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Mr. President, Ladies, and
Gentlemen: There lies to the north of the great republic my fair Canada.
She is even now great in her infancy; and for me to write the achievements
of the Scotch-Irish race, or rather briefly to glance into the history and
jot the doings of our race at certain epochs of her career as a nation, is
certainly no uninviting task. I speak of Canada as being, in infancy, a
nation, and yet no mother ever held in her loving arms a child of greater
promise. The idea of a mother will at once call up our British connection,
and if this great republic demands like Paul and asks, "What advantage has
a Jew? and what profit is there in circumcision?" I give you Paul's
answer, "Much every way." Our lot, in the providence of God, has been cast
as forming an integral part of the British Empire. Her oracles are our
oracles. Her genius of constitutional government is at work in Canada, and
under her genius we are developing a stability and a freedom un-equaled
among the free nations of the earth.
Why should it not be so?
The American nation has become great as her States have expanded and
developed in greatness from Maine to Dakota, from Florida to California.
The genius of the American people is seen in fusing these States into one
strong, abiding, and self-governing nation.
So in like manner will
Canada develop. Even suppose we set aside one-half of her territory,
covered, as some say, with rock and ice and snow, there still remains
1,175,000 square miles of fertile soil. This area is as large as
thirty-six of the principal States of this great republic. I merely state
this, not to narrow down or depreciate the extent of the territory of the
United States, but to show by comparison the possibilities of my country.
Canada, as Lord Dufferin says, is a "coy maiden," and does no doubt east a
shy glance at her rich bachelor neighbor to the south. Canada is in the
expectation of youth, buoyant and hardy, with plenty of ground to sport
upon. Canada has no doubt of her future, and does not stagger at her
difficulties or falter because of unbelief.
I would call him a
promising son who is not crying, as some pessimists will tell you, like
Moses in his ark of bulrushes, waiting for the Queen of Liberty on our
southern frontier, with maids of honor, to come to his rescue. The fact
is, the young lad lives and thrives very well, as will be seen from his
bill of fare when I come to speak of his exports and imports under
responsible government, secured to us by the tact and courage of the
Scotch-Irish race. Coming fresh from the country, I can report the lad in
good health, in good spirits, and in good humor with himself and all his
neighbors. It is of Canada I am to speak, and especially of the
Scotch-Irish race, that can advance its claim to recognition as forming no
unimportant factor in the great work of laying the foundation and the
coming on superstructure of this young nation's greatness. The
Scotch-Irish race has done its full share in reclaiming the land from its
primeval forests, and in turning the wilderness into a garden. In clearing
and in counsel this race has done its part. When or wherever it was
necessary to strike or speak, this race, true to its tradition, has not
faltered, but has come to the front in her battles and in her halls of
Legislature. In every thing that constitutes greatness Canada has her
share. Her forests and fisheries, her mines and minerals, her rich soil
and her sunny sky, her inland seas and her mighty rivers, her honest and
thrifty sons, and her ruddy and charming daughters all combine to point to
a greatness unrivaled among the rising nations of the earth. If our
Scotch-Irish fathers did not find her fields as green, they found at least
as great a variety of richness and fruitful-ness. If his heart was touched
with visions of the beautiful Lakes of Killarney, he found them
reproduced, only upon a grander scale, as he came up the St. Lawrence and
gazed upon the enchanting beauty of the Thousand Islands. The great Irish
poet himself makes some such comparison in the following lines:
There are miracles, which
man,
Caged in the bounds of Europe's pigmy span,
Can scarcely dream of, which his eye must see,
To know how wonderful this world can be.
Both the honored names and
heroic deeds of many must be set aside, and I shall have only space to
treat of those who have come to the front at certain periods of the
nation's history. These periods may be thus designated: 1. The period of
selection. 2. The period of the Constitution. 3. The period of enterprise.
Any one of these would afford material for a paper for this Society.
Let me at once begin with
the period of selection.
"There is a divinity that
shapes our ends, rough hew them as we may." So in treating on this period
of selection there need be no attempt to inquire into the reason of the
legislation that eventually led to the Declaration of Independence in
1776. It is well known that on the floor of the British Parliament Edmund
Burke poured out, hot from his lips, strong remonstrances against the
measures of the British Government that led to the Declaration of
Independence. The danger of the country called forth one of England's
greatest statesmen, Lord Chatham, from his retirement. Coming from his
dying bed, bandaged and wrapped in black velvet, even to the crutch on
which he leaned, he makes an appeal in behalf of the colonies about to
secede, and pays the following deserved tribute to the qualities displayed
in the first American Congress. Said Lord Chatham: "When your lordships
look at the papers transmitted us from America, when you consider their
decency, firmness, and wisdom, you cannot but respect their cause and wish
to make it your own. For myself I must declare and avow that in all my
reading and observation (I have read Thucydides and have studied and
admired the master statesmen of the world), that for solidity of
reasoning, force of sagacity, and wisdom of conclusion under such a
complication of difficult circumstances, no nation or body of men can
stand in preference to the General Congress at Philadelphia. I trust it is
obvious to your lordships that all attempts to impose servitude upon such
men, to establish despotism over such a mighty continental nation, mutt be
vain, must be fatal." But the counsel of Burke and Chatham did not
prevail. No reason or eloquence could turn aside or avert the unhappy and
certainly uncalled for measures of the administration of Lord North and
his colleagues, which resulted in the independence of the colonies and ill
the formation of the great American Republic.
