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by the line running due north from the source of the St. Croix. This north line is distinctly marked upon the map. On the west of it the words "New England" are printed in large letters, and on the east "Nova Scotia."

If this map were alone to be the guide, and if the place of begin ning of our boundary, mentioned in the treaty, had been simply "the northwest angle of Nova Scotia," without further qualification, the State of Maine would have extended to the St. Lawrence. In what manner was this northwest angle of Nova Scotia brought as far south as the highlands separating the streams which flow in opposite directions to the St. Lawrence and to the Atlantic? In February, 1763, Great Britain acquired Canada from France by treaty. Canada, New England, and Nova Scotia being then all subject to the British Crown, the King thought proper in creating the Province of Quebec to extend its limits south of the St. Lawrence, so as to include the valley of that river. The reasons were obvious. Quebec, the seat of government, was situate on its northern shore. It was one of the most important cities in North America, and the trade and business of the people along the numerous streams which flowed into the St. Lawrence from the highlands south of it would naturally center there. Besides, it was obviously convenient that the limits of the different provinces should be regulated as far as practicable by the course of the rivers; and it would have been highly inconvenient that the valley south of the St. Lawrence, within sight of the capital of the Province of Quebec, and necessarily having constant intercourse with the opposite shore, should continue attached to remote and distant Governments. The King, therefore, by his proclamation dated on the 7th of October, 1763, declared that the government of Quebec should be bounded, south of the St. Lawrence, by a line crossing that river and the Lake Champlain in 45 degrees of north latitude, and passing "along the highlands which divide the rivers that empty themselves into the said river St. Lawrence from those which fall into the sea, and also along the north coast of the Bay des Chaleurs and the coast of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, to Cape Rosiers." Thus the Province of Quebec was extended south, so as to include the vale of the St. Lawrence, and its southern line was fixed along the highlands from whence its tributaries flowed. New England and Nova Scotia were deprived of thus much of their former territory; but they still retained all that portion of it watered by streams whose sources were on the south side of these highlands, and which emptied themselves into the sea. This was a natural and proper division. After the date of this proclamation, where was "the northwest angle of Nova Scotia" to be found? Can doubt or difficulty rest upon this question? We must look for it on the line running north from the source of the St. Croix, at the point where this line intersects the southern line of the Province of Quebec, "running along the highlands which divide. the rivers that empty themselves into the said river St. Lawrence from those which fall into the sea." This point is, and necessarily must be, the northwest angle of Nova Scotia. It is demonstration itself. To run these two well-described lines upon the face of the earth is to ascertain that angle. The commissioners, therefore, who formed the treaty, well and wisely placed the beginning of our boundary at a point which could be rendered absolutely certain by merely running these two lines. Those who choose to examine Mitchell's map will find that the due north line marked upon it from the source of the St. Croix crosses the

southern line of the Province of Quebec in these dividing highlands about the forty-eighth degree of north latitude.

But the British Government deemed it proper to fix the boundaries of the Province of Quebec even with more solemnity than by royal proclamation. This was done by an act of Parliament passed in the year 1774, "for making more effectual provision for the government of the Province of Quebec, in North America." By this act the separating boundary between that province on the north and Nova Scotia and New England on the south was still more clearly and distinctly defined than it had been in the proclamation.

The following language is employed, to wit: "Bounded on the south by a line from the Bay of Chaleurs, along the highlands which divide the rivers that empty themselves into the river St. Lawrence from those which fall into the sea, to a point in 45 degrees of northern latitude on the eastern bank of the river Connecticut." In both the proclamation and the act of Parliament the dividing highlands are described in the very same language:

The highlands which divide the rivers that empty themselves into the river St. Lawrence from those which fall into the sea.

The termini of this boundary are more precisely fixed by the act of Parliament than by the proclamation. This act makes the southern point of the line commence on the eastern bank of the river Connecticut, in latitude 45, and terminate at the Bay of Chaleurs. Its extremities are two well-known natural objects. This bay is in latitude about 48. The act of Parliament seems to have been prepared with great deliberation. It was intended to fix the boundaries between vast provinces of the same Empire, and no act of legislation demands greater care and attention. The Bay of Chaleurs on the north, in latitude 48, and a point on the Connecticut, in latitude 45 at the south, were to be the two extremities; and the intermediate line was to pass along the highlands running between these two points which divide the rivers that empty themselves into the St. Lawrence on the one side from those falling into the sea upon the other. After this act of Parliament, is it possible to conceive of a more extraordinary pretension than it would have been in the government of Quebec to have claimed jurisdiction not only to these dividing highlands whence streams flow into the St. Lawrence, but a hundred miles south and east of them, embracing a region of country watered by a large river, the St. John, and its numerous tributaries flowing into the sea? Such a claim would have broken down the barriers between these provinces, erected with so much care by the act of Parliament, and made rivers running north into the St. Lawrence mean the same thing as rivers running south into the ocean. And yet the present attempt of the British Government to make Mars Hill the northwest angle of Nova Scotia rests upon no other or better principle, as will be shown hereafter.

