The New International Encyclopædia/Northeast Boundary Dispute

NORTHEAST BOUNDARY DISPUTE. In American history, the name applied to the long-standing dispute between the United States and Great Britain concerning the northeastern boundary of the United States. The controversy grew out of a difference in interpretation of the second article of the Treaty of Paris of 1783, which undertook to define the boundaries between the United States and Canada. In this article the boundary between Maine and New Brunswick was described as the Saint Croix River, and it was soon found to be a difficult matter to determine what was the Saint Croix River. Complaints were made that the British were encroaching upon American territory, and collision between the Americans and the English intruders gave forebodings of international trouble. In 1794 John Jay was charged, among other things, with the settlement of the dispute. The only thing he accomplished in this connection was the securing of a provision in the treaty negotiated by him (see Jay Treaty) for the appointment of three commissioners to determine the Saint Croix River. The commissioners met at Halifax in March, 1798, and determined the Saint Croix River, but left unsettled the place of its source. A new difficulty arose over the ownership of the Passamaquoddy Bay Islands, which lie near the mouth of the Saint Croix River. No settlement could be reached on this point until 1814, when an article was incorporated in the Treaty of Ghent for the appointment of a contmission to bring about some adjustment. By a decision of the commission rendered in 1817, Moose, Dudley, and Frederick islands were awarded to the United States, the others to Great Britain.

Still another disputed point was the determination of the boundary line from the source of the Saint Croix to the highlands which separate the waters flowing into the Saint Lawrence from those which make their way into the Atlantic Ocean. Various efforts were made by the two governments to reach an agreement on this point, and provisions for this purpose were made in treaties both in 1803 and in 1807, but neither treaty was ever ratified. Finally the Treaty of Ghent provided for the appointment of a commission to settle the dispute, with the reservation that if an agreement could not be reached the disputed question should be referred to the arbitration of a friendly sovereign. The chief task of the commissioners was the determination of the ‘northwest angle of Nova Scotia’ mentioned in the treaty and the ‘northwesternmost head of the Connecticut River.' The commissioners were unable to agree as to the location of these points. In 1827 a convention was concluded between the two Powers for the reference of the question to the King of the Netherlands. In January, 1831, he made his decision awarding part of the disputed territory to the United States and part to Great Britain. Finding it next to impossible to execute the treaty of 1783. the King drew a boundary line of his own. The decision was satisfactory to neither party, and was formally rejected by the Government of the United States. Meantime border riots and collisions were occurring in the disputed territory to the disturbance of the general peace and security. Several efforts were then made to reach a compromise, but without effect. Finally, the dispute was settled by the Webster-Ashburton Treaty (q.v.) of 1842.