The extension of the commercial relations of Great Britain and the United States rendered it imperative that no point of dispute should remain which could be determined.

For two years after his return from England, Mr.Gallatin was employed in the preparation of an argument to be laid before the king of the Netherlands, who had been selected as the arbiter between the United States and Great Britain on the boundary.

The king undertook to press a conventional line, which the United States, not being bound to accept, refused.

In 1839 Mr.Gallatin prepared, and put before the world, a statement of the facts in the case.

This, revised, together with the speech of Mr.Webster, a copy of the Jay treaty, and eight maps, he published at his own expense in 1840.
At this time conflicts on the Maine frontier brought the subject up in a manner not to be ignored.