Part 2

A notable tribute was recently paid to Cartier and the other great Fathers of Confederation by that distinguished British statesman, diplomat, and author, Right Hon. James Bryce, when in addressing this Club a few weeks ago he said: "Not less remarkable than your material progress has been the growth of your constitutional government, although in its early days there were not wanting people to show that Canada could never be a great nation. Your federal system has worked on the whole with wonderful success and with little friction. It has worked perhaps better than anywhere else in the world; I think the only example of equal success is that of Switzerland. You have had the great problem of two races living side by side, of peoples different in race and language, whom the federal system was designed to unite, while the federation of districts so dissimilar as the province of British Columbia, the prairies, and the Maritime Provinces shows that as far as adaptation to local conditions is concerned the federal system has been an unqualified success. And this success is a tribute to the capacity of the men who have governed as well as to those who framed the constitution."

The successful working of the federal system in Canada to which Mr. Bryce bore testimony, is another striking proof of the wise and far-sighted statesmanship of Cartier and the other public men who framed our constitution.

Other Great Measures

Confederation having been accomplished, Cartier's energies were directed to measures for the strengthening and defence of the national fabric. He was largely instrumental in determining the route of the Intercolonial Railway, and in having that road, which it is admitted has been a most important factor in consolidating the Dominion, completed. One of the most important measures of Cartier's public career, was undoubtedly the one which, as Minister of Militia and Defence, he presented to Parliament on March 31st, 1868, and which provided for the organization of the Canadian Militia, a measure that is the basis of our whole militia system.

Confederation, as you know, originally included only the four provinces of Quebec, Ontario, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. It was the desire of Cartier, as it was that of Macdonald, to see established a united Canada, stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific, a great maritime as well as land power with the furthest east united to the furthest west by a great transcontinental railway system. When the union of the four provinces had been accomplished, Cartier was steadfast in his efforts to secure the accomplishment of the larger idea. He fully realized the possibilities of the great West and the importance of securing for the Dominion that vast territory, the development of which has been the marvel of the past quarter of a century. Largely through his efforts, the great western territory now forming the Provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, was secured from the Hudson's Bay Company on most advantageous terms. When we realize that this immensely rich territory, the "granary of the Empire" was acquired for the Dominion for the insignificant sum of $1,500,000, largely through the negotiations which Cartier conducted in England, some idea of the importance of the services he rendered in that connection, may be formed. Cartier also framed the bill creating the Province of Manitoba, which he presented and had passed at the session of 1871. Only one thing was needed to round out Confederation, and that was the admission of British Columbia. In the negotiations which resulted in the admission of that great Province into the Dominion, Cartier played a leading part, and it was he, who on November 28th, 1871, presented the bill to Parliament providing that British Columbia should become a portion of the Dominion. On that occasion Cartier hailed the realization of his dream of a united Canada extending from ocean to ocean, with pardonable pride.

"I cannot close my explanations," he declared, "without impressing on the honorable members the greatness of the work. This young Confederation is on the point of extending over the whole northern portion of the continent, and when we consider that it took our neighbors sixty years to extend to the Pacific, where will be found in the history of the world anything comparable to our marvellous prosperity? I have always maintained that a nation to be great must have maritime power. We possess maritime power in a high degree. Our union with the maritime provinces gives us a seaboard on the east, and now our union with British Columbia will give us a seaboard on the west."

With the admission of British Columbia to Confederation, the dream of Cartier and of Macdonald, of a united Canada extending from ocean to ocean, was realized. But one thing more was required to bind the scattered provinces firmly together-a great transcontinental railway. Cartier was one of the strongest advocates of such an undertaking, and to him belongs the glory of having had passed the first charter for the Canadian Pacific Railway. One of the terms of the union of British Columbia with Canada under the Act presented by Cartier, was the construction of such a road. It is related that the delegates of British Columbia during the negotiations urged upon Cartier that a railway should be built across the Prairies to the foot of the Rockies, and that a colonization road should be laid out from the foot of the Rockies to the Coast. "No," replied Cartier, "that will not do; ask for a railway the whole way and you will get it." Some leading public men of the time thought that Cartier was willing to undertake too great an obligation, but events have more than justified his optimism. At the session of 1872, Cartier presented resolutions providing for the construction of the Canadian Pacific. After a remarkable debate, a bill based on the resolutions was adopted, and Cartier, springing to his feet, gave utterance amidst loud cheers to the expression which has become historic: "All aboard for the West."

