RESOLUTIONS. 1851.

to meet such persons as the state of Virginia should ap-
point, to adjust and settle by compact the southern and
western limits of this state, and to fix the dividing lines and
boundaries, and to settle upon just terms the claim of either
state within the limits of the other. Mr. Pinkney being
called away on a foreign mission, and Mr. Cooke having re-
fused to act, in seventeen hundred and ninety-six, Charles
Carroll, of Carrollton, and J. T. Chase, Esquires, were ap-
pointed in their stead. Mr. Key soon afterwards removed
from the state, and Messrs. Carroll and Chase refused to
accept; and thus the state had no commissioners until eigh-
teen hundred and one. In that year, by a resolution of the
general assembly, the power to appoint commissioners was
given to the governor and council. The governor and coun-
cil, under the authority given them, appointed Messrs. Du-
vall, M'Dowell and Nelson, commissioners; and a corres-
pondence took place between governor Mercer, of Mary-
land, and governor Monroe, of Virginia. But neither the
first letter, of governor Mercer, nor the reply of governor
Monroe, can be found. There is, however, a letter from
governor Mercer, dated June 5th, 1802, to the governor of
Virginia, in which there is an acknowledgment of the re-
ceipt of a letter from the governor of Virginia, upon the
subject of our southern and western limits, which shows
that there was a correspondence under the resolutions of
eighteen hundred and one. By the letter from governor
Mercer of June 3, 1802, it appears that governor Monroe
had expressed surprise at being informed of the preten-
sions of Maryland, and he is referred for the information
of himself and the legislature of Virginia, to the resolutions
of seventeen hundred and ninety-five, and to a letter of go-
vernor Stone, which was written immediately after the pas-
sage of these resolutions, as well as to the letter of gover-
nor Brooke, of Virginia, in reply to him. From governor
Mercer's letter, it appears that the legislature of Virginia
passed an act to appoint commissioners to meet those ap-
pointed by Maryland, but limiting their proceedings to a
settlement of the western line. In this correspondence, go-
vernor Mercer informs governor Monroe, that no measures
could be adopted to ascertain the western boundary between
the states, until it should be first determined "whether the
North or South Branch is the main branch of the river Po-
tomac." Maryland had proposed the final adjustment ot
our southern and western limits, which were evidently un-
settled, but Virginia offers to settle the western line alone.
She evaded, as she has endeavored to do ever since, the
true question and place of the first fountain, the only matter