bonds, which fall due in 1865. From all that
I can learn, the canal has not the means of
paying; and if the canal does not pay the
probability in that that debt will be a charge
upon the State treasury.
Those bonds are sterling bonds, and must
be paid in sterling exhange. Now what will
be the result? At the present rate of ex-
change it will cost the State to pay those
bonds something like $3,000,000, and then
the State wi!l have to come back under her
mortgage upon the canal. And the canal will
be forced to sell out in order to satisfy this
demand, or this State will have this amount
of debt accumulated
Mr. STIRLING. Has not nearly all that
stock been absorbed in the sinking fund ?
Mr, NEGLEY. No, sir.
Mr. STIRLING. What amount has been ?
Mr. NEGLEY. $300,000.
Mr, STIRLING, I proposed to reserve that
canal from sale, because the sale of the State's
interest in the Baltimore and Ohio railroad
company would pay that debt. Besides that,
the Tide Water canal got a bill passed
through the legislature last winter by which
they were enabled to renew that debt, and
consequently it will not be due next year.—
But I am in favor of selling the State's inter-
est in the railroad and paying off that debt,
whether it can be renewed or not.
Mr. CLARKE. These bonds can now be sold
to extinguish this debt. In other words the
section provides that the amount fur which
the Stated interest shall be sold shall be pay-
able in her own bonds. But if the State does
not sell but holds on to her interest in this
canal, then she must pay these bonds in ster-
ling exchange, which will cost the State a
large amount of money. If you make this
sale, you realize at once so much with which
to extinguish the public debt. Therefore I
am unwilling to except this canal
Mr. STIRLING, There is a manifest distinc-
tion created by this section between the rail-
road company and the canal. It provides
that you shall exchange the interest in the
railroad for an equal amount of State bonus;
that is, dollar for dollar. But in regard to
the canal it merely provides that the interest
in that shall be sold in such a manner that
the proceeds can be invested in the State debt,
Mr, CLARKE. There is no sale for money ;
the party who buys pays in State bonds.
Mr. STIRLING That makes no difference.—
When you say that the exchange shall be made
for an amount of bonds equal to the proceeds
of the sale, it amounts simply to this: that if
you sell $10,000,000 worth of property for
$1,000,000 you get only $1,000,000 of the
State debt.
Mr. CLARKE. If the bond-holders know
that' this money is going to be paid on the
first of January, will not the bonds go up to
the value of the debt, and will that not really
amount to an exchange? |
Mr, STIRLING. There are no bonds due im-
mediately.
Mr. CLARKE. The statement of the treas-
urer is that the bonds are due in 1865,
Mr. STIRLING. That is of the Tide Water
canal company.
Mr. CLARKE. That is the company to which
I am alluding. The gentlemen from Balti-
more city (Mr. Stirling) moves to exempt lhe
Susquehanna and Tide Water canal company
from sale. I object to that for the reason I
have given.
Mr. STIRLING. I understand now what the
gentleman means, I do not understand how
the value of the bonds of the State is to be
increased by the fact that this debt is to be paid
off. If you sell the productive interests of the
State, you will get enough to pay it off. It
is only a million of dollars. I believe myself
that it might be as well financially to sell
the Tide Water Canal. But there is no ne-
cessity for selling it, while it involves the
same question of policy as the sale of-the
other canal. It involves such considerations
as renders it not a fit subject for us to take
up now.
Now where it is a mere question of money,
just so much stock worth so much money,
then we can easily act upon it. But where
it involves the interests of the people of the
counties through which it runs, and is not a
mere question of finance, then where is the
policy of acting upon it in the constitution?
A financial officer has no mure or better judg-
ment about a question affecting the interests
of the people, than has anybody else. He
can understand the financial interests of the
case, but he cannot understand the general
interests affecting the people. I do not know
so much about the Tide Water Canal; the
gentleman can move to strike it out, if he
chooses. I put it in because it stood upon
the same footing with the others.
Mr. NEGLEY. This amendment of the gen-
tleman from Baltimore city (Mr. Stirling,) is
too broad for the very reason assigned by the
gentleman from Prince George's (Mr. Clarke.)
There are a million of dollars of these bonds
due on the first of January next, and the
State of Maryland is bound to pay them, or
renew them at an immense sacrifice. She
has a mortgage on the Tide Water Canal.
But if the Tide Water Canal knows that the
State of Maryland ia about to sell these bonds
and go back on the mortgage, it will make
arrangements to take up these bonds, without
the State of Maryland losing one cent. Other-
wise you would have to take about $3,000,000
and go to London and liquidate these bonds,
then institute a suit against the Tide Water
Canal to recover the amount of the State's
interest. I understand that the State's inter-
est in .the Tide Water Canal can be sold for
four millions of dollars. The stockholders of
that canal will sav—"We will nut stand this
sacrifice; we will make arrangements to buy |
