than one fifth of that of the largest county in the
State and little more than one half of that of
Charles, Montgomery and St. Mary's counties.
The census of 1830 being out of the library, for
that reason he had not been able to refer to it or
further trace the population of those counties,
During all this time, a period of more than forty
years, Allegany county had possessed a represen-
tation in the Legislature far beyond that to which
its population numerically entitled it. Yet, not
a breath of complaint against her being permit-
ted to do so was heard from any portion of the
State. But, as shown by the census of 1850, Al-
legany has now obtained a population of 22,873,
which, however, is much swollen beyond its na-
tural and proper numerical limits by the tempo-
rary adventitious sojourn in it of the immense
number of laborers and their families at work on
the line of the Baltimore and Ohio rail road com-
pany, and which has attained its extraordinary
increase in population in consequence of a debt
incurred by the State, in principal and interest
now amounting to upwards of $11,000,000, in the
construction of the Chesapeake and Ohio canal,
and in consequence of the extension of the Balti-
more and Ohio rail road towards the Ohio river
through Cumberland, on the credit and expendi-
tures of the city and citizens of Baltimore and of
the State of Maryland, for which debt and ex-
penditures, incurred in a great measure to de-
velop and make available the mineral resources
of Allegany county, and for which all other coun-
ties in the State are measurably impoverished
and exhausted, by an onerous system of taxation
imposed, not for their benefit, but to pay the im-
mense liabilities of the State incurred in the con-
struction of a canal now so conducted as to ad-
vance, in the highest degree, exclusively, the
interests of Allegany county and her dear friends
the district cities, and a small portion of the State
immediately bordering on the canal, whose share
in the spoils is too inconsiderable to be worth
mentioning.
And this is not the worst feature in this un-
sightly picture. This Canal as now conducted,
is made an engine by which the Baltimore and
Ohio Rail Road is to be deprived of its usefulness;
and the commerce and prosperity of the city of
Baltimore, and the vital interests of the State,
are to be undermined and sacrificed; and for
what? To confer incalulable benefits on Allegany
county, and her allies. Under such circum-
stances, upon the ordinary springs of human ac-
tion, it might have been supposed that the people
of Allegany, feeling some sense of gratitude to
the counties for past favors, and for past and
present and continuing sacrifices made for them,
would have been content to repose on their ex-
isting and most enviable condition, and would
have looked down upon the other counties with
some feeling of kindness and gratitude for favors
received and being received, for sacrifices patri-
otically made and to be continued in their favor.
lint no such feeling operated in Allegany county,
if they are to be judged as fairly represented by
their delegates in this Convention, Having
glutted its appetite for wealth by being permitted
to consume and appropriate to its own use and |
that of its allies, as far as they were valuable,
the entire interests of the State in the Chesapeake
and Ohio Canal Company, it appears to have
made the most systematic, subtle and determined
assult upon the political rights and influence of
the other countie,, of the State that human inge-
nuity and thirst after power could have devised.
Our admiration cannot but be excited at the
astuteness, tact and reach of intellect displayed
by those delegates in the consummation of their
designs: but our approbation of their course for
liberality and justice to the other counties of the
State cannot, be so readily given. Had human
ingenuity been taxed to its extreme limits to de-
vise a scheme apparently in some respects fair
and just, but in reality confering on Allegany
county the greatest number of delegates, it was
that on which the representation in the House of
Delegates has been by us established; and in this
respect, doing to many other counties of the
State the most manifest injustice. Allegany with
a population of 22,873, and contributing annually
to the payment of the public debt but $9,034 89
has four delegates. Baltimore county, with a
population of 41,589 and paying annually on ac-
count of the public debt, $33,516, and Frederick
county, with a population of 40,941 and paying
annually on account of the public debt, $45,365 84
have each six delegates. Montgomery county,
with a population of 15,860 and payment annu-
ally on account of the public, debt, $13,045 02,
and Charles county with a population of 16,163,
and paying annually on account of the public
debt, $8,280 21, and St, Mary's, with a popula-
tion of 13,681, and paying annually on account
of the public debt, $9,738 72. Talbot, with a
populasion of 13,811, and paying annually on ac-
count of the public debt, $10,966 08, and Queen
Anne's with a population of 14,485, and paying
on acccount of the public debt, $9,737 49, have
each a representation of but two members in the
House of Delegates. These, facts are enumerated
to show that Allegany county, regardless of past
and present favors, will expect the uttermost far-
thing; and even at the sacrifice of her benefactors
and friends, will grasp at, and hold fast to all she
can get. The other counties of Maryland were,
therefore, under no obligation, were upon no
principle of reason, justice, or liberality, called
upon to surrender the rights and interests of the
State in the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Compa-
ny for the especial benefit and aggrandisement
of the county of Allegany and its allies, or to
suffer those rights and interests any longer to be
controlled for their exclusive use and benefit.
He regretted having consumed so much time in
what some might regard as a digression, he would
therefore proceed to state what ought, in his
opinion, to have been the course pursued by the
State's agents, before reducing, as they have
done, the tolls on the Chesapeake and Ohio ca-
nal. They knew the representations made to
the Legislature, that the demand for the coal
was such, owing to its very superior quality,
that sales of it in the District, would be easily
effected to a. very large amount, and that the
lowest toll upon it ever suggested to the Legis- |
