Report prepared by Mgr. M.F. Richard on the agriculture and colonisation
This speech by Bishop M.F. Richard was not included in the program of the Saint-Basile national congress, but it was reproduced in Le Moniteur Acadie and L’Impartial. In the October 1, 1908 issue of Le Moniteur Acadien, on page 3, the following note accompanies Richard’s speech: “We have already mentioned that Bishop Richard did not have the opportunity to present his report on agriculture and colonization at the Saint-Basile national congress. Le Moniteur took steps to obtain it, and today we are pleased to be able to publish a portion of it.”
Speech
Mr. President,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It seems to me that after fulfilling the role of rapporteur on colonization and agriculture at four general conventions, this duty should have been entrusted to a younger person, in order to accustom the new generation to bearing arms in the service of the nation. Since this is a vital issue for Acadia and of the utmost importance from a national and religious standpoint, it would be fitting for a master of eloquence to be called upon to extol the greatness and glory of the oldest and noblest of professions. Eloquence has been defined as “a ray of light for the mind, and a ray of warmth for the heart.” And it is with this eloquence that he speaks worthily and fruitfully of colonization and agriculture, the two pillars of the national edifice of any country, and the cornerstones of the religious edifice in our beloved Acadia.
But after sixty years of existence and struggle, the ray of light and the ray of warmth are considerably weakened in your humble servant. This is why the executive committee of this congress, which knows so well how to do things, seems to me to have erred in its choice of rapporteur on colonization and agriculture. However, an old soldier cannot remain deaf to the call of the fatherland—I therefore come to fulfill the mission entrusted to me, at the risk of boring you, whom I so wish to interest in my important subject.
Let us speak first of the dignity of agriculture.
After the honor of governing the land, there is none that equals that of cultivating it. It is the only state that was deemed worthy of humankind in the days of its innocence, and if it has been maintained after its fall, it is in remembrance of its past elevation. During the work of the six days, when God, who was the first farmer, had sown the stars in the heavens, he sowed the plants with the flowers that are the poetry of the earth, and he willed that humankind be charged with the first harvest; with cultivating it, with sowing after him. He made this world a thing only begun, so as to leave us the glory of completing it: a body without a soul so that we might be given the power to vivify it by lending it our own. He willed that his name alone be written in the book of Heaven, which belongs only to him, but on the earth, which is also his book, he allowed us to imprint our image, to write the history of humanity alongside that of his Providence.
He kept the first pages for himself, he gave us the others, and for six thousand years, how many plants have been embellished, how many races improved and remade, how many gigantic works have been undertaken; how many miracles have we not recorded there!
Agriculture makes man great. It is good to say it and to repeat it loudly, in a century where there seems to be a desire to bring agriculture down from the pedestal where God placed it, where religion maintained it, and where all men of noble heart want to keep it, considering it, and rightly so, the queen of the world and the great benefactor of humanity.
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Agriculture has given secular history its most immortal memories. It is agriculture that raised up those famous victors whom victory claimed and then returned to the plow. It is also agriculture that has given the history of God’s people its greatest glories. David had carried the shepherd’s crook before he carried the scepter; he had fought off his sheep from the lions’ jaws before wresting his homeland from the foreigner’s spear. He had mingled the sounds of his lyre with the murmur of the winds, before mingling them with the voice of the people, with the voice of the ages, with the harmonies of the angels.
When the Church needed men of strong character, it was in the solitude of the fields, in the desert, that it went to find them. Religion loves agriculture because when Jesus Christ came into the world among shepherds, it was to agriculture that he turned for the sustenance of his noble life. It was agriculture that provided the bread and wine for the fulfillment of the greatest mystery of love accomplished by Our Lord during his mortal life.
Religion loves agriculture because, like our soul, it is naturally Christian; it loves it above all because it is its creation, because it is one of its greatest glories.
