began Mr. Webster was prepared to recommend that Great Britain should be allowed to retain "her old and convenient communication between the provinces," and even to hold all the Madawaska settlements on the United States side of the Netherlands line if the United States could obtain as equivalents the right to convey lumber and produce from all the tributaries of the St. John to its mouth with no other tax or toll than was levied on similar British articles, and a cession of territory on the west side of the St. John and east of the line running north from the source of the St. Croix.' In the negotiations however the idea of territorial exchanges was abandoned, and a different mode of compensating Maine and Massachusetts was adopted. It was agreed to take as the boundary north from the source of the St. Croix the line run and marked by the surveyors of the two governments in 1817 and 1818, to the middle of the channel of the St. John. While this line was not entirely accurate, the errors in it were so inconsiderable that Mr. Webster did not deem their correction a sufficient object to justify the disturbance of the grants and settlements that had been made in reliance upon it. From the point where this north line strikes the middle of the channel of the St. John, it was agreed that the boundary should follow the middle of the main channel of that river to the mouth of the River St. Francis; thence up the middle of the channel of the St. Francis, and of the lakes through which it flows, to the outlet of Lake Pohenagamook; thence southwesterly, in a straight line, to a point on the northwest branch of the River St. John, which point should be ten miles distant from the main branch of the St. John, in a straight line, and in the nearest direction, provided that if such point should be found to be less than seven miles from the nearest summit or crest of the highlands dividing the rivers emptying themselves into the River St. Lawrence from those Mr. Webster to Mr. Everett, April 25, 1842, Webster's Private Correspondence, II. 120, 122. The deflection in the "due-north" line as previously surveyed, though slight, had the effect of making the elevation of the line at the latitude of Mars Hill much greater than that of the true line. Major Graham found in 1841 that the true line passed that latitude at an elevation of only 10 feet above the level of the monument at the source of the St. Croix; that its greatest elevation in passing over any spur connected with Mars Hill was only 63 feet above that level; and that, beyond that spur, the line fell below the level of the monument at several points before reaching the Aroostook. falling into the St. John it should be made to recede down the northwest branch of the St. John to a point seven miles in a straight line from such summit or crest; thence in a straight line, in a course about south 8° west, to the point where the parallel of latitude of 46° 25' north intersects the southwest branch of the St. John; thence southerly, by that branch, to its source in the highlands at the Metjarmette Portage; thence down along the highlands that divide the waters emptying themselves into the River St. Lawrence from those falling into the Atlantic Ocean, to the head of Hall's Stream; thence down the middle of that stream to the intersection of the old line surveyed and marked by Valentine and Collins, previously to 1774, as the forty-fifth parallel of north latitude, and which had been known as the line of actual division between the States of New York and Vermont on one side and the province of Canada on the other; and from such point of intersection west, along that dividing line, as previously known and understood, to the Iroquois or St. Lawrence River. Territorial Results to Maine. In communicating this line to the Maine commissioners for their consideration as the most advantageous that could be obtained, Mr. Webster observed that the territory in dispute contained 12,027 square miles, or 7,697,280 acres; that by the line proposed there would be assigned to the United States 7,015 square miles, or 4,489,600 acres, and to England 5,012 square miles, or 3,207,680 acres; that by the award of the King of the Netherlands there were assigned to the United States 7,908 square miles, or 5,061,120 acres, and to England 4,119 square miles, or 2,636,160 acres; that the territory proposed to be relinquished south of the line of the King of the Netherlands was the mountain range from the upper part of the St. Francis River to the meeting of the two contested lines of boundary at the Metjarmette Portage, in the highlands, near the source of the St. John; that this mountain tract contained 893 square miles, or 571,520 acres; and that of the general division of the territory it might be said that, while the portion remaining to the United States was in quantity seventwelfths, in value it was at least four-fifths of the whole. Navigation of the On the other hand, said Mr. Webster, if this line should be agreed to on the part of the United States, the British minister would, as an equivalent, stipulate, first, for the use of the St. John for the conveyance of the timber growing on any of its branches to tide water on the same terms as British timber, and for the surrender to the United States of Rouses Point and the lands formerly supposed to be within the limits of New Hampshire, Vermont, and New York, but really lying to the north of the true forty-fifth parallel. Perhaps, also, the disputed boundary in Lake Superior might be so adjusted as to leave a contested island in the possession of the United States. These territorial cessions would inure partly to the benefit of the States of New Hampshire, Vermont, and New York, but principally of the United States. The consideration however on the part of England for making them would be the manner agreed on for adjusting the eastern boundary. The price of them would therefore in fairness belong to the two States interested in that boundary. Under the influence of these considerations, Mr. Webster said he was authorized to say that, if the commissioners of Maine and Massachusetts would Compensation of assent to the line proposed, the United States would undertake to pay to those States the sum of $250,000, to be divided between them in equal moieties, and also to undertake the settlement and payment of the expenses incurred by them in maintaining the civil posse and in prosecuting a survey which they had found it necessary to make.1 Maine and Massachusetts. On these terms, with the addition of $50,000 Signature of Treaty. to the compensation offered to Maine and Massachusetts, a settlement was finally effected with the assent of the commissioners of those States. The treaty was signed on the 9th of August. By its first article, the northeastern boundary is defined in the manner which has been described. Provisions of the By the third article it is provided that the navigation of the St. John, where that river is declared to be the boundary, shall be free and open to both parties; that "all the produce of the forest, in logs, lumber, timber, boards, staves, or shingles, or of agriculture, not being manufactured, grown on any of those parts of the State of Maine watered by the river St. John, or by its tributaries, of which fact reasonable evidence shall, if required, be produced, shall have free access into and through the said river and its tributaries, having their source within the State 1 Mr. Webster to the Maine commissioners, July 15, 1842. (Webster's Works, VI. 276.) * H. Ex. Doc. 2, 27 Cong. 3 sess. 31. |