Footnotes
1 Relating to the commissioners appointed to investigate the condition of the public works in Washington, D.C., and transmitting copy of the letter of instructions issued to them.
2 Correspondence of the minister in England with the officers of the Mediterranean Squadron, in consequence of which the squadron left that station, and the dispatches of Captain Bolton to the Secretary of the Navy connected with that movement.
3 Relating to allowances since March 4, 1841, of claims arising under the invasion of East Florida in 1812.
4 Payment or assumption of State stocks by the General Government.
5 Relating to the duties levied on American tobacco imported into the States composing the German Commercial and Custom-House Union.
6 Appointed under the convention of April 11, 1839, for adjusting the claims of citizens of the United States upon the Republic of Mexico.
7 Transmitting correspondence with Great Britain relative to the seizure of American vessels by British armed cruisers under the pretense that they were engaged in the slave trade; also correspondence with N.P. Trist, United States consul at Habana, upon the subject of the slave trade, etc.
8 Stating that there is no correspondence in his office showing that any American citizens are British prisoners of state in Van Diemens Land; transmitting correspondence with the British minister on the subject of the detention or imprisonment of citizens of the United States on account of occurrences in Canada, instructions issued to the special agent appointed to inquire into such detention or imprisonment, and report of said special agent.
9 Asking for a further appropriation for completing the new General Post-Office building.
10 Relating to the commerce and navigation between France and the United States.
11 Transmitting list of officers deriving their appointments from the nomination of the President and the concurrence of the Senate who were removed from office since March 4, 1841, and also those who were removed from March 4, 1829, to March 4, 1841.
12 Not found. Evidently refers to message of August 6, 1841, on preceding page.
13 Relating to the deposits of public moneys in banks by disbursing officers and agents.
14 Relating to the origin, progress, and conclusion of the treaty of November 26, 1838, between Sardinia and the United States.
15 Stating that no proposition has been made by either the United States or Great Britain relative to the mutual right of search.
16 Relating to American citizens captured near Santa Fe, Mexico, by the Mexican army.
17 Transmitting correspondence relative to the action of the authorities of Nassau, New Providence, in the imprisonment of slaves charged with mutiny and murder, the refusal to surrender them to the United States consul for trial in the United States, and the liberation of slaves, all of said slaves being a part of the cargo of the United States brig Creole.
18 Relating to the origin of the Seminole war, slaves captured during said war by United States troops, etc.
19 It has already been stated that in the survey of the portion of this line allotted to Major Graham there were actually measured upon it, with the chain, 276 miles, and this did not constitute more than one-half the labor and expense incident to all the duties enumerated and performed by his division on his portion, so much did the work required upon this portion of it exceed what was estimated for the whole of it.
20 Asking an appropriation to defray the expenses growing out of the dispute between the United States, within the Territory of Iowa, and the State of Missouri relative to the southern boundary line, an appropriation to defray the expenses of a convention for the formation of a State constitution, etc.
21 Relating to letters written in March, 1841, by Andrew Stevenson, United States minister at the Court of Great Britain, to Isaac Hull, commander of the United States squadron in the Mediterranean, which caused a part of that squadron to return to the United States.
22 Relating to the mode of paying salaries, etc., of ministers and other diplomatic agents of the United States at the several Courts of Europe.
23 Relating to the colonial history of New York.
24 Extract of a letter from the Department of State to the United States minister at London relative to the case of the brig Creole.
25 Relating to an act of the legislature of South Carolina providing for the imprisonment of free negroes found on board vessels entering any of the ports of that State, complaints of the British Government relative to the operation of said act, etc.
26 Relating to complaints of Spain and Portugal that the operation of the revenue act of September 11, 1841, infringed treaty stipulations.
27 Statements of the quantity and cost of labor and materials for the new public buildings in Washington, D.C., etc.
28 Transmitting list of agents, etc., employed by the Navy Department without express authority of law, etc.
29 Transmitting list of removals from and appointments to office in the Department of War from March 4, 1829, to September 30, 1841.
30 Relating to appointments to office in the Navy and Marine Corps since April 4, 1841.
31 Transmitting list of appointments by the President or Secretary of State since April 4, 1841.
32 A chain is made up of mountains whose bases touch each other.—BALBI.
33 Wagan is a term in the Abenaki language signifying way. Sis is a diminutive particle. Wagansis is therefore the little way; and it seems probable that the name of Grand River, the usual epithet for the St. John, has been improperly applied to the small stream which bears it on the map.
34 A continuous line of leveling was carried by one of the parties of Major Graham's division, by means of two spirit levels checking one another, from tide water at Calais, in Maine, to the monument at the source of the St. Croix, and thence along the true meridian line to its intersection with the river St. John. The surface of the St. John at this point of intersection was thus found to be 419-1/2 feet above the level of mean tide at Calais. The basin of the river immediately above the Grand Falls may be stated as of the same elevation in round numbers, as there is very little current in the river between those two points.
