IMPERIAL FEDERATION LEAGUE IN CANADA
The progress the Commercial Union movement was making, and the great danger arising from it, led my brother and me to discuss it with a number of loyal men, and on all sides the opinion seemed to be that active steps should be taken at once to work against it. The principal active workers at first were officers of my regiment and a few other personal friends, and small meetings were held in my brother’s office to discuss the matter, and it was decided that the best policy was to advocate a Commercial Union of the British Empire as the alternative to the proposition of a Commercial Union with the United States, and that a scheme of Imperial Federation based upon a Commercial Union of the various parts of the Empire would be the best method of advocating our views. By advocating Imperial Federation it enabled us to appeal to the old dream of the United Empire Loyalists of the Revolution. It gave the opportunity of appealing to our history, to the sacrifices of our fathers, to all the traditions of race, and the ties of blood and kindred, to the sacrifices and the victories of the war of 1812, and to the national spirit of our people, to preserve our status as a part of the British Empire. G. R. R. Cockburn, J. M. Clark, D’Alton McCarthy, John Beverley Robinson, Wm. Hamilton Merritt, Lt.-Colonel Fred C. Denison, Casimir Dickson, Commander Law, John T. Small, D. R. Wilkie, John A. Worrell, Henry Wickham, and James L. Hughes were the moving spirits in organising the Toronto Branch of the Imperial Federation League, and it was accomplished during the last two or three months of 1887 and the beginning of 1888.
In October, 1887, Erastus Wiman sent a circular to the Members of the House of Commons, asking them for their views upon his scheme. Lt.-Col. F. C. Denison sent the following reply, and forwarded a copy to the newspapers:
Toronto, 12th Oct., 1887.
Sir,
I have received your circular of Sept. 17th sent to me as a member of the House of Commons, enclosing a copy of a speech delivered by you on Commercial Union and asking an opinion upon it.
I must tell you that I am utterly opposed to it, as in my mind Commercial Union simply means annexation, a result to be deplored by every true Canadian, and unlikely to happen without the shedding of a lot of Canadian blood. We are now, despite what the advocates of Commercial Union say, a happy, prosperous, and contented people. I am positive no pecuniary advantage would accrue to Canada from Commercial Union, but even granting all that you say as to the increased prosperity it would bring to us, I would still be opposed to it. We do not in Canada place so high a value upon the “Almighty Dollar” as do the Yankees, and we hope always to be Canadians. Why should we sever our connection with the Mother Country, which has in the past done so much for us, for the sake of throwing in our lot with a people who produce more bank thieves and embezzlers than any other country in the world; who care so little for the sanctity of the marriage tie that one hundred divorces a day have been granted in one city? To do so would be national suicide. No pecuniary advantage can ever outweigh our national life, or our national honour. The appeals made in favour of Commercial Union are all addressed to the pocket, but I have confidence in my fellow countrymen that they will place our national honour and our independence above all pecuniary considerations. A man worthy of the name will not sell his own honour, or his wife’s or his daughter’s, for money. Such a proposal could not for a moment be considered from a financial standpoint, and no people worthy of the name would ever sacrifice their national honour for material advantages. There is no sentiment that produces such sacrifices as national sentiment, and you gentlemen who advocate Commercial Union, argue as if my countrymen would sell everything dear to them for money. You entirely misunderstand our people.
Believe me,
Yours truly,
Fred C. Denison.
Erastus Wiman, Esq.,
New York, U.S.A.
The late Mrs. S. A. Curzon paraphrased this letter in the following lines, which appeared in the Toronto World of the 18th October, 1887:
On the 30th December, 1887, the Toronto Board of Trade gave a banquet in honour of the Rt. Hon. Joseph Chamberlain. It was a very large and influential gathering. I then fired my first public shot against Commercial Union. Colonel Otter was put down to respond to the toast of the Army, Navy, and Active Militia, but the Chairman in proposing the toast, added my name also, without having given me any intimation whatever that I would be called upon to speak. I quote the report which appeared in the World the next morning of my three minutes’ speech:
As belonging to the active militia of the country, I am very glad to be here to-night to do honour to so distinguished a statesman as the Rt. Hon. Joseph Chamberlain, because that gentleman, above all gentlemen in the Empire, has shown that he places the interests of a United Empire above all others (applause). There is no part of the British Empire where these words, “United Empire,” convey a greater meaning to the hearts of the people than to the people of Canada (applause), and I am certain there is no part of the whole Empire where the Rt. Hon. Mr. Chamberlain is more heartily appreciated than in Toronto, the capital of the Province of Ontario —a Province which owes its origin to the desire on the part of men who, like Mr. Chamberlain, desired a United Empire, and made great sacrifices for it. There is a subject upon which I wish to say a word or two before I sit down, and that is Commercial Union. And in the presence of Mr. Chamberlain I wish to say that the active militia of this country have all been sworn to be faithful, and bear true allegiance to her Majesty, and they intend that Canada shall not be laid at the feet of any foreign country (great applause). I am a Canadian, born in this city, and I hope to live and die a Canadian, to live and die in a country where our people will govern their own affairs, where we will be able to establish our own tariff, and where it will not be fixed and established to suit a foreign people against our Mother Country. I can assure Mr. Chamberlain that when I speak in behalf of the volunteers of the country in this way, I am also voicing the feeling of all the fighting men in this country.
My remarks were received with great applause, and created somewhat of a sensation, for it appeared that there had been an understanding that the subject of Commercial Union was not to be referred to, and all the speakers had been warned except myself. I have had a suspicion since that I was called upon suddenly in the belief that I would speak out plainly.
The Toronto World commenting on the dinner said:
The main result of Mr. Chamberlain’s visit to Toronto and the speeches made at the dinner on Friday night must be a heavy blow and a great discouragement to the Commercial Unionists. On Friday afternoon it was stated to the reporters, on good authority, we believe, that the management of the Board of Trade had arranged to exclude the much disputed question of Commercial Union from among the subjects of the speeches. . . . But as Burns wrote—
| The best laid schemes of mice and men Gang aft agley. |
Colonel Denison’s remarks so heavily charged with the electricity of British connection, “brought down the house,” and after that all other subjects were lame and uninteresting to the company in comparison. Our distinguished visitor soon made it evident that he thought it the question of the day. . . .
The event on Friday night, we repeat, must prove the worst blow that the Commercial Unionists have got since they forced their “fad” before the public. After this we fancy there will be a stampede among them to get out from a most unpleasant and ridiculous position.
As early as October, 1887, the late Thomas Macfarlane, one of the ablest and most active members of the Imperial Federation League, wrote to the journal of the League in England a strong article pointing out that Commercial Union would mean annexation, and advocating a uniform rate of duty on all foreign imports in every country of the Empire over and above the ordinary tariff in force then. This was Mr. Hoffmeyer’s suggestion at the Colonial Conference of 1884, one made mainly as a commercial measure which would encourage trade and give a tie of interest to the various parts of the Empire. Mr. Macfarlane had supported this view from the first.
