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fully and properly, I have no objection to granting them an act of incorporation; but if it is an act of incorporation to bring into existence an artificial person to run all over the Union, then I say we ought not to grant it. What would be the result if every State in the Union should come to enacting corporations of that kind? Suppose the State of New York should pass acts of incorporation authorizing a body of gentlemen to mine all over the country; the State of New Hampshire should pass acts of incorporation authorizing people to manufacture all over the country; and the State of Pennsylvania should pass acts of incorporation, if they could do so, authorizing people to bank all over the country, and then you set these fictitious persons running all over the country to find some opportunity of doing business; what would be the condition of the country? It seems to me that these acts of incorporation should be made auxiliary to the business of the country. Where this necessity is shown first, or a convenience in any way of operation, then we ought to grant it. I have no great opposition to granting acts of incorporation to proper parties within the District; and if in the prosecution of that business in the District they find it necessary to go into other States and operate there, I have no objection. If, for instance, you should incorporate an insurance company to do business in this District, and they should find it necessary to run into all the States of the Union in a legitimate way, I have no objection to it. But I have a very great objection to incorporating this company for the purpose of sending them elsewhere, when they are not doing or desirous of doing business here. The Senator from Maine, undoubtedly, knows whether these people propose to go into business here; whether they are an association of gentlemen undertaking it here, or whether he is creating an artificial person to enable it for speculative purposes, or for some purpose outside of the District, to do business. I think he will see a very great objection to doing that. I think we should not pass this bill without grave consid

eration.

Mr. WADE. I voted in committee for this incorporation, and for several others like it. Some of them, I believe, have passed. I have not been able to see the importance of the arguments that have been made against this bill. A corporation is, in law, an artificial person for any purpose that may be described in the charter of incorporation. The States are in the habit everywhere of granting acts of incorporation for certain prescribed modes of business, and when the parties are incorporated they do business all over the Union. They can do, unless the law prohibits it, just what a natural person may do lawfully, and nothing more. The object of the incorporation is barely for the purpose of perpetual succession. When a great business is con templated that requires more capital than ordinarily belongs to one individual, and a great many, in order to carry it on, have to concentrate their means together, it is convenient for them to have a charter of incorporation, because, without it, when any member of the company dies, the whole company is dissolved, and it passes into the hands of administrators. Therefore these acts of incorporation do nothing more than to enable them to continue their business, notwithstanding the death of some of the parties.

As to the objection of their doing business outside of the authority that grants the incorporation, almost all your important corporations do that. Why, sir, look at your insurance companies of Hartford, Connecticut. They are doing business all over the United States to the amount of millions, and I do not know but of hundreds of millions, everywhere. Look at your companies for transportation, all over the country, everywhere. Your banking institutions do business in every State, all over the Union, without any objection whatever. In short, they can do just what a natural person may lawfully do, and they cannot do any

thing more. All the advantage the company has by being incorporated is, as I said before, that they may do business wherever they please, and on the death of some of the members, their company is not entirely dissolved. A great business cannot be carried on without it, and as they get no additional advantage in a State over a natural person prosecuting the same business, I do not know why it should not be granted if it is a lawful business. The States, of course, may put them under such restrictions as they please, and some of the States perhaps have prevented foreign corporations transacting business within their limits, or have modified the terms of their charter. and prescribed under what circumstances and limitations they may do business. But in the absence of any such thing a corporation may do all lawful business that a natural person can do. They cannot do anything more. It strikes me there is really but little in this objection that if we incorporate them here they will do business somewhere else. I expect they will; but if they do a lawful business, beneficial to themselves and the community, such as mining or manufacturing, I do not see how anybody is to be injured by it. If any State objects to it, they may fence them out, probably; but they do not see fit to pass acts of prohibition against these corporations generally, and therefore I think they have been beneficial, and I see no kind of objection to it.

Mr. GRIMES. I move to amend the billMr. MORRILL. I have some other measures which will not lead to debate, and I will allow this bill to pass over by common consent and call up.some other bill.

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. It is moved that the further consideration of this bill be postponed until to-morrow.

The motion was agreed to.

HOUSE BILLS REFERRED.

The following bills from the House of Representatives were severally read by their titles and referred as indicated below:

A bill (H. R. No. 379) to establish in the District of Columbia a reform school for boysto the Committee on the District of Columbia.

A bill (H. R. No. 564) to annul the thirtyfourth section of the declaration of rights of the State of Maryland, so far as it applies to the District of Columbia-to the Committee on the District of Columbia.

A bill (H. R. No. 601) to grade East Capitol street and establish Lincoln square-to the Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds.

AMERICA FIRE INSURANCE COMPANY.

Mr. MORRILL. I now ask the Senate to take up for consideration Senate bill No. 296.

The motion was agreed to; and the Senate, as in Committee of the Whole, proceeded to consider the bill (S. No. 296) to incorporate the America Fire and Marine Insurance Company of Washington, District of Columbia. It authorizes J. L. Kidwell, Francis Wheatley, Esau Pickrell, J. B. Davidson, and Thomas I. Davis, of Georgetown, District of Columbia; and Benjamin Beall, B. L. Jackson, Joseph F. Burr, Augustus E. Perry, and Frederick Koones, of Washington, District of Columbia, or any five of them, to receive subscriptions to the capital stock of a comany to be denominated the America Fire and Marine Insurance Company of Washington, District of Columbia. The company are to have the usual powers and privileges of a corporation. The capital stock is to consist of twenty thousand shares of fifty dollars each.

The bill was reported to the Senate without amendment, ordered to be engrossed for a third reading, read the third time, and passed.

CHESAPEAKE AND POTOMAC TIDEWATER CANAL.

Mr. MORRILL. I ask the Senate to take up for consideration Senate bill No. 281.

