1868.] OF THE SENATE. 281

work. This link completed, and the trade over two hundred
and ninety-eight and a half miles of rail road, ramified by
laterals into a rich and productive country from the main
trunk of the Delaware road, will find its natural mart and
be poured into the lap of our emporium city. Baltimore
must speedily determine whether this trade is worth the cost
of this link of a few miles, or when too late lament her
supineness, and see it engrossed by the capital and energy of
her rival.

The amount necessary to meet the demands on the Treas-
ury, to which we have recurred, will be, as we have stated,
$1,151,000, which can be easiest and most judiciously pro-
vided by a repeal of the Bounty Act of 1867, and a re-enact-
ment of the Defence Loan Law of 1865, which it was intended
to repeal. This Act of 1867 was passed at a time when the
legislative mind was engrossed with other and most exciting
subjects, and is of more than doubtful constitutionality.
And the demands of the Constitution, as well as the exigencies
of the State, require its repeal. The purport of the Bounty
Acts, as they are called, of 1864 and 1865, was to create a
fund which should he applied to the payment of bounties to
soldiers, who volunteered or were drafted under the call of
the President of the United States, in his proclamation of the
18th day of October, 1863, and were enlisted prior to the 1st
day of April, 1864, as a part of the quota of this State in
the military service of the United States, or under the call
made by him on the 19th day of December, 1864. The Act
of 1865 extended the bounty, thus provided, to those who
should be mustered into the service of the United States un-
der all similar subsequent calls. It will thus appear that these
Acts made no provision for those who, either as volunteers or
drafted men, entered the service of the United States to meet
the demands on the State of Maryland between the dates of
the 1st of April and the 19th day of December, 1864. For
those who were mustered into service during this interval of
time, the Legislature, in its too high spirit of liberality,
made provision by the Act of 1867, chapter 372. Many of
the parties, entitled under this last named Act, presented
their claims to the Comptroller, but owing to the depleted
condition of the Treasury, none of them were paid; and it
now becomes a subject of consideration for this Legislature
to determine whether the interests of the State and a proper
regard for the economy of her resources, do not require the
repeal of this Act. It was entirely a gratuity on the part
of the State ; she had made no pledge, and had incurred no
liability, to the parties who had entered the military service
of the Federal Government during this period of time. And
although it might be well to reward such services from the
abundance of an overflowing Treasury, it becomes those act-
19