The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1858-03-19
GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF VIRGINIA.
EXTRA SESSION.
SENATE PROCEEDINGS.


THURSDAY, March IS. 9
+ comm nication was received from the Hous,
announcing the passage of certain bills. 4l
Bills ftfsSd Amending the charter OF the Ne
ehanicsbnrg and Wythe Turnpike Company. Fol
the relief OF H. Brewer. nakisgan appropriation
of 5000 for repairs to the Armory. Exsmptins
from taxation the real estate and bonds of the yir
ginia Mechanics Institute.
TIE td7dl s'thmrersioi" Scheme Mr.. RIvIs call
Ell up the conversion" bili and offered substi
tute for it. The substitute provides that the Com
pany shall raise 81 900 600 by private subscription
for the prosecution Of its work, and when that
sum shall be actually paid up, the State shall
convert the debt due 1t into stock In the proper
ton Of $500 to its part to 500 the part Of the
private stockholders
The substitute being resi, debate sprung mp
upon IL.
Mr.. DOUGLAS had no Doubt the General Assembly
had n right To commute the debt due by the Canal
Company TO the State; but the substitute not only
provided for the communication into stock of the
debt due the State but also of the debt due by the
company to others than the State.
Mr.. OLD followed in a speech in opposition to the
substitute.
Mr. Bruce said the substitute and bill presented
two grave questions for consideration-copstitu
tioGality aud expedency. The first OF these ques-
tious had been fully discussed by very eminent
legal gentlemen in pamphlets, which had been laid
on the tables of Sena ors. and while he did not
approve Of this mode of influencing legislatioB, he
should bew in respect to the opinions of these
learned gentlemen. lie did not concur, however,
in the suggestion put forth by the author of the
larger Of these pamphlets, that failure to com
plete the James River and Kanawha Canal wonld
subject Eirginians TO the charge that they did not
possess that virtue which made Rome great and
Sparta terrible. On the contrary, he thought the
work might very we'll be stopped without incur
ring the sBeers of contempt SO much sppre hended
by the author. He would remind the Senate that
the State, by an expenditure of nearly $1,000 900,
t..l I'D
Covingtor ard Ohio Railroad and il was her policy
not to allow the Canal to progress a step farther
rntil the railroad had reached the Ohio River for
TO be engaged at the same time In carrying over
the Allegheny mountains both railroad and ca
nal, was an exhibition OF stupidity which he did
not believe Virginia capable of. The author of the
pamphlet alluded TO said the canal could be COM
pieted to Coyington in two years, at a cost of 81
100000; hut he (the speaker no necessity Of
pushing IL there until the COvington and Ohio
road had reached the Ohio River and assured
US of the trade of the West. The author sug.
gests three modes of extending the canal, viz ::
first IA foreclosure of the States mortgage; Sc
eond, another loan by the State tn it. and.
third, this conversion scheme. Unlike the
author, If he deemed it necessary to foreclose
the mortgage he would do so without u mo-
meuts ht station. The g widow and orphan" an.
peal should fnd no place here. That unhappy
class had never lived upon been aided by the 81
vi1ends reoieyed from this company, aud it was
useless for gentlemen to protest against taking
from them what they do not possess. He was
aware too, that spectators had connected them
selves with this scheme for their individual ag-
grandZemeDt, and that their cry of injustice came
rather from Mammon than from widows aud or.
phans struggling with poverty. With regard to
the second scheme--a loan-he did not suppose
a single Senator entertained for moment an
idea of adopting that. The third, the scopyer-
sion scheme, is one by which the canal is to be
carried 10 CGylngton without costing the State a
single cent Now, the company which proposes this,
owes the State $G,0GO,00U, and ts Object is to
place itself in condition to borrow money by get
ting released from debt. II it accomplish this OBJ
ject, it would be enabled to apply that money to
the payment of interest new debts, which
should be applied 70 the discharge Of old deb's-
For this release, however, they propose TO give a
ppsiceration, and this consideration consists Of
s6 600 600 worth Of their stock-stuck which is not
worth the ink with which the bonds are printed
The representatives of the State asked to give
in its name 800 of loan for what has cost specu.
