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Canadian lawyer and politician (1821-1893) who served as the third prime minister of Canada from 1891 to 1892. He was also the first native-born Canadian Prime Minister, and the first to serve as Prime Minister while sitting in the Senate rather than the House of Commons. LS signed “J. J. C. Abbott,” two pages, 8 x 10, October 23, 1879. Addressed from Montreal, a letter to his accountant, William Hay, in full: “I enclose you a statement of account, which I have received from you as having been rendered by Mr. Beauchamp. Of course I am entirely unaware of the nature of Mrs. Wilson’s charges; and I am also ignorant, whether or no the items charged by Mr. Beauchamp for teams &c are correct; but they appear to be to be probably so. I am aware that during election times, one has to pay somewhat more dearly for such things than under ordinary circumstances, and I do not propose to question, what appears to be merely a little liberality in the charge. I would therefore request you to be good enough to verify all the charges, as well as you conveniently can without too much trouble, so as to see, that none of them are charged under for a corrupt motive, or to influence a voter; and such of them as you find correct, please pay.
As to Mr. Wilson’s account, please satisfy yourself, that there has been no treating, or other illegal expense included in it. I understand it represents the board of Mr. Beauchamp and Mr. Filion, and some friends who went up from Montreal to speak for me at meetings. If this be so it is all right. But I wish all my friends to understand, on this as well as on any other occasion, that I am determined to conform to the Law, and that I will favor nothing that savors of corrupt practices, preferring to lose the election, rather than expend money in that manner. I think I must be indebted to you for all the trouble you have taken in representing my Agent, and will be glad if you will let me know what you think I should send you for your trouble.” In very good to fine condition, with short tears and paper loss, primarily to the edges and the upper left corner.
Abbott wrote this letter while out of Parliament following his defeat in the 1878 general election and only months before the February 1880 by-election that returned him to the House of Commons for Argenteuil. His unusually explicit concern over election expenses proved well founded: that victory was subsequently challenged and declared void because of corrupt practices committed by his agents, forcing another contest later that year, which Abbott won. Against this backdrop, his instructions here to scrutinize charges for “treating” or attempts “to influence a voter,” and his declaration that he would rather “lose the election” than spend money corruptly, offer a revealing glimpse of the practical concerns surrounding Canadian electioneering during an era of increasingly stringent regulation of campaign practices.
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