During November and December, 1887, the matter was being considered, and on the 22nd December a preliminary meeting was held in Shaftesbury Hall, and after speeches by D’Alton McCarthy, G. R. R. Cockburn and others, resolutions were passed in favour of forming a Toronto branch, and a number gave in their names for membership. Mr. McNeill’s magnificent speech at Paris on the 19th January, 1888, was a most eloquent appeal in favour of Imperial Federation, and was printed and widely circulated in Ontario. He argued strongly in favour of discriminating tariffs around the Empire.
On the 1st February the Toronto branch was formally organised, with the Hon. John Beverley Robinson as President, George R. R. Cockburn, M.P., John M. Clark and Col. George T. Denison as Vice-Presidents, and Wm. Hamilton Merritt as Secretary.
It was then arranged that the Annual General Meeting of the Imperial Federation League in Canada should be held on the afternoon of the 24th March, 1888, for the transaction of business, and that in the evening there should be a large public meeting to inaugurate the Toronto branch, and to bring it prominently before the public.
It will be remembered that with those who took the most active part in the organisation of the Toronto branch the moving idea was to agitate for a commercial union of the Empire. There was nothing in the original constitution of the Imperial Federation League that would justify such a policy being advocated. It was therefore necessary to amend or alter the constitution to that extent. Consequently, at the Annual General Meeting our Secretary, Wm. Hamilton Merritt, moved, and D. R. Wilkie seconded, the following resolution:
That the Imperial Federation League in Canada make it one of the objects of their organisation to advocate a trade policy between Great Britain and her Colonies by means of which a discrimination in the exchange of natural and manufactured products will be made in favour of one another, and against foreign nations; and that our friends in Parliament are hereby called upon to move in support of the policy of this resolution at the earliest possible moment.
This was unanimously carried. In the evening the public meeting was held at the Association Hall, which was crowded to its limit. Mr. Cockburn was in the chair. I moved the first resolution, which was as follows:
Resolved, that this meeting hails with pleasure the establishment of a branch of the Imperial Federation League in this city, and confidently hopes that through its instrumentality the objects of the League may be advanced, and the ties which bind Canada to the Motherland be strengthened and maintained.
In moving this resolution I outlined my reasons for advocating the cause, and pointed out the necessity of doing something to counteract the scheme of Commercial Union with the United States, calling on the patriotic sons of Canada in that crisis in the affairs of the country “to rally round the old flag and frustrate the evil designs of traitors.” I stated that the Commercial Union movement was designed by traitors, that I wished “to be fair to those who believed that the movement would not destroy the national life and sentiment of Canada,” but adhered to the position that the movement originated in treason. “There was no use mincing words in the matter. Commercial Union could only be carried out by severing the ties which bound the Canadian people to the Motherland. Not only that, but it aimed at the destruction of the national life of the country, by subjecting the people to the power and dictation of a foreign country.” The report in the Empire went on to say:
He desired to draw the attention of the audience to a few facts in the history of the continent. Canada was a country with a comparatively small population, but an immense territory, rich in every department of mine and forest, lying alongside a country of immense population and great resources. If that country was not an aggressive country the difficulty would be minimised. He held, however, that it was an aggressive and grasping country. They wanted Florida, and they took it; Louisiana and Alaska they annexed; California and Mexico they conquered; and Texas they stole. They wanted half of the State of Maine that belonged to Canada, and they swindled the Canadian people out of it by means of a false map. The war between the North and South was as much for tariff as slavery. It was only after three years that the North decided to emancipate the slaves. They conquered the South and put them under their feet. He asked them to remember their treatment of the Canadian people in dealing with the question of Imperial Federation. In 1775 they attempted to conquer Canada, and again in 1812, but they were beaten ignominiously both times. They left no stone unturned in 1812 to conquer Canada, and gave it up as a hopeless task after a three years’ effort. The population of Ontario at that time was only 100,000, as against their ten millions. They fomented discord which led to the Fenian Raid in 1866. Those benighted warriors came armed with United States muskets. They had never evinced a friendly feeling towards Canada. They sent the British Minister home during the Crimean War when they thought England had her hands full. . . . They gave a reciprocity treaty to Canada a few years ago, and allowed it to remain in force long enough to open up a volume of trade between the two countries, and then they suddenly cut it off in the hope that it would produce annexation. The Commercial Union fad had its birth in treason, he reiterated, and was designed in the hope of inducing the people of Canada to believe in the fallacy that, by tying themselves hand and foot to a foreign and hostile Power, they would get richer by it. They wanted to make Canadians believe that an extended market would benefit them. Their real desire, however, was to make Canada a slaughter market for their goods, and by crippling Canadian industries eventually drive the people of the Dominion into such a condition that they would be glad to accept annexation as an alternative of absolute ruin. They had conquered and stolen States in the South, and now they desired to betray Canada in the North. The scheme of Imperial Federation was designed to build up Canada and her industries, and absolutely to demolish the delusive theory propounded by the authors of that nefarious scheme Commercial Union. Unrestricted Reciprocity and Commercial Union were one and the same. The prime object of Imperial Federation was to complete an arrangement with the Mother Country, whereby our goods would be admitted free with a discriminating tariff against the importations of all foreign Powers. Such an arrangement he believed would not only benefit the agricultural community, but also the whole population of the Dominion. It would consolidate the Empire, and give the Canadian people greater influence amongst the nations of the world.
Mr. J. M. Clark seconded the resolution in an eloquent speech and it was carried. Mr. Alex McNeill moved the next resolution. He said he had felt a great deal of doubt coming down from Ottawa that day, but when he was face to face with such a glorious meeting all his doubts passed away like mists before the light of the sun. The news of that meeting would be tidings of great joy all over the Empire, for it would proclaim in trumpet tones that the great British City of Toronto was up and doing in the glorious work of Imperial Federation.
Mr. R. C. Weldon, M.P., from Nova Scotia, made an eloquent speech.
The meeting was most enthusiastic and spirited. At its conclusion Mr. D’Alton McCarthy invited about fifteen or twenty of the Committee and speakers to his house to supper. I remember walking over with Mr. R. C. Weldon, whose speech had been very warmly received. He was very much astonished at the enthusiasm and vigour of the audience. He told me he had never seen such a meeting before, and asked how I could account for it. I replied, “Toronto is the most loyal and imperialistic city in the Empire.” It was partly founded, as was St. John, N.B., by United Empire Loyalists, but the difference was that loyalty had come more closely home to Toronto, that since its foundation every generation of the Toronto people had seen the dead bodies of citizens who had died fighting for the cause of the Empire or the Sovereign carried through her streets for burial; that the battle of York had been fought in 1813 within the present limits of the city, the skirmish at Gallows Hill three miles north of the city in 1837; that Toronto men had fought at Detroit, Queenston Heights, and other fields in 1813-14, and at Navy Island in 1837, also in 1866 at Fort Erie; that Toronto men were the first sent from the older Provinces to the North-West Rebellion, and that all this had kept the flame of loyalty brightly burning on her altars.
