Editing Charles Tupper (section)

====Charlottetown Conference, September 1864====
[[Image:CharlottetownConference1864.jpg|right|thumb|200px|Tupper and other delegates of the [[Charlottetown Conference]] on the steps of [[Government House (Prince Edward Island)|Government House]], September 1864]]
With the outbreak of the [[American Civil War]] in 1861, Tupper worried that a victorious [[Union (American Civil War)|North]] would turn northward and conquer the British North American provinces.<ref name="ODNB"/> This caused him to redouble his commitment to union, which he now saw as essential to protecting the British colonies against American aggression.<ref name="ODNB"/> Since he thought that full union among the British North American colonies would be unachievable for many years, on March 28, 1864, Tupper instead proposed a [[Maritime Union]] which would unite the Maritime provinces in advance of a projected future union with the Province of Canada.<ref name="ODNB"/> A conference to discuss the proposed union of Nova Scotia, [[New Brunswick]] and [[Prince Edward Island]] was scheduled to be held in [[Charlottetown]] in September 1864.<ref name="ODNB"/>

Tupper was pleasantly surprised when the [[Premier of the Province of Canada]], [[John A. Macdonald]], asked to be allowed to attend the [[Charlottetown Conference]].<ref name="ODNB"/> The Conference, which was co-chaired by Tupper and [[New Brunswick Premier]] [[Samuel Leonard Tilley]], welcomed the Canadian delegation and asked them to join the conference.<ref name="ODNB"/> The conference proved to be a smashing success, and resulted in an agreement-in-principle to form a union of the four colonies.<ref name="ODNB"/>