Petition of the inhabitants of Nova Scotia

The Petition of the Inhabitants of Nova Scotia Humbly Sheweth:

That the Province of Nova Scotia is one of the oldest Colonies of Great Britain, and one of the nearest to the Mother Country. That when the American Revolution separated thirteen English Colonies from the Crown, Nova Scotia stood true to her allegiance, and furnished a home for the Loyalists who sacrificed their property and their prospects in the American States’ for the sake of British connection. That, ever since, during the political agitations which have disturbed this Continent,— especially during the War of 1812, and the Canadian Rebellions of 1837-8,— Nova Scotia has been steadfast in her loyalty; and that when the neighbouring Province of New Brunswick was menaced from the American side in 1839. the Legislature of Nova Scotia unanimously placed the whole revenues and resources of the country at the disposal of the Lieutenant-Governor for the defense of the British flag upon the frontier. That this people have discharged, in other respects, the duties of British subjects to the satisfaction of the Crown.

They have sent representatives to the Provincial Parliament since 1758, for a quarter of a century have enjoyed Responsible Government in as full and ample a measure as have their fellow-subjects in the most favoured parts of the Empire, and have preserved from degeneracy and abuse their Constitutional rights and free institutions. That the people of this Province, from their Maritime position, have developed the pursuits of Shipbuilding, Navigation, Commerce, and Fishing, into prosperous activity. Their agricultural resources are rich and varied, while the vast mineral wealth which underlies the whole area of the country is a special guarantee of its future prosperity under favourable political conditions. The gold mines of Nova Scotia, without rising to the character of dazzling lotteries to attract a promiscuous or disorderly population from abroad, have proved steadily remunerative of a regular department of native industry, and a profitable investment for foreign capital. The great iron mines, already discovered, give earnest, in connection with its coal fields, of manufacturing capabilities not inferior to those of any country of similar extent. It has the thickest coal seams in the world, and their area is extensive, affording fairground for the presumption, that for the purposes of peace or way Nova Scotia’s continued connection with Great Britain would prove of mutual advantage.

Possessed of these resources, the people desire closer relations with the Mother Country, in order to be able to enjoy more largely the benefits, as well as share more fully the responsibilities, of the Empire; and already the Province has enrolled 60,000 efficient Militia and Volunteers to assist in the maintenance of British power on this Continent, and sends to sea 440,000 tons of shipping, built and owned within the Province, bearing the flag of England, and manned by more than 20,000 seamen. That Nova Scotia has no controversies with the Mother Country, the other Provinces, or with the population of the neighboring United States; and highly prizes the privileges, so long enjoyed, of regulating her own Tariffs, and conducting trade, but lightly burthened, with the British Islands and Colonies in all parts of the world and with Foreign Countries.

That the people of Nova Scotia are prepared to entertain any propositions by which (preserving to them the Institutions they now have, and the privileges they enjoy) greater facilities tor commercial and social intercourse with other States and Provinces may be secured, and they are willing, whenever their own coasts and harbors are safe, to aid Her Majesty’s forces to preserve from aggression the Provinces in the rear.

That they view with profound distrust and apprehension schemes, recently propounded, by which it is proposed to transfer to the people of Canada the control of the Government, Legislation and Revenues, of this loyal and happy Province, and they venture respectfully to crave from your honorable House justice and protection.

That the Province of Canada lies as far from Nova Scotia as Austria docs from England, and there exists no reason why a people who live at such a distance, with whom we have but little commerce, who have invested no capital in our country, who are unable to protect it, and are themselves shut off from ocean navigation by frost for five months of the year, should control our Legislation and Government.

That in 1864 the Government of Nova Scotia, without any authority from the Legislature, and without any evidence of the consent of the people, sent delegates to Canada to arrange in secret conference at Quebec a political union between the various Provinces, That these delegates concealed the result of their conference from the people until it became incidentally made public in another Province, and that, to this hour, they have never unfolded portions of the Scheme, having the most essential relation to the peculiar interests and local government of Nova Scotia subsequent to Confederation.

That the scheme, when at last made public, was received with great dissatisfaction in Nova Scotia, that the opposition to it has been constantly on the increase, and has been intensified by the conduct of the government and the delegates, who now propose to call in the aid of Your Honorable House, to assist them to overthrow, by an arbitrary exercise of power, free Institutions enjoyed for a century, and never abused.

That the objections of the people to the proposed Confederation Scheme affect not merely minor local details but the radical principles of the plan. The people cannot recognize the necessity for change in their present tranquil, prosperous and free condition. They cannot believe that the proposed Confederation with the distant Colony of Canada will prove of any practical benefit, either for defense or trade; while, from the past history of that country, its sectional troubles, and its eccentric political management and financial embarrassments, they have great reason to fear that Confederation would be to them a most disastrous change, retarding their progress, and rendering their prolonged connection with the Crown precarious if not impossible. Forming, as she does now, a portion of the Empire, Nova Scotia is already Confederated with fifty other States and Provinces, enjoys free trade with two hundred and fifty millions of people, living under one flag, and owning the authority of one Sovereign. She has no desire to part with her self-control, or to narrow her commercial privileges by placing herself under the dominion of a sister Colony, with an exposed frontier, frost-bound for a third of the year, and with no Navy to defend the Maritime Provinces when her ports are open.

The Scheme of Government framed at Quebec is unlike any other that History shows to have been successful. It secures neither the consolidation, dignity and independent power of Monarchy, nor the checks and guards which ensure to the smaller states self-government, and controlling influence over the Federal authorities, in the neighboring Republic. By adopting the Federal principle sectionalism in the five Provinces is perpetuated; by the timid and imperfect mode in which that principle is applied, the people, whose minds have been unsettled by this crude experiment, may be driven to draw contrasts, and nourish aspirations of which adventurous and powerful neighbors will not be slow to take advantage ; and the people of Nova Scotia have no desire to peril the integrity of the Empire, with the blessings they now enjoy, or to try now experiments, which may complicate foreign relations, and yet add no real strength to the Provinces it is proposed to combine.

