Rt. Hon. Sir Charles Tupper, With an Introduction by THE RT. HON. SIR R. L. BORDEN, K.C.M.G. Eight Photogravure Plates VOL. I NEW YORK FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY PUBLISHERS INTRODUCTION By the Rt. Hon. Sir R. L. BORDEN, K.C.M.G. FOR Canadians the life of Sir Charles Tupper needs no introduction. His career as a public man is indissolubly associated with the history of Canada since Confederation. He entered public life at the age of thirty-four in his native province of Nova Scotia, and during the twelve years which ensued before Confederation, his public record gave abundant evidence of the magnificent courage, the fine optimism and the breadth of vision which invariably characterised him in the wider arena in which he was destined to play so distinguished a part. When he entered the Legislature of Nova Scotia in 1855 his party was in opposition. Under the inspiration of his virtual though not nominal leadership, it came into power two years later; and, although defeated in 1859, he became Premier in 1863 with a large majority behind him. Religious controversy was not unknown in Nova Scotia in those days, although happily no province in Canada is more entirely free from such dissensions at present. To this happy result the influence of Sir Charles Tupper contributed in no small measure. In the field of constructive statesmanship Sir Charles Tupper directed his energies to two great questions. Clearly realising that railways were the modern highways of commerce, he advocated an advanced policy of railway construction. In this respect he foreshadowed the memorable part he was destined to take in the construction of a national highway that should bind together the scat tered provinces and territories of the Greater Canada that was to be. He realised also the necessity of better opportunity for education among the people. The facilities for higher education in Nova Scotia were excellent, but there was no system of public schools. There was, of course, an ignorant impatience of the taxation which his proposals involved, but the courage which never failed him carried through the measure, against which in a few years no voice of protest was heard. Men had been dreaming for years of a nation on the northern half of this Continent which would embrace all the British Possessions. The proposal appealed to Tupper's imagination, and, as a preliminary step, he moved and carried in the Legislature of Nova Scotia in 1864 a resolution favouring the union of the three Maritime Provinces, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island, as a prelude to a still greater union. This action acted as a spur to the activities of the Upper Province statesmen. The Maritime Province meeting was to be held at Charlottetown on September 1, 1864. The Upper Province representatives asked to be admitted to the Conference. They were cordially welcomed; and after frank discussion of the subject, the Conference was adjourned to October 10 at Quebec, where the basis was laid for the subsequent Confederation. In that Conference Tupper played a great part, and considering the difficulties which arose in New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island, as well as the tremendous opposition which developed in Nova Scotia under the eloquent leadership of Howe, it is not too much to say that if he had been a man of less invincible courage and determination, the project of Confederation might have been postponed for many years. For the sake of allaying political difficulties which Sir John A. Macdonald had encountered in forming the first Government of the new Dominion, Tupper insisted that |