not devoted to public school purposes. But
I am totally unwilling to part either directly
or indirectly with the State's interest in the
Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company, or
the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company,
either the main stem or the Washington
branch.
The first question which meets us upon the
very threshold of this examination is: What
necessity is there for us to sell any of these
stocks? Where is the occasion of it? The
legislature of 1842, chapter 301, passed an
act of assembly entitled " An act to sell the
State's interest in the internal improvement
companies, and to pay the debts of the
State. The preamble says :
"Whereas, in the present embarrassed con-
dition of the finances of the State, and the
great depression of business of all kinds, the
public interest requires that the debt of the
State should be paid off at the earliest possi-
ble day, that the people may be relieved from
taxation," &c.
And then the act goes to provide that the
treasurer of the western shore should be au-
thorized and directed to advertise and receive
proposals for the sale of the State's interest
in these several works: the Chesapeake and
Ohio Canal, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad,
the Washington Branch Railroad, the Tide
Water Canal and the Susquehanna Railroad ;
and he is "authorized and directed to sell
and dispose of the whole interest of the State
in the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company,
to any person or persons, and for a sum not
less than five millions of dollars, payable in
bonds or certificates of debts of the State,
and bearing interest of not less than five per
cent., and upon delivery of said bonds to
him to be cancelled, be shall execute to the
purchaser or purchasers, a conveyance or
transfer of all the interest of the State in the
said Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company,"
under certain conditions mentioned in this
act of assembly. Whether this act of assem-
bly is still in force or not, I know not; for I
have not taken the trouble to examine the leg-
islation down to the present time. But it shows
one thing, that in 1842 the only thing that
induced the State of Maryland to pass this
act of assembly was to relieve itself from em-
barrassment, and to pay off the public debt,
so as not to tax the people to pay it off.
In what condition do you find the people
of the State of Maryland at present, and why
should we go to work and sell off these stocks
at this time? In the report of the comptroller
for 1863, submitted to the legislature in 1864,
in speaking of the public debt, he says, on
page 11:
"The sinking fund, by the investments
made for its benefit, and the cash standing to
its credit at this date, amounts very nearly to
the sum of six millions of dollars, and is
equal to, or exceeds the actual debt of the
State, without it. The accumulations occur |
faster than the treasurer is able to promptly
I invest, owing to the scarcity of stocks in
tile market; wherefore, a very considerable
loss of interest to this fund is continually
sustained; and this difficulty will increase
rather than diminish with time, and hold the
stocks at such high prices as to cause them
to be purchased at extravagant rates.
"The present large volume of this fund,
if continued, would so increase as to require
the purchase of the whole public debt, long
before it matures.
"Although about $800,000 of this debt
may be redeemed after January 1, 1865, and
other portions of the debt may be redeemed
after 1870, a large part of the debt does not
mature until 1890. And none of it need be
redeemed at maturity, unless it be the pleas-
ure of the State to do so. But the debt that
might be redeemed in 1865, is payable in
London, and at the present and prospective
high rate of exchange it would probably,
within any short period of time, be redeemed
at a ruinous rate to the State, and such as is
not likely to be incurred, when the State is
not engaged in its faith to make the sacrifice.
"From these considerations, it would be
advisable for the interest of the State and
the further security of the treasury in the
event of the repeal of the taxes named, that
$4,000,000 of the fund be cancelled, which
would relieve the treasury of the necessity of
longer providing about $200,000 for the pay-
ment of the interest annually on the part so
cancelled, and make the demands on the
treasury so much the less; whilst the re-
mainder of the fund amounting to about
two millions, would be ample for the in-
creased facilities for the investment of its de-
creased increments, and the probability of
being able to employ them at rates more
beneficial to the treasury to provide for the
extinguishment of the whole debt, as soon as
the debt becomes due, or, as soon at least as
the interest of the State is likely to make
such extinguishment desirable."
So that we find by the report of the comp-
troller of the treasury that we have actually
more money in the treasury now than we
know what to do with. We cannot even invest
the interest upon the sinking fund to the ad-
vantage of the State. The State of Mary-
land is bound to pay in London part of the
public debt, including which first becomes
due. We are asked to sell certain stocks of
the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and of the
Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, to pay a debt
portions of which do not mature until 1890
and for which we are bound to buy up gold
to pay the exchange upon London, to keep
up the credit of the State. Yet it is a noto-
rious fact shown by the statement, shown by
the same comptroller's report in table 5, that
we receive from these works the following
amounts: |
