"My intention is now to show you, from a document already quoted,
the Royal proclamation of 1763, a further confirmation that the
division expressed, 'Rivers falling one way, and rivers falling
directly contrary into the Atlantic,' was a distinction perfectly
well understood, and that this peculiar expression being applicable
to "Penobscot," was the probable reason why that district was ceded
in 1783, and many tribes of Indians driven from a hunting ground
previously enjoyed, under the protection of the British Crown. If I
recollect right, some influential member of the opponents of Lord
Shelburne's peace stated in debate, that above 20 tribes, whom we
were bound by previous treaties and wampum belts to protect, were
driven from their homes by this unnecessary cession, for it may be
here remarked that one uniform condition of all treaties with that
ill-used race of men, by whomsoever made (Sir W. Johnson or others),
was this--for the sole purpose of guarding themselves against the
wanton aggression of the settlers, provided the tracts ceded be always
appropriated to His Majesty's sole use, and that the lines be run in
the presence of the British authority, and some of their own chiefs, to
prevent disputes hereafter.
"The 11th clause of the proclamation, evidently with a view to this
feeling on the part of the Indians, runs thus. After setting out the
limits and grants, &c. in the previous part of the instrument (binding
upon America, as well as upon ourselves, except where they may be
specifically relieved from its effect by the express words of the
treaty of 1783, since they were at the time British subjects) we read--
"'Whereas, it is just and reasonable, and essential to our interest and
_the security of our_ colonies (the States then included), that the
several nations or tribes of Indians, with whom we are connected, and
who live under our protection, should not be molested or disturbed in
the possession of such parts of our dominions and territories as, not
having been ceded to, or purchased by, us, are reserved to them, or any
of them, as their hunting grounds; we do therefore, with the advice of
our Privy Council, declare it to be our Royal will and pleasure that
no governor or commander-in-chief, in any of our colonies, Quebec, &c.
do presume, upon any pretence whatever, to grant warrants of survey,
or pass any patents for lands beyond the bounds of their respective
governments, as described in their commissions.' Now mark: 'As also
that no governor or commander-in-chief of our colonies or plantations
in America _do presume_ for the present, and until our further pleasure
be known, to grant warrants of survey, or pass patents, _for any lands
beyond the heads or sources of any of the rivers which fall into
the Atlantic Ocean_ from the west or north-west, or upon any lands
whatever, which not having been ceded to, or purchased by, us, as
aforesaid, _are reserved to the said Indians or any of them_.' Now,
will any man of common reflection say, that under such circumstances,
known to all our governors and commanders-in-chief, of course also
to all engaged in the internal legislation of the plantations, there
could be any obscurity to admit of dispute in the reference made to
this precise mark of distinction--'beyond the heads or sources of
any of the rivers falling into the Atlantic?' the same mark being
again referred to in the Imperial Act 14th George III., 1774, in
nearly the same words, only adding 'the highlands,' &c., dividing,
&c., again expressly described in the account of General Arnold's
march over the very country; and lastly, briefly referred to in the
treaty of 1783, the very brevity and looseness of the expression being
the strongest possible proof of the notoriety of such division and
landmark. I confess, Sir, I cannot divine any mode of escape from
the dilemma in which the sticklers for this unreasonable claim are
placed--either to recede from what is palpably an unjust pretence, or
to stamp Washington, Dr. Franklin, Mr. Adams, and Mr. Jay as the most
consummate knaves, adopting a loose phraseology to escape at a future
time from the effects of their own treaty. To the latter alternative
no Englishman acquainted with the history of Washington's glorious,
and--except in one point, too stern an adherence to what he conceived
to be justice-unblemished career, will ever be disposed to accede.
"The next point on which I engaged to remark was the probable reason
which induced Lord Shelburne to cede a country which the Indians had
possessed, and thereby drive so many tribes from their homes, and the
tombs of their ancestors, to them a heavier blow than any other That
the Indians did possess it, is proved not only by the statement in the
Imperial Parliament, but also by the fact of sundry raids occasionally
made by them from this tract upon the settlers of Nova Scotia, known to
be at that time altogether confined to the region about Pasamaquoddy
Bay, which now forms the southern part of New Brunswick.
"Now the clause which I have quoted above I conceive to afford that
probable reason. The governors, &c. are restricted not to grant
warrants of survey on any pretence 'beyond the heads and sources
of the rivers which fall into the Atlantic.' Though I believe it
admits a question whether any patents were passed extending the
British settlements beyond the 45th degree of north latitude,
for the old geographers carry the line along that degree to the
Bay of Pasamaquoddy, and bound Massachusetts on the west by New
Hampshire--though the description of General Arnold's march is a
traverse of a wild wilderness, wherein 'human face divine' seems
never to have been seen, yet this clause most decidedly leaves a
discretion in the Governor of Massachusetts, when population required
it, to extend his surveys and his patents as far north as the heads
of those rivers which fall into the Atlantic. The district now called
Maine, then Penobscot, is exactly a tract so situated, and, whatever
might have been the original intentions of the Crown as regarded the
Indians within this tract, the discretion so given formed a just and
proper reason, when peace was to be established, why the territory
so described should be ceded to the United States, and that very
cession of a country so circumstanced affords the strongest possible
confirmation that 'the heads and sources of the rivers falling into the
Atlantic' literally were the limits referred to in 1783, and that no
just claim can be made out in the face of this evidence to a territory
in which, by the confession of General Arnold's march, the rivers fall
'the contrary way.' I shall not trouble you further. A war founded on
unjust aggression can never expect God's blessing upon it. A calm
produced by concession to unjust aggression can never end in lasting
peace.
"'If thou seest the oppression of the poor, and violent perverting of
judgment and justice in a province, marvel not at the matter, for he
that is higher than the highest regardeth." Eccles. v. 8.