صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

a railroad through a section of country over which she also claimed to have exercised exclusive jurisdiction.

The state of Maine had a right to arrest the depredations complained of; it belonged to her to judge of the exigency of the occasion calling for her interference, and it is presumed, that had the lieutenant-governor of New Brunswick been correctly advised of the nature of the proceedings of the state of Maine, he would not have regarded the transaction as requiring, on his part, any resort to force. Each party claiming a right to the territory, and hence to the exclusive jurisdiction over it, it is manifest that, to prevent the destruction of timber by trespassers, acting against the authority of both, and at the same time avoid forcible collision between the contiguous governments during the pendency of negotiations concerning the title, resort must be to the mutual exercise of jurisdiction in such extreme cases, or to an amicable and temporary arrangement as to the limits within which it should be exercised by each party. The understanding supposed to exist between the United States and Great Britain has been found heretofore sufficient for that purpose, and I believe will prove hereafter, if the parties on the frontier, directly interested in the question, are respectively governed by a just spirit of conciliation and forbearance. If it shall be found, as there is now reason to apprehend, that there is, in the modes of construing that understanding by the two governments, a difference not to be reconciled, I shall not hesitate to propose to her Britannic majesty's government a distinct arrangement for the temporary and mutual exercise of jurisdiction, by means of which similar difficulties may in future be prevented.

But, between an effort on the part of Maine to preserve the property in dispute from destruction by intruders, and a military occupation by that state of the territory, with a view to hold it by force, while the settlement is a subject of negotiation between the two governments, there is an essential difference, as well in respect to the position of the state as to the duties of the general government. In a letter addressed by the secretary of state to the governor of Maine, on the 1st of March last, giving a detailed statement of the steps which had been taken by the federal government to bring the controversy to a termination, and designed to apprize the governor of that state of the views of the federal executive in respect to the future, it was stated, that, while the obligations of the federal government to do all in its power to effect the settlement of the boundary question was fully recognised, it had, in the event of being unable to do so specifically, by mutual consent, no other means to accomplish that object amicably than by another arbitration, or by a commission with an umpire in the nature of an arbitration; and that, in the event of all other measures failing, the president would feel it his duty to submit another proposition to the government of Great Britain to refer the decision of the question to a third power. These are still my views upon the subject; and, until this step shall have been taken, I can not think it proper to invoke the attention of Congress to other than amicable means for the settlement of the controversy, or to cause the military power of the federal government to be brought in aid of the state of Maine, in any attempt to effect the object by a resort to force.

On the other hand, if the authorities of New Brunswick should attempt to enforce the claim of exclusive jurisdiction set up by them, by means of a military occupation on their part, of the disputed territory, I shall feel myself bound to consider the contingency provided by the constitution as

having occurred, on the happening of which a state has the right to call for the aid of the federal government to repel invasion.

I have expressed to the British minister near this government a confident expectation that the agents of the state of Maine, who have been arrested under an obvious misapprehension of a collision with the government or people of the British province, will be voluntarily and peaceably disbanded.

I can not allow myself to doubt that the results anticipated from these representations will be reasonably realized. The parties more immediately interested can not but perceive that an appeal to arms, under existing circumstances, will not only prove fatal to their present interest, but would postpone, if not defeat, the attainment of the main objects which they have in view. The very incidents which have recently occurred will necessarily awaken the governments to the importance of promptly adjusting a dispute by which it is now made manifest that the peace of the two nations is daily and imminently endangered. The expectation is further warranted by the general forbearance which has hitherto characterized the conduct of the governments and people on both sides of the line. In the uniform patriotism of Maine, her attachment to the Union, her respect for the wishes of the people of her sister states (of whose interest in her welfare she can not be unconscious), and in the solicitude felt by the country at large for the preservation of peace with our neighbors, we have a strong guarantee that she will not disregard the request that has been made of her.

As, however, the session of Congress is about to terminate, and the agency of the executive may become necessary during the recess, it is important that the attention of the legislature should be drawn to the important consideration of such measures as may be calculated to obviate the necessity of a call for an extra session. With that view, I have thought it my duty to lay the whole matter before you, and to invite such action thereon as you may think the occasion requires.

THIRD ANNUAL MESSAGE.

DECEMBER 24, 1839.

Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives :—

I REGRET that I can not, on this occasion, congratulate you that the past year has been one of unalloyed prosperity. The ravages of fire and disease have painfully afflicted otherwise flourishing portions of our country; and serious embarrassments yet derange the trade of many of our cities. But, notwithstanding these adverse circumstances, that general prosperity which has been heretofore so bountifully bestowed upon us by the Author of all good, still continues to call for our warmest gratitude. Especially have we reason to rejoice in the exuberant harvests which have lavishly recompensed well-directed industry, and given to it that sure reward which is vainly sought in visionary speculations. I can not indeed view, without peculiar satisfaction, the evidences afforded by the past season of the bene fits that spring from the steady devotion of the husbandman to his honorable pursuit. No means of individual comfort is more certain, and no source of national prosperity is so sure. Nothing can compensate a people for a

dependence upon others for the bread they eat; and that cheerful abundance on which the happiness of every one so much depends, is to be looked for nowhere with such sure reliance as in the industry of the agriculturist and the bounties of the earth.

With foreign countries, our relations exhibit the same favorable aspect which was presented in my last annual message, and afford continued proof of the wisdom of the pacific, just, and forbearing policy adopted by the first administration of the federal government, and pursued by its successors. The extraordinary powers vested in me by an act of Congress, for the defence of the country in an emergency, considered so far probable as to require that the executive should possess ample means to meet it, have not been exerted. They have, therefore, been attended with no other result than to increase, by the confidence thus reposed in me, my obligations to maintain, with religious exactness, the cardinal principles that govern our intercourse with other nations. Happily, in our pending questions with Great Britain, out of which this unusual grant of authority arose, nothing has occurred to require its exertion; and as it is about to return to the legislature, I trust that no future necessity may call for its exercise by them, or its delegation to another department of the government.

For the settlement of our northeastern boundary, the proposition promised by Great Britain for a commission of exploration and survey, has been received, and a counter project, including also a provision for the certain and final adjustment of the limits in dispute, is now before the British government for its consideration. A just regard to the delicate state of this question, and a proper respect for the natural impatience of the state of Maine, not less than a conviction that the negotiation has been already protracted longer than is prudent on the part of either government, have led me to believe that the present favorable moment should, on no account, be suffered to pass without putting the question for ever at rest. I feel confident that the government of her Britannic majesty will take the same view of this subject, as I am persuaded it is governed by desires equally strong and sincere for the amicable termination of the controversy.

To the intrinsic difficulties of questions of boundary lines, especially those described in regions unoccupied, and but partially known, is to be added in our country the embarrassment necessarily arising out of our constitution, by which the general government is made the organ of negotiating and deciding upon the particular interests of the states on whose frontiers these lines are to be traced. To avoid another controversy in which a state government might rightfully claim to have her wishes consulted, previously to the conclusion of conventional arrangements concerning her rights of jurisdiction or territory, I have thought it necessary to call the attention of the government of Great Britain to another portion of our conterminous dominion, of which the division still remains to be adjusted. I refer to the line from the entrance of Lake Superior to the most northwestern point of the Lake of the Woods, stipulations for the settlement of which are to be found in the seventh article of the treaty of Ghent. The commissioners appointed under that article by the two governments having differed in their opinions, made separate reports, according to its stipulations, upon the points of disagreement, and these differences are now to be submitted to the arbitration of some friendly sovereign or state. The disputed points should be settled, and the line designated, before the territorial government of which it is one of the boundaries, takes its place in the Union

as a state, and I rely upon the cordial co-operation of the British government to effect that object.

There is every reason to believe that disturbances, like those which lately agitated the neighboring British provinces, will not again prove the sources of border contentions, or interpose obstacles to the continuance of that good understanding which it is the mutual interest of Great Britain and the United States to preserve and maintain.

Within the provinces themselves, tranquillity is restored, and on our frontier, that misguided sympathy in favor of what was presumed to be a general effort in behalf of popular rights, and which in some instances misled a few of our more inexperienced citizens, has subsided into a rational conviction strongly opposed to all intermeddling with the internal affairs of our neighbors. The people of the United States feel, as it is hoped they always will, a warm solicitude for the success of all who are sincerely endeavoring to improve the political condition of mankind. This generous feeling they cherish toward the most distant nations; and it was natural, therefore, that it should be awakened with more than common warmth in behalf of their immediate neighbors. But it does not belong to their character, as a community, to seek the gratification of those feelings in acts which violate their duty as citizens, endanger the peace of their country, and tend to bring upon it the stain of a violated faith toward foreign nations. If, zealous to confer benefits on others, they appear for a moment to lose sight of the permanent obligations imposed upon them as citizens, they are seldom long misled. From all the information I receive, confirmed to some extent by personal observation, I am satisfied that no one can now hope to engage in such enterprises without encountering public indignation, in addition to the severest penalties of the law.

