Report of the Select Committee on the sale of the works of Internal Improvement upon introducing a bill for the sale of the Central Railroad.

The select committee, to whom was referred so much of the message of the Governor as relates to the sale of the works of internal improvement, and to whom have besn also referred great numbers of petitions very numerously signed, and coming from almost every portion of the state, praying for the sale of the public works, beg leave to report:

That they have given to the recommendations of the Executive, contained in his message, and to the numerous petitions referred to them, touching the sale of the public works, the most careful attention and consideration, as well from the great importance of the subject itself, as from respect due to the recommendations of the Executive, and the very marked indications of the popular will manifested in the petitions. How fully the recommendations of the Governor for a sale have been responded to from the people, is strikingly seen from the fact, that several thousand citizens, throughout the length and breadth of the state, have petitioned the Legislature that the works might be sold, while but a single remonstrance has been presented against such sale. Various considerations concur at the present time, which, to your committee, seem to show conclusively, not only that a sale is highly politic, but almost a matter of necessity. From well known causes, which it is not deemed necessary here to enumerate, the fact the important fact is now fully apparent, that the state has not the ability to complete any of the public works, or place them in a situation in which they would be most productive of revenue or prolific of benefit to the great interests of the state. Your committee do not doubt, that as well to reduce the public debt and relieve the people in some measure from taxation, as to develope the resources of the state, by opening to them interior channels of communication and outlets to market, by which, the rich products of our teeming

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soil, may readily, and at a cheap rate, find a market-sound policy dictates a sale of all our works of internal improvement.

To such result had your committee arrived when the House signified to the committee its pleasure that bills for the sale of the public works should be brought in with all convenient speed. The committee found great difficulty in maturing a plan for such sale, whereby a large portion, if not the whole of the monies expended on the several works might be realized to the state, and at the same time the usefulness of the several works to the public be continued, and if possible, extended and enlarged. The people have entertained high hopes of benefits to accrue to the state from the prosecution of these works, and they will very reluctantly see them pass from their hands without present advantage and prospect of future good. In our immediate vicinity, where their value is best known, no persons are found of sufficient ability to purchase and pay for these works; and it is a matter of difficulty and delicacy to present sufficient inducements to attract large amounts of capital from the east, and at the same time place the like guards and restrictions around the investment of such capital, as are found in more populous and opulent districts of country.

The committee have directed their attention particularly in the first instance to the disposition of the Central Rail Road as the most prominent and valuable of our public works, and that from the productiveness of which, many hoped and expected and predicted with great confidence, that we should be saved from onerous taxation on account of our public debt. The failure of the road to meet the expectations of its sanguine friends, arises not from the lack of business to be done, but from the utter incapacity of a road of the light superstructure and rail found upon this road, to transact the business offering upon the line of it. A heavy rail is indispensable, and the state has not the ability to provide such a rail. Doubtless, when the road shall be opened to Lake Michigan, with a proper rail thereon, it will be proven that the great natural advantages of this rout, and the vast amount of business to be done upon it, have not been overrated. In preparing a bill for the sale of the road, the price to be obtained, the ability of those to whom it is offerred to pay the same, and to complete and rebuild the road with a heavy rail, the time when the road shall be so completed and relaid, the protection to be provided for the people, and

especially the agricultural interests, against exorbitant tolls, and the manner in which the state, at a future day, in case the transter of this road to private hands should be attended with serious or unfor. seen evils, could re-possess herself of the road without injustice to those individuals who shall invest their fortunes therein, have claimed particular attention, The committee reserving the state building at the Detroit depot, and lot upon which it is situated, have placed the price at $2,000,000, which they deem to be a reasonable remuneration to the state for the same, and as much as has been actually expended by the state in the construction thereof. Besides, it is well known that the first fifty or sixty miles of the road, is much dilapidated, and the superstructure and rail of so little worth, that they must shortly be renewed the whole distance, together with many of the bridges on the rout. The purchasers get no title until the whole purchase money is paid to the state. The amount requisite to purchase and complete and renew the road with a heavy rail, and a suitable supply of depots; engines and cars, is estimated to exceed four millions. It is without precedent that any company has brought to the West such an amount of money to be invested in any enterprize. In looking thro' the length of the land, your committee find but one district of country in which capital to that amount can be well spared for investment at a distance, and but one class of men in that district whose vigilant and far-seeing eye would be likely to engage them in such an adventure. The men named in the bill presented, are of that class. Of their ability to take and complete the road, no doubt is entertained; and your committee have strong grounds to believe that they will purchase the road on the terms proposed, if the bill shall become a law in its present shape; but in case any material alteration is made they cannot anticipate with any confidence such a result.

