The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-06-08
SIR JOHN MACDONALD
A Brief Glimpse of the Grand
Old Man of Canada.
WHY He HAD so MANY FRIENDS.
He was "One Of the Boys" and Never
Forgot ANY One-AIways Spoke OF
Americans ~ Yankees"

Reprinted from the PosT-INrELLIGENcER OF
March, 1891
Sir John Macdonald, prime minister OF
Canada and leader of the government
in the political battle just ended, from
Halifax to Vancouver, has been promi-
nent figure in the public life of his country
for half a century. He comes of a respect
able, but not aristocratic Scotch family,
and first delighted his friends by his APP
peals before the military judges for the life
of his client Shoultz, leader Of party
which went over from the United States
to help the "hunters" and "rebels" against
the government.
Shoultz was a Pole, and believed that
the people of the Canadian province were
as down-trodden by imperial rule as was
his own Poland, but the British troops
hemmed in himself and his followers in
sawmill and took the survivors away to
prison. Macdonald was named by the
crown to defend Shonltz, and for man so
young-he was then only q little over 20
he conducted the case with consummate
tact and great force. But the iron judges
were unmoved by his logic and his pas
sionate appeals for elemency. The judge
of the court-martial did not even comment
on McDonald's plea; without any words
Shoultz was taken away and shot.
1t is rather curious that Macdonald
should first bring himself into repute by
defending treason, now that he is the
knight champion of the crown and OF the
flag that brayed a thousand years the
battle and the breeze" But he is unques-
tionably stout defender of royalty and
imperial connection, and it is on the cards
that if the result of the present election Is
strong reputation of free commercial
intercourse with the United States, Lord
Salisbury, acting under the queens wishes,
will elevate him to the peerage. He is
now only o knight of the Order of st.
Michael and George, but he is member
OF her majesty's imperial privy council,
whence he derives the term fright"
honorable.
One O. Macdonald's greatest holds upon
popularity is his bonhomie. There is no
public man in Canada that has nearly so
many personal friends, and he has the al
most unique faculty of being able to call
by name person whom he has met only
once, and that many years before. For
the greater part of his life, up to within
the past few years, he has been lone of
the boys and patron of the mixture of
tom gin and soda, which they call "Col-
Inns" over in Canada.
Sir John used to lose his temper fire.
quently in parliament, and he once an
nounced in a voice audible through the
commons chamber, when Oliver Mowat,
now premier of Ontario, was severely CEN
surlng his policy, 81 could lick that fellow
quicker than hill would scorch feather"
On another occasion the sergeant-at-arms
had to prevent him from punching the
head of the late William Hume Blake.
Sir John is by no means an admirer of
Americans or American statesmen. He
never uses the word American; it is always
Yankee, and he explains this by saying
that .'the Canadians own as much of
America as the Yankees do" But his real
reason for this bitterness of feeling is that
he has never brought home any laurels
from Washington City when there discus
sing reciprocity and other international
questions. He has said that the Yankee
politician is too slippery; the truth is it is
only at Washington City that he has ever
found his match. No one in Canada has any
chance against him in shrewdness and
hnesse, and in disputes with the imperial
ministry it is admitted by all that Sir
John has mostly had his way. But little
while ago he said in speech that there is
one kind OF annexation for Canadians that
he will never oppose-the annexation of
beautiful Yankee girls with good dowries;
and he says he will consent to losing few
bright-eyed daughters of Canada, pro-
yided the Yankee husbands have purses
big enough. But he almost vehemently
declares that the Cartwright-Wiman com
mercial union scheme is only "veiled trea-
son, y and the natural result would be the
swallowing up of Canada by the United
States.
Lord Salisbury pats him on the shoulder,
and, as first recognition, backs the Can
ada Pacific steamer line to Japan to an
ov10 1nF1o Avt w, 60
get all the money he wants from the inn
perial government, as a reward for his
anti Yankee crusade. This is not coniec-
ture at all. l have facts which justify my
statement.
Sir John as nearly resembles the late
Lord Beaconsfield as one man can resemble
another who is not of his KIN. He is thin,
somewhat cadaverous, and from an affec-
tion of the liver is somewhat sallow. His
pronunciation is old-fashioned, pronounce
ing the words duty and constitution,
"dooty" and constitution" Neither is
he an eloquent speaker, but no matter
what the occasion may be his address
abounds in witticisms and stories. He is
nearly always accompanied by Lady Mac
donald, very handsome woman of He
brew birth, who muffies him up well after
he has made speech or otherwise heated
himself. / have no doubt it is owing to
her constant care that he is alive today
and the central figure in Canada.
1t is only just to say that Sir John does
not now "go on sprees;" on the contrary
he has professed religion before revival
ist congregation, though a conservative
high churcnman He is by all odds the
ablest and most successful man they have
ever had in political affairs in Canada, and
while he lives and keeps in harness public
policy is sure to run his way. He has not
always been scrupulous, but, on the whole,
his policy has been wise and progressive.
Before dismissing Sir John Macdonald l
may say that choice topic of private con-
versation with him, and he sometimes
makes public reference to the matter is the
character of the civil service of the United
| States. He abhors the system of appoint
ing judges by public vote, declaring that a
| justice so appointed, if he is human at ali
must to some extent be the creature of the
party to whom he owes his office. In
Canada the Judge is appointed by the
crown for life, and can be removed only bv
impeachment, and there are only two or
three cases III the history of the country
where a judge has been so degraded
He also says that the system OF rotation
IN Office in the United States, occurring ON
a change of administration, is abomIna-
bic, for the British system is appoint-
ment 10 the civil service for life. and re-
moval only for gross neglect of dutv or
4 = II