The commissions of the different governors of Quebec, in describing the boundaries of their jurisdiction, followed the language of the proclamation of 1763 until after the passage of the act of Parliament in 1774. The first commission which subsequently issued was to Guy Carlton, esq., in the same year, and it adopts the language of that act. The southern limits of his jurisdiction are described in its language "to be a line from the Bay of Chaleurs, along the highlands which divide the rivers that empty themselves into the river St. Lawrence

from those which fall into the sea, to a point in 45 degrees of northern latitude, on the eastern bank of the river Connecticut." Thus this province had for its southern boundary highlands dividing streams running in opposite directions between a bay and a fixed point on a river. Was ever boundary better defined?

It would be a waste of time to recite the numerous commissions which have issued to the governors of Quebec, of Nova Scotia, and, after this province was divided in 1784, of New Brunswick, all speaking the same language. The western limit of Nova Scotia, and afterwards of New Brunswick, is uniformly described to run from that point where a line drawn due north from the source of the river St. Croix would intersect the southern boundary of Quebec, and from thence "to the northward by the said boundary as far as the western extremity of the Bay des Chaleurs." These commissions place the natural construction upon one expression, which, in the act of Parliament, at first view, might appear vague. In it the Bay of Chaleurs is mentioned generally, without a special reference to any particular part of it, though from the whole context the evident meaning was the western extremity of that bay. The commissions to the governors of Nova Scotia, and afterwards New Brunswick, render this certain, by specifying "the western extremity of the Bay des Chaleurs."

Enough has already been shown to fix with precision what was the acknowledged southern boundary of the Province of Quebec at the date of the treaty in 1783, and what it has remained ever since. It was then clearly known to have been a line from the western extremity of the Bay of Chaleurs to a point on the eastern bank of the Connecticut, in latitude forty-five, and running along the highlands dividing the tributaries of the St. Lawrence from the sources of streams flowing into the sea. Where, then, was the northwest angle of Nova Scotia known to be at the date of the treaty?

Without going back to the creation of this province in 1621, by James the First, which the committee deem unnecessary, though it would add strength to the argument, they will content themselves with a reference to the first commission which was issued to the governor of Nova Scotia, after the date of the proclamation of 1763. Before the proclamation, this province, as well as New England, had extended north to the St. Lawrence. After its date it was necessary to make the commissions of the governors correspond with the extension of the Province of Quebec south of that river. Accordingly, the royal commission to Montague Wilmot, esq., bearing date the 21st November, 1763, limits and restrains the Province of Nova Scotia, thus:

To the northward our said province shall be bounded by the southern boundary of our Province of Quebec as far as the western extremity of the Bay des Chaleurs. And again, to the westward

It shall be bounded by a line drawn from Cape Sable, across the entrance of the Bay of Fundy, to the mouth of the river St. Croix, by the said river to its source, and by a line drawn due north from thence to the southern boundary of our colony of Quebec.

The next commission, which issued to Lord William Campbell, on the 11th August, 1765, changes this description only by commencing with the western instead of the northern line, thus:

On the westward by a line drawn from Cape Sable, across the entrance of the Bay of Fundy, to the mouth of the river St. Croix, by the said river to its source, and

by a line drawn due north from thence to the southern boundary of our colony of Quebec, to the northward by the said boundary as far as the western extremity of the Bay des Chaleurs.

In every commission which has issued since to all the governors of Nova Scotia, and afterwards of New Brunswick, the same identical language has been used. On the 29th day of July, 1782, but four months previous to the conclusion of the provisional treaty of peace with Great Britain, the commission granted to Governor Parr describes the limits of Nova Scotia in precisely the same manner. And here it may be proper to observe that the St. Croix has since been ascertained by a joint commission of the two Governments, and a monument has been erected at its source.

