out the courtesy of any previous intimation whatever to this government, an armed force from the State of Maine has entered the territory, the claim to which is in dispute betwixt Great Britain and the United States, and which it has been agreed betwixt the two general governments shall remain in the exclusive possession and jurisdiction of England until that claim shall be determined."

"It has been my duty, on more than one occasion, to apprise the executive government of Maine that my instructions do not permit me to suffer any interference with that possession and jurisdiction, until the question of jurisdiction shall have been finally decided.

"I do not hesitate in entreating your excellency to relieve me, by ordering the immediate recall of a force whose presence within the precincts of the territory as claimed by England it is contrary to my instructions to permit; and it is proper that I should acquaint your excellency that I have directed a strong force of her Majesty's troops to be in readiness to support her Majesty's authority, and protect her Majesty's subjects in the disputed territory, in the event of this request not being immediately complied with."

It thus appears that New Brunswick claimed exclusive possession of the St. John and Aroostook rivers, and that when an attempt at adverse jurisdiction, although confined to the mere purpose of driving off trespassers, was made by Maine in the winter of 1838-'39, it was resisted by a threat of the military power of Great Britain.

Upon the third point, I remark, that it is a part of the public history of the country that Maine forbore actual jurisdiction on the Aroostook river until 1838. In the winter of that year her legislature directed certain surveys of lands to be made on that river, as before noticed; and during that year her land agent caused investigation to be made as to the extent of the trespassing going on in that quarter.

On the 20th of March, 1838, Col. Ebenezer Webster was appointed by the land agent of Maine to examine the condition of things on the St. John and Aroostook rivers. His report, dated May 7, 1838, is appended to the land agent's annual report of January 1, 1839.

On the 14th of December, 1838, the land agents of Maine and Massachusetts commissioned George W. Buckmore "to proceed to the Aroostook river and see that no trespassing is committed on the townships belonging to Maine and Massachusetts, on that river, the ensuing winter."

His report is dated January 22, 1839, and led to the passage of the resolve of January 24, "that the land agent be, and is hereby, authorized and required to employ sufficient force to arrest, detain, and imprison all persons found trespassing on the territory of this State, as bounded and established by the treaty of 1783."

It abundantly appears that these movements of Maine in that quarter were the first which were made there; and, in the second place, that Maine had forborne until then, in deference to the wishes of the United States.

In his message of January 2, 1839, to the legislature of Maine, Gov. Hunt, referring to the land agent's report of the measures which

had been taken to look up and warn off persons trespassing on the Aroostook river, says:

"It is encouraging and satisfactory that this first attempt to interfere directly with such unlawful acts resulted in so great success.'

In the same message Governor Hunt says:

"The assumption of a right to exclusive and absolute jurisdiction, by the government of New Brunswick, over the whole territory north of the sources of the Aroostook and St. John rivers, and the establishment of a wardenship over the same, by the concurrence, as is asserted, of the President of the United States, and the exercise of authority within the same limits, have been the subject of frequent objection and loud remonstrance on the part of the people of this State."

Hon. Charles S. Davies, of Portland, Maine, who had been appointed a commissioner to this government in reference to the matter of the northeastern boundary, in a report made to Governor Hunt, on the 1st of August, 1838, says:

"Nothing can be more remarkable, in fact, than the weakness of suffering so large a portion of the original domain of this State to pass under the unquestioned control of a mere provincial warden."

The resolves passed by the legislature of Maine, March 23, 1839, authorizing the governor, in a certain contingency, to withdraw the militia from the Aroostook river, although continuing to assert the jurisdiction as against trespassers, assumed by the resolve of the 24th of January of that year, contain the most complete evidence that Maine had heretofore been restrained, and would still consent to be further restrained, by a deference to the arrangements and wishes of the United States government. Those resolves were, in part, as follows:

"Resolved, That the right of this State to exclusive jurisdiction over all that territory claimed by Great Britain which lies west of a due north line from the monument to the northwest angle of Nova Scotia (usually denominated the disputed territory') has been constant and indefeasible since our existence as an independent State; and no agreement which has been, or may be, entered into by the government of the Union can, impair her prerogative to be the sole judge of the time when, and the manner in which, that right shall be enforced.

Resolved, That this State, in view of the measures recently adopted by the government of the Union in relation to this question, and particularly the provision made for a special minister to the court of St. James, and actuated by an earnest desire to come to an amicable adjustment of the whole controversy, will forbear to enforce her jurisdiction in that part of her territory, the possession of which is now usurped by the province of New Brunswick, so far as she can do so consistently with the maintenance of the resolve of the 24th of January last,' &c., &c., &c.

These resolves had relation to the contingent withdrawal of the militia from the Aroostook river; and they prove, 1st, that possession there had been usurped by New Brunswick; 2d, that no measures, even to repel trespassers, had been taken by the legislature of Maine until January 24, 1839; and 3d, that this forbearance, which was

still to be continued to a certain extent, was in deference to the arrangements and wishes of the government of the United States.

The township granted to the town of Plymouth, and the half township granted to General Eaton for his valor and patriotic services in our war with the Barbary Powers, both on the Aroostook river and near to the line of New Brunswick, are, I believe, the only tracts of land belonging to private proprietors within the disputed territory, or rather within that part of it from which the jurisdiction of Maine was fully ousted.

The owners of those tracts, during the period of the suspended jurisdiction of Maine, could not enjoy their property, or even protect it; and they suffered great losses of valuable timber in consequence of this condition of things.

Redress for them is asked as a matter of justice, but it is not unsuitable to refer to other considerations.

The half township granted to General Eaton for patriotic services, passed in 1808 into the hands of two gentlemen, as security for a loan of money. On the part of one of those gentlemen, (Judge Stebbins,) this loan is known to have been a friendly act altogether, and there is some reason to believe that the same thing is true of the other gentleman. They are now represented each by an only child and a daughter. One of them, Miss Laura Stebbins, had no inheritance save this interest in the Eaton grant, from which she never realized a single dollar, and is now living in a condition of destitution.

The owners of the Plymouth township, during the period when it was put out of the protection of American laws, are citizens of Boston, advanced in years, who paid large sums for this property, and one of them was broken down and bankrupted by his losses in it. GEORGE M. WESTON.

WASHINGTON, April 14, 1856.