35 Since the above was written Major Graham's map and the computations of the barometric heights above alluded to have been completed.
This map exhibits in their proper positions the numerous altitudes which were determined throughout the country watered by the Aroostook and its principal tributaries, extending laterally to the heights which bound the basin of that river on either side; along the due west line traced in the year 1835 by Captain Yule, of the royal engineers, between Mars Hill and a point near the forks of the Great Machias River; along and in the vicinity of the road recently opened by the State of Maine from Lewis's (a point in latitude 46° 12' 20", between the head branches of the Meduxnikeag and the Masardis or St. Croix of the Aroostook) to the mouth of Fish River, in latitude 47° 15' 13", being a distance, actually measured, of 79 miles; and along the new military road, embracing 40-1/2 miles of the distance from Fort Fairfield to Houlton and including the adjacent heights on either side.
The number of elevations within the territory watered by the Aroostook and claimed by Great Britain that have thus been carefully measured amounts to upward of 200.
This survey shows that although the prominent eminences which occur along that portion of the "axis of maximum elevation" of Messrs. Mudge and Featherstonhaugh which lies between the mouth and the source of the Aroostook correspond very nearly in height and position by our measurements with those reported by themselves, yet these eminences are separated one from another by spaces of comparatively low and very often swampy country, so extended as to preclude the idea of a continuous range of highlands in the direction represented upon the map of those commissioners.
If a range or chain of highlands is to be made to appear by drawing a strongly marked line over widely extended valleys or districts of comparatively low country so as to reach and connect the most prominent eminences which may fall within the assumed direction, then such a range or chain of highlands may here be made as plausibly in any other direction as in that chosen by Messrs. Mudge and Featherstonhaugh, for the detached elevated peaks are so distributed as under such a principle to favor any one direction as much as another, and might thus be made to subserve in an equal degree whatever conflicting theories the object in view might cause to be originated.
We may also refer, in further illustration of the character of the country through which a portion of this pretended "axis of maximum elevation" is made to pass, to a panorama view taken in October, 1841, by one of Major Graham's assistants from the summit of Blue Hill, where crossed by the true meridian of the monument, at the source of the St. Croix. This position is 1,100 feet above the level of the sea and 47-1/2 miles north of the monument. It commands a most satisfactory view of the whole country embraced within a radius of 40 to 60 miles, including, as the landscape shows, Parks Hill to the south; Katahdin, the Traveller, and Mars Hill to the southwest; Quaquajo, the Horseback, the Haystack, and one or two peaks beyond the Aroostook to the west; the heights upon the Fish River and the southern margin of the Eagle Lakes to the northwest, and those south of the St. John (except a small angle obstructed by the Aroostook Hill) to the north.
The character of the great basin of the Aroostook, dotted with the detached peaks which rise abruptly from it at intervals of many miles apart, is here exhibited through at least two-thirds of its extent in so satisfactory a manner as in itself to preclude the idea of an "axis of maximum elevation" composed of anything like a connected or continuous chain in this region of country.
MAY 1 1842.
36 The highlands of Neversink.
37 Captain Byfield.
38 The levelings carried along this meridian line by means of spirit levels, alluded to in the note at bottom of page 121, passed Mars Hill at a depression of 12 feet below the level of the base of the monument which stands (except at seasons of extreme drought) in the water at the source of the St. Croix.
39 A considerable part of the papers, together with the argument, has been published by Mr. Gallatin in his Right of the United States to the Northeastern Boundary. New York, 1840. 8 vo. pp. 180.
40 The words here appearing in italics are not italicized in the original treaty.
41 See Note I, pp. 141,142.
42 See Note II, p. 142.
43 See Note III, pp. 142,143.
44 See Note IV, p. 143.
45 See Note V, pp. 143-147.
46 Sebastian Cabot, in the employ of Henry VII, discovered the continent of North America 24th June, 1497, and explored it from Hudsons Bay to Florida in 1498. Columbus discovered South America 1st August, 1498, while the voyage of Vespucci, whose name has been given to the continent, was not performed until 1499.—HUMBOLDT.
47 See Note VI, p. 147.
48 Haliburton's History, Vol. I, pp. 83-87.
49 Haliburton's History, Vol. I, pp. 244-289.
50 See Note VII, pp. 147, 148.
51 Report of Messrs. Featherstonhaugh and Mudge, p. 6.
52 Hon. John Holmes, of Maine.
53 See Note VIII, p. 148.
54 Report of Messrs. Featherstonhaugh and Mudge, pp. 6, 23.
55 See Note IX, p. 148.
56 See Note X, pp. 148, 149.
57 Report of Featherstonhaugh and Mudge, pp. 6, 23.
58 See Note XI, p. 149.
59 Hansard's Parliamentary Register for 1783.
60 See Note XII, p. 149.
61 Prospectus of St. Andrews and Quebec Railroad, 1836; and Survey of Captain Yule, 1835.
62 Report of Featherstonhaugh and Mudge, p. 8.
63 It can not be seriously pretended that when by the treaty of St. Germains, in 1632, Acadie was restored to France the intention was to cede to her the colonies already settled in New England. Yet the language of the British commissioners would imply that this was the case were it not that they evidently consider the forty-sixth parallel as the southern boundary of the grant to De Monts, whereas it is the northern.
