Page:Historic highways of America (Volume 12).djvu/21

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OLD NORTHWESTERN TURNPIKE
17

Washington's) he met a number of persons including General Morgan. " . . one object of my journey being," his Journal reads, "to obtain information of the nearest and best communication between the Eastern & Western Waters; & to facilitate as much as in me lay the Inland Navigation of the Potomack; I conversed a good deal with Genl. Morgan on this subject, who said, a plan was in contemplation to extend a Road from Winchester to the Western Waters, to avoid if possible an interference with any other State." It is to be observed that this was a polite way of saying that the road in contemplation must be wholly in Virginia, which was the only state to be "interfered" with or be benefited. "But I could not discover," Washington adds, "that Either himself, or others, were able to point it out with precision. He [Morgan] seemed to have no doubt but that the Counties of Frederk., Berkeley & Hampshire would contribute freely towards the extension of the Navigation of Potomack; as well as towards opening a Road from East to West."

It should be observed that the only route