Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1858-04-23

FRIDAY MORNING, Al
consideration of the cost of an extra ses-
sion. We ask you that the Eastern
Shore shall not be required to incur the
loss Of $780, 600 in the interest for two
years of the money which has been so
long withheld from her, in order to pre-
vent the expenditure of one-fourth of
that sum by the State, which is alone re-
sponsible for the delay. We ask your
Excelleney now, in this crisis in the pro-
secution of the works of internal i'm
provement on our shore, and when two
years delay may crush every struggling
enterprise, and may also engender feel
ings and actions to which we desire not
to allude, to exercise your constitutional
prerogatiye by converting tho Legislature
ut an early day. We ask tleGif an ex-
penditure of 100000 be jAcurred to
remedy the evils of the present constitu-
ton, the State shall also remove the evil
under which we are laboring from its re-
fusal to pay our just and long deferred
claim-an evil compared with which the
sum of all those contained in the present
constitution is to us but as dust in the
balance.
We respectfully submit that the condi-
ton of affairs herein described is without
parallel in the history of the State, and
fully constitutes, in the language Of the
constitution, an extraordinary occa-
sion."
The following is the address to the
People Of Maryland, made by the citi-
zens Of the counties Of the Eastern Shore
Of the State, in mass convention, which
assembled on the 14th and 10Th instant,
to consider the subject of the claim Of
said counties to the uncxpended balance
of one million of dollars, appropriated
by the act Of 1885, to public improve
ments in those counties
To the People of Maryland.
Fdiow- Citizens The failure of the
Legislature, a second time, to make pro-
vision for the payment Of the sum due
By the State to the Eastern Shore for
works of internal improvement, taken in
connection with the passage Of the act
for convention to frame new consti-
tuition, has produced deep sensation
throughout our entire Shore. Large
meetings have been held in several of
the counties, at which the people have
expressed their indignation at the wrong
which has been done them. The press
has condemned the injustice with unu-
sual severity and unanimity; and for the
first time in the history Of the State, a
mass convention, composed % citizens
from all parts of the Shore, has assem-
bled to deliberate upon the condition Of
our affairs, and the course to be pursued
in this important crisis.
We have approached the investigation
of this subject with deep sense of its
Importance, aud with conviction of the
duty imposed on us, as good citizens, to
act with delibcration and gravity COM
mensurate with the seriousness of the
occasion.
Our applications to the Legislature have
resulted in the painful conviction that a
considerable number of our fellow-citizens
on the Western Shore are opposed to the
payment of our appropriation. On the
other hand, there are many who admit
the injustice under which we are suffer
ing, but who, with a few exceptions, we
regret to say, will make no proper effort
to redress it. The questions which now
present themselves for consideration, are
How long shall we quietly submit to
the delay in its settlement? and are we
not justly entitled to the use Of ereyy
means afforded by the laws and the con-
stitution by which its settlement can be
facilitated?
We postpone reply to the former
question until we see whether there is a
disposition further to interpose any I'M
necessary delay; and proceed to explain
the grounds on which we claim an i'm
mediate settlement through an extra
session of the legislature For this pur-
pose we desire first TO call attention TO
the amount Of appropriations that have
been made to the Western Shore and
the length of time during which she has
enjoyed them.
Commencing as early as 1926, they
had amounted in 1888 to more than four
millions Of dollars; being upwards Of
half million of dollars per annum. In
1884, three millions more were appro-
priated and in 1885, seven millions
more were applied for. Here was total
of more than fourteen millions of dol
lars to be given to one Shore, without
one cent being given to the other; and
this too when il had become SO evident
that direct tax would have to be re-
sorted to, that it was necessary to make
provision for it in the last of these bills
to enable the State to dispose Of her
bonds.
1t was under these circumstances that
the representatives from the Eastern
Shore Impressed with the necessity Of
public works in a section Of country
which during several months of every
year is completely cut OF from access TO
market, and the people almost entirely
separated from their representatives, }
required, as the only condition on which
they would assent to the last enormous
appropriation, that the sum Of one mil
lion dollars should be given to the East
ern Shore Railroad, and if that failed to
,,,o int ,,,,orat;on "a sbouid hn ooourod