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The Makers of Canada
Edited by
Duncan Campbell Scott, F.R.S.C.,
Pelham Edgar, Ph.D. and
William Dawson Le Sueur, B.A., Ll.D., F.R.S.C.
GEORGE BROWN
_Edition De Luxe_
_This edition is limited to Four Hundred Signed
and Numbered Sets, of which this is_
_Number_ 88
[Signature: George N. Morang]
[Illustration: George Brown]
_The Makers of Canada_
GEORGE BROWN
by
JOHN LEWIS
_Edition De Luxe_
Toronto
Morang & Co., Limited
1906
Entered according to Act of the Parliament of Canada in the year 1906
by Morang & Co., Limited, in the Department of Agriculture
PREFACE
The title of this series, "Makers of Canada," seemed to impose on the
writer the obligation to devote special attention to the part played
by George Brown in fashioning the institutions of this country. From
this point of view the most fruitful years of his life were spent
between the time when the _Globe_ was established to advocate
responsible government, and the time when the provinces were
confederated and the bounds of Canada extended from the Atlantic to
the Pacific. The ordinary political contests in which Mr. Brown and
his newspaper engaged have received only casual notice, and the effort
of the writer has been to trace Mr. Brown's connection with the stream
of events by which the old legislative union of Canada gave place to
the confederated Dominion.
After the establishment of responsible government, the course of this
stream is not obscure. Brown is found complaining that Upper Canada is
inadequately represented and is dominated by its partner. Various
remedies, such as dissolution of the union, representation by
population and the "double majority," are proposed; but ultimately the
solution is found in federation, and to this solution, and the events
leading up to it, a large part of the book is devoted. Mr. Brown was
also an ardent advocate of the union with Canada of the country lying
west to the Rocky Mountains, and to this work reference is made.
Mr. Brown was one of those men who arouse strong friendships and
strong animosities. These have been dealt with only where they seemed
to have a bearing upon history, as in the case of Sir John A.
Macdonald and of the Roman Catholic Church. It seems to be a
profitless task for a biographer to take up and fight over again
quarrels which had no public importance and did not affect the course
of history.
The period covering Mr. Brown's career was one in which the political
game was played roughly, and in which strong feelings were aroused. To
this day it is difficult to discuss the career of the Hon. George
Brown, or of Sir John A. Macdonald, without reviving these feelings in
the breasts of political veterans and their sons; and even one who
tries to study the time and the men and to write their story, finds
himself taking sides with men who are in their graves, and fighting
for causes long since lost and won. The writer has tried to resist the
temptation of building up the fame of Brown by detracting from that of
other men, but he has also thought it right in many cases to present
Brown's point of view, not necessarily as the whole truth, but as one
of the aspects of truth.
In dealing with the question of confederation, my endeavour has been
simply to tell the story of Brown's work and let it speak for itself,
not to measure the exact proportion of credit due to Brown and to
others. It is hard to believe, however, that the verdict of history
will assign to him a place other than first among the public men of
Canada who contributed to the work of confederation. Events, as D'Arcy
McGee said, were probably more powerful than any of them.
If any apology is needed for the space devoted to the subject of
slavery in the United States, it may be found not only in Brown's
life-long opposition to slavery, but in the fact that the Civil War
influenced the relations between the United States and Canada, and
indirectly promoted the confederation of the Canadian provinces, and
also in the fact, so frequently emphasized by Mr. Brown, that the
growth of the institution of slavery on this continent was a danger to
which Canada could not be indifferent.
Among the works that have been found useful for reference are John
Charles Dent's _Last Forty Years_ (Canada since the union of 1841);
_Gray on Confederation_; Cote's _Political Appointments and Elections
in the Province of Canada_; Dr. Hodgins' _Legislation and History of
Separate Schools in Upper Canada_; the lives of _Lord Elgin_, _Dr.
Ryerson_ and _Joseph Howe_ in "The Makers of Canada" series; the Hon.
Alexander Mackenzie's _Life and Speeches of the Hon. George Brown_;
the Hon. James Young's _Public Men and Public Life in Canada_. Mr.
Mackenzie's book contains a valuable collection of letters, to which
frequent reference is made in the chapters of this book dealing with
confederation. The account of the relations of the Peel government
with Governor Sir Charles Bagot is taken from the _Life of Sir Robert
Peel_, from his correspondence, edited by C. S. Parker. The files of
the _Banner_ and the _Globe_ have been read with some care; they were
found to contain an embarrassing wealth of most interesting historical
material.
