ntertained
consultation should be had with the authorities of the States of
Maine and Massachusetts. Letters, therefore, of which copies are
herewith communicated, were addressed to the governors of those States,
suggesting that commissioners should be appointed by each of them,
respectively, to repair to this city and confer with the authorities
of this Government on a line by agreement or compromise, with its
equivalents and compensations. This suggestion was met by both States
in a spirit of candor and patriotism and promptly complied with.
Four commissioners on the part of Maine and three on the part of
Massachusetts, all persons of distinction and high character, were duly
appointed and commissioned and lost no time in presenting themselves at
the seat of the Government of the United States. These commissioners
have been in correspondence with this Government during the period of
the discussions; have enjoyed its confidence and freest communications;
have aided the general object with their counsel and advice, and in the
end have unanimously signified their assent to the line proposed in the
treaty.

Ordinarily it would be no easy task to reconcile and bring together such
a variety of interests in a matter in itself difficult and perplexed,
but the efforts of the Government in attempting to accomplish this
desirable object have been seconded and sustained by a spirit of
accommodation and conciliation on the part of the States concerned,
to which much of the success of these efforts is to be ascribed.

Connected with the settlement of the line of the northeastern boundary,
so far as it respects the States of Maine and Massachusetts, is the
continuation of that line along the highlands to the northwesternmost
head of Connecticut River. Which of the sources of that stream is
entitled to this character has been matter of controversy and of some
interest to the State of New Hampshire. The King of the Netherlands
decided the main branch to be the northwesternmost head of the
Connecticut. This did not satisfy the claim of New Hampshire. The line
agreed to in the present treaty follows the highlands to the head of
Halls Stream and thence down that river, embracing the whole claim of
New Hampshire and establishing her title to 100,000 acres of territory
more than she would have had by the decision of the King of the
Netherlands.

By the treaty of 1783 the line is to proceed down the Connecticut
River to the forty-fifth