilley and the unionist government a year earlier. Smith was a powerful influence in the anti-Confederation party, and led in the campaign of indignation, on the platform and in newspapers and pamphlets, after the Quebec Conference. It was a cam- paign in which Canada was pictured as a great, over- powering neighbor, ready to swallow the little Mari- time Provinces. New Brunswick people were told that under Confederation they would have no country. Much was made of the financial needs of Canada and cf the secrecy which had surrounded the negotiations. Thus warned of ills they knew not of, the electors struck the first blow at the agreement by defeating the Tilley Government in March, 1865, less than six months after the Quebec Conference. Wreckage brought down by Smith, the country lawyer from Dorchester, was then salvaged by the patient apothecary from St. John, Samuel Leonard Til- ley, and the battle began over again. It did not end until Lieutenant-Governor Gordon had strained the constitution by acting outside the advice of Premier Smith and his Cabinet, and until Smith had exhausted his resources in standing for responsible government 227 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS as he understood it. It was a case of the end justifying the means. Arthur H. Gordon, the Lieutenant-Gover- nor, had been opposed to union, or at least to the larger scheme. Some said he favored a union of the Mari- time Provinces with himself at its head. He was recalled to England on a visit, and when he returned his views had changed. "I am further instructed to express to you," he told the Legislature in his Speech from the Throne in March, 1866, "the strong and deliberate opinion of Her Majesty's Government that it is an object much to be desired that all the British North American Colonies should agree to unite in one government." It is clear from his own reminiscences that Peter Mitchell was responsible for the insertion of this para- graph.* He was the pro-Confederation leader of the Legislative Council who was pulling the strings, and who brought the fall of the Smith Cabinet. The para- graph favoring Confederation caused surprise, in view of the election of the Government the year before on an anti-union platform. When it was read in the House the crowd outside the bar broke into a cheer. This was an ominous circumstance for the Ministry. A. R. Wet- more, elected as an anti-unionist and a supporter of the Government, went over to the other side. Opposition developed in other quarters, and a want of confidence motion was debated for three weeks. Meantime, the crisis was developing in the Legisla- tive Council. The unionist plot — not using the word in an offensive sense — was coming to a head. As it ♦Toronto News, Feb. 15, 1894. 228 SIR ALBERT J. SMITH proceeded, Albert J. Smith doubtless felt the presence, as behind a curtain, of the masterful figure of Peter Mitchell, with whom Governor Gordon was taking counsel as he proceeded. Another circumstance tended to place Smith at a disadvantage. Early in 1866 he had accompanied delegates from Canada and Nova Scotia to Washington to seek a renewal of the reciprocity treaty, and while he was absent the unionist leaders made headway with their plans. They had also gained ground during Smith's absence the previous year in England, whither he had gone with J. C. Allen to oppose the terms of union and to further the construc- tion of the St. John & Shediac Railway to the Nova Scotia boundary. Events hastened to a climax in the Spring of 1866. The Smith Ministry, united only in their opposition to union, and composed of men of diverse parties and beliefs, had internal difficulties; an important by-election in York had been lost, the people were learning the real terms of union, and suddenly they were confronted with the Fenian enemy at their very gates. It was like the blast of a bugle. One thou- sand men were enrolled at once and sent to the Maine frontier, where they remained for three months, but the invasion did not materialize. As one New B runs- wicker recently phrased it, "All the old women of both sexes got frightened." The danger served to solidify union sentiment, for we find Mr. Tilley later replying to Mr. Smith in the Legislature, "dwelling on the im- pression of power which union would have on the minds of those abroad who were plotting our ruin."* *History of New Brunswick, by James Hannay, Vol. II. 229 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS Mitchell had been asked by Governor Gordon to support Smith in securing union, and had agreed, though he doubted Smith's sincerity in professing to favor Confederation, after attaining office on the opposite policy. Interviews followed, and the para- graph appeared in the Governor's speech as an evidence of good faith, though it alienated more of the Govern- ment's supporters. Debate in the House dragged, but in the Legislative Council an address favoring union was passed, and Gordon, with immoderate haste, made ready to accept and transmit it, with an endorsation of its sentiments. On the morning of April 7 Premier Smith called and told the Governor he ought simply to transmit the address. In the afternoon the Premier was again summoned to the Government House, when the Governor told him that he intended to receive the Legislative Council at 3 o'clock. Smith again protested, and to the suggestion that he drive down to the Assem- bly and consult his colleagues he replied that that was impossible as a debate on a want of confidence motion was going on and they could not leave the House. The sands in the Smith Administration glass had now all but run out. The Legislative Council was already in the building, including the redoubtable Mitchell. Mr. Smith, having refused responsibility for the Governor's reply to the address, went away, and two days later the Government resigned. Smith had been squeezed out of office while he had still a majority in the House. A bolder politician might have fared better and given the Governor an unpleasant time. 230 SIR ALBERT J. SMITH Let us see what it cost in damage to the constitu- tion to carry Confederation in New Brunswick. The Cabinet's remonstrance maintained that the Governor's action in replying to the Council's address without con- sulting his advisers was not "in accordance with the true spirit of the constitution." They claimed that in a measure involving an organic change in the constitution, and political rights and privileges of the people, the people should be consulted. They reminded the Gov- ernor that the Quebec Scheme had been condemned by the people at the last election, that it had been subse- quently condemned in the Assembly by twenty-nine to ten ; that the Legislative Council, a body not elected by the people, had no right to ask for legislation the Assem- bly had rejected; that such proceeding violates every principle of responsible and self-government, is sub- versive of the rights and liberties of the people, and seeks to take from them their constitution not only without their consent but against their clearly expressed wishes. As a parting thrust, this outspoken letter accused the Governor of "having taken the advice, as they truly believe, of a gentleman of the Opposition as to the answer given to the Legislative Council on Saturday last instead of that of your constitutional advisers," and "they would respectfully express their conviction that such a course was unconstitutional and without prece- dent in any country where responsible government exists." They thereupon resigned in a body. There was acid, too, in Governor Gordon's reply. He said the Ministers' reasoning would go far to de- stroy the position of the Legislative Council as a co- 231 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS ordinate branch of the Legislature, a branch whose opinion had been asked, and whose opinion could be given without waiting for the views of the other House. The Governor reminded his advisers that their Minister- ial responsibility was something "from which it is always in their power to escape," and said that the non- communication to the Cabinet of the reply in question was the result, not of design, but of accident, as it had been his intention to afford them a sufficient opportun- ity for its consideration. He added that his words by no means conveyed approval of that particular scheme for union, and that from previous communications with the leader of the Government he was entitled to assume that that hope was shared by the Cabinet. Governor Gordon accused his late Ministers of vacillation in the cause they pretended to uphold. He reminded Mr. Smith that he had agreed to refer the question to a joint committee of both Houses, with the understanding that that committee should report in favor of a measure of union. Due weight was to be given to the objections raised to the scheme. Smith had left Fredericton to consult his party, the Governor said, and all seemed well, but after the Legislature met there had been little indication of movement toward union. "His Excellency," says the memorandum, "has never ceased to urge on Mr. Smith the expediency, and even the necessity, of a bold avowal of his intended policy, nor has he failed to express his apprehension as to the consequence of delay in so doing, believing that until that avowal was made Mr. Smith would become 232 SIR ALBERT J. SMITH daily more and more entangled in contradictory pledges from which he would find it impossible to extricate himself, and which might act most prejudicially on the prospects of the cause." The Governor added that it had become more and more apparent that the Ministers lacked the power — he would not say they lacked the will — to carry out their original intention, and he would accept their resigna- tions, believing that a vast change had already taken place in the opinions of the people on the subject. Smith, as befitted a man who entered the Legisla- ture in 1854 as a Liberal opponent of the Tory Family Compact of the day in New Brunswick, had stood up manfully for responsible government, but the issue was too great for that obstruction. The Cabinet resigned on April 9, the Fenians arrived at Eastport on the Maine-New Brunswick border on the 10th, the elections followed in May and June, and the Government of Peter Mitchell won a great victory. The Legislature met on June 21 and by July 7 had adopted the Confederation resolutions and prorogued. The main Confederation resolution was in the following terrris : "Resolved that an humble address be presented to his Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor, praying that his Excellency be pleased to appoint delegates to unite with the delegates from the other Provinces in arrang- ing with the Imperial Government for the Union of British North America upon such terms as will secure the just rights and interests of New Brunswick, accom- panied with provision for the immediate construction of 233 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS the Intercolonial Railway; each Province to have an equal voice in such delegation, Upper and Lower Can- ada to be considered as separate Provinces." Attorney- General Charles Fisher's brief speech brought a reply — a last futile protest — from Mr. Smith, who was now leader of the Opposition, lasting