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ARGUMENT 
 
 E. H. DERBY, ESQ. 
 
 IN BEHALF OF THE 
 
 OLD COLONY RAIL-ROAD COMPANY, 
 
 AT A HEARING OF THE 
 
 PETITION OF JOHN M. FORBES AND OTHERS, 
 
 BEFORE 
 
 THE RAIL-ROAD COMMITTEE 
 
 OF THE 
 
 J&assatfjtisetts Utrjtslatttre, 
 
 BOSTON, APRIL 7, 1 8 4 3. 
 
 With some slight Corrections and Additions. 
 
 BOSTON : 
 
 DAVID CLAPP, PRINTER.. ..184 WASHINGTON STREET. 
 1848. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
) c m&®wtntva, T r S !?0 'SS/2. 
 
 ARGUMENT. 
 
 On Friday, April 7th, Mr. Derby occupied the afternoon in a reply to 
 Mr. Webster, and engaged the attention of the Committee and of a larger 
 audience than usually attend such hearings, from 3J to 6J, P. M. 
 
 He urged, substantially, as follows — 
 
 That Mr. Forbes and his associates sought no land for private purposes, 
 but pursued a public enterprise. They asked for a charter to promote 
 commerce ; for a public trust for the public benefit ; and were ready to 
 resign it at once to an existing line ; and no one, however eminent, could 
 justly charge them with mercenary views. 
 
 That the course of Mr. R. B. Forbes was far from inconsistent. He 
 had last year asked the Legislature not to occupy these flats until the 
 Government Chart and Survey were finished ; that, subsequently, when 
 these were finished and published, and Messrs. Cary, Borden and Lincoln, 
 the Commissioners, had recommended, the erection of a wall and of soli 
 structures on these flats, and the Mercantile Committees had made a 
 similar recommendation, Mr. Forbes united in this petition. That, now 
 that proper light was shed on the subject, he wished to improve the har- 
 bor, and dedicate to commerce a waste of flats, which might have had its 
 uses when the Indian pursued over it, in his birch canoe, the seal and the 
 otter, and other amphibious animals, but now, a barrier to navigation, 
 served no other purpose than to keep South Boston at a distance, and 
 to poison the atmosphere with its baneful exhalations. 
 
 That no one, who remembered the voyage of the Jamestown, or the 
 construction of a steamer to relieve vessels in distress, would ascribe inter- 
 ested motives to Robert Bennet Forbes. The associates of Mr. Forbes 
 were gentlemen of wealth, station, or railroad experience, and competent 
 to hold the charter of a railroad ; and when Mr. Webster argued they 
 were too few, and, in the next breath, urged the petitioners in aid were 
 too many, his argument was felo de se, and required no answer. 
 
 That, in such a case, when the petition had been discussed for weeks 
 in the public prints, from Boston to Cape Cod, in public meetings before 
 the Mayor and Aldermen, in State street offices, cars and omnibuses, the 
 petitioners in aid were entitled to respect ; and when four Railroads, four 
 Counties, twenty-seven towns, and four thousand merchants of Boston, 
 from Commercial wharf to Pearl Street, from Tremont Street to Long 
 wharf, have sent in petitions, in nine different forms, in its favor, it was 
 
 h 35257 
 
 $ 
 
4 
 
 to be presumed they knew what they were about, and that, in these halls 
 where the right of petition had been ever held sacred, he was surprised 
 that any advocate, however eminent, would venture to throw the leading 
 merchants of Boston under the table. 
 
 They would have their legitimate weight with the Committee. And 
 if it was easy to obtain such names, how happened it, that, with the same 
 effort on each side, 7,200 had appeared in aid, and but 182 against the 
 petition, and that a part of the latter were interested in East Boston, or 
 the Grand Junction Railroad, and feared the progress of South Boston ? 
 
