Mr. Webster's Mode of Procedure. 2 Such was the situation when Mr. Webster in March 1841 assumed charge of the Department of State. To him the disputed boundary was not a new question; and, though the two governments seemed to be committed to the plan of new surveys and new attempts to arbitrate, he desired to try a "shorter way." He intimated to the British minister at Washington that he was willing to attempt a settlement by direct negotiation; and early in the following year he learned, with surprise as well as with satisfaction, that the British Government had determined to send out Lord Ashburton as a special minister, with full powers to settle the boundary and all other questions in controversy between the two governments. Lord Ashburton arrived in Washington on the 4th of April 1842, and was presented to the President on the 6th.5 Appointment of Lord pointed by Maine and Massachusetts. Mr. Webster now set about obtaining the Commissioners Ap- appointment of commissioners on the part of Massachusetts and Maine with full authority to represent those States at Washington. In the case of Massachussetts this was easily accomplished. The governor, who had already been invested by the legislature with powers sufficient for the purpose, appointed as commissioners Abbott Lawrence, John Mills, and Charles Allen. In Maine it was necessary to convene the legislature; and, in order that the matter might be properly conducted, Mr. Webster in May paid a visit to Boston, and through Jared Sparks, who went as his representative to Augusta, took counsel with the governor and leading members of the legislative assembly. The governor was invested with the necessary power, but in the resolution by which it was conferred the claim of the State to the disputed territory was reasserted; and it was declared that no concession made by Great Britain within that territory could be regarded as an equivalent for anything yielded Curtis's Life of Webster, II. 2-3. 2 Webster's Private Correspondence, II. 102. 3 Webster's Works, VI. 270. +Webster's Private Correspondence, II. 113, 114, 120. Curtis's Life of Webster, II. 98. 6Webster's Works, VI. 272. 7 Webster's Private Correspondence, II. 119; H. Ex. Doc. 2, 27 Cong. 3 sess. 61. within it by Maine. These instructions, by excluding any compromise of the territorial claims of Maine, rendered it necessary to seek extrinsic compensation for anything that might be conceded within her asserted limits. The commissioners appointed on the part of Maine were William Pitt Preble, Edward Kavanagh, Edward Kent, and John Otis.' The Maine commissioners arrived in Wash Mr. Webster's Plan ington on the 12th of June, and those of of Settlement. Massachusetts on the 13th; and on the latter day Lord Ashburton addressed to Mr. Webster his first official note on the boundary. The negotiations and corre spondence continued for some time without result. Lord Ashburton proposed that the St. John should, from its intersection by the line due north from the source of the St. Croix, form the boundary, except that the portion of the Madawaska settlement south of the river should remain with Great Britain. If this was conceded he was willing to yield the strip between the old line and the true line of the forty-fifth parallel, and to grant the privilege of floating timber down the St. John to its mouth free of duty. The Maine commissioners declined this offer, and proposed to follow the St. John to a point three miles above the mouth of the Madawaska, thence to draw a direct line along the latter river to Long Lake, and from the latter point to the entrance of the River St. Francis into Lake Pohenagamook, and then on to the highlands separating the waters of the River Du Loup from those of the St. Francis. On the 3d of July Mr. Webster thought that he was "not out of the woods on the boundary business." Indeed, the triangular discussion seemed to be in danger of drifting back into the old slough of geographical and historical controversy. To avert this calamity Mr. Webster abandoned written communications, and held with Lord Ashburton "full and frequent conferences." In a few days the question was practically settled; and on the 15th of July Mr. Webster communicated to the Maine commissioners the terms which he and Lord Ashburton thought eligible. Before the negotiations Curtis's Life of Webster, II. 98-102; Webster's Private Correspondence, II. 128, 131. The legislature of New Hampshire passed a resolution requesting the Senators and Representatives of the State in Congress to take such measures as might be necessary to sustain its interests in the dispute. They submitted a statement to Mr. Webster. (H. Ex. Doc. 2, 27 Cong. 3 sess. 97.) 2 Webster's Private Correspondence, II. 135. began Mr. Webster was prepared to recommend that Great Britain should be allowed to retain "her old and convenient communication between the provinces," and even to hold all the Madawaska settlements on the United States side of the Netherlands line if the United States could obtain as equivalents the right to convey lumber and produce from all the tributaries of the St. John to its mouth with no other tax or toll than was levied on similar British articles, and a cession of territory on the west side of the St. John and east of the line running north from the source of the St. Croix.' In the negotiations however the idea of territorial exchanges was abandoned, and a different mode of compensating Maine and Massachusetts was adopted. It was agreed to take as the boundary north from the source of the St. Croix the line run and marked by the surveyors of the two governments in 1817 and 1818, to the middle of the channel of the St. John. While this line was not entirely accurate, the errors in it were so inconsiderable that Mr. Webster did not deem their correction a sufficient object to justify the disturbance of the grants and settlements that had been made in reliance upon it. From the point where this north line strikes the middle of the channel of the St. John, it was agreed that the boundary should follow the middle of the main channel of that river to the mouth of the River St. Francis; thence up the middle of the channel of the St. Francis, and of the lakes through which it flows, to the outlet of Lake Pohenagamook; thence southwesterly, in a straight line, to a point on the northwest branch of the River St. John, which point should be ten miles distant from the main branch of the St. John, in a straight line, and in the nearest direction, provided that if such point should be found to be less than seven miles from the nearest summit or crest of the highlands dividing the rivers emptying themselves into the River St. Lawrence from those 'Mr. Webster to Mr. Everett, April 25, 1842, Webster's Private Correspondence, II. 120, 122. 2 The deflection in the "due-north" line as previously surveyed, though slight, had the effect of making the elevation of the line at the latitude of Mars Hill much greater than that of the true line. Major Graham found in 1841 that the true line passed that latitude at an elevation of only 10 feet above the level of the monument at the source of the St. Croix; that its greatest elevation in passing over any spur connected with Mars Hill was only 63 feet above that level; and that, beyond that spur, the line fell below the level of the monument at several points before reaching the Aroostook. |