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THE first general
election after Confederation took place in 1872. The Opposition had
gained coherence, their hopes of victory ran high, and the fight was
keen. Despite the great work they had carried out in organizing the
new federal system, Macdonald and his colleagues had many opposing
influences to combat in the constituencies. Many electors were
afraid of the gigantic scheme for throwing a railway across the
continent, and their fears were sedulously cultivated by the leaders
of the Opposition. The "better terms" granted to Nova Scotia in
order to secure the adhesion of that province to Confederation were
almost as sharply criticized as were the railway inducements held
out to British Columbia. The supreme object of a united Canada did
not appeal to the imagination of the Liberals of the day, or incline
them to make such sacrifices for its attainment as it did with
Macdonald. Incidentally, of course, the larger line of policy, being
in accord with the dominant feeling of the country, helped to keep
the Conservatives in power, a circumstance which could hardly be
expected to recommend these sacrifices in Liberal eyes. But outside
of mere party considerations there were serious disturbing
influences. The Orangemen of Ontario were angry because the
murderers of Scott at Fort Garry had not been brought to justice ;
the Roman Catholics of Quebec because a full amnesty had not been
granted to the rebels. Another religious difficulty had sprung up in
the Maritime Provinces. Among the matters specifically reserved for
provincial control in the new constitution was that of education.
The provincial legislatire of New Brunswick in the exercise of its
constitutional right had in 1871 passed a law which had the effect
of taking away government support from separate denominational
schools. These had been practically, though not by name, allowed to
share in government assistance under the system which was then
abolished. The new law weighed heavily upon the Roman Catholics, and
a series of petitions was laid before the Dominion parliament in
1872 praying for its disallowance.
Unluckily for the
Catholics of New Brunswick, it was their co-religionists of Quebec
who had originally insisted upon education being placed under
provincial control, and so even Cartier dared not advise
disallowance. Macdonald did his best to mollify Catholic opinion by
passing through the House a resolution suggesting that the law
officers of the British Crown should be consulted as to the
constitutionality of the measure, and urging the province in any
case to modify its law so "as to remove any just grounds of
discontent which now exist." The law officers of the Crown, to whom
the question was preferred, promptly confirmed the constitutionality
of the provincial measure, and it was only some years later that a
compromise was made which alleviated the position of the New
Brunswick Catholics. Meanwhile Cartier's failure to stand by his
Church in defiance of the constitution greatly weakened his
influence among many zealous and prejudiced voters of his native
province.
He was at this time
in failing health and, through various causes besides that already
mentioned, had lost a large measure of his popularity in his
Montreal constituency, which was rapidly assuming a decidedly Rouge
complexion. It was evident from the first that he would have a
severe contest to preserve his seat, and when the hour of trial came
he was signally defeated.
The Washington
Treaty, for the Canadian claims of which Macdonald assumed full
responsibility, had been diligently represented as a sacrifice to
imperial interests. Not merely had this been done by the Opposition
in parliament and out of it, but even one of his colleagues, Joseph
Howe, then secretary of state, had taken public occasion to
criticize the treaty, and had spoken in terms of scorn of "England's
recent diplomatic efforts to buy her own peace at the sacrifice of
our interests." Under ordinary circumstances so great an
indiscretion on the part of a cabinet minister must have entailed
resignation, but on the eve of an election Macdonald could not
afford to throw overboard the chief representative of Nova Scotia, a
province in which the embers of discontent were still glowing and
ready to burst anew into flame, and in which Howe was still a power.
With admirable self-control he repressed his vexation and excused,
as best he could, the utterances of his impulsive colleague.
The abandonment of
the claims against the United States for the Fenian outrages in
consideration of an imperial guarantee was especially unpopular in
Ontario, where the raids had caused loss of life as well as much
public expense and anxiety. Nor was the thought that Great Britain
was meekly paying the debt due by a foreign power, and one most
persistent and exacting where its own rights were concerned,
altogether flattering to the British pride of the Canadian people.
Macdonald, with the
instinct of a great political strategist, felt that the approaching
struggle would be critical. He had convinced himself, as we are
assured, that in the attitude of the Opposition on more than one
question there were great possibilities of danger to the new
Confederation. He threw himself, therefore, into the contest with
all his energy—an energy, as the sequel proved, that carried him far
beyond the bounds both of prudence and of principle. That he
conscientiously thought he was exerting himself for Canada's good
his friends have always strenuously maintained, and possibly even
the dispassionate historian may find it not impossible to believe.
