King, (September, 1802,) saying to Lord Hawkesbury that, "in tracing and establishing the boundary between the United States and Great Britain, there may be some question as to what are the highlands intended by the treaty of peace."

The subject of the eastern and northeastern boundaries was resumed in London in 1806, in the discussions carried on by Messrs. Monroe and Pinkney for the United States, and Lords Holland and Auckland on the part of Great Britain. Attempts had, indeed, been previously made, through our resident minister, in 1804, to obtain an exchange of the ratifications of Mr. King's treaty, with the exceptions proposed by us, or, at least, with such an explanatory clause as would reserve to us any rights that might have accrued from the Louisiana transaction; but these negotiations were without effect. The projet of a convention to carry out the views of Mr. King's treaty, was prepared in the form of additional and explanatory articles to the treaty of 31st December, 1806. The difficulty as to the boundary at the west was arranged by adopting the forty-ninth degree of latitude as the line of delimitation from the Lake of the Woods as far as the Stony Mountains, and reserving to each party all its rights to the westward thereof. The line along the forty-ninth degree, as stated in the instructions of Mr. Madison, corresponded with the boundaries between the British and French possessions, as understood to be fixed by the commissioners under the treaty of Utrecht. In other respects, the new articles agreed with the proposed convention in all essential matters, the American plenipotentiaries having found it impracticable to refer to a commission the question of title with regard to the island of Grand Menan, which was then earnestly contended for by the United States. But, as the treaty of the 31st December, 1806, was rejected by the president without ever being submitted to the Senate, in consequence of its containing no provisions in relation to impressment or for indemnity for spoliations on our commerce, the arrangements respecting boundaries were never brought to a conclusion.

The angry feelings growing out of the infringements on our neutral rights, and which prevailed for several years prior to the war of 1812, prevented any diplomatic efforts being made in matters not immediately connected with complaints of a crying nature. It was not till the negotiations at Ghent that the fixing of the points indicated by the treaty of peace, and marking out the boundaries of the United States and the

British possessions, were again resumed; and in the course of these discussions, an intimation was for the first time made by Great Britain of a desire to acquire a portion of the territory now in dispute; but even then it was proposed to obtain it, not as a matter of right, founded on the treaty of 1783, but as one of concession, and for which an equivalent was to be afforded. To an alteration of the line, as contemplated by the old treaty, the most unequivocal negative was interposed by the American negotiators, nor did they admit that it required any thing more, in order to be definitely ascertained, than to be surveyed in conformity with the existing provisions.

By the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh* articles of the treaty of 1814, the settlement of the whole boundary between the possessions of the two powers, except as regards their territories west of the Lake of the Woods, (a proposition as to which had prevented the other articles of Mr. King's treaty going into effect,) was provided for. This remaining part of the boundary was arranged by the convention of London of 1818, concluded by Messrs. Gallatin and Rush, and according to the principles of Messrs. Monroe and Pinkney's projet, making the forty-ninth degree of north latitude the boundary to the Stony Mountains. The joint occupancy of the country to the westward of these mountains was established for ten years, and has since been continued by one of the conventions made by Mr. Gallatin in 1827, till terminated by either party, on a notice of twelve months. The commissioners appointed under the article in reference to the islands in the Bay of Fundy, came to a final decision in 1817, by which they gave Moose Island, (on which Eastport is, and which had been taken during the war, and not restored till the award,) Dudley Island, and Frederick Island, in the Bay of Passamaquoddy, which had been declared to be a part of the Bay of Fundy, to the United States; and all the other islands in that bay, and the island of Grand Menan, to Great Britain. The claim of the United States to the last-mentioned island was abandoned with particular regret, and, as it would seem, without reason. It is clearly within the general boundaries

The commissioners on this portion of the line, namely, between Lake Superior and the northwesternmost point of the Lake of the Woods, differed, and presented separate reports in 1827. There has, however, been, as yet, no reference to an umpire.

+ John Holmes was the American, and Thomas Barclay the British, commissioner.

of the United States; and as "a line drawn from Cape Sable, across the entrance of the Bay of Fundy, to the mouth of the River St. Croix," the old western boundary of Nova Scotia, does not touch it, it was not within "the limits" of that province, and consequently not within the exception of the last clause of the second article of the treaty of peace.*

The two commissionerst under the fifth article of the treaty of Ghent, after six years spent in meetings and discussions, differed as to every point referred to them,-as to the northwest angle of Nova Scotia, as to the highlands of the treaty, as to the northwesternmost head of Connecticut River, and as to the line along the forty-fifth degree of north latitude from that river to the Iroquois or Cateraguay (St. Lawrence). They accordingly made separate reports to their respective governments; but as they had concurred in no general map, and as the documents were extremely voluminous, particularly on the part of Great Britain, as the papers were filled with charges by each party against the other of every species of fraud and overreaching, it was deemed advisable, before resorting to the arbitration of a friendly sovereign or state, as provided for in the treaty, to attempt a settlement between them, or, at least, such a statement of the case that the umpire might be enabled to adjudicate on the matter divested of extrinsic or irrelevant suggestions. It is due, however, to the American commissioner to state that his short report, contained in a few pages, is a clear exposition of our case, and which has been availed of to no small extent by those who have followed him, while the British commissioner takes five hundred pages to mystify propositions which in themselves would not have admitted of discussion, "in a labored attempt," to use the words of Mr. Adams, "to support a system of the British agent, in which ingenuity maintains an endless argument against common sense."

