DEC. 24, 1834.] Northeastern Boundary. [H. OF R. upon the peninsula, and those lying north and west of counties north of the peninsula, for the whole of the Lake Michigan, contain the following numbers: In this enumeration, the inhabitants of the country which is situated between the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, and which was, for the purpose only of temporary government, attached to the Territory of Michigan at the last session of Congress, are not embraced. They may be justly estimated at from five to eight thousand [souls. The population of Western Michigan (now generally known as the Wisconsin Territory) may be stated at from twelve to fifteen thousand. And we would again respectfully ask of your honorable body to hear their complaints, and to grant to them speedily the relief for which they pray. The country inhabited by that people has been subjected, at various times, to different Governments; but, on all occasions, the promise seems to have been held out to them, that their subjec tion to those Governments should be but temporary. So remote, indeed, have been the seats of those Governments, that it is believed neither the laws of the United States, nor of any Territory, actually had force west of Lake Michigan, until after the year 1820. About that time, a justice of the peace or notary public might be seen claiming and exercising his office there under a commission from the King of France. The inhabitants between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi have almost every year, since their subjection to the Government of Michigan in the year 1818, complained to Congress of the great evils under which they were suffering in consequence of this connexion. They are separated from the great majority of the inbabitants of the Territory by one of the largest lakes upon this continent; and it must obviously be very difficult, if not impracticable, to communicate with them during one-half of the year. Their pursuits in life are also as widely different as their habitations are distant. It is supposed that a very large proportion of the country which lies between Lake Superior, Green Bay, and the Fox, Wisconsin, and Mississippi rivers, must continue for many years, as it is now, the hunting grounds of uncivilized Indian tribes. The Territory which lies north of the line drawn east through the southerly bend of Lake Michigan. It is to this unnatural union, so prejudicial to the best interests of the inhabitants of Western Michigan, and destructive to their rights as American citizens, your memorialists would respectfully call the attention of your honorable body; and they do respectfully ask, on behalf of the citizens of the whole Territory, that Congress will, at its present session, establish a territorial Government for the citizens inhabiting the Territory lying west of a line drawn through the middle of Lake Michigan to the northern extremity, and thence north to the boundary line of the United States. Your memorialists respectfully refer to the act to provide for taking a census of the inhabitants of Michigan, passed by the Council, September 6, 1834, together with the aggregate returns of the census taken under the said act, copies of which said documents, duly certified by the Secretary of the Territory, are herewith present. ed to your honorable body. Resolved, That his excellency the acting Governor be, and he is hereby, requested to transmit copies of the preceding memorial to the President of the Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and to the Delegate in Congress from this Territory. JOHN MCDONELL, President of the Legislative Council. JOHN NORVELL, Secretary. DETROIT, December 12, 1834. The memorial was referred to the Committee on the Territories. Mr. REYNOLDS offered the following resolution, which under the rule lies one day: Resolved, That hereafter, in all elections made by the House of Representatives for officers, the votes shall be given viva voce, each member in his place naming aloud the person for whom he votes. Mr. WARD moved (by consent) that when the House adjourn, it adjourn to Saturday next, at 12 o'clock. On this question Mr. BEATY asked for the yeas and nays; but the motion was not seconded by the House. Mr. CHILTON then moved to amend the motion by substituting Friday for Saturday. This was also negatived, and the motion of Mr. WARD was agreed to. currence, MEMORY OF LAFAYETTE. NORTHEASTERN BOUNDARY. The following resolution, offered yesterday by Mr. LINCOLN, of Massachusetts, was taken up for consideration: The joint resolution yesterday reported by Mr. HUBBARD, from the joint committee on the subject of South of the Wisconsin river, and within this Terri-Lafayette, was passed, and sent to the Senate for conthe measures to be taken in honor of the memory of tory, and also in the counties of Dubuque and Demoine, west of the Mississippi, are situated the very extensive and valuable lead mines of the United States. miners are the immediate tenants of the Government, pursuing a very laborious and hazardous business, and paying their rent to it as to a landlord. It is presumed they are, for these reasons, entitled to its special attention and protection. They compose more than two-thirds of the population of that part of the Territory, and they reside upwards of six hundred miles (some as much as nine hundred miles) from the seat of territorial Government. The judiciary system in that section of the Territory, like wise, is so weak and inefficient that the laws afford little or no protection to the virtuous, nor does their prompt and energetic administration deter the vicious. It is feared by that people that these, and even greater, evils are about to be entailed upon them and their country, for ever, by the formation of a State Government by the eighty-seven thousand two hundred and seventy-three people inhabiting the peninsula of Michigan, and the VOL. XI.