Martin  Van  Buren  1620 
of  Oilman  Appleby  read;  that  they  were  on  the  Caroline  at  the  time  she  was  boarded 
as  stated  in  said  affidavit,  and  that  all  the  facts  sworn  to  by  said  Appleby  as  occurring 
after  the  said  Caroline  was  so  boarded  as  aforesaid  are  correct  and  true. 
[Subscribed  and  sworn  to  before  a  commissioner,  etc] 
Mr,  FoinuU  to  General  Scott. 
Dbpartmbnt  op  War,  January  5, 1838, 
Brevet  Major-Ceneral  WinpibU)  ScotT, 
Washington  City, 
Sir:  You  will  repair  without  delay  to  the  Canada  frontier  of  the  United  States 
and  assume  the  military  command  there. 
Herewith  you  will  receive  duplicate  letters  to  the  governors  of  the  States  of  New 
York  and  Vermont,  requesting  them  to  call  into  the  service  of  the  United  States  such 
a  militia  force  as  you  may  deem  necessary  for  the  defense  of  that  frontier  of  the 
United  States. 
This  power  has  been  confided  to  you  in  the  full  persuasion  that  you  will  use  it 
discreetly  and  extend  the  call  only  so  far  as  circumstances  may  seem  to  require. 
It  is  important  that  the  troops  called  into  the  servioe  should  be,  if  possible,  exempt 
from  that  state  of  excitement  which  the  late  violation  of  our  territory  has  created, 
and  you  will  therefore  impress  upon  the  governors  of  these  border  States  the  pro- 
priety of  selecting  troops  from  a  portion  of  the  State  distant  from  the  theater  of 
action. 
The  Executive  possesses  no  legal  authority  tp  employ  the  military  force  to  restrain 
persons  within  our  jurisdiction  and  who  ought  to  be  imder  our  control  from  violat- 
ing the  laws  by  making  incursions  into  the  territory  of  neighboring  and  friendly 
nations  with  hostile  intent.  I  can  give  you,  therefore,  no  instructions  on  that  sub- 
ject, but  request  that  you  will  use  your  influence  to  prevent  such  excesses  and  to 
preserve  the  character  of  this  Government  for  good  faith  and  a  proper  regard  for  the 
rights  of  friendly  powers. 
The  militia  will  be  called  into  the  service  for  three  months,  unless  sooner  dis- 
chaxged,  and  in  your  requisitions  you  will  designate  the  number  of  men  and  take 
care  that  the  officers  do  not  exceed  a  due  proportion. 
It  is  deemed  important  that  the  administrative  branch  of  the  service  should  be 
conducted  wherever  practicable  by  officers  of  the  Regular  Army. 
The  disposition  of  the  force  with  regard  to  the  points  to  be  occupied  is  confided 
to  your  discretion,  military  skill,  and  intimate  knowledge  of  the  country;  and  the 
amount  of  that  force  must  depend  upon  the  chara(:ter  and  duration  of  the  contest 
now  going  on  in  Canada  and  the  disposition  manifested  by  the  people  and  the  public 
authorities  of  that  colony. 
The  President  indulges  a  hope  that  outrages  similar  to  that  which  lately  occurred 
at  Schlosser  will  not  be  repeated,  and  that  you  will  be  able  to  maintain  the  peace  of 
that  frontier  without  being  called  upon  to  use  the  force  which  has  been  confided 
to  you. 
Very  respectfully,  your  most  obedient  servant,  «  p   POINSETT 
Mr.  Poinsett  to  Governor  Marty. 
DSPARTMBMT  OP  War,  January  5, 1838. 
His  Excellency  W.  L.  Marcy, 
Governor  oj New  York^  Albany^  N,  Y. 
Sir:  The  territory  of  the  United  States  having  been  violated  by  a  party  of  armed 
men  from  the  Canada  shore,  and  apprehensions  being  entertained  from  the  highly 
excited  feelings  of  both  parties  that  similar  outrages  may  lead  to  an  invasion  of  our
i62i  Messages  and  Papers  of  the  Presidents 
soil,  the  President  has  thought  proper  to  exercise  the  authority  vested  in  him  by 
law  and  call  out  such  militia  force  as  may  be  deemed  necessary  to  protect  the  fron- 
tiers of  the  United  States. 
I  am,  in  consequence,  instructed  by  the  President  to  request  you  will  call  into  the 
service  of  the  United  States  and  place  under  the  command  of  Brevet  Major-General 
Scott  such  militia  force  as  he  may  require,  to  be  employed  on  the  Canada  frontier 
for  the  purpose  herein  set  forth/ 
Very  respectfully,  your  most  obedient  servant,  j  ^   POINSETT 
[Same  to  His  Excellency  Silas  H.  Jennison;govemor  of  Vermont,  Montpelier,  Vt] 
Mr.  Forsyth  to  Mr  Fox, 
Dbpartment  of  State, 
Washington^  January  5,  iB^S, 
Hbnrv  S.  Fox,  Esq.,  etc. 
Sir:  By  the  direction  of  the  President  of  the  United  States  I  have  the  honor  to  com- 
municate to  you  a  copy  of  the  evidence  furnished  to  this  Department  of  an  extraor- 
dinary outrage  committed  from  Her  Britannic  Majesty's  Province  of  Upper  Canada 
on  the  persons  and  property  of  citizens  of  the  United  States  within  the  jurisdiction 
of  the  State  of  New  York."  The  destruction  of  the  property  and  assassination  of 
citizens  of  the  United  States  on  the  soil  of  New  York  at  the  moment  when,  as  is  well 
known  to  you,  the  President  was  anxiously  endeavoring  to  allay  the  excitement  and 
earnestly  seeking  to  prevent  any  unfortunate  occurrence  on  the  frontier  of  Canada 
has  produced  upon  his  mind  the  most  painful  emotions  of  surprise  and  regret.  It 
will  necessarily  form  the  subject  of  a  demand  for  redress  upon  Her  Majesty's  Gov- 
ernment. This  communication  is  made  to  you  under  the  expectation  that  through 
3rour  instrumentality  an  early  explanation  may  be  obtained  from  the  authorities  of 
Upper  Canada  of  all  the  circumstances  of  the  transaction,  and  that  by  your  advice 
to  those  authorities  such  decisive  precautions  may  be  used  as  will  render  the  perpe- 
tration of  similar  acts  hereafter  impossible.  Not  doubting  the  disposition  of  the 
government  of  Upper  Canada  to  do  its  duty  in  punishing  the  aggressors  and  pre- 
venting future  outrage,  the  President,  notwithstanding,  has  deemed  it  necessary  to 
order  a  sufficient  force  on  the  frontier  to  repel  any  attempt  of  a  like  character,  and 
to  make  known  to  you  that  if  it  should  occur  he  can  not  be  answerable  for  the  effects 
of  the  indignation  of  the  neighboring  people  of  the  United  States. 
I  take  this  occasioa  to  renew  to  you  the  assurance  of  my  distinguished  consid- 
eration. 
JOHN  FORSYTH. 
Washington,  Jamutty  12,  1838. 
To  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States  : 
I  transmit  to  Congress  copies  of  a  representation  from  a  late  grand  jury 
of  the  county  of  Washington,  in  this  District,  concurred  in  by  two  of  the 
judges  of  the  circuit  court,  of  the  necessity  of  the  erection  of  a  new  jail  and 
a  lunatic  asylum  in  this  city.  I  also  transmit  copies  of  certain  proceed- 
ings of  the  circuit  court  for  the  county  of  Alexandria  at  the  last  October 
term,  and  of  a  representation  of  the  grand  jury,  made  with  the  approba- 
tion of  the  court,  showing  the  unsafe  condition  of  the  court-house  of  that 
county  and  the  necessity  for  a  new  one. 
I  recommend  these  objects  to  the  favorable  consideration  of  Congress. 
M.  VAN  BUREN.
Martin  Van  Buren  1622 
Washington,  January  12, 1838. 
The  Sfbaksr  op  thic  Housb  op  Rbpkksentativks: 
In  answer  to  a  resolution  of  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  2d 
instant,  I  transmit  herewith  a  report*  of  the  Secretary  of  War,  explan- 
atory of  the  causes  which  have  prevented  a  compliance  with  a  resolution 
of  that  branch  of  Congress  of  February  24,  1837. 
M.  VAN  BUREN. 
To  the  Senate:  Washington,  January  13,  1838. 
I  transmit  to  the  Senate,  for  its  constitutional  action,  a  treaty  made 
with  the  Chippewa  Indians  of  Saganaw  on  the  20th  of  December,  1837. 
M.  VAN  BURKN. 
Washington, /a«ttarK  26,  1838, 
To  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States: 
I  herewith  communicate  to  the  House  of  Representatives  a  report  from 
the  Secretary  of  State,  with  accompanying  documents,  in  answer  to  their 
resolution  of  the  9th  instant.  ^  VAN  BUREN 
DSFARTMBNT  OP  STAT«, 
The  PRKSIDKOT  OP  tHB  UNitKD  STATES:  Washington,  January  25.  iSjS. 
The  Secretary  of  State,  to  whom  has  been  referred  a  resolution  of  the  House  of 
Representatives,  dated  the  9th  instant,  requesting  the  President  to  communicate  to 
that  body  *'  what  measures,  if  any,  have  been  taken  by  the  Executive  for  the  release 
of  Mr.  Greely,  a  citizen  of  Maine,  now  imprisoned  in  the  provincial  jail  of  New 
Brunswick  at  Frederickton  for  an  alleged  violation  of  the  jurisdiction  of  said  Prov- 
ince over  the  territory  claimed  by  the  British  Government;  and  also  to  communicate 
any  correspondence  which  the  executive  department  may  have  had  with  the  British 
Government  or  the  executive  of  Maine  upon  the  subject  of  said  Greely's  imprison- 
ment, so  far  as  a  communication  of  the  same  may  be  deemed  by  him  not  incom- 
patible with  the  public  interest;*'  and  likewise  requesting  the  President,  if  not 
incompatible  with  the  public  interests,  to  commimicate  to  that  House  "any  corre- 
spondence or  communication  held  between  the  Government  of  the  United  States 
and  that  of  Great  Britain  at  different  times  respecting  the  wardenship,  occupation,  or 
actual  possession  of  that  part  of  the  territory  of  the  State  of  Maine  which  is  claimed 
by  Great  Britain,'*  has  the  honor  to  report  to  the  President  the  accompanying  docu- 
ments, which  embrace  the  information  and  correspondence  not  heretofore  pubHshed 
by  Congress  called  for  by  the  above-cited  resolution. 
Respectfully  submitted.  JOHN  FORSYTH. 
The  governor  of  Maine  to  the  President  of  the  United  States, 
STAT9  OP  Maine,  Exscutivs  Dspartmbnt, 
His  Excellency  Martin  Van  Buren,  September  18, 1837. 
President  of  the  United  States. 
Sir:  I  lose  no  time  in  advising  Your  Excellency  that  Ebenezer  S.  Greely,  esq., 
a  citizen  of  this  State,  while  employed  within  its  limits  and  under  its  authority  in 
taking  an  enumeration  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  cotmty  of  Penobscot  residing  north 
*  Bftoting  to  alleged  frauds  upon  the  Cteek  India&t  ia  the  sale  and  purchase  of  their  lands,  etc.
1623  Messages  and  Papers  of  the  Presidents 
of  the  surveyed  and  located  townships,  has  been  arrested  a  second  time  by  the  pro- 
vincial authorities  of  New  Brunswick,  and  is  now  in  confinement  in  the  jail  of 
Frederickton. 
It  becomes  my  duty  to  request  that  prompt  meisurea  be  adopted  by  the  Govenf 
inent  of  the  United  States  to  effect  the  release  of  Mr.  Greely. 
I  have  the  honor  to  be.  etc.,  ROBERT  P.  DUNUVP. 
Mr.  Forsyth  to  Mr,  Dunlap. 
Dkparticent  of  STATBi 
His  Excellency  RoBimT  P.  DuNi^,  Washington,  September  26, 1837. 
Governor  0/ Maine, 
Sir:  I  have  the  honor,  by  direction  of  the  President,  to  acknowledge  the  receipt 
of  the  letter  addressed  to  him  by  your  ezceUedcy  on  the  i8th  instant,  advising  him 
that  Ebenezer  S.  Greely,  esq.,  a  citizen  of  Maine,  while  employed  within  its  limits 
and  under  its  authority  in  taking  an  entmieration  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  county 
of  Penobscot,  has  been  arrested  a  second  time  by  the  provincial  authorities  of  New 
Brunswick,  and  is  now  in  confinement  in  the  jail  at  Frederickton;  and  requesting 
ihat  prompt  measures  be  adopted  by  the  Government  of  the  United  States  to  effect 
the  release  of  Mr.  -Greely. 
I  hasten  to  assure  you  in  reply  that  Mr.  Stevenson,  the  minister  of  the  United 
States  at  London,  will  be  immediately  instructed  to  renew  his  application  to  the 
British  Government  for  the  release  of  Mr.  Greely,  and  that  the  result,  when  obtained 
and  communicated  to  this  Department,  will  be  made  known  to  your  excellency 
without  unnecessary  delay. 
Information  was  given  at  an  early  day  to  the  executive  of  Maine  of  the  informal 
arrangement  between  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain  in  regard  to  the  exercise 
of  jurisdiction  vnthin  the  disputed  territory,  and  the  President's  desire  was  then 
expressed  that  tlie  government  and  people  of  that  State  would  cooperate  with  the 
Federal  Government  in  carrying  it  into  effect.  In  the  letter  addressed  to  yom 
excellency  from  this  Department  on  the  XTth  ultimo  you  were  informed  of  the  con- 
tinuance of  that  arrangement  and  of  the  reasons  for  it.  I  am  now  instructed  by  the 
President  (who  indulges  the  confident  expectation  that  the  executive  of  Maine  will 
still  see  in  the  gravity  of  the  interests  involved  a  sufficient  motive  for  his  cordial 
concurrence  in  an  arrangement  which  offers  the  best  prospect  of  an  amicable  and 
satisfactory  adjustment  of  the  general  question  of  boundary)  to  request  yom*  excel- 
lency's cooperation  in  the  conciliatory  ooturse  adopted  by  the  two  Governments, 
an  adherence  to  which  seems  the  more  important  at  this  time  from  the  considera- 
tion that  an  answer  to  the  President's  last  proposition  is  daily  looked  for,  and  to 
renew  to  you  the  assurance  that  no  efforts  shall  be  spared  on  his  part  to  bring  the 
negotiation  to  a  speedy  conclusion. 
I  have  the  honor  to  be,  etc.,  JOHN  FORSYTH. 
Mr.  Forsyth  to  Mr,  Stevenson, 
[Bxtmct] 
DEPARTMENT  OF  STATE, 
ANDREW  STEVENSON,  Esq.,  etc.  Washington,  July  12, 1837. 
Sir:  I  inclose  an  extract*  of  a  letter  received  at  this  Department  from  the  govemof 
of  Maine,  by  which  you  will  perceive  that  a  citizen  of  that  State,  named  Ebenezer  S. 
Gfeely,  while  employed,  in  virtue  of  an  appointment  under  one  of  its  laws,  in  mak- 
ing an  enumeration  of  the  inhabitants  upon  a  part  of  the  territory  claimed  as  being 
within  the  limits  of  the  State,  was  seized  by  order  of  the  authorities  of  the  Prov- 
ince of  New  Brunswick  on  the  6th  of  June  last  and  imprisoned  in  the  public  jail  of 
^Omitied.
Martin  Van  Buren  1624 
Frederickton,  where  he  still  remains.  I  also  transmit  a  copy  of  sundry  documents 
relating  to  his  arrest  and  detention.*  This  outrage  upon  the  personal  liberty  of  one 
of  its  citizens  has  actually  caused  great  excitement  in  Maine,  and  has  produced  all 
urgent  appeal  to  the  General  Government  for  its  intervention  in  procuring  redress  for 
what  is  considered  an  unprovoked  and  unjustifiable  aggression.  This  arrest  was  made 
on  a  part  of  the  territory  in  dispute  between  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain,  and 
could  only  have  been  justified  in  the  existing  state  of  that  controversy  by  some  plain 
infringement  of  the  understanding  which  exists  between  the  parties,  that  until  the 
settlement  of  the  question  of  right  there  shall  be  no  eictension  of  jurisdiction  on 
either  side  within  the  disputed  limits.  It  is  not  perceived  how  the  simple  enumera- 
tion of  the  inhabitants,  about  which  Mr.  Greely  was  employed,  could  be  construed 
as  a  breach  of  that  understanding,  and  it  is  expected  that  the  Government  of  Great 
Britain  will  promptly  mark  its  disapproval  of  this  act  of  violttice  committed  by  the 
provincial  authorities,  so  inconsistent  with  those  amicable  feelings  under  which 
the  negotiation  respecting  the  controverted  boundary  has  been  hitherto  conducted, 
and  so  essential  to  bring  it  to  a  happy  termination.  You  are  directed  immediately 
upon  the  receipt  of  this  dispatch  to  bring  the  subject  to  the  notice  of  His  Majesty's 
Government,  and  to  demand  aa  a  matter  of  justice  and  right  the  prompt  release  of 
Mr.  Greely  and  a  suitable  indemnity  for  his  imprisonment 
Mr.  Stevenson  to  Mr.  Forsyth, 
[Bxtnct] 
Lbgatiok  op  THS  UmTBD  Statbs, 
London  y  August  ^/,  1S37, 
Sir:  I  received  by  the  last  packet  to  Liverpool  your  dispatch  of  the  13th  of  July 
(No.  21),  transmitting  copies  of  the  documents  and  correspondence  in  relation  to 
the  arrest  and  imprisonment  of  Mr.  Greely,  a  citizen  of  Maine,  by  the  authorities  of 
New  Bnmswick. 
In  pursuance  of  your  instructions,  I  lost  no  time  in  presenting  the  subject  to  the 
consideration  of  the  Government,  and  herewith  transmit  to  you  a  copy  of  my  note  to. 
Lord  Palmerston,  to  which  no  answer  has  jret  been  received. 
You  will  see  that  I  waived  for  the  present  the  discussion  of  the  question  of  right 
and  jurisdiction,  and  contented  myself  with  presenting  the  facts  of  the  case  and 
demanding  the  immediate  release  of  Mr.  Greely  and  indemnity  for  the  injuries 
which  he  had  sustained. 
Mr,  Stevenson  to  Lord  Palmerston, 
23  PoRTi^ND  Pi^cB,  August  to,  i8s7. 
Lord  Pai^mkrston,  etc.: 
The  undersigned,  envoy  extraordinary  and  minister  plenipotentiary  from  the 
United  States,  has  the  honor,  in  pursuance  of  instructions  from  his  Government,  to 
transmit  to  Lord  Palmerston,  Her  Majesty's  principal  secretary  of  state  for  foreign 
affairs,  copies  of  sundry  official  documents  detailing  the  circutpstances  under  which 
a  most  unwarrantable  outrage  has  recently  been  committed  by  the  authorities  of  the 
Province  of  New  Brunswick  upon  the  rights  and  liberty  of  a  citizen  of  the  United 
States. 
From  these  papers  it  appears  that  Bbenezer  S.  Greely,  a  citizen  of  the  State  of 
Maine,  was  duly  appointed  for  the  purpose  of  taking  an  enumeration  of  the  inhab- 
itants of  th^t  State  by  an  act  of  its  legislature;  that  on  the  6th  of  June  last,  whilst 
Mr.  Greely  was  engaged  in  performing  this  duty  and  taking  down  the  names  of  the 
inhabitants  residing  in  that  part  of  the  disputed  territory  claimed  by  the  United 
States  as  lying  within  the  limits  of  Maine,  he  was  forcibly  arrested  by  the  authorities 
*  Omitted.
1625  Messages  and  Papers  of  the  Presidents 
of  New  Brunswick,  immediately  transported  in  custody  to  the  town  of  Frederick- 
ton,  and  imprisoned  in  the  public  jaU,  where  he  still  remains.  This  proceeding  by 
the  authorities  of  New  Brunswick,  having  produced,  as  might  justly  have  been 
expected,  very  deep  excitement  in  Maine,  was  followed  by  an  immediate  appeal  from 
the  governor  of  that  State  to  the  Government  of  the  United  States  for  intervention 
and  redress. 
This  application  on  the  pert  of  Maine  having  received  the  special  consideration  of 
the  President,  the  undersigned  has  been  instructed  to  lose'  no  time  in  presenting  the 
subject  to  the  early  and  earhest  attention  of  Her  Majesty's  Government,  and  demand- 
ing not  only  the  immediate  liberation  of  Mr.  Greely  from  imprisonment,  but  indem- 
nity for  the  injuries  that  he  has  sustained. 
In  fulfilling  these  instructions  of  his  Government  it  is  not  the  purpose  of  the 
undersigned  to  open  the  general  discussion^of  the  respective  claims  of  Great  Britain 
and  the  United  States  to  the  disputed  territory  (within  which  Mr.  Greely  was 
arrested),  or  the  right  c^  either  Government  to  exercise  jurisdiction  within  its  limits. 
Whatever  opinion  the  undersigned  may  entertain  as  to  the  rightftd  claim  of  the  State 
of  Maine  to  the  territory  in  dispute,  and  however  unanswerable  he  may  regard  the 
arguments  by  which  the  claim  may  be  sustained,  he  deems  it  neither  proper  nor 
needful  to  urge  them  upon  the  consideration  of  Her  Majesty's  Government  in  the 
decision  of  the  present  case;  more  especially  as  the  whole  subject  is  elsewhere,  and  in 
another  form,  matter  of  negotiation  between  the  two  Govermnents,  where  the  discus- 
sion of  the  question  of  right  more  appropriately  belongs.  The  undersigned,  more- 
over, does  not  presume  that  pending  the  negotiation,  and  whilst  efforts  are  making* 
for  the  peaceable  and  final  adjustment  of  these  delicate  and  exciting  questions,  Her 
Majesty's  Government  can  claim  the  right  of  exclusive  jurisdiction  and  sovereignty 
over  the  disputed  territory  or  the  persons  residing  within  its  limits.  In  such  a  claim 
of  power  on  the  part  of  Great  Britain  or  its  provincial  authorities,  the  undersigned 
need  not  repeat  to  Lord  Palmerston  (what  he  is  already  fully  apprised  of)  the  Gov- 
ernment of  the  United  States  can  never  consent  to  acquiesce  in  the  existing  state  of 
the  controversy.  On  the  contrary,  the  mutual  understanding  which  exists  between 
the  two  Governments  on  the  subject  and  the  moderation  which  both  Governments 
have  heretofore  manifested  forbid  the  exercise  by  either  of  such  high  acts  of  sover- 
eign power  as  that  which  has  been  exerted  in  the  present  case  by  the  authorities  of 
Her  Majesty's  provincial  government. 
The  undersigned  must  therefore  suppose  that  this  arrest  and  imprisonment  of  an 
American  citizen  under  such  circumstances  and  in  the  existing  state  of  the  contro- 
versy could  only  have  been  justified  by  some  supposed  infringement  of  the  under- 
standing existing  between  the  parties  in  relation  to  the  question  of  jurisdiction 
within  the  disputed  territory.  Such,  however,  was  not  the  case.  The  correspondence 
between  the  governor  of  Maine  and  the  lieutenant-governor  of  New  Brunswick  shows 
that  the  only  act  done  by  Mr.  Greely  was  the  simple  enumeration  of  the  inhabitants, 
and  it  is  not  perceived  how  such  an  act  could  be  construed  into  a  breach  of  the  under- 
standing between  the  two  Governments. 
It  is  proper  also  to  remark  that  this  was  not  the  first  time  that  the  inhabitants 
within  this  particul^  settlement  had  been  enumerated  under  the  authority  of  the 
United  States.  It  was  done  in  the  census  of  1820  (as  a  portion  of  the  State  of  Maine), 
and  was  at  the  time  neither  objected  to  nor  remonstrated  against  by  the  British 
Government  or  that  of  New  Brunswick. 
Wherever,  then,  the  right  of  jurisdiction  and  sovereignty  over  this  territory  may 
dwell,  the  undersigned  feels  satisfied  that  Her  Majesty's  Government  can  not  fail  to 
perceive  that  the  arrest  and  imprisonment  of  Mr.  Greely  under  the  circumstances 
of  the  case  was  not  only  a  violation  of  the  rights  of  the  United  States,  but  was  wholly 
irreconcilable  with  Hiat  moderation  and  forbearance  which  it  is  peculiarly  the  duty 
of  both  Governments  to  maintain  until  the  question  of  right  shall  be  definitively 
•etUed.
