Canada’s 9th Prime Minister, the Right Honourable Arthur Meighen, was not one to reveal his emotions in public. But on this date in 1920, only a month after becoming PM, he did just that. The occasion was the official welcome home ceremony and event held in the Ontario town, St. Marys, where he had been raised as a boy.“I have met, this afternoon, playmates of some decades ago; boys with whom I shared a desk at school, neighbours of the old days on the farm,” he said. “Everything seems to have been ordered, and everybody seems to have come, necessary to bring back into one great day all the happy associations of youth.”
You can read his address to his hometown audience in its entirety below.Prime Minister Meighen: Very often it has been my lot to address audiences of my fellow-citizens, but so different is this occasion from any other within my experience, and so profoundly am I moved by what has been said and done today, that there is danger of emotions becoming stronger than will, and the discharge of duty next to impossible. It is not wholly a constraint born of knowledge that the path I must travel in my remarks is necessarily narrow, not just a feeling that most fields of discussion are forbidden; indeed, not so much a barrenness of topic as a sense of fullness of memory, a crowding to the front of all the past seeking room in one’s mind at once out of the vista of these twenty, thirty, yes forty years.When accepting the invitation of your mayor and the reeve of Blanshard and the president of your Board of Trade to be their guests, I had no conception at all that anything so magnificent as this was in contemplation. The extent of your preparations, the vast amount of organization and hard work it has entailed, the very dimensions of this event and the overwhelming kindness of it all quite overpower me.I have met, this afternoon, playmates of some decades ago; boys with whom I shared a desk at school, neighbours of the old days on the farm. Everything seems to have been ordered, and everybody seems to have come, necessary to bring back into one great day all the happy associations of youth.No one is prouder than I to be a British subject, no one more thrilled by the splendid history and heritage that is ours as a member of the great British Commonwealth—and no one more resolved that we never lose our attachment to the “sceptred isle” and “happy breed of men.” Nevertheless, I am glad above all things today in being born a Canadian, nor could one have conceived of a more fortunate birth or a bringing-up more healthful and wholesome than was provided for me in this garden spot of old Ontario. How very little you and I reared in this countryside have been denied at the hands of a bountiful Nature.The hardships of the pioneer had been well overcome before my time. Privations of life had been removed. The stubborn turf had been cleared, the woods had fallen and the good old British stock had planted themselves and turned a forest into a smiling land. Schools and churches were as numerous as they are today. Libraries were available for all, not perhaps in convenience but within reach and good in quality and teaching. Every home had its quota of books; there was no plethora, but there was sufficient real literature to wake the hunger of the mind. It is in truth better that there was not so much as to dissipate the conviction that books are a prize and a treasure. These circumstances, linked with the supreme advantage of a good home, are about all of value that a youth can hope to possess, could be choose for himself his nativity and environment—those things which go so far to determine his destiny in life.It has been said by the provincial treasurer, [Honourable Peter Smith] the honour and generosity of whose presence I want publicly to acknowledge, that a tendency exists today unfair in its hostility to men in public office. Just previous to his utterance I was giving inward expression to the opinion that no human being, and certainly not myself, could ever hope to be worthy of the tribute being paid me here and the words of eulogy employed. There is not so vast a chasm between one man and another in this world as many people think. Only a short distance, bridged mainly by harder work, and sometimes by better fortune, separates those who occupy positions of distinction from those who perform tasks of undoubted worth in humbler walks of life. Never could I hope to reach any pinnacle of achievement which would for a moment entitle me to the sentiments spoken this afternoon; but if that is true it is just as true, as stated by our friend, the treasurer, that while we who can be called, for the time being, fortunate, merit not many of the good things said about us, we are just as innocent of a large proportion of the frailties and misdemeanors charged against us.These are days of censoriousness, unrest, discontent and even disorder, a condition which has become epidemic the world over. As yet it reflects itself here in Canada in only a minor and lighter form, but in such times it is particularly true that grave results are bound to flow from an attitude of antagonism of one class of the community toward another and of all classes toward those in authority. It is a phenomenon which has followed in the wake of every great war in the past and has precipitated itself upon this afflicted generation to a degree unparalleled for many years. I hope I am not speaking words of delusion in expressing a belief that as respects Canada the crest of this evil wave has been passed. With good reason it may be hoped that here in our country, a veritable land of Canaan in a troubled world, we shall be first to taste the sweets of a return to a better harmony and sanity. I believe that already softer winds are blowing and a brighter sun is shining, and that if each in his own sphere holds high his head and keeps steady his thinking, we will not suffer, as it looked a short