Everything about Sir John A Macdonald totally explained
Sir John Alexander Macdonald (
January 11,
1815 at 4:15 (am or pm isn't listed). His father was Hugh Macdonald, an unsuccessful merchant, who had married his mother, Helen Shaw, on October 21, 1811. Together, they produced five children. The first-born, William died in infancy. The next was Margaret who was followed a year and a half later by John Alexander, then a younger brother, James and a baby sister named Louisa. After the failure of Hugh Macdonald's business ventures, the family emigrated to
Kingston,
Upper Canada in 1820 along with thousands of others seeking affordable land and promises of new prosperity.
Bad luck followed the family to their new country. When he was only seven, Macdonald watched as his younger brother, James was struck and killed by a drunken servant who was supposed to be looking after them. And, Hugh Macdonald's business ventures in the Kingston area were scarcely more successful than they'd been in Scotland. However, the family still managed to scrape up the money to send Macdonald to Kingston's Midland Grammar School where, according to biographer
Donald Creighton, he studied subjects such as Latin, French and mathematics. "Already he was a voracious reader," Creighton writes, "and he'd sit for hours deep in a book, almost oblivious to what was going on." At 14, Macdonald switched to a school for "general and classical education" founded by a newly-arrived
Presbyterian minister from Scotland. It was one of the few schools in Upper Canada that taught both boys and girls.
Macdonald's formal schooling ended at 15, a common experience at the time when only the most prosperous were able to attend university. Nevertheless, Macdonald later regretted leaving school when he did remarking to his private secretary
Joseph Pope that if he'd attended university, he might have embarked on a literary career. "He didn't add, as he might have done," Pope wrote in his biography of Macdonald, "that the successful government of millions of men, the strengthening of an empire, the creation of a great dominion, call for the possession and exercise of rarer qualities than are necessary to the achievement of literary fame."
Law career, 1830–1843
Professional training, 1830–1836
Macdonald's parents decided he should become a lawyer after leaving school. As Donald Creighton writes, "law was a broad, well-trodden path to comfort, influence, even to power." It was also "the obvious choice for a boy who seemed as attracted to study as he was uninterested in trade." Besides, Macdonald needed to start earning money immediately to support his family because his father's business ventures were failing. "I had no boyhood," he complained many years later. "From the age of 16, I began to earn my own living."
He travelled by steamboat to
Toronto (then known as
York), where he passed an examination set by the
Law Society of Upper Canada. In 1830, there were no law schools, so prospective lawyers wrote the entrance exam, then learned the trade through on-the-job training by
articling with an established lawyer. Macdonald was extremely fortunate to begin his apprenticeship with William Lyon Mackenzie, a young lawyer who was a prominent member of Kingston's rising Scottish community. Mackenzie practised corporate law, a lucrative specialty that Macdonald himself would later pursue. A promising law student, Macdonald was managing a branch office for Mackenzie in
Napanee at age 17. It meant much more independence and responsibility. In 1833, Mackenzie permitted his articling student to leave his firm to run the law practice of Macdonald's ailing cousin, Lowther Pennington Macpherson, at
Picton. By all accounts, the 19-year-old Macdonald did well. But in the summer of 1835, he decided to return to Kingston to open his own practice after George Mackenzie's sudden death during a cholera epidemic. Biographer Donald Swainson writes that Macdonald was determined to step into Mackenzie's shoes as the "leading lawyer within Kingston's Scottish Presbyterian community, a community that was quickly becoming the dominant force in the life of the city."
Early successes, 1836–1837
Macdonald was then
called to the Bar on
February 6 1836. Soon after opening his own law firm he took in two students:
Oliver Mowat, a future premier of Ontario and like Macdonald himself, a Father of
Confederation, and
Alexander Campbell, future Father of Confederation, federal cabinet minister and
Lieutenant Governor of Ontario. With the help of his students, Macdonald "busied himself with lucrative but tedious work, such as chasing down unpaid bills and searching titles." Then suddenly, in 1837, Macdonald switched to criminal law for two years. Biographer Richard Gwyn writes that although there's no documentary evidence, there's a "plausible explanation" for Macdonald's motives:
As a criminal lawyer who took on dramatic cases, Macdonald got himself noticed well beyond the narrow confines of the Kingston business community. He was operating now in the arena where he'd spend by far the greatest part of his life – the court of public opinion. And while there he was learning the arts of argument and of persuasion that would serve him all his political life.
