The Sun.
London, England, 1842-10-03 00:00:00

MR. WEBSTER TO LORD ASILBURTON.

Department of State, Washington, July 8, 1842.
MY LoßD,—Your notes of the 13th and 21st of
June were duly received. In the first of these you
correctly say, that in our conferenCe on the boundary
question, we have both been of opinion that no advan-
tage would be gained by resorting at this time to the
discussion at length of the grounds °lL...which each
party considers its claim of right to rest, At the
same time you deem it expedient, nevertheless, to offer
some observations, calculated, in your judgment, to
repel a supposed allegation, or suggestion, that this
controversy only began in 1814 ; that up to that period
the American claim was undisputed ; and that the
English claim, as now set forth, is founded merely in
motives of interest. Nothing is more natural than
that your Lordship should desire to repel an imputa-
tion which would impeach the sincerity and good faith
of your Government, and all the weight which justice
, and candour require is given to your Lordship's ob-
servations in this respect.
It is not my purpose, nor do I think it pertinent to
the occasion, to go into a consideration of the facts and
reasonings presented by you, to show the good faith
and sincerity of England, in the claim asserted by
her. Any such discussion would be a departure
from the question of right now subsisting between
the two Governments, and would be more espe-
cially unfit for an occasion in which the parties
are approaching each other in a friendly spirit,
with the hope of terminating the controversy by
agreement. Following your Lordship's example, how-
ever, I must be permitted to say that few questions
have ever risen under this Government, in regard to
which a stronger or more general conviction was felt
that the country was in the right, than this question
of the north-eastern boundary. To say nothing of
the sentiments of the Government and people of the
States more directly interested, whose opinions may
be supposed capable of bias, both.Honses of Congress,
after full and repeated considerations, have affirmed
the validity of the American claim, by an unanimity
experienced on very few other subjects, and the
general judgment of the whole people seems to be the
same way.

Abstaining from all historical facts, all contempo-
raneous expositions, and all external arguments and
circumstances, I will venture to present to your Lord-
ship a very condensed view of the reasons which pro-
duce in this country the conviction that a boundary
line may be ascertained, run, and delineated with
provisions, under and according to the words of the
stipulation in the treaty of 1783, that no doubt can
be raised by any part of that stipulation which other
parts of it do not remove or explain, and that a line so
run would include all that the United States claim.
This view is presented by a series of short propositions.
[Mr. Webster here discusses the stipulation of the
treaty entered into in 1783, and contends that a line
run agreeably to that treaty, or even to the instruc-
tions given to the Commissioners of both Govern-
ments in 1817, would give to the United States all
that they have at any time claimed.]
If there be nothing incoherent or inconsequential in
this chain of remarks, it will satisfy your Lordship, I
trust, that it is not without reason that American
opinion has settled firmly in the conviction of the
rights of the Amexiean side of the question, and I for-
bear from going into the consideration of the mass of
other arguments and proofs for the same reasons
which restrain your Lordship from entering into an
extended discussion of the question, as well as because
your Lordship will have an opportunity of perusing a
paper addressed to me by the Commissioners of Maine,
which strongly presents the subject on other grounds
and in other lights,,
I am now to consider your Lordship's note of the
21st 41ule. Before entering upon this I have the
President's instructions to say, that he fully appre,
ciates the motives, which induced your Lordship, per-
sonally, W Andertake your present mission ; that he
is In* aware that your public life has been distin-
gViished by efforts to maintain peace and harmony be-
tween the two countries; that he quite well recol-
lects that your exertions were employed to prevent
the late wen-, and that he doubts not the sincerity of
your declaration that nothing eould have drawn you
from your retirement and induced you to engage in
your present undertaking, but the hope of being
of service to your country and to our common
raft, And I have the utmost pleasures;
my Lord, in acknowledging the frankness,
candour, and plain dealing, which have
charac-
terised your Official intercourse withthis Government,
nor am I permitted or inclined to entearstaxnany doubtby
olyour Lordship's entire conviction, ;me expressed
rs and the
ersetausthise,
yourself, as to the merits of this t
difficulties cif the case. The
whetter these confident opinions,
strength of our respective
queoesontil3Donthbesifdo
a desire to preserve hair-
the rightful nature and j;.ittlte
claims will permit us, wt
yield liberally to mutual
mony and a (lisped
incite us, to come together
conveniouee so strongly t
from the point where the north
to be rtir. Lords np's opinion that the
It appears
parties, with an
C'srOix strikes that river, up
and to unite on a lintiemby ow. r:euleur .
lliinnee offmtbletitt ..1stolv:
to some
~,,w dos, sources, evidently suits bAt)i
exveption, however, of that part of the Madawaska
settlement which is on the south side of the St, John's,
which you propose should be included within the Bri-
tish territoxy, That on a line b agreement the St.
;Tows, fbr some distance upward from its intersection
by the line running north from the St. Croix, would
be a very convenient boundary for the two parties, is
readily admitted ; but it is a very important ques-
tion how far up, and to which of the sources of
this river this line should extend. Above Madawaska,
the course of this river turns to the south, and stretches
away towards the sources of the Penobscot, leaving
far to the north the line of communication between
New Brunswick and Canada. That line departs from
the St. John's altogether near Madawaska, and keep.
ing principally upon the left or north bank of the Ma-
dawaaka, and proceeding by way of the Temiscouata