time ago we might, the agony which other nations have so long and so bitterly endured.One thing upon which we can rely is the intellectual health and moral stability of our people. If this foundation holds—and it never was better in comparison with other populations than now—we need have no fears as to our future. Out of the goodness and greatness of our country and the preponderating wisdom of her councils, out of the hard, dependable common sense of our citizens, out of the zeal and pluck of a dauntless breed of men, there will come triumph over the infection of unrest and disorder and all vicissitudes that beset an advancing civilization, just as certainly as there has come triumph over the forces of war.My last word must be one of simple thanks to the people of this town and the townships around, and particularly of the old Anderson neighbourhood where childhood days were spent; to all from far and near I extend my deep and lasting gratitude. Do take home the assurance that the toil you have expended so liberally and the kindness you have shown so lavishly have made an indelible impression upon me.There are many faces we miss in this throng—many who in the years since I lived among you have passed to the beyond. Some have surrendered their lives in the war lately closed—surrendered them in the same gallant way as did the young man [i.e., Lieut. W. J. Wright, BA, late principal of St. Marys Collegiate Institute] named in honour by Mr. Martin [i.e., S. K. Martin, BA, former principal of the same school], who truly was one of my treasured friends. Their names and their deeds we never can forget. But nonetheless, St. Marys is St. Marys still. It is the old family home, and there cling to it endearing recollections which can circle around no other place on earth. This is the home of boyhood and young manhood, the home where first were learned those simple truths last to fade from the mind, the home of earliest friendships the most sacred and inseverable of all, the home around which linger memories of brothers and sisters now far away and of one generation which has gone forever. Time changes much. It destroys and builds again, but the attachments and affections I have described abide to the end.Love is not loveWhich alters when it alteration finds.This event will be an inspiration to me, a new starting point from which will date another season of labour, another and better effort, which if it does not result—and it will not—in achievement that wins the approval of all my fellow-citizens, should at least merit a fair measure of assent and be such, I trust, as to deserve general recognition that my motives were unselfish, my labour unstinted, my conduct unstained, and that at all times I was animated only by a desire to serve my native land.Arthur Milnes is an accomplished public historian and award-winning journalist. He was research assistant on The Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney’s best-selling Memoirs and also served as a speechwriter to then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper and as a Fellow of the Queen’s Centre for the Study of Democracy under the leadership of Tom Axworthy. A resident of Kingston, Ontario, Milnes serves as the in-house historian at the 175 year-old Frontenac Club Hotel.
You can read his address to his hometown audience in its entirety below.Prime Minister Meighen: Very often it has been my lot to address audiences of my fellow-citizens, but so different is this occasion from any other within my experience, and so profoundly am I moved by what has been said and done today, that there is danger of emotions becoming stronger than will, and the discharge of duty next to impossible. It is not wholly a constraint born of knowledge that the path I must travel in my remarks is necessarily narrow, not just a feeling that most fields of discussion are forbidden; indeed, not so much a barrenness of topic as a sense of fullness of memory, a crowding to the front of all the past seeking room in one’s mind at once out of the vista of these twenty, thirty, yes forty years.When accepting the invitation of your mayor and the reeve of Blanshard and the president of your Board of Trade to be their guests, I had no conception at all that anything so magnificent as this was in contemplation. The extent of your preparations, the vast amount of organization and hard work it has entailed, the very dimensions of this event and the overwhelming kindness of it all quite overpower me.I have met, this afternoon, playmates of some decades ago; boys with whom I shared a desk at school, neighbours of the old days on the farm. Everything seems to have been ordered, and everybody seems to have come, necessary to bring back into one great day all the happy associations of youth.No one is prouder than I to be a British subject, no one more thrilled by the splendid history and heritage that is ours as a member of the great British Commonwealth—and no one more resolved that we never lose our attachment to the “sceptred isle” and “happy breed of men.” Nevertheless, I am glad above all things today in being born a Canadian, nor could one have conceived of a more fortunate birth or a bringing-up more healthful and wholesome than was provided for me in this garden spot of old Ontario. How very little you and I reared in this countryside have been denied at the hands of a bountiful Nature.The hardships of the pioneer had been well overcome before my time. Privations of life had been removed. The stubborn turf had been cleared, the woods had fallen and the good old British stock had planted themselves and turned a forest into a smiling land. Schools and churches were as numerous as they are today. Libraries were available for all, not perhaps in convenience but within reach and good in quality and teaching. Every home had its quota of books; there was no plethora, but there was sufficient real literature to wake the hunger of