{"id":609,"date":"2007-07-02T01:50:26","date_gmt":"2007-07-02T05:50:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/s265039441.onlinehome.us\/philpaine\/?p=609"},"modified":"2018-08-16T22:43:10","modified_gmt":"2018-08-17T02:43:10","slug":"15105-%c2%a0%c2%a0-joseph-charles-tache%c2%a0-des-provinces-de-lame%cc%81rique-du-nord-et-dune-union-fe%cc%81de%cc%81rale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/?p=609","title":{"rendered":"15105.&nbsp;(Joseph-Charles Tach\u00e9)&nbsp;Des provinces de l\u2019Ame\u0301rique du Nord et d\u2019une union fe\u0301de\u0301rale"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The Sep\u00ada\u00adratist move\u00adment in Qu\u00e9bec has man\u00adaged to train an entire gen\u00ader\u00ada\u00adtion into think\u00ading that Qu\u00e9bec\u2019s entry into Con\u00adfed\u00ader\u00ada\u00adtion was some sort of con\u00adspir\u00ada\u00adto\u00adr\u00adi\u00adal swin\u00addle, but the truth of the mat\u00adter is that the very idea of Con\u00adfed\u00ader\u00ada\u00adtion orig\u00adi\u00adnat\u00aded in that province, and was large\u00adly pro\u00admot\u00aded by French Cana\u00addi\u00adan intel\u00adlec\u00adtu\u00adals seek\u00ading a strat\u00ade\u00adgy to defend and pre\u00adserve their cul\u00adture.&nbsp;The fact is that the prin\u00adci\u00adple threat to the lan\u00adguage and dis\u00adtinct cul\u00adture of French Cana\u00adda was, in the 19th cen\u00adtu\u00adry, the pos\u00adsi\u00adbil\u00adi\u00adty of the absorp\u00adtion of Cana\u00adda by the Unit\u00aded States.&nbsp;The first detailed and sys\u00adtem\u00adat\u00adic pro\u00adpos\u00adal for a Cana\u00addi\u00adan Con\u00adfed\u00ader\u00ada\u00adtion was this trea\u00adtise by Tach\u00e9, pub\u00adlished in 1858.&nbsp;Tach\u00e9 was a doc\u00adtor prac\u00adtic\u00ading in the lum\u00adber camps of the wilder parts of the Gasp\u00e9 penin\u00adsu\u00adla, where he became enam\u00adored with abo\u00adrig\u00adi\u00adnal cul\u00adture, and col\u00adlect\u00aded folk\u00adlore.&nbsp;His lat\u00ader career in jour\u00adnal\u00adism focused on the devel\u00adop\u00adment of a strong and dis\u00adtinct French Cana\u00addi\u00adan lit\u00ader\u00ada\u00adture, prefer\u00adably one&nbsp;that \u201cven\u00adtured into the unknown.\u201d&nbsp;As a mat\u00adter of prin\u00adci\u00adple, he refused to wear any arti\u00adcle of cloth\u00ading not man\u00adu\u00adfac\u00adtured in Cana\u00adda.&nbsp;He was, in effect, a roman\u00adtic nation\u00adal\u00adist of the 19th cen\u00adtu\u00adry mode.&nbsp;Not alto\u00adgeth\u00ader pro\u00adgres\u00adsive, he pre\u00adferred a timid reform of the archa\u00adic sys\u00adtem of seignio\u00adr\u00adi\u00adal land tenure, rather than the com\u00adplete abo\u00adli\u00adtion that the pub\u00adlic clam\u00adored for.&nbsp;This lost him sup\u00adport in his polit\u00adi\u00adcal career, though in oth\u00ader issues he remained high\u00adly popular.<\/span><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Tach\u00e9\u2019s the\u00adsis was sim\u00adple.&nbsp;The col\u00adlec\u00adtion of British colonies that were scat\u00adtered across the immense north\u00adern half of the con\u00adti\u00adnent were each, alone, vul\u00adner\u00ada\u00adble to be picked off and absorbed by the Unit\u00aded States, which was quick\u00adly becom\u00ading an eco\u00adnom\u00adic and mil\u00adi\u00adtary pow\u00ader.&nbsp;Britain was not like\u00adly, he rea\u00adsoned, to make any great effort to defend them.&nbsp;If even a few of the mar\u00aditime colonies were absorbed by the U.S., the oth\u00aders would soon fol\u00adlow, and the chances of French Cana\u00addi\u00adan cul\u00adture sur\u00adviv\u00ading unab\u00adsorbed under Amer\u00adi\u00adcan dom\u00adi\u00adna\u00adtion were zilch.&nbsp;The only viable strat\u00ade\u00adgy was the cre\u00adation of a fed\u00ader\u00adat\u00aded union of all British North America\u2019s colonies, what\u00adev\u00ader their mix of French, Eng\u00adlish, Gael\u00adic, or Native lan\u00adguages, which could present a unit\u00aded front against U.S. \u201cman\u00adi\u00adfest des\u00adtiny\u201d.&nbsp;He sys\u00adtem\u00adat\u00adi\u00adcal\u00adly exam\u00adined the polit\u00adi\u00adcal, eco\u00adnom\u00adic, and social sit\u00adu\u00ada\u00adtion in each of the colonies, and attempt\u00aded to demon\u00adstrate that each one stood to ben\u00ade\u00adfit from such a con\u00adfed\u00ader\u00ada\u00adtion.&nbsp;Con\u00adfed\u00ader\u00ada\u00adtion must be accom\u00adpa\u00adnied by a gar\u00adgan\u00adtu\u00adan effort to devel\u00adop a uni\u00adfy\u00ading trans\u00adporta\u00adtion infra\u00adstruc\u00adture, and a large-scale pio\u00adneer\u00ading of west\u00adern and north\u00adern lands.&nbsp;The argu\u00adment was backed up by his immense per\u00adson\u00adal knowl\u00adedge of sta\u00adtis\u00adtics, pub\u00adlic health, agri\u00adcul\u00adture, and geog\u00adra\u00adphy.&nbsp;Thus, Tach\u00e9 essen\u00adtial\u00adly mapped out the next cen\u00adtu\u00adry of Canada\u2019s devel\u00adop\u00adment as a nation.<em> Des provinces de l\u2019Ame\u0301rique du Nord et d\u2019une union fe\u0301de\u0301rale<\/em> was the most wide\u00adly read and influ\u00aden\u00adtial work lead\u00ading up to Con\u00adfed\u00ader\u00ada\u00adtion, and was essen\u00adtial\u00adly the bible of the polit\u00adi\u00adcal activists who came to be known as the \u201cfathers of Con\u00adfed\u00ader\u00ada\u00adtion\u201d.&nbsp;It\u2019s quite aston\u00adish\u00ading that this work has been forgotten.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Sep\u00ada\u00adratist move\u00adment in Qu\u00e9bec has man\u00adaged to train an entire gen\u00ader\u00ada\u00adtion into think\u00ading that Qu\u00e9bec\u2019s entry into Con\u00adfed\u00ader\u00ada\u00adtion was some sort of con\u00adspir\u00ada\u00adto\u00adr\u00adi\u00adal swin\u00addle, but the truth of the mat\u00adter is that the very idea of Con\u00adfed\u00ader\u00ada\u00adtion orig\u00adi\u00adnat\u00aded&nbsp;in&nbsp;\u2026<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/?p=609\">Read more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[946,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-b-reading","category-bt-reading-2007"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=609"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8995,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609\/revisions\/8995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}