A Time Line of Events and Letters

Concerning the Navigation of the Potomac

ca. 1762	Inland	Washington to a Participant in the Potomac River Enterprise: [Not read yet.]

1770, Jan 8	Inland	John Semple to Washington: [Not read yet.]

1770, Jun 18	Inland	Thomas Johnson to Washington: [Not read yet.]

1770, Jul 20	Inland	Washington to Thomas Johnson: [Not read yet.]

1772, Feb	Inland	Virginia's Potomac Navigation Act: Thomson Mason wrote a bill "for opening and extending the navigation of the river Potowmack from Fort Cumberland to tide water." [Not read yet.]

1772, Mar 26	Inland	Thomas Johnson to Washington: [Not read yet.]

1772, May 10	Inland	Thomas Johnson to Washington: [Not read yet.]

1773, ca. Jul	Inland	George Mason's Notes on Virginia's Charters: GM seems to have been trying to ascertain Virginia's rights to western lands, rather than its rights to the Potomac.

1773, Nov 1	Inland	Deadline for Virginia's Potomac Navigation Act: Not met.

1774, Feb 21	Inland	Thomas Johnson to Washington: TJ helped push through the Maryland Assembly a £3,000 appropriation for western road-building, and "made a shew of pushing for a further Sum for improving the River." [Not read yet.]

1774, Jun 28	Inland	Thomas Johnson to Washington: [Not read yet.]

1774, Aug 5	Inland	Washington to Thomas Johnson: [Not read yet.]

1774, Nov 3	Inland	John Ballandine announced a scheme to build a canal on the Potomac. Twenty-one trustees from Virginia and twenty-two from Maryland appointed, including Washington, George Mason, Thomson Mason, and Thomas Johnson.

1774, Nov 12	Inland	Meeting of Potomac Canal Trustees drew scant attention, and was rescheduled.

1775, Jan 17	Inland	Thomas Johnson to Washington: [Not read yet.]

1775, Jan 24	Inland	Thomas Johnson to Washington: "You may depend on my best Endeavors to get a Bill passed here similar to yours [Not read yet.]

1775, Jan 26	Inland	Meeting of Potomac Canal Trustees met with little success.

1775, Feb 14?	Inland	Washington to Mason [not found]: GW appears to have encouraged Mason to write a bill for Virginia, similar to the one Thomas Johnson was working on for Maryland, about improving the inland navigation of the Potomac.

1775, Feb 16	Inland	John Ballandine announced he was hiring slaves to start work on the Potomac Canal.

1775, Feb 17	Inland	Mason to Washington: GM had "gone a good Way thro' the Bill for improving the navigation of Potomack" before he went Maryland. When he returned, he received Washington's letter, and was pleased to find he agreed with many of Thomas Johnson's sentiments.

1775, Feb 18	Inland	Mason to Washington: GM hasn't been able to work on the "Potomack River Bill" since returning from Maryland, but he will soon.

1775, Feb 25	Inland	Thomas Johnson to Washington: [Not read yet.]

1775, Mar [8]	Inland	Mason to Washington: "I have at last finished the Potomack River Bill . . . . there will be so strong an Opposition from Baltemore, & the Head of the Bay, as will go near to prevent it's passage thro' the Maryland Assembly. . . ." [Mason's editor says the bill was to enable "ocean-going vessels to ascend the Potomac as far as Fort Cumberland," but that would be in conflict with our Tidewater/Inland dichotomy, and should be explained.]

1775, Mar 9	Inland	Mason to Washington: Please inform Thomas Johnson that the Potomac River Bill is intended only as ground work, and may be submitted to his correction.

1775, Jun 5	Inland	James Mercer to Virginia House of Burgesses: He introduced a measure that may have been based on Mason's recently completed Potomac River Bill. [Not found]

1776, bef Jun 13	Tidewater	Jefferson's 1st Draft of the Virginia Constitution contains no mention of ceding lands granted to other colonies.

1776, bef Jun 13	Tidewater	Jefferson's 1st Draft of the Virginia Constitution mentions ceding those lands to other colonies.

1776, bef Jun 13	Tidewater	Jefferson's 1st Draft of the Virginia Constitution again ceded those lands, without reservation as to the Potomac.

