How the States Got Their Shapes Too_ The People Behind the Borderlines - Mark Stein [15]
Whom it did not behoove was Lord Baltimore. Had the Virginia surveyors determined that the South Branch of the Potomac was the true source of the river, the land between the two branches would belong to his colony, Maryland. But Lord Baltimore did not then know (nor did anyone else) which branch of the Potomac extended farthest into the heavily forested western mountains. Over the next several years, however, his suspicions were aroused, and he had his colony’s governor dispatch a surveyor to determine the respective locations of the source of both branches. The surveyor reported that the South Branch extended sixty to eighty miles farther from the mouth of the Potomac than did the North Branch. Learning this, Lord Baltimore sent instructions to his governor, stating:
Lord Viscount Fairfax has a Grant of a large Tract of Land lying and running along the Banks of Patowmack River on the Virginia Side and … I am informed The Powers of Government in Virginia have taken the Liberty to ascertain the Bounds and Limits of his said Lordships Grant.… I am informed that Commissioners have proceeded therein and instead of their stopping at the South Branch, which runs from the first Fountain of Patowmack River, one of the Boundries of Maryland, have cros’t to a Branch runing North.… Communicate to Lord Fairfax that I am very desirous of Settling Proper Limits Conclusive between him and me in regard to my Province of Maryland and his Grant in Virginia.2
The Fairfax Grant: three-way dispute
Maryland and Virginia: disputed border
Lord Fairfax politely declined. Lord Baltimore then sought to have a survey commissioned by Maryland. But the colony’s House of Burgesses was engaged in a battle over taxes with Lord Baltimore and postponed funding the survey. The issue was further delayed by the dangers and expenses of the French and Indian War (1754–63). Once recovered from the war, Maryland commissioned a survey. When completed in 1774, it revealed what by now both sides knew: the South Branch of the Potomac was the more extensive branch.
But this was not the time for colonies to fight each other, particularly in a dispute that would require the king to adjudicate. Maryland and Virginia were in the midst of uniting with their fellow American colonies to fight that very king over issues far more important than this chunk of land.
The boundary dispute resurfaced during the first years of the new nation within the context of a new issue. Under the Articles of Confederation, no provisions existed regarding interstate commerce. One state could tax another for use of its roads and rivers. For Maryland and Virginia, a compact was necessary to protect Virginia’s use of the Potomac, which was entirely within Maryland’s jurisdiction, and Maryland’s use of the lower Chesapeake Bay, which was entirely within Virginia’s jurisdiction. In 1785 negotiations were mediated by, of all people, George Washington. At this time, Washington was retired from the army but was not yet the president, as no such position existed under the Articles.
Maryland navigated these negotiations carefully, since contesting the North Branch as the proper border would have been awkward enough when one of the line’s original surveyors was mediating the negotiations. Given that the mediator was also the nation’s foremost military hero, Maryland opted to cooperate. But it kept an ace up its sleeve. The legislation that appointed its negotiators stipulated that only when the two states agreed to their respective borders would the compact be submitted to the Maryland legislature for approval. Virginia agreed to such a discussion, but only regarding the border’s western terminus—the Fairfax Stone having been lost in the intervening years. (Decades later it was rediscovered under forest foliage.) Virginia would not discuss which branch was the border.3
Maryland knew it could take the dispute before