To James Madison from William Tatham, 16 July 1815
From William Tatham
16th. July 1815.
Sir
I have this morning carefully traced on a copy of Mitchells Map of America1 (my own property, from the same plates from which the impression whereon the original boundary of the United States was traced, as testified by President Adams Mr. Jay and Doctor Franklin,) the boundary of the United States as it seems to have been settled by the discussion of our former Commissioners;2 Copies whereof, taken in London, with the four Surveys and Sketches refered to annexed, is in my possession, and the surveys traced in fac simile by myself.
From these documents it clearly appears that, Sir William Alexander’s boundary of Nova Scotia3 begins at Cape Sable, running thence to Saint Mary’s Bay, thence through the Bay of Passmacadie, up Saint Croix River to its source; thence due north towards the River St. Barnabas (a branch of the St. Lawrance) to the height of land, abou⟨t⟩ Lattitude 48°. No. with that height S. westerly &ca, leaving “Long Island.” (near Cape Sable) Campo Bello Island & Moosa Island, in the United States! The detail in the official Survey of the Rivers Kenebec & Chaudier, made by order of General Murray while Governor of Quebec,4 will be found of great importance, in knowing and determining where & how to adjust our boundary through that intricate labrynth of Lakes and Waters but partially known on the heights of the Country; and perhaps, so loosly expressed as to leave the doors of Contention open to the disgust or intrigue of the contracting parties.
I perceive, when the President of the United States shall have delegated this important national adjustment to some agent more fortunate in the poplar esteem than myself, it may be in my power to be incidentally useful to your Country: unfortunately a Land which, forgetting that I have spent my life and property in their service, and at Sixty four Years old have nothing left but a cold public countenance which denies me victuals, cloaths, lodging and the common rights of Citizens and civilized Society, does all which its inhabitants can do to keep back my long and painful exertions investigations and discoveries in favour of that selfish ignorance and design which (I dare to say) has misled our public Councils, abused the Peoples rights & confidence, and Jeoperdized the safety of this favoured Continent.
If I am (even civilly) applied to by those who may have the honor of the Public trust, they can be furnished with General Murrays Survey, in my collection, with the official discussion and Surveys (Large and Small) brought in evidence in the adjustment of our national Commissioners; with the Kings Confirmation of the Line established between New York and Canada;5 with the Chartered bounds of Massachusets and its oscillations; with Sir William Alexanders grant of Nova Scotia; with the testimony of Adams Jay and Franklin; with the testimony of the Sieur de Monts, L’Escarbot, Champlain Erondelle’s Nova Francia, the relations of Poutrincourt, Douville, Champdore &a;6 with an elegant compilation of the whole subject done in my office, and with my Original materials; with Maseress collection of Canadian Commissions & State papers,7 and with nearly all the legal, political, topographical, and authentic Vouchers which became important in this enquiry. I have the honor to be respectfully, and wishg. to be usefully, Sir, Your long known and faithful H. Servt.
Wm Tatham
RC (DNA: RG 59, ML). In a clerk’s hand, signed and dated by Tatham. Bears James Monroe’s note: “a copy to be sent to Mr Holmes—massachusetts.”
1. John Mitchell, A Map of the British and French Dominions in North America, with the Roads, Distances, Limits, and Extent of the Settlements,… ([London], 1755).
2. Tatham evidently referred to a report sent in 1802 to Rufus King, then U.S. minister to Great Britain, by Egbert Benson. The report explained the conclusion that Benson, Thomas Barclay, and David Howell, commissioners under article five of the Jay Treaty, had reached regarding the identity and location of the St. Croix River, used in the 1783 Treaty of Paris to describe and define part of the United States-Canadian boundary. Statements by John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and John Jay on the understanding of the river’s location that had informed the negotiation of the 1783 treaty were included in the report. The four appended “Surveys and Sketches” were 1) a map of St. Croix Island copied from the 1613 edition of Samuel de Champlain’s Voyages; 2) a 1797 survey of Bone Island, identified in Benson’s report as Champlain’s St. Croix Island; 3) a section of Mitchell’s map made from a copy used by Adams, Franklin, and Jay to determine the 1783 boundary, with a line showing its location; and 4) a survey of Passamaquoddy Bay (Justin Winsor, The Cartographical History of the North-Eastern Boundary Controversy between the United States and Great Britain [Cambridge, Mass., 1887], 3–15; Moore, International Adjudications, 2:375–85). The report and accompanying maps are now held by the Library of Congress; images of the documents may be viewed at https://www.loc.gov/item/2009579306/.
3. Benson’s report includes an English translation of the description of Nova Scotia’s boundaries from the 10 Sept. 1621 Latin charter granted to Sir William Alexander by James I of England (Moore, International Adjudications, 2:376). A lengthier extract of the charter is printed ibid., 1:173–74.
4. The map to which Tatham referred was made by British army engineer John Montresor, who explored the area in 1761 at the order of Gen. James Murray. Montresor’s original map was sent to London, but George Washington obtained an altered copy of it in 1775 (Arthur S. Lefkowitz, Benedict Arnold’s Army: The 1775 American Invasion of Canada during the Revolutionary War [2008; repr., El Dorado Hills, Calif., 2014], 21, 24–25).
5. George III’s approval of the boundary “fixed at the 45th degree of north latitude” was promulgated in a 12 Aug. 1768 order in council (Statutes, Documents and Papers Bearing on the Discussion Respecting the Northern and Western Boundaries of the Province of Ontario [Toronto, 1877], 54–55).
6. Champlain’s Voyages, Marc Lescarbot’s Histoire de la Nouvelle-France, first published in 1609, and Pierre Erondelle’s 1625 English translation of the latter, chronicling Pierre Dugua de Monts’s and Jean de Biencourt de Poutrincourt’s ventures in Nova Scotia, were cited in Benson’s report. That document also included an extract from the 1618 edition of Lescarbot’s Histoire, mentioning the Sieur d’Orville and Champdore (Pierre Angibault) as participants in the expeditions (Moore, International Adjudications, 2:378, 381). For these figures in the French settlement of Nova Scotia, see Halpenny, Dictionary of Canadian Biography, 1:64, 96–99, 186–99, 291–95, 469–71.
7. Francis Maseres, A Collection of Several Commissions, and Other Public Instruments, Proceeding from His Majesty’s Royal Authority, and Other Papers, Relating to the State of the Province in Quebec in North America, since the Conquest of It by the British Arms in 1760 (London, 1772).