John Alexander Macdonald

Prime minister of Canada (1867-1873, 1878-1891)

• Born: January 11, 1815
• Birthplace: Glasgow, Scotland
• Died: June 6, 1891
• Place of death: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Macdonald not only had a major role in drawing up the British North America Act, which created the Dominion of Canada, but also, as Canada’s first prime minister, brought about the new nation’s territorial and political expansion from sea to sea. Within the British community, he paved the way for Canadians to determine their own foreign affairs and foreshadowed the principle behind the twentieth century’s British Commonwealth of Nations.

Early Life

John Alexander Macdonald was the son of Helen Shaw, who was descended from a family of military professionals. After several generations of farmers on his father’s side, his father, Hugh John Macdonald, was the first to earn a living from business. Ultimately, however, his business failed in Glasgow, and he, his wife, and children—John Alexander (then five years old), Margaret, Louisa, and James—traveled to Kingston, Upper Canada, to join Hugh John’s in-laws, Lieutenant Colonel Donald Macpherson and his family, who had retired there. Macpherson helped the Macdonald family get settled, and the two families remained close.

After receiving the best education the local schools offered, at the age of fifteen years the young Macdonald was apprenticed to a Kingston lawyer, George Mackenzie. For a year or two, Macdonald worked as a messenger, a clerk, and a stenographer. At night he studied British law. Because Macdonald was advancing rapidly in his studies, Mackenzie put him in charge of a branch office. Macdonald then took over the law practice of his sick cousin, L. P. Macpherson. The latter recovered, and in 1835, with Mackenzie’s death, Macdonald opened his own law office in Kingston. In the next year he was admitted to the bar.

Early in his legal career, Macdonald helped put down the 1837 insurrection. In the next year he participated in the capture of Americans who had invaded Canada. Even thought it might have damaged his career, Macdonald defended these men, as well as a man accused of raping a child. Macdonald provided them with the best legal advice, but he lost the cases. The men were hanged. Macdonald would continue in the practice of law, specializing in commercial law, first at Kingston and then at Toronto, with various partners, until his death in 1891. His clients were businesspeople and corporations.

Macdonald entered politics at the grassroots level, serving first as secretary for a local school board, then as alderman for Kingston. While serving in the latter office, he was elected to represent Kingston in the Canadian legislature. The British government had recently united Upper Canada and Lower Canada into Canada West (Ontario) and Canada East (Quebec) in the Act of Union of 1840. In one of his first addresses, Macdonald stated that the British Crown must be maintained in Canada. He never deviated from that stance, which remained his guiding principle.

Macdonald was nearly six feet tall, slender, and looked much like his English contemporary Benjamin Disraeli. He was not a good-looking man: His large nose dominated his face, and he became fair game for caricaturists. These “ugly” physical features were overcome by his natty dress, his keen sense of humor, his excellent memory for persons’ faces and names, and his ease at making and keeping friends. Nevertheless, he was also noted for a caustic tongue and bad temper. He was never an orator, but rather a debater who made best use of the quick retort and the penetrating question. Though a clever tactician, Macdonald was a practical man who used practical means to achieve his goals. At times he was accused of being devious and unscrupulous.

In his early twenties, Macdonald often was ill. He became worse with the death of his father in 1841. To recuperate, he traveled to England and Scotland. In the latter country he met his cousin, Isabella Clark. After his return to Kingston, Isabella followed him. They were married soon afterward, in September of 1843. Within two years of the marriage, Isabella fell ill. She spent the rest of her life bedridden. Seeking a cure, Macdonald took her first to New York, then to Savannah, Georgia. He returned in six months; she stayed three years. In spite of her life-threatening illness, she gave birth to two sons, John Alexander (1847), who died at the age of thirteen months, and Hugh John (1850). Her illness, Macdonald’s being deprived of her company, the huge medical bills, and later the additional pressures from the demands placed upon Macdonald by his constituency and his parliamentary obligations led Macdonald to become a heavy drinker. His alcoholism resulted in his having a number of short-term political reverses. He almost always turned those defeats into victories, however, through quick thinking and political machination.

