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START OF AROOSTOOKWAR:
“I FEEL A DEEP INTEREST INTHE BOUNDARY QUESTION”
92
●
BUCHANAN, JAMES. Autograph Letter Signed, as Senator, to Commissioner on
the northeastern boundary Charles S. Daveis, explaining that it would be more effective to
distribute copies of the North Eastern Boundary Reports after the election [PA guberna-
torial election in October], speculating on the outcome of the election, requesting that he
send any British tracts published against the Report [of the Committee on the North-
Eastern Boundary, March, 1838], requesting a copy of his report to Governor Kent of ME
[August, 1838], and in a postscript, noting that he corrected the [March] report to be pub-
lished by the
Globe
and
Intelligencer
. 1
1
/
2
pages, 4to, written on the recto and verso of a
single sheet; folds. (TFC)
Lancaster, 10 September 1838
[700/1,000]
“
I have not sent you any of the North Eastern Boundary Reports because . . . I think these can be
distributed throughout Pennsylvania
after the election
, with more benefit to the just cause of Maine,
than if I were to send them to you.
I say after the election,
because the public mind is now so exclu-
sively devoted to this contest, that any attempt would be vain to divert it to another subject. . . . [T]he
Antimasons here profess to entertain high hopes of the election of Ritner. I doubt the sincerity of those
of them who are informed . . . .
“
I think from the tone of the papers you will do nothing very imprudent in Maine. I feel a deep inter-
est in the Boundary question . . . . I should be glad [if] you would send me any well written strictures
which may appear in the British Provincial papers against the Report. I wish to be able to answer
every objection if possible. . . .
“
I have not yet seen the report which you made to Gov. Kent. As soon as it is published I hope you
will send me a copy. . . .”
The disputed northeastern boundary between the U.S. and Canada became a potential war zone
when ME Governor Edward Kent and New Brunswick Governor John Harvey marched their mili-
tias to the region.The Canadians had been harvesting the timber in the Aroostoock River valley at a
rate that alarmed ME officials. Before any violence occurred, however, the Webster-Ashburton Treaty
was negotiated in 1842.