Diplomacy or duplicity? Lord Lisgar, John A. Macdonald, and the Treaty of Washington, 1871
2004; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 32; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/03086530410001700390
ISSN1743-9329
Autores Tópico(s)Canadian Policy and Governance
ResumoClick to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes D. Creighton, John A. Macdonald: The Old Chieftain (Toronto, 1955), 84–85. J.B. Brebner, North Atlantic Triangle: The Interplay of Canada, the United States and Great Britain (New Haven, 1945), 197. Sir John Young was raised to the peerage in 1870, but for convenience the title Lisgar will be used consistently here. Dictionary of National Biography, xxi, 1296–97. See also C.A. Thompson, ‘Young, Sir John, Baron Lisgar’, in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, x, 728–29; J. Cowan, Canada's Governors General (Toronto, 1965), 11–17; J. Pope, Memoirs of Macdonald (Ottawa, 1894), 370–71; J.B. Conacher, ‘Peel and the Peelites, 1846–1850’, English Historical Review, 73 (July 1958), 431–52; F.D. Munsell, The Unfortunate Duke: Henry Pelham, Fifth Duke of Newcastle, 1811–1864 (Columbia, MI, 1985), 82–87; and R. Blake, Disraeli (London, 1966), 495. A very useful survey article on Lisgar's Canadian career has been published in Australia. See D. O'Donnell, ‘Lord Lisgar: From New South Wales to Governor-General of Canada’, Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society, LXXVI (1991), 254–73. C. Tupper to John A. Macdonald, 26 May 1868, C. Tupper, Recollections of Sixty Years in Canada (London, 1914), 94. R.H. Hubbard, Rideau Hall: An Illustrated History (Montreal, 1977), 17. F. Randal, ‘Rideau Hall – Past and Present’, Canadian Magazine, xii (1898), 151. J.C. Dent, Canadian Portrait Gallery, iv, 40; H.J. Morgan, Types of Canadian Women (Toronto, 1903), i, 205. A. Spitere, ‘Chatelaines at Rideau Hall, 1861–1904’, M.A. thesis, Acadia, 1985, 16. I am indebted to the present baronet, Sir John Young of Maidstone, Kent, for his kind willingness to share family legends relating to Lisgar. Goldwin Smith, as quoted in J.C. Dent, The Last Forty Years (Toronto, 1881), ii, 518. As quoted in L. Reynolds, Agnes: The Biography of Lady Macdonald (Toronto, 1979), 62. Macdonald to Lisgar, 2 Sept. 1872, J. Pope, Correspondence of Sir John Macdonald (Toronto, 1921), 177. R.C. Stuart, United States Expansionism and British North America, 1775–1871 (Chapel Hill, 1988), 238–61, provides an overview of the political, commercial and ideological differences that complicated relations. See also G. Smith, The Treaty of Washington, 1871: A Study in Imperial History (Ithaca, 1941); G.P. de T. Glazebrook, History of Canadian External Relations (Ottawa, 1965), i; A. Nevins, Hamilton Fish: The Inner History of the Grant Administration (New York, 1957 edn.), i, ii; A. Cook, The Alabama Claims: American Politics and Anglo-American Relations, 1865–1872 (Ithaca, 1975); L.B. Shippee, Canadian–American Relations 1849–1874 (New Haven, 1939). R.W. Winks, Canada and the United States: The Civil War Years (Baltimore, 1960) provides useful background. J.C. Bancroft Davis, Mr. Fish and the Alabama Claims: A Chapter in Diplomatic History (Freeport, NY, 1969 reprint of 1893 edn.); and Caleb Cushing, The Treaty of Washington (New York, 1873), provide contemporary American perspectives on the issues. J. Pope, Memoirs of Macdonald, provides a useful Canadian perspective. G.P. de T. Glazebrook, History of Canadian External Relations, i, 101. Caleb Cushing, The Treaty of Washington, 