THE Government of
Canada had full knowledge of what was going on at Charlottetown, and
they considered the time opportune for the purpose of bringing to the
notice of the delegates from the Maritime Provinces, the subject of a
Confederation of all the British North American colonies. A telegram was
received while the delegates were in session, announcing that
representatives of the Government of Canada had left Quebec for the
purpose of meeting the delegates of the Maritime Provinces, and placing
certain proposals before them, and on the receipt of this message the
further consideration of the question, which they had met to discuss,
was deferred until after the Canadian delegates had arrived. They came
in the Government steamer " Victoria " on the day following the receipt
of the telegram announcing their departure,, and were found to embrace
the leading men then in Canadian public life, the Hons. J. A. Macdonald,
George Brown, George E. Cartier, Alex. T. Gait, Thomas D'Arcy McGee,
Hector L. Langevin, William MacDougall and Alex. Campbell. Those
delegates represented the Reform as well as the Conservative party, and
were therefore able to speak with authority, with regard to the views of
the people of both Upper and Lower Canada.
They were accorded
seats in the convention, and at once submitted their reasons why, in
their opinion, a scheme of union, embracing the whole of the British
North American colonies, should be adopted. The Hon. John A. Macdonald
and Messrs. Brown and Cartier were heard on this subject; the financial
position of Canada was explained, and the sources of revenue and wealth
of the several Provinces, were discussed. Speeches were also made by
Messrs. Gait, McGee, Langevin, and MacDougall, and, after having
commanded the attention of the convention for two days, the Canadian
deputation withdrew. Before doing so, they had proposed that if the
convention concluded to suspend its deliberations upon the question of
Maritime Union, they should adjourn to Quebec at an early day, to be
named by the Governor General, to consider the question of
Confederation. On the following day the convention adjourned upon the
ground, that it would be more for the general interest of British North
America, to adopt the larger union than a mere union of the Maritime
Provinces, and it was thought that this might be effected without any
very great difficulty, for there was then no strong feeling evinced in
any quarter against Confederation.
From Charlottetown the
members of the convention and the Canadian deputation went to Halifax,
where they were received most cordially and entertained at a banquet at
the Halifax Hotel. They then took their departure for St. John, where
they were entertained at a public dinner at which many leading men of
the city were present. The chair was occupied by the Hon. John H. Gray,
one of the delegates, and the expressions in favor of the proposed
confederation were strong and hearty. No one could have suspected at
that time, that the movement for Confederation would meet with so much
opposition in New Brunswick. All seemed plain sailing, but, as the
result showed, the battle for Confederation had yet to be fought and it
was only won after a long and doubtful struggle.
According to
arrangement the delegations from the provinces met in convention at
Quebec, on the 10th of October ; all the colonies, including
Newfoundland, were represented, and the delegates from New Brunswick
were : —
Hon. Samuel L. Tilley,
Provincial Secretary, M. P. P., Hon. John M. Johnson, Attorney General,
M. P. P., Hon. Edward B. Chandler, M. L. C., Hon. John Hamilton Gray, M.
P. P., Hon. Peter Mitchell, M. L. C., Hon. Chas. Fisher, M. P. P., Hon.
William H. Steeves, M. L. C.
Sir Etienne P. Tache,
who was then Premier of Canada, was unanimously chosen President of the
conference, and Major Hewitt Bernard, of the staff of the Attorney
General West, Private and Confidential Secretary. It was arranged that
the convention should hold its meetings with closed doors, and it was
laid down as a principle of the discussion, that as the matters to come
up for debate, were all of a novel character, no man should be
prejudiced or held liable to the charge of inconsistency, because he had
changed his views in regard to any particular matter in the course of
the discussion. It was. also agreed that the vote, in case of a
division, should he by provinces and not by members, Canada having two
votes, representing Canada East and Canada West, and each of the other
provinces one. This arrangement made it quite certain that the interests
of the Maritime Provinces were not likely to be prejudiced by the result
of the vote or the work of the convention It was soon decided that a
federal union was to be preferred to a Legislative union, and on the
second day of the meeting, the outlines of the proposed Confederation
were submitted in a series of resolutions by the Honorable J. A.
