THE QUEBEC CONFERENCE
The delegates appointed by the government of New Brunswick for the
purpose of representing the provinces at Charlottetown in the convention
for a union of the Maritime Provinces, were the Hon. Messrs. Tilley,
Steeves, Johnson, Chandler and Gray. The first three were members of the
government, while Messrs. Gray and Chandler were leading members of the
Opposition, so that the arrangement had the assent of the leaders of
both political parties and was in no sense a party movement. The Nova
Scotia delegation consisted of the Hon. Charles Tupper, the leader of
the government, the attorney-general, Mr. Henry, and Mr. Dickey, a
Conservative supporter, and also the Hon. Adams G. Archibald and
Jonathan McCully, leaders of the Liberal party. The Prince Edward Island
delegates were also chosen from both sides of politics. The convention
was opened in due form at Charlottetown on September 8th, in the chamber
of the House of Assembly. The delegations had no power to decide finally
on any subject, because any arrangements they made were necessarily
subject to the approval of the legislatures of the three Maritime
Provinces. But at this time the sentiment in favour of maritime union
was so strong it was confidently believed that whatever was agreed upon
at Charlottetown would become the basis of a future union.
{CHARLOTTETOWN CONVENTION}
The government of Canada had full knowledge of what was going on at
Charlottetown, and they considered the time opportune for the purpose of
bringing to the notice of the delegates from the Maritime Provinces the
subject of a confederation of all the British North American colonies. A
telegram was received while the delegates were in session announcing
that representatives of the government of Canada had left Quebec for the
purpose of meeting the delegates of the Maritime Provinces, and placing
certain proposals before them. On the receipt of this message the
further consideration of the question which they had met to discuss was
deferred until after the Canadian delegates had arrived. They came in
the government steamer _Victoria_ on the following day and were found to
embrace the leading men then in Canadian political life,--the Hons. J.
A. Macdonald, George Brown, Georges E. Cartier, Alexander T. Galt,
Thomas D'Arcy McGee, Hector L. Langevin, William McDougall and Alexander
Campbell. These delegates represented the Reform, as well as the
Conservative party, and were therefore able to speak with authority in
regard to the views of the people of both Upper and Lower Canada. They
were accorded seats in the convention, and at once submitted reasons
why in their opinion a scheme of union, embracing the whole of the
British North American colonies, should be adopted. The Hon. John A.
Macdonald and Messrs. Brown and Cartier were heard on this subject, the
financial position of Canada was explained, and the sources of revenue
and wealth of the several provinces were discussed. Speeches were also
made by Messrs. Galt, McGee, Langevin and McDougall, and after having
commanded the attention of the convention for two days the Canadian
deputation withdrew. Before doing so they proposed that if the
convention concluded to suspend its deliberations upon the question of
Maritime union, they should adjourn to Quebec at an early day, to be
named by the governor-general, to consider the question of
confederation. On the following day the convention adjourned, on the
ground that it would be more for the general interest of British North
America to adopt the larger union than a union of the Maritime Provinces
merely, and it was thought that this might be effected without any very
great difficulty, for there was then no strong feeling evinced in any
quarter against confederation.
From Charlottetown the members of the convention and the Canadian
deputation went to Halifax, where they were received most cordially and
entertained at a banquet. They then took their departure for St. John,
where they were entertained at a public dinner at which many leading men
of the city were present. The chair was occupied by the Hon. John H.
Gray, one of the delegates, and the expressions in favour of the
proposed confederation were strong and hearty. No one could have
suspected at that time that the movement for confederation would meet
with so much opposition in New Brunswick. All seemed plain sailing but,
as the result showed, the battle for confederation had yet to be fought,
and it was won only after a long and doubtful struggle.
{THE QUEBEC CONFERENCE}
According to arrangement, the delegations from the other provinces met
in convention at Quebec on October 10th, all the colonies, including
Newfoundland, were represented and the delegates were as follows:--
Canada.--Hon. Sir Etienne P. Tache, premier; Hon. John A. Macdonald,
attorney-general west; Hon. Georges E. Cartier, attorney-general east;
Hon. George Brown, president of the executive council; Hon. Alexander T.
