USA > Pennsylvania > The Register of Pennsylvania : devoted to the preservation of facts and documents and every other kind of useful information respecting the state of Pennsylvania, Vol. IX > Part 36
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The public works on Beaver creek have sustained little or no injury .- Beaver Argus.
GIRARD'S LEGACY.
Report of the committee appointed to confer with the constituted authorities of the city of Philadelphia, and the executors of the late Stephen Girard, Esq. relative to the bequest of three hundred thousand dollars contained in his will. Read, February 6, 1832.
Mr. Ashmead, from the committee appointed by a re- solution of the House of Representatives, passed Janua- ry 14, 1832, to confer with the constituted authorities of the city of Philadelphia, and with the executors of the late Stephen Girard, Esq. as to what laws they con- ceived it necessary for the Legislature to pass, in order to enable the commonwealth to receive the benefit of the bequest of three hundred thousand dollars, contain- ed in his will, made the following report which was read, viz:
committee accordingly attended, and co-operated with the committee appointed for that purpose, and agreed upon a bill, which was submitted by the committee on the Girard fund to councils on the following Thursday evening for their approval. That your committee, pur- suant to a resolution of the common council, attended their deliberations at the time fixed, and took seats with- in the bar, when the bill so prepared was definitely acted upon by councils and approved. They further report, that owing to the indisposition of Mr. Cope, and the absence of Mr. Duane, from the city, they were un- able to obtain an interview with the executors. They however, saw Mr. Chauncey, their counsel, who inform- ed your committee, after perusing the bill which had been prepared by councils, that he conceived it to be amply sufficient to enable the city authorities to carry into effect all the provisions contained in the will of the late Stephen Girard, Esquire, and that he knew of no objection which the executors could possibly make to the same. At his request, your committee agreed to de- lay making their report, until he could have an opportu- nity of consulting with all the executors on the subject, when the result should be immediately communicated. This information has since been received in a letter from John K. Kane, Esq. solicitor for the city of Philadel-
128
CORNER STONE OF THE EXCHANGE.
[FEBRUARY
phia, which is hereunto annexed, and which they desire may be taken as part of their report.
A.
J. W. ASHMEAD, EsQ.
Chairman of the Committee of the Legislature.
DEAR SIR-Your communication to the councils of the city was received by those bodies with very great pleasure, and referred to their committee on the Girard fund. On behalf of that committee we beg yourself and colleagues to favor us with an interview at the cham- ber of the select council this evening, at 8 o'clock. This gratification we should have asked for at an earlier day, could we by any possibility have been ready to make such communications as would have justified us in giving you, gentlemen, the trouble of a meeting.
We are, with great regard and esteem,
Your obedient servants,
JOHN M. SCOTT, JAMES PAGE, Chairmen of the Girard Committee.
January 24, 1832.
Letter from J. K. Kane, Esq., to J. W. Ashmead, Chair- man of the Committee, doted
FEBRUARY 3d, 1832.
DEAR SIE-I have seen Mr. Chauncey to-day, and write to you at his instance, on behalf of Mr. Girard's executors. He says that the executors have a single amendment to make to the bill which I have sent you. It consists in the omission of the last recital in the pre- amble, that which relates to the provision for the col- lege, and the injunction of certain other trusts on the corporation of the city. Strike out, therefore, after the extract from the will and the words "a certain plan therein set forth," all that follows to the "now therefore, for the purpose of enabling," &c.
He requests me also to say to you, that the time which the executors will be prepared to pay the state the $300,000, will depend upon the trustees of the bank, from whom they are to receive it; and that the trustees have told him that they will probably be ready by the first of April. This must of course be in some small degree contingent, as the funds are yet to be got in; but the probability is altogether reasonable, that hy the first of April, the money will be ready for the treasury of the state.
I shall be much obliged to you for occasional informa- tion of the prospects and progress of the bill, and will do whatever you may think advisable to advance its success.
Very respectfully and truly, Dear Sir, yours, J. K. KANE.
J. W. ASHMEAD, EsQ.
Philadelphia, 3d, Feb. 1831.
CORNER STONE OF THE EXCHANGE.
