COMMERCIAL UNION WITH CANADA 
 
 FROM A 
 
 UNITED STATES POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 SPEECH OF ERASTUS W IMAN 
 
 BEFORE THE COMMERCIAL BODIES OF DETROIT AND BUFFALO, 
 AUGUST 27 AND 30, 1887. 
 
 " The amount of duty collected on importations from the Dominion of Canada is slightly 
 under Jive and a half millions of dollars, almost solely on natural products, — the necessaries of 
 life and raw material" — Trade and Navigation Returns. 
 
 "/ recommend that, keeping in view all these considerations, the increasing and unnecessary 
 surplus of national income annually accumulated be released to the people by an amendment to 
 our revenue - laws, which shall cheapen the price of necessaries of life and give freer entrance 
 to such imported materials as by A merican labor may be manufactured into marketable com- 
 modities." — Message of President Cleveland. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 ERASTUS WIMAN, 314 BROADWAY 
 
COMMERCIAL UNION WITH CANADA 
 
 FROM A 
 
 UXITED STATES POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 SPEECH OF ERASTUS W IMAN 
 
 BEFORE THE COMMERCIAL BODIES OF DETROIT AND BUFFALO, 
 AUGUST 27 AND 30, 1887. 
 
 
 
 " The amount of duty collected on importations from tJie Dominion of Canada is slightly 
 under five and a half millions of dollars, almost solely on natural products, — the necessaries of 
 life and raiv material." — Trade and Navigation Returns. 
 
 "/ recommend that, keeping in view all these a 
 surplus of national income annually accumulated 
 our revenue laws, which shall clieapen the price 
 to such imported materials as by A merican labor 
 modifies." — Message of President Cleveland. 
 
 >nside rations, the increasing and unnecessary 
 be released to the people by an amendment to 
 of necessaries of life and give freer entrance 
 may be manufactured into marketable com- 
 
 >-♦-< 
 
 NEW Y 
 
 ORK: 
 
 ERASTUS WIMAN, 
 
 314 BROADWAY. 
 
 <9VL 
 
COMMERCIAL UNION WITH CANADA 
 
 — FROM A — 
 
 UNITED STATES POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 SPEECH OF ERASTUS WIMAN 
 
 BEFORE THE COMMERCIAL BODIES OF DETROIT AND BUFFALO, 
 AUGUST 27 AND 30, 1887. 
 
 Mr. Wdiax said that Commercial Union between the United States and 
 Canada meant that the two countries should be commercially united. It 
 meant that, so far as trade was concerned, the whole continent of North 
 America should be one country, with no dividing line to check the ebb and 
 flow of commerce. That, like the mingling of the waters in the great rivers 
 and lakes between the two countries, the commercial interests of the English 
 speaking nations of the North American continent should be so blended that 
 the mutual advantage would be equal to that which now makes it profitable 
 for one State to deal with another State ; and, giving all that ea-ch can give 
 in the shape of advantage, no more can be demanded of each other. At 
 present a customs line, 4,000 miles in length, shuts out the products and 
 manufactures of each country from the other, except on the payment of a 
 high rate of duty. This customs line was like a barbed wire fence, 4,000 
 miles long, over which one brother could not legally trade with another 
 brother, for even a bushel of potatoes, without the intervention of the 
 government. Inasmuch as the amount of goods and merchandise inter- 
 changed between the two countries annually was almost equal, and as the 
 duties paid by one people were only slightly less or more than that paid by 
 the other, this customs charge operated very much as a license. As there 
 would be no trade whatever, unless the people on both sides of the border 
 found it to their advantage, a license to permit them to trade seems like an 
 exaction, which, in ancient days, might have been demanded by the govern- 
 ment for trading privileges, but which in free America and among freemen 
 seems at this late date to be sadly out of place. It was sadly out of place 
 when it was considered that the conditions prevailing in the two countries 
 were almost precisely alike ; that in climate, in products, in pursuits, and 
 in prospects for the future, there was as little difference between the United 
 States and Canada as there was between New York and Michigan. If 
 Canada possessed any marked advantage over the United States, it might 
 
i 
 
 COMMERCIAL UNION WITH CANADA 
 
 be necessary to protect the latter by putting up a wall of exactions to make 
 the conditions equal, and thus give the United States a fair chance. But 
 where there is no possible or visible advantage which one country possesses 
 over the other, and where both must and will trade for mutual advantage, 
 despite all barriers, the existence of these barriers is unjustifiable, and 
 when absolutely unnecessary for raising revenue, should be entirely swept 
 away. So far as trade and commerce are concerned, there would have been 
 the same justification to have kept Michigan out of the Union as there is 
 now for keeping out the trade and commerce of Canada. The prosperity 
 of the United States has had enormous contributions from the rich and 
 varied products of Michigan, and from the vast trade which their develop- 
 ment has created. Sinking out of sight the political difference in the two 
 countries, the products and trade of Canada will, in even greater measure, 
 contribute to the prosperity, the wealth and progress of the United States, 
 if with the same rapidity they are developed, and there is no impediment to 
 their free flow in the direction which they would naturally seek. That the 
 United States would become the Mecca to which turns the trade of the entire 
 continent no one for a moment doubts ; and that she would be enormously 
 benefitted by opening up to her energy and enterprise the vast treasures of 
 the best part of the continent is as plain as that there is a sun in the 
 heavens. 
 
 CANADA COMMERCIALLY INDEPENDENT. 
 
 But it may well be asked how can a union commercially with Canada be 
 accomplished, and yet Canada remain as she is, a part and parcel of the 
 British Empire. The answer to that question is, that as far as commercial 
 regulations are concerned, Canada is to day no more a part of the British 
 Empire than is New York or Massachusetts. Long ago, commercially 
 speaking, Canada became independent, and by exacting the same duties on 
 every dollars worth of English goods as she has exacted on the goods of the 
 United States, Germany, or other countries, she separated herself commer- 
 cially, so to speak, from Great Britain as completely as did the American 
 colonies who declared their independence in 1776. Having thus obtained 
 the power to tax all importations, whether British or otherwise, of course 
 she possessed the power to regulate her own expenditures. On the principle 
 that he who pays the taxes has the best right to dispose of them, Canada has 
 for many years made just such disposition as she chose of all her revenues, 
 never for a moment considering the English government or the English 
 people in the matter. She has had within her own power the regulation of 
 her own modes or forms of taxation. She can to-day if she chooses put up a 
 tariff, put it down, increase her internal revenue tax, inaugurate a system 
 of direct taxation, or, in any way she prefers, procure from her people the 
 revenues necessary for the payment of the expenses of their government, 
 and provision for the fixed charges arising out of her debt. By a uniform 
 tariff against all nations, she has shown her real and complete commercial 
 independence, and under this condition has made a progress and attained a 
 position of which every Canadian has good reason to be proud. 
 
FROM A UNITED STATES POIXT OF VIEW. 
 
 The question now is, Laving completely and entirely separated herself so 
 far as commercial ties are concerned from the mother land, is she now com- 
 petent to seek a nnion in the same commercial way with her neighboring 
 nation? Is there anything violent in the proposition in a commercial sense, 
 that having attained a freedom of action which enables her to regulate her 
 own affairs for her own exclusive benerit, she should now cast about for new 
 commercial alliances, whereby these benefits could be vastly augmented ; 
 and by the same action benefitting the nation with whom she proposes to 
 form a business partnership ? With these conditions existing there has 
 dawned upon the minds of many Canadians the hope that a commercial 
 alliance on equal terms could be made with the United States whereby a 
 new era might open up for the future of that great country. When, there- 
 fore, the matter assumed something of a definite shape, which it did in the 
 Bill which was introduced into the last Congress by the Hon. Benjamin 
 Butterworth, providing for a practical Commercial Union between the 
 two countries, the whole question came before the Canadian public in its 
 most attractive form. The hope has dawned upon them that by this Bill, or 
 other appropriate and uniform legislation by Congress on one side, and by 
 the Canadian Parliament on the other, that the barriers between the two 
 great countries may be removed, and as perfect an inter-communication 
 created between the United States and Canada as now exists between all 
 the States of the Union on the one hand and all the Provinces of the 
 Dominion on the other. The possibilities arising out of such a consumma- 
 tion are of the most comprehensive character, and whether contemplated 
 from a United States point of view, or from a Canadian standpoint, the 
 question possesses an interest of a greater importance than almost any other 
 subject now before the public on either side of the border. 
 
 A UNIFORM NORTH AMERICAN TARIFF. 
 
 A Commercial Union between the United States and Canada under the 
 terms of the Bill introduced by Mr. Butterworth, it is believed, can be 
 safely inaugurated by the adoption by Canada of a tariif uniform with that 
 of the United States ; in other words, that as against all the rest of the 
 world, the same rates of duty should be collected by Canada as are now 
 levied by the United States, while between the two countries of North 
 America the customs wall should be completely obliterated. This propo- 
 sition would imply that goods imported from England, or the outside world, 
 into Halifax, St. John, Montreal, or Toronto, or any where else in the Domin- 
 ion, should pay precisely the same rates of duty as if imported at Boston, 
 New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, or elsewhere in the United States. Fur- 
 ther, that not only would the duties on foreign goods imported into any 
 part of North America be precisely the same, but that no duties whatever 
 would be levied on American goods imported into Canada, nor none what- 
 ever on Canadian goods imported into the United States. The result of this 
 proposition would be that as around the whole continent of North America 
 a customs line would exist of precisely uniform height, while within the 
 continent itself, trade would ebb and now as freely as mingle the drops of 
 
6 
 
 COMMERCIAL UNION WITH CAXADA 
 
 water in the lakes and rivers covering this vast area. Is not the conception 
 one worthy of your highest thoughts ? Does not the prospect of such a con- 
 summation thrill with enthusiasm the lover of his country, no matter on 
 which side of the line he is born. For in the prospect that is thus opened, 
 not only does Canada find her hope of growth, of expansion and future 
 greatness, vastly augmented, but the true patriot in the United States will 
 see that in the vast continent of North America, the greater portion of which 
 is now inaccessible, there are the potentialities to him and his children of 
 individual wealth beyond the confines of his own land, and the possibilities 
 of contributions to the greatness of hisowu country greater than are visible 
 from any other point of the compass. When one recalls the five thousand 
 miles of coast line fishing privileges possessed by Canada ; the limitless 
 forests of timber greatly needed by the United States ; the exhaustless hills 
 of iron ore, the copper, nickel and other minerals ; the mountains of phos- 
 phates, the miles and miles of coal in close proximity to Eastern manufac- 
 turing centres and Western needs : the infinite variety of riches which God 
 in His providence has placed in these regions for the good of all mankind - T 
 and when one recalls that for the most part these are lying silent, dormant 
 and dead, it needs only to turn and look into the earnest faces of the great 
 nation on the borders of Canada to realize that the Good Providence has also 
 provided a people whose high mission it is to take these vast riches and 
 most greatefully enjoy His bounty. The truest and highest patriotism on 
 both sides of the border is to pursue that policy which will to the greatest 
 extent benefit each country : and in all the range of human circumstances 
 it is impossible to conceive of an event of greater significance, to be followed 
 by consequences more beneficent, than the opening up of the vast stores of 
 wealth in the Northern Continent, and the freest commercial intercourse 
 between all portions of this, heaven's last best gift to mankind. One cannot 
 resist constantly quoting those seer-like words of Emerson, when he said : 
 — "We live in a new and exceptional age. America is a new name for op- 
 portunity. Its whole history appears like a last efibrt of Divine Provi- 
 dence in behalf of the human race." It remains with the people to whom 
 these words were uttered, and whose good fortune it is to live in this age 
 and in this America, to say whether they will content themselves with one 
 half of what God has provided for their benefit : whether antiquated and 
 utterly unnecessary forms of taxation shall be permitted longer to erect such 
 barriers, such a dividing line between the inhabitants of this great continent 
 that its riches may be only partially conferred, and that the efibrt of Divine 
 intention shall remain to be defeated by the selfishness, or the stupidity of 
 man. 
 
 TIME AND CIRCUMSTANCE FAVORABLE. 
 
