Document Information

Date: 1864-10-10
By: Edward Whelan, The Examiner (Charlottetown), Quebec Conference
Citation: Edward Whelan, “The Inter-Colonial Conference in Canada,”The Examiner (17 October 1864).
Other formats: Click here to view the original document (PDF).
Note: Any endnotes come from our recent publication, Charles Dumais, The Quebec Resolutions: Including Several Never-Published Preliminary Drafts by George Brown and John A. Macdonald, and a Collection of all Previously-Published Primary Documents Relating to the Conference (CCF, 2021).

THE INTER-COLONIAL CONFERENCE IN CANADA

Quebec, Monday, Oct. 10, 1864.

In obedience to the summons from His Excellency the Governor General, Delegates from the Maritime Provinces arrived in Quebec, and met, in the Parliament Buildings, in Conference today. The whole Canadian Ministry were present, and the Premier, Sir Etienne P. Taché, was unanimously chosen President. Sir Etienne is a very venerable French gentleman, of perhaps more than 70 years—of most pleasing manners—of great business habits, and evidently of considerable ability. His colleagues in the Government are gentlemen, on the whole, distinguished, but especially Messrs. J. A. McDonald, Cartier, McGee and Brown. The Delegates from all the Provinces are as follows: –

CANADA.

Sir ETIENNE P. TACHÉ, Premier.
Hon. J.A. MACDONALD, Attorney General West.
Hon. G.E. CARTIER, Attorney General East.
Hon. Wm. MCDOUGALL, Provincial Secretary.
Hon. GEORGE BROWN, President of Executive Council.
Hon. A.T. GALT, Finance Minister.
Hon. A. CAMPBELL, Commissioner of Crown Lands.
Hon. OLIVER MOWAT, Postmaster General.
Hon. H. L. LANGEVIN, Solicitor General East.
Hon. JAMES COCKBURN, Solicitor General West.
Hon. T. D’ARCY McGEE, Minister of Agriculture.
Hon. J. C. CHAPAIS, Commisioner Public Works.

NOVA SCOTIA.

Hon. Dr. TUPPER, Provincial Secretary.
Hon. W. A. HENRY, Attorney General.
Hon. R B. DICKEY.
Hon. JONATHAN McCULLY.
Hon. A. G. ARCHIBALD.

NEW BRUNSWICK.

Hon. S. L. TILLEY, Provincial Secretary.
Hon. M. JOHNSON, Attorney-General.
Hon. P. MITCHELL.
Hon. Mr. FISHER.
Hon. E. CHANDLER.
Hon. W.H. STEEVES.
Hon. JOHN H. GRAY.

NEWFOUNDLAND.

Hon. F. CARTER, Speaker of the House of Assembly.
Hon. AMBROSE SHEA.

PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND.

Hon. Col. GRAY, Premier.
Hon. EDWARD PALMER, Attorney General.
Hon. W. H. POPE, Provincial Secretary.
Hon. T. HEATH HAVILAND.
Hon. GEORGE COLES.
Hon. EDWARD WHELAN.
Hon. A. A. MACDONALD.

This day was chiefly occupied in making the necessary preliminary arrangements for the due management of the Conference. Several speeches were made. and amongst the rest, two very excellent ones by the Newfoundland Delegates, in which they gave their unqualified adhesion to the principle of Federation. The Hon. Mr. Cartier, Attorney General East, spoke very eloquently and at considerable length, on the same subject, of course in favour of the principle. Mr. Cartier’s speech was in support of a resolution submitted by the Attorney General for Upper Canada, declaring that a Union of all the Colonies, under the British Crown, would promote their best interests, if established upon principles just to all the Provinces. The Attorney General from Upper Canada will speak in support of this resolution tomorrow, and define what he believes should be the basis of the Federal Constitution.

The Delegates from the Maritime Provinces are to dine with the Canadian Ministry this evening, at the Stadacona Club. This is a Political Society, of great influence, conducted in the best manner, on the European plan, where members of all parties, I believe, associate together, and enjoy themselves with the feast of reason and the feast of something else, and the flow of bowl as well as the flow of soul. I have had the honor of being elected an Honorary Member of the Club, and indeed all the Delegates from the Lower Provinces have had the like honor conferred upon them. I will give the readers of the Examiner a further and fuller account of the Club in a subsequent Letter; and I will also give, although it will not be in regular chronological order, an account of my very pleasant voyage along the glorious old St. Lawrence.