in reply to his censure "for signing the treaty without communicating it to the Court of Versailles till after the signature, and in concealing the separate article from it even when signed." The preceding narrative is sufficiently full touching the reasons for secrecy, but a few remarks may properly be added concerning the secret article, which was in these words: "It is hereby understood and agreed that in case Great Britain, at the conclusion of the present war, shall recover or be put in possession of West Florida, the line of north boundary between the said province and the United States shall be a line drawn from the mouth of the River Yazoo where it unites with the Mississippi due east to the River Appalachicola." This line was the northern boundary of West Florida as established in 1764. At the time of the negotiation this province was in the possession of the Spanish troops, and it was a question what disposition would be made of it at the general peace. The Commissioners show very plainly that this question materially affected the whole Western negotiation. Mr. Oswald, wishing to cover as much of the eastern shores of the Mississippi with British claims as possible, had much to say of "the ancient boundaries" of Canada and Louisiana; and the British Court, expecting to regain the Floridas, "seemed desirous of annexing as much territory to them as possible, even up to the mouth of the Ohio."

Oswald avowed the desire to render the British countries on the gulf large enough "to be worth keeping and protecting," and also to gain a convenient retreat for the Tories; but he finally consented to yield to the United States the country north of the Yazoo line, if the Commissioners would yield to England south of that line. Hence it will be seen. that the secret article was a bargain between the parties. At the same time the Commissioners say: "We were of opinion that the country in conquest was of great value, both on account of its natural fertility and of its position, it being, in our opinion, the interest of America to extend as far down toward the mouth of the Mississippi as we possibly could."1

1 Diplomatic Correspondence, X., 187 et seq.

This boundary-description flows smooth, but it is doubtful if the same number of words in a treaty ever concealed more seeds of controversy. To draw boundary-lines on paper is one thing; to go upon the ground where they are supposed to fall, with instruments to run and mark them, is quite another, as the high contracting parties in this case found to their cost the moment an attempt was made to transfer the treatylines to the surface of the earth. No doubt the diplomatists at Paris used the language in good faith; but their lines had to be drawn, not only on paper, but also through vast wildernesses uninhabited and unexplored, and some of the lines, naturally, were found impracticable. In part, however, the disputes that arose had other sources than ignorance of geography. Serious doubts having arisen as to the practicability of reaching the Mississippi by a due west line from the northwesternmost point of the Lake of the Woods, Jay's Treaty provided that measures should be taken in concert to survey the Upper Mississippi, and that, in case the due-west line was found impracticable, the "two powers would thereupon proceed by amicable negotiation to regulate the boundary in that quarter,” etc. I have found no trace of such a survey being made, and the boundary was not fixed for more than twenty years thereafter.'

A convention was signed, May 12, 1803, by the representatives of the two powers, which contained arrangements for determining the boundary from the Lake of the Woods to the Mississippi. But at the same time that Rufus King was negotiating this treaty in London with Lord Hawkesbury, Messrs. Livingston and Monroe were negotiating a much more familiar one in Paris with the ministers of the First Consul. This was the treaty for the cession of Louisiana to the United States, signed April 30, 1803. When the London treaty came before the Senate, the argument was made that the Louisiana cession would affect the line from the Lake of the Woods to the Mississippi River; the Senate accordingly struck out the article, which the

1 The best maps of the period put down the course of the river above the forty-fifth parallel as "the Mississippi by conjecture." McMaster: History of the People of the United States, II., 153.

British Government resented, and so the whole treaty fell. By the purchase of 1803 we succeeded to all the rights, as respects Louisiana, that had belonged to Spain or France, and this carried us, west of the Mississippi, north to the British possessions. By a convention dated October 20, 1818, the United States and England settled the Lake of the Woods controversy, and established the boundary between them to the Rocky Mountains.

"It is agreed that a line drawn from the most northwestern point of the Lake of the Woods, along the forty-ninth parallel of north latitude, or if the said point shall not be in the fortyninth parallel of north latitude, then that a line drawn from the said point due north or south, as the case may be, until the said line shall intersect the said parallel of north latitude, and from the point of such intersection due west along and with the said parallel, shall be the line of demarcation between the territories of the United States and those of His Britannic Majesty, and that the said line shall form the northern boundary of the said territories of the United States, and the southern boundary of the territories of His Britannic Majesty, from the Lake of the Woods to the Stony Mountains."

This extract, together with the facts of geography, explains the singular projection of our northern boundary on the west side of the Lake of the Woods, which first appeared on ordinary maps some ten years ago.

The line from the intersection of the St. Lawrence and parallel 45° north to the foot of the St. Marys was established in 1823, by joint commission under the Treaty of Ghent; the line from the foot of the St. Marys to the northwesternmost point of Lake of the Woods, by the Webster-Ashburton Treaty in 1842.