DEPARTMENT OF STATE,
Washington, February 27, 1840.
His Excellency JOHN FAIRFIELD,
Governor of Maine.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt at this Department of your excellency's letter to the President of the 15th instant, inclosing three depositions of citizens of Maine in relation to certain movements of British troops in the disputed territory. The depositions have been informally communicated to the British minister by direction of the President, who desires me to apprise your excellency of his intention to cause an official communication to be addressed to the minister on the subject so soon as the report of the agent dispatched by your order to Temiscouata and Madawaska for the purpose of procuring exact information as to the present state of things there shall have been received.
I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant,
JOHN FORSYTH.
EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT,
Augusta, February 27, 1840.
His Excellency M. VAN BUREN,
President United States.
SIR: Having received the report of Benjamin Wiggin, esq., the agent referred to in my last communication, dispatched by me to the disputed territory to obtain exact information of British military movements in that quarter and of the existing state of things, I hasten to lay the same[65] before you, accompanied by his plan[65] of the British military post at the head of Lake Temiscouata. It will be perceived that it goes to confirm in every essential particular the evidence already forwarded in the depositions of Messrs. Varnum, Bartlett, and Little, and is directly opposed to the statement contained in the letter of Mr. Fox to Mr. Forsyth under date of 26th of January last.
The course thus clearly proved to have been pursued by the British Government upon the disputed territory is utterly inconsistent with the arrangement heretofore subsisting, and evinces anything but a disposition to submit to an amicable termination of the question relating to the boundary.
Permit me to add that the citizens of Maine are awaiting with deep solicitude that action on the part of the General Government which shall vindicate the national honor and be fulfilling in part a solemn obligation to a member of the Union.