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19
Upon your plan of raising money, it appears to me there will
be found but two kinds of people who will subscribe much
towards it. Those who are actuated by motives of public
spirit; and those again, who from the proximity to the
navigation, will reap the salutary effects of it . . .
Washington suggested that Johnson sell shares to those unconnected to the
Potomac by offering dividends from tolls collected on the improved river.
Washington doubted that the colonial governments would aid the project
because of the opposition from various sectional interests. He also
said that Johnson would be more likely to attract support if his plans
were more substantial and involved more than clearing the most easily
removed obstructions from the river. Obviously reflecting his own
speculative interests as well as those of the Ohio Company, Washington
hoped that the project would get under way soon before the fur trade
shifted to other routes, most notably, the Susquehanna route through
Pennsylvania favored by the Walpole Associates. 32
The Potomac remained in its unnavigable state for nearly another
two years until a petition filed by citizens i n western Virginia aaai n
brought
the matter before the House of Burgesses. Their request to fund improve-
ments to the Potomac River out of the colonial treasury was rejected, but
a committee,which included several Ohio Company members (such as George
Washington and George Mason), returned a bill to pay for the project by
a combination of a lottery and from subscriptions which would receive
dividends from tolls. The bill passed and was assented to by Virginia
Governor Lord Dunmore (John Murray) and the Royal Council in April 1772.33
32Fitzpatrick, ed., Writings of Washington, vol. 3, pp. 17-21.
33 Kennedy, ed., Journals of the House of Burgesses, 1770-1772,
March 18, 20, 1772, April 3, 6, 9, 11, 1772; William Waller Hening, ed.,
The Statutes at Large: Being a Collection of All the Laws of Virginia
from the First Session of the Legislature in the Year 1619 Richmond:
George Cochran, 1823 , vol. 8, pp. 571-579.
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