Co

COLLECTIONS

OP THE

MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY,

VOL. VIII.

PORTLAND :
HOYT, FOGG & DONHAM.

1881.

PRINTED BY STEPHEN BERRY, PORTLAND.

T

AT a meeting of the Maine Historical Society, held at Bruns-
wick, on the twenty-third day of November, 1880, a tender of
large and convenient rooms in the city building at Portland, by
the government of that city, to this Society, for its general uses,
free of rent, was considered by the Society, and, after a full dis-
cussion, was accepted. A committee, consisting of James P.
Baxter and Lewis Pierce, Esquires, and Gen. John M. Brown,
was appointed to superintend the removal of the library and
cabinet, and the setting up of the same in the new rooms. This
work was so well and promptly done, that the rooms were put
in readiness for occupancy by the Society, with its books and
other treasures, on the second day of February, 1881. On that
day, a meeting of the Society was held in the quarters thus
made ready for it, and which in the evening were thrown open
to members of the Society and invited guests.

This meeting was very largely attended, and was addressed
by the President, Hon. James W. Bradbury, in an able and in-
teresting speech, and by other gentlemen. The proceedings of
these meetings, and the addresses at the latter, have been re-
ported in full, and will be published in the first volume of the
" Proceedings " of the Society, for which series of publications
provision was made.

At the business meeting of the Society, it was voted that its
publications, in future, should consist of its documentary col-
lections, and of its proceedings. The series first named will
embrace papers properly belonging to the documentary history
of the State, towards the publication of which it makes contri-
bution ; and the latter series will contain historical papers read

iv PREFACE.

at the meetings of the Society, or contributed to it, as well as its
proceedings and transactions. Of the documentary collections,
two volumes have already been issued, viz : On the Discovery of
North America, by Dr. J. G. Kohl, published in 1869 ; A Dis-
course on Western Planting, by Eichard Hacklyt, written in
1584, published in 1877 ; a third volume, The Trelawny Papers,
is now in press, and it is expected will be published early in
the next year.

The first volume of the proceedings of the Society, with pos-
sibly an appendix containing such of the former collections as
shall not have been already published and shall be deemed
worthy of being thus preserved, will be ready for the press, it
is believed, in 1882.

Since the removal to Portland, an increased interest in the
Society and its work has become apparent. The library and
cabinet have received many valuable contributions of books,
pamphlets, manuscripts and relics. The rooms are kept open a
part of each secular day, and have already become a desirable
place of resort for persons engaged in historical studies as well
as for members of the Society.

Now that the books, pamphlets and manuscripts are conven-
iently arranged and shelved (and are being catalogued), so as to be
easily found, and the contents of the cabinet are being placed
in such order as to be readily seen and examined, it is hoped
that the people of the State, and especially her native sons and
daughters, will recognize the fact that the safest and most con-
veniently accessible depository for themselves and the public
of their historical treasures, has been placed within their reach
by the MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

PORTLAND, November 1, 1881.

CONTENTS OF VOLUME VIII.

CONTENTS.

ARTICLE. PAGE.

I. The North-Eastern Boundary. By Hon. Israel Washburn, Jr.,

LL.D., of Portland, 1

II. Col. Arthur Noble, of Georgetown. By Hon. William Goold,

of Windham, 107

III. Educational Institutions in Maine while a District of Massa-
chusetts. By Rev. J. T. Ch'amplin, D. D., LL.D., of Port-

land, 155

V. The Pemaquid Country under the Stuarts. By H. W. Richard-
son, A. M., of Portland, 181

V. Fort Halifax : its Projectors, Builders and Garrison. By Hon.

William Goold, of Windham 197

VI. Col. William Vaughan, of Matinicus and Damariscotta. By

Hon. William Goold, of Windham, 291

VII. Norambega. By Hon. John E. Godfrey, of Bangor, 315

VIII. Memoirs and Biographical Sketches, 333

1. Hon. Reuel Williams. By John A. Poor, Esq., 335

2. Hon. Edward Emerson Bourne, LL.D. By Hon.

Edwin B. Smith, . . . . . 386

Vlll CONTENTS.

3. Hon. Ether Shepley, LL.D. By Hon. Israel Wash-

burn, Jr., LL.D., 409

4. Hon. George T. Davis. By Hon. George F. Talbot, 438

5. Hon. Edward Kent, LL.D. By Hon. John E. Godfrey,

with remarks by Israel Washburn, Jr., and
George F. Talbot, 449

6. Rev. Leonard Woods, D. D., LL.D. By Prof. Charles

Carrol] Everett, D. D., ...481

ILLUSTRATIONS.

Portrait of Hon. Edward E. Bourne, LL.D., Frontispiece.

Fort Halifax in 1755, 198

Ground Plan of Fort Halifax, 272

The South Flanker of Fort Halifax, 280

Corner Stone of Fort Halifax,. . 281

ARTICLE I.

THE NORTH-EASTERN BOUNDARY.

BEAD BEFORE THE MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY, AT PORT-
LAND, MAY 15, 1879,

BY

HON. ISEAEL WASHBUKN, JR., LL.D.

THE NOETH-EASTERN BOUNDARY.

I shall read you, this morning, a chapter of concessions, sub-
missions and humiliations by which the otherwise fair record of
American diplomacy has been dimmed and stained.

And I shall do this, not to cast reproach upon the memory of
any of the actors in the deplorable business, whose history cul-
minated, if it did not close, in the so-called Ashburton Treaty,
a work of which the indulgent criticism of the most friendly
commentator might be borrowed from Sheridan, who, speaking
of another convention, said, " It was one of which, although
some were glad, nobody was proud." Nor shall I do it with
the expectation that anything said or written by me, or by any
one at this time, can avail aught towards a correction of the
errors and mistakes of the past. But rather in the thought
that a paper which may serve in some measure to keep the
history and the lesson alive for purposes of warning, of counsel
and of suggestion in the future, will be neither unworthy nor
unwelcome ; and, I will add, with the further impression, that
it will not be wholly uninteresting or unprofitable to the pres-
ent generation to learn something more than, as a general rule,
those who compose it know of the particular history of the im-
portant, protracted and imbittered controversy which preceded
that settlement.

And, besides these considerations, I have sought a personal
gratification in an opportunity to express my sense of the debt

4 THE NORTH-EASTERN BOUNDARY.

due from the people of Maine to those faithful magistrates, who,
in no hour of pressure or of alarm, allowed, for a single moment,
the honor of the State, or her material interests, to be compro-
mitted by any action of the commonwealth over whose affairs
they presided. Of Enoch Lincoln, Edward Kent and John
Fairfield it could be said with peculiar force and propriety, in
the words of Sir Walter Scott's tribute to Fox, they

" Stood by their country's honor fast,
And nailed her colors to the mast."

It so happened in the history of the negotiations that upon
these men rather than upon any other of our Governors, fell
the chief weight of responsibility, and the most imperative de-
mands for decisive action. Nor should I pass from this grate-
ful duty without some reference to two gentlemen upon whose
patriotic and ardent interest in, and thorough and perfect
knowledge of, the questions involved, in all their aspects and
relations, these functionaries always and safely relied. I refer
to Col. John G. Deane, of Ellsworth who in his later years was
a resident of Portland and to the Honorable Charles S. Daveis,
also of this city.

On the afternoon of the 20th of September, 1875, I left
Edmimdston, on the St. John Eiver, by the fine military road
constructed at great expense by the British government a
quarter of a century before, and following, in the main, the
route traveled by Lord Edward Fitzgerald in 1788 leading
from the river St. John to the St. Lawrence. When, at two
o'clock the next morning, the stage reached a point twenty-six
miles south of the latter river, although it had been raining for
several hours, the snow was more than a foot deep, and I was
informed that three days before its depth was more than two
feet ; and here I said, without doubt, on this elevation, fifteen

THE NORTH-EASTERN BOUNDARY. 5

hundred feet above tide- water, are the " highlands," of which I
had read so much in the years preceding the treaty of Wash-
ington. For, although that treaty, sometimes called the Ash-
burton Treaty, had been concluded thirty-three years before (in
1842), the leading facts which its discussion had elicited, or
which had been brought out in the years preceding, in the
correspondence of our Governors, and in legislative reports,
were too deeply written upon my memory not to be at call at
any moment. But when on a clear, bright August day, in
1877, I came from the St. Lawrence, at Eiver Du Loup, over
the same road to Madawaska, after a steady general ascent of
some ten miles, a comparatively short descent brought the mail
coach (in which I was traveling) to a stream which my com-
panions said was a branch of the river St. Francis, and sixteen
miles from the St. Lawrence, I knew that we were, if only the
treaty of 1783 had been respected, within the limits of the State
of Maine for the St. Francis is one of the rivers whose waters
descend to the Atlantic Ocean and had been within them since
our journey had passed the fifteen miles bourne from the river
St. Lawrence.

The high ground, which, on the preceding journey, I had
mistaken for the main highland range, was but a spur of it, and
the true dividing ridge was ten miles to the northward. It
was interesting to notice, on this bright day, how plainly
marked and impossible to be mistaken was the treaty boundary.

Never was there such a history of errors, mistakes, blunders,
concessions, explanations, apologies, losses and mortifications on
the one side; of inconsistencies, aggressions, encroachments,
affronts and contempts on the other, as that which has respect
to this boundary question ; and in the calm of this day, when
all direct, practical interest in it has ceased, and the sense of
wrong and indignity has slept for more than a third of a cen-

6 THE NORTH-EASTERN BOUNDARY.

tury, it is impossible for one to read it with anything like com-
posure or patience.

To those statesmen and writers of other countries, who have
represented the United States as arrogant, uncomfortable and
domineering, I would commend this tale of the sacrifice of
northern Maine, as likely to afford them great, if not endless
comfort.

Article two of the Treaty of Peace, concluded at Paris be-
tween Great Britain and the United States in 1783, so far as
respects the question of the north-eastern boundary, is as follows :

" From the north-west angle of Nova Scotia, to wit : that
angle which is formed by a line drawn due north from the
source of the St. Croix Eiver to the highlands, along the said
highlands which divide those rivers that empty themselves into
the St. Lawrence from those which fall into the Atlantic Ocean,
to the north-westernmost head of Connecticut Eiver."

This is the northerly line ; the easterly is described :

" East, by a line to be drawn along the middle of the river
St. Croix, from its mouth in the Bay of Fundy to its source,
and from its source directly north to the aforesaid highlands
which divide the waters that fall into the Atlantic Ocean from
those which fall into the river St. Lawrence, comprehending all
islands within twenty leagues of any part of the United States,
.and lying between the lines to be drawn due east from the
points where the aforesaid boundaries between Nova Scotia on
:the one part, and east Florida on the other, shall respectively
touch the Bay of Fundy and the Atlantic Ocean, excepting such
islands as now are or heretofore have been within the limits of
the said Province of Nova Scotia."

This language seems to be too plain to admit of dispute, and
yet under it four questions have arisen between the parties to

THE NORTH-EASTEKN BOUNDAKY. 7

the treaty : First, as to the river St. Croix ; second, as to which
of the affluents of the St. Croix, was the source of that river
within the intention of the treaty ; third, as to the islands in
Passamaquoddy Bay; fourth, as to the north-west angle of
Nova Scotia and the highlands that divide the rivers that fall
into the Atlantic Ocean from those which empty themselves
into the St. Lawrence. And all of them have "been decided
against the United States.

I propose a brief examination of each.

I. The first question that arose was in regard to which of
three rivers falling into the Bay of Fundy was the St. Croix
contemplated by the treaty. The question was plain, and easy
of solution. These rivers had all been known and described at
some time by the name of St. Croix. The most easterly had
been called also the Magaquadavic ; the intermediate the
Schoodic ; the most westerly the Cobscook. That the first named
is the St. Croix of the treaty, is so plain, I trust, that but few
words will be needed for a clear understanding of the case.

Soon after the treaty of 1783, the inhabitants of Nova Scotia
(that part which is now New Brunswick) were found occupy-
ing, and claiming as British subjects to hold the territory be-
tween the Magaquadavic and the Schoodic Eivers, and particu-
larly that near the present town of St. Andrews. Massachu-
setts objected, claiming the territory as her own, and made
complaint to Congress of these encroachments, and was by the
latter body requested to cause inquiry into the facts to be made.
In pursuance of this solicitation, it appointed a commission, of
which two members, Generals Knox and Lincoln, visited Passa-
maquoddy in the year 1784, and on the 19th of October of that
year, made their report to the Governor of Massachusetts. In
this report, they say :

8 THE NORTH-EASTERN BOUNDARY.

" They beg leave to inform your Excellency that a very consid-
erable number of British subjects are settled at a place called St.
Andrews, on the eastern bank of the river Schoodic, which, in the
opinion of your commissioners, is clearly within the limits of this
State.

" By your Excellency's leave, they will recite a short state of
facts on which this opinion was formed.

" There are three very considerable rivers which empty them-
selves into the bay Passamaquoddy, which is five to seven leagues
wide. The eastern river falls into the bay about a league from the
head of it, and perpendicular to the eastern side ; the middle river
falls into the bay far on the westerly side of the head of it, and in
a direction parallel therewith ; the western river falls into the bay
about six leagues from the head of it on the westerly side, and
nearly perpendicular to it ; all of which in late British maps are
called St. Croix. The first is by the Indians called Maggadava,
the second Schoodick, the third Cobscook.