almost two days. Mr. Smith objected to giving dele- gates power to fix the destinies of the Provinces forever without again submitting the union scheme to the people. He also criticized the constitution of the Upper House of the proposed union parliament, de- claring that each Province should have an equal num- ber of representatives in it, as was the case in the United States. He moved an amendment to the effect that no act or measure for a union with Canada take effect until approved by the Legislature or the people of the Province. As soon as the Confederation resolutions were passed, Mr. Smith moved a resolution which included provisions for an equal number of Legislative Council- lors (as the Senators were then termed) from each Pro- vince, that the number of representatives in the federal Parliament be limited, that a court be established to settle disputes between the federal and local govern- ments, that New Brunswick be exempted from taxation for the construction and enlargement of canals in Upper Canada, and for other things. Following this he delivered a lengthy pessimistic speech, declaring Con- federation was a great experiment at best and that the Government was acting in a most high-handed manner. New Brunswick's delegation to the London Con- 234 SIR ALBERT J. SMITH ference consisted of S. L. Tilley, R. D. Wilmot, Charles Fisher, Peter Mitchell, J. M. Johnson, and E. B. Chandler. The delicate relations still existing with Canada were further strained by the weary wait of several months in London for the Canadian representa- tives, who were delayed by John A. Macdonald's ill- health, and by other causes not well defined. The battle was won, and Albert J. Smith moved to another arena. Easy material conditions made it possible for Mr. Smith to devote long years to the public service. He had been born in the village of Shediac, Westmoreland County, on March 12, 1822, of Loyalist descent. He attended the local grammar school, and later became a student in the law office of E. B. Chandler,* afterwards a Father of Confederation, and a Lieutenant-Governor of New Brunswick. He was called to the Bar in 1847, and opening an office in Dorchester, soon developed a profitable practice. Young Smith had qualities for public life which found a ready outlet in an era when many men afterwards famous were responding to the public call. He was elected to the Assembly in 1852 as a Liberal, and two years later joined Charles Fisher, W. J. Ritchie, and S. L. Tilley in forming the first Liberal government of the Province. They went out of office after the failure of the prohibition bill in 1856, but were returned the following year on a deadlock ♦Edward Barron Chandler, (1800-80), a Father of Confederation, was in public life, in one sphere or another, from 1827 until his death while Lieutenant-Governor of New Brunswick. He was a man of high integrity, a Conservative of the old school, and was identified with most of the leading events of his Province for almost half a century. 235 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS being reached. In 1862 Smith became Attorney-Gen- eral, but resigned a year later on disagreeing with his colleagues on matters connected with the construction of the Intercolonial Railway. He objected to the terms by which his Province was to pay three and one-half twelfths of the cost, which he considered too high a pro- portion. As the Intercolonial was a part of the union scheme, his opposition to both was at least consistent. When Albert Smith's battle against Confederation had ended in defeat, he, like most of the leading oppon- ents in other Provinces, cheerfully accepted the situa- tion and lived to render useful service under the new constitution. He was elected to the House of Commons in 1867 and gave a nominal support to Sir John Mac- donald until 1873, when he assisted the Liberals in their efforts to uncover the Pacific Scandal. On the Mac- kenzie Government's succession to office. Smith became Minister of Marine and Fisheries in succession to Peter Mitchell, his old antagonist in the union battle. During his four years of office Smith rendered one not- able service in the preparation of the evidence for, and attendance at, the sittings of the Halifax Fisheries Con- ference in 1877. This resulted in an award of $5,500,- 000 for Canada and Newfoundland, to be paid by the United States for the use of fisheries. For this work Smith was knighted in 1879. His public life, marked by honor and uprightness at every turn, closed in an unexpected defeat in 1882, after fourteen victories in his native county of Westmoreland, and an unbroken service of thirty years. The voting element of the rid- ing had changed, and the warrior's lack of contact with 236 SIR ALBERT J. SMITH the people lessened his popularity. His health was seen to be broken, his lack of physical exercise contributing to this end, and he passed away, at the age of 61, in Dorchester, on June 30, 1883. Sir Albert Smith was a man of popular traits and a persuasive speaker. Though successful with juries, he largely abandoned law for business and shipping in his adopted home of Dorchester, and amassed considerable wealth. He was a sincere and ready debater, and met the attacks of opponents with grace and without bitter- ness. Though a man of energy and industry, for one of his portly body, he was cautious and hesitant in matters of policy. His opposition to Confederation was part of his opposition to change of any kind. He became naturally the exponent of a policy of doubt on the question of union, which was swept away only as the true terms became known, and the Fenian horde on the frontier made unity appear the only safeguard for national well-being. 237 NOVA SCOTIA SIR CHARLES TUPPER JOSEPH HOWE WILLIAM ANNAND SIR CHARLES TUPPER 16 SIR CHARLES TUPPER SIR CHARLES TUPPER (1821-1915) SIR CHARLES TUPPER was a statesman of vision and a party general of audacity. His name recalls thunder on the hustings, strength to wavering Cabinet Ministers, and a will to see-it- through in any cause he undertook. He initiated and carried Confederation in a rebellious Nova Scotia, he promoted the National Policy in the Dominion, he fathered and defended the Canadian Pacific Railway through perilous years of obstruction. No Canadian politician has had more hard, disagreeable tasks, but to each he brought a dashing courage which usually swept all before it. For fifty years he was a storm-centre in politics, and no matter how threatening the gale, he braced his feet, like a fisherman bound for the Grand Banks, and faced the danger without flinching. No speaker could still him, no audience terrify this veteran of a hundred battles. Now he used a stream of invective, again he tripped an enemy with fox-like cunning. He lived and thrived in an age of strong words. Nova Scotians were weary- ing of ornate orators, and his energy and bluster were as invigorating as a northwest wind. His deadly earnest- ness carried weight, his fighting manner roused friends and cowed his more meek opponents. "I hare been defeated by the future leader of the Conservative party," said Joseph Howe in 1855, when the young country doctor carried Cumberland for the 243 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS Assembly. From then until his death, sixty years later, Charles Tupper was never long from sight. Conserva- tives linked him with Macdonald for his capacity and his achievements. Liberals hated and denounced him for his egotism and his political methods, but they never ignored him. As party feeling subsides, his foresight and resolution, his devotion to national and Imperial causes, win praise from every party. "In my judgment," said Sir Wilfrid Laurier in 1916, "the chief characteristic of Tupper was courage; courage which no obstacle could down, which rushed to the assault, and which, if repulsed, came back to the combat again and again; courage which battered and hammered, perhaps not always judiciously, but always effectively; courage which never admitted defeat, and which in the midst of overwhelming disaster ever main- tained the proud carriage of unconquerable defiance."* J. A. Macdonald and Charles Tupper first met at the Confederation Conferences in 1864. They became firm friends, and until the former's death constantly co-operated and supplemented each other. When Nova Scotia refused the Quebec resolutions it was Tupper's duty to win over his Province. It was a three years' task, but he never hesitated. When the Macdonald Government staggered under the Pacific Scandal charges in 1873, Tupper rushed to the defence in a lengthy speech, and persuaded Macdonald not to resign the leadership. In 1880 he joined in negotiating the Canadian Pacific contract, and when its prodigality was attacked he was its most unreserved defender. In *Sir Wilfrid Laurier, in House of Commons, February 17, 1916. 244 SIR CHARLES TUPPER December, 1883, Sir John cabled Sir Charles, who was then in London: "Pacific in trouble: you should be here." Next morning came the reply: "Sailing on Thursday." In 1886 Sir John heard unfavorable news of the political outlook in Nova Scotia, and wrote: "I cannot too strongly urge upon you the absolute neces- sity of your coming out at once, and do not like to con- template the evil consequences of your failing to do so." Sir John's last Macedonian cry was in January, 1891, when he cabled: "Your presence during election con- test in Maritime Provinces essential to encourage our friends. Please come. Answer."* The war horse promptly responded, and in a few days "walked down the gangplank at New York with his usual springy step," "After me the deluge," Sir John Macdonald had said, and despite a pervading feeling for years that at his death Tupper would take the leadership, this was not the case. His hour came in the crisis of his party in 1896, when the Orangemen rose against the Remedial Bill of Sir Mackenzie Bowell's Government, for the benefit of the Roman Catholics of Manitoba. Tupper, summoned from England to take the Premier- ship at seventy-five, dashed into the fray like a regiment 01 cavalry. He faced a frightened Cabinet just recover- ing from wholesale resignations, and met storms of "boos" from audiences of once subservient Conserva- tives. In Toronto, he fought for hours with a turbu- lent crowd who refused a hearing in that party strong- hold. The Government was defeated by the Liberals ♦The Day of Sir John Macdonald, by Sir Joseph Pope, P. 172. 