An assessment of John Douglas in Bernays, Charles, Queensland Politics During Sixty Years, 1920, pp. 40-41
The Honourable John Douglas, C.M.G.
A twig off the Queensberry tree who escaped being a marquis
by several steps in a large family. A younger son has a good many grievances
against his progenitors. He must always be thinking of what might have been if
only he had been born the heir. Douglas's far-distant ancestor, "Old
Q," whom Wordsworth held up to ridicule and contempt as "degenerate
Douglas," is alleged to have died worth a million. The only million John
Douglas ever saw was in a bad dream after a late sitting of the House. There is
no evidence that Douglas inherited a "dirty right" from that famous
ancestor who was author of the Queensberry rules. Indeed he was a mild-mannered
man who was not given to quarrelling, and he did not appear to have imported
into Queensland any of the family characteristics—even that of money-making. In
his early days he engaged in squatting, but he was possessed of neither the
capital nor stamina to make a success of an occupation which in his time was
more strenuous than it is in modern times. He came into the Second Parliament
on 21st July 1863, and it was not long before he took a prominent place in
local politics, for he was a man of very considerable learning, and had the
faculty of expressing himself well in a full, sonorous voice. He was in the
first two Macalister Ministries in 1866, and served under Lilley in 1868. Again
he came in under George Thorn in 1876, and had a Ministry all his own in 1877.
As a matter of fact his and Thorn's Ministries were only stopgaps until the
discovery of Griffith, who soon overshadowed them but was kept back somewhat by
the little jealousies of the day. There were numbers of men in our early
political times who had not a tenth of the influence of Douglas, for he was a clever
political wire-puller, and did not often omit to remember himself in possible
reshuffles. Amongst other characteristics he was credited with extreme
obstinacy, and there was an occasion (mentioned elsewhere) on which he defied
the Legislature when taxed with a breach of a well-known Parliamentary rule. He
represented Queensland at the other end of the world as Agent-General, and
after filling that position creditably for a considerable period he came back
to the State and was appointed firstly as Administrator of New Guinea, and then
as Government Resident at Thursday Island. In both positions he was a capable
and industrious Administrator, and the little far-northern island community
learned to appreciate to the full his tactful and far-sighted methods.
Government after Government succeeded one another, and all had confidence in
this venerable, white-haired public servant who had done more than the average
share in political foundation laying. The records politicians leave behind them
are as varied in character as the politicians themselves. John Douglas had
nothing to be ashamed of in his political career, and left behind him a good
and clean name and some sons who do him credit.
