"The papers will be plain to you, Judge Custis, after I have made a few
words of explanation. You well know that the canal between the Delaware
and Chesapeake is finished, and vessels are now passing through it from
bay to bay. It is taking one hundred dollars a day tolls, and twenty
vessels already go past between sun and sun, though the size of the
shipping of the cities it connects has not yet been adapted to its
proportions. It has been a cheap and quick work, costing something above
two millions of dollars, taking only five years of time; and yet it has
begun its mercantile life by a cheat upon a man to whom it is indebted
as a promoter and contractor, and to whom I have advanced the means to
compel justice and damages."
"Well, well, Milburn; I must pay tribute to your enterprise. The era of
these great carrying corporations has barely begun, and you stake your
little fortune against one of them that is backed by the great city of
Philadelphia!"
"The canal passes through the state of Delaware, in which is three
quarters of its little length of only fourteen miles, and there a suit
will be free, to some extent, from the corruptions they might exercise
in Pennsylvania; and, if successful there, we can more easily attach the
tolls of the canal. I have no more faith in the Legislature of Delaware
than of any other state; kidnappers sit in its responsible seats, and it
licenses lotteries to make prizes of its own honor.
Pages:
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263