Amor De Cosmos
Amor De Cosmos (
Windsor, Nova Scotia August 20,
1825 –
July 4,
1897 Victoria, British Columbia) was a
Canadian journalist and
politician. He served as the second
Premier of British Columbia.
De Cosmos was born as
William Alexander Smith in
Nova Scotia to
United Empire Loyalist parents. His education included a stint at
King's College in
Windsor, Nova Scotia, following which, around 1840, he became a mercantile clerk in
Halifax. There he joined the
Dalhousie University debating club, and came under the influence of the
Nova Scotia politician and reformer,
Joseph Howe. After twelve years in the trade, the lure of the
California Gold Rush beckoned, and Smith headed overland to
Placerville, California, arriving in 1853. There he set up a
photography studio, and prospered taking pictures of the miners and their operations. Joined by his brother, the pair moved northwest to
Oroville, where they engaged in various unspecified
entrepreneurial ventures. In 1854, Smith successfully petitioned the
California State Assembly to change his name to "Amor De Cosmos" (inaccurately translated as "Lover of the Universe"), to pay tribute, as he said, "to what I love most...Love of order, beauty, the world, the universe."
In
1858, De Cosmos and his brother emigrated back to
British North America, settling in
Victoria, the capital of the
Colony of Vancouver Island. The city was just entering an economic boom, as it became a jumping-off point for miners headed to the
New Caledonia (now mainland British Columbia) interior to participate in the
Fraser Canyon Gold Rush. De Cosmos founded a newspaper,
The Daily British Colonist, which survives today in its current incarnation as the
Victoria Times-Colonist.
De Cosmos remained as editor of the
Colonist through 1863, and quickly established himself as an opponent of the administration of
Sir James Douglas, governor of the colony and the former
Chief Factor of the
Hudson's Bay Company for Vancouver Island. De Cosmos decried the "family-company compact" of Bay men and Douglas associates who controlled the political and social affairs of the colony, even after Douglas' retirement in 1864. This group generally distrusted representative government, and believed in maintaining a hierarchical social order through government support for an established church, a landed gentry, and a private, denominational system of education.
De Cosmos was a
liberal reformer cast in the mould of
John Locke and
John Stuart Mill. He argued passionately for public education, an end to economic and political privileges, and - above all - the institution of
responsible government through an elected assembly. However, true to the
Victorian spirit of the age, De Cosmos was also a proponent of social progress through economic and population growth. He was a tireless advocate for economic diversification, being one of the first British Columbians to argue for a policy of encouraging development of the "three F's" - farming, forestry, and fisheries - that would underpin the region's economy for the next century.
As the child of American
refugees, who had himself lived six years in the
United States, De Cosmos developed a sharpened sense of
nationalism. This was expressed in a growing
protectionist economic sentiment, and the belief that the colonies of British North America needed to be self-supporting, develop a distinct identity, and form a political and economic union. From such policies, emerged the two great causes of his later career: the union of Vancouver Island and British Columbia, and British Columbia's entry into
confederation. To advance the first cause, De Cosmos left journalism and entered politics, becoming a member of Vancouver Island's colonial assembly from 1863 until its union with the
Colony of British Columbia in 1866. He advanced the second cause through his position as a member of the assembly of the
United Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia from 1867-68 and 1870-71, and as the leading force (with
Robert Beaven and
John Robson) behind the colony's Confederation League. Through the instrumental role De Cosmos played in realizing these two goals, he earned for himself his reputation as British Columbia's
Father of Confederation.
At the time of British Columbia's entry into Confederation on
July 22,
1871, De Cosmos was the leading pro-Confederation figure in the new
province. That year, he was elected to represent Victoria in both the
provincial legislature and the
House of Commons. Despite his prominence - or perhaps because of it -
Lieutenant Governor Sir Joseph Trutch passed over De Cosmos for the job of
Premier, instead asking
John Foster McCreight to assume the position. Undoubtedly, De Cosmos' reputation as an inconoclast and his infamously volatile temperament did not endear him to the establishment.
McCreight resigned in 1872 on a
motion of non-confidence, and on
December 23,
1872, Trutch asked De Cosmos to form a new government as Premier. De Cosmos populated his cabinet with reformers, mostly born in North America, many of whom would come to dominate provincial politics for a generation. His government pursued an agenda of political reform, economic expansion, and the development of public institutions - especially schools. De Cosmos also focused on advancing the completion of the
transcontinental railroad promised under the terms of union. It was, however, De Cosmos' attempt to alter the terms of union in order to obtain monetary guarantees from the federal government to complete a
dry dock at
Esquimalt that eventually led to accusations of impropriety, and ended his provincial political career. He speculated heavily in land, and
Texada Island Iron mines, whichfurther brought criticism as he was a public official. Thus he ended his tenure as Premier on
February 11,
1874.
Despite this setback, De Cosmos continued to be re-elected as a
Liberal Member of Parliament for
Victoria City. Consistent with federal promises to place the terminus of the transcontiental railway in Victoria, in
Ottawa, De Cosmos pushed for completion, especially the Vancouver Island
portion. De Cosmos also became an opponent of land concessions to
First Nations in the province, seeing it as a hindrance to British Columbia's economic growth and settlement by those of European descent. It is generally conceded that De Cosmos's tenure as a member of the dominion parliament was undistinguished. Circumstance betrayed him, and the belief of citizens of Victoria that future prosperity depended on the termination of the CPR at Esquimalt forced him into a one-dimensional role as critic of the terms of union. He found himself increasingly isolated as the railway issue alienated him even from other British Columbia MPs.
De Cosmos lost the
1882 federal election, and retired to Victoria. Although widely regarded as a stirring orator, effective debater, and a man of great intellectual depth, De Cosmos had always been considered eccentric. Contemporaries paint a portrait of an isolated person (he never married and had few intimate friends) with grandiose manners, prone to public outbursts of tears, and a fierce temper that sometimes degenerated into fist-fights. He had unusual phobias - including a fear of electricity. As he grew older, his eccentricities intensified, he became increasingly incoherent, and by 1895 he was declared of "unsound mind." He died two years later and is buried in Victoria's
Ross Bay Cemetery.
*
Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online*
Biography at Library and Archives Canada
