PEES. QXJINCY S CALL FOR THE WASHINGTON CONVENTION. 325 



land companies, and other associations, have caused peculiar privi 

 leges to be given to such bodies, enabling them to gain unjust advan 

 tages over all others who depend upon railroad transportation for the 

 transaction of their business. It is also asserted that accommodation 

 has been refused to those who have made themselves obnoxious by 

 exposing the unjust proceedings above specified, and that shippers of 

 merchandise not in favor with inner rings have been denied fair op 

 portunities for competition. 



Finally, it is alleged that no action of individuals is capable of re 

 sisting corporations wielding the vast power and backed by the im 

 mense wealth at the disposal of railroad managers. It is alleged that 

 some of these members have already packed conventions, bribed leg 

 islators, and subsidized judges, and have obtained, through corrupt 

 means, an influence subversive of the rights of the people and most 

 perilous to republican institutions. 



The Cheap Transportation Association asks that these charges, 

 brought by responsible citizens against the managers of railroads, be 

 thoroughly investigated. We assert that it is the right and duty of 

 Congress to inquire how its liberal grants of land have been appro 

 priated. They were granted to give temporary credit to certain 

 railroad corporations, and to constitute a sinking fund which would 

 ultimately pay off debts contracted in the construction of roads. 

 They were granted, in the interest of the country, to reduce rates of 

 transportation to the cost of maintaining the roads. Should it be 

 found that these grants, covering an area greater than many of our 

 States, have been obtained under false pretenses, and used for private 

 aggrandizement, we ask that they be reclaimed from those who un 

 justly hold them in possession. 



Our several States have surrendered the privilege of righting their 

 own wrongs, upon the understanding that Congress will do it for 

 them. The railroad power of the State of New York, for instance, 

 may levy for the benefit of watered stock the estimated tax of ten 

 cents per bushel upon corn and wheat, and the farmers of the West 

 and citizens of New England have no remedy except through the 

 action of the General Government. For this reason we are forced 

 to ask Congress for a thorough investigation of the measures that 

 have been adopted to eifect the interchange of products among our 

 States measures that are alleged to have destroyed the value of the 

 productions of one section, and to have increased the cost of the nec 

 essaries of life in another. We ask for a thorough investigation into 



