author
Alexander Morris
1826–1889
A key figure in early Canadian public life, he wrote about nation-building, westward expansion, and the treaty process at a pivotal moment in the country's history. His best-known work remains a major primary source for readers interested in the numbered treaties and 19th-century Canada.
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About the author
Born in Perth, Upper Canada, in 1826, Alexander Morris was a lawyer, politician, and public servant who became an important voice in the decades around Canadian Confederation. He studied in Scotland and Canada, practiced law, and later served in federal politics, including in the cabinet of Prime Minister John A. Macdonald.
Morris is especially remembered in western Canadian history. He served as lieutenant governor of Manitoba and the North-West Territories from 1872 to 1877, and he was closely involved in treaty negotiations between the Canadian government and First Nations. For modern readers, that role makes him a significant but also complicated historical figure, since his writings reflect the goals and assumptions of the colonial state.
As an author, he wrote speeches, essays, and political works promoting Canada's expansion. His most widely known book, The Treaties of Canada with the Indians of Manitoba and the North-West Territories (1880), is still read as a firsthand account of the treaty process and the ideas that shaped it. He died in Toronto in 1889.