Sir Alexander Campbell is of somewhat conglomerate nationality, being a Scotchman in blood and by descent, an Englishman by birth, and a Canadian by education and lifelong residence. He is a son of the late Dr. James Campbell and was born at the village of Hedon, near Kingston-upon-Hull, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, in 1821. When he was only about two years old his parents emigrated to Canada, and settled in the neighbourhood of Lachine, where his childhood was passed. He received his early education at the hands of a minister of the Presbyterian Church, and afterwards spent some time at the Roman Catholic Seminary of St. Hyacinthe. His education was completed under the tuition of Mr. George Baxter, at the Royal Grammar School at Kingston, in Upper Canada, whither his family removed during his boyhood. He has ever since resided at Kingston, with the interests whereof he has been identified for nearly half a century.
After leaving school he chose the law as his future profession, and in 1838 passed his preliminary examination as a student before the Law Society of Upper Canada. He then entered the law office of the late Mr. Henry Cassidy, an eminent lawyer of Kingston, and remained there until the death of his principal, which took place in 1839. He then became the pupil of Mr.—now the Hon. Sir—John A. Macdonald, with whom he remained as a student until his admission as an attorney, in Hilary Term of the year 1842. He then formed a partnership with Mr. Macdonald, under the style of Macdonald & Campbell, and in Michaelmas Term, 1843, was called to the Bar. This partnership endured for many years, and was attended with very satisfactory results, both professional and otherwise. The firm transacted the largest legal business in that part of the country, and their services were retained on one side or the other in almost every important cause. Mr. Campbell's own professional career, though subordinate to that of his senior partner, was a highly creditable and distinguished one. His success at the Bar secured for him a competent fortune, and opened up to him other avenues to distinction. He served his apprenticeship to public life in the years 1851 and 1852, in the modest capacity of an Alderman for one of the city wards of Kingston. In 1856 he was created a Queen's Counsel. During the same year the Legislative Council was made elective, and the Cataraqui division, embracing the city of Kingston and the county of Frontenac, having with eleven other divisions, come in for its turn to elect a member in 1858, Mr. Campbell offered himself in the Liberal-Conservative interest, and was returned by a very large majority. The vote polled in his favour exceeded the united votes polled for his two opponents. In the Council he soon achieved a commanding position. Though he had the courage of his opinions, and did not hesitate to express them whenever any occasion arose for doing so, his remarks were never characterized by the acrimonious violence which was then too much in vogue. He spoke with readiness, but never took up the time of his colleagues unless when he had something definite to say. He was courteous and urbane to all, and soon became a favourite with the Body, more venerable than venerated, to which he had been elected. Early in 1863 he was chosen to fill the important office of Speaker of the Council, which position he held until the dissolution of Parliament in the summer of that year. During the Ministerial crisis which ensued in March, 1864, he was invited by the Governor-General to form a Cabinet, but declined the task, although the Hon. John A. Macdonald, at a public dinner in Toronto, virtually resigned in his favour. Mr. Campbell was probably of opinion that the increase of honour would hardly counterbalance the great increase of responsibility, as it was impossible in those times for any Government to feel itself strong. He, however, accepted the office of Crown Lands Commissioner in the Ministry then formed by the late Sir E. P. Taché and John A. Macdonald. The Ministry was not of long duration, and Mr. Campbell retained office with the same portfolio in the Coalition Government which succeeded it, and which, in one form or another, lasted till Confederation. He took an active part in the Confederation movement, and was a member of the Union Conference which met at Quebec in 1864. During the interminable debates on Confederation he was the leading advocate of the project in the Upper House, and his remarks were always characterized by tact, good sense and good breeding. He made no effort at fine speaking, but appealed to the judgment and patriotism of his auditors. He had a most persistent opponent in the Hon. Mr. Currie, the representative of Niagara. Upon so many-sided and comprehensive a measure as that of Confederation, it was no slight task to reply off-hand to all sorts of hostile questions, many of which were skilfully propounded with a sole view to embarrassing the man whose official duty compelled him to answer as best he could. Mr. Campbell acquitted himself in such a manner as to increase the respect in which he was held, and his speech made on the 17th of February, 1865, in answer to the opponents of Confederation, has been characterized by competent authorities as the most statesmanlike effort of his life.
