George Brown

For more information on George Brown, visit Britannica.com.

(b. London, 2 Sept. 1914; d. 2 June 1985) British; Foreign Secretary 1966 – 8, deputy leader of Labour Party 1960 – 70; Baron (life peer, Lord George-Brown) 1970 The son of a van driver, Brown left school at 15. After becoming an official of the Transport and General Workers' Union, he made his mark politically as a fierce critic of Labour's left wing.

Brown entered parliament in 1945. He had gained junior ministerial office in Clement Attlee's government by 1947 — despite having been involved in a backbench plot to depose the Prime Minister — but he was still only Minister of Works, outside the Cabinet, when Labour lost the 1951 general election. In opposition his industry and loyalty to the official party line against the left-wing "Bevanites" brought him promotion as a shadow spokesman. He was elected deputy leader in 1960. However, he was comfortably defeated by Harold Wilson in the leadership election after the sudden death of Hugh Gaitskell, in 1963. He remained deputy leader.

When Wilson formed his first government in 1964, Brown was appointed First Secretary of State and Secretary of State for Economic Affairs (and, effectively, deputy Prime Minister). He made prodigious efforts to draw up a National Plan to regenerate the economy and to redress the enormous balance of payments deficit Labour had inherited. But he was overborne when the Cabinet accepted public expenditure cuts and a statutory incomes policy in 1966.

Public awareness of Brown's dissent necessitated his transfer. Moved to the Foreign Office, he devoted much of his energy to unsuccessful negotiations for British membership of the European Economic Community. His attempts to promote peace in Vietnam were also unsuccessful. In March 1968 he resigned over his exclusion from a decision designed to stabilize a precarious financial situation. He retained the deputy leadership of the party and his seat in the Commons, but talk of his return to office was unfounded. After his defeat in the 1970 general election (and therefore his automatic loss of the deputy leadership) he went to the House of Lords. He was not offered office when Wilson again formed a government in 1974 and resigned from the party in 1976 in protest at that government's legislation in favour of the trade union "closed shop". In 1982 he joined the breakaway Social Democratic Party.

Brown's political career fell short of the heights that his qualities often seemed to merit. His energy was matched by imagination, administrative ability, and campaigning and debating skills. But his Achilles' heel was a volatile temperament. The frequency with which he threatened resignation was notorious and increasingly embarrassed ministerial colleagues. The occasion for his eventual departure from office and his subsequent criticisms of Wilson's prime ministerial style made it appear almost farcical and prompted more by pique than by principle. By this time his public reputation had already been gravely undermined by reports of his often extravagant behaviour and over-indulgence in alcohol. He soon became an almost forgotten political figure.

George Brown served on the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) for five years: one year as air force chief of staff (1973–74), and four years as chairman. Although General Brown fought in three wars and served with distinction in high‐level positions in the Pentagon, he is best known for a series of myopic and offensive public remarks made during his tenure as chairman. Brown complained about Israel's undue influence on Congress, and ascribed that influence to the “fact” that the Jewish people in the United States control the banks and newspapers. He also said that the American commitment to Israel was a burden on the United States, and vigorously defended the right of the government to spy on American citizens in order to protect national security. Normally, such statements by a high government official would have resulted in dismissal by the president.

Brown was not relieved by either President Ford or Carter simply because he was too valuable as chairman of the JCS. Brown's value came from three sources. First, he was a superb military strategist with great expertise on the complex issues involved in the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) with the Soviet Union. Second, Brown held a balanced analytical view of the military situation between the United States and the USSR. Unlike some of his contemporaries, he was inclined neither to overstate the Soviet military threat nor to understate America's military capabilities. Third, Brown was held in high regard by his military colleagues for his honesty and expertise. He was also highly regarded for helping the U.S. military adjust to the post‐Vietnam draw down.

Bibliography

• Lawrence Korb, The Joint Chiefs of Staff: The First Twenty‐Five Years. 1976.
• Lawrence Korb, The Fall and Rise of the Pentagon, 1979

Brown, George Scratchley (1918-78) Air Force chief of staff (1973-74) and Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) chairman (1974-78), born in Montclair, New Jersey. In World War II, Brown was a squadron commander, group operations officer, and executive officer of the 93rd Bombardment Group; he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. In the Office of the Secretary of Defense (1959-63), he proved particularly adept at smoothing interservice rivalries and buffering relations between Secretary Robert S. McNamara and the JCS, and played a similar role as assistant to JCS chairman Gen. Earle Wheeler (1966-68). In the Vietnam War, he commanded the 7th Air Force in South Vietnam (1968-70) and was air deputy for Gen. Creighton Abrams, commander of American forces in Vietnam. As JCS chairman he effected the first major reorganization of the JCS since 1958.