I4tors IS. low prePosterousi to use no harsher
term 1t would be beneficial 10 spectators if they
could only succeed in raising the stock to S20-as
they would even then make from 200 to 300 per
cent. May not hope, when the basin of the
canal at Lynchburg is connected with the Missis-
sippi river, that the company may be able to pay
the State some of the interest due it, and relieve
their work from the popular contempt into which
it has fallen. Let us insist that the work be i'm
mediatey stopped, and the surplus of the receipts
applied TO the discharge of its debt ald when the
C0vington and Ohio Railroad has reached its Wes-
tern terminus and there is railroad from the
city of Nor blk to the Ohio River, We can decide
whether canals are, or are not behind the times
and if We decide that they are not, We then
extend the James River and Kanawha Canal. 20
Covington Let us at least wait until the link be-
tween the Canal aud Mississippi River Is eomplet.
ed before cast off the last hope that the State
will ever realize one cent from this work.
Mr.. AUGUST rose to reply to the objections
against the bill aud substitute. From his earliest
infancy he lad heard the James River and Kanaw.
ha Canal Company decried, and the sounds which
met his ears in the Senate to-day, contained no
novelty to him. lie asked if the friends of the
Coyiugtou and Ohio Railroad no matter how ar
,ient in their views bad ever claimed that the ca
pacity of that road woud begin TO accommodate
the trade which would be brought to Virginia
from that quarter. He believed, in common with
others far more experienced, that, complete both
works, and there would be trade enough TO keep
both fully occupied. Between a railroad aud wa
ter line, every thing in favor of the latter
lie asked If members did seriously contemplate
stopping this work, and saying i'll effect, that Mad
ison and Marshall abored under delusiop, and
their descendan have been hugginga phan .om to
their bosoms. If they did not, and the canal is to
be completed, why should the millions invested in
it by the State be allowed to lie idle aud unremu-
nerative. He said the scheme now before the SEN
ate had passed the Senate two years ago, and went
into an elaborate argument TO prove its constitu-
tionalty. He believed that, unless We had been
iaborng under most fatal delusi0n with regard
TO the trade OF the West, the James River and ks-
nawha Canal when completed, wsuld be one of
the best paying improvements In the State lie
showed, by reference to the books of the company.
lin reply 10 the charge that Spectators we're at
the bottom of this scheme,) that in twelve months
not one transfer of stock had taken places aud
that nearly all the stock remained in the hands o
the originsl purchasers OF their heirs. And i!
Spectators had bought stock and the shares had
run up, would not all the holders of shares be
benefited alike, and the State more largely than
others, because she would be the largert stock
holder. .t
Mr OLD opposed the bill lie in favor o.
selling the work if reasonable sum could be OBJ
tanned for it.
Mr. CANrBLLE would not vote for the bill. He
was ia favor of the State buying out the private
stockholders at fair rate, then issuing new stock
to carry it TO Coyingt0n, and then, If the stock
holders wish carry it to the 0hiU river, they car
mortgage the work to get it there
On motion of Mr.. OLD, the bill and substitute
were laid on the table and made the order Of th'
day for tomorrow.
Resolutions Of Iaiairy.-By Mr.. FUHsfEN, o
changing the boundary lines OF Clark and Warren
counties: by mir. SMITH OF g. OF Incorporating the
town of Frankfort in Greenbrier co, tbill report
eiA by Mr.. DoGGIAs OF amending sec. l, chap. Ia
SO as to extend its provisions pupils in incor
porated schools aud academies: by Mr. THuAPsos
of permitting individuals to discount paper on th
same terms as the banks do.
BtTS Rep0ffed-Incorporatngs company to con
is0n Court Honse; increasing the salaries OF tn
clerks in the basement of the capitol; increasing
the salary of secretary of the Board Of Public
Works; authorizing the clerk OF the Senate L
employ an assistant; refunding 10 Jne. q. Wrish
the sum Of S2 fer the relief of the heirs OF Johi
Swank revivng and amending Is, OF chap
81 Of the Code; exempting the sd reg intent oil vol
unteeis from jury duty for the relief OF Jno, II
Rhodes, of Rockingham; for the protection OF fisi
in the North Fork of Hoiston river
On motion the Senate adjourned.
HOUSE OF DELEGATES.
THURSDAY, March Is, 1888.
House Bi!Is IdSsed.--1o amend and re enact th'
18th and 18th sections of chapter lY2 OF the Code
TO amend an act Incorporating the Mount sergof
Ladies' Association of the Union, aud to suthoriZ
the purchase of Mount Vernon.
Islra- Ig5Rdls Roiiroad-The unfinished husines
of yesterday was taken up, whereupaD the SPEAKEi
ruled that the motion to lay the motion TO recon
slider on the table not in order. The reconsid
Grafton of the vote by which the bill granting Ger
tain privileges to the Pittsburg and steubenviiie
Rs;iroad ConDauy WAS passed, being thereup0l