page_title: Edmund Barton
section_title: Australian Federal Convention and Referendum
hierarchical_section_title: Edmund Barton / Campaign for federation / Australian Federal Convention and Referendum
context_page_description: Sir Edmund "Toby" Barton, GCMG, KC was an Australian politician and judge who served as the first Prime Minister of Australia, in office from 1901 to 1903. He resigned to become a founding member of the High Court of Australia, where he served until his death.
  Barton was an early supporter of the federation of the Australian colonies, the goal of which he summarised as "a nation for a continent, and a continent for a nation". After the retirement of Henry Parkes he came to be seen as the leader of the federation movement in New South Wales. He was a delegate to the constitutional conventions, playing a key role in the drafting of a national constitution, and was one of the lead campaigners for federation in the subsequent referendums. In late 1900, despite the initial "Hopetoun Blunder", Barton was commissioned to form a caretaker government as Australia's first prime minister. His term began on 1 January 1901, the date on which federation occurred.
  At the first federal elections in March 1901, Barton and the Protectionists won the most seats, but were well short of a majority.
context_section_description: In 1897, Barton topped the poll of the delegates elected from New South Wales to the Constitutional Convention, which developed a constitution for the proposed federation. Although Sir Samuel Griffith wrote most of the text of the Constitution, Barton was the political leader who carried it through the Convention.
  In May 1897, Barton was appointed for the second time to the Legislative Council on Reid's recommendations to take charge of the federation bill in the Upper House. This gave Reid's Attorney-General, John Henry Want, a free hand to oppose the bill. In September 1897, the convention met in Sydney to consider 286 proposed amendments from the colonies. It finalised its draft constitution in March 1898 and Barton went back to New South Wales to lead the campaign for a yes vote in the June referendum. Although it gained majority support, it achieved only 71,595; 80,000 was the minimum number for it to pass.
  In July 1898 Barton resigned from the Upper House to stand against Reid for election to the Legislative Assembly, but narrowly lost. In September, he won a by-election for Hastings and Macleay and was immediately elected leader of the opposition, which consisted of a mixture of pro-federation and anti-federation protectionists. In January 1899 Reid gained significant concessions from the other states and he joined Barton in campaigning for the second referendum in June 1899, with Barton campaigning all over the state. It passed 107,420 votes to 82,741.
  In August 1899 when it became clear that the Labour Party could be manoeuvred into bringing down the Reid Government, Barton resigned as leader of the opposition, as he was unacceptable to Labour, and William Lyne took his place. He refused an offer to become Attorney-General again. He resigned from Parliament in February 1900 so that he could travel to London with Alfred Deakin and Charles Kingston to explain the federation bill to the British Government. Around the same time on 15 January 1900 Barton published a 28-page United Australia magazine to disseminate an informative narrative for the propositions of a future Federal Government that he hoped to lead. The British Government was adamant in its opposition to the abolition of appeals to the Privy Council as incorporated in the draft constitution; eventually, Barton agreed that constitutional (inter se) matters would be finalised in the High Court, but other matters could be appealed to the Privy Council. Edmund served as a Justice of the High Court for 16 years.
caption: Photo in 1898 of the future 1st Prime Minister of Australia Edmund Barton aged 49 and 2nd Prime Minister of Australia Alfred Deakin
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