of all the discussions that
have been had upon the subject, the accompanying documents are
communicated, which, taken in connection with those heretofore
transmitted, will be found to contain that information.

The principles which have hitherto governed every successive
Administration of the Federal Government in respect to its powers and
duties in the matter are--

First. That it has power to settle the boundary line in question with
Great Britain upon the principles and according to the stipulations
of the treaty of 1783, either by direct negotiation or, in case of
ascertained inability to do so, by arbitration, and that it is its duty
to make all proper efforts to accomplish this object by one or the other
of those means.

Second. That the General Government is not competent to negotiate,
unless, perhaps, on grounds of imperious public necessity, a
conventional line involving a cession of territory to which the State
of Maine is entitled, or the exchange thereof for other territory not
included within the limits of that State according to the true
construction of the treaty, without the consent of the State.

In these views of his predecessors in office the President fully
concurs, and it is his design to continue to act upon them.

The attention of the Federal Government has, of course, in the first
instance been directed to efforts to settle the treaty line. A
historical outline of the measures which have been successively taken
by it to that end may be useful to the government of Maine in coming
to a conclusion on the proposition now submitted. It will, however, be
unnecessary here to do more than advert to the cardinal features of this
protracted negotiation.

The treaty of peace between the United States of America and His
Britannic Majesty, concluded at Paris in September, 1783, defines the
boundaries of the said States, and the following words, taken from the
second article of that instrument, are intended to designate a part
of the boundary between those States and the British North American
Provinces, viz: "From the northwest angle of Nova Scotia, viz, that
angle which is formed by a line drawn due north from the source of the
St. Croix River to the highlands; along the said highlands which divide
those rivers that empty themselves into the river St. Lawrence from
those which fall into the Atlantic Ocean to the northwesternmost head of
Connecticut River;" ... "east by a line to be drawn along the mi