recurring to the language of the treaty it will be seen that the northern boundary of the United States begins, in its westward course, at "the northwest angle of Nova Scotia," which is described as "that angle which is formed by a line drawn due north from the source of the Saint Croix River to the Highlands;" and that the eastern boundary is a line "to be drawn along the middle of the River St. Croix from its mouth in the Bay of Fundy to its source, and from its source directly north to the aforesaid Highlands," etc. Thus the St. Croix possesses a double importance. It not only forms a part of the eastern boundary, but it also serves as a basis for the determination of the northern boundary.

Mitchell's Map of 1755.

On Mitchell's map of 1755, which was used by the negotiators of the treaty of peace, and of which a copy is inserted at the beginning of this chapter, the River St. Croix appears as a stream of considerable volume, having its source in a lake called Kousaki and its mouth at the eastern head of what is now known as Passamaquoddy Bay, though on the map the greater part of the bay has no separate designation and appears merely as a part of the Bay of Fundy. To the westward on the same map is another stream called the "Passamacadie" (Passamaquoddy), emptying into a small bay or estuary of the same name. But, while Mitchell's map was correct in representing two streams of some magnitude as falling into the body of water commonly known as Passamaquoddy Bay, it did not give their true courses or positions, nor was there in the region any river then commonly known as the St. Croix. This name originated with the early French explorers, from whose charts it was transferred to later maps, on which it was given first to one stream and then to another; and in all these maps, including that of Mitchell, the topography of the region was inaccurate.

and Schoodiac.

Of the two principal streams that fall into Rivers Magaguadavic Passamaquoddy Bay, that to the east was known in 1782, as it is still known, by the Indian name of Magaguadavic; that to the west as the Schoodiac, Scoudiac, or Schoodie. These are the only streams of any magnitude that fall into the Bay of Fundy west of the River St. John. The Magaguadavic, or eastern river, like the St. Croix of Mitchell's map, pursues from its mouth a course generally west of north, but, unlike the latter, it divides near

its source into two branches, each of which has its head in a lake. The Schoodiac, wholly unlike the Passamacadie of Mitchell, after pursuing for some distance from its mouth a crooked course, generally west-northwest, divides into two branches, one of which extends to the north, under the name of the Chiputneticook, and the other in a course generally somewhat west of south to a tangled chain of waters called the Schoodiac Lakes. The United States claimed the Magaguadavic as the St. Croix of the treaty, and the head of its western lake as its source. Great Britain claimed the Schoodiac as the true St. Croix, and the most remote waters of the lakes at the head of its western branch as its source. Thus, while the mouths of the Magaguadavic and Schoodiac lie about nine miles apart, the distance between lines drawn due north from their alleged sources was quite fifty miles, and the area of the territory involved was from seven thousand to eight thousand square miles.

Action of Nova Scotia and Massachusetts.

Immediately after the ratification of the treaty of peace the authorities of Nova Scotia, treating the River Schoodiac as the St. Croix of the treaty, made grants of land on its eastern bank to loyalist refugees who formed there the settlement of St. Andrews. This proceeding attracted the attention of Congress and of the authorities of Massachusetts, and the latter appointed a commission of three persons-two of whom were Generals Lincoln and Knox-to make an investigation. These commissioners, besides visiting Passamaquoddy Bay, obtained statements from John Adams and John Jay, and also from John Mitchell, then a resident of Chester, New Hampshire, who was employed by Governor Bernard, of Massachusetts, in 1764 to ascertain the river known under the name of the St. Croix; and they reported that, though the map used by the negotiators was defective, the Magaguadavie was the river intended by the treaty. Mr. Adams in his statement took the ground that as the River St. Croix on Mitchell's map was the river nearest to the St. John, the Magaguadavic, as being nearer to the St. John than the Schoodiac, should be accepted as the boundary. The uncertainties of the situation and the views of the British authorities and surveyors were very fairly stated in a letter of Gen. Rufus Putnam to a committee of the Massachusetts legislature of December 27, 1784.1

1Am. State Papers, For. Rel. I. 92.

Proposals of the
United States.

As it was impossible to determine with absolute certainty what river was intended in the treaty under the name of the St. Croix, Congress, on the recommendation of Mr. Jay, who was then Secretary of Foreign Affairs, resolved that the minister of the United States at London should be instructed to bring the question to the attention of the British Government, and, if an adjustment by negotiation could not be effected, to propose a settlement by commissioners. Instructions were accordingly sent, but nothing could at the time be accomplished; and on the 9th of February 1790, during the second session of the first Congress under the Constitution, Washington submitted the matter to the consideration of the Senate with an expression of his opinion that all questions between the United States and other nations should be speedily and amicably settled. On the 12th of March the Senate advised that effectual measures should be taken to settle all disputes in regard to the line, and that "it would be proper to cause a representation of the case to be made to the court of Great Britain, and if said disputes can not be otherwise amicably adjusted, to propose that commissioners be appointed to hear and finally decide those disputes, in the manner pointed out in the report of the late Secretary of the United States for the Department of Foreign Affairs of the 21st of April, 1785.”2

The question, however, still remained unsettled when, in 1794, Mr. Jay went to England to negotiate for the general adjustment of differences. On the 19th of November 1794 he concluded a treaty, the fifth article of which reads as follows: "Whereas doubts have arisen what river

Jay Treaty.

