lar above the maximum allowed by law.
One Jacob Ridgway, who was the owner of a ferry-boat at Camden, saw here
an opportunity for starting a lucrative business. He bought a steamer
and carried passengers from Philadelphia to Trenton for one-third of the
fare demanded by the railroad. After the Camden and Amboy Company had
made several unsuccessful attempts to intimidate Mr. Ridgway and his
force, one of which even brought Mr. Stockton in contact with the
criminal courts, it purchased the boat with all terminal facilities at
Philadelphia and Trenton. The attention of the legislature of New
Jersey was repeatedly called to the company's failure to comply with the
provisions of its charter, but these appeals were on the whole of no
avail. In 1842, after a long discussion, a resolution was carried
declaring the charge of $4 for the through journey illegal, but the
company entirely ignored this legislative reminder and continued its old
tariff.

The company's charter also reserved for the State the right to acquire
the Camden and Amboy road under certain conditions upon the payment of a
reasonable compensation. In 1844, through Mr. Stockton's engineering,
the constitution of New Jersey was so amended as to practically deprive
the State of the power to acquire the company's property.

During the first few years of the existence of the Camden and Amboy
Transportation Company its business was managed in the interest of its
owners, but soon a few of its leading stockholders managed to turn its
enormous profits into their own pockets. The Stevens and Stockton
families, together with two other directors of the Camden and Amboy
Company, had come into possession of a line of steamers that plied on
the Raritan, between New Brunswick and New York. The enterprise, in
spite of its largely watered capital, had been made to pay dividends
ranging from 30 to 40 per cent. Its owners saw an opportunity for a
larger field of usefulness and larger dividends. In 1834 a majority of
the board of directors of the Camden and Amboy Company proposed that the
company rid itself of the responsibility connected with the
transportation business and lease its railroad and canal. Mr. Stevens,
as representative of the Camden and Amboy Company, then negotiated with
Mr. Stevens, the representative of the Napoleon Steamer Company, and the
negotiations soon resulted in an agreement between the two companies by
which the latter leased the railroad and canal lines