Writing to Lord Monck after the election, he says: "I never worked
so hard before and never shall do so again; but I felt it to be
necessary this time. I did not want a verdict against the treaty
from the country, and besides, I sincerely believe that the advent
of the Opposition, as it is now constituted, to power, would greatly
damage the future of Confederation." And again: "I had to fight a
stern and up-hill battle in Ontario, and had I not taken regularly
to the stump, a thing that I have never done before, we should have
been completely routed. The chief ground of attack on the government
was the Washington Treaty, and our submitting to Gladstone's resolve
not to press the Fenian claims. Added to this, of course, were all
the sins of omission and commission that gather round an
administration of so many years duration as ours."
The completed
election returns showed that the government was sustained, but by a
significantly reduced majority. All the provinces, except Ontario,
supported Macdonald and his policy. Nova Scotia, under the vigorous
persuasion of Sir Charles Tupper, exactly reversed the verdict of
five years before, returning twenty Conservative members out of
twenty-one. The defeat of two ministers, Sir Georges Cartier in the
province of Quebec and Sir Francis Hincks in Ontario, together with
the notable gains made by the Opposition in the latter province, had
sensibly weakened the position of the administration. Still,
confident in his own ability to make the most of the material at his
command, Macdonald met parliament in 1873, without any serious
misgivings as to the future. He seemed, indeed, at the climax of a
brilliantly successful career. He had not only accomplished
Confederation, but, in spite of preliminary difficulties of many
kinds, had put the new system into regular operation. His
judiciously dispensed liberality had reconciled old provinces and
won new; the Dominion stretched from the Atlantic to the Pacific,
from the Great Lakes to the frozen pole. At Washington he had
measured his strength with the diplomats and statesmen of Britain
and the United States, and in tact and firmness found himself fully
their equal. After a fierce struggle, the people had again expressed
their confidence in him, and his triumph had been greatest where
five years before the Opposition had been most overwhelming. In the
hands of so consummate a tactician the majority obtained was
sufficient for working purposes ; it might grow to more, but the
methods by which some part of this majority had been gained had yet
to be revealed, and, all unperceived, the Nemesis which attends a
too devious expediency in political morals lay silently in wait for
the great party leader. In less than a year after the House met he
had been hurled from power, condemned by the voice of the Canadian
people, his political career apparently closed, if not blasted,
forever.
As a chapter in
Canadian history the story of the "Pacific Scandal" is not a
pleasant one for Canadians to read, or for a biographer of Macdonald
to deal with. It is the unfortunate record of all democracies that
the freedom of self-government, won through long and painful
struggles, is ever liable to corruption at the fountain-head; that
many holders of the franchise are ready to sacrifice the higher
rights of citizenship for base considerations; that leaders are
willing, or feel themselves constrained, to accept constituents at
their own valuation and purchase a support which they see no other
means of obtaining. Canada unfortunately supplied a modern instance
of this fatal tendency. In the bitter struggles of party politics
which had gone on ever since Macdonald entered public life, passion
or conviction undoubtedly controlled the great mass of the voters,
but it is also certain that party funds were used on both sides, as
occasion offered, to sway that characterless and venal class that in
closely divided constituencies so often turns the scale of victory.
Expenditure on the vast scale familiar in English politics in the
last century was unknown and impossible, but such means as were
available were freely employed, and the replenishing of the party
exchequer was consequently an important preliminary in every general
election. The necessity for a party fund may be freely admitted, but
the methods employed in its collection and distribution put a severe
strain too often upon political morality.
In 1871, on the motion of Sir Georges Cartier, in the absence of
Macdonald at Washington, parliament had accepted the suggestion of
the Opposition that the railway stipulated for by British Columbia
should be built, not by the government, but by a state-aided
company. During 1871 and 1872 two such companies received charters
from the Dominion government, the Inter-Oceanic, headed by Senator
D. L. Macpherson of Toronto, and the Canadian Pacific, of which the
leading member was Sir Hugh Allan of Montreal. In the formation of
the latter company capitalists of the United States were largely
interested.
