people will make it for you fast and hot
enough. I know them. But if peace be your wish, I can give no
assurance of success. The difficulties in its way will be formidable."
The President replied, "Peace with honor"; and the general, who fully
reciprocated the President's feeling, took his leave, accompanied by
Captain Robert Anderson and Lieutenant E.D. Keyes, his aid-de-camp. He
left with general instructions, but in certain events he was to act on
his own judgment without restriction. Arriving in Boston, he met
Governor Edward Everett, and arranged for calling out the militia and
accepting volunteers if needed.

Governor Everett introduced him to his executive council with the
following address: "General, I take great pleasure in introducing you
to the members of the Executive Council of Massachusetts. I need not
say that you are already known to them by reputation. They are
familiar with your fame as it is recorded in some of the arduous and
honorable fields of the country's struggles. We rejoice in meeting you
on this occasion. Charged as you are with a most momentous mission by
the President of the United States, we are sure you are intrusted
with a duty most grateful to your feelings--that of averting an appeal
to arms. We place unlimited reliance on your spirit, energy, and
discretion. Should you unhappily fail in your efforts, under the
instructions of the President, to restore harmony, we know that you
are equally prepared for a still more responsible duty. Should that
unhappy event occur, I beg you to depend on the firm support of
Massachusetts." He was then given a reception by the Legislature, and
received on its behalf by Robert C. Winthrop.

From Boston he proceeded at once to Portland, where he found the
people greatly excited, and demanding the immediate seizure and
occupation of the disputed territory. At the capital, Augusta, where
he next proceeded, he found the same excitement with the same demands.
The Legislature was in session, and a large majority of its members
were for war. The strip of disputed land was valuable chiefly for ship
timber. Some British subjects had entered the territory and cut some
of the timber, and the Governor of Maine sent an agent with a posse to
drive them off. The British seized and imprisoned the agent, and much
angry correspondence followed between the authorities of both sides.

General Scott soon determined that the only mode of settlement was to
prohibit or have