The 22d was appropriately chosen to lay the Corner Stone of the Merchants' Exchange, in Dock street, pre- cisely at 12 o'clock, and while the grand civic proces- sion was passing the ceremony commenced. The stone was laid twenty feet below the surface, with the follow- ing inscription :-
FEBRUARY 22d, ANNO DOMINI 1832,
Being the hundredth anniversary of the birth-day of the illustrious Washington, this corner stone of the Phila- delphia Exchange was laid by the President and Direc- tors, in the presence of the Stockholders, and a nume- rous assemblage of the citizens of Philadelphia. ANDREW JACKSON, President of the United States. GEORGE WOLF, Governor of the State.
Directors. Joshua Lippincott, President.
Samuel Comly, William D. Lewis,
Ashbel G. Ralston, - John Siter, ·
Alexander Ferguson,
Lawrence Lewis,
William Yardley, Jr.
George Handy.
Thomas A. Alexander, Secretary.
Building Committee.
Joshua Lippincott, Ashbel G. Ralston,
John Siter.
Ellwood Morris, Clerk of the Works. John K. Kane, Solicitor.
William Strickland, Architect.
John Strutbers, Marble Mason.
John O'Neill, Carpenter.
Joseph S. Walter & Son, Bricklayers.
David Henderson, Marble Quarrier.
Leiper & Crosby, Stone Quarriers.
Accompanying the inscription several coins of the United States of the coinage of 1832-the Philadelphia Gazette of the 21st instant-and the United States Ga- zette of the 22d-the former containing the programme of the grand pageant exhibited by the citizens, were placed in the stone; and likewise one of the medals struck and distributed in the civic procession. When the ma- sons had completed their work, the following neat and happy address was delivered by Mr. John K. Kane, to a numerous and respectable audience.
FELLOW CITIZENS .- The edifice, whose deep and secure founilation we have assembled to witness, is dedi- cated to the uses of a commercial Exchange for the city of Philadelphia. Accustomed as we are to the rapid and silent advance of every thing about us, from the simplicity which characterizes a new settlement, to the refinements of splendour and of wealth, it has been a subject of frequent surprise that the commence- ment of such a structure should have been delayed so long. Yet there are even now those living amongst us, who perhaps may remember when the site which it is to occupy, was the shore of a sluggish and winding stream, where the fisherman might dry his nets,-when the commerce, which now demands so sumptuous a temple, was restricted to the trifling intercourse of a petty colony with its parent state,-and when the man- ufactures of Pennsylvania were unknown, even to pro- phecy? A few years further back,-less than a century and a half from the present moment, -a time not so re- mote but that some may be now living who have seen and conversed with the witnesses of the fact,-and Phi- ladelphia had no existence, and its enlightened and be- nevolent founder had not yet printed with his footsteps the ground on which it stands! How vast the change! effected in a principal degree by the moral, laborious, and simple habits, devised to its people from the associ- ates of that venerable man! How impressive a com- mentary on our political institutions, and the operation of laws, just, uniform, and few!
What will be the condition of Philadelphia, when a period of similar duration shall have again elapsed,- when the building which we have foundcd shall stand among the relics of antiquity, another memorial to pos- terity of the skill of its architect,-and a proof of the liberal spirit, and cultivated taste, which, in our days, distinguish the mercantile community! What then will be the condition of our country? Will the sun that shines above us, so true an emblem of our country's glory, still gladden with his beams a frce, intelligent, and happy confederacy? Will the atmosphere still vi- brate on the recurrence of this anniversary, with the pealings of cannon and the shouts of a joyous and grate- ful people?
It is not for us to look into futurity ;- it is enough that we are permitted to accept with thank offerings the blessings that surround us,-and that we are required to labour for their perpetuity, by making those who are to follow us, worthy also to enjoy them. - Poulson's Amn. Daily Advertiser.
The Centennial Anniversary of the birth day of WASHINGTON, was celebrated on the 22d instant in a very splendid manner-by processions, illuminations, &c., of which we propose to furnish a full account as soon as it can be correctly done.
4
HAZARD'S REGISTER OF PENNSYLVANIA.
DEVOTED TO THE PRESERVATION OF EVERY KIND OF USEFUL INFORMATION RESPECTINO THE STATE.
EDITED BY SAMUEL HAZARD.
