Excerpts from The Papers of George Washington, Confederation Series

W. W, Abbot, ed.. (Charlottesville, Va., 1992)

Volume 1: January 1784 to July 1784

6 March 1784 From Thomas Jefferson, pp. 175-176.

p. 176: "The present hurry forbids me to write you on a subject I have much at heart, the approaching & opening the navigation of the Ohio & Patowmac. I will trouble you by the next post."

15 March 1784 From Thomas Jefferson, pp. 215-218.

pp. 215-218: "The deed for the cession of Western territory by Virginia was executed & accepted on the 1st instant. I hope our country [i.e., Virginia] will of herself determine to cede still further to the meridian of the mouth of the Great Kanhaway. further she cannot govern; so far is necessary for her own well being. The reasons which call for this boundary (which will retain all the waters of the Kanhaway) are [six reasons follow, then] 7. it will preserve to us all the upper parts of Yohogany & Cheat rivers within which much will be done to open these which are the true doors to the Western commerce. the union of this navigation with that of the Patowmac is a subject on which I mentioned that I would take the liberty of writing to you. I am sure it's value and practicability are both well known to you. this is the moment however for seizing it if we ever mean to have it. all the world is becoming commercial. . . . we must then in our own defence endeavor to share as large a portion as we can of this modern source of wealth & power. that offered to us from the Western country is under a competition between the Hudson, the Patomac and the Missisipi itself. down the last will pass all heavy commodities. but the navigation through the Gulf of Mexico is so dangerous, & that up the Missisipi so difficult & tedious, that it is not probable that European merchandize will return through that channel. . . . there will therefore be a rivalship between the Hudson and Patowmac for the residue of the commerce of all the country westward of L. Erie, on the waters of the lakes, of the Ohio & upper parts of the Missisipi. . . . to proceed on to N. York will be 970 miles from thence [the Cayahoga] & five portages, whereas it is but 430 miles to Alexandria, if it turns into the Cayahoga [etc.] . . . nature then has declared in favour of the Patowmac, and through that channel offers to pour into our lap the whole commerce of the Western world. but unfortunately the channel by the Hudson is already opened. . . . I have lately pressed this subject on my friends in the General assembly, proposing to them to endeavor to have a tax laid . . . to be employed first in opening the upper waters of the Ohio & Patowmac, where a little money and time will do a great deal, leaving the great falls for the last part of the work. . . . but a most powerful objection always arises to propositions of this kind. it is that public undertakings are car[e]lessly managed and much money is spent to little purpose. to obviate this objection is the purpose of my giving you the trouble of this discussion. you have retired from public life. . . . I am confident that would you either alone or jointly with any persons you think proper be willing to direct this business, it would remove the only objection the weight of which I apprehend. . . . when you view me as not owning nor ever having a prospect of owning one inch of land on any water either of the Patowmac or Ohio, it will tend to apologize for the trouble I have given you of this long letter, by shewing that my zeal in this business is public & pure."

p. 218: Ed. Note: Jefferson listed the same seven points in his letter to James Madison of 20 Feb. 1784 (Hutchinson and Rachal, Madison Papers, 7:422-35; Boyd, Jefferson Papers, 6:544-51).

29 March 1784 To Thomas Jefferson, pp. 237-241.

pp. 237: "My opinion coincides perfectly with yours respecting the practicability of an easy, & short communication between the waters of the Ohio & Potomack, of the advantages of that communication & the preference it has over all others, and of the policy there would be in this State, & Maryland, to adopt & render it facile. but I confess to you freely, I have no expectation that the public will adopt the measure; for besides the jealousies wch prevail, & the difficulty of proportioning such funds as may be allotted for the purposes you have mentioned, there are two others, which in my opinion, will be yet harder to surmount-these are (if I have not imbibed too unfavourable an opinion of my Countrymen) the impracticability of bringing the great, & truly wise policy of this measure to their view-and the difficulty of drawing money from them for such a purpose if you could do it."

p. 238: "More than ten years ago I was struck with the importance of it [this scheme] , & dispairing of any aid from the public, I became a principal mover of a Bill to empower a number of subscribers to undertake, at their own expense, . . . the extension of the Navigation from tide water to Will's Creek (abot 150 Miles) . . . To get this business in motion, I was obliged, even upon that ground, to comprehend James River, in order to remove the jealousies which arose from the attempt to extend the Navigation of the Potomack. The plan, however, was in a tolerable train when I set out for Cambridge in 1775, and would have been in an excellent way had it not been for the difficulties which were met with in the Maryland Assembly, from the opposition which was given (according to report) by the Baltimore Merchants, who were alarmed, and perhaps not without cause, at the consequence of water transportation to George Town of the produce which usually came to their market."

