_Sir Charles R. Vaughan to Mr. McLane_.
WASHINGTON, _December 17, 1833_.
Hon. LOUIS McLANE, etc.:
The undersigned, His Britannic Majesty's envoy extraordinary and
minister plenipotentiary, regrets that a letter received from His
Majesty's lieutenant-governor of New Brunswick should again require him
to ask the intervention of the General Government of the United States
to put a stop to certain proceedings of the State of Maine in the
territory still in dispute between Great Britain and the United States.
The inclosed letter, with the report which accompanies it,[19] shows
that the State of Maine has opened a road beyond the conventional
frontier, with the avowed intention of carrying it to the bank of the
river St. John.
The undersigned is convinced that the Secretary of State of the United
States will agree with him that the State of Maine must not be allowed
to take upon herself the right to define the meaning of the treaty of
1783, and, by aggressions such as those against which the undersigned is
called upon to remonstrate, to take possession, without reference to the
General Government of the United States, of territory which has been so
long in abeyance between the two Governments. Such conduct is calculated
to lead to collisions of a distressing nature between the subjects of
His Britannic Majesty and the citizens of the United States employed to
assert a futile and hazardous possession which so entirely depends upon
the arrangements in progress between the two Governments.
The undersigned trusts that the representation made in this note will
be received by the Secretary of State in the same spirit of good will
and conciliation which has hitherto characterized the conduct of the
Government of the United States in all occurrences of a similar nature.
The undersigned has the honor to renew to Mr. McLane the assurance of
his most distinguished consideration.