[22] Acts of Assembly, 1789, Chapter XXXII, p. 19.
It is clear from the inclusion of Pennsylvania as one of the participating States, and the reference to "above tide water" that the Virginia legislators of those days had in mind a tract somewhat higher up the river than that which was eventually chosen. Indeed, the first Act of Congress[23] dealing with this subject set the limits within which the Federal District was to be established "on the river Potomac, at some place between the mouths of the Eastern Branch and Connogochegue" (a tributary of the Potomac some 20 miles south of the Pennsylvania State line) and authorized the President to appoint three commissioners to survey and "by proper metes and bounds" define and limit the district to be accepted by the Congress.
By a proclamation of January 24, 1791,[24] President Washington directed that a survey should be made.
[24] Richardson, _Messages and Papers of the Presidents_, Vol. I, p. 100.
"... after duly examining and weighing the advantages and disadvantages of the several situations within the limits aforesaid, I do hereby declare and make known that the location of one part of the said district of 10 miles square shall be found by running four lines of experiment in the following manner, that is to say: Running from the court-house of Alexandria, in Virginia, due southwest half a mile, and thence a due southeast course till it shall strike Hunting Creek, to fix the beginning of the said four lines of experiment.
"Then beginning the first of the said four lines of experiment at the point on Hunting Creek where the said southeast course shall have struck the same, and running to the said first line due northwest 10 miles; thence the second line into Maryland due northeast 10 miles; thence the third line due southeast 10 miles, and thence the fourth line due southwest 10 miles to the beginning on Hunting Creek."
Since the tract thus specified did not lie within the limits set by the Act of July 1790, the Congress was asked to authorize the moving of the southern boundary point of the "ten miles square" farther south to include the Eastern Branch and the town of Alexandria. Accordingly, the Act of July 16, 1790, was amended by an Act approved March 3, 1791: