# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Maine (state)

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​MAINE, a North Atlantic state of the United States of America, the most north-easterly state in the Union, and the largest of the New England group. It lies between 43° 4′ and 47° 27′ 33″ N., and between 66° 56′ 48″ and 71° 6′ 41″ W. It is bounded N.W. by the Canadian province of Quebec; N. and E. by the Canadian province of New Brunswick, from which it is separated in part by the natural barriers of the Saint John River, the Grand (or Schoodic) Lakes, the Saint Croix River, and Passamaquoddy Bay; S.S.E. by the Atlantic Ocean; and W. by New Hampshire, the Piscataqua and Salmon Falls rivers being the natural boundary lines at the S.W. The area of the state is 33,040 sq. m., 3145 sq. m. being water surface.
Maine attracts more summer visitors than any other state in the Union. This is due to the cool and refreshing summer climate; the picturesque coast and its many islands, which are favourite grounds for camps and summer cottages; the mountains, and the beautiful lakes and rivers, many of which afford opportunities for good fishing and canoeing. Among the more widely known resorts are Mount Desert Island, on which is Bar Harbor, a fashionable summer place of great beauty; Long Island, Orr’s and other islands in Casco Bay; Old Orchard, with a gently sloping white sand sea-beach 9 m. long, Rangeley and Moosehead Lakes, favourite resorts of fishermen and hunters; Mt Katahdin, in the heart of the moose country; and Poland Springs (38 m. by rail from Portland) in Androscoggin county, near lake Anasigunticook. About 1870, camps, summer cottages, summer hotels and boarding houses began to multiply throughout the state. The needs of this summer population gave a new impulse and a new turn to agriculture; and the demand for souvenirs revived among the Indians basket-weaving, moccasin-making, and such crafts.
Physical Features.—The surface is a gently rolling upland, forming a part of the “New England uplands,” above which rise isolated mountain peaks and clusters of peaks, and below which are cut numerous river valleys. The highest peak is Mt Katahdin (5200 ft.), a little N.E. of the centre of the state in Piscataquis county, which rises from a comparatively level upland. South-west of Katahdin, in Franklin county, are most of the other high peaks of the state: Saddleback Mountain (4000 ft.), Mt Abraham (3388 ft.), Mt Bigelow (3600 ft.), and Mt Blue (3200 ft.). A little N. of this line of mountain peaks is the water-parting which divides the state into a north slope and a south slope. The north slope descends gently both to the N. and to the E.; although quite hilly in the middle and western portions it is so poorly drained that swamps abound in all sections. The south slope which contains nearly all the mountains and is generally more hilly, has a mean descent toward the sea of about 7 ft. to the mile, the fall being greater in the W., where the mountains are high at the N. and the shore low at the S., and less to the E., where the water-parting is lower and the shore high and rocky.
After the uplift which caused the rivers to cut below the general “uplands,” and develop well marked valleys for themselves, came the period of the great continental glaciation. The glacier or ice sheet overran all Maine, irregularly scouring out the bed rock to produce rock basins, damming up many river valleys with glacial deposits and completely disarranging the drainage lines. When the ice melted, the rock basins and the dammed-up valleys filled with water to produce lakes. This is the origin of the numerous lakes of Maine, which give it some of its most beautiful scenery, and help to make it a holiday resort in summer. These lakes are about 1600 in number, are scattered in all parts of the state, are especially numerous at high elevations, and have an aggregate area of more than 2000 sq. m. Few other regions have so many large lakes so variously situated, and with such beauty of aspect and surroundings. They contribute largely to a constant supply of water power for which the course of the rivers of S.W. Maine are exceptionally well adapted; many of them abound in trout, salmon, togue, black bass and pickerel; and near them there is still much game. Moosehead Lake (about 120 sq. m.; 35 m. long and from 2 m. to 10 m. wide), on the boundary between Piscataquis and Somerset counties, is the largest in Maine and the largest inland body of water wholly in New England; the Kennebec River is its principal outlet and Mt Kineo rises abruptly to about 1760 ft. above the sea (about 700 ft. above the lake) on its eastern shore. Other lakes, such as the Rangeley Lakes, Chesuncook and Twin Lakes on the Penobscot, and the Grand or Schoodic Lakes, in the western boundary at the head waters of the Saint Croix River, equal or surpass Moosehead in picturesqueness. The glacier or ice sheet, above referred to, deposited till or boulder clay, which was compacted under the enormous pressure of the ice sheet to form the “hard-pan” referred to later. The glaciation is also responsible for the poor soil of most of the state, for, although the rocks are the same crystallines which give good soils further south in unglaciated regions, all the decayed portions of the Maine rocks have been removed by glacial erosion, revealing fresh, barren rock over great areas, or depositing the rather sterile hard-pan as a thin coating in other places.
After the uplift came a period of subsidence, during which this region sank one or more thousand feet, allowing the sea to encroach on the land and run far inland into the previously made river valleys. This depression probably occurred during the glacial period, perhaps toward its close, and is responsible for the second most important feature of Maine physiography, the embayed coast. To this subsidence are due the picturesque coastal scenery, the numerous islands and bays, the good harbours and the peculiar coast-line.
The shortest distance between the N.E. and the S.W. extremities of the coast is only 225 m.; but, on account of projections and indentations, the coast-line measures not less than 2500 m. The headlands, the deep indentations and the numerous islands in the bays and beyond produce a beautiful mingling of land and sea and give to the whole ocean front the appearance of a fringed and tasselled border; west of the mouth of the Kennebec River are a marshy shore and many low grassy islands; but east of this river the shore becomes more and more bold, rising in the precipitous cliffs and rounded summits of Mt Desert and Quoddy Head, 1527 and 1000 ft. high respectively. All along the coast-line there are capacious and well-protected harbours, Casco, Penobscot, Frenchman’s, Machias and Passamaquoddy bays being especially noteworthy.
After the subsidence came another period of uplift, possibly still in progress. This uplift has brought up submarine deposits of sand, &c., to form little coastal plains at some points along the coast, providing good land for settlement and clay for brick and pottery. Further evidence of this uplift is found in old beach lines now well above sea-level.
The principal river systems of Maine are the Saint John on the north slope, and the Penobscot, the Kennebec, the Androscoggin, and the Saco on the south slope. The mean height of the basin of the St John is exceeded only by that of the Androscoggin, but the fall of the St John River through the greater part of its course in Maine is only sufficient to give a sluggish or a gentle current. The Penobscot, Kennebec, Androscoggin and Saco have numerous falls and rapids.
Fauna.—The animal life of Maine shows a mixture of northern and southern forms, and very little that is peculiar as compared with surrounding regions. The state has moose, caribou and deer, especially in the northern part. The black bear, wolf, catamount, wolverine, wild cat, fox, beaver, racoon, marten, sable, woodchuck, skunk, otter, mink, rabbit and squirrel are also found. Geese, ducks and other water fowl frequent the lakes and bays in the migratory season, and eagles, gulls, hawks, kingfishers, owls, plover, woodcock, “partridge” (ruffed grouse), robins, orioles, bobolinks, blue birds, swallows, sparrows, and many other insectivorous birds are common. In the inland waters salmon, trout, togue (Salvelinus namaycush), pickerel and bass abound; along the shore there are lobsters, clams and scallops (Pecten irradians); and off the shore are herring, alewives, mackerel, cod, halibut, haddock, smelts, hake, menhaden, porgies and porpoises. The game in the North Woods attracts large numbers of sportsmen during the autumn season.