Macdonald. The general model of the proposed Confederation, was that of
the United States, but with this difference, that whereas, in the United
States all powers, not expressly given by the constitution to the
Federal Government, are held to belong to the several States, in the
Canadian constitution, all powers not expressly reserved to the several
provinces, are held to belong to the Federal Parliament. Thus in the
United States, the residuum of power is in the several States, while in
Canada it is in the Federal union, and in the Parliament of the
Dominion. No doubt the recent example of the civil war in the United
States, which was the result of an extreme assertion of State rights,
was largely responsible for this feature of the Canadian constitution.
It is clear, however, that it is a feature that is to be commended,
because its tendency is to cause Canadians, to regard themselves rather
as Canadians than as belonging to any particular Province, while, in the
United States, the feeling of statehood is still very strong as has been
shown by recent events in that country. There are, of course, many other
contrasts between the Canadian Confederation and the Federal union of
the United States, arising from radical differences in the system of
Government. Nothing like Responsible Government, as understood in the
British Empire, exists in the United States, while this essential
feature had to be preserved in the Canadian constitution, not only with
reference to the Dominion Parliament, but also in the Legislatures of
the several Provinces. It is quite safe to assert that viewing the
Confederation in all its aspects, it is a much more efficient and
satisfactory form of Government than that which exists in the United
States, and that our Provincial Governments are superior in every
respect, to the State Governments of that country.
One great difficulty in
discussing the terms of a union was with respect to the amount of money
to be given by the Federal Government to the several Provinces for
legislative purposes, in lieu of the revenue which they had been
accustomed to obtain from customs duties and otherwise. The whole
Customs establishment was to be transferred to the central Government,
and as most of the Provinces would have no other means of obtaining a
revenue except by direct taxation, this feature of the matter became of
very vital importance. The difficulty was increased by the fact that, by
the municipal system then prevailing in Upper Canada, the local needs of
the municipalities, in the way of roads, bridges, schools and other
matters, were provided for by local taxation, whereas in the Maritime
Provinces, the Provincial Government had been accustomed to bear these
burdens. It was therefore an essential requisite to any scheme of union,
to make it acceptable to the people of the Maritime Provinces, that
sufficient money should be given to the Provincial Governments to enable
them to continue these services as before. It was difficult to convince
the representatives of Upper Canada of this, and it appears that the
conference came near breaking up without arriving at any result, simply
because of the apparently irreconcilable differences of opinion between
the representatives of the Maritime Provinces and those of Canada, in
regard to this point. Finally these differences were overcome, and the
conclusions of the conference were embodied in a series of seventy-two
resolutions, which were agreed to, and which were to be authenticated by
the signatures of the delegates, and to be transmitted to their
respective Governments, and also to the Governor General, for the
Secretary of State for the colonies. These resolutions formed the first
basis of Confederation, and became what is known as the Quebec scheme.
It was perhaps
inevitable, that during the discussion of the scheme of Confederation by
the Quebec convention, the proceedings should be secret, but this
restriction as to secrecy should have been removed as soon as the
convention adjourned. That this was not done was the principal reason
for the very unfavorable reception which the Quebec scheme met with from
the people of New Brunswick, when it was placed before them. It was
agreed at the Quebec conference that the scheme should not be made
public until after the delegates had reported to their respective
Governments for their approval, but it was impossible that a document,
the terms of which were known to so many men, should be kept wholly
concealed from the public, and so the details of the scheme leaked out,
and soon became a topic for public discussion. These discussions would
have been conducted in a much more friendly spirit if the Quebec scheme
had been given freely to the world, but as it was, prejudices and
jealousies in many cases darkened the question, and made men, who were
otherwise friendly to Confederation, assume an attitude of hostility to
the Quebec scheme.
