political bearing in turning the channels of trade away from Spanish and British influence. "Extend the navigation of the eastern waters," he writes to a member of Congress; communicate them as near as possible with those which run westward-open to the Ohio; open also such as extend from the Ohio towards Lake Erie, and we shall not only draw the produce of the western settlers, but the peltry and fur-trade of the lakes to our ports; thus adding an immense increase to our exports, and binding these people to us by a chain which can never be broken." This was the first suggestion to Congress of that policy of internal improvements, which, from the beginning of the National Road, in 1806, was followed up with considerable zeal, until General Jackson vetoed the Maysville Road, in 1829. The policy of Exploration and National Surveys, which our government still adheres to, was likewise suggested by George Washington, and that, too, in connection with the Potomac scheme.'

991

The public spirit of George Washington is strikingly manifest, not only in these pioneer efforts for the good of our nation, but in a project which is so nearly connected with the Potomac enterprise that we must not pass it by, although the limits of this paper will not allow us a special treatment of the subject. Before the organization of the Potomac Company, of which George Washington became first president in 1785, continuing in office until 1788, when he was elected President of the United States, the legislature of Virginia passed an act vesting George Washington with one hundred and fifty shares in the proposed companies for

1 Marshall's Life of Washington, V., p. 14. It is a mistake to suppose that Washington did not appreciate the importance of the Mississippi to the United States, and the true interests of the country in obtaining a free navigation of that river. He saw that this would come in good time. See Letter to R. H. Lee, July 19, 1787. See letter to Richard Henry Lee, President of Congress, 1784. Writings of Washington, IX., p. 80.

The second president of the Potomac Company was Thomas Johnson of Maryland, the man to whom Washington addressed his letter of July 20, 1770, suggesting "an enlarged plan" for the Potomac enterprise.

extending the navigation of the Potomac and James rivers. This was done by the State of Virginia, through its representatives, who desired to testify "their sense of the unexampled merits of George Washington," and to make those great works for national improvement which were to be monuments to his glory at the same time "monuments also of the gratitude of his country."

Washington, although deeply sensible of the honor his countrymen had shown him, felt himself much embarrassed by this substantial token of their good will and affection, and consequently declined their offer, for he wished, he said, to have his future actions "free and independent as the air." In a letter to Benjamin Harrison, Governor of Virginia, Washington, after a graceful tribute to the generosity of his native State, thus declares his position: "Not content with the bare consciousness of my having, in all this navigation business, acted upon the clearest conviction of the political importance of the measure, I would wish that every individual who may hear that it was a favorite plan of mine, may know also that I had no other motive for promoting it, than the advantage of which I conceived it would be productive to the Union, and to this State in particular, by cementing the eastern and western territory together."

"How would this matter be viewed, then, by the eye of the world, and what would be the opinion of it, when it comes to be related, that George Washington has received twenty thousand dollars and five thousand pounds sterling of the public money as an interest therein? Would not this, in the estimation of it, (if I am entitled to any merit for the part I have acted, and without it there is no foundation for the act), deprive me of the principal thing which is laudable in my conduct?" In a subsequent letter to Patrick

1 Pickell, p. 135, or Writings of Washington, IX., p. 84. Washington's private opinion as to the effect the Potomac enterprise would have in raising the value of his western lands, may be gathered from a comparison of his writings, IX., pp. 31, 99.

Henry, Harrison's successor as governor of Virginia, Washington speaks of his original determination to accept no pay whatever for his public services: "When I was first called to the station with which I was honored during the late conflict for our liberties, to the diffidence which I had so many reasons to feel in accepting it, I thought it my duty to join a firm resolution to shut my hand against every pecuniary recompense. To this resolution I have invariably adhered, and from it, if I had the inclination, I do not feel at liberty now to depart." But, in view of the earnest wishes of Patrick Henry and the legislature of Virginia, that Washington's name might be identified with this great scheme for public improvements, Washington finally consented to appropriate the shares, not to his own emolument, but for objects of a public nature.

1 Pickell, p. 143.

WASHINGTON'S PLAN

FOR A

NATIONAL UNIVERSITY.

The shares that Washington received from the Potomac Company seem to have constituted the material basis of his famous plan for a National University. An examination of his correspondence with Edmund Randolph and Thomas Jefferson, reveals the fact that Washington's original purpose was to appropriate the Potomac and James river stock for the establishment of two charity schools, one on each of the above rivers for the education and support of the children of those men who had fallen in the defense of American liberty. Afterward, however, believing the stock likely to prove extremely valuable, Washington determined to employ the fifty shares, which he held in the Potomac Company, for the endowment of a National University, in the District of Columbia, "under the auspices of the general government." The one hundred shares which he held in the James River Company were given to Liberty Hall Academy, in Virginia, now the Washington and Lee University. Although Washington declared his conviction that it would be far better to concentrate all the shares upon the establishment of a National University,' yet, from a desire to reconcile his gratitude to Virginia with a great public good, he concluded to divide the bequest as above de

1

Writings of Washington, IX., pp. 116, 134.

2

Writings of Washington, XI., p. 24.