_Washington, June 26, 1837_.
His Excellency ROBERT P. DUNLAP, Esq.,
_Governor of Maine_.
SIR: I have the honor, by direction of the President, to acknowledge the
receipt of your letter to him of the 19th instant, inclosing the copy of
a communication dated the 12th of the same month addressed to you by
Ebenezer S. Greely, esq., the agent employed by the county commissioners
for the county of Penobscot to take the census of the town of Madawaska,
from which it appears that he has been arrested by the authorities of
the Province of New Brunswick and is now in confinement in the jail at
Frederickton, and insisting that prompt measures be adopted by the
Government of the United States to effect the early release of the
above-named citizen.
The circumstances attending this outrage as given in Mr. Greely's
letter are not sufficient, in the view of the President, to warrant
the interference of the Government at present. For what cause, at
what place, and by what authority the arrest was made is not stated.
The necessary explanations may be found, perhaps, in the previous
communication which Mr. Greely refers to as having been addressed to you
by him on the 10th June; if not, it is probable that you will easily be
able to obtain explicit information from other sources and communicate
it to this Department. It is indispensable that a full knowledge of
all the facts illustrative of the case should be in possession of the
Government before any formal application for redress can be properly
preferred.
In the meantime I have in conversation unofficially called the
attention of Mr. Fox, the British minister at Washington, to this
complaint, and he has given me an assurance that he will immediately
address a representation on the subject to the governor of New Brunswick
requesting, unless there shall be some very extraordinary reasons
against it, that Mr. Greely may be set at liberty.