The people object also to the financial arrangements as especially burthensome and unfair to this Province. Having long enjoyed the control and benefitted by the expenditure of their own revenues, they cannot approve a scheme that will wrest the greater part of these from their hands, to keep up costly and cumbrous Federal machinery, and to meet the liabilities of Canada.

For many years the commercial policy of Nova Scotia has been essentially different from that of Canada. The latter country, partly from necessity arising out of financial embarrassments, and partly as an indirect premium on her own manufactures, has adopted a tariff varying from 20 to 30%, on imported goods. Almost surrounded as Nova Scotia is by the ocean, her people are favourably situated for enjoying free commercial intercourse with every section of the British Empire, and with those foreign countries open to her commerce by the enlightened [)policy of the Parent State; of this privilege she has availed herself, by imitating, as far as local circumstances would permit, the liberal and free trade policy of the Mother Country — 10%, being the ad valorem duty collected under the Nova Scotia tariff on goods imported into the Province. The proposed scheme of union will give Canada, by her large preponderance in the Legislature, the power to shape the tariff for the whole Confederacy according to her inland ideas and necessities, so as to levy the same onerous duties on British goods imparted into Nova Scotia as are now exacted by Canada.

That since the Confederation scheme has been announced, there have been special parliamentary elections in three out of the eighteen counties of this Province, and in all three it has been condemned at the polls.

That in 1865 the scheme was condemned at nearly every public meeting hold by the delegates to discuss it, and numerous petitions against its adoption were presented to the Provincial Parliament, and only one in its favor, until the leader of the government declared the measure to be “impracticable”.

That at the opening of the late Session no reference to Confederation was made in the speech of the Lieutenant Governor, and down to a late period the people of Nova Scotia were led to believe that the scheme had been abandoned. A Resolution was introduced toward the close of the Session, clothing the government with power to appoint Delegates, who, in connection with Delegates from the other Provinces, are to frame a scheme of Government, to which it is proposed to ask the sanction of your Honorable House before it has been submitted to the Legislature that it may annihilate, or to the people, whose legal and constitutional rights and powers it may transfer or circumscribe.

The undersigned, menaced by a measure that may be revolutionary repose implicit confidence in the protection of the Imperial Parliament. They deny the authority of their own Legislature, invested with limited powers for a definite term, to deprive them of rights earned by their ancestry by the most painful sacrifices, wisely exercised and never abused for more than a century, and which they had no legitimate authority to alienate or break down. They believe that any scheme of Government, framed by a Committee of Delegates and forced upon the Provinces without their revision or approval, would generate widespread dissatisfaction among a loyal and contented people; who will not fail to reflect, that no change can be made in the constitution of any of the neighboring States which has not first been approved by the electors; and that important measures, affecting Imperial policy or institutions, are rarely attempted till they have been submitted for acceptance or rejection by the people whose interests they are to affect.

Your petitioners therefore pray that Your Right Honorable House will be pleased to defer all action in favour of Confederation in the Imperial Parliament until the people of Nova Scotia shall have exercised and enjoyed their Constitutional privilege to express their opinions at the polls, or that Your Honorable House may be pleased to direct that a Special Committee shall inquire into all the features of the proposed scheme of Confederation, as it is likely to affect the several Provinces in their relations to each other and to the Mother Country; or that the people of Nova Scotia be permitted to appear by counsel at the Bar of Your Honorable House to defend their interests and Institutions. And your petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray, &c.

The Petition of the Inhabitants of Nova Scotia Humbly Sheweth: That the Province of Nova Scotia Is One of the Oldest Colonies of Great Britain .. [S.l.: s.n., 1865?] https://hdl.handle.net/2027/aeu.ark:/13960/t6tx4hq48

Ottawa’s a Hard Road to Travel

Oh listen to the East! oh listen to the West!
Oh listen to the fifing and the drumming!
The heart of Nova Scotia beats happy in her breast,
For HOWE and the people are coming!
Take off the coat boys, roll up the sleeve,
Howe and the people are a-coming!
Take off the coat boys, roll up the sleeve,
Howe and the people are a-coming I believe

The people cannot rest, they see the land opprest
With Tupper’s cruel nightmare “Botheration,”
And Johnathan’s warhorse tramples down our rights by force,
Till the people cry “confound Confederation.”
Take off the coat boys, roll up the sleeve,
Ottawa’s a hard road to travel,
Take off the coat boys, roll up the sleeve,
Howe and the people are a-coming I believe.

Tupper and McCully try to bluster and bully,
And never let the people put a word in;
But we’ll teach the tricky knaves that we were not born their slaves,
When we drive them to the other side of Jordan!
Woe to the turncoats who laugh in their sleeve,
We’ll give them a hard road to travel,
Woe to the turncoats who laugh in their sleeve,
For Howe and them people are a-coming I believe

Halifax Citizen, May 22, 1866. Page 1, Column 6. https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=D90uR9ClOh8C&dat=18660522&printsec=frontpage&hl=en

Anti-Confederate Petition

We publish today another installment of over 500 names of respectable citizens of Halifax, against the Quebec project of Confederation. This swells the list, of from the capital alone, to over 1500 names already published, and we have no doubt that there are still numbers in Halifax who would have signed the petition, but have not yet had the opportunity of doing so. The lists, however, will remain open for some days yet.

 

Halifax Citizen, Aug 2, 1866. Page 2, Column 3. https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=D90uR9ClOh8C&dat=18660802&printsec=frontpage&hl=en

“So great a change in the constitution of the country would never be permitted without an appeal to the people”

House of Assembly – Monday, April 10.