 In the history of all nations a time comes and circumstances occur which, 
 as in the career of men themselves, are full of the possibilities of the future. 
 The time and the circumstance were never so favorable as now for the ex- 
 tension to large areas of the trade of the United States on the one hand, and 
 enormous natural development by Canada on the other. Never before 
 
FROM A UXITED STATES POIXT OF VIEW. 
 
 in the history of the two English-speaking nations, occupying so large a 
 portion of the earth's surface, was there a period quite so advantageous as 
 now for the removal of all hindrances to their freest intercourse : and it is 
 almost inconceivable that ever hereafter will the circumstances of the two 
 countries be more favorable than at present for a union based upon an 
 equitable commercial foundation. Indeed, there is urgent need for some 
 such broad policy of statesmanship as will forever settle the friction that 
 periodically arises between the two countries in the fishery question and 
 other local issues ; and by creating such a union of interests between the 
 two countries as will practically and commercially make one a part of the 
 other, forever remove all possibilities of conflict, and all possible grounds of 
 difference. Side by side, for four thousand miles, these two nations lay like 
 great giants, with lessened intercourse one with each other, jealous of each 
 other's rights, and sensitive to encroachment on each others privileges. 
 Down in the broad Gulf of St. Lawrence in the extreme East, within the 
 past month, the navies of the two nations were arrayed in friendly but con- 
 strained relations. In the far West, in the Behring Straits, the gun-boats 
 of the same two powers watch each other with sedulous care. In the long 
 stretches between these two distant points there are elements at work in 
 various forms that might readily disturb the peace of the two nations. Xo 
 calamity could occur of consequences so vastly injurious to the good of 
 mankind as a conflict between England and the United States. There is 
 none probable — it may be hoped there is none possible — but no one will 
 deny that if a complete commercial union existed on this continent, danger 
 of this kind would be greatly lessened, if not entirely removed. The navi- 
 gation laws and the fishery privileges would be uniform and universal. 
 The markets of both countries being open to each other, the products of 
 both lands being available for both nations, such a close alliance in pursuits 
 and common advantage would exist as to make it utterly out of the ques- 
 tion any real difference could ever hereafter arise. 
 
 DISCRIMINATION AGAINST GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 It may still be asked, how could a uniform tariff be enforced by 
 Canada and the United States while Canada belongs to Great Britain, in 
 that it would be impossible to exact a heavy tax upon English goods enter- 
 ing into one of her own colonies while admitting free of taxes the goods 01 
 the United States, which is practically a foreign country. It must be 
 admitted that, stated in its baldest form, this proposition to discriminate 
 against Great Britain and in favor of the United States, by a British colony, 
 seems difficult to reconcile with the notions that prevail in the United 
 States as to the relations existing between Great Britain and her colonies. 
 There is always a tendency to regard these relations as those which were so 
 violently disrupted by the American Ke volution ; but since that date, owing 
 to the influences then set in motion, a great change has taken place, and it 
 may be said as a result of those influences that while Canada to-day 
 nominally belongs to England, she in reality belongs much more to herself. 
 It may be repeated, and with emphasis, that Canada possesses a commercial 
 
8 
 
 COMMERCIAL UXIOX WITH CANADA 
 
 independence, in a form so distinctive, that while the world at large under- 
 stands she is a part and parcel of the British Empire, she is in all that 
 relates to trade her own mistress, and commercially belongs to herself. 
 The whole tendency for the last fifty years, since the memorable events in 
 1837, has been in this direction, and especially from the date of the Confede- 
 ration of the Provinces, which was hailed by the British authorities as the 
 establishment of a new nationality. Through all the Parliaments in which 
 the machinery of taxation has been assiduously employed, down to this very 
 year, the constant result has been to evince a commercial independence : to 
 tax heavily goods imported from Britain as well as from all other countries, 
 and to keep as separate as possible the distinctive policy that animated the 
 two governments. Thus, while it is the glory of the British Government 
 that the greatest freedom of trade should prevail, not only throughout her 
 own empire, and throughout her own colonies, but throughout the whole 
 world, the Canadian Government has been animated by a policy precisely 
 the opposite, and has built up a wall of tariff so high that English goods 
 have in many instances been entirely excluded. So far, therefore, as senti- 
 ment has gone, as between the mother and the daughter in matters of trade, 
 not the slightest heed has of late years been paid to it by the Government 
 of the people of Canada. This is all the more significant because this policy 
 has been inaugurated and most energetically promoted by the political party 
 that claimed exclusive possession of almost all the loyalty in the country, 
 — the Conservative or Tory party, who have been loudest in their 
 declarations of attachment to British connection, and their love for British 
 institutions. Under such circumstances the proposition does not seem so 
 revolutionary as at first sight appears, to go a step further and add, say, 
 ten per cent, to the existing tariff, and thus equalize it to that of the 
 American standard. Indeed, only at the last session of Parliament, within 
 the present year, the tariff on iron goods was so far advanced that the rates 
 now levied are practically as high as those prevailing in the United States, 
 discriminating, practically, most adversely to English manufactures. It 
 needs only a few further touches from the Finance Minister, which are 
 certain to come in time, to make the whole list of custom duties uniform 
 with those of the United States. 
 
 CANADA CAN TALK FOR HERSELF. 
 
 It having been thus shown that Canada has perfect commercial inde- 
 pendence ; that she has deliberately adopted a trade policy diametrically 
 opposed to that of Great Britain, and without regard to the interests of 
 British manufacturers, it is not going much further for her to say to the 
 United States: " I have great stores of products that you greatly need. 
 You are my next door neighbor, and your markets are absolutely necessary 
 for the development of these products. I need the capital and enterprise of 
 your people to do as much for me as you have done for Michigan and other 
 commonwealths. I will agree to tax all the outside world as high as you 
 do, and admit all that you have to offer me free, if you will admit all that I 
 have to offer you on the same terms."' It is true that this would be a 
 
FE01T A UyiTED STJTES POIXT OF VIEW. 
 
 9 
 
 discrimination against English goods, and in favor of American goods. It 
 is true that at first blush it seems unfair that after all England has done 
 for Canada, that Canada should turn around and thus tax English goods. 
 But that is just what she has been doing for years, and yet the tie between 
 Great Britain and Canada is just as strong and just as potent in its political 
 connection as it ever was. But it is goiug too far, some in Canada will say, 
 to admit American goods free, while continuing to tax British goods. It 
 will be argued that Canada has no right, either legally or morally, to 
 charge England more for the privilege of admitting her goods, and charge 
 less or nothing whatever for admitting goods from the United States. The 
 answer to this is found in the fact that this policy has already been in 
 operation for years, and that so far as right "is concerned, both legal and 
 moral, it has been fully and freely used. This is shown in the statistics for 
 1886. In that year English goods were brought into Canada to the extent 
 of $40,601,000. These paid a duty of $7,817,000, or equal to nineteen and a 
 ■quarter cents on the dollar. During the same period goods from the United 
 States were imported, amounting to $44,868,000, paying duties thereon of 
 only $6,790,000, or slightly above fifteen cents on the dollar. Xot only were 
 the goods imported from the United States over those from Great Britain, 
 four millions in excess, but the rate of duty exacted absolutely averaged 
 four per cent. less. The Dominion, in 1866, imported of free goods from 
 England, $10,215,000, while from the United States the free goods brought 
 in were $15,198,000. These figures go to show that the existing tariff, while 
 it appears as uniform against all countries, nevertheless is a practical 
 discrimination in favor of the United States. 
 
 DIPLOMACY UNNECESSARY. 
 
 The speaker said he must apologize to his American friends for having 
 devoted so much time to the condition of affairs in Canada, and too little to 
 the advantages which commercial union would bring to the United States, 
 the latter of which he would deal with later on. But it was important that 
 the misconception which existed in the United States in regard to the con- 
 dition of Canada should be removed, and that it should be clearly under- 
 stood that within herself Canada possessed all the rights and all the powers 
 necessary to enter into a commercial partnership with the United States. 
 That no treaty, no diplomacy, no weary Avaiting for the Colonial or Foreign 
 Office to move, was necessary to consummate such an arrangement with the 
 United States, was a matter of surprise. But such was the real condition of 
 affairs that Parliament, by appropriate legislation with Congress, could 
 effect all that was necessary to remove all barriers between the two great 
 English-speaking nations of the Xorth American Continent. Ordinarily, 
 the acts of the Canadian Parliament were not submitted to the home gov- 
 ernment for approval, but should a tariff measure such as has been described 
 pass, the Governor-General, would, in view of the importance of the measure, 
 no doubt feel it incumbent upon him to send it to the Imperial authorities 
 for consideration. There have been one or two rare occasions since Con- 
 federation when, from a difference of views, measures passed by the Cana- 
 
10 
 
 COMMERCIAL UNION WITH CANADA 
 
 dian Parliament have been sent back, or, in other words, disallowed. Bu1 
 there need be no fear that disallowance by the English Government would 
 be the fate in store for a measure which would so manifestly benefit Canada 
 as that creating a commercial alliance between five millions of her owe 
 people on one side, and sixty millions of English speaking people of the 
 United States on the other. It might be that there would be reluctance in 
 yielding to such a demand in view of the discrimination against English 
 goods, and the few hundred English manufacturers interested would nc 
 doubt earnestly protest, but as it could be shown that the measure was oJ 
 incalculable benefit to Canada and all her people, there would be no lack 
 of heartiness in the eventual consent of the British authorities. If it could 
 be understood that even the English manufacturers would in the end be 
 benefitted by the increased power to buy and pay for goods they have to sell: 
 if it could be shown that as a result of the unification of the two tariffs oj 
 North America, that of Canada had been advanced five per cent., affecting 
 only five millions of people, while a corresponding reduction had taken 
 place on the tariff of the United States, affecting sixty millions of people, 
 the advantage would be so manifest as to disarm hostility to the movement. 
 If, further, it could be realized that the enormous amount of English 
 capital which is now invested in Canada, would have a greatly improved 
 chance of some day being repaid, and meantime of yielding an adequate 
 return, there would be no difficulty in making clear the duty of the English 
 authorities. 
 
 But if, above all, it could be equally and clearly shown that a vast 
 majority of Canadians themselves were strongly and determinedly in favoi 
 of a closer alliance with their neighbors in the United States (as it could 
 most assuredly be shown), while at the same time sincerely desirous of re- 
 taining British connection, the advisers of Her Majesty would be too 
 sagacious, too astute, to refuse consent to a measure fraught with benefits 
 so immeasurable to the people most closely concerned. To refuse such a 
 boon would be like refusing the greatest good to the greatest number, and 
 would be affording a justification for another schism in the Anglo-Saxon 
 race of far greater import than that which justified the Eevolution on this 
 side of the Atlantic in 1776. No one need fear that, so far as Canada is con- 
 cerned, her people are not eager for the closest alliance with the United 
 States consistent with British connection. If a vote were polled even 
 to-day — and the question as a practical scheme is only nine months old — it is 
 believed that a majority of two to one could be secured in behalf of this 
 movement. Under such circumstances it in idle to believe that the Im- 
 perial authorities would, so long as British connection was maintained, risk 
 anything by withholding consent from measures that would most certainly 
 benefit the people of Canada. 
 
 OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 Having thus described conditions pievailing in Canada, the speaker now 
 directed attention to the advantages which the United States would derive 
 from the creation of a commercial union with Canada. Perhaps never before 
 
FROM A UNITED STATES POINT OF VIEW. 11 
 
 in the history of the world was presented an opportunity so great as that 
 which now presented itself to the United States, for the extension of its 
 trade and commerce. Without the drawing of a sword, without the shedding 
 of a single drop of blood, or the cost of a single dollar, the area can be doubled 
 over which the trade and commerce of the United States can be freely ex- 
 tended. Vast as are the stretches over which the business of this country 
 now extends, a commercial union with Canada more than doubles the area 
 in which a profitable development and a profitable trade can be prosecuted. 
 In respect to extension of the boundaries of commerce, the fiftieth Congress 
 possesses a greater opportunity than any other legislative body in the history 
 of the Avorld possessed. It cost the United States six thousand millions of 
 dollars, and five hundred thousand lives, to keep within her borders the 
 seceding Southern States. No one now regrets that vast expenditure, or 
 those sacrifices, because, aside from all sentiment, all necessity of self-preser- 
 vation, the investment is deemed a good one because of the great advantages 
 which result from the possession of the South as a field for business, as a 
 field for commerce, and as a source of development. But those who have 
 studied closely the value of the two regions contributory to the great- 
 ness and future of the United States will testify that free trade over the 
 Northern continent is of even greater value than over the region covered 
 by the proposed Southern Confederacy. 
 
 WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN. 
 
