Republic of Madawaska
The Republic of Madawaska was a small, unrecognized state in the northeastern state of Maine , which protruded into the neighboring Canadian province of New Brunswick . Today there is a town in Maine called Madawaska, a Madawaska County with the capital Edmundston in New Brunswick and the Madawaska River , a tributary of the Saint John River .
Name and location
The Saint John River was originally called the Madawaska River, a term that comes from the Mi'kmaq language and means land of the porcupines . Today's Madawaska River flows south from Lac Témiscouata and flows into Saint John at Edmundston. In the middle of the river runs the border between Canada and the United States and just across the street is the small town of Madawaska.
history
Seigneurie Madawaska
The fiefdom or fiefdom Madawaska, called Seigneurie in Canada , was first awarded by the French crown in 1683 to Sieur Charles-Aubert de la Chenaye. In 1763 it was bought by General James Murray, the governor of Québec . In this transfer, the area was described as follows: "It extends over three leagues on both sides of the river of the same name, two leagues in the depth together with the adjoining Lac Temiscouata".
Madawaska was almost uninhabited until the middle of the 18th century, apart from a few migrating Mi'kmaq, when French settlers from Acadia had to move there on British orders. Some of them settled against the official instructions near Fredericton at a place called St. Anne's Point, but had to move on to Québec in 1758 under British pressure. After the Treaty of Paris was signed in 1763, many Acadians returned to St. Anne's Point.
Following the American Revolutionary War , a number of loyalists from Massachusetts , New Jersey, and New York fled to the Fredericton area for fear of persecution. There was friction between the English-speaking newcomers and the Francophone , Brayon called Acadians and the Acadians moved again from 1785–1787, this time to Grand Falls.
In the Treaty of Paris in 1783, the borderline between the United States and the colonies in British North America was redefined. However, the border between the province of New Brunswick and what would later become Maine was unclear and remained controversial. The settlers in the region petitioned the governor of Québec to be allowed to live under British law in 1790 , which he guaranteed for the Seigneurie Madawaska.
John Baker
In the war of 1812 there was great tension among the population at the border. Many of the French-speaking settlers found their treatment at this time outrageous and dreamed of an independent state of Madawaska. In 1817 the first settlers from the USA came to the region, among them the nationalist John Baker. In 1825, Baker petitioned Maine officials to give him land on the Merumticook River that New Brunswick had promised him. John Baker and his wife Sophie Rice became the leading figures of the Americans in the field. On July 4, 1827, a number of like-minded people gathered in their home to celebrate American Independence Day. During this celebration the American flag was also hoisted and later the intention to found the Republic of Madawaska was announced. As a result, Baker and his followers were accused of opposing British laws, arrested on September 25 by the sheriff and taken to Fredericton , New Brunswick. The British sentenced John Baker to a £ 25 fine and three months in provincial prison. The state of Maine, founded in 1820, protested violently to the federal government in Washington, demanding that Britain release "American citizens captured on American soil" immediately, threatening that "American troops would march into the capital of New Brunswick" if not ".
Regular US troops had meanwhile arrived in Houlton in the Aroostook area and were beginning to build a military road to the Saint John River. The British agreed to a peaceful solution and agreed with the American federal government that the King of the Netherlands , William I , should work out a mediation proposal. In 1831 Wilhelm I proposed a compromise between the two alternatives at hand, which came very close to the borderline realized later. The British accepted the king's proposal, but the state of Maine rejected it. US President Andrew Jackson was called in, but under Maine's pressure, the US Senate decided against the mediation proposal.
On March 10, 1831, Maine passed a resolution assigning a representative to Madawaska and other locations in the region. In an incorporation law, "the area known as the Madawaska Settlement" was merged into the city of Madawaska. Madawaska was around 6,835 km in size and covered more than three times the area of Rhode Islands .
Aroostook war
Justice of the peace William D. Williams was sent to Madawaska to organize a meeting to elect a representative. This meeting took place on August 20, 1831, but was broken up by British officials and the 40 participants threatened with arrest and arrest. At a second meeting on September 12th, the 50 participants elected Captain Peter Lizotte to represent Madawaska. On September 25, the governor of New Brunswick Province, Sir Archibald Campbell, accompanied by troops, arrived in Madawaska to arrest all those who attended the two meetings. Some participants were arrested and taken to prison in Fredericton, while others fled into the woods. Lizotte did not take up his position as representative of Madawaska, but claimed that he had turned down the election as a British citizen. The new governor of Maine let the matter rest.
In 1836 the state of Maine had a surplus of revenue that was to be distributed to the cities. A census had not yet taken place in Madawaska, so an officer was sent there so that the money could be distributed fairly. Penobscot County's Census Officer Ebenezer Greely began the census on the upper Arostook River when New Brunswick provincial officials learned that money was to be paid to the settlers at Aroostook. Greely was arrested and taken to Fredericton . A letter from New Brunswick accused the governor of Maine of bribery and threatened military action if Maine did not cease its activities on the Aroostook River. In response, Maine Governor Robert Dunlop stated that his "state had been attacked by a foreign power."
Thereafter, troops from both sides were deployed in the border region, known as the Aroostook War (1838–1839). Fortunately, no one really wanted another war in North America and diplomacy was looking for a peaceful solution to the problem.
Webster-Ashburton Treaty
Finally the USA and Great Britain agreed on a border commission and on August 9, 1842, the Webster-Ashburton Treaty was signed in London, in which the border disputes were finally settled.
However, the Republic of Madawaska will not be forgotten. A pamphlet published in Edmundston read:
“The Republic of Madawaska. The myth of the Republic of Madawaska (it is not a real republic in the political sense) has its origins in the response a French official received from an old colonist in Madawaska while on an inspection trip. The old man found the French official's questions intrusive and replied: 'I am a citizen of the Republic of Madawaska'. "
John Baker died a Canadian citizen in 1867. In 1895 his remains were transferred to Fort Fairfield, Maine, where the State of Maine erected a memorial in his honor.
Today, the Republic of Madawaska exists mainly in the minds of some of the region's residents who call themselves Brayons. There is also a coat of arms and flag of the Republic of Madawaska that is hoisted in front of Edmundston City Hall and during festivities. The incumbent Mayor of Edmundston also has the honorable title of President of the Republic of Madawaska .
Web links
- Republic of Madawaska
- The Upper Saint John River Valley History and Genealogy.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Flags in Madawaska ( Memento of the original from September 15, 2004 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