To Dr. James Bain, Librarian of the Toronto Free Library, and to Mr.
Avern Pardoe, of the Library of the Legislative Assembly, I am deeply
indebted for courtesy and assistance.
JOHN LEWIS.
CONTENTS
_CHAPTER I_ Page
FROM SCOTLAND TO CANADA 1
_CHAPTER II_
METCALFE AND HIS REFORMERS 11
_CHAPTER III_
RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT 31
_CHAPTER IV_
DISSENSION AMONG REFORMERS 39
_CHAPTER V_
THE CLERGY RESERVES 51
_CHAPTER VI_
BROWN'S FIRST PARLIAMENT 61
_CHAPTER VII_
RISE OF BROWN'S INFLUENCE 69
_CHAPTER VIII_
RECONSTRUCTION OF PARTIES 77
_CHAPTER IX_
SOME PERSONAL POLITICS 87
_CHAPTER X_
THE "DOUBLE SHUFFLE" 99
_CHAPTER XI_
AGAINST AMERICAN SLAVERY 111
_CHAPTER XII_
BROWN AND THE ROMAN CATHOLICS 121
_CHAPTER XIII_
MOVING TOWARDS CONFEDERATION 129
_CHAPTER XIV_
LAST YEARS OF THE UNION 141
_CHAPTER XV_
CONFEDERATION 147
_CHAPTER XVI_
THE QUEBEC CONFERENCE 163
_CHAPTER XVII_
THE CONFEDERATION DEBATE 169
_CHAPTER XVIII_
THE MISSION TO ENGLAND 181
_CHAPTER XIX_
BROWN LEAVES THE COALITION 189
_CHAPTER XX_
CONFEDERATION AND THE PARTIES 199
_CHAPTER XXI_
CANADA AND THE GREAT WEST 211
_CHAPTER XXII_
THE RECIPROCITY TREATY OF 1874 223
_CHAPTER XXIII_
CANADIAN NATIONALISM 235
_CHAPTER XXIV_
LATER YEARS 243
_CHAPTER XXV_
CONCLUSION 255
INDEX 269
CHAPTER I
FROM SCOTLAND TO CANADA
George Brown was born at Alloa, a seaport on the tidal Forth,
thirty-five miles inward from Edinburgh, on November 29th, 1818. His
mother was a daughter of George Mackenzie, of Stornoway, in the Island
of Lewis. His father, Peter Brown, was a merchant and builder. George
was educated at the High School and Southern Academy in Edinburgh.
"This young man," said Dr. Gunn, of the Southern Academy, "is not only
endowed with high enthusiasm, but possesses the faculty of creating
enthusiasm in others." At the risk of attaching too much significance
to praise bestowed on a school-boy, it may be said that these words
struck the keynote of Brown's character and revealed the source of his
power. The atmosphere of the household was Liberal; father and son
alike hated the institution of slavery, with which they were destined
to become more closely acquainted. "When I was a very young man," said
George Brown, denouncing the Fugitive Slave Law before a Toronto
audience, "I used to think that if I ever had to speak before such an
audience as this, I would choose African Slavery as my theme in
preference to any other topic. The subject seemed to afford the
widest scope for rhetoric and for fervid appeals to the best of human
sympathies. These thoughts arose far from here, while slavery was a
thing at a distance, while the horrors of the system were unrealized,
while the mind received it as a tale and discussed it as a principle.
But, when you have mingled with the thing itself, when you have
encountered the atrocities of the system, when you have seen three
millions of human beings held as chattels by their Christian
countrymen, when you have seen the free institutions, the free press
and the free pulpit of America linked in the unrighteous task of
upholding the traffic, when you have realized the manacle, and the
lash, and the sleuth-hound, you think no more of rhetoric, the mind
stands appalled at the monstrous iniquity, mere words lose their
meaning, and facts, cold facts, are felt to be the only fit
arguments."
Again, as George grew to manhood, the struggle which ended in the
disruption of the Church of Scotland was approaching its climax, and
the sympathies of the Brown household were with those who declared
that it "is the fundamental law of this Church that no pastor shall be
intruded on any congregation contrary to the will of the people."
