Aroostook War - Background

(1838–9) A US/Canadian boundary dispute between the state of Maine and the province of New Brunswick, leading to near-hostilities. It was resolved by a temporary truce, and permanently settled by the Webster–Ashburton Treaty (1842).

Aroostook War
Date 1838-1839 Location Maine-New Brunswick border Result Webster-Ashburton Treaty
Combatants
United States of America	British Empire/Canada
Strength
3,000–10,000	3,000–10,000
Casualties
38 incidental deaths

The Aroostook War, also called the Pork and Beans War, the Lumberjack's 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.

Background

The 1783 Treaty of Paris did not satisfactorily determine the boundary between the British colony of New Brunswick (now the Canadian province of New Brunswick) and the District of Maine (then a part of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts). 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 is a tributary of the St. John River, which flows through the heart of New Brunswick, draining into the Bay of Fundy).

In 1831 the members of the Maine Legislature became concerned over the growing Maine/New Brunswick boundary question and took action by sending John Deane and Edward Kavanagh to northern Maine/northwestern New Brunswick to document the inhabitants and to assess the extent of trespass (from their point of view). Both American and New Brunswick lumbermen were cutting timber in the disputed territory during the winter of 1838-1839, and in February, New Brunswick loggers seized the American land agent who was exercising illegal jurisdiction. 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 Maine's insistence, authorized a force of 50,000 men and appropriated $10 million to meet the emergency. Meanwhile, New Brunswick armed every tributary of the St John River that flowed from the Aroostook Territory with regular and militia soldiers. President Martin Van Buren dispatched General Winfield Scott and New Brunswick sent Governor Harvey to the "war zone," and the men arranged an agreement in March of 1839 between officials of Maine and New Brunswick that averted actual fighting. The U.S. federal government agreed to pay the states of Maine and Massachusetts $150,000 each, and they were to be reimbursed by the United States for expenses incurred while encroaching on New Brunswick territory.

Webster used a map found in the Paris Archives by the American Jared Sparks (and said to have been marked with a red line by Benjamin Franklin in Paris in 1782) to persuade Maine and Massachusetts to accept the agreement.