Giants in Action
In an early chapter of the most famous of all Books, reference is made
to the inhabitants of the earth at a certain period, in the descriptive
statement, “There were giants in those days.” This is generally accepted
as indicating the physical stature and strength of those ancient men.
But there have been periods since that time concerning which we could
repeat the statement in the light of their distinctive achievements, not
necessarily because of the physical prowess, but because of the mental
and moral energy of the men who wrought great deeds.
Such days, it seems to me, have been found in Canadian history in the
period of the heroic men and women who pioneered in all the provinces,
in the period when strong men grappled with the problems of
confederating the scattered colonies of British North America into one
Dominion, and in that period when the young Dominion, with only a few
millions of people, undertook and accomplished, with incredible speed,
the gigantic task of binding the provinces together by a band of steel.
It is, briefly, with the confederation achievement, but, much more
extendedly, with the building of the first transcontinental that our
present writing deals. The battle of the pioneers was principally
against poverty and climatic conditions. The battle for Confederation
was intensified by political, racial and even religious issues, though
ultimately none of these was much affected, as provision was made for
the autonomy of the Provinces in their own affairs. The battle for the
building of the Canadian Pacific Railway was first of all between
political gladiators who differed as to the practicability and value of
it. But when construction actually began, the struggle was against rival
interests, and difficult financial conditions, as well as against such
terrific natural obstacles that the undertaking was looked on by some as
the very climax of engineering impossibility. Now that the smoke of
battle has cleared away and that both Confederation and the Railway are
running smoothly, we can look back and see the giants who fought
victoriously to create the conditions we now enjoy. Some of these great
men did not live to see the realization of their dreams, but they died
in the faith that their dreams were so good that they would come true
some time. Like the gallant soldiers of all time, they fell, still
gripping the sword-hilt and cheering their comrades on to victory. Let
us be grateful enough to halt for a moment with bowed heads and lay a
wreath of memory on their honoured graves. Peace hath her victories no
less renowned than war, and Canada must not forget her heroes in either.
There were several causes operating, midway in the last century, to lead
the older Canada of Ontario and Quebec, and also the Maritime areas of
New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, to consider the
advisability of federating together for the good of the whole. The
commercial power of the United States had such a magnetic pull upon some
of the provinces that the tie which held these Provinces to Britain was
being subjected to some strain. Moreover, the Imperial Government
noticed with some anxiety that political prejudices and feeling between
the various parts of the British possessions made any concerted plan for
military action difficult to accomplish. Accordingly, as it is now known
and can now be told, Lord Monck, who was the Governor-General in the
“sixties,” quietly used some pressure to keep Confederation before the
minds of public men in the various parts of the country. Besides all
that, there was very considerable difficulty in carrying on government
in the Canada of Ontario and Quebec, owing to racial differences and
double leadership, which meant an almost constant danger of legislative
deadlock.
Moreover, the British possessions from the St. Lawrence to the Pacific
were like a dumbbell, big at the ends and weak in the middle, as a
Westerner once said. There were the immense areas of older Canada and
the still more immense areas west of Lake Superior—but the North Shore
of that inland sea was a wilderness of unproductive rock where no link
of settlement would seem possible. Hence, as the aforesaid Westerner
expressed it, “Canada would break off in the middle unless we linked it
up with the steel trail.” There was much truth in that statement in
those early days and highly important truth it was. Many, in our day,
cannot realize how swiftly inter-travel and inter-trade over the pioneer
railway across Canada brought the East and the West together.
All these considerations, realized out of actually existing or foreseen
conditions, impelled the statesman of Canada in the 60’s to take
definite steps towards confederating the old provinces and then annexing
the vast territories all the way to the Pacific Coast. And here entered
the giants. Thus, for instance, in 1864 that great tribune of the
people, Mr. George Brown, of the Toronto _Globe_, reported in favour of
Confederation from a committee of the Canadian Legislature. About the
same time the Legislatures in Nova Scotia, mainly through the efforts of
Dr. (later Sir Charles) Tupper; in New Brunswick, through the influence
of Mr. Samuel L. Tilley; in Prince Edward Island, by the exertions of
the Hon. W. H. Pope, passed resolutions appointing delegates to a
Conference in Charlottetown for the purpose of discussing a uniting of
the Maritime Provinces. When that Conference met in Charlottetown a
deputation from Ontario and Quebec was received consisting of unusually
strong men, namely, John A. Macdonald, George Brown, George E. Cartier,
A. T. Galt, T. D’Arcy McGee, Alexander Campbell and Hector L. Langevin.
As a result of the Charlottetown meeting larger horizons loomed upon the
vision of that remarkable gathering. The souls of the men who then
assembled yearned beyond the sky-line of their own immediate
surroundings and, thinking of the extent of British Possessions in North
America, they were inspired and attracted by the greater task of
confederating them all into one great Dominion from sea to sea. It was a
tremendous task for that early day, but the men who faced it were giants
who could not rest satisfied with being cabinned and cribbed in a narrow
circumference, but who said:
“No pent-up Utica confines our powers
The vast, boundless continent is ours.”
