the Canadian Pacific Railway was in the course of construction, the
peace of the territories was again disturbed by risings of half-breeds
in the South Saskatchewan district, chiefly at Duck Lake, St. Laurent,
and Batoche. Many of these men had migrated from Manitoba to a country
where they could follow their occupation of hunting and fishing, and
till little patches of ground in that shiftless manner characteristic
of the _Métis_. The total number of half-breeds in the Saskatchewan
country were probably four thousand, of whom the majority lived in the
settlements just named. These people had certain land grievances, the
exact nature of which it is not easy even now to ascertain; but there
is no doubt that they laboured under the delusion that, because there
was much red-tapeism and some indifference at Ottawa in dealing with
their respective claims, there was a desire or intention to treat them
with injustice. Conscious that they might be crowded out by the
greater energy and enterprise of white settlers--that they could no
longer depend on their means of livelihood in the past, when the
buffalo and other game were plentiful, these restless, impulsive,
illiterate people were easily led to believe that their only chance of
redressing their real or fancied wrongs was such a rising as had taken
place on the Red River in {394} 1869. It is believed that English
settlers in the Prince Albert district secretly fomented the rising
with the hope that it might also result in the establishment of a
province on the banks of the Saskatchewan, despite its small
population. The agitators among the half-breeds succeeded in bringing
Riel into the country to lead the insurrection. He had been an exile
ever since 1870, and was at the time teaching school in Montana. After
the rebellion he had been induced to remain out of the Northwest by the
receipt of a considerable sum of money from the secret service fund of
the Dominion Government, then led by Sir John Macdonald. In 1874 he
had been elected to the House of Commons by the new constituency of
Provencher in Manitoba; but as he had been proclaimed an outlaw, when a
true bill for murder was found against him in the Manitoba Court of
Queen's Bench, and when he had failed to appear for trial, he was
expelled from the house on the motion of Mr. Mackenzie Bowell, a
prominent Orangeman, and, later, premier of the Canadian Government.
Lepine, a member also of the so-called provisional government of Red
River, had been tried and convicted for his share in the murder of
Scott, but Lord Dufferin, when governor-general, exercised the
prerogative of royal clemency, as an imperial officer, and commuted the
punishment to two years' imprisonment. In this way the Mackenzie
government was relieved--but only temporarily--of a serious
responsibility which they were anxious to avoid, at a time when they
were between the two fires: of the people of Ontario, {395} anxious to
punish the murderers with every severity, and of the French Canadians,
the great majority of whom showed a lively sympathy for all those who
had taken part in the rebellion of 1869. The influence of French
Canada was also seen in the later action of the Mackenzie government in
obtaining a full amnesty for all concerned in the rebellion except
Riel, Lepine, and O'Donohue, who were banished for five years. The
popularity enjoyed by Riel and his associates in French Canada, as well
as the clemency shown to them, were doubtless facts considered by the
leaders in the second rising on the Saskatchewan as showing that they
had little to fear from the consequences of their acts. Riel and
Dumont--the latter a half-breed trader near Batoche--were the leaders
of the revolt which broke out at Duck Lake in the March of 1885 with a
successful attack on the Mounted Police and the Prince Albert
Volunteers, who were defeated with a small loss of life. This success
had much effect on the Indian tribes in the Saskatchewan district,
among whom Riel and his associates had been intriguing for some time,
and Poundmaker, Big Bear, and other chiefs of the Cree communities
living on the Indian reserves, went on the warpath. Subsequently
Battleford, then the capital of the Territories, was threatened by
Indians and _Métis_, and a force under Big Bear massacred at Frog Lake
two Oblat missionaries, and some other persons, besides taking several
prisoners, among whom were Mrs. Delaney and Mrs. Gowanlock, widows of
two of the murdered men, who were released at the close {396} of the
rising. Fort Pitt, on the North Saskatchewan, thirty miles from Frog
Lake, was abandoned by Inspector Dickens--a son of the novelist--and
his detachment of the Mounted Police, on the approach of a large body
of Indians under Big Bear. When the news of these outrages reached
Ottawa, the government acted with great promptitude. A French
Canadian, now Sir Adolphe Caron, was then minister of militia in Sir
