Thomas D'Arcy McGee quotes

If we are true to Canada, if we do not desire to become part and parcel of these people, we cannot overlook this the greatest revolution of our times. Let us remember this, that when the three cries among our next neighbours are money, taxation, blood, it is time for us to provide for our own security... (Thomas D'Arcy McGee)
Everything we did was done in form and with propriety, and the result of our proceedings is the document [the Quebec Resolutions] that has been submitted to the imperial government as well as to this house and which we speak of here as a treaty. And that there may be no doubt about our position in regard to that document we say, question it you may, reject it you may, or accept it you may, but alter it you may not. View quote
Thomas D'Arcy McGee
Canada's Founding Debates, Edited By Janet Ajzenstat, et al, University of Toronto Press, 1999, ISBN 0-8020-8607-1. View quote
Thomas D'Arcy McGee
The two greatest things that all men aim at in any free government are liberty and permanency. View quote
Thomas D'Arcy McGee
Miracles would cease to be miracles if they were events of everyday occurrence. View quote
Thomas D'Arcy McGee
We have no aristocracy but of virtue and talent, which is the only true aristocracy, and is the old and true meaning of the term. View quote
Thomas D'Arcy McGee
I will content myself, Mr. Speaker, with those principal motives to union; first, that we are in the rapids and must go on. View quote
Thomas D'Arcy McGee
The idea of a universal democracy in America is no more welcome to the minds of thoughtful men among us than was that of a universal monarchy to the mind of the thoughtful men who followed the standard of the third William in Europe, or who afterwards, under the great Marlborough, opposed the armies of the particular dynasty that sought to place Europe under a single dominion. (Hear, hear.) But if we are to a universal democracy on this continent, the lower provinces - the smaller fragments - will be "gobbled up" first, and we will come in afterwards by the way of dessert. View quote
Thomas D'Arcy McGee
That is a glorious doctrine to instill into society. View quote
Thomas D'Arcy McGee
I will take leave to read to the house a few figures which show the amazing, the unprecedented growth which has not perhaps a parallel in the annals of the past, of the military power of our neighbours within the past three or four years... From January 1861 to January 1863 the army of 10,000 was increased to 800,000... In January 1861 the ships of war belonging to the United States were 83; in December 1864 they numbered 671... These are frightful figures for the capacity of destruction they represent, for the heaps of carnage that they represent, for the quantity of human blood spilt that they represent, for the lust of conquest that they represent, for the evil passions that they represent, and for the the arrest of onward progress that they represent. View quote
Thomas D'Arcy McGee
We have here no traditions and ancient venerable institutions; here, there are no aristocratic elements hallowed by time or bright deeds; here, every man is the first settler of the land, or removed from the settler one or two generations at the furthest; here, we have no architectural monuments calling up old associations; here, we have none of these old popular legends and stories which, in other countries, have exercised a powerful share in the government; here every man is the son of his own works. (Thomas D'Arcy McGee)