"From every information the subscribers could obtain on inquiry
of the Indians and others, the eastern river was the original St.
Croix. This is about three leagues east of St. Andrews, where the
British inhabitants have made a settlement. Soon after the sub-
scribers received their commission, they wrote to Mr. Jay request-
ing him to give them information whether the Commissioners for
negotiating the peace confined themselves in tracing the bounda-
ries of the United States to any particular map, and if any one, to
what ? Since their return they received his answer, mentioning
that Mitchell's map was the only one that the commission used,
and on that they traced the boundaries agreed to.

" On this map two rivers were laid down ; the western was called
thereon the Passamaquoddy, and the eastern the St. Croix."

It is to be observed that the Passamaquoddy is the river at
other times called the Schoodic.

The Commissioners also say, " The subscribers further repre-
sent that they find in the maps of a quarto volume published

THE NORTH-EASTERN BOUNDARY. 9

in Paris in 1774, from Charlevoix's voyage to North America,
made in 1644, two rivers delineated at the head of the bay of
Passamaquoddy, the western of which is called Passamaquoddy,
and the eastern St. Croix."

The westernmost river, the Cobscook, is much smaller than
either of the others, and is not laid down on all the maps.

But as to the fact that the true St. Croix was east of the
Passamaquoddy otherwise called Schoodic Eiver there seems
to be no doubt. Whatever doubt might possibly have other-
wise existed is wholly removed by the testimony of Surveyor
Mitchell, given in an affidavit on the 9th of October, 1784, as
follows :

" The subscriber, an inhabitant of Chester, in the State of New
Hampshire, voluntarily makes the following declaration, to wit :
that I was employed by his Excellency, Francis Bernard, Esq.,
Governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, in April, 1764, in
company with Mr. Israel Jones as my deputy, Mr. Nathan Jones
as commanding officer of a party of troops, and Captain Fletcher
as Indian interpreter, to repair to the Bay of Passamaquoddy to
assemble the Indians usually residing there, and from them to
ascertain the river known as the St. Croix. We, accordingly,
assembled upwards of forty of the principal Indians upon an
island then called L'Atereel, in the said Bay of Passamaquoddy.
After having fully and freely conversed with them upon the
subject of our mission, the Chief commissioned three Indians to
show us the said river St. Croix, which is situated nearly six miles
north, and about three degrees east of harbor L'Tete, and east
north-east of the bay or river Schoodick, and distant from it about
nine miles on a right line. The aforesaid three Indians, after
having shown us the river, and being duly informed of the
nature and importance of an oath, did in a solemn manner depose
to the truth of their information respecting the identity of the
said river St. Croix, and that it was the ancient and only river

10 THE NORTH-EASTERN BOUNDARY.

known among them by that name. We prpceeded conformably to
this information in our surveys ; and, in August following, I de-
livered to Gov. Bernard three plans of the said river St. Croix
and the said Bay of Passamaquoddy."

This statement of Mitchell is confirmed in every respect by
the deposition of Nathan Jones, given March 17, 1785, who
states that he was appointed by Gov. Bernard in 1764, com-
mander of a party to explore the woods and view the rivers,
bays, &c., to ascertain the river St. Croix dividing the Province
of Massachusetts Bay from Nova Scotia, and to perform a sur-
vey thereof. He said the river " St. Croix was then known as
the Mau;acadava."

oo

It must be remembered that in 1764, when this survey and
these plans were made, Massachusetts Bay and Nova Scotia
were both Provinces of Great Britain, and that the object of
Gov. Bernard, as a faithful servant of the Crown, was to find
and determine the true line. He had no interest to do anything
else. He appointed his Surveyor and other officers : they made
their report (which in respect to this line was in conformity
with the map of John Mitchell made eighteen years before),
and he accepted and acted upon it ; and from that date to the
time of the treaty, the line so found was the established, the
recognized, and the undisputed line between these Provinces.
Thus by the treaty of 1783, all that then belonged to Massa-
chusetts, all that did not belong to Nova Scotia, was ceded to
the United States. The river St. Croix, dividing these Provinces,
had been ascertained, and declared in the report of 1764, as it had
also been laid down on the map used by the Commissioners
themselves. The question was settled.

It has been seen by the reports of Generals Knox and Lincoln
that Mitchell's map (although other maps were before them)
was the only one " used " by the Commissioners when the treaty

THE NORTH-EASTERN BOUNDARY. 11

was made, and that the line was drawn thereon. Not only is
there the testimony of Mr. Jay to this effect, but there is also
that of John ^.dams. Writing from Auteuil, near Paris, October
25, 1784, to Governor Gushing, he, says :

"We had before us through the whole negotiation, several maps,
but it was Mitchell's map upon which we marked out the whole of
the boundary lines of the United States ; and the river St. Croix
which we fixed on, was upon that map nearest to St. John ; so
that in all equity, good conscience and honor, the river next to St.
John's should be the boundary. I am glad the General Court are
taking early measures, and hope they will pursue them steadily
until the point is settled, which it may be now amicably ; if neg-
lected long, it may be more difficult."

Nor does the testimony stop here. Dr. Franklin was one of
the Commissioners by whom the Treaty of Peace was negoti-
ated, and on the 8th of April, 1790, in a letter to Mr. Jefferson,
he writes :

" I can assure you that I am perfectly clear in the remembrance
that the map we used in tracing the boundary was brought to the
treaty by the Commissioners from England, and that it was the
same as that published by Mitchell twenty years before. Having
a copy of that map by me in loose sheets, I send you that sheet
which contains the bay of Passamaquoddy, where you will see that
part of the boundary traced. I remember, too, that in that part
of the boundary we relied much on the opinion of Mr. Adams, who
had been concerned in some former disputes concerning these terri-
tories. * * * That the map we used was Mitchell's map,
Congress were acquainted at the time by letter to their Secretary
of Foreign Affairs, which I suppose may be found upon their files."

One would suppose that upon this record, nothing could be
more clear and certain than that the river now called the Mag-
aquadavic, was the true St. Croix that divided the Provinces of

12 THE NORTH-EASTERN BOUNDARY.

Massachusetts Bay and Nova Scotia. It was purely a question
of fact, not of convenience or argument. Did Messrs. Jay,
Adams and Franklin state the facts in the letters that have
been quoted ? That they did has never, to my knowledge, been
disputed. One will be curious to learn upon what plausible or
possible grounds it could be claimed that the Schoodic, or Passa-
maquoddy, was the St. Croix Kiver agreed upon and marked by
the Commissioners as the treaty river.

In the first place, no sooner had the treaty been ratified than
the British Government changed the ground on which it had
established its claims against the French, and adopted that of
France. So that Mr. Jay, our Minister at London, was well
justified in the prediction made to Mr. Kandolph, our Secretary
of State, in a letter written November 19, 1794, in which he
said:

" In discussing the question about the river St. Croix before the
Commissioners," (Commissioners had at this time been agreed upon
by the treaty of 1794, known as Jay's treaty, for determining the St.
Croix), " I apprehend the old French claims will be revived. We
must adhere to Mitchell's map. The Vice President " (Mr. Adams)
" perfectly understood this business."

In pursuance of the 5th article of this treaty of 1794, a com-
mission, consisting of Thomas Barclay, David Ho well (English-
men), and Egbert Benson (American), was appointed to decide
the question, " What river was the true St. Croix contemplated in
the treaty of peace, and forming a part of the boundary therein
described ? "

In the argument made by the British agent before these
Commissioners, it was contended first, that by an Act of Parlia-
ment, in the year 1774, a line between Nova Scotia and Massa-
chusetts Bay was recognized which made the Schoodic Eiver
the boundary between these Provinces.

THE NORTH-EASTERN BOUNDARY. 13

It will be observed that even if it should appear that the
Schoodic was recognized as the St. Croix, or as a St. Croix, by
Act of Parliament in 1774, that that fact could in no way
affect the other and controlling one ; that the Commissioners
decided that the Magaquadavic was the St. Croix which was to
form the boundary, and traced it as such upon the official map.

But this point does not seem to have been greatly relied
upon. The main contention was really an appeal to considera-
tions of convenience and accommodation. The agent exerted
himself to maintain that the American construction would
carry the line to within a short distance of Fredericton, and
would, by separating the sources of certain rivers running into
the Bay of Chaleurs from their mouths, produce such incon-
venience that it could not be supposed that such a line was in
the minds of the parties who negotiated the treaty. But, when it
is considered that the line from the source of the St. Croix, as
decided by these Commissioners of 1794 themselves, crosses
the same streams that fall into the Bay of Chaleurs, as well as
the river St. John, a river which falls into the Bay of Fundy,
separating its source from its debouchure, the assumption falls
to the ground. It is employed, however, to prove that as the
parties would respectively wish to secure within their own
limits the entire course of the streams which had an outlet
therein, they would fix upon that river as the true St. Croix of
the treaty, which would most nearly compass this desirable
end.

That this consideration had no practical weight with the
Commissioners by whom the treaty of peace was made, appears
not merely from the fact already stated, that the line did divide
the sources of several important rivers from their mouths, but also
from the fact that the north-west angle of Nova Scotia (which,
by the treaty, was the north-eastern angle of the United States)

14 THE NORTH-EASTERN BOUNDARY.

was known by all the parties to the treaty. It was a point on
the southerly border of Canada, and that border was, and long
had been, fixed upon a range of highlands well defined, and
situated but a short distance south of the St. Lawrence Eiver.
The angle was formed on this border by a line drawn due north
from the source of the river St. Croix. That this angle on the
southerly boundary of Quebec (Canada), was so located that a
line to it from the river St. Croix, whether that river was the
Schoodic or the Magaquadavic ; would intersect rivers which had
their mouths within British territory, was known to the Com-
missioners as a fact that was beyond question. Everybody
knew it ; nobody doubted it. To found an argument from it
for a change of the river from the one agreed upon, implies a
belief on the part of the British agent that the United States,
in the exhausted condition of the country, would stand a great
deal of injustice before going to war again.

Great Britain, as has happened several times since, and nota-
bly in the late fisheries controversy, had the good fortune to be
strongly represented on the St. Croix Commission, while the
side of the United States was but feebly and inadequately sup-
ported; and so in 1798, the former succeeded in obtaining a
report declaring the northerly branch of the Schoodic to be the
boundary line. She had claimed the westerly branch, and all
her arguments applied to that line, and were based on grounds
that rendered the acceptance of a more easterly branch inconsist-
ent and entirely inadmissable. She had demanded a line that
would have brought the Province of New Brunswick to near
the Passadumkeag Eiver, and which would have nullified or
contradicted every essential provision of the treaty, and she
gained (doubtless all that she ever expected) a compromise line.
The plain provisions of the treaty and all its undisputed history
were set aside.

THE NORTH-EASTERN BOUNDARY. 15

By this settlement, which covered the only question as
to the boundary, then in dispute, and which proceeded all along
on the mutual understanding that the line north of the source
of the St. Croix, was where the United States claimed it to be,
the State of Maine lost a strip of territory from fifteen to
twenty miles in breadth, and one hundred and seventy-five
miles in length, including all that is west of the Magaquadavic
Eiver, and all that is west of the river St. John from a point
near the Meductic rapids some twenty miles below Woodstock,
embracing that fine town and the unrivalled farming tract above
and below it on the west side of the river St. John, as well as
an extensive territory east of the river.

II. But our bad fortune did not stop here. The Commis-
sioners, having agreed upon the river, decided that its source
was in what is now known as Eound Lake, the same, I suppose,
that is laid down as North Lake on Greenleafs map of 1815 ;
but, when they came to make their report, for reasons which I
have never been able to learn, substituted Cheputnecook for
Eound Lake, and thereby gave to New Brunswick a tract of
country of the average breadth of ten miles, and one hundred
and fifty miles long ; and more by so much than was actually
required, even upon the hypothesis that the Schoodic was the
true St. Croix.

III. The next question that arose under the treaty, was in
regard to the islands in Passamaquoddy Bay ; and this, too, was
decided in favor of Great Britain. By conceding the title of
Maine to Moose Island (Eastport) which could never have
been in more doubt than her title to Mt. Desert she acquired
Campo Bello, and Grand Menan, a large island on our coast
west of Eastport. This decision, while greatly objectionable,
and unsupported by the treaty, did not do such gross violence
to its terms, or to its history, as did that in respect to the St.

16 THE NORTH-EASTERN BOUNDARY.

Croix. It was made November 24, 1817, by Thomas Barclay
and John Holmes, Commissioners appointed under the pro-
visions of the 4th article of the treaty of Ghent, December 24,
1814.

IV. For twenty years subsequent to 1794 (or the date of
Jay's treaty), there was no denial of the claims of the United
States respecting the treaty line, north of the source of the St.
Croix, on the part of Great Britain ; but, on the contrary she
many times, and in various ways, assumed their correctness, and
acted upon that assumption. In the hearing before the Com-
missioners under this treaty, she asserted it, and obtained a de-
cision for which she argued on the basis of that assertion. In
1803, there was a convention between the two nations (which
the United States failed to ratify on account of a provision
touching our Western possessions), in which was inserted a
clause for running the line between the source of the St. Croix
and the north-west angle of Nova Scotia. It was a misfortune,
so far as this State was concerned, that this convention was not
ratified, for there can be no doubt that if it had been, the line
would have been run and established as claimed by the United
States ; for, at that time, there was no thought or suggestion of
any other line.

