Of course one keeps a Diary with a vague consciousness that at some time or another, some person or another, will read some part or another of that Diary. Now, in my case, that is rather an important consideration. Living as I do—in the atmosphere of 'headquarters'—visiting as I do . with the men who are now making part of the History of their country, I am always afraid of putting anything in these pages, which, in time to come, I may find ought not to have been written. There is no denying [that] Journal writing ... is somewhat of a responsibility & circumstances make it decidedly so in mine. (Agnes Macdonald's Diary, 17 November 1867) PEACE, ORDER, AND 'GOOD HOUSEKEEPING': FEMININE AUTHORITY AND INFLUENCE IN LADY AGNES MACDONALD'S CANADA by Robin Sutherland B.A., Wilfrid Laurier University, 1990 M.A., Acadia University, 1995 A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Ph.D. in the Graduate Academic Unit of English Supervisor: Wendy J. Robbins, Ph.D., Department of English Examining Board: Gail Campbell, Ph.D., Department of History, Chair Margaret Conrad, Ph.D., Department of History Mary Rimmer, Ph.D., Department of English External Examiner: Janice Fiamengo, Ph.D., Department of English, University of Ottawa This dissertation is accepted by the Dean of Graduate Studies THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW BRUNSWICK January, 2010 © Robin Sutherland, 2010 Library and Archives Bibliotheque et 1*1 Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington OttawaONK1A0N4 OttawaONK1A0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-82757-4 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-82757-4 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par I'lnternet, prefer, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans le loan, distribute and sell theses monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non­ support microforme, papier, electronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriete du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in this et des droits moraux qui protege cette these. Ni thesis. Neither the thesis nor la these ni des extraits substantias de celle-ci substantial extracts from it may be ne doivent etre imprimes ou autrement printed or otherwise reproduced reproduits sans son autorisation. without the author's permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformement a la loi canadienne sur la Privacy Act some supporting forms protection de la vie privee, quelques may have been removed from this formulaires secondaires ont ete enleves de thesis. cette these. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans in the document page count, their la pagination, il n'y aura aucun contenu removal does not represent any loss manquant. of content from the thesis. ••I Canada For Don, who saw me through. ABSTRACT After she married John A. Macdonald on the eve of Confederation, Agnes Macdonald witnessed the ways in which a country came into being, and did so from a unique perspective: that of the wife of Canada's first prime minister. Committed to her husband's vision of nation building, Lady Macdonald soon found herself helping to build a civil society in the new Dominion. While she could not contribute to this undertaking through the formal politics of her world (she could neither vote nor run for office, for example), she contributed nonetheless. As a "Mother of Confederation" or a "citizen-mother," Agnes Macdonald worked through her church and other philanthropic organizations to promote those social ideals and institutions integral to a functioning civil society. She also contributed to the cultural imagining of the new nation through her private and published writing. Drawing upon the images associated with the order, security, and prosperity of a civil society (such as home, church, military, and economic activity), Lady Macdonald preserved representations of the ideal nation. If her literary contribution is modest, it is wide-ranging in its diversity. In addition to keeping a diary in the earlier years of her marriage, Lady Macdonald published a small number of travel and political sketches during the late 1880s and early 1890s. In these works, we encounter the various geographic and social landscapes of her world, from the most private confines of her home in Ottawa (Eamscliffe), to the public Parliament buildings, to the farthest reaches west of the growing Dominion (in British Columbia). In these works, we encounter Lady Agnes Macdonald's "Canada," a gendered literary representation of her vision of the new Dominion. iii PREFACE: A Journey to Eastbourne In the spring of 2003, on a very hot day, I made a pilgrimage