Lake, reaches the St. Lawrence at the mouth of the
river Du Loup.
There are, then, two important_ subjects fur consi•
deration

First, Whether the United States can agree to
cede, relinquish, or cease to claim, any part of the
territory west of the north line from the St. Croix and
south of the St. John's. And I think it but candid to
s sy, at once, that we see insurmountable objections to
admitting ie line to come south of the river. Your
Lordship's observations upon the propriety of preserv-
ing the unity of the Madawaska settlement, are, in a
great measure, just, and altogether founded, I doubt
not, in entirely good motives. They savour of hu-
manity and a kind regard to the interests and feelings
of individuals. But the difficulties seem insuperable.
The river, as your Lordship remarks, seems it na-
tural boundary, and in this part of it to run in a c 71-
venient direction. It is a line always clear and ind. s-
putable. If we depart from it, where shall we find
another boundary, equally natural, equally clear, and
conforming to the same general course ? A departure
from the line of the river, moreover, would open new
questions about equivalents, which it would probably
be found impracticable to settle. If your Lordship
was at liberty, as I understand you not to be, to cede
the whole or a part of the territory, commonly called
the Strip, lying east of the north line, and west of
the St. John's, considerations might be found in such
a cession, possibly, for some new demarcation west of
the north line and south of the river. But in the
present position of things I cannot hold out the ex-
pectation to your Lordship that anything south of the
river can be yielded.

And, perhaps, the inconvenience to the settlers on
the southern bank, of making the river the boundary,
are less considerable than your Lordship supposes.
These settlers are scattered along a considerable ex-
tent, very likely soon to connect themselves with
whomsoever may come to live near them ; and though
of different origin, and some difference of religion,
not likely, on the whole, to be greatly dissimilar from
other borderers, occupying the neighbouring territory;
their rights of property would, of course, be all pre-
served, both of inheritance and alienation ; and if
some of them should choose to retain the political and
social relations under which they now are, their re-
moval for that purpose to the north bank, drawing
after it no loss of property or means of subsistence,
would not be a great hardship.
Your Lordship suggests the inconvenience

dividing a municipality by a line of national 1.-,oun-
dary ; and certainly there is force in the observation ;
but if, departing from the river, we were to establish
at the south of it an artificial line upon the land, there
might be points upon such line at which people would
lire in numbers, on both sides, and a mere mathema-
tical line might thus divide villages, while it divided
nations. The experience of the world, and our own
experience, show the propriety of making rivers boun-
daries, for the same reason that in other cases to
which they are applicable, mountain rangess*or ridges
of highlands, are adopted for the same purpose ; these
last being, perhaps, still more convenient lines of divi-
sion than rivers, being equally clear and prominent
objects, and the population of neighbouring countries
bordering on a mountain line of separation being
usually thin and inconsiderable on either side.
River and inland waters constitute the boundary
between the United States and the territory of her
Majesty for some thousands of miles westward from
the place where the 45th degree of north latitude in-
tersects the St. Lawrence; and alone this line occa-
sional irregularities and outbreaks have taken place,
always by the agency and instigation of agitators and
lawless men, friends of neither country ; yet it is clear
that no better demarcation of limit could be made.
And at the north part, along the space through which.
the St. Croix constitutes the line of separation, contro-
versies and conflicts are not heard of; but similarity
of language, character and pursuits, and mutual re-
spect for the rights of each other, preserve the general
peace.
Upon the whole, my Lord, feeling that there may
be inconvenience, and perhaps a small degree of hard-
ship, I yet cannot admit that there is any cruelty in
separating the Madawaska settlers south of the St.
John's, so far as political relations are concerned, from
their neighbours on the north of that river.

_ .
In the present state of society and of peace which
exists between the two countries, the severance of po-
litical relations needs not to disturb social and family
intercourse ; while high considerations, affecting beth
the present and the future, seem to me to require
that, followirg natural indications, we adhere to the
St. John's in this part of its course as the line of di-

vision.
The next question is how far upward the bo-and-
ary ought to be observed, and along which of its
branches. This question would be easily 'settled
if what may be called the main branch of
the river, in this part of it, differing from
the general character of the rivers in this

region of the country, did not make a sudden
turn. But if we consider the main branch 'of the
St. John's, that which has been usually so de-
nominated, your Lordship observes that, near 'Ale
mouth of the Madawaska, it turns almost at tight
angles, and pushes its source toward those of the
Penobscot. Contiguity and compactness of territory
can hardly be preserved by following a stream which
snakes, not occasional windings, but at once so great
a deflection from its previous course. The Madawaskat
is one of its branches or principal sources, and, as
the map shows, is very much a continuance of the
line of the principal river from the Great Palls up-
ward. The natural course would therefore seem to
be to continue along this branch..