245 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS under Wilfrid Laurier. Tupper lingered four years as Opposition leader, when, after another defeat, he sought the repose he had well earned. It is significant that a political career so marked by stress should have begun in storm. Most of us can recall some red-headed boy who was always in a fight if there was one. Charles Tupper had a genius for either finding or making a political squabble. In March, 1852, he entered the campaign in Cumberland in support of T. A. De Wolfe. His first speech, at a little rural meeting, was so impressive that he was per- suaded to make De Wolfe's nomination speech the next day. Here a dispute took place as to who should speak first, the nominators or the candidates. An unseemly row followed, lasting for an hour, in which young Tupper took his full part. Joseph Howe was one of the opposing candidates, and the warfare which then began lasted for nearly twenty years. It is a matter of surprise that when Tupper entered the political arena, and for twenty years afterwards, he was exceedingly nervous before rising to speak, though his timidity soon left him once he was on his feet. "I did not sleep much that night," he wrote of the hours preceding that first nomination speech, "and was so nervous the next morning that I threw up my break- fast on the way to the corner where the nomination was to take place." Tupper and Howe had met just previously under peculiar circumstances. Dr. George Johnson, after- wards Dominion Statistician, related in the Halifax 246 SIR CHARLES TUPPER Herald in 1909 that the future rivals both happened in his father's house one night. When nine o'clock arrived the elder Johnson, as w^as his custom, conducted family v^^orship. The visitors knelt v^ith the household and heard the devout host invoke "the blessing of heaven upon the tw^o strangers w^ithin the gate, and ask that they might be animated w^ith a strong sense of duty in their public life." Tupper at this time was a busy and prosperous country doctor, w^ith a decided aptitude for politics. He had been born in Amherst, July 2, 1821, of Puri- tan stock v^rhich emigrated from England to America in 1635, and from Connecticut to Cornwallis, N.S., in 1763, taking possession of land vacated by Acadians expelled in 1755. Charles w^as a precocious youth, and relates of his own childhood : "I do not remember when I commenced the study of Latin, but when I was seven years old I had read the whole Bible aloud to my father." He had the same self-confidence and pugna- city that marked his later years, and in his journal describes a combat with the mate of a schooner who smoked to the windward of the youth. The mate was laid up for three days.* Young Tupper's medical education in Edinburgh was thorough, and he was soon firmly established as a local practitioner. "In person," says Edward Manning Saunders, "he was of medium height, straight, muscu- lar, wiry and had intense nervous energy, which gave him quickness of movement and ceaseless mental *Life and Letters of Rt. Hon. Sir Charles Tupper, Edited by E. M. Saunders, (Cassell & Co.), P. 7. 247 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS activity. . . . In his sleigh, carriage or saddle, he went from place to place, sometimes in deep and drifted snow, and at other times in mud more difficult than the worst snow drifts. In twelve years of practice before he was called into the sphere of politics, mountainous obstacles became a level plain and toil and exposure the highest enjoyment."* Fortune decreed that the practice of medicine, for which the young doctor was so well fitted, was to play a small part in his life. After 1855 he was in politics to stay, and save a few years in Toronto, when in Opposi- tion in the 'seventies, he gave little time to his profes- sion. Tupper's rise in Nova Scotia politics was of that rapid character that marks a strong personality of a fresh cast of mind. His defeat of Howe in Cumber- land in 1855 astounded the Province, and cast the first shadow over the future of that popular idol, the man whom Sir Wilfrid Laurier has described as "the most potent influence in Nova Scotia, and perhaps the bright- est impersonation of intellect that ever adorned the halls of the Canadian Legislature." The Conservative leader, J. W. Johnstone,t was advancing in years and wished to retire. He was ready to give Tupper his post, but to this the young doctor would not listen. They compromised by Johnstone remaining leader and Tup- *Three Premiers of Nova Scotia, by Edward Manning Saunders, P. 270. tjames William Johnstone, (1792-1873), a former Premier of Nova Scotia, a rival of Howe, a courtly figure of the "old school" and an oppon- ent of responsible government. He favored Confederation, but was appointed to the Bench in 1863, before the struggle began. 248 SIR CHARLES TUPPER per doing most of the work. In his first session at Hali- fax in 1856, Tupper spoke out boldly and declared: "I did not come here to play the game of follow my leader. I did not come here the representative of any particular party, bound to vote contrary to my own con- victions, but to perform honestly and fearlessly, to the best of my ability, my duty to my country." In his first month in the Assembly the Opposition strength rose from 15 to 22. Thenceforward he was in the muddy stream of Nova Scotia politics, with its perplexing local issues, until the Confederation move- ment loomed up, largely at his own bidding, to over- shadow all other topics. From this party's defeat in 1859 to their return to office in 1863 Tupper maintained a running fire of attack on the Government. On his return to office he introduced and passed in 1864 a measure of permanent value, providing for compul- sory education in Nova Scotia. Confederation was too large and complicated a movement to be the creation of any one man. It was the result of a combination of men and circumstances. In its accomplishment, Tupper ranks with Brown, Mac- donald and Cartier, and in giving it its first concrete impetus he stands alone. Premier Johnstone of Nova Scotia, with his fellow delegates, had discussed the sub- ject with Lord Durham at Quebec in 1838. Johnstone had submitted a scheme for union to the Nova Scotia Assembly in 1854. Charles Tupper, lecturing at St. John in 1860, had favored a union of the British North American Provinces, even going so far as to include the 249 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS Red River and Saskatchewan country. Tapper's opportunity for action came in 1864, when, as Premier of Nova Scotia, he put through the Assembly a resolu- tion favoring a conference at Charlottetown regarding a union of the Maritime Provinces, a policy he had also advocated in his St. John lecture. This was adopted a few weeks before George Brown's committee had reported at Quebec in favor of a federative system, either for Canada or all the colonies. It was followed in August by a visit to the Maritime Provinces by a party of Canadian legislators, invited by Dr. Tupper on the suggestion of Sandford Fleming, engineer for the Inter- colonial Railway. Looking back at this trickling brook of national consciousness, it is interesting to recall the vision and sense of difficulties felt by so potent a Father of Confed- eration. "I do not rise," said Tupper, in moving for the Charlottetown Conference, "for the purpose of bring- ing before you the subject of the union of the Maritime Provinces, but rather to propose to you their reunion. . . . Whilst I believe that the union of the Mari- time Provinces and Canada, of all British America, under one government would be desirable if it were practicable — I believe that to be a question which far transcends in its difficulties the power of any human advocacy to accomplish — I am not insensible to the feeling that the time may not be far distant when events which are far more powerful than any human advocacy may place British America in a position to render a union into one compact whole, may not only render 250 SIR CHARLES TUPPER such a union practicable, but absolutely necessary, I need hardly tell you that contiguous to this there is a great Power, with whom the prevailing sentiment has long been — " 'No pent-up Utica contracts our powers, For the whole boundless continent is ours.' This has long been the fundamental principle which has animated the Republic of America." Dr. Tupper then raised a point which had an increasing influence in solidifying opinion for Confed- eration, and that was the danger from the disbanding armies in the United States as the Civil War closed. "I am satisfied," he concluded, "that looking to emigration, to the elevation of public credit, to the ele- vation of public sentiment which must arise from en- larging the sphere of action, the interests of these Pro- vinces require that they should be united under one government and legislature. It would tend to decrease the personal element in our political discussions, and to rest the claims of our public men more upon the advo- cacy of public questions than it is possible at the present moment whilst these colonies are so limited in extent." Canada, too, had caught the infection of national consciousness and sent her delegates to the conference at Charlottetown. The air was charged with a feeling of national change. The Civil War was near its end, the reciprocity treaty with the United States was unlikely to be renewed, and the British American Provinces looked toward each other with yearning and depen- dence. The Charlottetown Conference adjourned to Quebec to consider a larger union, pausing on the way 251 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS for several public meetings. At Halifax, Tupper, pre- siding at a banquet to the visiting delegates, said he vsras "perhaps safe in saying that no more momentous gather- ing of public men has ever taken place in these Pro- vinces." The same sense of great impending events marked the utterances at Quebec. "From the time," said Dr. Tupper, replying to a toast to the Nova Scotia delegates, "when the immortal Wolfe decided on the Plains of Abraham the destiny of British America, to the present, no event has exceeded in importance or magnitude the one which is now taking place in this ancient and famous city." Going on, he discussed the necessity for Canada to have all year round access to the sea. "Why is it," he asked, "that the Intercolonial Railway is not a fact? It is because, being divided, that which is the common interest of these colonies has been neglected ; and when it is understood that the construction of the work is going to give Canada that which is so essential to her, its importance will be understood, not only in connec- tion with your political greatness, but also in connection with your commercial interests, as affording increased means of communication with the Lower Provinces. For the inexhaustible resources of the great West will flow down the St. Lawrence to Quebec, and from there to the magnificent harbors of Halifax and St. John, open at all seasons of the year." These were brave prophetic words, but it was not until 1876 that the Intercolonial was opened. It has since borne avalanches of criticism for its burden of 252 SIR CHARLES TUPPER political place-hunters, its easy-going management, and its deficits, but it cemented national sentiment, and in the great war opening in 1914 its usefulness as the only winter outlet for overseas troops abundantly justified its construction as a national enterprise. It was an easy matter to agree to the union scheme at Quebec, but the testing of Tupper and his colleagues came on their return to Nova Scotia. No torch-light processions awaited them; only sullen politicians and people, who were soon to be inflamed to the verge of rebellion by Howe, Annand and others. It was a long, stubborn battle, and its complete success for union was a matter of years. Tupper was cunning enough to devote his energies in the Legislature to other topics, and on union, like Bre'r Fox, he "lay low." Not until 1866 was there opportunity to press for a vote. Then, on the defection of William Miller from the antis, he made bold to move for a conference with the Imperial authorities on a scheme more favorable to Nova Scotia than that framed at Quebec. New Brunswick, which had been faltering, came over to the union cause. Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland had defin- itely withdrawn, but Canada joined the two Maritime Provinces in the Conference in London, when the Con- federation Act was drafted. Tupper was one of the delegates, but he returned to find opposition to union unabated among the people. The campaign in the summer of 1867 was marked on June 4 by a historic joint debate at Truro between Howe and Tupper. Their utterances were recorded in shorthand by arrangement, and the record of this battle 253 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS of giants recalls the great Lincoln-Douglas debate across the border a few years earlier. Howe and Tupper spoke at length, and crystalized the arguments on both sides. Howe, speaking first, engaged in good-natured banter, and though he may have pleased his hearers, his words were not strong, as a set of arguments for his side. He was on his defence for his own advocacy of union, but with a light hand he brushed this aside : "A man might discuss the question whether he would marry a girl or not, but that would not subject him to an action for breach of promise if he had never actually promised to marry her." Tupper was more serious and more logical. He met his opponent largely by quoting Howe's earlier declarations. He illuminated his rival's opposition to Confederation when he said: "Mr. Howe is possessed of an eloquence second to no man, but it is his misfortune that he can follow nobody, however wise or judicious a measure may be. He cannot give his assistance to any great question unless he is at the head promoting it. Day after day he had pledged himself not only to the principles but to the details of union; but when he saw it was to be accomplished by his opponents, he is found in the fore- most ranks of its opponents." Confederation Day came, even in Nova Scotia, and there, despite the opposition of the majority of the people, such a motto as this appeared in a window of St. Mary's Globe House: "Yesterday a provincial town; to-day a continental city." Sir John A. Mac- donald had announced his Cabinet, after a most trying 254 SIR CHARLES TUPPER experience in reconciling all Provinces and races, and almost giving up and advising that George Brown be called on. Dr. Tupper was not in the Cabinet, and he made his own explanation that day in Halifax: "In order to form a strong union Government, combining the Reformers and Conservatives of Ontario, the Catholics and Protestants of Quebec, and the Liber- als and Conservatives of Nova Scotia and New Bruns- wick, my friend, Mr. McGee, and I requested that the Hon. Edward Kenny, the President of the Legislative Council, should be substituted in our stead, and had the pleasure of seeing that arrangement effected." There was no room for doubt as to Nova Scotia sentiment when the Dominion elections in September, 1867, resulted in the return of only one union candi- date in the Province. This was Tupper himself, who defeated William Annand, Howe's chief lieutenant. The battle was renewed at Ottawa early in 1868 when Howe and Tupper presented their case to the House of Commons. Suddenly Howe joined Annand and other Nova Scotians in a mission to London to press for the repeal of union. Tupper followed, resigning the Chairmanship of the Intercolonial Board in order to be free from obligation to Ottawa, and faced Howe in London. His argument that the Imperial authorities were for the union, that the agitation could not succeed, that Nova Scotia could not get along without Federal assistance, weakened Howe's resolution. Howe and Tupper returned together, and played shuffle-board, amiably, with Howe's associates looking on anxiously. Once in Canada, Tupper enlisted the hand of Sir John 255 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS Macdonald, master diplomat, and in a few weeks Howe was won over by the promise of better terms, and early in 1869 joined the Dominion Cabinet. Tupper piloted Howe, broken in health, through the Hants by-election. Three years later Howe and Tupper, working together at last, swept Nova Scotia completely, not an opponent of the Ottawa Government being returned. On the surface the union cause had its ultimate triumph. "It is not too much to say," says Sir Robert L. Borden of Tupper, "that if he had been a man of less invincible courage and determination, the project of Confederation might have been postponed for many years."* Nova Scotia's "little Napoleon" was not long in Federal politics before his influence was felt. His natural pugnacity and initiative carried him along in the House, while Sir John Macdonald soon learned to lean heavily upon him, though he was not yet in the Cabinet. In 1870 he launched the idea of the National Policy, which was later adopted by the Conservative party, and which with variations has remained in effect to this day. He asked the House if it was advan- tageous for Canada to long remain in its present humiliating attitude with regard to trade relations with the United States. "Should we allow the best interests of the country to be sacrificed," he said, "or uphold a bold national policy which would promote the best interests of all classes and fill our treasury? . . . Whoever read ♦Introduction to Life and Letters of Sir Charles Tupper, P. VI. 256 SIR CHARLES TUPPER the discussions of Congress would see that all we had to do was to assume a manly attitude on that great question in order to obtain free trade with the United States. But suppose they, resented that retaliatory policy? The result would be hardly less satisfactory than a reciprocity treaty. It would increase the trade between the Pro- vinces, stimulate intercourse between the different sec- tions of our people, and promote the prosperity of the whole Dominion. Such a question should be fully con- sidered, for it aflected the most important interests of the country, and, properly dealt with, would diffuse wealth and prosperity throughout the Dominion." So impressed was Sir John Macdonald that he at once took Tupper into the Cabinet as President of the Council. But the National Policy was not to be adopted by the country for eight years. In 1873 the Macdonald Government fell, as a result of the Pacific Scandal exposure, and were out of office until 1878. Tupper, who was not compromised in any way by the charges, was a valiant defender of the Ministry, and when Lord Dufferin, then Governor-General, asked Sir John Macdonald to resign, Tupper, in a characteristic inter- view, secured a reversal of that request. His own ver- sion of this meeting is as follows : "I called upon Lord Dufiferin, who said: 'I sup- pose. Doctor, Sir John has told you what I have said to him,' and was answered in the affirmative. Lord Dufferin said: 'Well, what do you think about it?' I said, 'I think your Lordship has made the mistake of your life. To-day you enjoy the confidence of all parties 257 17 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS as the representative of the Queen. To-morrow you will be denounced as the head of a party by the Con- servative press all over Canada for having intervened during a discussion in Parliament and thrown your weight against your Government. Nor will you be able to point to any precedent for such action under British parliamentary practice.' "Lord Dufiferin said : What would you advise?' I replied : 'That you should at once cable the position to the Colonial Office and ask advice.' That was done. Lord Dufiferin sent for Sir John Macdonald at two o'clock that night, and withdrew his demand for the resignation of the Government."* The period which followed was one of low fortunes for the Conservative party. Sir John Macdonald, flung from the heights reached by his success in the Washing- ton treaty in 1872, was overwhelmed and eager to re- sign from the leadership. It was the buoyancy of Tup- per that revived him and induced him to remain head of the party. Both men removed to Toronto, Macdon- ald to take up law, living in the "Premier's house" in St. George Street, — afterwards successively the home of Oliver Mowat and A. S. Hardy, Premiers of Ontario — and Tupper to give attention to his neglected profession of medicine. Between whiles they "mended their poli- tical fences," and were soon in more cheerful mood. According to James Young, who was then in the House of Commons, a remarkable incident occurred in 1876. When the Liberal Budget was presented, the Conservatives expected a higher tariff, and were pre- *Life and Letters of Right Hon. Sir Charles Tupper, Vol. I, P. 226. 258 SIR CHARLES TUPPER pared in their criticism to take the opposite policy. Mr. Mackenzie's version, as quoted by Mr. Young, that night, after the Premier had been over chaffing Tup- per, was as follows : " 'I went over to banter him a little on his speech, which I jokingly alleged was a capital one considering that he had been loaded up on the other side. He regarded this as a good joke and frankly admitted to me that he had entered the House under the belief that the Government intended to raise the tarifif, and fully pre- pared to take up the opposite line of attack!' "* Tupper was equal to the emergency, and in the remaining years of Opposition was a merciless critic of Sir Richard Cartwright, then Finance Minister. The Conservatives gradually gained ground, through the widespread financial depression, the poor generalship of the Government, and the hope the high tariff aroused among the people. Sir John Macdonald was not long in power before the Canadian Pacific Railway project took a new and definite form. Sir Charles Tupper (who had been knighted in 1879), as Minister of Rail- ways, recommended a definite plan in June, 1880, fol- lowing which Macdonald, J. H. Pope and himself visited England and arranged with a syndicate for the construction of the transcontinental line on payment of $25,000,000 and 25,000,000 acres of land. In present- ing the agreement to the House for ratification late that year, Tupper said: *Public Men and Public Life in Canada, by Hon. James Young Vol. II, P. 240. 