the St. Lawrence system from Lake Superior to Lake of the 

 Woods as they understood it and through it to the most north- 

 western point would form a natural boundary and barrier be- 

 tween the two countries and then from the latter point a line 

 due west to the Mississippi river. This agreement satisfied 

 both parties until 1803. 



During the spring of 1803 negotiations for the purchase of 

 Louisiana were under way. When the United States had 

 brought these successfully to a close new boundary compli- 

 cations arose. Louisiana lying to the west of the Mississippi 

 to the "Stony Mountains," as the Rockies were called, had 

 never had a definite northern boundary. The latest limit for 

 the operations of the Hudson Bay Company on the south had 

 been the 49th parallel but no treaty had ratified this agree- 

 ment. The English diplomats hit upon this line as really the 

 definite one for the new boundary, but the representatives of 

 the United States argued that such a line would run through 

 the territory of the United States west of the Lake of the 

 Woods to the Mississippi. Another point brought forward 

 against the new line was the indefinite terms defining the 

 extension of the west line, viz.: "As far as the territory of 

 the United States extends in that quarter" allowed the Eng- 

 lish government too much chance for gaining lands either by 

 conquest or purchase beyond the extension of this line. How- 

 ever, the plenipotentiaries agreed finally that a line drawn 

 due north or south as the case might be from the most north- 

 western part of Lake of the Woods should intersect the 49th 

 parallel then running westward oh the same parallel as far 

 as the respective territory extended in that quarter. 



The negotiations at this point were broken off by a change 

 of ministry in England and never resumed by the same men. 

 Nothing was done on the much-mooted question for several 

 years and the war with Great Britain set aside all chances for 

 the time of a settlement being reached. 



No fighting between the British and Americans took place 

 farther north than Prairie du Chien, on the Wisconsin river 

 beyond which the country was practically controlled by the 

 former. When negotiations for peace were under way, Presi- 

 dent Monroe wrote the American representative at St. Peters- 



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