Medford Historical Society Papers, Volume 1.

The remonstrants take pleasure in declaring that they join in the common sentiment of surprise and commendation, that any intelligence and enterprise should have raised so rapidly and so permanently such establishments as are seen at Lowell. The proprietors of these works have availed themselves of the canal, for their transportation of all articles except in the winter months, . . . and every effort has been made by this corporation to afford every facility, it was hoped and believed to the entire satisfaction of the Lowell proprietors. The average annual amount of tolls paid by these proprietors has been only about $4,000. It is believed no safer or cheaper mode of conveyance can ever be established, nor any so well adapted for carrying heavy and bulky articles. To establish therefore a substitute for the canal alongside of it, and in many places within a few rods of it, and to do that which the canal was made to do, seems a measure not called for by any exigency nor one which the Legislature can permit, without implicitly declaring that all investments of money in public enterprises must be subjected to the will of any applicants who think that they may benefit themselves without regard to older enterprises which have a claim to protection from public authority. With regard, then, to transportation of tonnage goods, the means exist for all but the winter months, as effectually as any that can be provided.

There is a supposed source of revenue to a railroad from carrying passengers. As to this, the remonstrants venture no opinion except to say that passengers are now carried at all hours, as rapidly and safely as they are anywhere else in the world. . . . To this the remonstrants would add that the use of a railroad, for passengers only, has been tested by experience, nowhere hitherto; and that it remains to be known