Alexander Morris

Alexander Morris (March 17, 1826 – October 28, 1889) was a Canadian lawyer, judge, politician, and public servant who played a prominent role in the early post-Confederation governance of the Prairie provinces and in the negotiation and documentation of the Numbered Treaties between the Crown and Indigenous peoples. He served as a federal cabinet minister, as the second Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba and of the North-West Territories (1872–1877), and as author of The Treaties of Canada with the Indians of Manitoba and the North-West Territories (1880), a contemporaneous compilation and account of treaty negotiations that has been widely cited in subsequent legal and historical work.

Early Life and Education

Born at Perth, Upper Canada, on 17 March 1826, Morris was the eldest son of William Morris. He received part of his education in Scotland (Madras College and the University of Glasgow) and completed formal study at McGill University, where he was among the institution’s earliest graduates. He read law in Kingston (articling under John A. Macdonald) and was called to the bar in 1851, establishing a successful legal practice before entering public life.

Political and Judicial Career

Morris entered politics as a member of the Liberal-Conservative party and was elected to the Province of Canada’s legislature in 1861. After Confederation he served in federal office, including as Minister of Inland Revenue in John A. Macdonald’s government (1869–1872). In 1872 he was appointed Chief Justice of the Court of Queen’s Bench of Manitoba (briefly) and shortly thereafter became the acting, then official, Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba and of the North-West Territories, serving from 2 December 1872 until his resignation in 1877. During his tenure he also held the newly created lieutenant governorship of the District of Keewatin. As lieutenant governor Morris exercised substantial influence over provincial administration, helped to institute responsible government in Manitoba, and took part in policy decisions affecting settlement, education, and Indigenous affairs.

Role in Treaty Negotiations

Morris was centrally involved as Crown negotiator for several of the Numbered Treaties concluded in the 1870s on the Canadian Prairies and adjacent territories. While serving in the federal government and as lieutenant governor he participated in negotiating, revising, or concluding Treaties 1 through 6 (and related adhesions), which established the framework for the surrender of large tracts of Indigenous land in exchange for reserves, annuities, and other promises. His approach to negotiation and implementation—generally described in contemporary and later sources as more conciliatory and administratively engaged than some predecessors—nonetheless reflected the colonial priorities and pressures of his era: encouraging Euro-Canadian settlement, opening land for the railway and agriculture, and attempting (often imperfectly) to secure agreed provisions for education, hunting and fishing rights, and reserve lands. Morris’s actions and the treaties he helped bring about have been central to subsequent legal disputes, historiography, and Indigenous accounts of treaty promises and breaches.

The 1880 Treatise

In 1880 Morris published The Treaties of Canada with the Indians of Manitoba and the North-West Territories: including the negotiations on which they were based, and other information relating thereto. The volume collected treaty texts, official reports, and Morris’s account of the negotiations and governmental policy. It was intended as an authoritative government-oriented record of the treaty era and has been widely used by scholars, lawyers, and government officials as a primary documentary source for the Crown’s interpretation of the treaties and the negotiation process. Because the work records official positions and documentary material of its time, later researchers have both relied upon and critiqued it—valuing its documentary content while noting the partial perspective inherent in a volume authored by a Crown official.

Assessment and Legacy

Contemporary observers and later historians have judged Morris a highly capable administrator and politician who exercised considerable influence during a formative period for Manitoba and the North-West. He is credited with helping to establish provincial institutions (including contributing to the creation of the University of Manitoba in 1877) and with professionalizing aspects of territorial administration. At the same time, as with other officials who negotiated the Numbered Treaties, Morris’s record is read today within the complex context of colonial expansion: his treaties facilitated settlement and resource development while producing long-term consequences for Indigenous communities—issues that remain central to Canadian legal and political discourse. Morris’s 1880 publication remains an important documentary source for those studying the treaties, though modern scholarship complements and challenges his account by centring Indigenous voices and legal interpretations that were marginalized in official records.

Personal Life and Death

Morris married Margaret Cline in 1851; the couple had a large family. After resigning the lieutenant governorship he returned to Ontario and remained active in public affairs until his death in Toronto on 28 October 1889.

Selected Works

The Treaties of Canada with the Indians of Manitoba and the North-West Territories: including the negotiations on which they were based, and other information relating thereto. Toronto: Belford, Clarke, 1880. (Reprints and digital facsimiles are available through Canadiana, Project Gutenberg, and other archival repositories.)