Produced by Al Haines
[Frontispiece: SIR WILFRID LAURIER 'IN ACTION' After an instantaneous
photograph taken during an address in the open air at Sorel, 1911]
THE DAY OF
SIR WILFRID LAURIER
A Chronicle of Our Own Times
BY
OSCAR D. SKELTON
TORONTO
GLASGOW, BROOK & COMPANY
1916
_Copyright in all Countries subscribing to
the Berne Convention_
{vii}
PREFATORY NOTE
In conformity with its title, this volume, save for the earlier
chapters, is history rather than biography, is of the _day_, more than
of the man. The aim has been to review the more significant events and
tendencies in the recent political life of Canada. In a later and
larger work it is hoped to present a more personal and intimate
biography of Sir Wilfrid Laurier.
O. D. SKELTON.
KINGSTON, 1915.
{ix}
CONTENTS
Page
PREFATORY NOTE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
I. THE MAKING OF A CANADIAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
II. POLITICS IN THE SIXTIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
III. FIRST YEARS IN PARLIAMENT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
IV. IN OPPOSITION, 1878-1887 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
V. LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION, 1887-1896 . . . . . . . . . . 91
VI. LOOKING TO WASHINGTON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
VII. AN EMPIRE IN TRANSITION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
VIII. THE END OF A REGIME . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
IX. NEW MEN AT THE HELM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
X. CANADA'S NEW PLACE IN THE WORLD . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
XI. THE COMING OF PROSPERITY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
XII. CANADA AND FOREIGN POWERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
XIII. NATION AND EMPIRE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
XIV. FIFTY YEARS OF UNION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331
INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333
{xi}
ILLUSTRATIONS
SIR WILFRID LAURIER IN ACTION . . . . . . . . . . . _Frontispiece_
After an instantaneous photograph taken during
an address in the open air at Sorel, 1911.
SIR ANTOINE AIME DORION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . _Facing page_ 12
From a photograph.
PRIME MINISTERS OF CANADA, 1867-1915 . . . . . . . . " 36
From photographs.
GOVERNORS-GENERAL OF THE DOMINION . . . . . . . . . " 48
From photographs by Topley.
VICE-REGAL CONSORTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . " 64
From photographs by Topley.
HONORE MERCIER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . " 90
From a photograph.
SIR WILFRID LAURIER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . " 128
From a photograph by Topley.
THE LIBERAL GOVERNMENT FORMED BY MR LAURIER IN 1896 " 168-9
From photographs.
SIR ROBERT BORDEN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . " 194
From a photograph by Montminy, Quebec.
SIR WILFRID LAURIER IN ENGLAND, 1911 . . . . . . . . " 294
From a photograph.
{1}
CHAPTER I
THE MAKING OF A CANADIAN
Early days at St Lin--Seven years of college--Student at
law--Arthabaska days
Wilfrid Laurier was born at St Lin, Quebec, on November 20, 1841. His
ancestral roots were sunk deep in Canadian soil. For six generations
Quebec had been the home of Laurier after Laurier. His kinsmen traced
their origin to Anjou, a province that ever bred shrewd and thrifty
men. The family name was originally Cottineau. In a marriage covenant
entered into at Montreal in 1666 the first representative of the family
in Canada is styled 'Francois Cottineau dit Champlauriet.' Evidently
some ancestral field or garden of lauriers or oleanders gave the
descriptive title which in time, as was common, became the sole family
name. The Lauriers came to Canada shortly after Louis XIV took the
colony under his royal wing in 1663, in the first era of real
settlement, and hewed out homes for themselves in the forest, first on
the island of Jesus, at the mouth of the {2} Ottawa, and later in the
parish of Lachenaie, on the north bank of the same river, where they
grew in numbers until Lauriers, with Rochons and Matthieus, made up
nearly all the parish.
