Canadian Colonies Debate Unity

Both the Queen and her home government had grown to be enthusiastic supporters of the “new dominion” scheme.

Continuing Canadian Confederation Established,
our selection from Life and Career of Sir John A. MacDonald, G.C.B. by Joseph Edmund Collins published in 1883. The selection is presented in three easy 5 minute installments. For works benefiting from the latest research see the “More information” section at the bottom of these pages.

Previously in Canadian Confederation Established.

Time: 1867
Place: Canada

These Canadian delegates had several long conferences with the Imperial ministers on the proposed constitutional changes, on treaties and legislation, the defenses of Canada, the settlement of the Northwest Territories, the Hudson Bay Company’s claim, and other subjects. The confederation scheme having attracted much favorable attention in England, the emissaries were received with marked cordiality by the Ministry as well as by the Queen and the royal family. Hon. John A. Macdonald pressed upon the home Government the expediency of making known to the recalcitrant colonies that the Imperial authorities desired to see a union consummated; for one of the weapons used against the project in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick was that the aim of the confederation was separation from the empire and the assumption of independent nationality. Such an intention at that day was regarded as a public offence. If it is an offence for the son, approaching the years and the strength of manhood, to turn his thoughts to separation from the homestead under whose jurisdiction and shelter he has lived during his infancy and boyhood, to sketch out a manly and independent career of his own, plan to build his own house, conduct his own business, and carve out his own fortune — then was it an offence for those Canadians, if there were at that time any such, who on the eve of union dreamt of nationality, of a time when Canada should have passed the years of boyhood, and be brave and strong enough to stand forth among the independent nations.

After the dispatches of the Colonial Secretary had reached the Provincial Government, some of those who had opposed union on the ground of loyalty now began with much consistency to inveigh against the alleged “undue pressure” of the Imperial Government; while many declared that “an atrocious system for the coercion of the colonies into the hateful bond” had been inaugurated in the Home Office. The truth is, neither pressure nor coercion was exercised from the Colonial Office, since no proceeding could have been more fatal to the prospects of the confederation. The home Ministry had grown to be enthusiastic supporters of the “new dominion” scheme, and stated their views at much length in their dispatches to the colonial governors, whom they wished to give to the project every possible proper support at their command; but that was all. On the one hand, Mr. John A. Macdonald and his colleagues avouched the loyalty of the Provinces to the Crown, and declared that the colonists would spend their only dollar and shed the last drop of their blood in maintaining connection with the mother-land. The parent was much moved at these earnest and lavish protestations of the child, and in token of her appreciation and gratitude guaranteed a loan for the construction of an intercolonial railway, admitted her obligation to defend the colonies with all the resources at her com mand, and consented to strengthen the fortifications at Quebec, and provide armaments. Among other things, the home Government undertook to ascertain what were the rights of the Hud son Bay Company, with a view to the cession of the Northwest Territory to the Dominion.

A meeting of the Canadian Parliament to discuss the report of the delegates was called for August 8th. The chief work of the session was a consideration of the report of the delegates to England. The Government carried its measures by overwhelming majorities, and there appeared to be no disposition to tolerate the obstruction of the small band of opposition. The result of the labors of the commission, appointed in 1857, to frame a civil code for Lower Canada was presented to the Legislature, and M. Cartier introduced a bill to carry it into effect. The code went into operation on August 1st in the following year. The House rose after a six-weeks’ session; and in the autumn the public offices were removed to the new capital in the wilderness, one hundred twenty miles up the Ottawa River. During the summer, for the sake of convenience, the cabinet meetings were held in Montreal.

The last session of the Provincial Parliament met at Ottawa on June 8th. The Ministry’s speech expressed the hope that the union scheme would soon be am fail accompli, and that the next Parliament would embrace an assemblage not only of the federate representatives of Canada, but of every colony in British North America. There was brisk discussion upon some of the Government measures, but the opposition found themselves, in comparison with their opponents, as “that small infantry warred on by cranes,” and hence, as the session wore on, learned not to offer opposition where nothing was to be gained. A series of resolutions defining the Constitution of Upper and Lower Canada under the proposed confederation, which subsequently were, in great measure, incorporated in the Imperial act, was passed.

In 1866 the Legislature of New Brunswick met under exciting circumstances. Governor Gordon, in his speech, announced that it was the earnest wish of the Queen that the Provinces should unite in one confederacy, and strongly urged the question upon the Legislature. The Smith-Hatheway Administration was willing to meet the royal wish half-way, provided that New Brunswick obtained better terms in the compact than those offered in the Quebec scheme. But the public were not dis posed to abide by the half-way marches of the Ministry or even to tolerate its existence. The Legislative Council passed an address expressing the desire that the Imperial Government might unite New Brunswick and the other Provinces in a federative union. The Ministry were obliged to resign, and the Governor called on Mr. [now Sir] Leonard Tilley to form an administration. A dissolution followed, and to the same length which the Province had before gone in opposing confederation it now went in supporting the scheme. This election had a marked in fluence on the fortunes of confederation in other quarters. “The destiny of British North America, indeed,” says Mr. Archer, “was decided in New Brunswick.” Nova Scotia appointed delegates to London to perfect a measure of union. Meanwhile the little Province in the Gulf [Prince Edward Island] remained refractory, while her more rugged sister out on the edge of the Atlantic [Newfoundland] was listless. The little meadow Province afterward fell before the wooer, but the “ancient colony” chose, as it seems, perpetual celibacy.

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