Provision is made in the bill for completing the road to Lake Michigan, and re-laying the eastern portion of the road at an early day, under heavy penalties; and that we may not be unnecessarily taxed by reason of roads of light structure, and insufficient for transportation of produce, the rail is to be of sixty pounds weight to the yard, which is better iron than is now found upon any road in the United States.

To protect the people against unreasonable charges for freight and

passengers, the maximum for passengers within the state is three cents per mile; and upon the great staples of produce and consumptionflour, grain, lime, plaster, salt, pot and pearl ashes, beef, pork, and wool packed in sacks, the tolls are limited to the average of tolls on the best New England roads, upon the same articles: these rates to be reviewed and adjusted once in ten years, if the state desire it.This is at once putting our citizens in this new state upon a footing of equality with those of Massachusetts, where rail-roads are better conducted than in any other portion of the Union.

If a sale is to be made, it becomes indispensibly necessary to incorporate the purchasers, and invest them with adequate powers to complete the road, and to run it in successful competition with steam boat and other rival routes. Some few have supposed that the act investing any body of men with corporate franchises, should reserve to the legislature an absolute power at any moment, with or without cause, to repeal the act and annul the corporate powers granted. The propriety of such a provision in reference to monied corporations, your committee do not deem it here necessary to consider, as they have no analogy to rail-road companies.

If the corporate powers of a bank are revoked, it can easily and expeditiously convert its promisory notes, and bills of exchange, and bonds and mortgages into money, and divide the proceeds amongst the stockholders; so that the effect is to return the money invested in the bank to the stockholders, and only to deprive them of the peculiar advantages of employing their capital in that particular manner, which might accrue from the provisions of the charter of the bank. But very different is the position of a Railroad company. The money of its stockholders has been expended in shaping the surface of the earth-in cutting down hills-in filling up valleys-in constructing expensive bridges-in laying deeply and securely in the soil the timber foundations, and in surmounting them with an iron superstructure that no weight can crush-no speed of the ponderous train can start from its foundations-against which the elements war in vain— in planting the walls and raising the superstructures of stately and capacious depots, in which may safely and conveniently be deposited for transportation the vast and accumulating products of our soil and industry-and in providing car houses and machine shops, and other

necessary structures upon their road. Annul the franchises of the the Railroad Company, and what becomes of all the moneys thus expended? Do they return to the stockholder? Not a dollar. If the corporate franchises are revoked, the land upon which the road is constructed reverts to its former proprietors, or escheats to the state. The road in the eye of the law is part and parcel of the soil upon which it is built and so are the depots and car houses, and machine shops, and bridges, and other fixtures connected with the road; and all would go with the land. The whole investment of the stockholdders would be a total and irretrievable loss—a ruinous and overwhelming sacrifice. And if a power of repeal is reserved in the act, the entire investment of the stockholders might be taken from them in an instant, by an arbitrary act of the Legislature under the impulse of momentary excitement, and with as little consideration as we vote an adjournment for dinner. The action of Legislative bodies should ever have the impress of justice. Nothing can be just which involves such consequences. It would still be the iron heel of despotism, though veiled under the specious garb of popular liberty.

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Your committee have, therefore, come to the unanimous conclusion, that it would be unjust as well as impolitic, to reserve a power of repeal without provision for compensation. Indeed, it would be but mockery to the wishes of the people to propose a sale with an unqualified power of repeal-a clog which the most superficial observer must see, would totally defeat a sale. It is idle to suppose that men would come a thousand miles from their homes to embark their fortures, to the extent of $4,000,000, when they would be subject, at any moment, to be deprived of the whole of it. Men of the prudence to accumulate fortunes do not hazard them upon such quick-sands.

To protect the state from prejudice from unforseen contingences, the right to revoke the corporate franchises with compensation; in other words, to re-purchase the road, has been reserved to the state, which right may be exercised at any time after twenty years, by paying to the company the market value, or at least the par value of their stock with a small additional per centage. It was thought but reasonable to give the company time to finish and rebuild their road, and test its capacity before they should be compelled to part with it.

To enable the company to protect itself from the effects of steam