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: