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Date: 1867-03-09
By: The Montreal Herald
Citation: “Views Respecting Confederation”, The Montreal Herald (9 March, 1867)
Other formats: TBA

VIEWS RESPECTING CONFEDERATION.

The views of some of the Conservative politicians on our future under Confederation appear to be rather gloomy, though singularly enough they acquiesce in the evil instead of like brave men seeking to prevent it. At the recent political dinner in Peel, the Hon. Jno. H. Cameron seems to anticipate great risk of a civil war as one of the first results, though it is to be all right if he lives for twenty years more, by which time he supposes, we imagine, that our independence will be complete. He is reported in the Leader to have said he had been more desirous of a legislative than a federal union, but he had accepted the latter as a step towards the attainment of the former, which he hoped and believed he would yet live to see, if he were granted twenty more years of life. He looked upon the union as a necessity, but its federal character made it more cumbrous than was necessary, and exposed it to various dangers from the conflicts that might arise between the federal and local governments, of which we already had examples in the United States. It must be remembered that this was not the first attempt at federation of the colonies. The four old colonies of New England, before the revolution, united together in a confederation, and we were now about to carry out, after a period of 200 years, the same description of confederation, in part, that they effected in 1643. Their difficulty then was the separate rights of each colony the same difficulty existed in the first confederation after the revolution, and the same difficulty continued after the new constitution of the United States under the constitutional convention, until it received its practical solution in the greatest civil war that the world has ever seen. This difficulty, an increased expenditure and the hasty legislation of one chamber, were what he expected for Upper Canada; but he was content to run the risk in the hope that ere long the evil would be seen and appreciated, and the remedy of a legislative union applied. They were told that the Imperial government was giving its assent to this scheme because they said that they were thereby likely to get rid of them, as the cords by which they were held were those of gold, and not of affection—that their only desire was to have their towns filled by Imperial troops, their fortifications built by Imperial money, and their resources supplemented by Imperial funds, and that this extended government would give them a desire for complete independence, and rid Great Britain of an incumbrance which was helping to weigh her down. It might well suit the new school of politicians in England to depreciate the colonies, and to blot out the old motto of ships, colonies and commerce which went hand in hand together, but neither their theories, nor their taunts could root out the affection from Canadian hearts for the old land beyond the sea, or make them trust it ever otherwise than as strong and large hearted men would treat an old and loving parent. (Enthusiastic cheers) He certainly believed that the more extended government they were about to enter upon, would be likely to lead to an earlier independence of any Imperial control, but it would be an independence gradual in its growth, and when it was attained, would leave no heart burning on one side, nor recollections of oppression on the other.

Mr M. C. Cameron was hardly less dolorous:—In his opening remarks he referred to the course he had pursued with regard to Confederation, contending that while he favoured a legislative union instead of a federal that he was actuated by a desire to advance the best interests of the country. He was in favour of a legislative union of all British America, so that when the people would be voting for a representative to Parliament, they would feel that they were sending him to represent the whole of British America. (Cheers,) But when he found the people strongly in favour of a federal union he acquiesced and gave his warm support to the scheme. (Cheers)