rnce :«» iieucs. 
 
 CANADA 
 
 — AND — 
 
 The United States 
 
 COMPARED 
 
 Vi^TTH I>IIJLCTICA.L JTOTBS 
 
 ON 
 
 COMMERCIAL UNION 
 
 UNRESTRICTED RECIPROCITY 
 
 And ANNEXATION 
 
 BY 
 
 P. IM. FACKXZ 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 TORONTO 
 
 rvlK TORONTO NEWS COMPANY 
 
 i88g 
 

 ly Thk Presbyterian Printing and Publishing Company, 1,t0., 
 the ofiict: of the Minister of Agriculture. 
 

 CANADA 
 
 AND 
 
 THE UNITED STATES 
 
 COMPARED 
 
 IV/TH PRACTICAL NOTES 
 
 ON' 
 
 cummkrcial union 
 
 Unrestricted Reciprocity 
 
 AND Annexation 
 
 BY 
 
 P. N. FACKTZ 
 
 TORONTO 
 
 THE TORONTO NEWS COMPANY 
 
 1889 
 

 CANADA 
 
 AND 
 
 THE UNITED STATES 
 
 COMPARED 
 
 WITH PRACTICAL NOTES 
 
 ON' 
 
 commkrcial union 
 
 Unrestricted Reciprocity 
 
 AND Annexation 
 
 BY 
 
 P. N. FACKTZ 
 
 TORONTO 
 
 THE TORONTO NEWS COMPANY 
 
 1889 
 
PRINTED BY 
 
 C. BLACKETT ROBINSON, 
 
 SJofdan St., Toronto. 
 
'. / 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 THE writer of the following pages is an Anglo-American 
 who has lived under the institutions of both Canada and 
 the United States, and is familiar with the practical 
 working of both systems of government. 
 
 The proposal of emissaries of the United States, and certain 
 Canadians, acting in concert with them, that these two coun- 
 tries should form a " commercial union " or establish " unre- 
 stricted reciprocity " makes it desirable for the Canadian people, 
 before entering into an entangling alliance of this characte**, to 
 have placed before them the advantages they now enjoy ; the 
 probable results which would flow from closer union with the 
 United States, and the social, moral and religious influences cer- 
 tain to be exerted by it. 
 
 The people of the Dominion ought to be able to decide 
 whether their institutions, established by reflection and choice — 
 with the wise safeguards by which they are surrounded — are 
 such as to ensure them the full blessings of constitutional liberty. 
 Under their system ol responsible government no injustice can 
 now be done them which they are not able to promptly remedy. 
 Their geographical position on the map of the world, their soil, 
 elimate and productions, are immutably fixed by the law of 
 Nature, and must remain, whatever their polity may be. 
 
 The proposition that they should surrender their commercial 
 independence into the keeping of a foreign power (which might 
 use it as a pretext for interfering in their affairs and endangering 
 their liberties) is one which can only be justified on the ground 
 that, in the opinion of those who make it, the Canadian people 
 are incapable of self-government. 
 
 It is, therefore, of the utmost importance, that they should 
 now decide this question, wisely a.nd finally^ for on their decision 
 depend not only their own safety, welfare and independence, but 
 the fate of an empire, embracing half a continent, rapidly rising 
 
■■■'.■» 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 in power apd importance, and destined, if wisdom and patriotism 
 guide tlieir deliberations, to become one of the mighty nations 
 of the earth. 
 
 Well did the poet foresee with prophetic vision, and, nearly half 
 a century ago, proclaim her present and lier future greatness : 
 
 " I view thee not at natal hour, 
 But ages hence, thy mighty power, 
 When the fleet iron horse shall roar 
 From Nootka Sound to Labrador : 
 When thy broad belt rich commerce spans. 
 To bear thy products to other lands, 
 And millions have found happy homes 
 Where now the untamed Buffalo roams ; 
 When teeming cities, hamlets fair, 
 And all the arts of peace are there; 
 When college, school and churches' spires 
 All glitter in solsticial fires ; 
 When mountain, mine and spreading plain 
 Diffuse their wealth from main to main, 
 And jarring races fused in one 
 Rejoice in name Canadian." 
 
 The epitome of the constitution of the United States is added 
 with practical illustrations of the character of its guardian- 
 ship of the liberties of its own people — the protection to life 
 and property it affords — the administration of justice under 
 it, and the kind of morality and religion it promotes, for the 
 purpose of showing the Canadian people the vast superiority 
 of their own form of government, and why those who prefer the 
 government of the States ought to prove their patriotism by 
 
 " Leaving their country for their country's good," 
 
 and going where they may with kindred spirits 
 
 " Float awhile, by varying eddies born, • 
 
 And sink at last forever." 
 
The Dominion of Canada. 
 
 " Canada, know that thou art free ; 
 Free as the mountain breeze can be ; 
 No lordly letters bind thy sons, 
 No privilefjed power thee cramps or s uns. 
 No tederal tyrant now can sway 
 Thy reftlms, and degradations lay 
 On water, fish, land, birds or air ; 
 All are thine for thy future t;a,£e." 
 
 ANADA is unquestionably one of the freest and 
 best governed countries in the world. No otbit 
 people, unless perchance it be some other colony 
 of the British Empire, enjoy the same security of life and 
 property, the same control of taxation, and the same abso- 
 lute responsibility of the official ministry to the will of the 
 majority. No burdens can be imposed upon them which 
 they do not freely sanction, no policy can be pursued by 
 the government without the approval of a majority of their 
 representatives. To me this appears to be in the highest 
 and truest sense, " Government by the people for the 
 people." vi V 
 
 The Governor-General, as the representative of the 
 Crown, belongs to no party, or faction, but is chosen for 
 his fitness to discharge the duties of the Vice-Regal oflfice 
 with dignity and impartiality. He has no power to en- 
 croach upon the liberties of the people if he had the dispo- 
 sition. His functions begin and end with the administra- 
 tion of their own laws, under the restrictions of their own 
 constitution. v ' V ; 
 
 In all the affairs of life — in business, in religion, in 
 their estimate of obligations and duties, men will honestly 
 differ in opinion, and it is but natural they should do so in. 
 
politics. Freedom of the press and free speech exist in 
 Canada in the highest degree. The open discussion of all 
 questions ot governmental policy, taxation and expendi- 
 ture, by the two great political parties, keeps alive the 
 interest of the people in public affairs, and informs them 
 on all questions which can affect them favourably or 
 otherwise. 
 
 Parliament, or the law-making power, is composed of 
 the people's representatives, freely chosen by their votes, 
 and fairly representing their will. Bribery, intimidation, 
 and all unfair means of influencing the votes of electors, 
 are prevented by legal enactments of a more stringent 
 character than exist^anywhere outside of Britain ana her 
 colonies. 
 
 The union of the several provinces, while leaving to 
 each perfect freedom of action in purely local affairs, 
 welded together all the British possessions on this conti- 
 nent in one grand Dominion for mutual defence, commer- 
 cial freedom, economical administration, and national 
 development. 
 
 Such is the Government of Canada as it appears to 
 me. Its fruits are seen in the rapid growth which has 
 taken place since the union, in the evidences of prosperity 
 which exist on every hand, and in the sobriety and moral 
 and relif^ious tone of the people — no where else is the 
 Sabbath day observed with greater devotion, or a more 
 decent regard for the Christian faith. 
 
 " With pride I see thee dare to soar 
 In noble aims and classic lore. 
 In foremost rank assume to stand 
 Where genius, science, wave their wand, 
 
 ^ Thy primal schools and normal more 
 Scatter the seeds of mental power ; 
 Models the youthful mind to train 
 And free from Superstition's bane. 
 While higher schools inviting stand, 
 
 .. Offered with a liberal hand. . . 
 
■Great public works attest thy growth 
 Thy innate energy and worth, 
 In arts, canals, and mineral wealth ; 
 In railroads, mines, commercial health ; 
 , In boundless riches unexplored. 
 
 In fertile plains and valleys broad ; 
 In tisheries and forest wealth. 
 In bracing air and blooming health, 
 From Atlantic to Pacific's shore, 
 No pen can half recount thy store." 
 
 In the extent of her domain Canada exceeds the 
 United States. In the strength of her position she is in- 
 comparably superior — being practically unassailable from 
 the east, north and west, while the American states are 
 open to attack on every side. She possesses the largest 
 area of unsettled lands, available for cultivation, of any 
 nation on the globe. Her forests of timber are unequalled 
 in extent and value. Her resources in iron and coal are 
 •of incalculable magnitude, anH as yet only slightly de- 
 veloped, while she possesses vast riches in mines of gold 
 and silver, copper and lead, — quarries of granite and 
 .marble, inexhaustible beds of salt, and the finest fisheries 
 in the world. 
 
 " A thousand miles of genial clime, ,.1 
 
 From North to South they all are thine ; 
 From East to West three thousand more *• 
 
 Stretch gorgeously from shore to shore ; , ; 
 And prairie, forest, lake and Ptream . ' 
 
 Alternate like a poet's dream. ■ 
 
 AVith pent-up wealth thy bowels heave, 
 Inviti'ig all men to receive ; " 
 
 Coai, copper, silver, iron, lead, , i 
 
 ^. And zinc and gold diffusely spread v ' 
 
 O'er mountain, plain and prairie van, ' 
 Where flows the Great Saskatchewan. < ? . 
 
 Where'er I rove the vast expanse — 
 J 1 Mountains and plain in distant glance, :,,.. 
 
 Rivers in sunlight sparkling flow, *v 
 
 And forests dark majestic grow, — 
 With smiling plains and valleys fair 
 Inviting Cultivation's care. 
 
Then rouse thee to thy high behest, f - . 
 
 Thy destiny by God impressed, 
 
 To guide the ship and clear the way, ' . - 
 
 And timely fix thy Sovereign's sway, ^ 
 
 Before the brightest, purest gem < 
 
 In her Royal diadem 
 
 Be snatched by fillibust<5ring bands, 
 
 And pass to hostile, rival hands, 
 
 When dwarf d and dwindl'd thou shalt be, 
 
 Covered with shame and infamy." . 
 
 What can a people, so blessed v^ith boundless wealth,, 
 want which they have not already in unequalled abun- 
 dance ? Their Government is of their own making, their 
 rulers of their own choice, atid changeable at their will. 
 To guard and develop such a vast inheritance, they must 
 be willing to bear some burdens, yet their taxes are lighter 
 than those borne by the people of the States. Their tariflf 
 is lighter than the American tariff. Their soil is as rich, 
 their climate as good, and their security in life and pro- 
 perty much greater. If they are capable of self-govern- 
 ment at all, and worthy of the name and fame of the 
 glorious empire from which they sprung, they will unite 
 as one man in upholding the Dominion and working out 
 her grand destiny. 
 