 Suppose, for an instant, that the Declaration of Independence instead 
 of stopping short south of the St. Lawrence and of the great lakes, 
 had included the whole continent of North America, what would be 
 the sentiment evoked if, at this late date, it was seriously discussed that the 
 vast region to the north of this line should secede from the Union and 
 become as completely isolated as it now is? We can judge of the feeling 
 which such a proposition would produce by the intensity of the struggle 
 which maintained the Southern States within the Union. Indeed, the 
 parallel falls short, for had the whole of North America been included 
 within the United States one hundred years ago, such a development would 
 have taken place north of the present line that to propose a separation, and 
 produce an isolation such as at present exists, would be regarded as a loss in 
 wealth so stupendous, and in vital forces so disastrous, that the death-knell 
 of the Union would be sounded, and the experiment of free government by 
 commonwealths would disappear from the earth. For, not only is the 
 country to the north of the United States a great deal larger than the 
 United States themselves, but it possesses an infinitude of riches almost 
 beyond belief. If the same process of development, in the same parallels of 
 latitude in the United States, had occurred in Canada, if the same advantages 
 of unrestricted trade between the States had been conferred upon her, these 
 regions would have made a progress, in the last one hundred years, so great 
 that to propose their separation now, had they been part and parcel of the 
 Union, would be equal to proposing a separation of the whole New England 
 
12 
 
 COMMERCIAL UNION WITH CANADA 
 
 States, New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio combined. To contemplate the 
 Union without these great commonwealths, and then consider what would 
 be the result if Canada had been included in the Union and now desired to 
 withdraw, would be to contemplate a disaster and a loss almost beyond 
 conception. It is by such a measurement as this that the importance of the 
 question of commercial union in North America only can be estimated. If 
 such stupendous consequences would have resulted from the withdrawal of 
 these regions from the United States, had they ever been included within 
 the country, what are the consequences likely to follow if, at this late 
 date, an arrangement is reached whereby the better half of the whole 
 continent is rendered just as freely available now, and for all time, as if it 
 had been part and parcel of the Union ? What may not follow, if, with the 
 gathered energy of this great people, having partially conquered the forces 
 which nature, in her most generous mood, has placed Avithin her own border, 
 they should now turn to the north and west from these regions the untold 
 treasures that lay hidden there. A practical question, therefore, is : does 
 not the opportunity now present itself whereby the United States can, after 
 a lapse of a hundred years, make such a bargain as will give her all the 
 advantages that she would have gained had she originally included the 
 whole continent, instead of the half of it, within her borders ? If it can be 
 proved that, by an arrangement between the two countries, such an 
 advantage is offered, need there be any question about accepting it ? 
 
 A COMMERCIAL INSTEAD OF POLITICAL UNION. 
 
 It may well be said that it is only by a union of interests perfectly 
 balanced one with the other, that such a result could now be achieved as 
 that which could have been attained, had a political union heretofore 
 existed, or, to put it in another way, that without a political union no 
 result so advantageous can now follow to either country. Let us see if this 
 be so. Is it not possible now, under existing circumstances, that by a union 
 founded purely upon a commercial basis, such results would follow as 
 would approach those that would flow from a political union ? What is 
 there in a political alliance with Canada, so far as commercial advantage is 
 concerned, which would not now be possessed by this country if the relation 
 existing between the two countries was that of a purely business partner- 
 ship ? Do not men with different religious belief join each other in busi- 
 ness pursuits, and achieve fortunes ? Do not communities widely different 
 in race, religion, and even color, trade freely and with profit ? Suppose 
 that so far as trade and commerce are concerned every barrier were broken 
 down, and that the interchange of commodities between the United States 
 and Canada was just as free and unrestricted as it is now between the 
 States of the Union, would not the profit on that trade be just as acceptable 
 and just as advantageous as the profits on the trade between States them- 
 selves ? If the manufacturer of agricultural implements in Ohio, or else- 
 where, could sell the product, of his establishment in Manitoba, and 
 throughout the Canadian Northwestern territories, without let or hindrance, 
 
FROM A UNITED STATES POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 13 
 
 is he not benefited to an extent just as great as if he sold his wares to the 
 farmer of Minnesota or Dakota ? If the boots and shoes, which are made 
 at Haverhill or Rochester, or the collars and cuffs that are made at Troy, 
 yield as good a return to the menufacturer, it matters not to him whether 
 they are worn by a Tory or Liberal in Ontario, or by a Democrat or Repub- 
 lican in Michigan. Trade knows no political boundaries, and in this age it 
 is trade that we are all after. The trade of Great Britain has been an 
 extremely profitable one, but it has not been confined by any means to 
 nations with which she has been politically connected. The kind of union 
 which to-day can make the United States and Canada one is a commercial 
 union, a union which knows no barriers, so far as commerce is concerned, 
 a union in which freedom in its highest form prevails, freedom in 
 transactions one man with another on the broad continent of North 
 America, the vast products of which are the rightful heritage of all 
 who occupy any portion of it. But it may well be asked, how is it 
 possible to provide for an alliance so close that both countries may so 
 greatly benefit, and yet be politically separated ? Is it not possible that 
 Ohio and Ontario may interchange each other's products to great mutual 
 advantage, and be as closely intimate in commercial matters as Ohio and 
 Pennsylvania, and yet be politically different and under different forms of 
 government. Some will ask how . it is possible that the republican form of 
 government in Ohio can assimilate so closely with the monarchical form of 
 government in Ontario, that the closest commercial relations may exist ? The 
 reply is that forms of government have nothing whatever to do with the 
 quality of the iron which Canada possesses up the Valley of the Trent, and 
 which she is very anxious should be sent to Cleveland to be smelted and 
 marketed for her. The coal which Ontario wants, and wants badly from 
 Pennsylvania, possesses no greater advantage because it was mined under a re- 
 public and is to be consumed under a monarchy. So with everything else. The 
 same profit that comes with the vast internal trade between the States would 
 come with trade between the States and Canada, if all the barriers between 
 the two countries were removed. Suppose that Canada really sought for 
 admission to the Union, which she is not doing and is not likely to do, the 
 chief advantage which would come to her, would be that which would result 
 from an open market among sixty millions of people for her products. The 
 advantage whieh the United States would gain by this admission of Canada 
 into the nation, and dividing her territory into half a dozen great States, 
 would be that her vast stores of raw products would be made freely access- 
 ible, and so available that her own people could go in and possess themselves 
 of these riches. Now it is claimed that under commercial union this would 
 follow just as freely, and just as completely, as it would under political 
 union. It can be successfully maintained that by a uniform tariff against 
 all the rest of the world, and complete and unrestricted intercourse through- 
 out the continent of North America, all the vast riches that North America 
 possesses are available to all the inhabitants thereof, no matter where they 
 may be. 
 
14 
 
 COMMERCIAL UNION WITH CANADA 
 
 A UNION ALREADY ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 In a limited degree the theory of commercial union is already illustrated 
 notwithstanding the barriers, tariffs, customs regulations, and all the 
 governmental contrivances to retard the freedom of intercourse. This illus- 
 tration of the possibilities of commercial union is found in the enormous 
 emigration to the United States which has taken place from Canada — a 
 contribution to the population of this country of the greatest value to her 
 progress and stability. In the numerous manufacturing centres of the New 
 England States, by far the largest single element are the French Canadians, 
 whose frugality, industry, economy, contentment, and above all, whose 
 fecundity, are rapidly enabling them to possess a potent influence in the 
 industrial pursuits of important sections of the country. Not only in the 
 East are Canadians numerous, but in the West their good qualities are ap- 
 parent, and their influence in the progress of the newer sections of the 
 Northwest, in railroad and other developments, their growth and influence 
 are more distinctively marked than that of any other foreign element. 
 This is because of their ready adaptability, their innate intelligence, and 
 reliability. It is an interesting economic fact in connection with the two 
 great American nations occupying this Continent, that out of five and a half 
 millions of Canadians known to exist, fully one million are now resident 
 in the United States. Of late years the increase of immigration from 
 Canada bears a larger proportion to those left at home than from any other 
 country contributing to the population of the United States. That so large 
 an exodus should occur from a country with such equality in conditions, 
 with such similarity in climate, pursuits and products, is most significant 
 testimony to the advantages possessed by the United States in unre- 
 stricted intercourse which exists between her several commonwealths, 
 and to the superior opportunities for development which this affords. 
 To extend these advantages to the rest ot the Continent is the de- 
 sire of the commercial unionist, and that this extension would bene- 
 fit and enrich the people of the United States is his hope and 
 belief. The presence of so large a body of Canadians here is an 
 illustration of the benefits of a commercial intercourse, which needs only 
 the widest expansion to beget the largest benefit. No one for a moment 
 will deny that this million of population are not only benefitting themselves, 
 and the peojde whom they have left behind, by the steady stream of remit- 
 tances sent them, but that they are also benefitting the United States in a 
 marked degree. Who will estimate just the results that flow to this country 
 from the industry and intelligent energy which this million of Northern 
 born Americans possess and exercise ? Who may calculate what contribu- 
 tions to wealth, to progress, and especially to population, may not be made 
 by the sturdy efforts of this vigorous race from the North, who in such large 
 I>roportion to their own numbers are afforded an unstinted welcome here t 
 If then it is admitted that even by restricted intercourse a million of people 
 whom Canada, rich as she is, can ill afford to spare, what would be the 
 consequence if five millions of American population went into Canada? It 
 is no extraordinary supposition that this would occur in the next twenty- 
 
FUOM A U SITED STATES F 01 XT OF VIEW. 
 
 15 
 
 five years, if with unrestricted intercourse the richest country in the world 
 in natural resource was opened up freely to American capital and American 
 enterprise ; what estimate could be placed on the result, with all America 
 for a market ? The only thing that has hitherto retarded Canada has been 
 the restricted market which the financial policy of the two Governments 
 have afforded hej ; but if once the barriers between the two countries were 
 obliterated, her progress and the growth of her trade would be simply 
 enormous. That Americans can as well take advantage of that progress, as 
 well participate in that trade, no one doubts ; for if a million Canadians 
 can thrive and prosper here, why could not a proportionate number of 
 Americans thrive and prosper in Canada, with her virgin soil, boundless 
 forests of timber, enormous deposits of minerals, a limitless coast line of 
 fisheries, and a perfect treasure house of just such things as this country 
 needs. Canada to the United States is an Eldorado, the extent of whose 
 riches have never yet been dreamed of, and whose accessibility to American 
 skill and American capital needs only the magic touch of freedom from 
 commercial restraint w hich now renders it unavailable. 
 
 COMMERCIAL UNION WITH CALIFORNIA AND ALASKA. 
 
 The discovery and development of California, distant and difficult of access 
 though it was, had an enormous influence upon the United States. Yet 
 politically she never materially influenced the policy or internal affairs of 
 the rest of the country. Her trade has yielded to the East large returns; 
 her products have enriched the world. So it would be with Canada, and 
 the effect upon the United States of a commercial union with her would be 
 just as perfect as the commercial union between New York and California. 
 Canada is a far richer country than California ; in the variety of her pro- 
 ducts exactly suiting the wants of the Eastern States, and above all in her 
 contiguity, she possesses advantages over any addition made to the United 
 States in the last quarter of a century. If her resources, if her products, her 
 possibilities, are within easy hail and easy acquirement by a commercial 
 bargain, why should they not be made just as available as those of Califor- 
 nia? Again, the United States acquired for $7,500,000 the extreme northern 
 region of Alaska. Did any one suppose that politically it was ever going to 
 have any influence on the destinies of the American people that Alaska 
 should be added to the territorial area of the United States ? Y r et already her 
 trade is attracting attention. Enormous fortunes have been made out of 
 her products, and to-day, in mineral and other development, her promise is 
 that she will contribute greatly to the wealth and progress of the United 
 States. What difference is there between Alaska and Biitish Columbia, 
 that is not in favor ot the latter ? In extent, in fertility, in forests, fisheries, 
 minerals, in the finest coal, which California sadly needs, and in the equa- 
 bility of her climate and her general location, she possesses the potentialities 
 of a development far superior to that of Alaska. Why should not the 
 American traders possess themselves of the advantages of British Columbia, 
 its natural riches, and the trade that will follow their certain development 
 
16 
 
 COMMERCIAL UXIOX WITH C AX ADA 
 
 if the same free market is open to them that is now open to distant Alaska ? 
 Only the barriers that the t wo governments erect by common consent make 
 the obstacle. By common consent let the barriers be obliterated, and by a 
 commercial union between the tw r o countries open up for development the 
 finest country the sun ever shone upon, for a market the most ample, and 
 the most profitable the world has ever seen. 
 
 A POLITICAL UNION NOW IMPRACTICABLE. 
 
