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D., 1887, ON THE RECORD OF THE TORY PARTY, BY DR. SILAS ALWARD. ' Mr. CJMirman, Electors of the County of Charlotte, Ladies and Gentlemen, — For months ^his Dominion was kept in a state of suspense, whether the Royal prerogative would be exercised and Parlia- ment dissolved, or whether it would be suffered to reach the pre- scribed limit of its existence by the effluxion of time. The one- man power at Ottawa seemed t\ be posing after the manner of the Royal Dane, and earnestly soliloquising whether it was better to be or not to be ; whether it was nobler in the mind longer to bear the slings and awrows of outrageous fortune, as he had borne them in the shape of bye and provincial elections, or take up arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing end them or himself, politically. He has at length decided to take up arms against a sea of troubles, beneath which I believe he will be deluged at the approaching election. The issues now submitted to the people are far reaching, and by all odds more important than any they have yet been called upon to deal with. In their determination to a certain extent is in- volved the destiny of five millions of people. A crisis is reached. We must cry a halt to the course of reckless extravagance and UP checked corruption of the present Ministry, or pass with hasty steps upon a career of financial ruin and disintegi'ation. Just emerging from the dark shadow of rebellion in the West, with a ZWi^i^ fair province in the East clamoring for secession, and an unscrupu- lous ministry scattering the firebrands of religious bigotry and sectional hate to win a triumph at the polls, the outlook is any- thing but reassuring. Our only hope is in the speedy reversal of the policy that has unfortunately too long obtained. On the first of July next we shall have been confederated twenty years. For fifteen of these years the Tory party has been in power. The five years of Liberal rule stand out clear and bright as an oasis in a wilderness of extravagance, corruption and taxation. I purpose in the first place briefly to consider some of the promises made and pledges given by the Conservatives in the past, and ask you to judge of them by the light of subsequent events. During the years 1877-8 we were passing through one of those cycles of depression that coming unheralded periodically visit all countries. In our case it was aggravated by a succession of bad crops. The Tories, then outs, prententiously claimed, they had a panacea, a sovereign remedy, for all our political ills. That with a wave of their wand commerce would flow in upon our shores and all the channels of trade overflow. That their policy, called national, meant no increase of the burdens of taxation — it was simply a re-adjustment of its incidence, with the avowed object of assisting certain striiggling industries — only this and nothing more. The people accepted their pledges, believed in their fair promises, and restored them to power. They broke the word of promise to the hope ; they did not even keep it to the ear. They at once, in defiance of their solemn promises, under their Tariff of 1879, increased the burden of taxation at an enormous rate — on some lines of goods twenty-five, thirty, forty, and even fift • and seventy- five per cent. In 1879 the duty collected on goods entered for consumption in the Dominion amounted to about thirteen millions of dollars. In 1881, when the Policy had been in force about two years, it amounted to eighteen millions and a half, an increase of nearly fifty per cent. Thus did they keep their promise of a simple re-adjustment and no increase of the burden of taxation. In 1882 they again came before the people, one year before the expiry of Parliament by time. Their e?:ouse was, foreign capit- alists — to their personal knowledge, with millions upon millions weie waiting for the assurance that the National Policy was to become the settled, determined policy of the country, to pour in a golden stream for investment in manufacturing and industrial entei-prises. The people, for a second time, took them at their word. Four yeare and more have since passed and the country has yet to learn that one dollar of these millions has sought the investment promised. Thus has an assurance, most emphatically given, been kept. Thus a promise fulfilled. In 1880--1 when they introduced the Canada Pacific Railway resolutions in Parliament, the country stood appal leil at the mag- nitude of the obligations to be undertaken by the Government in the construction of that work. In addition to the enormous sub- sidies of money and land given the syndicate they were to complete the line from Thunder Bay to Winnipeg, and construct the most difficult portions through the Rocky Mountains. Sir John and Sir Charles, however, quieted the fears of the i>eople by the promise, that the road would be completed without