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2 books match the query 'Northeast boundary of the United States'
Border Diplomacy
The Caroline and McLeod Affairs in Anglo-American-Canadian Relations, 1837-1842Kenneth R. Stevens
University of Alabama Press, 1989
How the United States began to mature and establish itself as a nation contributing to international law
Long after Americans and Britons signed treaties ending the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, ill will between the two nations simmered under the surface of their relations and periodically boiled over. In the mid-nineteenth century, Americans, the British, and British subjects in Canada continued to dispute borders, sovereign rights and responsibilities, and the American republican experiment.
Some of the antagonism arose from a fundamental difference in attitude toward democracy. Britons believed that democratic government was inadequate to control the baser elements of a population. Further, they disliked the aggressiveness and arrogance of their former colonists. Americans sensed and resented this contempt; in turn, they regarded British aristocratic pretensions with scorn and believed that country sought world domination. In view of such attitudes, even relatively minor incidents threatened to erupt into violence between the two nations. Such was the case in 1837, when British troops set fire to the American steamer Caroline in American waters, killing a United States citizen, and in 1840, when the state of New York arrested a Canadian, Alexander McLeod, for the murder.
These events, taken together, are not simply examples of diplomatic relations or political problems for particular administrations. The dash of attitudes and loyalties along the American-Canadian frontier also demonstrates the instability of the border region, socially as well as politically, and conflicting motives of patriotism and political opportunism in both the American and British governments. Thus, the Caroline and McLeod affairs, occurring as they did at a pivotal moment in American history, reveal how the republic began to mature in its relations with its long-established forebear, refined its own definitions of state and federal powers, and established itself as a nation contributing to, as well as influenced by, international law.
Long after Americans and Britons signed treaties ending the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, ill will between the two nations simmered under the surface of their relations and periodically boiled over. In the mid-nineteenth century, Americans, the British, and British subjects in Canada continued to dispute borders, sovereign rights and responsibilities, and the American republican experiment.
Some of the antagonism arose from a fundamental difference in attitude toward democracy. Britons believed that democratic government was inadequate to control the baser elements of a population. Further, they disliked the aggressiveness and arrogance of their former colonists. Americans sensed and resented this contempt; in turn, they regarded British aristocratic pretensions with scorn and believed that country sought world domination. In view of such attitudes, even relatively minor incidents threatened to erupt into violence between the two nations. Such was the case in 1837, when British troops set fire to the American steamer Caroline in American waters, killing a United States citizen, and in 1840, when the state of New York arrested a Canadian, Alexander McLeod, for the murder.
These events, taken together, are not simply examples of diplomatic relations or political problems for particular administrations. The dash of attitudes and loyalties along the American-Canadian frontier also demonstrates the instability of the border region, socially as well as politically, and conflicting motives of patriotism and political opportunism in both the American and British governments. Thus, the Caroline and McLeod affairs, occurring as they did at a pivotal moment in American history, reveal how the republic began to mature in its relations with its long-established forebear, refined its own definitions of state and federal powers, and established itself as a nation contributing to, as well as influenced by, international law.
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Indian Stream Republic
Settling a New England Frontier, 1785-1842Daniel Doan
Brandeis University Press, 1996
In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, while governments, politicians, and entrepreneurs argued about the boundary between northern New England and British Canada, a group of hardy individuals were otherwise occupied, carving a life in the wooded frontier that would come to be known as Indian Stream. The Treaty of Paris ending the American Revolution set the US boundary at "the northwesternmost head of the Connecticut River," but with three streams feeding into that head, conflict was inevitable. For nearly 60 years residents of this wild northern outpost were caught in a dispute that ren-dered both land titles and international boundaries uncertain. As squabbling increased among the US, Canada, New Hampshire legislators, and two companies claiming land rights, the settlers decided to take matters into their own hands. In 1832, they declared themselves the independent Indian Stream Republic, establishing a constitution, a bicameral legislature, courts, laws, and a militia. But New Hampshire and Canada were not impressed. The state tried to enforce its laws, the jurisdictional battle escalated, the Indian Stream militia "invaded" Canada, and blood"though only a trickle -- was shed.
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