Commercial relations, as defined by the treaty of 1815, remained unsatisfactory until 1831 when the United States, after persistent efforts, obtained the privilege of trade with the British West Indies. Fishing rights were de fined by a treaty of 1818 which also postponed a dangerous dispute by providing for joint oc cupation of distant Oregon until later pro visions could be made for the adjustment of the boundary there. So, until new conditions pro duced the need of new adjustments, the people of each country fished together in the unset tled parts along Nova Scotia and hunted fur animals together in the unsettled territory bor dering the Pacific Ocean north of the Columbia. At the same time the American claim to Oregon was reinforced by a provision of the Spanish (Florida) treaty of 1819, ratified in 1821, erect ing the first international boundary line which touched the Pacific Ocean. The Passama quoddy question was settled in 1817 by actual agreement of two commissioners, one selected by the King of England and the other by the President of the United States. The line of the northern boundary of the Louisiana Purchase was settled at the 49th parallel westward from the Lake of the Woods to the Rocky Moun tains, in 1818. The boundary through Lakes Ontario, Erie and Huron was satisfactorily set tled by two commissioners who met at Utica in 1822.
The claim for slaves carried away, referred after 1818 to the Emperor of Russia who made a compromise award, was later (1822) referred to four commissioners to determine the amount, and was finally terminated by the payment of a lump sum determined by the two governments.
The Northwest boundary question, the run ning of a line from the head of the Saint Croix along the highlands and the 45th parallel to its intersection with the Saint Lawrence, proved most difficult. In accord with the Treaty of Ghent it was submitted to a commission which toiled five years, 1816-21, only to reach a hope less disagreement, the point selected for the °northwest angle of Nova by differing opinions being 105 miles apart. By a subse quent convention of 1827 the question was re ferred to the King of the Netherlands, who in 1831 made a compromise decision which neither country would accept. By 1838, it reached an alarming stage in the Maine-New Brunswick controversy, coincident with the excitement of the Upper Canadian rebellion of 1837-38 and incidents resulting therefrom, including the of lawless violations of American neu trality along the Niagara frontier illustrated by the case of the Caroline which for its un •nentral service was seized on the American side of the Niagara by a small British expedi tion. Later, in 1840 it was further complicated by a new source of friction• resulting from the arrest of Alexander McLeod, a Canadian deputy sheriff who was arrested on the Ameri can side of the river and tried for arson and a murder which had occurred in connection with the seizure of the Caroline. The acquittal of McLeod, in 1841, terminated a serious source of international embarrassment and smoothed. the way for the friendly conferences between Webster and Ashburton who both exerted the wisdom of diplomacy to maintain peaceful re lations. Finally, in 1842, after three years of great activity in search for the Northeast boundary, accompanied by a display of vast ingenuity in treaty interpretation, topographical theories and cartographic controversy, the question was settled by the Webster-Ashburton treaty which each country regarded as a capitu lation. British-Americans who were debarred
by the treaty from the most direct and practical line of railway communication between Halifax and Quebec long continued to feel that their interests had been sacrificed to an exaggerated fear of breach with the United States. The State of Maine which mourned the loss of juris diction, and Massachusetts which mourned the loss of lands in the disputed area, each received a solace of $150,000 from the United States government.
In 1846 the Oregon boundary question, which was an increasing source of dangerous tension between the two countries, was settled by the American acceptance of the British offer of the 49th parallel west of the Rockies, but reserving to the British-Americans all of Vancouver Island— a geographical exception which contained the germ of another boundary dispute which was settled in 1872. General claims of citizens of each country were sub mitted to arbitration by a convention of 1853, which provided two commissioners and an um pire or arbitrator chosen by the two. The commissioners in 1854-55 settled all claims suc cessfully, and entirely satisfactorily to every body except some who lost. It gave important decisions regarding fishery rights and rendered awards in the McLeod and Creole cases.
Meantime, for nearly a decade the conditions of international amity had steadily improved except in certain sections of the United States influenced by immigrants from Ireland who preached the antipathy aroused by O'Connell's agitation and subsequent Irish misfortunes.
From 1815 for nearly four decades, during which fishery and boundary questions were also prominent subjects of discussion, Canada per sistently solicited commercial reciprocity with the United States. Finally, after the repeal of the English corn laws in 1846 and the repeal of the navigation laws in 1849, she expressed a growing sentiment in favor of closer relations, commercial and political; and many, both in England and America, seemed to consider that by her own consent she would ultimately be an nexed to the United States. In 1850, certain Englishmen, interested in checking and divert ing the trend of events, urged that the con struction of Whitney's proposed railroad through the western part of the United States to the Pacific would result in the inevitable loss of Canada. In 1854, a reciprocity treaty was negotiated with the expectation that it would result in the gradual, quiet and peaceful settle ment of the Canadian question by growth of close relations which possibly would develop into annexation; but conditions were soon changed with the rise of a protective tariff movement in Canada, under leaders who after 1859 affirmed the right of Canada to regulate her own tariffs without interference from Eng land. In 1866, the reciprocity treaty was termi nated by notice of the United States, partly under the influence of a feeling of resentment originating in certain Confederate operations from Canada during the American Civil War.