I j 
 
THE HISTORY 
 
 OF 
 
 MASON AND DIXON'S LINE; 
 
 CONTAINED IN 
 
 AN ADDRESS, 
 
 DELIVERED BY 
 
 JOHN H. B. LATKOBE, 
 
 OF MARYLAND, 
 
 BEFORE 
 
 THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA, 
 
 November 8, 1854. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 
 LIPPINCOTT, GKAMBO, AND CO. 
 
 1855. 
 
PHILADELPHIA: 
 
 T. K. AND P. O. COLLINS, PRINTERS, 
 
CORRESPONDENCE. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA, November 16, 1854. 
 DEAR SIR : 
 
 At a meeting of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 
 held on the 13th instant, the following resolution was unanimously 
 adopted : 
 
 Resolved, That the thanks of this Society be presented to John 
 H. B, Latrobe, Esq., for his very able and instructive Anniversary 
 Address, delivered on the 8th instant ; and that he be requested 
 to furnish a copy for publication. 
 
 The undersigned were appointed a committee to carry this 
 resolution into effect; and we concur in the hope that you will 
 comply with the wish of the Society to render your interesting 
 discourse permanently and generally accessible to our fellow- 
 citizens. 
 
 We are, very respectfully, 
 
 Your obedient servants, 
 
 JOB R. TYSON, 
 
 WM. PARKER FOULKE, 
 
 W. B. REED, 
 
 A. L. ELWYN, 
 
 J. FRANCIS FISHER. 
 
 To JOHN H. B. LATROBE, ESQ. 
 BALTIMORE. 
 
IV CORRESPONDENCE. 
 
 BALTIMORE, November 29, 1854. 
 GENTLEMEN : 
 
 I have your letter of the 16th instant, asking for a copy of 
 my address delivered before the Historical Society of Pennsylvania 
 on the 8th instant. I inclose it ; and take the occasion to thank 
 you for the kindness of the terms in which the request has been 
 conveyed. 
 
 Remaining, gentlemen, 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 JNO. H. B. LATROBE. 
 
 To Messrs. J. R. TYSON, 
 
 W. PARKER FOTJLKE, 
 WILLIAM B. REED, 
 A. L. ELWYN, and 
 J. FRANCIS FISHER. 
 
ADDRESS. 
 
 GENTLEMEN OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
 OF PENNSYLVANIA: 
 
 I AM here, to-night, a citizen of Maryland, honored 
 by your invitation to address you on the occasion of 
 your anniversary; and the topic I have chosen is the 
 boundary between our respective States. 
 
 Adjacent land-owners rarely take much interest in 
 the title, quality, or culture of their neighbors' fields ; 
 but they are generally sufficiently sensitive to the 
 true location and maintenance of the division fences. 
 I have, therefore, thought that I might count upon 
 your patience, while I occupied my allotted hour 
 with the history and description of Mason and 
 Dixon's line. 
 
 There is, perhaps, no line, real or imaginary, on 
 the surface of the earth not excepting even the 
 equator and the equinoctial whose name has been 
 oftener in men's mouths during the last fifty years. 
 In the halls of legislation, in the courts of justice, in 
 the assemblages of the people, it has been as familiar 
 
6 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 as a household word. Not that any particular inte 
 rest was taken in the line itself; but the mention of 
 it was always expressive of the fact, that the States 
 of the Union were divided into slaveholding and 
 non-slaveholding into Northern and Southern; 1 and 
 that those, who lived on opposite sides of the line of 
 
 1 See Bancroft, TO!, ii. p. 396, who says: "That that line (referring to 
 Mason and Dixon's) forms the present division between the States resting on 
 free labor, and the States that tolerate slavery, is due, not to the philan 
 thropy of Quakers alone, but to climate." Perhaps less to climate than to 
 interest. Slavery, south of Mason and Dixon's line, will cease to exist so 
 soon as it ceases to be the interest of land-owners to hold, and work their 
 fields with, slaves. Bancroft's mistake is in attributing slavery to climate, 
 which is unchanging, and which would make the institution lasting, instead 
 of to interest, which is changeable, and which may cause slavery to cease to 
 exist. And although climate certainly is connected with the interest which 
 now maintains slavery, yet interest may readily become paramount to the 
 effects of climate. Thus, there are very many, indeed, who believe, that if 
 the " abolition excitement" had not made slavery in Maryland and Kentucky, 
 and in many parts of Virginia, a matter of State pride, laws for prospective 
 emancipation would long ago have been passed ; and for the simple reason 
 that, while slave-labor is profitable in the culture, just now, of cotton, and 
 sugar, and rice, it is not so profitable in many instances, it is a losing busi 
 ness in the culture of wheat. The slavery question of the United States is 
 a question of interest ; and its solution will be found in the increasing white 
 population of the country, the consequent reduction of wages, and the great 
 ultimate resultthe production, by free labor, of the chief staples of the coun 
 try cheaper than they can be produced by slave-labor. Voluntary manu 
 missions will then free the slaves, because it will be to the interest of the 
 masters to get rid of an expensive labor, that they may substitute a cheaper 
 one ; and colonization in Africa, which has already built up a Republic there, 
 will, by that time, have established a commerce with that country, which 
 will afford the same means for the emigration of the colored race that com 
 merce with Europe now affords for bringing a free white population to our 
 shores. 
 
MASON AND DIXON'S LINE. 
 
 separation, were antagonistic in opinion upon an all- 
 engrossing question, whose solution, and its conse 
 quences, involved the gravest considerations, and had 
 been supposed to threaten the integrity of the Re 
 public. Its geographical, thus became lost in its 
 political, significance; and men cared little, when 
 they referred to it, where it ran, or what was its his 
 tory or whether it was limited to Pennsylvania, or 
 extended, as has, perhaps, most generally been sup 
 posed, from the Atlantic to the Pacific. It suggested 
 the idea of negro slavery; and that, alone, was 
 enough to give it importance and notoriety, though 
 only as a name. 
 
 A consequence of this state of things has been to 
 perpetuate the memory of the old surveyors who 
 established it. A rare good fortune as regards their 
 fame; for, while the engineers who located the road 
 across the Simplon have been forgotten in the all- 
 absorbing renown of the master whom they served 
 while, of the thousands who sail past the Eddystone, 
 not one, perhaps, knows who it was that erected, on 
 a crag in the midst of the sea, the wondrous light 
 house that has now defied the tempests of a cen 
 tury while oblivion has been the lot of other bene 
 factors of mankind, whose works, of every-day utility, 
 should have been their enduring monuments Charles 
 Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, who, eighty-six years 
 ago, ran a line through the forest, until the Indians 
 forbade the further progress of chain and compass, 
 
8 THE HISTORY OP 
 
 and whose greatest merit seems to have been that of 
 accurate surveyors, 1 have obtained a notoriety for 
 their names as lasting as the history of our country. 
 
 An inspection of the map of the United States 
 shows the boundaries, in most cases, to be, either 
 rivers, the crests of mountain ranges, parallels of lati 
 tude, or meridians of longitude. In but a single in 
 stance has the circle, with its geometrical accuracy, 
 been employed to indicate a dividing line of conti 
 guous States; and the inquiry at once suggests itself, 
 why the southern frontier of Pennsylvania was not 
 prolonged to the New Jersey shore, why the eastern 
 one of Maryland was not made to strike it, and why 
 a circle should be the northern boundary of Dela 
 ware the odd result of which has been to leave so 
 narrow a strip of Pennsylvania between Delaware 
 and Maryland, that the ball of one's foot may be in 
 the former, the heel in the latter, while the instep 
 forms an arch over a portion of the "Keystone State" 
 itself. The explanation of this is closely connected 
 with our history, and will be given as we progress 
 with it. 
 
 On the 20th June, 1632, Charles the Second, then 
 in the eighth year of his reign, granted to Cecilius 
 Calvert, Lord Baron of Baltimore 
 
 1 Mason and Dixon were, at different times, elected members of the 
 American Philosophical Society Mason on the 27th March, 1767, and 
 Dixon on the 1st April, 1768; and, in the notice of their election, they are 
 styled, each, "Surveyor, of London." Proceedings of Amer. Phil. Soc. 
 
MASON AND DIXON'S LINE. 9 
 
 "All that part of the Peninsula, or chersonese, 
 lying in the parts of America between the ocean on 
 the east, and the Bay of Chesapeake on the west, 
 divided from the residue thereof by a right line, 
 drawn from the promontory or headland called Wat- 
 kin's Point, situate upon the bay aforesaid, and near 
 the river of Wighco on the west, unto the main 
 ocean on the east, and between that boundary on the 
 south, and that part of the Bay of Delaware on the 
 north, which lieth under the fortieth degree of lati 
 tude, where New England terminates." 1 
 
 At this early day, the great States of Pennsylvania 
 and New York had no existence in any shape, and 
 the northern boundary of Maryland was the southern 
 boundary of New England. Within the latter, New 
 Plymouth had been planted in 1620, and Massachu 
 setts Bay in 1629. > In Maryland, the only settle 
 ments were those made by William Claiborne, in 
 1631, on Kent Island, in the Chesapeake. The name 
 of Claiborne, in connection with Maryland, suggests 
 at once an episode of romantic interest. The great 
 living historian of our country, who first mentions 
 him as " a man of resolute and enterprising spirit," 2 
 introduces him into the narrative of events with dra 
 matic power, when he describes the landing of Leon 
 ard Calvert at St. Mary's, in 1634, and adds, that 
 
