Kennebunkport, Maine. For some reason I like the name Kennebunkport. I’m not sure how, or when, I became aware of it. It might have been because of George Bush the First. I know I should say George H. Bush, but that doesn’t do justice to the amazing set of circumstances that led a father and son to be presidents of these often un-united states while both still live. As I recall, George the First’s family vacationed in Kennebunkport during his presidency. I have memories of the President, his gray hair blown back by a stiff sea breeze, while standing on a large, rough granite rock saying, “Read my lips. No new taxes.”
You know, as you age, memory has a way of becoming less reliable. In my youth, I could make statements with complete confidence that they were accurate. I could argue vehemently for my point and even site sources to support it. But now I find it difficult to be so sure of myself. I probably should blame my self-doubt on my aging brain, but I’d rather not. I’d rather assume that my hesitancy to be self-assured is a sign of wisdom. After all, not only poor memory comes with age. Wisdom is supposed to come with age too. But, I digress.
You know, as you age, memory has a way of becoming less reliable. In my youth, I could make statements with complete confidence that they were accurate. I could argue vehemently for my point and even site sources to support it. But now I find it difficult to be so sure of myself. I probably should blame my self-doubt on my aging brain, but I’d rather not. I’d rather assume that my hesitancy to be self-assured is a sign of wisdom. After all, not only poor memory comes with age. Wisdom is supposed to come with age too. But, I digress.
***
I don’t know much about Maine. At one time I thought it was one of the original thirteen colonies. Maine tried to be a colony but never pulled it off. I imagine the constant bickering between the French and English over borders didn’t foster a safe environment for family settlements.
Maine, as we know it, didn’t exist until 1820 when statehood became official. Prior to statehood Maine was a province of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The MBC, as I like to say; to be honest, I don’t say it, I type it, because typing Massachusetts Bay Colony with one finger is tedious. As I was saying, MBC was really a big deal in the Colonial days. It stretched from Martha’s Vineyard in the south to Nova Scotia in the north and included what is now Maine and Vermont. Apparently Martha’s Vineyard was popular even without the Kennedy’s. New Hampshire was not included. It’s rumored that MBC excluded New Hampshire from its administration, because its inhabitants were rotten hockey players. MBC even claimed authority as far west as the Pacific Ocean at one time. They didn’t mind stopping at Nova Scotia because it bordered on New Brunswick and nobody wants to go there. Notice, I haven’t used British to identify the colonies. I haven’t done so because people born before 1990 know that already. Also, I seriously doubt anyone is reading this, let alone someone born after 1990. The constant reporting by the media about poor performing American students, with extra emphasis if it involves a global competition, has led me to believe that people born after 1990 don’t know anything that doesn’t appear on Facebook or one of its clones. And, I’m sure there’s nothing about Britain on Facebook unless it involves music, clothing, or Kate & William plus baby George. On the other hand the media has led me to believe several questionable “facts.” Like the USA states are either red or blue. I’m not sure the media is reliable. I can understand calling North Carolina a red state. While in North Carolina’s Fort Brag, I learned what red clay was. But, I’ve lived in California for sixty years and I’ve only seen blue soil at Disneyland. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t natural. But, I digress.
***
A friend of mine went to Maine. I think he may be the only person I’ve met, in person, which can attest to Maine’s existence based on his own experience. He regaled me with stories of lighthouses; beaver’s carved out of logs with a chain saw and the many virtues of blue berries. Oddly, I don’t recall him mentioning lobsters. He even provided me with blue berry preserves to prove he went to Maine. I must say, blue berries were never in the top ten of my favorite fruits. To be honest, they weren’t even on the list. But, those clever Maineanites know something about blue berries. They make a mean preserve out of then. Wait, Maineanites doesn’t sound right, or does Maineians. Maineiacs isn’t it. How about Mainetarians, like Rotarians? What do you call someone from Maine? But, I digress.
***
Many people think that Maine is the most northerly state in the continental United States. Being born before 1990, I know that the modifier continental, when used as it is here, means to exclude Alaska and Hawaii from consideration. If born after 1990, the phrase “contiguous 48 states” would serve the same purpose. But, the out dated “lower 48 states” made sense for only 6 months and 18 days of 1959, because Alaska became a state on January 3 and Hawaii on August 21. Accordingly, the lower 48 states no longer included Minnesota because Hawaii is a much lower state. But, I digress.
***
Northwest Angle, Minnesota on the shores of the Lake of the Woods is the most northerly point in the continental USA. In 1818 Great Britain and the USA established the 49th parallel as the border between their spheres of influence starting from the Lake of the Woods in the east to the Rocky Mountains in the west. Later, in 1846, a presidential campaign promise was broken (sadly not the first or the last) by James K. Polk. He had been elected in part because of his slogan “Fifty-four Forty or Fight,” which referred to the 54th parallel as part of his desired boundary between Canada and the USA. The slogan should have been “Fifty-four Forty, but not if they want to fight about it,” but that wouldn’t have been very catchy. In case you were wondering, the phrase, “Pig in a Polk” doesn’t apply, in spite of his broken promise, because that phrase should be “Pig in a poke”, an altogether different thing. But, I digress.