In 1838 reverses in business led the father and son to seek their
fortunes in America. Arriving in New York, Peter Brown turned to
journalism, finding employment as a contributor to the _Albion_, a
weekly newspaper published for British residents of the United
States. The Browns formed an unfavourable opinion of American
institutions as represented by New York in that day. To them the
republic presented itself as a slave-holding power, seeking to extend
its territory in order to enlarge the area of slavery, and hostile to
Great Britain as a citadel of freedom. They always regarded the
slave-holding element in the United States as that which kept up the
tradition of enmity to England. An American book entitled, _The Glory
and Shame of England_, aroused Peter Brown's indignation, and he
published a reply in a little volume bearing the name of _The Fame and
Glory of England Vindicated_. Here he paid tribute to British freedom,
contrasted it with the domination of the slave holders, and instanced
the fact that in Connecticut a woman had been mobbed and imprisoned
for teaching coloured girls to read. Further light is thrown upon the
American experience of the Browns by an article in the _Banner_, their
first Canadian venture in journalism. The writer is answering an
accusation of disloyalty and Yankee sympathies, a stock charge against
Reformers in that day. He said: "We have stood in the very heart of a
republic, and fearlessly issued our weekly sheet, expressing our
fervent admiration of the limited monarchy of Great Britain, though
surrounded by Democratic Whigs, Democratic Republicans, Irish
Repealers, slave-holders, and every class which breathes the most
inveterate hostility to British institutions. And we are not to be
turned from maintaining the genuine principles of the constitution
because some of our contemporaries are taken with a fit of sycophancy,
and would sacrifice all at the shrine of power."
In December, 1842, the Browns established in New York the _British
Chronicle_, a paper similar to the _Albion_, but apparently designed
more especially for Scottish and Presbyterian readers in the United
States and Canada. In an effort to promote Canadian circulation,
George Brown came to Canada early in 1843. The _Chronicle_ had taken
strong ground on the popular side of the movement then agitating the
Church of Scotland; and this struggle was watched with peculiar
interest in Canada, where the relations between Church and State were
burning questions. Young Brown also met the members of a Reform
administration then holding power under Governor Metcalfe, and the
ministers became impressed with the idea that he would be a powerful
ally in the struggle then impending.
There is on record an interesting pen picture of George Brown as he
appeared at this time. The writer is Samuel Thompson, editor of the
_Colonist_. "It was, I think, somewhere about the month of May, 1843,
that there walked into my office on Nelson Street a young man of
twenty-five years, tall, broad-shouldered, somewhat lantern-jawed and
emphatically Scottish, who introduced himself to me as the travelling
agent of the New York _British Chronicle_, published by his father.
This was George Brown, afterwards editor and publisher of the _Globe_
newspaper. He was a very pleasant-mannered, courteous, gentlemanly
young fellow, and impressed me favourably. His father, he said, found
the political atmosphere of New York hostile to everything British,
and that it was as much as a man's life was worth to give expression
to any British predilections whatsoever (which I knew to be true).
They had, therefore, thought of transferring their publication to
Toronto, and intended to continue it as a thoroughly Conservative
journal. I, of course, welcomed him as a co-worker in the same cause
with ourselves, little expecting how his ideas of Conservatism were to
develop themselves in subsequent years." His Conservatism--assuming
that the young man was not misunderstood--was perhaps the result of a
reaction from the experience of New York, in which democracy had
presented itself in an unlovely aspect. Contact with Toronto Toryism
of that day would naturally stiffen the Liberalism of a combative man.
As a result of George Brown's survey of the Canadian field, the
publication of the _British Chronicle_ in New York ceased, and the
Browns removed to Toronto, where they established the _Banner_, a
weekly paper partly Presbyterian and partly political, and in both
fields championing the cause of government by the people. The first
number was issued on August 18th, 1843. Referring to the disruption
of the "Scottish Church" that had occurred three months before, the
_Banner_ said: "If we look to Scotland we shall find an event
unparalleled in the history of the world. Nearly five hundred
ministers, backed by several thousand elders and perhaps a million of
people, have left the Church of their fathers because the civil courts
have trampled on what they deem the rights of the Christian people in
Scotland, exhibiting a lesson to the world which must produce results
that cannot yet be measured. The sacrifice made by these devoted
ministers of the Gospel is great; their reward is sure."