Religion loves agriculture, and so does the nation. It loves it because it nourishes its children, because it fuels the commerce that unites them, and industry, which without it is but the arid bed of a spring without water. Agriculture, by raising the wealth of nations above their needs, does more than increase their well-being; it elevates their destiny. Agriculture is a great strength for a nation because it draws us closer to God and instills in our hearts a respect for sacred traditions that prevent it from going astray; because, by binding us to the land from which springs a hidden virtue, it makes us immutable like that ancient wrestler whom nothing could shake as long as he maintained his balance; because it makes bodies healthy and robust, souls patient and vigorous. The plow, an instrument of struggle, accustoms the farmer to the fight for the defense of his homeland and makes him the true patriot and the ultimate benefactor of his country. The true soldiers of the nation are undoubtedly the settlers and the farmers. Agriculture, which on the surface seems to concern itself only with material interests, can become, and indeed does become, one of the most fruitful elements of national greatness. The prosperity of nations depends on agriculture. Let us therefore love agriculture since it is an art dear to religion, an element of happiness, one of the forces of society, a tribute paid to the sacred soil which saw us born and which we cannot name without emotions, because it is called the Fatherland.
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Let us now consider what colonization and agriculture have accomplished for Acadia. On this day of national and patriotic reunion, it is fitting to remember what our ancestors did to prepare a future for us in this land and to give us a place of honour in our beautiful Canada. First, it is good not to forget that our forefathers were the first pioneers in Canada, the first settlers, the first farmers. Until the arrival of our ancestors, agriculture had not yet shown any signs of life in North America. The Acadians devoted themselves to this profession with intelligence and perseverance, and in a relatively short time, they became the owners of fertile lands that promised comfort and prosperity. It was precisely their success in agriculture that aroused the envy of their enemies and persecutors, whose greed led them to commit this shameless and atrocious theft, which was attempted to be justified by false and treacherous pretexts, but which history has long since condemned.
Fortunately, more humane treatment by the English authorities has allowed us to forgive, if not forget, these cruel wrongs, and we can now truthfully say: “God and my right.” It is colonization and agriculture that saved us from national ruin, thanks to the privilege granted to Acadian subjects by the British flag to own land in their ancestral homeland. Thus, the English Crown never had more loyal and devoted subjects than the Acadians in the colonies.
It is the Acadians, through colonization and agriculture, who founded the towns and the entire country we call the Maritime Provinces—Acadia.
There are no more valiant soldiers than the settlers who bravely ventured into the forest to expand and enrich the nation’s land: the Acadians were those courageous and persevering soldiers who, in Acadia and the province of Quebec, demonstrated their patriotism by conquering new territories for the good of the nation.
On this day of glorious remembrance, let us make a pilgrimage to Acadia. For the Acadians also have national glories. Their trophies are the cross and the plow. On this pilgrimage, we will see everywhere the traces of the genius, courage, spirit of sacrifice, and devotion of our people—qualities that have not always been properly appreciated by those who have most benefited from their noble labors.
Let us first take in the splendid panorama that unfolds before our astonished and amazed eyes. The Saint-Jean River, which flows through this beautiful land, cannot be compared to the majestic St. Lawrence, but in many respects it surpasses it. Were not the Acadians the first to navigate it, explore it, and give it its name? This Madawaska, one of the glories of Acadian colonization, owes its clearing and prosperity to the Acadian people. What a wonderful idea to celebrate our national holiday in this picturesque part of Acadia! Just as the exiled Acadians found refuge in the province of Quebec and became valuable assets to this sister province, so too have the French Canadians who came to Madawaska become invaluable allies to the French community in this part of Acadia.
This splendid demonstration will further cement the fraternity between Canadians and Acadians, a union so desirable and which can exist without offending national sentiments or compromising national autonomy.
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The magnificent religious and civic monuments that adorn this beautiful land are the finest tribute to the settlers who founded it. Honour to the settlers who established Madawaska and to the farmers who continued their work of civilization with such zeal and devotion!
Let us continue our pilgrimage in the land of Evangeline. Let us visit the beautiful Acadian counties of Gloucester, Kent, and Westmorland, in particular, and we will be amazed by the superb churches that rise in these regions, built on the sweat of the poor Acadian settlers. In Caraquet, a college that would be the pride of any city in Canada astonishes the visitor. The Eudist Fathers who run it with great success do not fail to acknowledge that it is to the Acadian farmer that they owe this national monument.
The convents scattered throughout these Acadian counties eloquently reaffirm the zeal of our Acadian farmers for education.
Arriving in Memramcook, we proudly salute Saint Joseph’s College, now a university, the cradle of our intellectual revival; there again, we admire the results of colonization and agriculture. We cross over to Prince Edward Island, the garden of Canada, and in this beautiful and magnificent land, we find traces of the Acadian exiles who, through colonization and agriculture, succeeded in forging a new homeland.
