The difficulties thus interposed, have arisen from an assumption of power on the part of said commissioners to interfere with and dictate unconditionally, as to the loan, and the kind of funds which might or might not be received; and to present clearly and understandingly the unjustifiable nature of this assumption, I will premise, that by the law, the duty of making the loan, devolves entirely and exclusively on the Governor alone; either by his own act, or through means of agents to be by him appointed. (See act of Feb. 1839, sec. 1 and 20; and the act of Feb. 1841, sec. 2, quoted in the preceeding part of this report.) Neither of said acts, nor any other act, confers any power whatever on the commissioners to negotiate any loan, nor are they in any manner authorized to direct the Governor as to the manner in which he shall discharge the official duties devolving on him by law, or sit in judgement on his acts, whether they be right or wrong. Certain duties were to be discharged by the Governor, and if in the discharge of those duties he violates the law, he is responsible to the law and to the country, for such violation, and not to the board of canal commissioners; nor are they in any manner responsible for his acts. The law has not even named the commissioners in connection with the negotiation of the loan, neither as associating with them the Governor, or otherwise; much less has it conferred o them a dictatorial supervisory control, and absolute veto over his acts. Yet, these same commissioners have by their acts, assumed that the law has, or ought to have, conferred on them this power; or that it has been conferred by divine right in the infalibility of their divine persons; or that it attaches inherently to the exalted official stations which, with so much self-sufficiency they occupy. These are the assumptions of Messrs. Tweedy and Hustis-especially the former -and I make the assertion on the strength of facts which I shall presently show.

Having completed my arrangements at Cincinnati for the $31,000, I wrote Mr. Tweedy, June 23rd, notifying him officially of the loan, and stated as clearly as I could find language to convey, the nature of the loan in the following words:-"This loan I have been obliged to make in funds bankable at the Life and Trust company, and consider even that very favorable under present circumstances;

as that institution being itself a specie paying bank is very circumspect in the kind of funds it receives. I conceive that this is a discretion devolving solely on myself, but hope, as I trust, it will be satisfactory to you and the other commissioners. I shall leave to-morrow morning for New York, and shall spare no pains in my exertions to negotiate the remaining $69,000 wherever it can be found, and hope to find it at some of the eastern banks in their own funds."

This, I am sure is as explicit as words could make it, as to the nature of the Cincinnati loan; and I am confident there is not a friend of the canal in the Territory who will censure me for it; and the censure of its enemies, I regard only as the passing of the idle wind. I am furthermore sure that my views as to the remainder of the loan, are sufficiently and clearly set forth. It is furthermore well known by Mr. Tweedy, and all others who know aught of the subject, that I have under all circumstances been desirous of securing to the Territory the highest possible value for the Territorial bonds, and in the best attainable currency-as a proof of which it is only necessary to refer to the first section of the act of Feb. 1839, the original of which was drafted by my own hand- and no man can truly charge me with any subsequent act to show the contrary.

Yet notwithstanding the explicitness of the information thus given, Mr. Tweedy in his subsequent letter to me affects not to have understood from my letter the kind of funds which was to be received, and to be greatly astonished when he received the certificates from Mr. Lapham, that they were payable in current funds; such a pretence needs no comment.

In the former part of this report I have shown the importance of making that loan, at that particular time, arising out of the uncertainty of being able to secure any other loan, and the necessity of the immediate progress of the work. If any justification be necessary, I deem this sufficient-but I do not admit that any justification is necessary under the law; nor do I choose to admit the force of what those commissioners, for vindictive purposes, may please to construe as law. The law does not require the loan to be made in specie, and it is a fair presumption that it did not intend any such thing; but that if nothing better could be done, the territory would receive and

disburse such funds as is used for all the purposes of business throughout the western states, internal improvements of every kind included. I know of no good reason why Wisconsin cannot dig canal with the same kind of funds which digs canals in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, &c. and the funds for which I contracted in Cincinnati are better, absolutely better, by three to five per cent. than the funds paid out by those states; and in conversation with Mr. Tweedy he admitted to me, (as he could not do otherwise) that those funds would have been worth as much as specie, within five per cent. So that admitting all that the most fastidious could claim, the loan was equal to ninety-five per cent. in specie a better loan than has been made by any western state within the last four years.

It was nevertheless, my most anxious wish, if possible, to obtain the remainder of the loan in specie funds at par, as stated in my letter to Mr. Tweedy; but on getting east of Lake Erie, I found that this was not only impossible, but it was with the greatest difficulty that confidence enough could be given to Territorial credit to get the bonds taken at any price; and consequently, for the loan which I made in New York, I had to pay a bonus of twenty per cent. out of private funds; and at Albany I could not get them taken on any terms with out giving the guarantee of my private credit that the bonds would be punctually met.