See the Introduction, Abbreviations and Pronunciation for further details.

George Brown (1818-1880) was a Canadian politician and newspaper editor who stood for the principle of majority rule, favored expansion into the West, and gave powerful support to the movement for the federation of British North America.

George Brown was born in Alloa near Edinburgh, Scotland, on Nov. 20, 1818. Educated in Edinburgh, he emigrated to the United States with his father at the age of 20 and settled in New York. There the Browns began a newspaper, the British Chronicle. Not finding life in New York to their liking, they moved in 1843 to Toronto, Canada, where they established a Presbyterian newspaper, the Banner.

A year later the younger Brown founded the Globe, a political journal designed to appeal to the residents of Toronto and the Protestant rural area in the western part of the province. In this newspaper Brown began to expound the views that made him a power in politics: dissatisfaction with the system of equal representation in the legislature for the French-and English-speaking parts of the province and the favoring of its replacement by "representation by population" ("rep. by pop."), which would ensure an English-speaking majority. He also thundered against the dominant influence which he felt was exercised by French-Canadians in the Conservative ministries of John Macdonald, and he criticized the power of the Roman Catholic Church in political affairs.

In Canada West, Brown was particularly concerned about the attempt to establish separate Roman Catholic schools with state support. Brown also urged the annexation of the Hudson's Bay Company territories to Canada, regarding them as a new agricultural frontier for the province and hoping to see Toronto outbid Montreal to become the commercial center for the West. His attitudes coincided with those of the Reform, or "Grit," party in Canada West, and Brown slipped naturally into a position of leadership in the party. The Globe took over other Reform papers and soon became the official organ of the movement. It eventually became a daily, very widely read throughout Canada West. No editor or newspaper has since possessed the influence in central Canada which was wielded by Brown and the Globe.

Brown entered politics in 1851, being elected as a Reform candidate for the county of Kent, Canada West. In the legislature he soon made his mark as a critic and formidable debater, but his views about French-speaking Canadians made for an uneasy relationship with the reformers of Canada East, the Rouges. In 1858 there was a short-lived attempt to construct a Reform ministry headed by Brown and A.-A. Dorion, but the new administration could not win the confidence of the House. The next year Brown and the Reform party adopted the goal of a federal union for the two Canadas, leaving each part free to manage its local affairs.

In June 1864 the increasing political difficulties and frustrations of the early 1860s finally led to the creation of a coalition ministry to carry forward the plan of the union of all the British North American colonies. Brown's adherence was critical to the purpose of the new government, and there was much satisfaction when he swallowed his personal dislike of the Conservative leader, Macdonald, and joined the coalition. Throughout 1865 Brown worked for the cause of federation, resigning from the ministry at the end of the year, when he found he could no longer work with Macdonald and his Conservative colleagues. The break did not interrupt Brown's powerful support, on the platform and through the pages of the Globe, for the realization of a federal union in British America.

The first election after the formation of the Dominion of Canada, in July 1867, saw the Conservatives under Macdonald installed as the national government. Brown was defeated in this election, although he continued to play an active role in Ontario provincial politics. In 1873, with the accession to power of the Reformers, or Liberals as they were now beginning to be called, Brown was named to the Senate of Canada. Although relatively inactive in the upper house, he exerted a strong influence over the new Liberal prime minister, Alexander Mackenzie, who had been his protégé. In 1874 Brown was sent to Washington to negotiate a new reciprocity treaty with the United States, but the agreement was turned down by the U.S. Senate.

Brown's last years saw him much involved in the management of his newspaper, now a large enterprise. His life ended tragically when he was shot and fatally wounded by a disgruntled employee whom he had recently discharged. Brown died on May 9, 1880.

Further Reading

The official biography of Brown, published shortly after his death, is Alexander Mackenzie, The Life and Speeches of Hon. George Brown (1882). The modern biography is J. M. S. Careless, Brown of the Globe (2 vols., 1959-1963). Brown is discussed by a fellow journalist, Sir J. S. Willison, in Reminiscences, Political and Personal (1919). A good background study of the period is Edgar Wardwell McInnis, Canada: A Political and Social History (1947; rev. ed. 1959).