Martin  Van  Buren  1626 
It  becomes  the  duty  of  the  undersigned,  therefore,  in  pursuance  of  special  instruc- 
tions from  his  Government,  to  invite  the  early  and  favorable  consideration  of  Her 
Majesty's  Government  to  the  subject,  and  to  demand,  as  a  matter  of  justice  and 
right,  the  immediate  discharge  of  Mr.  Greely  from  imprisonment,  and  a  suitable 
indemnity  for  the  wrongs  he  has  sustained. 
Before  closing  this  note  the  undersigned  will  avail  himself  of  the  occasion  to 
remind  Lord  Palmerston  of  the  urgency  which  exists  for  the  immediate  and  final 
adjustment  of  this  long-pending  controversy,  and  the  increased  obstacles  which  will 
be  thrown  in  the  way  of  its  harmonious  settlement  by  these  repeated  collisions  of 
authority  and  the  exercise  of  exclusive  jurisdiction  by  either  party  within  the 
disputed  territory. 
He  begs  leave  also  to  repeat  to  his  lordship  assurances  of  the  earnest  and  unabated 
desire  which  the  President  feels  that  the  controversy  should  be  speedily  and  ami- 
cably settled,  and  to  express  the  anxiety  with  which  the  Government  of  the  United 
States  is  waiting  the  promised  decision  of  Her  Majesty's  Government  upon  the 
proposition  submitted  to  it  as  far  back  as  July,  1836,  and  which  the  undersigned 
had  been  led  to  believe  would  long  since  have  been  given;  and  he  has  been  further 
directed  to  say  that  should  this  proposition  be  disapproved  the  President  entertains 
the  hope  that  some  new  one  on  the  part  of  Her  Majesty's  Government  will  immedi- 
ately be  made  for  the  final  and  favorable  termination  of  this  protracted  and  deeply 
exciting  controversy. 
The  undersigned  begs  I^rd  Palmerston  to  receive  renewed  assiurances  of  hid  dis- 
tinguished consideration. 
A.  STEVENSON. 
Mr,  Forsyth  to  Mr,  Stevenson. 
Department  op  Statk, 
Wi^hingion,  September  28, 1837, 
Andrew  Stevenson,  Esq.,  etc. 
Sir:  You  will  receive  herewith  the  copy  of  a  note,  dated  the  i8th  instant,  recently 
received  by  the  President  from  the  governor  of  Maine,  who  alleges  that  Ebenezer  S. 
Greely,  esq.,  a  citizen  of  that  State,  while  employed  within  its  limits  and  under  its 
authority  in  enumerating  the  inhabitants  of  Penobscot  County,  has  been  again 
arrested  and  imprisoned  by  the  provincial  authorities  of  New  Brunswick,  and 
requests  that  speedy  measures  be  adopted  by  the  Government  of  the  United  States 
to  procure  the  release  of  Mr.  Greely. 
Governor  Dunlap  has  been  assured,  by  the  President's  direction,  that  steps  would 
be  immediately  taken  to  effect  that  object,  and  you  are  accordingly  instructed,  on 
the  receipt  of  this  dispatch,  to  bring  the  subject  without  delay  to  the  attention  of  the 
British  secretary  of  state  for  foreign  affairs.  You  will  remonstrate  in  a  respectful  but 
earnest  manner  against  this  second  violation  of  the  rights  of  Maine  in  the  person 
of  her  agent,  and  demand  the  prompt  release  of  Mr.  Greely,  with  such  additional 
indemnification  as  the  nature  of  the  outrage  calls  for. 
I  am,  etc.,  JOHN  FORSYTH. 
Mr,  Stevenson  to  Mr,  Forsyth. 
[Extract*,] 
I#EOATION  OP  THE  UNITED  STATES,        ♦ 
London^  November  22^  1837, 
On  my  return  to  I/mdon,  after  an  absence  of  a  few  weeks,  I  found  your  dispatches 
Nos.  26  and  27,  under  date  of  the  8th  and  28th  of  September.     In  pursuance  of  your 
instructions  I  addressed  an  official  note  to  I«ord  Palmerston  on  the  subject  of  the
1627  Messages  and  Papers  of  the  I^esidents 
second  arrest  and  imprisonment  of  Mr.  Greely  by  the  provincial  authority  of  New 
Brunswick,  a  copy  of  which  I  have  now  the  honor  of  transmitting  to  yon. 
No  answer  has  yet  been  received  to  my  first  note,  but  I  presume  a  decision  of  the 
case  may  be  soon  expected. 
Mr.  Stevenson  to  Lord  PtUmerston, 
23  PoRTi^AND  Pi^cs,  November  8,  iS$7, 
The  undersigned,  envoy  extraordinary  and  minister  plenipotentiary  from  the  United 
States,  had  the  honor  on  the  loth  of  August  last  of  addressing  to  I/>rd  Viscount  Pal- 
merston.  Her  Majesty's  principal  secretary  of  state  for  foreign  affairs,  an  official  note 
complaining  of  the  arrest  and  imprisonment  of  Ebenezer  S.  Greely,  a  citizen  of  the 
United  States,  by  the  provincial  authorities  of  New  Brunswick,  and  demanding,  by 
order  of  his  Government,  the  immediate  release  of  l^Ir.  Greely  from  imprisonment, 
with  suitable  indemnity  for  the  wrongs  he  had  sustained.  To  this  communication 
a  note  was  received  from  his  lordship,  under  date  of  the  22d  of  the  same  month, 
in  which  an  assurance  was  given  that  an  early  answer  to  the  complaint  might  be 
expected.  No  answer,  however,  has  yet  been  received,  and  it  is  with  unfeigned  regret 
that  the  undersigned  finds  himself  constrained,  in  again  inviting  the  attention  of 
Her  Majesty's  Government  to  the  subject,  to  accompany  it  with  another  complaint 
of  a  second  outrage  committed  by  the  authorities  of  New  Brunswick  upon  the  rights 
and  liberty  of  this  individual. 
From  recent  information  received  it  appears  that  shortly  after  the  first  arrest  and 
imprisonment  of  Mr.  Greely  he  was,  by  the  orders  of  the  lieutenant-governor  of  New 
Brunswick,  released  from  confinement,  but  was  immediately  thereafter  again  taken 
into  custody  by  his  authority  and  recommitted  to  the  jail  of  Prederickton,  where  he 
is  now  detained.  This  fact  having  been  communicated  by  the  governor  of  Maine 
to  the  President  of  the  United  States  (in  an  official  communication  setting  forth  the 
circumstances  under  which  it  was  done,  a  copy  of  which  is  herewith  transmitted), 
the  undersigned  has  received  the  special  instructions  of  his  Government  to  bring  the 
subject  without  delay  to  the  notice  of  Her  Majesty's  Government,  in  order  that 
immediate  steps  may  be  taken  for  the  liberation  of  Mr.  Greely  and  indemnity  made 
for  the  injuries  he  has  suffered. 
Having  in  the  first  note  which  he  had  the  honor  of  addressing  to  Lord  Palmerston 
stated  the  grounds  upon  which  the  release  of  this  individual  was  demanded  and  the 
expectations  of  his  Government  in  relation  to  the  subject,  and  having  waived  the  dis- 
cussion of  the  questions  of  right  and  jurisdiction,  which  he  still  intends  doing,  it  will 
not  be  needful  to  do  more  on  this  occasion  than  express  to  his  lordship  the  painful 
surprise  and  regret  with  which  the  President  has  received  information  of  this  second 
outrage  on  the  part  of  the  authorities  of  New  Brunswick,  and  to  repeat  the  assur- 
ances heretofore  given  that  such  proceeding  can  be  regarded  in  no  other  light  than 
a  violation  of  the  rights  and  sovereignty  of  the  United  States,  and  entirely  irrecon- 
cilable with  that  mutual  forbearance  which  it  was  understood  would  be  practiced  by 
both  Governments  pending  the  negotiation. 
.  The  circumstances  under  which  these  recent  attempts  to  enforce  jurisdiction  have 
been  made  show  that  in  the  most  favorable  aspect  in  which  they  can  be  regarded 
they  were  wholly  indefensible. 
The  act  for  which  Greely  was  arrested  and  imprisoned,  so  far  from  having  been 
committed  within  the  acknowledged  dominions  of  the  British  Crown,  and  beyond 
the*limits  of  the  disputed  territory,  and  therefore  liable  to  be  treated  as  a  violation 
of  territorial  jurisdiction,  took  place,  as  appears  by  the  statement  of  the  governor  of 
Maine,  whilst  he  was  employed  within  the  limits  of  that  State,  and  under  its  authority, 
in  enumerating  the  inhabitants  of  the  county  of  Penobscot 
By  what  authority,  then,  the  provincial  government  of  New  Brunswick  felt  itself
Martin  Van  Buren  1628 
justified  in  ezercisins:  such  acts  of  sovereign  power  the  undersigned  is  at  a  loss  to  con- 
ceive, unless,  indeed,  upon  the  ground  that  the  jurisdiction  and  sovereignty  over  the 
disputed  territory  pending  the  controversy  rests  exclusively  with  Great  Britain.  If 
sudh  should  turn  out  to  be  the  fact,  it  can  hardly  be  necessary  again  to  repeat  the  assur- 
ances which  have  been  heretofore  given  that  in  any  such  claim  of  power  the  Govern- 
ment of  the  United  States  can  not  acquiesce. 
Upon  the  consequences  which  would  unavoidably  result  from  attempting  to  exer- 
t.ise  such  jurisdiction  it  is  needless  to  enlarge.  It  must  now  be  apparent  that  all 
such  attempts,  if  persevered  in,  can  produce  only  feuds  and  collisions  of  the  most 
painful  character,  and  besides  increasing  the  feelings  of  international  discord  which 
have  already  been  excited  between  the  contending  pcuties,  they  will  close  every 
avenue  to  an  amicable  adjustment  of  a  controversy  which  it  is  so  much  the  desire 
and  interest  of  both  Governments  to  accomplish.  Ought  it  not,  then,  to  be  the 
earnest  endeavor  of  the  two  Governments  to  avoid  doing  anything  which  can  have 
a  tendency  to  lead  to  such  mischievous  consequences? 
It  is  under  this  view  of  the  subject  that  the  undersigned  has  been  instructed  again 
to  remonstrate  against  these  proceedings  of  the  authorities  of  New  Brunswick,  as  a 
violation  of  the  rights  of  Maine  in  the  person  of  her  agent,  and  to  protest  in  the 
most^lemn  manner  against  the  ftiture  exercise  of  all  such  acts  of  jurisdiction  and 
sovereignty  over  the  disputed  territory  or  the  .citizens  of  the  United  States  residing 
within  its  limits  until  a  final  adjustment  of  the  controversy  takes  place.     ^ 
The  undersigned,  therefore,  can  not  and  ought  not  to  close  this  note  without 
again  invoking  the  early  and  earnest  attention  of  Lord  Palmerston  and  that  of  Her 
Majesty's  Government  to  this  painful  subject. 
It  is  one  of  deep  and  mutual  interest  to  the  parties  concerned,  and  the  delicacy  and 
embarrassments  which  surround  it  are  justly  appreciated  by  the  Government  of  the 
United  States.  Deeply  regretting,  as  that  Government  does,  the  collisions  of  author- 
ity to  which  both  countries  have  been  so  repeatedly  exposed  by  the  delay  that  has 
taken  place  in  the  final  settlement  of  the  main  question,  it  is  sincerely  desirous,  as 
the  undersigned  has  taken  occasion  repeatedly  to  assiu'e  Lord  Palmerston,  to  have  it 
brought  to  a  speedy  and  amicable  termination.  This  can  only  be  done  by  measures 
of  mutual  forbearance  and  moderation  on  the  part  of  both  Governments.  To  this 
end  the  efforts  of  the  American  Government  have  been  earnest,  persevering,  and 
constant.  It  has  done,  as  it  will  continue  to  do,  everything  in  its  power  to  induce 
the  State  of  Maine  to  pursue  a  course  best  calculated  to  avoid  all  excitement  and 
collision  between  the  citizens  of  that  State  and  the  inhabitants  of  New  Brunswick, 
or  which  would  tend  in  any  manner  to  embarrass  the  mediatorial  action  of  their  two 
Governments  on  the  subject;  but  it  can  not  be  expected,  if  the  authorities  of  New 
Brunswick  still  persevere  in  attempting  to  exercise  jurisdiction  over  the  disputed 
territory  by  the  arrest  and  imprisonment  in  foreign  jails  of  citizens  of  Maine  for  per- 
forming their  duty  under  the  laws  of  their  own  State,  and  within  what  is  believed  to 
be  her  territorial  limits,  that  measures  of  retaliation  will  not  be  resorted  to  by  Maine, 
and  great  mischief  ensue. 
Indeed,  under  existing  circumstances  and  in  the  nature  of  human  connections,  it 
is  not  possible,  should  such  a  course  of  violence  be  continued,  to  avoid  collisions  of 
the  most  painful  character,  for  which  the  Government  of  the  United  States  can  not 
be  responsible,  but  which  both  Governments  would  equally  deplore. 
It  was  doubtless  with  a  view  of  guarding  against  these  consequences  that  the  under- 
standing took  place  that  each  Government  should  abstain  from  exercising  jurisdic- 
don  within  the  limits  of  the  disputed  territory  pending  the  settlement  of  the  main 
question. 
The  undersigned  therefore  persuades  himself  that  these  proceedings  of  the  colonial 
government  may  have  taken  place  without  a  careful  examination  of  the  important 
questions  involved  in  them  or  the  consequences  to  which  they  might  lead,  rather
1629  Messages  and  Papers  of  the  Presidents 
than  under  instructions  from  Her  Majesty's  Government  or  with  a  deliberate  yiew 
of  asserting  and  enforcing  territorial  and  jurisdictional  rights  over  the  contested 
territory. 
In  looking  back,  as  he  does  with  satisfaction,  to  the  conciliatory  spirit  in  which  the 
negotiation  has  heretofore  been  conducted  and  the  moderation  which  both  Govern- 
ments have  observed,  the  undersigned  can  not  permit  himself  to  doubt  but  that 
upon  a  careful  review  of  the  whole  subject  Her  Majesty's  Government  will  see  fit 
not  only  to  mark  with  its  disapprobation  this  last  proceeding  of  her  colonial  govern- 
ment, and  direct  the  immediate  liberation  of  Mr.  Greely  from  imprisonment,  with 
ample  indemnity  for  the  wrongs  he  may  have  sustained,  but  that  it  will  see  the  pro- 
priety of  giving  suitable  instructions  to  the  authorities  of  New  Brunswick  to  abstain 
for  the  future  from  all  acts  of  that  character,  which  can  have  no  other  tendency  than 
to  increase  the  excitement  and  jealousies  which  already  prevail  and  retard  the  final 
and  amicable  adjustment  of  this  painful  controversy. 
The  imdersigned  requests  Lord  Palmerston  to  accept  assurances  of  his  distin- 
guished consideration.  ^  S^^EVENSON. 
Mr,  Clay  to  Mr,  Vaughan, 
Dbpartmbnt  of  State, 
Washington,  January  9,  i^2g. 
Right  Hon.  Charles  R.  Vauchan,  etc. 
Sir:  I  have  this  day  received  a  letter  from  the  governor  of  the  State  of  Massa- 
chusetts, transmitting  an  extract  from  a  letter  addressed  by  Geoige  W.  Coffin,  esq., 
land  agent  of  Massachusetts,  to  his  excellency,  a  copy  of  which  is  herewith  commu- 
nicated, and  to  which  I  request  your  immediate  and  particular  attention. 
It  appears  from  this  document  that "  mills  are  now  erecting  on  the  grant  formerly 
made  to  General  Baton,  on  the  Aroostook  River,  for  the  avowed  purpose  of  getting 
their  supply  of  timber  from  our  forests;"  that  the  proprietor  of  these  mills  "says 
he  has  assurances  from  the  authorities  of  New  Brunswick  that  he  may  cut  timber 
without  hindrance  from  them,  provided  he  will  engage  to  pay  them  for  it  if  they  suc- 
ceed in  obtaining  their  right  to  the  territory;"  "that  mills  are  also  erected  at  Pish 
River,  and  to  supply  them  the  growth  in  that  section  is  fast  diminishing,  and  that 
the  inhabitants  of  St.  John  River  obtain  from  the  Province  of  New  Brunswick  per. 
mits  to  cut  on  the  Crown  lands.  But  it  is  evident  that  many  having  such  permits  do 
not  confine  themselves  to  Crown  lands,  for  in  my  travels  across  the  interior  country 
logging  roads  and  the  chips  where  timber  had  been  hewn  were  seen  in  every  direc- 
tion, also  many  stumps  of  trees  newly  cut."  I  need  scarcely  remark  that  the  pro- 
ceedings thus  described  are  in  opposition  to  the  understanding  which  has  existed 
between  the  Governments  of  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain  that  during  the 
pendency  of  the  arbitration  which  isr  to  settle  the  question  of  boundary  neither 
party  should  exercise  any  jurisdiction  or  perform  any  act  on  the  disputed  territory 
to  strengthen  his  own  claims  or  to  aflfect  the  state  of  the  property  in  issue.  The 
governor  of  Massachusetts  observes  in  his  letter  to  me  that,  "in  relation  to  the  lands 
on  Fish  River,  it  must  be  recollected  that  the  survey  of  a  road  by  the  joint  commis- 
sioners of  Massachusetts  and  Maine  a  short  time  since  was  made  matter  of  complaint 
by  the  British  minister  resident  at  Washington  on  the  express  ground  that  the  terri- 
tory was  within  the  scope  of  the  dispute.  From  courtesy  to  his  Government  and  a 
respectful  regard  to  a  suggestion  from  the  Department  of  State,  the  making  of  the 
road  ¥^as  suspended. "  The  governor  justly  concludes:  *  *  But  it  will  be  an  ill  requital 
for  this  voluntary  forbearance  on  our  part  if  the  land  is  to  be  plundered  of  its  tim- 
ber and  the  value  of  the  property  destroyed  before  it  shall  be  determined  that  it 
does  not  belong  to  us. " 
If  the  government  of  New  Brunswick  will  authorize  or  countenance  such  tres-
Martin  Van  Buren  1630 
\ 
passes  as  have  been  stated  by  Mr.  Coffin  on  the  disputed  territory,  it  can  not  be 
expected  that  the  State  of  Maine  will  abstain  from  the  adoption  of  preventiye  meas- 
ures or  from  the  performance  of  similar  or  other  acts  of  jurisdiction  and  proprietor- 
ship. The  consequence  would  be  immediate  and  disagreeable  collision.  To  prevent 
this  state  of  things,  I  am  directed  by  the  President  again  to  demand  through  you  the 
effectual  interposition  of  the  British  Government.  "Without  that  the  friendly,  if  not 
the  peaceful,  relations  between  the  two  countries  may  be  interrupted  or  endangered. 
I  request  your  acceptance  on  this  occasion  of  assurances  of  my  distinguished  con- 
•idcration.  ,  ^   CLAy^ 
Mr,  Vaygkan  to  Mr,  Clay, 
Hon.  HBNRY  CtAT.  etc.:  Washin<»ok./««««o' /J.  /«^. 
The  imdersigned,  His  Britannic  Majesty's  envoy  ertraordinary  and  minister  pleni- 
potentiary, has  the  honor  to  acknowledge  the  receipt  of  Mr.  Clay's  note  containing 
a  representation  which  has  been  made  by  his  excellency  the  governor  of  the  State  of 
Massachusetts  respecting  the  cutting  down  of  timber  upon  the  disputed  territory  in 
the  Province  of  New  Brunswick. 
The  undersigned  will  immediately  transmit  a  copy  of  Mr.  Clay's  note  to  His 
Majesty's  lieutenant-governor  of  New  Brunswick,  in  order  to  obtain  an  explanation 
of  the  transaction  which  has  given  rise  to  the  remonstrance  made  by  the  governor  of 
Massachusetts. 
The  undersigned  takes  this  opportunity  of  renewing  to  the  Secretary  of  State  the 
assurances  of  his  highest  consideration.  ^^jjg   j^  VAUGHAN. 
Mr,  Vaughan  to  Mr.  Hamilton, 
JAMB8  A.  HAMttTOK.  E«i..  etc.:  Washington,  March  7, 1829. 
The  undersigned,  His  Britannic  Majesty's  envoy  extraordinary  and  minister  pleni- 
potentiary, had  the  honor  to  receive  from  the  Secretary  of  State  of  the  United  States 
a  note,  dated  the  9th  January  last,  containing  a  representation  made  by  his  excel- ' 
lency  the  governor  of  Massachusetts  respecting  some  trespasses  committed  on  the 
disputed  territory  in  the  Province  of  New  Brunswick. 
A  copy  of  the  note  of  the  Secretary  of  State  having  been  transmitted  to  Sir  Howard 
Douglas,  His  Majesty's  lieutenant-governor  of  that  Province,  the  undersigned  has 
lately  received  an  answer,  which  he  has  the  honor  to  communicate  to  Mr.  Hamilton 
by  inclosing  an  extract*  of  his  excellency's  letter,  which  shews  in  the  most  satisfac- 
'  tory  manner  that,  so  far  from  the  proceedings  complained  of  by  the  governor  of 
Massachusetts  having  been  authorized  or  countenanced  in  any  shape  by  the  govern- 
ment of  New  Brunswick,  every  precaution  has  been  taken  to  prevent  and  restrain 
depredations  in  the  disputed  territory. 
Mr.  Hamilton  will  see  by  the  inclosed  letter  that  Sir  Howard  Douglas  has  sent  a 
magistrate  to  report  upon  the  mills  which  have  been  established  without  license  or 
authority,  to  inspect  minutely  the  stations  of  the  cutters  of  lumber,  and  to  seize  any 
timber  brought  into  the  acknowledged  boundaries  of  New  Brunswick  from  the  dis- 
puted territory,  and  to  hold  the  proceeds  of  the  sale  of  it  for  the  benefit  of  the  party 
to  whom  that  territory  may  be  ultimately  awarded. 
As  the  time  is  approaching  when  Sir  Howard  Douglas  will  be  absent  from  his 
government,  he  will  leave  injunctions  strictly  to  observe  the  understanding  between 
the  two  governments  during  his  absence.  The  undersigned  has  great  satisfaction  in 
being  able  to  offer  to  the  Government  of  the  United  States  the  unequivocal  testimony 
*  Omitted.
1 63 1  Messages  and  Papers  of  the  Presidents 
contained  in  the  inclosed  letter  from  Sir  Howard  Douglas  of  the  conciliatory  spirit  in 
which  the  government  of  New  Brunswick  is  administered,  and  trusting  that  a  simi- 
lar spirit  will  animate  the  government  of  the  American  States  which  border  on  that 
Province,  he  confidently  anticipates  a  cessation  of  that  excitement  which  has  unfor- 
tunately prevailed  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  disputed  territory. 
The  undersigned  takes  this  occasion  to  offer  to  Mr.  Hamilton  the  assurances  of  his 
high  consideration.  CHAS.  R.  VAUGHAN. 
Mr.  HamiUan  to  Mr.  Vaughan, 
DSPARTMSNT  OF  STAT9, 
Right  Hon.  CHARMS  RICHAW>  VATOHAN.  WoshingUm,  March  11, 1829. 
Envoy  Extraordinary  and  Minister  Plenipotentiary  from  Great  Britain. 
Sir:  I  have  received  and  laid  before  the  President  of  the  United  States  the  note, 
with  its  inclosures,  which  you  did  me  the  honor  to  write  to  me  on  the  7th  of  this 
month  in  answer  to  a  representation  which  was  made  to  you  by  Mr.  Clay  on  the  9th 
of  January  last,  at  the  instance  of  the  governor  of  Massachusetts,  concerning  dep- 
redations complained  of  by  him  against  inhabitants  of  the  Province  of  New  Bruns- 
wick in  cutting  timber,  preparing  lumber  for  market,  and  erecting  mills  upon  the 
soil  of  the  territory  in  dispute  between  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain,  and  I  am 
directed  by  the  President  to  state  in  reply,  as  I  have  much  pleasure  in  doing,  that 
he  derives  great  satisfaction  from  the  information  contained  in  your  communica^ 
tion,  as  he  especially  perceives  in  the  prompt  and  energetic  measures  adopted  by  Sir 
Howard  Douglas,  lieutenant-governor  of  the  Province  in  question,  and  detail^  in 
the  inclosure  referred  to,  a  pledge  of  the  same  disposition  on  the  part  of  the  authori- 
ties of  that  Province  which  animates  this  Government— to  enforce  a  strict  observance 
of  the  understanding  between  the  two  Governments  that  the  citizens  or  subjects  of 
neither  shall  exercise  any  acts  of  ownership  in  the  disputed  territory  whilst  the  title 
to  it  remains  unsettled.  I  will  lose  no  time  in  making  known  to  the  governors  of  Mas- 
sachusetts and  Maine  the  measures  which  have  been  thus  adopted  by  the  lieutenant- 
governor  of  New  Brunswick  to  guard  against  all  depredations  upon  the  disputed 
territory,  and  will  at  the  same  time  inform  their  excellencies  of  the  just  and  confi- 
dent expectation  entertained  by  the  President  that  the  conciliatory  understanding  or 
arrangement  between  the  two  Governments  of  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain 
already  referred  to  should  not  be  disturbed  by  the  citizens  of  these  two  States. 