the mind. It is in truth better that there was not so much as to dissipate the conviction that books are a prize and a treasure. These circumstances, linked with the supreme advantage of a good home, are about all of value that a youth can hope to possess, could be choose for himself his nativity and environment—those things which go so far to determine his destiny in life.It has been said by the provincial treasurer, [Honourable Peter Smith] the honour and generosity of whose presence I want publicly to acknowledge, that a tendency exists today unfair in its hostility to men in public office. Just previous to his utterance I was giving inward expression to the opinion that no human being, and certainly not myself, could ever hope to be worthy of the tribute being paid me here and the words of eulogy employed. There is not so vast a chasm between one man and another in this world as many people think. Only a short distance, bridged mainly by harder work, and sometimes by better fortune, separates those who occupy positions of distinction from those who perform tasks of undoubted worth in humbler walks of life. Never could I hope to reach any pinnacle of achievement which would for a moment entitle me to the sentiments spoken this afternoon; but if that is true it is just as true, as stated by our friend, the treasurer, that while we who can be called, for the time being, fortunate, merit not many of the good things said about us, we are just as innocent of a large proportion of the frailties and misdemeanors charged against us.These are days of censoriousness, unrest, discontent and even disorder, a condition which has become epidemic the world over. As yet it reflects itself here in Canada in only a minor and lighter form, but in such times it is particularly true that grave results are bound to flow from an attitude of antagonism of one class of the community toward another and of all classes toward those in authority. It is a phenomenon which has followed in the wake of every great war in the past and has precipitated itself upon this afflicted generation to a degree unparalleled for many years. I hope I am not speaking words of delusion in expressing a belief that as respects Canada the crest of this evil wave has been passed. With good reason it may be hoped that here in our country, a veritable land of Canaan in a troubled world, we shall be first to taste the sweets of a return to a better harmony and sanity. I believe that already softer winds are blowing and a brighter sun is shining, and that if each in his own sphere holds high his head and keeps steady his thinking, we will not suffer, as it looked a short time ago we might, the agony which other nations have so long and so bitterly endured.One thing upon which we can rely is the intellectual health and moral stability of our people. If this foundation holds—and it never was better in comparison with other populations than now—we need have no fears as to our future. Out of the goodness and greatness of our country and the preponderating wisdom of her councils, out of the hard, dependable common sense of our citizens, out of the zeal and pluck of a dauntless breed of men, there will come triumph over the infection of unrest and disorder and all vicissitudes that beset an advancing civilization, just as certainly as there has come triumph over the forces of war.My last word must be one of simple thanks to the people of this town and the townships around, and particularly of the old Anderson neighbourhood where childhood days were spent; to all from far and near I extend my deep and lasting gratitude. Do take home the assurance that the toil you have expended so liberally and the kindness you have shown so lavishly have made an indelible impression upon me.There are many faces we miss in this throng—many who in the years since I lived among you have passed to the beyond. Some have surrendered their lives in the war lately closed—surrendered them in the same gallant way as did the young man [i.e., Lieut. W. J. Wright, BA, late principal of St. Marys Collegiate Institute] named in honour by Mr. Martin [i.e., S. K. Martin, BA, former principal of the same school], who truly was one of my treasured friends. Their names and their deeds we never can forget. But nonetheless, St. Marys is St. Marys still. It is the old family home, and there cling to it endearing recollections which can circle around no other place on earth. This is the home of boyhood and young manhood, the home where first were learned those simple truths last to fade from the mind, the home of earliest friendships the most sacred and inseverable of all, the home around which linger memories of brothers and sisters now far away and of one generation which has gone forever. Time changes much. It destroys and builds again, but the attachments and affections I have described abide to the end.Love is not loveWhich alters when it alteration finds.This event will be an inspiration to me, a new starting point from which will date another season of labour, another and better effort, which if it does not result—and it will not—in achievement that wins the approval of all my fellow-citizens, should at least merit a fair measure of assent and be such, I trust, as to deserve general recognition that my motives were unselfish, my labour unstinted, my conduct unstained, and that at all times I was animated only by a desire to serve my native land.Arthur Milnes is an accomplished public historian and award-winning journalist. He was research assistant on The Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney’s best-selling Memoirs and also served as a speechwriter to then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper and as a Fellow of the Queen’s Centre for the Study of Democracy under the leadership of Tom Axworthy. A resident of Kingston, Ontario, Milnes serves as the in-house historian at the 175 year-old Frontenac Club Hotel.