 It was not because the opponents of our measure had not funds, that 
 they had failed to obtain public favor. They could, as was usual in 
 desperate cases , afford to retain the best Orator in the land, and so might 
 we, if we had required his assistance. He did not come to the case from 
 pure disinterested philanthropy— -and if, like Brennus, he threw his-sword 
 into the scale of justice, he expected for it, like him, its weight in gold. 
 
 This distinguished gentleman had compared the Directors of the 
 Old Colony Railroad to five blackbirds, who had nothing to do 
 with the case ; but Directors always apply for Branches, and make plans 
 for their Companies. They are the applicants for most of the Bills 
 reported this session, and if the Old Colony Directors had brought up 
 their Stockholders, he would doubtless have called them four-and-twenty 
 blackbirds, and on the standard authority of the Nursery — quite as reliable 
 as the Penny Magazine — would have called on Commissioner Lewis to 
 seal them down with pie-crust, and keep them from singing until he had 
 pushed the Worcester Railroad through East Boston, down to Bird 
 Island. 
 
 Mr. Forbes and his associates asked a new Line from Dorchester to 
 Pearl Street, with liberty to enclose sixty-five acres of flats, bare at low 
 Water, between Fore Point Channel and a line one hundred rods from 
 South Boston shore. These were within the lines recommended by 
 successive Boards of State Commissioners. The whole area they pro- 
 posed to fill would be but seventy-five acres. It would cost the Railroad 
 but fourteen cents per yard to fill this, and the average height would be 
 but ten feet. The land of the Old Colony Railroad, in the Cove and 
 at South Boston, had cost $550,000, and would sell at a profit. This, 
 with $250,000 more, to be raised from surplus land, would defray the 
 whole cost, and little or no new capital would be required. 
 
 The result would be, that the Railroad would secure a new Passenger 
 Depot, at the foot of Pearl Street, 2,000 feet of wharf front, and an area 
 of nearly forty acres, near Pearl Street, devoted to freight, granite and 
 lumber yards, and depot buildings, and would have opened a new Avenue, 
 100 feet wide, extending from Pearl Street to South Boston. On this 
 great Avenue, no structure except of brick or stone, should be erected. 
 Other benefits to the public would follow. Four Counties — Norfolk, 
 Plymouth, Bristol, and Barnstable — on five lines of Railroad, would be 
 moved virtually five miles nearer to State Street. 
 
 The tracks, which now cross four thoroughfares at grade, in Boston, 
 would pass under all streets on the line proposed. An hourly or half- 
 
hourly car would run between South Boston and Boston, for three coppers 
 a ticket — and 2500 passengers a day be conveyed, as on the East Boston 
 ferry. And if the Roxbury Branch be constructed, the annual travel 
 would exceed 2,000,000 of passengers. Fore Point Channel would be 
 widened — its outer point, on which vessels are now often stranded, would 
 be cut off, as recommended by the Commissioners — and all this would 
 benefit Boston harbor. 
 
 Mr. Webster had said, we should excavate the flats which we seek to 
 occupy east of Fore Point Channel, but the four Boards of Commissioners 
 appointed between 1835 and 1847, do not recommend the measure. It 
 springs from the fertile brain of I\lr. Lewis, the President of the Grand 
 Junction. It has no merit except what it derives from the trumpet tongue 
 of Mr. Webster. He has cried, “Excavate! excavate!” “Dig out! 
 dig out!” — these flats! But for what useful purpose? We require 
 wharves and Railroad Depots in deep water, and near the centre of 
 business, and have harbor-room enough without them ! 
 
 When we are asked, what Boston would be without its harbor ?— 
 I reply, What will its harbor be, if its islands and waste lands are per- 
 mitted to run into its channels, and no efforts are made to wall and secure 
 them ? And of what use would our harbor be, without wharves or 
 landing-places, even though we should excavate the highlands of Rox- 
 bury — or “ dig out ” the old Mill Pond and Mill Creek — and throw 
 down our Market House, and restore to the sea her old dominion ! 
 