It was the last great triumph of his public career. He did not live to see the realization of his dream, for it was not until thirteen years afterwards, that is to say, on November 7th, 1885, that the last spike of the main line of the Canadian Pacific Railway was driven by Sir Donald Smith, now Lord Strathcona, at Craigellachie, a small village of British Columbia, and on July 24th, 1886, Cartier's great colleague and fellow-worker for a united Canada, Sir John A. Macdonald personally reached the Pacific by rail from Ottawa.

Though Cartier did not live to see the completion of the gigantic undertaking which meant so much for Canada, it is one of his chief merits that he was one of its initiators and strongest supporters, and that he foresaw and foretold its great future.

"Before very long", he declared, addressing Parliament, "the English traveller who lands at Halifax will be able in five or six days to cover half of the continent inhabited by British subjects."

How Cartier's prophecy has been fulfilled we all know. The traveller landing to-day at Halifax can reach Victoria by means of the Canadian Pacific in less than six days. The Canadian Pacific Railway Company has become one of the greatest corporations in the world, operating not only a great transcontinental railway, and a chain of palatial hotels, but also possessing magnificent fleets on the Atlantic and the Pacific, with its vessels now encircling the globe. It has progressed stage by stage until under the able direction of its present distinguished head, Sir Thomas Shaughnessy, it has attained the greatest position in its history. The company's expansion has in fact been one of the marvels of history, and with the continued development of the Dominion, its achievements, great as they have been, will undoubtedly be surpassed in the future. Cartier, by his strenuous advocacy of the construction of the road in days when faith in the future was at a discount, gave another evidence of his great foresight as well as of his faith in the future of the Dominion which he did so much to establish.

Cartier and Macdonald

No review of Cartier's career, however summary, would be complete without some reference to the alliance that existed between him and that other great Canadian statesman, Sir John A. Macdonald, an alliance which was for a long period a most important factor in the public life of Canada. In his great painting "The Fathers of Confederation," the artist Harris most appropriately places Macdonald and Cartier conspicuously in the centre of the group, and the names of those two great statesmen must forever be linked in connection with that epoch making measure.

Macdonald and Cartier began their public careers within a few years of each other, Macdonald being first returned to Parliament in 1844, while Cartier became a member in 1848. The two men first became closely associated as members of the same Government, the MacNab-Taché Ministry, formed in 1855, in which ministry Macdonald held the portfolio of Attorney-General for Upper Canada while Cartier was Provincial Secretary, the first public office he held. From that time until the day of Cartier's death, the association between the two men remained practically unbroken. Their alliance, as has been well said, was based on equal consideration for the rightful claims of both nationalities.

Each of the two men had qualities not possessed by the other. Macdonald had a magnetic personality, he was a consummate tactician, an incomparable leader of men. He had that genius which enables its possessor to seize and make the most of an opportunity. He had that quality so indispensable in a great leader of gaining the loyal and devoted support of men of widely different characters and temperaments. Macdonald in short combined the grasp of a statesman with the arts of a politician. Cartier excelled as an administrator, he was a tireless and indefatigable worker who never spared himself and who expected others to follow his example. He studied and analyzed all subjects which he had to handle to the very bottom, and when he came to discuss them he had a complete mastery of all the details. He was strong, nay, even dogmatic, in his convictions; once his mind was made up he pursued the path he had marked out for himself with persistent determination, heedless of all obstacles in his way. To his followers his word was law, and he exacted from them an unswerving obedience. His energy was prodigious: he deserved the designation given to him by Gladstone when that great statesman said that Cartier was "_un homme qui semble être légion_",--a man who was a legion in himself. Cartier's was essentially a strong and determined character.

It was of course impossible that men of such different temperaments as Macdonald and Cartier and representing often such divergent interests, should not have their differences sometimes, but whatever differences they may have had never interfered with the high personal esteem and regard they entertained for each other.

At a great banquet given in his honor by the Bar of Toronto on February 8th, 1866, Macdonald took occasion to pay a warm and generous tribute to his French-Canadian colleague who was one of the guests of honor.

"I wish to say," declared Macdonald, "that Hon. Mr. Cartier has a right to share in the honors which I am receiving to-night, because I have never made an appeal to him or to the Lower Canadians in vain. There is not in the whole of Canada a heart more devoted to his friends. If I have succeeded in introducing the institutions of Great Britain, it is due in great part, to my friend, who has never permitted under his administration that the bonds which attach us to England should be weakened."

