Any decision made by a commission constituted in the
manner proposed by the United States and instructed to seek for the
highlands of the treaty of 1783 would be binding upon this Government
and could without unnecessary delay be carried into effect; but if the
substitute presented by Her Majesty's Government be insisted on and its
principles be adopted, a resort will then be necessary to the State of
Maine for her assent to all proceedings hereafter in relation to this
matter, since if any arrangement can be made under it it can only be
for a conventional line, to which she must of course be a party.
The undersigned, in conclusion, is instructed to inform Mr. Fox
that if a negotiation be entertained at all upon the inconclusive and
unsatisfactory basis afforded by the British counter proposition or
substitute, which possesses hardly a feature in common with the American
proposition, the President will not venture to invite it unless the
authorities of the State of Maine, to whom, as before stated, it will
be forthwith submitted, shall think it more likely to lead to a final
adjustment of the question of boundary than the General Government deems
it to be, though predisposed to see it in the most favorable light.
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