| Annals and Proceedings of Congress from the Library of Congress, American Memory Project.
[The files are searchable. To access, use the above hyperlink. Not all documents published by order of Congress are included on the Library of Congress site (as of 12/8/00). For example, the opinion of Judge Nicholas Brewer in the Great Falls Land Condemnation Case is not, but references to requesting a copy from the President (February 23, 1859), its delivery to the Senate by the Vice President (March 2, 1859), and the order for it to be printed as a Senate Document (March 3, 1859) are, accompanied by the minutes of the sessions in the Congressional Globe. For these entries, narrow the search to the 35th Congress and to 'Brewer.' Samples of the proceedings from 1804, 1812, and 1822 relating to the Potomac River are to be found below (go to the main series unit entry to view images). The debate in 1804 and 1812 centered on dams or causeways. The 1804 debate related to Mason's Island and the petition for a dam across the Potomac to the island. Where the Compact of 1785 was mentioned, it was applied specifically to the tidewater areas and the opposition to the bill (Mr. John Randolph of Virginia) only referred to the applicability of the Compact of 1785 in that context. The 1812 debate over improving navigation of the Potomac does not appear to take the Compact of 1785 into consideration as having any relevance to improvements above tidewater. Here the absence of references to the compact would seem to be most relevant. The 1822 discussion of financing the improving of the Potomac Navigation by canal above tidwater is interesting in that it again does not reference the Compact of 1785. It is also interesting from the standpoint that Mr. Stewart argued, unsuccessfully, that the whole improvement project should be funded from the sale of the undeveloped lots in the District of Columbia to which the Federal Government held title. He estimated that sale of 1/2 the lots would return $1,805,437. ecp 12/2/00] |
