land more than 4,000,000 acres; that the division offered by Mr.
Bankhead's note was not in harmony with the equitable rule from which
it is said to spring, and if it were in conformity with it could not
be accepted without disrespect to the previous decisions and just
expectations of Maine. The President was far from attributing this
proposition, the Secretary said, to the desire of His Majesty's
Government to acquire territory. He doubted not that the offer, without
regard to the extent of territory falling to the north or south of the
St. John, was made by His Majesty's Government from a belief that the
substitution of a river for a highland boundary would be useful in
preventing territorial disputes in future; but although the President
coincided in this view of the subject he was compelled to decline the
boundary proposed as inconsistent with the known wishes, rights, and
decisions of the State.

The Secretary concluded by stating that the President, with a view to
terminate at once all controversy, and without regard to the extent of
territory lost by one party or acquired by the other, to establish a
definite and indisputable line, would, if His Majesty's Government
assented to it, apply to the State of Maine for its consent to make the
river St. John from its source to its mouth the boundary between Maine
and His Britannic Majesty's dominions in that part of North America.

Mr. Bankhead acknowledged on the 4th March, 1836, the receipt of
this note from the Department, and said that the rejection of the
conventional line proposed in his previous note would cause His
Majesty's Government much regret. He referred the Secretary to that
part of his note of the 28th December last wherein the proposition of
the President for a commission of exploration and survey was fully
discussed, as it appeared to Mr. Bankhead that the Secretary had not
given the modification on the part of His Majesty's Government of the
American proposition the weight to which it was entitled. He said that
it was offered with the view of meeting as far as practicable the wishes
of the President and of endeavoring by such a preliminary measure to
bring about a settlement of the boundary upon a basis satisfactory to
both parties; that with this view he again submitted to the Secretary
the modified proposal of His Majesty's Government, remarking that the
commissioners who might be appointed were not to _decide_ upon points
of difference, but mere