1831. RESOLUTIONS

from causes not necessary to repeat in this report, yet it was
a matter conceded on all hands long before the revolution,
that the grantee was entitled to all the domain included in
his true legitimate boundaries, as mentioned and intended
by the charter, wheresoever they might be found; and there
can be no question that the same right of domain within the
true limits of the charter, passed to this state after the re-
solution. This as far as your committee have been able to
discover, was at no time doubted on the part of Virginia.
And so far as your committee have been able to learn, this
state has done nothing to divest herself of this domain. It
will appear in a subsequent part of this report, that the
planting of the Fairfax stone, was done without any autho-
rity from the elder Baltimore, or from Frederick Lord Bal-
timore. The latter, it appears from the council proceedings
of Maryland, instructed his governor Sharpe, in seventeen
hundred and fifty three, to "keep a good look out, and pro-
hibit settlements under Fairfax, in the country north of the
South Branch," and this state in the convention when our
constitution was formed, passed several resolutions more
particularly referred to hereafter, amounting to a solemn
protect against any claim of Virginia to the country within
our chartered limits. Nor is there any well founded claim
to the country on the part of Virginia, by usucaption and
prescription known among nations. Usucaption is the ac-
quisition of domain founded on a long possession, uninter-
rupted and undisputed, from which there may be a presumed
desertion. Such principles would suppose that this state
had entirely neglected that which belongs to her, and had
left it with all the appearances of a thing utterly abandoned.
But every important event in our history touching this sub-
ject, shows a continual claim, on our part, down to the year
eighteen hundred and eighteen, when certain matters of com-
promise were offered, but not being accepted, remitted this
state to her original rights.

In regard to the duty devolved upon your committee
by the third resolution, to ascertain what is the first foun-
tain of the Potomac, it is scarcely necessary to remind the
senate, that the true boundary between this state and the
state of Virginia, has always depended upon that single
question, which could have been settled at any time by ac-
tual survey of the waters, if made in a spirit of sincerity
and candor by both states, and with such an interpretation
of the charter as was manifestly intended. Your commit-
tee are of opinion, that there is a moral obligation upon
states, as well as upon individuals, to do justice to each
other, and if it was a moral duty on the part of Virginia, at