longitude 75° 37′ 4′′; thence by the Scarborough and Calvert line, which runs 5° 15′ north of east, to the Atlantic Ocean.

The latitudes, longitudes, courses, and distances here given have been measured upon the Coast Chart No. 33 of U. S. Coast Survey, sheet No. 3, Chesapeake Bay. * * * The middle thread of the Pocomoke River and the low-water mark on the Potomac River are to be measured from headland to headland, without considering or following arms, inlets, creeks, bays, or affluent rivers. * * * (Vide, U. S. Stat. at Large, Vol. XX, p. 481.)

This award was ratified by the States of Maryland and Virginia, and confirmed by Congress in 1879.

In 1879-80 acts were passed by the legislatures of Maryland and Virginia to appoint commissioners and to request the General Government to designate one or more officers of the Engineer Corps, said commissioners and officers to survey and mark said line and erect monuments thereon.

West Virginia having been formed from a part of Virginia and admitted into the Union in 1862, the western boundary of Maryland now separates it from the State of West Virginia.

The commissioners appointed in 1859 by Virginia and Maryland (vide p. 91) surveyed the western boundary from the "Fairfax Stone" (the first fountain of the Potomac) due north to the Pennsylvania line, and the legislature of Maryland in 1860 passed an act declaring that line to be its western boundary.

From the "Fairfax Stone" the boundary between Maryland and West Virginia runs along the south bank of the Potomac River till it strikes the line between Virginia and West Virginia.

(For a history of the placing of the Fairfax Stone, vide Virginia, p. 96.)

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.

On the 5th day of September, 1774, the Continental Congress met at Philadelphia. Two years later they adjourned to Baltimore. During the Revolution and subsequent to the treaty of peace they met in various places. After the close of the war much debate took place in regard to the location of a permanent seat of the Government of the United States. Several States made propositions to Congress, offering to cede certain lands for the purpose, but no determination of the location was made by Congress until 1790.

Act of cession from the State of Maryland, passed December 23, 1788.

On the 23d of December, 1788, the State of Maryland passed the following act, viz:

Be it enacted by the general assembly of Maryland, That the representatives of this State in the House of Representatives of the Congress of the United States, appointed to assemble at New York on the first Wednesday of March next, be, and they are hereby, authorized and required on the behalf of this State to cede to the Congress of the United States any district in this State, not exceeding ten miles square, which the Congress may fix upon and accept for the seat of government of the United States.

In the following year (December 3, 1789), the State of Virginia passed a similar act, of which the following is an extract:

Be it therefore enacted by the general assembly, That a tract of country not exceeding ten miles square or any lesser quantity, to be located within the limits of the State and in any part thereof as Congress may by law direct, shall be, and the same is hereby, forever ceded and relinquished to the Congress and Government of the United States, in full and absolute right and exclusive jurisdiction, as well of said soil as of persons residing or to reside thereon, pursuant to the tenor and effect of the eighth section of the 1st article of the Constitution of the Government of the United States.

After long discussion, Congress in 1790, in view of the foregoing cessions of Maryland and Virginia, passed the following act, viz:

AN ACT for establishing the temporary and permanent seat of government of the United States Approved July 16, 1790.

SECT. 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That a district of territory, not exceeding ten miles square, to be located as hereafter directed on the river Potowmac, at some place between the mouth of the Eastern Branch and Connoyocheque, be, and the same is hereby, accepted for the permanent seat of the government of the United States: Provided, nevertheless, That the operation of the laws of the State within such district shall not be affected by this acceptance until the time fixed for the removal of the Government thereto, and until Congress shall otherwise by law provide.

SECT. 2. And be it further enacted, That the President of the United States be authorized to appoint, and, by supplying vacancies happening from refusals to act or other causes, to keep in appointment as long as may be necessary, three commissioners, who, or any two of whom, shall, under the direction of the President, survey, and by proper metes and bounds define and limit, a district of territory, under the limitations above mentioned; and the district so defined, limited, and located shall be deemed the district accepted by this act for the permanent seat of the Government of the United States.

