1881. RESOLUTIONS;

ascertainment of these limits by actual examination and sur-
vey. But your committee are constrained to remark, that
the virtuous precept which is found in the constitution of
Virginia, has never been followed up by the same frankness
and generosity in ascertaining and yielding to us our limits.
While Maryland has asked for nothing but a clear ascertain-
ment of her limits as recognized and acknowledged by Vir-
ginia, upon terms suitable to the honor and dignity of both
states, she has been asked by Virginia to permit the latter to
fix beforehand the place of beginning. This is stated with
pain and reluctance—but it is a truth that ought not to be
concealed. The people of Virginia and the world, should
know the wrong done to us by our sister state, who acted
so just when the revolution was in embryo. Soon after the
revolution, it became the duty of this state, with as little
delay as possible, to dispose of the reserved lands westward
of Fort Cumberland, to fulfil engagements made to the offi-
cers and soldiers of the Maryland line, which had been in
the service of the United States during the war; and an act
of the legislature of Maryland therefore, passed at Novem-
ber session seventeen hundred and eighty-eight, to sanction
the proceedings of commissioners previously appointed to lo-
cate certain lots of land westward of Fort Cumberland for
the benefit of these officers and soldiers. So urgent were
the claims of these military servants who had lately gone
through the heat and burthen of the day of the revolution,
that this state could not, without evident injustice, postpone
the location of their lands until the settlement of our south-
ern and western limits. The commissioners therefore, to
avoid all collision with Virginia, run a temporary meridian
far within our just limits. By the act of seventeen hundred
eighty-eight, chapter iorty four, section 15, it is provided, as
a protest your committee presume, "that the line to which
the said Francis Deakins has laid out the said lots, is, in the
opinion of the general assembly, far within that which this
state may rightfully claim as its western boundary; and that
at a time of more leisure, the consideration of the legislature
ought to be drawn to the western boundaries of this state,
as objects of very great importance."

By this reservation, this state cautiously precluded all
idea of abandonment of our claim, or of yielding at any
time to unjust pretensions on the part of Virginia; and embrac-
ing the first moment of leisure, in the year seventeen hun-
dred and ninety five, opened again a door for negociation. In
that year by a resolution of the general assembly, three dis-
tinguished gentlemen, Messrs. Pinkney, Cooke and Key,
were appointed commissioners on the part of this state,