MacDonald, James Alexander

DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: Brian J. Fraser, “MACDONALD, JAMES ALEXANDER,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 15, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/macdonald_james_alexander_15E.html
DCB profile notes:
- Editor, Presbyterian minister, school principal, orator, social reformer, and author; b. 22 Jan. 1862 in East Williams Township, Upper Canada, son of John Alexander Macdonald, a farmer, and Jane Grant; m. 11 June 1890 Grace Lumsden Christian in Oil City, Ont., and they had two sons and a daughter; d. 14 May 1923 in Toronto.
- James A. Macdonald traced his ancestry to Glen Urquhart in the Highlands of Scotland. His great-great-grandfather had survived the battle of Culloden in 1746, immigrated to North Carolina, and fought with his sons on the side of the British in the American revolution. The family subsequently moved to Pictou County, N.S., and then to East Williams.
- Macdonald began his career in journalism at Knox. In 1885 he joined the editorial staff of the Knox College Monthly, established in 1883 to disseminate college news and debate the faith. Under Macdonald’s leadership until 1892, the Monthly greatly expanded its size, subscription list, and reputation. He discussed the most pressing questions of biblical and theological thought and modern research methods, and began to pay attention to missions in the Canadian west and overseas. He explored the application of Christian principles to the social problems that were emerging with immigration and urbanization. As well, he reviewed theological and devotional literature and commended those writers who defended traditional doctrines in new ways. After graduating in 1887 and winning the Fischer Scholarship in systematic theology, he continued to edit the Monthly and served as the college’s librarian.
- Macdonald’s move to Canada’s largest daily newspaper, and the Liberal party’s chief journal in Ontario, surprised many. The Globe’s board, felt that Macdonald would uphold the paper’s Liberal and evangelical traditions. In a final editorial in the Presbyterian, on 10 Jan. 1903, Macdonald insisted that the Globe was not simply “a party organ, but also a great paper, true in motive and purpose to the ethical principles and moral truths underlying all sound politics and high service.” The Globe’s directors were undoubtedly aware of Macdonald’s own involvement in public affairs, most recently in support of Prohibition in the provincial referendum of December 1902.
- His tenure as editor (1903–15) was a period of intense activity and public engagement. He seemed to be constantly writing, speaking, and taking on new responsibilities. In journalism, he served as a director of the Canadian Associated Press and in 1909 he attended the Imperial Press Conference in Britain, where he was most struck by the unemployed and the destitute – the “human sediment” – of the large cities. Appointed in 1906 to the University of Toronto’s newly reorganized board of governors, he helped bring in Falconer as president in 1907; he received honorary doctorates from the universities of Glasgow (1909) and Edinburgh (1911), as well as Oberlin College in Ohio (1915).
- Materialism and militarism, in Macdonald’s analysis, were the primary forces impeding the triumph of righteousness in public affairs. His sense of vocation in promoting this goal was shaped by a prophetic moral imagination and a Celtic spirituality. These influences led to his advocacy of a progressive Christianity as the solution to the world’s problems, but the war destroyed the underpinnings and credibility of his ideas. Macdonald’s breakdowns in 1917, which led to his death in 1923, resulted in part from the toll of his travels but also from his despair at the return of barbarism and the failure of his beloved vision of Christianizing civilization through liberty, democracy, and internationalism.
Second Great Grandson of United Empire Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=11737
Find a GRAVE: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/73989582/james-alexander-macdonald