I530

6

sources of the State as the Washington Branch of the Balti-
more and Ohio Railroad, is to be now surrendered, and in the
absence of any legitimate public demand for such an addition
is to be subjected to the injurious rivalry of another road, fos-
tered chiefly by foreign influence, then we must abandon the
expectation of any immediate exemption from taxation.

The amount paid into the State Treasury by the Washing"
ton Branch alone on account of stock dividends and (for 1/4 of
the gross revenue from passengers between Baltimore and
Washington) will be found to have amounted in the last five
years, say from 31st December, 1861, to 31st December, 1866,
to $1,531,763.46, or upwards of three hundred thousand dol-
lars per annum; this is an interest which at such a time as
this, or at any time, is too important to be surrendered or
even put in jeopardy—the more especially when it would enuer
chiefly to the advantage of such interests and influences as
would be likely to control the management of another Wash-
ington road.

It was under such considerations as these, and with such
an appreciation of the value of the State's interest in this
road, that when the framers of our present Constitution vested
in certain State officers a discretionary authority to dispose of ,
the State's interests in her works of internal improvement,
they expressly excepted from that authority the branch
road to Washington; and again, when in January, 1865,
efforts, as before, mentioned, were being made at Washington
to procure a Charter for a new road, a joint resolution passed
unanimously both branches of the General Assembly, earnest-
ly protesting against the proposed project; and when at their
succeeding session, a similar application was still pending in
Congress, the Senate and House of Delegates renewed that
protest and appointed a joint committee of nine members to
visit Washington and urge in person that remonstrance.

Tour memorialists now only ask that your Honorable Body
will adhere to the same policy, and that you will not suffer
the same object, still so adverse to the interests of the State to
be accomplished by the indirect means now about to be em-
ployed.

They would not be understood as opposing in any manner
the interests or objects of the Baltimore and Potomac Com-
pany as involved in any fair and legitimate purpose of its
Charter; but they do insist that the authority granted by that
Charter to construct branch or lateral roads was never inten-
ded to authorize the construction of a road to Washington
city.

If such had been the case, the Charter, instead of receiving
as it did the unanimous support of the General Aseembly,