ecutive 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
forever 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 northweste