News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1890-10-16
The United States and Canada.

One of the results of the new tariff
law which was not considered when
that excellent measure was framed is
the furnishing of d new campaign ar
gument to the Tory party of Cana
da. The protective duties against
Canadian products which were
prompted not by hostility to the
Dominion, but by very natural re-
gard for the interests of the United
States, are being made the preteXt
for a very vigorous waving OF the
British flag by Sir John Macdonald
and his colleagues of the Canadian
Government. These gentlemen, har-
angling their "loyal" constituents,
insist that the secret purpose OF the
increased duties is to force Canada
into a hateful political union with
the United States, which, as being
born subjects of the British Queen,
the Canadians never, never can sub
NIT to. WHAT exclaims the Can
adam Premier, "shall our people sell
their heritage for a mess of pottage
or pot of gold?" and of course he
answers his own question with a Wig
orous negative, and much superflu-
Gus laudation of the dazzling glories
of the British Crown. With all due
respect to Sir John Macdonald, his
| defiant, ultra-loyal speeches will
strike the plain, hard-headed people
of the United States as a most ride
ulous performance. He proceeds on
the assumption, which certain clasar
es of CANADIANS seem to be unable III
| get out of their heads that Ameri-
cans are in the habit O1syipg awake
nights scheming how they may COB
BILE up unlucky Canada. We can as
sure the Premier, or any other Cana
dian of his way of thinking, that the
amount of yearning for the anneXa-
ton of the Dominion that the aver
age 1ankes feels need give him no ul,1
easiness whatever We a. tolerax
satisfied with our own bro d ~
With all our unpreee+s~s4tSss=fSf, % -
we have hardly made "a beginning in
developing the resources of our own
country yet, and the more we hear
about them the less we desire to an
mex the ancient lace and religious
feuds, and the stupendous debt of
Canada.
1t is a fact which no well-infOrmed
American will dispute that the an
neXation sentiment in this country
has been distinctly retrograding for
the past 20 years, as our people have
looked beyond the glamOr of the ac-
QUESTION of some three and a half
million miles of land to the hard
| fact of Canada's actual condition.
We have become doubtful of our
ability to go on indefinitely assimi-
lating a half million foreigners a
year, and to swallow five millions at
a single gulp-many of them as
things now stand our most active
and outspoken enemies-is a task
which reflective citizens are growing
more and more unwilling to consent
to. 1t is even doubtful whether, if a
majority of Canadian electors indi-
Gated a desire for annexation, it
would now be very cordially second
ed by the majority of the electors of
the United States. Certainly one
never sees or hears nowadays on this
side of the line those pronounced
expressions for political union, which
since the introduction of the McKin-
ley bill have been so significantly fire.
quent in Canada. The National
hamburger of the United States was
pretty well appeased by the acquisi-
ton of Texas and California, and
later on Alaska, whose wealth of
mine and forest our pioneers have
only partially explored Canada oc-
cupies a place in the American eye
relatively smaller than it held fifteen
or ten or five years ago. The cur
rent of events has lately seemed to
direct the efforts for the expansion
of Yankee trade and influence not
North but Southwark. And under
the working of the new tariff bill act
this must continue for some years to
come, with an accelerating tendency.
i Boston journal.