. VOL. IX .- NO. 9. PHILADELPHIA, MARCH 3, 1832. NO. 218.
REPORT UPON LOTTERIES. CONCLUDED.
Report of the Committee of the House of Representatives of Pennsylvania, to whom were referred the message of the Governor and sundry memorials relating to the obo- lition of Lotteries .- Read February 10th, 1832, by Mr. Dunlop, Chairman.
We come then, after disposing of these preliminary positions, to inquire what rights and privileges the seve- ral acts of Assembly have conferred upon the Union Canal Company, of what they could dispose, and to what extent they are entitled to claim the guarantee of the state.
They were authorized "to raise by way of lottery," certain sums of money, and we are called upon to de- cide
I. What is the meaning of the words "to raise by way of lottery."
2. What sums they had power to raise.
3. How much they have raised.
4. Whether the state is discharged of her pledge to the company.
It was earnestly insisted that the company had a right to sell absolutely, or from time to time, until the pro- ceeds of such sale or assignments would amount to the sums they were authorized to raise; and that until the moneys they were authorized to raise by way of lottery were thus raised, the power of drawing lotteries was not exhausted. On the other hand it was urged, that the clause "to raise by way of lottery," meant that as soon as the nett proceeds of the lottery yieldled the sums required, it was raised; and that, as the company had a right to sell only the right they had themselves, that whether the avails of the lottery arose from their own management, or that of their assignées, was imma- terial.
The construction contended for by.the company is obviously not the true one. The same phrase "to raise by way of lottery," is used in all the aets conferring the privilege in that of seventeen hundred and ninety-five, containing the original grant, in that of eighteen hun- dred and eleven, giving the power to sell, and in that of eighteen hundred and twenty-one, enabling the com- pany to continue the lottery to pay the six per cent. if necessary, and it must therefore be taken in the same sense, unless there is something in the latter acts which varies the import given to it hy the first, which your committee cannot perceive. Now, by the aet of seven- teen hundred and ninety-five, the company were author- ized "to raise by way of lottery," four hundred thousand dollars, and were to manage the matter themselves, not having the power to dispose of the privilege till eighteen hundred and eleven. Clearly, then, until eighteen hundred and eleven, whatever profits the companies were able to procure from the lotteries, was so much "raised by way of lottery." The profits on the schemes was the amount placed by the process in their treasury. It is only necessary to state the case to secure assent to so evident a proposition. When we examine the twenty- eighth section of the actof eighteen hundred and eleven, we find this phraseology: "That there shall be raised, by way of lottery, the residue of the original sum, not exceeding three hundred and forty thousand dollars au- VOL. IX. 17
thorized to be raised by the president," &c. of the two old companies, "pursuant to an act entitled, An act to enable the president and managers of the Schuylkill and Susquehanna navigation, and the president and mana- gers of the Delaware and Schuylkill canal navigation, to raise, by way of lottery, the sum of four hundred thousand dollars, passed the seventeenth day of April, seventeen hundred and ninety-five." Had the company, after the act of eighteen hundred and eleven, continued to exercise the privilege as they had before, under their own management, instead of selling it, the profits on the schemes would assuredly have been "proceeds raised by way of lottery;" for that act expressly says the three hundred and forty thousand dollars, was the residue of the original sum, and to be raised pursuant to the act of seventeen hundred and ninety-five. Al- though the act of eighteen hundred and eleven conferred a further privilege upon the company, "if it should ap- pear to them advisable to sell and assign to any person or persons, body politic or corporate, the right to raise the said residue of money by way of lottery or lotte- ries, upon such scheme or schemes,plan or plans, as they may from time to time sanction, or any part thereof, from time to time; and such purchasers or assignees shall be vested for the term they shall so acquire, with the same rights and privileges as the said corporation," it did not thereby mean [to increase the amount to be raised by such lottery privilege.
