personal attachments, and the arguments and
entreaties of friends in whom they have been ac-
customed to repose confidence, and with whom
acted in concert in any enterprize or common
design.
It had been said by his friend from Montgom-
ery that he (Mr. Dorsey,) had an interest op-
posed to the course pursued by the State's agents
in regard to the Canal Company. He freely ad-
mitted it, as well from property owned by him
in the city of Baltimore, as in the place of his
residence. Such his interest had been by him
stated to the Convention at an early period of its
session. He therefore never expected or hoped
that his opinions or course of conduct on the sub-
ject under consideration, should have the slightest
influence upon the mind of any body; all he de-
sired was that the members of this body should
listen to his statement of facts, which were ad-
mitted or were incontrovertible. He wished it
to be understood that he took no exception to the
appointments which had been made of the per-
sons now composing the Board of Directors, at
any election anterior to the month of June, in
1850. Until that period the interest of the State
of Maryland, and of every part of it, including
the city of Baltimore and the district cities was
that the Canal should be completed with all rea-
sonable economy, in the best possible manner,
and in the shortest practicable time. A better
Board of Directors could not then have been se-
lected to promote the interest of every part of
Maryland, including Allegany county and the
District of Columbia. But when the Canal was
finished, there arose the diversity of interests and
objects in the measures which the Board of Di-
rectors might deem it expedient. Allegany
county and the District cities were deeply interested
in reducing the tolls, both on the ascending
and descending transportation; whilst the Balti-
more and Ohio Rail Road, and the city of Balti-
more and all residue of Maryland not in the vicinity
of the Canal or District cities, were interested in
fixing the tolls at the highest rate that could be
adopted without materially diminishing the the
quantity of transportation. In representing the
State's interest, therefore, in the appointment of
directors, it was the duty of the State's agents at
the last June election, to have filled the board with
persons whose views and interests were in har-
mony with those of the great mass of the people
of the State; and in not doing so, they have so
far abused or departed from their fiduciary char-
acter as to render our suffering them to continue
longer in office (with our knowledge upon the
subject) a gross violation of public duty. And
it is manifest from the manner in which the
State's agents have sought lo defend themselves,
that, if reappointed, they would continue in office
the same Board of Directors from time to time
as long as the interests and powers of the State be
permitted to remain in their hands. For this
reason, their removal from office is our impera-
tive duty; if for such removal no other reason
could be assigned than that already stated.
But of the necessity for a change in the State's
Agents, for the purpose of protecting the inter- |
ests of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Compa-
ny, the city of Baltimore, and the State of Mary-
land, there is the most conclusion and unanswer-
able proof in the proceedings of the Canal Com-
pany within the last nine months, and the facts
which have been developed by the transportation
of coal on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad,
What was formerly mere speculation or proba-
bility, has now become too apparent to admit of
adoubt, and that is; that the President and Di-
rectors of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Com-
pany under the sanction of the State's Agents,
have shown by acts that can produce no other
result, if not clearly evincive of such a design, so
to reduce the tolls on the canal, as not only to
monopolize the transportation of coal, and banish
it from the railroad, to the great injury of the
city of Baltimore, and the total sacrifice of the
rights and interests of the State of Maryland.
And this, I think, is satisfactorily established by
reference to a few undeniable facts. All analya-
ises and tests as to the Allegany coal, which have
been made, both in the United States and Europe,
demonstrated that it was equal, if not superior in
value, to that found in any other known portion
of the civilized world. And they have been fully
confirmed by its use, when transported to market
on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, some time
previous to the completion of the canal; and the
notorious fact that it is preferred to any other
coal for generating steam, and the great and
almost illimitable source of its consumption, and
bears as high if not higher prices. It is an un-
doubted fact, that when the Legislature was in-
duced to incur its immense responsibility on ac-
count of the canal, it was universally asserted
and verified by coal statistics and fair calculations,
which have never been falsified by subsequent
events or otherwise, that Allegany coal trans-
ported on the canal for market to the District of
Columbia, would readily bear a toll of at least
one dollar per ton. And nothing has since oc-
curred to his, [Mr. D's.] knowledge, to cast a
doubt upon the truth of this assertion; certainly
nothing of the kind has been presented in the dis-
cusion before us, on this subject; and if it could
have been, we certainly should have had it, as my
friend from Montgomery, [a State's Agent,] to
his high commendation be it said, has acquired,
from almost every part of the United States, a
mass of statistical information, upon the subject
that must have been decisive of the question.
From this toll the State, in my humble opinion,
might well have expected to receive in twelve
months from this time, from twenty to thirty thou-
sand dollars, and in one year thereafter double
that amount, but for the extraordinary, and I
must say injudicious conduct of the State's Agents
in uniling with the directors of the Canal Com-
pany in reducing the tolls upon the canal in the
mode in which they have been reduced. Some
short time, it is said, about two mouths before the
completion of the canal in November, 1850, and
in anticipation of that event, the board of direc-
tors with the concurrence of our State's agents,
put down the tolls from one dollar to seventy-five
cents. Without giving time to test the effects of |
