Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 15.djvu/321

Rh MAINE 301 man of his household, of all North America between 40 and 46 N. lat. In 1604 De Moots established a settlement on what is now Neutral Island, in the St Croix river. In 1605 James I. of Eng land granted to some English gentlemen all the territory between 34 and 45 N. lat. The portion between 40 and 45 was thus the subject of a double grant, to parties naturally antagonistic. The latter parallel, striking nearly at the mouth of the St Croix, includes almost all the southern half of Maine, and brought what was practically at that time the whole of Maine to be the theatre of the disputed jurisdiction. The French did not indeed claim further west than the Kennebec river, the limit of their actual occupation ; but the English endeavoured by sporadic and violent sallies to hold, if not by occupation at least by desolation, to the St Croix river, the extreme north-east boundary of their claim. The Indians, already exasperated by the wrongs received from roving English shipmasters and traders, were easily persuaded to make alliance with the French, and this double frontier was a scene of strife for the space of one hundred years. The English with much earnestness of purpose proceeded to plant a colony in 1607, under the guidance of George Popham, brother of the chief-justice of England, and Captain Gilbert Raleigh, whose name indicates his lineage and spirit. This colony they planted with solemn ceremonies on a point at the mouth of the Kennebec. The little town rose rapidly, with its fort and its church in due order. They also built a vessel, the &quot;Virginia of Sagadahock,&quot; the first vessel built by Europeans in America. The colony grew discouraged by their winter experi ences, and the next year broke up, most of the colonists returning to England. It appears, however, that they did not utterly forsake their object, for scattered settlements still remained and increased about the Point and Bay of Pemaquid and the island of Monhegan, midway between the Kennebec and Penobscot. This region became a centre of trade and a base of operations, being the headquarters of the famous Captain John Smith, where he built a fleet of boats in 1614, and explored the adjacent coast, which he named New England. In 1620 a new impulse found expression in the great charter of New England, given to Sir Ferdinando Gorges and others, who proceeded to lay out their plans on a large scale. Two years afterwards a patent under this charter conveyed to Gorges and Captain John Mason the country between the Merrimac and Kennebec and 60 miles inland, which they proposed to call the province of Maine. In 1629 they divided their possession, Gorges taking the portion between the Piscataqua and the Kennebec. The great council of New England surrendered their charter in 1635, and in the division of its territory Gorges retained his portion previously granted, while the region between the Kennebec and the St Croix and the St Lawrence rivers, though still claimed by the French as part of Acadia, was given to Sir William Alexander, earl of Stirling, and this was to be called the county of Canada. Gorges named his tract the county of New Somersetshire, and im mediately commenced the administration of government, setting up a court at Saco (1636) under direction of his kinsman, William Gorges. In 1639 he obtained from Charles I. a new and extra ordinary charter, confirming to him his province of Maine under that name, and under the feudal tenure of a county palatine, Gorges, as lord palatine, being invested with vice-regal powers. In 1641 he established a capital and court at Georgiana (now York), the first chartered city in America. But it was no easy task to administer government or hold a jurisdiction in his palatinate. The great council of New England, before breaking up, had granted not less than nine patents, conveying territory already included in Gorges s thrice-granted jurisdiction, to various parties, who had made vigorous beginnings to improve their holdings and confirm their claims. In like manner the council had made two important grants within the jurisdiction of Sir William Alexander, so that difficulties arose in that quarter also. In this confusion of juris diction Massachusetts, under a new construction of the extent of her chartered rights, laid claim to a line which included nearly all the settled portion of Gorges s territory, and by a further exten sion she claimed the coast as far east as Penobscot Bay. This lattor she named the county of Devonshire, and set up a court at Pemaquid (1674). This latter territory had been conveyed by the earl of Stirling to the duke of York, afterwards James II. of England. This was organized by James as the county of Cornwall, and was afterwards represented in the general assembly in New York (1683). In 1677, however, the claim of Massachusetts in Maine being contested and decided adversely to her, she took the occasion to buy of tho heirs of Sir Ferdinand Gorges all his right, title, and interest in Maine for 1250. Matters were still more complicated by the persistent efforts of the Dutch to gain possession of the east coast, who had now (1676) effected a lodgment on the shores of Penobscot Bay ; but they were finally driven off. The troubled state of things in England prevented Massachusetts from profiting very much by her purchase in Maine, and at last the new charter of William and Mary (1691) merged all the provinces of Plymouth, Massachusetts, Maine, Sagadahock, and Acadia under one title and jurisdiction, &quot;the province of Massachusetts Bay.