Cartier was equally generous in appreciation of his great colleague. Speaking at a banquet tendered Macdonald by the citizens of Kingston on September 6th, 1866, Cartier said:

"Kingston is indeed a favored city, for it has for its representative a statesman who has never yet been surpassed in Canada, and who probably never will be in the future. I have had the happiness of being associated with the member for Kingston in my public career, and of having formed with him an alliance which has already lasted longer than all alliances of this kind in Canada. The success which we have obtained together has been due to the fact that we have repelled all sectional feelings and sought what might benefit Canada as a whole."

That was the keynote of the Cartier-Macdonald alliance, the subordination of all sectional and racial feeling to the welfare of Canada as a whole. Cartier throughout his long public career was essentially a peacemaker, who always strove to promote a better feeling between the two races. A striking testimony to the success of his efforts in that direction was given on one occasion in Parliament when Mr. Benjamin, a leading Ontario member, declared: "I cannot refrain from acknowledging that Mr. Cartier has done more to unite the two races and to re-establish harmony between them, than any other member of the House."

Well shall it always be for the Dominion, if its public men, no matter to what political party they may belong, always adhere to the sane and true principles upon which the Macdonald-Cartier alliance was based--mutual toleration and good-will, respect for the rights of all, the co-operation of races, the safeguarding of Canada's autonomy, and the development of Canadian nationality. The Macdonald-Cartier alliance in fact symbolized that union which should always exist between English-speaking and French-speaking Canadians. And why should there not be union? What matters it whether we speak different languages or worship at different altars, if we always remember that we are all Canadians, mutually interested in the welfare and aggrandizement of our common country. That was the spirit which actuated both Cartier and Macdonald during their long association, and it will be well if such a spirit always prevails in the Dominion. It is only, in fact, upon such a basis that the permanence of Confederation, of which Macdonald and Cartier were the principal architects, can be assured.

For Canadian Nationality

The aim of Macdonald, Cartier, and the other great Fathers of Confederation, was to establish broad and deep the foundations of a Canadian nationality, based on the broadest principles of justice, tolerance, and equal rights. All their public utterances during the Confederation negotiations, testify to this fact. Macdonald's conception was that as the Dominion progressed it would become, to use his own words, year by year less a case of dependence on our part, and of overwhelming protection on the part of the Mother Country, and more a case of healthy and cordial alliance, that instead of looking upon us as a merely dependent colony, England would have in us a friendly nation--a subordinate but still a powerful people--to stand by her in North America in peace or war.

It is given to some men to have a vision that foresees the future and enables them to provide for momentous developments. Both Cartier and Macdonald were such men. It is in fact the supreme merit of Cartier that whilst always standing firmly for the rights of his French-Canadian compatriots, his vision was not confined to the Province of Quebec. If any one does, Cartier deserves the distinction of being known as a great Canadian. There was nothing narrow or provincial in his views. His idea was a united Canada, stretching from ocean to ocean, in which men of all races, languages and creeds should work together as brethren for the welfare and advancement of their common country. Cartier's desire was that his French-Canadian compatriots should not confine their attention to the Province of Quebec, but should take their full share in the life of the Dominion, that they should above all rejoice in the name "Canadian," be proud of the great Dominion and work for its welfare in co-operation with their English-speaking fellow countrymen.

"Objection is made to our project," says Cartier, in his great speech during the Confederation debates, "because of the words 'a new nationality'. But if we unite we will form a political nationality independent of the national origin and religion of individuals. Some have regretted that we have a distinction of races and have expressed the hope that in time this diversity will disappear. The idea of a fusion of all races is utopian, it is an impossibility. Distinctions of this character will always exist, diversity is the order of the physical, moral and political worlds. As to the objection that we cannot form a great nation because Lower Canada is principally French and Catholic, Upper Canada English and Protestant, and the Maritime Provinces mixed, it is futile in the extreme.

"Take for example the United Kingdom, inhabited as it is by three great races. Has the diversity of races been an obstacle to the progress and the welfare of Great Britain? Have not the three races united by their combined qualities, their energy and their courage, contributed to the glory of the Empire, to its laws of wise, to its success on land, on sea, and in commerce?

"In our Confederation there will be Catholics and Protestants, English, French, Irish and Scotch, and each by its efforts and success will add to the prosperity of the Dominion, to the glory of a new Confederation. We are of different races, not to quarrel, but to work together for our common welfare. We cannot by law make the differences of race disappear, but I am convinced that the Anglo-Canadian and the French-Canadian will appreciate the advantages of their position. Set side by side like a great family, their contact will produce a happy spirit of emulation. The diversity of race will in fact, believe me, contribute to the common prosperity."

