THE INDEPENDENCE FLURRY
The National Club soon ceased to be a political club and the National
Association gradually disappeared from public view. I joined it about
a year after its foundation, and was President of it in the years 1883
and 1884, and during the existence of the Club it has been the centre
of the sentiment "Canada First within the Empire," which has been the
dominant sentiment of the Canadian people for the last twenty years.
Mr. Goldwin Smith in the early years of the Club inaugurated a series
of dinners among the members where fifteen or twenty of us would dine
together and then discuss some public question of interest. These
dinners were popular, and Foster and I were generally present. On one
occasion Mr. Goldwin Smith gave out as the subject for discussion the
question as to whether "Annexation or Independence would be the best
future for Canada."
Mr. Smith was in the chair at one end of the long table, at which about
twenty or perhaps more were seated, and he opened the discussion by
pointing out some arguments for and against each alternative, leaving
it for the members to discuss as to which would be the best. I was in
the vice-chair at the other end of the table, and the speaking began on
one side of Mr. Smith, and came down that side of the table one after
the other to me. I was struck with the bad effect such a discussion
would have, in encouraging Canadians to argue in favour of either
Independence or Annexation, and when it came to my turn I simply said
that I could not argue in favour of either Independence or Annexation,
that I was vehemently opposed to both, and that if ever the time came
that either should have to be seriously discussed, I would only argue
it in one way, and that was on horseback with my sword. As I then
commanded the cavalry in Toronto and had sworn to bear true allegiance
to her Majesty, it was the natural way for me to put it. I sat down the
moment I had made this statement and the discussion went on. My remarks
were received as if I had spoken jocularly, but I think many of those
present sympathised with my way of looking at it. Mr. Goldwin Smith saw
that I had punctured the scheme, and referred to my remarks in the next
issue of his _Bystander_ for October, 1880, in the following terms,
which are in his best style:
In Canada we have some curious remnants of the idea, dominant
everywhere in days gone by, and still dominant in Islam, that
intolerance on certain questions is a duty and virtue. The good
St. Louis of France used to say that he would never argue with a
heretic who doubted Papal doctrine, but give him six inches of cold
steel; and we have lately been told that among ourselves there are
questions which are to be debated only sword in hand. There are
some special factors in our political composition, such as United
Empire Loyalism, Orangeism, and the surviving sentiment of Anglican
Establishmentarianism, which may explain the phenomenon without
disparagement to our intellectual civilisation.
In a speech at a dinner of my regiment not long after, I spoke clearly
to them on the subject--and on the same lines. My views were received
with great enthusiasm.
For several years matters progressed slowly, a few young men advocating
Independence, among whom were E. E. Sheppard and Charles G. D. Roberts.
Mr. Norris and others were writing on the same line. Sheppard, who
then edited the _Evening News_ in Toronto, was the ablest of these
advocates, and carried on his campaign with great vigour and ability.
He designed a new flag and hoisted it over the _News_ office. In 1884
the Independence agitation was probably more in evidence than at any
period before or since. That year was the centennial of the arrival
of the United Empire Loyalists in Upper Canada, and it was decided to
hold a series of celebrations at Adolphustown, Toronto, and Niagara
in commemoration of the foundation of the Province. 1884 was also the
50th Anniversary of the establishment of Toronto as a city, and the
celebration of the two events was combined in meetings and festivities
which lasted several days. On Dominion Day there was a great review of
the Active Militia with regiments from various parts of the Province,
and one from Montreal. This large force paraded through the principal
streets to the Queen's Park, where they were reviewed, and then they
marched to the Exhibition Buildings, where the officers and men
were entertained at dinner. At the officers' dinner, Mayor Boswell,
Lieut.-Governor John B. Robinson, and I made the principal speeches.
The Toronto _Mail_ of the 3rd July, 1884, contained the following
article:
NUTS FOR THE INDEPENDENCE MONKEY.
We offer the Cartwright party and their organ the following nuts to
crack, taken from the report of the military banquet on Tuesday, to
which we referred in our last issue.
Mayor Boswell was next honoured. In responding, his Worship referred
to the attempt which was being made in some quarters to introduce the
question of independence or annexation into Canadian politics. He
regretted this very much, but he was certain that no member of the
Militia force would ever entertain such a proposal.
Lieut.-Colonel G. T. Denison, in proposing the toast of the visiting
corps, also referred to the same matter. He said that the Militia of
Canada would remain true to its Queen and country. Before independence
or annexation could be brought about, he said, "Many of us will
have to be placed under the sod." His remarks were received with
enthusiastic cheers, again and again renewed.
