William Pitt Preble, a citizen of Maine. Seldom has a question been so thoroughly discussed as was this disputed boundary. On January 5, 1828, a joint select committee of the legislature of Maine made a report on it, which was very full and exhaustive. Within three years, the unpublished reports and documents under the Treaty of Ghent having been cast aside as "so voluminous and complicated" as to discourage investigation, new statements, composed with great ability and learning, were substituted for all that had gone before. These statements, which were printed but not published, were bound up in a volume of which there are only a few copies in existence. In order to understand the case in its various aspects as it came before the King of the Netherlands, it is necessary, in addition to the history of the commission under Article V. of the Treaty of Ghent, which is narrated in the preceding chapter, to present a brief account of the origin of the questions at issue, and a summary of the statements submitted by the contracting governments to the arbitrator. of 1783. It was the design of the treaty of peace of Design of the Treaty 1783 to leave the United States in the possession of the boundaries which properly belonged to them when they were colonies under the British Crown. This design was, as will hereafter be shown, the basis of the definition finally adopted; and it is therefore necessary, in order that the subject may be understood, to recur to the British acts in which the lines originated. By the grant made by James I. to Sir WilAncient Grants. liam Alexander on September 10, 1621, Nova Scotia was bounded on the west by the river "commonly called St. Croix," and from the most remote source or spring on its western side by an imaginary direct line toward the north to the nearest ship road, river, or spring emptying itself into the great river of Canada (the St. Lawrence), and "from thence proceeding eastwardly along the seashores of the said river of Canada," along a course described. By a charter of April 3, 1639, Charles I. granted to Sir Ferdinando Gorges the province or county palatine of Maine, which, bounded on the west by the River Piscataqua, extended northeast along the seacoast to the River Sagadahock, the name of the Gallatin says he devoted nearly two years to the subject, bestowing on it more time than he ever did on any other question. (Adams's Writings of Gallatin, II. 549.) Am. State Papers, For. Rel. VI. 893–945. Kennebec below the confluence of the Androscoggin, and up the Sagadahock to the "Kynybecky" (Kennebec) River, and from thence along a described course. The territories included in this grant were conveyed by Gorges to John Usher on March 13, 1677, and were by the latter conveyed on the 15th of the same month to the Massachusetts Bay Company. Sagadahock. It will be observed that between the territories thus granted there is a region, lying between the St. Croix and the Kennebec, of considerable dimensions. It is called on the old maps, including Mitchell's, Sagadahock, the name by which the lower waters of the Kennebec were designated. This region, which the name of Maine afterward came to include, was granted on March 12, 1664, by Charles II. to his brother James, Duke of York, by the description-"all that part of the maine land of New England beginning at a certaine place called or knowne by the name of St. Croix next adjoyning to New Scotland in America and from thence extending along the sea coast into a certain place called Petuaquine or Pemaquid and so up the River thereof to the furthest head of ye same as it tendeth northwards and extending from thence to the River Kinebequi and so upwards by the shortest course to the River Canada northward." On the 29th of June 1674 the Duke of York obtained a confirmation of this grant from Charles II., and on the accession of the Duke to the throne as James II. it was merged in the Crown. The reason for this confirmation was the fact that by the Peace of Breda of July 21, 1667, the King of Great Britain agreed to restore to the King of France the territory of Acadia, or Nova Scotia. The confirmation affirmed the fact that, according to the British view, Nova Scotia did not extend to the westward of the St. Croix. setts Bay. On the 7th of October 1691 William and Charter of Massachu- Mary, Great Britain and France being then at war, granted the charter of the province of Massachusetts Bay. By this charter they "will and ordaine that the Territories and Colonyes commonly called or knowne by the names of The Colony of Massachusetts Bay and Colony of New Plymouth the Province of Main The Territory called Accadia or Nova Scotia and all that Tract of Land lying between the said territories of Nova Scotia and the said Province of Main be united erected and incorporated. And Wee Doe by these Presents unite erect, and incorporate the same into one reall Province by the name of Our Province of Massachusetts Bay in New England." But by the Peace of Ryswick of September 10, 1697, Great Britain agreed to restore all places which France possessed before the declaration of war, France making a reciprocal promise. By these reciprocal engagements Nova Scotia remained with France, and was therefore excepted out of the "Province of Massachusetts Bay in New England," which thus comprised "the Territories and Colonyes commonly called or knowne by the names of The Colony of Massachusetts Bay and Colony of New Plymouth the Province of Main ** and all that Tract of Land lying between the said territories of Nova Scotia and the said Province of Main." Province of Nova By the Treaty of Utrecht of March 31, 1713, Nova Scotia or Acadia was retroceded by France to Great Britain, but it was not rejoined to the province of Massachusetts Bay, being erected into a separate province. The commission of its first governor, Richard Phillips, issued September 11, 1719, merely describes