adding a single dollar to the burden of taxation. The road would be completed, they said, with an actual cash outlay of about fifty-three millions of dollars by the people of the Dominion ; yet by that time more than sufficient would be realized from the sales of lands in the North West to recoupe all this expenditure. They went into the most elaborate calculations to show the correctness of their estimate. They estimated by the time the road would be com- pleted, about sixty millions of dollars would be realized from the aale of our public lands. Sir John predicted by this year of grace, 1887, there would be half a million of people in the North West. Again the people, through their representatives in Par- liament, confided in the pledges and believed the promises •of those who spoke smooth things yet prophesied deceits. In 1883 Sir Charles found it necessary to modify these predic-' tions. Finding the sale of public lands was not realizing expecta- tion, he proposed to recoupe the fifty-three millions by the sale of lands and surpluses — this being the year of the enormous surplus of seven millions. In a speech delivered in Parliament, found in the Hansard of 1883 at page 976, he is thus reported : — ''It will "be remembered that my right hon. friend (Sir John) made a *'■ computation of what would be received iir connection with the 6 " sale of lands in the North West. ♦ * * "We estimated tha t ** by the time the Canadian Pacific Railway contract was to be "compleUid under the terms of the contract, we would receive not " merely the $53,000,000 of that work, but that we would receive "about $60,000,000, or a considerable amount over and above the " entire expenditure we were called upon to make in connection " with the construction of that road." Now follows the modification of his former prediction. Further on in the same speech, on the same page of Hansard, he is thus reported : — " Now, Sir, my hon. friend the Minister of Finance "has given me this memorandum ; — Surplus Consolidated Revenue, 1879 80 $4,132,743 1880 81 6,316,052 Proceeds of lands, 1880-81 1,744,45<> Elstimated surplus this year 6,000,000 Proceeds of lands this year 1,750,000 Elstiraatad surplus next year 3,000,000 Estimated proceeds from lands 2.250,000 Estimated saving of interest after January, 1885, 1 per eent. on $30,000,000, $300,000 per annum, or equal to a reduction of debt of 7,500,000 If we have a surplus of about $1,000,000 a year from June, 1884, to 1791, say seven years ^ 7,000,00(> Proceeds of lands, seven years at $2,000,000, would be 14,000,000 ' $5.3,693,251 "This is the amount that we expect to receive from surplus " revenue and the sales of land," etc. How noteworthy is the exactitude of the then Minister of Fi- nance in making this calculation. You see it is determined to the very dollar ; it is surprising he did not give the cents. All of his calculations have this distinguishing characteristic. But how utterly untrustworthy does the sequel always prove his calculations to have been. The year of grace, 1887, is reached, and instead of half a million of people being in the North West, as predicted by Sir John, there is less than two hundred thousand, including the pop- ulation of Manitoba and British Columbia. And what about Sir Leonard's calculation of paying the cost of the C. P. R. partly out of surpluses. He estimated a surplus of $1,000,000 a year from 1884 to 1891. Year before last we faced a deficit of two millions and a quarter. This year one of nearly six millions. The coming year Heaven only knows how great it will be ! What about the estinuite of Sir Charles as to land sales 1 After deducting the costs of survey and inanagenient, not one dollar has been realized with which to rocoupei the enormous expenditure of not fifty-three millions, but seventy millions, it has cost the peoplo of this Dominion in hard cawh to constnict this railway. The re ceipts from Dominion lands in 1885 were but ^393,618, while the expenditure was $482,316, showing a deficit on the year's business in lands of $88,701. And this i.s the way the seventy millions are to be recouped in the sales of lands and surpluses. How much longer will a too confiding people follow such blind guides'? What faith, I ask, then can you have in the pledges and promises of such men 1 And mark you, thes ' and employing counsel to assist the Saint Catherine's Milling Company in resisting the claims of Ontario to collect dues qn timber cut on this her rightful territory. Not only has Ontario expended large sums of money in withstanding these encroach- ments, but she is compelled to contribute her share out of the Dominion exchequer of the legal expenses incurred in despoiling lier territory. I think I have made good by proof the charge that Sir John Macdonald is the open, avowed and persistent supporter of the principle of centralization, and would, if not checked, so minimize Provincial and local powers as