Evening star., 1952-07-06

1IC OIu D1ACh Otd1C 1CPoA VAAACAAO
Building for many years occupied
a part of the site now covered by
the north wing of the Treasury
Department at Fifteenth street
and Pennsylvania avenue. 1t was
quite likely built in 1920, for in
that year the State Department
took up its quarters there, and
continued to occupy the building
until 1866. when the department
moved for a brief period to the
southwest corner of Thirteenth
street and Pennsylvania avenue
NV. This building later became
the Census Office.
Evidently those quarters were
not satisfactory, for in October of
the same year the Government
leased the new building erected for
the Washington City Orphan Asy-
lum, at Fourteenth and S streets,
and took immediate possession. In
November. 1866, the old State De-
partment was removed and con-
struction of the north wing of
the Treasury began in April of the
following year. 1t was sufficiently
completed in 1869 to warrant hold
ing there Gen. Grants inaugural
bail.
The site of this old State De-
partment Building is a very in
teresting one, for much American
history was made there. Un-
doubtedly all the treaties with
foreign governments from 1920 to
1866 were signed there, amounting
in all to about 202, with IS separ-
ate countries.
Treoty Of Washington
One of the most important of
the treaties signed there is the
one officially known as the treaty
Of Washington, but more popu-
larly referred to as the AShburCon
treaty. negotiated by Lord Ashbur-
ton on behalf of Great Britain and
by Daniel Webster for the United
States Government.
The controversy was one of
many years standing and involved
the boundary line between the
State of Maine and Canada.
The whole problem originated
in the wording of the second ar
ticle of the treaty of peace be-
tween the United States and
Great Britain following the Revo-
lutionary War, concluded at Paris
September 3, 1888, and ratified by
Congress January IA, 1884.
Nearly Led to War
The particular part of the
article which gave rise to the
dispute and upon more than
one occasion nearly brought the
two countries to war, is contained
in the following quoted words: It
is said that the boundary shall
proceed from the northwest angle
Of Nova Scotia, namely, that
angle which is formed by a line
drawn due north from the source
of the st. Croix River to the high
lands, along the said highlands
which divide those rivers that
empty themselves into the St.
Lawrence from those which fall
into the Atlantic Ocean, to the
northwesternmost head of Con-
necticut River"
And in another part Of the same
article, the words: Case by a line
to be drawn along the middle of
the River St. Croix, from its
mouth in the Bay of Fundy to its
source and from it's source directly
north of the aforesaid highlands
which divide the rivers that fall
into the Atlantic Ocean from those
which fall into the River st. Law
renee"
There was a st. Croix River in
Champlain's time and a st. Croix
had been depicted on the maps,
bit no river by that name existed
In 1888. The British identified it
with the Schoodic, the Americans
with the Magaguadavic. This
particular contention was arbi-
trated in 1898, in the upholding
Of the British stand that the
Schoodic was the st. Croix.
Possomoquoddy Boy
Again, in 1877, a commission
was formed to settle the dispute
as to the ownership Of the Passa-
maquoddy Bay.
A more serious difficulty devel-
oped in determining the boundary
westward from the st. CroiX to the
st. Lawrence. Diplomacy seemed
of no avail, and even the award of
the King of the Netherlands, made
in 1881, was not acceptable to the
United States. Ultimately the
situation became critical, result
ing in the Aroostook war in 1888
80, when the legislatures of Maine
and New Brunswick upheld their
rival lumberjacks in obtaining by
force all that the two counties in
volved claimed.
The time arrived in 1912 when