 1 Kilty's Laws of Maryland. 
 
 2 Bancroft's History of the United States, vol. i. p. 236. 
 
10 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 " Claiborne also appeared, though as a prophet of ill 
 omen, to terrify the company by predicting the fixed 
 hostility of the natives." Afterwards, when dwelling 
 on the " auspices under which the province of Mary 
 land started into being," the same historian says: 
 "Everything breathed peace but Claiborne." Again, 
 he calls him "the malignant Claiborne;" again, "the 
 restless Claiborne;" and even when mentioning his 
 favorable reception by Charles the Second, on his 
 visit to England, attributes it, in part, to "his false 
 representations." 1 Chalmers, largely quoted by Ban 
 croft, styles Claiborne " the evil genius of Maryland," 
 and speaks of him as one who seemed " to have been 
 born to be the bane of the province;" 2 and other 
 historians, taking their cue from Chalmers, place him 
 in the category of unscrupulous men, the exhalations 
 of unsettled periods. McMahon alone speaks not 
 unkindly of him; and yet, even McMahon calls him 
 " the notorious William Claiborne." 3 But, twenty- 
 four years is a long while for mere bravado and in 
 trigue, in a bad cause, to maintain possession of the 
 public mind; and it is difficult to believe that Clai 
 borne, who, unquestionably, occupied it for this 
 length of time, had not a better claim, and was not a 
 better and truer man, than historians, thus far, have 
 
 1 Bancroft's History of the United States, vol. i. pp. 246, 248. 
 
 2 Chalmers's Political Annals, pp. 210, 221. 
 
 3 McMahon's History of Maryland, p. 6. 
 
MASON AND DIXON ? S LINE. 11 
 
 been willing to admit. The accounts that we possess 
 of him, unfortunately for his memory, have been 
 transmitted by his political opponents. The untiring 
 adversary of Lord Baltimore, his reputation has been 
 made to suffer, that the other's praise might be ex 
 aggerated. But the time will arrive, it is hoped, 
 when his memory will be relieved from the imputa 
 tions of contemporary partisans, and when the truth 
 will be known in regard to him ; l and when he will 
 be recognized as the brave soldier, the gallant gentle 
 man, acute in council, whom danger could not turn 
 aside nor defeat dishearten the statesman of the 
 wilderness, the attainted of the proprietary govern 
 ment, only to become, in turn, the commissioner of 
 the Commonwealth of England, to subjugate the pro 
 vince, from which he had been driven as a rebel ; and 
 who, for a quarter of a century, whether in power 
 or out of power, exercised an influence, or inspired 
 a dread, due alone to " his unceasing efforts to main- 
 
 1 Mr. S. F. Streeter, of Baltimore, Secretary of the Maryland Historical 
 Society, has devoted himself to the preparation of a History of "Claiborne 
 and his Times," and has collected an amount of rare, and curious, and au 
 thentic information, to which I have had the privilege of referring, that fully 
 justifies all that is said of Claiborne in the text. For nearly fifty years, he 
 was in active life ; one-half of that time in Maryland, the rest of it in Vir 
 ginia, where he died at an advanced age, honored and lamented. His lineal 
 descendants are numerous, and many of them have been prominent in the 
 affairs of the country, as Governors of States, Senators and Representatives 
 in Congress, &c. &c. The publication of Mr. Streeter' s* work will furnish a 
 valuable contribution to the colonial history of Maryland and Virginia. 
 
12 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 tain, by courage and address, the territory which his 
 enterprise had discovered and planted." 1 
 
 But Claiborne's claims had no ultimate effect upon 
 the boundaries of Maryland; nor would they now be 
 alluded to, save that no sketch, however rapid, of 
 Maryland affairs, during his lifetime, would be com 
 plete, wherein his name chanced to be omitted. 2 
 
 Trouble, however, was brewing for Lord Baltimore, 
 in regard to boundary, in another quarter. Godyn, 
 a Hollander, had purchased from the natives a body 
 of land, extending for thirty miles northwardly 
 from Cape Henlopen. This was in 1629 ; 3 and in 
 1631, 4 De Vries, another Hollander, planted a colony 
 
 1 McMahon, p. 7. 
 
 2 In all the histories I have seen, wherein Claiborne's name is mentioned, 
 it is spelt with y, not i. But Claiborne's own spelling was with an {, not a 
 y, in the first syllable as is proved by the two fac-similes of autographs, for 
 which I am indebted to Mr. Streeter : one from a petition to Charles the 
 Second, which dates back to the early part of his Maryland troubles ; and 
 one, dated in 1676, when he was an aged man. 
 
 From a Petition to Charles the Second. March 13, 1676-7. 
 
 The curious in such matters may be interested in knowing that Claiborne's 
 coat of arms was thus blazoned : Argent three chevrons interlaced, at the 
 base, sable, with a chief of the last. 
 
 3 Brodhead's History of New York, p. 200. 
 ' 4 Ibid., p. 206. 
 
MASON AND DIXON'S LINE. 13 
 
 and built a fort within the territory, calling it Swaan- 
 endael, not far from the present site of Lewis town. 
 Not long afterwards, the Indians destroyed the settle 
 ment, put the inhabitants to death, and repossessed 
 themselves of the land. They only covered up, how 
 ever, they did not eradicate, a seed that was one 
 day to germinate and grow, until it bore bitter fruit 
 for the Lord Proprietary of Maryland. 
 
 When, therefore, Leonard Calvert arrived at St. 
 Mary's, in 1634, the soil within the limits of the 
 charter 1 was in the possession of the natives, 2 Clai- 
 borne's plantations alone excepted; and, had he made 
 a settlement on the eastern shore of the Peninsula, 
 there would, in all probability, never have been a 
 State of Delaware. But in 1638, 3 a company of 
 Swedes and Fins, under the auspices of Chancellor 
 Oxenstiern, repurchased from the natives the land 
 formerly sold to the Dutch, and built a fort at the 
 mouth of Christina Creek, which they occupied until 
 1655, when an invading force from New Amsterdam, 
 
 1 The Dutch had possession of the left, or east bank of the Delaware, prior 
 to this time. This possession, however, as was always contended, gave them 
 no claim to the west shore, which was not affected in any way, by purchase or 
 possession, until the purchase by Godyn. The first settlement of the Dutch 
 in the Delaware was on the present Jersey shore, about four miles below 
 Philadelphia, where Fort Nassau was built in 1623. Brodhead's History of 
 New York, p. 153. 
 
 2 Swaanendael was abandoned by De Vries on the 14th April, 1633. Brod 
 head's History of New York, p. 228. 
 
 3 Brodhead, p. 282. 
 
14 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 under Peter Stuyvesant, established the Dutch rule, 
 and carried back the Dutch title, by relation, to the 
 purchase by Godyn, 1 and the settlement by De Vries 
 at Swaanendael. 
 
 In 1659, Lord Baltimore seems to have become 
 uneasy about the increase of the Dutch power in De 
 laware, and he sent instructions to Maryland to have 
 the matter looked to. 2 Fendall was then governor. 3 
 An embassy was resolved on, as a preliminary to the 
 severer measures recommended by the Proprietary; 
 and Colonel Nathaniel Utie, 4 whose name is still 
 preserved in the Island of Spes-Utiae, at the mouth of 
 the Susquehanna, headed a deputation to " the pre 
 tended people" across the Peninsula, informing them 
 that " they were seated within his lordship's province 
 
 1 In the histories of Maryland, this is called "Hore Kill," " Hoar Kill," 
 " The Whore Kilns;" but the settlement's name was "Swaanendael," on a 
 stream called the Horekill ; and as I refer to the settlement, and not the 
 stream, I use the name of the former. See Brodhead's History of New York, 
 p. 206. 
 
 2 MS. Proceedings in the possession of the Maryland Historical Society. 
 
 3 Brodhead's History of New York, p. 606, where the Dutch ambassadors 
 tell Fendall, the Maryland governor, that, until Utie's unwarrantable pro 
 ceedings, there never had been any difficulty between New Netherlands and 
 Virginia or Maryland. 
 
 4 For an interesting and graphic account of Utie's visit to "the pretended 
 people," see Brodhead's History of New York, pp. 664, 665, 667, wherein 
 Utie is made to appear to be a man of courage and action; and, certainly, 
 from what Stuyvesant is reported to have said to the officers who received 
 Utie, he may be fairly said to have bullied the Dutch, for they were censured 
 for " want of prudence and courage" in their whole treatment of the Mary- 
 lander. 
 
MASON AND DIXON ? S LINE. 15 
 
 without notice." -But these " people" were in pos 
 session of the land by conquest; they held the Swed 
 ish forts, and the fair fields around them, as victors; 
 and U tie's whole force consisted but of six followers: 
 so that, although the ambassador delivered his mes 
 sage " in a pretty harsh and bitter manner," 1 they 
 took no heed of it, but disregarded wholly what they 
 termed his "frivolous demands and bloody threaten- 
 ings." Nor did the college of the Dutch West India 
 Company, in Europe, to whom Lord Baltimore then 
 appealed, lend a more attentive ear, 2 and especially 
 was it regardless of the plea that the Dutch claim, 
 based on purchase and possession, was no better than 
 Claiborne's, which had been disallowed. As the 
 world went, however, in those days whether it has 
 mended since is questionable; there was a great dif 
 ference in the two cases. Claiborne was a single in 
 dividual, with little but his talent, energy, and the 
 justice of his claims to rely on. The Dutch West 
 India Company were rich and powerful ; and their 
 reliance was in forts, and cannon, and soldiers: and 
 that this was a most important difference, the Mary- 
 landers seem to have admitted; for their efforts to 
 save the Peninsula rarely went beyond embassies and 
 remonstrances; and no change was effected in the re 
 lations of the parties, on the debatable ground, until 
 
 1 Brodhead, p. 664. 
 
 2 McM^hon, p. 25 ; Brodhead's History, p. 685. 
 
16 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 the Duke of York took possession of New Amster 
 dam and its dependencies, the Dutch settlements on 
 the Peninsula, under a grant from Charles the Second, 
 in 1664. This gave Lord Baltimore an English ruler 
 on the Delaware for a neighbor, with whom there 
 seems to have been peaceable intercourse for some 
 years. But in July, 1673, the Dutch repossessed 
 themselves of the New Netherlands, 1 and held them 
 for fifteen months, during which time the Maryland- 
 ers marched to Swaanendael with an armed force. 2 
 This expedition, however, though more formidable 
 than Colonel Utie's embassy, does not appear to have 
 had better ultimate results; for, in 1674, we find the 
 king confirming his previous grants to the Duke of 
 York, 3 and learn that the west bank of the Delaware, 
 
 1 Bancroft, vol. ii. p. 322. 
 
 2 Bancroft, who mentions this expedition, refers to Bacon's Laws of Mary 
 land, 1676, chap. 21 ; turning to which, we find an act of assembly curious 
 enough to be cited as printed: 
 
 " An act for punishment of a certain abuse, committed by Henry Ward, of 
 Cecil County, gentleman, against the Right Honorable the Lord Proprietary, 
 and the public. 
 