Charles Laurier, grandfather of Wilfrid Laurier, was a man of strong
character and marked ability. In face of many difficulties he mastered
mathematics and became a self-taught land surveyor, so that he was able
to make the surveys of the great Pangman seigneury at Lachenaie. Early
in the nineteenth century he settled his son Carolus on a farm just
hewn out of the forest, near the little village of St Lin, a frontier
settlement nestling at the foot of the Laurentian hills north of
Montreal. He himself continued to reside at Lachenaie until far on in
years, when he went to live with his son at St Lin.
Carolus Laurier followed in his father's footsteps, surveying and
farming by turns as opportunity offered. He had not his father's
rugged individuality, but his handsome figure, his alert wit, and his
amiable and generous nature made him a welcome guest through all the
French and Scottish settlements in the north country. That he had
something of his father's progressiveness {3} is shown by the fact that
he was the first farmer in the neighbourhood to set up a threshing
machine in his barn, to take the place of the old-time flail. It was
his liberal views that gave the first bent to his son's sympathies; and
he was, as we shall see, progressive enough to give the brilliant lad
the education needed for professional success, and far-seeing and
broad-minded enough to realize how great an asset a thorough knowledge
of English speech and English ways would be.
Yet it was rather to his mother that Wilfrid Laurier, like so many
other notable men, owed his abilities and his temperament. Marcelle
Martineau, kin to the mother of the poet Frechette, was a woman of much
strength of character, of fine mind and artistic talents. She lived
only five years after her son was born, but in those few years she had
so knit herself into his being that the warm and tender memory of her
never faded from his impressionable mind. The only other child of this
marriage, a daughter, Malvina, died in infancy. Carolus Laurier
married again, his second wife being Adeline Ethier. She was much
attached to his children and they to her. Of this second marriage
three sons were born: {4} Ubalde, who became a physician and died at
Arthabaska in 1898; Charlemagne, a merchant in St Lin and later member
for the county at Ottawa, who lived until 1907; and Henri, the
prothonotary at Arthabaska, who passed away in 1906. Carolus Laurier
himself lived on in his little village home forty years after the birth
of his eldest son, and his wife lived nearly twenty years longer.
It was a quiet, strength-shaping country home in which the future
statesman's boyhood was cast. The little village was off the beaten
track of travel; not yet had the railway joined it to the river front.
There were few distractions to excite or dissipate youthful energies.
Roaming amid the brooding silence of the hills, fishing for trout,
hunting partridges and rabbits, and joining in the simple village
games, the boy took his boyish pleasures and built for his manhood's
calm and power. His home had an intellectual atmosphere quite out of
the ordinary, and it enjoyed a full measure of that grace or native
courtesy which is not least among Quebec's contributions to the common
Canadian stock.
He had his first schooling in the elementary parish school of St Lin,
where the boys learned their _A-B-C_, their _two-times-two_, and their
{5} catechism. Then his father determined to give him a broader
outlook by enabling him to see something of the way of life and to
learn the tongue of his English-speaking compatriots. Some eight miles
west of St Lin on the Achigan river lay the village of New Glasgow. It
had been settled about 1820 by Scottish Protestants belonging to
various British regiments. Carolus Laurier had carried on surveys
there, knew the people well, and was thoroughly at home with them. The
affinity so often noted between Scottish and French has doubtless more
than a mere historical basis. At any rate, son, like father, soon
found a place in the intimate life of the Murrays, the Guthries, the
Macleans, the Bennetts and other families of the settlement. His
experience was further varied by boarding for a time in the home of an
Irish Catholic family named Kirk. Later, he lived with the Murrays,
and often helped behind the counter in John Murray's general store.
The school which he attended for two years, 1852-53 and 1853-54, was a
mixed school, for both boys and girls, taught by a rapidly shifting
succession of schoolmasters, often of very unconventional training. In
the first session the school came to an abrupt close in April, {6}
owing to the sudden departure of Thompson, the teacher in charge. A
man of much greater ability, Sandy Maclean, took his place the
following term. He had read widely, and was almost as fond of poetry
as of his glass. His young French pupil, who was picking up English in
the playground and in the home as well as in the school, long cherished
the memory of the man who first opened to him a vista of the great
treasures of English letters.
