The scheme which he proposed was to open the western country by means of inland navigation.  The thought had long been in his mind.  It had come to him before the Revolution, and can be traced back to the early days when he was making surveys, buying wild lands, and meditating very deeply, but very practically, on the possible commercial development of the colonies.  Now the idea assumed much larger proportions and a much graver aspect.  He perceived in it the first step toward the empire which he foresaw, and when he had laid down his sword and awoke in the peaceful morning at Mount Vernon, “with a strange sense of freedom from official cares,” he directed his attention at once to this plan, in which he really could do something, despite an inert Congress and a dissolving confederation.  His first letter on the subject was written in March, 1784, and addressed to Jefferson, who was then in Congress, and who sympathized with Washington’s views without seeing how far they reached.  He told Jefferson how he despaired of government aid, and how he therefore intended to revive the scheme of a company, which he had started in 1775, and which had been abandoned on account of the war.  He showed the varying interests which it was necessary to conciliate, asked Jefferson to see the governor of Maryland, so that that State might be brought into the undertaking, and referred to the danger of being anticipated and beaten by New York, a chord of local pride which he continued to touch most adroitly as the business proceeded.  Very characteristically, too, he took pains to call attention to the fact that by his ownership of land he had a personal interest in the enterprise.  He looked far beyond his own lands, but he was glad to have his property developed, and with his usual freedom from anything like pretense, he drew attention to the fact of his personal interests.

On his return from his tour in the autumn, he proceeded to bring the matter to public attention and to the consideration of the legislature.  With this end in view he addressed a long letter to Governor Harrison, in which he laid out his whole scheme.  Detroit was to be the objective point, and he indicated the different routes by which inland navigation could thence be obtained, thus opening the Indian trade, and affording an outlet at the same time for the settlers who were sure to pour in when once the fear of British aggression was removed.  He dwelt strongly upon the danger of Virginia losing these advantages by the action of other States, and yet at the same time he suggested the methods by which Maryland and Pennsylvania could be brought into the plan.  Then he advanced a series of arguments which were purely national in their scope.  He insisted on the necessity of binding to the old colonies by strong ties the Western States, which might easily be decoyed away if Spain or England had the sense to do it.  This point he argued with great force, for it was now no longer a Virginian argument, but an argument for all the States.