Flora.—Maine was formerly covered with forests, principally of white pine and spruce, but mixed with these were some hemlock, tamarack, cedar, and, on the south slope, birch, poplar, oak, maple and beech. Chestnut and walnut are rare and are found only near ​the south-west border. In 1900 about 21% of the state’s area was cleared, and much besides had once been cleared, but not being suited to agriculture had become reforested. Of fruit trees the chief is the apple. The plum, cherry and pear also thrive. The peach grows well only in the south-west near the border. Species of grape, gooseberry and currant are native, and others are cultivated with advantage. The blackberry, raspberry, blueberry and strawberry grow wild in profusion throughout the state.
Climate.—The climate of the state is moist and, for its latitude, cold. Extremes of temperature are not so great as farther inland in the same latitude; for the summer heats are tempered by the sea and the cool north winds, and the winter cold is so constant as to be less severely felt than the changing temperature of more southern districts. The summers are short, there being only about 41/2 months between frosts even in the southern sections, and the mean summer temperature is about 62° F. The mean winter temperature is approximately 20° F., and the mean annual temperature for the entire state is 42° F., that for the north slope being about 5° F. less than that for the south slope. Although the temperature remains pretty steadily below the freezing point for at least three months of the year, many of the harbours remain unobstructed; for the tides and the prevailing off-shore winds break up and drive off the ice. The precipitation is about 42 in. annually, and is distributed very evenly throughout the year, 10-11 in. of rain or its equivalent in snow falling each season. During 41/2 months about 44% of the precipitation is in the form of snow; but the snow-fall varies from about 60 in. on the coast to more than 100 in. on the north slope. The winds are variable; at no season of the year is it usual for them to blow from the same direction for many days in succession. But, with the exception of those from the west, they are maritime and consequently moisture-bearing. In summer, especially in the latter part of it, the cool and moist N. or N.E. winds often cause a considerable part of the state to be enveloped in fog for several days in succession.
Agriculture.—The soil is for the most part glacial drift, containing a large mixture of clay with sand or gravel, and the sub-soil is mostly “hard-pan,” i.e. mingled clay and boulders which have been so much compressed by glacial action as to make the mixture hard and ledge-like. Except in the valley of the Aroostook and along the Kennebec, the Penobscot, and some other rivers, the soil is generally unfit for cultivation, there being too little alluvium mixed with it to make it fertile. In the Aroostook valley, however, is the largest undivided area of good arable land in all New England, the soil being a deep, porous, yellow loam well adapted to the growth of cereals and to market gardening. The most sterile regions are on the mountains and along the coast. Because of the cold climate, the large areas in which there is little or no good arable land, the growing demand for timber land, and the large and constant supply of water-power afforded by the principal rivers, agriculture in Maine, as in all the other New England states except Vermont, is a smaller industry than manufacturing; in 1900 there were 87,932 people engaged in manufacturing and only 76,932 engaged in agriculture. Only 32.9% of the state’s land area was in that year included in farms, only 37.9% of this farm land was improved, and only 16.3% of the improved land was in crops other than hay and forage. Nevertheless, as indicated by the unusually large proportion of farmers who either own their farms or pay cash rent for them, farming usually is profitable. The number of farms in 1900 was 59,299; of these 18,644 contained between 50 and 100 acres and 17,191 contained between 100 and 175 acres, the average size being 106.2 acres; 54,263 (or 91.5%) were operated by their owners, 775 were operated by part owners, 2030 by cash tenants, and only 745 by share tenants. Beginning with the middle of the 19th century, the increasing competition of the more productive soils of the West, the growth of urban population in the state, and the number of summer visitors effected the reforesting of much poor land and the more intensive cultivation of the better arable land. The cultivation of cereals, for example, has given way to a marked extent in nearly all the farming districts except in Aroostook county to market gardening, dairying, and egg and poultry production. The number of dairy cows increased from 157,240 in 1890 to 183,000 in 1908, and the annual production of milk increased from 57,969,791 gallons in 1890 to 99,586,188 gallons in 1900. The number of other neat cattle (180,878 in 1900; 151,000 in 1908) decreased during every decade from 1860 to 1900; the number of sheep in 1900 was 427,209 (31.9% less than in 1890), and in 1908 it was 267,000; but the number of horses in 1890 and 1900 was about the same (140,310 in 1900, but only 116,000 in 1908). Hay is still by far the largest crop, the acreage of it and of forage in 1899 being 1,270,254 acres, or 76.5% of that of all crops, and the yield was 1,133,932 tons; in 1907 the acreage was 1,400,000 acres, and the crop was 2,100,000 tons. The acreage of cereals decreased from 187,013 in 1880, when agriculture in Aroostook county was little developed, to 166,896 in 1899, when the cereal acreage in Aroostook county alone was 82,069. Maine potatoes are of a superior quality, and the acreage of this crop increased from 49,617 in 1889 to 118,000 in 1907. Sweet Indian corn, cabbages, turnips, cucumbers and tomatoes are grown in large quantities. The fruit crop consists very largely of apples and strawberries (1,421,773 bushels of apples and 1,066,860 quarts of strawberries in 1899). The output of eggs increased from 9,369,534 dozen in 1889 to 13,304,150 dozen in 1899. The most productive dairy section of the state is a belt extending from the south-west corner N.E. entirely across the state and embracing the whole or parts of the counties of York, Oxford, Cumberland, Androscoggin, Kennebec, Penobscot and Aroostook.
Lumber Industry.—Except in the remote parts, the valuable white pine, for which Maine was long noted, has been cut; but the woodland of the state was estimated in 1900 at 23,700 sq. m. or 79% of its area. The tendency is for this area to increase, for the establishment between 1890 and 1900 of large paper and pulp mills on some of the principal rivers of the south slope greatly increased the value of forests, especially those of spruce and poplar. The state makes large appropriations for preventing and extinguishing forest fires, and in 1903 established a department of forestry in the university of Maine. Good spruce, which is by far the most valuable timber in the state and is used most largely for the manufacture of paper and pulp, stands in large quantities in the St John, Penobscot, Androscoggin and Kennebec basins. Poplar, also used for the manufacture of paper, abounds in several sections of the south slope, but is most abundant in the basin of the Kennebec. White birch, used largely for the manufacture of spools, is found throughout a wide belt extending across the middle of the state. There is much cedar on the north slope. Oak, maple and beech are rather scarce. A new growth of white pine and other timber is gradually becoming valuable. The value of the timber product increased from $11,849,654 in 1890 to $13,489,401 in 1900, and to $17,937,683 in 1905.
Fisheries.—Fishing has always been an important industry in Maine. From 1901 to 1904 inclusive, the average annual catch amounted to 195,335,646 ℔, and its average value was $5,557,083. In 1908, according to state reports, the catch was 185,476,343 ℔, valued at $3,849,900. Herrings are caught in largest quantities (in 1908, according to state reports, 68,210,800 ℔, valued at $450,665), and Maine is noted for the canning of the smaller herrings under the name of “sardines.” In 1908, according to state reports, the take of lobsters was 17,635,980 ℔, valued at $1,558,252. Maine markets more clams than any other state in the Union, and the catches of cod, hake, haddock, smelt, mackerel, swordfish, shad, pollock, cusk, salmon, alewives, eels and halibut are of importance. The scallop fishery is becoming more and more valuable. For the protection and promotion of the lobster fishery the United States government has established a lobster hatchery at Boothbay Harbor; and the state legislature enacted a law in 1895 prohibiting the taking of lobsters less than 101/2 in. in length (one effect of this law being to drive the lobster-canning industry from the state) and another law in 1903 for the protection of lobsters with eggs attached. This latter law directs the state fish commissioner to purchase such lobsters whenever caught and either to liberate them or to sell them to the United States for keeping in a fish hatchery.