I  am  directed  likewise  by  the  President  expressly  to  use  this  first  occasion  of  an 
official  communication  with  you  under  his  orders  to  request  the  favor  of  you  to  make 
known  to  your  Government  the  sincere  regret  he  feels  at  the  existence  of  any  differ- 
ence or  misunderstanding  between  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain  upon  the 
subject-matter  of  this  letter,  or  any  other  whatever,  and  that  in  all  the  measures 
which  may  be  adopted  on  his  part  toward  their  adjustment  he  will  be  entirely  actu- 
ated and  governed  by  a  sincere  desire  to  promote  the  kindest  and  best  feelings  on 
both  sides  and  secure  the  mutual  and  lasting  interests  of  the  parties. 
I  pray  you,  sir,  to  accept  the  renewed  assurances  of  the  high  and  distinguished 
consideration  with  which  I  have  the  honor  to  be,  your  obedient,  humble  servant, 
JAMES  A.  HAMILTON. 
Mr.  Vaughan  to  Mr.  Hamilton. 
Mr.  J.  A.  Hamhton,  etc.:  Washington.  March  12, 1819. 
It  is  with  great  satisfaction  that  the  undersigned.  His  Britannic  Majesty's  envoy 
extraordinary  and  minister  plenipotentiary,  acknowledges  the  receipt  of  Mr.  Hamil- 
ton's note  of  the  i  ith  instant,  containing  a  prompt  acknowledgment  of  the  efficacious
Martin  l/'an  Buren  1632 
measoreft  adopted  by  the  lieutenant-governor  of  New  Brunswick  to  investigate  and 
to  restrain  the  proceedings  complained  of  in  the  disputed  territory;  and  he  begs 
leave  to  assure  the  President  that  he  derives  great  satisfaction  from  being  requested 
to  communicate  to  His  Majesty's  Government  that  in  the  adjustment  of  differences 
between  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States  the  President  will  be  entirely  actuated 
and  governed  by  a  sincere  desire  to  promote  the  kindest  and  best  feelings  on  both 
sides  and  secure  the  mutual  and  lasting  interests  of  the  parties. 
The  undersigned  begs  Mr.  Hamilton  to  accept  the  assurances  of  his  highest  con- 
sideration* 
CHS.  R.  VAUGHAN. 
Mr.  Vaughan  to  Mr.  Van  Buren, 
Washington,  A^t  10,  iSzg, 
Hon.  Martin  Van  Burbn,  etc.: 
The  undersigned,  His  Britannic  Majesty's  envoy  extraordinary  and  minister  pleni- 
potentiary, has  the  honor  to  inform  the  Secretary  of  State  of  the  United  States  that 
he  has  received  an  intimation  from  His  Majesty's  lieutenant-governor  of  New  Bruns- 
wick that,  apparently,  it  is  the  intention  of  the  Government  of  the  United  States  to 
carry  the  road  now  making  through  the  State  of  Maine  to  Mars  Hill  over  the  point, 
and  to  occupy  it  as  a  military  station. 
The  undersigned  begs  leave  to  remind  Mr.  Van  Buren  that  Mars  Hill  is  situated 
upon  the  northeastern  line  of  boundary  which  is  in  dispute  between  the  two  Gov- 
ernments; and  he  is  called  upon  to  protest  against  the  occupation  of  it  by  American 
troops  upon  the  ground  that  the  line  drawn  by  the  commissioners  of  boundary 
under  the  treaty  of  Ghent  due  north  from  the  monument  which  marks  the  sources 
of  the  river  St.  Croix  was  not  considered  by  them  as  correctly  laid  down,  and  it  yet 
remains  to  be  determined  whether  Mars  Hill  lies  eastward  or  westward  of  a  line 
drawn  upon  scientific  principles.  For  a  better  explanation  of  the  motives  for  this 
protest  the  undersigned  has  the  honor  to  refer  the  Secretary  of  State  to  a  copy  of  a 
letter,  which  is  inclosed,*  from  Sir  Howard  Douglas. 
A  joint  resolution  of  both  Houses  of  Congress  passed  during  the  last  session  tends 
to  confirm  the  intentions  of  the  Gov<imment  of  the  United  States  as  inferred  by  Sir 
Howard  Douglas  from  the  information  which  he  has  received.  That  resolution 
authorized  the  making  of  a  road  from  and  beyond  Mars  Hill  to  the  mouth  of  the 
Madawaska  River;  but  as  the  carrying  into  effect  that  resolution  was  left  entirely 
to  the  discretion  of  the  President,  the  undersigned  can  not  entertain  any  apprehen- 
sion of  a  forcible  seizure  of  a  large  portion  of  the  disputed  territory,  which  a  com- 
pliance with  the  resolution  of  Congress  would  imply. 
The  undersigned  acknowledges  with  great  satisfaction  the  assurances  which  he 
has  received  of  the  kind  feelings  which  will  actuate  the  President  of  the  United 
States  in  the  adjustment  of  any  differences  which  may  exist  with  Great  Britain.  He 
submits,  therefore,  the  representation  of  the  lieutenant-governor  of  New  Brunswick 
respecting  the  occupation  of  Mars  Hill,  relying  confidently  on  the  manifest  propriety 
of  restraining  the  aggression  which  it  is  supposed  is  meditated  from  the  frontier  of 
the  State  of  Maine,  and  of  both  parties  mutually  abstaining  from  any  acts  which 
can  affect  the  disputed  territory,  as  the  question  of  possession  is  now  in  the  course 
of  arbitration. 
The  undersigned  reiterates  to  the  Secretary  of  State  the  assurances  of  his  highest 
consideration. 
CHAS.  R.  VAUGHAN, 
^Omitted.  -
1633  Messages  and  Papers  of  the  Presidents 
Mr,  Van  Buren  to  Mr,  Vaughan, 
Dbpartmbnt  of  State, 
Washington,  May  11,  182Q, 
Right  Hon.  Chari«bs  R.  Vaughan,  etc. : 
The  undersigned,  Secretary  of  State  of  tne  United  States,  has  the  honor  to 
acknowledge  the  receipt  of  the  note  which  Mr.  Vaughan,  His  Britannic  Majesty's 
envoy  extraordinary  and  minister  plenipotentiary,  addressed  to  him  on  the  loth  of 
April,  stating  upon  the  authority  of  a  letter  from  the  governor  of  New  Brunswick, 
whereof  a  copy  came  inclosed  in  Mr.  Vaughan's  note,  that  it  was  apparently  the 
intention  of  the  Government  of  the  United  States  to  carry  the  road  now  making 
throngh  the  State  of  Maine  to  Mars  Hill  over  that  point,  and  to  occupy  Mars  Hill 
as  a  military  station;  and  protesting  against  such  occupation  upon  the  ground  that 
the  line  drawn  by  the  commissioners  of  boundary  under  the  treaty  of  Ghent  due 
north  from  the  monument  which  marks  the  source  of  the  river  St.  Croiz  was  not 
considered  by  them  as  correctly  laid  down,  and  that  it  yet  remains  to  be  determined 
whether  Mars  Hill  is  eastward  or  westward  of  the  true  line. 
The  undersigned  deems  it  unnecessary  upon  the  present  occasion  to  enter  into 
an  elaborate  discussion  of  the  point  stated  by  Sir  Howard  Douglas,  the  lieutenant- 
governor  of  New  Brunswick,  concerning  the  line  referred  to  by  him,  inasmuch 
as  the  relative  position  of  Mars  Hill  to  that  line  is  already  designated  upon  map  A, 
and  the  line  itself  mutually  agreed  to  and  sufficiently  understood  for  all. present 
purposes,  though  not  definitively  settled  by  the  convention  of  London  of  the  29th 
September,  1827. 
The  undersigned  will  therefore  merely  state  that  he  finds  nothing  in  the  record 
of  the  proceedings  of  the  commissioners  under  the  fifth  article  of  the  treaty  of 
Ghent  to  warrant  the  doubt  suggested  by  the  lieutenant-governor  of  New  Brunswick 
whether  Mars  Hill  lies  to  the  westward  of  the  line  to  be  drawn  due  north  from  the 
monument  at  the  source  of  the  St.  Croix  to  the  highlands  which  divide  the  waters 
that  empty  into  the  river  St.  Lawrence  from  those  which  empty  into  the  Atlantic 
Ocean;  that  the  joint  surveys  and  explorations  made  under  that  commission  place 
the  hill  about  a  mile  due  west  of  that  line;  and  that  the  agent  of  His  Britannic 
Majesty  before  the  commissioners,  so  far  from  intimating  any  doubt  on  the  point, 
made  it  one  ground  of  argument  that  the  true  line,  when  correctly  laid  down,  would 
necessarily,  on  accoimt  of  the  ascertained  progressive  westerly  variation  of  the  needle, 
fall  still  farther  westward. 
The  undersigned  can  not  acquiesce  in  the  supposition  that,  because  the  agent  of  His 
Britannic  Majesty  thought  proper  in  the  proceedings  before  the  commissioners  to  lay 
claim  to  all  that  portion  of  the  State  of  Maine  which  lies  north  of  a  line  running 
westerly  from  Mars  Hill,  and  designated  as  the  limit  or  boundary  of  the  British  claim, 
thereby  the  United  States  or  the  State  of  Maine  ceased  to  have  jurisdiction  in  the  ter* 
ritory  thus  claimed.  In  the  view  of  this  Government  His  Britannic  Majesty's  agent 
might  with  equal  justice  have  extended  his  claim  to  any  other  tmdisputed  part  of  the 
State  as  to  claim  the  portion  of  it  which  he  has  drawn  in  question,  and  in  such  case 
the  lieutenant-governor  of  New  Brunswick  could  surely  not  have  considered  a  con- 
tinuance on  the  part  of  the  United  States  and  of  the  State  of  Maine  to  exercise  their 
accustomed  jiuisdiction  and  authority  to  be  an  encroachment  If  so,  in  what  light 
are  we  to  regard  the  continued  acts  of  jurisdiction  now  exercised  by  him  in  the  Mad- 
awaska  settlement?  More  than  twenty  years  ago  large  tracts  of  land  lying  westward 
of  Mars  Hill,  and  northward  on  the  river  Restook,  were  granted  by  the  State  of  Massa- 
chusetts, which  tracts  are  held  and  possessed  tmder  those  grants  to  this  day,  and  the 
United  States  and  the  States  of  Massachusetts  and  Maine,  in  succession,  have  never 
ceased  to  exercise  that  jurisdiction  which  the  unsettled  condition  of  the  oonntry  in 
that  region  and  other  circumstances  admitted  and  reqtured.  .
Martin  Van  Buren  1634 
The  undersigned,  therefore,  can  not  discover  in  the  facts  and  circnmstances  of  the 
\caae  any  just  principles  upon  which  Sir  Howard  Douglas  could  predicate  his  protest. 
He  has,  however,  submitted  the  note  which  he  had  the  honor  to  receive  from  Mr. 
Vaughan  to  the  President  of  the  United  States,  and  is  by  him  directed  to  say  in  reply 
that  although  this  Government  coidd  feel  no  diflEiculty  in  the  exercise  of  what  it 
deems  an  unquestionable  right,  and  could  not  allow  itself  to  be  restrained  by  the  pro'- 
test  of  the  lieutencmt-governor  of  New  Brunswick,  yet,  as  a  further  proof  of  the  spirit 
of  amity,  forbearance,  and  conciliation  which  the  President  is  desirous  of  cultivating 
between  the  two  Governments,  he  has  decided  to  postpone  for  the  present  the  exer- 
cise of  the  authority  vested  in  him  by  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  to  cause  to 
be  snrve3red  and  laid  out  a  military  road  to  be  continued  from  Mars  Hill,  or  such  other 
point  on  the  military  road  laid  out  in  the  State  of  Maine  as  he  may  think  proper,  to 
the  mouth  of  the  river  Madawaska,  and  to  add  that  the  lieutenant-governor  of  New 
Brunswick  is  under  a  misapprehension  as  to  the  design  of  this  Government  to  occupy 
Aiars  Hill  as  a  military  station,  no  such  intention  being  entertained  by  the  President, 
nor  have  any  measures  been  taken  by  this  Government  with  an  ulterior  view  to  that 
object 
The  undersigned  indulges  the  hope  that  Mr.  Vaughan  will  perceive  in  the  manner 
in  which  the  President,  discriminating  between  the  rights  of  this  Government  and 
their  present  exercise,  has  used  the  discretion  conferred  upon  him  an  additional 
evidence  of  the  desire  which  he  sincerely  entertains,  and  which  he  has  heretofore 
caused  to  be  communicated  to  Mr.  Vaughan,  that  both  Governments  should,  as  far  as 
practicable,  abstain  from  all  acts  of  authority  over  the  territory  in  dispute  which  are 
not  of  immediate  and  indispensable  necessity,  and  which  would  serve  to  create  or 
increase  excitement  whilst  the  matter  is  in  course  of  arbitration;  and  he  feels  well 
persuaded  that  Mr.  Vaughan  will  not  fail  to  inculcate  the  same  spirit  and  to  recom^ 
mend  in  the  strongest  terms  the  observance  of  the  same  course  on  the  pcut  of  the 
provincial  government  of  New  Brunswick. 
The  imdersigned  offers  to  Mr.  Vaughan  the  renewed  assiuances  of  his  high  consid- 
cration. 
M.  VAN  BUREN. 
Mr.  Vaughan  to  Mr,  Van  Buren. 
,  Washington,  May  14, 182^, 
Hon.  Martin  Van  Burbn,  etc.: 
The  undersigned,  His  Britannic  Majesty's  envoy  extraordinary  and  minister  pleni- 
potentiary, has  the  honor  to  acknowledge  the  receipt  of  Mr.  Van  Buren *s  note  dated 
the  nth  instant,  and  he  derives  great  satisfaction  from  being  able  to  communicate  to 
His  Majesty's  Government  the  assurances  which  it  contains  that  the  Government  of 
the  United  States  has  never  entertained  the  design  of  occupying  Mars  Hill,  and 
that  the  President,  in  the  spirit  of  amity,  forbearance,  and  conciliation  which  he  is 
.  desirous  of  cultivating  between  the  two  Governments,  has  decided  to  postpone  for  the 
present  the  exercise  of  the  authority  vested  in  him  by  the  Congress  of  the  United 
States  to  cause  to  be  surveyed  and  laid  out  a  military  road  to  be  continued  from  Mars 
Hill  to  the  river  Madawaska. 
The  undersigned  will  transmit  immediately  a  copy  of  Mr.  Van  Buren's  note  to  His 
Majesty's  Government,  and  he  forbears,  therefore,  from  taking  notice  of  the  observa- 
tions which  it  contains  relative  to  the  exact  position  of  Mars  Hill  and  to  the  exercise 
of  jurisdiction  in  the  district  on  the  northwest  of  it. 
The  undersigned  begs  leave  to  renew  to  Mr.  Van  Buren  the  assurances  of  his  high- 
est consideration. 
CHAS.  R.  VAUGHAN.
163  s  Messages  and  Papers  of  the  Presidents 
Mr.  Vaughan  to  Mr,  Van  Buren, 
Washington,  June  8, 1829, 
Hon.  Martin  Van  Burbn,  etc.: 
The  undersigned,  His  Britannic  Majesty's  envoy  extraordinary  and  minister  pleni- 
potentiary, had  the  honor  on  the  7th  March  last  to  lay  before  the  Government 
of  the  United  States  a  letter  from  Sir  Howard  Douglas,  His  Majesty's  lieutenant- 
governor  of  New  Brunswick,  in  explanation  of  trespasses  alleged  by  the  governor  of 
the  State  of  Massachusetts  to  have  been  committed  by  British  subjects  in  the  dis- 
puted territory  within  that  Province.  The  lieutenant-governor  announced  his  inten- 
tion in  that  letter  of  sending  a  magistrate  into  the  district  where  the  proceedings 
complained  of  had  taken  place  to  ascertain  the  nature  and  extent  of  the  alleged 
trespasses  and  afterwards  to  make  a  report  to  his  excellency. 
The  report  of  the  magistrate  having  been  received  by  Mr.  Black,  who  has  been 
commissioned  by  His  Majesty  to  administer  the  government  of  New  Brunswick  dur* 
ing  the  temporary  absence  of  Sir  Howard  Douglas,  a -copy  of  it  has  been  transmitted  to 
the  undersigned,  and  he  begs  leave  to  submit  it  *^  to  the  consideration  of  the  Secretary 
of  State  of  the  United  States,  together  with  an  extract*  of  the  letter  of  Mr.  Black 
which  accompanied  it.  As  it  appears  by  the  report  of  Mr.  Maclauchlan,  the  mag- 
istrate, that  some  American  citizens  settled  in  the  disputed  territory  are  implicated 
in  the  trespasses  which  have  been  committed,  Mr.  Black,  the  president  and  commis- 
sioner in  chief  of  the  government  of  New  Brunswick,  suggests  the  propriety  of  an 
officer  being  appointed  by  the  Government  of  the  United  States  to  act  in  concert 
with  the  British  magistrate  in  preventing  further  depredations. 
The  undersigned  has  received  from  Mr.  Black  the  most  satisfactory  assurances 
that  it  will  be  his  earnest  study  to  adhere  scrupulously  to  the  good  feeling  and  con- 
ciliatory conduct  toward  the  United  States  which  has  been  observed  by  Sir  Howard 
Douglas. 
The  undersigned  seizes  this  opportunity  to  renew  to  Mr.  Van  Buren  the  assurances 
of  his  distinguished  consideration. 
CHAS.  R.  VAUGHAN. 
Mr,  Bankhead  to  Mr,  Livingston. 
Washington,  October  /,  1831, 
Hon.  Edward  Livingston,  etc.: 
The  undersigned,  His  Britannic  Majesty's  charg^  d'aiFaires,  has  the  honor  to 
acquaint  Mr.  Livingston,  Secretary  of  State  of  the  United  States,  that  he  has 
received  a  communication  from  His  Majesty's  lieutenant-governor  of  New  Bruns- 
wick, stating  that  the  authorities  of  Maine  have  endeavored  to  exercise  a  jurisdic- 
tion over  part  of  the  territory  at  present  in  dispute  between  His  Majesty  and  the 
United  States,  and,  further,  that  an  order  has  been  issued  by  a  justice  of  the  peace  for 
the  county  of  Penobscot  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  town  of  Madawaska  to  assemble 
for  the  purpose  of  choosing  municipal  officers. 
The  undersigned  regrets  sincerely  that  these  irregular  proceedings  should  have 
been  had  recourse  to  during  a  period  when  the  question  of  boundary  is  in  a  course 
of  settlement,  and  in  opposition  to  the  desire  expressed  by  the  President  that  pend- 
ing the  discussion  of  that  question  the  State  of  Maine  should  refrain  from  commit- 
ting any  act  which  could  be  construed  into  a  violation  of  the  neighboring  territory. 
The  undersigned  begs  leave  to  submit  to  the  Secretary  of  State  several  documents* 
which  he  has  received  from  Sir  Archibald  Campbell  in  support  of  his  complaint  of 
a  violation  of  territory;  and  the  undersigned  entertains  a  confident  hope  that  such 
measures  will  be  adopted  as  shall  prevent  a  recurrence  of  acts  on  the  part  of  the 
authorities  of  the  State  of  Maine  which  are  productive  of  so  much  inconvenience 
*  Omitted.
Martin  Van  Buren  1636 
and  which  tend  to  disturb  that  hannony  and  good  will  so  necessary  to  be  preserved 
between  the  two  countries. 
The  undersigned  has  the  honor  to  renew  to  Mr.  Livingston  the  assurances  of  his 
distinguished  consideration. 
CHARLES  BANKHEAD. 
Mr.  Livingston  to  Mr,  BankhecuL 
Dkpartmbnt  op  Stats, 
Washington,  October  17, 1831, 
Cbarus  Bakkbbad,  Baq.,  etc 
Sir:  Inunediately  after' receiviiig  3rour  note  of  the  ist  instant  I  wrote  to  the 
governor  of  the  State  of  Maine  for  information  on  the  subject  of  it.  I  have  just 
received  his  answer,  of  which  I  have  the  honor  to  inclose  two  extracts.*  By  the  first 
3fou  will  perceive  that  the  election  of  town  officers  in  the  settlement  of  Madawaska, 
of  which  complaint  was  made  in  the  papers  inclosed  in  your  letter,  was  made  under 
color  of  a  general  law,  which  was  not  intended  by  either  the  executive  or  legislative 
authority  of  that  State  to  be  executed  in  that  settlement,  and  that  the  whole  was 
the  work  of  inconsiderate  individuals. 
By  the  second  extract  it  will  appear  that  the  individuals  said  to  have  been  most 
prominent  in  setting  up  the  authority  of  the  State  have  been  arrested  by  order  of 
the  lieutenant-governor  of  the  Province  of  New  Brunswick,  and  were  on  their  way 
to  be  imprisoned  at  Frederickton. 
The  innovation  on  the  existing  state  of  things  in  the  disputed  territory  being  dis- 
tinctly disavowed  by  the  executive  authority  of  the  State,  no  act  of  authority  or 
exercise  of  jurisdiction  having  followed  the  election,  I  would  respectfully  suggest 
the  propriety  of  your  recommending  to  the  lieutenant-governor  of  New  Brunswick 
the  release  of  the  prisoners  who  were  arrested  for  exercising  this  act  of  authority 
in  the  territory  mutually  claimed  by  the  two  nations,  contrary  to  the  understanding 
between  their  Governments.  It  is  their  avowed  object  to  avoid  any  collision  until 
the  intention  of  both  parties  in  relation  to  the  award  shall  be  fully  known.  All 
subjects  calculated  to  produce  irritation,  therefore,  ought  evidentiy  to  be  avoided. 
The  arrest  of  the  persons  concerned  in  the  election  must  produce  that  feeling  in  a 
high  degree.  A  conviction  can  not  take  place  without  eliciting  a  decision  from  the 
bench  declaratory  of  and  enforcing  the  jurisdiction  over  the  territory  in  dispute, 
which  it  is  the  present  policy  of  both  powers  to  avoid,  at  least  for  the  short  time 
that  must  elapse  before  the  question  can  be  finally  settled.  If  punishment  should 
follow  conviction,  the  passions  that  would  be  excited  must  inevitably  be  hostile 
to  that  spirit  of  conciliation  so  necessary  where  sacrifices  of  national  feeling  and 
individual  interest  are  required  for  the  common  good.  It  would  be  absurd  here 
to  enter  into  the  question  of  title.  Both  parties  claim  it.  No  act  that  either  can 
do  is  necessary  to  assist  its  right  while  there  is  hope  of  an  amicable  arrangement; 
and  it  was  with  this  view  of  the  subject  that  a  mutual  understanding  has  been 
had  to  leave  things  in  the  state  in  which  they  are  until  the  question  of  the  award  is 
settled. 
On  the  part  of  the  Americans  some  individuals,  in  contravention  of  this  understand- 
ing, have  proceeded  to  do  acts  which  if  followed  out  would  change  the  political  state 
of  part  of  the  disputed  land.  But  it  has  not  been  so  followed  out;  it  is  disavowed 
by  the  power  whose  assent  is  necessary  to  carry  it  into  execution.  It  is  therefore 
of  no  avail,  and  can  have  no  more  effect  than  if  the  same  number  of  men  had  met 
at  Madawaska  and  declared  themselves  duly  elected  members  of  the  British  Parlia- 
ment. The  act  interferes  with  no  right;  it  comes  in  actual  collision  with  no  estab- 
lished power.     Not  so  the  punishment  of  the  individuals  concerned.     This  is  at  once 
*OmUtod.
1637  Messages  and  Papers  of  the  Presidents 
a  practical  decision  of  the  question,  and  may  lead  to  retaliating  legal  measures;  for 
if  the  lieutenant-governor  of  New  Brunswick  feels  himself  obliged,  as  he  says  he  does, 
to  impose  the  authority  of  the  law  within  which  he  thinks  the  boundaries  of  his  Prov- 
ince, will  not  the  same  feeling  incite  the  governor  of  Maine,  imder  the  same  sense  of 
duty,  to  pursue  the  like  measures?  And  thus  the  fruits  of  moderation  and  mutual 
forbearance  during  so  long  a  period  will  be  lost  for  the  want  of  perseverance  in  them 
for  the  short  time  that  is  now  wanting  to  bring  the  controversy  to  an  amicable  close. 
It  is  therefore,  sir,  that  I  invite  your  interposition  with  his  excellency  the  lieutenant- 
governor  of  New  Brunswick  to  induce  him  to  set  at  liberty  the  persons  arrested,  on 
their  engagrement  to  make  no  change  in  the  state  of  things  until  the  business  shall 
be  finally  decided  between  the  two  Governments. 
