Webster–Ashburton Treaty

(1842), treaty between the U.S. and Great Britain establishing the northeastern boundary of the U.S. and providing for Anglo–U.S. cooperation in the suppression of the slave trade. The treaty established the present boundary between Maine and New Brunswick, granted the U.S. navigation rights on the St. John River, provided for extradition in enumerated nonpolitical criminal cases, and established a joint naval system for suppressing the slave trade off the African coast. The treaty was negotiated by Daniel Webster, at that time secretary of state, and Alexander Baring, 1st Baron Ashburton.