Alexandria Gazette

CHESAPEAKE AND OHIO CANAL.
Annapolis, March 1, 1834.

I enclose a copy of a preamble and resolutions reported to the House of Delegates of Maryland, by Mr. Merrick, from a Committee of that body, expressing, as I am sure they do, the sentiments of a large majority of both branches of the Legislature, on the subject of the great national work now in progress through the territory of this State: I mean the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal.

A report of considerable length, on the present condition and future prospects of the Canal Company, has also been presented by the same Committee, which justifies the expectation that, at no very distant period, the Treasury of the State will receive very ample returns for all its investments in this work; beside which it shows that there will be opened to the enterprise of the people of Maryland sources of exhaustless wealth. This report is accompanied by a bill pledging the faith of the State for a loan of $250,000 dollars for the present purposes of the Company.

These proceedings will serve to show the attachment which Maryland continues to feel for this good work, and that it needs but the invited co-operation of the Federal Government to ensure its completion. That the adoption by the Legislature of the report of its Committee will secure this co-operation, ought not, for a moment, to be doubted.—Nat. Int.

[Copy of the Preamble and Resolutions.]

Whereas the Legislature and People of Maryland feel a deep interest in, and anxiously desire, the early completion of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal: and whereas the immense advantages in trade and commerce to result from the completion of that work to the whole people of the West, as well as the middle portion of the Atlantic seaboard, to say nothing of its inestimable value as the strongest ligament and firm bond of our Union, give to it emphatically a national character, and claim for it the liberal patronage of the General Government: Therefore

Resolved by the General Assembly of Maryland, That the Senators of this State, in the Congress of the United States, be instructed, and the Representatives requested, to use their best exertions to obtain from Congress, at its present session, such a liberal appropriation of the public funds, in aid of the further construction of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, as shall at least ensure its completion as far as Cumberland.

And be it further Resolved, That this State will, whenever an unequivocal disposition shall be manifested by the Federal Government to aid efficiently in the prosecution of this work to completion, co-operate in the noble enterprise, by extending to the Company further pecuniary assistance, to the utmost extent justifiable by her fiscal resources, and her other duties to her citizens.

Resolved, That the Governor be, and he is hereby, requested to cause a copy of these resolutions to be transmitted, forthwith, to each of our Senators and Representatives in the Congress of the United States.