History of Prince Edward Island

by Duncan Campbell

The subject of union came again prominently before the assembly in the session of 1870, on taking into consideration the messages of his honor the administrator of the government, transmitting various despatches and papers. The Honorable Mr. Kelly reported that the committee recommended that the house should adopt a resolution to the effect that the people’s representatives felt it to be their duty to oppose a union with the Dominion of Canada, and to express their opinion that the people of the island, while loyal in their attachment to the Crown and government of Great Britain, were, nevertheless, almost unanimously opposed to any change in the constitution of the colony,—which resolution was carried by nineteen to four votes.

The next movement of importance in reference to the question of union was taken by the government, of which the Honorable Mr. Haythorne was the leader, on the second of January, 1873, when the executive council adopted an important minute containing new propositions, with a view to the union of the island with the Dominion of Canada. It was stated in the minute, that if Canada would accord liberal terms of union, the government of Prince Edward Island would be prepared to advise an immediate dissolution of the house, in order to give the people an opportunity of deciding whether they would go into confederation, or submit to the taxation required for railway purposes. The document was forwarded to the governor-general and submitted to the privy council of the Dominion, who suggested that a deputation should be sent to Ottawa by the government of the island, for the purpose of holding a conference on the subject of the proposed union. The Honorable Mr. Haythorne and the Honorable David Laird were accordingly appointed as delegates, representing the interests of the island; but they were not authorised to pledge either the government or the colony to any proposition that might be made by the Dominion of Canada. The delegation had several interviews with a sub-committee of the council, when the various questions connected with the important subject were fully discussed; and a minute of the terms and conditions mutually agreed to was finally drawn up. On the twelfth of March the governor-general sent a telegraphic despatch, evidently for the purpose of confirming the report of Messrs. Haythorne and Laird, intimating his ministers’ opinion,—in which he expressed his own concurrence,—that “no additional concession would have any chance of being accepted by the parliament of Canada.”

On the seventh of March the lieutenant-governor dissolved the house of assembly; and on the twenty-seventh of April the new house met, when the lieutenant-governor, in his opening speech, said that papers relative to the proposed union of the island with the Dominion of Canada would be laid before the house. Having dissolved the house in order that this important question might be submitted to the people at the polls, he now invited the representatives of the people to bestow on the question their careful consideration, expressing the earnest hope of the imperial government, that the island would not lose this opportunity of union with her sister provinces.

On the twenty-eighth of April the question was vigorously discussed by Mr. J. C. Pope and Mr. Laird; and on the second day of May, Mr. A. C. McDonald reported, that the committee had come to a resolution to the effect that the terms and conditions proposed did not secure to the island a sum sufficient to defray the indispensable requirements of its local government; that the strong objections hitherto entertained by the people of the island to confederation having been much modified, and the present house of assembly, feeling anxious to meet the desire of the imperial government to unite under one government all the British possessions in America, was willing to merge the interests of the island with those of the Dominion on terms just and reasonable,—such as would not involve the people in direct local taxation for objects for which the ordinary revenue had hitherto enabled them to provide. The resolution further proposed to authorise the lieutenant-governor to appoint delegates to proceed to Ottawa to confer with the government of the Dominion on the subject.

To this resolution, the Honorable David Laird moved an amendment, which was seconded by the Honorable B. Davies, to the effect that the house should appoint a committee of seven to prepare an address to the Queen, praying Her Majesty in council to pass an order in council, in conformity with the one hundred and forty-sixth section of the British North America Act, uniting Prince Edward Island with the Dominion of Canada, on the terms and conditions approved of in the minute of the privy council of Canada, on the tenth of March, 1873. The question having been put, the original resolution was carried by sixteen to ten votes.

Messrs. James C. Pope, T. H. Haviland, and George W. Howlan having been appointed delegates by the lieutenant-governor, proceeded to Ottawa for the purpose of conferring with the Dominion government on the subject of the proposed union. On the seventh of May they had an interview with the governor-general on the subject of their mission, and immediately afterwards they attended a formal meeting of the privy council. A committee of the council, consisting of Sir John A. McDonald, the Honorables Messieurs Tilley, Tupper, and Langevin were then appointed to confer with the delegates, who had drawn up a memorandum which they submitted to the committee. In that memorandum the delegates proposed to accept, as the basis of union, the offer made in 1869 by the Dominion government, namely, two hundred and forty-one thousand dollars a year for revenue, provided the Dominion government would assume the cost of the railway, as well as that of the proposed branch to Port Hill. These terms were not acceptable to the committee of the privy council. A compromise was, however, ultimately effected, and on the fifteenth of May a memorandum, embodying terms mutually approved, was signed by the committee and the delegates.

