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first object was to supply the missing link in the great chain
of railroad connection between Baltimore and the Southern
extremities of the Union.

Your own great city is made, by express provision of the
charter, the eastern terminus of this road, and it can require
no commentary from any one to illustrate the transcendant
importance of this direct connection with the South to the
commercial prosperity of Baltimore. Now the only connec-
tion by railroad with the South is through the City of Wash-
ington, by Virginia roads exclusively, and not designed to be
used in promoting Maryland interests. By the Baltimore &
Potomac Road, Baltimore is placed nearer Richmond by some
sixty miles in distance, and five hours in time, than by any
existing voute, and at the same time will be placed in direct
railway connection with the Southern roads. Whilst Phila-
delphia is strainiug every nerve to attract Southern trade and
travel by the air-line road running through Delaware and
through Somerset county, to a point on the Chesapeake in
near proximity to Norfolk, the Legislature of Maryland is
asked to annul a charter which will furnish the only chance
of a direct, railway connection with that section to which Bal-
timore must look for her future prosperity. And you are
asked to commit this act of hostility to the interest of the
State at the instance of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Com-
pany, which is now constructing the Metropolitan Railroad
to carry travel and trade to the City of Washington, because
(as alleged) it will lessen the revenue of the State. The un-
dersigned has shown that the revenue to be preserved will
not probably exceed fifty thousand dollars after the Metropol-
itan Road is made. But the undersigned submits, that this
hostile demonstration is anything but creditable from the
source from which it comes. That road pays no tax, and can-
not be made to pay any under its charter, so that the only
charge on it to meet the wants of the State is this per capita
tax on the Washington Branch of their road; whilst the
four millions to be expended by the foreign contractors of the
Baltimore and Potomac Road, in the construction and equip-
ment of that road, will be so much added to the taxable pro-
perty of the State; and the taxable valuejof the property in
the vicinity of the road will be quadrupled in value. The
undersigned submits, that if the prosperity of the people in
the sections of the State through which this road is to pass,
is to be thrown out of view—if the vast commercial advan-
tages to Baltimore, resulting from this direct connection with
the Southern States are to be disregarded—if you should
ignore the fact, that these benefits are to flow from foreign
capital, with no other alleged loss to the State than the dimin-
ution of receipts from passengers on the Washington road—
if, in a word, you look to the question whether this road is to