and the people would fully realise the prospect of
discharging the whole by a not very distant date,
and would therefore pay their taxes with even
greater cheerfulness than before.
It was intimated that very extravagant esti-
mates had been made of future receipts from the
internal improvements. He himself had certain-
ly indulged in no wild speculations on the sub-
ject. He hah stated no particular sum as his
own estimate. The gentleman from Cecil, (Mr.
McLane,) had spoken of $500,000 annually, in
their presept unfinished condition they yielded to
the State $200,000, and were constantly increas-
ing in productiveness; and when the debt was
paid off, there certainly would be large receipts
from this source, to be disposed of in some man-
ner or other. He would lake occasion to state,
that he bad not made any calculation on receipts
from the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, On that
point he. agreed entirely with the gentleman from
Frederick, (Mr, Thomas). To more than seven
millions of our money, and all the interest there-
on, that work was,
A gulf profound as that Serbonian bog,
Betwixt Damiata and Mount Casius old,
Where armies whole have sunk:—
He feared the entire amount was irrecoverably
gone.
Mr. D. then said, that some remarks of the
gentleman from Frederick, (Mr. Thomas,) made
it proper that he should speak of a matter some-
what personal to himself. He would not have
risen for the purpose, but being on the floor, he
thought it well not to let the occasion pass. That
gentleman had used the expression, that he was
not present when the honors were shared in re-
lation to restoring the credit of the state. When
the gentleman from Dorchester, (Mr. Phelps.) in
the course of argument the other day, had spoken
of him, (Mr. D.,) as having done more to restore
the credit of the state than any other person ex-
cept Governor Pratt, he. (Mr. D.,) thought, that
to make any public disclaimer of his title to such
an honor, would in itself be assuming too much
importance to himself. In private, he had told
that gentleman, how much he had exaggerated
the merit of any act of his, (Mr. D.'s,) and what
injustice he had unintentionally done to others.
Afterward, when the gentleman from Queen
Anne's, (Mr. Spencer,) claimed that his colleague,
(Governor Grason,) had taken the first and bold-
est step, by advising the imposition of the direct
tax, he (Mr. D.,) had interposed to say, that he,
(Mr. D.,) had not pretended to claim for himself
any credit whatever. He had never estimated
what he himself had done at any considerable
value. All the most important part of the work
had been accomplished by others, before he came
upon the field of action. The gentleman from
Frederick hail informed us of his own claims, of
which he, (Mr D.,) had not belore been aware.
In regard to others, public records showed us
who had been most. prominent in the cause of
State faith. Governor Grason, in his message,
had first publicly recommended the direct tax; it
was a bold and noble act, when the circumstan-
ces are considered. The late Robert W. Bowie,

of Prince George's, deserved, perhaps, more
praise than any other man; for by his indepen-
dence and energy, in the face of opposition and
clamor, the law imposing the direct tax was
carried through the Legislature. That was the
most difficult task of all. Then Governor Pratt
and Chancellor Johnson, the first by his recom-
mendations and influence, and the latter by his
indefatigable exertions as chairman of the ways
and means in the House of Delegates, secured
the passage of supplementary tax laws, by which
our Treasury was brought into a condition to
meet the just demands of our creditors. When
he, (Mr, D„) came to the Legislature, it fell to
Ilia lot to occupy a position, which rendered it
necessary for him to become acquainted with the
condition of our finances. Finding that the mea-
sures previously adopted had fully accomplished
their object, it was his duty to announce the fact,
and to demonstrate to others, as well as he could,
that the State might safely resume the payment
of interest as her debt. That was all he had
done. Any honest man, in his position, would
have done the same thing. It had not been ne-
cessary for him to propose new burdens on the
people; the odium of that had been encountered
by those who preceded him; and he bad only
endeavored to make the previous laws mure effi-
cient in their operation. His name had been
connected with the final act, which was the con-
summation to which the labors of others had
brought us, and thus a credit had been conferred
upon him, which he knew that he never deserv-
ed. All he could claim was, to have felt and to
feel for the honor and good faith of the State as
if they were his own—and such must be the feel-
ing of every true son of Maryland.
Mr. PRESSTMAN rose, he said, not to partici-
pate at any length in the discussion, but to in-
quire of his friend from Anne Arundel. (Mr.
Donaldson,) if he could state what amount was
paid into the Treasury, arising from the auxili-
ary tax laws, as they are familiarly termed, and
of the whole sum, what proportion was paid by
the city of Baltimore? His object in propound-
ing the question was this, that it might have its
due weight in the distribution of honors which
had been spoken of in connection with the main-
tenance of the state's credit. He thought it
would appear from the Treasurer's report, that
nearly two-thirds of the revenue arising from the
acts of 1844, which had been suggested by Gov-
ernor Pratt, was collected in that city. He did
not mean in the smallest degree to take from
the deservedly energetic and talented executive
to whom he had referred his just share of the
public esteem to which he was entitled, for the
part he bore in that crisis of the State's history.
But this much he was bound to say, that there
were other public men in the councils of the
State, sustained by patriotic constituencies to
whom the meed of praise is also due, and first
among the foremost in his estimation, was the
lamented Robert W. Bowie, of Prince George's,
the distinguished chairman of the committee of
ways and means, who in 1841, brought forward
the direct tax system of the state. No man need
desire a higher eulogy than the annals of the State