Part 1

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Sir George Etienne Cartier

His Work for Canada and His Services to Montreal

AN ADDRESS

DELIVERED BEFORE THE CANADIAN CLUB OF MONTREAL

_April 7th, 1913_

BY

JOHN BOYD

Author of The Memorial History of the Life and Times of Sir George Etienne Cartier

(To be issued in connection with the Cartier Centenary Celebration, 1914)

ISSUED BY THE CARTIER CENTENARY COMMITTEE MONTREAL 1913

THE CARTIER CENTENARY

1814-1914

Under the distinguished patronage of H. R. H. The Duke of Connaught

Executive Committee

Patron:

SIR CHARLES TUPPER, BART.

President:

E. W. VILLENEUVE, ESQ.

Vice-Presidents:

SIR RODOLPHE FORGET HON. J. J. GUERIN HON. N. PERODEAU H. A. EKERS, ESQ. D. LORNE MCGIBBON, ESQ.

Honorary Treasurers:

HON. J. A. OUIMET President City & District Savings Bank

H. V. MEREDITH, ESQ. General Manager, Bank of Montreal

Honorary Secretaries:

JOHN BOYD, ESQ. C. A. PARISEAULT, ESQ. F. ARTHUR JACKSON, ESQ. HORACE J. GAGNE, ESQ.

Secretary:

H. R. OVENDEN, ESQ.

Bankers:

THE BANK OF MONTREAL

Address - - P. O. Box 188

The accompanying address has been registered in accordance with the Copyright Act by JOHN BOYD.

FOREWORD.

The great interest that has been aroused in the Cartier Centenary movement was shown by the large gathering which assembled at the Canadian Club luncheon in the Sailors' Institute on Monday, April 7th, 1913, to hear Mr. John Boyd speak on "Sir George Etienne Cartier, His Work for Canada and His Services to Montreal." The speaker's references to the work that Cartier had accomplished for Canada, and especially to the great services that he rendered to the City of Montreal, were enthusiastically applauded by the large audience of representative business men.

The accompanying address which includes a summary of Sir George Etienne Cartier's career and achievements is but a preliminary to the Memorial History of the Life and Times of Cartier which is now being written by Mr. John Boyd, and which will deal exhaustively not only with Cartier's career but also with the whole period covered by that career, one of the most memorable periods of Canadian history. The work will be published next year under the auspices of the Cartier Centenary Committee in connection with the great commemorative celebration of the one hundredth anniversary of Cartier's birth.

SIR GEORGE ETIENNE CARTIER

His Work for Canada and His Services to Montreal.

(AN ADDRESS DELIVERED BY MR. JOHN BOYD BEFORE THE CANADIAN CLUB OF MONTREAL, APRIL 7th, 1913.)

Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen:

The subject of the address which I have the privilege of delivering to-day is "Sir George Etienne Cartier, His Work for Canada and His Services to Montreal."

Let me at the outset, Mr. Chairman, express my deep appreciation of the honor the Executive of the Canadian Club has done me in inviting me to address the members of this important and representative organization.

When, in 1892, through the efforts of Mr. Charles R. McCullough of Hamilton, the first Canadian Club was organized, a movement was inaugurated of the utmost importance to the Dominion. Every important centre throughout the country now has its Canadian Club, and these organizations, or as they have been well termed, these "universities of the people" now numbering nearly one hundred, are doing a splendid work in fostering a spirit of patriotism and in creating that national sentiment which is so essential to Canada's welfare. The Canadian Club of Montreal, composed as it is of the most representative citizens of the commercial metropolis, has ever been foremost in this great work, and it is indeed a privilege to have the opportunity of addressing such a gathering.

What more appropriate subject, Mr. Chairman, could be found for an address before a Canadian Club, than the career of one of our great nation-builders, of one who helped to lay the foundations of Canadian nationality and of the Dominion's greatness?

It is not my intention, Mr. Chairman, nor would time permit on this occasion, to deal exhaustively with the life and achievements of Sir George Etienne Cartier. That is now engaging my attention in another form, and when the Memorial History of the Life and Times of George Etienne Cartier shall appear, it will, I trust be found to be at least an exhaustive review of a great career and of one of the most memorable periods of Canadian history. On this occasion, owing to the limited time at my disposal, I shall content myself with reviewing succinctly Cartier's public career and achievements, dwelling briefly on the lessons of his life with special emphasis upon the great work that he did for Canada in general and the eminent services which he rendered to the City of Montreal in particular.