One of the points which
at once attracted the attention of the opponents of the scheme, was the
sums allowed to the several provinces for the purpose of conducting
their local affairs. As the provinces had to surrender to the general
Government their right to levy customs and exercise duties, it became
necessary to make up in some way a sum sufficient to enable them to
carry on these services which were still left to the Provincial
Legislatures. It was arranged that this sum should be eighty cents a
head of the population of the provinces, as established by the census of
1861, which would give to the Province of New Brunswick something more
than $200,000. This feature of the Confederation scheme was eagerly
seized upon as being a convenient club with which to strike it down. The
cry was at once raised that the people of New Brunswick were asked to
sell themselves to Canada for the sum of eighty cents a head, and this
parrot-like cry was repeated with variations, throughout the whole of
the election campaign which followed in New Brunswick. It has often been
found that a cry of this kind, which is absolutely meaningless when
reduced to reason, is more effective than the most weighty arguments,
for the purpose of influencing men's minds, and this proved to be the
case in New Brunswick, when the question of Confederation was placed
before the people. It was conveniently forgotten by those who attacked
the scheme in this fashion, that if the people of New Brunswick were
selling themselves to Canada for the sum of eighty cents a head, the
people of Canada were likewise selling themselves to us for the same
sum, because the amount set apart for the Provincial Legislatures was
precisely the same in each case. It would not, however, have suited the
enemies of the Confederation scheme to view the matter in this light:
what was wanted was a cry which would be effective for the purpose of
injuring the scheme, and making it distasteful to our people who were
asked to vote upon it. It is not necessary to assume that those who
opposed Confederation were all influenced by sinister motives. Many
honest and good men, whose attachment to British institutions could not
be questioned, were opposed to it, because their minds were of a
conservative turn, and because they looked with distrust upon such a
radical change which would alter the relations which existed between the
Province and the Mother Country. Many, for reasons which it is not easy
to understand, were distrustful of the politicians of Canada, whom they
looked upon as of less sterling honesty than our own, and some actually
professed to believe that the Canadians expected to make up their
financial deficits by drawing on the many resources of the Maritime
Provinces through the Confederation scheme. On the other hand
Confederation was opposed in the Province of New Brunswick by a number
of men who could only be described as adventurers or discredited
politicians, and who saw in this contest, a convenient way of restoring
themselves to influence and power. There were also among the opponents
of the scheme some men who recognized in its success the means of
perpetuating British power on this continent, and who being
annexationists, naturally looked with aversion upon it for that reason.
The vast majority of the people, however, had given the matter but the
slightest degree of attention, and their votes were cast in accordance
with prejudices hastily formed, which they had an opportunity of
reconsidering before another year and a half had elapsed.
It had been arranged at
the Convention, that the first trial of the scheme before the people
should be made in the Province of New Brunswick, the Legislature of
which was about expiring, and accordingly, the appeal was made to the
people, and the elections came on in the month of March, 1865. The
enemies of Confederation were very active in every part of the Province,
and they left no stone unturned to defeat the measure. The great cry
upon which they based their opposition ..to the union with Canada was
that of taxation, and, as the voters of New Brunswick were not inclined
to favor any policy which involved high taxation, the appeals made in
this way had a powerful effect.
All through the rural
constituencies the opposition candidates told the electors, that if they
united themselves with Canada direct taxation would he the immediate
result; that every cow, every horse, and every sheep which they owned
would be taxed, and that even their poultry would not escape the grasp
of the Canadian tax-gatherers. In the city of St. John, Mr. Tilley and
his colleague, Mr. Charles Watters, were opposed by Mr. J. V. Troop and
Mr. A. R. Wetmore. Mr. Troop was a wealthy shipowner, whose large means
made him an acceptable addition to the strength of the anti-confederate
party, although previously he had taken no active part in political
affairs. Mr. Wetmore was a lawyer of standing in St. John, who was
considered to be one of the best nisi prius advocates at the bar, and
who carried the methods of the bar largely into his politics. Mr.
Wetmore never pretended to have any political principles, or or any
views whatever of a fixed character in regard to Confederation, or any
other political subject. Indeed it was his boast on a later occasion,
that, as he had been on both sides of the Confederation question he had
the assurance that he was at least right once. He rushed into the
contest for the purpose of bettering his own fortunes, and he succeeded
in doing so by becoming in the course of time, Attorney General of the
Province, and later on a judge of the Supreme Court. Mr. Wetmore when
haranguing St. John audiences, used to depict the dreadful effects of
Confederation in a manner peculiarly his own. His great plea was an
imaginary dialogue between himself and his little son, that precocious
infant asking him in lisping tones, "Father what country do we live in?"
to which he would reply, "My dear son you have no country, for Mr.