-54 Resolved, That the President of the United States be requested to lay before this House (if in his opinion it is not incompatible with the public interest) any communications which may have been had between the Government of the United States and that of Great Britain, since the rejection by the former of the advisory opinion of the King of the Netherlands, in reference to the establishment and final settlement of the northeastern boundary of the United States, heretofore in controversy between the two Governments. And that he also be requested to communicate any information which he may possess of the exercise of practical jurisdiction, by the authorities of the British province of New Brunswick, over the disputed territory, within the limits of the State of Maine, according to the true line of boundary as claimed by the United States, and especially upon that part of the territory which has been incorporated by the Government of Maine into the town of Madawaska, together with such representations and correspondence (if any) as has been had by the Executive of that State with the Government of the United States, on the subject. Mr. PARKS, of Maine, said that, as the resolution was one particularly interesting to the State of Maine, and as no member of the delegation from that State, in either branch of Congress, had thought it necessary to call for information on that subject, he asked the honorable gentleman from Massachusetts what was his object in making the call, and more especially as regarded what was embraced in the last two parts of the resolution. Mr. LINCOLN said that he had not anticipated that there could be any possible objection to the resolution. He certainly had not offered it without believing that a useful object was to be attained. He could not consent to the prejudice of having it supposed, for a moment, that he would either do himself the injustice, or offer the indignity to the House, of proposing the inquiry suggested in the resolution, without a proper and reasona ble motive. He should, therefore, most cheerfully, in response to the call of the member from Maine, [Mr. PARKS,] endeavor, in a brief, and, as he hoped, not unsatisfactory manner, to explain the objects of the resolution. The State of Massachusetts, said Mr. L., has a very deep and especial interest in the subject to which the resolution refers. As one of its Representatives, he should feel that, in this interest, there was a sufficient apology, if any was needed, for the measure he had proposed. It is a fact too well known to the gentleman himself and to the members of the House, to need (said Mr. L.) my information, that, by the act of the ancient Commonwealth giving her assent to the separation of the territory now constituting the State of Maine, and its erection into an independent State, the wild and uncultivated lands of that territory were to be the common property of the two Governments. The quantity of these lands did not vary far from five millions of acres, one moiety of which, in common and undivided with Maine, by the terms of separation, incorporated into and made part of the fundamental law of that State, remained to Massachusetts. Over a great portion of these lands, by a monstrous pretension of the British Government, under the definitive treaty of peace of 1783, which defined the northern and northwestern boundary of the United States, an adversary claim has, within a few years past, been extended. By the fifth article of the treaty of Ghent, provision was made for the settlement of this boundary, and, pursuant to a convention subsequently entered into, the controversy concerning it was submitted to the arbitrament and decision of the King of the Netherlands. [Here Mr. L. went into a history of the negotiations and conventions which had been had on the subject of the boundary.] [DEC. 24, 1834. sion, a proposition of his own for the establishment of a new line of boundary between the two countries. In stead of the highlands which divide the waters of the Atlantic from those of the St. Lawrence, as described in the treaty, he advised the adoption of the depths of the channel of a river, or, in his own more princely phraseology, "the thalway of the stream of the waters of the St. John's," as the future limits of the possessions and jurisdiction of the respective Governments. Mr. Speaker, (continued Mr. L.,) the communication of this result of the arbitrament was received with a burst of surprise, indignation, and apprehension, both in Massachusetts and Maine. The Legislature of each State passed resolutions remonstrating to the general Government against its acceptance. Maine, in a more especial manner, adopted the most strenuous efforts to resist it. In the imposing attitude of her State sovereignty, she sent a special commissioner, clothed with almost plenipotentiary powers, to the Government of