Macdonald unsuccessfully defended a man accused of raping an eight-year-old girl but won praise from a local newspaper for conducting "a very able defence." He then won the acquittal of a man accused of murdering a friend after an argument. Alexander Campbell, Macdonald's student wrote years later that Macdonald had persuaded the jury by his "humour and strong liking for anecdote more than for his professional knowledge."
Rebellions of 1837
The
Rebellions of 1837 in
Upper and
Lower Canada proved to be a crucial turning point in Macdonald's legal career. In fact, biographer
Donald Creighton argues that the rebellions "made him as a lawyer," giving him the "reputation of a
conservative who wasn't afraid to battle for liberal principles." Macdonald showed he was willing to take professional risks first by defending eight political prisoners from nearby counties who had been charged with treason for allegedly participating in the uprisings against colonial authorities. Macdonald succeeded in winning acquittals for all eight earning praise for his "ingenuity and ability" from a
Kingston newspaper which also noted that the young
barrister "is rapidly rising in his profession."
Then, Macdonald served as co-counsel for John Ashley, the man in charge of a local military jail, who had himself been arrested and briefly imprisoned for allegedly helping 15 political prisoners escape from custody. Ashley sued Colonel Dundas, the military commander for illegal arrest. Dundas was a popular figure, but Macdonald helped persuade the jury to award Ashley substantial monetary damages. Macdonald, Creighton writes, was now associated "with the defence of the plain people against the encroachments of military power. The solid blue of his inherited conservatism was varied now, in a pleasantly interesting fashion, with a few threads of a different and livelier colour."
Finally, Macdonald took his biggest risk of all by agreeing to advise American raiders who had participated in an abortive invasion to liberate Canada from what they saw as the yoke of British colonial oppression. The inept raiders had been captured after the
Battle of the Windmill (1838, near
Prescott, Ontario) – a battle in which 16 Canadians were killed and 60 wounded. Worst of all, the American invaders were accused of mutilating the body of a dead Canadian lieutenant. Creighton writes that Kingston was "mad with grief and rage and horror." At least two other lawyers refused to help when the brother-in-law of one of the Americans pleaded with them to provide legal advice. Macdonald must have hesitated, but eventually said yes after the frantic brother-in-law knocked on his door one morning before he was out of bed.
It was surely wisdom to have nothing to do with the whole affair. And yet, he took the case. Even he might have found it difficult to say why. A curious interest in people, a relish for cases which were odd and difficult, a jaunty recognition of the fact that professional prestige involved publicity, and, perhaps, a certain stubborn, independent conviction that these helpless and deluded men deserved at least the bare minimum of assistance – all these may have helped to move him to his decision.
There was little Macdonald could do to defend the Americans. Under military rules governing courts martial, civilian lawyers were not allowed to question witnesses or address the judge. Macdonald could only give private advice which helped the brother-in-law to ask searching questions during his trial, but didn't save him from the gallows. Macdonald also advised "General"
Nils Szoltevcky Von Schoultz, the brave and charismatic
Polish immigrant who had led the American raiders after their real commanders abandoned them at Windmill Point. Von Shoultz insisted on pleading guilty and wanted to leave Macdonald $100 in his will. Macdonald had to refuse it, but he never forgot the tragic story of the tall, handsome Pole.
Biographer Donald Creighton writes that although the rebellions and their aftermath helped Macdonald's career, they also had lasting psychological effects. "For him, and for Kingston," Creighton writes, "the 'rebellion' had been not so much a native uprising as a succession of American raids; and from then on he never quite lost a certain lingering anxiety for the problem of British North American defence." In 1844 he was elected to the legislature of the Province of Canada to represent Kingston, gained the recognition of his peers and in 1847 was appointed Receiver General in
William Henry Draper's administration. However, Macdonald had to give up his portfolio when Draper's government lost the next election. He left the Conservatives, hoping to build a more moderate and palatable base. In 1854, he helped with the founding of the Liberal-Conservative Party under the leadership of Sir
Allan McNab. Within a few years, the Liberal-Conservatives would attract all of the old Conservative base as well as some centrist Reformers. The Liberal-Conservatives came to power in 1854 and under the new administration Macdonald was appointed
Attorney-General. During his time in cabinet, Macdonald was usually the most powerful minister, even when other men held the premiership. In the next election Macdonald continued his rise in politics by becoming
Joint Premier of the Province of Canada with Sir
Étienne-Paschal Taché of Canada East for the years 1856 and 1857.
