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 depreciation of property and want of business.

"3. As well might we accuse the people of the District of Columbia of selfishness, because they will not help us to make a canal to the Susquehannah, as they can censure us for preferring that canal to one on the Potomac. We are willing that the Potomac canal should be made—but not at our cost; until, at least, we have fully ascertained what can be done in respect to a favorite measure of the same nature. But we must be permitted to doubt whether the people of the district would feel very zealous about the navigation of the Potomac, provided it was ascertained as practicable, and conditioned, that an arm of the canal should be extended to Baltimore, though the last is so much nearer the sea than Washington, &c."

As noted, Maryland refused to pass the bill incorporating the Potomac Canal Company, because of the objections, largely, of Baltimoreans. To the enlarged plan embraced under the name of Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company, assent was given,