REPORT OF THE JOINT SELECT COMMITTEE OF THE Senate aud House of Representatives, OF THE STATE OF MAINE, IN RELATION TO THE NORTH-EASTERN BOUNDARY OF THE STATE. Printed by Order of the Legislature. PORTLAND, THOMAS TODD, PRINTER TO THE STATE. ........... ORDERED: That so much of the Communication made by the Governor to the Legislature, with the accompanying documents as relates to the North-Eastern Boundary of this State, be referred to Messrs. MEGQuier, WILLIAMS, and With such of the House as may join, and that the Committee be authorized to cause such of the accompanying documents to be published, as in their opinion the public good requires. REPORT. It is The aforesaid Joint Select Committee of the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Maine, have considered the whole subject submitted to them by the aforesaid Order, to wit: All the Governor's Message which relates to the North-Eastern Boundary, which is as follows, to wit:"In the number of our resources is one so conspicuous, that it must early attract your notice. It is that of a wild and fertile territory, embracing about six millions of acres. not necessary now to attempt to show how evidently it is subject to your jurisdiction, nor to speak of its distinguished natural advantages which impart to it the capacity of sustaining some hundred thousand yeomen. Valuable, or rather invaluable, as it is, we ought without hesitation to surrender it if we cannot with justice support that claim to it which unfortunately now stands opposed under the difficulty of an ingenuity which has endeavored to obscure the line, and an opposition, which, I trust, you will dispassionately authorize to be resisted under the limitations of a cautious and prudent, yet decided policy. "The Government of the State, with the exemplary moderation always creditable and necessary, has for years re frained from the exercise of many of its rights. It has been induced to do so, as may be inferred, from its anxious desire to accommodate to the wishes of the federal administration, and its disposition to avoid collisions, inevitably unfortunate, in any result. At the same time, it cannot abandon its obligations, its title deeds, and its rights. It cannot allow the citizens to be incarcerated in foreign gaols. The State would shrink most dreadfully under the shame of such a submission. For the sake of being fully informed, it has for several years solicited the documents possessed by the general government in relation to this subject. It is with great confidence that I urge its consideration now, inasmuch as all that has been requested has been supplied agreeably to what was understood to be the wish of the last Legislature. That invaluable mass of documents, now in the Secretary's Office, and the copies of communications between myself and others contain nearly all that I can offer. The delicate nature of the subject induces me to ask a particular examination in reference to publi cation, if that shall be proposed, yet, there is no wish on my part that what has been written by myself shall be disposed of in one way in preference to the other. On the most thoughtful revisal, I find no past deviations from my existing sentiments, and am bound to sustain the most rigorous responsibility. "Amidst the views urged, has been a primary one of that nature, requiring its being submitted to you for correction, if desired. It is in relation to the undefined and perhaps undefinable line of rights between States' and United States' authority, along which construction is constantly urging disputed claims, and, in general, has much the advantage in irruptions upon the States. The Executive of the Union has been considered as disposed to submit the question of the boundary of Maine, with a perfectly friendly intent, but without regarding her as a party, to the umpirage of a foreign authority. The submission itself admits the possibility of an unjust and disastrous decision. While it is not presumed to cast a shadow of suspicion on the integrity with which that authority may be exercised, nor upon the motives of any person whomsoever, it has, nevertheless, been deemed a suitable precaution to urge the following propositions. It cannot arrogance which asserts them as materials of a monument of the rights of our employers, which will become firm by time, when properly combined and cemented by your reflections. If any feeling has been displayed on my part, it has been indulged with a view of eliciting results which it was - believed would be salutary and acceptable. At the same time there has been no intention to abandon those prudential considerations entirely consistent with a free assertion of what it might be supposed the people, through their Representatives, would eventually approve and sustain. be "At the period of forming the treaty of 1783, Massachusetts and the other Colonies were independent of each other, as to territorial rights. The United States, as such, did not exist. 66 Although the colonies constituted common agents to form that treaty, the territorial rights secured did not, by virtue of that instrument, accrue to the nation, but were merely acknowledged and confirmed by it to the existing individual corporations, according to pre-existing grants, crown lands only being excepted. When the Union of the States was framed, in that happy arrangement we are still permitted to witness, and which created a general guardianship, without extinguishing a particular independence, the compact left Massachusetts the Proprietor, as one party, in severalty of all her soil. She held it fully with undiminished interest, and has conceded her jurisdictional control only by that magnanimous act, usually called the Separation, which received validity from the concurrence of Congress. "The Union having no right to cede the territory, the treaty making power, as only a constituent part, cannot exercise a function beyond the grasp of the delegated power over the whole, nor, indirectly, by an umpire, do what it could not accomplish without; that is, consent to the alienation, or the possibility of an alienation of territory, which I will show is solemnly acknowledged through the President, to be ours. "It has, therefore, been believed to be due this State to advance the doctrine that the submission of its boundary, to an umpire, unknown to herself, and upon terms not confided to her consideration, will leave her at liberty to act upon the result as to the country and herself may be dictated by the most just and patriotic inclinations. Yet if it be true that the fifth article of the Treaty of Ghent has involved much of federal authority, beyond the limits which many eminent statesmen have contended to be the true ones, as the treaty exists, the delicacy of the case, in relation to public faith, ought to have some influence upon our assertion of our claim, although an entire concession be expected. It ought to be distinctly understood that there is a perfect harmony of sentiment with the federal administration in a most essential particular, in regard to which the language of Mr. Clay, the Secretary of State, is calculated to be highly satisfactory. It is as follows: The Government of the United States is fully convinced that the right to the territory is with us and not with Great Britain. The convictions of Maine are not stronger in respect to the validity of our title, than are those which are entertained by the President. "Whatever may be the character of the proposed umpirage, it seems necessary to adopt some rule of procedure as to the duties to be discharged before its results shall be known, and I cannot but hope to learn from you, in some way, what measures you will consider to be proper, if such acts as that of the arrest and incarceration of Baker shall be repeated. There will be no wish to go beyond your direction, nor to fall short of it; and, thus far, while the object has been to give no assent to injustice, there has been a steady view to your contemplated consultations and probable com mands. It was an arrest which the testimony seems to me to condemn; yet it cannot but be hoped that the neighboring |