939. BOUNDARIES, Pennsylvania and Virginia.—[continued].
No mode of determining
the extent of the five degrees of longitude of
Delaware river, in the latitude of Mason and
Dixon's Line having been pointed out by your
Excellency [Joseph Reed], I shall venture to
propose that this be determined by astronomical
observations, to be made at or near the
two extremities of the line, as being in our
opinion the most certain and unexceptionable
mode of determining that point which, being
fixed, everything else will be easy.—
To President Reed.
Ford ed., iii, 15.
(R.
1781)