Taché resigned in 1857, and
George-Étienne Cartier took his place. In the election of 1858, the Macdonald-Cartier government was defeated and they resigned as Premiers. In an interesting piece of politics, the
Governor General of Canada asked Cartier to become the senior Premier, only a week after his defeat. Cartier accepted and brought Macdonald into office along with him. This was legal as any member of the cabinet could re-enter the cabinet provided they did so within a month of resigning their previous position. Macdonald focused on communications and defence, especially the Intercolonial Railway. Canada had to pressure the Colonial Office,
Nova Scotia,
New Brunswick,
Newfoundland and
Prince Edward Island to, as one historian notes, "consider an ambitious scheme proposed by their pushing and turbulent neighbour, Canada." [Creighton,1956, p. 273]
The coalition government was again defeated in 1862. Macdonald then served as the leader of the opposition until the election of 1864, when Taché came out of retirement and joined ranks with Macdonald to form the governing party yet again.
The Confederation of Canada, 1864–1867
To resolve the frequent legislative deadlocks in the Province of Canada,
George Brown, the leader of the
Clear Grits (the forerunners to the
Liberal Party of Canada) and an extremely vocal opponent of Macdonald's Conservatives, joined with Macdonald's Conservatives and George-Étienne Cartier's
Parti Bleu in 1864 to form the
Great Coalition. The coalition sought to reform the political system of Canada, and was a crucial step in achieving a consensus to support future reform. However, the
Parti Rouge of Canada East, led by
Jean-Baptiste-Éric Dorion, still refused to join the coalition. Macdonald then spent 1864 to 1867 organizing the legislation needed to confederate the colonies into the country of Canada. In September 1864, he led the Canadian delegation at the
Charlottetown Conference in
Charlottetown,
Prince Edward Island, to present his idea to the Maritime colonies, who were discussing a union of their own. In October 1864 delegates for confederation met in
Quebec City,
Quebec, for the
Quebec Conference, where the Seventy-Two Resolutions were created – the plan for confederation. By 1866,
New Brunswick,
Nova Scotia, and the Province of Canada had agreed to confederation.
Newfoundland and
Prince Edward Island were opposed. In the final conference of confederation held in 1866 in
London,
England the agreement to confederate was completed.
In 1867 the agreement was brought to the
British Parliament, which passed the
British North America Act creating the Dominion of Canada. Upon the creation of the Dominion of Canada, the Province of Canada was then divided into the individual provinces of
Quebec and
Ontario. Macdonald was asked by the first Governor General of Canada
Charles Monck, to form the first administration. He was subsequently
knighted on
Canada Day, 1867, the only colonial leader ever to receive that honour.
First term as prime minister, 1867–1871
Queen Victoria knighted John A. Macdonald for playing an integral role in bringing about
Confederation. His appointment as a Knight Commander of the
Order of St Michael and St George was announced at the birth of the Dominion,
July 1,
1867. An
election was held in August which put Macdonald and his Conservative party into power.
Macdonald's vision as prime minister was to enlarge the country and unify it. Accordingly, under his rule Canada bought
Rupert's Land and the
North-Western Territory from the
Hudson's Bay Company for £300,000 (about $11,500,000 in modern Canadian dollars). This became the
Northwest Territories. In 1870 Parliament passed the
Manitoba Act, creating the province of Manitoba out of a portion of the Northwest Territories in response to the
Red River Rebellion led by
Louis Riel.
Second term and resignation over Pacific scandal, 1871–1873
In 1871 Britain added
British Columbia to Confederation, making it the sixth province. Macdonald promised a transcontinental railway connection to persuade the province to join, which his opponents decried as a highly unrealistic and expensive promise. In 1873 Prince Edward Island joined Confederation, and Macdonald created the
Royal Canadian Mounted Police (then called the "North-West Mounted Police") to act as a police force for the vast Northwest Territories.
In 1873, Macdonald was accused of taking bribes to award contracts for the construction of the railway. The
Pacific Scandal broke and Macdonald was forced to resign on November 5th, 1873.
Liberal leader
Alexander Mackenzie formed a
caretaker government. After New Years, 1874, the Liberals called an
election. Macdonald's Tories were unable to recover from the scandal and the Liberals formed a majority government. This election was also the first in Canada to use a
secret ballot.
