Phenix gazette. [volume] (Alexandria [D.C.]) 1825-1833, 1826-12-13

| special Committees Of Maryland and Virginia
and, being submitted to this Committee. and
approved by them. were presented, on behalf
OF the Convention, to the Legislatures of those
States respectively.
10 avoid delay, the Committee appointed to
prepare the memorial designed for the Legisla-
tnre of Pennsylvania, was requested to forward
It directly to Harrisburg, from the residence OF
Its Chairman
Before the memorial was addressed to the
Legislature of Ohio, to suggest the expediency
OF causing the line Of canal to be surveyed
extending from the Ohio river, by means of the
waters of Big Beaver and Cuyahoga River, to
the Southern Shore of Lake Erie, the Commit
tee appointed for that purpose were appraised
that the recommendation from the President
of the United States, in his Address to both
Houses of Congress would probably lead to its
more prompt execution by the United STATES
Engineers. In accordance with the decision of
the Convention, the act Of the Legislature of
Virginia, of The 22d of February, 1928, incor-
porating the "Potomac Canal Company was
assumed as the basis of the charter of the Che
sapeake and Ohio Canal Company, and the mo-
dihcations of that act, required by the resou-
tons of the Convention, together with such
others as were deemed expedient by the Com
mittee, were superadded 10 its provisions, in a
bill, copies of which were cotemp oraneously
forwarded TO Richmond and Annapolis before
the expiration o. the year 1928 A correspon-
dence was, at the same time, instituted between
the Committee and the active friends OF the
Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, in the several Lee
gisla,ures of Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsyl-
vania.
In the last, it was deemed expcdient to await
the agreement of Maryland and Virginia, on
the terms of any charter which should have
the effect of superseding that of 1884, granted
by those States to the existing "Potomac Com
pany," and the formal acquiescence of that
Company in such an agreement.
Any application to Congress, in behalf ofthe
District OF Columbia, through which the new
Canal would be required to pass, was also de-
layed for the same reason.
The assent Of any other party to the terms OF
the proposed charter, before the concurrence in
its favor of the two States most deeply inter-
ested in it, might, it was apprehended, retard
its progress towards maturity, by opposing a
new obstacle to such notifications of its nu-
merous details, as either Of those States might
be inclined TO insist upon as condition OF its
ratification
On the 9th Of January, 1924, the bill which
had followed the memorial of the Convention
TO Richmond, received the sanction of the Ge-
neral Assembly of Virginia, though not before
it had been amended, on the suggestion OF the
friends Of the common enterprise i'll the Lesis-
lature of Maryland, through the Central Com
mittee, in such manner as was deemed by them
best calculated to remove every legal i'm ped-
ment to the future union Of the waters of the
Patapsco with the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal;
nor, until it had been accompanied by formal
declaration, on the part Of the Legislature of
Virginia, that the act, which she had approved,
and to which the assent OF the United States
was involved, should not be construed into an
admission, on her part, Of the much contested
power Of the Federal Government, to institute
system Of Internal improvement.
The first OF these amendments, from the man.
ner in which it modified the section in which ii
was inserted, afforded the strongest evidence OF
the disposition of the Central Committee, and
of the advocates of the Chesapeake and Ohio
Canal, in the Legislature OF Virginia, to &C
commodate their friends in Annapolis.
AS soon as it was known, however, that the
General Assembly Of Maryland had risen with
out concurring in the new charter, an abortlve
effort was made to obtain for it the sanction OF
Pennsylvania, in the hope entertained by the
Committee that the accession Of that State TO
the terms Of the charter, would occasion a
more propitious result, at Annapolis, the ensu-
ing winter. II was also designed TO ground
upon the cooperation of Pennsylvania with
Virginia, an application to Congress, during
its Still depending session, for continuation
of the Joint act of those States, with view to
the same end.
The failure Of the first effort involved that
Of both.
/, was not until the 3lst of January, 1925, or
near The close Of their ensuing session, that the
General Assembly of Maryland confirmed the
act of Virginia Incorporating "ihe Chesapeake
and Ohio Canal Company The contirmatory
act sat out with declaration that, by accept
inc the act Of Virginia, the Legislature OF Ma
ryland did not intend to deny to the Congress
Of the United States the Constitutional power
TO egislate on the sub ect OF roads and canals,
and closed with aprovision, operating as con-
di,ional defeasance of the act itself, IN the e.
vent that an additional facility was not afforded
10 the State of Maryland for connecting her
commercial metropolis, by a lateral canal, with
the main stem AS this new facility simply
denended on the exercise of the acknowledged
power of the Federal Government over the
District of Columbia, it required an application
oJo,e On bainps made. all that 1t