1876.] OF THE SENATE. 461

ing in the harbor of Baltimore, it has been shown that its
capacity and its revenues will be enhanced four fold.

The design of your memorialist in this paper, has been to
present, the outlines of a plan, by which the Chesapeake and
Ohio Canal may be made the instrument of a vast prosperity
to the State of Maryland, and especially to the City of Balti-
more. It will manifestly make the harbor of Baltimore the
largest and cheapest depot of bituminous coal in America.—
Cheap and abundant supply of the best coal for steam pur-
poses, will draw the ocean steamers with their emigrant
passengers and their foreign imports. The rich Western
tates will find it cheaper to come to Baltimore for their sup-
plies, over the shorter and quicker railroad routes of that
city; and even Atlantic cities will find it to their interest to
import their merchandize through the port of Baltimore.—
The coal Companies at the head of the canal, will find the
demand (or their coal quadrupled, and the State itself will
derive from increased assessments on property, a four fold
equivalent for the loss of her unproductive debt on the canal.

Your memorialist, therefore, has not here presented idle
speculations, his views are based upon facts of a long experi-
ence. The actual present revenue of the canal is a fact; the
consumption of Cumberland coal for 1874, to the extent of
2,410,895 tons is an actual fact; the supply of coal in the Al-
leganies is inexhaustible, and the demand, when its trans-
portation is thus cheapened and facilitated, must crowd ton-
nage on the canal to its utmost capacity. These are all facts
and deductions that may not be reasonably contested.

With such elements of credit in hand, the Construction As-
sociation could not fail to raise the $8,500,000, to complete
the work. The powerful capitalists who own the roal fields
would see to it that this money is advanced on tl ese canal
bonds. The City of Baltimore would lend her credit to attain
such beneficent results.

The Construction Company, possessed of the exclusive use
of the "new method" of building and improving canals,
could undertake the entire work and do it more perfectly at a
cost several millions less than it could be done on any other
plan. It is claimed, therefore, that the proposition as herein
set forth, is of unmixed benefits to the State of Maryland and
City of Baltimore, and that in the end the arrangements
must secure fortunes to the members of the proposed Associa-
tion.

To the end, therefore, that these munificent results may be
speedily achieved, your memorialist asks of your Honorable
Body to take all needful steps by the enactment of suitable
laws.

And he will for ever pray, &c.

A. J. MARSHALL.