The experience, though brief, had a lasting effect. Perhaps the
English speech became rusty in the years of college life that followed
at L'Assomption, but the understanding, and the tolerance and goodwill
which understanding brings, were destined to abide for life. It was
not without reason that the ruling motive of the young schoolboy's
future career was to be the awakening of sympathy and harmony between
the two races. It would be fortunate for Canada if more experiments
like that which Carolus Laurier tried were even to-day to be attempted,
not only by French but by English families.
In September 1854, when well on in his thirteenth year, Wilfrid Laurier
returned to the normal path prescribed for the keener boys of the
province. He entered the college {7} or secondary school of
L'Assomption, maintained by secular priests, and the chief seat of
education in the country north of Montreal. The course was a thorough
one, extending through seven closely filled years. It followed the
customary classical lines, laying chief stress on Latin, and next on
French literature. Greek was taught less thoroughly; a still briefer
study of English, mathematics, scholastic philosophy, history, and
geography completed the course. Judged by its fruits, it was a
training admirably adapted, in the hands of good teachers such as the
fathers at L'Assomption were, to give men destined for the learned
professions a good grounding, to impart to them a glimpse of culture, a
sympathy with the world beyond, a bent to eloquence and literary style.
It was perhaps not so well adapted to train men for success in
business; perhaps this literary and classical training is largely
responsible for the fact that until of late the French-speaking youth
of Quebec have not taken the place in commercial and industrial life
that their numbers and ability warrant.
The life at L'Assomption was one of strict discipline. The boys rose
at 5.30, and every hour until evening had its task, or was assigned {8}
for mealtime or playtime. Once a week, on Wednesday afternoon, came a
glorious half-day excursion to the country. There was ample provision
for play. But the young student from St Lin was little able to take
part in rough and ready sports. His health was extremely delicate, and
violent exertion was forbidden. His recreations took other forms. The
work of the course of study itself appealed to him, particularly the
glories of the literatures of Rome and France and England. While
somewhat reserved and retiring, he took delight in vying with his
companions in debate and in forming a circle of chosen spirits to
discuss, with all the courage and fervour of youth, the questions of
their little world, or the echoes that reached them of the political
tempests without. Occasionally the outer world came to the little
village. Assize courts were held twice a year, and more rarely
_assemblees contradictoires_ were held in which fiery politicians
roundly denounced each other. The appeal was strong to the boys of
keener mind and political yearnings; and well disciplined as he usually
was, young Laurier more than once broke bounds to hear the eloquence of
advocate or candidate, well content to bear the punishment that
followed. {9} Though reserved, he was not in the least afraid to
express strong convictions and to defend them when challenged. He
entered L'Assomption with the bias towards Liberalism which his
father's inclinations and his own training and reading had developed.
A youth of less sturdy temper would, however, soon have lost this bias.
The atmosphere of L'Assomption was intensely conservative, and both
priests and fellow-pupils were inclined to give short shrift to the
dangerous radicalism of the brilliant young student from St Lin. A
debating society had been formed, largely at his insistence. One of
the subjects debated was the audacious theme, 'Resolved, that in the
interests of Canada the French Kings should have permitted Huguenots to
settle here.' Wilfrid Laurier took the affirmative and urged his
points strongly, but the scandalized _prefet d'etudes_ intervened, and
there was no more debating at L'Assomption. The boy stuck to his
Liberal guns, and soon triumphed over prejudices, becoming easily the
most popular as he was the most distinguished student of his day, and
the recognized orator and writer of addresses for state occasions.
Of the twenty-six students who entered L'Assomption in his year, only
nine graduated. {10} Of these, five entered the priesthood.
