case of the _Caroline_ serious
trouble arose between the authorities of Maine and New Brunswick over
the undetermined boundary between the St. Croix River and the
Highlands, and there ensued the so-called "Aroostook War." During the
summer of 1838 British and American lumbermen began operating along the
Aroostook River in large numbers. The governor of Maine sent a body of
militia to enforce the authority of that State, and the New Brunswick
authorities procured a detachment of British regulars to back up their
position. Bloodshed was averted by the arrival of General Winfield
Scott, who managed to restrain the Maine authorities. The
administration found it necessary to take up seriously the settlement
of the boundary question, and for the next three years the matter was
under consideration, while each side had surveyors employed in a vain
attempt to locate a line which would correspond to the line of the
treaty. As soon as the McLeod affair was settled, Webster devoted
himself earnestly to the boundary question. He decided to drop the
mass of data accumulated by the surveyors and historians, and to reach
an agreement by direct negotiation.

In April, 1842, Alexander Baring, Lord Ashburton, arrived in Washington
and the following August the Webster-Ashburton treaty was signed. The
boundary fixed by the treaty gave Maine a little more than half the
area which she claimed and the United States appropriated $150,000 to
compensate Maine for the territory which she had lost.

The settlement of these matters did not, however, insure peace with
England. Settlers were crowding into Oregon and it was evident that
the joint occupation, established by the convention of 1818, would soon
have to be terminated and a divisional line agreed upon. Great Britain
insisted that her southern boundary should extend at least as far as
the Columbia River, while Americans finally claimed the whole of the
disputed area, and one of the slogans of the presidential campaign of
1844 was "Fifty-Four-Forty or Fight." At the same time Great Britain
actively opposed the annexation of Texas by the United States. Her
main reason for this course was that she wished to encourage the
development of Texas as a cotton-growing country from which she could
draw a large enough supply to make her independent of the United
States. If Texas should thus devote herself to the production of
cotton as her chief export crop, she would, of course, adopt a
fr