House Documents, Otherwise Publ. as Executive Documents

benefit has been purchased at a cost not incommensurate, it is hoped, with its importance, but of no small amount; and, it is most obvious, that its value must depend, in no inconsiderable degree, on a preservation of the same dimensions above as below "the Point of Rocks."

"The terms of compromise which have failed, required the canal to give place to the railroad at four different places below Harper's Ferry, all occurring along rapid water, at the various falls of the Potomac, between the Point of Rocks and the Blue Ridge; and, in those places, the canal is to submit to a reduction of its breadth, from sixty to forty feet, or even less; for the danger to its banks may impose the necessity of reducing it below the breadth recently proposed by Messrs. Roberts and Knight. It is propos ed, at these passes, amounting in extent to near two miles below Harper's Ferry, and to forty-five above, that the railroad shall occupy the firm ground on the land side of the canal, and that the canal, receding from the shore to give place to the former, shall occupy, with its reduced breadth, a larger portion of the bed of the river, where the river itself is hemmed in by rocky and precipitous cliffs. It is also a part of those terms, that the railroad and canal, conjointly constructed, shall be separated for those distances, by a space of but two feet, which is to be occupied by a low partition wall; and that, elsewhere, the canal and railway shall be apart not less than eight feet, if such be the pleasure of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company. The open space beyond what is denominated the berm of the canal, is left for its breadth, to the discretion, not of both companies, but to that of the Balti more and Ohio Railroad Company.

"To the reduced breadth which such a compromise must give to the canal, must be added, therefore, its increased cost, augmented hazard, and diminished utility. And first, its increased cost.

"As computed by the engineers of the two companies, this cost, when divided between the two works, amounts, on the reduced canal, exclusive of the time and money consumed in the conjoint location, to but a few thousand dollars; but experience has shown how little mere estimates, however carefully prepared, are to be trusted, no two engineers scarcely ever agreeing in them; and the same engineer, if he make successive surveys of the same work, not agreeing, in all cases, with himself.

"Morcover, the enhanced cost and almost insuperable difficulty of repairing such breaches as may happen in the canal, or any other injury to its various works, were enfiladed by the railroad, has not entered at all into the computation of the expense of its conjoint construction with the railroad. Yet, it cannot escape the slightest observation, that the materials for such repairs cannot be obtained from the Maryland shore, or employed after the comple tion of the railroad, without suspending its use, by resting them till work ed up, on the margin of the canal, either in the carriages by which they may have been transported, or on the railroad itself, which occupies the ground next to the berm of the canal.

"As regards the additional hazard to which the canal will be exposed, by a compromise which protrudes it, at all the most rapid falls of the river, there bounded by lofty precipices thirty feet further into its rocky bed, it is impossible to measure it by any foresight, or to exclude it by any precaution. It must affect injuriously the original construction of the work, by exposing its embankments of earth to be swept away in their very formation. It must subject the navigation of the entire canal to great uncertainty, even after

those costly protection walls are added for its greater security from abrasion, as the experience of the Pennsylvania canals has lamentably demonstrated. "How far such uncertainty may tend to destroy the use and profit of the canal, after it shall have been completed, it is not easy to predict; or how greatly the very work which requires this sacrifice, will profit by such exaction. This brings the undersigned to the third objection, that the proposed compromise will diminish the utility of the canal.

"So far as this may be effected by the actual suspension of its navigation; by breaches in its walls and embankments, where far protruded into the river, and by protracted labor in their necessary repairs, the undersigned have already briefly considered, in stating their first and second objections to the terms of compromise insisted upon by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company.

"It remains, however, to notice and expose the very unequal benefits which the canal and railroad will derive from their juxtaposition.

"In narrow passes, the terms of compromise interpose a space of but two feet between the canal and railroad. In all other cases, they retain to the Baltimore Company the right to approach within eight feet of the berm side of the canal.

"The proper berm of the canal thus becomes, for forty seven miles, a railroad, on which the company's cars, with or without locomotive steam engines, may be required daily, indeed hourly, to move, so as to leave no means of reaching the canal to the productions and manufactures of Maryland. The marble and lime of the adjacent hills and mountains; the lumber of the neighboring forests, a single piece of timber, or cord of firewood, cannot rest on or even near the berm of the canal, till a boat receives it, without impeding the use of the railroad. Nothing would be more easy than to obstruct along the entire line above the Point of Rocks, all intercourse with the canal across the road, where a sufficient space did not exist for turning a wagon, or erecting a warehouse for the storeage of commodities between the road and the canal. So that, while the boat lying next the berm of the canal might supply the railroad car with its lading, the railroad itself, enfilading the canal for its entire length, if the directors of the former shall so choose, will cut off the canal from half the territory on which it relies for its future commerce.

"But, in truth, the conjoint construction of those works, besides being too obvious a waste of the capital of one of them, to require comment, would be injurious to both, in robbing them of their proper breadth. In relation to the canal, which aims at reaching on the Ohio that market of the west which so many other competitors are also seeking with like avidity, such an imperfection of its structure would not only destroy the advantages hitherto imparted at great cost, to its navigation, by exposing its boats to unequal and increased resistance, but render the very end of its construction altogether insecure.

"And, with respect to the railroad, if limited to a space of thirty feet, twenty-two of which are required for two tracks only, it can never approximate to a perfect structure, and the principal benefits proposed to be derived from it, will unquestionably fail, while a rival enterprise provided with tour tracks, and conducted along the opposite shore of the Potomac, or through some other of the numerous passes of the Alleghany, will draw from it all who consider accelerated motion a compensation for additional cost of

transportation. To such considerations as these, the jealousy now subsisting between the canal and railroad may blind the peculiar friends of the latter, till some other rival alike formidable, shall open their eyes, perhaps too late, to the danger of giving to their road a permanent breadth inconsistent with its future structure, on a more enlarged and perfect plan. To these considerations the Commonwealth of Maryland cannot be blinded, having an equal interest in both works. To her, it cannot be a matter of indifference that a compromise be made of the rights of the two companies virtually destructive of her interest in both, and of the very end of their incorporation.

The undersigned confidently hope that an apology for having dwelt so long on this topic will be found in the sensibility with which the committee must regard the liberal contribution of their Commonwealth to both those costly enterprises."

"Respectfully submitted by order of the President and Directors of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company.. Č. F. MERCER,

President of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company.

"January 31st, 1831."

Acquisition of lands received from Thomas C. Wright,
for old houses condemned and sold
Do balance of money advanced, refunded

ABSTRACT of Receipts and Expenditures on account of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company, to the 3d day Dr. of January, 1833.

To capital stock for amount of instalments paid to date, agreeably to returns received Unclaimed dividends of the Potomac Co., received from the late Treasurer, for amount due sundry stockholders Potomac Company received from the late treasurer Do received from John Strider, for balance due by him Do received from Jacob Payne, on account Do received for old iron sold

Toll account received to date