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VI

government ceased to exercise jurisdiction over any part of the territory since disputed, and for nearly twenty years afterwards, and until the line at Mars Hill was claimed as the Boundary, it was not resumed. And it is probate that no serious difficulty would ever have arisen in setting this boundary with the "British Government, if that unfortunate provision had not been made in the treaty of Ghent, which provides for submitting the question to an arbiter. After that treaty had been ratified by the proper authority, it became within the limits of the Federal Constitution the supreme law of the land, and the United States were bound in good faith to carry it into effect. Commissioners were therefore appointed in pursuance of its provisions, who, differing as to some of the points, submitted to them, the Convention was subsequently made with Great Britain, by which it was agreed, "That the points in difference which have arisen in the settlement of the boundary line between the American and British dominions as described in the 5th article of the treaty Ghent shall be referred as therein provided to some friendly Sovereign or State, who shall be invited to investigate and make a decision up such points of difference." The King of the Netherlands was agreed upon as should be referred. By the reports of the Commissioners, made to their respective Governments, and the statements afterwards agreed to be substituted for them, it appears that the only points of difference, so far as this State is concorded arose upon the question which were the highlands described in the treaty of 1783, at which highlands is also to be found the Northwest angle of Nova Scotia.