For the purpose of accomplishing the objects referred to, instructions were, in June, 1822, transmitted by the American secretary of state to Mr. Rush. The offer of a direct negotiation to adjust the boundary by agreement, which had

That the assertion in the text is correct may be seen by a reference to the map attached to the report of Messrs. Mudge and Featherstonhaugh, which, in a case of this kind, may be cited as authority. The line is drawn on the map, and the position of the island distinctly shown.

The commissioners were, on the part of the United States, C. P. Van Ness, and on that of Great Britain, unfortunately, the same Colonel Barclay whom we have twice before mentioned in a similar capacity,

been made and accepted, was subsequently declined by England. After referring to the objections to the maps, on each side, as ex parte documents, Mr. Adams says, "If the British government are willing that both the maps should be received as if they had been both reported without objection by the commissioners, we are willing to waive all objection to them, and to propose a line which, referring to local positions known and ascertained on the territory, shall be traceable on both the maps without danger of impairing the rights of the parties upon the land itself by the fictitious features of its picture upon paper." A strong desire was also expressed that the negotiations should take place at Washington, principally on account of the necessity of obtaining the assent of those states which were directly interested in the decision, so as to ensure the consent of the senate to the ratification of the agreement by the requisite vote. Mr. Rush is, however, instructed, in case the British government should insist on proceeding to arbitration, to agree to the emperor of Russia as umpire, or, if he cannot be obtained, the king of Prussia.

Among the subjects of negotiation confided to Mr. Rush in 1822, besides the settlement of the northeastern boundary, was the claim of the United States to the free navigation of the St. Lawrence as a matter of right. This reclamation Great Britain refused to recognise; but she proposed, through her plenipotentiaries, to connect that subject, as a concession, with a settlement of the boundary, on the grounds of compromise. This proposition was at once rejected; and though the British negotiators intimated that they were prepared to make offers as to both points "on a most liberal and comprehensive view of the wishes and interests of the United States," as there was no intimation given that they would lead to any result, the propositions were never submitted. The object of the English government was, to obtain for a cession of the privilege of using the St. Lawrence, which we then claimed as a right in conformity to the principles of public law, especially as recognised at the Congress of Vienna with regard to the rivers of Germany, a continuous communication between Halifax and Quebec, and the acquisition of a district of country embracing a large portion of the territory of one of the sovereign states of the Union. It is possible that Great Britain might have added to the concession a stipulation not to disturb the line along

the forty-fifth degree of latitude, as it existed before the revolutionary war, and the resurvey of which had eventuated to our advantage. Contrasting, however, the advantages of the port of New York with the disadvantages of Quebec, blockaded by the ice throughout a great part of the year, the navigation of the St. Lawrence would be of little practical utility; while it would tend, as far as used, to divert the foreign trade from our own cities to the benefit of our rivals.

The preliminary arrangements for submitting the points of difference to a friendly sovereign or state, were established by a convention concluded by Mr. Gallatin at London in 1827. By it, statements mutually communicated, and to be followed by definitive statements of the two powers, were substituted to the reports and voluminous proceedings of the Ghent commission. The evidence was likewise to be communicated by each party to the other, and they were respectively obliged to furnish one to the other copies of such specified public acts as might be called for. Each party was also authorized to incorporate in its statements any portion of the reports of the commissioners under the treaty of Ghent or of the documents laid before them. Mitchell's map, by which it was acknowledged that the framers of the treaty of 1783 regulated their joint and official proceedings, and the map A, which had been agreed upon as a delineation of the water-courses and of the boundary lines in reference thereto, as contended for by each party respectively, were to be annexed to the statements of the contending parties, and to be the only maps considered as evidence, mutually acknowledged by them, of the topography of the country.

Either party was also allowed to annex to his first statement for the purpose of illustration any of the maps filed with the commissioners, or any engraved map that had been published, also a transcript of the map A, in which it might lay down the highlands and other features of the country as it thought fit. According to the stipulation in the first article of the convention to proceed in concert to the choice of a friendly state or sovereign, to whom the points in difference should be referred, immediately after the exchange of ratifications, Mr. Lawrence, who was then chargé d'affaires at London, and to whom that duty was confided, was also entrusted with the selection of the arbiter.

The views of the American government remained unchanged as regards the emperor of Russia, who, as it has been