Life’s Work

During his wife’s long years of illness (from 1845 until her death in December, 1857), Macdonald endured “the great struggle for power and place,” as he defined it. In the Conservative government, he was receiver general from 1847 to 1848. The Conservatives and Macdonald were out of power from 1848 to 1854. In those years, “Responsible Government” was established by the Reformers (Liberals), with political power resting in the prime minister. It had been vested in the governor-general for Queen Victoria, Canada’s monarch.

The Conservative Party almost destroyed itself in 1849. The empire’s old economic organization was eroding with Great Britain’s adoption of free trade. Politically, the government’s Rebellion Losses Bill signified the end of the old imperial government. The result was that the Ultra-Conservatives went on a rampage in 1849, burning the Parliament building and demanding an end to the British connection and Canada’s annexation to the United States. They came to their senses, but damage had been done. The parliamentarians moved the capital’s site from Montreal, but because no permanent location could be decided on, it would alternate between Quebec and Toronto.

Macdonald disavowed himself of the Ultra-Conservatives. He helped form the British America League to work for confederation of all the provinces, for strengthening the British connection, and for adoption of a national commercial policy. Macdonald embraced Responsible Government. He worked within his party to destroy the Ultra-Conservatives—the Tory, Anglican, and Loyalist oligarchy (the family compact)—who had for so long dominated politics in Toronto, the capital of old Upper Canada.

Macdonald formed his own government by organizing a new political coalition once the Reformers (Liberals) left office in 1854. The Conservatives, along with the existing alliance of Upper Canadian Reformers, joined with the French majority political bloc. The coalition became a permanent political party, eventually the Progressive Conservative Party, known as the Liberal-Conservative Party, one of Canada’s great political parties. Macdonald was the party’s parliamentary leader. As attorney general, he established an elected legislative council, or upper house, in the provincial parliament. With the removal of the aged prime minister, Sir Allan McNabb, Macdonald became co-prime minister with Étienne P. Tache. Macdonald finally had power and place. Later George Étienne Cartier joined the cabinet, replacing Tache as co-prime minister. The partnership would end with Cartier’s death in 1873.

Macdonald was an able, skillful, and clever politician. He proved it more than once. In 1858, he and Cartier had Queen Victoria select Canada’s permanent capital; she chose Ottawa. The decision was presented to the legislature by Macdonald. The vote taken on the issue defeated the government. The Liberals under George Brown formed a new government. By law, all new cabinet appointees, including the prime minister, had to seek reelection. Macdonald refused to agree to a recess. While they were temporarily absent from Parliament, Macdonald, leader of the opposition, obtained a vote of no confidence in Brown’s government. By ingenious political maneuvering, Macdonald secured his party’s return to government, having been out of power for only two days.

During the mid-1850’s, Brown introduced a new issue into the political scene. Representation in the legislature was shared equally by Canada West and Canada East, even though Canada West now had the greater population. Brown, from Canada West, demanded representation by population. In the Union, Canada West was stymied in matters of education, westward expansion, railway subsidies, and taxation. Macdonald stayed in power only with French Canadian bloc support. The latter was determined not to promote Canada West; the legislature as then constituted was a guarantee of their French Canadian identity. Regional and racial conflicts threatened destruction of the Canadian union.

The raging American Civil War exacerbated matters: During the war, serious disputes arose between Great Britain, British North America, and the United States. Because Great Britain was in charge of Canadian foreign affairs, any one of these disputes could have involved Great Britain and British North America (Canada) in war. For five long years, Macdonald believed that the Americans could (and would) invade his country and conquer it. Great Britain expected Canada to provide some contribution to defense. Macdonald and Cartier agreed. The Militia Bill’s passage through the assembly failed. Conservative French Canadians refused to support their government. Macdonald, imbibing excessively, failed to provide the necessary leadership. His mother’s death in October, 1862, had stripped him of any incentive he might have had.

