This volume contains the official statements of both the United States and Great Britain.

This map only shows the British claim line in Maine. The images on this map are not original, but were pasted on later. The Upper and Lower Provinces of Canada were established in 1791, but abolished and replaced with the United Province of Canada in 1841 as a result of all the political confusion surrounding the boundary dispute.

Published in the Boston Times, this map and accompanying text were meant to educate the general public on some of the issues surrounding the dispute.

Mason’s map shows incredible detail of Lower Canada and Northern Maine, much of which is lacking in the maps previously listed. Although Mason’s maps were originally produced for British magazines, this edition was published in New York for the American public.

This hand-colored map was originally published in Tanner’s New Universal Atlas. The atlas was intended to reach a broader market, with smaller pages, more color, and an expanded section on international geography. As one might expect, the northern counties are still largely undeveloped.

George William Featherstonhaugh was a brilliant and well respected British-American geographer, and also the first geologist to the U.S. government. He surveyed portions of the Louisiana Purchase and was one of the trusted proposers of the Albany Schenectady Railroad. Later, when Louis Napoleon led a military coup against the King of France, Featherstonhaugh arranged the royal family’s escape through Le Havre to England.
Richard Zachariah Mudge was an English officer and surveyor of the Royal Engineers, known for his work on the Ordnance Survey. The pair was selected by the British government in 1838 to help settle the Maine boundary dispute. In spring of 1939, they began their expedition to map the details surrounding the border. They traveled to Fredericton in New Brunswick, Quebec, and Niagara, before returning to England with the latest news. They reported that the United States’ claim line was inconsistent with the physical geography of the region as well as the terms of the treaty.

The Illustrated London News happily announced the end of the boundary dispute; “We here present to our readers a map of the British and North American territory, of which so large a portion has been in dispute between the two nations of Great Britain and the United States for more than half a century, and for which the contention is at last happily terminated, by the treaty which has been the consequence of Lord Ashburton’s mission from this country.”

During the Aroostook War, lumberjacks from both sides continued to cut timber in the disputed territory during the winter of 1838. On December 29, the Eaton family spotted lumberjacks from New Brunswick felling trees on their land in present-day Caribou. An informal American militia escorted the Eaton family to speak with the woodcutters. When the perceived trespassers refused to leave, both sides drew arms. Meanwhile, three nearby Canadians were attacked by a black bear, defending her cub. The Americans heard the shots and returned fire, but not a single bullet met its mark, and the Canadians retreated to tend to the bear attack.
Two months later, the Maine Legislature authorized Major General Isaac Hodsdon to lead 1,000 volunteers to the upper Aroostook River. There they were notified that the British Army had arrived from the West Indies, with the support of the Mohawk Nation. This was enough to mobilize Mainers to join the effort. Militiamen organized in Bangor and met the Hodsdon at Fort Fairfield.

John Gilmore Deane’s son, Llewellyn Deane, wrote this book nearly fifty years after his father’s death. John Deane grew up in Massachusetts, later moving to Ellsworth, Maine as a young man. He served in the Court of Common Pleas in Hancock County in 1810, counselor in the Supreme Court in 1814, and several other offices. But, when Portland’s town records were burned in the great fire of 1866, and thus it is impossible to know exactly which offices John held or when. According to Llewellyn, ”By means of his hunting tours and these extended excursions Mr. Deane acquired a very thorough experience with life in the woods, and became most peculiarly well fitted for the performance of the public duties which devolved upon him later, in connection with the Northeastern Boundary of Maine.” John was apparently fascinated with the boundary dispute and the potential for Maine’s timber, traveled often to the “fine lands in the northern part of our State,” and wrote several reports:
1827. Report on the Northeastern Boundary question.
1828. Report upon the Northeastern Boundary question.
1830. Resolve of the Legislature allowing him $170 for negotiating release of land claims with Penobscot Indians.
1831. Report of committee on State Lands, of which he was chairman.
1831 Report as chairman of the Committee on the Northeastern Boundary.
1831 Resolve granting him half a township of land.
1831. Letter to Governor Samuel E. Smith about the Northeastern Boundary.
1839. Resolve paying him $465.03 for locating the Northeastern Boundary Line under resolve of March 23, 1838.