BY BRIAN MAFFLY
In the 1780s, Maryland was worried about its neighbors as America's newly independent states pondered how to bind 13 former British colonies into a single nation.
Virginia and Pennsylvania envisioned their borders extending far into "unoccupied" land to the west, and Maryland feared that its influence would wane should those states gain large empires. It insisted these lands be reserved for future states and sold to pay down a massive war debt and fund ongoing government operations...