Were not, then, the commissioners who framed the treaty fully justified in the conviction that when they established the point of beginning of the boundaries between the United States and Great Britain, at the northwest angle of Nova Scotia," they were fixing it at a point long known and well established? To render assurance doubly certain, however, they describe where it is in the very language which had been uniformly used by the British Government in proclamations, in acts of Parliament, and in numerous commissions to the governors of Quebec and Nova Scotia. The northwest angle of Nova Scotia," says the treaty, "is that angle which is formed by a line drawn due north from the source of St. Croix River to the highlands." To what highlands? The treaty answers, "The highlands which divide those. rivers that empty themselves into the river St. Lawrence from those which fall into the Atlantic Ocean." The northwest angle of Nova Scotia, then, is to be found in these highlands at the point where the dividing due north line between New England and Nova Scotia, which commences at the source of the St. Croix, meets the southern boundary of the Province of Quebec. The act of Parliament of 1774 was doubtless before the commissioners. They use its very language in the treaty. "Along the highlands which divide the rivers that empty themselves into the river St. Lawrence from those which fall into the

"The only change of this language in the treaty is that "the Atlantic Ocean" is substituted for "the sea." Both are evidently intended to convey the same meaning. The solicitude of the commissioners to preserve this highland boundary throughout between the two nations is manifest. Under the act of Parliament the southern extremity of this line is described to be "a point in 45 degrees of northern latitude, on the eastern bank of the river Connecticut." In the treaty it is "the northwesternmost head of Connecticut River." From thence the treaty line runs "down along the middle of that river to the forty-fifth degree of north latitude."

Thus the British Government surrendered that small portion of the Province of Quebec between the northwesternmost head of Connecticut River and the forty-fifth degree of north latitude in order to have a continuous highland boundary from the northwest angle of Nova Scotia to the source of the northwesternmost head of the Connecticut. To accomplish this object a part of what had been taken from New England when the Province of Quebec was established in 1763 has been restored by the treaty. The great purpose was that the entire line should consist of the highlands "which," in the language of the treaty and the act of Parliament, "divide those rivers that empty themselves into the river St. Lawrence from those which fall into the sea" or "the Atlantic Ocean."

The committee will now proceed to show what was the construction placed upon this treaty fifteen years after its ratification by solemn official declarations of high and responsible agents of the British Government.

To render it more manifest that these declarations are wholly inconsistent with the present claim of Great Britain it will be necessary first to show precisely the extent of that claim. It comprehends all that portion of the State of Maine which lies north of the red line marked upon the map No. 2, annexed to this report, and embraces about one-third of its whole territory. This red line leaves the due north line from the source of the St. Croix, at the distance of 40 miles from the monument there erected and 100 miles south of the northwest angle of Nova Scotia, marked A, and thence passes to the westward, not along highlands which divide the rivers that empty themselves into the St. Lawrence from those which fall into the Atlantic Ocean according to the terms of the treaty, but along highlands dividing the rivers which flow into the St. John from those which fall into the Atlantic. These highlands are far south of the St. John, and if the British claim could be established the whole of that river from its source to its mouth, with all its branches, would be within British territory. Now, if it can be demonstrated that agents of high character, acting under the express authority of the British Government, several years after the date of the treaty have expressly admitted in their official arguments and correspondence that this north line from the source of the St. Croix not only crosses the St. John but runs as far north as the streams emptying into the Bay of Chaleurs, what ought to be thought of this recent pretension?

A short time after the conclusion of the treaty a question arose between the two Governments what river was intended by the St. Croix of the treaty. In order to determine this question, commissioners were appointed under the fifth article of the treaty of November, 1794, commonly called Jay's treaty. Ward Chipman, esq., the agent of the British Government, contended that the true source of the St. Croix was at the head of the Scoudiac lakes, at the point marked W on the second map. In his argument in 1797, to establish this position and to defeat the position taken by the United States, he expressly admits that "this north line [from the source of the St. Croix to the treaty highlands] must of necessity cross the river St. John." Admitting this fact, his leading purpose seems to have been to remove this line as far west as he could, so that it might cross the St. John at as great a distance from its mouth as possible, and thus embrace as much of its course as was attainable within British territory. In prosecuting his argument he says, "but if a north line is traced from the source of the Cheputnatecook (as insisted upon by the United States), it will not only cross the river St. John within about 50 miles from Fredericton, the metropolis of New Brunswick, but will cut off the sources of the rivers which fall into the bay of Chaleurs, if not of many others, probably the Mirramichi among them, which fall in the Gulf of St. Lawrence." Thus it appears that in 1797 the British Government had never thought of contending that the highlands of the treaty were to be found south of the St. John, or even south of the sources of the streams which empty into the Bay of Chaleurs.

Robert Liston, esq., at the time of these proceedings, was His Britannic Majesty's minister to the United States. He was consulted by Mr.

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