&quot; That part of Acadia east of the St Croix was five years afterwards ceded back to the Crown. Thus Maine, with the St Croix for its eastern boundary, became an integral part of the Province, afterwards the State, of Massachusetts Bay. From that time for over one hundred years the history of Maine is merged in that of Massachusetts. Although its people were not of the religious or political faith of the Puritan colony, and for that reason had been shut out of the famous New England confederacy of 1643, yet they were true Englishmen, and stood manfully for the common cause. Not only was Maine an exposed frontier and battleground, during the long struggle of the English against the Indians and the French, but its citizens bore a conspicuous part in the expeditions beyond its borders. Two of these were commanded and largely manned by men of Maine. Port Royal was taken by Sir William Phipps and Louisburg by Sir William Pepperell. In fact these expeditions were such a drain on Maine population that Massachusetts was called upon to semi men to garrison the little forts that protected the homes left defenceless by the men who had gone to the front. The great losses and destruction of these wars kept this portion of the province back from its natural increase. In tho stand made for the rights of Englishmen, which led to revolution and independence, Maine was behind none. Two years before the battles of Lexington and Concord its towns had offered themselves &quot;as a sacrifice if need be to the glorious cause of liberty.&quot; Some, it is true, were deep-rooted in sympathy with the mother country, and these retired eastward, first beyond tho Penobscot and afterwards beyond the St Croix. This war mado Maine again an outpost and frontier. That same picturesque and commanding promontory of Castine in Penobscot Bay, which had been once the most eastern post held by the Pilgrims of Plymouth and afterwards the western advanced post of the French in Acadia, was now the stronghold of the English in this region, as against the Americans. Early in the war (1775) the chief town, Falmouth (now Portland), was bombarded and nearly destroyed. Some patriots the same year attacked a king s ship off Machias, and after a desperate struggle the British flag was struck to Americans for the first time on sea or land. Maine was fully and honourably represented in the war by a division of the Massachusetts line. It had also representatives in Congress, and some eminent officers and patriots of the Revolution resided within its borders. In fact, to all intents and purposes except in name, Maine was one of the original States of the Union. At the close of the war, the old spirit of independent personality and self-government made a forcible expression. The people sought to be separated from Massachusetts, and to make their laws and their history in their own name. There were two parties, however, and the troubles which agitated the whole country at that time, postponed action on this issue, and Maine continued almost forty years longer an integral part of Massachusetts, but was at no time a dependent province of that State. At the conclusion of peace there was a large immigration into Maine, chiefly of soldiers of the Revolution, who strengthened the already vigorous character of the people. Everything prospered until the Embargo Act of 1808, cutting off commerce and the coast trade, struck Maine in a vital point. Its shipping at this time amounted to 150,000 tons, its exports to a million dollars a year. The war with England, which soon followed, almost destroyed these interests. Other industries, however, were stimulated. Manufactories of woollen, cotton, glass, of iron and other metals were set on foot, only to be ruined by the influx of British goods, which followed the new peace. It was a discouraging time, and one or two unusually severe winters threat ened the only industries which the war and peace had spared, while in 1815-16 not less than 15,000 people emigrated to Ohio. In 1820 Maine was recognized as a separate State of the Union. Its population was then about 300,000, and its chief industries, agri culture, lumbering, and shipbuilding, were in prosperous course. Its encouragement of manufactures was slow. A prejudice against great corporations long kept Maine from entering largely at tha auspicious time into those industrial enterprises which have built up neighbouring States. It is only within recent years that the State has begun to take proper advantage of its unsurpassed facilities for manufacturing. The difficulties about the north eastern boundary had increased with each year since the treaty in 1783. Great Britain had gradually obtained possession of consider able territory within the line claimed by the States under the treaty, and after the war of 1812 laid claim to territory which had long been under the actual jurisdiction of Massachusetts. The question assumed national and international importance. The Government of the United States, apparently desirous of gratifying Great Britain, offered Maine 1,200,000 acres of land in Michigan to yield its claim, but the proposition only roused indignant pro test in the State, which culminated in the sending of a military force to defend its territory. Finally, however, considerations of national policy urged at Washington induced Maine to acquiesce in a treaty, which took away a large &amp;lt;.rea additional to that already silently yielded, amounting in all to 5500 square miles, an area greater by 600 square miles than the State of Connecticut, and by