 "Viz: Being a member of the Lower House, in 1674, and informing the 
 House that he had lost a very good horse in the country's service, in the late 
 expedition to the Whore Kills, the assembly allowed him 1800 Ibs. tobacco in 
 the public levy. But, it being now made evidently appear that he lost no 
 such horse, and that his allegation was egregiously false, &c., he was, by this 
 act, fined 4000 Ibs. tobacco," &c. 
 
 The title of the act is from the law itself; the rest is the compiler's note. 
 
 The late expedition to Whore Kills, spoken of as such, in 1674, warrants us 
 in supposing it to have taken place during the fifteen months of Dutch rule, 
 from July, 1673, to October, 1674. 
 
 3 The Case of the Proprietors, &c. Hazard's Register, vol. ii. p. 202. 
 
MASON AND DIXON'S LINE. 17 
 
 on the Peninsula, was looked upon as his property by 
 everybody, except Lord Baltimore and the Mary- 
 landers. 
 
 And now, after a few years, a new actor appeared 
 upon the stage; and we find William Penn obtain 
 ing a grant of land, westward of the Delaware, and 
 northward of Maryland, on the 4th March, 1681. A 
 part of his southern boundary was to be " a circle 
 drawn at twelve miles distant from Newcastle north 
 ward, and westwards unto the beginning of the 40th 
 degree of northern latitude;" and to the difficulty of 
 tracing this circle do we owe Mason and Dixon's 
 presence in America. 
 
 In August, 1681, Penn received, through his agent 
 and kinsman, Markham, from the Governor of New 
 castle, " that extensive forest," quoting the language 
 of Chalmers, " lying twelve miles northward of New 
 castle on the western side of the Delaware;" 1 and, 
 early in the following year, Markham met Lord Bal 
 timore at Upland, now Chester, to settle the bounda 
 ries of the two provinces. Upland was believed to 
 be north of the Maryland line; but an observation 
 having shown that it was twelve miles to the south 
 of it, Penn's agent refused to act further, and re 
 turned to England to report to his principal. 2 
 
 Now Penn, from the beginning, had been dissatis- 
 
 1 Chalmers's Hist. An's, p. 640. 
 
 2 Ibid., p. 641. 
 
 3 
 
18 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 fied with his province, inasmuch "as he found it 
 lying backwards," and the passage up Delaware Bay 
 " a place of difficult and dangerous navigation, espe 
 cially in the winter season;" and he had accordingly 
 "continually solicited the Duke of York, though in 
 vain, for a grant of the Delaware colony." "But, 
 at length" I use the words of Chalmers 1 "wearied 
 with solicitation, or hoping for benefit from a posses 
 sion which had hitherto yielded him none, the prince 
 conveyed, in August, 1682, as well the town of New 
 castle, with a territory of twelve miles around it, as 
 the tract of land extending southward from it, upon 
 the river Delaware to Cape Henlopen." 2 The disco 
 very of the true latitude at Upland made this grant 
 more than ever important to Penn; and with the 
 title it conferred, such as it was, he came to America, 
 and took possession of the territory on the 28th Oc 
 tober, 1682. 
 
 And so, the seed sown at Swaanendael, and 
 
 1 Chalmers, p. 643, and authorities there referred to, which seem to make 
 out a plain case to the effect of the text. 
 
 2 " The Case of the Proprietors and Province of Pennsylvania, and the 
 three lower counties of Newcastle, Kent, and Sussex on Delaware, to be heard 
 before the Eight Honorable the Lords of the Committee of his Majesty's 
 most Honorable Privy Council for Plantation Affairs, at the Cockpit at White 
 Hall, on Thursday, 23d February, 1737. By W. Murray" (Lord Mansfield, 
 afterwards.) The printed paper, prepared for the committee, is in the col 
 lection of the Maryland Historical Society, and is copied into Hazard's Regis 
 ter, vol. ii. p. 200. It is a setting forth of Penn's case by his counsel, and is 
 a useful document, both as regards facts and dates; the latter being co 
 piously given. 
 
MASON AND DIXON'S LINE. 19 
 
 covered up and trodden upon by the Indians, and 
 watered with blood, had germinated; and a fair tree, 
 with spreading branches, which neither Utie, nor 
 the foray of 1673, had been able to uproot, had 
 arisen from it, and Penn was reposing in its shade, 
 on the banks of the broad river that flowed past it. 1 
 And so, Delaware was lost to Maryland. 
 
 But this, though the ultimate result, was not ac 
 complished without resistance on the part of Lord 
 Baltimore. The king, in council, was appealed to. 
 The matter was referred to the Committee of Trade 
 
 1 It is, of course, idle to renew now, except for argument's sake, the ques 
 tions mooted and settled near two hundred years ago. But it may be said, 
 that if the grant of Charles I. to Lord Baltimore failed to carry, in effect, 
 the entire territory conveyed in terms, because of the adverse possession of 
 the Dutch at Hoarkill, or Swaanendael, at the date of Lord Baltimore's charter, 
 yet that, when Charles the Second obtained the title to the whole by con 
 quest, through the Duke of York, in 1664, the acquisition ought to have 
 enured to the benefit of the first grantee ; because, notwithstanding the stress 
 laid by Penn upon the words " hactenus inculta," in Lord Baltimore's grant, it 
 can, really, hardly be supposed that the king, claiming the whole territory in 
 virtue of Cabot's discovery, could have intended to recognize and protect the 
 Dutch at Swaanendael, whom he could only have regarded as "squatters" 
 to apply an expressive modern term upon his property. But, even were it 
 otherwise, and " hactenus inculta" excluded the Swaanendael settlement, yet 
 it was surely only to the extent of the possession and actual cultivation a 
 single brick house and some fields adjacent, such as might have been cleared 
 in a year or two. And it is difficult to see how this brick house and fields 
 came to spread themselves out until they covered the present State of Dela 
 ware. As already said, the questions involved have long since been settled, 
 and against the views here taken ; but the right of Penn, under the grant of 
 the Duke of York, to Delaware, as against Lord Baltimore, might not, per 
 haps, be quite as clear were it to be litigated now as it was in 1 685. 
 
20 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 and Plantations. The two proprietors appeared be 
 fore it. There was an eager controversy, in which 
 Lord Baltimore relied on his original grant, and 
 Penn on the fact that such grant expressly reserved 
 cultivated lands, and consequently the settlement of 
 Swaanendael and its results. 1 Finally, the Commit 
 tee, following a common practice in arbitrations, split 
 the difference, 2 directing the Peninsula, north of a 
 line west from Cape Henlopen, to be divided between 
 the parties; and so Penn obtained a road to his 
 too-backward-lying province just as wide and as long 
 as the present State of Delaware, with a title dating 
 back to Godyn and De Vries. 
 
 This was on the 13th of November, 1685, when the 
 Duke of York, under whom Penn claimed, was king. 
 Charters were of small consideration, and there was 
 a quo warranto out against that of Maryland. 3 Lord 
 Baltimore's policy was submission. The tide was 
 against him. At last it turned. But it placed a 
 
 1 " The Case of the Proprietors," already referred to. 
 
 2 This division of the peninsula was, perhaps, not an original idea with the 
 Committee of Trade and Plantations ; for, in the discussion which took place 
 between Governor Fendall, Heermans, and Waldron, at Patuxent, on the 
 16th October 1659, the Dutch ambassadors, while denying Lord Baltimore's 
 claim in toto, yet, "to prevent further mischief," proposed that "three 
 rational persons" might be chosen from each province, "to meet at a cer 
 tain day and time, about the middle of between the Bay of Chesapeake and the 
 aforesaid south river (Delaware), or Delaware Bay, at a hill lying at the head 
 of Sassafras River," with full power to settle the boundary between New 
 Netherlands and Maryland. Brodhead's History of New York, p. 667. 
 
 3 McMahon, p. 33 ; Bancroft, ii. p. 243. 
 
MASON AND DIXON'S LINE. 21 
 
 Protestant upon the throne, and was followed by a 
 sectarian tempest in Maryland that prostrated the 
 proprietary government, and threw the province into 
 the hands of the crown, by which its affairs were 
 administered until 1716. 1 Penn was not much better 
 off in these times than Lord Baltimore. Pennsyl 
 vania, like Maryland, was taken from the proprietor, 
 and although soon restored to him, yet he, as well as 
 his neighbors, had cogent reasons for postponing the 
 controversies about boundary. 2 
 
 On the accession of Queen Anne, Penn was able 
 to obtain an order in council on the 23d of June, 
 1708, for the enforcement of the decision of 1685, 3 
 but nothing was done under it, and in 1718 he died; 
 and in February, 1723, we find Mistress Penn making 
 an agreement with Lord Baltimore to preserve peace 
 upon the borders for eighteen months, in the expecta 
 tion that during this time the boundaries could be 
 settled. 4 But border feuds are not to be stayed by 
 parchments; and things seemed to have reached a 
 pass that made it necessary for the proprietors to 
 address themselves in earnest to the adjustment of 
 their differences; and accordingly, on the 10th of 
 May, 1732, a deed was executed between the child 
 ren and devisees of Penn and the great grandson of 
 
 1 McMahon, p. 35. 
 
 2 1 Proud., pp. 347, 377. 
 
 3 The Case of the Proprietors, &c. ; Hazard, p. 200 ; 1 Proud., p. 294. 
 
 4 -Ibid. 
 
