In the absence of any authority on the part of the Executive to satisfy these claims, they are now submitted to Congress for consideration; and I deem it proper at the same time, with reference to the observations contained in Governor Kent's note above mentioned, to communicate to the Senate copies of other papers connected with the subject of the northeastern boundary of the United States, which, with the documents already made public, will show the actual state of the negotiations with Great Britain on the general question. M. VAN BUREN. [The same message was sent to the House of Representatives.] STATE OF MAINE, EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, _Augusta, April 28, 1838_. His Excellency MARTIN VAN BUREN, _President of the United States_. SIR: I have the honor to inclose to you a copy of a resolve[32] of the legislature of this State in favor of Ebenezer S. Greely, also a copy of a resolve[32] in favor of John Baker and others; and in compliance with the request of the legislature I ask of the Government of the United States a reimbursement of the several sums allowed thereby, which several sums have been paid by this State to the individuals named in the resolves. The justice and propriety of granting this request, I can have no doubt, will be apparent to you and to Congress when the circumstances under which the allowances were made are called to mind. Mr. Greely, acting as agent under a law of this State authorizing and directing a census to be taken in unincorporated places, was forcibly seized and imprisoned for several months, and then, without trial, released. John Baker and his associates named in the other resolve suffered by imprisonment and otherwise for acting under a law of this State incorporating the town of Madawaska in 1831. The State of Maine has acknowledged by these and other resolves its sense of obligation to remunerate in the first instance these sufferers in its cause and to satisfy as far as it is able their claims upon its justice. But the wrongs by which they suffered were committed by a foreign power with whom we are now at peace. The State of Maine has no power to make war or authorize reprisals. She can only look to the General Government to assume the payment as an act of justice to a member of the Union under the provisions of the Constitution and to demand redress and remuneration from the authors of the wrong in the name of the United States. A minute recapitulation of the facts upon which these resolves are founded is deemed entirely unnecessary and superfluous, as they have heretofore been communicated and are well known to the Executive and to Congress.