THE PROPERTY OF A LADY
[NORTHWEST BOUNDARY DISPUTE]. [WEBSTER-ASHBURTON TREATY]. Manuscript journal, containing "Copies of Private Memoranda and Sundry Documents Connected with the Boundary Treaty concluded between Great Britain and the United States of America on the 9th August 1842." 4to notebook, marbled boards, approximately 150 pages, some 80 of which contain manuscript text in a neat, cursive script, two leaves torn out.
Details
[NORTHWEST BOUNDARY DISPUTE]. [WEBSTER-ASHBURTON TREATY]. Manuscript journal, containing "Copies of Private Memoranda and Sundry Documents Connected with the Boundary Treaty concluded between Great Britain and the United States of America on the 9th August 1842." 4to notebook, marbled boards, approximately 150 pages, some 80 of which contain manuscript text in a neat, cursive script, two leaves torn out.
BRITISH WORKING PAPERS FROM THE WEBSTER-ASHBURTON NEGOTIATIONS
A journal maintained by "A. Wells," evidently a member of the British mission negotiating the treaty. Secretary of State Daniel Webster (1782-1852) led the American delegation. Wells's book contains notes and transcriptions of important documents used by the legation over the course of the talks, which spanned from April to August 1842. This text allows us to follow with exact geographical specificity, the course of the negotiations. Memorandum number 8 sets forth "Reasons in favor of adjusting the Indian Stream as the Boundary at the head of the Connecticut River." Memorandum no. 4 discusses the "Tract between Halls Stream and the main Branch of Connecticut River. Quantity, probable amount of population, etc." An 18 July letter warns against "unnecessary prolixity" in one of the memoranda submitted by the British side. "I cannot imagine a more fertile source of future differences than that which the definition of our boundary lines might create, if left to be governed by loose descriptions, a circumstance which could hardly be anticipated by the best Statesmen who at the same time were not experienced Woodmen." As the Wells journal shows, the main point of dispute was how the two nations would divide the rich timber tracts between them. The treaty ultimately awarded the U. S. 7,015 square miles of disputed lands on the Maine-New Brunswick border and in the area northwest of Lake Superior; while 5,012 acres went to Britain. An important side agreement was the informal pledge of the British government to end the impressments of American sailors.
BRITISH WORKING PAPERS FROM THE WEBSTER-ASHBURTON NEGOTIATIONS
A journal maintained by "A. Wells," evidently a member of the British mission negotiating the treaty. Secretary of State Daniel Webster (1782-1852) led the American delegation. Wells's book contains notes and transcriptions of important documents used by the legation over the course of the talks, which spanned from April to August 1842. This text allows us to follow with exact geographical specificity, the course of the negotiations. Memorandum number 8 sets forth "Reasons in favor of adjusting the Indian Stream as the Boundary at the head of the Connecticut River." Memorandum no. 4 discusses the "Tract between Halls Stream and the main Branch of Connecticut River. Quantity, probable amount of population, etc." An 18 July letter warns against "unnecessary prolixity" in one of the memoranda submitted by the British side. "I cannot imagine a more fertile source of future differences than that which the definition of our boundary lines might create, if left to be governed by loose descriptions, a circumstance which could hardly be anticipated by the best Statesmen who at the same time were not experienced Woodmen." As the Wells journal shows, the main point of dispute was how the two nations would divide the rich timber tracts between them. The treaty ultimately awarded the U. S. 7,015 square miles of disputed lands on the Maine-New Brunswick border and in the area northwest of Lake Superior; while 5,012 acres went to Britain. An important side agreement was the informal pledge of the British government to end the impressments of American sailors.