In 1804 and 1807, the subject of running the line according to
the treaty was referred to by the British Government in terms
implying that there was no difference of opinion between the
parties as to its construction. Massachusetts had exercised
undisputed jurisdiction over the territory afterwards brought into
question. In 1792, she sold to Henry Jackson and Eoyal Flint
a large tract of land lying within the claim afterwards set
up by Great Britain ; and in 1794, Park Holland and Jona-
than Mayhew made a survey of the tract extending from the
St. Croix almost to the highlands dividing the waters of the

THE NORTH-EASTERN BOUNDARY. 17

St. John and the St. Lawrence, and which they were prevented
from completing only by lack of provisions. This survey was
laid down on a map of Maine drawn by Osgood Carleton, in
1795. In 1797, Massachusetts granted from the territory,
afterwards in dispute, half a township to Deerfield Academy.
In 1806, a grant of a half township was made to General Eaton,
and in 1808, a whole township was granted to the town of
Plymouth.

Down to the close of the war of 1812, the question stood in
this way :

1. The language of the treaty was plain, undisputed, indis-
putable. Let us turn to this language once more, and see if it
is open to doubt. "From the north-west angle of Nova Scotia,
to wit : that angle which is formed by a line drawn due north
from the source of the St. Croix River to the highlands which
divide those rivers that empty themselves into the St. Lawrence
from those which fall into the Atlantic Ocean, to the north-
westernmost head of Connecticut River. * * East by a line
to be drawn along the middle of the river St. Croix, from its
mouth in the Bay of Fundy to its source, and from its source
directly north to the aforesaid highlands which divide the rivers
that fall into the Atlantic Ocean from those which fall into the
river St. Lawrence."

2. Great Britain had raised no question as to the validity of
our claim in respect to this line, but, in order to secure her own
interpretation as to the river St. Croix, had deliberately admitted
it, and thereupon laid a foundation for an argument, to con-
vince the Commissioners of the justice of her contention in
regard to the river, and had further admitted it by the terms of
the Convention of 1803.

3. Massachusetts had exercised unquestioned and undis-
turbed jurisdiction over the territory for more than twenty years.

2

18 THE NORTH-EASTERN BOUNDARY.

But, by the close of the war of 1812-15, England had learned
something of the probable value of a way between her eastern
and western Provinces, and that such a way would most conven-
iently, if not necessarily, lead across the State of Maine. She
affected to believe (and therein was a grave affront) that that
war was waged by the United States in part for the conquest of
the Canadas, and insisted that it was therefore reasonable and
proper that she should take steps to protect them against future
attacks. On the fourth of September, 1814, her Minister at
Ghent wrote to our Minister as follows : " If, then, the security
of the British North American dominions requires any sacrifice"
(note the word) "on the part of the United States, it must be as-
cribed to the declared policy of that government in making the
war not one of self-defence, nor for the redress of grievances, real or
pretended, but a part of a system of conquest and aggrandizement."

But, even under the spur of this source of apprehension, Great
Britain was not prepared to assert that, by the treaty line, the
road- way was not in the territory of the United States. She ad-
mitted that it was, and asked for a conventional line.

On the eighth of August, 1814, the British Commissioners,
who were then engaged in an effort to make peace, in a note to
the American Commissioners, describe their request as " such a
VARIATION of tlu line of frontier as may secure a direct commu-
nication betiveen Quebec and Halifax." To this, on the twenty-
fourth of August, the American Commissioners replied that
they had " no authority to CEDE any part of the territory of the
United States," and could agree to no such line. The British
Commissioners, on the fourth of September, return to the sub-
ject, and say that they are " persuaded that an ARRANGEMENT
on this point might easily be made, if entered into in a spirit of
conciliation, without any prejudice to the interests of the dis-
trict in question." From this, it would seem that England did

THE NORTH-EASTERN BOUNDARY. 19

not ask for a clear title, but only for an easement, or right of
way. But, however this may have been, the American Com-
missioners, on the ninth of September, protested once more that
they had no authority to cede any part of the State of Massa-
chusetts, even for an equivalent." But this plain and decisive
answer did not silence the British Commissioners ; it, however,
led them to change their base and plan of attack. And so we
find them, on the eighth of October, replying that the British
Government " never required that all that portion of Massachu-
setts intervening between the Provinces of New Brunswick and
Quebec should be ceded to Great Britain ; but only that small
portion of unsettled country which interrupts the communica-
tion between Quebec and Halifax, there being much doubt whether
it does not already belong to Great Britain"

It is curious to note that when at last the British Commission-
ers found themselves compelled to take a new departure, and
occupy a position inconsistent with all their previous claims,
and arguments and concessions, the new r61e was so strange,
that in opening it they could not avoid confessing, by their
language, that it was a false one. They spoke of a cession, i. e.,
of a grant, of a " small portion " of country that " interrupts the
communication between Quebec and Halifax." As that inter-
ruption was between the Grand Falls on the St. John and the
river St. Lawrence, it results that at this time the American
title north of the former river was acknowledged, and a cession
of a small part of it only solicited.

This was the prelude to the doubt, raised for the first time in
the history of this question, as to the perfectness of the Ameri-
can title a doubt not only unmentioned, but unexisting, until
after it had been discovered that no propositions for a new line
would be entertained by the Commissioners of the United States.
There was then no alternative for Great Britain but to lay the

20 THE NORTH-EASTERN BOUNDARY.

foundation for a dispute, and see what would come out of it.
But even then, she was not prepared to claim as hers, by the
terms of the treaty, the territory which she had so persistently
urged, and still continued to urge the government of the United
States to cede to her.

Finding that no " variation," " cession," " revision," or " ar-
rangement" could be obtained through the American Commis-
sioners, a provision being the 5th article of the Treaty of
Ghent was agreed upon for running the line (not for making a
new one) in conformity with the treaty of 1783. It was further
stipulated that in case a failure to run the line by the Commis-
sioners, to be appointed for that purpose, the differences arising
between the parties should be referred to the decision of a
friendly Sovereign.

Thomas Barclay, of whom we have heard more than once
before, as a Commissioner under the treaty, on the part of Great
Britain, and Cornelius P. Van Ness, on the part of the United
States, were appointed Commissioners to ascertain and run the
line. An actual survey was arranged, and surveyors appointed,
to wit : Charles Turner, Jr., on the part of the United States, and
Colin Campbell on the part of Great Britain. About twenty
miles of the line was surveyed, then the work was discontinued,
never to be resumed ; but an exploring survey was commenced
by Col. Bouchette, on the part of Great Britain, and John
Johnson, on the part of the United States. These gentlemen
made an exploring line in 1817, extending ninety-nine miles
from the monument at the head of the river St. Croix, and made
separate reports of their doings. In 1818, Mr. Johnson, with
Mr. Oclell, who had taken the place of Col. Bouchette, finished
running the exploring line to the Beaver or Metis Eiver. It
was in this year that the opinion was first expressed by the
British agent, that Mars Hill, an isolated mountain south of

THE NORTH-EASTERN BOUNDARY. 21

the Aroostook Kiver, might be the north-west angle of Nova
Scotia, and the north-eastern boundary of Maine. And he,
having given expression to this novel and preposterous concep-
tion, proposed to discontinue the survey along the highlands
south of the river St. Lawrence, return to Mars Hill, and ex-
plore thence westerly towards the sources of the Chaudiere and
Kennebec. The result was that the surveyors disagreed, the
British surveyor refused to go on and finish the exploring sur-
vey now almost completed, and the work was abandoned.

From this time, Great Britain began to assert title in herself
to the country north of Mars Hill, hesitatingly at first, but more
positively afterwards. To enable her to do this, even to her
own acceptance, she was compelled to rely on the quibble here-
tofore mentioned, that a line due north from the source of the
St. Croix would, before reaching the north-west angle of Nova
Scotia, as claimed by the United States, and as laid down in all
the Provincial charters and commissions of royal Governors,
cross several streams that flow into the Bay of Chaleurs ; and,
therefore, these highlands would not divide waters that empty
themselves into the river St. Lawrence from those which fall
into the Atlantic Ocean.

And it signified nothing to her that it was answered, that the
plain meaning of the treaty was to find highlands which
divided rivers flowing into the St. Lawrence from those falling
into the Atlantic Ocean directly, or through some bay or gulf.
It was in vain that it was replied that this new interpretation
defeats the treaty line altogether; for by it, even the river
St. John does not fall into the Atlantic Ocean, but into the Bay
of Fundy. If these highlands are denied because they cannot
be reached before crossing the waters of the Eestigouche, neither
can they without crossing the St. John, the Aroostook, the
Meduxnekeag and other rivers. The Penobscot Kiver does not

22 THE NORTH-EASTERN BOUNDARY.

fall into the Atlantic Ocean upon this interpretation, but into
Penobscot Bay ; the Kennebec flows into the Bay of Sagadahoc,
and not into the Atlantic Ocean. There are, upon this view,
no rivers on our coast that fall into the Atlantic. It was in
vain that it was said that, upon the British contention, the line
does not divide any rivers that fall into the St. Lawrence from
any other rivers whatever ; that it divides only those falling
into the St. John on the north and east from those falling into
the Penobscot and Kennebec on the south and west, and not
any that flow into the St. Lawrence on the one side from any
that flow into the Atlantic Ocean on the other ; that it was
pointed out that on the British construction, both the St.
Lawrence Eiver and the Atlantic Ocean were completely erased
from the treaty. And it availed nothing that the absolutely
unanswerable point was made, that the southerly line of the
Province of Quebec ran along highlands which divided waters
that fall into the St. Lawrence from those which flow into the
ocean through the Bays of Chaleurs, Fundy, Penobscot, &c., and
was a well-known and established line for many years, and that
where a line drawn from the head of the river St. Croix inter-
sected the south line of the old Province of Quebec, was the
north-west angle of Nova Scotia the angle referred to in the
treaty. It was all irrelevant or unimportant ; Mars Hill, an
isolated peak, and no range at all, several miles west of a direct
north line from the source of the St. Croix, and in no way
intersected by such a line, was the true angle. True, it was a
solitary peak ; it was not touched by the north line ; it divided
no rivers running into the St. Lawrence from any that were
emptied into the ocean, or that had an outlet anywhere else !
An administration that should at the present day receive such
a pretension as this in any other light than as a deliberate affront,
would be regarded as unworthy of the public respect, and be

THE NORTH-EASTERN BOUNDARY. 23

speedily dismissed from its confidence. It was only in the hour
of the country's exhaustion, and absolute need of a season for
recuperation, that the provocation for plainness of speech or for
action, such as I am glad to say was in our own State not un-
worthily responded to, was restrained in the country at large
by what were regarded as the counsels of prudence.

Down to 1763, when by treaty with the French, Canada was
acquired by Great Britain, both New England and Nova Scotia
extended to the southerly shore of the St. Lawrence Eiver.
But, at this time, when it became necessary to establish the
Province of Quebec, the King extended its limits so as to include
the valley of that river on the south. The royal proclamation
of October 7, 1763, established the southerly boundary of the
Province of Quebec on the highlands which separated the rivers
running to the north or north-east into the St. Lawrence from
those running to the south and south-east. In other words, the
Treaty of Peace of 1783 made this southerly boundary of
Quebec the northerly one of Massachusetts. Parliament, in
1774, confirmed the southerly boundary of Quebec as described
in the proclamation of the King in the previous year.

A map, on which these highlands were laid down, had been
made by John Mitchell, at the request of the Lords Commis-
sioners of Trade and Plantations, in 1755, and was the acknowl-
edged, authoritative map of the time. So far as this boundary
line is concerned it was, as we have seen, followed and adopted
by John Mitchell in his survey and plan in 1764. Whether the
John Mitchell who made the survey in the latter year was the
author of the map of 1755 or not, it is certain that the easterly
line of Massachusetts, as claimed by the United States, was
verified and authenticated by both the map of 1755 and the
plan of 1764. The former was produced by the British Com-
missioners at the negotiation of the treaty, and was adopted and

24 THE NORTH-EASTERN BOUNDARY.

used by both parties. It was the official map, and a part of the
record.

Eeferring to the point on which the British pretensions were
founded, to wit : that the St. John Eiver does not fall into the
Atlantic Ocean, but into the Bay of Fundy, and therefore the
dividing line or highlands must be sought south of this river,
I am induced to quote a few paragraphs from a report made to the
Senate of the United States, July 4, 1838, by Mr. Buchanan,
afterwards President of the United States :

"Now, what are the objections to this extraordinary pretension,
as the committee are constrained to call it ?

"And, first, what is the Bay of Fundy, if it be not a part of the
Atlantic Ocean ? A bay is a mere opening of the main ocean into
the land a mere interruption of the uniformity of the seacoast by
an indentation of water. These portions of the ocean have received
the name of bays, solely to distinguish them from the remainder of
the vast deep, to which they belong. Would it not be the merest
special pleading to contend that the Bay of Naples was not a por-
tion of the Mediterranean, or that the Bay of Biscay was not a part
of the Atlantic Ocean ?