Not wishing to favour
exclusively either the Ontario interest represented by the one, or
the Quebec interest which was strong in the other, Macdonald
endeavoured to bring about an amalgamation of the two companies, a
negotiation in which his colleague, Sir Alexander Campbell, took a
leading part, but this attempt finally broke down owing to the
impossibility of choosing between Allan and Macpherson as
presidents, neither of whom would yield precedence to the other.
Macdonald then devoted himself to forming a new company, combining
the chief elements of both but free from all control by foreign
capital, to which there was a strong popular objection throughout
the Dominion. This company was finally constituted, with Sir Hugh
Allan as president of the board of directors, a position to which
his wealth and great influence in the British money market fairly
entitled him.
Parliament had
already resolved that any company which undertook to build the road
should be subsidized with a grant of thirty million dollars in cash
and fifty million acres of land, and a condition was made, as a
security against outside control, that the stock of the company
should not be transferable for six years. The best opinion of the
time, that the public support offered to the enterprise was not too
great, was ratified by subsequent experience.
The first session of
the new parliament opened on March 5th, 1873, and for the first few
weeks business proceeded as usual and without any hint of the coming
storm. But on April 2nd, Mr. Lucius Seth Huntington, member for the
county of Shefford, rose in his place in the House and amid dead
silence moved: "That Mr. Huntington, a member of the House, having
stated in his place that he is credibly informed, and believes that
he can establish by satisfactory evidence,
"THAT in anticipation
of the legislation of last session as to the Pacific Railway, an
agreement was made between Sir Hugh Allan, acting for himself, and
certain other Canadian promoters, and G. W. MacMullen, acting for
certain United States capitalists, whereby the latter agreed to
furnish all the funds necessary for the construction of the
contemplated railway, and to give the former a certain percentage of
interest, in consideration of their interest and position, the
scheme agreed on being ostensibly that of a Canadian company with
Sir Hugh Allan at its head,
"THAT the government
were aware that negotiations were pending between these parties,—
"THAT subsequently an
understanding was come to between the government and Sir Hugh Allan
and Mr. Abbott, M.P., that Sir Hugh Allan and his friends should
advance a large sum of money for the purpose of aiding the election
of ministers and their supporters at the general election, and that
he and his friends should receive the contract for the construction
of the railway,
"THAT accordingly Sir
Hugh Allan did advance a large sum of money for the purpose
mentioned, at the solicitation, and under the pressing instances of
ministers,
"THAT part of the
moneys expended by Sir Hugh Allan in connection with obtaining the
Act of Incorporation and Charter were paid to him by the said United
States capitalists under the agreement with him,—it is
"Ordered, that a
committee of seven members be appointed to enquire into all the
circumstances connected with the negotiations for the construction
of the Pacific Railway, with the legislation of last session on the
subject, and with the granting of the charter to Sir Hugh Allan and
others; with power to send for persons, papers and records; and with
instructions to report in full the evidence taken before, and all
proceedings of, said committee."
This bombshell did
not for the moment explode. After making his motion Mr. Huntington
sat down. No one rose to reply. Sir John Macdonald sat unmoved.
After a long silence a division was taken without debate, and what
was practically a vote of censure supported only by the bare word of
Mr. Huntington was defeated by one hundred and seven to seventy-six.
Huntington's failure to bring forward any evidence was regarded as a
gross tactical blunder by two such experts as Sir John Macdonald and
Lord Dufferin, the new governor-general. It has been questioned
whether at the time he had such evidence in his possession. He may
have believed it to exist, and ventured his motion as a feeler. As
such it was abundantly successful. The charges were too serious to
be passed over, amounting as they did to an accusation that the
government "had trafficked with foreigners in Canada's most precious
interests in order to debauch the constituencies of the Dominion
with the gold obtained as the price of their treachery." [Lord
Dufferin to the Earl of Kimberly, August 15th, 1873.] Next day Sir
John Macdonald gave notice of a motion which was carried five days
later (April 8th), "that a select committee of five members (of
which committee the mover shall not be one) be appointed by this
House to enquire into and report upon the several matters contained
and stated in the resolution moved on Wednesday, the 2nd day of
April instant, by the Hon. Mr. Huntington, member for the county of
Shefford, relating to the Canadian Pacific Railway, with power to
send for persons, papers and records, and to report the evidence
from time to time, and, if need be, to sit after the prorogation of
parliament."
