embark in magnificent schemes of internal improvement,
which must always result in fixing an
onerous tax on the people; and this, he said, in
the face of all the glowing descriptions of the
inestimable blessings which would result from
binding all the remote regions of our wide spread
country in one. He had never given a vote for
an appropriation for such a purpose, until the
State was so deeply involved by the extent to
which they had been carried, that it was deemed
necessary to carry the works through, to give
her a chance of extrication.
It was when the Delaware and Chesapeake
canal was before the House, that he took the re-
sponsibility of differing from his constituents,
and voted in favor of a small appropriation. He
was a representative in the House of Delegates
in 1827, and his name was not to be found on the
record during that session in favor of any appropriation
of the kind. He recollected a conver-
sation he had, at that time, with a gentleman
from Baltimore who came here for the purpose
of getting the act incorporating the Baltimore
and Ohio rail road through the legislature. Af-
ter listening to the extravagant descriptions of
the advantages to be derived from this work,
the favorable estimates as to its cost, and the
time when it could be completed, he well remem-
bered his reply to the gentleman, after he had
stated that he only asked an appropriation of
$500,000. "If the capitalists of your city are so
well convinced of the great profits which must
accrue from this work, how happens it that they
have not embarked in the enterprise?" He was
aware that gentlemen who engage in specula-
tive undertakings, sometimes deceive themselves,
but it was generally found that those works which
promise the greatest amount of risk and the
least amount of profit, are the branches of the
system which fall to the share of the govern-
ment.
He stated that he could not support the amend-
ments offered by the gentlemen from Anne Arun-
del and from Charles. He could not, under any
combination of circumstances, however flatter-
ing might be the prospect of revenue, consent
that the legislature should have the power to
loan the capital of the State for the construction
of any public work, road or canal, which could
have a local and partial interest.
He could vote for no proposition which, in any
event looks to the embarkation of the capital of
the State, in any project of internal improve-
ment. It might so happen that a large surplus
may be in the treasury, which cannot be applied
to the payment of the public debt which is not
redeemable for many years, and the treasury
may, in consequence, be placed in a perilous situation.
And is it difficult to see how, in such
case, the public money might be expended? And
if the legislature under such circumstances should
appropriate this surplus money to. the construc-
tion of public works, and a sudden reverse should
take place, or the works should be stopped, and
just when the treasury is exhausted a large
amount of State bonds, or interest on the debt
should fall due, the consequence would be new
taxation.

So far from there being any desire among the
people that the legislature shall have power to
appropriate money for roads and canals, that it
is the universal wish that the money may be hon-
estly applied to the payment of the public debt
and not to the construction of improvements. We
have now a considerable surplus in the treasury.
If it be suffered to accumulate, it will be larger
next year, and still larger the following year;
and are we to empower the legislature to ex-
pend this surplus on any of these great schemes
of internal improvement, which are now the
topic of conversation? Are we to throw this surplus
out of the treasury to be scrambled for by
schemers and stockholders?
He was against any such projects, with all his
heart and soul. If ever the time should come
when the State internal improvement stocks
shall become equal in value to the State bonds,
he would be very willing to exchange all the
stock held by the State in these internal improve-
ment companies for the bonds of the people.
But the amendment of the gentleman from Anne
Arundel looks to a perpetual connection between
the State and these institutions.
There was great plausibility, he admitted, in
another idea thrown out by the gentleman from
Charles which was very tempting, but the few
expressions from the experienced and able states-
man and financer, the gentleman from Cecil,
would effectually counteract its influence. The
doctrine of the gentleman from Charles looked
to the convertion of us into a company of stock-
jobbers. It was well said by the gentleman from
Cecil, that all these projects were delusive in a
great degree. If we could he certain of bor-
rowing at three per cent. to pay off a debt bear-
ing an interest of six per cent,, with the certain-
ty that the relative value of money and labor
would not change its standard, there might be
some reason for Such a movement and posterity
might be left to pay the debt thus created for the
payment of the previous debt. But as the gentle-
man from Charles ought to perceive, we may hap-
pen to borrow when labor and produce are high
and money low, and when we have lo pay,
labor and produce may have fallen one hundred
per cent. beyond the value at the time when we
became borrowers. It was well understood that
experienced capitalists can foresee the fluctua-
tions in the money market, and are always on
the alert to take advantage of the changes; and
they are always ready to flock round the Trea-
sury when the bonds of the State are at the high-
est market rate. He was opposed to giving the
Legislature the power to deal in stocks of any
sort; while he was anxious that we should prompt-
ly discharge every dollar due from the State
either for the interest or the principal of the pub-
lic debt. And he fervently hoped that the day
was not very far distant when a report of a com-
mittee of ways and means in the House of Dele-
gates) or the annual message of the Governor of
the State, could cause a rise or fall of public se-
curities in the market.
Mr. MERRICK wished to make a remark or two
only in reply. The gentleman from Frederick,
(Mr. Thomas,) has said that a "low rate of inter-