Aroostook War

The Aroostook War, also called the Pork and Beans War, or the Northeastern Boundary Dispute, was an undeclared, bloodless North American "war" that occurred in the winter of 1838 and early spring of 1839.

The Treaty of Paris in 1783 had not satisfactorily determined what is the boundary between the British Province of New Brunswick (now New Brunswick, Canada) and the District of Maine (a part of Massachusetts at the time). The boundary dispute worsened after Maine became a state in 1820 and, disregarding British claims, began granting land to settlers in the valley of the Aroostook River (the Aroostook was a tributary of the St. John River). King William I of the Netherlands was asked to arbitrate the dispute, but the U.S. Senate rejected his award in 1832, although the British accepted it.

Lumberjacks from New Brunswick and Canada entered the Aroostook region, also known as the Madawaska territory, or the Madawaska district, to cut timber during the winter of 1838-1839, and in February they seized the American land agent who had been dispatched to expel them. The "war" was now under way, led by the governors of the respective sides, New Brunswick Governor Sir John Harvey and Maine Governor Edward Kent.

Maine and New Brunswick called out their militiamen, and the United States Congress, at the instigation of Maine, authorized a force of 50,000 men and appropriated $10 million to meet the emergency. Maine actually sent somewhere between 3,000 and 10,000 troops to the disputed area. President Martin Van Buren dispatched General Winfield Scott to the "war" zone, and Scott arranged an agreement in March of 1839 between officials of Maine and New Brunswick that averted actual fighting. Britain agreed to refer the dispute to a boundary commission, and the matter settled in 1842 by the Webster-Ashburton Treaty. After years of bickering over all the variances, the matter was settled with a simple straight line drawn with a ruler between two points on the map.

The compromise reached by Daniel Webster and Alexander Baring, 1st Baron Ashburton awarded 7,015 square miles (18,170 km²) to the United States and 5,012 square miles (12,980 km²) to Great Britain. Retention by the British of the northern area assured them of year-round overland military communications with Montreal. Webster used a map, said to have been marked with a red line by Benjamin Franklin at Paris in 1782, to persuade Maine and Massachusetts to accept the agreement. Britain agreed to pay these states $150,000 each, and they were to be reimbursed by the United States for expenses incurred defending the area against encroachment.

The war, while lacking actual combat, did not lack for casualties. Hiram Smith, a Mainer, died of unknown causes while in service to his state, and several other Maine militiamen died of illness while on the Aroostook expedition.

See also

• Caroline Affair
• Pig War, the "Northwestern Boundary Dispute"
• Republic of Indian Stream

• Scott Michaud's The Aroostook War
• Hiram Smith, hero of the war that wasn't
• The Upper St. John River Valley: The Boundary Dispute
• Historical Sketch and Roster of the Aroostook War, Portland, Maine, 1903. (For-fee database)