It was suggested that
a special Act should be passed empowering the committee to examine
witnesses on oath. Macdonald doubted the legality of such a course,
but suggested that the same end, which he approved, might be
attained by issuing, as he offered to do, a royal commission to the
committee. His opinion was over-ruled and the Act giving power to
examine under oath was passed. On being referred to the law officers
of the Crown in England, the Bill was disallowed as ultra vires.
Meantime, the
committee decided to adjourn till July 2nd on account of the absence
in England of witnesses so essential as Sir Georges Cartier and the
Hon. J. J. C. Abbott; while parliament adjourned till August 13th on
the clear understanding that its meeting would then be a formal
one—merely for the reception of the report. It was considered that
this arrangement would give time for the completion of the
investigations.
When the committee
met in July the proclamation of disallowance consequent upon the
decision of the law officers of the Crown had been made, and as the
committee did not feel free to depart from the instructions of the
House of Commons to take the evidence under oath, Macdonald again
offered to issue a royal commission. But Messrs. Blake and Dorion,
the Liberal members of the committee, believing that the enquiry
should be conducted under the direction of the Commons and not of
the Crown, refused to act upon the commission, so the enquiry was
for the moment blocked. But in the interval between these events and
the time appointed for the meeting of parliament, new developments
arrested public attention. On July 4th a Montreal paper published a
number of letters and telegrams sent by Sir Hugh Allan to
capitalists and others in the United States, pointing strongly to
the existence of a corrupt bargain between Allan and the government
in connection with the charter for building the Canadian Pacific
Railway. A statement on oath by Sir Hugh Allan denying the charges
made by Mr. Huntington of a corrupt bargain, or indeed of any
bargain, was published on July 5th. This quieted public anxiety and
excitement for the moment, but on July 18th further documents and
telegrams, surreptitiously obtained in some way from private
offices, and apparently authentic, were published, showing that Sir
Georges Cartier and Sir John Macdonald had, during the progress of
the election, called for and received from Sir Hugh Allan, large
sums of money with the manifest purpose of influencing the
constituencies.
When the House met
according to arrangement on August 13th, vehement efforts were made
by the Opposition to change the form of meeting agreed upon into a
regular session, in order to deal at once with the charges that had
been made. To this Macdonald could not agree, as a large body of his
supporters were in the more distant parts of Canada and some in
Europe, so that the Opposition, whose strength lay in Ontario, would
probably have secured a majority on any vote of censure in a
parliament so called together. Great pressure was brought upon the
governor-general, the Earl of Dufferin, by petition and through the
press, to induce him to insist upon parliament proceeding to deal
with the question at once. When the governor-general announced his
decision that by the constitution he was bound to follow the advice
of his ministers in regard to prorogation, the House broke up amid
scenes of great excitement. On the day following the prorogation, a
royal commission was issued, on Macdonald's advice, to three judges,
empowering them to investigate and report the evidence bearing upon
the charges.
The commission began
its sittings on August 28th. It examined Macdonald and several
members of the government, together with Sir Hugh Allan, Mr.
Macpherson and many others. Mr. Huntington refused to assist in the
inquiry, averring that to do so would be a breach of the privileges
of parliament. Parliament itself was summoned on October 23rd to
receive the report. Meanwhile on October 9th, Macdonald had
addressed to the governor-general an elaborate statement,
confidential at the time, but since published, of the circumstances
connected with the formation of the Canadian Pacific Railway
Company, and a defence of his position in relation to the charges
made. The expenditure of money on the elections was freely admitted,
and was justified, partly as legitimate expense, partly as the
custom in party contests, partly as an offset to Opposition
expenditure and influence, especially in the province of Ontario,
where a local Liberal administration threw its whole weight against
his government. That there was any corrupt bargain between Sir Hugh
Allan and himself he utterly denied. The inducement to large
expenditures made by that gentleman was explained by his extensive
steamboat and other interests, the future of which depended to a
great extent on the success of the government policy. In this
statement, confidential at the time, but since published, Macdonald
admitted that Sir Georges Cartier had, at an early stage of the
proceedings, made arrangements with Sir Hugh Allan which he could
not approve and had felt bound to repudiate, attributing the error
of judgment to the failing health and weakened mental powers of his
colleague.