Four days after this meeting, on the 28th March, 1888, Mr. D’Alton McCarthy, President of the League in Canada, placed on the order paper at Ottawa the following important notice of motion:
That it would be in the best interests of the Dominion that such changes should be sought for in the trade relations between the United Kingdom and Canada as would give to Canada advantages in the markets of the Mother Country not allowed to foreign States, Canada being willing for such privileges to discriminate in her markets in favour of Great Britain and Ireland, due regard being had to the policy adopted in 1879 for the purpose of fostering the various interests and industries of the Dominion, and to the financial necessities of the Dominion.
This was the beginning of the great scheme of preferential tariffs around the Empire, which has since attracted so much attention throughout the British possessions. Mr. McCarthy’s resolution did not carry at that time; it was not intended that it should. It was adjourned after some discussion. It was a new idea in Canadian politics, and the members had not had time to study the question in all its bearings.
The Imperial Federation Journal, representing the League in England, was not favourable to the action of the Canadian branch, and advised the Canadians to approach the other Colonies, and not disturb the Mother Country with the proposal. Within five years this cause of difference had, I believe, much to do with the disruption of the League in Great Britain.
Mr. McNeill’s reference to the importance of Toronto’s accession to the cause was well founded, for after that meeting the movement went on with increased impetus, and subsequent events proved the far-reaching effect upon the affairs of the Empire.
During the next three years a most vigorous campaign was carried on in Ontario. Toronto became the headquarters of the League, a large branch was kept up, and efforts were made to educate the public mind and organise branches of the League in other places. An organising committee was appointed, of which I was elected chairman. The movement, which had been started in Montreal three years before, had languished, and it was not until the Commercial Union movement alarmed the people and proved the necessity for prompt action that the cause of Imperial Federation became a strong and effective influence upon the public opinion of Canada.
[CHAPTER XII]
THE COMMERCIAL UNION MOVEMENT—A TREASONABLE CONSPIRACY
At the first public meeting of the Imperial Federation League in Toronto I made the charge that the Commercial Union movement was a treasonable conspiracy on the part of a few men in Canada in connection with a number of leading politicians in the United States to entrap the Canadian people into annexation with that country. It will be of interest to trace this phase of the question and its development during the three or four years in which the great struggle took place.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, in conversation with William Allingham in November, 1872, said, “Americans will not take any definite step; they feel that Canada must come into the Confederation, and will of herself. American party in Canada always at work.”—Allingham’s Diary, p. 217 (Macmillan).
It will be remembered that I said that the United States “were an aggressive and grasping people.” “They wanted Florida and they took it, Louisiana and Alaska they acquired, California and Mexico they conquered, and Texas they stole.” I went on to say that “they had conquered and stolen States in the South, and now they desired to betray Canada in the North.” This speech was made on the 24th March, 1888. I was criticised by some on the ground that my remarks were extreme in their character, and was caricatured and ridiculed in the comic papers.
Six months later I was vindicated in a remarkable manner.
Senator Sherman, at that time one of the foremost statesmen of the United States, and chairman of the Senate Committee of Foreign Affairs, made a very significant speech before the Senate on the 18th September, 1888. He said:
And now, Mr. President, taking a broader view of the question, I submit if the time has not come when the people of the United States and Canada should take a broader view of their relations to each other than has heretofore seemed practicable. Our whole history since the conquest of Canada by Great Britain in 1763 has been a continuous warning that we cannot be at peace with each other except by political as well as commercial union. The fate of Canada should have followed the fortunes of the Colonies in the American Revolution. It would have been better for all, for the Mother Country as well, if all this continent north of Mexico had participated in the formation, and shared in common the blessings and prosperity, of the American Union.
So evidently our fathers thought, for among the earliest military movements by the Continental Congress was the expedition for the occupation of Canada and the capture of the British forces in Montreal and Quebec. The story of the failure of the expedition—the heroism of Arnold and Burr, the death of Montgomery, and the fearful sufferings borne by the Continental forces in the march and retreat—is familiar to every student of American history. . . .
Without going into the details so familiar to the Senate, it is sufficient to say that Spain held Florida, France held all west of the Mississippi, Mexico held Texas west to the Pacific, and England held Canada. The United States held, subject to the Indian title, only the region between the Mississippi and the Atlantic. The statesmen of this Government early discerned the fact that it was impossible that Spain, France, and Mexico should hold the territory then held by them without serious detriment to the interests and prosperity of the United States, and without the danger that was always present of conflicts with the European Powers maintaining Governments in contiguous territory. It was a wise policy and a necessity to acquire these vast regions and add them to this country. They were acquired and are now held.
Precisely the same considerations apply to Canada, with greater force. The commercial conditions have vastly changed within twenty-five years. Railroads have been built across the continent in our own country and in Canada. The seaboard is of such a character, and its geographical situation is such on both oceans, that perfect freedom as to transportation is absolutely essential, not only to the prosperity of the two countries, but to the entire commerce of the world: and as far as the interests of the two people are concerned, they are divided by a mere imaginary line. They live next-door neighbours to each other, and there should be a perfect freedom of intercourse between them.
A denial of that intercourse, or the withholding of it from them, rests simply and wholly upon the accident that a European Power one hundred years ago was able to hold that territory against us; but her interest has practically passed away and Canada has become an independent Government to all intents and purposes, as much so as Texas was after she separated herself from Mexico. So that all the considerations that entered into the acquisition of Florida, Louisiana, and the Pacific coast, and Texas, apply to Canada, greatly strengthened by the changed condition of commercial relations and matters of transportation. These intensify, not only the propriety, but the absolute necessity of both a commercial and a political union between Canada and the United States. . . .
The way to union with Canada is not by hostile legislation; not by acts of retaliation, but by friendly overtures. This union is one of the events that must inevitably come in the future; it will come by the logic of the situation, and no politician or combination of politicians can prevent it. The true policy of this Government is to tender freedom in trade and intercourse, and to make this tender in such a fraternal way that it shall be an overture to the Canadian people to become a part of this Republic. . . .
The settlement of the North-West Territory, the Louisiana and Florida purchases, the annexation of Texas, and the acquisition from Mexico are examples of the adaptation of our form of government for expansion, to absorb and unite, to enrich and build up, to ingraft in our body politic adjacent countries, and while strengthening the older States, confer prosperity and development to the new States admitted into this brotherhood of Republican States. . . .
With a firm conviction that this consummation most devoutly to be wished is within the womb of destiny, and believing that it is our duty to hasten its coming, I am not willing, for one, to vote for any measure not demanded by national honour that will tend to postpone the good time coming, when the American flag will be the signal and sign of the union of all the English-speaking peoples of the continent from the Rio Grande to the Arctic Ocean.
I ask that the resolution be referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations.
I drew attention to this speech in a letter to the Toronto Globe on the 26th September, 1888. After quoting a number of extracts from it, I went on to say,
“This man is honest and outspoken. He is trying to entice us by kindly methods to annexation, which would be the annihilation of Canada as a nation; but does not his whole argument prove the absolute correctness of the view I took of Commercial Union at the Imperial Federation meeting, and does it not prove that his co-worker Wiman, being a Canadian, was acting the part of a traitor, in trying to betray his native country into a course which could only end in placing it absolutely in the hands of a foreign and hostile Power?”