259 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS "We should be traitors to ourselves and to our children if we should hesitate to secure, on terms such as we have the pleasure of submitting to Parliament, the construction of this work, which is going to develop all the enormous resources of the Northwest, and to pour into that country a tide of population which will be a tower of strength to every part of Canada, a tide of industrious and intelligent men who will not only produce national as well as individual wealth in that section of the Dominion, but will create such a demand for the supplies which must come from the older Pro- vinces as will give new life and vitality to every industry in which those Provinces are engaged." It fell now to the Liberals to play the role of Faint- heart. Edward Blake said the project was "not only fraught with great danger but certain to prove dis- astrous to the future of this country," while Sir Richard Cartwright considered the bill "simply as a monument of folly." Meetings were held in the country, Tupper following Blake from place to place a night later, but the bill passed, and the railway was completed by 188S, but not without mountainous financial difficulties^ which at times threatened disaster. Sir Charles Tupper's later public services were as Canadian High Commissioner in England, where he served almost continuously from 1884 to 1896. His aggressive and energetic temperament found play in uncounted avenues of usefulness. He returned to Can- ada in 1891, while still High Commissioner, to speak against the Liberal policy of reciprocity with the: 260 SIR CHARLES TUPPER United States, and for his partisanship was severely- criticized by his opponents. He was not chosen to suc- ceed Sir John Macdonald in 1891, and he has declared that he would not take the position. Writing to his son, C. H. Tupper, from Vienna, on June 4, 1891, on hear- ing Sir John was dying, he said : "You know I told you long ago, and repeated to you when last in Ottawa, that nothing could induce me to accept the position in case the Premiership became vacant. I told you that Sir John looked up wearily from his papers, and said to me: 'I wish to God you were in my place,' and that I answered : 'Thank God I am not.' He afterwards, well knowing my determina- tion, said he thought Thompson, as matters now stood, was the only available man."* When Tupper responded to the call of the Pre- miership in 1896, in his party's extremity, he was an old but still a courageous man. He placed his party under one more debt for his unhesitating service. Even in 1900, in his last campaign, at the age of 79, he dashed from meeting to meeting with the constancy of a begin- ner. Defeat doubtless came to him as a relief, for on election night he bade his circle of friends in Halifax to be of good cheer: "Do not let a trifling matter like this interfere with the pleasures of a social evening." The last entry in his journal for that day said signifi- cantly : "I went to bed and slept soundly." Sir Charles lived until October 30, 1915. The sun- set of his life in England was brightened by the tributes and allegiance of friends in both parties. He had fought *Life and Letters of Rt. Hon. Sir Charles Tupper, Vol. II, P. 154. 261 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS valiantly in the days of Canada's builders. His loyalty to his country was only equalled by his loyalty to his party. His last years were varied by occasional visits to Canada. In 1912 he laid at rest, in Nova Scotia, Lady Tupper, formerly Florence Morse of Amherst, his. happy helpmeet during sixty-six years of struggle. The world had entered the crucible of a vast war, and the Dominion saw ahead a new era for which the Confed- eration period was but the foundation, when a battle- ship bore his remains to his native land. 262 JOSEPH HOWE JOSEPH HOWE JOSEPH HOWE (1804-1873) JOSEPH HOWE is not to be measured by his fail- ures, but by his triumphs. His powerful constructive mind dominated his Province for thirty years, but mis- judgment and jealousy, the faults of a temperament, brought all but disaster. A man -who had peaceably accomplished responsible government in Nova Scotia, had conceived a great railw^ay policy to unite British America, and had drav^n his people to him as about an idol, was singularly unequal to the rebirth of a nation. Whatever Howe's faults of emotion or judgment, as revealed by his opposition to Confederation, he stands as the greatest Nova Scotian, the incarnation of his people. He grew up among them, he lived in their homes, he expressed their thoughts, he fought their enemies. He had an easy manner, and he was "Joe" to the entire Province. His magnetism won friendships, his eloquence thrilled until often he made the flesh creep, while his audience lost themselves in ecstasy and admiration. Wherever he sat in any company he was the centre of interest. Men grouped around him listen- ing for his wisdom, laughing at his jokes, and ignoring others of less charm and magnetism. Howe's record of creative work for his Province is imposing. As early as 1835, he advocated a railway from Halifax to Windsor. Three years later he visited England, and with representatives of other colonies 265 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS secured a steam mail service to Halifax. For ten years he fought the Tory magistrates until responsible govern- ment was granted. In 1850 he advocated government construction of railways. At various times he spoke of the union of the British American colonies as probable and desirable, yet when the moment for Confederation arrived he forsook his old ideas and was prepared to resist it by force. That Howe should have been an opponent of Con- federation was as illogical as it was unfortunate. It is the truth to say he had passed his zenith and that his great work was done. He never stood higher than when he smashed the Family Compact. Thereafter he sought work which was not readily to be found. He implored the British Government for a post in a wider field. After years of waiting, he was finally serving as an Im- perial Fisheries Inspector when the federation move- ment crystallized in 1864. He was invited to the Char- lottetown Conference, but declined when the British Admiral refused permission. On such slender threads does history depend! Howe had advocated federation in 1849, in a letter to George Moffat of Mon- treal; he had supported it in the Assembly in 1854; in 1861 had moved a resolution favoring it, and as late as August, 1864, had spoken for it during the visit to Halifax of Canadian delegates of good-will. Yet he returned from his fisheries inspection in troubled mind, and was soon to swallow his own policy and almost destroy a vast scheme of union. There is little doubt that if Howe had gone to Charlottetown and Quebec the history of the period 266 JOSEPH HOWE would have been materially different. His sensitive poetic mind rebelled at the success of the great plan without his aid. There was also personal feeling, as expressed in the remark: "I will not play second fiddle to that d Tupper." The doughty warrior from Cumberland had now trailed him for twelve years. In 1852 Tupper, then a young country doctor, had ap- peared at a Howe meeting and asked to be heard. "Let us hear the little doctor by all means," was Howe's patronizing reply. "I would not be any more affected by anything he might say than by the mewing of yonder kitten." Such a boat soon brought its retribution, for Tupper was to become Howe's relentless antagonist. Howe's ultimate acceptance of union and his entry into the Dominion Cabinet were concessions which went far to quiet the repeal agitation, though resentment in Nova Scotia lasted for a generation. It is doubtful if the history of British America holds a parallel to the case of Howe and his relation to Nova Scotia. He was born on December 13, 1804, in a cottage by the Northwest Arm, near Halifax. His father, John Howe, had been a loyalist refugee from Massachusetts, after witnessing the disaster to the Bri- tish cause at Bunker Hill. The lad was born in the heart of beautiful nature, and during youth developed his body and gratified his poetic soul by rambles over the hills and by the seashore. Years afterwards a woman who had been one of "Joe's" schoolmates said of him : "Why, he was a regular dunce ; he had a big 267 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS nose, a big mouth and a great big ugly head; and he used to chase me to death on my way home from school."* These school days, so riotous with mischief and fun, ended at 13, when Joe entered the office of the Halifax Gazette as errand boy. One day he was a witness in court, and the Judge, thinking to take a rise out of him, said: "So you are the devil?" "Yes, sir, in the office, but not in the courthouse," was the crushing reply. At this period Howe began the constant serious reading which went far to fit him for his future useful- ness. He also wrote poetry, a diversion which continued for many years. In 1827 Howe and a friend bought the Weekly Chronicle and changed it to The Acadian, with the former as editor. The next year he married Cather- ine Susan Ann Macnab, a woman of sweetness and charm, who did much to moderate his excesses. Early in 1828 he purchased The Nova Scotian for £1,050, becoming sole editor and proprieter. Howe was now established as a citizen, and for the next several years he studied at the best of the politician's colleges, the farmer's fireside. He tramped and rode over the Pro- vince, stopped at the farm houses, kissed the women, played with the children, and wrote his observations and impressions under the heading, "Eastern and West- ern Rambles." His relative and friend, William An- nand, writes of this period : *The Tribune of Nova Scotia, b}'^ William Lawson Grant, P. 12. 268 JOSEPH HOWE "I have often seen him during this time worn out with labor, drawing draughts of refreshment alternately from Bulwer's last novel or from Grotius on National Law. His constitution was vigorous, his zeal unflag- ging. It was no uncommon thing for him to be a month or two in the saddle; or after a rubber of racquets, in which he excelled, and of which he was very fond, to read and write for four or five consecutive days without going out of the house." Howe was now storing up the information which, touched by the magnetism and poetry of his own per- sonality, was later to thrill scores of audiences on both sides of the Atlantic. His voice was heard on every hand in speech, in lecture and in propaganda for great causes. As late as July, 1865, he accomplished a historic triumph when, swept from their feet by his eloquence, a great hostile gathering at the International Commer- cial Convention at Detroit declared for a renewal of the reciprocity treaty with British America. "I have never prayed for the gift of eloquence till now," Howe began his Detroit speech. "Although I have passed through a long public life, I never was called upon to discuss a question so important in the presence of a body of representative men so large. I see before me merchants who think in millions and whose daily transactions would sweep the harvest of a Greek island or of a Russian principality. I see before me the men who whiten the ocean and the great lakes with the sails of commerce — who own the railroads, canals and telegraphs, which spread life and civiliza- tion through this great country, making the waste plains 269 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS fertile and the wilderness to blossom as the rose. . . . I may well feel awed in the presence of such an audience as this ; but the great question which brings us together is worthy of the audience and challenges their grave consideration. "What is that question? Sir, we are here to deter- mine how best we can be brought together in the bonds of peace, friendship and commercial prosperity, the three great branches of the British family. . . . For nearly two thousand years we were one family. Our fathers fought side by side at Hastings, and heard the curfew toll. They fought in the same ranks for the Sepulchre of our Saviour in the early and later wars. We can wear our white and red roses without a blush and glory in the principles these conflicts established." Howe proceeded in