 Boston has grown by her enterprise not less than by her prudence. 
 Her forecast and preparation have enabled her to meet the necessity of 
 the times, and a policy has ever been adopted in this Commonwealth, 
 calculated to encourage trade and foster commerce — and for this end, 
 yearly, wharves have been licensed and landings have been made. 
 Chief Justice Shaw has said, in one of his decisions, that such a course 
 “ seems to have best suited the views of policy and expediency of the 
 colonists here.” Well may this be said, for every facility reduces the 
 cost of transportation, and every reduction of cost of transportation is felt, 
 as far as the article to be transported comes or goes. Aye — the farmer 
 of Berkshire, not less than the builder in Boston, counts the cost of his 
 wharfage, and looks for the accommodations adapted to his wants. Shall 
 no provision, then, be made for the future ? Can no further accommo- 
 dations be rendered, without danger to our harbor ? 
 
 The harbor of Boston, within the Light, extends from Chelsea Hos- 
 pital to Hingham, a distance of fourteen miles, and is, in many places, 
 from four to six miles wide. It embraces at least forty square miles of 
 surface. It would hold the shipping of the world five times told. England 
 and the U. States owned but six millions of tons, the rest of the world still 
 less, in all not ten millions. What space would hold them ? A single 
 acre of dock contains five thousand tons ; a square mile, three millions ; 
 and four square miles, twelve millions of tons. Is the navigation of the 
 commercial world to increase five fold, and .all to come to this port at 
 once ? Will not London and Liverpool, and the residue of the globe, 
 absorb some portion 1 
 
6 
 
 The business of London, the modern centre of commerce, exceeds 
 that of Boston, and what are the dimensions of its Portl Less than 
 300 acres of dock, with the Thames but 692 feet wide at London 
 Bridge, less than the width of Fore Point Channel when our Structure 
 is finished. 
 
 What is the capacity of the Port of Liverpool, the modern rival of 
 London ? A river dry and deserted at low tide, with less than two 
 square miles of dock. Does the trade of Boston exceed that of Liver- 
 pool ? 
 
 But if a useful basin must be excavated in which to diffuse the waters 
 that scour our harbor to please the President of the Grand Junction , will 
 the Government of the United States do it ? Their officers do not ap- 
 prove the measure. Will the State do it ? Its commissioners recom- 
 mend the contrary. Or will the Grand Junction road and East Boston 
 combine to do it ? It is for their benefit alone. South Boston will 
 never engage in so rash and preposterous a project, or sever herself for- 
 ever from the centre of business. The State has already incurred an 
 expense of nearly twenty thousand dollars in five commissions to ex- 
 amine Boston Harbor, and three charts have been reported. Why waste 
 more money on commissions ? The gentlemen thus far selected have 
 been able , enlightened, and impartial men. Col. Loammi Baldwin, 
 who built the dry dock at Charlestown; Col. Thayer, of West Point, 
 who erected fort Warren, a distinguished government officer ; James Hay- 
 ward, the Engineer of the Boston and Maine and of the Ogdensburg 
 Railroads; James F. Baldwin, of the Water Works; Gen. Dearborn, the 
 Mayor of Roxbury, who heads a petition in our aid from Roxbury ; Mr. 
 Borden, who made the State Map, and testifies as a witness in our favor; 
 Messrs. Eddy, Lincoln, and Cary, gentlemen entitled to public confi- 
 dence. The United States officers of the coast survey have also aided, 
 and the lines of all these commissioners point to the enclosure of these 
 flats, and most of them have in distinct and positive terms recommended 
 a solid wall or an inclosure. The survey and chart of last year are de- 
 cisive of the question. Mr. Lincoln, now associated with Mr. Lewis in 
 making a chart of the outer harbor, is an advocate for an inclosure, and 
 has seen no reason to modify the recommendations of his Report. 
 