"Again : the description of the treaty is, ' rivers which fall into
the Atlantic Ocean.' Can it be said, with any propriety, that a
river does not fall into the Atlantic, because, in reaching the main
ocean, it may pass through a bay ? And yet this is the British
argument. The Delaware does not fall into the Atlantic, because
it flows into it through the Bay of Delaware ; and, for the same
reason, the St. John does not fall into the Atlantic, because it flows
into it through the Bay of Fundy. The committee know not how
to give a serious answer to such an argument. The bare statement
of it is its best refutation.

" But, like all such arguments, it proves too much. If it be
correct, this portion of the treaty of 1783 is rendered absurd and
suicidal j and the wise and distinguished statesmen, by whom it

THE NORTH-EASTERN BOUND AEY. 25

was framed, must be condemned by posterity, for affixing their
names to an instrument, in this particular, at least, absolutely void.
Although they believed they would prevent l all disputes which
might arise in future, on the subject of the boundaries of the
United States, 7 by fixing their commencement at 'the north-west
angle of Nova Scotia/ and running from thence along ' the high-
lands which divide those rivers which empty themselves into the
river St. Lawrence, from those which fall into the Atlantic ocean/
yet it is absolutely certain, that there was not a single river in that
whole region of country which, according to the British construc-
tion, did fall into the Atlantic ocean. They all fall into bays, with-
out one exception. Neither can we plead ignorance as an excuse
for these Commissioners ; because it is fully in proof, that they had
Mitchell's map before them, from which the fact clearly appears.
The Bistigouche does not fall into the Atlantic, because it has its
mouth in the Bay of Chaleurs ; nor does the Penobscot, because its
mouth is in the Bay of Penobscot ; nor do the Kennebeck and
Androscoggin, because, after their junction, they fall into the Bay
of Sagadahock. The same is true, even of the Connecticut, be-
cause it empties itself into Long Island Sound. All the rivers in
that region are in the same condition with the St. John. Thus it
appears, if the British argument be well founded, that the Com-
missioners have concluded a treaty, and described highlands, whence
streams proceed falling into the Atlantic, as a portion of the bound-
ary of the United States, when from the very face of the map be-
fore them, it is apparent no such streams exist.

" There is another objection to the British claim, which is con-
clusive. Wherever the highlands of the treaty exist, they must be
highlands from which on the north side streams proceed falling
into the St. Lawrence. This portion of the description is as es-
sential as that from their south side streams should issue falling
into the Atlantic. Now, the British claim abandons the former
part of the description altogether. Their line of highlands com-
mencing at Mars Hill, is at least a hundred miles south of the

26 THE NORTH-EASTERN BOUNDARY.

highlands whence the tributaries of the St. Lawrence flow. Be-
tween these highlands and those claimed by the British Govern-
ment, the broad valley of the St. John spreads itself, watered by
the river of that name, and the streams which empty into it from
the north and from the south. The two points on the western line
of New Brunswick are distant from each other more than a hun-
dred miles ; and when you arrive at the British highlands, you find
that they divide the sources of the St. John and the Penobscot, and
not the sources of streams falling into the St. Lawrence and the

Atlantic Ocean, according to the description of the treaty.
**********

" But how is it possible ever to embrace Mars Hill in the line of
highlands running from the western extremity of the Bay of
Chaleurs, and forming the southern boundary of the Province of
Quebec ? It is clear that in this, and in this alone, the north-
western angle of Nova Scotia is to be found. Mars Hill is one
hundred miles directly south of this line. You cannot, by any
possibility, embrace that hill in this range, unless you can prove
that a hill in latitude 46 is part of a ridge directly north of it in
latitude 48 ; and this, notwithstanding the whole valley of the St.
John, from its southern to its northern extremity, intervenes
between the two. The thing is impossible. Mars Hill can never
be made, by any human ingenuity, the north-west angle of Nova
Scotia."

In closing the discussion of the question of right, Mr. Bu-
chanan's report employs this very emphatic language :

" Upon the whole, the committee do not entertain a doubt of the
title of the United States to the whole of the disputed territory.
They go further, and state that if the general Government be not
both able and willing to protect the territory of each State invio-
late, then it will have proved itself incapable of performing one of
its first and highest duties.' 7

The following resolution was passed unanimously by both
Houses of Congress:

THE NORTH-EASTERN BOUNDARY. 27

"Resolved, That after a careful examination and deliberate con-
sideration of the whole controversy between the United States and
Great Britain, relative to the north-eastern boundary of the former,
the Senate does not entertain a doubt of the entire practicability
of running and marking that boundary, in strict conformity with
the stipulations of the definitive treaty of peace of seventeen
hundred and eighty-three ; and it entertains a perfect conviction
of the justice and validity of the title of the United States to the
full extent of all the territory in dispute between the two parties."

Having thus described and explained the several and con-
flicting claims of Great Britain in respect to this territory, I
now proceed to give a brief history of negotiations and events
connected with the question subsequent to the treaty of Ghent,
and to the abandonment of the Odell and Johnson survey.

For twenty years after this treaty, Great Britain received
no new light, and made no new arguments ; but with these
alone she commenced making aggressions gradually, quietly,
moderately at first, so as not too soon to arrest the atten-
tion of the United States and after a series of acts of occu-
pation and jurisdiction, came at length to more open and
positive claims, such as should afford a pretext for proposing a
mutual or concurrent jurisdiction of the territory.

Following the course of events after the erection of Maine
into a State, we find in the year in which that event happened,
the government of the United States taking the census of Mada-
waska, on both sides of the river St. John, with no objection
from Great Britain.

Governor King, in his message to the first Legislature of
Maine, expresses his inability to inform that body what progress
had been made under the 5th article of the treaty of Ghent, in
settling the boundary, but he complains that the agent ap-
pointed on the part of the United States, in reference to this

28 THE NORTH-EASTERN BOUNDARY.

question, had not been selected from Maine or Massachusetts.
The Legislature passed a Eesolve requesting the federal govern-
ment to cause the line to be run and established.

Governor Parris, in his annual message in 1822, informs the
Legislature that he learns that the " claims of the British Com-
missioner cover a tract of country heretofore confessedly be-
longing to this State, and over which it has exercised jurisdic-
tion," and suggests that the attention of our Senators and
Eepresentatives in Congress be called to the subject, and the
more, as neither the Commissioner or agent, on the part of the
United States, belongs to this State. A Eesolve was passed by
the Legislature January 16, 1822, requesting our Senators and
Eepresentatives in Congress "to collect all the information
which they can obtain, relating to the causes which have pro-
duced the difference of opinion between the American and
British Commissioners, * * * and the extent and nature
of the claims set up by the British Commissioner, and transmit
said information to the Executive of this State."

In his message for 1823, Governor Parris makes no reference
to this subject.

In 1824, he returns to the question in these words : " In
consequence of the disagreement of the Commissioners ap-
pointed under the 5th article of the treaty of Ghent, a proposi-
tion has- been made by the government of the United States,
and accepted by the British Government, to endeavor to estab-
lish this boundary by amicable negotiation, rather than by the
decision of a foreign power, as provided by the treaty. This ar-
rangement is believed to be satisfactory to Maine, and we have
reason to feel a confidence that the negotiation will be so con-
ducted as to secure to this State its just rights."

But matters do not look quite so well in 1825, and we find
Governor Parris a little impatient at the slow progress that is

THE NORTH-EASTERN BOUNDARY. 29

being made towards an establishment of the boundary line.
He tells the Legislature, in his message to that body, that " there
is reason to believe that depredations to a very considerable
extent have been committed on our timber lands lying on the
Aroostook and Madawaska, and other streams emptying into the
St. John. * * It is represented that these depredations are
committed by British subjects, and on that portion of the terri-
tory of the State which is claimed by the British government as
belonging to the Province of New Brunswick. This pretended
claim, it is understood, includes about one-third of our territory,
and 'comprehends a great portion of our best timber land and
large tracts of superior quality for cultivation and settlement."

A committee of the Legislature reported that they were sat-
isfied that the trespasses referred to by the Governor, were
committed under permits and licenses from British authorities,
and that it behooved the States of Maine and Massachusetts
" to adopt the most efficient measures to prevent further en-
croachments upon this territory, and to urge upon the national
government the necessity and importance of bringing to a
speedy and favorable termination the negotiation on this inter-
esting subject, which has been so long protracted."

On the twenty-sixth of February of this year, the Legisla-
ture passed a Eesolve respecting the settlers on the territory, of
which the following is a copy :

"Whereas, There are a number of settlers on the undivided
public lands on the St. John and Madawaska Rivers, many of
whom have resided therein more than thirty years ; therefore,

"Resolved, That the land agent of this State, in conjunction
with such agent as may be appointed for that purpose on the part
of the State of Massachusetts, be, and he is hereby authorized and
directed to make and execute good and sufficient deeds conveying
to such settlers in actual possession, as aforesaid, their heirs and

30 THE NORTH-EASTERN BOUNDARY.

assigns, one hundred acres each of the land by them possessed, to
include their improvements on their respective lots, they paying
to the said agent, for the use of the State, five dollars each and the
expense of surveying the same."

Authority was given by another Eesolve to sell timber on
territory lying on or near the river St. John.

Massachusetts passed similar Eesolves to the above, and
during the year deeds were executed and delivered by James
Irish and George W. Coffin, land agents, to John Baker and
James Bacon, of the lands occupied by them on the north side
of the St. John Eiver, lying on the Mariumpticook Eiver, west
of the Madawaska Eiver, and ten to fifteen miles above any of
the French settlements. As early as 1817, several families
from Kennebec County had settled in this neighborhood,
among whom was Nathan Baker. Nathan died before 1825,
and his widow married his brother, John Baker, who occupied
the premises that had been taken up by Nathan, and on which
not only a dwelling house, but a saw mill and grist mill, had
been erected. There were several other American settlers in
this neighborhood.

Governor Parris called the attention of the Legislature to the
subject once more, in his annual message of 1826, and expresses
increased uneasiness in view of the condition of affairs, and
urges that measures be taken to procure copies of maps, reports
and other papers bearing upon the question. In the Legisla-
ture, a committee, of which Eeuel Williams was chairman,
reported a Eesolve, which was passed, requesting the Governor
to procure copies of maps, documents, publications, papers and
surveys relating to the boundary ; and also, if Massachusetts
should concur, to " cause the eastern and northern lines of the
State of Maine to be explored, and the monuments upon those

THE NORTH-EASTERN BOUNDARY. 31

lines mentioned in the treaty of 1783 to be ascertained in such
manner as may be most expedient."

Another Eesolve passed by the Legislature this year, provided
for the opening and clearing of a road from Penobscot Kiver to
Houlton, and for marking a road from the mouth of the Matta-
wamkeag to the mouth of Fish Eiver in the river St. John.

In January, 1827, Enoch Lincoln, whose devotion to the
interests and honor 'of the State was so engrossing and complete
as to make his name a synonym for both, was inaugurated Gov-
ernor.

Keferring in his first message to the north-eastern boundary
question, he said

" It becomes a community to be tenacious of its territorial pos-
sessions, when its relative political importance and its self-pro-
tecting powers are in a degree involved in them. But as we have
no reason to believe that the right or disposition anywhere exists
to cede our soil, under the pretext of adjusting a limit, which
would be an abuse in which neither the people nor the govern-
ments of the Union or the States would acquiesce, we may safely
anticipate that our landmarks will be held sacred, and that our
inalienable sovereignty will be respected."

Here were strong, clear, unmistakable words. The right,
which there were some grounds to fear might be asserted, was
denied the right to cede our soil " under the pretext of adjust-
ing a limit." Our title was " inalienable."

It has been seen that the Legislature of the last year called on the
government of the United States for copies of maps and documents.
This request was not complied with, for reasons which appear
in the journal of President John Quincy Adams, under date of
August 14, 1826. Mr. Adams says : " Mr. Parris " Governor
Parris of Maine, who had called upon the President " spoke of
the deep interest which his State had in the controversy ; and

32 THE NORTH-EASTERN BOUNDARY.

although he felt full confidence that the government of the
United States would consent to no stipulation injurious to the
rights of the State, yet he said they were not without appre-
hensions that New York might be willing to purchase Eouse's
Point at the expense of Maine " a fear that was prophetic, for
it was literally realized in the Ashburton treaty in 1842. The
journal continues : " He manifested a wish to be furnished with
copies of the arguments of the agents, and reports of the Com-
missioners under the 5th article of the treaty of Ghent, which
we declined giving heretofore, from an apprehension that a pre-
mature disclosure of them might operate unfavorably upon the
negotiation. I told him that their great bulk was an obstacle
to the furnishing of copies, but that they had been, and would
still be, open to the inspection and perusal of the Kepresenta-
tives and Senators from Maine, and would be equally so to the
Governor of the State, if present."

Alluding to this refusal to give copies by the federal govern-
ment, Governor Lincoln, in his message for 1827, said : " My
immediate predecessor has solicited the documents contemplated
by a Kesolve of a former Legislature relative to our boundary,
and I cannot but hope that the person applied to will find the
obligations of his situation so modified as to admit his furnish-
ing the proper officers of this State information by which it
may be prepared to judge correctly of the rights of the Union and
of a foreign nation, in connection with that independent right
which it ought to maintain, so far as the prudent application of
all its justifiable means will permit."

So much of this message as related to the boundary was
referred to a joint select committee, which made a brief report
through the Hon. John G. Deane, a gentleman who, with the
possible exceptions of Governor Lincoln and Mr. Daveis, under-
stood this question better than any man living.