Macdonald’s government fell following an adverse vote in the legislature. He considered retiring from public life, but the Liberal government’s ineptness changed his mind. When he knew the government was doomed, he got the assembly to vote no confidence in it. To save his government, the new prime minister, John Sandfield Macdonald, called a general election. The results returned the administration, but opposition and government were too evenly matched in the legislature—the Union of Canada was deadlocked.

To solve the constitutional dilemma, Macdonald accepted Brown’s proposal for a new coalition to include Upper Canadian Reformers to bring about a federal union of all British North American provinces. Macdonald accepted leadership in drawing up a new constitution. In its drafting, he presided over meetings at Charlottestown, Quebec, and in London, England, where representatives of the Crown joined them. The British Parliament passed the resultant British North America Act in 1867, creating the Dominion of Canada to replace the Union of Canada.

In London, Macdonald married Susan Agnes Bernard, even though he barely knew her. Her brother was a member of the Office of the Attorney General, Canada West, and had once roomed with Macdonald. They had one daughter, Mary (1869-1933), who was confined from infancy to a wheelchair.

Before confederation was realized on July 1, 1867, Macdonald was disturbed by Fenian invasions from the United States, the American abrogation of the 1854 Reciprocity Treaty, and the Maritime Provinces’ resistance in joining the Dominion. In 1867, however, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick came into the confederation. Macdonald followed through on a pledge given earlier to link the Maritime Provinces to Quebec by the building of the Intercolonial Railway.

The new federal parliament met in Ottawa in 1867, with Macdonald its first prime minister. A host of challenges faced the new government: the diverse claims of the French and English Canadians, the provinces’ determination to maintain their rights, and the need for a continued British connection. In spite of these obstacles, Macdonald persevered, handling each problem as it arose. He was the Canadian representative among the British delegation that settled problems arising out of the American Civil War. From that time on, whenever Canadian interests were involved with a foreign country, Great Britain would include Canadians in any discussion or settlement.

Macdonald worked hard to enlarge the territorial boundaries of Canada from sea to sea. To forestall any American settlement of the western region, Macdonald arranged to purchase rights of the Hudson’s Bay Company to the Northwest Territories, including the prairies. The Métis Red River rebellion under Louis Riel delayed its acquisition for several months. The rebellion, even though put down by military force, quickened Macdonald’s decision to create the province of Manitoba (1870) and take it into the Dominion earlier than planned. He feared American intervention and the possibility of American annexation of the prairies.

Macdonald made possible the entry into the Dominion of British Columbia (1871) and Prince Edward Island (1873). British Columbia demanded as her price the construction of a transcontinental railway across the empty plains and through the Canadian Rockies to the east. Macdonald’s Quebec leader, Cartier, accepted, during the 1872 general election, campaign monies in return for a charter for the Pacific Railway Company. In the midst of the ensuing Pacific Scandal of 1873, Cartier died. Even though Macdonald proved that he had known nothing about the deal, he was forced to resign from the government. A new election was called, returning the Liberals to office, which they held from 1873 to 1878, a period of depression; they adopted free trade. In 1878, Macdonald returned to political power on the basis of the National Policy, a system of protection of Canadian manufacturers through imposition of high tariffs on foreign imports, especially American imports. The National Policy appealed to anti-Americans and Canadian nationalists and became a permanent part of Canadian economic and political life.

Macdonald’s last years in office were politically difficult ones. He secured for a new Canadian Pacific Railway a charter in 1880. In spite of hardships encountered in its construction (Parliament had to appropriate funds far beyond original estimates), the line was in operation in the fall of 1885. As in 1870, the Indians and the Métis under Riel tried to stop western settlement. Canadian military forces—one of the soldiers was Macdonald’s son, Hugh John—once again defeated them. Riel turned himself in. He was tried for treason, found guilty, and hanged, Macdonald refusing to pardon him. The French Canadians thought of Riel as a great hero; to the English Canadians he was a murderer. Several years before, he and Métis had executed an Ontario Orangeman, Thomas Scott. Riel’s death intensified racial and religious tensions, severely hurt the Conservative Party in Quebec, and led to the French Canadian “nationalist” movement.

