By the fifth section the commissioners were authorized to continue the work on the Hoosac Tunnel, and by contract or otherwise, to expedite its completion.
On the 18th of August 1862, is recorded on the records of the corporation the following votes:—
1. "The directors of the Troy and Greenfield Railroad Company hereby instruct the president to transfer to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, under the several mortgages held by said Commonwealth, all the property of said corporation.
2. "Voted to call a meeting of the stockholders to see if they would ratify the above vote.
3. "Voted, That the treasurer be directed to make no further delivery of the stock or bonds to the contractors without the written order of all the finance committee."
At the commencement of the session of the legislature in January, 1863, his Excellency Governor Andrew, after stating the general provisions of the Act of April, 1862, and the appointment of the commissioners under it, "each of whom was carefully selected as being, in the words of the Act, at once 'able, impartial and skilful,'" and after alluding to the labors of the commissioners, and the reports of the distinguished engineers appointed to "assist them, closes his remarks upon the enterprise in the following words:—
"The report of the commissioners to the governor and council is not yet made, but it is understood to be in rapid preparation. I am unable, therefore, to communicate to the legislature at the beginning of its present session so fully as I have hoped on the subject of this important and interesting enterprise of establishing a new avenue for our trade with the West, piercing the Green Mountain range, and opening up to greater activity the economical resources of our Northern tier of towns. I trust that the conclusions and reasoning of the commissioners when published will settle conflicting opinions in the minds of the people, and, if favorable to the active pursuit of the enterprise, that its prosecution will enjoy an unanimous support. The work can be pursued, relieved from all factitious embarrassments, and contracts can be made by those in the sole interest of the Commonwealth, superintended by citizens of the highest experience and capacity."
In communicating the report of the commissioners to the legislature on the 12th of March, 1863, after analyzing and commenting upon its statements and reasonings, the governor concludes his address in these words: "I congratulate thee general court and the people upon the rescue of the Commonwealth, and especially of this great experimental enterprise, from a position inconsistent with economical, safe, or even possible success in piercing its mountain barrier.
"I earnestly and respectfully invite your most candid and thoughtful consideration, not only of the specific facts and figures which elucidate or express the details of information bearing most immediately upon the work contemplated, but I also venture to commend to your deliberate judgment the arguments and reasonings drawn from liberal and enlightened views of public policy and of public economy, which finally lift this subject above all merely local interests or antagonisms into the sphere of statesmanship. And having attentively watched the progress of the report of the commissioners, and the documents by which it is accompanied through the press, I am prepared to give my own assent to the opinion with the expression of which the commissioners conclude their discussion:—
"'By the time the tunnel can be completed, the public interest requiring it will have grown large enough to pay for the outlay. The impulse given to business by the new facility, would soon fill up the new line, and make up the temporary loss felt by any other.