Massachusetts, inviting and soliciting her co-operation to defeat or resist, as occasion might require, the injustice and violence of the proposition. The earnest remonstrances of the State Governments reached the national councils, and, influenced by these or other con siderations, the Senate of the United States, on the 234 of June, 1832, adopted a resolution which was decisive of the rejection of the opinion of the arbitrator. I beg leave of the House to read this resolution: Resolved, That the Senate advise the President to open a new negotiation with His Britannic Majesty's Government, for the ascertainment of the boundary be tween the possessions of the United States and those of the King of Great Britain, on the northeastern front.er of the United States, according to the treaty of 1785." It is worthy of special notice and consideration, that a resolution reported by the Committee on Foreign Rel tions, in the following words: "That the Senate advis the President to express to His Majesty the King of the Netherlands the assent of the United States to the de termination made by him, and consent to the executi of the same," had been previously rejected, by the decisive majority of 35 to 8 votes, in that body. Such, sir, was the state of this much vexed subject a June, 1832. And what is the state of it now? The President, in his annual message at the commencement of the present session, informs us that "the question f the northeastern boundary is still pending with Great Britain, and the proposition made in accordance with the resolution of the Senate, for the establishment of a line according to the treaty of 1783, has not been accepted by that Government.” osition, in conformity with a resolution of the Senate, A negotiation pending! And to what end? If the prop has not been acceded to, has it been rejected? Is the Government negotiating for any other line of boundary than that described in the treaty of 1783? No other, give me leave to say, will ever be acquiesced in by the States. I claim no authority to stand here in vindication of the rights and honor of the State of Maine. The are in better keeping. The honorable gentlemen wh represent her on this floor will do her ample just.ce. and industrious citizens of that State, and I think I am But if I know any thing of the character of the hardy not altogether ignorant in this particular, for they are "bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh," they, more than the people of Massachusetts, will consent His Majesty the King the sacrifice of their interest in this valuable propert of the Netherlands entered upon the duty of arbitrator, Now he (Mr. L.) wished to know wherefore the pr under the terms of the submission, and, after an exami-osition to negotiate for the settlement of the boundar nation of the subject, being unable, or affecting to be according to the treaty of 1783, had not been accept unable, from the documents and arguments presented to him, to decide the matter in dispute, he substituted, for and what was the alternative to its rejection. W an adjudication upon the question referred to his deciIwas Maine to do? And what was to be the part The next question in issue between the parties was the true position of the highlands, which should limit a due north line from the source of the river St. Croix, and satisfy the language of the treaty of 1783, and to define and mark upon the face of the country, by reference to natural appearances and monuments, this line, was the only purpose of the submission. latter Stal had given a solemn pledge to the former, that she would stand by her to the last in maintaining this right of property; that, come what might, happen what would, she i would never consent to the surrendering of the jurisdic#tion over it, which she had guarantied by consenting to the act of separation; and this pledge, he (Mr. L.) felt well assured, would, at every hazard, and in all time, in good faith, be held sacred. But (said Mr. L.) the passage, in the very brief allusion made to this most important subject, contains the following expression: "Believing that every disposition is felt, on both sides, to adjust this perplexing question to the satisfaction of all the parties interested in it, the hope is yet indulged that it may be effected on the basis of that proposition." Now, sir, I wish to be informed on what this hope of the President rests? What reasonable expectation may be indulged that the British Government will do that hereafter, which for nearly three years past it has refused to do? It is of the utmost importance to the people of both States, that this controversy should be speedily terminated. The existence of it has once threatened the peace of the nation; and, give me leave to say, that these States will not be content much longer that the question shall remain unsettled. It may be considered, Mr. Speaker, that to Massachusetts this is a matter only of property and pecuniary interest. Be it so; even in such point of view it would not be a subject of indifference. Her surveys have been arrested and her sales limited by the pending controversy. A few years since, in common with Maine, she was opening roads, running out townships, and offering for sale large portions of the now disputed territory. Suddenly her operations were interrupted by collisions with British officers, and, in respectful deference to the earnest desire of the national