Minerals.—The principal mineral products are granite, limestone, slate, clay products and mineral waters. In 1905 Maine held first rank among the states of the Union as a producer of granite, the value of the output being $2,713,795. In 1907 Maine’s granite was valued at $2,146,420, that of Massachusetts at $2,328,777, and that of Vermont at $2,693,889. The stone is of superior quality, and the largest part of it is used for building purposes; much of it is used as paving blocks and some for monuments. It abounds all along the coast east of the Kennebec and on the adjacent islands, and is found farther inland, especially about the Rangeley lakes in Franklin and Oxford counties, and, near Mt Katahdin, in Penobscot and Piscataquis counties. The principal quarries, however, are situated in positions most convenient for shipment by water, in the vicinity of Penobscot bay and in Kennebec county, and these have supplied the bulk of the material used in the construction of many prominent buildings and monuments in the United States. The Fox Island granite comes from the quarries on Vinalhaven Island and the surrounding islands, and on Vinalhaven were quarried monolithic columns 51.5 to 54 ft. long and 6 ft. in diameter for the Cathedral of St John the Divine in New York City. Black granite was quarried in 1907 at 12 quarries, in York, Lincoln, Waldo, Penobscot and Washington counties. Limestone abounds, especially in the south-east part of the state, but it is quarried chiefly in Knox county. As its colour—blue and blue-black streaked with white—renders it undesirable for building purposes, nearly all of it is burned into lime, which has become a very important article of manufacture in the city of Rockland; the industry dates back to 1733 in Knox county. In 1907 the quantity of lime burned in Maine was 159,494 tons and its value was $747,947. Slate is quarried chiefly in Piscataquis county, most of it being used for roofing, but some for blackboards; in 1907 the amount quarried in Maine was valued at $236,106. About 1896 some remarkably white and pure feldspar began to be quarried in Androscoggin, Oxford and Sagadahoc counties, but afterwards the spar mined in Maine was of less excellent quality; in 1907 the production in Maine was valued at $157,334, the total for the entire country being $499,069. Clay is obtained in various places, and in 1905 the total value of the clay products was $619,294. In Oxford county ​tourmaline, spodumene (or kunzite) and beryl occur, the tourmaline crystals being notably large and beautiful. Mineral water occurs in many localities, particularly in Androscoggin, York, Cumberland and Oxford counties; the most famous springs are the Poland Springs in Androscoggin county. Most of the mineral waters bottled in the state are chalybeate and slightly alkaline—saline; their average temperature is about 43°. In 1908 27 springs were reported, their aggregate sales amounting to 1,182,322 gallons. Copper, gold alloyed with platinum, iron ore, barytes, graphite and lead occur in small quantities in the state. In 1908 the total mineral product of the state was valued at $7,044,678.
Manufactures.—Although Maine has no coal and only a very small amount of iron ore within her borders for the encouragement of manufacturing, yet the abundance of fine timber and the numerous coves, bays and navigable streams along or near the coast promoted ship-building from the first, and this was the leading industry of the state until about the middle of the 19th century, when wooden ships began to be supplanted by those of iron and steel. Until about the same time, when the Maine liquor law was passed, the manufacture of rum from molasses, received in exchange for lumber and fish in the West Indies, was also an important industry. It was not until early in the 19th century that the large and constant supply of water power afforded by the rivers began to be used to any considerable extent. The first cotton mill was built at Brunswick on the Androscoggin about 1809, and from 1830 the development of cotton manufacturing was rapid; woollen mills followed, and late in the 19th century were erected some of the largest paper and pulp mills in the country, which are run by water power from the rivers, and use the spruce and poplar timber in the river basins. The total value of the manufactures of the state increased from $95,689,500 in 1890 to $127,361,485 in 1900; and in 1905 the value of factory-made products alone was $144,020,197, or 27.5% greater than their value in 1900. Measured by the value of the output, paper and wood pulp rose from fifth among the state’s manufactures in 1890 to third in 1900 and to first in 1905; from $3,281,051 in 1890 to $13,223,275 in 1900, an increase of 303% within the decade, and to $22,951,124 in 1905, a further increase of 73.6% in this period. Lumber and timber products ranked second (1905)—$11,849,654 in 1890, $13,489,401 in 1900, and $17,937,683 in 1905. Cotton goods ranked third (1905) in value—$15,316,909 in 1890, $14,631,086 in 1900, and $15,404,823 in 1905. Woollen goods ranked fourth (1905)—$8,737,653 in 1890, $13,744,126 in 1900, an increase of 57.3% within the decade; and the value of the factory-made product alone in 1905 was $13,969,600, or 20.1% greater than in 1900. Boots and shoes ranked fifth (1905)—$12,295,847 in 1900, and $12,351,293 in 1905. Fish, canned and preserved, followed next, $1,660,881 in 1890 and $4,779,773 in 1900, an increase within the decade of 187.8%, most of which was in one branch—the canning of small herring under the name “sardines”; from 1900 to 1905 the increase was slight, only $275,358, or 5.8%. In the value of its manufactures as compared with those of the other states of the Union, in wooden ships and boats, Maine in 1900 and in 1905 was outranked by New York only; in canned and preserved fish by Washington only (the value of fish canned and preserved in Maine in 1900 was 21.7% of the total for the United States, and in 1905 19.2%); in the output of woollen mills by Massachusetts and Pennsylvania only; in the output of paper mills by New York and Massachusetts only. It ranked ninth in 1900 and tenth in 1905 in the value of its cotton goods. Portland, Lewiston, Biddeford, and Auburn are the leading manufacturing cities, and in 1905 the total value of their manufactures was 21.5% of those of the entire state. But from 1900 to 1905 the value of manufactures grew most rapidly in Rockland (especially noted for lime), the increase being from $1,243,881 to $1,822,591 (46.5%), and in Waterville, where the increase was from $2,283,536 to $3,069,309 (34.4%). Among the largest paper mills are those at Millinocket, in Penobscot county, at Madison on the Kennebec river, and at Rumford Falls on the Androscoggin river. Lewiston leads in the manufacture of cotton goods; Auburn, Bangor and Augusta, in the manufacture of boots and shoes; Bath, in ship and boat building; Eastport and Lubec, in canning “sardines.”
Transportation and Commerce.—The south-western part of the state, including the manufacturing, the quarrying, and much of the older agricultural district, early had fairly satisfactory means of transportation either by water or by rail; for the coast has many excellent harbours, the Kennebec river is navigable for coast vessels to Augusta, the Penobscot to Bangor, and railway service was soon supplied for the villages of the south-west, but it was not until the last decade of the 19th century that the forests, the farming lands, and the summer resorts of Aroostook county were reached by a railway, the Bangor & Aroostook. The first railway in the state, from Bangor to Old Town, was completed in 1836, and the state’s railway mileage increased from 12 m. in that year to 245 m. in 1850, to 1377.47 m. in 1890, and to 2210.79 in January 1909. The principal railway systems are the Maine Central, which enters every county but one, the Boston & Maine, the Bangor & Aroostook, the Grand Trunk and the Canadian Pacific. Lines of steamboats ply regularly between the largest cities of the state and Boston, between Portland and New York, and between Portland and several Canadian ports.
