The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1858-03-03
BALTIMORE.
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 5, 1858.

In our issue of Friday last We referred briefly 10
the bill then pending in the Senate of Maryland,
granting to the various Counties of the Eastern
Shore of the State disributive portions of the I'M
expended balance of the million of dollars, author
lied by an act passed in 1885, to be appropriated
and set apart for the purpose of internal improve
ments ON the Eastern Shore The magnitude and
importance of this measure, and the questions O
State faith and of legal and constitutional interpre
tation that have been raised in regard to it. demand
more extended notice and more careful investipa-
ton. At time when the people of Maryland arc
just beginning 10 feethe salutary effects of a sound
financial policy, and to be reviewed. in some meas.
ure of the burdens of taxation they have so patient
ly borne, our legislators are properly Jealous OF
every effort to increase the State debt and do well
to consider any act that may hinder the accom-
pshment of the object so long had in view, and
so efficiently promoted by successive administra-
tons of the State Government.
While we commend the cautious vigilance ex-
hbited by the public servants at Annapolis in be-
half of the pecuniary interests of the State, we
cannot approve policy that may conflict with the
vested rights of any portion of our fellow citizens
or that may violate the plighed faith and honor
of Maryland
We regard the claim presented..by the people of
the Eastern Shore part and parcel of the State
debt the justice of which has been repeatedly ac-
knowledged by legislative enactment, aud for the
payment of which the public faith has been specf-
cay pledged. The basis of the claim is to be
found in the act of 1885, chap. 395, commonly
known as the eight million bill, and it is an ad-
mitted fact that the avowed intention of the Legis-
lature by which that act was passed was to secure
to the Eastern Shore the benefit of appropriation
of one million of dollars for the purpose of internal
Improvements. That this Legislature could have
perpetrated fraud by the wilul insertion in that
act of provisions calculated TO deprive the Eastern
Shore of any portion of its benefits would be re-
Election upon the character of the State that should
be Indignantly repealed. The only points for con-
slderation therefore affecting the validity of this
claim, are whether there are any constitutional or
legal impedimens preventing its fulflment at this
time The 9Th section of the act of 1885, provides
"that in the event said stock of Eastern Shore r.
R. Co. shall not be subscribed to an amount
which, including the subscriptions hereby author
lied on the part of the State TO the stock of said
company, at the par value thereof will be adequate
to the construction of the Railroad which said COM
pany is authorized to make" that then and in
that case the million of dollars set apart for, and
intended to be applied to said work, shall be held
sacred, and the faith of the State as herejy pledged
that the said million of dollars shall be applied to
the exclusive purpose of internal improvement on
the Eastern Shore, and for no other purpose what
ever, and shall be subject to disposition by any fu-
+l,o
commence the work as proposed in the charter of
the Eastern Shore Rail Road Company" 1t is
impossible that any obligation can be described in
language more solemn or more explicit
In 1853 an act was passed for the re-charter of
the Eastern Shore Railroad Company. This act
provides, THAT all the property and effects of
every description which were by the E. S. R. R.
Co. incorporated by the Act of Assembly passed at
December Session 1885, CHI 23s, transferred or as
signed and surrendered to the State of Maryland
be and the are hereby granted to, and by this
act so far as the same may be lawfully done trans
ferred TO and declared to be the property Of and to
belong and appertain to the company incorporated
by this act, when and as soon the same shall be
organized as herein-before provided. Provided
nevertheless, that nothing herein contained shall
be construed to transfer to the company incorpora
ted by this act the subscription made by the State
to the capital stock of the E. S. R. R. Co. incor-
porated by said act passed at December Session,
1885" This act was passed after the adoption of
the present constitution and prior to the incorpora-
ton of any other internal improvement companies
on the Eastern Shore. The reservation in regard
to the subscription to the original E. S. R. R. Co.
is recognition of the exastence of the fund, and
the provision which prohibits Tits transfer to the
new E. S. R. R. Co., affords undoubted evidence
that it still 'held sacred for the purpose of
internal Improvements on the Eastern Shore, until
it should be disposed of by the Legislature for that
purpose as provided for by the act of 1885. A
clause in the new Constitution of MARYLAND de-
clares ''that all rights vested and liabilities in
Cured shall remain if this constitution had not
been adopted, and it would be an unworthy i'm
putation upon the honor of the men to whom the
people delegated the power to frame that instru-
ment to suppose that they could have intended to
repudate any obligation of the State however
slight. We repeat, that we consider this claim on
the part of the Eastern Shore to the unexpended
balance of the million of dollars appropriated by the
act of 1885 to the exclusive purpose of internal i'm
provements in that section of the State as not only
just and fair, but as demanding the immediate ac-
ton of the Legislature in view of the present ne
cessities of the works of public interest seeking
relief from the fund.