Historical records of the New Brunswick Regiment, Canadian Artillery

54HISTORICAL RECORDS OF THECHAPTERVI.1839.The Aroostook War— Militia Called Out— The Nova Scotia Legislatureand the City of St. John vote Assistance—A Peaceful Solution—Recollections of George F. Thompson— Story of a Sham Fight.tJy^ have now arrived at a period in the history of thisXXj province when the maintenance of the rights of itsinhabitants endangered the peace of the empire. Sincethe war of 181 2 a gradual change had taken place in the relationsbetween New Brunswick and the neighboring State ofMaine. At that time the influence of the New England Stateshad been exerted against a rupture with Great Britain becauseof the kindly feelings which prevailed between the colonies andthose states, but during the quarter of a century which followedthat effusive protestation of friendship the aspect of affairs hadmaterially changed. Our warmest neighbors had become ourbitterest foes, while in Washington, where the Capitol hadbeen burned by British soldiers, a more moderate and pacifictone prevailed. The cause of the rupture was one of thecommonest in country districts— it was the old trouble abouta line fence. In this case it was not, of course, the divisionline between farms, but states. For many years the State ofMaine had claimed that their boundary lay further eastwardthan that admitted by the British government. The treaty ofParis, made in 1783, had divided the territories by a Une drawnfrom the source of the St. Croix river to the " highlands dividing