390 THE GROUNDSWELL. 



&quot; Social Science,&quot; published in 1858, speaking of the political 

 power of railway corporations in Great Britain, he says : 

 &quot;So it is even now in these United States ; railroad com 

 panies are already controlling the legislation of many of the 

 States, the day for general combination having not yet ar 

 rived; but there are many evidences of its near approach. 

 When it shall arrive it will furnish new proof to the fact, 

 that, of all governments, the most exhausting and oppressive 

 is that of the transporters.&quot; 



PRIVATE CORPORATIONS GOVERNING STATES. 



G-eo. P. Marsh, alike eminent in the annals of diplomacy 

 and of philology, in a note to his &quot; Man and Nature &quot; ex 

 pressed himself as follows, in 1862 : &quot; I shall harm no honest 

 man by endeavoring, as I have often done elsewhere, to ex 

 cite the attention of conscientious and thinking men to the 

 dangers which threaten the great moral and even political 

 interests of Christendom, from the unscrupulousness of the 

 private associations that now control the monetary affairs, 

 and regulate the transit of persons and property in almost 

 every civilized country. More than one American State is 

 literally governed by unprincipled corporations, which not 

 only defy the legislative power, but have, too often, corrupted 



even the administration of justice. 



# # # # # 



&quot; The example of the American States shows that private 

 corporations whose rule of action is the interest of the as 

 sociation, not the conscience of the individual though com 

 posed of ultra-democratic elements, may become most dan 

 gerous enemies to national liberty, to the moral interests of 

 the commonwealth, to the purity of legislation and of judicial 

 action, and to the sacredness of private rights,&quot; 



