Contexts of Canada's Past: Selected Essays of W.L. Morton 9780773595613

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Contexts of Canada's Past

Contexts of Canada's Past Selected Essays of W. L. Morton

Edited and with an Introduction by A. B. McKillop

THE CARLETON LIBRARY NO. 123

Published by Macmillan of Canada in association with the Institute of

Canadian Studies, Carleton University

Copyright © The Macmillan Company of Ca nada 1980 All rights rese rved - no part of this boo k may be reproduced in any form wi th out permission in writing from th e publisher except by a reviewer who wishes to qu ote brief passages in con necti on with a review wri tten for inclusion in a magazin e

or newspaper. Canadian Cataloguing ill Publication Data

Morton, William L.. 1908 Contexts of Canada's past (The Ca rl eton library; 123) ISBN 0-7705-1847-8 pa.

I. Canada- Hislory- Addresses. essays. lectures. I. McKillop, A.B., 1946 II. Title. III. Series. FC I76.M67 F I026.M667

97 I

C79-0949 I4-8

Printed in Canada for The Macmi llan Company of Ca nada

70 Bond Street Toronto, Onta rio

M5B IX3

The Carleton Library

A series of reprin ts, ori gin al works, and new collections of so urce material relating to Canada, issued under th e editorial supervision of the Institute of Canadian Studies of Carleton University, Ottawa Director of the Institute and General Editor S. F. Wise Executive Editor Virgil D . Duff (Macmillan of Canada)

Editorial Board Marilyn J. Barber (History) Dennis Forcese (Sociology) David B. Knigh' (Geography) Steven Langdon (Eco nomics) Maureen Mo lo l (Political Science) 1. Geo rge Ne uspie l (Law) Derek G. Smi,h (An thropology)

Publications Editor James H . Marsh

The editor and the author 0/ th is volume would like to thank the A Illmni Association 0/ the University 0/ Manitoba, whose assistance helped make publicatioll possible. All rOlalties [rom the book have been as· signed to the Alumni Association.

Contents

Introducti on

J

I. REFLECT IONS

I. 2.

Seeing a n Unlil erary La ndscape ( 1970) 15 Canad ia n HiSiory a nd Historians ( 1973) 26

II . PR OV INCE AN D R EG ION 3. Ma rgina l ( 1946) 41

4. 5. 6.

Life al Third Crossi ng ( 1946) 48 Th e Ca nadi a n Melis ( 1950) 61 Agricullu re in Ih e Red Ri ve r Co lony ( 1949)

7.

The Significa nce of Site in the Settl ement of the American and Ca nad ia n Wests ( 195 1)

69

87

III. VO ICES OF PROT EST

8.

Clio in Canada: The Interpretation of Canadian History (1946)

103

9.

Th e Weste rn Progress ive Move me nl, 1919-1 92 1 ( 1946) 113 10. The Social Philosophy of Hen ry Wise Wood ( 1948) 131 II. T he Bias o f Pra irie Polil ics ( 1955) 149

IV. A NO RT HERN NATION

12. T he Relevance of Ca nadia n History ( 1960)

163

13. Bri tish North America and a Cont inen t in Dissolu tio n. 186 1-7 1 ( 1962) 186 14. Confede ra lio n, 1870- 1896 ( 1966) 208 IS. The "North" in Ca nadian Historiography (1970)

129

V. QUE BEC, NATI ONA LI SM. AN D CO NSERVAT ISM

16. Ca nadia n Co nserva lism Now ( 1959)

243

17. The Dualism of Cultu re and th e Federali sm of Power ( 1964) 254 18. T he Poss ibililY of a Phil oso ph y of Co nserva lism ( 1970) 266 19. Canada: T he One and Ih e Many ( 1977) 285

Contexts of Canada's Past

· . I believe my own practice a ttempts and has always attempted the syn th esis o r local and genera l history. I thin k I have wrillcn no local hi story with out explicit larger context. That be lier made it natural ro r me to move rrom local to gene ra l subjects .... In deed , th e o nly sat isractory ap proach to Canad ia n hi story seems to be one th at ba lances the regional and the ce ntral, the river, the prairies, and the mountains, the metropoli s and th e hinterland . Such a ba lance ca n be struck only with th e multiplication and imp rove ment of regio nal history, but regional history of itse lf can only augme nt th e evils of natio nal history if it is no t written to serve a large r con tex t, the co ntext or th e nati on and the world.

- w. L.

Morto n ( 1973)

Introduction

For mo re than three decades now, Wi ll ia m Lewis Morto n has given singu lar and sustained voice to a Canadian past of many d imension s. His Ca nada is a cou ntry rich in tradit ion and he ritage, a land which cann ot be unde rsleod witho ut knowledge a lso of the layers o f historical co ntex t wh ich toge th er co mprise its fa bric. T he historica l writings of W. L. Morton rence! nea rly a lifetime's effort at com in g to gr ips with the comp lexit ies of the Canadian experience; as such, they arc also re fl ections of i l. l This selection o f Mo rton's essays has two major purposes. First, it seeks to make available a number of a rticles a nd add resses. otherwise one n difficult [0 ob tain, on d iverse aspects of Ca nadian history and life. Second. it is in tended to suggest (in its o rganiza tion) the evo lution or Morton 's thought so that students of Canad ian intellectual lire a nd those who a rt iculate a nat io n's selr-pe rception a re centra l to its inte llectual history - may find easier the exa minatio n or one o r the major his torical minds or the twentieth century in Canada. In short. the volume has sought to sa tisry both those interested in the Canadian expe ri ence a nd those who fi nd th emse lves equa lly in teres ted in W. L. Morton. It rollows as closely as poss ible th e d ouble chrono logy or Canad ian history a nd or Morto n's p ublishing (and thererore inte ll ectua l) ca reer. T he vo lum e is thu s broke n down in to thematic sec tion s which reflect the dirrerent contex ts- loca l a nd regional. na ti o nal a nd imperial. cu lt ura l a nd inte ll ectua l- which toge ther, ror Morton, co nstitute th e Ca nad ia n iden tity. T hey also mirro r maj or stages in the lire or a n act ive and re rt ile his torical imagina tion. T here are bound to be some who a re disa ppo inted in the cho ice or items ror indusion in this book. T hose intimate with the diversity or W. L. Morton's inte rests will doub tless co ncl ud e that th e editor's concen tra tion on hi s pro ressiona l essays does no t do just ice to thaI breadth or concern. But limitations or space preclude repub lication of. ror exa mple. a ny or his pamph lets written ror th e Ca nad ian Institute or Interna tio nal AfTai rs d uring a nd short ly afte r the Seco nd Wo rld

2

CONTEXTS OF CANADA'S PAST

WaT,l just as they do addresses such as thal on the nature of "service" to the Canadian Nursing Association in th e 1960s.} Problems of space also make impossi ble the inclusio n of even a severely condensed version of what so me consider o nc of his finest pieces of work-his lengthy int rod uctio n to th e C hampl ain Society edi tion of Alexander Begg's Red Ril'er Journal alld Olher Papers Reta/i ve to the Red Ri~'er Resistance of 1869-70 ( 1956). For the most part, W. L. Morto n's many reviews of books have found no place in this vo lume. Neve rth eless, in "Canadian History and Historia ns" (Item no. 2), the title of which is the edito r's, two review articles have bee n joined as o nc. Morton's reviews of Arthur Lower's Greal Britain 's Woodyard and offeslschriflell for F. H. Underhill and Donald Creighton were not simply book reviews but personal and hi sto rical assessments of the o nly other Canadia n historians of Morton's own stature. Here, too, was incisive cri ti cism of the historical temperaments and interpreta tions characteris tic of Lower, Underhill, and Creighto n. An oth er such piece is "The Canadi an Metis" (ltem no. 5). Written for The Beaver in 1950, this was a highly app reci ati ve discussion of Marcel Gi raud 's monume ntal study Le Metis Canadien ( 1945). In it can be seen the seeds of Morto n's ow n interpretation of the place of the Metis in Red Ri ve r society, along with th e beginning of the general concepti on of th e social dynamics of that society given its fullest expressio n in Morton's Manitoba: A History ( 1957). For this reason, "The Canadian Metis" was chosen for inclusion instead of his better-known essay on "The Battle a t th e G rand Co teau , July 13- 14, 185 1". The latter has also been rep rinted elsewhere:' Anoth er editorial decisio n was that no chapter or passage from any of Professor Morto n's books be included, since th ere we re so many of his essays from which to choose. This, too, proved a decision easier to make than to maintain . Items no. 4 and no. 12 a re in fact chapters from his books. The former is drawn from Morton's first book, Third CrOSSing: A History of the First Quaner Century of the Towli and District of Gladstolle in the Province of Manitoba ( 1946), written wit h the aid of his sister. Mrs. Margaret Morton Fahrni. A study of li fe in the district surrounding Monon's home in south western Manitoba, Third Crossing is a neglec ted class ic of Canadian local history. Here. at virtually the outse t of his publishin g career, could be see n his commitment to the salutary effects of the ph ysical environment of the Canadian prairie west, along with the deep-sea ted belief that local and regional studies should not be written o nly by antiquarians and wre nched from large r na Lio nal and eve n imperia l contex ts. The chap-