We must not fail to stop at Baie Sainte-Marie, the cradle of a resurgent Acadia.
There too, we see what colonization and agriculture can achieve. Collège Sainte-Anne, destined to render great service to the country and to Acadia, is the fruit of the agricultural industry, the lifeblood of agriculture in general and of the Acadians in particular. Without colonization, without agriculture, we would have no homeland of our own, we would have no Acadia, and our fellow citizens would not enjoy the civil and religious privileges for which we are not sufficiently grateful.
The major obstacle to colonization and agriculture in Acadia is the increasingly noticeable and alarming depopulation of the countryside. People imagine, based on false reports and driven by some malevolent force, that they will find their fortune far from their homeland. They set off on a perilous journey toward an unknown that will, for most, bring abject poverty, not to mention the even more dreadful danger of losing their ancestral faith and national traditions. They live in workshops, shacks, and factories where they breathe foul air, where the mind is corrupted, the heart is hardened, and character loses its strength.
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Even more deplorable is the plight of the poor young women whose relentless work barely provides them with the necessities of life—mere flowers of the Acadian fields, soon withering and dying.
I do not wish to suggest here that these Acadian youth are inevitably disgraced and lost in American cities. In any case, the homeland, Acadia, mourns their loss because colonization and agriculture are losing the strong hands the country so desperately needs.
Saint Augustine tells us: “A duty of virtue is to live in and for one’s homeland.” This is what our fathers did; they remained in their homeland, they worked for Acadia. For her, they shed their sweat, their tears, and their blood. They made Acadia a land of Christians, a land of patriots, a land of heroes.
Today, their descendants can no longer be considered a negligible part of the Church and the State. The future always determines each person’s place. The Acadians will have their turn. They wish to preserve their national identity, their distinct character, the unique traits of their race, their sphere of influence in the land founded by their fathers. Not division, but distinction; not independence, but liberty; not a state within a state, but one large, distinct family, preserving its own identity, its home, its altars.
It is through colonization, agriculture, and education that they intend to attain the possession of their rights, all their rights, in the Church and the State, and to live up to their destiny in the land of their ancestors. Acadia, long deprived of a national clergy by uncontrollable circumstances, now happily sees a considerable number of its children serving at the altar, and I believe there is not one among them who was not the son of a farmer and educated by the savings and sacrifices of his Acadian parents. All of Acadia’s progress is the fruit of the brave Acadian farmers, and they are given little credit for it. They have never received their share, not even the slightest share of the encouragement given to their more fortunate brethren. They are what they are by the grace of God and the admirable and indomitable stubbornness of their race. People say: “Stubborn as a Cayman!” Fortunately, for without this stubbornness, which is a virtue for the Acadians, they would have disappeared as a people, and Madawaska would not be witnessing this magnificent demonstration.
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The Acadians want to live their national lives like other peoples. They declared this at their first convention held in Memramcook in 1881, choosing a national holiday of their own—the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This choice received the Church’s approval, and all people of goodwill acknowledge this act of great patriotic importance for the small Acadian people.
They confirmed this choice at the Miscouche convention in 1884, when the Acadian delegates chose a flag that reminded them of their French origins and their status as privileged children of Our Lady of the Assumption. It was also at this important convention that the national anthem was, so to speak, inspired and adopted amidst an enthusiasm that has never been surpassed in Acadia. Vidimus Stellam ejus. We saw her star and we wanted to acclaim her with the most beautiful melody composed in honor of Mary, the Ave Maris Stella.
At each of our conventions, we affirmed our existence as a distinct people, we claimed our rights, as Catholics and as citizens, and duty compels us to continue this struggle for life. We asserted the privilege and the justice for our people to settle the land, our civil heritage, in preference to foreigners who are often of little worth or at least could never advantageously replace the children of this land. Let us not disinherit our own to enrich foreigners.
Monuments have been erected to the distinguished men of Canada. That is fitting. For my part, I ask my fellow Acadians that all Acadian hearts serve as monuments to our greatest benefactors, to the true heroes of the homeland, the Acadian settlers and farmers, past, present, and future.
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Le Moniteur Acadien, October 1st, 1908, p.3
L’Impérial, October 13th 1908, p.1
Transcription: P. Richard