to express his opinion as to the principles of the
rate which ought to be adopted, he would say
they ought to be such as to leave or secure to the
city of Baltimore, for the most part that species
of descending trade, which it enjoyed before the
completion of the canal, and which it had just
reason to expect from the completion of the rail-
road to the Ohio river, and that species of ascen-
ding transportation which it possessed before the
canal was finished.
That it should secure to the city of Baltimore
by transportation on the Rail Road, as much
coal (say some 300,000 tons,) as would be suffi-
cient to supply all vessels desiring it, a return
cargo; and not induce those vessels to go to the
District to procure a return cargo of coal. If
that be not done, the commerce of Baltimore will
be most injuriously diminished; and the outward
cargo will no longer be brought to the city of
Baltimore for sale, but be carried to the District
cities where the return cargoes are to be obtain-
ed, and thence sent up the Canal to the immeasu-
rable regions of the West.
What the State might gain by the tolls on such
transportation, would be equivalent for the loss
which the State would sustain by the destruction
or material diminution of the trade or commerce
of the city of Baltimore. And, as connected
with this subject, we ought to remember that
commercial capitalists are among the most astute,
calculating and farsighted classes of the commu-
nity. That they will locate their capital where
the fewest and least onerous burdens and restric-
tions are imposed upon it, and where it will yield
the greatest nett profits. Let articles of com-
merce, by the reduction of tolls on the Canal or
by any other cause, become purchasable .in large
and continued quantities at the cities of the Dis-
trict, on lower terms than at the city of Balti-
more, as sure as that water will find its level,
commercial capital instead of flowing into the
city of Baltimore, will be diverted to the cities
of the District.
Nay, the very capital, now commercially em-
ployed in Baltimore, will seek a more profitable
location in the District of Columbia. It is a fact,
within the knowledge of most of us, that large
amounts of Baltimore capital are constantly em-
ployed in the city of New York; and that some
of the most wealthy and successful merchents in
New York, are amongst those who have removed
from the city of Baltimore. And it should con-
stantly be borne in mind that merchants and
capitalists in Baltimore labor under heavy and
most disadvantageous taxes and burdens, to
which such persons are not subject in other com-
mercial cities in the Union; and from which the
District cities are wholly exempt. As for ex-
ample, your stamp tax, auction duties. State tax,
tax on commercial capital, tonnage duty for
deepening and widening the harbour, &c., most
of which it would be to the manifest interest of
the State, to remove as soon as its exigencies
will permit. They indirectly operate as a pre- |
mium to merchants and capitalists not to remove
to the city of Baltimore.
By the commissioners adopting these princi-
ples in the liquidation of the tolls or. the canal,
and costs of transportation on the railroad, all
the substantial interests of the State will be best
provided for. The income of the State will be
adequately guarded and protected, by securing
to the canal the transportation of iron, lumber,
the great bulk of the coal, &c.
It has been said that the Eastern Shore has
been, by this Convention, sufficiently oppressed
and deprived of its rights heretofore enjoyed;
and that it is now sought to deprive it of the
right heretofore possessed, of having two of the
State's agents located on the Eastern Shore,—
There is no foundation for such a suggestion.
As the law now stands the Eastern Shore has
no right to the location of any State's agent
within its limits. Its past enjoyment has been
the result of mere courtesy (not of right,) in the
appointing power. By the proposed constitu-
tional enactment there is secured to the Eastern
Shore one of the Commissioners, whose compen-
sation he trusted would be liberal and ample, and
in proportion to the immense importance of the
powers and duties assigned to the Commissioners.
The remark, that this all important measure to
the State ought not to adopted because it would
deprive two of the citizens of the Eastern Shore
of offices the salary to each of which is $100 per
annum, made to influence the votes of that shore
on such a momentous question as that now about
to be passed upon, is an insult to every member
of this Convention who has a drop of Eastern
Shore blood in his veins. If such a remark
could have the slightest influence on the vote of
any member from that side of the Chesapeake,
he deserves not, sir, the name of Eastern Shore-
rean.
He sincerely hoped his Whig friends in the
Convention would divest themselves of all party
prejudices or feelings on the question on which
they were about to cast their votes; he earnestly
entreated them to do so. Should they however
fail to do so, he was seriously apprehensive lest
the people of Maryland might regard it as very
strong evidence of the continuance of some slight
remains of that odious political fanaticism which
was said to have prevailed during the war of
1812 with certain (then called) Blue Light Fed-
eralists, but which he had hoped had long since
been buried too deep ever to rise again.
[Certain amendments offered by Mr. D, will
be found in the proceedings of the following
day.]
Mr. SMITH said, the gentleman from Anne
Arundel, (Mr. Dorsey,) in the commencement of
his speech had endeavored to prove the citizens
of Allegany were generally very astute and sa-
gacious in protecting their own interests, and es-
pecially and particularly were the delegates so in
the Convention, from that county. He had at-
tempted to prove their general astuteness by
showing that Allegany was willing, when first |