THE NORTH-EASTERN BOUNDARY. 33

" The State," said the committee, " neither seeks nor claims
more than her own, but she has a deep interest in preserving
and retaining all to which she has a right ; and will not be
wanting in any proper exertion to preserve and maintain the
integrity of her territory." Again, " We can anticipate only
one class of events which would invest a right in the general
government to give up any such territory ; and those events are
such only which, from the application of external force, would
impair the national compact and destroy the present Union.
In any other case we deny the right of the government of the
United States to yield any portion of our territory to any other
independent sovereignty, unless by the consent of the State."

A Eesolve was passed requesting the Governor to take all
measures he should deem expedient in acquiring information,
and procuring a speedy adjustment of the dispute according to
the treaty of 1783.

Full of the subject himself, sensitive to the honor of the Com-
monwealth, stung by the indignity done her by the seizure and
imprisonment of her citizens by a foreign power, impatient of
the trifling excuses and pretexts by which her rights and in-
terests had been kept in abeyance for forty years, and thus
armed and instructed by the Legislature, the Governor went to
work at once, in the most earnest and vigorous manner, to bring
the question to the front and secure its prompt and just settle-
ment.

On the twentieth of March, he addressed a letter to the Sec-
retary of State at Washington, transmitting the above Eeport
and Eesolve, and asking for copies of the documents which had
been before denied. The Secretary (Mr. Clay) replied on the
twenty-seventh of March, and assured the Governor that the
President felt a most lively solicitude on the subject that Mr.
Gallatin was charged with, and had entered on a negotiation

3

34 THE NORTH-EASTERN BOUNDARY.

concerning it ; that the prospect was that there would be no
alternative but referring the difference to arbitration according
to the provisions of the treaty of Ghent ; that copies of maps,
surveys, or documentary evidence would be furnished when ap-
plied for, but that copies of the reports and arguments of the
Commissioners could not be given ; that the British government
had abstained, under a promise given by her Minister at Wash-
ington, from any NEW exercise of sovereignty over the disputed
territory, and he hoped that Maine would, during the pendency
of negotiations, practice a like forbearance.

To this communication Governor Lincoln replied on the eight-
eenth of April, 1827, and, after assuring the President (in answer
to some unfounded report that State officials had been proposing
a change of boundary) " that Maine will never jeopardize the
common welfare by failing to insist on the justice and inde-
feasible character of its claim, or by shrinking from a firm
assertion of it in any alternative," he continued, that it was
" with regret, not unmingled with mortification, that he con-
sidered the denial of the use of the reports and arguments of
the Commissioners under the treaty of Ghent. * * * Maine
had sought information only as an interest vital to herself, as
well as important to the country, without any purpose calcu-
lated to excite distrust, with only such patriotic views as have
rendered the refusal to comply with her request a subject of
that species of surprise which a friend, predetermined to take
no offence, feels when he is not treated with correspondent confi-
dence." The request for papers is renewed, under a promise
that they shall be used only before the Legislature, and under
the restrictions of confidential communications. The Governor
then reminds Mr. Clay that it is a proposition which has been
demonstrated by himself " so clearly as to have commanded
general respect, that the abstraction of the territory of the

THE NORTH-EASTERN BOUNDARY. 35

United States cannot be made by the treaty-making or executive
power." Much more, then, he says, must the domain of a State
be sacred. Eeferring to an expression of Mr. Gallatin, that an
umpire, whether king or farmer, rarely decides on strict princi-
ples of law, and has always " a bias to try, if possible, to split
the difference," he protests against any arrangement which will
endanger the half from the circumstance of a wrongful claim to
the whole, under the pitiful weakness which is liable to split
the difference between right and wrong.

Mr. Clay writes the Governor on the seventh of May, giving lists
of the papers and maps, copies of which would be furnished ;
and as to the others, he says they may be inspected by the
Governor, or any agent of the State, confidentially.

On the twenty-ninth of May, Governor Lincoln, after referring
to the discouraging character of his previous correspondence
with the Secretary of State, says, " that having learned that the
title of the State " to an extensive tract of country, " is involved
in the details of a diplomatic arrangement conducted under the
sanction of the executive department of the federal government,
Maine, although not consulted, yet bound from deference to pay
a due respect to reasons, the nature and force of which she is,
from a studious and mysterious reserve, rendered unable to
comprehend, believes that she ought to present her expostula-
tion in regard to any measures threatening her injury." He
understands that the question is not to be limited in the submis-
sion to the treaty line of 1783, and that the Sovereign may de-
cide at pleasure on the whole subject, without being bound by
the obligations of an oath ; and that the Sovereign is one whose
feelings will be prejudiced against a Eepublic accused of inor-
dinate ambition. And he adds : " It is not in cold blood that I
can anticipate the committing the destinies of Maine to an irre-
sponsible arbiter to be found in a distant land, and necessarily

36 THE NORTH-EASTERN BOUNDARY.

unqualified to act in the case. * * Suffice it to say that the
proposed arbitration will jeopardize, without her consent and
against her will, the rights of Maine. And allow me to add,"
continued the Governor, in those grave and strong words which
stirred the blood of every true son of Maine to a boiling heat,
and, reaching the department of State, brought the federal
administration to a halt in what it had been apprehended
were its purposes, " that if called upon to make the required
sacrifice, she will ~be coi^dled to deliberate on an alternative
which will test the strictness of her principles and the firmness
of her temper"

He reminds the President that when Massachusetts entered
the Union " she yielded no right to dispose of her soil, or to ab-
stract any part of it from her jurisdiction, * nor to ex-
pose, without her consent, her dearly purchased and sacred
rights to arbitrament." He warns him that the State of Maine
" will not observe any procedure by the United States and Great
Britain for the severance of her territory and the abrogation of
her authority, without a sensibility too serious to be passive.
She holds that her domain is not the subject of partition" He
puts the question in a paragraph : " No statesman will assert
that the treaty-making power is competent to an act trans-
cending the scope of the combined trusts of the government."

Eecurring, as he could not help doing, to the effrontery of the
British claim, with which our government permitted itself to
be trifled with, he declares that " It may be confidently asserted
not only that the provision of the treaty of 1783 is imperative,
but that it describes our boundary with a precision which
shames the British claim, and, connected with the making of
that claim, casts a shadow over the lustre of the British charac-
ter." He closes this remarkable letter with an expression of
regret that the government should refuse the information con-

THE NORTH-EASTERN BOUNDARY. 37

templated by a resolution of the State, but says he shall con-
tinue to hope for the preservation, under the protecting care of
the government, of that now exposed territory, destined under
any proprietor to be soon occupied by a numerous population,
engaged in all the pursuits which sustain human life and adorn
human nature."

This letter is acknowledged by Mr. Clay on the ninth of
June, and the Governor is assured that the observations made
therein shall receive due attention and respectful consideration,
and that in no contingency is any arbitration contemplated of
the difference between the two countries, but that for which
provision has been solemnly made by treaty that is, the ques-
tion to be submitted shall concern alone the treaty line of 1783.

September third, the Governor informs the Secretary of State,
that he has information of acts of encroachment and aggression
upon our territory by the authorities of New Brunswick ; that
American settlers holding lands, under titles from Maine and
Massachusetts, are denied the right to hold real estate, are taxed
as aliens, and are refused the transmission of their products as
American, while acts of jurisdiction are constantly exercised
by these authorities. He then proceeds to show the value of
this country to Maine and the 'United States, and the import-
ance of excluding British control and jurisdiction. He refers
to our right to the navigation of the river St. John by the law
of nations; as recognized in the case of the Mississippi River,
and to the wrong that will be done if this right is allowed to
be successfully contested. He again informs the Department
that Maine will never assent to the result of an arbitration un-
favorable to her interests and in derogation of her rights.

On the fourteenth of September, Mr. Clay informs Governor
Lincoln that he has advised the British minister that it is ex-
pected the necessary orders will be given on the part of the

38 THE NORTH-EASTERN BOUNDARY.

British government to enforce forbearance from new acts tending
to strengthen its claims. It will be remembered that an under-
standing had been come to between these parties, that there
should be no " new " acts of this kind by either side.

Notwithstanding this agreement and notice, Governor Lincoln
had occasion, on the twenty-second of October, to write the
Lieutenant-Governor of New Brunswick, that he has informa-
tion that one of the citizens of Maine, by the name of John
Baker, while residing on its territory, has been arrested and de-
tained in gaol at Fredericton, in that Province, and asks to be
advised concerning the facts. He. informs the Lieutenant-Gov-
ernor that the attempt to extend the jurisdiction of New
Brunswick over this territory will compel counter action from
Maine. He says : " The arrest of our citizens on what we believe
to be a part of our State, will demand its utmost energies for
resistance."

The Lieutenant-Governor of New Brunswick, on the fifteenth
of November, acknowledges the receipt of the above letter, but
declines to give any information, on the ground that he is not
permitted to give it except to those with whom he is directed
to correspond, or under whose orders he is placed, and declines
to have any further correspondence with the Governor of Maine.
The scarcely veiled insolence of this reply, especially when con-
sidered in connection with the correspondence between Gov-
ernor Fairfield and Lieutenant-Governor Harvey, hereafter re-
ferred to, is painfully apparent.

The Governor of Maine, however, came into possession of an
official writ, by which it appeared that John Baker was ordered
to appear and answer for that he had entered and intruded upon
the lands of the King in the County of Kent, in the Province
of New Brunswick, and erected and built thereon a house and
other edifices, and cut and felled and carried away timber and

THE NORTH-EASTERN BOUNDARY. 39

other trees, &c. This was alleged to have been done on land
situated on the northerly side of the St. John Eiver, and between
the rivers Madawaska and St. Francis.

On the fifth of November, the Governor appointed Charles
Stuart Daveis, Esquire, of Portland, agent, with authority to act
in behalf of the State of Maine in obtaining information, either
informally or by authenticated statements, as to all subjects
relating to rights of property and jurisdiction between the
government of the State and that of New Brunswick. Mr.
Daveis took with him a letter from the Governor of Maine to
the Lieut.-Governor of New Brunswick, advising the latter
of Mr. Daveis' appointment, and its object, and stating that he
was authorized to demand the release of Baker.

On the sixteenth of November, the Governor acknowledges
the receipt of the documents (so long withheld) from the De-
partment of State, but expresses his regret that, from the con-
tents of the Secretary's letter of the tenth instant, he learns
that the objections he has offered to arbitration, without con-
sulting this State, have been unavailing. He adds, in a voice
almost choked with grief : "At last we learn that our strength,
security and wealth are to be subjected to the mercy of a
foreign individual, who, it has been said by your minister,
' rarely decides upon strict principles of law, and has always a
bias to try, if possible, to split the difference.' I CANNOT BUT

YIELD TO THE IMPULSE OF SAYING, MOST RESPECTFULLY, THAT

MAINE HAS NOT BEEN TREATED AS SHE HAS ENDEAVORED TO

DESERVE."

He then informs the Secretary of the facts in the case of
John Baker.

By this time, the excitement in the State, occasioned "by the
imprisonment of Baker and other acts by the Province of New
Brunswick, had grown to such a heat, that Governor Lincoln

40 THE NORTH-EASTERN BOUNDARY.

found it necessary, in order to prevent premature collisions, to
issue a proclamation, in which he exhorted forbearance and
peace on the part of citizens suffering or threatened with wrong,
and those interested by sympathy and principle on account of
the violation of our territory, " so that the preparations for pre-
venting the removal of our landmarks, and guarding the sacred
and inestimable rights of American citizens may not be em-
barrassed by any unauthorized acts."

Mr. Clay writes Governor Lincoln, on the twenty-seventh of
November, that " the government of the United States is fully
convinced that the right of the territory in dispute is with us,
and not with Great Britain. The convictions of Maine are not
stronger in respect to the validity of our title than those which
are entertained by the President." But he reminds his corre-
spondent that the United States is under treaty obligation to
refer the question, and cannot refuse to carry out what it has
pledged itself to perform.

