The Republic of Madawaska () was a putative republic in the northwest corner of Madawaska County, New Brunswick (also known as the "New Brunswick Panhandle") and adjacent areas of Aroostook County in the US state of Maine and of Quebec.

The word Madawaska comes from the Miꞌkmaq-language words ('place of') and ('porcupine'). Thus, Madawaska is 'the land of the porcupine'.

The Madawaska River which flows into the Saint John River at Edmundston, New Brunswick, and Madawaska, Maine, flows through the region.

History

The origins of the unorganized republic lie in the Treaty of Paris, which established the border between the United States of America and the British North American colonies. As with several other disputed areas along the imprecisely defined border, the Madawaska area and the larger region of overlap between Maine and New Brunswick remained in dispute until 1842.

John Baker

In 1817, a US settler, John Baker, arrived in the region. He made his residence west of the junction of the Meruimticook (now Baker Brook, after him) and Saint John Rivers. This area is now Baker-Brook, New Brunswick.

Outside of the Madawaska settlement, hardly anyone lived in what is now Aroostook County. At the 1830 census, Madawaska settlement had a population of 2,487 people. Aroostook, with 261, and Houlton Plantation, with 576, were the closest settlements.

Baker himself prepared the Madawaska Compact, assisted by Steven Grover. It called for a pledge of mutual support and dispute resolution through elected arbiters without recourse to British authorities. The government was to be led by Baker as "General" of the Republic and two other men, Charles Stetson and James Bacon. The General was to be invested with special confiscatory powers. After one year of existence, the "counterfeit republic" was to apply to the State of Maine for annexation.

The region was thus annexed to Canada East (now named Quebec) and following an arbitration period, was awarded to New Brunswick through the New Brunswick Boundary Act of 1851.

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Image:Madawaska Flag Bicentennial.png|Bicentennial version of the Madawaska Flag, with a porcupine.

Image:St John River Map.png|The Saint John River with the New Brunswick–Maine border and the location of Edmundston.

Image:Map of New Brunswick highlighting Madawaska County.png|The modern Madawaska County in New Brunswick.

Image:Flag_of_the_Republic_of_Madawaska.gif|1938 version of the Republic of Madawaska flag.

Image:DrapeauxMadawaska.jpg|The Republic of Madawaska flag (left), flies along with the Acadian, New Brunswick and Canadian flags in downtown Edmundston, New Brunswick.

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References

  • Republic of Madawaska
  • The Upper Saint John River Valley history and genealogy
  • City of Edmundston