226–40, rejected the idea that the War of 1812 should have cancelled the existing fishing arrangements. Caleb Cushing, of course, was not an impartial observer. Cushing, who had been attorney general in the Pierce administration, was an acknowledged Anglophobe and a key advisor to President Grant on the Alabama claims. Cardwell to Monck, confidential, 3 March 1866, Shippee, Canadian–American Relations, 262–63; Monck MSS, Frederick Bruce to Monck, private, 6 July 1866, A 755, National Archives of Canada (hereafter NAC). H.C. Carey, The British Treaties of 1871 & 1874: Letters to the President of the United States (Philadelphia, 1874), 3–5. Hon. Charles Sumner to H.B. Willson, 6 July 1869, Colonial Office Correspondence (hereafter CO) 42/695, Simon Fraser University Library microfilm. Brebner, North Atlantic Triangle, 175; Cook, Alabama Claims, 73–89. Nevins, Hamilton Fish, i, 296–97. Cook, Alabama Claims, 141; Caleb Cushing also looked forward to the ‘glorious consummation’ of the relationship between Canada and the United States. ‘[I]f it be possible to conceive of two countries, which would appear to be mutually destined to constitute one Government, they are the United States and the British Provinces, to the special advantage of the latter rather than the former.’ Cushing, Treaty of Washington, 255, 253. Thornton to Young, 10 Feb. 1870, CO 537/101; Bancroft Davis, Mr. Fish and the Alabama Claims, 44–46. Bancroft Davis was a member of the American delegation. Farr, Colonial Office, 176–78. Shippee, Canadian–American Relations, 266–70; 354 licences had been issued in 1866, as compared to only 25 in 1869. Review of President Grant's Message…relative to the Canadian Fisheries…(Ottawa, 12 Dec. 1870), CO 537/101. Young to Granville, Secret, 23 June 1870, CO 537/101; Kimberley MSS, Young to Kimberley, private, 25 July and 9 Aug. 1870, A 314, NAC. F. Bruce to Monck, 6 Aug. 1866, CO 537/101. Carnarvon's advice was the same. See Carnarvon to Monck, private, 7 July 1866, A 756, Monck MSS. Fish to J. Motley, dispatch 147, 11 Feb. 1870, 22: 147, United States. Records of the Department of State, Diplomatic Instructions, Great Britain, Simon Fraser University microfilm (hereafter Diplomatic Instructions). Kimberley to Young, private, 28 July and 10 Aug. 1870, Kimberley MSS, A 314. Young to Granville, dispatch 131, 9 June 1870, British Parliamentary Papers Relating to Canada 1867–74 (Shannon, 1970), xxvii, 617. Report by A. Campbell to His Excellency…Sir John Young, Ottawa, 10 Sept. 1870, CO 42/696. Kimberley to Young, private, 28 July, 24 Aug. 1870, Kimberley MSS, A 314. Young to Kimberley, secret, dispatch 66, 9 Sept. 1870, CO 537/101; Young to Kimberley, private, 2 Sept. 1870, Kimberley MSS, A 314. Macdonald to Young, 31 Oct. 1870, Pope, Memoirs of Macdonald, 440. Young to Kimberley, secret, dispatch 70, 23 Sept. 1870, CO 537/101. Young to Kimberley, private, 27 Oct. 1870, Kimberley MSS, A 314. Young to Kimberley, private, 4 Nov. 1870, and Young to Thornton, 4 [?] Nov. 1870, excerpt, enclosure, Granville MSS, B 894, NAC. Thornton to Granville, private, 15, 18 Nov. 1870, Granville MSS, B 895. Young to Thornton, private, 14 Nov. 70, marked closed 17 Nov. 1870, CO 537/101. Thornton to Granville, 22 Nov. 1870, Granville MSS, B 895. Kimberley to Lisgar, private, 20 Nov. 1870, Kimberley MSS, A 314. In Oct. 1870 Russia, taking advantage of France's preoccupation with Prussia, repudiated the ‘Black Sea’ clauses of the 1856 Treaty of Paris. The treaty, ending the Crimean War, had denied Russia the right to build military or naval establishments on the shores of the Black Sea. D. Thomson, Europe Since Napoleon (Harmondsworth, 1966), 242–49, 321. In the United States, Bancroft Davis proposed that the instability in Europe offered an opportunity for the Americans. ‘What a time this would be’, he wrote to Fish, ‘to strike in London for the independence of Canada and the settlement of the Alabama Claims.’ Cook, Alabama Claims, 135. Kimberley to Gladstone, private, copy, 9 Dec. 1870, Cardwell MSS, B 532, NAC. Lisgar to Kimberley, private, 8 Dec. 1870, Kimberley MSS, A 314. W.L. Morton, The Critical Years: The Union of British North America, 1857–1873 (Toronto, 1964), 253. Lisgar to Kimberley, private, 8 Dec. 1870, Kimberley MSS, A 314. The previous year, Butler had publicly proposed that the United States should issue a proclamation of non-intercourse, denying Britain access to the American market, in order to increase pressure to settle the Alabama claims. Cook, Alabama Claims, 81, 135–39, 147–49. Thornton to Granville, private, 27 Sept. 1870, Granville MSS, B 895. Thornton to Granville, private, 4 Oct. 1870, Granville MSS, B 895. Lisgar to Kimberley, private, 8 Dec. 1870, Kimberley MSS, A 314. Ibid.; Kimberley to Granville, private, 23 Dec. 1870, Granville MSS, B 894. Thornton to Granville, private, 13 Dec. 1870, Granville MSS, B 895. ‘He proposes’ was probably stretching the point. It appears that Tupper was aware of Lisgar's suggestion and it is probable that he concurred in it, but the suggestion does not seem to have originated with him, and indeed Lisgar claims it elsewhere as his own. Lisgar to Thornton, private, 28 Dec. 1870, CO 537/101. Rose also had to combat the American impression that Canada's separation from Britain was imminent. ‘Haul down the flag and all will be right’, Sumner advised him. Cook, Alabama Claims, 159–60. Thornton to Granville, 14 Feb. 1871, Granville MSS, B 895; Bancroft Davis, Mr. Fish and the Alabama Claims, 59–66. Rose to Granville, 10 Jan. 1871, Smith, Treaty of Washington, 33. Smith, Treaty of Washington, 33. Diplomatic Instructions, Fish to General Robert Schenck, 3 Feb. 1871, dispatch 2, 22. Kimberley to Lisgar, private and confidential, 26 Jan. 1871, Kimberley MSS, A 314. Lisgar to Kimberley, secret, 11 Jan. 1871, CO 537/102; Lisgar to Kimberley, private, 26 Jan. 1871, Kimberley MSS, A 314. Nevins, Hamilton Fish, ii, 471. Macdonald to Lisgar, confidential, 4 Feb. 1871, CO 537/102. Macdonald feared the effect his absence would have on domestic politics. The forthcoming parliamentary session would be an important one, he knew, and the prospect of leaving his French-Canadian lieutenant, George-Etienne Cartier, to deal with Ontario members outraged over the late Red River Rebellion was disquieting. Macdonald's secretary, Joseph Pope, recalled that Macdonald ascribed his defeat in 1873 to his absence in 1871. Memoirs of Macdonald, 445. Further, British Columbia's entry into Confederation, including controversial terms for the construction of a transcontinental railway, secured passage during Macdonald's absence. See Careless, Brown of the Globe, ii, 284. Lisgar to Kimberley, secret, dispatch no.105, 9 Feb. 1871, secret, telegram, 9 Feb. 1871, and secret, dispatch no.108, 23 Feb. 1871, CO 537/102. The other commissioners were (for Britain) Oxford Professor Mountague Bernard, Earl de Grey and Ripon, Sir Stafford Northcote, Lord Tenterden, and Sir Edward Thornton. The American appointees were Senator Rockwood Hoar; General Robert C. Schenck, the newly appointed Minister to England; Senator