After some discussion, the Charlottetown Conference adjourned to meet as
a larger gathering in Quebec City on October 10th, 1864—a red-letter
day not only in the history of Canada, but of the British Empire and the
world. The object of the Quebec Conference was as stated above; and
therefore there were men there from all the then organized British
Provinces. These were men who could have filled places in the “Mother of
Parliaments” at the world’s metropolis, but who at the Quebec meeting
were engaged in the, perhaps, more difficult undertaking of bringing
into being, out of diverse elements, a new nation within the Empire.
These men were “The Fathers of Confederation,” and the famous picture of
that conference should be in every Canadian home. Etienne P. Tache, who
once said that the last gun fired in North America for British
connection would be fired by a French-Canadian, was chairman. From
Ontario and Quebec came John A. Macdonald, George Brown, George E.
Cartier, A. T. Galt, William McDougall, Thomas D’Arcy McGee, Oliver
Mowat, Alexander Campbell, James Cockburn, Hector L. Langevin, and Jean
C. Chapais. From Nova Scotia there were Charles Tupper, W. A. Henry,
Jonathan McCully and R. B. Dickey. From New Brunswick came Samuel L.
Tilley, John M. Johnston, Charles Fisher, Peter Mitchell, E. B.
Chandler, W. H. Steeves and John H. Gray; Prince Edward Island was
represented by Colonel Gray, Edward Palmer, W. H. Pope, George Coles,
Edward Whalen, T. H. Haviland and A. A. Macdonald. Newfoundland sent F.
B. T. Carter and Ambrose Shea, though it was not yet to come into
Confederation.
It is not our purpose, in the present writing, to dwell on this great
meeting beyond saying that it led to the Confederation of Ontario,
Quebec, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick in 1867. Prince Edward Island
entered in 1873 and the Western prairie country and British Columbia in
1870 and 1871. The two latter entered with somewhat reluctant feet;
Manitoba, retarded by Louis Riel’s stand against the incoming of Canada
lest the rights of the natives should be ignored; and British Columbia,
unready to come in unless the railway across the continent to the
Pacific Coast was guaranteed within a given time. These difficulties
were finally overcome, but the details do not belong to this story.
Suffice it to say that Confederation being accomplished, the new sense
of national unity led to combination in the immense undertaking of a
railway from sea to sea. The courageous facing of such an enormous task
had no precedent in the business history of the modern world. The big
Republic to the South of us has done some amazing things, such as the
Panama Canal in recent years, but even that commercially daring country
only attempted a transcontinental railway when it had nearly forty
millions of people. Canada undertook the task when her population was
less than four millions. To the onlooking world the attempt must have
appeared like “a forlorn hope”—a sort of a “Charge of the Light
Brigade” against batteries bristling with obstacles of a wholly
unprecedented kind. But there are always some men who are unafraid, and
the dream of seers was to be realized. Once Confederation had been
accomplished, a transcontinental railway became a national necessity.
This was true not only from the standpoint of politics and trade, but
from the standpoint also of law and order in the far-flung country. It
will be remembered that Louis Riel started a revolt against the incoming
of Canadian authority in 1869, and that he held high carnival in the
West till Colonel Garnet Wolseley and his soldiers reached Fort Garry
from the East, nearly a year after the Riel outbreak started. All this
period was not consumed in travel; but it had taken three months’ steady
travel overland, after mobilization in the East, before Wolseley reached
the scene of Riel’s revolt. The whole Western country might have been
swept by the rebel chief’s revolt in that time, and the necessity of
swifter communication between the different parts of Canada became
painfully apparent. And so, when British Columbia came into
Confederation in 1871, there was an understanding that the railway from
the East to the Pacific should begin in two years and be finished in
ten. This daring pledge was given by Sir John A. Macdonald and his
Government at Ottawa, despite the fact that a distinguished explorer and
engineer, Capt. Palliser, sent out by the Imperial Government, had
reported after four years on the ground, that on account of the
mountains being impassable, a transcontinental railway could not be
built from sea to sea on British territory. But Sir John Macdonald went
ahead and sought to interest some big business men who might form a
company to build the Canadian Pacific to the Western sea.