John Macdonald's ministry, and showed himself fully able to cope with
this, happily, unusual, experience in Canadian Government. From all
parts of the Dominion--from French as well as English Canada--the
volunteers patriotically rallied to the call of duty, and Major-General
Middleton, a regular officer in command of the Canadian militia, led a
fine force of over four thousand men into the Northwest. The Canadian
Pacific Railway was now built, with the exception of a few breaks of
about seventy-two miles in all, as far as Qu'Appelle, which is sixteen
hundred and twenty miles from Ottawa and about two hundred and
thirty-five miles to the south of Batoche. The Canadian troops,
including a fine body of men from Winnipeg, reached Fish Creek, fifteen
miles from Batoche, on the 24th of April, or less than a month after
the orders were given at Ottawa to march from the east. Here the
insurgents, led by Dumont, were concealed in rifle-pits, ingeniously
constructed and placed in a deep ravine. They checked Middleton, who
does not appear to have taken sufficient precautions to ascertain the
position of the enemy--thoroughly trained marksmen who were able to
shoot down a considerable {397} number of the volunteers. Later, at
Batoche, the Canadian troops, led with great bravery by Colonels
Straubenzie, Williams, Mackeand, and Grassett, scattered the
insurgents, who never made an attempt to rally. The gallantry of
Colonel Williams of the Midlanders--an Ontario battalion--was
especially conspicuous, but he never returned from the Northwest to
receive the plaudits of his countrymen, as he died of fever soon after
the victory he did so much to win at Batoche. Colonel Otter, a
distinguished officer of Toronto, had an encounter with Poundmaker at
Cut Knife Creek on Battle River, one of the tributaries of the North
Saskatchewan, and prevented him from making any hostile demonstrations
against Battleford and other places. Riel's defeat at Batoche cowed
these Indians, who gave up their arms and prisoners to Otter.
Elsewhere in the Territories all trouble was prevented by the prompt
transport of troops under Colonel Strange to Fort Edmonton, Calgary,
and other points of importance. The Blackfeet, the most formidable
body of natives in the Territories, never broke the peace, although
they were more than once very restless. Their good behaviour was
chiefly owing to the influence of Chief Crowfoot, always a friend of
the Canadians.
[Illustration: Colonel Williams.]
When the insurrection was over, an example was made of the leaders.
Dumont succeeded in making his escape, but Riel, who had been captured
after the fight at Batoche, was executed at Regina after a most
impartial trial, in which he had the assistance of very able counsel
brought from French Canada. Insanity was pleaded even, in his defence,
not only {398} in the court but subsequently in the Commons at Ottawa,
when it was attempted to censure the Canadian Government for their
stern resolution to vindicate the cause of order in the Territories.
Poundmaker and Big Bear were sent for three years to the penitentiary,
and several other Indians suffered the extreme penalty of the law for
the murders at Frog Lake. Sir John Macdonald was at the head of the
Canadian Government, and every possible effort was made to force him to
obtain the pardon of Riel, but he felt that he could not afford to
weaken the authority of law in the west, and his French Canadian
colleagues, Sir Hector Langevin, then minister of public works, Sir
Adolphe Chapleau, then secretary of state,--now lieutenant-governor of
Quebec--Sir Adolphe Caron, then minister of militia, exhibited
commendable courage in resisting the passionate and even menacing
appeals of their countrymen, who were carried away at this crisis by a
false sentiment, rather than by a true sense of justice. Happily, in
the course of no long time, the racial antagonisms raised by this
unhappy episode in the early history of confederation disappeared under
the influence of wiser counsels, and the peace of this immense region
has never since been threatened by Indians or half-breeds, who have now
few, if any, grievances on which to brood. The patriotism shown by the
Canadian people in this memorable contest of 1885 illustrated the
desire of all classes to consolidate the union, and make it secure from
external and internal dangers, and had also an admirable influence in
foreign countries {400} which could now appreciate the growing national
strength of the Dominion. In the cities of Ottawa, Toronto, and
Winnipeg, monuments have been raised to recall the services of the
volunteers who fought and died at Fish Creek and Batoche. On the banks
of the Saskatchewan a high cairn and cross point to the burial place of
the men who fell before the deadly shot of the half-breed sharpshooters
at Fish Creek:
"Not in the quiet churchyard, near those who loved them best;
But by the wild Saskatchewan, they laid them to their rest.
