_December 7, 1831_.
_Gentlemen of the Senate_:
In my public message to both Houses of Congress I communicated the state
in which I had found the controverted claims of Great Britain and the
United States in relation to our northern and eastern boundary, and the
measures which since my coming into office I had pursued to bring it to
a close, together with the fact that on the 10th day of January last the
sovereign arbiter had delivered his opinion to the plenipotentiaries of
the United States and Great Britain.
I now transmit to you that opinion for your consideration, that you may
determine whether you will advise submission to the opinion delivered by
the sovereign arbiter and consent to its execution.
That you may the better be enabled to judge of the obligation as well as
the expediency of submitting to or rejecting the decision of the
arbiter, I herewith transmit--
1. A protest made by the minister plenipotentiary of the United States
after receiving the opinion of the King of the Netherlands, on which
paper it may be necessary to remark that I had always determined,
whatever might have been the result of the examination by the sovereign
arbiter, to have submitted the same to the Senate for their advice
before I executed or rejected it. Therefore no instructions were given
to the ministers to do any act that should commit the Government as to
the course it might deem proper to pursue on a full consideration of all
the circumstances of the case.
2. The dispatches from our minister at The Hague accompanying the
protest, as well as those previous and subsequent thereto, in relation
to the subject of the submission.
3. Communications between the Department of State and the governor of
the State of Maine in relation to this subject.
4. Correspondence between the chargé d'affaires of His Britannic Majesty
and the Department of State in relation to the arrest of certain persons
at Madawasca under the authority of the British Government at New
Brunswick.
It is proper to add that in addition to the evidence derived from Mr.
Treble's dispatches of the inclination of the British Government to
abide by the award, assurances to the same effect have been uniformly
made to our minister at London, and that an official communication on
that subject may very soon be expected.