to make Ottawa the fountain and source from which would emanate all influence and patronage. In sharp contrast stands out in bold relief the policy of the great leader of the Liberal party — to preserve local autonomy and leave as much power in the hands of the people as is consistent with good government — not to circumscribe the rights of the local legis- latures, but rather to amplify them as far as possible without straining the bonds of the Federal principle. I next proceed to consider the charge of maladministration in the North West. In a speech delivered by the Hon. Mr. White, Minister of the Interior, in St. John during the month of October last, he passed lightly over the North West troubles. To have heard him you would scarcely think an uprising had occurred there ; that whatever little unpleasantness had arisen was attribut- able to, or had its origin in, the connivance of the Liberals, and that in some mysterious way all these difficulties were traceable to their instigation. This, however, was more hinted at than ex. pressed. He further claimed that the alleged grievances of the Metis were groundless, or if any existed they were of such a friv- olous character as scarcely to merit passing notice. I grant you they may have seemed frivolous to Cabinet ministers, who, with lavish hand, were distributing immense tracts of lands to great railway magnates, and vast territories to Colonization Companies ; yet in the eyes of the poor half-breed his claim of scrip for a quar- ter section was as sacred a thing as the rights of the wealthy and influential, for it was his all. What, then, were the alleged griev- ances of the Metis, and did they seek their redress by and through constitutional means? They were two-fold. They, the half- I 16 breeds of the North West territories, demanded the same rights snould be accorded thcin as had been the half-breeds of Manitoba. The Dominion Parliament, by an act passed in 1870, in lieu of the extinguishment of the Indian Title (tho half-breeds being descend- ents of Indians) appropriated one willion four hundred thousand acres ot ungranted lands in Manitoba for the benefit of the fami- lies of the half-breed residents, and the children of the half-breed heads of families residing in the Province, the same to be granted in such mode, and on such conditions, as to settlement and other- wise as the Governor-General in Council might from time to time determine. By an Act passed in 1879 the Dominion Parliament delegated the following powers to the Governor-in-Council : — " To satisfy any claims existing in connection with the extinguishment of the Indian title, preferred by half-breeds resident in the North West Territories outside of the limits of Manitoba, on the fifteenth day of July, one thousand eight hundred and seventy, by granting land to such persons, to such extent and on such terms and conditions as may seem expedient." Here there was as clear a recognition of the rights of the half- broeds dwelling on the banks of the Saskatchewan, in the North West Territories, to scrip for land as had been accorded to the half-breeds in Manitoba. Several of the half-breeds of the North West had been residents of Manitoba and their claim for scrip, they contended, was doubly strong. The other alleged grievance was as to the mode of survey adopted and enforced by the Gov- ernment, that is to say, the block or section system, thus throwing into confusion the customary mode of settlement adopted by the Metis, with narrow river fronts ten chains wide and two miles long. These were the principal in their catalogue oi grievances. For several long years they carried on a peaceful agitation for a redress of their grievances. They assembled and passed resolu- tions. They petitioned and memorialized the Government ; but their's was the voice of those crying in the wilderness. The jus- tice of their claims was recognized and urged upon the considera- tion of the Government by gentlemen of high official standing, who had a personal knowledge of the state of affairs that obtained in the North West ; by the North West Council, by Archbishop Tache, Bishop McLean and many others. The sound of warning 17 was unheeded. The plaint of the oppressed awakened no res- ponse. , Col. Dennis, Deputy Minister of the Interior, in a meaicrandum -addressed to Sir John Macdonald^^the 20tU dt>y of December, 1878, said : — "The undersigned respectfully submits to the Minister that it is expedient, with as little delay ^h possible, to deal with the claims to consideration pre- ferred by the half-breeus of the North West TerritorieH." ♦ • ♦ "Some uneasiness is felt by the half-breed element in the Territories in consequence of no steps having yet been taken towards the recognition of the demands put forward on their behalf. It must be fre-^ly admitted they have a claim to favorable consideration ; and the questiun is — how is that claim to be satisfied, so as to