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24
doubted that this would overcome Baltimore's opposition. 42 By October
1775 shortly after fighting between Massachusetts farmers and British
troops had begun the American Revolution, Maryland still had not acted on
either the 1772 or 1775 Virginia acts. Ballendine announced that he
would continue with the Potomac project insofar as present subscriptions
and his own resources would allow. He hoped that if enough work were done
on the river more subscriptions would come in, but the Revolution
permanently ended Ballendine's plans and temporarily stopped work on the
Potomac until it was revived by the Potomac Company in 1785.43 By then,
even in Maryland, grateful Americans were willing to go along with whatever
projects George Washington, the hero of the Revolution, wanted.
Colonial Americans, like later Americans, looked to the west for
their future, and to the east for the knowledge and financial backing
to get there. Regardless of the faith of Potomac promoters such as John
Ballendine :ino felt that they could succeed where others had failed by
going to England to seek technical advice and funding, many of the over-
whelming problems faced by advocates of improved colonial transportation
had gone unresolved in England for years and were only beginning to be
42 Kennedy, ed., Journals of the House of Burgesses, 1773-1776,
June 14, 17, 21, 1775; Robert L. Rutland, ed., The Papers of George Mason,
1725-1792 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1970 , vol.
1, p. 225. See chapter four for a more thorough discussion of sectionalism
in Maryland.
43Virginia Gazette, October 28, 1775. After the Potomac effort
fell throua , Ballendine moved to Richmond in 1775 to work on improving the
James River and to build an iron foundry to produce cannon and balls for
the Continental troops. Ballendine's fortunes did not improve in Richmond,
however. The canal he was building around the falls on the James River
progressed so slowly that Governor Thomas Jefferson contracted with a French
firm (which subsequently backed out) to complete it. Then, Ballendine's
foundry, which had proven successful, was burned to the ground together
with related shops and buildings by British troops under Benedict Arnold.
Ballendine died nearly pennilness in 1781 only four years before the Potomac
Company resumed the effort to clear the Potomac River.
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