We have heard with pride
the heroic deeds of valor recounted of the Scotch-Irish race in this
struggle for freedom and independence. Whether in Congress at
Philadelphia, in Parliament at Westminster, under every flag, in every
land, and in every Church, the Scotch-Irish race has stood up to its
conviction and planted itself upon the side of freedom and constitutional
government.
It is my province now to
glance at this period of selection. Should the people of Canada, then
numbering a few hundred thousand all told, still adhere to their British
connection, or cast in their lot with the republic? It does not appear at
this time that Canada felt the defects of the adverse administration of
Lord North, and hence we account for the reason that led, in this period
of selection, to the front a rare specimen of the Scotch-Irish race to
contend for his liberty to live and die under the British flag.
When the heroic Wolfe
climbed the heights of Abraham and took Quebec, there were two young men
in his army, captains we are told, who were designed afterward to meet
again and do battle, but on different sides, under the guns of the same
old fort. The one was Richard Montgomery, the other Guy Carleton. Richard
Montgomery led in the charge under Wolfe, that placed the British flag on
the heights of this Gibraltar of America, while Guy Carleton was left in
charge of the island of Orleans with the Second Battalion of Royal
Americans and some marines. This man of Scotch-Irish race proved at once
to be the founder and savior of Canada.
Guy Carleton was born at
Strabane, in the county of Tyrone, in the year that Marlborough died. The
renown of Marlborough was long after his death a common topic. Blenheim
and Ramillies were as familiar in men's mouths as Alma, Inkerman, and
Balaklava were a few years ago. As the young Carleton plied his rod in the
Mourne a wish rose within him which was to shape all his after life, which
was to lead him to honor and usefulness, which was to connect his name
with Canada and this continent forever: he longed for a soldier's career.
He served in many fields on the Continent, until we find him in 1759,
under Wolfe at the conquest of Quebec.
Nicholas Flood Davies, the
Canadian historian, says of this conquest: "It was the victory of the
Brito-Hibernian troops which made the United States possible, and when the
citizens of the republic look back to the dawn of her career of wealth and
freedom and greatness, they will see clear, even through the mists of
centuries, the romantic figure of the lover soldier falling at the moment
his charge broke the lines of Montcalm, and near him Irishmen whose names
are only less illustrious than their English commander's." The English
historian, Green, supports this view. He says: "The fall of Montcalm in
the moment of his defeat completed the victory, and the submission of
Canada put an end to the dream of a French Empire in America. In breaking
through the line with which France had striven to check the westward
advance of the English colonists, Pitt had unconsciously changed the
history of the world. His support of Frederick and Prussia was to lead in
our own day to the erection of a united Germany. His conquest of Canada,
by removing the enemy whose dread knit the colonists of the mother
country, and by flinging open to their energies, in the days to come, the
boundless plains of the West, laid the foundation of the United States."
On the 10th of February, 1763, was signed the Treaty of Paris, by the
fourth clause of which France ceded to England Canada with all its
dependencies, George III. granting the inhabitants the "liberty of the
Catholic religion." In a speech of M. Papineau to the electors of
Montreal, in 1820, he refers with pride and satisfaction to this exchange.
He says: "The oppressed peasant exchanged the vigorous vassalage of French
feudalism for the security and freedom of British citizenship. To the
reign of violence succeeded the reign of law." At the time of the conquest
the French population is estimated at 60,000; they now number in all
Canada about 1,200,000.
Let me now proceed to deal
with the successful efforts of Guy Carleton as the savior of Canada. In
1767 he was appointed Lieutenant-governor of Quebec, and the daring deeds
and bold adventures, as well as the wise statesmanship, of Guy Carleton
fill many pages in the annals of Canadian history. It is singular that
Gen. Montgomery, his most formidable foe, and as brave a soldier as ever
drew a sword, should have been also of the Scotch-Irish race. Guy Carleton
and Richard Montgomery were born within seven miles of each other,
Carleton's native place being Strabane and Montgomery's Convoy. They both
served at the taking of Quebec under Wolfe, Montgomery being foremost in
the fight, while Carleton took charge of British and, what I might call
now, American soldiers that held the Island of Orleans, some four miles
below Quebec.
Carleton had few soldiers,
some two regiments of British troops. The French population had only
become British subjects about twelve years before. The habitant could not
be induced to take much interest in the struggle. They all loved and
admired Carleton; he was their benefactor and friend; but all efforts
could not avail. They would not defend their country. The seigniors
assembled their tenants and explained to them the service expected of them
and the risk of confiscation which they would incur by holding back. But
the British law had made them free from their seigniors so far as military
service was required under feudalism. They took advantage of this. Their
seigniors could not induce them to take up arms and join Carleton.
