XXXII REPORT OF THE

of the recent decisions in the Supreme Court of the
United States, it can hardly be anticipated that the Court of
Appeals, will at this day, determine that all the vast property
of that corporation now in its possession, or hereafter to be
acquired, is beyond the taxing power of the State.

But whatever may be the decision in the case now pending,
the State has an unquestionable source of revenue in thre con-
tract of the company, to pay one fifth its receipts from passen-
gers on the Washington Branch Road, to the State Treasury.
This source of revenue will become doubly valuable, in the
event of the Court deciding contrary to anticipation, that the
sovereign power of the State has been parted with for ever, so
far as the property of that company is concerned. In such
event it will not be in the power of the Legislature, without
doing violence to the rights of the people, to concede any
relaxation of the terms of that contract, unless the obliga-
tion by the company to pay such reasonable taxes as are im-
posed upon similar companies by the laws, is first incorporated
in their charter, and accepted by the company.

Desirable as it may be, in view of the State having chartered
a rival company without requiring a corresponding payment
of part of its profits, that this contract should be reformed or
annulled, yet no Legislature could consistently consider such
a proposition, until the rights ef the State and the sovereignty
of the State, are otherwise vindicated. It is clearly the duty
of the General Assembly, therefore, to keep inviolate the
present power of the State over the company, unless the
company shall agree to give up the claim to immunity from
taxation, claimed under the unfortunate legislation of 1826.
I cannot too forcibly impress upon tho Legislature, the great
danger of considering for a moment, any proposition which
might involve irretrievable mischief to the welfare of the
State in some future time. Although the tax on gross receipts
is of necessity small at this day, from the fact that the tax must
be equal upon all the roads, and a larger rate might be oppres-
sive, and ruinous to some of the smaller companies, yet rea-
sonable as the tax is, if it is all that the State finds it proper
to impose, the payment of it, is a fulfilment of the obligation
of the company to contribute to the support of the government