The foreign trade, especially that with the West Indies and with Great Britain, decreased after 1875, and yet much trade from the West that goes to Montreal during the warmer months passes through Portland during the winter season. The chief exports to foreign countries are textile fabrics, Indian corn, meat, dairy products, apples, paraffin, boards and shooks; the chief imports from foreign countries are sugar, molasses and wool. Fish, canned goods, potatoes, granite, lime, paper, and boots and shoes are also exported to foreign countries to some extent, but they are shipped in larger quantities to other states of the Union, from which Maine receives in return cotton, coal, iron, oil, &c. The ports of entry in Maine are Bangor, Bath, Belfast, Castine, Eastport, Ellsworth, Houlton, Kennebunk, Machias, Portland, Wiscasset and York.
Population.—The population in 1880 was 648,936; in 1890, 661,086; in 1900, 694,466; and in 1910, 742,371. From 1880 to 1900 there was an increase of only 7%, a percentage which was exceeded in every other state in the Union except Nevada and Vermont. Of the total population of 1900, 599,291, or 86.3%, were native whites, 93,330 were foreign-born, 1,319 were negroes, 798 were Indians, 119 were Chinese, and 4 were Japanese. Of the inhabitants born in the United States, 588,211, or 97.8%, were natives of New England and 560,506 were natives of Maine, and of the foreign-born 67,077, or 71.8%, were natives of Canada (36,169 English and 30,908 French), and 10,159, or 10.8%, were natives of Ireland. Of the total population, 199,734 were of foreign parentage—i.e. either one or both parents were foreign-born—and 89,857 were of Canadian parentage, both on the father’s and on the mother’s side (41,355 English and 48,502 French). The French-speaking inhabitants probably number considerably more than 50,000. They are of two quite distinct classes. One, numbering about 15,000, includes those who became citizens by the establishment of the northern boundary in 1842 and their descendants. They are largely of Acadian stock. The state has established among them a well-appointed training school for teachers, conducted in the English language, the graduates of which render excellent service in the common schools. The other class is of French-Canadian immigrants, who find profitable employment in the manufacturing centres. The colony of Swedes established by the state near its north-eastern border in 1870 has proved in every way successful. The Indians are remnants of the Penobscot and Passamaquoddy tribes, the Passamaquoddies being a little the more numerous. The Penobscots’ chief gathering places are on the islands of the Penobscot river north of Old Town; the Passamaquoddies’, on the shores of Passamaquoddy Bay and the banks of the Saint Croix river.
Roman Catholics are more numerous than all the Protestant sects taken together, having in 1906 a membership of 113,419 out of a total of 212,988 in all denominations. In the last decade of the 19th century the urban population (i.e. population of places having 4,000 inhabitants or more) increased from 226,268 to 251,685, or 11.2%; the semi-urban population (i.e. population of incorporated places, or the approximate equivalent, having less than 4,000 inhabitants) increased from 14,221 to 26,674, or 87.5%; while the rural population (i.e. population outside of incorporated places) decreased from 420,597 to 416,134, or 1%. The principal cities of the state are: Portland, pop. (1910), 58,571; Lewiston, 26,247; Bangor, 24,803; Biddeford, 17,079; Auburn, 15,064; Augusta (the capital), 13,211; Waterville, 11,458; Bath, 9,396; Westbrook, 8,281; and Rockland, 8,174.
Administration.—Maine has had but one state constitution; this was ratified in December 1819, about three months before the admission of the state into the Union. It admits of amendment by a two-thirds vote of both houses of the legislature followed by a majority vote of the electorate at the next ​September election; or, as provided by an amendment adopted in 1875, the legislature may by a two-thirds vote of each house summon a constitutional convention. From 1819 to 1875 twelve amendments were adopted; in 1875, after nine more were added, the twenty-one were incorporated in the text; and between 1875 and 1899 nine more were adopted. Suffrage is conferred by the constitution on all male citizens of the United States who are at least twenty-one years of age and have, for some other reason than because of being in the military, naval or marine service of the United States, or of being students at college, lived in the state for three months next preceding any election; the following classes, however, are excepted: paupers, persons under guardianship, Indians not taxed, and, as provided by an amendment adopted in 1892, persons intellectually incapable of reading the state constitution in the English language or of writing their names. State elections were annual until 1897 when they were made biennial; they are held on the second Monday in September in even numbered years, Maine being one of the few states in the Union in which they are not held in November.
The governor is the only executive officer of the state elected by popular vote. There is no lieutenant-governor, the president of the Senate succeeding to the office of governor in case of a vacancy, but there is a council of seven members elected by the legislature (not more than one from any one senatorial district), whose sole function is to advise the governor. The governor’s term of office is two years (before 1879 it was one year); and the constitution further directs that he shall be at least thirty years of age at the beginning of his term, that he shall be a native-born citizen of the United States, that when elected he shall have been a resident of the state for five years, and that he shall reside in the state while in office. His power of appointment is unusually extensive and the advice and consent of the council (instead of that of the Senate as in other states) are required for his appointments. He appoints all judges, coroners and notaries public, besides all other civil and military officers for whose appointment neither the constitution nor the laws provide otherwise. The governor is commander-in-chief of the state militia. Any bill of which he disapproves he can within five days after its passage prevent from becoming a law unless it is passed over his veto by a two-thirds vote of each house of the legislature. He and the council examine and pass upon election returns; he may summon extra sessions of the legislature, and he may grant pardons, reprieves, and commutations in all cases except impeachment, but the manner of hearing applications for pardon is in a measure prescribed by statute, and he must present to the legislature an account of each case in which he grants a pardon. His salary is $2,000 a year. The seven members of the council, the secretary of state, the treasurer, the attorney general and the commissioner of agriculture are elected biennially by a joint ballot of the two houses of the legislature, which also elects, one every two years, the three state assessors, whose term is six years.
The legislature meets biennially at Augusta, the capital, and is composed of a Senate of thirty-one members and a House of Representatives of one hundred and fifty-one members. Members of each house are elected for a term of two years: one senator from each senatorial district and one to seven representatives (one for a population of 1,500, and seven for a population of 26,250) from each township, or, where the township or plantation has less than 1,500 inhabitants, from each representative district, according to its population. There is a new reapportionment every ten years, counting from 1821. Every senator and every representative must at the beginning of his term have been for five years a citizen of the United States, for one year a resident of the state, and for three months next preceding his election, as well as during his term of office, a resident of the township or district which he represents; and every senator must be at least twenty-five years of age. All revenue bills must originate in the House of Representatives, but to such bills the Senate may propose amendments provided they relate solely to raising revenue. Other bills may originate in either house. In September 1908 a constitutional amendment was adopted providing for referendum and initiative by the people. Any bill proposed in the legislature or passed by it must be referred to popular vote before becoming law, if there is a referendum petition therefor signed by 10,000 voters; and a petition signed by 12,000 voters initiates new legislation.
At the head of the department of justice is the supreme judicial court, which consists of a chief justice and seven associate justices appointed by the governor and council for a term of seven years. When it sits as a law court, at least five of its justices must be present, and it holds three such sessions annually: one at Augusta, one at Bangor, and one at Portland. But only one of its justices is required for a trial court, and trial courts are held two or three times a year in each county for the trial of both civil and criminal cases which come before it in the first instance or upon appeal. In Cumberland and Kennebec counties there is a superior court presided over by one justice and having extensive civil and criminal jurisdiction; and in each of the counties there are a probate court for the settlement of the estates of deceased persons and courts of the trial justice and the justice of the peace for the trial of petty offences and of civil cases in which the debt or damage involved does not exceed $20.