In May, 1867, Mr. Campbell was called to the Senate by the Queen's proclamation, and since that time has been the leader of the Conservative Party in the Upper Chamber. It may be said, indeed, that his leadership virtually began as far back as 1864, when he first took office in the Taché-Macdonald Ministry, as already referred to; for although Sir E. P. Taché was a member of the Legislative Council, and was for a time Premier of the Coalition Government, as Sir Narcisse Belleau was after him, neither of these men possessed the qualifications needed for the position of a party leader, the duties of which were therefore to a great extent left to be discharged by their younger, more active, and better qualified colleague. "Sir John A. Macdonald," says a contemporary writer, "showed a sound judgment when he gave to Mr. Campbell the leadership of the newly-constituted Canadian Senate. Assured from the first of the possession for many years of a majority in the Chamber he had virtually created, it was necessary that his lieutenant in the Upper House should be one who could be relied upon to use his party strength with moderation, and to make all safe without appearing needlessly to oppress or coerce the minority. . . . In the conduct of the ordinary business of Parliament Mr. Campbell is an opponent with whom it is easy to deal. Courteous in personal intercourse, possessed of plain, practical common sense and good Parliamentary experience, he is not one to raise obstructions when no end is to be gained. As a speaker he would, in a popular legislature, hardly be called effective, and he has certainly no claims to eloquence, or to that faculty which forms a useful substitute for eloquence, and which Sir John A. Macdonald possesses—of becoming terribly in earnest exactly when a display of earnestness is needful to effect a purpose. But the leader of the Conservative Senators speaks well, takes care to understand what he is talking about, and infuses into his speeches, when necessary, just as much force as is required to make them tell on his followers, if they do not affect very strongly the feelings or convictions of his opponents. He was the man for the situation, and has played his part well."
On the 1st of July, 1867, Mr. Campbell was sworn of the Privy Council, and took office as Postmaster-General in the Government formed by Sir John A. Macdonald. He retained that portfolio about six years, when the Department of the Interior, of which he then became the first Minister, was created. In 1870 he proceeded to England on an important diplomatic mission, the result of which was the signing of the Washington Treaty. He did not long retain his position as Minister of the Interior, the Government having been compelled to resign in November, 1873, by the force of public opinion, which had been aroused by the disclosures respecting the sale of the Pacific Railway Charter. During the existence of Mr. Mackenzie's Government he led the Conservative Opposition in the Senate, and upon the accession of the Conservative Party to power in the autumn of 1878 he accepted the portfolio of Receiver-General. He retained this position from the 8th of October, 1878, to the 20th of May, 1879, when he became Postmaster-General. Four days afterwards he was created a knight of St. Michael and St. George, at an investiture of the Order held in Montreal by the Governor-General, acting on behalf of Her Majesty. On the 15th of January, 1880, he resigned the Postmaster-Generalship, and accepted the portfolio of Minister of Militia. In the readjustment of offices which took place prior to the assembling of Parliament towards the close of last year he resumed the office of Postmaster-General, of which he is the present incumbent.
In 1855 he married Miss Georgina Frederica Locke, daughter of Mr. Thomas Sandwith, of Beverley, Yorkshire, England. In 1857 he became a Bencher of the Law Society of Upper Canada. He was for some time Dean of the Faculty of Law in the University of Queen's College, Kingston. He is connected with several important financial enterprises, and is a man of much social influence. He would probably have gained a much wider reputation in the Canadian Assembly and the House of Commons than he has been able to acquire in the less stirring atmosphere of the Legislative Council and the Senate. He has, however, been a most useful man in the sphere which he has chosen, and his retirement from public life would be a serious loss to the Conservative Party, and to the country at large.