Gambar halaman
PDF
ePub

they intended; and they proposed in lieu of it, a line twenty miles from the Hudson measured by lines at right angles to the general course of the river, instead of upon east and west lines.

Upon this small difference the commissioners separated without coming to an agreement.1

The question remained open between five and six years longer when commissioners appointed and duly authorized by the respective provinces met at Hartford, and, on the 18th of May 1773, executed in presence, and with the approval, of the governors of the two provinces, an agreement by indenture, by which it was declared that "A line beginning at a place fixed upon by the two governments of New York and Connecticut, in or about A. D. 1731, for the north west corner of a tract of land commonly called the Oblong, or equivalent land; and running from the said corner north 21 degrees 10 minutes and 30 seconds east, as the magnetic needle now points, to the north line of the Massachusetts bay, shall at all times hereafter be the line of jurisdiction between the said province of Massachusetts bay and the said province of New York, in all and every part and place where the said province of New York on its eastern boundary, shall adjoin on the said province of the said Massachusetts bay.”2

This line though described in different language, is believed to be substantially the twenty mile line from the Hudson, which had been recommended by the board of trade in 1757 as the ancient eastern boundary of New York, and which had been understood to be such from the time of the action of the king's commissioners who accompanied the expedition for the conquest of New Netherland in 1664. The antiquity and high authority of this line, though well known both in New York and Massachusetts, was not mentioned by the commissioners of either in any of their arguments, for the very plain reason that each of the parties desired to go beyond the line and thus to gain additional territory.

Thus the long pending controversy in regard to the eastern boundary of New York, so far as that province bordered on Massachusetts, was finally terminated. But the Massachusetts commissioners were not authorized to compromise any right which that province might have to territory west of Hudson's river, and hence, as will have been noticed, the agreement only designates the line fixed upon as the eastern boundary of New York, and not as the western boundary of Massachusetts.

1 Journal N. Y. Assembly, Nov. 25, 1767.

2 Jour. N. Y. Assembly, Jan. 12, 1774. Jour. Congress, Sept. 29, 1785.

After the close of the revolution in 1784, the state of Massachusetts presented a petition to the congress of the United States alleging that the state of Massachusetts under the charter of King James, in 1620, to the council of Plymouth, and the sale and conveyance in 1627, by said council to Sir Henry Roswell and his associates and successors were entitled to all the territory between the line of latitude of forty-four degrees and fifteen minutes, and that of forty-two degrees and two minutes north, and extending west from the rivers Merrimack and Charles to the Pacific ocean, that a portion of said territory was claimed by the state of New York, and praying that a court might be constituted agreeably to the articles of the confederation for the trial and decision of their claim.

In answer to this petition, commissioners were agreed upon and appointed, and a time and place was fixed for a hearing of the controversy, but before any trial, the commissioners from the two states being duly authorized for that purpose, met at Hartford, and on the 4th of December, 1786, agreed upon the terms of a compromise, by which Massachusetts relinquished all claim of jurisdiction as a government over the lands claimed by the state of New York, and the state of New York ceded and granted to Massachusetts the right of property to and in over two hundred and thirty thousand acres between the Oswego and Chenango rivers. New York also granted the right of soil to Massachusetts in all that part of the state of New York lying west of a line beginning at a point on the north line of Pennsylvania, eighty-two miles west of the north-east corner of that state, and running from thence due north, through Seneca lake to Lake Ontario, excepting therefrom one mile in width along the eastern branch of Niagara river. This cession of New York, covered about six millions of acres of land, and comprised a territory equal in extent to the present entire state of Massachusetts.1

This relinquishment by New York of so great an extent of territory is very conclusive evidence of the strong apprehension entertained by her statesmen, that the claim of Massachusetts was likely to prevail if brought to a legal determination the correctness of the view which has been the weakness of the claim of that colony to Connecticut river.

and tends to confirm herein before taken of reach eastward to the

In the next chapter the eastern boundary of New York, against New Hampshire will be considered.

1Jour. Cong., June 3, 1784, June 9, 1785, and Oct. 8, 1787. Turner's Holland Purchase, p. 325. Street's N. Y. Council of Revision, p. 153–156, in note.

CHAPTER V.

THE EASTERN BOUNDARY OF NEW YORK ON NEW HAMPSHIRE.

1741-1764.

New Hampshire in 1741, declared by the king to extend westward to New York - New York bounded east by a twenty mile line from the Hudson and Lake Champlain Action of the king and the officers of his government in relation to it - Fort Dummer - Lands granted by Massachusetts west of Connecticut river - Official acts and declarations recognizing the western extent of New Hampshire - Maps and geographical descriptions prior to the king's order of July 20, 1764, showing New Hampshire to reach westward to within twenty miles of the Hudson and to Lake Champlain.

THE

HE extent westerly of the province of New Hampshire was not claimed, like that of Massachusetts, to be founded upon a royal charter, but upon the fact that by order of the crown it reached westward from the Atlantic to his majesty's province of New York, and that the eastern boundary of New York when the king's order was made, was a line running from Long Island sound parallel to the Hudson, to Lake Champlain. Many historical facts have already been adduced to show that such was understood to be the boundary of New York, and others more particularly applicable to its limits upon New Hampshire, will be presented hereafter. But it will first be proper to take some notice of the origin and progress of the colony of New Hampshire, prior to the commencement of its boundary controversy with New York.

