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CharlesTupper's Minutes of the Charlottetown Conference RECENTLY ADESCENDANT OFSIR CI-LtRLES TUPPEI! kindlypresented tothe Public Archives ofCanada aconsiderable quantity ofadditional Tupper papers. Amongthesepapersare several pagesand loosenotesin Tupper's handwriting whichare entitled"Minutesof Conference at P.E.Island, 1864." It isclear thattheyareadraftoftheofficial minutes of the Charlottetown Conference. At the opening session Charles TupperandLeonard Tilleywereelected iointsecretaries butTupper apparently undertook thetaskofkeeping a record oftheproceedings of the conference. The entries are brief and are confined to the official business of a conference whoseobiectwasto consider a legislative unionofthethreeMaritimeProvinces. Thereisonlya briefindication of the sessions to which the members of .the Canadian cabinet were admitted in orderto explain theirviewsona federalunionof all the BritishNorth Americancolonies. As officialminutes,however,they include copies ofmotions andresolutions andarea briefrecord of the ten sessions of the conference,of which six were at Charlottetown (September 1,2,S,5,6,7), twoat Halifax(September 10,12), oneat SaintJohn(September 16), andoneat Toronto(November S). Thediscovery oftheminutes atthisparticular timeposed a problem for .thePublicArchives as they wouldobviously be of greatand immediate interest tomanyscholars. It seemed fairesttoall concerned torelease thetextinthepages oftheReview, andthistheEditorhas verykindlyenabled ustodo.In addition, hehasmadeit possible for ustopresent thetextoftheother twodocuments upon which historians havedepended hitherto formuch oftheirknowledge ofwhathappened at Charlottetown. This will be a convenience to those who wish to compare andanalyse thethreeaccounts, whichinevitably arein some respects conflicting. Obviously the chiefvalueof the Tupperminutes is asan official record whichwasmadeonthespot.Gordon's letterto Cardwellwas written afterthedelegates hadleftCharlottetown andhisaccount was lol Vol.XLVIH, No.2,June, 1967 ] 02 THE CANADIAN HISTORICAL REVIEW based onconversations with the delegates andthe unoF•cial representatives from Canada. Brown's letter to his wife was written after the conference had moved to Halifax and his account is co-•ned to thesessions whichwerea•endedby themembers of the Canadian cabinet. Thereareafewdiscrepancies intheaccounts inregard totimeand dates. Forexample, Brown reports thattheCanadians werepresented totheMaritime delegates onThursday, September 1,thefirstdayof theconference andthattheentire session onFriday,September 2,was devoted tothe"general arguments" ofMacdonald andCartier. Tupper's minutes show thattheconference wasorganized at 3 P.M.onSeptember 1, that resolutions werereadand discussed on the morningof September 2, thattheCanadians werenotintroduced untilthethird session at3 P.M.onSeptember 2, andthatit wasSaturday, September 3,whenMacdonald spoke "atlength" onfederation afterabriefclosed sessionof the conference. The chiefdiscrepancies in thesethreeaccounts, however, arein regardto thetimeandattention devoted to the consideration of a legislative union oftheMaritime Provinces. Gordon reported thatafter heleft Charlottetown Maritimeunionhad"gradually driftedoutof sight." Brown wasmore explicit. Hesaid thatonWednesday morning, September 7, "theConference gavethe Canadian Delegates their answer-that theywereunanimous in regarding Federation ofallthe Provinces tobehighlydesirable ff theterms o[unioncould bemade satisfactory-and thattheywereprepared to waivetheirownmore limitedquestion untilthedetails of ourscheme could bemorefully considered &matured." Tupper's minutes record thatonWednesday morning, September 7, aresolution in favour ofalegislative union of theMaritime Provinces wasmoved by Tupper,seconded by Dickey, anddiscussed before theconference adiourned to meetin Halifaxon September 10.Theminutes also show thatdebate onTupper's resolutioncontinued at thesessions in HalifaxandSaintJohn. The text of the resolutions that were submitted to the conference hasbeenincorporated intothe minutes in the appropriate places. Actually theyareonseparate scraps of paperandoneof themhas several words crossed out.Asoriginally writtenit is,"Tilley,Palmer. Resolved thatwitha viewto acting moreeffectively uponthepublic opinion inthedifferent Provinces." Thisportion iscrossed out,except forthenames ofTilleyandPalmer, andthetextcontinues "Resolved thattheinvitation of thedelegates fromNovaScotia to adiourn this Meeting of theConference to Halifaxto meetonSaturday nextat XI o"clock beaccepted." Finally, a wordofexplanation maybeuseful concerning thebrief THE CHARLOTTETOWN CONFEBENCE 108 reportof the deba[eon Tupper's resolution in fayourof Maritime union. Thereport iswritten onbothsides ofthree loose sheels ofpaper andthereisnoindication oftheorderin whichthese speeches were given orofthedateordates. Theresolution wasdeba[ed, apparently, at Charlotte[own onthemorning of Sep[ember 7, at Halifaxonthe afternoon of Sep[ember 10andthemorning of September 12,andin Saint John ontheevening of September 16.Perhaps [hereisinternal evidence but there is no no[a•ion to indica[e how much of the debate wasrecorded. It seems unlikely, however, thati[ isa complete record because, although [heviews ofallthedelega[es fromNewBrunswick and PrinceEdward Island aresummarized,there is no reference[o the views oftheNovaScotian delega[es. However, therearesome rough notes which appear torelate [otwoadditional speeches. Public Archives of Canada Wmrav_• I. S•T• Present ) Hon.C.Tupper I "W.A. Henry )Nova Scotia " Jonathan McCully " R.B. Dicky " A.G. Archibald, Esq.,M.P.P. Hon. S. L. Tilley Provincial Secretary W. H. Steeves M.L.C. & M.E.C. J.M. JohnsonArtyGen E...

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