The motion was agreed to; and the Senate, as in Committee of the Whole, proceeded to consider the bill (S. No. 281) to authorize the Chesapeake Bay and Potomac River Tide

water Canal Company to enter the District of Columbia.

Mr. WILLEY. The Committee on the District of Columbia have reported an amendment as a substitute for the entire bill, and I therefore suggest that the reading of the original bill be omited.

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The reading of the original bill will be dispensed with, if there be no objection, and the amendment only be read.

The Secretary read the proposed substitute, as follows:

That the Chesapeake Bay and Potomac Tidewater Canal Company, incorporated by the General Assembly of the State of Maryland, at the January session thereof, 1866, by an act entitled "An act to incorporate the Chesapeake Bay and Potomac River Tidewater Canal Company," be, and the same are hereby, authorized to extend their canal from the point where it strikes the boundary line of the District of Columbia, thence in and through the said District to the Anacostia river at any point thereon above Bidding's bridge.

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That the said company are hereby authorized and empowered to take, purchase, and hold, for the purposes of this act, so much real estate and other property as shall be necessarily required for the proper construction of the extension aforesaid, and for the construction of all proper and convenient basins, locks, reservoirs, docks, and wharves, to be connected with said extension. And where the said company shall not be able to procure such real estate by purchase from the owner thereof, or the owner thereof shall be a femme covert, infant, non compos mentis, impris oned, or resident beyond the District of Columbia, then application may be made by the president of said. company to the chief justice of the supreme court of the District of Columbia for the appoint ment of three persons, who shall be freeholders in said District, as a commission of inquest of damages, and who shall go upon and inspect any property proposed to be taken by said company for the purposes contemplated by this act; and before any person so appointed as such commissioner shall proceed to act, he shall take an oath or affirmation that he will fairly and truly value the damages sustained by the owner or owners of any property by the use and occupation of any such real estate, water rights, or other property, by said company; and said commission shall reduce their inquisition or finding to writing, and sign and seal the same, and it shall then be returned to said chief justice, who shall file the same in the office of the register of deeds of the city of Washington. But no such inquisition shall be had until after ten days' notice thereof has been served on the owner of the real estate so to be taken, when he resides in the District of Columbia, or by publication of notice in one or more of the daily newspapers published in the city of Washington for twenty days where such owner resides beyond the said District. When the owner is a femme covert, the notice shall be to her and her husband; when he is a minor, to his guardian; and when he is non compos mentis, to his committee, or the person having the charge of his estate. The said report shall be confirmed by the supreme court of the District of Columbia at its next term after the return of said report, unless for cause shown to the contrary. And where good cause is thus shown, the said chief justice shall set aside said inquest, and appoint another similar commission, who shall qualify in the same manner, and whose inquisition shall be taken, returned, filed, and confirmed, or set aside for good cause shown, in the same manner as the first inquisition was taken, returned, filed, and confirmed, or set aside. And such commission or inquisition shall be renewed as often as may be necessary, until the inquisition made shall be confirmed. Such inquisition shall describe the property taken by metes and bounds, and the valuation thereof shall be paid or tendered within ten days after the confirmation of such inquisition by said district court; and when such valuation or damages are so paid or tendered, said company shall have a full and perfect right to enter upon, use, occorporate existence, and all expenses incurred by cupy, and enjoy any property so valued during its such inquisition shall be paid by said company.

SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That it shall be lawful for said company to levy, demand, and receive such even tolls and rents for the use of the wharves and docks of said company on said extension, or for freight transported by said company, or for the pas sage through said extension of boats, rafts, or any other water craft, as a majority of the directors at any regular mecting shall assess therefor: Provided, That the Congress of the United States shall at all times have power to increase or reduce such tolls or

rents.

SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That said canal extension, when completed, shall forever thereafter be esteemed and taken to be a public highway for the transportation of all goods, commodities, or produce of every kind and description, and for all canal-boats, rafts, or other water crafts of every kind whatever, upon the payment of such tolls or rents as are authorized to be imposed by this act.

SEC. 5. And be it further enacted, That the said company shall permit all public property belonging to the United States to pass through said canal extension free of all charge or toll; and the said company shall, from time to time, as may be required, lay before Congress a just and true account of their receipts and expenditures on said extension, with a statement of the clear profits thereof.

SEC.6. And be it further enacted, That, subject to the aforesaid provisions of this act, all and singular the provisions of the aforesaid act of the General Assembly of the State of Maryland, entitled "An act to incorporate the Chesapeake Bay and Potomac River Tidewater Canal Company," relating to the powers, liabilities, and authority of said company, in operating and using their canal, shall take effect and apply

to the extension aforesaid in the District of Columbia. SEC. 7. And be it further enacted, That this act shall be deemed a public act, and shall take effect and be in force from and after its passage, and shall be subject to alteration or repeal by Congress.

Mr. WILLEY. I move to amend the amendment in section one, line twelve, by striking out the word "Bidding's" before the word "bridge" and inserting the word "Benning's.

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. That correction will be made as it is a clerical mistake. The question is on the amendment reported by the committee as a substitute for the original bill.

The amendment was agreed to.

The bill was reported to the Senate as amended, and the amendment was concurred in. The bill was ordered to be engrossed for a third reading, was read the third time, and passed. Its title was amended so as to read:

A bill to authorize the Chesapeake Bay and Potomac River Tidewater Canal Company to enter the District of Columbia, and extend their canal to the Anacostia river at any point above Benning's bridge.

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COLORED SCHOOLS IN WASHINGTON.

Mr. MORRILL. I now move to take up Senate bill No. 247.

The motion was agreed to; and the Senate, as in Committee of the Whole, proceeded to consider the bill (S. No. 247) donating certain lots in the city of Washington for schools for colored children in the District of Columbia.