A simple soldier's funeral in that lonely spot was theirs,
Made consecrate and holy by a nation's tears and prayers.
Their requiem--the music of the river's surging tide;
Their funeral wreaths, the wild flowers that grow on every side;
Their monument--undying praise from each Canadian heart,
That hears how, for their country's sake, they nobly bore
their part."
[Illustration: Indian carved posts in British Columbia.]
One of the finest bodies of troops in the world, the Mounted Police of
Canada, nearly one thousand strong, now maintains law and order
throughout a district upwards of three hundred thousand square miles in
area, and annually cover a million and a half miles in the discharge of
their onerous duties. The half-breeds now form but a very small
minority of the population, and are likely to disappear as a distinct
class under the influence of civilisation. The Indians, who number
about thirty thousand in Manitoba and the Northwest, find their
interests carefully guarded by treaties and statutes of Canada, which
recognise their rights as wards of the Canadian Government. They are
placed on large reserves, {402} where they can carry on farming and
other industrial occupations for which the Canadian Government, with
commendable liberality, provide means of instruction. Many of the
Indians have shown an aptitude for agricultural pursuits which has
surprised those who have supposed they could not be induced to make
much progress in the arts of civilised life. The average attendance of
Indian children at the industrial and other schools is remarkably large
compared even with that of white children in the old provinces. The
Indian population of Canada, even in the Northwest territory, appear to
have reached the stationary stage, and hereafter a small increase is
confidently expected by those who closely watch the improvement in
their methods of life. The high standard which has been reached by the
Iroquois population on the Grand River of Ontario, is an indication of
what we may even expect in the course of many years on the banks of the
many rivers of the Northwest. The majority of the tribes in Manitoba
and the Northwest--the Crees and Blackfeet--belong to the Algonquin
race, and the Assiniboines or Stonies, to the Dacotahs or Sioux, now
only found on the other side of the frontier. The Tinneh or Athabaskan
family occupy the Yukon and Mackenzie valleys, while in the Arctic
region are the Eskimo or Innuits. In British Columbia[1] there are at
least eight distinct stocks; in the interior, Tinneh, Salish or
Shuswap; on the coast, Haida, Ishimsian, Kwakiool (including Hailtzuk),
Bilhoola, Aht, {403} or Nootka, and Kawitshin, the latter including
several names, probably of Salish affinity, living around the Gulf of
Georgia. The several races that inhabit Canada, the Algonquins, the
Huron-Iroquois, the Dacotah, the Tinneh, and the several stocks of
British Columbia, have for some time formed an interesting study for
scholars, who find in their languages and customs much valuable
archaeological and ethnological lore. The total number of Indians that
now inhabit the whole Dominion is estimated at over one hundred
thousand souls, of whom one-third live in the old provinces.
[1] Dr. Geo. M. Dawson, F.R.S., has given me this division of Indian
tribes.
{404}
XXVII.
COMPLETION OF THE FEDERAL UNION--MAKERS OF THE DOMINION.
(1871-1891.)
Within three years after the formation of the new province of Manitoba
in the Northwest, Prince Edward Island and British Columbia came into
the confederation, and gave completeness to the federal structure.