Government, she consented to suspend the exercise of her possessing rights, pending the arbitrament of the boundary. To the State of Maine the subject must be vastly more important. The unsettled state of the question not only affects her revenue from sales of the lands, but arrests the progress of population and improvement. These lands are among the most desirable for settlement. In the quiet enjoyment of them Maine may look forward to no distant day, when, in numbers and resources, she will be in the front rank of the family of States. Deprived of this territory, she is but of third rate importance among her sisters of the Union. Under these circumstances, think you, sir, the States will rest satisfied with longer forbearance? If I know any thing of the people, they will not blindly submit to the contingencies of unrestricted nor the delay of protracted negotiation. The Legislatures of the States are soon to convene: the subject cannot fail to be with them one of the most earnest and solicitous concern. They will have a right to know what is the prospect of an amicable determination of the boundary; and it is for the purpose of furnishing this information, among other proper motives, that the resolution has been offered. But it is not merely in this limited and partial view of State interests that the subject-matter of the resolution is to be regarded. It has respect to the integrity of the territory and the sovereignty of the jurisdiction of the country. It reaches to the relations of the general and State Governments, and the guarantee of a republican form of government to the enjoyment of all the citizens. The inhabitants of the disputed territory are American citizens. They were born under our laws, acquired the title. to their possessions under grants from the State Governments, and are entitled to the rights, and privileges, and protection, of freemen. On this debatable ground, these very citizens have been molested in their persons and property by the officers of the provincial [H. OF R. Government of New Brunswick. Their substance has been seized for taxes to the British Crown, and their names enrolled for service in the British local militia. The history of the arrest and imprisonment of Baker, in the common jail at Frederickton, not many years since, must be familiar to the gentleman from Maine, and to the members of this House. Still more recently, the inhabitants of the town of Madawaska, incorporated by the Government of Maine, and acting under the authority of their incorporation, in attempting to organize their municipality, have been seized upon a charge of sedition against His Majesty's Government, and made to suffer the penalty of the transgression. It has been farther represented, I know not how truly, that the British jurisdiction is now extended and practically enforced over a great portion of the disputed territory, in manifest intervention of an express stipulation that neither party, during the attempt at the adjustment of the boundary, should do any act to the prejudice of the rights of the other. And are not these things matters worthy of inquiry? Is any gentleman in this House well advised of all the facts in the case? Sir, they concern the whole nation. American citizens are not thus to be transferred to a foreign jurisdiction, and degraded from the proud pre-eminence of independent freemen to the servile condition of vassal subjects. Again, I say, if this controversy be not speedily adjusted, the peace of the country will be put in jeopardy; the States will reassert their possessive rights; surveyors will again be sent forth into the territory; and, if collisions shall ensue, it will behoove this Government to see that the rights of her citizens be well maintained in the conflict.. The resolution embraces three propositions— 1. The communication of such correspondence as has been had, since the rejection of the opinion of the King of the Netherlands, between the Government of Great Britain and that of the United States, on the subject of the boundary, as, in the opinion of the President, may not be incompatible with the public interest to make public. 2. The President is requested to communicate any information he may possess in relation to the exercise of practical jurisdiction over the disputed territory. He (Mr. L.) had been informed that the British laws were enforced against the inhabitants dwelling on the debatable ground, while any exercise of authority was denied to officers acting under a commission from the State of Maine; and, 3dly. The resolution asked for the communication of any representations which may have been made by the Government of Maine to the general Government, touching this matter. Here was the most authentic source of intelligence; and the reply to this part of the inquiry must be of the most satisfactory character. The resolution had been drawn up with every feeling of respect towards the Government, and in all sincerity (said Mr. L.,) I can conceive of no possible objection to sending it to the President, for the exercise of his discretion, in furnishing or withholding the information which was sought. Mr. PARKS, in reply, said that the House would by this time perceive that the resolution of the gentleman from Massachusetts was of a most extraordinary character, and the reasons he had assigned for bringing it forward were, he must say, equally extraordinary.. The