The Commissioner of Public Buildings is required by the bill to transfer to the trustees of colored schools for the cities of Washington and Georgetown, in the District of Columbia, for the sole use of schools for colored children in the District, all the right, title, and interest of the United States in and to lots numbered one and two in square numbered five hundred and fifty-four, and lots one, two, and eighteen in square nine hundred and eighty-five, in the city of Washington, those lots having been designated and set apart by the Secretary of the Interior to be used for colored schools for present purposes.

The Committee on the District of Columbia reported the bill with amendments. The first amendment was in line four, to strike out the word "transfer" and to insert the words "grant and convey.'

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The amendment was agreed to.

The next amendment was in lines nine and ten, to strike out the words " one and two in square numbered five hundred and fifty-four, and lots; so that the clause will read:

All the right, title, and interest of the United States in and to lots numbered one, two, and eighteen in square nine hundred and eighty-five.

The amendment was agreed to.

The next amendment was at the end of the bill to strike out the words "for present purposes," and to insert:

And whenever the same shall be converted to other uses they shall revert to the United States.

The amendment was agreed to.

The bill was reported to the Senate as amended, and the amendments were concurred in.

The bill was ordered to be engrossed for a third reading, read the third time, and passed.

Mr. MORRILL. I now ask the Senate to consider Senate bill No. 246.

The motion was agreed to; and the Senate, as in Committee of the Whole, procceded to consider the bill (S. No. 246) relating to public schools in the District of Columbia. It provides that the eighteenth section of the act entitled "An act to provide for the public instruction of youth in the county of Washington, District of Columbia, and for other purposes,' approved June 25, 1864, shall be so construed as to require the cities of Washington and

Georgetown to pay over to the trustees of colored schools of those cities such a proportionate part of all moneys received or expended for school or educational purposes in them, including the cost of sites, buildings, improvements, furniture, and books, and all other expenditures on account of schools, as the colored children between the ages of six and seventeen years, in the respective cities, bear to the whole number of children, white and colored, between the same ages. The money is to be considered due and payable to the trustees on the 1st day of October of each year, and if not then paid over to them, interest at the rate of ten per cent. per annum on the amount unpaid may be demanded and collected from the authorities of the delinquent city by the trustees.

The trustees may maintain an action of debt in the supreme court of the District of Columbia against said cities of Washington and Georgetown for the non-payment of any sum of money arising under the act of June 25, 1864.

The bill was reported to the Senate without amendment, ordered to be engrossed for a third reading, read the third time, and passed.

WASHINGTON GAS-LIGHT COMPANY.

Mr. MORRILL. I move to take up House bill No. 558.

The motion was agreed to; and the bill (H. R. No. 558) to amend the charter of the Washington Gas-Light Company was considered as in Committee of the Whole. It proposes to amend the charter of the Washington GasLight Company in the third section by substi tuting the word "February" for "January;" and also to increase the capital stock of the company $500,000, subject to the same liability as is provided in the eleventh section of the original act of incorporation, approved July 8, 1848.

The bill was reported to the Senate without amendment, ordered to a third reading, read the third time, and passed.

RAILROAD CONNECTION AT WASHINGTON. Mr. MORRILL. I.move that the Senate proceed to the consideration of Senate bill No. 264.

The motion was agreed to; and the Senate, as in Committee of the Whole, proceeded to consider the bill (S. No. 264) to grant certain privileges to the Alexandria, Washington, and Georgetown Railroad Company in the District of Columbia.

The bill proposes to give the consent of Congress to the Alexandria, Washington, and Georgetown Railroad Company using steam power in drawing cars on the structure across the Potomac river erected by that company, under the provisions of the act entitled "An act to extend the charter of the Alexandria and Washington Railroad Company, and for other purposes," approved March 3, 1863, and along the railway now laid by the company, or which may be hereafter laid, under the provisions of that act, along Maryland avenue and First street west, in the city of Washington, to the present depot of the Washington branch of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, subject always, and in all particulars, to such restrictions and regulations concerning the use of such steam power as the corporation of Washington may, by its ordinances, at any time impose upon, or at any time require of, the railroad company.

Mr. GRIMES. I understand that that bill grants to this company the power to run its trains through Maryland avenue and across Pennsylvania avenue at the foot of the Capitol grounds.

Mr. MORRILL. And across the bridge.
Mr. GRIMES. And across the bridge?
Mr. MORRILL. Yes, sir.

Mr. GRIMES. I hope that such a bill will not be passed. That is a question that has been brought before Congress for eight years, to my certain knowledge, and I believe we have always refused to grant the privilege. By some sort of legerdemain this company has during the war exercised, as a sort of war right, the

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privilege to run steam cars from the depot of the Baltimore and Ohio road down to the bridge; but I always understood it was to cease with the war. I see by the newspapers that it is constantly attended with destruction of property, and I believe in several instances with loss of life. The understanding was that a connection was to be made by a tunnel on the other side of the Capitol.

Mr. JOHNSON. That was the proposition made by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company some years ago.

Mr. MORRILL. I think the Senator from Iowa is misinformed, perhaps, about the facts. Mr. GRIMES. What facts?

Mr. MORRILL. The general facts. This bill makes no alteration in, gives no additional right beyond, the act of 1863 authorizing the Alexandria, Washington, and Georgetown railroad to extend its road by Maryland avenue and make connection with the Baltimore and Ohio road, and also to build a bridge across the Po tomac river; but it was not to use the motive power of steam except by the consent of the city of Washington and of Congress. The inference, perhaps, might be fairly enough that Congress would give its assent. Now, as a matter of fact, all that time and something more, since the passage of that act, this road has been operated by steam and is so operated now. I suppose nobody would think it desirable to limit the use of steam over their own bridge. On Maryland avenue there is no objection of course to the use of steam. It is a very broad street and the use of steam there would find its parallel in most of the large cities of the coun try-in Philadelphia, for instance, and Baltimore. The cars run for a much larger distance through a much more dense population in the city of Baltimore.

