405 



MARYLAND. 



cal year ending 30th September, 1869, were 

 $3,002,090.58, which, added to the balance in 

 the treasury 30th September, 1868, $482,551.01, 

 makes the aggregate for the fiscal year $3,- 

 484,641.59. the total disbursements of the 

 same year were $3,039,301.18, leaving a re- 

 mainder in the treasury September 30, 1869, 

 of $445,340.41. The aggregate debts of the 

 State, for which interest has to be provided, 

 were, on the 30th September, 1869, $12,692,- 

 938.96. 



As an offset to this debt, and to liquidate 

 which, if it is deemed advisable to dispose of 

 any part of them, the State holds bonds and 

 stocks, on which the interests and dividends 

 are promptly paid, to the amount of $7,228,- 

 413.13, leaving a balance of debt, due by the 

 State, of $5,464,525.74, against which, how- 

 ever, she holds present unproductive stocks and 

 bonds in the different works of internal im- 

 provements, amounting (including an insignifi- 

 cant sum of bank, bridge, and penitentiary in- 

 debtedness) to $19,676,632.08. But there is 

 also due to the State from incorporated insti- 

 tutions, collectors of taxes, sheriffs, inspectors, 

 registrars of wills, clerks of courts, and such 

 other State officers, $1,562,151.89. Of this 

 large sum it may be estimated that one million 

 dollars will be returned into the treasury, 

 leaving the debt of the State over its produc- 

 tive assets less than four and a half million 

 dollars. It will thus be seen that the total 

 actual debt of the State, after deducting the 

 sinking fund and her reliable assets, is consid- 

 erably less than one-fourth of her temporarily 

 unproductive assets. 



Of the funded debts contracted by the State. 

 $988,622 matured in 1865, to cancel which 

 no arrangements have yet been made; $1,- 

 403,146.36 will mature in 1870; $100,000 of 

 " Southern Eelief Bonds " become due in 1873 ; 

 and all other loans of the State have from ten 

 to twenty years to run. During the years 

 1866, 1867, and 1868, the increase of crime was 

 so rapid in Maryland that the necessity of a 

 new penitentiary was deemed immediate, but 

 the records of 1869 show that there was no 

 increase during that year; the average num- 

 ber constantly in the prison was the same as 

 1868, while the total number committed (317) 

 was 26 less than the average of the three pre- 

 ceding years. 



The gross cost for maintaining the prison 

 for the fiscal year ending with the 30th 

 of November, 1869, was $72,716 12 



The sum received during the same period 

 for hire of convict labor, etc., was 38,953 45 



Expense to the State $33,762 67 



The statistics constituting a part of the, re- 

 port of the Directors exhibit the fact that, on 

 the 30th of November, 1869, there were four 

 hundred and fifty-seven colored and but two 

 hundred and twenty-three white prisoners. 



The General Assembly, at its session in 1867, 

 passed an act to establish and incorporate an 



asylum for the deaf and dumb of the State of 

 Maryland. By the provision of this act, "the 

 armory-grounds at Frederick City, with the 

 buildings thereon, are set apart for the occu- 

 pation and sole use of the said institute, with 

 full power and authority to erect thereon such 

 additional buildings as may be needed," etc., 

 " the sum of twenty-five thousand dollars, to 

 be used in the construction of the buildings 

 hereinafter provided for, is appropriated," and 

 a further annual appropriation, of so much of 

 five thousand dollars as is necessary for the 

 support and maintenance of the society, is 

 made. The institution is now in successful 

 operation, and has been for more than a year. 

 By the terms of the act creating it, it is re- 

 quired to " receive and educate all deaf and 

 dumb persons sent to said institution, free of 

 charge, who present a certificate of the Or- 

 phans' Court or County Commissioners, that 

 they, their parents or guardians, are unable to 

 educate or support them, and in all other cases 

 they are permitted to charge a sum not ex- 

 ceeding two hundred and fifty dollars per an- 

 num." 



The question of railroads and canals was one 

 of engrossing interest throughout the State, 

 and entered largely into the political history 

 of the year, the position of each candidate in 

 reference to the building of new avenues of 

 communication being made a test question at 

 the polls. The influence of the Baltimore and 

 Ohio Eailroad was brought to bear against all 

 lines likely to interfere with their monopoly ; 

 but the complexion of the Assembly is of a 

 liberal character, while the Governor is avow- 

 edly in favor of all public works calculated to 

 further the prosperity of the State. He de- 

 fines his position in the following language : 



It is no hostility to any railroad which has led me 

 to favor the construction of all roads and canals which 

 can be built in Maryland, and to favor their indepen- 

 dent operation after thejr are built. It is because I 

 would extend the same railroad facilities to the people 

 of Southern Maryland, for which they have been so 

 grievously taxed to afford them to all other sections 

 of the State, that I have alike urged the building of 

 the Baltimore and Potomac road, to which the Bal- 

 timore and Ohio is so hostile ; the Metropolitan, 

 which is one of its own branches, and the Southern 

 Maryland and Drum Point roads^ which the Balti- 

 more and Ohio has the opportunity of building, as 

 it had that of the Baltimore and Potomac offered it, 

 and which it contemptuously rejected. It is because 

 I would aid the prosperity of the city of Baltimore 

 by giving it cheap coal for its purposes of fuel, of 

 manufactures, and of steamship uses, and, by pour- 

 ing into its markets the agricultural and mineral 

 wealth of the counties of Baltimore, Carroll, Fred- 

 erick, "Washington, and Alleghany ; because I would 

 increase the prosperity of the people of the&e coun- 

 ties by giving them increased facilities, and thus en- 

 hance the value of their lands and decrease propor- 

 tionately the taxes of other parts of the_ State ; and 

 because I would open up, in every practical war, to 

 the markets of the world, the immense coal-fields of 

 Alleghany. 



By the act of incorporation of the Baltimore 

 and Washington road, a branch of the Balti- 

 more and Ohio Railroad, it is required that 