 Vast as are the resources of Canada, their possession is 
 of little value to her people until they are developed and 
 made to yield up their wealth. This can be efficiently and 
 quickly done only by increasing her population. To do 
 this, she must seen to attract emigrants from the populous 
 countries of Europe, the British Islands, and the United 
 States, by holding out inducements equal or superior ta 
 those offered by other countries. No emigrants are more 
 desirable than those from Germany and the Scandinavian 
 kingdoms, who are accustomed to a more rigorous climate 
 than that of Canada, and are both thrifty and industrious. 
 Danes, Norwegians and Swedes make excellent citizens^ 
 There are many large settlements of them in the United 
 States, and they remind one, in looks, in habits, and in 
 their moral characteristics, more of English people thark 
 
■, any other. Thousands of EngHshmen, Scotchmen and 
 .' Irishmen are each year led to settle in the States, wha 
 would be much better off if they came to Canada. In the 
 ^ Western States, a restless and dissatisfied feeling prevails 
 ^; among the emigration of late years, caused by the scarcity 
 ■ ' of good Government lands, and the high prices of those 
 held by railway companies and land sharks. Even the old 
 y pioneer farmers are many of them so oppressed by taxes 
 and burdened by debt that the^ are forced to sell their 
 'farms and seek new homes in Dakota or Canada. In 
 . Western Kansas whole settlements are breaking up, dis- 
 couraged by the poorness of the soil, the uncertainty of 
 the seasons, and the periodic visitations of insects which 
 destroy everything before them. Encourage these people: 
 . , properly, and they will flock to the North- Western Pro- 
 vinces of the Dominion by thousands, and, once the tide 
 fairly sets in, and the}- come to know that they can have 
 better land, and a better Government, in Canada than in 
 the States, nothing the latter can do to prevent v;ill stop 
 the Western exodus. > 
 
 The growth of Canada, within a comparatively short 
 period, from a few weak and scattered settlements, along 
 the southern border oi her immense possessions, into a 
 }■ nation of five millions of freemen, with splendid railways, 
 rich and populous cities, grand canals, and factories which 
 produce within herself almost everything required by her 
 people, is something of which every Canadian may well 
 feel proud. ' 'v 
 
 To continue and complete her development, she must 
 
 cultivate among her people a love of country, which shall 
 
 .lift them above the low plane of sectional and party poli- 
 
 ^: tics, into the purer and higher atmosphere of great national 
 
 aims and ambitions. 
 
 In this respect, Canadians cannot do better than emu- 
 late the love of countiy of the Americans. .With all the 
 glaring defects of their written constitution, every Ameri- 
 can proclaims ?.nd believes it superior to all others. Dem- 
 
f':'.^ 
 
 ■ocrats and Republicans alike sink all party differences, 
 the moment their nationality is touched. They never 
 drag their institutions into the mire of party politics, but 
 vie with each other in upholding them against the world. 
 
 The effect of this is seen in the tens of millions of 
 people, attracted from the populations of the old world, 
 and in the thousands of millions of foreign capital, which 
 have been flowing into their country for the past fifty years. 
 The people and capitalists of Europe took them at their 
 ■own estimate of themselves, and felt that a Government 
 enshrined in the hearts of her people afforded the best 
 guarantee, not only of its own stability and prosperity, but 
 of the security of investments. 
 
 This, national spirit gave them the confidence of the 
 world and made possible their wonderful growth in popu- 
 lation and wealth. It was not their form of Government 
 which forced wealth upon them, for it came in defiance of 
 probably the most oppressive constitution and corrupt 
 administration ever tolerated by a civilized people. 
 
 Canadians have much more to be proud of in their in- 
 stitutions, and possess everything which Americans pos- 
 sessed to invite immigration and capital. If these come to 
 them more slowly, and with a certain degree of hesitation 
 and distrust, they have only themselves to blame. They 
 have fostered a class of journalists and pestilent politi- 
 cians who persistently defame their country, its institu- 
 tions, its laws, and its people, — misrepresenting everything 
 Canadian and everything British. - . - 
 
 The injury which these men have done, and are now 
 doing, is beyond calculation. Their falsehoods are on file 
 in all the centres of Europe from which emigration flows, 
 and are read by intending emigrants seeking to learn 
 what kind of a country Canada is, and what their chances 
 v/ould be of making prosperous homes for their families 
 by emigrating to it. When they are told that the people 
 are dissatisfied with their lot and would be more pros- 
 perous under the Government of the States, and come to 
 
know that the papers which assert this are the recog- 
 nized organs of one of the political parties of the country* 
 what can they think but that Canada is an unsafe country 
 to go to, and the States much to be preferred ? 
 
 Remember, too, that these intending emigrants know 
 nothing of Canada, or her institutions, or the prosperity of 
 her people, except what they see in the journals of the 
 country. Let the reader put himself in the place of the 
 emigrant, and say what would be his decision after reading 
 these misrepresentations put forth from week to week, and 
 month to month ! Why, naturally you would say. If that 
 is the character of the Government of Canada, and such 
 the condition of the people that they are forced to beg for 
 reciprocal trade, or some kind of commercial union with 
 the States, as necessary to their prosperity, it is no country 
 for me lo settle in. Thus ever}' Canadian is injured by 
 these national defamers, for there is no interest which is 
 not benefited by the influx of immigration. It quickens 
 every branch of business, and would afford Canadian 
 factories and farmers a home market for everything they 
 produce. 
 
 " 'Tis what has made thy neighbour great ; 
 Built his cities, given him might 
 
 , To construct railroads, dig canals. 
 And man his navy's wooden walls, 
 Filled his armies, commerce, mines, 
 And furnished means for worse designs. 
 The annual impulsive power 
 That scatters blessings like a shower ; 
 Four hundred thousand foreigners, 
 Yearly seeking wealth and honours, , , 
 Bring each a hundred dollars' wealth, 
 
 _ Besides their brawny limbs and health ; 
 Her industries aid, bless, impel. 
 And onward Western current swell. : ^ 
 
 Why not thine, or does wisdom fail ? 
 No patriot breezes swell thy sail. 
 Then turn this stream into thy West, 
 And thus accompHsh ail the rest ; 
 
12 
 
 The poet's vision realize 
 
 In this portentous enterprise, 
 
 Which can transmute crude Nature's store 
 
 To teeming cities scattered o'er 
 
 Thy Western wilds' utmost bound, 
 
 And smiling plenty strew around 
 
 Each mountain, plain and forest home 
 
 Where now wild elk and buffalo roam." 
 
 Not only do these croaking and lying newspapers 
 frighten away immif^ration from Canada, but they exert a 
 still more injurious influence on capitalists. Money is the 
 most sensitive of all immigrants. It will not trust itself in 
 any land which has not a stable Government and national 
 prosperity. No capitalist, after reading the vStatements 
 put forth and beHeving them to be true, would ever give a 
 second thought to Canada as a safe field for investments. 
 
 Americans, not personally acquainted with the institu- 
 tions or people of Canada, have been led by these papers 
 to think and speak of Canadians as though they were an 
 inferior race, incapable of self-government, having po 
 national character, no love of country, no attachment to 
 their institutions, and, sooner oi later, sure to become a 
 dependency of the Republic. 
 
 Deny the correctness of this opinion, and they point 
 you to a string of paragraphs, cut from Canadian papers, 
 affirming in substance everything they assume to be true. 
 " Why," said an American to me the other day, " here is a 
 paragraph from a Toronto paper, giving the number of 
 young men who, within a stated period, have left a certain 
 Canadian town and gone to the States and done well. 
 What does that show, but that some of your papers are 
 actually encouraging young Canadians to seek their for- 
 tunes in the States, and holding out to them the assurance 
 of bettering their lot by doing so ? Were one of our 
 editors to do that, to induce young Americans to go to 
 Canada, he would be mobbed by the people. They would 
 cast his press and types into the street, and give him so 
 
13 . .;..:-;,■ ,.■: :':.•:>., . 
 
 many hours to get out of the country ! The very fact that 
 Canadians submit to mch an outrage is proof, to my mind, 
 of their want of national pride and spirit." 
 
 That great numbers of Canadians have gone to the 
 States, in the hope of bettering their lot, is true, but it is 
 also true that most of them found it an ignis fatuus, which 
 lured them from comfort and plenty to privation and 
 misery. 
 
 Go to Detroit, Chicago, Milwaukee or St. Paul, and 
 you can find hundreds of these poor Canadians living from 
 hand to mouth, willing to work at any menial employment, 
 and yet hardly able to obtain the necessaries of life. A 
 friend of mine having a property near Chicago hired four 
 young Canadians last Spring. They were intelligent, and 
 competent to fill responsible clerkships, but were glad 
 enough to get three dollarg and a half a week for the 
 hardest kind of manual labour — mixing and carrying 
 mortar, lumber and brick — and he could have hired a 
 thousand men at the same wages. Many unfortunate 
 Canadians are railroaded into American workhouses as 
 vagrants, because they cannot find employment to provide 
 them with shelter and food. Where one Canadian does 
 well by going to such cities as Chicago, ten find themselves 
 much worse off than they were in Canada. 
 
 The Western States are flooded over with tramps, who 
 go from farm to farm seeking employment they cannot 
 find, and generally begging their bread. It was estimated 
 by the Chicago papers last winter that there were forty 
 thousand men out of employment in that city alone, 
 and among them were hundreds of young Canadians, who 
 cursed the day they were lured from their comfortable 
 homes by the false representations of Canadian newspapers. 
 Some of these are, no doubt, those referred to by the 
 Toronto papers as having ''gone to the States and done 
 well ! " They remain only because they are too poor or 
 too proud to return in rags to their Canadian friends. 
 
 How long will the Canadian people permit their news- 
 
' '■; -v, '. ■•'i, .' > ■■ ' . • :, ; • ;J' ■^,-" . .."5;'/' ■/■;;■ 
 
 ■ ■.,>•■ .-■>■, 
 
 papers, for party purposes, to thus defame them ? What 
 can it do but injury to their country and to themselves ? 
 This Canada is theirs, and its good name should be 
 cherished by them as a sacred trust. They made the 
 government, enacted the laws, and hold the administra- 
 tion in their hands. Its future depends largely on the 
 estimation in which it is held by other peoples. Whoever 
 assails it assails them individually, and should be treated 
 as a renegade, dangerous and disloyal to their country. 
 '^ It has ever been the yearning desire of the United 
 States to possess Canada. The (Canadian people, there, 
 fore, cannot be too much on their guard against any and 
 every proposition emanating from that source. After 
 rudely tearing up all former commercial treaties between 
 the two countries, rejecting all friendly overtures for their 
 renewal, legislating additional restrictions on Canadian 
 trade, and perpetrating outrage'after outrage on her people, 
 — even to the commission of piracy on the high seas, we 
 are now told by Wiman, Hitt, and Butterworth, three 
 Yankee politicians, and their Canadian coadjutors, that 
 this rude and aggressive Republic has suddenly so far 
 reformed as to be now actually willing to enter into some 
 kind of a " commercial union " with Canada. And they 
 kindly tell us how desirous they are, personally, to see it 
 established, — for the good of Canada ! 
 
 This sounds very disinterested, and is so contrary to all 
 past experience, that it is perhaps wise to enquire what 
 the true character of this latest American scheme is, the 
 antecedents of those advocating it, and the probabilities 
 which exist for any fair, and safe plan of commercial 
 intercourse being conceded to Canada. 
 
