To the editor:
On December 5, 1836, President Andrew Jackson reported a surplus of public money in the U.S. Treasury. For the first (and perhaps last) time, the Nation was debt-free, and there were no income taxes to cut. The Congress solved this dilemma by appropriating “block grants” to the states to use at their discretion. Of the $37 million in federal funds, Maine’s share was about $1 million.
On March 29, 1837, Governor Robert Dunlap and our Legislature decided to use the gift by giving each “free person” in Maine $2.02 — about two days’ wages. Probably part of their plan, a census of the Madawaska Settlement (in the Disputed Territory) was now necessary. Maine’s northeast boundary had been unsettled ever since 1783.
On May 23, 1837, newly-employed census taker Ebenezer Greeley of Dover (Penobscot County) began his duties in the Disputed Territory by hiring Daniel Michaud, of Grand Falls, as an interpreter. Greeley was determined to conduct the census. He seemed just as intent on getting himself arrested by New Brunswick authorities, which would put him in the spotlight in the Northeastern Maine boundary dispute.
Greeley was arrested on May 27th, but was not jailed. Then he was arrested by a British officer on June 7, 1837. This time he did land in Fredericton jail. Maine Governor Dunlap notified the President of the situation on June 19, 1837. As Commander-in Chief, Governor Dunlap put the Maine Militia on alert on June 27, 1837.
Because of his (international) celebrity status, Greeley was allowed freedom to “walk about town” during parts of the day. President Van Buren and Secretary of State John Forsyth managed to get him released on August 10, 1837.
But Greeley, in his persistence to carry on with the census, was arrested again on September 11th. He was returned to the Fredericton jail. This third arrest (and the rumored action by Maine’s Governor) prompted Sir John Harvey, Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick, to order up two companies of the 43rd Light Infantry, one to be stationed at Woodstock and the other at Grand Falls.
Harvey was a veteran of the War of 1812. He joined his troops on September 22nd and on October 1rst reported to Lord Glenelg, British Colonial Secretary, that his “little military demonstration had infused confidence in the inhabitants of the Disputed Territory.”
Ebenezer Greeley finally obtained a written discharge on February 2, 1838. The Maine Legislature paid him $500 (enough for a small family farm) for “all the sufferings and losses from arrest and imprisonment at Fredericton.”
On March 23, 1838, the Maine Legislature approved formation of a Survey Commission for running and locating the northeastern boundary line of the State — according to the Treaty of 1783. Newly-elected Governor Edward Kent explained in a letter to President Van Buren (April 28th) that “the people of Maine were not desirous of border warfare, they had no desire to gain territory by conquest, but they knew their rights and dared to maintain them.” (To be continued.)
Presque Isle
