George Washington and the Mount Vernon Compact

Meeting About Potomac Canal Paved Way For Constitutional Convention

Jul 8, 2008

A meeting between Maryland and Virginia in 1785 showed that the states could cooperate to mutual benefit of both and led to the Constitutional Convention in 1787.

When George Washington decided to make his dream of having a navigable Potomac River a reality, politics stood in his way of getting started. Washington’s Patowmack Company was a Virginia company and the Potomac River was owned, at least technically, by Maryland. Lord Baltimore’s royal grant for Maryland set one of the colony’s borders at the southern shore of the Potomac River. This meant that the entire river was Maryland’s, though the grant also allowed Virginia a right to use the river. This left the two states with some legal issues to work out over governing the river (Joel Achenbach, The Grand Idea, Simon & Schuster, NY, 2004).

Alexandria Meeting Fails

At future-President James Madison’s suggestion, commissioners from both Maryland and Virginia met in Alexandria on March 20, 1785. With little to show after four days of meeting, the group accepted Washington’s invitation to reconvene at Mount Vernon.

Potomac River Unites States

At his estate Mount Vernon, Washington wined and dined the commissioners and saw progress. The group agreed on tolls, tariffs, the common valuation of currency and shared naval protection of the river. Their agreement became known as the Mount Vernon Compact. The agreement didn’t end there, though.

Washington once wrote to Madison, “We are either a United people, or we are not.” Then he added, if the answer was the negative, “let us no longer act a farce by pretending to it.” Washington’s vision of the Potomac River tying together a nation was his action to make the country united, according to Achenbach.

The Annapolis Convention Fails

It seemed in his presence that the commissioners caught his vision. If these Maryland and Virginia could work together for the betterment of both, why couldn’t the idea work with the other states they bordered—Pennsylvania, Delaware and North Carolina? They set another, larger meeting with representatives of all thirteen states in Annapolis, Maryland.

The Annapolis Convention happened in September 1786. It was a failure, but a failure the country’s leaders learned from. Only five states got their delegates to the convention on time. Without a quorum the convention never took place. Two more delegations were on the way, but didn’t arrive before the meeting was adjourned. The delegates weren’t willing to completely give up, though. The meeting was rescheduled for the next year and the delegates would address changing the Articles of Confederation.

U.S. Constitution Groundwork Laid

That meeting did take place in Philadelphia in May 1787. It came to be known as the Constitutional Convention and it laid the groundwork for the forming of the United States Constitution.

The Power of Washington

Historian John Ferling has suggested that the reason the Annapolis Convention failed was because Washington was not invited. His name would have added prestige and authority to the proceedings. The same mistake wasn’t made with the Potomack Company. With Washington as president, his name attracted capital investors both in the canal project and other projects along the canal.

The copyright of the article George Washington and the Mount Vernon Compact in Colonial America is owned by Jim Rada. Permission to republish George Washington and the Mount Vernon Compact in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Jul 9, 2008 7:13 PM

Roger Saunders :

Great Article! This is a story that is virtually unknown. It certainly was a pivotal meeting. I am very glad those Potomac Rapids, which would have been eliminated had this Company succeeded in its goals, have survived as long as the Constitution has!