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MACDONALD, SIR JOHN ALEXANDER (1815-1...
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See also:MACDONALD, See also:SIR See also: His capacity soon attracted See also:attention, and in 1847 he was made See also:receiver-See also:general with a seat in the executive See also:council, an office soon exchanged for the more important one of See also:commissioner of See also:Crown-lands. Although the government of which he thus became a member held office for only ten months, being placed in a hopeless minority on making an See also:appeal to the country, Macdonald from this time forward took a position of constantly increasing See also:weight in his party. One of the first acts of the Reform government which succeeded that of which Macdonald was a member was to pass the Rebellion Losses See also:Bill, made famous in colonial history by the fact that it brought to a See also:crucial test the principle of responsible government. The assent of Lord See also:Elgin to the bill provoked in See also:Montreal a See also:riot which ended in the burning of the houses of See also:parliament, and so See also:great was the indignation of the hitherto ultra-loyal Conservative party that many of its most prominent members signed a document favquring See also:annexation to the See also:United States; Macdonald on the other See also:hand took steps, in See also:conjunction with others, to See also:form a British-See also:American See also:league, having for its See also:object the See also:confederation of all the provinces, the strengthening of the connexion with the mother country, and the See also:adoption of a See also:national commercial policy. He remained in opposition from 1848 till 1854, holding together under difficult circumstances an unpopular party with which he was not entirely in sympathy. The two great political issues of the time were the secularization of the See also:clergy reserves in Ontario, and the abolition of seigniorial 'See also:tenure in See also:Quebec. Both of these reforms Macdonald See also:long opposed, but when successive elections had proved that they were sup-ported by public See also:opinion, he brought about a See also:coalition of Conservatives and moderate reformers for the purpose of carrying them. Out of this coalition was gradually See also:developed the Liberal-conservative party, of which until his See also:death Macdonald continued to be the most considerable figure, and which for more than See also:forty years largely moulded the history of Canada. From 1854 to 1857 he was See also:attorney-general of Upper Canada, and then, on the retirement of See also:Colonel Tache, he became See also:prime See also:minister. This first coalition had now accomplished its temporary purpose, but so closely were parties divided at this period, that the defeat and reinstatement of governments followed each other in rapid See also:succession. The experiment of applying responsible government on party lines to the two See also:Canadian provinces at last seemed to have come to a deadlock. Two general elections and the defeat of four ministries within three years had done nothing to solve the difficulties of the situation. At this critical period a proposal was made for a coalition of parties in See also:order to carry out' a broad See also:scheme of British-American confederation. The immediate proposal is said to have come from See also:George See also: The North-See also:West Territories were secured as a part of confederated Canada by the See also:purchase of the rights of the See also:Hudson's See also:Bay See also:Company, and the establishment of See also:Manitoba as a province in 187o. Canada's interests were protected during the negotiations which ended in the treaty of See also:Washington in 1871, and in which Sir John took a leading part as one of the British delegates. In this year British See also:Columbia entered the confederation, one of the provisions of union being that a transcontinental railroad should be built within ten years. This was declared by the opposition to be impossible. It was possible only to a leader of indomitable will. Charges of See also:bribery against the government in' connexion with the See also:contract for the building of this See also:line led to the resignation of the cabinet in 1874, and for four years Sir John was in opposition. But he was by no means inactive. During the summer of 1876 he travelled through Ontario addressing the people on the subject of a commercial See also:system looking to the See also:protection of native See also:industries. This was the celebrated " National Policy," which had been in his thoughts as long ago as the formation of the British-American League in 185o. The government of Alexander Mackenzie refused to consider a protection policy, and determined to adhere to See also:Free See also:Trade, with a See also:tariff for See also:revenue only. On these strongly defined issues the two parties appealed to, the people in 1878. The Liberal party was almost swept away, and Sir John, on his return to See also:power, put his policy into effect with a thoroughness that commanded the admiration even of his opponents, who, after long resistance, adopted it on their See also:accession to office in 1896. He also undertook the immediate construction of the Canadian Pacific railway, which had been postponed by the former government. The line was begun See also:late in 188o, and finished in November 1885—an achievement which Sir John ranked among his greatest triumphs. " The faith of Sir John," says one of his biographers, " did more to build the road than the See also:money of See also:Mount-See also:Stephen." During the remaining years of his See also:life his efforts at administration were directed mainly towards the organization and development of the great North-West. From 1878 until his death in 1891 Sir John retained his position as premier of Canada, and his history is practically that of Canada (q.v.). For forty-six years of a stormy political life he remained true to the See also:cardinal policy that he had announced to the electors of Kingston in 1844. " A