Final years as prime minister, 1878–1891
Macdonald was returned to power in 1878 on the strength of the
National Policy, a plan to promote trade within the country by protecting it from the industries of other nations and renewing the effort to complete the previously promised
Canadian Pacific Railway, which was accomplished in 1885. That year, Louis Riel also returned to Canada and launched the
North-West Rebellion in the territory of
Saskatchewan, but now that there was a railway through the area the North-West Mounted Police were quickly sent to put it down. The trial and subsequent execution of Riel for treason caused a deep political division between French Canadians, who supported Riel (a culturally French
Métis) and English Canadians, who supported Macdonald.
In
1891, Macdonald won the elections again, but by this time, the 76-year-old political warhorse started to feel the years of overwork, stress, drink and several bouts of severe illness, including a gallstone problem in 1870 that turned his office into a sick room for two months. On
May 29,
1891, Sir John A. suffered a severe
stroke, which robbed him of the ability to speak, and from which he'd never recover. He died a week later on
June 6,
1891 at the age of 76. He would
lie in state in the
Canadian Senate Chamber (prime ministers now lie in state in the Hall of Honour in the
Centre Block) where grieving Canadians turned out in the thousands to pay their respects. His
state funeral was held on
June 9, attended by hundreds of thousands of people. He is buried in
Cataraqui Cemetery in
Kingston, Ontario. None of his children left heirs; he's survived by relative Hugh Gainsford.
Personal life
Tragic first marriage
John A. Macdonald's adult life was marked by sickness, death, drunkenness and tragedy. Yet, he rose above his private unhappiness and personal failings to become a well-loved and highly successful public figure, applying "all his passion to politics". He officially became head of his family on September 29, 1841, with the sudden death of his father Hugh from a
brain hemorrhage. Now, John A. was solely responsible for the financial support of his mother and two unmarried sisters. Fortunately, his law practice was going well and his income was supplemented by extensive business activities. He served for example, as a director of the prosperous Commercial Bank of the Midland District as well as its lawyer. The Bank provided him with a large part of his income. He also bought real estate and eventually became a director of a dozen Kingston companies.
But at the same time, he frequently suffered from an undiagnosed illness. The symptoms, weakness and listlessness, began in 1840 and continued sporadically throughout 1841. Macdonald decided he needed a complete rest, and in January 1842 he set sail for Britain, his pockets full of the money (about two thousand dollars) he'd won during three nights of playing a card game called Loo. Macdonald's trip proved to be fateful. He recovered his health and met his first cousin
Isabella Clark. Isabella's features were gentle and tranquil, according to biographer
Donald Creighton, "her hair brushed smoothly away from its centre part in the demure fashion of the 1840s." She also had "large, beautiful blue eyes with an imploring expression that melted more than one observer's heart." "Isa," as Macdonald called her, followed him home to Kingston and on September 1, 1843, they were married. Macdonald was 28,
Isabella, 34.
For the first year and a half, the Macdonalds lived the life of a happy, successful couple. John A. had been elected city
alderman a few months before his marriage, so he was now a prominent local politician, and his law partnership with his former student,
Alexander Campbell, continued to flourish. In the fall of 1844, Macdonald was elected as a Conservative Member of Parliament for Kingston. Then, in 1845, everything changed when his beloved "Isa" got sick. She suffered periodic attacks that included severe headaches and numbness. Biographer
Patricia Phenix writes that Isabella was diagnosed "as suffering from everything from
tic douloureux, a devastating pain in the fifth nerve of her face, to 'uterine
neuralgia.'". To relieve the pain, she drank liquid
opium as well as sherry. The opium and alcohol combined with the painful attacks left her groggy, exhausted and bedridden. Her chronic illness may also have had psychological causes rooted in an "
hysterical personality" compounded by
migraine headaches and her dependence on opium. As the illness continued, Macdonald feared Isabella would die. "The warm, pleasant edifice of his domestic happiness," Donald Creighton writes, "was crumbling towards utter ruin."
Macdonald's two sons
John A. responded to his wife's protracted illness by taking her to
Savannah, Georgia where he hoped the warm climate and the company of her sisters would restore her health. They set off on their journey in the summer of 1845. The trip turned out to be long and gruelling with Isabella often unable to walk and suffering excruciating pain. They first joined Isabella's sisters in
New Haven, Connecticut, finally reaching Savannah in late November. John A. was anxious to return home to continue his political career. He had to remain in the American south however, until Isabella's sisters arrived in mid-January 1846. He wouldn't see his wife again until Christmas when they were reunited in New York City. There something of a miracle occurred. Isabella became pregnant. After Macdonald returned to Canada, she remained under medical care in New York. Their first son, John Alexander, was born in New York on August 3, 1847 after a long and agonizing labour. "His eyes are dark blue,
very large &
nose to match," Macdonald wrote to his sister-in-law. "When born his length was 1 foot 9 inches & was strong and healthy, though thin."