In the evening, when the house resumed, Dr. Tupper’s resolution on “a Union of the Maritime Provinces” was taken up. The hon. gentleman went into an explanation of former attempts at Union, and its necessities, -the action last year in reference to a union of the maritime provinces, and the subsequent delegation to Quebec, after, as he said, the union first contemplated was found impactable. He then branched out on the beauties and particulars of the Quebec scheme, and for about two hours and a half travelled over pretty much the same ground as those in favor of the measure have taken, in the press and on the platform, over and over again. One thing the Dr. was honest enough to state, viz: that if the bargain was not a better one than it is for the lower provinces, “it was the fault of their own delegates.” He said “he did not come to the discussion of the present question supposing it would have any particular effect.” In this we agree with him, -it was moved to give him and others an opportunity, in a safe way, to get the Quebec scheme opened up to discussion. He expressed his belief “that that scheme had taken such a root in the country that it would soon be secured in all its entirety; and that, holding such view, was his excuse for trespassing so long on the House.” We cannot but think that in this the Dr. is most egregiously mistaken. He stated that out of the large amount of patriots presented against the scheme, the signatures to which had been obtained by all manner of means, there were not 3000 who had expressed against union, but rather for delays, &c.

The Dr. endeavored to impress on his hearers the great danger there was of being overrun by the Americans, -and the security we would have though Confederation.

The grounds of his arguments for apprehending hostilities by the Americans, were: the Repeal of the Reciprocity Treaty, -the termination of the Lake Treaty, -the Passport System, and the temper of the press of the States; all these went to show that the disposition of our neighbors was to close up all avenues of communication. -The speaker did not, in the slightest degree, refer to any of the causes which have produced unkind feelings, although he was perfectly well aware of them.

We believe, if as much time and attention had been given to the cultivation of friendly feelings and the extension of our commercial relations with the United States, as has been devoted to their annoyance, by acts and language, our position today would be much more agreeable.

At the close of his speech there was a slight expression of applause in one of the galleries, -on which, Mr. Miller remarked – if such conduct as repeated he should use his privilege of clearing the galleries. The noise made scarcely warranted the threat.

Mr. LeVesconte said he merely rose to correct one part of the Prov. Sec’s speech. In his county he did not believe there could be found 25 persons in favor of Confederation.

Mr. Locke spoke somewhat similar in reference to Shelburne.

Mr. Bourinot said he could readily understand applause from the people of Halifax, as they only were to be benefitted by the Union. But he would tell the hon. Prov. Sec. that so great a change in the constitution of the country would never be permitted without an appeal to the people.

The Prov. Sec. admitted that Richmond was an exception, that County had declared against Union; yet he was correct that there was not 3000 of petitioners who had stated their views.

Mr. Killam asked the Pro. Sec. if he was so confident of the feelings of the people, why it was that he was so afraid to go to the country?

After one or two other observations the debate was adjourned.

Halifax Morning Sun, April 12, 1865. Page 3 Column 4. https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=dw5aoL0HVgwC&dat=18650412&printsec=frontpage&hl=en

Halifax Citizen, Feb 3, 1866

 

The proceedings of the political meeting in Yarmouth, called by requisition to the Sheriff on the 29th ult, are fully reported in the Tribune of Wednesday. They were of such a character as to show that the Government have few friends in that township. Thomas Killam, Esq., M.P.P., and the Hon. Stayley Brown both spoke very decidedly against the general policy of the Government, not on Confederation alone, but with reference to the School bill, Retrenchment, and every other feature of Tupper’s policy. The former gentleman said, “Our alienation from our friends was accomplished step by step, as we saw one measure after another to which we were conscientiously opposed brought forward by them – sad principles to which we stood pledged deliberately abandoned.” Only two persons in the meeting, which was both numerous and respectable, opposed the resolution, which we published on Tuesday, and these explained their position by saying that they “did not wish to tie up the hands of the future member, and make him a mere tool.” Although no candidate was brought out at the meeting, John K. Ryerson, Esq., was named on the following day, and his card appears in the Tribune. He pledges himself to oppose Confederation, to endeavor to remove the political School Bill from the Statute Book, to effect a modification in the Militia Law, and to press for liberal aid to steam communication between Halifax and Yarmouth, and Yarmouth and Boston. The card closes with the final paragraph :-

“Finally, I pledge myself, if elected, to use my best endeavors to hurl the Tupper Government from the position they have disgraced by the infamous enactments of the [past two Sessions, under the operation of which the country is now suffering.”


 

The Confederation journals of New Brunswick, despairing of advancing the Quebec scheme on its own merits, seem to be trying to promote it by raising an Anti-Catholic cry. They are willing to get the assistance of the Catholics of Nova Scotia and of Lower Canada to carry the measure; but if they can divide the Protestant and Catholic anti-Confederate majority of New Brunswick by a cry of creeds, they appear to think that the Canadian end will justify the extraordinary means.

Halifax Citizen, February 3, 1866. Page 1 Column 1 https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=D90uR9ClOh8C&dat=18660203&printsec=frontpage&hl=en

“The gorge of every honest man should rise at the servility and treason which would thus sell our birthright”

While perusing the abominable misrepresentations and absurd charges which the chief Confederationists indulge in, in striving to support a scheme which has been virtually knocked on the head, for a time at least, one hardly knows whether to smile at their folly or frown at their mendacity. Every one who has raised his voice in opposition to the proposed annexation to (falsely called union with) Canada, has had to take a share of personal abuse, while those who have given it their sanction are all wisdom patriotism and moral worth!

The good things which Canada had in store for us, and the unselfish liberality with which she offered to take charge of our revenues, were portrayed in the most attractive hues; and the happiness of our existence under such an arrangement was to equal the halcyon years of the Millennium. All this was very fine, and with but one drawback, videlicet: There was not a word of truth in the whole of it! The people suspected the scheme, detected its imposition, and overthrew it. Cajolery, humbug, intimidation, were successively tried in vain, and now in their battled pique most of the delegates heap obloquy and insult upon all who contributed to trip them up and expose their trickery. They say that the opponents to this Federation are hatching treason in the shape of annexation to the United States – that it was they who gave a death blow to the Reciprocity Treaty – imperiled us with America and several other equally absurd accusations. The annexation twaddle may be at aside when we call to mind that some of the most prominent and influential opposers of the Confederation scheme were also strong opposers to a reconstruction of the American Union: therefore not at all likely to advocate giving their native province to the control of the Federal Government.