George Brown
Premier of Canada West
In office August 2, 1858 – August 6, 1858
Preceded by	John A. Macdonald
Succeeded by	John A. Macdonald
Born	November 29, 1818(1818-11-29) Alloa, Clackmannanshire, Scotland
Died	March 9, 1880 (aged 61) Toronto, Canada West
Political party	Clear Grit Party
Profession	before becoming a politician he managed a newspaper with his father
Signature

George Brown (November 29, 1818 – March 9, 1880) was a Scottish-born Canadian journalist, politician Fathers of Confederation. A noted Reform politician, he was also the founder and editor of the Toronto Globe, which is today (having merged with other newspapers) known as the The Globe and Mail.

Brown was born in Alloa, Clackmannanshire, Scotland, on November 29, 1818^[1] and immigrated to Canada in 1843, after managing a printing operation in New York with his father. He founded the Banner in 1843, and "The Globe" in 1844 which quickly became the leading Reform newspaper in the Province of Canada. In 1848, he was appointed to head a Royal Commission to examine accusations of official misconduct in Provincial Penitentiary of the Province of Upper Canada at Kingston. The Brown Report, which Brown drafted early in 1849, included sufficient evidence of abuse to set in motion the termination of warden Henry Smith.^[1] Brown's revelations of poor conditions at the Kingston penitentiary were heavily criticized by John A. Macdonald and contributed to the tense relationship between the two Canadian statesmen.

Brown used the Globe newspaper to publish articles and editorials that attacked the institution of slavery in the southern United States. In response to the Fugitive Slave Law passed in the U.S. in 1850, Brown helped found the Anti-Slavery Society of Canada. This society was founded to end the practice of slavery in North America, and individual members aided former American slaves reach Canada via the Underground Railroad. As a result, black Canadians enthusiastically supported Brown's political ambitions.

Brown was elected to the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada in 1851. He reorganized the Clear Grit (Liberal) Party in 1857, supporting, among other things, the separation of church and state, the annexation of the Northwest Territories, and a small government. But the most important issue for George Brown was what he termed Representation by Population, or commonly known as "Rep by Pop".

Statue of George Brown on Parliament Hill, Canada.

From the Act of Union (1840), the Canadian colonial legislature had been composed of an equal number of members from Canada East (Lower Canada, Quebec) and Canada West (Upper Canada, Ontario). In 1841, Francophone dominated Lower Canada had a larger population and it was hoped by the British colonial administration that the French in Lower Canada would be legislatively pacified by a coalition of English from Lower Canada with the Upper Canadian side. But during the 1840s and 1850s, as the population of Upper Canada grew larger than the French population of Lower Canada, the opposite became true. Brown believed that the larger population deserved to have more representatives, rather than an equal number from Upper and Lower Canada. Brown's pursuit of this goal of righting what he perceived to be a great wrong to Canada West^[2] was accompanied at times by stridently critical remarks against French Canadians^[3] and the power exerted by the Catholic population of Canada East over the affairs of largely Protestant Canada West, referring to the position of Canada West as "a base vassalage to French-Canadian Priestcraft."^[4]

For a period of four days in August 1858, political rival John A. Macdonald lost the support of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada on a non-confidence vote and his cabinet had to resign. After Alexander Galt declined the opportunity, George Brown attempted to form a ministry with Antoine-Aimé Dorion. At the time, newly appointed ministers had to resign their seats and run in a by-election. When members of Brown's ministry resigned their seats to get re-elected, John A. Macdonald re-emerged and through a loophole was re-appointed with his ministry to their old posts. Brown was the de facto premier of Canada West in 1858. The short-lived administration was called the Brown-Dorion government, named after the co-premiers George Brown and Antoine-Aimé Dorion. This episode was termed the 'double shuffle'.

Contents 1 Brown and Confederation 2 Brown's post-parliamentary career 3 Legacy 4 Notes 5 References 6 External links

Brown and Confederation

Monument to George Brown at Queen's Park, Toronto, Canada, circa 1910

Attempted Assassination of George Brown, Toronto

George Brown was a key figure in Canada's path to Confederation during the 1860s. In 1864, he led the Great Coalition with John A. Macdonald and George-Étienne Cartier. Later that year, George Brown played a major role at the Charlottetown and Quebec Conferences. He resigned from the Coalition in 1865 over the government's position towards reciprocity with the United States. Brown thought Canada should pursue a policy of free trade, while the conservative government of John A. Macdonald and Alexander Galt thought Canada should raise tariffs.