 Capt. Beals, of the Mayflower, whose direct course from Liverpool 
 wharf to Bingham is across these flats, and whose steamer draws but six 
 feet water, tells you they are useless for navigation. The eel grass im- 
 pedes the steamer even at high water, and he prefers the circuit by the 
 channel, and all the pilots and Quincy lightermen concur in the opinion. 
 Why then should the doubts of Mr. Lewis, alive only to the interests of 
 the Grand Junction, or the scruples of a few gentlemen, generally a little 
 behind the age, or engaged in rival projects, or opposed to bridges below 
 their estates, deter you from a vast public improvement ? 
 
 Nor let us forget that some of the leading remonstrants, Messrs. Pren- 
 tiss, Drake and others, who now fancy our improvements may injure the 
 harbor, last year entertained a very different opinion, and petitioned the 
 Legislature to grant them the same privileges. While the City of Boston 
 
7 
 
 and the Marine Society have in past years asked permission of the State 
 to erect solid structures along the eastern margin of Fore Point Channel. 
 
 There will always be some doubters and some adverse interests to op- 
 pose great enterprises ; the wonder is, we find so much unanimity in our 
 favor. The objections to bridges are fast dying away. Bridges raise the 
 value of property wherever they go, and many wharf owners above us 
 favor our enterprise. Contrast Causeway Street, on the north side of 
 Boston, above three bridges, with Broad Street on the southeast side on 
 an open channel, and observe the lots above bridges on the one worth 
 twice as much as those below on the other. Let me ask you, too, while 
 Portland and Portsmouth, with narrow harbors, are aiming by short cuts 
 to divert our northern trade, is it politic for Boston to bury her active 
 » capital in useless excavations, or in cutting down rocky and broken hills 
 to accommodate her railroads ? Are there not at this moment better uses 
 for her capital ? But Mr. Webster cites the Penny Magazine to show 
 that old Boston in England, once a great seaport, was destroyed by the 
 ruin of its harbor. History tells us a different story. Situate five 
 miles from the sea, on the Witham, a small stream but 87 feet wide at 
 the City Bridge, about the size of the Mystic at Medford, it enjoyed a 
 moderate commerce in the day of small ships. It was accessible to ves- 
 sels drawing twelve feet water. But it fell behind other ports as vessels 
 increased in tonnage. It had other misfortunes ; it was overwhelmed by 
 the sea in a great inundation, a,fter having been burnt to the ground by a 
 desolating fire. The fens of Lincolnshire around it, overflowed by the 
 ocean, gave out their poisonous exhalations, as do these flats in front of 
 our city. A wasting pestilence followed ; the city became almost a desert. 
 Then came improvement. The Holland fens were drained. The neg- 
 lected river was confined, and improved by a sea wall and a cut such as 
 we propose. The fens have become a region of fertility, the granary of 
 England. Ships and commerce are returning. Three railroads, with the 
 railway king at their head, are seeking access to the port, and there are 
 now few seaports in England whose progress is more rapid or prospects 
 more encouraging than those of the old city of Boston. 
 
 It has been said, too, in past time, that the flats we purpose to occupy 
 were the public domain; but Mr. Webster scouts that idea and abandons 
 that view of the case. While the Commonwealth holds it in control, the 
 equitable title is in the owners of the shore, and it has ever been the 
 policy of England, America, and of every enlightened nation, to allow 
 them to extend into deep waters, to build piers and wharves for commerce. 
 
 “ The object of the ordinance of 1641,” (says Ch. J. Shaw. 1 Mete. 
 R. 108,) “ from which the right to flats originated, was to give to propri- 
 etors of land adjoining on the sea convenient wharf 'privileges , to enjoy 
 which to the best advantage it is often necessary to extend their wharves 
 to low water mark, at such times as the tide ebbs the lowest.” 
 
