CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



217 



when he refers to 'the Washbnrne move." 

 'The Washburne move,' Mr. Ames admits 

 himself, and when that came to a vote, Mr. 

 Ames and all his friends were found voting in 

 opposition to it. There was an express meas- 

 ure, there was a measure actually pending be- 

 fore Congress where he wanted the aid and 

 defense of these men. Bat, as he says in his 

 statement, there were a variety of other mat- 

 ters that he wanted also. 



"Was this an offense? Was this conduct 

 of Mr. Ames -a crime ? Was it bribery in law ? 

 If any gentleman will take the trouble to turn 

 to the act of 1853, which is quoted in our re- 

 portj he will see that this conduct of Mr. Ames 

 was bribery; that it was an act of bribery for 

 which he might have been convicted and sent 

 to the penitentiary, although every one of the 

 men who received this stock from him re- 

 ceived it in entire innocence and with no 

 knowledge but that it was an honest invest- 

 ment. The law does not require that the in- 

 tent shall be known to the person to whom 

 the present is made. It is the insidious at- 

 tempt to undertake to bind over by ties of 

 gratitude the man whose official action yon 

 wish to influence by it. It stands upon the 

 same principle of law as that which relates to 

 making presents to jurors or judges, or to 

 treating a jnror. Yon shall not use any of 

 those influences that ordinarily affect the 

 human mind and the human judgment. Al- 

 though the man yon are practising upon may 

 be entirely ignorant of your intent and your 

 purpose, the law declares that you are guilty. 



"I am not arguing now in reference to the 

 question as to whether these men were one 

 and all innocent, or whether they were guilty. 

 I merely say that it is utterly immaterial, so 

 far as Mr. Ames is concerned, whether they 

 received this money with perfect innocence 

 and with no knowledge of wrong intent on his 

 part, or whether they received it upon a cor- 

 rupt contract that they would do what he 

 wanted them to do. The crime is the same in 

 Mr. Ames in either case. It may be said, I 

 have heard it said, and it may be said here, 

 that Mr. Ames did not know that this was a 

 criminal act, and I presume he did not. But, 

 Mr. Speaker, in all the tribunals of this land, 

 the meanest and most ignorant criminal is 

 never allowed to say, ' I did not know what 

 the law was, and did not know I was violating 

 it.' It is, I say, a principle of law that the 

 vilest and most debased and ignorant of men, 

 who is brought up for the commission of an 

 offense, is never allowed to say, 'I did not 

 know tlmt the law provided a penalty against 

 this.' Are we to apply a more liberal rule to 

 a millionaire or a member of Congress? Is he 

 to stand up here in our presence, or anybody 

 for him, and say he did not know what the 

 law was, and did not know he was violating 

 it? 



"More than this, Mr. Speaker, I have heard 

 it argned that Mr. Ames, in doing what he did, 



had no sense that he was doing an immoral 

 act, or that he was even doing an indelicate 

 act ; that he regarded it as the same thing as 

 going into a business community and interest- 

 ing the leading business-men, by giving them 

 shares ; that he did not suppose that the act 

 he was doing was in any way different from 

 that. It may be, Mr. Speaker I do not take 

 it upon myself to say whether it is or is not so 

 it may be that the moral sense of Mr. Ames 

 did not rise high enough to see that this act 

 was itself immoral and wrong. I understand 

 that h'e claims now it was not. Mr. Speaker 

 and members of this House, who are to judge 

 of this matter, if a man's moral sense sees no 

 wrong in that which our predecessors declared 

 a penitentiary offense, and which would by 

 law forever disqualify a man from holding the 

 meanest office, 1 ask is he fit to sit here as one 

 of the law-makers of this great nation? I 

 submit it to your judgment in the most chari- 

 table view of Mr. Ames's conduct, whether he 

 be a man that ought to be tolerated as a mem- 

 ber of this House? 



"Mr. Speaker, I now desire to ask the at- 

 tention of the House for a few momenta to the 

 facts in relation to the member from New 

 York, against whom we have also reported a 

 resolution of expulsion. There was no connec- 

 tion between Mr. Brooks and Mr. Ames. The 

 committee find that Mr. Brooks received the 

 stock and received it corruptly, with a knowl- 

 edge that he was receiving it because he was 

 a member of Congress and a Government di- 

 rector, and he received it knowing that it was 

 given him to placate his official action. But 

 he did not receive it from Mr. Ames. Mr. 

 Brooks, a leading man in his profession, a lend- 

 ing man in Congress, a leading man in his 

 party, had also been a lending friend of the 

 Pacific Railroad. And after the connection 

 between it and this company, the Credit Mobi- 

 lier of America, was established, after their 

 relations were formed, Mr. Brooks was the 

 friend nnd associate of Dr. Durant, who was 

 at that time a leading man in this enterprise, 

 and was endeavoring to get stock in the Credit 

 Mobilier Company, taken for the purpose of 

 urging and carrying on the work of the Union 

 Pacific Railroad. Mr. Brooks was employed, 

 as he himself testified before us, as an agent 

 of Dr. Durant to go about among the capital- 

 ists of New York and urce upon them to be- 

 come stockholders in the Credit Mobilier Com- 

 pany, and he did so. 



"'On the 1st of October, 1867, Mr. Brooks 

 was appointed by President Johnson a Gov- 

 ernment director of the Union Pacific Railroad 

 Company ; and this was before the contract 

 with Oakes Ames was perfected. True, a con- 

 tract had been previously drawn; but it was 

 discovered by some learned counselor that it 

 contained great frauds nnd could not be suc- 

 cessful unless covered by a further contract, 

 and that was made. I say that while this 

 thing was in progress, and before the assign- 