Mr. FESSENDEN. Not by steam.

Mr. MORRILL. Yes, by steam, both at this side of the city and on the other. Through the most dense part of the city, for a short distance the cars are drawn by horses; but the distance you go by steam before you reach the depot in Baltimore is much greater than the distance from the bridge up Maryland avenue. The only point of difficulty about this at all, to my mind, was whether they ought to operate this road by steam in front of the Capitol, across from Maryland avenue to the depot; but that has been done for three long years and more; it is done every day. The accident to which the Senator alludes-there was an accidentwas caused by an engine coming in collision with a horse car; but it was the fault of the horse car and not the fault of the railroad. The corporation of Washington_have_given their assent, and the bill is predicated upon the assent which has been obtained from the city of Washington.

Mr. FESSENDEN. Does the bill allow them to pass in front of the Capitol grounds on the west?

Mr. MORRILL. Yes, sir; but I have no objection to that being stricken out.

Mr. GRIMES. Strike out all after "1863" in the tenth line.

Mr. MORRILL. We have a bill now before our committee, and I think it has been reported in the House, changing the location of this route, as it manifestly ought to be, from the rear to the front, requiring them to tunnel under the streets in front of us. That is contemplated and that will be done; but I suggest whether gentlemen really believe there is any necessity at this moment for interfering with the prac tice which has obtained now for three years. Mr. GRIMES. Then what is the use of passing the last part of this bill?

Mr. MORRILL. The reason is obvious. While this road was being run by the War Department under the war power we did not any of us feel exactly like running against the engine driven by such a power; but now they have surrendered it to the company and the company do not feel that they are authorized to run the road by steam, as it has been run for the last three years, without the consent of Congress, and I think they are very right about it

Mr. GRIMES. I move to strike out all after "1863" in the tenth line.

The Secretary read the words proposed to be notion, and if a time was fixed within which stricken out, as follows:

And along the railway now laid by said company, or which may be hereafter laid, under the provisions of the said act, along Maryland avenue and First street west, in the city of Washington, to the present depot of the Washington branch of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, subject always, and in all particulars, to such restrictions and regulations concerning the use of such steam power as the corporation of Washington may, by its ordinances, at any time impose upon, or at any time require of, the said railroad

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The Secretary read as follows:

That the consent of Congress be, and the same is hereby, granted to the Alexandria, Washington, and Georgetown Railroad Company to use steam power in drawing the cars of said company on the structure across the Potomac river erected by said company, under the provisions of the act entitled "An act to extend the charter of the Alexandria and Washington Railroad Company, and for other purposes,' approved March 3, 1863.

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Mr. FESSENDEN. That bridge runs right along side of the Long bridge, as it is called. The objection before was that it would make the bridge dangerous to travel on.

Mr. HENDERSON. This is a new bridge, right by the side of the other.

Mr. MORRILL. A little distant from it. There will be no difficulty on that score.

Mr. GRIMES. If the amendment which I have proposed shall be adopted, it will give to this railroad company the privilege of passing over the railroad bridge by steam; but it will deny to them, or rather it will fail to confer upon them, the right to pass along Maryland avenue and in front of the Capitol grounds on the west by steam. This company has from the time it changed its ownership been constantly grasping after these privileges. As an army takes a fortification, it has been approaching the proposition that is now before us by parallels and by regular approaches, until finally it has a bill here which gives it unlimited sweep right through the city, and where, certainly as long as I have been here--eight years and a good many years before, I know Congress utterly refused to allow them to pass with steam power. One of the schemes for enlarging the public grounds around the Capitol is to take in the very ground over which this road now passes. Grant them this franchise, and then where will you be if you conclude in the future to extend the grounds in that direction?

Mr. JOHNSON. We can alter or repeal the act.

Mr. GRIMES. But of what value is a provision reserving the power to alter or amend one of these charters?

Mr. JOHNSON. It depends on Congress. Mr. GRIMES. But there is an appeal at once made to vested rights. There never was an interference with a charter made yet, and I presume never will be as long as the Government stands. The reservation of the power does not amount to a thing; it never was exercised and it never will be exercised. I would just as lief grant a charter without any reservation of the right to alter or amend as to grant it with that. But I understand that this railroad company have the privilege now from the city authorities of running through Maryland avenue; I do not want to cut them off immediately from running through Maryland avenue; but if you pass this bill the way it is now they will not any longer talk about coming up and making a tunnel east of the Capitol and avoiding Maryland avenue and First street west; they will have got all they want.

Mr. MORRILL. They are very anxious for the tunnel.

Mr. WADE. Put a limitation on them. Mr. FESSENDEN. I have tried to stand in the way of this thing for several years. They had a bill up here formerly to tunnel Capitol hill, and that bill I was willing to allow to pass with certain amendments which I deemed very essential to the preservation of our own rights and the rights of the people here; and after it

was amended they abandoned the bill. If they could not have it just according to their own they must get it done or lose their privileges -that was one of the amendments-they chose to abandon the bill, and we have not heard of it since. Their first application was precisely what it is now, and the Senate never would consent to encourage for a single day the proposition which they first brought forward and insisted upon so long, to pass directly in front of the Capitol grounds where there is so much passing on foot continually across Pennsylvania avenue. We have been obliged, however, to submit to it during the war. Now it would be very much safer, if they really mean to get a bill to authorize a tunnel and to go down the other way, to let the matter stand just as it is at present, let them go on at their own hazard, because nobody has interfered with them, they having permission of the city of Washington, and we not interfering. It would be better to do that than it would be to pass a bill giving them this right, because, as the honorable Senator from Iowa says, we all know that when they once get the right by law and get the power that is acquired under it, it is almost useless in a legislative body to attempt to deprive them of it.

