Happy Canada Day

Prime Minister John Diefenbaker to his brother Elmer

24 Sussex Street

Ottawa

Saturday

5 Oct. [1957]

Dear Elmer,

We are ready to receive you and the Queen!

The following is a summary of things:

1. You have a morning suit "in toto"--my trousers are 38" at waist.

2. You will bring your tuxedo shirt, studs, etc.

3. You will be seated in the Governor General's box which will also have a seat vacant for Mother. It's too bad she can't travel as she would have been the "Belle of the Ball"--the only mother who ever saw her son as a Prime Minister.

4. You will be at the dinner [for] H. M. [Her Majesty] at our place and I'll try to get you in on a reception too.

I suppose this will be a tough session of Parliament. Anyway, we will try to do our best.

Monday I speak to McGill and hope that I can think of something to say--day after tomorrow, whew!--and not one line of a speech as yet.

All the best and will see you soon.

John

-from Personal Letters of a Public Man: The Family Letters of John G. Diefenbaker edited by Thad McIlroy; with an Introduction by J. L. Granatstein (Toronto: Doubleday Canada, 1985) p.80-81.

John Adams to his Wife Abigail

[from Philadelphia, 1776]

. . . The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epocha in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward, forevermore.

You will think me transported with enthusiasm, but I am not. I am well aware of the toil, and blood, and treasure, that it will cost us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. Yet, through all the gloom, I can see the rays of ravishing light and glory. I can see that the end is more than worth all the means. And that posterity will triumph in that day's transaction, even although we should rue it, which I trust in God we shall not. . . .

-from The Friendly Craft: a Collection of American Letters edited by Elizabeth Deering Hanscom, Ph.D. (New York: Macmillan, 1908) p. 268-269.

[Happy Independence Day]

A Prime Minister to his Brother

Office of the Prime Minister

Ottawa

July 18, 1959.

Dear Elmer,

I am in my office at the moment and it is now 3:00 P.M. and the House has been sitting continuously since 11 o'clock this morning and there is some hope that we may finish today. That is the expectation, but by the time you receive the letter you will know whether the objective was attained.

Last evening we sat until after midnight and as always near the end of the session the accumulation of work and the long hours make everybody short-tempered and bellicose. I am told that at the very moment Pickersgill is charging me with political interference, but I am not going near the place.

Olive and I hope to go out to the country place tonight no matter whether the proceedings end here, and while tomorrow will be no rest it will at least be a change. I have two major speeches to make on Monday in Quebec and have not any new material, and for that matter no ideas. Three of four have given me their suggestions and when I throw the omelet together tomorrow morning I will have to unscramble it and come up with something.

. . . While I have pressing invitations from Italy, Turkey and the Union of South Africa, I am going to stay in Canada. I have quite a number of appointments in the next few months but intend to reduce them to a minimum. I would like to speak once in each province before the next session begins although that is a big prospect.

On Monday Joey Smallwood is going to bring a Motion before the Newfoundland Legislature asking for unanimous support for a resolution condemning my Government. Two Conservative members in the Legislature, Higgins and Duffy, will leave the Conservative Party and become Independents. The other two will not, and Joey has intimated that unless the vote is unanimous he will immediately go to the country. Under those circumstances I would not sincerely have a visit to Newfoundland in mind, although I did intend to spend three days there this summer.

I can't tell you yet when we will be coming West but it will not be long. I am glad to have your report that crop conditions are good and that the rains have brought about real hope for the wheat farmers. . .

With all good wishes,

John [Diefenbaker]

P.S. I will phone you tomorrow. Please send me a list of the accounts I paid for Mother during 1958--hospital, nurses etc.

-from Personal Letters of a Public Man: The Family Letters of John G. Diefenbaker edited by Thad McIlroy; with an Introduction by J. L. Granatstein (Toronto: Doubleday Canada, 1985) p.93-95.

[HAPPY CANADA DAY]

An Answer to a Gentleman

Letter 29

From a Mother to a Gentleman, who had asked permission to address her Daughter. In Answer.

Sir,

The letter which you have done me the honor to write to me, speaks you to be a gentleman and a man of sense. I am sorry to acquaint you, that after such a prepossession in your favor, I am for more than one reason desirous to decline the offer you are pleased to make towards an alliance in my family. My daughter is very dear to me; I think there is something indelicate and improper in this wild manner of engaging in an attachment, and pleading in favor of it. I wish you had known my daughter more before you spoke so much, and had met with me among our acquaintance to have mentioned it. I am convinced, sir, that I do not think more of you than I may with justice, when I confess to you that I believe you would be more than an equal match for my daughter; for though she has (and suffer me, sir, although I am her mother, to say it) great merit, her fortune, although not quite inconsiderable, is not great. You will see, sir, that I waver in my opinion on this subject; but you must attribute it to the true cause; and believe that every thing which has, be it ever so remote, a tendency to my daughter's welfare, will make me very cautious of determining. To give you my final sense, (at least what is final to me at present,) I have not a thought of asking who it is that has thus favored us, nor would advise my daughter to remember it. I thank you sir, in her name as well as my own, for the honor you intend us, and am, sir,

Your most obedient servant.

-from The Fashionable American Letter Writer, or, the Art of Polite Correspondence, Containing a Variety of Plain and Elegant Letters on Business, Love, Courtship, Marriage, Relationship, Friendship, &c. (New York: H. Dayton, n.d.) p. 34-35.

John Adams to Abigail

[To his wife]

President's House, Washington City,

2 November, 1800

My Dearest Friend,

We arrived here last night, or rather yesterday, at one o'clock, and here we dined and slept. The building is in a state to be habitable, and now we wish for your company. . . .

I have seen only Mr. Marshall and Mr. Stoddart, General Wilkinson and the two commissioners, Mr. Scott and Mr. Thornton. I shall say nothing of public affairs. I am very glad you consented to come on, for you would have been more anxious at Quincy than here, and I to all my other solicitudines mordaces, as Horace calls them, ie., "biting cares," should have added a great deal on your account. Besides, it is fit and proper that you and I should retire together, and not one before the other. Before I end my letter, I pray heaven to bestow the best blessings on this house, and on all that shall hereafter inhabit it. May none but honest and wise men ever rule under this roof.

I am, with unabated confidence and affection, your

John Adams

-from The Friendly Craft: a Collection of American Letters edited by Elizabeth Deering Hanscom, Ph.D. (New York: Macmillan, 1908) p. 12-13.