The Supreme Court of Maine. December term, 1828. And about this time he formed a partnership with Jonathan P. Rogers, lasting, however, only about three years, as, in 183 1, he entered, as has been already stated before (p. 62), into a law partnership with Jonas Cutting, after ward Judge Cutting, of the Supreme Court. Mr. Kent, while increasing in power as a lawyer, gained greatly in popular favor, and was elected to the Legislature as repre sentative from Bangor, in 1828 and 1829, when but twenty-six years of age. This position was followed by his election as mayor of the city of Bangor in 1836, and in the same year by his nomination to the chief magistracy of the State. Mr. Kent was nominated at this time by the Whigs, who were in the minority, and failed at that time to elect their candidate. In the fol lowing year, however, Mr. Kent was again renominated, and elected, but so many ob jections and doubts were raised by the Democratic party as to the result, the matter was finally carried to the Supreme Court and Mr. Kent was declared governor. Mr. Kent was again elected in 1841. In 1849 Governor Kent was appointed by President Taylor, American consul at Rio Janeiro, which office he filled for four years, after which he returned to Bangor and recommenced the practice of law, in which he continued until 1859, when he was appointed by Governor Lot M. Morrill to a seat upon the bench of the Supreme Court. His former law partner, Mr. Cutting, was among his associates. Judge Kent was again reappointed in 1866 by Governor Cony, and held the position until 1873, when he was succeeded by Judge Peters. He then sought relief from professional duties by an extended tour in Europe. In 1874 he again resumed the practice of law in Ban gor, and was engaged in several important cases during the remaining three years of his life. Governor Kent's action in the vexed question of the northeastern boundary line
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showed his wisdom and sagacity, and was one of the signal triumphs of his career, at this time, although it was not adjusted until the episode of Maine's history dignified as the "Aroostook War." A brief statement of this boundary question will prove in teresting at the present day, when similar questions are being agitated between the United States and Great Britain. When the treaty of peace was made be tween Great Britain and the United States in 1783, the English commissioners at first urged that the Piscataqua should form the eastern boundary of the new nation, while the Americans extended their claims as far as the St. John. The St. Croix, however, was finally agreed upon, since the territory lying between this river and the Piscataqua was an acknowledged part of Massachusetts at the beginning of the War for Independ ence. The determination of the northern and northeastern boundary was far more diffi cult. It was provided in the treaty that the line should be run due north from the head waters of the St. Croix, the particular branch not being designated, until it inter sected the height of land that forms the divide between the St. Lawrence River and the Atlantic. Thence the boundary line was to run along this ridge until it should reach the sources of the Connecticut. Afterwards, when it came to definitely set tling the matter, the English insisted that only the streams flowing directly into the Atlantic were intended by the treaty, and hence that the territory lying north of the height of land that separates the streams that flow into the Penobscot and the Ken nebec from those flowing northward and east ward into the St. John belonged to Great Britain. On the other hand the Americans maintained that the Bay of Chaleur and the Bay of Fundy are Atlantic waters, and hence that west of the due north line from the St. Croix, the divide between the streams flowing into these bays and the