1776, Jun 29	Tidewater	Final Draft of the Virginia Constitution of 1776: Virginia ceded the territories contained within the charters of Maryland, Pennsylvania, and North and South Carolina, with all rights except "the free navigation and use of the rivers Potowmack and Pohomoke, with the property of the Virginia shores or strands bordering on either of the said rivers, and all improvements which have or shall be made thereon."

1776, Nov 5	Tidewater	Jefferson's Memoranda on VA, PA, & MD Boundaries notes that Maryland's charter includes "the further bank" of the Potomac.

1777, Aug 25	Tidewater	Richard Henry Lee to Jefferson: Lee finds Virginia's rights to "our Charter bounds" will be "strongly contested" by the other colonies. It is said the Charter of 1609 has been vacated, breaking the chain of title.

1778	Jan?	Tidewater	Virginia Resolution passed appointing Mason, Richard Henry Lee, and James Henry to serve on a commission to meet with a Maryland delegation to adjust "the use and navigation of, and jurisdiction over, the Bay of Chesapeake, and the rivers Potomac and Pokomoke." The British naval blockade rendered the matter moot. [Must read JHD, 1827 ed., 10 Dec. 1777 for complete text.]

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1782, Oct 19	Inland	Mason to Edmund Randolph: GM opines that Virginia's charters formed an unbroken chain and confirmed Virginia's rights to its western lands. Mason had all of the charters in

Tidewater	his possession when he "was formerly appointed to settle some Matters of Jurisdiction in Chesapeake Bay and Potomack River with the State of Maryland; but our Assembly not thinking it prudent to enter into any Engagement with that State, while it refused confederating, I returned the Charters."

1784, Feb 20	Inland	Jefferson to Madison: [Not read yet.]

1784, Mar 6	Inland	Jefferson to Washington: TJ will discuss the opening of the Potomac's navigation in his next letter.

1784, Mar 15	Inland	Jefferson to Washington: Virginia has ceded its western lands, but has kept control of all the waters of the Great Kanawha. Now is the time to embark on uniting the navigation of that river with the Potomac, or else the West's products will ship via other routes. Jefferson has tried to encourage his friends in Virginia's Assembly to enact a tax for this purpose, but the people are leery of entrusting such a project to the government. Jefferson asks Washington to take the lead. [His letter may have focused Washington's attention on a matter that had long been of interest to him.]

1784, Mar 16	Tidewater	Madison to Jefferson: Because Maryland's 1632 charter gives it control of the Potomac to the south shore, will not the Virginia Constitution's cession of all lands included in other states' charters result in Maryland's complete control over the Potomac? Madison sees three remedies: extend Virginia's jurisdiction over the river and force a test case; state her case and negotiate; or propose a bi-state commission to harmonize the regulations of both sides. Madison favors the third course.

1784, Mar 29	Inland	Washington to Jefferson: GW agrees with Jefferson that the Potomac is the best route to the Ohio, but the public won't back the effort, because of jealousies between Maryland and Virginia, and because the people won't want a tax for the project. Washington tried to start up a similar project ten years ago, but Baltimore merchants were opposed to it, and then the war intervened. He recommends that Jefferson see Thomas Johnson for more background.

1784, Apr 25	Tidewater	Jefferson to Madison: TJ likes Madison's choice of how to resolve the jurisdiction of the Potomac with Maryland. He talked to Maryland's delegate, Thomas Stone, who has the same opinion. Maryland will consider the matter begun with Jefferson's conversation.

1784, Apr 25	Tidewater	Madison to Jefferson: In his letter of March 16, JM had "in my eye the river below the head of navigation."

Inland	It would also be a good idea to see how Maryland feels about opening the upper parts of the Potomac.

1784, May	Tidewater	Virginia Port Law limits foreign (non-Virginians) vessels to five designated ports. [What is the exact date of this law?]

1784, May 25	Inland	Jefferson to Madison: Did TJ mention that Washington would lead the effort of clearing the Ohio and Potomac, should the project be put on a hopeful footing?

1784, Jun	Tidewater	Virginia General Assembly declared that "great inconveniences are found to result from the want of some concerted regulations . . . touching the jurisdiction and navigation of the river Potomac," and appointed four commissioners, empowering "any three of them" to meet with a Maryland commission to "frame . . . regulations concerning the said river, as may be mutually advantageous." According to Mason [see his 9 Aug 1785 letter to Madison], these resolutions mentioned only the Potomac, and omitted the Chesapeake and the Pokomoke.