On  our  part,  the  desire  of  the  General  Government  to  avoid  any  measures  tending 
to  a  change  in  the  existing  state  of  things  on  our  northeast  boundary  has  been  fully 
and,  it  is  believed,  efficaciously  expressed  to  the  executive  of  the  State  of  Maine,  ao 
that  .the  actual  relation  of  the  State  with  the  neighboring  Province  will  not  in  future 
suffer  any  change. 
I  have  great  pleasure,  sir,  in  renewing  on  this  occasion  the  assurance  of  my  high 
consideration. 
EDWD.  LIVINGSTON. 
Mr.  Bankhead  to  Mr,  Livingston. 
Washington,  October  20, 1831. 
Hon.  Edward  Livingston,  Esq.,  etc.: 
The  undersigned,  His  Britannic  Majesty's  charg6  d'affaires,  has  the  honor  to 
acknowledge  the  receipt  of  Mr.  Livingston's  note  of  the  17th  instant,  in  answer  to  a 
representation  which  the  undersigned  thought  it  his  duty  to  make  to  the  Govern- 
ment of  the  United  States  upon  a  violation  committed  upon  the  territory  at  present 
in  dispute  between  the  two  countries. 
The  friendly  tone  assumed  by  the  Secretary  of  State  in  this  communication,  the 
discountenance  on  the  part  of  the  General  Government  of  the  proceedings  which 
were  complained  of,  and  the  determination  of  the  President  to  cause  the  strictest  for- 
bearance to  be  maintained  until  the  question  of  boundary  shall  be  settled  have  been 
received  by  the  undersigned  with  great  satisfaction,  and  it  is  in  the  same  spirit  of 
harmony  that  he  has  addressed  a  letter  to  His  Majesty's  lieutenant-governor  of  New 
Brunswick,  inclosing  a  copy  of  Mr.  Livingston's  note,  for  his  excellency's  serious 
consideration. 
The  undersigned  has  the  honor  to  renew  to  Mr.  Livingston  the  assurance  of  his 
distinguished  consideration. 
CHARLES  BANKHEAD. 
Mr  Bankhead  to  Mr,  Livingston. 
Washington,  October  22^  1831. 
Hon.  Edward  Livingston,  etc.: 
The  undersigned.  His  Britannic  Majesty's  ^charg6  d'affaires,  has  the  honor  ta 
transmit  to  the  Secretary  of  State  of  the  United  States  the  copy  of  a  letter*  from  His 
Majesty's  lieutenant-governor  of  New  Brunswick,  inclosing  a  deposition*  made  before 
a  justice  of  the  peace  of  that  Province  in  support  of  a  charge  against  certain  inhab- 
itants of  HoiUton,  in  the  State  of  Maine,  for  having  made  a  forcible  inroad  on  the 
territory  of  His  Majesty  in  search  of  an  Irishman  (an  inhabitant  of  Woodstock,  New 
Brunswick)  who  committed  a  most  violent  outrage  against  the  constituted  authori- 
ties at  Houlton. 
*  Omitted.
Martin  Van  Buren  1638 
The  lieutenant-governor  deprecates  in  the  strongest  manner  the  infamous  con- 
duct of  the  individual  in  question,  and  is  perfectly  ready  to  exert  the  utmost  rigor  of 
the  laws  against  him;  but  his  excellency  at  the  same  time  protests  against  the  con- 
duct of  those  persons  who  have  thus  attempted  to  interfere  with  the  jurisdiction  of 
the  laws  in  His  Majesty's  possessions. 
Under  these  circumstances  the  undersigned  has  to  request  that  Mr.  Xivingston 
will  be  good  enough  to  cause  the  necessary  inquiries  to  be  instituted  into  this  trans- 
action»  and  upon  the  charges  being  clearly  proved  that  he  will  make  such  a  repre- 
sentation to  the  authorities  of  the  State  of  Maine  as  shall  prevent  the  recurrence  of 
a  similar  irregularity  in  future. 
The  undersigned  has  the  honor  to  renew  to  Mr«  Livingston  the  assurances  of  his 
distinguished  oonsideiation. 
CHARLES  BANKHBAD. 
Mr.  Bankhead  to  Mr,  Livingston. 
Washington,  November  25,  iB^t, 
Hon.  Edward  Livincston,  etc.: 
The  undersigned,  His  Britannic  Majesty's  charg^  d'affaires,  has  the  honor  to  refer 
the  Secretary  of  State  of  the  United  States  to  the  correspondence  which  took  place 
in  the  month  of  October  upon  the  subject  of  violations  which  had  been  committed 
upon  the  territory  at  present  in  dispute  between  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States, 
and  the  measures  which  His  Majesty's  lieutenant-governor  of  New  Brunswick  deemed 
it  expedient  to  adopt  thereupon. 
The  trial  of  these  persons  took  plaCe  at  Frederickton,  and  they  were  sentenced  by 
the  supreme  court  of  the  Province  to  fine  and  imprisonment. 
At  the  time  the  undersigned  communicated  to  the  Government  of  the  United 
States  the  decision  which  the  authorities  of  New  Brunswick  had  felt  it  necessary  to 
adopt  upon  this  occasion  he  expressed  the  deep  regret  of  the  governor  of  that  Prov- 
ince that  the  conduct  of  these  individuals  was  such  as  to  compel  his  excellency  to 
pursue  a  course  so  uncongenial  to  his  own  feelings  and  at  variance  with  the  harmony 
which  subsists  between  the  Governments  of  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States. 
The  Secretary  of  State  upon  receiving  this  communication  expressed  to  the  under- 
signed the  earnest  desire  of  the  President,  upon  a  total  disavowal  on  the  part  of  the 
General  Government  of  the  proceedings  of  the  persons  implicated  in  this  transaction, 
that  His  Majesty's  lieutenant-governor  might  consider  himself  authorized  to  exercise 
a  prerogative  in  their  favor  and  to  remit  the  sentence  which  had  been  pronounced 
against  them. 
No  time  was  lost  in  submitting  Mr.  Livingston's  note  to  the  consideration  of  Sir 
Archibald  Campbell,  and  the  undersigned  has  the  greatest  satisfaction  in  acquaint- 
ing him  that  his  excellency  fully  acquiesced  in  the  desire  manifested  by  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States.  The  undersigned  can  not  better  fulfill  the  wishes  of  Sir 
Archibald  Campbell,  which  are  so  much  in  accordance  with  that  spirit  of  good  will 
which  happily  subsists  between  the  two  countries  and  which  characterizes  their 
relations  with  each  other,  than  by  transmitting  to  the  Secretary  of  State  a  copy  of 
the  dispatch  which  he  yesterday  received  from  that  officer,  and  which  he  feels 
assured  will  be  received  by  the  President  as  an  earnest  of  his  uninterrupted  good 
feeling  toward  the  Government  and  people  of  the  United  States. 
The  undersigned  has  the  honor  to  renew  to  Mr.  Livingston  the  assurance  of  his 
highest  consideration. 
CHARLES  BANKHEAD.
1639  Messages  and  Papers  of  the  Presidents 
Sir  Arctiibald  Campbell  to  Mr.  Bankhead. 
Government  House, 
Frederickton^  November  8^  tS$i. 
Sm:  I  had  this  morning  the  honor  to  receive  your  letter  of  the  20th  ultimo,  which, 
with  its  inclosures,  are  in  every  respecc  so  satisfactory  that  I  did  not  lose  a  moment 
in  giving  effect  to  the  wishes  therein  expressed  by  exercising  that  prerogative  so 
congenial  to  my  own  feelings,  whether  viewed  in  the  extension  of  mercy  or  in  the 
gratifying  anticipation  of  such  a  measure  being  received  as  an  earnest  of  my  most 
anxious  desire,  as  far  as  rests  with  me  (consistent  with  my  public  duties),  to  pre- 
serve inviolate  the  harmony  and  good  understanding  so  happily  existing  between 
the  two  Governments.  The  prisoners,  Barnabas  Huimewell,  Jesse  Wheelock,  and 
Daniel  Savage,  are  released;  and  I  have  taken  it  upon  myself,  knowing  that  such  a 
measure  will  be  fully  sanctioned  by  my  Government,  to  remit  the  fines  imposed  by 
the  supreme  court  of  this  Province,  as  alreculy  communicated  to  you  by  Lieutenant- 
Colonel  Snodgrass — an  act  that  I  trust  will  not  fail  in  being  duly  appreciated  when 
it  is  knozvn  that  the  above-mentioned  individuals  did,  with  several  others,  follow  up 
their  first  proceedings  by  acts  of  much  more  serious  aggression,  for  which  they  stood 
charged  under  another  ( untried )  indictment.  However,  ever3rthing  connected  there- 
with is  now  corrected. 
You  will  see  with  what  readiness  and  satisfaction  I  have  received  and  adopted 
your  kind  advice,  for  which  accept  of  my  sincere  thanks,  and  believe  me  to  remain, 
sir,  etc.  I 
ARCHIBALD  CAMPBELL, 
Lieutendnt'Govemor. 
Mr.  Livingston  to  Mr.  Bankhead. 
Department  of  State,  " 
Washington,  November  2S,  rSsr. 
Charles  Baitkhead,  Esq.,  etc.: 
The  undersigned,  Secretary  of  State,  etc.,  has  the  honor  to  acknowledge  the 
receipt  of  a  note  from  Mr.  Bankhead,  His  Britannic  Majesty's  charg^  d'affaires, 
under  date  of  the  25th  instant,  accompanied  by  a  copy  of  a  letter  from  Sir  A.  Camp- 
bell, the  lieutenant-governor  of  the  Province  of  New  Brunswick,  by  both  of  which 
the  Secretary  of  State  is  informed  that  the  citizens  of  the  United  States  lately  under 
prosecution  at  Frederickton  for  acts  done  in  the  territory  now  possessed  by  Great 
Britain  within  the  country  claimed  both  by  that  power  and  the  United  States,  have 
been  set  at  liberty,  in  accordance  with  the  suggestions  made  in  the  former  corre- 
spondence between  Mr.  Bankhead  and  the  Secretary  of  State. 
Mr.  Bankhead's  note,  with  its  indosure,  has  been  laid  before  the  President,  who 
has  instructed  the  undersigned  to  express  his  satisfaction  at  the  prompt  manner  in 
which  his  suggestions  have  been  complied  with,  and  to  say  that  he  considers  it  as  a 
proof  of  the  disposition  of  His  Britannic  Majesty's  officers  to  preserve  the  harmony 
that  so  happily  subsists  between  the  two  Governments. 
The  imdersigned  renews  to  Mr.  Bankhead  the  assurance  of  his  high  consideration. 
EDWARD  LIVINGSTON. 
Sir  Charles  R.  Vaughan  to  Mr.  McLane. 
Washington,  October  20, 1833. 
Hon.  Lo0is  McLane,  etc: 
The  undersigned,  His  Britannic  Majesty's  envoy  extraordinary  and  minister  pleni- 
potentiary, has  the  honor  to  lay  before  the  Secretary  of  State  of  the  United  States
Martin  Van  Buren  1640 
a  copy  of  a  letter*  which  he  has  received  from  His  Excellency  Sir  Archibald 
Campbell,  His  Majesty's  lieutenant-governor  of  New  Brunswick,  and  to  call  his 
attention  to  the  conduct  of  certain  land  agents  of  the  States  of  Maine  and  Massa* 
chusetts  in  the  territory  in  dispute  between  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States. 
It  appears  by  the  report  contained  in  Sir  Archibald  CampbelPs  letter  that  land 
agents  of  Maine  and  Massachusetts  have  been  holding  out  inducements  to  persons 
of  both  countries  to  cut  pine  timber  on  the  disputed  territory  on  condition  of  pay- 
ing to  them  2  shillings  and  6  pence  the  ton,  and  that  they  have  entered  into  con- 
tracts for  opening  two  roads  which  will  intersect  the  Roostook  River. 
As  it  is  the  declared  will  and  mutual  interest  of  the  Governments  of  Great  Britain 
and  of  the  United  States  to  preserve  the  disputed  territory  in  its  present  state  and  to 
avoid  all  collision  pending  the  settlement  of  the  boundary  question,  the  undersigned 
is  convinced  that  it  is  sufficient  to  insure  the  prompt  interference  of  the  Government 
of  the  United  States  to  put  a  stop  to  the  proceedings  of  these  land  agents  to  state 
the  conduct  complained  of. 
The  undersigned  has  the  honor  to  renew  to  Mr.  McLane  the  assurance  of  his  most 
distinguished  consideration.  CYLK%,  R,  VAOGHAN. 
Mr.  McLane  to  Sir  Charles  R.  Va^ham, 
DVPARTUBPST  OP  STATS, 
Washington,  October  ij*  '^33* 
Right  Hon.  Sir  Qmaxlvbs  R.  Vaughak,  G.  C.  H., 
Envoy  Extraordinafy  and  Minister  Plenipotentiary  of  His  Britannic  Majesty: 
The  undersigned,  Secretary  of  State  of  the  United  States,  has  the  honor  to  acknowl- 
edge the  receipt  of  the  note  of  Sir  Charles  R.  Vaughan,  envoy  extraordinary  and 
minister  plenipotentiary  of  His  Britannic  Majesty,  of  the  20th  instant,  accompanied 
by  a  copy  of  a  letter  from  Sir  Archibald  Campbell,  lieutenant-governor  of  New 
Brunswick,  to  Sir  Charles  R.  Vaughan,  and  also  a  letter  from  J.  A.  Maclauchlan  to 
the  lieutenant-governor  of  New  Brunswick,  complaining  of  the  ''conduct  of  certain 
land  agents  of  the  States  of  Maine  and  Massachusetts  in  the  territory  in  dispute 
between  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain." 
The  undersigned  is  instructed  to  state  that  it  would  be  a  source  of  regret  to  the 
President  should  this  complaint  prove  to  be  well  founded,  and  that  he  has  caused  a 
copy  of  Sir  Charleses  note  and  of  the  accompanying  papers  promptly  to  be  communi- 
cated to  the  governors  of  Maine  and  Massachusetts,  in  order  that  the  necessary  steps 
may  be  taken  to  enforce  a  due  observance  of  the  terms  of  the  existing  arrangement 
between  the  Government  of  the  United  States  and  that  of  Great  Britain  in  regard  to 
the  disputed  territory. 
The  undersigned  avails  himself  of  the  occasion  to  renew  to  Sir  Charles  R.  Vaughan 
the  assurance  of  his  distinguished  consideration.  LOUIS  McLANB 
Sir  Charles  R,  Vaughan  to  Mr,  McLane, 
Washington,  December  17^  iSjs- 
Hon.  Louis  McLanb,  etc.: 
The  undersigned,  His  Britannic  Majesty's  envoy  extraordinary  and  minister  pleni- 
potentiary, regrets  that  a  letter  received  from  His  Majesty's  lieutenant-governor  of 
New  Brunswick  should  again  require  him  to  ask  the  intervention  of  the  General 
Government  of  the  United  States  to  put  a  stop  to  certain  proceedings  of  the  State  of 
Maine  in  the  territory  still  in  dispute  between  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States. 
♦  Omitted.
1 64 1  Messages  and  Papers  of  the  Presidents 
The  inclosed  letter,  with  the  report  which  accompanies  it,  *  shows  that  the  State  of 
Maine  has  oi>ened  a  road  beyond  the  conventional  frontier,  with  the  avowed  intention 
of  carrying  it  to  the  bank  of  the  river  St.  John. 
The  undersigned  is  convinced  that  the  Secretary  of  State  of  the  United  States  will 
agree  with  him  that  the  State  of  Maine  must  not  be  allowed  to  take  upon  herself  the 
right  to  define  the  meaning  of  the  treaty  of  1783,  and,  by  aggressions  such  as  those 
against  which  the  undersigned  is  called  upon  to  remonstrate,  to  take  possession,  with- 
out reference  to  the  General  Government  of  the  United  States,  of  territory  which  has 
been  so  long,  in  abeyance  between  the  two  Governments.  Such  conduct  is  calculated 
to  lead  to  collisions  of  a  distressing  nature  between  the  subjects  of  His  Britannic 
Majesty  and  the  citizens  of  the  United  States  employed  to  assert  a  futile  and  hazard- 
ous possession  which  so  entirely  depends  upon  the  arrangements  in  progress  between 
the  two  Governments. 
The  undersigned  trusts  that  the  representation  made  in  this  note  will  be  received 
by  the  Secretary  of  State  in  the  same  spirit  of  good  will  and  conciliation  which  has 
hitherto  characterized  the  conduct  of  the  Government  of  the  United  States  in  all 
occurrences  of  a  similar  nature. 
The  undersigned  has  the  honor  to  renew  to  Mr.  McLane  the  assurance  of  his  most 
distinguished  consideration.  ottas    r.  vAUGHAN. 
Mr,  McLane  to  Sir  Chartes  R,  Vaughan, 
Department  of  State, 
IVashingiany  December  21, 1S33. 
Right  Hon.  SiR  Chari.ES  R.  Vaughan,  G.  C.  H., 
Envoy  Extraordinary  and  Minister  Plenipotentiary  of  His  Britannic  Majesty: 
The  undersigned,  Secretary  of  State,  has  the  honor  to  acknowledge  the  receipt  of 
the  note  addressed  to  him  on  the  17th  instant  by  Sir  Charles  R.  Vaughan,  His  Britan- 
nic Majesty's  envoy  extraordinary  and  minister  plenipotentiary,  requesting  the  inter- 
vention of  the  Government  of  the  United  States  to  put  a  stop  to  certain  proceedings 
of  the  State  of  Maine  in  the  territory  still  in  dispute  between  Great  Britain  and  the 
United  States. 
The  proceedings  referred  to  appear,  by  the  letter  of  the  lieutenant-governor  of  New 
Brunswick  and  the  report  of  the  officer  acting  on  the  part  of  Great  Britain  as  warden  of 
the  disputed  territory  (copies  of  which  accompanied  Sir  Charl^  R.  Vaughan's  note), 
to  be  the  construction  of  a  road  to  the  Restook  River,  passing,  as  is  alleged,  through 
15  miles  of  the  disputed  territory,  and  supposed  by  the  warden  to  be  intended  to 
intersect  the  St.  John  River  in  the  Madawaska  settlement. 
The  undersigned  is  happy  to  have  it  in  his  power  to  afiFord  at  once  such  explana* 
tions  upon  this  subject  as  he  trusts  may  be  satisfactory.  By  a  communication  received 
from  the  governor  of  Maine,  in  answer  to  a  representation  recently  made  by  Sir 
Charles  R.  Vaughan  concerning  other  alleged  encroachments  on  the  disputed  territory, 
it  will  be  seen  that  no  part  of  the  road  now  constructing  by  that  State  is  believed  to 
be  within  the  territory  of  which  the  British  Government  has  ever  been  in  the  actual 
possession  since  the  treaty  of  1783,  and  that  it  is  not  designed  to  extend  the  road 
beyond  the  Aroostook.  The  apprehensions  entertained  of  its  being  extended  to  the 
St.  John  River  in  the  Madawaska  settlement  appear,  therefore,  to  be  groundless, 
and,  if  the  views  of  the  governor  of  Maine  as  to  the  locality  of  the  road  be  correct, 
it  would  seem  that  its  construction  can  afford  no  just  cause  of  complaint,  as  it  is  not 
supposed  that  such  improvements  made  by  either  party  within  that  part  of  the  terri- 
tory which  has  been  in  its  possession,  or  so  considered,  since  the  treaty  of  1783  are 
•Omitted.
Martin  Van  Buren  1642 
contrary  to  the  spirit  of  the  existing  understanding  between  the  two  Governments. 
It  will  be  seen,  moreover,  as  well  by  the  communication  from  the  governor  of  Maine 
as  by  one  received  from  the  governor  of  Massachusetts  on  the  same  occasion,  that  a 
conciliatory  and  forbearing  disposition  prevails  on  their  part,  and  that  no  measures 
will  be  taken  or  any  acts  authorized  by  them  which  may  justly  be  considered  as  a 
violation  of  the  understanding  in  r^ard  to  the  disputed  territory. 
The  undersigned  has  nevertheless  been  directed  by  the  President  to  transmit 
copies  of  Sir  Charles  R.  Vaughan's  note  and  its  indosures  to  the  governors  of 
Maine  and  Massachusetts,  and  to  repeat  to  their  excellencies  his  earnest  desire  that 
as  far  a»  depends  on  them  no  departure  from  the  understanding  between  the  two 
Governments  may  be  permitted. 
In  regard  to  the  complaint  heretofore  made  by  Sir  Charles  R.  Vaughan,  upon 
the  representations  of  the  lieutenant-governor  of  New  Brunswick  and  the  warden 
of  the  disputed  territory,  as  to  the  cutting  and  sale  of  timber  under  the  authority  of 
the  land  agents  of  Maine  and  Massachusetts,  the  undersigned  begs  leave  to  refer 
to  the  communications  from  the  governors  of  those  States  already  mentioned,  copies 
of  which  are  now  transmitted,  by  which  it  appears  that  the  conduct  of  those  agents 
has  furnished  no  just  cause  of  dissatisfaction,  but  that,  on  the  contrary,  it  is  alleged 
that  His  Britannic  Majesty's  officers  of  the  Province  of  New  Brunswick,  by  the  sei- 
zure and  sale  of  timber  cut  by  trespassers  on  the  Aroostook,  and  afterwards  in  the 
rightful  custody  of  the  agent  of  the  State  of  Massachusetts,  have  been  the  first  to 
violate  the  existing  understanding  upon  this  subject 
These  complaints  on  both  sides,  arising,  as  the  undersigned  believes,  from  acts 
which  do  not  on  either  side  indicate  an  intention  to  disregard  the  existing  under- 
standing, but  are  attributable  to  the  imsettled  state  of  the  boundary  question,  and 
which  should  therefore  be  viewed  with  mutual  forbearance,  furnish  increased  reason 
for  a  speedy  adjustment  of  that  interesting  matter;  and  the  President  looks  with  great 
solicitude  for  the  answer,  which  is  daily  expected,  from  the  British  Government  to 
the  proposition  submitted  on  the  part  of  the  United  States,  in  the  hope  that  it  may 
soon  set  all  those  difficulties  at  rest. 
The  undersigned  has  the  honor  to  renew  to  Sir  Charles  R.  Vaughan  the  assurance 
of  his  distinguished  consideration. 
LOUIS  McLANE. 
ExEctrnvE  Department  of  Massachx^setts, 
November  /,  iS$$, 
Hon.  Louis  McLane, 
Secretary  0/ State  of  the  United  States. 
Sir:  I  have  to  acknowledge  the  honor  of  the  receipt  of  your  letter  of  the  23d  of 
October,  covering  a  copy  of  a  note  addressed  to  you  by  Sir  Charles  R.  Vaughan, 
envoy  extraordinary  and  minister  plenipotentiary  of  His  Britannic  Majesty,  accom- 
panied also  by  copies  of  certain  documents  conveying  complaints  on  the  part  of  the 
authorities  of  His  Majesty's  Province  of  New  Brunswick  **of  the  conduct  of  certain 
land  agents  of  the  States  of  Maine  and  Massachusetts  on  the  territory  in  dispute 
between  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain." 
Permit  me  to  assure  you  that  I  shall  lose  no  time  in  making  inquiry  of  the  land 
agent  of  this  Commonwealth  into  the  supposed  occasion  of  the  complaints  of  His 
Majesty's  provincial  officers,  and  in  transmitting  to  the  Department  of  State  such 
information's  I  may  receive  in  reply. 
Prejudicial  as  the  delay  in  the  settlement  of  this  long-vexed  subject  of  boundary 
is  to  the  rights  of  property  which  Massachusetts  claims  in  the  disputed  territory, 
and  impatient  as  both  the  government  and  the  people  have  become  at  the  unreason- 
ableness and  pertinacity  of  the  adversary  pretensions  and  with  the  present  state  of 
the  question,  yet  the  executive  of  this  Commonwealth  will  not  cease  to  respect  the
1643  Messages  and  Papers  of  the  Presidents 
understanding  which  has  been  had  between  the  Governments  of  the  two  countries. 
thai  no  act  0/  rvrong  to  the  property  of  either  shall  be  committed  during  the  pending 
of  measures  to  produce  an  amicable  adjustment  of  the  controversy. 