Tilley has sold us all to the Canadians for eighty cents a head."
In the county of St.
John, the Honorable John H. Gray, Charles N. Skinner. W. H. Scovil and
Mr. Quinton, who ran as supporters of Confederation, were opposed by
John W. Cudlip, T. W. Anglin, the Honorable R. D. Wilmot and Joseph
Coram. Mr. Cudlip was a merchant, who at one time enjoyed much
popularity in the city of St. John, but who was wholly unfit for
political life. He was an impulsive man, easily carried away by his
feelings, and after Confederation had become a fixed fact, he so far
forgot himself as to become an open advocate of annexation to the United
States. He enjoys the distinction of being the only member of our
Legislature who has ever moved a resolution in that body in favor of
annexation. Mr. Anglin was a clever Irishman, a native of the county of
Cork, who had lived several years in St. John, and edited a newspaper
called the "Freeman," which enjoyed a great popularity among his
co-religionists. He was admitted to be the leader of the Irish Catholics
of St. John, and had acquired an ascendancy over them which was not
easily shaken. Yet he was not, as a politician, a great success, nor did
his efforts to improve the condition of his countrymen always lead to
satisfactory results. Tlie Honorable R. D. Wilmot had been a prominent
Conservative politician, but was defeated and had retired to his farm at
Belmont, and, for some years, had been devoting his abilities to the
raising of calves and swine. But at the first note of alarm on the
Confederation question, he abandoned his agricultural pursuits and
rushed into the field to take part in the contest, which he thought
might ensure to his political advantage. Mr. Joseph Coram was a leading
Orangeman, a highly respected citizen, whose sole claim to distinction
was that he had personated King William in an Orange procession, which
had resulted in a riot some years before, and that his features were
supposed to resemble those of the Prince, whose memory the Orange body
has been created to honor.
In the county of York,
the Hon. George L. Hatheway, who was then Chief Commissioner of the
Board of Works, appeared in the field as an opposition candidate, in
company with John C. Allen, John J. Fraser, and William H. Needham. Mr.
Hatheway deserted the Government in its hour of need, apparently through
mere cowardice, because, he judged from the cries that were raised
against Confederation, that the current of public opinion was strongly
adverse to the Quebec scheme. He thought that by deserting his
colleagues he might retain his office in the new Government which was to
be formed, and in this view he was correct, but the final result showed
that he was as ready to desert his new allies as he had been those with
whom he had before associated. He left Mr. Tilley in the lurch on the
eve of the Confederation contest, and he deserted the Smith Government
sixteen months later, when the second Confederation election came to be
run, thereby inflicting upon them a blow from which it was impossible
they could recover. Hatheway was nothing more than a loud-mouthed
demagogue, with a large body and a small heart. William H. Needham,
whose name has already appeared in this volume, did not pretend to have
any political principles, but having been for some time retired to
private life, the Confederation struggle gave him a good opportunity of
getting into the Legislature. Needham was a man of very considerable
ability, and had his principles been only equal to his knowledge and
talents, he would have risen to the highest position in this Province.
But his shifty course on many occasions made the public distrustful of
him, and he died without having enjoyed any of these honors which men of
far less ability, but of more political honesty, have obtained. John
James Fraser, who became Governor of this Province, was a man of a
different stamp, and seems to have been a sincere opponent of
Confederation from conviction. The same may be said of John C. Allen,
afterwards Chief Justice of this Province, a man whose sterling honesty
has never been questioned.