George H. Williams; Justice Samuel Nelson; J.C. Bancroft Davis, Assistant Secretary of State; and Secretary of State Hamilton Fish. See Nevins, Hamilton Fish, ii, 450, 474. Kimberley to Lisgar, private, 26 Feb. 1871, Kimberley MSS, A 314. Thornton to Granville, 14 Feb. 1871, Granville MSS, B 895. Kimberley to Lisgar, telegram, secret, 4 Feb. 1871, CO 537/102; Kimberley to Lisgar, dispatch, confidential, 16 Feb. 1871, CO 42/697. This is also printed in British Parliamentary Papers Relating to Canada, 1867–74, xxvii, 619–20. Canadian fishery concerns, far from being treated as an annoying addendum to the real work of settling outstanding Anglo-American differences, occupied 17 sessions, as opposed to the ten devoted to the Alabama claims and four to the San Juan boundary. Nevins, Hamilton Fish, 475–77. Macdonald to Tupper, 5 March 1871, Pope, Memoirs of Macdonald, 447–49. Creighton, John A. Macdonald, ii, 84–85. Macdonald to Campbell, 6 March 1871, and Macdonald to Cartier, 11 March 1871, Macdonald MSS, C 29, NAC. Macdonald to Hincks, March 1871, Macdonald MSS, C 29. On 6 April 1871 Macdonald cabled Tupper in cypher that the British ambassador told him that Lisgar had said Tupper considered $200,000 to be sufficient compensation. Tupper replied the following day that the ambassador ‘must have misunderstood [the] Governor General who told Cartier I was angry at his having suggested such a thing’. Macdonald MSS, C 1581, NAC. See also O.D. Skelton, the Life and Times of Sir Alexander Tilloch Galt (Toronto, 1920), 496–504. Skelton described the attempt by George Brown and Edward Thornton in 1874 to negotiate a renewal of reciprocity, a measure that ultimately failed to win the support of the US Senate. Around this time, Galt wrote to Macdonald seeking his recollections about how the figure of $200,000 had been arrived at. Thornton told Galt that Macdonald ‘did not say so in so many words, but…qualif[ied] the proposal as very indiscreet’ and implied that Lisgar made the suggestion without the full knowledge and consent of his ministers. [9 June 1875] Macdonald's letter to Galt, however, confirmed that there was no formal offer and ‘we are in no way held to any definite proposition’ [31 May 1875]. de Grey to Gladstone, telegram, 30 April 1871, Granville MSS, B 895. Kimberley to Granville, private, 21 Feb. 1871, Granville MSS, B 894. Francis Hincks to Macdonald, confidential, 15 Feb. 1871, Macdonald MSS, C 1580. Macdonald to Lisgar, private, 7 May 1871, Macdonald MSS, C 29. Lisgar to Kimberley, decipher of secret telegram, 10 March 1871, CO 42/697. Ibid., Kimberley reply to Lisgar, decipher of secret telegram, 11 March 1871. Macdonald to Tupper, private, 17 March and 21 March 1871, Pope, Memoirs of Macdonald, 449–51. Lisgar to Kimberley, private, 9 March 1871, Kimberley MSS, A 314. Lack of American good faith had been a frequent theme in Lisgar's letters for some time. See also Lisgar to Kimberley, private, 9 Jan. 1871. Lisgar to Macdonald, 12 March 1871, Smith, Treaty of Washington, 59–60; Macdonald to Tupper, telegraph, 22 March 1871, and Tupper to Macdonald, telegraph, 24 March 1871, Macdonald MSS, C 1581. Thornton to Granville, private, 21 March 1871, Granville MSS, B 895. Macdonald to de Grey, 25 March 1871, Pope, Memoirs of Macdonald, Appendix XXI, 756. British Parliamentary Papers Relating to Canada, 1867–74, xxvii, Report of a Committee of…the Privy Council…20 Jan. 1872, 629. See also Fish's diary entry for 12 April 1871, in Nevins, Hamilton Fish, in which Fish records that he told de Grey that he was ‘rather glad that they [the Canadians] are not willing to accept our proposals for the settlement of the fisheries, as I find the universal impression that we have proposed to give too much, and that the concessions offered would probably jeopardize the ratification of the treaty’, 477. Lisgar to Kimberley, private, 6 April 1871, Kimberley MSS, A 314. The other key issues, the Alabama claims and the San Juan boundary, were to be settled by arbitration. Macdonald to Cartier, private and confidential, 16 April 1871, Kimberley MSS, A 314. Macdonald to Tupper, 21 April 1871, Pope (ed.), Correspondence of Macdonald, 484. Lisgar to Kimberley, private, 24 April and 4 May 1871, Kimberley MSS, A 314. Lisgar to Herbert, 4 May 1871, Granville MSS, B 895. Macdonald to Tupper, private, 1 April 1871, Macdonald MSS, C 29. Macdonald to Alexander Morris, private and confidential, 21 April 1871, Pope (ed.), Correspondence of Macdonald, 145. Fish diary, 8 May 1871, Nevins, Hamilton Fish, 490; See also Macdonald to de Grey, private and confidential, 26 April 1871, Macdonald MSS, C 29. de Grey to Granville, 19 March 1871, Smith, Treaty of Washington, 63; de Grey to Granville, 21 April 1871, Morton, Critical Years, 256. Lisgar to Kimberley 11 May 1871, enclosure, Macdonald to Francis Hincks, n.d., Kimberley MSS, A 314. Ibid., Lisgar's postscript, and Minutes by Kimberley, 23 May 1871, and Gladstone 25 May 1871. Creighton has read this word as ‘conjure’. Creighton, John A. Macdonald, ii, 109. Paraphrasing Proverbs, 1:17. Kimberley to Lisgar, private, 25 May 1871, Kimberley MSS, A 314. Lisgar to Kimberley, private, 20 July 1871, Kimberley MSS, A 314. A copy of the letter to Macdonald to which Lisgar refers [dated 7 July 1871] may be found in CO 537/102. Lisgar to Kimberley, private, 30 Aug. 1871, and private, 20 July 1871, Kimberley MSS, A 314. A short while later, the Conservatives lost control of the provincial administration of Ontario. A Liberal administration under the premiership of Edward Blake was formed, and it is probable that the failure to secure reciprocity was a key factor. Morton, Critical Years, 254, 259–60. The decision to withdraw the imperial garrisons was in keeping with that philosophy of empire, growing since the late 1840s, that the colonial possessions should bear greater responsibility for their own defence. The large-scale reinforcement of British North American defences during the American Civil War was not a reversal of this general policy, but a response to an immediate threat. The restoration of peace meant that the trend toward withdrawal would be continued. Useful background may be found in C.P. Stacey, ‘Britain's Withdrawal from North America 1864–1871’, Canadian Historical Review, XXXVI (1955), 185–98; C.P. Stacey, Canada and the British Army (Toronto, 1963), 204–63. Kimberley to Cardwell, private, 6 and 26 Sept. 1871, Cardwell MSS, B 532. Lisgar supported the overall aim to reduce colonial dependency upon British defence. He felt, however, that the seriousness of the Fenian threat was underestimated in Britain. Stacey, Canada and the British Army, 211. Lisgar to Kimberley, private, 22 Jan. 1872, Kimberley MSS, A 314. Carman Miller, ‘Lisgar, Sir John Young, Baron’, The Canadian Encyclopedia, 2nd edn. (Edmonton, 1988), ii, 1217. Kimberley to Lisgar, dispatch no.58, 18 March 1872, British Parliamentary Papers, xxvii, 630; Lisgar to Kimberley, dispatch [no. ?], 30 May 1872, ibid., 690; Lisgar to Kimberley, 17 May 1872, Kimberley MSS, A 314.
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