SECT. 3. And be it enacted, That the said commissioners, or any two of them, shall have power to purchase or accept such quantity of land on the eastern side of the said river within the said district as the President shall deem proper for the use of the United States, and according to such plans as the President shall approve. The said commissioners, or any two of them, shall, prior to the first Monday in December in the year 1800, provide suitable buildings for the accommodatiou of Congress, and of the President, and for the public offices of the Government of the United States. SECT. 4. And be it enacted, That for defraying the expenses of such purchases and buildings the President of the United States be authorized and requested to accept grants of money.

SECT. 5. And be it enacted, That prior to the first Monday in December next all offices attached to the seat of government of the United States shall be removed to, and until the first Monday in December in the year 1800 shall remain at, the city of Philadelphia, in the State of Pennsylvania, at which place the session of Congress next ensuing the present shall be held.

SECT. 6. And be it enacted, That on the first Monday in December, in the year 1800, the seat of the Government of the United States shall, by virtue of this act, be transferred to the district and place aforesaid. And all offices attached to the said seat of government shall accordingly be removed thereto by their respective holders and shall, after the said day, cease to be exercised elsewhere, and that the necessary expense of said removal shall be defrayed out of the duties on imposts and tonnage, of which a sufficient sum is hereby appropriated.

In the following year the foregoing act was amended, in order to include a portion of the Anacostia River (Eastern Branch"), and the town of Alexandria within the limits of the district.

The following is the act of amendment:

AN ACT to amend "An act for establishing the temporary and permanent seat of government of the United States." Approved March 3, 1791.

Be it enacted, &c., That so much of the act entitled "An act for establishing the temporary and permanent seat of the Government of the United States" as requires that the whole of the district of territory, not exceeding ten miles square, to be located on the river Potowmac for the permanent seat of the Government of the United States shall be located above the mouth of the Eastern Branch be, and is hereby, repealed, and that it shall be lawful for the President to make any part of the territory below said limit and above the mouth of Hunting Creek a part of the said district, so as to include a convenient port of the Eastern Branch and of the lands lying on the lower side thereof, and also the town of Alexandria; and the territory so to be included shall form a part of the district not exceeding ten miles square for the permanent seat of the Government of the United States, in like manner and to all intents and purposes as if the same had been within the the purview of the above recited act: Provided, That nothing herein contained shall authorize the erection of the public buildings otherwise than on the Maryland side of the river Potowmac, as required by the aforesaid act.

In pursuance of the foregoing acts, three commissioners were appointed, who made preliminary surveys of the territory, and on the 30th day of March, 1791, George Washington, President of the United States, issued a proclamation, in which the bounds of the said District were defined as follows, viz:

Beginning at Jones' Point, being the upper cape of Hunting Creek, in Virginia, and at an angle in the outset of 45° west of the north, and running in a direct line ten miles for the first line; then beginning again at the same Jones' Point and running another direct line at a right angle with the first, across the Potomac, ten miles for the second line; then, from the terminations of the said first and second lines, running two other direct lines, of ten miles each, the one crossing the Potomac and the other the Eastern Branch aforesaid, and meeting each other in a point.

In 1800 Congress removed to this District. In the following year the District was divided into two counties, as follows, viz:

UNITED STATES STATUTES AT LARGE, SIXTH CONGRESS, SECOND SESSION, 1801, (CHAPTER XV).

AN ACT concerning the District of Columbia.

The said District of Columbia shall be formed into two counties. One county shall contain all that part of said district which lies on the east side of the river Potomac, together with the islands therein, and shall be called the county of Washington, the other county shall contain all that part of said District which lies on the west side of said river, and shall be called the county of Alexandria; and the said river, in its whole course through said District, shall be taken and deemed to all intents and purposes to be within both of said counties.

In 1846 Congress passed an act retroceding to the State of Virginia that part of the District of Columbia originally ceded to the United