to Eastbourne, England, where I visited the grave of Lady Agnes Macdonald, the Baroness of Earnscliffe. I remember the heat. I remember the wilted marigolds and impatiens at the foot of her grave, and the good feeling I had when I weeded and watered them. But most of all, I remember thinking how out-of-place Agnes Macdonald's grave seemed, right next to one of the main roads through the cemetery, and crowded by the other headstones. It seemed impossible to me that a woman who had travelled across and through such incredible distances and geographies should come to rest in these cramped quarters, and so far away from where I believed her home truly was, back in Canada. With intelligence, wit, and a strong religious faith, Agnes Macdonald pioneered the social-political world of early Ottawa. Over a century ago, she wrote about the excitement of being the prime minister's wife on the very first Dominion Day, her impressions of the political proceedings in Parliament, and the exhilarating experience of travelling across a new nation. As one of our Canadian foremothers, she importantly informs our sense of who we are—as women, as Canadians, and as writers—and how our nation has evolved. I consider her writing, in all its diversity, "narratives of nation," the stories she wished to preserve of her life and her world. Stories she wished to preserve for us. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Many people took this journey with me. I particularly wish to acknowledge and to thank ~ Don, for believing in "Another Sort of Life. " Mom and Dad, for who I am. Nikki, for being my best friend, and not just my sister. Gloria, for reminding me what resilience and individuality are all about. Lee Ellen and Kathleen, for solidarity and sleep-overs. Catherine and Daniel, for their love of family and of friends. Joanna, for saying it could be done (but could also not be done), and Michelene, for doing it. And, of course, Bronte, for putting everything into proper canine perspective. I would also like to thank Wendy Robbins for her support and mentorship, and the members of my examining committee for all their help. v PEACE, ORDER, AND 'GOOD HOUSEKEEPING': FEMININE AUTHORITY AND INFLUENCE IN LADY AGNES MACDONALD'S CANADA TABLE OF CONTENTS: DEDICATION ii ABSTRACT iii PREFACE iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS v INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER ONE: The Diarist, her Diary, and the Diary Dialogic 15 CHAPTER TWO: In Dialogue with the Citizen-Mother 43 CHAPTER THREE: Responding to the Citizen-Mother 103 CHAPTER FOUR: "A Builder of the Empire" 121 CHAPTER FIVE: Introduction to Travel Writing 156 CHAPTER SIX: The Citizen-Mother as Travel Narrator 170 CHAPTER SEVEN: Travel Architectures, the Symbols of Civility 189 CONCLUSION 248 WORKS CITED 256 APPENDIX A 278 CURRICULUM VITAE 1 INTRODUCTION Hours after the death of her husband—and Canada's first prime minister1—Lady Agnes Macdonald momentarily set aside her personal grief, and, thinking of the nation's loss, settled at her writing desk to compose a letter to Governor General Lord Stanley. In it, she "begg[ed] His Excellency, in the interests of Canada and of the Conservative party, to send for Sir Charles Tupper to form the new administration" (Pope, Public Servant 79). While her advice passed unheeded (Stanley chose to approach Sir John Sparrow Thompson instead),2 her political acumen apparently did not. Joseph Pope, Sir John A. Macdonald's personal secretary at the time, later acknowledged that "[wjhatever may be thought of the propriety of Lady Macdonald's course in thus volunteering her advice to the Crown upon a matter of this kind, there exists no doubt in my mind that her counsel in itself was sound and should have been followed" {Public Servant 79). This historic episode illustrates the level of public confidence and political participation that a woman like Lady Macdonald managed to acquire. Agnes clearly believed that she was, however indirectly, part of the political dialogue of her country: her opinion mattered, and a definite (and pre-determined) audience was interested in hearing what she had to say. Even Pope, a seasoned political "right hand," acknowledged the value of a woman's presence and voice in discussions about nation, even if it was not her place to direct political policy. Agnes Macdonald's gesture and Joseph Pope's reaction to it offer a glimpse into the dynamics of gender roles in the political world of nineteenth-century Canada, a glimpse that problematizes an application of the separate 2 spheres ideology, in which public and private spaces were polarized as being either exclusively masculine or feminine.