I shall take it for granted, Gentleman, that you are all conversant with the main facts of Cartier's career, from his birth at St. Antoine on the Richelieu River on September 6th, 1814, until his entrance to public life at the age of 34 in 1848, from that date until he became Prime Minister of United Canada in 1858, and from that until his death in 1873 when he held the portfolio of Minister of Militia and Defence in the Dominion Government.

Cartier's public career covered a period of some twenty-five years, that is to say from 1848 to 1873. What fruitful efforts, what herculanean labors, what great achievements, what struggles, defeats and triumphs were crowded within the compass of that career! The period which it covered was one of the most remarkable, if not the most remarkable, in the whole range of Canadian history. It was a period which witnessed many great constitutional changes, many transformations of parties, many fierce political struggles. It saw the beginning and the end of the Union, it marked the triumph of the long struggle for responsible government, it witnessed the birth of Confederation. It was a period fecund of great events and momentous developments, it was also a period rendered notable by the long succession of great statesmen whose names must forever be illustrious in Canadian history.

During all of that period Cartier played an active part and at times occupied a pre-eminent position.

At the beginning of his career, Cartier was a zealous reformer. In his youth like so many other ardent spirits of the time he came under the influence of Louis Joseph Papineau, when that great French Canadian tribune, with his incomparable eloquence, was thundering against those administrative abuses which were directly responsible for the troubles of the period. Nor was Papineau alone in his opposition to what Cartier described as the action of a minority which sought to dominate the majority and exploit the government in its own interests. Papineau, it should be remembered had the support of leading English-speaking Canadians, such as the distinguished Wolfred Nelson, afterwards Mayor of Montreal; in fact it is a noteworthy historical feature that some of the leading figures in the struggle for responsible government in Lower Canada were English-speaking. Cartier's participation in the rising of 1837 was due to the ardor and impetuosity of youth and the sincere convictions he held that the prevailing evils called for drastic measures. His experience convinced him of the folly of an appeal to arms; he realized that the remedy for existing evils must be sought, not through armed resistance to the constituted authorities, but through constitutional agitation and legislative action. He became a staunch supporter of LaFontaine's policy, and one of his earliest campaign speeches was made in advocacy of the principle of ministerial responsibility during the crisis resulting from the resignation of the LaFontaine-Baldwin Government in 1844. In 1848, when Cartier first entered Parliament, the struggle for responsible government, thanks to the efforts of those two great statesmen, Louis Hypolite LaFontaine and Robert Baldwin, whose names will forever be held in the highest honor by all Canadians, had been fought and won. When justice had been secured and existing abuses remedied by the granting of responsible government, Cartier became, and ever afterwards continued to be one of the warmest supporters and most zealous champions of British institutions, a strong advocate of the maintenance of British connection and a passionate lover of the British flag.

Cartier was the destined successor of LaFontaine in the great work of reconstruction, pacification, and conciliation, and when LaFontaine retired in 1851, and was followed a few years later by that other eminent French-Canadian statesman, Auguste Norbert Morin, Cartier's path to the leadership of his native province was clear. For years he was the undisputed leader: his voice, as has been well said, was the voice of Quebec.

The struggle for responsible government having been won, an era of marked industrial expansion and development followed under the Union. It was an era of railway building, of canal construction, of the establishment of great public works. Cartier, owing to his practical qualities, his great business abilities, his mastery of details, and his administrative capacities, was eminently qualified to obtain a leading position during such a period. He achieved distinction as a reformer, as an able administrator, as a legislator, and as a constructive statesman. His name is attached to some of the most important Acts of a period prolific of important legislation. It is sufficient to mention in this connection such measures as the construction of the Montreal and Portland Railway, the decentralization of the judiciary, the codification of the civil laws and of civil procedure, the modification of the criminal law, the Municipal Act of Lower Canada, the Act relating to registration offices, the abolition of the seigniorial tenure, the choice of Ottawa as the Capital of Canada, the construction of the Grand Trunk Railway and the Victoria Bridge, the organization of the educational system of Lower Canada, the improvement and deepening of the St. Lawrence, the building of canals, the union of the provinces of British North America, the acquisition of the North-West Territories, the construction of the Intercolonial Railway, the establishment of the Province of Manitoba, the admission of British Columbia into Confederation, the establishment of the militia system and the initiation of the Canadian Pacific Railway.

