President of the United States.

SIR:  I have the honor to inclose to you a copy of a resolve[32] of the legislature of this State in favor of Ebenezer S. Greely, also a copy of a resolve[32] in favor of John Baker and others; and in compliance with the request of the legislature I ask of the Government of the United States a reimbursement of the several sums allowed thereby, which several sums have been paid by this State to the individuals named in the resolves.

The justice and propriety of granting this request, I can have no doubt, will be apparent to you and to Congress when the circumstances under which the allowances were made are called to mind.

Mr. Greely, acting as agent under a law of this State authorizing and directing a census to be taken in unincorporated places, was forcibly seized and imprisoned for several months, and then, without trial, released.

John Baker and his associates named in the other resolve suffered by imprisonment and otherwise for acting under a law of this State incorporating the town of Madawaska in 1831.  The State of Maine has acknowledged by these and other resolves its sense of obligation to remunerate in the first instance these sufferers in its cause and to satisfy as far as it is able their claims upon its justice.  But the wrongs by which they suffered were committed by a foreign power with whom we are now at peace.  The State of Maine has no power to make war or authorize reprisals.  She can only look to the General Government to assume the payment as an act of justice to a member of the Union under the provisions of the Constitution and to demand redress and remuneration from the authors of the wrong in the name of the United States.

A minute recapitulation of the facts upon which these resolves are founded is deemed entirely unnecessary and superfluous, as they have heretofore been communicated and are well known to the Executive and to Congress.

Maine has suffered too many repetitions of similar attempts to prevent her from enjoying her rightful possessions and enforcing her just claims to feel indifferent on the subject, and we look with confidence to the General Government for protection and support.  The amount of money, although considerable, is of comparatively small importance when contrasted with the principles involved and the effect which must result from an immediate and ready assumption of the liability on the part of the United States.  Such an act would be highly gratifying to the people of this State as evidence that their just claims and rights are fully recognized by the United States, and that the strong arm of the Union will be stretched out for their protection in every lawful effort to maintain and enforce their claims, which they know and feel to be just and unimpeachable and which they are determined to maintain.

I trust I shall be pardoned for earnestly urging immediate action on the subject.