Introductioll

3

ter reprinted here was originally entitl ed " Li vin g". and is th e o nly one whi ch stands alo ne. needing no reference to the remainder o f th e book. It is also a gem of an essay, a striking reminder th at loca l history and eleva ted style need not be di vo rced, and that good history is histo ry written well. rega rdless of its co mpass. Item no. 12 is among the best known of W. L. Morto n's essays. "The Relevance of Canadi an History" was o rigin ally de li ve red as his Presidential Address to the Canadia n Historical Assoc iat io n in 1960. Subsequ ently incorpora ted into The Canadian Jdenfif)' as th e co ndud· ing ch apter of its first ( 196 1) ed iti on, it neve rtheless remained an add ress and not a chapter except in the most literal sense. It stood apart from the remainder o f th e book even as it lent it substan ti al meaning, for Morton's presidenti al address to th e C. H.A. had been, in fact, a summin g up of what had become th e he art of his co ncep tio n of the Canadian national past. It would the refore be unthinkable to exclude "Th e Rel eva nce o f Canadian History" from any coll ection which purports to suggest his main concerns. Yet that address had not been the only majo r land· mark in his career. Equally important was an address give n in 1946 to the Canadian Historical Association. "Clio in Ca nada: The Interpreta· tion of Canadian History" (no. 8) was another se minal paper. the first major critical examina tio n of th e social and political implica tio ns of the " Lau rentian" interpretation o f Canadian development as set fort h by Donald Creigh ton and H. A. Innis. By the tim e th e address had been given, it was apparen t th a t the Canadian prairie wes t had fou nd a major voice to repl ace tha t of th e recently deceased John W. Dafoe.s Almost a decade later, with the Governo r General's Award· winning book, The Progressive Parry in Canada ( 1950), ha lf a doze n major articles o n th e Progressive experience, an equa l number of more general articles on the se ttlement of the prairi e west, a nd his history of Manitoba ncarin g com pletio n, Morton returned to the theme of regional grieva nces ove r the inequities o f Co nfed eratio n in an address to the Roya l Society of Canada, "The Bias o f Prairie Politics" (no. II ). The year was 1955. Yet by then Morton was reaching a point o f dep arture in his ca ree r which was to sec him turn to national, imperia l. and cultura l th emes. "The Bias of Prairie Politics" captured the im min ence o f this transi· tion , for while he con tinu ed to affirm the legitimacy of th e sectional grievances of the prairie west throughout its history, he now ins isted that western " ulOpianism" (by whi ch he mea nt "a readiness to ado pt untried met hods to achie ve ideal ends") was in fac! "an exagge rated

4

CONTEXTS OF C ANADA'S PAST

symp tom of a na ti onal malady". The West had from th e fi rst been a region significan tly different fro m the rest o f Canada . It had so ught to maintain its cultural integrity within the fra mework of th e economic a nd political policies of th e Canad ia n nati on-sta te. For the mos t part, he concluded , the a ttempt to reco ncile regio nal needs a nd na ti ona l interests had bee n a fail ure. Th e " bi as" of prairi e poli ti cs had resulted in a d istin ctive ness o f culture and trad itio n that separated th e p rai ri es from oth er sections of Canada. Yet in his 1955 address Morto n was ca reful to no le that th is difference could easily be exagge rated , especially " if histori ca l perspective is lost and the study o f fundam ent al in stitu tions neglected" . " It is mo re important, if less arresting," he con tin ued, " to observe that th e institu tions of th e prai ri e west were Ca nadia n institutions and that th e peop le who wo rk ed those institut ions and dete rmin ed the political deve lopm en t of the West were in the overwhelmin g majority of Canadi an bi rth and ancestry, th an it is to discuss the di ffe rences o f sectional politi cs." Perh aps the most important decision of a career had been made. Henceforth , Morton was to leave furt her research in western Ca nadia n history largely to oth ers motiva ted by his inspira tion and insights. Arter Ma nitoba: A History was publi shed in 1957 he turn ed to th e intensive study o f the " fu ndam en tal institu tions" which gave structure and spirit to Ca nad ia n natio nality. Marked by the appearance of Alexander Begg's Red River l OIiTl/al and Manitoba, both resea rched and co nce ived yea rs ea rl ier. th e five years between 1956 and 1960 were o nes do mi na ted fo r Morto n by national rath er th an regional ma tters. In th em he sought to give coherence LO his conce ption of the entire range of th e Ca nad ia n expe rience and to examin e the environ men ta l, in stitut ional, and cultural determ inants o f Ca nadi an history. As Exec utive Ed itor of the newly created and ambitious Ce ntenary Se ries, he gave shape to a multi -volum e histo ry of Canada wh ich was to view th e Ca nad ian nation in te rms of th e " regio na l co mmuni ties" whi ch comp rised it. "The Releva nce of Ca nadian History" marked the conclus ion of th ese years of ca reful measure. By 1960 he had co ncluded th a t Ca nadia n hjstory was give n both unive rsa l and phil osop hica l signifi ca ncc hence " relevance" - by fo ur permanen t factors: " a northern character. a historical depende nce. a mona rchical gove rnm en t", and a " nat iona l destiny" comm itt ed " to specia l relations with oth e r states". Ela borated in the remainder o f the essay, th ese became the th ematic basis of Morton's survey of Canadi an history, The Kingdom of Canada ( 1963), and have been the touchstones of his historica l work eve r since.

