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324
its projection or to a system of management radically defec-
tive. It is the settled opinion of the undersigned, whose deep
interest in the subject has caused them to give it close attten-
tion, that there is no cure for these evils which can be re-
lied on short of such change as will place the work, for a
time, substantially under the management of those to whom,
by law and by solemn pledges, all its nett revenues must, for
many years belong. If, under their administration the trade
and revenues of the canal can be so increased, and its expen-
ses so diminished, as to pay off the incumbrances represented
ty your memorialists, it is obvious that the State of Mary-
land will become the owner of a work yielding revenue suffi-
cient to relieve her people from a large portion of the present
burden of direct taxation. The State was, on the first day
of January, 1866, a creditor, (without including its subscrip-
tion of five millions dollars) oi the Canal Company, to an
amount exceeding twelve millions of dollars. Until the debt
due to the creditors represented by your memorialists shall
be paid, no part of the principal or interest of this vast sum
can be paid, and your memorialists submit with profound con-
fidence that ample experience has shown that a radical
change in the administration of the affairs of the Canal Com-
pany must take place before any such auspicious results can
be expected.
Impressed with the force of these views, your memorialists
respectfully present their grievances to the Sovereign Conven-
tion of the people of Maryland, and pray that they will give
effect to the just and equitable intentions of the last General
Assembly by incorporating in the proposed Constitution a
provision whereby the administration of the Chesapeake and
Ohio Canal Company will, for a limited period, and with such
guards and precautions as the wisdom of the Convention may
suggest, be confided to the holders of the preferred bonds or
their representatives.
It will of course be the province and duty of the Conven-
tion to take care that the influence to which the people of
Maryland as the chief patron of this work are justly entitled
shall be fully maintained and secured by the proposed mea-
sure, under the influence of which, it will be equally the in-
terest and duty of your memorialists to use every possible ex-
ertion to return the Canal to the State freed of its heaviest
burden and in a condition to continue what its projectors de-
signed it to be, a perpetual source of wealth, prosperity and
revenue to the State.
W. W. CORCORAN,
J. B. H. SMITH,
GEO. W. RIGGS,
J. PHILIP ROMAN.
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