Mr: Daveis, of whose appointment notice has been taken,
visited Houlton and Fredericton this autumn. At the former
place he met persons who had come from above Madawaska, and
were enabled to report to him the condition of things in that
section so fully that he did not deem it necessary to visit it in
person. He gives, in a report made to the Governor Jan. 31,
1828, a succinct history of the progress of the settlements on
the territory in dispute, by citizens of Maine and Massachusetts ;
of trespasses in the way of cutting timber by inhabitants of
New Brunswick under license from that Province ; of seizures
from, and impositions upon, American citizens by Provincial
authorities, by the service of precepts issued by magistrates in
New Brunswick, on American citizens within their own lines ;
and the removal of property from this State by virtue of levies
on executions issued by Provincial courts. New Brunswick

THE NORTH-EASTERN BOUNDARY. 41

officials warned off American citizens from lands lying within
forty miles from Houlton and west of the boundary line. Amer-
ican citizens were driven, by fear, from occupying their own
houses to " lodging about in different places, in barns, or in the
woods, mustering together for the night in larger or smaller
parties, or separating for greater security." Mr. Daveis gives
some account of the settlement of the Acadians on the river St.
John after the peace of 1783, whose number, by the American
census of 1820, was over eleven hundred. The first settlement
by Americans in this neighborhood was, he reported, in 1817,
and not far' from the mouth of the river St. Francis. This set-
tlement was made by several families from the County of Ken-
nebec, in this State. Among them were those of Baker and
Bacon, before referred to, who, in the year 1825, received
deeds of their possessions from the land agents of Maine and
Massachusetts, and who built a mill under the authority of
these States. These American families entered into a compact
between themselves, by which they agreed to submit all disputes
and differences with each other to a tribunal of their own ap-
pointment. This was done to avoid and deny all British juris-
diction. It was to last only one year, as the settlers expected
to receive, before the expiration of that time, from their State
government, the protection of its regular and constituted authori-
ties, for which they had petitioned. That this " home rule "
might be properly inaugurated, the Americans assembled at
John Baker's, and erected a staff and raised a rude representa-
tion of the American eagle, and they enjoyed a repast in the
evening at his house, at which there were music and dancing. ,
When these facts came to the knowledge of one Morehouse, a
provincial magistrate who had on many occasions given annoy-
ance, and inflicted injury and outrage upon citizens of this
State living on their own soil, and sometimes on grants made

42 THE NORTH-EASTERN BOUNDARY.

by Maine and Massachusetts, he presented himself at John
Baker's and gave order for the removal of the American ensign,
which Baker thenceforward called General Baker declined
to obey. Morehouse then demanded the paper of agreement or
compact, which Baker refused to deliver. About this time it
so happened that Baker had made some inquiry of a French-
man, who was carrying a mail, in respect to that service, which
the latter misunderstood, and interpreted as indicating a purpose
to interfere with its performance. Thereupon, Morehouse
issued a warrant against Baker, and not him alone, but Bacon
and one Charles Stetson also, as connected with him in such
imputed interference.

Mr. Daveis continues his account in these words :

"Early in the evening of the twenty-fifth of September, soon
after their return " from Portland, where Baker and Bacon had
been to report the state of affairs on the St. John, and to solicit aid
from the State " and while Baker and his family were asleep, the
house was surrounded by an armed force, and entered by persons
of a civil character and others armed with fusees, &c., who seized
Baker in his bed, and conveyed him, without loss of time, out of
the State. The particulars relating to this circumstance are de-
tailed in the statement of Asahel Baker, a nephew of John Baker,
who was first awakened by the entry. * * The person conduct-
ing the execution proved to be of high official character and per-
sonal respectability in the Province of New Brunswick. He was
informed that papers were in the possession of Baker, justifying
him under the authority of the States ; but he replied that it was
not in his power to attend to any remonstrance. No resistance
was made by Baker, and no opportunity was afforded him to have
intercourse with any friends and neighbors, from whom it was
reasonable to suppose opposition might have been apprehended.
Mr. Baker was carried before Morehouse, in obedience to the war-
rant ; it does not appear that any examination took place, how-

THE NORTH-EASTERN BOUNDARY. 43

ever, but that he was conveyed to Fredericton and there committed
to gaol. The letter from your Excellency to the American inhab-
itants at the upper settlement, was delivered by him to the author-
ity under which he was imprisoned, and after some detention
restored to him.

"The immediate impression produced among the inhabitants of
the settlement by this circumstance, may appear from the further
statement of Asahel Baker. He was the person employed to bring
a representation from them of the arrest of John Baker, which
was deposited by him in the first post office he reached in Ken-
nebec. He was absent some days, and on his return found that
several of the inhabitants had departed. It appears that in the
interim the alien tax had been again demanded, and process had
been served upon the American settlers, generally, similar to that
which had been previously served on the Aroostook, indiscrimin-
ately, to appear at Fredericton in October, to answer to suits for
trespass and intrusion on Crown lands, under the penalty of one
hundred pounds. It is understood that the service of this process
was extended to the American settlers towards the St. Francis and
upon the Fish River, where the road laid out by the Legislatures
of the two States terminates. In consequence of these circum-
stances, it appears that three of the American settlers, Charles
Stetson, Jacob Goldthwait and Charles Smart have parted with
their possessions and removed from the settlement into the planta-
tion of Houlton, where they are at present seeking subsistence.
Stetson was a blacksmith, in good business, and was concerned in
the measure relating to Morehouse. The motives and particulars
of their departure are stated by them in their respective affidavits.

" In the precarious state of their affairs, it is probable that no
certain estimate can be formed of their sacrifices ; but it is evident
that the measures made use of towards the inhabitants in general,
for whatever purpose, have had the effect to expel a portion of
them, and to intimidate the remainder. * * It is evident that
a corresponding application of judicial proceedings has been made

44 THE NORTH-EASTERN BOUNDARY.

from the Province of New Brunswick upon all the settlements
above and below the French occupation of Madawaska, tending to
their extermination ; and that the inhabitants are awaiting, in a
state of fearful anxiety, the final execution, from which they see no
prospect of relief."

These proceedings were justified and adopted, if not pre-
viously authorized, by Sir Howard Douglass, Lieut. -Governor of
New Brunswick, and by Mr. Vaughan, the British Minister at
Washington, as appears by a letter from the latter to Mr. Clay,
November 21, 1827.

The results of these doings were summed up by Mr. Daveis
as follows :

" Citizens of Maine, and others settled on lands surveyed and
granted by its authority, living within its ancient and long-estab-
lished limits, are subjected to the operation of foreign laws. These
are applied to them in the ordinary course of civil process, in
taking away their property, and also their persons. American
citizens in this State are proceeded against as aliens, for sedition
and other offences, and misdemeanors against the Crown of Great
Britain ; and one of them, a grantee of Massachusetts and Maine,
seized on the land granted, remains in prison on charges of that
description."

When these facts became known to the people and the Legis-
lature of the State, there was a deep feeling of indignation at
the wrong and outrage ; and the only wonder to-day is, that it
could have been restrained to peaceable expressions and protests.
To us, the patience with which these encroachments and insults
were borne is simply incredible.

When the Legislature assembled in January, 1828, Governor
Lincoln had received the documents and papers, which he had
been unable to obtain before. He announced to that body the
fact that an arbitration had been entered into between the two

THE NORTH-EASTERN BOUNDARY. 45

governments, and he called its attention to the claim of tempo-
rary jurisdiction by New Brunswick, to the arrest and impris-
onment of Baker, and the report of Mr. Daveis. He declared :
" Maine cannot abandon its obligations, its title deeds and its
rights. It cannot allow its citizens to be incarcerated in foreign
gaols. The State would shrink most dreadfully under the
shame of such a submission." In this arbitration, the King of
the Netherlands was made the umpire.

The Legislature took up the subject in a manner that showed
that, while not unmindful of its relations and duties to the
federal government, nor willing unnecessarily to embarrass it, it
had a painful sense of the wrong and injury the State had re-
ceived. Hon. John G. Deane, on behalf of a joint Select Com-
mittee, made a report so full, so accurate, so absolutely conclu-
sive of every question, as to leave nothing more to be said for
the vindication of our claims and of our interpretation of the
treaty of 1783. A Eesolve was passed, demanding defence and
protection from the United States ; and, in case of new aggres-
sions, authorizing the Governor, if seasonable protection is not
afforded by the general government, to use all proper and
constitutional means to protect and defend our citizens ; and
calling for a demand upon the British government for the release
of John Baker ; also, providing for the relief of his family.

Governor Lincoln, in his last annual message, which he ad-
dressed to the Legislature in January, 1829, a few months
before his lamented death, refers to the vigorous action of the
preceding Legislature, from which he thinks some practical
results may have come, and he mentions, among these, its good
effect upon the nation. The President, he says, has yielded
every possible support ; a garrison has been established upon
our frontier, an agent from among ourselves has been appointed,
a military road has been provided for, and Baker's case has been

46 THE NORTH-EASTERN BOUNDARY.

assumed by the United States ; and, besides this, the character
of the King of the Netherlands is such as to give ground of
hope that the decision will be a just one.

The Legislature passed an act " to prevent foreigners from
exercising acts of jurisdiction within this State, by serving civil
or criminal process."

In 1830, Jonathan G. Hunton was Governor, but nothing of
special interest relating to this question seems to have taken
place during his administration.

In 1831, Governor Samuel E. Smith refers to the delay that
has arisen in reaching a decision by the umpire, and suggests
that it may have occurred from the disturbances that had taken
place in his own kingdom, and which, by depriving him of the
greatest portion of his kingdom, had made him a dependent on
Great Britain. He doubted whether under these circumstances
he ought to act, or could properly act, as umpire. He says:
" Whatever confidence may be put in the justice of our cause,
however clearly our right may be shewn in argument, we cer-
tainly could not be willing to submit it to the umpirage of a
sovereign who is not only the ally, but who, by the force of
circumstances, may have become, in some measure, the depend-
ent ally of Great Britain."

That England, after this event, should have insisted upon
proceeding with the arbitration, was scarcely less than an
indecency and an affront, and one wonders at the good nature
and blindness to injury which still continued to mark the
temper and conduct of the United States.

The question submitted to the King of the Netherlands re-
mained to be decided by the King of Holland.

But the Governor takes encouragement after this protest,
from the appointment of a Minister, by whom the case was to

THE NORTH-EASTERN BOUNDARY. 47

be presented to the umpire, from among our own citizens, of
one so able and well-informed as the Hon. William Pitt Preble.

Albert Gallatin, an experienced diplomatist, and a man of
historic reputation, and Judge Preble, of Portland, had been
designated during the administration of Mr. Adams, to manage
the case before the umpire; and when the appointment of
Judge Preble as Minister was made by President Jackson, the
valuable assistance of Mr. Daveis was secured to him by the
government.

Governor Smith took leave of this subject in his message for
1831, by saying that he was not aware that anything at present
remained to be done by the Legislature that could facilitate the
inquiry, or affect the result.

On the tenth of January, 1831, the King of Holland made
his report award it could not be called. He found himself
unable or unwilling to decide where the line ought to be run,
but said :

" We are of opinion that it will be suitable (il conviendra) to
adopt as the boundary of the two States, a line drawn due north
from the source of the river St. Croix, to a point where it inter-
sects the middle of the thalweg (i. e. deepest channel) of the river
St. John, ascending it to the point where the river St. Francis
empties itself into the river St. John, thence the middle of the
thalweg of the river St. Francis to the source of its uppermost
branch, which source we indicate on the map A by the X? authen-
ticated by the signature of our minister of Foreign Affairs, thence
a line drawn due west to a point where it unites with a line claimed
by the United States of America, and delineated on the map A,
thence said line to the point at which, according to said maps, it
coincides with that claimed by Great Britain, thence the line traced
in the map by the two powers to the north-westernmost source of
the Connecticut River."

48 THE NORTH-EASTERN BOUNDARY.

The King further expresses the opinion that it would be suit-
able that the line from the Connecticut River to the St. Law-
rence should be so drawn as to include in the United States,
the fort at Rouse's Point, and its kilometrical radius.

It is abundantly certain from the whole report and proceed-
ings that the King could not adopt the British claim, and did
not wish to accept that of the United States, and so, to avoid a
decision, contented himself by making a recommendation. A
higher indirect concession to the American claim it would be
difficult to imagine.

On the twelfth of January, our Minister, Judge Preble, made
a protest against the proceeding, " as constituting a departure
from the power delegated by the high parties interested."

Unofficial intelligence of the report of the King of Holland
was received in Maine during the session of the Legislature, and
occasioned much uneasiness. A joint-select committee made a
vigorous report, in which were no sounds of uncertainty or fear,
through Col. Deane. It said :

" If the Government of the United States can cede a portion of
an independent State to a foreign government, she can, by the same
principle, cede the whole ; or if to a foreign government, she can,
by the same principle, annex one State to another until the whole
are consolidated, and she becomes the sole Sovereign and lawgiver,
without any check to her exercise of power."

It is not to be answered that the treaty-making power has,
from the necessity of the case, ample authority to decide dis-
putes between the nation and other nations, whether they refer
to boundaries or anything else. This nation has no right under
the treaty-making power to cede the territory of any State the
title to which in the State, it affirms. In this case, the United
States, by Congress as well as by the Executive Department, as
had also the Legislatures of Maine and Massachusetts and of

THE NORTH-EASTERN BOUNDARY. 49

most the other States, declared repeatedly and in the most em-
phatic and unequivocal terms, that the right of Maine was " clear
and unquestionable." Her title was as clear to Madawaska as
to Portland, and a cession or sale of the latter would be quite as
objectionable and unconstitutional as a transfer of the former.

This committee reported Eesolves, which were passed, de-
claring " That the convention of 1827 tended to violate the
Constitution of the United States, and to impair the sovereign
rights and powers of the State of Maine, and that Maine is not
bound by the Constitution to submit to the decision which has
been, or shall be, made under that convention." Also, that
whereas the submission was to the King of the Netherlands, an
independent Sovereign, exercising dominion over six millions of
people, and whereas, by the force of liberal opinions in Belgium,
he was deprived of more than half of his dominions, and his
dependence on Great Britain for holding his power, even in
Holland, was increased, and, inasmuch as he had made no deci-
sion before his kingdom was dismembered by his own consent,
and his public character changed, it was resolved that the
award " cannot and ought not to be considered obligatory upon
the government of the United States, either on the principles of
right and justice, or of honor." And further, " that no decision
made by an umpire under any circumstances, if the decision
dismembers a State, has or can have any constitutional force or
obligation upon the State thus dismembered, unless the State
adopt and sanction the decision."