A few days later another incident occurred showing the active interest that was being taken in the annexation movement. Senator Sherman’s speech was delivered on the 18th September, 1888; on the 29th of the same month, Erastus Wiman sent the following telegram to a number of the Canadian newspapers:
New York, 29th Sept.
I deem it my duty to say that information from Washington reaches me of a reliable character to the effect that the Senate Committee of Foreign Affairs has, during the past few days, in furtherance of the views of its Chairman, Senator Sherman, been discussing the question of inviting the Dominion of Canada to join the United States. So far have matters progressed that it is not at all unlikely that a resolution will be reported for concurrent action of both Houses, declaring it to be the duty of the President to open negotiations with Great Britain, looking to a political union between the English-speaking nations on this continent.
The condition attending the invitation of Canada is understood to be that the United States would assume the entire public debt of the Dominion, estimated at $300,000,000.
Commercial Union was urged as the basis of the proposed negotiation, on the ground that while a large majority might be secured for it, only a small minority favoured political union, but the sentiment of the Committee was so strong in favour of proposing at first Political Union, that it was impossible to contend with it.
Erastus Wiman.
An attempt was made by Mr. Wiman to withdraw this message, but it failed, and it was published in two or three papers.
The United States papers were for a year or two filled with articles discussing annexation, sometimes in friendly strains, sometimes in a most hostile spirit. President Cleveland’s retaliation proclamation following closely the refusal of the United States Senate to confirm a treaty which had been agreed upon between Great Britain and the United States, was a direct threat against Canada, issued to the people of the Republic at a time likely to influence the result of the approaching Presidential election.
On the 26th September, 1888, the Chicago Tribune concluded a very aggressive article with these words:
There are two ways in which Canada can protect herself from all possibility of a quarrel with this country about fish. One of these is by commercial union with the United States. The other is political union. If she is not ready for either, then her safety lies in not provoking the United States by unfair or unfriendly dealing, for when the provocation comes, Uncle Sam will reach out and take her in, in order to ensure quiet, and neither she nor her venerable old mother can prevent it.
This paper about the same time had a cartoon depicting “The United States in 1900,” showing Uncle Sam bestriding the whole North American continent.
The New York World, in December, 1888, also published a map of North America to show what the United States would look like after Canada came in, and depicted our country divided up into twenty-eight new States and territories, and named to suit the Yankee taste. In connection with this map the World published an interview with Senator Sherman, in which he advocated strenuously the annexation of Canada to the United States, saying that “the fisheries dispute and the question of the right of free transit of American goods over Canadian railroads are a type of the disputes that have vexed the two nations for a century, and will continue to disturb them as long as the present conditions exist. To get rid of these questions we must get rid of the frontier.”
In the descriptive article on the map everything that could help to excite the cupidity of the people of the United States was said and with great ability, and Professor Goldwin Smith was cited as declaring:
It is my avowed conviction that the union of the English-speaking race upon this continent will some day come to pass. For twenty years I have watched the action of the social and economical forces which are all, as it seems to me, drawing powerfully and steadily in that direction.
The map and the articles accompanying it were evidently published to accustom the minds of the people of the United States to the idea of expansion and aggression:
What a majestic empire the accompanying map suggests; one unbroken line from the Arctic Ocean to the Torrid Zone. The United States is here shown as embracing nearly the whole of the North American continent. Having conquered the Western wilderness the star of Empire northward points its way. . . . There would be no more trouble about fishing treaties or retaliation measures, and peace with all nations would be assured, by making the United States absolute master of the vast Western continent. The Empire that this nation would embrace under such circumstances is so vast in extent that none other furnishes a parallel.
This is only an illustration of the feeling all over the United States at this period from 1888 to 1890. The newspapers and magazines were filled with articles and cartoons all pointing in the same direction. Mr. Whitney, a member of the United States Cabinet, even went so far as to say that four armies of 25,000 men each could easily conquer Canada, indicating that the question of attacking Canada had been thought of. General Benjamin F. Butler, in the North American Review, one of their most respectable magazines, speaking of annexation, said, “Is not this the fate of Canada? Peacefully, we hope; forcefully, if we must,” and in the truculent spirit of a freebooter he suggested that the invading army should be paid by dividing up our land among them. General J. H. Wilson, a prominent railway manager, presented a petition to the United States Senate in which he said:
The best and most thoughtful citizens were coming to look upon the existence of Canada, and the allied British possessions in North America, as a continuous and growing menace to our peace and prosperity, and that they should be brought under the constitution and laws of our country as soon as possible, peacefully if it can be so arranged, but forcibly if it must.
Then came the McKinley Bill especially bearing upon the articles where Canada’s trade could be most seriously injured. It was believed that traitors in our own country assisted in arranging this part of the tariff so as to strike Canada as severely as possible. As another instance of the unprincipled manner in which these conspirators carried on their work, the following Press dispatch was sent to some of the United States papers:
At a meeting called in Stimpson, Ontario, to hear a debate on annexation v. independence or continued dependence, a vote taken after the speakers had finished showed 418 for the annexation to 21 for the status quo. It seems almost incredible, but this meeting is a good indication of the rapid strides the annexation sentiment is making among the Canadian people. The Tories cannot keep Canada out of the Union much longer.
As I have never been able to discover any place of that name in Ontario, and as there is no such post office in the official list, it is evident that the dispatch was a pure invention for the purpose of deceiving the people of the United States.
Another important indication of the feeling is shown in an article in the New York Daily Commercial Bulletin in November, 1888, referring to certain political considerations as between Canada and the States. It states:
What these are may be inferred from the recent utterances of prominent American statesmen like Senator Sherman and Mr. Whitney, Secretary of the Navy, just previous to the recent election, with reference to which the Bulletin has recently had something to say. Both are inimical to commercial union unless it be also complemented by political union; or, to phrase it more plainly, they insist that annexation of Canada to the United States can afford the only effective guarantee of satisfactory relations between the two countries, if these are to be permanent. These prominent public men, representing each of the great parties that have alternately the administration of this Government in their hands, we are persuaded, did not put forth these views at random, but that they voiced the views of other political leaders, their associates, who are aiming at making Canadian annexation the leading issue at the next Presidential election. As if speaking for the Republicans, Senator Sherman, as has already been shown, thinks the country is now ready for the question; while Secretary Whitney, as if speaking for the other political party, is not less eager to bring the country face to face with it, even at the risk of a war with England, though it is but justice to him to say that he is of the opinion that the Mother Country, if really persuaded that the Canadians themselves were in favour of separating from her, would not fire a gun nor spend a pound sterling to prevent it. . . . The whole drift is unquestionably in that direction (political union), and in the meantime we do not look for positive action on the part of Congress, on either commercial reciprocity or the fisheries, at this session or the next. These questions, in all human probability, will be purposely left open by the party managers in order to force the greater issue, which, as it seems to me, none but a blind man can fail to see is already looming up with unmistakable distinctness in the future.