It would not be in accordance with that absolute truth which is demanded of history, to even infer that to Cartier alone is due the credit for the passage of all of these great measures. Many eminent men contributed by their efforts to their achievement. But to Cartier may fairly be adjudged the merit without detracting from the merits of others, of having taken an active part in the achievement of all of these important measures, of having devoted his great energies and abilities to their accomplishment, and of having played a determining part in the achievement of some of them. Some of these measures were of material benefit to the progress of the country. The legal reforms for which Cartier is entitled to the sole credit, constitute in themselves a monument to his wise statesmanship. Other measures in which he played a determining part, such as Confederation, were of an epoch-making character, in connection with Canada's national development and well-being. As an eminent French-Canadian writer, the late Senator Tassé, has well remarked, more than one of these measures would have been sufficient to immortalize Cartier. He was, to use Senator Tassé's words, at one and the same time a legislator, a founder of constitutions, a peaceful conqueror.

Cartier and Confederation

The greatest work in which Cartier participated, and in which it is freely acknowledged he played a determining part, was of course the establishment of Confederation. The idea of a union of all the provinces of British North America did not originate with Cartier, any more than it originated with Macdonald, Tupper, Tilley, Brown or the other great Fathers of Confederation. Proposals to that effect had been made long before, and the idea was one that had arisen in many minds as a desirable consummation and as a remedy for the chaotic conditions which then prevailed. But the idea was one that was heartily supported by Cartier from a very early period, and to the Cartier-Macdonald Government of which he became the head in 1858 as Prime Minister of United Canada must be given the credit of having taken the first practical steps to bring about Confederation. One of the items of that government's programme was the union of the British North American provinces, and soon after the close of the session of 1858, a delegation composed of three members of the Government, Cartier himself, A. T. Galt, and John Rose went to England to press the matter upon the Imperial Government. A memorandum submitted to the Imperial authorities and signed by Cartier, Galt and Rose urged the Imperial Government to take steps to have a meeting of delegates from all the British North American provinces to consider the question of Confederation and to report upon it.

Though the steps taken in 1858 had no immediate result, the fact remains that the Government of which Cartier was the head, was the first to take up the question of the union of the British North American provinces, that, as the lamented Thomas D'Arcy McGee remarked in his great speech during the Confederation debate "the first real stage of the success of Confederation, the thing that gave importance to the theory in men's minds, was the memorandum of 1858, signed by Cartier, Galt and Rose. The recommendation in that memorandum" said McGee, "laid dormant until revived by the Constitutional Committee which led to the coalition, which led to the Quebec Conference, which led to the draft of the Constitution now on our table, and which" added McGee with assurance "will lead, I am fain to believe, to the union of all these provinces,"--an assurance, which was not long afterwards happily fulfilled.

Cartier was the leader of the Quebec wing of the Coalition Ministry. He was a delegate to the Charlottetown Conference, as well as a member of the Quebec Conference. He took a leading part in the Confederation debates, ably defending the measure against the attacks made upon it. With Macdonald, Brown and Galt he was deputed after the scheme had been adopted by the Legislature to go to England to confer with Her Majesty's Government; he was also one of the delegates who sat in Conference from the 4th to the 24th December, 1866, at the Westminster Palace Hotel in London, and at which a series of 69 resolutions, based on those of the Quebec Conference, were finally passed. The sittings of that famous conference were renewed early in January of 1867, a series of draft bills were drawn up, and revised by the Imperial law officers, a bill was submitted to the Imperial Parliament in February, and on March 29th, under the title of the British North America Act, it received the royal assent. A royal proclamation issued from Windsor Castle on May 22nd, 1867, appointed July 1st as the date upon which the Act should come into force, and the following first of July witnessed the birth of what the Governor-General, Lord Monck, well designated as "a new nationality".

The men who assembled at Quebec on October 10th, 1864, to devise means for bringing about the union of the British North American provinces, had momentous problems to solve, but they were all men of the most ardent patriotism, of the broadest views, and with a firm determination to carry to a successful issue the great work with which they had been entrusted. How they succeeded in their task we all know. It has been well remarked by one of the biographers of Sir John A. Macdonald that there are three men besides Macdonald who in the establishment of Confederation and in securing the large results which followed from that epoch-making measure, demand special mention. Those men were George Etienne Cartier, Charles Tupper, and Leonard Tilley.[1] Justice demands that George Brown should also be named amongst the great Fathers of Confederation, for without the co-operation of that eminent Liberal statesman it is questionable whether Confederation under the circumstances could have been effected at that time. It was George Brown who made the proposals which rendered the coalition ministry possible, and by sinking all party considerations and personal differences in a grave crisis of his country's history, he performed a signal act of patriotism, which entitles his name to a high place on Canada's roll of honor. It was in fact a striking lesson in patriotism and in devotion to country, to find men like Macdonald and Cartier on the one hand, and Brown on the other, forgetting all past differences and even bitter personal animosities, and sitting at the same council board to devise means by which the public interests might be served at a most critical juncture. Nor, amongst the leading Fathers of Confederation must Sir A. T. Galt be forgotten, for that distinguished statesman was a most zealous advocate of Confederation, holding that unless a union was effected, the provinces would inevitably drift into the United States. During the parliamentary session of 1858 he strongly advocated the federal union of all the British North American provinces, and as has been justly said, the resolutions which Galt then moved in favor of such a union, entitle him to a high place amongst the promoters of Confederation[2].

