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. 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. It is 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 obliga tions, 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 |