lutely necessary for the interests of the State and of persons doing business thereon, At the time he was superintendent he urged on the officers of State the necessity of said work and is of the opinion t hat said canal wll be worthless, in a great degree, unless said Reservoir, or some other work of a similar kind, is constructed.

The amount of water passing out of said level at Lockport, for mill purposes, is not sufficient to supply the levels below and above the Miami Feeder, and the supply of water is not decreased by said water wheel, as a still larger amount of water has to be passed through the locks for the supply of the said levels below. JONAS WARD.

Sworn to and subscribed before me this 18th day of December, 1856. [L. S.]

S. E. BROWNE, Notary Public, Miami county, Ohio.

H. W. ALLEN-MIAMI COUNTY.

Also, at the same time and place, came H. W. Allen, of said county, of lawful age, and being duly sworn according to law, says: That he has owned a mill at lock No. 11, south of Loramies Summit, on the Miami and Erie Canal, for the last eight years; that he has the means of knowing the supply of water for said canal for said period, and that for one-half of said time there has been a failure of water. He further says that the construction of the Lewistown Reservoir, or some other similar work, is absolutely necessary for the supply of water to the Summit Level, and that without said improvement said canal will prove valueless, in a great measure, both to the State and those owning mills thereon.

H. W. ALLEN. December, A. D. 1856. S. E. BROWNE, Notary Public, Miami county, Ohio.

Sworn to and subscribed before me this 18th day of [L. S.]

REMONSTRANCE AND AFFIDAVITS

AGAINST THE

COMPLETION OF THE LEWISTOWN RESERVOIR.

To the General Assembly of the State of Ohio, now in session:

Your memorialists, citizens of Logan county, in said State, respectfully represent to your honorable bodies, that they are aggrieveved by an act passed the 7th day of April, 1856, entitled "An act to provide for the enlargement of the Lewistown Reservoir," especially by the illegal manner on which the Board of Publib Works is now proceeding to carry that act into execution.

Your memorialists had no notice or knowledge whatever of any movement, in or out of the Legislature, to procure the passage of such a law, and they had no information of its existence until measures had been taken by the Board of Public Works, to carry it into effect.

On the 9th of April, being the second day after the act passed, Messrs. Ryan, Haley and Defrees submitted to the Board an offer, in writing, to contract for the construction of the enlargement, on the terms set forth in their communication, and on the same day the Board made an order authorizing Mr. Conover, one of its members, to enter into a contract with the said Ryan, Haley and Defrees, to perform the work; and a contract was accordingly made with them, on the 17th day of April, being eight days after the date of their proposal, and ten days after the date of the law.

By comparing the date of the law with that of the offer of Ryan, Haley and Defrees, it is rendered very, apparent that they were on the ground to aid in engineering the measure through the Legislature, and watching to take advantage of its provisions, at the earliest moment after it should become a law. All competi tion for the work authorized by the act, was effectually excluded by the unseemly haste and secrecy with which it was sold out to these contractors. No advertisement or other public notice was given, inviting proposals to do the work, as was required by express provisions of law.

Not only in this particular, but in many other respects, the Board transcended its powers, and acted in direct violation of law. Among other examples, the following are adduced :

1st. The Board violated the law under which it was acting, by commencing the enlargement before it had provided one dollar for the payment of the charges, costs and damages which should be incurred on account of said enlargement.

2d. The sovereign power of the State, delegated to the Board for public objects, has been perverted to the accomplishment of private ends, and to promote individual interests. For the proof of this abuse, your memorialists refer to the con

tract itself, and to the "certificate of incorporation of the Miami Hydraulic and Manufacturing Company," dated June 5, 1856, and now on file in the Secretary of State's office.

3d. The primary and unconcealed object of the contractors, and corporation to which they have assigned their interest, is to create surplus water, to be used in propelling machinery, and not to supply water for navigation. This object is made perfectly clear from the undeniable fact that all the compensation and indemnity which the contractors are to receive for their labor and expenditures, in the purchase of the lands required for the enlargement, and for doing the work, are to be derived from the grant of hydraulic power, consisting as well of that which is now in the canal, as of all that may be hereafter created by the enlargement, or otherwise.

4th. What is the entire cost of the enlargement, including land, structures, labor, damages, &c? The job appears to have been given or sold to the contractors in the lump, without estimation or valuation; and they have agreed to take it in consideration of the grant made to them by the Board, of all the surplus water power then existing in the canal, or that might be thereafter erected and introduced into the canal between certain points designated. What is the extent, and what the value of the water powers which are here so liberally granted away, in fee simple, by the Board of Public Works? As to the extent: the contract conveys the whole, between certain points, not excepting any that had been before sold or otherwise disposed of, thus bringing the State into conflict with its prior lessees and grantees. The contract also conveys all the hydraulic power that may thereafter be erected.

As to the value of the whole power conveyed, there are no means at present for ascertaining it. For any thing now known, it may be ten times more valuable than the enlargement when completed. This immense interest, of unknown value, has been illegally bartered away, in exchange for a thing of little or no value to the State, and from which it can receive no direct income.

5th. The Board has, by this improvident contract deprived itself and the State of the power to prescribe a plan for the construction and enlargement, without the consent and agreement of the contractors.

6th. The contract does not reserve the right, on the part of the State, of 1eentry or resumption, for breach of the contract.

7th. The contractors have secured to themselves the right to take water for bydraulic purposes at any point they may select.

8th. The Board has made a contract, the legal scope and extent of which are to transfer substantially the control and management of the canal to a private corporation, whose interests and objects must ever be in direct conflict with those of the State. This blending of public and private interests will be found a fruitful source of collision, trouble and embarrassment, in the future management of the business of the canal, and especially if the State should hereafter wish to dispose of it by sale or otherwise.

