Governor Kennedy of Vancouver Island and the politics of union, 1864-1866

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dc.contributor.authorSmith, Robert Louisen_US
dc.date.accessioned2024-08-15T18:24:29Z
dc.date.available2024-08-15T18:24:29Z
dc.date.copyright1973en_US
dc.date.issued1973
dc.degree.departmentDepartment of History
dc.degree.levelMaster of Arts M.A.en
dc.description.abstractThis essay attempts t o define the political issues that dominated Governor Arthur Edward Kennedy's governorship of Vancouver Island, 1864-1866, during the period when Vancouver Island and British Columbia existed as separate colonies. British Columbia's intense dislike of the administrative and economic hegemony of Victoria, the subject of several memor­ials, persuaded the home government to abolish the executive union of the two colonies in 1864. Vancouver Island, whose economy was almost entirely based on the demand for goods created by the extract ion of gold in British Columbia, con­tinually agitated for re union with t h e larger and richer main­land colony. The objective of union dominated all other issues in the island colony, after which the oft-cited Crown lands­ civil list dispute between Governor Kennedy and the House of Assembly assumed secondary importance; indeed, the civil list controversy can be understood only as an adjunct of the larger question concerning the relationship of Vancouver Island to British Columbia. Governor Kennedy was specially despatched by Secretary of State Newcastle from London to Vancouver Island to promote union and to offer the colonial legislature ownership of the land of Vancouver Island in re­turn for a permanent pledge to pay the salaries of the Crown's principal officers serving in the colony. The leg­islature refused to vote a civil list because separation from British Columbia, it was claimed, had thrown the island colony upon its own meagre resources and because the Crown might there by be induced to make an early and favorable decision on union. Kennedy showed himself to be receptive to reformist ideas but was unable to effect political alliances to counter the local obsession with union and the accompanying refusal to pay for costs of imperial government and programs. Politicians were interested in abolishing their own political unit, not in reforming it. Despite lack of support in the House, Kennedy introduced a certain improve ment in the in­tegrity and efficiency of the bureaucracy and managed to keep it functioning. With the passage of resolutions in 1865 ask­ing for union on any terms the Crown might be pleased to grant, Vancouver Island gave up its right to affect its ultimate fate and Kennedy was left with no policy but to suffer the abuse and invective of petty politicos. In the end, in November 1866, Amor De Cosmos and his party got their union but at a cost (loss of the free port, the capital, and repre­sentative government) which some , including Sir James Douglas and numerous members of the mercantile class of Victoria, thought outrageously high.en
dc.format.extent128 pages
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1828/19745
dc.rightsAvailable to the World Wide Weben_US
dc.titleGovernor Kennedy of Vancouver Island and the politics of union, 1864-1866en_US
dc.typeThesisen_US

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