 What is meant by " commercial union " with the 
 States ? It means that Canada shall adopt the American 
 tariff against the Mother Country, and all the outside 
 world, and agree to give to the States the unrestricted 
 benefit of the Dominion market for her productions. To 
 do this, Canada must practically abandpn all right of pro- 
 
■v 
 
 15 .•,,^. - , . ■ 
 
 tection against the encroachments of the Republic, and 
 must give ijp the revenues now derived from duties, for 
 everything from the States would come in free, — and the 
 bulk of foreign importations would be filtered through the 
 States, after paying duty into the American treasury, and 
 commissions to Americans merchants. No other arrange- . 
 ment would be practicable, without maintaining the whole 
 present expense, and machinery, of the Customs depart, 
 ment. The stress laid on the term *' unrestricted " is no 
 doubt meant to prepare the Canadian mind for this very 
 solution. ' 
 
 Having taken the revenue derived from duties from the 
 Dominion, the Canadian people must next submit to direct 
 taxation, levying so much on the dollar on all assessable 
 property to support their government, so that any uncertain 
 benefits which might be derived from free trade on the 
 one hand would be much more than offset by the certain 
 loss and injury on the other. ' ' ' ^ 
 
 Reciprocal trade in fish, lumber, coal, iron, grains, live 
 stock, butter, cheese and other products of the farm, forest, 
 mines and fisheries, the Dominion Government has always 
 been in* favour of, but tVie Americans will not have that. 
 The kind of free trade they want is not in natural products 
 but in manufactures ! Those of Canada are of recent 
 growth, and, as yet, comparatively weak. They were 
 called into existence by the guarantee of protection aftorded 
 by the adoption of the National Policy. Under this policy 
 she has made giant strides in development, and acquired 
 by it everything necessary to national independence. She 
 has so increased in wealth, and in the promise of future 
 greatness, as to excite the jealousy of the American Re- 
 public, which would much rather see her weak and 
 dependent. - , 
 
 That Commercial Union would not benefit the farmers 
 of Canada is proved by the fact that they are already 
 better off than American farmers and better than they 
 would be under the high American tariff. The American 
 
farmers are generally poor and so over-burdened by mort- 
 gage incumbrances on their farms that maqy in every 
 community, who a few years ago owned the fee simple of 
 their homesteads, are now only tenattts of the loan com- 
 panies. Throughout the Western States, and especially 
 in Iowa, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio, three-fourths of the 
 farms are covered by mortgages, bearing seven and even 
 ■eight per cent, interest, and the day is not distant when 
 most of them will be sold under the hammer. Thirty years 
 ago Amarican farmers were generally prosperous, but now 
 their monstrous tariff and heavy state and country taxes 
 barely let them live. 
 
 Wheat is generally higher in Canada, and reciprocity 
 would lower it to the American price. Beef, mutton and 
 j)ork, in bulk and on foot, are higher in Toronto than in 
 Chicago or Kansas City, the great meat centres of the 
 west. Barley and heavy horses are slightly higher in the 
 States, but only because both are in demand beyond the 
 home supply, and cannot be procured without paying the 
 duty. Take off the duty and ths American price would 
 fall to the Canadian price. Butter and cheese are largely 
 ■exported trom the States to England, which regulates the 
 American price, and the British market is just as open to 
 Canadians now as it would be under reciprocity. Lumber 
 is considerably dearer in the States, and the removal of 
 the duty would increase the cost in Canada of all farm 
 improvements, houses, barns, fences, etc. 
 
 From actual observation I know that the Canadian 
 farmer is better off than the American. He gets as much 
 or more in the aggregate for his crops and buys the mer- 
 chandise he needs for his family considerably cheaper. 
 
 ** Unrestricted Reciprocity " would benefit nobody but 
 the rings of manufacturers in the States. These, I have 
 no doubt, would be glad to enter into an enterprise by 
 which they could obtain Jive millions more consumers ! 
 They are older, more numerous, and more wealthy than 
 the Canadian manufact"»'rs and their capacities, in al- 
 
,■,.;■-,,„ ■'■■ 17 
 
 most every branch of manufacture, exceed the demands 
 of their own country. They could blot out of existence 
 all the millions of Canadian capital now invested in man- 
 ufactures by simply flooding the country with American 
 goods below the cost of production. This would throw 
 hundreds of thousands of Canadian operatives out of 
 employment, bankrupt their employers, and make the 
 Government hated. 
 
 The American rings would, I am sure, be willing and 
 glad to take the contract to accomplish this, for they could 
 then put up prices, to recoup themselves, as soon as they 
 had secured the market against Canadian competition. 
 
 • Is there one Canadian base enough to enter into a vile 
 •conspiracv of this character with aliens and enemies for 
 the wholesale robbery of those Canadians who, in good 
 faith, invested their all in industries which have done so 
 much to promote the prosperity of Canada and raised her 
 from humble dependence upon other countries to the 
 proud position of an independent and self-sustaining nation? 
 If so, rely on it, capital so betrayed would never again risk 
 a dollar on the faith of the people of Canada. 
 
 And suppose Canada • were to enter into this scheme 
 and found it injurious and unsatisfactory to her people, 
 what assurance can we have that she would he permitted 
 to peacefully withdraw from the tariff union ? The grasp- 
 ing Republic, having practically separated her from the 
 support of the Empire, would be very reluctant to relin- 
 quish five millions of subjects and the wealth of half a 
 continent ! By her aggressions she forced France to part 
 with Louisiana, and Mexico to give up Texas, New Mex- 
 ico and California, and could easily find a pretext for as- 
 sailing the independence of Canada. Where could Canada 
 •then turn for assistance ? She could not appeal to the 
 I.Empire which she had practically abandoned, nor even 
 rely on the united loyalty of her own people, for those 
 Canadians who are now urging her to take this headlong 
 plunge into a dangerous experiment would be the firct to 
 
18 
 
 advise her to pusillanimously surrender her independence 
 without a struggle. Indeed it is hardly possible that they 
 do not foresee this contingency and advocate the treacher- 
 ous scheme for the very purpose of forcing the people into 
 annexation. 
 
 Now for the originators of this scheme. What reason 
 have those Canadians supporting it for believing it other 
 than a conspiracy against the independence of Canada ? 
 W'iman, they tell us, was once a Canadian. Yes, a Cana- 
 dian who foreswore his country, gave up his allegiance, 
 and for personal gain became the subject of a foreign 
 power. His chief occupation is organizing and managing 
 rings of capitaHsts and manufacturers to put up the prices 
 of necessaries of life, so that he and his rich conspirators 
 may grow richer and the poor be made poorer. Has such 
 a character as this any right to interfere in the affairs of 
 Canada ? Is he one from whom the Canadian people caO' 
 safely take advice regarding their future ? Before they do 
 so let them consider well the fable of the wicked spider 
 and the silly fly. Wiman's web is spread out in beautiful 
 meshes and made to look most attractive, but woe to the 
 poor credulous fool who becomes entangled in it. He has 
 confessed to his American associates why he is so anxious 
 to promote this treacherous scheme, viz. : because he 
 believes it " the high road " to the destruction of Canada's 
 nationality and her absorption into the American Union ! 
 It is not her good but her ruin he is seeking to accomplish 
 and the roJe of traitor is in perfect keeping with nis 
 renegade antecedents. ^' 
 
 Butterworth and Hitt, his fellow- conspirators, are 
 third-rate politicians of the party in powv^r. They are not 
 men of national reputation in any true sense. They belong 
 to the same political organization as O'Donovan Rossa, 
 Pat Ford, Egan, Finerty, Sullivan, and the whole gang of 
 Fenians and Dynamiters. The spirit of their party, ever 
 since its organization out of the debris of the Whigs and 
 Know-nothings, in 1856, has been uncompromising hostility 
 
19 
 
 to British and Canadian interests. At the last Presidential 
 election the platform of their party affirmed the necessity 
 of maintaining, and even increasing, the present American 
 tariff against Canadian produce, lumber, coal, iron, fish, 
 and every thing Canada has to sell. 
 
 There never was a time in the history of the Republic 
 when its Government manifested so little disposition to 
 favour any fair reciprocity with Canada, nor a party so 
 pledged against conceding the least freedom of trade be- 
 tween the two countries as the party now in power, to- 
 which Wiman, Butterworth and Hitt belong. For Canada 
 to supplicate for reciprocity, on the ground that it is 
 necessary for the welfare of her people, is the very way not 
 to get it. No sane man can suppose, from the spirit mani- 
 fested by the Republic, that it desires or would do anything 
 to promote the interests of a rival nation, competing with 
 her in the markets of the world and rapidly rising in 
 population and power on her borders. Instead of the 
 good of Canada, she desires to cripple her trade, and bully 
 and outrage her people to make them surrender their 
 liberties, as the only means of obtaining peace. Nothing 
 has conduced so much to create this very spirit of hostility 
 to Canada as the discovery that she has become a suc- 
 cessful competitor for the trans-continental trade between 
 China and Europe, and is already beginning to absorb her 
 own dissatisfied population. She foresees that the day is 
 not distant when, if she cannot stop the national prosperity 
 and development of Canada, hundreds of thousands of her 
 own citizens will each year seek homes on Canadian soil. 
 
 No person in power in the States is in favour of honest 
 commercial reciprocity between the two countries. The 
 farmers of all the agricultural States gave their votes to 
 the Republican party, because promised increased pro- 
 tection against Canadian farmers. The great lumber firms 
 of Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota voted almost 
 solidly for the same party, and compelled their employees 
 to do likewise, because guaranteed that the present tariff 
 
, •■■ ■ ' y . ■■■ 
 . 20 
 
 against Canadian lumber should be maintained. The coal 
 and iron companies, and their operatives, supported the 
 same party on the assurance of continued protection 
 against Canadian coal and iron ; and so in regard to fish 
 and every other Canadian interest. 
 
 In the face of these indisputable facts, known to every- 
 body, and the additional knowledge that the campaign 
 resulted in the election of thQ Republican nominee to the 
 Presidency and gave both branches of Congress to his 
 party, it is not possible for any Canadian to believe there 
 is a ghost of a chance of obtaining any kind of fair trade 
 intercourse .from the present American administration. 
 The bare mention of such a thing by President Harrison, 
 or any of his cabinet, would almost cause civil war. It 
 would be regarded as such a breach of faith to the 
 American farmers, lumbermen, miners and fishermen, who 
 gave their votes, and money, to the party in power on the 
 distinct pledge of maintaining the present or greater re- 
 striction against Canadian competition. 
 
 Therefore, the t^lk by Canadian papers and politicians 
 about obtaining reciprocity or free trade with the States 
 is, under existing circumstances, a sham and fraud upon 
 the Canadian people. They know that it cannot be ob- 
 tained, and they are not advocating it with any expectation 
 of getting it, or of benefiting the Canadian farmer in any 
 way, but merely as the clap-trap of party politics. The 
 discussion of it even, and the reason assigned for desiring 
 it, are alike insulting to the intelligence and injurious to 
 the interests of this country — insulting because it assumes 
 that the electors are incapable of seeing the transparent 
 fraud of its advocacy, and injurious because it encourages 
 the Americans to persevere in their hostility by making 
 them believe the people of Canada are almost ready to 
 barter their national existence for the stale pottage of a 
 little more trade. 
 
 It may be hard for the people to believe those Cana- 
 dians advocating commercial union and unrestricted red- 
 
procity are disloyal, and, under the pretence of free trade^ 
 are actually aiming at the subversion of the institutions of 
 their countr}' ; but it is equally hard for them to under- 
 stand what other, and better, purpose they can have in 
 view in pursuing precisely the course they would adopt if 
 actually leagued with aliens and enemies in a treasonable 
 conspiracy. 
 
