The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-09-08
CANADIANS CELEBRATE CENTENARY OF
 CARTIER, FATHER
 OF CONFEDERATION"

That the Dominion of Canada IS great nation stretching from sea 70 sea is largely due to the wisdom ana forest ght of those statesmen or halI century ago who gained immortality as ssthe Fathers of Canadian Confed- eration.'' First and foremost or these teFSathers'' in the estimate Of ms col. lleagues and his contemporaries, was Sir George Etienne Cartier, who was born just a century ago, on Sept. D, 1874 While the war has somewhat fnterfered with the full fruition or the plans of the Cartier Centenary Com inittee, the anniversary will not pass without due need of honor being paid to fI,e memory of the man who, more than any other, made the Domln1on possible
 Ast. Antoine in Quebec, was the birth place of George Etienne Cartier, who was destined to win the honor Of knighthood from the Crown and the greater honor of representing French Canada. in those momentous dehber- atlons which resulted in the union of the British American Provinces.
 In his youth Cartier fell under the sway of the brilliant and forceful Papineau preacher or rebellion. Magnetic in personality, surprisingly eloquenT as an orator, handsome Tn physique, democratic in his poI1tlcSl
 program and aristocratic in birth, T5oIIis Joseph Papineau was just the man to fire the imaginations and ap-. peal to the racial passions of young French-Ca Canadians. Cartier, like many others, followed him to the brink of rebellion. but drew back in alarm when he resHzed the full portent or ! the movement.
 1 Thus in his hot-headed youth Car | tier aroused the suspicion of being 1 false to the Crown, but his mature l career proved that he was thoroughly lin sympathy with British institutions. | IT, nc HrSf of l IImperiaH sts, and two years after | Confederation, in an address at Lon don, Ont, he said:
 .sThe Canadian people desire to re main faithful to the old monaIchial flag of Great Britain, that flag which waves over all the seas, that flag l which tyranny has never been able to overcome, that flag which is the l symbol of true liberty. Canadians l xnow that if they wish to become I truly great they have only to continue | their union with the mother country l so as to share in her power. her pres | tige and her glory
 l The idea of Canadian Confederation l originated just a eenry ago In 1814, the year of the birth of the man who
 was to play so large 3 part in the | realization of the project, Jonathan Sewell, later Chief Justice of Quebec, suggested union of the British l Provinces in America, with a Parlia- | | posal was made in Sewe1l'ss, cores | pondeace with the Duke of Kent, the father of Queen Victoria, who had | Icommanded troops at Halifax and tQuebec. The Duke gave much con | sideration to the matter, and offered
 Upper and Lower Canada in one di- | vision, and of the Maritime Provinces in another, with federal govern 1 ment for the whole at Quebec. At <- -1:.. ,1-- l opposed the. idea, but in 1841 the un- l ion of the Cana adas was effected. In 1858 Cartier was one of a com 1 i1aittee of three. to visit England for i the purpose of inviting the London l governm ent to appoint delegates from 1 all the Provinces to consider terms of
 a. federal union. but the Imperial au- 1 thorities refused to intervene, and l left Canada free to work out its own
 destinies.
 It was just half a century ago, in I1S64, that the Confederation move
 r41ent entered upon it's final stage. A l rnn1ittee of the Canadian Legisla-
 ture reported in favor of union, and
 the Maritime Provinces held con-
 vention at Charlottestown, which was
 attended by Cartier and other dele
 gates from Canada.
 One of the prime causes of 3Confed-
 eration was the hostility Of the United Il States, growing out of the belief of a
 naJOT1Iy or the peOpIe or the fepuD-
 lie that Canada had favored the South
 in the civil war between the States
 This suspicion of everything English
 was general in the Northern States
 despite the fact that thousands o1
 Canadians had enlisted in the Union
 army, and that Queen Victoria's sym
 pathies were all with the North. Walt
 Whitman, the democratic tgood gray I poet" who could not be suspected o1 1 any sympathy with monarchy, de ' cIared on this point: 'I for one fee
 strongly grateful to Victoria for the
 good outcome of the struggle; she
 saved us then" and added that Vic : to1ia s influence lis conceded b5
 those who have been part of the in
 ner circle in Washington" On the
 occasion of Victoria's jubilee Whit
 man urged that America send a gtf
 ttto England's Queen-rrom whose Iforethonght of those serious peara s1