|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1876,] OF THE HOUSE OF DELEGATES. 1583
Company, We find no evidence showing, or tending to show,
that the assessment was ever made by the Board of Directors of
the Southern Maryland Railroad Company, or proof thereof
filed with the Comptroller or Treasurer of the State. Indeed,
as the Act of 1868, chap. 150, Sec. 6, requires the Directors
of said Company to be stockholders thereof, and it appears
from the testimony of Samuel S. Smoot, that he is the only
stockholder of said Company, other than the State of Mary-
land, we do not see how there could be any Board of Direc-
tors of said Company, Be that as it may, no proof of any
such assessment could be found after diligent search.
On the 19th of December, 1873, the Southern Maryland
Railroad Company borrowed a certain sum of money from
Robert T. Baldwin, of Baltimore city, and assigned to him
the claim of the Company for the remainder of the State's
subscription of $163,000, said remainder being $81,500, al-
though it had not yet obtained any recommendation from the
County Commissioners, On the 24th day of December, 1874,
the County Commissioners of St. Mary's county, at Leonard-
town, in said county, passed a resolution recommending the
State Treasurer to pay $81,500 to the Southern Maryland
Railroad Company, in conformity to the provisions of said
Act. On the same day, at Annapolis, before the resolution
could by any possibility have reached there without any as-
sessment by the Board of Directors of the Company, and this
time without even an affidavit from Smoot, the Comptroller
issued his warrant to said Baldwin, assignee, for the sum of
$30,500, and on the 20th day of January following, another
warrant to Alexander Brown & Sons, assignees of said Bald-
win, for the sum of $51,000.
There is no evidence whatever that the provisions of the
Acts of 1868, chaps. 454 and 150, had been complied with
before or since the issuing of these warrants.
The undersigned would further report that from the ad-
missions of Samuel S. Smoot and Hamilton G. Fant, made
in their testimony taken before the Committee, it appears
that the statement in tho joint affidavit of February 6, 1873,
to the effect that $500,000 in money was paid to the Treas-
urer of the Southern Maryland Railroad Company by other
subscribers, in the State of Maryland, is untrue. It appears
from their testimony that they claim that the two per cen-
tum (the sum of $20,000) was paid in at the time of the ori-
ginal subscription made in 1868, four years before they be-
came owners of stock in the Company, and no evidence is be-
fore the Committee to show that even this two per cent, was
paid. The balance of "the $500,000 in money," according
to their testimony, consisted of a bogus certificate of deposit
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