 The equitable title to the soil extends to the channel, subject to the 
 proviso that none shall go beyond one hundred rods, or low water mark, 
 without a license from the State ; but when has that license been with- 
 held, when urged for public improvement ? Every wharf in every harbor 
 
3 
 
 of our State, from the Merrimack to Fall River, which extends one foot 
 beyond low water mark (and nearly all do so), enters what has been 
 called the public domain, and passes the line of the ordinance of 1641 ; and 
 hundreds of stores now stand and are owned by individuals beyond such 
 limit. The Long Wharf, Central Wharf, T Wharf, and South Wharves, 
 of Boston, the Island Wharf of the Boston & Maine Railroad, and the 
 Derby Wharf of Salem, extend far beyond the line of one hundred rods 
 into the channel ; and the State has never ventured to assert that it can 
 place any impediment between the man bounded on the sea and the sea 
 itself, unless it be a bridge or a railroad. 
 
 Your Commissioners, Messrs. Borden, Lincoln and Carey, have dis- 
 tinctly reported the State has no pecuniary interest in the property in 
 question. The law is clearly stated in the eighth chapter of Angel on 
 Tide Waters, and the State has no connection with the question, except 
 as guardian and trustee. (See Angel on Tide Waters, pages 134 and 
 161.) It holds the soil lor the benefit of others. It has power to pro- 
 tect the interests of navigation, and when it will promote these to inclose 
 flats, and the shore owners consent, as in this case, it becomes the duty of 
 the State to sanction the inclosure, and to permit the shore owners to 
 extend down to the avenue we propose to open, and build the sea wall 
 recommended by your commissioners. They will then occupy less than 
 sixty acres outside the line of 1641. What the harbor requires is the 
 preservation of its islands, the barriers against the Atlantic. The waves 
 of the ocean, and the ravages of men more reckless than the sea itself, 
 are fast wearing them away. Mr. Wilson, the oldest pilot in the harbor, 
 who commends our enterprise in the strongest terms, assures you that in 
 a few years the ocean will break through these barriers, and make Boston 
 an open roadstead. 
 
 He described to you the masts, like a cedar swamp, at Gallup’s Islands, 
 the masts of lighters loading with ballast, he had passed that morning as he 
 came up the harbor, and told you, almost with tears in his eyes, that two 
 stones should be laid down for each one they bore away. Boston is now 
 actually exporting, as ballast, the defences of the harbor. And what is 
 the power of our Railroad to protect the harbor ? It can bear to deep 
 water, at half price, or thirty-five cents per ton, the 200,000 tons of 
 stone yearly quarried at Quincy. There repose, in immense piles, the 
 accumulations of years, millions of tons of waste granite and chips, well 
 suited for cellars, breakwaters, walls and pavements — admirable ballast. 
 Like the Ice road at Charlestown, which now furnishes annually 50,000 
 to 100,000 tons of profitable ballast to mitigate the heat .of Southern 
 climates, we will furnish a valuable ballast, so cheap that the spoiler 
 cannot afford to rob the islands of our harbor. Is not this a more effectual 
 safeguard than the lifeless letters inscribed on your statute book ? 
 
 This granite is now dear, because it pays, on an average, seventy cents 
 per ton to reach Boston, and can find no landing-place at deep water, 
 except at exorbitant rents. The quarries of Quincy now require at least 
 ten acres of room in Boston, for their granite, in the varied forms which 
 it assumes, and we can furnish them in the immediate vicinity of the 
 
9 
 
 streets where granite structures are to rise. But our great Senator thinks 
 these yards are entirely unnecessary. Are our Quincy quarrymen so 
 unwise as to pay a rent of $4,000 per acre, in this city, for land they do 
 not want ? — and they now pay it — and do not these practical men un- 
 derstand the exigencies of their business as well as a gentleman who 
 divides his valuable time between Marshfield and Washington ? This 
 you will determine. 
 
 The Old Colony Road began in weakness — its resources are increas- 
 t ing ; other lines now enter it and demand accommodation. Its business 
 increases in the ratio of sixty per cent. ; it is confined in narrow limits. 
 Vessels are excluded from wharves which admit but two at a time, and 
 its customers are complaining it cannot accommodate the granite. 
 