The principal forms of local government are the town (or township), the plantation, the county and the city. As in other parts of New England, the town is the most important of these. At the regular town meeting held in March the electorate of the town assembles, decides what shall be done for the town during the ensuing year, elects officers to execute its decisions with limited discretion, and votes money to meet the expenses. The principal officers are the selectmen (usually three), town clerk, assessors, collector, treasurer, school committee and road commissioner. A populous section of a town, in order to promote certain financial ends, is commonly incorporated as a village without however becoming a governing organization distinct from the town. Maine is the only state in the Union that retains what is known as the organized plantation. This is a governmental unit organized from an unincorporated township having at least 200 inhabitants, and its principal officers are the moderator, clerk, three assessors, treasurer, collector, constable and school committee. The county is a sort of intermediate organization between the state and the towns to assist chiefly in the administration of justice, especially in the custody of offenders, and in the making and care of roads. Its officers are three commissioners, a treasurer, a register of deeds, a judge and a register of probate, and a sheriff. They are all elected: the commissioners for a term of six years, one retiring every two years, the register of deeds and the judge and the register of probate for a term of four years, and the others for two years. Among other duties the commissioners care for county property, manage county business and take charge of county roads. Maine has no general law under which cities are chartered, and does not even set a minimum population. A town may, therefore, be incorporated as a city whenever it can obtain from the legislature a city charter which a majority of its electorate prefers to a continuance under its town government; consequently there is much variety in the government of the various cities of the state.
By the laws of Maine the property rights of a wife are approximately equal to those of a husband. A woman does not lose nor a man acquire right to property by marriage, and a wife may manage, sell, or will her property without the assent of her husband. She may even receive as her own the wages of her personal labour which was not performed for her own family. In the absence of a will, bar or release, there is no legal distinction between the rights of a widower in the estate of his deceased wife and those of a widow in the estate of her deceased husband. The grounds for divorce in the state are adultery, impotence, extreme cruelty, desertion for three consecutive years next preceding the application, gross and confirmed habits of intoxication, cruel and abusive treatment, or a husband’s gross or wanton refusal or neglect to provide a suitable maintenance for his wife.
Under the laws of Maine a householder owning and occupying a house and lot may hold the same, or such part of it as does not exceed $500 in value, as a homestead exempt from attachment, except for the satisfaction of liens for labour or material, by filing in the registry of deeds a certificate stating his desire for such an exemption, provided he is not the owner of an exempted lot purchased from the state; and the exemption may be continued during the widowhood of his widow or the minority of his children. A considerable amount of personal property, including apparel, household furniture not exceeding $100 in value, a library not exceeding $150 in value, interest in a pew in a meeting-house, and a specified amount of fuel, provisions, tools or farming implements, and domestic animals, and one fishing boat, is also exempt from attachment.
Maine was the first state in the Union to enact a law for prohibiting the sale of intoxicating liquors. An act for restricting the sale of such liquors was passed in 1846; the first prohibitory act was passed, largely through the influence of Neal Dow, in 1851; this was frequently amended; and in 1884 an amendment ​to the constitution was adopted which declares the manufacture of intoxicating liquors and their sale, except “for medicinal and mechanical purposes and the arts,” forever prohibited. By the law enacted for enforcing this prohibition the governor and council appoint a state liquor commissioner from whom alone the selectmen of a town, the mayor or aldermen of a city, are authorized to receive the liquors which may be sold within the exceptions named in the amendment, and the selectmen, mayor or aldermen appoint an agent who alone is authorized to sell any of these liquors within their jurisdiction and who is forbidden to sell any whatever to minors, Indians, soldiers and drunkards. But the law labours under the disadvantage of all laws not vigorously sustained by general public sentiment, and is grossly violated. For the most part it is executed to the degree demanded by local sentiment in the several municipalities, thus operating in practice much the same as a “local option” law. The law looks to checking the demand by preventing the supply; and since habitual reliance on the stringency of law tends to the neglect of other influences for the removal of evils from the community, the citizens seem to absolve themselves from personal responsibility, both for the execution of the law and for the existence of the evil itself. There has been a strong movement for the repeal of the law, and the question of prohibition has long been an important one in state politics.
The death penalty was abolished in Maine in 1876, restored in 1883, and again abolished in 1887.
Penal and Charitable Institutions.—The state penal and reformatory institutions consist of the state prison at Thomaston, the state (reform) school for boys at South Portland, and a state industrial school for girls at Hallowell, established in 1875 and taken over by the state in 1899. The two schools are not places of punishment, but reformatory schools for delinquent boys (from 8 to 16 years of age) and girls (from 6 to 16 years), who have been committed by the courts for violations of law, and, in the case of girls, who, by force of circumstances or associations, are “in manifest danger of becoming outcasts of society.” The prison is in charge of a board of three inspectors and a warden, and each of the other two institutions is in charge of a board of trustees; the inspectors, warden, and trustees are all appointed by the governor and council. Convicts in the prison are usually employed in the manufacture of articles that are not extensively made elsewhere in the state, such as carriages, harness, furniture and brooms. The inmates of the state school for boys receive instruction in farming, carpentry, tailoring, laundry work, and various other trades and occupations; and the girls in the state industrial school are trained in housework, laundering, dressmaking, &c. Paupers are cared for chiefly by the towns and cities, those wholly dependent being placed in almshouses and those only partially dependent receiving aid at their homes. The charitable institutions maintained by the state are: the military and naval orphan asylum at Bath, the Maine institution for the blind at Portland, the Maine school for the deaf (established in 1876, and taken over by the state in 1897) at Portland, the Maine insane hospital at Augusta, the Eastern Maine insane hospital at Bangor, and a school for the feeble-minded (established in 1907) at West Pownal, each of which is governed by trustees appointed by the governor and council, with the exception of a part of those of the orphan asylum, who are appointed by the corporation. Besides the strictly state institutions, there are a number of private charitable institutions which are assisted by state funds; among these are the eye and ear infirmary at Portland, the Maine state sanatorium at Hebron for the treatment of tuberculosis, and various hospitals, orphanages, &c. The national government has a branch of the national home for disabled volunteer soldiers at Togus, and a marine hospital at Portland.
Education.—The school-district system was established in 1800 while Maine was still a part of Massachusetts and was maintained by the first school law passed, in 1821, by the state legislature; but, beginning in the next year, one town after another received the privilege of abolishing its districts, and in 1893 the system was abolished by act of the legislature. A state board of education, composed of one member from each county, was established in 1846, but for this was substituted, in 1852, a commissioner of schools for each county, appointed by the governor, and two years later a state superintendent of schools was substituted for the county commissioners. County supervision by county supervisors was tried in 1869–1872. Since these several changes the common school system has been administered by towns and cities subject to an increasing amount of control through enactments of the state legislature and the general supervision of the state superintendent. The town officers are a superintending school committee of three members and a superintendent. The members of the committee are elected for a term of three years, one retiring every year, and women as well as men are eligible for the office. The superintendent may be elected by the town or appointed by the committee, or towns having not less than twenty or more than fifty schools may unite in employing a superintendent. In cities the committee is usually larger than in towns and is commonly elected by wards. Since 1889 each town and city has been required to furnish textbooks, apparatus and supplies, without cost to the pupils. The minimum length of the school year is fixed by a statute of 1893 at twenty weeks; the average length is about twenty-eight weeks. A compulsory education law, enacted in 1901, requires the attendance at some public or approved private school of each child between the ages of seven and fifteen during all the time that school is in session, except that necessary absences may be excused. For the maintenance of the common schools each town is required (since 1905) to raise annually at least fifty-five cents per capita, exclusive of what may be received from other sources, and to this is added the proceeds of a state tax of one and a half mills on a dollar, one-half the proceeds of the tax on savings banks, a 6% income from the permanent school fund (derived mainly from the sale of school lands), and state appropriations for the payment in part of the superintendence in towns that have united for that purpose. Any section of a town may establish and maintain a high school provided there be not more than two such schools in one town, and the state makes appropriations for the support of such schools equal to one-half the cost of instruction, but the maximum grant to any one such school is $250.
