Ocean. 1869-1873.
The government and parliament, to whom were entrusted the destinies of
the federation of four provinces, had a great work to accomplish in the
way of perfecting and extending the Dominion, which was necessarily
incomplete whilst its western territorial limits were confined to the
boundaries of Ontario, and the provinces of British Columbia on the
Pacific coast and of Prince Edward Island in the Gulf of the St.
Lawrence remained in a position of isolation. The provisions of the
British North America Act of 1867 provided in general terms for the
addition of the immense territories which extend from the head of Lake
Superior in a north-westerly direction as far as the Rocky Mountains.
Three great basins divide these territories; Hudson Bay Basin, with
probably a drainage of 2,250,000 square miles; the Winnipeg sub-basin
tributary to the former, with nearly 400,000 square miles; the Mackenzie
River basin with nearly 700,000 square miles. The Winnipeg basin covers
a great area of prairie lands, whose luxuriant grasses and wild flowers
were indented for centuries only by the tracks of herds of innumerable
buffaloes on their way to the tortuous and sluggish streams which flow
through that wide region. This plain slopes gently towards the arctic
seas into which its waters flow, and is also remarkable for rising
gradually from its eastern limits in three distinct elevations or
steppes as far as the foot hills of the Rocky Mountains. Forests of
trees, small for the most part, are found only when the prairies are
left and we reach the more picturesque undulating country through which
the North Saskatchewan flows. An extraordinary feature of this great
region is the continuous chain of lakes and rivers which stretch from
the basin of the St. Lawrence as far as the distant northern sea into
which the Mackenzie, the second largest river in North America, carries
its enormous volume of waters. As we stand on the rugged heights of
land which divides the Winnipeg from the Laurentian basin we are within
easy reach of rivers which flow, some to arctic seas, some to the
Atlantic, and some to the Gulf of Mexico. If we ascend the Saskatchewan
River, from Lake Winnipeg to the Rocky Mountains, we shall find
ourselves within a measurable distance not only of the sources of the
Mackenzie, one of whose tributaries reaches the head waters of the
Yukon, a river of golden promise like the Pactolus of the eastern
lands--but also within reach of the head waters of the rapid Columbia,
and the still more impetuous Fraser, both of which pour into the Pacific
Ocean, as well as of the Missouri, which here accumulates strength for
its alliance with the Mississippi, that great artery of a more southern
land. It was to this remarkable geographical feature that Oliver Wendell
Holmes referred in the following well-known verses:
"Yon stream whose sources run
Turned by a pebble's edge,
Is Athabaska rolling toward the Sun
Through the cleft mountain ledge."
"The slender rill had strayed,
But for the slanting stone,
To evening's ocean, with the tangled braid
Of foam-flecked Oregon."
[ILLUSTRATION: MAP OF BRITISH AMERICA TO ILLUSTRATE THE CHARTER OF THE
HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY]
A great company claimed for two centuries exclusive trading privileges
over a large portion of these territories, known as Rupert's Land, by
virtue of a charter given by King Charles II, on the 2nd May, 1670, to
Prince Rupert, the Duke of Albemarle, and other Englishmen of rank and
wealth. The early operations of this Company of Adventurers of England
were confined to the vicinity of Hudson and James Bays. The French of
Canada for many years disputed the rights of the English company to this
great region, but it was finally ceded to England by the Treaty of
Utrecht. Twenty years after the Treaty of Paris (1763) a number of
wealthy and enterprising merchants, chiefly Scotch, established at
Montreal the North-West Company for the purpose of trading in those
north-western territories to which French traders had been the first to
venture. This new company carried on its operations with such activity
that in thirty years' time it employed four thousand persons and
occupied sixty posts in different parts of the territories.
