The Struggle for Imperial Unity: Recollections & Experiences

CHAPTER V 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.

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