![]() Sir Edmund Barton Portrait by J.H. Chinner pen and wash; 24 x 11 cm PIC R4046 National Library of Australia |
THE NATIONAL
LIBRARY OF AUSTRALIA'S FEDERATION GATEWAY BARTON, SIR EDMUND (1849-1920) The first Prime Minister of Australia, Edmund Barton, was born in Sydney on 18 January 1849 and qualified as a lawyer from the University of Sydney after lecturing in Classics. A passionate politician, Barton was first elected to the Legislative Assembly of New South Wales in 1879, becoming Speaker of the House between 1883 and 1887. After losing the 1887 election, he became a member of the Legislative Council in the same year. Barton endorsed Henry Parkes' call for Federation made at Tenterfield in 1889, in his speech at Lithgow, on 2 November, 1889. Working successfully on the formation of Federation Leagues in border communities, Barton became leader of the Australasian Federation League. Barton reentered the Legislative Assembly in 1891, only to lose again in 1894. This gave him the opportunity to devote himself more fully to political issues, speaking at the Bathurst Peoples Convention in 1894. He ran for election to the 1897 Federation Convention, elected as the first New South Wales representative Despite disagreement with George Reid over his proposal that the Constitution Bill be accepted without change, Barton later became reconciled through his change of heart to accept the need for modifications. At the Constitutional Convention held in Adelaide on 23 April 1897, after steering the draft constitution through detailed discussions Barton said:
Barton was joined by Deakin and
Kingston as the three member delegation sent to Westminster to negotiate the
Constitution Bill. Barton's legal knowledge was valuable in the appeals to the
Privy Council during the bill's passage. The Barton Papers (MS 51) are the first comprehensive archive of personal papers digitised by the National Library. |
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