The New York World in the early part of 1890 “instructed its correspondents in Montreal, Toronto, and Quebec to describe impartially the political situation in Canada in regard to annexation to the United States.” The report charges Premier Mercier with being “a firm believer in annexation as the ultimate destiny of the Dominion of Canada,” but he “is too shrewd a politician to openly preach annexation to his fellow countrymen under existing circumstances.” The report also quotes the Toronto Globe as saying that the Canadian people “find the Colonial yoke a galling one,” and that “the time when Canadian patriotism was synonymous with loyalty to the British connection has long since gone by.”
The concluding paragraph of the World’s article is the most suggestive and insolent:
Nobody who has studied the peculiar methods by which elections are won in Canada will deny the fact, that five or six million dollars, judiciously expended in this country, would secure the return to Parliament of a majority pledged to the annexation of Canada to the United States.
The leading men in this conspiracy in Canada were Edward Farrer, Solomon White, Elgin Myers, E. A. Macdonald, Goldwin Smith, and John Charlton, the two latter being the only men of any prominent status or position in the movement, and after a time Charlton left it. These men were avowed annexationists, while there were a great many in favour of commercial union who did not believe that it would result in annexation, or did not care, and there were numbers who were ready to float with the stream, and quite willing to advocate annexation if they thought the movement was likely to succeed. When the Continental Union Association was formed in 1892, Goldwin Smith accepted the Honorary Presidency in Canada, for the organisation had its principal strength in New York, where a large number of prominent and wealthy men joined its ranks, Francis Wayland Glen being the Secretary. Glen became angry at the defection of some Liberal leaders after they obtained office, and gave the names of the organisers in a letter to the Ottawa Evening Journal of the 13th September, 1904, as follows:
Charles A. Dana, Andrew Carnegie, John Jacob Astor, Ethan Allen, Warner Miller, Edward Lauterbach, Wm. C. Whitney, Orlando B. Potter, Horace Porter, John Hay, Theodore Roosevelt, Elihu Root, Oswald Ottendorfer, Cornelius N. Bliss, John D. Long, Jno. B. Foraker, Knute Nelson, Jacob Gallinger, Roswell P. Flower, Joseph Jno. O’Donohue, Chauncey M. Depew, John P. Jones, Wm. Walter Phelps, General Butterfield, General Henry W. Slocum, General James H. Wilson, General Granville W. Dodge, Charles Francis Adams, Oliver Ames, Seth Low, Bourke Cochrane, John C. McGuire, Dennis O’Brien, Charles L. Tiffany, John Clafflin, Nathan Straus, and Samuel Spencer.
In the list we received in addition to these there were others, nearly 500 in all.
Afterwards, in 1893, I was able to get some further information as to the treasonable nature of the movement as far as the Canadian side of it was concerned. The intention of those interested in the United States was to endeavour to extend the power of that country to the Arctic Ocean, as it had been extended to Mexico and the Pacific.
The Continental Union League in New York was in close connection with the Continental Union Association of Ontario. Mr. Goldwin Smith, as I have said, accepted the position of Honorary President, John Morrison was the President, and T. M. White Secretary. The headquarters were in Toronto. We had information at the time that Mr. Goldwin Smith subscribed $500 to the funds, and that this was intended to be an annual subscription.
There were two members of our League with whom I was constantly conferring on the private matters connected with our work. Upon them, more than on any others, did I depend for advice, for consultation, and for assistance, and I can never forget the obligations I am under to them. We three accidentally saw an opportunity of getting some knowledge of the working of the Continental Union League in New York. By great good fortune we were able to perfect arrangements by which one who was in the confidence of the movement in New York was induced to send us any information that could be obtained. For a considerable time we were in receipt of most interesting information, much of which was verified by independent evidence. We often heard from our agent beforehand of what was going to take place, and every time matters came to pass just as we had been forewarned. In many instances we had independent corroborative evidence that the statements were reliable.
We were informed of a written agreement, signed by a Canadian Liberal leader, to have legislation carried to handicap the Canadian Pacific Railway if the Liberal party came into power. Our agent even obtained knowledge of where and by whom it was signed, and who at the time had custody of it. We received copies of many of Glen’s letters to Mercier, Fairer, Bourke Cochrane, and others. One letter to Colonel John Hay at Washington informed him that the New York League was working in conjunction with the Ontario League. A letter to Farrer told him of a meeting held in November, 1893, in the New York Sun office, at which Honore Mercier, John Morrison, Tarte, and Robidoux were present, that money was asked to aid the Liberals, but Glen objected. This information we received some months after this meeting had been held. Eleven years later, in the letter already referred to, which Glen in his anger wrote to the Ottawa Journal of the 13th September, 1904, I find the following paragraph:
Upon the 4th November, 1893, Wilfrid Laurier held a meeting of his friends in Montreal, and that meeting sent a deputation to New York to ask funds of the National Continental Union League for the elections, which it was supposed would take place in the spring of 1894. Israel Tarte, Honore Mercier, J. E. Robidoux, Louis Joseph Papineau and Mr. Langelier, and Sir Oliver Mowat was represented by John Morison, of Toronto. These gentlemen met Mr. Dana, Mr. Carnegie, and myself in the office of The Sun on November 6th. Mr. Tarte asked as a beginning for $50,000, with which to purchase Le Monde newspaper, and Mr. Morison desired $50,000 to purchase a labour paper in Toronto. Mr. Carnegie asked Mr. Tarte if he was prepared to pledge the Liberal party to advocate the independence of Canada as a prelude to continental union.
He replied that if we furnished them with money for the elections they would do so if they were successful in the elections. Mr. Morison agreed with Mr. Tarte. Mr. Carnegie then asked Hon. Honore Mercier if he would contest the province of Quebec in favour of the independence of Canada as a prelude to continental union. He replied, Yes.
This statement cannot be taken as reliable. Glen himself was not reliable, and it is not at all probable that Sir Wilfrid Laurier had anything to do with sending these men to New York, and yet some of them may have told Glen that he had, or Glen may have assumed it. Certainly Sir Oliver Mowat never asked Mr. Morison to make any application of any kind. I do not believe he would have entrusted him with any mission, and I am sure Sir Oliver Mowat was as much opposed to these intrigues as I was. It is quite possible that Morison posed in New York as representing Sir Oliver Mowat, but it was an absurdity.
The letter of Glen, however, proves that there was some foundation for the information our agent sent to us.
In a letter to Mercier in February, 1894, Glen stated that John Charlton, an Ontario Liberal, had called on Dana the day before for money, and I have another letter signed by Francis W. Glen which corroborates this statement of our informant.