Carleton next applied to their bishops, but met with no more success than
when he applied to their seignoirs. The poor people had not forgotten the
hardships of the last war, nor the oppression which preceded it. It was
but the other day that those very men under Carleton, and let us say
Montgomery too, had been fighting against them. Their brave general,
Montcalm, had been slain; they were a conquered people, and they resolved
to let those fight who would; they would sit and look on. This left our
hero with a large country to defend, and, owing to the recent transfer of
citizenship, the people without any desire to fight on the side of those
who had so recently conquered them and by the sword made them citizens of
another king and empire.
Under ordinary
circumstances—being thus without support from the native French, being
unable by seigniors and bishops and proclamations to create a spirit of
defense of Canada—there would have been nothing left but surrender, and
the historian would not have had the bright page in history or the daring
deeds of the Canadian story to relate. Carleton had the perseverance and
fertility of resource which has never been found wanting in the men of our
race in times of emergency. He gathered all his forces, made a wise
distribution of them from Quebec to Montreal, and waited to defend Canada
that he had helped to conquer. He had not long to wait. The forces of the
revolting colonists were led by Gen. Schuyler, who took ill, and Robert
Montgomery, Carleton's countryman, and his former companion in arms, now
took the command under the title of Gen. Montgomery.
In this short paper I
cannot recount the daring deeds of these two heroes of our race. Surprises
were attempted on both sides, but rarely or never affected. The one seemed
to be about the match for the other. It was now as it has often been in
America, the bold and daring enterprise of one hero of our race met by
equal boldness and sagacity of another of the race on the opposite side.
The spirit and dash of the race was never acted in a more transcendent
scale than on the shore of the St. Lawrence and under the very guns of the
most formidable fortress of the world.
Gen. Montgomery, with the
daring skill and enterprise which was so characteristic of the leaders of
the Revolution, seems at first to have been more than a match for
Carleton. Chambly, Montreal, and Three Rivers all were taken, and
Montgomery placed himself between the forces led by Carleton and Quebec.
Not only were these places in the hands of Montgomery, but Carleton
himself and the few troops now left him were about to be made prisoners.
Carleton would retreat to
Quebec, but how was he to accomplish this with an army led by such a
sagacious general as Montgomery between him and the citadel? He evacuates
Montreal after destroying what stores he could not carry with him.
Montgomery enters and, as McMullen says, "treated the people of Montreal
with great consideration, and gained their good-will by the affability of
his manners and the nobleness and generosity of his disposition." The
stars in their courses had fought against Carleton. At this moment all the
chances are on the side of Montgomery. Canada's gate-ways are his, save
Quebec. A formidable force under Arnold is marching on Quebec. Time will
not permit me to describe the march of the fifteen hundred from Boston to
Quebec under Arnold. Hauling boats, wading fords, trudging knee deep in
snow, they pressed on to the attack on the fortress-crowned rock. They
went through forests and inhospitable wastes made more so by frosty winds
and blinding snow storms. They had passed seventeen falls, and were almost
faint-hearted when at last they stood on the height of land which
separated New England from Canada. Arnold, after recruiting his forces,
formed them on the ramparts of Point Levis. Point Levis lies on the
American side, but in Canadian territory; between it and Quebec flows the
majestic St. Lawrence, here confined by rocks to a space of less than half
a mile. Arnold stood and looked at the frowning fortress; but the men who
had waded knee deep in snow from Boston would climb up those rocks on the
other side. The night came; Arnold and his men embarked on the hazardous
enterprise. He managed to elude the sloop-of-war "Hunter," which commanded
the river. He crossed the St. Lawrence under the frowning cannons. At any
moment their whole flotilla was liable to be sunk by the guns of the
fortress. Quietly and with muffled oar they rounded the promontory and
stole up the small river St. Charles and accomplished the feat that Wolfe
did just sixteen years before. They climbed the heights of Abraham at the
same spot and from the plains on the rear, and with a defiant shout rushed
on the old citadel. Col. McLean, who then commanded in Quebec, did not
march out as did Montcalm to meet Wolfe.
The citadel, even from the
rear, is protected by strongly built stone and earth-works, and guns
bristle from every yard of the fortification. Arnold and his men are met
by counter cheers and a fearful cannonade from every part of the
fortification. Arnold has few troops; and unable to effect a surprise and
take the citadel by storm, he retires up the left bank of the river to
Pointe-aux-Trembles, where he arrives just as Carleton leaves, and waits
to form a junction with Montgomery. At the time Arnold is making his
daring charge on Quebec, Montgomery is master of the rest of Canada. Our
hero, Carleton, and his handful of soldiers seem about to fall as
prisoners into the hands of Montgomery. But such was not the will of
Providence; Carleton assumes the guise of a French Canadian peasant, some
say a fisherman. Perhaps Montgomery never thought of his soldier neighbor
from Strabane appearing as a fisherman. This was no doubt Carleton's last
resort; and with his brave aid-de-camp, Bouchette, an old sergeant, he
enters a little boat, leaves Montreal behind, and glides down the stream.
