|
7
Unfortunately, the Potomac's natural disadvantages were not so
apparent to river promoters. The volume of water in the river fluctuated
considerably according to season. The river was winding and narrow,
and the height of the land mass between the headwaters of the Potomac
and those of the Ohio was about four times higher than that of the longer
route later taken by the Erie Canal across New York. 10
The Ohio Company was the first group to express an interest in
the Potomac as a route to the west. Prompted by the Indian treaties of
Lancaster (1744) and Logstown (1748), which opened large parts of the
interior to the fur trade, some of the most important residents of the
Maryland-Virginia area organized themselves as the Ohio Company in 1748
and were granted a royal charter in 1749. The company's goal was to
promote the fur trade and to speculate in the settlement of western lands.
The royal charter of 1749 demonstrated the English intent to solidify
claims to tv,e area by granting to the Ohio Company 500,000 acres of land
north of the Ohio River on the condition that the grant be settled within
seven years. The land would be forfeited if settlement did not occur. 11
It was not difficult for the Ohio Company to secure colonial
leaislation favorable to its enterprise. Virginia Governor Robert
Dinwiddie was a stockholder in the company, and the President of the Royal
Council of Virginia, Thomas Lcc, was also prcsidcnt of the company. Other
lOSanderlin, The Great National Project, pp. 18-19.
11Sanderlin, The Great National Project, pp. 22-28; Corra Bacon-
Foster, Early Chapters in the Development of the Potomac Route to the
West (Washington, D. .: Columbia Historical Society, , pp. 9- ;
George Washington Ward, The Early Development of the Chesapeake and Ohio
Canal Project, Johns Hopkins Studies in Historical and Poliica cience,
series 17, numbers 8, 9, and 10 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1899),
p. 9.
|
