distances are as follows, viz: 1st. N., 560 W., 156.5 feet; 2d. N., 6° W., 8611⁄2 feet; 3d. N., 28° W., 615.4 feet; 4th. N., 27° 10′ W., 495.4 feet; 5th. N., 5° 10' E., 1,322 feet; 6th. N., 7° 45' W., 493 feet; the variation being 12° east. The termination of this 6th or last course and distance, being the above said most northwestern point of the Lake of the Woods, as designated by the 7th article of the treaty of Ghent; and being in the latitude forty-nine degrees twenty-three minutes and fifty-five seconds north of the equator; and in longitude, ninety-five degrees fourteen minutes and thirty-eight seconds west from the observatory at Greenwich."

Propositions of Compromise.

Having thus entered their points of agreement and disagreement, the commissioners caused to be entered in the journal certain propositions, made by each of them during their oral discussions, of lines different from those assumed in their preceding joint declaration. These propositions, which were declared to have been submitted by way of compromise, in the desire to avoid the delay and expense of a reference to a third party, were expressed in the journal thus:

"Mr. Porter (adhering inflexibly to his opinion that the boundary ought to be run through the channel which divides. St. George's Island, in the River St. Mary's, from the British shore, so as to appropriate that island to The United States, inasmuch as the establishment of the line through the Ameri can channel, which is much the smallest branch of the river, would have the effect to throw the only navigable communication for lake vessels, exclusively within the territories of one of the parties, and thereby violate a principle, the strict observance of which is in his view more important to the interests of both Governments, than any other consideration connected with the fair adjustment of the boundary and from which he has never departed) proposed to his colleague that, in regard to their differences respecting the Boundary between Lake Superior and the Chaudière Falls in Lac la Pluie (St. George's Island being first appropriated to The United States), they should both relinquish the lines which they had respectively assumed, and adopt in lieu thereof the following route, namely:

"Beginning at the point in Lake Superior described as 100 yards distant from the island named Chapeau, near the northeast end of Hle Royale, and proceeding thence to the mouth of the Pigeon River, on the northwestern shore of the lake, enter and ascend the middle of that river, and leaving it at its junetion with Arrow River, proceed to Lake Namecan and Lac la Pluie, by the most direct and most continuous water communication, as delineated on the reduced map on the files of this board to which reference was already made.

"The British Commissioner, on the other hand, still maintaining the claim of Great Britain to St. George's Island, and to the establishment of the line through the middle Neebish, and the Sugar Rapids, as before set forth, stated to his colleague the necessity of his adherence to the same, as he considered that the application of the same principles which under Article VI. of the Treaty of Ghent, appropriated Barnhart's Island in the St. Lawrence, and the Islands at the head of Lake St. Clair, lying between the boundary line as there settled, and the American main shore to The United States, would in this instance require St. George's Island to be allotted to great Britain.

"Mr. Barclay, however, impressed with the propriety not only of dividing the doubtful territory between the two Governments, but also of preserving the navigation free to both nations, proposed to stipulate with the American Commissioner, upon condition of his agreeing to fix the boundary in the Middle Neebish and Sugar Rapids, and to allot St. George's Island to Great Britain, that the Channel through the East Neebish and Lake George should remain free for the fair and lawful commerce of both nations, provided the Commissioner of The United States would guarantee the like with respect to the channel running on the south-east side of Barnhart's Island, and to that channel, through the islands of Lake St. Clair, which is contiguous to the American mainlaud, and which is commonly used because it is the easiest and safest. And as to the proposition of Mr. Porter to conduct the line 'from Lake Superior to the mouth of Pigeon River; thence through the middle of said river, proceeding to Lac la Pluie by the most direct and continuous water communication,' Mr. Barclay consented to adopt a route from Lake Superior, by the Grand Portage, to Pigeon River, and thence by the most easy and direct route to Lac la Pluie, provided the American Commissioner would consent that the boundary should be conducted from water to water, overland, through the middle of the old and accustomed portages, in those places where from falls, rapids, shallows, or any other obstruction, the navigation and access into the interior by water, are rendered impracticable."1

Closing Sessions of
Commissioners.

The matter just detailed, which the commissioners caused on the 23d of October 1826 to be entered in their journal, they transmitted to their governments, and on the 10th of November they adjourned till the 1st of March in the following year, in order that they might have an opportunity to receive instructions. Their meeting was postponed till October 22, 1827, when the

Br. and For. State Papers, LVII. 810-811.

board assembled again in New York, on the request of Mr. Barclay. The two commissioners, the agent of the United States, and the principal surveyor on the part of Great Britain attended. The services of Mr. Hale, the British agent, were terminated on the 5th of April 1827. Many maps were submitted in quadruplicate as of October 23, 1826. Since the last meeting each commissioner had proposed a compromise which the other had not accepted, and the British Government had directed Mr. Barclay to close the commission in the manner indicated by the treaty. Mr. Barclay signified his willingness to do this so soon as the final accounts could be audited. Mr. Porter, believing an amicable adjustment of the whole line at that time to be desirable, said he felt a strong disposition to attain that object by mutual and liberal concessions of opinion in regard to differences which did not materially affect any great and leading interest of the other party; but that, as his colleague persisted in his claim to run the line. through the west channel of the St. Mary's River, opposite to St. George's Island, he perceived no hope of an agreement, and would prepare to submit his separate report.

sion.

