MASON AND DIXON'S LINE

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Sep 17, 1896

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 22, No. 37.

MASON AND DIXON'S LINE.

MASON AND DIXON'S LINE is a name given to the southern boundary line of the state of Pennsylvania, which separates it from the states of Maryland and Virginia. It was run, except about twenty-two miles, by Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, two English mathematicians and surveyors, between Nov. 15, 1763, and Dec. 26, 1767. During the exciting debate in Congress in 1820 on the question of excluding slavery from Missouri, the eccentric John Randolph, of Roanoke, made great use of this phrase, which was caught up and re-echoed by every newspaper in the celebrity which it still maintains.—Selected.