When parliament met
on October 23rd to receive the report of the commission, an
amendment to the address was immediately moved by Mr. Alexander
Mackenzie, the leader of the Opposition. This amendment said: "We
have to acquaint His Excellency that by their course in reference to
the investigation of the charges preferred by Mr. Huntington in his
place in this House, and under the facts disclosed in the evidence
laid before us, His Excellency's advisers have merited the severest
censure of the House."
A week of fierce
discussion followed, during which it gradually became clear to
Macdonald that he could not hold his majority together in the
division which was approaching. On the fourth day of the debate he
rose to make his fuller defence before the House, and in a speech of
five hours in length reviewed all the circumstances of the election,
and of the subsequent investigation. But it was with the knowledge
that he was confronted with defeat that he made his final appeal. "I
commit myself," he said, "the government commits itself to the hands
of this House, and far beyond the House, it commits itself to the
country at large. We have faithfully done our duty. We have fought
the battle of Confederation. We have fought the battle of Union. We
have had party strife, setting province against province; and, more
than all, we have had in the greatest province, the preponderating
province of the Dominion, every prejudice and sectional feeling that
could be arrayed against us. I have been the victim of that conduct
to a great extent, but I have fought the battle of Confederation,
the battle of Union, the battle of the Dominion of Canada. I throw
myself upon this House; I throw myself upon this country; I throw
myself upon posterity; and I believe that I know that,
notwithstanding the many failings in my life, I shall have the voice
of this country and this House rallying round me. And, Sir, if I am
mistaken in that, I can confidently appeal to a higher court—to the
court of my own conscience, and to the court of posterity. I leave
it with this House with every confidence. I am equal to either
fortune. I can see past the decision of this House, either for or
against me, but whether it be for or against me, I know, and it is
no vain boast for me to say so, for even my enemies will admit that
I am no boaster—that there does not exist in Canada a man who has
given more of his time, more of his heart, more of his wealth, or
more of his intellect and power, such as they may be, for the good
of this Dominion of Canada."
It was evident,
however, as the debate progressed, that the time for special
pleading and excuse was past. The conscience of the country had been
shocked by the revelation made of the methods by which the late
election had been won for the Conservative party, many of
Macdonald's own followers were in painful doubt, and independent
members who had hitherto supported his great lines of policy were
falling away. Early in the morning of November 5th, the member for
Winnipeg, Mr. Donald A. Smith (now Lord Strathcona) spoke amid great
excitement in the House, as neither party knew what course he would
take. In the early part of his speech he dwelt favourably upon what
the government had accomplished. But he concluded by saying that:--
"With respect to the transaction between the government and Sir Hugh
Allan, he did not consider that the first minister took the money
with any corrupt motive. He felt that the leader of the government
was incapable of taking money from Sir Hugh Allan for corrupt
purposes. He would be most willing to vote confidence in the
government—could he do so conscientiously. It was with very great
regret that he felt he could not do so. For the honour of the
country, no government should exist that has a shadow of suspicion
of this kind resting on them, and for that reason he could not
support them."
It has been generally
believed that it was this speech which decided Macdonald's course.
Recognizing that defeat was inevitable, without awaiting the result
of the debate he placed his resignation in the hands of the
governor-general and on the same day (November 5th, 1873) announced
in the House that the government had resigned and that Mr. Alexander
Mackenzie had been called upon to form a ministry. So ended under a
dark cloud of public suspicion the great administration under which
Confederation had been inaugurated and the country launched upon the
flood of its larger destinies.
On the dissolution of
parliament and the appeal to the electors which soon followed the
formation of a new administration, overwhelming defeat at the polls
fell upon Macdonald and his party. He himself narrowly escaped
rejection in his old constituency of Kingston, and his whole
following in the new parliament barely numbered forty-five in a
House of two hundred and six members. As with Palmerston in 1858
opponents thought and loudly proclaimed that his political career
was ended. Confident in his own integrity of purpose, and in the
strength of his hold upon the popular mind; confident too in his
plans for the future of the country, and convinced that the country
would yet have need of him, Macdonald bowed to the storm, faced the
situation with undaunted courage, and took up with cheerfulness the
work of leading the Opposition. To this task he was called by the
absolutely unanimous vote of his small band of followers in
parliament. |
