State; or some amicable adjustment of the line take place between his Majesty and the United States." The forebodings of the British commissioner proved to be more than well founded, for the difficulties that arose before the boundary was adjusted comprehended even the forty-fifth parallel of north latitude.

On the 4th of June 1817 the commissioners Reassembling of pursuant to their adjournment met in BosCommissioners: ton, where William C. Bradley, of Vermont, American Agent. appeared before them as agent on the part of the United States, with a commission from President Madison dated Febuary 7, 1817.

After conferring for several days, the agents Commencement of on the 9th of June jointly presented to the

Surveys.

board a draft of instructions for the surveyors of the respective governments. This draft was, after some amendment, approved; and on the 14th of June the commissioners adjourned to meet on the 5th of the following May in New York, unless they should in the mean time fix another day and place of meeting." The American commissioner desired that the ascertainment of the boundaries should begin at the River Cataraquy on the forty-fifth parallel of north latitude. This proposition was, however, opposed by the British commissioner, who was instructed to delay the astronomical observations till a gentleman for that particular service arrived from England. It was therefore decided to begin operations at the source of the St. Croix, and for that purpose two parties of surveyors were sent out with chain bearers and axmen, one to press forward to endeavor to discover the highlands and the other to proceed by actual admeasurement.3 The former party was under the charge of Colonel Bouchette, as chief surveyor on the part of Great Britain, and Mr. Johnson, as chief surveyor on the part of the United States.

missioners at Burlington.

Instead of meeting at New York, the comMeeting of the Com- missioners by agreement held their next ses sion at Burlington, Vt., on the 15th day of May 1818, it having become necessary that a meeting should be held at St. Regis on or about the 1st of June for the purpose of commencing the survey of the line

1 Mr. Barclay to Lord Castlereagh, August 12, 1816, Rives's Correspondence of Thomas Barclay, 371, 375.

2 MSS. Dept. of State.

3 Rives's Correspondence of Thomas Barclay, 379–381.

between the rivers Iroquois and Connecticut. As the Messrs. Chipman, the British agents, had not yet arrived from New Brunswick, the board adjourned to the 18th of May, when they appeared. Several days were spent in the adjustment of accounts.

Meetings at Montreal and St. Regis.

On the 23d day of May Mr. Orne resigned the post of secretary and Ward Chipman, jr., was made secretary pro tempore.

On the 29th of May the commissioners met at Montreal, and they subsequently held several meetings at St. Regis, but the work of the commission was somewhat delayed by the late arrival of Mr. Hassler2, the chief astronomer on the part of the United States, who had been ill.

Appointment of New
Secretary.

On the 12th of June the commissioners appointed Robert Tillotson as secretary, in place of Mr. Orne, and adjourned to meet at New

York on the 30th of November.

York and Boston: Change in Secretaries.

Before that day arrived it was ascertained Meetings at New that the astronomers and surveyors could not be ready to report, and the reassembling of the board was postponed till May 3, 1819. On that day the board met in New York; but, as the surveys were not yet completed, the commissioners after holding several sessions and issuing fresh instructions to the surveyors adjourned to meet at Boston on the first Monday in May 1820.

By an agreement modifying the order of adjournment, the board next met at Boston on the 11th of May instead of on the first Monday in that month. Samuel Hale was appointed secretary in place of Mr. Tillotson, who had resigned to accept the district attorneyship of the United States for the southern district of New York, and on the 2d of June the board adjourned to meet at New York on the 23d of the following October. This meeting was subsequently postponed till the 23d of November.

On the 25th of that month the board decided Completion of Sur- that no further surveys were necessary, and veys: Meeting in ordered the agents to attend at the next meetNew York. ing prepared with their arguments; and on the 27th of November the board adjourned to meet again in New

1 MSS. Dept. of State.

* Ferdinand R. Hassler, the first Superintendent of the Coast Survey of the United States.

York on May 14, 1821, in order to afford the agents time for preparation. On that day the board convened in New York to hear argument.

On the 24th of May the agents of His BritanClaims and Argu- nic Majesty presented a memorial in which ments of Agents. they stated that they were prepared to file a

claim in respect of the northwest angle of Nova Scotia, but that the agent of the United States had declined to take corresponding action on that subject. On the following day the American agent replied, objecting to the taking up of a single question as being contrary to a prior agreement between the agents not to discuss particular points but to argue the whole subject before the board in all its parts. On the 9th of June an adjournment was taken till the 1st of August. When the board reconvened the controversy as to procedure was renewed, with many criminations and recriminations as to the responsibility for the delays that had supervened in the execution of the work of the commission. Arguments, however, were also made on the merits of the case, and the board, after adjourning on the 14th of August, met again on the 20th of September and sat till the 4th of October, when the arguments, which had been characterized by not a little acrimony, were brought to a close, and the commissioners, who were unable to agree, adjourned till the following year in order to prepare their separate reports.'

of the Commission.

The discussion by the agents of the responDelays and Expenses sibility for delays doubtless was prompted by the complaints made both in the United States and in England of the slowness and the expenses of the "mere operation of survey" which the commission was instituted to perform. On December 14, 1820, President Monroe sent to the House of Representatives a detailed statement of the expenses under the Treaty of Ghent, by which it appeared that the amount expended under Article V. for the years 1816 to 1820, inclusive, was $99,099.10, for which the two governments were jointly liable. A select committee of the House, to whom the message was referred, deemed this amount exorbitant and adverted to the failure of the two governments definitely to regulate expenditures. Most of the expenditures

1Am. State Papers, For. Rel. VI. 138.

