38. The Running of Mason and Dixon's Line (1763-1767)
The commissioners were fourteen in number. The piece is significant as showing the settlement of one of the many boundary controversies, and also as the record of a line which later divided free from slave states. —Bibliography : Winsor, Narrative and Critical History, III, 513, V, 273; Channing and Hart, Guide, §107.
1st.WE have completely run out, settled, fixed and determined a straight line, beginning at the exact middle of the due east and west line mentioned in the articles of the fourth day of July, one thousand seven hundred and sixty, to have been run by other commissioners, formerly appointed by the said Charles, Lord Baltimore, and the said Thomas Penn and Richard Penn, across the peninsula, from Cape Henlopen to Chesapeake Bay, the exact middle of which said east and west line is at the distance of thirty-four miles and three hundred and nine perches from the verge of the main ocean, the eastern end or beginning of the said due east and west line ; and that we have extended the said straight line eighty-one miles seventy-eight chains and thirty links up the peninsula, until it touched and made a tangent to the western part of the periphery of a circle drawn at the horizontal distance of twelve English statute miles from the centre of the town of New Castle, and have marked, described and perpetuated the said straight or tangent line, by setting up and erecting one remarkable stone at the place of beginning thereof, in the exact middle of the aforesaid due east and west line, according to the angle made by the said due west line, and by the said tangent line ; which stone, on the inward sides of the same, facing towards the east and towards the north, hath the arms of the said Thomas Penn and Richard Penn graved thereon, and on the outward sides of the same facing towards the west and towards the south, hath the arms of the said Frederick Lord Baltimore graved thereon ; and have also erected and set up in the said straight or tangent line, from the said place of beginning to the tangent point, remarkable stones at the end of every mile, each stone at the distance or end of every five miles, being particularly distinguished by having the arms of the said Frederick Lord Baltimore graved on the side thereof turning towards the west, and the arms of the said Thomas Penn and Richard Penn graved on the side thereof turning towards the east, and all the other