The Hudson's Bay Company's headquarters was York Factory, on the great
bay to which British ships, every summer, brought out supplies for the
posts. The North-West Company followed the route of the old French
traders from Lachine by way of the Ottawa or the lakes to the head of
Lake Superior, and its principal depot was Fort William on the
Kaministiquia River. The servants of the North-West Company became
indefatigable explorers of the territories as far as the Pacific Ocean
and arctic seas. Mr., afterwards Sir, Alexander Mackenzie first followed
the river which now bears his name, to the Arctic Ocean, into which it
pours its mighty volume of water. He was also the first to cross the
Rocky Mountains and reach the Pacific coast. Simon Fraser, another
employee of the company, discovered, in 1808, the river which still
recalls his exploits; and a little later, David Thompson, from whom a
river is named, crossed further south and reached Oregon by the Columbia
River. The energetic operations of the North-west Company so seriously
affected the business of the Hudson's Bay Company that in some years the
latter declared no dividends. The rivalry between the two companies
reached its highest between 1811 and 1818, when Thomas Douglas, fifth
Earl of Selkirk, who was an enthusiastic promoter of colonisation in
British North America, obtained from the Hudson's Bay Company an immense
tract of land in the Red River country and made an earnest effort to
establish a Scotch settlement at Kildonan. But his efforts to people
Assiniboia--the Indian name he gave to his wide domain--were baulked by
the opposition of the employees of the North-west Company, who regarded
this colonising scheme as fatal to the fur trade. In the territory
conveyed to Lord Selkirk, the Montreal Company had established posts
upon every river and lake, while the Hudson's Bay Company had only one
fort of importance, Fort Douglas, within a short distance of the
North-west Company's post of Fort Gibraltar, at the confluence of the
Red and Assiniboine Rivers, where the city of Winnipeg now stands. The
quarrel between the Scotch settlers who were under the protection of the
Hudson's Bay Company and the North-westers, chiefly composed of French
Canadians and French half-breeds, or _Métis_ culminated in 1816, in the
massacre of Governor Semple and twenty-six other persons connected with
the new colony by a number of half-breeds. Two years later, a number of
persons who had been arrested for this murder were tried at York in
Upper Canada, but the evidence was so conflicting on account of the
false swearing on the part of the witnesses that the jury were forced to
acquit the accused. Lord Selkirk died at Pau, in 1820, but not before he
had made an attempt to assist his young settlement, almost broken up by
the shameful attack of 1816.
The little colony managed to exist, but its difficulties were aggravated
from time to time by the ravages of clouds of grasshoppers which
devastated the territories and brought the people to the verge of
starvation. In March, 1821, the North-west Company made over all their
property to the older company, which now reigned supreme throughout the
territories. All doubts as to their rights were set at rest by an act of
parliament giving them a monopoly of trade for twenty-one years in what
were then generally known as the Indian territories, that vast region
which lay beyond the confines of Rupert's Land, and was not strictly
covered by the charter of 1670. This act was re-enacted in 1838 for
another twenty-one years. No further extension, however, was ever
granted, as an agitation had commenced in Canada by 1859 for the
surrender of the company's privileges and the opening up of the
territories, so long a great "lone land," to enterprise and settlement.
When the two rival companies were united, Mr., afterwards Sir, George
Simpson, became governor, and he continued to occupy that position until
1860, when he died in his residence at Lachine, near Montreal. This
energetic man largely extended the geographical knowledge of the wide
dominions entrusted to his charge, though like all the servants of the
company, he discouraged settlement and minimised the agricultural
capabilities of the country, when examined in 1857 before a committee of
the English house of commons. In 1837 the company purchased from Lord
Selkirk's heirs all their rights in Assiniboia. The Scotch settlers and
the French half-breeds were now in close contiguity to each other on the
Red and Assiniboine Rivers. The company established a simple form of
government for the maintenance of law and order. In the course of time,
their council included not only their principal factors and officials,
but a few persons selected from the inhabitants. On the whole, law and
order prevailed in the settlements, although there was always latent a
certain degree of sullen discontent against the selfish rule of a mere
fur company, invested with such great powers. The great object of the
company was always to keep out the pioneers of settlement, and give no
information of the value of the land and resources of their vast domain.
Some years before the federation of the British-American provinces the
public men of Canada had commenced an agitation against the company,
with the view of relieving from its monopoly a country whose resources
were beginning to be known. Colonial delegates on several occasions
interviewed the imperial authorities on the subject, but no practical
results were obtained until federation became an accomplished fact.
Then, at length, the company recognised the necessity of yielding to
the pressure that was brought to bear upon them by the British
government, at a time when the interests of the empire as well as of the
new Dominion demanded the abolition of a monopoly so hostile to the
conditions of modern progress in British North America. In 1868
successful negotiations took place between a Canadian delegation--Sir
George Cartier and the Hon. William Macdougall--and the Hudson's Bay
Company's representatives for the surrender of their imperial domain.
Canada agreed to pay £300,000 sterling, and to reserve certain lands for
the company. The terms were approved by the Canadian parliament in 1869,
and an act was passed for the temporary government of Rupert's Land and
the North-west territory when regularly transferred to Canada. In the
summer of that year, surveyors were sent under Colonel Dennis to make
surveys of townships in Assiniboia; and early in the autumn Mr.
