s mind was set upon the accomplishment. In July of that year he
was in correspondence with Thomas Johnson, to whom he wrote: "Till now I
have not been able to enquire into the sentiments of any of the
Gentlemen of this side in respect to the Scheme of opening inland
navigation of the Potomac by private subscription."[55] Washington's
trips to the Ohio, in October 1770 and again in September 1784--on both
occasions accompanied by Dr. Craik--while in the interest of his western
land holdings were also to forward this canal business.

All of this resulted in the founding of the Potomac Navigation Company
in 1785, and Alexandria subscribed heavily to the bond issue. By 1829
the first steam locomotive was operating in America and the coming of
the steam engine was followed by the collapse of the canal project.
Thousands of local dollars were thus lost. When the deflation was
complete, financial stagnation followed, from which Alexandria never
entirely recovered. During these trying 1830s and 1840s many of her
younger men departed for the west hoping to better their fortunes.

Alexandrians did not take kindly to federal jurisdiction of their
affairs, and within half a century from 1800--on February 3, 1846--a
petition was presented from the citizens of the county and town of
Alexandria to the Virginia General Assembly, stating that they had
pending before Congress an application for recession to the Commonwealth
of Virginia. They asked the Assembly for a law to accept them back into
the fold should their request be granted. By act of Congress, dated July
9, 1846, it was provided that: "With the assent of the people of the
County and Town of Alexandria, that portion of the territory of the
District of Columbia ceded to the United States by the State of Virginia
... receded and forever relinquished to the State of Virginia ..."[56]

Virginia welcomed the recession as a mother would welcome home a
maltreated and divorced daughter. Alexandria County (later Arlington
County) and the City of Alexandria were accepted on March 13, 1847, just
two years short of the latter's centenary.

Fourteen years later the first blood of dreadful civil war was spilled
in Alexandria and the city found itself a pawn to arbitrament by the
sword. When General Robert E. Lee accepted the command of Confederate
forces, a host of Alexandrians followed him into battle. To the
citizenry with Southern sympathies, war meant bitter severance once
again from