22 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 the first Lord Baltimore, stipulating, in effect, for a 
 line due west from Cape Henlopen, 1 across the Penin 
 sula, from whose centre another line should be 
 drawn tangent to a circle twelve miles from New 
 castle, while a meridian from the tangent point 
 should be continued to within fifteen miles from 
 Philadelphia, whence should be traced the parallel of 
 latitude westward that was to divide the provinces. 
 Should the meridian cut a segment from the circle, 
 the segment was to be a part of Newcastle County. 
 This parallel of latitude is the Mason and Dixon's 
 line of history. 
 
 Attached to this agreement was a small map, well 
 known as Lord Baltimore's map. It represented the 
 general features of the country in relation to the 
 boundary; and the outline of the State of Delaware 
 is marked on it in red lines, supposed to have been 
 drawn by Lord Baltimore himself. One looks with 
 some interest on these red lines, and recollects their 
 potency. A king, remarkable in history mainly 
 through the circumstances of his death upon the 
 scaffold, had granted to a subject what it cost the 
 monarch nothing to acquire the homes, across the 
 
 1 The Cape Henlopen here referred to is not the point now known as such, 
 opposite to Cape May, and which is called Cape Cornelius on Lord Balti 
 more's map, but the point where the States of Maryland and Delaware now 
 abut together upon the ocean, marked Fenwick's Island on the latest map 
 of Maryland, about fifteen miles to the southward of the present Cape 
 Henlopen. 
 
MASON AND DIXON'S LINE. 23 
 
 sea, of a free and brave people, whose hospitality and 
 unsuspecting confidence alone made the grant avail 
 able; and, with royal magnificence, had bounded his 
 gift by parallels of latitude, the courses of mighty 
 rivers, and the headlands of ocean; and the subject, 
 with scale and compasses, 1 apportioned his territory 
 with his neighbors, settled the lines of what were to 
 become adjacent sovereignties, and thus accelerated 
 the progress of those events which, at length, extin 
 guished the council-fires at which his ancestors had 
 warmed themselves when they were strangers in the 
 land, and whose last faint blaze was fed with the un 
 strung bows and blunted arrows of the forest princes 
 of the Peninsula. One looks with interest, we say, 
 on handiwork so trifling, when it becomes so potent 
 for results; and the map, in reality, subsequently 
 became of great significance. 
 
 But it was one thing to execute the deed of 1732 
 on parchment, and another thing to execute it on 
 the disputed territory. 
 
 1 ''Instructions" MS. at Annapolis, quoting the testimony of Mr. Paris, 
 describing Lord Baltimore, in the presence of the Penns, looking at the maps, 
 "when the defendant, Lord Baltimore, measured with a pair of compasses 
 one of said written maps, and took his scale or measure from the distance 
 between Newcastle and the circle, or part of the circle there drawn, and from 
 such measure set off a larger distance for fifteen miles south of Philadelphia, 
 at which distance he wanted his head or northern boundary should be 
 marked on one of the written maps accordingly." 
 
 "Lord Baltimore's map" was engraved on copper, and impressed, or 
 printed, upon all the deeds, commissions, &c. relating to the boundary 
 question. 
 
24 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 In the first place, there was a difficulty in fixing 
 the point in Newcastle that was to be the centre of 
 the circle. In the next place, it was questioned 
 whether the twelve miles were to be a radius or the 
 periphery; and lastly, there was a doubt about the 
 true Cape Henlopen. The result was to suspend 
 proceedings under the deed. 1 
 
 And now, Lord Baltimore did what neither im 
 proved his cause nor bettered his reputation. Treat 
 ing his own deed as a nullity, he asked George the 
 Second for a confirmatory grant according to the terms 
 of the charter of 1632. 2 It was very properly refused, 
 and the parties were referred to the Court of Chan 
 cery; and here Lord Hardwicke decided, in effect, 3 
 that the true Henlopen was the point insisted on by 
 the Penns; that the centre of the circle was the 
 middle of Newcastle, as near as it could be ascer 
 tained; and that the twelve miles were a radius and 
 not the periphery. This was in 1750. Other diffi 
 culties now arose. It was important to Lord Bal 
 timore to shorten, if possible, the statute mile; and 
 
 1 The difficulties made by the Maryland commissioners, and the arguments 
 thereupon which are able and copious on both sides, are to be found in a 
 paper in the archives at Annapolis, indorsed: "Instructions on several 
 doubts arising among the commissioners touching the execution of the decree 
 in the case of Penns vs. Lord Baltimore." The paper is without date, but is 
 evidently a law paper issuing from the Court of Chancery in the case re 
 ferred to. 
 
 2 Case of the Proprietors, &c. 
 
 3 1 Vesey, Sen., 444. 
 
MASON AND DIXON'S LINE. 25 
 
 the mode his friends adopted was to measure it on 
 the surface of the ground, and not horizontally. So 
 Lord Hardwicke was again applied to, and horizontal 
 measurements were adopted. This was in March, 
 1751. Still, things were not clear. The shorter the 
 line across the Peninsula its beginning on the Dela 
 ware side being fixed the better for Lord Baltimore, 
 for the nearer would the centre of it be to the river. 
 And so here, again, his friends came to his aid, and 
 insisted that Slaughter's Creek, a channel separating 
 Taylor's Island from the Chesapeake, gave the 
 western terminus. 1 But the Penns demanded that 
 the line should be continued to the bay shore itself, 
 from which the broad waters of the great estuary 
 stretched, unbroken by headland or island, to the 
 remote and dim horizon. And again was Lord Hard 
 wicke referred to. But, in the meantime, Lord Bal 
 timore died, and the suit abated, and the whole pro 
 ceedings fell to the ground. When they were re 
 vived, and the heir of Lord Baltimore was made a 
 
 ' From the east side of Slaughter's Creek to the west shore of Taylor's 
 Island was about three miles ; so that the advantage to Lord Baltimore, had 
 the line stopped at the creek, would have been a wedge of land a mile and a 
 half, or thereabouts, wide at the southern end,' running out to nothing at the 
 tangent point, some eighty odd miles distant. The exact difference in the 
 length of the lines was 3 miles 273 J perches, and the exact distance to the 
 tangent point 81 miles, 73 chains, 30 links. Could the pretence that the 
 twelve miles were a periphery, and not a radius, have been sustained, there 
 would have been taken from Delaware the above length by a width of one 
 and a half miles at the southern, and about eight miles at the northern end. 
 
26 THEHISTORYOF 
 
 party to them, new difficulties were presented in his 
 refusal to be bound by the acts of his ancestor. If, 
 however, there was anything that could equal the 
 faculty of the Marylanders in making trouble in this 
 long lawsuit, it was the untiring perseverance with 
 which the Penns devoted themselves to the contest, 
 and followed their opponents in all their doublings. 
 And they had their reward; for, on the 4th of July, 
 1760, another deed was executed, under which the 
 controversy was finally closed. 1 
 
 It is not intended here to discuss the quantum of 
 blame proper to be attached to the parties respect 
 ively, who, from time to time, figured in these trans 
 actions. The inquiry is not germaki to the matter 
 in hand, and would be otherwise unprofitable. When 
 the actions of the dead are made a shibboleth of 
 party, their examples become practically useless as 
 historical teachings. The attempt to exhume the 
 details of buried periods of religious or high politi 
 cal excitement, creates too often, as experience has 
 shown, a cloud of human passions above the living 
 laborers, which obscures the truth to the eyes of the 
 present generation. If the title of the elder Penn, 
 derived from the Duke of York, which rested on the 
 
 1 The deed of 1760 has been printed by Mr. Edward D. Ingraham, a 
 lawyer of standing at the bar of Philadelphia. It is a treatise in itself; and, 
 whether for technical accuracy, as a rare piece of conveyancing, legal learn 
 ing, or historical interest, is not surpassed by any paper of its kind. The 
 duplicate original is preserved in the archives of Maryland at Annapolis. 
 
MASON AND DIXON'S LINE. 27 
 
 conquest of Peter Stuyvesant, which, in its turn, 
 went back to the purchase by Godyn and the oblite 
 rated settlement of De Vries if this title was an 
 indifferent one, inconsistent as it was with the terms 
 of the grant to Lord Baltimore; and if the bisection 
 of the Peninsula, at Penn's instance, by the Commit 
 tee of Trade and Plantations, had more in it of con 
 venience than justice, yet the successive lords proprie 
 tary of Maryland, as this rapid sketch has shown, 
 were, perhaps, quite as loose in their attempts to 
 preserve their territory as their opponents had been 
 in the proceedings that gave them foothold upon it. 
 The truth probably is, that the Penns and Lord Bal 
 timore had not less land-greed, because their posses 
 sions were estimated in square miles, than is common 
 to those who count by square feet only. With them, 
 the affair was a business one, and they treated it so 
 throughout. 1 The elder Penn and the first Lord Pro- 
 
 1 There is, in the collection of the Maryland Historical Society, a manu 
 script map made by Col. Thomas Cresap, showing the country about the 
 western confines of Maryland, on which there is the following indorsement 
 in a handwriting of a much later date: 
 
 "The Lords Baltimore, in their disputes with the Penns on one border, 
 and Lord Fairfax on the other, had long and deep heads to contend with, and 
 did not get their full rights. If Lord Frederick (who signed the deed of 
 1760) had come over to Maryland, and lived among his tenants, instead of 
 running about the continent of Europe, from Paris to Constantinople, and 
 threading the labyrinth of the Grecian Archipelago, having pictures drawn 
 of the Greek females of the different islands, it would have been better for 
 himself and his province; and he would have escaped the censure of Sterne, 
 
28 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 prietary of Maryland owe their prominence in Ameri 
 can history to considerations remote from the merits 
 of the minor questions here discussed. The princi 
 ples upon which governments are founded, and not 
 the extent of territory they affect, or the mode of its 
 acquisition, mainly attract to them the attention of 
 mankind. 
 
