NATIONAL SENTIMENT
Sir John A. Macdonald was very ill during this crisis, and was unable
to take any part in public affairs, but the action of Sir George
Cartier injured the Government, and in the general election of 1872
Sir George himself was beaten by a large majority in Montreal and the
Government much weakened. The discovery of the Pacific Scandal followed
in the summer of 1873. This gave the public the information that the
Government had promised to Sir Hugh Allan and a few capitalists the
contract for building the Pacific Railway, in consideration of a large
contribution of between $300,000 and $400,000 towards the campaign
expenses of the Conservative or Government party in the late election.
After a bitter fight over it in the House of Commons, Sir John A.
Macdonald, seeing that his Government would be defeated, resigned
his position, and Mr. Alexander McKenzie and the Liberals came into
power. At the general election which took place in February, 1874, Mr.
McKenzie secured a large majority in the House of Commons.
During the stirring times in the summer of 1870, while the expedition
was on its way to Fort Garry, our committee were constantly meeting
to discuss matters and often met in my office. At one meeting it was
suggested that we should have a name for our party--the committee
had for some time been called jocularly the "Twelve Apostles."
Several names were mentioned, and someone said that Edgar had made a
suggestion. I walked across the hall into Edgar's office, and asked him
what he had suggested. He seemed to have forgotten the exact words,
but said, "Canada before all, or Canada First of all." I said, "That
will do: Canada First," and went back to my room and proposed it to the
others, and after some discussion it was unanimously decided that we
should call ourselves the "Canada First" Party, meaning that we should
put Canada first, before every other consideration.
To keep our party free from politics, and to cover our work, we decided
to have an organisation, called the North-West Emigration Aid Society,
which we could use to give out statements to the public, and to arrange
for meetings, &c., to push on our work.
In the autumn of 1870, following the lead given by Haliburton in his
lectures, I prepared a lecture on "The Duty of Canadians to Canada,"
and in 1871 I delivered it at Weston, Belleville, Orillia, Bradford,
New Market, Strathroy, Richmond Hill, London, Toronto, Brampton,
Halifax (Nova Scotia), Niagara, Wellandport, Dunnville, Chippawa, and
in 1872 at Niagara again.
This lecture was a direct appeal in favour of a Canadian National
Spirit. It began by showing that the history of the world was the
chronicle of the rise and fall of great nations and empires, of the
wars and invasions in which the lust of conquest on the part of rising
Powers, and the expiring struggles of waning empires, had been left
to the arbitrament of the sword, the nations rising and falling with
the changeability of a kaleidoscope. I pointed out that all the great
nations possessed a strong national spirit, and lost their position
and power as soon as that spirit left them, and urged all Canadians
to think first of their country--to put it before party or personal
considerations--pointing out that this sentiment, in all dominant
races, exhibited itself in the same way, in the patriotic feeling in
the individual, causing him to put the interest of the country above
all selfish considerations, and "to be willing to undergo hardships,
privations, and want, and to risk life and even to lay down life on
behalf of the State."
After showing a number of ways in which Canadians in ordinary life
could help Canada, I went on to say:
If our young men habituate themselves to thinking of the country and
its interests in everyday life, it will become in time part of their
nature, and when great trials come upon us, the individual citizens
will more readily be inclined to make the greatest sacrifices for the
State.
Haliburton, in his lecture on "The Men of the North," made use of a
paragraph which I quoted. It shows the spirit which animated the Canada
First Party:
Whenever we lower those we love into the grave, we entrust them to
the bosom of our country as sacred pledges that the soil that is thus
consecrated by their dust shall never be violated by a foreign flag or
the foot of a foe, and whenever the voice of disloyalty whispers in
our ear, or passing discontent tempts us to forget those who are to
come after us, or those who have gone before us, the leal, the true,
and the good, who cleared our forests, and made the land they loved
a heritage of plenty and peace to us and to our children, a stern
voice comes echoing on through thirty centuries; a voice from the old
sleepers of the pyramids; a voice from a mighty nation of the past
that long ages has slumbered on the banks of the Nile: "Accursed be he
who holds not the ashes of his fathers sacred, and forgets what is due
from the living to the dead."
I urged a confidence in our future as another great necessity:
We have everything in a material point of view to make Canada a great
country--unlimited territory fertile and rich, an increasing hardy
and intelligent population, immense fisheries, minerals of every
description, ships and sailors; all we further require is a moral
power, pride in our country and confidence in its future, confidence
in ourselves and in each other.