gentleman gives as his reason why he interferes in a question touching the jurisdiction of another State, that Massachusetts, a part of which he represents on this floor, is interested in the property or ownership of the territory in dispute between the State of Maine and the United States on one side, and Great Britain on the other. It was true that, when Maine determined to assume the rank of a free, sovereign, and independent State, she was compelled by her kind guardian mother, Massachusetts, to pay well for her liberty, to purchase her freedom at a high price, by assenting that Massachusetts should be the owner with her in common of the wild lands, then undisposed of, within her territory; but she did not grant to Massachusetts any jurisdiction over the same. Maine will always recollect these circumstances. The last the gentleman from Massachusetts seems to have forgotten, for he now comes forward to ask, as he is pleased to say, as a member from Massachu setts, interested in the property, to inquire whether the jurisdiction of Maine has been infringed upon, exhibiting a kind, parental solicitude, as if she had no one on this floor, or in the other House, to watch over her honor or protect her rights; and this, too, without any instructions from Massachusetts to move at all in the matter. If Massachusetts believes that Maine has violated her faith, pledged to her by the solemn act that effected the sepa ration, let her, as a State, call on Maine as a State, each in their sovereign capacities, for a breach of that compact, (for by that compact alone has she any right of ownership in the territory in question,) and with that compact this federal Government has nothing to do. When Maine fails to fulfil any of her obligations, then she will have a right to complain, and to take such measure, as a State, as she may think advisable; but even then she will have no right to come here for redress. The State of Maine is not to be called to the bar of this House to answer for her conduct to Massachusetts. I aver that the gentleman, in the capacity in which he makes this call, viz: as a Representative of Massachusetts, has no right, on this floor, to interfere with the question of jurisdiction of Maine within her own limits. Thank God, the time has passed by when she has any legal right to interfere in our internal relations, or external either, excepting such as may regard our engagements with herself. But further, sir, if she desires information upon this matter, she has the materials for it within herself. She has but to call upon her own land agent, and she will get information much more correct and accurate than can be possibly in the possession of any department of this Government. Her land agent traverses every portion of our extensive forests, without let, hindrance, or control; he has as many deputies as he chooses to employ, and the honorable gentleman, from the official situation he has for so many years held as the Governor of Massachusetts, must know full well that no individual in this nation has more information upon that branch of his inquiry than the gentleman who so honorably and faithfully fills the office of her land agent. But, sir, the honorable gentleman goes further: he calls for any correspondence that may have taken place between the Government of Maine and the Government of the United States, upon this same subject of jurisdiction, and this, too, as I understand, like wise in his capacity as a member from Massachusetts. To this I answer, that to Massachusetts she is not accountable for any thing that may have taken place be. tween her, as a State, and the general Government. Whenever Massachusetts, as an individual owner of certain real estate within her limits, is injured by any act or conduct of hers, then she, like all other individuals, may seek her remedy from that State; but she must recollect she is but an individual proprietor, having a stake in the soil, and the soil only. But, sir, let us suppose that the gentleman quits the position he assumed, as calling for this information as a member from Massachusetts, and that he calls for it in his relation as the representative of a part of the people of the United States on this floor, should it be granted? Neither of the members from Maine have desired it; nay, the honorable gentleman confesses that he did not con [DEC. 24, 1834. sult any one of them upon the subject; neither has the Executive desired it, either for its own justification or any other purpose. Neither of the parties interested, and only interested, have made any request on the subject; and yet the gentleman from Massachusetts, out of his abundant regard and solicitude for the interests and honor of Maine, (for I can see no other reason,) wishes to know whether the jurisdiction of Maine has been infringed upon, and desires to see (if any) what correspondence has taken place between her and the general Government on the subject. Sir, it seems to me that such curiosity, in a stranger to the parties, is improper, if it is not officious. Sir, I do not object to this resolution because I fear that in any manner it will, if passed, implicate the honor of the State which, in part, I repreI sent on this floor. I expressly disavow any such feeling. So far as the honor of the State is concerned, I should be perfectly willing to have every act done, every word written, and every thing proposed