benefit the half-breeds, and, at the same time, benefit the country ?" In a letter addressed by Archbishop Tache to Col. Dennis, the 29tli of January, 1879, this disting\iished Prelate wrote: — " It must be freely admitted that the half-breeds of the North West have a claim to favorable consideration. Great uneasiness is felt by them in - consequence of no steps having yet been taken in their behalf. A liberal policy on the part of the Government would attract to its side a moral and physical power, which the present critical relations of the various tribes of Indians towards each other, and' towards the Government, would prove of the greatest value to the Dominion. On the other hand, the half-breed ele- ment, if dissatisfied, would turn a standing menace to the peace and pros- perity of the Territories. There is no doubt that the state of affairs in the Territories in relation to the Indians and half-breeds is calling for the serious consideration of the Government, and measures should be adopted to cultivate and maintain relations with the half-breed population calculated to attach them to us." Bishop McLean, the Anglican Bishop of the Saskatchewan Diocese, under date of the 18th of January, 1879, wrote the Deputy Minister of the Interior in these terms : — " The experience of all the years I have lived in the North West, points to the conclusion that the Indian has a tendency, in all his dealings with the white man, to consult and largely to be guided by the opinion of the half-breed. If, therefore, you have the whole half-breed element (to use the language of your remarks) ' in sympathy with the Government in deal- ing with the plain tribes of Indians, ' I would express a very hearty convic- tion in the conclusion that you draw, viz., 'that we should attract to our side a moral power, which in the present critical relations of the various tribes of Indians towards each other and towards the Government, would prove of the greatest value to the Dominion." On the 7th of June, 1881, a memorial was forwarded the Ot- tawa Government by Lawrence Clarke, a member of the North "West Council, extracts from which are couched in the following language : — " . ' * . 18 "That a feeling of dissatisfaction and discontent exists among the Half-^ breed element in the North west Territories." * * * • * * "That the Half-breeaa have always been recognized as posaeasing rights in the samo soil, subject to which the Dominiun Accepted the transfer of the Territories, and while ample provi?iou has been made for those resident in Manitoba on the l.'>th July, 1870, nothing, ao fa;, has been done towards extinsuishing that portion of the Indian title to lands \n the Territories outside of the Province of Maaitoba, as originally formed by the Act of 1870. * » ♦ • * • "That the gereral feeling of the community is that these Halfbreeds, possessing even rights with those who have already received scrip or grants of land in Manitoba, have not had that measure of justice meted out to them to which, by the terms of the surrender, they were entitled. " Wearieci out with petitioning, and no steps having been taken by a culpable ministry to grant theii* reasonable requests, the poor people of Saint Albert collected six hundred dollars, and sent a delegation to Ottawa to press their claims in person upon the con- sideration of the Government. They went, they saw, but did not conquer a recognition of their just demands. Finally, in despair, they turned their eyes to Louis Riel and sought his presence — that by a peaceful agitation, under his leadership, they might at- tain justice. In June, 1884, a delegation of four — Gabriel Du- mont, Isbister, Ouilette and Dumas — travelled seven hundred miles on foot into Montana to supplicate the aid of Riel in their extremity. Does it stand within the bounds of belief that men would make such sacrifices simply tor some imaginary or frivolous grievance ? The following is an extract from the reply of Riel to the request of the delegation : — "Considering, then, that my interests are identical with yours, I accept your very kind invitation, and will go and spend some months amongst you, m the hope that by petitioning the Government we will obtain the redress of all our grievances. I go with you, but I come back in September. "I have the honor to be, gentlemen delegates, " Your humble servant, ' • "LOUIS RIEL." The following, from the report of the delegates, shows the inten- tion with which the aid of Riel was sought : — "Mr. Riel comes here to help us, without any pretension. He hopes that before long the people of the North West will be perfectly united, and, that the Government will very soon do justice to all. "The speeches of Mr. Riel inspire us wdth the greatest confidence, be- cause his instructions are to help us ; but while helping us he does not want, in the slightest degree, to create needless difficulties to the Govern- ment. " We have the honor