1784, Jul 3	Tidewater	Madison to Jefferson: JM, George Mason, Edmund Randolph, and Alexander Henderson are named by Virginia's assembly as commissioners to negotiate with Maryland "to establish regulations for the Potowmac." [Mason, at least, had no idea of his appointment.]

Inland	Madison had no chance in the assembly to broach the scheme to open the navigation of the Potomac under the auspices of General Washington.

1784, Jul 10	Inland	Washington to James Craik: GW plans to leave home on a trip to the West on September 1.

1784, Aug 20	Tidewater	Madison to Jefferson: Spain is imprudent to deny Americans the use of the Mississippi. [This letter suggests that Madison isn't even thinking about the possibility that Western goods may one day ship east via the Potomac.]

1784, Oct 10	Inland	Washington to Benjamin Harrison, Governor of Virginia: He has long thought that the shortest, easiest, and least expensive connection to the people and trade of the back country is via the Potomac and James Rivers. Commissioners should be appointed to survey the routes, and money should be granted towards opening the navigation of the best route, and an act passed to create a private company (assuming public funding is impossible) to oversee the project.

1784, Oct 15	Inland	Stephen Sayre to Washington: The best way to accomplish the extension of the Potomac's navigation is through the use of a Tontine. In any case the project should be done without resorting to canal locks, which are unnecessary.

1784, Oct 20	Inland	George Plater, President of Maryland's Senate, to Washington: Since he visited GW and discussed opening the Potomac, he has become more in favor of it, and will press the matter in Maryland's Assembly.

1784, Oct 25	Inland	Washington to George Plater: GW reiterates much of what he wrote to Virginia's Benjamin Harrison, but leaves out what might seem to favor Virginia over Maryland.

1784, Nov 3	Inland	Washington to Jacob Read: GW again favors opening the "Eastern waters," so as to bind the people of the West to the original states. Because Read is a New Yorker and GW want general support, he avoids describing the Potomac as the best route.

1784, Nov 4	Inland	An advertisement for a Meeting, scheduled for Nov. 15, about opening the Potomac runs in Alexandria's newspaper.

1784, Nov 15	Inland	Meeting about Opening the Potomac. [account not yet read.]

1784, Dec 8	Inland	Jefferson to Madison: He's eager for the improving of the navigation of the Potomac and the Ohio.

1784, Dec 11	Inland	Hugh Williamson to Jefferson: James Rumsey has invented a way to work a mechanical boat upstream. Washington has seen it work.

1785, Jan 9	Inland	Madison to Jefferson: He discusses "An act for opening and extending the navigation of the Potowmac river," and a similar act for the James River. The subject was brought up in Virginia's Assembly under the auspices of Washington who had written Gov. Harrison an interesting private letter on the matter. A joint memorial from interested citizens of Maryland and Virginia was presented. Washington went to Maryland to coordinate the negotiations for a joint bill. The bill was passed in both states, and a similar bill for the opening of the James River passed in Virginia. In addition, joint resolutions were passed in the two states about building a road between the headwaters of the Potomac and whichever western river suits. A Virginia resolution to include Pennsylvania in any road construction passed too late to be included with Washington's negotiations with Maryland, so it will have to be added on to the tasks of

Tidewater	"the Commissioners who are to settle with Maryd. the jurisdiction and navigation of Potowmac below tide water."

1785, Feb 25	Inland	Washington to Jefferson: He encloses the joint act for opening a road between the Potomac and the Cheat Rivers. He wonders how the roads can be built and the navigation of the rivers extended. Would Jefferson inquire in Europe of a suitable engineer about how to undertake such a work?

1785, Mar 28	Tidewater	The Mount Vernon Compact was signed.

1785, Mar 28	Inland	Letter from Virginia and Maryland to Pennsylvania: we beg Leave to represent to the State of Pennsylvania, that it is the Contemplation of the said two States to promote the clearing & extending the Navigation of Potomack, from tide-Water, upwards, as far as the same may be found practicable; to open a convenient Road, from the Head of such Navigation, to the Waters running into the Ohio, and to render these Waters navigable, as far as may be necessary & proper; . . ."

1785, Apr 27	Inland	Madison to Jefferson: He reports on the opening of the Potomac, James, and Susquehanna rivers. Will Washington accept the shares Virginia has granted him?

Tidewater	"I understand that Chase and Jennifer on the part of Maryland, Mason and Henderson on the part of Virginia have had a meeting on the proposition of Virga. for settling the navigation and jurisdiction of Potowmac below the falls, and have agreed to report to the two assemblies, the establishment of a concurrent jurisdiction on that river and Chesapeak."