The Lieutenant-Governor, in proposing the toast of Lieut.-Colonel
Robert B. Denison, Deputy-Adjutant-General, also touched on the
absurdity of the independence or annexation question. He felt
satisfied that if it became a political issue, there would not be a
constituency in Canada that would return a man in favour of it.
The United Empire Loyalist Centennial celebration took place in the
Pavilion, Toronto, on the 3rd July--the same day that the above article
appeared. It was a very successful meeting, there being representative
loyalists from all over Ontario. "Dr. Wm. Canniff was in the chair.
The speakers were the Hon. Senator G. W. Allan, Chief Green (a Mohawk
Indian, of Tyendinaga), Lieut.-Colonel George T. Denison, and Bishop
Fuller, of Niagara."
My speech was mainly directed against the Independence movement. I
showed how Canadians had always stood by British connection, and went
on to say:
From whom comes this cry for independence? Not from the real
Canadians, but from a few hangers-on of the newspaper Press--a few
wanderers and Bohemians--men who have lived indifferently in Canada
and the States, and have never been satisfied anywhere--men without
an atom of stake in the country. And do you think that the people of
Canada are going to submit themselves to the guidance of such men?
Never. The Independence party in Canada can almost be counted on one's
fingers and toes. The movement did not amount to anything, and the
moment it did the real feeling of the country would manifest itself.
I was attacked very bitterly by the few Independence papers on account
of this speech, and the attacks continued for nearly six weeks. I was
invited to address the United Empire Loyalist Centennial celebration at
Niagara, which took place on the 14th August, 1884, and then replied
to some of the arguments used by them. On the question of national
sentiment I said:
Sometimes it is said by strangers and aliens amongst us that we
Canadians have no national sentiment, that if we were independent we
would have more of it, and it is the fashion to speak loudly of the
national spirit of the citizens of the United States. I take issue
on this point, and on behalf of our people I say that the pride of
the native Canadian in his country is quite equal to the pride of the
Yankee in his, while the willingness to defend it in case of need is
far greater in the Canadian.
The strongest national sentiment that has yet been exhibited in the
States was shown by the Southern people in their gallant struggle to
destroy the Union. The national spirit shown by the Northerners where
the bounties rose to about $1,800 a man, where patriotism consisted
in hiring a man to go and fight while the citizen took a contract to
supply the soldiers, as has been well said by their celebrated divine,
Dr. Talmage, "With rice that was worm-eaten, with biscuits that were
mouldy, with garments that were shoddy, with meat that was rank, with
horses that stumbled in the charge, and with tents that sifted the
rain into the faces of the exhausted." The patriotism shown by three
thousand Yankee Militia almost in sight of this spot in 1812, when
they refused to cross at Queenston to aid their comrades, whom our
volunteers shortly afterwards cut to pieces under their eyes, was very
different from the patriotism of the Canadians who crossed the river
and captured Detroit, or those who fought at Chrysler's Farm, or those
who drove back Hampton at Chateauguay.
Can we call to mind the Canadians who came back to Canada from every
State in the Union to aid in defending her from the Fenians without
feeling that we have in our people a strong national sentiment?
Wanderers and Bohemians, strangers and tramps may, because we are
not traitors to our Government and our country, say that we have
no national sentiment; they may not see or feel or appreciate the
patriotic feeling of the Canadians, but we Canadians know that it is
there. The Militia force is one proof of it, a finger-post to point
out to all, that we intend to be a free people on this continent,
and that, our liberties can only be taken from us after a desperate
struggle.
These wanderers and Bohemians, with the charming impudence of the
three tailors of Tooley Street, speak of themselves as the people of
Canada. It is the fashion of men of their type always to talk loudly
of the people, as if they were the people. But who are the people?
The people of this country are the farmers who own the soil, who have
cleared the fields, who till them, and who produce the food that feeds
us. The people of Canada are the workers who work in her factories,
who carry on her trade, who sail her ships and spread her commerce,
the citizens who build her cities and work in them. These are the
people of Canada, not the few agitators who serve no good purpose, and
whose absence would be a relief if they went back to the neighbouring
Republic from which many of them have drifted in to us.
The result of these demonstrations so directly appealing to the
sentiments and feelings of the loyal element, which formed the vast
majority of the people, discouraged the disloyal element, and for a
year matters were rather quiet.
In March, 1885, the whole country was aroused over the outbreak of
the North-West Rebellion, and troops from all over Canada were sent
to aid in putting down the rebellion and re-establishing the Queen's
authority. One regiment came from Nova Scotia. The result of the affair
was to consolidate the Provinces into a Dominion, in a way that was
never felt before. This put the Independence movement quite out of
sight, and during 1886, and until May, 1887, matters remained dormant.
Particulars of the causes of this outbreak and some of the details of
the operations will be found in my "Soldiering in Canada," chapters XX.
to XXV.