or intimated by that State, laid open to the world. I fear not that she would suffer by it. I object solely for two reasons: in the first place, that if, as from the President's message, a hope remains of a peaceable adjustment of this perplexing question, a full answer to the resolution would not do good, but might do harm; and, secondly, because the call, coming as it does, is derogatory to the State, and to its members upon the floor of this and the other House, and among whom are some of the gentleman's most ardent political friends. I do not understand from the gentleman that he contemplates any legislative action of this House upon the subject; nor, indeed, can I well see how any can be had. If any communications have taken place between the Government of Maine and the general Government, it must be in the character of the latter, as general guarantee to the individual States of their rights and territory, and to the Executive, in his capacity as a component part of the treaty-making power, through which all attempts at a peaceable adjustment of this controversy must be had. Does this House seek to intrude itself upon that power, and appropriate to itself rights which, by the constitution, are secured to different branches of the Government? But, sir, I principally oppose the resolution because uncalled for, as it is, either by the Executive Government on the one hand, or the State on the other. This House ought to have too much respect for the rights of States to countenance this attempt of the gentleman from Massachusetts, the more especially as, from his own statement, he does not make the call in his capacity as a legislator of the Union, but as a member of Massachusetts; which State, from common civility to her sister State, should have made the call, if necessary, directly upon her. 1 warn this House to be careful how they justify this course-how they approbate this precedent. I ask, what would have been the language of Georgia, for example, if, contrary to either her wishes or those of the general Government, the correspondence of her Executive with the Executive of the Union had been called for by a member from a different State, wholly uninterested in the matter; what would have been the feelings of that State, or of any other State in the Union? I say that a precedent for this call, made in this manner, cannot be found in the whole legislative history of this country; and I again warn the real friends of State rights how they countenance it. It is deroga. tory to every member of both Houses of Congress from Maine, because it virtually premises that they are forgetful of her honor and interest- [Here Mr. LINCOLN disavowed any intention of arraigning Maine, or of interfering in any way with her honor or interest.] I am well aware, Mr. Speaker, that the honorable gentleman expressly disavows any such intent, and I am not the less aware, sir, that such is the inference that must be drawn from the resolution, viz: that the members from Maine are derelict to her honor and interests, and that they have to take wing and lodge themselves under the protecting and fostering care of Massachusetts. The gentleman says, "Would to God I could speak for Maine on this floor." Mr. Speaker, I well know that Massachusetts has a strong desire to take the benighted people of Maine under her care and protection, and that nothing prevents but the indifference of the people themselves to profit by so high an honor. I should have thought, sir, but for the resolution of yesterday, that the people of the State which the gentleman represents must by this time have learned, by the frequent rejection of their kind offices, and more particularly by the events of the last summer, that the people of Maine consider themselves as of age, and abundantly capable of forming their own opinions on public matters, protecting their own rights and honor, and securing her own best interThe gentleman says the honor of Maine is not in his hands. True, sir, it is not. It is here in the hands of her Senators and Representatives; and when they shall prove recreant to, or insufficient for, the task confided to them, she will recall them, and either send others better fitted for the trust, or, perhaps, call on the gentleman from Massachusetts for aid.. ests. Mr. Speaker, I again repeat that I do not oppose the passage of this resolution because I fear that any developments that might be made would compromit the honor of my State. I believe it is "above fear and above reproach;" if not, then let her suffer for it. But, sir, I oppose it as setting a precedent injurious, as I believe, to State rights, and as being an unauthorized interference in the affairs existing between one of the sovereign States of this Union and the general Government, which will tend strongly, to say the least, to destroy all that parliamentary courtesy which ought ever to exist on this floor, between the representatives of the people of different inde pendent communities. [H. OF R. In what position does it stand? What are the obstacles to its adjustment? What progress towards a settlement of it has been made? And what sort of a settlement is in contemplation? I feel, sir, that I should be able much better to discharge my duty to that State-to guard its interests more vigilantly, and to warn it of approaching danger, if danger be ahead, with this information in my possession, than I am without