John sparrow david thompson biography of barack

There was much circumstantial evidence and great care was required in developing the case. Thompson feared a miscarriage of justice if he did not handle it himself. Patiently, quietly, he tied together the circumstantial and eye-witness evidence, with the result that Thibault was convicted. Thompson worked so hard, both as attorney general and as a member of the government, that he frequently had to stay downtown until the wee hours and then walk the mile and a half to Willow Park after the last horse-drawn omnibus had gone.

He helped pilot through the assembly the County Incorporation Act ofa measure designed to give independent taxing powers to the Nova Scotia counties, making municipalities of them in fact. It was designed to relieve the strain on the provincial budget for roads and bridges. But it was long overdue in any case, though mightily resented by Nova Scotia taxpayers, who had never been enthusiastic about paying taxes, even on their own behalf.

The government, however, had a big majority, and it was confident that when the next elections came the good points of the act would be more apparent than the bad. The legislation was put in place in andbut by that time Holmes had lost so much credit both with his colleagues and with the party that on the eve of new elections in May he was forced to resign.

Thompson had to step in and become premier. It was the last thing he wanted. He was fed up with politics and only the full pressure of the party, provincial and federal, kept him in. Thompson took his government to the polls in Juneand was defeated. It was not a bad defeat; immediately after the election he believed he could patch a government together, with the help of some of the more versatile and high-minded members of the opposition.

He had the respect of both sides of the house, and the attempt might have succeeded, had it not been for one fatal handicap: an opening on the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia that everyone believed was waiting for him. In fact, the appointment was promised to him as a reward for taking the party through the election. There was no way that Thompson could form a coalition government without a firm commitment that he would stay in office.

Since he could not make it, the coalition collapsed and he resigned, in July He was appointed at once, by Sir John A. Macdonald, to the Supreme Court. For the next three years he was what Macdonald used to call a legal monk. He liked the role; he was as good a judge as he had always imagined he would be. His first court must have seemed very odd, for Thompson, at 36 years of age, was the youngest man in the room.

His decisions were liberal rather than narrow and technical. In criminal cases, he was apt to be charitable where the evidence was uncertain, but firm, even unforgiving, where it was clear. As a judge he found time to help found the Dalhousie law school [ see George Munro ]. Thompson came back convinced that the human resources existed in Halifax to fashion a good law school; what was really needed was a first class law library, and he and others set out to get it together.

They were so good that even eminent lawyers from downtown Halifax used to come to listen to him. Thus Thompson happily continued the even tenor of his way. His children were born at Willow Park; his salary though not large was solid; he could look forward to another 40 years of genteel poverty, no doubt becoming in time chief justice of Nova Scotia.

He had no ambitions other than to be a well-read judge, learned in the law. Inhowever, the government of Sir John A. Macdonald was looking for new men. Too many ministers were old, or sick, or worn out. Few of the others were capable of performing the business of the government in the commons. A major reconstruction was clearly required.

John sparrow david thompson biography of barack

Macdonald needed, among other ministers, a new one from Nova Scotia. The normal post-confederation complement of cabinet members from Nova Scotia was two. Tupper had resigned in to become high commissioner in London. There were not many good candidates among the Conservative mp s from Nova Scotia, and they were apt to be jealous of each other; but they all agreed that there was one man who, if he could be persuaded, they would willingly accept: John Sparrow David Thompson.

Overtures in and early in he turned down politely and firmly. The three most powerful persuaders were not politicians. Cameron told Tupper, another of the many persuaders, that there would have to be conditions: especially that Thompson should go straight into the most senior portfolio in the government, the Department of Justice.

Such a proceeding had never occurred before, especially not with a young, new minister wholly inexperienced in dominion politics. But even that move would not have been sufficient to bring Thompson to Ottawa had it not been for Annie. Thompson liked his life as a judge, and he already had a provincial reputation for being fearless, independent, and able.

Annie was a woman high-mettled, ready to dare anything; and in the end, when the question was fairly on the line, it was she who decided that Thompson should take the plunge into federal politics. He was sworn in as minister of justice late in Septemberin Ottawa. He would have to have a constituency. A deal was made. MacIsaac resigned his seat and took the Antigonish County judgeship; Thompson, after a hard fight, was elected for Antigonish in October He arrived back in Ottawa later that month, in time for the long cabinet meetings on the Riel crisis.