What words of wisdom! What a spirit of true patriotism, of justice and of toleration they breathe! If Cartier in fact had never made any other utterance than this, it would be sufficient to stamp him as a true patriot and wise statesman. It will be well for Canada if such are always the guiding principles of its national life.

While the idea of Macdonald and Cartier and the other great Fathers of Confederation was, as has been said, to establish a Canadian nationality, none the less was it their intention to perpetuate British institutions on the North American continent, to establish, to use Macdonald's expression, a friendly nation, enjoying, it is true, the most complete autonomy, but at the same time in alliance with Great Britain and the other portions of the Empire. No stronger believer in British institutions as the repository of freedom; no more ardent admirer of the British flag as the symbol of justice and liberty could be found than Cartier. In all his utterances during the Confederation, debates, he took special pains to emphasize that Confederation was intended not to weaken, but to strengthen, the ties between the Dominion, Great Britain and the other portions of the Empire. "Confederation," he said, in one of his speeches on the measure, "has for its first reason our common affection for British institutions, its object is to assure by all possible guarantees, their maintenance in the future."

For the British flag Cartier on all occasions expressed a passionate devotion.

"The Canadian people," he said at a great banquet given in his honor in London in 1869, "desires to remain faithful to the old flag of Great Britain, that flag which waves over all seas, which tyranny has never been able to overcome, that flag which symbolizes true liberty".

These words expressed Cartier's deep and earnest conviction. During his several visits to Great Britain, he was deeply impressed by the greatness of British institutions. On those occasions he was the recipient of signal marks of honor; he was the personal guest of Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle for some time, and he received marked attention from Gladstone, Lord Lytton, and other distinguished British statesmen. His services in connection with the establishment of Confederation, as you know, were recognized by the conferring of a baronetcy upon him by Queen Victoria.

CARTIER'S WORK FOR MONTREAL

Having reviewed the great work which Cartier did for Canada in general, permit me to emphasize the eminent services which he rendered to Montreal. It is doubtful whether many Montrealers of the present generation fully realize the importance of Cartier's services to this city, and for that reason this portion of his career should be of special interest to citizens of this great metropolis.

From 1861 until 1872, Cartier was one of the representatives of Montreal, first in the Parliament of United Canada, and afterwards in the House of Commons. During a portion of that period, he also represented Montreal-East in the Quebec Legislature under the system of dual representation which prevailed for some time following the establishment of Confederation. Montreal's interests were always dear to Cartier's heart, and throughout his long public career he zealously strove to promote the welfare and development of this city.

Reference has already been made to the interest which Cartier showed from the outset of his career in railway construction. He realized that in order that Montreal might attain an unrivalled position, it would be necessary that railway communications should be established, that the St. Lawrence channel should be deepened, and that canals should be constructed and improved. One of the earliest of his speeches of which we have record was delivered at a great mass-meeting of the citizens of Montreal, held in 1846, on the Champ de Mars, to promote the construction of the Montreal & Portland Railway to connect Montreal and Portland. Cartier on that occasion declared that such an undertaking was a truly national work. Alluding to the fact that property in such cities as Buffalo, Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore, which had become great railway terminals, had as a result greatly increased in value, he declared that the same thing would happen in the case of Montreal if adequate railway facilities were established.

"The prosperity of Montreal," he said, "depends upon its position as the great emporium for the commerce of the West, and we can only assure that prosperity by better means of transport from the waters of the West to the Atlantic by our canals and railways."

When he became a member of Parliament Cartier continued his agitation for adequate railway facilities, and one of the first speeches he delivered in the legislature of United Canada, February 15th, 1849, was in advocacy of the completion of the Montreal & Portland Railway.

"There is no time to lose in the completion of the road," said Cartier on that occasion, "if we wish to assure for ourselves the commerce of the West. All the cities of the Atlantic Coast are disputing for that commerce."

Referring to the efforts being made by New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and other American cities to capture this commerce, Cartier said: "In seeing the efforts that an intelligent population is making, we cannot doubt the importance of the trade of the lakes which they covet and the profits which will result. Now, we may secure the greater part of that trade by constructing this road as soon as possible."

At another great mass meeting of the citizens of Montreal, held at the Bonsecours Market on July 31st, 1849, at which resolutions were adopted favoring the completion of the Montreal & Portland Railway, on motion of Cartier, seconded by John Rose, it was resolved that the city should take shares in the company. Cartier on that occasion made a fervent appeal that the interests of Montreal should be considered.