 But it vrill be said in the United States that a political union between the 
 United States and Canada would be a much greater boon, and that in order 
 to obtain all the advantages of a free American market, a political union is 
 a necessity. This may well be doubted. Indeed, in many respects, com- 
 mercial union between Canada and the United States is much to be pre- 
 ferred to a political union in the present juncture of affairs. When the 
 political millennium in the United States arrives, which all politicians are 
 after, there will be a period when, if Canada desires to be admitted, it 
 might be done, for then she could come in without entirely upsetting the 
 political status of the whole nation. At present the admission of five 
 millions of people into the UnioD, whose political tendencies were unknown, 
 would precipitate into politics such an element of uncertainty as to com- 
 pletely baffle the calculations of the most astute politicians. While parties 
 are so evenly balanced that a single speech of an inoffensive Dominie, who 
 loved to indulge in alliteration, is credited with having changed the char- 
 acter of an entire administration, what might not be the consequences 
 when such unknown quantities would be introduced into the contest as the 
 French vote of Quebec, the Orange vote of Ontario, or the Catholic vote of 
 all the provinces. No office-seeking patriot in the United States, no calcu- 
 lating politician, not even the mild-mannered partisan, believing that his 
 country was safer with the party of his choice, would feel content with the 
 admission of Canada into all the privileges of suffrage, or participation in 
 the government of the country, when thereby every calculation was upset 
 and every combination destroyed. Again, the admission of Canada 
 into the United States would involve the assumption of her public 
 debt, which is a very heavy and increasing one. Having been 
 largely created by expenditure for a great system of public works, 
 and the perfection of the means of communication extending from the 
 Atlantic to the Pacific, the obligations incurred would have to be 
 adjusted, and the assets assumed in a manner entirely different from 
 that which has grown up with the growth of each State and Territory. 
 Aside from these difficulties, so hurriedly sketched, there are numerous 
 other considerations which make it impossible that Canada could with 
 advantage be admitted into political union with the United States. The 
 chief of these objections, however, does not rest with the United States, 
 but lies in the fact that Canada herself is strongly opposed to a political 
 alliance. It is true that there are some Canadians, as there are many 
 Americans, who feel that the manifest destiny of all the English-speaking 
 nations of the North American Continent will be political unity. 
 
FROM A EXITED STATES POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 17 
 
 CANADIAN LOYALTY A BARRIER TO ANNEXATION. 
 
 Those who are most acquainted, however, with the public sentiment 
 in Canada know that loyalty to British institutions permeates the whole 
 country, and that with mother s milk has been drunk in the love for the 
 mother land ; love for the good Queen who has ruled them so wisely for 
 half a century, and pride in all the glory of British connection; belief in 
 British prowess, and faith in the integrity of the British Empire. Americans 
 -who have shown their love of country by the vast sacrifices they have made 
 to preserve its integrity -will not quarrel with this devotion of their Cana- 
 dian neighbors, because they love their own land and the great u nion on 
 the other side of the sea that gave their ancestors birth. The sturdy loyalty 
 of Canadians, to-day, never endured the severe strain that was put upon 
 the loyalty of the colonies a hundred years ago, and the resistance to which 
 resulted in the independence and creation of the great constellation of 
 commonwealths that now rule so large a portion of the continent. The 
 Jesuits of that resistance to British rule have not been confined to the United 
 States. They have indeed been world-wide in their effects; but to no coun- 
 try in the world have the results been more beneficial than to Canada. The 
 difference iu the mode of government of Canada by the British authorities 
 now, as compared with the mode of government attempted in the colonies 
 previous to the American revolution, is the difference between despotism 
 and freedom — the difference between the dawn of an imperfect civilization 
 and the full sunlight of the glorious present. Had the same liberality 
 prevailed in the latter part of the last eeutury iu the treatment of 
 her colonies by Great Britain, as has prevailed in the latter half 
 of this century, there could, have been no American revolution ; there 
 could have been no cause for separation, and the great experiment of 
 republican instil utions, on the vast scale now being worked out. would 
 never have been undertaken, because it would never have been justified. 
 Canada has, however, profited by these stupendous events, which for a 
 hundred years have been occurring on her border, and in no respect greater 
 than that, while she has maintained the British connection, she has enjoyed 
 all the privileges of self-government. Thus, to-day, except in the mere 
 treaty-making power, she is just as free and just as self-reliant as if she 
 were entirely independent. The relations which exist between England 
 and the Dominion imply no interference whatever with local government ; 
 not even with the tariff which taxes the products of Great Britain, as you 
 have seen, with the same rigor that applies to the products of all other 
 couutries. Not a dollar of contribution is asked from the colony to the 
 Exchequer of England, while not a dollar of money of the British govern- 
 ment is asked for by the Canadian authorities. About the only tie that is 
 visible between the mother and daughter now is, that the mother selects, 
 every now and again, some distinguished member of the British aristocracy, 
 who, as a guest, she coolly asks Canada to entertain for a few years as a 
 representative of royalty in the person of the Governor-General. A few 
 years ago the selection was made from the Queen's own household, 
 and for a time the Marquis of Lorne and his charming wife, Princess 
 2 
 
18 
 
 COMMERCIAL UNJtON WITH CANADA 
 
 Louise, held a mimic court at Ottawa. More recently the able and 
 accomplished Lord Lansdowxe, with his good lady, have dispensed the 
 hospitalities of Rideau Hall, at Ottawa, the Vice-Regal residence, and 
 won all hearts by their cordiality and unaffected courtesy. It is 
 now only by such ties as these that a connection is visible between 
 Great Britain aud her great colony on this side of the sea, implying 
 an interference so slight as to be in startling contrast with the 
 exactions, annoyances, and petty tyrannies exercised by Great Britain with 
 her North American colonies prior to the American Revolution. It is true 
 that Canada is the gaiuer of the heritage of self-government, as the result 
 of the struggle for independe nee which the United States endured ; while 
 her loyalty has been cultured and made perpetual by the liberality of the 
 treatment she has received at the hands of the mother country. 
 
 EARLY INFLUENCES AS AGAINST LATE EVENTS. 
 
 Nothing, perhaps, has contributed in a greater or more marked degree to 
 the devotion to British institutions which Canada constantly manifests than 
 the influences set in motion by that band of patriots from the United States 
 known as the United Empire loyalists. Have you ever realized just what 
 sacrifices these sturdy loyalists of the Revolution made, rather than yield to 
 the prevailing sentiment of what they considered disloyalty. History has 
 few instances of greater interest than given by those who, because of their 
 devotion to British institutions and British forms of government, would 
 not join in an armed resistance to the land that gave them birth, and for- 
 saking their happy homes, bidding good-bye to fortune and to an assured 
 future, taking with them their wives and little ones, with slender means, 
 stepped out into an almost unbroken wilderness, and doomed themselves 
 and their children to hardships that few have ever realized, in some cases 
 to almost literal starvation, and yet enduring it all with patience and 
 a high sense of duty. All honor to the memory of such men, whose 
 principles of patriotism were so deeply founded that sacrifices such as 
 these could be endured. The world is the better for the existence of 
 .such men. The effect of their influence and of the loyalty the example 
 of which they so gloriously set, still exists, and to those who understand its 
 full effects, it is idle now to dream of a political union between Cauada and 
 fhe United Stares. It is alluded to because there is a tendency in the 
 American mind to feel that isolation, and a refusal to admit Canada to the 
 privileges of the market of the United States, will have the effect of forcing 
 them into a humble position as applicants for a political alliance. Doubt- 
 less the repeal of the reciprocity treaty in 1866 was largely influenced by 
 this consideration, but it had an effect entirely contrary to that which was 
 expected, and to-day there is hot in the wide world a country more loyal 
 in its sentiment than is Canada to British connection. Possibly in the far 
 future, by close alliance and intimate business relation, a different state of 
 affairs may prevail, and it may be that one of the strongest arguments in 
 favor of a commercial union, in the minds of some who think upon the 
 subject, will be found to be the hope that the great English speaking nations 
 
FROM A UNITED STATES POINT OF VIE W. 
 
 19 
 
 on this continent will by-and-by become one and the same. Fifty or a 
 .hundred years of that close commercial alliance ma y ha ve this result. It 
 certainly will not have the effect of keeping them farther apart. With 
 that future we to-day have nothing to do, because that can alone be 
 decided by those who will then have the say in the matter. Those who 
 come hereafter may be safely trusted to look after their own affairs, and 
 the future may be sa fely left to take care of itself. If annexation ever does 
 come, it will be the logic of events in their natural order, rather than the 
 Jesuit of any forcing process. There are some who believe that commercial 
 union will give to Canada all the advantages of apolitical union, and, being 
 practically independent and immeasurably content with her political situ- 
 ation, she need never seek to dissolve her British connection. There are 
 others who believe that the attractions of the American system are so great 
 that, once the people come together in close trade relations, the Canadians 
 will largely seek all the advantages which are here offered, including the 
 admission of a foreign vote of an unknown quantity ; the beauties of the 
 primary as the pure source of political power, an elective judiciary, and 
 the system by which the professional politicians thrive and make fortunes. 
 Others doubt this. No possible harm can come from a close and intimate 
 business connection, such as one nation by mutual agreement may offer to 
 the other. If it should result in political union hereafter, it will be 
 ■owing to gradual assimilation of the people and their interests. If it 
 does not, all the advantages of trade and commerce will have been 
 achieved, and all that is best in them and in their country will have been 
 •developed. 
 
 ADVANTAGES TO THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 Mr. Wiman said that he had dwelt at great length on the condition of 
 matters in Canada, because there was a constant misapprehension in this 
 country as to the motives that move the people of that country in their 
 desire for commercial union, and the possibilities that exist for a political 
 alliance. He had to apologize for occupying so much space in regard to 
 this matter, but felt that its importance called for the fullest explanation. 
 It was much more pleasant now to turn to the advantages which must 
 .accrue to the United States by a commercial union with Canada. One of 
 the first objections encountered in the United States to this project, was the 
 fear that Canada would thereby get some advantage over ther/». No people 
 in the w orld were more jealous in a trade than Americans, and if there was 
 one iota of gain to the other side which theirs did not possess it would 
 almost be fatal to the transaction. In a transaction so transcendently 
 important, it was difficult to see just who would gain the greatest possible 
 advantage, but it can be clearly shown that however Canada might 
 prosper, the United States would also be greatly benefitted. In the de- 
 velopment of the resources of Canada , the greatest possibilities exist for 
 profit to those who are concerned. As has been before said, Canada was an 
 Eldorado, a treasure house possessing enormous supplies of just those 
 resources that the United States most greatly need — resources that can 
 
20 
 
 COMMERCIAL UXIOX WITH CAXADA 
 
 be made contributory in a greater degree to the progress of this country 
 than those of any portion of the continent. The catalogue of the natural 
 and national possessions of Canada was a long one, and the speaker would 
 not attempt to enumerate them, but here were a few leading articles which 
 should be referred to. Before doing so however, allusion should be made- 
 
 TO THE AREA OF CANADA. 
 
 Do you realize that the region which a commercial union with Canada 
 will open up to the trade aud commerce of the United States is an area con- 
 siderably greater than that covered by the United States themselves ? The- 
 area of square miles in the Union is 3,036.000 ; the area of square miles in 
 Canada is 3,500,000 square miles. As Mr. George Johxsox, the distinguished 
 head of the Government Literary Bureau at Ottawa, author of the most 
 recent Hand-book of Canada, says: 
 
 " It is most difficult to convey any adequate conception of the vastness of 
 the country. England, Wales and Scotland together form an area of 88,000 
 square miles. You can cut forty such areas out of Canada. New South 
 Wales contains 309,000 square miles, and is larger than France, Continental 
 Italy and Sicily. Canada would make eleven countries the size of New 
 South Wales. There are (in extent) three British Iudias in Canada, and 
 still enough left over to make a Queensland and a Victoria. The German 
 Empire could be carved out of Canada, and fifteen more countries of the 
 same size." 
 
 There are eleven Provinces, (including Provisional Provinces) four of which 
 are maritime, and all of which, except three, have a sea-board, or are accessible 
 from the sea. As a rule the people of the United states have the impression 
 that Canada is but an eel-skin of a country, fringing the border of a frozen 
 region from Halifax in Nova Scotia to Sarnia in Ontario. How mistaken 
 this notion is those who have seen the thrift of the older Provinces will 
 readily testify. But even the great Provinces of Nova Scotia, New Bruns- 
 wick, Quebec and Ontario are but the vestibules and ante-chambers of a 
 region undreamt of until within the last twenty-five or thirty years, a 
 region just as full of product, promise and profit as is your own Minnesota, 
 Dakota, and Montana. Just think that the basin of the Hudson's Bay is 
 2,000,000 square miles in extent, and then realize that the whole area of the 
 United States is 3,036,000 square miles. The Pacific slope, within Canada,, 
 covers an area of 341,000 square miles, while the whole area of the basin of 
 the St. Lawrence Eiver, within the United States, is only 70,000 square 
 miles. The plains of Saskatchewan Eiver measure 500,000 square miles, 
 and in climate product, and every other advantage are, according to Lord 
 Selkirk, capable of supporting thirty millions of people. The extent of 
 Canada maybe best illustrated by the statemeut that the excess of its area 
 over that of the United States is greater than the whole area included in 
 the States joining in the Declaration of Independence. But, perhaps, no 
 better or more interesting illustration of the magnitude of the country can 
 be given than by an extract from a speech by the eloquent Earl of Dufferin,. 
 who took a novel way to correct the gross misapprehension that exists in 
 
FROM A VXITEI) STATES POIST OF VIEW. 
 
