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The National Geographic Magazine 



fully fixed the boundaries of the St Law- 

 rence and the Great Lakes. After they 

 had concluded their labors under Article 

 VI of the treaty of 1814, they began the 

 work of delimitation of the frontier to 

 the extreme of the Lake of the Woods. 

 Their first session in discharge of this 

 duty was held in 1822, and the work of 

 survey and conference extended until 

 1827, when they adjourned sinedie, with 

 a disagreement upon the entire line from 

 St Marys River, between Lakes Huron 

 and Superior, to the western limit of the 

 Lake of the Woods, and after an ex- 

 penditure of more than $200,000. Under 

 the treaty this disagreement should have 

 been followed by a reference to a friendly 

 sovereign as arbitrator ; but the experi- 

 ence in the arbitration of the northeast- 

 ern boundary did not encourage such a 

 course, and the agitation over that sub- 

 ject overshadowed the less important 

 question at that day of the extreme 

 northwestern frontier. It was allowed 

 to remain in a state of quiescence until 

 the Webster- A shburton negotiations, 

 in 1842. After fifty years of diplomatic 

 and arbitral controversy, the two gov- 

 ernments had reached a state of political 

 complaisance, and the large tracts of 

 territory which had been the subject of 

 disagreement on the northwest border 

 were, in a spirit of mutual concession, 

 divided by the treaty of 1842, and the 

 line was marked out upon the maps 

 made by the surveys of the commission. 

 But even this settlement has not proven 

 entirely complete, as some portion of 

 the water boundary in the lakes is yet 

 in doubt, and it is charged by Canada 

 that the United States Land Office has 

 surveyed, platted, and sold to Ameri- 

 cans a considerable extent of land on 

 the Minnesota- Wisconsin frontier which 

 really belongs to Canada. The Gov- 

 ernment of the Dominion has sought on 

 its own account to survey and mark the 

 boundary in that region without the 

 cooperation of the American authori- 

 ties, but our Government has not ac- 

 cepted this survey. 



The uncertainty as to the true bound- 

 ary west of the Lake of the Woods, as 

 described in the treaty of 1783, was re- 

 moved by the treaty of 1818, Article II 

 of which provided that from the lake 

 the line should be drawn westward 

 along the 49th parallel of latitude to the 

 "Stony" or Rocky Mountains. 



The line from the Rocky Mountains 

 to the Pacific Ocean remained for forty 

 years a subject of controversy. It en- 

 gaged the attention of successive ad- 

 ministrations up to the presidency of 

 Mr Polk, various treaty and arbitral 

 propositions being advanced onty to be 

 rejected by one or the other of the two 

 nations. Our claim to the whole terri- 

 tory on the Pacific coast, from Califor- 

 nia to the Russian possessions at 54 40', 

 was asserted by the Democratic National 

 Convention of 1844, and entered largely 

 into the campaign which resulted in Mr 

 Polk's election. In his first message to 

 Congress he declared our title to this 

 region to be " clear and unquestion- 

 able, ' ' and he recommended to Congress 

 to extend our laws and jurisdiction over 

 it. John Ouinc}' Adams, who was recog- 

 nized as the highest living American au- 

 thority on international questions, held 

 with President Polk that our title to the 

 territory up to 54 ° 40' was complete and 

 perfect. 



Congress, acting upon the President's 

 suggestion, passed a joint resolution au- 

 thorizing the President to give notice to 

 Great Britain of the termination of the 

 joint occupation. This brought about 

 an energetic protest from Great Britain, 

 and the country was awakened to the 

 danger of hostilities ; but the two na- 

 tions found a better way of reconciling 

 their differences, and after anxious de- 

 liberations Mr Buchanan, the Secretary- 

 of State, and the British Minister signed 

 a convention in 1846 whereby the line 

 of the 49th parallel was extended from 

 the Rocky Mountains to the waters of 

 the Pacific Ocean. By this act the vast 

 domain now embraced in British Co- 

 lumbia was yielded to Great Britain, 



