46th parallel, and its east line being the summit of the Rocky Mountains. (See fig. 26.)

Oregon was admitted as a State in 1859, with its boundaries as at present established. The portion cut off from Oregon Territory was placed under the Territorial government of Washington.

The Territory of Dakota, formed in 1861, comprised all that region included in the present States of North Dakota and South Dakota and thence westward to the summit of the Rocky Mountains. (See fig. 19.)

The Territory of Nevada was organized from the western portion of the Territory of Utah in 1861. (See fig. 24.) As originally constituted, its east line was the 39th meridian west from Washington, and its southern boundary was the 37th parallel. It was admitted as a State in 1864, when its eastern boundary was made the 38th meridian (approximately 115° 03′ west from Greenwich). In 1866, by act of Congress, the eastern boundary was moved 1° still farther east and placed upon the 37th meridian west from Washington, and the triangular portion contained between the former southern boundary, the boundary of California, the Colorado River, and the 37th meridian was added, thus giving the State its present limits. The Territory of Colorado was formed in 1861, with the limits of the present State. It was admitted as a State in 1876.

The Territory of Arizona, formed in 1863, included that portion of New Mexico lying west of the 32d meridian west of Washington. The Territory of Idaho was formed in 1863 from parts of Dakota and Washington Territories. As originally constituted it included the area lying east of the present eastern limits of Oregon and Washington to the 27th meridian west of Washington. Its southern boundary was the northern boundary of Colorado and Utah-that is, the 41st and 42d parallels of latitude. (See fig. 25.) From this Territory was detached in 1864 the Territory of Montana, with nearly the limits of the present State, and in 1868 the Territory of Wyoming; these changes reduced Idaho to its present dimensions.

The Territory of Oklahoma, organized in 1890 from a part of the Indian Territory and the public-land strip north of Texas, when admitted as a State in 1907 included the Indian Territory also. (See fig. 21.)

PAYMENTS TO THE STATES

At the last session of the Twenty-second Congress an act was passed "to appropriate for a limited time the proceeds of the sales of the public lands of the United States and for granting lands to certain States," but it was not approved by President Jackson, who, under date of December 4, 1833, in a long message to the Twenty

106262°-306

third Congress,82 set forth his reasons for withholding his signature. In that message he gave an excellent historical account of the State cessions by which the public lands had been in part acquired.

A somewhat similar act,83 approved June 23, 1836, by President Van Buren, directed that all money in the Treasury on January 1, 1837, in excess of $5,000,000 be divided among the States in proportion to the number of their Representatives in Congress, to be paid in quarterly installments and to be returned to the United States when required by Congress. Three installments were paid, amounting in all to $28,101,644.91. Payment of the fourth installment was postponed indefinitely by act of October 2, 1837. No part of these payments has ever been returned by the States.

Other payments to States from the proceeds of land sales were authorized by act of September 4, 1841,84 but discontinued by act of August 30, 1842.85

THE BOUNDARY LINES OF THE STATES

86

MAINE

87

The first charter that related to the area forming the present State of Maine (fig. 1) was that granted by Henry IV of France to Pierre du Gast, Sieur de Monts, in 1603, known as the charter of Acadia, which embraced the whole of North America between the 40th and 46th degrees of north latitude. Under this charter several exploring expeditions along the coast were made in 1604, 1605, and 1606 (see pl. 4); and in 1606 it was decided to make a permanent settlement at Port Royal, now Annapolis, Nova Scotia. No attempts were made under this charter to plant colonies within the limits of the present State of Maine.88

By the first charter of Virginia (see p. 137), granted by James I in 1606, the lands along the coast of North America between the 34th and 45th degrees of north latitude were given to two companies, to one of which, the Plymouth Company, was assigned that part of

82 53d Cong., 2d sess., H. Doc. 210, pt. 3, pp. 56-69, 1896.

835 Stat. L. 55. 845 Stat. L. 453.

5 Stat. L. 567.

86 For a condensed historical description of the boundaries of the United States see Encyclopædia Americana, vol. 4, pp. 329-342, New York, 1920. This article contains a bibliography on boundaries comprising several hundred entries.