The fate of Canada is in
that frail boat. Now they pass in the midst of floating batteries, when a
whisper may undo them. Sometimes so great is the danger they ship the oars
and paddle with their hands. They arrive at Three Rivers only to find it
full of Montgomery's troops. Carleton's and Bouchette's disguise and
familiar manner disarm all suspicion. They take some refreshments, again
they are in their little boat, and on their journey to Quebec fall in with
two armed schooners on which floats the British flag. They are taken on
board and have just left Point-aux-Trembles as Arnold arrives after his
unsuccessful attempt to take Quebec. Carleton arrived in Quebec and
prepared the city for a siege. Montgomery and Arnold united their forces
at Point-aux-Trembles, and after three days' marching arrived again on the
Plains of Abraham and demanded the surrender of the citadel. This Carleton
refused. It was the month of December: the weather was intensely cold.
Montgomery constructed batteries, but his guns were too small to make any
impression on the fortification, from which a destructive fire blazed
continually. He determined to take the place by storm. Carleton seems to
have had knowledge of the attack of Montgomery and Arnold. The charge made
was heroic. Both Montgomery and Arnold had already faced the frowning
batteries of Quebec. The charge or plan of attack seems to have been to
take the lower town. Arnold commanded the right wing, which hugged the
banks of the river St. Charles, and was successful in obtaining an
entrance, from which he was only dislodged at the point of the bayonet.
Montgomery commanded the left wing, and had already forced his way well up
to the lower town.
In 1885, as I stood and
looked upon the spot my blood chilled at the daring venture of the brave
Montgomery. He fell forcing his way to the lower town right under the
frowning cannon of Cape Diamond. I stood upon the spot. I looked up into
those very cannon. From every yard of that natural fortress they frowned
upon me! The guns are here in position three hundred feet high, and the
rocks are so steep that it would be quite impossible to climb them save
about one-third the way up. It was here Montgomery was leading his men to
the charge on the lower town when the batteries pouring forth their deadly
volleys laid this as daring and as brave a soldier as ever drew a sword
dead upon the rock. Wolfe fell upon the plains; Montgomery on the rock at
its most impregnable spot, and within two hundred feet of the cannon's
mouth. After the battle Carleton sought out amid the winter snow the body
of Gen. Montgomery, and buried him with military honors.
With the fall of Montgomery
ended the struggle; at least the spirits that gave life and animation to
the cause were gone (Arnold being wounded), and Guy Carleton remained
master of the situation. Carleton thus proved the savior of Canada. He had
to contend with generals like Montgomery and Arnold, who were among the
most daring of the leaders of the Revolution.
Let me close this period of
selection, this period when Canada resolved to pursue her course and
achieve greatness and renown under the British flag, by a quotation from
Mr. J. M. Lemoine's "History of Quebec:" "Had the fate of Canada on 'that
occasion been confided to a Governor less wise, less conciliating than Guy
Carleton, doubtless the ' brightest gem in the colonial crown of Britain '
would have been one of the stars on Columbia's banner; the star-spangled
streamer would now be floating on the summit of Cape Diamond."
Time will not permit me to
glance at such length at my second period, the formation of the
Constitution.
It is not my purpose to go
into the character and history of responsible government in Canada. Many
were the early struggles for a better system and for freedom in the
administration of the affairs of the provinces. I shall not have time to
even glance at the agitation of Gourlay and William Lyon Mackenzie.
The family compact, largely
composed of English gentlemen and United Empire Loyalists, were farming
out the great province of Upper Canada—now Ontario—for themselves. The
Lieutenant governors were mostly on their side, and every comfortable
berth and fat office was filled by them. In fact, this compact ruled with
a high hand, and for years defied the people and their chosen
representatives. No vote of want of confidence could remove them ; they
were simply irresponsible autocrats. To remove these autocrats and let the
people's representatives manage the affairs of the country, control the
treasury benches, and appoint all public servants was a work reserved for
the genius of our Scotch-Irish race to achieve.
It would be ungenerous for
me to deny either Mackenzie or Gourlay some credit for responsible
government. But neither of them conceived the idea of responsible
government as we at present enjoy it. Mackenzie advocated the making of
the Legislative Council elective, and this, he thought, would remedy every
existing evil and deliver the country from the oppression and tyranny of
the irresponsible autocrats who from year to year fattened at the public
crib. At this important juncture the genius for untying knots, the
evolving order out of chaos, the introduction of the principle of
responsible government was reserved for the men of the Scotch-Irish race.
The name of Robert Baldwin is a household word in Canada, and to-day the
two great parties in Canada, Conservative and Reform, vie with each other
in doing honor to this typical and courageous statesman of our race.
