At that time Sir Hugh Allan, head of the Allan line of steamships, was probably the most able and prominent business man in Canada. He was not only interested in steamships on the Atlantic, but had acquired railway interests as well. There is no doubt that Sir Hugh Allan had been pressing upon men in public life the project of a transcontinental railway, which he might lead in building, with the further idea, no doubt, of having another line of steamers on the Pacific. This was a worthy enough ambition for a great Canadian. There is no reason to think that Sir Hugh Allan was mercenary or avaricious, for he had no need of more wealth than he possessed. In any case he, being of the same political party as Sir John Macdonald, as well as a man of great ability and financial power, was one of those in line as a possibility for such a big task.
Accordingly Allan formed a company to build the railway. So also did Mr. D. L. Macpherson and a group of Toronto capitalists, who alleged that Allan was in league with American interests in a degree that would militate against the success of the Canadian Pacific as a Canadian road. Sir John Macdonald tried in vain to get these two projected companies to amalgamate. Finally it seemed to be settled that a new company should be formed of Canadians and that Allan would have control. He was spending money with a lavish hand and when the Dominion election was held in 1872 he furnished the large sum of $160,000 for campaign funds to Macdonald, Cartier and Langevin. It is known that Allan had always contributed to the campaign funds of the party, as others did, but the fact that these campaign funds in 1872 were contributed at a time when a huge contract was pending, made the whole transaction look dangerous. All campaign funds are legally and morally wrong, and the fact that they were customary and that everybody knows they are customary, does not make them right.
In this particular case, Cartier, who was then mentally as well as physically broken down, and who, contrary to Macdonald’s advice, ran for an impossible constituency, where he was defeated, seems to have made the largest demands on Allan. It seems clear also that Cartier held out to Allan, hopes of the contract. But it is also clear that the other leaders got certain sums which they used in the campaign. The Macdonald government was elected. After the election a new company, called the Canadian Pacific, was formed, with representative men from all the Provinces as directors. That new board chose Allan as President, it is said, without any pressure from the Government. This is not unlikely, as Allan was, as we have said, the biggest business man in Canada at the time. To this company the Government granted a charter to build the Canadian Pacific, but American interests were to be excluded as the Government insisted. Allan agreed to this and repaid the money the Americans had advanced. The New York men, of course, were annoyed at this and gave the opponents of the Macdonald Government some hints as to those campaign funds from Allan. Then Allan’s personal correspondence with American interests during the election year was stolen by a clerk in the office of Allan’s solicitor, Mr. J. J. C. Abbott, and, being made public, raised a tremendous political storm.
When the House of Commons met the atmosphere was tense and electric. Only a few days elapsed before Mr. L. S. Huntingdon, for the Opposition, moved for the investigation of the charges that were floating around in regard to these campaign funds, the suggestion being that Sir Hugh Allan got the railway contract in return for his monetary contributions. On an immediate vote the Government was sustained, but there was an uneasy feeling abroad and men of independent mould were breaking away from party ties. Sir John Macdonald, who saw the situation with his usual political sagacity, himself moved for the appointment of an investigating commission, and the House adjourned till that commission would be ready to report. When the House met in October, 1873, the Hon. Alexander Mackenzie, leader of the Opposition, moved a vote of non-confidence and supported it by quoting from the report of the commission. The debate in the House was hot. Charles Tupper, the “war horse of Cumberland”—a masterful debater, who later was the tremendous drive wheel of the railway project—supported the Government, but Huntingdon replied that the Government had kept itself in power by the lavish use of money from men who were desiring contracts. Sir John A. Macdonald spoke for nearly five hours in defence of his action, dealing with the whole history of the Canadian Pacific Railway. He made a special appeal for support in order that East and West might be connected by rail and the whole of Canada developed. Sir John, though at no stage of his career a great orator, was possessed of a magnetic manner and could coin phrases that had indescribable force. Such, for instance, was the expression he used once at a great mass meeting in Toronto, when he said dramatically, “A British subject I was born—a British subject I will die.” On this occasion, in 1873, in the House, when he made explanation of his policy in regard to the railway contract, he closed his five hours’ address in the words: “But, Sir, I commit myself, the Government commits itself, to the hands of this House; and far beyond this House, it commits itself to the country at large. We have faithfully done our duty. We have fought the battle of Confederation. We have fought the battle of unity. We have had party strife, setting Province against Province. And more than all, we have had, in the greatest Province, every prejudice and sectional feeling that could be arrayed against us. I throw myself on this House; I throw myself on this country; I throw myself on posterity, and I believe that, notwithstanding the many failings of my life, I shall have the voice of this country rallying around me. And, Sir, if I am mistaken in that, I can confidently appeal to a higher court—to the court of my own conscience, and to the court of posterity. I leave it to this House with the utmost confidence. I am equal to either fortune. I can see past the decision of this House, either for or against me, but, whether it be for or against me, I know, and it is no vain boast of me to say so, for even my enemies will admit that I am no boaster—that there does not exist in Canada a man who has given more of his time, more of his heart, more of his wealth, or more of his intellect and power, such as they may be, for the good of this Dominion of Canada.”
