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Subject Area: Political Theory
Topic: The American Revolution and Constitution

TO THE MARQUIS OF CARMARTHEN. - John Adams, The Works of John Adams, vol. 8 (Letters and State Papers 1782-1799) [1853]

Edition used:

The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: with a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations, by his Grandson Charles Francis Adams (Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1856). 10 volumes. Vol. 8.

Part of: The Works of John Adams, 10 vols.

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TO THE MARQUIS OF CARMARTHEN.

London, 18 May, 1786.

My Lord,—

I do myself the honor of transmitting to your Lordship, herewith inclosed, an act of the United States of America in congress assembled, the 13th of October, 1785, together with copies of sundry other papers, relative to the boundary line between the United States and his Majesty’s late province of Nova Scotia, part of which is now called New Brunswick. It is still fresh in the recollection of every person who was concerned in the negotiation of the late peace, that Mitchell’s map was made use of by the British and American plenipotentiaries, and the river St. Croix was marked out on that map, as there delineated, for the boundary; which circumstance alone, it is hoped, will be sufficient to determine all questions which may have been raised concerning so recent a transaction. In former controversies between the crowns of Great Britain and France, concerning the boundary between the late province of Massachusetts Bay and Nova Scotia, it has often been contended by the British ministers and commissioners that the river St. Croix was a river still further eastward than the easternmost of those three which fall into the bay of Passamaquoddy, but never once admitted to be a river more westerly. So that the plenipotentiaries at the peace, on both sides, had reason to presume that, when they fixed on the St. Croix, surveyed by Mitchell and laid down by him on his map, there never could afterwards arise any controversy concerning it. Yet it seems, my Lord, that a number of his Majesty’s subjects have crossed over the river and settled in the territory of the United States, an encroachment in which they can not be supposed to be countenanced by his Majesty’s government.

Difficulties of this kind, if early attended to, are easily adjusted; and I shall be ready, at all times, to enter into conferences with your Lordship, that every point may be discussed, and all uneasiness prevented; but, while new maps are every day made, and old ones colored, according to an erroneous idea, a foundation may be laid for much future evil, both to nations and individuals.

I am, my Lord, &c.

John Adams.