| No progress was made, however. When Maryland delayed ratifying the Articles of
Confederation,-5 Virginia declined to move forward with the meeting of commissioners," and
subsequently the "exigencies of war shoved the plan aside."Z'
Maryland and Virginia did not revisit their respective jurisdictional claims until after the
peace of September 1783.
The Mt. Vernon Compact of 1785
June 1784: Virginia Appoints Commissioners
On June 28, 1784, the Virginia General Assembly appointed four of its political leaders
as commissioners to meet with commissioners from Maryland: George Mason (who had been
appointed a commissioner in 1777), James Madison. Edmond Randolph and Alexander
Henderson." The Virginia resolution provided:
Whereas, great inconveniences are found to result from the want of
some concerted regulations between this State and the State of
Maryland, touching the jurisdiction and navigation of the river
Potomac;
'S The Articles of Confederation, agreed to by Congress on November 15, 1777, became
effective on March 1, 1781, upon ratification by Maryland.
'-6 2 Rutland, supra note 1, at 755 (Letter from Mason to Randolph of 10/19/1782).
'-' Id. at 813.
'8 Madison's place in history is well-known. See generally Robert A. Rutland, James
Madison, The Founding Father (1987); 1 Rutland, supra note 20, at lxxv. Randolph was elected
to the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1776 and served on a committee that prepared a bill
of rights and the Virginia Constitution. See generally id., at xc. He served as the first Attorney
General of Virginia in 1776. Id. In 1786, he was elected Governor of Virginia and served as a
Virginia delegate to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, where he and Madison
presented the influential "Virginia Plan." Id. President Washington later appointed him to the
post of Attorney General for the United States. Id. Henderson served as a justice of the peace in
Fairfax County from 1770 until after 1785, and served as a member of the House of Delegates
from Fairfax County in 1781 and 1783. Id. at lx.
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