We Anti-Unionists have brought about the repeal of Reciprocity Treaty, have we? The editor of the Unionist knows that for three years an American Committee has been appointed to report on its working with an eye to its abrogation, as Canada was accused of acting unfairly, in placing almost prohibitory taxes on goods not specified in the Treaty. Then came the culminating point when the sworn foes of the United States, making dens for themselves upon the Canadian shore, issued from thence upon their murderous and thievish errands, and returning found shelter and comfort upon British soil – a soil supposed to be a friendly and a brotherly one to the American people. Had the Canadian government not at once repudiated the last villainous act, wild and frightened would have been the wail upon her invaded borders; what what it cost Canada by way of cure had been better expended in prevention. Even yet, they are not guarded, their folly may find them out.

Nova Scotia, especially Halifax, has contributed her full share of insult and provocation, which we fear will be long remembered by those who are only too able, when they have the will, to retaliate. And a greater part of the press, instead of teaching a liberal and friendly spirit, was either filled with gross abuse and the most bare-faced libels, or else threw covert sneers or detracting paragraphs against a people with whom the prosperity of our country is so inseparably united.

Of the first, the Journal made itself superlatively vile and obnoxious. Its late puny editor, a Yankee retrograde, threw in his poison and his gall, and made himself conspicuous above all others in the intensity of his hate. Fortunately he could do no great harm at the worst. Since then it has changed its name and editor. The Unionist has more talent guiding it now, but no more truth. Me. McCully says the Chronicle has suddenly fallen in love with American institutions, and speaks differently from what it did formerly. The editor at the time alluded to was not the same who now speaks through its columns, and shows a spirit of manliness and fair play towards old friends. All that has been said by the press or politicians of the Provinces cannot hard the United States one jot; but it may bring trouble upon themselves. There are many of the American editors who inveigh bitterly against Britain and her “neutrality;” but if they have no more weight than Bennett of the Herald, their opinions will go exactly for what they are worth. We are bound to respect the law of England and stand by her in need; and if every one in British North America had obeyed the laws of their sovereign the Reciprocity Treaty might not have been repealed, the Americans would have respected us as they did before the war, and the timid to-day have had no fear of an invasion.

If fate have in store for us such a great calamity, would we be safer by Confederation? Far from it. Our 30,000 hardy seamen, which in the programme were to go man Canadian gunboats, and our brave militia, too, might have to leave our coasts bare to the ravages of the invader, without those able hands to shelter or protect the helpless ones at home!

But what do our patriotic delegates care if they but carry their point, and rise another step in the ladder of their ambition? Nothing. They are ready to toady to the future masters they would give to us – hold the candle to their steps that their way may be bright and glorious. Faugh! the gorge of every honest man should rise at the servility and treason which would thus sell our birthright.

And independent people spurn the thought
And claim the liberty for which their brave forefathers fought.

Halifax Sun and Advertiser, April 12, 1865. Page 3 Column 1. https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=dw5aoL0HVgwC&dat=18650412&printsec=frontpage&hl=en

Halifax Citizen, Tuesday May 16, 1865

Another fine illustration of the integrity of Canadian politicians, has been recently given to the public in the correspondence on Confederation submitted to the Legislature at Fredericton. In a despatch dated the 4th inst, Governor Gordon of New Brunswick calls Lord Monck’s attention to the fact that the Canadian government had altered an important clause in the Quebec convention report, so as to give it a meaning entirely different from that it was intended to bear. Clause 24 of the report reads as follows :-

24. The local Legislatures of each Province may from time to time alter the Electoral Districts for the purpose of Representation in the House of Commons, and distribute the Representatives to which the Province is entitled in any manner such Legislature may think fit.

That is the version certified by Sir E.P. Tache, as “a true copy,” and in that shape it was not only sent to the legislatures of the Maritime Provinces, but was also laid before both Houses of the Imperial Parliament. In the copy of the report and resolutions submitted to the Canadian Parliament, however, the text is altered by changing three words and interpolating four others:

24. The local Legislature of each Province may from time to time alter the Electoral Districts for the purpose of Representation in such Legislature, and distribute the Representatives to which the Province is entitled in such local Legislature in any manner such Legislature may see fit.

This alteration is of vital importance. The resolution as it originally stood, gave the several Provinces the right to arrange or alter the constituencies for the election of representatives to the federal House of Commons; as surreptitiously altered by the Canadians, it restricts this power to the making of alterations in the constituencies electing members of the local legislature only. Governor Gordon asked Lord Monck for an explanation of the discrepancy, but no reply to the request has been vouchsafed. The alteration in the text of this resolution, is one of those curious things that could not possibly be the result of accident. The words must have been interpolated by design, but what the design was, we must leave to some one more skilled in the mysteries of Canadian intrigue and dishonesty than ourselves to decide.

Halifax Sun and Advertiser, April 12, 1865. Page 1 Column 1. https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=D90uR9ClOh8C&dat=18650415&printsec=frontpage&hl=en

Halifax Citizen, Tuesday April 3, 1866

Many persons have wondered why it was that the Confederationists — the Advocates of the Quebec scheme — were so persistent in their endeavour to get an expression in favor of Union on any grounds, from the legislators of Newfoundland and New Brunswick. While still holding to the Quebec scheme, they were found advocating resolutions that condemned to that scheme, and merely recognized the principle of Union in the abstract; and they hailed the passing of such a resolution in Newfoundland as a signal triumph. The reason of this apparent change of policy is fully explained in an article in a recent number of the Quebec daily news from which we clip the following extract:—

It has been currently rumoured during the past few weeks, that in the event of the Maritime Provinces affirming the principle of colonial Union, an attempt will be made to alter the terms of the Quebec scheme in order to meet the views of each province and its opposition to the details of the plan of Confederation adopted by the Delegates in the fall of 1864. The modus operandi is stated to be another conference composed of Delegates from each Province, who will repair to England during this year, and place themselves in direct communication with Her Majesty’s ministers. It is further stated that the members of the new Conference will seek powers from the Legislatures of the respective Provinces, in virtue of which they may finally conclude upon a scheme of Confederation without being expected to reconsult those Legislatures, and that a bill based upon the result of their deliberations will be proposed and passed through the Imperial Parliament during its present session, which is expected to last till August.