Now it does seem to the committee that the construc- tion of this clause is too plain to be misunderstood. What, were the company to sell, any new right, any greater power, than they could exercise themselves? No, but the right which they were authorized to use themselves, pursuant to the act of seventeen hundred and ninety-five. The use of the definite article too manifestly points to the right just recited, and ingenui- ty cannot torture the allusion to any other than that which the company would have possessed if they should not deem it advisable to sell. They had the power under this act of raising a specific sum of money, or if they should deem it advisable to authorize some one else to do so. They had in their report of thirteenth December pre- vious, complained bitterly of its unproductiveness, and it is prohable the trouble a board of managers would experience in drawing lotteries which were on the old, dull and tedious plan, Induced them to ask the pri- vilege of selling out entirely or occasionally. It was a niggardly boon to be sure, but they took it. They did deem it advisable to sell, and the first disposal they made of their new power was to make an absolute sale of it to Mr. Pratt. They sold to him for a per centage on the schemes, as already stated, but if they had sold to him for a gross sum, say one hundred thousand dol- lars, the company would have been done with their right entirely: They re-purchased the right from Mr. Pratt, hut suppose he had chosen to retain it, what right would the purchaser have had? Would he have a pri- vilege to draw lotterics forever-to any extent-till the company would realize out of the snle, the three hundred and forty thousand dollars? Surely not the latter, for having parted entirely with the lottery privilege for less than the third of the sum they had authority to raise themselves, they could never get any thing more than 1 the consideration of the sale, and so upon the absurd
130
REPORT UPON LOTTERIES.
[MARCH
assumption that "to raise by way of lottery," means that the lotteries should be carried on until the company should realize from the sale the whole sum authorized to be raised, Mr. Pratt would have had a power with no limits of duration, a power of flooding the country with lotteries till doomsday. Did the legislature mean, in giving a limited power to the company, that it should be exercised without limits? Did they mean that the right to raise thousands should be construed into a right to raise millions by their assignee? Did they mean that when they gave a power to sell a limited right, that as long as they choose to conduct it themselves, it should be exercised within prescribed bounds, but if they sold this "same" right, that their assignee should be invested with not only a greater power than they had themselves, but with a power to which no limits could be discovered? A contract is to be construed in the light in which each party understands it, and it seems to your committee indisputable that the legislature and the company could have viewed this one in no other sense than that if they disposed of the privilege their assignee had the right to raise by way of lottery, a sum not exceeding three hun- dred and forty thousand dollars, that he had authority to raise only what the company could have raised, had they retained it in their own hands."
But suppose, instead of putting the case of an abso- lute sale, we put it as it has been exerciscd (since the re-purchase from Mr. Pratt, ) by occasional.assignments from year to year, or for a term of years, and suppose the, broker to whom they assign for a term should agree to give them only one thousand dollars per anuum, can it be believed that the legislature meant that he should have the power of continuing his speculation for three hundred and forty years; that in defiance of the state he should pour those torrents of corruption over the land from generation to generation, until time should have worn away the dissoluble fragments of the com- pany itself?
If however one individual can doubt the construction of so plain a case, he has but to look a few lines fur- ther and he will there find that "the purchasers and assignees" of the lottery privilege shall be vested for the term they shall so acquire with the same rights and privileges as the said corporation. Now can any one permit himself to be persuaded that the same right is another and greater right; that after the sale it is bigger than before; that like the fallen angels of Maton, when confined to the council chamber of the company, this fluctuating franchise shrinks into a size to suit conveni- ence, but when it stalks abroad into the wide arena of the dealer in millions, it seems
"In bigness to surpass earth's giant sons."
The committee cannot torture the act into any other construction than that the assignee has no greater right than the company, and that as the company had the power to sell a right to raise only a specified sum, it is immaterial for what they sell it; it is immaterial how much or how little they receive as the consideration of the assignment, and that if the purchaser raises by means of the lottery the sum the company had a right to raise had they held and exercised the all- thority themselves they have exhausted their privilege, and the commonwealth has redeemed her pledge.
The committee might perhaps have justly insisted upon a more strict construction of the powers conferred upon the company and their assignees than that which they have adopted and might have urged, that they are chargeable not merely with the nett proceeds but with the gross sum raised by the lottery. They might have said that "the language of the grant is, not that the sum to be brought into the treasury of the company shall not exceed three hundred and forty thousand dol- lars, but that the amount to be raised shall not exceed that sum;"* but it is unnecessary to be so strict, as the
nett proceeds alone of their schemes far exceed the sums they were authorized to raise, and they will con- clude this portion of their argument with remarking, in the language of Chief Justice Marshall, in the case cited, that the motive for the restriction or the amount to be raised, was not to limit the sum to come into the treasury of the company, but to limit the extent of gam- ing which the corporation may authorize.