64 Relating to surveys and sales of the public lands during 1841 and 1842, etc.
65 With Great Britain relative to an international copyright law.
66 Relating to an alleged violation by the United States of the treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek.
67 Of the diplomatic agent and minister of the United States at the Court of Austria relative to the commercial interests of the United States.
68 Between the Department of State and Belgium relative to the rejection by that Government of the treaty ratified by the Senate February 9, 1833, and the causes of the delay in exchanging the ratifications of the treaty ratified by the Senate December 31, 1840.
69 Transmitting names of agents employed by the State Department without express provision of law.
70 For compensation for rescuing and supporting the captain, supercargo, and 17 officers and men of the American ship Courier, of New York, which foundered at sea, and landing them safely at the Cape of Good Hope.
71 Transmitting lists of postmasters and others appointed by the President and Post-Office Department from April 4, 1841, to March 21, 1842.
72 Omitted.
73 Correspondence respecting certain citizens of the United States captured with the Texan expedition to Santa Fe, and held in confinement in Mexico.
74 Of expenses of the commission to investigate the New York custom-house, etc.
75 Relating to the conduct and character of William B. Hodgson (nominated to be consul at Tunis) while dragoman at Constantinople.
76 Relating to the establishment of a line of steamers between Havre and New York.
77 Transmitting names and compensation of employees and witnesses in connection with the commission of inquiry relative to the public buildings in Washington, D.C.
78 Relating to the macadamizing of Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington D.C.
79 The House of Representatives ordered that it be not entered on the Journal.
80 Communication from Commodore Charles W. Morgan, commanding the United States naval forces in the Mediterranean, relative to the adjustment of differences with Morocco; translation of a letter from the Emperor of Morocco, etc.
81 Stating that the special minister from Great Britain to the United States made no proposition, informal or otherwise, to the negotiator on the part of the United States for the assumption or guaranty of the State debts by the Government of the United States to the holders of said debts.
82 Transmitting correspondence between the United States minister at London and the British Government in relation to certain slaves taken from the wreck of the schooner Hermosa and liberated by the authorities at Nassau, New Providence.
83 Relating to the strength and expense of maintaining the African Squadron under the late British treaty, the number of guns it is expected to have afloat in the United States Navy during 1843, and the estimated expense of the naval establishment for 1843.
84 Entitled "Acts and Resolutions of the Legislative Council of the Territory of Florida," passed at its twentieth session, January 3 to March 5, 1842.
85 Relating to a grant of land in Oregon Territory to the Hudsons Bay Company by the British Government.
86 Transmitting correspondence with Great Britain relative to the destruction of the steamboat Caroline at Schlosser, N.Y., December 29, 1837.
87 Stating that no information is in possession of the Government of any negotiation of a treaty, or of any overtures to treat, for a cession of California by Mexico to England.
88 Between the consul-general of the United States at Tangier and the Government of Morocco.
89 Communicating a copy of the commission and instructions issued to Daniel Webster, Secretary of State, to treat with Lord Ashburton, special minister from Great Britain to the United States.
90 Correspondence with the United States minister to France relative to the quintuple treaty of December 20, 1841, and the Ashburton treaty of August 9, 1842.
91 Correspondence between the representatives of foreign governments and the United States relative to the operation of the tariff laws on treaties existing with foreign governments.
92 This report proper and Appendix No. 1 are the only portions of the original final report which can be found filed with the archives of the commission. The copy of the report which was transmitted to the House of Representatives is missing from the files of the House. A careful search in the Government libraries of Washington warrants me in asserting that the report has never been printed.—COMPILER.
93 Pocket veto.
94 Transmitting abstracts of proposals made to the Navy Department and its several bureaus.
95 Relating to the duties levied on the wines of Portugal and its possessions by tariff acts of the United States in violation of the treaty of August 26, 1840.
96 Relating to the proceedings and conduct of the Choctaw commission, sitting in the State of Mississippi, under the Dancing Rabbit Creek treaty.
97 Relating to appointments of masters' mates and the postponement of the sailing of the frigate Raritan.
98 Stating that there has been no correspondence with the British Government relative to presents, etc., by that Government to Indians in the United States.
99 Transmitting a letter from the Commissioner of Indian Affairs relative to presents, etc., to Indians in the United States by the British Government.
