the treaty of 1783 has doubtless attracted your
attention. I feel it due to the State to say to you frankly and
unequivocally that this position was taken deliberately and with a full
consideration of all the circumstances of the case; but it was assumed
in no spirit of defiance or resistance and with no design to embarrass
the action of the General Government. Maine feels no desire to act alone
or independently on this question. She knows and feels that it is a
national question, and that it is the right and duty of the General
Government to move forward in effecting the object proposed.

I feel fully warranted in saying that Maine does not intend by this
expression of her determination to run the line in a certain contingency
to waive in the least degree her well-founded claim upon the General
Government to run, mark, and establish it. On the contrary, she will
most reluctantly yield the hope she now so strongly feels that it is
the intention of that Government to relieve her from the necessity of
throwing herself upon her own resources to assert and defend her most
unquestionable right. The wish of this State is that the first act
should be to run the line of the treaty of 1783 to ascertain the facts
in relation to the topography of the country and the exact spot where
the northwest angle of Nova Scotia may be found according to our
construction of the treaty language, and to place suitable monuments
along the whole line. Such a survey would not settle or determine any
rights, but it would express and declare our views and intentions. Such
a survey is not a warlike or offensive movement, and can not justly give
offense to the other party in the controversy. It is the unquestionable
right of litigants in a court of justice to make explorations of land
in dispute, and if either party declines a joint survey it may be made
_ex parte_ and surely the United States have never so far yielded the
actual possession to Great Britain as to preclude the right on our part
to ascertain for ourselves the absolute facts and to mark out the limits
of our claim and our alleged right. This act Maine asks, and asks
earnestly, the General Government to perform without delay. Such an
assumption of the controversy on the part of the United States would be
to Maine an assurance that her rights were duly regarded, and would
be steadily and perseveringly maintained. We want the name and the
authority of the United States, and there can be no