Macdougall was appointed lieutenant-governor of the territories, with
the understanding that he should not act in an official capacity until
he was authoritatively informed from Ottawa of the legal transfer of the
country to the Canadian government. Mr. Macdougall left for Fort Garry
in September, but he was unable to reach Red River on account of a
rising of the half-breeds. The cause of the troubles is to be traced not
simply to the apathy of the Hudson's Bay Company's officials, who took
no steps to prepare the settlers for the change of government, nor to
the fact that the Canadian authorities neglected to consult the wishes
of the inhabitants, but chiefly to the belief that prevailed among the
ignorant French half-breeds that it was proposed to take their lands
from them. Sir John Macdonald admitted, at a later time, that much of
the trouble arose "from the lack of conciliation, tact and prudence
shown by the surveyors during the summer of 1869." Mr. Macdougall also
appears to have disobeyed his instructions, for he attempted to set up
his government by a _coup-de-main_ on the 1st December, though he had no
official information of the transfer of the country to Canada, and was
not legally entitled to perform a single official act.
The rebellious half-breeds of the Red River settlement formed a
provisional government, in which one Louis Riel was the controlling
spirit from the beginning until the end of the revolt. He was a French
Canadian half-breed, who had been educated in one of the French Canadian
colleges, and always exercised much influence over his ignorant,
impulsive, easily-deluded countrymen. The total population living in the
settlements of Assiniboia at that time was about twelve thousand, of
whom nearly one-half were _Métis_ or half-breeds, mostly the descendants
of the _coureurs-de-bois_ and _voyageurs_ of early times. So long as the
buffalo ranged the prairies in large numbers, they were hunters, and
cared nothing for the relatively tame pursuit of agriculture. Their
small farms generally presented a neglected, impoverished appearance.
The great majority had adopted the habits of their Indian lineage, and
would neglect their farms for weeks to follow the scarce buffalo to
their distant feeding grounds. The Scotch half-breed, the offspring of
the marriage of Scotchmen with Indian women, still illustrated the
industry and energy of his paternal race, and rose superior to Indian
surroundings. It was among the French half-breeds that Riel found his
supporters. The Scotch and English settlers had disapproved of the
sudden transfer of the territory in which they and their parents had so
long lived, without any attempt having been made to consult their
feelings as to the future government of the country. Though they took no
active part in the rebellion, they allowed matters to take their course
with indifference and sullen resignation. The employees of the Hudson's
Bay Company were dissatisfied with the sale of the company's rights, as
it meant, in their opinion, a loss of occupation and influence. The
portion of the population that was always quite ready to hasten the
acquisition of the territory by Canada, and resolutely opposed Riel from
the outset, was the small Canadian element, which was led by Dr.
Schultz, an able, determined man, afterwards lieutenant-governor of
Manitoba. Riel imprisoned and insulted several of the loyal party who
opposed him. At last he ruthlessly ordered the execution of one Thomas
Scott, an Ontario man, who had defied him.
While these events were in progress, the Canadian government enlisted in
the interests of law and order the services of Mr. Donald Smith, now
Lord Strathcona, who had been long connected with the Hudson's Bay
Company, and also of Archbishop Taché, of St. Boniface--the principal
French settlement in the country--who returned from Rome to act as
mediator between the Canadian authorities and his deluded flock.
Unhappily, before the Archbishop could reach Fort Garry, Scott had been
murdered, and the Dominion government could not consider themselves
bound by the terms they were ready to offer to the insurgents under a
very different condition of things. The murder of Scott had clearly
brought Riel and his associates under the provisions of the criminal
law; and public opinion in Ontario would not tolerate an amnesty, as was
hastily promised by the Archbishop, in his zeal to bring the rebellion
to an end. A force of 1200 regulars and volunteers was sent to the Red
River towards the end of May, 1870, under the command of Colonel
Wolseley, now a field-marshal and a peer of the realm. Riel fled across
the frontier before the troops, after a tedious journey of three months
from the day they left Toronto, reached Fort Garry. Peace was restored
once more to the settlers of Assiniboia. The Canadian government had had
several interviews with delegates from the discontented people of Red
River, who had prepared what they called "a Bill of Rights," and it was
therefore able intelligently to decide on the best form of governing the
territories. The imperial government completed the formal transfer of
the country to Canada, and the Canadian parliament in 1870 passed an act
to provide for the government of a new province of Manitoba.