The committee have expatiated more fully upon this point than its plain meaning seemed to require. But as it is the main point, and if adopted by the House, leaves no further doubt that the present exercise of the lottery privilege is a gross usurpation; they have given it the attention it required. It is admitted that if the company are to be debited with the money raised by their as- signee, that the amount of the profits on the schemes. which have been drawn exceeds the sums they were authorized "to raise by way of lottery," even upon the most extravagant calculation the company can adopt whether the grant given by the act of eighteen hundred and twenty-one, is cumulative and distinct from that of eighteen hundred and eleven or not.
Let us now proceed to discover what sums the com- pany and their assignees have a right to raise by way of lottery, and to ascertain whether they have not raised all that they were entitled to raise.
Under the powers conferred upon them by the act of Assembly of twenty-sixth March, eighteen hundred and twenty-one, the company claim to raise by way of lot- tery the balance of the sum of three hundred and forty thousand dollars, which was unraised at the date of the act, as well as such sums as may be wanted for twenty- five years, to pay the interest of six per cent. upon the new stock of four hundred and fifty thousand dollars; making twenty-seven thousand dollars per annum from the time of the subscription thereof. No calculations were exhibited to the committee setting forth the aggregate amount of these claims, but the committee will take the liberty of doing so to show the House that even upon the wildest mode of estimate the company have raised more than they were entitled to.
At the time of the passage of the act of eighteen hundred and twenty-one, the company had upon their own mode of construction, raised one hundred thirty- six thousand and two hundred and fifty dollars of the three hundred and forty thousand dollars, which the act of eighteen hundred and eleven had authorized them to raise. We will take for granted that the tolls having been pledged by the company to pay the inte- rest on the loans, are not applicable as nett proceeds to the payment of the six per cent. to the subscribers in case of the lottery privilege. This admission, which is more than the company can ask, will place their esti- mate of the amount they profess to be entitled to raise by way of lottery since the act of eighteen hundred and twenty-one, on more favourable grounds than the case will justify. The amount they claim to raise would stand thus on the above suppositions: Amount authorized by the act of
.
eighteen hundred and eleven, $340,000
Received from lotteries up to twenty-sixth March, eighteen hundred and twenty-one, 136,250
To be raised at the date of the act of eigh- teen hundred and twenty-one, 203,750
Interest claimed on new stock till eighteen hundred and forty-six, twenty-five years from eighteen hundred and twenty-one, 576,533
Total amount the company claim to raise by way of lottery under the act of eighteen hundred and twenty one, 780,283
The utmost sum therefore the company and their assignees had a right to raise upon their own extrava- gant mode of estimating, would be seven hundred and
*See the case of Clark vs. the Corporation of Wash- ington. 12 Wheaton, 53.
1
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REPORT UPON LOTTERIES.
1832.]
eighty thousand two hundred and eighty-three dollars, a sum the legislature had little thought they were au- thorizing them to raise when they passed the act of eigh- teen hundred and twenty-one.
The committee after showing the untenable grounds of this calculation, will present to the house the esti- mate of what the company can claim to raise by way of lottery after the act of eighteen hundred and twenty- one. In the first item of their account, the company charge themselves with only one hundred and thirty- six thousand, two hundred and fifty dollars, as raised by them by way of lottery-being the aggregate of what they have received from the several contractors since the act of eighteen hundred and eleven. But the com- mittee feel assured that the company ought to charge the fund they were to raise, with the profits made by their assignees from the lotteries, and not merely with the proceeds of the sale of the right. This construction which the committee has put upon the clause "to raise by way of lottery," is consistent with the light in which the legislature have considered such privileges granted for similar purposes to other institutions. It would oc. cupy too much time, which has been already consumed beyond the expectation or wish of the committce, to detail the nature and extent and mode of exercise of the numerous lotteries granted by the commonwealth to other corporations. But it seems from the schemes as filed in the office of the Secretary of the Common- wealth, that it was uniformly understood that the sum to be raised by way of lottery, was the gross profit on the scheme prices.
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