Of the thirty-two statesmen who assembled at Quebec in 1864 and framed the Quebec resolutions which formed the basis of Confederation, but one survives to-day, and the Cartier Centenary movement has the privilege of having that great statesman whose name will forever be linked with the names of Macdonald and Cartier, as its patron. Still hale and hearty in his 92nd year, Sir Charles Tupper enjoys the veneration and esteem of all Canadians. It has been justly said by Sir John A. Macdonald's biographer, that in the "reconciliation of Nova Scotia to Confederation; in carrying out a great expensive and hazardous railway policy; in the establishment of a national fiscal system; in making Canadian expansion compatible with complete allegiance to the Empire, the aid which Macdonald received from Sir Charles Tupper, can scarcely be exaggerated. In him great natural ability and power as a platform speaker were united with a splendid optimism about his country, a courage that feared nothing, and a resoluteness of purpose which despised any obstacles with which he could be confronted."[3] It is not minimizing the services of any of the other illustrious Fathers of Confederation, to say that Cartier played a leading, in fact a determining part, in the achievement of that measure. His great colleagues have generously testified to the pre-eminent services which he rendered at that time. "Cartier was as bold as a lion. He was just the man I wanted: but for him Confederation should not have been carried," was the emphatic declaration made by Sir John A. Macdonald on the day when he unveiled the statue of his great colleague at Ottawa. Sir Charles Tupper's tribute is equally eloquent and emphatic. "I have no hesitation," he says, "in saying that without Cartier there would have been no Confederation, and therefore Canada owes him a debt that can never be repaid." Dr Parkin in his life of Sir John A. Macdonald, in the "Makers of Canada" series, also pays a just tribute to Cartier for his work in connection with Confederation when he says: "Without Cartier's loyal help, it would scarcely have been possible, when the effort for union came, to allay the anxiety of the French-Canadians lest they should be swallowed up, and their individuality be lost in the large proposed confederacy."