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would go immediately on the passage of this bill. From
the indications he should suppose also that the Convention
would be afraid to leave the matter under the control of
the Legislature, as they seemed to think there was so
much danger of corruption in that body.
Mr. Syester had nothing to say about the justice of the
claims of the bondholders, but if they had a right to lay
their hands upon this great work, upon which the State
and the people had poured out their treasure like water,
the grounds of that right were not to be ascertained by
any mere loose statements which might be made here. If
this Convention was to strip itself of its proper char-
acter, and step far into the forbidden domain—if it was
to assume a judicial character—he would say that they
were not taking the proper means to ascertain the true
facts in the case. The Convention wanted light. Who of
all the members who had spoken had given an account of
the contract made with the bondholders in 1848, and the
terms of it? Were they without proper knowledge to
give up this work, in which the interests of our people
were so deeply bound up, to a class of strangers not of us ?
It was a question whether this Convention was not ex-
ceeding its powers. They were now dealing with an in-
corporated company, the charter of which was guaranteed
by the State of Maryland, and could it be abrogated ? He
was now in the presence of a Convention, many of the
members of which had suffered during the late civil com-
motions the very thing which they now proposed to do;
to trespass upon the rights of others. He hoped they
would not send out to the people an instrument bearing
upon its face such an infringement upon the immunities
of others. What right had this Convention to act as um-
pire between the canal company and its creditors. He
read from the charter of the company, and maintained
that there was no power in the Convention to make any
provision for the control of the canal and the appointment
of directors inconsistent with the terms of the charter,
which this section was plainly in violation of. It might be
said that this was a sovereign Convention, and had power
to do what it pleased, but although there might be no
denned limits to its powers laid down in any law, they
were limited by common sense, and this Convention should
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