The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1861-05-07
BALTIMORE.
TUESDAY, MAY 7, 1851.

assertion that in the event Of disunion between
the Northern and Southern sections of the United
States of America, the Potomac would be the line
settled upon as the boundary, the North has in
variably assumed as an established fact what in
reality was nothing more than suggestion. That
river has been looked upon and talked of by the
citizens of the free States as a sort of barrier
which was TO guard them from contact with the
slave States, and is no doubt now regarded by a
great proportion of their uneducaed population as
a broad and impossible stream, stretching from
the Atlantic Ocean directly West to the Ohio
river placed there by provident nature for the
purpose of saving the expense of boundary stones
and frontier posts. Now that the division of the
Republic is no longer probability but an accom-
plished fact, and that the line which is to mark
the limit of the Southern Confederacy is soon to
be decided upon we are naturally led to a more
careful investigation of the subject, for the pur-
pose of confirming the truth or exposing the fall
lacy of an opinion which is as likely to be dis
puted by one section as to be sustained by the
other. At the same time, impressed with the con-
viction that the interests of Maryland are almost
entirely with the South, we wish to satisfy our
selves, by inquiry if it be possible that there
should be any great natural impeachment to pre-
vent her from attaching herself to that section
with which her welfare and her sympathies de-
mand that she should be united We do
not believe that there is; but on the con-
trary, that the destinies of Maryland tend
Southwark, as inevitably as does the flow of
her streams. After careful examination. we
do not see in the Potomac frontier line that in
geographical point of view, either physical or
political, in any way compares with the one that
now separates Maryland from Pennsylvania By
examining the location of the present boundary be
tween these States it will be found to be laid down
along transverse ridge, intersecting laterally the
greatranges ofmountains which traverse the middle
States in Northeasterly and Southwesterly direc-
ton. Thenumerous streams between the Alleghany
Mountains and the Chesapeake Bay, that take their
rise at or near, and cross this frontier line all flow
in Southwardly direction, and find their way
into the Potomac River or Chesapeake Bay; while
those that have their sources little further North
fow IN North or Northeasterly directions into the
Juniata and Susquehanna Rivers So striking is
this fact that the thought at once suggests itself
that the original surveys, made by the first set
tiers OF Pennsylvania, were run just South of the
heads of the tributaries which feed the great rivers
OF that State. Beyond this limit the Dutch. who
conquered Pennsylvania from the Swedes and
held it until 1864, never pretended to exercise any
authority. No part of Maryland was claimed by
them. 1t was, on the contrary, at that time con-
sidered as portion of Virginia, with whom, now
as then, it inseparably linked In an agricultural
& Y tha
nearly and as well as any other that could be es-
@pllshed, the wheat and rye farms of the North,
form the plantations and tobacco lands of the
South, and running from East to West is Ger.
tainly much better adapted to such divi-
sion than the line of the Potomac A mere
glance at any school map will show
that this river is merely tributary
to the Chesapeake Bay, into which it emptes at a
distance of nearly one hundred miles from the
recon, the course OF a line laid down up its CEN
tire would run Northwest about half the wav nm
the navigable portion of the stream, and thence
Northeast to the head Of tide water From thence
itwou!d run Northwestery, until it nearly touched
Pennsylvania at Hancock, and thence Westerly
and Southwestery TO the head sources of the river
in the Allegheny Mountains in Virginia. The
south branch and its several forks take their rise
IN ABOUT the same parallel oflatitude as the mouth
OF the Potomac. The head waters Of the Caca-
pom and Shenandoah most important feeders of
this river, are still further South and are, in fact
in the heart Of Virginia. The Potomac and its
tributaries drain hundreds of thousands of acres
OF rich fertile land, the products of which find
their way to market, by land and by water.
along the valleys through which they flow. 1t is
portion of Virginia, and the greatest natural
highway she possesses, communicating as it does.
through the bay, with the Rappahannock and the
ork and the James rivers, and affordiue chean
transportation for merchandise between different
sectlons OF the State. This, to great extent, is
also true of maryland. The Potomac was in
tended by nature to be joint and common hiob-
way for people connected together bv common
ues and not to be frontier line between govern
ments whose institutions are dissmiar. Asre
g"FuS climate and population, the present bound
airy between Maryland and PENNSYLVANIA is nAr-
haps as well selected for dividing line botr-oor
the TWO sections, any other that conld ba
cnoSen' From the mouth of the Potomac to lis
Nor'hernmost point at Hancock the distance itself
Is so great and the difference in altitude 60 do
clded, that there is as much diversity of climate
as between New York and Norfolk; and from tbe
lhlrty-nnth parallel of latitude to the month nc
Inc Potomac, the fatness of the country and the
numerous feVer-breeding marshes and svamns
leHuer 1T at least in its present condition, only fit
10 be cultivated by slave labor. The Inducements
10 Inc introduction of free white labor are small
and the present population, in its sympathies and
pursuits, are, if anything, more intimately con-
nected with Virginia and the South than with the
northern part of their own State In addition TO
this, there is still one other important point Of
view which is well worthy of consideration. Tn
taking the Potomac as dividing line, on account
OF the direction and irregularity of its course,
there would be about twice the length of frontier
to be guarded that would be required along the
northern line of the State. Nearly half the pres
sent boundary is so mountainous and wild
that 1t could be defended with, comparatively
speaking, few outposts; and by continuing it
eastwardly to the Delaware Bay, and taking its
shores as the frontier of the Southern Confeder
acy, the line from the ocean to the Ohio would he
the shortest and the easiest to defend that could
poss'oiy be selected. With the Potomac as n
boundary, the centre of the Chesapeake Bay would
oe the line to the ocean, and thus cut off from
virginia the whole of the Eastern shore, which is
as lite adapted to cultivation by free white labor,
us tne lower portions of Maryland.
Inc inevitable conclusion to which we are led
oy THIS Investigation is, that the Potomac, far
irom oeing barrier to divide Maryland from Vir-
glnia, is a link which unites the two ipseparabIv.
ana that, instead of being mere frontier line to
marx the separation between the Coniederacies oe
u Tue North and South, it is intended as a GREAT
n,shway' to distribute through the latter the
aau, nuant wealth of two of its richest States If
. coulo scarcely be made boundary in caso tho
onsSapeake Bay were divided between tho Nor,,,
ana South which must not be- This par - y ~
uispehsaoie to the South for the estahI;.h., ln
her marlline power. In it are tho
where large navy can ride. Wiz, - nN'''fs
cope with the North on the seas. Wi,ra.s sae can
must be dependent on foreign TONNAGE 49,, ~ sne
never rise to the rank of firse-class nova 'ai
30 long as the American restricted itself to morn,
plautudes and Biblical discoveries u, ,;n..