Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1845-03-29
NATIONAL INTELLIGENCER.
THE CHESAPEAKE AND OHIO CANAL.


General Assembly of Maryland, making provision
for the completion of the CANAL to Cumberland
Other duties, engrossng our attention, have moi
allowed us time until now to carefully examine and
consider the law.
The importance to the State of MARYLAND, and
the public generally, of completing the canal ID
Cumberland, has been so obvious to our minds foI
many years past that our readers are fully apprzed
OF the solicitude which we feel and have often ex.
pressed on this important subject.
Upon deliberate examination of the law re-
Gently passed by Maryland, we are impressed with
its wisdom its expediency, and its entire practi-
cability.
by the first section of the act, the sum of seven
teen hundred thousand dollars is appropriated, in
bonds of the Canal Company upon which bonds
a loan is authorized to be made, or the bonds are
to be used at par for the completion of the work to
Cumberland. The whole work is 10 be placed UNI
der contract for completion from dam No. 6 to Cum
berland before the money that may be borrowed on
the bonds can be applied, or the bonds themselves
be used, for the work. Upon that portion of the
canal between dam No. and Cumberland, about
two millions eight hundred thousand dollars have
been already expended and the tunnel through the
mountain has been wholly excavated there re-
manning of the unfinished part of the work only
about eighteen miles of easy excavation to be com.
Peted The amount, then, is ample for the COM
peton OF the work, which, at this time, with few
public works under contract and the wages of labor
low, may not cost over twelve or fourteen hundred
thousand dollars. The engineers estimate is about
"a hrrnd rnlt 4 IL,
tractors have offered to execute the work for less
than fourteen hundred thousand; leaving, as the
act does, margin of three or four hundred thou
sand dollars to meet every imaginable contingency.
For the payment of the loan necessary 10 COM
piete the work, the State of Maryland waving her
priority of liens and mortgages on its revenues, |
these entire revenues pledged to pay first, the
interest on the loan of seventeen hundred thou
sand dollars next sinking fund of twenty five
thousand dollars annually to paw the princnal
OF that debt; and, next the interest on the old
charter debt OF the old Potomac Company of five
thousand dollars annually. II will require, there
fore, revenue to be derived from the canal of
less than one hundred and thirty-fve thousand dol
lars year, TO pay interest and quidate the prin-
cipal OF the cost Of construction The sum to be
received for tolls beyond this amount would next
flow into the Treasury of Maryland to meet her
next preferred liens on the canal revenues and
resources.
The transportation upon the canal of one hun
dred and nifty thousand tons OF tonnage, at half a
cent per ton per mile, would be more than sufficient
TO meet the demands of the act for its completion
The transportation of one hundred thousand tons
oil tonnage, at cent per ton per mile wonld
produce revenue that would paw the interest and
sinking fund of the debt, and after paying officers
salaries, yield revenue of not less than thirty
thousand dollars to Maryland.
By the third section of the law, the corporate
companies of Allegheny county or elsewhere, or in
dividuas, are required to give. guaranty for the
transportation annually of one hundred and nine |
ty-hve thousand tons of tonnage between Cumber-
land and the District of Columbia, on an average |
OF five years, beginning sir months after the COM
pletion Of the canaifo Cumberland before the COM
pany will be allowed to issue bonds or enter into
contract for the completion of the canal. This |
condition. so far from embarrassing the operation of
the law, is, in our opinion, of its wsest and
most salutary features. 1t differs essentially from
the provisions of the imperative law of ls4O-4l,
which required that the coal companies of AL
leghany should give security for the payment of
two hundred thousand dollars annually, for FIVE
years. into the Treasury of Maryland, and that the
Canal Company should not charge less than one
cent per ton per mile on coal and other articles of
transportation. The present law allows corpora
lions and individuals, in Allegheny or elsewhere to
give security for the transportation Of tonnage and
does not restrict the company TO the charge of one
cent per ton per mile, which rate would be nearly
two dollars per ton transportation from Cumber-
land to the Districtof Columbia. BY allowing the
company TO charge moderate and fair rate Of tolls,
the act at once secures profit on the investment,
and profit at the same time TO the State Of Mary
land, and will allow the coal of Allegheny TO enter
the market, anxious TO receive it, at rate Of cost
which will ensure It's general use and consumption
on all the Atlantic border, which is consideration
OF the highest importance. The amount of tonnage
TO be guaranteed is moderate las it includes articles
OF every kind, and the ascending as well as de-
scending trade; for no reasonable mind can doubt.
considering the great capacity of the canal in width
and depth, and the universally admitted SUPERIOR
~ OF the Allegheny coal for domestic manufacture
ing, and navigating purposes, that far more than
an average of five hundred thousand tons Of cool
alone will be transported annually for the first five
years after the canal shall be completed 10 Cumber
land. But the utility of this provision must be adj
mitted for other because, first, guaranty
nun hp .rIyap fll.y 4