Sympathetic as Wilfrid Laurier was in many ways with the Church of his
fathers, he did not feel called to its professional service. He had
long since made up his mind as to his future career, and in 1861, when
scarcely twenty, he went to Montreal to study law.
By this time the paternal purse was lean, for the demands of a growing
family and his own generous disposition helped to reduce the surveyor's
means, which never had been too abundant. The young student, thrown on
his own resources, secured a post in the law office of Laflamme and
Laflamme which enabled him to undertake the law course in M'Gill
University. Rodolphe Laflamme, the head of the firm, one of the
leaders of the bar in Montreal, was active in the interests of the
radical wing of the Liberal party, known as the _Rouges_.
The lectures in M'Gill were given in English. Thanks to his experience
at New Glasgow and his later reading, the young student found little
difficulty in following them. Harder to understand at first were the
Latin phrases in Mr, afterwards Judge, Torrance's lectures on Roman
law, for at that time the absurd English pronunciation of Latin was
{11} the universal rule among English-speaking scholars. Most helpful
were the lectures of Carter in criminal law, admirably prepared and
well delivered. J. J. C. Abbott, a sound and eminent practitioner, and
a future prime minister of Canada, taught commercial law. Laflamme had
charge of civil law. Young Laurier made the most of the opportunities
offered. While carrying on the routine work of the office, joining in
the political and social activities of his circle, and reading widely
in both French and English, he succeeded admirably in his law studies.
H. L. Desaulniers, a brilliant student whose career came to an untimely
close, and H. Welsh, shared with him the honours of the class. In
other classes at the same time were Melbourne Tait, C. P. Davidson, and
J. J. Curran, all destined to high judicial rank. The young student's
success was crowned by his being chosen to give the valedictory. His
address, while having somewhat of the flowery rhetoric of youth, was a
remarkably broad and sane statement of policy: the need of racial
harmony, the true meaning of liberty, the call for straightforward
justice, and the lawyer's part in all these objects, were discussed
with prophetic eloquence.
{12}
But even the most eloquent of valedictories is not a very marketable
commodity. It was necessary to get rapidly to work to earn a living.
Full of high hopes, he joined with two of his classmates in October
1864 to organize the firm of Laurier, Archambault and Desaulniers. The
partners hung out their shingle in Montreal. But clients were slow in
coming, for the city was honeycombed with established offices. The
young partners found difficulty in tiding over the waiting time, and so
in the following April the firm was dissolved and Wilfrid Laurier
became a partner of Mederic Lanctot, one of the most brilliant and
impetuous writers and speakers of a time when brilliancy and passion
seem to have been scattered with lavish hand, a man of amazing energy
and resource, but fated by his unbalanced judgment utterly to wreck his
own career. Lanctot was too busy at this time with the political
campaign he was carrying on in the press and on the platform against
Cartier's Confederation policy to look after his clients, and the
office work fell mainly to his junior partner. It was a curiously
assorted partnership: Lanctot with his headlong and reckless passion,
Laurier with his cool, discriminating moderation: but it lasted a year.
{13} During this time Mr Laurier was in but not of the group of eager
spirits who made Lanctot's office their headquarters. His moderate
temperament and his ill-health kept him from joining in the revels of
some and the political dissipations of others. 'I seem to see Laurier
as he was at that time,' wrote his close friend, L. O. David, 'ill,
sad, his air grave, indifferent to all the turmoil raised around him;
he passed through the midst of it like a shadow and seemed to say to
us, "Brother, we all must die."'[1]
[Illustration: SIR ANTOINE AIME DORION From a photograph]
In fact, Mr Laurier's health was the source of very serious concern.