to be, gentlemen, your most humble servants and delegates, "GABRIEL DUMONT." ^T^ 19 The ivppcal inarle by these poor people to the magnanimity of the (Jovernment is most pathetic and stamps the conduct of the latter as criminal to a cl( j^ree. The following is from the petition of Gabriel Dumont and forty -two others, afterwards insurgents, sent to Sir John, the 4th ot September, 1882 : — " In our anxiety, we appeal to yo tt spirit o^' justice as Mnister of the Interior and leader of the Governmeiit and we implore you to at once reassure us by giving orders so that we shall not be troubled on our lauds, and that the Government will grant us the privilege of considering us as occupants of even sections, sinoe we occupy those lands in good faith ; and having occupied this country since such a lon£ time as masters, and having so often defended it against the Indians at the price of our blood, we think that it is not asking too much that the Government give us the right of occupying peacefully our lands, and that it should make some exceptious to its regulations, by granting gratuitously lands to the North West half- breeds. We further desire that the Government should give orders to have the lands surveyed along the river ten chains wide by two miles long : it is the old custom of this country tn distribute land in this manner, and thus it would enable us to recognize the limits of our respective lands. " "Monsieur the Minister, we hope that you will favorably receive this petition which we send you, and that we shall know your decision as soou as possible. This ia our anxious wish, while praying the Almighty to pro- tect you and keep you at the head of this great couutrj' of Canada, which you govern with so much wisdom." On the 22nd of March, 1884, Mr. Cameron moved in Parliament the following resolution : — " This House do resolve itself into a committee of the whole, to' consider. of the condition, complaints and demands of Manitoba and the North West Territories with a view to devise means for remedying any well-founded grievances and complying with any reasonable demands." The following is the peroration of Mr. Charleton's speech on moving the above resolution : — "I say it is a fair and just thing, and that they should get it, and that at once. Now. Sir, all these facts must conviuce you beyond peradventure that there is a feeling of discontent, a feeling of dissatisfaction, a feeling of unrest, in both Manitoba and the North West Territories. And further, that, so far as we know, at all events the first step has not been taken by this Government to redress these wrongs and remove these grievances. * * * Sir, we ought not to forget that England lost one empire by the disregard of just such cluims as these. Let us take care lest by ignoring these claims and trifling with these demands we do not jeopardize the exist- ence of our new Empire in the Great North West." This resolution was ruled down by the Ministry and their solid phalanx of followers. It was known to the Government at Ottawa that Kiel was in the country in the summer and autumn of 1884 and that he was holding meetings among the Metis to obtain by peaceable means a. ^ 20 removal of their long standing grievances. Yet not one move did they make, not one step did they take, after all these warnings, all these protests, to seek and do justice even at the eleventh hour. The petitions and memorials of the half-breeds, dust covered, were left to moulder, unanswered, in the pigeon holes of the office of the Department of the Interior. Was culpability ever known to surpass this ? At length the explosion came and then the Ministry acted with promptitude. A commission was at once appointed to proceed with all possible despatch to the North West and enquire of and redress the grievances of the insurgents. Seventeen hundred claims out of a population of about five thousand were recognized and redressed by the commission. And yet Mr. White would insult your intelligence by saying they had no grievances. The organ of the Government, the Toronto Mail, before it was repudiated, in its issue of the 8th of July, 1885, thus comments upon the injustice done the half-breeds : — "Had they had votes, like white men, or if, like the Indians, they had been numerous enough to command respect and overawe red-tape, without doubt the wheels of the office would have revolved for them ; but being only half-breeds, they were put off with an eternal pbomise, until pati- ence CEASED to be A VIRTUE," " We repeat again that the departmental system under which such callous AND CRUEL NEGLECT OF THE RIGHTS OF A PORTION OF THE COMMUNITY WAS POSSIBLE, WAS WRONG, AND SHOULD BE CENSURED." " It has never been denied by the Mail that the Metis had good ground /or grievances " ''The Department /or years and years steadily refused to move in the matter. " Principal Grant, a strong Conservative, and a devoted follower of Sir John, in speaking