In  the  meantime,  I  can  not  but  earnestly  protest  against  the  authority  of  any 
appointment  on  the  behalf  of  His  Majesty's  Government  which  may  be  regarded  as  a 
claim  to  the  executive  protection  of  this  property  or  be  deemed  an  acquiescence  on 
the  part  of  the  United  States  in  an  interference,  under  color  of  a  **  wardenship  of  the 
disputed  territory,**  with  the  direction  to  its  improvement  which  the  governments  of 
Massachusetts  and  Maine,  respectively,  may  see  fit  to  give  to  their  agents.  The 
rights  of  soil  and  jurisdiction  over  it  are  in  the  States,  and  forbearance  to  the  exer- 
cise of  these  rights  for  a  season,  from  mere  prudential  considerations^  a  respectful 
regard  to  the  wishes  of  the  General  Government,  or  amity  toward  a  foreign  nation 
is  not  to  be  construed  into  a  readiness  to  surrender  them  upon  the  issue  of  any 
proposed  negotiation. 
I  have  the  honor  to  be,  sir,  with  sentiments  of  the  highest  respect,  your  obedient 
servant^ 
LEVI  LINCOLN. 
BxBCunvs  Dbpartmsnt  of  Maii^e, 
Augusta^  November  23^  1833, 
Hon.  L0U19  McLanb, 
Secretary  0/ State  of  the  United  States,  Washington. 
Sir:  I  have  the  honor  to  acknowledge  the  receipt  of  your  letter  of  the  23d  of  Octo- 
ber last,  communicating  a  copy  of  a  note  from  Sir  Charles  R.  Vaughan,  accompanied 
with  a  copy  of  a  letter  from  Sir  Archibald  Campbell,  lieutenant-governor  of  New 
Brunswick,  to  Sir  Charles  R.  Vaughan,  and  also  of  a  letter  from  Lieutenant  J.  A.  Mac- 
lauchlan  to  Sir  Archibald  Campbell,  complaining  of  the  conduct  of  the  land  agents 
of  the  States  of  Maine  and  Massachusetts  in  the  territory  in  dispute  between  the 
United  States  and  Great  Britain. 
In  compliance  with  your  request  to  be  furnished  with  information  in  relation  to 
this  subject,  I  reply  that  by  a  resolve  of  the  legislature  of  this  State  passed  March 
30,  183  T,  '*the  land  agent  of  this  State,  in  conjunction  with  the  land  agent  of  the 
Commonwealth  of  Massachusetts,  is  authorized  and  empowered  to  survey,  lay  out, 
and  make  a  suitable  winter  road,  or  cause  the  same  to  be  done,  from  the  mouth  of 
the  Matawamkeag,  a  branch  of  the  Penobscot  River,  in  a  northerly  direction,  so  as  to 
strike  the  Aroostook  River  on  or  near  the  line  dividing  the  sixth  and  seventh  ranges 
of  townships.**  The  same  resolve  authorizes  the  land  agents  to  lay  out  and  make,  or 
cause  to  be  made,  a  winter  road  from  the  village  of  Houlton,  in  a  westerly  direction, 
to  intersect  the  road  to  the  Aroostook  River  at  some  point  most  convenient  for  travel- 
ing and  most  for  the  interest  of  the  State.  By  a  sub^uent  resolve,  passed  March  8, 
1832,  the  authority  given  to  the  land  agents  was  enlarged  so  as  to  authorize  them 
'*  to  locate  and  survey  the  Aroostook  road  so  that  it  may  strike  the  Aroostook  River 
at  any  place  between  the  west  line  of  the  third  range  and  the  east  line  of  the  sixth 
range  of  townships  west  of  the  east  line  of  the  State.*'  The  first  of  these  roads  has 
been  surveyed  and  located,  and  much  the  greater  part  of  it  lies  within  the  undisputed 
limits  of  this  State  south  of  the  sources  of  the  Penobscot  River,  and  it  is  believed 
that  no  part  of  it  lies  within  territory  of  which  the  British  Government  has  ever  been 
in  the  actual  possession  since  the  treaty  of  1783.  A  portion  of  this  road^only  has  yet 
been  opened,  and  I  have  no  information  that  any  part  of  it  has  been  opened  over  terri- 
tory claimed  by  the  British,  although  it  is  contemplated  to  extend  it  to  the  Aroostook 
when  it  can  be  done  consistently  with  the  public  interest  The  second  road  described 
in  the  resolve  of  March  30,  1831,  is  wholly  within  the  undisputed  limits  of  this  State. 
A  report  of  the  recent  proceedings  of  the  land  agent  in  making  these  roads  and
Martin  Van  Buren  1644 
disposing  of  the  timber  on  the  lands  of  the  Stater  has  not  been  received,  and  his  late 
sickness  and  death  have  rendered  it  impossible  at  this  time  to  obtain  a  detailed  state- 
ment of  all  that  has  been  done  in  hia  official  capacity.  But  it  can  not  be  presumed 
that  he  has  in  any  particular  exceeded  his  instructions  (copies  of  which  are  herewith 
transmitted*),  or,  in  the  discharge  of  his  official  duties,  taken  any  measures  or  author- 
ized any  acts  to  be  done  which  could  justly  be  considered  as  a  violation  of  any  known 
provision  of  the  existing  arrangement  between  the  Governments  of  the  United  States 
and  Great  Britain  in  regard  to  the  disputed  territory. 
With  high  consideration,  I  have  the  honor  to  be,  sir,  your  obedient  servant, 
SAML.  E.  SMITH. 
Sir  Charles  R.  VoMghan  to  Mr  McLane. 
Washington,  December  23 ^  1833 ' 
Hon.  LoTTiS  McLanb,  etc.: 
The  undersigned,  His  Britannic  Majesty's  envoy  extraordinary  and  minister  pleni- 
potentiary, has  the^honor  to  acknowledge  the  receipt  of  the  note  of  the  Secretary  of 
State  of  tlie  United  States,  in  answer  to  the  representation  which  he  was  called  upon 
to  make  respecting  proceedings  of  the  States  of  Massachusetts  and  Maine  in  the 
disputed  territory. 
To  understand  correctly  the  bearings  of  the  roads  which  those  States  have  resolved 
to  construct  reqtdres  a  more  accurate  knowledge  of  the  topography  of  the  country 
through  which  .they  are  to  pass  than  the  undersigned  possesses,  but  he  will  not 
fail  to  transmit  a  copy  of  Mr.  McLane's  note,  together  with  its  inclosures,  to  His 
Majesty's  lieutenant-governor  of  New  Brunswick.  In  the  meantime  the  under- 
signed begs  leave  to  observe  that  the  letter  from  the  executive  of  Maine  states  that 
one  of  the  roads  surveyed  and  located  lies,  for  the  greater  part  of  it,  within  the  undis- 
puted limits  of  that  State,  although  it  is  contemplated  to  extend  it  to  the  Aroostook 
lUver.  The  land  agent  of  Massachusetts  is  aware  that  the  road  from  the  river 
^  Matawamkeag  to  the  Aroostook  is  the  one  that  has  given  rise  to  complaint,  and 
which,  he  observes,  ** is  now  nearly  completed.*'  As  the  Aroostook  River,  from  its 
source  till  it  falls  into  the  St.  John,  flows  exclusively  through  the  disputed  territory, 
to  reach  it  by  a  road  from  the  State  of  Maine  must  cause  an  encroachment  and  be 
considered  an  attempt  to  assume  a  right  of  possession  in  territory  which  has  never 
yet  been  set  apart  from  the  original  possession  of  Great  Britain,  on  account  of  the 
difficulties  of  ascertaining  the  boundary  according  to  the  treaty  of  1783. 
With  regard  to  the  cutting  down  and  sale  of  timber,  the  justification  of  the  land 
agent  at  Boston  will  be  submitted  to  Sir  Archibald  Campbell,  and  the  undersigned 
is  sure  that  the  grievance  complained  of  (taking  away  timber  which  had  been  seized 
by  the  agent  from  Massachusetts)  will  be  attended  to. 
The  undersigned  receives  with  great  satisfaction  the  assiurances  of  Mr.  McLane 
that  *'  a  conciliatory  and  forbearing  disposition  prevails  on  the  part  of  Massachusetts 
and  Maine,  and  that  no  measure  will  be  taken  or  any  acts  authorized  by  them  which 
may  justly  be  considered  as  a  violation  of  the  understanding  in  regard  to  the  dis- 
puted territory;'*  and  he  can  not  conclude  without  begging  leave  to  acknowledge 
the  readiness  with  which  the  President  directed  inquiries  to  be  made  and  the  desire 
which  he  has  shewn  on  this  and  every  similar  occasion  to  prevent  any  encroachment 
on  the  disputed  territory  pending  the  settlement  of  the  botmdary  now  in  progress 
between  the  two  Governments. 
The  undersigned  has  the  honor  to  assure  Mr.  McLane  of  his  most  distinguished 
consideration. 
CHAS.  R.  VAUGHAN. 
*  Omitted.
j64S  Messages  and  Papers  of  the  Presidents 
Sir  Charles  R.  Vaughan  to  Mr,  McLane, 
Washington,  February  28,  1834. 
Hon.  Louis  McLans,  etc. : 
The  undersigned,  His  Britannic  Majesty's  envoy  extraordinary  and  minister  pleni- 
potentiary, has  the  honor  to  communicate  to  the  Secretary  of  State  of  the  United 
States  the  explanation  which  he  has  received  from  the  lieutenant-governor  of  New 
Brunswick  of  a  transaction  complained  of  by  the  land  agent  of  Massachusetts  in  a 
report  communicated  to  the  undersigned  in  a  note  from  Mr.  McLane  dated  21st 
December  last. 
The  complaint  arose  out  of  the  seizure  of  timber  cut  down  without  authority 
upon  the  disputed  territory,  and  which,  after  having  been  seized  in  the  first  instance 
by  the  land  agent  of  Massachusetts,  was  taken  possession  of  and  sold  by  the  British 
agent  intrusted  with  the  preservation  of  the  disputed  territory  on  the  northeastern 
frontier  of  the  United  States. 
The  explanation  of  this  transaction  is  contained  in  an  extract  of  a  letter  to  the 
undersigned  from  the  lieutenant-governor  of  New  Brunswick  and  the  report  of  Mr. 
Beckwith,  the  surveyor-general  of  that  Province,  which  the  tftidersigned  has  the 
honor  to  inclose  in  this  note.* 
The  seizure  of  the  timber  in  the  first  instance  by  Mr.  Coffin,  the  land  agent  of 
Maine  [Massachusetts],  was  the  exercise  of  authority  within  the  conventional  fron- 
tier of  the  Province  of  New  Brunswick,  which  could  not  be  admitted  so  long  as  the 
northeastern  boundary^of  the  United  States  remains  a  subject  of  negotiation;  and  it 
appears  that  the  proceeds  of  the  sale  of  timber  unlawfully  cut  down  are  carried  to 
account,  and  the  possession  of  them  will  be  appropriated  to  the  party  to  which  the 
territory  may  be  adjudged  by  the  settlement  of  the  boundary  question. 
The  undersigned  trusts  that  the  explanation  which  he  is  now  able  to  give  of  this 
transaction  will  prove  satisfactory  to  the  Government  of  the  United  States. 
The  undersigned  has  the  honor  to  renew  to  Mr.  McLane  the  assurance  of  his  most 
distinguished  consideration.  ^^^^   ^  VAUGHAN. 
Mr.  McLane  to  Sir  Charles  R,  Vaughan, 
Dbpartmknt  of  State, 
Washington,  March  4, 1834. 
Right  Hon.  SiR  Chari^ks  R.  Vaughan,  G.  C.  H., 
Envoy  Extraordinary,  etc. 
Sir:  I  have  the  honor  to  acknowledge  the  receipt  of  your  note  of  the  38th  ultimo, 
furnishing  the  explanation  of  the  lieutenant-governor  of  New  Brunswick  of  a  trans- 
action referred  to  by  the  land  agent  of  Massachusetts  in  a  letter  addressed  to  his 
excellency  the  governor  of  that  Commonwealth,  and  subsequently  communicated  to 
you  by  this  Department  in  a  note  dated  21st  December  last,  and  to  inform  you  that 
copies  of  your  communication,  together  with  the  documents  which  accompanied  it, 
will,  by  direction  of  the  President,  be  transmitted  without  unnecessary  delay  to  the 
executive  of  the  State  of  Massachusetts. 
I  pray  you  to  accept  the  assurance  of  my  distinguished  consideration. 
LOUIS  McLANE. 
Hon.  R.  M.  Johnson,  Washington,  January  27.  1838, 
President  of  the  Senate, 
Sir:  I  transmit  herewith,  in  compliance  with  the  requirements  of  the 
second  section  of  the  act  of  March  3,  1837,  making  appropriations  for 
*  Omitted.
Martin  Van  Buren  1646 
the  Indian  Department,  a  communication  from  the  War  Department, 
accompanied  by  a  copy  of  the  report  of  the  agents  appointed  to  inquire 
what  depredations  had  been  committed  by  the  Seminole  and  Creek  Indians 
on  the  property  of  citizens  of  Florida,  Georgia,  and  Alabama. 
M.  VAN  BUREN. 
[The  same  message  was  addressed  to  the  Speaker  of  the  House  of 
Representatives.] 
Washington  City,  February  5, 1838. 
Hon.  Jamks  K.  Polk, 
Speaker  of  the  Hatise  of  Representatives, 
Sir:  I  have  the  honor  to  transmit  to  you  a  report  from  the  Secretary 
of  the  Navy,  prepared  in  obedience  to  a  resolution  of  the  House  of  Rep- 
resentatives of  the  7th  December  last,  requiring  information  as  to  the 
causes  which  have  delayed  the  outfit  and  preparation  of  the  South  Sea 
surveying  and  exploring  expedition. 
M.  VAN  BUREN. 
.  Washington,  February,  1838. 
To  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States: 
In  compliance  with  the  resolution  of  the  House  of  Representatives  of 
the  2oth  instant,  I  transmit  a  report  from  the  Secretary  of  State,  which 
is  accompanied  by  a  copy  and  translation  of  the  pamphlet*  requested  in 
that  resolution. 
M.  VAN  BUREN. 
Washington,  February  77, 1838, 
To  the  Senate: 
I  transmit  for  your  constitutional  action  articles  of  a  treaty  concluded 
on  the  23d  ultimo  with  the  Chippewas  of  Saganaw,  accompanied  by  a 
communication  from  the  Secretary  of  War. 
M.  VAN  BUREN. 
Washington,  February  77,  1838. 
To  the  Senate: 
I  transmit  for  your  consideration  a  communication  from  the  Secretary 
of  War,  respecting  a  treaty  now  before  you  with  the  Stockbridge  and 
Munsee  Indians.  ^ 
M.  VAN  BUREN 
*  Issued  by  Manuel  B.  de  Gorostick,  formerly  minister  from  Mexico,  before  his  dei>arture  from 
the  United  States,  containing  the  correspondence  between  the  DetMuiment  of  State  and  the  Mexi- 
can legation  relative  to  the  passage  of  the  Sabine  River  by  trooxM  under  the  command  of  General 
Gaines.
1 647  Messages  and  Papers  of  the  Presidents 
Hon.  J.  K.  Polk,  Washington,  March,  1838. 
Speaker  of  the  Hoiise  of  Representatives, 
Sir:  The  inclosed  report  and  accompanying  papers  from  the  Secretary 
of  War  contain  all  the  information  required  by  the  resolution  of  the  House 
of  Representatives  of  the  5th  instant,  respecting  the  present  state  of  the 
campaign  in  Florida  and  the  disposition  of  the  Indians  to  treat  for  peace. 
Very  respectfully,  your  most  obedient  servant, 
M.  VAN  BUREN. 
Washington,  March  12,  1838, 
To  the  House  of  Representatives: 
I  transmit  for  the  consideration  of  Congress  a  report  from  the  Secretary 
of  State,  with  the  accompanying  documents,  relative  to  an  application 
made  by  the  minister  of  France  in  behalf  of  Captain  Beziers  for  remu- 
neration for  services  in  saving  the  captain  and  crew  of  an  American  vessel 
wrecked  in  the  bay  of  Cadiz  in  the  year  1825. 
I  am  happy  to  evince  my  high  sense  of  the  humane  and  intrepid  con- 
duct of  Captain  Beziers  by  presenting  his  case  to  Congress,  to  whom 
alone  it  belong:s  to  determine  upon  the  expediency  of  granting  his  request. 
M.  VAN  BUREN. 
Washington,  March  13, 1838. 
The  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Representatives: 
In  compliance  with  a  resolution  of  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the 
17th  of  February,  I  transmit  a  report*  of  the  Secretary  of  State,  with 
the  accompanjring  documents,  which  contain  th6  information  requested. 
M.  VAN  BUREN. 
Washington,  March  14, 1838, 
The  President  of  the  Senate: 
I  transmit  to  the  Senate  a  treaty  of  commerce  and  navigation  between 
the  United  States  and  His  Majesty  the  King  of  Greece,  concluded  at 
London  on  the  22d  day  of  December  last,  together  with  a  copy  of  the 
documents  relating  to  the  negotiation  of  the  same,  for  the  constitutional 
consideration  of  the  Senate  in  reference  to  its  ratification. 
M.  VAN  BUREN. 
Washington,  March  is,  1838, 
To  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States: 
In  compliance  with  the  resolution  of  the  House  of  Representatives  of 
the  5th  instant,  I  transmit  a  report  f  from  the  Secretary  of  State,  to 
whom  the  resolution  was  referred,  with  the  documents  by  which  the  said 
report  was  accompanied.  ^   ^^^  BUREN. 
^  Relating  to  a  ship  canal  across  the  Isthmus  of  Darien. 
tRelatinar  to  the  prosecution  of  the  claim  of  the  United  States  to  the  bequest  made  by  James 
Smithson.
Martin  Van  Buren  1648 
Washington,  March,  i8j8. 
To  the  Home  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States: 
I  transmit  a  copy  and  translation  of  a  letter  from  Mr.  Pontois,  the 
minister  plenipotentiary  from  Phmce  to  this  Government,  addressed  to 
the  Secretary  of  State,  and  communicating  a  memorial  to  me  from  the 
trustees  of  the  former  house  of  Lafitte  &  Co.,  of  Paris,  complaining  of 
the  rejection  of  a  claim  preferred  in  behalf  of  that  house  before  the  com- 
missioners under  the  convention  with  Prance  of  the  4th  of  July,  1831, 
and  asking  redress. 
The  commission  created  by  the  act  for  carrying  that  convention  into 
efFect  has  expired.  The  fund  provided  by  it  has  been  distributed  among 
those  whose  claims  were  admitted.  The  Executive  has  no  power  over 
the  subject.  If  the  memorialists  are  entitled  to  relief,  it  can  be  granted 
by  Congress  alone,  to  whom,  in  compliance  W5th  the  request  of  the 
trustees,  that  question  is  now  submitted  for  decision. 
M.  VAN  BUREN. 
Washington,  March  /p,  1838. 
To  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States: 
I  transmit  a  report*  from  the  Secretary  of  State,  to  whom  the  reso- 
lution of  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  5th  instant  was  referred, 
with  the  documents  by  which  the  said  report  was  accompanied. 
M.  VAN  BUREN. 
Washington,  March  20, 1838. 
To  the  Senate  of  the  United  States: 
I  herewith  transmit  to  the  Senate  of  the  United  States  a  report  from 
the  Secretary  of  State,*  accompanied  by  a  copy  of  the  correspondence 
requested  by  their  resolution  of  the  5th  ultimo. 
M.  VAN  BUREN. 
Dbpartmknt  of  Static, 
IVashington^  March  /,  1838, 
The  Prksidbnt  of  thb  Unitrd  States: 
The  Secretary  of  State,  to  whom  has  been  referred  the  resolution  of  the  Senate 
of  the  5th  of  February,  requesting  the  President  of  the  United  States  to  communi- 
cate to  that  body,  in  suchi  manner  as  he  shall  deem  proper,  all  the  correspondence 
recently  received  and  had  between  this  and  the  Governments  of  Great  Britain  and 
the  State  of  Maine  on  the  subject  of  the  northeastern  boundary,  has  the  honor  to 
report  to  the  President  the  accompanying  copy  of  letters,  which  comprise  all  the 
correspondence  in  the  Department  asked  for  by  the  resolution. 
Respectfully  submitted. 
JOHN  FORSYTH. 
*  Relating  to  hisrh  duties  and  restrictions  on  tobacco  imported  into  foreiffn  countries  from  the 
United  SUtes.  etc.
1649  Messages  and  Papers  of  the  Presidents 
Mr.  Fox  to  Mr,  Forsyth. 
Washington,  January  to^  1838. 
Hon.  John  Forsyth,  etc.: 
The  undersigned,  Her  Britannic  Majesty's  envoy  extraordinary  and  minister  pleni- 
potentiary, is  directed  by  his  Government  to  make  the  following  observations  to  Mr. 
Forsyth,  Secretary  of  State  of  the  United  States,  with  reference  to  certain  points 
connected  with  the  question  of  the  northeastem  boundary,  which  question  forms  the 
subject  of  the  accompanying  note,  which  the  undersigned  has  the  honor  this  day  to 
address  to  Mr.  Forsyth: 
The  British  Government,  with  a  view  to  prevail  upon  that  of  the  United  States  to 
come  to  an  understanding  with  Great  Britain  upon  the  river  question,  had  stated 
that  the  King  of  the  Netherlands  in  his  award  had  decided  that  question  according 
to  the  British  interpretation  of  it  and  had  expressed  his  opinion  that  the  rivers  which 
fall  into  the  Bay  of  Fundy  are  not  to  be  considered  as  Atlantic  rivers  for  the  purposes 
of  the  treaty. 
Mr.  Forsyth,  however,  in  his  note  to  Sir  Charles  Vaughan  of  the  28th  of  April, 
18351  controverts  this  assertion  and  maintains  that  the  King  of  the  Netherlands  did 
not  in  his  award  express  such  an  opinion,  and  Mr.  Forsyth  quotes  a  passage  from 
the  award  in  support  of  this  proposition. 
But  it  appears  to  Her  Majesty's  Government  that  Mr.  Forsyth  has  not  correctly 
.  perceived  the]  meaning  of  the  passage  which  he  quotes,  for  in  the  passage  in 
question  Mr.  Forsyth  apprehends  that  the  word  *^  alone  ^'  is  governed  by  the  verb 
*'  indude,^*  whereas  an  attentive  examination  of  the  context  will  show  that  the  word 
** alone"  is  governed  by  the  verb  ^* divide,"  and  that  the  real  meaning  of  the  pas- 
sage is  this:  That  the  rivers  flowing  north  and  south  from  the  highlands  claimed* 
by  the  United  States  may  be  arranged  in  two  genera,  the  first  genus  comprehending 
the  rivers  which  fall  into  the  St.  Lawrence,  the  second  genus  comprehending  those 
whose  waters  in  some  manner  or  other  find  their  way  into  the  Atlantic;  but  that  even 
if,  according  to  this  general  classification  and  in  contradistinction  from  rivers  flow- 
ing into  the  St.  Lawrence,  the  rivers  which  fall  into  the  bays  of  Chaleurs  and  Fund; 
might  be  comprised  in  the  same  genus  with  the  rivers  which  fall  directly  into  the 
Atlantic,  still  the  St.  John  and  the  Restigouche  form  a  distinct  species  by  themselves 
and  do  not  belong  to  the  species  of  rivers  which  fall  directly  into  the  Atlantic,  for 
the  St.  John  and  Restigouche  are  not  divided  in  company  with  any  such  last 
mentioned  rivers.  And  the  award  goes  on  to  say  that,  .moreover,  if  this  distinction 
between  the  two  species  were  confounded  an  erroneous  interpretation  would  be 
applied  to  a  treaty  in  which  every  separate  word  must  be  supposed  to  have  a  mean- 
ing, and  a  generic  distinction  would  be  given  to  cases  which  are  purely  specific. 
The  above  appears  to  be  the  true  meaning  of  the  passage  quoted  by  Mr.  Forsyth; 
but  if  that  passage  had  not  been  in  itself  sufficiently  explicit,  which  Her  Majesty's 
Government  think  it  is,  the  passage  which  immediately  follows  it  would  remove  all 
doubt  as  to  what  the  opinion  of  the  King  of  the  Netherlands  was  upon  the  river 
question,  for  that  passage,  setting  forth  reasons  against  the  line  of  boundary  claimed 
by  the  United  States,  goes  on  to  say  that  such  line  would  not  even  separate  the  St. 
