| and the shares were quickly subscribed." At its first organizational meeting on May 17, 1785,
Washington was elected President of the Potomac Company, and Johnson was elected one of its
four directors." Thomas Stone and the Jenifer family were among the investors in the
Company."
The Mount Vernon Conference: March 1785
While the Potomac Company project was proceeding, the Maryland General Assembly
on January 16, 1785 appointed Thomas Johnson, Samuel Chase, Thomas Stone and Daniel of St.
Thomas Jenifer as Maryland's commissioners to meet with the Virginia commissioners who had
been appointed the preceding June." Maryland directed the commissioners "to meet the
commissioners appointed by the Commonwealth of Virginia, for the purpose of settling the
navigation of, and jurisdiction over, that part of the Bay of Chesapeake which lies within the
Advantages"); Virginia Journal, Mar. 10, 1785 (describing plans to "open and extend the
navigation of the River Potomack . . . from the highest part of the North Branch, that has water
sufficient, to the Great Falls in three years, and be completed from thence to tide-water in ten
years . . . ."); Virginia Journal, Mar. 17, 1785 (same).
'9 See 2 Fitzpatrick, The Diaries of George Washington, supra note 50, at 376 (noting
that, as of May 17, 1785, the shares subscribed were "more than sufficient to constitute the
Company . . . ."). Johnson's biographer wrote: "While the people had been impoverished by the
War for Independence, the wealthier men on both sides of the Potomac purchased stock when
they heard that the corporation was endorsed by such men as General Washington and Governor
Johnson. Among the Marylanders who purchased stock in the Company were members of the
best families in the State, including many of the relatives and personal friends of Governor
Johnson. Among the Virginians who subscribed was John Marshall, who voted for the charter in
the House of Delegates at Richmond." Delaplaine. supra note 30, at 391.
8° 2 Fitzpatrick, The Diaries of George Washington, supra note 50, at 376-77.
8' Jean B. Lee, The Price of Nationhood: the American Revolution in Charles County 227
(1994). Stone was Jenifer's nephew. Jean B. Lee, In Search of Thomas Stone, Essential
Revolutionary, 92 Maryland Hist. Mag. 285, 295 (1997).
12 Scharf, supra note 22, at 530; 1784-85 Md. Acts, Resolution 12.
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