_Township No. 10, State of Maine, February 19, 1839_.
GEO. FRED. STREET, Esq.,
_Solicitor-General of Province New Brunswick_.
SIR: Your communication of the 17th instant has been this moment
received. The solicitor-general of the Provinces must have been
misinformed as to the place where the force under my direction is now
located, or he would have been spared the impropriety of addressing such
a communication to me, a citizen of the State of Maine, one of the North
American Confederacy of United States.
It is also to be hoped, for the honor of the British Empire, that when
Major-General Sir John Harvey, lieutenant-governor and commander in
chief of the Province of New Brunswick, is made acquainted with the
place where the Hon. Rufus McIntire, land agent of the State of Maine,
and the two other gentlemen with him were forcibly arrested by a lawless
mob, that he will direct their immediate discharge and bring the
offenders to justice.
The officer to whom you allude and the person in company with him were
arrested for serving a precept on a citizen of Maine. He was sent on
immediately to Augusta, the seat of government, to be dealt with by the
authorities of the State. Their persons are not, therefore, in my power,
and application for their discharge must be made to the government of
the State.
If, however, I have been in error as to your being under a mistake as
to the place where I am now stationed, on land which was run out into
townships by the State of Massachusetts and covered by grants from
that State before Maine was separated from Massachusetts, and which
has therefore been under the jurisdiction of Maine since she has taken
her rank among the independent States of the North American Union,
therefore, as a citizen of Maine, in official capacity, I have but one
answer to return to the threat conveyed: I am here under the direction
of the executive of the State, and must remain until otherwise ordered
by the only authority recognized by me; and deeply as I should regret a
conflict between our respective countries, I shall consider the approach
to my station by an armed force as an act of hostility, which will be
met by me to the best of my ability.