 Manitoba is the field to which the Government of 
 Canada is endeavouring to attract immigration. Imagine 
 the intending immigrant to read the statements contained 
 in an article recently published in a Toronto paper, not 
 only without a word of dissent or disapproval, but witL 
 warm editorial commendation. The article in question 
 contained sixteen distinct assaults upon the good name of 
 Canada, all evidently intended to discourage emigration to- 
 Manitoba by creating the belief, in the minds of emigrants,, 
 that the people of that province were under a corrupt, 
 wasteful and despotic government. That they were worse 
 off by " thirty-Jive per cent." than those in the American 
 States of Dakota and Minnesota adjoining. That they have 
 no outlet for their products. That ** a farmer could have 
 got four hundred dollars more for his wool if he had settled 
 across the line in Dakota." That Manitoba is •* outside 
 the pale of continental commerce, and it is impossible for 
 her to enjoy prpsperity or gain population under the .i.-ost 
 wasteful and corrupt of governments." 
 
 Who, believing these statements, would think of settling 
 in Manitoba ? They are a direct attack upon every 
 material interest of that province ; and a wrong done to 
 every one whose welfare depends on her prosperity and 
 good name. V 
 
 ■V Manitoba and Dakota lie side by side, far from the 
 manufacturing centres. Both are rich agricultural dis- 
 tricts, and produce products which mainly depend for their 
 price on foreign markets. The Dakota farmer buys eastern 
 American implements and goods and the Manitoba farmer 
 eastern Canadian. The prices paid by the Dakota farmer 
 
Tor farm implements and ether manufactures is quite as 
 high as the Manitoba farmi r pays. The freight charges 
 on grain from Manitoba to the seaboard by the Canadian 
 route are rather less than from Dakota to the seaboard by 
 the American route. The foreign market, for everything 
 they have to sell, is just as open to one as to the other. 
 The land of Manitoba is better, the protection of life and 
 property greater, and the taxes lighter than in Dakota. 
 
 It is, therefore, not true that the Dakota farmer is belter 
 off than the Manitoba farmer. This is proved by the fact 
 that large numbers of them are moving across the line 
 into Manitoba, and that thousands would gladly do so if 
 they could sell their Dakota farms. 
 
 Neither is it true that the prices of farm implements 
 are lower in Dakota than in Manitoba. The agents of the 
 American manufacturers, in order to sell in Ontario and 
 Manitoba, are forced to reduce the prices thirty-three and 
 a third per cent., which is just about the amount of the 
 duty. They do not do this to American farmers, but are 
 compelled to do it in Manitoba and Ontario to compete 
 with the Canadian manufacturers. The regular selling 
 price in the States is fixed by ring combinations and there 
 is really no competition. The American farmer is forced 
 to pay the ring price. Ontario and Manitoba farmers 
 get thirty-three and a third per cent, reduction, which 
 enables them to pay the duty and get whatever real or 
 imagined advantages there may be in American imple- 
 ments at the same price as American farmers pay. This 
 is not only true of reapers, mowers, rakes, and seed-drills, 
 but of ploughs and every kind of agricultural machinery. 
 On the common American plough the reduction is three 
 dollars to the Canadian farmer below the regular price 
 paid for the same plough by Americans. Take down the 
 tariff wall and all these implements would cost the regular 
 ring price without any reduction whatever. The thirty- 
 three and a third per cent, now goes towards the support 
 •of the Dominion Government without being any burden 
 
23 
 
 to the people. Deprive the Government of that and the 
 people would have to make it up in direct taxes. 
 
 The old established manufacturers of the States who 
 have long enjoyed the benefits of a " close pasture " in that 
 country and grown rich, could, no doubt, produce agricul- 
 tural implements cheaper than the Canadian manufac- 
 turers, but the cost of their production is never considered 
 in fixing prices that is done by a ring which is governed 
 mainly by what it believes the farmer can be made to pay 
 and his necessities. ■ . = 
 
 Whether there would be any benefit to the Ontario 
 or Manitoba farmer from reciprocal trade in natural pro- 
 ducts between the two countries, is difficult to determine. 
 There would be, no doubt, small gains and losses on both 
 sides. But, with regard to farm implements, the American 
 price is now actually higher than the Canadian. • 
 
 Therefore, the clamour raised by certain parties in 
 Canada is not honest and not intended to benefit Canadian 
 people. Its real animus is seen in its virulent attacks 
 on the Dominion Government, the Governor-General, 
 the Senate, and the individual ministers. It is the 
 Government and institutions of Canada they are seeking 
 to injure, not the people they are striving to benefit. 
 They know the Dominion Government has no power to 
 give reciprocity or free trade and the States no intention 
 to do so. The Government of Canada has always been wil- 
 ling to enter into negotiations, but the American Govern- 
 ment has steadily refused. 
 
 The agitaticn on this subject is unquestionably intended 
 to cover other and less reputable projects. Or why do it3 
 advocates seek to excite bad blood and distrust between 
 the several provinces ? Why try to make Manitoba be- 
 lieve that she is injured by Ontario ; Ontario, that she is 
 injured by Quebec ; Quebec, that all the other provinces 
 are combined against her ; and the Maritime Provinces 
 that the Dominion Government sacrifices their special 
 interest in coal, iron, and the fisheries, to please Ontario, 
 'Quebec, Manitoba, and British Columbia. 
 
This certainly is not done to benefit the people, 
 strengthen the Government, promote national growtii, or 
 subserve any Canadian interest. Then what is its pur- 
 pose ? It has all the characteristics of a treasonable con- 
 spiracy against the life of the Dominion, and if it be not 
 one its Canadian advocates are most unfortunate in their 
 co-workers who are known to be implacable haters of 
 everything Canadian and British, and loud-mouthed advo- 
 cates of annexation. ■ i - ; 
 
 •' Ye scheming tricksters ot a day — 
 Ye shallow plotters — your treason stay ; 
 Your treach'rous minds on party bent, 
 On sordid selfishness intent, 
 For lust of power and hope of gain. 
 Have dared invoke sedition's bane. 
 Your dark ambition seeks to doom 
 Fair freedom's high hopes to the tomb. 
 That you may ride the troubled sea. 
 When all is sunk in anarchy. 
 
 ' Such, Canada, will be thy fate. 
 If not repelled before too late ; 
 Then rouse thee ! Calmly look around. 
 Let no small views thy vision bound ; 
 Thy safest motto e're shall be < 
 
 Canada, Queen, and Liberty.'' 
 
 J' •'■ 
 
 No Canadian who desires the welfare of his country^ 
 will ever consent to commit her destinies into the hands of 
 any party which does not uphold her rights ; protect her 
 industries ; strive to promote her growth, and develop 
 her resources ; defend her good name ; glory in her achieve- 
 ments, and seek to strengthen her national aspirations as 
 part of the proud empire to which she belongs. Every 
 loyal Canadian loves — aye jreverences — the constitutional 
 bulwark of British liberty ; regards it as an impregnable 
 fortress, protecting him and all he loves and values ; con- 
 siders it the embodiment, and its flag the symbol, of 
 honour, glory and grandeur ; snuffs with delight its '* odour; 
 of antiquity," and nt . ^i thinks or speaks of it with irrever-^ 
 
26 
 
 ence, but ever devoutly prays that the gr^nd old oak, 
 which was to his ancestors, and is to him, may be to his 
 posterity ^ 
 
 •' From storms a shelter, and from heat a shade," 
 
 and that his beloved Canada, under the aegis of the empire, 
 may remain free and secure — alike from American anarchy 
 and misrule, and despotisms, where 
 
 " Civilization trembling stands v 
 
 ^ Midst bristling steel and martial bands." 
 
 Canada possesses equal, if not greater, natural resources, 
 and two millions more people, than the United States had 
 when her national government was formed, and is just as 
 able to work out her own destiny, and gain population, 
 wealth and power. The States had no neighbour from 
 whom to beg f reciprocity ox free trade. She relied wholly 
 on the energy, pluck and commercial enterprise of her own 
 people — as Canada is now doing — and they opened up to 
 her the trade of the world. > 
 
 The only possible outcome of " Commercial Union '*^ 
 with the States is annexation , while unrestricted reciprocity, 
 on the conditions announced by the American press as the 
 only ones acceptable to their people, would practically 
 make the Provinces of the Dominion so many States of 
 the American Union, end in the subversion of their liber- 
 ties, the extinction of responsible Government, and in 
 reducing Canadians to the condition of serfs or slaves of 
 a despotic oligarchy. , 
 
 Before the Canadian people listen to such a monstrous 
 proposition, let them calmly examine the character of the 
 Government of that country — the kind of security it affords 
 to life and property — the inequity of its administration — the 
 irresponsibility of its executive to the people's representa- 
 tives — the despotic powers of its Senate, and lastly the 
 moral and religious characteristics of those reared under 
 its influence. 
 
■'"■•■ ; ',';'.'■ ).■ ■ :^.''" ;.• ' ■■'■: 
 
 "•<('■■■ 
 
 ■■■' .-''V^iV /''''■ ''^ 
 
 •■*. r. 
 
 > '''*•' „' 
 
 i'-; 1 ■ 
 
 >', 
 
 
 ^'/?> .; 
 
 ■■'■ ■', .( 
 
 ij'lt.;'",.,? ' 
 
 ■■.;./^''';''»r''^ 
 
 •■ iir. '^r''^-:ir''l!:H--v^'-''^:'^^T <■'!■'■• 
 
 ■;;-:,':j-;;. -.i?;*,';,', 
 
The United States, 
 
 IN no true sense can the United States be said to have 
 a Government formed by a common people, and 
 controlled in its functions by their will As origin- 
 ally planned and estabHshed, it was a league or federation 
 entered into by thirteen separate and distinct nations for 
 mutual defence, economy in maintaining foreign relational 
 and commercial union. 
 
 Great Britain, in acknowledging the independence of 
 her rebellious colonies, did so to each one separately, and 
 thereby endowed each with all the attributes of national 
 
 sovereignty. 
 
 These several colonies had previously made common 
 cause with each other in maintaining a war against the 
 Mother Country, but they did so only as individual colo- 
 nies and were not united by any bond of union until after 
 the termination of the revolutionary struggle and after the 
 recognition of their sovereignty as independent nations. 
 
 ORIGIN AND NATURE OF THE FEDERAL UNION. 
 
 In 1778 the first federal compact or league of states 
 ■was entered into, but it proved so defective and unsatis- 
 factory that, in 1788, a convention composed of delegates 
 from all the states assembled at Philadelphia to try to 
 frame a more pdVfect union. The result of its delibera- 
 tions was the recommendation of seven articles of agree- 
 ment, which, upon being accepted and ratified by the states 
 in their capacity as independent sovereignties, became the 
 written bond of union or constitution of the United States. 
 
 It was never intended by the framers of the constitu- 
 tion to form a consolidated nation, with powers derived 
 
28 
 
 from the people and subject to their will. That purpose 
 was distinctly disclaimed in the convention, and had it 
 not been, no union could have been effected. The avowed 
 purpose was to establish a federation or zollverein, deriv- 
 ing its functions from independent states, which retained 
 within themselves all sovereignty except the powers dele- 
 gated to the central agency to be exercised for the welfare 
 of all. , ?!i! 
 
 That this was the aim of the convention which settled 
 the act of union, and the intended purpose of the several 
 articles agreed upon, is indisputably proved by the inter- 
 pretation put upon them by their advocates at the time of 
 their adoption, and subsequently in recommending their 
 ratification to their respective states. 
 
 These thirteen original states being at the time inde- 
 pendent, and intending to remain sOy delegated to a presi- 
 dent and congress, as agents of the states, the several 
 powers conferred by the constitution to be exercised for 
 the common weal of the States. 
 
