ROBERT P. DUNLAP.

STATE OF MAINE, EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT,

July 3, 1837.

Hon. JOHN FORSYTE,

Secretary of State of United States.

SIR:  I have had the honor to receive yours of the 26th of June last, in which, by direction of the President, you indicate that the circumstances detailed in Mr. Greely’s letter relative to his arrest and imprisonment are not of themselves without further explanation sufficient to justify the interference of the Government of the United States.  This information is received with some surprise and much regret—­surprise because I had understood Mr. Greely’s communication to show that while employed within the limits of this State and under its authority on a business intrusted to him by the laws of the State he was, without being charged or suspected of any other offense, seized and transported to a foreign jail; regret inasmuch as the feelings of the people of this State have been strongly excited by this outrage upon the honor and sovereignty of Maine, and each additional day’s confinement which that unoffending citizen endures is adding to the indignation of our citizens.  I therefore hasten to lay before you a summary of the transactions connected with this subject as they are gathered from Mr. Greely’s communications to this department.  The facts are to be considered the less indisputable because they are in the main confirmed by the statements contained in the letter of the lieutenant-governor of the Province of New Brunswick, by whose order the imprisonment was made, and a copy of which I recently had the honor of transmitting to the President.

On the 8th day of March last the legislature of this State passed an act relative to the surplus revenue, a copy of which is inclosed,[2] to the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth sections of which I beg leave to refer your attention.  An additional act was passed on the 29th day of March last, a copy of which I also inclose.[2] By this last-named act it became the duty of the county commissioners of Penobscot County to cause an enumeration to be taken of the inhabitants of said county residing north of the surveyed and located townships.  The tract thus defined comprised the town of Madawaska, which was incorporated by this State on the 15th of March, 1831.  Pursuant to that requirement, the county commissioners of said county appointed Ebenezer S. Greely to perform that service, and, being duly commissioned, he forthwith proceeded to the place designated and entered upon the required operations.  Being thus employed, he was on the 29th day of May last arrested by the authorities of the Province of New Brunswick and conveyed to Woodstock, in the county of Carleton, in said Province, but the sheriff of the county refused to commit him to jail, and he was accordingly discharged.  He immediately returned to the Madawaska settlements to enter again upon the duty intrusted to him.  On the 6th day of June last he was arrested a second time by the same authorities and committed to the jail at Frederickton.  It is for this act of obedience to the laws of his government that Mr. Greely now lies incarcerated in a public jail in the Province of New Brunswick.  Is not redress urgently called for?  Must not this unoffending citizen be immediately released?