Galt, finance minister; Hon. Alexander Campbell, commissioner of Crown
lands; Hon. William McDougall, provincial secretary; Hon. Thomas D'Arcy
McGee, minister of agriculture; Hon. Hector Langevin, solicitor-general
east; Hon. J. Cockburn, solicitor-general west; Hon. Oliver Mowat,
postmaster-general; Hon. J. C. Chapais, commissioner of public works.
Nova Scotia.--Hon. Charles Tupper, provincial secretary; Hon. W. A.
Henry, attorney-general, Hon. R. B. Dickey, Hon. Adams G. Archibald,
Hon. Jonathan McCully.
New Brunswick.--Hon. Samuel L. Tilley, provincial secretary; Hon. John
M. Johnson, attorney-general; Hon. Edward B. Chandler, Hon. John
Hamilton Gray, Hon. Peter Mitchell, Hon. Chas. Fisher, Hon. William H.
Steeves.
Newfoundland.--Hon. F. B. T. Carter, speaker of the House of Assembly;
Hon. Ambrose Shea.
Prince Edward Island.--Hon. John Hamilton Gray, premier; Hon. Edward
Palmer, attorney-general; Hon. W. H. Pope, provincial secretary; Hon.
George Coles, Hon. A. A. Macdonald, Hon. T. H. Haviland, Hon. Edward
Whelan.
Sir Etienne P. Tache, who was then premier of Canada, was unanimously
chosen president of the conference, and Major Hewitt Bernard, of the
staff of the attorney-general west, private and confidential secretary.
It was arranged that the convention should hold its meetings with closed
doors, and it was laid down as a principle of the discussion that, as
the matters to come up for debate were all of a novel character, no man
should be prejudiced or held liable to the charge of inconsistency
because he had changed his views in regard to any particular matter in
the course of the discussion. It was also agreed that the vote, in case
of a division, should be by provinces and not by numbers, Canada having
two votes, representing Canada East and Canada West, and each of the
other provinces one. This arrangement made it quite certain that the
interests of the Maritime Provinces were not likely to be prejudiced by
the result of the vote, or the work of the convention. It was soon
decided that a federal union was to be preferred to a legislative union,
and on the second day of the meeting the outlines of the proposed
confederation were submitted in a series of resolutions by the Hon. John
A. Macdonald. The general model of the proposed confederation was that
of the United States, but with this difference, that whereas in the
United States all powers not expressly given by the constitution to the
federal government are held to belong to the several states, in the
Canadian constitution all powers not expressly reserved to the several
provinces were held to belong to the federal parliament. Thus in the
United States the residuum of power is in the several states, while in
Canada it is in the federal union and in the parliament of the Dominion.
No doubt the recent example of the civil war in the United States, which
was the result of an extreme assertion of state rights, was largely
responsible for this feature of the Canadian constitution. It is clear,
however, that it is a feature that is to be commended, because its
tendency is to cause Canadians to regard themselves rather as Canadians
than as belonging to any particular province, while in the United States
the feeling of statehood is still very strong. There are, of course,
many other contrasts between the Canadian confederation and the federal
union of the United States, arising from radical differences in the
system of government. Nothing like responsible government, as understood
in the British empire, exists in the United States, while this essential
feature had to be preserved in the Canadian constitution, not only with
reference to the Dominion parliament, but also in the legislatures of
the several provinces.
{DIFFICULT QUESTIONS}
In all the proceedings at Quebec, Mr. Tilley, as the finance minister of
New Brunswick, took a very prominent part. One great difficulty which
arose was with respect to the amount of money to be given by the federal
government to the several provinces for legislative purposes, in lieu of
the revenue which they had been accustomed to obtain from customs duties
and otherwise. The whole customs establishment was to be transferred to
the central government, and as most of the provinces would have no other
means of obtaining a revenue except by direct taxation, this feature of
the matter became of very vital importance. The difficulty was increased
by the fact that by the municipal system prevailing in Upper Canada the
local needs of the municipalities, in the way of roads, bridges, schools
and other matters, were provided for by local taxation, whereas in the
Maritime Provinces the provincial government had been accustomed to bear
these burdens. It was therefore an essential requisite to any scheme of
union, to make it acceptable to the people of the Maritime Provinces,
that sufficient money should be given to the provincial governments to
enable them to continue these services as before. It was difficult to
convince the representatives of Upper Canada of this, and it appears
that the conference nearly broke up without arriving at any result,
simply because of the apparently irreconcilable differences of opinion
between the representatives of the Maritime Provinces and those of
Canada in regard to this point. Finally these differences were overcome,
and the conclusions of the conference were embodied in a series of
seventy-two resolutions, which were agreed to, and which were to be
authenticated by the signatures of the delegates, and transmitted to
their respective governments, and also to the governor-general, for the
secretary of state for the colonies. These resolutions formed the first
basis of confederation and became what is known as the Quebec scheme.