During the Quebec Conference, Brown argued strongly in favour of an appointed Senate. Like many reformers of the time, he saw Upper Houses as inherently conservative in function, serving to protect the interests of the rich, and wished to deny the Senate the legitimacy and power that naturally follows with an electoral mandate.^[5]

The success of the Quebec Conference pleased Brown particularly by the prospect for the end of Lower Canadian interference in the affairs of Canada West. "Is it not wonderful?" he wrote to his wife Anne after the Quebec Conference, "French-Canadianism is entirely extinguished."^[6] By this he may have meant either that he was of the view that English-speaking Canada West had emerged triumphant over French Canadians^[7] or that Confederation would put an end to French Canadian domination of the affairs of what would become the province of Ontario.^[8]

Brown realized, nevertheless, that satisfaction for Canada West would not be achieved without the support of the French-speaking majority of Canada East. In his speech in support of Confederation in the Parliament of Canada on February 8, 1865, in which he spoke glowingly of the prospects for Canada's future,^[9] Brown insisted that "[w]hether we ask for parliamentary reform for Canada alone or in union with the Maritime Provinces, the views of French Canadians must be consulted as well as ours. This scheme can be carried, and no scheme can be that has not the support of both sections of the province".^[10] Following the speech, Brown was praised by the Quebec newspaper Le Canadien^[11] as well as by the Rouge paper, L'Union Nationale.^[11] Although he supported the idea of a legislative union at the Quebec Conference,^[12] Brown was eventually persuaded to favour the federal view of Confederation, closer to that supported by Cartier and the Bleus of Canada East, as this was the structure that would ensure that the provinces retained sufficient control over local matters to satisfy the need of the French-speaking population in Canada East for jurisdiction over matters essential to its survival.^[11] However Brown, like Macdonald, remained a proponent of a stronger central government, with weaker constituent provincial governments.^[11]

In 1867, Brown ran for seats in both the Canadian House of Commons and, as leader of the provincial Liberals for a seat in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario hopefully as Premier but failed to win election to either chamber. He was widely seen as the leader of the federal Liberals in the 1867 federal election. The Liberals were officially leaderless until 1873, but Brown was considered the party's "elder statesman" even without a seat in the House of Commons, and was regularly consulted by leading Liberal parliamentarians.

Brown was made a Canadian Senator in 1873.

Brown's post-parliamentary career

During the government of Alexander Mackenzie, Brown was sent to Washington to work with the British delegation working on a trade deal with the United States.

On March 25, 1880, a former Globe employee, George Bennett, dismissed by a foreman, shot Brown in the leg at the Globe office in Toronto. What seemed to be a minor injury turned gangrenous, and 7 weeks later on May 9, 1880 Brown died from the wound. Brown was buried at Toronto Necropolis.

Legacy

His residence, formerly called Lambton Lodge and now called George Brown House, at 186 Beverley Street in Toronto, was named a National Historic site in 1974. It is now operated by the Ontario Heritage Trust as a conference centre and offices.

Brown also maintained an estate, Bow Park, near Brantford, Ontario. Bought in 1866, it was a cattle farm during Brown's time and is currently a seed farm.^[13]

Toronto's George Brown College (founded 1967) is named after him. A statue of George Brown can be found on the front west lawn of Queen's Park and another on Parliament Hill in Ottawa (sculpted by George William Hill in 1913). A large portrait of Brown also hangs in the upper lobby of the Ontario legislature.

Brown was married to Anne Nelson (d. 1909) and had two sons and three daughters. One of his sons, George Mackenzie Brown (1869-1946), became a Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom.

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b} JMS Careless (2000). "George Brown" in Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online. Retrieved on 2007-09-24.
2. ^ P. B. Waite, The Life and Times of Confederation 1864-1867 Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2nd ed, 2001, pp. 98-99
3. ^ "What has French-Canadianism been denied? Nothing. It bars all it dislikes--it extorts all its demands--and it grows insolent over its victories." letter from George Brown, cited in Richard Gwyn, John A: The Man Who Made Us, Toronto: Random House Canada Ltd., p. 143:
4. ^ Ibid.
5. ^ Christopher Moore, 1867: How the Fathers Made a Deal (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart), 1997; pp. 107-109
6. ^ Brown Papers, George Brown to Anne Brown, Oct. 15, 1864. Also in J.M.S. Careless George Brown and the Mother of Confederation, Canadian Historical Association, Report, 1960, 71, cited in Gwyn, p. 319.
7. ^ Waite, p. 113
8. ^ Gwyn, p. 319.
9. ^ Waite, p. 139
10. ^ George Brown on Confederation, The Quebec History Encyclopedia, Marianopolis College, retrieved May 27, 2009 [1]
11. ^ ^{a b c d} Waite, p. 140
12. ^ Gwyn, p. 330
13. ^ Bow Farms

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: George Brown

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Brown, George.

