John Abbott

Sir John Joseph Caldwell Abbott (March 12, 1821 – October 30, 1893) was the third prime minister of Canada, serving from 1891 to 1892. He held office as the leader of the Conservative Party.

Abbott was born in what is now Saint-André-d'Argenteuil, Quebec. He studied law at McGill University and became one of Montreal's best-known lawyers, later returning to McGill as a professor of law and earning a Doctor of Civil Law degree. He was perhaps best known for his successful defence of the perpetrators of the St. Albans Raid. Abbott involved himself in politics from a young age, signing the Montreal Annexation Manifesto in 1849which he later regrettedand winning election to the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada in 1860. In the lead-up to Confederation he was a prominent advocate for the rights of English-speaking Quebecers.

In the 1867 federal election, Abbott was elected to the new House of Commons of Canada as a member of the Conservative Party. A telegram leaked from his office played a key part in the Pacific Scandal of 1873, which led to the downfall of John A. Macdonald's first government. Abbott was appointed to the Senate in 1887, in order to become leader of the Government in the Senate. He became prime minister in June 1891 following Macdonald's death in office. He was the first native-born Canadian prime minister, both Macdonald and Alexander Mackenzie having been born in Scotland, and the first to serve as Prime Minister while sitting in the Senate rather than the House of Commons. Abbott was 70 years old at the time, and served only until November 1892 when he retired due to ill health. He died the following year.

Early life

Abbott was born in St. Andrews, Lower Canada (now Saint-André-d'Argenteuil, Quebec), to Harriet (née Bradford) and the Rev. Joseph Abbott, an Anglican missionary from Little Strickland, England. In 1849, Abbott married Mary Martha Bethune (1823–1898), a relative of Dr. Norman Bethune, a daughter of Anglican clergyman and McGill acting president John Bethune, and a granddaughter of the Presbyterian minister John Bethune. The couple had four sons and four daughters, many of whom died without descendants. Their eldest surviving son, William Abbott, married the daughter of Colonel John Hamilton Gray, a Father of Confederation and premier of Prince Edward Island. Abbott was also the great-grandfather of Canadian actor Christopher Plummer and the first cousin (once removed) of Maude Abbott, one of Canada's earliest female medical graduates and an expert on congenital heart disease.

Abbott was an Orangeman and Freemason.

Military service

Abbott had served in the local militia “since boyhood”, being appointed an Ensign in the 2nd Montreal Militia Battalion in 1847. In 1849 he was a signatory to the Montreal Annexation Manifesto, calling for union of the Canadas with the United States, resulting in the withdrawal of his commission in the militia. By 1850 however, he was reinstated and appointed a Captain in the 4th Montreal Militia Battalion.

He commanded the regiment on the border multiple times throughout the Fenian Raids, on March 8, 1866, they were called out for active service and were stationed in various villages throughout Argenteuil. On June 11, 1866, the Rangers were called out to serve at Cornwall, and then Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, and a reporter from Montreal stated:

Abbott retired from the militia as a Lieutenant Colonel, commanding the 11th Battalion, on June 22, 1883.

Taunted by his political opponents in March 1889 for his “disloyalty” in 1849, he explained that he considered his military service, and his commission as an officer and later commanding officer of the 11th Argenteuil Battalion of militia, to be evidence that his youthful error had been forgiven.

Legal career

left|thumb|McGill College where John Abbott studied and graduated.

Abbott graduated as a Bachelor of Civil Law from McGill College (now McGill University) in Montreal in 1847, and in the same year was initiated in the St. Paul's Masonic Lodge, No. 374, E.R., in Montreal. In 1867, he graduated as a Doctor of Civil Law (DCL). Most of his legal practice was in corporate law; however, his most celebrated court case was the defence of at first fourteen, then upon release and recapture, four of those fourteen Confederate agents who had raided St. Albans, Vermont, from Canadian soil during the American Civil War. Abbott successfully argued that the Confederates were belligerents rather than criminals and therefore should not be extradited. He began lecturing in commercial and criminal law at McGill in 1853, and in 1855 he became a professor and dean of its Faculty of Law, where Wilfrid Laurier, a future prime minister of Canada, was among his students. He continued in this position until 1880.

Soon after Abbott assumed office in 1891, Canada was plunged into an economic recession; later that same year he faced another challenge as the McGreevy-Langevin scandal came to light, revealing that Hector-Louis Langevin, former Minister of Public Works in the Conservative government, had conspired with contractor Thomas McGreevy to defraud the government.

Despite the political toll on his party, Abbott dealt with the backlog of government business awaiting him after Macdonald's death, including reform of the civil service and revisions of the criminal code. He attempted in 1892 to negotiate a new treaty of reciprocity with the United States, but failed to reach an agreement.

During his term, there were 52 by-elections, 42 of which were won by the Conservatives, increasing their majority by 13 seats—evidence of Abbott's effectiveness as prime minister. One year into his time as prime minister, Abbott attempted to turn the office over to Thompson, but this was rejected due to anti-Catholic sentiment in the Tory caucus.

Legacy

thumb|Sir John Abbott's house on [[Sherbrooke Street, Montreal, Quebec]]

John Abbott College in Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, Quebec, near Abbott's country estate (Boisbriant), is named after him.

He was named a Person of National Historic Significance by the Government of Canada in 1938.

His "most memorable" political comment is "I hate politics." The full quote was "I hate politics and what are considered their appropriate measures. I hate notoriety, public meetings, public speeches, caucuses and everything that I know of which is apparently the necessary incident of politics—except doing public work to the best of my ability."

In their 1999 look at the Canadian prime ministers through Jean Chrétien, J.L. Granatstein and Norman Hillmer included a survey of Canadian historians ranking the prime ministers. Abbott's term of service was considered below par and was ranked #17 out of 20 (up to then). When the survey was repeated in 2016, Abbott was ranked 7th out of ten "short-term" prime ministers with a score of 1.8 out of 5.

References

External links

Sir John Abbott fonds at Library and Archives Canada
Photograph: Hon. John Joseph Caldwell Abbott, 1856-1860 – McCord Museum
Photograph: Hon. John Joseph Caldwell Abbott, 1863 – McCord Museum
Photograph: Mayor John Joseph Caldwell Abbott, 1889 – McCord Museum