Lawrence  rivers  immediately  from  the  St.  John  and  Restigouche,  and  that  thus  the 
rivers  which  this  line  would  separate  from  the  St.  Lawrence  rivers  would  need,  in 
order  to  reach  the  Atlantic,  the  aid  of  two  intermediaries— ^xst,  the  rivers  St  John 
and  Restigouche,  and,  secondly,  the  bays  of  Chaleurs  and  Fundy, 
Now  it  is  evident  from  this  passage  that  the  King  of  the  Netherlands  deemed  the 
bays  of  Fundy  and  Chaleurs  to  be,  for  the  purposes  of  the  treaty,  as  distinct  and 
separate  from  the  Atlantic  Ocean  as  are  the  rivers  St.  John  and  Restigouche,  for  he 
specifically  mentions  those  rivers  and  those  bays  as  the  channels  through  which 
^rtain  rivers  would  have  to  pass  in  their  way  from  the  northern  range  of  dividing
Martin  Van  Buren  1650 
highlands  down  to  the  Atlantic  Ocean;  and  it  is  clear  that  he  considers  that  the 
waters  of  those  highland  rivers  would  not  reach  the  Atlantic  Ocean  until  after  they 
had  traveled  through  the  whole  extent  either  of  the  Restigouche  and  the  Bay  of 
Chaleurs  or  of  the  St.  John  and  th^  Bay  of  Pundy,  as  the  case  might  be;  and  for 
this  reason,  among  others,  the  King  of  the  Netherlands  declared  it  to  be  his  opinion 
that  the  line  north  of  the  St.  John  claimed  by  the  United  States  is  not  the  line 
intended  by  the  treaty. 
The  undersigned  avails  himself  of  this  occasion  to  renew  to  Mr.  Pors3rth  the 
assurances  of  his  high  respect  and  consideration. 
H.  S.  FOX. 
Mr,  Fox  to  Mr  Forsyth. 
Washington,  January  lo,  iSj8. 
Hon.  John  Forsvth,  etc: 
The  undersigned,  Her  Britannic  Majesty's  envoy  extraordinary  and  minister  pleni- 
potentiary, has  received  the  orders  of  his  Government  to  make  the  following  com- 
munication to  the  Secretary  of  State  of  the  United  States  with  reference  to  the 
question  pending  between  the  two  Governments  upon  the  subject  of  the  northeastern 
boundary: 
The  undersigned  is,  in  the  first  instance,  directed  to  express  to  Mr.  Fors3rth  the  sin- 
cere regret  of  Her  Majesty's  Government  that  the  long-continued  endeavors  of  both 
parties  to  come  to  a  settlement  of  this  important  matter  have  hitherto  been  unavail- 
ing. Her  Majesty's  Government  feel  an  undiminished  desire  to  cooperate  with  the 
Cabinet  of  Washington  for  the  attainment  of  an  object  of  so  much  mutual  interest,  and 
they  learn  with  satisfaction  that  their  sentiments  upon  this  point  are  fully  shared  by 
the  actual  President  of  the  United  States. 
The  communications  which  during  the  last  few  years  have  taken  place  between 
the  two  Governments  with  reference  to  the  present  subject,  if  they  have  not  led  to  the 
solution  of  the  questions  at  issue,  have  at  least  narrowed  the  field  of  future  discussion. 
Both  Governments  have  agreed  to  consider  the  award  of  the  King  of  the  Nether- 
lands as  binding  upon  neither  party,  and  the  two  Governments,  therefore,  are  as  free 
in  this  respect  as  they  were  before  the  reference  to  that  Sovereign  was  made.  The 
British  Government,  despairing  of  the  possibility  of  drawing  a  line  that  shall  be  in 
literal  conformity  with  the  words  of  the  treaty  of  1783,  has  suggested  that  a  conven- 
tional boundary  should  be  substituted  for  the  line  described  by  the  treaty,  and  has 
proposed  that  in  accordance  with  the  principles  of  equity  and  in  pursuance  of  the  gen- 
eral practice  of  mankind  in  similar  cases  the  object  of  difference  should  be  equally 
divided  between  the  two  differing  parties,  each  of  whom  is  alike  convinced  of  the 
justice  of  its  own  claim. 
The  United  States  Government  has  replied  that  to  such  an  arrangement  it  has  no 
power  to  agree;  that  until  the  line  of  the  treaty  shall  have  been  otherwise  deter- 
mined the  State  of  Maine  will  continue  to  assume  that  the  line  which  it  claims  is 
the  true  line  of  1783,  and  will  assert  that  all  the  land  up  to  that  line  is  territory  of 
Maine;  that  consequently  such  a  division  of  the  disputed  territory  as  is  proposed  by 
Great  Britain  would  be  considered  by  Maine  as  tantamount  to  a  cession  of  what  that 
State  regards  as  a  part  of  its  own  territory,  and  that  the  Federal  Government  has  no 
power  to  agree  to  'such  an  arrangement  without  the  consent  of  the  State  concerned. 
Her  Majesty's  Government  exceedingly  regrets  that  such  an  obstacle  should  exist 
to  prevent  that  settlement  which  under  all  the  circumstances  of  the  case  appears  to 
be  the  simplest,  the  readiest,  the  most  satisfactory,  and  the  most  just.    Nor  can  Her 
Majesty's  Government  admit  that  the  objection  of  the  State  of  Maine  is  well  founded, 
for  the  principle  on  which  that  objection  rests  is  as  good  for  Great  Britain  as  it  is  for 
Maine.     If  Maine  thinks  itself  en  titled  to  con  tend  that  until  the  true  line  described 
in  the  treaty  is  determined  the  boundary  claimed  by  Maine  must  be  regarded  as  the
165 1  Messages  and  Papers  of  the  Presidents 
right  one,  Great  Britain  is  surely  still  more  entitled  to  insist  upon  a  similar  preten- 
sion, and  to  assert  that  until  the  line  of  the  treaty  shall  be  established  to  the  satis- 
faction of  both  parties  the  whole  of  the  disputed  territory  ought  to  be  considered  as 
belonging  to  the  British  Crown,  because  Great  Britain  is  the  original  possessor,  and 
all  the  territory  which  has  not  been  proved  to  have  been  by  treaty  ceded  by  her  must 
be  looked  upon  as  belonging  to  her  stilL  But  the  very  existence  of  such  conflict- 
ing pretensions  seems  to  point  out  the  expediency  of  a  compromise,  and  what  com- 
promise can  be  more  fair  than  that  which  would  give  to  each  party  one-half  of  the 
subject-matter  of  dispute? 
A  conventional  line  different  from  that  described  in  the  treaty  was  agreed  to,  aa 
stated  by  Mr.  Forsyth  in  his  note  of  the  28th  of  April,  1835,  with  respect  to  the  bound- 
ary westward  from  the  Lake  of  the  Woods.  Why  should  such  a  line  not  be  agreed 
to  likewise  for  the  boundary  eastward  from  the  river  Connecticut? 
Her  Majesty's  Government  can  not  refrain  from  again  pressing  this  proposition 
upon  the  serious  consideration  of  the  Government  of  the  United  States  as  the  arrange- 
ment which  would  be  best  calculated  to  effect  a  prompt  and  satisfactory  settlement 
between  the  two  powers. 
The  Government  of  the  United  States,  indeed,  while  it  expressed  a  doubt  of  its 
being  able  to  obtain  the  assent  of  Maine  to  the  above-mentioned  proposal,  did,  never^ 
theless,  express  its  readiness  to  apply  to  the  State  of  Maine  for  the  assent  of  that 
State  to  the  adoption  of  another  conventional  line,  which  should  make  the  river  St. 
John  from  its  source  to  its  mouth  the  boundary  between  the  two  countries.  But  it  is 
difficult  to  understand  upon  what  grounds  any  expectation  could  have  been  formed 
that  such  a  proposal  could  be  entertained  by  the  British  Government,  for  such  an 
arrangement  would  give  to  the  United  States  even  greater  advantages  than  they 
would  obtain  by  an  unconditional  acquiescence  in  their  claim  to  the  whole  of  the 
disputed  territory,  because  such  an  arrangement  would,  in  the  first  place,  give  to 
Maine  all  that  part  of  the  disputetl  territory  which  lies  to  the  south  of  the  St.  John, 
and  would,  in  the  next  place,  in  exchange  for  the  remaining  part  of  the  disputed 
territory  which  lies  to  the  north  of  the  St.  John,  add  to  the  State  of  Maine  a  large 
district  of  New  Brunswick  lying  between  the  United  States  boundary  and  the  south- 
em  part  of  the  course  of  the  St.  John — a  district  smaller,  indeed,  in  extent,  but  much 
more  considerable  in  value,  than  the  portion  of  the  disputed  territory  which  lies  to 
the  north  of  the  St.  John. 
But  with  respect  to  a  conventional  line  generally,  the  Government  of  Washington 
has  stated  that  it  has  not  at  present  the  powers  constitutionally  requisite  for  treating 
for  such  a  line  and  has  no  hopes  of  obtaining  such  powers  until  the  impossibility 
of  establishing  the  line  described  by  the  treaty  shall  have  been  completely  demon- 
strated by  the  failure  of  another  attempt  to  trace  that  line  by  a  local  survey. 
Under  these  circumstances  it  appears  that  a  conventional  line  can  not  at  present 
be  agreed  upon,  and  that  such  a  mode  of  settlement  is  in  the  existing  state  of  the 
negotiation  impossible. 
Thus,  then,  the  award  of  the  King  of  the  Netherlands  has  been  abandoned  by  both 
parties  in  consequence  of  its  rejection  ,by  the  American  Senate,  and  a  negotiation 
between  the  two  Governments  for  a  conventional  line  suited  to  the  interests  and 
convenience  of  the  two  parties  has  for  the  present  been  rendered  impossible  by  diffi- 
culties arising  on  the  part  of  the  United  States;  and  both  Governments  are  alike 
averse  to  a  new  arbitration.  In  this  state  of  things  the  Govermnent  of  the  United 
States  has  proposed  to  the  British  cabinet  that  another  attempt  should  be  made  to 
trace  out  a  boundary  according  to  the  letter  of  the  treaty,  and  that  a  commission  of 
exploration  and  survey  should  be  appointed  for  that  purpose. 
Her  Majesty's  Government  have  little  expectation  that  such  a  commission  could 
lead  to  any  useful  result,  and  on  that  account  would  be  disposed  to  object  to  the 
measure;  but  at  the  same  time  they  are  so  unwilling  to  reject  the  only  plan  now  left
Martin  Van  Buren  1652 
which  seems  to  afford  a  chance  of  making  any  fnrther  advance  in  this  long-pending 
matter  that  they  will  not  withhold  their  consent  to  such  a  commission  if  the  princi« 
pie  upon  which  it  is  to  be  formed  and  the  manner  in  which  it  is  to  proceed  can  be 
satisfactorily  settled. 
The  United  States  Government  have  proposed  two  modes  in  which  such  a  com- 
mission might  be  constituted:  First,  that  it  might  consist  of  commissioners  named 
in  equal  numbers  by  each  of  the  two  Governments,  with  an  umpire  to  be  selected 
by  some  friendly  European  power;  secondly,  that  it  might  be  entirely  composed  of 
scientific  Europeans,  to  be  selected  by  a  friendly  sovereign,  and  might  be  accompa- 
nied in  its  operations  by  agents  of  the  two  different  parties,  in  order  that  such  agents 
might  give  to  the  commissioners  assistance  and  information. 
If  such  a  commission  were  to  be  appointed,  Her  Majesty's  Government  think  that 
the  first  of  these  two  modes  of  constructing  it  would  be  the  best,  and  that  it  should 
consist  of  members  chosen  in  equal  numbers  by  each  of  the  two  Governments.  It 
might,  however,  be  better  that  the  umpire  should  be  selected  by  the  members  of  the 
commission  themselves  rather  than  that  the  two  Governments  should  apply  to  a  third 
power  to  make  such  a  choice. 
The  object  of  this  commission,  as  understood  by  Her  Majesty's  Government,  would 
be  to  explore  the  disputed  territory  in  order  to  find  within  its  limits  dividing  high- 
lands which  may  answer  the  description  of  the  treaty,  the  search  being  first  to  be 
made  in  the  due  north  line  from  the  monument  at  the  head  of  the  St.  Croix,  and  if 
no  such  highlands  should  be  found  in  that  meridian  the  search  to  be  then  continued 
to  the  westward  thereof;  and  Her  Majesty's  Government  have  stated  their  opinion 
that  in  order  to  avoid  all  fruitless  disputes  as  to  the  character  of  such  highlands  the 
commissioners  should  be  instructed  to  look  for  highlands  which  both  parties  might 
acknowledge  as  fulfilling  the  conditions  of  the  treaty. 
The  United  States  Secretary  of  State,  in  his  note  of  the  5th  of  March,  1836,  expresses 
a  wish  to  know  how  the  report  of  the  commissioners  would,  according  to  the  views 
of  Her  Majesty's  Government,  te  likely  when  rendered  to  lead  to  an  ultimate  settle- 
ment of  the  question  of  boundary  between  the  two  Governments. 
In  reply  to  this  inquiry  Her  Majesty's  Government  would  beg  to  observe  that  the 
proposal  to  appoint  a  commission  originated  not  with  them,  but  with  the  Govern- 
ment of  the  United  States,  and  that  it  is  therefore  rather  for  the  Government  of  the 
United  States  than  for  that  of  Great  Britain  to  answer  this  question. 
Her  Majesty's  Government  have  themselves  already  stated  that  they  have  little 
expectation  that  such  a  commission  could  lead  to  any  useful  result,  and  that  they 
would  on  that  account  be  disposed  to  object  to  it;  and  if  Her  Majesty's  Government 
were  now  to  agree  to  appoint  such  a  commission  it  would  be  only  in  compliance 
with  the  desire  so  strongly  expressed  by  the  Government  of  the  United  States,  and 
in  spite  of  doubts  (which  Her  Majesty's  Government  still  continue  to  entertain)  of 
the  efficacy  of  the  measure. 
But  with  respect  to  the  way  in  which  the  report  of  the  commission  might  be  likely 
to  lead  to  an  ultimate  settlement  of  the  question.  Her  Majesty's  Government,  in 
the  first  place,  conceive  that  it  was  meant  by  the  Government  of  the  United  States 
that  if  the  commission  should  discover  highlands  answering  to  the  description  of 
the  treaty  a  connecting  line  drawn  from  these  highlands  to  the  head  of  the  St.  Croix 
should  be  deemed  to  be  a  portion  of  the  boundary  line  between  the  two  countries. 
But  Her  Majesty's  Government  would  further  beg  to  refer  the  United  States  Secre- 
tary of  State  to  the  notes  of  Mr.  Mcl^ne  of  the  5th  of  June,  1833,  and  of  the  nth 
and  28th  of  March,  1834,  on  this  subject,  in  which  it  will  be  seen  that  the  Govern- 
ment of  the  United  States  appears  to  have  contemplated  as  one  of  the  possible  results 
of  the  proposed  commission  of  exploration  that  such  additional  information  might 
possibly  be  obtained' respecting  the  features  of  the  country  in  the  district  to  which 
the  treaty  relates  as  might  remove  all  doubt  as  to  the  impracticability  of  laying  down 
a  boundary  in  accordance  with  the  letter  of  the  treaty.
1653  Messages  and  Papers  of  the  Presidenls 
And  if  the  investigations  of  the  proposed  commission  should  show  that  there  is  no 
reasonable  prospect  of  findings  a  line  strictly  conformable  with  the  description  con-  ^ 
tained  in  the  treaty  of  1783,  the  constitutional  difficulties  which  now  prevent  the 
United  States  from  agreeing  to  a  conventional  line  may  possibly  be  removed,  and 
the  way  may  thus  be  prepared  for  the  satisfactory  settlement  of  the  difference  by  an 
equitable  division  of  the  disputed  territory. 
But  if  the  two  Governments  should  agree  to  the  appointment  of  such  a  commission 
it  would  be  necessary  that  their  agreement  should  be  first  recorded  in  a  convention, 
and  it  would  obviously  be  indispensable  that  the  State  of  Maine  should  be  an  assent- 
ing party  to  the  arrangement. 
The  undersigned,  in  making  the  above  communication  by  order  of  Her  Majesty's 
Government  to  the  United  States  Secretary  of  State,  Mr.  Fors3rth,  has  the  honor  to 
renew  to  him  the  assurance  of  his  high  respect  and  consideration. 
H.  S.  FOX. 
Mr,  Forsyth  to  Mr,  Fox, 
Department  of  State, 
Washington,  February  6, 1S3S, 
Henry  S.  Pox,  Esq.,  etc.: 
The  undersigned,  Secretary  of  State  of  the  United  States,  has  the  honor  to  acknowl- 
edge the  receipt  of  the  note  of  Mr.  Fox,  envoy  extraordinary  and  minister  plenipo- 
tentiary of  Her  Britannic  Majesty  of  the  loth  ultimo,  in  which  he  presents,  by 
direction  of  his  Government,  certain  observations  in  respect  to  the  construction  to  be 
given  to  that  part  of  the  award  of  the  arbiter  on  the  question  of  the  northeastern 
boundary  which  relates  to  the  character  in  which  the  rivers  St.  John  and  Restigouche 
are  to  be  regarded  in  reference  to  that  question.  Sir  Charles  Vaughan,  in  his  note  to 
Mr.  McX^ne  of  February  10,  1834,  alleged  that  although  the  arbiter  had  not  decided 
the  first  of  the  three  main  questions  proposed  to  him,  yet  that  he  had  determined 
certain  subordinate  points  connected  with  that  question  upon  which  the  parties  had 
entertained  different  views,  and  among  others  that  the  rivers  St.  John  and  Resti^ 
gouche  could  not  be  considered,  according  to  the  meaning  of  the  treaty,  as  "  rivers 
flowing  into  the  Atlantic. "  The  undersigned,  in  his  note  to  Sir  Charles  R.  Vaughan 
of  the  28th  of  April,  1835,  questioned  the  correctness  of  the  interpretation  which  had 
been  given  by  Sir  Charles  to  the  award  of  the  arbiter  in  this  particular,  and  after 
quoting  that  part  of  the  award  to  which  Sir  Charles  was  supposed  to  refer  as  contain- 
ing the  determination  by  the  arbiter  of  the  point  just  mentioned  observed  that  it 
could  not  but  appear  from  further  reflection  to  Sir  Charles  that  the  declaration  that 
the  rivers  St.  John  and  Restigouche  could  not  be  alone  taken  into  view  without 
hazard  in  determining  the  disputed  boundary  was  not  the  expression  of  an  opinion 
that  they  should  be  altogether  excluded  in  determining  that  question;  or,  in  other 
words,  that  they  could  not  be  looked  upon  as  rivers  emptying  into  the  Atlantic. 
The  remarks  presented  by  Mr.  Fox  in  the  note  to  which  this  is  a  reply  are  designed  to 
shew  a  misconception  on  the  part  of  the  undersigned  of  the  true  meaning  of  the  pas- 
sage cited  by  him  Trom  the  award  and  to  support  the  construction  which  was  given 
to  it  by  Sir  Charles  Vaughan.  Whether  the  apprehension  entertained  by  the  one 
party  or  the  other  of  the  opinion  of  the  arbiter  upon  this  minor  point  be  correct  is 
regarded  by  the  undersigned  as  a  matter  of  no  consequence  in  the  settlement  of  the 
main  question.  The  Government  of  the  United  States,  never  having  acquiesced  in 
the  decision  of  the  arbiter  that  **  the  nature  of  the  difference  and  the  vague  and  not 
sufficiently  determinate  stipulations  of  the  treaty  of  1783  do  not  permit  the  adjudica- 
tion of  either  of  the  two  lines  respectively  claimed  by  the  interested  parties  to  one 
of  the  said  parties  without  wounding  the  principles  of  law  and  equity  with  regard 
to  the  other,"  can  not  consent  to  be  governed  in  the  prosecution  of  the  existing
Martin  Van  Buren  ^  1654 
Degotiation  by  the  opinion  of  the  arbiter  upon  any  of  the  preliminary  points  about 
which  there  was  a  previous  diflFerence  between  the  parties,  and  the  adverse  decision 
of  which  has  led  to  so  unsatisfactory  and,  in  the  view  of  this  Government,  so  errone- 
ous a  conclusion.  This  determination  on  the  part  of  the  United  States  not  to  adopt 
the  premises  of  the  arbiter  while  rejecting  his  conclusion  has  been  heretofore  made 
known  to  Her  Majesty's  Government,  and  while  it  remains  must  necessarily  rendei 
the  discussion  of  the  question  what  those  premises  were  unavailing,  if  not  irrelevant. 
The  few  observations  which  the  undersigned  was  led  to  make  in  the  course  of  his 
note  to  Sir  Charles  Vaughan  upon  one  of  the  points  alleged  to  have  been  thus  deter- 
mined were  prompted  only  by  a  respect  for  the  arbiter  and  a  consequent  anxiety  to 
remove  a  misinterpretation  of  his  meaning,  which  alone,  it  was  believed,  could  induce 
the  supposition  that  the  arbiter,  in  searching  for  the  rivers  referred  to  in  the  treaty  as 
designating  the  boundary,  could  have  come  to  the  opinion  that  the  two  great  rivers 
whose  waters  pervaded  the  whole  district  in  which  the  search  was  made  and  consti- 
tuted the  most  striking  objects  of  the  country  had  been  entirely  unnoticed  by  the 
negotiators  of  the  treaty  and  were  to  be  passed  over  unheeded  in  determining  the 
line,  while  others  were  to  be  sought  for  which  he  himself  asserts  could  not  be  found. 
That  the  imputation  of  such  an  opinion  to  the  respected  arbiter  could  only  be  the 
result  of  misinterpretation  seemed  the  more  evident,  as  he  had  himself  declared  that 
"  it  could  not  be  sufl&ciently  explained  how,  if  the  high  contracting  parties  intended 
in  1783  to  establish  the  boundary  at  the  south  of  the  river  St.  John,  that  river,  to 
which  the  territory  in  dispute  was  in  a  great  measure  indebted  for  its  distinctive 
character,  had  been  neutralized  and  set  aside. "  It  is  under  the  influence  of  the  same 
motives  that  the  undersigned  now  proceeds  to  make  a  brief  comment  upon  the  obser- 
vations contained  in  Mr.  Pox's  note  of  the  loth  ultimo,  and  thus  to  close  a  discussion 
which  it  can  answer  no  purpose  to  prolong. 
The  passage  from  the  award  of  the  arbiter  quoted  by  the  undersigned  in  his  note 
of  the  28th  April,  1835,  to  Sir  Charles  Vaughan,  and  the  true  meaning  of  which  Mr. 
Fox  supposes  to  have  been  misconceived,  is  the  following:  "If  in  contradistinction 
to  the  rivers  that  empty  themselves  into  the  river  St.  Lawrence  it  had  been  proper, 
agreeably  to  the  language  ordinarily  used  in  geography,  to  comprehend  the  rivers 
falling  into  the  bays  Fundy  and  Des  Chaleurs  with  those  emptying  themselves 
directly  into  the  Atlantic  Ocean  in  the  generical  denomination  of  rivers  falling  into 
the  Atlantic  Ocean  it  would  be  hazardous  to  include  into  the  species  belonging  to 
that  class  the  rivers  St.  John  and  Restigouche,  which  the  line  claimed  at  the  north 
of  the  river  St.  John  divides  immediately  from  rivers  empt3dng  themselves  into  the 
river  St.  Lawrence,  not  with  other  rivers  falling  into  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  but  alone ^ 
and  thus  to  apply  in  interpreting  the  delimitation  established  by  a  treaty,  where 
each  word  must  have  a  meaning,  to  two  exclusively  special  cases,  and  where  no  men- 
tion is  made  of  the  genus  {g^enre)^  a  generical  expression  which  would  ascribe  to  them 
a  broader  meaning,"  etc. 
It  was  observed  by  the  undersigned  that  this  passage  did  not  appear  to  contain  an 
expression  of  opinion  by  the  arbiter  that  the  rivers  St.  John  and  Restigouche  should 
be  altogether  excluded  in  determining  the  question  of  disputed  boundary,  or,  in  other 
words,  that  they  could  not  be  looked  upon  as  **  rivers  emptying  into  the  Atlantic." 
