who goes into the market to buy an interest
in that work; whoever it may be, it will be
in their interest, because they can pay more
for that canal than any other corporation in
existence, or any corporation which can be
formed. ..They are the most interested in its
purchase. They are able to give a larger
amount of money for the property, if it is ex-
posed to sale, because they are interested in
the control of that work.
There is no way in which you can prevent
their controlling it, if you expose it in any
manner to sale, public or private Their
money will buy it. My idea, however, is
that they would not probably be willing to
give so large an amount of money for the
Chesapeake and Ohio Canal as they would
be required to give under the article as pre-
sented by the gentleman from Baltimore
county. My idea is that they may be checked
in that manner. If they are nut checked in
that manner there is no other way to check
them, but to provide in the constitution that
the public works of the State shall not be
sold
My opposition is to the gentleman's desire
that they should be sold without any repaid
to the price. Of course the State would be
in a very bad position, receiving nothing
whatever for the works, and being injured
by this monopoly. The canal cannot be a
benefit to the State in the way of revenue;
and never has been, probably. I indorse the
gentleman's views in that respect. It has
been a non-paying political concern. Never-
theless it has been a vast benefit to the State
indirectly; not as a working institution, but
as opening a market for her productions, and
aiding in the development of the great min-
eral resources of the State of Maryland. That
has been a benefit to the State.
But the gentleman proposes that they shall
beexposed to public sale without any restric-
tion as to the price. They would go into the
market, and the State would receive no ben-
efit from the sale, because they would bring
comparatively nothing in the market; and
then the State would be injured in this way,
that it would place in the hands of a mo-
nopoly the avenue to the market of a large
portion of the State, and to the mines through
which the wealth of that portion of the State
has been greatly enhanced.
Mr. NEGLEY. The gentleman argues this
question as if it were utterly impossible fur us
to bind up the parchaser of this work so as
to prohibit him or them from doing what be
seeks to avoid. In the first place, the legis-
lature of Maryland has control over all its
corporations; and when they are so managed
by the owners of those corporations as to be
detrimental to the interests of the people of
the State, the legislature have an unalienable
and a reserved right retained in every cor-
poration to supervise that corporation, to
bring it into their halls, and to abolish it, or |
to amend it in such a way as to compel the
owners of the stock of that corporation to
carry out the public wishes and the public
interest.
Mr. MILLER. The charter of the Baltimore
and Ohio Railroad Company contains no
provision allowing the legislature to repeal
it; and any act of the legislature attempting
to repeal or modify that charier would be
unconstitutional and void.
Mr. NEGLEY. That may be the case with
the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company ;
but it is not the case with the Chesapeake
and Ohio Canal Company; and it was a great
oversight of the legislature in the other case.
It is contrary to the general reserved power
that the legislature have always been careful
to retain with regard to all corporations.
Mr. MILLER. It was not until the present
constitution of the State, of 1851, was adopted,
providing that every charter thereafter grant-
ed should be within the control of the legisla-
ture to modify or repeal, that such a practice
ever prevailed in Maryland.
Mr. NEGLEY. The control over it can be
obtained by the proposition which I here
submit: The board for the sale of it will
certainly require a bond from the purchaser
to carry out in good faith the terms that they
shall not so use the Chesapeake and Ohio
Canal as to be detrimental to the public inte-
rest. If they do they can be taken into court,
or stopped by injunction, and the question
may be inquired into; and they can be forced
to comply with the article. This, I take it
for granted, will be sufficient to attain that
end. Otherwise, if the views of the gentle-
man from Cecil (Mr. Pugh,) are to govern us,
we shall never pet rid of that canal at all.
There is nobody, be says, that ever will give
dollar for dollar for its stock; and therefore,
when he inserts that in the power to sell, he
practically—
Mr. PUGH. I say that nobody ever will
unless they are obliged to. Being obliged
by their great interest, I think the Baltimore
and Ohio Railroad Company would. No
other party in the world would.
Mr. NEGLEY. That does not meet the ob-
ject. Suppose the Baltimore and Ohio Rail-
road Company should give dollar for dollar,
you would be willing to sell, and they would
have the undoubted, right to shut it up.
Mr. PUGH. Certainly.
Mr. NEGLEY. Then that defeats the object
of preventing them from shutting it up.
Mr. PUGH. I said there was no other way
of stopping them, if we give the power to the
legislature to fell at all.
Mr. NEGLEY. Then he will insert that in
the power to sell which will prevent a sale,
and thereby compel the State lo hold on to
this public work and submit to its gross mis-
management for all time to come. On the
other hand, if they should sell, they have the
power to shut it up and damage the public |