 Before the assent of all the states could be obtained, 
 it was found necessary for the larger to concede to the 
 smaller ones equal control in the Senate, a body specially 
 designed to protect them against the preponderance of the 
 former in the House of Representatives — which being di- 
 rectly elected by the people, it was feared, might, in time, 
 seek to consolidate them into one common nation. 
 
 Such was the origin of the American Republic a)id 
 such the reasons for the extraordinary powers conferred 
 upon the President and Senate in its written constitution. 
 It was to be a Government by states and not by the people. 
 It was planned in the interest of the states, and all its 
 safeguards were provided against the supposed danger oT 
 encroachments on state sovereignty by the people. 
 
 It seems therefore something in the nature of just re. 
 tribution that the Central Government should, by usurpa- 
 tion, have extinguished, step by step, every vestige of state 
 independence, and reduced these once proud nationalities 
 
29 
 
 I to the condition of subjected provinces, with no more 
 power in their halls of legislation than is exercised by- 
 County Councils in Ontario. > , . 
 
 LOSS OF SELF-GOVERNMENT BY THE PEOPLE. 
 
 But in this overturning of states rights what becomes 
 of the people ? In what "way were they benefited or their 
 liberties rendered secure ? Under the monstrous injustice 
 of tfie plan by which the president is elected and the sen- 
 ate, constituted, they are deprived of the power of electing 
 one or the other, and yet are held as subjects of the states 
 — after all power has been taken from them and nothing 
 but the machinery left — which is only retained as an in- 
 strument by which to deprive the people more completely 
 of the power of controlling legislation by the House of 
 Representatives. 
 
 The public will is in this way mdlified and the policy 
 desired by a majority of the people despotically overruled 
 and wrongfully defeated. > '' 
 
 We have an apt illustration of the truth of this in the 
 issue of the late presidental election. President Cleveland 
 was defeated and turned out of office, although he polled 
 one hundred thousand more votes than his opponent, 
 Harrison, who was declared elected to the presidency, 
 although defeated by one hundred thousand votes ! And for 
 four years to come the latter will administer the Govern- 
 ment against the known will of the majority. 
 
 Nor is this the chief part of the wrong which results. 
 The principles and policy of the two great political parties 
 were fully set forth in their respective platforms, and the 
 I people in voting for president did so as representative of 
 that policy and those reforms which they desired carried 
 out. 
 
 In all free Governments, and especially throughout the 
 British Empire, the will of the majority of the electors is 
 supreme. But such is not the case in the United States. 
 
■ : . . ■ 30 . 
 
 At the last election the issue was clearly defined. The 
 democrats demanded lower taxation and relief from cer- 
 tain oppressive, and, as they believed, unnecessary bur- 
 dens, while the republicans upheld the existing taxes and 
 other burdens as necessary to the prosperity of the coun- 
 try. The democratic policj' was carried by one hundred 
 thousand majority, but the relief demanded was denied to 
 the country, and the policy rejected by the people forced 
 upon them by an iniquitous mode of election which seems 
 to have been planned for the very purpose of defeating 
 the popular will. 
 
 On no intelligible grounds, therefore, can the American 
 Republic be called a. free Government, or. Government by 
 the people, since neither the president wanted nor the 
 relief demanded, was gained by one hundred thousand ma-- 
 jority in a popular election ! 
 
 THE DESPOTIC POWERS OF THE PRESIDENT. 
 
 At this very moment we have presented to us the 
 spectacle of a man rejected by the majority as unworthy 
 of their votes, filhng the executive chair and exercising all 
 the powers of a Caesar ; pursuing a policy in direct antag- 
 onism to their known wishes; expelling from offices of trust 
 those in whom the people have expressed confidence, and 
 filling their places with his own partisans; totally irre- 
 sponsible to the people and their representatives for his 
 acts ; surrounded by a ministry taken from the minor- 
 ity and in no way sanctioned by the majority ; able to 
 defeat by his veto any arid every reform the people's 
 representatives may demand by legislation ; controlling 
 the treasury of the' nation ; commanding the army and 
 navy ; having power (in concert with the Senate) to bind 
 the Republic by treaties the people do not want, and to 
 abrogate those they desire continued, even to the danger 
 of involving the country in disastrous foreign war to the 
 
..,,., 31 . > ■■■' , 
 
 peril of their lives, property, and liberties, and yet they 
 have no more power to restrain his acts than the serfs of 
 Russia have to control the Czar and his council. 
 
 THE MINISTRT OR CABINET. 
 
 The advisers of the American president are his pc> - 
 sonal servants selected because of their subserviency to 
 his will, or appointed as a reward for gold given to himself, 
 or contributed to the corruption fund of his party. A. T. 
 Stewart, the New York merchant, gave twenty thousand 
 dollars to President Grant and immediately received a 
 nomination to the secretaryship of the United States 
 Treasury. Wanamaker, the big clothier of Philadelphia, 
 contributed one hundred thousand dollars to Harrison's 
 campaign fund, and straightway was appointed Post- 
 Master-General of the United States. These corrupt and 
 demoralizing practices are so general in all departments of 
 the Government that the people have come to regard them 
 as something to be expected. The corruptions of the old 
 Roman Republic, which reduced her people to slavery and 
 extinguished their liberties in the Empire, were of the 
 same character and no worse than those which exist to-day 
 in the American Republic. To " mart the offices for gold " 
 is so lightly regarded that a speaker of the House of Re- 
 presentatives, who was copvicted by a Committee of the 
 House of receiving bribes in his official capacity, was 
 still thought not unworthy of a nomination to the Presi- 
 dency of the nation and came very near being elected. 
 
 The ministry is not taken from the representatives of 
 the people, nor in any way confirmed by them. No vote 
 of the people places them in power, and no vote of the 
 people's representatives in congress can displace them. 
 They owe allegiance only to the presidental autocrat, and 
 so long as they conform to his will, may rule or ruin 
 the country with complete indifference to every other 
 authority. 
 
■ 32 - ■.„:■' ' 
 
 THE TYRANNIC POWERS OF THE SENATE. 
 
 The Senate, too, is a most anomalous body for ?i free 
 people to tolerate. It is not elected by the people, nor by 
 the people's representatives, but made up of delegates ap- 
 pointed by the several state legislatures. Each state is 
 allowed two senators regardless of its size or population. 
 Were these states approximately of the same population 
 there might be no great evil in this, but the widest possible 
 differences exist. For example, Rhode Island appoints 
 two Senators for 276,000 people, and a territory no larger 
 than the County of York, while New York State has only 
 two for a great territory and nearly five millions of people! 
 The same discrepancy exists in regard to Connecticut,, 
 New Jersey, and Delaware, while many of the new states 
 have less than one hundred thousand population. One of 
 the latest created has only sixty-two thousand, and yet each 
 of these states can nullify the will 6f the most populous state 
 of the Union. The aggregate population of North and 
 South Dakota, Montana, and Washington is but little 
 more than three hundred thousand — yet, under the en- 
 lightened provisions of the American constitution, these 
 four tenuous outskirts have power to defeat the will of the 
 people of New Vork, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Illinois, the 
 four most populous states of the Union, with more than 
 fiftee 1 millions of people ! 
 
 H& 1 the fathers of the constitution supposed they were 
 establishing, or intended to establish, a great national 
 Government, the people of New York, Pennsylvania, Vir- 
 ginia, and Massachusetts, the then largest and most popu- 
 lous states, would never have consented to give the same 
 senatorial representation to the people of such petty pro- 
 vinces as Delaware, Rhode Island^ and Connecticut, as to 
 themselves. What they consented to establish,* and be- 
 lieved they were establishing, was an offensive and defen- 
 sive league with certain economical and reciprocal advan- 
 tages which did not impair their state sovereignty beyond 
 
33 
 
 the limited power delegated. Now that these delusions, 
 have been dissipated and the several states reduced by 
 the arbitrament of the sword to the condition of provinces 
 of one common Government, the people are beginning to 
 realize that the monstrous powers conferred upon the 
 Senate enable it to defeat all legislation for their relief, 
 practically deprive them of self-government and make it a 
 curse instead of a protection to them. 
 
 The Senate claims •* co-ordinate " and •' co-equal " 
 power with the House of Representatives chosen direetly 
 by the people, and not only the same right to originate 
 Bills, but the power and right to prevent all legislation by 
 the representatives of the people, even the passing of tax, 
 tariff and supply Bills, without its royal assent. This, 
 enables petty and sparsely populated states containing only 
 one-fifth of the population to defeat the wishes of the other 
 Jour-fifths, and, under their written constitution, there is 
 no remedy for this wrong short of civil war. 
 
 To illustrate the beauties of this kind of a people's gov- 
 ernment, the late House of Representatives was in favour 
 of a reduction in the tariff, and passed a measure to effect 
 the desired changes. The Senate said. No ; the people 
 shall bear the burdens they have ; and the measure became 
 null and void. The late president was in favour of an 
 amicable adjustment of the fisheries dispute, and, in con- 
 cert with the Canadian and British Governments, negoti- 
 ated a satisfactory settlement by treaty. That treaty was 
 approved by the people's representatives, but the Senate 
 nullified the will of both people and president. 
 
 THE REPUBLIC AN OLIGARCHY. 
 
 Under the present interpretation of the constitution by 
 American statesmen, viz., that the people of all the states 
 are citizens and subjects of a common nation, such a body 
 as the present United States Senate renders all pretence 
 of legislature by the people's representatives a farce. The 
 House of Representatives might as well not exist. It has. 
 
34 
 
 no real power to do anything, save by permission of the 
 Senate. It has no vital influence over legislation of any 
 kind. It is a shadow without substance or life. All real 
 power rests with the president and the Senate. This 
 makes the republic an oligarchy instead of a democracy ^ 
 and like the old Roman commonwealth, it has its patrician 
 Senators and its plebeian people ! And it is for such a govern- 
 ment as this that the people of Canada are asked by poli- 
 tical tricksters and demagogues to exchange their own wise 
 and evenly-balanced constitution, their substantial liberty, 
 beneficent laws, enlightened administration and honest and 
 unsullied national character ! 
 
 To rightly estimate the practical working of this Amer- 
 ican system, in its relation to responsible government and 
 civil liberty, let us suppose that at the end of two years 
 from the last general election, when a new House of Rep- 
 resentatives will be chosen by the people — that it has a 
 majority of one hundred opposed to the policy of the pre- 
 sent administration. On ma.iy former occasions it has 
 been nearly two to one. What could it do ? It could not 
 get rid of the president or his cabinet ministers. It could 
 not control the administration of the laws. It could 
 not enact any law to relieve the burdens of the people, 
 nor prevent objectionable treaties from being made and 
 ratified. In fact, it would be powerless to do any act for 
 the relief, or better government, or better protection of the 
 people, and any pretence by it of exercising legislative 
 functions would only be a sham and a mockery. There is 
 not another people in the civilized world, unless it be the 
 serfs of Russia, who now endure such a despotism, and 
 -even they conspire to overthrow it. 
 
 With a majority of his partizans in the Senate (which 
 is in no sense representative of the people, but a creature 
 of the states), the president is an irresponsible despot. 
 There is no act which he may not do with impunity. 
 Every department is in his hands. The treasures of the 
 nation are in the possession of his personal servants — the 
 
' ' • ■■■'■' ' . * : , , ■> ' 
 
 military and naval forces are under his command — and 
 he can do whatever he pleases with them. He may turn 
 pirate upon the hi{?h seas, freebooter upon the land, send 
 the House of Representatives about their business, and he 
 and the Senate divide and exercise between them all the 
 functions of government. 
 
