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Subject Area: War and Peace
Topic: The American Revolution and Constitution

TO THOMAS JEFFERSON, IN CONGRESS. - George Washington, The Writings of George Washington, vol. X (1782-1785) [1891]

Edition used:

The Writings of George Washington, collected and edited by Worthington Chauncey Ford (New York and London: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1890). Vol. X (1782-1785).

Part of: The Writings of George Washington, 14 vols.

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TO THOMAS JEFFERSON, IN CONGRESS.

The leases for short tenures, if these should be preferred to either of the other two, could be attended with no great injury to me, because the improvements, which (according to the conditions of them) are to be made thereon, will enable me, if I am not too sanguine in my expectation, to rent them thereafter upon more lucrative terms, than I dare ask for either of the other two at present.

Mount Vernon, 29 March, 1784.

Dear Sir,

It has been my intention in every thing I have said, and will be so in every thing I shall say on this subject to be perfectly candid; for my feelings would be as much hurt, if I should deceive others by a too favorable description, as theirs would be who might suffer by the deception.

It was not in my power to answer your favor of the 15th by the last post, for the reason then assigned. I wish I may be able to do it to your satisfaction now, as I again am obliged to pay my attention to the other company, the Governor being gone.

I will only add, that it would give me pleasure to see these lands seated by particular societies, or religious sectaries with their pastors. It would be a means of connecting friends in a small circle, and making life in a new and rising empire (to the inhabitants of which, and their habits, new comers would be strangers) pass much more agreeably than in a mixed or dispersed situation.

My opinion coincides perfectly with yours respecting the practicability of an easy and short communication between the waters of the Ohio and Potomac, of the advantages of that communication and the preference it has over all others, and of the policy there would be in this State of Maryland to adopt and render it facile. But I confess to you freely, I have no expectation, that the public will adopt the measure; for, besides the jealousies which prevail, and the difficulty of proportioning such funds as may be allotted for the purposes you have mentioned, there are two others, which, in my opinion, will be yet harder to surmount. These are (if I have not imbibed too unfavorable an opinion of my countrymen) the impracticability of bringing the great and truly wise policy of the measure to their view, and the difficulty of extracting money from them for such a purpose, if it could be done; for it appears to me, maugre all the sufferings of the public creditors, breach of public faith, and loss of reputation, that payment of the taxes, which are already laid, will be postponed as long as possible. How then are we to expect new ones for purposes more remote?

If a plan of this sort should be relished, it would be highly expedient for an agent in behalf of such societies to come out immediately, to view the lands and close a bargain; for nothing is more probable, than that each of the tracts here enumerated may, if the matter is delayed, have settlers upon it, an intermixture with whom might not be agreeable.

I am not so disinterested in this matter as you are; but I am made very happy to find that a man of discernment and liberality, who has no particular interest in the plan, thinks as I do, who have lands in that country, the value of which would be enhanced by the adoption of such a measure.

The number of families, which these tracts aggregately, or each one separately, would accommodate, depends more upon the views of the occupiers, than on any other circumstance. The soil is capable of the greatest production, such as Europeans have little idea of. For mere support, then, the smallest quantity would suffice; which I mention in this place, because a plan for the settlement of them, under the information here given of the quantity, quality, and situation, can be as well digested in Europe, as on the land itself, so far as it respects support only; and is to be preferred to a waste of time in ascertaining on the spot the number it would receive, and what each man shall have before the association is formed.

More than ten years ago I was struck with the importance of it; and, despairing of any aids from the public, I became a principal mover of a bill to empower a number of subscribers to undertake at their own expense, on conditions which were expressed, the extension of the navigation from tide water to Will’s Creek, about one hundred and fifty miles; and I devoutly wish that this may not be the only expedient by which it can be effected now. To get this business in motion, I was obliged even upon that ground to comprehend James River, in order to remove the jealousies, which arose from the attempt to extend the navigation of the Potomac. The plan, however, was in a tolerably good train, when I set out for Cambridge in 1775, and would have been in an excellent way, had it not been for the difficulties, which were met with in the Maryland Assembly from the opposition which was given (according to report) by the Baltimore merchants, who were alarmed, and perhaps not without cause, at the consequence of water transportation to Georgetown of the produce, which usually came to their market by land.1

I will make no apology, my good Sir, for the length of this letter, presuming from your inquiries, when I had the pleasure of seeing you last in Philadelphia, that you would not be displeased at the information I now give you, and might have a wish to communicate it to others. My best wishes attend you. With sentiments of great esteem and respect, I am, Reverend Sir, &c.

