MEMORIAL.

To the Honorable the Senate

and House of Delegates of Maryland:

The undersigned has read with respectful attention the me-
morial heretofore presented to your Honorable Bodies, by the
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, asking a modifica-
tion of the charter of the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad
Company, taking from that company the power conferred by
its charter of making a lateral road to the District of Co-
lumbia; and now proposes to reply to so much of that memo-
rial as he may deem necessary, to present the subject fairly
to your consideration. He is fullly impressed with the ine-
quality of the. contest. On the one side you have the power,
influence, patronage and money of the Baltimore and Ohio
Railroad Company, and still more, the great ability and well
deserved popularity of its President. On the other you have
the humble individual who signs this paper as the President
of a road which, like its more powerful rival, is the creature
of the Legislature, but which has no power, no money, no
patronage to aid in bringing to your consideration its title to
your protection against the overshadowing power and, as the
undersigned must be permitted to say with all respect, the
overweening assumption of superior rights and privileges by
the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company. Both of these
companies are the mere creatures of the Legislature. The
one was incorporated and brought into existence by the Act
of 1826, chapter 123, and has, by the large pecuniary aid
extended to it by the State in its earlier history, achieved a
great success. The other road was chartered in 1853, and it
is true, as stated in the memorial under consideration, that,
until recently, no capitalists "have been willing to contract
for its completion;" but this may be attributed to to the gi-
gantic civil war which has deluged the land with blood, and
has, by its consequent destruction of labor, reduced to penury
a people as noble as any within the limits of your State. It
is also true, as stated in the memorial, that the chartered
privilege of making a lateral branch of the road to the Na-
tional Capital, is the great inducement which has enabled