Introduction

5

The items included in Sectio n IV of this book-"A North ern Nation" - indicate the ways in which (a part from his boo ks) Mo non attempted to examine th e permanent facto rs in Can adi an history first outlined in his 1960 Presidenti al Address. " British No nh Am eri ca and a Continent in Dissolution" (no. 13) viewed both th e Am erica n Civil War and the co nfedera ti on of British No rth America from a perspective which was at o nce se nsi tive to colon ia l, natio na l, co nti nenta l, and imperi al aims and exige ncies. Four years late r ca me th e fu ll story of these years of cri sis, The Critical Years: The Vn ioll of British Nort h America ( 1964), in wh ich the eme rge nce of a tra nsco nti nenta l do minion became the "moral purpose" of Confede rati on - a n act of wi ll which attempted to achieve " in its own composition tha t union of the parts within the whole which is its th eme" . It was Morto n's inte ntio n tha t in thi s respec t his book would be to th e series what Con fcderation was for Ca nada: a vital. un ify ing cent rc. "Confede ration, 1870- 1896" (no, 14) and "The 'North' in Canadia n Historiography" (no. 15) purs ued the two themes fundamen tal 10 Morton's understand in g of the un iq ueness of the Canadian experience. In the forme r he reitera ted his commit me nt to the view that the origi nal " Macdonald ian" blu eprint fo r Ca nada's consti tutio nal future, embodied in the Bri tish Nort h America Act of 1867, was one wh ich recognized Canada's cullural dua lity but which had rejected a ny fonn of political d uality. Macdonald's co nsti tu tion, based on what Morto n elsewhere called the "conservative pri nciple of Confederatio n",6 was entirely adequ ate to co nserve the mino rita ri an rights not o nly of French Canadians but also of all o the r ethn ic gro ups. Th e "conse rvative prin ci ple" had, however, bee n overturn ed in the thirty years followin g Confede ration by jud icia l decisions and the ri se of "provincial rights" noti ons. As Canada en tered th e twe nti eth centu ry, it d id so with th e Macdonaldian constituti on in ruin a nd a co untry return ed to the divisive and destructive political du ality that had characteri ze d the Union period. In the latter of th ese essays, Mo rton ret urn ed to his view that Canada's primary national characteris tic is that it is a nort hern natio n. "The 'North' in Ca nadia n Historiography" is significa nt not o nly ro r its fl ashes of insight but also because it reminds th e reade r of th e importance asc ribed by its auth or throu ghout his ca ree r 10 th e for mative influenccs or th e na tural enviro nm ent o n bo th indi vid uals and peoples. Th ose who wi sh to exa min e the ex tent 10 wh ich Morto n is an "cnviro nme ntalist" wi ll find evidence for makin g their j udgments in COlilexts of Callada's Past, parti cul arly in the ea rly writin gs. " Mar-

6

CONTEXTS OF CAN ADA'S PAST

ginal" (no. 3), written in 1946, renecis this most clearly. It is a piece written from the perspective of a native son of the West who had returned from studies in Europe only to sec his prairies ravaged by the Depression. He was profoundly disturbed then at the possibility that in the conflict between imported culture and natural environment th e latter might be victorious and the plains ultim ate ly show only "'the fading trace of a cu lturally important people who, as they moved into th e northern plains ... were forced to forget the trad itions and customs of a richer past; and the affiliations that went with them." Here, even at the outset of Morton 's career, had been a sign that while he did not deny th e influence of nature on culture there were specific limits to his " environmentalism". Geographic circumstance and climate might help to shape a people's character, giv ing it tone; yet equally as fundamental to th e cu ltural identity thus created was the act of will necessary to extend and to maintain in such an inhospitable frontier environm en t the traditions and customs which define civilized life. Balancing the element of environmental determinism in Morton's thought has been his equal regard for the cultural and moral significance of conti nuity of traditio n. One of the most distinctive characteristics of Third Crossing is its insistence that the history of this small Manitoba town be viewed as an outpost of emp ire, co mprised of "people of the nineteenth ce ntu ry a nd of the civiliza tion .sprung from western Europe and particularly from the British isles .. . . " 7 In a certain sense, there was no history of any comm unity in Canada that was merely "local". Each drew in its own way from the heritage of western civilization, and for its part Gladstone had ga thered its institutions and values from places as diverse as Palestine, Ca nada West, New England townships, and Norman a nd Saxo n England. Within such a rich contextual fabr ic no community, however rude, co uld remain in its own eyes insignificant, and th e boys of Third Crossin g who fished in the Whitemud River were, like Monon himself, well aware of all the attributes of being British in heritage, just as doubtless they noticed th e soberin g effects o f drought upon the joy of festivities each Victoria Day. William Morlon was such a lad, Manitoban by birth and British by inheritance, behi nd the mouldboard plo ugh on the fami ly farm by day and with G . A. Henty in India under the read in g lamp by night. Many years after he had left G ladsto ne, he reneeted upon th ese critical early years in the prairies of the Laurier-Borden period. In "Seeing an Unliterary Landscape" (no. I), written during Manitoba's