 The temptation is strong to fill up the meagre out 
 line here given of the boundary controversy, between 
 Pennsylvania and Maryland, with some details of the 
 border life of the period in question. But time does 
 not permit. The prose and poetry of Scott have 
 made the borders of Scotland immortal. The same 
 great novelist would have found in the feuds of the 
 Peninsula, and along the northern confines of Mary 
 land, as ample materials for his genius to combine, as 
 much diversity of character and as thrilling incident, 
 as magnificent scenery, and as wild adventure, as 
 were furnished him by the history of his native land. 
 The Catholic gentleman of Maryland, gallant, brave, 
 and impetuous his battle-cry " Hey for Saint Ma 
 rie's ! " the stern uncompromising Puritan, shouting 
 
 who, in his Sentimental Journey, has given him, under the name of Mundun- 
 gus, to the world, in no enviable light." 
 
 The writer of the above had, doubtless, in his mind, " A Tour to the East, in 
 the years 1763 and 1764, with Remarks on the City of Constantinople and the 
 Turks. Also, Select Pieces of Oriental Wit, Poetry, and Wisdom. By F. Lord 
 Baltimore. London: Printed by W. Richardson and S. Clark. MDCCLXVII." 
 A copy of this, in the collection of the Historical Society of Maryland, cer 
 tainly does not put Lord Baltimore on a level with the author of Anacharsis. 
 
MASON AND DIXON'S LINE. 29 
 
 as he fought, " In the name of God, fall on." 1 The 
 Swedes and the Hollanders, and, among the Indians, 
 the Susquehannas, and the Minquaas, and the Dela- 
 wares, were all active in the strife that prevailed for a 
 long series of years. Nor was it confined to indivi 
 duals. Cresap's quarrel involved the provinces in what 
 was almost open war; 2 and, in "the Case stated," that 
 has more than once been resorted to in the prepara 
 tion of this address, it is charged that, on the death 
 of Gordon, the Governor of Pennsylvania, in 1736, 
 "the invasions from Maryland became more terrible 
 and more frequent." 3 The troubles at the manor of 
 
 1 Bozman, vol. ii. p. 525 ; where an account is furnished of the battle of 
 the Severn, March 26, 1654. 
 
 " Then the word was given, In the name of God, fall on ; God is our strength; 
 that was the word for Providence (the then name of Annapolis). The Mary- 
 lander's word was, Hey for^aint Marie's. The charge was fierce and sharp 
 for a time ; but, through the glorious presence of the Lord of Hosts, mani 
 fested in and towards his poor oppressed people, the enemy could not endure, 
 but gave back," &c. &c. Babylon's Fall, by Leonard Strong. 
 
 2 Day, in his Historical Collections, p. 693, calls Cresap " a blustering and 
 desperate bully, who had volunteered his services to the Governor of Mary 
 land to raise a party of marauders to drive off the Pennsylvania settlers." 
 This is a very different character from that given to him by Mr. Brantz 
 Mayer, in a very admirable discourse pronounced by him before the Mary 
 land Historical Society, called "Logan and Captain Michael Cresap," May 
 9, 1851. 
 
 A small volume, The Life of Michael Cresap, was published at Frederick- 
 town, Maryland, in 1826. It is without arrangement, and has neither begin 
 ning nor ending; but is valuable, nevertheless, as connected with border 
 troubles. There is a copy in the collection of the Maryland Historical So 
 ciety. 
 
 3 Hazard's Register, vol. ii. p. 212. 
 
30 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 Nottingham, near Chester, brought Hart, the Go 
 vernor of Maryland, and Keith, the Governor of 
 Pennsylvania, with their respective retinues of armed 
 men, together upon the scene; 1 and, indeed, there 
 was hardly a settlement upon the boundary, or near 
 to it, that had not its attendant narrative of romantic 
 interest. Then, again, there were the time-servers of 
 those days, 2 the men who " carried water on both 
 shoulders," to use the phrase that has come down to 
 us, and, with a patent from Lord Baltimore, and a 
 grant from Penn, obtained exemption from all ser 
 vice, by being Marylanders when called upon from 
 Pennsylvania, and Pennsylvanians when Maryland 
 had need of them. 
 
 These are themes for the future novelist, however, 
 rather than the historian. They had but small in 
 fluence, if any, on the general* current of public 
 affairs; and they are referred to only for the purpose 
 of showing that too much importance was not at 
 tached to the settlement of the boundary between 
 the provinces. To this we will now return. 
 
 The commissioners appointed under the deed of 
 1760 addressed themselves, at once, to the comple- 
 
 1 McMahon, p. 36. 
 
 2 The deed of 1732. The original is not to be found in the archives of 
 Maryland, where a duplicate original ought to be ; but there is a printed 
 copy, with the following imprint to the pamphlet: "Philadelphia: Printed 
 by B. Franklin, at the new printing-office near the market. MDCCXXXIII." 
 A rough copy (wood cut) of Lord Baltimore's map is appended to the deed. 
 
MASON AND DIXON'S LINE. 31 
 
 tion of the peninsular east and west line, and to 
 tracing the twelve mile circle appointing to this 
 end the best surveyors they could obtain. The mode 
 of proceeding was to measure with the common 
 chain, holding it as nearly horizontal as they could, 
 the direction being kept by sighting along poles, set 
 up in what they called vistos, cut by them through 
 the forest. The original field-notes of these surveys 
 are preserved in the Maryland archives, and do credit 
 to the parties. 1 
 
 But the progress made was very slow; and, at the 
 end of three years, little more was accomplished than 
 the peninsular line and the measurement of a radius. 
 This seems to have disappointed the expectations of 
 the proprietors, for we find that, on the 4th of August, 
 1763, the Penns, Thomas and Richard, and Lord 
 Baltimore, then being together in London, agreed 
 with Charles Mason 2 and Jeremiah Dixon, " two ma- 
 
 1 The surveyors of 1761 were, John F. A. Priggs, John Lukens, Archibald 
 McClean, Archibald Emory, Jonathan Hall, John Watson, John Stapler, Tho 
 mas Garnett, and William Shankland; of these, Garnett, Hall, Lukens, and 
 McClean seem to have been the most active. See Archives at Annapolis, and 
 Proceedings of the Commissioners. 
 
 In 1763, David Rittenhouse had been employed by the Penn family "in 
 making some geographical arrangements preparatory to the final establish 
 ment of the boundaries." Memoirs of Rittenhouse, p. 146. 
 
 2 The facts and dates, regarding the doings of Messrs. Mason and Dixon 
 in running their lines, are all obtained from their original field-notes pre 
 served in the State Department at Annapolis. 
 
 Bancroft speaks of Mason and Dixon as having run the line in 1761. It 
 
32 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 thematicians or surveyors," " to mark, run out, settle, 
 fix, and determine all such parts of the circle, marks, 
 lines, and boundaries, as were mentioned in the seve 
 ral articles or commissions, and were not yet com 
 pleted." And, thus, Mason and Dixon appear upon 
 the scene, leaving England towards the close of Au 
 gust, and landing at Philadelphia on the 15th of 
 November, 1763. They began their work at once. 
 They adopted the peninsular east and west line of 
 their predecessors, the radius and the tangent point. 
 This left them the tangent, from the middle point of 
 the peninsular line, to " the tangent point," the me 
 ridian from thence to a point fifteen miles south of 
 the most southern part of the city of Philadelphia, 
 with the arc of the circle to the west of it, the fifteen 
 mile distance, and the parallel of latitude westward 
 from its termination, to ascertain and establish. 
 
 was not commenced till 1764, and not completed by them until 1767, and not 
 finally marked till 1768. See Bancroft, vol. ii. p. 396. 
 
 Mason was an assistant of Dr. Bradley at the Royal Observatory at 
 Greenwich. Encyclopedia Americana. 
 
 After their employment in America, they were employed, under the direc 
 tion of the Royal Society, to observe the transit of Venus across the sun at 
 the Cape of Good Hope, in 1769. Philosophical Transactions, vol. Iviii. p. 270. 
 London. 
 
 When Mayer's Lunar Tables were sent to London to compete for the prize 
 offered by the Board of Longitude, Mason made improvements and correc 
 tions in them, and they were published as " Mayer's Lunar Tables, improved 
 by Mr. Charles Mason," in 1787. Lalande says, in his Bib. Astron., p. 601 : 
 " Mason fut desespere de n' avoir pas les 250,000 livres qu'il croyait lui etre 
 dues pour les tables de la lune ; mais il avait mal interpret 1'acte du parle- 
 ment: ses tables n'etaient pas faites d'apres la the'orie." Delambre, Bio- 
 graphie Universelle. 
 
MASON AND DIXON'S LINE. 33 
 
 They brought to their task, we may suppose, more 
 perfect instruments, and more accurate mathematical 
 knowledge, than the previous surveyors. 1 But, so 
 far as the work of these last went, Mason and Dixon 
 do not seem to have mended it; for they record, in 
 their proceedings of November 13, 1764, that the 
 true tangent line, ascertained by themselves, " would 
 not pass one inch to the westward or eastward" of 
 the post marking the tangent-point set in the ground 
 by those whom they superseded; so that, after all, 
 the sighting along poles, and the rude chain-measure 
 ments of 1761 and 1762, would have answered every 
 purpose, had the proprietors only thought so. 2 
 
 Having verified the tangent point, they proceeded 
 
 1 " The astronomical observations were made with an excellent sector of six 
 feet radius, constructed by Mr. Bird, the first which ever had the plumb-line 
 passing over and bisecting a point at the centre of the instrument." Maske- 
 lyne's Introduction to Mason's Observations: Philosophical Transactions, vol. 
 Iviii. p. 271, 17C8. 
 
 The sector would seem to have belonged to Mr. Penn. 
 
 2 The volume of the Philosophical Transactions, above referred to, contains 
 a very minute description of Mason and Dixon's mode of continuing a right 
 line, which they begin by saying "was done by setting up marks with the 
 assistance of an equal altitude or transit instrument (for it was contrived so 
 as to serve either purpose at pleasure), made by Mr. John Bird, of the same 
 construction with that described by Le Monnier, in the preface to the single 
 volume of the French Histoire Celeste." " The telescope magnified 25 times." 
 Ibid., p. 274. 
 
