Negotiations with Howe began, not in Ottawa or Nova Scotia, but in Portland, Maine. The better terms for Nova Scotia provided that federal subsidies would be calculated on the same rate as New Brunswick’s. Macdonald’s strategy and patience worked brilliantly, punctuated by Howe joining his Cabinet in 1869. Howe relented after realizing that he could make no better deal with Canada and that the British government was indifferent to his pleas. Macdonald good-naturedly recalled that he had met Howe in the streets of London, England before Confederation, and joked, “Someday soon you will be one of us!” “Never! Never!” Howe replied, “You shall hang me first.” Ultimately, Macdonald not only brought Nova Scotia onside, but used Howe to negotiate the entry of Manitoba into Confederation.
Thomas D’Arcy McGee, a parliamentary colleague and a close friend, was also persuasive in bringing Howe and Nova Scotia to embrace Canada. Though McGee was not included in Macdonald’s Cabinet, there was a genuine fondness between the two, and Macdonald once joked with McGee that “This Government can’t afford two drunkards—and you’ve got to stop.” McGee had attended the Charlottetown and Québec City conferences and is one of the Fathers of Confederation. McGee’s outspokenness against Irish Republicanism and the Fenians caused Macdonald to warn McGee that his personal safety was at risk. After delivering an impassioned speech on national unity in the House of Commons on April 6, 1868, McGee returned to his rooming house on Sparks Street where he was shot and killed. Macdonald, woken with the shocking news in the middle of the night, was devastated and immediately rushed to the scene to be at his friend’s side. McGee was given a state funeral. Patrick James Whelan was convicted and hanged for the murder. He professed his innocence to the end, his final words being, “God save Ireland and God save my soul.”
Macdonald’s all-consuming passion for politics overwhelmed both his law practice and his need for financial security. He relied on his partners to produce income and was often on the brink financially, and professionally. Unexpectedly, in 1869 Macdonald was informed by the president of the Merchants’ Bank that his personal debt amounted to $79,500. A dollar then is the equivalent of about $30 today, which puts Macdonald’s burden at over $2 million. His $5,000 annual salary as prime minister would not even cover the interest on such a debt. In fairness, the debt was partly the consequence of the sudden death of his law partner, A.J. Macdonnell. Bankruptcy could have meant the end of his political career, however, and all manner of methods were used to raise funds, including Agnes placing a mortgage on the family’s house in Kingston. Macdonald’s friends took up a private subscription to ensure his debts were discharged and his family supported.
Agnes gave birth to a daughter, Mary, on February 8, 1869.The child was hydrocephalic (an abnormal increase of cerebrospinal fluid around the brain resulting in an enlarged head; a lifetime disability). Macdonald was devoted to Mary, and had a special second floor landing built in the family residence so Mary could hear the political discourse that took place in the dining room. In fact, Mary outlasted her parents, living into her sixties, but despair over Mary’s disease was another key factor that stirred Macdonald to drink; some times in binges, to a degree that caused embarrassment to himself and the nation. Easily exaggerated by sensational storytellers, such incidents gave rise to Macdonald’s reputation as a “falling down drunk.” Certainly there were moments of great stress and despair in Macdonald’s life, both political and personal, that led to notable incidents of excess. But these incidents have been persistently and unfairly overplayed in history books to the point where high school students are as likely to remember Macdonald’s drinking prowess as his accomplishments as a politician. Macdonald’s descendants express their frustration and anger over the characterization of Macdonald as a drunk. They state that at family gatherings there was no evidence of unrestrained consumption. Some suggest that Macdonald should not be remembered for his drinking any more than Winston Churchill is.
Having consolidated four colonies of the British Empire within Confederation, Macdonald set his sights West and East. The grand design to include Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island was first articulated in the conferences at Charlottetown and Québec City. To the West, Canada wanted the territory held by the Hudson’s Bay Company, but only if England provided financial and military support.
In April 1869, the Hudson’s Bay Company accepted terms for the surrender of western Rupert’s Land. This gave Canada all the land to the west excluding British Columbia. In early June, Newfoundland delegates in Ottawa agreed on terms to enter Confederation. With Nova Scotia pacified and Prince Edward Island poised to join, Macdonald wrote triumphantly to
Sir Hastings Doyle, the first lieutenant governor of Nova Scotia, “We have quietly and almost without observation, annexed all the country between here and the Rocky Mountains, as well as Newfoundland.” It was inevitable that Macdonald would seek British Columbia’s entry, to create a country that stretched from ocean to ocean. Most important to Macdonald was that British Columbia be kept out of the hands of the Americans.
William McDougall, a former George Brown colleague and member of Macdonald’s Liberal-Conservative caucus, was the first governor of the newly acquired western territory. But the transfer of Rupert’s Land into Canada, set for December 1, 1869, did not conclude as planned, mainly because of conflicts with the Métis, who had established a semi-military organization along the Red River. Macdonald realized the magnitude of the problems he faced, and was sensitive to the dilemma of the Métis: “No explanation has been made of the arrangement by which the country (Rupert’s Land) is handed over to the Queen, and that it is her Majesty who transfers the country to Canada with the same rights to settlers as existed before. All these poor people know is that Canada has bought the country from the Hudson’s Bay Company, and that they are handed over like a flock of sheep to us.”
The situation was so precarious that Macdonald refused the territory when it came time to transfer the land into Canadian hands. Macdonald informed the Colonial Office: “Canada cannot accept NorthWest until peaceable possession can be given. We advise Colonial Office to delay issue a proclamation.”
Even if they were not directly involved in the Métis insurgency, Macdonald believed that the Americans relished Canada’s inability to secure western territory and may have been involved in fomenting Métis dissent. Writing to John Rose, Canada’s first minister of finance, Macdonald complained: “I cannot understand the desire of the Colonial Office, or of the Company, to saddle the responsibility of the government on Canada just now. It would so completely throw the game into the hands of the insurgents and the Yankee wirepullers, who are to some extent influencing and directing the movement from St. Paul that we cannot foresee the consequences.” Confederation must have seemed easy to Macdonald compared with the obstacles he faced in 1869. His dream of extending Canada from coast to coast was suddenly very much in doubt. To the east, the pro-Confederate government in Newfoundland had been defeated with no real prospects of change. Looking West, though Canada was assured title to the territory, its forces faced a self-declared provisional government at Red River under Métis leader Louis Riel.
While Macdonald was inclined to seek a peaceful settlement of grievances in the West, a party of Canadians, led by McDougall and his surveyor Colonel Stoughton Dennis, assembled an armed force to overtake the Riel led insurgents. In what Macdonald called a “series of inglorious intrigues,” the Canadian forces were defeated by the much larger Métis forces. Macdonald opposed the use of force and blamed much on McDougall and Dennis: “The two together have done their utmost to destroy our chance of an amicable settlement with these wild people, and now the probability is that our commissioners will fail and that we must be left to the exhibition of force next spring.”
Macdonald’s fears about absorbing the “wild west” had been realized. And there had been no opportunity to use his political skills to achieve a harmonious union. Canada had neither the financial capacity nor the military experience to conquer the inhospitable western territory. Macdonald feared that American interests and the Fenians would fund and support the rebel lion to forestall the British colony from extending its borders.