The local interest of that place, joined to the short-sighted politics or contracted views of another part of that Assembly, gave Mr. Thomas Johnson, who was a warm promoter of the scheme on the north side of the Potomac, a great deal of trouble. In this situation I left matters when I took command of the army. The war afterwards called men’s attention to different objects, and all the money they could or would raise was applied to other purposes. But with you I am satisfied that not a moment ought to be lost in recommencing this business, as I know the Yorkers will delay no time to remove every obstacle in the way of the other communication, so soon as the posts of Oswego and Niagara are surrendered; and I shall be mistaken if they do not build vessels for the navigation of the lakes, which will supersede the necessity of coasting on either side.

[1 ]The failure of Maryland to co-operate with Virginia in the undertaking, and the outbreak of the Revolution, led to the abandonment of this early attempt to open the navigation of the River. In her first constitution (1776) Virginia, in substance, ceded to Maryland the entire jurisdiction over the River Potomac, reserving only the right of navigation,—a surrender the more extraordinary, as the patents of the N[orthern] Neck place the whole river Potomac within the Government of Virginia; so that we were armed with a title both of prior and posterior date to that of Maryland. (Madison.) To determine the points in controversy Virginia proposed the appointment by each State interested, of commissioners, “for the general purpose of preserving a harmony and efficacy in the regulations on both sides.” This proposition was accepted by Maryland; and Col. George Mason, Edmund Randolph, Alexander Henderson, and James Madison, Jr., were named by Virginia, to meet Thomas Johnson, Thomas Stone, Samuel Chase, and Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer, on the part of Maryland. Through a series of blunders, only Mason and Henderson met Chase and Jenifer at Alexandria in March, 1785, and on the 25th, they proceeded to Mount Vernon, having been joined by Stone. Here their business was completed, and recommendations drawn for their respective legislatures, to provide for the establishment of a concurrent jurisdiction on the Potomac and Chesapeake, and for the appointment annually of commissioners to discuss the commercial regulations proposed by each State. This led to results more important than the conference could have foreseen. For Maryland extended an invitation to Pennsylvania and Delaware to join the annual meeting, and Madison thought a general meeting “naturally grew out” of this proposition. The Annapolis Convention of September, 1786, was the fulfilment of Madison’s thought.

[1 ]The failure of Maryland to co-operate with Virginia in the undertaking, and the outbreak of the Revolution, led to the abandonment of this early attempt to open the navigation of the River. In her first constitution (1776) Virginia, in substance, ceded to Maryland the entire jurisdiction over the River Potomac, reserving only the right of navigation,—a surrender the more extraordinary, as the patents of the N[orthern] Neck place the whole river Potomac within the Government of Virginia; so that we were armed with a title both of prior and posterior date to that of Maryland. (Madison.) To determine the points in controversy Virginia proposed the appointment by each State interested, of commissioners, “for the general purpose of preserving a harmony and efficacy in the regulations on both sides.” This proposition was accepted by Maryland; and Col. George Mason, Edmund Randolph, Alexander Henderson, and James Madison, Jr., were named by Virginia, to meet Thomas Johnson, Thomas Stone, Samuel Chase, and Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer, on the part of Maryland. Through a series of blunders, only Mason and Henderson met Chase and Jenifer at Alexandria in March, 1785, and on the 25th, they proceeded to Mount Vernon, having been joined by Stone. Here their business was completed, and recommendations drawn for their respective legislatures, to provide for the establishment of a concurrent jurisdiction on the Potomac and Chesapeake, and for the appointment annually of commissioners to discuss the commercial regulations proposed by each State. This led to results more important than the conference could have foreseen. For Maryland extended an invitation to Pennsylvania and Delaware to join the annual meeting, and Madison thought a general meeting “naturally grew out” of this proposition. The Annapolis Convention of September, 1786, was the fulfilment of Madison’s thought.