The Portland daily press., 1863-09-30
Observation-Disclosures Memorial and Cell
ebratiOns.

tors of a newspaper in their own columns, is
decision of court after judgment is rendered
against you asking for retraction Of what
has been uttered and the admission of an err
ror. But the Press of a recent date, in devo-
ting column and more to historical discus
sion as to the merits of the Popham colony,
asks to be enlightened on the matter, and ex-
presses the hope shat some one will show,
more clearly than has yet been exhibited"
that the event calls for IAN annual outpouring
of the states homage" "or that it is deserv-
ing of memorial observance" This intima-
ton justifies a brief reply.
Without presuming to enlighten one, who,
to use his own language, "has thought and
studied, conversed and inquired-in vain," to
find such evidence, may venture to present
some considerations to the readers of your pa
per which have led my own mind to the belief,
that the Popham settlement deserves all the
respect aud veneration that is claimed for it,
by those who originated the plan of an an
nual celebration. But am not DESTROYS Of
being held responsible for all that one I'M
friendly to these views can assert against
them, or for their unfair method Of stating the
question. For example, the gentleman who
furnished the account of the recent celebra-
ton at Sabine for the Press said:
To large proportion ofthe audience who came for
amusemement and recreation rather than for histor-
ical information the Grafton of but little interest,
while TO the few who sympathized with the move
ment to glorify the Sabiho failure at the expense
OF the Plymouth success il was deeply interesting.
1t is certainly new thing to hear that any
one sought ito glorify the Sabine failure at
the expense of the Plymouth success" or to
detract in any degree from the merit fairly
due to the Plymouth COLONY. Those who re-
gard the object of the Popham celebration as
antagonistic to the Plymouth settlement, ere
wide from the path of truth, as far as l know
or believe.
The value of the popham settlement, as it
seems To me, depends upon its influence in es-
tablishing the title of Old England, to the ter
ritory of Ner England. To determine this,
we must resort to the contemporary history of
the times. We need not claim for it anything
more, as settlement, than the writer in the
Press declares it to have been, ian abortive
settlement on the sand spit at the mouth of
the Kcnnbec," If it accomplished the purpose
Of making good the title Of England to the
country. That is the question involved in the
celebration, aud those who have examined in
to it, in the light of modern discovery, find
the proof satisfactory TO their own minds.
The discovery of the Continent of America
by Columbus changed the commercially not the
political ideas of Europe. The Pope promptly
donated the new world to Spain and Portugal.
But in the reign of Elizabeth, the people of
England, having become entranchsed from
Catholic rule asserted new doctrine in re-
gard to the rights of nations, repudiating
the claim Of the Pope, and held that posses
stoh of newly discovered country was essen
tial to the establishment of title France
agreed to the same doctrine, and in all the
early charters of both France and England
for the peopling of North America, there was
a reservation that no right of occupation was
granted where the country ",cds actually pos
sessed by any Ctristian Prince or people,
This language was used in the first Virginia
charter of King James, April 10, 1906, grant
ing the country between the 80 and 45th deg.
north latitude. The French charter to De
Monts, OF Nov. s, 1903, granted the territory
between 40 and 40 deg ofnorth latitude, under
which the country was possessed, from Cape
Breton to Cape Cod. This charter was revok-
ed in 1907, and before Champlain had obtain
ed foothold in Canada. This Act in the Eng
lish grant which took precedence Of the French
title to Canada and in this way, the .fortyJtfh
parallel Of latitude became the boundary line,
from Lake Champlain to the Connecticut, be-
tween the French aud English. But for the
revocation of De Monts charter, in 1907, the
French as all now admit, would have held the
country from the 10th parallel north. If your
readers will examine the Letter of the French
historian, l. Escabot, to Louis XIII, written
in 1913, translation OF which will be found
in the memorial volume just issued by Bailey
& Noyes, they win be able to comprehend the
Importance of the settlement of Sabine.
Formal possession of the country was there
taken, Aug. 20, 1907, claiming it from the 34th
to the 45th deg. north latitude, and this claim
was always, and pertinaciously maintained.
The question was novel one and informa-
tion limited, and there was great difficulty in
getting parties TO remain liz the country.
Gorges actually hired men for this purpose.
The title of Sagadahoc was fully established
by continuous occupation. The French Jes-
uits say, that the English were there in zoos
and 1909. When Samuel Argall made voy-
age from jamestown for, Bermuda, in $780,
according to Pinchon (vol. ", p. 1851 "mis-
sing the same, on account Of the fog, he put
over TO Sagadahoc." Edward Harlow and
Nicholas Hobson made voyages there in 1911.
Richard Vines who came over in 1909 re-
NAMED continuously in the country and win
tered at Saco in 1916. They all claimed to hold
the country under the charter of 1905, and the
Frenchinen occupied West of Sagadahoc after
1907. So anxious was Gorges 10 hold the coun-
try, against the French, Spanish and Dutch
claimants, that he invited the Leyden flock hith-
erin 1917, and they came over in 1920, under the
protection of Georges. Capt. John Smith in
1914 gave the country the name of New Eng
land, and made a map of it from actual sur
veys from the 45th parallel South, which map
was published in England in 1916. The title
rested on the charter of 1906, which was pub
licly read at Sabine, Aug. 20, 1907, with the
constitution and code of laws establishing
their government