similar highly poetic and inspiring phrases, and when he told his ecstatic hearers that one of his own sons had fought in the army of the North, that no reward from reciprocity compensated the parents for their hours of anxiety, but he was rewarded by his son's certificates of faithfulness and bravery, the audience rose and gave "three cheers for the boy." Imperial relationships were equally inspiring to Howe, and his speeches in favor of closer relations with the motherland were among the earliest and most elo- quent in the cause which afterwards won converts wherever the flag floats. Speaking on the resolution in favor of federation moved by Premier J. W. Johnstone in the Assembly in 1854, Howe said: 270 JOSEPH HOWE "I am not sure that even out of this discussion may not arise a spirit of union and elevation of thought that may lead North America to cast aside her colonial habiliments, to put on national aspects, to assert national claims and prepare to assume national obligations. Come what may, I do not hesitate to express my hope that from this day she shall aspire to consolidation as an integral portion of the realm of England, or assert her claims to a national existence." By 1830 Howe was writing with authority on the work of the legislators. There was as yet no responsible government in Nova Scotia. Magistrates ruled the cities, holding their commissions from the Crown. Howe frequently attacked them, and on January 1, 1835, he published an article so offensive that he was indicted for libel. So entrenched was the old regime that Howe was advised by his lawyers that he had no case. "I asked the lawyers to lend me their books," he said afterwards. "I gathered an armful, threw myself on a sofa, and read libel for a week." The trial was a celebrated one. Howe warmed up as he proceeded, and at the end of a speech of over six hours in his own defence he was acquitted. The magistrates thereupon resigned and a vital blow was struck at the old system. Howe's place was now in Parliament. He was elected in 1836 and continued to sit until 1863. The battle for responsible government was carried on in the House and in his newspaper, until success came in 1847 with a victory for the Reformers, J. B. Uniacke becom- ing Premier and Howe Provincial Secretary. The 271 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS battle was marked by banter as well as bitterness. Soci- ety drew its skirts aside as the hated Radical passed, while Howe in turn laid doggerel hands on the sacred dignity of the Governor, Lord Falkland, in this ironical verse : "The Lord of the Bedchamber sat in his shirt, And D — dy the pHant was there, And his feelings appeared to be very much hurt, And his brow overclouded with care." A great storm was raised in the House, to which Howe replied that it would have been very much worse if he had said the lord had no shirt. Falkland was sub- sequently recalled and sent to Bombay. During this memorable period the ablest exponent of the old theory was Thomas Chandler Haliburton, author of "Sam Slick," and one of Howe's personal friends. At this time Upper and Lower Canada were in rebellion to achieve the same end of responsible government, but Howe, who had an exceptional reverence for the old land, frequently declared his disapproval of attempts to "bully the British Government." Howe's conception of a future federated British America was one of the earliest, and remains one of the most inspiring and poetic. Speaking at Halifax, in 1851, on his return from England, where he had secured the offer of an Imperial guarantee to build an inter- colonial railway, he said : "She virtually says to us by the offet: — There are seven millions of sovereigns at half the price that your neighbors pay in the markets of the world; construct your railways; people your waste lands; organize and improve the boundless territory beneath your feet; learn 272 JOSEPH HOWE to rely upon and to defend yourselves, and God speed you in the formation of national character and national institutions." The idea of a wide nation developed as Howe unfolded prophetically his dream to a then receptive audience : "Throwing aside the more bleak and inhospitable regions, we have a magnificent country between Canada and the Pacific, out of which five or six noble Provinces may be formed, larger than any we have, and presenting to the hand of industry and to the eye of speculation every variety of soil, climate and resource. With such a territory as this to overrun, organize and improve, think you that we shall stop even at the western bounds of Canada, or even at the shores of the Pacific? Vancou- ver's Island, with its vast coal measures, lies beyond. The beautiful islands of the Pacific and the growing commerce of the ocean are beyond. Populous China and the rich East are beyond ; and the sails of our chil- dren's children will reflect as familiarly the sunbeams of the South as they now brave the angry tempests of the North. The Maritime Provinces which I now address are but the Atlantic frontage of this boundless and prolific region — the wharves upon which its busi- ness will be transacted and beside which its rich argosies are to lie. . . "I am neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet, yet I will venture to predict that in five years we shall make the journey to Quebec and Montreal and home through Portland and St. John, by rail; and I believe that many in this room will live to hear the whistle of 273 18 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS the steam-engine in the passes of the Rocky Mountains and to make the journey from Halifax to the Pacific in five or six days." In the full flush of his success abroad and his recep- tion at home, where the people were ready enough to serve as the frontage of a great nation, Howe set out in June, 1851, for Canada. In Toronto, with E. B. Chand- ler of New Brunswick, he made an agreement with Sir Francis Hincks for Canada's part in the Intercolonial Railway scheme. Then came disappointment. Lord Grey limited the guarantee to a railway connecting the three Provinces and excluding the Portland line. New Brunswick at once, and naturally, withdrew from the scheme, though the next year they offered to join if the line were diverted to the St. John Valley. The failure was a sad blow to Howe. He was depressed, his Pro- vince was cold, and he was never quite the same again. The Grand Trunk meantime got a start in England, and the Intercolonial was not completed for another quar- ter century. Bitterness as well as disappointment and jealousy was written in Howe's words against Confederation. The Charlottetown Conference in the summer of 1864 was called at the instance of Premier CharleS Tupper and the Nova Scotia Assembly to discuss a Maritime Union. The Canadian delegates swayed, if they did not stampede, the East into the larger scheme, and adjourned to Quebec, to settle the details. Howe returned from Newfoundland to find the plans far advanced, — farther, in fact, than the people seemed to wish. 274 JOSEPH HOWE "What does Howe think of Confederation?" was in everyone's mind. Already there were suspicion and disquiet, but the opposition lacked leadership. By Jan- uary, 1865, Howe was in form, with a suggestion of his old raillery, in a series of letters in the Halifax Chron- icle called "The Botheration Scheme." The same month he set down his objections in a letter to Lord John Russell. He contended that the Maritime Pro- vinces would be swamped by the Canadians, that the scheme was cumbrous and would require a tarifif and ultimately protection, and that in England no important change is made in the machinery of government without an appeal to the country. The anti-unionists now became so aggressive that progress was held up. Tupper, in the Nova Scotia Assembly, awaited developments, and only made head- way after New Brunswick had ratified the plan in the spring of 1866. He then secured, after bitter debate, the adoption of a seemingly innocent resolution favor- ing consultation with the Imperial Government on the question. This was all that was needed. Canada and New Brunswick also sent delegates to the London Con- ference, which drafted the Confederation bill. In the meantime Howe, Annand, and later, Hugh Mc- Donald, campaigned in England for six months against union, on behalf of the League of the Mari- time Provinces. Howe's letters to William J. Stairs of Halifax, recently published by the Royal Soci- ety, show the resourcefulness and persistence of his efforts. He wrote copiously against the union scheme, in pamphlets and letters to public men, interviewed 275 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS statesmen and editors in behalf of the losing cause, but finally had to admit defeat. In one of his pamphlets he proposed an Imperial federation for all colonies hav- ing responsible government. "We are now approaching a crisis," he wrote on January 19, 1867. "We are prepared for the worst, and if it comes, the consciousness that we have done our best to avoid it will always console us."* William Garvie of Halifax, who was attached to the party, gives a shock to our sense of the importance of the bill when he describes its passage through the British Parliament. " 'Moved that Clauses 11, 74, 75 pass,' and they were passed sure enough," he writes, quoting the Chairman of Committee, in his expeditious method. Garvie also says: "The Grand Trunk influ- ence had a powerful effect on the Government, who, though weak, were glad enough to bargain about votes for a Reform bill on condition of a Confederation policy." Howe and the anti-unionists had not yet played their last card. Confederation became effective July 1, 1867, thus wiping out the sovereign powers of the Nova Scotia Assembly, but the people had still to be heard from. On his return from England, Howe began a campaign that threatened to drive a section of the new Dominion into rebellion or annexation. "I believe from the bottom of my heart," he said at Halifax in June, "that this union will be disastrous. At present we have no control of our revenues, our *"Transactions of the Royal Society," March, 1917: Joseph Howe and the Anti-Confederation League, Edited by Lawrence J. Burpee. 276 JOSEPH HOWE trade and of our affairs. (A voice: "Let us hold it") Aye, hold it I would; and I have no hesitation in say- ing that if it were not for my respect for the British flag and my allegiance to my Sovereign — if the British forces were withdrawn from the country and this issue were left to be tried out between Canadians and our- selves, I would take every son I have and die on the frontier before I would submit to this outrage." The elections a few weeks later showed that the people of Nova Scotia were of a similar mind regard- ing the "outrage." Out of 19 seats, Howe and the anti- unionists carried 18, the only unionist to be returned being Tupper. On election night Howe was hailed once more as a popular idol and received in triumph in Halifax. At the station he entered a carriage drawn by six horses and proceeded through the streets to the Parade. "All our revenues are to be taken by the general government, and we get back 80 cents per head, the price of a sheepskin," was the Howe slogan, alluding to the federal subsidy to the Provinces, and he pressed this on the House of Commons at Ottawa in the first session after Confederation. There was a thrill when the great enemy of the union rose to address the new Dominion House. "He struck an imperious attitude and slowly swept his glance around the chamber and the galleries," says J. E. B. McCready, who witnessed the scene. "It seemed as if another Samson were mak- ing ready to grasp with mighty hands the pillars of our national fabric and overwhelm it in ruin."