"The local interest of that place (Baltimore) joined with the short sighted politics, or contracted views of another part of that Assembly, gave Mr Thomas Johnson who was a warm promoter of the Scheme on the No. side of the River, a great deal of trouble. . . . the War afterwards called Mens attention to different objects, . . . but with you, I am satisfied not a moment ought to be lost in recommencing this business; for I know the Yorkers will delay no time to remove every obstacle in the way of the other communication, so soon as the Posts at Oswego & Niagara are surrendered; and I shall be mistaken if they do not build Vessels for the Navigation of the Lakes, which will supercede the necessity of coasting on either side."

pp. 238-239: "It appears to me that the Interest & policy of Maryland is proportionably concerned with that of Virginia to remove obstructions and to envite the trade of the Western territory into the channel you have mentioned. You will have frequent opportunities of learning the sentiments of the principal characters of that State, respecting this matter, and if you should see Mr. Johnson (formerly Govr of the State) great information may be derived from him."

p. 240: Ed. Note: A move was afoot as early as 1769 for Maryland and Virginia to have another go at extending the navigation of the Potomac upstream from Georgetown and Alexandria, above the Great Falls. In 1770 GW became one of the leading proponent, on the Virginia side of the river, of the enterprise. See John Semple to GW, 8 Jan. 1770, Thomas Johnson to GW, 18 June 1770, and GW to Johnson, 20 July 1770. In February 1772 GW guided through the Virginia assembly a bill "for opening and extending the navigation of the river Potowmack from Fort Cumberland to tide water" (8 Hening 570-579), and he continued to be active in the affairs of the Potomac River Company until he left for Philadelphia and Boston in 1775. His involvement in the company's affairs may be traced in what survives of his correspondence with the Marylander Thomas Johnson (Johnson to GW, 26 Mar., 10 May 1772, 21 Feb., 28 June 1774, 17, 24 Jan., 25 Feb. 1775, and GW to Johnson, 5 Aug. 1774). For an earlier attempt by Virginians and Marylanders to join forces in making the upper Potomac more navigable, see GW to a Participant in the Potomac River Enterprise, c. 1762, and notes, printed above.

p. 241: Ed. Note: GW's interest in improving the navigation of the upper Potomac, as Jefferson knew, was both long-standing and intense; but Jefferson's letter of 15 Mar. may have served to focus GW's attention, after his return home from the war, on the urgency of resuming efforts to open up the river. In any case, by the time he got back in early October from his trip to the wilds of Pennsylvania, GW was firmly committed to take immediate action for making the Potomac fully navigable as a part of a larger project to connect it by other streams and short portages to the Ohio River and the Great Lakes. See particularly GW to Benjamin Harrison, 10 October. As his correspondence from October 1784 through January 1785 documents, GW emerged from his short-lived retirement from the public stage to push through the Virginia and Maryland legislatures identical bills for creating the ambitious Potomac River Company, of which he became the first president.

10 July 1784 To James Craik, pp. 492-493.

Ed. Note from Vol. 1, p. 178: Dr. James Craik (1730-1814) [had been] GW's friend since he joined the Virginia Regiment.

p. 492: "I have come to a resolution (if not prevented by anything, at present unforeseen) to take a trip to the Western Country this Fall, & for that purpose to leave home the first of September-By appointment I am to be at the warm-springs the 7th of that month; & at Gilbert Simpsons the 15th-where. having my partnership accounts, with some of very long standing to settle, & things to provide for the trip to Kanhawa, I expect to be by the 10th or 11th-that is four or five days before the 15^th."

p. 493: Ed. Note: For GW's account of his trip into Pennsylvania in September,. see Dairies, 4:1-71.

10 July 1784 To David Luckett, pp. 493-494.

p. 493: "If nothing, unforeseen at present, happens to prevent it, I propose to be at my plantation on Yohoghaney the 10th of September . . . . from thence I have thoughts of visiting my Lands on the Great Kanhawa, & on the Ohio between the two Kanhawas, if I can do it conveniently, & obtain the means for a water conveyance."

p. 494: Ed. Note: Lt. David Luckett, a Marylander, recently had assumed command of a small detachment of soldiers manning Fort Pitt. . . . GW saw Luckett at Washington's Bottom, at Gilbert Simpson's house, on 14 Sept., when Luckett helped persuade GW that the "discontented temper of the Indians" made it unwise for him to go down the Ohio (Diaries, 4:21).