Sir George Etienne Cartier: His Work for Canada and His Services to Montreal

by John Boyd

SIR GEORGE ETIENNE CARTIER

His Work for Canada and His Services to Montreal.

(AN ADDRESS DELIVERED BY MR. JOHN BOYD BEFORE
THE CANADIAN CLUB OF MONTREAL, APRIL 7th, 1913.)

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Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen:

The subject of the address which I have the privilege of delivering to-day is "Sir George Etienne Cartier, His Work for Canada and His Services to Montreal."

Let me at the outset, Mr. Chairman, express my deep appreciation of the honor the Executive of the Canadian Club has done me in inviting me to address the members of this important and representative organization.

When, in 1892, through the efforts of Mr. Charles R. McCullough of Hamilton, the first Canadian Club was organized, a movement was inaugurated of the utmost importance to the Dominion. Every important centre throughout the country now has its Canadian Club, and these organizations, or as they have been well termed, these "universities of the people" now numbering nearly one hundred, are doing a splendid work in fostering a spirit of patriotism and in creating that national sentiment which is so essential to Canada's welfare. The Canadian Club of Montreal, composed as it is of the most representative citizens of the commercial metropolis, has ever been foremost in this great work, and it is indeed a privilege to have the opportunity of addressing such a gathering.

What more appropriate subject, Mr. Chairman, could be found for an address before a Canadian Club, than the career of one of our great nation-builders, of one who helped to lay the foundations of Canadian nationality and of the Dominion's greatness?

It is not my intention, Mr. Chairman, nor would time permit on this occasion, to deal exhaustively with the life and achievements of Sir George Etienne Cartier. That is now engaging my attention in another form, and when the Memorial History of the Life and Times of George Etienne Cartier shall appear, it will, I trust be found to be at least an exhaustive review of a great career and of one of the most memorable periods of Canadian history. On this occasion, owing to the limited time at my disposal, I shall content myself with reviewing succinctly Cartier's public career and achievements, dwelling briefly on the lessons of his life with special emphasis upon the great work that he did for Canada in general and the eminent services which he rendered to the City of Montreal in particular.

I shall take it for granted, Gentleman, that you are all conversant with the main facts of Cartier's career, from his birth at St. Antoine on the Richelieu River on September 6th, 1814, until his entrance to public life at the age of 34 in 1848, from that date until he became Prime Minister of United Canada in 1858, and from that until his death in 1873 when he held the portfolio of Minister of Militia and Defence in the Dominion Government.

Cartier's public career covered a period of some twenty-five years, that is to say from 1848 to 1873. What fruitful efforts, what herculanean labors, what great achievements, what struggles, defeats and triumphs were crowded within the compass of that career! The period which it covered was one of the most remarkable, if not the most remarkable, in the whole range of Canadian history. It was a period which witnessed many great constitutional changes, many transformations of parties, many fierce political struggles. It saw the beginning and the end of the Union, it marked the triumph of the long struggle for responsible government, it witnessed the birth of Confederation. It was a period fecund of great events and momentous developments, it was also a period rendered notable by the long succession of great statesmen whose names must forever be illustrious in Canadian history.

During all of that period Cartier played an active part and at times occupied a pre-eminent position.

At the beginning of his career, Cartier was a zealous reformer. In his youth like so many other ardent spirits of the time he came under the influence of Louis Joseph Papineau, when that great French Canadian tribune, with his incomparable eloquence, was thundering against those administrative abuses which were directly responsible for the troubles of the period. Nor was Papineau alone in his opposition to what Cartier described as the action of a minority which sought to dominate the majority and exploit the government in its own interests. Papineau, it should be remembered had the support of leading English-speaking Canadians, such as the distinguished Wolfred Nelson, afterwards Mayor of Montreal; in fact it is a noteworthy historical feature that some of the leading figures in the struggle for responsible government in Lower Canada were English-speaking. Cartier's participation in the rising of 1837 was due to the ardor and impetuosity of youth and the sincere convictions he held that the prevailing evils called for drastic measures. His experience convinced him of the folly of an appeal to arms; he realized that the remedy for existing evils must be sought, not through armed resistance to the constituted authorities, but through constitutional agitation and legislative action. He became a staunch supporter of LaFontaine's policy, and one of his earliest campaign speeches was made in advocacy of the principle of ministerial responsibility during the crisis resulting from the resignation of the LaFontaine-Baldwin Government in 1844. In 1848, when Cartier first entered Parliament, the struggle for responsible government, thanks to the efforts of those two great statesmen, Louis Hypolite LaFontaine and Robert Baldwin, whose names will forever be held in the highest honor by all Canadians, had been fought and won. When justice had been secured and existing abuses remedied by the granting of responsible government, Cartier became, and ever afterwards continued to be one of the warmest supporters and most zealous champions of British institutions, a strong advocate of the maintenance of British connection and a passionate lover of the British flag.

Cartier was the destined successor of LaFontaine in the great work of reconstruction, pacification, and conciliation, and when LaFontaine retired in 1851, and was followed a few years later by that other eminent French-Canadian statesman, Auguste Norbert Morin, Cartier's path to the leadership of his native province was clear. For years he was the undisputed leader: his voice, as has been well said, was the voice of Quebec.

The struggle for responsible government having been won, an era of marked industrial expansion and development followed under the Union. It was an era of railway building, of canal construction, of the establishment of great public works. Cartier, owing to his practical qualities, his great business abilities, his mastery of details, and his administrative capacities, was eminently qualified to obtain a leading position during such a period. He achieved distinction as a reformer, as an able administrator, as a legislator, and as a constructive statesman. His name is attached to some of the most important Acts of a period prolific of important legislation. It is sufficient to mention in this connection such measures as the construction of the Montreal and Portland Railway, the decentralization of the judiciary, the codification of the civil laws and of civil procedure, the modification of the criminal law, the Municipal Act of Lower Canada, the Act relating to registration offices, the abolition of the seigniorial tenure, the choice of Ottawa as the Capital of Canada, the construction of the Grand Trunk Railway and the Victoria Bridge, the organization of the educational system of Lower Canada, the improvement and deepening of the St. Lawrence, the building of canals, the union of the provinces of British North America, the acquisition of the North-West Territories, the construction of the Intercolonial Railway, the establishment of the Province of Manitoba, the admission of British Columbia into Confederation, the establishment of the militia system and the initiation of the Canadian Pacific Railway.

It would not be in accordance with that absolute truth which is demanded of history, to even infer that to Cartier alone is due the credit for the passage of all of these great measures. Many eminent men contributed by their efforts to their achievement. But to Cartier may fairly be adjudged the merit without detracting from the merits of others, of having taken an active part in the achievement of all of these important measures, of having devoted his great energies and abilities to their accomplishment, and of having played a determining part in the achievement of some of them. Some of these measures were of material benefit to the progress of the country. The legal reforms for which Cartier is entitled to the sole credit, constitute in themselves a monument to his wise statesmanship. Other measures in which he played a determining part, such as Confederation, were of an epoch-making character, in connection with Canada's national development and well-being. As an eminent French-Canadian writer, the late Senator Tassé, has well remarked, more than one of these measures would have been sufficient to immortalize Cartier. He was, to use Senator Tassé's words, at one and the same time a legislator, a founder of constitutions, a peaceful conqueror.