PREFACE
Few among the makers of
Canada have played so varied a part in her upbuilding as Alexander
Tilloch Galt. There have been statesmen who impressed themselves more
spectacularly upon popular memory. There have been business men who have
since carried through greater projects of industrial development. There
have, however, been few men in our annals who combined in such a degree
eminence both in political and in commercial life.
No man did more, if any did as much, to achieve Confederation. While he
declined the highest office in his country's gift, Galt was for many
years foremost in party council and in parliamentary struggle. Few
finance ministers have combined his large grasp of public affairs, his
power of bringing order out of chaos, and his lucidity of expression. He
was our first and is still our foremost diplomatist. In the shaping of
opinion upon the future political relations of his country he took a
changing but always reasoned and always influential part Yet he never
could bring himself to make politics his sole or dominant interest In
the opening of the Eastern Townships to settlement in the early railroad
development of Canada, and in the first great projects of joint stock
company enterprise, he displayed unusual financial capacity and power of
handling men, while in his latest years his energy and optimism found an
outlet in enterprises for developing the land and mining resources of
the far west.
Throughout the formative period of our national history, Galt played a
part of lasting significance to the Canada and the Canadians of after
days. The forces that shaped the life and destiny of the Canada of the
days before Confederation, and the new Canada of the first years after,
are nowhere more fully displayed than in his manifold interests and
achievements. In presenting this story of his life, it is hoped to give
some picture of the times in which he worked, and particularly of the
political experiments worked out under the Union of the two Canadas.
It is a pleasant duty to acknowledge the kindness of Mr. Elliott Galt in
placing his father's private papers unreservedly at the writer’s
disposal.
O. D. SKELTON
Kingston, Canada, 1919
Download
The Life and Times of Sir Alexander Tilloch Galt
here |