ous have been the
materials employed for the purpose that the great and only important
question, although never lost sight of by the writers themselves, has
to the eye of the casual observer been completely hidden. In the report
under consideration this distinction between treaties of binding force
and documents intended for mere illustration has not been regarded, and
the vague as well as obviously inaccurate delineations of a French or a
Venetian map maker are gravely held forth as of equal value for a basis
of argument as the solemn and ratified acts of the two nations.

In pursuance of this desire of illustration, every known document which
could in any form support either claim has been advanced and set forth
in the statements laid before His Majesty the King of the Netherlands
when acting as umpire under the fifth article of the treaty of Ghent. If
not yet given entire to the public,[39] they are in the possession of
both Governments in a printed form, together with the opinion of the
arbiter in respect to them; and although it is necessary that the
arguments then adduced in favor of the American claim should be in part
repeated, and although new illustrations of the correctness of that
argument have since been brought to light, the present document will be
confined as closely as possible to the provisions of the treaty itself,
and will adduce no more of illustration than is barely sufficient to
render the terms of that treaty certain and definite.

[Footnote 39: A considerable part of the papers, together with the
argument, has been published by Mr. Gallatin in his Right of the United
States to the Northeastern Boundary. New York, 1840. 8 vo. pp. 180.]

The boundaries of the United States are described in the treaty of 1783
in the following words:[40]

[Footnote 40: The words here appearing in italics are not italicized in
the original treaty.]

"And that _all disputes which might arise in future on the subject
of the boundaries of the said United States may be prevented_ it is
hereby agreed and declared that the following are and shall be their
boundaries, viz: _From the northwest angle of Nova Scotia_, viz, _that
angle which is formed by a line drawn due north from the source of
St. Croix River to the highlands; along the said highlands which divide
those rivers that empty themselves into the river St. Lawrence from
those which fall into the Atlantic Ocean_ to the _northwesternmost_ head
of Connecticut Riv