Webster-Ashburton Treaty

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The Webster-Ashburton Treaty, signed August 9, 1842, settled the dispute over the location of the Maine-New Brunswick border between the United States and Great Britain and the shared use of the Great Lakes. It also reaffirmed the location of the border (at the 49th parallel) in the westward frontier up to the Rocky Mountains, originally defined in the Treaty of 1818. It also called for a final end to the slave trade on the high seas, to be enforced by both signatories.

Plaque in Washington, D. C.

The Treaty was signed by United States Secretary of State Daniel Webster and United Kingdom Privy Counsellor Alexander Baring, Lord Ashburton. A plaque commemorating the treaty was placed at the site of the old State Department building in Washington, D.C. where the signing occurred.

The Treaty is responsible for two geographic oddities. First, since Fort Montgomery, a U.S. fort in northeastern New York, had been constructed on Canadian soil, the border between Maine and the St. Lawrence was adjusted to 3/4 of a mile north of the 45th parallel, this placing the abandoned fort on U.S. soil. Second, the incorrect assumption in the Treaty of Paris that the source of the Mississippi River lay north of the Lake of the Woods would result in the enclave of the Northwest Angle being part of the U.S.

This treaty marked the end of unofficial fighting (known informally as the Aroostook or Lumberjack's War) along the Maine-New Brunswick border and resolved issues that had led to the Indian Stream conflict as well as the Caroline Affair. The border was fixed with the disputed territory divided between the two nations. Also, as a result of this treaty, portions of the western U.S.-Canada border were adjusted so as to be consistent. It gave the U.S. negligibly more land to the north; iron ore was later discovered on this land. The Creole case was passed over by both nations.

The treaty was an unforeseen bonus for the United States. The British, in adjusting the US-Canadian boundary farther west, lost a vital area to the US that contained the priceless Mesabi iron ore of Minnesota.