Mr. Goldwin Smith’s name appeared often in the correspondence, so did Erastus Wiman’s. Myers is mentioned as going over to New York to see Dana. Glen writes to Mercier on the 3rd April, 1894, to write to Farrer in reference to Goldwin Smith. On the same day he wrote to Bourke Cochrane telling him that Goldwin Smith was anxious for a resolution in Congress. A copy of the draft of the resolution referred to, which was sent to us, reads as follows:
Resolved:
That we believe that the political union of the two great English-speaking communities who now occupy and control North America will deliver the continent from the scourge of war, and securely dedicate it to peaceful industry and progress, lessen the per capita cost of government and defence, ensure the rapid development of its boundless natural resources, enlarge its domestic and foreign commerce, unite all interests in creating a systematic development of its means of internal communication with the sea-board by rail and water, protect and preserve its wealth, resources, privileges, and opportunities as the undisputed heritage of all, immensely add to its influence, prestige, and power, promote, extend, and perpetuate government by the people, and remove for ever the causes most likely to seriously disturb cordial relations and kindly intercourse with the Motherland. We therefore invite the Canadian people to cast in their lot with their own continent, and assure them that they shall have all the continent can give them. We will respect their freedom of action, and welcome them when they desire it into an equal and honourable union.
I do not know whether this was introduced into Congress or not.
We also had information of meetings at Carnegie’s house and The Sun office, and what took place at them. All our information was conveyed to Sir John Thompson, and at a meeting in Halifax he made some reference to movements that were going on in the States, which apparently attracted attention.
Not long after this we heard from our informant that at a meeting where Carnegie, Dana, and Goldwin Smith were present, Goldwin Smith said they would have to be very careful, as he believed there was a leak somewhere.
Among other information we obtained was a copy of the subscriptions to the fund. Some of the more important were Andrew Carnegie, $600; R. P. Flower, $500; Charles A. Dana, $460; J. J. Astor, $200; O. B. Potter, $150; W. C. Whitney, $100, &c.
Outside and apart from all this information, I was shown a letter from Honore Mercier to Charles A. Dana, and a letter enclosing it to the President of the Continental Union Association of Ontario. I was able to secure photographs of these letters. I forwarded one copy of these photographs to Lord Salisbury, but kept copies from which the facsimiles here published are taken.
Mercier, Gouin, & Lemieux, Avocats.
Montreal,
9th August, 1893.
Hon. Honore Mercier, C.R.
Lomer Gouin, L.L.B.
Rodolphe Lemieux, L.L.L.
[Private and Confidential.]
To the Honorable Mr. Dana, Editor of The Sun, New York.
Dear Sir,—
I have met General Kirwin Sunday last, and am satisfied with the general result of the interview.
I asked him to see you without delay, and to tell you what took place.
As the matter he placed before me concerns chiefly the American side of our common cause, I thought better to have your view first and be guided by you.
General Kirwin seems to be a reliable man, as you stated in your letter, and to be much devoted to our cause.
My trip in the East has been a success and will bring out a strong and very important move in favour of Canadian Independence.
I will be in Chicago on the 22nd inst. to take part in the French Canadian Convention and hope to obtain there a good result.
Allow me to bring your attention to my state of poverty and to ask you if our New York friends could not come to my rescue, in order that I might continue the work, in providing me with at least my travelling expenses.
I make that suggestion very reluctantly but by necessity.
Believe me, dear Sir,
Yours very truly,
Honore Mercier.
P.S.—I would advise you to seal and register every letter you will send me. I intend to leave for Chicago on Sunday, the 13th inst., and stop at Detroit and Buffalo.
H. M.
” The Sun,”
New York, Aug. 12, 1893.
Dear Mr. Morison,
I have just received the enclosed letter. Its demands are moderate. You know the sum which is in my hands. How much should I send him? Please return the letter with your answer.
Yours faithfully,
C. A. Dana.
James Morison, Esq.,
Toronto, Canada.
This letter of Mercier’s is very significant. I do not understand the allusion to General Kirwin. His name was Michael Kirwin, and he is not to be confused with Capt. Michael Kirwan who served in the North-West Rebellion. I knew the latter well, he was an Irish gentleman. The General Kirwin was a Fenian, and from what I heard of him at the time I gathered that he was somewhat of a soldier of fortune. Whether Mercier was intriguing for a Fenian rising or for Fenian influence in the United States in favour of annexation I do not know, but the association with such a man had a sinister look, to my mind. The letter, however, shows Mercier’s strong support of Canadian Independence, and his desire to obtain money from foreign enemies of his country to enable him to carry out his intrigues.
The transmission of this letter to the President of the Continental Union Association of Ontario for advice as to how much money should be paid out to Mercier shows how closely the two organisations were working together.
The foregoing pages show clearly the object and aim of the Commercial Union Conspiracy, the widespread influence of the movement among the foremost men of the United States, the dangers Canada had to face, with the power of a great country active and unscrupulous against her, and embarrassed by the internal treachery of disloyal men in her own borders. My main object in the following chapters will be to describe the efforts and exertions made to warn our people, and to frustrate the designs and intrigues of our enemies at home and abroad.
[CHAPTER XIII]
THE YEARS 1888 AND 1889 THE WORK OF THE IMPERIAL FEDERATION LEAGUE
After the inauguration of the Imperial Federation branch in Toronto on the 24th March, 1888, the members were much encouraged by the result of the debate in the Dominion House of Commons on Sir Richard Cartwright’s motion in favour of unrestricted reciprocity with the United States. The vote was taken at half-past four on the morning of the 7th April after a discussion lasting for many days. The resolution was defeated by a majority of 57 in a house of 181 members. The Commons of Canada then sang “God Save the Queen.”
The Mail attacked me on the 26th April, 1888, on account of my statement that the originators of commercial union were traitors, and threatened that if I did not desist from acting in that way I should be removed from the position of police magistrate. Replying the next day in a letter to the editor I repeated:
. . . that Commercial Union originated in treason, and that it emanated from a traitor in New York. This view I still hold and will express whenever and wherever I feel disposed. . . .
I went on to say:
I do not look upon this question as a political or party question. It is one affecting our national life. It is a foreign intrigue to betray us into the hands of a foreign people, and it behoves every Canadian who loves his country to do his utmost to save it from annihilation.
I did not ask for the position of police magistrate; it was offered to me by cable when I was in England. I accepted it at Mr. Mowat’s request. I feel under no obligation whatever to the country for the office. I feel I am giving good service for every dollar I receive. I did not want the office at the time I was appointed, and can live without it whenever I choose to do so, and all the traitors in the United States and Canada combined cannot make me cease to speak for my country when occasion requires . . . on questions affecting the national life, I shall always try to be in the front rank of those who stand up for Canada.
On the 7th May, 1888, the Toronto branch sent a deputation to Lord Lansdowne, Governor-General, to present a memorial praying his Excellency to invite the Australian Governments, and the Government of New Zealand to join the Canadian Government in a conference to devise means for the development of reciprocal trade and commerce.
The Imperial Federation Journal published this memorial and Lord Lansdowne’s reply, and spoke of the energy and élan which the Canadian branches were displaying, and then added prophetically, “They have, if we mistake not, set a ball a-rolling that will be found ere long too big to be described in the half dozen lines of print that is all the great English newspapers have so far seen fit to devote to the subject.”
The organisation of new branches of the League followed rapidly the successful meeting in Toronto. On the 2nd April, 1888, a strong branch was formed at Brantford, Ontario. On the 16th April another was formed at St. Thomas, another about the same time at Port Arthur, on the 4th May another at Orillia, while a very successful meeting of the Ottawa Branch was held on the 22nd April, to carry a resolution in favour of discriminating tariffs between the Colonies and the Mother Country.