• Careless, James Maurice Stockford. "Brown, George", in The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Foundation, 2008
• Careless, James Maurice Stockford. "Brown, George", in Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online, University of Toronto and Université Laval, 2000
• Careless, James Maurice Stockford (1979). George Brown, Don Mills, Ont. : Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 63 p. (ISBN 088902667X)
• Careless, James Maurice Stockford "George Brown and Confederation", in Manitoba Historical Society Transactions, Series 3, number 26, 1969-1970.
• Careless, James Maurice Stockford (1959). Brown of The Globe, Toronto: Macmillan, 2 volumes
• Lewis, John (1906). George Brown, Toronto: Morang, 281 p.
• Alexander Mackenzie (1882). The Life and Speeches of Hon. George Brown, Toronto: Globe Printing Company, 381 p. (online)
• Macpherson, Hon. David Lewis (1879). Letter on the Increasing Public Expenditure of Ontario, and a Reply to the Attacks of the Hon. Geo. Brown Thereon ..., Toronto: William, Sleeth and Macmillan
• Ryerson, Egerton (1866). The School Book Question: Letters in Reply to the Brown-Campbell Crusade Against the Educational Department for Upper Canada..., Montreal: Printed by John Lovell, 67 p.
• Ryerson, Egerton (1859). Dr. Ryerson's Letters in Reply to the Attacks of the Hon. George Brown, M.P.P., "Editor-in-Chief" and Proprietor of The Globe, Toronto: Lovell and Gibson
• Macdonald, John Alexander (1859?). Speech Delivered by Mr Macdonald Before the Committee Appointed to Examine the Charges Preferred by Him Against Mr Brown, Toronto?: Lovell & Gibson, 25 p.
• Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada (1856). Proceedings and Minutes of Evidence, Had Before the Select Committee, Appointed to Inquire into Certain Charges Against George Brown, Toronto : Lovell

External links

• Claude Bélanger. "George Brown", in L’Encyclopédie de l’histoire du Québec / The Quebec History Encyclopedia. Marianopolis College, March 2006
• Synopsis of federal political experience from the Library of Parliament
• A website for an upcoming documentary film on George Brown
• George Brown at Project Gutenberg (Biography by John Lewis)

Political offices
Preceded by Sir John Alexander Macdonald	Joint Premiers of the Province of Canada - Canada West 1858	Succeeded by Sir John Alexander Macdonald
Party political offices
Preceded by none	Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada West/Ontario Liberal Party 1857-1873	Succeeded by Archibald McKellar
Preceded by Robert Baldwin as Reformer Leader	Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada unofficial 1857–1873	Succeeded by Alexander Mackenzie

v • d • e Liberal Parties in Canada Major national, provincial, and territorial parties Forming the government New Brunswick · Prince Edward Island · Ontario · Québec · British Columbia Forming the official opposition Canada · Newfoundland and Labrador · Alberta · Yukon  · Nova Scotia As a third party represented in legislature Manitoba As a party not represented in legislature Saskatchewan Leaders Leaders Brown · Mackenzie · Blake · Laurier · King · St. Laurent · Pearson · Trudeau · Turner · Chrétien · Martin · Dion · Ignatieff Deputy Leaders (until 2008) Copps · Gray · Manley · McLellan · Robillard · Ignatieff Leadership elections 1919 · 1948 · 1958 · 1968 · 1984 · 1990 · 2003 · 2006 · 2009 Parliamentary election candidates 1867 · 1878 · 1887 · 1891 · 1896 · 1900 · 1904 · 1908 · 1911 · 1917 · 1921 · 1925 · 1926 · 1930 · 1935 · 1940 · 1945 · 1949 · 1957 · 1958 · 1962 · 1963 · 1965 · 1968 · 1972 · 1974 · 1979 · 1980 · 1984 · 1988 · 1993 · 1997 · 2000 · 2004 · 2006 · 2008 See also History

v • d • e Leaders of the Ontario Liberal Party Brown · McKellar · Blake · Mowat · Hardy · Ross · Graham · MacKay · Rowell · Proudfoot · Dewart · Hay · Sinclair · Hepburn · Conant · H. Nixon · Hepburn · Oliver · Thomson · Oliver · Wintermeyer · Thompson · R. Nixon · Smith · Peterson · R. Nixon · Elston · Bradley · McLeod · McGuinty

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)