 " What," do you say, " is there no redress for the 
 people ? " Yes, there is one remedy, and one only. The 
 people's representatives may impeach the president and 
 have him tried before the Senate. To convict him there 
 must be two-thirds of the Senate in favor of the people. 
 Even one less than two-thirds would let him escape. But 
 let us suppose him to be convicted. He would merely be 
 " suspended from office," and the vice-president, his chum 
 and partner, would take his place and continue his policy. 
 Im^ ^ach and suspend the vice-president and the secretary 
 of state, the chosen servant of the president, steps into his 
 shoes and continues the same career. Not much hope for 
 the people in that ; and yet, to give them even that much, 
 I have supposed an almost impossible condition, viz., that 
 two-thirds of the senators were opposed to the president. 
 With a majority in his favor and acting in concert with 
 him, no redress whatever for the people exists. 
 
 The only government with which the American Repub- 
 lic can be compared is that of Russia. The American 
 gives to the people a semblance of government, but cheats 
 them out of the reality. The Czar is naturally anxious for 
 the contentment of all his people, as it ensures the peace 
 of his reign, and the stability of his dynasty. He is neither 
 partizan nor sectional, but equally the friend of all his 
 slaves, so long as they submit absolutely to his will. The 
 American president is necessarily a partizan — the friend of 
 his supporters and the enemy of all who opposed his elec- 
 tion. If any section voted heavily against him that section 
 is sure to experience manifestations of his resentment in 
 objectionable and offensive appointments and in vetoes of 
 legislation intended for their benefit. 
 
- ■■ -^■' :"-■■■ m A,- ,■,/•■■', ■ :■/; 
 
 THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. 
 
 ■ Besides the organic defects of the government which' 
 are irreparable without reforming their constitution (to- 
 effect any change in which requires that two-thirds of both 
 houses of Congress must demand it, and three-fourths of 
 the states consent to it, conditions almost impossible to- 
 attain), there are other evils which directly spring from it 
 of scarcely less magnitude. One of these, whicli corrupts 
 the very fountain of justice in most if not all the states, is. 
 the election of their judges. Neither integrity, learning,, 
 dignity of character nor legal attainments can weigh 
 against political- availability. No candidate could be elec- 
 ted who was not popular with the saloon element, ward 
 bummers, political hacks and criminal classes, and no 
 party could afford to put him in nomination, for his defeat 
 might endanger its whole ticket. If he possesses the 
 requisite popularity with these classes to render him an 
 available candidate for a political party, he, for that very 
 reason, almost certainly lacks those other qualifications 
 which are necessary to the impartial administration of 
 justice. Once elected he feels that he owes his power to 
 the active politicians of his party, and that they have claims 
 upon his consideration which do not pertain to those of the 
 opposite party who tried to defeat his election. When he 
 accepts the judgeship he gives up his law practice. The 
 term for which he is elected is only for a period of from 
 two to four years. To be defeated at the end of his term 
 and forced to go back to his law practice, would be felt in 
 most cases as a serious misfortune. Therefore he is almost 
 forced by his circumstances to so discharge the duties of 
 the judicial office as to retain the support of the leaders of 
 his party. 
 
 Suppose now, what constantly occurs, that one of his 
 chief supporters is engaged in a lawsuit against one of the 
 opposite party and the case comes before him for triak 
 
 He is so hampered by his relations to one of the litigants 
 that he can hardly help regarding him as his friend and the 
 
other as his enemy. His ruling on points of law is partial. 
 His interpretation of statutes strained. In his charge to 
 the jury he belittles the evidence given in support of his 
 enemy, and magnifies that of his partizan, and by such 
 means warps the verdict from the straight hne of equity 
 and justice. He is placed in a position which gives him 
 the strongest of motives for being partial, and it is the 
 weakness of human nature to be biassed by self-interest. 
 
 Is it any wonder that justice stumbles under such ad- 
 ministration — that criminals go unpunished, and life and 
 property are insecure ? I have known an American judge 
 in a simple action for the specific performance of a written 
 <:ontract, which should have been disposed of in half an 
 hour after it was reached on his docket — the law, the evi- 
 dence, and the ruling of courts being of the clearest and 
 most positive character — to keep the case dangling for 
 years because he did not wish to decide it honestly, and 
 when finally forced to make a decision to dismiss the 
 -case with costs to the plaintiff, thereby compelling him to 
 appeal to a superior judge to have it reopened and decided 
 on its merits. The mfamous decision was reversed, and 
 the dishonest judge sharply rebuked, but it had in the 
 meantime tied up a valuable property for years, depreci- 
 ated its value, and cost thousands of dollars wrongfully. 
 
 Recently a large number of indictments were found 
 against leading Republican poHticians, one of whom was a 
 member of the National Executive Committee, for infam- 
 ous and audacious bribery in the State of Indiana at the 
 last general election. The evidence was of the most 
 damning character, and conviction was sure to follow a fair 
 trial. But the judicial system of the republic was equal to 
 the emergency. The cases were set for hearing before a 
 judge of their own party, who promptly dismissed them 
 all, on a frivolous technicahty of his own construction, 
 without permitting the evidence to be even heard. 
 
 When it is considered that the men elected to judgeships 
 in the States are not, as a rule, the leading members of the 
 
bar, but needy lawyers of small practice, whose constant 
 ,fear is that they may be defeated at the end of their term,, 
 it will occasion no surprise to learn that, when not gov- 
 erned by partizanship, they are generally open to other 
 influences which make the longest purse almost sure to win. 
 Another grave defect in the administration of justice is 
 
 .' the admitting of appeals from judgments rendered, on tiie 
 most frivolous grounds. It is hardly possible to get any 
 verdict which will stand. The losing party can appeal 
 from the magistrate to the county-court, from the county- 
 court to the circuit, from the circuit to the appellate, and 
 from the appellate to the supreme court, one after another,, 
 in the same case, each of which appeals renders necessary 
 another trial, with heavy costs for witness, court and 
 counsel fees. Thus rich litigants are able to bankrupt 
 those of smaller means, and to win in the end through their 
 
 • default, because of sheer inability to bear the expense. 
 
 Bribery is another curse reduced to a system in the 
 
 ' States. Wealthy corporations, such as railway companies,, 
 keep men regularly employed whose sole duties consist in 
 ^^ fixing juries.'' A poor man recently received an injury 
 by a cable railwa^' and brought an action to recover dam- 
 ages. The case ^ame to trial and the jury disagreed. A 
 new trial was had and the same thing occurred again. It 
 was set for a third hearing when one of the jurors reported 
 to the court that he had been approached by the offer of 
 a bribe. An investigation took place and it was discovered 
 that for years no jury had rendered a verdict against that 
 particular company for more than nominal damages. 
 They generally stood ten for the complainant and two for 
 the company, the two being those bribed to defeat justice^ 
 It was further shown that the company kept two scoun- 
 drels on large salaries, whose sole duties consisted in brib- 
 ing jurors in all cases in which the company was defend- 
 ant. One of these bribers, whom I could call by name, is 
 now rusticating in Canada instead of breaking stones irk 
 the penitentiary. f. * 
 
THE INSECURITY OF LIFE IN THE STATES. 
 
 Life and property are less protected by law, and con- 
 sequently more insecure in the United States than in any 
 other civilized country on the face of the globe. There 
 are more murders, cuttings, stabbings, and shootings there 
 in each year tnan in all the monarchies and republics of 
 Europe combined, I kept for years a diary of those re- 
 ported by the press, which is very far from including all 
 which occur and found that more capital crimes were 
 committed in the United States every week than in Great 
 Britain and Ireland in the whole year. Lawless lynchings, 
 for alleged offences, by midnight bands, without trial by 
 judge or jury, are of almost hourly occurrence. Murders 
 openly committed in the presence of witnesses are seldom- 
 followed by the execution of the murderer. Business men 
 go about their ordinary avocations, armed with revolvers, 
 and bowie knives, feeling forced to rely on their own 
 alertness for safety rather than on the protecting arm of 
 the law. 
 
 The following from the Chicago Times of July 6, i88g, 
 shows the immunity which exists for murderers in that 
 boastful land of liberty. 
 
 " WAITPACA. CHARLESTON, AND CHICAGO. 
 
 " Just at present the newspapers of the city are com- 
 menting upon the outcome of two murder trials which 
 resulted in the acquittal of the accused, although the evi- 
 dence against them was of ? damning and overwhelming 
 nature. One of these trials occurred at Waupaca, in the 
 neighbouring State of Wisconsin ; the other at Charleston, 
 in the State of South Carolina. One trial was heard be- 
 fore a typical western judge and jury; the other before a 
 typical southern judge and jury. The crimes for which the 
 accused stood trial were different only in character ; they^ 
 were equally atrocious. 
 
*' The Currans were no more and no less guilty of the 
 murder of Hazeltine than was Dr. McDow of the murder 
 of Dawson. 
 
 " But allowing the communities in which these crimes 
 were committed and these murderers were acquitted to 
 enjoy the fruits of this open and brazen disregard of the 
 value of human life and the majesty of the law in the 
 future, perhaps the Chicago papers can find something of 
 a similar nature nearer home to talk about and moralize 
 over. 
 
 " How many murders have there been committed in 
 Chicago during the last fifteen years, and how many mur- 
 derers have there been hanged? How many red-handed 
 assassins have escaped with a light sentence to the peni- 
 tentiary, and how many have escaped punishment in any 
 shape ? Is it true or false that the petty and particularly 
 the friendless thief runs a greater risk of being punished 
 in this city than does the murderer ? Is it true or false 
 that not one iii fifty murderers has been avenged by the law 
 in this city duimg the last fifteen years ? One more ques- 
 tion : Has there been a murderer hanged in Chicago since 
 the great fire who was able to employ the best of counsel, 
 •or who had means enough to corrupt a jury ? 
 
 ♦' The anarchist hanging may be quoted in reply to the 
 last question, but the anarchists were hanged by public 
 opinion, and, it ma}^ be said in passing, were found guilty 
 before they were tried. 
 
 ♦' It is not necessary tor the Chicago newspaper writer 
 or the average citizen of intelligence to go over the files in 
 order to ascertain that this city has a record in the murder 
 line of which she may well feel ashamed. And the most 
 deplorable part of it is that the record is not one that can be 
 referred to as of the past, for it is being added to in the 
 present and in a most startlir«j manner. » ' 
 
 ** The murder of Peterson at the hands o^ lat is known 
 as " the Market street gang," may not attra is much at- 
 tention at home or abroad as the murders of Hazeltine and 
 
Dawson, but it was, in fact, more brutal, unprovoked, and 
 atrocious, than either of them. Peterson was killed with- 
 out giving his assailants the slightest cause for committing 
 the crime. It was without a motive other than that which 
 prompts the devil to take control of the actions of a thug. 
 , It was without a palliating circumstance. 
 
 ** It will be interesting and perhaps instructive to watch 
 the course of the law in relation to the brutes who com- 
 mitted thi3 crime. They are known and the principal has 
 confessed. Will he be sentenced to two years m the peni- 
 tentiary and his pals to a year in the county jail, or will 
 the jury decide that Peterson's death was the result of ac- 
 cident, or caused by heart disease, or that he was killed in 
 self-defence, or that the murderer was crazed by the heat 
 -of the sun when he struck the fatal blow ? 
 