 1 With proper facilities, it can double the amount transported. Let the 
 granite rise to 400,000 tons a year, it would save $140,000 annually, 
 to the public, and realize besides a profit of $60,000 to the Railroad. 
 
 Would not the $200,000 thus annually saved, pay for removing a 
 little silt or sand which should be deposited any where below, when it 
 can be removed from deep water by the steam excavator, at 37 £ cents 
 per cubic yard ? But remember that none of your Commissioners but 
 Mr. Lewis dread such possible deposit, and how far is his judgment to 
 be relied upon ? He has, with the aid of the Engineer of the Grand 
 Junction, computed how much our enterprise is to cost, and mark the 
 influence of that planet of the east on Mr. Lewis, when thus diverging 
 from its orbit. First, he assumes that we propose to fill 800 acres, while 
 we suggest but 75. He adds, thus, the moderate amount of 1100 per 
 cent, to the quantity we are to fill. Then our filling is but ten to eleven 
 feet deep, and he calls it fifteen feet, and thus adds about 400 per cent, 
 more. Our engineer and contractor rate the cost at less than fourteen 
 cents per yard. This Commissioner calls it twenty-eight, and thus adds 
 1500 per cent, more to the original amount ; and then, when we can do 
 it with ease in two to four years, he assumes twenty to forty as the 
 period, and charges us with interest, to swell the aggregate. 
 
 And this tissue of absurdities is first published in the Herald, in the 
 shape of an attack on the Old Colony line, a week before Mr. Lewis testi- 
 fies, and then is heralded forth upon the stand, then again from the lips 
 of Mr. Webster, and is doubtless to be printed in his reported address for 
 gratuitous distribution among the members of the legislature. 
 
 Why, Mr. Lewis tells you that the whole capacity of the Old Colony 
 Railroad will be barely equal to bring 550,000 yards of gravel, or 700,000 
 tons, yearly, six miles to Boston. How accurate and cautious a witness 
 is this President of the Grand Junction and State Commissioner, and how 
 much does he reduce the capacity of our railroad, when I have proved 
 to you the Reading road last year carried 1,700,000 tons 100 miles, and 
 the Newcastle and Berwick line carried in one half year 1,400,000 
 tons and 1,700,000 passengers. And cannot our railroads carry as 
 much ? Can we place implicit confidence in any chart of the lower 
 harbor prepared by so accurate a gentleman? and how long will it take 
 him to determine all the courses and soundings from Nicks’s Mate to Calf 
 2 
 
10 
 
 Island, while he divides his attention between the Grand Junction and 
 the Flats at South Boston ? 
 
 You have the Reports of your Commissioners, the evidence of Pilots, 
 Navigators and Wharfingers, long conversant with our port. They con- 
 cur in the belief that our improvement will benefit the harbor and navi- 
 gation. Had the State an interest it would be richly compensated by 
 the great avenue and bridge we dedicate to the public, worth at least 
 $200,000, in the widening of the channel, in the taxable property we 
 create, and the benefits we confer on this metropolis and four great coun- 
 ties. Should any loss attend our enterprise, it devolves on us ; but should 
 any profit accrue, you will remember the State will enjoy it. You limit 
 our dividends and reserve the right of reducing tolls and of purchase. 
 It follows, then, that either by reducing rates or by an outright purchase ' 
 you will secure or participate largely in any profit we may realize. The 
 Old Colony Railroad Company are now ready to lay a double track. 
 We wish to know where to lay it. The Worcester and Western Rail- 
 roads will require all the room we vacate in the Cove, and will benefit by 
 our departure. Each party should have at least forty acres for depots. 
 We are preparing to move, and trust you will give a right direction to our 
 movement. 
 
 Note. The following extracts from the Reports of the several Boards 
 of Commissioners appointed by the State, were made in the course of the 
 above argument, and have an important bearing on the questions dis- 
 cussed. 
 
EXTRACTS FROM REPORTS. 
 