1nlrotiuclion

7

provincial ce ntennial. Morton evokes th e mood of hi s fo rma ti ve years with the eye of a poet. Yet beyond th e provision of au to biogra ph ical detail, this hi ghly perso nal essay is also im po rtant fo r the fac t th at in it the auth or explicitly confronts the see min gly antitheti ca l " landscapes" of his ea rly years, th e co ntours of the prairie and of th e mi nd. These were pictu res of rea lity wh ich fo r Morto n, as fo r youn g Wa llace Stegner growin g up further wes t nea r th e Cypress Hills of Saskatchewan (or for th at maller Plato, in the streets of ancient Ath ens), never seemed to coincide. 8 Morto n experienced two parall el landscapes, "the one th e neighbours had ma de and wo rked in with apparen t content, and raj literary land scape, from the banks and braes of Bonnie Doon to th e lo ng beaches of Coral Island." To him they were separate and distinct. No "sin gle vision" un ited them, nor did it for many years. Throughout W. L. Morton's ca ree r, there has exis ted th e need (noted once aga in in "Seeing an Unliterary Landscape") " to reco ncile the actual and the mind's landscape". This need has bee n served by the ability of his imagination to impose upon the chaos of an unrecorded past- whethe r regional or nationa l- an interpretative framework th at re flects a fundamenta lly literary and ph ilosophic qua lity of mind. The act of unitin g actu al and imagined landscapes, he no tes, is achieved by " passionate thinki ng", an act of imaginative will. pa rt of the "rite of reassurance" characteristic of those in a new co un try who attempt to outlin e its history or who reshape th eir native experie nce into works of literature. For Mo rton, in te rior and ex terior la ndscapes we re reconciled only when he came to realize that neither alone was "real", that the "grea t globe of th e prairies", see n from a n a ircra ft window and ablaze with the light of th e setting sun. was given mean ing not only by what was perceived but also by what was crea ted in the mind 's eye. The Ca nadia n West consisted not only of " d ri ftin g buffalo herds" but also of artists such as Sinclai r Ross and Ma rga ret Laurence. It was, he concl ud ed, "my west co mpletely env isioned". Morton's thought and writings must be un ders tood, th en, no t simply as a complex, life-lo ng attempt to reco ncile th e competin g claims of loyalty to region and nati on but also as a sustained effo rt to confront problems of ph ilosoph ical import which bea r upon th e Canadian experience. His completely envisio ned West has been one which bore witness to a Reality greater th an th at of simple Appea ra nce. The central theme of The Critical Yea rs. the story of th e mea ns and mechanisms by which British No rth Am eri ca n provinces were bro ugh t into a federal union, is described as that of a "unio n of th e parts

8

CONTEXTS OF CANADA'S PAST

within the whole". This was a very ca refully chose n ph rase for, stated

thus, the political problems of nalio nal li fe within a fede ral system are shown to be related 10 the ancient philosophi ca l problem of the One and the Many. Even as these introductory wo rds we re ori ginally written there appeared in print (unbeknownst to the hap less editor) the essay by Morton in a coUcerion of essays entitled Divided We Stal/d. The name he gave it was "Canada: The O ne and th e Many". II is included here as the final select ion of the volume, for more d irectly than in any other of Monon's writings it bears witness to the fact that in hi s personal search for a mea ns of es tabl ishin g the nature of the relationship between multiplicity and unity in Canadian li fe, Morton has sought, in his own way, to come to grips with questions first posed by Pannenides: " Is the O ne alone real and the multiple mere ly illusion? Is the multiple alone real so that the world is irremediably and irreducibly plu ralistic at its co re? Is the world a gigantic process consisting in the unifi cation of a multiplicity destined to be brought into a higher unity with the One?"9 The Critical Years was meant to show th at the federal princi ple was a pol itica l so lution to th e large r problem of reconciling uni ty and multiplicity within a framework of cultural duality in Canada. Here, Mon on's thought ca n be see n as an ill us tratio n of the way in which the secu lar public ethic of several prominent twenticth·century Anglo-Canadians was an outgrowth of nineteenth cent ury mental and moral phil osophy. "Canada: The One a nd the Many" shows that Monon was at least as indebted as a student at the University of Manitoba to Rupen Lodge, the Platonist philoso pher who taught there, as he was to any of his history professors. No r was the general approach to phil osophica l inquiry in Ca nada at the time alien to Anglo-Canadian cult ure. One comme ntato r o n th e history of philosophy in Canada during th e cen tury from 1850 to 1950 has noted an "ea rly introduction and gradua l development of a kin d of ph ilosoph i· cal federalism - th e notion of a plurality of o rd ers each wi th its own rationality and united around th e nOlion of an underly in g unity of reason and expe rience. Reason is habi tu ally seen as a device for orde ring and clarifyin g experience, for sugges tin g possibili ti es, fo r balancing views, and not as a device fo r forma l arg uments which united premises and co nclusio ns in a re lation of necessity."lo It was a logical extensio n of Morton's work th at as he grappled a t once with regional parti cul ari ties, imperial co nnections, northern in fluences, and th e co-existence of cu ltural duali ty a nd cultura l plural-

