196 JAMES MADISON 



the masterly reasoning and the resolute attitude of a 

 few great political leaders saved the state from yield- 

 ing to the delusion, and among these leaders Madison 

 was foremost. But his most important work in the 

 Virginia legislature was that which led directly to the 

 Annapolis convention, and thus ultimately to the fram- 

 ing of the Constitution of the United States. The 

 source from which such vast results were to flow was 

 the necessity of an agreement between Maryland and 

 Virginia with regard to the navigation of the Potomac 

 River and the collection of duties at ports on its banks. 

 Commissioners, appointed by the two states to discuss 

 this question, met early in 1785, and recommended 

 that a uniform tariff should be adopted and. enforced 

 upon both banks. But a further question, also closely 

 connected with the navigation of the Potomac, now 

 came up for discussion. The tide of westward migra- 

 tion had for some time been pouring over the Alle- 

 ghanies, and, owing to complications with the Spanish 

 power in the Mississippi Valley, there was some dan- 

 ger that the United States might not be able to keep 

 its hold upon the new settlements. It was necessary 

 to strengthen the commercial ties between East and 

 West, and to this end the Potomac Company was 

 formed for the purpose of improving the navigation 

 of the upper waters of the Potomac and connecting 

 them by good roads and canals with the upper waters 

 of the Ohio at Pittsburg an enterprise which in 

 due course of time resulted in the Chesapeake and 

 Ohio Canal. The first president of the Potomac 

 Company was George Washington, who well under- 

 stood that the undertaking was quite as important in 

 its political as in its commercial bearings. At the 