Macdonald rented
Bellevue House in Kingston in 1848 in the hope that the fresh suburban air and quiet would help Isabella's condition after her return from New York. This experiment, however, was a failure. Worse still, shortly after the Macdonalds moved into their new home, 13-month-old John Alexander was found dead in his crib, a possible victim of SIDS or
sudden infant death syndrome. Isabella became pregnant again in 1849, yet another miracle for a 40-year-old chronically-ill woman. Their second son,
Hugh John, was born on March 13, 1850. "We have got Johnnie back again," Macdonald wrote to his sister. "I don't think he's so pretty, but he isn't so delicate. He was born fat & coarse."
Hugh John and his father were never close. The boy was raised by Macdonald's sister Margaret and her husband, James Williamson, after Isabella's death in
1857. Hugh John went on to become
premier of the
Province of
Manitoba.
Debt and drinking
Macdonald's frequent absences from his law practice to care for Isabella and the expenses of providing medical and nursing care drove him into debt. Salaries for politicians during this period were meager stipends. His partner objected to his casual habit of using law firm revenues to pay his expenses and in 1849, Alexander Campbell decided to leave the partnership. Macdonald had already turned to the bottle for solace during the 12 lonely years of Isabella's illness. They were years in which, according to Donald Creighton, he'd become "a bachelor husband who had to go for companionship to bars and lounges and smoking rooms; a frustrated host who drank too much on occasion, partly because it was the only way he could entertain, and because it passed the empty time, and because it was an easy way to forget."
Second marriage and daughter
In 1867, at the age of 52, Macdonald married his second wife
Susan Agnes Bernard (1836–1920). They had one daughter, Margaret Mary Theodora Macdonald (1869–1933), who was born with
hydrocephalus and suffered from physical and mental disabilities. Macdonald always hoped she'd recover, but she never did. She died in 1933 and apparently was left an orphan after both Macdonald and Agnes died.
Supreme Court appointments
Macdonald chose the following jurists to be appointed as justices of the
Supreme Court of Canada by the
Governor General:
Freemasonry
Macdonald was a
Freemason, initiated in 1844 at St. John’s Lodge No. 5 in Kingston. In 1868, he was named by the
United Grand Lodge of England as its Grand Representative near the
Grand Lodge of Canada (in Ontario) and the rank of Past Grand Senior Warden conferred upon him. He continued to represent the Grand Lodge of England until his death in 1891. His commission, together with his apron and earmuffs, are in the
Masonic Temple at Kingston, along with his regalia as Past Grand Senior Warden. Among the books in his library was a very rare copy of the first Masonic book published in Canada,
A History of Freemasonry in Nova Scotia (1786).
Trivia
Macdonald was well known for his wit and also for his alcoholism. He is known to have been drunk for many of his debates in parliament. Two apocryphal stories are commonly repeated; the first describing an election debate in which Macdonald was so drunk he began vomiting while on stage. His opponent quickly pointed this out and said: "Is this the man you want running your country? A drunk!" Collecting himself, Macdonald replied "I get sick ... not because of drink [butbecause] I'm forced to listen to the ranting of my honourable opponent." The second version has Macdonald responding to his opponent's query of his drunkenness with "It goes to show that I'd rather have a drunk Conservative than a sober Liberal." (Montreal Gazette, 30 May 1862)
Macdonald's temper sometimes got the better of him, such as in one incident in the House of Commons when Donald Smith angered him so much, that he charged across the Commons floor to physically attack him. While he was restrained, Macdonald was unrepentant, proclaiming "I'll lick him faster than Hell can scorch a feather!"
Macdonald resembled British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli. At Disraeli's funeral in 1881, another British official thought that he saw Disraeli's ghost in attendance, although it was actually Macdonald.
The Vancouver Sun reported on June 30, 2005, that Macdonald's birthplace in Glasgow, Scotland, is under threat of demolition.
Macdonald's private train car, which he named The Jamaica, was given to him by the Canadian Pacific Railway for his work on the railway.
According to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Macdonald's nicknames included Old Chieftain and Old Tomorrow*. *For his habit of putting off any large political problems until conditions were personally favourable to him.