The result of the
election was the most overwhelming defeat that ever overtook any
political party in the Province of New Brunswick. Out of forty-one
members, the friends of Confederation only succeeded in returning six,
Hon. John McMillan and Alexander C. DesBrisav, for the County of
Restigouche; Abner R. McClellan and John Lewis, for the County of
Albert; and William Lindsay and Charles Connell for the County of Carle
ton. Every member of the Government who held a seat in the House of
Assembly, with the exception of the Hon. John McMillan, the Surveyor
General, was defeated. The majorities against the Confederation
candidates in some of the counties were so large that it seemed hopeless
to expect that any future election would reverse the verdict. Both the
City and County of St. John, and the County of York, made a clean sweep
and returned solid delegations of anti-confederates. With the exception
of the two Carleton members, the entire block of counties on the river
St. John and the County of Charlotte, forming the most populous and best
settled part of the Province, declared against the Quebec scheme. On the
North Shore, Westmorland, Kent, Northumberland and Gloucester,
pronounced the same verdict, and on the day after the election, the
strongest friends of Confederation must have felt, that nothing but a
miracle could ever bring about a change in the opinion which had been
pronounced with such emphasis and with such apparent unanimity. Yet
fifteen months later, the verdict of March, 1865, was completely
reversed, and the anti-confederates were beaten as badly as the
advocates of Confederation had been in the first election; such are the
mutations of public opinion.
Mr. Tilley and his
colleagues resigned immediately after the result of the elections, and
the Hon. Albert J. Smith was called upon to form a new Government. Mr.
Smith had been Attorney General in Mr. Tilley's Government up to the
year 1862, when he resigned, in consequence of a difference with his
colleague in regard to the negotiations which were being carried on for
the construction of the Intercolonial Railway. Mr. Smith was a fine
speaker and a man of good ability, and at a later period, when
Confederation had been established, became a Cabinet Minister in the
Government of the Hon. Alex. MacKenzie. His powerful influence was
largely responsible for the manner in which the North Shore counties
declared against Confederation, and he also did much to discredit the
Quebec scheme by his speeches delivered in the city of St. John. Mr.
Smith did not take the office of Attorney General in the new Government,
but contented himself with the position of President of the Council,
Hon. John C. Allen of York, becoming Attorney General, and Hon. A. H.
Gillmor of Charlotte, Provincial Secretary. The Hon. Bliss Botsford, of
Westmorland, was made Surveyor General, the Hon. W. H. Odell, Postmaster
General; and the Hon. George L. Hatheway retained his old office as the
Chief Commissioner of the Board of Works. The other members of the
Government were the Hon. Robert Duncan Wilmot of Sunbury, the Hon. T. W.
Anglin of St. John, and the Hon. Richard Hutchinson of Miramichi. The
new Government looked strong and imposing, and seemed to be secure
against the assaults of its enemies, yet it was far from being as
compact and powerful as it appeared to the outward observer. In the
first place it had the demerit of being founded solely on a negative,
and upon opposition to a single line of policy. The reason why these men
were assembled together in Council as a Government, was that they were
opposed to Confederation, and this question having been disposed of,
left them free to differ upon all other points which might arise. Some
of the men who thus found themselves sitting together at the same
Council board, had all their lives been politically opposed to each
other. The Hon. R. D. Wilmot, an old Conservative, could have little or
no sympathy with Mr. A. H. Gillmor, a very strong Liberal. The Hon. A.
J. Smith, also a Liberal, had little in common with his Attorney
General, Mr. Allen, who was a Conservative. Mr. Odell, the-Postmaster
General, represented the old Family Compact more thoroughly than any
other man who could have been chosen to fill a public office in New
Brunswick, for his father and grandfather had held the office of
Provincial Secretary for the long term of sixty years. As he was a man
of no particular capacity, and had no qualification for high office, and
as he was moreover a member of the Legislative Council, his appointment
to such a position was extremely distasteful to many who were strongly
opposed to Confederation. The Hon. Bliss Botsford of Moncton, who became
Surveyor General, was another individual who added no strength to the
Government, being hopelessly dull by nature, and however honest in his
intentions, wholly unable to outline or even follow intelligently any
distinct line of policy. With four men in the Government who might be
classed as Liberals, and five who might be properly described as
Conservatives, room was left for many differences and quarrels over
points of policy, after the great question of Confederation had been
disposed of. Local feelings also, were awakened by the make up of the
Government, for the North Shore people could not but feel that their
interests had been grossly neglected, as instead of having the Attorney
Generalship and the Surveyor Generalship, which had been theirs in the
previous Government, they had to be content with a single member in the
Government, without office, in the person of Mr. Richard Hutchinson, who
as the representative of Gilmour, Rankin Co., was extremely unpopular,
even in the county which had elected him. Hon.. Robert Duncan Wilmot was
perhaps the most dissatisfied man of any, with the new cabinet in which
he found himself. He had not been a fortnight in the Government before
he began to realize the fact that his influence in it was quite
overshadowed by that of Mr. Smith and Mr. Anglin, although neither of
them held any office. Mr.. Wilmot was a man of ability, and of strong
and resolute will, so that this condition of affairs became very
distasteful to him and his friends, and led to consequences of a highly
important character..