to the resolution of the Presbyterian As- sembly made use of the following language : — Principal Grant : — " We are doing a very solemn act, and we should all deliberately endorse or approve of this motion by all rising in attestation of our own feelings on the subjoct. I feel that we have been guilty of a national sin, and if we do not repent we will be punished as a nation, and a worse thing will come upon us if we do not menu our doings," I ask, has the condemnation of the Government not been proved beyond a peradventure ? During seven years something like seventy petitions and memorials were sent forward to the Govern- ment at Ottawa, warning, beseeching and entreating for a simple recognition of the rights of these })eople, and not one single, well- directed, effort was put forth all this time by them to remedy 21 these grievances. Only actual rebellion uroused them from their inveterate apathy and awakened them to a sense of their cruel and callous neglect. All the fearful consequences of the rebellion, the loss of two hundred lives, and the expenditure of eight million dollars of our money in its suppression, are chargeable to their criminal indiflFerence. The blood-guiltiness rests where impartial history will place it — at the door of an incapable and guilty min- istry. Do not, however, understand me to justify armed rebellion. The guilt of the ministry will not lessen the crime of the insur- gents, nor will the guilt of the Metis in resorting to arms exculpate a delinquent ministry. They (the Metis) should have continued to agitate, through constitutional means, for a redress fif their grievances, trusting to other times and other men to right their wrongs and do them the justice so long denied. In the years to come, when the mists of passion and prejudice, engendered by party strife shall have been dissipated, and when all the facts of the North West Rebellion shall have been brought to light, its recital will constitute one of the darkest chapters in Canadian history. Such, in fine, are some of the issues submitted to the people of this Dominion and such, in part, the record of the Government on which an appeal is being made for a renewal of public confidence. The principles of the great liberal party are well known and thor- oughly appreciated, I trust, by the masses generally. Our honored leader, the Hon. Edward Blake, has sketched an outline of the policy he will adopt if entrusted with power. Briefly summarized it is — to modify the tariff so as to make an adjustment woi-thy the name — to remove the duties on the prime necessaries of life — to admit free raw materials imported for manufacturing pui'poses — to shift the incidence of taxation where it now pi'esses unduly upon the poorer and laboring classes and cause it to rest, where it can more easily be borne, upon the more wealthy — to seek by all pos- sible means reciprocal trade relations with the sixty millions of people to the south of us — to keep by rigid economy in the public departments and retrenchment in all bmnches of the civil service, our expenditure within the limits of our income — to reform the Senate and extend the Dominion franchise to residental manhood ' 22 sufirage. Such the leaders nnd Huch the principles of the two great |)artie8 that now divide the Stat^. It is for you to say, whom you will serve and which follow. Then say, ** Under which king, Bezonian 1 speak, or die !" The immortal bard of Avon has said, " There is a tide in the affairs of men, whic.» uiken at flood leads on to foi-tune." The tide, we be- lieve, has turned and is now setting strong in the direction of Liberalism from one end of this Dominion to the other. Flood tide will doubtless be reached the 22nd of this month. To change the metaphor, we have stormed one after another all the outlying strongholds and are now preparing to level their guns upon the citadel of Conservatism on the V>anks of the Ottawa for the last grand assault. We have met with reverses in the past, and at times, hoping almost against hope, have felt we were to a certain extent, the leaders and followers of a forlorn cause. In hours of despondency we have felt as if public sentiment were dead and the conscience of the people could not be aroused from an almost hope- less torpor. Yet I cannot believe public sentiment is quite dead, and the conscience of the great mass of the people cannot be touched and aroused. As the prophet of old who sat down under the shade of the juniper tree and bewailed the sad state of his nation, heard, recognized and obeyed the voice of his God, so may we, at this supreme moment of our country's peril, above the din -of venal clamor, the rude jostlings of bitter partizanship, and the widespread pi evalence of extravagance and corruption, hear, recog- nize and obey the voice of his and our God, saying, " Arise, do your work. There yet remain seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal." u *• /