 21 
 
 England, as well as in the United States, as to the extent of Canada. He 
 said: 
 
 "Perhaps the best way of correcting such a universal misapprehension 
 would be by a summary of the rivers which How through them, for we know 
 that as a poor man cannot afford to live in a big house, so a small country 
 cannot support a big river. Now to an Englishman or a Erenchmau the 
 Severn or the Thames, the Seine or the Rhone wonld appear considerable 
 streams, but in the Ottawa, a mere abluent of the St. Lawrence, an affluent 
 moreover which reaches the parent stream six hundred miles from its 
 mouth, we have a river nearly five hundred and fifty miles long, and three 
 or four times as big as any of them. But even after having ascended the 
 St. Lawrence itself to Lake Ontario, and pursued it across Lake Huron, 
 St. Clair, and Lake Superior to Thunder Bay, a distance of one thousand 
 five hundred miles, where are we ? In the estimation of the person who 
 has made the journey, at the end of all things ; but to us, who know 
 better, scarcely at the commencement of the great fluvial systems of the 
 Dominiou ; for, from that spot, that is to say, from Thunder Bay, we are able 
 at once to ship our astonished traveller on to the Kaministiquia, a river of 
 some hundred miles long. Thence, almost in a straight line, we launch him 
 on to Lake Shebandowan and Rainy Lake and River — a magnificent stream 
 three hundred yards broad and a couple of hundred miles long, down whose 
 tranquil bosom he floats into the Lake of the Woods, where he finds himself 
 on a sheet of water which, though diminutive as compared with the inland 
 seas he has left behind him, will probably be found sufficiently extensive to 
 render him fearfully sea sick during his passage across it. Eor the last 
 eighty miles of his voyage, however, he will be consoled by sailing through 
 a succession of land-locked chanuels, the beauty of whose scenery, while it 
 resembles, certainly excels the far-famed Thousand Islands of the St. Law- 
 rence. From this lacustrine paradise of sylvan beauty we are able at once 
 to transfer our friend to the Winnipeg, a river whose existence in the very 
 heart and centre of the continent is in itself one of Nature's most delightful 
 miracles, so beautiful and varied are its rocky banks, its tufted islands, so 
 broad, so deep, so fervid is the volume of its waters, the extent of their lake- 
 like expansions, and the tremendous power of their rapids. At last let us 
 suppose we have landed our traveller at the town of Winnipeg, thehalf-way 
 house of the continent, the capital of the Prairie Province. Having had so 
 much of water, having now reached the home of the buffalo, like the exte- 
 nuated Falstaff, he naturally 'babbles of green fields' and careers in imagina- 
 tion over the primeval grasses of the prairie. Not at all. We ask him which 
 he will ascend first — the Red River or the Assiniboine, two streams, the one 
 five hundred miles long, the other four hundred and eighty, which mingle 
 their waters within the city limits of Winnipeg. After having giveu him 
 a preliminary canter up these respective rivers we take him off to Lake 
 Winnipeg, an inland sea three hundred miles long and upwards of sixty 
 broad, during the navigation of which for many a weary hour he will find 
 himself out of sight of land, and probably a good deal more indisposed than 
 ever he was on the Lake of the Woods, or even the Atlantic. At the north- 
 west angle of Lake Winnipeg he hits upon the mouth of the Saskatchewan, 
 the gateway to the North West, and the starting point to another one 
 thousand five hundred miles of navigable water, flowing nearly due east 
 and west between its alluvial banks. Having now reached the foot of the 
 Rocky Mountains our 'ancient mariner', for by this time he will be quite 
 entitled to such an appellation, knowing that water cannot run up hill, feels 
 certain his aquatic experiences are concluded. He was never more mistaken. 
 We immediately launch him upon the Arthabaska and Mackenzie rivers, 
 and start him on a longer trip than any he has yet undertaken — the navi- 
 gation of the Mackenzie rivet alone exceeding two thousand five hundred 
 miles. If he survives this last experience we wind up his peregrinations 
 by a concluding voyage of one thousand four hundred miles down the Eraser 
 
22 
 
 COMMERCIAL UNION WITH CANADA 
 
 river, or, if he prefers it, the Thompson river, to Victoria, in Vancouver,, 
 whence, having previously provided him with a first-class return ticket 
 for that purpose, he will probably prefer getting home via the Canadian 
 Pacific." 
 
 THE CLIMATIC CONDITIONS. 
 
 Having attempted to convey to you an idea of the magnitude of Canada 
 as a country, the next thing to attempt will be to satisfy you that this vast 
 country is not a frozen region, incapable of producing agricultural products, 
 or otherwise being anything else than a section of the North Pole. That is 
 the general impression that exists, not only in England, but even among 
 distinguished Statesmen of the United States. You will therefore perhaps 
 be surprised to be told that of all the advantages which Canada possesses, 
 the one which of all others she may rely the most on for her future greatness, 
 is her climate ! As Malte Brux said, in relation to the region now included 
 in Canada, u Everything there is in proper keeping for the development of 
 the combined and mental energies of man. There are to be found at once 
 the hardihood of character which conquers difficulties, the climate which 
 stimulates exertion, and the natural advantages which reward enterprise. 
 Nature has marked out this country for exalted destinies." As has been 
 well said, Canada has in fact all the climates of Europe, from the Mediterra- 
 nean to the Arctic Ocean, as might be expected, seeing that it extends from 
 the latitude of Rome in Italy to that of Cape North iu Norway, and is almost 
 of equal area. In respect to this question of climate one cannot do better 
 than to quote from the versatile George Johuson, who says : 
 
 "A large portion of Canada is in latitudes which in Europe have proved 
 the most favorable to the health of man. The mean temperature of the 
 regions watered by the Moose and Abbitibi Rivers corresponds with the 
 north of Europe, being 65° F. The regions drained by the northern part of 
 the Ottawa and by the Saguenay, and the northern parts of Nova Scotia, 
 correspond with the south coast of England, Paris, the middle of Germany, 
 and the south of Russia, being 60° F., while 65° F. represents the summer 
 temperature of the regions bordering upon the Upper St. Lawrence Lakes, 
 London, Torouto, Kingston, Montreal, the St. Lawrence to Quebec, and 
 eastwards to Fredericton, the capital of the province of New Brunswick. 
 ###****** 
 
 " Altitude more than latitude make3 climate, and in this respect Canada 
 occupies a position superior to most regions. According to Humboldt, 
 Europe has a mean elevation of 671 feet, South America of 1,132, Asia of 
 1,151, and North America of 748 feet. The Canadian part of North America 
 is placed at 300 feet. ******** 
 
 "The ascent from the ocean to Lake Superior does not average more than 
 six inches in a mile, and even this ascent is not markedly noticeable till we 
 proceed westward. Montreal, the head of ocean navigation, reached only 
 after passing over several hundred miles of fresh surface water, is at low 
 water but eighteen feet above the level of the sea, as it rolls under the 
 lighter fresh water along the bed of its estuary. * * * * 
 
 "The marine currents are singularly favorable to Canada. Along the 
 Atlantic coast the gulf stream exerts its benign influences to such an extent 
 that on Sable Island there are troops of wild ponies, the progenitors of 
 which, two centuries ago, were ship-wrecked and cast upon the island, and 
 there, successive generations, without shelter of any kind, have lived and 
 
FROM A UNITED STATES POIST OF VIEW. 
 
 23 
 
 multiplied. In Halifax, in the depth of winter, a dozen hours of south wind 
 will mow down tbe snow-banks, as a mowing machine cuts down the 
 ripened grass. 
 
 " Along the Canadian littoral of the Pacific Ocean the Japanese current 
 produces the same effect on the climate as the gulf stream does in England. 
 Vancouver Island is like the south of England, except that it has a greater 
 summer heat with less humidity. In the vicinity of Victoria the highest 
 temperature in the shade in July and August ranges from 80 to 90 z F., 
 while the theimometer in winter seldom goes as low as 22° below freezing 
 point. As respects the ocean currents, it may be said that they make a 
 difference in the regions affected by them of 10 s of latitude. * 
 
 "In the district of Alberta, the winter climate is comparatively mild, not 
 severe ; blizzards are unknown, and stock winter in the open air and come 
 out fat and in good condition in the spring. The government statistics 
 show that there are now fifty-one ranches in which stock has been placed; 
 that they vary in size from 1,500 to 100.000 acres, and have a combiued area 
 of 1,693,670 acres. The reports from all are favorable as to the future, 
 speaking well for the climate in mid-winter. The great bodies of water 
 which are a distinguishing feature of Canada also exert considerable influ- 
 ence upou the climate. Hudson's Bay is 1,000 miles long by 600 wide. Its 
 temperature is 65° E. during summer: in winter, it is 3° warmer than the 
 waters of Lake Superior. The chain of fresh water lakes, which, almost 
 without a break, extends between latitude 41-45 aud latitude 51 north, aud 
 from longitude 75 to longitude 120, covers, together with the smaller lakes, 
 an area of 130,000 square miles, and contains nearly one-half of all the fresh 
 water on the surface of the globe. The moderating influences of these large 
 bodies of water, which never freeze over, will be at once recognized." 
 
 That the climatic influences, even in the extreme Xorthwest, are not 
 unfavorable is best illustrated by the facility with which wheat is grown in 
 Northern latitudes. Lord Dufferin claimed that most of the streams he so 
 eloquently described in the Xorthwest flowed their entire length through 
 alluvial plains of the richest description, where year after year wheat can 
 he raised without manure, and without any sensible diminution of its yield, 
 and where the soil everywhere presents the appearance of a highly culti- 
 vated suburban kitchen garden. The wheat plant is supposed to be one of the 
 most delicate of plants, but for the growth of wheat the climatic conditions 
 most favorable to it seems in the North : witness the change within memory 
 of man from the Genesee Valley in New York to Ohio, then to Minnesota and 
 Dakota, and now why not to the wli-at areas of Northwestern Canada, 
 where there is said to he 466,000 square miles of wheat-hearing territory. 
 Indeed, it is claimed with considerable show of truth that the wheat bearing 
 areas of Canada far exceed the wheat-bearing areas of the United States, a 
 fact of vast significance when one contemplates the impor tance that attaches 
 to this food of the world. One or two facts of great importance in relation 
 to the production of wheat in these Northern regions should impress itself 
 upon you and upon all the world : one of these is, that owing to the nearness 
 of this wheat-bearing area to the North Pole, the sun, duriug the summer 
 months, affords two hours longer of forcing power than elsewhere on the 
 continent, where wheat can be grown. Two hours a day of additional sun- 
 light during a wheat growing season is of enormous importance, and gives 
 to these regions an advantage which the frost and cold of the balance of the 
 year in no way lessen. ' But even the frost and cold, strange to say, afford 
 
24 
 
 COMMERCIAL UNION WITH CAXADA 
 
 an advantage in the production of the delicate wheat plant. This advantage 
 is found in the fact that, owing to the depth in the ground which the frost 
 penetrate, the earth is never entirely free from its influence, and, deep down 
 in the rich alluvial soil, there remains a well spring of moisture, which 
 under the long and strong sun's rays constantly exudes, and keeps moist the 
 tender roots of the plant. Hence droughts and absence of rain have no terror 
 to the wheat producer of the great Northwest. 
 
 But no matter what area is afforded, no matter what are the advantages 
 offered, population and occupancy are the essentials to make all these 
 available. Through the United States there is now coming a vast army of 
 European emigrants, that, if the border line were imperceptible, would as 
 readily occupy the vast stretches of the Canadian Northwestern Provinces 
 as anywhere else. If, by sinking out of sight the barriers that divide the 
 two countries, the United States could get the trade that these new commu- 
 nities would create, why should she hesitate to do so. 
 
 WEALTH IN IRON. 
 
 There is no country in the world which possesses so much iron as Canada. 
 In no land is it so easily mined, and nowhere is it quite so accessible to 
 great manufacturing centres. 
 
 The impression exists in the ordinary mind that the supplies of iron 
 which the United States produce are abundantly adequate for her needs, 
 but such is not the case, as our imports of iron are something enormous. 
 For the present season the amount of rails which have been brought in reach 
 in all 400,000 tons, costing at $40 a ton, $16,000,000, including a payment 
 to the United States government of $17 a ton, or $6,800,000. In addition to 
 this the amount of blooms to be rolled into rails will amount to nearly an 
 additional 200,000 tons, while the imported raw ore will amount to over a 
 million tons, which pays a duty of 75 cents for every ton. and which costs 
 laid down here from $7 to *8 a ton. It may seem a little surprising to you 
 that the great new discoveries of iron in the Gogebic Ranges, which you 
 thought were sufficient to swamp all the markets of the United States, are 
 still unable to furnish the demand from the furnaces of the United States, 
 • and that the Island of Elba, which was worked before the Christian era by 
 
 the Romans, is still furnishing the furnaces at Pittsburgh ; that the mills 
 of Andrew Carnegie— the star-spangled Scotchman, the typical modern 
 American manufacturer — are deriving their supplies from a source so old, 
 so ancient as that which was worked by the Romans two thousand years 
 ago. How strangely is the past linked thus with the present ? The plates 
 for building our war ships and our cannons, which are made by the 
 Bethlehem Iron Company, are wholly derived from Spain. Is it not a 
 strange illustration of the necessity that sometimes exists for " carrying 
 coals to Newcastle,"' that iron from the new region of Canada penetrated 
 by the Kingston Ac Pembroke Railway is absolutely being mined in Canada 
 and carried up the river past your own doors to the furnaces in Joliet, 
 Illinois, because of its excellence and its freedom from phosphorus f In 
 this question of phosphorus, plain, common people like yourself and me, 
 
FROM A UNITED STATES FOIST OF VIEW. 
 