Robert Baldwin, the hero of responsible government in Canada, was born in
Toronto on May 12, 1804. He was the son of Dr. William Baldwin. The
Baldwin family came from Knockmore, near Cork, in the year 1799, and have
many distinguished representatives both in the Church and the State. While
it is not my purpose to mention names, yet there comes before me Rev.
Arthur H. Baldwin, of All Saints' Church, Toronto, as a liberal and
high-minded Christian gentleman and one of the most successful pastors of
that city. Dr. Baldwin had a firm grasp of the principles of
constitutional government and of popular liberty; these he bequeathed, as
well as his integrity, to his son, who was to become renowned and achieve
greatness through the principles of responsible government which his
fertile genius secured for Canada. Robert Baldwin first entered public
life as member for York, now Toronto, in the year 1825; and for a quarter
of a century, until the year 1851, was the most prominent figure in
shaping the course and guiding the ship of State. He had associated with
him during this period his cousin, Robert Baldwin Sullivan, who was
intellectually brilliant, and though in some sense weak, yet did work for
Canada in the struggle for responsible government which should never be
forgotten. I shall not have time to follow the Hon. Robert Baldwin (as we
shall call him now) as he goes to England and presses his views on Lord
Glenely, urging the necessity of giving the Canadian people a real
Constitution instead of the sham by which they were mocked; how he found
on his return Sir Francis Bond Head at war with the Assembly and with
popular opinion; how this Lieutenant-governor endeavored to form a
government by combining the leaders of both parties, and how Hon. Robert
Baldwin refused to enter the Executive Council unless upon the principles
so clearly defined by him—that of responsible government. For nearly
twenty-five years, Governors were sent out, some wise and others not, and
how in the end those principles advocated by Hon. Robert Baldwin and his
associates, mostly of the Scotch-Irish race, were at last conceded, and
the form as now established in Canada was embodied in the act which united
the various provinces in the Dominion of Canada.
These can only be referred
to in this paper. The Constitution in Canada is a matter of growth. It is
a peculiar product of the genius of the Scotch-Irish race deeply imbued
with the principles of the monarchal institutions of the mother-land, and
yet not altogether after the model of the government of Great Britain. It
is much more democratic. In fact, it is the most democratic government in
the world. I don't fear to state that for popular and democratic
principles it is much in advance of the form of republican government
existing to the south of us. Our popular Assembly at Ottawa can at one
breath sweep any government into the cold and icy regions of opposition.
This is not the case with the popular Assembly at Washington. Any
government to hold office in Canada must have a majority in both Houses.
Every bill must obtain the consent of both Houses of Parliament; and
especially do we in Canada lay stress on the popular House, the House of
Commons. It comes fresh from the people every five years at the longest;
and every government, in order to live, move, and have its being, must of
necessity have the majority of votes in this popular House. If a
government is defeated, and if they think the people are on their side,
they can dissolve the House and go to the people and find out who is right
and who is wrong. So that the people of Canada are the ultimate tribunal
before which every government must appear and stand or fall> according to
their verdict.
The government need not
wait for five years. Upon any crisis of trade or finance, or even upon a
public scandal, they may appeal to the people. It is this coming before
the people, and their liability at any time to have to appeal to the
people, that gives our responsible government such a charm to Canadians
and makes me read)', even before this congress of Americans, to speak of
it being the most democratic government on the face of the earth. There
was associated with Hon. R. Baldwin men whose names I need only mention in
this paper, but who were of the Scotch-Irish race and did their share and
contributed their part to the formation of responsible government in
Canada. In 1839 Col. Gowan, M.P., issued a pamphlet which indicates a
great deal of liberal insight on his part, so far as responsible
government is concerned. Mr. Gowan was in public life for a quarter of a
century, having represented Leeds and Grenville in Parliament for
twenty-two years. Although a Conservative and Baldwin a Reformer, yet no
stronger appeal could have been made on behalf of responsible government
than that made by Col. Gowan, both in the pamphlet above referred to and
in his private interview with Sir Charles Metcalfe. So that both the
Conservatives and Reformers of the Scotch-Irish race were one in urging
upon Sir Charles Metcalfe a form of responsible government; and, were it
not that he had to contend with the genius of the Scotch-Irish race, he
would have put back the dial of progress and have left matters in Canada
in a worse state than he found them. The Baldwin-Lafontaine Ministry was
the first responsible government Canada had seen. Sir Charles Metcalfe
might sneer at them, but the country was at their back, and of the twelve
ministers five of them and their leader and most able and noted debaters
were of the Scotch-Irish race. The most remarkable man in this cabinet,
next to Hon. Robert Baldwin and the Hon. Robert Baldwin Sullivan, was Sir
Francis Hincks. He was one of the most versatile men the Scotch-Irish race
has given to Canada. He is justly styled the Montague of Canadian finance.