* ^Canadian Magasine, July, 1906. 277 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS Howe declared his Province would read the Speech from the Throne in sorrow and humiliation. He drew a contrast between the Nova Scotia that had been — prosperous, free and glorious, her ships carrying the British flag from her native ports to every sea — and the Nova Scotia now betrayed, prostrate, bleeding, her principles gone, her treasury rifled, and her sons and daughters sold for 80 cents a head, the price of a sheep- skin. Tupper replied in his usual confident manner, and unhesitatingly pictured results of prosperity and happiness that would flow to Nova Scotia. Suddenly Howe was gone from Ottawa. Report said he had left for London, and it developed that he and William Annand had departed on their last chance, to ask the Imperial Government to repeal Confedera- tion. It naturally fell to Tupper to follow. Then occurred in London one of the most dramatic incidents of the Confederation battle. Howe was now past 60, a somewhat weakened and dispirited man. He was the symbol of a losing cause, a desolate figure, facing a vig- orous, determined man, with power and success on his side. Long afterwards, as he himself passed down the hill towards sunset. Sir Charles Tupper wrote the story of that momentous interview when he, following Howe to London, sought his old antagonist. "I can't say that I am glad to see you," said Howe, "but we have to make the best of it." "I will not insult you by suggesting that you should fail to undertake the mission that brought you here," said Tupper. "When you find out, however, that the Imperial Government and Parliament are overwhelm- 278 JOSEPH HOWE ingly against you, it is important for you to consider the next step." Howe replied : "I have eight hundred men in each county in Nova Scotia who will take an oath that they will never pay a cent of taxation to the Dominion. I defy the Government to enforce Confederation." "You have no power of taxation, Howe," Tupper replied, "and in a few years you will have every sensible man cursing you, as there will be no money for schools, roads or bridges. I will not ask that troops be sent to Nova Scotia, but I shall recommend that, if the people refuse to obey the law, the federal subsidy be with- held." "Howe," he continued, "you have a majority at your back, but if you enter the Cabinet and assist in carrying out the work of Confederation, you will find me as strong a supporter as I have been an opponent." "I saw at once that Howe was completely stag- gered," Tupper adds, "and two hours of free and frank discussion followed." That night he wrote Sir John Macdonald he thought Howe would enter the Cabinet.* Howe's version of the interview is not less inter- esting. "We were honored by a visit from Tupper imme- diately on his arrival in London," he says. "Of course he assumes that we will be beaten here, and is most anxious about what is to come after, and desirous that we shall then lay down our arms. He thinks the Can- adians will oflfer us any terms, and that he and I com- *Recollections of Sixty Years in Canada, by Sir Charles Tupper, (Cassell & Co.), P. 59. 279 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS bined might rule the Dominion. Of course I gave him no satisfaction."* Though the greatest of the anti-unionists was weakening, the fire of repeal had gained much headway. Howe returned to Halifax in a troubled state of mind. Conferences were held with the other leaders, and he counselled against further resistance. In doing so he lost most of his friends, but he acted from the broadest motives. Sir John Macdonald and Sir George Carticr went to Halifax to confer with Howe, and a meeting was held with Sir John Rose, Finance Minister, with the result that better terms, including an increase of $80,000 in annual subsidy for ten years, were offered to Nova Scotia. Howe accepted this, but more reluctantly the accompanying condition, that he enter the Federal Cabinet. On this he had no alternative, for Sir John represented that the better terms could not be carried without some assurance that the repeal agitation would cease. However, by this act, Howe cut adrift from his Nova Scotia allies, including Premier Annand, who never forgave him. Howe's sun was almost set. The by-election in Hants which followed on his entering the Cabinet broke his health, and was the severest struggle of his political career. Tupper backed him strongly, and the slogan of "Howe and Better Terms" won. At a meeting at Nine Mile River one night, Howe lay on the platform in physical agony while his opponent, nick-named "Roar- ing Billows," denounced him. Howe subsequently ^Speeches and Public Letters of Joseph Howe, Edited bv J. A. Chisholm, P. 534. 280 JOSEPH HOWE served as President of the Council and Secretary of State, but did not add to his fame. He visited the Red River Settlement in 1869, in connection with the ac- quisition of Rupert's Land. His conduct on this occa- sion resulted in an ill-tempered controversy with Wil- liam McDougall, a Cabinet colleague. In the next election, he and Tupper swept the Province for Con- federation, and in 1873, after he had criticized the Pacific Railway policy at Ottawa, he was appointed, at the request of his old rival Tupper, to the post of Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia. When Howe left Ottawa on April 19, a crowd of fellow-members saw him off and presented an address in which they spoke of the "unprecedented duration and great value of his public services." It was appar- ent that he would never return. The tribune of the people was at last in a haven of rest, but he lived only a few weeks to enjoy it. Weak- ened by hard campaigning, incessant toil and much worry, the human machine broke down and he collapsed in his son's arms, dying on June 1, 1873. In the silence of his death there was a revulsion from the antipathy of the years of battle. Through the dim, old city, out along the jagged coast line, in the back townships where Joe Howe's grey suit and smiling face were still a happy memory, there was the sorrow that comes when a great man who is also a personal friend passes from life. The world remembers Howe as a rugged radical, a pioneer Imperialist, a peerless orator, a creative statesman; his old friends in Nova Scotia remembered him as a loving man among men. 281 WILLIAM ANNAND WILLIAM ANNAN D WILLIAM ANNAND (1808-1887) WILLIAM ANNAND was the chief "last ditcher" of his day. Long after Joseph Howe had thrown his influence in Nova Scotia for Confed- eration — lessened though it was by his own vacillation — Annand maintained his insurgency. He remained the leader of the anti-unionists, who were still in con- trol of the local Assembly, until his removal in 1875 to England, where he died in the late 'eighties. Almost alone of influential Nova Scotians, Annand resisted the force and the craft of Sir Charles Tupper, and was one of the thousands who ever contended that a great wrong had been done his Province by the manner in which it was forced into Confederation. So stirred was the Pro- vince that union and anti-union was the local election issue far into the 'seventies. At first the Nova Scotia members at Ottawa held aloof from the old parties, but gradually the Liberals, who had comprised the bulk of the anti-unionists, joined the forces of Alexander Mac- kenzie. As late as the Provincial election of 1886, anti- union feeling was strong, but few are now living who took part in the fight against Confederation, and the bitterness of the majority of that day is little in evidence. One of the veterans of the lost cause is Senator L. G. Power of Halifax. "Was there any real grievance in Nova Scotia?" he was asked on the eve of the Confederation jubilee. 285 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS "Nova Scotia before the union," he replied, "had low customs duties, the highest ad valorem, except liquor and tobacco, being ten per cent.; many items were only five per cent.; others were free. It was a cheap country to live in, and increased duties that fol- lowed were unpopular. We were a prosperous Pro- vince ; many people thought we would have been better ofif under the old conditions. The people got what they wished from their own Parliament, but Nova Scotia is now a small factor in the government of a big country, and the people do not get things as they would like. There is too much tendency to consider the big interests." Nova Scotia was slow to see the advantages of Con- federation. Her own nearest neighbors were the New England States, a few hours distant. Canada lay days away by water, and no railway existed until the middle 'seventies. Canada had been the scene of rebellions and of the burning of parliament buildings; Nova Scotia was peaceful, and was taught by Howe to look on the Canadians as dangerous neighbors. When the logic of the occasion, coupled with better terms, had won Howe to the union cause, Annand, his relative and political associate for over thirty years, remained an opponent, and bitterly attacked his former friend. His position as editor of the Halifax Chronicle gave him influence which sustained the anti-unionist cause for years. Annand, though overshadowed by more pictures- que contemporaries, was in public life for almost forty years, and touched Nova Scotia's development at several 286 WILLIAM ANNAND vital points. He joined Howe in reforms, and his shy. practical personality supplemented the oratorical genius who often lived in the clouds and ever sought the lime-light. Annand was born in Halifax on April 10, 1808, being thus Howe's junior by four years. His father was a well-to-do merchant, and both parents came from Banffshire, Scotland. Their son inherited the prudence and the steadfastness of the Lowland Scots. William was carefully educated in Halifax and in Scotland, and for a time lived on a stock farm at Upper Musquodoboit, near Halifax. So esteemed was the young farmer that at twenty-eight he was elected to the Assembly for Halifax County, Howe being his fel- low member. Annand in his election address laid down a progressive platform, including a demand for en- couragement to agriculture, fisheries and domestic manufactures. Hand in hand, Howe and Annand took up the battle for responsible government, the latter being a shrewd counsellor and a wholesome restraining influence on his more impulsive associate. Annand took part in the movement in 1843 to secularize education in Nova Scotia, and twenty years later supported Tupper and his Conservative Government in their steps for com- pulsory education. Annand purchased The Nova Scotian in 1843 and early in 1844 founded the Hali- fax Chronicle, with which he was more or less identi- fied until his death. Until 1846 he spent two happy years in editorial association with Howe, as they pro- moted the