it; and I have no doubt, sir, that my honorable colleague himself would also be somewhat more competent to fulfil the trusts committed to him. Of that, however, he is the judge. I seek for knowledge on this subject. Light, sir; give us light. But no, says my honorable colleague, give us no light-no information. I don't wish to know what has been done-what is being done--or what is to be done. Settle the controversy as you please, I seek not to know in what way--I am satisfied. This is the doctrine of my colleague; and here, sir, I take the liberty to differ from him; and I confess I am surprised that he is willing to fold his arms and sit in quiet, neither desirous to know himself, nor willing any body else should know, the true state of the question, deeply important as it is to the State we both represent. But notwithstanding this, sir, I confess I am quite indifferent to the passage of the resolution, because I feel well persuaded that it will bring no answer; no other answer, I mean, than that it is not compatible with the public interests to communicate the information solicited. There is a mystery and concealment hanging over this subject, which I am quite sure will not yet be dissipated. Very little is known in relation to it, generally, in Maine; and, unless my colleagues are much more fortunate than I am-perhaps they are, sir--nothing is certainly known by its Representatives here. This is not the condition, in my judgment, in which this important question should be permitted to rest. I want information upon it, for our guidance here. I want it for the consideration of the Government of Maine. I want it for the people--the people of Maine-for I can appeal to the people, too, sir, sometimes, as well as my honorable colleague. But, sir, he objects to this resolution because it comes from Massachusetts. It is derogatory to Maine, he says, that a subject interesting to itself alone should be moved by the member of another State. When Maine needs the aid of Massachusetts, and finds itself incompetent, with its two Senators and eight Representatives, to take care of its interests, it will ask for it; but at present it does not thank Massachusetts for its interference. Why really, sir, I think my colleague rather too sensitive upon this point. I do not perceive in what respect this is derogatory to Maine. I cannot, for the life of me, understand how it is that we are insulted. Only convince me of it, sir, and I promise my colleague I will resent it as stoutly as any body. But, indeed, I cannot find it in my heart to go to war with the old Commonwealth, for any thing which I now perceive in the case. Possibly, too, sir, there may be some 66 reprisals" in such a war. Massachusetts, as it has been already said by the mover of this resolution, has a deep interest in this question of boundary. One-half of the territory in controversy, a large and valuable tract, belongs to that Commonwealth. The property of the State is in peril. Now, although this property may be situated within the limits, and under the jurisdiction, of Maine, can any thing be more reasonable or proper, than that Massachusetts should desire to know in what way its domain is likely to be disposed of or affected? I think it is not only the right, but the duty of a faithful RepresentThe question in issue between the two countries is of ative of Massachusetts, if he deem its interests in jeopardeep importance to Maine; one in which that State just-dy, to call for this or any other information relating to ly feels a high degree of solicitude. As a citizen of that State, and as one of its Representatives here, I desire to know something of the present posture of the question. Mr. EVANS said the present debate had come upon him altoge ther unexpected; and although he was surprised that it had extended so far, he would, neverthe. less, venture to prolong it by a few remarks. The resoJution submitted by his honorable friend from Massachusetts, [Mr. LINCOLN,] whether for good or for evil, was introduced wholly without any knowledge or agency on his part. The first he heard of it was when it was read by the Clerk yesterday, and he had thought no more of it until he saw it in the papers this morning. It had never, for an instant, occurred to him that it would meet opposition from any quarter, or elicit discussion; and he had, therefore, hardly bestowed a thought upon it. I am now, sir, very much surprised at the objection taken by my honorable colleague, and at the reasons upon which it is founded. What is the resolution? Certainly it is sufficiently guarded in its language. Itasks for nothing which the President, in his judgment, may deem incompatible with the public interests to communicate. It seeks to draw out no disclosures which may have an injurious influence upon the question pending between us and Great Britain, in relation to the northeastern boundary. No harm, therefore, can, by possibility, result from the adoption of the resolution. It will bring to light nothing which can prove detrimental to our public interest. If there be such information in the possession of the Executive, it will be withheld. Now, sir, for one, I am very solicitous to get at the information which this resolution seeks. the subject, which may enable him to protect its rights. True, says my honorable colleague, Massachusetts has an interest in the question, so far as property is con |