Representation was given to the people in both houses of the Canadian
parliament, and provision was made for a provincial government on the
same basis that existed in the old provinces of the Dominion. The
lieutenant-governor of the province was also, for the present, to govern
the unorganised portion of the North-west with the assistance of a
council of eleven persons. The first legislature of Manitoba was elected
in the early part of 1871, and a provincial government was formed, with
Mr. Albert Boyd as provincial secretary. The first lieutenant-governor
was Sir Adams Archibald, the eminent Nova Scotian, who had been defeated
in the elections of 1867. Mr. Macdougall had returned from the
North-west frontier a deeply disappointed man, who would never admit
that he had shown any undue haste in commencing the exercise of his
powers as governor. Some years later he disappeared from active public
life, after a career during which he had performed many useful services
for Canada.
In another chapter on the relations between Canada and the United States
I shall refer to the results of the international commission which met
at Washington in 1870, to consider the Alabama difficulty, the fishery
dispute, and other questions, the settlement of which could be no longer
delayed. In 1870, while the Red River settlements were still in a
troublous state, the Fenians made two attempts to invade the Eastern
Townships, but they were easily repulsed and forced to cross the
frontier. They were next heard of in 1871, when they attempted, under
the leadership of the irrepressible O'Neil, who had also been engaged in
1870, and of O'Donohue, one of Riel's rebellious associates, to make a
raid into Manitoba by way of Pembina, but their prompt arrest by a
company of United States troops was the inglorious conclusion of the
last effort of a dying and worthless organisation to strike a blow at
England through Canada.
The Dominion government was much embarrassed for some years by the
complications that arose from Riel's revolt and the murder of Scott. An
agitation grew up in Ontario for the arrest of the murderers; and when
Mr. Blake succeeded Mr. Sandfield Macdonald as leader of the Ontario
government, a large reward was offered for the capture of Riel and such
of his associates as were still in the territories. On the other hand,
Sir George Cartier and the French Canadians were in favour of an
amnesty. The Macdonald ministry consequently found itself on the horns
of a dilemma; and the political tension was only relieved for a time
when Riel and Lepine left Manitoba, on receiving a considerable sum of
money from Sir John Macdonald. Although this fact was not known until
1875, when a committee of the house of commons investigated the affairs
of the North-west, there was a general impression after 1870 throughout
Ontario--an impression which had much effect on the general election of
1872--that the government had no sincere desire to bring Riel and his
associates to justice.
In 1871 the Dominion welcomed into the union the great mountainous
province of British Columbia, whose picturesque shores recall the
memories of Cook, Vancouver and other maritime adventurers of the last
century, and whose swift rivers are associated with the exploits of
Mackenzie, Thompson, Quesnel, Fraser and other daring men, who first saw
the impetuous waters which rush through the cañons of the great
mountains of the province until at last they empty themselves into the
Pacific Ocean. For many years Vancouver Island and the mainland, first
known as New Caledonia, were under the control of the Hudson's Bay
Company. Vancouver Island was nominally made a crown colony in 1849;
that is, a colony without representative institutions, in which the
government is carried on by a governor and council, appointed by the
crown. The official authority continued from 1851 practically in the
hands of the company's chief factor, Sir James Douglas, a man of signal
ability, who was also the governor of the infant colony. In 1856 an
assembly was called, despite the insignificant population of the island.
In 1858 New Caledonia was organised as a crown colony under the name of
British Columbia, as a consequence of the gold discoveries which brought
in many people. Sir James Douglas was also appointed governor of
British Columbia, and continued in that position until 1864. In 1866,
the colony was united with Vancouver Island under the general
designation of British Columbia. When the province entered the
confederation of Canada in 1871 it was governed by a lieutenant-governor
appointed by the crown, a legislature composed of heads of the public
departments and several elected members. With the entrance of this
province, so famous now for its treasures of gold, coal and other
minerals in illimitable quantities, must be associated the name of Sir
Joseph Trutch, the first lieutenant-governor under the auspices of the
federation. The province did not come into the union with the same
constitution that was enjoyed by the other provinces, but it was
expressly declared in the terms of union that "the government of the
Dominion will readily consent to the introduction of responsible
government when desired by the inhabitants of British Columbia."
Accordingly, soon after its admission, the province obtained a
constitution similar to that of other provinces: a lieutenant-governor,
a responsible executive council and an elective assembly. Representation
was given it in both houses of the Dominion parliament, and the members
took their seats during the session of 1872. In addition to the payment
of a considerable subsidy for provincial expenses, the Dominion
government pledged itself to secure the construction of a railway within
two years from the date of union to connect the seaboard of British
Columbia with the railway system of Canada, to commence the work
simultaneously at both ends of the line, and to complete it within ten
years from the admission of the colony to the confederation.