Cook and Vancouver were among the adventurous sailors who carried the
British flag to the Pacific province, whose lofty, snow-clad mountains,
deep bays, and many islands give beauty, grandeur, and variety to the
most glorious scenery of the continent. Daring fur-traders passed down
its swift and deep rivers and gave them the names they bear. The
Hudson's Bay Company held sway for many years within the limits of an
empire. The British Government, as late as 1849, formed a Crown colony
out of Vancouver, and in 1858, out of the mainland, previously known as
New Caledonia. In 1866 the two provinces were united with a simple
form of government, consisting of a lieutenant-governor, and a
legislative council, partly appointed by the Crown and partly elected
by the people; but in 1871, when it entered into the Canadian union, a
{406} complete system of responsible government was established as in
the other provinces. Prince Edward Island was represented at the
Quebec conference, but it remained out of confederation until 1873,
when it came in as a distinct province; one of the conditions of
admission was the advance of funds by the Dominion government for the
purchase of the claims of the persons who had held the lands of the
island for a century. The land question was always the disturbing
element in the politics of the island, whose history otherwise is
singularly uninteresting to those who have not had the good fortune to
be among its residents and to take a natural interest in local
politics. The ablest advocate of confederation was Mr. Edward Whelan,
a journalist and politician who took part in the Quebec conference, but
did not live to see it carried out by Mr. J. C. Pope, Mr. Laird, and
others.
[Illustration: John A. Macdonald.]
At Confederation the destinies of old Canada were virtually in the hands of
three men--the Honourable George Brown, Sir George Cartier, and Sir John
Macdonald, to give the two latter the titles they received at a later time.
Mr. Brown was mainly responsible for the difficulties that had made the
conduct of government practically impossible, through his persistent and
even rude assertion of the claims of Upper Canada to larger representation
and more consideration in the public administration. No one will deny his
consummate ability, his inflexibility of purpose, his impetuous oratory,
and his financial knowledge, but his earnestness carried him frequently
beyond the {407} limits of political prudence, and it was with reason that
he was called "a governmental impossibility," as long as French and English
Canada continued pitted against each other, previous to the union of 1867.
The journal which he conducted with so much force, attacked French Canada
and its institutions with great violence, and the result was the increase
of racial antagonisms. Opposed to him was Sir George Etienne Cartier, who
had found in the Liberal-Conservative party, and in the principles of
responsible government, the means of strengthening the French Canadian race
and making it a real power in the affairs of the country. Running
throughout his character there was a current of sound sense and excellent
judgment which came to the surface at national crises. A solution of
difficulties, he learned, was to be found not in the violent assertion of
national claims, but in the principles of compromise and conciliation. With
him was associated Sir John Macdonald, the most successful statesman that
Canada has yet produced, on account of his long tenure of office and of the
importance of the measures that he was able to carry in his remarkable
career. He was premier of the Dominion from 1867 until his death in 1891,
with the exception of the four years of the administration of the Liberals
(1873-1878), led by the late Mr. Alexander Mackenzie, who had raised
himself from the humble position of stonemason to the highest place in the
councils of the country, by dint of his Scotch shrewdness, his tenacity of
purpose, his public honesty, and his thorough comprehension of {408}
Canadian questions, though he was wanting in breadth of statesmanship. Many
generations must pass away before the personal and political merits of Sir
John Macdonald can be advantageously and impartially reviewed. A lawyer by
profession, but a politician by choice, not remarkable for originality of
conception, but possessing an unusual capacity for estimating the exact
conditions of public sentiment, and for moulding his policy so as to
satisfy that opinion, having a perfect understanding of the ambitions and
weaknesses of human nature, believing that party success was often as
desirable as the triumph of any great principle, ready to forget his
friends and purchase his opponents when political danger was imminent,
possessing a fascinating manner, which he found very useful at times when
he had to pacify his friends and disarm his opponents, fully comprehending
the use of compromise in a country of diverse nationalities, having a firm
conviction that in the principles of the British constitution there was the
best guaranty for sound political progress, having a patriotic confidence
