The Frontier

Frontier Statesman of the Canadian Northwest
Frederick Haultain
Copyright 1985 Western Producer prairie books
198 pages,
ISBN 0-88833-147-9.

In court circles it became almost the rule that lawyer McCaul would be appearing for the prosecution and lawyer Haultain for the defense. More accused men brought before the magistrate were being acquitted. There had been a tendency, Haultain noted when defending John Tathwell charged with horse stealing on October 24, 1884, to form a conclusion about a man's guilt and then "make the most innocent facts and circumstances appear as evidence of the crime."

Contending against circumstantial evidence, he said to the jurors: "Admitting the facts sworn to are satisfactorily proved, a further and highly difficult duty still remains with the jurymen to perform. They must decide, not whether these facts are consistent with the prisoner's guilt, but whether they are inconsistent with any other rational conclusion." The magistrate looked a trifle surprised and the jury, after deliberating for five minutes, declared the accused not guilty.

It marked a new day in local justice. Just a few weeks later, the local courtroom was the scene of what was acknowledged as another case of far-reaching significance. It involved a libel charge against Fred Pace of Standoff and Messrs. Wood and Saunders, publishers and proprietors of the Macleod Gazette.The trial was being conducted before the former Mounted Police commissioner, Colonel James Macleod, and a jury. This time Haultain was conducting the prosecution. Public interest was high and the jury's verdict was no libe!. Haultain's arguments appeared to have been insufficient but such was not the case. Admiration and praise for the manner of the prosecution's presentation came from the most unexpected sources, including the Gazettewhich really meant from the accused parties.

"Mr. Haultain is a young lawyer, as we are all young in this country," the editor wrote, "but this, his first important effort in this country, shows that he has the stuff in him. He conducted the prosecution in an impartial and able manner and we echo the feelings of all when we say: 'Well done, sir; you did your duty weI!.' "7 This, it should be noted, was from one of the principal figures on the opposite side of the court.

Instead of remaining a stranger in the community for very long, the young easterner with scholarly speech and mild manner was almost at once well known. Cowboys having difficulty in collecting wages, cattlemen in trouble about the reckless use of their branding irons, and Mounted Police officers with personal problems sought his advice, while ladies with unmarried daughters and nieces tried to cultivate his attention. He found time to listen to everybody seeking his ear. And he found time to play with these people as well as work with them.

Varied experiences enrich living. Haultain believed it. A person should learn to relax as well as to work. Soon after going to Fort Macleod, he was invited to be a guest at the big Cochrane ranch about thirty miles distant in the direction of Waterton Lakes. There, while enjoying the fabled ranchland hospitality, he wrote to his mother giving a newcomer's impression of ranch life. For a full week he was carefree, reading two novels per day, eating well, shooting gamebirds, and enjoying his pipe. He was thrilled by the mountain scenery and he and the ranch manager drove the fifteen miles to the west end of the lease, almost to the base of the Rockies. The ranch diet left nothing to be desired, as he reported to his mother: "Porridge, beefsteak, bacon, potatoes, canned tomatoes and com, beans, pancakes and maple syrup for breakfast; dinner very much the same with the exception of porridge and pancakes, but with pudding or pastry; supper is the same as dinner. The cattlemen live well, not exactly luxuriously but well.... I was to have gone home today but the warm weather has melted the snow in the mountains and the rivers are not to be forded."

In Fort Macleod, the young man played soccer and cricket with the officers and constables at the fort, hunted prairie chickens in the company of Dr. De Verber, and sang in Christ's Church choir. At the community Christmas concert of his first season there, Colonel James Macleod, displaying all the dignity of a high court judge, filled the role of chairman, and Frederick Haultain sang a solo, "Three Jolly Sailor Boys." The reporter covering the event said the young lawyer was in "splendid form."

Obviously, he was entering into the life of the community, participating in its fun as well as its problems, and was increasingly popular. It was probably symbolic of something in his character that being naturally bashful did not prevent him from enjoying games and even seeking a bit of harmless mischief, like exchanging the babies in the unattended carriages. He was not above going early to church on Sunday morning and pasting Parson Trivett's notes together to produce a minor ministerial crisis about midway through the sermon.

But where principle was involved, Haultain was unbending. Old timers at Fort Macleod told about him going to visit a local church pastor who had refused to conduct funeral services for a girl who was alleged to have stooped to certain acts of sin during her lifetime. Like most others on the frontier, Haultain could not tolerate bigotry, and he appeared at the reverend gentleman's door demanding reconsideration of the funeral decision. According to one version of the confrontation, Haultain carried a short horsewhip and made his plea very convincing. Whether that was the case or not, he gained his purpose and came away with the churchman's promise that a funeral service would be conducted in the most accepted ecclesiastical manner.

It was that sense of justice that brought him to demand better opportunities for appeals on behalf of men and women judged guilty by the courts. He was shocked to discover that no matter how unjustly or how illegally a person was deprived of his liberties in the Northwest Territories, there was often no redress or right of appeal. Such a state of affairs in a British country, he said, was "both unprecedented and unjust."

At a mass meeting in Fort Macleod on December 30, 1884-just three months after his arrival-he made the historic motion, formally requesting the Government of Canada to provide for a superior court of law for the Territories, with power to hear appeals in all civil cases involving sums in excess of $20. Active participation in politics had not occurred to him but, unconsciously, he was making it impossible to escape such a role in his adopted Territories, something to which Old Kamoose Taylor alluded on the evening of the meeting just noted: "I tell ye, lad," said the older man, "you'll be needed here. 1'd bet a barrel of Benton booze that you'll be in government someday, probably the biggest damned man in it."