It has been sometimes said by those who knew little of the aspirations
of our party that there was a feeling in favour of independence among
us. The extract quoted from Haliburton's lecture shows how true he
was to the cause of a United Empire. I shall quote the concluding
paragraphs of my lecture, which are very definite upon the point:
It must not be supposed that the growth of a national sentiment will
have any tendency to weaken the connection between this country and
Great Britain. On the other hand, it will strengthen and confirm
the bond of union. Unfortunately England has reached that phase
when her manufacturing and commercial community have attained such
wealth and affluence, have become so wrapped up in the success of
their business, and have acquired such a pounds, shillings, and pence
basis in considering everything, that national sentiment is much
weakened, in fact sentiment of any kind is sneered at and scoffed
at as being behind the age. This school of politicians, fearing the
expense of maintaining a war to defend Canada, calculating that in a
monetary point of view we are not a source of revenue to them, speak
slightingly of us, and treat the sentiment of affection that we bear
to the Mother land with contempt.
Nothing could be more irritating to a high-spirited people. We have
the gratifying reflection, however, that the more we rise in the scale
of nations, the more will this class desire to keep us, until at
length every effort will be made to retain our affection and secure
our fealty. It is our duty therefore to push our way onwards and
upwards, to show England that soon the benefits of the connection in a
material as well as a moral point of view will be all in her favour.
I hope the day will come when the British Empire will be united into
one great power or confederation of great nations, a confederation
for the purpose of consolidating power as to foreign countries, and
on all international questions; and rest assured, if we Canadians are
only true to ourselves, the day will come when Canada will be not only
the largest, but the most populous, the most warlike, and the most
powerful of all the members of that confederation, if not the most
powerful nation in the world.
I delivered this lecture, with a few slight changes, in Halifax, Nova
Scotia, on the 29th April, 1871, and the feeling then in that Province
against Canada and the name Canadian was so strong, that I changed the
title to that of "The Duty of our Young Men to the State." Haliburton
was then living in Halifax, and he had interested the late Principal
George M. Grant, of Queen's University, in our movement. Grant was then
a young minister in charge of a Presbyterian Church in Halifax. He took
an active part in getting up the meeting, which was largely attended,
and my lecture was favourably received. That was my first meeting with
Grant, and afterwards we were often closely associated in the movement
in favour of Imperial Unity, and were warm friends as long as he lived.
I shall often have to refer to him in the following pages.
Mair had been doing good work, delivering a splendid lecture in
Belleville in 1870. Haliburton had been delivering his lectures, and I
mine; but I felt that Foster, who had done such splendid work in the
editorial columns of the _Telegraph_, should also prepare a lecture. I
kept urging him until at last he began to write one. He used to bring
two or three pages at a time down and read them to me in my office. By
this time we had got thirty or forty members together and had formed,
as I have said, the North-West Emigration Aid Society, of which Joseph
Macdougall, son of the Hon. Wm. Macdougall, was secretary. The Hon.
Wm. Macdougall was then one of our members. On one occasion, when
the Society had issued a paper for publication, Mr. Macdougall had
induced his son to put in additional matter that had not come before
the Society. This did not please Foster, who asked six members of the
Society to sign a requisition calling a general meeting to consider the
matter. It was then decided that any publications issued by the Society
were to be brought before them first for approval.
It was not many weeks after this incident that Foster brought in the
concluding pages of his lecture and read them to me. I do not believe
any of the others knew anything about it. When he had read it all to
me, I said to him, "What are you going to call it?" He said, "I think
our motto, 'Canada First.'"
I thought that a good idea, and he wrote "Canada First" at the head of
it. I then asked him where he was going to deliver it. He was a very
shy fellow and he replied, "I am not going to deliver it." I said, "Oh
yes, you must. We will call a meeting." I knew we could get up a large
public meeting, and I wanted him to agree to read it, but he positively
refused. I then said, "You can read it here before our Society, and
then we can have it published in the papers"; and I wrote on the top of
it in pencil the words "Delivered before the North-West Emigration Aid
Society by Mr. W. A. Foster," and I showed it to him and said, "That
will look very well, and I am sure Mr. Brown will publish it." Foster
hesitated, but at last said, "Will you go and show it to Mr. Brown, and
ask him, if I read it before the Society, whether he will publish it?"
I agreed to do this.
I went to see the Hon. George Brown and explained the matter
thoroughly, and told him we were to get the MS. back, and have it read
before our Society, and then it would be given to him to be published.
Whether Mr. Brown forgot, or whether he thought he had some good matter
for his paper and wished to publish it before any other paper got wind
of it or not, or whether he thought the chronological order of events
was a matter of no moment, I cannot say. The result was, however, that
the second or third morning after, Foster came into my office early, in
a great state of excitement, and told me that the lecture was published
in full in the _Globe_ that morning, and that it had copied in large
type the pencil memo, which I had written at the top, "Delivered before
the North-West Emigration Aid Society by Mr. W. A. Foster." Foster was
very much troubled about it after his action about Macdougall, but our
friends were so pleased with it that no one complained.
This lecture was soon after published in pamphlet form and had a very
wide circulation throughout Canada. It was printed in the Memorial
Volume to W. A. Foster which was published soon after his death.