On the 4th June there was a rousing meeting of the branch of the League at Halifax, Nova Scotia, at which a resolution was unanimously carried in favour of reciprocal trade between the colonies and Great Britain. At this meeting the late Archbishop O’Brien, one of the ablest and most patriotic men that Canada has produced, made a most eloquent and powerful speech against commercial union or annexation, and, speaking of the men advocating these ideas, he said:
There are, however, others of this section less worthy of respect. They are men who have not courage to face great national problems, but think it wisdom to become the Cassandra of every noble undertaking. These men have for leader and mouthpiece Goldwin Smith, the peripatetic prophet of pessimism. Because, forsooth, his own life has been a dismal failure, because his overweening vanity was badly injured in its collision with Canadian common sense, because we would not take phrases void of sense for apophthegms of wisdom, he, the fossilised enemy of local autonomy and the last defender of worn-out bigotry, has put his feeble curse on Canadian nationality and assumed the leadership of the gruesome crowd of Missis Gummidges, who see no future for Canada but vassalage to the United States. Let them, if it so pleases, wring their hands in cowardly despair; but are we, the descendants of mighty races, the inheritors of a vast patrimony, the heirs of noble traditions, so poor in resources or so degenerate as to know no form of action save the tears and hand-wringings of dismal forebodings? It is an insult, and should be resented as such, to be told that annexation is our destiny. The promoters of Imperial Federation are called dreamers. Well, their dream is at least an ennobling one, one that appeals to all the noble sentiments of manhood. But what are we to say to the dreary prophets of evil, the decriers of their country, the traitors of their magnificent inheritance? They are not dreamers: they are the dazed victims of a hideous nightmare, to be kindly reasoned with when sincere, to be remorselessly thrust aside when acting the demagogue. The principle of Canadian nationality has taken too firm a hold on our people to permit them to merge their distinct life in that of a nation whose institutions give no warrant of permanency, as they afford no guarantee of real individual and religious liberty.
This extract from the speech of the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Halifax indicates clearly how the Canadian feeling was being aroused by the attempts upon the national life of Canada.
In the summer of this year the United States Senate refused to endorse the Fisheries Treaty which had been agreed upon by President Cleveland and the British authorities. This was followed by a Retaliation proclamation, or at least by a message to Congress, asking for powers to retaliate upon Canada, by cancelling the bonding privileges which we have been using for very many years. The Retaliation Act was passed after a most hostile discussion against Canada. This threat was received by our people in the most unflinching spirit, and the matter was soon dropped by the United States Government.
In October, 1888, the Toronto Globe, evidently with the object of accustoming the minds of the Canadian people to the idea that the question of Annexation or Independence was a live issue, and one to be discussed and considered with as much freedom and propriety as tariff reform or temperance legislation or manhood suffrage, called for letters discussing the advantages or disadvantages of annexation or independence. It was the same scheme that Goldwin Smith had endeavoured to work in the National Club.
On the 6th October I wrote a letter to the Globe on the condition and prospects of Canada, and said:
Events are crowding upon us faster than we are aware. Let us look back over the past few months. First came the Commercial Union movement, apparently originated by a Canadian in the interests of Canada, but which is now shown to have been a Yankee plot worked by a renegade with the object of producing annexation. Then came the repudiation of the Fisheries Treaty by the Republican party, followed by the Retaliation proclamation of the Democratic President; then came the almost unanimous passage of the Retaliation Act in the United States House of Representatives after a long succession of speeches by members of both political parties violently abusive and unreasonably hostile to Canada. Then came the speech of Senator Sherman exposing the hostile policy of a hundred years. Then the discussion of negotiations for annexation in the Committee of Foreign Relations, and to-day Senator Sherman’s interview, in which he says, “Political union is necessary or war is inevitable.” At this moment the Presidential election is being fought out on the question as to which party is most hostile to England and Canada, and unless a marked change comes over the people of the United States, it will not be many years before we shall be fighting for our existence as a free people on this continent. Senator Sherman’s last warning is straight to the point, and cannot be overlooked or misunderstood.
I then went on to urge that we must forget all party differences, that we should unite in the face of the common danger, that a firm and united front might save us all the horrors of war, pointing out that “at the Trent affair if there had been treason in Canada, or the least sign of division in our ranks, we would have had war.”
A number of letters in favour of annexation appeared in the Globe, and I became much alarmed, for the writers signed their names. I felt that if the discussion went on unchecked it would in time have a certain effect upon the wobblers and the unreliable. I had studied carefully the American Revolution, and was of the opinion that the whole success of that movement was due to the fact that the loyal men, and the law-abiding men, did nothing themselves, but relied upon the constituted authorities to check a movement that in the end robbed them of their property, deprived them of all their civil rights, and drove them penniless into exile. I felt that as far as I was concerned I would leave no stone unturned to prevent such a fate befalling Canada through supineness or indifference.
At the annual dinner of the Caledonian Society of Toronto, on the 30th October, 1888, I responded to the toast of “The Army, Navy, and Volunteers.” The Empire of the 31st October reported my speech as follows:
Colonel Denison launched forth a few hundred words which made the Scots fairly jump with enthusiasm, He referred in the first place to the achievements of Scotchmen in the British Army, and then spoke about the Canadian Volunteers. Canada at this moment, he said, is passing through a very critical crisis in her history. She will be called upon to preserve her national life within the next three or four years. (Someone ejaculated “Oh! Oh!”) It’s all very well to say “Oh! Oh!” said the Colonel. I tell you things are crowding upon us very fast. Within the past two months we have seen one thing after another showing a most bitter and hostile feeling towards this country on the part of the United States. Only this very evening came a telegram from Washington, saying that Cleveland is going to issue his retaliation proclamation immediately. Let him do it. (Cheers.) I have every faith in Canada. We have got everything on this northern half of this continent to make this a great country. We have the country and the people, and we can hold our own. All that is necessary is for us to be true to ourselves. (Cheers.) Then let us have confidence in ourselves and in our future. I am sorry to see that a few have not sufficient confidence in our future. I hope our volunteers will mark these traitors in this country, and put them in the rear when trouble comes. I do not like to see letters in our papers advocating annexation. It is nothing but rank treason. (Cheers.) There is one thing about it though, gentlemen, when these men come out, and put their names to annexation papers, they can be marked. We can put “ear marks” on them, and when trouble comes we will know who the traitors are. (Ringing cheers.)
And I went on to say we were putting their names in a list.
The Globe was evidently much put out at my action, and not daring openly to take the opposite view, relieved its feelings in a long article heaping ridicule upon me and upon the Rev. Mr. Milligan, who had spoken sympathetically with me at the same dinner, and intimating that I was anxious for war with the United States. I wrote in reply to this:
I believe the United States to be very hostile to Canada; I believe they always have been. I believe they will endeavour to destroy our national life by force or fraud whenever they can, with the object of absorbing us. This has been my view for years, and I feel that the history of the past is strong evidence of the correctness of my opinion, if the events of the last two months are not absolute proof of it.
