The Impact of the American Civil War on the Neighbors: Part Three

Part One.

Part two.

By the start of the American Civil War, Canada had experienced significant developments in telegraph and railroad lines between its otherwise parochial-minded regions.  For the first time, even if they were not speaking amicably or in agreement with one another, politicians and community leaders from the different parts of British North America were talking to one another.  The freedom of Quebec, the need for consolidation of the regions, a transcontinental railroad, and the consideration for a dominant capital were all among the topics hotly debated.  One particular concern, however, was at the forefront: The United States of America.  While the Quebecois laughed at the Ontarians who shook on their boots every time the southerners were spoken of, nobody was keen on the idea of Manifest Destiny taking a turn northwards.

Quebec might have proclaimed that it had nothing to fear from people who clearly were still not the best of friends with Britain, but it knew full well that its rights and culture would be just as much at odds with an English-speaking government in Washington as it was in London.  Ontario and Nova Scotia had every reason to be concerned about a third-generation attack on the descendants of Loyalist colonists, to say nothing of the fact that Ontario was quite a prize to take geographically.  To this day, complete control over the resources of the Great Lakes is still something very much coveted by certain portions of the United States government.  The memory of the Mexican-American war was just as fresh in the minds of Canadians as it was in Mexico, and just as everything from Texas to California had been seized in that conflict, fears had arisen regarding the annexation of British Columbia and southern Ontario by the United States.  Imagine a border at the continental divide and along the French and Ottawa rivers, for such might well have been the very least of what would have happened as an outcome of war between the two sides.  The politicians feared for their positions, while the ordinary people, especially the First Nations, wondered what would happen to their way of life and property.

Something had to be done, even while the various factions and regions were divided against one another.  In the end, the initiative was taken not by a trembling Ontarian, but by a Nova Scotian, Charles Tupper.

Charles Tupper, National Archives of Canada, PA-026317

Charles had a pretty good grasp of the big picture of what was going on in his time.  While Atlantic Canada did not feel much of a bond with distant Ontario, and with the possible exception of warm sentiments in strongly French-Canadian New Brunswick, did not feel much of anything for Quebec, the peoples of the Maritime lands, then as now, knew that continued isolation meant eventual take-over by the Americans.  Charles initially played his cards close to his vest, and proposed that the military vulnerability created by the existing regional separations could be lessened simply by a union of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland (whose invitation apparently got lost in the mail).  Britain, knowing full well how helpful this would be, strongly encouraged the matter, and by 1864 a conference at Charlottetown on Prince Edward Island was called for.  This worked far better than Charles had hoped, because upon learning about the conference, both Ontario and Quebec wanted to come as well.  On the 1st of September, 1864, men with very different opinions and methodologies set aside their differences in the face of invasion by a common enemy.

Charlottetown Conference Delegates, National Archives of Canada, C-000733

Come by tomorrow for part four.