RESOLUTIONS. 1831

pliance with them, they endeavoured to collect information
with reference to the relative extent of the North and
South Branches of the Potomac, and for this purpose they
summoned before them colonel Thomas Cresap, one of the
settlers in the western extremity of the state, who was sup-
posed to be familiar with the course and extent of these
branches. He accordingly attended at their next session in
September seventeen hundred and fifty-three, and inform-
ed them, that in his opinion the South Branch of the Poto-
mac was the longest stream, because it continued, as he
thought the longest stream even from its mouth, and ran
about sixty miles further in a north-western direction than
did the North Branch. Thus informed, the governor ad-
dressed a letter to Lord Fairfax, in which after apprising
him of the instructions received from the proprietary, he
remarks, that the information which he had obtained induces
him to believe that there has been some mistake in fixing
the fountain head of the Potomac at the source of the North
Branch, as the relative length of the two branches, and
other circumstances, concur to shew that the South Branch,
commonly called 'Wappecomo,' is the main and principal
course of that river," and expressed a hope "that Fairfax
would concur with him in causing such an examination of
the two branches as will put the question to rest," M'Ma-
hon's History of Maryland, page 53, 53. Council Proceed-
ings of Maryland, Liber T. R. and W. S. 12, 13. The
historian also refers to Jefferson's Notes on Virginia, page
193, 194. "From this period until the revolution, the exis-
ting records of the council and assembly transactions are
entirely silent as to this contest, of which an accurate his-
tory can be collected only from the records of the English
council. Fairfax continued to adhere to the line run from
the stone planted by himself and Virginia; and the Proprie-
tary of Maryland continued to assert his claim to the first
fountain, be that where it might."—M'Mahon's History of
Maryland.

It is quite clear to your committee, if the American re-
volution had not intervened, a collision must have ensued
between the grants of Fairfax and Baltimore, which would
have brought about an amicable adjustment of boundaries,
or forced a determination before the King in Council!—
That glorious event in American history, took away this
dispute from Fairfax and Baltimore, and vested it in the in-
dependent states of Virginia and Maryland; and the former
in the very act of forming her constitution, made an express
recognition of all the rights of the latter within the limits
of her original charter, and left nothing to be done but an