[21] Cf. for example, Samuel Eliot Morison & Henry Steele Commager, _The Growth of the American Republic_, Vol. I, p. 332. New York, 1962. Leon H. Canfield & Howard B. Wilder, _The Making of Modern America_, p. 148. Boston, 1964. In 1789, the Virginia legislature adopted an Act[22] offering to cede "ten miles square, or any lesser Quantity of Territory within the State" to the United States for the permanent seat of the general government. Section I of this Act recited the motive: "Whereas the equal and common benefits resulting from the administration of the general government will be best diffused, and its operation become more prompt and certain, by establishing such a situation for the seat of the said government, as will be most central and convenient to the citizens of the United States at large, having regard as well to population, extent of territory, and a free navigation to the Atlantic Ocean, through the Chesapeake bay, as to the most direct and ready communication with our fellow citizens in the western frontier; and whereas it appears to this Assembly that a situation combining all considerations and advantages before recited, may be had on the banks of the river Patowmack, above tide water, in a country rich and fertile in soil, healthy and salubrious in climate, and abounding in all the necessaries and conveniences of life, where in a location of ten miles square, if the wisdom of Congress shall so direct, the States of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia may participate in such location." [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. [23] July 16, 1790. 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.