In 1789 Governor John Hancock and the General Court promised to expand the judicial system in Maine, establish a college in the District, and provide better roads. In addition, the Court offered to suspend taxes for 10 years for towns under certain conditions, to extend clear title to land for squatters who had established their claims prior to 1784, and to pressure private land companies to do the same. These moves dampened enthusiasm for separation throughout Maine.
Map of the United States as drawn by Lucia Wadsworth, 1794
Maine Historical Society
In 1789 the new federal government enacted a Coasting Law that required trading vessels to enter and clear customs in every state they passed between their port of departure and their destination. Vessels were exempted, however, in states contiguous to the state where they were registered, which for Maine and Massachusetts included New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New York. This enormous advantage set the coastal towns against the separation.
Thus when the General Court authorized a test vote on separation in 1792, the outcome was disappointing to separationists: only 4,598 citizens bothered to vote, and of these, only a small majority favored separation. In light of this, secessionist conventions held in 1793 and 1794 drew only a handful of delegates.
Other developments, however, favored the growth of separation sentiment. Maine's population increased dramatically between 1790 and 1810, and this new prosperity suggested Maine might be ready for statehood. Interior towns grew particularly fast, strengthening Maine's Democratic Republican party.
Among those drawn to the rising political organization was William King, a politically ambitious merchant who left the Federalist camp after Jefferson's Democratic-Republican victory in 1800 and quickly became the District's preeminent political leader.
Federalists remained strong in Massachusetts, but Maine's growing population and its Democratic Republican majority threatened to overwhelm the Commonwealth. Realizing this, Federalists in Massachusetts warmed to the idea of separation, even while those in Maine backed further away from the statehood idea.
North Company of Infantry roll, Bath, 1805-1815
Patten Free Library
Maine in the War of 1812
Separation was again delayed when America entered a second war with Great Britain in 1812. The conflict was precipitated by British interference with American shipping, its impressment of American sailors – sometimes entire crews – into the navy, and by British support for Indian resistance in the Northwest Territories.
Britain and France were at war in Europe, and both nations hoped to stop American trade with the enemy, a harassment that disrupted America's profitable "neutral trade" with the Caribbean islands. After numerous protests, President Thomas Jefferson declared an embargo in December 1807, banning all U.S. trade with belligerent ports. When Britain continued to interfere with American shipping, the two nations drifted to war.
The declaration of war was a severe blow to New England, since its merchants had grown prosperous on commercial ties with Great Britain and its Canadian and Caribbean colonies. With seaports experiencing unemployment rates upward of 60 percent, Massachusetts Federalists protested the embargo, and when America entered the war, they continued trading with the British.
Governor Caleb Strong refused to allow Massachusetts militia to leave the state, despite federal pleas for support, and opposition to the war emboldened some to call for New England's secession from the United States.
Painting of the "Boxer" and "Enterprise," Monhegan, 1831
Maine Historical Society
Democratic Republicans remained in control in Maine, but opposition to the war was widespread. Belfast refused to prepare a militia, Castine declared itself against enlistment, and Eastport voted unanimously to preserve a "good understanding" with New Brunswick and carried on an extensive trade in smuggled goods.
On the other hand, Maine provided a fair share of America's maritime defense in form of privateers. One of the better known was the Dash, an armed schooner turned hermaphrodite brig built as a blockade runner in Freeport. After two voyages through the British blockade to Port-au-Prince, the Dash became a privateer, taking nine prizes before it was lost in a gale off the Gorges Bank with its 60-man crew in 1815.
The most famous incident of the war in Maine involved the HMS Boxer, under Samuel Blyth, and the American Enterprise, commanded by William Burrows. In September 1813, the Enterprise encountered the Boxer off the Kennebec River.
