The Evansville daily journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ia. [i.e. Ind.]) 1848-1862, 1861-02-22
Ullt Bully 9unrmal,



controversy with the stockholders of the
Wabash and Erie Canal, which is not des-
titute of interest for the public at large.
Some ten years since the State having en-
barked imprudently in internal improve
ment schemes, was on the verge Of bank
ruptcy, and indeed bankrupt to the extent
of not paying the interests on its debts, or
even the salaries of its officers. All of the
good citizens of the time were apprehensive
that it might be driven to follow the perni-
cious example of Mississippi, which was
then reaping a world of execrations from
its creditors. In this dilemma, the bosld-
holders of the State came forward through
their agent, Mr.. Charles Butler, and pro-
posed prospective arrangement which, it
was thought would save the honor of the
State, and ultimately secure the rights Of
those to whom it was indebted. 1t was
proposed that the State debt be divided into
two equal parts, one of which should be
based, in the form of new stock on the
immediate revenues and Responsibilities of
the State; and the other onthe properties, tolls
and income of the Wabash and Erie Canal.
The proposition was carried into effect by
an act of the Legislature, passed in Jan
uary, 1876, and subsequently amended in
l847. An instantaneous relief to the State
and revival of its credit was the consequence
of this proceeding.
In accepting the tolls and revenues of the
canal as a security for one half of their
debt, the creditors were influenced by sew
eral considerations first: that the canal
was then almost the only work of internal
improvement in the State; second, that all
the representatives. and the Governor of
Indiana, and other officials, as well as all
to oy,1
red in the view of its probable value; and
third, that the act creating the adjustment
guaranteed it, in the strongest manner, from
every kind of molestation, interference or
detriment- A joint trust, consisting of
three trustees chosen respectively by the
State and IFS creditors, was made for tie
management and administration of the
whole business. For some time after the
transfer of the canal to these trustees, the ar
rangement promised the most satisfactory re-
suits. The creditors having advanced some
$800,000 additional to complete it, had caus-
ed the work to be prosecuted with economy
and vigOr, and argued from the annual in
crease of income from the parts already
finished, that there would be still larger
increase when the whole was finished.
ThlS prosperous state continued unto the
year 1852, when the revenues of the canal
began to take a turn the other way. Bv
I6 aS54i A., the decline of the receipts amounted
course they opened their eyes 10 such a
prospect. What was the cause of this fall ?
the creditors naturally asked. They saw there
was no extravaganza or misconduct in the
management of the canal they saw that
no extra repairs had put them to an unu-
sual expense they saw that the land-funds
belonging to the canal were as valuable as
they ever had been they saw that the COM
petition Of the Wabash river had actually
decreased; while the population and the
trade of the immense district drained by the
canal had largely augmented in every di-
rection. Yet they did not have to go far
to. discover the real cause of the inadequacy
of its revenues for the State, it appears,
had in the meantime authorized an exten-
sive system of railroad communication,
which covered the whole region of the ca
nal, and drew off its most lucrative COM
merce. In this view of the case, the credit
ors turned on the State and said that it
had destroyed their security, and that they
must look to it for some remedy, or some
measures of redress. A memorial address
ed to the last Legislature, by a committee
of stockholders, from which we get these
facts, says:
At the time our constituents accepted
the canal as a security, thereby discharging
the State, it was the great enterprise of the
/ State, without competitor and without a
rival but it is now perfectly encompassed
from one end to the other in network OF
railroads. The whole region of country on
which it depends is chequered with them !;
every principal source Of its trade is tapped
by them It's local business and its through
! i I Il
astrous as its more recent fate has been, the
/ future threatens to become still more disas-
trous In short, the very basis of security
/ enues of the State, has been es-
/ sentially changed, aud that by the
organization Of the State. The canal is,
virtually, no longer the same work. Its
banks and locks are the same; the same
waters continue to flow through it; the
same men and women perhaps live upon lis
| banks, but that comprehensive and lucra-
tive trade, which was the life of it-that
trade which originally induced the Legis-
lature to undertake its construction, aud
the expectation Of which alone made it q
security to your ereditors-has been spirit
ed away. 1t no longer exists as it was OF
as it promised to be, and it cannot be re
stored"
This is the question: How far is the State
having by means of its legislation sap
ped the security formerly pledged to The
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. to make good the dam
age done? Between individuals there coulC
be no doubt as to the answer If a debto
should transfer to his creditor in part pay
4 ment of a debt valuable patent-right
on condition that he would do nothing Il
impair the value of the patent-right, an,
should then proceed to get out anothe
patent of pretty nearly the same kind, bu
more effective, he would be regarded uni
versally As responsible for infringement. |
, the State of Indiana surrendered the reve
nues. of the Wabash and Erie Canal to &c
: relieved of one half its old debt, and ha
since by its own act impaired the security
it would seem to fall under the o oeration {
: the same principle. The stockholders,
, I we understand their position, do not den
> the right of the State to make railroads, br
!, that they hold that the State, in authoril
: ing such superior mode oG transportation
r must do so at its own cost and not at I'll
Z cost of others. Having guaranteed its cree