 25 
 
 Tiad better be informed, because iron of tbe United States is possessed of 
 that element to such an extent, while the iron of Canada is free from it, that 
 the union of the two is of the greatest possible consequence. It has been said 
 that phosphorus is to iron what the devil is to religion. Canadian ores are 
 •especially low in phosphorus, and if it were not for the trade barriers they 
 would till a much larger place in the supply to the United States. The 
 contributions which we are now receiving from Spain, Africa, and Cuba 
 would be derived from Canada. No development whatever in the United 
 States will stop the importations of iron. These importations are brought 
 in solely because of the peculiarity of the ore and its freedom from phos- 
 phorous. The Canadian ores possess this freedom. The lack of develop- 
 ment renders them unavailable, and we are sending out money to Spain 
 and Africa where we have no trade at all, while if we had the development 
 within a few miles of us, in Canada, we could have all the trade. We buy 
 •our sugar from the Spanish provinces, and our iron, but what do they take 
 from us? It is a revelation of a strange condition that not a dollar's 
 worth of free flour can go to Spain, while we are taking millions of dollars 
 worth of ore from her, she having hypothecated the revenue derived from 
 flour for the security of her bonds. The consumption of iron in this 
 •country is greater than the consmnption of any other product, being about 
 210 pounds per capita per annum. There is not a little baby that toddles 
 up to its mother that does not carry on its back a burden of 210 pounds 
 of iron in the statistical average of consumption. The growth in the 
 use of iron is greater than that of any other article, while its future 
 increase is beyond estimate. The disappearance of wood, the ingenuity of 
 man. and The adaptability of the material, makes it possible tbat iron will 
 enter, to a greater degree than can be estimated, into tbe industrial arts 
 and refinements of life. The day is near at hand when your wooden 
 ships will be a thing of the past, and only iron ships will be known on 
 your lakes. Already it is considered that railroad bridges made of iron are 
 alone safe. The day is fast coming when woodeu sleepers will disappear 
 from your railways, and be superseded by iron ties. You can imagine what 
 the consumption will be wheu you consider that there are 140,000 miles 
 already laid in the United States, and every mile contains 2,650 cross ties. 
 The day is not far distant when cars, as well as locomotives, will be made 
 of iron, and not only locomotives and cars but telegraph poles. Let me 
 -draw your attention to the fact that to-day a greater quantity of iron is 
 being used in the matter of fencing than could have been dreamed of years 
 ago. Not only is the wire fence now so common all over the West a reve- 
 lation of the use to which iron may be put, but the posts on which the fence 
 rests are also of this material. Who would have predicted with any degree 
 of credence fifty years ago that hundreds of miles of fence and posts 
 were now composed purely of iron, and every day displacing wood right in 
 the very forests, because of its economy and durability. Now, under such 
 circumstances, will it not be an immense boon to this country to have 
 opened up to it sources of supply almost beyond human belief? Do you 
 realize the fact that within six hours of the city of Rochester there lie 
 
26 
 
 COMMERCIAL UXION WITH CAXADA 
 
 buried treasures in iron so great as to exceed tlie treasures on lake Superior ? 
 Do you realize the fact that American capital and American enterprise have 
 already by the Central Ontario Railway permeated this region, up the- 
 Valley of the Trent, and for a hundred and fifty miles this road runs through 
 an almost continuous iron belt ? That already ore is being mined from 
 these regions, brought to the lake ports, and is entering into their daily 
 commerce, notwithstanding the fact that it has to bear a tax of 75 cents a 
 ton ? The percentage of metallic iron in all these Canadian ores is just as 
 great as that of the rich Gogebic regions, the development of which has- 
 added so much to the wealth of this country, and which are already 
 capitalized for more than $70,000,000, though they were practically 
 unknown two years ago. Let me give you but one example ? At New 
 Glasgow, in Nova Scotia, within a radius of six miles, there is found 
 hundreds of tons of iron ore of the best quality, equal to that of any other 
 portion of the world, side by side with limestone chemically pure, coke in 
 abundant quantities from seams thirty feet thick, all directly on the Inter- 
 colonial Railway, and within six miles of the Atlantic ocean. This ore, 
 manufactured at that point, could be brought to Boston for a dollar and a 
 half a ton, which to bring from the Gogebic regions, where there is no coal, 
 would cost five dollars a ton. In the South, about the development of which 
 we have heard so much, it is true there are inexhaustible quantities of iron 
 ore, side by side with coal and limestone, but this great misfortune occurs, 
 that these ores are not steel ores, and are high in phosphorus, which maybe 
 represented as the devil, while in this region of Canada the devil is absent. 
 If the iron mines of Canada were held to-day at a figure Avhich would pre- 
 vent Americans from acquiring them there might be some cause to say that 
 commercial union would not benefit Americans, but there is hardly a stretch 
 of iron ore in Canada to-day, the fee simple of which could not be had for a 
 mere song, and not any but could be had at a nominal price of a royalty 
 which would not be felt in the amount of money to be made from their 
 development should an open market be permitted with the United States. 
 The truth is that in the upper continent of North America there is no region 
 where the iron development is of such transcending importance to the 
 United States as the development witniu Canada, because of its accessibility, 
 its abundance, its freedom from phosphorus, and the cheapness at which it 
 can be acquired by Americans themselves. The Ontario government have 
 this year sold 150,000 acres of land for $2 an acre, covering an iron belt 
 seventy five miles across. 
 
 VAST WEALTH IN COPPER AND NICKEL. 
 
 In regard to copper, the great success which has been achieved by the 
 great representative copper company of the world, known as the Calumet- 
 Hecla, has been based on the fact that 5 per cent, of the ore was pure 
 copper, whereas in the Canadian copper development it is found that the 
 percentage of copper runs all the way from 6 to as high as 30 per cent. 
 The use of copper has increased next only in extent to iron, and its cheap- 
 ness of recent years has developed uses for it that were never dreamed of* 
 
FROM A UNITED STATES POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 27 
 
 For rooting cars and other such uses it is likely to be introduced very exten- 
 sively. The Canadian copper deposits are almost beyond human belief, 
 there being ridges miles long at the Sugbury Junction mine on the Canada 
 Pacific Railway, reachable within the next ninety days from the American 
 border at Sault St. Marie, rendering available such riches as to be almost 
 beyond human belief. The present duty on copper is 34- cents a pound, which 
 has been practically prohibitory of the importation of raw copper from 
 these regions. It is utterly unnecessary and unjustifiable, for we are the 
 largest exporters of copper in the world. It is a fact that you can get 
 on a horse and ride through continuous ridges containing more copper 
 above ground than is to be seen on any iron deposit in the world. The 
 famous mine of Calumet and Heclahas a vein twelve feet thick. There is 
 one within four hours of the lake a thousand feet thick. Judge of the 
 comparison ? Agassiz, the father of the man who is president of the 
 Calumet-Hecla Company said that '' comparison is at the bottom of all 
 philosophy." The comparison in this case indicates the philosophy that 
 we can make the United States rich by having free access to the copper of 
 Canada. Within the next ninety days you can take a Pullman car at 
 Detroit, and in a very few hours you can step directly from the car to the 
 mines, as near as you dare go with safety when they are blasting. Within 
 the past ten days one of the most illustrious citizens of this country, Sena- 
 Tor Sherman, has Avith his own eyes beheld this enormous deposit, and has 
 seen its accessibility, its riches and availability for American capital and 
 American enterprise. 
 
 In the matter of Dickel the deposits of Canada challenge attention. The 
 results of one deposit in the United States in Pennsylvania, were two per 
 cent of nickel which has supplied the whole United States. There is in 
 Canada millions and millions of tons of nickel ore, which contain, according 
 to a recent analysis, six to ten per cent, of pure nickel. Of course you know 
 its commonest use is in the nickel five cent piece, but it is used in all the 
 fine grades of manufactures. It is a metal that is stronger than steel, not 
 only very hard, but very malleable and ductile. Its use in the manufacture 
 of gnus has hitherto been impossible because of its high price, but with the 
 development of the mines of Canada all the artillery of the world, can be 
 made from it. One of the best illustrations of its availability is the fact 
 that just before the death of the great Kmpp, the Gerinau gun-maker, ne- 
 gotiations were pending for obtaining supplies from the Canadian nickel 
 mines for the manufacture of his celebrated guns for European warfare. Is 
 it not an illustration of the marvellous riches of Canada that the greatest 
 gnu-maker in all the world should have had his attention turned to the 
 metal which above all others would suit his purpose, but which still la vs 
 dormant iu the wilds of Canada. Is it not an illustration of the stupid 
 ignorance of our own people that almost within sight of their shores should 
 be lying metal of rnch intrinsic value, needing only industry and develop- 
 ment, with American capitalists and the American miner, to make it available 
 for the uses of the world. An illustration of the superiority of nickel over 
 copper, or any other metal, is found in the experiment w hich was tried on a 
 
28 
 
 COMMERCIAL UNION WITH CANADA 
 
 German ship, which was sheeted on one side with nickel, and on the other 
 side with copper. She went on a two years' cruise around the world, and on 
 her return she was listed down with barnacles and sea shell accumulations 
 on the copper-sheeted side so as to be scarcely navigable, while the nickel 
 side was as bright as when it was put ou. The use of nickel in the 
 sheeting of vessels would result in a revolution in all the tropical 
 waters, where one of the chief impediments to speed is the accumula- 
 tions which copper and other metal gather in, but which in the case of 
 nickel is entirely impossible. In the manufacture of the guns, recently 
 ordered by the Navy Department, the world is being searched by the 
 Bethlehem people for material. The iron must be of such a fine quality, 
 so entirely free from phosphorus, that out of a whole ton if there were 
 present the merest trace of phosphorus, equivalent to two hundredths 
 of one per cent., the metal would be condemned. In the case of nickel, 
 however, if it could be substituted for iron, no such difficulty would 
 be found, and it could, if allowed to come in free from Canada, be 
 substituted at a less cost than iron costs to day. Then there would 
 be a gun that would not be equalled on earth. The value of nickel may be 
 estimated by the fact that within ten years its purchaseable price was $1.50 
 to $2 a pound. If it could be admitted free and the needed development 
 take place on an extensive scale, it could be introduced into common use 
 at 30 cents a pound. Is there in the whole range of economic exj>erience a 
 circumstance so full of significance as this one fact, that within sight of 
 Michigan lies millions of tons of this product, which only needs to have a 
 market to be brought into common use, for the great benefit of mankind 
 and the good of every one who is concerned in the creation of trade that 
 would be developed with the development of the mines. The world's 
 supply of nickel to-day lies between the Island of New Caledonia, a French 
 penal colony, 150 miles east of Australia, and the mines in Canada, with an 
 exhausted deposit in Pennsylvania which now does not exceed two per 
 cent, of ore; the one source of supply ou the Canada Pacific Railway 
 within a few miles of Detroit, and the other just half-way around the 
 globe. 
 
 OTHER MINERALS. 
 
 But it is not alone in iron, copper, and nickel, that Canada possesses great 
 natural wealth. In gold and silver her productions have already been 
 extensive. In Nova Scotia $8,000,000 has been taken out of the ground, 
 by a very imperfect system of mining, in fifteen years; and in British 
 Columbia immense quantities are believed to exist, from the fact that gold 
 to the value of $50,000,000 has been mined from only a dozen localities, yet 
 hardly fully developed. With regard to silver, you will all remember the 
 remarkable story of Silver Islet, at the head of Lake Superior, which yielded 
 such immense returns. Throughout the Port Arthur district, and in the 
 Beaver and Rabbit mountains, silver is now being mined with good success, 
 and there are many indications of its existence in numerous localities in 
 Canada. 
 
FBOM A V XI TED STATES POIXT OF VIEW. 
 
