John A (38 page)

Over a span of less than six weeks, the cabinet ministers discussed, and made decisions about, what they would say about federalism to the Maritime politicians, along with the specific proposals they would make about a confederation of British North America. No record survives of how they accomplished this task, or of any disagreements among them and how they resolved them. There certainly were difficult moments. Macdonald, with the extreme pressure and ongoing exhaustion as factors, was now hitting the bottle hard. As Brown recounted to Anne, a key meeting set for noon was delayed until three, when Macdonald finally arrived, “bearing symptoms of having been on a spree.” Having at last joined the others, who were waiting impatiently, Macdonald promptly went over to the lunch table and poured himself one glass of ale after another, until he was “quite drunk.” Yet somehow the discussion began and the business got done.

There were also easier times: Macdonald and Brown went together to a party at the governor general's residence and, as Brown reported to Anne, “John A. and I were the only civilians—we had a very good fun.” The driving force behind them all was the sense of history. As Brown told Anne, “For the first time in my political life, I indulged in a regular chuckle of gratified pride…. It will be a tremendous thing if we accomplish it…. There is no other instance of a colony peacefully remodelling its own constitution—such changes have always been the work of the parent state.”

A distinctively Canadian attribute of the process by which Confederation was achieved was that the motivating force which enabled it to happen was, as often as not, that of separating Canadians as of uniting them. Thus, the United Province of Canada was to be disassembled into its two original provinces—soon to be renamed Ontario and Quebec—in order to separate English Protestants from French-Canadian Catholics. London's foremost interest, though never stated in public, was that Confederation would give Britain an excuse to separate itself militarily from North America. To the Maritimers, a determining attraction of Confederation was that it would keep them separate from each other rather than compacting them together into a Maritime Union. The Colonial Office strongly advocated this scheme, but Arthur Gordon, New Brunswick's lieutenant-governor, understood Maritime culture better. He reported home: “The different counties [of New Brunswick] hate each other, and they all unite in hating Halifax.”
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On August 29, seven senior ministers, among them Macdonald, Cartier, Brown, Galt and McGee, and also three secretaries (including Hewitt Bernard, Macdonald's principal civil servant), boarded the government steamer
Queen Victoria
for the sail down the St. Lawrence to Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island.
Queen Victoria
was a gay little ship of two hundred tons and with a three-hundred-horse power engine.

Fortunately, for this part of the story, an insider's report on Confederation does exist. It deals not with politics but with
people. In his almost daily letters to Anne, Brown described how the voyage downstream was a succession of sunny, calm days, with the delegates relaxing under an awning, reading, playing chess and backgammon, and sometimes taking saltwater baths. The
Queen Victoria
arrived at Charlottetown on September 1 and lowered its two boats, each packed with ministers accompanied by four oarsmen and a boatswain. They were met by a single oyster boat, flat-bottomed and with a barrel of flour in the bow and two jars of molasses in the stern, and, in between, the Prince Edward Island provincial secretary, William H. Pope. He reported that no official reception was immediately possible, because everyone was attending a performance of Slaymaker and Nichols' Olympic Circus. Because of this attraction, all the hotels were filled. Most of the Canadians, Macdonald included, had to sleep on their own boat.

A twentieth-century painting by Rex Woods of the ship
Queen Victoria,
which brought the Canadian delegates to the Charlottetown Conference. Macdonald stands on the landing at the top of the ladder.

Brown described to Anne the “shake elbow, and the how d'ye-do” of their first encounter with the Maritime delegates, who immediately informed them that Maritime Union was being held over for later so that Canada's Confederation proposal could be first on the conference agenda. All business was then set aside until the next day, which included a state dinner given by the island's governor, followed by dancing. Brown sat outside as he wrote, telling Anne about “the sea washing up gently to the very door” and how “there is something to the sea.”

The next day, in the small red-sandstone building that housed the island's Parliament, the real work began. Cartier started, making a general case for Confederation. Macdonald followed with a long exposition on the benefits of union and the different types of federalism, along with their faults and virtues. That evening there was a buffet that, according to the Charlottetown
Islander,
included “substantials of beef rounds, splendid hams, salmon, lobster…all vegetable delicacies peculiar to the season, pastry in all its forms, fruits in almost every variety.” All these dishes were generously washed down with the ample supplies of liquor, principally champagne, that the Canadians had cagily brought with them on their boat.

The next day Galt delivered a closely argued analysis of the finances of federalism, laying special stress on how the new central government would compensate the Maritime provinces for their revenue losses—primarily from giving up their tariffs on entering Confederation. There followed a long lunch aboard
Queen Victoria
at which, in Brown's description, “the ice became completely broken, the tongues of the delegates wagged merrily.” That night, PEI's premier, Colonel John Hamilton Gray, gave a dinner, followed by dancing. To his astonishment, Brown found himself talking there to one lady who, in her entire life, had never crossed to the mainland; he later advised Anne that
Prince Edward Islanders were, nevertheless, “amazingly civilized.” After the break on the Sunday, Brown spoke about the division of powers and the new national judiciary.

By Tuesday, the Canadians were done. On Wednesday, the Maritimers gave their answer. “They were unanimous,” a delighted Brown wrote home, “in regarding Federation of all the Provinces to be highly desirable—
if the terms of union could be made satisfactory.
” To celebrate their success, they gathered together for a grand ball at Province House. John Ross of
Ross's
Weekly
described the closing gala: “The fascinating dance goes merrily, and the libidi[n]ous waltz with its lascivious entwinements while in growing excitement; the swelling bosom and the voluptuous eye tell the story of intemperate revel.” Ross may have been getting a bit intemperate himself.

In this cabinet room in Charlottetown's Parliament Buildings, the two sides agreed on the principles of Confederation. Macdonald took time out to sign his name as a “Cabinet maker” in the visitors' book.

Macdonald would have been too canny to get overexcited while still in the company of the Maritimers. But he must have been as pleased as Brown was with their progress. To augment his pleasure, he had acquired in Charlottetown a political asset that would prove invaluable in the future. Among the Canadians, no one knew the Maritimes as well as McGee did. In addition to all his visits, he had that summer organized and led a tour of approximately one hundred Canadian businessmen, journalists and politicians around the principal Maritime cities. He would have briefed Macdonald that both of the two most important Maritime premiers, Nova Scotia's Charles Tupper and New Brunswick's Leonard Tilley, were strong Confederates. In Charlottetown, Macdonald began developing friendships with these powerful regional figures as potential recruits for the Liberal-Conservative Party.

The wind was blowing full in the sails of the Canadians. The Maritimers had not only agreed in principle to Confederation but had also agreed to attend a second conference to be held in Quebec City just one month later. There, they and the Canadians, and as well delegates from Newfoundland, would attempt to draft an actual constitution for a confederation. Moreover, while the agreements reached at Charlottetown had been only an agreement in principle, those there had in fact settled on many draft clauses that could go on for final approval at Quebec City.

During one of the breaks in the conference, when Macdonald took a tour of Province House, the island's legislature building, he came upon the visitors' book. He signed his name and, in the column for occupation, wrote “Cabinet maker.”

From Charlottetown, the delegates went on as planned to Halifax, some by train and others, Macdonald among them, by the
Queen Victoria.
The press commentary was highly laudatory. As the Halifax
Witness
remarked, almost in bewilderment at the change in Maritimers' attitude towards the Canadians, “There is less aversion to Canada. Indeed, there seems to be a positive desire for union.”