It was perhaps inevitable that during the discussion of the scheme of
confederation by the Quebec convention, the proceedings should be
secret, but this restriction should have been removed as soon as the
convention adjourned. That this was not done was the principal reason
for the very unfavourable reception which the Quebec scheme met with
from the people of New Brunswick, when it was placed before them. It was
agreed at the Quebec conference that the scheme should not be made
public until after the delegates had reported to their respective
governments for their approval, but it was impossible that a document,
the terms of which were known to so many men, should be kept wholly
concealed from the public, and so the details of the scheme leaked out
and soon became a topic for public discussion. These discussions would
have been conducted in a much more friendly spirit if the Quebec scheme
had been given freely to the world, but as it was, prejudices and
jealousies, in many cases, darkened the question, and made men, who were
otherwise favourable to confederation, assume an attitude of hostility
to the Quebec scheme.
{SUBVENTIONS TO THE PROVINCES}
One of the points which at once attracted the attention of the opponents
of the scheme was the sum allowed to the several provinces for the
purpose of conducting their local affairs. As the provinces had to
surrender to the general government their right to levy customs and
excise duties, it became necessary to make up in some way a sum
sufficient to enable them to carry on those services which were still
left to the provincial legislatures. It was arranged that this sum
should be eighty cents a head of the population of the provinces as
established by the census of 1861, which would give to New Brunswick
something more than two hundred thousand dollars. This feature of the
confederation scheme was eagerly seized upon as being a convenient club
with which to strike it down. The cry was at once raised that the people
of New Brunswick were asked to sell themselves to Canada for the sum of
eighty cents a head, and this parrot-like cry was repeated with
variations throughout the whole of the election campaign which followed
in New Brunswick. It has often been found that a cry of this kind, which
is absolutely meaningless, is more effective than the most weighty
arguments, for the purpose of influencing men's minds, and this proved
to be the case in New Brunswick, when the question of confederation was
placed before the people. It was conveniently forgotten by those who
attacked the scheme in this fashion that, if the people of New Brunswick
were selling themselves to Canada for the sum of eighty cents a head,
the people of Canada were likewise selling themselves to New Brunswick
for the same sum, because the amount set apart for the provincial
legislatures was precisely the same in each case. It would not, however,
have suited the enemies of the confederation scheme to view the matter
in this light; what was wanted was a cry which would be effective for
the purpose of injuring the scheme and making it distasteful to the
people who were asked to vote upon it.
{OPPONENTS OF CONFEDERATION}
It is not necessary to assume that those who opposed confederation were
all influenced by sinister motives. Many honest and good men, whose
attachment to British institutions could not be questioned, were
opposed to it because their minds were of a conservative turn, and
because they looked with distrust upon such a radical change that would
alter the relations which existed between the province and the mother
country. Many, for reasons which it is not easy to understand, were
distrustful of the politicians of Canada, whom they looked upon as of
less sterling honesty than their own, and some actually professed to
believe that the Canadians expected to make up their financial deficits
by drawing on the many resources of the Maritime Provinces through the
confederation scheme. On the other hand confederation was opposed in the
province of New Brunswick by a number of men who could only be described
as adventurers, or discredited politicians, and who saw in this contest
a convenient way of restoring themselves to influence and power. There
were also among the opponents of the scheme some men who recognized in
its success the means of perpetuating British power on this continent,
and who, being annexationists, naturally looked with aversion upon it
for that reason. The vast majority of the people, however, had given the
matter but the slightest degree of attention, and their votes were cast
in accordance with prejudice hastily formed, which they had an
opportunity of reconsidering before another year and a half had elapsed.
