Proceedings at the Unveiling of the Statue of Sir John A. Macdonald in Hamilton

What it is

This is a printed record of the proceedings at the unveiling of the statue of the late Sir John Alexander Macdonald in Hamilton, Ontario, on 1 November 1893. It was produced by the Macdonald Memorial Committee and printed by the Spectator Printing Company in Hamilton. The record includes speeches given at the ceremony. A collection note quotes a line from the speeches: a man who loved his country with a passionate love. The scanned copy is on the Internet Archive, and the text is partly garbled in the scan.

Why it matters

Macdonald had died in 1891, and this record shows how his supporters chose to remember him two years later, through a public monument and formal speeches. The unveiling was a public act of commemoration, so the speeches tell us how the people of Hamilton and the Conservative party wished him to be seen. Statues and their ceremonies were part of how Canada honoured its leaders.

Look closer

• What qualities do the speakers praise, and which of them would be hard to check with evidence?
• Who organized the ceremony and paid for the memorial, and why might they want a public record?
• What does a speech at a statue unveiling leave out about the living people who disagreed with Macdonald?