Page 144 - Transcriptions d'actes notariés - Tome 20 - 1682-1686

Joseph IsraeI Tarte became an Ultrainontane in ~he spring of
1875. Prior to this date he had been a close fcillower oi Sir Georges-
Etienne Cartier and had accepted hjs political pliilosophy rvhich
irnplied a respect for the Chuieh, but not a servile obedieiice to it.
Froin this ,philosophy he had been convertet], as he ivrote to ~lrchhishcip
Tafiehereau, "par des études dans lesquelles j'ai été guidé par des prêtres
dévouFs qui s'intéressaieut à moi." Deeply religicius. he succuiuherl to this
influence and decided tha t conservatism nas in reality ultramontani3m
arid the Liberal party, liberalisin. (j) His ultrainontanism included the
dedicaiion, ihe zeal and the limitatious w~hich characierized al1 Ultra-
montane politieiaris. It is iri Tarte's pariiciliaticin in the strupgle over
clerical inliniidation of voters and in his editorials and pamphlets, that
his services to the "good" cause may best be studied.
Three elections were contested because of elerical interrention :
Charlevoix and Boriaventure ii~ 1U7G aud Berthier in 1.880. The mort
important of these was Charlevoix and it is here fcir the first time that
Tarte displayed the ability which )vas to make him a formidable journal-
ist. just as the eleetoral campaign prior to ilie coritest had made him an
acconiplifihed politieal organizer.
In January 1876, Hector Larigevin, who had eueceeded Cartier as
the head of the French Canadian Curiservative party, was elected in the
constikueney of Charlevciix. Tarte, who was in eharge of ihe campaign,
questioned the Liberals' politieal philosophy arid associaietl it with the
Catholic-Libei alism condemned in the episcopal letier 01 Septcmher, 1575.
In this Ietter Catholie-Liberalism nas defined as the p!iilri~ripIiy whieh
proposed that: "El ne faut tenir aucun eompte des principes religieux
dans la discussion des affaires publiques.. . . Le clergé n'a de foncticins
à remplir qu'à 1'Eglisc et à la Saerisiie.. . . Le peuple doit en politique
praiicluer l'indéperidance moralc." The liishops also alfirined tlieir
prerogative io iriterverie iri polities by their solenin deelaration: "Il y a
des r~nestions politiques où le clergé peut et niizme doit interreriir au
riom de la religion" and they reserved to thcmsclves ihe right to candemn
a politician and even a political party. Insistiag that Catlicilics Iiad no
right to forbid the Chrirch "le droit de se défendre. ciu plutôt de rléfendre
les intércts spirituels des âmes qui lui sont confiées", they declarcd that
since the Church was coniposed of the clerpy. to deny ihe laller ihis
right was to rcfuse it to the Church.1" 11 {vas thus apparent io their
Excellenciea that Catliolic-Liberalism wTas beirig earried oii in Canada.
No sociner had the letter ber1 issued than it wTas applied ayairist the
Liberals ivho ar gued relentlessly that their party was polit ical liberalism
and ncit tlie eoridenined Catholie-Liberalism, but wiih no success.
Parieh priests of Charlevoix helped the Conservatives immensely as
they transformed the pulpit irito a poiitical iriliunal and called the
benedictioas oi heaven or1 thosc who voied lar the "gocid" candidate,

("1 JLid., hisrch 20, 1875.
(6) "Lerire Pa.iiora1e dm Evtques de la Province Eccl6~iasiiqut. de Qukhec",
Srprembes 22, 1875 in Mundements. Lertres Po~lordes, Cijculoires el outel
du~.urnenrs publiia dons le l)îoocé~e de Moiitréul, YII, 209 fl.