NO. 10.]

[SENATE.

REPORT AND RESOLVES

ON THE

NORTH EASTERN BOUNDARY.

[WM. R. SMITH & Co.....Printers to the State.]

STATE OF MAINE.

The Joint Select Committee, to whom was referred the subject of the North Eastern Boundary of this State, have had the same under consideration; and, reserving for another time a more detailed account of their proceedings and deliberations thereon, they ask leave now to REPORT, in part.

Your committee have had no hesitation in coming to the conlcusion that, under the above general reference, they were fully authorized to consider so much of the Governor's message as relates to the "extension of a Military Road to some point on the St. John," regarding the subject as intimately connected with the main question, and they now present the information that has been obtained, with the result of their deliberations thereon.

It appears that, by a resolution of the Congress of the United States, approved on the 24th day of May, A. D. 1828, the President was authorized "to cause a Military Road to be opened and made, in the State of Maine, from the mouth of the river Mattanawcook, where it enters into the Penobscot river, to

Mars Hill, near the North Eastern Boundary line of the State of Maine."

Suitable appropriations were made by Congress, and the road has been finished to the east line of the town of Houlton, about thirty miles south of Mars Hill.

Again, Congress, by another resolution, approved on the 2d of March, A. D. 1829, authorized the President, "if it shall seem to him necessary for maintaining the rights, and not inconsistent with the engagements of the United States, to cause to be surveyed and laid out a Military Road, to be continued from Mars Hill, or such other point on the Military Road already laid out, in the State of Maine, as he may think proper, to the mouth of the river Madawaska, in the State of Maine."

Now, it is well known that British authorities, acting under the orders of their government, have taken military possession of a part of the territory claimed as rightfully belonging to Maine, and have caused strong military defences to be erected, at the mouth of the Madawaska river, at the Degele (or foot of lake Temiscouata), and at the eastern end of the grand portage.

To sustain these positions a strong corps of regular troops has been distributed among them; while there are also two other military stations in the vicinity of the territory in question, one at the river