Macdonald wanted a strong national government. The federal power’s right of disallowance over provincial legislation was challenged through the legal system. Great Britain’s Privy Council often decided matters on appeal in favor of the provinces, resulting in a federal system much more decentralized than Macdonald wanted. In the face of provincial opposition, however, he had no choice. Macdonald’s National Policy was successful during the first years of his return to power. With the return of depression, the opposition (Liberals) worked for its abandonment in favor of unrestricted reciprocity with the United States and their own return to political power.

To Macdonald, unrestricted reciprocity meant total surrender to the United States—loss of Canadian commercial autonomy, loss of fiscal freedom, and eventually the Dominion’s annexation to the United States. The general election of 1891 was fought on this issue, and Macdonald and the Conservatives were victorious. Macdonald was pleased to see his son, Hugh John, a lawyer, elected to Parliament from Winnepeg, Manitoba. In the election, Macdonald overexerted himself. He died from heart failure in Ottawa, on June 6, 1891, and was buried in Kingston.

Significance

For forty-seven years, Sir John Alexander Macdonald sat in a Canadian parliament. His cabinet experience encompassed forty-four years. In his lifetime he held seven cabinet posts, served as prime minister in the Union of Canada, and was singularly honored with his election as the first prime minister of the Dominion of Canada. He witnessed and, as prime minister, had a large role in the economic and political evolution of Canada, from its earliest years until it became an industrialized nation. More than any other single person, Macdonald “made” Canada and provided its character. As first prime minister of the Dominion of Canada, his greatest achievement was that he set forth the policy goals in domestic and external affairs for all future Canadian political leaders. If Macdonald was not Canada’s greatest political leader, he certainly is numbered among her greatest.

Bibliography

Creighton, Donald Grant. John A. Macdonald. Vol. 1, The Young Politician. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1953. The first extended biography of Macdonald was written from contemporary sources by one of Canada’s best historians. It portrays the life and times of Macdonald from his arrival in Kingston as a five-year-old boy from Scotland to the time he became the architect of the Dominion of Canada. Its one failing is that too much attention is given to provincial matters.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. John A. Macdonald. Vol. 2, The Old Chieftain. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1956. This book (also based on contemporary sources) is the definitive study of Macdonald and the history of the Dominion of Canada from its inception in 1867 to Macdonald’s death in 1891.

“John A. Macdonald.” Maclean’s 114, no. 27 (July 1, 2001): 37. A profile of Macdonald, describing his career, role in the confederation of Canada, and involvement in Canadian politics.

Pope, Joseph. Memoirs of the Rt. Honourable Sir John Alexander Macdonald, G.C.B., First Prime Minister of the Dominion of Canada. 2 vols. Ottawa: J. Durie and Sons, 1894. Rev. ed. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1930. This biography was the first to be based entirely on Macdonald’s private papers and was the standard biography until Creighton’s work (see above). Pope was Macdonald’s private secretary for a number of years and became his literary executor; Pope’s account is highly partial to Macdonald and the Conservatives.

Swainson, Donald. The Rt Honourable Sir John A. Macdonald. Toronto: Pagurian Press, 1968. Written in journalistic style, this work briefly narrates Macdonald’s family background, his education, and his entrance into law, with the greater part dealing with his life’s work in politics and his “creating” the Dominion of Canada. Macdonald’s failings are not glossed over, but are considered in their proper context.

Waite, P. B. The Life and Times of Confederation, 1864-1867: Politics, Newspapers, and the Union of British North America. 3d ed. Toronto: Robin Brass Studio, 2001. Recounts the events leading to the 1867 confederation of the Canadian provinces, examining the role that politics and newspapers played in the process.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. Macdonald: His Life and World. Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 1955. This work, as the title indicates, treats Macdonald’s life and his world, with the emphasis on his world. Few works written about Macdonald address the places with which he was associated.