There is good reason to believe that the plan of operations here outlined is official and authentic; because it squares and every particular with the plan of a new Convention as talked of in this city for the last month, and that is generally understood to have been explained to the Anti-Confederates in a very high quarter, and pressed upon their acceptance with all the art that diplomacy and flattery could command. It is cunningly invented trap; but like all such dangerous contrivances, it is only necessary that it be exposed and understood, to render it harmless. Part of the plan is said to be, that in this new convention, the anti-Confederates are to be fairly represented. This is an idea easier to propose then to accomplish; for it is not easy to understand how Anti-Confederates could be a party to the arrangement in any shape. There are some persons, however, in New Brunswick and Newfoundland who while firmly opposed to the Quebec scheme, would not object to an intercolonial Union if a plan that would be Equitable and fair to all Provinces could be devised; and it is this section of the anti-Confederate party that the schemers hope to entrap with the new convention dodge. If there are any of this class in Nova Scotia, we ask them to consider well the the proposal as above detailed, before assenting to it. A more Insidious and dangerous piece diplomatic art has not been produced by Canadian politicians for half a century. Suppose this class of the anti-Confederates were admitted to the new convention, they would certainly be in a minority, and therefore powerless. Even with the fullest understanding amongst themselves as to the line of policy they were to adopt — the concessions from the old scheme they were to demand —they would still be outvoted by the Canadians and the Tupper, Pope and the Tilly brigade of the Maritime Provinces. To object to Brown’s pet project of “Rep. by pop.,” or to Cartier’s plan of Federal instead of Legislative Union, or to Galt’s financial platform of eighty cents per head, would be wholly vain in the face of such odds. Under these circumstances the only thing left for them to do, would be to withdraw from the convention or to protest against his decisions, only to have their protest laughed at by the men who had duped them into a position so false to themselves and so fatal to their policy. The act of the majority would be the act of the Convention; and let it not be forgotten that the decision of this Convention, if ever it assembles, is to be final. There is to be no reference of the subject to the Provincial Legislatures. The schemers will take care that their ambitious project will not again be thwarted  by the interference of the people’s representatives. The consent of the several Legislatures to the Convention being assembled, will be assumed to be a consent to the decision of the Convention, whatever it may be; and the British Parliament will speedily give effect to that decision, without regard to the wishes or welfare of the people whose industrial interests would be perilled and political institutions destroyed by its consummation. To consent, therefore, to a new Convention on the terms proposed, while the Canadian Coalition lasts, and Mr. Cardwell sits in Downing Street, will be to accept the Quebec scheme in all its iniquity, without one jot or tittle of change, except such as the Canadians in their condescension may choose to permit; or may find it to their own advantage to adopt. It need, therefore, be no longer a matter of surprise that the Confederates were so anxious to have “the principle of Union” affirmed, even though the Quebec scheme might be condemned by the Legislatures while affirming the general principle.

The statement of the news an attempt will be made to alter the terms at the Quebec scheme to meet the views of each province, is evidently intended to imply that the proposal comes from the province’s dissenting from that scheme. There is, however, no foundation for such a belief. The plan is wholly Canadian, as the first convention was; and the delusive prospect of a possible change in the Quebec scheme is held out to deceive the Anti-Confederates if any among them are weak enough to be deceived by a ruse so ridiculously transparent.

Fortunately there seems to be small prospect at present of “the Maritime Provinces affirming the principle of Union”, which is a necessary Prelude to the new Convention. Newfoundland has already withdrawn from the position of half recognition that she assumed at the opening of the present session. In New Brunswick the opposition have not dared even to mention it in the want of confidence motion they have moved in the House; and the stability of the anti-Confederate Government in that Province is now beyond doubt. In Nova Scotia the ranks of the Anti-Confederate party remain as firm and unbroken today as they were twelve months ago; and with the developments we now have before us of the new Convention policy, the attitude of the party is not likely to be changed. It may well, however, to remind the members of the legislature, and the people of the country at large, that if under any sort of specious pretense a resolution can be smuggled through the House of Assembly this winter, “affirming the principle of colonial union,” even though it may condemn the Quebec scheme, it will give the Canadians the advantage they desire — the scheme of Confederation will be accomplished before August, and the session now in progress will be the last session of a free Parliament that Nova Scotia will ever be privileged to witness.


“The wild geese have passed over — a sure harbinger of the breaking up of winter. A great goose weighing ten pounds was shot at Mill Cove, Lunenburg, last week —yesterday’s Unionist.

It’s a bad place for “a great goose” to go to is Lunenburg. The people there do not appreciate such visitors. Last December a “great goose” from the Unionist office and a “quack-quack” from the Government side flew down to Lunenburg on nomination day — but the first volley sent the old grey gander back with feathers rumpled and badly scared, while his “quack” companion came tumbling heavily home with wounded wings shortly afterwards — a dejected witness of Lunenburg’s dislike of “great geese” and Confederation canards.

 

Halifax Citizen, April 3, 1866. Page 1 Column 1-2. https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=D90uR9ClOh8C&dat=18660403&printsec=frontpage&hl=en

A new Confederation argument

 

Our citizens in Halifax, and fellow colonists in Nova Scotia, who will not be frightened into Confederation, are now, it appears, to be beaten into it by any bludgeon carrier whom Dr. Tupper may declare “The most respectable and intelligent in the city” because he belongs to the Union League. The Union procession on Thursday night was believed to be intended as an intimidation to the opponents of Confederation, and we now learn that a most respectable, inoffensive officer of the corporation was beaten in a most cowardly brutal manner by one of the most active agents of the League, that night. Mr. Craigen, a gentleman widely respected in this community was beaten so badly by Mr. William Townshend, that he cannot move from his house. Had any of the young men in the street that night, struck a blow, Mr. Townsend would have been loud against the act. But it is such as he who actively promote these political processions in displays, and then disgrace their cause by rowdyism that deserve reprobation. We tell the Union League that they will go down before the force of public opinion if their agents are thus to break the law and draw blood in the interests of Confederation. We do not envy the feelings of his Worship the Mayor who lent himself and his Civic dignity to a political demonstration, and who took a place he should have left to the chairman of the League, when learning that the demonstration led to a breach of the peace, and the injury of a valued officer of the Corporation. Had the city of Halifax no more taxpayers than those whose political misrepresentations he read out in the Hall, neither the honor nor the salary would have been worth His Worship’s notice.