Introdllction

9

ism, together comprising Ca nadian nati onality, he turned a lso to a more specific delineation of somewhat abstract aspects of Canadian nation hood. Section v- "Quebec, Nationa lism, and Conserva tism"contains historical material th a t is partly repea ted elsewhere in the volume; but it is materi al used in this case for a specifically philosophical purpose. "Canadian Conservatism Now" (no. 16), a n address given to members of a Progressive Conserva tive Party rejuvenated by the Diefenbaker Majori ty of 1955, o utlined the principles which in Morton's view could provide Conse rva ti ve poli tics in Canada with philosop hical substance. "The Poss ibility of a Ph ilosophy of Conservatism" (no. IS) took up Geo rge Grant's challenge in Lamelll for a Nation (published in 1965, in the wake of Diefenbaker's loss of power) tha t philosophical co nserva tism was a n untenable creed in a world dominated by li beralism and techn o logy, a nd so ught to show that G rant's very pessi mism could serve as the bas is of a mean in gful conserva ti ve temper in Canada. Morton's 1964 a rticle on Quebec and the cultural framework of Canadian natio nali ty rests upon two related propositions: th at Canada consists of a cultural dua lity which must be recognized and cherished, and th at any attempt to prese rve thi s duality of culture by mea ns of the creation of a political dua lity- for example, the acceptance of "associate-s tate" status for Quebec- would be disas trous for th e nation. Th e historical basis of thi s argument may be found in his essay, "Confedera ti on, 1870- 1896" (no. 14); its philosoph ical basis was developed in "Th e Co nse rvative Principle in Confederat io n", published a year ea rlier ( 1965).11 From these and o th er writin gs durin g th e 1960s, Morton emerged with George G rant and Dona ld C reighton as a leading critic of the li beral tradition in Ca nada. It is therefore unders tand able that in hi s exa min atio n of th e nation's past and present W. L. Morton should have dwelt upon factors of culture and heri tage as we ll as on th ose of the North Ame rica n natural environment as ones fundame nta l to Canadi an life. The symbolic representation of thi s heritage, and the protector of its cult ural makeup, was the mona rchical ideal. In none of his wri tings was this commitment more evident than in those which treat the impo rtance of maintaining Canada's status as a constitu tio nal mona rchy, ror the monarchy became, with the no rth , cen tra l to hi s co nception of the Canadian identi ty. In it was represented co ntinuity of tradition and heritage, the repudiati on of American rep ublicanism and majo ritarian democracy, the necessary means or sepa ratin g the seat of cons tit uted authority from th e exe rcise of political powe r, and th e mea ns of