Of the thirty-two statesmen who assembled at Quebec in 1864 and framed the Quebec resolutions which formed the basis of Confederation, but one survives to-day, and the Cartier Centenary movement has the privilege of having that great statesman whose name will forever be linked with the names of Macdonald and Cartier, as its patron. Still hale and hearty in his 92nd year, Sir Charles Tupper enjoys the veneration and esteem of all Canadians. It has been justly said by Sir John A. Macdonald's biographer, that in the "reconciliation of Nova Scotia to Confederation; in carrying out a great expensive and hazardous railway policy; in the establishment of a national fiscal system; in making Canadian expansion compatible with complete allegiance to the Empire, the aid which Macdonald received from Sir Charles Tupper, can scarcely be exaggerated. In him great natural ability and power as a platform speaker were united with a splendid optimism about his country, a courage that feared nothing, and a resoluteness of purpose which despised any obstacles with which he could be confronted."[3]

It is not minimizing the services of any of the other illustrious Fathers of Confederation, to say that Cartier played a leading, in fact a determining part, in the achievement of that measure. His great colleagues have generously testified to the pre-eminent services which he rendered at that time.

"Cartier was as bold as a lion. He was just the man I wanted: but for him Confederation should not have been carried," was the emphatic declaration made by Sir John A. Macdonald on the day when he unveiled the statue of his great colleague at Ottawa.

Sir Charles Tupper's tribute is equally eloquent and emphatic. "I have no hesitation," he says, "in saying that without Cartier there would have been no Confederation, and therefore Canada owes him a debt that can never be repaid."

Dr Parkin in his life of Sir John A. Macdonald, in the "Makers of Canada" series, also pays a just tribute to Cartier for his work in connection with Confederation when he says: "Without Cartier's loyal help, it would scarcely have been possible, when the effort for union came, to allay the anxiety of the French-Canadians lest they should be swallowed up, and their individuality be lost in the large proposed confederacy."

Cartier's position at that time, it must be remembered, was an extremely difficult one, in fact, it is the difficulties which he then encountered and the manner in which he triumphed over them, that entitled him to all the more credit. "Never did a French-Canadian statesman" as an eminent French-Canadian writer has remarked, "have to face a greater responsibility than that which Cartier assumed the day when he had the alternative of accepting or refusing Confederation. Neither Papineau nor LaFontaine had to place in the balance such grave issues. Their role was reduced to demanding liberty for Canadians. Cartier had to choose between a problematical future and a recognized state of affairs, with well defined advantages. Would as many guarantees be found in the edifice which was to be constructed? By accepting the confederation of the provinces, was it not leaving the certain for the uncertain? Such were the questions which agitated minds anxiously weighed."[4]

There was strong opposition to Confederation in Quebec as well as in other provinces. Cartier had to face the powerful attacks of redoubtable and able antagonists who maintained that Confederation would be detrimental to the interests of the French-Canadians. His contention was that with general interests entrusted to a central government and local interests to local legislatures, the rights of the French-Canadians would be amply safeguarded. Cartier maintained his position in the face of the most determined opposition and even against bitter personal attacks. He had his vindication when in the elections of 1867 the people of Quebec returned him to Parliament with a triumphant following.

And has not the course of events since Confederation vindicated the position which Cartier then took? The French-Canadians have not only enjoyed the fullest freedom in the direction of provincial affairs, but they have played a large and important part in the public life of Canada, a French-Canadian has occupied the exalted position of Prime Minister of the Dominion, and no matter whether they agree with his policy or not, all fair-minded Canadians must admit that Sir Wilfrid Laurier personally filled that great office with the utmost distinction, with credit to himself and to his country. Under Confederation there has been friction at times due in most cases to demagogic appeals to popular passion and racial feeling, but the sound common sense of the mass of the people has always asserted itself, and the governmental and legislative machinery has been found elastic enough to meet ever increasing demands.