I hope the day is not very far distant when we shall extend the Capitol grounds. It is very evident to everybody that the grounds now are disproportionately small for the building which stands here. I remember several years ago I had a long conversation with Senator Douglas on the subject. He took a great deal of interest in the matter, and I took a good deal of interest in it, and we both walked over the ground, looked all around, and came to our conclusion as to what ought to be done with reference to the Capitol grounds in our judg

ment.

We did not think there could be any dispute about it whenever Congress got time to do it. We agreed that we would, if we could, go on the Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds, and see if we could bring it about; but when the committee was made up we were not put on. I thought then, and think now, that when we do move in that matter, we ought to go to Third street west, taking in the two squares between First and Third streets, and go out to the depot on the north, and as far on the south side. We own the land on one side of Pennsylvania avenue all the way to Third street, and we ought to take in the other side. Mr. JOHNSON. Permit me to ask whether

a bill did not once pass to that effect.
Mr. FESSENDEN. No, sir; no such bill.
Mr. JOHNSON. Did it not pass the Senate,
I mean?

Mr. FESSENDEN. No.

Mr. GRIMES. There was a report made in favor of it.

No, never a report There was afterward Bayard, as chairman

Mr. FESSENDEN. made in favor of that. a report made by Mr. of the Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds, but it did not go as far as that.

Mr. JOHNSON. You proposed to go to Third street?

Mr. FESSENDEN. Our idea was that when we did move we ought to go to Third street on the west, to the depot building on the north, and as far on the south. We thought that on the west front we should go to Third street just as far as our public grounds extend on the one side of Pennsylvania avenue. Whether that will ever be done or not I do not know; but certainly the grounds should be extended somewhat on the west front, and if we are to extend them on that front of the Capitol it would be very unwise for us to embarrass ourselves with a permission given by law to a railroad company to establish themselves there, because we should be troubled with claims for damages and things of that sort, and it would be said that we were interfering with rights heretofore granted, and claims would be urged upon Congress and of one kind and another. My own idea has been always that the cars ought to cross above instead of going around where

they do. They ought to cross the river above instead of running on a bridge alongside the Long bridge. I think so still. It would be somewhat more expensive to them undoubt edly; but it would be a great deal more convenient for the public. They would be more out of the way, and they would leave the lower part of the city and the principal avenues undisturbed. To do that they would have to go a little further round, and therefore it would cost them a little more; and I have always found in my experience in regard to railroad bills that when the interests of a railroad came in collision with the interests of the public before legislative bodies the interests of the public always have to give way. It is so inva riably. It has been always found that they could not stand against the interests of a railroad company, for some mysterious reason or other that I never could exactly comprehend, even if I could see how the thing was brought about.

Now, I have an objection to their running a steam engine across their bridge right along. side of the Long bridge. If the Long bridge is to stand, there must always be a great deal of travel over it by carriages of all descriptions, and a great many horses to and fro; and as the country across the river settles still more the travel will increase; and to have an engine come steaming along directly by the side of that bridge, with horses and carriages on the bridge as they often are very thick, will, in my apprehension, lead to a great many very serious accidents. I always objected to it on that

account.

I state these things with regard to this prop osition to give by law the right to pass here by the Capitol. I am opposed to it utterly; but as to the other matter of crossing the bridge, I do not take so much interest in, as I do not risk my own neck down there.

Mr. HENDRICKS. I rise simply to answer one or two points made by the Senator from Maine. The present Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds has, to some extent, examined the question of the extension of the Capitol grounds. In so far as I know, that committee is only divided in regard to one question, and that is, whether it is well to take in the squares immediately north and south of the grounds east of the Capitol. I do not think it is proposed by any member of the committee now to extend the grounds on the west to Third street. So far as I am concerned, although there is great weight in the name of Senator Douglas brought in in favor of that enterprise, I should not think it proper to entertain the proposition now. The cost of securing those grounds would be enormous. They are not necessary, and I do not believe that the greatness of this country consists at all in the extent of the pleasure grounds for the accommodation of the people of the city of Washington. My judgment is that one line of railroad connecting the North with the South, even through the great city of Washington, is worth a hundred or a thousand acres of pleasure grounds.

I do not know anything about this particular bill; I did not know it was here; but I should dislike very much to see us return to the old proposition of being carried from the depot here across the Potomac river in carriages or in omnibuses. I never saw anybody inconven public grounds. This is a great matter, the ienced by the running of these trains along the connection of the northern and southern railways. At the last session of Congress, or at the session before, you granted the privilege of constructing a bridge across the Ohio river. You were content that the steamboat naviga tion of that great stream should be obstructed to some extent that you might make one con nected line of road between the North and the South, connecting the Indiana ronds and the Kentucky roads. I favored it, although to some extent it interfered with the navigation of that great river; and why? Because it was of prime importance as a public measure to connect the great lines of railroads of the southern States with those of the northern States. So

here, the road between this city and Baltimore is, to some extent, a trunk road, connecting the State of Virginia and those lying to the south of it with the States lying to the north.

