_Washington, October 17, 1831_.
CHARLES BANKHEAD, Esq., etc.
SIR: Immediately after receiving your note of the 1st instant I wrote to
the governor of the State of Maine for information on the subject of it.
I have just received his answer, of which I have the honor to inclose
two extracts.[16] By the first you will perceive that the election of
town officers in the settlement of Madawaska, of which complaint was
made in the papers inclosed in your letter, was made under color of
a general law, which was not intended by either the executive or
legislative authority of that State to be executed in that settlement,
and that the whole was the work of inconsiderate individuals.
By the second extract it will appear that the individuals said to have
been most prominent in setting up the authority of the State have been
arrested by order of the lieutenant-governor of the Province of New
Brunswick, and were on their way to be imprisoned at Frederickton.
The innovation on the existing state of things in the disputed
territory being distinctly disavowed by the executive authority of the
State, no act of authority or exercise of jurisdiction having followed
the election, I would respectfully suggest the propriety of your
recommending to the lieutenant-governor of New Brunswick the release of
the prisoners who were arrested for exercising this act of authority
in the territory mutually claimed by the two nations, contrary to the
understanding between their Governments. It is their avowed object to
avoid any collision until the intention of both parties in relation
to the award shall be fully known. All subjects calculated to produce
irritation, therefore, ought evidently to be avoided. The arrest of the
persons concerned in the election must produce that feeling in a high
degree. A conviction can not take place without eliciting a decision
from the bench declaratory of and enforcing the jurisdiction over the
territory in dispute, which it is the present policy of both powers to
avoid, at least for the short time that must elapse before the question
can be finally settled. If punishment should follow conviction, the
passions that would be excited must inevitably be hostile to that spirit
of conciliation so necessary where sacrifices of national feeling and
individual interest are required for the common good. It would be absurd
here to enter into the question of title. Both parties claim it. No act
that either can do is necessary to assist its right while there is hope
of an amicable arrangement; and it was with this view of the subject
that a mutual understanding has been had to leave things in the state
in which they are until the question of the award is settled.
On the part of the Americans some individuals, in contravention of this
understanding, have proceeded to do acts which if followed out would
change the political state of part of the disputed land. But it has
not been so followed out; it is disavowed by the power whose assent
is necessary to carry it into execution. It is therefore of no avail,
and can have no more effect than if the same number of men had met at
Madawaska and declared themselves duly elected members of the British
Parliament. The act interferes with no right; it comes in actual
collision with no established power. Not so the punishment of the
individuals concerned. This is at once a practical decision of the
question, and may lead to retaliating legal measures; for if the
lieutenant-governor of New Brunswick feels himself obliged, as he says
he does, to impose the authority of the law within which he thinks
the boundaries of his Province, will not the same feeling incite the
governor of Maine, under the same sense of duty, to pursue the like
measures? And thus the fruits of moderation and mutual forbearance
during so long a period will be lost for the want of perseverance in
them for the short time that is now wanting to bring the controversy
to an amicable close. It is therefore, sir, that I invite your
interposition with his excellency the lieutenant-governor of New
Brunswick to induce him to set at liberty the persons arrested, on their
engagement to make no change in the state of things until the business
shall be finally decided between the two Governments.
On our part, the desire of the General Government to avoid any measures
tending to a change in the existing state of things on our northeast
boundary has been fully and, it is believed, efficaciously expressed to
the executive of the State of Maine, so that the actual relation of the
State with the neighboring Province will not in future suffer any
change.
I have great pleasure, sir, in renewing on this occasion the assurance
of my high consideration.