Halifax Citizen, April 15, 1865. Page 1 Column 7. https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=D90uR9ClOh8C&dat=18650415&printsec=frontpage&hl=en

Nova Scotia’s cry for home rule

“Having spent much time in Nova Scotia, I am often asked—Why does that province wish to sever connection with the Dominion, and what means her cry of “Repeal and Reciprocity”? And some of my friends are not a little shocked that, at a time when the question of Imperial Federation is so much discussed, our nearest kinsfolk on the American continent should be agitating for what at the first glance looks like separation, though it is far from being so intended. Imperial Federation is indeed a grand scheme, or will be when it attains the dignity of a scheme. At present it seems little better than a vague, but decidedly alluring, dream. And it is likely so to remain unless, among other safeguards, each unit which makes up the mass is allowed such a measure of self-government as shall secure it against possible harsh treatment on the part of any other unit which happens to be stronger.

Why the inhabitants of the Acadian peninsula want repeal of the union with Canada, and reciprocity with the United States and other countries, I propose in the following article to show.

When Nova Scotia, in 1867, entered the Confederation her debt amounted to some 8,000,000 or 9,000,000 dollars. Today her share of the rapidly increasing Dominion Debt, which during the last eighteen years has advanced from 96,000,000 to 281,000,000 dollars, is fully 28,000,000 dollars (Ottawa says 40,000,000 dollars), a burden far too heavy for her altered circumstances. And to-day the Dominion’s annual expenditure, which at the time of Confederation was 13,000,000 dollars, and in the last year of Liberal Government (1878) 23,000,000 dollars, has, to the dismay of Canada’s wisest statesmen, already reached 35,000,000 dollars, and ere the close of the present year is expected to touch 38,000,000 dollars. Of this charge Nova Scotia pays a tenth, if not a seventh, and of her contribution a large portion is spent outside her borders and in ways which benefit her not at all. “Previous to the Union,” her Premier, Mr. Fielding, tells us, “Nova Scotia had the lowest tariff, and was in the best financial condition of any of the provinces.” Today she has the highest tariff, since she pays some three dollars more on every hundred dollars’ worth of imported dutiable goods than her fellow provinces, and is, the same high authority assures us, in the worst financial condition. The reason is not far to seek. Not only does she, with the most liberal hand, subscribe to fill the common Treasury, but for her own needs she gets back the smallest proportional share, the allowance meted out to the seven principal provinces being somewhat as follows

Per head
Ontario$1.49 3/4
New Brunswick1.50 to 1.95
Prince Edward Island1.65
Quebec2.10 3/4
Manitoba7.50
British Columbia20.00
Nova Scotia0.98 to 1.18 3/4

While on the subject of monetary payments, it would scarcely be out of place to instance another grievance. When the Inter- national Fisheries Commission, which sat at Halifax in 1877, paid the Ottowan Tory Government, in November 1878, the five-and-a-half million dollars indemnity for the injury sustained by the fishermen of the Dominion, Nova Scotia, which had suffered most, received no share. Newfoundland was more fortunate. She was outside the Confederation; thus there was no excuse for withholding her portion. As the “grand old island” (to quote Captain Kennedy) keeps an attentive eye on the doings of her near neighbors, she is likely to remain outside.

The improvements, such as they are, made in Nova Scotia by the Ottawan Government, Mr. Fraser, a member of the local Parliament, assures us, are not paid for out of the taxes levied in the province, but are charged to the National Debt. It is to be hoped the improvements are of a lasting and beneficial character, so that the prospect of getting out of debt again may be less desperate than in the case of sundry other undertakings. For instance, the Halifax Chronicle of June 11, tells us that 500,000 dollars have been spent in establishing a sugar refinery at Richmond, a suburb of Halifax, every cent of which is lost; ‘ also that 350,000 dollars have been sunk in a cotton-mill hard by which is probably worth ten cents in the dollar, and has never yet paid a dividend. To keep life in these and other bantling industries, the Ottowan Government imposes pretty stiff duties on imported sugar and cotton, whether to commemorate the throwing away of the 850,000 dollars and other enormous sums on similar undertakings elsewhere, or to give cause for a new reading (by substitution of the word Protectionists) of a sneering old proverb anent the wisdom of our ancestors, I know not.

Among other efforts, some colonists, foolishly relying on that spirit of private enterprise which it seems to be the paternal mission of Protection to thwart, once sought to rival Crosse and Blackwell by setting up a pickle factory. The vegetables were cheap and plentiful enough, but the duty on imported glass bottles was sufficient to cause the infant industry to die that premature death to which most of the infant industries seem doomed whose misfortune it is to be Protection’s foster children.

Let us examine awhile this matter of Protection, which has so much to do with Nova Scotia’s discontent, and see whether it be true, as some of our friends so confidently and at times so flippantly assure us, that the doctrines taught by Cobden, Bright, and others are all wrong, and that we had much better return to that halcyon period when commerce lived in shackles and cheap bread was not. Abler pens than mine have exhausted the subject as regards Europe and the United States; therefore I will chiefly confine myself, because I can speak as an eye-witness, to the question as it affects the Acadian peninsula. And it may not a little astonish “fair traders” to learn that the condition to which Nova Scotia is reduced is that which all sound political economists would expect, that she is indeed an existing ‘awful example,’ some 2,500 miles away, of the hideous folly of reverting to Protectionist principles. Her taxation is swollen some 150 per cent, and the tariff, being purposely framed to bar out foreign trade as much as possible, does her serious injury; albeit Protectionists on her side of the Atlantic labour with a zeal worthy a better cause (though fruitlessly, I am glad to say, for Acadians are not mostly fools to make her people believe that an imported article which formerly came in free, or with only a 10 per cent, duty charged, is no dearer now when a 25 to 35 per cent, duty is paid. And, as the last report of the Halifax Chamber of Commerce declares, Protection presses especially hard upon a people who are chiefly fishermen, agriculturists, miners, and farmers. “Repeal,” says the Chronicle of May 12, “would mean closer trade relations with all our natural markets,” to wit, New England, the West Indies, and other places, with which, says another writer, “the province is bound together socially, commercially, and geographically.” These trade relations, so far from being cultivated, are, as I will still further show, distinctly discouraged. And one effect of this unduly heavy, taxation, unequal distribution of its proceeds, and enforced isolation is to cause more favoured provinces to flourish at Nova Scotia’s expense.