 Extracts from the Report of Messrs. L. Baldwin , S. Thayer and J. Hay- 
 ward , Commissioners in the survey of Boston Harbor, appointed under 
 a Resolve of March 5th, 1835. 
 
 Senate Document, No. 47, for 1837. 
 
 [Page 12, Section 13.] The line defined “ on the south and south-east 
 side of the Fore Point Channel, commences at the east end of the south 
 abutment of said Free Bridge, and extends easterly 520 feet straight, so as 
 to form an angle with said bridge of 75 degrees. From this point the line 
 is straight in a south-easterly direction 2,000 feet, in such position that if 
 it be continued straight, it shall not approach within 600 feet of Arch 
 Wharf.” 
 
 [P. 28, Sec. 19.] “ From the south abutment of the bridge, we have, upon 
 careful examination, placed the line as before described, on the south and 
 south-east side of Fore Point Channel, and if the flats here are filled up 
 above high water in the direction marked on the plan from South Boston, 
 the flood tides from towards Fore Point Corner, nearly opposite India Wharf, 
 will all be forced into the channel, and the ebb tides returning must take the 
 same course, and act as a scouring current to wash out the channel and 
 preserve its depth.” 
 
 Extracts from Reports of H. A. S. Dearborn, J. F. Baldwin, and Caleb 
 Eddy, Commissioners to fix the lines of Boston Harbor, under the Resolve 
 of April 9, 1839. 
 
 Senate Document, No. 8, for 1840. 
 
 [Page 27.] “ The line on the south and south-east side of Fore Point 
 
 Channel commences at the east end of the south abutment of said Free 
 Bridge, and extends easterly 520 feet straight, so as to form an angle with 
 said bridge of 75 degrees. From this point the line is straight in a north- 
 erly direction, in such position that if it is continued straight it shall not 
 approach within 600 feet of Arch Wharf.” 
 
 [Page 26.] “ As no request was made by the owners of water lots in 
 
 South Boston to vary the line which was delineated on the original plan, 
 
12 
 
 and there not appearing any reasons of a public nature which required a 
 change in its direction, it was concluded to have it as thus established.” 
 
 Extract from the Report of James Hayward and Ezra Lincoln, Jr., Com- 
 missioners appointed to survey South Bay, and other portions of the 
 Harbor, under a Resolve of March 12th, 1845. 
 
 Senate Documents for 1846, No. 64. 
 
 [Page 4.] “ If the flats east of Fore or Fort Point Channel were placed 
 
 in the custody of some responsible agency, to be filled up or otherwise dis- 
 posed of, with an intelligent view to the improvement of commercial accom- 
 modation in the port of Boston, there is no doubt they can be so disposed 
 of as that the entire extinction of South Bay, as a part of the scouring 
 apparatus of the main channel, would be no detriment to the harbor. The 
 true principle is to preserve a proper balance between the capacity of the 
 channel and the area of the tidal rivers and bay above, to be filled and 
 emptied twice every twenty-four hours through this channel.” 
 
 Extracts from the Reports of Thomas G. Cary, Simeon Borden, and Ezra 
 Lincoln, Jr., Commissioners appointed under a Resolve of April 1 6th, 
 1846, to examine the position of the Flats in the Harbor of Boston, be- 
 tween South Boston and the Channel, and lying opposite the tvharves on 
 Sea and Broad Streets , accompanied by a plan of the inner Harbor of 
 Boston , executed by the United States Coast Survey for the Commission- 
 ers. 
 
 Senate Document for 1847, No. 25. 
 
 [Page 4.] “ The flats in question lie below the city. The water that 
 
 covers them aids in no such scouring process ; that process is in effect 
 somewhat diminished in its effect by suffering a portion of the water that 
 daily ascends as a supply to the upper basins to flow over so wide a sur- 
 face instead of confining its passage to the channels. This opinion is cor- 
 roborated by the observations of Lieut. Charles H. Davis, the officer at the 
 head of the hydrographical party, by whom the data for the chart accom- 
 panying this report was furnished. The Commissioners are therefore of 
 opinion that no evil would ensue from giving permission to build any solid 
 structures on these flats, that may be required for commercial purposes.” 
 