On 8 November he was suddenly taken ill with a severe attack of kidney-stones, and was out of action for the next fortnight. Thompson made his first major speech to parliament during the ensuing debate, saying that anyone who encouraged the Indians to go on the war-path could not escape justice. If Indians were to hang for murdering white men, so should Riel.

He was not known at all when Macdonald first brought him to Ottawa. Some mp s had beseeched Macdonald not to appoint him; Campbell john sparrow david thompson biography of barack he looked like a failed priest, a too innocent Christian who would never survive the lions in the House of Commons. But the commons is a curious place. It distrusts rhetoric and high-flown style; whatever flourishes it tolerates have to come from the strength of the argument.

Thompson did not seek to convince the house by declamation or sounding phrases, but by the force of his facts, by the reasonableness of what he was saying, and by his transparent fairness. From the very beginning he had its ear. He spoke courteously, quietly, with a low, clear, musical voice, as if he were trying only to get at the truth.

And parliament was persuaded. Thompson worked hard at his parliamentary career. He became master of the order-paper and of the government business before the house. Macdonald badly needed a good generalist. By the end of that first session inThompson had shown his mettle, and Macdonald began to lean more and more upon this minister who was always master of his own department, of himself, of government business, and who was willing to shoulder whatever he was asked to do.

Within two years Thompson was indispensable. Few ministers of justice worked as hard. The main bent of his administration can be summed up as care, courtesy, and concentration. He was a stickler for getting departmental work done and done well. He was not a martinet; he drove himself, and expected others to do their best. There was no side to him, nor did he throw his weight around.

He believed in giving credit where due, to his junior officers as well as to others. He would promote a good man from within the public service, resisting patronage claims for someone on the outside. Especially was this true of the prison system, where the political pressures on, say, the appointment of a warden, were fierce. He was also conscientious in going over the files on capital cases.

Wikimedia Commons Wikiquote Wikisource Wikidata item. Prime Minister of Canada from to For the English archeologist, see J. Eric S. The Right Honourable. Annie Affleck. Early years [ edit ]. Law, politics, and professorship [ edit ]. Federal Minister of Justice [ edit ]. Louis Riel crisis [ edit ]. Declines post of prime minister as a Roman Catholic [ edit ].

Prime Minister — [ edit ]. Supreme Court appointments [ edit ]. Death in office [ edit ]. Family [ edit ]. Legacy [ edit ]. See also [ edit ]. Notes [ edit ]. In Halpenny, Francess G ed. Dictionary of Canadian Biography. XII — online ed. University of Toronto Press. Ottawa, Canada: Government Printing Bureau. The London Gazette. December 14, Parks Canada.

April 1, Archived from the original on December 11, March 9, Toronto: Williams Briggs. Directory of Federal Heritage Designations. L; Hillmer, Norman April 21, Archived from the original on August 2, Retrieved September 11, August 30, Retrieved November 12, Retrieved July 27, Canada Soccer. Archived from the original on July 30, References [ edit ].

In he entered the office of Henry Pryor, attorney, and, learning shorthand, was employed as a reporter in the House of Assembly of Nova Scotia. He was called to the bar in January He soon acquired a good practice, but still kept his work as a reporter in the assembly, becoming in reporter in chief. This experience proved valuable to him. Having become an alderman of Halifax and chairman of the school commissioners, Thompson in December entered the House of Assembly of Nova Scotia as member for Antigonish.

In he was re-elected after the general election, and became the local attorney-general in what is usually known as the Holmes-Thompson government, which made a great effort to abolish the Upper House in the local legislature. He became Q. Inon the retirement of Simon Holmes, he became premier. In July he was defeated on the municipal corporation bill, a measure designed to consolidate and purify the local administration of Nova Scotia, and therefore opposed to the private interests of large numbers of old office-holders.

He was readily induced to retire from political life by the offer of the judgeship of the supreme court of Nova Scotia in Affieck and shortly afterwards became a Catholic. His progress in public life was rapid and brilliant. Beginning as an alderman in Halifax inhe became a member of the House of Assembly inattorney-general inPremier of Nova Scotia inand a judge of the Supreme Court in the same year.

In he became Minister of Justice of Canadaand from the time of his first great speech on the Riel question inhis position as one of the greatest of Canadian parliamentarians was never disputed. In the federal arena his successes were brilliant and unbroken.