Macdonald's nephew Newton Ford was the father of iconic Canadian-American actor Glenn Ford.
As of 2008: Macdonald was the first of two Canadian prime-ministers to die in office (The other is John Thompson).
Having personally written the largest part of the Canadian constitution (BNA Act), and having been the main lobbyist for its adoption at London, Macdonald can truly be called the "Father of his country."
Macdonald was the favourite target of the "Grip" magazine's premier cartoonist John Wilson Bengough; who came to fame by ridiculing Macdonald's government, during the Pacific Railroad scandal.
At least five bronze public statues of Macdonald stand in Canadian city parks. One in downtown Montreal, one in Kingston Ontario's city park, outside City Hall in Victoria, BC, at Toronto's Queen's Park, and in Victoria Park in Regina, SK.
Legacy
Macdonald is depicted on the Canadian ten-dollar bill. He also has bridges (Macdonald-Cartier Bridge), airports (Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport, and highways (Macdonald-Cartier Freeway) named after him, as well as a plethora of schools across the country. In Kingston, Macdonald Park and Sir John A. Macdonald Boulevard are both named in his honour. The Hotel Macdonald in Edmonton and Macdonald House, part of Canada's high commission in London, are also named for him.
Macdonald and his son, Hugh John Macdonald, briefly sat together in the Canadian House of Commons prior to the elder Macdonald's death.
In 2004, Macdonald was nominated as one of the top 10 "Greatest Canadians" by viewers of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. He is considered by some Canadian political scientists to be the founder of the Red Tory tradition.
Biographical and historical studies
Collins, Joseph Edmund. (1883) Life and times of the Right Honourable Sir John A. Macdonald: Premier of the Dominion of Canada
Careless, J.M.S. (1963) Canada A Story of Challenge. (Revised Edition) Toronto: Macmillan of Canada.
Creighton, Donald. (1952) John A. Macdonald: The Young Politician vol 1: 1815–1867. Toronto: The Macmillan Company of Canada Limited.
Creighton, Donald. (1955) John A. Macdonald: The Old Chieftain vol 2: 1867–1891. Toronto: The Macmillan Company of Canada Limited.
Creighton, Donald. (1964) The Road to Confederation: The Emergence of Canada: 1863–1867. Toronto: Macmillan of Canada.
Guillet, Edwin C, (1967) You'll Never Die, John A!. Toronto: Macmillan of Canada.
Gwyn, Richard. (2007) The Man Who Made Us: The Life and Times of Sir John A. Macdonald. vol 1: 1815–1867. Random House Canada.
Johnson, J.K. (1969) Affectionately Yours: The Letters of Sir John A. Macdonald and His Family. Toronto: Macmillan of Canada.
Johnson, J.K. and Waite, P.B. (2007) "Sir John Alexander Macdonald," in Canada's Prime Ministers, Macdonald to Trudeau: Portraits from the Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
McSherry, James. (1984) "The invisible lady: Sir John A. Macdonald's first wife." In Canadian Bulletin of Medical History, pp. 91–97.
Phenix, Patricia. (2006) Private Demons, The Tragic Personal Life of John A. Macdonald. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart.
Pope, Joseph. (1894) Memoirs of the Right Honourable Sir John Alexander Macdonald, G.C.B., First Prime Minister of The Dominion of Canada, Vols. 1&2. Ottawa: J. Durie & Son.
Pope, Joseph. (1915) The Day of Sir John Macdonald: A Chronicle of the First Prime Minister of the Dominion. Toronto: Brook & Co.
Pope, Joseph (1921) Correspondence of Sir John Macdonald: selections from the correspondence of Sir John Alexander Macdonald. Toronto: Oxford University Press.
Sletcher, Michael. (2004) "Sir John A. Macdonald," in James Eli Adams, and Tom and Sara Pendergast, eds., Encyclopedia of the Victorian Era. 4 vols., Danbury, CT: Grolier Academic Reference.
Swainson, Donald. (1989) Sir John A. Macdonald: The Man and the Politician. Kingston, ON: Quarry Press.
Waite, P. B. (1975) Macdonald: His Life and World. Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson Limited.
Waite, P. B. (1976) John A. Macdonald. Don Mills, ON: Fitzhenry and Whiteside Limited.
Wallace, W. Stewart. (1924) Sir John Macdonald. Toronto: The Macmillan Company of Canada Limited.Further Information
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