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 sought to crush the effort by statements to the effect that a connection between the rail road and canal at Dam No. 6 would render further prosecution of the canal unnecessary. It also with probably a similar object in view stated that "many years would elapse, before the demand for coal would require more than 100,000 tons, in any one year, whatever facilities or transportation may be afforded." Had the same opposition been brought forward in December of 1834 or 1835 the work on the canal at that time would probably have been stopped; for, even with the powerful support of the immediate friends of the internal improvement companies, and the influential backing of the city of Baltimore, the appropriations of 1834 and 1835 were obtained only after a prolonged struggle, especially on the part of the canal company. The question of 1844 was one of an entirely different nature. It was not a question of internal improvement—not whether the wealth in the mountains should be added to the general aggregate of the state's resources, but a question of finance—a question of whether the mil-