in the ability of Canada to hold her own on this continent, and become, to
use his own words, a "nation within a nation,"--that is to say, within the
British Empire--Sir John Macdonald offers to the political student an
example of a remarkable combination of strength and weakness, of qualities
which make up a great statesman and a mere party politician, according to
the governing circumstances. Happily for the best interests of Canada, in
the case of confederation the statesman prevailed. But his ambition at this
crisis {410} would have been futile had not Mr. Brown consented to unite
with him and Cartier. This triple alliance made a confederation possible on
terms acceptable to both English and French Canadians. These three men were
the representatives of the antagonistic elements that had to be reconciled
and cemented. The readiness with which Sir Charles Tupper and Sir Leonard
Tilley, the premiers of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, co-operated with the
statesmen of the upper provinces, was a most opportune feature of the
movement, which ended in the successful formation of a confederation in
1867. Although the Liberal leaders in Nova Scotia, Mr., afterwards Sir,
Adams Archibald, and Mr. Jonathan McCully, like Brown, Howland, Mowat, and
McDougall in old Canada, supported the movement with great loyalty, the
people of the province were aroused to a passionate opposition mainly
through the vigorous action of the popular leader, Mr. Joseph Howe, who had
been an eloquent advocate of colonial union before it assumed a practical
shape, but now took the strong ground that the question should not be
forced on the country by a legislature which had no mandate whatever to
deal with it, that it should be determined only by the people at the polls,
and that the terms arranged at Quebec were unfair to the maritime
provinces. Mr. Howe subsequently obtained "better terms" for Nova Scotia by
every available means of constitutional agitation--beyond which he was
never willing to go, however great might be public grievances--and then he
yielded to {412} the inevitable logic of circumstances, and entered the
Dominion government, where he remained until he became lieutenant-governor
of his native province. The feelings, however, he aroused against
confederation lasted with some intensity for years, although the cry for
repeal died away, according as a new generation grew up in place of the one
which remembered with bitterness the struggles of 1867.
[Illustration: George Brown.]
Mr. George Brown died from the wound he received at the hands of a
reckless printer, who had been in his employ, and Canadians have
erected to his memory a noble monument in the beautiful Queen's Park of
the city where he laboured so long and earnestly as a statesman and a
journalist. Sir George Cartier died in 1873, but Sir John Macdonald
survived his firm friend for eighteen years, and both received State
funerals. Statues of Sir John Macdonald have been erected in the
cities of Montreal, Toronto, Hamilton, and Kingston. In Ottawa on one
side of the Parliament building we see also a statue of the same
distinguished statesman, and on the other that of his great colleague,
Sir George Cartier. It was but fitting that the statues of these most
famous representatives of the two distinct elements of the Canadian
people should have been placed alongside of the national legislature.
They are national sentinels to warn Canadian people of the dangers of
racial or religious conflict, and to illustrate the advantages of those
principles of compromise and justice on which both Cartier and
Macdonald, as far as they could, raised the edifice of confederation.
[Illustration: George Cartier.]
{413}
XXVIII
CANADA AS A NATION: MATERIAL AND INTELLECTUAL
DEVELOPMENT--POLITICAL RIGHTS.
Up to the dissolution of the 1904 Parliament in October, 1908, the
Dominion had had ten Parliaments. During the first thirty years the
Conservatives were almost continuously in office. They were defeated
in the general election of 1874, owing to some grave scandals in
connection with the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway; but were
again returned to office in 1878. In the election of 1878 they were
returned on a platform of protection for Canadian industry, and in 1879
Parliament enacted a National Policy Tariff, which was at once
vehemently attacked by the Liberal Opposition. Seventeen years,
however, elapsed before the Liberals had the opportunity of revising
the tariff, and it was not until 1897 that there was any modification
in the protective duties. In 1896, however, after several years of
profound depression in trade in the Dominion, the Liberals succeeded in
obtaining a large majority, and Sir Wilfrid Laurier succeeded to {414}
the premiership, which after the death of Sir John Macdonald had been
held successively by Sir J. J. C. Abbott, Sir John Thompson, who died
at Windsor, where he had gone to take the oath of office of privy
councillor, Sir Mackenzie Bowell, and Sir Charles Tupper.
[Illustration: Sir Wilfrid Laurier (_From a photograph by Ernest H.
Mills._)]