The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-03-19

the-by, being an airline eorporator), there |
is no market in the world where, on decent |
terms, such stock or bonds can be sold in the |
face not merely of the whisper of a doubt, |
but the positive assertion that there is not |
conscientious buyer in the land who will not
say that such a chartered scheme is beyond
the power of Congress, and that neither stock
nor bonds will be worth the paper on which
they are written. Then, too, if, onceIbegun,
the whole thing fails-as fail it will-the air
line bankrupts are denied even the poor privi-
lege of selling the wreck; for the fifteenth
and last section provides that 'it never shall
be lawful for the said company to sell or
transfer, either directly or indirectly, any of
the franchises created by this act, without the
consent of Congress, to the Baltimore and
Ohio Railroad Company, or to any other rail-
road company or party interested in the ex-
isting lines of railroad between Washington
and New York" Perhaps the Pennsylvania
Central, or the Northern New Jersey, or some
non-existingl company, may buy under this
provision, but none else can.
Should this measure of mischief be passed
through Congress and have Executive ap-
proval, and our auguries as to its financial
weakness be illusory, what then We address
this question especially to the authorities of
the two great States whose honor and dignity
and interests are most in jeopardy, and whose
voice and action will be most potential.
Maryland is perhaps too near the shadow Of
the Capitol, and Delaware may not be touched;
but Pennsylvania and New Jersey have every
thing at stake, and it is the first step across
their borders in this new Federal exorbitance
which costs everything. The Executive and
Legislature of one are Republican; of the
other, Democratic. This unlawful corpora
ton will first enter Pennsylvania, and, if we
understand the route above tide-water, pass
through a country already adequately supplied
with railroad facilities (for it is the
line of the Baltimore CentraD, cutting
farms, desecrating graveyards and
churches - there being none of the
restrictions found in the homely State char
| ters, damages to be assessed by Federal COM
missioners, and all litigation incident to it to
| be decided by Federal courts at distance
running, when it reaches the Chester valley,
nearly parallel to the Pennsylvania roads,
acrosss the Schuyllill and finding an exitfrom
one mangled Commonwealth, far above tide
water, at Trenton, and bridging the Della
ware, over the waters of which at such a
point, except in carrying into effect COM
| pacts between the riparian States, Congress
has no more jurisdiction than it has over the
| Irrawaddy. AS to New Jersey, whose terri
| tory is narrower-for the national transit
must be in the triangle of which the Camden
and Amboy and Central are sides-the
damage must be greater, and need not here
| be specified. Pennsylvania may be willing
to tolerate this usurpation over a corner of
her territory, as she did long ago in the
southwest, but New Jersey will be cut
through and through by the intruder. All
this, aside from the loss of invested capital in
both States. Why may not
Republican Pennsylvania and Democratic
New Jersey, once more as of old,
stand shoulder to shoulder, though now in
peaceable resistance? Governor Geary has
lately shown himself, in the very teeth of
party discipline, stickler for local self-gov-
ernment, and Governor Randolph, we know,
is true Why should not they and their legis-
latures say at once, IN Iimi1e, before the step
of the intruder (only q corporation, and as
such amenable to law somewhere) crosses the
border, that no further action shall be had
till the rights of all parties-not rival cor
porations, for which we care relatively little,
but of great States-shall judicially be de-
termined by the tribunal Of the highest re-
sort? These two States, thus peacefully but
resolutely resisting-or rather promising tc
resist-even Congress which thus far has
paused at nothing will hold its hand. This
is a subject of grave interest, which we
deem it our duty to bring to the attention
of those most commemorative threatened
Commonwealths of Pennsylvania and New
Jersey. 1t is their case now. 1t may b'
ours tomorrow, and they are the great bar
riers which protect New York, and New Eng
land too.