This is a question of commerce, not a question of pleasure grounds, not a question whether the people of Washington can come and hear the music on Wednesday and Saturday evenings. I think that is unimportant. I should like to see this elegant building surrounded with sufficient and suitable grounds. We all agree about that; but that we should cut off a great line of commercial communication for the accommodation of a few people in this city is a proposition that to me has no force. I live in a city of a good deal of progress, which within four or five years has doubled its population, and why? Because there are eight first-class railroads that concentrate there, and we have furnished a union depot almost in the very heart of the city, where the traveling community from all portions of the world can come in and step from car to car without expense or delay. In that city there is no delay in transhipment, no hack hire, no omnibus business, but the old and the young can step right in that splendid depot from one train of cars to another, and they come in and out of the city by steam power running through the main streets of the city of Indianapolis, and there is no inconvenience about it. At the crossings of the streets we have men stationed to admonish the people of the approach of the cars. I say that that railroad connection in the city of Indianapolis is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to the city and to the whole country, and the advantage to the traveling community of all sections of the country is incalculable. It is a great thing to make these connections; and what is it to run through these broad streets? Our streets in Indianapolis, where the trains run at the rate of six miles an hour, are narrow compared with these immense avenues. Our streets are thronged with people pursuing commerce, trade, and manufacures, and yet there is no serious inconvenience. The cars go along, and the people look out for them. The avenue here proposed to be used, Maryland avenue, is comparatively a deserted street. It looks well enough; we keep

it

up; but if we put a railroad track down there, more people will go over that street in the railroad cars in a week when proper relations are restored, than now travel for months on the avenue. You scarcely see anybody on the avenue; and yet we keep up this broad avenue; we pay the expenses of it as a promenade, I suppose, and we are not to allow the channels of commerce to pass through it. I do not think it is good for much else than to lay down a first-class railroad on. I have a little objection to the railroad passing by in front of the public grounds, but not much. If people want to come up here and listen to the debates of Congress, let them look out for the cars; let boards be put up, as they are with us, to admonish the people that trains are coming. There is no great inconvenience about it.

Mr. GRIMES. This railroad company is not required even to do that.

Mr. HENDRICKS. It is suggested to me that some people may get killed. I know people are sometimes killed at Indianapolis, but that seems to be almost a necessity of commerce and trade, and we cannot help it. People who travel in cars are liable to be killed. People crossing the railroads in their wagons on the roads through the country are occasionally killed; but we cannot help that. There is no inconvenience here that amounts to anything.

I do not know whether I am really in favor of this bill, but I did not want to consent to the plausible propositions of the Senator from Maine.

Mr. FESSENDEN, The speech of the Senator from Indiana satisfied me, if I needed any satisfaction on that point, of the truth of the remark I made, that when you put the interest of the public in competition with a railroad bill, the former does not stand any 39TH CONG. 1ST SESS.-No, 171.

chance at all. The thing, as I said before, is mysterious, but men's minds work so. I do not care anything about Maryland avenue; I would as lief the cars should run through that avenue as not; what I object to is crossing Pennsylvania avenue at this point, and running along the Capitol grounds. I object to anything that will furnish a permanent difficulty in the way of extending the Capitol grounds. I think there is something on this earth of value to a people besides money and commerce and trade. I think that when a great Government like this has put up a building like this, the grounds around it ought to be of suitable extent. If they are large enough, so be it. I do not see any necessity for extending them on the east; but I do for extending them toward the river. It is, however, a matter of taste, a matter of opinion. I do not say that my opinion is good for much on such a question; but such was my opinion at the time when the proposition to which I have alluded was made. If it had been carried out at that time the expense would not have been as enormous nor so great by any means as it will be now. The expense then would have been comparatively small. It may perhaps be too expensive now, and it may be too late to accomplish the object; but it is a thing which of all others I should like to have done, because I hope the time will arrive-of course I shall not live to see it-when a building like this which is a glory to the country shall be surrounded by grounds of suitable extent. The sooner we begin to provide for them the better; and when we have done it, I think that a little spot on the face of the earth of a hundred acres or so might be spared for the Capitol of a great nation like this, even to the extreme inconvenience of a railroad company of requiring them to take another direction around the grounds instead of going through them. This is the whole argument, that it would cost them a little more money, they would have to go a little further to get on one side clear of the Capitol grounds, where we meet, and where we are to meet. It would be a little more expensive to them; but I think that there are arguments of sufficient consequence if we could only find them, why a private company should be put to a little more expense and inconvenience rather than that they should put everybody else to inconvenience and subject everybody else to danger. It may be, however, that I am mistaken, and that there is nothing which ought to come in competition with the interests of a railroad company,

Mr. HENDRICKS. I think one remark of the Senator from Maine was not exactly just. I was not interposing for and I do not refer to, the interests of any railroad company. I said

I did not know this company. I did not know what the interest was, and my whole argument was, that a mere matter of taste or the pleasure of people here should not stand in the way of a great railroad connection.

Mr. FESSENDEN. Then my friend from Indiana misunderstood me. I am not troubling myself about the convenience of the people of Washington particularly, but here is our Capitol, here are our public grounds; we ourselves pass directly every day from the foot of them across the avenue. What I contend for is that we ought to have grounds suitable to the building we occupy, the Capitol of the nation; and it is totally inconsistent with that idea and totally unnecessary, too, that we should have a railroad company driving its engines and its cars directly through these grounds or directly across the foot of them, where we must necessarily pass to and fro every day when Congress is in session, when they can find another mode of crossing at perhaps some additional expense to themselves. I agree with the Senator that it might be very important and very well to have a connection across this city, north and south, but I do not see the absolute necessity that it should go in one direction rather than another. That never has been proven to my satisfaction.

Mr. HENDRICKS. The remark of the

Senator that I objected to was that my few remarks had satisfied him that when a railroad company is on the one side and the public interest on the other, he always saw that the railroad company won the field.

Mr. FESSENDEN. I will say to the Senator exactly what I meant by that. I had made the remark before that it always turned out to be so, and when I saw so very sensible and so very clear-headed a man as my honorable friend from Indiana taking that line of argument, it satisfied me of the truth of my previous remark.

