A Canadian Patriot King James W.J
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POLITICS & GOVERNMENT A Canadian Patriot King James W.J. Bowden looks at D’Arcy McGee’s surprising ideas for the Vice-Royalty of Canada homas D’Arcy McGee holds the well- then fled back to the United States to evade Tknown distinction of being the first a warrant for his arrest.3 Over the next nine Canadian politician to have died by an years, he lived variously in New York City, Buf- assassin’s bullet. On Apr. 7, 1868, Patrick falo, and Boston; while he remained a faithful James Whelan, a Fenian angered that McGee Roman Catholic throughout his life, he also had abandoned the Irish revolutionary shifted during these years from mild clerical movement in favour of constitutional scepticism to ultramontanism.4 But by the monarchy under the Union Flag, shot McGee 1850s, McGee had repudiated his own pre- in the back of the head at point-blank range, vious foray into revolutionary politics, and killing him instantly a few weeks shy of his he became disillusioned with republicanism 43rd birthday.1 and the United States itself, which he increas- McGee’s assassination has since come to ingly saw as morally corrosive and chaotic. overshadow his life and accomplishments. His early visits to the Province of Canada in He remains perhaps best-known in Ottawa the 1850s convinced him that Responsible today for the pub which bears his name and Government and the legal protections of the stands near the site of his assassination on rights of linguistic and religious minorities Sparks Street. But we should remember him provided a better country in which to bring for far more. McGee’s speeches and essays up his children.5 demonstrate a sophisticated understand- ing of political history and philosophy and a remarkable foresight expressed in a rare Finally, in 1857, he emigrated to Montreal eloquence which distinguished him from his and founded another newspaper called the contemporaries. He also possessed an un- New Era; by 1858, he had already taken his daunted audacity. He emigrated to the Unit- seat as an elected MPP in the Province of ed States at the age of 17 in 1842 and quickly Canada’s Legislative Assembly for Montreal established himself as a leading proponent of West.6 In Canada, McGee extolled the virtues Irish independence, becoming co-editor of of constitutional monarchy and Responsible the Boston Pilot, a prominent Catholic news- Government and — more presciently and paper. He had absorbed the prevailing senti- presumptuously still — immediately began ment of American Manifest Destiny and tri- promoting the idea of uniting all the British umphantly proclaimed in 1845 that “One vast North American colonies from Atlantic to federal union will stretch from Labrador to Pacific. Like George Brown, who also spent Panama” and further insisted that “Either by time in the Antebellum United States, McGee purchase, conquest, or stipulation, Canada knew that only a Counter-Manifest Destiny must be yielded to this great republic.”2 Mc- under a federation uniting all of British North Gee returned to Ireland in 1847, fought in the America, linked together by transcontinental failed Young Irelander Rebellion of 1848, and railways, would save it from annexation by VICTORIAN WEB: HATHI TRUST DIGITAL LIBRARY, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Autumn/Winter 2020 The Dorchester Review 43 A Canadian Patriot King the United States. Ironically, McGee contrib- Reciprocity Treaty with the United States in uted to Canadian culture and politics by ap- 1854; it expired in 1866. By the 1860s, London plying American ideas here to different ends. wanted to divest some responsibility for the In this general endeavour, McGee ultimately defence of the British North American colo- succeeded; he joined cabinet as the Minister nies as well.11 of Agriculture in the Great Coalition of 1864 McGee believed that the grant of Responsi- which made Confederation possible.7 But in ble Government in the 1840s had moved the one particular detail McGee failed. He had colonies closer to an “American standard of proposed that British North America federate government,” which left British North Ameri- under the vice-royalty of one of Queen Victo- ca more vulnerable to annexation. He hoped ria sons, who would have replaced the Gover- that the constitution of the new federal union nor General and given rise to a separate and would strengthen the authority of the Crown independent Canadian monarchy. He also, as another bulwark for independence: like Sir John A. Macdonald, wanted to call the new federation of British North America “The The power and patronage of the crown has Kingdom of Canada.” been reduced to its lowest point; the Upper House has been made elective; the franchise has been extended; the period required by Federalism law for the naturalization of aliens had been McGee understood that Confederation reduced to three years; the public lands have meant “some form of federative union or no ceased to be crown lands; the public depart- union at all,” both for practical purposes and ments have been all transferred from imperial theoretical concerns.8 By the 1860s, these to provincial control. Many of these reforms, or colonies had grown accustomed to self-gov- all of them, are or may be real improvements; ernment over the preceding twenty years they are only here referred to in evidence of the and would not relinquish that authority to assertion that year by year, and step by step, we one central government and unitary legis- are advancing towards an unrecognized Amer- lature. Federation would facilitate the com- icanism, which must have its perils and risks as mon defence and forge a common market well as its attractions.12 while also preserving the self-government of the colonies in local matters and protecting Under Responsible Government, the colo- the rights of religious and linguistic minori- nies, especially the Province of Canada, had ties throughout. The economic and political gained more autonomy and local self-gov- evolution of the British Empire over the pre- ernment throughout the 1850s to the point ceding twenty years also necessitated a fed- where only foreign affairs and defence re- eral union of British North America. By 1847, mained areas of unambiguous Imperial ju- Colonial Secretary Lord Grey had properly risdiction and provided the last tenuous link granted full Responsible Government, with tying the British Empire together. McGee also individual and collective ministerial respon- understood that Britons in the United King- sibility, through his letters and instructions dom itself would not consent to pay for the to the Governors of British North America.9 defence of British North America indefinitely And by 1849, the Imperial Parliament had now that London had abandoned mercantil- repealed the Navigation Acts and the Corn ism. Above all, McGee saw federal union as a Laws, thus replacing mercantilism with free necessary signal to London that British North trade.10 Abolishing protectionism and the Americans would readily take responsibility preferential tariff within the Empire forced for their own defence and contribute to the the British North American colonies to seek overall security and integrity of the Empire markets outside of the Imperial metropo- instead of perpetuating their own dependen- le. This meant more trade with the United cy on the British Army and Royal Navy and States. The Province of Canada, under the continuing to burden the taxpayers in the tutelage of the United Kingdom, negotiated a British Isles: 44 The Dorchester Review Autumn/Winter 2020 A Canadian Patriot King achieving representation by population and We have passed out of the age of pupilage, and a federal union.19 By the mid-1860s, the Prov- we have emerged into the stage of partnership. ince of Canada increasingly looked like an We are retained in the Empire under a tem- untenable, provisional polity and a failed ex- porary engagement, terminable at a month’s periment on the verge of collapse. This made notice, because we have not shown ourselves it vulnerable to American invasion and an- truly desirous of understanding or acting upon nexation. the duties of another more intimate and more responsible relationship.13 bove all, McGee understood that Brit- In the 20th century, political scientists Aish North Americans could not simply would apply this idea to Canadian-American put forward economic and practical argu- relations as the “defence against help”14 ments, “founded on material considerations,” The carnage of the American Civil War had against annexation; indeed, a purely material made British North American union, which argument might well end up supporting an- seemed quixotic and fanciful in the 1850s, a nexation. Instead, British North Americans practical necessity in the 1860s. In 1863, Mc- would need to federate into one polity and Gee believed that “the first shot fired at Fort develop a new nationality and resist annexa- Sumter had a message for us”15 and warned tion on patriotic, non-material grounds. He that the United States would attempt to an- concluded: “if we descend to combat mate- nex the Province of Canada, Rupert’s Land, rial inducements with material objections, and British Columbia. Most insidiously, the we shall run the risk of not arousing a united, Americans would promote an annexation- cordial, and high-spirited public resistance to ist movement in Canada through ostensibly such insidious propositions.”20 Events in 1866 peaceful means, “not in a hostile but a busi- proved McGee right. On 2 July 1866, Nathan- ness-like spirit,” by identifying “partisans for iel Banks, a Republican Congressman from their projects among every class of our own Massachusetts who had served as a general people.”16 But the Union could annex a di- in the Union Army during the Civil War, in- vided British North America by force of arms troduced a bill, H.R.