We understand, and indeed collect from your Lord-
ship's note, that, with whatever opinion of her right
to the disputed territory, England, in asserting it,
has principally in view to maintain, on her own soil,
her accustomed line of communication between Ca-
nada and New Brunswick. We acknowledge the
general justice and propriety of this object, and agree
at once that, with suitable equivalents, a conventional
line ought to be such as to secure it to England. The
question, therefore, simply is, what line will secure it ?
The common communication between the provinces
follows the course of the St. John's from the Great
Falls to the mouth of the Madawaska, going along
with it to the Temiscouata Lake, and so across the
highlands to streams running into the St. Lawrence.
And this line of communication we are willing to
agree shall hereafter be within acknowledged British
territory, upon such conditions and considerations as
may be assented to. The Madawaska and the fore-
mentioned lakes might conveniently constitute the
boundary, but I believe it is true that, in some parts.
of the distance, above the mouth of the Madawaska,
it has been found convenient to establish the course
of communication on the south bank of that river.
This consideration may be important enough to jus-
tify a departure from what would otherwise be desir-
able, and the running of the line at some distance
south of the Madawaska, observing natural monu-
ments where it may be practicable, and thus leaving
the whole valley of the Madawaska on the British side.
The United States, therefore, upon the adjustment
of proper equivalents, would not object to a line of
boundary which should begin at the middle of the
main channel of the river St. John, where that river
is intersected by a due north line, extended from the
source of the St. Croix, thence proceeding westerly.
of the mouth of the Madawaska, thence by atstraight
line to the outlet of Long Lake, thence westerly eFrrlyaule.ys
a direct line to the point where thri S
Polienaymanok,
empties itself into the lake called.,
into the St.
lands which divide the waters
afal
t the highlands, highlands, I
Francis. Having thus arrived
thence continuing in the same direct line tot he high.
m t headofthe °
os Cqrt..
lowing them to the nortwestern
free intercourse between Ca-
shall be ready to confer on the correct manner of f 1..
necticut river.
Such ael/ would
gwianßdruansvvyc ; and with the naviga-
ro.o as has been. now described .
appear to meet the wants of nil partim
aseacduareaatdo
NEne
tion of the St. John's yielded to the United states,
as constituting, so
Lordship's proposition in regard
equivalent. Probably '
would
Yourto the
asf itth
the ricer
go,er
fir a
the naturale
transportation
of, the
navigation is viewed as just, and
idethe rodu.cts.
far
use o
of the forest grown on the Ameticas
both
would be equally advantageous to of the line
and,
therefore, in granting it,' no sacrifice Britishparties,
A.
of inte-
rest would be incurred. A conviction of this, toge-
ther with their confidence in the
of
validity their own
claim, is very likely to leadthe • •
two States immedi -
ately concerned to consider their
the lands north the line 1) f •
ne much in the light of a mere
cession. It heed not be denied
that, to secure tY lis
privilege, and to haVe a right to enjoy it, free from
tea, toll, or other liability or inability, is an ob.; ect of
considerable importance to the people of Mainr,;
Your Lordship intimates that, as a part of the ge-
neral arrangement of boundaries, England would be
willing to surrender to the United States Rouse's
Point and all the territory heretofore supposed to be
within the boundaries of New Hampshire, Vermont,
and New York, but which a correct ascertainment of
the forty-fifth parallel of north latitude show to be
included within the British line. This concession is,
no doubt, of some value. If made, its benefits would
ensue partly to these three States, and partly to the,
United States; and none of it to the particular 3.n.
terests of Maine and Massachusetts.
If regarded, therefore, as a part of the equivalent
for the manner of adjusting the north. eastern b.oun-
dary, these two last-mentioned States would., pf.:rhaps,
expect-that the value, if it could be ascertained
_, should
be paid to them. 0;1 this point further cow.,ideration
may be necessary.
If in other respects we should be able tr, agree on a
boundary, the points which you refer 'to, connected
with the ascertainment of the head of ene Connecticut,
will be attended to, and Captain Trilcott, who made•
the exploration in that quarter, will. be ready to com-
municate the result of his observations.
I have the honour to be, with distinguished consi-
deration, your obedient servant,
Lord Ashburton, &c. &c. DAN. IVEBSTER.
(To be continued.)