Port Tobacco Times, And Charles County Advertiser

[COMMUNICATED.]

The County Commissioners and the Internal Improvement Fund.

Believing, Mr. Editor, that your columns are always open to a fair expression of opinion on affairs of public interest, I venture to offer a few reflections, suggested by the action of the County Commissioners, at their recent meeting, touching the disposal of our Internal Improvement Fund. It is not often that our community is so agitated and widely divided on a question of public economy; this, however, is of general concern and most intimately identified with the material development of the county.

The gratification of individual schemes and the sure promotion of individual prosperity are strong reasons to influence the course of men and serve well to explain the motives of their actions. The hope of self-aggrandizement is doubtless an important element of nature, and it not unfrequently happens that men, by its means, are brought in serious conflict with measures, which, if otherwise properly pursued, would inure to the public good. It may, I think, be safely assumed that this spirit plays a most conspicuous part in those influences which have been invoked to operate upon the Commissioners. All this, however, affords but feeble reason to justify the hesitation of the County Commissioners, and the final reference of the subject by them to primary meetings of the people. This is an avoidance of responsibility scarcely to be admired; not at all commensurate with the confidence our people have expressed in the competency of their intelligence and decision of purpose for administering the public weal. It is most sadly inconsistent with those high qualities of vigorous moral firmness which are indispensable to the thorough performance of duties. A reference to primary meetings is, after all, nothing more than an invitation to those most active in the pursuit of their individual schemes to present themselves and their particular views with some manner of endorsement. It is a mere nominal reference to the people. Primary meetings but seldom, if ever, give a true expression to the will of the people. They are most frequently ruled by some energetic spirits, who employ them solely as a means, with some pretentious show of authority, to advance their own personal interests, and make them but the organ of utterance for those ends, which might best subserve some special purpose. This then will complicate matters by adding the confusion of numbers and weave a tangled web of doubt, which the too careful prudence of the Commissioners will be slow to penetrate.

Each County Commissioner is accredited to the performance of most important duties. He is the servant of the public, and, in his official relations, should subordinate all other considerations to the accomplishment of the public good. I hold that he is the representative of no particular locality or section, nor the instrument for the advancement of any individual enterprise at the cost of the public good. This involves too much and we cannot afford to pay the price. The County Commissioner is the responsible trustee of the people, and, as such, is bound to the discharge of his duties independently, conscientiously and directly with a view to the general welfare. If then, as the result of these primary meetings, some proposition is submitted, which is manifestly not in harmony with the true spirit of county improvement, and which does not offer the greatest good by offering advantage to the greatest number of people, are the Commissioners bound to abide by the reference? I think not. This reference is intended to be availed of merely as the means to ascertain, if possible, the will of the people in the premises. If the County Commissioners are satisfied that the reference has failed in its legitimate purpose, would they not by adopting its offspring, wander from the high road of duty and do grievous wrong to the people's trust? I think it would be clearly so. In the event, consistently with the proprieties of office and the principles of right, they would be bound to rise superior to all prejudiced considerations and invest the fund in that enterprise which promises the greatest amount of good to the greatest number of our citizens. The Baltimore and Potomac Railroad, I think, in this respect offers inducements entitled to be gravely considered. We have, I am informed, from the President of that corporation, assurances that, if the fund is there invested, work will forthwith be in inside our county line. Why not then invest in the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad, leaving to the Directors of that road the right to indicate its route to the Potomac, and require from them such sufficient guarantees as will protect our common interest and insure the proper expenditure of the money within Charles county jurisdiction. That, I think, would guard us against all probable contingencies of loss, involving no peril to the fund and materially encouraging a work which, all are agreed, would contribute immensely to county prosperity.