Meetings of the commissioners were held on Expenses of Commis- the 23d, 24th, and 25th of October, and on the last-mentioned day they presented their accounts. The whole expense under Articles VI. and VII. amounted, on the part of the United States, to $84,786.194, and on the part of Great Britain to $93,316.31. The excess of the British expenditure being $8,530.12, it was ordered that the American commissioner draw on his government for $4,265.06, in order to balance the accounts.'

Final Reports and
Adjournment.

On the 27th of October 1827 the commissioners agreed that their respective reports, witnessed by one or both of the secretaries, should be exchanged in New York. On the 24th of December they met in New York for that purpose, and after exchanging their reports adjourned sine die. The report of Mr. Porter is dated at Black Rock, N. Y., December 12, 1827, and is witnessed by Donald Fraser, secretary to the commission; Mr. Barclay's report is dated at New York, October 25, 1827, and

Br. and For. State Papers, LVII. 822, 823. See, also, as to expenditures, Am. State Papers, For. Rel. V. 50; 3 Stats. at L. 288, 358, 422, 561, 673, 762; 4 Id. 16, 91, 148, 214.

2 Br. and For. State Papers, LVII. 823.

is witnessed by Richard Williams, the assistant secretary.1 The substance of them is given above, in the summary of the commissioners' arguments for the routes for which they respectively contended.

Webster and Lord
Ashburton.

After the exchange of the reports of the Negotiations of Mr. commissioners in New York, no discussion as to the boundary under Article VII. seems to have taken place between the two governments for a period of ten years.2 The dispute as to the northeastern boundary question overshadowed the differences as to the line under Article VII. In 1839 and 1840 those differences formed the subject of a correspondence, but it was not till 1842 that they were settled. In a note to Lord Ashburton of the 15th of July in that year Mr. Webster, after describing a line for the northeastern boundary, observed: "It is probable, also, that the disputed line of boundary in Lake Superior might be so adjusted as to leave a disputed island within the United States." In his reply of the next day Lord Ashburton said he was prepared to give up the "first point," as to the Island of St. George, which was "the only object of real value in this controversy." As to the second difference, he proposed a line "from a point about six miles south of Pigeon River, where the Grand Portage commences on the lake, and continued along the line of said portage, alternately by land and water, to Lac la Pluie, the existing route by land and by water remaining common to both parties." Lord Ashburton added, however, that in making the important concession of the island of St. George he must attach to it a condition of accommodation in two points. He said:

"The first of these two cases is, at the head of Lake St. Clair, where the river of that name empties into it from Lake Huron. It is represented that the channel bordering the United States coast in this part is not only the best for navigation, but, with some winds, is the only serviceable passage. I do not know that, under such circumstances, the passage of

H. Ex. Doc. 451, 25 Cong. 2 sess.

In response to a resolution of the House of Representatives of May 28, 1838, calling for any information and correspondence relating to Article VII., President Van Buren on the 2nd of the following July transmitted to the House a report of the Secretary of State, accompanied with the separate reports of the commissioners, and stating that they contained "all the information on the subject on the files of the Department." (H. Ex. Doc. 451, 25 Cong. 2 sess.)

a British vessel would be refused; but, on a final settlement of the boundaries, it is desirable to stipulate for what the commissioners would probably have settled, had the facts been known to them.

"The other case, of nearly the same description, occurs on the St. Lawrence, some miles above the boundary at St. Regis. In distributing the islands of the river, by the commissioners, Barnhart's Island and the Long Sault Islands were assigned to America. This part of the river has very formidable rapids, and the only safe passage is on the southern or American side, between those islands and the mainland. We want a clause in our present treaty to say that, for a short distance, namely, from the upper end of Upper Long Sault Island to the lower end of Barnhart's Island, the several channels of the river shall be used in common by the boatmen of the two countries." 1

Mr. Webster readily conceded that the channels on either side of the Long Sault Islands in the St. Lawrence, and the passages between the islands lying at or near the junction of the River St. Clair with the lake of that name, should each be free and open to the vessels of both countries, and asked that, reciprocally, American vessels should, in proceeding from Lake Erie into the Detroit River, have the privilege of passing between the Bois Blanc, an island belonging to Great Britain, and the Canadian shore, the deeper and better channel being on that side. In respect of the liue northward of the Isle Royale, he proposed that it should run to the mouth. of Pigeon River. There was, he said, reason to think that "Long Lake," in the treaty of 1783, meant merely the estuary of the Pigeon River; and this opinion was strengthened by the fact that the words of the treaty seemed to imply that the water intended as "Long Lake" was immediately joining Lake Superior. But he thought it right that the water communications and portages between this point and the Lake of the Woods should make a common highway, where necessary, for the use of the subjects and citizens of both governments. These terms Lord Ashburton accepted, at the same time observing that provision for the greater facility of the navi gation of the St. Lawrence, of the two passages between the upper lakes, and of the passage from Lake Erie into the Detroit River, must be secured by declaring the several passages in those parts free to both parties, and that the free use of

Webster's Works, VI. 281.

2 Webster's Private Correspondence, II. 140; Webster's Works, VI. 284.