In the late 1830s the prospects for a 3rd war between Britain and the United States loomed large. There were long-simmering boundary disputes all along the frontier despite attempts at arbitration by the King of the Netherlands. Maine had become the 23rd state to join the union in 1820 but its northern boundaries had never been resolved. John Fairfield, governor from 1839 to January of 1841 and re-elected again in January of 1842, was apparently itching for a fight in order to maximize his new state’s territory. The Aroostook War of 1839 was a bloodless affair but it stoked the flames. As well American sympathies and support for the rebels and patriots of the rebellions in Upper and Lower Canada in the period 1837 to 1839 severely antagonized the British. Fortunately there were changes in government on both sides of the Atlantic and cooler heads sought a diplomatic solution. New negotiators were brought in and in relatively short order Alexander Baring (Lord Ashburton) of Britain and Daniel Webster of the U.S. hammered out a deal. The Treaty of Washington was signed on August 9th of 1842. It meant that the False 45th boundary between Vermont, New York and Quebec would remain, in all its crooked glory, the international border.