Mr.  Hox  alleges  this  to  be  a  misconception  of  the  meaning  of  the  arbiter,  and  sup- 
poses it  to  have  arisen  from  an  erroneous  apprehension  by  the  undersigned  that  the 
word  ^*alone*^  is  governed  by  the  verb  ^^ include ^^  whereas  he  thinks  that  an  atten- 
tive examination  of  the  context  will  shew  that  the  word  ^^  alone  ^'  is  governed  by  the 
verb  ^^divide,*'  and  that  the  real  meaning  of  the  passage  is  this:  "That  the  rivers 
flowing  north  and  south  from  the  highlands  claimed  by  the  United  States  may  be 
arranged  in  two  genera,  the  first  genus  comprehending  the  rivers  which  fall  into  the 
St  Lawrence,  the  second  genus  comprehending  those  whose  waters  in  some  manner 
or  other  find  their  way  into  the  Atlantic;  but  that  even  if,  according  to  the  general
i6ss  Messages  and  Papers  of  the  Presidents 
classification  and  in  contradistinction  from  rivers  £Fowing  into  the  St  Lawrence,  the 
rivers  which  fall  into  the  bays  of  Chaleurs  and  Fundy  might  be  comprised  in  the  same 
genus  with  the  rivers  which  fall  directly  into  the  Atlantic,  still  the  St.  John  and  the 
Restigouche  form  a  distinct  species  by  themselves  and  do  not  belong  to  the  species 
of  rivers  which  fall  directly  into  the  Atlantic,  for  the  St.  John  and  Restigouche  are 
not  divided  in  company  with  any  such  last-mentioned  rivers.^*  The  undersigned 
considers  it  unnecessary  to  enter  into  the  question  whether  according  to  the  context 
the  circimistance  expressed  by  the  adverb  **  alone  **  has  reference  to  the  verb '  *  divide  " 
or  to  the  verb  "include,"  because  even  allowing  it  to  refer  to  the  former  it  does  not 
appear  to  the  undersigned  that  his  interpretation  of  the  passage  is  thereby  impaired 
or  that  of  Mr.  Pox  sustained.  The  undersigned  conceives  that  the  arbiter  contem- 
plated two  different  species  of  rivers  as  admissible  into  \h^ genus  of  those  which  **  fall 
into  the  Atlantic,"  to  wit,  those  which  fall  directly  into  the  Atlantic  and  those  which 
fall  into  it  indirectly;  that  the  arbiter  was  further  of  opinion,  though  at  variance 
with  the  idea  entertained  in  that  respect  by  the  United  States,  that  the  rivers  St.  John 
and  Restigouche,  emptying  their  waters  into  the  bays  of  Fundy  and  Des  Chaleurs, 
did  not  belong  to  the  species  of  rivers  falling  directly  into  the  Atlantic;  that  if  they 
were  considered  alone ,  therefore,  the  appellation  of  **  rivers  falling  into  the  Atlantic 
Ocean  "  could  not  be  reg^ded  as  applicable  to  them,  because,  to  use  the  language  of 
the  award,  it  would  be  **appl}dng  to  two  exclusively  special  cases,  where  no  mention 
was  made  of  the  genus,  a  generical  expression  which  would  ascribe  to  them  a  broader 
meaning;"  but  it  is  not  conceived  that  the  arbiter  intended  to  express  an  opinion  that 
these  rivers  might  not  be  included  zuith  others  in  forming  the  genus  of  rivers  described 
by  the  treaty  as  those  which  **fall  into  the  Atlantic,"  and  that  upon  this  ground 
they  should  be  wholly  excluded  in  determining  the  question  of  the  disputed  bound- 
ary. While,  therefore,  the  undersigned  agrees  with  Mr.  Fox  that  the  arbiter  did 
not  consider  these  rivers  as  falling  directly  into  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  the  undersigned 
can  not  concur  in  Mr.  Fox's  construction  when  he  supposes  the  arbiter  to  give  as  a 
reason  for  this  that  they  are  not  divided  in  company  with  any  such  last-mentioned 
rivers^that  is,  with  rivers  falling  directly  into  the  Atlantic.  Conceding  as  a  point 
which  it  is  deemed  unnecessary  for  the  present  purpose  to  discuss  that  the  gram- 
matical construction  of  the  sentence  contended  for  by  Mr.  Fox  is  the  correct  one,  the 
arbiter  is  understood  to  say  only  that  those  rivers  are  not  divide  immediately  with 
others  falling  into  the  Atlantic,  either  directly  or  indirectly,  but  he  does  not  allege 
this  to  be  a  sufficient  reason  for  excluding  them  when  connected  with  other  rivers 
divided  mediately  from  those  emptying  into  the  St.  Lawrence  from  the  genus  of 
rivers  * '  falling  into  the  Atlantic. "  On  the  contrary,  it  is  admitted  in  the  award  that 
the  line  claimed  to  the  north  of  the  St.  John  divides  the  St.  John  and  Restigouche  in 
company  with  the  Schoodic  Lakes^  the  Penobscot,  and  the  Kennebec,  which  are 
stated  as  emptying  themselves  directly  into  the  Atlantic;  and  it  is  strongly  implied 
in  the  language  used  by  the  arbiter  that  the  first-named  rivers  might,  in  his  opinion, 
be  classed  for  the  purposes  of  the  treaty  with  those  last  named,  though  not  in  the 
same  species  ^  yet  in  the  same  genus  of  * 'Atlantic  rivers." 
The  reason  why  the  St.  John  and  Restigouche  were  not  permitted  to  determine  the 
question  of  boundary  in  favor  of  the  United  States  is  understood  to  have  been,  not 
that  they  were  to  be  wholly  excluded  as  rivers  not  falling  into  the  Atlantic  Ocean, 
as  Mr.  Pox  appears  to  suppose,  but  because  in  order  to  include  them  in  that  genua 
of  rivers  they  must  be  considered  in  connection  with  other  rivers  which  were  not 
divided  immediately ^  like  themselves,  from  the  rivers  falling  into  the  St.  Lawrence, 
but  mediately  only;  which  would  introduce  the  principle  that  the  treaty  of  1783 
meant  highlands  that  divide  as  well  mediately  as  immediately  the  rivers  that  empty 
themselves  into  the  river  St.  Lawrence  from  those  which  fall  into  the  Atlantic  Ocean^^ 
a  principle  which  the  arbiter  did  not  reject  as  imfounded  or  erroneous,  but  which, 
considered  in  connection  with  the  other  points  which  he  had  decided,  he  regarded
Martin  Van  Buren  1656 
as  equally  realized  by  both  lines,  and  therefore  as  constituting  an  eqnal  weight  in 
either  scale,  and  consequently  affording  him  no  assistance  in  determining  the  dis* 
pute  between  the  respective  parties. 
The  arbiter  appears  to  the  undersigned  to  have  viewed  the  rivers  St.  John  and 
Restigouche  as  possessing  both  a  specific  and  a  generic  character;  that  considered 
alone  they  were  specific^  and  the  designation  in  the  treaty  of  "rivers  falling  into  the 
Atlantic**  was  inapplicable  to  them;  that  considered  in  connection  with  oilier  rivers 
they  were  generic  and  were  embraced  in  the  terms  of  the  treaty,  but  that  as  their 
connection  with  other  rivers  would  bring  them  within  a  principle  which,  according 
to  the  views  taken  by  him  of  other  parts  of  the  question,  was  equally  realized  by 
both  lines,  it  would  be  hazardous  to  allow  them  any  weight  in  deciding  the  disputed 
boundary.  It  has  always  been  contended  by  this  Government  that  the  rivers  St. 
John  and  Restigouche  were  to  be  considered  in  connection  with  the  Penobscot  and 
Kennebec  in  determining  the  highlands  called  for  by  the  treaty,  and  the  arbiter  is 
not  imderstood  to  deny  to  them,  when  thus  connected,  the  character  of  "rivers  fall- 
ing into  the  Atlantic  Ocean." 
This  construction  of  the  arbiter's  meaning,  derived  from  the  general  tenor  of  the 
context,  it  will  be  perceived,  is  not  invalidated  by  the  next  succeeding  paragraph 
cited  by  Mr.  Fox,  in  which  the  bays  of  Fundy  and  Des  Chaleurs  are  spoken  of  as 
intermediaries  whereby  the  rivers  flowing  into  the  St.  John  and  Restigouche  reach 
the  Atlantic  Ocean,  inasmuch  as  such  construction  admits  the  opinion  of  the  arbiter 
to  have  been  that  the  St  John  and  Restigouche  do  not  fall  directly  into  the  Atlan- 
tic, and  that  they  thus  constitute  a  species  by  themselves,  while  it  denies  that  they 
are  therefore  excluded  by  the  arbiter  from  the  genus  of  "  rivers  falling  into  the 
Atlantic.** 
The  undersigned  avails  himself  of  this  opportunity  to  renew  to  Mr.  Fox  the  assur- 
ance of  his  distinguished  consideration. 
'JOHN  FORSYTH. 
Mr.  Forsyth  to  Mr.  Fox. 
Dbpartmsnt  of  State, 
Washington,  February  /,  tBsS. 
Hbnry  S.  Fox,  Esq.,  etc.: 
The  tmdersigned,  Secretary  of  State  of  the  United  States,  has  the  honor  to  acknowl- 
ed{je  the  receipt  of  the  note  addressed  to  him  on  the  loth  ultimo  by  Mr,  Fox,  Her 
Britannic  Majesty's  envoy  extraordinary  and  minister  plenipotentiary  at  Washing- 
ton, with  regard  to  the  question  pending  between  the  two  Governments  upon  the 
subject  of  the  northeastern  boundary,  and  to  inform  him  that  his  communication 
has  been  submitted  to  the  President  It  has  received  from  liim  the  attentive  exam- 
ination due  to  a  paper  expected  to  embody  the  views  of  Her  Britannic  Majesty's 
Government  in  reference  to  interests  of  primary  importance  to  both  countries.  But 
whilst  the  President  sees  with  satisfaction  the  expression  it  contains  of  a  continued 
desire  on  the  part  of  Her  Majesty's  Government  to  cooperate  with  this  in  its  earnest 
endeavors  to  arrange  the  matter  of  dispute  between  them,  he  perceives  with  feelings 
of  deep  disappointment  that  the  answer  now  presented  to  the  propositions  made  by 
this  Government  with  the  view  of  effecting  that  object,  after  having  been  so  long 
delayed,  notwithstanding  the  repeated  intimations  that  it  was  looked  for  here  with 
mudi  anxiety,  is  so  indefinite  in  its  terms  as  to  render  it  impracticable  to  ascertain 
without  further  discussion  what  are  the  real  wishes  and  intentions  of  Her  Majesty's 
Government  respecting  the  proposed  appointment  of  a  commission  of  exploration 
and  survey  to  trace  out  a  boucv^ary  according  to  the  letter  of  the  treaty  of  1783.  The 
President,  however,  for  the  p'.  rpose  of  placing  in  the  possession  of  the  State  of  Maine 
the  views  of  Her  Majesty's  Government  as  exhibited  in  Mr.  Fox's  note,  and  of  ascer- 
taining the  sense  of  the  State  authorities  upon  the  expediency  of  meeting  those  views
1657  Messages  and  Papers  of  the  Presidents 
as  far  as  they  are  developed  therein,  has  directed  the  undersigned  to  transmit  a  copy 
of  it  to  Governor  Kent  for  their  consideration.  This  will  be  accordingly  done  with- 
out unnecessary  delay,  and  the  result  when  obtained  may  form  the  occasion  of  a 
further  communication  to  Her  Majesty's  minister. 
In  the  meantime  the  undersigned  avails  himself  of  the  present  occasion  to  offer  a 
few  remarks  upon  certain  parts  of  Mr.  Fox's  note  of  the  loth  ultimo.  After  advert- 
ing to  the  suggestion  heretofore  made  by  the  British  Government  that  a  conventional 
line  equally  dividing  the  territory  in  dispute  between  the  two  parties  should  be 
substituted  for  the  line  described  by  the  treaty,  and  regretting  the  constitutional 
incompetency  of  the  Federal  Government  to  agree  to  such  an  arrangement  without 
the  consent  of  the  State  of  Maine,  Mr.  Fox  refers  to  the  conventional  line  adopted, 
although  different  from  that  designated  by  the  treaty,  with  respect  to  the  boundary 
westward  from  the  Lake  of  the  Woods,  and  asks,  "Why  should  such  a  line  not  be 
agreed  to  likewise  for  the  boundary  eastward  from  the  river  Connecticut?"  The 
reply  to  this  question  is  obvious.  The  parallel  of  latitude  adopted  on  the  occasion 
referred  to  as  a  conventional  substitute  for  the  treaty  line  passed  over  territory  within 
the  exclusive  jvuisdiction  of  the  General  Government  without  trenching  upon  the 
rights  or  claims  of  any  individual  member  of  the  Union,  and  the  legitimate  power 
of  the  Government,  therefore,  to  agree  to  such  line  was  perfect  and  unquestioned. 
Now  in  consenting  to  a  conventional  line  for  the  boundary  eastward  from  the  river 
Connecticut  the  Government  of  the  United  States  would  transcend  its  constitutional 
powers,  since  such  a  measure  could  only  be  carried  into  effect  by  violating  the  juris- 
diction of  a  sovereign  State  of  the  Union  and  by  assuming  to  alienate,  without  the 
color  of  rightful  authority  to  do  so,  a  portion  of  the  territory  claimed  by  the  State. 
With  regard  to  the  suggestion  made  by  the  undersigned  in  his  note  of  the  29th  of 
February,  1836,  of  the  readiness  of  the  President  to  apply  to  the  State  of  Maine  for 
her  assent  to  the  adoption  of  a  conventional  line  making  the  river  St.  John,  from  its 
source  to  its  mouth,  the  boundary  between  the  United  States  and  the  adjacent  Brit- 
ish Provinces,  Mr.  Fox  thinks  it  difficult  to  understand  upon  what  grounds  an 
expectation  could  have  been  formed  that  such  a  proposal  could  be  entertained  by 
the  British  Government,  since  such  an  arrangement  would  give  to  the  United  States 
even  greater  advantages  than  would  be  obtained  by  an  unconditional  acquiescence 
in  tlieir  claim  to  the  whole  territory  in  dispute.  In  making  the  suggestion  referred 
to,  the  imdersigned  expressly  stated  to  Mr.  Bankhead  that  it  was  offered,  as  the  prop- 
osition on  the  part  of  Great  Britain  that  led  to  it  was  supposed  to  have  been,  with- 
out regard  to  the  mere  question  of  acres — the  extent  of  territory  lost  or  acquired  by 
the  respective  parties.  The  suggestion  was  submitted  in  the  hope  that  the  prepon- 
derating importance  of  terminating  at  once  and  forever  this  controversy  by  estab- 
lishing an  unchangeable  and  definite  and  indisputable  boundary  would  be  seen  and 
acknowledged  by  Her  Majesty's  Government,  and  have  a  correspondent  weight  in 
influencing  its  decision.  That  the  advantages  of  substituting  a  river  for  a  highland 
boimdary  could  not  fail  to  be  recognized  was  apparent  from  the  fact  that  Mr.  Bank- 
head's  note  of  28th  December,  1835,  suggested  the  river  St.  John  from  the  point  in 
which  it  is  intersected  by  a  due  north  line  drawn  from  the  monument  at  the  head  of 
the  St.  Croix  to  the  southernmost  source  of  that  river  as  a  part  of  the  general  out- 
line of  a  conventional  boundary.  No  difficulty  was  anticipated  on  the  part  of  Her 
Majesty's  Government  in  understanding  the  grounds  upon  which  such  a  proposal 
was  expected  to  be  entertained  by  it,  since  the  precedent  proposition  of  Mr.  Bank- 
head,  just  adverted  to,  although  professedly  based  on  the  principle  of  an  equal  divi- 
sion between  the  parties,  could  not  be  justified  by  it,  as  it  would  have  given  nearly 
two-thirds  of  the  disputed  territory  to  Her  Majesty's  Government.  It  was  therefore 
fairly  presumed  that  the  river  line  presented,  in  the  op'  lion  of  Her  Majesty's  Gov- 
ernment, advantages  sufficient  to  counterbalance  any  loss  of  territory  by  either  party 
that  would  follow  its  adoption  as  a  boundary.     Another  recommendation  of  the  river
Martin  Van  Buren  1658 
line^  it  was  supposed,  would  be  found  by  Her  Majesty's  Government  in  the  fact  that 
whilst  by  its  adoption  the  right  of  jurisdiction  alone  would  have  been  yielded  to 
the  United  States  over  that  portion  of  New  Brunswick  south  of  the  St.  John,  Great 
Britain  would  have  acquired  the  right  of  soil  as  well  as  of  jurisdiction  of  the  whole 
portion  of  the  disputed  territory  north  of  the  river.  It  is  to  be  lamented  that  the~ 
imposing  considerations  alluded  to  have  failed  in  their  desired  effect — ^that  the  hopes 
of  the  President  in  regard  to  them  have  not  been  realized,  and  consequently  that  Her 
Britannic  Majesty's  Government  is  not  prepared  at  present  to  enter  into  an  arrange  < 
ment  of  the  existing  difference  between  the  two  nations  upon  the  basis  proposed. 
It  would  seem  to  the  undersigned,  from  an  expression  used  in  Mr.  Fox^s  late  com- 
munication, that  some  misapprehension  exists  on  his  part  either  as  to  the  object  of 
this  Government  in  asking  fof  information  relative  to  the  manner  in  which  the 
report  of  a  commission  of  exploration  and  smvey  might  tend  to  a  practical  result 
in  the  settlement  of  the  boundary  question  or  as  to  the  distinctive  difference  between 
the  American  proposal  for  the  appointment  of  such  a  commission  and  the  same  propo- 
sition when  modified  to  meet  the  wishes  of  Her  Majesty's  Government.  Of  the  two 
modes  suggested,  by  direction  of  the  President,  for  constituting  such  a  commission, 
the  first  is  that  which  is  regarded  by  Her  Majesty's  Government  with  most  favor, 
viz,  the  commissioners  to  be  chosen  in  equal  numbers  by  each  of  the  two  parties, 
with  an  umpire  selected  by  some  friendly  European  sovereign  to  decide  on  all  points 
on  which  they  might  disagree,  with  instructions  to  explore  the  disputed  territory  in 
order  to  find  within  its  limits  dividing  highlands  answering  to  the  description  of  the 
treaty  of  1783,  in  a  due  north  or  northwesterly  direction  from  the  monument  at 
the  head  of  the  St.  Croix,  and  that  a  right  line  drawn  between  such  highlands  and 
said  monument  should  form  so  far  as  it  extends  a  part  of  the  boundary  between  the 
two  countries,  etc.  It  is  now  intimated  that  Her  Majesty's  Government  will  not 
withhold  its  consent  to  such  a  commission  **  if  the  principle  upon  which  it  is  to  be 
formed  and  the  manner  in  which  it  is  to  proceed  can  be  satisfactorily  settled. "  This 
condition  is  partially  explained  by  the  suggestion  afterwards  made  that  instead  of 
leaving  the  umpire  to  be  chosen  by  some  friendly  European  power  it  might  be  bet- 
ter that  he  should  be  elected  by  the  members  of  the  commission  themselves,  and  a 
modification  is  then  proposed  that  "the  commission  shall  be  instructed  to  look  for 
highlands  which  both  parties  might  acknowledge  as  fulfilling  the  conditions  of  the 
treaty."  The  American  proposition  is  intended — and  if  agreed  to  would  doubtless 
be  successful— to  decide  the  question  of  boundary  definitively  by  the  adoption  of  the 
highlands  reported  by  the  commissioners  of  survey,  and  would  thus  secure  the  treaty 
line.  The  British  modification  looks  to  no  such  object.  It  merely  contemplates  a 
commission  of  boundary  analogous  to  that  appointed  under  the  fifth  article  of  the 
treaty  of  Ghent,  and  would  in  all  probability  prove  equally  unsatisfactory  in  practice. 
Whether  highlands  such  as  are  described  in  the  treaty  do  or  do  not  exist,  it  can 
scarcely  be  hoped  that  those  called  for  by  the  modified  instructions  could  be  found. 
The  fact  that  this  question  is  still  pending,  although  more  than  half  a  century  has 
elapsed  since  the  conclusion  of  the  treaty  in  which  it  originated,  renders  it  in  the 
highest  degree  improbable  that  the  two  Governments  can  unite  in  believing  that 
either  the  one  or  the  other  of  the  ranges  of  highlands  claimed  by  the  respective  par- 
ties fulfills  the  required  conditions  of  that  instrument.  The  opinions  of  the  parties 
have  been  over  and  over  again  expressed  on  this  point  and  are  well  known  to  differ 
widely.  The  commission  can  neither  reconcile  nor  change  these  variant  opinions 
resting  on  conviction,  nor  will  it  be  authorized  to  decide  the  difference.  Under 
these  impressions  of  the  inefficiency  of  such  a  commission  was  the  inquiry  made  in 
the  letter  of  the  undersigned  of  5th  March,  1836,  as  to  the  manner  in  which  the 
report  of  the  commission,  as  proposed  to  be  constituted  and  instructed  by  Her  Maj- 
esty's Government,  was  expected  to  lead  to  an  ultimate  settlement  of  the  question 
of  boundary.     The  results  which  the  American  proposition  promised  to  secure  were
i6s9  Messages  and  Papers  of  the  Presidents 
fully  and  frankly  explained  in  previous  notes  from  the  Department  of  State,  and  had 
its  advantages  not  been  clearly  imderstood  this  Government  would  not  have  devolved 
upon  that  of  Her  Majesty  the  task  of  illustrating  them.  Mr.  Pox  will  therefore  see 
that  although  the  proposal  to  appoint  a  commission  had  its  origin  with  this  Govern- 
ment the  modification  of  the  American  proposition  was,  as  imderstood  by  the  under- 
signed, so  fundamentally  important  that  it  entirely  changed  its  nature,  and  that  the 
supposition,  therefore,  that  it  was  rather  for  the  Government  of  the  United  States 
than  for  that  of  Great  Britain  to  answer  the  inquiry  referred  to  is  founded  in  mis- 
apprehension. Any  decision  made  by  a  commission  constituted  in  the  manner  pro- 
posed by  the  United  States  and  instructed  to  seek  for  the  highlands  of  the  treaty  of 
1783  would  be  binding  upon  this  Government  and  could  without  unnecessary  delay 
be  carried  into  effect;  but  if  the  substitute  presented  by  Her  Majesty *s  Goverzmient 
be  insisted  on  and  its  principles  be  adopted,  a  resort  will  then  be  necessary  to  the 
State  of  Maine  for  her  assent  to  all  proceedings  hereafter  in' relation  to  this  matter, 
since  if  any  arrangement  can  be  made  under  it  it  can  only  be  for  a  conventional  line, 
to  which  she  must  of  course  be  a  party. 
The  undersigned,  in  conclusion,  is  instructed  to  inform  Mr.  Pox  that  if  a  negotia- 
tion be  entertained  at  all  upon  the  inconclusive  and  unsatisfactory  basis  afforded  by 
the  British  counter  proposition  or  substitute,  which  possesses  hardly  a  feature  in  com- 
mon with  tl^e  American  proposition,  the  President  will  not  venture  to  invite  it  unless 
the  authorities  of  the  State  of  Maine,  to  whom,  as  before  stated,  it  will  be  forthwith 
submitted,  shall  think  it  more  likely  to  lead  to  a  final  adjustment  of  the  question  of 
boundary  than  the  General  Government  deems  it  to  be,  though  predisposed  to  see  it 
in  the  most  favorable  light. 
The  undersigned  avails  himsjslf  of  the  occasion  to  renew  to  Mr.  Pox  the  assurance 
of  his  distinguished  consideration.  JOHN  FORSYTH 
D9PARTMBNT  OP  STATE, 
His  Excellency  ^dward  Kknt,  Washington,  March  /,  183S. 
Governor  of  the  State  of  Maine. 
Sir:  The  discussions  between  the  Federal  Government  and  that  of  Great  Britain 
in  respect  to  the  northeastern  boundary  of  the  United  States  have  arrived  at  a  stage  in 
which  the  President  thinks  it  due  to  tiie  State  of  Maine  and  necessary  to  the  intelli- 
gent action  of  the  General  Government  to  take  the  sense  of  that  State  in  regard  to 
the  expediency  of  opening  a  direct  negotiation  for  the  establishment  of  a  conven- 
tional line,  and  if  it  should  deem  an  attempt  to  adjust  the  matter  of  controversy  in 
that  form  advisable,  then  to  ask  its  assent  to  the  same.  With  this  view  and  to  place 
the  government  of  Maine  in  full  possession  of  the  present  state  of  the  negotiation 
and  of  all  the  discussions  that  have  been  had  upon  the  subject,  the  accompanying 
documents  are  communicated,  which,  taken  in  connection  with  those  heretofore 
transmitted,  will  be  found  to  contain  that  information. 
The  principles  which  have  hitherto  governed  every  successive  Administration  of 
the  Federal  Government  in  respect  to  its  powers  and  duties  in  the  matter  are — 
First.  That  it  has  power  to  settle  the  boundary  line  in  question  with  Great  Britain 
upon  the  principles  and  according  to  the  stipulations  of  the  treaty  of  1783,  either  by 
direct  negotiation  or,  in  case  of  ascertained  inability  to  do  so,  by  arbitration,  and 
that  it  is  its  duty  to  make  all  proper  efforts  to  accomplish  this  object  by  one  or  the 
other  of  those  means. 
Second.  That  the  General  Government  is  not  competent  to  n^;otiate,  unless,  per- 
haps, on  grounds  of  imperious  public  necessity,  a  conventional  line  involving  a  ces- 
sion of  territoxy  to  which  the  State  of  Maine  is  entitled,  or  the  exchange  thereof  for 
other  territory  not  included  within  the  limits  of  that  State  according  to  the  true 
construction  of  the  treaty,  without  the  consent  of  the  State.
Martin  Van  Buren  1660 
In  these  views  of  his  predecessors  in  office  the  President  fully  concurs,  and  it  is  his 
design  to  continue  to  act  npon  them. 
