248 THE GKOUNDSWELL. 



others, each higher and stronger, till the railroad Pharaohs are 

 brought to judgment. By their power over freights they may 

 bull or bear the market at will. They may make real for 

 tunes for their favorites, as easily as the Frenchman fancied he made 

 a thousand dollars before breakfast by marking up his goods. . . 

 . . I look to competition as the most natural, legitimate, and 

 effectual cure. As this competition will not come of itself, and as 

 individually we can not apply it, Government must be invoked in 

 the matter. The water lines already have done much. The lakes 

 and the Erie Canal save us millions annually. The ocean around 

 by Cape Horn is a regulator to some extent to the Pacific Bail- 

 road. I would therefore open new lines of water. . . . Although 

 it would cost money, did not, does not, railroad extortion cost 

 money? Who can tell how much ? Which is better, to pay some 

 thing for permanent relief or be perpetually robbed? . . , 

 I have suggested these as means for bringing competition. I do not 

 surrender the claim that Government can and ought to regulate 

 railroads by fixing maximum rates, and forbidding unjust discrim 

 ination. The government power of eminent domain was invoked 

 by them in their construction on the ground that they were to be 

 public institutions. The people never clothed their legislators with 

 power to contract away, for all time, the inherent rights of the 

 people. In our advancing civilization, public interest and public 

 necessity will not be thwarted by old and musty cob-web prece 

 dents. Dartmouth College may have been well enough for that 

 day, and for an institution of learning ; but it can not much longer 

 be made a standard rule and hobby-horse for railroads. These vast 

 corporations, which stretch from sea to sea, and cover the whole 

 country like an enveloping atmosphere, can not much longer shield 

 their extortions by quoting a law decision concerning a school. 

 The judge or lawyer who shall narrow his visions to this infinites 

 imal point when dealing with the great question, will be laughed 

 to scorn.&quot; 



He believed the &quot; Dartmouth decision,&quot; which Webster 

 had wrung from the judges, would prove that a little learn 

 ing was a dangerous thing; held that the railroads of Illi 

 nois were in open rebellion against the constitution and 

 laws of the State, which commands the legislature to act, 



