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would improve the Potomac sufficiently, and in 1828 it sur-
rendered its rights to the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Com-
pany 182
The possibility of linking the Chesapeake and Delaware
bays by some sort of canal had interested Maryland, Delaware,
and Pennsylvania-each for a different reason-since the sev-
enteenth century. Surveys of the- area had been made both
before and after the Revolutionary War, and the project had
been declared feasible.183
Although plans for such a waterway were conceived earlier
than either the Susquehanna or Potomac canals, the Chesa-
peake and Delaware was- the last of Maryland's three major
navigational improvements to be undertaken because of the
jealousies and rivalries of the three states. Pennsylvania was
the chief promoter of such a canal because it stood to gain most
by it - at Baltimore's expense."" Baltimoreans soon realized
this and were vehement in their opposition. Even Annapoli-
tans, usually not overly solicitous of Baltimore's welfare, noted
that the project " planned by some of your [Baltimore's]
friends, with the assistance of the Susquehanna members "
would, if successful deliver Baltimore from " the troubles of
the bay trade." 165 Bills for a canal introduced into the Mary-
land legislature in 1795 and 1797 only increased Baltimore's
fears of Philadelphia's dominance over the Chesapeake Bay
trade. A Marylander's pamphlet on the subject in 1797 stated
that Philadelphia's trade domination would be assured because
Philadelphia had ten times the capital resources of Baltimore,
would control any company set up, and would be able to de-
stroy Baltimore " as an independent and valuable market." 1s6
Meanwhile, throughout the 'eighties and 'nineties, meetings
had been held by representatives of the three states. Madison
wrote to Jefferson in 1786 that
Pennsylvania means now to make her [Maryland's) consent to it a
condition on which the opening of the Susquehannah within the
let Scharf, Maryland lI, 521, Sanderiin. p. 61.
°e Scharf, Maryland 11, 528, Davis, Il, 137.
'e' Ibid., 196, and Livingood, p. 84.
'B6 Md. J., Jan. 13, 1794, letter from an Annapolitan to Baltimore.
161 Quoted in Livingood, p. 85.
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