Mr. HENDRICKS. I will tell you what I think it ought to have satisfied the Senator of -that the true interests of the country must be respected. Now, I do not know this company, and I care nothing about it as a company, whether it makes profit or not; but to make a railroad connection I do care about. That is of prime importance; and this thing of tunneling around to the east of the Capitol I do not believe anything in. I do not think it will ever be done. I have no faith in that, not a particle. I do not believe there will ever be any tunnel made there. I do not either, if

Mr. FESSENDEN. they can cross down here. Mr. HENDRICKS. are level.

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Mr. FESSENDEN. That I do not want them to do.

Mr. GRIMES. I withdraw my amendment and substitute in place of it an amendment in the thirteenth line striking out "and First street west."

Mr. JOHNSON. I ask the honorable member how that affects the bill.

Mr. GRIMES. It will leave the company the privilege of crossing the bridge and Maryland avenue, but will not grant them the priv ilege of crossing Pennsylvania avenue or First street in front of the Capitol grounds.

Mr. JOHNSON. It is very important, as I think, that there should be a continuous communication. That it ought not to be in front of the Capitol, I admit, except as a temporary provision. That the Capitol grounds ought to be extended, I also agree with the Senator from Maine. But I do not know that any any actual inconvenience has occurred, or, except upon one occasion, any accident has occurred, from running the cars across in front of the grounds as they now stand. I think the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company once applied for permission to connect their road with the Virginia roads by tunneling here to the east, and that application, I think, they have renewed. I have no doubt that if Congress will give them the privilege of making a connection in that way they will avail themselves of it; but in the mean time it would be very injurious to the people South and North that they should be stopped at Maryland avenue. They must then make the connection with the Baltimore and Ohio road above, either in omnibuses or horse cars, or by walking, and they must dispose of their baggage in the same way. If the honorable member will limit the privilege that this is to give, to some three or four or five years, I think it would answer his purpose.

Mr. MORRILL. I think I ought to explain this bill a little further. I am sure the Senate do not quite understand it. I have already said that what the bill now contemplates has actually been practiced, not by this company, but by the War Department, for the last four years, and there has been no practical inconvenience resulting from it. They have now built a bridge at great expense across the Potomac river and are running, I am told, some ten trains a day between this place and the city of Alexandria. Now, if they should be restricted to the Potomac river, to simply crossing the river, it will be seen at a glance what the inconvenience to the public would be here, and would be between the Baltimore and Ohio depot all this distance to be made good in some way, by carriages, &c. I think there is something in the argument of my colleague

as to the crossing here in front of the Capitol Mr. HENDERSON. I said three years ago, grounds; and if it was intended to be a perma- but I take that back. It is three years ago since nent thing, I would not give my consent to it. we gave authority to build the bridge. It was conBut I know the fact that a bill is already pend-structed, I think, within about twelve months. ing to change the location from Maryland avenue around to the east side of the Capitol, and there pass by a tunnel to a connection on the north side into a common depot with the Baltimore and Ohio railroad.

Now, I suggest whether it is worth while to interrupt the communication that has been made for four years in front of us here. For the present, why not allow the company to continue to practice what has been so safely practiced for the last four years, until a communication can be made on the east side of the Capitol? The amendment proposed by the Senator from Iowa relieves the matter very much, because it gives the company the right to cross the bridge and the right to come up Maryland avenue, but it leaves the connection between Maryland avenue and the Baltimore and Ohio railroad depot unprovided for. If that is the sense of the Senate, that they ought not to make the connection, I am content.

Mr. HENDERSON. As a member of the Committee on the District of Columbia, I have had more or less occasion to look into this matter. In fact, I was upon a sub-committee to examine the scheme of tunneling the ground east of the Capitol. I went around and examined it. I do not know that I could form any correct conclusion from any examination I might make on a subject of that sort, but I should dislike very much, from what I know of this matter, to see the amendment of the Senator from Iowa adopted. I would much rather see a proposition giving the company the right to continue the use of steam upon these streets, for a short time, say for twelve months or two years. I would amend the bill by inserting after the word "granted," in the fourth line, the words "for a period of two years from the date of the passage of this act;" and then I would add a proviso that trains should not be drawn through Washington city, or along the bridge over the Potomac river, at a greater rate of speed than five miles an hour, or if the Senate choose to say six miles an hour I shall be satisfied. In 1863 we had some legislation on this subject, and we provided by the first section of the act approved March 3, 1863

"That the Alexandria and Washington Railroad Company be, and the same is hereby, authorized to extend their said railroad from the south side of the Potomac across said river to and along Maryland avenue to the Capitol grounds, and across Pennsylvania avenue along First street to Indiana avenue, and thence to the Baltimore and Ohio depot; and that all the ordinary rights, privileges, and liabilities, incident to similar corporations are conferred upon said company for that purpose: Provided, however, That the same shall be subject to alteration, amendment, or repeal: And provided further, That the cars shall not be drawn on the streets aforesaid, or on the structure across the Potomac river mentioned in the second section of this act, by steam power, without the consent of Congress and of the corporate authorities of the city of Washington thereto."

By one of the provisions of that act I understand that the company have been propelling their cars by steam over Maryland avenue and along First street, west of the Capitol, ever since that time. At that time authority was given to build a railroad bridge across the Potomac river, very near to what is termed the Long bridge. The company constructed a very valuable bridge, a very good railroad bridge, and are now using it. It is true it is near the Long bridge. The Senator from Maine [Mr. FESSENDEN] thinks it would be very dangerous to persons crossing the Long bridge, especially in carriages, to have railroad trains propelled by steam across the railroad bridge. I can state to the Senator, upon some inquiry into the matter, that I have never heard of a single accident on the bridge since trains have been propelled across by steam. We can best judge matters of this sort by experience and by actual test. For three long years they have been using steam power on this bridge, and not a single accident has occurred upon the Long bridge in consequence of it.

Mr. GRIMES. How long?