 29 
 
 Of phosphates, however, Canada possesses an enormous quantity, 
 and of the purest character. No country in the world needs fertilizers 
 more than large portions of the United States. The manufacture of this 
 article is one of the most important industries, and its output simply 
 enormous. In Canada there is, in counties of the Ottawa, almost inex- 
 haustible supplies of the highest grade of natural fertilizers. Analysis 
 shows that Canadian phosphates possess phosphoric acid up to 37 and 39 
 per cent., or equivalent to 80 or 86 per cent, of phosphate of lime. No con- 
 tribution to the wealth of the continent is of greater value than the de- 
 velopment of this important industry, and already American enterprise and 
 American capital are seeking investment in this direction. 
 
 In asbestos, also, Canada possesses one of the most valuable of minerals. 
 It is common in Canada, and only elsewhere in tbe world in Italy. There 
 is some in California, but it costs too much to market. It is a fibrous 
 material, known for its power to resist fire aud acids, and presents tbe 
 widest field for inventive genius to open up new processes for building- 
 purposes, fabrics, and for use in steam boilers, pipes, paints, fire-proof 
 cement, and other uses. 
 
 Salt, antimony, building stones, arsenic, perites, oxides of iron, marble, 
 lithographic stones, graphites, plumbago, gypsum, soapstone, white quartz 
 for potters' use, silicious sand-stones for glass making, emery, and numer- 
 ous other great products lay dormant, awaiting the touch of man. In the 
 matter of lead, it is found in almost every province, aud especially in 
 British Columbia, where the opening up of Kootenay county shows enor- 
 mous deposits of lead and silver ores, the lead ore showing as much as 15| 
 ounces of silver to the ton. 
 
 Mica is one of the characteristic minerals of the Laurentian range that 
 dominates Canada. In these ranges are found the white, brown and black 
 varieties, and in the Ottawa valley are huge storehouses of mica, Avhichhas 
 a promise of a great future, its usefulness of late years having been greatly 
 extended in the manufacture of wall-paper, the embellishment of cars, as 
 a lubricator for machinery, and is especially valuable as an anti-friction 
 product. It is unwise to burden you longer with a detail of Canadian riches 
 in the minor minerals ; enough will be said if you can be convinced that of 
 all countries in the world Canada not only possesses greater riches, but a 
 greater variety than any other country. 
 
 Allusion was made a little while ago to the wheat-producing power of the 
 Northwest, but attention should be drawn to the enormous mineral re- 
 sources of Manitoba and the Northwestern Territories. The whole country, 
 with the exception of the Red River Valley, the great wheat belt, is rich in 
 mineral deposits : gold is found in Lake of the Woods in quartz and nuggets, 
 in the Saskatchewan Valley in dust, where even now men with shovel and 
 bucket can make an average often dollars a day. The iron deposits of the 
 Britannic Range, on Big Island and Lake Winnipeg are of immense value, 
 and having been recently treated by two of the smelting works in Chicago, 
 their reports are extremely favorable, especially in helping the Lake 
 Superior ores. 
 
30 
 
 COMMERCIAL UNION WITH CANADA 
 
 In the matter of coal, both in the Territories and throughout Canada, the 
 deposit is something remarkable. Throughout the Northwest there is hardly 
 any place more than one hundred miles from a coal bed. The whole coal 
 area of Canada is very extensive, an approximate estimate placing it at no 
 less than 97,000 square miles. The magnitude of the interests involved in 
 this question of supply of coal, its contiguity and economy of handling, are 
 of enormous importance to the United States, and it is a significant testi- 
 mony to the important position which Canada holds on that question, when 
 it is recalled that away down on the Atlantic the manufacturing coal of 
 Nova Scotia should without doubt supply the manufacturing centres of 
 Xew England, at a minimum of cost, while away out on the Pacific, on the 
 other hand, the great anthracite supplies of British Columbia are an absolute 
 necessity for San Francisco and contiguous cities, and which they are now 
 absorbing at the rate of 300,000 tons a year. Is it not an illustration of the 
 advisability of obliterating all the dividing lines between the two countries, 
 when at points so distant, and points so numerous, their interests touch 
 each other and intermingle to such a degree that intimacy and connection, 
 one with the other, seam an absolute necessity for each other's proper 
 advance in civilization. 
 
 THE TIMBER SUPPLY. 
 
 Perhaps of all articles which Canada can best supply to the United 
 States there is none of greater moment to it than that of timber and 
 lumber. When one recalls the vast areas covered in the North American 
 continent with the finest forests on the one hand, and the wide stretches 
 the treeless prairies in the United States on the other, it is clear that the 
 Divinity that shaped this state of affairs never intended that a high 
 barrier should divide the supply from the demand. The riches of Canada 
 in her timber resources were not more abundant than the needs of the 
 United States for these supplies, and the policy of government which 
 would exact a rate of duty on the production or importation of such a 
 prime necessity as lumber is an egregious mistake. In the first place, the 
 duty which has been collected on Canadian lumber is an utterly unneces- 
 sary and unjustifiable charge — unnecessary because the government is 
 already embarrassed with its surplus of revenue, and unjustifiable because 
 the protection afforded to the manufacture of lumber in the United States 
 has an absolutely opposite effect to that which protection affords in manu- 
 factures, because, the more the production is stimulated, the more certain 
 is the destruction. In other words, protection to lumber means destruc- 
 tion. The forests which in Michigan and in other States were once a 
 pride and a source of wealth cannot be replaced. It is true that some 
 individual interests may temporarily be' advanced by a tariff on 
 Canadian lumber, but the whole body of consumers are made to suffer. 
 There is nothing which in the great aggregation of humanity in the 
 cities of America is so greatly, needed as cheap homes. The labor problem, 
 the commune, the socialistic element, all are more or less concerned 
 in the question of cheap homes, for once a man has a little home of his 
 
FROM A V SITED STATES P01XT OF VIEW. 
 
 31 
 
 •own, and can see his "way to preserve it, and keep it for his children, 
 he ceases to be an agitator, and becomes a citizen with whom it is safe to 
 entrust the privileges of a vote. Iu New York and many of the great 
 cities, the advance iu building material and the cost of land is a serious 
 drawback to marriage and raising a family, and the fulfilment of the 
 highest duties of a citizen. To exact a twenty per cent, duty upon mate- 
 rials for homes is, therefore, the most unwise policy that it is possible to 
 indulge in. Commercial union would open up to the people of the United 
 States an enormous area of timber and lumber in Canada, which would 
 afford such supplies of every variety as nowhere else is available. The area 
 of timber land in Canada is something enormous. Excepting the great 
 triangular prairie east of the Eocky Mountains, lying between the United 
 States boundary line and a line drawn from tbe Eed Piver to the Upper 
 Peace River, the whole of Canada up to the northern limit of the growth of 
 trees presents one vast forest area except where it has been cleared by the 
 hand of man. According to my friend, A. T. Drummoxd, within this area 
 there are ninety-five species of forest trees, including nineteen of the pine 
 family. It is true that the hand of man has largely denuded the valley of 
 the Ottawa and the province of Ontario and portions of Quebec of their 
 riches in timber, but there are still vast supplies at the head waters of the 
 Ottawa, on the St. Maurice, and towards St. James' Bay, and more espe- 
 cially in the Provinces of British Columbia. The timber trade of this 
 latter region will in the near future, with the opening up of the country 
 by railways and an increased utilization of navigable rivers, rise to pro- 
 portions of immense importance, while throughout j>ortions of even Ontario 
 and Quebec there are still enormous supplies of the beautiful birdseye 
 maple, black birch, oak, basswood, black ash, and other useful and highly 
 ornamental woods which this country, in its progress towards the highest 
 grades of furniture greatly needs. Of late years the use of natural Avoods 
 has shown the improA'ed taste in the decoration of interiors, and there is no 
 source of supply for this continued beautification of homes so accessible, so 
 varied, and so comprehensive as that of Canada. 
 
 THE WEALTH OF CANADA IN HER FISHERIES. 
 
 While the earth has its riches in such abundance that the heart of man 
 should be devoutly grateful to the Giver of all Good for their infinite variety 
 and abundant supply, yet the sea has a wealth that in many countries is 
 looked upon as quite as great as that of the earth. Iu North America, 
 however, we do not reap the harvest that the sea yields to the extent of 
 the privileges afforded. It is along the borders of the great lakes, and 
 -along the shores of the great seas, that the sustentation of human life is 
 contributed to as it might be by the exercise of man's industry in gathering 
 in the wealth that Providence has provided in the water. There are thou- 
 sands of people in the interior who from year to year rarely know what it 
 is to taste fish, and there is no great industry susceptible of larger develop- 
 ment, or more greatly contributing to the reduction of the cost of living, 
 or adding variety and thus health to the food of the country, than that of 
 
32 
 
 COMMERCIAL UNION WITH CANADA 
 
 the fisheries. While this is so with regard to the general question of fish- 
 eries, the place that Canada occupies in this department of the supply of 
 human food is very significant, because she owns the largest and the richest 
 fisheries in the world. As my friend, the Hon. Peter Mitchell, says, "The 
 great variety and superior quality of the fish products of the sea and inland 
 waters of Canada afford a nutritious and economic food, admirably adapted 
 to the domestic wants of a mixed and laborious population. The prolific 
 nature of the waters adjacent to Canada, and the convenience of their un- 
 disturbed use, make the sea and inland fisheries on this continent of pecu- 
 liar value." Did you ever realize the vast stretches of coast line of which 
 Canada controls the fisheries ? Bounded as the Dominion is by three 
 oceans it has besides its numerous inland seas over 5,500 miles of sea coast, 
 washed by waters abounding in the most valuable fishes of all kinds. The 
 older provinces of the Confederation have 2,500 miles of sea coast and in- 
 land seas, while the sea coast of British Columbia alone is over 3,000 miles 
 in extent. The teeming waters of these possessions must be reckoned as 
 national property, richer and more perpetual than any mere estimate in 
 money can express. But not only in the matter of extent of sea coast line 
 and territory has Canada larger fisheries than all other countries in the 
 world, but in the extreme northern location which she occupies she 
 posssesses an advantage which is of immense value. This advantage is 
 that the fish are better in the northern climates than in the southern cli- 
 mates, and not only are the fish better and more solid in the northern 
 climates, but the supply of fish food is, owing to the extreme northern 
 location, something enormous. Mr. Harvey, in his history of Newfound- 
 land, says "that the arctic currents which wash the coast of Labrador, 
 Newfoundland and Canada, chilling the atmosphere, and bearing on its 
 bosom hugh ice argosies, is the source of the vast fish wealth which has 
 been drawn on for ages, and which promises to continue for ages to come. 
 Wanting this cold river in the ocean the cod, seals, herring, mackerel, 
 halibut and numerous other fish which now crowd the northern seas would 
 be entirely absent. The great fishing interests are just as dependent upon 
 this arctic current as are the farming interests on the rain and sunshine 
 which ripen the crop." Professor Hind says, "the arctic seas, and the great 
 rivers which they send forth, swarm with minute forms of life, consti- 
 tuting in many places a living mass, — a vast ocean of living slime. The 
 all-pervading life which exists there affords the true solution of the problem 
 which has so often presented itself to those investigating deep sea fisheries, 
 viz ; the source of food which gives sustenance to the countless millions of 
 fish that swarm upon the coasts of the Dominion." Another writer, Dr. 
 Brown, has shown that the presence of this slime, spread over 100,000 square 
 miles, "provides food for millions of birds that frequent the arctic seas in 
 the summer, and furnishes sustenance to the largest marine animals the 
 year round." Another writer, Mr. Sheriff" Joncas, of Gaspe, the clever con- 
 tributor to the literature of the British Association, says : "By far the largest 
 area of this cold water subtends the coasts of the British American Provinces 
 within the 100 fathom line of soundings. It is computed that while the- 
 
FROM A UN I TED STATES FOIST OF VIEW. 
 
 33 
 
 cold water subtending the United States is about 45,000 square miles, that 
 which subtends the British American shores is over 200,000 square miles." 
 You will see from this comparison the superior value of the fisheries of Bri- 
 tish North America. The harvest of the sea has not yet been gleaned to the 
 same extent as the harvest of the land. As Sheriff Joxcas further says, 
 u the fact of foreign nations having always clung with tenacity to every 
 right of common liberty which they have been enabled to secure iu these 
 fisheries, and the eagerness which foreigners manifest to establish them- 
 selves in the absolute use of such extensive and lucrative piivileges 
 constitute the best extrinsic evidence of the wide-spreading influence of 
 their possession, and the strongest testimony to their industrial and com- 
 mercial worth." The trouble which has arisen in the St. Lawreuce between 
 the United States and Canada, in regard to the fishery question, iudicates the 
 enormous importance of this interest, and if by commercial union between 
 the two countries all cause for friction should be removed, and all this vast 
 area opened up to American industry and American enterprise, resulting in 
 an enormous in< .Tease in the production of fish, and its cheapened price to 
 the vast mass of consumers, is any other argument needed to make it clear 
 that this commercial union would be au advantage ? The effect of the 
 obliteration of the dividing line between the two countries iu the rnatrer of 
 fish would be more comprehensive, more beneficial, to all classes of the 
 community, than almost any other act that could be imagined, removing at 
 once aud forever the dangerous element of difference, which like the Ghost 
 of Banquo, arises periodically to disturb the peace of the nations; enlarging 
 such an area of industry for the employment of those who would seek it in 
 this direction, and resulting in a cheapened food product of the greatest 
 possible value to the community at large. What larger or better achieve- 
 ment can be imagined than by appropriate legislation between tbe two 
 countries to make this, as all other articles, free from all entangling 
 conditions, — free as the air and the water for the good of the people on 
 both sides of the border. 
 
