A. L. Bishop — The State Works of Pennsylvania. 205 



to extend the improvement system, and the most extravagant 

 schemes were at once undertaken. When, in the face of impending 

 bankruptcy, a halt had to be called, no revenue could be expected 

 from the new ventures without a further expenditure of many 

 millions of dollars. The influence of the chartering of the Bank of 

 the United States will be more fully considered in connection with 

 the financing of the public works, and it is to this aspect of our 

 subject that attention will now be given. 



Chapter IV. — Finance. 



The Act of April lltli, 1825, which created the first board of 

 canal commissioners, was the first also to provide for the prelimin- 

 ary arrangements in the financing of the public works. By it, the 

 new board Avas directed to inquire into the means most suitable for 

 establishing a canal fund; to ascertain the terms upon which loans 

 could be obtained ; and to devise means for meeting the interest and 

 for the final payment of the principal. 



Their report of February 3d, 1826,* upon these various matters, 

 contained numerous recommendations which were embodied in an 

 Act of legislature of April 1st, 1826.t This date, it will be recalled, 

 was about a month after the construction of the first sections of 

 the trunk line had been authorized. This initial financial legisla- 

 tion provided for the establishment of an "internal improvement 



States. By these two ti'ansactions, between five and six million dollars were 

 thrown into her coffers. Intoxicated by the sudden acquisition of so large an 

 amount of money, instead of husbanding it Avith proper care, as she should 

 have done, the most extravagant schemes of improvement were undertaken, 

 which now involve us in the difficulties with which we find ourselves sur- 

 rounded, and which yet require the expenditure of millions upon millions to 

 ensure completion." — Minority Report of Committee on Inland Navigation 

 and Internal Improvements, in J. H. Rep., 1840, II (Part II), p. 255. 



"These habits of lavish and ill-judged appropriations, engendered by the 

 sudden and unexpected acquisition of public money, through means which can 

 seldom if ever happen again, must be promptly corrected. It is frequently 

 observed in the case of private individuals, that the sudden acquisition of 

 wealth is fatally injurious to the prudent habits and sound morals of the 

 possessor. It is more emphatically true in the case of governments. . . . 

 The enormous and imprecedented deficit in the trea.suiy now to be supplied is 

 an instructive commentaiy on its practical results." — Extract from Governor 

 Porter's Message, in J. H. Rep., 1838-39, II (Part I), p. 521. 



* See J. H. Rep., 1825-26, II, p. 232. 



fLaws of Pennsylvania, 1825-26, p. 168. 



