Boston still further north at from $5. to 5.50,
per ton.
Now, he took it for granted that any man of
business—any practical man at all, who com-
menced any new work—any new business
whatever, if he knew he was to encounter com-
petition, must attract business by putting his
goods, or whatever it might be at a low price.
He [Mr. D.] was not a merchant, only a plain far-
mer, but he knew that was the consideration
which controlled merchants. If a merchant
sets up business, and finds Competition, he puts
his articles down to the lowest price; and that
was precisely the consideration which Mr.
Swann says, governed the Baltimore and Ohio
Rail Road company, and which he knew gov-
erned the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal company,
and the object of reducing their prices was to
enable them to compete with their rivals.
So much for the reduction of freight and tolls
upon the public works, which had been the sub-
ject out of this body, of exciting such a degree of
suspicion and jealousy one with the other. It
was the necessity of the case that caused it. Sev-
eral weeks ago he received a letter from a very
intelligent merchant of the City of New York,
but originally from the State of Maryland, in
which he asked him the question, what was the
prospect of introducing Cumberland coal into
their markets? That gentleman spoke of the
advantages of that coal, and stated that it was
preferred for the use of steamers and manufac-
turers, but said that they would have to intro-
duce it at very low rates to compete with En-
glish and Welch coals in New York. English
coal was about six dollars per ton; and Pictou
coal was about the same price. They would
introduce the coal upon such terms as would
meet this rivalry, or their works would be un-
productive. He thought this a consideration
which should control both companies.
Before he proceeded any further, he thought
it due to himself—occupying a position between
all parties; that he should do justice to a gentle-
man who was absent, and not here to defend
himself, who had been grossly wronged by re-
marks made by the gentleman from Carroll
county, [Mr. Brown.] He alluded to Mr. Fisk,
chief engineer of the Chesapeake and Ohio Ca-
nal company. Mr. FISK entered the Chesapeake
and Ohio Canal company a mere boy,
and as a rodman. By his talent, integrity.
and fidelity to his duty, he had risen, step by
step, into the position he now occupied. In-
deed, he had heard gentleman beyond the limits
of the State say that they considered him at the
head of canal engineers in the United States.
Mr. BROWN stated, that he paid distinctly that
he did not wish to say any thing calculated to
injure Mr. Fisk; but it was a matter of history,
of public record, that that gentlemen most cer-
tainly made his estimates a great deal too low,
and upon those estimates the Legislature of the
State got into debt.
Mr. DAVIS ventured to take issue with the
gentleman upon the point of history. The first |
appropriation of any amount—(two millions of
dollars)—to the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal
Company, was made in 1834, at which time Mr.
Fisk was a mere boy.
Mr. BROWN. Begin in 1835,
Mr. DAVIS said, that the law of 1835 was pass-
ed before Mr. Fisk had advanced to the position
which he now occupied, and he hoped the gentle-
man from Carroll would receive this as a correc-
tion, He had not the documents here, but he
had examined the estimates carefully, and he
had yet to see that Mr. Fisk had been in error.
Mr. BROWN. Will the gentleman inform me
who was the engineer in 1835—who made the
estimates ?
Mr. DAVIS replied that Mr. Gwyn was Mr,
Fisk's predecessor. He knew, however, that in
1837, he found the name of Mr. Fisk as an as-
sistant or resident engineer; having charge of a
section of work, under the control of the Chief
Engineer. This, he thought was a sufficient
answer to the gentleman. He had not the docu-
ments here, because he did not expect to have had
to meet this question; but he desired to do justice
Mr. Fisk, who he knew had been charged with
this thing before. He was satisfied, that any
gentleman, after a careful examination of the
facts, would come to the conclusion that Mr.
Fisk had not erred, and that he had brought his .
work out, nearly within the estimates made.
There was this error, an error which every
fair-minded man would receive as one which
should be allowed to be corrected. It was known
that in 1836, '37, during the progress of the Chesa-
peake and Ohio Canal, estimates were made upon
a certain amount of wages to hands, and upon a
certain price for provisions. These were impor-
tant elements in all estimates of work to be done.
It was very well known it was a matter of his-
tory, that before the next twelve months rolled
round, the competition and excitement for in-
ternal improvements, produced such a competi-
tion for hands that the prices went up from thirty-
three and a third to fifty per cent,, and that pro-
visions increased in a corresponding degree.
Would not every fair-minded gentleman allow an
error to be corrected under such circumstances as
these, it was satisfactory to his mind that there
had been no error of calculation on the part of
Mr. Fisk, other than what could be satisfactorily
accounted for.
Now, to the proposition under consideration,
to delegate this power to agents, he objected
to it, but not because the humble individual who
stood before them might be turned out of the
place he held by it, and some one else put in his
place. He was always ready to be turned out of
;in office when others could be found more willing
and capable of performing its duties than him-
self. He objected to it upon principle, and be-
cause he believed the whole theory to be wrong.
He thought it was a theory which history would
prove had been destructive. He was opposed to
boards of directors, to boards of control, and to
every thing of that kind, and he would inform
gentlemen who had not examined the subject,
that it was a little more difficult than they im- |