 " The measurements were made with a chain, established from a brass sta 
 tute-yard which was proved and corrected, in the course of the work, by 
 another statute-chain (kept only for that purpose) made from the said brass 
 yard." Ibid., p. 277. 
 
 5 
 
34 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 to measure, on its meridian, fifteen miles from the 
 parallel of the most southern part of Philadelphia, 
 the north wall of a house on Cedar Street occupied 
 by Thomas Plumstead and Joseph Huddle. They 
 thus ascertained the north-eastern corner" of Mary 
 land, which was, of course, the beginning of the 
 parallel of latitude that had been agreed upon as the 
 boundary between the provinces. 
 
 On the 17th of June, 1765, they had carried the 
 parallel of latitude to the Susquehanna, and there 
 upon received instructions to continue it "as far as 
 the provinces of Maryland and Pennsylvania were 
 settled and inhabited." 
 
 On the 27th of October, they had reached the 
 North Mountain, and they record in their journal 
 that they got Captain Shelby to go with them to its 
 summit, " to show them the course of the Potomac," 
 when they found that they could see the Allegheny 
 Mountain for many miles, and judged it, "by its ap 
 pearance, to be about fifty miles distance, in the 
 direction of the line." 
 
 On the 4th of June, in the following year, 1766, 
 we find them on the summit of the Little Allegheny, 
 and at the end of that summer's work. The Indians 
 were now troublesome, and they were masters in the 
 woods. 1 
 
 1 One of the few remarks contained in the field-notes of Mason and 
 Dixon is made under date of September 25th of this year, 1766, as they 
 
MASON AND DIXON'S LINE. 35 
 
 111 1767, the surveyors began operations on the 
 parallel of latitude, late. A negotiation with the 
 Six Nations was necessary, which Sir William John 
 son had promised to conduct, and this was not con 
 cluded "before May ; so that it was not until the 8th 
 of June that the surveyors reached their halting- 
 place of the preceding year, on the summit of the 
 Little Allegheny. On the 14th of June they had ad 
 vanced as far as the summit of the Great Allegheny, 
 where they were joined by an escort of fourteen In 
 dians, with an interpreter, 'deputed by the Chiefs of 
 the Six Nations to accompany them. And so the In 
 dian becomes their protector against the Indian, as 
 they mark the boundary of the sovereignties that, 
 before long, are to obliterate the very memory of their 
 aboriginal possessors. And the escort seem to have 
 had some vague apprehension in regard to the results 
 of all this gazing into the heavens, and measuring 
 
 were reviewing the line on their return. The entry is in Mason's hand 
 writing: 
 
 " Nota Bene: From any eminence in the line, where fifteen or twenty miles 
 of the visto can be seen (of which there are many), the said line, or visto, 
 very apparently shows itself to form a parallel of latitude. 
 
 "The line is measured horizontal; the hills and mountains, with a 16^-foot 
 level ; and besides the mile posts, we have set posts in the true line marked 
 W, on the west side, all along the line opposite the stationary points, where 
 the sector and transit instrument stood. The said posts stand in the middle 
 of the visto, which is about eight yards wide." 
 
 See also Philosophical Transactions, already referred to, where it is said 
 that this visto of eight yards wide was " seen about two miles, beautifully 
 terminating to the eye in a point." 
 
36 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 upon the earth, and to have become restless and dis 
 satisfied ; and, on the 25th of August, the surveyors 
 note that " Mr. John Green, one of the chiefs of the 
 Mohawk nation, and his nephew, leave them, in order 
 to return to their own country." The roving Indians 
 of the wilderness, regardless of the escort, begin also 
 to give the party of white men uneasiness; and on 
 the 29th of September, twenty-six of the assistants 
 quit the work for fear of the Shawnees and Delawares. 
 Mason and Dixon have now but fifteen axemen left 
 with them; but, nothing disheartened, they send 
 back to Fort Cumberland for aid, and push forward 
 with the line. At length, they reach a point, two 
 hundred and forty-four miles from the river Dela 
 ware, 1 and within thirty-six miles 2 of the whole dis 
 tance to be run. And here, in the bottom of a valley, 
 on the borders of a stream, marked Dunkard Creek 
 on their map, they come to an Indian war-path, 
 winding its way through the forest. And here, their 
 Indian escort tell them, that it is the will of the Six 
 
 1 The exact distance, as given in the MS. return of the commissioners, 
 preserved at Annapolis, and dated Nov. 9, 1768, is 244 miles, 38 chains, and 
 36 links from the Delaware, or 230 miles, 18 chains, and 21 links from the 
 place of beginning, at the north-east corner of Maryland. 
 
 2 By Col. Graham's report, the five degrees of longitude in the latitude of 
 the boundary line would make the southern boundary of Pennsylvania 266 
 miles, 24 chains, and 80 links, from which, deducting the distance run viz: 
 230 miles, 18 chains, and 21 links and we have 36 miles, 6 chains, and 59 
 links as the exact distance remaining to be run from the war-path, west. 
 Graham, p. 35. 
 
MASON AND DIXON'S LINE. 37 
 
 Nations that the surveys shall be stayed. There is 
 no alternative but obedience; and, retracing their 
 steps, they return to Philadelphia, and, reporting all 
 these facts to the commissioners under the deed of 
 1760, receive an honorable discharge on the 26th of 
 December, 1767. Subsequently, and by other hands, 
 the line was run out to its termination; and a cairn 
 of stones, some five feet high, in the dense forest, 
 now marks the termination of Mason and Dixon's 
 line, calling by that name the southern boundary of 
 Pennsylvania; and, standing on the cairn, and look 
 ing to the east and north, a fresher growth of trees 
 in these directions indicates the ranges of the vistas, 
 so often mentioned. 1 But mount the highest tree 
 adjacent to the cairn, that you may note the highest 
 mountain within the range of vision, and then, 
 ascending its summit, take in the whole horizon at a 
 glance, and seek for a single home of a single de 
 scendant of the sylvan monarchs, whose war-path 
 limited the surveys, and you will seek in vain. But 
 go back to the cairn, and listen there, in the quiet of 
 the woods, and &, roll, as of distant thunder, will 
 come unto the ear, and a shrill shriek will pierce it, 
 as the monster and the miracle of modern ingenuity 
 excluded from Pennsylvania as effectually, by the 
 line we have described, as the surveyors of old were 
 
 1 From the verbal statement of B. H. Latrobe, Civil Engineer. The corner 
 is not far from the Board Tree Tunnel, on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. 
 
38 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 stayed by the Indian war-path rushes around the 
 south-western angle of the State, on its way from the 
 city which perpetuates the title of the Lord Proprie 
 tary of Maryland, to find a breathing-place on the 
 Ohio, in the " Pan-handle" of Virginia. 1 
 
 The lines, whose history has thus been given, were 
 directed to be marked in a particular manner, both 
 by the agreements of the parties, and the decree of 
 Lord Hardwicke; and the surveyors accordingly 
 planted, at the end of every fifth mile, a stone, 
 graven with the arms of the Penns on the one side, 
 and of the Baltimore family on the other, marking 
 the intermediate miles with smaller stones, having a 
 P on one side, and an M on the other. The stones 
 with the arms were all sent from England. This 
 was done on the parallel of latitude as far as Side 
 ling Hill: but here, all wheel transportation ceasing 
 in 1766, the further marking of the line was the 
 vista of eight yards wide, with piles of stone on the 
 crests of all the mountain ranges, built some eight 
 feet high, as far as the summit of the Allegheny, 
 
 1 The southern boundary of Pennsylvania, five degrees of longitude, was 
 not long enough to take the line to the Ohio, and its western boundary being 
 a meridian, and the course of the Ohio, upwards, being first, gently, and 
 afterwards abruptly, inclining to the east, the consequence was, that a nar 
 row strip was left between the river and the meridian, belonging to Virginia, 
 and which is as well known in Virginia as "the Pan-handle," as the capital 
 of the State is known as Richmond there being a fancied resemblance in 
 this projection, north of the Pennsylvania line, to the handle of a frying- 
 pan, looking upon the body of the State as the basin, or bowl. 
 
MASON AND DIXON'S LINE. 39 
 
 beyond which the line was marked with posts, around 
 which, stones and earth were thrown, the better to 
 preserve them. 1 
 
 The map of the line was not completed for some 
 time after the field work terminated. It was then 
 engraved, and copies were distributed among the 
 parties interested. The Maryland copy I have seen. 
 It represents the line, with the country on either 
 side the width of the engraving being about an 
 inch and a half beginning at Cape Henlopen and 
 extending to the Indian war-path. The crossings of 
 streams, mountain-ranges, and roads are carefully 
 marked. The road-crossings are quite numerous on 
 the Peninsula : beyond the Allegheny, there are but 
 two, one of which is lettered " Braddock's Road." 
 Houses, where they occur, are designated, with their 
 distances from the line, and are not unfrequent as 
 far as the Susquehanna. But the topographical, 
 conventional sign for forest, and thick woods, is, 
 
 1 Proceedings of Commissioners, MS. in Archives at Annapolis: In 1768, 
 the Commissioners had the stones, that had been planted, examined, and sun 
 dry others planted, where Mason and Dixon had omitted to do so and there 
 is an autograph memorandum of S. B. Bordley, Esq., dated Sept. 10, 1768, 
 at Annapolis, in regard to the stone at " the middle point" on the peninsular 
 east and west line, stating, that it had been dug up by persons engaged 
 in money-digging I the belief being strong that the buccaneers, Kidd and 
 others, had landed and buried treasures on the shores of the Chesapeake. 
 No doubt, ignorant persons, knowing nothing of the survey, had supposed 
 the stone, with its armorial bearings, to be a mark left by the freebooters to 
 indicate the locality of their treasxire. 
 
40 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 after all, that which gives character to the general 
 appearance of the map. 
 
