CHAPTER XXI. 1785-1794. Governor Smallwood.-Baltimore enlarged.-Towns erected.-General Williams.-Death of Thomas Stone.-Cumberland erected.-Turnpike Roads. --Governor Howard.-Washington City.-Braddock's Road.-Territory of Columbia. 1. On the 17th of November, 1785, Major-General William Smallwood, a prominent leader of the old Maryland line during the war of the revolution, was elected governor of Maryland. 2. In this year a compact, made by commissioners appointed by the general assembly of Virginia and others appointed by the state of Maryland, was ratified and confirmed to settle the jurisdiction and navigation of the Potomac and Pocomoke Rivers, and that part of the Chesapeake Bay that lies within the state of Virginia. George Mason and Alexander Henderson were the commissioners on the part of Virginia, and Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer, Thomas Stone, and Samuel Chase on the part of Maryland. 3. In the compact Virginia disclaimed all right to impose any toll, duty, or charge on any vessel sailing through the capes of the Chesapeake to the state of Maryland. Any vessel, inward or outward bound, might freely enter any of the rivers in Virginia as a harbor, or as a place of safety against an enemy; also the parts of the Chesapeake within that state as well as the Pocomoke River. 4. The state of Maryland agreed in turn that any vessel belonging to Virginia might freely enter any of the rivers THE POTOMAC MADE A COMMON HIGHWAY. 199 of Maryland, as a harbor, or for safety against an enemy, without the payment of any port duty or any other charge. 5. Vessels of war, the property of either state, should not be subject to the payment of any duties when sailing within the waters of the two sovereignties; and vessels not exceeding forty feet keel, nor fifty tons register, the property of any citizens of either state, having on board the produce of one state or the other, or both, might trade in any part of either state by permit from a naval officer, without being subject to port charges. 6. All merchant vessels navigating the Potomac were required to enter and clear at some Naval office on the river, according to the laws of the state in which such entry or clearance might be made. When any vessel should make an entry in both states, such vessel was subject to tonnage dues in each state, only in proportion to the commodities carried to or taken from such state. 7. The Potomac was made a common highway for navigation and commerce to the citizens of the two states, and of the United States, as well as to all other persons in amity with the said states, trading to or from Virginia or Maryland. 8. The citizens of each state respectively had full prop erty in the shores of the Potomac adjoining their lands, with all the advantages thereunto belonging, with the privilege of carrying out wharves and other improvements so as not to obstruct navigation. The right of fishing was made common to all citizens of each state, provided the common right exercised by those of the one state might not disturb the fisheries on the shores of the other. 9. Light-houses, beacons, buoys, and other necessary signals were erected and maintained upon the Chesapeake between the sea and the mouths of the rivers Potomac and Pocomoke, and upon the former river, at the joint expense of both states, 10. All piracies, crimes, and offenses committed on the waters of the Potomac River by the citizens of either state against the citizens of the other, were made punishable in the courts of the state of which the offender was a citizen; and all piracies, crimes, and offenses, committed by persons not citizens of either state upon persons not citizens of either state, were made punishable in the courts of the state to which the offender should first be brought. 11. The general assembly of Maryland, being of opinion that this compact was made on just and mutual principles, for the true interest of both states, confirmed it on the 12th of March, 1786, as well calculated "to perpetuate harmony, friendship, and good offices, so essential to the prosperity and happiness of the people." zens. 12. At the beginning of the year 1785, it was plainly seen that Baltimore Town had grown so rapidly and acquired a commercial importance so decided that a decline in these particulars was impossible. Many large additions of land had been made to the town since its erection in 1729, and others were offered by its most substantial citiWhen the first Lord Baltimore explored the Chesapeake, one hundred years before the foundation of the city of Baltimore was laid, little did he know of the extent of the wealth that covered the beds of its coves and its tributaries ; and he could not imagine that a great city, bearing his own name, would soon arise from the wealth of the Chesapeake, the wheat lands, and the coal mountains of the western part of the province. The docks and piers of the city were already claiming all the surplus productions of the state, and also levying tribute upon those of new and boundless territories hundreds of miles beyond the great chain of the Alleghanies. 13. Adventurers and strangers from all parts were flocking into the town; many different languages were spoken on her wharves, in her streets, counting-rooms, and parlors; "PALMER'S ISLAND." 201 and, on account of their intelligence and refinement, her citizens might have been styled the Athenians of America. 14. In this year it was represented to the general assembly of the state, by the petition of the principal inhabitants of the town, that Colonel John Eager Howard and George Lux, Esq., had voluntarily offered to grant to the commissioners of the town, and their successors, in fee simple, a parcel of ground contiguous thereto for the purpose of a burying-ground "for strangers and others who might thereafter depart this life among them," provided the consent of the legislature could be obtained for that purpose. 15. The general assembly answered the petitioners in a short preamble to the effect that they were desirous of promoting the laudable and pious purposes of the citizens, and enacted that the burying place petitioned for should be used and occupied "as a place of common interment for strangers, poor people, and negroes, who may die in the town, and for no other purpose." 16. In the same year it was represented that Robert Young Stoakes, late of Harford County, deceased, did, in his lifetime, survey and lay out into lots a parcel of ground at the mouth of the Susquehanna River for a town, and called the same by the name of Havre de Grace. Many persons had purchased lots and made considerable improvements upon them, and Clement Brooke, the executor of the deceased, was authorized by law to convey by deed to the commissioners of the town, and their successors, such lots as had been laid out for public purposes; but, Baltimore attracting the trade of both Maryland and Pennsylvania, the town ceased to grow, and is still a small place. In the year 1608 Captain John Smith visited the site of Havre de Grace, and, burying one of his companions named Palmer on the island at the mouth of the Susquehanna, bestowed upon it the name of "Palmer's Island." 17. In 1786 a town at the mouth of Conococheague, in Washington County, was erected. General Otho Holland Williams, who won great honors in the battles of the Maryland line during the revolution, owned a tract of land called "Ross's Purchase," and another adjoining called "Leeds,” contiguous to the mouth of the creek. From the advantages of navigation from the head branches of the Potomac to the mouth of said creek, and the great prospect of the navigation of the river being extended to tidewater, General Williams was encouraged to lay out a part of his land to be erected into a town. He had contracted with the commissioners of the county to build a warehouse on the land, and to furnish scales and weights for the inspection of tobacco. He therefore prayed that a law be passed to lay out a town on the land, and the legislature, being of opinion that the erection of a town at the mouth of the creek might be convenient and beneficial to the public, granted his prayer, passing a law for the erection of a town called Williamsport. This town grew slowly; but the site, as described by an ancient traveler, was beautiful and romantic. Williamsport," said he, "is situated on the bank of the Potomac, which is one fourth of a mile wide precisely, where Big Conococheague empties into the river. The prospect here is romantic and beautiful. I crossed the river in a flat-twenty minutes on the water. While crossing, I saw two wagons fording the river with safety." 66 18. Thomas Stone, one of the Maryland signers of the Declaration of Independence, died in 1787. He was born in Charles County in 1743. 19. On the 20th of January, 1787, an act was passed by the legislature" for erecting a town at or near the mouth of Will's Creek, in Washington County. Thomas Beall owned a tract of land called "Walnut Bottom," contiguous to the mouth of the creek, and had been induced to lay out ground for a town. Andrew Bruce, Daniel Cresap, George Dent, John Lynn, and Evan Gwinn were appointed by law to |