This speech was listened to by a full house and crowded galleries, amongst those present being Lord Roseberry, then on a visit to Canada. Sir John closed his speech about two o’clock in the morning, and the Hon. Edward Blake rose to reply. Blake was probably the ablest and most massively intellectual man that Canada has produced. He lacked the magnetism of Sir John, but had the power, almost to a fault, of dealing with a subject in such detail that when he was through with it there was little left to be said. Mr. Blake was at that time quite sceptical as to the practicability of a transcontinental railway, anyway; but that night in the House of Commons he concentrated his tremendous argumentative oratory against the Government for having, as he alleged, won the election with campaign funds from interested parties.
There was doubt as to the result in the House till some of the independent members who might ordinarily have supported the Government began to indicate otherwise. Curiously enough, Mr. Donald A. Smith (afterwards Lord Strathcona), the man who, later on, drove the last spike in the Canadian Pacific Railway, under the Premiership of this same Sir John Macdonald, in 1885, was the member who really dealt the Government its knockout blow in 1873 in the House of Commons. No one knew what the course of Mr. Smith, who was never a party man, would be, and when he rose to speak every one listened with strained attention. His opening words seemed to favour the Government, but he was simply absolving Sir John Macdonald from personal blame. Here is the report of what Mr. Smith said: “With respect to the transaction between the Government and Sir Hugh Allan, I do not consider that the First Minister took the money with any corrupt motive. I feel that the leader of the Government is incapable of taking money from Sir Hugh Allen for corrupt purposes. I would be most willing to vote confidence in the Government (loud cheers from the Government side), if I could do so conscientiously (loud cheers from the Opposition). It is with very great regret that I cannot do so. For the honour of the country, no Government should exist that has a shadow of suspicion resting on them, and for that reason I could not support them.” (Renewed Opposition cheers.) In the afternoon of that day, November 5th, 1873, Sir John A. Macdonald informed the House that he had placed his resignation in the hands of the Governor-General and that the Hon. Alexander Mackenzie was called upon to form a new administration.
Sir John Macdonald had resigned without waiting for a vote of the House and no one to this day knows just how it would have divided. But the feeling in the country was hot and, like a wise man, he bowed to the inevitable. He said that someday the people would understand and call him back to power. The fact that they did call him back five years later astounded his political foes, one of whom had said in the House, during the debate, that Sir John “had fallen like Lucifer, never to rise again.” But he did rise, to the surprise of many. The fact that he came back later on was due, in some degree, to his personal magnetism. But it was also due to the fact that people knew that Sir John had not profited in any personal way and that he and Sir Hugh Allan had become almost obsessed with the idea that the continuance of Sir John in office at that time was absolutely necessary to the opening up and development of Canada. They acted accordingly, as if the end they had in view justified the methods they adopted. Moreover, it was shown that Sir John had definitely told Allan that he would not give the railway contract to him, but to an amalgamation of the two companies. Allan said in connection with the whole matter: “The plans I propose are the best for the interests of the Dominion and in urging them I am doing a patriotic action.”
In the meantime, when Sir John resigned, Mackenzie took office and, in a general election shortly afterwards, swept the country. Sir Hugh Allan, unable to raise capital in the presence of the political earthquake and the business depression, threw up the charter for building the Canadian Pacific Railway, and a new programme had to be adopted. For the time being the curtain had to be rung down on the gigantic project.
CHAPTER IV
The Chariot Wheels Drag
The name of Alexander Mackenzie, the stonemason, who succeeded Sir John Macdonald as Premier of Canada in 1873, deserves to be uttered with profound respect. By the most intense application to work and the most diligent use of his opportunities in the right way, he rose steadily, not only in circumstances, but in the esteem of his fellow-countrymen, till he attained the highest office in the gift of the Canadian people. Born in the Highlands of Scotland, he came out to Canada as a young stonecutter. He returned some thirty years later to the romantic scenes of his childhood as the Premier of the Dominion, a credit alike to the land of his birth and the land of his adoption. Once, in my student days, I met him in Winnipeg. He had made the trip to the far West, but was in poor health—a rather pathetic figure, I thought, whose unflinching resistance of down-grade influences had made his public life harder than stonecutting.