1785, May 11	Tidewater	Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer to Mason: Has GM heard from either Edmund Randolph or Madison about the proceedings at the Mt. Vernon Conference?

1785, Jun 2	Tidewater	Madison to Mason: seeking details of the Mt. Vernon Conference. [letter not found]

1785, Jul 10	Inland	Jefferson to Washington: He presented GW's plan to Ferdinand Grand, the Paris banker, but he was unable to drum up monetary support over there.

1785, Aug 9	Tidewater	Mason to Madison: GM apologizes for not filling JM in sooner about the Mt. Vernon Conference. He and Henderson didn't even have copies of the resolution leading to the conference, although they were lucky enough to have GW's copy of the resolution respecting Pennsylvania [clearly a separate document]. They proceeded by the same principles as were used in 1778, when a similar commission was appointed. A sine qua non for Maryland was Virginia's relinquishment of all tolls on all ships passing through the Chesapeake.

1785, Sep 26	Inland	Washington to Jefferson: It turns out that foreign backing won't be needed for the Potomac and James River projects.

1785, Oct 17	Inland	Archibald Stuart to Jefferson: Subscriptions are complete for the Potomac Company, and work has begun on blowing up rocks. Commissioners have been appointed to survey the best connection to the western waters.

1785, Oct 31	????	Revised Virginia Bill Establishing Public Ferries presented by Madison. Not passed.

1785, Oct 31	????	Revised Virginia Bill re Obstructions of Rivers presented by Madison. A paragraph relating to tidewater obstructions was not included in the act as adopted on 5 Dec 1785 by the state senate. The act took effect on 1 Jan 1787.

1785, Oct 31	Tidewater	Revised Virginia Bill for Unlading Ballast presented by Madison, appointing ballast masters for "navigable" rivers and creeks.

1785, Oct 31	Tidewater	Revised Virginia Bill re Public Store-Houses presented by Madison, designating public landings on "any navigable river or creek."

1785, Nov 9	Tidewater	Mason to Washington: GM had intended to go to Richmond to report on the Mt. Vernon Compact, but was prevented by illness from doing so.

1785, Dec 7	Tidewater	Mason to Madison: GM reiterated the contents of his 9 Aug letter about the Mt. Vernon Compact. He enclosed a memorandum clarifying the language about fishing within Article 7 of the Compact, which he hoped JM would present to the Assembly for ratification. Apparently JM never did submit GM's proposed changes. GM considered Article 7 to have been the most difficult of the 13 to settle.

1786, Aug 12	Inland	Madison to Jefferson: He has viewed the works on the Potomac. Pennsylvania has complied with the joint request from Virginia and Maryland about a road through its territory.

1786, Sep 17	Inland	James Maury to Jefferson: "At Alexandria they say the Potomack Navigation will not prove so tedious nor so expensive as the Company reckoned on."

1786, Nov 8	Tidewater	Francis Hopkinson to Jefferson: Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland have appointed Commissioners, to meet on Nov 27, for a canal between the Chesapeake and Delaware

Inland	and for improving the navigation of the Susquehanna.

1787, Oct 20	Inland	Mason to Elbridge Gerry: GM predicts his son John will set up in trade "if the inland Navigation of Potomack River succeeds," and will likely choose Georgetown, where GM

Tidewater	owns land commanding "all the deep Water on that Shore." In other words, John Mason would choose the spot near the head of sea-going navigability only if the Potomac's inland navigation can be effected.

1787, Dec 7	Inland	Washington to Madison: The survey of the country between the Eastern and Western waters has not yet been completed, although it is expected soon. Locks have been built around Great Falls.

1788, Jan 1	Inland	Washington to Jefferson: Virginia and Maryland have opened a road between the headwaters of the Potomac and to the Cheat River.

1788, Jun 11	Tidewater	Mason replies to Gov. Edmund Randolph at the Virginia Convention of 1788 that Virginia need not fear Maryland regarding the Potomac. Maryland was happy to gain the right to sail through Virginia's waters without paying duty (Article I) in return for a right she had never exercised, namely [control over?] navigating the Potomac. [We need to see the text of the question Randolph had raised.]

1792, Aug 20	Tidewater	Mason to John Mason: GM sees a notice of an application to build a bridge across the Potomac at Georgetown.