 " Any of these conclusions will not surprise us. We are 
 used to them. But perhaps we had better let Waupaca 
 and Charleston justice alone. That glass-house proverb 
 has a great deal of truth in it." i 
 
 Is there another people on the face of the earth who 
 would tolerate such a state of things and yet go about 
 boasting of the blessings they enjoy and the perfection of 
 their government ? Their perceptions of right and wrong 
 have become so blunted by familiarity with the crimes and 
 corruptions which result from their government that they 
 are unable to see that the protection of life, the security of 
 property, and the impartial administration of justice, are 
 the chief purposes for which governments are instituted, 
 -and that any system which does not ensure these is bad 
 and undeserving of their allegiance. 
 
 In .all governments which secure constitutional liberty 
 to their people — such as is enjoyed in the highest degree in 
 Canada — the executive officers are taken from the repre- 
 ' sentatives of the people, who are the source of all power ; 
 the ministry is responsible to their will, and every burden 
 they bear is self-imposed. Nothing of this kind exists in 
 the States. The executive is irresponsible, the ministry is 
 
irresponsible, the majority do not rule, corruption and 
 crime go unpunished, the liberties of the people are ground 
 under the iron heel of despotism, and there is no hope for 
 them short of revolution. . ' r* 
 
 OBSERVANCE OF THE SABBATH DAY. 
 
 The effect of the American system on the morals of the 
 people is strikingly illustrated by their observance of the 
 Sabbath. Sunday with them is of all others the day 
 devoted to dissipation. From the opening of spring to the 
 close of autumn the cities pour forth their thousands who 
 go to groves, suburban parks, woods and lakes within a 
 radius of thirty miles, to spend the day in shouting, fishing, 
 drinking, dancing, and gambling, and return to town on 
 Sabbath evening singing ribald songs and indulging in all 
 the vulgar rowdyism of drunken men and women. Every 
 railway sends out long train loads of men, women and 
 children on Sunday morning, some of them two or three 
 such trains, to different points along their line, each of 
 which carries a band of music and a plentiful stock of 
 whiskey, beer and cigars. The theatres are open on the 
 leading streets ot the city, whiskey and beer can be pur- 
 chased at almost every street crossing, and many shops are 
 doing a thriving business. 
 
 Such is Sunday in all the leading cities of the northern 
 states. Nor must it be imagined that such desecration of 
 the Sabbath is confined to the humbler classes. It perme- 
 ates everywhere, and is found even among the educated 
 and wealthy. 
 
 ' ■ '■'- ' '"■'''• n,. '* ' ■ -;V' 
 
 :^ ^ POKER IN A NEW ROLE. ; ^ 
 
 Some fifty miles from Chicago there is a beautiful sheet 
 of water called Lake Geneva. Its shores are studded with 
 handsome residences — the summer homes of rich merchants, 
 hankers and manufacturers of Chicago. These people are 
 
so very exclusive, and refi?ied, that some years ago they 
 bought up all the land around the lake to keep it from call- 
 ing into vulgar hatids, and will now only sell to the creme de 
 la crime of their own set, so as to preserve, I suppose, the 
 moral tone of their circle. 
 
 Each one of these rich men owns a beautiful steam 
 yacht, fitted up with a luxurious cabin. I was spending 
 some weeks at the town of Geneva for health, and noticed 
 that every Sunday afternoon one of these graceful yachts 
 could be seen lazily steaming around the shores of the lake. 
 As there was no appearance of life on board, nor any 
 apparent object in going so slow, .and winding in and out 
 of all the numerous bays, my curiosity was excited, and I 
 enquired what it meant. " Why, don't you know," Queried 
 my oarsman, '* they are playing poker ! They all get on 
 board of one boat, pull down the blinds of the cabin, and 
 play poker every Sunday afternoon all through the summer 
 while their families are up here. To-day it is S.'s yacht^ 
 last Sunday it was A.'s, and next Sunday it will be T.'s, 
 and so on. They do this so as not to attract attention to 
 any one particular boat. It was begun, they say, to build 
 the church in the village. They agreed that all the money 
 won by any of the party should go to that holy purpose^ 
 but since they have finished the church I don't know 
 whether they have discovered any other religious object to 
 promote by poker, or merely keep it up as a pleasant Sun- 
 day recreation." • » 
 
 * SUNDAY NEWSPAPERS. 
 
 And not to be behind the masses and millionaires in- 
 disregarding the sanctity of the Sabbath, the newspapers 
 come out on Sunday morning with the chief edition of the 
 week. Their Sunday papers contain more business adver- 
 tisements, more personals of a questionable character, more 
 scandal and pruriency than any other. The publishers 
 strive to outbid each other for public favour by collecting 
 
■,■-,■.•.44 ' ■-„:■■'•'"■■■•■: 
 
 - • ■ ,'.\,' ' . ■• " '-■ 
 
 and rehashing all the scandal and filth of the previous 
 
 week, interlarding it with new details, manufactured for the 
 occasion, to give it piquancy. So sharp is the competition 
 in this line that one of the Chicago dailies hit upon a novel 
 plan of getting ahead of his compeers. He hired a special 
 staff of profligate men and women, and sent them out into 
 all the pursuits of a busy city to gather and invent scandal 
 against merchants, lawyers, doctors, hotels, boarding 
 houses, dressmakers, clubs and gambling hells, and served 
 up their filthy and libellous fictions, with the names of 
 many leading people of the city, on Sunday morning, in 
 addition to the previous week's accumulation of nastiness. 
 The people read these papers before going to church on 
 Sunday morning, and their children are permitted to pore 
 over them throughout the whole Sabbath day. With the 
 theatres running wide open, public picnics parading the 
 streets, saloons and shops engaged in secular business, 
 how is it possible for the young of that land to grow up 
 with any respect for the Lord's day ? Bred in an atmos- 
 phere of moral contamination, and surrounded during the 
 impressible years of youth by such debasing influences, 
 they reach the ages of manhood anl womanhood with no 
 reverence for anything save Mammon and pleasure. 
 
 . SUNDAY IN CHICAGO. 
 
 ■':'/;■, ■■., '^ '," ' ' 
 
 (From the Chicago Times, July 6, i88g.} 
 
 "To-morrow will be Sunday in Chicago. It is well 
 enough to bear this fact in mind, particularly if you intend 
 to pass through any of the main thoroughfares in the three 
 divisions of the olc| city. 
 
 " Sunday in Chicago is the biggest day of the week for 
 the distillers, brewers, saloon-keepers and pot-house loafers. 
 It has grown to be essentially their day. It is theirs by 
 right.of conquest and possession. 
 
 " They had held a claim upon it for many years, but they 
 secured a clear right and indir^putable title to it at the last 
 
46 
 
 city election. To them the question whether the saloon 
 might '* run wide open " on Sundays was the one to be 
 decided by ballot at that election, and, as it appears ta 
 them now, was settled in their favour. 
 
 " They feel that up to the present time they have been 
 very leniert with other citizens, especially so with those 
 who have no very high regard for the traffic in which they 
 are engaged. As victors they might make it more uncom- 
 fortable for the respectable portion of the commurity than 
 they do, did they but choose. 
 
 " But they are magnanimous, and if we will just consent 
 to give them free swing on Sundays they will not be too 
 hard upon us. 
 
 *' You must bear in mind to-morrow that it is Sunday, if 
 you happen to walk or ride through any of the business 
 arteries of the South, West or North sides, for if you don t 
 you are likely to be thrown off your guard. The saloons, 
 concert halls and low dives of every description will be in 
 full blast. During the week days there are screens across 
 the doors. Sundays these screens are taken down in token 
 of the fact that everything is " running wide open " in 
 Chicago. 
 
 " It will be a great day for the toughs, thugs, thieves, 
 blacklegs, loafers and saloon-keepers to-morrow if it is fine. 
 
 "Decent people should remain indoors Sundays for the 
 present." 
 
 Chicago is neither better nor worse than most American 
 cities. She has been called the modern Sodom by jealous 
 rivals, who say she was consumed by fire because of the 
 wickedness of her people. Be this as it may, it is certain 
 she was not changed by the chastening, for she arose from 
 her ashes more impious than ever, ana has since flourished 
 as though consuming flames were congenial to her people 
 and but served to hasten her progress towards her final 
 destiny — whatever that may be 1 
 
-• ■ 
 
 LICENSE vs. LIBERTY. 
 
 ^ 
 
 There is something so attractive, to the masses of the 
 American people in their condition, that it makes them 
 boast that their country is the freest in the world. For a 
 long time it was a mystery to me what that something 
 could be, since nothing was discoverable in their institu- 
 tions to warrant that assumption. Strolling down street 
 one day I met a Canadian of most pronounced antagonism 
 to all the moral and Christian restraints of his own country, 
 who, after our greeting, suddenly exclaimed, " What a free 
 country this is." I ventured to ask him in what particulars 
 he found it so. " Why," said he, " I arrived here on Sat- 
 urday nighty with a letter of introduction to an American 
 friend. We got up early on Sunday morning and the 
 streets were all bustle and excitement, like a fair day at 
 home, with people going to spend the day in the country. 
 My friend and I joined the crowd and went by train to a 
 suburban resort a few miles distant, where there was a 
 park and a river running through a small lake surrounded 
 by rushes. We spent most of the forenoon duck-shooting, 
 while others went fishing. At twelve o'clock there was a 
 base-ball match, which was great fun. After dinner we 
 danced with the girls in an open pavilion under the trees 
 to the inspiring stiains of a brass band. We smoked and 
 drank whiskey and beer all day long and got back to town 
 in time to attend the ballet in the evening. All that on one 
 Sunday, What a jolly free country it is anyway ! " I 
 then understood, as I never had before, that in the Ameri- 
 can sense freedom means license, or the liberty to do almost 
 anything you please, even to the desecration of the Lord's 
 Day, without anybody thinking it out of place. In that 
 respect I must admit the United States is the most free- 
 and easy country among civilized nations. 
 
CANADA A EEFUGE FOB EELIGIOUS AMERICANS. 
 
 It is impossible not to feel a degree of sympathy for a 
 large and intelligent class of Americans who are able to 
 appreciate the blessings of rational liberty, impartial admm- 
 istration of justice, security of life and property, and a 
 decent observance of the Sabbath, and yet are forced by 
 circumstances to live in a country where all these are 
 wanting. To them Canada is destined to become vhat 
 the Promised Land was to the afflicted children of Israel — 
 a refuge to which they can flee from governmental misrule 
 and social disorder. There are thousands of Christian 
 people in every large community in the States, who bitterly 
 deplore the contaminating influences by which they are 
 encompassed, but as yet are unwilling to admit that their 
 emancipation cannot be effected by amending their own 
 laws. It is certain however that all efforts in that direction 
 , will prove futile. They are so greatly in the'minority that 
 they have no power to remove the demoralizing abuses 
 they are subjected to. In their impatience to grow rich, 
 by swelling their population, and garnering the wealth of 
 their resources, they granted privileges which it is now not 
 ; possible for them to recall. Instead of seeking to attract 
 : only industrious and thrifty emigrants from the old world, 
 they threw the door wide open and invited the scum of all 
 nations to come and be endowed with the full rights of 
 I American citizenship ! What is the consequence ? In all 
 the large cities and many of the most populous states, the 
 worst elements of the old world now hold the balance of 
 power in the new. The Christian descendants of the 
 sturdy Puritans find that all power is passing away from 
 s them, and they cannot look forward with much hope of 
 ever refraining it. They have lost their birthright and 
 can only repossess it by a political revolution. Once con- 
 vinced that they must consent to be forever governed by 
 the manners and morals of those by whom they are at 
 present engulfed, they will flow over the border into Canada 
 in a continuous stream, and cast in their lot with a kindred 
 
48 
 
 »» 
 
 people, speaking the same language^ sprung from the same 
 proud nation, having the same respect for social order, and 
 the same love of civil and religious liberty as themselves. 
 