87 A general discussion of the boundaries of the New England States is given by S. W. Cushing (Assoc. Am. Geographers Annals, vol. 10, pp. 17-40, 1920). For reference to early voyages of the Northmen to Iceland, Greenland, and the New England coast, about the year 1000, see Preble, G. H., Origin and history of the American flag, 2d ed., pp. 160-167, Philadelphia, 1917; also Kohl, J. G., History of the State of Maine, vol. 1, ch. 2, Portland, Maine Hist. Soc., 1869.

ss Poore, B. P., Charters and constitutions, Federal and State, p. 773, 1877. Thorpe, F. N., The Federal and State constitutions: 59th Cong., 2d sess., H. Doc. 357, vol. 3, p. 1619, 1909.

North America including the coast of New England. The first colony in Maine was planted on the peninsula of Sabino, at the mouth of the Kennebec River, now Hunnewell Point, on August 19, 1607, by George Popham.

James I in 1620 granted a charter to the Plymouth Company, in which may be found the following words: 89

Do

Wee therefore, * grant, ordaine and establish, that all that Circuit, Continent, Precincts, and Limitts in America, lying and being in Breadth from Fourty Degrees of Northerly Latitude, from the Equnoctiall Line, to Forty-eight Degrees of the said Northerly Latitude, and in length by all the Breadth aforesaid throughout the Maine Land, from Sea to Sea, with all the Seas, Rivers, Islands, Creekes, Inletts, Ports, and Havens, within the Degrees, Precincts, and Limitts of the said Latitude and Longitude, shall be the Limitts, and Bounds, and Precints of the second Collony: And to the End that the said Territoryes may forever hereafter be more particularly and certainly known and distinguished, our Will and Pleasure is, that the same shall from henceforth be nominated, termed, and called by the Name of NewEngland, in America.

Under a grant given in 1621 William Alexander, Earl of Stirling, claimed that he was entitled to land on the coast of Maine which had been granted to the Plymouth Company, and by direction of James I that company issued a patent to him oo

for a tract of the maineland of New England, beginning at Saint Croix and from thence extending along the sea-coast to Pemaquid and the river Kennebeck. The heirs of the Earl of Stirling sold that tract to the Duke of York in 1663.

In 1622 Capt. John Mason and Sir Ferdinando Gorges obtained from the council of New England (Plymouth) a grant of lands lying between the Merrimack and Sagadahock [Kennebec] Rivers and extending back to the river and lakes of Canada. This tract was named the Province of Maine and included New Hampshire and the western part of Maine. Mason and Gorges, in 1629, by mutual consent divided their territory in two by Piscataqua River. That part east of this river was relinquished to Gorges, who called it Maine. The charter of the Plymouth Company was surrendered to the King in the year 1635.

King Charles I, in 1639, granted a charter to Sir Ferdinando Gorges which virtually confirmed the patent given to him by the Plymouth Company in 1622. The following extract from that charter 21 defines the boundaries:

All that Parte Purparte and Porcon of the Mayne Lande of New England aforesaid beginning att the entrance of Pascataway Harbor and soe to passe upp the same into the River of Newichewanocke and through the same unto the

Thorpe, F. N., op. cit., p. 1829.

o Idem, p. 1621.

"Idem, p. 1626.

furthest heade thereof and from thence Northwestwards till one hundred and twenty miles bee finished and from Pascataway Harbor mouth aforesaid Northeastwards along the Sea Coasts to Sagadahocke and upp the River thereof to Kynybequy River and through the same into the heade thereof and into the Lande Northwestwards untill one hundred and twenty myles bee ended being accompted from the mouth of Sagadahocke and from the period of one hundred and twenty myles aforesaid to crosse over Lande to the one hundred and twenty myles end formerly reckoned upp into the Lande from Pascataway Harbor through Newichewanocke River and also the Northe halfe of the Isles of Shoales togeather with the Isles of Capawock and Nawtican neere Cape Cod as alsoe all the Islands and Iletts lyeinge within five leagues of the Mayne all alonge the aforesaide Coasts betweene the aforesaid River of Pascataway and Sagadahocke with all the Creekes Havens and Harbors thereunto belonginge and the Revercon and Revercons Remaynder and Remaynders of all and singular the said Landes Rivers and Premises. All which said Part Purpart or Porcon of the Mayne Lande and all and every the Premisses herein before named Wee Doe for us our heires and successors create and incorporate into One Province or Countie

And Wee Doe name ordeyne and appoynt that the porcon of the Mayne Lande and Premises aforesaid shall forever hereafter bee called and named The Province or Countie of Mayne

In 1664 Charles II granted certain islands on the coast and a large territory west of the Connecticut River (see New York, p. 107, for the boundaries) to the Duke of York, who had the preceding year purchased a portion of the present State of Maine from the heirs of the Earl of Stirling; the latter area was for a time called Pemaquid.

