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the 5th of October. The election laws required two weeks'
notice of an election in Baltimore, and although it was
perfectly competent for the Convention to obviate this
difficulty and prescribe any day on which the election
should occur, it was not thought advisable that it should
take place on the second Wednesday in October, which
would be but four days after the constitution went into
effect.
The amendment was adopted, and the bill passed—yeas
94, nays none.
The report of the committee on public works, relative
to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and Chesapeake and
Ohio Canal, was taken up, the question being on the mo-
tion of Mr. Syester to strike out the third section.
The Convention then went into committee of the whole
on the subject, Mr. Dent, of St. 'Mary's, in the chair.
Mr. McKaig said it was important to understand this
question to look into matters when the canal failed and
declared itself bankrupt, and into the preferred bonds, to
the holders of which it was now proposed to surrender up
the canal.
Mr. McKaig then gave a review taken from the pub-
lished statements of the various subscriptions of the
State to the canal, which finally reached $7, 000, 000 sub-
scriptions, and $5, 000, 000 stock, and gave the State en-
tire control, which she has retained until the present
time. The work was abandoned by the stockholders and
then taken up by the State. If the work was given up
the State of Virginia might complain that the contract
made in the act of 1844 had been violated, as Virginia
had guaranteed the repair bonds with the understand-
ing that Maryland was to take control. To this it
might be answered that Virginia sent her Attorney Gen-
eral, Randolph Tucker, here in 1860, who urged this meas-
ure, and now she had General Bradley Johnson here urg-
ing it again, and this he thought was a sufficient reason.
It was found in 1835 that unless the canal was finished
to the mineral region of Allegany, it would be worthless,
and $7, 000, 000 would be sunk, as the canal in the other
counties through which it then passed did not pay its ex-
penses. The alternative was with the State to finish the
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