COMMERCIAL UNION
The Canadian Pacific Railway was completed at the end of 1885, and it
began to prove a competitor with the railways in the United States for
the through traffic across the continent. This competition affected the
great financial interests of New York, for the United States railroads
were subject to regulations as to the long and the short haul, while
the Canadian Pacific Railway was free from them, and thereby had a
very great advantage in the struggle for business. This direct present
pecuniary interest, added to the belief that Canada was likely to prove
a much greater factor on this continent than had ever been anticipated
by the people of the United States, was the cause of the inception of
the Commercial Union Movement, which attracted so much attention at the
time, and has had such far-reaching influence on the affairs of the
British Empire ever since.
The originator of this movement, Erastus Wiman of New York, was born
at Churchville, near Toronto, and was educated and lived in Toronto
for a number of years in his early life. He was connected with the
Press and for a time kept a small book shop on King Street. He served
a year in the Toronto City Council. He became Toronto manager of R.
G. Dun and Company's Commercial Agency in 1860, and afterwards went
to New York and became manager of it there, and a member of the firm.
He was also president of the Great North Western Telegraph Company,
which controlled almost all the telegraph lines in Canada. He had not
taken the oath of allegiance to the United States, and he was suited in
every way to lead the insidious scheme which was started under the name
of Commercial Union, but was intended to bring about peacefully the
annexation of Canada to the United States.
The movement was planned and launched with remarkable skill. Mr. Wiman,
who was posing as a true-hearted Canadian, was, I believe, working
for great financial interests in the States, headed by Jay Gould. Of
course, of this there is no proof, but only the deduction that can be
drawn from a close study of all the information that can be had. The
first step was to establish the Canadian Club of New York, to be a
home for welcoming Canadians visiting that city. The next was still
more ingenious. A number of the most prominent Canadians, principally
literary men, orators, &c., were invited to New York as guests of the
Club, to address the members. These visitors were treated with the
warmest hospitality, and no indication given that Mr. Wiman had any
ulterior motives. About the same time, in 1886, Mr. Wiman gave some
public baths to the citizens of Toronto, at a cost of about $6,000, as
a proof of his warm feeling towards the city in which his early life
had been spent.
After all this preparation he came to Canada in the spring of 1887, and
aided by Goldwin Smith, Valancy Fuller, Henry W. Darling, President
of the Toronto Board of Trade, and a few others, he proposed in the
interests of Canada a scheme of Commercial Union between Canada and
the United States which he claimed would be a great boon and lasting
advantage to Canada. During the whole summer of 1887 an active campaign
was being conducted, meetings were held in many places, and addressed
by Mr. Goldwin Smith, Mr. Wiman, Congressman Butterworth, of Ohio, and
others. The members of the Canadian Parliament were furnished with
circulars, articles, and reports of speeches in profusion. Mr. Wiman,
as a member of the firm of Dun, Wiman and Company, had an influence
over the business men of Canada that could hardly be overestimated.
It would have been a serious thing for any ordinary business man in
any city, town, or village in Canada, if dependent upon his credit for
the profitable conduct of his business, to incur the hostility of the
mercantile agency, on whose reports his credit would largely depend.
The result was that at first the plausible speeches of its advocates,
and the friendly assistance of some newspapers, caused the movement
to acquire a considerable amount of success. It was not thoroughly
understood. It had been inaugurated as in the direct interest of
Canada by a friendly and successful Canadian, and was being discussed
in a friendly way, and many good men at first supported the idea,
not suspecting any evil, and not fearing that it might result in
annexation. I was away on a visit to England from the 19th May until
the 21st August, 1887, and heard very little of what was going on, and
not enough to understand the details or real facts of the scheme. After
my return to Canada I asked my brother, the late Lt.-Colonel Fred C.
Denison, then a member of the House of Commons for West Toronto, what
it all meant. He was not at all favourably impressed. He had been
supplied with copies of the literature that was distributed, and I read
it over, and we discussed the question very fully during some weeks.
We both agreed that it was a very dangerous movement, likely to bring
about the annexation of Canada to the United States, and designed for
that purpose by its originators, and we considered very carefully how
it could be met and defeated. I felt that, in view of the way in which
it was being taken up at the time by the people, it would be hopeless
to attack the scheme and endeavour to check its movement by standing
in front of it and fighting it. I was afraid we might be overrun and
probably beaten. I felt that the only way to defeat it was to get in
front, and lead the movement in another direction. My brother agreed
with me in this, and we decided to take a course of action based on
those lines.