10

CONTEXTS OF CAN ADA'S PA ST

accommodating the d iversities of Canadi an li fe within a larger unity based o n political allegiance. It is a go ld en, imperi al thread which weaves its way through Morto n's writin gs o n the fabric of Ca nadian life. Ca nada's physical character is derived from th e fact th at it is north ern in circum stance ; its mo ra l cha racter rests o n a freedom wrought from " the evolution o f pa rli ame ntary a nd respo nsi ble government" and from uth e funclion of th e Crown as the sym bol of nationa l integrity". 12 During his caree r, W. L. Mo rton has to uched upon a ll the major characteristics of Ca nadi an life: the rela tionships betwee n pa rish and province, province and region, regio n a nd na ti o n, nati on a nd emp ire; those betwee n native and Europea n, Englis h and F rench, Ca nad ian and Ame rica n, Conserva ti ve a nd Li be ral. He is, as he o nce stated pri vately to a cl ose friend , a " relatio na l histo ri a n". Th e phrase is not, pe rhaps, a feli ci tous one, but it is ap t. Thro ughout his wo rk he has bee n conce rned with th e co nn ections between social, polit ica l, cultural, and intell ectual forces and with the problems o f jurisdiction and aut hority that ,ui se fro m th ose poin ts o f co ntact. He has turn ed at different stages to one o r an oth er of th ese relatio nships, yet he has always remain ed ove rw hel mingly awa re th at the full meas ure o f the Canad ian expe ri ence ca n be made o nly when a ll arc bro ugh t at once withi n the focus of the mind 's eye. In "Canadian History and Histo rians" Morto n no tes the analytica l and critica l tem per of Frank Undcrhi ll and the sea rch for synthes is and cohcre nce o f Donald Creighton. Morton's own approach to historica l writin g shows him to co mbine these two fra mes o f mind. No Ca nadian historian morc than Mo rton hi mse lf has bee n as se nsiti ve to the parts wi thi n the Ca nadian who le, th e so urces of di vision and hostility. and th e mult itu di nous part icu larities o f Ca nad ian life, whi le at the same ti me sea rching fo r the factors whic h mak e that whole greater than the sum o f its constitu ent elements, thereby giving Canadian life its significa nce. A. B. McKillop

Univers ity of Manitoba 1980

InlrodllClio ll

II

Notes l. A more thorough treil tment of W. L. Morton's carecr ilnd writings. both sympa thetic and cri tical, is found in Ca rl Berger. The IVriling of Canadial1 /lislor), (Toron to, 1976). pp. 238-58. This chapter is also in Carl Berger and R:tmsay Cook. cds.. Tht' Wesl and Ihe Nalion: Essa)'s in Honour of W. L. MorlOll (Toronto. 1976). a forthcoming second edition of which will !.:onlain a complete bibliography of Morton's writ· ings. 2. Sec, for example. the following pamphlets published under the auspices of the Canadian Institute of Internationa l Affairs: "Canada and the World Tomorrow : Opportunity and Responsibility" (Toronto. 1943); " Build ing Post War Canada" (rOo ronto. 1943): "Prepare for Peace:: Canad ian Foreign and Domestic Policy after the War" (roronto. 1944): "Behind Dumbarton Oaks" (roronto. 1945). 3. "To Profess is to Servc", The Canadiall Nu rse. Vol. LX. no. 10 (October. 1964). pp. 968-7l. 4. In Donald Swainson. cd .. Historical Essa)'s Oil the Prairit' Pro l'il1ct's (Toron to. 1970). 5. Morton was a completc followcr of Dafoe's views on collecl ive security. See W. L. Morton, cd .. The Voh'e of Dafoe (Toronlo. 1945); he echoed the voice of Dafoe in his regional ~rspcctive too. 6. "The Conserva tive Principle in Confederation". Queens Quarterl),. Vol. LX III (Winter. 1965). 7. Although. characteristically. Morton finished the sentence by adding: "as it had been modified by contnct wi th the Norlh American wilderness". 8. Wallace Stegner. IVfJ/f Willow (New York. 1962). 9. Donald P. G ray. The Olle and the Mau)' (New York. 1969). p. 15. Sec also Michael C. Stokes. OIU! (/lid !tIml)' ill i'resocrmic Philosophy (Cambridge. Mass.. 1971). especially pp. 1-23. 10. Leslie Armour. "Some Themes in English-Canadian Philosophy". a paper presented to a confere nce at the University of Ottawa on the history of Anglo-Canadian philosophy. February 1976. p. 20. On the twentieth-century legacy of mental and momJ philosophy in English Canada. see A. B. McKillop. A Disciplined /ntt>lfjgenct': Critical /nquiryand Canadian Thought ill the Victorian Era (Mon treal. 1979). II. Sec note 6. 12. The Calla{Jian /delllil),. 2nd cd. (Toronto. [972). p. 86.

