CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



work and urging it forward. It had never 

 entered my mind that the company would ask 

 for or need additional legislation, and it would 

 have been difficult to find a man so reckless 

 of popular opinion as to have lent himself to a 

 crusade against an organization whose praises 

 everywhere filled the press, and were on the 

 lips of the people. 



As a matter of history, no legislation at 

 all affecting the pecuniary interest* of the 

 company wa asked for for three year* and a 

 half after the date of the alleged soles by me 

 of Credit Mobtlier stock, and then only in 

 settlement of a purely judicial question sud- 

 denly awl without warning sprung upon it in 

 a critical period of its fortunes, and in relation 

 to which no controversy hod ever before been 

 made. Under no other state of affaire, and in 

 no other attitude of the Government, could I 

 for a moment have been induced to assume the 

 enormous responsibility entailed by a contract 

 involving a liability of $47,000,000. To un- 

 dertake the construction of a railroad at any 

 price for a distance of nearly seven hundred 

 miles, in a desert and unexplored country, its 

 line crossing three mountain-ranges at the 

 highest elevations yet attempted on this con- 

 tin. -nt, extending through a country swarming 

 with hostile Indians, by whom locating engi- 

 neers and conductors of construction -trains 

 were frequently killed and scalped at their 

 work upon a route destitute of water, except 

 as supplied by water-trains hauled from one to 

 one hundred imd tifty miles to thousands of 

 men and animals engaged in construction the 

 immense muss of material, iron, ties, lumber, 

 timber, provisions, and supplies necessary, to 

 be transported from five hundred to fifteen 

 hundred miles I admit might well, in the 

 light of subsequent history and the mutations 

 or opinion, be re .Mrd.-d s the freak of a mad- 

 man, if it did not challenge the recognition of 

 a higher motive, namely, the desire to connect 

 my name con<piruously with the greatest pub- 

 lic work of the present century. It is by no 

 means strange that my or.' lit with conservative 

 flnanoierslikeCiovernor \Vashhurn should have 

 been shaken, and that he should have hastened 

 to call in loans which, in his judgment, this 

 contract proved to be in nnsrjfe hands. 



"Under these nrcmusfan MM. with all ' 

 lation sought granted, mid no future action 

 of Congress to be asked for or feared, it is 

 charged that I have been guilty of selling to 

 members of Congress shares of stock in the 

 Credit Mohilier of America for prices below 

 the true value of such stock, with intent to 

 influence the votes and decisions of such mem- 

 ber* in matters to be brought before Congress 

 for action.' 



11 If this charge is trno, it Is predicated upon 



facts, all of which should bo shown to 



the satisfaction of this body in order to justify 



th* extreme measures recommended by the 



committee: 



" 1. The tharci mart h7o b n en sold at price* 



o manifestly and palpably below the trno 

 value a* to conclusively presume the ex; 

 ti.m of some other pecuniary advantage in 

 aiMition to the price paid. 



" 2. The share* must have been of such a 

 nature as that their ownership would create 

 in the holder a corrupt purpose to shape legis- 

 lation in the interest of the seller. 



"8. Some distinct and specific matter or 

 thins; to be brought before Congress, and on 

 which the vote* or decisions of member* are 

 sought to be influenced, should be alleged and 

 proved. 



" It is by no means clear from the testimony 

 that the stock was sold at a price less than its 

 true value. It was not on the market; it had 

 no market value. Unlike an ordinary market- 

 able commodity, it had no current price, and 

 the amount for which it could be sold de- 

 pended upon the temperament of the buyer, 

 and his inclination to assume extraordinary 

 risks on the one hand, or his tendency to con- 

 servative and strictly solid investments on t ho 

 other. It is in proof before a committee of 

 this House, by witnesses largely interested in 

 railroad construction and operation, and of 

 great financial ability and strength, that when, 

 this stock was offered to them at par it was 

 instantly declined by reason of the enormous 

 risks involved in the enterprise on which its 

 value depend ed. 



" These capitalists believed that all the capi- 

 tal invested in the stock was jeopardized, find 

 the venture was declined on the rule that no 

 promise of profit justifies a prudent man in 

 embarking in any enterprise in which all the 

 capital invested is liable to be sunk. Apart 

 from some proof that a small amount of this 

 stock changed hands between persons addicted 

 to speculation at about one hundred and fitly, 

 nothing is shown in reference to its value 

 except that it was not on the market, and had 

 no ascertained price. To overturn the pre- 

 sumption of innocence, and substitute the con- 

 clusive imputation of guilt from the simple 

 fact of such a transaction occurring between 

 men who had long maintained the most 

 friendly personal relations of whom nothing 

 was asked, and by whom nothing was prom- 

 ised is to overturn all the safeguards atlorded 

 person and property by the common law, and 

 in lieu thereof establish an inquisitorial code, 

 under which no man's reputation is safe. 



"It has boon assumed that the ownership 

 of Credit Mohilier stock necessarily created in 

 the holder a personal and pecuniary interest 

 in procuring congressional legislation favor- 

 able to the Union Pacific Railroad Company, 

 or preventing legislation adverse to it. At 

 the date of the alleged distribution of Credit 

 Mobilicr stock, the Oakos Ames contract had 

 been made and was in progress of execution, 

 li was completed, and the road covered by the 

 ' -infract turned over to the company about 

 the close of the year IftfiS. Not until two 

 year* after was any legislation asked for by 



