United States Statutes at Large/Volume 4/Appendices/Appendix 1/Chapter 6
Extracts from the act of the state of Maryland, for the promotion of internal improvement, passed March 8, 1826.
Act of Maryland.Sec. 19. And be it enacted, That the treasurer of the Western Shore be, and he is hereby, authorized and required, for and on behalf of the state, to subscribe to the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company for stock to the whole amount of the stock of the Potowmac Company owned by the state, and of the debt due to the state by the said Potowmac Company, and to pay for the same in certificates of the stock of the Potowmac Company, and in the evidences of the debt due to the state, certified in the manner specified in the charter of the said Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company; and also to subscribe for five thousand shares of the stock of the said company, payable, agreeably to the terms of the charter, in the legal currency of the United States.
Sec. 20. And be it enacted, That the treasurer of the Western Shore be, and he is hereby, instructed and required, in like manner, to subscribe for five thousand shares in the Maryland Canal Company hereby incorporated.
Sec. 21. And be it enacted, That the sum of two hundred thousand dollars shall be, and the same is hereby, appropriated, or such part thereof as may be necessary, to drain, embank, and render dry and arable, the low lands on the margins of such rivers and creeks of the Eastern Shore of this state as the Board of Public Works may think proper and recommend, and to complete and carry into effect such plans for opening and improving the navigation of the Pokomoke, Manokin, Wicomico, Great Choptank, Chester, Elk, and North East rivers, as the Board of Public Works may devise, recommend, and contract for, on behalf of the state of Maryland: Provided, That, before any part of the aforesaid subscriptions, except so much as is payable in the stock and debt of the Potomac Company, shall be made, or any part of the sum herein appropriated to execute the improvements contemplated by this act to be made on the low lands situated on the margins of the aforesaid rivers and creeks, or to execute the improvements of the Pokomoke, Manokin, Wicomico, Great Choptank, Chester, Elk, and North East rivers, be expended, the Congress of the United States shall, by law, authorize a subscription for not less than ten thousand shares of the capital stock of the eastern section of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, and shall enact a law expressly securing to the state of Maryland, and to any company incorporated, or hereafter to be incorporated, by the said state, the right to take and continue a canal from any point of the Chesapeake and Ohio canal through the territory of Columbia, or any part thereof, to the said state, in any direction it may deem proper, upon the same terms and conditions, and with it all the rights, privileges, and powers, of every kind whatsoever, granted to the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company by the act of incorporation, and deciding, agreeably to the act of Congress passed at December session, eighteen hundred and twenty-four, that the canal, as locate by the Board of Public Works under the authority of this act, may be cut without impeding or injuring the navigation of the Chesapeake and Ohio canal. And provided, also, That the Board of Public Works shall previously ascertain and certify to the executive the practicability of connecting, by the canal described in this act, the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal with the Patapsco river at the city of Baltimore; and if the said Board of Public works shall adopt for the said canal a line wholly within the state of Maryland, then the act of Congress last mentioned in the foregoing proviso, shall not be necessary to authorize the subscriptions and expenditures aforesaid: And provided, also, That the executive shall previously be satisfied that the residue of the sum of money estimated by the United States’ Board of Engineers to be adequate to the completion of the eastern section of the Chesapeake and Ohio canal, after deducting the amount of the subscriptions of the state of Maryland and of the United States, herein provided to be made, hath been actually subscribed by the bona fide and competent subscribers.”