The columns of the _Banner_ illustrate in a striking way the
intermingling, common in that day, of religion and politics. The
_Banner's_ chief antagonist was the _Church_, a paper equally devoted
to episcopacy and monarchy. Here is a specimen bit of controversy. The
_Church_, arguing against responsible government, declares that as God
is the only ruler of princes, princes cannot be accountable to the
people; and perdition is the lot of all rebels, agitators of sedition,
demagogues, who work under the pretence of reforming the State. All
the troubles of the country are due to parliaments constantly
demanding more power and thereby endangering the supremacy of the
mother country. The _Banner_ is astonished by the unblushing avowal of
these doctrines, which had not been so openly proclaimed since the
days of "High Church and Sacheverell," and which if acted upon would
reduce the people to the level of abject slaves. Whence, it asks,
comes this doctrine of the irresponsibility of kings? "It has been dug
up from the tombs of Roman Catholic and High Church priests and of
Jacobite bigots. Wherever it gets a footing it carries bloodshed and
persecution in its train. It cramps the freedom of thought. It
represses commercial enterprise and industry. It dries up the springs
of the human understanding. To what does Britain owe all her greatness
but to that free range of intellectual exertion which prompted Watt
and Arkwright in their wonderful discoveries, which carried Anson and
Cook round the globe, and which enabled Newton to scale the heavens?
Is the dial to be put back? Must the world once more adopt the
doctrine that the people are made for kings and not kings for the
people? Where will this treason to the British Constitution find the
slightest warrant in the Word of God? We know that power alone
proceeds from God, the very air we breathe is the gift of His bounty,
and whatever public right is exercised from the most obscure elective
franchise to the king upon his throne is derived from Him to
whom we must account for the exercise of it. But does that
accountability take away or lessen the political obligations of
the social compact?--assuredly not."
This style of controversy was typical of the time. Tories drew from
the French Revolution warnings against the heedless march of
democracy. Reformers based arguments on the "glorious revolution of
1688." A bill for the secularization of King's College was denounced
by Bishop Strachan, the stalwart leader of the Anglicans, in language
of extraordinary vehemence. The bill would hold up the Christian
religion to the contempt of wicked men, and overturn the social order
by unsettling property. Placing all forms of error on an equality with
truth, the bill represented a principle "atheistical and monstrous,
destructive of all that was pure and holy in morals and religion." To
find parallels for this madness, the bishop referred to the French
Revolution, when the Christian faith was abjured, and the Goddess of
Reason set up for worship; to pagan Rome, which, to please the natives
she had conquered, "condescended to associate their impure idolatries
with her own."
These writings are quoted not merely as illustrations of extravagance
of language. The language was the natural outcome of an extraordinary
situation. The bishop was not a voice crying in the wilderness; he was
a power in politics as well as in the Church, and had, as executive
councillor, taken an important part in the government of the country.
He was not making extravagant pretensions, but defending a position
actually held by his Church, a position which fell little short of
absolute domination. Religious equality was to be established, a great
endowment of land converted from sectarian to public purposes, and a
non-sectarian system of education created. In this work Brown played a
leading part, but before it could be undertaken it was necessary to
vindicate the right of the people to self-government.
In November, 1843, the resignation of Metcalfe's ministers created a
crisis which soon absorbed the energy of the Browns and eventually led
to the establishment of the _Globe_. In the issue of December 8th,
1843, the principles of responsible government are explained, and the
_Banner_ gives its support to the ministers. It cannot see why less
confidence should be bestowed by a governor-general in Canada than by
a sovereign in the British empire. It deplores the rupture and
declares that it still belongs to no political party. It has no liking
for "Democracy," a word which even Liberals at that time seemed to
regard with horror. It asks Presbyterians to stand fast for the
enjoyment of civil and religious liberty. It exhorts the people of
Canada to be firm and patient and to let no feeling of disappointment
lead their minds to republicanism. Those who would restrict the
liberties of Canada also dwell on the evils of republicanism, but they
are the very people who would bring it to pass. The _Banner's_ ideal
is a system of just and equal government. If this is pursued, a vast
nation will grow up speaking the same language, having the same laws
and customs, and bound to the mother country by the strongest bonds of
affection. The _Banner_, which had at first described itself as
independent in party politics, soon found itself drawn into a struggle
which was too fierce and too momentous to allow men of strong
convictions to remain neutral. We find politics occupying more and
more attention in its columns, and finally on March 5th, 1844, the
_Globe_ is established as the avowed ally of Baldwin and Lafontaine,
and the advocate of responsible government. It will be necessary to
explain now the nature of the difference between Metcalfe and his
ministers.