Notwithstanding all the difficulties which have had to be thus encountered to effect any loan; notwithstanding that my loan at Cincinnati was a better one than has been made by any western state for years: notwithstanding the emergency of the case, and the importance of the present vigorous prosecution of the work; notwithstanding the total absence of any legal right to interfere with the loan, Mr. Tweedy backed up by Mr. Hustis, reckless of all consequences to the canal to the rights of the people, and the interests of the Territory -issues his imperial ukase, that the loan shall not be paid out; and that consequently the work must stop.

In reply to my letter of June 23d, I received, while in New York, a letter from Mr. Tweedy, dated July 17th, in which he informs me that he wrote by the last mail to the President of the Ohio Life Insurance and Trust Company, stating our views at large, and desiring

him to suspend the transfer of the bonds until these objections were removed by you, at the same time expressing the belief that you would be able to make a satisfactory arrangement after your return from New York"-and soon after the receipt of this letter, I received one from Mr. Williams, the President of the bank, stating that he had "received an official letter from John H. Tweedy, Esq., Receiver of canal fund, objecting distinctly to your sale of bonds for current bank notes or any thing other than legal currency, meaning of course, coin. He objects to the Trust Co. certificates, because it is not payable in legal currency, and he says that you were not authorized to sell the bonds for any thing but legal currency," &c.

Now let me ask, what right had Mr. Tweedy to open an official correspondence of this nature, relative to the loan? Did the law authorize him to "object distinctly" to my "sale of bonds," when acting under the separate authority of the Governor? We have already seen that he had no such right. What right had he to pronounce that I was not authorized to sell the bonds for any thing but legal currency, that is specie. There is no such requisition in the law, and if there had been, the law did not constitute him the high court of errors to pronounce judgment. But above all, professing as he did (though as I have too much too much reason to believe hypocritically,) personal friendship for me, ought he not to have paused and taken one

sober second thought," before he overstepped every rule of law, reason and propriety, by denouncing me, on his own authority as having violated the law in the discharge of a high official trust; and by force of his official position, attempt to sap what little influence I might otherwise exert for the benefit of the Territory, and to destroy so far as he thus could my private credit?

Every candid person will certainly answer in the affirmative; I `thank him not, that his puny arm was too feeble to reach me in either capacity; and I have only to give him credit for the will for the deed; though by the attempt, he has accomplished that which the people of his county and of the country, will have little cause to thank him for, viz:-arrested effectually for the present any further progress of the canal.

Only on one principle could this course be justified, and that is, if

the Legislature in appointing Mr. Tweedy, receiver and Mr. Hustis, register, had conferred on them by that act, the power to make laws, provide for the general welfare, exercise a censorship over the Governor and other officers of the territory, take care of the public morals, and establish a specie currency, then have they been in the legitimate discharge of their duty-but if these powers and privileges have not been thus conferred, then have they grossly misapprehended their duty, and in the attempt to censure and control the acts of another, have themselves committed a great public wrong.

I have thus, in as few words as I could, endeavored to show the true state of this affair, about which much has been said by the friends of Mr. Tweedy, and much misrepresentation has been made, for purposes best known to him and them. What I have said is not designed as justification of myself, for any act of my own; for I feel that no such justification is needed; but it is for the purpose of repelling misrepresentation, by a plain statement of facts, and placing the responsibility of suspending the canal, on the shoulders of those to whom it rightfully belongs. Whatever may be Mr. Tweedy's professions in regard to the canal, I consider his acts more strongly indicative of his feelings, than his professions. It is an old maxim, and generally a true one, that a man is known by the company he keeps, and it is a curious fact that those who have hitherto been the most violent opposers of the canal, under the pretext of opposing the canal company, are the loudest and most clamorous apologists and advocates of Mr. Tweedy's course, and the most ready and violent abusers of his former friends. If by a coalition with those who have from the beginning been hostile to the canal, but dare not openly avow that hostility, cloaking it under an ostensible opposition to the canal company-well knowing, that to cripple the company, would defeat the canal: if, I say, by such a coalition, and the adoption of such sentiments, he hopes to make political capital for himself or others, I have only to say, that I wish him God-speed and success in the arms of his new associates, commensurate with the merits of his cause. Such feelings, coupled with secret feelings of hostility, towards me individually, for which I can assign no adequate cause, have in my opinion actuated him in the infliction of a public wrong-and having thus placed him. self in the wrong, by the assumption of official powers not conferred