Recent information also leads me to hope that the emigrants from her majesty's provinces, who have sought refuge within our boundaries, are disposed to become peaceable residents, and to abstain from all attempts to endanger the peace of that country which has afforded them an asylum. On a review of the occurrences on both sides of the line, it is satisfactory to reflect, that in almost every complaint against our country, the offence may be traced to emigrants from the provinces who have sought refuge here. In the few instances in which they were aided by citizens of the United States, the acts of these misguided men were not only in direct contravention of the laws and well-known wishes of their own government, but met with the decided disapprobation of the people of the United States.

I regret to state the appearance of a different spirit among her majesty's subjects in the Canadas. The sentiments of hostility to our people and institutions which have been so frequently expressed there, and the disregard of our rights which has been manifested on some occasions, have, I am sorry to say, been applauded and encouraged by the people, and even by some of the subordinate local authorities, of the provinces. The chief officers in Canada fortunately have not entertained the same feeling, and have probably prevented excesses that must have been fatal to the peace of the two countries.

I look forward anxiously to a period when all the transactions which have grown out of this condition of our affairs, and which have been made the subjects of complaint and remonstrance by the two governments re

spectively, shall be fully examined, and the proper satisfaction given where it is due from either side.

Nothing has occurred to disturb the harmony of our intercourse with Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Naples, Portugal, Prussia, Russia, or Sweden. The internal state of Spain has sensibly improved, and a wellgrounded hope exists that the return of peace will restore to the people of that country their former prosperity, and enable the government to fulfil all its obligations at home and abroad. The government of Portugal, I have the satisfaction to state, has paid in full the eleventh and last instalment due to our citizens for the claims embraced in the settlement made with it on the 3d of March, 1837.

I lay before you treaties of commerce negotiated with the kings of Sardinia and of the Netherlands, the ratifications of which have been exchanged since the adjournment of Congress. The liberal principles of these treaties will recommend them to your approbation. That with Sardinia is the first treaty of commerce formed by that kingdom, and it will, I trust, answer the expectations of the present sovereign, by aiding the development of the resources of his country, and stimulating the enterprise of his people. That with the Netherlands happily terminates a longexisting subject of dispute, and removes from our future commercial intercourse all apprehension of embarrassment. The king of the Netherlands has also, in further illustration of his character for justice, and of his desire to remove every cause of dissatisfaction, made compensation for an American vessel captured in 1800 by a French privateer, and carried into Curaçoa, where the proceeds were appropriated to the use of the colony, then, and for a short time after, under the dominion of Holland.

The death of the late sultan has produced no alteration in our relations with Turkey. Our newly-appointed minister resident has reached Constantinople, and I have received assurances from the present ruler that the obligations of our treaty and those of friendship will be fulfilled by himself in the same spirit that actuated his illustrious father.

I regret to be obliged to inform you that no convention for the settlement of the claims of our citizens upon Mexico has yet been ratified by the government of that country. The first convention formed for that purpose was not presented by the president of Mexico for the approbation of its Congress, from a belief that the king of Prussia, the arbitrator in case of disagreement in the joint commission to be appointed by the United States and Mexico, would not consent to take upon himself that friendly office. Although not entirely satisfied with the course pursued by Mexico, I felt no hesitation in receiving in the most conciliatory spirit the explanation offered, and also cheerfully consented to a new convention, in order to arrange the payments proposed to be made to our citizens in a manner which, while equally just to them, was deemed less onerous and inconvenient to the Mexican government. Relying confidently upon the intentions of that government, Mr. Ellis was directed to repair to Mexico, and diplomatic intercourse has been resumed between the two countries. The new convention has, he informs us, been recently submitted by the president of that republic to its Congress, under circumstances which promise a speedy ratification; a result which I can not allow myself to doubt.

Instructions have been given to the commissioner of the United States under our convention with Texas, for the demarcation of the line which separates us from that republic. The commissioners of both governments

« السابقةمتابعة »