The state maintains five normal schools: that at Farmington (established 1864), that at Castine (1866), that at Gorham (1879); that at Presque Isle (the Aroostook state normal school, 1903), and the Madawaska training school at Fort Kent, each of which is under the direction of a board of trustees consisting of the governor, the state superintendent of schools, and five other members appointed by the governor and council for not more than three years. At the head of the public school system is the university of Maine, near the village of Orono in Orono township (pop. in 1900, 3257), Penobscot county. This institution was founded in 1865 as the state college of agriculture and the mechanic arts; in 1897 the present name was adopted. It embraces a college of arts and sciences, a college of agriculture, a college of technology (including a department of forestry), a college of law (at Bangor), and a college of pharmacy. The most conspicuous of its twenty-five buildings is the library, built with funds contributed by Andrew Carnegie. In 1908–1909 the university had 104 instructors and 884 students, of whom 113 were in the college of law at Bangor and 420 in the college of technology. The university is maintained with the proceeds of an endowment fund derived chiefly from public lands given by the national government in accordance with the land grant, or Morrill, Act of 1862 (see Morrill, Justin S.) and from the bequest ($100,000) of Abner Coburn (1803–1885); by appropriations of Congress under the second Morrill Act (1890), and under the Nelson Amendment of 1907, by appropriations of the state legislature, and by fees paid by the students. Connected with the university is an agricultural experiment station, established and maintained under the Hatch Act (1887) and the Adams Act (1906) of the national Congress. The government of the university is entrusted, subject to inspection of the governor and council, to a board of eight trustees. Among the important institutions of learning which have no official connexion with the state are Bowdoin College (opened in 1802), at Brunswick; Colby College (Baptist, opened in 1818), at Waterville; and Bates College (originally Free Baptist but now unsectarian; opened in 1863), at Lewiston. In 1900 5.1% of the state’s inhabitants ten years of age and over were illiterate (i.e. could neither read nor write, or could read but not write); of the native whites within this age limit 2.4% were illiterate, of the foreign whites, 19.4%. Of the foreign-born whites 15.7% were unable to speak English.
Finance.—The chief sources of the state’s revenue are a general property tax and taxes on the franchises of corporations, especially those of railway and insurance companies and savings banks; among the smaller sources are licences or fees, a poll tax, and a collateral inheritance tax. The general property tax for state and local purposes is assessed by local assessors, but their work is reviewed for the purpose of equalization among the several towns and counties by a board of state assessors, which also assesses the corporations. This board of three members (not more than two of whom may be of the same political party) is elected by a joint ballot of the two houses of the legislature for a term of six years, one member retiring every two years. The state is prohibited by the constitution from creating a debt exceeding $300,000 except for the suppression of a rebellion, for repelling an invasion, or for war purposes; and every city and town is forbidden by an amendment adopted in 1877 from creating one exceeding 5% of the assessed value of its property. But the state was authorized by an amendment adopted in 1868 to issue bonds for the reimbursement of the expenses incurred by its cities, towns, and plantations on account of the Civil War, and these bonds, with those issued by the state itself during the Civil War, constituted the largest part of the state’s bonded indebtedness. The bonded debt, however, is rapidly being paid; in January 1901 it was $2,103,000, and in January 1909 only $698,000.
​History.—During the 16th century and the early part of the 17th, the coast of Maine attracted various explorers, among them Giovanni da Verrazano (1524), Estéban Gomez (1525), Bartholomew Gosnold (1602), Martin Pring (1603), Pierre du Guast, Sieur De Monts (1604), George Weymouth (1605), and John Smith (1614), who explored and mapped the coast and gave to the country the name New England; but no permanent English settlement was established within what are now the borders of the state until some time between 1623 and 1629. In 1603 De Monts received from Henry IV. of France a charter for all the region between 40° and 46° N. under the name of Acadie, or Acadia, and in 1604 he built a fort on Neutral Island at the mouth of the Saint Croix river. This he abandoned in 1605, but some of his followers were in the vicinity a few years later. In the same year George Weymouth explored the south-west coast, kidnapped five Indians, and carried them to England, where three of them lived for a time in the family of Sir Ferdinando Gorges, who soon became the leader in founding Maine. In 1607 the Plymouth Company, of which he was an influential member and which had received a grant of this region from James I. of England in the preceding year, sent out a colony numbering 120 under George Popham (c. 1550–1608), brother of Sir John Popham, and Raleigh Gilbert, son of Sir Humphrey Gilbert. The colony established itself at the mouth of the Kennebec river in August, but, finding its supplies insufficient, about three-fifths of its number returned to England in December; a severe winter followed and Popham died; then Gilbert, who succeeded to the presidency of the council for the colony, became especially interested in his claim to the territory under his father’s charter, and in 1608 the colony was abandoned. In 1609 the French Jesuits Biard and Masse established a fortified mission station on the island of Mount Desert, and although this as well as the remnant of De Monts’ settlement at the mouth of the Saint Croix was taken in 1613 by Sir Samuel Argall (d. 1626), acting under the instructions of the English at Jamestown, Virginia, some of these colonists returned later. In 1620 the Council for New England, the successor of the Plymouth Company, obtained a grant of the country between latitude 40° and 48° N. extending from sea to sea, and two years later Gorges and John Mason (1586–1635) received from the Council a grant of the territory between the Merrimac and the Kennebec rivers for 60 m. inland under the name of the Province of Maine. In 1629 they divided their possession, Gorges taking the portion between the Piscataqua and the Kennebec. Numerous grants of land in this vicinity followed within a few years; and in the meantime permanent settlements at York, Saco, Biddeford, Port Elizabeth, Falmouth (now Portland) and Scarborough were established in rapid succession. The Council for New England surrendered its charter in 1635. In the division of its territory Gorges retained the portion previously granted to him, and the region between the Kennebec and the Saint Croix north to the Saint Lawrence, though still claimed by the French as part of Acadia, was conveyed to Sir William Alexander (1567?–1640); later, in 1664, this was conveyed to the duke of York, afterwards James II. of England.
