392 THE GROUNDSWELL. 



These words of warning were unheard by a nation enter 

 ing upon a struggle with the other and greater vested wrong 

 of slavery ; and it was not until after the war for the Union 

 closed, during which time the chartering and construction 

 of railways went briskly on, that such men as Lorenzo Sher 

 wood, Josiah Quincy, and the younger Charles Francis 



Adams could have an attentive hearing. 







RAILWAY CORPORATIONS DEFIANT. 



By this time railway corporations had grown bold and 

 defiant. Fisk, Gould, Vanderbilt, and Drew warred among 

 themselves, and were more or less afraid of one another ; but 

 they evidently regarded the New York legislature and judi 

 ciary as their tools. Their armed minions, like the following 

 of mediaeval lords, broke the peace and one another s heads 

 with impunity. In other quarters, it was reported that the 

 Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, and several southern 

 legislatures and State goverments were the facile tools of 

 other corporations. The Union Pacific and its Credit Mo- 

 bilier ring invaded the halls of Congress, and brought 

 scandal upon national as well as State governments. The 

 so-called &quot; Farmer s Movement&quot; did not begin an hour too 

 soon. 



Attempts are made to falsify the issue, and to assume that 

 this is a war of farmers against railroads a class pitted 

 against a useful invention but they who make this attempt 

 and the assumption lack either clear heads or fair minds. 

 It is the eternal warfare of popular rights against privilege, 

 in a new shape a conflict just as irrepressible and inevitable 

 in its results, as that other conflict which absorbed the 

 energies and sacrificed the youthful life of the nation for 

 four years, 