British subject I was born; a British subject I will See also:die," says his last political manifesto to the people of the Dominion. At his advanced age the anxiety and excitement of the contested See also:election of 1891 proved too great. On the 29th of May he suffered a stroke of See also:paralysis, which caused his death eight days later (See also:June 6). .The career of Sir John Macdonald must be considered in connexion with the political history of Canada and the conditions of its government during the latter See also:half of the 19th See also:century. Trained in a school where the principles of responsible government were still in an embryonic state, where the adroit management of coalitions and cabals was essential to the life of a political party, and where plots and counterplots were looked upon as a See also:regular part of the political See also:game, he acquired a dexterity and skill in managing men that finally gave him an almost autocratic power among his political followers. But great See also:personal qualities supplemented his political dexterity and sagacity. A strong will enabled him to overcome the passionate See also:temper which marked his youth, and later in his career a See also:habit of intemperance, which he at first shared with many public men of his time. He was a See also:man of strong ambitions, but these were curbed by a shrewd foresight, which led him for a long time to submit to the nominal leadership of other and smaller men. Politics he made his business, and to this he devoted all his energies. He had the See also:gift of living for the See also:work in hand without feeling the See also:distraction of other interests. He had a singular See also:faculty for See also:reading the minds and the motives of men, and to this insight he perhaps owed the power of adaptability (called by his opponents shiftiness) which characterized his whole career. To this power the successful guidance of the Dominion through its critical formative period must be ascribed: Few political leaders have ever had such a number of antagonistic elements to reconcile as presented themselves in the first Canadian parliament after confederation. The man who could See also:manage to See also:rule a congeries of jealous factions, including Irish Catholics and See also:Orangemen, See also:French and See also:English See also:anti-federationists and See also:agitators for See also:independence, Conservatives and Reformers, careful economists and prodigal expansionists, was manifestly a man of unusual power, See also:superior to small prejudices, and without strong See also:bias towards any creed or See also:section. Such a man Macdonald proved himself to be. His See also:personality stands out at this period as the central power in which each See also:faction chiefly reposed See also:trust, and under which it could join hands with the others in the service of the state. His singleness of purpose, personal independence and indomitable See also:energy enabled him to achieve triumphs that to others seemed impossible. His methods cannot always be defended, and were explained by himself only on grounds of necessity and the See also:character of the electorate with which he had to See also:deal. After the " Pacific See also:scandal " of 1874 the leader of the opposite party declared that " John A." (as he was generally called) " has fallen, never to rise again." Yet he not only cleared his own character from the charges laid against him, but succeeded four years later in achieving his most See also:signal party See also:triumph. His natural urbanity allowed him to rule without seeming to rule. When baffled in See also:minor See also:objects he gave way with a See also:good-natured flexibility which brought upon him at times charges of inconsistency. Yet Canada has seen statesmen of more contracted view insist on such small points, fall, and See also:drag down their party with them. He lived at a time when the exigencies of state seemed to require the See also:peculiar talents which he possessed. Entering politics at the dreariest and least profitable See also:stage in Canadian history, he took the foremost part in the movement which .made of Canada a nation; he guided that nation through the nebulous stages of its existence, and See also:left it united, strong and vigorous, a See also:monument to his patriotic and far-sighted statesmanship. His statue adorns the squares of the See also:principal Canadian towns. In the See also:crypt of St See also:Paul's See also:Cathedral a memorial has rightly been placed to him as a statesman, not merely of Canada, but of the empire. In unveiling that memorial Lord See also:Rosebery fitly epitomized the meaning of his life and work when he said: " We recognize only this, that Sir John Macdonald had grasped the central idea that the British Empire is the greatest See also:secular agency for good now known to mankind; that that was the See also:secret of his success; and that he determined to die under it, and strove that Canada should live under it." Macdonald became a member of the Imperial Privy Council in 1879, and in 1884 he received the See also:Grand See also:Cross of the See also:Bath. His first wife was his See also:cousin, See also:Miss See also:Isabella See also:Clark, who died in 1858, leaving one surviving son, the Hon. Hugh John Macdonald, at one time premier of the province of Manitoba. By his second See also:marriage, to Miss See also:Bernard in 1867, Macdonald left an only daughter. On his death in 1891 his widow was created Baroness Macdonald of Earnscliffe. The authorized and fullest See also:biography of Sir John A. Macdonald is one written by his private secretary, Joseph See also:Pope. Others have been written by his See also:nephew, Colonel J. Pennington See also:Macpherson, and by J. E. See also:Collins. A See also:bright and amusing anecdotal life has been compiled by E. D. See also:Biggar. A condensed biography by G. R. See also:Parkin forms one of the " Makers of Canada " See also:series (See also:Toronto, 1907; new ed., 1909). (G. R. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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