***
At any rate, the 49th parallel was set as the boundary. “But wait,” you might say. “How did Minnesota end up with the northerly honor?” you might add. Well it seems we have Benjamin Franklin to thank for it. He and his British counter-parts used an inaccurate map to establish the border between Canada and Britain’s former colonies in 1783. The border ran from the headwaters of the Mississippi River to the Atlantic Ocean. The map incorrectly showed the headwaters starting at the Lake of the Woods. As a result, a small exclave of land that illogically is not part of Manitoba became part of Minnesota.
Isn’t exclave a cool word? It’s the mirror of enclave from a map maker’s perspective. Look it up. I’m not positive, but I think old Ben may have known about the map error but didn’t say anything. It gave him a great trivia question to ask Tommy Jefferson at dinner parties. But, I digress.
***
The boundary between Nova Scotia and the USA was not clearly settled in 1783. Nor, was it when a peace treaty was signed in 1818 to end the War of 1812. The War of 1812 was tough on The Providence of Maine. The bankers and merchants that ran Massachusetts had done well for themselves since the Revolution. They had developed lucrative trade with England and the British colonies in Canada and the Caribbean. It’s hard to be sure, but some folks think the first off-shore tax shelters were setup by Boston bankers with the help of their Bermudian brothers around the turn of the 18th century. Well, maybe not some folk, probably just this folk. But, I digress.
***
The Massachusetts bankers considered war with their best customer to be a very stupid policy decision by the numbskulls in Washington D.C. Therefore, they did their best to keep a low profile in the hope the Brits would forget where Massachusetts was or at least in the hope that they were still using Franklin’s map and wouldn’t be able to find them. When I say low, I mean low in the worst possible sense. I’m thinking lower than political radio hosts, or Jerry Springer in the day. The bankers actually made loans to Britain to help them with their war effort. Secretary of War, James Monroe, yes the one with a doctrine, sent an envoy to negotiate loans and request troops in support of the United States’ war effort. The envoy left empty handed when, amazing, the bankers refused to make loans to the Government of the United States of America. I could understand their refusal today; after all would the Government of the USA lend money to banks, just because they made stupid policy decisions? Oh wait, it would. Damn, it even did. But, I digress.
***
Massachusetts’ attempt to hide might have worked if it wasn’t for that darn Province of Maine being part of Massachusetts. Almost everyone born before 1990 knows that Britain was a major sea power at this time. It had a massive fleet of war ships that relied on solid, straight white pine for their masts and spars. Maine had a lot of it. In addition as far back as 1779, Britain had toyed with creating New Ireland by annexing Maine as part of Nova Scotia. The current war gave them the perfect opportunity to give it another go. So, after Britain defeated the mighty Napoleon in 1814, they felt confident enough to invade Maine. It turns out lobster traps are a poor defense against war ships. So Maine lived with British occupation for several years and put up with Nova Scotia and the infantile province of New Brunswick yucking it up while Maine was told that they are now part of New Ireland and must drink Guinness. They could put up with Moosehead, but not the stuff from the far side of the pond. But, I digress.
***
Well you can imagine how the people of Maine felt when the government (i.e. bankers) of Massachusetts wouldn’t send troops to help them. When the war was over, and Britain returned New Ireland, our Mainetarians made a big stink about separating from good old reliable Massachusetts. And they would have, sooner rather than later, but for the desire of Congress to maintain competitive parity between the NNC and SSC. There were 11 teams in each conference in 1819. The Northern Non-slave Conference was very concerned that the Southern Slave Conference would be able to elect a league commissioner (i.e. President) of their own choosing if a SSC team were admitted without an off-setting NNC team. Along comes a proposal to admit Maine to the NNC, supported by seven true sons of the prospective state. At virtually the same time, if you define virtually very broadly, Missouri petitions to become a state. The SSC agents in the Senate see an opportunity to use the Maine proposal for their own ends. So they refuse to agree with Maine’s statehood proposal. The conferences were at an impasse and the expansion of the league was at risk. Even if people weren’t using the phrase at the time, most believed in manifest destiny. Everyone knew the league had a god given right to expand in the west, provided there was parity. So along comes a New Yorker that proposes a compromise. Basically he advocates that no new SSC teams can join the league if their geographical location is north of Parallel 39 degrees 30 minutes except for Missouri. Wait our seven true sons of Maine that had voting rights in Congress might have said, “That is the southern border of Missouri. So you are allowing an SSC team in what should be an NNC location.” “Well duh,” the New Yorker said. “That’s why they call it a compromise.” Our seven Mainetarians didn’t see it that way. They very much wanted to be part of an independent state within the United States of America and given the suffering Maine went through they deserved it. But, the seven were so opposed to the concept of slavery that they refused to vote for the compromise. Congress accepted the compromise and Maine became the 23rd state and Missouri the 24th. That’s how it’s told on Maine History Online. I’m not cynical. Wait, I don’t know why I said that. I’m very cynical, but I don’t want to be. I don’t want to believe that our seven unselfish representatives of Maine’s true desires voted against the compromise to garner votes at home for the next election, knowing full well statehood was going to pass no matter what they did. I want to believe that our forefathers always looked out for the little guy and thought the common good was the only good. But, I digress.
***
To be continued. Maybe
No comments:
Post a Comment