On the eighteenth of March, Mr. Van Buren, Secretary of
State, communicated the report of the King of Holland to the
Governor of Maine, with a request, in substance, that pending
its consideration at Washington, Maine should keep quiet and
behave herself.

Governor Smith transmitted the papers to the Legislature on
4

50 THE NOKTH-EASTEKN BOUNDARY.

the twenty-fifth of March, with a message which endorsed and
commended the advice of Mr. Van Buren as to good behavior
on the part of the people of Maine and their representatives.
But the Legislature was scarcely in a temper to appreciate this
advice in the sense in which it was given. It had yet some
sense of honor, duty and self respect ; and on the thirtieth
of March it made its answer to the President, in which it
plainly told him that " there are rights which a free people
cannot yield, and there are encroachments upon such rights
which ought to be resisted and prevented, or the people
have no assurance of the continuance of their liberties." The
report took up the opinion of the King, and the question
of his right to act after he had ceased to be Sovereign of the
Netherlands, and by facts incontestible and by invincible logic,
showed that the opinion was in no sense binding either upon
the United States or the State of Maine, and declared that " if
the United States should adopt the document as a decision, it
will be in violation of the constitutional rights of the State of
Maine, which she cannot yield."

A copy of this report of the Legislature was ordered to be
sent to the President of the United States and to the Governors
of the several States.

Governor Smith, it will be remembered, had, in his annual
message a few weeks before, referred to the change which had
taken place in the relations of the umpire since the submission
was made, and expressed the unwillingness the State would
feel to submit the question to the decision of a sovereign who
was the ally, and might become the dependent ally, of the con-
testing party. The legislative report had but echoed this
opinion. Acting in its spirit, and in view of the whole situation,
and in full harmony, as was supposed, with the views of the
Governor (for as yet he had not heard from Mr. Van Buren),

THE NOETH-E ASTERN BOUNDARY. 51

the Legislature, on the fifteenth of March, 1831, passed an Act,
which received the approval of the Governor, to incorporate the
town of Madawaska, by which the inhabitants thereof were
declared to be " subject to the same duties and liabilities, and
vested with the privileges and immunities which other incorpo-
rated towns are within this State." Any Justice of Peace within
the County of Penobscot, or any Justice throughout the State,
was empowered to issue his warrant to any inhabitant of the
place, directing him to notify a meeting for the choice of officers.
In conformity to this Act, a warrant was issued by William D.
Williamson, Esquire, a Justice of the Peace throughout the
State, directed to Walter Powers, an inhabitant of Madawaska,
to notify the inhabitants of that town to meet at the house of
Peter Lezart to organize the town and elect town officers. The
meeting was duly called and held in August, but its proceedings
were interrupted and delayed by interference and threats on the
part of Leonard B. Coombs, a Captain of Militia, and Francis
Eice, a Justice of the Peace, holding commissions from the Prov-
ince of New Brunswick. But the inhabitants present, about fifty
in number, persevered in their work and elected town officers.
Another town meeting, at which eighty inhabitants were pres-
ent, was held on the second Monday of September, 1831, being
the day of the State election, at the house of Eaphael Martin,
when Peter Lezart was elected a representative to the State
Legislature. Eice was present at this meeting, also, interrupt-
ing it, and using language of menace and abuse. He took
the names of the persons voting at the meeting. On the
twenty-fifth of the month, a military force was collected at the
chapel in Madawaska, by Provincial authority, and repaired to
the house of one Simon Herbert, further up the river, where
they were attended by the Lieutenant-Governor of New Bruns-
wick. This force succeeded in arresting Daniel Savage, Jesse

52 . THE NORTH-EASTERN BOUNDARY.

Wheelock, Barnabas Hunnewell, Daniel Bean and several others,
and held them prisoners for the offence of acting at the town
meeting. John Baker escaped to the woods, and finally came to
Portland, where, on the twelfth of October, he gave to the Gov-
ernor a detailed statement of the facts, to which he made oath
before Francis 0. J. Smith, Esquire, Justice of the Peace.
Wheelock and Savage, who were arrested as above stated, ad-
dressed a letter to Eoscoe G. Greene, Secretary of State, in which
they informed him of the circumstances of their arrest. They
said :

" His Excellency, Sir Archibald Campbell, Lieutenant-Governor
and Commander-in-Chief of the Province of New Brunswick, ar-
rived here on the twenty-third instant, with one Colonel, one Cap-
tain of the Militia, the Attorney-General of the Province and Mr.
McLaughlan ; also, by the Sheriff of the County of York. On the
twenty-fourth they directed warrants to be issued against all those
who had acted at said meetings. * * We were arrested on the
twenty-fifth. * * On the twenty-sixth the Sheriff and Captain
Coombs and some militia ascended the river to Mr. Baker's to
arrest those in that neighborhood ; thence to St. Francis River,
expecting to return to-day, when we are to be immediately sent to
Fredericton gaol. When the rest of our unfortunate countrymen
arrive we will enlist their names and numbers, together with what
other information shall come to our knowledge. The families of
them will be left in a deplorable situation unless their country will
immediately release them. * * We are now descending the
river, twenty miles above Woodstock."

Of these persons, Savage, Wheelock and Hunnewell were
arraigned before the Supreme Court of New Brunswick, and
sentenced to pay a fine of fifty pounds and be imprisoned three
months, and were accordingly thrown into prison at Fredericton.

Down to the period covered by these proceedings, with the

THE NORTH-EASTERN BOUNDARY. 53

single exception, if such it may be regarded, of the Governor's
message in March, I find no blot on the history of this State,
nothing to be ashamed of, nothing to hide the head for, but
a constant exhibition of elevated and dignified patriotism a
proper regard for the integrity and honor of the Commonwealth.

But after this, succeeds a term which we might well desire
to have expunged from our annals.

The Senate of the United States had rejected the recom-
mendation of the King of Holland, and new negotiations were
in contemplation at Washington, when the intelligence was
received there from the Governor of Maine of the proceedings
at Madawaska, and the arrest of Wheelock and others. The
administration was greatly disturbed, and communicated its
displeasure to Governor Smith. He, on the twelfth of October,
replied that:

"An Act was passed by the Legislature of this State at the last
session to incorporate the town of Madawaska, which is bounded,
in part, by the line of the State. By this Act and some others, I
understood it was intended by the Legislature to assert the claim
of the State to jurisdiction over that portion of the territory which
they knew to be within the limits of Maine ; and that it was not
to be carried into effect until circumstances should render it proper
and expedient. This measure is said to have been adopted by the
inhabitants of that territory, voluntarily organizing themselves
into a corporation ; was unexpected by me, and done without my
knowledge."

What a spectacle is here ! The Secretary of State of the
United States had written the Governor of Maine a sharp letter,
reproving the State, in effect, for its independent and proper
action. And the Chief Magistrate, who but a few months
before had been so earnest, who had approved an act to incor-

54 THE NORTH-EASTERN BOUNDARY.

porate the town, when the people thereof, in good faith, sup-
posing the act of the Legislature meant what it said as indeed
it did, as everybody conversant with its history well knew
went to work, and in conformity to its provisions organized
the town instead of planting himself firmly upon the act of
the Legislature and the doings of his people, starts back, like
Fear in Collins' Ode,

" E'en at the sound himself had made."

To this excuse and protestation, Secretary Livingston made re-
ply in a letter of such tone and language as no Governor of a State
should permit to be addressed to him, without indignant remon-
strance, to say the least. He told him that the President could
not " consider the continuance of the occupation " (of Maine)
" ~by the officers, civil and military, of the British Province as an
invasion ; but will take all proper measures to procure the re-
lease of the ill-advised persons who have been the cause of this
disturbance."

ILL-ADVISED PERSONS ! Who gave them the ill advice ? The
Legislature of Maine and the Governor of Maine ! These and
no others, and in the most unequivocal and solemn manner.
Of the important facts the Secretary had learned enough to ren-
der his language as direct and pointed a rebuke to the Legisla-
ture and Executive authorities of the State, as it was possible to
make. How, may it be imagined, would Enoch Lincoln have
received words like these words that should

" Kindle cowards, and steel with valor
The melting spirits of women " ?

But whatever the amount of reproof and insolence the Sec-
retary of State was pleased to visit upon the Governor of Maine,
he made ample amends for it in his disgraceful obsequiousness

THE NORTH-EASTERN BOUNDARY. 55

to the British minister. To show the humiliation with which
the government was pleased to clothe itself, and, with the con-
sent of her Executive, the State of Maine, it is only necessary
to quote from a letter of Mr. Livingston to Mr. Bankhead, the
British Minister, on the fifteenth of October, 1831. Transmit-
ting extracts from Governor Smith's letter, before referred to,
he says :

" You will perceive that the election of town officers in the settle-
ment of Madawaska, of which complaint was made in the papers
enclosed in your letter, was made under color of a general law,
which was not intended, by either the executive or legislative au-
thority, to be executed in that settlement, and that the whole was
the work of inconsiderate individuals"

One can hardly conceive a statement more crowded with
errors of fact than this. In the first place, as we have seen,
there was a gross error in the assertion that the incorporation
of the town of Madawaska was under a general law, and not by
a special act ; and that the action of the inhabitants was not
contemplated by the State, was an error equally manifest.

If the Legislature of Maine, with the approval of the Gov-
ernor, set itself to the work of passing a special act of incorpo-
ration, was it in accordance with a proper respect for the honor
of the State, to assert that it was not intended that the power
should be exercised ; that it was simply a paper defiance from a
a safe distance a mere brutum fulmen ? That while Judge
Williamson, the historian of Maine, was issuing his warrant to
Mr. Powers for the organization of the town, and the purpose
was being executed in the knowledge of the whole State, and
all the public journals were seriously discussing it, the State
itself was, after all, only playing the lion's part, after the man-
ner of Nick Bottom, the weaver ?

56 THE NORTH-EASTERN BOUNDARY.

Instead of demanding, in a firm and becoming tone, the im-
mediate release of the citizens of Maine, who had been impris-
oned in a foreign gaol for the offence of acting in obedience to
the laws of their State, the Secretary says to Mr. Bankhead :
"/ respectfully suggest the propriety of your commending to the
Lieutenant-Governor of New Brunswick the release of the
prisoners."

Having, by these apologies and humble petitions from the
American Secretary, obtained what he assumed to regard as a
practical recognition of the provincial claim of exclusive juris-
diction, the British government graciously consented to the
release. This is not pleasant reading. It makes one neither
happy nor proud. The State made no protest uttered no word
of grave remonstrance.

Upon the assembling of the Legislature of 1832, the Governor
recited at some length, in his message, the transactions of the
preceding autumn, and informed that body that, through the
intervention of the President, Wheelock and the other prisoners
had been released.

On the twenty-second of February, the Governor made a
communication to the Legislature, in secret session, in which he
said he had been informed by Judge Preble, the agent of the
State at Washington, that the award of the King would event-
ually be adopted by our government ; that Maine would re-
ceive pecuniary indemnity if she would cede her territory
lying outside of the line of the award. He urged promptness
of action on the part of the Legislature.

The President was anxious that some arrangement should be
made by which Maine would consent to abide by the line of
the King ; and the Congressional delegation from the State, with
the exception of Mr. Evans (who opposed the proposition in a
letter marked by the incisiveness and vigor which charac-

THE NORTH-EASTERN BOUNDARY. 57

terized alike the forensic and political efforts of this very
great man), wrote Judge Preble in favor of submitting the plan
to the Legislature.

The question was discussed by the Legislature, with closed
doors, and finally a resolution was passed authorizing the Gov-
ernor to appoint three Commissioners to see what terms and
conditions could be arranged, and report to the Legislature for
its action. The commission was constituted by the appointment
of three eminent and able gentlemen William Pitt Preble,
Eeuel Williams and Nicholas Emery. The President appointed
on the part of the United States, as Commissioners to confer
with those from Maine, the Secretary of State, Edward Living-
ston ; the Secretary of the Treasury, Louis McLane ; the Sec-
retary of the Navy, Levi Woodbury. When our Commission-
ers reached Washington, they found there a public opinion that
demanded urgently and almost imperatively, a settlement of
the vexed and long-disturbing question. The commerce and
business of the country, all its industrial, commercial and
financial interests, in fact, called for a removal of the causes
of apprehension that the peace of the country might be rup-
tured ; and New York, as Governor Parris had predicted years
before she would make known, wanted Rouse's Point. The
whole power of the administration, a nearly united South, and
the commercial interests of the North, were brought to bear
upon the Commissioners. They were warned that, if they did
not consent to the new line, the question would be submitted
to another arbitration. Thus pressed, they finally consented to
submit certain propositions to the Legislature of the State.
Perhaps they could have done no less under all the circum-
stances. It was not for them they considered, as I imagine, to
debar the State of an opportunity for considering, through its
Legislature, the propositions which the Commissioners of the

58 THE NOETH-E ASTERN BOUNDARY.

United States were prepared to make. These were in substance
a new line, which, if not entirely coincident with, was yet on
the basis of the King of Holland's recommendation, and one
million of acres of land in Michigan, which, at the minimum
government price, was worth $1,250,000, and probably much
more than this sum in fact. If a conventional line, not involv-
ing an exchange of territory, were admissible at all, these terms
should not probably be regarded as unreasonable in amount,
however humiliating in respect to the source from which they
proceeded.

