RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE VS. RAILROADS. 255 



our Supreme Court, the speaker hoped, within the six 

 months following the Convention, to hear the voice which 

 should emancipate the people from the tyranny of railway 

 monopoly. 



EIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE VERSUS RAILROADS. 



Mr. E. J. Benjamin, a well-known lawyer of Bloomington, 

 in a long and logical argument, which he sustained by many 

 quoted authorities, presented the rights of the people and 

 corporations, and believed that if the matters at issue were 

 pressed to a final termination in the courts, justice would 

 be done the people, without depriving the corporations of 

 any just or equitable compensation for the legitimate capital 

 represented by them. 



A letter was read from Colonel Morgan, one of the Bail- 

 way Commissioners, in which he suggested that the ques 

 tions for discussion were, in a large degree, the same as had 

 officially come before the commission. First, it ought to be 

 conceded that the railroads have a right to present to the 

 courts their construction of certain laws. If the laws are 

 valid, the courts will sustain them, and if invalid, the roads 

 have a right to oppose them. He called attention to the 

 case recently tested in McLean County, wherein the validity 

 of the present law was sustained. The case had been ap 

 pealed, and if the Supreme Court of the State should affirm, 

 the railroad would undoubtedly carry it to the Supreme Court 

 of the United States. In this case, it could hardly be expected 

 that a final decision would be reached before 1876. The 

 combined capital invested in railroads in the State was not 

 less than $200,000,000. It is this immense power of capital 

 that had to be opposed. 



Subsequent to the reading of the letter, Colonel JMorgan 