2 Am. State Papers, For. Rel. V. 50.

3 Feb. 3, 1821, Am. State Papers, For. Rel. IV. 617.

were, however, quite necessary. The requisite surveys turned out to be much more elaborate and costly than was anticipated. "The obstacles to be encountered," said Mr. Van Ness, "have been great and numerous. The whole extent of the country

from the source of the river St. Croix, north, to the river St. Lawrence, and between that line and the head of Connecticut river, is one vast and entire wilderness, inhabited by no human being, except a few savages, and, in one spot, a few Frenchmen." 1

missioners.

Prospective Disa- As the surveys progressed the presumptive greement of Com- possibility of an agreement of the commissioners gradually disappeared. Colonel Bouchette, who is represented as having been "bullied" by the American surveyor, and who was later discharged from the service, seems in an early stage of the surveys, when the exploration from the source of the St. Croix had proceeded about one hundred miles to the north, to have recommended

1 Am. State Papers, For. Rel. IV. 649. By an act of March 3, 1821, 3 Stats. at L. 640, it was provided that each commissioner and each agent under the Treaty of Ghent should be entitled to receive for his services performed before January 1, 1821, not more than $4,444 a year, in full compensation for all services and personal expenses, and after that date not more than $2,500 a year, and that for not more than two years. For appropriations, see 3 Stats. at L. 422, 561, 673, 762. The following are some of the surveys under Article V.: The first 99 miles north of the St. Croix, to the Restigouche, by Mr. Bouchette, British, and Mr. Johnson, American, surveyor, in 1817; the remainder to Beaver Stream, a tributary of the St. Lawrence, 146 miles from the St. Croix, by Mr. Johnson and Mr. Odell (British) in 1818. The northern extremity of the due-north line was examined again in 1820 by Dr. Tiarks, British astronomer, and Mr. Burnham, American surveyor. Mars Hill was visited in 1819 by Mr. Odell and Mr. Partridge, American surveyor. Mr. Johnson in 1818 visited Green Mountain and the Temiscouata Portage, which was again examined by Mr. Partridge in 1819. In 1819 Messrs. Partridge and Odell ascended the Aroostook; Mr. Hunter (American) ascended the river Aliguash to its source, crossed the British line at the Umbazucksus Portage, ascended the northwest branch of the Penobscot, from Chesumcook Lake to its source, and descended the river to its confluence with the Matawamkeag; Mr. Campbell (British) proceeded from the Schoodiac to the Matawamkeag, thence up the Penobscot, and visited Mount Katahdin. In 1820 Mr. Odell and Mr. Loring (American) visited this mountain and surveyed on the Penobscot and Aliguash; Mr. Hunter and Mr. Loss (British) surveyed on the west and south branches of the St. John; Mr. Burnham and Mr. Carlile (British) surveyed Metjarmette Portage; Mr. Campbell and Mr. Odell explored different parts of the Penobscot; Messrs. Burnham and Tiarks examined Tuladi and Green River portages, and Messrs. Burnham and Carlile the River Ouelle. In the different years there were surveys of various highlands.

1

the fixing of the northwest angle of Nova Scotia at the point where the due-north line intersects the River Restigouche, which flows into the Bay of Chaleurs. This recommendation the British commissioner held in abeyance, and when the surveys were pushed farther he rejected it.

Nova Scotia.

The treaty of 1783 places, as we have seen, Northwest Angle of the northwest angle of Nova Scotia at the point where "a line drawn due north from the source of the St. Croix River" strikes the "highlands which divides those rivers that empty themselves into the river St. Lawrence, from those which fall into the Atlantic Ocean." By the surveys it was found that the north line, passing along the eastern base of Mars Hill, forty miles north of the source of the St. Croix, reached at that point a high elevation, and descending thence into the valley of the St. John, crossed that river nearly forty miles farther on; that it rose again, about ninetyseven miles north of the source of the St. Croix, to a ridge dividing tributary streams of the St. John from the waters of the River Restigouche; and that, proceeding thence across several upper branches of the Restigouche, it reached, at a distance of 143 miles from the source of the St. Croix, the head of the River Metis, which flows into the River St. Lawrence, and there struck for the first time a ridge that turns waters into the latter river.

The American agent claimed this point as the northwest angle of Nova Scotia. The British agent contested it on two grounds-first, that the ridge, being a mere watershed, did not possess either that elevation or that continuity which was essential to highlands; and second, that, as it divided the waters of the Metis from waters of the Restigouche, which falls through the Bay of Chaleurs into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and not into the "Atlantic Ocean," it could not be said to "divide those rivers that empty themselves into the river St. Lawrence, from those which fall into the Atlantic Ocean.”

The British agent claimed Mars Hill as the desired point; and while it must be admitted that he supported it by remarkable dexterity of reasoning, it must also be conceded that he did not exceed in that respect the requirements of his preten

'Mr. Barclay to Mr. Chipman, November 8, 1817, Rives's Correspondence of Thomas Barclay, 395; same to same, December 6, 1817, p. 398; see, also, pp. 378, 396, 400, 402.