MACDONALD 



3556 



MACDONALD 



Organization and Expansion. The difficulties 

 of organizing the Dominion called for infinite 

 tact and resource on the part of Macdonald. 

 The jealousies of the provinces had to be 

 smoothed over, yet the rights of the new Do- 

 minion had to be maintained. Sir John (he 

 was created Knight Commander of the Order 

 of the Bath in 1867) was strongly in favor of 

 the aggressive assertion of the rights of the 

 new Dominion, but in the principal legal bat- 

 tle, the Ontario-Manitoba boundary question, 

 which this position caused, he was defeated. 

 The North West Territories were secured by 

 purchase of the Hudson's Bay Company's ter- 

 ritorial rights, and Manitoba was organized as 

 a province. Sir John went to Washington, 

 D. C., in 1870 as one of the commissioners to 

 settle the Alabama case and the fisheries dis- 

 pute, and was one of the signers of the Treaty 

 of Washington in 1871. The construction of 

 the Canadian Pacific Railway, which was one of 

 the most important projects in which the gov- 

 ernment was concerned, cost Sir John the 

 Premiership in 1873, when it was learned that 

 the Conservative party had accepted money 

 from the railway's promoters for use in elec- 

 tion campaigns. Public indignation compelled 

 Sir John's resignation, although it was known 

 that he had not personally profited. 



During the next five years Canada, like the 

 United States, suffered from severe industrial 

 depression. The Conservatives seized the op- 

 portunity of the elections of 1878 to offer a pro- 

 tective tariff as the first remedy for depression. 

 Their "national policy," as it was popularly 

 called, won the voters' approval, with the re- 

 sult that Sir John again became Premier and 

 served until his death in 1891. During these 

 years the record of Sir John's life is practically 

 the history of Canada. Most of his efforts 

 were directed to the organization and develop- 

 ment of the great Northwest. He immediately 

 took up again the question of a transconti- 

 nental railway, and discarding the Liberal 

 policy of government construction, contracted 

 with a syndicate of capitalists to complete the 

 work. The Canadian Pacific Railway was com- 

 pleted in November, 1885. In the same year 

 occurred the Saskatchewan or North West Re- 

 bellion, which was the direct result of westward 

 expansion (see SASKATCHEWAN REBELLION). 

 Sir John's last public appeal, in the elections 

 of 1891, was to the voters to defeat the pro- 

 posed Liberal program of trade reciprocity with 

 the United States. The excitement and anxiety 

 of the contest brought on a stroke of paralysis, 



which caused his death, on June 6, 1891. His 

 widow was created Baroness Macdonald of 

 Earnscliffe, Earnscliffe Hall being the name of 

 the Macdonald home in Ottawa. G.H.L. 



Consult Pope's Memoirs of Sir John Alexander 

 Macdonald; Parkin's Sir John A. Macdonald, in 

 The Makers of Canada Series ; Biggar's Anec- 

 dotal Life of Sit John Macdonald. 



MACDONALD, JOHN SANDFIELD (1812-1872), 

 a Canadian statesman, Premier of Canada 

 from 1862 to 1864, and from 1867 to 1871 first 

 premier of the province of Ontario, a man who 

 is conspicuous in Canadian history for his in- 

 dependence of party ties. Even as a boy he 

 displayed his independence by running away 

 from home on more than one occasion when 

 parental discipline seemed to him unjust or 

 too stern. For a number of years he worked 

 as a clerk in a store at Cornwall, Ont., but 

 being dissatisfied with his prospects there, be- 

 gan the study of law. He was called to the 

 bar in 1840, and a year later began his public 

 career as a member of the Canadian assembly. 

 He became the leader of the reform party, but 

 his party allegiance was uncertain when mei 

 names were at stake. Though originally electe 

 as a Conservative, he was solicitor-general fc 

 Upper Canada in the Liberal Baldwin-Lafoi 

 taine Ministry from 1849 to 1851, and in 

 again accepted a place (attorney-general) 

 the Liberal Brown-Dorion Ministry. Froi 

 1852 to 1854 he was speaker of the assembly. 



On most public issues Macdonald was a Lit 

 eral, but he was one of the few Upper Cana- 

 dians who opposed "representation by popula- 

 tion," one of the Liberal planks for a genera- 

 tion. On many occasions he voted with the 

 Tories, yet he never attended a Tory meeting 

 or had intimate alliance with that party's lead- 

 ers. Although a Roman Catholic, he was never 

 an advocate of separate schools. From 1862 

 to 1864 he was Premier. His Ministry was not 

 a strong one, and was succeeded by a Con- 

 servative one headed by Sir John A. Macdon- 

 ald, who was not related to John Sandfield. 

 The latter opposed Confederation, but after 

 the passage of the British North America Act 

 became its loyal supporter. In 1867 he was 

 called on to organize the provincial govern- 

 ment of Ontario. During his Ministry were 

 established the provincial agricultural college 

 and many of the other public institutions of 

 the province. After four years, during which 

 the government was operated efficiently and 

 economically, Macdonald resigned the Premier- 

 ship and retired from public lifc 