{FEELING IN NEW BRUNSWICK}
It had been arranged at the convention that the first trial of the
scheme before the people should be made in New Brunswick, the
legislature of which was about expiring, and accordingly the appeal was
made to the people and the elections came on in the month of March,
1865. The enemies of confederation were very active in every part of the
province, and they left no stone unturned to defeat the measure. The
great cry upon which they based their opposition to the union with
Canada was that of taxation, and, as the voters of New Brunswick were
not inclined to favour any policy which involved high taxation, the
appeals made in this way had a powerful effect. All through the rural
constituencies the Opposition candidates told the electors that if they
united themselves with Canada direct taxation would be the immediate
result. They said that every cow, every horse, and every sheep which
they owned would be taxed, and that even their poultry would not escape
the grasp of the Canadian tax-gatherers. In the city of St. John, Mr.
Tilley and his colleague, Mr. Charles Watters, were opposed by Mr. J. V.
Troop and Mr. A. B. Wetmore. Mr. Troop was a wealthy ship-owner, whose
large means made him an acceptable addition to the strength of the
anti-confederate party, although previously he had taken no active part
in political affairs. Mr. Wetmore was a lawyer of standing in St. John,
who was considered to be one of the best _nisi prius_ advocates at the
bar, and who carried the methods of the bar largely into his politics.
In the course of time he became attorney-general of the province, and
later on a judge of the supreme court. Mr. Wetmore, when haranguing St.
John audiences, used to depict the dreadful effects of confederation in
a manner peculiarly his own. His great plea was an imaginary dialogue
between himself and his little son, that precocious infant asking him in
lisping tones, "Father, what country do we live in?" to which he would
reply, "My dear son, you have no country, for Mr. Tilley has sold us to
the Canadians for eighty cents a head."
In the county of St. John, the Hon. John. H. Gray, Charles N. Skinner,
W. H. Scovil and James Quinton, who ran as supporters of confederation,
were opposed by John W. Cudlip, T. W. Anglin, the Hon. R. D. Wilmot and
Joseph Coram. Mr. Cudlip was a merchant, who at one time enjoyed much
popularity in the city of St. John. Mr. Anglin was a clever Irishman, a
native of the county of Cork, who had lived several years in St. John
and edited a newspaper called the _Freeman_, which enjoyed a great
popularity among his co-religionists. He was admitted to be the leader
of the Irish Catholics of St. John, and had acquired an ascendency over
them which was not easily shaken; yet he was not, as a politician, a
great success, nor did his efforts to improve the condition of his
countrymen always lead to satisfactory results. The Hon. R. D. Wilmot
had been a prominent Conservative politician, but was defeated, and had
retired to his farm at Belmont. For some years he had been devoting his
abilities to stock-raising; but at the first note of alarm on the
confederation question he abandoned his agricultural pursuits and rushed
into the field to take part in the contest. Mr. Joseph Coram was a
leading Orangeman, and a highly respected citizen.
{A CRITICAL ELECTION}
In the county of York, the Hon. George L. Hatheway, who was then chief
commissioner of the board of works, appeared in the field as an
Opposition candidate, in company with John C. Allen, John J. Fraser and
William H. Needham. Mr. Hatheway deserted the government in its hour of
need, apparently because he judged from the cries that were raised
against confederation that the current of public opinion was strongly
adverse to the Quebec scheme. Having left Mr. Tilley in the lurch on the
eve of the confederation contest, he deserted the Smith government
sixteen months later, when the second confederation election came to be
run, thereby inflicting upon them a blow from which it was impossible
they could recover. William H. Needham, whose name has already appeared
in this volume, did not lay claim to any high political principles; but
having retired some time before to private life, he found in the
confederation struggle a good opportunity of getting into the
legislature. He was a man of very considerable ability, and had his
principles been only equal to his knowledge and talents, he might have
risen to the highest position in the province. But his course on many
occasions made the public distrustful of him, and he died without having
enjoyed any of those honours which men of far less ability have
obtained. John James Fraser, afterwards governor of New Brunswick, was a
man of a different stamp, and seems to have been a sincere opponent of
confederation from conviction. The same may be said of John C. Allen,
afterwards chief-justice of the province, a man whose sterling honesty
has never been questioned.