| In the weeks preceding the conference, Washington was fully occupied at work on the
Potomac Company, seeking investors and attempting to hire a skilled engineer." Some
biographers describe Washington as being somewhat obsessed about the project at this time."
Washington recorded in his diary that Major Jenifer joined him for dinner at Mt. Vernon
on Sunday, March 20, after which Washington sent his carriage "to take Colo. Mason to a
meeting of comrs. at Alexandria for settling the jurisdiction of Chesapeake Bay and the rivers
Potomac and Pokomoke between the States of Virginia and Maryland . . . ."88
However, the Virginia commissioners were not aware of the date for the meeting."
Mason later reported that "I shou'd not have known that I was one of the Persons appointed, had
I not by mere Accident, two or three Days before the Meeting, been inform'd of it, by a Letter
" Washington wrote to Jefferson in Paris on February 25, 1785, enclosing a copy of the
legislation. 28 Fitzpatrick, supra note 61, at 77-81 (Letter from Washington to Jefferson of
2/25/1785). Washington inquired if "the monied men of France, Holland, England or any other
Country with which you may have intercourse, might be induced to become Adventurers in the
Scheme." Id. at 79. He also sought Jefferson's assistance in locating an engineer for the project.
Id. See also id. at 48, 50 (Letter from Washington to Morris of 2/1/1785); id. at 81, 84-85 (Letter
from Washington to Fairfax of 2/27/1785). As it turned out, the subscriptions "filled very fast,"
id. at 184 (Letter from Washington to Fairfax of 6/30/1785), and no foreign investment was
required, id. at 278 (Letter from Washington to Jefferson of 9/26/1785).
g' See, e.g., Irving, supra note 30, at 630-31 (describing experience of Elkanah Watson,
who visited Washington at Mt. Vernon in the Winter of 1785, and reported that Washington
"modestly waived all allusions to the events in which he had acted so glorious and conspicuous a
part. Much of his conversation had reference to the interior country and to the opening of the
navigation of the Potomac by canals and locks, at the Seneca, the Great and Little Falls. His
mind appeared to be deeply absorbed by that object, then in earnest contemplation.").
Washington's diary shows that Mr. Watson visited Mt. Vernon on January 19, 1785.
2 Fitzpatrick, The Diaries of George Washington, supra note 50, at 336 & n.5.
8g 2 Fitzpatrick, The Diaries of George Washington, supra note 50, at 352.
89 2 Rutland, supra note 1, at 813.
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