 The history of Mason and Dixon's line has thus 
 been brought to a close ; and before parting with 
 those whose names have become so familiar, it would 
 be pleasant to add some information in regard to 
 their individual character and personal appearance. 
 But the most careful search has furnished no data on 
 these points. Their letters are the merest business 
 letters. Their journal is the most naked of records. 
 The only thing for fancy, even, to draw inferences 
 from, is their handwriting, and I confess to having 
 studied all their autographs, in the hope of voicing 
 them. But they are almost as silent as the stars, 
 whose positions they were employed, night after 
 night, in noting. Still, they are not wholly dumb. 
 Mason's signature is a remarkably good one writ 
 ten slowly and carefully, and with very great uni 
 formity in its size, which is that of common, full, 
 running hand. The Christian name is abbreviated 
 to Cha: with a colon to indicate the abbreviation; 
 and in writing the surname, a dot has always been 
 patiently made, from which to start the first hair- 
 stroke of the M. The remaining letters are written 
 in couples. In no signature, of many hundred, has 
 the entire surname been written without taking the 
 pen twice from the paper. It is the same, whether 
 recording the arrival in Philadelphia from England, 
 
FAC-SIMILES OF MASON AND DIXONS SIGNATURES. 
 
 .3INCL*I'S LITH PHI 
 
MASON AND DIXON'S LINE. 41 
 
 or noting the desertion of a majority of the assist 
 ants for fear of the Indians. I infer, from these small 
 hints, that Mason was a cool, deliberate, pains-taking 
 man, never in a hurry; a man of quiet courage, who 
 crossed the Monongahela with fifteen men, because 
 it was his duty to do so, though he would have much 
 preferred thrice the number at his heels. Dixon's 
 signature tells a different story somewhat. He 
 began by making it as goodly, nearly, as Mason's, 
 and of about the same size. But this was evidently 
 an effort. All he seems to have cared to do was to 
 put something on paper that would indicate his pre 
 sence. At times, his x is two c's placed back to 
 back; again, it is the roughest cross. Occasionally, 
 his signature is very small; again, it is as large and 
 sprawling as a schoolboy's ; from all which, I infer 
 that he was a younger man, a more active man, a 
 man of an impatient spirit and a nervous tempera 
 ment, just such a man as worked best with a sober- 
 sided colleague. 
 
 It is cheerfully admitted that all this is very idle 
 speculation; and the only excuse for its introduction 
 is a desire to vary, in some small degree, the dulness 
 of a narrative, affording so few events of striking 
 interest as that we are engaged in. 1 
 
 1 Besides the boundary line, run as described in the text, Mason and Dixon, 
 under instructions from the Royal Society, availed themselves of the occasion 
 to determine the length of a degree of latitude in the Provinces of Pennsyl- 
 
42 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 There is another chapter, however, in the history 
 of this celebrated line. In the course of time, the 
 stone which marked the north-east corner of Mary 
 land was undermined by a brook, and, falling down, 
 was removed and built into the chimney of a neigh 
 boring farm-house. 1 "When it was missed, the Le 
 gislatures of the States of Pennsylvania, Maryland, 2 
 and Delaware, took the matter in hand, and a joint 
 commission was appointed, which, obtaining the 
 services of Lieutenant- Colonel James D. Graham, a 
 distinguished officer of Topographical Engineers of 
 the United States, caused the work of Mason and 
 Dixon to be reviewed as far as was necessary. 
 
 To this end, the twelve mile radius was once more 
 measured; the tangent point and point of intersec 
 tion were re-located; the meridian and parallel of lati 
 tude were run, in part, so as to find their intersec 
 tion ; and the corner-stone was again satisfactorily 
 and permanently set. 3 
 
 vania and Maryland. Their proceedings in doing -which are reported at 
 great length, and in the minutest detail, in the Philosophical Transactions, and 
 for which purpose the line, from the middle point on the peninsular line, was 
 made use of. 
 
 Mason died in Pennsylvania in February, 1787. Encyclopedia Americana. 
 "Mason." 
 
 Dixon died at Durham, England, in 1777. Lalande, Bibliographic Astro- 
 nomique, p. 50; quoted in Biographic Universelle, "Mason," where it is said, 
 on the same authority, " que Dixon etait no dans un mine de charbon." 
 
 1 Graham's Report, p. 44. 
 
 a Resolution of December Session, 1845. No. 18. 
 
 3 Graham's Report, p. 79, et seq. 
 
MASON AND DIXON ? S LINE. 43 
 
 Colonel Graham's work corroborated, in all im 
 portant particulars, the work of his predecessors. 
 Some errors were discovered, however. The tangent 
 point had been placed 157.6 feet too far to the north, 
 and the point of intersection 143.7 feet too far to the 
 south. There was an error, also, in tracing the curve 
 between the two points, the correction of which made 
 the State of Maryland one acre and eighty-seven 
 hundredth parts of an acre larger than Mason and 
 Dixon left the province of the same name. 1 The 
 
 1 Among errors, indicated by Colonel Graham, is one in the latitude of the 
 Observatory on Cedar Street ; though this can hardly be called an error, be 
 cause the correction is due, not to any mistake made by Mason and Dixon, 
 but to a truer appreciation of the exact form of the earth, than was had in 
 their day. The true latitude is 39 56' 37". 4 N., or 8". 3 more than the lati- I 
 tude of Mason and Dixon. See Graham's Report, p. 21, in nolis. 
 
 One of the results of Colonel Graham's survey was to change the reputed 
 citizenship of several of the border inhabitants. " Mr. W. Smith," says 
 Colonel Graham, "a gentleman who has once served as a member of the Le 
 gislature of Delaware, resided a full half mile within the State of Pennsylva 
 nia, measured in the shortest direction from his dwelling-house to the circular 
 boundary." Graham's Report, p. 86. 
 
 Christiana Church, too, was found to be in Pennsylvania. Ibid. 
 
 The history of that portion of the curve east of the due north line, is not 
 within the design of this address. Col. Graham states that it was unmarked, 
 and that he ran about 3| miles of it for the convenience of the neighbor 
 ing residents. In the Journal of the Franklin Institute, vol. iv. 3d series, 
 p. 11 (1842), is a paper entitled, "Mode of tracing a curve of a very large 
 radius, &c.," in which reference is made to field-notes of a survey completed 
 in 1701, under a warrant from William Penn to Isaac Tailer, of Chester 
 County, and Thomas Pierson, of Newcastle County; who, in the presence of 
 Justices of each county, began "at the end of the Horse-Dike next the town 
 of Newcastle," and ran due north twelve miles to a white oak marked with 
 
44 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 very able report of Colonel Graham, in which all 
 these matters are stated, was made in 1850, and has 
 been referred to, frequently, in the preparation of this 
 address. And now, the Mason and Dixon's line, of 
 common parlance, begins at a " triangular prismatic 
 post of granite," with the letters M D and P on the 
 sides, respectively, facing the States to which these 
 letters refer, with the names of the late commis 
 sioners, Key, Eyre, and Riddle, and the date, 1849, 
 cut deep on the north side under the letter P. 1 This 
 stone is upon land belonging to William Johnson, in 
 a deep ravine, on the margin of a small brook and 
 near its source ; and, from this beginning, the line 
 stretches far westward, over mountain and valley, 
 flood and fell, to its western end, the cairn of stones 
 in the forest. 
 
 And thus, having brought our narrative down from 
 1629, when the purchase by Godyn furnished the re 
 mote cause of Mason and Dixon's appointment, to 
 1850, when Colonel Graham made his report, we 
 have arrived, in truth, at the end of our history : but 
 we cannot leave the subject without a few words, 
 suggested by one of the earliest entries in Mason and 
 Dixon's journal. 
 
 It is there recorded that, in November, 1763, they 
 
 twelve notches; and thence traced the curve eastward to the river Delaware, 
 and westward far enough to complete, in the whole, f of a semicircle. This 
 line is stated to have been "well marked with three notches." 
 1 Graham's Report, p. 84. 
 
MASON AND DIXON'S LINE. 45 
 
 employed a carpenter to build an observatory at the 
 southern part of the city of Philadelphia. 1 It did 
 not take long to erect it, for we soon find them at 
 work there; and on the 6th of January, 1764, they 
 determined its latitude to be 39 56' 29". 1 north; and 
 this was their first astronomical calculation in Ame 
 rica ; and humble and temporary as the building may 
 
 1 The Observatory is mentioned in the following letter, which affords a 
 fair specimen of the style of the correspondence : 
 
 "Sm: According to your desire mentioned to Mr. Dixon, at Chestertown, 
 we have compared the sums of money paid by the Right Hon ble Lord Balti 
 more, and the Honorable Thos : and Rlch'd Penn, Esq rs (toward dividing the 
 Provinces), to us and Mr. McLane since our arrival in America; and find on 
 the whole that we have received 615 < more of the Proprietors of Pensilva- 
 nia than of Lord Baltimore. 
 
 We expect you will please to send 6 or 700 that Mr. McLane may re 
 ceive it at Frederick Town (as you proposed) the 24th of this month, we 
 having no cash to proceed with. 
 
 We are S p 
 
 Your most obedient 
 
 humble servants, 
 
 CHA: MASON. 
 JER. DIXON. 
 The North Mountain, 
 April 14, 1766. 
 
 P. S. Besides the above balance, the Pennsylvania Proprietors have paid 
 for erecting the Observatory at Philadelphia & carriage to Brandiwine, 
 &c. &c. 
 
 To T. RIDOUT, Esq r 
 
 Secretary to His Excellency 
 
 Horatio Sharpe, Esq. Governor 
 of Maryland at 
 
 Annapolis." 
 
