Canadian
political leader John A. McDonald was a lawyer born in Scotland; he
believed the American system of government to be “immoral” and “horrid.”
He had attended an 1856 American political convention and was shocked
at the floor lobbying, revealing that “talent and worth counted for
little and low trickery very much.” Many Confederate agents sent to
Canada arrived in that country via blockade runners from Wilmington, to
Bermuda and Halifax.
Bernhard Thuersam, Chairman
North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial Commission
"Unsurpassed Valor, Courage and Devotion to Liberty"
"The Official Website of the North Carolina WBTS Sesquicentennial"
What a Brave Fight the South Has Made
“MacDonald
had an enormous feel for statecraft and was an unrivalled leader of men
[with] a talent for using the system to his advantage. When it came to
the United States, MacDonald had what American author Robin Winks has
described as “a bundle of anti-American prejudices.” It is true that he
disliked the American system of government. He saw the electoral process
as a popularity contest between candidates and the separation of the
executive and legislative branches as inefficient and lacking the checks
and balances found in the parliamentary system.
He
disliked Lincoln’s suspension of civil rights, including habeas corpus,
which allowed for arrest and detention without trial. He believed the
war was a result of the defects in the way Americans had devised their
Constitution and wanted to ensure that it did not happen in Canada.
George-Etienne
Cartier, MacDonald’s Quebec lieutenant . . . favored Confederation.
Like MacDonald, he thought poorly of republican government and felt that
if French Canada had to choose between the evils of the English and the
Americans, they would choose the English.
He
believed in the constant possibility of an American invasion, and saw
the Confederacy as a way to distract the Northern States from such a
move. If the South were victorious it removed the possibility entirely.
[The
Canadian federation framers] believed that the Confederate States had
been encouraged in their rebellion by the fatal clause in the American
Constitution that provided that all powers not specifically assigned to
the federal government were reserved by the States. This error could be
avoided by doing the opposite – investing the federal government with
all powers not vested with the provinces.
[Macdonald
pushed for Canadian Confederation and told an audience that] they could
make a great nation, capable of defending itself, and he reminded them
of “the gallant defence that is being made by the Southern Republic – at
this moment they have not much more than four millions of men – not
much exceeding our own numbers – yet what a brave fight they have made.”
(Dixie
and the Dominion, Canada, the Confederacy, and the War for the Union,
Adam Mayers, The Dundurn Group, 2003, pp. 92; 95-98)
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