The  attention  of  the  Federal  Goyemment  has,  of  coorse,  in  the  first  instance  been 
directed  to  efforts  to  settle  the  treaty  line.  A  historical  outline  of  the  measures 
which  have  been  successively  taken  by  it  to  that  end  may  be  useful  to  the  government 
of  Maine  in  coming  to  a  conclusion  on  the  proposition  now  submitted.  It  will,  how- 
ever, be  unnecessary  here  to  do  more  than  advert  to  the  cardinal  features  of  this  pro- 
tracted negotiation. 
The  treaty  of  peace  between  the  United  States  of  America  and  His  Britannic 
Majesty,  concluded  at  Paris  in  September,  1783,  defines  the  boundaries  of  the  said 
States,  and  the  following  words,  taken  from  the  second  article  of  that  instrument, 
are  intended  to  designate  a  part  of  the  boundary  between  those  States  and  the  Brit- 
ish North  American  Provinces,  viz:  '*From  the  northwest  angle  of  Nova  Scotia,  viz, 
that  angle  which  is  formed  by  a  line  drawn  due  north  from  the  source  of  the  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  northwestemmost  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  Pundy  to  its  source,  and  from  its  source  directly  north  to  the  aforesaid  high- 
lands which  divide  the  rivers  that  fall  into  the  Atlantic  Ocean  from  those  which  fall 
into  the  river  St.  Lawrence.**  /  n  immediate  execution  of  some  of  the  provisions 
of  this  treaty  was,  however,  delayed  by  circumstances  on  which  it  is  now  unneces- 
sary to  dwell,  and  in  November,  1794,  a  second  treaty  was  concluded  between  the 
two  powers.  In  the  meantime,  doubts  having  arisen  as  to  what  river  was  truly 
intended  under  the  name  of  the  St.  Croix  mentioned  in  the  treaty  of  peace  and  form- 
ing a  part  of  the  botmdary  therein  described,  this  question  was  referred  by  virtue  of 
the  fifth  article  of  the  new  treaty  to  the  decision  of  a  commission  appointed  in  the 
manner  therein  prescribed,  both  pcuties  agreeing  to  consider  such  decision  final  and 
conclusive.  The  commissioners  appointed  in  pursuance  of  the  fifth  article  of  the 
treaty  of  1794  decided  by  their  declaration  of  October  25,  1798,  that  the  northern 
branch  (Cheputnaticook)  of  a  river  called  Scoodiac  was  the  true  river  St.  Croix 
intended  by  the  treaty  of  peace. 
At  the  date  of  the  treaty  of  Ghent,  December  24,  1814,  the  whole  of  the  boundary 
line  from  the  source  of  the  river  St.  Croix  to  the  most  northwestemmost  point  of 
the  Lake  of  the  Woods  still  remained  uniLscertained,  and  it  was  therefore  agreed  to 
provide  for  a  final  adjustment  thereof.  For  this  purpose  the  appointment  of  com- 
missioners was  authorized  by  the  fifth  article  of  the  treaty  of  Ghent,  with  power  to 
ascertain  and  determine  the  northwest  angle  of  Nova  Scotia  and  the  northwestem- 
most head  of  Connecticut  River,  in  conformity  with  the  provisions  of  the  treaty  of 
1783,  and  to  cause  the  boundary  from  the  source  of  the  river  St.  Croix  to  the  river 
Iroquois  or  Cateraguy  to  be  surveyed  and  marked  according  to  the  said  provisions, 
etc.  In  the  event  of  the  commissioners  differing,  or  both  or  either  of  them  failing  to 
act,  the  same  article  made  provision  for  a  reference  to  a  friendly  sovereign  or  state. 
Commissioners  were  appointed  under  this  article  in  1815-16,  but  although  their  ses- 
sions continued  several  years,  they  were  unable  to  agree  on  any  of  the  matters 
referred  to  them.  Separate  reports  were  accordingly  made  to  both  Governments  of 
the  two  commissioners  in  1822,  stating  the  points  on  which  they  differed  and  the 
grounds  upon  which  their  respective  opinions  had  been  formed.  The  case  having 
thus  happened  which  made  it  necessary  to  refer  the  points  of  difference  to  a  friendly 
soveieign  or  state,  it  was  deemed  expedient  by  the  parties  to  regulate  this  reference 
by  a  formal  arrangement.  A  convention  for  the  purpose  was  therefore  concluded  on 
the  29th  of  September,  1827,  ^^^^  ^^  ^wo  Governments  subsequently  agreed  in  the 
choice  of  His  Majesty  the  King  of  the  Netherlands  as  arbiter,  who  consented  to 
act  as  such.     The  submission  of  the  points  of  difference,  three  in  number,  was
i66i  Messages  and  Papers  of  the  Presidents 
accordingly  made  to  that  Sovereign,  and  his  award,  or  rather  written  opiniojj  on  the 
questions  submitted  to  him,  was  rendered  on  the  loth  of  January,  183 1.  On  the  7th 
of  December  following  the  President  communicated  the  award  of  the  arbiter  to  the 
Senate  of  the  United  States  for  the  advice  and  consent  of  that  body  as  to  its  execu- 
tion, and  at  the  same  time  intimated  the  willingness  of  the  British  Government  to 
abide  by  it.  The  result  was  a  determination  on  the  part  of  the  Senate  not  to  con- 
sider the  decision  of  His  Netherland  Majesty  obligatory  and  a  refusal  to  advise  and 
consent  to  its  execution.  '  They,  however,  passed  a  resolution  in  June,  1832,  advising 
the  President  to  open  a  new  negotiation  with  His  Britannic  Majesty's  Government 
for  the' ascertainment  of  the  boundary  between  the  possessions  of  the  two  powers  on 
the  northeastern  frontier  of  the  United  States  according  to  the  definitive  treaty  of 
peace.  Of  the  negotiation  subsequent  to  this  event  it  is  deemed  proper  to  take  a 
more  particular  notice. 
In  July  the  result  of  the  action  of  the  Senate  in  relation  to  the  award  was  com- 
municated to  Mr.  Bankhead,  the  British  chargd  d'affaires,  and  he  was  informed  that 
the  resolution  had  been  adopted  in  the  conviction  that  the  sovereign  arbiter,  instead 
of  deciding  the  questions  submitted  to  him,  had  recommended  a  specified  compro- 
mise of  them.  The  Secretary  of  State  at  the  same  time  expressed  the  desire  of  the 
President  to  enter  into  further  negotiation  in  pursuance  of  the  resolution  of  the  Sen- 
axe,  and  proposed  that  the  discussion  should  be  carried  on  at  Washington.  He  also 
said  chat  if  the  plenipotentiaries  of  the  two  partir~^  should  fail  in  this  new  attempt 
to  agree  upon  the  line  intended  by  the  treaty  of  1783  there  would  probably  be  less 
diflficulty  than  before  in  fixing  a  convenient  boundary,  as  measures  were  in  progress 
to  obtain  from  the  State  of  Maine  more  extensive  powers  than  were  before  possessed, 
with  a  view  of  overcoming  the  constitutional  obstacles  which  had  opposed  themselves 
to  such  an  arrangement;  and  he  further  intimated  that  the  new  negotiation  would 
naturally  embrace  the  important  question  of  the  navigation  of  the  river  St.  John. 
In  April,  1833,  Sir  Charles  R.  Vaughan,  the  British  minister,  addressed  a  note  to 
the  Department  of  State,  in  which,  hopeless  of  finding  out  by  a  new  negotiation  an 
assumed  line  of  boundary  which  so  many  attempts  had  been  fruitlessly  made  to  dis- 
cover, he  wished  to  ascertain,  first,  the  principle  of  the  plan  of  boundary  which  the 
American  Government  appeared  to  contemplate  as  likely  to  be  more  convenient  to 
both  parties  than  those  hitherto  discussed,  and,  secondly,  whether  any,  and  what, 
arrangement  for  avoiding  the  constitutional  difficulty  alluded  to  had  yet  been  con- 
cluded with  the  State  of  Maine.  Satisfactory  answers  on  these  points,  he  said,  would 
enable  the  British  Government  to  decide  whether  it  would  entertain  the  proposition, 
but  His  Majesty's  Government  could  not  consent  to  embarrass  the  negotiation 
respecting  the  boundary  by  mixing  up  with  it  a  discussion  regarding  the  navigation 
of  the  St.  John  as  an  integ^l  part  of  the  same  question  or  as  necessarily  connected 
with  it. 
In  reply  to  this  note,  Mr.  Livingston,  under  date  of  the  30th  of  April,  stated  that 
the  arrangement  spoken  of  in  his  previous  communication,  by  which  the  Govern- 
ment of  tiie  United  States  expected  to  be  enabled  to  treat  for  a  more  convenient 
boundary,  had  not  been  effected,  and  that  as  the  suggestion  in  regard  to  the  naviga- 
tion of  the  St.  John  was  introduced  merely  to  form  a  part  of  the  system  of  compen- 
sations in  negotiating  for  such  a  boundary  if  that  of  the  treaty  should  be  abandoned, 
it  woula  not  be  insisted  on. 
The  proposition  of  the  President  for  the  appointment  of  a  joint  commission,  with 
an  umpire,  to  decide  upon  all  points  on  which  the  two  Governments  disagree  was 
then  presented.  It  was  accompanied  by  a  suggestion  that  the  controversy  might  be 
terminated  by  the  application  to  it  of  the  rule  for  surveying  and  laying  down  the 
boundaries  of  tracts  and  of  countries  designated  by  natural  objects,  the  precise  situ- 
ation of  which  is  not  known,  viz,  that  the  natural  objects  called  for  as  terminating 
points  should  first  be  found,  and  that  the  lines  should  then  be  drawn  to  them  from
Martin  I  'an  Buren  1662 
the  given  points  with  the  least  possible  departure  from  the  course  prescribe<i  in  the 
instrument  describing  the  boundary.  Two  modes  were  suggested  in  which  such 
commission  might  be  constituted:  First,  that  it  should  consist  of  commissioners  to  be 
chosen  in  equal  numbers  by  the  two  parties,  with  an  umpire  selected  by  some  friendly 
sovereign  from  among  the  most  skillful  men  in  Europe;  or,  secondly,  that  it  should 
be  entirely  composed  of  such  men  so  selected,  to  be  attended  in  the  survey  and  view 
of  the  country  by  agents  appointed  by  the  parties.  This  commission,  it  was  after- 
wards proposed,  should  be  restricted  to  the  simple  question  of  determining  the  point 
designated  by  the  treaty  as  the  highlands  which  divide  the  waters  that  fall  into  the 
Atlantic  from  those  which  flow  into  the  St.  Lawrence;  that  these  highlands  should 
be  sought  for  in  a  north  or  northwest  direction  from  the  source  of  the  St.  Croix,  and 
that  a  straight  line  to  be  drawn  from  the  monument  at  the  head  of  that  river  to  those 
highlands  should  be  considered,  so  far  as  it  extends,  as  a  part  of  the  boundary  in 
question.  The  commissioners  were  then  to  designate  the  course  of  the  line  along 
the  highlands  and  to  fix  on  the  northwestemmost  head  of  the  Connecticut  River. 
In  a  note  of  31st  May  the  British  minister  suggested  that  this  perplexed  and 
hitherto  interminable  question  could  only  be  set  at  rest  by  an  abandonment  of  the 
defective  description  of  boundary  contained  in  the  treaty,  by  the  two  Governments 
mutually  agreeing  upon  a  conventional  line  more  convenient  to  both  parties  than 
those  insisted  upon  by  the  commissioners  under  the  fifth  article  of  the  treaty  of 
Ghent,  or  that  suggested  by  the  King  of  the  Netherlands. 
Mr.  McLane  remarked  in  reply  (June  5)  that  the  embarrassments  in  tracing  the 
treaty  boundary  had  arisen  more  from  the  principles  assumed  and  from  the  manner 
of  seeking  for  it  than  from  any  real  defect  in  the  description  when  properly  under- 
stood; that  in  the  present  state  of  the  business  the  suggestion  of  Sir  Charles  R. 
Vaughan  would  add  to  the  existing  difficulties  growing  out  of  a  want  of  power  in 
the  General  Government  under  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  to  dispose  of 
territory  belonging  to  either  of  the  States  of  the  Union  without  the  consent  of  the 
State;  that  as  a  conventional  line  to  the-  south  of  and  confessedly  variant  from  that 
of  the  treaty  would  deprive  the  State  of  Maine  of  a  portion  of  the  territory  she  claims, 
it  'v/as  not  probable  that  her  consent  to  it  would  be  given  while  there  remained  a  rea- 
sonable prospect  of  discovering  the  line  of  the  treaty  of  1783,  and  that  the  President 
would  not  be  authorized,  after  the  recent  proceedings  in  the  Senate,  to  venture  now 
to  agree  upon  a  conventional  line  without  such  consent,  whilst  the  proposition  sub- 
mitted in  April  afforded  not  only  a  fair  prospect,  but  in  his  opinion  the  certain  means, 
of  ascertaining  the  boundary  called  for  by  the  treaty  of  1783  and  of  finally  terminat- 
ing all  the  perplexities  which  have  encompassed  that  subject. 
In  February,  1834,  Sir  Charles  R.  Vaughan,  after  submitting  certain  observations 
intended  to  controvert  the  positions  assumed  by  the  United  States  on  the  subject  of 
the  constitutional  difficulty  by  which  the  American  Government  was  prevented  from 
acquiescing  in  the  arrangement  recommended  by  the  King  of  the  Netherlands  for 
the  settlement  of  the  boundary  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  St.  John,  asserted  that  the 
two  Governments  bound  themselves  by  the  convention  of  September,  1827,  to  sub- 
mit to  an  arbiter  certain  points  of  difference  relative  to  the  boundary  between  the 
American  and  British  dominions;  that  the  arbiter  was  called  on  to  determine  certain 
questions,  and  that  if  he  has  determined  the  greater  part  of  the  points  submitted  to 
him  his  decision  on  them  ought  not  to  be  set  aside  merely  because  he  declares  that 
one  remaining  point  can  not  be  decided  in  conformity  with  the  words  of  the  treaty 
of  1783,  and  therefore  recommends  to  the  parties  a  compromise  on  that  particular 
point;  that  the  main  points  referred  to  the  arbiter  were  three  in  number;  that  upon 
the  second  and  third  of  these  he  made  a  plain  and  positive  decision;  that  upon  the 
remaining  point  he  has  declared  that  it  is  impossible  to  find  a  spot  or  to  trace  a  line 
which  shall  fulfill  all  the  conditions  required  by  the  words  of  the  treaty  for  the  north- 
west angle  of  Nova  Scotia  and  for  the  highlands  along  which  the  boundary  from  that
1663  Messages  and  Papers  of  the  Presidents 
angle  is  to  be  drawn;  yet  that  in  the  course  of  his  reasoning:. upon  this  point  he  has 
decided  several  questions  connected  with  it  upon  which  the  two  parties  had  enter- 
tained different  views,  viz: 
"  First.  The  arbiter  expresses  his  opinion  that  the  term  *  highlands  *  may  properly 
be  applied  not  only  to  a  hilly  and  elevated  country,  but  to  a  tract  of  land  which, 
without  being  hilly,  divides  waters  flowing  in  different  directions,  and  consequently, 
according  to  this  opinion,  the  highlands  to  be  sought  for  are  not  necessarily  a  range 
of  mountains,  but  rather  the  sunmiit  level  of  the  country. 
**  Second.  The  arbiter  expresses  his  opinion  that  an  inquiry  as  to  what  were  the 
ancient  boundaries  of  the  North  American  Provinces  can  be  of  no  use  for  the  present 
purpose,  because  those  boundaries  were  not  maintained  by  the  treaty  of  1783  and  had 
in  truth  never  been  distinctly  ascertained  and  laid  down. 
'*  Third.  The  arbiter  declares  that  the  northwest  angle  of  Nova  Scotia  mentioned 
in  the  treaty  of  1783  is  not  a  point  which  was  then  known  and  ascertained;  that  it  is 
not  an  angle  which  is  created  by  the  intersection  of  any  lines  of  boundary  at  that 
time  acknowledged  as  existing,  but  that  it  is  an  angle  still  to  be  found  and  to  be 
created  by  the  intersection  of  new  lines,  which  are  hereafter  to  be  drawn  in  pursu* 
ance  of  the  stipulations  of  the  treaty;  and  further,  that  the  nature  of  the  country 
eastward  of  the  said  angle  affords  no  argiunent  for  laying  that  angle  down  in  one 
place  rather  than  in  another. 
**  Fourth.  He  states  that  no  just  argument  can  be  deduced  for  the  settlement  of 
this  question  from  the  exercise  of  the  rights  of  sovereignty  over  the  fief  of  Mada- 
waska  and  over  the  Madawaska  settlement. 
**  Fifth.  He  declares  that  the  highlands  contemplated  in  the  treaty  should  divide 
immediately,  and  not  mediately,  rivers  flowing  into  the  St.  I^wrence  and  rivers 
flowing  into  the  Atlantic,  and  that  the  word  'divide*  requires  contiguity  of  the 
things  to  be  divided. 
'*  Sixth.  He  declares  that  rivers  falling  into  the  Bay  of  Chaleurs  and  the  Bay  of 
Fundy  can  not  be  considered  according  to  the  meaning  of  the  treaty  as  rivers  flow- 
ing into  the  Atlantic,  and  specifically  that  the  rivers  St.  John  and  Restigouche  can 
not  be  looked  upon  as  answerable  to  the  latter  description. 
*'  Seventh.  He  declares  that  neither  the  line  of  boundary  claimed  by  Great  Britain 
nor  that  claimed  by  the  United  States  can  be  adjudged  as  the  true  line  without 
departing  from  the  principles  of  equity  and  justice  as  between  the  two  parties." 
It  was  the  opinion  of  His  Majesty's  Government,  Sir  Charles  alleged,  that  the 
decisions  of  the  arbiter  upon  the  second  and  third  points  referred  to  him,  as  well  as 
upon  the  subordinate  questions,  ought  to  be  acquiesced  in  by  the  two  Governments, 
and  that  in  any  future  attempt  to  establish  a  boundary,  whether  in  strict  conformity 
with  the  words  of  the  treaty  of  1783  or  by  agreeing  to  the  mode  of  settlement  recom- 
mended by  the  arbiter,  it  would  be  necessary  to  adopt  these  seven  decisions  as  a 
groundwork  for  further  proceedings;  that  the  British  Government,  therefore,  pre- 
viously to  any  further  negotiation,  claimed  from  the  Government  of  the  United  States 
an  acquiescence  in  the  decisions  pronounced  by  the  arbiter  upon  all  those  points 
which  he  had  decided,  and  as  a  preliminary  to  any  attempt  to  settle  the  remaining 
point  by  negotiation  to  be  satisfied  that  the  Federal  Government  was  possessed  of 
the  necessary  powers  to  carry  into  effect  any  arrangement  upon  which  the  two  pcuties 
might  agree. 
With  respect  to  the  proposition  made  by  the  American  Government,  Sir  Charles 
thought  that  the  difficulty  which  was  found  insurmountable  as  against  the  line  rec- 
ommended by  the  King  of  the  Netherlands,  viz,  the  want  of  authority  to  agree  to 
any  line  which  might  imply  a  cession  of  any  part  of  the  territory  to  which  the  treaty 
as  hitherto  interpreted  by  the  United  States  might  appear  to  entitle  one  of  the  com- 
ponent States  of  the  Union,  would  be  equally  fatal  to  that  suggested  by  Mr.  Living- 
ston, since  a  line  drawn  from  the  head  of  the  St  Croix  to  highlands  found  to  the
Martin  Van  Buren  1664 
westward  of  the  meridian  of  that  spot  would  not  be  the  boundary  of  the  treaty  and 
might  be  more  justly  objected  to  by  Maine  and  with  more  appearance  of  reason  than 
that  proposed  by  the  arbiter. 
The  reply  of  Mr.  McLane  to  the  preceding  note  is  dated  on  the  nth  of  March. 
He  expressed  his  regret  that  His  Britannic  Majesty's  Government  should  still  con- 
sider any  part  of  the  opinion  of  the  arbiter  obligatory  on  either  party.  Those  opin- 
ions, the  Secretary  stated,  could  not  have  been  carried  into  effect  by  the  President 
without  the  concurrence  of  the  Senate,  who,  regarding  them  not  only  as  not  deter- 
mining the  principal  object  of  the  reference,  but  as  in  fact  deciding  that  object  to 
be  impracticable,  and  therefore  recommending  to  the  two  parties  a  boundary  not 
even  contemplated  either  by  the  treaty  or  by  the  reference  nor  within  the  power  of 
the  General  Government  to  take,  declined  to  give  their  advice  and  consent  to  the 
execution  of  the  measures  recommended  by  the  arbiter,  but  did  advise  the  Executive 
to  ope^  a  new  negotiation  for  the  ascertainment  of  the  boundary  in  pursuance  of  the 
treaty  of  1783,  and  the  proposition  of  Mr.  Livingston,  submitted  in  his  letter  of  30th 
of  April,  1833,  accordingly  proceeded  upon  that  basis.  Mr.  McLan^  denied  that  a 
decision,  much  less  the  expression  of  an  opinion,  by  the  arbiter  upon  some  of  the 
disputed  points,  but  of  a  character  not  to  settle  the  real  controversy,  was  binding 
upon  either  party,  and  he  alleged  that  the  most  material  point  in  the  line  of  the  true 
boundary,  both  as  it  respects  the  difficulty  of  the  subject  and  the  extent  of  territory 
and  dominions  of  the  respective  Governments,  the  arbiter  not  only  failed  to  decide, 
but  acJcnowledged  his  inability  to  decide,  thereby  imposing  upon  both  Governments 
the  tmavoidable  necessity  of  resorting  to  further  negotiation  to  ascertain  the  treaty 
boundary  and  absolving  each  party  from  any  obligation  to  adopt  his  recommenda- 
tions. The  Secretary  also  declined  to  admit  that  of  the  three  main  points  referred 
to  the  arbiter  as  necessary  to  ascertain  the  boundary  of  the  treaty  he  had  decided 
two.  On  the  first  point,  Mr.  McLane  said,  it  was  not  contended  a  decision  was  made 
or  that  either  the  angle  or  the  highlands  called  for  by  the  treaty  was  found,  and  on 
the  third  point  an  opinion  merely  was  expressed  that  it  would  be  suitable  to  proceed 
to  fresh  operations  to  measure  the  observed  latitude,  etc. 
The  Secretary  admitted  that  if  the  American  proposition  should  be  acceded  to  by 
His  Majesty's  Government  and  the  commission  hereafter  to  be  appointed  should 
result  in  ascertaining  the  true  situation  of  the  boundary  called  for  by  the  treaty  of 
1783,  that  it  would  be  afterwards  necessary,  in  order  to  ascertain  the  true  line,  to 
settle  the  other  two  points  according  to  which  it  should  be  traced.  He  therefore 
ofiFered,  if  the  American  proposition  should  be  acceded  to,  notwithstanding  the  obli- 
gatory effect  of  the  decision  of  the  arbiter  on  the  point  is  denied,  **  to  take  the  stream 
situated  farthest  to  the  northwest  among  those  which  fall  into  the  northernmost  of 
the  three  lakes,  the  last  of  which  bears  the  name  of  Connecticut  Lake,  as  the  north- 
westernmost  head  of  the  Connecticut  River  according  to  the  treaty  of  1783;  **  and  as 
it  respects  the  third  point  referred  to  the  arbiter,  the  line  of  boundary  on  the  forty- 
fifth  degree  of  latitude,  but  upon  which  he  failed  to  decide,  the  President  would 
agree,  if  the  proposition  as  to  the  first  point  was  embraced,  to  adopt  the  old  line  sur- 
veyed and  marked  by  Valentine  and  Collins  in  1771  and  1772. 
The  Secretary  then  proceeded  to  state  further  and  insuperable  objections  to  an 
acquiescence  by  the  United  States  in  the  opinions  supposed  to  have  been  pronounced 
by  the  arbiter  in  the  course  of  his  reasoning  upon  the  first  point  submitted  to  him. 
He  remarked  that  the  views  expressed  by  the  arbiter  on  these  subordinate  matters 
could  not  be  regarded  as  decisions  within  the  meaning  of  the  reference,  but  rather 
as  postulates  or  premises,  by  which  he  arrived  at  the  opinion  expressed  in  regard  to 
the  point  in  dispute.  By  an  acquiescence  in  them,  therefore,  as  required  by  Great 
Britain,  the  United  States  would  reject  as  erroneous  the  conclusion  of  the  arbiter, 
whilst  they  would  adopt  the  premises  and  reasoning  by  which  it  was  attained — ^that 
the  seven  postulates  or  premises  presented  as  necessary  to  be  considered  by  the  United