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in addition1'two millions which the State advanced under a
law passed in 1834, as a'loan secured by a mortgage of all
the lands, water rights «nd revenues of the Company.
These great sums, together with whatever the Company
-could raise by the most lavish use of its credit, proved wholly
insufficient, and in March 1845, twenty years after its incor-
poration, the Canal was unfinished, its gross revenue less
than fifty-six thousand dollars a year, its means and credit
entirely exhausted, and there was every prospect that the
bast outlay would be-wholly lost. In this extremity, the
Legislature of Maryland, on the tenth of March, 1845, pass-
ed "An Act to provide for the completion of the Chesapeake
and Ohio Canal." This Act authorized the President and
Directors of the Company to borrow upon the bonds of the
Company, one million seven hundred thousand dollars, and
to secure the payment of the interest and principal of the
same, by a mortgage on the revenues and tolls oi the Com-
pany, and waived, deferred and postponed, in favor of such
bonds, the rights and liens of the State on the revenue only,
but not upon the lands, water rights and property of the
Company. To this waiver of the rights of Maryland is at-
tached a condition, which is expressed in a proviso to the
Act in these words: "And provided further, that the Presi-
dent and Directors of said Company shall from time to time,
and at all times hereafter, have the privilege and authority
to use and apply such portion of said revenues and tolls as in
their opinion may be necessary, to keep the said Canal in
good repair for transportation, provide the requisite supply
of water, and pay the salaries of officers and agents, and the
current expenses of the. Company.
Under this Act, a mortgage was, on the 5th day of June,
1848, executed to trustees, of whom your memorialists are
the survivors and successors, whereby the whole of the tolls
and f evennes of the Company were pledged for the payment
of the interest and the redemption of the principal of the
bonds to be issued in pursuance thereof-
The State of Viiginia relying on this contract, guaranteed
three hundred thousand dollars of these bonds, and the resi-
due was taken by individuals, mainly citizens of Virginia,
Maryland and the District of Columbia, and by this means
the Canal was finished to Cumberland, in the year eighteen
and fifty.
The Company paid the interest on the bonds up to the first
day of January 1852, from which time it has tailed to pay
the same, by reason of which failure the State of Virginia
became bound to pay said interest on the bonds guaranteed
by her, and she has actually paid out, and has now due her
on account of such payments, and the interest thereon, a sum
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