Cartier’s death shattered Macdonald and it was with great emotion that the Father of Confederation spoke at the dedication of his fallen friend and political partner’s Parliament Hill statue in 1885.  You will find Macdonald’s speech below.

Sir John A. Macdonald: We are assembled here today to do honour to the memory of a great and good man.

The parliament of Canada has voted a sum of money for the purpose of defraying the cost of erecting a fitting statue to Sir George Cartier. In doing so I believe parliament truly rep resented the desires and wishes of the whole people of the Dominion to do honour to the memory of that statesman.

That lamented gentleman, during the whole of his official life, was my colleague. As we acted together for years from the time he took office in 1855 until 1873, when he was cut off, it is almost impossible for me to allude to his services to the country without at the same time passing, in some degree, a laudation on the Government of which he and I were both members.

But there is no necessity for me to recall to your memory the deeds of Sir George Cartier. He served his country faithfully and well. Indeed, his life was cut short by his unremitting exertions in the cause of this country.

I believe no public man, since Canada has been Canada, has retained during the whole of his life, as was the case of Sir George Cartier, in such an eminent degree the respect of both the parties into which this great country was divided.

He was a strong constant Lower Canadian. He never disguised his principles; he carried them faithfully and honestly into practice. But while he did this, he allowed others the same liberty he claimed for himself and approved of the principle that each man should do according to his conscience what he thought best for the good of the country. The consequence was that even those gentlemen who were strongly opposed to his political course and views gave due credence to his honesty of purpose, and believed that whether right or wrong he was acting according to the best of his judgment and the impulses of his conscience.

As for myself, when the tie between us was broken, no man could have suffered more keenly than I did at the loss of my colleague and my friend. I shall leave it to others to expatiate upon his labours more particularly. Sufficient for me to say that he did what he regarded to be in the interests not of a section but of the whole country.

Nevertheless he was a French-Canadian. From the time he entered parliament he was true to his province, his people, his race, and his religion. At the same time, he had no trace of bigotry, no trace of fanaticism. Why, those who were opposed to him in his own province used to call him a French-speaking Englishman. He was as popular among the English-speaking people as he was among his own countrymen, and justly so, because he dealt out even justice to the whole people of Canada, without regard to race, origin or principles.

Gentlemen, he was true to his province, he was true to the institutions of his province, and if he had done nothing else than see to the complete codification of the law of his native province, if he had done nothing else but give to Quebec the most perfect code of law that exists in the whole world, that was enough to make him immortal amongst civilized people who knew his merits, knew his exertions, and knew the value of the great code of civil law he conferred on his country.

I shall say no more in respect of what he did, but I will speak of him as a man truthful, honest and sincere; his word was as good as his bond, and his bond was priceless. A true friend, he never deserted a friend.

Brave as a lion, he was afraid of nothing. He did not fear a face of clay. But whilst he was bold, as I have said, in the assertion of his own principles, and he carried them irrespective of consequences, he respected the convictions of others.

I can speak of him perfectly because I knew his great value, his great value as a statesman, his great value as a friend. I loved him whilst he was living; I regretted and wept for him whilst he died.

I shall not keep you here longer by any remarks of mine. Others coming from his own province will speak of his merits. Gentlemen, I shall now unveil the statue. It is, I believe, a fine work of art, and we have the satisfaction of knowing that in the hands of the sculptor it has been a labour of love; that the statue has been moulded, framed and carried into successful execution by one of his own countrymen, Mr. Hebert. It is a credit to Canadian art, and it shows he was a true Canadian when he felt his work was a labour of love and cut such a beautiful statue as I shall now have the pleasure of showing you. I think those who knew Sir George Cartier and were familiar with his features will acknowledge it a fine portrait of the man.

I can only conclude in the words of the song he used to sing to us so often when he was with us in society: “II y a longtemps que je t’aime, jamais je ne t’oublierai.”