 AGRICULTURAL POSSIBILITIES. 
 
 Aside from the enormous Avheat-growing possibilities of the great North- 
 west, as illustrated in the progress of such States as Minuesota and Dakota, 
 there are in the other proviuces possibilities of very great contributions to 
 the United States iu the shape of agricultural products. Of course, in a 
 certain sense, these products compete with those of the farmers of the 
 Uni'ed States, but inasmuch as they are now coming in to this country to a 
 very large extent, it is not believed that the removal of tbe duty would 
 materially lessen the piice. The productions of Canada are so i> significant, 
 as compared with the total products of the United States, that for many 
 years they would not enter into competition to any serious extent with 
 American products. There is a peculiarity also about many of the Canadian 
 articles that prevents them from materially entering into competition here. 
 Thus, iu the matter of wool, Ontario is the natural habitation on this con- 
 tinent for combing wool sheep, and without a full, cheap, and reliable supply 
 3 * 
 
34 
 
 COMMERCIAL UNION WITH CANADA 
 
 of the wool of this species the worsted manufactories of the country 
 ■cannot prosper. Ontario is the land where grows the finest barley, which 
 the brewing interest of the United States must have if it ever expects to 
 rival Great Britain in its present annual export of sll, 000,000 worth of malt 
 products. Ontario raises and grazes the finest cattle, with qualities espe- 
 cially desirable to make good the deterioration of stock in other sections. 
 In horses, which are needed greatly for draft purposes in the United 
 States ; in poultry and eggs ; in fruits, butter and cheese, she possesses 
 powers of production quite equal, if not superior, to the most perfect 
 agricultural sections of the United States. These being in close conti- 
 guity to many manufacturing centres, afford to the greatest number of 
 people the greatest possible advantage, and if it is a fact that the price 
 may not be materially lessened by their free introduction, as they now 
 largely come in even against the duty, there is no controlling obstacle to the 
 abolition of the customs line in regard to these products. Looking at the 
 map of North America, one who is unacquainted with the barriers which 
 Governments have erected would naturally suppose that the fertile valleys 
 of Nova Scotia, and especially of Annapolis, whould be the natural sources 
 of supply of many of the smaller products, that the great manufacturing 
 centres in New England would draw largely from. In apples, berries, gar- 
 den truck and the smaller grains, this fine province and its neighbor, Prince 
 Edward Island, could with the greatest possible facility furnish portions 
 of New Englaud most advantageously, to the great good of all con- 
 sumers. The trade could not exist unless the demand existed. If the de- 
 mand exists it ought to be supplied at the most reasonable rates, and 
 with the facility that contiguity, cheap means of communication, 
 and the great productive power of the locality afford. Going West, 
 New Brunswick is not an agricultural region, but there are many 
 agricultural products in it that would benefit the United States ; 
 while from portions of Quebec, and largely from Ontario, supplies 
 could be derived of agricultural products that would greatly benefit 
 not only the producers, but the consumers. Speaking of Ontario, an 
 eminent commercial economist of this country, Hon. David A. Wells, says : 
 u Such a country as Ontario is one of the greatest gifts of Providence to the 
 human race, better than bonanzas of silver, or rivers whose sands contain 
 gold. At present, this land so favored by nature is in a great measure un- 
 occupied and sparsely populated, because there is little market for the pro- 
 duct of its industry, and the United States has practically said there shall 
 be none. With an area nearly equal to that of the three great States of New 
 York, Pennsylvania aud Ohio, which now have a population o f 12,000,000, 
 the present population of Ontario is less than 2,000,000. During the period 
 of the operation of the reciprocity treaty the ratio of increase of population 
 was at the rate of 4.3d per cent, per annum, or in a ratio greater than the 
 United States at any period of its history, but after the outbreak of our civil 
 war and the repeal of reciprocity, or from 1&Q1 to 1871, the annual ratio of 
 increase ran down to 1.61, or to a ratio less than that of the United States 
 at any period of its history. Let all barriers to free commercial intercourse 
 
FROM A EXITED STATES TOIXT OF VIEW. 
 
 35 
 
 and the exchange of products he now removed, and who can douht that in 
 the course of one or two decades, (and what are tea or twenty years in the 
 life of a nation ?), there will be gathered in what is now Ontario the material 
 for several great and prospering States — States whose population, origina- 
 ting mainly in the United States, connected with them by ties of blood, 
 kindred and similarity of thought (which free intercourse will aunually 
 strengthen and not weaken), will be American rather thau provincial ; 
 States whose people, under the representative government now enjoyed in 
 Ontario, will largely determine the policy of the whole Dominion." 
 
 RELATIONS, RESOURCES AND CAPABILITIES. 
 
 An admirable photograph of the natural relations, resources, and capa- 
 bilities of Canada, as connected with the United States, is presented in a 
 report to the government, in 1871, by Mr. J. A. Larned, the excellent 
 superintendent of the Public Library at Buffalo, from which the following 
 is an extract : 
 
 " Here, then, are about four and a quarter millions of people, not only 
 living in the utmost nearness of neighborhood to us, but wiih such inter- 
 jections of territory, and such an interlacing of natural communications 
 and connections between their country and ours, that the geographical 
 unity of the two is a more conspicuous fact than their political separ itioo. 
 Their numbers exceed by more than half a million the people of the six New 
 England State*, and ahout equal the number in the great State of New 
 York. In the magnitude and value of the industrial and commercial inter- 
 changes that are carried on between the New England States ami the other 
 parts of this Uniou, we may find no unfair measure of the kindred commerce 
 that would have existed, under natural circumstances, between t ose people 
 and ourselves. Such equal conditions, indeed, would undoubtedly have 
 given to the provinces in question a weight in i lie commerce of the North 
 America continent considerably exceeding the present weight of the New 
 England States. The average capabilities of their soil and climate are not 
 inferior to the capabilities of the six States with which I compare them, 
 while their general resources are greater and more var ed. Ontario possesses 
 a fertility with which no part of New England can at all compare, and that 
 peninsular section of it around which the circle of the great lak^s is swept, 
 forces itself upon the notice of any student of the American map as one of 
 the favored spots of the whole continent — as one of the appointed hiving 
 places of industry, where population ought to breed with almost Belgian 
 fecundity. A large sectiou of Quebec is at least equal, iu soil and climate, 
 to its New England neighbors, while it rivals them in the possession of 
 water power, which is furnished by every stream, and while it commands 
 easier and cheaper access to the markets of the western interior. As for the 
 Maritime Provinces, their possessson of abundant coal gives them one of 
 the prime advantages of industry over the contiguous States. Along with 
 this parity, to say the least, in all that is essential to a vigorous develop- 
 ment, the provinces forming the Dominion — even if we exclude flint vast 
 seat of future empire in the basm of Lake Winnipeg, which lies waiting for 
 civilization to reach it — ocenpy a territorial area within which the popula- 
 tion of New England or New York might be several times multiplied without 
 increase of density." 
 
 These expressions and numerous others that could be quoted go to show 
 that a territory of most iuvitiug character lies awaiting settlement by 
 Americans, and those who come through the United States, who, if they had 
 
36 
 
 COMMERCIAL rXIOX WITH C AX AD A 
 
 a better market in this country for their products, would fiud opportunities 
 for a fortune aud a future that nowhere else on the continent has superior 
 advantages. If the trade between the two countries could be without let 
 or hindrance, and all the advantages to the United States be secured by as 
 free act ess, aud as free interchange, as if Canada was part and parcel of 
 the Union, why should not these advantages be secured by such legislation 
 as would obliterate for ever the dividing line that, commercially, now exists 
 between them. 
 
 Your patience and your kindness have been taxed by the great length 
 of this address, in which I have endeavored to impress you with the position 
 of Canadp, her great natural advantages, and the opportunities which these 
 present to the United States. There are many details which it is iuij)or- 
 tant should be discussed, and there are many difficulties in the way of 
 so great a consummation, the possibility of which has been presented 
 to you. But these details and these difficulties may well be left for 
 future discussion. The amount of revenue which the United States 
 Treasury collects on the imports from Canada is less than five and a half 
 millions of dollars. In view of the enormous surplus which now burdens 
 the general government, and threatens to seriously embarrass the com- 
 mercial public, the stoppage of this source of revenue would be regarded 
 as a positive advantage by many, and would cause no serious disturbance 
 in existing conditions of taxation. It may well be doubted whether 
 in the whole range of fiscal votes by Congress, past, present, or future, 
 more could be accomplished for the benefit of the United States than 
 could be achieved by a vote which should forever obliterate the collection 
 of this five and a half millions from goods impoited from Canada. 
 Enough has already been said to make this clear. But in Canada a con- 
 dition precisely opposite exists, and here difficulties of a really seiious 
 nature appear : first, because the revenue interfered with by free admission 
 of American go ids bears a much larger proportion to the whole amount 
 collected; and second, because the free admission of American goods would 
 certainly serously supplant foreign goods, on which tbe remainder of the 
 customs duties are levied. By some mutual arrangement, however, such as 
 pooling the customs and internal revenue receipts by both countries, and 
 distributing them in proportion to population, the difficulties now apparent 
 may be surmounted. The question would need to be approached, espe- 
 cially on the part of the United States, with liberality, as it doubtless would 
 be. Perhaps the most serious difficulty to be apprehended would be 
 the regulation of the tariff on imports, and fixing the scale of 
 internal reveuue taxation. This serious question is oue which needs the 
 most ample discussion and the fairest consideration. To many the right of 
 the United States Congress to regulate the tariff for the whole continent 
 under a commercial union is a f tregone conclusion, and to yield this point 
 makes the achievement of such a union much more practicable and possible, 
 from a United Stat s point of view. To Cauadiaus the proposition to part 
 with the power to regulate their tariff is an objection which it is difficult to 
 meet. This is especially so in view of the necessities of revenue arising out 
 
FROM A EXITED STATES POIXT OF VIEW. 
 
 37 
 
 'of the growth of the public debt of the Dominion compared with the steady 
 reduction in the public debt of the United States. The United States tariff 
 is still, however, higher than that of Canada by an average perhaps often 
 per cent., and if it should be agreed to pool receipts from both countries, and 
 divide in proportion to population, Canada would be as well off in revenue as 
 she now is; and in view of the relatively small proportion to which she 
 -would be entitled (comparing 5 millions to 60 millions of people) she might 
 well afford to take her chances as to the future effects of tariff legislation 
 with such States as Michigan, Ohio, New- York, and Vermont, having condi- 
 tions in climate, product, and pursuit of such similarity. It may be possible 
 to convince Canadians that they can afford to take such a chance, in view 
 of the great advantages that would now to them from an open market 
 among sixty millions of people, and the possibilities growing out of the de- 
 velopment of their country, and it may be that some mode maybe dis- 
 covered whereby the difficulty may be obviated. Surely the resources of 
 civilization in the management of affairs will afford some plan by which 
 difficulties of this nature and kindred character can be adjusted, once a 
 union between the two countries has been agreed upon, involving mutual 
 independence and mutual intercharge on an equitable basis. 
 
 A thousand years ago, Peter the Hermit preached the Crusades, and 
 aroused Europe to sacrifices involving millious of money and tens of 
 thousands of lives. The motive that inspired these costly contributions 
 was the supposed influences of holy shrines, and the possible hope of conquest. 
 Since that day great wars have been carried forward at enormous expendi- 
 ture of blood and treasure; and to day the people of Europe, even in time 
 of peace, are taxed and harassed to a great extent, either to prevent or to 
 achieve conquest. To sum up all that has ever been accomplished by these 
 great struggles, and their continued costliness, amounts to less in good to 
 mankind than can be achieved on this continent by a single act of legisla- 
 tion — a simple act that will unite in terms of perfect amity and commercial 
 freedom two great regions hitherto divided ; two great people hitherto 
 estranged for want of a common interest. Thus, by conquest of good- will, 
 the union of the two great Anglo-Saxon nations of Xorth America can be 
 achieved, while permitting the political independence of each, a community 
 of interest and great mutual advantage wil illustrate in the highest form 
 ever yet illustrated the sentiment that ''Peace hath her victories no less 
 renowned than war ! "