46 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 have been in which it was made, it was the first 1 on 
 the continent devoted exclusively, on its erection, to 
 the purposes of astronomical science. From the lati 
 tude, thus determined, they found the commencement 
 of the parallel to which they were to give their 
 names; and in 1764, they began, as we have seen, 
 their slow march along it, just ninety years ago, not 
 longer than a man may live; and in 1765, they 
 climbed the summit of the North Mountain, that 
 they might judge of the course of the Potomac. To 
 the eastward, stretching far to the right and left, were 
 the densely wooded slopes of the Blue Bidge, scarred 
 in their midst by the naked rocks that marked the 
 outlet of the vast lake that once covered what. is now 
 the valley of Virginia, and which had shrunk, as its 
 waters rushed to the ocean through the gap, into the 
 rivers Potomac and Shenandoah. 2 To the westward, 
 parallel ranges of mountains extended as far as the 
 eye could reach, the depressions on whose crests sug 
 gested the places where the Potomac intersected 
 them, and so furnished to the surveyors some rude 
 notion of the topography of the region. Indications 
 of civilized man were rare around, and the most 
 
 1 Bittenhouse's Observatory at Norriton was commenced Nov. 1768, but 
 not completed till April, 1769. Memoirs of Eittenhouse, p. 165. 
 
 Lalande, in his Bibliographic Astronomique, treating of the numerous ob 
 servatories in different parts of the world, in 1792, says: " In America, I 
 know of no observatory but that of Mr. Bittenhouse, at Philadelphia." 
 
 2 See Jefferson's Notes on Virginia, in which he speculates on the geology 
 of the State at Harper's Ferry, p. 7. 
 
MASON AND DIXON'S LINE. 47 
 
 striking of these was the fortress among the hills, 
 whose gray walls of solid masonry are still visible on 
 the banks of the river, in the ruins of Fort Frede 
 rick. 1 In 1767, the surveyors had reached the war 
 path; and, as at the Indian bidding, they retraced 
 their steps, and looked back from the western slope 
 of the first mountain they ascended on their home 
 ward journey, they recognized no sign of civilization, 
 and knew of none towards which their labors would 
 have led them, had they been permitted to proceed. 
 They, probably, were not imaginative men, and it is 
 not likely that they indulged in many reflections as 
 to the future of the world of mountain and forest 
 and boundless plains, on which they thus turned their 
 backs, on their way to their observatory in Philadel 
 phia. But, had they been as poetical as Darwin, who 
 anticipated the advent of steam to 
 
 " Drag the slow barge, or drive the rapid car;" 
 
 or, as prophetic as Bishop Berkeley, in the vision, in 
 which he exclaims, 
 
 " Westward the course of empire takes its way " 
 
 it is not probable they would have foreseen that, 
 when, eighty-two years later, their work came to be 
 
 1 Erected in 1756 by Governor Sharpe, and garrisoned in that year by 
 Colonel Dagworthy. It is not far from the present town of Hancock, and a 
 prominent object to the traveller on the railroad, on the opposite side of the 
 Potomac, after passing the North Mountain in Virginia, going west. It was 
 a frontier fort, to protect the country round about from the Indians. 
 McSherry's History of Maryland,^. 139. 
 
48 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 reviewed, it would be by an officer of the army of a 
 Republic of twenty- three millions of inhabitants a 
 Eepublic whose rapid development, in all that con 
 stituted the true greatness of a people, would be the 
 wonder of the world a Republic whose capital, with 
 its stately edifices, would be reflected in the waters 
 of the river, whose devious way they had just sought 
 to trace ; and which would number among its marble 
 piles, an observatory, adding new planets to our 
 system, while its astronomers and mathematicians 
 taught man the order of the winds, that they might 
 bear him more certainly across the sea. Would 
 they have foreseen that, not here alone, in the capi 
 tal, would the skies find readers, but that an observa 
 tory, one only of many like it in the Republic, would 
 crown the summit of a hill, looking down on a great 
 city 1 near three hundred miles westward of the 
 war-path so frequently referred to; an observatory, 
 whose corner-stone would be laid by one who had 
 been the President of the Republic, of which his 
 father had been the President before him, and whose 
 walls would arise in comeliness and strength, to in 
 close all the costly appliances which science and art 
 might place within man's reach to enable him to ex 
 plore the recesses of the heavens. As poets and 
 dreamers even, such imaginings as these were, in all 
 likelihood, beyond their extremest vision. And sup- 
 
 1 The Cincinnati Observatory is here referred to, whose contributions to 
 astronomical knowledge are so highly appreciated in the scientific world. 
 
MASON AND DIXON'S LINE. 49 
 
 pose they had been told that the lightning, which 
 Franklin had then but recently rendered innocuous, 
 was to become man's active, daily, and domestic 
 friend, transmitting his thoughts, visibly, faster than 
 his mind could think, so as to require him to prepare, 
 beforehand, the work his agent was to do; and that, 
 among others of its wondrous performances, it would 
 make the clock, as it beat its seconds in the western 
 observatory, impart isochronism to other clocks be 
 yond the mountains, enabling, at the same time, the 
 watchers of the stars to whisper, in the silence of the 
 night, their discoveries to comrade gazers a thousand 
 miles away. Had such things as these been told to 
 Mason and his colleague, they might well have sup 
 posed themselves in a madman's company, or listen 
 ing to the thousand and second tale of Scheherezade. 
 And yet, the incredible of 1767 is the schoolboy's 
 learning of to-day. Equally startled would they have 
 been, could the story of the Revolution, then so near 
 at hand, have been foretold to these servants of the 
 Lord Proprietary of Maryland and the Proprietors of 
 Pennsylvania, who never spoke of their immediate 
 superiors in office except as " the gentlemen commis 
 sioners," and in the deferential and obsequious spirit 
 that was so soon to disappear. 1 But more astonished 
 
 1 The following is from the field-notes of Mason and Dixon, 1766 : 
 
 " Mar. 15 : C. Mason left Annapolis, and proceeded for the North Mountain, 
 
 to continue the line. J. Dixon left Philadelphia to attend the gentlemen 
 
 commissioners at Chester Town." 
 
 7 
 
50 THE HISTORY OF 
 
 still can we imagine them, could they have been told, 
 that the results of this revolution having been power, 
 and might, and majesty, and boundless prosperity, of 
 which every individual in the land was a participant, 
 the line they ran would grow into consequence, and 
 be regarded with dread, as fierce intemperate men, 
 with small pride in the past, and less care for the 
 future, spoke of it as a line to be studded with for 
 tresses from end to end, on opposite sides of which 
 hostile nations would be arrayed in arms. But if, 
 with the license of the occasion, we may suppose 
 such things to have been suggested to them, we can, 
 at the same time, imagine their reply, and we can 
 almost hear them saying: " These uses, to which you 
 put the lightning; this erection of cities on river 
 shores, in Indian lands ; this tale of battle, and blood 
 shed, and victory ; this dethroning of monarch s and 
 uplifting of their subjects, are astounding results 
 that we cannot appreciate, for we see no elements to 
 produce them, and they shock all the prejudices of 
 our education. To time we leave their development. 
 But, that a people blessed beyond all others, in their 
 realization, if realized they are to be, and occupying 
 the proudest place among the nations, because of 
 their wondrous unity, under a government that ex 
 tent of dominion enfeebles not should willingly per 
 mit their Union to be dissolved, we cannot believe ; 
 because, here, we are dealing, not with the future of 
 science or politics, but with the principles of hu- 
 
MASON AND DIXON'S LINE. 51 
 
 manity common to all ages; and, depend upon it, 
 whatever the few may wish, the many will be true ; 
 and this, our line of survey, will, after all, owe its 
 notoriety to ephemeral oratory, in which it figures as 
 a mere phrase of cant, or to addresses, which will 
 bring to light the few brief records we have left of 
 our transactions." And these, the words which we 
 have put into the mouths of Mason and Dixon, for 
 the sake of the unity of our discourse, we doubt not, 
 will be words of prophecy, as regards the destiny of 
 our country; and that time, which has developed the 
 excitement that has given prominence to the line in 
 question, will furnish, in due season, the solution of 
 present difficulties; and that, while the Mason and 
 Dixon's line of geography will continue to be that 
 whose heraldic insignia are still to be found in field 
 and forest, the Mason and Dixon's line of politics 
 will gradually change its position until, as cloud- 
 shadows pass, leaving earth in sunlight, we shall be 
 seen, of all, to be a united and homogeneous people, 1 
 
 1 For the causes, and their operation, to which this result will be attribu 
 table, see the note to page 6. They are more particularly described in the 
 following extract from a speech of the author on another occasion, and 
 which is quoted here, not for the purpose of invoking the official capacity 
 in which it was delivered as authority, but that the suggestion of the text 
 may be more fully understood, without introducing matter not germain to the 
 scope of the address into the text itself: 
 
 "African colonization offers, in its settlements on the coast of Africa, the 
 only solution of the difficult question presented by the existence, in the snmc 
 land, of two free races between whom amalgamation by intermarriage is im- 
 
52 HISTORY OF MASON AND DIXON'S LINE. 
 
 not in this generation, or the next, or the next, but 
 still, at an early day, looking to what we believe, 
 under God, will be the duration of the Republic. 
 
 practicable ; and it opens an outlet, better than any other, through which the 
 weaker of the two may escape from the pressure of that vast European im 
 migration, which threatens to crush it in a strife for bread an immigration 
 withheld in mercy until new homes in another continent could be prepared 
 for those who were to disappear before it. 
 
 "There are some who believe that this immigration, together with the 
 natural increase of our population, may, one day, so affect wages as to make 
 it questionable, whether free white labor, becoming by that time acclimated 
 to the toil of every part of our country, may not be cheaper, under all cir 
 cumstances, than slave labor ; in which event, it is supposed that a volun 
 tary emancipation, prompted by interest alone, may make our whole colored 
 population free. Should such anticipations ever be realized, the import 
 ance of the outlet which colonization has opened in the direction of Liberia, 
 will be all the more highly appreciated; and should slavery, from mere 
 lack of other topics for that party excitement which is a necessity, it would 
 seem, of our condition, still continue to be discussed, eagerly and angrily, in 
 high places, the discussion will, at all events, be made harmless, by the gra 
 dual withdrawal of the colored race, of their own accord, from the theatre of 
 the strife." Thirty- Seventh Annual Report of the American Colonization Society, 
 p. 26. January 7, 1854. 
 

 

 
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