The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1909-11-04

well, and he made a sketch of the terri
tory, showing that Lord Fairfax was
encroaching on Maryland soil
At the outbreak of the Revolutionary
war the question was still unsettled,
and then followed the endless inter-
change of letters between the Common
wealth of Virginia and the Common
wealth of Mary land over the true def
milton and location of the headwaters
of the Potomac. Virginia always in
sisted that all surveys and measure
ments of the boundary line must start
from the Fairfax stone. Maryland
corld never concede this point, and so
negotiations were invariably broken off.
In 1884 Maryland patience was ex-
hausted, and the attorney general of
the State was directed TO institute pro-
ceedingS in the Supreme Court of the
United States unless, pending the de-
cision by that tribunal, Virginia would
accept the suggestion made two years
DN4OA ( III ,jOllll NOlliIlilSolOl. lIR iIlld
cleverly met this move by declaring that
Maryland totally misunderstood the at
titude of Virginia N 1892 if it believed
that the State was unwilling to agree
to a commission, and accordingly Mary
land, being unwilling to let "any strain
ed punctilio stand in the way of an
{ q lNll - II, =,
torney general to withdraw the suit
Once the suit was withdrawn Virginia )
interest in the affair again lapsed. In
1S52 Maryland, anxious to haye a fixed
boundary, offered to Virginia the APP
pointment of commissioners to run a
line due north from Fairfax stone.
which line, when ratified by both legis-
latures, should be the boundary line.
This was practically giving up the
whole matter in controversy, and it
seemed as if the contention was about
to be settled at last.
By application to the federal govern
ment Lieut.. N. Michler an experienced
engineer officer, ran line from the
Fairfax stone north to the Pennsyl-
vania line. This line, when ratified by
both legislatures, was to be the bound
airy. Maryland ratified the Michler
line in March, 1860, but Virginia again
daliled. The Assembly passed two
resolutions, one providing for the cree
ton of suitable monuments to mark the
Michler line and another authorized the
governor to send an agent to England
&c collect records and documentary evil
dence tending to ascertain and estab-
hsh the true lines of boundary between
Virginia and the State Of North Caro-
lima, Tennessee and Maryland " indi-
eating, apparently, that, although the
Michler line had been run, Virginia still
regarded the question of the boundary
as unsettled. Certain it is that the
Virginia Assembly never passed the act
of ratification, and so MARYLAND was
once more RENTED to her original
rights.
Then came the war of the Rebellion,
the Wheeling convention and the birth
of the new State of West Virginia.
West Virginia is now included in the
disputed territory, which is about 81
square miles in the present county of
Preston. Again there followed long
series of correspondence between the
governors and resolutions for the ap-
pointment of commissions, always un-
satisfactory, until in 1892 the legisla-
ture of Maryland again instructed its
attorney general to bring the matter
before the Supreme Court of the United
States for final adjustment There it
is today.