1871 Colton Map of the Canadian Maritimes

This is a proof state of Colton's 1871 rare, separately-issued, map of Canada's maritime provinces. The map covers the Maritime Provinces of British Canada: New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and Prince Edward Island. It was produced on behalf of the United States' Government Printing Office to accompany the privately-circulated Confidential Memorandum For The Use of The Commissioners on the Part of the United States in the American-British Joint High Commission, Washington, 1871. The Memorandum and the maps therein were intended for the use of the United States' negotiators with those of Britain in the formulation of what would be the 1871 Treaty of Washington, and the map was not included in any of Colton's atlases. The present example, moreover was not meant for publication at all, but was an in-house document providing fair copy of the map's legend and accompanying text for the typesetter.

The Joint High Commission

In January 1871, the British government sent Sir John Rose to negotiate the Northwestern boundary dispute with President Ulysses S. Grant's administration. Secretary of State Hamilton Fish received this advance and, on January 26, the British proposed the appointment of a joint high commission to meet in Washington to resolve the dispute. The United States agreed, and at this point the president appointed commissioners. The commission met promptly, and on May 8 concluded the Treaty of Washington. The treaty settled claims stemming from British support of the Confederacy during the American Civil War and made provision for appointment of a further commission to meet at Halifax in order to settle differences with regard to the northeastern fisheries of the British Dominions in Canada.

The Confidential Memorandum

In order to prepare the American negotiators, a set of instructions was published - certainly no sooner than early February (it includes correspondence dated February 3). The memorandum contained two maps: one to support the discussion of the Northwest Water Boundary, and the other to support the Maritime Fisheries negotiations. The text of the Memorandum included a detailed diplomatic history with respect to the fisheries, referencing at length The London Convention of 1818, a treaty which had governed British-American fishing rights in the Maritimes, and which were the agreements at the center of the current fishing disputes between the two nations.

Colton Supplies a Map

In order to procure a map for the Memorandum, the Government Printing Office reached out to New York map publisher Colton. The firm had, since 1855, been publishing a map of the region, and had made various updates to it. The 1855 version, however, was a general map meant to illustrate national and regional boundaries. What the memorandum required was a map that highlighted the relevant areas to the 1818 treaty, and furthermore would allow keying those areas to the text of the Memorandum. This called for a different color scheme than was typically used on Colton's maps, and it called for the addition of typeset text including relevant paraphrases from the 1818 treaty and a legend for the map.

The present example provides a rare glimpse into the production process of the Colton firm. The map is updated from the 1855 to include newer railways, more detail in its extreme west and east portions, and employs a different border than the firm typically used in its atlases. It exhibits hand color in various tones highlighting the relevant coastlines to the negotiations. The bottom margin contains a neat manuscript synopsis of the 1818 agreement and tying it to the map.

The American fishermen have the right to take fish of every kind on the coasts colored [blue] [pink] [green]. They have also the right to dry and cure fish in the unsettled bays harbors and creeks of the coast colored thus [blue]. It is claimed that the French fishermen have also the right to take fish on the coast colored thus [pink; the result of an earlier agreement between France and Britain]. The United States have renounced the liberty to take, dry or cure fish within three marine miles of the coasts, bays, creeks or harbors of the British Dominions in America not included in the above limits; but the privilege is reserved to American fishermen to enter such bays or harbors for the purpose of shelter and repairing damages there, of purchasing wood and of obtaining water, and for no other purpose whatever, under such restrictions as may be necessary to prevent them from taking, drying or curing fish therein, or in any other manner whatever abusing the privileges reserved them.

This exact text would be reproduced (albeit in two columns, rather than the one large one here) on the map finalized for the printed Memorandum.

Historical Context

The issue of fishing rights in the Gulf of St. Lawrence was one of several lingering problems between the U.S. and Great Britain in the wake of the American Civil War (1861 - 1865), along with boundary disputes in the Pacific Northwest, the Fenian raids, launched by Irish nationalists based in the U.S. against British troops in Canada, and the 'Alabama question,' relating to the U.S. government seeking compensation for damages done to the Union Navy by Confederate raiding ships built in Britain. Despite the intensity of disagreements, both governments were eager for a compromise and agreed to the Treaty of Washington in early 1871. In addition to settling the fisheries and Northwest Boundary question, the treaty also established an international tribunal for resolving the Alabama claims. Both the treaty and the tribunal were milestones in international diplomacy still studied as models for peaceful arbitration.

Publication History and Census

This map was first published by J.H. Colton in 1855. The original plate was updated for the purpose of the Confidential Memorandum as early as February 1871. The present example is a proof state of the 1871 memorandum map, with the text of the final version provided in fair copy in the bottom margin for the benefit either of Colton's own printer, or for the Government Printing Office in typesetting the final version. That final version would see reprint in 1874 withinPapers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Part 2, Volume 3 (Government Printing Office, 1874). We see eight copies of the original memorandum listed in institutional collections, and only three copies of the individual map. The date 1871 appearing on this proof state may be stamped: it does not appear on any of the published 1871/1874 examples of the map that we have found.