100 Relating to a proposed extension of the duties of the Home Squadron.
101 Asking the publication and distribution of a digest of the decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States.
102 Relating to the settlement of the accounts of Major-General Gaines, etc.
103 Relating to slaves committing crimes and escaping from the United States to the British dominions since the ratification of the treaty of 1842, and the refusal of the British authorities to give them up, and to the construction which the British Government puts upon the article of said treaty relative to slaves committing crimes in the United States and taking refuge in the British dominions.
104 Relating to a demand upon the British Government for the surrender of certain fugitive criminals from Florida under the provisions of the tenth article of the treaty of Washington.
105 Relating to the colony of Liberia, in Africa.
106 Relating to the production, growth, and trade in tobacco.
107 Transmitting names, returns, etc., of consuls and commercial agents of the United States.
108 Relating to the abuse of the United States flag in subservience to the African slave trade, and to the taking away of slaves the property of Portuguese subjects in vessels owned or employed by citizens of the United States.
109 Transmitting list of officers appointed in the Navy since June 1, 1843.
110 Transmitting list of officers appointed in the Army since June 1, 1843.
111 Transmitting list of persons employed by the Department of State without express authority of law, etc., from March 4, 1837, to December 31, 1843, inclusive.
112 Transmitting the commission appointing Caleb Cushing a representative of the Government of the United States in China; papers, etc., concerning the payment of $40,000, appropriated for sending a commissioner, etc., to China.
113 Relating to the interpretation of the tenth article of the treaty of August 9, 1842, between the United States and Great Britain.
114 Relating to the survey of the harbor of St. Louis.
115 Statement of the expenditures of the Government each year from its organization up to the present period, and when and for what purpose these expenditures were made.
116 Omitted.
117 Addressed to the President of the United States.
118 Omitted.
119 Omitted.
120 Omitted.
121 Addressed to the President of the United States.
122 Omitted.
123 Addressed to Brigadier-General R. Jones, Adjutant-General United States Army.
124 With reference to the annexation of Texas.
125 Proceedings under act of March 3, 1843, for the relief of the Stockbridge tribe of Indians in the Territory of Wisconsin.
126 Transmitting lists of persons employed by the War Department since March 4, 1837, without express authority of law, etc.
127 Relating to indemnity from Denmark for three ships and their cargoes sent by Commodore John Paul Jones in 1779 as prizes into Bergen, and there surrendered by order of the Danish King to the British minister, in obedience to the demand of that minister.
128 Relating to money drawn from the Treasury to carry into effect orders of the War and Navy Departments made since April 12, 1844, for stationing troops or increasing the military force upon the frontiers of Texas and the Gulf of Mexico and for placing a naval force in the Gulf of Mexico, etc.
129 Transmitting list of persons employed by the Navy Department without express authority of law from March 4, 1837, to January 18, 1844, etc.
130 Relating to the treaty of annexation with Texas.
131 Transmitting correspondence from 1816 to 1820, inclusive, between United States ministers to Spain and the Department of State, between those ministers and Spanish secretaries of state, and between the Department of State and the Spanish ministers accredited to the United States.
132 On the subject of an order issued by the Mexican Government expelling all natives of the United States from Upper California and other departments of the Mexican Republic, and of the order prohibiting foreigners the privilege of the retail trade in Mexico.
133 With Great Britain relative to the duties exacted by that Government on rough rice exported from the United States, contrary to the treaty of 1815.
134 The first is a pocket veto.
135 Sent to all diplomatic and consular officers of the United States.
136 Extracts from the instructions of the Department of State to the United States minister to France relative to the proposed annexation of Texas, etc.
137 Relating to the public debt and public lands of the Republic of Texas.
138 Transmitting copies of treaties between the Republic of Texas and Great Britain and France.
139 Copy of the instructions to George W. Erving upon his appointment as minister to Spain in 1814 and during his mission to that Court.
140 Asking the publication and distribution of the decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States.
141 Correspondence relative to the surrender by Great Britain of fugitive criminals from Florida under the treaty of Washington.
142 Of Lieutenant H. Wager Halleck, of the Engineer Corps, on the means of national defense.
143 Principal surveyor of Missouri and Illinois, official conduct of.
144 Relating to redress from the British Government for the illegal capture of the fishing schooner Argus and other American vessels engaged in the fisheries, under a pretended infraction of the convention of October 20, 1818.
145 Instructions to Hon. Caleb Cushing, commissioner to China and envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to the Court of China, etc.
146 Operations of the United States squadron on the west coast of Africa, the growth, condition, and influence of the American colonies there, and the nature, extent, and progress of the commerce of the United States with the same.
147 Relating to redress from the British Government for the illegal capture of the fishing schooner Argus and other American vessels engaged in the fisheries, under a pretended infraction of the convention of October 20, 1818.