branch of the Legislature, which law shall pro-
vide ways and means, exclusive of loans, to pay
the interest of said debt or liability and discharge
the principal thereof, within twenty years from
the passage of the law, but new loans may .be
made if necessary, and new bonds issued in pur-
suance of law, for the payment of either princi-
pal or interest of the debt now existing."
Mr. DONALDSON briefly explained the substi-
tute offered by him. He said that the proposi-
tion of the gentleman from Queen Anne's (Mr.
George,) as amended at the suggestion of the gen-
tleman from Somerset, (Mr. Dennis,) did in ef-
fect destroy the power of the Legislature to make
use of the credit of the State for even the most
benefficent purpose, and, in so many words, for-
bade appropriations, loans, or subscriptions to
any work of internal improvement. Whatever
our circumstances might be hereafter, however
manifest might be the advantages to the commu-
nity of a particular project, however unanimous
might be the wishes of the people concerning it,
and however abundant might be the receipts of
the Treasury from the works already construct-
ed, no such application of those receipts could be
made by the Legislature; although all our debt
may have been paid off, and all our tax laws re-
pealed. When he considered, that not very
many years would pass before we should realise
such a state of things, if the present tax-system
were in the meantime left undisturbed, as he hoped
and presumed, he could not but foresee, that the
entire destruction of this power of appropriation
might hereafter produce serious inconvenience,
and perhaps detriment to the State. The works
of internal improvement now yield, unfinished
as they are, about $200,000 annually to our Trea-
sury, and that sum will soon be greatly increas-
ed. Those works might hereafter, perhaps, be
made much more productive of revenue to the
State, and much more advantageous to the trade
of the community, if their capacity were enlarg-
ed, or tributary works were constructed. He
did not advocate laying taxes for those purposes;
but after our debt was paid, if surplusses not de-
rived from taxation were in the Treasury, he
would desire that the Legislature should have the
power to use them in the manner which it deem-
ed most beneficial. Yet he was not for leaving
this power unrestricted. He wished to guard it
from abuse in the most stringent manner. He
thought that his substitute imposed such restric-
tions, as would effectually prevent abuse, yet
would preserve a power that might be benefici-
ally used in cases of manifest propriety.
That substitute required the concurrent vote of
two-thirds Of the members elected to each branch
of the Legislature, for any law creating a debt or
liability. Such a vote could never be obtained,
unless the necessity of such a law were apparent.
Even in the times of our wildest extravagance;
when all our heavy debts were incurred, although
a mere majority of a quorum in each house was
requisite to pass a law, the loan bills were al-
most all carried by bare majorities. They never
could hive been carried, bad two-thirds of all the
members elected, been requisite. Yet none of
those bills provided resources for paying the in-

terest or principal of the debt created; in their
delusion, the legislators of that time seemed to
think that means for complying with the State's
engagements, would drop down from heaven. If
the imposition of a tax, which was the only pro-
vision then in their power, for the payment of the
debt, had' formed part of those bills, they would
never have passed even by bare majorities. Now
this substitute required, that the law creating any
debt should provide ways and means, exclusive
of loans, for the liquidation of the debt, principal
and interest, within twenty-years. The ways and
means must be either taxation, or certain reve-
nue derived from property of the State, or from
the State's interest in works of internal improve-
ment. With those checks on the power to create
debt, and with the past experience of oar legis-
lation to warn us, lie believed there could be no
danger of extravagance, or improvident enterpri-
ses, in future,
In regard to the last clause of the substitute,
which authorised new loans to be made, if ne-
cessary, for the payment of the principal or inter-
est of the debt now in existence, lie said, that its
purpose was, first, to provide for any temporary
deficiency, proceeding from the unequal distri-
bution of the receipts and expenditures of the
Treasury—the smallest receipts coming in at the
time when the expenditures are largest, and vice
versa— or from an extraordinary casually, which
might possibly in some year befall our public
works; and, secondly, to enable the Legislature,
at or after the periods when the principal of any
of our loans became redeemable, if funds for the
purpose are not in the Treasury, to make new
leans, and from the proceeds redeem those that
have come to maturity. The terms of the loans
are, irredeemable until after a certain date, and
then redeemable at the pleasure of the State.
Now, it may well happen, that the relative value
of money may fall in the market before the great-
er part of these loans are redeemable; in which
case a sum of money adequate to the discharge
of the principal of those loans may be procured
at a lower rate of interest than we now pay, and
the difference in the interest would, of course, be
so much saved to the State.
Mr. BROWN said that at first sight, the amend-
ment of the gentleman from Anne Arundel, (Mr,
Donaldson,) struck his mind favorably, but that
upon reflection, and aided by the explanations
which the gentleman himself had given, he, (Mr.
B.,) was opposed to it. He argued that the only
way to open the eves of the people and to let
them understand what their pecuniary condition
was, to raise money by loan, when it must be
raised, and to levy a tax for the payment of the
interest and the ultimate liquidation of the debt.
The people then knew what their Legislature
was doing. And if, as the gentleman had pre-
dicted, it should hereafter, come to pass that large
amounts of money were realized by works of in-
ternal improvement, it should be returned to the
pockets of the people who had paid, by taxation,
a large amount of money for these very works.
The proposition of the gentleman from Queen
Anne's, (Mr. George,) contained a guard which
was acceptable to him, (Mr. B.) He hoped we