A successful journalist, banker, and statesman, he was born in Cork, and
is the son of Rev. T. D. Hincks, LL.D. Rev. Dr. Hincks was for many years
classical master and professor of Oriental Languages in the Royal Belfast
Academical Institution, where his fifth son, Francis, was educated. Of all
that Sir Francis Hincks has done for Canada I cannot speak. He did his
full share to obtain for Canada responsible government. He put in shape
her finances and raised her credit abroad. He held office under Sir John
A. Macdonald from 1869 to 1873, and served his country at his old post,
being Minister of Finance. Many other names I cannot mention, such as Hon.
George Crawford, who was a member of the Cabinet in the Baldwin-Lafontaine
Government, and whose son, John, born in the County Ca-van, became so
distinguished as a banker and as a member of Parliament, and was appointed
Lieutenant-governor of Ontario. Before closing this paper, we shall point
out some little of the freedom under responsible government in fixing our
own tariff, in managing our own affairs as we think best, and our high
claim to be among the foremost of the free nations of the earth. This
achievement and renown, as has been shown, is the product of the genius of
the Scotch-Irish race in Canada.
I shall now proceed to
deal, and but briefly, with the third period: the period of enterprise.
Perhaps the one-fourth of
the people of Canada are of the Scotch-Irish race, and I cannot attempt to
do any thing like justice to their achievements, as they have boldly
entered upon all the avenues of life, and they have not been found wanting
in successful enterprise, We have in every province in Canada counties,
like Colchester, almost entirely settled by the Scotch-Irish race. These
counties have always come to the front, and men of diversity of genius
have come from these counties or towns to do honor to Canada. Let me
mention a few. The founder of the Archibald family was David Archibald,
born in Londonderry and settled in Truro, N. S., in 1762. He was elder in
the Presbyterian Church, and was the first member of Parliament for Truro,
in 1766. One of the family, the Hon. A. G. Archibald, was the first
Governor of Manitoba; but to show you the difficulty of doing justice to
this distinguished family in this paper, let me state the fact that it
requires nearly eighty pages demi-octavo to recount the number and
exploits and what the Archibald family has done for Nova Scotia.
Mr. Alexander Miller
settled in Nova Scotia about the same time, and was one of the first
advocates of total abstinence. His family are very numerous in this
province.
In 1756 three brothers,
Samuel, Matthew, and Francis Creelman, came from Ireland and settled in
Colchester, N. S. The Creelman family are widely known not only in Nova
Scotia but in Ontario.
The Barnhills, Deyermonds,
and Bairds are well known for enterprise in Nova Scotia; and the same may
be said of the Johnsons, Hunters, Teas, Dickeys, Fishers, McConnells,
Moores, Downings, O'Briens, Hamiltons, and Fultons. It takes thirty pages
to recount the doings of the three Creelmans. The Hon. Samuel Creelman
holds the most prominent position of any member of this extensive and
honorable family.
New Brunswick has her share
of our race. Col. John Murray settled in St. John, N. B., and built a
magnificent residence on Prince William Street. One of his daughters
married the Hon. Daniel Bliss, who was Chief-justice and Executive
Counselor of the province. His daughter Hannah was mother of the Hon.
Samuel Allen Willmot, at one time Governor of New Brunswick. Another
daughter married the Hon. Joshua Upham, Judge of the Supreme Court. A
daughter of Judge Upham was married to the Hon. John W. Weldon, and her
son, Rev. Charles Wentworth Upham, was pastor of the First Church, Salem,
Mass., and is the author of the well-known biography of Sir Henry Vane.
William Parks and Son is a
firm well known in New Brunswick. William Parks, the founder of this firm,
was born in Ireland in 1800, and settled in New Brunswick in 1822. He was
a banker and a railway man, but he is best known as a manufacturer. Before
confederation, all the cotton yarn was imported. The firm of Parks and Son
set to work with the enterprise of the Scotch-Irish race to manufacture
and produce cotton yarn for Canada. The success of this manufacture has
been remarkable. Now, little or none is imported into Canada, and fully
three-fourths of the whole output for Canada comes from this firm. Their
works cover a large portion of ground. Several hundred persons are
employed by the firm, and it has a high reputation not only in New
Brunswick, but in all Canada.
The founder of the cattle
trade in Canada, that has grown to such proportions, was Lieut. Joseph
Maxwell, born at Roscrea, in the county of Tipperary, and settled in
Richmond. Other farms like that of "Bow Park," established by the Hon.
George Brown, Hon. Mr. Dryden, and others only indicate the advancement in
this trade first established by the genius of the Scotch-Irish race.
The lumber trade, perhaps
next in importance to the cattle trade in Canada, was established by John
Egan, a native of Aughrim, who settled on the Ottawa in the year 1832. He
represented Ottawa and afterward Pontiac in Parliament. He was as a man of
business, generous and much beloved by the people, and was elected, as a
rule, without opposition to represent his country in the Parliament of
Canada.
Ralph Smith was born in
Queens County, and settled and built the first house on the south shore of
the river Ottawa in 1819. He, if it be any credit to our race, was the
pioneer of the brewery and distillery business in Canada, which has
attained too great a magnitude even in this young country.