Gorges named his tract the County of New Somersetshire, and immediately began the administration of government, setting up in 1635 or 1636 a court at Saco under the direction of his kinsman William Gorges. In 1639 he procured for his province a royal charter modelled after that of Maryland, which invested him with the feudal tenure of a county palatine and vice-regal powers of government. He called into existence a formidably large number of officers to govern it, but his charter was in conflict with the other (mutually conflicting) grants of the Council for New England, east of the Piscataqua; and Gorges and his agents met with a determined opposition under the leadership of George Cleeve, the deputy-president of the Lygonia, or “Plough” Patent, which extended along the coast from Cape Porpoise to Casco, and in issuing which the Council for New England had granted governmental as well as territorial rights. Moreover, Puritan Massachusetts, which was naturally hostile to the Anglicanism of Gorges and his followers, interpreted her charter so as to make her northern boundary run east and west from a point 3 m. north of the source of the Merrimac river, and on this basis laid claim to practically the whole of Maine then settled. The factional quarrels there, together with the Commonwealth government in England, made it easy for Massachusetts to enforce this claim at the time, and between 1652 and 1658 Maine was gradually annexed to Massachusetts. In 1672 Massachusetts extended her boundary eastward as far as Penobscot Bay. Ferdinando Gorges, a grandson of the original proprietor, brought before parliament his claim to Maine and in 1664 a committee of that body decided in his favour; but Massachusetts successfully resisted until 1677, when the king in council decided against her. She then quietly purchased the Gorges claim for £1,250 and held the province as a proprietor until 1691, when by the new Massachusetts charter Maine was extended to the Saint Croix river, and was made an integral part of Massachusetts.
The French still claimed all territory east of the Penobscot, and not only was Maine an exposed frontier and battleground during the long struggle of the English against the Indians and the French, but its citizens bore a conspicuous part in the expeditions beyond its borders. Port Royal was taken in May 1690 by Sir William Phipps and Louisburg in June 1745 by Sir William Pepperell, both these commanders being from Maine. These expeditions were such a drain on Maine’s population that Massachusetts was called upon to send men to garrison the little forts that protected the homes left defenceless by men who had gone to the front. During the War of Independence, the town of Falmouth (now Portland), which had ardently resisted the claims of the British, was bombarded and burned, in 1775; in the same year Benedict Arnold followed the course of the Kennebec and Dead rivers on his expedition to Quebec; and from 1779 to 1783 a British force was established at Castine. The embargo and non-intercourse laws from 1807 to 1812 were a severe blow to Maine’s shipping, and in the War of 1812 Eastport, Castine, Hampden, Bangor and Machias fell into the hands of the British.
Maine was in general well governed as a part of Massachusetts, but a geographical separation, a desire to be rid of the burden of a large state debt, and a difference of economic interests as well as of politics (Maine was largely Democratic and Massachusetts was largely Federalist) created a desire for an independent commonwealth. This was felt before the close of the War of Independence and in 1785–1787 conventions were held at Falmouth (Portland) to consider the matter, but the opposition prevailed. The want of protection during the War of 1812 revived the question, and in 1816 the General Court in response to a great number of petitions submitted to a vote in the towns and plantations of the District the question: “Shall the legislature be requested to give its consent to the separation of the District of Maine from Massachusetts, and the erection of said District into a separate state?” The returns showed 10,393 yeas to 6501 nays, but they also showed that less than one-half the full vote had been cast. Acting upon these returns the legislature passed a bill prescribing the terms of separation, and directed another vote of the towns and plantations upon the question of separation and the election of delegates to a convention at Brunswick which should proceed to frame a constitution in case the second popular vote gave a majority of five to four for separation; but as that vote was only 11,969 yeas to 10,347 nays the advocates of separation were unsuccessful. But a large source of opposition to separation was removed in 1819 when Congress, dividing the east coast of the United States into two great districts, did away with the regulation which, making each state a district for entering and clearing vessels, would have required coasting vessels from the ports of Maine as a separate state to enter and clear on every trip to or from Boston; as a consequence, the separation measures were carried ​by large majorities this year, a constitution was framed by a convention which met at Portland in October, this was ratified by town meetings in December, and Maine applied for admission into the Union. Owing to the peculiar situation at the time in Congress, arising from the contest over the admission of Missouri, the question of the admission of Maine became an important one in national politics. By an Act of the 3rd of March 1820, however, Maine was finally admitted into the Union as a separate state, her admission being a part of the Missouri compromise (q.v.).
The boundary on the north had not yet been ascertained, and it had long been a subject of dispute between the United States and Great Britain. The treaty of 1783 (Article II.) had defined the north-east boundary of the United States as extending along the middle of the river St Croix “from its mouth in the bay of Fundy to its source” and “due north from the source of St Croix river to the highlands; along the said highlands which divide those rivers that empty themselves into the river St Lawrence from those which fall into the Atlantic Ocean, to the north-westernmost head of Connecticut river; thence down along the middle of that river to the forty-fifth degree of north latitude.” Great Britain claimed that the due north line was 40 m. long and ran to Mars Hill in Aroostook county, and that the highlands ran thence westerly 115 m. to the source of the Chaudière; the United States, on the other hand, claimed that the northerly line was 140 m. long, running to highlands dividing the Ristigouche and the tributaries of the Metis; and there was a further disagreement with regard to the side of the highlands on which the boundary should be, and as to what stream was the “north-westernmost head of Connecticut river.” The fifth article of the Jay treaty of 1794 provided for a commission to decide what the St Croix river actually was, and this commission in 1798 defined the St Croix, saying that its mouth was in Passamaquoddy bay and that the boundary ran up this river and the Cheputnatecook to a marked monument. The treaty of Ghent in 1814 (Article IV.) referred the question of the ownership of the islands in Passamaquoddy bay to a commission which gave Moose, Dudley and Frederick islands to the United States; and the same treaty by Article V. provided for the survey (which was made in 1817–1818) of a part of the disputed territory, and for a general commission. The general commissioners met at St Andrews, N.B., in 1816, and in New York City in 1822, only to disagree; and when the king of the Netherlands, chosen as arbitrator in 1829 (under the Convention of 1827) rendered in 1831 a decision against which the state of Maine protested, the Federal Senate withheld its assent to his decision. In 1838–1839 the territory in dispute between New Brunswick and Maine became the scene of a border “war,” known as the “Aroostook disturbance”; Maine erected forts along the line she claimed, Congress authorized the president to resist any attempt of Great Britain to enforce exclusive jurisdiction over the disputed territory, and an armed conflict seemed imminent. General Winfield Scott was sent to take command on the Maine frontier, and on the 21st of March 1839 he arranged a truce and a joint occupancy of the territory in dispute until a satisfactory settlement should be reached by the United States and Great Britain. The Webster-Ashburton treaty of 1842 was a compromise, which allowed Maine about 5500 sq. m. less than she had claimed and allowed Great Britain about as much less than her claim; all grants of land previously made by either party within the limits of the territory which by this treaty fell within the dominions of the other party were to be “held valid, ratified and confirmed to the persons in possession under such grants, to the same extent as if such territory had . . . fallen within the dominions of the party by whom such grants were made”; and the government of the United States agreed to pay to Maine and Massachusetts “in equal moieties” the sum of $300,000 as compensation for the lands which they had claimed and which under the treaty they were called upon to surrender. The long controversy, which is known in American history as “The North-East boundary dispute,” was not finally settled however until 1910.