reforms for which they stood. Annand was not as brilliant a writer as Howe, but his articles had a clear, logical style and a certain manly dignity. He sat 287 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS in the Assembly almost continuously until 1875, holding office as Financial Secretary from 1860 to 1863, and afterwards being a strong critic of the Tupper Govern- ment until he became Premier in 1867. The fight over Confederation brought Annand to the front speedily. When Adams G. Archibald* gave up the Liberal leadership and joined the unionists, Annand naturally assumed a prominent place in his party. Later, when Howe forsook the cause, Annand became Liberal leader. Before 1864, the year of the Quebec Conference, had closed, Annand had addressed a meeting in favor of Maritime Union and demanded that the Quebec scheme be submitted to the people. Presently he threw his full strength into the opposition cause, joining A. G. Jones, a prominent Conservative, and William J. Stairs, a Liberal. He deposed the editor of The Chronicle, Jonathan McCully,t who had been favorable to union, and early in 1865 admitted to his columns Howe's famous attacks on Confederation entitled, "The Bother- ation Scheme." The battle was then on in earnest. Howe on the rostrum and Annand with his pen strengthened each other. Together they denounced and delayed the scheme in the Assembly and crossed to Eng- *Sir Adams G. Archibald (1814-92) who belonged to a noted Nova Scotia family, was in public life for over thirty years. He entered the Nova Scotia Assembly in 1851, was Attorney-General 1860-63, and Lieutenant-Governor 1873-83. He was an early advocate of Confedera- tion and joined Tupper in the movement. He was Secretary of State for Canada 1867-70, and for the next two years Lieutenant-Governor of Manitoba. t Jonathan McCully (1809-77) was Liberal leader in the Legisla- tive Council in 1864 and supported Tupper's movement for union. He was a delegate to the Confederation Conferences, and in 1867 was appointed to the Senate. 288 WILLIAM ANNAND land in 1866 to present the antis' case when the bill was being drafted in London. Together they went to Eng- land again in 1868 to demand repeal. On this visit Tap- per impressed Howe with the futility of the fight; he returned a waverer, and presently gave up the battle. When Howe showed him Sir John Macdonald's letter, offering better terms, Annand, who was then Premier of Nova Scotia, said : "Yes, we will take this letter and deal with it." Howe read in this a move for further opposition to union and withdrew the letter. Annand proposed another delegation to England, but Howe disagreed. The quarrel which ensued broke a politi- cal friendship and association which had lasted for thirty-three years. It would be easy to say now that Annand and his fellow anti-unionists were without vision, but it is unfair to ignore the arguments they presented, which then made a deep impression in the Province. Among the State papers of the period are the despatch of the Colonial Secretary, the Duke of Buckingham, concern- ing Nova Scotia's protest, and the Nova Scotia Govern- ment's reply. In February, 1868, the Legislature of Nova Scotia, then in control of Annand and the anti- unionists, ordered Howe to proceed to England at once to present a petition to the Imperial Parliament "pray- ing for the release of Nova Scotia from the union." The Colonial Secretary, replying to this petition, said: "I trust that the Assembly and people of Nova Scotia will not be surprised that the Queen's Govern- ment feel that they would not be warranted in advising 289 19 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS the reversal of a great measure of State, attended by so many extensive consequences already in operation, and adopted w^ith the previous sanction of every one of the Legislatures concerned, and with the subsequent ap- proval of the Legislatures of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick." To this the Annand Government made a tart reply : "The Executive Council have read the despatch of His Grace the Duke of Buckingham, in reply to the address of the representatives of the people, for a repeal of the Act of Union, with mingled feelings of surprise and regret. . . . It is astonishing that the Colonial Minister should take the liberty of contradict- ing and of asserting that Confederation first originated with the Legislature of Nova Scotia. This assertion is unsustained by the slightest foundation of fact. We are, therefore, in no manner desirous of changing our politi- cal constitution, but will not willingly allow ourselves to be brought into subjection to Canada or any other country. We will have no confederation or union with other colonies, except upon terms of exact equality, and there is no change in our political relations that we should not prefer to the detestable confederation that has been attempted to be forced upon us. We shall proceed with the legislation and other business of the Province, protesting against the confederation boldly, and distinctly asserting our full purpose and resolution to avail ourselves of every opportunity to extricate our- selves from the trammels of Canada, and if we fail, after exhausting all constitutional means at our command, we will leave our future destiny in the hands of Him who 290 WILLIAM ANNAND will judge the people righteously and govern the nations upon earth." Annand's controversial ability was shown in his arguments against union in 1866 and 1867, before Howe's defection. Writing to the Earl of Carnarvon in 1866, in defence of Howe and in reply to Tupper, he contended the people should be consulted before the constitution was changed. "While nobody," he said, "denied the power of the Imperial Parliament to sweep away the constitution of a colony, should the preserva- tion of the national life or the great interests of the Empire demand the sacrifice, yet in such a case flagrant abuses, corruption or insubordination must be shown, or the existence of a high State necessity, in presence of which the ordinary safeguards as existing institutions should give way" I Annand contended that no such abuses or State necessity existed to warrant what he termed "an act of confiscation and coercion of the most arbitrary kind." His prophecy that, were an election to take place, not three unionists would be returned, was borne out, for in the contest of September, 1867, only one unionist, Dr. Tupper, was returned to Ottawa from the nineteen counties. At the same time the unionists carried only two out of thirty-eight seats in the Assem- bly. In a debate in the Assembly in March, 1867, Annand developed the argument against the coercion of Nova Scotia. He demanded of Dr. Tupper where in the history of the world any such attempt had been made to deprive a people of their government and institutions against their will, without even a chance 291 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS to review the measure. "Such a policy might be tried with impunity in Nova Scotia with its 350,000 inhabi- tants, but could it safely be tried in Canada with 2,500,- 000? Could it be tried in England? We are too weak to rebel if we had the disposition, but it is a fair prin- ciple that what could not be done constitutionally in England should not be done here." "If, however," said Annand, replying to Dr. Tup- per, "the people are forced into the union, I do not hesitate to say that I will dedicate the remaining years of my life, be they many or few, to endeavor to repeal a union so hateful and obnoxious. I am an Englishman in spirit, if not by birth ; I love the institutions of Eng- land, and if I am deprived of them and my liberties as a British subject, then all I can say is, that by every con- stitutional means I will endeavor to destroy a union brought about by corrupt and arbitrary means."* In 1868 Howe, Annand and their colleagues made their last constitutional effort in asking the British Par- liament to release Nova Scotia from the union. John Bright brought it before the House with a motion that a commission be appointed to investigate the causes of discontent in Nova Scotia. This was defeated by 183 to 87, and with this vote the repeal movement failed. The delegates, who yet included Howe, issued a parting statement couched in almost epic language, in which they said: "But what of the future? The question is natural, *Three Premiers of Nova Scotia, by Edward Manning Saunders, P. 414. 292 WILLIAM ANNAND but we have no answer to give. With the publication of this paper our responsibilities end. We have pro- posed our remedy — it has been rejected. His Grace the Colonial Secretary and Lord Monck have assumed the task of making things pleasant and harmonious. They will have begun to try their experiments before the Legislature of Nova Scotia meets in August. Having discharged our duty to the Empire, we go home to share the perils of our native land, in whose service we con- sider it an honor to labor, whose fortunes in this dark- est hour of her history it would be cowardice to desert." The back of the resistance to union was broken. Howe capitulated to the arguments of Tupper and the appeal of "better terms." Annand might have acted with him had Howe taken him into his confidence dur- ing the memorable return journey with Tupper on the City of Cork. As it was, old friends parted. Annand refused to meet the Ottawa Ministers at dinner when they came to Halifax to negotiate with Howe, and after- wards took the stump against Howe in Hants. Annand's feeling against Howe, which was heartily reciprocated in the quarrel, was reflected in The Chron- icle, which on February 2, 1869, said: "Howe came from England determined to share the perils of his native land in the darkest hour of her history, and he has done so with a vengeance. He has assumed the perils of the Presidency of the Dominion Privy Council, and the temptations of a yearly salary of $5,000, and dared a trip to snowed-up Ottawa. . . . That Mr. Howe has shamefully abandoned the party which he joined in the very heyday of its success is 293 CONFEDERATION AND ITS LEADERS plain. That he actually sold, after long plotting, the country to which he owed all that he ever was, or ever had, we are sorry to say we are convinced. Let him go. One man never built up a country. One man cannot ruin it if the people make a determined stand for their rights." The insurgents and the irreconcilables had their day, but the leaven was working. Howe and Tupper together carried the voters by storm in the next election. Even Annand, shortly after Howe joined the Cabinet, admitted through The Chronicle that it was "the policy of the people of Nova Scotia to make the best of union while it lasted." Annand's last years were spent in England, far from the scene of strife. For a time he was Agent-Gen- eral of the Dominion Government, and afterwards, until his death on October 12, 1887, Agent for Nova Scotia. When he passed away few of his contem- poraries remained, but Nova Scotia history must count him an influential and honorable figure during critical times. He was a good executive, a capable leader, and a speaker of ready expression and forcible style. 294 PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND DAVID LAIRD DAVID LAIRD DAVID LAIRD (1832-1914) ♦