Mr. FTHOMAS. Mr. Speaker, I am very sensible that my physical condition is hardly such as to justify my takin any extended part in this discussion. But the house has so kindly adjourned this discussion from day to day that I cannot with any propriety ask for any further indulgence in that respect at this time. I shall content myself at this time with excluding all collateral matters and resenting a; brief a statement of the facts of this case as I can possibly make consistent with my desire to be understood, referring to the laws that seem to me to bear materially upon this question. In now taking part in this debate I depart from my almost uniform habit of silence in Congress; and it is right for me to say that this bill is one which, in myjudgment, is vitally important to my immediate constituents. And because it is in many respects of a local character, a duty is devolved upon me which perhaps no other member of this House will under take to discharge the duty of endeavor in to place before this House the facts and the Iaw which govern this case. And after having examined, with a great deal of care, all the laws of Congress and all the laws of the States of Maryland and Virginia that seem to have relation to this subject, I must be permitted to express my surprise that such a proposition as that now under consideration could be reported from the ComDistCol. The proposition is equivalent to seizing a very large amount of property invested under a solemn compact entere into between the Government of the U.S and the States of Maryland and Virginia. And not only that, but it proposes to leave on the hands of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company another amount of property, costing originally, I suppose, $500,000; for which the corporators, to whom it is now proposed to make this grant, are to give not one dollar, although they are to be benefited by all that enormous expenditure. Now, that I may not e suspected of making these veryround assertions without just warrant, aditt e detail at this point is indispen sable. The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company was organized in 1823, 1824, and 1825, under acts passed by the Legislatures of Virginia and Maryland, and by the Congress of the U.S. during that interval of time. By this charter they were authorized to begin a canal where it now begins, at the western terminus of the Washington canal, and to extend it across the Alleghauy mountains. But that has been abandoned since the introduction of railroads, and it now terminates in the town of Cumberland, in the coal regions. Every recaution was taken by the States of Maryland] and Virginia to prevent any disturbance in the future of the rights they were thus soliciting from conress. And it is not out of place for me to say ere that those precautions were wise and exhibited much foresight. although Virginia put in a small sum toward the construction of that large work, Maryland has now invested in it nearly 17 million dollars. Now let me recur, in the presence of law yers here. to the precautions taken, and then we can judge whether Congress will undertake to disregard every obligation Congress has as sumed and trample under foot the rights of a corporation which owes its very existence to the laws to which I refer, and give to non-residents of the District all the advantages that are to be derived in part from the large expenditures others have made.