Adams George Archibald

Adams George Archibald

Sir Adams George Archibald KCMG , PC (born May 3, 1814 in Truro in the British colony of Nova Scotia ; † December 14, 1892 there , then already part of the Canadian Confederation ) was a Canadian lawyer and politician . As one of the fathers of the Confederation , he was one of the pioneers of the Canadian state founded in 1867. From 1870 to 1872 he served as Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba and the Northwest Territories, and from 1873 to 1883 as Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia.

Training and career as a lawyer

Archibald was the son of Samuel and Elizabeth Archibald. After studying science and medicine in Halifax , he decided to study law and became a student of William Sutherland, a respected lawyer in the city. In 1836 he was a notary approved and 1838 as a lawyer and worked in the Law Societies of Prince Edward Iceland and Nova Scotia. In addition to his work, he was justice of the peace , senior judicial officer and executor in 1848 until he was one of the supervisors in the construction of the telegraph from Halifax to New Brunswick in 1849 . As early as 1843 he had married his cousin Elizabeth Burnyeat, an Anglican , but the contrast to Archibald's Presbyterian beliefs did not seem to cause the couple any problems, their children became Anglican.

Political activity in Nova Scotia

Archibald first appeared politically in 1851 when he ran for the Reform Party (now the Nova Scotia Liberal Party ) in the Nova Scotia general election in Colchester County and was elected. His family had long had a great influence in the politics of the colony, but he did not make the expected steep career at first, but was unsuccessfully committed to a general education system and in 1854 became one of the councilors of a new school in Truro. In 1856 the Liberal government under William Young appointed him advocate general, but six months later Young had to resign because of a treason affair in his government and Archibald had to give up his office. The following years were marked by political mud battles between liberals and conservatives, but the extremely calm Archibald was re-elected to parliament in 1859 and appointed as advocate general by the again liberal government. Archibald worked with Prime Minister Joseph Howe and Railway Commissioner Jonathan McCully to build the Intercolonial Railway between New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and the Province of Canada . From 1862 he was chairman of the Liberals.

Founding of Canada

In 1863 Archibald was one of only 14 liberals who still got a seat in parliament. The Conservative Prime Minister Charles Tupper took very similar positions in school and railroad policy, so it was hardly surprising that Archibald was appointed to the Charlottetown Conference together with McCully as a liberal representative . There he became a supporter of the idea of ​​a union of the North American colonies and discussed questions of a possible constitution with the representatives of the other colonies. He was a recognized moderator, especially in financial matters. In Halifax Parliament , however, he remained the only liberal supporter of a union. Despite this disagreement with his party on a much debated issue, he remained its chairman. In 1866, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and the Province of Canada agreed in principle on a confederation and Archibald was one of six representatives of Nova Scotia who passed the constitution of the new Dominion Canada at the London Conference in 1866 , and here, too, he was mainly financial Agreements involved for the Dominion. In 1867, in the first Canadian government under John Macdonald , he became Minister for the Provinces, but in Nova Scotia he did not succeed in being elected to the new parliament, mainly because of his support for the state.

Governor of Manitoba

In April 1868 Archibald resigned his ministerial office to campaign for the Dominion in Nova Scotia. In 1869 he was finally elected to the lower house in a by- election. When the Manitoba Act was passed in the wake of the Red River Rebellion in 1870, he campaigned for a conciliatory policy towards the insurgents and was shortly thereafter appointed first lieutenant governor of the new Province of Manitoba and the Northwest Territories . But he only accepted the call for a period of one year before returning to Nova Scotia. When he arrived in Fort Garry , he found himself between the camp of the Métis and old settlers and that of the new settlers and militias. Although the former formed the majority, the latter practically held power in the province because of the well-armed militias. The publicist and leader of the radical Canadian Party , John Christian Schultz , regularly hosted Archibald in word and in writing, and the militias practically hunted the Métis with impunity.

The establishment of the new electoral districts and the implementation of the first election succeeded, after the announcement of the election results, which clearly reflected the majority situation and made new settlers and militias a minority despite numerous expelled Métis, there was an uprising among the latter. The unresolved conflicts in the province moved Archibald to continue his office for over a year, contrary to his original plan. An amnesty for the rebel leaders was still missing (and never should be), while at the same time regulations were made in favor of the new settlers by Prime Minister Macdonald, such as that settlers from Ontario were allowed to claim any land that had not yet been officially surveyed. Archibald was not allowed to distribute 5,700 km² (1.4 million acres ) of land to the Métis under the Manitoba Act, the government did not bother to do so, and the now leaderless Métis themselves were too unfamiliar with the Dominion legal system for theirs To enforce claims, lawyers like their leader Louis Riel were in exile. Archibald was invited to speak to the Métis leaders who had fled to St Boniface further west, and he accepted. The government in Ottawa gave him no further support for his policy, and so he resigned from office in 1872, officially to clear the way for the government to develop the province according to its ideas. In a private letter to Macdonald, Archibald made serious reproaches and denied him any understanding of the situation in the province. After he resigned, he was asked to resume office, but he did not accept.

Back in Nova Scotia

After returning to Nova Scotia in 1873, Archibald was appointed director of the Canadian Pacific Railway in February , but was appointed to the Supreme Court in June, as originally planned. But a few days later, the appointed lieutenant governor James William Johnston withdrew for health reasons and Archibald was sworn in in his place. Again he found himself exposed to strong provincial government opposition to the Dominion, which he fought against in the first few years, but over time he withdrew to representative duties. He remained in office until 1883.

In 1885 he was ennobled as Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George and from then on carried the suffix "Sir".

Archibald then led an expansion and reorganization of Dalhousie University and founded the Nova Scotia Historical Society in 1878 , of which he was chairman from 1886 until his death. In a by-election to parliament in 1888, he was re-elected, this time for the Conservatives, but could hardly take the seat for health reasons and did not stand again in 1891. He died the following year.

Web links

• Adams George Archibald ( English, French ) In: The Canadian Encyclopedia .
• Adams George Archibald . In: Dictionary of Canadian Biography . 24 volumes, 1966–2018. University of Toronto Press, Toronto ( English , French ).
• Adams George Archibald - Biographical information on the Canadian Parliament website (English)
• Short biography from Library and Archives Canada

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The land allocation to the Métis was to be carried out according to § 31 of the Manitoba Act according to the specifications of the Governor General.