But Maine had never ceased to feel an invincible repugnance
to the idea of selling her territory for cash, or cash equivalents,
still less of abandoning her citizens, exchanging them as well
as her soil for counters. And so when it was known, in the
winter of 1832, that the Legislature had resolved itself into
secret session to consider propositions for a settlement of the
question by a conventional line, the fears of the people were
aroused and an intense excitement was created. Eeports, more
or less correct, of the doings in secret session were circulated
among the people and appeared in the newspapers. Startling
headings arrested the eyes of the people. " MAINE SOLD OUT ! "
" MAINE IN THE MARKET ! " " OUR FELLOW CITIZENS TRANS-
FERRED TO A FOREIGN POWER FOR CASH OR LAND ! ! "

An anonymous letter, evidently written by a member or
officer of the Legislature, indicating the passage of a Eesolve
(such as was in fact passed on the third of March), was
printed in the Kennebec Journal, which, in connection with
the events growing out of its publication, inflamed still more
the public feeling. The name of the author was demanded of
the editor, Hon. Luther Severance, who, upon his refusal to
divulge it, was committed to the Augusta gaol for contempt,
from which, however, he was soon released.

THE NORTH-EASTERN BOUNDARY. 59

In this excited condition of the popular mind, the Legislature
adjourned, and its members returned to their homes to meet
there alarmed and indignant constituencies. A speech from
Jacob Ludden, a Democratic representative from Canton, in
Oxford County, delivered in secret session, and published in the
Portland Advertiser of the twenty-seventh of February, had
touched the popular chord, and was quoted everywhere. AN
HONEST MAN, was the heading of the speech. Said Mr. Ludden :

" Our agent at Washington says we can make a better bargain
if we take land than if we trade for cash ! What, sir ! bargain our
American territory and American citizens for land or cash ? Sell
our citizens without their consent ! Sell them to the British, and
to become subjects of a British King ! Sir, history informs us of
only one solitary instance in this republic where a bargain of this
kind was ever attempted ; and that was at West Point, in the
secret session held by Benedict Arnold and Major Andre. Our
title to the territory is indisputable. It was purchased for us.
The price was blood the blood of our fathers. And shall we, sir,
like Esau, sell our birthright for a mess of pottage ? No sir !
heaven protect us from such disgrace. * * Sir, whoever this
day votes for this disgraceful bargain will, I trust, live to see the
time when the finger of scorn shall be pointed at him, and shall
hear the contemptuous expression, l You are one of the number
who voted to sell a part of your country ! ? Yes, sir, we sell not
only a part of our country, but our fellow citizens with it ; and
among these citizens a member of this House, legally chosen by
order of the constituted authorities of this State, and who has as
good a right to his seat as any member on this floor. Sir, I enter
my solemn protest against these whole proceedings."

Public meetings were held in many of the towns especially
in the country towns of the State, indignantly and solemnly
protesting against and denouncing " these whole proceedings,"

60 THE NORTH-EASTERN BOUNDARY.

calling upon the State authorities, upon our members of Con-
gress and the federal government to arrest them, and to take
prompt and vigorous measures to vindicate the honor of the
State and nation, and to preserve their territory in its integrity.

At a Fourth of July celebration, in Augusta, the sentiment,
" Our brethren of Madawaska a little too white to be sold ! " was
drunk with tremendous applause, was published in the news-
papers of the State, and of other States, was echoed in highway
and byway, and repeated in the homes of the people.

The result was, that the project fell through ; failed utterly,
not to say ignominiously. In the Legislature of the next year
a Kesolve was passed on the fourth of March, 1833 which
repealed so much of the Eesolve of the previous year under
which Commissioners had been appointed to arrange provisional
terms of adjustment, as provided for the submission of their
report to the Legislature, and passed another Eesolve to the
effect " that no arrangement, provisional arrangement or treaty
already made, or that may hereafter be made, or in pursuance
of the Eesolve to which this is additional, shall have any bind-
ing force, effect or operation until the same shall have been
submitted to the people of this State in their primary assemblies,
and approved by a majority of their votes." And yet, within
ten short years, and without submission to a vote of the people,
this territory, " invaluable," as Governor Lincoln had declared
it, these fellow citizens of ours " a little too white to be sold "
in 1832 John Baker, holding title deeds from the two States,
wife and children " all my pretty chickens and their dam "
Wheelock, Bacon and their families, Peter Lezart, too, the repre-
sentative, and hundreds more, were transferred and conveyed to
a foreign Crown !

Nothing more of importance happened within the State in

THE NORTH-EASTERN BOUNDARY. 61

1833, but at Washington, as will be seen, propositions of grave
and dangerous import were being considered.

When the Legislature of 1834 assembled, it was addressed by
Governor Dunlap, in a message which reminded that body of
the mistakes which had been made, and expressed a hope that,
since we had escaped the dangers impending therefrom, there
was " a way now open for the ultimate attainment of our rights."

How blind and devious was the way in which the State de-
partment at Washington was disposed to walk, Governor Dun-
lap did not then know. Subsequent to the rejection, in 1832, of
the advice of the King of Holland, the Senate passed a resolu-
tion advising the President to open a new negotiation " according
to the Treaty of Peace of 1783." Mr. Livingston was Secretary
of State, and he renewed the negotiation in a manner which
only an ascription of the grossest ignorance or stupidity on his
part could rescue from the imputation of infidelity to the cause
whose defence had been placed in his hands. He began by a
half admission that the treaty could not be executed. He
violated the express instructions under which he was acting, by
suggesting to the British Minister that Maine would probably
give her consent to a conventional line. On the thirtieth of
April, 1833, he wrote a letter to Mr. Vaughan, the British Min-
ister, in which he intimated that a line might be drawn from
the monument to the highlands, though these highlands should
not be found due north from the monument, and when the
British Minister objected, that such a line might reach highlands
east of the meridian of the St. Croix, Mr. Livingston hastens
to reply (the twenty-eighth of May), that " the American gov-
ernment can make no pretensions to go "further east than that (a
due north) line ; but if, on a more accurate survey, it should be
found that the line mentioned in the treaty should pass each of
the highlands therein described, and that they should be found

62 THE NORTH-EASTERN BOUND AEY.

at some point further west, then the principles to which I refer
would apply, to wit : that the direction of the line to connect the
two natural boundaries must be altered, so as to suit their ascer-
tained position." Well might a committee of the Legislature
of Massachusetts say, " It is with extreme mortification that we
contemplate this subject. We see, or think we see, that not only
the honor of the nation, but the sovereignty of Maine and the
interest of Massachusetts* have been totally disregarded."

During the years 1835, 1836 and 1837, matters remained
very much in statu quo, except that during all this time the
government and people of New Brunswick were gradually
pushing their claims to the occupation and jurisdiction of the
territory in dispute. The London Chronicle of the twenty-eighth
of May, 1831, had said : " The disputed territory is now in our
possession, and as we believe right is on our side, we would
recommend the government not to part with it. Besides, pos-
session is nine points of the law." This advice had not been
unheeded by the British authorities on either side of the At-
lantic. The object seemed to be to gain time and put off nego-
tiations until the British claims should be strengthened by
length of possession and renewed and multiplied acts of jurisdic-
tion and sovereignty. For, notwithstanding the covenants of
neutrality between the powers, they were constantly violated,
and with impunity, by the authorities and people of New
Brunswick.

So far had these encroachments extended before the close of
the administration of Governor Dunlap, that, in his annual
message for 1837, he felt constrained to. address the Legislature
in these strong and earnest terms :

* It will be remembered that, at this time, Massachusetts was joint owner
with Maine of the soil of the undivided wild lands of the latter State.

THE NORTH-EASTERN BOUNDARY. 63

" It must be conceded that our people and their State govern-
ment have exercised a most liberal forbearance upon the subject,
considering the series of years it has been agitated, and the suc-
cessive incidental circumstances calculated to excite and aggravate
popular feeling. Our soil and our sovereignty have been invaded.
Over a portion of domain of incalculable value, owned jointly by
this and our parent Commonwealth, an attempt has been made to
establish an adverse claim. The jurisdiction of the State has been
rendered inoperative, either for the protection of our soil or of our
injured inhabitants. Under color of authority from a foreign
government, our unoffending citizens, in time of peace, have been
forced from their rightful homes, and dragged beyond the limits of
the State. Trials for imaginary crimes have been instituted against
them, and, upon our brethren, guilty of no offence, and charged
with no wrong, the indignities of a foreign gaol have been imposed.
Our political system has lodged, in the first instance, the power
and the duty of protection with the federal government. To that
government we have appealed, but relief has not come. Our lands
are sequestered, our sovereignty is insulted and our injured citizens
are unredressed. In this state of things, is it not due to our own
self-respect as well as to the cause of justice, that the State of
Maine should insist on being immediately placed by the govern-
ment of the United States into the possession of the invaluable
rights from which she has been so long excluded ? "

It is not easy to see how the case could have been presented
more cogently and eloquently than it was in these noble
words of Governor Dunlap. An earnest and able report was
made to the Legislature by the joint committee, to which the
question had been referred ; and the following Kesolves were
passed by the Legislature :

"Resolved, That we view with much solicitude the British usur-
pations and encroachments on the north-easterly part of the terri-
tory of this State.

64 THE NORTH-EASTERN BOUNDARY.

"Resolved, That pretensions so groundless and extravagant in-
dicate a spirit of hostility which we had no reason to expect from
a nation with whom we are at peace.

"Resolved, That vigilance, resolution, firmness and union on the
part of this State are necessary in this state of the controversy.

" Resolved, That the Governor be authorized and requested to
call on the President of the United States to cause the north-
eastern boundary of this State to be explored and surveyed and
monuments erected, according to the treaty of 1783.

" Resolved, That the co-operation of Massachusetts be requested.

"Resolved) That our Senators be instructed and our Represent-
atives be requested to endeavor to obtain a speedy adjustment of
the controversy."

Copies of the Report and Resolves were ordered to be sent
to the President, the Governor of Massachusetts, to our Senators
and Representatives in Congress, and to the Governors and
Senators of all the other States.

Here was notice, at last, that could not be mistaken, that the
patience of the State was exhausted, and that the policy which
had prevailed for several years, could not be continued without
endangering the harmony of the relations heretofore subsisting
between the State and the nation.

The successor of Governor Dunlap was Edward Kent, and he
came to the office of Governor in 1838, charged with tbe spirit
which had been manifested by Governor Dunlap and the Legis-
lature of 1837.

In his annual message, he went over the essential points of
the controversy, as it then stood, with great clearness and force.
He said :

"It has required, and still requires, all the talents of her"
(England's) "statesmen and skill of her diplomatists, to render
that obscure and indefinite which is clear and unambiguous. I

THE NORTH-EASTERN BOUNDARY. 65

cannot for a moment doubt that if the same question should arise
in private life, in relation to the boundaries of adjacent farms,
with the same evidence and the same arguments, it would be de-
cided in any court, in any civilized country, without hesitation or
doubt, according to our claims."

But Great Britain desired, and was determined to have,
direct communication between her lower and upper Provinces,
and believed it to be obtainable only by way of the Madawaska
Eiver and Temiscouata Lake. She sought it for a long time as
a favor, that is, as a grant without an equivalent. She had
come to demand it, and with it about one-third of our territory,
as her right.

Previous to Governor Kent's term, in the year 1837, Ebenezer
S. Greeley, of Dover, had been appointed by the State authori-
ties to take the census of Madawaska, that the people living
there might receive their portion of the " surplus revenue," as
it was called, which, by an act of the Legislature, was to be
divided, per capita, among the people of the State. He was
arrested by the Provincial authorities while in the performance
of this duty. Eeferring to the case, the Governor said :

" A citizen of our State, Ebenezer S. Greeley, now lies imprisoned
at Fredericton, seized, as it is said, for exercising power delegated
to him under a law of this State. The facts connected with this
arrest are unknown to me, and I therefore forbear to comment at
this time upon them. But if the facts are that he was so seized,
for such a lawful act, the dignity and sovereignty of the State
demand his immediate release."

Here, it will be observed, no humble request, such as was ad-
dressed to Mr. Bankhead, is contemplated, but a peremptory
demand. The Governor continues :

" I am aware that we are met by the assertion that the parties
have agreed to permit the actual jurisdiction to remain, pending
5

66 THE NOETH-EASTEEN BOUND AEY.

the negotiation as it existed before. I have yet seen no evidence
that such an agreement was formally entered into by the parties.
But certainly Maine was no party to such an understanding ; and
at all events, it never could have been intended to be perpetually
binding, or to extend beyond the termination of the then pending
negotiation. That negotiation is ended. The old ground of claim
at Mars Hill is abandoned ; a new allegation is made that the
treaty cannot be executed and must be set aside. In the mean-
time this wardenship" New Brunswick, it should be said, had
appointed one McLaughlan Warden of all this territory " is estab-
lished, and all claim to absolute jurisdiction, not merely at Mada-
waska, but over the whole territory north, is asserted and enforced.
If tins jurisdiction is to be tolerated and acquiesced in indefinitely,
we can easily see why negotiation lags, and two years elapse be-
tween a proposition and the reply."

Referring to the latest phase of the British contention, of
which Governor Kent makes mention, viz : " that the treaty
cannot be executed," it is curious to note the changes that had
taken place in the pret