The boundary dispute was now argued within every district with an earnestness that showed the importance of the cause.

The present grievance had grown out of a former one.
In the treaty of 1873, the description of boundary limits between the United States and the Colonies was vague.

Owing to a want of proper procedure, England and America merely took their limits from a certain point on the coast, one choosing to the right the other to the left.
The interior boundary was the watershed dividing the sources of the Connecticut and St.Croix rivers from those which emptied into the St.
Lawrence.

By this the Americans gained all the land bordering their own rivers, while the British had the banks of all the rivers extending to the sea coast.

Breach after breach was made, yearly inroads upon British territory were effected, until the free navigation of the St.Lawrence was claimed, leaving the colonies without a frontier.
In the State of Maine, a hostile feeling influenced the entire population.