they are promoting the public interests, may pass
the bill, and in two or three years afterwards, it
may be discovered that the work is to cost quad-
ruple the amount which was estimated, and a
debt would then be created. Have we had no
lessons on that point ? How much were our pub-
lic works estimated to coat when the eight mil-
lion bill was passed, under all the allurements
which surrounded it? What, I say, was the
estimate ? Three millions for the construction
of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and three
millions or a little more for the construction of
the Chesapeake and Ohio canal to Cumberland.
Let us look back to the estimate, and then see
what has been the cost. Three millions of dol-
lars ? Why, sir, the Baltimore and Ohio Rail-
road has already cost six or seven millions of dol-
lars
Mr. MERRICK interposed, and said that the
gentleman was mistaken in supposing that the
estimated cost of the Baltimore and Ohio Rail-
road, was only three millions of dollars. It was
three millions from the State—three millions
from the city of Baltimore, and other income
from private subscriptions.
Mr. MCLANE, (continuing.) The gentleman
can notice hereafter any thing I may say. The
state of my health is such, that I cannot say the
little I desire, with any satisfaction to myself,
and I am not in a condition to answer his enqui-
ries. If the fact is as the gentleman states it to
be, so much the worse. It was not a true esti-
mate. May not the same thing happen again?
What public work is ever estimated at its actual
cost ? I never heard of such a case, nor do I
think it will ever occur. The Legislature and
the people will, therefore, find themselves in-
volved in a debt greater than was at first contem-
plated, on account of the cost and extravagance
of the work. Then difficulties may arise in the
course of trade, and our public works may cease
to yield a revenue. The debt is contracted up-
on the ground that we have funds coming into the
treasury to pay the interest, and by the progres-
sive increase of the funds from these works, to
reimburse the principal. But trade stops or falls
off—or is diverted into other channels. Rival
works spring up. We do not continue to receive
the income upon which we had calculated. Will
not taxation follow ? And will not the public be
drawn into a debt, in the course of a few years,
which will be an incumbrance upon them and
their posterity, to the end of time, for ought that
we can see, just as we of this generation are in-
cumbered now ? It seems to me that our great
security lies in a rigid adherence to this princi-
ple—that when our law-givers create a debt, the
burthen of which is to rest upon us and our pos-
terity, we should know and understand that we
are to be taxed for its redemption. We shall then
scrutinize the law closely, and see that we are
not unwarily betrayed into such a commitment
of the public funds. Can any injury result from
the adoption of this principle ? It prevails else-
where. If the construction of a great public
work should be demanded by the interests of the
Slate, and the money should be expended, my
word for it, the people will pay the tax when

once convinced of the necessity of the work.
But I hope that this Convention will never put
it in the power of the Legislature, led on by
flattering, perhaps fanciful, calculations as to the
success of public works, to contract a debt to-
day, counting upon resources which may melt
away to-morrow, and thus leaving a heavy tax
upon the people. It is this against which I pro-
test.
I will say one word in relation to the second
clause of the proposition of the gentleman from
Anne Arundel, (Mr. Donaldson,) to which, as he
explains it, I cannot see any great objection.
But I am afraid of the consequences; and more
so when I reflect on the remarks of gentlemen in
the course of this debate—when we are told that
we ought to give to the Legislature the power to
make these contracts because money is becoining
very valuable—that the interest or money will
fall soon to three percent.—that we may pay our
existing debt, now bearing interest at six per
cent., by taking advantage of the rise of money ;
and that, therefore, it is wise to give the Legisla-
ture the power to do it.
I am not of that school of financiers who attach
much credit to this view of the subject. I think
that the lesson taught by the younger Pitt, at a
moment when he was tempting the British nation
into a large amount of public debt for the prose-
cution of the war with France, should not be lost
upon us. If gentlemen would read his speeches
and refer to the national history of that day, they
would be led to think that in a very few years
the whole public debt of England would be paid.
Look at the fact. I think that the general rule
is a sound one, that money is always worth its
real value, and, if by the fluctuations incident to
it, a man gives six dollars for a hat one day and
three dollars the next, it is just the same thing;
he is paying the same value for the hat when he
gives three dollars for it as when he gives six.
And the notion which is started as to the rise or
diminution in the value of money—(I speak with
no disrespect to the argument of the gentleman
on the other side, for whom I entertain a high
esteem,)—but I assure him, that all such notions
have gone into the category of political alchemies.
The rule is not a sound one; and any na-
tion which expects to pay its public debt by bor-
rowing money at three per cent, to get rid of a
debt at six, will find that it has made no bargain.
I hope, therefore, that the Convention will look
to this as a great and grave subject. Some gen-
tlemen have come here with one idea of reform
and some with another. I confess, that one
great duty which I felt it incumbent upon me to
discharge when I came here was, to place some
salutary restriction on the power of the Legisla-
ture as to the creation of a public debt. I live in
a State of which I feel sincerely proud, whether
I regard the past or the present, or look forward
to the future—a State abounding in all the ele-
ments of prosperity—a great and growing com-
monwealth—lettered and tied down by a debt
which at one period almost jeoparded her repu-
tation, but which was rescued by the exertions
of many enlightened and patriotic men, and pro-
bably by none more so than the gentleman from