Joseph-Charles Taché
Joseph-Charles Taché was a notable figure in 19th-century Canada, born in 1820 in Kamouraska, Quebec. He was the son of a militia captain and the nephew of a prominent politician and physician. After receiving his education at the Quebec Seminary, Taché practiced medicine in Rimouski beginning in 1844. He entered the political arena shortly after marrying Françoise Lepage in 1847, serving multiple terms in the House of Assembly. His political writings and advocacy focused on land tenure reform, the improvement of infrastructure, and the preservation of French Canadian culture.
Taché was also a prolific writer, founding the periodical Le Courrier du Canada and significantly contributing to the cultural discourse through his published works, including his influential writings on the federal union of British North American colonies. His literary impact was evident in the first volume of Les Soirées Canadiennes, a key publication in Canadian literature. Throughout his career, he was recognized for his contributions, including being knighted by Napoleon III. Ultimately, Taché served as a public servant for nearly twenty-five years, holding the position of deputy minister of agriculture and statistics by the end of his career. His legacy reflects a commitment to both cultural preservation and political reform in a transformative era for Canada.
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Subject Terms
Joseph-Charles Taché
Author
- Born: December 24, 1820
- Birthplace: Kamouraska, Quebec, Canada
- Died: April 16, 1894
Biography
Born in 1820 in Kamouraska, Quebec, Canada, Joseph-Charles Taché was the son of Charles Taché, a militia captain, and Henriette Boucher de la Broquerie Taché. His uncle, Étienne-Paschal Taché, was a distinguished figure in medicine, military, and politics. Joseph-Charles Taché attended the Kamouraska village school as a child and then the Quebec Seminary, which was then the only secondary school and which did not solely train students for ministry. Taché studied medicine and began a twelve-year practice in Rimouski in 1844. In 1847, he married Françoise Lepage, from a local farming family, with whom he had six children. The year following his marriage, he was elected to the House of Assembly and began penning political writings. He was elected to office again in the 1851 and 1854 elections, but he resigned in 1856 as his conservative views began quickly falling out of favor.
Taché’s first book appeared in 1854 and explored his views on the land tenure system and the reforms then being considered. He convinced the major landowners to revise their advantaged system, but his efforts were not considered sufficient by liberals; Taché therefore railed at them in his 1855 pamphlet Le Pléiade rouge. Other foci of the writer’s political career were the improvement of roads and waterways and the preservation of French Canadian culture. During this time, Napoleon III knighted him as a member of the Legion of Honour.
Better known for his literary pursuits than his politics, Taché founded and assumed editorship of Le Courrier du Canada in 1857, and in that same year, his writings in the periodical presented his support for federal union of the British North American colonies over the possibility of American annexation. Taché also expressed his concern for how the union would affect French culture in Canada. His many writings on the topic, widely read, likely wielded great influence on the drafting of the 72 Resolutions at the 1864 Quebec Conference.
Taché helped found the Société Saint- Jean-Baptiste of Quebec in 1842, and he wrote several books and contributed often to the Quebec periodical Les Soirées Canadiennes: Recueil de littérature nationale, the first Canadian periodical devoted to literature. When the initial volume of Les Soirées Canadiennes appeared in 1861, Taché’s writings were featured heavily. In 1864, the respected champion of French Canadian culture was named deputy minister of agriculture and statistics. By the time Taché’s civil service career concluded, he had been a public servant for nearly twenty-five years.