Absalom Baird to Province of New Brunswick , Dominion of Canada, to wit: Be it remembered that, on the 7th day of June, A. D. 1883, personally came and appeared before me, George Connell, a notary public duly commissioned and sworn, and practicing at Woodstock, county of Carleton, John D. Baird, the person named in the foregoing document marked A, who signed the same in my presence, being duly sworn before me, stated that the facts and statements in said paper are true. Sworn to at Woodstock, county of Carleton, Province of New Brunswick , 7th June, 1883 . [ seal. ] GEO. CONNELL, A Commissioner for taking affidavits in the Supreme Court, and Notary Public, Province of New Brunswick, June 5, 1883

Mr. Baird to Mr. Frelinghuysen.

A statement of facts connected with John D. Baird’s (of Bridgewater, Me.,) drive of spruce logs, containing one and a half millions (valued at $12,000), from headwaters of Meduxnikeag stream, down to river Saint John at Woodstock, New Brunswick, this lumber having been cut on Letter D. Town, Aroostook County, State of Maine, United States, and en route to its constructive destination, A. Gibson, esq., Fredericton, New Brunswick.

The drive arrived at Woodstock June 1, 1883, found the stream there and passageway obstructed by solid jam of spruce logs for a mile or more, extending up the stream from the town and local boom for accommodation, sorting logs for mills there, owned by Hale & Murchie, which jam of logs containing millions, and owned by them, is yearly allowed, after being driven in the spring, to remain above said boom and sorting place, instead of being put through, and thus occupying the whole of said stream from shore to shore, to the complete exclusion of all loose lumber, rafts, boats, or other property seeking a water conveyance down the stream; and that the said Hale & Murchie do yearly occupy the said stream in like manner, until they saw and remove the same at their own convenience during the summer, and that such usage has been a source of great loss and serious discomfort to myself heretofore and other American operators in getting their drives through into the river Saint John, in many cases ending ruinously, and in others so injuring as to deter them from operating there again, which seems to be the object sought by said Hale & Murchie; the local boom act governing, made in 1874, and of which said Hale is president, is by them used obstructively and utterly inconsistent with the Washington treaty and spirit thereof, subjecting American operators to heavy expense and detention of large drives passing through, and endangering the delivery and value thereof during the short period of freshet. And that whereas the treaty has given to American citizens free and unrestricted right to pass along with lumber and other products this tributary of the Saint John, we do not feel justice is meted out to us or can be obtained if left alone under local laws here to obtain it, with local prejudice, Boom Company, mill-owners, and employers to contend against, and that the boom act in its provisions and omissions shows great inconsistency with the treaty act, no provision being made compelling Hale & Murchie or others to remove their logs out of the channel above boom into side booms made and provided, but to arbitrarily occupy the whole as they now do for a mile or more above said boom, and that the said John D. Baird, now aggrieved and like to be ruinously dealt with, feels in his urgent necessity called upon to claim protection of Government, feeling they will not allow or subject its citizens to stop and damage by such invasion of their rights.

That the drive now spoken of, lying in rear of Hale & Murchie’s jam of logs, is likely to get aground and remain there for a year, subject to stop depreciation and damage of various kinds, or turned out by them to take the chances of an ice freshet next spring, and that the detention is costing the said Baird heavily, and that the said Hale & Murchie, though called on to open a channel, will not do so, but say if I want a channel I must put on men and make one myself, and that they have not any one day put on more than six men, or just enough to stand on the boom and pass their logs in; I having to do all the work on the jam with my men, they, when not occupied, sitting down, claiming the gap and boom across was their limit. So that unless I make a channel myself through the whole length of their logs up into my own, at great expense, and then drag my drive through (the water permitting), and contending with them all the way, I might as well abandon it. Therefore seek such assistance from Government as in your power, and the urgency of my case demands.