_Washington, August 17, 1837_.
His Excellency ROBERT P. DUNLAP,
_Governor of the State of Maine_.
SIR: Your letter of the 28th ultimo to the President was duly received.
It has been referred to this Department with instructions to make a
suitable reply.
Your excellency is of opinion that the Federal Government has for a
series of years failed to protect the State of Maine in the exercise of
her jurisdictional rights to the extent of her boundary, and complains
that these rights have been in consequence thereof subverted, the lands
of the State ravaged of their most valuable productions, and her
citizens subjected to imprisonment in a foreign jail. Your excellency
particularly objects to the course of the Federal Government for having,
without the knowledge of the State, put entirely at hazard the title of
Maine, admitted by the Government of the United States to be perfect,
to the territory in question by the resort to diplomatic discussions,
treaty arrangements, and foreign arbitration in which Maine was not
permitted to speak; for having entered into a stipulation without her
consent purporting to preclude the State from retaining her rightful
jurisdiction pending a negotiation, and for the continuance of it
after that negotiation was supposed to have been concluded, and for
an omission on the part of the Executive of the United States to comply
with an application of the State made through her legislature to
have the boundary line between Maine and the British North American
possessions explored, surveyed, and monuments erected thereon in
pursuance of the authority conferred on the President by Congress and
of a request made by your excellency, which is now renewed.
The views which your excellency has been pleased to take of the subject
at this time embrace measures some of which have long since ceased to be
operative and reach back to the propriety of the stipulations entered
into by the treaty of Ghent, also of the subsequent negotiation designed
to bring those stipulations to a satisfactory result in the mode
prescribed by that treaty--that of arbitrament. It being, as your
excellency states, the opinion of Maine that those proceedings were
unjust and unwise, it is, in a matter in which she is so deeply
interested, her undoubted right to say so; yet the President thinks
that he can not be mistaken in believing that no practical good can at
this time be expected from discussion between the Federal and State
Governments upon those points. That the measures referred to have not
been as fortunate in their results as was hoped is entirely true, but
your excellency may nevertheless be assured that they had their origin
in a sincere desire on the part of the Federal Government to discharge
all its duties toward the State of Maine as a member of the Union, and
were resorted to in the full belief that her just rights would be
promoted by their adoption.
In speaking of the restrictions imposed upon Maine in reclaiming her
rightful jurisdiction your excellency doubtlessly refers to the
understanding between the Federal Government and that of Great Britain
that each party should abstain from the exercise of jurisdiction over
the disputed territory during the pendency of negotiation. Unless it
be correct to say that the controversy was one that did not admit of
negotiation, and that the duty of the Federal Government consisted only
in an immediate resort to maintain the construction put by itself upon
its own rights and those of the State of Maine, there would seem to
be no reasonable objection to such an arrangement as that alluded to,
whether it be viewed in respect to the interests or the pacific and just
characters of the respective Governments. That this arrangement was
not abrogated at the period at which your excellency is understood to
suppose that it ought to have been done, viz, upon the failure of a
settlement of the controversy by arbitration, is explained by events of
subsequent occurrence. When the award of the arbitrator was submitted by
the late President to the Senate of the United States, that body refused
its advice and consent to the execution of the award, and passed a
resolution recommending to him to open a new negotiation with Great
Britain for the ascertainment of the boundary according to the treaty
of peace of 1783. That negotiation was forthwith entered upon by the
Executive, is still pending, and has been prosecuted with unremitting
assiduity. It is under such circumstances that the Federal Executive has
decided upon a continued compliance with the arrangement referred to,
and has insisted also upon its observance on the part of Great Britain.
Considerations of a similar nature have induced the President to refrain
hitherto from exercising the discretionary authority with which he is
invested to cause the boundary line in dispute to be explored, surveyed,
and monuments to be erected thereon. Coinciding with the government of
Maine on the question of the true boundary between the British Provinces
and the State, the President is yet bound by duty to consider the claim
which has been set up by a foreign power in amity with the United States
and the circumstances under which the negotiation for the adjustment
of that claim has been transmitted to him. It could not be useful
to examine the foundation of the British claim in a letter to your
excellency. Respect for the authorities of a friendly nation compels us
to admit that they have persuaded themselves that their claim is justly
grounded. However that may be, the present President of the United
States upon entering on the discharge of the duties of his office found
that a distinct proposition had been made by his predecessor for the
purpose of amicably settling this long-disputed controversy, to which no
answer has yet been received. Under such circumstances the President was
not able to satisfy himself, however anxious to gratify the people and
the legislature of Maine, that a step like that recommended by them
could be usefully or properly taken.
The clause containing the specific appropriation made by the last
Congress for exploring, surveying, and marking certain portions of the
northeastern boundary of the United States, to which your excellency
alludes, is by no means imperative in its character. The simple
legislative act of placing a sum of money under the control of the
Executive for a designated object is not understood to be a direction
that it must in any event be immediately applied to the prosecution of
that object. On the contrary, so far from implying that the end in view
is to be attained at all hazards, it is believed that it merely vests a
discretionary power in the President to carry out the views of Congress
on his own responsibility should contingencies arise to render expedient
the proposed expenditure.
Under existing circumstances the President deems it proper to wait for
the definitive answer of the British Government to the last proposition
offered by the United States. When received, a further communication to
your excellency may be found proper, and if so will be made without
unnecessary delay.
It can not be necessary to assure your excellency that the omission
to reply to your communication forwarding to this Department the
resolutions of the legislature of Maine did not in any degree arise
either from a want of respect for their wishes or for the wishes of your
excellency, or from indifference to the interests of the State. When
these resolutions were received, there was every reason at no distant
day to expect what is now daily looked for--a definitive answer to the
proposition just alluded to, to which the attention of the British
Government had been again forcibly invited about the time those
resolutions were on their passage. Under this expectation a reply to
the application from Maine was temporarily delayed; the more readily as
about the time of its reception the Representatives of Maine, acting in
reference to one of those resolutions, had a full and free conversation
with the President. The most recent proceedings relative to the question
of boundary were shown to them in this Department by his directions, and
the occasion thus afforded was cheerfully embraced of offering frank and
unreserved explanations of the President's views.
Of the recent events which have called the attention of the State of
Maine to the question of the northeastern boundary, and which have
been brought by it to the notice of the President, one--the arrest
and imprisonment of Mr. Greely--has already been made the subject of
communication with your excellency. All that it was competent for the
Federal Executive to do has been done. Redress has been demanded, will
be insisted upon, and is expected from that authority from whom alone
redress can properly be sought. The President has followed the same
course that was pursued by one of his predecessors and which was
understood to be satisfactory to the State of Maine under circumstances
of a somewhat similar character. In respect to the other--the projected
construction of a railroad between St. Andrews and Quebec--a
representation has been addressed to the British Government stating that
the proposed measure is inconsistent with the understanding between the
two Governments to preserve the _status quo_ in the disputed territory
until the question of boundary be satisfactorily adjusted, remonstrating
against the project as contrary to the American claim and demanding a
suspension of all further movements in execution of it. No answer has
yet been received to this communication. From an informal conversation
between the British minister at Washington and myself at the Department
of State, the President is, however, firm in the conviction that the
attempt to make the road in question will not be further prosecuted.
I am, in conclusion, directed to inform you that however unbounded may
be the confidence of the legislature and people of Maine in the justice
of their claim to the boundary contended for by the United States, the
President's is not less so; and your excellency may rest assured that
no exertions have been or shall be spared on his part to bring to a
favorable and speedy termination a question involving interests so
highly important to Maine and to the Union.
I have the honor to be, with high consideration, your excellency's
obedient servant,