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



That on the said 7th day of November, sections 65, 67, 98, 108, 110, 

 111, 112, 113, 114, 132, 133, 147, 149, 155, 159, and 174 on the said 

 Tunkhannock line, were re-let under the foregoing notice. That 

 none of the said sections were specified in the notice published 

 except K"o. 132, and that no notice of their abandonment, or that 

 the.y were to be re-let, was ever published in any form whatever, 

 until late in the day on which they were to be allotted. That all 

 of the said sections were re-let to the very identical persons Avho had 

 abandoned them, and who had upon the same, large forces of 

 hands employed, who were neither discharged nor stopped in 

 their operations for a single day, insomuch, that from ought that 

 appeared, either from the operations on the jobs themselves, or 

 from any public notice which had been given, the citizens of this 

 commonwealth had no reason to suppose that said contracts either 

 had been, or would be abandoned and re-let, until the very hour 

 when bids for them were to be received. * . . . From the above 

 statements it conclusively appears that the foregoing sixteen sec- 

 tions were re-let at the enormous advance of $103,336.18f above 

 the price at which they were bid for by men equally, if not more 

 responsible, than those to whom the work was re-allotted." 



This gross violation of the law governing the re-letting of con- 

 tracts becomes all the more culpable since the contracts were 

 re-assigned at a considerable advance in price to the very persons 

 who had not abandoned the work of construction under the original 

 arrangements. As to whether the contractors alone were to profit 

 by the deal, or whether a part of the differences between the old 

 and the new prices was to be refunded to the higher officials or be 

 used for campaign funds, does not appear in the evidence. The 

 fact remains, however, that by such practices the state was robbed 

 and the debt correspondingly increased. 



It is of course impossible to make any estimate of the extent to 

 which the state debt was augmented on account of political favorit- 

 ism. The inference is, however, that the increase was considerable. 

 A committee appointed on the 18th of January, 1841,| to investi- 

 gate the expenditures upon the canals and railroads belonging to 



* Here follows a tabular statement of the names of the contractors who 

 abandoned and retook the same contracts; the prices under the former con- 

 tracts; the prices under the new contracts; the names of the competent and 

 responsible bidders; and the amounts which they bid. 



f The combined prices of the first letting on these sections was $339,535.62. 

 Tlie advance in price at the ro-letting was .$03,770.63 above this figure, or 

 $103,336.18 above the price of the rejected bids. 



i See J. H. Rep., 1841, II, p. 591. 



