A history of Canada, 1763-1812

by Sir Charles Prestwood Lucas

and in a later letter, replying to the American representatives, the British negotiators wrote[234]

‘the British Government never required that all that portion of the State of Massachusetts intervening between the Province of New Brunswick and Quebec should be ceded to Great Britain, but only that small portion of unsettled country which interrupts the communication between Halifax and Quebec, there being much doubt whether it does not already belong to Great Britain’.

The inference to be drawn from the correspondence is that, on the strict wording of the Treaty of 1783, apart from the intention of those who negotiated it, the American claim was recognized to be stronger than the British.

The Treaty of Ghent.

The Treaty of Ghent was signed on the 24th of December, 1814, and the Fifth Article provided that two Commissioners should be appointed to locate the North-West angle of Nova Scotia as well as the North-Westernmost head of the Connecticut river, between which two points the Treaty of 1783 provided that the dividing line along the Highlands was to be drawn. A map of the boundary was to be made, and the latitude and longitude of the North-West angle and of the head of the Connecticut were to be particularized. If the Commissioners agreed, their report was to be final; but if they disagreed, they were to report to their respective governments, and some friendly sovereign or state was to arbitrate between them. The Commission first met in 1816, much A Boundary Commission appointed. time was taken up in surveying the North line from the source of the St. Croix to the watershed of the St. Lawrence, and it was not until 1821 that the two representatives, having failed to agree, gave distinct awards, the British Commissioner The Commissioners disagree. placing the North-West angle at the Highlands known as Mars Hill nearly 40 miles south of the St. John river, and the American Commissioner locating it nearly 70 miles north of that river, either Commissioner adopting the extreme claim put forward by his side.

In view of the divergence between the two reports, it was necessary, in accordance with the terms of the Treaty of Ghent, to submit the matter to arbitration; but this step was not taken until yet another Convention had been signed on the 29th of September, 1827, providing that new statements The Convention of 1827. of the case on either side should be drawn up for submission to the arbitrator. It was laid down that the basis of the statements should be two specified maps, one of which was referred to as the map used in drawing up the original Treaty of 1783. The inaccuracies in this map, Mitchell’s map, had been the origin of all the difficulties which had subsequently arisen. The King of the Netherlands was Award given by the King of the Netherlands as Arbitrator. selected to arbitrate. In 1830 the statements were laid before him, and in January, 1831, he gave his award. It was to the effect that it was impossible, having regard either to law or to equity, to adopt either of the lines proposed by the two contending parties, and that a compromise should be accepted which was defined in the award. The line which the king proposed was more favourable to the Americans The award not accepted by the Americans. than to the English, but the Americans declined to consent to it, on the ground that, while the arbitrator might accept either of the two lines which were presented for arbitration, he was not empowered to fix a third and new boundary.

Thus this troublesome matter was still left outstanding, and yet the necessity for a settlement was more pressing than ever. The new state of Maine maintained the American claim with more pertinacity and less inclination to compromise than the Government of the United States had shown; the United States Government was ready to accept a conventional line, but Maine objected, and meanwhile the result of the uncertainty and delay was that the backwoodsmen of Maine and New Brunswick were coming to blows. About the beginning of 1839 the disputes in the region of the Collision in the Aroostook region. Aroostook river nearly brought on war between the two nations, which was only averted by the mediation of General Winfield Scott then commanding the American forces on the frontier. Immediately afterwards two British Commissioners, Colonel Mudge and Mr. Featherstonhaugh, were deputed to survey the debatable territory and reported in April, 1840,[235] their report being followed by a survey on the part of the American Government. At length, on the 9th of August, 1842, Daniel Webster then Secretary of State for the United States, and Lord Ashburton, sent out as special The Ashburton Treaty. Final settlement of the Maine boundary question. Commissioner from Great Britain, concluded the Treaty of Washington, which put an end to the long and dangerous controversy. By the First Article of that Treaty the present boundary was fixed; the North line from the monument at the head of the St. Croix river was followed to the point where it intersected the St. John; the middle of the main channel of that river was then taken as far as the mouth of its tributary the St. Francis; thence the middle of the channel of the St. Francis up to the outlet of the Lake Pohenagamook; from which point the line was drawn in a South-Westerly direction to the dividing Highlands and the head of the Connecticut river until the 45th degree of North latitude was reached. The boundary was subsequently surveyed and marked out, and upon the 28th of June, 1847, the final results were reported and the matter was at an end.

The existing boundary is on the whole more favourable to Great Britain than the line which the King of the Netherlands proposed and the Americans rejected; but notwithstanding, Lord Ashburton’s settlement has always been regarded in Canada as having given to the United States territory to which Great Britain had an undoubted claim. The fault, however, was not with Lord Ashburton but with the wording of the original Treaty of 1783; and that treaty, as has been shown, was based on such geographical information as there was to hand, accepted at the time in good faith, but subsequently proved to be incorrect. It should be added that by the Third Article of the Ashburton Treaty the navigation of the river St. John was declared to be free and open to both nations, and that the settlement of the international boundary was followed by an adjustment of the frontier between Canada and New Brunswick. The dispute between the two provinces Settlement of the boundary between the province of Quebec and that of New Brunswick. was, at the suggestion of the Imperial Government, eventually referred to two arbitrators, one chosen by each province, with an umpire selected by the arbitrators themselves. The award was given in 1851, and in the same year its terms were embodied in an Imperial Act of Parliament

‘for the settlement of the boundaries between the provinces of Canada and New Brunswick’.

The International boundary in the Bay of Fundy.