_Washington, July 12, 1837_.
ANDREW STEVENSON, Esq., etc.
SIR: I inclose an extract[11] of a letter received at this Department
from the governor of Maine, by which you will perceive that a citizen of
that State, named Ebenezer S. Greely, while employed, in virtue of an
appointment under one of its laws, in making an enumeration of the
inhabitants upon a part of the territory claimed as being within the
limits of the State, was seized by order of the authorities of the
Province of New Brunswick on the 6th of June last and imprisoned in the
public jail of Frederickton, where he still remains. I also transmit a
copy of sundry documents relating to his arrest and detention.[12] This
outrage upon the personal liberty of one of its citizens has actually
caused great excitement in Maine, and has produced an urgent appeal to
the General Government for its intervention in procuring redress for
what is considered an unprovoked and unjustifiable aggression. This
arrest was made on a part of the territory in dispute between the
United States and Great Britain, and could only have been justified in
the existing state of that controversy by some plain infringement of
the understanding which exists between the parties, that until the
settlement of the question of right there shall be no extension of
jurisdiction on either side within the disputed limits. It is not
perceived how the simple enumeration of the inhabitants, about which
Mr. Greely was employed, could be construed as a breach of that
understanding, and it is expected that the Government of Great Britain
will promptly mark its disapproval of this act of violence committed
by the provincial authorities, so inconsistent with those amicable
feelings under which the negotiation respecting the controverted
boundary has been hitherto conducted, and so essential to bring it
to a happy termination. You are directed immediately upon the receipt
of this dispatch to bring the subject to the notice of His Majesty's
Government, and to demand as a matter of justice and right the prompt
release of Mr. Greely and a suitable indemnity for his imprisonment.
[Footnote 11: Omitted.]
[Footnote 12: Omitted.]
_Mr. Stevenson to Mr. Forsyth_.
[Extract.]