7

power to make a road from Baltimore to Washington, as an
independent road; and the power to make such road is claim-
ed only under the clause in the charter which authorizes the
President and Directors of the Baltimore and Potomac Road
"to make, or cause to be made, lateral railways in any direc-
tion whatever from the said road," that is, from the Balti-
more and Potomac Road. The mere statement of the case, is
a refutation of the charge; for it may be assumed, that the
author of the memorial will not seriously insist before you,
that the contractors to build the Baltimore and Potomac
Road, although they may be foreigners, would consent to use
their capital in building a road from Baltimore to Washing-
ton, under a charter which gives no power to make a road to
Washington, except as a lateral road from the Baltimore and
Potomac Road. At the hazard of prolixity, the undersigned
will continue this disquisition for one moment longer.

The word "lateral" means "proceeding from the side,"
and a lateral railway, therefore, is one proceeding from the
side of another 'railway—the very term lateral, presupposes
the existence of the thing from which it is lateral; and no
lateral railway can be made to Washington, under this char-
ter, until the Baltimore and Potomac Road, from which it is
to be constructed as a lateral road, has been completed, or is
in the course of completion.

But the charter itself, and the supplemental Act of 1860,
chapter 71, puts this question completely at rest. The time
is expressly limited for the commencement and completion of
the main stem of the road, and the failure to commence and
complete the whole road, within the time limited, per se, for-
feits the charter. The undersigned submits, that no one will
attribute such egregious folly to the contractors, as to sup-
pose that they would spend their money in making the road
from Baltimore to Washington, without the ascertained abili-
ty of completing the whole road, when, by the express pro-
vision of the charter, all the money used in making the en-
tire road from Baltimore to Washington would be absolutely
forfeited, unless the whole road should be built within the
time required. The undersigned submits, that he has de-
monstrated, that by the contract made by the President and
Directors of the Baltimore and Potomac Road, the advantages
intended to be given to every section contemplated by the
charter are amply secured.

The undersigned will, for a moment, invite your attention
to the intimation in the memorial, that those foreign contrac-
tors are of those who have heretofore asked Congress to grant
the privilege of making a road from Washington to Balti-
more; and who now seek to obtain indirectly, what, because
of the protest of your predecessors, they failed to obtain from
Congress. All the other railways in the State have been con-
structed in whole, or in part, with money contributed by the