PART I

Reflections

CHAPTER ONE

Seeing an Unliterary Landscape

The walking-plough. tipped with its point set to slip into the sod. its mouldboard gleaming a lamben t silve r polis hed by miles of turning soil. jerks as the horses lea n into their coiJars. a nd th e furrow rolls. Such is one of the clearest images of my boyhood memory. It is an image drawn from one of th e many skills of old-time farming. the breaking every July of a few acres more of new land from meadow and poplar bush. I look back on it with fondness for so mething gone forever except in fading memory, and am proud that I was once good at th e plough. Indeed, sometimes now I find myself falJing in to the ploughman's haltin g plod, taking the weight of the share's twist on th e right foot every second strid e. I co uld drive a straight furrow and cove r every wisp of grass and trash beneath the gleaming furrows, th e soil moist wi th summer rai n and turned for the first tim e since the waters of Lake Agassiz laid it down deep below the now phantom waves. The image is one which may, moreove r, be opened into many petals, each of entrancing colou r. Only consider the meanings of that turning mould. For o ne thin g. wha t an archaism ploughing it was. It was becomi ng unusual even in those days half a century ago to break land with the walki ng-plough: th e tractor was taki ng ove r. In a se nse, however, I was fortun a te beca use I was among the last of mi llennial ge nerations of men who followed the plough, as I knew even then . So I belonged to a hum an labour force, peasant, se rf, slave, whose work fed household, village, and city, and carried th e fabric of civiliza tio n on their swea ting should ers. A strange boas t, if you like, bu t it is a strong. rich me mory. For another th ing, the plough. with its patient, fourteen-inch furrows turn ed side by side, one by one, till meadow and bus h were black and level, was one of the greatest of history'S transforming tools. Reprinted from Mosaic: A Journal /or the Comparative Study 0/ Literature alld Ideas, Vol. III. no. 3 ( Manitoba Cen tennia l Issue, 1970), pp. 1-10. 15

16

CONTEXTS OF CANADA'S PAST

No other, perhaps, has left such a mark on the face of th e earth. Grassland and forest, oak grove and prairie steppe. each has eroded before its trenchant share and rending coulter, and the wilderness become field and lawn. It must be ranked with glacial ice and running water as one of the major engravers of the globe. And I used, thercfore, to while away the plodding hours by mu sing on how I too at the plough handles was changing th e face of a planet and rem aking a

landscape. The image might be further unfolded, but I have come to my theme, the seeing of the landscape I was in faci transforming. It was already largely altered , of course. as I was the third generation to plough the ramily land. Much or the original landscape or the locality remained , however- th e heavy stands of aspen poplar com mon to the Assiniboine delta, of glacial Lake Agassiz, interspe rsed wit h shallow sloughs and alkali meadows, a pleasant parkland country, neither prairie nor woodland, but a varying mixture of both. To early travellers and even to later newcomers, it often suggested th e stand ing parks and sweeping lawns of England, but it was a suggestion on ly. It was, in fact, a countryside of austere ecological selection, fitted to survive winter, drought, and wildfire. It could not survive axe and plough, however. Clearing and breaking th e parkland indeed was easy compared with the medieval task of overcoming the hardwood forests of western Europe or of eastern Canada. Very quickly, therefore, in fact in less than three generations for the most part, the elegant undress of the wild landscape of poplar bluff and meadow had given way to the prim and level square fields made by the plough. The new landscape was that standard in North America, the homestead with shelter bluff, square white house, and long red bam usually, perhaps with si lo and windmill, a lth ough these were not common in a loca lity that grew little com and had plenty of water near the surface. Around the homestead the fields and pastures spread out to the fenced limits of th e farm, usually the road allowances. They were square or ob long, but always rectangular in response to the insistent demand of the plough that it turn full, square furrows when at work. It was pre-eminently a landscape of abundance, whether when th e fields were green with the new crop, or ranked with stooks at harvest, or black with fallow and fall ploughing. In my ea rlier years. when the grain was not only stooked, but stacked, and when th e hay stacks stood both long and high, and wisps or hay hung rrom 'he lort doors,

Reflections

17

it was a cornucopia landscape, ove rflowin g with ab unda nce. (Sometimes it was not so, of course, when the June ra in s did no t corne and the wind drove th e so il in banks a long the fcncerows, scouring the bare fi elds ferociou sly day afle r pi liless day.) In short, it was a co untrysid e transfo rm ed. A new landscape had come into being. Thai it was standa rd to a patte rn from the Ap palachians to the Rockies; th at it was sq uare in all its fea tures, mil e afte r wheel ing mile; thai it had no dis tin cti on excep t to an eye bo th fo nd and familiar, wc re maile rs of no importance. The remade co unt rysid e was well suited to the needs and habits of those who had remade it for their ow n purposes. Fa rm and homes tead wi th mo re o r less success furn ished food and shelter. The livestock pastured. the crops grew, the chi ldren we nt to schoo l, neighbours passed th e time of day . There we re the summ er picni cs and th e winter bonspie ls and ice ca rni va ls, the Saturday ni ghts for shopp in g in the local town , the Sundays for church, and such rest as farm life allowe d . And th e pl oughs ran smoothly in the mellowing fields. sum mer afte r summ er. The landscape, th at is. had been remade by the farm culture of North America. It was ,.II once a material reshaping of the land. and also a fi rm an d confident expression of a way of li fe , rarely defined. but we ll unders tood. It was a landscape in which men could work, co uld live serenely, even take so me ease. T hey had possessed it, no t only wit h th eir hands but with th eir whole bein g. T hcy had made it. not only into fa rm s, but into townships, sc hoo l di stricts, electo ral distri cts, town lots, church ya rds, ce mete ries. It served