 THE AMERICAN LOVE OF COTTNTRY. 
 
 With the masses of the American people love of country, 
 is no more than an ignorant and unreasoning idolatry, such 
 as Pagan worshippers are said to bestow on graven images. 
 They have been taught, by their school books and by 
 Fourth of July bombastic orations, to believe the people 
 of other countries — and particularly of England and her 
 colonies — oppressed and deprived of constitutional liberty 
 by the despotism of monarchy (!) while they themselves 
 are the freest people on the globe. Educated to believe 
 this stuff in their yor h they go through life supposing it to 
 be true, when in reality it is a fiction such as old women 
 retail to children to frighten them from straying beyond the 
 bounds of their nursery. They tell them the green fields 
 and shady woodlands ou^^side, which look so inviting, are 
 the abode of goblins and monsters waiting to destroy and 
 devour them, if they dare to venture forth. The education 
 of American youth, in regard to the government and people 
 of England and Canada, is of the same low standard, and. 
 it is therefore not surprisino^ that the goblins and monsters 
 of fiction live in their minds as realities after the}'^ become 
 men and women, and tend to make them the more sub- 
 missive to the real tyrannies and corruptions of their own 
 government. The ignorance in which they are reared 
 concerning all other nations and people is so dense, and 
 their prejudices so cultivated and p'lyed upon by designing 
 demagogues, that they are incapable of seeing or believing 
 the truth. The glorious achievements, and heroic deeds of 
 their ancestors, are utterly lost on them. The lessons of 
 history go for nothing. They are being fitted to become 
 slaves while constantly assured that they enjoy the greatest 
 liberty. They are amused with the name of freedom while 
 its reality is insensibly vanishing. ^ ' ' ' 
 
49 
 
 A SUMMARY OF THE DEFECTS OF THEIR 
 GOVERNMENT. 
 
 The state governments are much more just to the people 
 and more responsive to their will than the general govern- 
 ment. In the former the Governor, the Senate, and the 
 House of Representatives, are all directly elected by the 
 majority, and in most cases the heads of departments also. 
 This makes the state officials the choice of the people and 
 places the administration of local affairs fairly in accord 
 with their will. The objectionable features are that the 
 Governor is always a bitter partizan, and forced to do many 
 things at the dictation of his party which are not done for 
 the public good, but to subserve party ends ; while the 
 state ministers or heads of departments are wholly irrespon- 
 sible for their acts to the people's representatives, and can- 
 not be controlled, or got rid of until their full term expires 
 no matter how corrupt or incompetent they may prove to be. 
 
 The constitution of the United States, is interpreted 
 by the leading statesmen of the Republic, construed by the 
 Supreme Court, and affirmed by the Philadelphia conven- 
 tion of 1866, makes the general government absolutely 
 supreme, and the states no more than provinces or districts 
 of one common nation. It has usurped absolute sovereignty 
 over the states which created it ; claims and exercises the 
 right to regulate their internal affairs; forces them to 
 change their constitutions, and to admit to the full privi- 
 leges of citizenship, including the right to vote, an ignorant 
 and inferior race, actually in the majority in many of the 
 states, thereby placing the lives, property, and intelligence 
 of the white citizens of those states under the domination of 
 negroes y and has become an irresponsible despotism which 
 may at any moment turn its repressive powers upon the 
 people and extinguish the last vestige of liberty remaining 
 to them. It has, in the opinion of the ablevSt constitutional 
 historian of the Republic, " established a precedent which, 
 placed upon the generally assumed basis and followed , subjects 
 
all the states to a central and irresponsible power and destroys 
 constitutional liberty. For if the government has absolute 
 supremacy over the states that made it, its unlimited rights of 
 taxation and of raising armaments enable it to control all 
 states and all sections of states at will, and finally to establish 
 an empire." — Republic of Republics. , ., 
 
 CHANGES NECESSARY TO RESTORE LIBERTY TO 
 THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. 
 
 To possess constitutional liberty or self-government the 
 American people must be able to control at will every 
 legislative and executive function of their Government. ' 
 
 The President must be their servant, elected by a direct 
 vote of the people, and entitled to the office only because 
 of receiving the greatest number of votes cast for any one 
 candidate. Under the present fraudulent sham of state 
 apportionment he is the President of the States and not of 
 the people, and is often declared elected when a large ma- ; 
 jority of the people have recorded their votes against him. 
 
 The Congress or parliament must be wholly composed 
 of representatives chosen openly and equitably by the 
 people and must have absolute and exclusive control 
 over all legislation affecting their welfare : such as tax 
 and tariff enactments ; raising money on the credit of the 
 nation ; regulating commerce ; providing for naturaliza- 
 tion ; for the coining of money, fixing its value and pun- 
 ishing nose makmg or issuing spurious imitations ; estab- 
 lishing postal regulations ; promoting science and the arts ; 
 constituting all tribunals of justice; punishing piracy ; rais- 
 ing and providing support for military and naval forces, 
 etc., etc., and of all laws necessary for carrying into effect 
 and enforcing its will. .;, i :i : ; : . > .• " - :■; 
 
 If the legislative powers are divided into two bodies,-- 
 each must derive its authority direct from the people and 
 be fairly and openly elected by the majority, or the power^ 
 of the second house must be limited to certain constiiu- 
 
tional questions, such as the compact between the States 
 and general Government, or between different States, 
 or between individual States and the Government. For 
 unless it be so elected or so limited, every legislative act it 
 performs in opposition to the House of the Representatives 
 is a violation of the people's right of self-government and 
 dangerous to their liberties. 
 
 As at present constituted, the legislative power is di- 
 vided between two bodies. The House is fairly chosen by 
 the people, but the Senate does not derive its powers from 
 the people, is not elected by their votes, nor does it in any 
 way fairly or equitably represent their interests or rights, 
 since one hundred and forty thousand people in Delaware 
 are given the same control over legislation as five millions 
 in the State ol New York, two hundred and seventy-six 
 thousand in Rhode Island exert the same control as five 
 millions in Pennsylvania, or three and a half millions in 
 Ohio, and so on. 
 
 Another change in the constitution necessary, if the 
 people are to possess the right of self-government, is that 
 the heads of departments must be taken directly from the 
 people's representatives and must have the confidence of 
 a majority of them at every moment of their official life. 
 They must hold office not for a definite period, nor during 
 the pleasure of the President, but so long as a majority of 
 the people's representatives have confidence in their hon- 
 esty, and wise and just administration of the affairs of the 
 nation. Their continuance in power must be made to de- 
 pend on the will of the majority of the people's represen- 
 tatives, or they are in no sense the servants of the people, 
 and the people do -not rule. 
 
 To this responsible ministry must be committed the 
 Government of the Republic, with power to make all ap- 
 pointments to office, to execute the laws, negotiate trea- 
 ties, appoint foreign ambassadors and consuls, declare war, 
 control the military and naval forces, and hold in trust the 
 treasures of the people, 
 
The President must be deprived of the power of vetoing 
 legislation, except by the advice of his responsible minis- 
 ters: or the people are governed by the President and 
 not by their representatives. He should be no more 
 than the nominal head of the Government, and every exe- 
 cutive function performed by him should be done as the 
 mouth-piece of his constitutional advisers — the ministry 
 responsible to the House of Representatives. 
 
 ■ WHO THE REAL RULERS OF THE AMERICAN 
 
 PEOPLE ARE. 
 
 If the people of the United States are sovereign, and do 
 rule, as they are constantly told they are and do, then they 
 possess the absolute right of self-government ; but if they 
 possess not that right, then they are subjects or slaves, as 
 the case may be, of that higher power which is sovereign 
 and does rule. Their will is expressed in their election of 
 the House of Representatives, to which they commit the 
 protection of their lives, liberty and interests. If the 
 House of Representatives cannot of its inherent right, 
 under the constitution, make laws for their protection, can- 
 not appoint officers to administer the laws, or control those 
 who do administer them, the people do not enjoy civil 
 liberty, have not self-government, and do not rule. 
 
 Under the American constitution there are other wills 
 higher than the people's, over which they have no control, 
 and to which theirs is subject. The Senate, although not 
 chosen by the people nor controlled by the people, can and 
 does continually nullify the I'igislative enactments of the 
 people's representatives ; therefore it is a power above 
 the people^ to which they are subject and forced to submit. 
 The President also is given power to nullify and bring to 
 naught any and every enactment of the people's represent- 
 atives ; therefore he, too, is a higher power than the people 
 — supreme over all; and before the people can perform any 
 
act of self-government they must humbly beg permission 
 of their masters — the Senate and President, the real sove- 
 reigns and rulers of the nation. 
 
 This much- vaunted constitutional republic is therefore 
 not a government by the people at all. Before the states 
 united they were free and independent, and their people 
 enjoyed self-government and could have easily remedied 
 any and every defect of their governmental system. By 
 entering into the Union they lost the power, if not the 
 right, to control the Acts of the Administration — a safe- 
 guard which no people can surrender and preserve their 
 liberties. It is easy to prove, but profitless now to show, 
 that the framers. of the constitution did not intend to make 
 any such surrender, and that the convention in agreeing 
 upon it, and the people of the states in ratifying it, did not 
 suppose they were thereby giving up any of their rights of 
 self-government, but it was and is the only practical out- 
 come of such unions between independent states, the 
 greater absorbs the less, the many overthrow the few. 
 The Central Government, by arraying the states of the 
 North against those of the South, and fomenting sectional 
 and rival interests, insidiously clothed itself with imperial 
 powers, and now claims and exercises the right of ulti- 
 mate decision on all questions affecting the states in 
 the Union, and of all questions of the extent of its 
 own authority, so that it may assert a right to any and 
 all powers — to any and everything, in fact, that it covets — 
 and then decide beyond revision in its own favour. Such 
 a government may suit the Americans, but it would not be 
 endured for a day by the free and enlightened people of 
 Canada, who know too well the blessings of responsible 
 government and rational liberty to exchange them for anar- 
 chy and misrule under an irresponsible despotism. 
 
 I cannot more appropriately close my remarks on the 
 American Republic than by the following quotation, which 
 
54 
 
 shows the drift of many of the best minds in the Union,; 
 and their keen appreciation of the radical and apparently 
 incurable defects of their government : — 
 
 *• It seems from our recent history advisable to go back 
 to the old faith or the old sovereign, as the American 
 States, by permitting their quondam federal agency or 
 commission to fasten absolutism on them, have provincial- 
 ized themselves. Would it not be well, in case they do not 
 wish to retake sovereignty, to propose to England a new 
 Anglo-American treaty, and stipulate to be re-incorporated 
 and restored to their ancient provincial privileges in the 
 glorious old commonwealth whose polity, like her flag, has 
 braved a thousand years the battle and the breeze ? — a 
 polity, as her fond sons believe, at once free, permanent 
 and unassailable, being, as Tennyson writes, 
 
 ,' .- ■ * Broad, based upon the people's will, - . ^ 
 
 , ■ • And compassed by the inviolate sea.' " 
 
 Republic of Republics, page S88. 
 
 
 
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