At that time Sir Hugh Allan, head of the Allan line of steamships, was
probably the most able and prominent business man in Canada. He was not
only interested in steamships on the Atlantic, but had acquired railway
interests as well. There is no doubt that Sir Hugh Allan had been
pressing upon men in public life the project of a transcontinental
railway, which he might lead in building, with the further idea, no
doubt, of having another line of steamers on the Pacific. This was a
worthy enough ambition for a great Canadian. There is no reason to think
that Sir Hugh Allan was mercenary or avaricious, for he had no need of
more wealth than he possessed. In any case he, being of the same
political party as Sir John Macdonald, as well as a man of great ability
and financial power, was one of those in line as a possibility for such
a big task.
Accordingly Allan formed a company to build the railway. So also did Mr.
D. L. Macpherson and a group of Toronto capitalists, who alleged that
Allan was in league with American interests in a degree that would
militate against the success of the Canadian Pacific as a Canadian road.
Sir John Macdonald tried in vain to get these two projected companies to
amalgamate. Finally it seemed to be settled that a new company should be
formed of Canadians and that Allan would have control. He was spending
money with a lavish hand and when the Dominion election was held in 1872
he furnished the large sum of $160,000 for campaign funds to Macdonald,
Cartier and Langevin. It is known that Allan had always contributed to
the campaign funds of the party, as others did, but the fact that these
campaign funds in 1872 were contributed at a time when a huge contract
was pending, made the whole transaction look dangerous. All campaign
funds are legally and morally wrong, and the fact that they were
customary and that everybody knows they are customary, does not make
them right.
In this particular case, Cartier, who was then mentally as well as
physically broken down, and who, contrary to Macdonald’s advice, ran for
an impossible constituency, where he was defeated, seems to have made
the largest demands on Allan. It seems clear also that Cartier held out
to Allan, hopes of the contract. But it is also clear that the other
leaders got certain sums which they used in the campaign. The Macdonald
government was elected. After the election a new company, called the
Canadian Pacific, was formed, with representative men from all the
Provinces as directors. That new board chose Allan as President, it is
said, without any pressure from the Government. This is not unlikely, as
Allan was, as we have said, the biggest business man in Canada at the
time. To this company the Government granted a charter to build the
Canadian Pacific, but American interests were to be excluded as the
Government insisted. Allan agreed to this and repaid the money the
Americans had advanced. The New York men, of course, were annoyed at
this and gave the opponents of the Macdonald Government some hints as to
those campaign funds from Allan. Then Allan’s personal correspondence
with American interests during the election year was stolen by a clerk
in the office of Allan’s solicitor, Mr. J. J. C. Abbott, and, being made
public, raised a tremendous political storm.
When the House of Commons met the atmosphere was tense and electric.
Only a few days elapsed before Mr. L. S. Huntingdon, for the Opposition,
moved for the investigation of the charges that were floating around in
regard to these campaign funds, the suggestion being that Sir Hugh Allan
got the railway contract in return for his monetary contributions. On an
immediate vote the Government was sustained, but there was an uneasy
feeling abroad and men of independent mould were breaking away from
party ties. Sir John Macdonald, who saw the situation with his usual
political sagacity, himself moved for the appointment of an
investigating commission, and the House adjourned till that commission
would be ready to report. When the House met in October, 1873, the Hon.
Alexander Mackenzie, leader of the Opposition, moved a vote of
non-confidence and supported it by quoting from the report of the
commission. The debate in the House was hot. Charles Tupper, the “war
horse of Cumberland”—a masterful debater, who later was the tremendous
drive wheel of the railway project—supported the Government, but
Huntingdon replied that the Government had kept itself in power by the
lavish use of money from men who were desiring contracts. Sir John A.