It was the Democratic majority in the district of Maine that effected the separation from Massachusetts, and from the date of that separation until 1853 Maine was classed as a Democratic state, although it elected a Whig governor in 1838 and in 1840, and cast its electoral vote for John Quincy Adams in 1824 and 1828 and for W. H. Harrison in 1840. As a result of the slavery question, there was a party disintegration between 1850 and 1855, followed by the supremacy of the Republican party from 1856 to 1878. In 1878, of the 126,169 votes cast in the election for governor, Selden Connor (b. 1839), re-nominated by the Republicans, received 56,554; Joseph L. Smith (“National” or “Greenback”), 41,371; Alonzo Garcelon (1813–1906) (Democratic), 28,218; as no candidate received a majority of the votes, the election was left to the legislature. The vote of the House eliminated Connor, and Garcelon was chosen in the Senate by a Democratic-National fusion. Again there was no election by popular vote in 1879, and Garcelon and his council, to secure the election of a fusion government, counted-in a fusion majority in the legislature by evident falsification of the returns. On the 3rd of January 1880 the Supreme Court declared the governor and council in error in counting in a fusion majority, but on the 7th the governor swore in a legislature with 78 fusion and only two Republican members, and, the governor’s term having expired, the president of the Senate, James D. Lamson, became governor, ex-officio. On the 12th the legislative chambers were seized by the Republicans, whose organized legislature was declared legal by the Supreme Court, and who chose as governor Daniel Franklin Davis (1843–1897); whereupon, on the 17th, Joshua L. Chamberlain, to whom the peaceful solution of the difficulty had largely been due, retired from the task assigned him by Garcelon on the 5th of January “to protect the public property and institutions of the state” until Garcelon’s successor should be duly qualified. In 1880 the Democrats and Greenbacks united and elected their candidate, but after 1883 Maine was strongly Republican until 1910.
The governors of the state have been as follows:—
| William King | Democrat | 1820 |
| William Durkee Williamson (acting) | ” | 1821 |
| Benjamin Ames (acting) | ” | 1821 |
| Albion Keith Parris | ” | 1822 |
| Enoch Lincoln | ” | 1827 |
| Nathan Cutler (acting) | ” | 1829 |
| Jonathan G. Hunton | ” | 1830 |
| Samuel Emerson Smith | ” | 1831 |
| Robert Pinckney Dunlap | ” | 1834 |
| Edward Kent | Whig | 1838 |
| John Fairfield | Democrat | 1839 |
| Edward Kent | Whig | 1841 |
| John Fairfield | Democrat | 1842 |
| Edward Kavanagh (acting) | ” | 1843 |
| Hugh J. Anderson | ” | 1844 |
| John Winchester Dana | ” | 1847 |
| John Hubbard | ” | 1850 |
| William George Crosby | Whig and Free Soil | 1853 |
| Anson Peaslee Morrill | Republican | 1855 |
| Samuel Wells | Democrat | 1856 |
| Hannibal Hamlin | Republican | 1857 |
| Joseph H. Williams (acting) | ” | 1857 |
| Lot Myrick Morrill | ” | 1858 |
| Israel Washburn | ” | 1861 |
| Abner Coburn | ” | 1863 ​ |
| Samuel Cony | Republican | 1864 |
| Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain | ” | 1867 |
| Sidney Perham | ” | 1871 |
| Nelson Dingley | ” | 1874 |
| Selden Connor | ” | 1876 |
| Alonzo Garcelon | Democrat | 1879 |
| Daniel F. Davis | Republican | 1880 |
| Harris Merrill Plaisted | Democrat-Greenback | 1881 |
| Frederick Robie | Republican | 1883 |
| Joseph R. Bodwell | ” | 1887 |
| Sebastian S. Marble (acting) | ” | 1887 |
| Edwin C. Burleigh | ” | 1889 |
| Henry B. Cleaves | ” | 1893 |
| Llewellyn Powers | ” | 1897 |
| John Fremont Hill | ” | 1901 |
| William T. Cobb | ” | 1905 |
| Bert M. Fernald | ” | 1909 |
| Frederick W. Plaisted | Democrat | 1911 |
See S. L. Boardman, Climate, &c., of Maine (Washington, 1884); Walton Wells, The Water Power of Maine (Augusta, 1869); G. H. Hitchcock, General Report on the Geology of Maine (Augusta, 1861); G. H. Stone, The Glacial Gravels of Maine and their Associated Deposits (Washington, 1899); T. Nelson Dale, The Granites of Maine (Washington, 1907), being Bulletin 313 of the U. S. Geological Survey; B. F. De Costa, Sketches of the Coast of Maine and Isle of Shoals (New York, 1869); H. D. Thoreau, The Maine Woods (Boston, 1881); L. L. Hubbard, Woods and Lakes of Maine (Boston, 1883); T. S. Steele, Canoe and Camera, a Two Hundred Mile Tour through the Maine Forests (New York, 1882); William MacDonald, The Government of Maine, Its History and Administration (New York, 1902); Maine Historical Society Collections (Portland, 1831–); W. D. Williamson, History of the State of Maine (Hallowell, 1832); J. P. Baxter, Sir Ferdinando Gorges and his Province of Maine (Boston, 1890) and George Cleeve of Casco Bay (Portland, 1885); George Folsom, History of Saco and Biddeford, with notices of other Early Settlements and of the Proprietary Governments in Maine (Saco, 1830); J. L. Chamberlain, Maine, Her Place in History (Augusta, 1877); E. S. Whitin, Factory Legislation in Maine (New York, 1908).
* ↑ This condition results from the fact that Maine and the adjacent region were worn down nearly to sea-level by stream erosion, except certain peaks and ridges inland; then the region was elevated and numerous river valleys were cut down below the general erosion surface formed before. Thus we have a general “upland surface,” above which the mountain remnants tower, and below which the rivers have been entrenched.
* ↑ This name is applied to a chain of lakes (the Rangeley, or Oquossoc, the Cupsuptic, the Mooselookmeguntic, the Molechunkamunk or Upper Richardson, the Welokenebacook or Lower Richardson, and the Umbagog) in Franklin and Oxford counties, in the western part of the state; the Umbagog extends into New Hampshire and its outlet helps to form the Androscoggin River. These lakes are connected by straits, have a total area of between 80 and 90 sq. m., and are from 1200 to 1500 ft. above the sea. They are sometimes called the Androscoggin Lakes.
* ↑ The census of 1905 was taken under the direction of the United States census bureau, but the statistics for hand trades were omitted.
* ↑ According to previous censuses the population was as follows: (1790) 96,540; (1800) 151,719; (1810) 228,705; (1820) 298,335; (1830) 399,455; (1840) 501,793; (1850) 583,169; (1860) 628,279; (1870) 626,915.
* ↑ An unincorporated township containing less than 200 inhabitants may, on the application of three resident voters, be organized as a plantation, but does not pay state or county taxes unless by special legislative order. Other unincorporated districts, especially islands along the coast, are called “grants,” “surpluses,” “gores” or “tracts.”
* ↑ By this charter, issued in 1578, Sir Humphrey Gilbert was entitled to all territory lying within two hundred leagues of any colony that he might plant within six years; although it had long since lapsed, Raleigh Gilbert seems not to have been aware of it.
* ↑ An article in the Act relating to the separation of Maine from Massachusetts stipulated that the lands within the District of Maine which prior to the separation had belonged to Massachusetts should after the separation belong one-half to Maine and one-half to Massachusetts. In 1826 the wild lands of Maine were surveyed and divided between the two states; and in 1853 Maine acquired from Massachusetts, for $362,500, all of this land still remaining in possession of the latter state.
* ↑ According to Art. V. of the constitution a majority of the total number of votes cast was required for election; in case no candidate should receive a majority, it was prescribed that the “House of Representatives shall, by ballot, from the persons having the four highest numbers of votes on the lists, if so many there be, elect two persons and make returns of their names to the Senate, of whom the Senate shall, by ballot, elect one, who shall be declared the governor.” An amendment, which became a part of the constitution on the 9th of November 1880, provided that a plurality of the total number of votes cast should be sufficient for election.
* Emery Walker sc.