In November 1629, the next year after the confirmation of the grant by the council of Plymouth to Sir Henry Roswell and his associates of the province of Massachusetts, before mentioned, Captain John Mason, secretary to the council of Plymouth, obtained from that company a patent under its common seal of all that part of New England "lying upon the sea coast, beginning from the middle part of Merrimack river, and from thence to proceed northwards along the sea coast to Piscataqua river, and so proceeds up within the said river and to the farthest head thereof; and from thence north westwards until three score miles be finished from the first entrance of Piscataqua river; and also from Merrimack through the said river and to the farthest head thereof, and so forwards up into the lands westward, until three score miles be finished; and from thence to cross over land to the three score miles end accounted from Piscata

qua river, together with all islands and islets within five leagues distance of the provinces."

This territory, after the name of the county in England in which Mason resided, was called New Hampshire. A portion of it came in direct conflict with the charter of Massachusetts of earlier date, being bounded on the south by the river Merrimack, while that of Massachusetts reached "three miles to the northward of any and every part" of that river. Upon any construction of Mason's grant its inland breadth could not exceed sixty miles, and by reference to a map it will at once be perceived that it would fall some twenty or thirty miles short of reaching westward even to Connecticut river. All lands lying west of this grant to the Pacific ocean as far northward as a line of latitude running through a point three miles north of the source of the Merrimack, in latitude about fortythree and a half degrees north, was claimed to be within the charter limits of Massachusetts, and indeed, seem to be embraced by its language. Massachusetts also claimed with much less apparent reason, that her territory extended eastward to the Atlantic ocean and northward to the same line of latitude. This eastern extension of territory, if admitted, would include nearly all of Mason's grant in Massachusetts. At the time of this grant there were several detached settlements within it, and a large portion of the settlers favoring the claim of Massachusetts, she succeeded in establishing jurisdiction over it, and maintained it for about forty years. In 1679 the matter having been brought before the king in council, the claim of Massachusetts 'to extend its northern boundary line from the source of the Merrimack eastward to the Atlantic was declared to be unfounded, and the four towns of Portsmouth, Dover, Exeter, and Hampton, were determined to be without the bounds of that province. It being admitted that Mason, under his grant from the council of Plymouth, had no right to exercise any powers of government, a commission was issued by the crown for the government of the colony, and from that time down to the period of the revolution, New Hampshire continued to be governed by commissioners as a royal province.2

In 1737 a controversy which had long existed between Massachusetts and New Hampshire in regard to their boundaries was heard at Hampton, in the latter province, by commissioners appointed by the crown from other colonies. On the part of Massachusetts it was contended that her northern boundary should be a line running

1 Haz., vol. 1, p. 289. Story on the Constitution, vol. 1, 64. Belknap, 8, Farmer's ed.

2 Farmer's Belknap, chap. iv, and p. 449–452. Story, 65-68.

three miles to the northward of the mouth and of every part of Merrimack river to a point three miles north of the crotch where the rivers Pemigewasset and Winnipiseogee unite and form the Merrimack, and from thence due west to the South sea; while on the part of New Hampshire it was claimed that the boundary line should commence three miles north of the mouth of the Merrimack and thence run directly west until it should meet with his majesty's other governments. The commissioners instead of deciding the question made an evasive and conditional report, declaring in substance that if the charter of King William in 1691, granted all the lands which had been granted by King Charles the first, then the commissioners found that the line claimed by Massachusetts was the true line; but if otherwise, then that line should be as claimed by New Hampshire, referring the question of the construction of the charters to the decision of the king in council. An appeal being taken to the king and heard by him in council, a decision was made in 1740, which, disregarding the question contested before. the commissioners and submitted by them, declared the northern boundary of Massachusetts to be" a similar curve line pursuing the course of the Merrimack river, at three miles distance, on the north side thereof beginning at the Atlantic ocean, and ending at a point due north of Patucket falls, and a straight line drawn from thence due west until it meets with his majesty's other governments." This decision was highly favorable to New Hampshire, carrying much the greater part of her southern line about twelve miles farther south than had ever been claimed by that province, and cutting off from Massachusetts a strip of territory of that width along nearly the whole of her northern boundary.

For the previous forty years the governor of Massachusetts, under the direction of the crown, had also acted as governor of New Hampshire, each of the two provinces having distinct colonial councils and assemblies; but on the adjustment of the boundary question, Benning Wentworth was appointed to the sole governorship of New Hampshire. His commission, which bore date June 3, 1741, described "our province of New Hampshire, within our dominions of New England in America," as extending westward until it should "meet with our other governments.”1

At the date of the commission to governor Wentworth, and for a long time before and ever afterwards until the period of the revo

1

1 Belknap chap. 17 and 18. Doc. His. N. Y., vol. 4, p. 532. For governor Wenthworth's commission, see Appendix No. 2.

« SebelumnyaLanjutkan »