The Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [D.C.]) 1837-1845, 1841-10-02
THE BORDER TROUBLES.

The Globe, of Thursday, attacks the policy
pursued by the administration in relation to the
difficulties on the northern frontier, and endea-
ministration.
Mr.. Van Buren, "took his stand," says the
Globe, "upon the Maine question in support of
the rights asserted by Gov. Fairfield, in regard
to the disputed territory" &c. 1t is true Mr..
Van Buren, took his stand, and he kept "his
stand" for four years, without making a step of
progress. He came to "stand" still, and
there he stood, and at the end of his admi-
nistration, the boundary question was as far
from adjustment as ever, and the outrage upon
the Caroline made in the first year of his admi-
nistration, remained unexpiated and unexplain-
ed. The "stand upon the Maine question:"
was backing out of the territory leaving the
State of Maine to guard it.
The present administration, it is Understood,
have relieved Maine from that burden by pla-
cling upon the line the forces of the United
States.
The "stand" which Mr.. Van Buren, took
about the Canada troubles and the Caroline
affair, was, in the first instance, to beg of
from the clemency of the British Govern
ment certain "Patriots" who had invaded
Canada, and in the second, to sleep, as
above mentioned, three years over an invasion
of our soil, the murder of an American citizen,
and an outrage upon our national rights h.,
Very much of piece with his "stand" on
this subject, was his " standn on the West In
dia question, wherein he begged boons from
British ministers, and desired them to under
stand that he receded from the pretensions of
America made through one of its former admi-
nstrations
The Globe cannot comprehend bold and ho-
nest course Of policy, either between individuals
or nations; nor that greatness of mind which
would rather proclaim an acquiescence in great
and clear principles of international law, though
by such act, the country would be brought to ar
bitrament with powerful nation, than by
creeping special pleading process, attempt to
justify mean revenge upon poor 5raggart
caught within our lines.
The Globe speaks of Mr.. Van Burens "turn-
ing Mcleod over to the State tribunal for trial."
as "resolute assertion of national law
What had Mr.. Van Buren, to do with it accord
ing to the Globes own showing2 The State
of New York arrested McLeod-they did not
ask the liberty of Mr.. Van Buren,. How, then,
could the act of the State be called an asser-
ton of national law" Mr.. Stevenson, the
American Minister at London, took the same
view of the matter in 1888. as has since been
taken by Mr.. Webster. He regarded the at
tack on the Caroline as San invasion of the
territory and sovereignty of an independent ma
ton, by an armed force of friendly Power"
and Mr.. Webster in his letter to Mr.. Fox of
last April, says, "the Government of the U. s..
has not changed the opinion Which it has here
totore oppressed to her Majesty's Government,
of the character of the act of destroying the Ca
rone" 1t was an act of war, in which the
soldiers concerned were the instruments of the
British Government, and which assumed by
the acknowledgements of that Government ma
tional aspect.
The memorable attack of the British ship of
war Leopard, Capt. Humphreys, upon the fri
gate Chesapeake, Capt. Barron, in which Sc
veral American sailors were killed. may per-
haps be mentioned as parallel case. That at
tack became the subject Of discussion between
the two Governments, and resulted in an ad-
justment, in which, amongst other things, Eng
land offered ''the American Government a suit
able pecuniary provision for the sufferers in con-
sequence Of the attack on the Chesapeake,
including the families of those seamen who un-
fortunately fell in the action, and of the wound
ed survivors" Could Capt. Humphreys after
wards have been proceeded against in a court of
our country, and held personally responsible,
notwithstanding the Executive Department of
our Government had settled the whole matter