was rejected by Maine in 1831. Following the undeclared Aroostook War in 1838–1839, the United States and United Kingdom signed the Webster–Ashburton Treaty on August 9, 1842, to settle the border issue. In 1998 and again in 2005, state representative Henry Joy proposed legislation to partition Maine into northern and southern states. He cited concern for the rural northern part, encompassing Maine's 2nd congressional district, being affected by "anti-business policies" and "overzealous environmental safeguards". Reflecting his political opinion of the trends there, Joy suggested the southern half be named "Northern Massachusetts" and the northern half remain "Maine", though others have suggested "Acadia" for the northern half. Maryland Westsylvania, proposed during the American Revolution, would have been created from parts of Pennsylvania and Virginia and a small part of Maryland. In 1998, state legislator Richard F. Colburn proposed to the Maryland General Assembly that a referendum be held to allow nine counties representing the Eastern Shore to secede from the state. They would invite counties from Delaware and Virginia to form the state of Delmarva. In September 2009, Frederick County Commissioner John L. Thompson Jr. proposed that the county secede from Maryland because the county pays more to state government in taxes than it receives in services and benefits. The proposal was rejected by the other commissioners in the county. In February 2014, it was reported that residents from Western Maryland started petitions to form a new state, citing taxes and gun control as issues. Possible names for such a proposed state included Liberty, Antietam, Appalachia, and Augusta. In October 2021, six Republican lawmakers from Garrett, Allegany, and Washington Counties in Western Maryland sent a letter to the legislative leaders of West Virginia to ask if said counties seceded from Maryland, could they be annexed into West Virginia. Massachusetts The state's exclave District of Maine had proposed secession multiple times in the early 19th century. Long-standing disagreements over land speculation and settlements led Maine residents and their allies in Massachusetts proper to force an 1807 vote in the Massachusetts General Court on permitting Maine to separate; the vote failed. Separatist sentiment in Maine was stoked during the War of 1812 when pro-British Massachusetts merchants opposed the war, and refused to defend Maine from British invaders. Finally, on June 19, 1819, the Massachusetts General Court passed enabling legislation separating the "District of Maine" from the rest of the state (an action approved