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425] The Maryland Constitution of 1864. 79
In regard to internal improvements it should be noted
that there was a strong sentiment in favor of selling the
state's interest in them. The report of the Committee on
the Legislative Department had contained a section pro-
viding that the General Assembly should take the neces-
sary steps to dispose of the above, and use the proceeds
for the payment of the public debt of the state, any sur-
plus to be held as a permanent fund for the support of
education.173 When this section came up for consideration
in the Convention, the variety of plans and ideas presented
in regard to it, and the utter lack of any definite policy or
party lines among the members, show that the subject was
largely a new one. It had been raised by several indi-
viduals who brought before the committee the argument
that arrangements might be made by which the Chesa-
peake and Ohio Canal, the unproductive state stock in
which was the special object of attack, might be leased to
the preferred creditors, many of them citizens of Mont-
gomery, Frederick, Washington and Allegany counties,
who as citizens were held to have a double interest, both
in the usefulness of that particular work, and in its being
remunerative to the state.174
The question of the sale seemed to come as a surprise
to the Convention, and though a large number expressed
themselves as favorable to the move, yet so many plans
and amendments of various sorts were offered that the
subject became involved in a veritable sea of confusion.
The state owned large amounts of both productive and un-
productive stocks, and the sentiment was entirely divided
as to whether certain parts or all of these should be dis-
posed of. The great fear seemed to be, that the Balti-
more and Ohio Railroad would gain control of the Chesa-
peake and Ohio Canal, and use it to discriminate in rates
against the western part of the state, and also that the
sale would offer a rich field for bribery and political job-
173 Proc., 193. 174 Deb., ii, 815.
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