hers,) had ably supported the same side of the
question. Mr. D. repeated what he had before
asserted on this point, and said, that if it were
fully realised that all our debt would be discharg-
ed in the course of ten or twelve years, the pre-
sent value of every rood of land in the State
would be increased, in spite of the taxes we have
to pay.
In regard to the system of internal improve-
ment adopted by this State, and the-consequent
burdens of taxation, he took the liberty of differ-
ing in some degree from the gentleman from Ce-
cil, who seemed to look upon them as evils of such
tremendous magnitude. He, himself, when he
considered the peculiar position and circumstan-
ces of Maryland, did not hesitate to say, that
in spite of all the money recklessly wasted on
projects that should not have been entertained,
and in spile of all the taxation we had suffered,
the whole result had been beneficial to the state.
Those public works which were already produc-
tive of great benefit to the State, and which he
considered absolutely essential to her future pros-
perity, would not have been undertaken, if they
had depended solely on private capital and enter-
prise. If they had not been undertaken, Mary-
land would have sunk into insignificance among
her sister States. Nor has the pressure of debt
been without its advantages to us, not only in
testing the public virtue, but in giving valuable
lessons for the future. The system would have
been an almost unmixed benefit, if the true finan-
cial principle had been followed, of providing in
the laws creating the debt, substantial ways and
means for its liquidation. As the State then had
no receipts from internal improvements, taxation
should have been at once resorted to. Then ex-
travagance and speculative schemes would have
been effectually checked. Still, taking matters
at the worst, the whole result was, in his opinion,
beneficial.
Mr. DORSEY without intending to make any ex-
tensive remarks, could not but notice some of
the strange propositions which he had heard, as
to the effect of the conversion of stock, and the
calculations which had been made of the early
extinguishment of the public debt. He had never
fell any great horror of a mere public debt. The
only real ground of dread is, when a State has a
heavy debt which it is unable to pay. The State
was now in such a condition, that if the amend-
ment proposed the other day by the gentleman
from Worcester, had been adopted, he should
have said we were in a state of happy exemption
from all disquietude upon the subject. He knew
that a great part of the debt would not be pay-
able until 1870 and 1891), and he also knew that
all the calculations which had been made of the
actual payment of the entire public debt were
somewhat problematical. Some of the persons
who hold Maryland debt, will hold on to their
bonds, and reject all offers for their redemption;
but the number of such is not large, and they in-
terpose no serious obstacle to the State's emanci-
pation from its public debt. The great body of
the bund holders are mere speculators, who hold
the debt not as a permanent investment, but as |
an article of traffic, a subject for speculation, and
on offering them ashade above the market price,
the stock is at your service and is thereby re-
deemed. The State will, therefore, meet with
no difficulty in redeeming the great portion of its
debt, as soon as it possesses the means of doing so.
He deaired the sinking fund or rather its in-
come and accumulations to be used for that pur-
pose, as it heretofore has been as long as the
holders of the State debt, would, by sale or re-
demption, permit the operation. When the
impracticable stockholders, (if he might so call
them,) put an end to the operations of the
sinking fund in Maryland stocks its investments
should be made in State stocks of Massachusetts,
New York, Virginia, etc., until the amount
thereof purchased, was adequate to the payment
of the Maryland debt as its maturity, and in the
meantime, to keep down the interest thereon. At
that desirable epoch, he regarded our State debt
as paid; it then would cease to excite dread or
apprehensions in the minds of the most timorous.
He stated that the value of State stock, mainly
depended on the remoteness of the period at
which it was redeemable. The more remote
that period, the higher the market price of the
stock.
He, therefore, was in favor of the power pro-
posed to be given by the gentleman from Charles.
But his desire for its adoption had been nearly
extinguished, by an amendment he had accepted,
which, he believed, had almost wholly paralized
its original efficiency.
Mr. MCLANE enquired of Mr. DORSEY, if he
could name any instance in which such a finan-
cial operation as that contemplated by the gen-
tleman from Charles, had ever taken place?
Mr. DORSEY could not, at the moment, call to
mind any such instance, as he was not very con-
versant with stock operations, never having been
engaged in them, hut had no doubt there had
been many such, for reasons most obvious,
He then illustrated his statement by putting
a supposititious case of a transaction between two
individuals; and stated that he had seen accounts
of such transactions, but could not now specify
time. He repeated that the value of the State
bonds depended on the time they had to run. He
had seen in a recent publication of the price of
stocks, that a five per cent. stock which had a
long time to run, was selling at a higher price
than a six per cent. stock redeemable in a shorter
period. This lie had seen, and he supposed oth-
ers also had seen it.
He presumed the five per cent stock had a
long time to run, and that the six per cent. stock
was payable now or in some short period. He
objected to the limitation of seven years, because
he conceived it was too short a period. He did
not think the debt could be paid in twelve or
fourteen years, not because the State would not
be able to pay it before that time, but because
all the holders of the bonds will not sell or re-
ceive the money for them. But the gentleman
from Cecil asks if we have a surplus in the Trea-
sury what do we mean to do with it? And then
be goes on to express his fears that it will be dis- |