9th. It will be perceived that the statute under which the Board is proceeding, authorizes the enlargement of the reservoir to any extent "the members of the Board shall think the interests of the State shall demand."

Hence, the extent of the enlargement, as well as the question of enlargement itself, must be determined by the Board-the whole Board-and not by one of its members; and yet, in palpable disregard of this provision, the Board have made a contract, which, after stipulating that the minimum area shall not be less than 5,000 acres, provides for a future and further enlargement, by declaring that the reservoir "shall be as much larger as said Acting Commissioner shall deem the management of said canal shall require," &c. Here is a plain example, and bold as it is plain, where the transcendent sovereign power of the State to take the property,

the homestead of the citizen, without his consent, and against his will, has been transferred to a single member of the Board, to be exercised by him with no other limitation than that which is imposed by his own discretion. And it is this discretion of the Acting Commissioner that is to constitute the tenure by which many of your memorialists are hereafter to hold their estates, if the Board of Public Works shall be permitted, unrebuked, to consummate the unconstitutional proceedings which they have rashly commenced.

Power is thus delegated to this Commissioner to lay the half of Logan county under water, if he should happen to "deem" such a measure necessary to promote the navigation of the canal.

The temptation to abuse this enormous power, arising from the fact that its exercise would contribute largely to increase hydraulic power at the point where the Acting Commissioner resides, might prove too strong for his virtue.

10th. No money has been raised, nor means provided by the contract, or otherwise, to pay the costs in the judicial proceedings to condemn property, or to pay any damage resulting from the proposed enlargement, to persons who reside within or adjacent to the limits of the reservoir. And yet the Board, contrary to the statute, have commenced the work "before," and without any provision made for the payment of these items of charge.

11th. The better to secure the fidelity of the Board of Public Works, by fixing the proper degree of responsibility of each member thereof, the law required that the order for letting this contract should be made by yeas and nays. It was not done. (See Swan's Statutes, page 764.)

And your memorialists further state that the Miami Hydraulic and Manufacturing Company, as assignee of the contract, is engaged in the work of constructing the enlargement, purchasing lands, and taking the title to some in its own corporate name, and some in the name of the State, and thus mixing up private interests with those of the public, to the injury of the latter.

Your memorialists further say that the present reservoir includes an area of about 2,000 acres of land more than was authorized to be taken by the law, or resolution, under which it was originally made, and that it has been the cause of sickness in the neighborhood in which it is located.

The enlargement will create additional malaria, thereby increasing disease and and suffering among the people who reside in the vicinity of the work. The corporation having the work in charge, though doing it under color of State authority, is laboring and expending money, not for the State, but to promote the interests of the stockholders. And your memorialists are not willing, and it could not in reason be supposed that they should be willing, to have this work carried on for the benefit of other communities, seeking to advance their own prosperity, at the expense of the homes, hearths and lives of many citizens of Logan county.

Your memorialists hereby pledge themselves to establish the truth of the foregoing statements, to the satisfaction of any committee of your body to which the subject may be referred.

And in consideration of the premises, they humbly pray that the act for the enlargement of the Lewistown Reservoir, hereinbefore referred to, may be repealed, and your memorialist relieved from the grasp of these unscrupulous corporations. January, 1857.

AFFIDAVITS

Of witnesses taken in a case pending in the Court of Common Pleas of Logan county, Ohio, wherein Jacob Fry and others, are plaintiffs, and the Board of Public Works and others, are defendants.

State of Ohio, Logan county, ss.

David Williams, of Huntsville, in said county, being duly affirmed, says and deposes as follows:

I am a practicing physician, and have been actively engaged in my profession as physician, nearly six years; that I practiced my profession three years in Bellefontaine, and for nearly a year have been residing in Huntsville, in said county;" that I am acquainted with the Lewistown Reservoir and the region of country surrounding it, in Logan county, and with the diseases that prevail there; that the effect of the reservoir as it has been constructed, has been injurious to the health of the country around it, if used for a reservoir or kept up or made so as to overflow lands; that its enlargement, as proposed and as being made, will very seriously and injuriously effect the health of the people, who do or may reside in the vicinity or neighborhood of said reservoir, and this will especially and very certainly be so to a wide and very injurious extent if water be accumulated in the reservoir, as made or enlarged, and then drawn off in the summer months; that the result will be productive of ague, fevers and sickness, to a wide extent, which otherwise would not prevail.

The country around the present reservoir was healthy as other portions of the country, until the reservoir was constructed, after which, and by reason of it, as I believe, much sickness was produced, and prevailed in the neighborhood of it. During the past season the water was not continued in the reservoir, but it was dry or nearly so, the water having been let off, and the consequence was, that the reservoir and its surroundings being about as before it was made. General good health prevailed during the past season.

I have no hesitation in expressing it as my opininion that if the proposed enlargement is made so as to cover 300 acres or more, it will produce sickness to a wide extent, so much so, that the vicinity of the reservoir for some miles around, cannot be occupied as residences for families at all. People cannot live there so as to enjoy health at all. This result will be worse in the immediate neighborhood of the reservoir, and will, in my opinion, be felt severely for several miles, extending more or less as far as ten miles around it. The value of property in the region so affected will be seriously impaired.

D. WILLIAMS. Affirmed to before me by said David Williams, and by him subscribed in my presence, December 20, 1856. Witness my hand and notarial seal of Logan

county, Ohio.

[Seal] J. W. TIMBERSAKE, Notary Public.