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auk a commissioner to be anted (should Vir-
ginia appoint one) to run and mark the boundary "begin-
ning therefor at the sand Fairfax's Stone and running due
north." 91
This act marks an entire change of attitude on the art
of Maryland. Wren the boundary dispute began, Vir-
ginia claimed the north branch of the Potomac to be the
first fountain. Maryland had the headwaters of that
river surveyed, and plainly claimed the south branch to
the first fountain. No compromise could be made on
these terms. During the first quarter of the nineteenth cen-
tury Maryland offered to begin the boundary an the north
branch, relinquishing all claim to the south branch,
Maryland made this concession, hoping to gain territory
by an extension further westward. , Virginia's reply was
that the line mast begin not only on the north branch, but
at the Fairfax Stone.
Maryland refused for more than twenty-five years to
accept these terms because they defeated her hopes of
expansion westward. By the act of 1852, Maryland
yielded to Virginia's claims, and directed that the line
begin on the north branch and at Fairfax Stone. A
speedy settlement of the dispute might justly have been
expected to follow, but it did not.
Virginia answered Maryland in i$54, accepted her
offer, appointed a commission, and directed them to begin
the boundary at Fairfax Stone.$$ But this commission
did not perform their appointed task. Four years later
an amendatory act was passed enlarging the scope of the
commission and directing them to run the line between
the mouth -of the Potomac and the ocean and also the line
frown Fairfax Stone.e1
This last act showed that attention was now being
directed to a new source of controversy, namely, the
42 -Laws of Maryland, i85a; ' ch. bo, 275.
4'" Virginia Acts of Assembly," ch. z, t853-5q.
ss.. Ibid.." i857-;8> ch. 3.
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