he treaty, find anywhere westward of that line highlands
separating rivers according to the treaty of 1783, a line drawn from the
monument at the source of the St. Croix would be such a fulfillment of
the terms of that treaty that the President could agree to make it the
boundary without reference to the State of Maine.

Mr. McLane, under date of 21st March, corrected the error into which Sir
Charles had fallen in regard to the proceedings on the award in the
Senate of the United States, and showed that that body not only failed,
but by two repeated votes of 35 and 34 to 8 refused, to consent to the
execution of the award, and by necessary implication denied its binding
effect upon the United States, thus putting it out of the power of the
President to carry it into effect and leaving the high parties to the
submission situated precisely as they were prior to the selection of the
arbiter.

The President had perceived, Mr. McLane said, in all the previous
efforts to adjust the boundary in accordance with the terms of the
treaty of 1783 that a natural and uniform rule in the settlement of
disputed questions of location had been quite overlooked; that the
chief, if not only, difficulty arose from a supposed necessity of
finding highlands corresponding with the treaty description in a due
north line from the monument, but it was plain that if such highlands
could be anywhere discovered it would be a legal execution of the treaty
to draw a line to them from the head of the St. Croix without regard to
the precise course given in the treaty. It therefore became his duty to
urge the adoption of this principle upon the Government of His Britannic
Majesty as perhaps the best expedient which remained for ascertaining
the boundary of the treaty of 1783. The Secretary could not perceive
in the plan proposed anything so complicated as Sir Charles appeared
to suppose. On the contrary, it was recommended to approbation and
confidence by its entire simplicity. It chiefly required the discovery
of the highlands called for by the treaty, and the mode of reaching
them upon the principle suggested was so simple that no observations
could make it plainer. The difficulty of discovering such highlands,
Mr. McLane said, was presumed not to be insuperable. The arbiter himself
was not understood to have found it impracticable to discover highlands
answering the description of the highlands of the treaty, though unable
to find them due north from