Time will not permit me to
mention the names of many in the Ottawa Valley, in Carleton, Victoria,
Addington, and other counties in this part of Ontario, who have been
enterprising and successful, and fitly represent the qualities of our
race.
The hardware business in
Canada has received an impetus from our race by the Workman family.
Alexander Workman engaged in the business at Ottawa first with Edward
Griffin as partner and then carried on the business for himself. He was
Mayor of Ottawa, and received in his capacity as Mayor the Prince of Wales
and assisted the Prince in laying the corner-stone of the Parliament
buildings at Ottawa. The Workman family are descended from the Rev.
William Workman, of St. Stephen's Church, Gloucester, England, who was its
pastor from 1618 to 1633. He suffered persecution as a Puritan by
Archbishop Laud. Workman in one of his sermons had stigmatized pictures
and statues of Christ and of saints as contrary to the practice of the
early Christian Church and tending to idolatry. For this offense he was
brought before the Court of High Commission and excommunicated. His sons
eagerly joined the Parliamentary army; William was made captain, and was
one of those who met the charge of Rupert on the field of Naseby. He
served until 1648, when he went over to Ireland with Cromwell. For
services rendered, William received the grant of the two town lands of
Merlacoo and two in the County of Armagh. It is from this family that the
Workmans are descended. They came to Canada in 1829. William Workman was a
hardware merchant and a banker; was Mayor of Montreal, and received and
entertained Prince Arthur, not the least frank and engaging son of his
sovereign.
Thomas Workman was senior
partner in the hardware firm of Forthingham and Workman. He represented
Montreal West in the Parliament of Canada. He was also a banker, and held
many positions of trust and honor in Montreal. Two other brothers, Joseph
Workman, M.D., and Benjamin Workman, M.D., came to Toronto and for nearly
a quarter of a century held the position of Superintendent and Deputy
Superintendent of the Toronto Asylum for the Insane. These brothers did a
great work in perfecting the treatment of the insane in Canada. Dr. Joseph
Workman is an expert on the subject. He is a valuable contributor to
journals, and reads and translates many of the ancient and modern
languages with freedom and accuracy. This gentleman is now retired and
living in Toronto, and I here record my great indebtedness to him for the
many valuable hints and much information afforded me in the preparation of
this paper. He has at this session of our Congress been made a member of
this Society.
If we turn to the dry goods
business, one of the most successful men in Canada was the Hon. William
McMaster. He was born in the County Tyrone in 1711, and came to Canada in
1833. He was one of the first with sufficient enterprise to divert the
wholesale trade from Montreal to Toronto. He took his nephews, Capt.
McMaster and W. J. McMaster, into partnership with him, and the whole of
Western Canada became their market. Toward the close of his career Hon.
William McMaster gave the business over to the charge of his nephews,
above mentioned, while he gave his attention to finance. He was the
founder of the Canadian Bank of Commerce, of which he was President for
nearly a quarter of a century, and the success of the bank (it has now in
Toronto one of the finest buildings in Canada) is mainly due to his large
capacity and business power. He was connected with many other banking
institutions, Boards of Railways and Education of which I cannot speak in
this paper. In 1862 he was elected a member of the Legislative Council,
and after confederation he was chosen as one of the Senators to represent
Ontario. He amassed great wealth, and built and endowed the McMaster
University of Toronto. It is the principal institution in Canada in
connection with the Baptist Church for the education of the ministry of
the gospel. Of the success of merchants in Toronto like the late Robert
Wilkes, M.P., for Center Toronto and others, I have not time to speak in
this paper. These must be taken as an example of what the race has done in
this line of business enterprise in Canada.
The Barbers and Riordans,
who came from Antrim, were the first to establish and carry into success
the paper and woolen manufactures in Canada. These mills, situated in
Georgetown, Streetsville, and on the river Credit, are well known in
Canada. They supplied the Government of Canada with paper for seventeen
years, and William Barber represented Halton in the First and Second
Parliaments of Ontario.
The man who did most,
single-handed and unaided, to settle with a sturdy race the western part
of Canada was Col. Thomas Talbot, born in the county of Dublin. He came to
Canada in 1802. As statesman, soldier, scholar, wit, and poet his life is
interesting, and Nicholas Flood Davin devotes twenty-one pages in
detailing his exploits. He surveyed and laid out the now city of London,
and the city of St. Thomas was in like manner founded by this man whose
name it bears. He conducted the settlement of this garden, and was one of
the most noted personages in Western Ontario.
This part of Ontario, as
might be expected from its founder, is largely of the Scotch-Irish race.