Macdonald spoke for nearly five hours in defence of his action, dealing
with the whole history of the Canadian Pacific Railway. He made a
special appeal for support in order that East and West might be
connected by rail and the whole of Canada developed. Sir John, though at
no stage of his career a great orator, was possessed of a magnetic
manner and could coin phrases that had indescribable force. Such, for
instance, was the expression he used once at a great mass meeting in
Toronto, when he said dramatically, “A British subject I was born—a
British subject I will die.” On this occasion, in 1873, in the House,
when he made explanation of his policy in regard to the railway
contract, he closed his five hours’ address in the words: “But, Sir, I
commit myself, the Government commits itself, to the hands of this
House; and far beyond this House, it commits itself to the country at
large. We have faithfully done our duty. We have fought the battle of
Confederation. We have fought the battle of unity. We have had party
strife, setting Province against Province. And more than all, we have
had, in the greatest Province, every prejudice and sectional feeling
that could be arrayed against us. I throw myself on this House; I throw
myself on this country; I throw myself on posterity, and I believe that,
notwithstanding the many failings of my life, I shall have the voice of
this country rallying around me. And, Sir, if I am mistaken in that, I
can confidently appeal to a higher court—to the court of my own
conscience, and to the court of posterity. I leave it to this House with
the utmost confidence. I am equal to either fortune. I can see past the
decision of this House, either for or against me, but, whether it be for
or against me, I know, and it is no vain boast of me to say so, for even
my enemies will admit that I am no boaster—that there does not exist in
Canada a man who has given more of his time, more of his heart, more of
his wealth, or more of his intellect and power, such as they may be, for
the good of this Dominion of Canada.”
This speech was listened to by a full house and crowded galleries,
amongst those present being Lord Roseberry, then on a visit to Canada.
Sir John closed his speech about two o’clock in the morning, and the
Hon. Edward Blake rose to reply. Blake was probably the ablest and most
massively intellectual man that Canada has produced. He lacked the
magnetism of Sir John, but had the power, almost to a fault, of dealing
with a subject in such detail that when he was through with it there was
little left to be said. Mr. Blake was at that time quite sceptical as to
the practicability of a transcontinental railway, anyway; but that night
in the House of Commons he concentrated his tremendous argumentative
oratory against the Government for having, as he alleged, won the
election with campaign funds from interested parties.
There was doubt as to the result in the House till some of the
independent members who might ordinarily have supported the Government
began to indicate otherwise. Curiously enough, Mr. Donald A. Smith
(afterwards Lord Strathcona), the man who, later on, drove the last
spike in the Canadian Pacific Railway, under the Premiership of this
same Sir John Macdonald, in 1885, was the member who really dealt the
Government its knockout blow in 1873 in the House of Commons. No one
knew what the course of Mr. Smith, who was never a party man, would be,
and when he rose to speak every one listened with strained attention.
His opening words seemed to favour the Government, but he was simply
absolving Sir John Macdonald from personal blame. Here is the report of
what Mr. Smith said: “With respect to the transaction between the
Government and Sir Hugh Allan, I do not consider that the First Minister
took the money with any corrupt motive. I feel that the leader of the
Government is incapable of taking money from Sir Hugh Allen for corrupt
purposes. I would be most willing to vote confidence in the Government
(loud cheers from the Government side), if I could do so conscientiously
(loud cheers from the Opposition). It is with very great regret that I
cannot do so. For the honour of the country, no Government should exist
that has a shadow of suspicion resting on them, and for that reason I
could not support them.” (Renewed Opposition cheers.) In the afternoon
of that day, November 5th, 1873, Sir John A. Macdonald informed the
House that he had placed his resignation in the hands of the
Governor-General and that the Hon. Alexander Mackenzie was called upon
to form a new administration.
Sir John Macdonald had resigned without waiting for a vote of the House
and no one to this day knows just how it would have divided. But the
feeling in the country was hot and, like a wise man, he bowed to the
inevitable. He said that someday the people would understand and call
him back to power. The fact that they did call him back five years later
astounded his political foes, one of whom had said in the House, during
the debate, that Sir John “had fallen like Lucifer, never to rise
again.” But he did rise, to the surprise of many. The fact that he came
back later on was due, in some degree, to his personal magnetism. But it
was also due to the fact that people knew that Sir John had not profited
in any personal way and that he and Sir Hugh Allan had become almost
obsessed with the idea that the continuance of Sir John in office at
that time was absolutely necessary to the opening up and development of
Canada. They acted accordingly, as if the end they had in view justified
the methods they adopted. Moreover, it was shown that Sir John had
definitely told Allan that he would not give the railway contract to
him, but to an amalgamation of the two companies. Allan said in
connection with the whole matter: “The plans I propose are the best for
the interests of the Dominion and in urging them I am doing a patriotic
action.”
In the meantime, when Sir John resigned, Mackenzie took office and, in a
general election shortly afterwards, swept the country. Sir Hugh Allan,
unable to raise capital in the presence of the political earthquake and
the business depression, threw up the charter for building the Canadian
Pacific Railway, and a new programme had to be adopted. For the time
being the curtain had to be rung down on the gigantic project.