CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



indorsen he has got whom he called members 

 of the Judiciary Committee. We differ Mo 

 tatlo on these points in relation to the law of 

 this subject. That never was the law, and I 

 trust in God it never will be, that it is ever to 

 be held in this country that the vilest criminal, 

 a murderer even, who has concealed his crime 

 from the public until he has got UOsMlfclMtod 

 a member of this House, can come in here and 

 it by the side of such Christian gentlemen as 

 come here from Massachusetts, that wo have 

 no power to expel such a mim, but must asso- 

 ciate with him and take him to our bosoms as 

 an associate lawmaker of this nation. I believe 

 no such absurdity. And no ingenuity of the 

 gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Butler) or 

 of anybody else can ever make the honest, in- 

 telligent people of this country believe that that 

 i the law. Why, sir, it needed the man who 

 was the inventor of the Credit Mobilier ma- 

 chinery to have devised such a doctrine.'' 



The Speaker : " The gentleman from Massa- 

 chusetts (Mr. Ames) affected by this report 

 desires to be heard. The gentleman is entitled 

 to the floor, and sends his remarks to the 

 Clerk's desk to be read. They will be read 

 by the Clerk." 



Mr. Ames (read by the Clerk) : " Before the 

 House proceeds to the consideration of tho 

 resolution reported on Tuesday last, by _the 

 special committee charged with the invest i^u- 

 tion of alleged transactions with certain mem- 

 bers of this body, in the disposition of shares 

 of the capital stock of the Credit Mobilier of 

 America, I desire to submit the following state- 

 ment: 



"The charges on which said resolution is 

 based relate to events so intimately connected 

 with a portion of the history of the construc- 

 tion of tin- I'nion Pa>-itic liailroad, that I shall 

 ask the indulgence of the House while I pro- 

 ceed to trace snob history in greater detail 

 than would otherwise be necessary. 



"On the 1st day of July, 1802, was passed 

 and approved an act of Congress, authorizing 

 and providing for the construction of a railroad 

 and telegraph line from the Missouri Kiver to 

 the Pacific Ocean. The practicability anil im- 

 portance of such a measure had long been 

 urged by our most sagacious public men, but 

 it failed to receive the -mi ti<m of the Govern- 

 ment until a great civil war threatened to 

 result in the withdrawal of the States and 

 Territories of the Pacific coast from the author- 

 ity of the Feder-il (invernmcnt. For a va- 

 riety of reasons, then long before the public, 

 but chiefly to avert the calamity indicated, 

 thin act was pMsed. It was universally es- 

 teemed not only a measure of sound policy, 

 but a scheme appealing to the patriotism and 

 loyalty of the capitalists of the United States, 

 as the instrument whereby a future separation 

 of the Pacific from the Atlantic States would 

 be rendered forever impossible. 



" The meeting of commissioners named In 



the act to carry the same into effect, by tho 

 organization of the corporation, was held pur- 

 suant to act of Congress, on the first Tuesday 

 jitumber, 1802. Though composed of a 

 great number of the loading capitalists of tho 

 country, and in addition to the ordinary in- 

 ducement of pecuniary advantage, acting 

 under the stimulus of patriotic ardor, the 

 meeting failed to accomplish any thing beyond 

 the opening of books of subscription. Nt a 

 dollar of stock was subscribed or promised. 

 and it was not until about the 27th of October, 

 1803 and then only with tho explicit under- 

 standing on the part of the subscribers that, in 

 case of failure to secure future legislation, the 

 project must bo abandoned that a sufficient 

 subscription was obtained to authorize tho 

 election of a board of directors. On this sub- 

 scription was tho name of no recognized capi- 

 talist. Parties known to the country as wield- 

 ing large capital in railroad enterprises had 

 studiously avoided all apparent association 

 with the enterprise, and in their place ap- 

 peared a class of comparatively unknown men, 

 whose names, when rising to the surface, bad 

 been chiefly connected with enterprises in- 

 volving speculative and extra-hazardous i 

 Until the passage of the law heretofore men- 

 tioned, nothing was done under this organiza- 

 tion beyond such acts as were necessary to 

 preserve tho existence of the corporation. 



"Then came the act of July 2, 18G4. Its 

 principal features were as follows: It author- 

 ized a reduction of the par value of the shares 

 from $1,000 to $100, with a corresponding in- 

 M in number; it enlarged the land grant 

 from a ton to a twenty mile limit ; it author- 

 ized tho company to issue flrst-mortgago 

 bonds on its railroad and telegraph, to an 

 amount per mile equal to the amount of 

 United States bonds authorized to be i 

 to the company in aid of tho construction of 

 the road, and made the mortgage securing tho 

 same a lien prior to that of the United States ; 

 it declared that only one-half of the com) 

 tion for services rendered for tho Government 

 should be required to bo applied to the pay- 

 ment of tho bonds issued by the Government 

 in aid of construction. 



" While thus strengthening tho company by 

 these changes, ( j the same time, and 



in tho same act, dealt it two wellniL'h fatal 

 blows, from the inflect, of which conipl. i 

 covery is impossible. It authorized the Kan- 

 sas P'aoiflc, which was rei|ifired to efV 

 junction with the Union Pacific, not farther 

 west than the one-hundredth meridian of 

 longitndt a distance of about two hundred 

 and forty-sovon miles west of the Missouri 

 Ilivcr to make such connection at any point, 

 westwardly of such initial point, deemed prac- 

 tie.iMe or desirable. The result is a rival paral- 

 lel road connecting with the Union Pacific. :,t 

 si point five hundred and sixteen miles west of 

 the Missouri River beinir one-half tho length 

 of that road and claiming equal advantages 



