Dictionary of National Biography, 1927 supplement/Barton, Edmund
BARTON, Sir EDMUND (1849-1920), Australian statesman, the youngest son of William Barton, stock and share broker, of Sydney, by his wife, Mary Louisa Wydah, was born at Glebe, Sydney, 18 January 1849. He was educated at Sydney grammar school, and after a brilliant career at Sydney University was called to the bar in 1871. In 1879 he entered the New South Wales legislative assembly as member for Sydney University; he subsequently represented in the assembly Wellington (1880-1882), East Sydney (1882-1887, 1891-1894), and Hastings and Maclay (1898-1900). He served as speaker of the legislative assembly from 1883 to 1887. From 1887 to 1891, and again in 1897-1898, he was a member of the legislative council. Although opposed to him politically, Barton agreed with Sir Henry Parkes [q.v.] in his advocacy of Australian federation; and when the latter retired from the premiership and to a great extent from public life in 1891, it was to Barton’s hands that he entrusted the leadership of the movement. Barton had been a member of the federal convention which met at Sydney in March 1891, and when, in October of that year, he accepted the post, which he had already held in 1889, of attorney-general of New South Wales under (Sir) George Richard Dibbs [q.v.], it was only on the assurance that he should have a free hand in the conduct of the federal movement. Although, however, he was successful in securing the assent of the assembly (to which he had returned in June 1891) to resolutions approving of the main principles of the Constitution Bill drafted at the Sydney convention, there was little enthusiasm about the subject; and when Barton resigned office in December 1893 on personal grounds, little progress had been made towards carrying through the proposed measure.
It was now clear that if success was to be achieved, it must be by appealing directly to the people and not to their parliaments. In accordance with this policy, Barton in July 1893 had established the Sydney Federation League; and it was owing to the public opinion aroused by this and similar bodies throughout Australia that the conference of premiers met at Hobart in February 1895 and finally gave the desired impetus to the movement. When, in pursuance of the decision of the Hobart conference, an election was held for the proposed federal convention, Barton was returned at the head of the poll for New South Wales; and at the meeting of the convention at Adelaide on 18 March 1897 he was chosen to draw up the preliminary resolutions and to act as leader of the convention. As chairman both of the constitutional and drafting committees he was largely responsible for the new Constitution Bill as it emerged from the convention; whilst his invariable tact and good sense greatly facilitated its labours. But in his own colony he was less successful, and the numerous amendments made to the Bill by the legislative council (to which he had returned as a member in 1897) caused him to disclaim all responsibility for that body’s proceedings. None the less he worked strenuously at the subsequent meetings of the federal convention at Sydney (September 1897) and Melbourne (January 1898), and took a leading part in the campaign at the referendum in New South Wales on 3 June 1898. That a sufficient majority was not then obtained was no fault of his; and when federation finally triumphed in New South Wales under the leadership of Sir George Houstoun Reid [q.v.], it was to Barton that the credit of that triumph belonged.
In 1900 Barton went to London as leading member of the deputation which watched the passage of the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Bill through the imperial parliament; and after its enactment he became the first prime minister of the Australian Commonwealth (January 1901), Sir William John Lyne [q.v.], the New South Wales premier, having been unable to find colleagues when invited by Lord Hopetoun, the governor-general, to form a ministry. With the premiership Barton held the portfolio of foreign affairs. In 1903, when the Australian high court of justice came into being, Barton, who had been created G.C.M.G. in 1902, took a judgeship, assigning with characteristic self-abnegation the post of chief justice to Sir Samuel Walker Griffith.
Barton’s position as Commonwealth premier had been a most difficult one, since he was in command of a crew of captains who were accustomed to leadership in their respective states. Moreover, the government was a coalition, containing one member from Western Australia (Sir John, afterwards Baron, Forrest, q.v.) who was a strong conservative, and another from South Australia (Charles Cameron Kingston, q.v.) whose radicalism tended towards sympathy with working-class aspirations. Again, in New South Wales and Victoria the tariff question had been the main issue in party politics; but the policy of the new ministry, which found its embodiment in the Customs Tariff Act of 1902, was of necessity a compromise between the views of the free-traders of New South Wales and the extreme protectionists of Victoria.
Both as a statesman and as a judge Barton won the respect and affection of all who knew him. He tempered natural dignity with charm of manner; and in spite of the years spent in politics, his mastery of both constitutional and common law was universally recognized.
He married in 1877 Jean Mason, daughter of David Ross, of Newcastle, New South Wales, and had four sons and two daughters. He died at Medlow, in the Blue Mountains, New South Wales, 6 January 1920.
[The Times, 8 January 1920; Year Book of Australia, 1901; B. R. Wise, The Making of the Australian Commonwealth, 1918; John Quick and Robert R. Garran, Annotated Constitution of the Australian Commonwealth, 1901; H. G. Turner, The First Decade of the Australian Commonwealth, 1911; Chief Justice Knox in Commonwealth Law Reports, 1919-1920.]