Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 June 1891 — SIR JOHN MACDONALD [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

SIR JOHN MACDONALD

FIRST OF ENGLAND’S FMPIRE BUILDERS Since Clive and Hastings—The Affectionate Brgard in Which “Old To-Morrow” Was Held l»y the Dominion People— The Greatest Canadian Has Fought His Last Fight. It Is very long since any other man held a place so peculiar in the affairs of any country as Sir John A. Macdonald has won for himself in the affairs of the Dominion of Canada. There is not, nor has there been in modern times, a man in the Un ted states whoso demise could seriously disarrange the settled policy of the country. No such man now lives in England. The political obscuration of Bismarck did not disarrange the policy of Germany. There is no man now living in France whose death would cause a jar or a pouso in the motion of the politica! machinery of the country. But the death of Sir John will leave the Tories of the Dominion without a leader. While his life was devoted to the service of Canada, he was for many years one of the foremost men in the British Empire, distinguished above his fellows in tho-c vast colonies of Britain that girdle the earth. To look back over tho great retrospect of Sir John A. Macdonald's long public life is to review tho whole history of greater Canada. He was a native Scotchman, but ho became identified with the affairs of British North America before th* patriot war, commencing the practice of law in Kingston in 1836, in his 21st year. lie was active in political life from this time. Ho was first elected to the Parliament of Upper Canada more than forty-seven years ago. He was chosen lor Kingston, for which

city lie sat in Parliament at the close of his brilliant career. Hr John became a member of the Cabinet of Canada (then comprising Ontario and Quebeci early in 1847, as Commissioner of Crown Lands. He served nntil 1850. Ho was again a Cabinet officer from 1854 to 1858, as Attorney General. He first became Premier in 1358, and la’d firmly the foundation of his subsequent great fame. In 1802 he was Minister of Militia, and his Government suffered defeat on the militia bill of that year. For two years ho was tho leader of the Opposition, but did not endeavor to embarrass the Ministry, which was trying to administer the affairs of Canada on the policy of the double majority, or governing both Ontario and Quebec by its own preponderance of representative; in tho House. This effort was a complete failure. In May, 1803. John A. Macdonald moved in the House a vote of want of confidence in a powerful and logical speech, ever since remembered in Canadian history, aud regarded as one of the greatest of his life The vote carried, and from this day Macdonald s conspicuous leadership in Canadian politics was recognized everywhere. It was not nntii the following year that he again took a Cabinet office and became the acknowledged leader of the effort for the consolidation of all British North America into tf.ie Dominion. He was a delegate to tiio convention on Prince Edward's Island in 18(54, where the union was first projected, and tho leader in the second conference, at Quebec, later in the year. He was chairman of the London colonial conference of 18f5<57, and remained in Europe until the pa-sige of tho imperial a‘t for the consolidation of the North American provinces.

He relumed to the new world and was at once inirusted with the work of forming the first government of the great northern Anglo-Saxon nationality of which he had dreamed from his first entry into public life, and to which he had devoted many years. Ho became Premier of tho new confederation, and was knighted by the Queen. From 18(57 to (h 3 present time he has been the grandest ngure of the Canadian nation. With the exception of a few years in the early seventies he has continued the Premier of the greatest dependency of the British Crown, which ho did so much to make great and so nearly independent. Canada has grown in domain, in populat on, in wealth and in influence during all the years of Sir John’s preponderance in her affairs. She extends from ocean to ocean and from the lakes to the frozen sea. He was at tho very zenith of his grbat fame when the summons cam.;. He had hot found the sem-sovereign republic waich he created ungrateful, for the incense of the approval of the people came still fresh upon his senses from their last opportunity to express it. The greatest Canadian has fought his last fight; his remarab e career is at an end. All Canada aimer, ly mourns. I’ar-ti-ansh pis forgotten. At this visitation of death, a nat on is in tears. As the sweet singer who wears the laurel of the empire has said of another one gono before:

Fallen at length. That tower of strength; That stool four square To all the winds that blow.

SIR JOHN A. MACDONALD.