y interference in the question, unless it
shall apply to the subject more determined efforts than have hitherto
been made to bring the dispute to a certain and pacific adjustment, the
misfortunes predicted by Mr. Fox in the name of his Government may most
unfortunately happen.

But no apprehension of the consequences alluded to by Mr. Fox can
be permitted to divert the Government and people of the United States
from the performance of their duty to the State of Maine. That duty is
as simple as it is imperative. The construction which is given by her
to the treaty of 1783 has been again and again, and in the most solemn
manner, asserted also by the Federal Government, and must be maintained
unless Maine freely consents to a new boundary or unless that
construction of the treaty is found to be erroneous by the decision of
a disinterested and independent tribunal selected by the parties for its
final adjustment. The President on assuming the duties of his station
avowed his determination, all other means of negotiation failing, to
submit a proposition to the Government of Great Britain to refer the
decision of the question once more to a third party.

In all the subsequent steps which have been taken upon the subject by
his direction he has been actuated by the same spirit. Neither his
dispositions in the matter nor his opinion as to the propriety of that
course has undergone any change. Should the fulfillment of his wishes
be defeated, either by an unwillingness on the part of Her Majesty's
Government to meet the offer of the United States in the spirit in
which it is made or from adverse circumstances of any description,
the President will in any event derive great satisfaction from the
consciousness that no effort on his part has been spared to bring the
question to an amicable conclusion, and that there has been nothing in
the conduct either of the Governments and people of the United States or
of the State of Maine to justify the employment of Her Majesty's forces
as indicated by Mr. Fox's letter. The President can not under such
circumstances apprehend that the responsibility for any consequences
which may unhappily ensue will by the just judgment of an impartial
world be imputed to the United States.

The undersigned avails himself, etc.

JOHN FORSYTH.

_Mr. Fox to Mr. Forsyth_.

WASHINGTON, _March 26, 1840_.

Hon. JOHN FORSYTH, etc.:

The undersigned, Her Britannic Majesty's envoy extraordinary and
m