But scientific elements, like sharp instruments, must be handled with
scientific accuracy. A part of our boundary between the British
Provinces ran upon the forty-fifth degree of latitude; and about forty
years ago, an expensive fortress was commenced by the government of the
United States, at Rouse's Point, on Lake Champlain, on a spot intended
to be just within our limits. When a line came to be more carefully
surveyed, the fortress turned out to be on the wrong side of the line;
we had been building an expensive fortification for our neighbor. But in
the general compromises of the Treaty of Washington by the Webster and
Ashburton Treaty in 1842, the fortification was left within our
limits.[A]
[Footnote A: Webster's Works. Vol. V., 110, 115.]
Errors still more serious had nearly resulted, a few years since, in
a war with Mexico. By the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, in 1848, the
boundary line between the United States and that country was in part
described by reference to the town of El Paso, as laid down on a
specified map of the United States, of which a copy was appended to the
treaty. This boundary was to be surveyed and run by a joint commission
of men of science. It soon appeared that errors of two or three degrees
existed in the projection of the map. Its lines of latitude and
longitude did not conform to the topography of the region; so that it
became impossible to execute the text of the treaty. The famous Mesilla
Valley was a part of the debatable ground; and the sum of $10,000,000,
paid to the Mexican Government for that and for an additional strip of
territory on the southwest, was the smart-money which expiated the
inaccuracy of the map--the necessary result, perhaps, of the want of
good materials for its construction.
It became my official duty in London, a few years ago, to apply to
the British Government for an authentic statement of their claim to
jurisdiction over New Zealand. The official _Gazette_ for the 2d of
October, 1840, was sent me from the Foreign Office, as affording the
desired information. This number of the _Gazette_ contained the
proclamations issued by the Lieutenant Governor of New Zealand, "in
pursuance of the instructions he received from the Marquis of Normanby,
one of Her Majesty's principal Secretaries of State," asserting the
jurisdiction of his government over the islands of New Zealand, and
declaring them to extend "from 34° 30' North to 47° 10' South latitude."
It is scarcely necessary to say that south latitude was intended in both
instances. This error of 69° of latitude, which would have extended the
claim of British jurisdiction over the whole breadth of the Pacific,
had, apparently, escaped the notice of that government.