So are other counties in Canada, among the most noted being the county of
Simcoe. I was a settled pastor in this county for ten years. In my First
Essa Church they were all of our race but one family. In no part of Canada
are there better farms. The fine brick houses, well-tilled and productive
fields, large and flourishing orchards, the horses, sheep and cattle,
well-built bridges and roads, schools and churches, a rich country,
stalwart sons and ruddy and charming daughters all combine to make the
county of Simcoe one of the finest rural sections in Canada, and for that
matter in the world. The same might be said of the adjoining county of
Cardwell, and these counties have been fitly represented in Parliament by
men of our race. Col. T. R. Ferguson, M.P., of Cookstown, represented
South Simcoe in Parliament for seventeen years. He was born at Drumcor,
Cavan County, in 1818, and settled in Cookstown, Canada, in 1842. He was
much beloved and popular with the people, and as a debater in the House
and especially as a campaign orator had few equals in the country. His
sagacity as a statesman may be seen from the fact that before
Confederation he opposed the establishment in Upper Canada (now Ontario)
of separate schools. Now Ontario sees the mistake then committed, but
cannot very well remedy the evil without endangering the whole fabric of
Confederation. He told me that on one occasion from his seat in the House
he secured the postponement of this obnoxious measure to the next session
of Parliament by standing up to talk out the House. They had only eight
hours to sit. The Government, led by Sir John A. Macdonald, knew that what
he said he would do, and dropped the measure. The next morning the Globe
said that: "Thanks to the leather lungs of Col. Ferguson, the honorable
member for South Simcoe, the Separate School bill got six months' hoist."
The Hon. Thomas White, one
of Canada's most gifted sons, represented Cardwell and was a member of Sir
John A. Macdonald's government, but during the last Parliament he was
suddenly cut down by an attack of pneumonia. He was very popular in
Cardwell, as he was in all Canada. Few men cared to encounter Hon. Thomas
White in debate, either on the hustings or in Parliament. He was one of
the first journalists of the day. His son, Robert White, conducts the
Gazette and represents Cardwell in his father's place.
Another distinguished man
of our race represents North Simcoe in Parliament. The name of Dalton
McCarthy is well known in Canada. He was born in Dublin, and came early in
life to the town of Barrie. He first was member for Cardwell in 1873, and
has been in Parliament ever since as member for North Simcoe.
Dalton McCarthy and the
Hon. Edward Blake, another Irishman, stand first at the bar in Canada.
Dalton McCarthy is the champion of the Equal Rights movement in Canada.
The Blake family came from
Castle Grove, county of Galway, and settled near London, Canada, in 1832.
It would take many pages to do justice to this distinguished family. The
Hon. Edward Blake and his not much less distinguished brother, S. H.
Blake, Q.C., are sons of the late Chancellor William Hume Blake. The Hon.
Edward Blake has been in public life for over a quarter of a century. He
was Minister of Justice in the government, led by the Hon. Alex. McKenzie.
Perhaps it will be conceded
by the public men of Canada that for debating power in the House of
Commons Hon. Edward Blake has few if any equals. As a lawyer he stands
first in Canada, and is said to command admiration and respect before the
Privy Council of England. There are few men who take a wider swath, and
when he is done with any subject there is little left to be said. Much to
the regret of the people of Canada, the Hon. Edward Blake is not a member
of the present Parliament, he having dissented from the leaders of the
Reform Party in their fiscal policy of Canada.
My paper is already too
long. I cannot mention other business firms, Members of Parliament,
Senators, lawyers, doctors, judges, and Governors who have come to the
front and who have done our race and Canada honor. The educational
interests of Canada have been so largely molded by men of our race, and
the Church in all her branches has had so many honored sons, that, with
the permission of this Congress, I shall at some future time refer to
these matters, as I feel in this paper nothing like justice can be done to
hundreds who have taken an active part in the Church, the colleges, and
the universities of Canada.
Before taking leave of the
public men of Canada let me refer to the present Mayor of Toronto. He
conies from the county of Cavan, and has spent most of his years in
Toronto. He now occupies the chair for the fourth term, and also
represents Toronto in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario. He is a genial,
warm-hearted Irishman. He takes a deep interest in this Congress, and
regrets that business does not permit him to attend. Americans coming to
Toronto and calling upon Mayor E. F. Clarke can be assured of a warm
reception. I take this opportunity of recording my thanks to the Mayor of
Toronto for the kindness shown me in assisting me in his capacity as
President of the Irish Protestant Benevolent Society in bringing the
claims of this Scotch-Irish Congress before the Irishmen of Toronto.
I did intend to speak of
the fiscal policy of Canada, just a word. On $50,000,000 worth of imports
from the United States we receive $7,000,000 of duty, and on $842,000,000
worth of goods from Great Britain we receive $9,000,000 of duty! I want
you Senators and Congressmen to take these figures (for the year 1889)
home with you and ponder over them. We received more dollars worth of
goods from this republic than we did from Great Britain, and yet we
charged you in round numbers $2,000,000 less in duty. May I ask you to go
and do likewise, and when our government meets your government this fall
let us put the fence down at least between us as neighbors just as low as
we can, and let no fish or barley or eggs keep us from enjoying that
friendly intercourse in trade which must in the end be of advantage to
both branches of the Anglo-Saxon race in the North American continent. |
