Maine History Online

Although it appeared that the Boxer was harassing an American merchant vessel, in reality it had agreed to convoy the ship past American and British privateers from St. John, New Brunswick, to Bath, where it was to deliver woolen goods. The arrangement was part of a broader British policy of exempting New England merchants from the naval blockade, since their goods were critical to the British military campaigns on the continent.

In the ensuing battle, both captains were killed, and the Boxer's rigging was shot away. The captains were taken ashore and buried side-by-side with full military honors in the Portland cemetery. The incident demonstrated the confusion of loyalties in Maine and New England during the War of 1812.

The defeat of Napoleon in March 1814 changed Britain's military fortunes, and the nation turned its attention to America, including New England. In April 1814 British forces attacked Eastport, garrisoned by 80 militia, with a force of 3,500 regulars, and in August they occupied Castine and Belfast and sailed upriver for Bangor with an invasion force of 10 ships and 3,000 troops.

On September 3, militia from the Penobscot River towns gathered at Hampden and reached a reluctant decision to defend Bangor, despite being outnumbered and improperly armed. After waiting through a cold, foggy night, the Americans encountered the advancing British regulars, fired a few volleys, and broke ranks.

British troops plundered Bangor's stores and post office, burned its shipping, and bonded town officials to deliver the remaining vessels to the British fort at Castine. Once again, eastern Maine was an occupied territory.

The Battle of Hampden was a shock to those who assumed – since New England bankers had lent the British funds to pursue the war – that the region would be spared. Governor Strong called a special session of the General Court, but Federalist legislators refused to liberate Maine, leaving this undertaking to the federal government.

Preoccupied with military events elsewhere, Secretary of War James Monroe sent Major-General Henry Dearborn to Boston to negotiate a loan and to request troops. While the nation looked on with astonishment, the governor and the banks of Boston refused to aid the nation in defense of the Commonwealth's own territory.

While Monroe and Strong argued about the troops, British peace proposals appeared in the New England newspapers, among them a plan calling for the annexation of eastern Maine to Canada. Some Massachusetts Federalists seemed ready to agree to these terms. The Federalists' willingness to sacrifice Maine became a major rallying cry as separationists reorganized at the end of the war.

Separation and Statehood

Separationists continued to argue that statehood would bring more equitable taxation and lower government expenses, but the seacoast-inland split continued. Massachusetts agreed to grant separation if a majority of voters chose it. There were two unsuccessful votes in 1816 and the General Court refused to discuss separation for three more years.

William King, statehood's greatest voice, worked to revise the coasting law, hoping to gain support for statehood from coastal mariners and merchants. Finally, on July 26, 1819, voters overwhelmingly supported separation. Delegates wrote a Constitution, far more democratic and egalitarian than any other in New England, which was overwhelmingly approved.

Under ordinary conditions, Maine would have been admitted to the Union immediately, but statehood was complicated by the national debate over extending slavery into the western territories as they became states. By 1818 the Senate was evenly divided between slave-holding and free states, and the admission of Maine, obviously as a free state, would upset this critical balance.

Missouri had petitioned for statehood in 1818, and could have entered as Maine's pro-slave "twin," but northern congressmen, even those from Maine, were unwilling to admit more states with slavery imbedded in their constitutions, and Missouri lay north of the line accepted as the division between free and slave soil.

Congressman James Tallmadge of New York offered an amendment to the Missouri statehood bill requiring the state to halt further introduction of slaves and to emancipate those in the state at age 25, but the Senate struck the amendment as unconstitutional.

Southern senators held Maine's petition for statehood hostage to the question of slavery in Missouri. John W. Taylor, also from New York, offered a motion to fix by law a line between free and slave territory at parallel 36 degrees, 30 minutes – the southern boundary of Missouri – and pro-southern Senator Jesse B. Thomas of Illinois added that slavery would be banned in territories lying north of this line, except for Missouri. To this he added a provision for the re-enslavement of fugitives fleeing into territory where slavery was banned.

Maine's Congressional delegation was in a moral bind, since statehood would require a vote to allow slavery in Missouri. All seven Maine representatives declined the compromise, and the House passed its own bill restricting slavery. Still, a conference committee of House and Senate supporters crafted an amended version – the so-called Missouri Compromise – and this won approval in Congress. Maine became the nation's 23rd state on March 15, 1820.

Despite the elation in Maine, the Missouri Compromise was a bitter victory. Rufus King mused that if Missouri were admitted as a slave state, the balance between North and South would tip and all future presidents would hail from the South.

Others pointed out that if slavery were allowed in Missouri, it would spread the same number of slaves over a wider area, increasing their value and ameliorating their harsh treatment. The speciousness of this argument demonstrated the agonizing dilemma Maine separation leaders faced, and this indignity fueled the anti-slavery movement, which became a central issue in Maine politics between 1820 and 1861.