Page:New Brunswick Magazine Issue 1.djvu/343

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THE ASHBURTON TREATY.
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tion to secure an alteration of that north line; and in no case does he hint at the least doubt that the treaty awarded that north line as the boundary. In the following passage, from a letter of Oct. 19th, 1796, addressed to William Knox (formerly undersecretary of state for America), though expressing doubt as to the intention of the framers of the treaty, he fully admits the legal justice of the American claim:

"With regard to the principal question it is to be lamented that by the most favorable decision we can obtain, that it, a boundary line running due North to the Highlands from the source of the Western Branch of the Scoudiac River, our communication with Canada by the River St. John will be interrupted, as that line will probably strike the River St. John upward of 50 Miles on this side of the grand portage somewhere near a very valuable settlement called the Madawaska which is a circumstance not generally known, and some future negotiation will probably become necessary to preserve that communication unbroken. The the line will unfortunately run in this manner, it cannot be supposed to have been intended when the Treaty of Peace was formed, either on the part of the United States to claim or on ours to yield a boundary which should in fact cut through the provinces it was intended to limit. But the decision of the present question agreeable to His Majesty's Claim will render the tract of country in such case to be negotiated for of much less value and importance and probably secure the acquisition of it upon much easier terms."

In a letter of December 1, 1798 to Mr. Knox he says: "If a negotiation is necessary for an alteration of the north line as now established in order to preserve our communication with Canada," and here also he expresses no doubt as to the validity of the American claim.

Again in a letter written by Col. Edward Winslow at the close of 1798 or beginning of 1799 (for a copy of which I am indebted to Rev. W. O. Raymond) occurs the following:—

"My last two summers have been spent iii the American States in the execution of a very arduous and laborious duty as Secretary to the Commissioners appointed under the fifth article of the Treaty of Amity, Commerce, etc. to determine the eastern boundary line. The business closed in October last and under all the existing circumstances the decision may be considered as favourable to great Britain. Had the Americans established their claim to the Magaguadavic, the River St. John would have been
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