Lung trouble had developed, with violent hemorrhages, threatening a
speedy end to his career unless a change came. Just at this time the
chief of his party and his most respected friend, Antoine Dorion,
suggested that he should go to the new settlement of Arthabaskaville in
the Eastern Townships, to practise law and to edit _Le Defricheur_,
hitherto published at L'Avenir and controlled by Dorion's younger
brother Eric, who had recently died. Largely in the hope that the
country life would restore his health, he agreed, and late in 1866 left
Montreal for the backwoods village.
{14}
The founder of _Le Defricheur_, Eric Dorion, nicknamed _L'Enfant
Terrible_ for his energy and fearlessness, was not the least able or
least attractive member of a remarkable family. He had been one of the
original members of the _Rouge_ party and, as editor of _L'Avenir_, a
vehement exponent of the principles of that party, but had later
sobered down, determined to devote himself to constructive work. He
had taken an active part in a colonization campaign and had both
preached and practised improved farming methods. He had founded the
village of L'Avenir in Durham township, had built a church for the
settlers there to show that his quarrel was with ecclesiastical
pretensions, not with religion, and for a dozen years had proved a
sound and stimulating influence in the growing settlement.
When Mr Laurier decided to open his law office in Arthabaskaville, the
seat of the newly formed judicial district of Arthabaska, he moved _Le
Defricheur_ to the same village. Lack of capital and poor health
hampered his newspaper activities, and, as will be seen later, the
journal incurred the displeasure of the religious authorities of the
district. Its light lasted barely six months and then flickered {15}
out. This left the young lawyer free to devote himself to his
practice, which grew rapidly from the beginning, for the district was
fast filling up with settlers. The court went on circuit to Danville
and Drummondville and Inverness, and soon, both at home and in these
neighbouring towns, no lawyer was more popular or more successful. The
neighbouring counties contained many Scottish, Irish, and English
settlers, who were soon enrolled in the ranks of the young advocate's
staunch supporters. The tilting in the court, the preparation of
briefs, the endeavour to straighten out tangles in the affairs of
helpless clients, all the interests of a lawyer deeply absorbed in his
profession, made these early years among the happiest of his career.
Arthabaska was, even then, no mean centre of intellectual and artistic
life, and a close and congenial circle of friends more than made up for
the lost attractions of the metropolis.
But neither work nor social intercourse filled all the young lawyer's
nights and days. It was in this period that he laid the foundation of
his wide knowledge of the history and the literature of Canada and of
the two countries from which Canada has sprung. Bossuet and Moliere,
Hugo and Racine, Burke {16} and Sheridan, Macaulay and Bright,
Shakespeare and Burns, all were equally devoured. Perhaps because of
his grandfather's association with the Pangman seigneury (the property
of the fur trader Peter Pangman), his interest was early turned to the
great fur trade of Canada, and he delved deep into its records. The
life and words of Lincoln provided another study of perpetual interest.
Though Montreal was intensely Southern in sympathy during the Civil
War, Mr Laurier, from his days as a student, had been strongly
attracted by the rugged personality of the Union leader, and had
pierced below caricature and calumny to the tender strength, the
magnanimous patience, of the man. A large niche in his growing library
was therefore devoted to memoirs of Lincoln and his period.
Congenial work, loyal friends, the company of the great spirits of the
past--these were much, but not all. The crowning happiness came with
his marriage, May 13, 1868, to Miss Zoe Lafontaine of Montreal. To
both, the marriage brought ideal companionship and fulfilment. To the
husband especially it brought a watchfulness that at last conquered the
illness that had threatened, a devotion which never flagged--for Lady
Laurier is still {17} to-day much more a 'Laurierite' than is Sir
Wilfrid--and a stimulus that never permitted contentment with second
best.
The years of preparation were nearly over. The call to wider service
was soon to come. The new Dominion, and not least Quebec, faced many
difficult political problems. Aiding in their solution, the young
lawyer in the quiet village of Arthabaska was to find full scope for
all the strength of brain and all the poise and balance of temper which
the years had brought him.
[1] _Mes Contemporains_, p. 85.
{18}