This just in from a one time 447687010 "Dulser - Gathers dulse from rocks at low tide and spreads it on a beach to dry." US GOE Primer By Clif Garboden - The Boston Globe Magazine, July 2, 1989 Calais/St. Stephen What if they had a war and nobody cared? The details of this story are a bit thin, but along the Maine/New Brunswick border the incident is legendary. During the War of 1812, the people of the British-controlled St. Stephen, New Brunswick, helped the citizens of Calais, Maine celebrate the Fourth of July. Calais (as in France but, in Maine, pronounced "Cal-liss") is your typical sleepy little Yankee border town, undistinguished among a hundred other Maine hamlets except for its strategic location on Route 1 at the US side of the international bridge across the St. Croix River. St. Stephen, population 1,800, is Calais' Canadian counterpart. It was named not for the first Christian martyr but for a notorious early Canadian surveyor and troublemaker. Except for the border traffic, not much happens at either town. But during the James Madison administration, the people of Calais and the people of St. Stephen woke up and made a statement. For context, one has to understand the War of 1812, which is more than most people did while it was going on. In Europe, Napoleon was warring with England. US businessmen, especially Yankee shippers, were profiteering by selling goods to both sides. England demanded that US ships bound for France first stop in England to pay duty. France said it would impound any ship that complied with that order. The British navy began waylaying US ships and reclaiming AWOL English sailors from their crews. Sometimes they impressed American sailors by mistake. Meanwhile, back in the States, a bunch of Western and Southern Congressman, led by Kentucky's Henry Clay and South Carolina's John C. Calhoun, were agitating for a war of expansion to drive the British out of Canada. The above-mentioned shipping tiffs gave them their excuse. New England objected because a war would destroy the lucrative international trade. The War of 1812 was a truly stupid war. No one even knows who won. It began with a three-pronged US land invasion of Canada that failed in part because the New York militia refused to cross the Canadian border. Its final engagement, the Battle of New Orleans, was fought two weeks after the war was officially over. Neither England nor the United States could afford to fight the other; the spat was an unwelcome distraction for France; and the sea war's blockade tactics disrupted trade world-wide. It was just plain dumb. What could such an obtuse conflict mean to the people of Calais and St. Stephen? St. Stephen had been sent a goodly stash of gunpowder to deploy in its defense should the Yanks attempt to take New Brunswick. The citizens of Calais were, of course, bound to defend the United States' impractical international posturing. By the book, the United States and Canada were enemies. But along the St. Croix the War of 1812 was treated with disdain or disinterest. The St. Stephenites and the Calaisians had been good neighbors since the Revolution. No incomprehensible war was going to stop that. So when July 4 rolled around and the people of Calais wanted to celebrate Independence Day with fireworks, St. Stephen lent them its powder supply. The story goes that Calais even promised to pay the Canadians back if Washington ever sent the town any powder. And so, with one quaint pyrotechnic display in the middle of nowhere, the War of 1812 was declared unimportant. An appropriate declaration of independence. Clif Garboden is a free-lance writer. _________________________________________________________________ Send and receive Hotmail on your mobile device: http://mobile.msn.com