profit and advantage to the people of this State, and of the neighboring States, and may ultimately tend to establish a connected navigation between the eastern and western waters, so as to extend and multiply the means and facilities of internal commerce, and personal intercourse between the two great sections of the United States, and to interweave more closely all the mutual interests and affections that are calculated to consolidate and perpetuate the vital principles of Union; and whereas it is represented to this General Assembly that the Potomac Company are willing and desirous that a charter shall be granted to a new company, upon the terms and conditions hereinafter expressed; and that the charter of the present company shall cease and determine:
1. Be it therefore enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, That, as soon as the Legislatures of Maryland and Pennsylvania, and the Congress of the United States, shall assent to the provisions of this act, and the Potomac company shall have signified their assent to the same, by their corporate act, a copy whereof shall be
