Page:New Brunswick Magazine Issue 1.djvu/344
intersected within a few miles of Fredericton, the whole of St. Andrews and other valuable settlements, together with two military posts of some importance would have been embraced within their limits. As it is we lose not a single British settlement. A few miserable frenchmen at Madawaska on the route to Canada fall within their territory. I presume that some future negotiation will remove even this difficulty and give us a free communication with Canada."
This statement of a leading Loyalist, lawyer and Secretary of a Boundary Commission, is indeed strong for the American claim.
There are also documents in existence which show that in 1787 Lord Dorchester was aware of the necessity for carrying the Quebec–New Brunswick boundary far to the south, even to Grand Falls, in order to provide a reason for stopping the due North line as far South as possible.
It was Joseph Bouchette in his "Topographical Description of Lower Canada," 1815, who first definitely formulated the British claim which was adduced to off-set that of the Americans. In brief, it was pointed out that the "Northwest angle of Nova Scotia" as defined by the Treaty does not exist, which is true, and this point was emphasized throughout the discussion to the total neglect of the fact that the "Northwest angle of Nova Scotia" did have in men's minds in 1783 a definite meaning independently of the precise details of the topography of the country it covered, and a meaning, too, which could very readily have been applied to the actual topography had all so willed. The Highlands were held to begin at Mars Hill, south of the Aroostook, and to run westerly between that River and the Penobscot headwaters. The two parties stood stoutly for their own claims, submitted them to the arbitration of the King of the Netherlands, refused to accept his decision, came nearly to war in the Aroostook valley, and settled the matter by splitting the difference in the Webster–Ashburton Treaty of 1842.