A joint resolution of both Houses of Congress passed during the last session tends to confirm the intentions of the Government of the United States as inferred by Sir Howard Douglas from the information which he has received.  That resolution authorized the making of a road from and beyond Mars Hill to the mouth of the Madawaska River; but as the carrying into effect that resolution was left entirely to the discretion of the President, the undersigned can not entertain any apprehension of a forcible seizure of a large portion of the disputed territory, which a compliance with the resolution of Congress would imply.

The undersigned acknowledges with great satisfaction the assurances which he has received of the kind feelings which will actuate the President of the United States in the adjustment of any differences which may exist with Great Britain.  He submits, therefore, the representation of the lieutenant-governor of New Brunswick respecting the occupation of Mars Hill, relying confidently on the manifest propriety of restraining the aggression which it is supposed is meditated from the frontier of the State of Maine, and of both parties mutually abstaining from any acts which can affect the disputed territory, as the question of possession is now in the course of arbitration.

The undersigned reiterates to the Secretary of State the assurances of his highest consideration.

CHAS. R. VAUGHAN.

[Footnote 14:  Omitted.]

Mr. Van Buren to Mr. Vaughan.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,

Washington, May 11, 1829.

Right Hon. CHARGES R. VAUGHAN, etc.: 

The undersigned, Secretary of State of the United States, has the honor to acknowledge the receipt of the note which Mr. Vaughan, His Britannic Majesty’s envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary, addressed to him on the 10th of April, stating upon the authority of a letter from the governor of New Brunswick, whereof a copy came inclosed in Mr. Vaughan’s note, that it was apparently the intention of the Government of the United States to carry the road now making through the State of Maine to Mars Hill over that point, and to occupy Mars Hill as a military station; and protesting against such occupation upon the ground that the line drawn by the commissioners of boundary under the treaty of Ghent due north from the monument which marks the source of the river St. Croix was not considered by them as correctly laid down, and that it yet remains to be determined whether Mars Hill is eastward or westward of the true line.

The undersigned deems it unnecessary upon the present occasion to enter into an elaborate discussion of the point stated by Sir Howard Douglas, the lieutenant-governor of New Brunswick, concerning the line referred to by him, inasmuch as the relative position of Mars Hill to that line is already designated upon map A, and the line itself mutually agreed to and sufficiently understood for all present purposes, though not definitively settled by the convention of Condon of the 29th September, 1827.