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proceedings on the part of Maryland against Virginia
should cease at any time before the suit should be brought
or previous to a final adjustment whenever Virginia
accepted the offer of Maryland made in i83i." " The
next year a special committee made a report on a portion
of the message of the Governor of Maryland and set
forth the plea that Virginia by her act of 1833 had in-
tended to accept the overtures of Maryland. This mis-
understanding caused the proposed suit to be withdrawn.
The withdrawal of the suit against Virginia and the
restoration of amicable relations between these States
was followed by several years of quiet as to boundary
difficulties. For the next twenty years no attempt was
made to reach a settlement or define the true line °1
During this time the lands about the headwaters of the
Potomac were being quite rapidly occupied. The pro-
visional line of 1787 had become almost obliterated, and
many contentions had arisen between the settlers. Both
states had often granted patents to the same piece of
land, and suits of ejectment had been brought by those
holding warrants from one state against grantees of the
other.
The discussion was began anew by Maryland in 1852,
when the General Assembly directed the Governor to
correspond with Virginia's Executive in reference to
establishing the line "intervening between Smith's Point
at the mouth of the Potomac River and the Atlantic
Ocean, which has from tile lapse of time become uncer-
tain, thereby involving innocent parties in difficulties by
them irremediable." Another act in the same year
a° Ibid.
m The subject was not held altogether in abeyance during these
years. In 1835 the Governor of Virginia was directed to purchase
a number of documents referred to in the report of Faulkner made
in 1832. These documents ail related to the boundary and set
forth Virginia's claims. " Acts of Virginia Assembly, 1835. It
appears that these documents were purchased and filed in the
State Library at Richmond. They have not been accessible since
the Civil War, and it is alleged that the Federal Army destroyed or
removed these papers during its occupancy of the capitol.
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