CHAPTER I. THE SAINT CROIX RIVER: COMMISSION UNDER Original Boundaries of the United States. "And that all disputes which might arise in future, on the subject of the boundaries of the said United States may be prevented, it is hereby agreed and declared, that the following are, and shall be their boundaries, viz." Such are the introductory words of the second article of the treaty of peace signed at Paris September 3, 1783, by D. Hartley on the part of Great Britain, and by John Adams, B. Franklin, and John Jay on the part of the United States. Then follows the description of the boundaries, which is the same as that contained in the second of the provisional articles of peace signed at Paris November 30, 1782, on the part of Great Britain by Richard Oswald, and on the part of the United States by John Adams, B. Franklin, John Jay, and Henry Laurens. This description is as follows: "From the northwest angle of Nova Scotia, Article II. of Treaty viz. that angle which is formed by a line drawn of 1783. due north from the source of Saint Croix River to the Highlands; along the said Highlands which divide those rivers that empty themselves into the river St. Lawrence, from those which fall into the Atlantic Ocean, to the northwesternmost head of Connecticut River; thence down along the middle of that river, to the forty-fifth degree of north latitude; from thence, by a line due west on said latitude, until it strikes the river Iroquois or Cataraquy; thence along the middle of said river into Lake Ontario, through the middle of said lake. until it strikes the communication by water between that lake and Lake Erie; thence along the middle of said communication into Lake Erie, through the middle of said lake until it arrives at the water communication between that lake and Lake Huron; thence along the middle of said water communication into the Lake Huron; thence through the middle of said lake to the water communication between that lake and Lake Superior; thence through Lake Superior northward of the Isles Royal and Phelipeaux, to the Long Lake; thence through the middle" 1 of said Long Lake, and the water communication between it and the Lake of the Woods, to the said Lake of the Woods; thence through the said lake to the most northwestern point thereof, and from thence on a due west course to the river Mississippi; thence by a line to be drawn along the middle of the said river Mississippi until it shall intersect the northernmost part of the thirty-first degree of north latitude. South, by a line to be drawn due east from the determination of the line last mentioned, in the latitude of thirty-one degrees north of the Equator, to the middle of the river Apalachicola or Catahouche; thence along the middle thereof to its junction with the Flint River; thence straight to the head of St. Mary's River; and thence down along the middle of St. Mary's River to the Atlantic Ocean. East, 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 its source directly north to the aforesaid Highlands, which divide the rivers that fall into the Atlantic Ocean from those which fall into the river St. Lawrence; comprehending all islands within twenty leagues of any part of the shores of the United States, and lying between lines to be drawn due east from the points where the aforesaid boundaries between Nova Scotia on the one part, and East Florida on the other, shall respectively touch the Bay of Fundy and the Atlantic Ocean; excepting such islands as now are, or heretofore have been, within the limits of the said province of Nova Scotia." Uncertainty of the This definition of the boundaries of the United States, far from preventing disputes, was exceedingly fruitful of them. When it was made, most of the country through which the lines were to run had never been surveyed, and the maps of it were necessarily inaccurate. Parts of the boundary were declared to be "too imperfectly described to be susceptible of execution." But, apart from the uncertainty resulting from the absence of accurate topographical knowledge, the possibilities of dispute were enlarged by the fact that the negotiators of the treaty made no official record of their intentions. Though the same map was used by both sides in the negotiation, on no copy of it were the lines intended by the negotiators jointly and formally entered, and no map was officially attached to the treaty. Importance of the Almost immediately after the ratification of the treaty of peace, disputes as to the boundary began to arise. The first grew out of the designation of the River St. Croix as a part of the line. By Message of President Jefferson to Congress, October 17, 1803, Am. State Papers, For. Rel. I. 62. recurring to the language of the treaty it will be seen that the northern boundary of the United States begins, in its westward course, at "the northwest angle of Nova Scotia," which is described as "that angle which is formed by a line drawn due north from the source of the Saint Croix River to the Highlands;" and that the eastern boundary is 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 its source directly north to the aforesaid Highlands," etc. Thus the St. Croix possesses a double importance. It not only forms a part of the eastern boundary, but it also serves as a basis for the determination of the northern boundary. Mitchell's Map of On Mitchell's map of 1755, which was used by the negotiators of the treaty of peace, and of which a copy is inserted at the beginning of this chapter, the River St. Croix appears as a stream of considerable volume, having its source in a lake called Kousaki and its mouth at the eastern head of what is now known as Passamaquoddy Bay, though on the map the greater part of the bay has no separate designation and appears merely as a part of the Bay of Fundy. To the westward on the same map is another stream called the "Passamacadie" (Passamaquoddy), emptying into a small bay or estuary of the same name. But, while Mitchell's map was correct in representing two streams of some magnitude as falling into the body of water commonly known as Passamaquoddy Bay, it did not give their true courses or positions, nor was there in the region any river then commonly known as the St. Croix. This name originated with the early French explorers, from whose charts it was transferred to later maps, on which it was given first to one stream and then to another; and in all these maps, including that of Mitchell, the topography of the region was inaccurate. and Schoodiac. Of the two principal streams that fall into Rivers Magaguadavic Passamaquoddy Bay, that to the east was known in 1782, as it is still known, by the Indizan name of Magaguadavic; that to the west as the Schoodie, Scoudiac, or Schoodie. These are the only streams of magnitude that fall into the Bay of Fundy west of the er St. John. The Magaguadavic, or eastern river, like the Croix of Mitchell's map, pursues from its mouth a course erally west of north, but, unlike the latter, it divides near an Ri St ge its source into two branches, each of which has its head in a lake. The Schoodiac, wholly unlike the Passamacadie of Mitchell, after pursuing for some distance from its mouth a crooked course, generally west-northwest, divides into two branches, one of which extends to the north, under the name of the Chiputneticook, and the other in a course generally somewhat west of south to a tangled chain of waters called the Schoodiac Lakes. The United States claimed the Magaguadavic as the St. Croix of the treaty, and the head of its western lake as its source. Great Britain claimed the Schoodiac as the true St. Croix, and the most remote waters of the lakes at the head of its western branch as its source. Thus, while the mouths of the Magaguadavic and Schoodiac lie about nine miles apart, the distance between lines drawn due north from their alleged sources was quite fifty miles, and the area of the territory involved was from seven thousand to eight thousand square miles. Action of Nova Scotia and Massachusetts. Immediately after the ratification of the treaty of peace the authorities of Nova Scotia, treating the River Schoodiac as the St. Croix of the treaty, made grants of land on its eastern bank to loyalist refugees who formed there the settlement of St. Andrews. This proceeding attracted the attention of Congress and of the authorities of Massachusetts, and the latter appointed a commission of three persons-two of whom were Generals Lincoln and Knox-to make an investigation. These commissioners, besides visiting Passamaquoddy Bay, obtained statements from John Adams and John Jay, and also from John Mitchell, then a resident of Chester, New Hampshire, who was employed by Governor Bernard, of Massachusetts, in 1764 to ascertain the river known under the name of the St. Croix; and they reported that, though the map used by the negotiators was defective, the Magaguadavic was the river intended by the treaty. Mr. Adams in his statement took the ground that as the River St. Croix on Mitchell's map was the river nearest to the St. John, the Magaguadavic, as being nearer to the St. John than the Schoodiac, should be accepted as the boundary. The uncertainties of the situation and the views of the British authorities and surveyors were very fairly stated in a letter of Gen. Rufus Putnam to a committee of the Massachusetts legislature of December 27, 1784.1 'Am. State Papers, For. Rel. I. 92. |