An Appeal to the Justice and Humanity of the Stockholders of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal

Surveyor John Randel (1787-1865) took part in a number of important early American engineering projects. In 1823, he became chief engineer for the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal Company. This pamphlet by Irish-born publisher Mathew Carey concerns the dismissal of Randel and his alledged mistreatment by Judge Benjamin Wright and the company's board of directors. In the 1830s, Randel won $226,885.84 in a breach of contract suit against the company, a huge sum for the time period. With his settlement, he lived out the rest of his life at Randelia, his large estate in Cecil County, Maryland, just south of the mouth of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal.