Laurier: A Study in Canadian Politics | Page 2

clear he was glad to do for one
who engaged his ardent affection and admiration. There were memories
in the house of Laurier's eloquence; but memories only. During this
session he was almost silent. The tall, courtly figure was a familiar
sight in the chamber and in the library--particularly in the library,
where he could be found every day ensconced in some congenial
alcove; but the golden voice was silent. It was known that his friends
were concerned about his health.
LAURIER AND THE RIEL AGITATION

The "accident" which restored Laurier to public life and opened up for
him an extraordinary career was the Riel rebellion of 1885. In the
session of 1885, the rebellion being then in progress, he was heard from
to some purpose on the subject of the ill treatment of the Saskatchewan
half-breeds by the Dominion government. The execution of Riel in the
following November changed the whole course of Canadian politics. It
pulled the foundations from under the Conservative party by destroying
the position of supremacy which it had held for a generation in the
most Conservative of provinces and condemned it to a slow decline to
the ruin of to-day; and it profoundly affected the Liberal party, giving it
a new orientation and producing the leader who was to make it the
dominating force in Canadian politics. These things were not realized
at the time, but they are clear enough in retrospect. Party policy, party
discipline, party philosophy are all determined by the way the
constituent elements of the party combine; and the shifting from the
Conservative to the Liberal party of the political weight of Quebec, not
as the result of any profound change of conviction but under the
influence of a powerful racial emotion, was bound to register itself in
time in the party outlook and morale. The current of the older tradition
ran strong for some time, but within the space of about twenty years the
party was pretty thoroughly transformed. The Liberal party of to-day
with its complete dependence upon the solid support it gets in Quebec
is the ultimate result of the forces which came into play as the result of
the hanging of Riel.
After the lapse of so many years there is no need for lack of candor in
discussing the events of 1885. To put it plainly Riel's fate turned almost
entirely upon political considerations. Which was the less dangerous
course,--to reprieve him or let him hang? The issue was canvassed back
and forth by the distracted ministry up to the day before that fixed for
the execution when a decision was reached to let the law take its course.
The feeling in Quebec in support of the commutation was so intense
and overwhelming that it was accepted as a matter of course that Riel
would be reprieved; and the news of the contrary decision was to them,
as Professor Skelton says, "unbelievable." The actual announcement of
the hanging was a match to a powder magazine. That night there were
mobs on the streets of Montreal and Sir John Macdonald was burned in
effigy in Dominion square. On the following Sunday forty thousand

people swarmed around the hustings on Champ de Mars and heard the
government denounced in every conceivable term of verbal violence by
speakers of every tinge of political belief. This outpouring of a
common indignation with its obliteration of all the usual lines of
demarcation was the result of the "wounding of the national
self-esteem" by the flouting of the demand for leniency, as it was put
by La Minerve. Mercier put it still more strongly when he declared that
"the murder of Riel was a declaration of war upon French Canadian
influence in Confederation." A binding cement for this union of
elements ordinarily at war was sought for in the creation of the "parti
national" which a year later captured the provincial Conservative
citadel at Quebec and turned it over to Honore Mercier. This violent
racial movement raged unchecked in the provincial arena, but in the
federal field it was held in leash by Laurier. That he saw the
possibilities of the situation is not to be doubted. He took part in the
demonstration on Champ de Mars and in his speech 'made a
declaration--"Had I been born on the banks of the Saskatchewan I
myself would have shouldered a musket"--which riveted nation-wide
attention upon him. Laurier followed this by his impassioned apology
for the halfbreeds and their leader in the House of Commons, of which
deliverance Thomas White, of the assailed ministry, justly said: "It was
the finest parliamentary speech ever pronounced in the parliament of
Canada since Confederation." In the debate on the execution of Riel all
the orators of parliament took part. It was the occasion for one of
Blake's greatest