They have been using steam upon the bridge now for about eighteen months or two years, and not a single accident has occurred in consequence of it. I have heard of but one accident from the use of steam, even upon First street west, and that has been alluded to, I believe, by the Senator from Maine, and it turned out in that case that it was not the fault of the railroad company, but the fault of the driver of the horse car.

Now, the question arises whether it would be advisable to abandon this direct communication between the Baltimore and Ohio railroad and the Alexandria railroad, or rather to use horse power in drawing the cars through this city, thus obstructing to a certain extent trade and travel between the North and the South, because this is the only line that affords direct railroad communication. The Baltimore and Ohio railroad cars go through with steam a portion of the city that is more densely popu lated, or at least as much so as Maryland avenue. Mr. JOHNSON. Where?

Mr. HENDERSON. They use steam coming into their depot on the north side.

Mr. JOHNSON. But there are no houses there.

Mr. HENDERSON. I can hardly see any houses on Maryland avenue to be injured or endangered by the use of steam.

Mr. JOHNSON. The Philadelphia railroad goes through a large extent of the settled part of Baltimore by steam.

Mr. HENDERSON. Yes, that is on the other side; and on this side also the Baltimore and Ohio railroad in approaching the depot in the city of Baltimore passes through a portion of that city much more densely populated than is any part of the city of Washington where it is proposed to run these cars by steam. This is done in almost every city of the Union. It is done in Chicago; it is done in Cleveland; it has been done in the city of St. Louis during the whole period of the war, and I do not now remember any case of an accident having occurred in consequence of it. Possible accidents have occurred; but certainly very few, if any, in consequence of the use of steam. I have not heard of a building being burned, or even of any collision between the drays upon the wharves at St. Louis and the steam engines.

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I do not propose to give the permanent use of First street west. I have the same objection to that which the Senator from Maine sented. In fact that right is worth a great deal to this company; it is worth an immense amount to them. The truth of the matter is, that the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company is very anxious to secure the privilege of tunneling the ground for half a mile or three quarters of a mile on the east of the Capitol, and thus to get a permanent connection between the northern and southern lines of railroad in this country. They estimate the cost of that work at more than a million dollars, and they are very willing, indeed very anxious, to secure that privilege at the hands of Congress. I would not grant the privilege of using First street as a permanent privilege, but I would give them the temporary use of the street while the tunnel is being constructed, by means of which they can get under ground on the northern side of the city, and keep under ground until they approach the canal south of New Jersey avenue.

Mr. FESSENDEN. That is where they should go.

Mr. HENDERSON. A tunnel can surely be constructed on the eastern side of the Capitol by means of which to make the connection, and it ought to be done. I would not cut off the privilege which is now being exercised at present. I would let them pass through the city and across First street, because we are not proposing just now to extend the Capitol grounds; we are not prepared to do so; and it is of very great moment indeed, now that the country has been restored, to its old commer

cial relations, anyhow, that the connection should be as perfect as possible. This is the only point at which it can be made.

I would suggest another fact that I have had some occasion to examine as a member of the Committee on the District of Columbia. I was not aware that such a bill was here. It is not the bill which we had before us, and which was given in my charge. That bill was for the pursose of tunneling on the east side of the Capitol; and I examined the matter, and at the request of the parties interested, agreed to let it lie until a bill should come from the other House on the subject. I do not know what course of action the other House has taken on the bill that was pending there. There is a bridge at Georgetown that belonged to the Alexandria Canal Company; and the Senator from Ohio [Mr. WADE] and myself have had a duty devolved on us to make some examination into that. It is an interference, as now constructed, with the harbor at Georgetown; and the inhabitants of Georgetown are exceedingly anxious, now that they desire to extend their wharf facilities and their coal facilities, to remove the bridge, or to be enabled to put a draw in it, so that commerce may go for some two or three miles further up the river, and that they can use that portion of the wharves at Georgetown west of the bridge for coaling purposes, and that sailing vessels can be taken up there. In order to do that, we have to interfere with the chartered privileges of the Alexandria Canal Company. A draw cannot be put into the bridge when used as an aqueduct, but can if used as a bridge; and in all probability legislation may be had during this session by which that bridge at Georgetown, with certainly very superior piers, with very little expense may be made a means of communication across the Potomac of far better character than now enjoyed through the Long bridge. It is now dangerous, as I understand, or becoming so, to cross upon the Long bridge at all, not from the passage of railroad trains, but because of the character of the structure itself.

Mr. WADE. They have not passed on that bridge for a long time.

Mr. HENDERSON. I now understand that it was dangerous; I did not know that fact before.

Mr. FESSENDEN. I suppose, then, the reason that no accidents have happened is because nobody crosses it.

Mr. HENDERSON. There was crossing there after the company commenced using steam. I would state that upon an examination of the subject I think it is likely that we can secure the bridge at Georgetown. The Canal Company owes the Government $300,000 loaned in 1837. No attention has ever been paid to it. The canal is very unprofitable stock in the hands of the company. It is worth nothing. Indeed, it is doubtful whether the company would ever again use it as a canal. Certainly if we take the past experience of the canal, the profits of the business will not pay for the necessary repairs in order to use the bridge as an aqueduct again. Under the circumstances, inasmuch as the travel is now passing over the bridge at Georgetown almost entirely, and inasmuch as no inconvenience can arise from using steam across the railroad bridge, which is a very superior structure, and the company deserve a great deal of credit for constructing such a work as it is, and inasmuch as com merce would require that if we can use with anything like security the streets of the city in order to connect the lines of railroad we should do so, I think we had better pass the bill, limited as I have suggested.

The Senator from Iowa is a friend of inter communication, and even went so far, the other day, as to see no objection to bridging

the Father of Waters.

Mr. MORRILL. At Burlington. Mr. HENDERSON. I believe he made no objection at any point to very low structures. I suggest to him that he had better withdraw

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