On October 10th, the day named by the Governor-General for the meeting of the conference in Quebec, the delegates had assembled in that quaint city. The number of delegates had been increased by the presence of Hon. (now Sir) Frederick B. T. Carter, Speaker of the Newfoundland House of Assembly; Hon. Ambrose Shea, leader of the opposition in the same chamber; and Sir Etienne P. Tache, A. Campbell, Oliver Mowat, James Cockburn, and J. C. Chapais, from the Canadian Cabinet. The conference was organized by the election of Sir E. P. Tache to the chair. Then the doors of the conference-chamber were closed, and the discussion went on, without anyone raising his voice to say nay. Before the delegates dispersed, they paid a visit to the capital of this new dominion, of which, it might be said, they were now wildly dreaming. Leaving Ottawa, the party procceded westward through the Province, receiving cordial welcome and lavish hospitality at Kingston, Toronto, Hamilton, and other cities. The delegates then returned to their homes, eager to get before the Legislatures and propose the scheme that had filled them with such high hope.
Parliament met on February 19th, and in the Ministry's opening speech, which the
Governor read, the confederation scheme was warmly recommended to the House. Th
e union question absorbed the attention of Parliament. Some of the ablest speech
es ever delivered in a Canadian legislature were heard during the session. On th
e Ministerial side, Messrs. John A. Macdonald, Brown, Cartier, and McGee supported the question with marked ability, while with scarcely less skill and power Messrs. John Sandfield Macdonald, Huntington, Dorion, Holton, and Dunkin opposed it. All that careful research and skilful manipulation of fact and figures could urge against the scheme was put forward with impassioned force by these gentlemen. "All that a well-read public man," says the Hon. John H. Gray, in his work Confederation, "all that a thorough sophist, a dexterous logician, a timid patriot, or a prophet of evil could array against the project was brought up and pressed against the scheme." On Friday, March 10th, the discussion had ended, and Attorney-General Macdonald, rising, offered the following motion, "That an humble address be presented to her Majesty praying that she may be graciously pleased to cause a measure to be submitted to the Imperial Parliament for the purpose of uniting the colonies of Canada, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland in one government, with provisions based on certain resolutions, which were adopted at a conference of delegates from the said colonies, held at the city of Quebec, on October 10, 1865." This resolution, after some discussion, was carried by a vote of ninety-one to thirty-three. Of the minority, four were from the Upper Province, and of the majority fifty-four. The question might not have fared so well in the Lower Province but that M. Cartier was an enthusiastic champion of union and was supported by the priests almost to a man. A motion similar to that carried in the House of Commons had been introduced in the Legislative Council by the Premier, Sir E. P. Tache, and carried by a vote of three to one. Parliament was prorogued on March 18th, and in the month following Messrs. John A. Macdonald, Galt, Brown, and Cartier went to England, to confer with the Imperial Government and to promote the scheme of confederation.
These Canadian delegates had several long conferences with the Imperial ministers on the proposed constitutional changes, on treaties and legislation, the defences of Canada, the settlement of the Northwest Territories, the Hudson Bay Company's claim, and other subjects. The confederation scheme having attracted much favorable attention in England, the emissaries were received with marked cordiality by the Ministry as well as by the Queen and the royal family. Hon. John A. Macdonald pressed upon the home Government the expediency of making known to the recalcitrant colonies that the Imperial authorities desired to see a union consummated - for one of the weapons used against the project in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick was that the aim of the confederation was separation from the empire and the assumption of independent nationality. Such an intention at that day was regarded as a public offence. If it is an offence for the son, approaching the years and the strength of manhood, to turn his thoughts to separation from the homestead under whose jurisdiction and shelter he has lived during his infancy and boyhood, to sketch out a manly and independent career of his own, plan to build his own house, conduct his own business, and carve out his own fortune - then was it an offence for those Canadians, if there were at that time any such, who on the eve of union dreamt of nationality, of a time when Canada should have passed the years of boyhood, and be brave and strong enough to stand forth among the independent nations.
“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.”
– 1 John 3:16