it as the "province of Nova Scotia or Accadie in America." The same words are preserved in the commissions of the governors of the province down to 1761. Treaty of Paris of 1763. In 1763 a momentous change took place in the territorial possessions of the European powers in America. By the Peace of Paris of the 10th of February between France, Great Britain, and Spain, not only did Nova Scotia or Acadia rest under British sovereignty, but Canada, the island of Cape Breton, and all the islands and coasts in the gulf and river St. Lawrence passed under the same dominion and were lost to the French Crown, largely as the result of the exertions of the British colonists in America. It now became necessary to provide governments for the new possessions, and in so doing attention was naturally paid to boundaries. Establishment of the By a royal proclamation of October 7, 1763, establishing a government for the province of Quebec, the boundary of that province is described as a line drawn from the south end of Lake Nipissin across the River St. Lawrence and Lake Champlain in fortyfive degrees of north latitude, and "along the High Lands. which divide the Rivers that empty themselves into the said River St. Lawrence from those which fall into the Sea and also along the North Coast of the Bay des Chaleurs and the coast of the Gulph of St. Lawrence to Cape Rosieres." By the act of 14 Geo. III. cap. 83 (1774), "for making more effectual provision for the Government of the Province of Quebec," the province is "bounded on the South by a line from the bay of Chaleurs, along the highlands which divide the rivers that empty themselves into the river St. Lawrence from those which fall into the Sea, to a point in forty-five degrees of north latitude, on the eastern bank of the river Connecticut, keeping the same latitude directly west." The location and the reason of this boundary are quite clear. The object was to include in the province of Quebec, to which the French population was confined, the basin of the St. Lawrence, which was already partly inhabited by persons of that race. It included in the province of Quebec that basin and the country north of the Bay of Chaleurs. Boundaries of Nova Having ascertained the boundary established by the British Government for the province of Quebec, let us turn again to Nova Scotia, which originally extended, as we have seen, to the River St. Lawrence. On the 21st of November 1763, six weeks after the publication of the royal proclamation in regard to Quebec, a commission was issued to Montague Wilmot as governor of Nova Scotia. By this commission it is provided that the province of Nova Scotia "shall be bounded" to the northward "by the Southern Boundary of our Province of Quebec as far as the western extremity of the Bay des Chaleurs," and to the eastward "by the said Bay and the Gulf of St. Lawrence." To the westward it is said that, "although our said province hath anciently extended and doth of right extend as far as the river Pentagonet or Penobscot It shall be bounded by a line drawn from Cape Sable across the entrance of the Bay of Fundy to the mouth of the River St. Croix by the said river to its source and by a Line drawn due North from thence to the Southern Boundary of our colony of Quebec." The scheme of these boundaries is exceedingly simple and definite, and is set forth, as it was understood at the time, on a map in Dodsley's Annual Register for 1763. Such were the British definitions of the boundaries when in 1782 the American and British plenipotentiaries entered at Paris on negotiations for a treaty of peace. Let us examine, now, the instructions of the American plenipotentiaries and trace the course of the negotiations. gress for Treaty On the 14th of August 1779, six weeks be Instructions of Con- fore the choice of a minister, Congress adopted instructions for a treaty of peace with Great Britain. In these instructions the boundaries of the United States were defined as follows:1 "The boundaries of these States are as follows, viz: These States are bounded north, by a line to be drawn from the northwest angle of Nova Scotia along the highlands which divide those rivers which 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; thence due west in the latitude forty-five degrees north from the equator to the northwesternmost side of the river St. Lawrence or Cadaraqui; thence straight to the south end of Nepissing; and thence straight to the source of the river Mississippi: west, by a line to be drawn along the middle of the river Mississippi, from its source to where the said line shall intersect the thirty first degree of north latitude: south, by a line to be drawn due east from the termination of the line last mentioned in the latitude of thirty-one degrees north from the equator to the middle of the river Appalachicola, or Catahouchi; 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: and east, by a line to be drawn along the middle of St. John's river from its source to its mouth in the bay of Fundy, 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 part, shall respectively touch the bay of Fundy and Atlantic ocean." Terms "Atlantic By these instructions it is to be observed that the United States are said to be bounded on the north "by a line to be drawn from the northwest angle of Nova Scotia along the highlands which divide those rivers which empty themselves into the river St. Lawrence, from those which fall into the Atlantic ocean," and on the east "by a line to be drawn along the middle of St. John's river from its source to its mouth in the bay of Fundy." The description here given of the "highlands" which form the northern boundary of the United States, differs from the description given in the Quebec proclamation and the Quebec Secret Journals of Congress, For. Aff. II. 225–226; Am. State Papers, For. Rel. VI. 866; Wharton's Dip. Cor. Am. Rev. III. 301. |