I spoke just now of altered circumstances. Let us glance at these. To do so is not to wander from the subject of Protection, as will at once appear. Halifax’s two miles or so of fine wharves are doing far less business than of yore, and have so decreased in value that, as the Attorney-General, Mr. Longley, says, those which once could not be purchased for 50,000 dollars now will not sell for 20,000 dollars. One wharf, the Chronicle tells us, which fifteen years ago for 40,000 dollars, was bought in last year by one of the banks for 22,000 dollars. Another was sold some years since at 25,000 dollars, and a few weeks ago was bought in for less than half that sum. Meanwhile the polo ground, which occupies an excellent situation on that high tableland which in better times will form part of the city’s centre, was sold some years ago for 16,000 dollars, and recently bought for $7,000 dollars. Shops, too, may be had at far less price than their cost of erection could they but meet with purchasers, are altogether between 300 and 400 houses in the once prosperous capital are for sale. Many families are without their grown-up sons, who are driven to seek a livelihood in other lands; and, owing to the constant exodus, the population, which between 1861 and 187 1 increased over 17 per cent., is acknowledged, even by those who would fain shut their eyes to tell-tale statistics, to have grown during the succeeding decade at a much slower rate. If Nova Scotia be as prosperous as some would have us believe, how is it that every year thousands of her youth of both sexes and all conditions leave her shores? The exodus is sometimes, apparently for political reasons, denied, though the inhabitants of the province are well aware not only of its existence but of its magnitude. There are, the Attorney-General tells us, more Nova Scotians in Boston than in Halifax. New England contains a vast number. And, on the other hand, in summer the New Englanders gladly crowd into verdant Nova Scotia, driven by the tremendous heat of their own country to the more salubrious and enjoyable climate of this ail-but island. An Ontarian in Nova Scotia, adds Mr. Longley, might be exhibited as a curiosity. Yet between the natural allies is raised the protective barrier. A Nova Scotian Q.C., Mr. Thomson, shows that the Assessment Rolls of many districts have steadily decreased, those of four leading counties, representing the four leading industries of coal- mining, farming, ship-building, and lumbering, which in 1868 amounted to a little below 1 1 1/3 million dollars, having fallen in 1884 to less than 8^ millions.’ Every way the province suffers.

Were return made to the 10 per cent, ante- Confederation tariff, and were the taxes raised in Nova Scotia spent in Nova Scotia, there would, says a veteran member of the Provincial Liberal Government, Mr. Morrison, be money enough to build every projected railway, make our road and bridge service efficient, and still have a large surplus for other purposes.’ As it is, railway enterprise halts, and roads and bridges are falling out of repair. Meanwhile, Nova Scotia is forced to consume Canadian flour, and to pay 60 cents in conveyance on the same amount thereof, as, before Confederation, she paid 10 cents to the nearer United States. In exchange for this dearer flour, distant Canada is supposed to buy Nova Scotian coal. Needless to say, distant Canada finds it as a rule more convenient to draw her “black diamonds ” from neighboring Pennsylvania. That Ontario at least should do so is inevitable. Her natural markets are not the maritime provinces, but the states of New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Michigan. Those of Manitoba and the North-West are Dakota, Minnesota, and Michigan; while those of British Columbia are Idaho, Washington Territory, Oregon, and coalless California. When the trade relations between these states and provinces are hindered, the injury is mutual. But the provinces suffer most, for, when protecting themselves against the outside world, the United Sates were too wise to allow any individual state to protect itself against any other individual state. Thus they have an enormous country, compact of shape, and posessed of almost every variety of climate and of products, enjoying absolute Free Trade within its wide borders. It is as if international Free Trade prevailed throughout Europe, to the exclusion only of other continents. This most telling fact, however, the advocates of Protection over here, when exhorting us to let our small group of islands follow America’s example and bar out the rest of the world, seem entirely to overlook. The Dominion, although it, too, has Free Trade within its borders, differs from the United States in being a long straggling string of provinces, designed by nature rather to be gathered into three or four groups, and possessing too little variety of climate and products to justify imitation of her great neighbour’s somewhat unsuccessful attempt at independence of other nations. The United States by Free Trade with other countries would enjoy greatly increased prosperity. So also would Canada prosper were she but to throw open her ports and gates. In the case of Nova Scotia, Protetction is nothing less than a curse. Visitors to Canada —the tourists, I mean, who take a month’s or six weeks’ run across to the Dominion, are introduced to one set of people, make a mental note (for later use) of their opinions, give a hurried look round, and then return home to add yet another to the list of valuable books upon foreign countries and the colonies—are often invited to admire the progress the upper provinces have made, and are gravely assured that ‘Protection has done much for Canada.’ Much to make or much to mar? It is not the marring, however, which is implied. Of the making, how much has been done by individual energy, and in spite of Protection, and how much by the forced contributions of other provinces?

