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

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

On the whole, the Charlottetown conference had gone rather well for all involved.  Prince Edward Island was the sole region to voice reluctance regarding a possible union of Canada, with pretty much everyone else agreeing that the benefits of union were not only helpful in dealing with the Americans, but in helping move the regions towards a stronger economic future.  By late 1864, the American Civil War was looking as if it would wind down.  General Grant had made significant progress in splitting apart the Confederacy, and Union victory was looking to be something that would inevitably happen.   The participants at Charlottetown were well aware of this situation, and a union of their own seemed to grow in importance, but they probably also noticed how well they were all conducting themselves at what could have easily turned into a far more volatile meeting.  Most of the conference, in fact, was spent simply outlining positions regarding possible confederation, rather than arguing over its merits.  Remarkably, in the course of a mere week, the participants found themselves moving from a loose proposition to a desire to make union happen within several years.  As the nature of the conference was still considered to be an introduction of concepts, the proceedings closed without any manifested moves towards confederation, but all involved agreed to meet within a month.  They did so in October at Quebec City.

The gathered delegates at the Quebec conference.  Library and Archives Canada, C-006530.

The Quebec conference took things well beyond the level of proposition.  As noted, Charlottetown's conference closed with a strong desire of most participating bodies to see confederation happen, and soon.  By the time the delegates met again on the 10th of October, debates were being had over the nature of a federal government in a possible confederation.  In what would come to define Canadian politics ever since, Quebec and the Maritimes insisted on strong provincial rights and powers, mostly to safeguard their identities.  At the same time, proponents of a stronger federal government basically pointed south out of the windows and reminded the delegates how strong "states' rights" caused a very costly and bitterly dividing war that the Americans were still engaged in after four long years.  This cause was championed by none other than John A. MacDonald, the first Prime Minister of Canada.

Library and Archives Canada

John would have had some heavy debating to do, especially in confronting Quebec.  Fortunately, he had the foresight to engage the opposition and seek out compromises, something he had been doing for years with two very good friends, George Brown and French-Canadian superhero George-Etienne Cartier. 

Monsieur George!  Man could we ever use another one of him these days.

While George Brown fell out of the grand coalition that these three were instrumental in creating (over tariff issues), George of Quebec stood with John as long as his legs would let him.  The Quebec conference ended in a fair sketch of the system Canada uses these days, with the provinces allowed to safeguard their cultural and legal identities, while the federal government would be responsible for making sure that the provinces would work together and not try to act unilaterally.  At the time, and at the risk of sounding overly positive, in all subsequent history, this compromise pretty much satisfied all the parties involved.  Things still had to be approved of over in London, but considering as how the British government was pushing confederation from the start, all that was left to do there would be to actually draft some sort of an act detailing the creation of, well, Canada.  A few more issues were left to be hammered out, mostly cultural and involving education rights within the provinces.  On December 4, 1866, the British North America act was debated in London, and on March 29th, 1867, Queen Victoria told them all to basically get on with it.  We all know what happened on July 1st of that year and every subsequent years... celebration.

So why give out a history of how Canada came to be in a post about what the Civil War did to the continent?  Aside from the obvious matter that the threat of invasion had some people spooked up north, the very purpose of the Civil War, essentially a sealing of the purpose for creating the United States in the first place, affected not only the republic, but the rest of the world that had been paying close attention to the great American experiment in democracy.  The fathers of Confederation were not just looking out the south windows to see if shots were headed their way, but to understand what the whole venture of people on the continent was shaping up to be in the first place.  Individual rights and localization of government had come to question in the fight of brother against brother, while to the north it produced not a war but a separate nation following its own destiny.  As such, it might be easy to say that Canada exists because Canadians did not wish to become Americans, or that Canada exists because of the United States, when in fact the truth of the matter lies more in the reality that both nations exist because people decided that they wanted to protect their best interests and right to self-determination.

As was the case in Mexico, Canada survived the years following the Civil War because the cause of freedom took on a very fresh and powerful meaning for the re-United States.  The Canadians essentially told both the United States and Britain that they wanted to stand on their own, something that might never have happened had not the Americans had to again make that sort of choice for themselves.  As we remember the war in these years of the 150th anniversary, we would do well to also remember what a profound effect it had on the development of not one, but three nations.