The delegates returned immediately to Charlottetown, and the terms and conditions of the proposed union, which were substantially those procured by Messrs. Haythorne and Laird, as agreed to at Ottawa, were submitted to the house of assembly, then in session. The principal terms and conditions were the following: that the island should, on entering the union, be entitled to incur a debt equal to fifty dollars a head of its population, as shown by the census returns of 1871; that is to say, four millions seven hundred and one thousand and fifty dollars; that the island, not having incurred debts equal to the sum just mentioned, should be entitled to receive, by half-yearly payments in advance, from the general government, interest at the rate of five per cent. per annum on the difference, from time to time, between the actual amount of its indebtedness and the amount of indebtedness authorised; that, as the government of Prince Edward Island held no lands from the Crown, and consequently enjoyed no revenue from that source for the construction and maintenance of public works, the Dominion government should pay, by half-yearly instalments, in advance, to the government of Prince Edward Island, forty-five thousand dollars yearly, less five per cent. upon any sum not exceeding eight hundred thousand dollars, which the Dominion government might advance to the Prince Edward Island government for the purchase of land now held by the large proprietors; that, in consideration of the transfer to the parliament of Canada of the powers of taxation, the following sums should be paid yearly by Canada to Prince Edward Island, for the support of the government and legislature: that is to say, thirty thousand dollars, and an annual grant equal to eighty cents per head of its population, as shown by the census returns of 1871,—namely, ninety-four thousand and twenty-one,—both by half-yearly payments in advance,—such grant of eighty cents per head to be augmented in proportion to such increase of population of the island as might be shown by each decennial census, until the population amounted to four hundred thousand, at which rate such grant should thereafter remain,—it being understood that the next census should be taken in the year 1881. The Dominion likewise assumed all the charges for the following services: the salary of the lieutenant-governor, the salaries of the judges of the superior courts and of the district or county courts, the charges in respect to the department of customs, the postal department, the protection of the fisheries, the provision for the militia, the lighthouses, shipwrecked crews, quarantine, and marine Hospitals, the geological survey, and the penitentiary. The Dominion government also assumed the railway, which was then under contract. The main resolutions, on the motion of Mr. J. C. Pope, seconded by Mr. David Laird, were carried by twenty-seven votes to two. The house of assembly then unanimously agreed to an address to Her Majesty the Queen, praying that Her Majesty would be graciously pleased to unite Prince Edward Island with the Dominion of Canada on the terms and conditions contained in the said address. The legislative action necessary to consummate the union of Prince Edward Island with the Dominion of Canada being thus completed, its political destiny was united to that of the already confederated provinces on the first of July, 1873.

It may seem strange, to one unacquainted with the facts, that so great a change in public sentiment in regard to union should have been effected in so brief a period. The solution of the problem is to be found mainly in the circumstance, that the mercantile community was afraid of a monetary crisis, consequent on the liabilities of the island in connection with the railway, and that the only satisfactory way of getting out of the difficulty appeared to be the union of the island, on liberal terms, with the Dominion of Canada. Fidelity to historical accuracy constrains us to say that the final settlement of the terms was in no small measure attributable to the able manner in which Messrs. Haythorne and Laird acquitted themselves when delegates at Ottawa; and it must further be stated, to the credit of these gentlemen, that they rose, when occasion required, above party prejudice, and communicated their desire to the Dominion government that further concessions should, if possible, be granted to the new delegates, so that the union might be effected without delay. But it must not, at the same time, be forgotten that the government of which Mr. J. C. Pope was the leader obtained better terms than those conceded to the previous delegation, and that to them belongs the merit, in a great measure, of bringing the question to a final solution.

CHAPTER XI.

Biographical Sketches:—Bishop McEachern—Rev. Donald McDonald—Rev. Dr. Kier—Hon. T. H. Haviland—Hon. E. Whelan—Hon. James Yeo—Hon. George Coles—James D. Haszard.