 [Page 6.] “ In regard to the lower harbor, the quantity of water that 
 
 enters to cover this shoal of flats, entensive as it is, is scarcely appreciable 
 when considered in relation to the great flood that approaches from the sea 
 to fill the harbor at every tide, and in the opinion of the Commissioners 
 the inclosure can produce no effect on the outer channel in any way.” 
 
13 
 
 [Page 10.] “ The unfavorable changes that are going on in the harbor 
 
 are not of a nature to be affected by any new structure that may be erected 
 on the flats lying in front of South Boston, the outward changes having 
 been produced solely by causes that have arisen in the lower harbor itself. 
 Thejf believe these causes, however, to demand serious and early attention, 
 beginning as they appear to do with the waste of headlands, on which the 
 security of our harbor depends, and requiring only suitable defences and 
 short breakwaters to preserve the channel.” 
 
 This Report bears date Feb. 2d, 1847. 
 
 Extract from the Report of the Committee on Mercantile Affairs and 
 Insurance , to whom was referred the petition of B. V. French and others , 
 for a grant of certain flats lying opposite to their wharves on Sea Street , 
 and between South Boston and the Channel , and to ivhom was referred 
 the petition of the City of Boston praying for a grant of the same flats. 
 March 6, 1846. 
 
 Senate Document for 1846, No. 59. 
 
 “ While individuals would, no doubt, offer large sums to obtain the con- 
 trol of these flats, as they would for that of a vast extent of other property 
 resting in the Commonwealth, which lies between the limit of private 
 right, near low water mark, and the channels of harbors ; all such pro- 
 perty seems, in truth, to be held in trust for the whole country. It is 
 withheld from the individuals on whose land it borders, solely for the se- 
 curity of navigation. If it be unnecessary for that, they seem to have the 
 next and best right to it unburthened by payment, and as an appurtenance 
 to the neighboring soil. If it be required for the purpose mentioned, then 
 the interests of the public seem to demand that it should be used in such 
 manner as will be most widely beneficial to commerce ; and that it should, 
 in no case, be made the subject of sale for pecuniary consideration, which 
 must in some shape become a burden imposed on navigation. 
 
 Senate Document, No. 64, 1846, page 12. 
 
 “We beg leave to suggest a few considerations touching the main chan- 
 nel itself. This channel commences at the junction of Charles and Mystic 
 rivers, opposite the Navy Yard, and extends southeasterly about 3 1-2 
 miles, opening into the lower harbor between Fort Independence and Fort 
 Warren. From its mouth between these two islands, to the Cunard 
 Wharf this channel is very straight, and of a clear width of 3,000 feett 
 Before the extension of the wharves at East Boston, the width of this chan- 
 nel in its narrowest point was about 1,700 feet. It has been considerably 
 curtailed by the extension of wharves and other fixtures, particularly at 
 East Boston. The Commissioners would respectfully suggest that the 
 
14 
 
 channel between East Boston and the city proper is, in their opinion, to 
 be treated with great care and caution ; that it should not be unnecessarily 
 narrowed.” 
 
 Extract from a Report of the Committee on Mercantile Affairs and Insu- 
 rance. 
 
 Senate Document, No. 63, 1847. 
 
 “ The Commissioners appointed in pursuance of a resolve passed at the 
 last session, respecting the flats in front of South Boston, have obtained a 
 new and very valuable chart of the inner harbor, prepared the last year by 
 the officers and engineers of the United States employed upon the coast ; 
 survey. This chart, which was procured by making a moderate contri- 
 bution towards the cost of it, shows that from Castle Island upward there 
 is as great depth of water in the channel as there was at the time of the 
 survey made in 1761 — thus relieving serious apprehensions that had 
 been entertained on that subject, and enabling the legislature to decide un- 
 derstandingly on some questions that involve important rights.”