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law, the trustees named in a deed of mortgage from the
Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company to Phineas Janney
and others, executed on the 5th day of June, 1848, shall
be empowered until the first Monday in June, 1883, to
cast the vote of the State of Maryland as a stockholder
in the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company at all meet-
ings of the stockholders of said company: Provided, how-
ever, that no person shall be chosen as president of the
said company who shall not have been for five years a
citizen of Maryland; and provided, further, that of the
six directors authorized to be elected by the charter of
said company, five shall have been for five years citizens
of Maryland, and three of them residents of the counties
of Allegany, Washington, Frederick or Montgomery, and
one a resident of the District of Columbia.
Mr. Syester moved to strike out the section.
Mr. Spates said there was no doubt of the ability of the
canal company to satisfy the claims of all its creditors,
and gave an interesting account of the early history and
progress of the canal. General Washington was elected
the first president of the Potomac Canal, which continued
in operation until 1820, when it became demonstrated that
the bed of the Potomac was not susceptible of being used.
The Legislatures of Virginia and Maryland then took
action looking to the building of a canal from tidewater
to Cumberland, and, when everything was ready, the Po-
tomac Company surrendered their franchise to the new
company, the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. The entire
relation of the State and municipal corporations to the
canal, its various loans and the expenses of working, &c.,
were entered into at length. The canal was twenty-two
years in building, and cost $10, 592, 473. 31. The amount
of tolls received from the canal from 1830 to 1850 was
$853, 694. 42, and from 1850 to 1867, $2, 849, 870. 41.
In reply to a question from Mr. Dobbin, Mr. Spates said
that boats drawing five feet could pass over the canal,
but the average was four feet nine inches. The amount
of coal transported over the canal since 1830 was 3, 176, -
832 tons, and over the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, in
the same time, 7, 252, 163 tons. There were 355 boats on
the canal, of which 154 were now idle; and the reason of
this was the smaller cost of transportation on the rail-
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