Protection, being as mischievous as it is foolish, has, wherever introduced, given rise to smuggling, thereby creating and fostering a dishonest calling. Was there ever delusion that was not harmful? Now, as there is no great Chinese wall built up between the two sections of friendly English-speaking races which people the United States and the Canadian Dominion, the boundary-line must exist in official imagination, except indeed where some custom house or other barrier has risen, some lake or stream traces the border, or where (if it still exists) the long lane cut through the primeval forest marks the forty-ninth latitudinal parallel. It almost follows that as this boundary-line is some three or four thousand miles in length, it can scarcely serve its intended purpose as a hindrance to free trading between two kindred nations. In other words, smuggling flourishes apace. Needless to add, every smuggler, whether American or Canadian, is a staunch Protectionist. It is manifestly to the interest of his pocket so to be. As for his scruples of conscience, they are too microscopic a quantity, even if they have any existence, to be worth consideration. But Nova Scotia, like Prince Edward Island, nowhere touches the United States frontier. Therefore she has not one quarter of the splendid chance for smuggling, and consequent cheaper sale of, and larger profit on, dutiable articles of Cousin Jonathan’s manufacture, which the more favorably situated provinces take, it is rumored, such frequent opportunities to enjoy. Which fact doubtless adds to her embarrassment. And the longer she is bound against her will and against her interests in this unnatural bondage the more desperate becomes her condition. “Wait till the West is more settled !” cry the Protectionists. “Wait till the Canadian Pacific Railway gets into full running order ! See how Nova Scotia’s trade will flourish then, and how the West will deal with her!” Vain dream! Have Federationists ever realized the fact that by rail Montreal (Que.) is 859 miles from Halifax? If Ontario, which is yet further, is too remote to trade much with Nova Scotia, are the very much more distant North-West and British Columbia likely to do so? If there were no other impediment, there would still be the one item, in this huge straggling country, of cost of transport. No ! it is impossible to create artificial trade or artificial markets. the oft-derided plan of ‘making people virtuous by Act of Parliament” (is) absurd.

After what I have said of the tariff”, I trust that Nova Scotia’s cry for Reciprocity may not sound amiss in British Free Trade ears. To us, it is a word retrogressive of meaning, synonymous with Retaliation. To a country severely suffering from Protection’s blighting influence, Reciprocity, on the contrary, appears distinctly progressive, tends towards trade freedom, and has a sense identical with our term Commercial Treaty. Reciprocity with the United States to Nova Scotia would mean trade-resuscitation. The experiment has already been tried; and reference to statistics of the past will show with what success. The Reciprocity Treaty, which lasted fourteen years, came into operation in 1854. The previous year—English currency was then in use—the exports of Nova Scotia were a trifle below £280,000. The succeeding year, 1855, they were over £481,000. The imports were in 1853 nearly £416,000; in 1855, over £780,000.

At the time of Confederation (1867) the province was importing 14,000,000 dollars’ worth of goods. She now imports 8,000,000 dollars’ worth. During these fourteen prosperous years the Halifax Assessment Roll advanced from about 10 1/2 million dollars to 17 1/4 millions, since which time it has steadily declined. No wonder the Attorney-General, when speaking of those years, should say, “The period then was one of the golden days in the history of Nova Scotia, when fortunes were accumulated, farms increased in value, and prosperity abounded.” Is it, then, surprising that the provincials, with that crowning sorrow born of remembrance of happier things, should be resolutely striving to bring them back?

To those among us who are bitten with Fair Trade notions, I would earnestly recommend a prolonged residence in the Dominion, the maritime provinces perhaps especially. Those, too, who waste time and sentiment in deploring the (imaginary) harm done to a country by free imports, might derive much comfort from studying there the very real injury inflicted by trying the experiment of heavily taxed imports. It would be safe to wager that the hostility to Free Trade would soon be relegated to the society of last year’s snows.

Those who think the repeal cry in Nova Scotia is indicative of disloyalty make a great mistake. The question is being agitated in reasonable and dignified language. Indeed, the Repeal speeches in the Provincial Parliament have been at once so moderate in tone and sound in argument, that they might well command admiration in our own House. They are ably supplemented by a flood of correspondence in the Halifax Chronicle and elsewhere. Thus it is clear there is no deterioration in the race which two years before the mother country passed a measure of Catholic Emancipation.

Nor is humour wanting to give pleasing variety to the discussion, as is made manifest when Mr. Mack, M.P.P., reminds the House that, as that man is considered a patriot who makes two blades of grass to grow where but one grew before, those who were instrumental in achieving Confederation must have been especially patriotic, since grass is now abundant—in the city streets. The Halifax Chamber of Commerce maintains that those are ‘ cruel and unjust laws ‘ which restrict trade between ‘natural customers,’ and truly says that commercial ‘relations between British Colonies should be free. “There are,” says Mr. Roche, M.P.P., “no more loyal people within the wide compass of the British Empire than the Repeal party of Nova Scotia.” Elsewhere he reminds his fellow-provincials that Nova Scotia was true when Canada was in rebellion.

For things cannot last as they are. The instinct of self-preservation teaches revolt against them. The better to realize the situation, let us imagine ourselves in Nova Scotia’s place. Suppose this straggling Europe to be united like the Dominion with little local governments elsewhere, but with an all-controlling and very despotic central power situated hundreds of miles away—say to Vienna. Suppose that by-and-by the Viennese decided, in the imaginary interests of Austro-Hungary to adopt a rigorous system of Protection, and to impose it upon the rest of Europe. Suppose the inhabitants of the British Isles, on account of their superior wealth and energy, to be specially selected for taxation for the benefit of Austro-Hungary and adjacent countries. Suppose them to become aware of their consequent impoverishment, to feel its injustice, and to strive, year after year, constantly and vainly, to convince Vienna of the un-soundness of her economic views, and, still more, of the sacred right of each individual member of the European community to control its own affairs, political and commercial. And, finally, suppose them, conscious at last that the choice lay between gradual ruin and timely secession, to prefer the latter alternative, and to try to reach it by peaceable and legitimate means. They would only be taking the course followed by Nova Scotia now. Should we not, looking on, say, from the neighbouring continents of Asia or Africa, think they were justified in so doing ? Should we not indeed despise them were they indifferent to their country’s decay, and did they not make every reasonable effort to free her and themselves from what had grown to be an intolerable bondage ?

The grievance of the Nova Scotians, then, being so genuine, and their spirit so constitutional, the case surely merits a patient hearing.”

Fellows, E. C., “Nova Scotia’s cry for home rule”. [S.l. : s.n., 1886?]. https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.18052

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