In 1872 a general election was held in the Dominion, and while the
government was generally sustained, it came back with a minority from
Ontario. The Riel agitation, the Washington Treaty, and the undertaking
to finish the Pacific railway in so short a time, were questions which
weakened the ministry. The most encouraging feature of the elections
was the complete defeat of the anti-unionists in Nova Scotia,--the
prelude to their disappearance as a party--all the representatives, with
the exception of one member, being pledged to support a government whose
chief merit was its persistent effort to cement the union and extend it
from ocean to ocean. Sir Francis Hincks, finance minister since 1870,
was defeated in Ontario and Sir George Cartier in Montreal. Both these
gentlemen found constituencies elsewhere, but Sir George Cartier never
took his seat, as his health had been seriously impaired, and he died in
England in 1873. The state gave a public funeral to this great French
Canadian, always animated by a sincere desire to weld the two races
together on principles of compromise and justice. Sir Francis Hincks
also disappeared from public life in 1873, and died at Montreal in 1885
from an attack of malignant small-pox. The sad circumstances of his
death forbade any public or even private display, and the man who filled
so many important positions in the empire was carried to the grave with
those precautions which are necessary in the case of those who fall
victims to an infectious disease.
But while these two eminent men disappeared from the public life of
Canada, two others began now to occupy a more prominent place in
Dominion affairs. These were Mr. Edward Blake and Mr. Alexander
Mackenzie, who had retired from the Ontario legislature when an act was
passed, as in other provinces, against dual representation, which made
it necessary for them to elect between federal and provincial politics.
Sir Oliver Mowat, who had retired from the bench, was chosen prime
minister of Ontario on the 25th October, 1872, and continued to hold the
position with great success and profit to the province until 1896, when
he became minister of justice in the Liberal government formed by Sir
Wilfrid Laurier.
In 1873 Prince Edward Island yielded to the influences which had been
working for some years in the direction of union, and allied her
fortunes with those of her sister provinces. The public men who were
mainly instrumental in bringing about this happy result, after much
discussion in the legislature and several conferences with the Dominion
government, were the following: Mr. R.P. Haythorne, afterwards a
senator; Mr. David Laird, at a later time minister in Mr. Mackenzie's
government and a lieutenant-governor of the North-west territories; Mr.
James C. Pope, who became a member of Sir John Macdonald's cabinet in
1879; Mr. T.H. Haviland, and Mr. G.W. Howlan, who were in later years
lieutenant-governors of the island. The terms of union made not only
very favourable financial arrangements for the support of the provincial
government, but also allowed a sum of money for the purpose of
extinguishing the claims of the landlords to whom the greater portion of
the public domain had been given by the British government more than a
hundred years before. The constitution of the executive authority and
the legislature remained as before confederation. Adequate
representation was allowed to the island in the Canadian parliament, and
the members accordingly took their places in the senate and the house of
commons during the short October session of 1873, when Sir John
Macdonald's government resigned on account of transactions arising out
of the first efforts to construct the Canadian Pacific railway.
The Dominion was now extended for a distance of about 3,500 miles, from
the island of Prince Edward in the east to the island of Vancouver in
the west. The people of the great island of Newfoundland, the oldest
colony of the British crown in North America, have, however, always
shown a determined opposition to the proposed federation, from the time
when their delegates returned from the Quebec convention of 1864.
Negotiations have taken place more than once for the entrance of the
island into the federal union, but so far no satisfactory arrangement
has been attained. The advocates of union, down to the present time,
have never been able to create that strong public opinion which would
sustain any practical movement in the direction of carrying Newfoundland
out of its unfortunate position of insular, selfish isolation, and
making it an active partner in the material, political, and social
progress of the provinces of the Canadian Dominion. Financial and
political difficulties have steadily hampered the development of the
island until very recently, and the imperial government has been obliged
to intervene for the purpose of bringing about an adjustment of
questions which, more than once, have rendered the operation of local
self-government very troublesome. The government of the Dominion, on its
side, while always ready to welcome the island into the confederation,
has been perplexed by the difficulty of making satisfactory financial
arrangements for the admission of a colony, heavily burdened with debt,
and occupying a position by no means so favourable as that of the
provinces now comprised within the Dominion. Some Canadians also see
some reason for hesitation on the part of the Dominion in the existence
of the French shore question, which prejudicially affects the
territorial interests of a large portion of the coast of the island, and
affords a forcible example of the little attention paid to colonial
interests in those old times when English statesmen were chiefly swayed
by considerations of European policy.