I have always warned my fellow-countrymen of this danger. I have always striven to encourage a healthy Canadian national spirit, a confidence in ourselves and in our future. I have endeavoured to give courage to the faint-hearted and the timid, and have always urged that Canadians of all classes should stand shoulder to shoulder ready to make any and every sacrifice for the State. I have felt that doubts and misgivings, the preaching and talking of annexation, were of all things the most likely to induce the Yankees to attack us. In 1812, the belief that we were divided, that the traitors were in the majority among us, and that we were ripe for annexation, had much to do with bringing on a bloody and severe war. The unanimity and courage displayed by our people at the Trent affair, the bold and unbroken front then shown by the Canadians saved us from war at that time.
To-day every word that is said in Canada in favour of annexation, or that shows a want of confidence in ourselves, is being vigorously used in the United States to create a widespread belief in that country that we are ripe for annexation. This dangerous mistake will pave the way to war, and this is why I so strongly resent a line of action that is so fraught with danger to our country.
Talk of my wanting war! The idea is absurd. It is the last thing I want. I hold that we have a free Government, that we have the fullest political, religious, and personal liberty. Our country is one of the most prosperous, if not the most prosperous, country in the world, and we have every hope of a great national future. If we had war it would cost the lives of thousands of our best. It would destroy our property, ruin our business interests, throw back our country twenty years in progress, burden us with an enormous debt, and if completely victorious we could not be freer, or have greater liberty or advantages, than we have to-day. We have no reason to go to war, unless we are driven to defend and preserve all we hold dear. No one appreciates this better than I do, and on that account all my efforts have been in the direction of preserving peace.
If war comes you will probably be still carrying on the newspaper business on King Street, your annexation correspondents will (if at large) still be spreading fears and misgivings in the rear, if not traitorously aiding the enemy, but I will have to be on the outpost line, exposed to all the hardships and trials of war. I know enough of war to hope that the Almighty may give us peace in our time, but rather than my country should be lost, I hope when the day of trial comes that God may give me courage to make any and every sacrifice in the interests of my native land.
I have been abused and attacked, threatened and ridiculed by Canadians for speaking out for Canada, but while I live nothing shall prevent me from doing what I believe to be the duty of every true Canadian.
One member of the Ontario Government met me on the street about this time, and took me to task for speaking so strongly on the question of Commercial Union and Unrestricted Reciprocity. I gave him an emphatic reply that I would follow my own course in the matter. Another prominent gentleman, since a Senator, and now a preferential tariff supporter, also spoke to me on the street, and said, “Certainly people should be allowed to discuss annexation or independence as they liked.” I denied this vehemently, and declared they could not have either without fighting, and I told him plainly that if he meant to secure either he had better hang me on a lamp-post, or otherwise, if it became a live issue, I would hang him. I had made up my mind that if there was to be any of the work that the “Sons of Liberty” resorted to in the United States before the Revolution, we of the loyal party would follow their example and do it ourselves. Sir Oliver Mowat, then Premier and Attorney-General, once spoke to me, advising me not to be so violent in my language. My reply was that if the matter became dangerous I would resign my Police Magistracy one day, and he would find me leading a mob the next. Sir Oliver Mowat was a thorough loyalist, and at heart I think he fully sympathised with me.
Early in November, 1888, there was a large Convention of Dentists held in Syracuse, New York State, which Dr. W. George Beers, of Montreal, attended. At the banquet a toast was proposed, “Professional Annexation.” Dr. Beers replied in an eloquent, loyal, and manly speech, which voiced the Canadian feeling. It was copied into many Canadian papers, and printed in pamphlet form and circulated broadcast throughout the country.
He told them: “Just as you had and have your croakers and cowards we have ours, but Canada is not for sale. . . . Annexation as a serious subject has received its doom, and in spite of the intoxication of senatorial conceit on the one side, and the croaking of malcontents and tramps on the other, Canada is loyal to the Mother Country from whose stout old loins both of us sprang.” And after describing the extent and resources of the British Empire, he said: “Sharers in such a realm, heirs to such vast and varied privileges, Canadians are not for sale.”
During December, 1888, I spoke at a large meeting at Ingersoll on the 6th with Mr. J. M. Clark, on the 11th at Lindsay with Mr. James L. Hughes, and on the 20th at a meeting of the Toronto League.
In 1889 the work went on very vigorously. Dr. George R. Parkin, one of the most eloquent and able of our members, who had been lecturing in England on behalf of the parent League, made a tour through Canada, and the Imperial Federation League arranged a series of meetings which he addressed with great eloquence and power. He was then on the way to Australia, where his energy and enthusiasm helped on the spirit of Imperialism among the people of that colony and New Zealand, and gave the movement an impetus there which has not been lost. This was helped by some speeches delivered in Australia in 1888, by Principal George M. Grant, the greatest of our members, one who never lost an opportunity of doing all he could for the cause.
It was an interesting fact that at one of Dr. Parkin’s meetings at St. Thomas he was accompanied by Mr. E. E. Sheppard, who, it will be remembered, was one of the early advocates of Independence, and who had flown an Independence flag over his office in 1884. Mr. Sheppard had been won over by the arguments of our League to advocate Imperial Federation as a practical means of becoming independent, and had become a member of our Committee and a very powerful advocate of our cause.
In Canada the League was very active this year. On the 11th January, 1889, Mr. D’Alton McCarthy and I addressed a large and enthusiastic meeting at Peterboro. On the 17th January I attended a Sons of England Banquet at St. Thomas, organised as a demonstration against Annexation and in favour of Imperial Unity, where I responded to the principal toast, and made a strong appeal against Commercial Union and in favour of Imperial Consolidation. On the 9th February, A. J. Cattanach, Commander Law, J. T. Small and I went to Hamilton in Imperial Federation interests. On the 18th February, Dr. Parkin spoke at St. Thomas. On the 29th March, 1889, J. Castell Hopkins and I addressed a large meeting at Woodstock. I spoke at the St. George’s Society Banquet, Toronto, 23rd April. On the 11th May, there was a large meeting at Hamilton addressed by Principal George M. Grant. The Annual Meeting of the League took place at Hamilton the same day, and the early difficulties of the movement are well evidenced by the fact that at the Annual Meeting of the League only eleven representatives were present, viz.: D’Alton McCarthy, M.P., President, in the Chair; Thomas Macfarlane, F.R.S.C., representing Ottawa Branch; Principal G. M. Grant, President Kingston Branch; Henry Lyman, President Montreal Branch; H. H. Lyman, Treasurer; J. Castell Hopkins, one of the Hon. Secretaries; Commander Law, Secretary Toronto Branch; D. T. Symons, Lt.-Colonel George T. Denison, J. T. Small, and Senator McInnes. On the 21st May, Principal Grant delivered an address in Toronto, and another on the 16th August at Chatauqua, near Niagara-on-the-Lake, both powerful appeals in support of the cause.
The Commercial Unionists made violent attacks upon the League, ridiculing it and its objects, and caricatures were often published making light of our efforts, while many Liberal newspapers, led by the Globe, attacked us at every available opportunity.