The new Government had
not been long in existence before rumors of dissensions in its ranks
became very common. Mr. Wilmot made no secret to his friends of his
dissatisfaction, and it was also understood that other members found
their positions equally unpleasant. An element of difficulty was early
introduced by the resignation of the Chief Justice, Sir James Carter,
who found it necessary, in consequence of failing health, to retire from
the Bench. He resigned in September, 1865, and it immediately became
requisite to fill his place. The Hon. Albert J. Smith, the leader of the
Government, had he chosen, might have then taken the vacant position,
but he did not desire to retire from political life at that time, and
Hon. John C. Allen, his Attorney General, was appointed to the Bench as
a puisne judge, while Hon. Robert Parker was made Chief Justice. The
latter, however, had but a few weeks to enjoy his new position, dying in
November of the same year, and leaving another vacancy on the Bench to
be filled. Again as before, the Hon. Mr. Smith declined to go on the
Bench, and the Hon. John W. Weldon, who had been a long time a member of
former Legislatures, and was at one time Speaker, was appointed to the
puisne judgeship, and the Hon. William J. Ritchie made Chief Justice.
The entire fitness of the latter for the position of Chief Justice made
his appointment a popular one, but he was the junior of the Hon. Lemuel
A. Wilmot as a judge, and the Hon. R. D. Wilmot, who was a cousin of the
latter, thought the senior judge should have received the appointment of
Chief Justice. His disappointment at the office being given to another,
caused a very bad feeling on his part towards the Government, and he
would have resigned his seat forthwith, but for the persuasions of some
of those who were not friends of the Government, who intimated to him
that he could do them a great deal more damage by retaining his seat,
and resigning at the proper time, than by abandoning the Government at
that moment. Mr. Wilmot remained in the Government until January ? 1866,
but, although of their number, his heart was estranged from them, and he
may properly be regarded as an enemy in their camp.
Mr. Anglin also had
differences with his colleagues with regard to railway matters, and he
resigned his seat early in November, 1865 ; still he gave a general
support to the Government although no longer in its Councils. But the
most severe blow which the Government received, arose from the election
in the County of York which followed the seating of the Hon. John C.
Allan on the bench. The Confederation party had been so badly beaten in
York at the general election, that no doubt was felt by the Government
that any candidate they might select, would be chosen by a very large
majority. The candidate selected to contest York by the Government, was
Mr. John Pickard, a highly respectable gentleman, who was engaged in
lumbering, and who was extremely popular in that County, in consequence
of his friendly relations with all classes of the community and the
amiability of his disposition. Mr. Pickard would have been an ideal
candidate had he been a better speaker, but he never pretended to be an
active politician, and therefore stood at a disadvantage as compared to
some men of no better ability but of greater eloquence. The Hon. Charles
Fisher, was brought forward by the Confederation party as their
candidate for York, although the hope of defeating Mr. Pickard seemed to
be desperate, for at the previous election, Mr. Fisher had only received
1,226 votes against 1,799 obtained by Mr. Needham, who stood lowest on
the poll among the persons elected for York. Mr. Fisher's abilities have
already been sufficiently referred to in this work, and it need only be
said that by his conduct in the York campaign, which resulted in his
election, he struck a blow at the anti-confederate Government from which
it never recovered. His election was the first dawn of light and hope to
the friends of Confederation in New Brunswick, for it showed clearly
enough that whenever the people of this Province were given another
opportunity of expressing their opinion on the question of
Confederation, their verdict would be a very different one from that
which they had given at the general election. Mr. Fisher beat Mr.
Pickard by 710 votes, receiving 701 votes more than at the general
election, while Mr. Pickard's vote fell 572 below that which Mr. Needham
had received on the same occasion. |