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Accordingly Virginia and Maryland passed laws authorizing the formation of a company for the improvement of the Potomac River. "I have now the pleasure," wrote Washington to Richard Henry Lee, February 8, 1785,"to inform you that the Assemblies of Virginia and Maryland have enacted laws, of which the inclosed is a copy.^[1] They are exactly similar in both States. At the same time, and at the joint and equal expense of the two governments, the sum of six thousand six hundred and sixty-six dollars and two thirds is voted for opening and keeping in repair a road from the highest practicable navigation of this river to that of the River Cheat, or Monongahela, as commissioners, who are appointed to survey and lay out the same, shall find most convenient and beneficial to the western settlers." Washington believed fully that the project was to be a great success for stockholders; he estimated that they would receive twenty per cent from investments in Potomac improvement in a few years.^[2]

1. See appendix A, p. 219
2. E. Watson's History of the . . Western Canals in the State of New York, p. 87.