In 1674 Charles II made a new grant to the Duke of York in substantially the same terms as that of 1664, including as before a portion of Maine. (See New York, p. 107.)

In the year 1677 Ferdinando Gorges, a grandson of Sir Ferdinando Gorges, sold and gave a deed of the Province of Maine to John Ushur, a merchant of Boston, for £1,250. In the same year Ushur gave a deed of the same territory to the governor and company of Massachusetts Bay, who had received a grant from the council of Plymouth in 1628, confirmed by the King in 1629.

Pemaquid and its dependencies, forming Cornwall County, under the jurisdiction of New York, were annexed to the New England government by a royal order dated September 19, 1686.92

The charter of Massachusetts Bay of 1629 having been canceled in 1684, William and Mary in 1691 granted a new one incorporating the Provinces of Maine and Acadia, or Nova Scotia, with the colonies of Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth, into one royal Province by the name of the Province of the Massachusetts Bay in New England. The right of government over the district of Maine thus acquired was exercised by Massachusetts until 1819, when measures were taken to admit Maine as an independent State,98 and Congress, by act

Maine Hist. Soc. Coll., vol. 5, p. 4, 1857.

9 See Massachusetts Legislature acts of June 19, 1819, and Feb. 25, 1820.

approved March 3, 1820,9* effective March 15, 1820, admitted Maine to the Union.

The north and east boundaries were fixed by the United States and Great Britain. (See pp. 8, 18-21.) The geographic position of the extreme north point of Maine, which falls in the middle of the St. Francis River, is latitude 47° 27' 35.8" N., longitude 69° 13' 30.4" W.95 The western boundary was for a long time a source of contention between Maine and New Hampshire. In 1731 commissioners from New Hampshire and from Massachusetts, who had been appointed to fix the boundary, met but were unable to agree. New Hampshire appealed to the King, who ordered that a settlement should be made by commissioners from the neighboring Provinces. The board met at Hampton in 1737. The commissioners fixed on substantially the present boundary, wording their report as follows:

Beginning at the entrance of Pascataqua Harbor, and so to pass up the same to the River Newhichawack, and thro' the same into the furtherest head thereof, and thence run north 2 degrees west till 120 miles were finished, from the mouth of Pascataqua Harbor, or until it meets with His Majesty's other governments." This was confirmed by the King August 5, 1740.

In 1827, difficulties having again arisen about the boundary between Maine and New Hampshire, commissioners were appointed from each State to determine it. The line agreed to by the commissioners in their report, dated November 13, 1828, is thus described.97

The Report of the Commissioners appointed by his Majesty's order in Council. of February 22nd, 1735, and confirmed by his order of the 5th of August, 1740, having established,

“That the dividing line shall pass up through the mouth of Piscataqua Harbor, and up the middle of the river of Newichwannock, part of which is now called the Salmon falls, and through the middle of the same to the farthest head thereof, &c.," and "that the dividing line shall part the Isle of Sholes, and run through the middle of the Harbor, between the Islands to the sea on the southerly side," &c. We have not deemed it necessary to commence our survey until we arrived north, at the head of Salmon falls river; which was determined by Bryant, at his survey in 1740, to be at the outlet of Eastpond, between the towns of Wakefield and Shapleigh. From that point we have surveyed and marked the line as follows, viz: We commenced at the Bryant rock, known as such by tradition, which is a rock in the middle of Salmon falls river, at the outlet of Eastpond', about six feet in length, three feet in breadth, three feet in depth, and two feet under the surface of the water, as the dam was at the time of the survey, to wit, October 1, 1827; said stone bears south 71° west, three rods and eight links from a large rock on the eastern bank, marked "1827," and bears also from a rock near the mill dam (marked "H") north 19° 30' west, and distant 12 rods and 21 links. At this point the variation of the needle was ascertained to be nine degrees west. From the above stone the

43 Stat. L. 544.

International Boundary Commission, letter of Oct. 3, 1919. 98 See New Hampshire Hist. Coll., vol. 2, pp. 274-278, 1827. Maine, Resolves of the Ninth Legislature, 1828-29, pp. 39-43.