Provisions of the was truly intended under the name of the River St. Croix, mentioned in the said treaty of peace, and forming a part of the boundary therein described; that question shall be referred to the final decision of commissioners to be appointed in the following manner, viz:

"One commissioner shall be named by His Majesty, and one by the President of the United States, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate thereof, and the said two commis sioners shall agree on the choice of a third; or, if they can not so agree, they shall each propose one person, and of the two names so proposed one shall be drawn by lot in the presence of the two original commissioners. And the three commissioners so appointed shall be sworn, impartially to examine and decide the said question, according to such evidence as

1 Am. State Papers, For. Rel. I. 90–99.

2 MSS. Dept. of State.

shall respectively be laid before them on the part of the British Government and of the United States. The said commissioners shall meet at Halifax, and shall have power to adjourn to such other place or places as they shall think fit. They shall have power to appoint a secretary, and to employ such surveyors or other persons as they shall judge necessary. The said commissioners shall, by a declaration, under their hands and seals, decide what river is the River St. Croix, intended by the treaty. The said declaration shall contain a description of the said river, and shall particularize the latitude and longitude of its mouth and of its source. Duplicates of this declaration and of the statements of their accounts, and of the journal of their proceedings, shall be delivered by them to the agent of His Majesty and to the agent of the United States, who may be respectively appointed and authorized to manage the business on behalf of the respective Governments. And both parties agree to consider such decision as final and conclusive, so as that the same shall never hereafter be called into question, or made the subject of dispute or difference between them."1

Under this article the President of the Appointment of Com- United States on the 1st of April, 1796, missioner by the United States. named as commissioner General Knox, but he declined to serve on the ground, among others, that he had a personal interest in the result of the controversy. The President then, on the 21st of May, appointed David Howell, a citizen of Rhode Island, who had been attorneygeneral of the State and a member of its supreme court. Mr. Howell was a graduate of Princeton College, and held for a number of years the chair of mathematics and natural philosophy, and also that of law, in Brown University at Providence. He was at one time a member of the Continental Congress. He had a reputation for talents and learning, and was celebrated for wit and anecdote.

Appointment of Commissioner by Great Britain.

On the part of Great Britain the commissioner appointed by the King was Thomas Barclay, of Annapolis, Nova Scotia, who had won the rank of colonel as a volunteer in the British forces during the American Revolution. At the outbreak of the war he was living in Ulster County, New York, of which State he was a native, when he was driven from his

'In a letter to Edmund Randolph, Secretary of State, on the day of the signature of the treaty, Mr. Jay, referring to the fifth article, observed that in the discussions before the commissioners the old French claims might be revived, and that the United States must adhere to Mitchell's map. The Vice-President, he said, perfectly understood the business. (Am. State Papers, For. Rel. I. 503.)

home on account of his royalist sympathies. At the close of the war he, with many other proscribed loyalists, sought a home in Nova Scotia, where he practiced his profession of the law (which he had studied under John Jay) and where he became a member and afterward speaker of the provincial assembly. His appointment as commissioner to settle the dispute as to the St. Croix River was the beginning of a long career as the representative of his government in various capacities in the United States or in relation to American affairs.1

of Commissioners.

In May 1796, Mr. Barclay being in New Preliminary Meeting York on private business, Mr. Pickering, who was then Secretary of State, suggested that it would be well for him to meet Mr. Howell, the American commissioner, with a view to choose a third commissioner and a secretary, as well as a man of science to ascertain with precision the latitudes and longitudes of the mouth and source of the St. Croix. Though the treaty indicated that the first meeting of the commissioners in the execution of their official functions should be at Halifax, Mr. Pickering did not consider this indispensable. Mr. Barclay, while withholding his own opinion on the question, found himself precluded by his instructions from acting officially until he had met the American commissioner at Halifax, but he consented to hold with Mr. Howell a private interview, in which they might freely though informally discuss their future proceedings and come to some determination respecting the persons mentioned by Mr. Pickering.3 This conference took place at Boston on the 27th of June, 1796. Several persons were named for third commissioner, and among those suggested by Mr. Howell was Egbert Benson, of New York, who was Mr. Barclay's cousin of the half blood, his father having been a half-brother of Barclay's mother. No choice, however, was made, and, in the expectation that it would be necessary to resort to lot, it was agreed that each side should name "three able and respectable characters," from the list of whom the opposite party should strike the names of two, and that the two remaining names should be put into a box and one drawn out for the third commissioner.